The author, former deputy secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, reviews the current status of the transatlantic alliance and the evolving role of NATO as an irreplaceable peacekeeping structure with extensive obligations in asymmetrical warfare. The author affirms a belief that NATO can and does play roles beyond its original intent and welcomes new applicants, provided they share its goals and principles.


The labor markets of most developed countries have experienced substantial changes in terms of both sectoral and occupational outcomes in recent decades. The large overlap between these outcomes allow the basic labor market patterns to be explained by either sector- or occupation-specific technological change. Yet distinguishing these two potential drivers is important as their implications differ for certain outcomes and for evaluating policies. In this paper we use a parsimonious model to extract sector-occupation specific technological change from the data. Using a factor model we decompose these changes into sector only and occupation only components, and show that both play a role. Finally we use our model to generate counterfactual series to gauge the importance of sector specific and occupation specific technological change on relative wages, sectoral value added shares and sector-occupation employment shares.


The effect of chemical modification of mesoporous TiO2 electrodes by 2-(4-butoxyphenyl)-N-hydroxyacetamide (BPHA) before dye adsorption is investigated in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Two organic dyes, LEG4 and Dyenamo blue, were used in combination with the cobalt (II/III) tris(bipyridine) redox couple. The photovoltaic performance of the DSCs is clearly enhanced by BPHA. Preadsorption of mesoporous TiO2 electrodes with BPHA lowered the amount of adsorbed dye but improved the short-circuit current densities and the power conversion efficiencies by 10–20%, while keeping the open-circuit potential essentially unaffected. Notably, BPHA improved the LEG4 performance, whereas it has been reported for this dye that chenodeoxycholic acid as a coadsorbent lowers solar cell efficiency. Faster dye regeneration was found to be one reason for improved performance, but improved electron injection efficiency may also contribute to the favorable effect of BPHA.


The desired morphology, narrowed band gap and good photoelectric properties are the key factors for achieving the wide application of hybrid perovskite materials. During the preparation of novel hybrid perovskite materials, preserving the morphology of highly crystalline materials and narrowing their band gap will be desirable for designing photoelectric devices with outstanding performance. Here, with broad band gap 1D/2D hybrid perovskite single crystals as a template, we design a universal conversion process from single crystal to single crystal for a variety of large-sized hybrid perovskite materials induced by CH3NH2 (MA) gas under an ambient atmosphere. Most significantly, the hybrid perovskite single crystals keep their original morphology, narrow their optical band gap, and enhance their carrier mobility and photo-response dramatically after induced conversion by MA gas molecules, especially for DMAPbI3 (NH2(CH3)2PbI3). The optical band gap of DMAPbI3 was lowered from 2.58 eV to 1.53 eV and its photo-response performance was enhanced greatly by even a small amount of replacement of DMA+ by MA+, which provides a new idea for designing novel hybrid perovskite single crystals with a desired morphology and their optoelectronic devices with good performance.


In this paper we investigate what kind of manifolds arise as the total spaces of iterated S 1 -bundles. A real Bott tower studied in [2], [13] and [14] is an example of an iterated S 1 -bundle. We show that the total space of an iterated S 1 -bundle is homeomorphic to an infra-nilmanifold. A real Bott manifold, which is the total space of a real Bott tower, provides an example of a closed flat Riemannian manifold. We also show that real Bott manifolds are the only closed flat Riemannian manifolds obtained from iterated R P 1 -bundles. Finally we classify the homeomorphism types of the total spaces of iterated S 1 -bundles in dimension 3


This chapter explores agile information practices of information systems development and argues that their history is much longer than what is generally believed today. We take an interpretive and critical view of the phenomenon. We made an empirical study of two companies that apply an XP-style development approach throughout the information systems development life cycle. The results of our research suggest that XP is a combination of best practices of traditional information systems development methods. It is hindered by its reliance on talented individuals, which makes its large-scale deployment as a general-purpose method difficult. We claim that XP can be useful for small colocated teams of skilled domain experts and implementers who are able to communicate well with the end users. However, these skilled and motivated individuals with high working morale can exhibit high productivity regardless of the methods used if they are not overly constrained by bureaucracy. Chapter I


An investigation was carried out into the use of water traps for sampling Glossina morsitans submorsitans Newst. and G. tachinoides Westw. in Yankari Game Reserve in sub-Sudan savanna in northern Nigeria. The traps consisted of coloured trays filled with water plus small quantities of formalin and detergent. Colour was thought to be the major factor attracting flies to the traps, white traps being most effective for G. m. submorsitans and black ones for G. tachinoides . Water traps were compared with biconical traps, and both methods showed similar changes in catches in different vegetation types over a year. Males and females of both species showed a marked expansion in distribution in the rains and a contraction to riverine woodland in the dry season, though females of G. m. submorsitans could be caught in the adverse deciduous woodland and open savanna all year round. Water traps are considered a very cheap and practicable sampling method for ecological studies on these species of Glossina , providing specimens well preserved upon capture for later morphometric and analytical studies.


In seasonal environments, the timing of reproduction often matches with the peak of food resources. One well-known effect of global warming is an earlier phenology of resources, leading to a possible mismatch between the timing of reproduction for consumers and food peak. However, global warming may also change the dynamics of food resources, such as the intensity and frequency of pulsed mast seeding. How quantitative changes in mast seeding influence the timing of reproduction of seed consumers remains unexplored. Here, we assess how yearly variation in mast seeding influences mating time in wild boar (Sus scrofa), a widespread seed consumer species. We took advantage of the intensive monitoring of both female reproduction (1636 females) and acorn production over 6 consecutive years across 15 populations of wild boar in the wild. We found that mating time occurs earlier when acorn production increases in most but not all populations. In two out of 15 populations, heavy females mated earlier than light ones. Our findings demonstrate that mast seeding advances the mating time in some populations, which could perhaps impact how boars respond to climate change.


Dual-wavelength (K/sub /spl alpha//- and X-band) radar measurements have shown promise in estimating the amount of liquid water in a cloud. By taking advantage of the attenuation by liquid water of the K/sub /spl alpha//-band signal as compared to X-band, the range-differentiated difference in reflectivity can be used to estimate the spatial distribution of cloud liquid water. One limitation is that the method is based on the assumption that all particles in the radar beams act as Rayleigh scatterers, that is, their diameters are small compared to the radar wavelengths. In natural clouds in wintertime conditions, this often may not be the case. This paper presents simulations of the response of these two wavelengths to conditions measured in several geographic locations. The simulations are used to build simplified relations between radar reflectivity and total mass and size distribution functions of liquid droplets and ice particles. Using these relations, it may be possible to estimate the sizes of the droplets, as well as total mass contents and size distributions of ice particles that may also be present in the sampled volume. Results of radar-based retrieval methods applied to measurements in a winter stratiform cloud are discussed, and compared with a previous result. A technique is described for detecting regions of non-Rayleigh scattering and for subsequently estimating liquid water content (LWC). Additional examples of dual-wavelength measurements in regions containing cloud droplets, small ice particles, and larger snowflakes are discussed.


We introduce an efficient MCMC sampling scheme to perform Bayesian inference in the M/G/1 queueing model given only observations of interdeparture times. Our MCMC scheme uses a combination of Gibbs sampling and simple Metropolis updates together with three novel "shift" and "scale" updates. We show that our novel updates improve the speed of sampling considerably, by factors of about 60 to about 180 on a variety of simulated data sets.


An algorithm is developed that estimates the optimal distribution of antenna elements in a minimum redundancy linear array. These distributions are used in thinned array interferomet- ric imagers to synthesize effective antenna apertures much larger than the physical aperture. The optimal selection of antenna locations is extremely time consuming when large numbers of antennas are involved. This algorithm uses a numerical imple- mentation of the annealing process to guide a random search for the optimal array configuration. Highly thinned low-redundancy arrays are computed for up to 30 array elements. These arrays are equivalent to the optimal solutions that are known for up to 11 elements. The arrays computed for 12-30 elements have the least redundancies reported to date.


Success in academic endeavor has been associated with family background of learners in diverse studies. It has even been hypothesized that academic success and failure commence from learners' home. No wonder then that some scholars have advocated that remedies to poor academic performance and or academic failure of students should begin from home. As a matter of fact, quite a number of studies have shown how pronounced or less pronounced family structure could be on academic performance. Lamentably, most of these studies originated from developed countries utilizing foreign participants as usual. In an attempt to fill the gap of inadequate data on the influence of family stability in developing countries this study investigated the influence of family stability on the academic performance of senior secondary school students. A total of 377 respondents with age ranging from 11 to 18 years and mean age of 15 years were selected for the study from two senior secondary schools in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. The cross-sectional study employed the descriptive survey method. Questionnaire on Family Stability (QFS) was employed for data collection. Results analysis via correlation coefficient, t-test, and multiple regression indicate no significant relationship between family stability and academic performance (r = .014, p>0.05); no significant difference between the academic performance of respondents with stable and unstable family; and no significant contribution of family stability on academic performance (β = 0.805; t = 1.480; p > 0.05). Findings conclude that parents and care givers are to continually be enlightened on the importance of maintaining a stable family and structure because it has an overwhelming influence on the life of children especially as regards social adjustment and competence, assertiveness and students' academic performance.


There is increasing evidence that infants' representations of physical events can be enhanced through appropriate experiences in the laboratory. Most of this research has involved administering infants multiple training trials, often with multiple objects. In the present research, 8-month-olds were induced to detect a physical violation in a single trial. The experiments built on previous evidence that for occlusion events, infants encode height information at about age 3.5 months, but for covering events, they encode height information only at about age 12 months. In two experiments, a short cover was first placed in front of a short or a tall object (occlusion event); next, the cover was lowered over the tall object until it became fully hidden (covering event). Exposure to the occlusion event (but not other events in which height information was not encoded) enabled the infants to detect the violation in the covering event, much earlier than they would have otherwise.


The effect produced by the injection of platelet activation factor (PAF) and its antagonist BN 52021 on the intensity of humoral immune response in (CBA x C57BL)F1 mice was studied. PAF was found to stimulate the formation of antibodies to sheep red blood cells. In addition PAF stimulated the phagocytic activity of mouse peritoneal macrophages. The stimulation of immune response under the action of PAF may be attributed to an increase in the phagocytic activity of macrophages. The stimulating effect of PAF on immune response in vivo was abolished by the injection of BN 52021, the antagonist of PAF. At the same time the dose-dependent decrease of immune response was observed after the injection of BN 52021. Indomethacin, an inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis, when administered to mice treated with BN 52021, abolished the BN 52021-induced suppression of humoral immune response. Mouse peritoneal macrophages, treated in vitro with BN 52021, were found to produce significantly more prostaglandin E than control macrophages. Thus, BN 52021 induced the suppression of humoral immune response in vivo; this suppression was probably due to the action of prostaglandin E2, a messenger of the second order. Besides, the PAF antagonist BN 52021 significantly decreased leukotriene B4 production by macrophages in vitro. BN 52021 may be supposed to switch over the synthesis and/or secretion of arachidonic acid from the lipoxygenase pathway to the cycloxygenase one.


Co3O4 has been widely investigated as a promising candidate as an anode material for lithium ion batteries. We report on 2D porous Co3O4 nanosheets synthesized by a self-sacrificing template method for reversible electrochemical lithium storage. The 2D porous nanosheet structures are constructed with numerous nanocrystals with a narrow size distribution, i.e., most of them are 15–30 nm in diameter. The 2D Co3O4 nanosheets with a porous structure may improve the structural stability and collaborative electronic transmission, shorten the diffusion path of ions/electrons, and increase the contact surface between the electrolyte and active material, leading to excellent electrochemical performances. Impressively, a high discharge capacity of 1000 mA h g−1 is obtained at 400 mA g−1 after 100 cycles. This implies remarkable potential as an anode for lithium ion batteries.


A simple method for the production and preparation of hyaluronic acid (HA) is described. Three media were tested, which all supported relatively good yields of cells, but only in one of them were appreciable amounts of HA formed. In this medium, HA was produced during the logarithmic growth phase and showed a molecular weight of 7.3 x 10. HA prepared from 24-hr cultures of the same organism had a molecular weight of only 2.6 x 10. The kinetics of HA production in batch culture were studied, as well as of cell production and glucose consumption.


In this paper we apply Polya's Theorem to the problem of enumerating Cayley graphs on permutation groups up to isomorphisms induced by conjugacy in the symmetric group. We report the results of a search of all three-regular Cayley graphs on permutation groups of degree at most nine for small diameter graphs. We explore several methods of constructing covering graphs of these Cayley graphs. Examples of large graphs with small diameter are obtained.


In the previous studies mechanical impedance has become well implement in the field of human-machine interaction. However, in human-vehicle interaction there is a variant environment when driving a vehicle, thus apart from interacting with human, impedance controller is needed to adapt to the variant environment. But for mechanical impedance as being a second order mass-viscosity-stiffness model with fixed parameters, it is difficult to adapt to variational constraints. In this paper, a fuzzy virtual impedance of vehicle is studied. Fuzzy virtual impedance is based on fuzzy instruction that is a fuzzy set of control instruction candidates with reasoning of Takagi-Sugeno(T-S) fuzzy model. The achieved impedance characteristics depend on the rules of T-S fuzzy model. A human-vehicle interaction experiment was preformed to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed impedance and verify the adaptability to variational constraints.


An experiment was designed to test whether extracts from Kigelia africana have beneficial effect on male fertility following exposure to Carica papaya, a known testicular toxin. Forty-eight adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 185–220g were used for the study. The dose of Kigelia africana and Carica papaya extracts used for all treated animals was 50mg/kg body weight orally through a metal oropharyngeal cannula. The first group of animals (n = 8) had 1.5ml of distilled water daily orally for 12 weeks. The second group (n = 8) received extract of Carica papaya for 10 weeks followed by Kigelia for another 10 weeks. The third group (n = 8) received the Papaya extract for the first four weeks and then had Kigelia added for another 12 weeks. The fourth group (n = 8) had both extracts orally daily for 12 weeks. The fifth group had 50mg/kg body weight of the extract of Carica papaya for four weeks and animals were observed for another 12 weeks, while the sixth group had only Kigelia extract for 12 weeks. At the end of the experiment, animals were sacrificed, cauda epididymes removed for semen analysis and trunk blood collected for plasma testosterone estimation. The results suggest that Kigelia africana extract if given within 4 weeks of treatment with Carica papaya reversed the deleterious effects on semen parameters, whereas if given after 10 weeks, the damage remains unreversed. When both extracts are given from the beginning, semen parameters remain very poor. Our data suggest that Kigelia africana is able to reverse papaya induced testicular damage if administered within a certain window period.
Key Words: Kigelia africana, Carica papaya, testicular damage. Nig. J. Health and Biomed. Sciences Vol.2(2) 2003: 87-89


To truly understand language, an intelligent system must be able to connect words, phrases, and sentences to its perception of objects and events in the world. Current natural language processing and computer vision systems make extensive use of machine learning to acquire the probabilistic knowledge needed to comprehend linguistic and visual input. However, to date, there has been relatively little work on learning the relationships between the two modalities. In this talk, I will review some of the existing work on learning to connect language and perception, discuss important directions for future research in this area, and argue that the time is now ripe to make a concerted effort to address this important, integrative AI problem.


Purpose: The paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date literature review of financial inclusion concepts and focuses in particular on the Colombian context. It structures the themes and dimensions of scholarly debates on financial inclusion in the literature. Design/methodology/approach: This scoping literature review rigorously identifies the most relevant research and variables pertaining to financial inclusion and social innovation. Findings: Based upon a scoping literature review, a comprehensive framework of key concepts of financial inclusion, scholarly contributions, countries and variables is presented. Research limitations/implications: Owing to this paper's methodological approach and its rather theoretical nature, this research seeks to enrich scientific debates pertaining to the empirical data displayed, especially on the case of Colombian. Practical implications: The most central variables that are linked to the theme of financial inclusion are explored, and hence this paper forms a basis for future quantitative studies. Social implications: This research article contributes to public policy making on financial inclusion aimed at reducing levels of socio-economic inequality. Originality/value: In business and management research a degree of conceptual confusion prevails on the theme of financial inclusion. This paper attempts to clarify different types of variables and one country specific case to provide more solid analytical tools for scholars and analysts.


Author(s): McIvor, Charlotte Ann | Advisor(s): Glazer, Peter R; Steen, Shannon | Abstract: "There are wonders that I want to perform" says the name of Ireland's first African-Irish theatre company, Arambe Productions, which derives from the Nigerian saying ara m be ti mo fe da. The company performs stories of the African-Irish community, yet their dramatizations ponder a larger reality of an Ireland that has gone from a country of emigrants to a nation re-shaped by inward-migration. The sudden shifts brought on by the mid-1990s Celtic Tiger economic boom and unprecedented immigration have plunged the Irish population at large into a state of wondering. What does it mean that the non-Irish born population residing in the Republic grew from less than 5% to more than 12% in a little over a decade? How will Ireland model a vision of interculturalism that avoids the failures of multiculturalism in Western Europe and the U.S.? How have race and gender created a hierarchy amongst migrant communities and subjects? Through performance, Arambe Productions transforms such wondering into a process of "working together," signaling a second meaning of the company's name: harambee in Swahili means "work together." The company's collective labors aim to create a post-Celtic Tiger intercultural vision of Irish identity and belonging. But can this vision be performed into existence?My dissertation project, "Performing the `New Irish': Race, Gender, and Interculturalism in the Post-Celtic Tiger Nation," argues that performance is at the center of conceptualizing interculturalism as social policy, philosophy and aspiration in contemporary Ireland. While some might see interculturalism as referring to two cultures meeting in the moment of performance, I argue, rather, that in Ireland today, the term refers to the process of inventing a new pluralistic Irish identity, one that accommodates Irish-born as well as migrant communities. Irish interculturalism connotes practical policy measures regarding integration, access to social benefits and services, and public eduction about racism, but it also translates into cultural initiatives that stress the arts as a zone of contact between diverse populations. My research examines theatres, public festivals and arts/social organizations that make use of performance to theorize interculturalism as embodied practice. Theatre companies like Arambe, Camino de Orula Productions, Calypso Productions, and NGOs like Spirasi, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, and the Forum on Migration and Communication bid for cultural recognition of minority groups through performance, arts, and media activism. These efforts are endorsed by diverse governmental and non-governmental bodies, which range from the Office of the Minister of Integration, the now-defunct National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, to the Irish government Task Force on Active Citizenship. The diverse sponsors and forums for these projects, however, generate tension between state-managed visions for interculturalism and the goals of community-based or non-governmental groups advocating for an interculturalism from below which remains critical of the Irish state's treatment of minority groups and management of inward-migration more generally. My investigation of the interplay between social and aesthetic theories of interculturalism exposes the embodied challenges of analyzing relationships between the Irish state, minority communities and the nation at large. Using ethnographic methods, I position performance as the crucible in which Irish theories of interculturalism are tested and reimagined through the work of bodies who must bear the labor of social change. I trace the struggles to craft an analytical language around race and ethnicity in Ireland frames these projects, and how the intersection of gender with these former categories complicates this task. My sites range from the Abbey Theatre stage to the Migrant Rights Center's photography exhibit by domestic workers and the Dublin St. Patrick's Festival Parade in order to capture the diversity of venues in which performing bodies are called upon to embody post-Celtic Tiger social change. My case studies interrogate whether these projects have the power to push against material limits of social access, paths to citizenship and racism/discrimination and reveal that these performances frequently reinscribe relationships of power between minority and Irish-born communities by falling back on top-down models of interculturalism. Perhaps it is through the reiterative power of performance that the wonders of an egalitarian Irish interculturalism can come into being, but these moving bodies must first be situated in broader matrixes of power which index the role of race and gender in shaping the future of post-Celtic Tiger Irish identities.


PURPOSE
Autorefractors are typically based on either the optometer or the Scheiner principles, or a combination of the two techniques. These devices have dominated the market for objective assessment of refractive error for >30 years. The purpose of this investigation is to test a Shack-Hartmann-based system as an alternative to these systems.

METHODS
Fourteen subjects with varying levels of refractive error were measured with a Topcon autorefractor and a Shack-Hartmann-based autorefractor. Fourier transform techniques were used to extract sphere, cylinder, and axis information from the Shack-Hartmann images, avoiding the need for image processing. The deviation of the refractive error from a subjective refraction was used as a means of comparing the two devices.

RESULTS
The two devices performed similarly on this group of subjects. The mean difference in refraction between the two devices was nearly zero, suggesting that the likelihood and magnitude of errors for the two devices are equivalent.

CONCLUSIONS
The Shack-Hartmann-based autorefractor shows promise as an alternative to conventional optometer or Scheiner-based technologies. However, issues with extending the myopic range of the device still need to be resolved.


Background: It has been hypothesized that obesity and disturbance in glucose metabolism can play an important role in the development of asthma. There is accumulating evidence in the literature that obesity can increase both the incidence and severity of asthma. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between adiponectin, an anti-inflammatory cytokine, and blood glucose levels in overweight and obese adult patients with asthma.

Materials and Methods: Forty-fine obese or overweight men (age 38-50 years) with mild-to-moderate asthma referred to Saveh health centers participated in this study. Fasting blood glucose, insulin, and adiponectin levels were measured. The homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) was applied to evaluate beta-cell function using fasting glucose and insulin levels. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results: The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between the serum adiponectin and FEV1/FVC, FEV1 and FVC in asthma patients. In addition, serum adiponectin level was positively correlated with insulin and beta-cell function, but negatively with fasting glucose level.

Conclusion: According to the results, there is a negative correlation between serum adiponectin levels and blood glucose concentration in adult asthmatic patients. Furthermore, our findings showed that the reduction of systemic adiponectin level influences blood glucose concentration via insulin level and beta-cell function.
Keywords: Beta-cells, Adiponectin, Asthma, Blood glucose,


Endometriosis is defined as the placement of a functional endometrium tissue outside the uterine cavity. Abdominal-wall endometriosis is usually observed after obstetric and gynecological operations. Endometriosis masses located in incision scars can be confused with foreign body reaction, granulomas, abscess, and incisional hernia. A 45-year-old female patient, who had undergone cesarean section 14 years ago, presented to our clinic for pain on the left side of the incision for 6 months and particularly because of the painful mass that grew during menstruation in that region. The patient was misdiagnosed as reactive lymphadenopathy due to fungal and bacterial infections in her toes before presenting to our clinic, and she was treated for a long time with this false diagnosis. On the left side of the Pfannen-Stiel incision, a non-mobile, painful mass of about 2×1 cm, with moderate stiffness, was detected on the physiological examination of the patient. Superficial ultrasonography applied to the region showed lobulated contour, mild heterogeneous hypoechoic, and mild vascularized solid lesion sized 10.4×3.4×10 mm on the left side of the incision line. The patient underwent surgery with an initial diagnosis of endometriosis in the incision scar. The received tissue was sent for pathological examination, and she was diagnosed as endometriosis. Thus, if a mass is detected in the anterior wall of the abdomen in women who had undergone cesarean delivery, the possibility of endometriosis should not be overlooked after the patient's history has been cautiously taken and physical examination and radiological examinations have been performed.


The traditional view of symbol grounding seeks to connect an a priori internal representation or 'form' to its external referent. But such a 'form' is usually itself systematically composed out of more primitive parts (i.e., it is 'symbolic'), so this view ignores its grounding in the physics of the world. Some previous work simulating multiple talking/listening agents has effectively taken this stance, and shown how a shared discrete speech code (i.e., vowel system) can emerge. Taking the earlier work of Oudeyer, we have extended his model to include a dispersive force intended to account broadly for a speaker's motivation to increase auditory distinctiveness. New simulations show that vowel systems result that are more representative of the range seen in human languages. These simulations make many profound abstractions and assumptions. Relaxing these by including more physically and physiologically realistic mechanisms for talking and listening is seen as the key to replicating more complex and dynamic aspects of speech, such as consonant-vowel patterning.


Background: Stomach cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death. The grading and staging of this cancer plays an important prognostic role. Lymphovascular invasion predicts poor outcome in gastric cancer. Among the others, lymphovascular invasion provides useful information for the clinical management of patients with gastric cancer. Nevertheless, data about lymphovascular invasion in early-stage and in lymph node-positive gastric cancer are lacking. Hence, significance of lymphovascular invasion to metastatic lymph nodes impacting nodal status in gastric cancer has been studied in this study.Materials and methods: This is a retrospective analysis of twenty nine (29) histologically confirmed gastric carcinoma cases received in the department of Pathology at NMCTH dating from October 2014 to September 2016.Results:  There was male preponderance to gastric carcinoma with male to female ratio of 2.2:1. The age varied from 31- 84 years. There were 17 cases (59%) of intestinal type and 11 cases (38%) of diffuse type of gastric carcinoma and 1 case (3%) of adeno-neuroendocrine carcinoma. Microscopic evaluation for depth of invasion showed tumor invasion till the subserosal connective tissue layer (69%) suggesting pT3 stage.  lymphovascular invasion was identified in 21 cases (72%). There was statistically significant correlation (p value 0.01) between   lymphovascular invasion and nodal status (N0) status. Conclusion: Presence of lymphovascular invasion is considered as poor prognostic marker in case of gastric adenocarcinoma. Pathologist have been reporting their presence or absence in each gastrectomy reports related to gastric carcinoma.This study has established a significant relation between presence of lymphovascular invasion and nodal staging of gastric carcinoma.


Two types of divacancy at the (001) surface of MgO are theoretically studied and compared with the corresponding defect in the bulk: the pit, where a surface magnesium and the oxygen ion underneath are removed, and the tub, where both removed ions are at the surface. All calculations have been performed by means of the EMBED program which adopts an embedded-cluster approach in the frame of the Hartree-Fock (HF) approximation [C. Pisani F. Cora, R. Nada, and R. Orlando, Comput. Phys. Commun. 82, 139 (1994); C. Pisani and U. Birkenheuer, ibid. 96, 152 (1996)]; the semi-infinite host crystal for the study of the surface defects has been simulated with a four-layer slab. The energy released on formation of the divacancy from the two charged isolated vacancies is very high, almost 300 kcal/mol. The tub divacancy is the most stable, both as a neutral and as a singly charged defect. For the paramagnetic center (one electron trapped in the cavity), spin density data are provided and discussed with reference to results from electron paramagnetic resonance experiments and molecular cluster calculations [E. Giamello M. C. Paganini, D. Murphy, A. M. Ferrari, and G. Pacchioni, J. Phys. Chem. 101, 971 (1997)]. It is suggested that the tub divacancy is a common defect, if not the most common, at the highly dehydrated MgO surface.


Abstract Objective The aim of this pilot study was to assess physical fitness and its relationship with functional dyspnea in survivors of Covid-19, 6 months after their discharge from the hospital. Methods Data collected routinely from people referred for cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) following hospitalization for Covid-19 were retrospectively analyzed. Persistent dyspnea was assessed using the modified Medical Research Council dyspnea (mMRC) scale. Results Twenty-three people with persistent symptoms were referred for CPET. Mean mMRC dyspnea score was 1 (SD = 1) and was significantly associated with VO2peak (%) (rho = −0.49). At 6 months, those hospitalized in the general ward had a slightly reduced VO2peak (87% [SD = 20]), whereas those who had been in the intensive care unit (ICU) had a moderately reduced VO2peak (77% [SD = 15]). Of note, the results of the CPET revealed that, in all patients, respiratory equivalents were high, power-to-weight ratios were low, and those who had been in the ICU had a relatively low ventilatory efficiency (mean VE/VCO2 slope = 34 [SD = 5]). Analysis of each individual showed that none had a breathing reserve <15% or 11 L/min, all had a normal exercise electrocardiogram, and 4 had a heart rate above 90%. Conclusion At 6 months, persistent dyspnea was associated with reduced physical fitness. This study offers initial insights into the mid-term physical fitness of people who required hospitalization for Covid-19. It also provides novel pathophysiological clues about the underlaying mechanism of the physical limitations associated with persistent dyspnea. Those with persistent dyspnea should be offered a tailored rehabilitation intervention, which should probably include muscle reconditioning, breathing retraining, and perhaps respiratory muscle training. Impact This study is the first to show that a persistent breathing disorder (in addition to muscle deconditioning) can explain persistent symptoms 6 months after hospitalization for Covid-19 infection and suggests that a specific rehabilitation intervention is warranted.


This thesis presents techniques constructed to aid the radiologists in detecting breast cancer, the second largest cause of cancer deaths for western women. In the first part of the thesis, a computer-aided detection (CAD) system constructed for the detection of stellate lesions is presented. Different segmentation methods and an attempt to incorporate contra-lateral information are evaluated. In the second part, a new method for evaluating such CAD systems is presented based on constructing credible regions for the number of false positive marks per image at a certain desired target sensitivity. This method shows that the resulting regions are rather wide and this explains some of the difficulties encountered by other researchers when trying to compare CAD algorithms on different data sets. In this part an attempt to model the clinical use of CAD as a second look is also made and it shows that applying CAD in sequence to the radiologist in a routine manner, without duly altering the decision criterion of the radiologist, might very well result in suboptimal operating points. Finally, in the third part two dual-energy imaging methods optimized for contrast-enhanced imaging of breast tumors are presented. The first is based on applying an electronic threshold to a photon-counting digital detector to discriminate between high- and low-energy photons. This allows simultaneous acquisition of the high- and low-energy images. The second method is based on the geometry of a scanned multi-slit system and also allows single-shot contrast-enhanced dual-energy mammography by filtering the x-ray beam that reaches different detector lines differently.


Advances in the fields of neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging have enormously expanded our knowledge about the profile and severity of cognitive deficits in patients with substance use disorders.


Implant placement on the anterior maxilla requires a comprehensive concern of adequate alveolar bone and gingival biotype. Insufficient support for hard and soft tissues becomes one of the main causes of implant complications. To avoid this problem, pre-surgical treatment with Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR) is suggested with respect to the alveolar ridge defect.

 In this study, we reported the predictability of a sandwich technique of GBR prior to implant placement.

 Case: Thirty-four-year-old male was referred with a chief complaint of missing teeth on area #21 accompanied by labial bone dehiscence due to trauma. Bone thickness measurement displayed was approximately 3/4/5 mm (coronal/middle third/apical third of the alveolar ridge). This case was diagnosed as soft and hard tissue deformity on area #21 prior to implant. Case management: GBR and implant placement were performed in two stages of surgery. GBR was executed by using a combination of Biphasic Calcium Phosphate (BCP) (consisting of 40% Beta-Tri Calcium Phosphate (β-TCP) and 60% Hydroxyapatite (HA)) and Demineralized Freeze-Dried Bone Allografts (DFDBA) bone graft materials. Alveolar ridge re-measurement five months after GBR showed significant bone augmentation, 6/6/6 mm (coronal/middle third/apical third of the alveolar ridge). Furthermore, a 3.5 mm (diameter) x 10 mm (length) bone-level implant was inserted accordingly. The two-year follow-up exhibited gingival stability and no sign of either recession or bone resorption.

 Herein, we demonstrated the effectiveness of BCP and DFDBA bone substitutes to obtain proper conditions for the long-termed stability and predictability of implant.


The probability of IT project failures can be mitigated more successfully when discovered early. To support a more insightful management of IT projects, which may also facilitate an early detection of IT project failures, transparency regarding a project's cash flows shall be increased. Therefore, an appropriate analysis of a project's benefits, costs, requirements, their respective risks and interdependencies is inevitable. However, to date, in requirements engineering only few methods exist that appropriately consider these factors when estimating the ex ante project business case. Furthermore, empirical studies reveal that a lot of risk factors emerge during the runtime of projects why the ex ante valuation of IT projects even with respect to requirements seems insufficient. Therefore, using the Action Design Research approach, we design, apply, and evaluate a practicable method for value-based continuous IT project steering especially for large-scale IT projects.


Purpose: This study was done to investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and associated factors in Korean adults. Methods: From the database of the 5th Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey conducted in 2010, cross-sectional data for 6,283 adults (≥20 years) were used in this analysis. Results: One year prevalence of suicidal ideation was 14.8%. Higher suicidal ideation was found for women, elders, adults who were divorced or separated, who were in the lower socio-economic class, were alcohol dependent, had a short sleep time, and had higher perceived stress and depression. On stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis, depression (odds ratio 6.89 [95% confidence interval 5.18~9.16]), perceived stress(3.52 [2.66~4.65]), being woman (1.72 [1.32~2.26]), being an elder (≥65 yrs) (1.78 [1.07~2.96]), low education(3.52 [2.66~4.62]) and not married (1.48 [1.04~2.12]) were associated with suicidal ideation in Korean adults. Conclusion: The results indicate that suicidal ideation is highly prevalent in Korean adults, especially in people with depression or high perceived stress. Identification of high-risk group and suicide prevention programs are warranted to reduce the prevalence of suicidal ideation.


—Scheduling algorithms for real-world heterogeneous multi-robot teams must be able to reason about temporal uncertainty in the world model in order to create plans that are tolerant to the risk of unexpected delays. To this end, we present a novel sampling-based risk-aware approach for solving Heterogeneous Coalition Scheduling with Temporal Uncertainty (HCSTU) problems, which does not require any assumptions regarding the specific underlying cause of the temporal uncertainty or the specific duration distributions. Our approach computes a schedule which obeys the temporal constraints of a small number of heuristically-selected sample scenarios by solving a Mixed-Integer Linear Program, along with an upper bound on the schedule execution time. Then, it uses a hypothesis testing method, the Sequential Probability Ratio Test, to provide a probabilistic guarantee that the upper bound on the execu- tion time will be respected for a user-specified risk tolerance. With extensive experiments, we demonstrate that our approach empirically respects the risk tolerance, and generates solutions of comparable or better quality than state-of-the-art approaches while being an order of magnitude faster to compute on average. Finally, we demonstrate how robust schedules generated by our approach can be incorporated as solutions to subproblems within the broader Simultaneous Task Allocation and Planning with Spatiotemporal Constraints problem to both guide and expedite the search for solutions of higher quality and lower risk.


This paper introduces a high speed data acquisition system based on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) . The aim is to develop a "distributed" data acquisition interface. The development of instruments such as personal computers and engineering workstations based on "standard" platforms is the motivation behind this effort. Using standard platforms as the controlling unit allows independence in hardware from a particular vendor and hardware platform. The distributed approach also has advantages from a functional point of view: acquisition resources become available to multiple instruments; the acquisition front-end can be physically remote from the rest of the instrument. High speed data acquisition system transmits data faster to a remote computer system through Ethernet interface. The data is acquired through 16 analog input channels. The input data commands are multiplexed and digitized and then the data is stored in 1K buffer for each input channel. Then the input data is filtered using FIR filters implemented using processor. The filtering is used to reduce the band width of the input data The main control unit in this design is the 16 bit processor implemented in the FPGA. This 16 bit processor is used to set up and initialize the data source and the Ethernet controller, as well as control the flow of data from the memory element to the NIC Using this processor we can initialize and control the different configuration registers in the Ethernet controller in a easy manner. Then these data packets are send to the remote PC through the Ethernet interface. The main advantages of the using FPGA as standard platform are its flexibility, low power consumption, short design duration, fast time to market, programmability and high density. The main advantages of using Ethernet controller AX88796 over others are its non PCI interface, the presence of embedded SRAM where transmit and reception buffers are located and high-performance SRAM-like interface. The paper introduces the implementation of the distributed data acquisition using FPGA by VHDL. The main advantages of this system are high accuracy, high speed, real time monitoring.


The tropical impact of iceberg armadas The massive discharges of icebergs from the Greenland ice sheet during the Last Glacial Period are called Heinrich events. But did Heinrich events cause abrupt climate change, or were they a product of it? Methane levels represent a proxy for climate, because methane production increases mostly due to wetter conditions in the tropics. Rhodes et al. report a highly resolved record of atmospheric methane concentrations, derived from an ice core from Antarctica. Methane levels varied—i.e., the tropical climate changed—in response to cooling in the Northern Hemisphere caused by Heinrich events. Science, this issue p. 1016 Intense production of icebergs from the Greenland Ice Sheet fueled tropical methane production. The causal mechanisms responsible for the abrupt climate changes of the Last Glacial Period remain unclear. One major difficulty is dating ice-rafted debris deposits associated with Heinrich events: Extensive iceberg influxes into the North Atlantic Ocean linked to global impacts on climate and biogeochemistry. In a new ice core record of atmospheric methane with ultrahigh temporal resolution, we find abrupt methane increases within Heinrich stadials 1, 2, 4, and 5 that, uniquely, have no counterparts in Greenland temperature proxies. Using a heuristic model of tropical rainfall distribution, we propose that Hudson Strait Heinrich events caused rainfall intensification over Southern Hemisphere land areas, thereby producing excess methane in tropical wetlands. Our findings suggest that the climatic impacts of Heinrich events persisted for 740 to 1520 years.


A survey was carried out to determine the type of mycorrhizal association formed by trees within the different habitat types of the disturbed and undisturbed sites of the Takamanda rainforest. Forty-eight tree species of commercial and cultural importance were selected from the two sites for this study. Root samples were collected from a total of 327 individual trees belonging to the 48 species; they were cleared, stained and examined microscopically for mycorrhizal colonization and type. All the forty-eight species examined harbored one or more mycorrhizal structures, which ranged from arbuscules, intercellular hyphae, intracellular hyphae, vesicles, and Hartig net. Thirty-nine species formed exclusively arbuscular mycorrhiza (81.25%), two species; Uapaca guineensis and Angylocalyx oligophyllus formed ectomycorrhiza only (4.17%), while seven species Afzelia bipindensis, Baphia nitida, Anglylocalyx pynaertii, Cieba pentandra, Cylicodiscus gabunensis, Pterocarpus soyauxii and Terminalia ivorensis formed both ecto- and arbuscular mycorrhiza (14.58%). In both forest sites and habitat types, arbuscular mycorrhiza was the most represented among the tree species. In the undisturbed site and in the plain 68% of tree species sampled formed arbuscular mycorrhiza, 12% formed ectomycorrhiza, 16% formed dual mycorrhiza and 4% were non-mycorrhiza. On ridge top, 81.8% of the tree species formed arbuscular mycorrhiza, 13.6% formed ectomycorrhiza with 4.6% being dual mycorrhiza. On hilly slopes, 82.8% of the tree species formed arbuscular mycorrhiza, 13.8% formed ectomycorrhiza and 3.5% were dual mycorrhiza. In the disturbed site, 100% of the tree species sampled on the plain, formed arbuscular mycorrhiza. On the ridge top, 73.3% of the tree species sampled formed arbuscular mycorrhiza, 13.3% formed ectomycorrhiza and 13.3% were non mycorrhizal. On hilly slopes, 83.3% formed arbuscular mycorrhiza, 8.3% formed ectomycorrhiza and 8.3% were non-mycorrhizal. Mycorrhizas are important factors in Takamanda and must be taken into consideration, when designing management strategies for this forest.

 Key words: Arbuscular mycorrhiza, ectomycorrhiza, Takamanda forest.


We studied rib cage distortability and reexamined the mechanical action of the diaphragm and the rib cage muscles in six supine anesthetized dogs by measuring changes in upper rib cage cross-sectional area (Aurc) and changes in lower rib cage cross-sectional area (Alrc) and the respective pressures acting on them. During quiet breathing in the intact animal the rib cage behaved as a unit (Aurc: 14.6 +/- 7.9 vs. Alrc: 15.1 +/- 9.6%), whereas considerable distortions of the rib cage occurred during breathing after bilateral phrenicotomy (Aurc: 21.0 +/- 5.1 vs. Alrc: 7.0 +/- 4.8%). These distortions were even more pronounced during phrenic nerve stimulation and separate stimulation of the costal and crural parts of the diaphragm (e.g., phrenic nerve stimulation; Aurc: -7.1 +/- 5.1 vs. Alrc: 6.9 +/- 3.5%). During the latter maneuvers the upper rib cage deflated along the relationship between upper rib cage dimensions and pleural pressure obtained during passive deflation, whereas the lower rib cage inflated close to the relationship between lower rib cage dimensions and abdominal pressure obtained during passive inflation. The latter relationship is expected to differ between costal and crural stimulation, since costal action has both an appositional and insertional component and crural action only has an appositional component. The difference between costal and crural stimulation, however, was relatively small, and the slopes were only slightly steeper for the costal than for the crural stimulation (2.9 +/- 1.2 vs. 2.2 +/- 1.0%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In their provocative article, Confronting Inequality in Metropolitan Regions: Realizing the Promise of Civil Rights and Environmental Justice in Metropolitan Transportation Planning, Professors Aaron Golub and Alex Karner, and Richard A. Marcantonio, Esq. ("the Authors�?) argue that regional transportation system planning, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, unfairly burdened urban areas while benefiting white suburban residents. This Article makes three observations about the Author's article, corresponding to the three areas for reform listed in the fifth part of their piece. Each area is addressed in turn: (1) a lack of meaningful bargaining for benefits and burdens; (2) an insufficient MPO equity analysis metric; and (3) MPO governance issues. For each of the proposed areas this Article discusses potential issues and proposes ways that state and local government can innovate to address them in the absence of stronger equity requirements from the DOT.


Recent developments in the banking industry in emerging economies, such as competition and consolidation, and their implications for systemic stability, were discussed at a meeting of senior central bankers held at the BIS in December 2000. Revised versions of the overview paper prepared by the BIS for the meeting, and papers prepared by the attendees on developments in their own economies, are included in this volume of BIS Papers. The developments are being driven by technological innovation, deregulation and changes in corporate behaviour, in some cases accentuated by recent banking crises. Important aspects include privatisation of state-owned banks, mergers of domestic banks and entry of foreign banks. Although prepared independently, in some ways this volume discussing developments in emerging economies complements the G10 volume Report on Consolidation in the Financial Sector which discusses developments in the advanced economies.


The wireless remote monitoring system developed in this paper is mainly to real-time monitor the safety information of the oilfield. Through researching on the technologies of GPRS, J2ME and the role of safety monitoring system, the technical scheme design, the system composition and the monitoring software of the oilfield wireless remote monitoring system were put forward. This system mainly were mainly composed by remote monitoring terminals on spots and servers at monitoring center, which monitor and control all kinds of safety information of the oilfield. This system plays an important role in the safety of oilfield production.


This book provides an exhaustive reading of the significant yet understudied intellectual review Lignes, from 1987 to 2017, to demonstrate how it has managed to preserve and develop the legacy of French radical thought often referred to as 'French Theory' or 'la pensée 68'. Whilst many studies on intellectual reviews from the 1930s to the 1980s exist, this book crucially illuminates the shifting intellectual and political culture of France since the 1980s, filling a major gap in contemporary debates on the continued relevance of French intellectuals. This book provides a strong counter-narrative to the received account that, after the anti-totalitarian 'liberal moment' of the late 1970s, Marxism and structuralism were completely banished from the French intellectual sphere. It provides the historical context behind the rise of such internationally renowned thinkers such as Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière Jean-Luc Nancy, whilst placing them within an intellectual genealogy stretching back to Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot in the 1930s. The book also introduces the reader to lesser known but nonetheless significant thinkers, including Lignes editor Michel Surya, Dionys Mascolo, Daniel Bensaïd, Fethi Benslama, Anselm Jappe and Robert Kurz. Through the review's pages, a novel cultural history of France emerges as intellectuals respond to pressing contemporary issues, such as the fall of Communism, the European migrant crisis and rising nationalist tensions, the globalisation of financial capitalism and the 2008 economic crisis, scandals surrounding paedophilia and the return of religious thought to France, as well as debates on literature and the political value of art.


Cadmium selenide(CdSe) nanoparticles were prepared in the aqueous solution containing isopropyl alcohol by the ultrasonic irradiation at room temperature. The cadmium chloride (CdCl2) and sodium selenosulfate (Na2SeSO3) were used as the cadmium and selenium source, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis absorption spectra and PL spectra were used to characterize the CdSe nanoparticles. XRD analysis revealed the formation of cubic structure CdSe. TEM images showed aggregated CdSe nanoparticles with the size of nanometer scale. Average size of CdSe nanoparticles were about 3.9, 5.0 and 5.1nm with sonication time of 6, 30 and 40 minutes, respectively. The surface emission became less intensive and shifted to red with increasing irradiation time. This paper presents the effects of ultrasonic on the formation of CdSe nanoparticles and its characteristics.


renal transplantation. We sought to establish the prognostic value of DSCMR in this population. Methods 76 patients with end-stage renal disease being considered for renal transplantation underwent DSCMR as part of their cardiac evaluation. 67 patients had a diagnostic study (attaining at least 85% of maximal, age-predicted heart rate, or the presence of inducible wall motion abnormalities) and were included in the final analysis. Clinical follow up was performed for a mean of 578 (+/308) days, and cardiac events (cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, urgent revascularisation) were recorded, as well as the outcome of any patients that underwent renal transplantation. Results Retrospective analysis of clinical outcomes was performed on the 67 patients who completed a diagnostic DSCMR study. The average age was 56 +/-11, 67% were men, 67% were dialysis-dependent, 76% had hypertension and 31% had diabetes mellitus. 6 patients (9%) had DSCMR with resting (fixed) regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMA), 6 patients 99%) had new RWMA with dobutamine stress, and 55 (88%) were normal studies. There were no cardiac deaths. 2 patients had non-fatal myocardial infarction. Both of these events occurred in patients with fixed RWMA. The presence of fixed RWMA (p = 0.007) or a history of prior myocardial infarction (p = 0.008) were predictive of adverse cardiac events. No major adverse cardiac events occurred in any of the 55 patients with normal DSCMR during follow up, with only 1 elective revascularisation (negative predictive value 98%, 95% CI 90–100%). 16 patients (14 with normal DSCMR, 1 with resting RWMA and 1 with stress-induced RWMA) had undergone renal transplantation at the time of writing, with no adverse cardiac events. Conclusions DSCMR is a feasible and safe test in the non-invasive cardiac evaluation of patients at risk of CAD prior to renal transplantation. A negative DSCMR study is associated with a very low rate of cardiac events. This would suggest that invasive coronary angiography can be safely omitted in these patients. Funding This study was supported by a grant from The Gawthorn Trust.


This essay is a study of the "Project for the establishment of a war and hunting gunpowder manufactory in the United States," written by Irénée Du Pont de Nemours in 1800, in order to raise funds from potential investors for what was to become the DuPont Corporation. It shows that the "Project" is best understood as a demonstration device akin to those used by natural philosophers at the time. This investment proposal relied on demonstration techniques similar to those of the report of an experiment, textually gathering a crowd of virtual witnesses to address their objections, submitting the proposed manufactory to a number of manipulations to assess its reactions under various circumstances, and relying on a specific experimental device—a profit-and-loss account—that made it possible to produce compelling quantitative results. The essay shows the originality of these techniques at a time when profit-and-loss calculations were uncommon in business practice. It explains that these calculations were intended to ameliorate the entrepreneur's problematic credit situation, which required a specific demonstrative effort, and points to scientific demonstration practices in Physiocratic political economy, and in Lavoisier's chemistry, as likely influences.


The personality scores at 16 years of age of 2753 people, all members of the National Survey of Health and Development, were related, in a follow-up study, to cigarette smoking behaviour in their young adult years. Survey members who recorded high neuroticism scores were found to be more likely to smoke than those with low scores and, among the smokers, deep inhalers formed the most neurotic group. Extraverts were more likely to smoke than introverts, the mean extraversion score being greatest for the male smokers with a high daily consumption of cigarettes. The personality scores were found to have some power in predicting changes in smoking behaviour. Neurotics and extraverts who had not started to smoke by the time of completing the personality inventory at 16 were more likely than the stable and introverted to take up the habit subsequently. Among survey members who were regular smokers at the time of completing the personality inventory the proportion giving up smoking by the time they reached the age of 25 years was related to consumption level recorded at 20 years and the personality scores recorded at 16, stable extraverts among the men being most likely to stop smoking.


This paper reports the observations of 951 Gaspra carried out at the European Southern Observatory (La Silla, Chile) during the 1991 apparition, using the DLR CCD Camera equipped with a spare set of the Galileo SSI filters. Time-resolved spectrophotometric measurements are presented. The occurence of spectral variations with rotation suggests the presence of surface variegation.


: A design of electrocardiographic electrode for extremities is described. It contains a double-sided grip (from the insulating material) in the form of a truncated ellipse with the ends smoothly diverged. The results of tests are adduced.


This book constitutes a seminal contribution to the fields of Islamic architectural history and gender studies. It is the first major empirical study of the history and current state of mosque building in Senegal and the first study of mosque space from a gender perspective.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system with an untreatable late progressive phase in a high percentage of patients. Molecular maps of different stages of brain lesion evolution in patients with progressive MS (PMS) are missing but critical for understanding disease development and to identify novel targets to halt progression. We introduce the first MS brain lesion atlas (msatlas.dk), developed to address the current challenges of understanding mechanisms driving the fate of PMS on lesion basis. The MS Atlas gives means for testing research hypotheses, validating candidate biomarkers and drug targets. The MS Atlas data base comprises comprehensive high-quality transcriptomic profiles of 73 brain white matter lesions at different stages of lesion evolution from 10 PMS patients and 25 control white matter samples from five patients with non-neurological disease. The MS Atlas was assembled from next generation RNA sequencing of post mortem samples using strict, conservative preprocessing as well as advanced statistical data analysis. It comes with a user-friendly web interface, which allows for querying and interactively analyzing the PMS lesion evolution. It fosters bioinformatics methods for de novo network enrichment to extract mechanistic markers for specific lesion types and pathway-based lesion type comparison. We describe examples of how the MS Atlas can be used to extract systems medicine signatures. We also demonstrate how its interface can interactively condense and visualize the atlas' content. This compendium of mechanistic PMS white matter lesion profiles is an invaluable resource to fuel future multiple sclerosis research and a new basis for treatment development.


We assessed the safety and therapeutic efficacy of bromperidol decanoate in a six-month open trial on 21 patients (13 males and 8 females), mean age 41.3 years, who were no longer in the acute phase and were being treated as outpatients. The recommended initial dosage was 150 mg bromperidol (one 3 ml ampoule), and this did not in fact have to be increased during the trial. The scores for psychotic symptom rating scales (SAPS, SANS, BPRS, HAM-D and social adaptation scale) were analysed by analysis of variance, which indicated that bromperidol decanoate was effective on almost all parameters. Adverse reactions were reported for 14.3% of the patients, indicating that the drug was very well tolerated; only three patients complained of a total of seven adverse events. In conclusion, bromperidol decanoate was effective in the treatment of residual schizophrenia, with significant differences between before and after treatment ratings for symptoms. The drug was well tolerated, only one patient dropping out on account of adverse reactions.


Automatic and unconstrained sign language recognition (SLR) in image sequences remains a challenging problem. The variety of signers, backgrounds, sign executions and signer positions makes the development of SLR systems very challenging. Current methods try to alleviate this complexity by extracting engineered features to detect hand shapes, hand trajectories and facial expressions as an intermediate step for SLR. Our goal is to approach SLR based on feature learning rather than feature engineering. We tackle SLR using the recent advances in the domain of deep learning with deep neural networks. The problem is approached by classifying isolated signs from the Corpus VGT (Flemish Sign Language Corpus) and the Corpus NGT (Dutch Sign Language Corpus). Furthermore, we investigate cross-domain feature learning to boost the performance to cope with the fewer Corpus VGT annotations.


This thesis explores the theoretical and dramaturgical challenges faced by modern productions of the Oresteia with particular reference to two modern Royal National Theatre productions: Sir Peter Hall's (1981) and Katie Mitchell's (1999). It argues that to appreciate these challenges requires a detailed knowledge of the theatricality of the original text. In support of this position, this thesis contains a detailed analysis of Aeschylus' Agamemnon exploring how the playwright creates the play's world in text and performance. The discussion's focus concentrates on how theatrical space (seen, implied, and diegetic) constructs the world of the play. Concomitant in this discussion is an analysis of how Aeschylus invites the audience to decode the play's theatricality through its knowledge of epic literature and its own non-theatrical spatial environments and practices. To facilitate this understanding, the text and performance are explored with reference to political, domestic and ritual space.

In considering these productions, the assumption of theatre reviews that productions can be described as adhering to either modernising or archeologically inspired staging practices is challenged. It is argued that modern productions should be analysed with reference to directorial, translator, and actor intentions. Through a methodology based on interviewing theatre practitioners, the productions of Hall and Mitchell are seen to be irreducibly modern, yet still maintain a relationship with Aeschylus. Hall's use of ancient staging conventions is seen to be a modern interpretation of the theatrical past, which aimed at communicating the foreignness of Aeschylus. In contract, Mitchell's use of modern staging techniques made the Oresteia familiar to a modern audience, but, by suggesting political, domestic, and ritual equivalents, still articulated with the ancient performance.


This research investigates the condition of creative industry based on fourteen characteristics of competitive advantage including growth in turnover, transition in business, to existence of cooperative. Given the study in Indonesia, most of the creative industries in Indonesia are categorized as small medium enterprises (SME). Their sales volume, number of employees and annual profit are only at the level of small or medium business. Indonesia as a nation which has a huge numbers of SME in the world, shoud gives a bigger concern on their competitive positions Samples were taken from 200 creative industries in one of the growing area in Indonesia, Malang district. All samples represented 15 types of creative industry as regulated by Indonesia governemtn such as advertising, architecture, art, desain, etc. Data were analysed using cluster analysis. Based on agglomerative clustering, the results show that there are two clusters of creative industry in Indonesia area with low and high competitive advantage which are discussed.


Although the direct costs of the military are well known, there is regular reference to the 'spin-offs' that supposedly justify military expenditure. Unfortunately, the heterogeneity and complexity of military institutions and political-economic landscapes has consistently eluded an even-keel and scientific analysis of military spinoffs. To pursue this question of military spending's externalities further requires a stronger analytical foundation which clearly situates the military's role within the political-economy. This work thus seeks to navigate a rich ontological landscape across a wide historical spectrum in order to colour the relationship between the military, the state, and society at large. Focusing attention on questions of military investment in human capital, military R&D, Keynesianism and other tenants of military spending, I posit that while military spending is tends to be less economically productive than comparable spending projects conducted through other means, military spending performs functions indispensable to the political-economic structure of the state.


In space exploration including the utilization of materials and energy outside the earth, construction of a moon base is one of considerable measures to develop the front line. Due to the huge cost of transportation from the earth, structural materials such as iron should be in-situ produced on the moon. Fortunately, the Apollo 14 mission has reported that the lunar soil contains about 10 mass% of iron oxides. When considering ironmaking from lunar soils by graphite on the moon, understanding the reduction behaviour should come first but has not yet been attempted for iron resources whose concentration of iron oxides is as low as 10 mass%. Thus, the present work has focused on reduction kinetics of iron oxides in molten lunar soil simulant by graphite, and apparent rate constants for reduction reactions have been derived from experiments with systematic variation in reduction conditions for comprehensive discussion about the reaction mechanism. The apparent rate constant derived is 2.0×10−4 cm/s at 1803 K and the corresponding activation energy estimated is about 360 kJ/mol. The use of a graphite rod rotation mechanism enabled the stirring condition to be changed, resulting in a finding that stronger stirring shifts the rate-determining step from reduction of FeO by CO gas to direct reduction of FeO by graphite. On the basis of all these kinetic findings, it is likely that ironmaking from lunar soils by graphite on the moon is possible in that high vacuum and low gravity conditions would probably promote the removal of CO gas film from the graphite surface.


Purpose: To develop a computational infrastructure to enable a streamlined clinical workflow for online adaptive radiation therapy (ART). Method and Materials: Our computational infrastructure consists of modules for deformable image registration based on the demons algorithm, and fluence map and direct aperture re‐optimization based on finite size pencil beam dose calculation. These modules have been implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU) platform. Around these highly efficient implementations we have built modules for DICOM file handling, and graphical user interface based on the Qt framework. Furthermore, we have built a communication infrastructure for web‐based plan reviewing and approval using a PDA device such as the iPhone. Results: We measured a net re‐planning computation time of <10 seconds for a 9‐field prostate IMRT plan. A software infrastructure with a clean yet functional user interface has been built to seamlessly guide clinicians through the online re‐planning process. Conclusion: We integrated new computational tools into real clinical environment. We achieved this in two ways. First, by turning prototype high performance codes into a product‐alike software solution to be used by clinicians. Second, by developing a web‐based communication infrastructure to allow faster treatment plan review and approval by attending.


The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of psychological concurrent illnesses within pneumological rehabilitation, based on selected studies. The mental co-morbidities of COPD patients increase morbidity, mortality, frequent exacerbations, reduced quality of life, as well as physical and social functioning, below-average smoking cessation success, increased need for outpatient and inpatient interventions, and extended hospital stay, resulting in increased hospital costs. Pulmonary rehabilitation should be based on a multimodal, integral therapeutic approach in which, in addition to pneumology-medical treatment, therapeutic elements from psychological care (patient education, COPD patient training) and psychotherapy are combined.


The soil microfauna regulate nutrient cycling through predation on soil microorganisms but also through comminution of organic residues in soils. The feeding activity of the soil microfauna has a large impact on nutrient cycling and soil function, but is rarely considered because it is difficult to assess. The Bait-lamina test was proposed as a practical mean to assess microfauna feeding activity. The test consists of vertically inserting 16-hole-bearing plastic sticks stuffed with a plant material preparation into the soil. We tested if the plant material used to prepare the bait would be differentially utilized by microfaunal population present under different plant species or mixtures of plants. We evaluated the Bait-lamina test in a 5-year old field experiment with five levels of plant communities (monocultures of Russian wild rye, switchgrass, green needlegrass, or western wheatgrass, and a grass mixture) distributed in four complete blocks, using six levels of bait flavour (Russian wild rye, switchgrass, green needlegrass, western wheatgrass, alfalfa, and wheat bran). Bait-lamina strips were equally spaced at five locations between plant rows. We found that the bait flavour had no significant ( P = 0.22) effect on feeding, although the concentration of crude protein in the plant material used in the baits varied ( P = 0.006) from 2.9% in switchgrass to 5.9% in Russian wild rye. We found low feeding activity in our field plots over the period of the test ( 13 June to 17 August 2005), with only 2.7% of the lamina (hole stuffing) showing signs of feeding. The data nevertheless revealed that microfauna feeding was more important close to the soil surface (0.5 mm deep), and in Russian wild rye plot mid-rows as compared to green needlegrass or switchgrass plots. Closer to plant rows, however, differences were not significant. We conclude that bait prepared with any plant material used in this study can be used to compare microfauna feeding in different plant stands. We recommend the use of a large number of replicated strips in agricultural field experiments where the microfauna may be scarce.


The genetic dissection of complex inherited diseases is a major challenge. Despite limited success in finding genes, substantial data based on genome-wide scan strategies is now available for a variety of diseases and related phenotypes. This can perhaps best be appreciated in the field of lipid and lipoprotein levels, where the amount of information generated is becoming overwhelming. We have created a database containing the results from whole-genome scans of lipid-related phenotypes undertaken to date. The usefulness of this database is demonstrated by performing a new autosomal genomic scan on apolipoprotein B (apoB), LDL-apoB, and apoA-I levels, measured in 679 subjects of 243 nuclear families. Linkage was tested using both allele-sharing and variance-component methods. Only two loci provided support for linkage with both methods: a LDL-apoB locus on 18q21.32 and an apoA-I locus on 3p25.2. Adding those findings to the database highlighted the fact that the former is reported as a lipid-related locus for the first time, whereas the latter has been observed before. However, concerns arise when displaying all data on the same map, because a large portion of the genome is now covered with loci supported by at least suggestive evidence of linkage.


Introduction: Back pain and GAD are very common among housewives across the globe. Various pathophysiological factors can deteriorate the prognosis and diagnosis of back pain, among which neuropathic component is notable. The present study explored whether GAD increases the perception and severity of neuropathic component of back pain.

Methods: Forty-eight housewives were included in this study. The participants had at least 5 years' experience of household work. Cross-sectional data was collected to Subjective and objective detection of back pain was done through the VAS Scale and the Pain Detect Tool respectively. GAD scores were differentially detected with the GAD 7 tool. The clinical and medication history of the participants were noted through structured- interview sessions in presence of a pain specialist.

Results: The results showed that, about one-half of the participants exhibited a neuropathic pain. GAD was shown to significantly increase the odds of severity and perception of neuropathic pain among the participants. A majority of the subjects reported that they did not receive any medications for pain relief with analgesic therapy. The regression analysis reflected that, addition of GABA-agonists and anxiolytics resulted in non-significant perception of pain on the VAS scale.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that appropriate medication could significantly reduce the perception of back pain (on VAS scale) in GAD-affected women. The study voiced the need for personalized medicine in managing back pain across patients affected with psychopathic comorbidity.


This study is motivated by the increasing diversity among first-year accounting students and the increasing number of first-year accounting students whose majors are not in accounting related areas in UK universities. The main contribution of this study is that it uses student data over four consecutive academic years from a first-year accounting course at a UK university to provide empirical evidence in support of the theoretical framework proposed by Rankin et al. (2003). Our results show the effects of metacognitive knowledge and content knowledge on academic performance as well as highlighting the inclusiveness of the first-year accounting course. For instance, regardless of the choices of secondary subjects, students who have good prior academic achievement are the best performers on the first-year accounting course. The influence of content knowledge on academic performance is strongly felt when the assessments of the course changed from a 100 per cent final exam to a combination of mid-term coursework and a final exam. The results suggest that well-designed mid-term coursework is academically beneficial to accounting students, especially non-native English-speaking students.


Epithelial cells grown in three dimensional (3D) cultures of extracellular matrix differentiate into a multicellular structure of polarized cells. This process shares many characteristics with the physiological development of an epithelial tissue and the formation of polarity in epithelial cells. Imaging 3D cultures of polarized epithelial cells is therefore a powerful tool to study epithelial architecture and morphogenesis under close to physiological conditions. The new generation of confocal microscopes allows live cell imaging of fluorescently tagged molecules in these cultures. This opens up new opportunities for studying how molecules behave and are distinguished asymmetrically within a 3D setting. This unit discusses technical aspects for culturing and imaging MDCK 3D culture for both fixed 3D cultures and live cell imaging.


responsibility for prudent and economical use of resources. That is something of which one learnt a little in private practice before the advent of largescale private insurance. Sadly, in recent years even our excellent provident organisations have sometimes encouraged extravagance-for example, by allowing hospitals to bill them direct-thus divorcing both doctor and patient from some of the ruder financial facts of life. Since 1948 in Britain we have been working in a largely tax financed state near monopoly. This has certainly permitted some containment of overall costs by the Treasury but has often proved rigidly restrictive and given little room for manoeuvre. Credit transfer assuredly, and rightly, will allow some patients to take their funding with them (thus helping to support those who are really doing the work in contrast to those who manifestly are not), but it cannot increase the total budget. Only supplementary and alternative systems of funding within the NHS or growth of the private sector, or both, can increase that total and provide more flexibility. Although it is widely claimed that there is public preference for a largely tax funded service, many doubt whether there is such support if people are asked more precise questions. The problems we now face are not peculiar to Britain; all over the world different systems of funding, whether by genuine insurance or, much more so, by taxation, must involve doctors in an increasingly economic role. In a state service predominantly committed, as past administrations were (and as this one declares itself to be), to tax funding, the escalating costs of medical care confront the goVernment, the professions, and the public with inescapable responsibilities. But, if all must audit, my two most serious concerns are, firstly, that there should be adequate tnancial and staff back up for the medicoeconomic audit, and this I gravely doubt; and, secondly, that the vital and longstanding strictly medical audit shall not be displaced from our clinical timetable. To what extent the two might sometimes be combined remains to be seen. But, with due respect to Dr Stephen Lock,2 who may simply be quoting the Royal College of Physicians report, it is highly optimistic to say that audit "should not take up more than an hour a week."


Received: Oct. 2008 Accepted: Mar. 2009 Corresponding author: Sanjari M e-mail: email@example.com Background & Aim: Health systems are challenging with increased health demands and limited economic status; whilst, nurses shortages is a worldwide issue. Job dissatisfaction among nurses is a main cause for work leaves. The aim of this study was to assess job satisfaction among Iranian nurses and its related factors. Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 1058 nurses were selected randomly during 1384-5. A two-sectioned self-report questionnaire was used which included demographic data and job satisfaction scale. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 12.0. Results: Findings showed that only about one third of nurses were satisfied (satisfied & very satisfied) with their jobs (34.30%). In this study, main factors of job satisfaction were job safety (44.5%) as well as working environment and facilities (44.26%). On the other hand, nurses were dissatisfied with their job because of the described job duties (74.75%), managers' way of communication (70%), and their social position (70.3%). Conclusion: Increasing the salary and payment, job equity, modifying working time and shift plans, providing opportunities for the nurses to further their carriers, and continuing education are important issues in increasing job satisfaction.


A method is presented for solving the surface integral equation using the method of moments (MoM) at very low frequencies, which finds applications in geoscience. The nature of the Helmholtz decomposition leads the authors to choose loop-tree basis functions to represent the surface current. Careful analysis of the frequency scaling property of each operator allows them to introduce a frequency normalization scheme to reduce the condition number of the MoM matrix. After frequency normalization, the MoM matrix can be solved using LU decomposition. The poor spectral properties of the matrix, however, makes it ill-suited for an iterative solver. A basis rearrangement is used to improve this property of the MoM matrix. The basis function rearrangement (BFR), which involves inverting the connection matrix, can be viewed as a pre-conditioner. The complexity of BFR is reduced to O(N), allowing this method to be combined with iterative solvers. Both rectilinear and curvilinear patches have been used in the simulations. The use of curvilinear patches reduces the number of unknowns significantly, thereby making the algorithm more efficient. This method is capable of solving Maxwell's equations from quasistatic to electrodynamic frequency range. This capability is of great importance in geophysical applications because the sizes of the simulated objects can range from a small fraction of a wavelength to several wavelengths.


This thesis investigates the morphology of early-type galaxies in two rich clusters using 2D surface photometry. In particular, the amount of light in the 'disk' component is focussed upon, as the presence of a disk is the main morphological criterion in distinguishing between the traditional 'elliptical' and 'S0' classes. Extensive and photometric E-band CCD observations of continuous areas of the Coma and Abell 1367 clusters were obtained at the 2.5 m Isaac Newton telescope, La Palma during March 1994. A subset of this large data-set has been used in this study, comprising a magnitude-limited (to R = 15.6) sample of 153 galaxies in the two clusters. Surface photometry measurements, including surface brightness profiles and isophotal shapes, have been made for the sample. Atmospheric seeing is a major problem when measuring light profiles at the distance of Coma from ground-based telescopes. Typical seeing at La Palma (FWHM~1.2") is a significant fraction of the effective radius of many Coma/Abell 1367 galaxies (r(_e)~3" for small ellipticals). An iterative algorithm was developed to deconvolve the effects of seeing from surface brightness profiles. The result of the algorithm is to extend the range of useful surface photometry inwards to within 2 times the FWHM. In order to parametrise the surface brightness profiles and discriminate between different profile-types, further software was developed to fit one- and two-component model profiles to the seeing-corrected data. The following parameters were measured and tabulated for each of the 153 galaxies: total magnitude M(_t); half-light parameters r (_1/2) and (μ)(_1/2); SB at half-light radius μ(r(_1/2)); photometric diameter D(_19.23) (equivalent to D(_n)); ellipticity at R = 21.5 isophote ϵ(_21.5); averaged isophote high-order terms (C(_3)), (S(_3)), (C(_4)) and (S(_4)); effective radii and surface brightnesses of 5 single power-law r(^1)(_n) models, r"e and (^)"^ (n = 1,2,3,4,5); best-fitting power-law index n; bulge effective radii and surface brightnesses from the two-component fit and (/^)\; disk effective parameters r'^e and {nY^] and disk-to-bulge luminosity ratio DjB. The measured parameters have been used to investigate various aspects of early-type galaxy morphology. The conclusions are outlined below. Firstly, a two-component r? plus exponential model is a better fit to most galaxies than a single component law fit. Secondly, the traditional division of early-type galaxies into 'elliptical' and 'SO' classes is severely biased by the viewing angle. In fact, it appears that early-type galaxies comprise a population of objects with smoothly varying bulge-to-disk ratio - although a few ellipticals (less than 13%) do not appear to have a exponential component. Finally, there is a general correlation (with much scatter) between the size and the profile shapes of early-type galaxies. The interpretation is that smaller galaxies are more disk-dominated than larger galaxies, which can be linked to the merging process in rich clusters.


This paper is concerned with the joint determination of optimal production lot size, safety stock and reliability parameter under the realistic assumptions that the production facility is subject to random breakdown of machinery system and also to change in the variable reliability parameter. Reliability of a machinery system is a decision variable that can be increased by more investment in production technology. In this model, preventive and corrective maintenance, safety stock for repair times and shortages are adopted to generalise the model. Except machinery breakdown, the manufacturing system may shift from in-control state to out-of-control state. During out-of-control state, a certain percentage of total production consists of defective items which can be reworked immediately at a cost to make as good as perfect quality items. The cost function is maximised by Khun-Tucker method. Numerical results are provided to illustrate both the study of the optimal solutions and sensitivity of different changes in key parameters.


The layered organization of traditional wired network design has continuously regarded communication links as bit pipes delivering data at some fixed rate with a certain error probability. While this modeling of the underlying physical layer may result appropriate for wired networks, it is certainly naive in the wireless domain. Unlike the fixed wired network, where the channel is time-invariant, the propagation physics of wireless channels and potential user mobility render the wireless network conditions very dynamic and time varying. Much worse, the pipe model disregards multiuser interference: by giving shared access to the same limited pool of resources to many users, the transmission rates of the communication links get coupled and the decomposition of the network into a set of independent single-user links turns out to be meaningless.
 While the role of multiuser interference is widely recognized in prospective systems design, its impact on network performance is diverse. In this respect, the aim of the present Ph.D. thesis is to adopt a broad approach in the study of multiuser interference in wireless networks, recognizing it as a phenomenon with many different facets out of which we concentrate on four of them: cancelation, impact, practical management, and complexity.
 We start studying when and how to perform partial interference cancelation, a technique that requires full statistical knowledge of the interfering signals at the receivers. We find that coding and decoding complexity can be traded whenever interference is under the control of the same source. In other words, the need for partial interference cancelation at the receivers can be alleviated through the use of appropriate coding techniques exploiting signal correlation at the transmitters. Additionally, we propose a transmission strategy based on superposition coding and aided decoding that yields an achievable region at least as large as the best long-standing region for the interference channel.
 Useful as it is, interference cancelation becomes infeasible in applications backed by decentralized wireless networks with uncoordinated nodes. That leaves each sender-destination pair armed only with point-to-point (single user) strategies. This motivates the study of the totally asynchronous interference channel with single-user receivers. Having a capacity region rather involved, the evaluation of achievable rates is tackled based on simpler single-letter inner and outer bounds. The study of these bounds reveals that the impact of interference on the achievable rates can be mitigated through statistical signal design. Besides, the performance losses associated to the lack of transmission synchronism and the use of single-user decoders in the low- and high-power and low- and high-interference regimes are also quantified.
 Next, the focus is on how to manage interference in a practical scenario where the receivers are again interference unaware but now frame- synchronous. A practical transmission scheme that allows for the design of optimal allocation policies of the limited transmission resources of the network is proposed. Giving special attention to a cellular configuration under practical conditions, efficient allocation schemes achieving Pareto and sequential optimality, respectively, are proposed and compared. The emphasis at this point is on the performance-complexity and throughput-fairness tradeoffs.
 While recognizing that multiuser interference and the availability of receiver information modifies the fundamental limits and the practical figures of merit of wireless networks, the thesis concludes by studying a related aspect: how multiuser interference impacts on the complexity required for the evaluation of the previous quantities. Efficient methods for the evaluation of the capacity region of multiuser channels are proposed and, unlike the single-user case, non-convexities in optimization problems need to be unavoidably faced.


Advances in power semiconductor devices have led to inverters with unprecedented voltage edge rates. This has decreased inverter switching losses and enabled the use of increasingly higher switching frequencies. However, faster edge rates and higher switching frequencies increase electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems, machine insulation stress, bearing currents, and other aspects of system design. Typical computer simulations used to design and evaluate proposed electric drive systems cannot be used to predict these high-frequency effects. A wide-bandwidth multiresolutional analysis that allows designers to anticipate and quantify high-frequency effects is detailed in this paper. The approach is specifically applied to permanent magnet synchronous machine drives, and is validated experimentally.


A rollback operation in a speculative parallel discrete event simulator has traditionally targeted the perfect reconstruction of the state to be restored after a timestamp-order violation. This imposes that the rollback support entails specific capabilities and consequently pays given costs. In this article we propose approximated rollbacks, which allow a simulation object to perfectly realign its virtual time to the timestamp of the state to be restored, but lead the reconstructed state to be an approximation of what it should really be. The advantage is an important reduction of the cost for managing the state restore task in a rollback phase, as well as for managing the activities (i.e. state saving) that actually enable rollbacks to be executed. Our proposal is suited for stochastic simulations, and explores a tradeoff between the statistical representativeness of the outcome of the simulation run and the execution performance. We provide mechanisms that enable the application programmer to control this tradeoff, as well as simulation-platform level mechanisms that constitute the basis for managing approximate rollbacks in general simulation scenarios. A study on the aforementioned tradeoff is also presented.


The phosphophoryn components of rat incisor dentin were extracted under stringent conditions to prevent proteolytic degradation during processing. Successive steps of CaCl2 precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography, and gel filtration over Biosil TSK G4000SW high-performance liquid chromatography columns in 4.0 M guanidine hydrochloride yielded a mixture of phosphoryns that contained only trace amounts of other proteins, as shown by a very sensitive double stain procedure on acrylamide gels after electrophoresis. The highest weight phosphophoryn had a molecular weight of 90 000, on gradient polyacrylamide gels calibrated with globular protein standards. Polyclonal antibodies were produced in rabbits following a complex scheme. The specific antibodies were collected by passage over a Sepharose column conjugated to the purified phosphophoryn. The isolated antibody was used to prepare a second affinity column. Passage of the initial phosphophoryn fraction over the column led to the retention of a single component, identified as the Mr 90 000 alpha-phosphophoryn. Thus, a monospecific polyclonal antibody has been prepared. These data show that the other phosphoryns of the rat incisor must be distinct species or slightly degraded products of the alpha-phosphophoryn lacking the antigenic epitope of the antibody prepared.


Non‑small‑cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for ~85% of all lung cancer cases, with a 5‑year survival rate of <15%. 1‑O‑acetylbritannilactone (ABL), a natural chemical component obtained from inula britannica, a Chinese traditional medicine, has been demonstrated to have anticancer activity. In the present study, the antiproliferative and proapoptotic abilities of ABL alone or in combination with gemcitabine in a human NSCLC cell line were investigated. A549 cells were treated in vitro with ABL, gemcitabine, and a combination of ABL and gemcitabine for 72 h. The results demonstrated that ABL and gemcitabine inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis of A549 cells. These effects were more potent following the combination of ABL and gemcitabine treatment than either agent alone. Furthermore, the signal transduction analysis revealed nuclear factor (NF)‑κB expression was significantly decreased by ABL and the combination treatment. The inhibitor nuclear factor κBα (IκBα) and Bax levels were upregulated whereas Bcl‑2 was substantially downregulated following treatment. The present findings suggest that ABL combined with gemcitabine elicits potent apoptosis of lung cancer cells and therefore, ABL has the potential to be developed as a chemotherapeutic agent.