In this paper, GO/PANI/NPs (NPs = CdSe, CdSe/CdS, CdSe/ZnS) nanocomposites have been prepared using chemical method. The electrical properties of CdSe quantum dots, core shell nanoparticles (CdSe@CdS and CdSe@ZnS), graphene oxide/polyaniline nanocomposite (GO/PANI) and graphene oxide/polyaniline/nanoparticles (GO/PANI/NPs) nanocomposites have been measured using electrometer/high resistance meter (Keithley 6517A) at different wt% ratio. The above obtained nanoparticles (CdSe, CdSe@CdS and CdSe@ZnS) show the electrical current in nano ampere (nA) range while GO/PANI nanocomposites show the electrical current in miliampere (mA) range in the I-V measurement. The results of this study have been expected to reveal the effect of finite particle size on the conductivity of nanoparticles. The observed electrical conductivity of GO/PANI/NPs nanocomposites has been significantly reduced after the mixing of above obtained nanoparticles in different wt% ratio with GO/PANI nanocomposites. The knowledge of electrical conductivity and the effective mechanism for the conduction in nanocomposite is important for the fabrication of an electronic device such as solar cell.


Helper T-lymphocytes have been shown to differentiate into two mutually regulatory subsets. Cells primarily secreting interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-gamma are known as Th1 cells and mediate classical cell-mediated immune responses such as delayed-type hypersensitivity. Cells secreting interleukin-4 (IL-4) are known as Th2 cells and promote humoral immune responses, in particular the production of IgE and IgG4 (human) or IgG1 (rodents). Over-activity of either cell type can result in tissue-damaging autoimmune disease. A number of human diseases including asthma and some kidney diseases are thought to be caused by a Th-2 type autoimmune response. Study of an animal model of Th2-driven autoimmunity (mercuric chloride-induced autoimmunity in Brown Norway rats) has yielded insights into a possible role for oxidant stress in the generation of Th-2 driven autoimmune responses. Mercuric chloride probably causes oxidant stress by the generation of free-radicals, activating NK-kappaB, a transcription factor for the IL-4 gene. Treatment with the antioxidants N-acetlcysteine and desferrioxamine has been shown to suppress vasculitis and IgE production in this model. These findings suggest a possible clinical role for antioxidants in the therapy of human autoimmune disease.


Many researchers argue that there is a demand for a new way of teaching and learning to better equip us for the value pluralistic society we are living in. Research has shown that teachers are reluctant to teach about value pluralistic subjects. This thesis aims to study how rural Mongolian teachers view the human-nature relationship in relation to the current situation in Mongolia, characterized by economic growth and environmental issues. Ethical perspectives are applied on the teachers' views in order to bring structure to the different ways of viewing the human-nature relationship. The study shows that the teachers' values change depending on if they look at their personal relationship to nature or put nature in relation to society. The results prove that even though personal values are complex it is possible to bring structure to how we understand them. The result provides an example of how complex value pluralistic issues can be structured in order to enable an understanding of them. Furthermore, the thesis suggests that ethical perspectives can be used in education for sustainable development when striving for a new way of teaching and learning.


ABSTRACT Phosphorylation of H2AX (γH2AX) is an early sign of DNA damage induced by replication stalling. However, the role of H2AX in the repair of this type of DNA damage is still unclear. In this study, we used an inactivated adeno-associated virus (AAV) to induce a stalled replication fork signal and investigate the function of γH2AX. The cellular response to AAV provides a unique model to study γH2AX function, because the infection causes pannuclear H2AX phosphorylation without any signs of damage to the host genome. We found that pannuclear γH2AX formation is a result of ATR overactivation and diffusion but is independent of ATM. The inhibition of H2AX with RNA interference or the use of H2AX-deficient cells showed that γH2AX is dispensable for the formation and maintenance of DNA repair foci induced by stalled replication. However, in the absence of H2AX, the AAV-containing cells showed proteosome-dependent degradation of p21, followed by caspase-dependent mitotic catastrophe. In contrast, H2AX-proficient cells as well as H2AX-complemented H2AX−/− cells reacted by increasing p21 levels and arresting the cell cycle. The results establish a new role for H2AX in the p53/p21 pathway and indicate that H2AX is required for p21-induced cell cycle arrest after replication stalling.


Cloud applications are increasingly shifting to interactive and loosely-coupled microservices. Despite their advantages, microservices complicate resource management, due to inter-tier dependencies. We present Sinan, a cluster manager for interactive microservices that leverages easily-obtainable tracing data instead of empirical decisions, to infer the impact of a resource allocation on on end-to-end performance, and allocate appropriate resources to each tier. In a preliminary evaluation of Sinan with an end-to-end social network built with microservices, we show that Sinan's data-driven approach, allows the service to always meet its QoS without sacrificing resource efficiency.


We study a class of polynomial optimization problems with a robust polynomial matrix inequality constraint for which the uncertainty set is defined also by a polynomial matrix inequality (including robust polynomial semidefinite programs as a special case). Under certain SOS-convexity assumptions, we construct a hierarchy of moment-SOS relaxations for this problem to obtain convergent upper bounds of the optimal value by solving a sequence of semidefinite programs. To this end, we apply the Positivstellensatz for polynomial matrices and its dual matrix-valued moment theory to a conic reformulation of the problem. Most of the nice features of the moment-SOS hierarchy for the scalar polynomial optimization are generalized to the matrix case. In particular, the finite convergence of the hierarchy can be also certified if the flat extension condition holds. To extract global minimizers in this case, we develop a linear algebra approach to recover the representing matrix-valued measure for the corresponding truncated matrix-valued moment problem. As an application, we use this hierarchy to solve the problem of minimizing the smallest eigenvalue of a polynomial matrix subject to a polynomial matrix inequality. Finally, if SOS-convexity is replaced by convexity, we can still approximate the optimal value as closely as desired by solving a sequence of semidefinite programs, and certify global optimality in case that certain flat extension conditions hold true.


Bialystok is the capital of a province in north-eastern Poland. In the past the city featured ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and Jews coexisted here in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Jewish communities shaped the city's religious landscape and local identity significantly since the second half of the 19th century and until World War II when they constituted half of the city's population. This was the biggest minority group among Polish cities. The post-Jewish landscape became invisible and silent by now. It was the result of the Nazi policy of extermination, and the anti-Semitic policy of the communist Polish authorities, as well as the attitude of Polish society towards the Jewish minority until the late 1960s. From among almost 60 synagogues and prayer houses which operated before the war, only three have survived, but they have not been in use for religious service for a long time. Bialystok has also been inhabited by the so-called Polish Tatars. The Muslim community, which for centuries consisted mainly of Polish Tatars, is increasingly visible in the city, which is also the seat of Muslim Religious Union, the largest Muslim union in Poland. There is also the Bialystok Centre of Islam and a house of prayer. Today's religious landscape of the city is mostly formed by both Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. As a result of the city's demographic and spatial development, the number of churches has grown significantly as compared to the inter-war period. The strongest and the most visible qualitative changes were observed after World War II. Multiculturalism is still important asset of the city. This paper presents the transformation of the cultural and religious landscape of Bialystok in the context of the impact of the politics and ideology from the 19th century to the present. It also highlights the importance of multiculturalism in the city landscape for the promotion and development of tourism and city branding.


The establishment of an adult day care center is one way for home care agencies to both expand their service offerings and ensure that clients get the care they need to remain at home. In setting up a center the agency must initially make decisions regarding where the center will be located, who will staff it, and how it will be funded.


Detecting earthquake events from seismic time series has proved itself a challenging task. Manual detection can be expensive and tedious due to the intensive labor and large scale data set. In recent years, automatic detection methods based on machine learning have been developed to improve accuracy and efficiency. However, the accuracy of those methods relies on a sufficient amount of high-quality training data, which itself can be expensive to obtain due to the requirement of domain knowledge and subject matter expertise. This paper is to resolve this dilemma by answering two questions: (1) provided with a limited number of reliable labels, can we use them to generate more synthetic labels; (2) Can we use those synthetic labels to improve the detectability? Among all the existing generative models, the generative adversarial network (GAN) shows its supreme capability in generating high-quality synthetic samples in multiple domains. We designed our model based on GAN. In particular, we studied several different network structures. By comparing the generated results, our GAN-based generative model yields the highest quality. We further combine the dataset with synthetic samples generated by our generative model and show that the detectability of our earthquake classification model is significantly improved than the one trained without augmenting the training set.


Background/Objective:
Sepsis-induced kidney injury is a major clinical problem and is an independent risk factor for mortality. We and others have reported that renal tissue metabolism is profoundly altered in the septic milieu. However, whether such metabolic shift is an adaptive response or pathologic process remains unclear. For instance, decreased lipid metabolism in the renal peroxisomes could limit the genesis of deleterious reactive oxygens species whereas the lack of lipid usage in peroxisomes could contribute to energy depletion. Accordingly, here we examined gene expression changes involved in lipid metabolism using mouse models of endotoxemia. Specifically, we compared gene expression changes between injurious high-dose endotoxemia and protective low-dose endotoxin preconditioning models with the goal of identifying favorable reprogramming in lipid metabolism.

Methods:
To induce protective preconditioning, mice were subjected to low-dose endotoxin followed 24 hours later by high-dose endotoxin. Non-preconditioned mice were subjected to a single high-dose endotoxin. Renal tissues were processed and single-cell RNA-sequencing was performed. Tissue metabolomic data was also obtained.

Results:
We found that renal lipid metabolism is deranged in the non-preconditioned endotoxemia model. Plin2, a marker for lipid accumulation, was significantly upregulated in the proximal tubules of non-preconditioned animals. In contrast, Plin2 expression was preserved in the preconditioned animals, suggesting that altered Plin2 expression is a maladaptive response. Similarly, Pdzk1 and Lrp2, genes involved in HDL/LDL receptor expression, were concurrently downregulated in the injurious model, whereas their expression levels were preserved in the protective model. The stable expression of these two genes may be important for maintaining metabolic capacity and anti-inflammatory effects observed in the preconditioned state. These findings were further supported by our tissue metabolomics analysis.

Conclusion/Impact:
Our data indicate that aberrant lipid metabolism is a prominent feature of endotoxin-induced kidney injury. The use of protective preconditioning served as a platform to identify several candidate genes that could be studied further for the development of biomarkers and precise intervention.


ABSTRACT Background: A variety of group activities is promoted for nursing home (NH) residents with dementia with the aim to reduce apathy and to increase engagement and social interaction. Investigating behaviors related to these outcomes could produce insights into how the activities work. The aim of this study was to systematically investigate behaviors seen in people with dementia during group activity with the seal robot Paro, differences in behaviors related to severity of dementia, and to explore changes in behaviors. Methods: Thirty participants from five NHs formed groups of five to six participants at each NH. Group sessions with Paro lasted for 30 minutes twice a week during 12 weeks of intervention. Video recordings were conducted in the second and tenth week. An ethogram, containing 18 accurately defined and described behaviors, mapped the participants' behaviors. Duration of behaviors, such as "Observing Paro," "Conversation with Paro on the lap," "Smile/laughter toward other participants," were converted to percentage of total session time and analyzed statistically. Results: "Observing Paro" was observed more often in participants with mild to moderate dementia (p = 0.019), while the variable "Observing other things" occurred more in the group of severe dementia (p = 0.042). "Smile/laughter toward other participants" showed an increase (p = 0.011), and "Conversations with Paro on the lap" showed a decrease (p = 0.014) during the intervention period. Conclusions: Participants with severe dementia seemed to have difficulty in maintaining attention toward Paro during the group session. In the group as a whole, Paro seemed to be a mediator for increased social interactions and created engagement.


Patient "no-shows" are missed appointments resulting in clinical inefficiencies, revenue loss, and discontinuity of care. Using secondary electronic health record (EHR) data, we used machine learning to predict patient no-shows in follow-up and new patient visits in pediatric ophthalmology and to evaluate features for importance. The best model, XGBoost, had an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) score of 0.90 for predicting no-shows in follow-up visits. The key findings from this study are: (1) secondary use of EHR data can be used to build datasets for predictive modeling and successfully predict patient no-shows in pediatric ophthalmology, (2) models predicting no-shows for follow-up visits are more accurate than those for new patient visits, and (3) the performance of predictive models is more robust in predicting no-shows compared to individual important features. We hope these models will be used for more effective interventions to mitigate the impact ofpatient no-shows.


A neural network is introduced which provides a solution of the classical motor equivalence problem, whereby many different joint configurations of a redundant manipulator can all be used to realize a desired trajectory in 3-D space. To do this, the network self-organizes a mapping from motion directions in 3-D space to velocity commands in joint space. Computer simulations demonstrated that without any additional learning the network can generate accurate movement commands that compensate for variable tool lengths, clamping of joints, distortions of visual input by a prism, and unexpected limb perturbations. Blind reaches have also been simulated.<<ETX>>


In this empirical paper, we investigate how learning agents can be arranged in more efficient communication topologies for improved learning. This is an important problem because a common technique to improve speed and robustness of learning in deep reinforcement learning and many other machine learning algorithms is to run multiple learning agents in parallel. The standard communication architecture typically involves all agents intermittently communicating with each other (fully connected topology) or with a centralized server (star topology). Unfortunately, optimizing the topology of communication over the space of all possible graphs is a hard problem, so we borrow results from the networked optimization and collective intelligence literatures which suggest that certain families of network topologies can lead to strong improvements over fully-connected networks. We start by introducing alternative network topologies to DRL benchmark tasks under the Evolution Strategies paradigm which we call Network Evolution Strategies. We explore the relative performance of the four main graph families and observe that one such family (Erdos-Renyi random graphs) empirically outperforms all other families, including the de facto fully-connected communication topologies. Additionally, the use of alternative network topologies has a multiplicative performance effect: we observe that when 1000 learning agents are arranged in a carefully designed communication topology, they can compete with 3000 agents arranged in the de facto fully-connected topology. Overall, our work suggests that distributed machine learning algorithms would learn more efficiently if the communication topology between learning agents was optimized.


The properties of sputter deposited NbN thin films were studied under changes in various deposition conditions including nitrogen flow, substrate heating, the addition of carbon impurities, and the use of a Nb underlayer. Without the underlayer, a semiconductor-like resistive behavior above the superconducting transition temperature and a wide superconducting transition were observed in the niobium nitride films, including those with transition temperatures above 15 K. With the underlayer, metallic behavior and a sharp superconducting transition were produced. The superconducting transition temperature depended strongly on nitrogen flow and substrate heating but weakly on carbon impurities. We present details for the preparation and analysis of niobium nitride thin films with and without a niobium underlayer as well as the measured film characteristics.


Three phosphoryl quinoline derivatives, (2,4-diphenylquinolin-3-yl)diphenylphosphine oxide (QDPO), (2,4-diphenylbenzo[h]quinolin-3-yl)diphenylphosphine oxide (B-QDPO) and (2-([1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)-4-phenylquinolin-3-yl)diphenylphosphine oxide (BP-QDPO), comprising two electron-transporting moieties namely a nitrogen heterocycle and a phosphoryl (PO) group, have been designed and synthesized. All materials exhibit suitable LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital)/HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital) levels, large triplet energy gaps (ET > 3.1 eV) and excellent thermal stabilities. These materials were utilized as electron transporting materials for fabricating green phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes with the configuration of indium tin oxide (ITO)/MoO3 (5 nm)/TAPC (di-[4-(N,N-ditolyl-amino)-phenyl]cyclohexane) (30 nm)/Ir(tfmppy)2tpip (bis(4-trifluoromethylphenylpyridine-N,C2′)iridium(tetraphenylimido-diphosphinate)) (8 wt%): mCP [1,3-bis(N-carbazolyl)benzene] (10 nm)/QDPO or B-QDPO or BP-QDPO (30 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm). These devices exhibited decent performances with a peak current efficiency above 80 cd A−1 and an external quantum efficiency above 20% as well as negligible efficiency roll-off.


The challenge posed by the ever-increasing RF spectrum demand for communication applications is in part met with radar and communication spectrum sharing by codesign of dual-function systems. Co-design of joint radar/communication systems requires the use of some form of waveform diversity via exploitation of the available time, frequency, coding, spatial, or polarization degrees-of-freedom. In this chapter, we have focused on methods for coding, spatial, and spectral forms of waveform diversity, presenting particular dual-function design strategies for each along with practical implementation issues.


Web agencies are firms which develop web based models for companies. These models vary from simple web pages through on-line marketing techniques all the way to full process integration to payment solutions. The operation of web agencies raise several dilemmas: for instance how pricing of such services are set, what type of technology they use and what type of carrier path they provide for the job market. After looking into the question in Hungary we realized that there are several questions unanswered regarding the web development industry. First, there is no information about the market in terms of the number of companies and their impact on e-commerce in Hungary. Secondly, we have no information on how technology is organized and aligned for value creation in this industry. In our research we explored the Hungarian web agency industry in terms of the numerical size of the market, structure of value creation activities and how technologies together with HR skills create organizational capabilities for web agencies.


Coffee pulp waste is one of the most significant industrial wastes today because, in the last three years, the coffee business has increased in Indonesia, especially in urban areas. Coffee pulp waste has economic value if it can use it. This study is conducted to (1) describe the interest of coffee shops in South Jakarta to provide coffee pulp waste as cosmetic raw materials, (2) to apply green marketing as a social business strategy to develop creative industries. This research is a qualitative descriptive study with a case study approach. To discover coffee shop owners' interests to utilize coffee grounds waste, data collection through interviews with 30 coffee shop owners in South Jakarta, and observation. Determine the strategy of implementing green marketing in coffee shops through the utilization of coffee grounds waste produced. The results showed that coffee shops in South Jakarta produced 1-5 kg of coffee waste per day. All owners have not utilized the coffee grounds waste. The interview results showed the coffee shop owner's desire to provide coffee pulp waste produced for use as raw material for making cosmetics. Utilizing this coffee pulp waste can lead to new businesses that can be developed as creative industries. The new company is a social business that impacts solving social problems, namely creating new jobs in environmentally friendly cosmetics made from coffee grounds waste.


We demonstrate a method of displacement measurement based on Nd:YAG laser with birefringence external cavity. The measurement system is composed of Nd:YAG laser, a wave plate with phase retardation of 450 and an external feedback mirror. Due to the birefringence effect, the external cavity modulates the laser output intensities in the two orthogonal directions with a phase difference of 900, which is two times to that of the wave plate. Both the in-quadrature laser intensities vary one period, when the external cavity length changes λ/2. These two channel laser intensities with phase difference of 900 can be subdivided to λ/8 after 4-fold evaluation. The movement direction of external mirror can be distinguished by the lead or lag between these two channel signals. Our method can improve the resolution of displacement measurement 4 times that of conventional optical feedback, and reach 133nm for a laser wavelength of 1.064µm.


InMotion has the goal to create a research platform for innovative technologies to show the world the future of automotive technology. This research platform will be a collaboration between knowledge institutes, Brainport companies and the government in which they implement their latest technologies. The showcase will hold futuristic idea's which may sound impossible today but will be commonly used in ten years. InMotion will thus be a leading institute which gives answers to social problems such as emissions and trac jams. The showcase will be in the shape of a super high performance car (the IM01) which will be capable of beating a Formula 1 car on the track while using clean energy and driving autonomously. To reach this goal the IM01 will exhibit innovations such as advanced hybrid propulsion systems, interactive safety warning systems, Diesel engine running at 60% eciency with cleaner emissions than air and high-tech systems focused on communication in the car. These technologies are futuristic nowadays but InMotion strives to make this future reality and solve the social problems as stated above. In the late 70s and 80s Formula 1 was leading the world of automotive technology, these days it is restrained by rules regarding cost and ratings. InMotion can attain this lost spot in the world by implementing high-tech innovations from TU/e and automotive companies situated in the Brainport region, the smartest region in the world.


We find a dramatic enhancement of electron propagation along a narrow range of real-space angles from an isotropic source in a two-dimensional quantum well made from a zincblende semiconductor. This "electron beam" formation is caused by the interplay between spin-orbit interaction originating from a perpendicular electric field to the quantum well and the intrinsic spin-orbit field of the zincblende crystal lattice in a quantum well, in situations where the two fields are different in strength but of the same order of magnitude. Beam formation is associated with caustics and can be described semi-classically using a stationary phase analysis.


Commonly the aesthetic is understood as sensuous private pleasure, which other people cannot experience, but maybe talk about, and on the other hand as created by individual artists' talents. We will attempt to bring the aesthetic back into praxis by arguing that aesthetic experience is tied to Gibson's notion of perceptual systems. The article builds on observations of a design project for a community center in a Danish village. We argue that the aesthetic is shared pleasure resulting from struggles by participants in praxis, where aesthetic, material, functional, ethical, political, and economic aspects are formed by each other in a dialectic process. The struggles are found in the community council's reasons for starting the process, in the design and construction process and the use of the results. This means that descriptions of the aesthetic appearance of buildings should incorporate relevant discussions and struggles of the design, construction and use of the building, and that aesthetic experience is enriched the more aesthetic experience it is based on. It also means that the key to a fruitful ongoing collaborative process producing good aesthetic designs comes from managing together the many aspects of praxis in an open way.


Six integrated crop management systems varying primarily in terms of tillage and herbicide inputs were maintained for four years at two locations in the Moist Mixed Grassland ecoregion in Saskatchewan. The seedbank was sampled in each plot in the spring of 1997 prior to the initiation of the experiment and the spring of 2001 following the completion of the experiment to determine if cropping system had changed seedbank composition. Redundancy Analysis (RDA) was used to directly quantify the change in weed seedbank attributable to cropping system at each location. The RDA was constrained by cropping system for the 2001 data and year for the 1997 data. Initial spatial variation observed in the 1997 weed seedbank was removed from the analysis by using plot number and replicate block as binary covariables. The majority of species increased in the seedbank in all systems studied at both locations. The seedbank from the no herbicide high tillage systems was distinguishable from the other systems by large increases in lamb's-quarters and stinkweed at both locations. While similar species tended to increase in all the systems with herbicides, the systems with lower levels of herbicides applied had larger increases in the seedbank than those with high herbicide inputs.


The paper outlines an approach to the simultaneous control of production schedules, stock levels and purchase costs based on a dynamic analysis of the management-information systems involved in the production-planning process. The problems of simultaneously reducing production costs, controlling the impact of high stock levels on company cash flow, and purchasing economically, are modelled within the framework of an integrated management-information system for production planning. It is shown that a combination of economic ordering, accurate forecasting, and stable updating of production plans as market conditions vary, can improve the performance of the manufacturing plant. Two case studies of actual manufacturing companies with computerised systems are examined: one a precision-engineering product manufacturer with a high degree of manual intervention in the computerised planning process, the other a fashion product manufacturer operating in a volatile market with an entirely computerised and automatic production-planning system. Results from the dynamic analyses of both cases show that manual intervention is an important factor in the success of any computerised system. The conclusions drawn are that integrated dynamic analyses of the individual components of the production system are necessary to ensure the overall objectives of the manufacturing plant are achieved.


This study describes the process of developing a scale to measure the leadership capacity of players in sports teams. Research into sports leadership has focused almost exclusively on the formal leadership of the coach, in which the studies by Chelladurai, with his five-factor model, have become an essential point of reference. Nevertheless, hardly any research has been carried out into the leadership that certain players exercise over the other team members. For this purpose, a sample of 143 male basketball players was used; these participants were asked to evaluate the characteristics of the sports leader over a total of 54 indicators. Firstly, explanatory factor analysis was performed with participants' responses, using principal axis and oblique rotation methods. The factor structure obtained was then subjected to confirmatory factorial analysis, enabling us to propose a Sports Leader Evaluation Scale (EELD, in Spanish) with 18 items grouped into 3 factors, denominated empathy and responsibility, assertiveness, and impulsiveness. Satisfactory fit indices were obtained for the model, for the reliability of items and for the internal consistency of factors.


In this paper, we present a new application-focused benchmark dataset and results from a set of baseline Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning models for prediction of match outcomes for games of football (soccer). By doing so we give a baseline for the prediction accuracy that can be achieved exploiting both statistical match data and contextual articles from human sports journalists. Our dataset is focuses on a representative time-period over 6 seasons of the English Premier League, and includes newspaper match previews from The Guardian. The models presented in this paper achieve an accuracy of 63.18% showing a 6.9% boost on the traditional statistical methods.


OBJECTIVES
To describe a cranioplasty procedure used in conjunction with foramen magnum decompression (FMD) for the treatment of canine caudal occipital malformation syndrome (COMS), and to evaluate the clinical outcome.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective clinical study.

ANIMALS
Dogs (n=21) with COMS diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

METHODS
After FMD, titanium screws were placed around the perimeter of the foramen magnum defect and a skull plate fashioned from titanium mesh and polymethylmethacrylate was attached to the back of the skull, using the titanium screws as anchor posts. Follow-up was obtained by direct examination by the authors, telephone interviews with owners and referring veterinarians, and a questionnaire sent to owners of surviving dogs designed to assign objective measures of response to surgical intervention. Surgical success was defined as improvement in >or=1 aspects of clinical dysfunction (e.g. scratching, pain) postoperatively. Owner-assigned pre- and postoperative quality-of-life (QOL) scores (1-5) for surviving dogs were compared using a Wilcoxon's signed rank test for paired data (P<or=.05).

RESULTS
No intraoperative complications occurred and postoperative complications were limited to transient worsening of a pre-existing head tilt and ataxia in 1 dog, and the need for oral pain medication for 1-4 weeks in 3 dogs. Seventeen dogs (81%) had clinical improvement after surgery. Although clinical signs resolved in 1 dog, it died after being hit by a car, 5 months after surgery. One dog had no change in clinical signs; this patient's clinical signs were not severe and the owners had opted for surgery primarily to prevent progression of disease. Two dogs were euthanatized; 1 because of no improvement of severe clinical signs, and 1 because of sustained recurrence of apparent head and neck pain 7 months later. One dog required a dorsal laminectomy at a second site (C1/C2 vertebral level), 2 months later. Four dogs has transient "flare-ups" of apparent head/neck pain 2-13 months later; all resolved with transient re-institution of oral analgesic therapy. Further surgery at the FMD was not needed. Based on the returned questionnaires, there was an overall significant improvement in QOL scores.

CONCLUSIONS
FMD with cranioplasty was well tolerated, with no intraoperative complications, and minor postoperative complications. Most dogs improved clinically, and none required further surgery at the original FMD site.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
FMD with cranioplasty may be an effective surgical method of treating dogs with COMS and is well tolerated. Based on prior reports of FMD for this disorder, it appears that cranioplasty may reduce the rate of surgical failure caused by formation of compressive scar tissue at the FMD site in the short term. Results of this preliminary study support further evaluation of the cranioplasty procedure in a larger group of dogs over a more extended follow-up period.


In this paper, we analyze two types of biometric identification systems with protected templates that also support authentication. In the first system, two terminals observe biometric enrollment and identification sequences of a number of individuals. It is the goal of these terminals to form a common secret for the sequences belonging to the same individual by interchanging public (helper) messages of all individuals such that the information leakage about the secrets from these helper messages is negligible. These secret keys are used for authentication purposes. Moreover, the second terminal should be able to establish the identity of an individual based on the presented biometric identification sequence and helper messages. It is important to realize that biometric data are unique for individuals and cannot be replaced if compromised. Therefore, the helper messages should contain as little as possible information about the biometric data. In the second setting, we consider the first terminal does not generate secret keys from biometric sequences of individuals but chooses them uniformly at random. These keys are conveyed to the second terminal by communicating the corresponding helper messages. In this paper, we determine the fundamental tradeoffs between secret-key, identification, and privacy-leakage rates for both biometric settings.


Business taxes are often a point of debate in discussions about raising state revenue. Economists have not come to a consensus on an ideal business tax strategy. Illinois uses the business tax similarly to most other states. However, some states have considered eliminating or replacing the corporate income tax, or adding new business taxes. Long-term effects of these policy changes are difficult to predict. This paper will provide an overview of how economists think about the business tax, and options for changes in Illinois. What is a business tax and who pays it? Businesses may "remit" taxes—i.e. write a check to the government for the tax due—but ultimately some person or persons must bear the burden of the tax. This burden is most likely to be on the firm's owner(s), its customers, its suppliers, or its employees. Often the burden will be shared among these groups. Thus, a tax on business is ultimately a tax on individuals. Scholars have not reached consensus on appropriate business taxation. Like other taxes, business taxes have implications for administrative efficiency, vertical equity ("fairness"), economic efficiency, and revenue stability.


Background: In the U.S., the incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer (CaP) for African American (AA) men are about 1.5 and 2.3 times higher compared to Caucasian American (CA) men, respectively. CaP is diagnosed at an earlier age and is more aggressive in AA compared to CA patients. The causes for these differences are multifactorial, but include genetic effects that contribute to CaP-associated health disparity. We previously showed that in androgen-dependent CaP cells, the androgen receptor (AR) suppresses levels of the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB3, a molecule that is known to drive CaP progression, by stimulating the E3 ubiquitin ligase Nrdp1 (also called RNF41 or FLRF). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of the AR-Nrdp1-ErbB3 signaling axis in CaP development and progression in AA vs CA men with CaP. Methods: All data were collected with approval from the University of California Davis (UCD) or VA Northern California Health Care System (VANCHCS) Institutional Review Board (IRB). Sections from prostate tumors of 157 patients who underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy at UCD (79) or VANCHCS (78) were analyzed for these studies. Tumor and nontumor areas were identified by a pathologist and 60-µm core samples were extracted from the specific areas of the donor blocks. The specimens were arranged in triplicate in a tissue microarray (TMA) using a Beecher Instruments Manual Tissue Arrayer. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used as a reference for interpreting the additional sections of the TMA stained with antibodies to Nrdp1 and AR. Results: Nrdp1 has two major proteins isoforms of 317 amino acids (36kDa) and 246 amino acids (28kDa)--both isoforms are expressed in CaP. Subcellular fractionation and immunofluorescence staining of various CaP cell lines showed that while the 36 kDa Nrdp1 was localized to both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, the 28 kDa was localized exclusively in the cytoplasm. Hence, we investigated the expression of Nrdp1 in primary prostate tissues from 157 individual patients, including 19 AA, 121 non-Hispanic CA, 5 Hispanic CA, and 11 others. Using a scoring system based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) scores from 0 to 3, where 0 represents no staining and 3 represents 100% staining, we observed that Nrdp1 was strongly expressed in the epithelial cells of the prostate and could be observed in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Comparison of cytoplasmic Nrdp1 levels showed no difference in expression between the different racial groups; however, nuclear Nrdp1 levels differed significantly between races (P = 0.008), with post-hoc testing showing significantly higher expression in CA patients than in AA patients (P = 0.002). Therefore, it is likely that the difference is in the 36-kDa fragment and not the 28-kDa fragment. Further, increased preoperative PSA is associated with significantly higher nuclear Nrdp1 levels (P = 0.030), with a Spearman correlation of 0.19. Finally, we demonstrated that nuclear Nrdp1 levels are significantly higher in subjects without acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin, ASA) use (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Since PSA levels are considered to be a measure of AR transcriptional activity, the correlation between nuclear Nrdp1 and preoperative PSA is supportive of our previous report showing that Nrdp1 is a direct transcriptional target of the AR. Since preoperative PSA is indicative of advanced disease, these results suggest that one reason for higher incidence of CaP and higher CaP progression among AA patients compared to CA is due to the lower levels of nuclear Nrdp1 in the former. Further, since aspirin use increased the levels of nuclear Nrdp1, these data indicate that the use of aspirin may increase nuclear Nrdp1 levels, thereby decreasing the risk of advanced CaP and perhaps reducing CaP disparities between these groups. Citation Format: Salma Siddiqui, Frank U. Melgoza, Blythe P. Durbin-Johnson, Ruth L. Vinall, Paramita M. Ghosh. Decreased nuclear expression of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Nrdp1 in African American men compared to Caucasian men with localized prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A83.


THE DESCRIPTIONS of anal anatomy in current textbooks on surgery and proctology are remarkably diverse. Not only are there departures in terminology, but in many instances details of considerable surgical significance are not given proper emphasis or are omitted entirely. The need for clear and uniform concepts has led to this presentation of the essential points with which he who ventures to dissect the nether parts of his fellow man should be familiar. It is based on certain fundamental contributions to this subject, 1 tempered by a personal study of postmortem and surgical material. THE ANAL MUSCULATURE The four muscles of importance in anal surgery are the external sphincter, the internal sphincter, the longitudinal muscle and the levator ani. It is amazing how frequently the relationship of these muscles is misrepresented, despite the thorough and conclusive studies of Milligan and Morgan, 1a Blaisdell lb and others. The proper relationship is


Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) of the CNS is a rare entity, known to involve primarily the hypothalamicpituitary region, with the clinical hallmark of diabetes insipidus. There have been a few reports of CNS LCH involving the brainstem as intraparenchymal enhancing lesions, but this has never been the presenting complaint of LCH. The authors report on a 7-year-old boy who presented with right cerebellopontine syndrome, in whom a well-defined, solid, enhancing lesion in the brainstem was diagnosed. Clinicoradiological differential diagnosis included glioma and tuberculosis. Biopsy revealed atypical histiocytes positive for CD68, CD1a, and S100 protein; these are the diagnostic features of LCH on histopathological examination. The rapid growth of the lesion was controlled with a chemotherapeutic regimen of cladribine.


Structure-based localization is the task of finding the absolute pose of a given query image w.r.t. a pre-computed 3D model. While this is almost trivial at small scale, special care must be taken as the size of the 3D model grows, because straight-forward descriptor matching becomes ineffective due to the large memory footprint of the model, as well as the strictness of the ratio test in 3D. Recently, several authors have tried to overcome these problems, either by a smart compression of the 3D model or by clever sampling strategies for geometric verification. Here we explore an orthogonal strategy, which uses all the 3D points and standard sampling, but performs feature matching implicitly, by quantization into a fine vocabulary. We show that although this matching is ambiguous and gives rise to 3D hyperpoints when matching each 2D query feature in isolation, a simple voting strategy, which enforces the fact that the selected 3D points shall be co-visible, can reliably find a locally unique 2D-3D point assignment. Experiments on two large-scale datasets demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance, while the memory footprint is greatly reduced, since only visual word labels but no 3D point descriptors need to be stored.


Purpose: This phase I, multicenter, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation, and dose-expansion study evaluated the safety, tolerability, and antitumor activity of MEDI-573 in adults with advanced solid tumors refractory to standard therapy or for which no standard therapy exists. Experimental Design: Patients received MEDI-573 in 1 of 5 cohorts (0.5, 1.5, 5, 10, or 15 mg/kg) dosed weekly or 1 of 2 cohorts (30 or 45 mg/kg) dosed every 3 weeks. Primary end points included the MEDI-573 safety profile, maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and optimal biologic dose (OBD). Secondary end points included MEDI-573 pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics, immunogenicity, and antitumor activity. Results: In total, 43 patients (20 with urothelial cancer) received MEDI-573. No dose-limiting toxicities were identified, and only 1 patient experienced hyperglycemia related to treatment. Elevations in levels of insulin and/or growth hormone were not observed. Adverse events observed in >10% of patients included fatigue, anorexia, nausea, diarrhea, and anemia. PK evaluation demonstrated that levels of MEDI-573 increased with dose at all dose levels tested. At doses >5 mg/kg, circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGFII were fully suppressed. Of 39 patients evaluable for response, none experienced partial or complete response and 13 had stable disease as best response. Conclusions: The MTD of MEDI-573 was not reached. The OBD was 5 mg/kg weekly or 30 or 45 mg/kg every 3 weeks. MEDI-573 showed preliminary antitumor activity in a heavily pretreated population and had a favorable tolerability profile, with no notable perturbations in metabolic homeostasis. Clin Cancer Res; 20(18); 4747–57. ©2014 AACR.


Vibrational conveyers with a centrifugal vibration exciter transmit their load based on the jumping method. Common unbalanced-mass driver oscillates the trough. The motion is strictly related to the vibrational parameters. The transition over resonance of a vibratory system, excited by rotating unbalances, is important in terms of the maximum vibrational amplitude produced and the power demand on the drive for the crossover. The mechanical system is driven by the DC motor. In this study, the working ranges of oscillating shaking conveyers with nonideal vibration exciter have been analyzed analytically for superharmonic and subharmonic resonances by the method of multiple scales and numerically. The analytical results obtained in this study agree well with the numerical results.


Aporias of Mobility: Amazonian Landscapes between Exploration and Engineering Deneb Kozikoski Valereto This dissertation argues that the journeys of naturalists, explorers, intellectuals, and engineers through the Amazon in the second half of the nineteenth and first decade of the twentieth century gave rise to perspectives that challenge foundational assumptions about technology in modern metropolitan centers. Chief among these assumptions are the ideas that technology contributes to specialization, the disenchantment of reality, the entrapment of the subject in the logistics of urban labor, and the removal of natural obstacles. The examination of the roles of nature and technology in texts and images of the period shows that travel and exploration were represented as experiences of enchantment and encounters with impassable terrains. The dissertation focuses on three interconnected cases to support its thesis: Euclides da Cunha's reading of the naturalists in his essays on the Amazon; experiences and practices of exploration on the Madeira and Mamoré Rivers; and the construction of a railroad along these rivers to render the hauling of vessels over land and long voyages unnecessary. Developing a cultural-historical framework that counters narratives of technological domination and failure, the dissertation concludes that the tensions between exploration and engineering in these cases reveal the eschatological facets of the history of technology. The eschatological facets show both how technologies contribute to the construction of the farthest frontiers and how technologies themselves arrive at their final stages.


A diagnosis of breast cancer can be overwhelming. The disease is frightening and the medical landscape confusing. In the wake of fear and confusion comes the need to make decisions about treatment. This book provides women with medically reliable and up-to-date information to help them with these decisions. Within these pages is a team of private consultants-including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists, plastic surgeons, and women who have faced breast cancer-each of whom offers sound advice and valuable insight. In addition to describing surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and breast reconstruction, the medical experts clarify choices and offer support, while breast cancer survivors tell their own stories of pain, perseverance, and triumph. Choices in Breast Cancer Treatment is a rare blend of medical expertise and compelling personal accounts that empowers those with breast cancer to meet the disease with confidence, knowledge, and hope.


Abstract The (extended) lowest order constrained variational ((E) LOCV) method was used to calculate the ground state energy of liquid helium 3 (He) droplets at zero temperature. Different types of density distribution profiles, such as the Gaussian, the Quasi-Gaussian and the Woods-Saxon were used. It was shown that at least, on average, near 20 He atoms are needed to get the bound state for He liquid droplet. Depending on the choice of the density profiles and the atomic radius of He, the above estimate can increase to 300. Our calculated ground state energy and the number of atoms in liquid He droplet were compared with those of Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) method, Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method and Density Functional Theory (DFT), for which a reasonable agreement was found.


Background: Written materials used both clinically and in everyday reading tasks can contain visuographic images that vary in content and attributes. People with aphasia may benefit from visuographic images to support reading comprehension. Understanding the image type and feature preferences of individuals with aphasia is an important first step when developing guidelines for selecting reading materials that motivate and support reading comprehension. Objective: The study purposes were to determine the preferences and explore the perceptions of and opinions provided by adults with chronic aphasia regarding various image features and types on facilitating the reading process. Methods: Six adults with chronic aphasia ranked visuographic materials varying in context, engagement, and content regarding their perceived degree of helpfulness in comprehending written materials. Then, they participated in semi-structured interviews that allowed them to elaborate on their choices and convey opinions about potential benefits and detriments associated with preferred and non-preferred materials. Results/Conclusions: All participants preferred high-context photographs rather than iconic images or portraits as potential supports to facilitate reading activities. Differences in opinions emerged across participants regarding the amount of preferred content included in high context images.


Social network analysis has attracted much attention in recent years. Community mining is one of the major directions in social network analysis. Most of the existing methods on community mining assume that there is only one kind of relation in the network, and moreover, the mining results are independent of the users' needs or preferences. However, in reality, there exist multiple, heterogeneous social networks, each representing a particular kind of relationship, and each kind of relationship may play a distinct role in a particular task. Thus mining networks by assuming only one kind of relation may miss a lot of valuable hidden community information and may not be adaptable to the diverse information needs from different users.In this paper, we systematically analyze the problem of mining hidden communities on heterogeneous social networks. Based on the observation that different relations have different importance with respect to a certain query, we propose a new method for learning an optimal linear combination of these relations which can best meet the user's expectation. With the obtained relation, better performance can be achieved for community mining. Our approach to social network analysis and community mining represents a major shift in methodology from the traditional one, a shift from single-network, user-independent analysis to multi-network, user-dependant, and query-based analysis. Experimental results on Iris data set and DBLP data set demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


A nifU-like gene exhibiting similarity to nifU of nitrogen fixation gene cluster was identified for the first time from the gut cDNA library of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri. Both RT-PCR and Northern blotting as well as in situ hybridization histochemistry verified that the cDNA represents an amphioxus nifU-like gene rather than a microbial contaminant. The nifU-like gene encodes a protein of 164 amino acid residues including a highly-conserved U-type motif (C–X26–C–X43–C), and shares 66–86% identity to NifU-like proteins from a variety of species including vertebrates, invertebrates and microbes. It is expressed in a tissue-specific manner in the digestive system including epipharyngeal groove, endostyle, hepatic caecum and hindgut and in the gill, ovary and testis. Taken together, it is highly likely that NifU-like protein plays some tissue-dependent and critical role in amphioxus.


Infectious diseases and increasing antibiotic resistance among diverse classes of microbes are global health concerns and a prime focus of omics systems science applications in novel drug discovery. Plumbagin is a plant-derived naphthoquinone, a natural product that exhibits antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria. In the present study, we investigated the antimicrobial effects of plumbagin against Bacillus subtilis using two complementary proteomics techniques: two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ). Comparative quantitative proteomics analysis of plumbagin treated and untreated control samples identified differential expression of 230 proteins (1% FDR, 1.5 fold-change and ≥2 peptides) in B. subtilis after plumbagin treatment. Pathway analysis involving the differentially expressed proteins suggested that plumbagin effectively increases heme and protein biosynthesis, whereas fatty acid synthesis was significantly reduced. Gene expression and metabolic activity assays further corroborated the proteomics findings. We anticipate that plumbagin blocks the cell division by altering the membrane permeability required for energy generation. This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, offering new insights, at proteome level, for the putative mode(s) of action of plumbagin and attendant cellular targets in B. subtilis. The findings also suggest new ways forward for the modern omics-guided drug target discovery, building on traditional plant medicine.


viral infections. A short introductory chapter outlines viral morphology and chemical composition, the formal classification of viruses and rickettsiae, mechanisms of infection and host resistance. Subsequent sections deal with the different viral diseases, not in a formal taxonomic classification but by grouping diseases according to the predominant types of systemic manifestations, e.g. neurological, muscular, cutaneous, respiratory. Where appropriate, there is a thorough coverage of treatment, epidemiology and prophylaxis, as well as the usual details of clinical features and differential diagnosis. Due emphasis is given to important diseases such as polio, smallpox, measles and influenza. The final chapters cover some of the least understood aspects of clinical virology-s-cot death, perinatal virus infections, tumour viruses. The text has lost nothing in translation from the French; the electron micrographs and other illustrations are well reproduced; a difficult subject has been dealt with in an interesting and informative way, and this book is highly recommended to any doctor who meets viral illnesses in clinical practice.


ABSTRACT Since the mid-1990s, many higher education libraries have evolved from the traditional roles of primarily (1) research resource purchasers and providers and (2) research service providers into new, enhanced, and complementary digital age roles related to digital open access knowledge creation and digital publishing, creating digital resources for open education. This article presents a brief description of open access digital knowledge creation, the library publishing landscape (particularly in Digital Humanities/DH), as well as several model higher education library approaches and example initiatives in these areas. These models and initiatives are presented as broadly adaptable and scalable to many higher education libraries throughout the world, even where variations in change-readiness; size; and fiscal, staff, and technology resources exist. The real-world examples presented here focus on three specific humanities disciplines: U.S. history, art and art history, and Latin American literature and art. These examples invite readers to consider how such open access knowledge creation and digital publishing are both feasible and useful in their higher education libraries.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present evidence to examine the possible psychopathy of Robert Maxwell, a notorious figure in UK business history. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents research which retrospectively applied a tool to measure whether leading figures in twentieth century business history could be classified as being corporate psychopaths. As background to this idea, psychopaths and corporate psychopaths are defined. A measure of corporate psychopathy is explored as an aid to identifying corporate psychopaths in business history. This measure is then used in relation to senior corporate executives who have been nominated as potential corporate psychopaths and to Robert Maxwell in particular. Findings – The paper concludes that at least some ethical scandals and failures such as those at The Daily Mirror have been characterized by the presence of CEOs who scored highly on a measure of corporate psychopathy. Maxwell's fraudulent raiding of corporate pension funds crossed ethical and legal borders. Furthermore, Maxwell's fraudulent looting of those pension funds crossed generational boundaries; stealing from older people's pension funds and thereby leaving younger people/investors with less to inherit. Maxwell also had an international business empire and so his fraud had effects which crossed geographic borders. The paper concludes that using an historical approach to the study of potential corporate psychopaths illuminates what types of organizational outcomes corporate psychopaths may eventuate. Originality/value – The paper is the first to use an historical approach to the study of potential corporate psychopaths.


The discovery of natural resources in a developing country is not always the good news it appears to be. Resource-rich countries, particularly emerging and developing economies, face the significant challenge of using their natural wealth to improve the living standards of average citizens. Too often the wealth is wasted through weak institutions and corruption, a phenomenon referred to as the 'resource curse'. One increasingly popular mechanism for dealing with the curse is the commodity-based sovereign wealth fund (SWF). While it is not a panacea, in the right circumstance SWFs can be a very useful tool for managing resource revenues and facilitating long-term economic development. However, SWFs will achieve these lofty objectives only if the appropriate design and governance systems are in place. In this paper we illustrate the design principles and governance practices required to set up a successful SWF.


Collaboration between Industry and University is becoming more important in order to improve the competitiveness of the research and development activities. Moreover, establishing synergies to bridge the gap between the academic and industrial spheres has demonstrated to be advantageous for both of them. Nowadays, Industry is moving towards an open innovation structure, in which external agents as universities play a key role. Besides, University is also seeking a more active learning methodology to improve the education of students for the real world. Considering this framework, a special effort should be done to take advantage of the collaborative work between Industry and University. The aim of this paper is to present the collaborative framework and the benefits obtained of the educational activities as a consequence of the long-term collaboration established between the University of Zaragoza and the Bosh and Siemens Home Appliances Group. The key stones of the collaboration are presented, and the positive outcomes for the students are highlighted. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the proposed program are also discussed.


Background There have been reports of axillary nerve palsy after thermal capsular shrinkage with radiofrequency energy-generating devices. The exact cause of this is unknown. Hypothesis The temperature of the axillary nerve increases during shoulder capsular shrinkage at various degrees of shoulder abduction. Study Design Laboratory study. Methods Fifteen cadaveric shoulders had fiberoptic thermometer probes placed at various points along the axillary nerve and major branches under the capsule. The shoulders underwent thermal capsular shrinkage with a radiofrequency energy-inducing device at various positions of abduction. Results With the arm at the side, temperatures above 50°C (56°-61°C) were evident along the teres minor branch of the axillary nerve in 4 of 6 specimens. The increase in temperature was noted in the middle to posterior aspect of the inferior capsule. At 45° of abduction, 4 of 5 shoulders demonstrated increases in temperature greater or equal to 50°. Three of 4 shoulders tested at 90° of abduction revealed similar temperature increases. Conclusions The arthroscopic technique of thermal capsular shrinkage causes an increase in the temperature of the axillary nerve and its branches in 11 of 15 cadaveric specimens tested at various arm positions—particularly affected is the teres minor branch. Clinical Relevance Orthopaedic surgeons using the radiofrequency device for thermal capsular shrinkage need to be aware of the possible increase in temperature along the axillary nerve and its branches during this procedure. The clinical effect of this type of increase on the nerve is unknown.


Ischemic stroke is a rare and serious complication of coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention, which has high morbidity and mortality. To our knowledge, there is no large-scale randomized controlled trial for the management of catheter-related ischemic stroke. In this case study, we presented a 46-year-old male with peri-procedural ischemic stroke during the coronary angiography (CAG). The CAG was terminated after the stroke and the left carotid artery was selectively cannulated, and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) revealed total occlusion (Modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction, mTICI, 0) of the M1 part of the left middle cerebral artery (MCA). A stent-assisted thrombectomy was performed and the DSA revealed restoration of flow to the left MCA with mTICI 3 flow in the distal branches. The next day, the neurological exam showed no sensory, motor deficits. The patient was discharged four days later. In the setting of catheter-related stroke, mechanical thrombectomy seems to be the least time-consuming and effective approach.


Female infanticide is a social practice often closely associated with Chinese culture. Journalists, social scientists, and historians alike emphasize that it is a result of the persistence of son preference, from China's ancient past to its modern present. Yet how is it that the killing of newborn daughters has come to be so intimately associated with Chinese culture? Between Birth and Death locates a significant historical shift in the representation of female infanticide during the nineteenth century. It was during these years that the practice transformed from a moral and deeply local issue affecting communities into an emblematic cultural marker of a backwards Chinese civilization, requiring the scientific, religious, and political attention of the West. Using a wide array of Chinese, French and English primary sources, the book takes readers on an unusual historical journey, presenting the varied perspectives of those concerned with the fate of an unwanted Chinese daughter: a late imperial Chinese mother in the immediate moments following birth, a male Chinese philanthropist dedicated to rectifying moral behavior in his community, Western Sinological experts preoccupied with determining the comparative prevalence of the practice, Catholic missionaries and schoolchildren intent on saving the souls of heathen Chinese children, and turn-of-the-century reformers grappling with the problem as a challenge for an emerging nation.


Sustainable development of marine aquaculture in Cambodia was studied in this thesis, using Asian seabass as the target species. An initial survey mapped current production practices, geographical occurrence and production volumes of Asian seabass farming in coastline provinces in Cambodia (Preah Sihanoukvill, Kampot and Koh Kong). Tolerance to different salinities and alternative local feed sources were then assessed in studies conducted at Marine Aquaculture Research and Development Centre (MARDeC) in Preah Sihanoukvill and at An Giang University, Vietnam. A small digestibility study of all feed sources tested was also conducted at An Giang University.

The survey revealed that fish farming was conducted both in marine and brackish water and that the most common feed used was trash fish. Commercial dry pellets were only used when fish were reared in ponds or for small fish, mainly due to high costs, which were a major constraint preventing farmers from changing from feeding trash fish to pellets.

A series of experiments including two life stages of Asian seabass (fry and fingerlings) and graded levels of salinity found no significant differences in weight gain (WG, g), feed conversion ratio (FCR), daily weight gain (DWG, g day-1), specific growth rate (SGR) or condition factor (CF) in fry or fingerlings at different levels of salinity (fry treatments: 0, 5, 10 and 20 practical salinity units (psu); fingerling treatments 10, 20 and
30 psu).

Experiments on including graded levels of brewer's yeast to replace dietary fishmeal (at 0, 20, 37 and 47 % based on dry matter, denote BY0, BY1, BY2 and BY3), performed in hapa and tanks, indicated only slight, non-significant differences in survival rate (SR, %). Body weight (BW, g) and DWG decreased towards the end of the experimental period, but with no differences between treatments (p=0.89 and p=0.26). However, the fish tended to display increased feed intake (p=0.61 and p=0.93) and FCR (p=0.54 and p=0.33) in hapa and tank respectively with higher level of yeast inclusion, indicating that fish on high levels of yeast need to eat more feed per unit weight gain. In the tank experiment, there was no significant difference in CF or SR, but BW increased around four-fold in all treatments. The main difference between the tank and hapa experiments was in FCR, possibly due to feed losses through the net in the hapa base, while the fish in tanks could feed on the bottom.

A study on using cricket and black soldier fly (BSF) full-fat meal to replace fishmeal in the diet of Asian seabass revealed two major problems: i) The fish were accustomed to floating pellets and the experimental feed was sinking pellets, which reduced feed intake in all treatments (including control) and resulted in fish weight only doubling. Fish kept on floating commercial pellets in a parallel system performed well, with a four-fold weight increase. A longer adaptation period of the fish to sinking pellets could improve the outcome. ii) The fishmeal used as high-quality protein control was spiked with non- protein nitrogen, indicating that analysis discriminating between protein and non-protein nitrogen should be performed before feed formulation. Overall, the results indicated that both BSF and cricket full-fat meal are potential replacers of fishmeal, and thus also of trash fish, in the diet of Asian seabass. Digestibility analysis confirmed their feed value.


There are a few patterns in nature that are striking even to casual observers. These include patterns of species richness associated with latitude, elevation, rainfall and area. Current thinking suggests that a number of primary mechanisms determine richness variation and that these differ depending on the type of pattern and the biome to which they apply. Prominent among the many hypotheses that attempt to explain the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) are those based either on climate or on historical factors such as past biome area. Climate‐based and historically‐based hypotheses have been regarded as competing alternatives, but there is growing acknowledgement that both are important. The evolutionary speed hypothesis (ESH) is one of several climate‐based hypotheses. According to this hypothesis the LDG is generated by thermally mediated asymmetries in evolutionary speed and diversification. Here we identify five relationships predicted by the ESH and survey the literature for empirical evidence for and against these relationships. We find these five relationships are supported by a number of empirical studies. However, there are gaps in this evidence that require further work and, because the relationship between temperature and species richness is negative when water is limited, a modification to the ESH is necessary. Additionally, we suggest that diversity patterns associated with area, temperature and water availability might all be influenced by a common mechanism associated with biologically available energy and its influence on the tempo of evolution. Rates of genetic evolution might also be influenced by spatial heterogeneity and rates of biotic and abiotic environmental change, potentially introducing positive feedbacks between diversification and genetic evolution.


The problems of implementation of two new EU Directives is discussed in this article. It is so called WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and RoHS (Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment), as well as influence of these directives to quality and environmental management systems. The RoHS directive requires a number of potentially hazardous substances (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated byphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)) to be phased out by 1 July 2006. Both directives will help reduce the environmental impact of electrical and electronic goods at the end of their life and contribute towards our sustainable development. The overall situation of legislation strenghtening, especially in globalization context, is analysed, including examples from the USA, Japan and China. There are suspects that EU directives RoHS and WEEE are just the beginning of a long period of environmental regulations. We may have entered a decades-long period where the chemical makeup of electrical and electronic components will be a big part of business success. The principles of sustainable design and integrating environmental aspects into product design are presented. The main problems of RoHS and WEEE implementation are discussed (totally 17 problems are highlighted and defined). The experience about these directives implementation in the company "Ekranas", producing colour picture tubes, is presented. An example of integrating RoHS and WEEE systems into quality and environmental management system using the same key elements and processes are given in the table. Decision tree, which is used in the company "Ekranas" to guide decisions on compliance issues, is shown in the figure. The list of literature is presented.


Velocity profiles in tidal channels cause cyclic oscillations in hydrodynamic loads due to the dependence of relative velocity on angular position, which can lead to fatigue damage. Therefore, the effect of velocity profile on the load variation and fatigue life of large-scale tidal turbines is quantified here. This is accomplished using Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) simulations created using the ANSYS Workbench software, which couples the fluid solver ANSYS CFX to the structural solver ANSYS transient structural. While these load oscillations only minimally impact power and thrust fluctuation for rotors, they can significantly impact the load variations on individual rotor blades. To evaluate these loadings, a tidal turbine within a channel with a representative flow that follows a 1/7th power velocity profile and an onset turbulence intensity of 5% is simulated. This velocity profile increases the thrust coefficient variation from mean cycle value of an individual blade from 2.8% to 9% and the variation in flap wise bending moment coefficient is increased from 4.9% to 19%. Similarly, the variation from the mean cycle value for blade deformation and stress of 2.5% and 2.8% increased to 9.8% and 10.3%, respectively. Due to the effect of velocity profile, the mean stress is decreased, whereas, the range and variation of stress are considerably increased.


In food industry, Olive Oil Mill Wastewater (OOMWW) is considered a by-product because of the presence of biostatic compounds with a high polluting rate, in particular phenols. Moreover, during olive oil processing, a large amount of this by-product constitutes an ecological and economical problem for the producers. To reevaluate this by-product, the reuse of this wastewater to obtain useful compounds appears to be very important. In order to purify the wastewater, the development of operations that modify its organic content seems necessary for obtaining of eventual fertilizing agents and/or to recover substances with a high added value such as phenolic compounds, which are currently recognized scientifically as molecules with a high antioxidant activity. A chromatographic analysis of these compounds was conducted to characterize different concentrations of wastewater and the reducing power of the extracts was measured. The thermal treatment of olive oil mill wastewater in a rotary evaporator and in an oven involved an increase in radical scavenging efficiency. These results could be correlated with the possibility of recovering and reusing this type of waste for its antioxidant properties.


The IEEE 802.16e-2005 specification provides an air interface standard for metropolitan area wireless broadband service. IEEE 802.16 is the basis for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) certification which is the next evolution in wireless technology. The latest version of the standard, the IEEE 802.16e addresses mobility and also enhances the security sublayer of the IEEE 802.16 standard. Since wireless technology is broadcast and transmitted data can be intercepted, wireless users face more risks than wired users. The former IEEE 802.16 standards used the Privacy and Key Management (PKM) protocol which had many critical drawbacks. In IEEE 802.16e, a new version of this protocol called PKMv2 is released. PKMv2 has radical changes and in contrast with the previous version it seems to have an exaggerated mixture of security features like nonces, message authentication codes, key ids, certificates, etc. The PKMv2 includes two main issues: an Authentication/Authorization protocol to establish a shared Authorization Key (AK), and a 3-Way Security Association (SA) Traffic Encryption Key (TEK) Handshake. The former is strengthened with de facto standards such as RSA and EAP, therefore the PKMv2 SA-TEK 3-Way Handshake (PKMv2 SA-TEK 3W HS), which is used for transferring TEKs to mobile stations (MS) after authentication will be the specific point of this thesis. Static analysis is successfully used for automatically validating security properties of classical and modern cryptographic protocols. In this thesis we will show how the very same technique can be used to validate modern wireless network security protocols, in particular, we study the IEEE 802.16e PKMv2 SA-TEK 3W HS. We derived a model of the protocol and described it using LySa, a process calculus in the pi/spi calculus family allowing communication protocols to be specified and annotated for validation of authentication properties. After that, we carried out a static analysis of our LySa model using the static analysis tool LySa-tool. Validating the base protocol, we studied our proposal on an optimized but still secure protocol. Having established systematic experiments on our models of modified versions of the protocol, we analyzed the robustness and security features. In conclusion we found improvements that increased the performance while being still secure.


Deacetoxycephalosporin C synthase (DAOCS) is an iron(II) and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent oxygenase that catalyzes the conversion of penicillin N to deacetoxycephalosporin C, the committed step in the biosynthesis of cephalosporin antibiotics. The crystal structure of DAOCS revealed that the C terminus of one molecule is inserted into the active site of its neighbor in a cyclical fashion within a trimeric unit. This arrangement has hindered the generation of crystalline enzyme-substrate complexes. Therefore, we constructed a series of DAOCS mutants with modified C termini. Oxidation of 2-oxoglutarate was significantly uncoupled from oxidation of the penicillin substrate in certain truncated mutants. The extent of uncoupling varied with the number of residues deleted and the penicillin substrate used. Crystal structures were determined for the DeltaR306 mutant complexed with iron(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (to 2.10 A) and the DeltaR306A mutant complexed with iron(II), succinate and unhydrated carbon dioxide (to 1.96 A). The latter may mimic a product complex, and supports proposals for a metal-bound CO(2) intermediate during catalysis.


Functional brain imaging has been used in humans to noninvasively investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the generation of sleep stages. On the one hand, REM sleep has been associated with the activation of the pons, thalamus, limbic areas, and temporo-occipital cortices, and the deactivation of prefrontal areas, in line with theories of REM sleep generation and dreaming properties. On the other hand, during non-REM (NREM) sleep, decreases in brain activity have been consistently found in the brainstem, thalamus, and in several cortical areas including the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), in agreement with a homeostatic need for brain energy recovery. Benefiting from a better temporal resolution, more recent studies have characterized the brain activations related to phasic events within specific sleep stages. In particular, they have demonstrated that NREM sleep oscillations (spindles and slow waves) are indeed associated with increases in brain activity in specific subcortical and cortical areas involved in the generation or modulation of these waves. These data highlight that, even during NREM sleep, brain activity is increased, yet regionally specific and transient. Besides refining the understanding of sleep mechanisms, functional brain imaging has also advanced the description of the functional properties of sleep. For instance, it has been shown that the sleeping brain is still able to process external information and even detect the pertinence of its content. The relationship between sleep and memory has also been refined using neuroimaging, demonstrating post-learning reactivation during sleep, as well as the reorganization of memory representation on the systems level, sometimes with long-lasting effects on subsequent memory performance. Further imaging studies should focus on clarifying the role of specific sleep patterns for the processing of external stimuli, as well as the consolidation of freshly encoded information during sleep.


Objective The aim of this study was to explore the possible association of the thrombospondin-4 (TSP-4) gene G29926C (A387P) polymorphism with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in a Chinese Han population. Methods The TSP-4 A387P polymorphism was determined by PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. A total of 749 unrelated subjects were included in the study, consisted of two groups: the ACS group and control group. The ACS group was composed of 412 patients with ACS (298 men and 114 women) recruited from hospitalised patients at four participating hospitals between November 2003 and May 2006. The diagnosis of ACS was based on the diagnostic criteria of 2002. AHA/ACC guideline. The control group consisted of 337 age- and sex- match subjects (232 men and 105 women) who were judged to be free of CAD by history, clinical examination, electrocardiography, exercise test and angiography, which were selected from inpatients at the same hospitals. Subjects with cardiomyopathy, tumour, and renal or hepatic disease were excluded from the study. Results Slightly decreased frequency of GC genotype was observed in patients with ACS, compared with controls (5.3% vs 7.1%), but the difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.31). Similarly, the prevalences of the C allele were 2.7% and 3.6% for ACS and control groups, respectively (p=0.32). None of the homozygote was detected for the C allele. Further analyses in subjects subgrouped according to sex and age also showed no association of TSP-4 A387P polymorphism with ACS. Furthermore, after adjustment for conventional risk factors by multiple logistic regression analysis, the carrier prevalence of the C allele did not differ significantly between the ACS and control groups (OR=0.85; 95% CI 0.45 to 1.59; p =0.60). Conclusion The present study suggested that the TSP-4 A387P variant showed a low prevalence compared with western populations and failed to associate with an altered risk of ACS in the Chinese Han population. The findings further supplement experimental data for TSP-4 gene study of the coronary disease.


Evaluating the quality of learned representations without relying on a downstream task remains one of the challenges in representation learning. In this work, we present Geometric Component Analysis (GeomCA) algorithm that evaluates representation spaces based on their geometric and topological properties. GeomCA can be applied to representations of any dimension, independently of the model that generated them. We demonstrate its applicability by analyzing representations obtained from a variety of scenarios, such as contrastive learning models, generative models and supervised learning models.


Case Report: A 32 year-old woman was referred to our outpatient clinic with a diagnosis of chronic swelling on the whole right forearm. Her past history included an accidental injury to the right wrist as he was working in a farm in Sudan 10 years before. At the beginning of the illness, she developed a single firm, painless nodule on the wrist which increased in size over months and on the surface of which vesicles gradually appeared. Then, the vesicles burst and multiple sinus tracts were formed which began discharging fluid containing small granules. The sinus tracts healed and re-occurred intermittently, discharging a sero-purulent yellowish-gray fluid. Within 6 years, there was extensive involvement of the volar and the dorsal surface of the forearm. Most of her wrist movements were restricted with deformations. She has been treated surgically and medically for the past five years in different centers in Sudan. Physical examinations revealed an extensively swollen right forearm with multiple discharging sinuses and foul smelling (Figure 1). Laboratory investigations revealed a normal leukocyte count, anemia (Hb 8.9 g/dl), a high ESR (120 mm/h) and high C-reactive protein (CRP: 13.3). Radiologic examination of the forearm showed osteolytic lesions, periosteal reaction and bone destruction in the forearm bones with massive soft tissue swelling. Fine needle aspiration confirmed the diagnosis of mycetoma. The patient underwent above elobow amputation. In advanced and neglected cases of mycetoma, amputation seems to be inevitable [1,2]. Therefore, we encourage clinicians to maintain a high index of suspicion in cases of chronic, granulomatous infection of the upper limb. We recommend a multidisciplinary approach to the chronic granulomatous infection of the upper extremity.


Abstract Ninety teachers working in award-winning middle schools responded to a survey that explored, quantitatively and qualitatively, how they (1) defined themselves as teachers of literacy, (2) viewed multiliteracies in adolescents' lives, and (3) valued these literacies in the classroom. Mean scores indicated that Basic Literacies (e.g., comprehension, word identification, fluency, writing) were rated more favorably than New Literacies (e.g., media, Internet, critical, out of school). Strong qualitative support existed for literacy instruction in all disciplines, but interpretations varied. The most positive agreement centered on every teacher being a teacher of literacy. Little support existed for developing students' out-of-school literacies in schools. Such findings have strong implications for altering curricular emphases and merging teacher practice with adolescents' needs and interests.


Philip B. Kiffer: Actors in a " Cheap Comedy " : Dissidents in Soviet Psychiatric Institutions, 1968-1974 (Under the direction of Donald J. Raleigh) This paper examines the Soviet government's hospitalization of political dissidents diagnosed with mental disorders between 1968 and 1974. Relying primarily on memoir accounts produced by the victims of Soviet punitive psychiatry, the purpose of this paper is to explicate the purpose, function, and effectiveness of the Soviet program of committing dissidents to psychiatric institutions. It concludes that this program served primarily to control behavior, rather than suppress ideas or counter-ideologies, embarrassing to the Soviet government. Furthermore, it suggest that in many cases committing dissidents to mental hospitals served the state as a means of negotiating with dissidents and reaching an agreement on what constitutes acceptable behavior, instead of functioning simply as a way to remove them from general society. This paper also argues that some dissidents possessed means of pressuring the state, and that the dialogue between political malcontents and government authorities was not a one sided conversation. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


A new type of composite filler mechanically treated with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and (BT) particles was prepared to produce higher dielectric properties in the composite. The hybrid film fabricated by incorporating these composite fillers in an epoxy matrix had a high dielectric constant and similar dielectric loss as compared to the composite which contained neat BT particles. The dielectric properties of these hybrid films were found to be dependent on both the content of MWNTs and mechanical processing time. Results suggest that this novel hybrid film composed of the composite filler and the epoxy matrix can be used for embedded capacitor material.


One often-highlighted contemporary phenomenon in the pharmaceuticals industry is the use of "tiered pricing", where essential medicines are sold more cheaply in low-income than high-income countries to widen access. With economists having for decades championed the applicability of such pricing to pharmaceuticals, this could be interpreted as a textbook case of "economic performativity"—the economic world in- creasingly conforming to economic models. In reality, however, tiered pharmaceutical pricing remains rare. Yet this article nonetheless urges retention of the performativity con- cept, albeit suitably reworked. For, insofar as the industry demonstrates nominal commit- ment to the model and to the social principles associated with it, it performs valuable political work. Moreover, it does help perform the pharmaceutical economy, by repro- ducing it in its existing form: repeatedly questioning the model's workability, Western manufacturers are able to continue to avoid putting it widely into practice and, in the pro- cess, jeopardizing the profits generated by conventional pricing.


The cell cycle–regulated protein DEPDC1B is required for rounding of adherent cells during mitosis. Adherent, flattened cells adopt a spherical shape as they enter mitosis. Actin stress fibers and focal adhesions (FAs) are disassembled, and actin relocalizes to the cell cortex. This change in shape is thought to facilitate proper spindle and cleavage furrow positioning and proper partitioning of cellular components. Marchesi et al. report that DEPDC1B [DEP (disheveled, Egl-10, pleckstrin) domain–containing 1B], which accumulated during the G2 phase and was degraded during mitosis, coordinates de-adhesion with mitotic entry in HeLa cells. Knocking down DEPDC1B with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) delayed mitotic entry and, at the G2/M transition, inhibited nuclear envelope disassembly and nuclear accumulation of the mitotic driver cyclin B. DEPDC1B-knockdown (DEPDC1B-KD) cells were more motile and flatter than wild-type cells, had larger FAs (which took longer to disassemble), and contained more phosphorylated myosin light chain 2 (MLC2). Experimental manipulations that strengthened FAs increased cell spreading and inhibited the G2/M transition, whereas reducing adhesion rescued the mitotic delay in DEPDC1B-KD cells. DEPDC1B was not necessary for normal cell cycle progression in a strain of HeLa cells adapted to grow in suspension. The small guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) RhoA activates Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK), which, in turn, activates MLC2 to control cytoskeletal dynamics. Experiments with pharmacological inhibitors and siRNAs were consistent with DEPDC1B inhibiting RhoA-ROCK signaling to promote de-adhesion. Two-hybrid assays and proteomic analysis revealed that DEPDC1B interacted with the FA component PTPRF (protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, F), which in turn interacted with RhoA and several RhoA-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), including GEF-H1. Knocking down PTPRF or GEF-H1 rescued the mitotic delay in DEPDC1B-KD cells, and overexpressing GEF-H1 phenocopied knockdown of DEPDC1B. DEPDC1B competed with RhoA for binding to PTPRF, suggesting that, as DEPDC1B accumulates during G2, it displaces RhoA from PTPRF, thus inhibiting RhoA-ROCK signaling and promoting de-adhesion. In this model, DEPDC1B degradation at the onset of mitosis would re-establish RhoA activity, which is required for the stiffening of the cortical cytoskeleton that drives cell rounding. Experiments in zebrafish indicated that DEPDC1B also promoted mitotic progression in vivo by inhibiting PTPRF-dependent RhoA-ROCK signaling. The small GTPase Rap1 is also required for disassembly of FAs during mitosis, but it remains to be seen whether DEPDC1B also represses Rap1 activity to drive de-adhesion (see commentary by Garcia-Mata). S. Marchesi, F. Montani, G. Deflorian, R. D'Antuono, A. Cuomo, S. Bologna, C. Mazzoccoli, T. Bonaldi, P. P. Di Fiore, F. Nicassio, DEPDC1B coordinates de-adhesion events and cell-cycle progression at mitosis. Dev. Cell 31, 420–433 (2014). [Online Journal] R. Garcia-Mata, Arrested detachment: A DEPDC1B-mediated de-adhesion mitotic checkpoint. Dev. Cell 31, 387–389 (2014). [Online Journal]


With the frequency and magnitude of disasters on the rise, millions of people suffer huge losses every year. Scholars have recently proposed various frameworks in disaster relief management in order to guide the research in this field. Although successful disaster relief requires the entire humanitarian supply chain to respond in harmony, it is surprising that there exists no humanitarian relief framework drawn from the perspective of supply chain management. In this article, we create a new research framework for Humanitarian Supply Chain Management (HSCM) that is complimentary but distinct from commercial supply chain management (CSCM) frameworks. The framework we developed offers a new lens for humanitarian researchers. We also conduct a systematic literature review in this field and identify some opportunities for future research. The results strongly suggest the need for additional empirical research to test the existing concepts and models. Second, there is evidence that research focusing on "upstream" relief chain has been neglected relative to "downstream". Additionally, due to its rapid advancement, information technology related research opportunities in this field would always be there.


A curve Fresnel lens is developed as secondary concentrator for solar parabolic troughs to reduce the number of photovoltaic cells. Specific measurements and optical tests are used to evaluate the optical features of manufactured samples. The cylindrical Fresnel lens transforms the focal line, produced by the primary mirror, into a series of focal points. The execution of special laboratory tests on some secondary concentrator samples is discussed in detail, illustrating the methodologies tailored to the specific case. Focusing tests are performed, illuminating different areas of the lens with solar divergence light and acquiring images on the plane of the photocell using a CMOS camera. Concentration measurements are carried out to select the best performing samples of curve Fresnel lens. The insertion of the secondary optics within the concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) trough doubles the solar concentration of the system. The mean concentration ratio is 1.73, 2.13, and 2.09 for the three tested lenses. The concentration ratio of the solar trough is 140 and approaches 300 after the introduction of the secondary lens.


Transmission and routing of video data over Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) is a complicated task because of the unstable nature and limited throughput of such networks. To improve the performance, a multi-stream video coding and transmission over several paths is used. Network parameters determining quality of video transmission (bandwidth, delay, jitter, and packet loss) and routing options combined with video coding schemas must be taken into account to find the best solution. In this paper network parameters are analysed, their complex relationships revealed and presented in a graph which could be used to choose optimum conditions for video transmission over MANET.


Surfactant protein D (SP-D), an oligomeric lung-derived lectin, has essential roles in innate immunity. It can be measured in serum. Previous studies have shown that constitutional SP-D serum levels and the protein degree of multimerization are genetically influenced. We aimed to establish the distribution profile of serum constitutional SP-D in the Lebanese population and to investigate the genetic influence of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs721917 within SP-D gene ( SFTPD) on its multimerization and its serum basal level. The C/T alleles at this SNP level lead respectively either to a threonine or methionine at position 11 of the SP-D protein. SP-D was measured by ELISA in serum taken from 97 healthy subjects. The p.Met11Thr SNP was genotyped. Different forms of SP-D were separated by gel filtration chromatography. Basal serum SP-D levels varied extensively, over a range of 108.3 ng/ml to 2995 ng/ml. The p.Met11Thr SNP was significantly associated with the serum SP-D levels (p=0.01). Individuals homozygous for the T wild-type allele had the highest mean SP-D serum levels (1423 ng/ml) compared to heterozygous individuals (1139 ng/ml) and homozygous individuals for the C allele (671.4 ng/ml). Serum from heterozygous individuals showed two different molecular weight peaks corresponding to different forms of SP-D of ratio high/low 1:07. However, data showed a remarkable predominance of the low molecular weight form of SP-D (ratio high/low 1:4.65) in serum of individuals carrying the CC genotype. Our preliminary findings validate previous observations of the influence of the p.Met11Thr SNP on assembly and serum concentration of SP-D.


Recent research shows that participation in an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) course can increase a student's sense of belonging to the school in which it is taught, and can increase the levels of the students' mental health.This article summarises two studies conducted in the Law School at the University of Western Australia that highlight the links between the interactive nature of teaching ADR and the students' increased engagement with the school and, in turn, their mental well-being. In addition, the studies show that developing an ADR course to include tasks which provide an opportunity for sustained thinking and exploration, and which are meaningful and related to "real life" is critical to the students' learning of ADR skills and concepts. The article concludes by endorsing the New South Wales Attorney-General's call for an expanded and improved coverage of ADR, and urges universities to consider the value of constructive and interactive ADR education to students in all disciplines; not just law students.