It has previously been shown that 2D spectral mammography can be used to discriminate between (likely benign) cystic and (potentially malignant) solid lesions in order to reduce unnecessary recalls in mammography. One limitation of the technique is, however, that the composition of overlapping tissue needs to be interpolated from a region surrounding the lesion. The purpose of this investigation was to demonstrate that lesion characterization can be done with spectral tomosynthesis, and to investigate whether the 3D information available in tomosynthesis can reduce the uncertainty from the interpolation of surrounding tissue. A phantom experiment was designed to simulate a cyst and a tumor, where the tumor was overlaid with a structure that made it mimic a cyst. In 2D, the two targets appeared similar in composition, whereas spectral tomosynthesis revealed the exact compositional difference. However, the loss of discrimination signal due to spread from the plane of interest was of the same strength as the reduction of anatomical noise. Results from a preliminary investigation on clinical tomosynthesis images of solid lesions yielded results that were consistent with the phantom experiments, but were still to some extent inconclusive. We conclude that lesion characterization is feasible in spectral tomosynthesis, but more data, as well as refinement of the calibration and discrimination algorithms, are needed to draw final conclusions about the benefit compared to 2D.


DPP-4 inhibitors and SGLT2 inhibitors are widely used in T2D. Clinical trials demonstrated lower risk of CV events with SGLT2i, and a neutral effect on CV events with DPP-4i. However, large comparative studies are lacking. We compared the risk of death, hospitalization for heart failure (HHF), MI and stroke in patients starting the SGLT2i dapagliflozin (DAPA) vs. any DPP-4i, using real world data from S. Korea, Japan, Israel, and Canada. Patients initiating DAPA or DPP-4i were identified via national registries, claims, and medical records. Propensity scores for SGLT2i initiation were developed in each country, with 1:1 matching. Hazard ratios were assessed by country and pooled using weighted meta-analysis, with an intent-to-treat approach. In total, 128,066 patients were included (mean age 55 years, 46% women, 25% with history of CVD). Post-match, baseline characteristics were balanced across matched groups. Initiation of DAPA vs. DPP-4i was associated with significantly lower risk of death, HHF, MI and stroke (Figure 1). In a large cohort of T2D patients seen in clinical practice across 4 countries, 75% without established CVD, initiation of DAPA was associated with lower risk of CV events (including stroke) and death compared with DPP-4i. Disclosure S. Kohsaka: Research Support; Self; Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd.. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd.. Research Support; Self; Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. C.S. Lam: Research Support; Self; Boston Scientific Corporation, Bayer AG, Thermofisher, Medtronic, Vifor Pharma. Consultant; Self; Bayer AG, Novartis AG, AstraZeneca, Janssen Research & Development, Menarini Group, Abbott, Roche Diagnostics Corporation, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Merck & Co., Inc.. D. Kim: None. A. Karasik: Stock/Shareholder; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Research Support; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Advisory Panel; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S, AstraZeneca. Research Support; Self; AstraZeneca. Consultant; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. Advisory Panel; Self; Merck & Co., Inc., GlucoMe. N. Tangri: Research Support; Self; AstraZeneca. Advisory Panel; Self; AstraZeneca, Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. S. Goh: Advisory Panel; Self; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Amgen Inc., Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi-Aventis, Servier. M. Thuresson: Consultant; Self; AstraZeneca. H. Chen: Employee; Self; AstraZeneca. F. Surmont: Employee; Self; AstraZeneca. N. Hammar: Employee; Self; AstraZeneca. Stock/Shareholder; Self; AstraZeneca. P. Fenici: Employee; Self; AstraZeneca. M. Kosiborod: Advisory Panel; Self; AstraZeneca. Consultant; Self; AstraZeneca, Amgen Inc., Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, GlaxoSmithKline plc., Glytec Systems, Merck & Co., Inc., Novo Nordisk A/S, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., ZS Pharma, Inc., Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., Novartis AG. Research Support; Self; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH.


In a distributed system, executing a program often requires the access of remote data files. An efficient data transmission strategy is thus important for real-time applications. Since data files may be replicated and their locations are transparent to the executed program, it becomes the system's responsibility to select a proper file server such that data can be transmitted in an effective way. We consider the scenario that a particular program needs several data files simultaneously for its execution. Each data file may have replicas across the network. The problem is how to find a collection of file servers and the routing paths such that the data transmission time is minimum. An exhaustive approach could of course find the optimal solution. However, it pays a high computation price. We thus propose a heuristic method. Results obtained from the proposed method are encouraging.


Classical studies of the evolution of gene function have predominantly focused on mutations within protein coding regions. With the advent of microarrays, however, it has become possible to evaluate the transcriptional activity of a gene as an additional characteristic of function. Recent studies have revealed an equally important role for gene regulation in the retention and evolution of duplicate genes. Here we review approaches to assessing the evolution of gene expression using microarray data, and discuss potential influences on expression divergence. Currently, there are no established standards on how best to identify and quantify instances of expression divergence. There have also been few efforts to date that incorporate suspected influences into mathematical models of expression divergence. Such developments will be crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the role gene duplications and expression evolution play in the emergence of complex traits and functional diversity. An integrative approach to gene family evolution, including both orthologous and paralogous genes, has the potential to bring strong predictive power both to the functional annotation of extant proteins and to the inference of functional characteristics of ancestral gene family members.


This thesis addresses current issues of cognitive architecture, with a focus on the family of
theories known as massive modularity. This project begins with a discussion of the concept of
modularity as proposed by Jerry Fodor. All of Fodor's criteria of modularity are explored in order
to establish a formal definition of modularity. That definition is then used as a benchmark to
determine whether the cognitive mechanisms proposed in the massive modularity theories of Leda
Cosmides, John Tooby, Dan Sperber, Steven Pinker, and Peter Carruthers actually qualify as
modules. After
concluding that the massive modularity theories of the above authors are in fact not
modular, the discussion turns to Zenon Pylyshyn's cognitive impenetrability thesis in order to
demonstrate that it is extremely unlikely that there could exist any truly modular version of the
massive modularity hypothesis. Finally, an alternative account of the mind is proposed in place of
massive modularity.


Abstract. Providers for common navigation systems and mobile applications apply their route choice concepts for cars almost unmodified to cyclists. In contrast to motorists the latter are not significantly influenced by the traffic situation or speed limits, but notably by other factors like slopes and path's surface type and quality. In a volunteered geographic information fashion this paper contributes a smartphone-based mobile sensing and evaluation approach for bicycle way's roughness. It presents the complete process chain from data acquisition using the mobile app "RideVibes" to a detailed data analysis on street segment level to finally enable a comfort sensitive route optimization and recommendation.


With the increasing share of variable renewable generation, balancing electric powersystems could become a major concern for system operators because of their variableand hardly predictable nature. However, gas technologies appear as a solutionto provide this flexibility, but the impacts on the gas power system have hardly beeninvestigated.In this thesis, consulting reports on the subject matter, regulator suggestions andgas-electricity interaction models in scientific literature are studied and four sourcesare identified to be used for balancing: linepack, storage facilities, liquefied natural gasand intraday gas supply from adjacent areas. Then, a gas-electricity model for flexibility supply is designed and three case studies are simulated in order to analyze bothgas and electric power systems' behaviors. In these case studies, electricity generation,contribution of gas sources and costs are analysed.The study concludes that critical situations on gas market that can occur, e.g. incases of large variation in the net electricity demand and limited availability of linepackand storage facilities, the need of intraday modulation can exceed the possibilities toprovide for it. Then, gas cannot be supplied to power plants during peak periods, andmore gas than necessary is used during off-peak periods. The case studies also showthat day-ahead forecast errors in variable renewable generation can be handled mucheasier than variations by the gas system but leads to higher costs.


A book about security and military strategic decision-making in the Baltic region.In this book experts from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden examine strategic decisionmaking for international military engagement in the Baltic region. They provide an essential description of the actors, framework and processes, as well as case studies. They also analyse why decisions went as they did. An introductory chapter examines the notion of strategic culture and its impact. The book will be of value to anyone interested in Baltic security or strategic decision-making.


We obtain approximations for the time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) and complex GP equation in two and three spatial dimensions by generalizing the divergence-free WKB method. The results include an explicit expression of a uniformly valid approximation for the condensate density of an ultracold Bose gas confined in a harmonic trap that extends into the classically forbidden region. This provides an accurate approximation of the condensate density that includes healing effects at leading order that are missing in the widely adopted Thomas-Fermi approximation. The results presented herein allow us to formulate useful approximations to a range of experimental systems including the equilibrium properties of a finite-temperature Bose gas and the steady-state properties of a two-dimensional nonequilibrium condensate. Comparisons between our asymptotic and numerical results for the conservative and forced-dissipative forms of the GP equations as applied to these systems show excellent agreement between the two sets of solutions, thereby illustrating the accuracy of these approximations.


Effectively addressing both cognitive and affective dimensions of learning is one of the greatest obstacles to teaching race and racial justice in higher education. In this article, we first explore the need to integrate attention to cognitive and affective development, along with evidence-based strategies for doing so. We then provide a case study of an undergraduate sociology course on environmental justice in which the instructor intentionally adopted holistic pedagogical principles of teaching race. Analyzing student responses from a pre- and post- course survey, course assignments, and instructor observations of student participation, we find that both white students and students of color experienced significant growth in their cognitive and affective understanding of the complexities of race and work toward racial justice. However, results also show how challenging it can be to create the conditions for productive multiracial dialogues that produce extensive affective development, particularly interpersonal skills of racial reconciliation. Reflecting on the limitations of the case, we conclude that more holistic teaching approaches are necessary to develop both students' cognitive and affective abilities to navigate race and work against racism, and we make suggestions for faculty development and administrative support.


INTRODUCTION
Internet search has been the main source for information and data mining in medical research. Its use by medical students has immensely contributed to learning activities. The main aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of internet use by medical students during their initial years of clinical instruction in order to establish a diagnosis after being provided with the history and physical findings of a clinical problem.

METHODS
A total of 47 cases derived from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) were utilised. The Google search engine was utilised to establish a reasonable diagnosis.

RESULTS
A congruency rate of 44.7% was obtained. This was considered commendable in view of the complexities of the cases published in the NEJM and the fact that the medical students were only in the third year of their Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program.

CONCLUSION
The study illustrates that common search engines could complement the traditionally used medical education methods.


Phytoplankton variations in response to freshwater inputs and water column structure in a shallow (c25 m) semi-enclosed Mediterranean gulf (Gulf of Trieste, Adriatic Sea) are described. Hydrographic profiles and In situ fluorescence were recorded at high resolution, while nutrients and phytoplankton were analysed at 5 pre-set depths. Analyses of the phytoplankton community structure were completed by determinations of the pigment pool using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and size-fractionated primary production. The phytoplankton standing crop, community structure and primary production were profoundly influenced by freshwater inputs and water column stratification. The water column was well mixed and supported modest phytoplankton concentrations during winter. A spring diatom bloom (Skeletonema costatum, Nitzschia spp., Chaetoceros spp.) developed in response to major freshwater input to the surface layer; a similar increase in diatoms (Rhizosolenia delicatula, R. fragilissima) followed October-November freshets. A shift from diatomdominated winter-spring phytoplankton to a flora wlth increased numbers of flagellates in the stratified water column during late spring-summer was reflected in the composition of accessory pigments [lower fucoxanthin : 19'-hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin ratio, an increase of chlorophyll b (chl b) and peridinin concentration]. Primary productivity was correlated with chl a biomass and showed surface peaks in April and June. The 2 to 10 pm phytoplankton contributed significantly to the total productivity in January and June, while on an annual basis the most important producers were > l 0 pm. The smallest fraction (<2 pm) seemed to contribute little, except in July. Our data indicate that the new production resulting from land-born nutrient inputs was the main cause of major phytoplankton blooms, while the nutrient supply from the bottom became comparatively more important during dry summer months.


Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy with Electron Back-Scattering Diffraction (SEM-EBSD) and Optical microscopy were used to point out the microstructural features of a Japanese sword prepared from tamahagane steel using traditional method. A lath martensite structure, which is usually characterized by packet and block in a prior austenite grain, existed both on the surface and the cross-section of the sword. SEM-EBSD study revealed that the development of prior austenite grain and packet were not much distinctive but the blocks within the packets were fairly observed. It was found that the packet size increased with the prior austenite grain size but the increment was small. Vickers micro-hardness measurement revealed that the sharp end was comparatively harder than other sections of the sword. EPMA study showed that the average carbon content of the sword was around 1 mass% along with a variety of non-metallic inclusions. Formation of lath martensite structure in such high carbon steel is remarkable but comparable to 0.6 mass% carbon ordinary steel. It was realized that the traditional method of preparation using tamahagane as well as the higher content of carbon provided the extraordinary features to the Japanese sword different from the ordinary steel.


The vegetational history of Greece was studied by means of pollen analysis. Six pollen diagrams from various parts of the Greek mainland are presented, which between them cover a time from around 30,000 years ago to the present day. The development of the vegetation from a steppe during the time of the last glaciation through a transitional stage in the late-glacial period to a post-glacial forest, and the degradation of the vegetation to the present day scrub is represented by three main pollen assemblage zones. Zone I covers part or all of the time of the last glacial period when the dominant vegetation was an Artemisia steppe with little woodland, in response to a cool dry climate with a temperature comparable with that of northern Europe today but probably less rainfall than is usual in Greece now. Zone II covers the vegetational development during the time of the late-glacial and early post-glacial where evidence from southern Greece shows a pioneer scrub vegetation being succeeded by mixed-oak forest in response to a temperature and rainfall increase, with a temporary reversion to cool and dry conditions deduced from a vegetational reversion. This sequence probably corresponds to the lower Dryas-Allerd-Upper Dryas sequence known in northern Europe. Zone III covers the degradation of the forest vegetation which appears to have taken place earlier in southern Greece than in the north, where there appears to have been substantial forest up to at least the year A.D. and possibly until Medieval times before clearance by man and animal. Two periods of olive cultivation are recognisable, one in Middle Bronze Age – Mycenean times and the other in Late Dark Ages – Early Classical times. There is no sign of climatic change in the Post-glacial sequence. The pollen rain from some modern Greek vegetation shows that tara which are abundant there may be seriously under-represented in the pollen rain.


Objectives Patients with acute myocardial infarction pretreated with prasugrel or ticagrelor may require urgent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). However, prasugrel and ticagrelor withdrawal period is recommended for 5–7 days before planned CABG to enable full platelet recovery. We hypothesized that monitoring sequential platelet reactivity (PR) could identify patients with early platelet recovery who may benefit from earlier surgery before the guideline-recommended 5–7 day delay. Patients and methods We performed preoperative PR assays in 35 patients with acute myocardial infarction who received prasugrel (60%) or ticagrelor (40%) and required an urgent CABG. When platelet inhibition levels were favorable, on the basis of the VerifyNow assay, surgery was endorsed. CABG-related bleeding parameters were collected and compared with two matched control groups composed of patients who received fewer potent antiplatelet regimens. Results On the basis of platelet function monitoring, we identified 21 (56.7%) patients with a relatively earlier platelet recovery who underwent CABG before the end of the conventional washout period (5–7 days). For these patients, the washout periods were shortened to an average time of 2.6±1.0 days for ticagrelor and 3.8±1.5 days for prasugrel. CABG-related bleeding parameters were comparable with the two matched control groups. Conclusion A strategy of performing preoperative PR assays can identify patients who recover platelet function in less than 5–7 days after ticagrelor or prasugrel discontinuation. This strategy may provide the basis for performing urgent CABGs earlier than the currently recommended delay. Future, larger studies are required to establish these preliminary findings.


In this paper we present a Focus+Context screen for combined pen and touch interaction. A tabletop display presents contextual information and enables multi-touch detection for navigation through frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR). A high resolution pen enabled display is continuously localized on the tabletop. It is used as a movable focus display and pen input device. The resulting system has a large virtual resolution for both display and pen interaction. We demonstrate the advantages of Focus+Context for pen-based interaction in combination with multi-touch navigation in applications that make use of sketch-based interfaces.


Nonparametric kernel density estimation method makes no assumptions on the functional form of the curves of interest and hence allows flexible modeling of the data. Many authors pointed out that the crucial problem in kernel density estimation method is how to determine the bandwidth (smoothing) parameter.
In this paper, we introduce the most important bandwidth selection methods. In particular, least squares cross-validation, biased cross-validation, direct plug-in, solve-the-equation rules and contrast methods are considered. These methods are described and their expressions are presented. Our main practical contribution is a comparative simulation study that aims to isolate the most promising methods. The performance of each method is evaluated on the basis of the mean integrated squared error and for small-to-moderate sample size. The simulation results showed that the contrast method is the most promising methods based on the simulated families that are considered.


Extraction of potassium into magmas and outgassing of argon during melting constrain the relative amounts of potassium in the crust with respect to those of argon in the atmosphere. No more than 30% of the modern mass of the continents was subducted back into the mantle during Earth's history. It is estimated that 50 to 70% of the subducted sediments are reincorporated into the deep continental crust. A consequence of the limited exchange between the continental crust and the upper mantle is that the chemistry of the upper mantle is driven by exchange of material with the deep mantle.


This essay presents the main characteristics of a variety of Jerusalem Arabic, which was spoken in Jerusalem in the first half of the 20th century by Jews of North-Syrian origin, and also by others who conformed to this way of speech. The description provided is based on new evidence collected in 2012–2013 through interviews with elderly Jews who grew up in Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s. Growing up in mandatory Jerusalem, they mixed and socialized freely with their Christian and Muslim neighbors. Many of them heard the Arabic dialect of Aleppo at home, yet their home-dialect went through processes of linguistic accommodation, resulting in a contact variety which evidently differs from standard Jerusalem Arabic. Throughout this article I discuss a series of distinctive phonological, morphological, and lexical features, and discuss them vis-a-vis the standard dialect of Jerusalem and also in comparison with Aleppo Arabic. While many differences follow from the retention of substrate features in the language of the immigrants, this Jewish variety is by no means identical to any Syrian dialect. Rather, it is a contact dialect which emerged after the immigration to Jerusalem and which differs from Syrian Arabic in several prominent aspects. The linguistic analysis of the materials demonstrates the spread of features of the local dialect at the expense of others, as well as the emergence of fudged linguistic forms, which are identical neither to those of the local standard nor to those of the input dialect.The last section of this essay offers two full-length texts, demonstrating the Ḥalabi variety of Jerusalem Arabic (hereafter: ḥJA ) in its natural context.


Aim: To evaluate of the effects of using different methods of elastic chain attachment, different shapes of base arch wire (round and rectangular) and different ligation techniques on the rate of space closure, degree of tipping and degree of rotation of canine during translatory displacement of canine's bracket via wire using Typodont simulation system. Materials and Methods : Typodont teeth situated in well– aligned position, The criteria of the subject are covered and immobilized by the acrylic bite except canine; Elastic chain exerting 180gm of force on canine measured carefully by Tension Gauge; The available space was (14 mm) measured by digital vernia; The angle between bite plane extension bar and canine extension bar were (90  ) measured by protractor directly on a photograghs that were taken for Typodont using digital camera from both vertical and horizontal direction. The data were subjected to the statistical analysis at P≤ 0.05 significant level. Results: Canine sliding over rectangular arch wire gave rise to significant decrease in degree of tipping and rotation with significant reduction in rate of space closure, Second, stainless steel ligature and elastomeric ties of conventional ligation technique gave rise to a significant decrease in the degree of tipping and rotation with significant reduction in rate of space closure, elastic chain onto hook of canine bracket, gave rise to significant decrease of tipping and rotational degree with significant increase in rate of space closure. Conclusions : the methods in which elastic chain is attached to canine's hook using rectangular wire with elastomeric ties and the elastic chain is attached to canine's hook using rectangular wire with stainless steel ligature are favorable affecting canine sliding, where both were produced significantly the lowest degree of tipping and rotation with satisfactory rate of space


Background ACCEPt, a large cluster randomised control trial, aims to determine if annual testing for 16 to 29 year olds in general practise can reduce chlamydia prevalence. ACCEPt is also the first trial investigating the potential role of the PN in chlamydia testing. To inform the intervention, GPs' and PNs' chlamydia knowledge and practises were explored. Methods GPs and PNs from 143 clinics were recruited from 54 postcodes in 4 Australian States and asked to complete a survey at time of recruitment. Survey responses were compared using conditional logistic regression to account for GPs and PNs from the same clinics participating. Results Of 607 GPs and 126 PNs enrolled in ACCEPt, 86% and 78% completed the questionnaire, respectively. A third of GPs (32%) compared to 23% of PNs (P = 0.076) correctly identified the two age groups with the highest infection rates in women and only 17% vs 16% (P = 0.942) identified the correct age groups in men. Fewer GPs than PNs would offer testing opportunistically to asymptomatic young patients, including women having a Pap smear (55% vs. 84%, P = < 0.001); antenatal checkup (44% vs. 83%, P = < 0.001) and Aboriginal men with a sore throat (33% vs. 79%, P = < 0.001). Fewer GPs than PNs knew that retesting was recommended after chlamydia treatment (87% vs. 93%, P = 0.027); and that the recommended timeframe for retesting was 3 months (26% vs 66%, P = < 0.001). Under half of PNs (41%) reported involvement in chlamydia testing, with 79% wanting greater involvement and 87% wanting further training. Conclusion Our survey reveals more gaps in chlamydia knowledge and management among GPs than PNs, which may be contributing to low testing rates in general practise. PNs have a role in increasing chlamydia testing.


Combined chemical and autoradiographic studies in rats injected with tritiated thymidine indicate that acute red cell sequestration stimulates reticuloendothelial (RE) proliferation. In the spleen DNA synthesis is most markedly stimulated in the marginal zone which is also the initial site of red cell sequestration. This proliferative response involves several division steps and eventuates in a colonization of the red pulp with increased numbers of all cell lines native to the spleen. In both spleen and liver there occurs also a generalized stimulation of division in the macrophages and littoral cells which involves only 1 or 2 division steps. Chronic compensated hemolytic anemia achieved in rats by injections of phenylhydrazine caused functional overactivity of the RE system, including increased sequestering function and hypergammaglobulinemia. This splenic hyperplasia did not entirely regress after cessation of the injections. In man the splenomegaly of a chronic non-immunological hemolytic anemia, hereditary spherocytosis, was found to involve a marked (average: 8-fold) hyperplasia of all spleen cellular elements. Neither the acute nor chronic proliferative reaction appears to arise from immunological or "toxic" stimuli and the findings support the view that the size of the RE system is a function of its particulate "work load." It is suggested that the cytoproliferative aspects of immune responses may depend upon non-specific, usually particulate stimulation. After prolonged stimulation, hyperplasia of the RES may become partly irreversible.


Age and cultural effects on memory for complex pictures were examined under an unbinding condition. Young and older Canadians and Chinese were tested in Toronto and Beijing respectively. At encoding, participants viewed semantically congruent or incongruent pictures. At recognition, they were asked to recognize the objects and backgrounds of these pictures in isolation. The results revealed effects of both age and culture on recognition performance. Older adults recognized more objects than young adults, whereas Canadians were better than Chinese in background recognition. There was also a trend for Canadian older adults to recognize more objects and backgrounds than the other groups of participants. Age and cultural differences in memory under unbinding were possibly due to group differences in information binding during encoding. Finally, it was found that images from congruent pictures were better recognized than those from incongruent pictures, suggesting that semantic relatedness of information improves recognition under unbinding.


Power reduction and speed-up of image processing algorithms remain of high interest as image resolutions continue to increase. Neuromorphic-circuits are inspired by the nervous system aiming to reduce power consumption and speed-up. This paper presents a neuromorphic smart image sensor designed by the pixel-parallel 3D hierarchical architecture with an on-chip attention module. The module dynamically detects regions with relevant information and produces a feedback path to sample those regions at high speed. On the other hand, by sampling non-relevant regions with a low-speed, the sensor can reduce redundancy and enable high-performance computing by ensuring low-power operation. The image sensor is comprised of several hierarchical planes and each plane has small and independent reconfigurable computational units (XPU). In each plane, all XPUs operate in parallel with a different operating speed which gives a pixel-parallel architecture. When the raw image passes through the hierarchical planes, necessary image processing algorithms are performed in parallel on different planes at a variable clock rate for saving power and reducing redundancy. The goal of this work is to prototype the focal plane image sensor which emulates the brain features. The results show that the prototype achieves remarkable power saving and speed-up at different stages.


BACKGROUND
 Although using the technologies for a variety of chronic health conditions such as personal health record (PHR) is reported to be acceptable and useful, there is a lack of evidence on the associations between the use of the technologies and the change of health outcome and patients' response to a digital health app.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aimed to examine the impact of the use of PHR and wearables on health outcome improvement and sustained use of the health app that can be associated with patient engagement.

 METHODS
 We developed an Android-based mobile phone app and used a wristband-type activity tracker (Samsung Charm) to collect data on health-related daily activities from individual patients. Dietary record, daily step counts, sleep log, subjective stress amount, blood pressure, and weight values were recorded. We conducted a prospective randomized clinical trial across 4 weeks on those diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who had visited the outpatient clinic of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The trial randomly assigned 60 patients to 3 subgroups including 2 intervention groups: (1) mobile app and wearable device users (n=20), (2) mobile app–only users (n=20), and (3) controls (n=20). The primary outcome measure was weight change. Body weights before and after the trial were recorded and analyzed during clinic visits. Changes in OSA–related respiratory parameters such as respiratory disturbance, apnea-hypopnea, and oxygenation desaturation indexes and snoring comprised the secondary outcome and were analyzed for each participant.

 RESULTS
 We collected the individual data for each group during the trial, specifically anthropometric measurement and laboratory test results for health outcomes, and the app usage logs for patient response were collected and analyzed. The body weight showed a significant reduction in the 2 intervention groups after intervention, and the mobile app–only group showed more weight loss compared with the controls (P=.01). There were no significant changes in sleep-related health outcomes. From a patient response point of view, the average daily step counts (8165 steps) from the app plus wearable group were significantly higher than those (6034 steps) from the app-only group because they collected step count data from different devices (P=.02). The average rate of data collection was not different in physical activity (P=.99), food intake (P=.98), sleep (P=.95), stress (P=.70), and weight (P=.90) in the app plus wearable and app-only groups, respectively.

 CONCLUSIONS
 We tried to integrate PHR data that allow clinicians and patients to share lifelog data with the clinical workflow to support lifestyle interventions. Our results suggest that a PHR–based intervention may be successful in losing body weight and improvement in lifestyle behavior.

 CLINICALTRIAL
 ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03200223; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03200223 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/74baZmnCX).


Barium titanate (BTO) inverse opal photonic crystals were fabricated by a process of self-assembly of polystyrene opal template in combination with electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of nanoparticles from BTO suspension. In this process, stable monodispersed suspension of BTO nanoparticles was prepared by dispersing BTO gel into a mixed solvent of 2-methoxyethanol and acethylacetone. Then the BTO nanoparticles were infilled into the interstices of the opal template formed by monodisperse polystyrene microspheres by electrophoretic deposition, and then polystyrene template was removed by calcining the specimen at a final temperature of 500oC. SEM images show that the inverse opals possess face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with center to center distant of the air spheres 310 nm. A photonic bandgap in the visible range is observed from reflection spectra of the sample. Such BTO inverse opals as photonic crystals should be useful in device applications.


A unique creole language spoken on the coastal islands and adjacent mainland of South Carolina and Georgia, Gullah existed as an isolated and largely ignored linguistic phenomenon until the publication of Lorenzo Dow Turner's landmark volume Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect. In his classic treatise, Turner, the first professionally trained African American linguist, focused on a people whose language had long been misunderstood, lifted a shroud that had obscured the true history of Gullah, and demonstrated that it drew important linguistic features directly from the languages of West Africa. Initially published in 1949, this groundbreaking work of Afrocentric scholarship opened American minds to a little-known culture while initiating a means for the Gullah people to reclaim and value their past. The book presents a reference point for today's discussions about ever-present language varieties, Ebonics, and education, offering important reminders about the subtleties and power of racial and cultural prejudice. In their introduction to the volume, Katherine Wyly Mille and Michael B. Montgomery set the text in its sociolinguistic context, explore recent developments in the celebration of Gullah culture, and honor Turner with a recounting of his life and scholarly accomplishments.


In this era, the practices of marketing continue to change following the technological developments. There are many traditional marketing practices that have shifted to digital. One form of technological changes is there are many people who use social media. Because of the widespread use of social media, a phenomenon called Influencer Endorsement or Influencer Marketing has emerged. Influencer endorsement is a marketing practice where many marketers start to change celebrities to Social Media Influencers to become endorsers of their products or brands, in various industries. Marketers admit Influencer Endorsement is effective in achieving marketing objectives. On the other hand, the fashion industry in Indonesia has continued to grow rapidly in recent years. The more an industry develops, the higher the demand for organizational competitiveness. Therefore, this study aims to analyze and determine what factors are important and needed in Social Media Influencer's characteristics in the fashion industry. These factors can then be used by fashion brands and companies to evaluate Social Media Influencers in the fashion sector before being chosen to be an endorser of fashion products. This research is a descriptive study that uses quantitative methods. The sample in this study are people residing in Indonesia who follow or subscribe to Social Media Influencers in the fashion sector. Samples were selected by the nonprobability method, purposive sampling. The number of respondents in this study was 104 respondents. Then, the analysis technique used in this study is the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The number of factors used in this study are 6 factors, which have been adopted and combined by the researcher from previous studies. After conducting the analysis using EFA, there are 5 new factors that are obtained, namely Congruence, Expertise, Popularity, Trustworthiness, and Power. These are the important factors in Social Media Influencer's characteristics in the fashion industry. Thus, the marketers should pay attention to these factors to choose the most appropriate Social Media Influencer as an endorser for fashion products.


There are projected to be seven million high school adolescents from roughly 20,000 high schools who partake in local sports programs annually. Children and adolescents are increasingly participating in sports, and this expanding involvement brings forth issues regarding possible risks of sports-related injury (Vanderlei et al. 2013). Although the involvement in sports is proven to be advantageous for the physical and mental well-being of human beings, injury rates are a public health concern. In the United States, young athletes are responsible for more than two million injuries, 500,000 physician visits, and 30,000 hospitalizations per year (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [CDC], 2006). In-person interviews were conducted with two basketball coaches from different high schools in Greene County, Ohio. Permission from each high school's administrators and the WSU IRB Board was received to ensure that proper clearance was given for the coaches to participate. The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) oversees all high school sports in Ohio and The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) oversees OHSAA. OHSAA implements policies and procedures that all coaches/ schools in Ohio must follow. The interviewed coaches showed great awareness of OHSAA's rules and regulations. The information that the coaches provided was very similar to OHSAA's requirements There are some public health implications that could benefit coaches and players on a local, state, and national level. Coaches can improve and benefit from these recommendations because there are practices such as players wearing mouth guards, ankle braces and shoes that are supportive.


This paper aims to gather together the minimum units of users' identity in the Bitcoin network (i.e. the individual Bitcoin addresses) and group them into representations of business entities, what we call "super clusters". While these clusters can remain largely anonymous, the authors are able to ascribe many of them to particular business categories by analyzing some of their specific transaction patterns (TPs), as observed during the period from 2009 to 2015. The authors are then able to extract and create a map of the network of payment relationships among them, and analyze transaction behavior found in each business category. They conclude by identifying three marked regimes that have evolved as the Bitcoin economy has grown and matured: from an early prototype stage; to a second growth stage populated in large part with "sin" enterprise (i.e. gambling, black markets); to a third stage marked by a sharp progression away from "sin" and toward legitimate enterprises.,Data mining.,Four primary business categories are identified in the Bitcoin economy: miners, gambling services, black markets and exchanges. Common patterns of transaction behavior between the business categories and their users are a "one-day" holding period for bitcoin transactions is somewhat typical. That is, a one-day effect where traders, gamblers, black market participants and miners tend to cash out on a daily basis. There seems to be a strong preference to do business within the bitcoin economy in round lot amounts, whether it is more typical of traders exchanging for fiat money, gamblers placing bets or black market goods being bought and sold. Distinct patterns of transaction behavior among the business categories and their users are flows between traders and exchanges average just around 20 BTC, and traders buy or sell on average every 11 days. Meanwhile, gamblers wager just 0.5 BTC on average, but re-bet often within the same day. Three marked regimes have evolved, as the Bitcoin economy has grown and matured: from an early prototype stage, to a second growth stage populated in large part with "sin" enterprises (i.e. gambling, black markets), to a third stage marked by a sharp progression away from "sin" and toward legitimate enterprises. This evolution of the Bitcoin economy suggests a trend toward legitimate commerce.,The authors propose a new theoretical framework that allows investigating and exploring the network of payment relationships in the Bitcoin economy. This study starts by gathering together the minimum units of Bitcoin identities (the individual addresses), and it goes forward in grouping them into approximations of business entities, what is called "super clusters", by using tested techniques from the literature. A super cluster can be thought of as an approximation of a business entity in that it describes a number of individual addresses that are owned or controlled collectively by the same beneficial owner for some special economic purposes. The majority of these important clusters are initially unknown and uncategorized. The novelty of this study is given by the pure user group and the TP analyses, by means of which the authors are able to ascribe the super clusters into specific business categories and outline a map of the network of payment relationships among them.


analysis of the best available evidence' concerning the adverse mental health consequences of abortion. Huge numbers of papers by respectable researchers that have not found negative mental health consequences are ignored without comment. Not surprisingly, over 50% of the 'acceptable' studies she uses as her 'evidence' are those done by her and her colleagues Cougle and Reardon. The work of this group has been soundly critiqued not just by us but by many others as being logically inconsistent and substantially inflated by faulty methodologies. As noted by the Royal Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the authors consistently fail to differentiate between an association and a causal relationship and repeatedly fail to control for preexisting mental health problems. We note that Coleman did not include in her articles the publication by Munk-Olsen et al in the January 2011 New England Journal of Medicine, which concluded that


In this work, land mobile satellite (LMS) communications, transmit antenna selection (TAS) method is applied to spacefrequency-time coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (SFT Coded OFDM) with Alamouti and trellis coded over satellite channel of Loo's model with 2 multipath, equal power profile and 8 multipath, exponential power profile frequency selective, quasi-static Rayleigh fading and the systems are compared in terms of the frame error rate performance. For land mobile satellite channel, high diversity gains are obtained without changing the current system complexity and current number of transmitting antenna simultaneously. As the number of transmit antennas increase the gain increases too.


The neotropical members of Gesneriaceae are characterized by numerous characters that appear to be adaptations to life in the wet tropics. Among these are epiphytism, anisophylly, hummingbird- pollination, and bird-dispersal of seeds. Many of these characters have diversified to a broad extent in the single tribe Episcieae. This analysis investigates the phylogenetic relationships among genera of Episcieae and also examines the evolutionary origin of several characters found within this tribe such as fruit characters, epiphytism, chromosome numbers, and tubers. All genera of the tribe were included in the analysis except the Guyana endemic Rhoogeton and the Central American Oerstedina. Larger genera such as Columnea and Episcia were represented by several species with attempts to include members of the different sections of these genera. Columnea appears to be a monophyletic group but its relationship to Drymonia and Alloplectus is not resolved. The latter genera may need to be included in Columnea to make it strictly monophyletic. Neomortonia is polyphyletic with one species in the Columnea clade and another with Episcia.- The anomalous position of some Paradrymonia indicate a more thorough analysis of this genus is necessary to resolve phylogenetic relationships.


During the past years, ontological thinking and design have become more and more popular in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). More recently, Software Engineering (SE) has evolved towards more conceptual approaches based on the extensive adoption of models and meta-models. This paper briefly discusses the role of ontologies in SE according to a perspective that closely matches the theoretical life-cycle. These roles vary considerably across the development lifecycle. The use of ontologies to improve SE development activities is still relatively new (2000 onward), but it is definitely no more a novelty. Indeed, the role of such structures is well consolidated in certain SE aspects, such as requirement engineering. On the other hand, despite their well-known potential as knowledge representation mechanisms, ontologies are not completely exploited in the area of SE. We first (i) proposes a brief overview of ontologies and their current understanding within the Semantic Web with a focus on the benefits provided; then, the role that ontologies play in the more specific context of SE is addressed (ii); finally, we deal with (iii) some brief considerations looking at specific types of software architecture, such as Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The main limitation of our research is that we are focusing on traditional developments, where phases occur mostly sequentially. However, industry has fully embraced agile developments. It is unclear that agile practitioners are willing to adopt ontologies as a tool, unless we ensure that they can provide a clear benefit and they be used in a lean way, without introducing significant overhead to the agile development process.


The evolution of species is shaped by processes such as selection, mutations or genetic drift. Still, we are far away from a complete understanding of how these processes drive evolutionary dynamics in detail. Therefore, we need basic models which capture the essence of evolutionary dynamics to understand the mechanisms underlying evolution. The basis of many such models is the so-called fitness of the individuals which measures how many offspring a certain individual will produce. Often, such fitness is assumed to be constant over time, although interactions between different individuals can lead to dynamically changing fitnesses. Here, we analyze the evolutionary dynamics of a population exhibiting such dynamic fitness. Our results reveal that dynamic fitness can lead to evolutionary dynamics which stochastically switch between multiple stable points. Furthermore, in the last decades an increasing evidence has been found that apart from selection, mutation and genetic drift another process drives evolution. This process is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), i.e. the exchange of genetic material between individuals of one generation. However, how evolution proceeds under the influence of HGT is still unclear. Here, we provide a new model for HGT and show how it drives evolutionary dynamics in populations exhibiting a high or a low competence for HGT. We demonstrate how frequently occuring HGT can lead to an evolutionary state where no distinct species can be distinguished. Thus, our work points toward a probable mechanism how the first species may have emerged from a primordial reactive soup in which no species existed and individuals exchanged genes frequently via HGT.


This paper provides evidence on the effects of access to telecommunications technologies on agricultural profitability and human capital investment decisions among highly isolated villages in rural Peru. I exploit a quasi-natural experiment, in which the Peruvian government through the Fund for Investments in Telecommunications (FITEL) provided at least one public (satellite) payphone to 6,509 rural villages that did not previously have any kind of communication services (either landlines or cell phones). The intervention provided these phones mainly between years 2001 and 2004. I show that the timing of the intervention was uncorrelated with baseline outcomes and exploit differences in timing using a uniquely constructed (unbalanced) panel of treated villages spanning the years 1997 through 2007. The main findings suggest that phone access generated increases of 16 percent in the value per kilogram received by farmers for their agricultural production, and a 23.7 percent reduction in agricultural costs. Moreover, this income shock translated into a reduction in child (6 – 13 years old) market work of 13.7 percentage points and a reduction in child agricultural work of 9.2 percentage points. Overall, the evidence suggests a dominant income effect in the utilization of child labor.


In this unique collection of short stories composed between 1910-62, Evelyn Waugh's early juvenilia are brought together with later pieces, some of which became the inspirations for his novels. "Mr Loveday's Little Outing" is a blackly comic tale of a mental asylum and its favourite resident; "Cruise" sees a hilarious series of letters from a naive young woman as she travels with her family; "A House of Gentlefolks" observes a group of elderly eccentric aristocrats and their young heir; and, in "The Sympathetic Passenger" a radio-loathing retiree picks up exactly the wrong hitchhiker. These witty and immaculately crafted stories display the finest writing of a master of satire and comic twists.


A mobile manipulator is expected to play an important role both in the production process of factory and in a medical care system of welfare business. To come up to this expectation, a mobile manipulator is required to simultaneously track to both the desired position trajectory and force trajectory. These tracking performances are attained by hybrid position/force control. In this paper, we propose a new adaptive control scheme for a mobile manipulator. The proposed adaptive control scheme consists of adaptive tracking control to desired position/force trajectories and robust control for unknown bounded disturbance. Effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated by numerical simulation.


Objective: The aim of this study was to review the literature regarding human noise-induced permanent threshold shift and to determine whether the observed data agreed with the predictions of two different exchange rates (ERs). Design: An initial list of possibly relevant studies included those cited by authors who endorsed the 3 dB ER, as well as studies in personal files, studies retrieved by a MEDLINE search, and the reference lists of all of these. Criteria for relevance were designed to ensure that exposures were sufficiently intermittent or fluctuating that effective exposure levels based on the 3 dB (LAeq8h) and 5 dB (time-weighted average [TWA]) ERs would differ by at least 1 dB, that at least one of these metrics could be estimated, and that audiometric data were available for groups of defined age, sex, and exposure. Relevant studies were reviewed in detail, and their audiometric data were compared with the predictions of the ISO-1999/ANSI S3.44 model. Results: Nine relevant studies were identified. For six articles, the reported hearing levels were substantially less than would have been predicted from LAeq8h. In each of these cases, TWA would have predicted lower hearing levels than LAeq8h and would have better fit the observed data. In three cases it was not possible to say which ER would have better fit the observed data. Conclusions: The 3 dB ER systematically overestimates the risk of noise-induced hearing loss for intermittent or fluctuating noise. The 5 dB ER appears to be more accurate, but also overestimates risk, particularly for exposures above 100 dBA.


Background and Objective: To evaluate interaction of salvigenin with DNA and the molecular mechanism of its anti-cancer effect. Materials and Methods: Salvigenin from Tanacetum canescens and DNA from calf thymus were isolated and purified. Then, salvigenin interaction with DNA in Tris buffer (0.05 M, pH equal to 4.7 and the temperature at 25 °C) was studied by different meth ods. Results and Conclusion: DNA absorption spectra in the presence of various concentrations of each of these ligands showed that the DNA with salvigenin has interaction and complex formation and the absorption wave length at 260 nm increased. Under the effect of changes in DNA uptake ligand showed structural changes. Also, using information obtained from the suppression with ethidium bromide of DNA complex by ligand skachard, above analysis indicated that the mechanism of suppression of publication is through non-competitive inhibition and it means that connecting mechanism of salvigenin is non-intercalated with DNA and probably through connection small grooves.


This article examines three Sinophone films shot in Singapore by director Wu Cun from China after the Second World War. Through close reading of these filmic texts and reportings and discussions of them in the 1940s Singapore-Malayan cinema tabloids Amusement and Dianying Quan, this article aims to reconstruct the popular memory of "Mahua(Malaysian Chinese) Cinemas" and their relationship with "Mahua Literature" and Chinese film culture. It also probes the naming of "Mahua Cinema" in their temporal context and how they re-present post-war Malayan Chinese female migrants, loyalists, and foreigners, with reference to historical materials on the migration of Chinese females to Nanyang in early days. Women play the lead in all three films, while men assume supporting roles. Through the ramblings of a madwoman, it predicts the binary oppositional thought of the cold war period. This article also critically employs relevant Cold War Singaporean and Malaysian theories to analyse and compare the Chineseness and political groups in these films. All three films were produced after the war, when the Malayan Communist Party, who debated aggressively about the "uniqueness of Malayan Chinese literature and art", was burgeoning. Besides attempting to portray the real Singapore-Malayan local colour in that time and place as advocated by the "uniqueness of Malaysian Chinese literature and art", Wu Cun and his local production partners, the Shaw Brothers Company, also re-presented the left-wing practice of Malayan Communist Party guerillas and their supporters that had been suppressed by mainstream historical discourse. This article holds that the complexity of Chineseness and its ideology in these three early Mahua films lies in their being "neither Malaysian nor Chinese", that is, being neither purely Malaysian Chinese nor completely Overseas Chinese. This suggests, therefore, that these films were completely or selectively forgotten when current mainstream Mainland Chinese film history, Hong Kong/Taiwan film history, and Singaporean and Malaysian film history were written.


The Securities and Exchange Commission has clearly indicated its intent to hold investment managers accountable for best execution in inspections and examinations. The Commission asks managers and traders to work together to define best execution processes and then asks for documentation to understand how processes are defined, implemented, and monitored. Traditional institutional reliance on 6 cent commission rates under a "safe harbor" may no longer be safe absent a well-articulated process for evaluating the quality of brokerage services provided, including trading, research, and IPOs. For the first time, an institution9s failure to use an ECN may be viewed as a lack of attention to best execution. Clearly, institutions are increasingly conflicted by bill-paying commitments that may approach half or more of annual commissions by some firms. This change in regulatory approach may increase the scrutiny of trading practices by mutual fund boards of directors and lead to non-trivial investment in order management systems and processes.


This paper presents a novel hypothesis for understanding democratic survival: the higher the number of public employees who are directly accountable to elected officials, the lower the chances of democratic survival. The mechanism is as follows: the more people whose professional careers depend directly upon which party wins the elections, the more likely the government will propose and pass opportunistic actions aimed at their surviving in office at any cost (i.e. policies benefiting core supporters). In turn, this fosters the opposition's taking preemptive actions, that could go as far as military coups or rebellions. However, in democracies with meritocratic administrations incumbents are credibly constrained from undertaking opportunistic partial policies by autonomous civil servants. We test this hypothesis worldwide on democracies from 1822 onwards, using a newly created dataset of administrative structures. Survival analyses show that having an autonomous bureaucracy (vs. administrators directly accountable to incumbents) makes democracies survive longer.


This essay proposes an enactive approach to spectatorship. This enactive approach involves a shift in focus from what is (re)presented onstage towards the relationship between what is staged and the modes of perceiving of the audience. Staging and spectator are mutually implicated, and modes of staging (willingly or unwillingly) imply positions, both in concrete embodied space and with regard to the ways in which our perceptions of things include attitudes toward them: assumptions, expectations, beliefs, desires, fears. Starting from two theatre performances that position their audiences in ways that self-consciously destabilize habitual modes of perceiving (Dries Verhoeven's Funerals and Alexandra Broeder's NATURE or NURTURE), the essay demonstrates the potential of an enactive approach for understanding the political and ethical implications of theatre. It shows how Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor helps to explain the confusing experiences caused by these performances in terms of how they confront us with what they describe as the "metaphors we live by": the systems of metaphors that structure our bodily perceptual-cognitive encounter with what we find ourselves confronted with. The essay also shows how theories of embodied simulation help us to understand the uncomfortable experiences evoked by this performance as a result of how the performance mediates in multiple, sometimes contradictory identifications and subverts our sense of self as observers of a world that exists independently from our perception of it.


Advanced biomedical and genetic technologies are transforming newborn screening (NBS) programs. Nurses who work with families across perinatal care settings require knowledge of the policies that guide NBS practices and the controversies posed by the rapid application of genetic research to NBS. We provide an overview of NBS, outline challenges generated by expansion of NBS programs, and discuss implications for the nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives in clinical practice, education, and research.


OF THESIS GAZE ESTIMATION USING SCLERA AND IRIS EXTRACTION Tracking gaze of an individual provides important information in understanding the behavior of that person. Gaze tracking has been widely used in a variety of applications from tracking consumers gaze fixation on advertisements, controlling human-computer devices, to understanding behaviors of patients with various types of visual and/or neurological disorders such as autism. Gaze pattern can be identified using different methods but most of them require the use of specialized equipments which can be prohibitively expensive for some applications. In this dissertation, we investigate the possibility of using sclera and iris regions captured in a webcam sequence to estimate gaze pattern. The sclera and iris regions in the video frame are first extracted by using an adaptive thresholding technique. The gaze pattern is then determined based on areas of different sclera and iris regions and distances between tracked points along the irises. The technique is novel as sclera regions are often ignored in eye tracking literature while we have demonstrated that they can be easily extracted from images captured by low-cost camera and are useful in determining the gaze pattern. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed technique is demonstrated by experiments with human subjects.


When improving the content and methods of the school course used when teaching physics, it is necessary to develop demonstration experiment. It is expedient to abandon a special schematic illustration of devices. Their structure must meet the equipment used in practice to a particular extent. A demonstration experiment must also reflect the newest achievement in technology. The demonstration experiment must be used not only for teaching new material, but also in other stages of a lesson. The involvement of students into preparation for the demonstration experiment and conduction thereof has a positive effect on the quality of their knowledge, as well as the development of practical faculties and skills.


The focus of this paper is disruptive innovation, created through processes of hybridisation. For the purpose of this study, the term 'hybridisation' refers to the blending of design practices that strongly reflect key societal and behavioral aspects of the two or more respective original cultures. The research addresses the role of hybridised design practices in tackling documented weaknesses in the innovation industry in Japan and in the UK. Re-mix is a collaborative research project between the Royal College of Art (RCA) and Kyushu University (KU). A series of experimental short projects explored the mutual impact of combining two design practices embodying the regional cultures of the involved institutions. The contrasting design practices embrace the full spectrum of innovation: from incremental innovation (KU) through inclusive approaches with close coordination with participatory communities, aiming at solid improvements, to radical innovation (RCA) fostered by diversity, ambiguity, improvisation, conflict, high-risk strategies and acceptance of failure. Two projects were undertaken in London and Fukuoka, which were used as fields for mutual observation, and mapping of practices during and after the end of each phase of the project. This revealed opposing factors in innovation culture and process, as documented in the literature. Initial findings have shown strong potential in this approach, as a method to trigger a novel hybrid process. Based on the observation of team performance, it has been postulated that such a process may be characterized by non hierarchical structure, as well as effectively merging a risk taking culture with specialist knowledge.


The dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase subunit (E2p) of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex of Escherichia coli has three highly conserved and tandemly repeated lipoyl domains, each containing approx. 80 amino acid residues. These domains are covalently modified with lipoyl groups bound in amide linkage to the N6-amino groups of specific lysine residues, and the cofactors perform essential roles in the formation and transfer of acetyl groups by the dehydrogenase (E1p) and acetyltransferase (E2p) subunits. A subgene encoding a hybrid lipoyl domain was previously shown to generate two products when overexpressed, whereas a mutant subgene, in which the lipoyl-lysine codon is replaced by a glutamine codon, expresses only one product. A method has been devised for purifying the three types of independently folded domain from crude extracts of E. coli, based on their pH-(and heat-)stabilities. The domains were characterized by: amino acid and N-terminal sequence analysis, lipoic acid content, acetylation by E1p, tryptic peptide analysis and immunochemical activity. This has shown that the two forms of domain expressed from the parental subgene are lipoylated (L203) and unlipoylated (U203) derivatives of the hybrid lipoyl domain, whereas the mutant subgene produces a single unlipoylatable domain (204) containing the Lys-244----Gln substitution.


In recent decades, water level of the Hoor-Al-Azim/Hawizeh wetland (located on border of Iran- Iraq) as Shared resources has reduced sharply. In shared watersheds, interactions between riparian countries of a water resource system can be considered by a system dynamic model. The proposed model simulated the interactions among water resource systems of Iran, Iraq and Turkey without interactions of Socio-economic subsystem over the period of 2004–2016, which can be used to analyze various scenarios in the shared basin of Hoor-Al-Azim/Hawizeh. In addition, this study has developed a system dynamics model for several decision makers with different interests, based on integrated watershed. The model was validated for extreme conditions and the results showed well-calibration of the developed model to reconstruct the behavior of different parameters within the system. The results also showed that Tigris inflow to Iraq from Turkey has been decreased significantly during the simulation period. Subsequently, the inflow to the Hoor-Al-Azim/ Hawizeh wetland during the simulation period had been 61% less than the environmental flow averagely. Moreover, the model results for two scenarios of GAP project completion and 10% reduction in cultivated area of the three countries showed that wetland inflow decreases to 400 MCM and increases to 1900 MCM, respectively. In general, the proposed model can be used as support tool to evaluate decisions of policy-makers in the region. Thereupon, results of model for different scenarios indicate that improvement of environmental conditions would be approached by management alternatives based on integration of basin


Endometrial cancer represents the most frequent neoplasia from the corpus uteri, and comprises the 14th leading cause of death in women worldwide. Risk factors that contribute to the disease include early menarche, late menopause, nulliparity, and menopausal hormone use, as well as hypertension and obesity comorbidities. The clinical effectiveness of chemotherapy is variable, suggesting that novel molecular targeted therapies against specific cellular processes associated with the maintenance of cancer cell survival and therapy resistance urged to ameliorate the rates of success in endometrial cancer treatment. In the course of tumor growth, cancer cells must adapt to decreased oxygen availability in the microenvironment by upregulation of hypoxia-inducible factors, which orchestrate the activation of a transcriptional program leading to cell survival. During this adaptative process, the hypoxic cancer cells may acquire invasive and metastatic properties as well as increased cell proliferation and resistance to chemotherapy, enhanced angiogenesis, vasculogenic mimicry, and maintenance of cancer cell stemness, which contribute to more aggressive cancer phenotypes. Several studies have shown that hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α) protein is aberrantly overexpressed in many solid tumors from breast, prostate, ovarian, bladder, colon, brain, and pancreas. Thus, it has been considered an important therapeutic target. Here, we reviewed the current knowledge of the relevant roles of cellular hypoxia mechanisms and HIF-1α functions in diverse processes associated with endometrial cancer progression. In addition, we also summarize the role of microRNAs in the posttranscriptional regulation of protein-encoding genes involved in the hypoxia response in endometrial cancer. Finally, we pointed out the need for urgent targeted therapies to impair the cellular processes activated by hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment.


The study of design does not seem to shift from the paradigm that design process is a complex and seems similar to the nature of a black box system. It is a process which can be viewed solely in terms of its input and output, without a detail prescription of the process to produce that output. The complex nature of design process, and architecture design in particular have been explained by experts (Alexander 1964, Anderson 1966 to name a few), but this thesis underlines the work around of the rigid clear box system of computing to get a reliably working non-wired-in process to support the notion of architecture design as a complex system.
The clear box nature of computing process is a fundamental characteristic of computing, so the process to be proposed has to work within this framework. The process would have to be prescribed or otherwise it cannot be executed. Many machines which given the same input and the same process, will all result in the same output. A single machine which given the same input and the same process to execute for many times will all result in the same output each time. However, the development of computing has enabled the processing of multiple inputs. The significant of parallel computing is that it seems to provide a window of epistemic autonomy within a process.
There is a large philosophical and theoretical discussion behind the notion of epistemic autonomy which this thesis tried to introduce a preliminary summary, and sums it into the following description. A system consists of one single bird and a process of how to fly may result in a bird flying. Given many birds and implementing flying process synchronously to all the birds could result in a swarm of birds. There is not much different to see one bird or many birds flying in the sky, except that in many birds that each are using the same flying process would result in an underlying flying configurations. The underlying flying configuration is not part of the system; it is an emergence of the system. So the emergence structure of flying bird was enabled by a window of epistemic autonomy which comes from the use of many flying birds as opposed to a single flying bird.
A window of epistemic autonomy seems to have been created in the programming experiments with the implementation of a basic Agent-Based Model (ABM) as ABM is inherently an autonomous non-wired in process (Cilliers, 1993). The coding is based on a system introduce by Reynolds (1987) which a program was already built and modified many times in projects within CECA – UEL. To put simply, the inputs are multiple copies of one type of entity placed in using randomizing code, and the process synchronously applied to all these copies are to move towards the closest out of other three neighboring entities.
The utilization of ABM into the programming experiment seems parallel with the findings in the literature review where it proposes a summary of a production of space by way of using a binary approach known to be brought up by Lefebvre (1974). Lefebvre seems to suggest that the very basis of spatial production is that space consists of either a moving or a non-moving social entity. Thus the criteria above since then been adapted to accommodate a simple social relations and this is called Social Preference Matrix (SPM). SPM is an original contribution in the form of coding that comes out of this thesis's programming experiment. To put simply, SPM enables the identification of heading towards the nearest out of three neighboring entities only when it is the specific entity it relates to in the SPM. When this is triggered, both entities i.e. the one moving towards to and the designated entity both will eventually within a specific constant distance with each other, and these will stay in a loop of attract and repel, which is perceived as simulation of these being stop moving.
The development of the programming experiment have found that when all entities are identified as occupying entities, eventually all entities will loop in attract and repel, i.e. all eventually will be non-moving. When introduce with non-occupying entities, i.e. those not identified and included in the SPM, then the possibility to have similar characteristic to what is known in the Configurational Theory as the movement space appears.
The specific of architectural production may be seen as an opposite of the dynamics seen in an underlying configuration of bird swarm. Architectural subjects particularly regarding spatial configurations seems to be required to be static; there is not known liquid or ever-changing spatial configurations. Thus instead merely producing a system of moving around entities in space, this then had to be translated into some static versions of events. In this programming experiment, these were built on the basis of notations provided by the Configurational Theory (Hillier, 1996). Interestingly, he also stated in his previous work (Hillier, 1978) that there is a production of space where a larger space is being divided into smaller space.
There is a body of research into programming headed by Mitchell, et.al (1976), which stretches for about three decades afterwards. However as far as the literature investigation went, none has seemed to explore the notion of epistemic autonomy in the production of spatial configurations. Following this finding, the programming experiment then added in a program called Voronoi Diagram (version coded in the programming experiment is as prescribed by Akl and Lyons, 1993) which enables several significant developments in producing spatial configurations by way of dividing space.
Firstly, the production of space by way of dividing space is based on an emergence of underlying configuration out of possible social relations between entities occupying the space. Secondly, the division is based on maximum arrangement of occupiable space between all occupying and non occupying entities, because Voronoi Diagram divided space equally in between all of the identified entities. Thirdly; a part from an emergence spatial relations by way of utilization of SPM within the ABM, the employment of Voronoi Diagram also enables the emergence of shapes and dimensions out of the divided space.
At the end of this study, the programming experiment has resulted in a programming framework named Spatial Languaging. A part from that there seems to be a promising field of research into programming under the notion of epistemic autonomy specifically develops for architectural systems, because there are numerous methods of parallel processing and many different media of implementing ABM. More importantly, the notion of structural emergence seems applicable to many aspects of architecture and all worth exploring.


The surface structure of carbonate reservoirs in China is rather complicated. The reservoirs are deeply buried, and dominated by secondary dissolution caves, holes, and fractures, which cause strong heterogeneity and anisotropy. Such geological settings make it extremely challenging to accurately image the fracture-cave unit, and this thus becomes the key issue in data processing.


In the geopolitical equation of the space in the proximity of Romania we have the largest actors (Russia), smaller players (Moldova) and players without international legitimacy (Transnistrian Republic). The geopolitical issue includes analysis of border crossings between the Russian and Euro-Atlantic border area, on the border strip represented by Republic of Moldova. The effect of the geopolitical tensions on the internal dynamics of policy in Republic of Moldova, the exclusive crisis dependence on the Dniester, i.e. the geopolitical and security blockage represented by the "frozen conflict" in Transnistria. The Military data show that the very existence of the Republic of Moldova is strictly determined by the Russian military presence and its geopolitical interests in the region, Republic of Moldova had the status of "buffer zone" of Russia against Romania, NATO and the European Union. The political aspect concerns the configuration of political forces and their coupling to external vectors (including geopolitical ones). Since Republic of Moldova is an independent state, independent and sovereign in its true sense, the main pressure vector control is the Russian state, which holds a significant military power in Republic of Moldova.


Introduction The water that comes from beneath the surface of the earth has from time immemorial been regarded by man as a mysterious boon—cold, clear, and presumably pure; wonderfully refreshing to the hot and weary wayfarer; essential, perhaps, to the very life of the community, yet without cost and generally regarded as inexhaustible; coming from some dark orifice in the earth, its source unknown and unknowable; a great blessing freely and mysteriously bestowed on man by some benevolent but capricious Providence. When, very rarely, in times of unusual drought, this mysterious blessing, which was regarded to be perennial and inexhaustible as the air itself, was cut off and the spring or well went dry, the occurrence was a calamity, in the face of which man stood helpless in fear and awe. When at last the geologist appeared, with his methods for beholding what is beneath the earth's surface, concealed from . . .


The northern part of the Kedougou Kenieba Inlier (Eastern Senegal) is composed of Palaeoproterozoic volcano‐plutonic and volcano‐sediment areas cross‐cut by differentiated plutonic bodies of gabbroic to granitic composition. They are emplaced in an arc‐type environment and accreted during the Eburnean Orogeny. We present here new K–Ar ages obtained on several plutons from different mineralogical phases, each characterized by a different closure temperature for the K–Ar system. Ages from hornblende, between 2013 ± 29 and 2141 ± 30 Ma, constrain the cooling history of the magma bodies through the 550 °C isotherm. They are slightly younger than U–Pb ages previously obtained from the same units, attesting of a rapid cooling, tectonically controlled, of about 7 °C/Myr. Ages obtained on biotite minerals range from 1955 ± 28 to 1893 ± 27 Ma, suggesting that from 550 to 325 °C, cooling rate decreased to about 3 °C/Myr. Significantly younger ages ranging from 1704 ± 24 to 1615 ± 23 Ma have been obtained on plagioclase and microcline. They can be interpreted in terms of either a slow cooling with a rate of only 1 °C/Myr, from about 1.9 to 1.6 Ga, or either reflecting the occurrence of a rather limited thermal event younger than 1.7 Ga. Since no age younger than 2.0 Ga has previously been obtained for plutonic rocks from the early Birimian in the West African Craton, ages of 1.7–1.6 Ga obtained here from feldspars might be the first evidence for a regional re‐heating event having occurred in the East–North Kedougou Kenieba inlier. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The research project described in this thesis details the characterization of monoclonal antibodies designed to react with the L1 protein of Human Papillomavirus type 31, as measured by specific laboratory assays. These antibodies were tested for reactivity against HPV31 L1 proteins in Western blots, enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays (ELISAs), and pseudovirus neutralization assays. The characterization of these antibodies is an important step in the production of second-generation HPV vaccines, where the antibodies would be used during the design and manufacturing process. The results of this research present characterization data for each of 48 different monoclonal antibodies produced as to their reactivity in Western blots, ELISAs, and pseudovirus neutralization assays. A wide range of reactivity across all antibodies was observed for each assay. After reviewing the completed data, reactive candidate monoclonal antibodies for each assay were determined and will be immediately utilized in various quality control steps in second-generation vaccine development in the Garcea Lab, expediting the production of more stable and cost-effective multivalent vaccines.


SUMMARY Data from the passive teleseismic experiment TOR across the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ), which took place in 1996^1997, are used to study the random structure of the lithosphere NE of the TESZ (the Baltic Shield beneath southern Sweden) and beneath the north German/Danish Basin. P coda waves from deep teleseismic events give information on the small-scale heterogeneity of the near-receiver lithosphere on scales of one wavelength. Using an energy £ux model, the time and frequency behaviour of the P coda has been interpreted in terms of scattering (Qs) and anelastic attenuation (Qi). Estimates of Qs were obtained for the frequency range 0.5^3 Hz for the north German/Danish Basin and 0.5^7 Hz for the Baltic Shield. The two areas show a diierent scattering behaviour. In Denmark/northern Germany the scattering (Qs& 125^200) is stronger than in southern Sweden (Qs&275^500) and the peak of Q {1 s occurs at higher frequencies NE of the TESZ. Anelastic attenuation is negligible for the Baltic Shield whereas for the north German/Danish Basin anelastic attenuation is present but still much weaker than scattering attenuation. With a modi¢ed energy £ux model for depth-dependent scattering, and assuming an exponential autocorrelation function, the depth variation of correlation length a and rms velocity £uctuation e can in principle be resolved. For the Baltic Shield the scattering is mostly con¢ned to the crust with a& 1k m ande&4 per cent. The subcrustal lithosphere only shows weak £uctuations. The data from the north German/Danish Basin cannot be explained by strong scattering within the crust only. Crustal parameters are a~5^10 km and e&8 per cent. For the subcrustal lithosphere, correlation lengths of 10^20 km and rms velocity £uctuations of 6^8 per cent are found. Additional tests con¢rmed that the thick sedimentary cover in this area has no signi¢cant eiect on these results for the deeper structure. Correlation lengths for the sediments are smaller than 5 km and rms velocity £uctuations e are 7^8 per cent.


The ring opening of 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions by bromide is known to occur exclusively at the substituted aziridine carbon atom via an S(N)2 mechanism, whereas the opposite regioselectivity has been observed as the main pathway for ring opening by fluoride. Similarly, the hydride-induced ring opening of 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions has been shown to take place solely at the less hindered position. To gain insight into the main factors causing this difference in regioselectivity, a thorough and detailed computational analysis was performed on the hydride- and halide-induced ring openings of 1-benzyl-1-(alpha-(R)-methylbenzyl)-2(S)-(phenoxymethyl)aziridinium bromide. Intramolecular pi-pi stacking interactions in the aziridinium system were investigated at a range of levels that enable a proper description of dispersive interactions; a T-stacking conformer was found to be the most stable. Ring-opening mechanisms were investigated with a variety of DFT and high level ab initio methods to test the robustness of the energetics along the pathway in terms of the electronic level of theory. The necessity to utilize explicit solvent molecules to solvate halide ions was clearly shown; the potential energy surfaces for nonsolvated and solvated cases differed dramatically. It was shown that in the presence of a kinetically viable route, product distribution will be dictated by the energetically preferred pathway; this was observed in the case of hard nucleophiles (both hydride donors and fluoride). However, for the highly polarizable soft nucleophile (bromide), it was shown that in the absence of a large energy difference between transition states leading to competing pathways, the formation of the thermodynamic product is likely to be the driving force. Distortion/interaction analysis on the transition states has shown a considerable difference in interaction energies for the solvated fluoride case, pointing to the fact that sterics plays a major role in the outcome, whereas for the bromide this difference was insignificant, suggesting bromide is less influenced by the difference in sterics.


Each winter, more than 300 million blackbirds and starlings congregate in hundreds of roosting sites in the southeastern United States. In addition to nuisance problems involving odor and property damage from fecal material, and potential airport hazards, research studies to date suggest that the major problems with these birds and their roosts involve grain losses in feedlots, latent disease transmission to livestock, and public health concerns with histoplasmosis. Control methods development studies have shown the utility of Starlicide and nonchemical control methods in reducing starling feedlot problems. A sprinkler-irrigation delivery system for the surfactant, PA-14, has been developed that enhances its usefulness for lethal roost management. Research is being continued to (1) define the behavior and impact of roosting birds on the livestock industry, (2) improve methods of dispersing birds from roost sites, and (3) determine the effect of lethal roost control on subsequent roosting and foraging bird populations.


The proposal presented here is a research project integrated into the framework of the R+D+i EDU 2012-34000, which plans to carry out an assessment of the development of key competences in students and teachers who belong to Secondary Education, and to implement formative programs for the development of key competences based on the use of ICT.
 This study aims to validate an assessment instrument that measures the current level of information literacy based on international standards and adapted to the Spanish curriculum, for students who belong to the second cycle of Compulsory Secondary Education.
 In the first phase, the research shows the process of compilation of rules handbooks published that are related to the information literacy. Together with the comparison between the table of specifications, the curriculum of Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain, which results in 42 standards, and the selection of key standards with numeric criteria.
 From the application of a non-experimental design of type expost-facto, it shows the standards finally selected at the end of the valuation process based on three criteria: international standards, curricular aspects and valuation on behalf of highly qualified judges.


Purpose- This paper provides a case study of an ORCID promotion at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science, providing context for the importance of education in ORCID outreach. Design/methodology/approach- The 3-month ORCID promotion used workshops and individual appointments to educate faculty about ORCID, identity management systems and research impact and scholarly communications. Findings- A targeted and personal approach to ORCID promotion focused on education about why you might use this author disambiguation system resulted in 80% of the faculty within the School of Optometry and Vision Science signing up for or using ORCID. Scaling an ORCID implementation to a larger group would likely benefit from a) a dedicated project group, and b) integration with existing institutional systems such as a requirement of an ORCID for internal grant applications. Originality- Although time consuming, this small-scale ORCID promotion with one department reveals that a departmental approach to ORCID education may lead to larger conversations about scholarly communications and a stronger relationship between faculty and the library.


Information literacy, the concept most associated with inculcating the attributes necessary to behave in a strategic, thoughtful and ethical manner in the face of a superfluity of information, has been part of the information specialist scene for many years. As the United Kingdom's QAA benchmark statements for Politics and International Relations highlight, many of the competences associated with this concept are vital in the honourable struggle to become a successful graduate of those disciplines. This article presents a longitudinal study of a survey used to expose the information literacy levels of two groups of first-year Politics/IR students at a British university and, using the logic of 'most similar design', make informed inferences about the level of students' information literacy on coming into tertiary education.


The Peninsula Formation of the lower Paleozoic Cape Basin is well exposed on the Cape Peninsula, where it comprises a 750-m-thick quartz arenite complex transgressively overlying back-barrier tidal flat deposits. Five sandstone facies are distinguished on the basis of distinct assemblages of sedimentary structures. The two lowermost facies are relatively thin and consist of northwestward (landward)-dipping plane-bedded sandstones, interpreted as barrier washover deposits, and small-scale back-barrier tidal channels, with cross-bedding of variable direction. At a higher stratigraphic level are large-scale channel deposits, which are ascribed to the lateral migration of tidal inlets. These sequences are characterized by ebb-oriented cross-bedding at the base, with smaller scale sets of longshore-directed or flood-oriented cross-bedding in the upper parts. A facies interpreted as beach foreshore, comprising seaward-dipping plane beds with multiple discordances and heavy mineral laminae, is occasionally preserved above the inlet sequences. The upper part of the Peninsula succession is dominated by tabular and lenticular sandstone bodies with megasets as much as 10 m thick showing complex internal organization of smaller structures. These intrasets are mainly trough crossbeds that are inclined either in the same direction as the major foresets or at a variable angle to them. This facies is compared with the tidal sand ridges and sand waves of North Sea type. A large proportion of the Peninsula tidal sand bodies migrated southwestward parallel to the shoreline; others are directed offshore. The considerable thickness of the Peninsula transgressive sandstone is attributed to gradual subsidence balanced by substantial sediment supply, introduced mainly by a braided alluvial complex to the northwest. This led to vertical stacking of facies. Barrier inlet migration was rapid compared with the rate of transgression, thereby obliterating many of the features characteristic of barrier island deposits. The several-hundred-metre thickness of tidal sand body deposits indicates that the water depth remained within the critical limits of tidal current dominance. This regime was eventually terminated by marine regression and the accumulation of fossiliferous lagoonal siltstones and glaciogenic diamictites. It is suggested that deposition of the Peninsula Formation was strongly influenced by storm processes. Extensive barrier washover sheet sands are attributed to storm surge. Furthermore, the two-part sequence within the tidal sandbar facies of a basal pebbly unit overlain by plane-bedded, fine-grained sandstone without heavy mineral segregation is identical to modern storm-generated sequences off Long Island, New York. The perpendicular to oblique relationship of shoreface channels to the tidal sandbars suggests incision by storm surge ebb currents, which deposited a pebbly lag on the bar toes.


This article provides a historical overview of the cultural institutionalization of photography in France, with a particular focus on the pioneering initiatives of individual photography enthusiasts throughout the 1970s to promote photographic culture. These efforts were roughly simultaneous with changes in acquisition and exhibition practices on the part of fine art museums and collections with respect to photography, in response to an increasing world-wide recognition of its status as an art form. The article explains how, despite the promotion of photography as a French invention and a contribution to culture (as early as its inception in 1839), an active cultural politics of photography did not emerge until the early to mid-1980s and was an opportune reaction to, and institutionalized framing of, ground-level cultural developments already underway.


Background: Comprehension deficits that typify adults with right brain damage (RBD) have been linked to considerations of processing capacity and processing demands, as well as to ineffective suppression of mental activation that is incompatible with a contextually intended interpretation. Aims: As a first step in investigating how processing resource factors and more specific difficulties like suppression deficits interact to yield characteristic RBD comprehension patterns, the current study was designed to assess whether suppression function consumes attention. Methods & Procedures: A total of 28 RBD and 22 non-brain-damaged adults listened to sentence stimuli that biased the meaning of a sentence-final lexical ambiguity (e.g., "spade"). The suppression task involved speeded judgements of whether a subsequent spoken probe word fitted the overall sentence meaning. In experimental stimuli, the probe word (e.g., "cards") was unrelated to the biased meaning of the ambiguity. Comparison stimuli ended in an unambiguous word (e.g., "shovel") that was clearly unrelated to the spoken probe. Thus, slowness after an experimental sentence, relative to its comparison sentence, indicated that the contextually inappropriate meaning of the experimental ambiguity interfered with the probesentence relatedness judgement (i.e., had not been suppressed). In two dual-task conditions, participants allocated 20% or 50% of their "brain power" to a concurrent secondary task, reporting orally whether the probe word consisted of one or two syllables. Outcomes & Results: For both groups, suppression of contextually unintended meanings of lexical ambiguities was more effective in a single-task condition than when attention was shared with a secondary task. The secondary syllable-counting task also suffered when allocated less attention. Conclusions: Effective suppression consumes finite processing capacity. As elaborated in the paper, several combinations of these variables could underlie relatively good and poor comprehension after RBD. Researchers and clinicians need to keep in mind such potential interactions of ineffective comprehension mechanisms, stimulus/task processing demands, and processing capacity.


BACKGROUND
Inadequate food intake plays an important role in the development of malnutrition in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients. Aim of the study. The aim of the study was to investigate in CAPD patients whether circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) bioactivity may offer a more sensitive index to acute nutritional interventions than total IGF-I.

METHODS
An open-label, randomized, crossover study of 2 days-with a 1-week interval-was performed in 12 CAPD patients in the fed state to compare a mixture of amino acids (Nutrineal 1.1%) plus glucose (AA plus G) (Physioneal 1.36% to 3.86%) dialysate versus G only as control dialysate. Fed-state conditions were created by identical liquid hourly meals. IGF-I bioactivity was measured by the kinase receptor activation assay (IGF-I KIRA); total IGF-I was measured by immunoassay.

RESULTS
In the fed state, both after AA plus G as well as after G dialysis IGF-I bioactivity increased compared to baseline, while no changes in circulating total IGF-I levels were observed in both treatment arms. However, the increase in IGF-I bioactivity was only significant after AA plus G dialysis (P = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results provide evidence that in CAPD patients changes in circulating IGF-I bioactivity are associated with nutrient intake and that IGF-I bioactivity rather than total IGF-I is involved in acute responses to nutritional interventions in CAPD patients.