22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), also known as velocardiofacial syndrome, is the most frequent known interstitial deletion found in humans. It is associated with high rates of psychiatric disorder and, in particular, schizophrenia (approximately 30%) and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The 22q11.2 region is rich in genes coding for brain development, and consequently, deletion of 22q11.2 provides a useful neurodevelopmental model for understanding the evolution of psychotic disorders in both 22q11.2DS and the nondeleted general population. 22q11.2DS is also associated with significant structural and functional neuroanatomical abnormalities, which underlie the high rates of psychosis seen in affected individuals. Further research is currently underway to determine the cognitive, genetic and neuroanatomical correlates of psychosis seen in the disorder.

Key Concepts:

22q11.2DS provides for a genetic and neurodevelopmental model for understanding psychotic disorder seen not only with the syndrome but can also be extrapolated to the general nondeleted population.

Although 22q11.2DS is associated with marked phenotypic variability, psychiatric disorder and, in particular, schizophrenia-spectrum disorders occur in approximately 30% of deleted individuals.

Schizophrenia-spectrum disorders arise as prodromal or subthreshold psychotic symptoms during childhood and adolescence followed by subsequent expression during adulthood where it is largely indistinguishable from the psychosis seen in the nondeleted population.

Apart from being the monozygotic co-twin of a proband with psychosis or being the offspring of parents with schizophrenia, 22q11.2 deletion is the highest known risk factor for the development of schizophrenia.

Keywords:

VCFS;
velocardiofacial syndrome;
schizophrenia;
chromosome 22q11;
psychosis;
22q11DS


"Studying Roman Law "is an introductory guide aimed at sixth-formers, students and those with a general interest wishing to obtain a basic overview of Roman private law during the first three centuries of the Common Era. It is not meant to be a replacement for more comprehensive and technical manuals on Roman law, but should rather be seen as introductory reading. Written in non-specialist language, it contains a basic overview of the sources of Roman private law and a guide to their use together with a survey of the main areas of the law using primary sources in translation. It also explains the different contexts in which these rules arose and operated as well as the mechanisms by which they were enforced against the backdrop of one of the most sophisticated and influential legal systems of the ancient world.


A guide that discusses Microsoft Excel uses at various levels and links to sample files for several workshops offered by Penn Libraries.


The inhibitory effects of mafosfamide lysine, ASTA-Z 7654 (ASTA-Z) and etoposide, (VP16-213) on human leukemic progenitor cells (AML-CFU) were studied using a clonogenic assay. AML-CFU were shown to be less sensitive than human promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60) to the toxic effects of these two drugs. The mean log kill obtained for the AML-CFU from 12 patients was only 0.95 and 0.93 for 50 micrograms/ml ASTA-Z and etoposide respectively. For normal progenitor cells (CFU-GM) the maximum log kill increased to 2 log at 50 micrograms/ml ASTA-Z or etoposide and for HL-60 cells more than 4 log kill values were obtained for the same drug concentrations. When the two drugs were used in combination the log kill value increased to 1.75 for AML-CFU. Furthermore, in addition to classic incubation parameters (temperature, cell concentration, red blood cell contamination and time) the treatment efficiency was influenced by the incubation sequence of the two drugs. When ASTA-Z and etoposide were incubated together (Z/VP) or etoposide prior to ASTA-Z (VP + Z) log kill values for drug concentrations of 20 and 50 micrograms/ml were 0.72 and 1.41 respectively. However, when cells were incubated with ASTA-Z prior to etoposide (Z + VP) values of 1.1 and 1.75 were obtained for drug concentrations of 20 and 50 micrograms/ml respectively (p less than or equal to 0.05 between Z + VP and the two other sequences).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


An enzyme-linked immunosorbent sandwich assay (ELISA) has been developed to detect and quantify both the K88+ fimbrial antigen and the concentration of bacterial cells in fecal and other samples using anti-fimbrial chicken egg-yolk and anti-fimbrial rabbit serum antibodies. The assay has a sensitivity of 40 ng ml−1 for K88+ fimbrial antigen and 107 CFU ml−1 for intact cells and cell homogenate. The inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation (CV) for intact cells, homogenates, and fimbrial antigens were similar, suggesting that reproducible results can be obtained with any of the three preparations. In all cases the CV increased with decreasing concentration of the antigen, especially when very low concentrations of antigen were used. Fimbrial antigens had lower CV (values ranged from 2 to 37%, depending on its concentration) than standards prepared from either whole cells or homogenized cells (values ranged from 1 to 67%). The correlation between the actual number of cells as counted and the number as estimated from the ELISA using the amount of fimbrial antigen was r = 0.98, P < 0.001. The anti-K88+ polyclonal antibodies from chicken serum and egg yolk had little or no cross-reactivity with K99, 987P ETEC. The correlation (r) between the fecal score for diarrhea and the number of E coli in the fecal swab was high, r = 0.80 (n = 64, P < 0.0001). The assay is sensitive and specific and provides a good estimate of the amount of fimbrial protein or the number of K88+ ETEC in the sample.

© 1999 Society of Chemical Industry


A series of sixteen polyhydroxylated trans-restricted 2-arylcinnamic acid analogues 3a–p were synthesized through a one-pot reaction between homophthalic anhydrides and various aromatic aldehydes, followed by treatment with BBr3. The structure of the newly synthesized compounds was confirmed by spectroscopic methods and the configuration around the double bond was unequivocally estimated by means of gated decoupling 13C-NMR spectra. It was shown that the trans-cinnamic acid fragment incorporated into the target compounds' structure ensures the cis-configuration of the stilbene backbone and prevents further isomerization along the carbon–carbon double bond. The antioxidant activity of compounds 3a–p was measured against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH●), hydroxyl (OH●) and superoxide (O2●▬) radicals. The results obtained showed that the tested compounds possess higher activities than natural antioxidants such as protocatechuic acid, caffeic acid and gallic acid. Moreover, it was shown that a combination of two different and independently acting fragments of well-known pharmacological profiles into one covalently bonded hybrid molecule evoke a synergistic effect resulting in higher than expected activity. To rationalize the apparent antioxidant activity and to establish the mechanism of action, a SAR analysis and DFT quantum chemical computations were also performed.


This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the effects of spatial heterogeneity of runoff generation on the scaling behavior of runoff timing responses. A previous modeling study on the Illinois River Basin in Oklahoma had revealed a systematic spatial trend in the relative dominance of different runoff generation mechanisms, attributable to corresponding systematic trends in landscape properties. Considering the differences in the timing of hillslope responses between the different runoff mechanisms, this paper explores their impacts on the catchment‐scale runoff routing responses, including how they change with spatial scale. For this purpose we utilize a distributed, physically based hydrological model, with a fully hydraulic stream network routing component. The model is used to generate instantaneous response functions (IRF) for nested catchments of a range of sizes along the river network and quantitative measures of their shape, e.g., peak and time to peak. In order to separate the effects of soil heterogeneity from those due to basin geomorphology, the model simulations are carried out for three hypothetical cases that make assumptions regarding landscape properties (uniform, a systematic trend, and heterogeneity plus the trend), repeating these simulations under wet and dry antecedent conditions. The simulations produced expected and also surprising results. The power law relationship between the peak of the IRF and drainage area is shown to be flatter under wet conditions than under dry conditions, even though the (faster) saturation excess mechanism is more dominant under wet conditions. This result appears to be caused by partial area runoff generation: under wet conditions, the fraction of saturation area is about 30%, while under dry conditions it is less than 10% for the same input of rainfall. This means travel times associated with overland flow (which mostly contributes to the peak and time to peak) are, in fact, longer during wet conditions than during dry conditions. The power law relationship between peak and drainage area also exhibits a scaling break at around 1000 km2, which can be shown to be related to the peculiar geomorphology of the catchment.


An efficient additive-free manganese-catalyzed hydrogenation of alkenes to alkanes with molecular hydrogen is described. This reaction is environmentally benign and atom economic, implementing an inexpensive, earth abundant non-precious metal catalyst. The most efficient pre-catalyst is the bench-stable alkyl bisphosphine Mn(I) complex fac-[Mn(dippe)(CO)3(CH2CH2CH3)]. The catalytic process is initiated by migratory insertion of a CO ligand into the Mn-alkyl bond to yield an acyl intermediate which undergoes rapid hydrogenolysis to form the active 16e Mn(I) hydride catalyst [Mn(dippe)(CO)2(H)]. A range of mono- and disubstituted alkenes were efficiently converted into alkanes in good to excellent yields. The hydrogenation of 1-alkenes and 1,1-disubstituted alkenes proceeds at 25 oC, while 1,2-disubstituted alkenes require a reaction temperature of 60oC. In all cases, a catalyst loading of 2 mol % and a hydrogen pressure of 50 bar was applied. A mechanism based on DFT calculations is presented.


In this paper the considered period was from the Roman siege of Nesactium in 178. B. C. to the final conquests in the great pannonian - dalmatian uprising and the capture of the fortress Andetrium in 9. A. D. Events and military actions have been followed in the area of Illyricum, the historical area which is not very easy to describe because of its constant growth and transformation throughout history. Primary goal of this paper was to analyze, systematize and quantify news about Roman siege warfare and siege tactics in this area, based on Greek and Roman historical narratives, supported by some archaeological findings. The paper is consisted of foreword and introduction, followed by six consecutive chapters in which the following topics were discussed: historical background, theories about topographical locations of mentioned sieges, literary and material sources, short history on research of this subject, short introductory of Roman siege warfare and finally the individual analysis of the each siege mentioned. In the process, nine sieges were thoroughly interpreted; profound interpretation of certain events and problems was made, thus providing the principle conclusion about siege warfare in the time of Roman conquest of Illyricum in the considered period. The paper is concluded by general conclusion, followed by short summary and bibliographical notes.


Abstract The extent of variation in the use of breast-conserving surgery was analyzed using the 1990 and 1991 hospital discharge data of Lombardia, Italy. The proportion of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery for unilateral breast cancer was estimated for each of the 10 geographic areas (9 provinces plus metropolitan Milano) in which the region is divided. Overall, the rate of use was 41% of 3,225 patients in 1990, and 45% of 3,736 patients in 1991. In both study years, patient age was strongly correlated with the likelihood of undergoing conservative surgery, with younger women more frequently treated with this approach. In each province, patients treated at centers located in the main city had a greater probability (OR, 1.54; 95% Cl, 1.37–1.69) of having conservative surgery. This procedure was also more often used in private hospitals (OR, 1.59; 95% Cl, 1.20–2.08) where care is paid at the point of consumption by patients, directly or through their private insurance. The observed variation in the use of the conservative procedure across the 10 regional areas was greater than that expected by chance alone (p <.0001), with rates ranging from 29% to 60%. This pattern persisted even after adjusting for the relevant patient and hospital characteristics. Despite the relatively large body of scientific evidence, it appears that the surgical management of breast cancer is more dependent on physicians' attitudes in each geographic area than on individual patients' characteristics.


The implementation of leniency programs is considered a success both at a EU Community level and in individual member states. The paper discusses the value of ex officio investigations for cartel detection in light of leniency and complaint-based cases. Are ex officio investigations still needed? Should a competition authority concentrate its scarce resources exclusively on the prosecution of leniency or complaint-based cases or follow a proactive market monitoring policy? It is argued that investigations triggered ex officio are an important complementary enforcement tool to the other passive instruments available to a competition authority. A bottom-up methodology for triggering inspections based on economic criteria is presented allowing for a more proactive cartel policy.


Many companies have a well-established business model. However, today companies are often relying on a business model that was fundamentally suited to a different era. As organizations try to adapt to a new environment they risk relying on improvements that only scratch the surface of developing a radically different value proposition. Based on rigorous research of companies that have successfully and radically re-designed their business model, Radical Business Model Transformation shows why they made the leap, what they had to do to achieve it and how it has transformed the potential for their organizations.

 Radical Business Model Transformation provides a roadmap that will enable organizations to benchmark how far they have crossed the line to making a radical transformation, as well as a toolkit for diagnosing the type of transformation made. Case studies of organizations that have crossed the line to a more transformative business include Daimler, SAP, Xerox, Atlas Copco, Infosys and Netflix. The book highlights what is needed to take up the leadership challenge required for adopting a radical business model transformation as well as providing a manual for how to do it. This book is essential reading for professionals and students interested in ensuring that their business model is future-proof to withstand a new proliferation of digital innovations that set to transform the business landscape.


Article history: Received January 20, 2015 Received in revised format 28 February 2015 Accepted 22 April 2015 Available online April 27 2015 The agricultural Jahad organization of Khorasan and Razavi province is one of Iran's biggest agricultural firms, which is responsible in agricultural sector of the province. During the past few years, there has been a growth in organization's responsibilities and the number of employees has increased. This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine different methods for increasing employees' efficiency. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 20 questions, distributes it among 127 randomly selected employees who worked for this organization. Cronbach alphas for all components of the survey were calculated well above 0.70, which validate the overall questionnaire and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test has indicated that the data were normally distributed. Using t-student test, the study has confirmed three approaches for increasing efficiency including methods to improve employee management and organizational structures, methods to improve financial and moral encouragement system and methods for improvement of staff performance efficiency assessment. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 5 © 201


Introduction Drug-related problems (DRPs) are common in elderly patients, the majority being preventable. Several criteria have been published to help clinicians identify DRPs due to inappropriate prescribing. However, few studies provide criteria to help clinicians identify underuse of medication considered beneficial. This study aimed to quantify and characterise prescribing omissions of cardiovascular risk management therapy using START (Screening Tool to Alert Doctors to the Right Treatment) criteria. Methods A descriptive study was conducted in the Stroke Unity of Hospital Center of Cova da Beira. During 3 months the medical files of all elderly patients (age ≥65 years) admitted with acute cardiovascular disease were reviewed and START criteria applied to the information of medication, at admission and clinic discharge. Results During the study period 56 elderly patients were admitted to the Stroke Unit. At the time of admission 63 prescribing omissions were found in 69.8% of elderly (average 1.19 omissions per patient), of which 74.5% (n=38) were corrected at the time of discharge. Prescribing omissions were also detected in 80.9% of patients receiving five or more medications simultaneously. In 10 patients, 13 omissions found at admission were not corrected during hospitalisation, and in three patients three new omissions were detected. Conclusion The prevalence of prescribing omissions of cardiovascular risk management therapy in elderly patients admitted to a Stroke Unity is high. START criteria is an evidence-based and easy-to-use screening tool that can assist clinicians in the optimisation of geriatric therapy, particularly in relation to cardiovascular disease prevention.


OBJECTIVES. Our goal was to evaluate the possible correspondence between antitissue transglutaminase of immunoglobulin A class levels and stage of mucosal damage in patients affected by celiac disease. In addition, we assessed clinical use of antitissue transglutaminase values to predict biopsy results. METHODS. One thousand eight hundred eighty-six consecutive patients with symptoms suggestive of celiac disease and 305 healthy controls underwent determination of serum levels of immunoglobulin A and antitissue transglutaminase. An intestinal biopsy was performed in subjects with antitissue transglutaminase levels ≥4 IU/mL and in subjects with negative antitissue transglutaminase levels but with clinical suspicion of celiac disease. Histologic grading of celiac disease was consistent with the Marsh classification. RESULTS. One hundred eighty-six subjects with positive antitissue transglutaminase levels and 91 patients with negative antitissue transglutaminase levels were submitted to biopsy. In all healthy subjects, antitissue transglutaminase results were negative. Histologic evaluations in patients with positive antitissue transglutaminase levels gave the following results: type 0 in 25 patients, type 1 in 3 patients, type 2 in 4 patients, type 3a in 22 patients, type 3b in 74 patients, and type 3c in 58 patients. None of the patients with negative antitissue transglutaminase levels showed histologic findings suggestive of celiac disease. The mean antitissue transglutaminase values in patients without mucosal atrophy were significantly lower than in patients with mucosal atrophy. Antitissue transglutaminase values ≥20 IU/mL were found in only 1 patient without mucosal atrophy. CONCLUSIONS. Our study found a strong correspondence between antitissue transglutaminase levels and stage of mucosal injury; antitissue transglutaminase values >20 IU/mL seemed to be strongly predictive of mucosal atrophy.


The auto industry has traditionally been a major source of jobs and income for blacks. As jobs in U.S. companies decline, the newer Japanese plants, both manufacturers and suppliers, are not hiring blacks to a similar extent. The new American plants typically employ higher percentages of blacks than would be expected from their local laborsheds. This has resulted primarily from UAW contractual obligations to accept displaced workers. By contrast, the Japanese manufacturers and suppliers locate in areas with few blacks and hire fewer blacks than would be expected from the racial composition of their local laborsheds. While the data presented in this article have important policy implications, they do not themselves establish intent to discriminate because of the complexity of factors involved in plant site decisions. Nevertheless, there is a range of anecdotal data that do suggest that the Japanese have a "taste for discrimination."


In this work research on container logistics and its management is presented. Contrary to the common approach of treating this as a mathematical problem and addressing it by operations research methods, this work regards the problem in a wider perspective. Instead of being limited to management of the physical system bringing about the movement of containers, container logistics management is regarded as also including demand management. The research aims at describing the logistics of the system in terms of how the various components in a container transport system interact and how the system interacts with its environment. Due to the limited previous research on container logistics and its management in a wider perspective, this work is primarily explorative and descriptive. Empirical studies of container flows are presented. Both the flow for an individual carrier and the total flow between a port and its hinterland have been studied and the studies reveal a low utilization of the containers. Containers were found to be stored empty for long periods of time at terminals, retained for a considerable time by customers and there was much transport of empty containers. The studies also revealed poor quality of the data in the computerized tracking systems with missing and erroneous data entries. In a study of ten of the world's twenty largest container shipping companies it was found that the use of advanced decision support systems, taking advantage of operations research or artificial intelligence technology, was scarce. Only one company reported to use such a system, which assigned priorities to depots, in day-to-day operations. The main logistical functions of the container are to create opportunities to exploit economies of scale and enabling vessels and vehicles to operate independently by decoupling them at terminals. Therefore, when deciding on actions to improve the utilization of containers the effect on other system components must be considered. Pooling is suggested as a way of increasing the utilization of the containers without constraining the operation of other, capital intensive, resources. Container logistics systems are characterized by high complexity and uncertainty. Much of the information relevant for decision-making is informal and the managers' experience is difficult to formalize. Therefore successful systems for container logistics management must take advantage of both human and computerized information processing. It is suggested to engage theories from cybernetics and information theory as a theoretical framework for logistics systems analysis. Even if this is only done to a limited extent in this research, due to being considered at a late stage of the research, these theories show a strong explanatory ability.


Considering the greater character differences between matrix and soil, and the great disparity in physicochemical properties of various substrate, now there is no special equipment to test matrix moisture, electrical conductivity (EC) and salinity of medium .On the basis of analyzing physicochemical properties of various substrate, the relationship between output voltage and water content is studied through piezoelectric type soil moisture probe trial. With "voltage-current" four-terminal method, multi-parameter integrated sensor testing medium moisture and electrical conductivities developed, and through the solution calibration EC measuring model is established. Then relationships among matrix water content, electrical conductivity and salinity are analyzed, and salinity testing model is established. A portable low-cost in-situ multi-parameter detection apparatus, testing substrate humidity, EC and salinities, developed by adopting MCU SPCE06A. Experimental results indicate that detection accuracy of the equipment can meet the need of soilless culture production, and it has greater application and dissemination value.


Relying on generation side alone is deemed insufficient to fulfill the system balancing needs for future Danish power system, where a 50% wind penetration is outlined by the government for year 2025. This paper investigates use of the electricity demand as frequency controlled reserve (DFR), which has a high potential and can provide many advantages. Firstly, the background of the research is reviewed, including conventional power system reserves and the demand side potentials. Subsequently, the control logics and corresponding design considerations for the DFR technology have been developed and analyzed, based on which simulation models have been built using the DIgSILENT Power Factory. The simulation studies of different scenarios confirm that the DFR can provide reliable performance of frequency control. Furthermore, relevant issues regarding implementing DFR in reality have been discussed.


A detailed analysis of the indices of organizational and marketing innovations has been examined in this study. The specific objectives duly analyzed were identification of the features of small scale flour marketing firms; analysis of the profitability and efficiency of the firms using income statement; ascertaining the determinants and indices of organizational, marketing and technological innovations. The technique of data collection was firstly a purposive sampling method to choose Aba and Umuahia Metropolis and small scale flour marketing firms and; secondly a random sampling selection technique was employed in selecting fifty specific firms for the study. The data elicited from sampling of fifty small scale flour marketing firms were analysed via descriptive statistics, income statement, probit and Ordinary Least Square Multiple regression analyses. The report from the results analyses showed that the significant indices of marketing innovation were price strategy, promotion strategy, distribution method, sales method, packaging and production strategies. On the other hand, significant indices of organizational innovation included work arrangement, quality management, motivation, use of promotion, product modification and employee schedule. The organizational innovation was highly significant than marketing innovation of small scale flour marketing firms in contributing towards enhancing the performance of small scale flour marketing firms. Thus, the organizational and marketing innovation indices analyzed in this work remained very significant and highly important tools for profitable marketing activity and in unlocking the marketing potentials of the firms and in encouraging competitive advantage over other firms that were indifferent about the strength of these organizational and marketing innovations. The study indicated that any small scale flour marketing firm that adopted for proper marketing and organizational innovations adapted successfully to emerging marketing challenges. Thus, it is recommended that small scale flour marketing firms should properly engage in organizational innovation involving work arrangement and effective employee work schedule which will contributing efficiently to better firm performance. Further, it is recommended that small scale flour marketing firms should include in their innovation portfolios price strategy, promotion strategy, distribution method, sales method, packaging, motivation, work arrangement, and product modification respectively which have the potentials to sustain the performance of the firms extensively.


Advertising has recently entered many new spaces it does not fully understand. The rules that apply in traditional media do not always translate in new media environments. However, their low cost of entry and the availability of hard-to-reach target markets, such as Generation Y, make environments such as online social networking sites attractive to marketers. This paper accumulates teenage perspectives from two qualitative studies to identify attitudes towards advertising in online social network sites and develop implications for marketers seeking to advertising on social network sites.


This paper studies the sensitivity of long-term real rates to monetary policy in Brazil. Based on the response of long-term real rates to monetary policy decisions, it is found that monetary factors have little power over long-term rates, with 100 basis points unexpected hike in the policy rate leading to an increase in long-term real rates of 12 basis points. The results are consistent with the classical view of interest rates, in which the real rate of the economy in the long run is determined by real fundamentals and largely unrelated to monetary factors.


The aim of this study is to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of sugarcane expansion on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from 2001 to 2008. The analysis is based on the multi-output production theory where the annual agricultural acreage represents the Production Possibility Frontier. It assumes that agricultural area is limited and any agricultural expansion occurs over traditional agricultural areas displacing some crops and pushing them to the agricultural frontier, where forests will be cleared. The econometric analysis was carried out using a panel data model where the counties are the cross section unity. The output supply for Sao Paulo state and the agricultural frontier states (Mato Grosso, Rondonia, Maranhao and Tocantins) in the Center-West region are estimated separately, considering the acreage as proxy of the output and the crop prices of sugarcane, soybean, corn, beans, cotton and the total annual acreage as the independent variables. The impact of crop prices and the annual agricultural crop expansion over the deforestation acreage are also estimated. Our best estimates reveal that it is not possible to establish a direct connection between sugarcane area expansion and Amazon deforestation, and while the indirect effects are very small, sugarcane also expanded over pastures and perennial crops, leading to an overall increase in annual crop area.


In a continuing effort to understand the hydrogen bond through the study of dielectric and computational conformal studies of dilute solutions, succinic acid and maleic acid are studied in solutions of 1,4-dioxane solvent. Dielectric studies give an account of the net dipole moment of the system under study, which is then compared with the values obtained from conformal analysis. The dielectric measurements were made at 303 K at a frequency of 9.83 GHz using a X-band microwave test bench in order to determine the relaxation times and the dipole moments. The static dielectric permittivity and the high frequency dielectric permittivity were measured using a LCR meter and an Abbe's refractometer, respectively. The results are inspected in comparison with the dipole moment results of ab initio calculations of some of the conformers in gas phase and in liquid phase. Gaussian-03 software package with 6–31G(d) basis set optimisation was used for this purpose. Onsager's reaction field model is used to study the solvation of the dicarboxylic acids in 1,4-dioxane. The results are interpreted in terms of the intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bond interactions in the dilute systems.


Positive definite kernels and their associated Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces provide a mathematically compelling and practically competitive framework for learning from data.
In this paper we take the approximation theory point of view to explore various aspects of smooth kernels related to their inferential properties. We analyze eigenvalue decay of kernels operators and matrices, properties of eigenfunctions/eigenvectors and "Fourier" coefficients of functions in the kernel space restricted to a discrete set of data points. We also investigate the fitting capacity of kernels, giving explicit bounds on the fat shattering dimension of the balls in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert spaces. Interestingly, the same properties that make kernels very effective approximators for functions in their "native" kernel space, also limit their capacity to represent arbitrary functions. We discuss various implications, including those for gradient descent type methods.
It is important to note that most of our bounds are measure independent. Moreover, at least in moderate dimension, the bounds for eigenvalues are much tighter than the bounds which can be obtained from the usual matrix concentration results. For example, we see that the eigenvalues of kernel matrices show nearly exponential decay with constants depending only on the kernel and the domain. We call this "approximation beats concentration" phenomenon as even when the data are sampled from a probability distribution, some of their aspects are better understood in terms of approximation theory.


Aflatoxin-eontamination of animal feeds is common and widely spread, especially in the tropics, due to the ubiquity of the producing fungi. The detection of aflatoxin in 5 samples of animal feed was carried out; using enzyme linked immunnosorbent assay (ELISA). Samples were taken from 5 different areas in Abeokuta. The aflatoxin level was, observed to be in the highest in the poultry feed from Lafenwa with the value 93.1llg/kg; and lowest in the feed from Idi-aba with the value 13.5Ilg/kg. Fungal counts are between 4 x 103 and 42 x 103 cfu/g, with highest count occurring in the feed from Lafenwa and lowest in Idi-aba. The fungal growth was on potato dextrose agar (PDA), and Aspergillus jlavus, A. oryzae, Rhizopus oryzae, and Penicillum notatum were isolated and identified, with Aspergillus jlavus predominating. Comparison statistical analysis, using ANOVA, showed a significant mean difference of 21.00 at 95% confidence interval; with the standard deviation value at 32.0333 and degree of freedom at 4. In conclusion, aflatoxin was present in all the samples, which even at low concentration is of great concern to human and animal health. Maize was the main ingredient in all the contaminated feed.


The use of resonant piezoceramic transducers in the pulsed photoacoustic technique and the effect of the focusing of the probing beam have been investigated experimentally. The improved sensitivity for resonant detection and for more tightly focused probing beams has been verified. The constraints imposed when working with tightly focused beams are noted.


Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), is the account of an imaginary future State, the Republic of Gilead, based on strict biblical values where men take back their place as head of the family (and the State), and women go back to their original ancillary position, both in society and at home. Gilead was indeed created to solve problems such as the extinction of the human race, due to a diffused infertility, using fertile women, the Handmaids, as surrogate mothers for the families of the Commanders, those who rule it. This creates, in fact, a new model of family, where the Commander and his wife host another woman in their house, hoping that, through the monthly "Ceremonies" (the intercourse between the Commander and the Handmaid), theirs can become a traditional family with children. Yet, the novel shows how a true balance, even between the sexes, is impossible to reach. The aim of this analysis is to show how the author has fractioned all the elements that form a family, as a small version of society itself, to foretell a possible outcome of many matters of debate, especially the role of women. The continuous comparisons that the narrator, a handmaid, does between her previous life, where she had a husband and a daughter, hence a family, are a way to warn about the possibility that, in the future, everything that seems normal might become obsolete and considered almost "wrong", in the light of a new normality made of strict rules that are justified as an extreme measure to save the very institution of family, the human race itself, and to protect women. The novel, although written in the 80's, turns out to be a reflection upon current issues about family and the role of women as "carriers of life", suggesting how the most extreme wing of the debate might, one day, bring to a familiar model that dates back to the Bible, since, as one of the Commander claims, the freedom to marry for love and create a family was "just an anomaly […]. All we've done is return things to Nature's norm".


: We consider one particularly interesting class of composite gauge-invariant operators in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. An exceptional feature of these operators is that in the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz approach the one-loop rapidities of the constituent magnons are shown to be exact in the 't Hooft coupling constant. This is used to propose the mirror TBA description for these operators. The proposal is shown to pass several non-trivial checks


We demonstrated the impact of plasma nitridation on thermally grown GeO2 for the purposes of obtaining high-quality germanium oxynitride (GeON) gate dielectrics. Physical characterizations revealed the formation of a nitrogen-rich surface layer on the ultrathin oxide, while keeping an abrupt GeO2/Ge interface without a transition layer. The thermal stability of the GeON layer was significantly improved over that of the pure oxide. We also found that although the GeO2 layer is vulnerable to air exposure, a nitrogen-rich layer suppresses electrical degradation and provides excellent insulating properties. Consequently, we were able to obtain Ge-MOS capacitors with GeON dielectrics of an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) as small as 1.7 nm. Minimum interface state density (Dit) values of GeON/Ge structures, i.e., as low as 3 x 1011 cm-2eV-1, were successfully obtained for both the lower and upper halves of the bandgap.


Adipose tissue is not a passive tissue storing triglycerides, but one that releases hormones, enzymes, growth factors, and cytokines. Currently, known to release more than 600 adipokines, the adipose is an active tissue involved in energy homeostasis and serving paracrine, autocrine and endocrinal functions. Besides, some adipokines (irisin and ghrelin, for example) are synthesized in the sebaceous glands of the skin and play important roles in certain dermatological diseases. This review will provide a systemic overview of adipokines, focusing on their tissue and organ distribution, functions in biological systems, and roles in dermatological diseases. Additionally, the areas where adipokines can be used in dermatological diseases and their possible future roles will be presented.


This office tracked the clinical results of 73 patients who received sodium hyaluronate for their knees, as well as two ankle patients and one elbow patient. A questionnaire designed to evaluate six areas of function-relief of pain, stiffness, walking tolerance, pain while negotiating stairs, swelling, night symptoms--was mailed to patients who had received the series of five sodium hyaluronate injections. Ninety-five percent of the questionnaires were completed and returned. We found that injectible sodium hyaluronate is a viable treatment option for properly selected patients, namely those with mild to moderate osteoarthritis of the knee. We found that it relieved pain and stiffness in most patients. The majority of patients were willing to repeat the treatment if necessary. Sodium hyaluronate allows the physician to relieve patient pain in early stages of the disease and to manage the patient comfortably until surgery is a viable option. With the appropriate precertification and billing protocol, reimbursement should not be an obstacle in using this product.


Future microprocessors need low-cost solutions for reliable operation in the presence of failure-prone devices. A promising approach is to detect hardware faults by deploying low-cost software-level symptom monitors. However, there remains a nonnegligible risk that several faults might escape these detectors to produce silent data corruptions (SDCs). Evaluating and bounding SDCs is, therefore, crucial for low-cost resiliency solutions. The authors present Relyzer, an approach that can systematically analyze all application fault sites and identify virtually all SDC-causing program locations. Instead of performing fault injections on all possible application-level fault sites, which is impractical, Relyzer carefully picks a small subset. It employs novel fault-pruning techniques that reduce the number of fault sites by either predicting their outcomes or showing them equivalent to others. Results show that 99.78 percent of faults are pruned across 12 studied workloads, reducing the complete application resiliency evaluation time by 2 to 6 orders of magnitude. Relyzer, for the first time, achieves the capability to list virtually all SDC-vulnerable program locations, which is critical in designing low-cost application-centric resiliency solutions. Relyzer also opens new avenues of research in designing error-resilient programming models as well as even faster (and simpler) evaluation methodologies.


The feminization of old age is a global phenomenon that brings with it unique and multiple challenges. Cumulative effects of past (and present) gender inequality only further compound the difficulties older women face in later life.The objective of this paper is to provide a comparison of the socioeconomic status between older men and women. A survey of the older population living in the community was conducted from 22nd October till 8th December 1999.The sample was derived from stratified district (rural and urban) of 4 states (Johor, Perak, Kedah, Kelantan) where 1726 older persons were successfully interviewed. Out of that sample, 843 are women. Results from the study showed that there is significant difference between older men and women in terms of monthly income(t=-3.567,p<0.01). The primary source of sustenance for older women actually comes from their adults sons (M=168.3, SD=207.8)and daughters (M=133.4,SD=190.3). The value of monetary assistance from sons increases when the female elderly have more children (r=0.123,p<0.01). There is also significant relationship between gender and other socioeconomic indicators such as employment, past occupation, education, marital status and home ownership. In conclusion, women face a greater risk in the future of a greying population as they form the major stakeholders. Being financially beholden to their adult children, older Malaysian women's dependency is an important issue that requires attention. Further investigation is needed to determine if the gender differences will translate or relate to other variables such as health and overall well being.


Importance
Pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) may be a clinical prognostic marker of superior outcomes. In patients with esophageal cancer, pCR is associated with increased survival. While mechanisms for increasing the likelihood of pCR remain unknown, in other solid tumors, higher rates of pCR have been associated with longer time intervals between CRT completion and surgical procedures.

Objective
To determine the association between time intervals from the completion of CRT to surgical procedure with rates of pCR in patients with esophageal cancer.

Design, Setting, and Participants
A prospectively maintained multidisciplinary foregut database was reviewed for consecutively enrolled patients with esophageal cancer from January 2000 to July 2015 presenting for surgical evaluation at a single National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center within a quaternary academic medical center.

Interventions
Included patients successfully completed neoadjuvant CRT followed by esophagectomy.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Rate of pCR by logistic regression based on a categorized time interval (ie, 0 to 42, 43 to 56, 57 to 70, 71 to 84, 85 to 98, and 99 or more days) from the completion of CRT to surgical resection, adjusted for clinical stage, demographic information, and CRT regimen.

Results
Of the 234 patients who met inclusion criteria, 191 (81.6%) were male, and the median (range) age was 64 (58-70) years; 206 (88.0%) were diagnosed as having adenocarcinoma, and 65 (27.9%) had a pCR. Patients in the 85 to 98-day group had significantly increased odds of a pCR compared with other groups (odds ratio, 5.46; 95% CI, 1.16-25.68; P = .03). No significant differences in survival were seen between time groups overall or among patients with residual tumor.

Conclusions and Relevance
This study suggests that a time interval of 85 to 98 days between CRT completion and surgical resection is associated with significantly increased odds of a pCR in patients with esophageal cancer. No adverse association with survival was detected as a result of delaying resection, even in patients with residual tumor.


Abstract : This research was conducted in support of a Defense Research and Development Canada-Toronto applied research project (ARP) aimed at developing a Canadian Forces (CF) training toolkit for personnel deploying to operations that adopt the Comprehensive Approach (CA). The CA to operations has been described as the ability to bring to bear all instruments of national and coalition power and influence upon a problem in a timely, coordinated faction (i.e., diplomatic, economic, military and informational) (Leslie, Gizewski, and Rostek, 2009). This means that effective utilization of the CA requires collaboration between civilian and military assts. However, due to organizational differences in goals, culture, motivation, and so on, this collaboration has been challenging in the past. This suggests that effective DF engagement using the CA may require additional training and resources. The current study was aimed at assessing the current state of CF training and education for the CA, identifying the needs and gaps, in an effort to develop a CA training toolkit. To this end, a survey was conducted of existing tools available, amongst our allies and within the commercial environment, to train the CA within the DF. Discussions were conducted with subject matter experts that identified issues to be considered in developing the toolkit, and focus-group discussions helped clarify the issues and suggested elements to include when training the CA. Results showed that: a. there is a need to between understand CA counterparts, especially other government departments; b. training needs to involve CA counterparts to increase its theoretical and operational relevance; c. there is a greater need for relationship building with CA counterparts through face-to-face interactions; d. CA training should include communication and relationship building skill development; e. CA training should include more cultural awareness training that also encompasses organizational culture awareness.


Structural and volume compressibility data for two a cristobalite samples were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods at pressures up to -1.6 GPa. As with the other silica polymorphs that have been studied at high pressure, the change of the SiO-Si angle is correlated with the volume compressibility. The Si-O bond lengths and the O-Si-O angles remain essentially unchanged. The bulk modulus was determined to be 11.5(7) GPa with a pressure derivative of 9(2). Both crystals underwent reversible structural phase transitions in the pressure interval 1.18-1.60 GPa.


During exercise, dynamic hyperinflation-induced intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEPi) and decreased dynamic lung compliance (CL,dyn) of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increase the elastic work of inspiration (Wi) more than would be predicted from the increase in tidal volume (VT). This contributes significantly to their exertional breathlessness. In 10 stable patients with COPD, the dynamic Wi was measured during incremental bicycle exercise to exhaustion. The total Wi was then partitioned into the portion required to overcome PEEPi (Wi,PEEPi) and nonPEEPi elastic load (Wi,nonPEEPi). The latter is used to overcome the increase in the total respiratory system elastance during inflation. From resting breathing to peak exercise, Wi more than doubled (p<0.001). This increase was largely due to Wi,PEEPi, which significantly rose from 1.7+/-0.3 to 5.3+/-0.8 L x cm H2O(-1) (p<0.001). In comparison, Wi,nonPEEPi increased from only 3.0+/-0.4 to 5.1+/-0.5 L x cm H2O(-1) (p<0.01). Consequently, Wi,PEEPi as a fraction of total Wi increased from 35.5+/-5.6 to 51.0+/-3.3% (p<0.02). In addition, the measured Wi,nonPEEPi at peak exercise, when expressed as a percentage of its value during resting breathing, was 25% more than that predicted from the increase in VT alone. Assuming a constant chest wall compliance, this can be attributed to the exercise-induced decrease in CL,dyn, which was 0.27+/-0.04 and 0.17+/-0.02 L x cm H2O(-1) (p<0.01), respectively, during resting breathing and peak exercise. In conclusion, the dynamic hyperinflation-induced intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure is more important than the increase in tidal volume in raising the work of inspiration during exercise in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; the decrease in dynamic lung compliance plays a definite but less important role.


[1] At 17:47 UT on 20 September 1999, a large earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.6 struck the central Taiwan near a small town of Chi-Chi. The ground-based receivers of the global positioning system (GPS) in the Taiwan area detected coseismic ionospheric disturbances (CIDs) in the total electron content (TEC) triggered by the Chi-Chi earthquake. When the CIDs travel away from the origin on the Earth surface and then propagate into the ionosphere, their amplitudes and periods generally become smaller and longer, respectively. Moreover, two global grid searches, adapting the ray-tracing and the beam-forming techniques, have been used to analyze the observed GPS TEC. We have not only estimated the average speed of the CIDs propagating in the atmosphere and ionosphere but also determined the location of CID origin on the Earth surface by using the two techniques. The results show that the observed CIDs result from shock-acoustic waves triggered by sudden and large vertical motions of the Chi-Chi earthquake.


There have been numerous controversies regarding vaccines in the past. The recent scare regarding the safety of cervical cancer vaccine is a small reminder of the trials it had to face in the court of public judgement. The authors explore two such vaccine controversies to identify missed opportunities and lessons that could be learnt. a) The diphtheria-pertusis-tetanus vaccine was routinely used in public health with an established safety record. In 1974, a case series from Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond street, described 36 children who suffered severe neurological complications following their DTP immunisation. The negative publicity resulted in a sharp decline in vaccine uptake from 77% to 33%.There was uncertainty among the public and practitioners with regards to its safety until the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study was published 7 years later. b) The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was introduced in the U.K in 1988.It suffered a major setback following the study by Wakefield et al in 1998 suggesting an association between MMR and autism. There were several publications in the press in the following years, which conveyed ambiguous messages with no clear scientific consensus on MMR safety. MMR vaccine uptake dropped to 84% resulting in a mumps epidemic in 2005. Currently, measles is declared to be endemic in the U.K. The delay in robust defence of MMR vaccine until the Cochrane review in 2005, contributed to undermining confidence in MMR safety. Conclusion Significant delay has occurred in the past in responding to such public health controversies, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. In the future, strategies have to be developed within the department of health, through existing agencies like the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, to promote early response and prompt development of scientific consensus to guide health professionals and public in adopting evidence-based practice.


We employ recent work on computational noise to obtain near-optimal difference estimates of the derivative of a noisy function. Our analysis relies on a stochastic model of the noise without assuming a specific form of distribution. We use this model to derive theoretical bounds for the errors in the difference estimates and obtain an easily computable difference parameter that is provably near-optimal. Numerical results closely resemble the theory and show that we obtain accurate derivative estimates even when the noisy function is deterministic.


Objective: The aim of this study was to identify radiotherapy (RT) induced changes of masticatory muscles and parotid glands on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Patients and Methods: Thirty-one patients treated with RT for NPC between 2009-2016 in our instution were included in the study. MRI examinations performed before and after RT were reviewed retrospectively. Transverse diameters and signal intensities of masticatory muscles and parotid glands were evaluated on T2 weighted axial MR images. Normal (hypointense) signal was scored as 0, mild hyperintensity as 1 and severe hyperintensity as 2. Results:The mean interval between pre-RT MRI and last control MRI was 44 months (12-84 months). Reductions of transverse diameters were; right masseter (RM):2.32mm (15%), left masseter (LM):2.42mm (15.4%), right medial pterygoid (RMP):1.26mm (8.7%), left medial pterygoid (LMP):1.71mm (12%), right lateral pterygoid (RLP):1.35mm (9.6%), left lateral pterygoid (LLP):1.32mm (9.4%), right parotid gland (RP):8.22mm (26%), left parotid gland (LP):8.87mm (28%). T2 signal changes were; RM: mild 8 cases (26%), LM: mild 5 cases (16%), RMP: mild 5 cases (16%), severe 1 case (3.5%), LMP: mild 4 cases (13%), severe 2 cases (6.5%), RLP and LLP: mild 8 cases (26%), severe 3 cases (9.7%), RP: mild 10 cases (32%), severe 18 cases (58%), LP: mild 10 cases (32%), severe 17 cases (55%). Conclusion: Volume loss and hyperintensity were mostly seen in parotid glands. Masseter was the muscle with highest rate of volume loss and lateral pyterygoid showed the highest rate of hyperintensity in masticatory muscles.


The concept of One Health is widely used to address emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. This concept focuses on the inextricable link between human, animal, and environmental health, and the interdisciplinary networks needed to address this interaction. Including and beyond infectious diseases of animal origin the One Health concept is well suited for developing models in occupational epidemiology where the worker's environment is linked to animals. Animal agriculture is one of the most hazardous industries where workers face risks of traumatic injury, respiratory hazards, and infectious diseases. Systems for raising animals for food have changed globally, which has fundamentally altered the interaction between workers and animals. The complex social, economic, and technical influences on agriculture requires a systematic and multidisciplinary approach toward evaluating worker health. We present an extension of the Haddon Matrix, to incorporate One Health aspects related to occupational health. The Haddon Matrix, developed for injury prevention and control, incorporates the agent, host, environment paradigm to include axes of pre-event, event, and post-event factors that are related to the person, the agent, the physical and the social environment. We extend this matrix to include a One Health component. For example, the most common cause of injury in dairy and swine production are interactions with animals, however these injuries do not all have the same aetiology and/or causal pathway. In these scenarios, the agent or vector of injury can be the animal, the environment, e.g. structure, or the worker. Social environment may include workplace safety culture, origin, social status and experience of the worker, economic determinants of animal production, and animal welfare concerns. When evaluating the causes and control of injury and other occupational hazards in animal agriculture, including zoonotic diseases, evaluating the complexity of the link between human, animal, and environmental is critical.


In deep-submicrometer integrated circuits, inductance effects have become increasingly significant, and interconnects are often modeled as transmission lines. An equivalent circuit model, which is called the γd/n model and regularly constructed by two elementary resistance–capacitance–inductance–conductance cells, is proposed for transmission line modeling in this paper. Unlike those moment-matching techniques, the γd/n model is a physical model in nature, and it can be applied to generated high-accuracy, stable, passive, and reduced-order models of transmission lines. In addition, RC(L) interconnect loads are also considered in this paper. Experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately capture the transmission line effect and the capacitive load effect. The waveform obtained by this method differs from that by the exact model in SPICE simulation with the average voltage difference less than 0.9%. For a wide range of interconnect parameters, it has been shown that this method can achieve less than 6% in average error of the 50% delays for both the near-end response and the far-end response.


The current policy debate is influenced by the possibility that the first-quarter GDP data were affected by ?residual seasonality.? That is, the statistical procedures used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) did not fully smooth out seasonal variation in economic activity. If this is indeed the case, then the weak readings of the economy in the first quarter give an inaccurate picture of the state of the economy. In this post, we argue that unusually adverse winter weather, rather than imperfect seasonal adjustment by the BEA, was an important factor behind the weak first-quarter GDP data.


This thesis describes the physics, design, and construction of an experiment to measure the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. In the experiment, laser-cooled Cs atoms will be held in an optical dipole force trap in the presence of applied electric and magnetic fields. The signature of an electron EDM is a first-order electric field shift of the Zeeman resonance frequency of the Cs ground state. We present an analysis of the systematic and statistical errors of this experiment, which shows that the experiment should have a sensitivity of the order of 10⁻²⁹ e-cm. We pay particular attention to potential light-shift induced errors and to magnetic field noise. We also present the design and experimental results for a cold Cs atom source, high voltage field plates, optical trapping field in a resonant build-up cavity, noval titanim ultrahigh vacuum system, and magnetic sheilding system. These results show that a measurement of the electron edm at the level of 10⁻²⁹ e-cm. should be feasible.


We study the dynamics of optimal trade policy in a model with costly inter-sectoral adjustment of labour, where migrants pay less than the marginal social cost of migration. If workers have rational expectations, a future tariff has an announcement effect on the current migration decision. If the government is able to commit itself to future policy, the optimal trajectory involves phasing in and then phasing out protection of the dying sector. This contrasts with recommendations of gradual liberalization. Without the ability to make commitments, the equilibrium policy begins with and maintains free trade.


Identifying integrated records that represent the same real-world object in numerous ways is just one form of data disparity (dirt) to be resolved in a data warehouse. Data cleaning is a complex process, which uses multidisciplinary techniques to resolve conflicts in data drawn from different data sources. There is a need for initial cleaning at the time a data warehouse is built, and incremental cleaning whenever new records are brought into the data warehouse during refreshing. Existing work on data cleaning have used pre-specified record match thresholds and multiple scanning of records to determine matching records in integrated data. Little attention has been paid to incremental matching of records. Determining optimal record match score threshold in a domain is hard. Also, direct long record string comparison is highly inefficient and intolerant to typing errors. Thus, this article proposes two algorithms, the first of which uses smart tokens defined from integrated records to match and identify duplicate records during initial warehouse cleaning. The second algorithm uses these tokens for fast, incremental cleaning during warehouse refreshing. Every attribute value forms either a special token like birth date or an ordinary token, which can be alphabetic, numeric, or alphanumeric. Rules are applied for forming tokens belonging to each of these four classes. These tokens are sorted and used for record match. The tokens also form very good warehouse identifiers for future faster incremental warehouse cleaning. This approach eliminates the need for match threshold and multiple passes at data. Experiments show that using tokens for record comparison produces a far better result than using the entire or greater part of a record.


The ruggedness of a superjunction metal—oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) under unclamped inductive switching conditions is improved by optimizing the avalanche current path. Inserting a P-island with relatively high doping concentration into the P-column, the avalanche breakdown point is localized. In addition, a trench type P+ contact is designed to shorten the current path. As a consequence, the avalanche current path is located away from the N+ source/P-body junction and the activation of the parasitic transistor can be effectively avoided. To verify the proposed structural mechanism, a two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation is performed to describe its static and on-state avalanche behaviours, and a method of mixed-mode device and circuit simulation is used to predict its performances under realistic unclamped inductive switching. Simulation shows that the proposed structure can endure a remarkably higher avalanche energy compared with a conventional superjunction MOSFET.


Infectious myocarditis (IM) is a commonly undiagnosed condition that may cause several heart diseases, including dilated cardiomyopathy and chronic heart failure. The understanding of the physiopathology of myocardial inflammation is crucial for a timely diagnosis and for the control of the tissue damage, which may occur in some cases of IM. Of note, some experimental studies suggest that dilated cardiomyopathy could be a consequence of untreated IM. However, further research is required to address the molecular mechanisms that may link these two clinical entities. Here we review the mechanisms involved in the regulation at different levels of the immune response during IM, with a special focus on diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives of molecules that have been linked to the development of IM and the resulting chronic heart diseases.


Globally, tax systems are continuously discussed. That is more than a good thing! Taxes are in the midst of society and should, therefore, also be discussed in and by societies. Tax research can contribute to these discussions.  In a number of countries, such as New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United States, it is debated in society whether capital gains should be included in the income tax base and, if so, how this should be done. In this context, the author will discuss whether, as a matter of principle, taxation of capital gains should be part of a comprehensive tax system that taxes a comprehensive concept of real net income and, if so, what are the key issues in the design of capital gains tax regimes. Attention will be paid not only to general aspects, but also to some international aspects of capital gains taxes. This article will ultimately present a global framework for capital gains taxes based on the developed benchmark. In the author's view, this framework should be taken into account globally when designing a capital gains tax regime. It will contribute to creating a level playing field and to enhancing horizontal and vertical equality and equity.


For any scholar studying the expansion of Scandinavian central authority into what is often regarded as peripheral areas of medieval Fennoscandia, the publication of Gunilla Tegengren's doctoral dissertation Sverige och Nordlanden. Forvaltning och nordlig expansion 1250-1550 is a welcome addition. The book should be of interest to anyone with a predilection for Swedish medieval history in general, a desire to explore the process of integrating the northern part of present day Sweden in the medieval Swedish kingdom, or those focusing on similar processes elsewhere in Northern Europe. Whilst the Swedish medieval expansion to the southern parts of present day Finland, including the clashes with the Russian city-state of Novgorod that relate to this process, is quite well covered, works on the scale of Sverige och Nordlanden regarding the northward expansion of Swedish central authority are not as manifold.


Migrant farm workers are behind-the-scenes backbone of Canada's agricultural economy. Despite their significant role within the food production industry, the outer public is typically unfamiliar with their contributions, experiences, and even their presence in Canada. Many researchers agree that workers arriving through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program hold a precarious status, primarily due to the invisibility of their plight to the rest of Canada. In Leamington, Ontario, large-scale greenhouse operations call for thousands of workers from Mexico and the Caribbean to grow vegetables year-round. This study sought to gain an understanding of the relationship between migrant workers and community members by surveying and interviewing Leamington residents. While worker visibility and local familiarity with the presence of migrant workers is heightened in the Essex County region, the quality of social interactions was found to be severely limited. The implications were found to involve social marginalization, culture clash, and racial stereotyping.


Introduction Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major risk factor for development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), however, the mechanism of hepatocarcinogenesis in HCV infection is still undefined. Heat shock protein (HSP) 27 is a ubiquitous chaperone molecule induced in cells exposed to different stress conditions, including carcinogenesis. It also has potent anti-apoptotic properties through inhibition of caspase-3 activation. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to study the expression of HSP27 and caspase-3 in HCV-related HCCs in relation to tumour progression. Methods Twenty cirrhotic patients with HCV-related HCC were enrolled in the study. The severity of liver disease was assessed according to the Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. Serum levels of α-fetoprotein (AFP) were measured by enzyme immunoassay kit. The tumour stage was classified using the scoring system proposed by the Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP). Histological grading of tumour s was performed according to the Edmondson and Steiner's criteria and the surrounding liver tissue was examined for the presence of cirrhosis and steatosis. Expression of HSP27 and caspase-3 was studied in HCC and adjacent non-neoplastic liver tissues by immunohistochemistry and the staining intensity of the tumour was designated as "negative/low expression" or "high expression" if <25% and >25% of cells were positively-stained, respectively. Results HCV-related HCCs showed a significant increase in HSP27 expression and a significant decrease in caspase-3 expression as compared with adjacent non-neoplastic liver tissues (p=0.029 and p=0.040, respectively). The expression of HSP27 showed an inverse correlation with caspase-3 expression in HCC tissues (r=−0.691, p=0.001). High HSP27 expression and negative/low caspase-3 expression in HCCs were associated with significant increases in serum levels of aminotransferases, HCV RNA and AFP, MELD score, tumour size, tumour stage, histological tumour grade, body mass index and the presence of steatosis in the surrounding liver tissue (P<0.05). No relationship was found between expression of HSP27 and caspase-3 in HCCs and age, gender, apparent duration of HCV infection, and tumour encapsulation, multiplicity, location and lymphocyte infiltration (P>0.05). Conclusion HSP27 plays an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of HCC in HCV infection through inhibition of caspase-3 mediated cell apoptosis and may serve as a potentially useful therapeutic target.


Technological comparison and system modelling of sewage sludge treatment are important in terms of sustainable development and climate change mitigation. Dewatering and drying are important processes for reducing volume for transportation and often a requirement for further sludge treatment. Inventory data on mass transfers and material and energy consumptions are therefore crucial in improving and understanding sludge management systems. Reviewing the scientific literature (2003–2021) revealed 55 and 21 datasets on dewatering and drying of sewage sludge, respectively. The scarcity of data did not allow for identifying detailed relationships between inputs and outputs for the technologies, but the reviewed data can serve as the first port of call when planning sludge management. The average total solid (TS) content obtained was statistically different for mechanical dewatering (MDW), deep dewatering, bio-drying (BDR) and thermal drying (TDR). Loss of volatile solids (VS) during dewatering is barely described, but a substantial VS loss was observed for TDR (8%) and BDR (27%). The use of chemical agents in MDW showed typical values of 5–15 g kg−1 TS. The use of energy is low for MDW (average of 0.12 and 0.26 kWh kg−1 TS for raw and digested sludges, respectively) but substantially higher for TDR (average of 3.8 kWh kg−1 TS). The justified inventory data for sludge dewatering and drying provide essential support to system modelling and technological comparison in future studies, but additional data from full-scale plants on energy consumption and the composition of removed water are strongly requested to improve the inventory.


The objective of this thesis research is to further the understanding of turbulent diffusion by experimentally studying the turbulent diffusion of a plume of dye released in uniformly sheared flow generated in a water tunnel. The flow studied was nearly homogeneous but strongly anisotropic and had a turbulent Reynolds number of 150. Maps of the turbulent velocity and dye concentration were measured simultaneously using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence. A thorough analysis of the planar laser-induced fluorescence technique was performed; several previously unconsidered sources of error were identified and corrections were proposed. The measured evolutions of the mixed velocity-concentration statistics of the plume were compared with previous studies. The turbulent scalar flux vector was related to the mean concentration gradient through a first-order gradient transport model and, for the first time in an experimental flow, all components of the turbulent diffusivity tensor were measured directly. The turbulent diffusivity tensor was found to be highly anisotropic and its streamwise component appeared to be countergradient. The relative diffusion of the plume was also investigated and the evolution of the mean square particle separation was found to be consistent with RichardsonObukhov scaling, with a value of Richardson's constant equal to 0.35. The fine structure of the concentration field and the mixed velocity-concentration statistics were also documented. Because of the high level of intermittency of the present plume, the scalar probability density function was strongly non-Gaussian and the conditional expectations of the velocity components and the scalar dissipation, conditioned upon the scalar value, were distinctly non-linear. Lastly, the role of coherent structures on scalar diffusion was investigated and a conditional eddy analysis demonstrated that hairpin vortices were associated closely with large scalar flux events.


abstract Over-hunting of the sable (Martes zibellina) in China since the 1950s has resulted in a dramatic decline of sable population size; and owing to effective conservation measures in recent years, sable populations in some areas are going through a rapid recovery. We first determined and annotated the whole mtDNA genome of the Lesser Khingan Mountains sable M. zibellina linkouensis to better understand the evolutionary relationship of this subspecies. The complete mitogenome is 16 460 bp in length, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 1 control region. We built the phylogenetic tree of three sable subspecies in Northeast China and other 10 species of Mustelinae.


Control of bioreactors has achieved importance in the recent years. They are difficult to control, which may be attributed to its nonlinear dynamic behavior. The model parameters of the bioreactor also vary in an unpredictable manner. The complexity of the biochemical processes inhibits the accurate modeling and also the lack of suitable sensors makes the process stability difficult to characterize. This paper is mainly concerned in controlling the bioreactors using analog and digital controllers. The bioreactor system is unstable. This unstable system was stabilized and digital controller such as dead-beat and dahlin controllers were implemented. Then the unstable system was considered as it is and various PID controller-tuning methods were studied. The performance of the proposed control strategy is simulated using SIMLINK ver 2.0 in the MATLAB platform and TUTSIM. This methodology can be implemented without any difficulties, and does not show any overshoot and it is quite robust.


ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 11 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present study was conducted during the year 2017-18 in purposively selected Tumakuru district comprising of three agroclimatic zones. From each zone, two taluks and from each taluk two hoblis were selected based on the major crop farming systems. From each hobli, list of villages having maximum number of women headed households practicing family farming was prepared in consultation with staff of Raitha Samparka Kendras (RSKs), Grama Panchayath and local leaders. Further four to eight villages and two to four respondents from each village were purposively selected by using 'snow ball technique' thus making total sample of 160.Data were gathered through structured interview schedule and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. The study revealed that characteristics such as land holding, achievement motivation, adjustability, mass media use, deferred gratification, farming commitment, extension orientation, family size, livestock possession, material possession, credit orientation and risk orientation had positive and significant relationship with family farming efficiency. Similarly, with respect to extent of contribution of independent variables indicated that 12out of 16 independent variables such as family size, land holding, livestock possession, material possession, credit orientation, mass media use, deferred gratification, achievement motivation, risk orientation, adjustability, farming commitment and extension orientation had contributed significantly towards family farming efficiency of women headed households. The R 2 value indicated that all the 16 independent variables had contributed to the tune of 79.15 per cent of variation in family farming efficiency of women headed households. Further, Path analysis was applied to know the direct and indirect effects of independent variables on family farming efficiency of women headed households. As regards to the direct effects on family farming efficiency is concerned, land holding, credit orientation, material possession and livestock possession obtained four ranks in the same order. Further, ranking of variables based on their total indirect effects revealed that land holding, mass media use, achievement motivation and material possession had highest indirect effect. The first largest indirect effect was channeled through land holding, livestock possession and risk orientation. The residual effect was found to be 0.2085. K e y w o r d s Family farming efficiency, Women headed households, Family farming Accepted: 12 October 2019 Available Online: 10 November 2019 Article Info Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(11): 1573-1581

https://www.ijcmas.com/8-11-2019/D. Harshitha, et al.pdf


Typical algorithms for distributed or parallel computations are cooperative, meaning that the sequential component is broken down into cooperating pieces, which are distributed across available hardware. An approach which has recently gained some attention is competitive processing, where several versions of a sequential program are distributed across available processors to gain performance from algorithmic diversity. There is also potential for fault tolerance from available hardware by executing the sequential versions, called alternatives, on a distributed configuration. Schemes for implementing competitive concurrent processing have been described in the literature, but there is little implementation experience. RB is a practical step towards gaining such experience. RB is a programming language for specifying alternative methods of performing a computation, where at most one of the results of the alternatives is used. Our prototype implementation uses a combination of a language preprocessor for C and a runtime library to provide the desired semantics. Using other base programming languages, e.g., Ada, or other methods of managing alternatives is straightforward.


Chromatography, although primarily a separation technique, is mostly employed in chemical analysis in which High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is an extremely versatile technique where analytes are separated by passage through a column packed with micro meter-sized particles. Now a day reversed-phase chromatography is the most commonly used separation technique in HPLC. The reasons for this include the simplicity, versatility, and scope of the reversed-phase method as it is able to handle compounds of a diverse polarity and molecular mass. Reversed phase chromatography has found both analytical and preparative applications in the area of biochemical separation and purification. Molecules that possess some degree of hydrophobic character, such as proteins, peptides and nucleic acids, can be separated by reversed phase chromatography with excellent recovery and resolution. This review covers the importance of RP-HPLC in analytical method development and their strategies along with brief knowledge of critical chromatographic parameters need to be optimized for an efficient method development


Miniaturization of efficient integrated voltage regulators is critical in order to fully benefit from dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. A major challenge to this is the high parasitic loss of inductor cores at switching frequencies in the MHz range. In this study, we report on a novel soft magnetic core material with anisotropic magnetic properties. This composite core is fabricated using magnetic field directed assembly of magnetic particles in an epoxy matrix. Various experimental conditions were explored, and subsequent image analytics of the resulting samples was used to optimize the process parameters, in order to yield the desired morphology. Magnetic measurements revealed improved magnetization, lower coercivity and higher permeability along the percolation axis of the magnetic particles when compared to isotropic composites with the same particle loading. In addition, the permeability of the anisotropic composites remained close to constant up to 100 MHz. Finally, a funicular "necking" structure with nano-sizedparticles assembled around contactpoints of micro-sizedparticles in the composite was achieved via a bi-modal particle distribution, resulting in further improvements in magnetic properties. Our anisotropic composite core materials are attractive candidates to establish highly efftcient power inductors.


The inhibition of activated sludge respiration is one of the most important parameters for monitoring wastewater toxicity. The main objective of this study was to improve respiration inhibition testing in order to protect the biological degradation within the aerobic process in a wastewater treatment plant more efficiently. In order to influence the sensitivity of the testing bacteria, two different nutrient solutions were selected for biological testing, synthetic wastewater according to ISO 8192 and NaAc (sodium acetate). The effects of the nutrient solutions on heavy metal speciation and their respiration inhibition were investigated. The toxicants Zn(II), Cu(II), Cr(VI) and 3,5 DCP (3,5-dichlorophenol) were used as standards to determine toxicities and to study the influence of nutrient solutions. Results have shown that NaAc as a nutrient solution sensitized the respiration inhibition test up to a factor of 7.7. Furthermore, an oxidation reduction potential electrode can be used as an alternative tool to verify the results obtained with an oxygen sensor.


Compressed liquid densities for the 2-propanol (1) + water (2) mixture have been determined at (300, 325, and 350) K and x1 close to 0.25, 0.49, and 0.73 using a vibrating tube densimeter. Liquid densities have been measured from about atmospheric pressure up to 10 MPa and correlated with a multilayer feedforward neural network. The composition dependence of the excess molar volume has been evaluated in the temperature and pressure range of the experimental data. A model based on a multilayer feedforward neural network function combined with the saturated pressure equation of the pure fluids has been regressed on the available literature data for the bubble pressure. The correlations for liquid density and bubble pressure have been used to generate the saturated liquid density surface in the whole temperature range of the measured compressed liquid densities and for compositions ranging from the pure 2-propanol to the pure water.


Organizations aiming to foster civic engagement, such as government bodies, news outlets, political parties, and NGOs, struggle to purposefully use social media to engage young people. To respond to this challenge we conducted five group-interviews with 27 youth, 16–26 years, about their experiences of and barriers to civic engagement in social media. Our paper contributes to identifying specific participation barriers that young people experience concerning social media civic engagement, and how organizations should work to overcome these barriers.


This paper describes the H.264 Scalable Video coding streaming Evaluation Framework (SVEF). This is the first open-source framework for experimental assessment of H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) delivery over real networks. Effectively adapting of the transport of an H.264 SVC stream to time-varying, bandwidth constrained, and loss prone networks is an important research area. However, very little experimental work has been performed due to the unavailability of real-time H.264 SVC players, the limitations of existing decoding software libraries when challenged with network-imparied received SVC streams (e.g., affected by random loss of Network Abstraction Layer Units - NALUs), and the lack of solutions for SVC streaming support. SVEF overcomes these issues by developing missing components and by integrating them in a hybrid online/offline experimental framework. We believe SVEF will be of significant help to the research community interested in experimentally benchmarking their own proposed SVC adaptation approaches and delivery mechanisms. As a proof-of-concept of SVEF, we provide the experimental performance evaluation of an SVC cross-layer in-network scheduler in a Wireless LAN hot spot scenario.


The Minimal Supersymmetric SO(10) GUT has developed into a fully realistic theory in which not only are the gauge couplings unified but the known fermion spectrum and mixing matrices could fit accurately using the latitude introduced by inclusion of quantum corrections to the GUT-effective MSSM-SM matching conditions. The fits yield predictions about the nature of the sparticle spectrum on the basis of the required threshold corrections. This indicated a necessarily large value for A0 in 2008 : well before Higgs discovery at 126 GeV made it a commonplace assumption. GUT scale threshold corrections to the normalization of the emergent effective MSSM Higgs ameliorate the long standing Susy GUT puzzle of fast dimension five operator mediated proton decay. Numerical investigation indicates that B-violation rates below or near the current experimental upper limits are feasible in fully realistic models. Our results imply that UV completion models with large numbers of fields, like Kaluza-Klein models or String Theory, must be able to compute threshold corrections to be considered quantitative theories and not just fables. Required improvements in the fitting procedure are discussed. A generalization of the NMSGUT by gauging the flavour symmetry of the kinetic terms, while retaining renormalizability and the successful MSGUT symmetry breaking patterns, allows dynamical generation of the observed Yukawa structure of the MSSM via the spontaneous breaking of the full gauge symmetry down to the MSSM at the unification scale. Focus on the emergence of the MSSM Higgs from the multiple Higgs doublets in the GUT thus provides a crucial window to view the energetically remote UV dynamics specified in fully calculable and realistic MSGUTs.


Joint problems in adolescence are often monoarticular. In the acute form the differentiation between trauma and infection is of utmost importance, whereas in chronic joint diseases the differentiation will be mainly between mechanical disorders and true rheumatic diseases. In pauci- or polyarticular arthritis of short duration viral infections have to be considered, since true rheumatic diseases tend to run a more chronic course. In girls true sero-positive juvenile rheumatoid arthritis typically appears in this age group. In adolescent boys seronegative Spondylarthropathies involving the lower extremities and not uncommonly with enthesopathies may occur. The typical involvement of the sacro-iliac-joint usually starts after the age of 18 years. Bacterial arthritides are predominantly monoarticular and are caused in more than 50% by staphylococci.


On August 12, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to authorize administration of an additional dose after completion of a primary vaccination series to eligible persons with moderate to severe immunocompromising conditions (1,2). On September 22, 2021, FDA authorized an additional dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine ≥6 months after completion of the primary series among persons aged ≥65 years, at high risk for severe COVID-19, or whose occupational or institutional exposure puts them at high risk for COVID-19 (1). Results from a phase 3 clinical trial conducted by Pfizer-BioNTech that included 306 persons aged 18-55 years showed that adverse reactions after receipt of a third dose administered 5-8 months after completion of a 2-dose primary mRNA vaccination series were similar to those reported after receipt of dose 2; these adverse reactions included mild to moderate injection site and systemic reactions (3). CDC developed v-safe, a voluntary, smartphone-based safety surveillance system, to provide information on adverse reactions after COVID-19 vaccination. Coincident with authorization of an additional dose for persons with immunocompromising conditions, the v-safe platform was updated to allow registrants to enter information about additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine received. During August 12-September 19, 2021, a total of 22,191 v-safe registrants reported receipt of an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Most (97.6%) reported a primary 2-dose mRNA vaccination series followed by a third dose of the same vaccine. Among those who completed a health check-in survey for all 3 doses (12,591; 58.1%), 79.4% and 74.1% reported local or systemic reactions, respectively, after dose 3, compared with 77.6% and 76.5% who reported local or systemic reactions, respectively, after dose 2. These initial findings indicate no unexpected patterns of adverse reactions after an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine; most of these adverse reactions were mild or moderate. CDC will continue to monitor vaccine safety, including the safety of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and provide data to guide vaccine recommendations and protect public health.


Purpose of review Reduction in circulating cholesterol is an important step in lowering cardiovascular risk. Although statins are the most frequently prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication, there remains a significant portion of patients who require alternative treatment options. Nutraceuticals are increasingly popular as cholesterol-lowering agents. Despite the lack of long-term trials evaluating their use on cardiovascular endpoints and mortality, several studies have demonstrated their potential cholesterol-lowering effects. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on the role of nutraceuticals as cholesterol-lowering agents. The present review will focus on individual nutraceutical compounds, which have shown modest cholesterol-lowering abilities, as well as combination nutraceuticals, which may offer potential additive and/or synergistic effects. Recent findings Berberine, red yeast rice, and plant sterols have moderate potential as cholesterol-lowering agents. Combination nutraceuticals, including the proprietary formulation, Armolipid Plus, appear to confer additional benefit on plasma lipid profiles, even when taken with statins and other agents. Summary Although robust, long-term clinical trials to examine the effects of nutraceuticals on clinical outcomes are still required, their cholesterol-lowering ability, together with their reported tolerance and safety, offer a pragmatic option for lowering plasma cholesterol levels.


Objectives: To check the effect of various methods used for seedbed preparation namely manually prepared seedbed and seedbed prepared by using rotavator, also for the use of organic fertilizer and chemical fertilizers on Pigeon Pea crop production. Method/Approach: In this experiment the entire 9 acre land is divided into 18 equal plots. The combination of seedbed preparation and fertilizers are finalised in 9 different categories. Two plots were selected randomly for each combination of seedbed preparation and fertilizer for the experiment, and the final product is combined to measure the total output and to compare which is the best combination. The chemical fertilizer used is divided into three categories according to their proportion one is as per the guidelines of Ministry of Agriculture, central government, India; i.e. 50kg per acre, other quantity is much lesser than the guidelines i.e. 35kg per acre and last one is according to actual farmers practice in the region i.e. 65kg per acre. The quantity of organic fertilizer used is 45kg per acre and 60kg per acre for both seedbed preparations were done by manually and by using rotavator. Findings/Observations: The maximum production of Pigeon Pea of 814kg was obtained from plot whose seedbed is prepared by using rotavator and organic fertilizer followed by 802 kg from the plot whose seedbed is prepared by using rotavator and chemical fertilizer was used. The minimum Pigeon Pea production of 690kg was obtained from the plot whose seedbed was prepared manually and chemical fertilizer was used. Applications/ Improvements: Use of rotavator for seedbed preparation for sowing and organic fertilizers can be used for every conventional as well as cash crop. Seedbed preparation by using rotavator gives better pulverisation which affects in higher crops productivity also organic fertilizers eliminates the chances of soil and water pollution which results in achieving higher benefit to cost ratio for farmers.


White Narcissus contains undeniably realistic elements in its description of farm life, but realism is not an adequate category to describe Raymond Knister's novel. The gothic and the grotesque have long traditions in Canadian fiction; White Narcissus contains gothic elements as well as realistic ones. The novel derives much of its power as a picture of life in southwestern Ontario from the tension it sets up between the two ways of seeing the world which these two traditions represent.


: There is still much debate over whether older adults have enhanced or attenuated audiovisual integration. Research on the neural mechanism of audiovisual integration in older adults is needed to provide a scientific brain-health programme based on crossmodal integration. Here, we summarized two parts based on previous studies. First, audiovisual integration ability in older adults is influenced by the characteristics of the physical stimuli, the spatial and temporal relationships of the stimuli, and the attentional allocation. Second, audiovisual integration effects are observed in older adults. On the one hand, older adults showed higher functional connectivity, network efficiency and enhanced audiovisual integration effects, such as stronger activity in the posterior parietal lobe, medial prefrontal lobe, left prefrontal lobe, and the super-additive amplitude of P2 observed in the central prefrontal region. In addition, audiovisual integration in older adults occurred earlier and extended longer than that in younger adults. On the other hand, older adults have slower response times and smaller amplitudes to audiovisual stimuli in the superior temporal gyrus than younger adults, which shows a weaker integration facilitation effect in older adults. The study of audiovisual integration in older adults induced by simple stimuli provides a reliable basis for further revealing the integration mechanism, but the processing mechanism of audiovisual integration for complex situations remains to be explored.


Although there exist accelerator products to increase throughput of encrypted transactions produced by an Internet HTTP server there are no current architectures that provide a truly coordinated and scalable solution for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypted communications. This paper presents an architecture that facilitates high volume SSL Internet serving, scaling from thousands to millions of independently active SSL sessions. Reliability, availability, serviceability, and on-line error recovery requirements for such an application are also addressed. Our approach is to offload SSL set-up protocol activity that was traditionally executed by transaction engines (and dedicated co-processors), to a scalable array of SSL handshake protocol-specific servers. This significantly reduces utilization on the transaction engines since SSL session set-up is a CPU intensive operation. Additionally, the actual encryption/decryption processing is offloaded as well, to a dedicated and scalable array of in-line encryption engine(s). The in-line encryption engine is architected such that requests and responses flowing to and from the transaction servers are in clear text. A benefit of this arrangement is that transaction engines (as well as Web accelerator proxies) will retain the ability to cache Web objects, while firewalls will retain the ability to perform packet level inspection of all traffic directed to the transaction engines. Such features have been sacrificed in prior SSL implementations.


Abstract. The current study examined the effects of a community-based, whole-school peer victimization prevention program (WITS Primary Program), implemented from Grades 1 to 3, on trajectories of child-reported peer victimization and help-seeking and teacher-reported social-emotional adjustment from Grades 1 to 6. This quasi-experimental design followed a cohort of 432 children in 11 program and 6 comparison public elementary schools over 6 years. There were significant and meaningful effects of the WITS Primary Program on linear changes in physical victimization (Cohen's d = .17), relational victimization (Cohen's d = .20), and social competence (Cohen's d = .20); significant and small effects on physical aggression (Cohen's d = .09); and nonsignificant effects for help seeking and internalizing (Cohen's d values = .04 and .10, respectively) during elementary school. Following the transition into middle school, the program effects faded, with the exception of some subgroups in high-risk contexts. Our findings suggest that peer victimization prevention programming implemented in early elementary school may need to be sustained to maintain the promising early intervention gains through the transition into middle school.