Background: Vitamin D Deficiency in children is a worldwide health
problem. Yet, there is little known about awareness of parents regarding
this issue in Jordan. The recent study aimed to assess the mothers'
knowledge and practices toward vitamin D deficiency in infants and up to
age of 6 years. Methods: an online questionnaire was distributed as
Google Form on mothers of children between 0-6 yeas, assessing their
knowledge about vitamin D, its deficiency, and their practices toward
vitamin D deficiency for their children, Descriptive statistics and
Chi-Square test were performed. Results: Most of mothers (64.8%) were
aged between 30-40 years, and had education level of Bachelor's degree
(63.3%). Sunlight was considered the main source of vitamin D (89.1%),
while fish and eggs were the main dietary sources (63.5%, 65.5%,
respectively). Vitamin D was considered important for bone and teeth
health (93.9%). The majority of participants reported lack of sun
exposure and decreased vitamin D rich foods as risk factors and rickets
as complication of vitamin D deficiency (98.5%, 96.4%, 89.3%,
respectively). Most of mothers (65.1%) indicated the time before 10 AM
as the best time of day to expose baby/child to the sun. The majority of
participants (82.2%) believe that vitamin D deficiency is a common
health problem in children in our country, and 86.4% think they need
more information on vitamin D deficiency in children. Age, nationality,
nature of housing, and age group of children had an impact on
knowledge's level of participants. Conclusion: Most of participants were
aware of vitamin D sources, benefits, risk factors and complications of
deficiency, although there was inadequate knowledge among respondents
was found in certain domains of vitamin D. More education is required
for mothers about vitamin D and its deficiency.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a mandibular repositioner on airway, sleep, and respiratory variables in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Twenty-two patients selected for this study were confirmed with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea based on initial nocturnal polysomnography. The patients were fitted with a mandibular repositioner designed to hold the mandible anteroinferiorly. Six months later, an outcome polysomnographic study was undertaken for each patient with the appliance in place. Lateral cephalometric radiographs in the upright position were also obtained before and after 6 months of treatment. The respiratory disturbance index decreased in 21 of the 22 patients with the appliance in place. The mean respiratory disturbance index of the 22 patients decreased significantly from 40.3 to 11.7 events per hour (P <.01). Some 59.1% of subjects were considered a treatment success with follow-up respiratory disturbance index < 10 events per hour. The mean minimum blood oxygen saturation level during sleep also improved significantly from 73.4% to 81.3% (P <. 01). The mandibular repositioner was constructed to position the mandible at 75% of the maximal mandibular advancement and with a 7 mm opening between the upper and lower incisors, and no aberrant effect on temporomandibular joint was noted. The retropalatal airway space increased and the cross-sectional area of the soft palate and the vertical distance of the hyoid bone to the mandibular plane decreased significantly. The tongue posture became significantly flatter. A significant linear correlation was found between the reduction in apnea index and specific craniofacial skeletal structures (length of anterior cranial base, mandibular plane angle, and upper to lower facial height ratios, P <.05). Subjects with a smaller reduction in apnea index tended to have shorter anterior cranial bases, steeper mandibular planes, and smaller upper to lower facial height ratios. We conclude that a mandibular repositioner may be an effective treatment alternative for obstructive sleep apnea and that a reduction in the frequency of apneic episodes is mainly attributed to the effects of the appliance on oropharyngeal structures.


Currently, there is a mismatch between the conceptual model of an information system and its implementation in a database management system (DBMS). Most of the conceptual modeling languages relate their conceptual entities with relationships, but relational database management systems solely rely on the notion of relations to model both, entities and relationships. To make things worse, real world objects are not static as assumed in such modeling languages, but change over time. Thus, modeling languages were enriched to model those scenarios, as well. However, mapping these models onto relational databases requires the use of object-relational mapping engines, which in turn hide the semantics of the conceptual model from the DBMS. Consequently, traditional relational database systems cannot directly ensure specific consistency constraints and thus lose their meaning as single point of truth for highly distributed information systems. To overcome these issues we have proposed RSQL, a data model and query language introducing role-based data structures in DBMSs. Despite the fact that RSQL is able to handle complex objects, it does not support relationships between those objects. Therefore, this work adds relationships to RSQL by augmenting the data model and extending its query language. As a result, this extension allows for the direct representation of conceptual models with complex objects and relationships in the DBMS. Thus, relationships can be directly addressed in queries and the DBMS automatically ensures relationship consistency constraints as well as cardinality. In sum, a DBMS equipped with the extended RSQL is apt for storing and querying conceptual models and thus regains its rightful position as the single point of truth for highly distributed information systems.


Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia are symptoms of disturbed perception, mood, behavior, and thought content that occurred frequently. These symptoms, which include apathy, depression, anxiety, psychosis, agitation, and aggression, can serve as predictors of and early clinical diagnostic markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are common precipitants of institutional care. Agitation and psychosis are associated with accelerated disease progression and increased tau phosphorylation in patients with AD. Current guidelines recommend the use of second-generation antipsychotics for the treatment of agitation and psychosis in AD, but only after first-line non-pharmacological interventions and for no longer than 12 weeks because long-term use of these drugs is associated with an increased risk of mortality and an increased frequency of cerebrovascular events. Therefore, new antipsychotic drugs with improved efficacy and safety are needed as an alternative to current antipsychotic drugs. In this report, we discuss some of the most relevant advances in the field of agitation and psychosis in AD and focus on the recent positive clinical evidence observed with two new antipsychotics drugs: brexpiprazole and pimavanserin. Brexpiprazole is a receptor partial agonist (D2, D3, 5-HT1A), receptor antagonist (5-HT2A/B, α1B/α2C) according to the neuroscience-based nomenclature. Two recent phase III clinical trials have shown that brexpiprazole 2 mg/day is effective for the treatment of agitation in patients with AD and has an improved tolerability and safety profile compared with currently available second-generation antipsychotics. Pimavanserin is a receptor antagonist (5-HT2A, 5-HT2C) that has been given market authorization for psychosis occurring in Parkinson's disease. Recent phase II studies suggest that this drug is effective in AD patients with more severe psychosis, although further long-term studies are needed to better define the efficacy and long-term safety profile of pimavanserin for the treatment of psychosis in AD.


One of the main problems associated with the application of sensors for continuous monitoring in the (aqueous) environment is related to biofouling of the sensitive membranes. Silicone rubber is the material of choice in optical and electrochemical sensors for oxygen monitoring. This material provides excellent oxygen permeability (300-400 x 10), but one of its main drawbacks arises from its high degree of biocompatibility as it behaves as an excellent support for all kinds of microorganisms originating a rapid fouling of the sensor head. We present herein the application of novel oxygen-sensitive luminescent membranes for optical fiber sensors aimed to overcome this undesirable limitation by integrating in their design new biofouling- resistant polymer coatings. Four different oxygen indicators have been synthesised and spectroscopically characterised for their application towards preparation of the sensitive membranes. The indicators belong to a family of luminescent ruthenium(II) and osmium(II) tris-chelate complexes with substituted and unsubstituted 1,10-phenanthroline. The indicator molecules have been immobilised into poly(dimethylsiloxane) or phosphorylcholine(PC)-containing polymer layers. Their emission lifetimes embedded into the different materials are comparable, pointing out a similar microenvironment of the luminescent probe in the tested polymers. Nevertheless the different oxygen sensitivity observed might be a consequence of a lower solubility of the analyte gas in the PC-containing materials compared to siloxanes. In a different study the effect of several siloxanes on the oxygen sensitivity of the indicator membranes has been evaluated, following the luminescence quenching process by steady-state and time-resolved measurements. The good agreement between both results (Stern-Volmer plots) indicates dynamic quenching of the photoexcited dye by the analyte. The selected silicone membranes have been coated with four different antibiofouling layers and their effect on the sensor response has been tested. Results will be presented showing the spectroscopic and analytical features of these optodes both in gas and aqueous phase. We have observed that the presence of PC coating decrease the oxygen response by 2-20% of that shown by the original (uncoated) membranes, regardless the type of coating applied. Several studies are in progress in order to evaluate the antifouling capabilities of the novel sensing layers


A Ferroelectric, two-terminals, analog memristive device is fabricated with a Back-End-Of-Line, CMOS compatible process. A bilayer composed of a ferroelectric material, HfZrO4 (HZO) and a semiconducting oxide, WOx layer is comprised between two TiN electrodes. The devices demonstrate reversible and remanent resistive switching, with a record endurance (>1010 switching cycles) and ON/OFF ratio up to 10. The analog resistive switching is obtained, with a cycle-to-cycle reproducibility of 90%. The synaptic behavior is explored with pulses of varying sign, length, or amplitude. For the scheme with constant pulse width the linearity coefficients for the potentiation and depression are −1.4 and 4. The dynamics of the resistive switching is shown to be governed by the ferroelectric domains switching. Finally, temperature dependent transport measurements indicate Ohmic conduction at low bias and Modified Schottky Emission at larger bias. They provide insights on the role of defects and oxygen vacancies in the transport and resistive switching mechanisms.


Abstract : The US Air Force has need of parabolic-shaped membrane mirrors for surveillance satellites. The current polymer membrane technology has been unable to overcome shape deformation problems caused by intrinsic stresses from the membrane casting and mounting processes. One proposed solution was to coat the membrane mirrors with a stressed coating to compensate for shape deformations. Thus, the research presented in this dissertation produced controlled-stress large-area pulsed laser deposition (PLD) grown thin films on polymer substrates and investigated optical time-of-flight (TOF) sensor systems and Raman spectroscopy for control for the PLD process with respect to thin film stress. Initially, the PLD-grown film stress was controlled using a constant combination of deposition parameters. Also, the velocity was extracted from the optical TOF data and indicated film stress. As such, the velocity was used to control the laser fluence in order to compensate for slight variations in deposition conditions, which improved the film stress run-to-run stability. Additionally, iterative and theoretical experiments produced large-area YSZ films with less than ten percent total thickness variations. Combining the controlled-stress and large-area aspects produced desirable compensations in shape to the polymer substrates. Finally, Raman spectroscopy was shown to be compatible with the PLD.


We show for rotational alignment of diatomic molecules that the crossover from nonadiabatic to adiabatic limits is well described by a convolution of excitation pulse envelope and sinusoidal molecular response and that it takes place in a uniform way in the region between 0.1 and 1 for the ratio of pulse duration to rotational period. In a nonresonant Raman-type excitation, this crossover is used to manipulate the $J$ composition of a rotational wave packet with respect to the initial thermal distribution. By optimizing the duration of a single pulse, arbitrarily narrow distributions at low $J$ levels can be formed. A double-pulse excitation, where a longer second pulse acts as a selective dump pulse, allows to prepare nonthermal distributions centered at high $J$ values. With the alignment signal on top of an isotropic background, experimental techniques sensitive to the induced anisotropy are optimally suited for implementation. To demonstrate the efficiency of the method, numerical simulations are carried out for rotational alignment in ${^{14}\text{N}}_{2}$ at various experimentally relevant laser intensities. The scheme is transferable to quantum systems with a significant variation in transition frequencies between subsequent levels.


We have reviewed the records of 25 patients who underwent a transmetatarsal amputation at San Francisco General Hospital. The average patient age was 63 years old. Twelve of the patients were diabetic, while transmetatarsal amputations were performed in eleven with simple arteriosclerosis. Two patients underwent amputations for either trauma or nonhealing ulcer. Thirteen of the patients healed their amputation, and twelve of these became ambulatory. Eleven required higher amputation, because of nonhealing due to infection in seven and progressive ischemia in four. One patient died on the first postoperative day of pneumonia. The failure group was younger, contained more diabetics, and had a higher incidence of infection. The operative procedure of transmetatarsal amputation is described. We believe that patients with distal gangrene without spreading infection should be considered for transmetatarsal amputation, reserving initial below-knee amputation for those with greater involvement of the foot.


Relationship Between Episodic Memory Formation and Two Minds Muneo Kitajima National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Makoto Toyota T-Method Kohzoh Yoshino National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Sayaka Matsumoto National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Hirotsugu Tahira U'eyes Design Inc. Ryohei Miyaji U'eyes Design Inc. Abstract: This paper presents evidence that even if two individuals exhibit similar reactions caused by their autonomous nervous systems towards the same external stimuli, one may form a memory that can be recalled consciously, whereas the other may form a memory that cannot be processed consciously. We had fifteen monitors watch films, and we recorded their heart rates. Two monitors exhibited similar autonomous nervous system reactions, measured by HR, to the same films. We conducted interviews and compared their episodic memory about the films that both watched. One monitor was able to verbalize in detail her behavior, whereas the other could recall little of what he had watched. We suggest that this phenomenon can be explained by assuming that for the two monitors System1 of Two Minds worked similarly to external stimuli, whereas System2 worked differently for each monitor, affecting the formation of episodic memory in terms of conscious recallability.


Plasmon induced transparency (PIT) could be realized in metamaterials via interference between different resonance modes. Within the sharp transparency window, the high dispersion of the medium may lead to remarkable slow light phenomena and an enhanced nonlinear effect. However, the transparency mode is normally localized in a narrow frequency band, which thus restricts many of its applications. Here we present the simulation, implementation, and measurement of a broadband PIT metamaterial functioning in the terahertz regime. By integrating four U-shape resonators around a central bar resonator, a broad transparency window across a frequency range greater than 0.40 THz is obtained, with a central resonance frequency located at 1.01 THz. Such PIT metamaterials are promising candidates for designing slow light devices, highly sensitive sensors, and nonlinear elements operating over a broad frequency range.


In tropical forests, RIL has been tested and appliedon a small scale for more than a decade. Various timber-producing countries in Asia and the Pacific have recognized its potential for advancing sustainable forest management. Yet many questions remain and the lack of sound and appropriate information continues to impede the widespread application of RIL. This book helps fill that critical information gap. It includes a wealth of information that was presented during the International conference on the application of reduced impact logging to advance sustainable forest management, 26 February to 1 March 2001, Kuching, Malaysia. The conference assessed past and ongoing efforts to implement RIL and considered options for future application. It reflects an important milestone in the efforts to improve forest management in the region. While acknowledging that considerable challenges lie ahead, it provides reason for cautious optimism concerning the wider application of RIL in the future.


The public-private sector wage gap in Scotland in 2000 is analysed using the extension sample of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). Employing an endogenous switching model, and testing for double sample selection from the participation decision and sector choice, the unadjusted wage gap is shown to be 10 per cent for males and 24 per cent for females. For males this is mainly due to differences in productive characteristics and selectivity. For females the picture is more ambiguous. Findings also suggest that there exists a substantial wage premium for male private sector employees. While there is no evidence of a sample selection bias for females, the sector choice of males is systematically correlated with unobservables. Furthermore, the structural switching regression indicates that expected wage differentials between sectors are an important driving force for sectoral assignment.


This essay analyzes how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is likely to address the new security environment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It investigates how factors internal and external to the alliance shape the possibilities and limits for its ambition to strengthen and develop its regional partnerships in order to enhance security and stability there. NATO's ambitions are likely to be hampered by competing priorities within the alliance, as the as the members are increasingly facing diverging interests and financial austerity as well as domestic political change and regional rivalries in the MENA region.


The CyberInfrastructure (CI) has been the object of intensive research and development in the last decade, resulting in a rich set of abstractions and interoperable software implementations that are used in production today for supporting ongoing and breakthrough scientific discoveries. A key challenge is the development of tools and application execution frameworks that are robust in current and emerging CI configurations, and that can anticipate the needs of upcoming CI applications. This paper presents WRENCH, a framework that enables simulation-driven engineering for evaluating and developing CI application execution frameworks. WRENCH provides a set of high-level simulation abstractions that serve as building blocks for developing custom simulators. These abstractions rely on the scalable and accurate simulation models that are provided by the SimGrid simulation framework. Consequently, WRENCH makes it possible to build, with minimum software development effort, simulators that that can accurately and scalably simulate a wide spectrum of large and complex CI scenarios. These simulators can then be used to evaluate and/or compare alternate platform, system, and algorithm designs, so as to drive the development of CI solutions for current and emerging applications.


Sixty patients of ages ranging from 11 to 64, with chronic urticaria from 2 months to 50 years duration, were studied with the provocation test. We found responses in 33.3% of patients. Tartrazine was the most common inducer, specially in those patients sensitive to aspirin with increased salicilate blood levels. As we did not use aspirin as inducer the results with tartrazine are more relevant and can be used to detect a positive response to aspirin. The relation between tartrazine and aspirin was not observed in patients with pressure or cholinergic urticaria. The provocation test is most useful in patients with chronic urticaria of unknown cause. 4 hydroxybenzoic acid and sodium acid and sodium benzoate were the more common inducers in the latter patients. We feel that the provocation test is a useful tool to study patients with chronic urticaria. Tartrazine, 4 hydroxybenzoic acid, sodium benzoate, tiramin and penicilin are included in the test. The responders should eliminate the offender from their diet.


Introduction: Surrogacy is an assisted reproductive technology (ART) in which the surrogate mother accepts to host the baby of another in her uterus. Despite the advantages of surrogacy, it has given rise to certain ethical and legal issues. Thus, the aim of the present study was the evaluation of emotional transformation, anxiety, and expectancy among pregnant surrogate mothers. Method: This qualitative research was conducted based on phenomenological approach. The study population consisted of all pregnant surrogate mothers referring to Isfahan Fertility and Infertility Center, Iran, in 2014. Through purposive sampling method, 5 women were selected. Data were collected using deep and unstructured interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi's method. The reliability and validity of this study was approved based on the 4 elements of dependability, credibility, transferability, and conformability. Results: The mean age of participants was 32.4 years. Through analysis of interviews, 39 primary codes were extracted. The primary codes were categorized into secondary codes. They consisted of 2 themes of emotional transformation in the donor and recipient (emotional transformation) 4 themes of anxiety in the simultaneous motherhood roles, apathy of the receiver, shame and fear of people close to the donor (anxiety), and 3 themes of trust in God, anticipation of the end of the pregnancy, and hope for the resolution of financial problems (expectancy). Thus, the experience of emotional transformation, anxiety, and expectancy by pregnant surrogate mothers was approved. Conclusion: Support systems should be strengthened in Iran so that derelict women have insurance and are not compelled to donate ovum and become surrogates several times. The exploitation of these women and damage to their human dignity should be prevented, and education is the best way to prevent this exploitation.


The need for attention to the different types of informational supports for a preservation of its information and consequently, its relation with the memory of a place or event with the object of numerous works among the researchers, of the area of organization of knowledge, referring to photographic documents. These, in turn, are inserted in the narratives of investigations, historical research on places and facts, and the possibility of knowing the traditions of what is as well as a city, an organization or even a social organization of a nation. In this sense, the obligation of treatment and preservation are urgent factors, since the treatment of photographic documents both in their physical aspects (preservation, adequate packaging, etc.) and in their intellectual aspect (treatment in relation to content, retrieval and user) is of almost importance for the retrieval of your information. This recovery permeates concepts that result in a deepening and knowledge of the fundamentals of descriptive and thematic representation areas. In a way, the deepening of the foundations demonstrates the role that the Knowledge organization fulfills: the direct work with the information and the study of the processes to which this information is submitted until it reaches its recipients, considering the elaboration of conceptual models with recovery purposes. Therefore, the treatment of the content (intrinsic or extrinsic) of the documents from the descriptive process, with metadata and thematic directly influences the recovery and assimilation by the users. Thus, the descriptive and thematic treatment are complex activities that require deepening and policies, where they are specified exactly the relevant elements for their realization considering, that this type of document can not be treated separately in a collection, but has its characteristics and specificities. In this way, this workshop seeks to conduct a discussion about the fundamentals of Representation and Organization of Information and Knowledge and how they are used in Archives, Libraries, Museums and Documentation Centers. For this, thematic representation and metadata are highlighted in the debate, since they are key processes that directly affect the organization, reception and retrieval of these documents. The understanding that all norms in force in different informational environments can encompass singular objects, such as photographic documents is extremely important in the sense of constructing a reflection regarding different ambiences such as Archives, Libraries, Museums and Documentation Centers and to the treatment which is carried out by each one, considering their specificities.


Q banding of chromosome preparations from lake trout revealed the presence of heteromorphic quinacrine bright bands on several chromosomes. All of the metacentric chromosome pairs can be distinguished on the basis of number, position and intensity of the quinacrine bright bands and chromosome size. These bands appear to represent heterochromatin, since they are darkly staining with the C band technique. Since all of the fish examined had consistent heteromorphisms at several of the quinacrine bright bands, these chromosome markers should be useful in genetic comparisons between different trout stocks and populations.


Outstanding progress has been made in high-power laser technology in the last 10 years with laser powers reaching petawatt (PW) values. At present, there are 15 PW lasers built or being built around the world and plans are afoot for new, even higher power, lasers reaching values of exawatt (EW) or even zetawatt (ZW) powers. Petawatt lasers generate electric fields of 1012 V m−1 with a large fraction of the total pulse energy being converted to relativistic electrons with energies reaching in excess of 1 GeV. In turn these electrons result in the generation of beams of protons, heavy ions, neutrons and high-energy photons. These laser-driven particle beams have encouraged many to think of carrying out experiments normally associated with conventional nuclear accelerators and reactors. To this end a number of introductory articles have been written under a trial name 'Laser Nuclear Physics' (Ledingham and Norreys 1999 Contemp. Phys. 40 367, Ledingham et al 2002 Europhys. News. 33 120, Ledingham et al 2003 Science 300 1107, Takabe et al 2001 J. Plasma Fusion Res. 77 1094). However, even greater strides have been made in the last 3 or 4 years in laser technology and it is timely to reassess the potential of laser-driven particle and photon beams. It must be acknowledged right from the outset that to date laser-driven particle beams have yet to compete favourably with conventional nuclear accelerator-generated beams in any way and so this is not a paper comparing laser and conventional accelerators. However, occasionally throughout the paper as a reality check, it will be mentioned what conventional nuclear accelerators can do.


The adherence of polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) to nylon fibre was investigated in patients with Crohn's disease, ulcerative proctocolitis, and anorexia nervosa, and compared with changes of circulating PMNs, C reactive protein concentrations, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and clinical assessment of disease activity. PMN adherence was in excess of the maximum value detected for healthy subjects in 14 of 25 patients with Crohn's disease and two of 10 with proctocolitis, but it was within the normal range for all eight with anorexia nervosa. High adherence in Crohn's disease, however, was not associated with quantitative or qualitative changes of PMN populations, absolute concentrations of C reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, disease severity, drug regimens, malnutrition, or zinc deficiency. High PMN adherence in Crohn's disease may therefore reflect the activation in vivo of normal PMN by humoral factors.


In the past two decades, many branches of science have shifted from individually oriented research toward team-based scientific collaboration. 1-3 Teams of researchers representing different disciplines are often brought together to better solve large-scale and often urgent problems of scientific, societal, and environmental relevance. In addition to combined subject matter expertise and the team's disciplinary composition, many contex- tual factors such as antecedent conditions, collaborative processes, and support technologies as well as a host of social factors such as team size and organizational complexity can directly influence outcomes in team-based research. From this perspective, emerging research on team science aims at better understanding the key contextual factors related to transdisciplinary scientific collaboration processes and enhancing the outcomes of large-scale collaborative research programs. More specifically, team-science research combines problem-solving frameworks, specialized expertise, and research methods across disciplinary boundaries to help produce high-impact science.


This guide has been created to help you complete your research project with the use of library materials which were discussed in your library instruction class. Choose a topic for your research essay


Both sex--the biologic aspects of being female or male--and gender--the cultural roles and meanings ascribed to each sex--are determinants of health. Medical education, research and practice have all suffered from a lack of attention to gender and a limited awareness of the effects of the sex-role stereotypes prevalent in our society. The Women's Health Interschool Curriculum Committee of Ontario has developed criteria for assessing the gender sensitivity of medical curricula. In this article, the effects of medicine's historical blindness to gender are explored, as are practical approaches to creating curricula whose content, language and process are gender-sensitive. Specific areas addressed include ensuring that women and men are equally represented, when appropriate, that men are not portrayed as the prototype of normal (and women as deviant), that language is inclusive and that women's health and illness are not limited to reproductive function. By eliminating or at least addressing the subtle and often unintentional gender stereotyping in lecture material, illustrations and problems used in problem-based learning, medical educators can undertake a much-needed transformation of curriculum.


A performance evaluation model based on DEA with worst decision-making units is constructed, which meets the need of the performance evaluation of systems engineering with a number of similar samples, multi-input and multi-output. It achieves the goal of making total order for the objective evaluation of the decision-making assessment. Potential to influence decision-making units of the system point of view have been proposed, based on the DEA model to basically achieve the objective comparison of various decision-making units. The effective decision-making unit of the system leading to the potential losses based on DEA are taken into account. Because the DEA (CCR) with weak efficient decision making units leads to that the potential loss of value are zero for the system, we set the worst decision-making units corresponding to these DMUs e-evaluation based on the DEA model. Finally, by utilizing model to the practical cost-effectiveness evaluation of 15 institutions of higher education in Henan province, the advantages of the whole evaluation and decision in this model are shown.


In this paper, a new evolutionary learning algorithm is proposed by hybridizing the Taguchi method and chaos artificial bee colony (CABC). The algorithm is thus called HTCABC. First, the chaos search algorithm and adaptive bound method is adopted to improve the ABC performance and convergence rate. Then, the Taguchi method and crossover operation are incorporated into the CABC to produce good food sources, thus accelerating the search capacity. The Taguchi method has also been utilized to establish a proper balance between the exploration and exploitation by incorporating the information from the best global solution into the solution search equation. Third, the natural phenomenon of the elite strategy is adopted and the recruitment of new scout bees is used for HTCABC, which can have a rapid convergence rate maintain the diversity of the population, and escape from local optima. Additionally, there is no complex parameter setting in the algorithm design. Therefore, the HTCABC can be a more robust, quickly convergent and more accurate optimal solution. Finally, the algorithm is examined by using a set of benchmarks and the proposed approach is effectively applied to solve the parameter identification of a chaotic system. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than the existing algorithm reported in the literature.


This book explores the much maligned and misunderstood genre of declamation. Instead of a bastard rhetoric, declamation should be seen as a venue within which the rhetoric of the legitimate self is constructed. These fictions of the self are uncannily real, and these stagey dramas are in fact rehearsals for the serious play of Roman identity. Critics of declamation find themselves recapitulating the very logic of the genre they are refusing. When declamation is read in the light of the contemporary theory of the subject a wholly different picture emerges: this is a canny game played with and within the rhetoric of the self. This book makes broad claims for what is often seen as a narrow topic. An appendix includes a fresh translation and brief discussion of a sample of surviving examples of declamation.


In Southeast Brazil. Ribeira Valley region has been a major public health concern due to the environmental heavy metals contamination indexes of vegetation, rocks and aquifers. caused by local mining in the past. Human contamination by low levels of heavy metals doesn't cause acute intoxication but in chronic exposure. renal damage may occur with progressive tubulointerstitial changes evolving to glomerular lesion. In this study we investigated the relationship between the profile of urinary excreted proteins (glomerular or tubular origin) of arsenic and mercury and blood lead concentration in children and adults from highly exposed regions of the Ribeira Valley. The subjects were classified as GROUP 1 (G1; higher environmental risk, n=333) and GROUP 2 (G2; lower risk of contamination. n=104) In order to determine the urinary excretion of total protein, albumin (MA. glomerular marker) and alpha 1 microglobulin (A1M, tubular marker) and the blood lead concentrations, random urine and blood samples were obtained. Plasmatic lead levels were assessed by atomic absorption spectrometry with graphite furnace. Total protein concentration (PROT) was assessed on a biochemical analyzer (pyrogallol red method). MA and AIM were determined by nephelometric method. Group 1 showed a higher frequency of altered urinary excretion of PROT (G1=34%; G2=1.0%), MA (G1=9.0%; G2=51%) and AIM (G1=7.5%; G2=3.8%), without significant differences between both groups. Elevated arsenic levels were more prevalent among subjects from Group 1 (28.8%) and demonstrated a significant correlation with abnormal urinary excretion of albumin and alpha-1-micrglobulin (p -0.019). Lead and mercury levels showed no difference among the groups and no correlation with MA and/or Al M. Our data suggests that abnormal urinary protein excretion is relatively frequent in this population independently of the plasmatic or urinary heavy metal levels. The early detection of possible renal damage become necessary for effective measures can be taken to prevent clinical nephropothies.


This report describes a series of cyclic tests on a yielding shear panel device of the form proposed by U. Dorka (unpublished) at the University of Kassel, Germany. The device consists of a short length of square hollow section (SHS) with a diaphragm plate welded inside it. It is positioned between the braces and the main members of a braced frame, with the diaphragm lying in the plane of the frame, so that it is loaded in pure shear as the frame undergoes lateral deformation. An extensive series of tests on 100 mm square dissipative devices mounted in a single-storey, planar, K-braced frame was successfully performed, under both monotonic and cyclic loads. The devices proved easy and cheap to manufacture, fit, remove and replace. All the devices tested yielded at quite low deformations and sustained very large ductilities without failure. The load carried by the device continued to increase after yield, with a ratio of maximum force carried to yield force of around 1.7 in most tests. While a device with a 2 mm diaphragm appeared to offer the maximum energy dissipation capacity, thinner devices were prone to buckling and to fracture under repeated large- amplitude cycling. A thickness of 3 mm (i.e. thickness to breadth ratio of 0.03) is recommended as offering the best combination of dissipative capacity and robustness. A 3 mm device dissipated approximately 1.3 kJ of energy when the frame in which it was fitted underwent a single displacement cycle of amplitude 30 mm. It is concluded that these devices offer a simple, cheap and robust way of dissipating significant amounts of energy in seismically loaded frames. Some improvements to the rig design and suggestions for further work are offered in section 4.6.


Potassium tert-butoxide-promoted aerobic oxidation of N-alkyl iminium salts is reported. The reaction is atom-economical and environmentally friendly. Iminium salts derived from isoquinoline, quinoline, phenanthridine, phenanthroline, and phthalazine were successfully transformed into their corresponding unsaturated lactams with up to 95% yield under mild conditions in the absence of photocatalysts and metallic or organic catalysts. Owing to the general substrate scope, low cost, feasibility of scale up, wide availability of reagents, and green reaction conditions, this method shows great potential for preparing isoquinolones and related compounds. The method was applied for atom- and step-economical total synthesis of natural products such as norketoyobyrine.


This paper generalizes the iterated greedy algorithm to solve a multi-objective facility location problem known as the Bi-objective p-Center and p-Dispersion problem ( B p C D ). The new algorithm is coined as Multi-objective Parallel Iterated Greedy (MoPIG) and optimizes more than one objective at the same time. The B p C D seeks to locate p facilities to service or cover a set of n demand points, and the goal is to minimize the maximum distance between facilities and demand points and, at the same time, maximize the minimum distance between all pairs of selected facilities. Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm over the evolutionary algorithms NSGA-II, MOEA/D, and the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2), comparing them with the optimal solution found by the ϵ -constraint method.


Previously, we demonstrate a novel gene, nuclear receptor interaction protein (NRIP, also named as DCAF6 or IQWD1). We also identify NRIP as a Ca2+- dependent calmodulin binding protein that activates calcineurin phosphatase activity. To investigate insights into in vivo function of NRIP, we generated NRIP-null mice and found that loss of NRIP impairs cardiac function and lead to cardiac hypertrophy progressively. Furthermore, NRIP-/- mice display weaker muscle strength, reduced cardiac function, and cardiac fibrosis compared with WT. To verify the regulation mechanism, we found that α-actinin-2 (ACTN2), which is a biomarker of muscular Z-disc complex, is one of NRIP-interacting proteins from the yeast two-hybrid system. ACTN2 cross-links with actin filament to stabilize sarcomeric structure and muscle contraction, which is an essential constituent of sarcomere. Through the in vitro and in vivo binding assays, we further confirm the interaction and define the interacting domains between NRIP and ACTN2. Plus co-localization of NRIP and ACTN2 is discovered in cardiac tissue by immunofluorescence assays, we firstly define NRIP as a Z-disc protein. Although the Z-disc has been viewed as a passive constituent of the sarcomere traditionally, increasing numbers of mutations in Z-disc proteins leading to disruption and malfunction of the contractile apparatus have been shown to cause cardiomyopathies and/or muscular dystrophies. Hence, we analyzed the sarcomeric structure of NRIP-/- cardiomyocytes and found reduction of I-band width and extension of Z-disc. Besides, we know that NRIP is a Ca2+- dependent calmodulin binding protein. In cardiomyocytes, calmodulin interacts with multiple calcium ion channels or proteins to directly or indirectly regulate the variation of calcium concentration during muscle contraction. Therefore, we isolated and measured the calcium transient of cardiomyocytes. Then, we found that deficiency of NRIP decreases the amplitude of calcium transient. In a conclusion, we speculated that loss of NRIP impairs the structure of sarcomere, the amplitude of calcium transient during muscle contraction and the function of muscle contraction resulting in cardiomyopathy.


As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation to and integration with adjacent local communities. In developing countries with weak enforcement of property rights, private plantations are more likely than state-owned plantations to involve villagers in plantation's activities in order to secure and guarantee their access to land and labor resources. Certification standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and adherence to responsible investment guidelines further strengthen this likelihood by requiring plantations to consult and engage local communities. Using household data from Tanzania, we assess households' experiences with their participation in plantation activities by comparing the experiences of households in villages adjacent to private, FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to a non-certified, state-owned plantation. Our quantitative analyses show that households in the villages adjacent to the private, certified plantations are more likely to report to participate in plantation activities. Our results show that the certified plantations are more likely to respond to community complaints and grievances. We further find that male-headed households and households of plantation employees are more likely than female-headed households and households without plantation employees to participate in plantations' activities. Our results imply that forest management certification can complement state policy approaches of sustainable forest management to enhance community participation in forest management.


The influence of Quaternary climate oscillations on the diversification of the South American fauna is being increasingly explored. However, most of these studies have focused on taxa that are endemic to tropical environments, and relatively few have treated organisms restricted to subtropical biomes. Here we used an integrative phylogeographical framework to investigate the effects of these climate events on the ecological niche and genetic patterns of the subtropical orb-weaver spider Araneus omnicolor (Araneidae). We analyzed the mitochondrial (Cytochrome Oxidase I, COI) and nuclear (Internal Transcribed Subunit II, ITS2) DNA of 130 individuals throughout the species' range, and generated distribution models in three different climate scenarios [present, Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and Last Interglacial Maximum (LIG)]. Additionally, we used an Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) approach to compare possible demographic scenarios and select the hypothesis that better explains the genetic patterns of A. omnicolor. We obtained high haplotype diversity but low nucleotide variation among sequences. The population structure and demographic analyses showed discrepancies between markers, suggesting male-biased dispersal in the species. The time-calibrated COI phylogenetic inference showed a recent diversification of lineages (Middle/Late Pleistocene), while the paleoclimate modeling indicated niche stability since ~120 Kya. The ABC results agreed with the niche models, supporting a panmictic population as the most likely historical scenario for the species. These results indicate that A. omnicolor experienced no niche or population reductions during the Late Pleistocene, despite the intense landscape modifications that occurred in the subtropical region, and that other factors beside LGM and LIG climate oscillations might have contributed to the demographic history of this species. This pattern may be related to the high dispersal ability and wide environmental tolerance of A. omnicolor, highlighting the need for more phylogeographical studies with invertebrates and other generalist taxa, in order to understand the effects of Quaternary climate changes on Neotropical biodiversity.


This article explores the different ways in which literary texts can help us negotiate our sense of `home' and `belonging' with respect to the complex intersection of our national, regional and gendered identities. Writing at a time when the map of Europe is being radically redrawn vis-a-vis the European Union (EU) and the future of the nation state, the author attempts to take us `inside' the emotional and cognitive processes by which she, and other feminist colleagues, have struggled to produce a locational identity that is meaningful to them. As well as revealing the usefulness of national and regional literatures in this process, the article also shows how a `strategic' use of autobiography can help mediate the complexity of our positioning.


The simulation of a system designed to image the nonlinearity parameter B/A is discussed. The algorithm entails the interaction of a pump and probe pulse, taking into account nonlinear distortion and absorption of the acoustic energy. Simulations are performed for both waterlike and highly attenuative media. Different pump and probe waveforms are studied. It is shown that broadband impulsive pump waveforms in general lead to the best estimates of the nonlinearity parameter. Another alternative providing good resolution was a broadband chirp pump of considerably longer duration. The resolution of the simulated images obtained from the coherent probe waveform was directly proportional to the probe frequency. The highly attenuative media altered the shape of the pump substantially, but in the case of the chirp pump the reconstructed images were not significantly degraded.<<ETX>>


Approaching the subjects of child safeguarding and children through a theological lens, the author shows the devastating scale, impact, and ramifications of the Catholic Church's failures in safeguarding children, which become apparent in the current child abuse scandals, and how this crisis creates an opportunity to bring the child (back) into the church's focus. This leads to a focus on core reasons or factors for the scandals and how these are linked to a lack of attention given to children in the scientific thought of the church. There exists a lacuna in systematic theology when it comes to children, but one can find promising theological grounds for exploring and promoting a more child-centric theology and church culture.


Abstract In the last decades, anaerobic digestion facilities for the treatment of organic solid waste have become widespread throughout Europe, since anaerobic process provides a suitable treatment for this kind of waste as well as the possibility to recover energy from the produced biogas, which is mainly composed of methane. Recently anaerobic processes of organic residues are also being studied for bio-hydrogen production. Among the factors affecting the mass transfer in each biological step of anaerobic digestion, both the composition and the quality of the substrate play a fundamental role. According to the kind of substrate, pretreatments can be used in order to optimise biological process yields. Aim of this work is to review the major classes of chemical, physical and biological pretreatments of organic solid residues, with particular reference to the ones applied to the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and its prevailing constituents. Therefore, main characteristics of OFMSW are provided, experimental results are compared and technologies are reported in order to identify the state of art of organic solid waste pretreatments, at both research and industrial level, as well as to point out the likely areas of future research in this field.


Bipolar electric fatigue in antiferroelectrics of the lead zirconate titanate stannate ceramics family was investigated. Variations in strain hysteresis loops and damages in microstructure of the materials due to the electric cycling were analyzed. The materials showed symmetric or asymmetric suppression of strain hysteresis loop, normal or diffuse AFE-FE phase transition and intact or damaged microstructure after 5×10-7 cycles, indicating a strong composition dependent fatigue effect and the corresponding mechanism. In general, the antiferroelectric materials exhibited much higher fatigue resistance than ferroelectric ceramics reported previously.


Callose plays important roles in a variety of processes of plant development, and/or in a response to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses. In the current work we have studied and compared the effect of lead, cadmium and arsenic on accumulation of newly formed callose deposits in the roots of maize and soybean. We observed formation of characteristic callose deposits in the root cell walls, probably associated with plasmodesmata, depending on the type of metal and the plant species investigated. Further, the callose turnover was analysed by measuring of total callose content as well as activities of total β-(1,3)-glucanases in roots. The latter enzymes are responsible for callose depletion, and their possible role during metal stress has previously been proposed. However, neither of these biochemical values appeared to be sufficiently reliable for scoring the altered callose turnover (including local deposits) in plant tissue. The microscopical observations are discussed in light of the biochemical data obtained.


Background Panitumumab is a human monoclonal antibody indicated in the treatment of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) that is currently being tested in otolaryngology (ENT) tumours. Recent studies suggest that hypomagnesaemia ( Purpose To review the effectiveness of panitumumab and its possible relationship with hypomagnesaemia. Materials and Methods Retrospective observational study that included all patients treated with panitumumab in a tertiary hospital. The primary endpoint of effectiveness was overall survival (OS), calculated using the Kaplan Meier method. We examined anthropometric data, diagnosis, treatment duration and, in patients whose magnesium had been determined during panitumumab treatment, we also studied the causes of termination and adverse reactions. Results During the study period (August 2008–October 2012) 72 patients were treated, who had an average baseline age of 63 (SD:11) years and were mostly male (56%). At the end of the study 47% of patients were alive and 44% of them are still being treated with panitumumab. Diagnosis of 89% of patients was CRC, while 8 ENT cancer patients were enrolled in a clinical trial. The average length of treatment was 4.9 (SD:5.7) months and 7.7 (SD:6.4) cycles/patient were administered. Magnesium levels were only determined in 13 patients, hypomagnesaemia being detected in 6 patients (ENT:3, CCR:3) and normomagnesaemia in the remaining 7 (ENT:5, CCR:2). Treatment with panitumumab was stopped in 6 patients due to disease progression. Two patients had to reduce the dose due to severe skin toxicity. The OS was calculated in all patients [hypomagnesaemia: 9.5 (95CI:4.9–14.0) vs. normomagnesaemia 8.2 (95CI:4.2–12.3) months (p:0.703)] and in the ENT tumours subgroup [hypomagnesaemia: 13 (95CI:9.3–16.7) vs. normomagnesaemia 4.8 (95CI:2.9–6.8) months (p:0.127)]. Conclusions Despite the low magnesium determinations we observed a trend to greater OS in hypomagnesaemic patients. Further studies are needed to confirm this trend. No conflict of interest.


The Fight for the Right to Food: Lessons Learned is written by the first United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and his team at the Research Unit on the Right to Food, which was founded in 2001 at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in Geneva with the remit of providing research support to the Special Rapporteur in collaboration with staff at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The book documents the work undertaken by the first Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food during his eight-year mandate and combines legal, theoretical and conceptual ideas of the right to food with an operational understanding of the right in practice. Although there have been a number of notable texts published previously on the human right to food (see Kent, 2005; Eide and Kracht (eds), 2005), this book is important as it offers more than a discussion of the legal provisions for the right to food: the authors not only examine the right to food under human rights law, but explore the wider context in which the right to food operates. This includes an essential examination of the concept of food security and its relationship with the right to food as well as analysing the impact of international political and economic phenomena, such as globalization, international trade liberalization and armed conflict, on the realization of the right.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To determine the efficacy of a nursing intervention based on self-regulation theory known as the Attentional Focus and Symptom Management Intervention (AFSMI) in enhancing physical and emotional well-being in women who underwent day surgery for breast cancer.

DESIGN
Randomized clinical block trial; subjects were randomly allocated to the experimental group (n = 61) or the usual care (control) group (n = 56). Subjects in the experimental group received the AFSMI during two phone sessions, at 3-4 days and 10-11 days after surgery.

SETTING
The convenience sample was drawn from five regional centers located in different geographic areas (urban and rural regions) in Quebec, Canada.

SAMPLE
117 patients with primary breast cancer who underwent day surgery as part of their initial treatment for cancer.

METHODS
Data collection and nursing intervention via telephone interviews.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Functional status and emotional distress.

FINDINGS
Significant differences between the experimental and control group were found at post-test on home management, total mood disturbance, confusion, and tension scores.

CONCLUSIONS
The AFSMI was effective in reducing emotional distress and enhancing physical functioning.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Findings validate the use of the self-regulation model in designing individualized nursing interventions. Redirecting attention and focusing on concrete objective features hold potential in developing other innovative nursing interventions.


Background Paraoxonase-1 (PON1), a glycoprotein associated with serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL), has a central role in metabolizing lipid peroxides, exhibiting antiatherogenic properties. The polymorphism p.Q192R has been previously associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) susceptibility and clopidogrel response. Purpose We aimed at investigating the association of PON1 p.Q192R with CAD and clopidogrel response in Colombian population. Patients and Methods The study was conducted among 163 patients diagnosed with CAD and treated with clopidogrel. The allele frequencies for the PON1 192Q and 192R alleles were determined in cases and Latin-American controls obtained from the public database gnomAD (n = 17,711). Response to clopidogrel was determined by assessing the platelet function using the INNOVANCE PFA-200 System. We determined the association between PON1 p.Q192R polymorphism, increased susceptibility to CAD and high on-treatment platelet reactivity (HPR) by using odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) on four genetic models. Results The allele frequencies for the PON1 192Q and 192R alleles were 0.60 and 0.40, respectively. The allele distribution was found to be statistically different from the control group and other ethnic groups. The allele 192R was positively associated with decreased susceptibility to CAD under a dominant model (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.42–0.8; P < 0.01). We found no association between the polymorphism and HPR. Conclusion We propose that PON1 p.Q192R is a potentially useful marker for CAD susceptibility in the Colombian population and lacks association with HPR under clopidogrel treatment.


This paper presents an analysis of the decentralization process that has been taking place in Bolivia over the last couple of decades. It starts with a review of the legal framework that determines the distribution of responsibilities and financial resources to the sub-national governments (9 departments and 339 municipalities), and continues with an analysis of the evolution and distribution of financing to these entities between 2001 and 2013. It then proceeds to describe the resulting progress in social indicators between 2001 and 2012 at the municipal level, and identifies the main remaining gaps in basic services by 2012. Finally, the paper offers an analysis of the factors that are most closely associated with progress in the main social indicator used by the Bolivian government – the Unsatisfied Basic Needs index. This provides the basis for a final section on recommendations for public investment in Bolivia.


This paper explores the implementation and experience of refugee resettlement in Brazil and Chile by focusing on the main limits and opportunities of regional 'solidarity', the principle on which the programme is based. By analysing how the notion of solidarity is understood in the context of resettlement in Latin America, I review the programme at two levels. First, at the regional level, I focus on the programmes in both Brazil and Chile, to assess resettlement as an instrument of international cooperation and responsibility sharing. At the local level, I look at refugees' residency status and access to rights. I focus here on the resettlement of Colombian and Palestinian refugees in both countries. Exploring resettlement through the lens of solidarity, allows us to understand the nuances and multiple dimensions of resettlement. This is timely, as countries of the Southern Cone of Latin America are identified as 'emerging resettlement countries' and expected to increase their resettlement intake. The findings discussed in this paper show that resettlement should aim for a complementary understanding of solidarity in order to improve the quality of the programme, as well as expanding its scope and capacity.


In his commentary on winning public and political regulatory support for safe agricultural products derived from biotechnology, Prof Yilmaz invokes Aesop's fable, posing a metaphorical pro-science tortoise racing against an anti-science hare, concluding that the role of the slow tortoise is the preferred one, as the chelonian, backed by science, plods along to ultimately win the race. If only life were a fairy tale. In countering Prof Yilmaz's conclusion, I'm happy to adopt his tortoise and hare metaphor in illustrating the problems the agbiotech communities, both private and public, industry and academic, encountered in real life.


Full adders (FAs) are essential for digital circuits including microprocessors, digital signal processors, and microcontrollers . Both the power consumption and the reliability of FAs are crucial as they directly affect: arithmetic logic units, floating-point units, as well as memory address calculations. This paper studies the effect threshold voltage (VTH) variations play on the reliability of a classical 28- transistor FA, and shows that reliability can be enhanced without increasing the occupied area, and while also reducing power consumption. An enabling transistor sizing scheme is used to improve on reliability without increasing power consumption (as reducing and limiting currents). The proposed FA in 16nm predictive technology model (PTM) is significantly more reliable (six orders of magnitude in case of Cout, and three orders of magnitude in case of Sum at 10% input variations) and dissipates 38× less than a classical FA, while being 6× slower.


This study deals with an individual modeling method that directly produces a finite element model from the multisliced images. The basic modeling method is to divide an objective shape with small tetrahedral elements. This paper addresses a new method that automatically controls element size according to shape of the object. For the automated modeling, "form factor" is introduced. The form factor indicates degree of complexity of objective. The factor is easily obtained by a simple calculation specified in a local inspected region of a sliced image. The new method produces a finite element model with variable element size. To validate the method, we perform stress analyses using a plate model with a circular hole. We also apply this method to a part of bone including cortical and cancellous bone. The proposed method finely expresses the bony part with small number of element maintaining high precision.


One important metaphor, referred to biological theories, used to investigate on organizational and business strategy issues is the metaphor about heredity; an area requiring further investigation is the extent to which the characteristics of blueprints inherited from the parent, helps in explaining subsequent development of the spawned ventures. In order to shed a light on the tension between inherited patterns and the new trajectory that may characterize spawned ventures' development we propose a model aimed at investigating which blueprints elements might exert an effect on business model design choices and to which extent their persistence (or abandonment) determines subsequent business model innovation.
Under the assumption that academic and corporate institutions transmit different genes to their spin-offs, we hence expect to have heterogeneity in elements that affect business model design choices and its subsequent evolution. This is the reason why we carry on a twofold analysis in the biotech (meta)industry: under a multiple-case research design, business model and especially its fundamental design elements and themes scholars individuated to decompose the construct, have been thoroughly analysed. Our purpose is to isolate the dimensions of business model that may have been the object of legacy and the ones along which an experimentation and learning process is more likely to happen, bearing in mind that differences between academic and corporate might not be that evident as expected, especially considering that business model innovation may occur.


Society uses law to encourage people to behave differently than they would behave in the absence of law. This fundamental purpose makes law highly dependent on sound understandings of the multiple causes of human behavior. The better those understandings, the better law can achieve social goals with legal tools. In this Article, Professors Jones and Goldsmith argue that many long held understandings about where behavior comes from are rapidly obsolescing as a consequence of developments in the various fields constituting behavioral biology. By helping to refine law's understandings of behavior's causes, they argue, behavioral biology can help to improve law's effectiveness and efficiency. Part I examines how and why law and behavioral biology are connected. Part II provides an introduction to key concepts in behavioral biology. Part III identifies, explores, and illustrates a wide variety of contexts in which behavioral biology can be useful to law. Part IV addresses concerns that sometimes arise when considering biological influences on human behavior.


This work investigated the terrestrial solar radiation over Awka, South Eastern Nigeria using meteorological parameters of terrestrial temperature and relative humidity collected during 2013- 2014 respectively, using Davis weather station vantage pros2 (with Integrated Sensor Suite, ISS) positioned close to the ground surface. The data were logged at 30 minutes interval continuously for each day during the period. Hourly, daily and monthly averages of terrestrial radiation during dry and wet seasons were calculated from the data obtained. The result indicated that the terrestrial radiation during dry season is generally higher than during the wet season. The month of March has the highest value of terrestrial solar radiation of 410 Wm-2 , while the least terrestrial radiation of about 381 Wm-2 occurred in August. The result also showed that terrestrial solar radiation correlates positively with water vapour and more positively with temperature at 0.57 and 0.81 coefficients respectively. The results obtained from this work provide useful knowledge that is necessary to enhance the deployment of solar energy conversion systems.


Measuring the distance between machine-produced and human language is a critical open problem. Inspired by empirical findings from psycholinguistics on the periodicity of entropy in language, we propose FACE, a set of metrics based on Fourier Analysis of the estimated Cross-Entropy of language, for measuring the similarity between model-generated and human-written languages. Based on an open-ended generation task and the experimental data from previous studies, we find that FACE can effectively identify the human-model gap, scales with model size, reflects the outcomes of different sampling methods for decoding, correlates well with other evaluation metrics and with human judgment scores.


Torsional wave propulsion is different from transversal wave propulsion. Based on the characteristic feature of fin ray's motion, we divide the dorsal fin along the radial direction into a series of long narrow bands. For each band, the analysis method is the same as the method computing hydrodynamic force of transversal wave propulsion. Then we give an integral calculation over fin ray' length. We analyze the influence of the swing amplitude, frequency and length of fin as well as wave numbers and ratio of wave speed to swimming speed on hydrodynamic force. The calculated results show that: 1. the average thrust on the dorsal fin is directly proportional to the square of swing amplitude and frequency of fin ray. 2. The average thrust on the dorsal fin is directly proportional to the biquadrate of ray's length. 3. As the wave numbers increase, the average thrust begins with a little increase and then turns to decrease. When the wave number roughly equals to 1.5, it reaches to a maximum. 4. If the fin frequency is fixed, the average thrust is of maximum when the ratio of wave speed to swimming speed roughly equals to 1.4.


Design guidelines for static and domino silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS circuits are evaluated. Restructuring the logic to eliminate gates with large fan-ins is almost as beneficial for SOI as for bulk-silicon. Most published design fixes for eliminating parasitic bipolar induced upset are shown to aggravate the charge sharing problem. A new and improved predischarge method for enhancing the noise tolerance of SOI domino circuits is thus proposed . The topic of multiple output domino logic in SOI technology is addressed for the first time. Multiple output domino logic is shown to be more prone to bipolar leakage induced upset than regular domino. Many of the design practices used to alleviate bipolar leakage in regular domino are no longer valid due to the multiple output domino logic's inherent design requirements. A novel SOI-specific multiple output domino logic, particularly suitable for adder designs, is introduced to minimize the bipolar leakage risk.


This paper is based on a dynamic replication control strategy for minimizing communications costs. In dynamic environments where the access pattern to share resources cannot be predicted statically, it is required to monitor such parameter during the whole lifetime of the system so as to adapt it to new requirements. The shared-object management system is implemented in a centralized manner in which a master processor deals with the serialization of invocations. On one hand, we attempt to provide fault tolerance as a way to adjust the system parameters to work only with a set of correct processors so as to enhance system functionality. On the other hand, we attempt to furnish availability by masking the failure of the master processor. A new master processor is elected that resumes the master processor processing. Our shared-object management system modularity is realized through a meta level implementation.


Aim The aim of this simulation programme is to allow deanery-wide induction for clinical and human factors education for trainees progressing through their surgical career. Method Foundation trainees transitioning to Core Surgical training; and Core Surgical trainees progressing to Specialist training, underwent a mandatory and protected three day induction. This served both as an educational and pastoral training event to trainees. The three-day induction incorporated simulation training for management of the critically unwell surgical patient, simulation of surgical skills using porcine tissue and cadaveric materials, and simulation training in human factors. Results Overwhelmingly trainees felt objectively more confident in transitioning to their new roles within the deanery. Trainees reported a significant increase in confidence of assessment (p = 0.016) and management (p = 0.001) of trauma patients, and a perceived increase in technical skill ability (p = 0.04). Interestingly the human factors simulated training showed an increase in leadership (p = 0.022) and situational awareness and impact of stress (p = 0.022). Discussion We present our findings from these successful transitional induction-training schemes; incorporating simulation training for challenging clinical and non-clinical scenarios that trainees face when progressing to a new stage in their training. We suggest that this model could be incorporated to involve pan-specialty training and could be a recognised area to be developed in other specialties.


Tool-work thermo-electromotive force (E.M.F.) is very important signal because it is regarded as the evidence of direct cutting phenomenon at the cutting position.Our aim is to carry out in-process monitoring of tool wear under intermittent cutting conditions. We examined the relation between E.M.F. and tool flank wear to explore the possibility of in-process tool wear detection using E.M.F. Waveform variations in E.M.F. signals corresponding to tool flank wear were observed at the starting position of cut. To determine the cause of these waveform variations, the electric current was also measured and the electric resistance between the tool and work piece were calculated using Ohm's law. It is found that the change in the tool-work electric resistance corresponds to the progression of the tool flank wear.By monitoring this tool-work electric resistance, it is possible to conduct in-process detection of tool flank wear.


The economic development of a region is determined by the increase of contribution of economic sector activity. The tourism sector is one of the economic sectors that has an important role in and is able to grow the regional economy. Sustainability of the tourism sector of the economy can not be separated from the role of environmental resources as tourism attractions (objects). This study is to analyze ecotourism business competence in creating income of community. The study is designed in a descriptive-quantitative way. The collection of data used is observation and interview. The data used is descriptive-quantitative in order to determine and analyze the ecotourism business competence and its impact on improving income of community. The results show that the strategy to achieve an income community must be supported by having business competence based on ecotourism. Business competence is dominated by social competence in creating people's income in the tourism sector, yet less attention to other competencies. Ecotourism development is done by building the overall business competence and network of cooperation between the parties concerned.


This paper outlines the architecture of an incremental programming environment which is based on compilation technology. The programming environment in question is called DICE, which is an abbreviation of Distributed Incremental Compiling Environment.The main purpose of the presentation is to introduce some notions which are relevant for such systems. In particular, the concept of Consistent Incremental Compilation is defined and the notion of Consistent Status is discussed in connection with mixed execution and program editing. These concepts are exemplified by the DICE system.


This article describes how the law inflects the narration of environmental conflict in William T. Vollmann's Dying Grass (2015) and Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead (1991). By focusing on the legal common sense of settler colonialism—its emphasis on private property in land and its subjugation of Indigenous peoples to the guardianship of the state—the article explores the ways in which Vollmann's and Silko's novels present counternarratives to the law's story of justified conquest. Combining a law and literature approach with ecocriticism, this article highlights the importance of the legal imagination in defining human-land relations in the United States. It demonstrates how The Dying Grass and Almanac of the Dead critique this legal imagination while also using it as a model for changing environmental politics through discourse.


Considering a two-sided software platform with software developers on one side and software users
on the other, we study whether the platform should adopt a penetration pricing strategy or skimming
pricing strategy on the developer side. We propose a two-period analytical model with asymmetric
cross-side network effects to analyze the platform's optimal pricing strategy. Our analysis reveals
that the platform should adopt a penetration pricing strategy if the user-to-developer network effect
is strong and a skimming pricing strategy otherwise. If the platform does not charge users an access
fee, the platform should consider subsidizing developers' access in the first period only. However,
when the platform charges users an access fee, subsidizing developers' access in both periods can be
viable for the platform. Charging the software user an access fee incentivizes the platform to
subsidize developers in the first period if the user-to-developer network effect is weak. Finally, this
study reveals that the optimal access fee charged or subsidy provided to developers in the two periods
is determined by several key factors: developers' basic expectations about the revenue to be gained
from the platform (optimistic or pessimistic), intensities of cross-side network effects, the lengths of
the two periods, and the access fee charged to users.


This paper criticizes the checklist model approach (authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage) to teaching undergraduates how to evaluate Web sites. The checklist model rests on faulty assumptions about the nature of information available through the Web, mistaken beliefs about student evaluation skills, and an exaggerated sense of librarian expertise in evaluating information. The checklist model is difficult to implement in practice and encourages a mechanistic way of evaluating that is at odds with critical thinking. A contextual approach is offered as an alternative. A contextual approach uses three techniques: promoting peer- and editorially-reviewed resources, comparison, and corroboration. The contextual approach promotes library resources, teaches information literacy, and encourages reasoned judgments of information quality.


OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a 16-detector row computed tomography (CT) scanner for the assessment of coronary artery bypass grafts. BACKGROUND A new generation of multislice spiral CT scanners, equipped with more and thinner detector rows, allows for reliable noninvasive detection of obstructive coronary artery disease. METHODS The study included 51 consecutive patients. Three patients had to be excluded from the study due to arrhythmias or fast heart rates despite beta-blockade. A total of 48 patients with 131 coronary artery bypass grafts (internal mammary artery, n 40; venous grafts, n 91) were examined by computed tomography angiography (CTA) and by invasive coronary angiography (ICA) using a 16-detector row CT scanner. For cardiac protocols, only the 12 inner detector rings are applied. All CT examinations were performed with retrospective electrocardiogram gating at a mean heart rate of 64 5 beats/min; 120 ml of Xenetix 300 (Guerbert GmbH, Sulzbach, Germany) were continuously injected. The bypass graft patency and the presence of stenoses as well as the proximal and distal anastomoses were evaluated by two experienced readers. RESULTS All bypass grafts and 74% of the distal bypass anastomoses could be visualized by CTA; 21 bypass graft occlusions and 1 significant stenosis were detected by CTA and confirmed by ICA. Five false positive and one false negative finding resulted in a sensitivity of 96%, a specificity of 95%, a positive predictive value of 81%, and a negative predictive value of 99%. CONCLUSIONS Sixteen-detector row CT scanner technology allows for the reliable visualization of coronary bypass grafts. Dysfunctional bypass grafts can be detected with high diagnostic accuracy. This technology can be used as a noninvasive test for patients with suspected graft dysfunction. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2004;44:1224–9) © 2004 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation


In this paper, we present a framework for real-time mosaicing from video sequences recorded from an uncalibrated pan tilt zoom camera based on multiframe registration. To this end, a new frame alignment algorithm, the direct local indirect global (DLIG), is presented. The key idea of the DLIG alignment is to divide the frame alignment problem into the problem of registering a set of spatially related image patches. The registration is iteratively computed by sequentially imposing a good local match and global spatial coherence. The patch registration is performed using a tracking algorithm, so a very efficient local matching can be achieved. We use the patch-based registration to obtain multiframe registration, using the mosaic coordinates to relate the current frame to patches from different frames that partially share the current field of view. Multiframe registration prevents the error accumulation problem, one of the most important problems in mosaicing. We also show how to embed a kernel tracking algorithm in order to obtain a precise and extremely efficient mosaicing algorithm. Finally, we perform a quantitative evaluation of our algorithm, including a comparison with other alignment approaches, and studying its performance against interlaced videos and illumination changes.


This study aims to analyze the movements of modern architecture following the foundation of the Turkish Republic, through the Culturepark in izmir. The analyses will cover the period between 1930 and 1950, starting with the foundation of the Turkish Republic and covering the initial planning phase of the izmir Fair and Culturepark idea. The modernisation and Westernization trends in architecture in Turkey during the specified period are observed in the izmir Culturepark. The political ideology, involving the attributes of the single party system, and the prevailing economical conditions, reflecting the state socialism approach, had important influence on the changing understanding in architectural expression. These reflections concern both the inclusion of the Culturepark in the urban design of izmir and the temporary pavilion buildings designed and constructed for the izmir International Fair. These characteristics make the izmir Fair different from comparable InternationalFairs of the World and give a unique identity: The International Fair in izmir of Turkey. Furthermore, in addition to providing a medium to display the technological advancements of the time, like other similar fairs, the izmir International Fair has been aimed to be a demonstration of the political, social, or economicpower of a nation, that has just conquerred the war independence. The objective of the Fair was to show the world and the citizens of Turkey, the determination of the young Turkish Republic in modernisation through reforms. Analyzing the form and design characteristics of architectural artifacts in the izmir Culturepark will reflect the existing architectural understanding of the period as well as providing insights relating to future developments.


As part of a ''round robin'' project, the performance of two wood windows and a Calibrated Transfer Standard was modeled using the THERM heat-transfer simulation program. The resulting interior surface temperatures can be used as input to condensation resistance rating procedures. The Radiation and Condensation Index features within THERM were used to refine the accuracy of simulation results. Differences in surface temperatures between the ''Basic'' calculations and those incorporating the Radiation and/or Condensation Index features are demonstrated and explained.


This study examines the conceptions of learning of undergraduate and postgraduate accounting students at an Irish university. Students' written descriptions of what learning means to them are explored and evaluated relative to the six categories of description established by Saljo (1979) and Marton et al. (1993). The study provides evidence of the variation of accounting students' conceptions of learning from the simplest conception of learning involving knowledge acquisition to the most complex perspective of learning as embodying personal development. However, reproductive conceptions are more commonly expressed than those which centre on understanding. The implications of these findings for accounting students and accounting educators are considered and the need for further research and the design of intervention strategies is explicated.


Background Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a crucial role in immunity and development. They contain leucine-rich repeat domains, one transmembrane domain, and one Toll/IL-1 receptor domain. TLRs have been classified into V-type/scc and P-type/mcc TLRs, based on differences in the leucine-rich repeat domain region. Although TLRs are widespread in animals, detailed phylogenetic studies of this gene family are lacking. Here we aim to uncover TLR evolution by conducting a survey and a phylogenetic analysis in species across Bilateria. To discriminate between their role in development and immunity we furthermore analyzed stage-specific transcriptomes of the ecdysozoans Priapulus caudatus and Hypsibius exemplaris , and the spiralians Crassostrea gigas and Terebratalia transversa . Results We detected a low number of TLRs in ecdysozoan species, and multiple independent radiations within the Spiralia. V-type/scc and P-type/mcc type-receptors are present in cnidarians, protostomes and deuterostomes, and therefore they emerged early in TLR evolution, followed by a loss in xenacoelomorphs. Our phylogenetic analysis shows that TLRs cluster into three major clades: clade α is present in cnidarians, ecdysozoans, and spiralians; clade β in deuterostomes, ecdysozoans, and spiralians; and clade γ is only found in spiralians. Our stage-specific transcriptome and in situ hybridization analyses show that TLRs are expressed during development in all species analyzed, which indicates a broad role of TLRs during animal development. Conclusions Our findings suggest that a clade α TLR gene ( TLR-Ca ) and a clade β/γ TLR gene ( TLR-Cβ/γ ) were already present in the cnidarian-bilaterian common ancestor. However, although TLR-Ca was conserved in cnidarians, TLR-Cβ/γ was lost during the early evolution of these taxa. Moreover, TLR-Cβ/γ duplicated to generate TLR-Cβ and TLR-Cγ in the lineage to the last common protostome-deuterostome ancestor. TLR-Ca, TLR-Cβ and TLR-Cγ further expanded generating the three major TLR clades. While all three clades radiated in several spiralian lineages, specific TLRs clades have been presumably lost in other lineages. Furthermore, the expression of the majority of these genes during protostome ontogeny suggests a likely role in development.


This paper proposes a low power video decoding with adaptive granularity in temporal scalability. This proposal can be applied to reduce the computational complexity of H.264/AVC decoder with acceptable loss of the video quality, and make the single layer bit stream sources much more flexible for various terminal devices. Proposed low power decoding process consists of four proposed algorithms, the reference frame index decision algorithm, motion vector composition algorithm, block-partition decision algorithm and the adaptive selecting algorithm for skipped frames. The experiment results show that the reduction rate of the decoding time decreases when the number of skipped frames increases, and the loss of the video quality increases at the same time. The PSNR loss in the B frame skipping is much smaller than the PSNR loss in the P frame skipping. In the fixed frame skipping cases, the 2/3 P frame is skipped with 60% decoding time reduction and 2.73 dB average PSNR loss in the all filling comparison or 1.59 dB average PSNR loss in the corresponding comparison. Analyzing the relation between motion vector information and the video quality loss of the corresponding frames in probability shows that the proposed adaptive skipping scheme reduces quality loss by skipping the frames with slight movements and keeping the frames with strong movements. Based on the adaptive skipping scheme, the average PSNR is improved 0.68 dB in the all filling comparison or 0.60 dB in the corresponding comparison compared with the fixed frame skipping scheme with almost the same reduction rate of the decoding time.


This article outlines the impact and changing nature of Chinese organised crime in the United Kingdom (UK). It reviews the conventional policing approaches to the problem in the UK and in China, and argues they are limited in their scope and could be substantially improved. It suggests this is possible by employing police specialists here and in-country. The evidence for the paper has been collected from interviews with the relevant law enforcement and government personnel in the UK and in China in 2010 and again in 2014–15.


Although tremendous progress has made in the past years to eliminate the inter-block interference (IBI) but still it is considered as area of concern in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. We proposed interference alignment based channel independent precoding in MIMO OFDM system. We showed that when the number of receive antennas (nr) is not more than the number of transmit antennas (nt), our proposed precoding is more bandwidth efficient than the conventional zero-padded or CP added MIMO systems, such as, ZP-only, CP-OFDM and SC-FDE system and When the number of receive antennas is more than the number of transmit antennas, it was shown that the IBI in an MIMO OFDM system can be completely eliminated without any CP or zero-padding or precoding, when the OFDM block size is not too small. In this paper, we consider only CP based block transmission system.


The monitoring of the beam conditions, equipment conditions and measurements from the beam instrumentation devices in CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce more than 100 Gb/day of data. Such a big quantity of data is unprecedented in accelerator monitoring and new developments are needed to access, process, combine and analyse data from different equipments. The Beam Loss Monitoring (BLM) system has been one of the most reliable equipments in the LHC during its 2010 run, issuing beam dumps when the detected losses were above the defined abort thresholds. Furthermore, the BLM system was able to detect and study unexpected losses, requiring intensive offline analysis. This article describes the techniques developed to: access the data produced (~ 50000 values/s); access relevant system layout information; access, combine and display different machine data. Presented at ICALEPCS 2011 FROM DATA STORAGE TOWARDS DECISION MAKING: LHC TECHNICAL DATA INTEGRATION AND ANALYSIS A. Marsili∗, E.B. Holzer, A. Nordt, M. Sapinski, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland


This paper suggests how the information age might produce high capture and conviction rates and speculates on the effect of such developments on the criminal justice system's punishment theory. The low rate at which offenders presently are punished makes a deterrent threat of official sanction of limited effect. With a high punishment rate, however, a distribution of liability and punishment based upon a deterrence principle might, for the first time, make sense. On the other hand, the greater deterrent effect might eliminate crime as a serious social concern. And, without the pressure of a serious crime problem, the theory for distributing punishment might revert to distribution based upon community notions of desert, with social science research suggests is the lay person's default distributive principle. (Even a desert distribution of punishment would convey a strong deterrent in a world of high conviction rates.) In other words, the success of deterrence might paradoxically pave the way for its demise and for the domination of desert as the operating theory for the distribution of punishment.


Tachykinin neurokinin 2 (NK2) receptor agonists may have potential to alleviate clinical conditions associated with bladder and gastrointestinal underactivity by stimulating contraction of visceral smooth muscle. The ability of [Lys5,MeLeu9,Nle10]-neurokinin A(4–10) (LMN-NKA) to elicit micturition and defecation was examined after repeated administration in groups of 2–10 conscious dogs. Administration of 10–100 μg/kg, i.v., four times daily for six consecutive days, reliably elicited micturition after ≥90% of doses and defecation after ≥50% of doses. Voiding occurred <4 minutes after dosing and was short lasting (<10 minutes). LMN-NKA was well tolerated, with emesis after ∼25% of doses at 100 μg/kg, i.v. Hypotension was induced by 100 μg/kg, i.v., of LMN-NKA but not by lower doses. Administration of 30–300 μg/kg, s.c., twice daily for seven consecutive days, reliably elicited both urination and defecation after 88%–100% of doses, and was accompanied by a high rate of emesis (50%–100%). The onset of voiding was rapid (<7 minutes) but was more prolonged than after intravenous administration (30–60 minutes). Emesis induced by 30 or 300 μg/kg, s.c., of LMN-NKA was significantly reduced (from 58% to 8% and from 96% to 54%, respectively) by a 30-minute pretreatment with the neurokinin 1 (NK1) receptor antagonist, (2S,3S)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl)-2-phenylpiperidin-3-amine (CP-99,994; 1 mg/kg, s.c.). The ability of selective NK2 receptor agonists to elicit on-demand voiding could potentially address a major unmet need in people lacking voluntary control of micturition and/or defecation. LMN-NKA unexpectedly activated NK1 receptors at doses that stimulated voiding, causing emesis and hypotension that may limit the clinical utility of nonselective NK2 receptor agonists.


This paper presents a case study of a small non-profit organisation in the United States and how it employed the production of welfare (POW) framework to assess the success of a short-term marketing campaign. The paper offers a brief introduction to the challenges of measuring marketing
 in the voluntary sector and an introduction to the production of welfare concept, and then analyses the case according to the POW framework. Viewed from the POW perspective, the short-term marketing campaign was a success even though it raised less money for the organisation in 2016 than in
 2015 because it was more efficient and more effective and it increased participation by the community. We conclude by arguing that other non-profit organisations should consider adopting the POW framework for their own assessment and reporting efforts.


Ducted fans that are popular choices in vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) offer a higher static thrust/power ratio for a given diameter than open propellers. Although ducted fans provide high performance in many VTOL applications, there are still unresolved problems associated with these systems. Fan rotor tip leakage flow is a significant source of aerodynamic loss for ducted fan VTOL UAVs and adversely affects the general aerodynamic performance of these vehicles. The present study utilized experimental and computational techniques in a 22" diameter ducted fan test system that has been custom designed and manufactured. Experimental investigation consisted of total pressure measurements using Kiel total pressure probes and real time six-component force and torque measurements. The computational technique used in this study included a 3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) based CFD model of the ducted fan test system. RANS simulations of the flow around rotor blades and duct geometry in the rotating frame of reference provided a comprehensive description of the tip leakage and passage flow. The experimental and computational analysis performed for various tip clearances were utilized in understanding the effect of the tip leakage flow on aerodynamic performance of ducted fans used in VTOL UAVs. The aerodynamic measurements and results of the RANS simulations showed good agreement especially near the tip region.


Trypanosomatid RNA editing is a unique process and essential for these organisms. It therefore represents a drug target for a group of protozoa that includes the causative agents for African sleeping sickness and other devastating tropical and subtropical diseases. Here, we present drug-like inhibitors of a key enzyme in the editing machinery, RNA-editing ligase 1 (REL1). These inhibitors were identified through a strategy employing molecular dynamics to account for protein flexibility. A virtual screen of the REL1 crystal structure against the National Cancer Institute Diversity Set was performed by using AutoDock4. The top 30 compounds, predicted to interact with REL1's ATP-binding pocket, were further refined by using the relaxed complex scheme (RCS), which redocks the compounds to receptor structures extracted from an explicitly solvated molecular dynamics trajectory. The resulting reordering of the ligands and filtering based on drug-like properties resulted in an initial recommended set of 8 ligands, 2 of which exhibited micromolar activity against REL1. A subsequent hierarchical similarity search with the most active compound over the full National Cancer Institute database and RCS rescoring resulted in an additional set of 6 ligands, 2 of which were confirmed as REL1 inhibitors with IC50 values of ≈1 μM. Tests of the 3 most promising compounds against the most closely related bacteriophage T4 RNA ligase 2, as well as against human DNA ligase IIIβ, indicated a considerable degree of selectivity for RNA ligases. These compounds are promising scaffolds for future drug design and discovery efforts against these important pathogens.


We investigate the theoretical complexity of branch-and-bound (BB) and cutting plane (CP) algorithms for mixed-integer optimization. In particular, we study the relative efficiency of BB and CP, when both are based on the same family of disjunctions. We extend a result of Dash to the nonlinear setting which shows that for convex 0/1 problems, CP does at least as well as BB, with variable disjunctions. We sharpen this by giving instances of the stable set problem where we can provably establish that CP does exponentially better than BB. We further show that if one moves away from 0/1 sets, this advantage of CP over BB disappears; there are examples where BB finishes in O(1) time, but CP takes infinitely long to prove optimality, and exponentially long to get to arbitrarily close to the optimal value (for variable disjunctions). We next show that if the dimension is considered a fixed constant, then the situation reverses and BB does at least as well as CP (up to a polynomial blow up), no matter which family of disjunctions is used. This is also complemented by examples where this gap is exponential (in the size of the input data).