Cytomegalovirus (CMV) affects the gastrointestinal tract commonly; however CMV colitis is uncommon in patients who are not severely immunocompromised. The author reports a 51-year-old Caucasian female who was admitted to the hospital with exacerbation of her chronic diarrhoea. CAT scan of the abdomen and pelvis showed thickening of the wall of the terminal ileum with inflammatory stranding and follow-up colonoscopy showed extensive circumferential ulceration in the terminal ileum. Biopsies confirmed diagnosis of CMV infection and the patient was started on appropriate antimicrobial agents. CMV viremia showed response to the medication; however the patient's intestinal symptoms failed to improve. Nodular lesions consistent with erythema nodusum were noticed and promethus test was consistent with Crohn's disease. The patient showed good response to immunosuppressive therapy. CMV infections are known to exacerbate symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease and hence Crohn's disease should be suspected in an immunocompetent patient presenting with CMV ileitis.


Pad analysis is part of multivariate analysis and aims at describing the relation between various measurements in terms of a causal model which can be derived from a theory about the possible relations between these variables. Such a causal model can be presented in the form of an arrow diagram or pad diagram. On the basis of three examples the ingredients of a pad model are discussed, as well as the aim of pad analysis, its various forms (recursive vs. non-recursive models; models with manifest and latent variables; measurement errors). In addition causal analysis is discussed, a form of analysis which may be regarded as a generalization of pad analysis. Finally some comments are made on the state of the art and annotated references to the literature are given.


An objective of phase I dose‐finding trials is to find the maximum tolerated dose; the dose with a particular risk of toxicity. Frequently, this risk is assessed across the first cycle of therapy. However, in oncology, a course of treatment frequently consists of multiple cycles of therapy. In many cases, the overall risk of toxicity for a given treatment is not fully encapsulated by observations from the first cycle, and hence it is advantageous to include toxicity outcomes from later cycles in phase I trials. Extending the follow up period in a trial naturally extends the total length of the trial which is undesirable. We present a comparison of eight methods that incorporate late onset toxicities while not extensively extending the trial length. We conduct simulation studies over a number of scenarios and in two settings; the first setting with minimal stopping rules and the second setting with a full set of standard stopping rules expected in such a dose finding study. We find that the model‐based approaches in general outperform the model‐assisted approaches, with an interval censored approach and a modified version of the time‐to‐event continual reassessment method giving the most promising overall performance in terms of correct selections and trial length. Further recommendations are made for the implementation of such methods.


In this study, we combine a voxel selection method with temporal mesh model to decode the discriminative information distributed in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data. We first employ one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) feature selection to select the most informative voxels. Then, we form meshes around selected voxels with their spatial and functional neighbors by employing the Mesh Model with Temporal Measurements (MM-TM). We estimate the arc weights of meshes, which represent the relationships among voxels within the selected neighborhood. In order to get rid of the redundant relationships, we prune the estimated mesh weights using ANOVA. By doing so, we obtain a sparse representation of discriminative information in the brain. Finally, we train k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers using the sparse mesh arc weights. We used fMRI recordings from a visual object recognition experiment. Our results show that employing the selected voxels in classification performs better than employing all voxels in the brain. Moreover, mesh arc weights formed around selected voxels outperform the intensity values of selected voxels. Finally, pruning the mesh arc weights leads to a slight increase in the classification performance.


We consider the problem of displaying advertisements on web pages in the "cost per click" model, which necessitates to learn the appeal of visitors for the different advertisements in order to maximize the revenue. In a realistic context, the advertisements have constraints such as a certain number of clicks to draw, as well as a lifetime. This problem is thus inherently dynamic, and intimately combines combinatorial and statistical issues. To set the stage, it is also noteworthy that we deal with very rare events of interest, since the base probability of one click is in the order of 10. We introduce an adaptive policy learning algorithm based on linear programming, and investigate its performance through simulations on a realistic model designed with an important commercial web actor.


Tricycle is a simple example of locomotion systems with nonholonomic constraints. Nonholonomic constraints involve velocities of the system and restrict the motion of the system in the phase space. A mechanical system is described by a Riemannan manifold and suitable mathematical objects "living" there. The dynamic of tricycle played on the plane as well as on oblate spheroidal surface has been formulated by making use of the so-called Port Controlled Hamiltonian System (PCHS) method. Unfortunately, this method still leaves undetermined Lagrangian multipliers. It is also difficult to determine the basis that vanishing constraint one-form and diagonalizing the inertia metric. PCHS method requires to find a basis which is vanishing constraint one-forms, but the calculation is not simple and not every case give an analytical solution.


This book reports on advanced theories and cutting-edge applications in the field of soft computing. The individual chapters, written by leading researchers, are based on contributions presented during the 4th World Conference on Soft Computing, held May 25-27, 2014, in Berkeley. The book covers a wealth of key topics in soft computing, focusing on both fundamental aspects and applications. The former include fuzzy mathematics, type-2 fuzzy sets, evolutionary-based optimization, aggregation and neural networks, while the latter include soft computing in data analysis, image processing, decision-making, classification, series prediction, economics, control, and modeling. By providing readers with a timely, authoritative view on the field, and by discussing thought-provoking developments and challenges, the book will foster new research directions in the diverse areas of soft computing


Introduction: The effects of Jin-Ying-Tang (JYT) on Toll-like Receptor 4 (TLR4) signalling transduction of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated mouse mammary epithelial cells (MECs) in vitro were examined. Material and Methods: The cytotoxicity of JYT (0.06-62.50 mg/mL) on mouse MECs was determined by MTT assay. The MECs were co-cultured with LPS in the presence or absence of JYT (39.10 μg/mL, 391 μg/mL, 3910 μg/mL). The concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the culture supernatants were detected by ELISA. The mRNA expression of TLR4 and downstream TLR4 signalling molecules such as myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), tumour necrosis factor receptor associated factor 6 (TRAF-6), inhibitor κB (IκB), and nuclear factor κB inducing kinase (NIK) were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: The results showed that the IC50 of JYT on MECs was 12.25 mg/mL and JYT could significantly decrease the concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α in LPS-stimulated MECs (P < 0.05). The mRNA expression of TLR4, MyD88, TRAF-6, IκB, and NIK was also significantly decreased when the LPS-stimulated MECs were cocultured at appropriate concentrations of JYT (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Conclusion: These observations indicate a potential mechanism through which JYT attenuates the systemic inflammatory response to LPS-stimulated mouse mammary epithelial cells by inhibiting the activation of TLR4/MyD88/ TRAF-6/NIK pathway at the mRNA level.


Ag thin film growth on ZnO substrates has been investigated theoretically using multi-timescale simulation methods. The models are based on an atomistic approach where the interactions between atoms are treated classically using a mixture of fixed and variable charge potential energy functions. After some preliminary tests it was found that existing fixed charge potential functions were unreliable for surface growth simulations. This resulted in the development of a ReaxFF variable charge potential fitted to Ag/ZnO surface interactions. Ab initio models of simple crystal structures and surface configurations were used for potential fitting and testing.

The dynamic interaction of the Ag atoms with the ZnO surface was first investigated using single point depositions, via molecular dynamics, whereby the Ag impacted various points on an irreducible symmetry zone of the ZnO surface at a range of energies. This enabled the determination of the relative numbers of atoms that could penetrate, reflect or bond to the surface as a function of incident energy. The results showed that at an energy of up to 10 eV, most atoms deposited adsorbed on top of the surface layer.
The second part of the dynamic interaction involved a multi-timescale technique whereby molecular dynamics (MD) was used in the initial stages followed by an adaptive kinetic Monte Carlo (AKMC) approach to model the diffusion over the surface between impacts. An impact energy of 3 eV was chosen for this investigation. Ag was grown on various ZnO surfaces including perfect polar, O-deficient and surfaces with step edges. Initial growth suggests that Ag prefers to be spread out across a perfect surface until large clusters are forced to form. After further first layer growth, subsequent Ag atoms begin to deposit on the existing Ag clusters and are unlikely to join the first layer. Ag island formation (as mentioned within the literature) can then occur via this growth mechanism. O-deficient regions of ZnO surfaces result in unfavourable Ag adsorption sites and cause cluster formation to occur away from O-vacancies. In contrast, ZnO step edges attract deposited Ag atoms and result in the migration of surface Ag atoms to under-coordinated O atoms in the step edge.

Various improvements have been made to the existing methodology in which transitions are determined. A new method for determining defects within a system, by considering the coordination number of atoms, is shown to increase the number of transitions found during single ended search methods such as the relaxation and translation (RAT) algorithm. A super-basin approach based on the mean rate method is also introduced as a method of accelerating a simulation when small energy barriers dominate. This method effectively combines states connected by small energy barriers into a single large basin and calculates the mean time to escape such basin.

To accelerate growth simulations further and allow larger systems to be considered, a lattice based adaptive kinetic Monte Carlo (LatAKMC) method is developed. As off-lattice AKMC and MD results suggest Ag resides in highly symmetric adsorption sites and that low energy deposition events lead to no penetrating Ag atoms or surface deformation, the on-lattice based approach is used to grow Ag on larger perfect polar ZnO surfaces. Results from the LatAKMC approach agree with off-lattice AKMC findings and predict Ag island formation.

Critical island sizes of Ag on ZnO are also approximated using a mean rate approach. Single Ag atoms are placed above an existing Ag cluster and all transition states are treated as belonging to a single large super-basin . Results indicate that small Ag clusters on the perfect ZnO surface grow in the surface plane until a critical island size of around 500 atoms is reached. Once a critical island size is reached, multiple Ag ad-atoms will deposit on the island before existing Ag atoms join the cluster layer and hence islands will grow upwards. A marked difference is seen for second layer critical island sizes; second layer Ag islands are predicted to be two orders of magnitude smaller (< 7 atoms). This analysis suggests that Ag on ZnO (000 1) may exhibit Stranski-Krastanov (layer plus island) growth.


Building on Best Practices is a worthy addition to the canon of literature on reforming legal education. Before the Great Recession, without today's pressing economic incentives, law schools made uneven strides to incorporate lessons from MacCrate, Best Practices, and Carnegie. Today, compounding economic crises and escalating accreditation requirements make reform urgent, necessary, and inevitable. To demonstrate that law schools can still add value to careers and society, legal educators must grapple with structural changes that affect every aspect of teaching, learning and researching. Building on Best Practices provides diverse expertise and useful guidance on approaching these challenges and on improving and expanding the enterprise of legal education.


Currently there is considerable interest in making use of many-core processor architectures, such as Nvidia and AMD graphics processing units (GPUs) for scientific computing. In this work we explore the use of the Open Computing Language (OpenCL) for a typical Numerical Relativity application: a time-domain Teukolsky equation solver (a linear, hyperbolic, partial differential equation solver using finite-differencing). OpenCL is the only vendor-agnostic and multi-platform parallel computing framework that has been adopted by all major processor vendors. Therefore, it allows us to write portable source-code and run it on a wide variety of compute hardware and perform meaningful comparisons. The outcome of our experimentation suggests that it is relatively straightforward to obtain order-of-magnitude gains in overall application performance by making use of many-core GPUs over multi-core CPUs and this fact is largely independent of the specific hardware architecture and vendor. We also observe that a single high-end GPU can match the performance of a small-sized, message-passing based CPU cluster.


Background The role of vitamin C to decrease organ dysfunction in sepsis was still controversial. This study aimed to explore the effect of intravenous (IV) vitamin C on urine NGAL (uNGAL) levels among septic patients in ICU. Methods This study was a randomized clinical trial held in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital from April to July 2019 with consecutive sampling method. Patients aged > 18 years with sepsis based on the criteria of sepsis-3 who were admitted to the ICU were included in this study. Exclusion criteria were those with chronic kidney problems, with kidney stones, undergo renal replacement therapy in the ICU. All subjects were divided into: Group A was treated with combination of vitamin C and thiamine while Group B was given thiamine only. The uNGAL level was measured at baseline, 24, 48 and 72 h after treatment. Anova for repeated measurement using General Linear Model for Repeated Measurement was used with level of significant at p-value <0.05. Results Total of 33 subjects were included. In Group A we found uNGAL (ng/ mL) were 74.5 (13.3-102.9), 77.3 (15.298.4), 67.2 (22.6-100.6), 77.2 (17.0-100.5) for baseline, 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h respectively. While in Group B uNGAL were 57.7 (11.5-94.5), 57.1 (6.4-97.7), 53.7 (13.3-99.6), 47.6 (4.5-100.9). No significant difference in terms of uNGAL between two groups at each hour was found. Conclusions This study showed that intravenous vitamin C administration had no effect on uNGAL among septic patients. Need more study to investigate approaches to improve kidney and inflammatory biomarker among septic patients.


An optimal identification method is developed for an efficient hysteresis model: a stop model having an input-dependent shape function. To simplify the identification procedure, the input-dependent shape function is given by the product of a weighting function and an input-independent shape function. The optimal weighting function is determined using the least-squares method. To obtain an optimal weighting function, two methods are proposed: one uses the property of equal vertical chords, the other is based on a symmetry condition. Both methods effectively improve the representation accuracy of B--H loops of silicon steel sheets using the stop model. The representation capability of the stop model is compared with that of the play model


Achieving the balance in the formation of working capital is a prerequisite for stable development of enterprises and improvement of the economic situation in Ukraine as a whole that is especially relevant during the period of socio-economic crisis. The study of working capital management peculiarities of agricultural enterprises deserves special attention, since their contribution to the national economy is significant.The purpose of the article is to investigate methods of assessing the efficiency of formation of enterprises working capital and prospects for its application to characterize the current state of domestic agricultural enterprises activity. The object of the research is determining the actual model of working capital financing at Ukrainian agricultural enterprises.In the article, the efficiency of formation and use of working capital in Ukrainian agricultural sector is analyzed. The actual model of working capital financing of enterprises in this sector is determined. It is typical for this sphere to adhere the aggressive policy of current assets formation, which increases the risk of loss of the solvency and financial stability. Optimization of sources of working capital financing at domestic agricultural enterprises will increase the volume of economic activity financing and improve the enterprises liquidity.


In this thesis, the most important argument is that cultural diplomacy can maintain, enhance and even create state trust, at the same time, the effectiveness of cultural diplomacy can influence state trust building. This research is an in-depth, empirical study of the linkage between cultural diplomacy and state trust, and this thesis aims to explore whether the effectiveness of cultural diplomacy could influence state trust building or not, particularly in the relationship between China and the UK. More generally, this research has three key themes: first, it establishes the conceptualisation of cultural diplomacy and state trust by discussing the thoughts from different schools and proposing new perspectives rather than simply looking at the arguments from scholars; second, it puts forward five indicators of existing state trust and five factors that influence the effectiveness of cultural diplomacy in state trust building; third, it explicitly explores the situation of state trust building by looking at the development and effectiveness of cultural diplomacy in both China and the UK. With the re-emergence of approaches towards soft power in global politics, there comes a growing interest in the potential power of cultural diplomacy. As it is being regarded as the emerging state with great power, China is trying to seek a "soft" path of facilitating harmonious development to thereafter shoulder the responsibility and reshape its national image. In addition, the United Kingdom was one of the earliest states to carry out programs of cultural diplomacy and has already achieved outstanding progress. Therefore, under the grand background of "Golden Era" (Xi, 2015) between China and the UK, improvements of their relationship could be witnessed from many areas. Also, it is a good opportunity to examine whether the state trust level between them might increase or otherwise by taking cultural diplomacy as the main contributor. Key Words: cultural diplomacy, state trust, China, the United Kingdom


It is apparent that a variety of factors may be responsible for myocardial ischemia, and even infarction, in the absence of occlusive major vessel coronary disease. In particular, it must be emphasized than angina-like chest pain may well have its origin in myocardial ischemia, even in younger patients with unusual patterns of chest pain but without predisposition to premature CAD. Increasing awareness of disorders such as coronary arterial spasm, functional impairment of subendocardial blood flow and the possible role of variant patterns of anatomic distribution of the coronary arterial tree, will provide a better understanding of their significance as determining or contributing factors in patients with the anginal syndrome.


We present our final results for the SU(3) sextet model with the non-improved Wilson fermion discretization. We find evidence for several phases of the lattice model, including a bulk phase with broken chiral symmetry. We study the transition between the bulk and weak coupling phase which corresponds to a significant change in the qualitative behavior of spectral and scale setting observables. In particular the t0 and w0 observables seem to diverge in the chiral limit in the weak coupling phase. We then focus on the study of spectral observables in the chiral limit in the weak coupling phase at infinite volume. We consider the masses and decay constants for the pseudoscalar and vector mesons, the mass of the axial vector meson and the spin-1/2 baryon as a function of the quark mass, while controlling finite volume effects. We then test our data against both the IR conformal and the chirally broken hypotheses.


: Intellectual disability (ID) is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual and adaptive functioning emerging before the age of eighteen-years-old. Known as a pervasive developmental disorder, the disability disturbs the individual's functioning on a wide range of cognitive and social realms, which further result in failure at school and interpersonal relationships. Nonetheless, the capacity for emotion regulation (ER) serves as a key role in supporting the individual's adaptation despite having a disability. Researches have found that ER can be taught as a skill for those with ID, specifically using Dialectical Behavior Therapy's (DBT) skill training as the basis for the program. Therefore, this study aims to examine further the application of this DBT program and its effectiveness in enhancing ER skills. The programs were delivered to three participants of adolescent aged (9-17 years old) in Indonesia, each having a moderate ID, mild ID, and borderline intellectual functioning (BIF). Using a single case study design (A-B-A procedure) where participants' ER skills were measured before and after the program, these studies showed the program was effective. However, in terms of application, it is noteworthy to highlight the adjustments needed during the program's delivery, considering the degree of disability. These adjustments are found in the program sequences, modality used for the program, the evaluation method used to record the participants' improvements, and the degree of skills developed. This paper examines these variations in depth to shed light on the applicability of DBT's program as in improving ER for individuals with ID and BIF.


Crit Care Med 2015 • Volume 43 • Number 12 (Suppl.) or Fisher's Exact test for categorical variables & Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables. Statistical analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel 2010 & SAS version 9.4. Results: 300 patients met inclusion criteria. Baseline characteristics were similar between groups. In 2012, significantly more patients experienced vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity (p=0.03). There were more trough values < 10mg/L in 2008 (p<0.0001), but more troughs 15–20 mg/L & >20 mg/L (p<0.0001 each) in 2012. There was no difference in vancomycin duration, but cumulative dose was higher in 2012 (p=0.004). Length of stay was shorter in 2012 than 2008 (p=0.01). There was no difference in the initiation of dialysis (p=0.16) or mortality (p=0.41) between the groups. Conclusions: The increased trough recommendations of 15–20 mg/L of the 2009 vancomycin guidelines led to more acute vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity. However there were no increases in long-term untoward outcomes.


Sharing fire engines and crews between fire suppression dispatch zones may help improve the utilisation of fire suppression resources. Using the Resource Ordering and Status System, the Predictive Services' Fire Potential Outlooks and the Rocky Mountain Region Preparedness Levels from 2010 to 2013, we tested a simulation and optimisation procedure to transfer crews and engines between dispatch zones in Colorado (central United States) and into Colorado from out-of-state. We used this model to examine how resource transfers may be influenced by assignment shift length, resource demand prediction accuracy, resource drawdown restrictions and the compounding effects of resource shortages. Test results show that, in certain years, shortening the crew shift length from 14 days to 4 days doubles the yearly transport cost. Results also show that improving the accuracy in predicting daily resource demands decreases the engine and crew transport costs by up to 40%. Other test results show that relaxing resource drawdown restrictions could decrease resource transport costs and the reliance on out-of-state resources. The model-suggested assignments result in lower transport costs than did historical assignments.


: Using data for a representative sample of the Dutch population with information about participants' religious background, we study the association between religion and moral behavior and attitudes. We find that religious people are less accepting of unethical economic behavior (e.g., tax evasion, bribery) and report more volunteering. They are equally likely as non-religious people to betray trust in an experimental game, where social behavior is unobservable and not directed to a self-selected group of recipients. Religious people also report lower preference for redistribution. Considering differences between denominations, Catholics betray less than non-religious people, while Protestants betray more than Catholics and are indistinguishable from the non-religious. We also explore the intergenerational transmission and the potential causality of these associations.


This paper presents the application of Multi Objective Optimisation approach to a design decision-making process, which aims to minimise Life Cycle Carbon Footprint (LCCF) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) from cradle-to-grave of a refurbishment intervention over a period of 60 years. The purpose is to compare the LCCF and LCC of the un-refurbished and refurbished solution of the case study with the optimal solution obtained using a multi-objective computational method. Results show that the application of this method in the decision–making process can achieve considerable carbon emission savings, while relatively smaller savings were recorded in terms of LCC. The LCCF of
the optimal solution was 21% less than the refurbished
solution and 67% less the un-refurbished solution. Compared to the LCCF assessment, the LCC analysis showed a smaller gap of about 5% between the refurbished and optimal solution, and about 16% between the un-refurbished and optimal solutions.


Plant breeding strategies are constantly refined to increase efficiency during the selection process. Consequently, the aims of this study were to examine genetic control and efficiency of selection based on the per se performance of maize lines and based on hybrid performance in reaction to white spot, common rust, and ear rot diseases in maize breeding programs. We also aimed to examine the relationship between the per se performance of the lines and the single hybrids for resistance to these diseases. To do so, we evaluated the reaction to these diseases in 106 lines and 661 hybrids in different locations in Brazil. Subsequently, the relative importance of the additive and non-additive genetic effects on expression of these traits, the association between the parameters considered upon carrying out the selection in these generations, and gain from selection were estimated. The results indicated that additive effects predominate for resistance to white spot and ear rot diseases, whereas for common rust, dominance effects predominate. However, evaluating the hybrids through diallel analysis was effective in selection for resistance to these diseases. The diseases and the generations evaluated were interrelated; the increase in the level of resistance had a more significant correlated response when selection was directed by the reaction to white spot, and there was a greater genetic similarity between the parameters considered in selection directed by hybrid performance.


UNLABELLED
For cardiovascular research on rodents, small-animal PET has limitations because of the inherent spatial resolution of the system and because of cardiac motion. A factor analysis (FA) technique for extracting the blood input function and myocardial time-activity curve from dynamic small-animal PET images of the rodent heart has been implemented to overcome these limitations.

METHODS
Six Sprague-Dawley rats and 6 BALB/c mice underwent dynamic imaging with 18F-FDG (n = 6) and 1-11C-acetate (n = 6). From the dynamic images, blood input functions and myocardial time-activity curves were extracted by the FA method. The accuracy of input functions derived by the FA method was compared with that of input functions determined from serial blood samples, and the correlation coefficients were calculated.

RESULTS
Factor images (right ventricle, left ventricle, and myocardium) were successfully extracted for both 18F-FDG and 1-11C-acetate in rats. The correlation coefficients for the input functions were 0.973 for 18F-FDG and 0.965 for 1-11C-acetate. In mice, the correlation coefficients for the input functions were 0.930 for 18F-FDG and 0.972 for 1-11C-acetate.

CONCLUSION
The FA method enables minimally invasive extraction of accurate input functions and myocardial time-activity curves from dynamic microPET images of rodents without the need to draw regions of interest and without the possible complications of surgery and repeated blood sampling.


Event-related potentials (ERPs) are important neurophysiological markers widely used in scientific, medical and engineering contexts. Proper ERP detection contributes to widening the scope of use and, in general, improving functionality. The morphology and latency of ERPs are variable among subject sessions, which complicates their detection. Although variability is an intrinsic feature of neuronal activity, it can be addressed with novel views on ERP detection techniques. In this paper, we propose an agile method for characterizing and thus detecting variable ERPs, which keeps track of their temporal and spatial information through the continuous measurement of the area under the curve in ERP components. We illustrate the usefulness of the proposed ERP characterization for electrode selection in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and compare the results with other standard methods. We assess ERP classification for BCI use with Bayesian linear discriminant analysis (BLDA) and cross-validation. We also evaluate performance with both the information transfer rate and BCI utility. The results of our validation tests show that this characterization helps to take advantage of the information on the evolution of positive and negative ERP components and, therefore, to efficiently select electrodes for optimized ERP detection. The proposed method improves the classification accuracy and bitrate of all sets of electrodes analyzed. Furthermore, the method is robust between different day sessions. Our work contributes to the efficient detection of ERPs, manages inter- and intrasubject variability, decreases the computational cost of classic detection methods and contributes to promoting low-cost personalized brain-computer interfaces.


In the present study, aluminum alloy casting mold which consist of eight pieces is introduced as a new technique of tire manufacturing. For the numerical analysis, finite element method (FEM) was used to investigate the thermal strain of casting mold using aluminum alloy during the cooling process. In the concrete, the temperature distributions on the inside of each casting mold, the displacement and stress occurred by temperature variations are investigated to predict the accurate measurement variations of casting mold during the cooling process. In the end, numerical simulation results such as temperature distributions, displacement and stress are presented to help to make the effective and the best mold products. Moreover, the introduced technique of numerical simulation applying a FEM is very useful and important things in the mechanical behavior of materials, especially needs the accuracy improvement such as aluminum alloy casting mold products.


Growth kinetic is either diffusion or interface reaction controlled process, characterized by parabolic or linear relationships, respectively. The well known diffusion paradox, predicting infinitely fast diffusion kinetics at short times (distances) for diffusion control will be discussed and resolved, by showing that the diffusion permeability across the interface should be finite at the very beginning of the process. Thus one can arrive at an atomistic interpretation of the interface transfer coefficient, K, and at linear growth kinetics even if there is no extra potential barrier present at the interface, usually assumed in the interpretation of interface reaction control. It is also shown that this phenomenon is a typical nanoeffect: after a certain diffusion distance (lying between 0.01 and 300 nm, depending on the composition dependence of the diffusion coefficient) the finite permeability of the interface will not restrict the growth and normal diffusion control will be observed.


Benedict Spinoza is arguably the first important political philosopher to endorse democracy as the best government. He does so primarily on the basis of the claim that it is the most natural regime. However, there are features of Spinoza's argument that complicate efforts to interpret his understanding of the naturalness of democracy, especially (i) the tension between his claims about the naturalness and rationality of democracy; and (ii) uncertainty about Spinoza's attitude toward the natural end or goal of political life. This study argues that Spinoza's claims about the naturalness of democracy are only fully intelligible in light of the connection between his metaphysics, on the one hand, and his conception of political right, on the other. We conclude that Spinoza believed the naturalness, and hence superiority, of democracy rests on its capacity to promote a formative purpose that includes both the perfection of social construction in the state and the intellectual and moral development of individuals.


The paper proposes multiple sound sources localization method using directional pattern of a microphone array. Directional localization is achieved by using delay and sum beam forming (DSBF) and proposed main-lobe canceling method (MLC) using microphone directional pattern. The system subtracts higher intensity sound sources by using the directional pattern of a microphone array at each frequency, then it can localize multiple different pressure sound sources sequentially. We developed the 32ch microphone array to demonstrate the efficacy of proposed method. The design of the microphone array by beam forming simulation increases the resolution of the localization procedure and it's robustness to ambient noise. The octagonal array we developed achieved lower side-lobes during beam forming. We implement MLC on a mobile robot equipped with the octagonal microphone array. The experimental result shows that the system provides accurate and robust sound localization for multiple different sound sources during moving.


The role of online conversation analysis on tourism and sustainability is underrated, especially in policymaking and management of sustainability of tourist destinations. The paper reports an analysis of online conversations retrieved from Twitter during the 2016 peak season, referring to four main destinations located in the Adriatic-Ionian region. The focus is analyzing the meaning of the expression "sustainable tourism" as emerging from online texting. Findings are that private users do not talk about sustainability and features of sustainable tourism while using Twitter, enforcing the idea that sustainable tourism has popular "meaning" and "appeal" possibly different from scien tific approach. Users tell exclusively on leisure features of destinations, and public bodies neglect the opportunity of using Twitter for image building and web listening. Private companies, public administrators, and policymakers should benefit from the exposed procedures for online conversation analyses in designing and organizing their respec-tive tasks. Researchers and destination managers would be also interested in the existing divide between official documents and statements on sustainability and sustainable tour ism and reality of popular perception of the issue.


Royce Gracie presents an array of fighting strategies specifically designed to succeed under the rules of mixed martial arts competition. Traditional Brazilian ju-jitsu techniques are combined with new grappling and striking manoeuvres to offer practitioners an incredible array of attack options. Royce Gracie's personal tips on training, competing, and sustaining mental stamina, which helped him achieve an unprecedented string of victories at the Ultimate Fighting Championships, are also included.


The aim of this thesis is to describe how the luminosity can be measured in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Luminosity is a fundamental quantity that is used in most physics studies at the LHC. For example in order to measure cross sections. Firstly, the detector description of LUCID which has been implemented in the global ATLAS software framework is described and validated. Secondly, algorithms to determine the luminosity are derived and the simulation of LUCID is used to test the precision of these. Thirdly, the feasibility of using Z0 production as a alternative way to measure the luminosity or to calibrate LUCID is studied. The performance of LUCID is addressed by comparing results from the early 2010 data-taking period with predictions from the simulations. Several techniques to calculate the efficiency of LUCID are described and the results for each method is presented. Several classes of luminosity algorithms studied and applied to the signals from the LUCID detector. The first class has been designed to be used online and to extract the luminosity using two different counting methods, namely event and hit counting. An empirical model is introduced as an attempt to parametrize the non-linear effect by polynomial fits to the event and hit rate. A final attempt to minimize the non-linear effects was presented by introducing a new method that uses the full hit multiplicity distribution to determine the luminosity offline. A method to measure the absolute luminosity using the production of Z0 boson is outlined . Each step of the procedure to select Z → μ+μ− events has been studied in detail using Monte Carlo simulations of the various background and signal samples. The selection procedure is applied to a data sample recorded by the ATLAS detector over a period of 5 month and the resulting integrated luminosity is determined from the number of reconstructed Z → μ+μ− events.


In late August 2014, two national newspapers - the Daily Mail (1) and The Telegraph (2) - reported Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) data showing that donations from nine sperm donors had produced 21 or more children each, while another six donors had produced 20 children (see BioNews 768).

These reports prompted two linked, but independent, Freedom of Information requests (3,4) by us to the HFEA. Subsequent email communication (5) also enquired about breaches of the 'ten family' limit introduced by the HFEA on 1 April 2006, and to what extent affected donors, recipients, and (where they were eligible) donor-conceived individuals had been advised of any breach.


We introduce the notion of language disenfranchisement which arises if the number of EU working languages is reduced. We use the data on language proficiency in EU and show that, in spite of the widespread knowledge of English, the retention of French and German as working languages in essential to avoid a too large degree of disenfranchisement of citizens. The picture, however, becomes somewhat different if we consider the population under age of 40. We also argue that even though French is the second leading language within the EU, the situation is likely to be reversed after the enlargement.


Background: Western European countries are facing financial constraints that mean reduced spending on health and social care. Collaboration between disciplines may be one way to make the necessary savings. Collaboration between health and social workers in providing services to older people living at home is promoted by the public authorities, but no guidance is given on how to achieve it. Aim: Our aim was to perform a literature review to describe and analyse strategies for collaboration between health and social workers in the provision of care for older people living at home. Methods: Systematic, unsystematic and manual searches were undertaken to find international primary research. Databases searched were: Academic Search Premier; AgeLine; Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; Cochrane Library; MedLine; ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Source; PubMed; Social Services Abstracts; Sociological Abstracts; and SocINDEX. Separate search strategies were developed for each database in line with its stipulated controlled vocabulary. Findings: During the analysis, the following themes were identified: purpose; participants; setting; country; method; results; rationale for the study; collaboration; conclusions; authors' comments; and reviewers' comments. Nine articles were found, indicating that this subject is short on evidence. The results are explained from the perspective of critical social theory. Conclusions: Reports exist on collaboration between nurses and social workers in the care of older people showing that it can be beneficial both for recipients of care and carers, although few articles were identified. From a critical social theory perspective, effective collaboration may occur in well defined and strictly limited areas, such as preventive home visits. This must be taken into consideration in order to create a successful collaboration in practice to support older people living at home. Implications for practice: • Collaboration between nurses and social workers in older persons' care could be beneficial for recipients and carers • Successful collaboration may occur in a well defined and strictly limited area; preventive home visits in elderly care is such an area • When planning for a collaborative project there is a need to discriminate between collaboration and cooperation; in the latter delegation could be a key feature, giving an asymmetric working relationship


This study examines a field experiment in Texas that includes pricing and informational interventions to encourage energy conservation during summer peak load days when the social cost of generation is the highest. We estimate that our critical peak pricing intervention reduces electricity consumption by 14%. Using unique high frequency appliance-level data, we can attribute 74% of this response to air conditioning. In contrast, we find minimal response to active information provision and conservation appeals. A complementary experimental program also lowers nighttime prices during the off-peak season, providing the first evidence of electric vehicle loadshifting in response to price.


This paper describes the karst of Guam in terms of the Carbonate Island Karst Model (CIKM), a general model for the unique karst carbonate islands. The CIKM recognizes several processes and conditions unique to carbonate islands: 1) enhanced dissolution at the surface, base, and margin of the fresh-water lens; 2) the history of both vertical migration and stable positioning of these zones according to glacioeustatic and tectonic changes in relative sea level; 3) the size of the island's catchment area relative to its perimeter, which can vary with sea level change; 4) the hydrologic implications of the unique eogenetic environment of their young limestones; and 5) the position of the island's carbonate-basement contact relative to sea level and the island surface over time. Guam's complex depositional and tectonic histories have endowed it with a unique legacy of karst features. The northern half is a Pleistocene karst plateau in Plio-Pleistocene limestone units that exhibit all the characteristic karst features of carbonate islands, from the simplest to the most complex. The epikarst is similar to that on other carbonate islands. Most closed depressions are broad and shallow, probably reflecting original depositional morphology, although vertical-walled collapse and banana-hole type features are also present. Caves include a few pit caves, some of which are very deep. Traversable stream caves occur where the limestone-basement contact is exposed on the flanks of volcanic outcrops. The most abundant caves are flank margin caves, which can be found all along the modern coast, and which occupy distinct horizons in the faces of the cliff line surrounding the plateau. Discharge features have been documented for three types of coastline around the northern plateau: (1) deeply scalloped embayments with broad beaches; (2) linear beaches fronted by fringing reefs; and (3) sheer cliffs with narrow or no benches, and only occasional small reefs. In the embayments, karst groundwater discharges by diffuse flow from numerous seep fields and as concentrated flow from springs along the beach. Seeps are found along the linear beaches, but we have not noted significant flow from springs or coastal caves. Along the cliff-dominated coast, karst groundwaters discharge in spectacular flows from dissolutionwidened fractures, coastal caves, and submarine vents, most notably along the northwest coast. The southern half of Guam is an uplifted volcanic highland containing a karst terrain on Mio-Pliocene limestone remnants in the interior. Because these units lie above the influence of the fresh water lens, sea water mixing, and sea level change, the karst is a classic tropical continental karst, with features that include contact springs issuing from well-developed caves, sinking streams with resurgences, and conical cockpit karst. Along the southeast coast, which is flanked by a continuous uplifted Pleistocene limestone unit, antecedent streams draining the interior have incised deep canyons. Dry valleys and large closed depressions in this unit appear to be associated with allogenic waters originating in the interior.


Aims and Objectives: The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the neural correlates of tinnitus perception using different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. The first objective was to investigate the neuro-functional reorganisation that may be associated with tinnitus-related emotional disturbances using functional MRI (fMRI). The second objective was to investigate the structural brain changes that are hypothesised to be associated with tinnitus perception. This investigation included an analysis of both grey and white matter using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a cortical thickness analysis (CTA) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). The third objective was to investigate any correlations between the neuro-functional and the neuro-structural reorganisation that are associated with tinnitus and behavioural data, such as hearing thresholds, the Newman Handicap Inventory score and age. These analyses were performed for both the experimental and control groups.
Methods: A total of 18 tinnitus sufferers and 15 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers participated in the work that is presented in this thesis. The functional MRI study in this thesis utilised internationally standardised emotionally evocative pleasant and unpleasant visual and auditory stimuli. The fMRI paradigm consisted of a block design, during which the participants from the two groups (tinnitus and controls) viewed blocks of images and listened to sounds. The structural investigations in this thesis included DTI, CTA and VBM.
Results: In the fMRI study, tinnitus sufferers exhibited significant hyperactivation in the limbic system, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the temporal lobe. Correlation analyses between the mean fMRI Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal and hearing thresholds revealed a significant positive correlation in the subjects with tinnitus but not the in the controls. This correlation was observed in the following regions: the right cingulate gyrus, the right medial frontal gyrus, the right superior temporal gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left superior temporal gyrus. Tinnitus severity as measured using the Newman Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score (Newman THI) was observed to be positively correlated with the mean fMRI BOLD signal in the left superior temporal gyrus and the right cingulate gyrus. Tinnitus-like conditions induced the healthy controls to exhibit hyperactivity in the limbic system, the PFC and the temporal lobe. The DTI study demonstrated disrupted white matter (WM) integrity in the following bundles in the subjects with tinnitus relative to the control group: the left and right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, the corpus callosum, the left superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and the left and right thalamic radiations. CTA revealed cortical thickness reductions in the subjects with tinnitus compared to the controls in a priori hypothesised regions of interest (ROI), which included the following regions: the temporal lobe, PFC, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), cingulate gyrus (CG) and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG). VBM revealed reduced grey matter (GM) volume in the left medial PFC in subjects with tinnitus compared to controls.
Conclusion: Tinnitus perception may involve functional and structural changes in the following specific brain regions: the PFC, the temporal lobe (including the auditory cortex) and the limbic system. These structural changes may represent antecedent structural deficits that result in subsequent functional reorganisation, causing the tinnitus signal to arise.


MAGHREB Politics and Power in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring, by Michael J. Willis. London: Hurst & Co, 2012. $35.Reviewed by Jason Pack and James RoslingtonPolitics and Power in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring by Dr. Michael Willis is a single-volume guide to the post-independence high politics of the three core countries of the Maghreb. Willis - currently director of the prestigious Middle East Centre at St. Antony's College, Oxford University - effortlessly guides the reader through scholarly debates in the existing English-language literature on North Africa. Intense cross-referencing between chapters, an excellent index, and extensive endnotes make this an ideal reference volume. The paucity of coverage of the rich French-language scholarship and the absence of Arabic sources can be said to be the book's primary drawback. It is also part of the work's unique strength: its accessibility. Despite its dense, detail-filled narrative, Politics and Power in the Maghreb remains approachable for the lay reader and fulfills its primary aim - the creation of an up-to-date reference work on contemporary North Africa tailored specifically for the concerns of an Anglo-American audience.The book's novel contribution lies in its broad and comparative approach. It builds upon the magisterial overviews of the Maghreb's contemporary history which were in vogue after independence, but which have appeared with ever-decreasing frequency in recent years (Barbour 1959; Berque 1962; Entelis 1980; Zartmann and Habeeb 1993; Vermeren 2004). Politics and Power is particularly timely as its broad focus links the apparent pre-2011 "stagnation" and increasingly authoritarian modes of political control to the outbreak of the Arab Spring.Willis' broad, almost bird's-eye, view underlies his description of the divergent paths of post-independence state-building: revolution and populist military rule in Algeria; elite secularism and one-party rule in Tunisia; monarchy and political patronage in Morocco. He asserts that, by the 1970s, governance strategies in all three states had paradoxically converged upon ever-increasing centralization directed by a powerful individual. In narrating these processes, Willis provocatively emphasizes the passivity of ordinary people. "It is noticeable that, in discussing the political evolution of the Maghreb ... little mention has been made of the ordinary populations ... [who] were essentially peripheral ... they played little or no role in either the struggles for power or in the construction of the post-independence state - both processes being ... the preserve of the elites" (p. 70). This view may arise from the real deficiency in the existing literature concerning popular participation, but it strikes us as unlikely to reflect the complex reality during the rough-and-tumble grab for power at the local level to fill the vacuum leftby Spain and France.Politics and Power is a refreshingly old-fashioned book. It appears calculated to strike a blow against the post-colonial focus on cultural studies which has dominated campuses in recent decades, culminating in the "marginalization" of diplomatic history. Willis resoundingly reaffirms the value of high politics and grand narrative for area studies. Consider his treatment of the evolution of Maghrebi state structures: the state was traditionally weak under the Ottomans and the Moroccan Sultan; it was the European colonial powers which created functional, modernizing, yet oppressive governance; "the comprehensive and pervasive nature of colonial control meant that its effects would not cease with the withdrawal of the last European troops and administrators" (p. 35); in the post-colonial period, the indigenous French-educated elites inherited, maintained, and buttressed these structures "not just out of necessity but in full consciousness of the fact that the colonial structures had been designed with the specific objective of establishing exclusive political control of the country" (p. …


Sedimentation of opaline skeletons (diatoms, radiolarians) is greatly reduced during the last glacial period in the Santa Barbara basin, compared with the Holocene. The overall pattern is similar to that of the accumulation of organic matter, but differs in detail. Apparently, both silicate and phosphate supply are reduced during glacial time within the basin, which derives its surface waters and thermocline waters from the California Current. The pattern of reduced glacial diatom productivity suggests a decrease in the estuarine aspects of the subarctic North Pacific, as a result of decrease in excess precipitation (which dominates the present situation). Variability is greater in silicate accumulation than in organic matter accumulation. We hypothesize that this difference is due to greater sensitivity of silicate to changes in nutrient enrichment and depletion in subsurface waters, as compared with phosphate.


Named for the combination of the words DJ and Jamming, the DJammer allows its users to manipulate their music using standard DJ techniques as well as interact with others in virtual jam sessions through the exchange and sharing of multiple music streams. In this paper, we describe the evolution of the DJammer including the interactive process and evaluation which led to the latest prototype. This latest prototype allows its users to "touch" their digital music through single-handed manipulation and control. By allowing both creativity and communication with digital music, the DJammer is a new musical instrument which takes the next step in the evolution of portable music players.


Understanding the impact of long-term physiological and environmental stress on the human microbiota and metabolome may be important for the success of space flight. This work is logistically difficult and has a limited number of available participants. Terrestrial analogies present important opportunities to understand changes in the microbiota and metabolome and how this may impact participant health and fitness. Here, we present work from one such analogy: the Transarctic Winter Traverse expedition, which we believe is the first assessment of the microbiota and metabolome from different bodily locations during prolonged environmental and physiological stress. Bacterial load and diversity were significantly higher during the expedition when compared with baseline levels (p < 0.001) in saliva but not stool, and only a single operational taxonomic unit assigned to the Ruminococcaceae family shows significantly altered levels in stool (p < 0.001). Metabolite fingerprints show the maintenance of individual differences across saliva, stool, and plasma samples when analysed using flow infusion electrospray mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Significant activity-associated changes in terms of both bacterial diversity and load are seen in saliva but not in stool, and participant differences in metabolite fingerprints persist across all three sample types.


Abstract. The paper deals with the general presentation of the Urban GEO BIG DATA, a collaborative acentric and distributed Free and Open Source (FOS) platform consisting of several components: local data nodes for data and related service Web deploy; a visualization node for data fruition; a catalog node for data discovery; a CityGML modeler; data-rich viewers based on virtual globes; an INSPIRE metadata management system enriched with quality indicators for each dataset.Three use cases in five Italian cities (Turin, Milan, Padua, Rome, and Naples) are examined: 1) urban mobility; 2) land cover and soil consumption at different resolutions; 3) displacement time series. Besides the case studies, the architecture of the system and its components will be presented.


OBJECT
Endoscopic techniques were introduced 7 years ago for the surgical management of patients with sagittal synostosis. In this study of 139 patients with sagittal synostosis, the authors assessed the efficacy, safety, complications, and outcomes after performing endoscopy-assisted wide-vertex craniectomies with bitemporal and biparietal barrel stave osteotomies.

METHODS
The sample population consisted of a total of 99 boys and 40 girls who ranged in age from 0.4 to 9.2 months (mean 3.6 months). Two small incisions were made near the lambda and vertex. Using endoscopic visualization, wide-vertex craniectomies with bilateral temporal and parietal barrel stave osteotomies were performed. Postoperative treatment included custom-made surlyn cranial orthotic devices for cranial reshaping and maintenance. The mean craniectomy width was 5.4 cm and the length was 10 cm. The overall blood transfusion rate was 9% (two intraoperative and 12 postoperative transfusions). The mean estimated blood loss was 29 ml (range 5-150 ml). The mean preoperative hematocrit was 32%, whereas the postoperative level was 27%. One hundred thirty-two patients were discharged the morning following surgery. The majority of patients did not experience facial swelling, and none suffered postoperative fevers. Anthropometric cephalic index measurements indicated that excellent results were obtained in 87% of the patients (cephalic index > 75); good results in 8.7% (cephalic index 70-75); and poor results in 4.3% (cephalic index > 70). There were no cases of intraoperative death, infection, hemorrhage, or venous sinus injury.

CONCLUSIONS
Analysis of the results indicates that use of the aforedescribed procedure in the early treatment of infants with sagittal synostosis provides excellent outcomes and that the morbidity rate is lower than that associated with traditional cranial vault reconstruction. Detailed anthropometric and radiographic analyses demonstrated that with adequate helmet therapy in our patients normocephaly was achieved and maintained without the need for secondary operations.


An architecture used for input matching in CMOS low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) is investigated in this paper. In the proposed architecture, gate and source inductors, which are essential in the traditional source inductive degeneration CMOS LNAs, are either reduced or removed. The architecture is finally verified by a narrow-band LNA and a wide-band LNA operating at 2.4-2.5 and 5.1-5.9 GHz, respectively. The narrow-band LNA has measured power gain of 24-dB, noise figure (NF) of 2.6-2.8 dB, and power consumption of 15 mW. The wide-band LNA provides 22.6-24.6-dB power gain and 2.85-3.5-dB NF while drawing 6 mA current from a 1.5-V voltage supply. Compared with their traditional counterparts, the proposed LNAs consume less chip area and present better gain performance.


Recent world events are forcing us to reconsider the ways in which the energy needs of the United States can and should be met. In regards to renewable energy options in general, the public response to the nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant will likely stymie President Barack Obama's call for an increase in our reliance on nuclear energy. Additionally, the increasing political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa is once again reminding us that solutions must be found to mitigate our heavy reliance on foreign-produced oil. Newly emerging liquid biofuelsnot only hold the promise of enhancing U.S. energy se urity in a sustainable fashion, but also provide the potential to mitigate climatechanging greenhouse gas emissions and serve as a driver for economic development. Nevertheless, significant regulatory hurdles to their successful commercialization do exist.In this Article, we provide a thorough normative analysis of the two main regulatory schemes incentivizing and governing the commercialization of biofuel-related technological innovations. We urge that regulatory innovation is needed to keep pace with these technological innovations and, in doing so, we build upon the established principles that regulatory burdens should not outweigh the harms they are intended to mitigate, and that regulatory innovation is often called for to efficiently capture the social value of regulated activities. Next, we apply these insights via a detailed case study that focuses on biobutanol, an emerging biofuel with the potential to act as a socially optimal alternative to petroleum-based transportation fuels. This biobutanol case study describes and elaborates not only on the effects of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, but also on the lawful blending limits imposed by the Clean Air Act's regulatory framework for the commercialization of new fuels and fuel additives. After analyzing these frameworks, we provide suggestions for distinct ways in which different forms of regulatory innovation will help mitigate unjustified regulatory hurdles to the commercialization of biofuel-based technological innovations and allow us to capture more efficiently their inherent social value. Our analysis and prescriptions also find resonance in the context of other newly emerging fuels and bioenergy developments.


Every impulse to protect the weak and help the infirm is noble. The impulse to use the means at our disposal to liberate a people from a government that poses no imminent or prospective threat to us, but is so despotic, violent, and vicious that those suffering under it cannot shake it off, is also noble. The action that gives effect to that impulse may sometimes be internationally lawful. It may sometimes be feasible. It is often—but not always— misconceived.


Purpose In our modern society, many touch screen applications require hand-eye coordination to associate an icon with its specific contextual unit on phones, on computers, or in public transport. We assessed the ability of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to explore scenes and to associate a target (animal or object) with a unique congruent scene (e.g., to match a fish with the sea) presented between three other distractors on a touch screen computer. Methods Twenty-four patients with AMD (64 to 90 years) with best-corrected visual acuity between 20/40 and 20/400 as well as 17 age-matched (60 to 94 years) and 15 young (22 to 34 years) participants with normal visual acuity had to match a target with a congruent scene by moving their index finger on a 22-in touch screen. Results Patients were as accurate (98.7% correct responses) as the age-matched control (98.9% correct responses) and young participants (99.3% correct responses) at performing the task. The duration of exploration was significantly longer for the AMD patients (mean, 4.13 seconds) compared with the age-matched group (mean, 2.96 seconds). The young participants were also significantly faster than the old group (mean, 0.93 seconds). The movement parameters of the older participants (patients and old control subjects) were affected compared with the young; the peak speed decreased (−8 cm/s) and the movement duration increased (+0.9 seconds) with age compared with the young group. Conclusions People with AMD are able to perform a contextual association task on a touch screen with high accuracy. The AMD patients were specifically affected in the "exploration" phase; their accuracy and movement parameters did not differ from the old control group. Our study suggests that the decline associated with AMD is more focused on the duration of exploration than on movement parameters in touch screen use.


REAL-TIME FORWARD URBAN ENVIRONMENT PERCEPTION FOR AN AUTONOMOUS GROUND VEHICLE USING COMPUTER VISION AND LIDAR Christopher R. Greco Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Master of Science The field of autonomous vehicle research is growing rapidly. The Congressional mandate for the military to use unmanned vehicles has, in large part, sparked this growth. In conjunction with this mandate, DARPA sponsored the Urban Challenge, a competition to create fully autonomous vehicles that can operate in urban settings. An extremely important feature of autonomous vehicles, especially in urban locations, is their ability to perceive their environment. The research presented in this thesis is directed toward providing an autonomous vehicle with real-time data that efficiently and compactly represents its forward environment as it navigates an urban area. The information extracted from the environment for this application consists of stop line locations, lane information, and obstacle locations, using a single camera and LIDAR scanner. A road/non-road binary mask is first segmented. From the road information in the mask, the current traveling lane of the vehicle is detected using a minimum distance transform and tracked between frames. The stop lines and obstacles are detected from the non-road information in the mask. Stop lines are detected using a variation of vertical profiling, and obstacles are detected using shape descriptors. A laser rangefinder is used in conjunction with the camera in a primitive form of sensor fusion to create a list of obstacles in the forward environment. Obstacle boundaries, lane points, and stop line centers are then translated from image coordinates to UTM coordinates using a homography transform created during the camera calibration procedure. A novel system for rapid camera calibration was also implemented. Algorithms investigated during the development phase of the project are included in the text for the purposes of explaining design decisions and providing direction to researchers who will continue the work in this field. The results were promising, performing the tasks fairly accurately at a rate of about 20 frames per second, using an Intel Core2 Duo processor with 2 GB RAM.


Meteor detection and analysis is an essential topic in the field of astronomy. In this paper, a high-sensitivity and high-time-resolution imaging device for the detection of faint meteoric events is presented. The instrument is based on a fast CCD camera and an image intensifier. Two such instruments form a double-station observation network. The MAIA (Meteor Automatic Imager and Analyzer) system has been in continuous operation since 2013 and has successfully captured hundreds of meteors belonging to different meteor showers, as well as sporadic meteors. A data processing pipeline for the efficient processing and evaluation of the massive amount of video sequences is also introduced in this paper.


Atomically thin MoS2 has generated intense interest for emerging electronics applications. Its twodimensional nature and potential for low-power electronics are particularly appealing for space-bound electronics, motivating the need for a fundamental understanding of MoS2 electronic device response to the space radiation environment. In this Letter, we quantify the response of MoS2 field-effect transistors (FETs) to vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) total ionizing dose (TID) radiation. Single-layer (SL) and multilayer (ML) MoS2 FETs are compared to identify differences that arise from thickness and band structure variations. The measured evolution of the FET transport properties are leveraged to identify the nature of VUV-induced trapped charge, isolating the effects of the interface and bulk oxide dielectric. In both the SL and ML cases, oxide trapped holes compete with interface trapped electrons, exhibiting an overall shift toward negative gate bias. Raman spectroscopy shows no variation in the MoS2 signatures as a result of VUV exposure, eliminating significant crystalline damage or oxidation as possible radiation degradation mechanisms. Overall, this work presents avenues for achieving radiation-hard MoS2 devices through dielectric engineering that reduces oxide and interface trapped charge.


A public library service is part ot adult education, but it is not the whole of it. This perfectly simple fact is so often overlooked by the extreme protagonists of two schools of thought in modern librarianship. The one, in its enthusiasm, embracing in its library policy everything from providing a book service to organising lectures, discussion groups, plays, cinema shows, musical recitals, and even the inevitable and unfortunate "brains trusts"; the other rigorously excluding everything but an efficient book service. That the former often works its extension wonders with a woefully inadequate book stock, hoping, no doubt, to whip up interest and support locally; and that the other often consciously narrows its definition of book "service" to conserve resources for its primary function, we can readily appreciate. But, after allowing for local conditions, which have a strong influence on the formulation of any intelligent library policy, we often feel that on either side there is a surprising failure to ...


The amino acid leucine is efficiently used by the trypanosomatid Leishmania mexicana for sterol biosynthesis. The incubation of [2-13C]leucine withL. mexicana promastigotes in the presence of ketoconazole gave 14α-methylergosta-8,24(241)-3β-ol as the major sterol, which was shown by mass spectrometry to contain up to six atoms of 13C per molecule. 13C NMR analysis of the 14α-methylergosta-8,24(241)-3β-ol revealed that it was labeled in only six positions: C-2, C-6, C-11, C-12, C-16, and C-23. This established that the leucine skeleton is incorporated intact into the isoprenoid pathway leading to sterol; it is not converted first to acetyl-CoA, as in animals and plants, with utilization of the acetyl-CoA to regenerate 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA). An inhibitor of HMG-CoA synthase (L-659,699) blocked the incorporation of [1-14C]acetate into sterol but had no inhibitory effect on [U-14C]leucine incorporation. The HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin inhibited promastigote growth and [U-14C]leucine incorporation into sterol. The addition of unlabeled mevalonic acid (MVA) overcame the lovastatin inhibition of growth and also diluted the incorporation of [1-14C]leucine into sterol. These results are compatible with two routes by which the leucine skeleton may enter intact into the isoprenoid pathway. The catabolism of leucine could generate HMG-CoA that is then directly reduced to MVA for incorporation into sterol. Alternatively, a compound produced as an intermediate in leucine breakdown to HMG-CoA (e.g. dimethylcrotonyl-CoA) could be directly reduced to produce an isoprene alcohol followed by phosphorylation to enter the isoprenoid pathway post-MVA.


The emerging Web service technology has enabled the development of Internet-based applications that integrate distributed and heterogeneous systems and processes, which are owned by different organizations. However, while Web services are rapidly becoming a fundamental paradigm for the development of complex Web applications, several security issues still need to be addressed. Among the various open issues concerning security, an important issue is represented by the development of suitable access control models, able to restrict access to Web services to authorized users. We present an innovative access control model for Web services. The model is characterized by a number of key features, including identity attributes and service negotiation capabilities. We also discuss an architecture implementing the model and we propose the use of a certificate scheme able to support the exchange and verification of subject attributes.


Multicarrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC DS-CDMA) is an attractive technique for achieving high data rate transmission. This is valid regardless of whether or not the potentially large peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is an important factor for its application. On the other hand, code select CDMA (CS-CDMA) is an attractive technique with constant amplitude transmission of multicode signal regardless of subchannels. This is achieved by introducing a code select method. In this paper, we propose a new multiple access scheme based on the combination of MC DS-CDMA and CS-CDMA. The proposed scheme, which we call MC CS-CDMA, includes as special cases the subclasses of MC DS-CDMA and CS-CDMA. This paper investigates the performance of these systems over a multipath frequency selective fading channel using a RAKE receiver with maximal ratio combiner. In addition, the PAPR of the proposed system is compared with that of both MC DS-CDMA and CS-CDMA. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system provides better PAPR reduction than MC DS-CDMA, at the expense of the complexity of the receiver and the number of available users. The numerical result demonstrates that the proposed system has better performance than MC DS-CDMA due to the increased processing gain and time diversity gain.


Inflammatory cytokines may affect cerebral circulation under pathological conditions. Responses of cerebral pial arterioles to one such cytokine, interleukin (IL)-1 beta and its inhibitor [soluble IL-1 receptor (sIL-1R)] were examined in anesthetized newborn pigs using closed cranial windows. Levels of prostanoids and cyclic nucleotides in periarachnoid cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) were measured. To examine the structure-activity relationship of the parent IL-1 beta molecule, two IL-1 beta fragments with amino acid sequences of 187-204 [IL-1 beta-(187-204)] and 208-240 [IL-1 beta-(208-240)] were tested for their effects on pial arterioles. Diameter changes of pial arterioles were sequentially recorded every 5 min for 30 min after topical application of IL-1 peptides. CSF was sampled at the end of the 30 min. IL-1 beta dose dependently induced arteriolar dilation and increased prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), 6-keto-PGF1 alpha adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP), and guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP). Intravenous indomethacin blocked the IL-1 beta-induced vasodilation, the increased prostanoids, and the increased cAMP, but not the increased cGMP. Neither heat-inactivated IL-1 beta nor IL-1 beta vehicle affected arteriolar diameter or CSF levels of prostanoids. The sIL-1R blocked the IL-1 beta-induced vasodilation and the increased CSF prostanoids. IL-1 beta-(208-240) also induced pial arteriolar dilation; however, its vasodilatory potency was 1,000 times less than that of the whole IL-1 beta molecule. IL-1 beta-(187-204) did not induce pial arteriolar dilation even when its dose was increased to the level of IL-1 beta-(208-240). These results suggest that IL-1 beta, through the activation of membrane-bound IL-1 beta receptors, induces pial arteriolar dilation via mechanisms that involve prostanoids and cyclic nucleotides. The results also indicate that the 208-240 amino acid sequence of IL-1 beta has a sequence-specific physiological function.


Two-mode networks are a natural representation for many kinds of relational data. These networks are bipartite graphs consisting of two distinct sets ("modes") of entities. For example, one can model multiple recipient email data as a two-mode network of (a) individuals and (b) the emails that they send or receive. In this work we present a statistical model for two-mode network data which posits that individuals belong to latent sets and that the members of a particular set tend to co-appear. We show how to infer these latent sets from observed data using a Markov chain Monte Carlo inference algorithm. We apply the model to the Enron email corpus, using it to discover interpretable latent structure as well as evaluating its predictive accuracy on a missing data task. Extensions to the model are discussed that incorporate additional side information such as the email's sender or text content, further improving the accuracy of the model.


Protein complexes perform an array of crucial cellular functions. Elucidating their non-covalent interactions and dynamics is paramount for understanding the role of complexes in biological systems. While the direct characterization of biomolecular assemblies has become increasingly important in recent years, native fractionation techniques that are compatible with downstream analysis techniques, including mass spectrometry, are necessary to further expand these studies. Nevertheless, the field lacks a high-throughput, wide-range, high-recovery separation method for native protein assemblies. Here, we present clear native gel-eluted liquid fraction entrapment electrophoresis (CN-GELFrEE), which is a novel separation modality for non-covalent protein assemblies. CN-GELFrEE separation performance was demonstrated by fractionating complexes extracted from mouse heart. Fractions were collected over 2 hr and displayed discrete bands ranging from ~30 to 500 kDa. A consistent pattern of increasing molecular weight bandwidths was observed, each ranging ~100 kDa. Further, subsequent reanalysis of native fractions via SDS-PAGE showed molecular-weight shifts consistent with the denaturation of protein complexes. Therefore, CN-GELFrEE was proved to offer the ability to perform high-resolution and high-recovery native separations on protein complexes from a large molecular weight range, providing fractions that are compatible with downstream protein analyses.


A 13-year assessment has been made of the effectiveness of a monthly drug treatment programme for the control of tapeworms in dogs in order to prevent hydatidosis (Echinococcus granulosus) and cysticercosis (Taenia hydatigena and T. ovis) in sheep. The age-specific prevalence of T. hydatigena in lambs was used as the principal indicator. The trial was carried out in the Styx Valley of the Maniototo Plain in the South Island of New Zealand.Over an 8-year period dogs were treated monthly with bunamidine hydrochloride at about 25 mg/kg with little effect on the prevalence of T. hydatigena in lambs. The addition of niclosamide at 50 mg/kg for 1 year also had little effect. Eggs appeared to survive from one season to the next. Those shed prior to the lamb-rearing season gave rise to endemic-type patterns; whereas patent infections occurring during this period rapidly gave rise to an epidemic-type pattern or a "cysticercosis storm". In this 9-year period there were 16 "cysticercosis storms" and all susceptible lambs were infected. These storms did not necessarily give rise to a similar prevalence on neighbouring farms, but may have contributed to the overall infective pattern. A similar situation occurred in the first year that nitroscanate at 100 mg/kg was introduced. During this 10-year period, arecoline surveillance of the dog population was undertaken in the remainder of the county and many dogs were found to harbour tapeworms. Both resident and introduced dogs may have contributed to the infective patterns in the Styx Valley.Treatment with nitroscanate was continued monthly in the Styx Valley and niclosamide was used in the remainder of the County for a further 3 years. There was a marked reduction in the age-specific prevalence and lambs on many farms were free from T. hydatigena at slaughter. However, one "breakdown" occurred and this was almost certainly autochthonous.Comparisons with an earlier period when arecoline surveillance was used in the Styx Valley, indicate that the present evidence favours a drug-orientated treatment programme of the definitive host for the control of cysticercosis. However, "breakdowns" caused by either autochthonous or itinerant sources have profound effects, since they involve all susceptible age-cohorts including those that have never been infected and those that have lost the immunity induced by an earlier infection.


Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus (HPAIV) continues to be a candidate of a further influenza virus pandemic. Egypt is the country worst affected by human cases of HPAIV H5N1 infection in 2009. Increased infection of preschool children and decreased mortality rates suggested subtle changes in the epidemiology of the infection. Among other factors, the evolution of several conspicuous viral genetic markers in the HA and NA genes of HPAIV H5N1 viruses of human cases from Egypt and their putative influence on biological virus characteristics described here may contribute to this situation.


Recent reports of randomised trials (ABSORB II, ABSORB Japan and ABSORB China) have raised questions on the "non" non-inferiority of the acute and long-term performance of the Absorb bioresorbable scaffold (BRS) when compared to the XIENCE stent (both Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA). Furthermore, very late scaffold thrombosis has been perceived as a possible new unexpected "enemy" – unexpected because thrombosis occurred at a moment when the scaffold was expected to have disappeared.

The three main players in this new debate are: the patient/lesion, the device, and the interventionalist. The selection of the patient/lesion might be inappropriate, the device may have inherent deficiencies and the operator may have used the device inappropriately. If the matter were not of paramount importance for the wellbeing of our patients and were not a topic that demands our utmost medical attention, we would have rephrased the title of a past editorial, "Who was thrombogenic, the device, the doctor…or the patient?".

The format of the present commentary is neither an editorial nor a review, but should be considered as the personal views of two clinical scientists who have been involved in the pioneering investigations of this device and have historical and current insights into the field.


ABSTRACT This study evaluated the pharmacokinetics of cefepime in 36 patients with different levels of renal function. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters were calculated using samples obtained at steady state. Patients with creatinine clearance (CLCR) of >100 ml/min had more rapid clearance (CL) and a lower minimum concentration in serum (Cmin). Cmin in this group was found to be 3.3 ± 3.6 mg/liter (mean and standard deviation), compared to 19.5 ± 21.5 mg/liter in patients with a CLCR of between 60 and 100 ml/min (P = 0.025) and 14.0 ± 11.5 mg/liter in patients with a CLCR of <60 ml/min (P = 0.009). Patient data were also analyzed by the nonparametric expectation maximization method and Bayesian forecasting. The median volume of distribution in the central compartment was 27.08 liters. CL and CLCR were highly correlated (P = 0.00033) according to the equation CL= 0.324 liters/h + (0.0551 × CLCR). The median rate constants from the central compartment to the peripheral compartment and from the peripheral compartment to the central compartment were 12.58 and 41.09 h−1, respectively. The time-concentration profiles for 1,000 patients (CLCRs, 120, 60, and 30 ml/min) each receiving various dosing regimens were simulated by using Monte Carlo simulations. Standard dosing resulted in a Cmin that was greater than or equal to the MIC in more than 80% of the simulated profiles with MICs ≤2 mg/liter. Current dosing recommendations may be suboptimal for monotherapy of infections due to less susceptible pathogens (e.g., those for which MICs are ≥4 mg/liter), particularly when CLCR exceeds 120 ml/min.


Layered AIIIBVI chalcogenides represent an interesting class semiconductors, where most of adopting 2D structures. Unlike the typical sandwiched structure of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), layered AIIIBVI chalcogenides like InSe and GaSe are composed of X−M−M−X motif where M is gallium/indium and X is sulfur/selenium/tellurium. The exception is InS, which adopt an orthorhombic 3D structure. Herein, we studied and compared the inherent electrochemical properties as well as the electrocatalytic performances towards hydrogen evolution (HER), oxygen evolution (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of indium monochalcogenides (InS, InSe and InTe). Inherent electrochemistry studies in phosphate buffered saline electrolyte showed that InS did not exhibit any inherent electrochemical signals when compared to bare glassy carbon electrode. However, InSe showed a reduction peak at −1.6 V while InTe had an oxidation peak at 0.2 V. The heterogeneous electron transfer (HET) rates of indium monochalcogenides were measured with [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− redox probe using cyclic voltammetry (vs. Ag/AgCl) at the scan rate of 100 mV s−1. It was found that InTe exhibited the best electrochemical performance with the fastest HET rate with highest kobs0 obtained (3.7×10−3 cm s−1). InS showed the best electrocatalytic performance for HER with the lowest overpotential value of 0.92 V at current density of −10 mA cm−2. However, the performances of indium monochalcogenides were almost comparable to that of bare glassy carbon electrode and do not exhibit any improvements in electrocatalytic capabilities. This study provides insights into the electrochemical properties and electrocatalytic performances of layered AIIIBVI indium monochalcogenides which would influence potential applications.


The consumption of an intoxicating dose of alcohol increases the likelihood of violent behaviour. Three possible mechanisms involving potentiation, inhibition, and disorganization of behaviour are presented. The manner in which these three effects may be mediated by serotonergic activity is briefly discussed. A more extensive review of the serotonin-aggression relationship is then presented.


The National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) is a high fidelity simulator developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and located at the University of Iowa. The NADS is a tool that allows fundamental research into the complex interaction between driver, vehicle, and roadway. To facilitate that goal, the NADS has been designed as a shared-use facility whose operating model allows researchers from laboratories, academia, and industry to design and test simulation scenarios on consumer class personal computers before using them on the NADS. A set of software components were designed and implemented to allow this off-line specification of scenarios. These software components are cumulatively referred to as Scenario Definition and Control (SDC). This paper overviews the NADS SDC software and how it can be used for developing driving simulation scenarios through the use of the Interactive Scenario Authoring Tool (ISAT).


Introduction: The bone marrow (BM) microenvironment plays an important role in multiple myeloma (MM). The BM niche is composed of multiple cell types including macrophages. Macrophages polarize into pro-inflammatory macrophage-1 (M1) or alternative M2 states that promote tumor growth and metastasis. We evaluated the proportion of M2 macrophages in BM from MM pts either showing complete response (CR) or progressive disease (PD), the effects of MM cells on M1 and M2 differentiation, and the role of Trib1 in M2 differentiation in MM BM. Since the JAK-STAT signaling pathway plays key roles in macrophages, we also evaluated the effects of the JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib (RUX) on M2 polarization in MM.

Methods: Using immunofluorescence (IFC), we determined the proportion of M1 and M2 macrophages in BM biopsies and aspirates from MM pts with PD or CR. The BM biopsy samples were stained with antibodies directed against human iNOS and CD86 for M1 and arginase 1(ARG1) and CD36 for M2 cells. MM BM aspirates were also examined using flow cytometric analysis (FCA). Human monocytes isolated from healthy subjects or the THP1 monocyte cell line were co-cultured with MM cell lines (RPMI8226 and U266) or primary MM tumor cells. The effects of RUX at low concentrations (IC20) on M2 polarization were determined. The percentages of M1 and M2 macrophages were determined using FCA. Total RNA was extracted from monocytes. Quantitative PCR was measured with TaqMan technology. For the in vivo studies, human MM tumors (LAGκ-2) were surgically implanted into the left superficial gluteal muscle of SCID mice and tumor volume measured on a weekly basis.

Results: The proportion of M2 macrophages (CD36+/ARG1+) was markedly increased in BM biopsies or mononuclear cells from MM pts with PD compared with those in CR using IFC staining. FCA also showed the percentage of M2 macrophages in BM was significantly increased in MM pts with PD (n=25) compared to those in CR (n=10; P=0.005) whereas there was no difference in the percentage of M1 (CD86+/iNOS+) macrophages in BM derived from MM pts with PD compared to those in CR. Trib1 gene mRNA levels were higher among pts with PD compared to those in CR whereas the gene expression of Trib2 and Trib3 was not different. Next, we co-cultured MM cell lines (U266) or fresh MM BMMCs with purified healthy human monocytes for one week. The percentage of M2 cells markedly increased and the proportion of M1 cells decreased. Trib1 gene expression increased during co-culture whereas there was no change in expression of the other two Tribs. When direct cell-to-cell contact occurred between the MM tumor cells and the monocytes, the percentage of M2 macrophages markedly increased. We investigated the effects of the JAK2 inhibitor RUX on M2 differentiation induced with MM tumor cells. After exposure to a low concentration of RUX, the percentage of M2 cells decreased when the monocytes were co-cultured with MM tumor cells. Trib1 gene expression of the monocytes treated with RUX was also notably reduced compared with cells not treated with the JAK2 inhibitor. Using our human MM xenograft model LAGκ-2, RUX (1.5mg/kg) reduced tumor growth and decreased the proportion of M2 macrophages in the tumor tissue of MM tumor-bearing SCID mice.

Conclusion: M2 cells are present at high levels in BM derived from MM pts with PD compared to those in CR, MM cells induce monocytes to become M2 macrophages and increase Trib1 gene expression. This induces monocyte differentiation into M2 macrophages that support MM tumor cell growth.. Notably, the JAK2 inhibitor RUX inhibits both M2 macrophage polarization and Trib1 gene expression in MM, and reduces tumor growth in SCID mice bearing human MM. These results suggest that RUX may be effective for treating MM pts.

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


BACKGROUND Because patients with advanced cancer live longer, the number of patients with the sequelae of metastatic spine disease has increased. Pathologic instability of the mobile spine has been classified, and minimally invasive surgery has been well described. However, pathologic sacral instability is uncommon and often underdiagnosed. Although most sacral fractures are stable, patients with unstable U- or H-type fractures have spinopelvic dissociation and can experience progressive pain, sacral kyphosis, and neurological injury. Open lumbopelvic fusion carries a high perioperative risk for this patient population, which has often been previously radiated and is medically frail. The authors investigated the utility and safety of percutaneous lumbopelvic fixation, as previously described for traumatic spinopelvic dissociation, in the oncological setting. The authors retrospectively reviewed five consecutive patients with unstable pathologic sacral fractures who had undergone percutaneous lumbopelvic fixation after conservative management failed. OBSERVATIONS Patients experienced significant improvement between pre- and postoperative visual analog scale scores (9.2 and 1.6, respectively) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group grades (median 3 and 1, respectively). All patients were independently ambulatory at the final follow-up. Sagittal alignment remained stable in four patients and worsened in one. There were no major medical or surgical complications. LESSONS Percutaneous lumbopelvic fixation shows promising results for palliation, durability, and safety for pathologic sacropelvic instability.


In this article, we propose a serial concatenated single differential space-time (SDST) coded OFDM systems, in which blind SDST coding is serially concatenated with convolutional coding. The OFDM is incorporated for maintaining satisfactory performance in both time and frequency selective fading channels at low SNR. The encoding and iterative decoding processes are thoroughly studied and the improved performance is demonstrated via simulations.


Transparent poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/TiO_2 nanocomposites have been prepared by solution mixing PMMA with organically soluble titania xerogel. The organically soluble titania xerogel in the form of amorphous phase has been synthesized via a simple sol-gel method, involving hydrolysis of tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and gelation. The obtained PMMA/TiO_2 nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermogravimetry (TG) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy. The results showed that the interaction between titania nanoparticles and PMMA macromolecular chains led to a homogeneous dispersion of TiO_2 in PMMA matrix. The resulting PMMA/TiO_2 nanocomposites showed improved thermal stability, high transparency and high UV-shielding efficiency with a small amount of titania xerogel (≤3.0 wt %). The present work is of interest for developing a series of transparent UV-shielding nanocomposites.


Makan Delrahim, the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the U.S. Department of Justice, delivered the keynote address at the LeadershIP Conference on IP, Antitrust, and Innovation Policy, which was co-sponsored by Competition Policy International. Following up on that discussion, Mr. Delrahim graciously agreed to answer the following questions posed by Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg.


MCTPs exhibit diverse and overlapping patterns of gene expression and protein localization, and might be involved in Arabidopsis development with potential functional divergence or redundancy. Multiple C2 domain and transmembrane region proteins (MCTPs) are evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotic organisms and may function as signaling molecules that mediate trafficking of other regulators. Although there are a large number of MCTPs found in the plant lineage, biological information on most plant MCTPs remains unknown. Here, we report systematic characterization of 16 members in the entire Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) MCTP family. Using GUS and GFP reporter assays, we reveal their distinct or overlapping patterns of gene expression and protein localization in developing Arabidopsis plants and Nicotiana benthamiana leaf epidermal cells. We further analyze in vivo effects of three C2 domains on the regulatory role of MCTP1 (FTIP1) in flowering time control in Arabidopsis, demonstrating that these C2 domains may be cooperative to mediate FTIP1 function during the floral transition. Through examining all available T-DNA insertional mutants of Arabidopsis MCTPs, we further reveal that mctp6-1 significantly enhances the late-flowering phenotype of ftip1-1 possibly through affecting FLOWERING LOCUS T in different manners, exemplifying that different MCTPs additively regulate a specific plant developmental process. Taken together, our results suggest functional divergence or redundancy of MCTP members in Arabidopsis and provide a community resource for further understanding various MCTP functions in plant development.


Video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) is becoming the standard of practice in the surgical treatment of lung cancer (1). French et al . made an important contribution having reported an interesting experience of transition from multiple ports to single port VATS for anatomic pulmonary resection (2), and they conclude that patient safety and oncologic quality are preserved during the transition period.