A contact lens photoelectric eye movement recording system is described. The transducer is carried on a dental bite and the subject is permitted freedom of movement within the limitations of a trailing HT and signal lead, reasonable ambient illumination is permissible. Sensitivities of the order of 40-sec arc/cm of trace deflection are readily obtainable, with a dynamic range in excess of 56 db. Although primarily designed as a device for measuring the movements of eyes, the technique has been used for other purposes where it is required to measure displacement without loading the moving member.


This paper describes new 60-GHz-band bidirectional fiber-fed wireless access systems, which provide simple antenna base-station architecture and full compatibility with dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) fiber-optic networks. For downlink millimeter-wave signal generation, the proposed scheme utilizes uplink optical transmitters as downlink optical heterodyne sources, which promises wavelength allocations of downlink and uplink signals that are fully compatible with those of DWDM networks. The frequency instability and poor phase-noise characteristics of these optically heterodyned signals do not affect transmission quality at all by using self-heterodyne wireless transmission techniques. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides not only strong immunity to phase-noise degradation coming from both fiber and millimeter-wave links, but also less sensitivity to fiber transmission loss than conventional remote optical heterodyne approaches. With the help of these attractive features, we successfully demonstrate both downlink and uplink orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing data transmissions in both 10-km fiber-optic and 60-Hz links.


Background: Despite significant growth and change in India over the past two decades, some public health indicators have failed to keep pace. One such indicator is food insecurity. India is home to the largest number of people experiencing hunger and food insecurity. Food security is described as "a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". While there has been considerable research investigating the role of crop yields, policy interventions, and food production in alleviating food insecurity in India, there is insufficient research investigating the social and cultural influences of food insecurity, including the role of women. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the experience of food insecurity among women in India. The objectives of this research are (1) to determine the role of women in food production and its contribution to household food security; (2) to examine the gender roles within households and the decision-making processes that influence food security, and (3) to investigate household nutritional status and food insecurity experience. Methods: Participants will include women who live in a village in Punjab, India. Interviews with 100 households, drawn from a convenience sample will be conducted. Interviews will be conducted in Punjabi with simultaneous English translation, and will include: food related experiences, anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist, and hip) and dietary assessment (24-h diet recall, two non-consecutive days), dwelling facilities, agriculture related information, including household agriculture activities undertaken, food security status (via the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Scale Measurement), and demographic information. Discussion: This study aims to investigate a range of determinants of food insecurity among a rural population. It will allow for the identification of some of the components of household food insecurity among women in India and will go part of the way to understanding how and why India continues to experience food and nutritional insecurity despite growth and progress in a range of other indicators.


Optimum concentrations and/or sufficiency ranges of nutrients are useful for correct diagnosis and improvements of nutrient status of cultivated plants. However, Opuntia ficus-indica nutrient storage at plant and cladode levels and best fit plant requirements for fruiting remain practically unknown. Then, this research work aimed to identify the Boundary-Line Approach (B-LA) micronutrient optimum concentrations linked to maximum fruit yield per one-year old fructification cladode and sufficiency ranges at 90% maximum fruit yield for O. ficus-indica variety 'Rojo Pelón'. Four years (2012 – 2015) data of fruit yield per cladode and micronutrient concentrations (B, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn) were used for the elaboration of scatter diagrams (n = 228) and selection of 7 to 10 points to estimate the B-LA quadratic functions. Then, the vertices allowed estimation of the optimum micronutrient concentrations: B = 33.62 mg kg–1, Cu =11.74 mg kg–1, Fe = 108.51 mg kg–1, Mn = 149.33 mg kg–1 and Zn = 414.91 mg kg–1 as linked to estimated maximum yield per cladode; and the sufficiency ranges at 90% maximum fruit yield: B = 24.44 to 46.25 mg kg–1, Cu = 8.68 – 15.87 mg kg–1, Fe = 73.73 – 143.3 mg kg–1, Mn = 114.89 – 183.77 mg kg–1 and Zn = 334.31 – 514.95 mg kg–1. The linked estimated maximum fruit yield per cladode varies from 1999.48 g to 2139.59 g. The proposed B-LA standards can be used to perform reliable micronutrient diagnosis and proper fertilization recommendations.


Abstract. Sedimentation processes occurring in the most recent maar lake of the French Massif Central (Lake Pavin) are documented for the first time based on high resolution seismic reflection and multibeam bathymetric surveys and by piston coring and radiocarbon dating on a sediment depocentre developed on a narrow sub aquatic plateau. This new data set confirms the mid Holocene age of maar lake Pavin formation at 6970±60 yrs cal BP and highlights a wide range of gravity reworking phenomena affecting the basin. In particular, a slump deposit dated between AD 580–640 remoulded both mid-Holocene lacustrine sediments, terrestrial plant debris and some volcanic material from the northern crater inner walls. Between AD 1200 and AD 1300, a large slide scar mapped at 50 m depth also affected the southern edge of the sub aquatic plateau, suggesting that these gas-rich biogenic sediments (laminated diatomite) are poorly stable. Although several triggering mechanisms can be proposed for these prehistoric sub-aquatic mass wasting deposits in Lake Pavin, we argue that such large remobilisation of gas-rich sediments may affect the gas stability in deep waters of meromictic maar lakes. This study highlights the need to further document mass wasting processes in maar lakes and their impacts on the generation of waves, favouring the development of dangerous (and potentially deadly) limnic eruptions.


Previous work has shown that anthropogenic aerosol (AA) forcing drives a strengthening in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in CMIP6 historical simulations over 1850–1985, but the mechanisms have not been fully understood. Across CMIP6 models, it is shown that there is a strong correlation between surface heat loss over the subpolar North Atlantic (SPNA) and the forced strengthening of the AMOC. Despite the link to AA forcing, the AMOC response is not strongly related to the contribution of anomalous downwelling surface shortwave radiation to SPNA heat loss. Rather, the spread in AMOC response is primarily due to the spread in turbulent heat loss. We hypothesize that turbulent heat loss is larger in models with strong AA forcing because the air advected over the ocean is colder and drier, in turn because of greater AA forced cooling over the continents upwind, especially North America. The strengthening of the AMOC also feeds back on itself positively in two distinct ways: by raising the sea surface temperature and hence further increasing turbulent heat loss in the SPNA, and by increasing the sea surface density across the SPNA due to increased northward transport of saline water. A comparison of key indices suggests that the AMOC response in models with strong AA forcing is not likely to be consistent with observations.


Preservation of natural teeth is the ultimate goal of dentistry today. Regular screening for periodontal disease, followed by infection control whenever necessary, positively affects tooth preservation, the more when the patients complies with therapy and regular maintenance. The dentist is, however, often confronted with treatment dilemmas and has to decide whether to extract or preserve teeth, to extirpate or extract, to keep or to implant, to make removable or fixed prostheses. Decision making is depending on the prognosis of teeth and becomes more difficult when teeth are supporting prosthetic restorations because the question arises: "How long will the teeth and the restoration survive?". Systematic reviews have revealed that teeth and implants have a similar prognosis. They are prone to biological and technical complications, the latter determining long term prognosis. Implant survival rates are around 93% after 10 years but the survival of the construction ranges between 80% and 90% depending on the type and extension. Complications are reported in the order of 35%. Prosthetic restoration on natural teeth have a 10-year survival of 80-90% with 34% of complications. The present paper gives a brief overview of the prognosis of dental treatments and discusses arguments that may be of help to make treatment decision choices.


The changes in crystallographic texture are investigated during recrystallization in 5182 and 6016 aluminum alloys, which were subjected to various cold rolling reductions. In the current study, the texture varieties in the recrystallized materials are conditioned by both the material's chemistry and the applied rolling strain. The presence of large constituent particles produces strain heterogeneities during cold rolling which causes a specific texture development. The development of recrystallization textures is discussed based on experimental data and results of crystal plasticity simulations. A recrystallization model based on nucleation and growth selection is presented. The driving force for nucleation was accounted for by applying continuum mechanics crystal plasticity models. For the modeling of the strain heterogeneities around hard undeformable particle a FE-code was used.


The use of contextual information in mobile devices is receiving increasing attention in mobile and ubiquitous computing research. An important requirement for mobile development today is that devices should be able to interact with the context. In this paper we present a series of contributions regarding previous work on context-awareness. In the first place, we describe a client-server architecture that provides a mechanism for preparing target non context-aware applications in order to be delivered as context-aware applications in a semi- automatic way. Secondly, the framework used in the server to instantiate specific components for context-awareness, the Implicit Plasticity Framework, provides independence from the underlying mobile technology used in client device, as it is shown in the case studies presented. Finally, proposed infrastructure deals with the interaction among different context constraints provided by diverse sensors. All of these contributions are extensions to the infrastructure based on the Dichotomic View of plasticity, which now offers multi-purpose support.


The authors demonstrated the possibility for the practical use of the index "Rehabilitation Potential" in the evaluation of the degree of restoration of neurological deficit developed due to cerebral stroke. The most significant factors characterizing the organization and implementation of rehabilitation measures in different periods of stroke and the effect of these factors on the level of rehabilitation potential of disabled persons with consequences of stroke are specified. It has been shown that the perfect organization of restorative treatment has a positive effect on the level of rehabilitation potential of disabled persons.


The purpose of the study was to effect of yoga combined with floor exercises on high lipo protein and low density lipoprotein among school boys. To achieve this purpose of the study only thirty school boys were selected in Karnataka Matriculation Higher Secondary School, The selected subjects were divided into two equal groups of fifteen subjects each, such as yoga with floor aerobic exercises group and control group. The group I underwent yoga with floor exercise training programme for three days per week for twelve weeks. Group II acted as control who did not participate any special training programmes apart from their regular physical education activities as per their curriculum. The following variables namely high density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein were selected as criterion variables. All the subjects of three groups were tested on selected dependent variables at prior to and immediately after the training programme by using blood analysis. The analysis of covariance was used to analyze the significant difference, if any between the groups. The .05 level of confidence was fixed as the level of significance to test the "F" ratio obtained by the analysis of covariance, which was considered as an appropriate. The results of the study revealed that there was a significant difference between yoga with floor exercise group and control group on high density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein.


This paper concerns large-scale general (nonconvex) nonlinear programming when first and second derivatives of the objective and constraint functions are available. A method is proposed that is based on finding an approximate solution of a sequence of unconstrained subproblems parameterized by a scalar parameter. The objective function of each unconstrained subproblem is an augmented penalty-barrier function that involves both primal and dual variables. Each subproblem is solved with a modified Newton method that generates search directions from a primal-dual system similar to that proposed for interior methods. The augmented penalty-barrier function may be interpreted as a merit function for values of the primal and dual variables.
An inertia-controlling symmetric indefinite factorization is used to provide descent directions and directions of negative curvature for the augmented penalty-barrier merit function. A method suitable for large problems can be obtained by providing a version of this factorization that will treat large sparse indefinite systems.


In Lao PDR, investment by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has played an important role in scaling up the response to HIV and tuberculosis (TB). As part of a series of case studies on how Global Fund-supported programmes interact with national health systems, we assessed the nature and extent of integration of the Global Fund portfolios within the national HIV and TB programmes, the integration of the HIV and TB programmes within the general health system, and system-wide effects of Global Fund support in Lao PDR. The study relied on a literature review and 35 interviews with key stakeholders using the Systemic Rapid Assessment Toolkit and thematic analysis. In Lao PDR, the HIV and TB programmes remain vertical and mostly weakly integrated with the general health system. However, Global Fund investments have extended the network of facilities delivering care at local level, resulting in greater integration with primary care and improved access for patients, particularly for TB. For HIV, as the prevalence remains low, services primarily target high-risk groups in urban areas. Less integrated functions include procurement and drug supply, and monitoring and evaluation. HIV and TB programmes are only starting to coordinate with each other. Global Fund-supported activities are generally integrated within the national disease programmes, except for monitoring and evaluation. Synergies of Global Fund support with the health system include improved access to services, institutional strengthening and capacity building, improved family planning (with wider condom distribution through HIV/AIDS social marketing programmes), and the delivery of add-on interventions, such as vaccinations and health education, alongside Global Fund-supported interventions at community level. Unintended consequences concern the lack of alignment between national stated priorities (maternal and child health) and the strong focus of external partners, such as the Global Fund, on financing communicable disease programmes.


NGC 6791 is a unique stellar cluster, key to our understanding of both the multiple stellar population phenomenon and the evolution and assembly of the Galaxy. However, despite many investigations, its nature is still very controversial. Geisler et al. found evidence suggesting that it was the first open cluster to possess multiple populations, but several subsequent studies did not corroborate this. It has also been considered a member of the thin or thick disk or even the bulge, and either as an open or globular cluster or even the remnant of a dwarf galaxy. Here we present and discuss detailed abundances derived from high-resolution spectra obtained with UVES at VLT and HIRES at Keck of 17 evolved stars of this cluster. We obtained a mean [Fe/H] = +0.313 ± 0.005, in good agreement with recent estimates, and with no indication of star-to-star metallicity variation, as expected. We also did not find any variation in Na, in spite of having selected the very same stars as in Geisler et al., where an Na variation was claimed. This points to the presence of probable systematics in the lower-resolution spectra of this very high metallicity cluster analyzed in that work. In fact, we find no evidence for an intrinsic spread in any element, corroborating recent independent APOGEE data. The derived abundances indicate that NGC 6791 very likely formed in the Galactic bulge and that the proposed association with the thick disk is unlikely, despite its present Galactic location. We confirm the most recent hypothesis suggesting that the cluster could have formed in the bulge and radially migrated to its current location, which appears to be the best explanation for this intriguing object.


A 41-year-old woman presented with an unusual case of benign astrocytoma with marked pleomorphism manifesting as consciousness disturbance due to intraventricular hemorrhage. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a well-enhanced hypothalamic mass protruding into the third ventricle. Despite partial resection of the tumor without additional therapy, there have been no signs of tumor regrowth for 6 years. The histological findings revealed solid proliferation of tumor cells with marked pleomorphism, contrary to the benign clinical course. However, no mitosis, necrosis, or endothelial proliferation were found and the MIB-1 index was less than 0.5%. Immunohistochemical staining indicated the glial origin of the tumor. The tumor was similar to pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma, but the histological findings were not exactly identical, indicating a new histological entity.


It is well established that consumption is "hump" shaped over an individual's lifecycle, peaking in middle age and then declining in the years that follow. Prior research has documented that consumption declines at retirement, which is inconsistent with the standard lifecycle model with consumption smoothing. Using a unique dataset with detailed administrative records of credit and debit card transactions, we show the hump shaped lifecycle consumption pattern as documented in the literature. Additionally, we show compositional changes in consumption expenditures across individuals in the years surrounding retirement confirming the results of Aguiar and Hurst (2005, 2013).


CONTEXT
The use of isokinetic dynamometers playing an important role in different settings of sports and medicine. Therefore, a high reliability of these devices is required.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to examine the intersession reliability of the dynamometer BTE PrimusRS regarding to the isolated single-joint exercises extension/flexion of the knee and elbow for isokinetic testing

DESIGN
Intersession reliability.

SETTING
Clinical settings and sports science.

PARTICIPANTS
16 young male students.

INTERVENTION
The testing protocol includes 5 consecutive repetitions (concentric/concentric) at a velocity of 60°/s for the exercises.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Raw data of torque curves were used to determine the peak torque. Reliability was evaluated with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), the limits of agreement (LoA), and the bias and the variability of measurements (V).

RESULTS
High ICC values (.954-.991) were found for the used exercises. However, the LoAs yielded up to over 16 Nm and the V yielded up to nearly 9 % in several testing exercises, indicating poor absolute reliability.

CONCLUSION
The BTE PrimusRS shows good to excellent reliability. However, regarding the absolute measures of reliability, the users must decide as experts in their fields whether this reliability is sufficient for their purposes.


The paper intends to prove that the English lesson for the law students of English should be special, productive and also fun in order to get good results and personal satisfaction, to exercise the students' minds and their reasoning powers. Taken into account these purposes, the paper will focus on the case study method which has got an emphatic active-participatory and formative effect, being a dynamic way of learning which wants special conditions for an efficient solving of the case. What we really should do in the class is to select cases from the 20th century which are the subjects of appeal to a higher court indicating that the point of law involved is difficult and causes reasonable jurists to disagree over the result. On appeal, many of the judgments are not unanimous, this further showing that the legal issues are not easy. The cases should be consistent with the general current of the law in the United States of America and in the other common law countries. The results in the cases should not be arbitrary.The method, with a bilateral, interactive and reciprocal character, will make students love ruling as judges and/or jury on true courtroom cases that give them a chance to defend the accused. The method will help students develop and improve: a. their legal conscience and thinking, b.their legal principles, feelings and attitudes, c. and their legal ability, practice and usage. It will motivate the students to love the truth and be honest and correct people.


Grid resource management is regarded as an important component of a grid computing system. The resources in the grid are geographically distributed, heterogeneous in nature, owned by different individuals/organizations each having their own resource management policies and different access-and-cost models. Based on abstract owner model, this article proposes a new resource storage model called resource pool which couples geographically distributed resource together. Meanwhile, this paper uses queuing and global optimization theory as tools to emphasize on quantitative analysis for resource pool capacity. Consequently, some new analytic formula for practical computation is obtained. Furthermore, an algorithm for analytic formulas is introduced into global optimization to evaluate the performance


Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the intractable cancers that are not sensitive to treatment with existing molecular-targeted drugs. Recently, there has been much interest in RNA interference-mediated treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. In the present study, we have developed lipid nanoparticles encapsulating siRNA (LNP-siRNA) decorated with an Fab' antibody against heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (αHB-EGF LNP-siRNA). αHB-EGF LNP-siRNA targeting polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) was prepared and evaluated for its anticancer effect using MDA-MB-231 human triple-negative breast cancer cells overexpressing HB-EGF on their cell surface. Biodistribution data of radioisotope-labeled LNP and fluorescence-labeled siRNA indicated that αHB-EGF LNP effectively delivered siRNA to tumor tissue in MDA-MB-231 carcinoma-bearing mice. Expression of PLK1 protein in the tumors was clearly suppressed after intravenous injection of αHB-EGF LNP-siPLK1. In addition, tumor growth was significantly inhibited by treatment with this formulation of siRNA and an antibody-modified carrier. These findings indicate that αHB-EGF LNP is a promising carrier for the treatment of HB-EGF-expressing cancers, including triple-negative breast cancer.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Targeting breast cancer stem cells promises to eliminate the root of metastasis and recurrence and thus to eradicate the ultimate cause of cancer-related death of patients. However, the identity of epithelial cancer stem-like is still elusive; cancer stem-like and metastasis initiating cells have been described to be either epithelial (E) or mesenchymal (M), and thus their identity appears to critically depend on the context of the analyzed cell line.

Here, we have studied the heterogeneous HMLER cell line to identify the relationships between epithelial and mesenchymal cells while they are differentiated and selected under suspension culture conditions. We find that CD24+/CD44- epithelial cells and CD44+/CD24- mesenchymal cells synergize in causing the proliferation of both sub-populations, increasing mammosphere production, and causing the emergence of aggressive motile cells when replated. We observed that when grown in suspension, isolated epithelial as well as isolated mesenchymal cell populations converged towards a hybrid E/M state characterized by coexpression of genes of both lineages, from population down to the single cell level. For epithelial populations convergence at the hybrid state during growth in suspension was thus achieved by proliferation of the most mesenchymal cells resembling an epithelial to mesenchymal transition at the population level. For mesenchymal populations, the hybrid state was reached by the reverse, MET, involving proliferation of the most epithelial cells in a context dependent manner.We use these findings to resolve which genes are predictive of poor outcome in primary human breast tumors. Here we show for the first time that high expression of mesenchymal genes in luminal B/epithelial tumors predicts poor outcome of patients, whereas expression of epithelial genes in basal/mesenchymal tumors predicts poor outcome and thus increased metastasis. Therefore, functional synergy between E and M cells can explain how the tumor context determines whether a minority of mesenchymal or epithelial cells can serve as metastatic stem cells.

Citation Format: Anne Grosse-Wilde, Aymeric d'Herouel, Rolf Kuestner, Gokhan Ertaylan, Alexander Skupin, Sui Huang, Adrian Ozinsky. Synergy between epithelial and mesenchymal cells in breast cancer: from mammospheres to predicting patient outcomes. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1918. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1918


Training set bugs are flaws in the data that adversely affect machine learning. The training set is usually too large for manual inspection, but one may have the resources to verify a few trusted items. The set of trusted items may not by itself be adequate for learning, so we propose an algorithm that uses these items to identify bugs in the training set and thus improves learning. Specifically, our approach seeks the smallest set of changes to the training set labels such that the model learned from this corrected training set predicts labels of the trusted items correctly. We flag the items whose labels are changed as potential bugs, whose labels can be checked for veracity by human experts. To find the bugs in this way is a challenging combinatorial bilevel optimization problem, but it can be relaxed into a continuous optimization problem.Experiments on toy and real data demonstrate that our approach can identify training set bugs effectively and suggest appropriate changes to the labels. Our algorithm is a step toward trustworthy machine learning.


Background: In order to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for osteoarthritis of the wrist in adults we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: The MEDLINE and EMBASE via OVID, CINAHL and SPORTDiscus via EBSCO databases were searched from inception to 25 th April 2018.All randomised controlled clinical trials (RCTs) and any prospective studies of adults with wrist osteoarthritis investigating any intervention with a comparator were included. Data were extracted and checked for accuracy and completeness by pairs of reviewers. Primary outcomes were pain and function. Comparative treatment effects were analysed by random effects at all time points. Results: Three RCTs were identified for inclusion after screening and all had a high risk of bias. Two compared proximal row carpectomy (PRC) with four corner fusion (4CF) for post-traumatic osteoarthritis, while the other compared leather with commercial wrist splints in patients with chronic wrist pain, of which a small group had wrist osteoarthritis. Conclusion: There is no prospective study comparing operative to non-operative treatment for wrist osteoarthritis, while there is a paucity of prospective studies assessing the effectiveness of both non-operative and operative interventions. Further research is necessary in order to better define which patients benefit from which specific interventions. Registration: The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO under the registration number CRD42018094799.


Our poster analyzes seasonal farm price patterns in five major U.S. fresh fruit markets (i.e. strawberries, apples, oranges, peaches and grapes) between 1980 and 2010. Shifts in the seasonal patterns between decades (1980-89, 1990-99, and 2000-10) signal price response to changes in market conditions, demand trends, and global linkages that have taken place overtime in these fruit markets. Statistical comparatives and graphical analysis form the basis for assessment using U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) monthly grower price data. Extended seasons through geographical and varietal diversity in major producing areas have had a smoothing effect on the seasonal behavior of fresh strawberry prices but a distinct seasonal price pattern is still observed with demonstrated seasonal highs and lows. Fresh peach and grape markets also continue to demonstrate seasonality with high price windows at the start and end of the harvest season. U.S. fresh apple grower prices reveal patterns typically expected for a storable commodity. Likewise, seasonality is not strongly demonstrated in fresh orange prices.


Chip-multiprocessors require a coherence directory to track data sharing and order accesses to the shared data. Scaling coherence directories to support a large number of cores is challenging due to excessive area requirements of the directories. The state-of-the-art proposals reduce the directory size by not keeping coherence information for private data. These approaches are useful for workloads that have predominantly private data, but are not applicable to workloads with shared data. We observe that data are not actively shared by multiple cores. In workloads with a shared dataset, although each core accesses the whole data, the chance that multiple cores access the same piece of data at the same time is low. Based on this observation we design a Spatiotemporal Coherence Tracking scheme that drastically reduces the directory size without sacrificing performance. The proposed directory scheme uses dual-grain tracking and switches between the granularities whenever possible to save the area. It dynamically detects spatial regions of data that are privately accessed by one core over a time period and for those regions, increases coherence tracking granularity from block-level to region-level. Our experimental results show that the proposed approach can reduce the baseline sparse directory size by at least 75% across a variety of commercial and scientific workloads, while sacrificing only 1% of performance. Using our approach, the directory can be under-provisioned to have fewer entries than the number of cache blocks that are being tracked.


Abstract Microtubules (MTs) are regulated by a number of known posttranslational modifications (PTMs) on α/β-tubulin to fulfill diverse cellular functions. Here, we showed that SUMOylation is a novel PTM on α-tubulin in vivo and in vitro. The SUMOylation on α-tubulin mainly occurred at Lys 96 (K96), K166, and K304 of soluble α-tubulin and could be removed by small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO)-specific peptidase 1. In vitro experiments showed that tubulin SUMOylation could reduce interprotofilament interaction, promote MT catastrophe, and impede MT polymerization. In cells, mutation of the SUMOylation sites on α-tubulin reduced catastrophe frequency and increased the proportion of polymerized α-tubulin, while upregulation of SUMOylation with fusion of SUMO1 reduced α-tubulin assembly into MTs. Additionally, overexpression of SUMOylation-deficient α-tubulin attenuated the neurite extension in Neuro-2a cells. Thus, SUMOylation on α-tubulin represents a new player in the regulation of MT properties.


: The generalization of studies of the systemic work of cortical neurons during the information processing initiated in Livanov's laboratory allows us to make the following conclusions in terms of the modem state of the problem. In different brain structures, there is a considerable degree of correlation between neuronal activities and slow potential oscillations. In the state of rest or deep extinction, the synchronization of brain neurons increases by the inhibitory type. In the active state of the brain, the degree of neuronal synchronization increases by the activation type. Both processes are determined by the involvement of the whole brain inhibitory or activation systems, respectively. A relative augmentation of inhibitory processes results in a restriction of information transmission in the cortex and prevents its fixation in memory of the system. A decrease in inhibition facilitates the excitation thransmission in the interconnected brain structures. Synchronous convergence of ordered polse flows ensures the information fixation during learning.


With the growing number of mining datasets, it becomes increasingly difficult to explore interesting rules because of the large number of resultant and its nature complexity. Studies on human perception and intuition show that graphical representation could be a better illustration of how to seek information from the data using the capabilities of human visual system. In this work, we present and implement a 3D matrix-based approach visualization system of association rules. The main visual representation applies the extended matrix-based approach with rule-to-items mapping to general transaction data set. A novel method merging rules and assigning weight is proposed in order to reduce the dimension of the association rules, which will help users to find more important items in the new rule. Furthermore, several interactions such as sorting, filtering, zoom and rotation, facilitate decision-makers to explore the rules which are of interest in various aspects. Finally, extensive evaluations have been conducted to assess the system from a logical reasoning point of view.


Solid state (ss-) 27Al NMR is one of the most valuable tools for the experimental characterization of zeolites, owing to its high sensitivity and the detailed structural information which can be extracted from the spectra. Unfortunately, the interpretation of ss-NMR is complex and the determination of aluminum distributions remains generally unfeasible. As a result, computational modelling of 27Al ss-NMR spectra has grown increasingly popular as a means to support experimental characterization. However, a number of simplifying assumptions are commonly made in NMR modelling, several of which are not fully justified. In this work, we systematically evaluate the effects of various common models on the prediction of 27Al NMR chemical shifts in zeolites CHA and MOR. We demonstrate the necessity of operando modelling; in particular, taking into account the effects of water loading, temperature and the character of the charge-compensating cation. We observe that conclusions drawn from simple, high symmetry model systems such as CHA do not transfer well to more complex zeolites and can lead to qualitatively wrong interpretations of peak positions, Al assignment and even the number of signals. We use machine learning regression to develop a simple yet robust relationship between chemical shift and local structural parameters in Al-zeolites. This work highlights the need for sophisticated models and high-quality sampling in the field of NMR modelling and provides correlations which allow for the accurate prediction of chemical shifts from dynamical simulations.


Faculty and administrators at the College of Education at Louisiana State University recoknized the need to incorporate technology into all of their programs. Project KITES (Kids Interacting with Technology and Education Students) was developed to give students just beginning their professional education component real experiences with children using technology. Twenty-eight preservice teachers (3 males and 25 females) were paired with 27 fourth-grade students (12 males and 15 females) in a variety of technology-based learning projects. The majority of the preservice teachers had previous computer experience and were somewhat comfortable with computers; most of the fourth grade students were comfortable with computers. The project focused on language and reading skills using technology to support shared-literary experiences and included three activities: (1) a slide show book report using "Kid Pix 2"; (2) a newsletter using "The Writing Center" and the QuickTake camera to digitize pictures into their projects; and (3) a muimedia presentation. Project KITES showed that through immersion in learning environments that include technology, preservice teachers will learn to use technology in their teaching and view technology as a normal part of any classroom. In addition, they will be exposed to good models of teaching using technology and develop their own styles based on these models. Project KITES also provided real experiences to the education students early in their professional preparation. (AEF) ***********************************************************************


This work studied initial impact behavior of speed increasing helical gears with backlash and the change of mesh stiffness by torque fluctuation. For this purpose, single degree of freedom equations of motion of helical gears with the periodical change of mesh stiffness and backlash, and its dimensionless form were derived. The Newmark beta method and the Newton-Raphson method were used to obtain nonlinear behavior of helical gears. Many excitation frequencies initially caused the tooth separation and single-sided impacts of the gear pair and eventually led to the normal tooth contact. However, some special excitation frequencies caused the single-sided impacts in the entire time. Damping increase reduced the initial transient period. Backlash increase extended the duration of single-sided impacts and also increased mesh force.


and 413 non-insulin dependent diabetics whose duration of diabetes ranged from 0 5 to 40 years. Urinary albumin was measured by rocket electrophoresis. For our normal range we measured albumin to creatinine ratios in 250 non-diabetic healthy volunteers (mean 0 75 (SD 0 93)). The upper limit ofnormal was defined as 2 6 (mean +2SD). Twenty per cent of the results obtained from insulin dependent diabetics and 25% of those from non-insulin dependent diabetics were positive. Interestingly 19% of both groups were found to be positive within two years of diagnosis. Repeat sampling on at least three occasions showed, however, that positive results were far from consistent. Results were considered to be true positives if there were three consecutive positive results; transient positives occurred when a positive result was followed by negative results. True negatives occurred when there were three negative results, and transient negatives occurred when there was a single negative result with at least two positive results. On this classification and assuming that the patients with true positive results represent those more likely to develop macroalbuminuria and renal failure, then 6-6% of insulin dependent diabetics and 13% of non-insulin dependent diabetics were at risk after two years. When true positive and transient negative results were combined then 13% and 23% respectively showed positive values. These studies emphasise the high proportion of transient positive results (21% in insulin dependent and 19% in non-insulin dependent diabetics), and we strongly recommend that at least three samples should be tested over several weeks to confirm truly positive microalbuminuria. Whether "transient" negative microalbuminuria is of any importance must remain more speculative.


Research Findings: Emotion regulation is a strong predictor of both short- and long-term peer relationships and social competence and is often targeted in preschool curricula and interventions. Pretense is a natural activity of childhood that is thought to facilitate the development of socialization, perspective taking, language, and possibly emotion regulation. This study investigated whether fantasy-oriented children, who engage in more pretense, demonstrate higher levels of emotion regulation. Prekindergartners (n = 103) and teachers were given a battery of measures assessing children's emotion regulation, fantasy orientation, theory of mind, and language. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that children's proclivity toward fantastical play (their fantasy orientation) uniquely predicted 24% of the variance in their emotion regulation skills over and above typical predictors: age, theory of mind, and language skills. That is, children who participated in more fantasy pretense demonstrated better emotion regulation skills than their peers. Practice or Policy: The present study suggests that future research, curriculum, and interventions should focus on targeting fantastical pretense to assess causal mechanisms of emotion regulation development. Teachers and parents should encourage children's fantastical pretense, as research suggests it may be an important contributor to the development of critical socialization skills such as emotion regulation.


Non-synchronous excitation under low volume operation is a major risk to the mechanical integrity of last stage moving blades (LSMBs) in low-pressure (LP) steam turbines. These vibrations are often induced by a rotating aerodynamic instability similar to rotating stall in compressors. Unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied to simulate the rotating stall phenomenon in two model turbines. It is shown that the investigated flow field presents a challenge to conventional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations simulations. The modelling has been enhanced by applying scale-resolving turbulence modelling, which can simulate large-scale turbulent fluctuations. With this type of simulation a qualitative and quantitative agreement between CFD and measurement for the unsteady and time averaged flow field has been achieved. The results of the numerical investigation allow for a detailed insight into the dynamic flow field and reveal information on the nature of the excitation mechanism. It is concluded that the CFD approach developed can be used to assess LSMB blade designs prior to model turbine tests to check whether they are subjected to vibration under LVF


An experimental investigation of subcooled flow boiling in a rectangular mini-gap channel with the dimension of 0.5 mm × 5 mm was conducted with deionized water as the working fluid. Fabricated by electroless plating method and high-temperature treatment, the copper-based hydrophobic micro-porous surface was utilized in the experiments. High-speed flow visualization was conducted to picture the flow patterns during the experiment. The mass fluxes were in the range of 200–400 kg/m2s, and the wall heat fluxes were spanned from 35 to 350 kW/m2. The onset of flow boiling, heat transfer coefficient, and pressure drop were discussed with the variation of heat fluxes and mass fluxes, the trends of which were analyzed along with the flow patterns. Because of the numerous nucleation sites on micro-porous surface, the superheat required for the onset of boiling are of small amounts of about 2 K. Due to the intense nucleation process, the boiling curves appeared to be a negative slope after the onset of boiling, which was more obvious in the lower mass flux conditions. In the high heat flux conditions, heat transfer coefficients under lower mass flux condition were higher because the intense nucleation process occurred and the elongated bubble flow along with the film evaporation heat transfer was formed. The film evaporation heat transfer inside the elongated bubble is more efficient to release the latent heat than the nucleate boiling. However, the appearance of the elongated bubble flow would attribute to higher pressure drop and severer pressure drop fluctuation due to its expansion toward upstream.


The Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process is a widely established Rapid Manufacturing technology that offers various possibilities not available from other production techniques. The application of SLS in the creation of products such as shoe outsoles has led to a requirement for compression property data and an understanding of the factors that influence it. This research investigated the effect of sintering temperature on the compression modulus and strength of SLS nylon-12 parts. Three parameters were used to vary the sintering temperature. These were laser power, part heater set point and powder bed location. An increase in laser power or part heater set point led to an increase sintering
temperature. The higher temperature areas within the powder bed also led to higher
sintering temperatures. Consequently, this caused an increase in compression
properties. A statistical analysis showed that laser power and part heater set point had a statistically significant effect on compression properties. They both had over a 95% probability of influencing compression properties. With less than a 95% chance, the
effect of bed location on compression properties was considered statistically
insignificant. The variations in temperature also led to changes in crystallinity and density. An increase in temperature caused a decrease in crystallinity. In contrast density was increased as temperature increased. Except for parts built at various bed locations, there was over a 95% certainty that temperature caused differences in crystallinity and density. However, there was a less than 95% probability that crystallinity and density
influenced compression properties. Hence, they had no statistically significant effect
on compression modulus and strength. This work has added to the knowledge base of SLS nylon-12 within the specified boundaries of this research. Users of this technology who consider compression modulus and strength to be of importance can focus their efforts on optimising sintering temperature. This has been shown to have a greater statistical impact on compression properties compared to crystallinity and density.


Diseases Transmitted from Animals to Man. Edited by Thomas G. Hull, Ph.D. Fifth edition. (Pp. 967 + xxii; illustrated; $17.75.) Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. 1963. In the foreword to this large work it is stated that, " It is hoped that the veterinarian, the physician, the health official and the research worker may find a common meeting ground " in it, and that "it will be through their concerted efforts that the number of infections which man contracts from animals will be reduced." This seems to indicate that the main purpose of this work is to provide data helpful to those aiming at controlling these diseases-and the need for such a volume is undoubted. Many medical men regret that they know little about the animal counterpart of diseases with which they deal in man, and the corresponding regret has often been voiced by veterinary surgeons. In each section of the book there is much that helps to provide for this need for all types of user, and there can be no doubt about the value of the work as a whole. The standard, however, is uneven. A disproportionate amount of space is given to matters of historic interest only, and there is inadequate coverage of many important new developments. Thus, anthrax occupies 44 pages, much of the section being a description of outmoded therapy, yet the important and developing field of protozoal and helminthic diseases together are given only 19 pages. Similarly in brucellosis, the value of modem antibiotic therapy is not sufficiently emphasized. The conclusion is reached that " in man, the advantages of chemotherapy and antibiotic therapy versus symptomatic treatment have not been clearly defined." Among the many good parts of the book there are succinct and informative chapters on chickunguniya fever, the arthropod-borne viral encephalitides, and the tick-borne viral haemorrhagic fevers. In these, work on the infections in man and animals is well brought together. The impression left with the reader is that pruning for this edition has not been radical enough and that sufficient attention has not been given to the rapidly developing parts of the field. Nevertheless, it remains a valuable standard work, abounding in data difficult to find elsewhere, and a mine of historic references. A. W. WOODRUFF.


A new technique was developed for the integrated processing of cell disruption and aqueous two-phase extraction in a high-speed bead mill to separate intracellular proteins from microbial cells. The process was named as simultaneous cell disruption and aqueous two-phase extraction (SDATE). Advantages, such as high cell disruption efficiency, biochemical activities preservation of proteins, cell debris elimination, and preliminary purification of the target protein were being claimed. When this technique was employed for isolating recombinant Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) from E. coli, overall protein concentration and TNF activity were found to have been increased. More than 95% of TNF was partitioned into the top phase and all cell debris were in the bottom phase. The partition coefficient was greater than 3 and the TNF purification factor was greater than 6. It is shown that less separation steps were being utilized in the new technique, meaning a reduction in separation time and less process extractors required.


This study investigated the relationship between organizational change and staff productivity of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. The objectives of the study were to determine how aspects of organizational change (technological change and structural change) relate to productivity of deposit money banks' performance in terms of effective efficiency and staff engagement. The study employed cross-sectional research design. The population of the study consist 21 deposit money banks. Primary data was collected from 202 management level staff using a five-point scaled questionnaire. The Spearman's Rank Order correlation served as the test statistic. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 was relied upon for all data analyses. The study found a strong connection between organizational change (represented as technological change and structural change) and staff productivity (represented as effective efficiency and staff engagement) of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. The study therefore concludes that productivity of deposit money banks' employees can be improved through organizational change, and recommends that management deposit money banks' that desire improved productivity of employees should design and implement organizational change.


: We investigate whether risky choice framing, i.e., the preference of a sure over an equivalent risky option when choosing among gains, and the reverse when choosing among losses, depends on redundancy and density of information available in a task. Redundancy, the saliency of missing information, and density, the description of options in one or multiple chunks, was manipulated in a matrix setup presented in MouselabWeb. On the choice level we found a framing effect only in setups with non-redundant information. On the process level outcomes attracted more acquisitions than probabilities, irrespective of redundancy. A dissociation between acquisition behavior and choice calls for a critical discussion of the limits of process-tracing measures for understanding and predicting choices in decision making tasks.


Scania CV is one of the leading manufacturer of trucks in the world. Beside the truck business Scania also manufactures buses and industrial engines. A new logistic concept at Scania means major change regarding material flow to the productions lines and today Scania is lacking a tool to analyse these material flows. The underlying hypothesis is that with a tool that could analyse logistic material flows the design of new logistic flows would be more efficient and have a better quality. A case-study was done with the tool Flow Planner and in parallel interviews with logistics engineers to find out how they are working today. The conclusion is that an analysis tool similar to Flow Planner might have a positive effect on the lead time for changing the design of material flows and could therefore be one link in the chain when striving for higher flexibility. Flow Planner can model all the different Scania standard deliv-ery methods but the output gives only a part of the information that is needed in example configura-tion of the train carts. Flow Planner can give an overview of the plant and the traffic flow within the plant. It can also contribute to more accurate risk analysis concerning the congestion of traffic in plant. A weakness of Flow Planner is that forklifts and tugger trains cannot be modelled together. A risk that was exposed during the case study is that input data has errors that will give a result that is not valid. The part of the case study that was performed with data from Oskarhamn only includes on the tug-ger train delivery of units. To get a complete picture of Flow Planners capabilities and limitations it would be preferable to make similar case-studies with real data for kit, sequence and batch also.Recommendations for the continued work is to make a requirement specification to clearly define the Scania requirements and evaluate several tools.


Common Sense and a Little Fire traces the personal and public lives of four immigrant women activists who left a lasting imprint on American politics. Though they have rarely had more than cameo appearances in previous histories, Rose Schneiderman, Fannia Cohn, Clara Lemlich Shavelson, and Pauline Newman played important roles in the emergence of organized labor, the New Deal welfare state, adult education, and the modern women's movement. Orleck takes her four subjects from turbulent, turn-of-the-century Eastern Europe to the radical ferment of New York's Lower East Side and the gaslit tenements where young workers studied together. Drawing from the women's writings and speeches, she paints a compelling picture of housewives' food and rent protests, of grim conditions in the garment shops, of factory-floor friendships that laid the basis for a mass uprising of young women garment workers, and of the impassioned rallies working women organized for suffrage. From that era of rebellion, Orleck charts the rise of a distinctly working-class feminism that fueled poor women's activism and shaped government labor, tenant, and consumer policies through the early 1950s.


German organizations are among the last Palestine solidarity groups in Europe to have embraced the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched in 2005. Pro-Israel German groups have been quick to respond with aggressive rhetoric equating a BDS-favorable stance with Nazism. The vilification of the movement has had the unintended consequence of inserting BDS into German politics, both at federal and local levels. Select case studies show that the BDS debate in Germany has developed somewhat differently than in other European countries, and that religious discourse is significant in shaping attitudes to Israel and Palestine. While the Palestine solidarity movement tends to single out the "Anti-Germans"—a pro-Israel formation that grew out of the Left after the reunification of Germany—as the major culprit, it is in fact conservative Christian, mostly Evangelical, organizations that are largely responsible for discouraging BDS activism.


Currently, several regional general hospitals in Banda Aceh now have excellent support facilities, one of which is a diagnostic X-ray machine. The performance of diagnostic X-ray machine should be checked to determine if the dose received does not harm a patient and produce a good image and provide diagnostic information in a timely and accurate, therefore there are necessary for quality control activities on the machine X-ray. Factors that affect the dosing and imaging results, among others, the amount of the provision of current and voltage. From the research shows that the value of the output voltage generated is not much different from the value of the input voltage with a percentage value below 5%. This value shows a good output machineX-ray because it is still under the maximum tolerance limit of 10%. So the overall results of observations on the machineX-ray is in hospital, the quality control measurements gave values still within safe limits. Then by giving a higher input voltage turns also affect the amount of energy produced, thus affecting also absorbed dose X-rays are produced.


It will be increasingly important, especially in Russia, to identify way to prioritize use of limited rresources for conservation efforts. Considering threatened species in the context of the whole fauna suggests the concept of "chance of listing" in the internationally established "Red List", and poses the question of how it is related to species' life history traits. L. Polishchuk in this Policy Forum shows that for Russian mammals chance of listing is most closely associated with annual fecundity. A focus on the subset of mammalian species whose fecundity is lower than 2.9 daughters per year should be the particular concern of the conservationist and would cause a shift in current policies.


Abstract.Blast Furnace Gas (BFG) system of an iron and steel works was considered. The relationship of gas amount and factors about BFG generation and consumption was analyzed by grey correlationand the BP neural network prediction model of blast furnace gaswas established based on artificial neural network for forecasting thesupply and demandof BFGinthe iron and steel-making processes.The scientific forecasting of BFG generation and consumption in each process was discussed undernormal production and accidental maintenance condition. The results show that established forecasting model is high precision, small errors, and can solve effectively actual production of BFG prediction problem and decreasing BFG flare, providing theoretical basis for establishing reasonable plans in the iron and steel works.


Background Chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer patients is likely to cause anaemia (chemotherapy-induced anaemia, CIA), which is associated with high medical costs. Current guidelines recommend the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Purpose Following a cost-consequence approach, an economic evaluation was conducted of CIA treatment with ESAs in Italian clinical practice, from the perspective of the National Health Service. Materials and methods Four pharmacological alternatives were considered: weekly epoetin alfa, epoetin β, darbepoetin α and darbepoetin alfa every three weeks. Clinical outcomes were obtained from the literature. Costs were estimated using a questionnaire addressed to clinicians employed in five hospitals. Data were collected regarding the six most common ESA administration settings (ranging from self-administration to hospitalisation). Resources used in each setting were accounted for. A decision-tree model was used based on these data and on the outcomes from the clinical trials of the drugs considered. The treatment period was set at 12 weeks. Results The average treatment costs per responding patient (response based on haemoglobin level increment) were (2010, euros): € 4,291 (darbepoetin α every three weeks), € 5,051 (weekly darbepoetin α), € 5,111 (weekly epoetin β), € 5,810 (weekly epoetin α). Conclusions Despite study limitations (costs estimates from survey data), in the treatment of CIA among cancer patients in Italy darbepoetin alfa weekly and every three weeks appear to provide more efficient use of healthcare resources compared to epoetin alfa and epoetin β.


We use the 3D finite‐element method to conduct dynamic models of rupture and resulting ground motion on the Claremont–Casa Loma stepover of the northern San Jacinto fault. We incorporate complex fault geometry (from the U.S. Geological Survey [USGS] Quaternary Faults Database; see [Data and Resources][1]), a realistic velocity structure (the Southern California Earthquake Center Community Velocity Model‐S), a realistic regional stress field with an orientation taken from seismicity relocation literature, and several stochastic self‐similar shear stress distributions. As we incorporate more types of complexity, the specific effects of any individual factor become less apparent within the overall rupture behavior. We also find that the distribution of high and low shear stress that arises from combining regional and stochastic stress fields has the strongest control over where the rupture terminates. Using a regional stress field alone, as well as with the combined regional and stochastic stress realization, we find that the stepover presents a significant barrier to rupture, regardless of our choice of initial nucleation point and that it is difficult for rupture to propagate the full length of either fault segment. Greater heterogeneity of stresses tends to produce shorter ruptures. Within this result, we find that the Claremont strand is more favorable for long ruptures than the Casa Loma–Clark strand. Low‐frequency ground‐motion intensity and distribution are controlled largely by the velocity structure rather than by stress heterogeneity. The strongest motions produced in these models are in the San Bernardino basin. Although directivity effects do contribute to the low‐frequency ground‐motion distribution, particularly in the near field, they are secondary to the effects of the velocity structure.

Online Material: Figures of ground motions from models used to calibrate the stress conditions for dynamic rupture propagation.

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The considerable progress achieved in the past 10 years in the field of tumor biology and therapeutics has strengthened the idea that cancer is not only a cellular but also a tissue disease. This concept is likely to apply to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), characterized by the consistent expression of oncogenic viral proteins in a context of inflammation and immune escape (1). In its typical undifferentiated form, NPC is constantly associated with the Epstein-Barr virus, whose genome is contained in the nuclei of all malignant cells, but not in the surrounding tissue. Latency is the predominant mode of virus-cell interactions, meaning that most viral genes are silent in the vast majority of malignant cells. However, a small fraction of them are consistently expressed coding a handful of viral products, both viral proteins and untranslated RNAs, most of them with proven oncogenic properties. The inflammatory context of NPC is obvious for pathologists: almost all NPC primary tumors are heavily infiltrated by non-malignant leucocytes, mainly T-lymphocytes but also B lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells and neutrophils. This inflammatory infiltration often disappears in metastatic lesions. The immune escape is also obvious because of the rapid proliferation of malignant cells despite the consistent expression of EBNA1, LMP1 and LMP2 which are known to be the targets of CD4+ and CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells in EBV-carriers. One interpretation of the paradox of tumor inflammation combined with tumor immune escape is that malignant cells in the primary tumor benefit to some extent from the proximity of leucocytes while developing mechanisms of immune escape.


BACKGROUND
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is a diverse group of lymphoma comprises of divergent tumors with paradoxical clinical behaviors and potential difference in response to therapy. We conducted a data-base analysis on NHL patients to evaluate the clinico-epidemiological features and WHO spectrum of NHL in Pakistani patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This descriptive study was conducted over a period of 5 years from January 2011 to December 2015 at Hematology department of Liaquat National Hospital. All NHL cases were diagnosed by morphology on H&E sections and Immunohistochemical profile according to WHO classification of lymphoid neoplasms.

RESULTS
184 histopathologically confirmed cases of NHL were identified. There were 139 males and 45 females, with a male to female ratio of 3: 1. The mean age was 48.5±16.0 years with the median age of 50 years. B symptoms were present in 80.4% of patients. Lymph node enlargement was present in 71.1% of the cases. 168 patients ad B-cell lymphoma (91.3%) and 16 patients had T-cell (8.6%) lymphoma. Overall 158 (85.8%) patients had aggressive lymphoma. Histopathologically, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma constituted major subtype in 67.9%, followed by follicular lymphoma in 7.6% patients. Marginal lymphoma in 3.8%patients, 3.2% patients had mantle cell, 2.7% patients of anaplastic large cell and 2.1% patients each for Burkitt's lymphoma and T-cell rich lymphoma. In T cell neoplasm, peripheral T cell lymphoma and adult T cell lymphoma are the main variants accountable in 4.3% and 3.2% respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
B cell lymphoma is more frequent than T cell lymphoma with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma being the commonest NHL. Our analysis shows that clinicopathological features of NHL are comparable to published data. However, aggressive lymphoma and predominance of B symptoms are more frequently seen.


This thesis explores Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) stakeholders' accounts of quality assessment in the Nigerian context from an educational including sociological perspective. It unfolds the diverse socio-cultural meanings of the notion of quality in relation to teacher-child relationship, pedagogical instruction, learning environment and learning outcomes. The thesis demonstrates the need to locate current policy initiatives and quality measures (including the notion and development of quality care and learning) within the social, cultural, economic and political contexts that surround its provision. It is argued that understanding contextual complexity is germane to quality assessment of ECCE institutions.
The study was carried out during seven months intensive fieldwork in Lagos state, Nigeria. The study employed a qualitative interpretive approach using semi- structured interviews, focus group discussions, observations and policy analysis. The study involved a number of stakeholders: teachers, parents, policymakers and Schools inspectors from the Ministry of Education.
The study reveals that quality assessment of children's services reflects economic, cultural and socio-political contexts that shape the welfare support services for children and how the aims of early childhood services are perceived by the stakeholders. The findings suggest that the contribution of poverty on early childhood provision and management, through public and private sectors' involvement, constitutes a problematic notion of quality education for children. The study argues that the socio-cultural values that relate to communality and cultural learning have to be sufficiently incorporated into policy and practice structures in ECCE.
The notion of quality from the perspectives of the different stakeholders taking part in the study was found to be open-ended, whilst embracing a mix of traditional and contemporary values that allow for continuous reflection and dialogue about possible ways of achieving quality care and education for Nigerian children given the challenges and possibilities of changes in the economic, political and socio-cultural outlook. Their major concern is how to adapt child care and learning to the rapidly changing educational structure that occurs around the world without losing the significance of cherished Nigerian societal values.
The study suggests that there is a need to follow up on colonial educational policy and practices by documenting existing childrearing traditional practices and negotiating on the essential aspects that meet the notion of quality care and learning for children.
In conclusion the study proposes a provisional theoretical model for assessing quality in the Nigerian ECCE parlance. The model emphasises an intensive interdisciplinary approach combining different aspects of relevant fields of study to understanding quality assessment and other assemblages of early childhood care and education.


Objectives: To evaluate morphological findings in repeat biopsies in patients with isolated high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) after a 6-month course of bicalutamide (Casodex) 50 mg/day. Methods: 20 consecutive patients with isolated HGPIN in prostate biopsies were treated for 6 months with bicalutamide 50 mg/day. After treatment, the patients were resubmitted to prostate biopsy mapping. The control group included 22 untreated consecutive patients with isolated high-grade PIN with repeat biopsies taken 6 months after the initial biopsies. Results: In the initial biopsies of the treated group, HGPIN was monofocal in 12 patients and plurifocal in 8. In the repeat biopsies HGPIN was present in 2 patients, monofocal in both, whereas prostate adenocarcinoma (PCa) was discovered in one. In the control group, HGPIN was monofocal in 15 and plurifocal in 7. In the repeat biopsies HGPIN was present in six patients, being monofocal in three and plurifocal in the other three. PCa was present in one. Conclusions: There was a lower incidence of HGPIN (treated group vs control: 10% vs 27.2%) after 6 months of bicalutamide. Reduction in its extent was also observed (treated group vs control: monofocal 100% vs 50%). Treatment did not affect the incidence of cancer (treated vs control: 5% vs 4.5%).


A case-control study to determine the risk factors for human alveolar echinococcosis (AE) was conducted in Hokkaido, Japan. The 134 cases were either patients clinically diagnosed as having AE (N=61) or other individuals found to be seropositive for Echinococcus multilocularis although showing no abnormalities in ultrasound scans (N=73). Two groups of case-matched controls were employed: one of 670 individuals selected from a list of residents of Hokkaido (group A) and the other of 650 subjects selected from a list of individuals who had been found seronegative in earlier investigations (group B). Because of the long latency of AE, potential risk factors were studied over two different periods: for the 0–10 and 11–20 years before the year of diagnosis/recorded seropositivity. The results of multivariate analyses, in which the cases were compared with each control group, indicated that the rearing of cattle and pigs and the use of well water were significant risk factors and that the use of tap water significantly decreased the risk of an individual having AE. Extension of the piped water supply and health education on improving the disposal of household rubbish (to keep foxes away from houses) should help reduce the risk of AE infection in the study area.


By using the reduction technique to impulsive differential equations [1], we rigorously prove the presence of chaos in dynamic equations on time scales (DETS). The results of the present study are based on the Li-Yorke definition of chaos. This is the first time in the literature that chaos is obtained for DETS. An illustrative example is presented by means of a Duffing equation on a time scale.


This study examined the influence of Science engagement and learning interaction of Grade 7 online learners' acquisition of 21st-century skills and Science achievement. Seventy-six (76) Grade 7 online learners of San Pablo City Integrated High School served as respondents of the study to find a correlation between 21st-century skills (communication) and Science achievement in student-teacher interactions using descriptive and inferential statistics. Accordingly, findings revealed that student-teacher interaction is a significant mediator in the relationship between Science engagement and Science achievement. The correlation results showed that the perceived online Science engagement (cognitive, affective/emotional, and behavioral) and learning interaction (student-student, student-content) have no significant relationship to the acquired 21st-century skills (critical thinking, creativity, and communication) and Science achievement of the respondents. More, so that student-teacher interaction significantly influences Science engagement. The presence of the teacher does influence learner's outcome in acquiring 21st-century skills.. The mediated variable, learning interaction (student-teacher), partially mediated the influence Science engagement has on Science achievement. Thus, considering the study's findings and conclusions, it is recommended that schools must invest in online learning environments that improve learning and teaching outcomes. Enable online engagements, and stimulate connections with peers, teachers, and the institution. Foster Science and 21st-century skills, add student online engagement and learning interaction data that can guide school-wide activities, and lastly have multiple sources to facilitate a more profound understanding among online students. Keywords: 21st-Century Skills, Learning Interaction, Science Achievement, Science Engagement


Basaltic volcanoes are among the largest volcanic edifices on the Earth. These huge volcanoes exhibit rift zones and mobile flanks, revealing specific stress field conditions. In this paper, we present new deformation data issued from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) network installed on Piton de la Fournaise. Density of the GNSS stations allowed us to reach a sufficient resolution to perform a spatially significant analysis of strain at the scale of the active part of the volcano. Since 2007, summit inflation during preeruptive/eruptive sequences (summit extension/cone flanks contraction) alternates with summit deflation during posteruptive/rest periods (summit contraction/cone flanks extension) and generates a "pulsation" of the volcano. This volcano "pulsation" increases rock fracturing and damage, decreases the rock stiffness, and increases the medium permeability. The deformation regime of the mobile eastern flank evidences mass transfer in depth from the summit to the east. During the long‐term summit deflation recorded between 2011 and 2014, the upper eastern flank extended steadily eastward whereas the lower eastern flank contracted. Simultaneous extension and eastward displacement of the upper eastern flank and eastward contraction of the middle and lower eastern flank contributes to build the Grandes Pentes relief, steeping the topographic slope. We relate the eastern flank topographic slope spatial variations to rock or basal friction angle changes. The lower flank contraction process is an evidence of its progressive loading by the upper eastern flank, which brings this flank closer to an eventual instability.


Regaining neuromuscular control of the quadriceps muscle group is a major focus of therapeutic exercise programs for knee injuries. A key component in restoring neuromuscular control involves increasing muscle strength. It is important to restore quadriceps strength to improve function and increase stability of the knee. Electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback is a tool used to estimate the electrical activity taking place in the muscle and is used to give visual and/or audio feedback to the patient about activity levels in the muscle of interest. There is conflicting evidence regarding the effectiveness of EMG biofeedback for improving muscle function when used in as part of rehabilitation protocols. However, many clinicians continue to use this therapy as a supplement to conventional therapeutic exercise.


BACKGROUND
The relationship between serum cholesterol and cancer incidence remains controversial.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We investigated the association of total serum cholesterol (TSC) with subsequent cancer incidence in a population-based cohort of 172 210 Austrian adults prospectively followed up for a median of 13.0 years. Cox regression, allowing for time-dependent effects, was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the association of TSC with cancer.

RESULTS
We observed pronounced short-term associations of TSC and overall cancer incidence in both men and women. For malignancies diagnosed shortly (<5 months) after baseline TSC measurement, the highest TSC tertile (>235.0 mg/dl in men and >229.0 in women) compared with the lowest tertile (<194.0 mg/dl in men and <190.0 in women) was associated with a significantly lower overall cancer risk [HR = 0.58 (95% CI 0.43-0.78, P(trend) = 0.0001) in men, HR = 0.69 (95% CI 0.49-0.99, P(trend) = 0.03) in women]. However, after roughly 5 months from baseline measurement, overall cancer risk was not significantly associated with TSC. The short-term inverse association of TSC with cancer was mainly driven by malignancies of the digestive organs and lymphoid and hematopoietic tissue.

CONCLUSION
The short-term decrease of cancer risk seen for high levels of TSC may largely capture preclinical effects of cancer on TSC.


It is known that in various pathophysiological conditions, reactive oxidants cause DNA strand breakage and subsequent activation of the nuclear enzyme poly(ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP). Activation of PARP results in cellular dysfunction. We hypothesized that pharmacological inhibition of PARP reduces the damage in the ovine model of acute lung injury (ALI). After smoke inhalation, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5 × 109 cfu/kg) was instilled into both lungs. All of the animals were mechanically ventilated with 100% O2. The infusion of the PARP inhibitor (INO-1001, n = 6) began 1 h after the injury and thereafter through 24 h (3 mg bolus + 0.3 mg/kg/h, i.v.). Control animals (n = 6) were treated with saline. Sham injury animals (n = 8) received sham smoke and were mechanically ventilated in the same fashion. One-half of those sham animals (n = 4) were given the same dose of INO-1001. PaO2/FiO2 ratio at 24 h in saline and in the INO-1001-treated groups were 95 ± 22 and 181 ± 22, respectively (P < 0.05). Peak airway pressure at 24 h in the saline- and INO-1001-treated groups was 32.6 ± 3.0 and 24.4 ± 2.2, respectively (P < 0.05). Pulmonary shunt fraction was also significantly attenuated. INO-1001 treatment reduced pulmonary histological injury and attenuated poly (ADP-ribose) accumulation in the lung. In conclusion, inhibition of PARP improved the ALI after smoke inhalation and pneumonia. The results suggest that the activation of PARP plays a role in the pathophysiology of ALI in sheep.


serendipity as our muse, we have created tools that allow students to author languages of their own design for robots of their own construction. In developing a Scheme compiler for the LEGO Mindstorm we realized that there is great educational potential in the design and creation of new languages for small robotics kits. As a side eect of bringing Scheme and the Mindstorm together in a cre- ative context, we have begun an exploration of teaching language design that is fundamentally dierent from the treatment of the subject in traditional literature.


Conventional methods of solving scheduling problems based on priority rules still result schedules, sometimes, with significant idle times. To optimize these, this thesis model the problem of a flow shop scheduling with the objective of minimi zing the makes pan. This paper model the problem of a flow shop scheduling with the objective of min imizing the makes pan. The objective is to minimize the make span of batch-processing machines in a flow shop. The processing times and the sizes of the jobs are known and non-identical. The processing time of a batch is the longest processin g time among all the jobs in that batch. Consequently , comparison based on Gupta's heuristics, RA heuristic's, Palmer's heuristics, CDS heuristics ar e proposed in this work. Gantt chart was generated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approac hes.


Abstract China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) heated up discussions on the importance and urgency of regulatory reform in Chinese television. Entering the WTO means, first and foremost, situating China in a legal framework that is communicative, negotiable and operational within international (primarily Western) standards. For Chinese media, such reform suggests an important move on part of the Chinese government from traditional political control to legal regulation. This paper reviews the development of television regulations in China in the reform era. It begins with a brief introduction to a few Chinese key words, Fa Zhi (law) and Gui Zhi (regulation), against the background of China's legal reforms. It then proceeds to show the development of Chinese broadcasting regulations in a changed industrial environment. Next, it examines regulations of Chinese television, focusing on organizational restructuring and program disciplining. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the prospects and problems of regulatory reform, especially within the context of globalization. Far from most optimistic predictions, this paper argues that to date regulatory changes in Chinese television are more restrictive than liberalising; and that transformation of China's television from administrative control to lawful regulation still has a long way to go.


Background Judo has a relatively high injury risk and hence research on training injuries in judokas can identify the risk factors and help to develop specific prevention programs. Few studies have reported data on training injuries in judokas. Objective To present an epidemiological study of training injuries in elite Indian judokas. Design Prospective observational cohort study. Setting Elite Indian judokas training at National Institute of Sports, under centre of excellence scheme. Participants 45 judokas (22 male and 23 female) were followed up from June 2011 to May 2016. Assessment of Risk Factors Height, weight, age, BMI were recorded at the time of their admission. Training data were recorded as per training log. Injury data were collected using a validated assessment tool by Finch et al (2008). Competition injuries were excluded. Main Outcome Measurements Injury rate, average injury risk, re-injury risk, location, type and severity of injuries (time loss) were analyzed and compared. Results The injury rate was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.63–0.88) injuries per athlete year. The rate per 1000 exposures was 26.0 (95% CI, 6.0–46) in males and 43.1 (95% CI, 24–62) in females. Average risk or incidence proportion was 0.73 (0.82 in males and 0.65 in females). The observed re injury risk (average probability an injured athlete is at risk of repeated injury) was 0.79 of injured athletes. No significant difference was observed in terms of body parts injured between men and women (p>0.05). Injuries most frequently occurred in the lower limbs (40.7% in males and 43.2% in females) followed by upper limbs, trunk, head and neck. The most common injury type was a ligament sprain (37%). Grade 3 injuries were significantly more common in women than men (p<0.05). Conclusions Indian male judokas have a high average risk of training injuries. Women are more prone to re injuries and severe injuries. Further studies are needed to address the impact of training- related risk factors for injury to implement effective preventive measures.


Total knee arthroplasty (TKR) using a medial capsular approach gives worse results in arthritic knees with valgus deformity than in those in varus, usually because of swelling, poor wound healing and stiffness, instability, recurrent valgus deformity and poor patellar tracking.A technique for replacement TKR of valgus knees using a lateral capsular approach was described several years ago, but was not routinely adopted because of the difficulties with and complexity of the procedure which included deliberate elevation of the tibial tubercle. In order to avoid this we have modified and simplified the procedure. Our preliminary results suggest that this lateral approach is safe and may give a better outcome than that through the medial capsule for the replacement of valgus knees.


Depth perception is a vital feature for the survival of an animal. It is equally important for a mobile robot which has to navigate and avoid obstacles. Depth can be recovered from stereopsis, motion, focus or blur and other visual information. The paper presents an approach for obtaining relative depth from monocular sizes of objects in the retina (image plane) under size constancy. The method is shown quite robust since global features (length and area of objects) are used. The involved computation of depth is very simple. Another obvious merit of the proposed approach is that one needs not to know camera parameters and can estimate relative depth only in one image. Absolute depth can also be obtained from image sequence if egomotion is combined. >


In this paper, Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) with low Maximum-Likelihood (ML) decoding complexity and information-losslessness property are proposed for a two-user Multiple-Input Single-Output, frequency-flat fading multiple access channel. In particular, two distinct classes of STBC pairs which are derived from the well known class of real orthogonal designs are proposed. The first class of code pairs which are derived from a class of complex designs called separable orthogonal designs are shown to be (i) information-lossless for arbitrary values of Nt (where Nt denotes the number of transmit antennas of each user) and (ii) have reduced ML decoding complexity whereas the second class of code pairs are shown to be (i) information-lossless only for large values of Nt and (ii) are singlesymbol ML decodable.


Governments worldwide are keen to encourage PPP schemes, however PPP is not a foolproof business. Many local governments and private investors have suffered severe or trying experiences. In this research, 10 case studies were conducted to identify the obstacles and difficulties for successful implementation of PPP projects from the perspective of government guarantees. These PPP projects include two water supply plants, two sewage treatment plants, two power supply plants, two highway projects, and two bridge projects. The findings obtained indicate that the local governments are familiar with "the type of guarantees" to provide to the private investor but they are unsure of the "amount" that should be given. Many PPP projects have therefore been heavily criticized for over benefiting the private investors as the government provides them with too many guarantees. The inappropriate guarantees offered by the government are regarded as one of the root causes of PPP projects' failure. The lessons learned are valuable for determining appropriate government guarantees for future PPP projects and broadening the opportunities for infrastructure development with PPP procurement model.


Hyperspectral remote sensing is an emerging field with many potential applications in the observation, management, and maintenance of the global transportation infrastructure. This report describes the development of an affordable framework to capture hyperspectral images and models to classify the images. The framework and models enable new approaches to plan, analyze, and assess the performance of multimodal transportation systems. Every hyperspectral image frame contains information in wavelengths that extend well beyond those that humans are capable of seeing or perceiving. The rapid size and cost reduction of both unmanned aircraft systems and hyperspectral image sensors enable easy scaling of the framework. Scaling is achieved simply by conducting multiple parallel missions to achieve broad area coverage at affordable prices. The authors showcase the general utility of the framework to enhance models used for roadway congestion forecasting, railway condition monitoring, and pipeline risk management. The authors offer additional insights by demonstrating a specific utility of the framework and models for the rapid detection of hazardous spills. Practitioners who utilize the framework and models to implement hyperspectral remote sensing platforms will benefit from greater situational awareness to make informed decisions in transportation systems development, operations, and maintenance.


We study the vacuum Cauchy problem for K-essence, i.e. cosmologically relevant scalar-tensor theories that involve first-order derivative self-interactions, and which pass all existing gravitational wave bounds. We restrict to spherical symmetry and show that there exists a large class of theories for which no breakdown of the Cauchy problem occurs outside apparent black hole horizons, even in the presence of scalar shocks/caustics, except for a small set of initial data sufficiently close to critical black hole collapse. We characterise these problematic initial data, and show that they lead to large or even diverging (coordinate) speeds for the characteristic curves. We discuss the physical relevance of this problem and propose ways to overcome it.


Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly faced with competitive pressure due to swift and constant change to the dynamic and highly interconnected environment in which they operate. Competing in this dynamic ecosystem, SMEs need a strategic tool for managing coevolution with the dynamic environment in order to create sustained value. Drawing from the specific SME characteristics operating in a collaborative network ecosystem of firms, this paper elicits the specific strategic management requirements that need to be satisfied by a Business Architecture. Extensive exploratory literature review and semi-structured interviews are used to explicate the underlying drivers of SME's requirements for business architecture that need to be addressed by the requisite BA practice. The paper finds that, the BA practice must possess the capabilities to guide and assist the SMEs to adapt with the dynamic collaborative ecosystem of firms and sense, leverage and orchestrate the network of resources and ICT capabilities to create sustained value. This paper concludes with some guidelines for developing the business architecture-enabled journey toward creating sustained value within the said dynamic ecosystem.


Selected Radiologic Technology Resources and Services in Davis Library at the University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College.


An important research line in nuclear physics nowadays is the study of unstable nuclei.
Within this, one area of interest is the study of delayed neutron emission which is of relevance
for di erent elds such as astrophysics, nuclear technology and nuclear structure. The
study of di erent aspects of decay of exotic nuclei, such as half lives and neutron emission
probabilities, provide information about their structure and these measurements are sometimes
the only ones that can be performed in nuclei with very low yields.
The work presented here aims at measuring the neutron activity of a 252Cf source. The
goal is to verify the activity provided by the manufacturer and reduce its quoted uncertainty.
The method used to obtain the 252Cf neutron source activity is based on the measurement of
the gamma ray spectrum of the ssion products [1]. Once calibrated this source will be used
to calibrate a neutron detector designed at UPC that is currently being used to measure
 ���delayed neutron emission. However that is beyond the scope of this work.
The rst chapter of this document describes the theoretical concepts of ���delayed neutron
emission; it also presents a brief summary about the UPC neutron detector prototype
that we aim at calibrating, an overview of di erent types of neutron sources and the calibration
method of the detector. The second chapter refers speci cally to the characteristics of
252Cf neutron source calibrated and the experimental setup. Chapters three and four detail
the procedure for the determination of the activity of the 252Cf neutron source studied passing
through the germanium detector calibration. The last chapter presents the conclusions
of the results of this study and improvements to perform in future similar calibrations of
this type.


Identifiability of a system model can be considered as the extent to which one can capture its parameter values from observational data and other prior knowledge of the system. Identifiability must be considered in context so that the objectives of the modelling must also be taken into account in its interpretation. A model may be identifiable for certain objective functions but not others; its identifiability may depend not just on the model structure but also on the level and type of noise, and may even not be identifiable when there is no noise on the observational data. Context also means that non-identifiability might not matter in some contexts, such as when representing pluralistic values among stakeholders, and may be very important in others, such as where it leads to intolerable uncertainties in model predictions. Uncertainty quantification of environmental systems is receiving increasing attention especially through the development of sophisticated methods, often statistically-based. This is partly driven by the desire of society and its decision makers to make more informed judgments as to how systems are better managed and associated resources efficiently allocated. Less attention seems to be given by modellers to understand the imperfections in their models and their implications. Practical methods of identifiability analysis can assist greatly here to assess if there is an identifiability problem so that one can proceed to decide if it matters, and if so how to go about modifying the model (transforming parameters, selecting specific data periods, changing model structure, using a more sophisticated objective function). A suite of relevant methods is available and the major useful ones are discussed here including sensitivity analysis, response surface methods, model emulation and the quantification of uncertainty. The paper also addresses various perspectives and concepts that warrant further development and use.


It seems plausible that (i) how much punishment a person deserves cannot be affected by the mere existence or nonexistence of another person. We might have also thought that (ii) how much punishment is deserved cannot increase merely in virtue of personal division. I argue that (i) and (ii) are inconsistent with the popular belief that, other things being equal, when people culpably do very wrong or bad acts, they ought to be punished for this�even if they have repented, are now virtuous, and punishing them would benefit no one. Insofar as we cannot deny (i), we are either forced to abandon the popular belief in desert, or else allow that personal division could, as I put it, �multiply desert.� Some may not find the latter, considered by itself, troubling. But I argue that the thesis that division multiplies desert faces a potentially serious problem, which arises in the context of personal fusion. It is difficult to see how to maintain a particular family of desert views in light of the cases here presented.