Neuropathic pain is a chronic secondary pain condition, which is a consequence of peripheral or central nervous (somatosensory) system lesions or diseases. It is a devastating condition, which affects around 7% of the general population. Numerous etiological factors contribute to the development of chronic neuropathic pain. It can originate from the peripheral part of the nervous system such as in the case of trigeminal or postherpetic neuralgia, peripheral nerve injury, painful polyneuropathies, or radiculopathies. Central chronic neuropathic pain can develop as a result of spinal cord or brain injury, stroke, or multiple sclerosis. As first-line pharmacological treatment options, tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, and gabapentinoids are recommended. In trigeminal neuralgia, carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine are the first-choice drugs. In drug-refractory cases, interventional, physical, and psychological therapies are available. This review was structured based on a PubMed search of papers published in the field from 2010 until May 2019.


New Zealand has a relatively small oil and gas industry built around the giant Maui Field and the downstream industries developed in tandem with it. With the depletion of this field approaching, there have been some encouraging new exploration successes, and emerging attention to long-neglected frontiers including a very extensive deep-water territory. How effectively will a small country distant from services and markets be able to attain the scale of investment required to realise the full potential of its endowment of petroleum resources? In this paper presented at the biennial New Zealand Petroleum Conference in February, J. Mac Beggs * , principal of GeoSphere, attempts to answer some of these questions in a summary of New Zealand's hydrocarbons experience over the past two years.


The fermentation characteristics of activated biomass from two types of sludge, namely primary sludge (PS) and excess sludge (ES) were compared under three pH conditions (uncontrolled, 4, 10) over a period of 8 days. Results show the highest production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in PS and ES of 352 ± 7 and 324 ± 13 mg COD/g VSS, respectively at pH 10, on the 2 day in PS fermentation, and the 5 day in ES. Consequently, MiSeq high-throughput sequencing was applied to analyze the succession of microbial community structures in an alkaline condition, since SCFAs production was higher at the pH 10 than the other two pH conditions. For bacteria at the genus level, Bacillus and Anaerobacillus were only detected in the fermented sludge. The relative abundance of Bacillus and Anaerobacillus showed a big difference in the two types of sludge fermentation systems. Bacillus accounted for 62.4% and 33.1%, in PS and ES, respectively, while Anaerobacillus was 18.5% and 40.3%. More acidogenesis bacteria were found in PS than in ES fermentation. Thus, PS under alkaline fermentation could provide a promising carbon source for WWTPs.


One-time memories (OTM's) are simple tamper-resistant cryptographic devices, which can be used to implement one-time programs, a very general form of software protection and program obfuscation. Here we investigate the possibility of building OTM's using quantum mechanical devices. It is known that OTM's cannot exist in a fully-quantum world or in a fully-classical world. Instead, we propose a new model based on isolated qubits - qubits that can only be accessed using local operations and classical communication (LOCC). This model combines a quantum resource (single-qubit measurements) with a classical restriction (on communication between qubits), and can be implemented using current technologies, such as nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond. In this model, we construct OTM's that are information-theoretically secure against one-pass LOCC adversaries that use 2-outcome measurements. Our construction resembles Wiesner's old idea of quantum conjugate coding, implemented using random error-correcting codes; our proof of security uses entropy chaining to bound the supremum of a suitable empirical process. In addition, we conjecture that our random codes can be replaced by some class of efficiently-decodable codes, to get computationally-efficient OTM's that are secure against computationally-bounded LOCC adversaries. In addition, we construct data-hiding states, which allow an LOCC sender to encode an (n-O(1))-bit messsage into n qubits, such that at most half of the message can be extracted by a one-pass LOCC receiver, but the whole message can be extracted by a general quantum receiver.


This paper compares two techniques to assess uncertainty in emission measurements. The first approach, described in ISO 14956, defines a procedure to establish uncertainty budgets from the systematic assessment of all relevant factors influencing the result. The second approach is based on inter- and intra-laboratory field experiments set out according to ISO 5725-2. These two concepts were applied during field validation of reference methods for sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are described in the European draft standards prEN 14791 and prEN 14792. For the SO2 manual reference method, uncertainty budgets are in excellent agreement with confidence intervals determined in field tests, due to the fact that the major uncertainty contribution is the chemical analysis of sulphate, which had previously been determined in an inter- laboratory study. Results obtained for the automatic NOx method show pronounced discrepancies between both approaches, illustrating that reliable uncertainty budgets are only obtained if a number of demanding conditions are met.


Abstract It is commonly asserted that the same, or similar, risk factors are associated with a wide range of problematic child and adolescent outcomes such as educational, social and emotional problems, and poor health. This argument underpins calls for preventive approaches that target common causal drivers. However, the argument rests largely on the compilation of findings from multiple studies of single outcomes. Growing Up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, is one of relatively few studies that can directly test this proposition within the one dataset. The same neighbourhood, child care, school, family, and child factors measured at 4–5 and 6–7 years were used to predict children's social/emotional, physical, and learning outcomes at 8–9 years, allowing assessment of commonalities in the predictors of each outcome. Results showed that the 'common drivers' proposition generally applied, but there were also unique factors associated with each outcome. Implications for intervention are discussed.


While graph neural networks (GNNs) have been shown to perform well on graph-based data from a variety of fields, they suffer from a lack of transparency and accountability, which hinders trust and consequently the deployment of such models in high-stake and safety-critical scenarios. Even though recent research has investigated methods for explaining GNNs, these methods are limited to single-instance explanations, also known as local explanations. Motivated by the aim of providing global explanations, we adapt the well-known Automated Concept-based Explanation approach (Ghorbani et al., 2019) to GNN node and graph classification, and propose GCExplainer. GCExplainer is an unsupervised approach for post-hoc discovery and extraction of global concept-based explanations for GNNs, which puts the human in the loop. We demonstrate the success of our technique on five node classification datasets and two graph classification datasets, showing that we are able to discover and extract high-quality concept representations by putting the human in the loop. We achieve a maximum completeness score of 1 and an average completeness score of 0.753 across the datasets. Finally, we show that the concept-based explanations provide an improved insight into the datasets and GNN models compared to the state-of-the-art explanations produced by GNNExplainer (Ying et al., 2019).


PURPOSE
A quantitative study was performed to compare the effect of two commonly used fixation pressures, 0 mm Hg (immersion) and 10 mm Hg (perfusion), on the porosity of the juxtacanalicular tissue and the size of Schlemm's canal.

METHODS
Twelve pairs of human eyes were studied by fixing one eye with perfusion fixation and the fellow eye with immersion fixation. Morphometric analysis of the juxtacanalicular tissue and Schlemm's canal was performed. Outflow resistance was calculated from these measurements and compared with the measured outflow resistance obtained in six eyes.

RESULTS
Schlemm's canal was narrowed in perfusion-fixed eyes, with a 47% smaller cross-sectional area than in immersion-fixed eyes (P = 0.04). Juxtacanalicular tissue of perfusion-fixed eyes had a 13.4% increase in the relative amount of empty space when compared with immersion-fixed fellow eyes (P = 0.04). Solid tissue components were almost equally divided among amorphous basement membrane, tendon and sheath material, and cytoplasm. No obvious washout of extracellular material was noted in perfused tissue. Measured outflow resistance was 100 times larger than outflow resistance of the juxtacanalicular tissue calculated from histologic measurements.

CONCLUSIONS
Perfusion fixation at physiologic intraocular pressure caused a 47% decrease in the area of Schlemm's canal and a mean increase of 13.4% in the relative amount of empty space in the juxtacanalicular tissue compared with immersion-fixed fellow eyes. Perfusion of fixative did not appear to cause washout of extracellular material. Perfusion-fixed tissue appears preferable for studies of Schlemm's canal and for ultrastructural studies of the aqueous outflow pathways within the juxtacanalicular tissue.


This work presents an analytical method designed to quantitatively evaluate the spectral and vertical distribution of atmospheric longwave radiation (0 ∼ 2500 cm−1) under clear-sky (cloud-free) conditions. A multilayer plane parallel radiative model with spectral resolution of 0.01 cm−1 is used to model the longwave radiation process in the Earth's atmosphere. An irradiation-radiosity balance for each layer is used to solve for the fluxes for all layers. Broadband contributions of CO2 to surface downwelling flux and top of atmosphere upwelling flux for different values of water vapor content are found to range from 0.3 to 1.2 W m−2 and -0.7 to -0.5 W m−2 per 100 ppm increment, respectively. A plating algorithm is adapted for recursive and expedite calculation of modified transfer factors. This modified transfer factors include aerosol reflectance and take into consideration the vertical distribution of spectral thermal fluxes for each layer, including the ground. With the use of modified transfer factors, we found that for an atmosphere with surface relative humidity of 65% and aerosol optical depth at 479.5 nm equal to 0.1, 64.4% of the surface downwelling longwave irradiation is generated from the nearest atmospheric layer, 15.3% from the second nearest layer, 7.5% from the third nearest layer and the remainder 12.8% from other upper layers. From the first atmosphere layer to the tropopause layer, the largest irradiance contribution to each layer is from the layer itself. Above the tropopause, the largest contributor is the ground layer. Layers above the tropopause contribute less than 4.8% to the longwave radiation received by other layers.


Background: The Ponseti technique has demonstrated high success rates worldwide for the treatment of idiopathic clubfoot. The purpose of this study was to determine whether clubfoot associated with tethered cord syndrome (TCS) was more resistant to Ponseti treatment than isolated clubfoot. Methods: An IRB-approved retrospective cohort study of subjects undergoing Ponseti treatment of clubfoot between 2002 and 2013 was conducted. Subjects with TCS were matched to subjects with isolated clubfoot (1:2) on the basis of laterality, date of birth, sex, and age at presentation. Subject demographics, number of casts placed (pretenotomy and posttenotomy), and recurrence data were collected. Generalized logistic regression and linear mixed model regression analyses were used to compare recurrence within 2 years of the initiation of casting and the log number of casts needed to achieve an acceptable correction, respectively. Results: Data from 24 subjects (16 isolated clubfeet, 8 with TCS) with clubfoot (12 bilateral, 12 unilateral) were analyzed. The isolated clubfoot group was the same age at presentation on average (21.9±4.7 d) as the TCS group (28.3±9.6 d) (P=0.55). The number of casts required to achieve an acceptable correction was 54% higher (95% CI, 7.8%-120.3%; P=0.0217) in the TCS group compared with the isolated clubfoot group. The cumulative crude incidence of deformity recurrence within the first 2 years after casting initiation was 8% in the isolated clubfoot group compared with 42% in the TCS group. The odds of deformity recurrence in the TCS group were 5.6 (95% CI, 0.7-45.2; P=0.1054) times the odds of deformity recurrence in the isolated clubfoot group. Furthermore, the incidence of deformity recurrence was higher among subjects who had a tethered cord release posttenotomy (56%, 5/9) as compared with pretenotomy (0%, 0/3). Conclusion: Clubfoot associated with TCS required more casts to achieve an acceptable correction. Subjects with tethered cord were also at an increased risk of deformity recurrence compared with subjects with isolated clubfoot. Level of Evidence: Level II—retrospective prognostic study.


We report on a supramolecular self-assembly system that displays coupled light switching, biocatalytic condensation/hydrolysis and gelation. The equilibrium state of this system can be regulated by light, favouring in situ formation, by protease catalysed peptide synthesis, of self-assembling trans- in ambient light; however, irradiation with UV light gives rise to the cis-isomer, which readily hydrolyzes to its amino acid derivatives (cis- + ) with consequent gel dissolution.


To elucidate the history of human exposure of psicose, a determination method of psicose (D/L-psicose) in various food products has been developed : post column high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using gel permeation column in ligand exchange mode coupled with pulsed amperometric detection (PAD). The calibration curve of D-psicose was linear in a concentration range of 5 to 150μg/ml with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999. With ultrasonic extraction and C18 Sep-pack filtration methods, the samples for HPLC analysis could be prepared from various food products within 0.5-1.5h without any interference materials. The psicose recovery (n=5) from coffee and corn-snack was found to be 96.6% with relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) of 1.9% and 96.7% with R.S.D. of 3.0%, respectively. The resultant psicose content varied from 0.5mg/100g (coffee) to 130.6mg/100g (Worcester sauce). In particular, confectionery products and seasoning sauces exhibited higher psicose content than other studied products. In high sugar food products, heat processing had a marked effect on the production of psicose. The psicose formation due to heating was suggested to be a non-enzymatic reaction.


To anchor in
seashore habitats, mussels fabricate adhesive byssus fibers mechanically
reinforced by protein-metal coordination mediated via
3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) – providing a well-established role model for
bio-inspired design of smart metallopolymers and underwater glues. However,
currently, the mechanism by which metal ions are integrated as cross-links
during byssus formation is completely unknown. Here, we investigated the byssus
formation process, combining traditional and advanced methods to identify how
and when metals are incorporated into the material. We discovered that mussels
concentrate and store iron and vanadium ions in intracellular metal storage
particles (MSPs) complexed with previously unknown catechol-based storage
molecules. During thread formation, stockpiled secretory vesicles containing
concentrated fluid proteins are mixed with MSPs within a complex
microfluidic-like network of interconnected channels where they coalesce
forming protein-metal bonds within the nascent byssus. These insights are
important for bio-inspired materials design, but also from a biological and
chemical perspective – the active accumulation and utilization of vanadium is
extremely rare in nature.


The problem of estimating the parameters of an n-gram language model is a typical problem of estimating small probabilities. So far, two methods have been proposed and used to handle this problem: 1. the empirical Bayes method resulting in the Turing-Good estimates. Theses estimates do not have any constraints and tend to be very noisy. 2. discounting models like absolute (or linear) discounting. The discounting models are heavily constrained and typically have only a single free parameter. Both methods can be formulated in a leaving-one-out framework. In this paper, we study methods that lie between these two extremes. We design models with various types of constraints and derive efficient algorithms for estimating the parameters of these models. We propose two novel types of constraints or models: interval constraints and the exact extended Kneser-Ney model. The proposed methods are implemented and applied to language modelling in order to compare the methods in terms of perplexities. The results show that the new constrained methods outperform other unconstrained methods.


Single-cell genomics has revolutionised modern biology while requiring the development of advanced computational and statistical methods. Advances have been made in uncovering gene expression heterogeneity, discovering new cell types and novel identification of genes and transcription factors involved in cellular processes. One such approach to the analysis is to construct pseudotime orderings of cells as they progress through a particular biological process, such as cell-cycle or differentiation. These methods assign a score - known as the pseudotime - to each cell as a surrogate measure of progression. However, all published methods to date are purely algorithmic and lack any way to give uncertainty to the pseudotime assigned to a cell. Here we present a method that combines Gaussian Process Latent Variable Models (GP-LVM) with a recently published electroGP prior to perform Bayesian inference on the pseudotimes. We go on to show that the posterior variability in these pseudotimes leads to nontrivial uncertainty in the pseudo-temporal ordering of the cells and that pseudotimes should not be thought of as point estimates.


BACKGROUND
GFR estimation is of major importance in everyday clinical practice. Usually it is done using one of the many eGFR equations available. In this study we compared in our population four widespread eGFR equations and our own empirical eGFR, with creatinine clearance calculated through a timed urine collection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We collected laboratory data of 907 patients from our clinic and outpatient department through a ten-year period and statistically compared the eGFR results between them and with the timed urine collection creatinine clearances.

RESULTS
All eGFR equations gave acceptable approximations to the timed urine collection creatinine clearances. However, in different subpopulations some equations did better than others, without any clear advantage of any equation overall. Surprisingly, our empirical equation named DAF also gave acceptable approximations regardless of age, weight and sex of the patient.

CONCLUSIONS
In our population our empirical eGFR method (DAF) gave satisfactory results regarding the monitoring of renal function, compared with four other eGFR methods. We suggest that it could provide a very fast and easy to use means of eGFR calculation.


Abstract The analysis of public policy agendas in comparative politics has been somewhat limited in terms of geography, time frame and political system, with studies on full-blown autocracies and hybrid regimes few and far between. This article addresses this gap by comparing policy dynamics in three Hungarian regimes over 73 years. Besides our theoretical contribution related to policy-making in Socialist autocracy and illiberal democracy, we also test hypotheses related to non-democratic regimes. We find that – similarly to developed democracies – policy agendas in autocracies are mostly stable with occasional but large-scale "punctuations". Our data also confirms that these punctuations are more pronounced in non-democratic polities. However, based on our results, illiberal political systems, such as the hybrid regime of Viktor Orbán, are difficult to pin down on such a clear-cut continuum between democracy and autocracy as the level of punctuation differs by policy agendas from parliamentary debates to budgets.


Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders. Even though antiepileptic drugs can afford a reasonably satisfactory treatment for 80% of diagnosed patients, chronic intractable epilepsy still affects a significant number of people and more effective and less harmful antiepileptic drugs are needed. Previous studies have shown that gamma-decanolactone has dose-dependent sedative effects, including hypnotic, anticonvulsant and hypothermic properties in mice. The present study reports an inhibitory effect of gamma-decanolactone on glutamate binding (96.8% with 5 mM) in rat cortex membranes. The non competitive nature of glutamate binding inhibition as a neurochemical correlate of the anticonvulsant activity of gamma-decanolactone may be a relevant mode of action for further drug development.


The developing steady flow of Oldroyd-B and Phan-Thien-Tanner (PTT) fluids through a two-dimensional rectangular channel is investigated computationally by means of a finite volume technique incorporating uniform collocated grids. A second-order central difference scheme is employed to handle convective terms in the momentum equation, while viscoelastic stresses are approximated by a third-order accurate quadratic upstream interpolation for convective kinematics (QUICK) scheme. Momentum interpolation method (MIM) is used to evaluate both cell face velocities and coefficients appearing in the stress equations. Coupled mass and momentum conservation equations are then solved through an iterative semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equation (SIMPLE) algorithm. The entry length over which flow becomes fully developed is determined by considering gradients of velocity, normal and shear stress components, and pressure in the axial direction. The effects of the mesh refinement, inlet boundary conditions, constitutive equation parameters, and Reynolds number on the entry length are presented. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4006696]


This study deals with the problem of fitting a time series modeled by a smooth transition regression function. This model extends the standard linear piecewise model. Within the piecewise model, the regression function parameters change abruptly at the changepoints. In the smooth transition model, parametric transition functions are introduced that allow for gradual changes of the regression function around the changepoints. This model can very accurately reproduce both nonregular and smooth random processes. Moreover it allows the extraction of information about the changes in the regression function through the transition function parameters. The estimation of the model is performed through a fully Bayesian framework. Prior distributions are set for each parameter and the full joint posterior distribution is expressed. The computation of standard Bayesian estimates involves intractable multi-dimensional integrals. Therefore, a reversible-jump Markov chain Monte-Carlo algorithm is derived to sample the joint posterior distributions. A comparative simulation study shows that the smooth transition approach achieves competitive performances and provides more sparse representations of standard test functions. Finally, the smooth transition framework is applied to estimate real world electrical transients, which allows the extraction of the relevant features for signal classification.


This study examines the effect of banking market consolidations via mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on the role of banks in intermediating corporate tax planning through offshore tax haven operations. We find that bank clients significantly increase their tax haven operations after their banks are merged with others. In addition, such an increase is greater when a commercial bank merges with an investment bank and when the clients have greater tax planning opportunities. We also employ network analyses to show that the propensity for a client to expand its operations into a new tax haven country increases significantly when its relationship bank enters into this country through an M&A. Collectively, our findings reveal that bank M&As enhance banks' tax intermediation capability.


In Tsarist Russia, the status of war invalid was recognised before the First World War, unlike for any civilian handicap. However, the 1912 law, multiple civilian and military regulations, private initiatives and the community will were not enough to face the magnitude of traumas caused by mechanised warfare. The authorities viewed the influx of 'incapacitated' men not as a social problem, but instead as a mosaic of individual cases. However, this critical situation triggered the emergence of the 'war invalid issue' as a social cause. For the experts opposed to an administration that they deemed ineffective, the law on invalidity became a programme for action, a political weapon, and the driver of a new conception of the Russian nation. Especially, as early as 1915 but even more so in 1917, the war invalids adapted to the regulation on an individual level and became organised as a group in order to have an influence on issues of pensions, housing and jobs.


A great concern for those aiming to reduce energy consumption in UK buildings to achieve Kyoto agreement targets should be the growing trend in installing air-conditioning in refurbishment office buildings. This study takes this challenge into account and presents an innovative cladding design for office refurbishment. The design incorporates photovoltaic power, solar control, day lighting, night ventilation and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery driven by photovoltaic power. By careful design the goal is to maximize the use of solar radiation and consequently maximize the PV energy output, maximize the use of daylight which is followed by a great decrease in electrical lighting consumption and reduce unwanted solar gains and possible glare to such an extent that mechanical heating and cooling is not significantly required to maintain comfort condition. The innovative cladding is designed for a typical assumed office module in London. Important components of the innovative south facing cladding design are photovoltaic panels, fan including heat recovery and window with openable parts at different levels. A careful design procedure determines the optimum tilts, length, positions and shape (louvered or not) of PV panel integrated into cladding as well as percentage of glazing area. Analysis recommends that in order to maximize PV energy output, the angle of the PV cell should be flexible changing according to solar irradiation (i.e. 22.5 , 45 and 67.5 ). Considering PV self shading, PV 1.60 m long generates the maximum energy output among other proposed options. Simulations indicate two positions for PV (during winter and summertime) and propose 3louvred PV panels 0.53 m long instead of a 1.60 m one. Software simulations indicate that integrating this innovative cladding design, comfortable condition is provided with far less energy consumption compared to air-conditioned offices. The results show that during the heating period, there are 50 hours per year when internal temperature is less than 21 C, so if occupants are prepared to accept 50 hours in a year with temperature below 21 C (e.g. by wearing more clothes), then no heating is required. If this is not the case, in order to omit entirely the need for central heating, it is proposed to use a 3 kW electric heater to provide comfort conditions. Therefore, heating consumption for this office will be 1.88 kWh/(m2.yr). Regarding cooling requirements, it is found that due to internal gains, overheating occurs in this office, but considering that there are only 193 hours per year when external temperature goes above 25 C, it is proposed to pre-cool the incoming air when external temperature is lower than 25 C, and when external temperature is higher than 25 C then higher fan speeds can provide extra air movement and comfort can be achieved on hot days. As ventilation consumption (i.e. 0.88 kWh/(m2.yr)) is calculated when fan is working on its highest speed (i.e. 203 l/s, 27W), the high fan speed for cooling during hot days does not increase energy consumption. In conclusion, this PV cladding design dose not only contribute to saving of energy for heating, cooling and ventilation compared to conventional new office facades, but also for lighting. A high degree of daylight use is enabled so that lighting energy consumption is only 6.27 kWh/(m2.yr). This study also compares the PV cladding design with a conventional office refurbishment option (i.e. new cladding with HVAC) regarding their cost and environmental impacts. Pollution created during manufacture is considered in terms of embodied energy and associated carbon emission. It is found that the PV panels of cladding module have a carbon payback time of 3.20 years. Implementing this innovative PV cladding design as the refurbishment option instead of the conventional system results in undiscounted saving of 377.71 and 450.08 £/m2 without and with grant respectively during 30 years (i.e. system life time). Considering the energy price increase at its current rate (i.e. 10%), discounted saving of 377.71 and 450.08 £/m (excluding and including grant respectively) can be achieved during 30 years. Also, this innovative cladding results in 97% decrease in annual C02 emission related to heating, cooling and ventilation compared to that of a conventional one. As the analysis shows, a big advantage of this cladding system is that there is entirely no need for any HVAC systems, therefore this innovative cladding design can reduce capital cost and minimize office energy consumption as well as C02 emissions.


A survey towards a selection of 35 methanol maser and/or ultracompact (UC) H ii regions, reported in Papers I and II and by Norris et al., has been conducted in the near-infrared (NIR). Out of 25 methanol maser sites surveyed, 12 are associated with a NIR counterpart. Out of 18 UC H ii regions (8 of which overlap with maser emission), 12 are associated with a NIR counterpart. Counterparts can be confidently identified not only by the positional agreements, but also by their unusually red colours. Spectral types for the embedded stars can be unambiguously determined for six sources, all of which imply massive, ionizing stars. One of these infrared sources has methanol maser emission, but no UC H ii region. It is possible that the maser emission associated with this source arises from a pre-UC H ii phase of massive stellar evolution or it could be that nearly all the ultraviolet photons are absorbed by dust within the UC H ii region. We have modelled the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for some sources and find that a single blackbody can be used to estimate the stellar luminosity, but cannot represent the whole infrared SED. A two-component blackbody model and a radiative transfer model were also used to derive essential parameters of the infrared sources. The radiative transfer model also indicates which infrared sources are relatively young and which are older. Both models show that silicate absorption at 9.7 μm must be a dominant feature of these SEDs.


Idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (IDILI) is a major problem during drug development and has caused drug withdrawal and black-box warnings. Because of the low concordance of the hepatotoxicity of drugs in animals and humans, robust screening methods using human tissue are needed to predict IDILI in humans. According to the inflammatory stress hypothesis, the effects of inflammation interact with the effects of a drug or its reactive metabolite, precipitating toxic reactions in the liver. As a follow-up to our recently published mouse precision-cut liver slices model, an ex vivo model involving human precision-cut liver slices (hPCLS), co-incubated for 24 h with IDILI-related drugs and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), was developed to study IDILI mechanisms related to inflammatory stress in humans and to detect potential biomarkers. LPS exacerbated the effects of ketoconazole and clozapine toxicity but not those of their non-IDILI-related comparators, voriconazole and olanzapine. However, the IDILI-related drugs diclofenac, carbamazepine, and troglitazone did not show synergistic toxicity with LPS after incubation for 24 h. Co-incubation of ketoconazole and clozapine with LPS decreased the levels of glutathione in hPCLS, but this was not seen for the other drugs. All drugs affected LPS-induced cytokine release, but interestingly, only ketoconazole and clozapine increased the level of LPS-induced TNF release. Decreased levels of glutathione and cysteine conjugates of clozapine were detected in IDILI-responding livers following cotreatment with LPS. In conclusion, we identified ketoconazole and clozapine as drugs that exhibited synergistic toxicity with LPS, while glutathione and TNF were found to be potential biomarkers for IDILI-inducing drugs mediated by inflammatory stress. hPCLS appear to be suitable for further unraveling the mechanisms of inflammatory stress-associated IDILI.


Micrometeorites, which are submillimeter-sized extraterrestrial particles that survive atmospheric entry, originate from dust-producing objects such as comets and asteroids. Although ancient micrometeorites found in sedimentary rocks are of key interest as a historical record of meteoroid populations in the solar system, they are rare and prone to severe chemical weathering. Here we report the recovery of well-preserved micrometeorites, older than 240 Ma, in radiolarian chert from Japan. The collection of micrometeorites comprised 258 cosmic spherules, which are particles that totally melted during atmospheric entry, and 2 coarse-grained unmelted micrometeorites. These micrometeorites are much older than any previous micrometeorite collection in the sedimentary record. Using this collection, we calculated the accretion rate of iron-type cosmic spherules to the Earth during the Anisian Stage of the Middle Triassic. The estimated accretion rate for Anisian iron-type spherules smaller than 125 μm is 25 ± 8 t yr −1 . Analysis of the accretion rate for cosmic spherules also reveals high accretion rates of small spherules (∼8–36 μm) for a 0.74 m.y. period in the late Anisian. However, the possible link between an enhancement in the accretion rate of small cosmic spherules in the late Anisian and variations in the flux of extraterrestrial matter to the Earth requires further scrutiny.


It is still a great riddle to me why Wolfgang Pauli and P.A.M. Dirac had not fully grasped the meaning of their own mathematical constructions. They invented magnificent, fantastic and very important mathematical features of modern physics, but they only delivered half of the interpretations of their own inventions. Of course, Pauli matrices and Dirac matrices represent operators, which Pauli and Dirac discussed in length. But this is only part of the true meaning behind them, as the non-commutative ideas of Grassmann, Clifford, Hamilton and Cartan allow a second, very far reaching interpretation of Pauli and Dirac matrices. An introduction to this alternative interpretation will be discussed. Some applications of this view on Pauli and Dirac matrices are given, e.g. a geometric algebra picture of the plane wave solution of the Maxwell equation, a geometric algebra picture of special relativity, a toy model of SU(3) symmetry, and some only very preliminary thoughts about a possible geometric meaning of quantum mechanics.


It is an ongoing concern that global hydrological cycle can be likely intensi fi ed under context of climate change and anthropogenic actions. Here, our results show that the solar and lunar periodic motions (SLPMs) have substantial impact on the runoff of the world's large rivers. We estimate that SLPMs can produce a change of the world's large rivers runoff by as much as 6.7%. Although climate models suggest that the increased frequency of extreme events is attributed to anthropogenic activities, it is out of our expectation that as much as 73% and 85% of the extreme fl ood and drought events (based on runoff discharged to the ocean) appear in resonance with SLPMs, respectively. A reevaluation of impacts of SLPMs on changes in the world's river runoff is urgently needed, especially when extreme drought and fl ood events are on the rise.


Core based three-dimensional(3D) integrated circuits (ICs) design is an emerging field of semiconductor industry that promises greater number of devices on chip, increased performance and reduced power consumption. But due to scaling in technology features these chips are more complex and hence testing of these 3D ICs is a challenging task. This paper follows a P1500-style wrapper design for 3D ICs using through silicon vias (TSVs) for testing purpose. It is assumed that the core elements are distributed over several layers of the ICs. As the number of available TSVs are limited due to small chip area, this work is intended to design balanced wrapper chains using available TSVs. In this work we have proposed a polynomial time algorithm of O(N) to design the test wrapper. The results are presented based on the ITC'02 SOC test benchmarks and compared with prior work. Obtained results show that our algorithm provides better utilization of TSVs compared to the work presented in [1].


We describe the morphology of a zebrafish strain which lacks pelvic fins but no other abnormalities. This description is the first step of analyzing hindlimb loss in an established model organism. By combining light microscopy, bone and cartilage staining, scanning electron microscopy and histological sections we were able to comprehensively describe the morphology of the developing pelvic fins of a pelvic finless zebrafish in contrast with the developing pelvic fins of wild‐type zebrafish. We have shown that although adult pelvic finless zebrafish completely lack pelvic fins, they do develop mesenchymal bulges in the pelvic regions at the pelvic fin development stage. Understanding the morphology and the subsequent genetic analysis of this fish will lead to important insights into both pelvic fin/hindlimb developmental mechanisms and the evolution of hindlimb loss. It is for this reason that we present a morphological analysis of pelvic fin development and loss in this genetically tractable model species. J. Morphol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper presents low-power characteristics of adiabatic complementary pass-transistor logic (ACPL) using two-phase AC power supply. Adiabatic CPL circuits consist of pure NMOS transistors, use CPL blocks for evaluation and bootstrapped NMOS switches to eliminate non-adiabatic loss of output loads. It is more suitable for design of flip-flops and sequential circuits, as it uses fewer transistors than other adiabatic logic circuits such as CPAL. In this paper, adiabatic flip-flops (D and JK) are proposed and a practical sequential circuit (4-bit shift register) is realized with adiabatic CPL. These flip-flops and sequential circuits have been simulated in CADENCE design tool at 90nm technology and simulation results show that the proposed adiabatic CPL D flip-flop achieve power savings of 81% with CPAL, 88% with 2N-2N2P logic and JK flip-flop achieve 13% to 68% with CPAL, 69% to 91% with 2N-2N2P logic for clock frequencies from 50 to 300MHz.


Background—CD40 ligand (CD40L) expression on platelets is mediated by agonists, but the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Methods and Results—CD40L expression was measured in platelets from healthy subjects both with and without the addition of antioxidants or a phospholipase A2 (PLA2) inhibitor and in platelets from 2 patients with an inherited deficiency of gp91phox. Immunoprecipitation analysis was also performed to determine whether normal platelets showed gp91phox expression. Unlike catalase and mannitol, superoxide dismutase inhibited agonist-induced platelet CD40L expression in healthy subjects. Immunoprecipitation analysis also showed that platelets from healthy subjects expressed gp91phox. In 2 male patients with inherited gp91phox deficiency, collagen-, thrombin-, and arachidonic acid-stimulated platelets showed an almost complete absence of superoxide anion (O2−) and CD40L expression. Incubation of platelets from healthy subjects with a PLA2 inhibitor almost completely prevented agonist-induced O2− and CD40L expression. Conclusions—These data provide the first evidence that platelet CD40L expression occurs via arachidonic acid–mediated gp91phox activation.


This article discusses associative initiatives by two underprivileged
sectors in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s: inhabitants of low-income
neighborhoods on the fringes of Tel Aviv and Arab citizens living in towns
and villages under supervision of the Military Administration. Based
on varied archival sources comprised largely of letters and memoranda
written by members of the associations, the study examines encounters
that took place (usually in writing but sometimes face-to-face as well)
between marginalized citizens and policymakers from the political (local
or national) center. I contend that the effect of the associative initiatives
should be viewed through the prism of the community's sense of self-value
and the civic skills that it imparts, regardless of the concrete attainment of
goals. I argue that such an inquiry into voluntary associations, both formal
(registered) and informal (non-registered), yields a more complex picture
of the limited Israeli democracy of the country's first two decades.


This study focuses on the influence of interface modifiers on the charge transport of hybrid nanoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2)/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanocomposites by using the time of flight technique. We found that the hole-mobility in the nanocomposites is about three orders of magnitude less than that of pristine P3HT. This may be due to poor infiltration of the polymer into the highly structured porous TiO2 which in turn obstructs the charge transport of the carriers. However, the hole-mobility in the nanocomposites is increased by an order of magnitude when a ruthenium based dye, either Z907 or N719, is introduced at the TiO2/P3HT interface. Surprisingly, the electron-mobility of the composite is decreased upon dye treatment. We further observed that the hole-mobility of nanocrystalline TiO2/P3HT composites treated with a 3-hexylthiophene derivative with a cyanoacrylic acid group [(E)-2-cyano-3-(3′,3′′,3′′′-trihexyl-[2,2′:5′,2′′:5′′,2′′′-quaterthiophene]-5-yl)acrylicacid] (4T) increased to over 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1, which is over an order of magnitude higher than the hole-mobility found in untreated nanocomposites. This trend in hole-mobility is consistent with corresponding current density (J)–voltage (V) characteristics under illumination of TiO2/P3HT devices with or without a dye interface layer. The higher hole-mobility found in the 4T dye treated TiO2/P3HT nanocomposite is assigned to passivation of surface traps by the dye as well as improved packing of the polymer with the nanocrystals through effective inter-chain interactions of 4T with P3HT.


'IT'S AN ILLUSIVE, SLIPPERY SOMETHING. ME TODAY YOU TOMORROW, A FICKLE FRIEND. WE, AS IN ME AND I AS IN YOU. A REPETITIVE YET SLIGHTLY OUT OF EARSHOT RHYTHM OF BECOMING.'


Volume One: the rule of law protecting rights through judicial review federalism and the separation of powers. Volume Two: freedom of speech as an instrument of democracy voting, parties and popular control of government. Volume Three: direct democracy group politics and democratic governance. Volume Four: democracy and administrative power constitutionalism, democracy and war powers beyond the state.


A fundamental question in peptide folding/unfolding is how the peptide fleets through a set of transition states which dominate the dynamics of biomolecular folding path. Owing to their rapid duration and sub-nm structure difference, however, they have always been oversimplified because of limited instrumental resolution.1-3 Moreover, the most experiments indicate a single fold pathway while the simulations suggest peptides owns the preference in multiple pathways. Using the electrochemical confined effect of a solid-state nanopore, we measured the multiple transit paths of peptide inside nanopores. Combining with Markov chain modelling, this new single-molecule technique is applied to clarify the 5 transition paths of the β-hairpin peptide which shows 4 nonequilibrium fluctuating stages. These results enable experimental access to previously obscured peptide dynamics which are essential to understand the misfolding in peptides. The statistical analysis of each peptide from high throughput shows that 78.5% of the peptide adopts the Pathways I during their folding/unfolding in a nanopore while 21.5% of the peptide undergoes the hidden folding/unfolding of transit Pathways II-IV. The frequency of the ionic fluctuation reveals a harmonic structure difference of the metastable peptide. Our results suggest the folding/unfolding of β-hairpin undergo four major structure vibrations which agree well with the theoretical expectation. These measurements provide a first look at the critical experiment picture of the mechanical folding/unfolding of a peptide, opening exciting avenues for the high throughput investigation of transition paths.


We study the solution to a nonlinear stochastic heat equation in $d\geq 3$. The equation is driven by a Gaussian multiplicative noise that is white in time and smooth in space. In a weak disorder regime, we prove (i) the solution converges to the stationary distribution in large time; (ii) the diffusive scale fluctuations are described by the Edwards-Wilkinson equation.


Foot-and-mouth disease virus causes a highly contagious disease of agricultural livestock and is of enormous economic importance. Replication of the RNA genome of the virus, via negative strand intermediates, involves an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (3Dpol). RNA aptamers specific to this enzyme have been selected and characterized. Some of these molecules inhibit enzymatic activity in vitro, with IC50 values of <20 nM and Ki values of 18-75 nM. Two of these show similarity, both with each other and with regions of the viral genome. Furthermore, truncated versions of one of the aptamers have been used to define the parts of the molecule responsible for its inhibitory activity.


ABSTRACT In this study, the pollution levels, sources, and ecological risks associated with five selected heavy metals (chromium, copper, iron, lead, and zinc)were evaluated in surface water, soil, and sediment systems along the Isipingo River, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The surface water, soil and sediment samples collected along the river, were preserved, transported, and stored followed the standard procedures. Soil and sediment samples were digested for heavy metal determination using a microwave digestion system. The digested samples were quantitatively analysed using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). The results demonstrate that majority of the targeted heavy metals were found below the detection limits in surface water except for iron (Fe), which was found within the concentration range of 9.54 to 46.76 µg/L. Lead was found below the detection limit in water, soil, and sediment samples, while other heavy metals were within the range not detected(ND)to 0.222 µg/kg dry weight and 0.212 µg/kg dry weight in soil and sediment respectively. The ecological risk assessment of the studied metals in soil and sediment systems from this riversignified that water from this river had less probable potential adverse effects on both animals and humans as well as benthic organisms.


The metabolic changes in a rat hepatoma cell line, AH70 cells, after co‐culture with rat Kupffer cells (KC) were visualized and analysed using a fluorescence microscope equipped with a silicon intensified target camera and a laser scanning confocal microscopic system. Kupffer cells were isolated from male Wistar rats, and cultured without any stimuli. The non‐activated KC reduced the mitochondrial energization in the cocultured AH70 cells within 2 h, which was indicated by decreased rhodamine 123 (Rh123) fluorescence. Either Ng‐monomethyl‐l‐arginine or dexamethasone significantly attenuated the KC‐induced mitochondrial dysfunction in AH70 cells, suggesting the involvement of nitric oxide (NO) derived from inducible‐type nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Administration of monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against rat ICAM‐1 also prevented the decrease in Rh123 fluorescence. Electron microscopy revealed that the membrane‐to‐membrane attachment between KC and AH70 cells occurred within 2 h. A laser scanning confocal microscopic observation using mAb against ICAM‐1 presented that the ICAM‐1 expression on AH70 cells and KC increased after the co‐culture. It is therefore concluded that the KC‐mediated mitochondrial dysfunction of hepatoma cells largely depends on NO production by iNOS. Furthermore, the present study supports a scenario that the NO production and release from KC is triggered by the close contact with hepatoma cells through adhesion molecules such as ICAM‐1.


We are investigating the use of a commercially-available solid-state matrix camera as a dendrometer for tree stem measurements. Thirty-two images of four hardwood stems were used to measure 54 diameters at various heights on the stems ranging from 1.4 m to 21 m. These measurements were compared to caliper measurements taken at the same heights. The percent inaccuracy between diameters derived using the camera and caliper measurements was 6.9 percent, which falls within the range of other dendrometers commonly used. The advantage of this system is the additional stem form, defect, and vigor information that can be instantaneously captured. We found that this method is accurate and efficient for collecting a large amount of data for a single stem.


The use of electronics connected to local networks and the Internet is growingall the time. Nowadays you can control your electronics in your house even when away from home, which opens up for potential security threats. The purpose of this report is to point out the potential risks with connecting home electronics to the Internet and to shed light on what security mechanisms that are needed in these kinds of systems. This report contains a theoretical part in which relevant material has been summarized. This material includes the smart home solution Tellstick Net and the wireless technologies ZigBee and Z-Wave, which are commonly used in home automation. The Tellstick Net system was mapped out and a risk analysis with attack trees was performed. After the analysis of the system, the implementation of two potential security threats were attempted. The two attempted attacks were replay attack and cross-site request forgery. The replay attack was unsuccessful due to the way the system communicates and keeps connections alive. However, the cross-site request forgery was discovered to be successful in some cases. It depended on if the browser of the target supported cross-origin resource sharing, as that property protects against cross-site request forgery. Finally, the report discusses what impact the found security deficiencies have, what they entail and how they reflect on the need for security in smart technologies for the home.


1 The disruption of host‐finding cues has been proposed as a key mechanism underlying the lower damage caused by phytophagous insects in mixed forests. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the distribution of pine processionary moth Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Denis & Schiffer‐Müller) (Lepidoptera) infestation at the edges of pure stands of Pinus pinaster (AÏton) at some distance from nonhost trees (Experiment 1) or bordered in part by a broadleaved hedgerow (Experiment 2). 2 An 'edge effect' was demonstrated, with trees at the edge of the stand being more heavily infested than those at the interior of the stand. 3 The presence of a nonhost broadleaved hedgerow in front of the edge of the pine stand resulted in lower T. pityocampa infestation. There were significantly fewer T. pityocampa nests behind the hedgerow than on the exposed part of the edge. The presence of the hedgerow did not dilute or repel T. pityocampa infestation further into the pine stand, although it decreased the infestation of T. pityocampa throughout the pine stand. The decrease in T. pityocampa infestation behind the hedgerow was greater when the broadleaved hedgerow was taller than the pine trees. 4 These results highlight the benefits of using nonhost tree species on the edge of monospecific forest stands to reduce insect damage. This approach could be promoted as an innovative forest pest management method.


The mid-Cenomanian Mishrif Formation (Fm.) is considered as one of the most important rudist-bearing reservoir horizons in the Sirri Oil Fields of the Persian Gulf. Due to the general heterogeneity of carbonate reservoirs, the use of an integrated approach is helpful for investigating porosity and permeability distribution along with recognizing controlling pore system factors in the reservoir. Thus, for the reservoir characterization of the Mishrif Fm., an integrated approach including facies analysis, diagenetic history and sequence stratigraphic analysis is considered. Detailed petrographic studies showed a total of eight microfacies and seven facies belts, related to inner ramp to the basin of a homoclinal carbonate ramp. Humid climatic condition and tectonic activity, associated with eustatic sea-level fluctuations during the mid-Cretaceous, led to meteoric diagenesis of the Mishrif carbonates during subaerial exposures (mid-Cenomanian and Cenomanian-Turonian disconformities). General diagenetic overprints and modifications include micritization, cementation, dissolution, compaction, dolomitization, pyritization and fracturing. Considering this reservoir in the sequence stratigraphic framework reveals that the reservoir zones development is basically related to the Cenomanian–Turonian sequence boundary, recognized in the three studied wells, and also to the mid-Cenomanian boundary, identified only in one well. In addition, pore system properties were inspected by differentiation of Hydraulic Flow Units (HFUs) within the reservoir. The identified flow units, based on their capability for fluid flow, can be classified into four main rock types with very high- (HFUD), high- (HFUC), medium- (HFUB) and low-quality (HFUA). Accordingly, this study shows that the main part of the Mishrif Reservoir is affected by diagenetic processes related to subaerial exposures, resulting in zones with higher storage capacity and fluid flow rates. So, the study of depositional and diagenetic characteristics of the Mishrif carbonates in the sequence stratigraphy framework is essential to unravel the reservoir heterogeneity, and to describe the reservoir zones and their distribution in the field and regional scale. In addition, observed changes in the thickness of hydrocarbon column are attributed to the different location of the studied wells on the anticline structures, which show a tilted oil-water contact with a slope to the North.


The study of chemical reaction networks (CRN's) is a very active field. Earlier well-known results (Feinberg 1987 Chem. Enc. Sci. 42 2229, Anderson et al 2010 Bull. Math. Biol. 72 1947) identify a topological quantity called deficiency, for any CRN, which, when exactly equal to zero, leads to a unique factorized steady-state for these networks. No results exist however for the steady states of non-zero-deficiency networks. In this paper, we show how to write the full moment-hierarchy for any non-zero-deficiency CRN obeying mass-action kinetics, in terms of equations for the factorial moments. Using these, we can recursively predict values for lower moments from higher moments, reversing the procedure usually used to solve moment hierarchies. We show, for non-trivial examples, that in this manner we can predict any moment of interest, for CRN's with non-zero deficiency and non-factorizable steady states.


This article presents decoupling n-times absorbing boundary conditions designed to model acoustic and elastic wave propagation in a 2D transversely iso- tropic (TI) medium. More general n-times boundary conditions with absorbing pa- rameters are also obtained by cascading first-order differential operators with param- eters. These boundary conditions are approximated with simple finite-difference schemes for numerical simulations. The numerical results show that the absorbing for the reflection waves strengthens with increasing the absorbing times n and the discretization boundary formulas are stable. Specially, the n-times absorbing bound- ary condition with absorbing parameters is better than that without the absorbing parameters under the case of same absorbing order. Elastic wave fields and three- component synthetic seismograms, generated by using the compact finite-difference and the decoupling n-times absorbing boundary, also illustrate that the n-times ab- sorbing boundary condition can eliminate effectively the spurious numerical reflec- tions in the acoustic and elastic wave modeling for the TI medium case.


Over the past decades, digitization endeavors across many institutions holding natural history collections (NHCs) have multiplied with three broad aims: first, to facilitate collection management by moving existing analog catalogues into digital form; second, to efficiently document and inventory specimens in collections, including imaging them as taxonomical surrogates; and third, to enable discovery of, and access to, the resulting collection data.
 NHCs contain a unique wealth of potential knowledge in the form of primary biodiversity data records (PBR): at its most basic level, the "what, where and when" of occurrences of the specimens in the collections. But as T.S. Eliot famously said, "knowledge is invariably a matter of degree". For such data to be transformed into digitally accessible knowledge (DAK) that is conducive to an understanding about how the natural world works, release of digitized data (the "this we know") is necessary.
 At least two billion specimens are estimated to exist in NHCs already, but only a small fraction can be considered properly DAK: most have either not been digitized yet, or not released through a discovery facility. Digitizing is relatively costly as it often entails manually processing each specimen unit (e.g. a herbarium sheet, a pinned insect, or a vial full of invertebrates). How long could it take us to transform all NHCs into DAK? Can we keep up with the natural growth in collections?
 The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has become the de facto main index of PBR, both originated in NHCs or as field observations. Digitized NHC that are standards-compliant and can be connected to, or harvested by, GBIF, effectively become DAK. I have examined GBIF growth data looking for a pattern of DAK generation.
 I found that the rate of NHC-based PBR accrual is remarkably constant: the total DAK shows a strongly linear growth, as opposed to the exponential growth exhibited by cumulative observation data. Projecting the trend to the estimated holdings shoots the completion many decades ahead. In addition, digitized data appear to be taxonomically biased.
 Digitization efforts must therefore step up qualitatively in order to enable processing the backlog, let alone newly-acquired accessions, within one generation. Among several possible solutions, emerging, industrial-scale mass-digitization techniques may help harnessing this otherwise daunting task—but there's also a risk that DAK becomes even more uneven across taxon groups because of the narrow application specificity of such techniques, thus potentially biasing our knowledge of nature.


We previously reported that tranilast, an antiallergic agent, reduced intimal thickening after endothelial injury in rats. In this study, to verify whether or not antiallergic agents inhibit intimal thickening, we investigated the effect of pemirolast on intimal thickening after endothelial injury and compared its effect with that of tranilast. Administration of two antiallergic agents, pemirolast (0.1, 1, and 10 mg/kg, p.o.) and tranilast (300 mg/kg, p.o., daily), was begun 2 days before endothelial injury and continued until the animals were killed. Endothelial injury in the rat femoral artery was induced by a photochemical reaction between localized irradiation by green light and intravenously administered rose bengal. To evaluate intimal hyperplasia, we measured the cross-sectional area of the intima 21 days after endothelial damage. Pemirolast at doses of 0.1, 1, and 10 mg/kg reduced the intimal area to 2.10 +/- 0.33, 1.36 +/- 0.19, and 1.35 +/- 0.18 (x0.01 mm2), respectively, and tranilast showed a tendency to reduce the intimal area, which was 1.86 +/- 0.35 x 0.01 mm2, compared with findings for controls (2.83 +/- 0.49 x 0.01 mm2). In rat A10 vascular smooth-muscle cells, we investigated the effects of antiallergic agents on migration by using a modified Boyden chamber assay and on proliferation by using the bromodeoxyuridine-incorporation assay. Two antiallergic agents inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner both migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells stimulated by platelet-derived growth factor. These results suggest that antiallergic agents directly inhibit migration of smooth-muscle cells to the intima from the media and proliferation in the intima, and that pemirolast has more potent antihyperplastic action than does tranilast. Antiallergic agents may be effective in preventing restenosis after coronary angioplasty.


In the literature it is reported only the studies for the steady states of spinning shafts without any information of the shaft's dynamics during spin-up, spin-down operation. The derivation of the system's discrete equations of motion is required for the analysis of the behavior of spinning shafts during this type of operation. The equations describing the motion of a spinning shaft with nonconstant rotating speed forms a system of nonlinear Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) coupled with an IntegroDifferential (ID) equation which describes the rigid body motion of the shaft. Towards the determination of the Nonlinear Campbell diagram of the spinning shaft the equations has been discretized by projecting the dynamics to the infinite base of the linear mode shapes of the underlying linear PDEs and the resulted discrete equations forms a nonlinear system in a Non-Cauchy format. Further on, based on the derived formulation the Campbell diagram has been determined by considering constant rotating speed and the results have been compared with those obtained by Finite Element analysis and they are in very good agreement. This work paves the way for the determination of the Nonlinear Campbell diagram by considering the periodic motions of the derived nonlinear discrete system using either numerical (shooting method with continuation) or analytical techniques. It should be mentioned that the same approach can be used also for spin-up, spin-down dynamic analysis with the determination of Nonlinear Campbell diagram in case of rotating blades with nonconstant rotating speed with application in turbomachinery, wind turbines, pumps and many other mechanical applications with rotating components.


BACKGROUND
Sphingosine kinase 1 (SK1) overexpression and elevated sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) levels have been correlated with many disease states from cancer to inflammatory diseases to diabetes. Even though SK1 inhibitors are of consideberable interest as effective chemotherapeutic agents, poor potency, lack of selectivity and poor pharmacokinetic properties have been major problems in the first generation SK1 inhibitors.

OBJECTIVE
There is an urgent need for the discovery of novel in vivo, stable selective SK1 inhibitors with improved potency. The primary object of this study was to identify potential novel leads for orthosteric inhibition of SK1.

METHODS
We propose a series of compounds from different chemotypes as potential selective SK1 inhibitors via virtual screening of the ZINC database using ligand-based and structure-based pharmacophore models, molecular docking, substructure search, selectivity calculations. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed key insights into the binding mode and the stability of the SK1-ligand complex.

RESULTS
Ten ligands were proposed as potential SK1 inhibitors based on the high induced fit docking scores, BEI, LLE and %HOA. Ligands 2, 3, 5 and 9 were found to be selective toward SK1 with favorable binding free energy of - 95 ± 5 kcal/mol. MD simulation of ligand 5 showed that the ligand-SK1 complex reached equilibrium with favorable hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. The four selective compounds have less than 0.24 similarity with previously discovered potent inhibitors.

CONCLUSION
The proposed compounds may serve as potential novel leads for orthosteric inhibition of SK1.


Abstract This article presents the results of a survey using a questionnaire conducted in Algeria, to evaluate the quality of public drinking water service, and at the same time the level of dissatisfaction / satisfaction of the subscribers. A statistical analysis of the data has been conducted on a representative sample of general population to identify weaknesses and strengths related to the current state of water management. The assessment of the quality of service, and the quality of water, as well as the price of water under the influence of the geographical distribution of the population was also studied. The results of the statistical analyses show a wide variability regarding the level of dissatisfaction/satisfaction of the subscribers. In order to simplify the interpretation, we gathered the results in the form of classes and groups in such way that the cities appear on GIS mapping software, with their inhabitants' degree of satisfaction.


Homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combines the advantages of spark ignition (SI) and compression ignition (CI) engines to improve fuel consumption and emission levels. HCCI engines have the advantage of relatively higher engine efficiency than SI engines while maintaining lower emissions levels than CI engines. Combustion in HCCI engines occurs spontaneously at any location once the fuel-air mixture reaches its chemical activation energy. Pistons have a major effect on controlling the combustion inside the combustion chamber of an HCCI engine. Many researchers have studied various designs for pistons to improve HCCI engines. The aim of this study is to explore these different types of pistons and their designs in terms of improving the performance of HCCI engines fuelled with gasoline. The most common pistons used in HCCI are two-stroke pistons, bowl types, specialised pistons, and dome-shaped pistons; each offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. Software simulation is the latest way of determining the best piston to be used for HCCI engines, as it is more cost effective and less time consuming than experiments. Overall, bowl type pistons offer reduced fuel consumption and a higher load capacity when used in an HCCI engine.


Ireland and Partition: Contexts and Consequences brings together multiple perspectives on this key and timely theme in Irish history, from the international dimension to its impact on social and economic questions, alongside fresh perspectives on the changing political positions adopted by Irish nationalists, Ulster Unionists, and British Conservatives. It examines the gestation of partition through to its implementation in 1921 as well as the many consequences that followed. The chapters, written by experts based in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the United States, include new scholars alongside contributions from authorities in their fields. Together, they consider partition from a variety of often overlooked angles, from its local impact on the ground through to its place in the post-1918 international order and diplomatic relations, its implications for political violence and security policy, and its consequences for sport and economics, through to its capacity to divide both nationalism and unionism from within. This book places the current questions about the future of partition, resulting from 'Brexit' and the centenary of partition in 2021, in a fuller perspective. It is relevant to those with an interest in Irish History and Irish Studies, as well as British History, European History and Peace Studies.


Abstract. A detailed statistical study of the magnetic structure of the dayside polar cusps is presented, based on multi-year sets of magnetometer data of Polar and Cluster spacecraft, taken in 1996–2006 and 2001–2007, respectively. Thanks to the dense data coverage in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the analysis spanned nearly the entire length of the cusps, from low altitudes to the cusp "throat" and the magnetosheath. Subsets of data falling inside the polar cusp "funnels" were selected with the help of TS05 and IGRF magnetic field models, taking into account the dipole tilt and the solar wind/IMF conditions. The selection funnels were shifted within ±10° of SM latitude around the model cusp location, and linear regression parameters were calculated for each sliding subset, further divided into 10 bins of distance in the range 2≤R≤12 RE, with the following results. (1) Diamagnetic depression, caused by the penetrated magnetosheath plasma, becomes first visible at R~4–5 RE, rapidly deepens with growing R, peaks at R~6–9 RE, and then partially subsides and widens in latitude at the cusp's outer end. (2) The depression peak is systematically shifted poleward (by ~2° of the footpoint latitude) with respect to the model cusp field line, passing through the min{|B|} point at the magnetopause. (3) At all radial distances, clear and distinct peaks of the correlation between the local By and By(IMF) and of the corresponding proportionality coefficient are observed. A remarkably regular variation of that coefficient with R quantitatively confirms the field-aligned geometry of the cusp currents associated with the IMF By, found in earlier observations.


Background Botulinum toxin-A (BTX) has numerous cosmetic and therapeutic applications. Our previous studies have found that BTX augments pedicled flap survival through both vasodilatory effects and attenuation of the inflammatory response to ischemia in the rat. This study examines the effect of chronic BTX on microcirculatory vascular tone and its response to acute topical vasodilators in muscle flaps. Methods The spinotrapezius muscle of Sprague-Dawley rats underwent a single 2-week pretreatment of 0.2 mL saline either with (n = 5) or without (n = 5) 2u BTX. After surgical elevation, an arcade arteriole was observed using a video caliper device. Vessel diameter was measured at 30-second intervals after sequential superfusion of nitroglycerin (100 and 200 &mgr;g/mL), multiple concentrations of lidocaine, and a combination of adenosine (10 &mgr;M) and nitroprusside (10 &mgr;M) to induce maximum dilation. Results Baseline and dilation diameters were expressed as ratios of pharmacologically induced maximum dilation, whereas percent dilation was defined as the change in diameter over baseline diameter. We found a significant increase in resting diameter with BTX pretreatment (P = 0.0028). Compared with the control group, mean baseline diameter was 15% greater, and percent dilation was 25% less in BTX-pretreated flaps. There was no significant relationship between BTX pretreatment and dilation diameter (P = 0.2895) after adjusting for the effect of acute vasodilators. Conclusions Pretreatment with BTX may induce the arteriolar resting diameter to be closer to their maximum potential diameter. Additionally, BTX does not display a synergistic effect with topical vasodilators on vasodilation.


The course of evolution of power system control centers is influenced by several different factors, of which two play the most decisive role: the transformations in the structure of power system industry and the evolution of information technology. Agent Technology is an answer to many of the challenges posed by them to future control center architectures. In this work we analyze the characteristics of environments that are potentially suited to the use of agents, and show that power system control center environments are specially indicated to benefit from this rapidly evolving technology.


This study investigated the effects of 3-methyl-2H-furo[2,3-c]pyran-2-one, a germination active butenolide present in plant-derived smoke, gibberellic acid and smoke water on seeds of Australian Asteraceae exposed to different light regimes. Seeds of all species required light, with maximum germination occurring under white light, or light dominated by 640 nm. Compared to untreated seeds, butenolide increased germination of Angianthus tomentosus, Gnephosis tenuissima, Myriocephalus guerinae, Podolepis canescens and Rhodanthe citrina at suboptimal light wavelengths and in the dark to a level equal to, or greater than, smoke water. Germination of Erymophyllum glossanthus and Gnephosis acicularis was not promoted by butenolide or smoke water under any light regime. The action of gibberellic acid was compared to that of butenolide for three species (Angianthus tomentosus, Myriocephalus guerinae and Podolepis canescens), and both compounds were found to stimulate germination. This study provides evidence that butenolide can act in a similar fashion as gibberellic acid in promoting seed germination of light-sensitive seeds. The ecological significance of these findings is discussed.


Two of the major challenges facing business with respect to environmental issues are internalization and operationalization. Appropriate internalization is needed to ensure that the company's responses to environmental issues are consistent with its responses to other issues and with its long-term goals. For each environmental issue, different levels of response are possible. This article suggests a framework that can assist managers in structuring these responses. To be effective, environmental intentions need to be operationalized—i. e., integrated into a firm's daily operations. The operationalization of environmental programs can be facilitated by exploring and exploiting analogies with existing and proven programs already in place in many firms.


Wellness conceptualized as the paradigm for counseling provides strength-based strategies for assessing clients,
conceptualizing issues developmentally, and planning interventions to remediate dysfunction and optimize growth.
Wellness counseling models have stimulated significant research that helps to form the evidence base for practice in
the counseling field. The development of these models is explained, results of studies using the models are reviewed,
and implications for research needed to further inform clinical practice and advocacy efforts are discussed.


The rodent brain is organized with length scales spanning centimeters to nanometers --6 orders of magnitude [1]. At the centimeter scale, the brain consist of lobes of cortex, the cerebellum, the brainstem and the spinal cord. The millimeter scale have neurons arranged in columns, layers, or otherwise clustered. Recent technological imaging advances allow the generation of neuronal datasets spanning the spatial range from nanometers to 100s of microns [2,3]. Collecting a 1 mm volume dataset of brain tissue at 4 nm x-y resolution using the fastest signal-beam SEM would require ~6 years. To move to the next length and volume scale of neuronal circuits requires several technological advances. The multibeam scanning electron microscope (mSEM) represents a transformative imaging technology that enables neuroscientists to tackle millimeter scale cortical circuit problems. In this work we describe a workflow from tissue harvest to imaging that will generate a 2 petabyte dataset (> 300,000,000 images) of rat visual cortex imaged at a 4nm x 4nm x-y (Nyquist sampling of membranes) and 30nm section thickness in less than 6 months.


By introducing repro markets we understand how agents need to borrow issued securities before shorting them : (re)-hypothecation is at the heart of shorting. Non-negative amounts of securities in the box of an agent (amounts borrowed or owned but not lent on) can be sold, and recursive use of securities as collateral allows agents to leverage their positions. A binding box constraint induces a liquidity premium : the repro rate becomes special, the security price higher than expected discounted cash-flows. Existence of equilibrium is granted under limited re-hypothecation, a situation secured by (current or proposed) institutional arrangements.


Gelato is very popular in the western world and is gaining popularity in India as well. The consumption of low-fat products has been increasing in recent years due to potential health benefits and nutritional advantages. Gelato has received much attention for both its health benefits and amazing taste. It is a fully natural variety of ice cream. Because of its serving condition (i.e. 1015°C lower than traditional ice cream), gelato has a rich mouthfeel and offers a better taste. Vast varieties of different flavors make gelato a unique product as compared to the general ice cream available in the Indian market. Different fruits and horticultural products such as flowers, berries, and aromatic plants can also be incorporated into it. Fresh and natural ingredients such as milk, cream, skimmed milk powder, sugar, egg yolk and WPC (optional) make the gelato a natural and chemical-free delicacy. The health benefits of gelato are very diverse. The antioxidants present in gelato helps to reduce the free radicals which in terms reduces the aging effect on the human body. Regular consumption of gelato can boost the immune system thereby preventing several health hazards. The natural ingredients in the gelato make it costlier than the normal ice cream. The attractive color and delicious taste add beauty to the product. The serving condition and environment also affect consumer perception towards Gelato. Several research studies and advancements are being done to make it more palatable, acceptable, and nutritious.


Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) holds promise as a platform by which services can be delivered to students in rural and remote regions who have reading difficulties. VoIP is an Internet-based protocol that allows two or more individuals to videoconference from remote locations. This study used a single-case research design to investigate whether VoIP would produce significant gains in reading ability in BM, a 10-year-old with long-standing word-level reading problems. BM was provided with a theoretically motivated reading intervention 4 times weekly. The intervention was delivered remotely using the Apple iChat software. Substantial growth in regular- and nonword reading covaried with onset and removal of treatment. Treatment gains were maintained at 10-week follow-up. Meaningful gains were also seen in text-reading accuracy and reading comprehension. VoIP-based instruction represents an important avenue for future research and is a teaching method that holds much promise for rural and remote students.


We explore the role of dynamics in shaping planetary system multiplicities, focussing on two particular problems. (1) We propose that the lack of close-in super-Earths in hot Jupiter systems is a signature of the migration history of the hot Jupiters and helps to discriminate between different mechanisms of migration. We present N-body simulations of dynamical migration scenarios where proto-hot Jupiters are excited to high eccentricities prior to tidal circularisation and orbital decay. We show that in this scenario, the eccentric giant planet typically destroys planets in the inner system, in agreement with the observed lack of close super-Earth companions to hot Jupiters. (2) We explore the role of the dynamics of outer systems in affecting the multiplicities of close-in systems such as those discovered by Kepler. We consider specifically the effects of planet--planet scattering and Kozai perturbations on an exterior giant planet on the architecture of the inner system, and evaluate the ability of such scenarios to reduce the inner system's multiplicity and contribute to the observed excess of single Kepler planets.


We consider the problem of compressing graphs of the link structure of the World Wide Web. We provide efficient algorithms for such compression that are motivated by random graph models for describing the Web. The algorithms are based on reducing the compression problem to the problem of finding a minimum spanning free in a directed graph related to the original link graph. The performance of the algorithms on graphs generated by the random graph models suggests that by taking advantage of the link structure of the Web, one may achieve significantly better compression than natural Huffman-based schemes. We also provide hardness results demonstrating limitations on natural extensions of our approach.


The sequence requirements for splicing of the Tetrahymena pre-rRNA have been examined by altering the rRNA gene to produce versions that contain insertions and deletions within the intervening sequence (IVS). The altered genes were transcribed and the RNA tested for self-splicing in vitro. A number of insertions (8-54 nucleotides) at three locations had no effect on self-splicing activity. Two of these insertions, located at a site 5 nucleotides preceding the 3'-end of the IVS, did not alter the choice of the 3' splice site. Thus the 3' splice site is not chosen by its distance from a fixed point within the IVS. Analysis of deletions constructed at two sites revealed two structures, a hairpin loop and a stem-loop, that are entirely dispensable for IVS excision in vitro. Three other regions were found to be necessary. The regions that are important for self-splicing are not restricted to the conserved sequence elements that define this class of intervening sequences. The requirement for structures within the IVS for pre-rRNA splicing is in sharp contrast to the very limited role of IVS structure in nuclear pre-mRNA splicing.


The relationship between the strength of civil society and democratic survival in the interwar period has been much debated. Prominent studies have questioned the existence of a positive association, arguing that the relationship is conditioned by the level of party institutionalization. This revisionist perspective has been vindicated by case studies of important European cases, in particular Germany and Italy. But due to a lack of cross-national data, neither the direct effect of civil society nor the alternative perspective has so far been subjected to a comprehensive statistical analysis. In this paper we enlist novel data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project that enable us to carry out such an assessment of all democratic spells in the interwar years. Our survival analysis demonstrates that a vibrant civil society generally contributed to democratic survival in this period and that this effect was not moderated by the level of party institutionalization.


CHH methylation (mCHH) increases gradually during embryogenesis across dicotyledonous plants, indicating conserved mechanisms of targeting and conferral. Although it is suggested that methylation increase during embryogenesis enhances transposable element silencing, the detailed epigenetic pathways underlying this process remain unclear. In Arabidopsis, mCHH is regulated by both small RNA-dependent DNA methylation (RdDM) and RNA-independent Chromomethylase 2 (CMT2) pathways. Here, we conducted DNA methylome profiling at five stages of Arabidopsis embryogenesis, and classified mCHH regions into groups based on their dependency on different methylation pathways. Our analysis revealed that the gradual increase in mCHH in embryos coincided with the expansion of small RNA expression and regional mCHH spreading to nearby sites at numerous loci. We identified distinct methylation dynamics in different groups of mCHH targets, which vary according to transposon length, location, and cytosine frequency. Finally, we highlight the characteristics of transposable element loci that are targeted by different mCHH machinery, showing that short, heterochromatic TEs with lower mCHG levels are enriched in loci that switch from CMT2 regulation in leaves, to RdDM regulation during embryogenesis. Our findings highlight the interplay between the length, location, and cytosine frequency of transposons and the mCHH machinery in modulating mCHH dynamics during embryogenesis.


SUMMARY: The PulseRider is a novel endovascular device specifically designed to treat bifurcation intracranial aneurysms with wide necks. In an international series, we report the results of PulseRider stent-assisted coiling of 15 patients (9 women and 6 men; mean age, 62.6 years) with 15 unruptured wide-neck (median dome size, 8 mm; median neck size, 5 mm) bifurcation aneurysms. Failure of PulseRider treatment occurred in 1 case, and 1 intraprocedural thromboembolic complication was observed. There was no mortality or neurologic permanent morbidity at discharge and at 1 month. Immediate angiographic outcome showed 12 complete occlusions and 2 neck remnants. Follow-up at 6 months was available for 3 aneurysms and demonstrated 2 complete aneurysm occlusions and 1 growing neck remnant. In this small series of selected patients, PulseRider stent-assisted coiling of wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms was feasible with low procedural complication rates. Angiographic follow-up will be required to evaluate the efficacy of the PulseRider device.


The design, implementation, and performance of heterogeneous distributed shared memory (HDSM) are studied. A prototype HDSM system that integrates very different types of hosts has been developed, and a number of applications of this system are reported. Experience shows that despite a number of difficulties in data conversion, HDSM is implementable with minimal loss in functional and performance transparency when compared to homogeneous DSM systems. >


[Abstract]: The surveying profession continues to suffer from a shortage of personnel in a time when demand for surveyors is increasing. Concurrently, the ongoing improvements in surveying technology have been proven in making surveys more efficient, thereby passing time savings on to clients and the general public who rely on an accurate system of land ownership.

The current system of re-establishing boundaries in Australia is based on survey monument evidence, and relies on the education and experience of a Registered Cadastral Surveyor to make sense of this evidence. Given the shortage of surveyors, there is concern that surveying services may not be provided in a timely manner, or worse, that extra pressure on surveyors may lead to cases of incorrect boundary reestablishment.

This project aims to investigate the potential for recent software technology to perform the boundary re-establishment process, with a view to alleviating the Registered Surveyors workload.

To achieve this aim, a capable software program will be used to re-establish several general boundary problems, and these answers will be compared to that of a Registered
Cadastral Surveyor and long established reinstatement doctrine. Results will show that in some of the tested scenarios the software solutions are the same as the human results, but many were found to be in disagreement. It will be observed that the methods used by the software in solving such problems are, although mathematically sound, not capable of the analysis and reasoning of a Registered Surveyor.

This project will provide a foundation for future research into the programming of boundary reinstatement software, and will enable informed decision making in surveying practices as to the potential for this software to alleviate staff workloads.


Qatar is soon expected to push forward the implementation of value added tax (VAT) in view of the recent agreement among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, according to Ernst & Young (EY) seminar. Qatar has already ratifi ed the VAT framework agreement of the GCC, and continues to set the stage to implement VAT, EY experts said at a recent virtual seminar on tax for Qatari businesses. Due to the recent agreement among the GCC countries, plans for VAT implementation in Qatar are expected to push forward soon, and it was strongly advised that businesses in Qatar ensure proper VAT setup and compliance at the earliest – given that most companies typically need at least six months to be ready, they said. A recent joint report of the Association of Chartered Certifi ed Accountants and law fi rm Al Tamimi and Company had said Qatar's General Tax Authority (GTA) has already put the necessary systems and processes into place to enable the introduction of VAT, but further government approval is required to proceed with VAT implementation. It is not clear, at this stage, whether this approval will be provided during 2021. Qatar's recent implementation of an excise tax based on the underlying principles of the GCC excise tax framework appears to suggest that Qatar may still be committed to implementing VAT in the future. The meeting also said tax authorities in the GCC have renewed focus on opening additional revenues, with an even greater focus on tax audits and transfer pricing. "The Covid-19 pandemic forced regional governments to concentrate on stimulating business, supporting individuals, as well as using tax and expenditure to support companies," said EY Business Tax Advisory partner Ahmed Edessouky. The GTA was amongst the fi rst in the region to postpone its tax returns and payments deadlines to support the private sector and the wider economy, he said. Today, tax authorities have renewed focus on opening additional revenues, with an even greater focus on tax audits and transfer pricing, he said, adding the landscape is also being completely transformed by digitisation, and tax administration processes are already far more digital than initially expected. These trends are also leading a greater desire by the government for more access to real time data – and there is now a larger emphasis on companies operating in a digital compliance model, as well as sharing an unprecedented volume of data directly with the government for B2G (business to government) reporting, according to him. In its survey for the EMEIA region, EY found that 52% of tax professionals felt that they were not investing enough in data and technology to manage tax risks. The results also showed that 95% of organisations believe there will be an increase in their tax risk profi le, including reputation risk. On the domestic front, one of the key topics covered in the meet included the implementation of the new Qatar tax administration system "Dhareeba", which went live on July 1, 2020. While welcoming the tax authority's eff orts to implement the new system and alleviate the burdens associated therein, it was pointed out that taxpayers should remain aware of these new changes in their obligations to avoid any potential setback. "Once fully operational, the new Dhareeba system will signifi cantly facilitate the taxpayers' management of their tax obligations and will ensure smoother communications with the tax administration," EY said.


Introduction: Breast cancer has increased progressively in recent years, and with this, the need for diagnosis and earlier treatment has also increased. Currently, in Brazil, breast cancer accounts for 29.7% of cancer cases in women. The reconstruction of the nipple-areolar complex (NAC) has focused on greater attention due to the search for symmetry and naturalness, which is the final stage of this whole process. The objective is to evaluate the maintenance of the size, contour, color, symmetry and shape change of reconstructed NAC after mastectomies associated with radiotherapy. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted analyzing the evolution of reconstructed areolas after total mastectomy associated with adjuvant treatment with radiotherapy. Two groups were selected: group 1 (unilateral reconstruction) and group 2 (bilateral reconstruction). Comparisons were made between the reconstructed NAC areola, group 1, with that of the contralateral NAC and in group 2, between the two reconstructed areolas Results: After the inclusion of 56 patients in the study, 71 reconstructed areolar complexes were included. Symmetry was classified as good in 77.46% of all cases (p=0.706). Twenty-five reconstructions were performed in areas under the effect of radiotherapy, and only 9 cases showed decreased areola size (p=0.050), evolving with an asymmetry in 8 cases, 4 in the radiotherapy region (p=0.706). The areolar contour showed a similarity between cases treated with radiotherapy and untreated (p=0.918). Conclusion: Adjuvant radiotherapy was a predisposing factor for changes that may arise during the postoperative period of reconstruction of the nipple-areolar complex, according to statistical analysis. ■ ABSTRACT


Abstract:In the 1920s and 1930s, elite reformers ventured into the Chinese countryside, eager to bring new health practices to rural people in order to strengthen the nation. In rural Ding County (Dingxian), an organization called the Mass Education Movement crafted a program of public health reform that took the rural home and family as the central reform targets. Through examinations of midwifery, family planning, home design, and infant and child healthcare, this article plumbs the interstices between reformers' visions of and plans for reforming village family life and the expectations and desires of villagers. Health modernizers drew strict lines between "traditional" China, where they believed matters of family health were kept behind closed doors, and the new China they were working toward, where individual and family health was subject to public scrutiny. However, the varied reactions of rural people to their proposals—accepting some, rejecting others—highlights that rural people's concerns rested not on issues of secrecy or privacy but on questions of power, expertise, and efficacy. The reformers' persistent focus on what they saw as villagers' superstitious and traditional notions of privacy as barriers to change meant that they disregarded village internal politics and power dynamics and, ultimately, limited the effectiveness of their reforms.


Recent automatic speech recognition (ASR) results are quite good when the training data is matched to the test data, but much worse when they differ in some important regard, like the number and arrangement of microphones or differences in reverberation and noise conditions. This paper proposes an unsupervised spatial clustering approach to microphone array processing that can overcome such train-test mismatches. This approach, known as Model-based EM Source Separation and Localization (MESSL), clusters spectrogram points based on the relative differences in phase and level between pairs of microphones. Here it is used for the first time to drive minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamforming in several ways. We compare it to a standard delay-and-sum beamformer on the CHiME-3 noisy test set (real recordings), using each system as a pre-processor for the same recognizer trained on the AMI meeting corpus. We find that the spatial clustering front end reduces word error rates by between 9.9 and 17.1% relative to the baseline.


A wireless network has a handover problem between heterogeneous or homogeneous network entitles. We describe in this paper a handover scenario between a WLAN and a WiBro network and propose a fast and efficient authentication scheme for the handover between a WLAN and a WiBro. In the scheme, a Serving Network(SN) plays a key distribution center role so that the Mobile Node (MN) can be quickly associated to a Target Nerwork(TN) before starting a full authentication scheme where a remote Authentication Center (AC) is involved.


: The paper concerns the toxonomic position of the species Diplozoon bychowskyi, D. ctenopharyngodoni and D. strelkowi. As far as there are no serious morphological differences between them the first two species are reduced to synonyms of D. strelkowi. Despite the great similarity between D. diplodiscus and D. strelkowi some characters do not allow to consider them synonyms. On the basis of new data the descriptions of D. diplodiscus and D. strelkowi are given.


Herlihy's consensus hierarchy ranks the power of various synchronization primitives for solving consensus in a model where asynchronous processes communicate through shared memory, and may fail by halting. This paper revisits the consensus hierarchy in a model with crash-recovery failures, where the specification of consensus, called recoverable consensus in this paper, is weakened by allowing non-terminating executions when a process fails infinitely often. Two variations of this model are considered: with independent process failures, and with simultaneous (i.e., system-wide) process failures. We prove two fundamental results: (i) Test-And-Set is at level 2 of the recoverable consensus hierarchy if failures are simultaneous, and similarly for any primitive at level 2 of the traditional consensus hierarchy; and (ii) Test-And-Set drops to level 1 of the hierarchy if failures are independent, unless the number of such failures is bounded. To our knowledge, this is the first separation between the simultaneous and independent crash-recovery failure models with respect to the computability of consensus.