Bioactive alloplastic materials, like beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and calcium sulfate (CS), have been extensively researched and are currently used in orthopedic and dental bone regenerative procedures. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of EthOss versus a bovine xenograft and spontaneous healing. The grafting materials were implanted in standardized 8 mm circular bicortical bone defects in rabbit calvariae. A third similar defect in each animal was left empty for natural healing. Six male rabbits were used. After eight weeks of healing, the animals were euthanized and the bone tissue was analyzed using histology and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Defects treated with β-TCP/CS showed the greatest bone regeneration and graft resorption, although differences between groups were not statistically significant. At sites that healed spontaneously, the trabecular number was lower (p < 0.05) and trabecular separation was higher (p < 0.05), compared to sites treated with β-TCP/CS or xenograft. Trabecular thickness was higher at sites treated with the bovine xenograft (p < 0.05) compared to sites filled with β-TCP/CS or sites that healed spontaneously. In conclusion, the novel β-TCP/CS grafting material performed well as a bioactive and biomimetic alloplastic bone substitute when used in cranial defects in this animal model.


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Background Smoking is one of the major risk factors for various diseases. There is some evidence that smoking is associated with mental health problems. Objective To evaluate the association among mental health problems and smoking in teenagers at 15 years old in a population-based birth cohort. Methods 4325 adolescents from the 1993 birth cohort, from the city of Pelotas, southern Brazil, were examined. Smoking was defined as to have smoked one or more cigarettes in the previous 30 days. Mental health was assessed according to the total score of the questionnaire Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire being considered as positive when the score was ≥20 points. Data were analysed using Poisson regression with adjustment for robust variance. Results Smoking prevalence was 6.0% and about 30% of the adolescents presented any problem related to mental health. In the crude analysis, the prevalence ratio to present mental health problem was 3.3 (95% CI 2.5 to 4.2) and after the adjusted analysis (for sex, age, skin colour, family income, maternal education, smoking among friends, employment in the last year, school failure, physical activity at leisure and experimental use of alcohol) it decreased to 1.9 (95% CI 1.2 to 2.3) among smokers compared to non-smokers. Conclusion We concluded that mental health problems in adolescence may be related to tobacco consumption.


A simulation-management methodology is demonstrated for the rehabilitation of aquifers that have been subjected to chemical contamination. Finite element groundwater flow and contaminant transport simulation are combined with nonlinear optimization. The model is capable of determining well locations plus pumping and injection rates for groundwater quality control. Examples demonstrate linear or nonlinear objective functions subject to linear and nonlinear simulation and water management constraints. Restrictions can be placed on hydraulic heads, stresses, and gradients, in addition to contaminant concentrations and fluxes. These restrictions can be distributed over space and time. Three design strategies are demonstrated for an aquifer that is polluted by a constant contaminant source: they are pumping for contaminant removal, water injection for in-ground dilution, and a pumping, treatment, and injection cycle. A transient model designs either contaminant plume interception or in-ground dilution so that water quality standards are met. The method is not limited to these cases. It is generally applicable to the optimization of many types of distributed parameter systems.


The concept of network slicing is considered as a key part in the development of 5G. Network slicing is the means to logically isolate network capabilities in order to make each slice responsible for specific network requirement. In the same light, the micro-operator concept has emerged for local deployment of 5G for vertical specific service delivery. Even though micro-operator networks are expected to be deployed using 5G, most research on network slicing has been directed towards the description on the traditional Mobile Network Operator's (MNO) networks with little emphasis on slicing in local 5G networks deployed by different stakeholders. In order to achieve slicing in a micro-operator network, it is of vital importance to understand the different deployment scenarios that can exist and how slicing can be realized for each of these deployments. In this paper, the micro-operator networks described include closed, open and mixed network, and for each of these network, different deployment scenarios are established. The paper further proposes approaches for the configuration of Network Slice Instances (NSIs) using the Network Slice Subnet Instances (NSSIs) and other Network Functions (NFs) in a micro-operator network while considering the different deployments. The results highlight the possible deployment scenarios that can be established in a micro-operator network and how network slicing can be efficiently realized for the various local deployments.


United States Veterans are at excess risk for type 2 diabetes, but population differentials in risk have not been characterized. We determined risk of type 2 diabetes in relation to prediabetes and dyslipidemic profiles in Veterans at the VA New York Harbor (VA NYHHS) during 2004–2014. Prediabetes was based on American Diabetes Association hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) testing cut-points, one of several possible criteria used to define prediabetes. We evaluated transition to type 2 diabetes in 4,297 normoglycemic Veterans and 7,060 Veterans with prediabetes. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to relate HbA1c levels, lipid profiles, demographic, anthropometric and comorbid cardiovascular factors to incident diabetes (Hazard Ratio [HR] and 95% confidence intervals). Compared to normoglycemic Veterans (HbA1c: 5.0–5.6%; 31–38 mmol/mol), risks for diabetes were >2-fold in the moderate prediabetes risk group (HbA1c: 5.7–5.9%; 39–41 mmol/mol) (HR 2.37 [1.98–2.85]) and >5-fold in the high risk prediabetes group (HbA1c: 6.0–6.4%; 42–46 mmol/mol) (HR 5.59 [4.75–6.58]). Risks for diabetes were increased with elevated VLDL (≥40mg/dl; HR 1.31 [1.09–1.58]) and TG/HDL (≥1.5mg/dl; HR 1.34 [1.12–1.59]), and decreased with elevated HDL (≥35mg/dl; HR 0.80 [0.67–0.96]). Transition to diabetes in Veterans was related in age-stratified risk score analyses to HbA1c, VLDL, HDL and TG/HDL, BMI, hypertension and race, with 5-year risk differentials of 62% for the lowest (5-year risk, 13.5%) vs. the highest quartile (5-year risk, 21.9%) of the risk score. This investigation identified substantial differentials in risk of diabetes in Veterans, based on a readily-derived risk score suitable for risk stratification for type 2 diabetes prevention.


Aim Despite their widespread use and value to unveil the complex structure of the interactions within ecological communities and their value to assess the resilience of communities, network analyses have seldom been applied in plant communities. We aim to evaluate how plant-plant interaction networks vary in global drylands, and to assess whether network structure is related to plant diversity in these ecosystems. Location 185 dryland ecosystems from all continents except Antarctica. Methods We built networks using the local spatial association between all the perennial plant species present in the communities studied, and used structural equation models to evaluate the effect of abiotic factors (including geography, topography, climate and soil conditions) and network structure on plant diversity. Results The structure of plant networks found at most study sites (72%) was not random and presented properties representative of robust systems, such as high link density and structural balance. Moreover, network indices linked to system robustness had a positive and significant effect on plant diversity, sometimes higher that the effect of abiotic factors. Main conclusions Our results constitute the first empirical evidence showing the existence of a common network architecture structuring terrestrial plant communities at the global scale, and provide novel evidence of the importance of the network of interactions for the maintenance of biodiversity. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of system-level approaches to explain the diversity and structure of interactions in plant communities, two major drivers of terrestrial ecosystem functioning and resilience against the likely impacts derived from global change.


The effects of activated ras genes on a continuously dividing, nontransformed, rat liver-derived epithelial cell line have been studied. Genes have been introduced into cells in conjunction with a selectable drug (G418) resistance marker. Controls were obtained by transfecting with the drug resistance gene alone. Transformed, drug-resistant colonies were obtained on transfecting with ras plus resistance marker genes. They had an altered morphology, a tendency to pile up in culture, and showed anchorage-independent growth. They also were tumorigenic in nude mice with a short latent period. None of these properties was exhibited by nontransformed, drug-resistant colonies. Transformed clones were positive on histochemical staining for the enzyme γ-glutamyltranspeptidase. A heterogeneity of γ-glutamyltranspeptidase activity between cells of the same transformed clone was revealed by both histochemical and cytofluorographic assays. Nontransformed clones failed to stain histochemically for the enzyme. The fluorimetric determination of the specific activity of the enzyme showed consistently higher levels in transformed cells as compared to nontransformed, drug-resistant controls. The possible relationship between cell transformation and elevated levels of γ-glutamyltranspeptidase is discussed.


We describe an Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wide Band (IR-UWB) receiver with I/Q demodulation made of commercial off-the-shelf discrete components. It is designed to be used in a UWB testbed for measurement and algorithm validation purposes. The central frequency of the UWB signals is 4.25 GHz with a bandwidth of 500 MHz. We have achieved a data-rate of 10 Mb/s. We experimentally validate the use of the I/Q demodulation in UWB localization. This paper can also be used as a starting point for implementing a custom IR-UWB I/Q receiver.


Human 6-phosphofructokinase (EC 188.8.131.52) exists in tetrameric isoenzymic forms composed of muscle (M), liver (L) and platelet (P) subunits, which are under separate genetic control. In the adult, the proportion of these subunits in different organs reflects the relative activity of glycolysis versus gluconeogenesis. To elucidate the developmental basis for the observed distribution, we investigated the isoenzymic transitions of phosphofructokinase in human foetuses (12-40 weeks' gestation) by using high-resolution chromatography and monoclonal antibodies. We studied skeletal muscle, heart, liver and brain because these organs show very different glycolytic fluxes and isoenzymic patterns in adult individuals. Our results demonstrate that there is no unique 'foetal' form of phosphofructokinase in humans, but all three loci are variably expressed in all foetal organs during early gestation. As development proceeds, muscle and liver isoenzyme patterns show dramatic changes, with disappearance of P and L subunits in muscle and transient reappearance of M and P subunits in liver; in contrast, phosphofructokinase isoenzymes change little in brain and heart. Most changes occur at mid-gestation and near term, and adult isoenzyme patterns are expressed at birth, indicating that organ differentiation is complete. These studies show that phosphofructokinase undergoes changes of isoenzyme patterns similar to, but not identical with, those of other multilocus isoenzyme systems of glycolysis. The observed changes probably reflect changing patterns of gene expression, with repression of some loci and activation of others.


Long non-coding RNA gastric carcinoma high-expressed transcript 1 (lncRNA GHET1) is highly expressed in many tumors. The aim of the present study was to determine whether GHET1 inhibition decreases growth and metastasis of MCF-7 breast cancer cells by modulating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression. In vitro, lncRNA GHET1 knockdown suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and enhanced cell apoptosis by maintaining MCF-7 cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Furthermore, lncRNA GHET1 knockdown reduced the expression of EGFR and related proteins. Treatment of mice with a GHET1 inhibitor prevented tumor growth in vivo. The results indicate that lncRNA GHET1 inhibition directly suppresses EGFR expression, significantly inhibiting the downstream PI3K/AKT/Cyclin D1/MMP2/9 pathway. This mechanism may underlie the suppression of breast cancer cell activities including proliferation, migration, and invasion. In conclusion, lncRNA GHET1 knockdown suppresses tumor growth and metastasis by suppressing the activity of EGFR and downstream pathways.


Traumatic brain injury (TBI) contributes to nearly one in three injury-related deaths in the United States and accounts for a substantial public health burden and cost. The current literature reports that physiologic responses in the gastrointestinal system after TBI include, but are not limited to, epithelial barrier dysfunction, microbiota changes, and immunologic transformations. Recent evidence suggests gut alterations after TBI modify the homeostasis of the bidirectional gut-microbiota-brain axis, resulting in altered immune responses in the periphery and the brain. This cascade possibly contributes to impaired central nervous system (CNS) healing. Although attention to the gut-brain-microbiota axis has been increasing in the literature, the precise mechanisms underlying the changes observed after TBI remain unclear. The purpose of this review is to describe our current understanding regarding alterations to the gut-microbiota-brain axis after TBI, highlight the pathophysiologic changes involved, and evaluate how these variations modify healing in the CNS or even contribute to secondary injury. We also discuss current investigations into potential medical therapies directed at the gut-microbiota-brain axis, which might offer improved outcomes after TBI.


The rise and rise of the amateur cultural producer has been greeted with a spectacular amount of celebratory rhetoric, in both popular and academic writing . It has also been criticised, often for the inferior quality of amateur productions compared to the fruits of professional labour. But apart from that by a small number of journalism scholars, little empirical research has been carried out with professional creative labourers about the impact of amateur economies on their work, and their responses to amateur production practices. This article addresses that gap, and also counterbalances the dominant celebratory discourse by focusing on an initiative that is critical of amateur economies and that emerges from creative workers themselves: the anti-spec movement within design industries. Anti-spec activists campaign against speculative (or spec) work, which is seen as one problematic materialisation of crowdsourced, amateur economies. Here, it is argued that responses to spec work can be understood in relation to designers' ethics and values and the extent to which they feel that these are thrown into question by amateur activity.


The Waxman-Markey climate bill, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June, 2009, is grounded on a cap-and-trade regulatory ideology that favors cost reductions over emission reductions even when costs are well within acceptable limits and when emission targets do not approach sustainability requirements. Carbon taxes, by contrast, could create stable emission-reduction incentives that are not limited by predetermined targets; but carbon taxes are politically handicapped by proponents' insistence that tax policy function primarily to extract revenue from regulated industries. Greenhouse gas regulatory policy could be vastly more efficient if the dogmatic ideologies of both cap-and-trade and carbon taxes were eschewed in favor of rational and pragmatic policy logic, recognizing the overriding political constraint of cost acceptability and the efficiency advantage of using carbon pricing revenue to reduce regulated industries' emissions.


Corporate real estate management (CREM) performance needs to be measured and monitored so as to ensure the match between a company's business and real estate strategies. Performance measures used in CREM should be identified based on the company's core business goals instead of using traditional accounting measures focusing mainly on cost reductions or capital minimisation. The aim of the paper is to combine multidisciplinary approach and empirical research results to develop a balanced set of key performance indicators to evaluate how corporate real estate directly and indirectly adds value to the company's bottom line financial results. The empirical results are based on interviews with corporate real estate executives and service providers as well as corporate senior managers. Based on the model we have developed in our previous research, and the results from our two waves of interviews, we prepare a proposed set of key performance indicators tied to real estate strategies and operation decisions presented in our framework.


A quasi-monochromatic X-ray computed mammotomograph (XCT) system is under development. The importance of a near-monochromatic X-ray beam is that tissues of close attenuation coefficients are expected to be more easily separable compared with those from a standard filtered beam. Understanding the behavior of beam hardening, lesion contrast (enhancement), and exposure efficiency for the complete range of breast compositions allows assessment of the feasibility of such an XCT system. In this study, investigated design parameters include tube operating potential and filtration under various combinations of uncompressed breast and lesion thicknesses and breast compositions in order to optimize performance. The simulated X-ray beam was generated from a tungsten target using cone beam imaging geometry. Simulations were run for 10-20% incremental breast compositions of adipose and glandular breast tissue for 8-16 cm thick uncompressed breasts with 1 -10 mm thick soft lesions. For 60-70 kVp tube potentials (corresponding to 35-40 keV mean energy) with /spl sim/500/sup th/ value attenuating layer of Ce filtration, minimal beam hardening was <5%, optimal lesion contrast enhancement was 5-10% for 12 and 16 cm breasts of all compositions and lesion sizes. Beyond 60% adipose tissue composition, heavy filtration decreases lesion contrast for the thinnest breast. Optimal exposure efficiency was also seen in this operating range, with better absolute values obtained for thinner breasts of all compositions and thicker lesions in this mammotomographic application. Thus, development of a suitable quasi-monochromatic X-ray beam is possible with commercially available equipment and high-Z K-edge filtration, and can yield optimal characteristics for dedicated mammotomography.


Decision-making often involves selecting a "portfolio" of alternatives, rather than a single option. For example, in assembling an IS project team, rather than picking one "best" employee, multiple employees are selected based on various skills to fill different positions. The value of the employees depending not only on their individual competency skills, but also on how well they work as a team. The team synergy is important, and the "value" of the portfolio (i.e. IS project team in this case) is different from the sum of the values of the individual team members. Though many studies have been published on portfolio selection in diverse contexts, most of these studies tend to focus on specific problem environments and cannot easily be generalized. This paper assesses and enhances a previously published, general framework for portfolio decisions with respect to its usefulness in classifying and understanding decision problems.


Groundwater plays an important role in the development of the world water resources potential. Groundwater has to be protected from the increasing threat of subsurface contamination. Subsurface contamination can be caused by leakage from ponds and lagoons which are widely used as components of larger waste-disposal systems, pesticides from agricultural soils, industrial product leaking underground storage tanks and pipelines and surface spills. Until today. groundwater contamination becomes most popular aspects to discuss. The migration of NAPLs, process of dissolution, factor influences. effects and the techniques for remediation of groundwater contaminant was done in order to make sure that this source could be use in long terms. Due to these reasons. needed some alternative in order to simulate the groundwater system to get the results of the contaminant. Many researchers were involved to develop a model of groundwater contamination by numerical method.
The simulation of groundwater contamination by NAPLs such as organic solvent, petroleum hydrocarbon requires a solution of the multiphase flow equation in deforming porous medium. The multiphase flow namely gas, water and NAPL was developed for a fully coupled numerical model for subsurface system by Ralunan (1998). . Many of this pollutant are slightly such water soluble and highly volatile fluids, which it may exist as non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL). The remaining non-aqueous phase liquids may persist for long periods of time, slowly dissolving into the groundwater and moving in the water phase through advection and dispersion. A study of numerical modelling of multiphase flow, heat flow and pollutant transports are very important to describe the phenomena of contamination in soil especially by organic waste such as Dense Non-aqueous Phase Liquid (DNA-PL). A numerical model needed in order to study the movement of organic pollutants in subsurface system. This simulation also developed for use in non-isothermal problems of gas migration landfill system and for organic vapor in unsaturated zone. In additional a fully coupled model of water flow and airflow incorporate pollutant transport in deformable porous media has been studied by Schrefler (1995) which does not consider the interphase mass transfer in the simulation model. Furthermore, transport contaminant may cause by organic liquid where the density of the gas in contact with the liquid changed with respect to the ambient of soil gas. Simulating the transport of volatile organic compound may show the importance of including density-driven gas flow as a transport mechanism in the unsaturated zone. In contaminant gas migration, the overall porosity, air and water saturation level effects the rates of diffusion in porous media. The equations using are such water phase tortuosity (ti) , Henry's law, Galerkin Method and others. The simulating are performed for volatile organic compound and the physical properties of the model.


Background: Renal cysts were common findings in the kidneys encountered in daily routine ultrasound examination. The majority is benign, but they can become complicated in the case of infection, hemorrhage, and ischemia. Sonographic evaluation plays a great role in classification and characterization of these lesions. Objective: The aim was to classify the renal cysts using ultrasound, to analyze the frequency of symptoms and signs, and to identify the significant factors. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional prospective study conducted from September 2014 to December 2015. A total of 105 patients (78 males and 27 females) have been examined with ultrasound and confirm diagnosed with renal cysts. The sonographic criteria used for assessing renal cysts were wall-definition, thickness of septa, acoustic enhancement, shape and numbers of cysts, in addition to the genetic history of the family. Results: The incidence of renal cysts is significantly higher in male than female (74% vs. 26%, P= 0.01). Renal cysts were common in patients above 50 years old (80%). Aging was a significant factor of the renal cyst (P = 0.03) and size of the cysts was not significantly associated with age (P = 0.261). The majority of cysts was solitary (66%), unilateral (86%), and located in the right kidney (49%). The incidence of cortical simple renal was 73%, para-pelvic simple cysts was 17%, autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) was 4.76%, and acquired cystic kidney disease (ACKD) was 4.76%. The majority of simple renal cysts were asymptomatic (75%). Hypertension and flank pain were the common symptoms of ADPKD and ACKD. Conclusion: Age and gender were significant risk factors of renal cysts. ADPKD and ACKD were less frequent among Sudanese adults. Hypertension and flank pain were the most common symptoms and signs of ADPKD and ACKD. Ultrasound plays an effective role to classify and assess renal cysts that help in management and follow-up.


One of the discoveries of the Parker Solar Probe during its first encounters with the Sun is ubiquitous presence of relatively small-scale structures standing out as sudden deflections of the magnetic field. They were named "switchbacks" since some of them show a full reversal of the radial component of the magnetic field and then return to "regular" conditions. We carried out an analysis of three typical switchback structures having different characteristics: I. Alfvénic structure, where the variations of the magnetic field components take place while conserving the magnitude of the magnetic field; II. Compressional structure, where the magnitude of the field varies together with changes of its components; and III. Structure manifesting full reversal of the magnetic field, presumably Alfvén, which is an extremal example of a switchback. We analyzed the properties of the magnetic fields of these structures and of their boundaries. Observations and analyses lead to the conclusion that they represent localized twisted magnetic tubes moving with respect to surrounding plasma. An important feature is the existence of a relatively narrow boundary layer at the surface of the tube that accommodates flowing currents. These currents are closed on the surface of the structure and typically have comparable azimuthal and tube-axis-aligned components. They are supported by the presence of an effective electric field due to strong gradients of the density and ion plasma pressure. The ion beta is typically larger inside the structure than outside. The surface of the structure may also accommodate electromagnetic waves that assist particles in carrying currents.


The identification and diagnosis of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) infections remains a complex problem. Because inflammatory responses to microbial invasion may be diminished in persons with diabetes, clinical signs of infection are often absent in persons with DFUs when infection is limited to localized tissue. In the absence of these clinical signs, microbial load is believed to be the best indicator of infection. Some researchers, however, believe microbial load to be insignificant and type of organism growing in the ulcer to be most important. Previous studies on the microbiology of DFUs have not provided enough evidence to determine the microbiological parameters of importance. Infection-related complications of DFUs include wound deterioration, osteomyelitis, and amputation. Risk factors for amputation include age, peripheral vascular disease, low transcutaneous oxygen, smoking, and poor glycemic control. These risk factors are best measured directly with physiological measures of arterial perfusion, glycemic control, sensory neuropathy, plantar pressures, and activity level and by controlling off-loading. DFU bioburden has not been examined as a risk factor for infection-related complications. To address the relationship between wound bioburden and the development of infection-related complications in DFUs, tightly controlled prospective studies based on clearly defined, valid measures of wound bioburden and wound outcomes are needed. This article reviews the literature and proposes a model of hypothesized relationships between wound bioburden—including microbial load, microbial diversity, and pathogenicity of organisms—and the development of infection-related complications.


Gummata of the thyroid gland are so seldom discovered that it seems justifiable to review the literature on the subject while making this report. I shall, therefore, recapitulate as much of the data bearing on such lesions as it has been possible to gather, before proceeding to the discussion of the case in hand. PREVIOUSLY REPORTED CASES Demme 1 (1879) reports three cases of syphilis of the thyroid in children in which gummatous nodules appeared in the thyroid glands concomitantly with syphilitic lesions of the viscera. He says that these gummata appear as grayish-red or grayish-yellow nodules, sharply rounded and, like malignant or tuberculous growths of these organs, destroy the parenchyma. The microscopic findings agree with those of gummata of the liver. In another place 1 he says : In the course of congenital, hereditary syphilis, we find a few cases, and in my experience only in children, in which, accompanying


The study deals with the questions and problems of the succession of generations concerning family enterprises, discussing the main succession issues. On a world scale most of the family businesses do not survive the first generation, thus succession has become the most important problem. This is the reason why the succession of generations has become the central issue of several research projects. In the diagnostic phase of the research the aim is to present the phases of succession of generations, the succession processes, their method and the possibility of processes especially characteristic of agricultural economics with the help of secondary data, with the application of contemporary research results and a methodological approach.


Background Polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) are chronic autoimmune diseases, characterised by muscle fatigue and low muscle endurance. Conventional treatment includes high doses of glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs; however, few patients recover muscle function. We recently reported that immunosuppressive treatment affected the expression of genes related to lipid/fatty acid (FA) metabolism, suggesting altered lipid/FA-profiles in PM/DM patients. Objectives To analyse lipid and FA profiles in sera from patients with polymyositis or dermatomyositis in comparison to healthy individuals and relation to immunosuppressive treatment. Methods Serum samples were obtained from 13 patients with established PM or DM and 12 healthy individuals. The second cohort consisted of eight untreated patients diagnosed with definite PM or DM with available follow-up serum sample after eight months of immunosuppressive treatment. Functional Index 2 (muscle function) was assessed in the second cohort. Serum lipids were extracted by using liquid-liquid extraction. FA composition of total serum lipids was determined by gas chromatography provided with flame ionisation detector (GC-FID). FA composition of several lipid classes, e.g. triacylglycerols, phospholipids, sphingolipids, and lysophospholipids was analysed by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results The FA composition of total serum lipids was altered in myositis patients compared to healthy individuals; the levels of C16:0 acid was significantly higher in myositis patients whereas the levels of C20:4 (n-6) acid was significantly lower. The levels of serum lipid species within phosphatidylcholine (PC), lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and triacylglycerol (TG) were significantly changed in myositis patients compared to healthy individuals. Immunosuppressive treatment resulted in increased levels of C20:2 (n-6) acid and C20:5 (n-3) acid as well as changed serum PC, PE and LPC profiles in myositis patients. Furthermore, a positive correlation was observed between the Functional index and the levels of PC(38:4) in serum from patients after treatment. Conclusions FA composition of total serum lipids is altered in myositis patients compared to healthy controls. Immunosuppressive treatment resulted in changed FA composition of serum PC, PE, and LPC. These findings indicate that FA metabolism might be deregulated in PM and DM patients contributing to muscle inflammatory responses and loss of muscle function.


The economic literature showed that remittances can replace missing credit and insurance markets. As a result, it is natural to expect that higher amounts of remittances will motivate agricultural farmers to engage in riskier activities. The present study aims to verify the latter hypothesis by answering three distinct questions: do households that receive higher remittances choose to cultivate a riskier crop portfolio, to engage either in crop specialization or in crop diversification and to use riskier input such as fertilizer? I use the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) dataset on Uganda established by the World Bank to test these hypotheses. The results show that higher remittances induce crop specialization and higher probability of fertilizer use.


Synthesis and Toward Materials from Silver(I) Acetylides DTU Orbit (18/12/2018)  Tools for Chemical Biology: New Macrocyclic Compounds from Diversity-Oriented Synthesis and Toward Materials from Silver(I) Acetylides Part I The formation of a library of diverse macrocyclic compounds with different functionalities and ring sizes in a few steps from two easily accessible α,ω-diol building blocks is presented. The building blocks are combined by esteriffcations in four different ways leading to the formation of four structurally isomeric diol precursors. These are then reacted with electrophilic reagents leading to 17-membered sulfites and 19-membered malonates in reasonable yields, and 20-22-membered phthalates and an 18-membered oxalate in low yields. Double-reductive amination of dialdehyde analogs of the diol precursors leads to 15-membered amines in yields ranging from 9 to 60%, reflecting large differences in reactivity based on steric environment. The convertion of the two least sterically hindered diols into diiodide analogs is also presented. However, the desired cyclizations of these precursors have not been successful. Part II The formation and subsequent coupling of a monosilver(I) acetylide of 2,3-diethynyltriptycene is presented. The silver(I) acetylide is formed in high yield from both 2,3-diethynyltriptycene and 2,3-di(trimethylsilylethynyl)triptycene by use of the same reagent. Coupling of the silver(I) acetylide with 1-iodoadamantane is demonstrated. Furthermore, attempts at the synthesis of 1,3-difluoro-5,7-diiodoadamantane from 1,3,5,7-tetraiodoadamantane are presented. Unfortunately, the reaction is found to be uncontrollable by use of two different reagents, giving a mixture of uoro-iodoadamantanes. However, overall the results provide a good starting point for the synthesis of new triptycene and adamantane-containing molecules that can interact with carbon nanotubes.


Supply chains has become more complex and customer requirements keep on getting more demanding in terms of quality, time and sustainability. In respect to these transformations, the supply chain management strive to come up with new practices and approaches to mitigate these challenges and optimize the supply chain performance. In the pursuit of greater efficiency and competitiveness, Industry 4.0 has proved substantial strategic impact on global development. The enabling technologies of industry 4.0 mainly include the Cyber Physical System (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, Blockchain etc. With its capability of sensing and generating valuable data throughout the value chain, IoT has attracted the interest of a growing body of researchers and practitioners. The "cold chain" logistics is a particular category of supply chains. It stands out from other types of supply chains by its demanding requirements and regulations which involves mainly perishable and temperature exigent products. While the technological advancements have contributed in the improvement of the cold chain, the logistical and transportation operations remains a main issue. In this perspective, this paper aims to explore the state of the art on the use of IoT in the cold chain logistics and in particular in the healthcare and vaccines supply chains. It discusses the challenges faced by the healthcare and vaccine cold chain logistics and points out the main benefit of IoT technologies.


Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) obtained from humans were cytotoxic for influenza virus-infected target cells. The PBL were shown to have associated influenza virus anti-hemagglutinin antibody (AHAb) detectable only by radioimmunoassay. This antibody could be removed by incubating PBL at 37 degrees C for 30 min. The lymphocyte population that was effective in this system was nonadherent and nonphagocytic cells. PBL gave comparable levels of cytotoxicity when tested by using either a xenogeneic or allogeneic virus-infected target cell. These results indicate that lymphocyte cytotoxicity to influenza virus infected cells may be mediated by small quantities of antibody and by lymphocytes that possess characteristics of K cells. No evidence for T cell-mediated cytolysis was found with this xenogeneic system.


In 1923 W Heffer & Sons Ltd published Servant of Sahibs: A Book to be Read Aloud, an autobiographical account of Ghulam Rassul Galwan's service, from 1890 to 1901, with English and American adventurers traveling through Kashmir and Central Asia. The focus of the book on Rassul Galwan's growth through colonial labor, combined with the authenticity imposed on him and his account through a number of textual and editorial devices, allows the book to be read credibly as a text that aids the colonial establishment in utilizing a discourse of Native authenticity in support of a somewhat discredited discourse of benevolent colonial labor relations. We begin by introducing the sociopolitical context within which it was useful for such a book to be published, sponsored and described as authoritative by the colonial establishment. In the second main section, we describe the ways it was a useful authenticating text, arguing that the interplay between Rassul Galwan's narrative and the introductory and editorial comments fulfils three attributes of a convincing piece of 'Native authenticity': to identify what the text is meant to authenticate, to establish the author's authenticity as a Native voice in terms acceptable to a Western audience, and to tell the appropriate story in a way that sounds authentic to a Western ear. In the third section we demonstrate that Servant of Sahibs cannot be understood as unproblematically accommodative either to colonial constructions of trans cultural labor relations or to the notion of Native authenticity. Without necessarily crediting Rassul Galwan with intent to resist, we argue that the accommodative text he helped create contains within it a tactical alternative to the very discourses it ostensibly naturalizes. This, we suggest, is characteristic of cultural products of transcultural contact zones, as well as of public transcripts of accommodation more generally. We end the paper by examining briefly (a) the possibility that Rassul Galwan's major theme of growth through colonial labor is informed less by satisfaction with his subservience to colonial masters than by interests only tangentially related to the field of domination which he is ostensibly addressing, and (b) the editor's apparent willingness to include Rassul Galwan's tactical disruptions and thus potentially recuperate those disruptions into colonial discourse.


We present one-dimensional, time-dependent models of the clumps generated by the line-deshadowing instability. In order to follow the clumps out to distances of more than 1000 stellar radii, we use an efficient moving-box technique. We show that, within the approximations, the wind can remain clumped well into the formation region of the radio continuum.


Grammatical specific language impairment (G-SLI) has been proposed as a distinct subtype of language impairment. We assessed a large sample of twins between the ages of 7 and 13 years on language comprehension tests sensitive to G-SLI. The sample included 37 same-sex twin pairs selected for the presence of language impairment (LI) in one or both twins and 104 twin pairs from the general population. The number and patterns of errors in those with LI replicated findings from previous studies of G-SLI. Qualitative markers of G-SLI were derived from the tests. Out of 144 children for whom complete data were available, 2 scored positive on all five markers and 9 scored positive on four of the five markers. Most children who made grammatical errors characteristic of G-SLI had co-occurring deficits in other areas. These results raise questions for theories that treat this disorder as an all-or-none modular deficit.


Tamoxifen (TAM), a standard endocrine treatment for ad vanced breast cancer, probably acts by competing for the estrogen receptor protein in the breast tumor cells. If so, resistance to TAM may be a function of the level of the available endogenous estrogen. Inhibition of estrogen synthesis by aminoglutethimide may therefore facilitate the action of the antiestrogen. To test this hypothesis, the two agents were given concurrently (a) to patients who had become resistant to TAM and (to) to patients who had never received TAM in a random ized cross-over study against TAM alone. Patients with estro gen receptor protein-negative disease were excluded. Estro gen and aminoglutethimide levels were measured serially. In the first study, four of 26 patients experienced partial responses, and four of 26, stabilization of their disease. In the randomized study, four of 11 patients on the combination and three of nine on TAM alone had responses. Two patients on the combination and three on TAM alone had stabilization of disease. In the first group, the low rate of response may be attributed to extensive prior treatment. In the randomized study, there is presently no clear advantage for one treatment, and overall, there was no statistically significant correlation be tween degree of estrogen suppression, aminoglutethimide level, and response. The findings do not exclude the possibility that these agents may act in breast cancer by mechanisms other than inhibition of estrogen receptor.


Background This study investigates the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) 52 and 58 genotypes among women residing in Busan, and the expression of p16 and p53 proteins in cervical neoplasia with HPV 52 and 58 infections. Methods A total of three hundred fifteen cases were analyzed using the HPV DNA chip test for HPV genotypes, and of these, we retrospectively examined p16 and p53 expression in 62 cases of cervical tissues infected with HPV 52 and 58 using immunohistochemistry. Results HPV 52 and 58 genotypes were identified in 62 (54.9%) out of 113 high-risk, HPV-infected cases. Of the cases examined, there were 19 single HPV 52 infections (16.8%), 23 single HPV 58 infections (20.4%), 4 multiple HPV 52 infections (3.5%), and 16 multiple HPV-58 infections (14.2%). Immunoreactivity of p16 and p53 was observed in 41 (66.1%) and 23 (37.1%) of the 62 cases of cervical neoplasia infected with HPV 52 and 58 genotypes, respectively. Conclusions This study demonstrates a high prevalence of HPV 52 and 58 genotypes, in addition to HPV 16, among high-risk strains of cervical neoplasia in Korea. These findings suggest that development of more vaccines would be beneficial for the prevention of the various HPV genotypes.


Zerovalent and other iron-based phases were fabricated in the form of thin films in the presence of a magnetic field. TEM measurements showed the secondary size of nanoparticles to be approximately 15 nm. The crystallinity of the zerovalent nanoparticles was increased by fabrication inside of a magnetic field, which led to increased stability of the nanoparticles in ambient air and to a discovery of a new reaction in which a magnetic field of 0.2 Tesla affected the products of the chemical reaction between iron and nitrogen. Crystallinity and phase change were confirmed by XPS and GIXRD characterization.


Drug allergy is an increasing problem worldwide, affecting all populations and races, children and adults, and for which diagnosis and treatment are not well standardized yet. Besides classical treatments, new drugs have been developed, especially for patients suffering from malignancies and chronic inflammatory diseases, that specifically target the cause of the disease. For those patients requiring such molecules, it is sometimes difficult to find an alternative drug when hypersensitivity reactions occur. Desensitization is therefore the best option whenever no alternative therapy is available but also when alternative treatments are considered therapeutically inferior and or more toxic. Despite its clinical success, little is known about the mechanisms and molecular targets of drug desensitization. Desensitization protocols use a gradual dose escalation to allow the safe administration of a treatment to which a patient previously presented a hypersensitivity reaction. The procedure requires special training and coordination of an allergy team, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, working together to safely and successfully implement desensitization protocols when appropriate. There is no difference in desensitization protocol between adults and children, except for the final cumulative dose of the administered drug. (www.actabiomedica.it)


AlGaN based multiple-quantum-wells (MQWs) incorporating opposite polarity domains was grown by MOCVD. A direct demonstration of carrier localization effect was provided by a combination analysis of space-resolved luminescence peak position and Ga/Al composition distribution. Furthermore, through Raman spectroscopy, it is found that compressive strain plays a key role in improving the optical properties of UV-MQWs despite of the inferior crystalline quality in the N-polar domains. This suggests that incorporating sub-micrometer scale polarity domains in the MQWs is a promising perspective for the development of efficient UV emitters.


Shaping effects of the E-fishbone in tokamaks are investigated. Coordinates related to the Solov'ev configuration are used to calculate the precession frequency and kinetic contribution. It is shown that elongation does not change the precession frequency and the kinetic energy. Growth rates of the E-fishbone vary with elongation which essentially has destabilizing effects. For elongated tokamaks, triangularity has a stabilizing effect on the modes which play a compensative role. The results may apply to Sunist.


A cornerstone of modern production paradigms is the encapsulation of heterogeneity and system complexity. This functional encapsulation is supported by distinct architectural building blocks that once instantiated abstract, manage and control a specific system. Modern production approaches rely in semi hierarchical architectures to organize the interactions between these blocks. In runtime this specific structure promotes a self-organizing response resulting from concurrent interaction between the system's components. This paper simulates the execution of processes in a network of mechatronic agents comprising products, processes' abstractions and resources and analyses the impact of the typical network structure envisioned by modern production paradigms in respect to the time consumed in the production process.


In this paper, the author discusses the connection between Shintō and Shin Buddhism by examining the development of the Shin Buddhist head temple Kinshokuji. Through an analysis of different sources (tales and precinct-layouts), the author seeks to reconsider two views on Buddhism. First, he shows that while the sectarian boundaries of a temple are significant for understanding its structure, the individual local conditions (history or customs) are to no small extent crucial factors in the formation of a temple's identity. Kinshokuji's local conditions led to the appearance of a Shintō shrine within the precincts. The author proposes an approach that can elucidate this unique example of a Shin Buddhist head temple. He shows, secondly, that the contacts between Buddhism and Shintō were not only based on a unidirectional Buddhist interest. On the other hand, it enabled Shintō itself to benefit from a many Buddhist strengths.


The tuned mass disc damper (TMDD) can be applied to avoid chatter of machine tools. The effectiveness of the TMDD depends mostly on the tuning accuracy of the natural frequency. In this paper, three finite element models are presented to simulate the vibrations of the TMDDs. The simulated natural frequencies are compared with measured results. The third model solves the problems of the first and the second model and can predict the natural frequencies of the TMDDs with an acceptable error.


Traditionally, emphases in the mass media coverage of almost all crimes have been placed on the alleged offender and the victim (and on occasion, their families). As a result, the families of offenders have been either largely ignored or presented unfairly even though their lives have also been devastatingly impacted by the media coverage of their loved one. While scholars have explored the impacts of offending on offenders' relatives, this exploratory study adds to the literature by focusing on a uniquely marginalized sub-population of relatives of sex offenders in Canada. This study examines some of the collateral consequences of sex offending on the relatives, while focusing primarily on the impacts and effects of media coverage on these relatives. The findings of this study are based on a thematic analysis of nine in-depth semistructured interviews with partners, mothers and daughters of Canadian adult male sex offenders. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Herbert Blumer's (1969) symbolic interactionism and Erving Goffman's (1963) stigma, this research finds that relatives of sex offenders encounter a myriad of consequences and repercussions resulting from a loved one's sexually offending behaviour. In particular, the interview data suggests that the media coverage of a loved one's criminalized behaviour exacerbates many of the already difficult and challenging collateral consequences, as well as the overall stigmatizing effects that arise when a loved one engages in sexually offending behaviour. Recommendations, offered by the participants, regarding future media reporting practices are presented, along with important directions for future research within this area of study.


Dementia is a progressive condition which is synonymous with cognitive decline. In the UK, it is estimated that the number of people living with the condition is 800,000, a figure which is anticipated to rise above 1 million people before 2021. Symptoms of dementia include short-term memory loss, communication problems and difficulties with reasoning. In addition to these symptoms, many people living with dementia experience neuropsychiatric symptoms, including depression and apathy. Positive reminiscence is a non-pharmacological intervention which has the potential to improve the happiness of people living with dementia. Reminiscence utilises prompts, such as music and photographs, to evoke the long-term memories of the person with dementia, a capacity which is the last to be affected by the condition. Generally, reminiscence uses generic prompts, however, there is research suggesting that personalised memories lead to greater engagement in the activity. This research uses a mixed methods approach to develop a theory-based reminiscence program which can be implemented on a tablet computer and evaluate the potential for it to be accepted by people living with dementia and their care-givers. An initial study within this project found that personalised memories which use photographs, stories and music as stimuli are effective at evoking positive emotions in people over the age of 50. The research then develops a set of guidelines which can be used to design technology interaction to ensure that it is dementia friendly. Further research used these two areas of theory which have been developed to design and implement an application to facilitate the reminiscence program. The acceptance this application is then qualitatively assessed using people living with dementia and their informal care-givers. Results suggest there is the potential for the tablet application to be accepted by the target user group. This thesis makes a number of contributions to knowledge including the most effective types of stimuli and memories to evoke positive emotions, guidelines for dementia friendly technology interaction, and the potential for the theory-based reminiscence program implemented on a tablet computer to be accepted by people living with dementia and their care-givers.


Apoptosis has been causally linked to the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction and heart failure in rodent models. This death process is mediated by two central pathways, an extrinsic pathway involving cell surface receptors and an intrinsic pathway using mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum. Each of these pathways has been implicated in myocardial pathology. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the understanding of the intrinsic pathway and how it relates to cardiac myocyte death and heart disease.


An NRD guide pulse radar front-end was fabricated for level sensor applications at 60 GHz. Main emphasis was placed on circuit configuration. Typically, an oscillation power is divided by a junction circuit and is introduced into two parts. One is for transmitting wave, and the other is for LO wave to perform hetero-dyne detection. The frequency of the former is up-converted so as to be different from the frequency of the LO wave, and thus, a power amplifier is installed in the transmitting side due to low output power of the up-converted millimeter-wave. In this paper, we proposed a new circuit configuration, which consists of a Gunn oscillator with two output ports to eliminate a junction circuit, a direct pulse-modulator to obtain a high level transmitting power without an expensive millimeter-wave power amplifier, and a filter-based down-converter with an up-converter as a local oscillator.Range finding was performed by using the NRD guide pulse radar, however multi-reflection occurred between a target and a planar antenna due to a pencil beam radiation of our developing planar antenna, so that precise distance estimation could not be performed for short range detection. With this in mind, an FPGA-based signal processor was developed in order to eliminate such multi-reflection. The sequential sampling method was employed to reduce experimental errors, which were investigated in terms of difference of periods between a modulated pulse train and a sequential sampling clock. The error of range finding was successfully reduced to be less than 2 % for the distance range from 2 m to 10 m under multi-reflection environment.


The aim of the present study was to compare the dynamics of biogenic amines formation in three freshwater fish species, to compare the progress of chemical changes in filleted and minced flesh, to find correlations of such changes with sensory properties and to find possible quality indicators for selected fish species. Samples (n = 156) of fish fillets and fish mince of common carp (Cyprinus carpio), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and perch (Perca fluviatilis ) were stored at 3 °C and 15 °C. The amines were determined as the N-substituted benzamides, after derivatization with benzoylchloride by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography. Based on the biogenic amine contents and sensory properties, the shelf life of samples at 3 °C was 11–16 days and 7–10 days for fillets and mince, respectively, and 2–3 days at 15 °C regardless of sample processing. Content of putrescine seems to be a good quality indicator for all examined fish species. The fish species and the method of flesh processing did not have a significant influence on the putrescine formation. Tyramine was formed mainly in carp and trout mince at 15 °C. Samples of good and acceptable quality did not contain toxicologically significant concentrations of histamine or tyramine. Contrary to marine fish, information about biogenic amines contents in freshwater fish is scarce. Comparison of the dynamics of amines formation in fillets and processed fish flesh has not been studied yet. The progress of decomposition processes is compared based on dynamic models.


Setting oneself the determination of the Belarusian bibliology development directions in the NATIONAL revival context as an object of the report and solving a problem of the definite reconstruction of the book knowledge in 1920s the author notes that the knowledge was one of the basic rests of the Belarusian national identification. Development of the Belarusian bibliology in the 1920s was connected closely with the second wave of the national revival in 1918–1929 (BSSR) and 1921–1939 (the Western Belarus). This period might be called the most fruitful period of the Belarusian nation development. Achievements of the short period surpass the whole 19th century. The first Belarusian bibliology significant achievements are connected with the first Belarusian scientific establishment "Inbelkult" (1922–1929) activities. The year of 1926 was full up the events when the solid two bibliological works were published: "400 years of Belarusian press, 1525–1925" and "Belarusian (Kryvian) book history" by Vatslav Lastovski. In the same year the Belarusian society of bibliophiles was established. The society first began to research a number of bibliological problems: Belarusian book culture, book press history, book art. A number of prominent scientists and Belarusian national revival figures paid great attention to bibliological problems. There were E. Karski, V. Picheta, B. Epimah-Shinila, M. Dovnar-Zapolski, V. Lastovski, A. Shliubski N. Shchekotichin, D. Dovgialo, S. Nekrashevich, M. Meleshko, N. Kasperovich, D. Zhelunovich, A. Stankevich. These figures were the pioneers in the field of Belarusian bibliology theory and history. After the State BSSR library opening the scientific-bibliographical and library science fields were started to be researched (I. Simanovski, J. Bibila). There was scientific discussion of Professional periodical press creation too. The study of local lore ("Nash krai") and socio-literary ("Polymia", "Uzvysha") magazines as well as "The Inbelkult humanities department works» became the basic Belarusian bibliological tribune. However the Belarusian revival period was too short. In the end of the 1929s – in the beginning of the 1930s the Belarusian intellectuals tragedy took place. Many of them were called "natsdems" and prisoned or executed by the Soviet authorities. Right up to the beginning of the 1960s the Belarusian bibliology was in stagnation. The main lessons of the 1920s Belarusian bibliological heritage: in form: documental heritage is the most important constituent of national development; activities of special scientific and social centres are the powerful tools of the intellectual power concentration and progress in bibliological theory, methodology and history; professional bibliological printing is the essential tool of the knowledge development and dissemination; scientific staff training is the essential condition of successful bibiliological projects; in content: bibliological investigations became a section of historical, archival, study of local lore, philological, culturological complexes; the investigations basic directions are fixed: source study, historiography, preservation of memorials of book culture, book and book printing history, study of Skaryna, ancient book printing art, library science and bibliography, bibliophilia (ex-libristics), book culture; the research directions are defined: principles and criterions of national document identification; book typology, methods and methodology of bibliology. But the Belarusian book science achievements of the 1920s are very important. They shows the definite culture independence of Belarus.


The histologic findings of a pegged hydroxyapatite orbital implant removed due to chronic inflammation and pain are described. A 44-year-old woman underwent explantation of a hydroxyapatite sphere and polycarbonate motility peg due to chronic redness, swelling, discharge, and pain. Histology revealed complete fibrovascularization of the implant, with approximately 90% ossification. No bone marrow was identified. Histologic sections revealed fibrous connective tissue at the periphery of a sclerotic bony mass with a granulomatous inflammatory infiltrate at the motility peg aperture. There were no bacterial, mycobacterial, or fungal organisms identified histologically or by culture. Consistent with previous reports, hydroxyapatite orbital implants are amenable to fibrovascular ingrowth and bony transformation. The presence of a granulomatous inflammatory reaction around the polycarbonate motility peg in this case may have prevented complete osseous transformation of the hydroxyapatite implant.


Light falling from a point source on a ruffled surface produces a pattern of images, which move about over the surface. The image points correspond to the maxima, minima, and saddle points of a certain function. It is shown that the images are generally created in pairs, a maximum with a saddle point or a minimum with a saddle point, and that the total numbers of maxima, minima, and saddle points satisfy the relation Nma+Nmi=Nsa+1.The process of creation or annihilation of images is studied in detail, and also the tracks of the image points, in certain special cases. It is shown that closed tracks may be common. This is confirmed by photography of the sea surface.


Some problems concerning the stratigraphy of the Pleistocene of the European Lowland The detailed revision of the stratigraphy of all interglacial sections in Poland was included long ago in the plan of my studies. As this purpose could not be realized within a short time, and the necessity of first making a review of results already obtained was obvious, I decided to make an appropriate statement based upon literature already existing. I hoped that not all the profiles with interglacial sediments in Poland may be found in such a confused stratigraphical situation that the interpretation of their age would need correction. The study of the recent Polish and foreign literature enabled me to get certain correlations first of all between the Quaternary of the Niemen basin, investigated with my co-operation; and the territory of Poland on the one hand, and also between Poland and the west and east of Europe - on the other.


The inhibition of adrenal 3beta-hydroxy-delta5-steroid oxidoreductase activity was studied in vitro 24 h after a single injection of 2alpha-cyano-4,4, 17alpha-trimethyl-5-androsten-17beta-ol-3-one (cyanoketone) to adult castrated female and male rats. The inhibition of conversion of dehydroepiandrosterone to androstenedione was about 80% as compared to adult castrated control rats treated with vehicle only. The conversion of pregnenolone to progesterone and 5alpha-pregnane-3,20-dione was also inhibited by about 80% in both sexes. The activity of 3beta-hydroxy-delta5-steroid oxidoreductase was greater both in cyanoketone-treated and control female rats as compared to the corresponding male rats. It is concluded that the previously observed sex differences in response to cyanoketone in vivo are not due to a lower affinity of male adrenal 3beta-hydroxy-delta5-steroid oxidoreductase to cyanoketone.


ABSTRACT We wrote Class Structure in Australian History in a period of heightened social struggle. It grew out of collaborative research projects at Sydney's Free U in the late 1960s. The book was distinctive in both emphasising the socialist tradition of class analysis and trying to find new paths for it. Its first edition was ignored by mass media, and often mis-interpreted in professional journals. Nevertheless it circulated widely and has continued to be a point of reference for progressive scholarship. Its method tried to carry forward the Free U project of democratic knowledge making, linking documents with analysis and inviting shared interpretation. Its theory emphasised the reality of classes as historical formations, and the importance of understanding class structure as a whole, on both points reacting against influential frameworks of the time. Looking back, CSAH appears uncertain in its approach to race and gender, and inadequate in its handling of coloniality; it was written in isolation from similar projects in other parts of the postcolonial world. Yet its approach still has value in understanding the changing dynamics of class on a world scale, the class relations of the neoliberal era in Australia, and the current configuration of power in Australia.


Submarine sandbars were deposited on the post-storm subaerial beach at Carrabelle Beach, Florida, by Hurricanes Elena and Kate in 1985. These bars contained stratification similar to swash bars and berms, as well as an unusual stratification consisting of interlayered beds and heavy-mineral laminae, which were slightly convex upward. Based on their internal morphology and location above the high-water line, these bars appear to be a relatively unknown type, the stranded bar. Field relationships and grain-size distributions have been examined in order to identify the principal sedimentation mode during deposition. These data support an origin by grain settling from suspension as storm wave energy decreased, but nearshore water levels remained elevated. The sediment pool comprising the bars was progressively sorted during the two hurricanes, which occurred within ten weeks of each other.


ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to investigate children's epistemological beliefs in terms of their free play preferences in relation to learning centres. The study was conducted with 115 children coming from families with high socio-economic status (54 girls and 61 boys, 57 five years old and 58 six years old) during the 2015/2016 spring semester. The Epistemological Beliefs Scale for Children was administered to each child individually. In addition, all the children were shown pictures of science, drama, music, literacy, painting and mathematic centres prepared by two researchers and asked to choose the one they preferred for play during free time. Each child was interviewed by one researcher and each interview lasted approximately 15–20 minutes. According to the overall results of the study, children's epistemological views tended to be dogmatic; however, some children thought more sceptically. Furthermore, children had a sophisticated thinking style in certain dimensions of knowledge while having immature reasoning in others. It was also found that the source of knowledge and hypothesising sub-dimensions of epistemological views indicated dogmatic thoughts. On the other hand, children had sceptical thoughts concerning the sub-dimension of change in knowledge.


Abstract Gender role stereotypes in advertising have been widely addressed by the industry and academic researchers around the world, but this research has not often extended to the Middle East. The current research focuses on consumers' perceptions of gender role stereotypes in advertising in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country where traditions and culture still play a strong role. A survey of 810 residents asked questions about an advertisement they recalled, their perception of the recalled ad, their opinions about gender role stereotypes in advertising in the UAE, as well as a CHAID analysis to understand the differences in perceptions of two ads for specific products. The results found that more participants recalled an ad with a female character compared to an ad with a male character. Also, both men and women participants agreed that the main character in an ad for a household product should be a woman, but disagreed about the main character for a bank ad. Recommendations for the advertising field include targeting cultural understanding and casting more women in ads, especially to create role models for women.


Abstract The rosetted trace fossil Dactyloidites ottoi (Geinitz) commonly has been associated with shallow-water, high-energy marine environments, although detailed sedimentological analyses of the host deposits are unfortunately few. The Aptian–Albian Otoio Formation (Basque-Cantabrian Basin) provides an excellent opportunity to test the paleobathymetric and paleoenvironmental controls on the restricted distribution of D. ottoi. The Otoio Formation records a great variety of shallow-water marine environments, but D. ottoi occurs only in intervals interpreted as fluvial-dominated deltas (Gilbert-type and mouth bar-type deltas). Moreover, detailed facies analysis and geometric relationships of the deltaic deposits suggest the following main controls on the distribution of D. ottoi: (1) paleodepth between 0 and 3 m, quantified from the foreset heights of Gilbert-type deltas; (2) siliciclastic and organic matter-rich sandy substrate; (3) high and discontinuous sedimentation rates; and (4) reduced salinity, responsible for the small size of the trace from the Otoio Formation. These observations are in agreement with published data from other localities.


Recent human capital theories predict that labor market frictions and product market competition influence firm-sponsored training. Using matched worker-firm data from Dutch manufacturing, our paper empirically assesses the validity of these predictions. We find that a decrease in labor market frictions significantly reduces firms' training expenditures. Instead, product market competition does not have an effect on firm-sponsored training. We conclude that increasing competition through international integration and globalization does not pose a threat to investments in on-the-job training. An increase in labor market flexibility may reduce incentives of firms to invest in training, but the magnitude of this effect is small.


Speech language models (SpeechLMs) process and generate acoustic data only, without textual supervision. In this work, we propose TWIST, a method for training SpeechLMs using a warm-start from a pretrained textual language models. We show using both automatic and human evaluations that TWIST outperforms a cold-start SpeechLM across the board. We empirically analyze the effect of different model design choices such as the speech tokenizer, the pretrained textual model, and the dataset size. We find that model and dataset scale both play an important role in constructing better-performing SpeechLMs. Based on our observations, we present the largest (to the best of our knowledge) SpeechLM both in terms of number of parameters and training data. We additionally introduce two spoken versions of the StoryCloze textual benchmark to further improve model evaluation and advance future research in the field. We make speech samples, code and models publicly available: https://pages.cs.huji.ac.il/adiyoss-lab/twist/ .


The transduction of force to a biological signal is critical to all living organisms and cells. Mechanosensitive ion channels participate, but the biophysical mechanism that transduces force remains unclear. Here we show that the sensing of membrane thinning through a helix tilt in TREK-1 channels transduces force. Reconstituted TREK-1 in PC lipids with a hydrophobic thickness of ~29 A (18:1 PC) robustly activated the channel; however, decreasing the thickness to ~26 A (16:1 PC) or increasing to ~36 A (22:1 PC) inhibited the channel. Increasing bilayer thickness by adding cholesterol (10-40%), or thinning the membrane with stretch, polyunsaturated fatty acids, or heat shifted the thickness dependence. The thickness sensitivity was located near a lipid-binding motif on a known gating helix at the end of the fourth transmembrane domain. We propose a stretch-activation model for TREK-1 where tension causes membrane thinning and TREK-1 senses membrane thinning to transduce the signal.


This paper will examine information structure used in Modern Hebrew, a Semitic language spoken in Israel. More specifically, the study will look into the methods used by Modern Hebrew native speakers to differentiate between old (active) information and new information in spontaneous speech. The study will offer new insights to different constructions of information structure, relating to active and new information and the use of definite or finite forms, in the spontaneous speech of Modern Hebrew, as well as general insights into narrative discourse and information structure. The study conducted in this paper further proves existing theories about information structure and reasoning behind constructions used by speakers of different languages. Further this paper relates the analysis of the specific strategies applied by Modern Hebrew native speakers to construct a narrative to convey information in a desired way and gives some indication of the method used.


Abstract The Canadian transition to IFRS provides a valuable IFRS learning opportunity. The Canadian transition and implementation of IFRS provides a unique opportunity to examine the conversion of financial reporting from a similar set of financial reporting rules as U.S. GAAP in a similar economic and business environment. The implementation and adoption of IFRS is not a monolithic event. Our ability to comprehensively understand and assess IFRS requires transparent disclosures such as those mandated by IFRS 1 and disaggregation of the equity components to observe and measure the impact of IFRS as it pertains to discretionary management implementation choices, material reclassifications, and GAAP-to-GAAP differences. Comprehensive knowledge of IFRS 1, First Time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards is crucial to our ability to assess the transitory and future impact of IFRS. IFRS 1 sets the precedent for financial reporting under IFRS, overrides transitional provisions included in other IFRS, and prescribes detailed disclosures. This detailed "rules-based" standard permits discretionary management policy choices which have material impact on transitory reporting as well as future financial results.


Primary or metastatic dura mater sarcomas are rarely seen, and dural synovial sarcomas are quite rare. Here we report the case of a 60-year-old man who presented with headache, nausea, and vomiting and was found to have a 63×33×40-mm mass with solid and cystic components in parieto-occipital lobe. The mass was resected completely, with no residue detected on postoperative magnetic resonance imagining. On pathological evaluation, a vimentin-, S100-, transducer-like enhancer of split 1-, BCL-2-, and EMApositive and desmin-, PR-, CD99-, PANCK-, and GFAP-negative synovial sarcoma with Ki-67 proliferation index of 12% was detected. Postoperatively, chemotherapy has been started, and it will be followed by radiotherapy. Primary meningeal-derived sarcomas are rare, and differential diagnosis with other meningeal mesenchymal tumors is based on the findings of morphological and immunohistochemical analyses.


The Strawberry Advisory System (SAS) was developed to improve temporal precision of fungicide application. Based on Net Present Value (NPV), it outperforms the traditional fungicide application method given weather and market conditions typical for Florida (Vorotnikova et al., 2014). This study uses stochastic dominance and efficiency with respect to a function (SDRF and SERF) criterion to rank ten-year NPV for SAS-based and traditional fungicide application methods, given a range of farmers' risk preferences. SERF is a valuable tool because it incorporates a utility function and a range of decision-maker risk preferences. Data from two production experiments were used: 1) research trials at the University of Florida's farm, and 2) field experiments at seven commercial strawberry farms, located in different Florida counties. Each experiment included two diseases, anthracnose and Botrytis, and two cultivars, more- and less-disease resistant. The results based on research trials show that for both diseases and cultivars, the SAS-based method is the most preferred given any farmers' risk aversion levels. However, the results based on results from commercial farms show that while the SAS-based method ranks higher for the more-resistant cultivar, the traditional fungicide application method is preferred for the less-resistant cultivar, for any farmers' risk preference.


This paper presents a Smart system for visually impaired, that make use of ultrasonic sensor and RF transceiver as assistive devices. Visually impaired individuals find navigation difficult as they struggle everyday in performing actions for bypassing obstacles and hurdles in their path. In order to help blind people navigate safely and quickly this system is proposed. This system is based on embedded technology. Ultrasonic sensor is placed on the spectacle which is used for obstacle detection with distance indication. RF transceiver simulator is used to provide the traffic signal information for pedestrian crossing in real time scenario and also the bus route information to help the user know about the desired bus. The project hypothesizes a smart walking stick that alerts visually-impaired people over ground level obstacles, pit and water in front which could help them to walk with less accident. The main aim of this work is to design a voice based alerting system for the blind people.


Homogenates of mouse lungs were separated by differential centrifugation into two fractions containing lipoprotein lipase, namely, a soluble and a membrane-bound fraction. Lipoprotein lipase was specifically identified by its inhibition by both protamine sulfate (3 mg/ml) and sodium chloride (0.9 mol/l). The enzymatic activity of each fraction was enhanced when serum was preincubated with the enzyme. Both enzyme fractions showed optimum activity at alkaline pH, but the membrane-bound enzyme showed a higher pH optimum. In addition, the apparent Km of the soluble enzyme was lower than that of the membrane-bound enzyme. It is concluded that there are two different forms of lipoprotein lipase in mouse lung tissue that differ in a number of aspects.


This paper investigates the possibility of utilization of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is a non-parametric method of optimization, to solving problems of environmental management in electric generating companies. An advantage of DEA is the possibility to work with DMUs without any knowledge of the actual functional relation between inputs and outputs. We analyze methods of incorporating the negative ecologic effects into a model and propose an algorithm for applying the basic DEA CCR input-oriented model twice in succession for the purpose of developing an optimal (ecologically and economically) strategy for environmental management in electricity energy generating companies. The developed method consists of sequentially solving several DEA models: the first-stage model determines the effectiveness of DMUs from an ecologic perspective and calculates target values for decreasing negative ecologic effects of non-effective DMUs. The second stage requires solving one input-oriented CCR model for each non-effective object, using economic and social characteristics of projects meant to reduce negative environmental influence, and using the target values calculated in the first stage as outputs. Besides the problem of evaluation the comparative efficiency of DMUs, ecologically oriented studies also often needs to evaluate the changes in a DMU's efficiency dynamically. For this, the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) is used. MPI is a non-parametric method for analyzing time series that allows to track changes in DMU efficiency over time by means of DEA models. We test this algorithm on the statistical data provided by Russian electric companies for the period 2009-2011, and discuss methods for its practical application. The statistical data used in our calculations is averaged, and the results do not reflect the entire picture and should not be used to judge the quality of ecologic management in these companies. Nevertheless, the calculations can be used to evaluate the progress of completion and the practicality of investment projects of companies, from an environmental viewpoint. They also may be used to help develop state programs for support of modernization in electric energy industry, ecologic standards or energy-saving programs.


The microscopic identification of acid-proof rod-shaped bacilli via smear is of great importance for the diagnosis of tuberculous otitis media, since it is performed quickly and easily, for it enables an early diagnosis and treatment. The importance of the staining method using auramine is discussed, and it is examined if contamination by apathogenic or atypic mycobacteriae can yield a wrong positive result.


According to the ecological safety evaluation index data of land-use change in Ji'an City from 1999 to 2008, positive treatment on selected reverse indices is conducted by Reciprocal Method. Meanwhile, Index Method is used to standardize the selected indices, and Principal Component Analysis is applied by using year as a unit. FB is obtained, which is related with the ecological safety of land-use change from 1999 to 2008. According to the scientific, integrative, hierarchical, practical and dynamic principles, ecological safety evaluation index system of land-use change in Ji'an City is established. Principal Component Analysis and evaluation model are used to calculate four parameters, including the natural resources safety index of the land use, the socio-economic safety indicators of the land use, the eco-environment safety index of land use, and the ecological safety degree of land use in Ji'an City, Result indicates that the ecological safety degree of land use in Ji'an City shows a slow upward trend as a whole. At the same time, ecological safety degree of land-use change is relatively low in Ji'an City with the safety value of 0.645, which is at a weak safety zone and needs further monitoring and maintenance.


Abstract The study is a comparative analysis of the characteristics of air temperature and atmospheric precipitations in winter seasons from the WMO reference periods (1961 - 1990, 1981 – 2010) compared with last 7 years (2010 – 2016). There is a continuous increase of air temperature in winter, from −2,0°C between 1961-1990, to −1,1°C between 2010-2016, so a heating of 0,9°C. In the last 7 years (2010-2016) the average number of frosty nights (nights with minimum temperature of ≤ −10°C) was reduced by 18% compared to the period 1961-1990 and by 3% compared to the period 1981-2010. In the same period (2010 – 2016), the rainfall were higher in winter, respectively by 17% than during 1961-1990 and by 22% than during 1981-2010. There is an increase of torrential character of precipitation, more pronounced in the southern region of Moldova.


A semi-artificial thermocouple device is developed to explore the dynamic cutting temperature variation rules in high-speed milling of Al7050-T7451 aluminum alloy. Both the aluminum-constantan thermocouple calibration diagram and cutting temperature curves are obtained. The cutting temperature empirical formula is constructed by means of orthogonal experimental design and multivariate linear regression analyses. It shows a reasonable good match between the theoretical predicted values and the measured temperatures. This allows for the optimization of cutting parameters and the exploration of machining deformation induced by the cutting heat in high-speed milling of aerospace aluminum monolithic constructions.


Conflict detection in dual process contexts is a widely studied phenomenon. However, only a small portion of the investigations has studied the role of individual differences in a typical conflict detection paradigm. In this study, participants completed a modified base-rate neglect task, as well as the Cognitive Reflection Task (CRT), and two Thinking Disposition Questionnaires. Results support an individual differences hypothesis in which the CRT prediction of accuracy on the base-rate conflict problems is mediated by the dispositional tendency to engage in flexible thinking.


The study analyzes compliance with legal decisions made by the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS), particularly those of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court) in Brazil. In light of prior findings of generalized shortcomings in the execution of Court sentences, sentences against the Brazilian State are considered and, through comparative analysis, the internal institutional process of sentence implementation is evaluated. In this undertaking, the difficulties of classic Law are problematic in attending to expectations of legal efficacy in the context of plural norm implementation and production.


This thesis investigates the relationship between Tobin's Q and regional housing investment in Sweden for the time period of 1998-2012. The relationship is tested through estimation of two models for time-series analysis, a vector error correction model (VECM) and an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. Depending on which model that is used, I find some evidence of positive correlation between Tobin's Q and regional housing investment in the long run while the short run dynamics of investment does not seem to be explained by Tobin's Q. By transforming the regional data into a panel data set and running a fixed effects model, I examine the gain in explanatory power of Tobin's Q from using disaggregated data rather than aggregated. My findings suggest that using disaggregated data improves the explanatory power of Tobin's Q on investment. However, the Granger Causality test indicates two-way causality between Tobin's Q and investment, causing endogeneity problem in the estimated equations.


Have you ever looked up at the sky and imagined what the clouds look like? In this work, we present an interesting task that augments clouds in the sky with imagined sketches. Different from generic image-to-sketch translation tasks, unique challenges are introduced: real-world clouds have different levels of similarity to something; sketch generation without sketch retrieval could lead to something unrecognizable; a retrieved sketch from some dataset cannot be directly used because of the mismatch of the shape; an optimal sketch imagination is subjective. We propose Cloud2Sketch, a novel self-supervised pipeline to tackle the aforementioned challenges. First, we pre-process cloud images with a cloud detector and a thresholding algorithm to obtain cloud contours. Then, cloud contours are passed through a retrieval module to retrieve sketches with similar geometrical shapes. Finally, we adopt a novel sketch translation model with built-in free-form deformation for aligning the sketches to cloud contours. To facilitate training, an icon-based sketch collection named Sketchy Zoo is proposed. Extensive experiments validate the effectiveness of our method both qualitatively and quantitatively.


SUMMARY The epidemiology and clinical features of invasive group A streptococcal (iGAS) disease in Queensland children was investigated in response to anecdotal evidence of an increase in frequency and severity of this condition. A retrospective review of clinical records of all cases of iGAS disease notified to Queensland Health aged 0–18 years during a 5-year period was conducted. The annualized incidence of iGAS was 3·5/100 000 for the total population aged 0–18 and 13·2/100 000 for the Indigenous population of similar age. The annualized incidence was highest in Indigenous infants but no increase in frequency or severity of iGAS infections was observed. Findings included an increased prevalence in Indigenous children particularly in those aged <1 year, a significant male preponderance, lack of seasonal variation and an association with blunt trauma. Further studies are required to confirm and investigate these findings and to define specific risk factors in high-risk groups.


The laparoscope provides an alternative approach to the operative management of a perforated peptic ulcer. Although the laparoscope has already proven to be an effective adjunct in the treatment of chronic peptic ulcer disease, its role in the treatment of perforated ulcers remains to be proven. This article reviews the technique of laparoscopic exploration of the abdomen with vagotomy and Graham repair in a patient who presented with a perforated pyloric channel ulcer.


Defects associated with drilling of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) are of major economic and safety concerns for aerospace manufacturers. One of the most critical defects associated with drilling of CFRP laminates is delamination of layers which can be avoided by keeping the drilling forces below some threshold levels. Orbital Drilling (OD) is an emerging drilling process that exhibits lower cutting forces and temperatures, easier chip removal, higher produced surface quality, longer tool life, and a high possibility for dry machining. The OD process is featured by cyclic engagement and disengagement between the tool and the workpiece whereby a considerable part of the work done by the tool is directed towards the tangential direction while the work done in the axial direction is reduced. This reduces the risk of delamination at the exit. The objective of this research work is to investigate the effect of the OD process key parameters with respect to the produced hole attributes (surface roughness, delamination, and hole accuracy), as well as the cutting forces and temperatures. All the OD tests were performed under dry conditions using a four-flute 6.35 mm end-mill. The cutting forces were recorded using a 3-component dynamometer Kistler 9255B and cutting temperatures were measured using a FLIR ThermoVision A20M Infrared camera at the holes exit. A full factorial design of the experiment was used whereby the feeds varied from 60 to 360 mm/min and the speeds from 6,000 to 16,000 rpm. The test material used was a quasi-isotropic laminate comprising woven graphite epoxy prepreg. Analysis of the results showed 45% reduction in the axial force component in orbital drilling (OD), compared to conventional drilling. None of the holes produced by the entire set of experiments has experienced any entry or exit delamination. ANOVA was used to identify the significance of the controllable variables on the experimental outputs. To overcome the challenge of optimizing the competing parameters of the hole quality attributes while maximizing the productivity, an algorithm was applied by hybridizing Kriging as a meta-modeling technique with evolutionary multi-objective optimization to optimize the cutting parameters.Copyright © 2013 by ASME and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada


OBJECTIVE
to find the social representations of female students about female condoms. Methodology: exploratory and descriptive study, with qualitative approach, based on the Theory of Social Representations.

METHOD
94 students from high school students, technical courses, and adult education participated, all from public schools from a municipality in the countryside of Bahia/Brazil, and responded to the test of free word association. The evocations were submitted to the softwares EVOC and IRAMUTEQ.

RESULTS
students recognize that the female condom is a technology that provides autonomy, protects against sexually transmitted infections, and prevents pregnancy. In contrast, they reported that their reasons for not using the method are finding it uncomfortable and strange.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Social representations point to the need for strategies that promote information exchange and stimulate practical knowledge about the female condom among public school students.


Azure cloud offers Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to its customers. It uses Hyper-V hypervisor to manage instances of virtual machines. Several papers report superlinear speedup for execution of dense matrix-matrix multiplication algorithm comparing the parallel and sequential executions. The existence of a superlinear speedup is also confirmed in some cases of virtualized and cloud environments. In this paper we realized a series of experiments to find out if the superlinear speedup is also possible on the Azure cloud for executing the dense matrix-matrix multiplication algorithm using the same hardware infrastructure. In addition to the hypothesis about existence of a superlinear speedup we will theoretically explain the experimental results and determine the regions and particular matrix sizes where it may occur.


For over 30 years, different urban agriculture (UA) experiments have been undertaken in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). The Community Gardening Program, managed by the City, and 6 collective gardens, managed by community organizations, are discussed in this article. These experiments have different objectives, including food security, socialization and education. Although these have changed over time, they have also differed depending on geographic location (neighbourhood). The UA initiatives in Montreal have resulted in the development of a centre with a significant vegetable production and a socialization and education environment that fosters individual and collective social development in districts with a significant economically disadvantaged population. The various approaches attain the established objectives and these are multi-dimensional tools used for the social development of disadvantaged populations.


A study was made of three groups of babies, one breast fed, one having Karitane Milk Food, the third homogenised milk. Blood sodium and urea were measured in the neonatal period. The urea levels were significantly higher in babies having homogenised milk compared with those fed Karitane or breast milk. Haemoglobin was measured in the neonatal period, and at 3, 6, 10 1/2 and 18 months. At six months, haemoglobin levels were significantly higher in Karitane milk fed than in homogenised milk fed babies. Serum cholesterol and triglyceride were measured in cord blood, and at 6 and 18 months of age. Serum triglyceride levels in babies on Karitane Milk Food were significantly higher than those on homogenised milk. Increments in weight, height and head circumference were compared. Karitane milk fed babies gained significantly more weight than breast fed between three and six months of age.


textabstractClosed queueing networks have proven to be valuable tools for system performance analysis. In this paper, we broaden the applications of such networks by incorporating populations of {em branching customers: whenever a customer completes service at some node of the network, it is replaced by N>=0 customers, each routed independently to a next node, where N has a given, possibly node-dependent branching distribution. Applications of these branching and queueing networks focus on {em stable regimes, where the customer population iteratively dies out in finite expected time; at customer depletions the network is immediately supplied with a new set of customers according to a given initial-state distribution. In our first result, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for stability. An analysis of queue-length distributions seems much more difficult, even under exponential assumptions. Homogeneous, infinite-server networks and n-server single node networks are exceptions for which we give exact results, but our main response to the added difficulty is to give an asymptotic analysis of exponential networks with slowly varying population sizes. We model the behavior of such networks by that of a sequence of closed queueing networks differing only in population size, in analogy with the approach of nearly completely decomposable systems. The theoretical foundations of this approximation technique require limit laws, which we provide for throughputs and for stationary queue-length distributions.


LiDAR mapping is important yet challenging in selfdriving and mobile robotics. To tackle such a global point cloud registration problem, DeepMapping [1] converts the complex map estimation into a self-supervised training of simple deep networks. Despite its broad convergence range on small datasets, DeepMapping still cannot produce satisfactory results on large-scale datasets with thousands of frames. This is due to the lack of loop closures and exact cross-frame point correspondences, and the slow convergence of its global localization network. We propose DeepMapping2 by adding two novel techniques to address these issues: (1) organization of training batch based on map topology from loop closing, and (2) self-supervised local-to-global point consistency loss leveraging pairwise registration. Our experiments and ablation studies on public datasets such as KITTI, NCLT, and Nebula demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


Population dynamics constitutes a widespread branch of investigations which finds important applications within the realm of life science. The classical deterministic (macroscopic) approach aims at characterizing the time evolution of families of homologous entities, so to unravel the global mechanisms which drive their dynamics. As opposed to this formulation, a microscopic level of modeling can be invoked which instead focuses on the explicit rules governing the interactions among individuals. A viable tool that enables to bridge the gap between the two approaches is the van Kampen's system size expansion. In this thesis we use this method to show how the finite-size effects accounted by the microscopic level might significantly alter the dynamics of biological phenomena.