One of the foundations of science is that researchers must publish the methodology used to achieve their results so that others can attempt to reproduce them. This has the added benefit of allowing methods to be adopted and adapted for other purposes. In the field of e-Science, services – often choreographed through workflow, process data to generate results. The reproduction of results is often not straightforward as the computational objects may not be made available or may have been updated since the results were generated. For example, services are often updated to fix bugs or improve algorithms. This paper addresses these problems in three ways. Firstly, it introduces a new framework to clarify the range of meanings of "reproducibility". Secondly, it describes a new algorithm, PDIFF, that uses a comparison of workflow provenance traces to determine whether an experiment has been reproduced; the main innovation is that if this is not the case then the specific point(s) of divergence are identified through graph analysis, assisting any researcher wishing to understand those differences. One key feature is support for user-defined, semantic data comparison operators. Finally, the paper describes an implementation of PDIFF that leverages the power of the e-Science Central platform which enacts workflows in the cloud. As well as automatically generating a provenance trace for consumption by PDIFF, the platform supports the storage and re-use of old versions of workflows, data and services; the paper shows how this can be powerfully exploited in order to achieve reproduction and re-use. Copyright c © 0000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Anderson-Fabry disease is possibly underdiagnosed in patients with end-stage renal disease. Nationwide screening was therefore undertaken for Anderson-Fabry disease among dialysis patients in Austria. Screening for alpha-galactosidase A (AGAL) deficiency was performed by a blood spot test. In patients with a positive screening test, AGAL activity in leukocytes was determined. Individuals with decreased leukocyte AGAL activity were subjected to mutation testing in the GLA gene. Fifty (90.9%) of 55 Austrian hemodialysis centers participated in this study; 2480 dialysis patients (80.1% of the Austrian dialysis population) were screened. In 85 patients, the screening test was positive (85 of 2480, 3.42%; women, 3.32%; men, 3.50%). Among these 85 patients, 4 men (in 3 of whom Anderson-Fabry disease was already known before screening) had a severely decreased and 11 subjects had a borderline low AGAL activity. Genetic testing revealed mutations associated with Fabry disease in all four men with severely decreased AGAL activity resulting in a prevalence of 0.161% for the entire study population. A nationwide screening of dialysis patients permitted detection of a hitherto unknown man with Anderson-Fabry disease. The overall prevalence among dialysis patients was at least ten times higher as compared with recent registry data. Screening programs among patients with end-stage renal disease, especially men, should be put in place to identify families with Anderson-Fabry disease who probably may benefit from specific clinical care, and perhaps from enzyme replacement therapy. In dialysis patients, however, there is no evidence to support enzyme replacement therapy at present.


For antiretroviral therapy (ART) nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI), protease inhibitors (PI) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) are available, and are used in combination treatments. The use of PI is associated with new side effects, in particular affecting lipid metabolism. The objective of treatment continues to be a maximum reduction of the viral load. The question whether to treat the HIV early on or later is under controversial discussion. Simplified therapeutic regimens making possible single or twice-daily doses and the use of small numbers of tablets represent a major advance in ART.


ABSTRACT: Cover crops help control erosion, prevent nutrient leaching, fix nitrogen, improve sail conditions, and protect seedlings, but also use water, thus affecting soil water relationships far the next crop. Effects are positive when cover crops are managed to improve infiltration and decrease evaporation, or to remove water from a wet soil to allow timely establishment of the next crop. Effects are negative when they limit water for the next crop or aggravate a wet soil condition. Cover crops are better suited to humid and subhumid regions where precipitation is more reliable than to semiarid regions where precipitation is limited. Where cover crops are not used, use of conservation tillage that involves crop residue retention on the soil surface helps conserve soil water and provides many of the benefits of cover crops, except for nitrogen fixation, soil nutrient (especially nitrate) uptake to prevent leaching, excess water removal, and additional organic matter inputs.


Flexographic print is a technology that is growing in popularity, especially in the packaging industry,due to its ability of printing on a wide variety of substrate types. Advances in ensuring good quality from flexographic processes have helped to bolster flexographic printing's limited usage in the past decades. However, improving the quality of flexographic print products to a level that matches that of other mainstream printing methods is still needed. One common defect that affects flexographic print quality is mottling, which has been studied extensively in e.g. offset prints. At Innventia, a dependable method of calculating mottle numerically that highly correlates with subjective observations has been researched. This method has been applied into developing software called STFI-Mottle, which processes scanned images of halftones and returns average mottle values for them. In the case of this thesis, the goal has been to investigate what sort of characteristics in halftones caused by flexographiclead to a diminished halftone print quality on coated kraft board substrates. These characteristics were studied by examining dot uniformity in pre-printed samples of 30% halftone prints, then evaluating the data gathered with the ambition of finding a correlation between dot feature variations and print mottle. The mottle values that were used for analysis and discussion were computed using STFI-Mottle.The initial reasoning was that "white spots" found within the samples' raster dots should be closely examined, as they might provide clues to explaining unexpected print mottle. The 30% halftone cyan regions of printed samples were scanned with a high-resolution Creo iQsmart3uniformity analysis was done with Matlab-based dot property calculation software. Thresholding was employed in image analysis in order to separate printed dots from unprinted substrate surface. A mottle evaluation was performed, focusing on the mottle values that were measured in the R channel using the same RGB images that were produced during scanning. Every data variable was compiled into a mean average for each sample, based on five to three signatures. Distribution histograms, simple linear regression and multiple linear regression were used to find meaningful correlations between measured data and mottle values.The study resulted in some significant correlations between variables established as quality indicators, but also showed possible new connections between variables that can express dot uniformity and print mottle. Some variables' viability as mottle predictors has been rejected, while others are presented as new opportunities for study. The deeper implications of some of the variables analysed could not be investigated, but a foundation for a methodology to conduct similar research has been laid.Furthermore, the thesis has yielded an initial base of knowledge on new objective data that might be used as alternative measurements for quantifying print quality. In conclusion, the study indicated that there are dot uniformity variables that can be linked to print mottle, if not by themselves, then usingvarious combinations of them. Future research may determine the most accurate way that they can accomplish this.scanner. Next, a dot


ABSTRACT Antiretroviral therapy can suppress HIV replication to undetectable levels but does not eliminate latent HIV, thus necessitating lifelong therapy. Recent efforts to target this persistent reservoir have focused on inducing the expression of latent HIV so that infected cells may be recognized and eliminated by the immune system. Toll-like receptor (TLR) activation stimulates antiviral immunity and has been shown to induce HIV from latently infected cells. Activation of TLR7 leads to the production of several stimulatory cytokines, including type I interferons (IFNs). In this study, we show that the selective TLR7 agonist GS-9620 induced HIV in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from HIV-infected individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy. GS-9620 increased extracellular HIV RNA 1.5- to 2-fold through a mechanism that required type I IFN signaling. GS-9620 also activated HIV-specific T cells and enhanced antibody-mediated clearance of HIV-infected cells. Activation by GS-9620 in combination with HIV peptide stimulation increased CD8 T cell degranulation, production of intracellular cytokines, and cytolytic activity. T cell activation was again dependent on type I IFNs produced by plasmacytoid dendritic cells. GS-9620 induced phagocytic cell maturation and improved effector-mediated killing of HIV-infected CD4 T cells by the HIV envelope-specific broadly neutralizing antibody PGT121. Collectively, these data show that GS-9620 can activate HIV production and improve the effector functions that target latently infected cells. GS-9620 may effectively complement orthogonal therapies designed to stimulate antiviral immunity, such as therapeutic vaccines or broadly neutralizing antibodies. Clinical studies are under way to determine if GS-9620 can target HIV reservoirs. IMPORTANCE Though antiretroviral therapies effectively suppress viral replication, they do not eliminate integrated proviral DNA. This stable intermediate of viral infection is persistently maintained in reservoirs of latently infected cells. Consequently, lifelong therapy is required to maintain viral suppression. Ultimately, new therapies that specifically target and eliminate the latent HIV reservoir are needed. Toll-like receptor agonists are potent enhancers of innate antiviral immunity that can also improve the adaptive immune response. Here, we show that a highly selective TLR7 agonist, GS-9620, activated HIV from peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from HIV-infected individuals with suppressed infection. GS-9620 also improved immune effector functions that specifically targeted HIV-infected cells. Previously published studies on the compound in other chronic viral infections show that it can effectively induce immune activation at safe and tolerable clinical doses. Together, the results of these studies suggest that GS-9620 may be useful for treating HIV-infected individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy.


RILEY, Tiffany Lynn. Nanocrystalline Metal/Metal Hydrides for Fuel Cell Applications. (Under the direction of Jagannadham Kasichainula.) Formation of nanocrystalline films by low temperature deposition of metallic films was investigated with special emphasis for hydrogen storage. Large grain boundary volume associated with nanocrystalline films was shown to be favorable for hydrogen absorption and hydride formation in zirconium and titanium metals. Nanocrystalline films of titanium and zirconium were deposited on porous alumina and silicon substrates via low temperature deposition (-50C). Low substrate temperature was obtained by circulating nitrogen gas through the substrate holder. Nitrogen gas was cooled by passing through a coil that was submerged in liquid nitrogen. The films were charged with hydrogen via molecular and ionic charging. The films were characterized for microstructure, crystallinity, hydrogen capacity, and kinetics of hydrogen absorption and desorption using several techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and electrical resistance measurements. High resolution TEM was used to determine the volume fraction of amorphous region and grain size. The shift in the X-ray diffraction peaks with lattice parameter changes resulting from hydrogen incorporation in the lattice and the increase in half-peak-width with smaller grain size were determined. X-ray mapping, line scan, and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) to identify different elements present in the films were used along with secondary electron imaging in the SEM to determine morphology and composition. Optical microscopy was also employed at higher magnification to examine the morphology of the hydrides from the surface of the films. The relative hydrogen capacity in the hydrogen charged films compared to that in the films without hydrogen charging was determined by SIMS depth profiling analysis. Electrical resistance measurements as a function of temperature were instrumental in identifying the presence of hydrogen in the films. Annealing with varying temperature was carried out to determine the kinetics of desorption. The results show that the films deposited at low temperature were much smaller in grain size than those deposited at room temperature. Hydrogen concentration was much greater in the films deposited at low temperature, and also, hydride concentration was much higher in the hydrogen plasma treated (ionic charged) films deposited at low temperature. The results clearly show that low temperature physical vapor deposition of nancrystalline films is a favorable method for zirconium and titanium alloys. NANOCRYSTALLINE METAL/METAL HYDRIDES FOR FUEL CELL APPLICATIONS


The T7 bacteriophage RNA polymerase (T7 RNAP) serves as a model for understanding RNA synthesis, as a tool for protein expression, and as an actuator for synthetic gene circuit design in bacterial cells and cell-free extract. T7 RNAP is an attractive tool for orthogonal protein expression in bacteria owing to its compact single subunit structure and orthogonal promoter specificity. Understanding the mechanisms underlying T7 RNAP regulation is important to the design of engineered T7-based transcription factors, which can be used in gene circuit design. To explore regulatory mechanisms for T7 RNAP-driven expression, we developed a rapid and cost-effective method to characterize engineered T7-based transcription factors using cell-free protein synthesis and an acoustic liquid handler. Using this method, we investigated the effects of the tetracycline operator's proximity to the T7 promoter on the regulation of T7 RNAP-driven expression. Our results reveal a mechanism for regulation that functions by interfering with the transition of T7 RNAP from initiation to elongation and validates the use of the method described here to engineer future T7-based transcription factors. Highlights Development of a rapid and cost-effective method for screening synthetic promoters. Insights into the regulation of engineered T7-based transcription factors and T7 RNAP enzyme kinetics. Validation of this method by comparison with the T7 RNAP kinetic model.


This article addresses the implications of the cost of warfare and the debt burdens that typically arise from conflicts. It examines how much Britain's public debt rose during and after the Seven Years' War and the implications of this growth. While it considers the various reasons for the dramatic rise, the primary focus is military spending. The addition of the North American continent as a major theater of war created the need for higher spending and helped double the national debt from the pre-war total. As with modern economic issues, contemporary discussion of the debt crisis became a normal talking point in letters and political debates. Ultimately, this article supports the argument that the Seven Years' War contributed to the American Revolution via the unexpected fiscal pressures on Great Britain.


The purpose of this study was to demonstrate strategies in teaching the Archimedes law in the concept of floating, hovering, and sinking using egg as a model to students with hearing impairment (SHI). This study used a single-subject design with pre-test and post-test. The subjects of this study were three students with SHI at the Bandung Vocational School, Indonesia. Teaching was delivered using several methods, in which we used and compared 'conventional teaching method' and 'combination of conventional method and experimental demonstration'. The conventional method was done by giving lectures, question and answer, and assignments. The experimental demonstration was carried out by doing experiment and observing the eggs that were sinking, hovering, and floating. The results showed that the conventional teaching method was ineffective. Students with SHI found it difficult to understand an abstract concept because they have problems in auditory perception. However, when combining experimental demonstration supported with media, the difficult subjects could be taught to students with SHI. The reason for achieving successful teaching was because the experimental demonstration method improved students' focus, helping students with SHI to easily understand the subject matter. This study also gives idea that the teacher must choose visual learning methods and media to make them as attractive as possible. Indeed, understanding the Archimedes law is important for students to understand advanced subjects related to the Archimedes law in vocational school.


Traditional methods regard coverage area of radar network as the union of every radar's coverage area. Aiming at this issue, the relationship among radar detection range, radar cross section, signal-to-noise ratio, detection probability and false alarm probability is analyzed. Detection probability model for single radar is established. Calculation method of detection probability for radar network is also researched. Coverage area of radar network can be obtained according to the detection probability. Simulation results show coverage area of radar network is not simply the union of every radar's coverage area and it is decided by the detection probability. Research of this paper provides a theoretical base of detecting, tracking and placement for radar network.


Factorization Machine (FM) is an effective solution for context-aware recommender systems (CARS) which models second-order feature interactions by inner product. However, it is insufficient to capture high-order and nonlinear interaction signals. While several recent efforts have enhanced FM with neural networks, they assume the embedding dimensions are independent from each other and model high-order interactions in a rather implicit manner. In this paper, we propose Convolutional Factorization Machine (CFM) to address above limitations. Specifically, CFM models second-order interactions with outer product, resulting in ''images'' which capture correlations between embedding dimensions. Then all generated ''images'' are stacked, forming an interaction cube. 3D convolution is applied above it to learn high-order interaction signals in an explicit approach. Besides, we also leverage a self-attention mechanism to perform the pooling of features to reduce time complexity. We conduct extensive experiments on three real-world datasets, demonstrating significant improvement of CFM over competing methods for context-aware top-k recommendation.


Objective. Our study uses the entire proteomes of serum and synovial fluid (SF) to characterize the avenues of microvascular egress of plasma proteins, and quantifies that traffic in normal and diseased human knees. Methods. Paired aliquots of serum and SF were collected from 17 knees of 11 subjects who died without evident joint disease and 16 patients with clinical effusions, fractionated by gel filtration chromatography and analyzed as continuous plots of the SF/serum concentration ratio versus molecular radius from 1 to 12 nanometers (nm). Curve-stripping methodology, a 3-pore model, and known protein kinetics were then applied to estimate the dimensions of and the net outflow through fenestral, "small," and "large" apertures in the microvascular endothelium. Results. The 3-pore model correlated highly with the observed data (r = 0.992 in normal and 0.980 in arthritis), yielding the following mean values: for the fenestra, the normal radius (nm) was 1.75 and the effused 3.5, and the normal flow (μl/min) was 1.74 and the arthritic 22.0; for the small pore, the normal radius was 8.6 and the effused 8.5, and the normal flow was 1.5 and the arthritic flow 9.1; for the large pore, the normal radius was 40 and the effused 36, and the normal flow was 0.24 and the arthritic flow 15.5. Conclusion. These findings provide the first functional definition of synovial, endothelial fenestrae; reveal that the "increased vascular permeability" of inflammation is not limited to interendothelial gaps; present evidence suggesting that glycocalyceal damage and aquaporin upregulation may affect permeability in arthritic synovium; and define a straightforward methodology for interpretation of biomarker concentrations in arthritic SF. (First Release Nov 1 2011; J Rheumatol 2011;38:2635–42; doi:10.3899/ jrheum.110785)


Recently, social bots, (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through "opinion machines" created headlines around the globe. As a consequence, much research effort has been put into the classification and detection of social bots. Yet, it is still unclear how easy an average online media user can purchase social bots, which platforms they target, where they originate from, and how sophisticated these bots are. This work provides a much needed new perspective on these questions. By providing insights into the markets of social bots in the clearnet and darknet as well as an exhaustive analysis of freely available software tools for automation during the last decade, we shed light on the availability and capabilities of automated profiles in social media platforms. Our results confirm the increasing importance of social bot technology but also uncover an as yet unknown discrepancy of theoretical and practically achieved artificial intelligence in social bots: while literature reports on a high degree of intelligence for chat bots and assumes the same for social bots, the observed degree of intelligence in social bot implementations is limited. In fact, the overwhelming majority of available services and software are of supportive nature and merely provide modules of automation instead of fully fledged "intelligent" social bots.


We discuss the valley-orbit interaction (VOI) and the concept of VOI based valleytronics. Potential of such valleytronics is illustrated, with graphene as an example material, in several frontier applications comprising FETs, quantum computing, and quantum communications. Two important devices are discussed as examples, namely, 1) valley pair qubits in coupled graphene quantum dots, to build quantum networks consisting of graphene and photons, and 2) valleybased FETs consisting of graphene quantum wires (channels) and armchair graphene nanoribbons (sources and drains), to build graphene-based, low-power FET circuits. This demonstration makes the VOI-based valleytronics an attractive R & D direction in the area of electronics.


Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to determine what effect a bilateral strength training regimen has on isometric force production symmetry and if changes in force production symmetry can be accounted for by differences in pre-intervention strength levels. Design: Sixteen recreationally trained males (1-RM squat: 146.8 ± 23.0 kg.) were assigned to two groups for the 7-week training intervention: strong (S) and weak (W) based on pre-training squat isometric peak force allometrically scaled (IPFa) at 120° knee angle. Methods: Subjects completed a 7-week training intervention following a block-periodized model and were tested on measures of dynamic (1RM squat) and isometric (isometric squat at 90° and 120° knee angle) strength preand post-intervention. The degree of bilateral lower limb asymmetry was calculated as a percentage where 0% symmetry index (SI) indicates perfect symmetry on the isometric squat. Results: ANCOVA results showed no statistical difference between groups for all dependent variables when pre-intervention IPFa 120° scores were used as the covariate. Paired t-tests results showed both groups statistically improved 1RM squat and IPFa 120° (p < 0.05). IPFa 120° SI decreased statistically from pre-training in the W group (p = 0.03). Independent t-test results showed the W group had statistically larger pre-intervention SI scores for IPFa 90° (p = 0.045) and IPFa 120° (p = 0.007); however this difference was no longer present following strength training. There was a strong inverse relationship between pooled IPFa 120° and IPFa 120° SI (r = -0.64, p = 0.004). Conclusions: The findings of the current study support the notion that weaker individuals can augment lower limb symmetry with strength training. The same does not seem to be true for stronger individuals who already have a low symmetry index score. These findings indicate that strength training improves force production symmetry in relatively weak males, which may be important for bilateral tasks and injury potential reduction. (Journal of Trainology 2014;3:6-10)


Ultrashort laser pulses have enabled highly precise and delicate processing of biological specimens. We present the results of using femtosecond (fs) laser pulses for dissection of zona pellucida (ZP) in mouse embryos during assisted hatching procedure and for trophectoderm biopsy as well. We studied the effects of application of fs laser radiation in the infrared (1028 nm) and visible (514 nm) wavelength ranges. Laser irradiation parameters were optimized so as not to compromise the viability of the treated embryos. Embryo biopsy was carried out in late-stage mouse preimplantation embryos. Femtosecond laser pulses were applied to detach the desired amount of trophectoderm cells from the blastocyst, while the optical tweezers trapped the cells and moved them out of the embryo. The parameters of laser radiation were optimized so as to efficiently perform embryo biopsy and preserve the viability of the treated embryos. The thermal effects can be significantly lower when fs lasers are used as compared to CW or long-pulse lasers. It is crucial when dealing with living cells or organisms.


Knowledge management is becoming a fashion in many organizations. This entails the danger that large investments in knowledge externalization are made with little short-term repayment. Moreover, there is a risk that knowledge management administrations operate in parallel and with little connection to the business processes. We argue that the main purpose of business knowledge is improved action, and therefore we must interrelate processes of knowledge creation and usage with the normal business processes both on a conceptual and a system level. The paper presents a model-based approach for solving this integration problem, and describes an implementation architecture which links knowledges processes to a workflow environment. Experiences in an organization where our system was successfully installed indicate that such a "light-weight" integrated solution offers a relatively easy and immediately useful entry point into organizational knowledge management.


Visual rehabilitation after cataract surgery may often be disappointing due to induction of corneal astigmatism following issues in realigning, point to point, the corneal wound margin in the process of surgery despite biometry and use of the appropriateintraocular lens. The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of surgically induced astigmatism after sutured cataract extraction-extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and intracapsular cataract extraction (ICCE) and intraocular lens (IOL)implantation in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Folders of all cataract patients operated on in the eye theatre of the aforenamed tertiary facility between2002 and 2006 were considered.  Relevant patient details and intraoperative and postoperative management were examined and reported upon. One hundred and fourteen eyes (114) of one hundred patients who had cataract surgeries done within the five-year period of this study were examined. ECCE + IOL implantation were examined in the period under review. The post-operative refraction objectively and subjectively was retrieved from the records of each patient. The post-operative cylinderpower (total astigmatism) was recorded.Of 114 eyes, only 83 eyes (72.8%) had refraction results postoperatively due to loss of fol- low-up. The total number with astigmatism was 57(68.7%). Forty-two had against-the-rule (73.7%), twelve (21.1%) with-the-rule, while five (0.09%) were oblique. The mean post-operative astigmatism was 1.85 D. The surgically induced corneal astigmatism was highest with ECCE with PCIOL. Astigmatism less than 2 D was highest in this group (ECCE with IOL) while ICCE with ACIOL had the highest number with astigmatism in the range between 2 D and 4 D. The total astigmatism which was mainly with-the-rule (vertical plus cylinder) did not seem to impair severely the post-operative visual acuity of the patients.In conclusion, surgically induced astigmatism affected almost 75% of the patients operated and refracted within the period under review. This can be reduced with better operating skills using small incision suture-less techniques. Existing postoperative astigmatism can be reduced by suture cutting at specific periods particularly if there is follow-up at the critical periods. (S Afr Optom 2011 70(2)75-80)


Purpose:  To determine the effect of Pars Plana Vitrectomy on the central corneal thickness(CCT)and its influence on intraocular pressure(IOP).
Study Design:  Interventional case series.
Place and Duration of Study:  This research was conducted at Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from October 2022 to March 2023.
Methods:  Forty-one patients of either sexpresenting with posterior segment disease and planned for Pars Plana vitrectomy (PPV) were selected after written informed consent. Pre and post-operative comparison of CCT and IOP was done using paired t-test. Follow-up of readings was done by repeated measures ANOVA test. BCVA measurements were based on the Snellen chart and were converted to the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) scale for statistical analysis.
Results:  CCT and IOP of the affected eyes were increased considerably in the first post-operative week (CCT=591 ± 1.5,IOP=28 ± 1.5)and decreased significantly in the 3rd month(CCT=527 ± 1.34, IOP=13 ± 2.5). The change was insignificant at 6thmonth follow-up. BCVA was improved in first week (626 ± 1.34) and remained same throughout the follow-up period. Maximum change in CCT (ΔCCT)was found in age <15 years and in aphakic eyes (119 ± 0.09).
Conclusion:  Pars Plana vitrectomy causes significant change in CCTwhich can influenceIOP. This change should be kept in mind to prevent false diagnosis of glaucoma in the early post-operative period of PPV. Young patients and Aphakic eyes are more prone to the corneal changes.


A robust multi-period model is proposed to minimize the energy consumption of IP networks, while guaranteeing the satisfaction of uncertain traffic demands. Energy savings are achieved by putting into sleep mode cards and chassis. The study of the solution robustness shows that there is a trade-off between energy consumption and the solutions conservatism degree. The model allows this trade-off to be tuned by simply modifying a single parameter per link. The multi-period optimization is constrained by inter-period limitations necessary to guarantee network stability. Both, exact and heuristic methods are proposed. Results show that up to 60% of the energy savings can be achieved for realistic test scenarios in networks operated with flow-based routing protocols (i.e. MPLS) and with a good level of robustness to traffic variations. Les Cahiers du GERAD G–2013–101 1


Integration of the wind power into the existing transmission grid is an important issue due to discontinuous and volatile behavior of wind. Moreover, the power plant owners need reliable information about day-ahead power production for market operations. Therefore, wind power forecasting approaches have been gaining importance in renewable energy research area. The Wind Power Monitoring and Forecast System for Turkey (RITM) currently monitors a growing number of wind power plants in Turkey, and uses wind power measurements in addition to different numerical weather predictions to generate short-term power forecasts. Forecasting models of RITM give considerably good results individually. However, forecast combination approaches are frequently used in order not to rely on a single forecast model, and also utilize forecast diversification. In this paper, an analysis of wind power domain and the current wind power forecasting methods of RITM are presented. Then, three main forecast combination approaches, namely Lp-norm based combination, FSS (Fuzzy Soft Sets) based combination and tree-based combination, are proposed to provide better forecasts. These combination methods have been verified on forecasts data of RITM in terms of normalized mean absolute error (NMAE) metric. The experimental results show that all of the applied combination methods give lower NMAE rates for most of the wind power plants compared to individual forecasts.


The mining industry has faced intense challenges and disruptions from global trends. The mining industry needs to perform a transformation to survive. The important thing for mining companies in technological adoption is digital transformation. XYZ is a holding company with many subsidiaries with primary businesses in the coal mining sector spread throughout Indonesia. As part of digital transformation, one of the company's initiatives is to centralize IT resources into one organization, with the objective can share its utilization with all subsidiaries. IT's centralization and shared services caused problems, such as human resources in different company ownership, budget allocation among companies, and the structure of financing and utilization of IT resources for use. The problem was solved by mapping all the components' IT roles at the company based on the framework created by Applegate, Austin, and Soule. Mapping the role of IT in this company can be used as a guideline to make organizational change. Organizational changes that need to be done base on analysis is to change the structure of the organization of IT into a bimodal model, its combination between the Functional-Lean model and Matrix-Agile model. The Functional-Lean model provides organizations as a function to keep lean but can deliver high standard services and keep it stable. The Matrix-Agile model can provide agility for the organization to develop new and run projects. IT Governance at XYZ will use the Federal model.


This paper proposes a new power-assist control in pushing task as an intelligent function of wheelchair by repulsive compliance control. In this strategy, the reaction force of human input into object is estimated without torque/force sensor and is utilized to generate the power-assist torque for wheel driving. The proposed approach brings a sophisticated function that makes it easy to carry out pushing task by wheelchair rider. First, human acceleration estimation observer (HAOB) and workspace disturbance observer (WDOB) are employed. HAOB can abstract human input as equivalent acceleration without torque/force sensor. WDOB guarantees robustness of the whole control system against disturbances. Second, HAOB-based compliance control is constructed to generate the motion command of pushing task for power-assist control. The generated motion command is determined so that the wheelchair accelerates according to human input. From this point of view, the proposed control is called repulsive compliance control. The compliance control itself is passive control, and stable and flexible responses are expected. Simulations and experiments are conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed approach.


Abstract. Mangroves are important vegetation that provides coastal protection and basic life necessities to humans and different marine organisms. Studies have observed that mangrove deforestation is occurring in the Philippines. Thus, monitoring of mangrove extent and fragmentation for rehabilitation planning is necessary to prevent further mangrove cover loss. The utilization of free satellite imagery in mangrove monitoring helps in this enterprise as it reduces the need for expensive field activities. Furthermore, it allows researchers to perform spatio-temporal analyses to observe patterns with respect to time and location. This study analyzed the mangrove loss and growth patterns from 2000 to 2020 in Region IV-B MIMAROPA, Philippines – known to house large amounts of mangrove cover – using Landsat 5, 6, 8. Since fragmentation is associated with deforestation, it was also analyzed using the ZonalMetrics toolbox for ArcGIS Pro 2.8. The results showed that Region IV-B experienced mangrove cover increase with only a few cities/towns that suffered significant deforestation. The change pattern analysis showed that most cities/towns were able to strongly preserve the mangroves, with more mangrove gain than loss. The cities/towns are then categorized for their increasing/decreasing mangrove area and fragmentation in the form of a quadrant. Many of the cities/towns experienced an increase in fragmentation metric values over time. However, the increase in mangrove areas in these cities/towns, especially in areas that previously did not have them, suggests that there is little fragmentation of existing mangrove patches, but rather conversion from non-mangrove land cover to mangrove cover. Still, there are a few towns that do not belong to this category that show signs of deforestation and fragmentation, which needs urgent action.


A growing literature has examined the changing nature of urban political leadership in an era of economic globalization and increased pressures for fiscal austerity on governments. Based mostly on the experiences of the United States and Europe, this literature has emphasized the imperative of urban leaders to become increasingly entrepreneurial - to foster collaboration with private sector actors, to mobilize new sources of financing for urban development, and to develop innovative strategies for economic growth. This article examines this question in the very different context of the Extended Bangkok Metropolitan Region (EBMR) in Thailand. It argues that, in the context of rapidly urbanizing regions in Southeast Asia, these changes have in many contexts led to the emergence of businessmen-cum-politicians who exert both economic and political dominance in localities. Such figures have emerged as intermediaries in the process of industrialization and urbanization between national governments and people in localities, and play an important role in mobilizing land, labor and capital at the local level, and in fostering a political base for national economic development policy. The article illustrates this phenomenon with a case study from Chonburi, a rapidly industrializing province on the fringe of the EBMR. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.


Major polarization losses will be encountered during acceleration of polarized protons in the Brookhaven AGS due to eight intrinsic depolarizing resonances. Pulsing a set of 12 vertical tune shift quadrupole magnets with a 2μs rise time, 3 ms fall, and 60 ms repetition rate should reduce these losses. [1] This requires a gradient of 1.87 T/M over the 8.89 × 12.7 cm vacuum chamber.


While natural language systems continue improving, they are still imperfect. If a user has a better understanding of how a system works, they may be able to better accomplish their goals even in imperfect systems. We explored whether explanations can support effective authoring of natural language utterances and how those explanations impact users' mental models in the context of a natural language system that generates small programs. Through an online study (n=252), we compared two main types of explanations: 1) system-focused, which provide information about how the system processes utterances and matches terms to a knowledge base, and 2) social, which provide information about how other users have successfully interacted with the system. Our results indicate that providing social suggestions of terms to add to an utterance helped users to repair and generate correct flows more than system-focused explanations or social recommendations of words to modify. We also found that participants commonly understood some mechanisms of the natural language system, such as the matching of terms to a knowledge base, but they often lacked other critical knowledge, such as how the system handled structuring and ordering. Based on these findings, we make design recommendations for supporting interactions with and understanding of natural language systems.


A settler nation, Aotearoa's history has been shaped by waves of immigration. Colonisation's enduring impacts have favoured a Pākehā narrative of 'one nation, one people'. Consequently, assimilative policies towards indigenous Māori and immigrant minorities were adopted to legitimise British hold over culture and land. Today, globalisation and labour demand encourage immigration from non-traditional countries, diversifying our population and challenging this homogenous cultural system. Bi-cultural and multicultural policy shifts have fostered cultural pluralism and inclusivity.
This thesis aims to support culturally inclusive architectural practices and, post-covid, wellbeing centred immigration policies through developing 'immigrant friendly' architectural interventions in Berhampore, Wellington. With its rich history of immigration and social justice, Berhampore is an optimal site to empower migrant identities and foster intercultural exchanges through architecture.
This research engages Biophilia, Topophilia, Aotearoa Based Placemaking and Intercultural theory as well as policy in order to understand how architectural space can cultivate belonging and ground 'displaced' immigrants in their new environment.
It aims to demonstrate how biophilic placemaking, integrated with intercultural design values can encourage empathy, cohesion, reciprocity and a shared love and attachment to place between immigrants and their host neighbourhood. In the hopes of creating positive acculturation experiences for migrants and their host communities.
A design-led research methodology informed the research outcomes. Testing and iterating design concepts was done through, sketching, modelling, photography, mixed media and CAD software. Wellington based immigrants were interviewed during the research process and the insights applied to the design-led research outcome.
This research found that a community-oriented space programmed with shared activities; and grounded in locality through biophilic design practices and a deep understanding of site ecology and history, provides immigrants with a platform to nurture and foster place belonging. Identity formation is a place specific endeavour, and this research hopes to shed light on Aotearoa oriented approaches to integrating and welcoming immigrants, through architectural design.


In this paper, the concept of underactuated redundancy is presented using a novel spatial two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DoF) gravity-balanced rotational manipulator, composed of movable counterweights. The proposed kinematic arrangement makes it possible to intuitively manipulate a payload undergoing 3-DoF spatial rotations by adding a third rotational axis oriented in the direction of gravity. The static equilibrium equations of the 2-DoF architecture are first described in order to provide the required configuration of the counterweights for a statically balanced mechanism. A method for calibrating the mechanism, which establishes the coefficients of the static equilibrium equations, is also presented. In order to both translate and rotate the payload during manipulation, the rotational manipulator is mounted on an existing translational manipulator. Experimental validations of both systems are presented to demonstrate the intuitive and responsive behavior of the manipulators during physical human–robot interactions.


Among various types of arthritis Osteoarthritis (OA), Psoriatic arthritis (PA) and Gouty arthritis (GA) are the major
 ones which have been studied and cause hindrance in movements in many patients. Here we have discussed the
 treatment modality, a combination of manual therapy and NSAIDs (Ibuprofen) for relieving the symptoms of arthritis.
 A total of six patients were included consisting of osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis and gouty arthritis who presented
 at the medical office of Dr. Barengolts (MD in USA) and Aybek Izzatov (MD in Uzbekistan) Tyan Anmo Massage
 School. The study was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020. The treatment consisted of 30 sessions performed
 for half a year, one week per month (5 days in a month). Significant improvement in symptoms was seen as after 6
 months we saw there was reduction in morning stiffness and improved range of motion. The pain score shifted from
 5-6 to 2-3 on VAS pain scale. The results signify that the combination therapy wherein manual therapy and NSAIDs
 worked in an effective way to reduce the level of severity of pain and other associated symptoms.


The majority of photovoltaics are expensive silicon-based devices. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have emerged as cheaper alternatives to silicon solar cells, but they have relatively low energy conversion efficiency. One proposed method to increase DSSC efficiency is through plasmon enhancement. Plasmon-enhanced DSSCs (PEDSSCs) are thought to show greater efficiencies since the enhanced electromagnetic (EM) field around a metal nanoparticle can increase dye absorption. However, the EM field decays rapidly with distance. The greatest enhancement is predicted to occur at small distances (~10 nm) from the nanoparticle's surface, but extensive studies to quantify this value in the context of PEDSSCs have not occurred. In order to study the distance dependence of plasmon enhancement in PEDSSCs, we probed the enhancement in model PEDSSCs composed of silver nanoparticles that have been encapsulated in silica layers of various thicknesses (8.6 ± 3.2 nm, 9.1 ± 2.5 nm, 50.9 ± 4.3 nm, and 75.4 ± 4.8 nm). The fluorescence of rhodamine B (RB) dye molecules is measured as a probe of the distance dependence of plasmon enhancement, with preliminary measurements showing quenching at the surface of the nanoparticle and enhancement ratios of 1.99, 1.90, 1.41 on particles of 8.6 ± 3.2 nm, 50.9 ± 4.3 nm, and 75.4 ± 4.8 nm shell thicknesses, respectively. Future work will include covalent attachment of fluorophores and structural characterization with transmission electron microscopy (TEM).


Urban Planning in a Changing World: The Twentieth-Century Experience, Robert Freestone (ed.), London, Spon, 2000, 293 pp., £45.00 We no longer have to justify the study of planning history. The International Planning History Society (IPHS) has secured its place in academic curricula and demonstrated its relevance to planning education and practice. What must be done, however, is to focus on the nature of the planning histories being told, as Leonie Sandercock in particular has emphasised. Some critical evaluation of planning activity-practice, theory and relevance-is necessary, and the end of the millennium provides an obvious point in time to do this. Freestone's edited volume manages to do both jobs. It provides a `small but purposeful sample' of the 200 or more papers presented at the Sydney IPHS Conference in 1998. Its 15 chapters aim to present `an integrated set of diverse interpretative essays cutting across time, space and culture to explore a number of major themes in the twentieth century urban planning experience' (p. 11). Urban Planning in a Changing World does not aim to be comprehensive, and the authors `were under no strict editorial instructions' (p. 11) to produce monolithic, unified history. This very diversity could be a strength or a fatal weakness. All histories are, in effect, period pieces, rePecting the concerns of their time in the choice and treatment of the historical subject. Early in the century, the first rite of passage for learning to plan anew was . . . to see how it had been done before, although the contemporary relevance of fourth century Alexandria or thirteenth century Monpazier was not always apparent. (p. 2) New planning histories arose from the critiques of practice in the 1960s and 1970s and the interdisciplinary interests of scholars. Most recently we are becoming more aware of the `sins of omission and commission' in planning history through the work of Krueckeberg and Sandercock-critical of the familiar, tired `male-stream' narrative of the `great planners' and their `great plans'. This book reects, indeed emphasises, these developments in historical thought. It seeks to review a momentous century, one of rapid change in planning, technology, techniques, social concerns, and the rise and decline of modernism and post-modernism as the lenses through which we view and interpret these activities. Following Freestone's all-too-brief contextsetting introduction, three chapters give contrasting global-scale overviews. Peter Hall, in his usual lucid and literate style, explores the `global narrative' by constructing a periodisation of planning, drawing in the great majority of strands later developed by other contributors. It is dangerously easy to read this quickly but superRcially, feeling that this is an old style of writing planning history, containing nothing new. Yet, after Freestone's provocative introduction, this is a timely taster of the very scope of planning activity in the century, and forms an effective overview. The international theme is developed through Ward's review of the diffusion of planning ideasDthrough borrowing or impositionDand thus of the explicit and implicit power relationships between the `exporter' and `importer'. Again this could be read as a traditional planning history as it focuses on some key individuals such as CerdaA , but it is important to recognise the roles of individuals rather than some monolithic and inevitable notion of `progress'. Contemporary implications are touched upon, and would be worthy of elaborationDthe imposition of planning through aid programmes (Africa), military power (the Balkans) or trans-national organisations (the EU). Hardy's chapter is interesting not only for its international exploration of utopian thought, emphasising the importance of utopian process over mere form, but also in his exploration of his 1992 suggestion that the role of the planning historian might be to provide historical evidence and an understanding both of the strengths and of the weaknesses of different methods of anticipating the future. …


The structural response and behavior of steel joint under fire condition are analyzed in this paper. A simplified model for moment-rotation relationship of the end-plate bolted connections at elevated temperatures is proposed. This model is convenient and effective to describe the characteristics of extended end-plate joint and can be applied to evaluate the structural response and fire-resistant performance under static-load and thermal effects. The results of finite element analysis and related experiment are also used to validate the proposed model. It is found that the initial rotational stiffness and limit loading-capacity of steel joint components are affected significantly by the degradation of materials and the dimensions of components.


We propose a lattice density-functional theory for ab initio quantum chemistry or physics as a route to an efficient approach that approximates the full configuration interaction energy and orbital occupations for molecules with strongly correlated electrons. We build on lattice density-functional theory for the Hubbard model by deriving Kohn-Sham equations for a reduced then full quantum chemistry Hamiltonian and demonstrate the method on the potential energy curves for the challenging problem of modeling elongating bonds in a linear chain of six hydrogen atoms. Here the accuracy of the Bethe-ansatz local-density approximation is tested for this quantum chemistry system, and we find that, despite this approximate functional being designed for the Hubbard model, the shapes of the potential curves generally agree with the full configuration interaction results. Although there is a discrepancy for very stretched bonds, it is lower than when using standard density-functional theory with the local-density approximation.


Environmental issues are global problems that continue to get the attention of every well meaning person. Different world communities are experiencing their different 'shares' of environmental challenge. Various debates are held at conferences, in publications and interviews. The challenge necessitates an inter-disciplinary collaboration and everybody, including women and children, should be involved on how best we can manage our environment properly. Since children are used by their parents, especially mothers, in many communities as agents of environmental destruction through destruction of shrubs and trees in search of fire wood, and deposition of refuse into gutters, water sources and ways. Therefore, proper sensitization of children in home is important. Mothers can sensitize the children through folktale narration session which entails narration of relevant folktales at home during relaxation and children are shown the causes and effects of environmental degradation. The children can be used as agents of change in their various families and communities. Consequently, the world becomes a better place for human, animal and plant habitation.


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the malignant transformation of lymphoid progenitors that affects both children and adults. Although the outcome of pediatric patients has been improved dramatically, there are still many challenges in the treatment of adults. Patients with primary resistant or relapsed disease have the worst outcome and despite the administration of intensified multi-agents chemotherapies, the outcome of this group remains very poor. Accordingly, the development of novel therapeutic options is considered necessary. Having a comprehensive insight into the pathophysiology of ALL and aberrant signaling pathways is crucial for introducing effective targeted therapies. Combination therapies with new drugs and innovative targeted therapies with the aim of affecting the main aberrant signaling pathways in the disease are considered as new approaches. Here we tried to have a comprehensive review on the potential molecular targets in the treatment of refractory/relapsed ALL and the current therapeutic agents.


An experiment of three week duration was conducted to study the effects of ethanol through crop tube on lymphoid organs and immune system in broilers. A total of ninety 21-days old broiler chicks were divided in to five equal groups (A to E). Groups A, B and C were given 40% ethanol 6ml, 4ml and 2ml respectively. The group D was kept as positive control given 6ml tap water through crop tube and group E was negative control. Ethanol through crop tube was given from day 21 to 42 days of age, continuously for three weeks. All groups were vaccinated against Newcastle Disease (ND) and Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) and 3% sheep red blood cells were injected intravenously. At the end of each week, six birds were randomly selected and sacrificed. Blood samples were collected and serum was separated. Serum antibodies titers against New Castle Disease, Infectious Bursal Disease and sheep red blood cells were determined. Cell mediated immune response against the mallein antigen was also determined. No gross abnormality was observed in all lymphoid organs in treated groups as compared with controls. Relative weights of Bursa of Fabricus was non- significantly different in treated and non treated groups while relative weight of spleen and thymus were significantly (p<0.05) higher in treated groups as compared with control groups. Histopathological studies revealed decreased cellular density in spleen and thymus and decreased follicular diameter and epithelial height in Bursa of Fabricus in treated groups as compared with controls. The Geo mean titer (GMT) against ND, IBD and washed sheep RBCs was lowered in treated groups as compared with controls.


A lingual osseous tumor-like lesion is a rare curiosity of unknown etiology. No malignant transformation has been reported. A 40-year-old healthy woman suffered chronic rhinosinusitis. An otorhinolaryngological physical examination revealed that the bilateral inferior turbinates were hypertrophic, while others were normal. However, sinus computed tomography incidentally showed the presence of an osseous lesion about 1.0 × 0.9 × 0.6 cm at the tongue base. At this point, it became problematic as to whether surgical excision should be recommended for the pathological diagnosis of an asymptomatic lingual lesion. The computed tomography demonstrated that the mass had a homogeneous bony density over the tongue base and therefore a lingual osseous tumor-like lesion was diagnosed that could be differentiated with other osseous neoplasms. As the radiological demonstration was enough to diagnose a lingual osseous tumor-like lesion, then surgical excision and pathological diagnosis was found to be unnecessary for such a benign and slow-growing lesion.


Based on soil-structure interaction model, the seismic dynamic response of tunnel in karst areas were performed by using viscous-spring artificial boundary and time history analysis method. In combination with the Menglian tunnel engineering on the Bao-Teng Highway in Yunnan, in different sizes and sites karst caves conditions, the dynamic responses of displacement and internal force on control points of the tunnel structure were obtained. The results show that comparatively large interal forces, under the high-intensity earthquake conditions, will appear on the side wall of the tunnel which through karst areas, less ones on arch crown and inverted arch parts, and the differential displacements of arch crown reach to the maximum. When the karst caves are located in the side of the tunnel, it make the seismic dynamic response get more large, which make the surrounding rock must be strengthened treatment. The results provide useful reference for the aseismatic design of tunnel.


The aim of this study was to provide a complete description of normal ventilation at rest and exercise in children and to determine how best to correct for body size. One-hundred and six children aged 8-17 years (55 male) underwent incremental bicycle exercise testing from rest to exhaustion in 3 min, 15 W.m(-2) steps and thence through 9 min recovery. All variables were calculated using helium dilution mixed expired gas analysis together with measures of alveolar gas concentrations from continuous measurement at the mouth, all via an AMIS 2000 quadrupole mass spectrometer. Surface area was the best single measure to correct for body size but always explained <37% of the variance. Thus for example, surface area corrected oxygen consumption at rest in males was greater than females. Data is presented at rest, each work load and at "maximum" exercise. When presented per watt of work at each work load, this permits comparison of adaptability to exercise between sexes and age groups. Exercise appears to terminate when respiration reaches 45 and 40 breaths-min(-1) in males and females respectively and when alveolar oxygen concentrations rise. This simple protocol and near complete data set ought to permit accurate comparison with disease groups.


Owing to the interest raised by the precipitation effects in the design of satellite and terrestrial microwave radiolinks, it is necessary to have a simple and valuable mathematical model which can represent, with good accuracy, the whole rain-rate distribution, from lowest rain-rate values to the tail of this distribution. Previously the author suggested a two-parameter model which adequately represents the rainfall intensity cumulative distributions for several hydrometeorological zones of the world. This model has log-normal asymptotic behaviour for low rainfall rates, and gamma asymptotic behaviour for the high ones. The present paper deals with a further improvement by expressing both parameters as a function of the rainfall rate exceeded during 0.01% of the time, and recommended by the CCIR to evaluate the availability of microwave radio links.


This work analyzes the morphological features of the western margin of the northern Chile Coastal Cordillera, characterized by the presence of a major Coastal Cliff. The main purpose of this research is to better understand the tectonic and climatic controls on the topography. The methodology used consists basically of a detailed study of the topography with quantitative geomorphic indexes such as incision grade, hypsometric curves and integrals, thalweg profiles and sinuosity index. These are applied to digital elevation models and satellite images. The main results show that the topography of the western margin of the Coastal Cordillera, exhibits an increasing intensity of the erosion with latitude. This increment is non uniform. The tectonic processes that produced coastal subsidence/uplift and fault activity, and the erosion of the paleotopography of Coastal Cordillera due to processes related with the construction of Coastal Cliff and increasing rainfall, modify the morphology of the coastal border of north Chile. The existence and conservation of the Coastal Cliff result from a non-equilibrium between the uplift and erosion rates. Both rates have one-two order magnitude difference, controlled by the extreme hyperarid climate of the Atacama Desert. These conditions prevailed at least for the last 2 m.yrs. The variations in the intensity of the erosion from north to south are interpreted as the result of the southward increase in precipitacion by one order of magnitude.


Despite large-scale molecular attempts, the relationships of the basal winged insect lineages dragonflies, mayflies and neopterans, are still unresolved. Other data sources, such as morphology, suffer from unclear functional dependencies of the structures considered, which might mislead phylogenetic inference. Here, we assess this problem by combining for the first time biomechanics with phylogenetics using two advanced engineering techniques, multibody dynamics analysis and finite-element analysis, to objectively identify functional linkages in insect head structures which have been used traditionally to argue basal winged insect relationships. With a biomechanical model of unprecedented detail, we are able to investigate the mechanics of morphological characters under biologically realistic load, i.e. biting. We show that a range of head characters, mainly ridges, endoskeletal elements and joints, are indeed mechanically linked to each other. An analysis of character state correlation in a morphological data matrix focused on head characters shows a highly significant correlation of these mechanically linked structures. Phylogenetic tree reconstruction under different data exclusion schemes based on the correlation analysis unambiguously supports a sistergroup relationship of dragonflies and mayflies. The combination of biomechanics and phylogenetics as it is proposed here could be a promising approach to assess functional dependencies in many organisms to increase our understanding of phenotypic evolution.


The carbon based coils with the nanometer scale have the 3 dimension helix geometry. We synthesized the carbon nano-coils by the use of chemical vapor deposition technique with iron and tin as the catalysts. The fabricated coils have the external diameter of ranging few hundred nm to few thousand nm. The Scanning Electro-Microscope (SEM) and Tunneling Electro-Microscope has shown detail images of the coil's structure. The fabrication of the carbon nano-coils can be grown on the metal and non-metal substrates, such as the stainless steel and silicon substrates. Besides growth on the flat substrate; they also can be grown on the stainless steel wires. After the synthesis of the coils, the mechanical and electro-mechanical property is measured. The experimental results were reported. Keywords—Carbon nanocoils, chemical vapor deposition, nano-materials


The goal of this work was to determine an optimal radioimmunotherapy agent for further development against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We sought to establish the stability profile of 90 Y-labeled humanized LL2 (hLL2) monoclonal antibody (mAb) when prepared with different chelating agents and, from these data, to estimate the dosimetric improvement to be expected from use of the most stable 90 Y-chelate-hLL2 complex. Methods: The complementarity-determining region–grafted (humanized) anti-CD22 mAb, hLL2 (epratuzumab), was conjugated to 3 different chelating agents, 2 of which were derivatives of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) and 1 of which was the macrocyclic chelate 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane- N,N (cid:1) , N (cid:2) , N (cid:3) tetraacetic acid (DOTA). The 3 hLL2 conjugates were radiolabeled with 90 Y and tested for stability in vitro against a 10,000-fold molar excess of free DTPA over 9 d. They were also tested against normal human serum at 37°C over 12 d. Each conjugate was radiolabeled with the (cid:4) -emitting radionuclide, 88 Y, and compared for biodistribution in normal and lymphoma xeno-graft–bearing athymic mice. In vivo data were analyzed for statistical differences in the uptake of yttrium in bone and washed bone when either the DOTA or the Mx-DTPA chelates were used, and dosimetry calculations were made for each complex. Results: 90 Y-DOTA complex of the hLL2 mAb was completely stable to either DTPA or serum challenge for the duration of either experiment (equivalent to 3.3–4.5 half-lives of 90 Y radionuclide or (cid:5) 90% of possible 90 Y decays from any initial starting activity). Complexes of hLL2 that had been prepared using the DTPA-type chelates lost 3%–4% of initially bound 90 Y over the first few days and about 10%–15% over the duration of the challenges. In vivo, these stability differences manifested as significantly lower yttrium uptake in bone and cortical bone over a 10-d period when DOTA was used as the yttrium chelating agent. Absorbed doses per 37 MBq (1 mCi) of 90 Y-mAb were 3,555 and 5,405 cGy for bone and 2,664 and 4,524 cGy for washed bone for 90 Y-DOTA-hLL2 and 90 Y-MxDTPA-hLL2, re-spectively, amounting to 52.0% and 69.8% increases in absorbed radiation doses for bone and washed bone, respec-tively, when a DOTA chelate was switched to a Mx-DTPA chelate. Conclusion: 90 Y-hLL2 prepared with the DOTA chelate represents an improved agent for radioimmunotherapy of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, with an in vivo model demonstrating a large reduction in bone-deposited yttrium, compared with 90 Y-hLL2 agents prepared with open-chain DTPA-type chelating agents. Dosimetry suggests that this benefit will result in a substantial toxicologic advantage for a DOTA-based hLL2 conjugate. Nucl 2003;


The problem of pain poses questions pertaining to some of the assumptions that underpin modern medicine, including the conceptualisation and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Problematic issues, such as subjectivity and meaning, seem particularly critical in the domains of pain and madness, but have relevance in the broader ranges of medicine. Of central concern is the relation such issues bear to notions of scientific practice. The subjective experience of illness and the meanings attached to it need to be accounted for, and cannot be considered to lie beyond the scope of scientific thinking, as not being measurable or objectively verifiable: yet attempts to incorporate these intrinsic dimensions remain elusive, and shape some of the shifting limitations of the various definitions of what might be considered to be a scientific perspective.


TO THE EDITOR: The study by Robert A. Rosenheck, M.D. and colleagues represents a large and ambitious attempt to study the cost-effectiveness of pharmacotherapy for the treatment of schizophrenia (1). The authors acknowledge the caveats for policy making. However, we are concerned that drug plan administrators will nonetheless use these results to promote prior authorization and step-therapy policies that restrict access to atypical antipsychotic medications. Such policies will be based on both the imperative to contain costs and the conclusions of this analysis, which are unwarranted based on limitations in the study design. The purpose of cost-effectiveness analysis is to compare the relative efficacy of interventions in order to aid decision making (2). Thus, the study will be considered a commentary on policy options. However, the study deviates from the relevant policy choices in important ways. First, the trial was not limited to new episodes of schizophrenia. However, such patients are generally the only ones affected by Medicaid and Medicare policies, which largely grandfather currently treated patients. Second, it bases comparisons between typical and atypical medications on a select population—those both willing to switch antipsychotics and without tardive dyskinesia. The generalizability of this group is questionable, since those with tardive dyskinesia may benefit more from newer medications (3). Further, it is telling that patients and their clinicians almost universally switched to another atypical antipsychotic agent, suggesting customization of individual treatment. To this end, the unique circumstances of a clinical trial limit generalizability. While trial participants were free to switch medications at any time, typical prior authorization policies are burdensome on provider time and have unknown impacts on medication adherence and clinical outcomes. Inclusion of these impacts and use of a societal perspective in the analysis might reveal quite different implications. The authors acknowledge that the results should not be used to limit treatment of patients to first-generation antipsychotics. However, their abstract—which is all many busy policymakers will ever read—states that perphenazine treatment "was less costly than treatment with second-generation antipsychotics with no significant differences in measures of effectiveness" (p. 2080) with no such caveat. Such statements will be all too alluring for pharmacy benefit managers struggling with costs. In fact, within 2 weeks of publication, we received requests for advice about proposed policies to provide typical agents without cost-sharing while charging high copayments for atypical medications in a large drug benefit plan. Consequently, we have serious concerns that this research will support potentially harmful access restrictions on effective medications for vulnerable patients.


he interview was recorded at Washington, D.C., on April 27, 1983Manuel Perez-Guerrero had a long and distinguished career for some fifty years as an international civil servant and as a high-level government official in Venezuela. His international career began in the mid-1930s with the League of Nations and continued in the United Nations System, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Secretariat, where he held various senior positions. In 1945, he was present at both the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace at Mexico and the United Nations Conference on International Organization held in San Francisco as part of the Venezuelan delegation. In March 1969, Mr. Perez-Guerrero was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and served in this position until March 1974.

The interview, conducted on 27 April 1983, focuses on his recollections of the 1945 conferences and especially as a member of the Venezuelan delegation at these meetings. He also speaks of events during the period of the first General Assembly and his views of the terms of the first five Secretaries-General, the Bretton Woods meetings, his time as Chairman of the United Nations Mission to Aden in 1967 and at UNCTAD. . The Interviewer was William Powell.


Surveys of 16S rDNA sequences from the honey bee, Apis mellifera, have revealed the presence of eight distinctive bacterial phylotypes in intestinal tracts of adult worker bees. Because previous studies have been limited to relatively few sequences from samples pooled from multiple hosts, the extent of variation in this microbiota among individuals within and between colonies and locations has been unclear. We surveyed the gut microbiota of 40 individual workers from two sites, Arizona and Maryland USA, sampling four colonies per site. Universal primers were used to amplify regions of 16S ribosomal RNA genes, and amplicons were sequenced using 454 pyrotag methods, enabling analysis of about 330,000 bacterial reads. Over 99% of these sequences belonged to clusters for which the first blastn hits in GenBank were members of the known bee phylotypes. Four phylotypes, one within Gammaproteobacteria (corresponding to "Candidatus Gilliamella apicola") one within Betaproteobacteria ("Candidatus Snodgrassella alvi"), and two within Lactobacillus, were present in every bee, though their frequencies varied. The same typical bacterial phylotypes were present in all colonies and at both sites. Community profiles differed significantly among colonies and between sites, mostly due to the presence in some Arizona colonies of two species of Enterobacteriaceae not retrieved previously from bees. Analysis of Sanger sequences of rRNA of the Snodgrassella and Gilliamella phylotypes revealed that single bees contain numerous distinct strains of each phylotype. Strains showed some differentiation between localities, especially for the Snodgrassella phylotype.


PURPOSE
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) localizes Broca's area (B) and Wernicke's area (W) and the hemisphere dominant for language. In clinical fMRI, adapting the stimulation paradigms to each patient's individual cognitive capacity is crucial for diagnostic success. To interpret clinical fMRI findings correctly, we studied the effect of varying frequency and number of stimuli on functional localization, determination of language dominance and BOLD signals.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ten volunteers (VP) were investigated at 1.5 Tesla during visually triggered sentence generation using a standardized block design. In four different measurements, the stimuli were presented to each VP with frequencies of 1/1 s, (1/2) s, (1/3) s and (1/6) s.

RESULTS
The functional localizations and the correlations of the measured BOLD signals to the applied hemodynamic reference function (r) were almost independent from frequency and number of the stimuli in both hemispheres, whereas the relative BOLD signal changes (DeltaS) in B and W increased with the stimulation rate, which also changed the lateralization indices. The strongest BOLD activations were achieved with the highest stimulation rate or with the maximum language production task, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The adaptation of language paradigms necessary in clinical fMRI does not alter the functional localizations but changes the BOLD signals and language lateralization which should not be attributed to the underlying brain pathology.


ABSTRACTOrganic and elemental carbon (OC and EC) are operationally-defined by the measurement process, so long-term trends may be interrupted with instrumentation changes. A modification to the U.S. IMPROVE carbon analysis protocol and hardware is examined that replaces the 633 nm laser light used for OC charring adjustments with seven wavelengths ranging from 405 to 980 nm, including one at 635 nm. Reflectance (R) and Transmittance (T) values for each wavelength are made traceable to primary standards through transfer standards consisting of a range of aerosol deposits on filter media similar to that of the analyzed samples. R and T values are assigned to these filters using a UV/VIS spectrometer calibrated with these standards. Using ambient and source (e.g., diesel exhaust, flaming biomass, and smoldering biomass) samples, it is demonstrated that R and T calibration is independent of the sample type. Total carbon (TC), OC, and EC comparisons with the earlier hardware design for urban- and non-urban samples demonstrate equivalence, within precisions derived from replicate analyses, for the 633 nm and 635 nm wavelengths. Several uses of the additional multiwavelength information are identified, including: 1) ground-truthing of multi-spectral remote sensors; 2) improving estimates of the Earth's radiation balance; 3) associating specific organic compounds with their light absorption properties; and 4) appropriating sources of black and brown carbon.


C.B-20 (Ighb) but not (C.B-20 X BALB/c)F1 mice reject BCL1, a sIg+ tumor that spontaneously arose in an Igh congenic BALB/c (Igha) mouse. C.B-20 immune T cells from mice immunized with either BCL1 or BALB/c splenocytes adoptively transfer tumor protection to sublethally irradiated C.B-20 but not BALB/c or (BALB/c X C.B-20)F1 mice. These data suggest that BALB/c and BCL1 share an antigen, which if present in the host prevents the immune cells from eradicating the tumor. The antigen is controlled by H-40, a gene that maps to the C end of the Igh complex, telomeric to Tsu and in the region of Pre-1. The ability of H-40 to act as a tumor antigen for other BALB/c tumors inoculated into C.B-20 hosts was investigated. H-40 did not elicit rejection of P1798 (T lymphoma), Meth A (fibrosarcoma), or MOPC-315 (alpha, lambda myeloma) tumor cells. C.B-20 mice that previously rejected BCL1, however, showed partial resistance to a low challenge dose of the MOPC-104E (mu, lambda myeloma) tumor. These data suggest that H-40 has a differential degree of expression on BALB/c tumor cells. The ability of the adoptively transferred cells to confer protection against BCL1 is abrogated by pretreatment of the cells with anti-Lyt-1 or anti-Lyt-2 antibodies. However, an admixture of anti-Lyt-1- and anti-Lyt-2-treated cells provided protection. These data, together with the results detected by cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity in vitro, indicate that H-40 can serve as a target antigen for tumor rejection by CTL in allogeneic hosts. The implications of the results for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation into leukemic individuals who benefit from a graft vs leukemia effect are discussed.


[ According to the authors of this article, the growing unhappiness of law- yers, particularly young lawyers, stems from three causes: (1) Lawyers are selected for their pessimism (or "prudence") and this generalizes to the rest of their lives; (2) Young associates hold jobs that are characterized by high pressure and low decision latitude, exactly the conditions that promote poor health and poor morale; and (3) American law is to some extent a zero-sum game, and negative emotions flow from zero-sum games. .. This article has been shared with practitioners as well as academics. It grows out of faculty seminars held at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in the fall of 1999, which included managing partners of several major New York Law firms, and in spring 2001, as well as a meeting of the New York Chapter of the American Bar Foundation in the spring of 2000. The theory of positive psychology framed the discussion. ]


IntroductionHalf of all infants are fed formula milk. However, attrition biases evidence on the long-term safety of formula ingredients. We used unconsented linkage between administrative education and health records of young people who were randomised as infants to formula milks, to determine long-term safety and efficacy.
Objectives and ApproachWe used record level data from a series of 9 historical randomised controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in 1982-2002 (n=3,500 participants), which are key to the evidence-base around formula-composition. All later follow-ups are biased by attrition leading to limited evidence around the long-term effects of formula ingredients on cognition and metabolic and cardiovascular health. We sought permissions from data providers and regulatory agencies for unconsented linkage to education and hospital records, as proxy measures for cognitive and health development. We discuss the steps that were implemented to safeguard the participants' privacy and achieve ethical and multi-institutional approval for this project.
ResultsAchieving provisional ethical approval took 41 days. Achieving agreement in principle to match trial data to individual level education records took 4 months and 2 weeks, while agreement to match trial data to individual level hospital records is still underway (5.5 months in February 2018). Delays in institutional approval were largely due to unharmonised data security certificates between the two government departments holding the health and education records. Digitising and cleaning all handwritten RCT participant identifiers prior to linkage took 9 months of full-time researcher time. Maintaining separation of identifiers and attribute data required specific secure haven provision. Results on the success of linkage between RCTs and education records will be presented at the conference.
Conclusion/ImplicationsWhile directly contributing to the evidence around infant-formula-composition, this project will also act as a proof-of-concept study. Unconsented linkage between dormant RCTs and administrative data could be a novel and cost-effective method to generate evidence on the long-term efficacy and safety of interventions.


AIM
The aim of this work was to answer the following question: in the perception of patients, what kind of dependencies occur between ideal images of women with anorexia and ideal images of their mothers and fathers. TEST GROUP AND METHOD: The examined group consisted of 30 patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, undergoing treatment at the Department of Psychiatry of the Medical University in Lublin. The average age of the examined females was 21 years. The ideal images were examined with the Gough and Heilbrun Adjective Check List (ACL), which was completed by the patients three times following the instruction: "I would like to be", "I would like my mother to be", "I would like my father to be".

RESULTS
24 statistically significant correlations were obtained between ideal images of the patients and their mothers, whereas between the ideal images of the patients and their fathers the number of positive significant correlations was 21.

CONCLUSIONS
1. Dependencies were found between ideal images of the patients and their mothers as regards nurturance, intraception, affiliation, exhibition, dominance, autonomy, abasement and heterosexuality, self-discipline, self-control, ambition, diligence and self-confidence. 2. Dependencies were found between ideal images of the patients and their fathers as regards achievement, dominance, intraception, nurturance, affiliation, autonomy, aggression, exhibition and heterosexuality, self-control, ambition, resoluteness, self-confidence as well as such characteristics as: protectiveness, spontaneity and responsibility. 3. The following dependencies occur between ideal images of mothers and ideal images of fathers as perceived by women with anorexia: need for dominance, exhibition, heterosexuality and nurturance, deference and ambition.


Acute bronchitis is a major source of morbidity in elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to assess the preventive effects of oral immunisation with a bacterial extract. Three hundred and fifty four patients with chronic bronchitis, living in institutions for the elderly (aged > 65 yrs), were included in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. The purpose of the study was to assess preventive effects of OM-85 BV (an immunostimulating agent consisting of lyophilized fractions of eight of the most common pathogens isolated in respiratory tract infections) against acute lower respiratory tract infections. Two hundred and ninety patients completed the study (143 taking placebo and 147 taking OM-85 BV). There was a 28% reduction in the number of lower respiratory tract infections in the patients treated with OM-85 BV; this was entirely due to 40% reduction in the number of episodes of acute bronchitis (p < 0.01), with no difference in the number of episodes of pneumonia and bronchopneumonia. A larger number of patients in the OM-85 BV group were free of acute bronchitis throughout the 6 month study period (96 vs 69) and there was a 28% reduction in the number of antibiotic prescriptions in the OM-85 BV treated group. These results suggest that OM-85 BV has a protective effect against acute bronchitis in elderly patients living in institutions.


: The choice of treatment for thyrotoxicosis practised at the University Clinics, University of Helsinki, is reviewed. Patients below the age of 45-50 years with a small goitre (less than 50 g) are primarily treated with longterm antithyroid therapy, older patients with radioactive iodine. Recent observations on the absence of risks for thyroid carcinoma, leukaemia and genetic damage will probably change the impact of age on the use of radioactive iodine. Large diffuse goitres are operated on primarily, the second choice would be radioiodine. Nodular goitres, both multinodular and uninodular, are also operated on primarily the second choice being radioactive iodine. Postoperative recurrencies are always and recurrencies after longterm antithyroid treatment usually treated with radioactive iodine. Thyrotoxicosis during pregnancy is primarily treated with antithyroid drugs but if the goitre is very large or nodular and if large doses of antithyroid drugs are needed for adequate response, operation is recommended. In children the first choice is antithyroid therapy and the second one either operation or radioactive iodine depending on the size of the goitre.


What can developers do when faced with an aged software system? This is where a silver bullet comes in handy. At various times, this silver bullet has been known by names such as structured programming, object-oriented languages, 4GLs (fourth-generation programming languages), CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tools, RDBMSs (relational database management systems), XML, visual programming, n-tier architectures, managed code - the list goes on. What's important is that the move suits everybody perfectly. Software ages and becomes increasingly expensive to maintain. New technologies offer modest but not spectacular improvements in productivity. It's therefore sensible from time to time to rebuild a system from scratch. It might be harmless and politically expedient to claim that we've found a silver bullet, but it's even better to know what we're really doing


China has seen tremendous economic growth in the past three decades, and in the order of eight to ten per cent since 2000. This development has come with ever increasing energy consumption, and thus emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). This trend has been an important topic in the international climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; China is under constant pressure from other large economies to contribute to reversing the GHG emissions trend in order to avoid dangerous climate change. At the same time, the Chinese government has pursued an environmental and energy security agenda focussed at increasing the energy efficiency of its economy and the supply of energy from renewable sources. Alongside, a domestic climate change discourse has developed, and changed over time. This thesis examines elements of the country-specific political ecology in the area of greenhouse gas mitigation in China, looking closely at what climate change means in China, and discussing how this influences the development and institutionalisation of mitigation mechanisms. I take a political ecology approach to scrutinize the nature and evolution of a climate change discourse in China, and the influences and implications of existing governance structures and institutions that affect greenhouse gas mitigation in the country. Adopting mixed empirical methods comprising semi-structured interviewing, media and numerical data analyses, and participant observation in research processes close to the government, data was collected between 2008 and 2011. In five academic papers with distinctive angles, I show the importance of engaging deeply with the formative, distinctly Chinese political, economic and ecological environment when discussing mitigation in China. The Chinese climate change discourse has changed significantly in recent years, for example resulting in different discursively acceptable ways for the country to engage in mitigation. These meanings of climate change in China have developed through specific interactions of the political and academic spheres, based on Chinese understandings of nature and history (and China's place in it), as well as with limited involvement of the media compared to western developed country cases. The notion of historical responsibility is a major component of what climate change means in China; in this thesis I therefore illuminate the numerical and conceptual ramifications of this part of the discourse, noting that the re-active nature of this frame, with China positioned against the developed countries, has not lend itself to support new mitigation action. Low carbon economy is another newer and now very important element of the discourse, a frame that locates China in an active, entrepreneurial subject position. My study on two cases – mitigation in the Beijing transportation sector and the introduction of seven local emission trading systems through a approach of governance through pilots – shows how this part of the discourse allows for the development of new mitigation approaches when they follow established institutions and governance mechanisms in a path-dependent manner. This thesis contributes to the research of global environmental change by advancing theoretical and practical ways of engaging with climate change in general, and mitigation in particular in China. It stresses the importance of considering the country-specific political ecology when formulating global climate change policy.


Objectives: Epidemiological studies indicate that acute uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) in women can be successfully treated with short treatment regimens. However, the findings from the literature do not match experiences in daily practice. Methods: A randomised, controlled trial evaluating the microbiological and clinical (self-reported) cure rates of a three-day vs. five-day treatment regimen with trimethoprim for UTI in women. Results: No statistically significant difference in bacteriological cure rate was found between the three-day and five-day regimen. One day after the shorter regimen 44% of women considered themselves as 'not-recovered' due to persistence of the symptoms compared with 35% after the five-day treatment (p>0.05). Three days after therapy these percentages were 30 and 25% respectively. Conclusion: The relatively high percentage of persistent symptoms one day after the three-day regimen might be responsible for general practitioners believing that short regimens are not successful. It is therefore advisable that if urine samples are controlled to wait at least three days after finishing treatment.


We experimentally investigate how much value people put in observable information about others in strategic interactions. The incentivized experimental task is to predict an unknown target player's trustworthiness in an earlier hidden action game. In Experiment 1, we vary the source of information about the target player (neutral picture, neutral video, video containing strategic content). The observed prediction accuracy rates then serve as an empirical measure of the objective value of information. In Experiment 2, we elicit the subjective value of information using the standard stated preferences method ("willingness to accept"). While the elicited subjective values are ranked in the same manner as the objective ones, subjects attach value to information which does not help predict target behavior, and exaggerate the value of helpful information.


The two-phase pattern of penicillin biosynthesis was observed only under definite cultivation conditions. When the conditions of the culture growth changed, the productivity curve also changed. The most high productivity levels on the glucose medium and the medium with glucose and lactose were noted at the beginning and in the middle of the process respectively. Under more or less equal conditions the productivity remained at the same level.


Abstract Objectives Synaptic plasticity and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signalling are proposed to play key roles in antidepressant drug action. Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist and putative antidepressant, may increase synaptic plasticity in prefrontal cortex through higher expression of BDNF. Furthermore, ketamine was shown to change resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Methods In a randomised, placebo-controlled study, we investigated acutely (100 min) and at 24 h following subanesthetic ketamine infusion which dmPFC seeded RSFC changes are most strongly associated with plasma BDNF level changes in 53 healthy participants (21 females, age: 24.4 ± 2.9 years) using 7 T-fMRI. Results We observed higher relative levels of BDNF 2 h and 24 h after ketamine compared to placebo. Whole-brain regression revealed that the change in BDNF after 24 h was associated with RSFC decreases from dmPFC to posterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial PFC at 24 h and exploratively also at the 100 min measurement point. Follow-up analyses revealed that RSFC reductions following ketamine were restricted to subjects showing increased BDNF levels at 24 h. Conclusions Our findings indicate BDNF level dynamics following ketamine are related to acute and 24 h RSFC changes. Particularly when BDNF increases are observed after ketamine infusion, a disconnection from dmPFC after 24 h is seen and may reflect synaptic plasticity effects.


Kinesin-1 is a two-headed molecular motor that walks along microtubules, with each step gated by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding. Existing models for the gating mechanism propose a role for the microtubule lattice. We show that unpolymerized tubulin binds to kinesin-1, causing tubulin-activated release of adenosine diphosphate (ADP). With no added nucleotide, each kinesin-1 dimer binds one tubulin heterodimer. In adenylyl-imidodiphosphate (AMP-PNP), a nonhydrolyzable ATP analog, each kinesin-1 dimer binds two tubulin heterodimers. The data reveal an ATP gate that operates independently of the microtubule lattice, by ATP-dependent release of a steric or allosteric block on the tubulin binding site of the tethered kinesin-ADP head.


The COVID-19 pandemic may have affected mental health in the general population. We examined if a higher proportion of people screened positive for depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) during the first week of nationwide quarantine than in February 2019; if each disorder increased over six weeks of quarantine; and what predicted screening positive for depression or GAD across this period. Two nationally representative samples of Irish adults were collected using identical methods in February 2019 (N = 1020) and April 2020 (N = 1041). The latter were followed for six weeks during nationwide quarantine. Respondents completed the same measures of depression and GAD. A significantly greater proportion of people screened positive for depression in 2019 (29.8% 95% CI = 27.0, 32.6) than 2020 (22.8% 95% CI = 20.2, 25.3). There were no significant changes in the proportion of people who screened positive for depression or GAD across six weeks of quarantine. Screening positive for depression or GAD during the pandemic was predicted by female sex, younger age, and multiple psychological variables. We discuss the need to consider contextual factors to understand the mental health effects of COVID-19 and how these findings can inform responses to the pandemic.


Functional capacity assessment is carried out to measure the functional limitations of a subject. While the clinical assessment can be validated against various standards, quantifying the assessment and achieving an objective, repeatable, and reliable score in the clinical assessment is a challenge. Current methods are subjective. The Progressive Iso inertial Lifting Evaluation (PILE) is a lifting test developed for functional capacity assessment. The primary aim of this study is to improve reliability and repeatability of PILE through objective measurement of patient's performance. This is achieved by recording and analysing the movement of a patient by a motion capture system based on a network array of inertial wireless sensors. Various analyses conducted on the data indicate that the captured data provides adequate information to objectively determine the failure of the subject to maintain correct posture and to identify the onset of muscle fatigue within the PILE assessment.