Owing to a similar cerebral neuro-anatomy, non-human primates are viewed as the most valid models for understanding cognitive deficits. This study evaluated psychomotor and mnesic functions of 41 young to old mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus). Psychomotor capacities and anxiety-related behaviors decreased abruptly from middle to late adulthood. However, mnesic functions were not affected in the same way with increasing age. While results of the spontaneous alternation task point to a progressive and widespread age-related decline of spatial working memory, both spatial reference and novel object recognition (NOR) memory tasks did not reveal any tendency due to large inter-individual variability in the middle-aged and old animals. Indeed, some of the aged animals performed as well as younger ones, whereas some others had bad performances in the Barnes maze and in the object recognition test. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed that declarative-like memory was strongly impaired only in 7 out of 25 middle-aged/old animals. These results suggest that this analysis allows to distinguish elder populations of good and bad performers in this non-human primate model and to closely compare this to human aging.


The AVO response of two-layer VTI models for AVO Class I is investigated. Graebner/Rueger reflection coefficients and the "Weyl-integral for anisotropic media" are utilized for the computation. Spherical wave results are compared with the planewave reflectivity. Depth dependence of spherical wave AVO is found to be strongest near critical angles, as was observed in the isotropic situation. Both C-wave AVO and P-wave AVO are more sensitive to changes in anisotropy than to changes in depth.


The ultimate limit state of structural tension members with stress concentrations due to geometrical (non-welding related) stress raisers is investigated. Examples of such members are pad eyes, brackets etc. The influence of the application of high strength steels (up to S690) is taken into account. The focus lies on members with a predominant static loading regime. Such members frequently occur in the marine environment as parts of lifting appliances and handling systems or as a structural detail of equipment foundations, located outside the fatigue-prone regions of the hull girder. Typically, design stresses at the stress concentration approach the yield limit of the material. Common yield criteria cannot be applied to such peak stresses, due to the small margin between design and yield. Usually, the strength integrity is based on the nominal stresses in the critical cross section. Goal of the study is to determine the ductile failure limit with a method suited for design purposes. This would enable an ultimate limit state design approach and improve the structural safety philosophy. Main question is how the post yield behavior up to failure of a notched section is influenced by the stress gradient and the properties of the high strength materials. For this purpose, the applicability of two damage models based on the work of Rice & Tracey [8] (void growth model) and Bonora [1] (damage mechanics) is studied. In combination with elastoplastic finite element analysis these models enable the prediction of local ductile crack initiation. Calculations are performed on slender tensile members with a geometrical stress raiser, assuming a range of structural steel qualities and using a static loading regime. The results are verified using small scale laboratory tests. It is shown that isolated (non-redundant) tensile members with stress raisers feature a static ductile failure mode similar to that of uniform tensile specimen. Their failure loads can be determined as the product of the material's tensile strength and the net section area, in the same way as for uniformly stressed members. These findings are valid up to S690 materials and clear the path to a safe and sound application of such materials based on an ultimate limit state approach. It was found that the ultimate limit state is governing design for higher strength steel members with a relatively low stress concentration. A severe stress raiser may be beneficial for efficient design of high strength members, since it allows a design stress in the notch up to yield without compromising the safety up to failure. Damage calculations were found superfluous for isolated member ultimate limit state design. Damage results, however, compare well with the failure mode observed. This is useful for the design of highly stressed notches in details which are surrounded by a large main structure, providing a huge reserve strength capacity. For these so-called embedded stress raisers an ultimate load approach is not possible due to the absence of a critical cross section. Damage mechanics can then be applied to determine a failure point in terms of stress and strain, allowing an ultimate limit state design for these stress peaks as well.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Dependency trees have been intensively used with graph neural networks for aspect-based sentiment classification. Though being effective, such methods rely on external dependency parsers, which can be unavailable for low-resource languages or perform worse in low-resource domains. In addition, dependency trees are also not optimized for aspect-based sentiment classification. In this paper, we propose an aspect-specific and language-agnostic discrete latent opinion tree model as an alternative structure to explicit dependency trees. To ease the learning of complicated structured latent variables, we build a connection between aspect-to-context attention scores and syntactic distances, inducing trees from the attention scores. Results on six English benchmarks and one Chinese dataset show that our model can achieve competitive performance and interpretability.


A28 year old unmarried, sexually active male came to us with generalised body itching of 15 days' duration. He also complained of itching and irritation of eyelid margins. He had noticed some concretions attached to his eyelashes and some crawling insects over his body. He gave a history of frequent heterosexual unprotected genitogenital contacts with commercial sex workers. The last sexual contact had been about a month previously. On physical examination, both eyes appeared normal except for eyelid margins, which showed brownish scales and louse nits on the upper eyelashes (fig 1). The pubic area and thigh showed live adult crab lice clinging to the hair (fig 2). Under the light microscope, they were found to have short stout bodies and well developed claws in the second and third pair of legs, typical of the crab louse. His serology for the venereal disease research laboratory test and HIV antibodies was non-reactive/negative. He was treated with 1% gamma-benzene hexachloride lotion topically with a single overnight application (below the neck all over the body) and this was repeated after one week. The eyelash infestation was successfully managed with liquid petrolatum ointment topically and manual removal of nits and lice. Pediculosis, infestation by the Pediculus corporis and Pediculus capitis, and phthiriasis, infestation by the Phthirus pubis (crab louse) occur in humans when sanitary practices are inadequate. Typically, P pubis is found in the hair of pubic and inguinal regions, the P corporis on the seams of clothing, particularly where it is in close, constant contact with the body. Pediculosis is transmitted by close contact with an infested individual or by contaminated clothing and bedding. Phthiriasis, on the other hand, is typically transmitted by sexual contact. Eyelashes and eyebrows are sites of predilection for phthiriasis in children; the source of infestation is an infested mother. In adults, phthiriasis palpebrarum results from probable transmission of the crab louse from the genital area to the eyes by hand. The infestation of eyelashes is rare and is rarely encountered by dermatologists. The crab louse infests the eyelashes most commonly, but is nevertheless rare. Primarily, it manifests as itching and irritation of eyelid margins. The signs of typical blepharoconjunctivitis, blood stained thickened discharge on the eyelid margins, and the presence of nits on the eyelashes and adult parasites in their roots are distinctive features of this entity. It may be confused with other forms of blepharitis, unless one looks for the above signs. Diagnosis can be confirmed by microscopic examination of the louse. Morphologically, P pubis may be distinguished from pediculus by its much broader abdomen and stronger second and third pair of legs (its distinctive crablike appearance). Other areas of the body may be affected by the adult crab louse, for example, the pubic area, thighs, abdomen, and axillae. Infestation of the eyelids is treated with twice daily applications of petrolatum for seven to 10 days. Alternative treatments include anticholinesterase eye ointments, yellow oxide of mercury, or fluorescein. The simplest technique for the treatment of eyelid lice is direct removal of the lice and nits with fine forceps. Cryotherapy may provide a fast cure. Application of 1% gamma-benzene hexachloride cream and pyrethrin ointment are other options. As one third of patients with pubic lice infestation may have other sexually transmitted diseases, they should be examined for these infections. Clothing and bed linen must be washed and heat dried after each treatment.


PurposeCritical thinking is considered important in psychological science because it enables students to make effective decisions and optimizes their performance. Aiming at the challenges and issues of understanding the student's critical thinking, the objective of this study is to analyze online discussion data through an advanced multi-feature fusion modeling (MFFM) approach for automatically and accurately understanding the student's critical thinking levels.Design/methodology/approachAn advanced MFFM approach is proposed in this study. Specifically, with considering the time-series characteristic and the high correlations between adjacent words in discussion contents, the long short-term memory–convolutional neural network (LSTM-CNN) architecture is proposed to extract deep semantic features, and then these semantic features are combined with linguistic and psychological knowledge generated by the LIWC2015 tool as the inputs of full-connected layers to automatically and accurately predict students' critical thinking levels that are hidden in online discussion data.FindingsA series of experiments with 94 students' 7,691 posts were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the proposed MFFM approach that combines two types of textual features outperforms baseline methods, and the semantic-based padding can further improve the prediction performance of MFFM. It can achieve 0.8205 overall accuracy and 0.6172 F1 score for the "high" category on the validation dataset. Furthermore, it is found that the semantic features extracted by LSTM-CNN are more powerful for identifying self-introduction or off-topic discussions, while the linguistic, as well as psychological features, can better distinguish the discussion posts with the highest critical thinking level.Originality/valueWith the support of the proposed MFFM approach, online teachers can conveniently and effectively understand the interaction quality of online discussions, which can support instructional decision-making to better promote the student's knowledge construction process and improve learning performance.


Background: ChromolaenaodorataLinn. (Asteraceae)is being used traditionally for its many medicinal properties including lowering of blood glucose level. However, few and inconsistent information about its antidiabetic potential is available.Objective: to standardize; determine physicochemical and elemental parameters; and evaluate anti-diabetic potential of Chromolaena odorata Linn. (Asteraceae) powdered leaves in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.Materials and Methods: Physicochemical screening of fresh and powdered leaves of C. odorata leaves were respectively determined using a light microscope connected to a standard camera. Elemental analysis was done using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) GBC Avanta Model. Thirty-three Wistar rats of either sex weighing 150 – 200 g were used in the procedures. Acute toxicity assessment (LD50) was carried out using the guideline of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Chromolaena odorata powdered leaves were evaluated using alloxan-induced model.Results: Physicochemical screening of the fresh and powdered leaves confirmed the pharmacognostic parameters of Chromolaena odorata. The moisture content was 6.0 ± 0.07 %, the alcohol soluble extractive was 30 ± 0.05 %. while the water-soluble extractive was 40 ± 0.05%. The elemental analysis of the powdered leaves of C. odorata showed that the leaves contains 29.00mg/L of K, 13.500mg/L of Na, 0.15mg/L of Mn, 4.78mg/L of Mg and 0.30mg/L of Ca. Chromolaena odorata showed no toxicity when it was orally administered to rats (LD50 ≥ 2000 mg/kg). The powdered leaves of Chromolaena odorata at 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg showed dose and time-dependent anti-diabetic activities.Conclusion: The powdered leaves of Chromolaena odorata is non-toxic and preliminary data showed its anti-diabetic potential possibly due to the presence of some phytochemicals and mineral elements identified


We consider locally repairable codes over small fields and propose constructions of optimal cyclic and linear codes in terms of the dimension for a given distance and length. Four new constructions of optimal linear codes over small fields with locality properties are developed. The first two approaches give binary cyclic codes with locality two. While the first construction has availability one, the second binary code is characterized by multiple available repair sets based on a binary Simplex code. The third approach extends the first one to q-ary cyclic codes including (binary) extension fields, where the locality property is determined by the properties of a shortened first-order Reed- Muller code. Non-cyclic optimal binary linear codes with locality greater than two are obtained by the fourth construction.


Very young cucumber (Cucumis sativus) fruit are highly susceptible to infection by the oomycete pathogen, Phytophthora capsici. As the fruit complete exponential growth, at approximately 10–12 days post pollination (dpp), they transition to resistance. The development of age-related resistance (ARR) is increasingly recognized as an important defense against pathogens, however, underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Peel sections from cucumber fruit harvested at 8 dpp (susceptible) and 16 dpp (resistant) showed equivalent responses to inoculation as did whole fruit, indicating that the fruit surface plays an important role in defense against P. capsici. Exocarp from 16 dpp fruit had thicker cuticles, and methanolic extracts of peel tissue inhibited growth of P. capsici in vitro, suggesting physical or chemical components to the ARR. Transcripts specifically expressed in the peel vs. pericarp showed functional differentiation. Transcripts predominantly expressed in the peel were consistent with fruit surface associated functions including photosynthesis, cuticle production, response to the environment, and defense. Peel-specific transcripts that exhibited increased expression in 16 dpp fruit relative to 8 dpp fruit, were highly enriched (P<0.0001) for response to stress, signal transduction, and extracellular and transport functions. Specific transcripts included genes associated with potential physical barriers (i.e., cuticle), chemical defenses (flavonoid biosynthesis), oxidative stress, penetration defense, and molecular pattern (MAMP)-triggered or effector-triggered (R-gene mediated) pathways. The developmentally regulated changes in gene expression between peels from susceptible- and resistant- age fruits suggest programming for increased defense as the organ reaches full size.


In order to keep up with new networking needs, it becomes necessary to adopt mechanisms for charging network usage in a universal way. The Secure Charging Protocol (SCP) aims at answering this complex authentication, authorization, accounting and charging (AAAC) problem, and provides a view based on a different business model, one that has been adjusted to cope with technological changes. This document discusses SCP as a possible solution to the AAAC problems in MANETs and addresses the improvements made to this protocol in terms of Quality of Service (QoS) and User Interfaces. An implementation of this protocol on PDAs is also described.


Promise of form-factor reduction and hybrid process integration by three-dimensional (3D)-stacked integrated circuits (3DICs) has spurred interest in both academia and industry. In this study, through-silicon-via (TSV)-based 3D integration is discussed from a microprocessor centric view. The authors present the challenges faced by technology scaling and provide 3D integration as a possible solution. The applications for 3DICs are discussed with details of a few prototypes. The issues and challenges associated with 3D integration technologies are also addressed. TSV-based 3D integration technology will allow integration of diverse functionality to realise energy-efficient and affordable compact systems that will continue to deliver higher performance.


Mental health service utilization research is needed for students who are likely to receive school mental health services, yet little research exists for adolescents experiencing emotional/behavioral problems and school impairment. This study addressed this gap using secondary data analyses conducted on baseline data from a large trial testing school-based interventions for high school students (n = 647) experiencing emotional/behavioral problems and school impairment. Analyses examined the number and type (community-based or school-based psychosocial, inpatient, pharmacological treatment) of services used, and sociodemographics associated with services. Sixty-nine percent had received at least one service for their emotional/behavioral problems prior to the study, with nearly half of those having only received a single service. Community-based psychosocial and pharmacological treatments were most common. White adolescents and those in special education were more likely to have received services, particularly community-based and pharmacological treatment. On average, adolescents had not received any services until early adolescence. Findings add to increasing literature on the current status of service use among adolescents with emotional/behavioral problems and the potential for schools to increase access for those in need.


The notion of holding a popular vote for the president of the United States is, in theory, an intuitively simple idea. We hold popular elections for the governor of each state. We hold popular direct elections for basically every other office, from United States Senator to local dog catcher. We even elect judges in many states.

The National Popular Vote, or NPV, would change our existing system, where the winner of the Electoral College wins the presidency, to a system that more closely resembles these other elections. The NPV turns the Electoral College into a mechanism by which the winner of the aggregate total of the popular vote in the fifty states and the District of Columbia becomes the winner of a majority of the electors in the Electoral College. And its purported virtue is that it does so without the onerous need to go through the constitutional amendment process.

But any talk of a "national" popular vote is a misnomer at best, and an outright lie at worst. The only existing mechanism we have to compile voting preferences is federal, not national, in nature. In contrast, the only way to create a national popular vote is through nationwide regulation at the congressional level, which the Constitution does not presently authorize. While piecemeal efforts might bring about some greater uniformity, a federal constitutional amendment is the only means to determine a national popular vote.


Margaret Atwood's novel Surfacing has received considerable critical attention on the issue of "a positive female identity" in a patriarchal society. However, given Atwood's own stress on the fact that the novel is about the ways both genders work in relation to each other, this criticism has lacked in scrutiny of the novel's male characters. With a relational approach to the female and male characters, this thesis argues that while creating a positive identity for its female protagonist, the novel effectively creates a rather negative one for its male characters. In order to examine certain sets of relations and the qualities which represent the most honored way of being a man in the novel, I apply the concept of "hegemonic masculinity," which can be understood as the pattern of practices that explain male domination over women. It is indeed this hegemonic masculinity that the Surfacer rejects in her quest for emancipation. By looking at the hegemonic masculinity in Surfacing, I argue that the novel depicts very typically patriarchal characters in Joe and David and that the society is typically patriarchal.The thesis is divided into three main sections, each examining the most important sets of relations concerning Atwood's female emancipation. First, I analyze hegemonic structures in the world of the protagonist, including the issues of power, emancipation, and complicity. Then I look into the sexual division of labor to show that the characters assume their default roles without much reflection. Finally, I scrutinize the characters' relation to the Symbolic and how it affects their sense of identity. In each section, the analyses show that the male characters are reduced to tropes who only serve one function: to be stereotypically oppressive, patriarchal figures in order to facilitate the protagonist's positive change and empowerment. I argue that Atwood's failure to imagine male emancipation somewhat taints the development of female identity because the female emancipation becomes arrested.


Resting-state networks offer a unique window into the brain's functional architecture, but their characterization remains limited to instantaneous connectivity thus far. Here, we describe a novel resting-state network based on the delayed connectivity between the brain and the slow electrical rhythm (0.05 Hz) generated in the stomach. The gastric network cuts across classical resting-state networks with partial overlap with autonomic regulation areas. This network is composed of regions with convergent functional properties involved in mapping bodily space through touch, action or vision, as well as mapping external space in bodily coordinates. The network is characterized by a precise temporal sequence of activations within a gastric cycle, beginning with somato-motor cortices and ending with the extrastriate body area and dorsal precuneus. Our results demonstrate that canonical resting-state networks based on instantaneous connectivity represent only one of the possible partitions of the brain into coherent networks based on temporal dynamics.


Today, extend life time of low loaded MEA is a key challenge for the widespread of the technology. One of cause of the decrease of performances of MEA is the loss of electrochemical surface area, which can be due Pt dissolution, Pt coarsening and support corrosion. To tackle that issue, NanoCAT partners developed Pt free catalyst for both anode and cathode side, they also developed new resistant support to limit the loss of ECSA. The use of resistant support toward corrosion is a promising route to increase the life of MEA active layers. NanoCAT is studying the use of carbon nanotube (CNT) and doped metal oxide (MOx) as catalysts support. Deposition of catalyst (Pt and Pt alloy) has been made by both PVD and wet chemistry. PVD allow to prepare ultra low loading electrode (30 μgPt/cm2). Specific modifications of the CNT have been developed to facilitate the Pt deposition and enhance the particles dispersion on it. Preparation route of MOx have been tuned to obtain acceptable electron conductivity (0.95 S/cm) and porosity (pores size distribution: 20-50 nm, SBET: 90 m2/g). Pt on modified CNT shows similar performance as commercial Pt/C catalyst but lower loss of ECSA by performing accelerated stress test on rotating disk electrode. Degradation study showed that loss of ECSA occurs at the cathode as well as the anode in the specific conditions of the project. According to that, the project catalysts have been integrated at the anode and the cathode of MEA.


Gastroenterology is the branch within Internal Medicine which focuses on ingestion, digestion, utilization, elimination of which we intake, digestive system, and its disorders. It includes all the organs involved in digestion starting from mouth, tongue, saliva, oesophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, side organs of liver, biliary and pancreatic systems, and finally ends up in the rectum for excretion. Gastroenterology mainly refers to the diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract. A wide range of research on gastroenterology is carried out in USA particularly in Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, UCLA Medical Center, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Mount Sinai Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Studies at these institutes shows that most of the gastroenterology disorders such as constipation, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting vary widely among the residents of USA. More than 15 million people in the United States have been reported to suffer from these disorders as per the recent census.


This study aimed to test the effects of xuezhikang, a cholestin extract that contains statin-like components, on arterial stiffness in patients with essential hypertension. One hundred hypertensive patients from the Chinese PLA General Hospital were randomly allocated to receive xuezhikang (1200 mg/day, orally) or placebo (same capsules containing only pharmaceutical excipients). Physical examination outcomes, lipid profile, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels, matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) levels, and arterial outcomes, including stiffness parameter (β), pressure-strain elasticity modulus (Ep), arterial compliance (AC), augmentation index (AI), and one-point pulse wave velocity (PWVβ) were obtained at baseline and after 6 months of the intervention. Xuezhikang significantly reduced β (8.4±3.1 vs 6.8±2.1, P=0.007), Ep (122.8±43.9 vs 100.7±33.2, P=0.009), PWVβ (6.7±1.2 vs 6.1±1.0, P=0.013), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (3.4±0.6 vs 2.9±0.5, P=0.001), hs-CRP [2.1 (0.4-10.0) vs 1.4 (0.3-4.1), P=0.020], and MMP-9 (17.2±2.4 vs 12.7±3.8, P <0.001) compared to baseline. The placebo had no effect on these parameters. The changes of PWVβ in the xuezhikang group was significantly associated with the changes of hs-CRP and MMP-9 (r=0.144, P=0.043; r=0.278, P=0.030, respectively) but not with lipid profile changes. Our research showed xuezhikang can improve the parameters of arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients, and its effect was independent of lipid lowering.


Green phosphor of La(BO3, PO4): Ce, Tb was synthesized by means of sol-gel method and conventional solid state method. The thermal formation process was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and (DTA). The effects of synthesis method and conditions on the crystal and morphological structure were investigated by (XRD) and (SEM). The results revealed that La (BO3, PO4): Ce, Tb phosphors with monocline structure and high purity were successfully prepared by sol-gel method. Compared with solid state method, the products synthesized by sol-gel method presented well developed crystal structure, small particle size, narrow size distribution and high luminescent performances. The product synthesized at 1050°C for 2h had better emission intensity.


Rates of PTSD remain elevated among U.S. Veterans, highlighting a need for innovative management tools. Previous studies have shown mobile apps to have positive effects on PTSD symptoms, but few apps have been examined systematically. This pilot study evaluated the perceived effectiveness and usability of Mindset, a novel mobile app that monitors user stress level via heart rate to encourage e-therapy use. The study sample included 30 community-residing Veterans who completed baseline assessments. They used the Mindset app and associated smartwatch until their approximate 1-month follow-up. Self-reported assessments included pre- and post-deployment experiences; experience with Mindset; and standard screeners for PTSD (PCL-M), anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), and alcohol use problems (AUDIT). Among the 24 participants who completed follow-up interviews, a significant decrease (p < 0.05) was found in PCL-M, PHQ-9, and modified AUDIT scores. Respondents reported moderate to high acceptance and satisfaction with Mindset features, though considerable frustration with the associated smartwatch. These findings highlight mHealth apps such as Mindset as potentially useful tools for PTSD and depression symptom management. These findings are also encouraging in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which may accelerate further innovation and implementation of mHealth technologies to improve mental health self-care.


Liquid ammonia treatment can improve the properties of a hemp fiber and widen its application in textiles. This study investigated the effects of different ways of NH3 removal on the fine structure and properties of hemp fibers, including thermal property and dyeing behaviour. It was found that, of the three ways of ammonia removal, removal of ammonia with glacial acetic acid resulted in the highest transition of cellulose Ⅰinto cellulose Ⅲ and removal ammonia with water resulted in the lowest transition of cellulose Ⅰinto cellulose Ⅲ. Removal of ammonia with water also resulted in better thermal stability and higher dye uptake than the other ways of ammonia removal. Of the three ways of ammonia removal, removal of ammonia by evaporation resulted in the lowest dye uptake.


The authors examine the spatial resolution and variance properties of PET images reconstructed using maximum a posteriori (MAP) or penalized-likelihood methods. Resolution is characterized by the contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) of the local impulse response. Simplified approximate expressions are derived for the local impulse response CRCs and variances for each voxel. Using these results the authors propose a practical scheme for selecting spatially variant smoothing parameters to optimize lesion detestability through maximization of the local CRC-to-noise ratio in the reconstructed image.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative effectiveness of two methods of producing change in the order of values of adolescents. Milton Rokeach's method based on cognitive dissonance was compared to certain values clarification, strategies which have been widely used in the classroom. A control group was included with the two treatment groups. Rokeach's Value Survey was the instrument used for the pretest and posttest measurement. This instrument contained 18 value words which were ranked according to relative importance. The two values Freedom and Equality were selected as the dependent variables for this study. Three hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis one was that the ranking of the value Freedom would not change in the Rokeach or values clarification group. Hypothesis two was that the ranking of the value Equality would increase toward the ranking of Freedom in both the Rokeach and values clarification group. Hypothesis three was that the ranking of the value Equality would increase toward Freedom to a greater degree in the Rokeach group than in the values clarification group.


The product of the cutoff frequency and breakdown voltage (fT×BVCEO) is an important figure of merit (FOM) to characterize overall performance of heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). In this paper, an approach to introducing a thin N+-buried layer into N collector region in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) SiGe HBT to simultaneously improve the FOM of fT×BVCEO and thermal stability is presented by using two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation through SILVACO device simulator. Firstly, in order to show some disadvantages of the introduction of SOI structure, the effects of SOI insulation layer thickness (TBOX) on fT, BVCEO, and the FOM of fT×BVCEO are presented. The introduction of SOI structure remarkably reduces the electron concentration in collector region near SOI substrate insulation layer, obviously reduces fT, slightly increases BVCEO to some extent, but ultimately degrades the FOM of fT×BVCEO. Although the fT, BVCEO, and the FOM of fT×BVCEO can be improved by increasing SOI insulator SiO2 layer thickness TBOX in SOI structure, the device temperature and collector current are increased due to lower thermal conductivity of SiO2 layer, as a result, the self-heating effect of the device is enhanced, and the thermal stability of the device is degraded. Secondly, in order to alleviate the foregoing problem of low electron concentration in collector region near SOI insulation layer and the thermal stability resulting from thick TBOX, a thin N+-buried layer is introduced into collector region to not only improve the FOM of fT×BVCEO, but also weaken the self-heating effect of the device, thus improving the thermal stability of the device. Furthermore, the effect of the location of the thin N+-buried layer in collector region is investigated in detail. The result show that the FOM of fT×BVCEO is improved and the device temperature decreases as the N+-buried layer shifts toward SOI substrate insulation layer. The approach to introducing a thin N+-buried layer into collector region provides an effective method to improve SOI SiGe HBT overall performance.


Abstract Peel Plateau Yukon Territory is an under-explored potential petroleum region, where drilling during the 1960–70s identified natural gas shows in the upper Paleozoic succession. New fieldwork has identified natural gas seeps near the Trevor Fault, a major mapped structural element near the eastern Richardson Mountains front. One seep occurs where Trail River crosses the deformation front (66°28′, 135°08.3′) and the other, 45 km along strike of the deformation front, is associated with anomalously unfrozen holes in ice on Turner Lake (66°10.3′, 134°18.5′). Both samples contain methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and dihydrogen sulphide (H2S). The Trail River sample has methane and carbon dioxide isotopic compositions (δ13CCH4 = −42.8‰ and δ13CCO2 = −14.9‰) generally similar to thermogenic gases and specifically like Lower Cretaceous Mannville Group gases in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The Turner Lake sample isotopic composition (δ13CCH4 = −35.2‰ and δ13CCO2 = −31.7‰) is inferred originally similar to the Trail River gas, but we also infer it was subsequently mildly oxidized microbially. We speculate that trace amounts of H2S are attributable to thermochemical sulphate reduction, consistent with the stratigraphic occurrence of natural gas and patterns of thermal maturity in nearby wells. The presence of H2S suggests both gases have Paleozoic petroleum source rocks, which is a general association in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The results indicate an effective thermogenic petroleum system, with probable Paleozoic petroleum source rocks for Peel Plateau. The association with faulting on the margin of the Richardson Mountains is reminiscent of petroleum seeps associated with major petroleum fields at Turner Valley, Waterton and Norman Wells. Recent work by others shows untested prospective structures in Peel Plateau, including one below the Turner Lake seep. These seeps, combined with new structural interpretations provide incentive to evaluate further the inferred petroleum potential of Peel Plateau.


This report contains the results of tank tests carried out at free trim on seventeen hulls and floats of various types. The data as to the weight on water, trim, and relative resistance for each model are plotted nondimensionally and are referenced both to the total weight and to the weight on water. Despite the fact that the experiments were not made systematically, a study of the models and of the test data permits nevertheless some general deductions regarding the forms of floats and their resistance. One specific conclusion is that the best models have a maximum relative resistance not exceeding 20 percent of the total weight.


A novel method for comparing structural health of different types of brittle epoxy nanocomposites filled with carbon nanostructured fillers is presented. Epoxy – 0.2 vol% carbon black (CB) and epoxy – 0.2 vol% carbon nanotube (CNT) nanocomposite bars were prepared by calendering and thermal curing. Nanocomposite bars were subjected to Vickers diamond indentation to produce sub-surface damage. Electrical conductivities were analysed by 4-point method to estimate the structural damage caused by indentation. For comprehensive comparison, fracture toughness and percolation threshold were analysed as well. Because of the systematically induced indentation damage, a sharp decrease of 89% was observed in the electrical conductivity of epoxy – CNT nanocomposite as compared to 25% in the electrical conductivity of epoxy – CB nanocomposite. CNTs impart superior damage sensing capability in brittle nanocomposite structures, in comparison to CB, due to their high aspect ratio (fibrous nature) and high electrical conductivity.


Complex multicellularity (CM) occurs exclusively in the Eukarya domain and emerged independently within six distinct eukaryotic clades including ascomycete fungi such as Neurospora crassa. All CM organisms are characterized by three-dimensional (3D) cellular organization, cell differentiation and intercellular communication. It was hypothesized that new aspects of CM could be discovered by searching for genes present in CM fungi but absent in unicellular yeast counterparts. To this end, we performed bioinformatics analysis to identify genes expressed in Pezizomycotina and Neolecta irregularis but absent in budding and fission yeast. In total, we identified 147 genes that fit our criteria and we characterized four of which displayed an observable growth defect in N. crassa knockout strains. Interestingly, the protein product of one of the candidate gene, ROGDI, was found to interact with a subunit of the Vacuolar H+-translocating ATPase (VATPase) complex as part of the Regulator of ATPase of Vacuoles and Endosomes (RAVE) complex and could potentially function to maintain vacuolar pH levels. Another candidate protein, Spz1, was shown to interact with proteins known to function in cell polarity through its coiledcoil domain. Altogether, the results from this study provide clues on the extant of genes required for CM.


New measurements of the infrared dispersion of air are reported. They agree with series I of the 1962 data of Peck and Khanna, but lie below Edlen's 1966 formula. A two-term Sellmeier formula suffices to fit the resulting infrared (ir) data as well as the data selected by Edlen in the visible and ultraviolet (uv), being valid down to nearly 0.23 μm. Other possible Sellmeier fits are discussed, including extension to 0.185 μm.


MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Historical Perspective and Basics of Molecular Biology Nathan R. Domagalski and Michael Domach Biomolecular Interactions Gordon Rule Recent Advances in DNA Separations: Plasmid Purification, Rapid Electrophoresis, and Affinity-Based Recovery James W. Schneider and Jeffrey M. Savard Systems and Technology Involving Bacteria Nicole Bleckwenn and William Bentley Expression in Mammalian Cells Tina Sauerwald and Michael Betenbaugh DNA Vaccines Production and Engineering Michael M. Domach, Jonathan W. Meade, and Mohammad A. Ataai TRANSPORT PHENOMENA AND BIOMIMETIC SYSTEMS Biomimetic Systems: Concepts, Design, and Emulation Robert J. Fisher Transport/Reaction Processes in Biology and Medicine E. N. Lightfoot Microvascular Heat Transfer James W. Baish Fluid Dynamics for Bio Systems: Fundamentals and Model Analysis Robert A. Peattie and Robert J. Fisher Animal Surrogate Systems Michael L. Shuler, Sarina G. Harris, Xinran Li, and Mandy B. Esch Arterial Wall Mass Transport: The Possible Role of Blood Phase Resistance in the Localization of Arterial Disease John M. Tarbell and Yuchen Qiu Transport Phenomena and the Microenvironment Robert J. Fisher and Robert A. Peattie Transport and Drug Delivery through the Blood-Brain Barrier and Cerebrospinal Fluid Bingmei M. Fu Interstitial Transport in the Brain: Principles for Local Drug Delivery W. Mark Saltzman Surfactant Transport and Fluid-Structure Interactions during Pulmonary Airway Reopening David Martin, Anne-Marie Jacob, and Donald P. Gaver III PHYSIOLOGICAL MODELING, SIMULATION, AND CONTROL Modeling Strategies and Cardiovascular Dynamics Joseph L. Palladino, Gary M. Drzewiecki, and Abraham Noordergraaf Compartmental Models of Physiological Systems Claudio Cobelli, Giovanni Sparacino, Maria Pia Saccomani, Gianna Maria Toffolo, and Andrea Caumo Cardiovascular Models and Control Madhusudan Natarajan, Fernando Casas, and W.D. Timmons Respiratory Models and Control Chi-Sang Poon Biomimetic Approaches to Physiological Control James J. Abbas and Amit Abraham Methods and Tools for Identification of Physiologic Systems Vasilis Z. Marmarelis Modeling Vascular Vibrations: Autoregulation and Vascular Sounds Gary M. Drzewiecki, John K.-J. Li, and Abraham Noordergraaf External Control of Movements Dejan B. Popovic' and Mirjana B. Popovic The Fast Eye Movement Control System John Denis Enderle A Comparative Approach to Analysis and Modeling of Cardiovascular Function John K.-J. Li, Ying Zhu, and Abraham Noordergraaf A Biomedical and Biophysical Approach to the Science in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Gerrit J. Noordergraaf, Igor W. F. Paulussen, Alyssa Venema, Gert Jan Scheffer, and Abraham Noordergraaf Kinematic Modeling of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function Leonid Shmuylovich, Charles S. Chung, and Sandor J. Kovacs STEM CELL ENGINEERING: AN INTRODUCTION Engineering the Pluripotent Stem Cell Niche for Directed Mesoderm Differentiation Celine L. Bauwens, Kelly A. Purpura, and Peter W. Zandstra Cell Mechanobiology in Regenerative Medicine: Lessons from Cancer Badriprasad Ananthanarayanan and Sanjay Kumar Systems-Engineering Principles in Signal Transduction and Cell-Fate Choice Karin J. Jensen, Anjun K. Bose, and Kevin A. Janes Biomaterial Scaffolds for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Culture and Differentiation Stephanie Willerth and David Schaffer Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine in the Nervous System Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine for Treating Damaged Myocardium Rohini Gupta, Kunal Mehtani, Kimberly R. Kam, and Kevin E. Healy Stem Cells and Hematopoiesis Krista M. Fridley and Krishnendu Roy Synthetic Biomaterials and Stem Cells for Connective Tissue Engineering Ameya Phadke and Shyni Varghese Derivation and Expansion of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Sean P. Palecek Bioreactors for Stem Cell Expansion and Differentiation Carlos A. V. Rodrigues, Tiago G. Fernandes, Maria Margarida Diogo, Claudia Lobato da Silva, and Joaquim M. S. Cabral TISSUE ENGINEERING Strategic Directions Peter C. Johnson Silks Monica A. Serban and David L. Kaplan Calcium Phosphates Kemal Sariibrahimoglu, Joop G.C. Wolke, Sander C.G. Leeuwenburgh, and John A. Jansen Engineered Protein Biomaterials Andreina Parisi-Amon and Sarah C. Heilshorn Synthetic Biomaterials Joshua S. Katz and Jason A. Burdick Growth Factors and Morphogens: Signals for Tissue Engineering A. Hari Reddi Signal Expression in Engineered Tissues Martha O. Wang and John P. Fisher Pluripotent Stem Cells Todd C. McDevitt and Melissa A. Kinney Hematopoietic Stem Cells Ian M. Kaplan, Sebastien Morisot, and Curt I. Civin Mesenchymal Stem Cells Pamela C. Yelick and Weibo Zhang Nanobiomaterials for Tissue Engineering Pramod K. Avti, Sunny C. Patel, Pushpinder Uppal, Grace O'Malley, Joseph Garlow, and Balaji Sitharaman Biomimetic Approaches in Tissue Engineering Indong Jun, Min Sup Kim, Ji-Hye Lee, Young Min Shin, and Heungsoo Shin Molecular Biology Techniques X.G. Chen, Y.L. Fang, and W.T. Godbey Biomaterial Mechanics Kimberly M. Stroka, Leann L. Norman, and Helim Aranda-Espinoza Mechanical Conditioning Elaine L. Lee and Horst A. von Recum Micropatterned Biomaterials for Cell and Tissue Engineering Murugan Ramalingam and Ali Khademhosseini Drug Delivery Prinda Wanakule and Krishnendu Roy Gene Therapy C. Holladay, M. Kulkarni, W. Minor, and Abhay Pandit Nanotechnology-Based Cell Engineering Strategies for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Applications Joaquim Miguel Oliveira, Joao Filipe Mano, and Rui Luis Reis Cell Encapsulation Stephanie J. Bryant Coculture Systems for Mesenchymal Stem Cells Song P. Seto and Johnna S. Temenoff Tissue Engineering Bioreactors Sarindr Bhumiratana, Elisa Cimetta, Nina Tandon, Warren Grayson, Milica Radisic, and Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Shear Forces Jose F. Alvarez-Barreto, Samuel B. VanGordon, Brandon W. Engebretson, and Vasillios I. Sikavitsas Vascularization of Engineered Tissues Monica L. Moya and Eric M. Brey Biomedical Imaging of Engineered Tissues Nicholas E. Simpson and Athanassios Sambanis Multiscale Modeling of In Vitro Tissue Cultivation Kyriacos Zygourakis Bone Engineering Lucas A. Kinard, Antonios G. Mikos, and F. Kurtis Kasper Dental and Craniofacial Bioengineering Hemin Nie and Jeremy J. Mao Tendon and Ligament Engineering Nicholas Sears, Tyler Touchet, Hugh Benhardt, and Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez Cartilage Tissue Engineering Emily E. Coates and John P. Fisher TMJ Engineering Michael S. Detamore Interface Tissue Engineering Helen H. Lu, Nora Khanarian, Kristen Moffat, and Siddarth Subramony The Bioengineering of Dental Tissues Rena N. D'Souza, Katherine R. Regan, Kerstin M. Galler, and Songtao Shi Tissue Engineering of the Urogenital System In Kap Ko, Anthony Atala, and James J. Yoo Vascular Tissue Engineering Laura J. Suggs Neural Engineering Yen-Chih Lin and Kacey G. Marra Tumor Engineering: Applications for Cancer Biology and Drug Development Joseph A. Ludwig and Emily Burdett ARTIFICIAL ORGANS Artificial Heart and Circulatory Assist Devices Gerson Rosenberg Cardiac Valve Prostheses Arjunon, Neelakantan Saikrishnan, and Ajit P. Yoganathan Artificial Lungs Keith E. Cook, Timothy M. Maul, and William J. Federspiel Blood Substitutes Amy G. Tsai, Pedro Cabrales, and Marcos Intaglietta Liver Support Systems Matthew S. Chang and Robert S. Brown Peritoneal Dialysis Equipment Carlo Crepaldi, Francesca Katiana Martino, Maria Pia Rodighiero, and Claudio Ronco Artificial Skin and Dermal Equivalents Dennis P. Orgill, Raul Cortes, and Ioannis V. Yannas DRUG DESIGN, DELIVERY SYSTEMS, AND DEVICES Physiological Barriers to Drug Transport Fan Yuan Nucleic Acid Aptamers in Drug Delivery Mark R. Battig, Jing Zhou, and Yong Wang Dendrimers for Drug Delivery Giridhar Thiagarajan and Hamidreza Ghandehari Noninvasive Targeted Protein and Peptide Drug Delivery Pradeep K. Karla, Durga K. Paturi, Nanda K. Mandava, Animikh Ray, Sulabh Patel, Ranjana Mitra, and Ashim K. Mitra Environment-Responsive Hydrogels for Drug Delivery Byung Kook Lee, Jong-Ryoul Kim, Kinam Park, and Yong Woo Cho Biodegradable PLGA Scaffolds for Growth Factor Delivery Yusef Khan and Cato Laurencin PERSONALIZED MEDICINE Physiogenomic Contours: The Application of Systems Biology for Engineering Personalized Health Care Andreas Windemuth, Richard L. Seip, and Gualberto Ruano The Evolution of Massively Parallel Sequencing Technologies: Facilitating Advances in Personalized Medicine Ian Toma, Georges St. Laurent, III, Samuel Darko, and Timothy A. McCaffrey Computational Methods and Molecular Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine Roland Valdes, Jr. and Mark W. Linder Need for Point-of-Care Testing Devices for Cardiac Troponin in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes Alan H.B. Wu and Amy E. Herr ETHICS An Introduction to Bioethics and Ethical Theory for Biomedical Engineers D. John Doyle


The function of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in cancer extends beyond angiogenesis and vascular permeability. Specifically, VEGF-mediated signaling occurs in tumor cells and this signaling contributes to key aspects of tumorigenesis including the self-renewal and survival of cancer stem cells (CSCs). In addition to VEGF receptor tyrosine kinases, the neuropilins (NRPs) are critical for mediating the effects of VEGF on CSCs, primarily because of their ability to impact the function of growth factor receptors and integrins. VEGF/NRP signaling can regulate the expression and function of key molecules that have been implicated in CSC function including Rho family guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) and transcription factors. The VEGF/NRP signaling axis is a prime target for therapy because it can confer resistance to standard chemotherapy, which is ineffective against most CSCs. Indeed, several studies have shown that targeting either NRP1 or NRP2 can inhibit tumor initiation and decrease resistance to other therapies.


We analyse the degree of preference utilization in four major importing countries (Australia, Canada, EU and US) and provide evidence that preferences are more widely used than previously thought. For Australia and Canada, we have obtained a new dataset on imports by preferential regime that has so far not been publicly available. For the EU and US, we make use of more disaggregated data than previously used in the literature. We empirically test what determines utilization rates. In line with previous studies, we find that utilization increases with both the preferential margin and the volume of exports, suggesting that using preferences can be costly. However, we also find that utilization rates are often very high, even for very small preferential margins and/or very small trade flows, which contradicts numerous estimates that average compliance costs are as high as 2-6%. We extend the existing literature in relation to both data and methodological issues. In particular, we construct pseudo transaction-level data that allows us to assess more precisely when available preferences are utilized. Using this methodology, we obtain a more realistic estimate of what determines utilization. Rather than constituting a percentage share of the trade value, our findings indicate that utilization costs involve an important fixed cost element. We provide estimates for such fixed costs, which appear to be in the range of USD 14 to USD 1,500.


Recent theories have posited a range of cognitive risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including cognitive inflexibility and a maladaptive reliance on habits. However, empirical and methodological inconsistencies have obscured the understanding of whether inflexibility and habitual tendencies indeed shape OCD symptoms in clinical and sub-clinical populations, and whether there are notable interactions amongst these traits. The present investigation adopted an interactionist individual differences approach to examine the associations between behaviorally-assessed cognitive flexibility and subclinical OCD symptomatology in a healthy population. It also explored the nature of the interactions between cognitive flexibility and habitual tendencies, and the degree to which these cognitive traits predict subclinical OCD symptomatology. Across two studies, including a preregistration, Bayesian and regression analyses revealed that cognitive inflexibility and compulsive habitual tendencies act as unique and independent predictors of subclinical OCD symptomatology in healthy populations. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between cognitive rigidity and habitual compulsivity, which accounted for 49.4% of the variance in subclinical OCD symptomatology in Study 1, and 37.3% in Study 2. In-depth analyses revealed a compensatory effect between cognitive inflexibility and habitual compulsivity such that both are necessary for OCD symptomatology, but neither is sufficient. These results imply that in order to generate reliable and nuanced models of the endophenotype of OCD symptomatology, it is essential to account for interactions between psychological traits. Moreover, the present findings have important implications for theories on the cognitive roots of OCD, and potentially in the development of interventions that target both cognitive inflexibility and habitual compulsivity.


Understanding the differences between photon-induced and plasmon-induced hot electrons is essential for the construction of devices for plasmonic energy conversion. The mechanism of the plasmonic enhancement in photochemistry, photocatalysis, and light-harvesting and especially the role of hot carriers is still heavily discussed. The question remains, if plasmon-induced and photon-induced hot carriers are fundamentally different or if plasmonic enhancement is only an effect of field concentration producing these carriers in greater numbers. For the bulk plasmon resonance, a fundamental difference is known, yet for the technologically important surface plasmons, this is far from being settled. The direct imaging of surface plasmon-induced hot carriers could provide essential insight, but the separation of the influence of driving laser, field-enhancement, and fundamental plasmon decay has proven to be difficult. Here, we present an approach using a two-color femtosecond pump–probe scheme in time-resolved 2-photon-photoemission (tr-2PPE), supported by a theoretical analysis of the light and plasmon energy flow. We separate the energy and momentum distribution of the plasmon-induced hot electrons from that of photoexcited electrons by following the spatial evolution of photoemitted electrons with energy-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) and momentum microscopy during the propagation of a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) pulse along a gold surface. With this scheme, we realize a direct experimental access to plasmon-induced hot electrons. We find a plasmonic enhancement toward high excitation energies and small in-plane momenta, which suggests a fundamentally different mechanism of hot electron generation, as previously unknown for surface plasmons.


The Helicobacter pylori use a number of mechanisms to survive in the stomach lumen and can lead to gastritis and reduction in stomach acid secretion. It has been found that the risk of developing gastric carcinoma is associated to heterogeneity of H. pylori virulence factors such as HopQ. The HopQ is one of the outer membrane proteins involved in bacterial adherence to gastric mucosa and has been suggested to also main role in the virulence of H. pylori. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the association between different H. pylori virulence hopQI (types I) genotyping and patients with gastroduodenal disorders. For this purpose 58 stomach biopsies of the patients with gastric cancer and 100 saliva samples from healthy and H. pylori infected individuals were collected and studied. Then genomic DNA was purified and PCR was done for desired gene via specific primers. The H. pylori infections were diagnosed using PCR for GlmM gene. Then frequencies of hopQI+ and hopQI- genotypes were determined in H. pylori infected cases. Statistical analysis showed that there were not significant differences between healthy and diseased ones for genotypes hopQI+ and hopQI-. Then the hopQI+ cannot be as a risk factor genotype for gastric cancer.


This study aimed to see the correlation between length of study and comprehensive test scores. This correlational study employed a quantitative approach. The population was 43 graduates of Class XI of Mathematics Education Study Program IAIN Bukittinggi in 2019. The data in this study were length of study and comprehensive test scores. The data were analyzed using the Spearman's Test because the data were not normally distributed with a significant α = 5%. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between length of study and comprehensive test scores with the very low category and a negative direction (sig 0.467> 0.05). Correlation value of -0.114 indicated a very low relationship with a negative direction.


This note explains how conformal predictive distributions can be used for the purpose of decision-making. Namely, a major limitation of conformal predictive distributions is that, at this time, they are only applicable to regression problems, where the label is a real number; however, this does not prevent them from being used in a general problem of decision making. The resulting methodology of conformal predictive decision making is illustrated on a small benchmark data set. Our main theoretical observation is that there exists an asymptotically efficient predictive decision-making system which can be obtained by using our methodology (and therefore, satisfying the standard property of validity).


open access (oa) resources are becoming a main part of scholarly information. the paper summarizes the fast growth of oa journals and oa repositories, the outstanding oa journal impact increase, the rise of mega-oa journals like plos one, the overwhelming support of research communities to open access of publicly funded research, and the quick building up of oa support structures.  these forces work together to push scholarly communications toward a turning point where oa resources occupy a major and increasing share of scholarly research resources and when management of oa resources becomes a strategic, yet unfamiliar, and potentially disruptive task for research libraries. this paper is composed of two parts. the first part will focus on the development of oa resources, while the second part will analyze the challenges in management of oa resources and develop an oa resource strategy exemplified by some of nsl's initiatives.


Fuzzing is a practical, widely-deployed technique to find bugs in complex, real-world programs like JavaScript engines. We observed, however, that existing fuzzing approaches, either generative or mutational, fall short in fully harvesting high-quality input corpora such as known proof of concept (PoC) exploits or unit tests. Existing fuzzers tend to destruct subtle semantics or conditions encoded in the input corpus in order to generate new test cases because this approach helps in discovering new code paths of the program. Nevertheless, for JavaScript-like complex programs, such a conventional design leads to test cases that tackle only shallow parts of the complex codebase and fails to reach deep bugs effectively due to the huge input space.In this paper, we advocate a new technique, called an aspect-preserving mutation, that stochastically preserves the desirable properties, called aspects, that we prefer to be maintained across mutation. We demonstrate the aspect preservation with two mutation strategies, namely, structure and type preservation, in our fully-fledged JavaScript fuzzer, called Die. Our evaluation shows that Die's aspect-preserving mutation is more effective in discovering new bugs (5.7× more unique crashes) and producing valid test cases (2.4× fewer runtime errors) than the state-of-the-art JavaScript fuzzers. Die newly discovered 48 high-impact bugs in ChakraCore, JavaScriptCore, and V8 (38 fixed with 12 CVEs assigned as of today). The source code of Die is publicly available as an open-source project.1


— The important issue considered in the widespread deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is an efficiency of the energy consumption. In this paper, we present a study of the optimal relay station planning problems using Binary Integer Linear Programming (BILP) model to minimize the energy consumption in WSNs. Our key contribution is that the proposed model not only ensures the required network lifetime but also guarantees the radio connectivity at high level of communication quality. Specially, we take into account effects of noise, signal quality limitation and bit error rate characteristics. Numerical experiments were conducted in various network scenarios. We analyzed the effects of different sensor node densities and distribution on the energy consumption.


This paper presents an analysis of the experience of television based on a definition of experience as 'understanding situated in time'. Citing Heidegger's phenomenological investigations of everyday experiences, as well as tenets from Distributed Cognition, and Activity Theory, the experience of interaction with television is shown to be situated within personal and cultural contexts, which determine the meaning and therefore the quality of the experience. A diagram of television use cases representing television practices is presented, ordered according to proximity to cultural practice. The diagram and method are discussed. The method is recommended as a tool to direct user-interface design and requirements development priorities.


Fresh water crisis has been emerged as one of the most acute issues in the current global scenario, forcing the waste water reutilization concept a must. The reutilization of waste water again demands proper yet effective treatment. Among organic contaminants of waste water phenolic compounds are the principal components, which due to its toxic and carcinogenic nature forces people for its removal from waste water. Adsorption being the highly efficient, simple, cost effectiveness and the availability of a wide range of adsorbents is used as one of the most indispensable method for treatment of phenolic waste water.
In the present study, two different types of activated carbons were used as adsorbents namely, commercial granular activated carbon and laboratory prepared water hyacinth activated carbon prepared from roots of water hyacinth by chemical activation method with phosphoric acid impregnation. For batch adsorption process, operating variables studied were adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, initial phenol concentration, and temperature respectively. Sorption experiments indicated that the sorption capacity was dependent on operating variables and the process was strongly pH dependent. Adsorption of phenol onto GAC witnessed following optimal values of different operating variables as, w=3g/L, t=360mins, pH=9 and highest
uptake capacity of 39.0056 mg/g and those for phenol-WHAC system are 5g/L, 360 mins, 6 and 28.0049mg/g respectively. In both the cases adsorption capacity was shown to be
decreasing with increase in temperature. Kinetic measurements showed that the process was uniform and rapid. In order to investigate the mechanism of sorption, kinetic data were modelled using the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic equations. Among the kinetic models studied, the pseudo-second-order equation was the best applicable model to describe the adsorption process of phenol onto both the adsorbents. Equilibrium isotherm
data were analyzed using the Langmuir, Freundlich isotherms. The Langmuir model yields a much better fit than the Freundlich model for phenol adsorption onto GAC, in contrast Freundlich model was better fitted for WHAC. Isotherm parameters have also been used to obtain the thermodynamic parameters such as free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of sorption. The value of ΔH° was found negative, supporting that the phenol adsorption by the GAC and
WHAC are exothermic in nature.


While the cell structure known as the Golgi apparatus is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its discovery, Golgi research still manages to show plenty of life. Indeed, new work is forcing cell biologists to reevaluate some of the key concepts produced by the past 10 to 15 years of work. Researchers know that the structure, which consists of stacks of flattened membrane sacs called cisternae surrounded by smaller membranous tubules and round sacs called vesicles, plays a key role in transporting some proteins through the cell. Until recently, they thought that the proteins pass across the Golgi stack in vesicles that bud off from one cisterna and then fuse with the next. But new work suggests a more dynamic picture in which the cisternae themselves carry the proteins forward, while the vesicles move backward to recycle components of the Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum to their sites of origin. This picture is already forcing researchers to rethink their notions of how new Golgi stacks are formed and also how the Golgi forms in the two daughters when a cell divides.


THE rapid development of the social structure of the world during the past century is due, in no small measure, to improvements in communication. In certain ways we have annihilated distance completely, through the invention of telegraphs, telephones, and more recently and more wonderfully, of wireless telegraphy and telephony, and we are on the verge of another annihilation through the perfection of television. We have not yet discovered the magic carpet that will do for more material substances what these inventions have done for writing, speech, and vision. Nevertheless, transport by water is more rapid and more certain then ever before, while the motor vehicle has given us, during the last thirty years, a remarkable improvement, in rapid and reliable communication on land. The most recent and most spectacular development is that of aerial communication, which has given us a speed quite unattainable in any other form of transport. Metals are essential to the development of modern aircraft, if only for the reason that the motive power cannot be generated without their use. It would be incorrect to claim that the conquest of the air has been dependent on the use of non‐ferrous materials in substantial proportions, and indeed the first aeroplanes contained them only in small amounts, but it is certainly true that the present state of air communications is in large measure due to the development of non‐ferrous alloys, and their use in aircraft construction in large quantities.


Artificial intelligence has become one of the policy priorities for Chinese authorities since 2013, the
year in which the Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Orderly and Healthy
Development of the Internet of Things were issued. In order to push the strong development of AI in
China and to powerfully compete with the United States at the international level, China has elaborated
targeted and quantifiable long term national strategies, invested colossal public money into the sector,
and supported the growing up of national digital champions represented by the BATX (Baidu, Alibaba,
Tencent and Xiaomi). Important achievements have been made in terms of the industrial applications
of AI. Today, artificial intelligence is being applied in heathcare services, environmental protection,
public security, and national defense. Moreover, China is taking precedence over the United States in
the Sino-American competition over aritificial intelligence. Faced with the doubts of Europe, the United
States and Southeast Asian countries towards the allegedly imperialist intentions of geopolitical
domination of the Chinese government, I argue that solving internal problems is no less important than
using AI to seek the international leadership position for China. Rather than exclusively focusing on the
repressive nature of AI in China, it can be more constructive to create cooperation opportunities, so as
to unleash the untapped potential of AI for the benefits of more people.


The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale for measuring specific entrepreneurial job demands, over and above regular job demands. Scale content was based on extant literature search and interviews with ten entrepreneurs. Based on this information 14 items were developed. The factor structure, reliability and construct validity of the scale were examined in a sample of 291 entrepreneurs in The Netherlands. Findings demonstrate that the scale captured three dimensions of entrepreneurial job demands: 'time demands' (5 items), 'uncertainty & risk' (6 items), and 'responsibility' (3 items). The Entrepreneurial Job Demands Scale (EJDS) showed criterion validity in explaining work-related strain (positive relationship), and well-being (negative relationship) in a sample of 277 entrepreneurs over and above regular measures of job demands, e.g. emotional load, quantitative workload and task complexity. The conclusion is that including specific demands does seem to add to the explanation of work-related strain and well-being in entrepreneurs. The EJDS can be used as a tool for entrepreneurs, job coaches, and government institutions that want to monitor potential risk factors for strain, wellbeing and business success in entrepreneurs.


ABSTRACT Firms organize tournaments on online crowdsourcing platforms to outsource complex business problems to external solvers. Participants on these platforms often self-organize into ad-hoc virtual teams to compete in such tournaments. Social dominance-based faultlines, which originate from the alignment of members based on IT-enabled social dominance attributes (e.g., rank and tier), have emerged as a novel type of faultline in crowdsourcing teams. Building on the Categorization-Elaboration Model (CEM), we investigate the contingent effects of team ability and team effort on the relationship between social dominance-based faultlines and team performance in crowdsourcing tournaments. We collected data of 265 virtual teams from Kaggle.com. We discovered that IT-enabled social dominance-based faultlines positively influence the performance of teams with low ability and high effort, whereas the effect becomes negative for teams with high ability and low effort. Our study yields theoretical implications by advancing a novel type of social dominance-based faultline and extending the CEM with two contingent factors (i.e., team effort and team ability) pertinent to team performance on crowdsourcing tournaments. We also offer practical guidelines for team formation in crowdsourcing tournaments and for the design of crowdsourcing platforms.


Based on Moelands-Reinhardt single parameter power exponent constitutive equation and Equivalent stain hypothesis, preliminary damage evolution equation of polypropylene fiber concrete is derived. To eliminate mesh correlation of element characteristic length and reflect the action of tensile strength and fracture energy to damage evolution, modified polypropylene fiber concrete's damage evolution equation is deduced from the preliminary damage evolution equation. The modified damage evolution equation is proved by comparing the Load-displacement curve get from splitting test and theoretical Load-displacement curve obtained by damage FEM calculation. Through the splitting test, it is showed that the modified damage evolution equation reflects the action of polypropylene fiber volume ratio and aspect ratio to polypropylene fiber's damage evolution.


A patent-pending single design of an ultralow-loss (ULL) magnetic ballast for T5 high-efficient (T5-HE) fluorescent lamps rated from 14 to 35 W is presented. Based on the use of a nonlinear physical low-pressure discharge lamp model, it is discovered that the same set of ballast parameters can be chosen for operating T5-HE 14-, 21-, 28-, and 35-W lamps at their respective rated power at a mains voltage in the range of 220–240 V. With energy efficiency higher than and lifetime much longer than their electronic counterparts and being recyclable, the ULL ballasts offer a more environmentally friendly solution to T5-HE lamps than electronic ballasts. This single-ballast design offers great convenience to both ballast manufacturers and users, because only one product design can cover a range of the most popular T5-HE lamps. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results are included to confirm the validity of the proposal.


Intracellular iontophoretic injection of the catalytic subunit of cyclic adenosine monophosphate-dependent protein kinase increased input resistance and decreased a delayed voltage-dependent K+ current of the type B photoreceptor in the nudibranch Hermissenda crassicornis to a greater extent than an early, rapidly inactivating K+ current (IA). This injection also enhanced the long-lasting depolarization of type B cells after a light step. These findings suggest the involvement of cyclic adenosine monophosphate-dependent phosphorylation in the differential regulation of photoreceptor K+ currents particularly during illumination. On the other hand, conditioning-induced changes in IA may also be regulated by a different type of phosphorylation (for example, Ca2+-dependent).


Objectives. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the scientific evidence base on the use of ultrasonography in physiotherapy and rehabilitation of the shoulder. Methods. The PubMed / Medline database was reviewed using the following keywords: shoulder ultrasonography AND rehabilitation; shoulder ultrasound imaging AND physiotherapy; shoulder ultrasound imaging AND rehabilitation; Rehabilitative Ultrasound Imaging AND Shoulder. Only full-text, open-access studies in English published before 15 May 2022 were included in the analysis. Results. 51 articles (out of 748 identified) were included in the analysis. Of all the studies, 3 studies were randomized, 5 were not randomized, the rest were cross-sectional or case studies. The most common study group were patients with hemiplegia (in 13 out of 51 reviewed works). 12 papers out of 51 concerned orthopedic conditions of the shoulder with varying diagnoses. Ultrasound imaging was used mainly to assess echogenicity and measure structures of the shoulder. Conclusion. There are many studies demonstrating the utility of ultrasound in various aspects of the physiotherapist's practice, including but not limited to diagnostic purposes, assessment of treatment effectiveness, monitoring treatment progress, and referring the patient to another specialist.


Equilibrium binding studies with the sigma receptor ligand [3H]1,3-di(2-tolyl)guanidine ([3H]DTG) demonstrated two high affinity binding sites in membranes prepared from guinea pig brain. The apparent Kd values of DTG for sites 1 and 2 were 11.9 and 37.6 nM, respectively. The corresponding Bmax values were 1045 and 1423 fmol/mg of protein. Site 1 had high affinity for (+)-pentazocine, haloperidol, (R)-(+)-PPP, carbepentane, and other sigma ligands, suggesting a similarity with the dextromethorphan/sigma 1 binding site described by Musacchio et al. [Life Sci. 45:1721-1732 (1989)]. Site 2 had high affinity for DTG and haloperidol (Ki = 36.1 nM) and low affinity for most other sigma ligands. Kinetic experiments demonstrated that [3H]DTG dissociated in a biphasic manner from both site 1 and site 2. DTG and haloperidol increased the dissociation rate of [3H]DTG from site 1 and site 2, demonstrating the presence of pseudoallosteric interactions. Inorganic calcium channel blockers such as Cd2+ selectively increased the dissociation rate of [3H]DTG from site 2, suggesting an association of this binding site with calcium channels.


The laboratory diagnostic of inherent spherocytosis is based on detection of spherocytes in peripheral blood, decreasing of index of sphericity, decreasing of osmotic resistance of erythrocytes. The new test of diagnostic of hereditary spherocytosis build on molecular defect was developed on the basis of binding extracellular fragments of protein of band 3 with eosin-5-maleimide (EMA-test). The study was carried out to implement comparative analysis of sensitivity and specificity of techniques applied to diagnose inherent spherocytosis. The sampling of 94 patients with various forms of anemias was analyzed All patients were applied complex clinical laboratory examination including analysis of osmotic resistance of erythrocytes, erythrocytometry and EMA-test as specific techniques of diagnostic of inherent spherocytosis. In 51 out of 94 patients (54%) decreasing of values of EMA-test was detected and in 47 patients diagnosis of inherent spherocytosis was confirmed. The standard values of EMA-test were established in 43 patients (46%) and 12 patients out of them with established diagnosis of inherent spherocytosis. Therefore, sensitivity of EMA-test made up to 79% and specificity - 80%. The most sensitive techniques of diagnostic remain osmotic resistance of erythrocytes (91%) and index of sphericity (up to 96%). But the highest specificity in this respect has EMA-test (80%). Nowadays, none of implemented techniques of diagnostic of inherent spherocytosis can be applied as a universal one. The implementation of complex examination is needed for proper diagnostic of disease.


A computer aided geometric model for a polyhedral transformation was written in C++, OpenGL and GLUT. This geometric model allows a user to interactively change the shape of a closed convex polyhedron derived from 10 face planes in a fundamental region. Given different inputs, a different shaped polyhedron was output. For some inputs, the output was a Platonic or Archimedean polyhedron. For other inputs a more complex polyhedron was output. This transformation is based on a fundamental region that is formed by 3 symmetry planes intersecting at the centroid of a polyhedron. This fundamental region is combined with 3 different sets of transformations to produce a polyhedron for either a tetrahedral, an octahedral, or an icosahedral family of polyhedra. Using the interactive software, a polyhedron transforms smoothly and continuously from a regular polyhedron, to a truncate polyhedron, to a dual polyhedron, to a stellate polyhedron along with many transitional polyhedra.


Although the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is frequently used by researchers in order to estimate the readability of written material, it is barely validated. Therefore, this study investigated whether the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is valid for Dutch teaching material.
This validation study consisted of two parts. Firstly, teaching material for the subject Dutch was collected from vmbo, havo and vwo and grades one to four. The assumption was made that teaching material differs between the three types of schools and between the grades. It was assumed that text difficulty rises from vmbo to vwo and from grade one to four. According to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, the higher the score, the more difficult the text is. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was applied to a total of 247 texts. The second part of this study is the actual implementation of an experiment. Eight grades (two forms of grades one to four) from havo took part in the experiment. Participants received three texts (one from each type of school) from their own grade with comprehension questions. Two conditions were created by choosing texts with the lowest (easy condition) and highest readability score (difficult condition).
Analyses show that the rise of difficulty from vmbo texts to vwo texts is also reflected in the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score. With regard to the four grades, results show that readability scores from third and fourth grade are significantly higher than scores from the first grade. No significant difference between the two conditions was found for the second and fourth class. Results from the experiment suggest that the formula is not an accurate predictor for readability, but can help to select teaching material more easily by classifying the text as easy or difficult to understand. In the first and third grade, significantly fewer wrong answers were given in the easy condition. According to this study, a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score below 8 can be used as a cut-off point for easy texts for havo students. Furthermore, it can be proposed that by applying the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, the selection of teaching material can be enhanced for a target group below the age of 15.


Aims To review very long-term outcome with regard to growth, survival and intestinal function of children with intestinal epithelial cell dysplasia/tufting enteropathy and age when enteral autonomy gained. Methods Twenty children who had presented in infancy with watery diarrhoea and severe intestinal failure (IF) requiring long-term parenteral nutrition (PN) treatment were reviewed. All cases had histological entrocyte tufting on small intestinal+/- colonic biopsies. Age, sex, dependence on PN, growth, survival and age of weaning PN were recorded Results 11 cases were male and 9 female One patient died aged 2 years. The patients had all presented with diarrhoea and severe faltering growth. They were all commenced on treatment with long-term PN. In 15 cases parents were trained and PN was continued at home. Five children remained on long-term hospital PN. Height remained below the o.4th centile even when nutrition (including protein intake) was maximised and weight was in the normal range. When reviewed the surviving 19 patients were aged from 3 – 27 (mean 13) years. Eight children were aged under 10 (3–9) years, 6 children were aged 10 – 20 years and 5 over 20 years. One of the 8 children under 10 years of age had weaned off PN. Two of 6 children aged 10–20 years had weaned off PN and 3 of 5 patients over 20 years had done so. All 13 children still on PN also had significant enteral intake. Six/13 children had 7 infusions/week, 3/13 had 6 infusions/week, 3 others had 5/week and one, 2/week. The two patients on PN over 20 years were infusing 5 nights/week. Height had reached the 2nd centile after 18 years in the three oldest cases. The six children (30%) with enteral autonomy gained it when aged 3–22 years. They are now aged 10–24 (mean 16.5) years and have remained off PN. Conclusion Children with tufting enteropathy have an increasing chance of weaning off PN with increasing age ranging from 2/20 or 10% chance before 10 years to 40% aged 10–20 years and 3/5, 60% aged over 20 years. It is possible that more children could wean with best possible medical care and psychological support. Given good long-term outcome, intestinal transplant should be avoided whenever possible.


The Shore Protection Manual published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1984 provides hurricane wave prediction techniques. On 27 September, 1998, Hurricane Georges moved into the northeast Gulf of Mexico. During this period, a network of 5 surface stations operated by the National Data Buoy Center recorded simultaneously atmospheric pressure and significant wave height and period. In addition, both satellite and aircraft measurements were obtained. All of these data sets were employed to evaluate the prediction techniques as provided in the Shore Protection Manual. It is shown that the radius of maximum wind as determined by the surface network is in good agreement with both satellite and aircraft measurements. The predicted significant wave height and period are also consistent with buoy measurements. Finally, in order to estimate the significant wave height away from the radius of maximum wind, the graphs in the Shore Protection Manual were digitized and incorporated into a linear regression analysis. Using two buoys, one near the radius of maximum wind and the other away from it, this statistical method provides a reasonable agreement between prediction and measurement for practical applications.


Our ability to effectively monitor the aquatic environment is essential due to the increasing pressure on the environment from pollution, global climate change and the fact that water is an increasingly scarce natural resource. Nutrients such as nitrate and ammonia are essential for ecosystems but surplus levels of nutrients entering water bodies are a serious pollutant, causing eutrophication, contaminating drinking water and killing ecosystems which can cost nations up to $2.2 billion per year. There is therefore a growing need for low cost, remote sensing systems which can be deployed in sufficiently large numbers to ensure that data on key water quality parameters is readily available.
This project has the overall objective of developing low cost analytical platform for autonomous monitoring of environmental water quality. This will be achieved by further development of existing monitoring platforms developed at DCU combined with modified chemical methods in order to reduce the fabrication cost of the devices by an order of magnitude.
Through this strategy, a microfluidic sensing platform for the direct determination of nitrate in water using chromotropic acid has been developed. The chromotropic acid method has been modified to facilitate its implementation into an autonomous platform, resulting in a quick and simple procedure to measure nitrate. The device incorporates a low cost, highly sensitive detection with excellent correlation to the standard method, ion chromatography. Ultimately, this system provides a base in terms of monitoring waters for nitrate levels in situ in a rapid, simple and inexpensive manner.
For the determination of ammonia, a simplified variation of the Berthelot method has been integrated into an autonomous sensing platform for reliable, reproducible results showing excellent correlation with ion chromatography.


Aims. We investigate the physical conditions of the sources of two metric type II bursts associated with coronal mass ejection (CME) expansions with the aim of verifying the relationship between the shocks and the CMEs by comparing the heights of the radio sources and of the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) waves associated with the CMEs. Methods. The heights of the EUV waves associated with the events were determined in relation to the wave fronts. The heights of the shocks were estimated by applying two different density models to the frequencies of the type II emissions and compared with the heights of the EUV waves. For the event on 13 June 2010 that included band-splitting, the shock speed was estimated from the frequency drifts of the upper and lower frequency branches of the harmonic lane, taking into account the H/F frequency ratio fH/fF = 2. Exponential fits on the intensity maxima of the frequency branches were more consistent with the morphology of the spectrum of this event. For the event on 6 June 2012 that did not include band-splitting and showed a clear fundamental lane on the spectrum, the shock speed was directly estimated from the frequency drift of the fundamental emission, determined by linear fit on the intensity maxima of the lane. For each event, the most appropriate density model was adopted to estimate the physical parameters of the radio source. Results. The event on 13 June 2010 had a shock speed of 590–810 km s −1 , consistent with the average speed of the EUV wave fronts of 610 km s −1 . The event on 6 June 2012 had a shock speed of 250–550 km s −1 , also consistent with the average speed of the EUV wave fronts of 420 km s −1 . For both events, the heights of the EUV wave revealed to be compatible with the heights of the radio source, assuming a radial propagation of the type-II-emitting shock segment.


Weakly supervised semantic segmentation receives much research attention since it alleviates the need to obtain a large amount of dense pixel-wise ground-truth annotations for the training images. Compared with other forms of weak supervision, image labels are quite efficient to obtain. In this paper, we focus on the weakly supervised semantic segmentation with image label annotations. Recent progress for this task has been largely dependent on the quality of generated pseudo-annotations. In this paper, inspired by spatial neural-attention for image captioning, we propose a decoupled spatial neural attention network for generating pseudo-annotations. Our decoupled attention structure could simultaneously identify the object regions and localize the discriminative parts, which generates high-quality pseudo-annotations in one forward path. The generated pseudo-annotations lead to the segmentation results that achieve the state of the art in weakly supervised semantic segmentation.


The context and conceptualization of counselor supervision in Jamaica was explored using a mixed methods design. A majority of practicum supervisors (81%) from each of the four master's level counseling programs in the country participated in the study. Descriptive survey data and individual interviews were used to explore current practices and gain perspective on future needs of the profession. Results indicate that the primary form of supervision provided is case consultation with groups of students and the supervisors indicate a need for more supervision training. Suggestions for training and development in supervision and direction for further research are discussed.


Purpose. The objectives of the paper are two-fold. The first objective of the research is formulated with the intent to analyze the existence or not of a possible "European Banking Authority (EBA) effect" on the credit offer of local banks compared with national banks subject to the requests of capital from European Authority. The second research objective aims to understand what are the conditions that allow to develop a model of a local bank capable of supporting SMEs, with a suitable risk-return profile. Methodology. This paper presents an empirical comparative analysis between Cooperative Credit Banks (BCCs) and Italian banking groups. Findings. The empirical analysis shows how the financial then real crisis has not induced BCCs to restrict credit to firms. In particular, the BCCs not included in stress exercises, show, unlike national banks, a substantial "independence" of credit trend from the advices of the Authority. The survey evidences have however highlighted some critical elements that are reflected inevitably on the local bank's risk-return profile. Research Limitations. The quantitative nature of the empirical analysis must be followed by a qualitative analysis in order to strengthen the validity of the results. Implications. This work will be useful to stimulate the debate on the studies of local banks and their anti-cyclic role in favor of the SMEs. Originality. The work affects an aspect which has hitherto been little studied.


Objectives: In this study we aim to establish the variability of routine 3D ultrasound measurements in early pregnancy with measurements of 3D ultrasound volume datasets in virtual reality. Methods: Twenty pregnancies were included with gestational ages ranging from 6 weeks to 12 weeks (median 9 weeks). Measurements were made, if possible, of the mean yolk sac diameter (MYS), CRL, BPD, HC and AC. All measurements were performed off-line and repeated three times; mean values of these three assessments were used for comparisons. The 3D volume datasets were transferred to the Barco I-Space, a virtual reality system that allows binocular depth perception, providing a realistic 3D illusion. The 3D dataset can be manipulated and measured with a virtual pointer, controlled by a wireless joystick. For intra-observer variability, 3D and virtual reality volumes were measured twice by one operator and for inter-observer variability another operator performed the same measurements. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated, with ICC values > 0.90 representing excellent agreement. Comparing 3D with I-Space measurements resulted in ICC values of at least 0.96. Inter-observer variability in 3D had coefficients of at least 0.96, whereas for the I-Space the coefficients were at least 0.98. Intra-observer variation equalled that result: at least 0.96 for 3D and 0.98 for I-Space measurements. Conclusions: Currently early pregnancies are mainly measured using 2D ultrasound. Few results of standard measurements of 3D ultrasound have been published. The application of virtual reality we describe is a novel method of visualizing 3D ultrasound data. The virtual reality approach towards embryonic biometry seems to be at least as reliable as routine 3D measurements in early pregnancy.


Christopher E. Desch, MD, is the National Medical Director of the NCCN and Co-Editor-in-Chief of JNCCN. As National Medical Director, Dr. Desch serves as the clinical leader for the broad spectrum of NCCN programs, including the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in OncologyTM. Dr. Desch previously served as hematologist/oncologist and Research Director for Virginia Cancer Institute. He is Chair of the Health Services Committee at the American Society of Clinical Oncology and has been a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Hematology, and the Virginia Society of Hematology/Oncology.


Through the use of personal anecdotes drawn from a long career as a professional educator, the author contends that professional development for professional educators is not just an isolated "quick fix" program now and then, or a series of performance-focused activities, but rather, professional learning opportunities exist in multiple, diverse, and occasionally in unusual and unexpected situations and contexts throughout one's career. He suggests that what all teachers and school leaders require for professional learning to flourish is both time and space, a clear sense of purpose based on student learning, learning opportunities that are appropriate to roles and career stage, and the support and trust from leadership both inside and outside of schools and districts. It is professional learning, not tests, targets, or performance training, that increases students' learning.


A robot sensor network (RSN) is defined as a network of sensor-equipped robots and sensor nodes (that are deployed by the robots) that wirelessly communicate for remote-control, mission-cooperation, and to report sensed information to the control and reporting center (CRC). RSNs use real-time video communication support (in addition to various sensor data communication) for mission-cooperation and remote-control of its multi-robots. In this article, the hybrid data-type clustering (HDC) and subnet-divided HDC (SHDC) algorithms are proposed to maximize the RSN lifetime and enable more efficient multi-robot mission-cooperation.


Melting tracks with and without powder materials were studied by varying the parameters in selective laser melting. Several characters of melting track such as melting width and gilled state stripes were analyzed combining the relationship between the powder materials and processing parameters. Connected with balling effects, thermal transmission and thermal physical properties of powder materials, the formation of above character were explained. The research result of this work would provide a basic foundation for the further investigation of the quality of end metal component manufactured by selective laser melting method.


The development of grain structures after asymmetric rolling (ASR) and annealing was investigated in Al-Mg alloys AA5754, AA5182 and AA5083. It has been demonstrated that a fine grain structure could be produced through continuous recrystallization, but it is strongly affected by the presence of large second phase particles. In AA5754 the volume fraction of large particles is relatively low and continuous recrystallization is able to occur throughout the sheet thickness, resulting in a fine grain structure of 2μm mean grain size. In AA5182 the fraction of large particles increases to a level that the continuous recrystallization occurs only in the sheet surface, whereas the sheet centre undergoes discontinuous recrystallization. The discontinuous recrystallization due to particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) is dominant in AA5083 so that no continuous recrystallization has been observed. The fully recrystallized grain structure is slightly finer in the ASR processed AA5083 than the conventionally rolled one.


Abstract The results of investigation on dynamics of a local immunity indices in an acute appendicitis, depending on the pathological process stage as well as on bacteriological investigation of parietal microflora of processus vermicularis, were adduced. The sIgA and lisocymal dynamics have witnessed that while a destructive process progressing their concentration was enhanced, and in a gangrenous acute appendicitis they practically disappeared. Due to affection of a barrier function of the processus vermicularis wall a favorable conditions were created for the microorganisms intramural translocation as well as to abdominal cavity.


protocol.pdf ObjectiveObjective To evaluate and compare symptoms remission of antidepressants for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). MethodsMethods We plan to includ randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated efficacy of antidepressants for GERD by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), Chinese VIP Information (VIP), Chinese Medical Databases (CMB) and Wan-Fang databases from the starting date of database establishment till January 1st, 2019. Database will be searched with the search terms of "gastroesophageal reflux disease", "antidepressant", etc. ADDIS 1.16.8 will be adopted for network meta-analysis. We will complement node split analysis to test inconsistency. Rank probability will also be complemented for comparison among antidepressants. Conclusion Conclusion Our network analysis may further evaluate and .compare symptoms remission of antidepressants for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which is considered to be more conducive to clinical treatment of GERD.


This paper will contrast views of power under postmodernism and behavioral biology and how these views affect law, government, and society. Part II will discuss power and postmodernism. It will examine the postmodern concept of power, then analyze offshoots of postmodernism, such as critical legal studies, feminism, and critical race studies in connection with power and law. Part III will present a theory of power and law based on behavioral biology. It will examine behavioral biology and power, contrast behavioral biology and postmodernism concerning power, and contrast notions of power under behavioral biology and offshoots of postmodernism. This paper will conclude that postmodern notions of power are faulty and unworkable, while behavioral biology offers useful ideas on power.