Drugs are key weapons that clinicians have to battle against the profound pathologies encountered in critically ill patients. Antibiotics in particular are commonly used and can improve patient outcomes dramatically. Despite this, there are strong opportunities for further reducing the persisting poor outcomes for infected critically ill patients. However, taking these next steps for improving patient care requires a new approach to antibiotic therapy. Giving the right dose is highly likely to increase the probability of clinical cure from infection and suppress the emergence of resistant pathogens. Furthermore, in some patients with higher levels of sickness severity, reduced mortality from an optimized approach to antibiotic use could also occur. To enable optimized dosing, the use of customized dosing regimens through either evidence-based dosing nomograms or preferably through the use of dosing software supplemented by therapeutic drug monitoring data should be embedded into daily practice. These customized dosing regimens should also be given as soon as practicable as reduced time to initiation of therapy has been shown to improve patient survival, particularly in the presence of septic shock. However, robust data supporting these logical approaches to therapy, which may deliver the next step change improvement for treatment of infections in critically ill patients, are lacking. Large prospective studies of patient survival and health system costs are now required to determine the value of customized antibiotic dosing, that is, giving the right dose at the right time.


Those who minister to the sick and the aged can learn several lessons from the experience of two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Though the men, who were leaving Jerusalem to escape the confusion caused by Jesus' crucifixion, did not initially recognize him, Jesus walked alongside them and drew them into conversation about the preceding days' events. His attentive listening and perceptive questioning, which allowed them to vent their feelings, helped the men to deal with the reality of their suffering. When they asked Christ to remain, he accepted their invitation, knowing that they needed additional support. As they broke bread together that evening, the disciples recognized Jesus, "whereupon he vanished from their sight." Care givers, too, at times need to walk away from their work, not only to allow time for reflection but also to enable patients to experience God's presence. They must be alert to everything a patient says so that words meant to comfort do not cause suffering, and they must learn to recognize the subtle ways in which patients ask them to stay with them. Helping patients face the truth requires courage and the ability to help another appreciate his or her self-worth. Just as the disciples recognized Jesus' presence in those they encountered, so, too, must care givers allow themselves to be transformed at the eucharistic table and to see in others--even the unlovely-an existential, holistic love.


Abstract The capacity of some yeasts to extract energy from single sugars, generating CO2 and ethanol (=fermentation), even in the presence of oxygen, is known as the Crabtree effect. This phenomenon represents an important adaptation as it allowed the utilization of the ecological niche given by modern fruits, an abundant source of food that emerged in the terrestrial environment in the Cretaceous. However, identifying the evolutionary events that triggered fermentative capacity in Crabtree‐positive species is challenging, as microorganisms do not leave fossil evidence. Thus, key innovations should be inferred based only on traits measured under culture conditions. Here, we reanalyzed data from a common garden experiment where several proxies of fermentative capacity were recorded in Crabtree‐positive and Crabtree‐negative species, representing yeast phylogenetic diversity. In particular, we applied the "lasso‐OU" algorithm which detects points of adaptive shifts, using traits that are proxies of fermentative performance. We tested whether multiple events or a single event explains the actual fermentative capacity of yeasts. According to the lasso‐OU procedure, evolutionary changes in the three proxies of fermentative capacity that we considered (i.e., glycerol production, ethanol yield, and respiratory quotient) are consistent with a single evolutionary episode (a whole‐genomic duplication, WGD), instead of a series of small genomic rearrangements. Thus, the WGD appears as the key event behind the diversification of fermentative yeasts, which by increasing gene dosage, and maximized their capacity of energy extraction for exploiting the new ecological niche provided by single sugars.


After the fruitful completion of Human Genetics 2020 which is happened in the month of March 16-17, 2020 in Frankfurt, Germany. With the grace of success, we are now delighted to share the experience in the conference. The stage is has laid the road all the scientists in the field of genetics and medicine. The stage that gives an ideal combination of brilliant science, an open environment and enables participants and speakers to focus effectively on the scholastic exchange of thoughts and relevant experiences that also encompasses the entire scope of Human genetic and Clinical Microbiology. Francis Crick, the famous face behind the identification of DNA structure, once said, "Almost all aspects of life are engineered at the molecular level, and without understanding molecules we can only have a very sketchy understanding of life itself " This conference will provide a vibrant atmosphere and venue for Human genetics and medicine scientists to present their findings, investigations and studies and report on them. Most scientists, clinical therapeutics, bioinformatics and statistics, gene editing and gene therapy fields have undergone major advances in recent years, driven by analytical techniques and novel work. In addition, such work remains a lively research field with escalating applications and innovative developing encounters. Human genetics Congress 2020 seeks original and high-quality contributions in the areas of Bio informatics and Statistics, Cancer genetics and Genomics, Cardiovascular genetics, Epigenetics, Genetic Counselling, Immunology and other related fields of Genetics and Therapeutics allow researchers to gage physiological impacts and scan for adverse reactions to tranquilizations.


Consumer culture, although a mark of industrial economy, has turned into the norm of advancement in the contemporary global society. The structure of modern capitalism is based on the production and consumption of goods. From the 1980s, with the expansion of globalization, all modern and late modern society has embraced the practice of consumer culture. Just as the societies are heavily influenced by consumer culture, so is the world of arts. From the rise of popular culture, we see the influence of consumer cultures in traditional literature. This thesis deals with the themes of consumer cultures in postmodern literature. One of the prominent themes of postmodern texts depicts the perception of consumer culture, as it is the norm of western and non-western society. In literary world there are also attempts to represent this new world. I have taken three novels namely: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, White Noise by Don DeLillo and The Sweet Smell of Psychosis by Will Self. I also take one collection of short stories name: Mythologies by Roland Barthes to represent this consumer culture in the Western world from 1950s. Roland Barthes is perhaps the first literary critique who depicted the mythical power of consumer culture. He discussed the idea of present day mythology about advertisement of daily used French products in his book Mythologies (1959). The other writers have depicted consumer culture in much more detail way in their writings and in different social contexts: USA and UK. This thesis examines these literary works which demonstrate the fearful world of consumer culture and media domination.


This article presents a merged two-stage 48-V-to-1-V point-of-load (PoL) architecture with a 24-V virtual intermediate bus (VIB) for CPU voltage regulator applications. The VIB-PoL architecture includes two power conversion stages linked by a 24-V VIB with a significant voltage ripple. The first stage is a 2:1 interleaved charge pump, which converts 48 to 24 V. The second stage comprises multiple interleaved four-level series-capacitor buck modules with coupled inductors, converting 24 V to regulated 1 V with an equivalent voltage conversion ratio of 6:1. The VIB-PoL architecture achieves high efficiency and high power density by reducing the power conversion stress of both stages and eliminating the intermediate bus capacitors. A 48-V-to-1-V 640-A CPU voltage regulator with a peak power stage efficiency of 95.2% (93.3%, including gate driver loss), a full-load efficiency of 84.4% (83.1%, including gate driver loss), and a power density of 463 W/in$^3$ (at 1-V output with liquid cooling) is built and tested to demonstrate the VIB-PoL architecture.


High field ESR technique was applied to the study of the singlet ground state system CsFeBr3, to study the energy structure and the field induced magnetic ordering state, which occurs at low temperature and in a field with the configuration parallel to the c-axis. In low field paramagnetic regime, the complicated spectra were observed and the obtained frequency-field diagram at low temperatures can not be explained within the simple singlet-doublet energy scheme asserted from previous neutron experimental results, indicating that the exchange interaction, which brings a dispersive character on the excited doublet levels, may play an important role to understand the origin of observed ESR modes. One of the modes observed at 2.0 K altered its slope to almost twice one at the field of about 2.9 T, which corresponds to the level crossing field between singlet and the lower branch of doublet states. This behavior is reasonably explained as the direct transition between doublets due to the mixing around level crossing field and is consistent with recently developed theoretical prediction proposed by Lolezhuk and Mikeska. Further, in the high field regime, two broad absorption lines with each line width of about a few tesla were also observed. These two ESR modes depend remarkably on the frequency in such a way that both resonance fields coincide at about 160 GHz and separate linearly with large g-value of 4.8 from each other as the frequency is increased. We present these experimental results in detail and give some possible explanations.


Purpose of reviewSoon after the discovery of HIV-infected humans, rhesus macaques in a colony at the New England Primate Research Center showed similar signs of a progressive immune suppression. The discovery of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-associated disease opened the door to study an AIDS-like illness in nonhuman primates (NHP). Even after 3 decades, this animal model remains an invaluable tool to provide a greater insight into HIV immunopathogenesis. In this review, recent progress in deciphering pathways of immunopathogenesis in SIV-infected NHP is discussed. Recent findingsThe immense diversity of mutations in SIV stocks prepared at different laboratories has recently been realized. The massive expansion of the enteric virome is a key finding in SIV-induced immunopathogenesis. Defining the function of host restriction factors, like the recently discovered SAMHD1, helps to evaluate the impact of the innate immune responses on virus replication. Utilization of pyrosequencing and defining molecular mechanisms of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I restriction helps to understand how the virus evades CD8+ T-cell responses. The definition of MHC class I molecules in different NHP species provides new animal models to study SIV immunopathogenesis. T follicular helper cells have gained major interest in characterizing humoral immune responses in SIV infection and AIDS vaccine strategies. The ability of natural hosts to remain disease-free despite ongoing replication of SIV is continuing to puzzle the field. SummaryThe HIV research field continues to realize the immense complexity of the host virus interaction. NHP present an invaluable tool to make progress towards an effective AIDS vaccine.


Ninety-six children with the minimal brain dysfunctions aged under three were examined. Neurologic follow-up started from the neonatal period. Time course of neurologic syndromes, type of child's psychomotor development, electroencephalographic and neurosonographic data were assessed. Perinatal brain injuries were detected in 44 children, 52 developed no structural changes. Clinical signs of the hypertensive hydrocephalic syndrome were detected during the first year of life in 61 of the 96 infants. Electroencephalographic examination was carried out in 27 of these and the diagnosis was confirmed in 24. Benign forms of the hypertensive hydrocephalic syndrome observed since early childhood are the most characteristic signs of the developing minimal brain dysfunction.


The Palaeozoic strata of the south-eastern North Sea, Norwegian Sector, have not been thoroughly explored by the oil industry. A major pre-Zechstein hydrocarbon producing source rock has not been confirmed in the area, and pre-Zechstein basins have been difficult to image on seismic data because of their depth and salt cover. In 2008, PGS completed a 3D survey at the intersection of Quadrants 3, 4, 9 and 10, just north of the Ringkobing-Fyn High.Although well data is sparse and age correlation has therefore been difficult, the interpretation of this survey has provided a much improved understanding of the pre-Zechstein geological evolution of the area. Four horizons and three reflector packages were interpreted in the 3D survey, and a number of 2D seismiclines were also interpreted in order to map regional geological features and to attempt to correlate well data to horizons in the 3D survey. The deepest and oldest horizon that was interpreted represents a series of E-W trending tilted fault blocks. This fault block package is truncated by the long-lived Saalian Unconformity, and the age of the fault blocks is therefore uncertain. Their formation is believed to be related to either the breakup of the Old Red SandstoneContinent in the Early Carboniferous or a phase of Late Carboniferousto Early Permian post-Variscan extension. The Lower Rotliegend volcanics caused crustal uplift through thermal expansion in the Early Permian which resulted in the Saalian Unconformity. The topography created by this unconformity was later infilled by Upper Rotliegend sediments. The Ringkobing-FynHigh became a major positive feature as the Northern Permian Basin subsided after cessation of the Lower Rotliegend volcanism. From the seismic data it is concluded the Ringkobing-Fyn High played an important part in controlling the depositional patterns of the Upper Rotliegend. The Upper Rotliegendstrata are conformably overlain by the Zechstein Group. The Zechstein transgression and deposition of the Zechstein Group was followed by a phase of E-W extension. This extension resulted in a number of N-S trending normal faults, the largest of which is the regionally mappable Krabbe Fault. Bright spots observed in two horizons within the 3D survey suggest there is potential for an active pre-Rotliegend petroleum system in the area.


Twenty-five professionals of the Treatment Center for Torture Victims in Berlin (BZFO) took part in a study about burnout, secondary traumatization and satisfaction with work. Burnout was very low, whereas PTSD-like symptoms were increased in mental health professionals as well as in administration staff. Beliefs about the value and safety of other people were most disrupted. Satisfaction with work was high. The insecure residence situation of most patients and the associated conflicts with state authorities were described as major stressors. Exposure to traumatic themes of patients was reported to be less stressful.


Lead poisoning is a serious public health concern in Nigeria and it exerts toxic effects in several body organs such as kidney, heart, brain, ear and sex organs. Occupational exposure particularly tricycle repairers in Nigeria is vague. The survey reports on the nature and extent to which tricycle repairers in Nigeria exposure to lead at workplace. Twenty tricycle repairers were randomly recruited and their anthropometric parameters were collected and recorded in a Quantum Health Machine (QHM). The automated QHM examined each repairer's body and blood lead contents immediately each repairer held the QHM sensitive handle and results displayed on the detector screen. Repairers were mainly exposed to lead through petrol additive lead tetraethyl and through paint pigment lead carbonate. Generally, 85% of studied repairers had moderate 40% to 48% abnormal contents of lead in their bodies while 15% repairers were of mild abnormal lead contents. The overall mean and median levels of lead in studied repairers was 162.8 and 165.1 (range:100.2-196.4)µg/dL respectively. These levels exceeded the Food and Drug Administration Provisional Total Tolerable Intake Levels of 75µg/dL/day for adults.


We present results of comparative studies of the dislocation properties and the mechanical behavior for a class of intermetallic alloys based on platinum group metals (PGM) which are being developed for ultra-high temperature applications: Ir 3 X and Rh 3 X (where X = Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta). For the analysis of dislocation structure and mobility, we employ a combined approach based on accurate first-principles calculations of the shear energetics and the modified semi-discrete 2D Peierls-Nabarro model with an ab-initio parametrization of the restoring forces. Based on our analysis of dislocation structure and mobility, we provide predictions of temperature yield stress behavior of PGM-based intermetallics, show that their dislocation properties are closely connected with features of the electronic structure and the L1 2 → D0 19 structural stability, and demonstrate the dramatic difference in dislocation structure and the mechanical behavior between PGM alloys with IVA and VA group elements.


Obesity has become a major health concern worldwide due to its increasing prevalence and its detrimental health impact. The overarching aim of the present thesis was to study the aetiology of obesity from anthropological, psychological, environmental and genetic perspectives in a population residing in the Basque Country (Spain). First, the relationship between body morphology and composition (assessed through the somatotype components) and different nutritional categories was studied. The results of these analyses showed that not only fat mass but also fat free mass increase in obesity development.Changes in body composition and morphology also entail changes in body image, which may influence the perception of the own image, self-esteem and attitudes towards it. The present thesis shows that body image perception is strongly related to nutritional status both in men and women. However, in general women desired to be thinner while men desired bigger body frames.Lifestyle changes in modern society (increase consumption of energy dense food and decrease physical activity) have been proposed as the main factors responsible for the increasing prevalence of obesity in westernized countries during last decades. Results in this thesis indicated that physical activity, sleep quality and dietary habits are predominantly associated with general fat mass while tobacco and alcohol consumption among others are predominantly associated with fat distribution.Genetic background is also considered a significant contributor to obesity risk. Although genetics could not be responsible of obesity epidemic in the last decades, as genetic background could not be significantly altered in that time frame, genetic factors strongly influence whether a person becomes obese or stays slim within a population, at an individual level. This thesis confirms a modest contribution to obesity of 12 SNPs in or near NEGR1, TMEM18, GNPDA2, BDNF, UCP2, NRXN3, FTO, KCTD15 and MAP2K5.


Abstract Online knowledge exchange platforms have become an important information technology (IT) artifact that empowers online learning for the Internet users. A key challenge for knowledge exchange platforms is how to motivate the desirable user engagement behaviors. Based on the motivation theory and the equity theory, we propose a set of hypotheses regarding the spillover effects of financial incentives on three types of desirable yet non-incentivized user engagement, namely, voluntary knowledge sharing, knowledge seeking, and social engagement. We obtain an archival data set from a major online knowledge exchange platform (Zhihu.com) to evaluate our hypotheses. Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment wherein the platform implemented a paid knowledge sharing feature, we employ difference-in-differences models in tandem with propensity score matching to evaluate the spillover effects of financial incentives on the abovementioned types of engagements. Our results show that the initial financial incentives on the paid knowledge sharing activities further motivate users to voluntarily share more knowledge and increase their social engagement in the platform. However, the financial incentives have no significant impact on users' knowledge seeking behavior. Our study suggests that the financial incentives not just have an effect on incentivized engagement, but they spillover to users' desirable non-incentivized online engagement behaviors. Therefore, the overall positive effect of financial incentives to a platform is likely under-estimated in prior research. Our research offers implications to practice that financial incentives can be an effective strategy to nurture users, to seed content, and to enhance sociality of a platform.


Downsizing and layoffs are an important mechanism for U.S. firms to cope with their strategic and economic environment. In contrast, the Japanese tradition of lifetime employment limits the ability of firms to employ layoffs as a strategic measure, relegating its use to conditions of financial distress. This paper provides the first comparison of layoffs in Japan and the United States and examines stock price reactions to layoff announcements in each country from 1990 to 1994. Agency theory and Aoki's cooperative game theory are employed to discuss differences in the governance structures of U.S. and Japanese firms and their implication for stock price reactions. Results show that layoff announcements trigger negative returns for both U.S. and Japanese firms. Specifically, layoff announcements of U.S. firms are associated with a negative 1.78 percent abnormal return, while layoff announcements for Japanese firms are associated with a negative 0.56 percent abnormal return. To better understand the impact of layoffs, this study examines the relationships between stock price reactions and various layoff characteristics (such as whether the layoff is proactive or reactive or whether the layoff is the first in the industry). Implications of the findings are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Yangtze River Delta is one of the most developed regions in China and the rapid development of urbanization have greatly influenced regional hydrology and water resources. Taking several typical urbanizing areas in the Yangtze River Delta as examples, this paper probes into the impacts of urbanization on hydrologic cycle and hydrological process with the support of RS, GIS and hydrological model. The research centers on the impacts of urbanization on precipitation, hydrological process, river networks, and water environment in some typical cities. The results show that: (1) Urban rain island effect is not evident when the process of urbanization is slow, while the differences of annual precipitation and flood season precipitation between urban and suburban areas increased to a certain extent in the booming stage of urbanization. (2) The annual runoff depth and the runoff coefficient increased with the development of urbanization, and the effect will be more notable when the urban areas expand to a certain size; (3) River network systems, especially low-grade rivers have been greatly destroyed in the process of urbanization, which increases the risk of flood and water degradation, so it is very important to protect natural river systems. Based on the results, some proposals of sustainable utilization and protection of water resources is also addressed.


X.25 is a packet switched data network protocol that defines an international recommendation for the exchange of data between a user device (DTE) and a network node (DCE). Virtual circuit is the end-to-end connection (through a network) between two user devices (DTEs). Frame relay is a packet switching technology that relies on low-error-rate digital transmission links and high-performance processors. X.25 was designed to provide error-free delivery using high-error-rate links. Frame relay takes advantage of the new, lower-error-rate links, enabling it to eliminate many of the services provided by X.25. Congestion control is about controlling traffic entry into telecommunication networks. Voice over frame relay (VoFR) technology consolidates voice and voiceband data (e.g., fax and analog modems) with data services over the frame relay network. The most popular frame relay application provides companies with LAN-LAN internetworking. In addition, frame relay finds applications in voice over frame relay (VoFR), business, education, medical care, and industry.


The first generation of affordable consumer virtual reality headsets and related peripherals are now available. Question-Answering (QA) systems and speech recognition/synthesis has improved dramatically over the last decade. Virtual assistants, based on speech-based services are growing in popularity and can be used in a range of diverse application areas. This paper explores the practical use of virtual reality, IOT and voice driven virtual assistants in remote laboratories to facilitate visualization of electrical phenomena and to tutor students; guiding them through each stage of an experiment; presenting supplementary teaching resources when requested; accessing, controlling and configuring instrumentation and hardware and providing feedback with summative and formative assessment. The re-purposing of existing teaching material for use in an immersive environment with a virtual assistant is shown and the limitations and opportunities offered by the approach taken and the technologies used are discussed. The process of integrating test instrumentation, the board under test, a switching matrix and additional teaching resources into virtual reality using IOT is discussed and the inclusion of virtual assistants described. Two case studies of practical working examples of remote laboratories in virtual reality with a virtual assistant tutor are demonstrated and the viability and long-term opportunities for the use of virtual reality and virtual assistants in the context discussed


There exist many approaches to agent-based conflict resolution. Of particular interest is on approaches that adopt argumentation as their underlying conflict resolution machinery. One such approach is to view the argumentation process as an approach to attack, persuade an opponent or to defend one's belief. This dissertation proposes an abstract accrual argumentation framework that re-evaluates the treatment and utilisation of preference values within argumentation. We firstly present an incremental improvement on existing work to capture accrual of arguments within an abstract argumentation framework. Drawing from the incremental improvement, this dissertation highlights the importance of information source in argumentation and the effect on agent's decision making during argumentation. In most argumentation systems, the argument source plays a minimal role. We feel that ignoring this important attribute of human argumentation process reduces the capabilities of current argumentation systems. Secondly, this dissertation identifies the need for justification management in a setting where multi-agent performs negotiation or argumentation. An outcomedriven justification management framework is proposed in which traditional approaches in argumentation are modified to assist in the elicitation and management of justifications hence permitting the novel conception of mixed-initiative argumentation. Finally, the framework is also evaluated in the context of a clinical group decision support in medicine.


Objective Human gait requires complex somatosensory processing of various inputs such as proprioception. Proprioception can be altered in the presence of pain. This has been shown mostly during controlled tasks, thereby limiting the influence of external perturbations. While controlling the environment is sometimes warranted, it limits the ecological validity of the data. Using robotic orthoses to apply perturbations during movements seems a promising tool to functionally assess proprioception, where the complex somatosensory processing required in real-life situations is at play. The main objective of this study was to compare the proprioceptive threshold of healthy participants during gait in the presence and absence of an acute experimental pain. Methods 36 healthy participants walked on a treadmill while wearing a robotized ankle–foot orthosis (rAFO) around their right ankle. The rAFO applied torque perturbations of graded magnitudes during the swing phase of gait. Participants had to report the presence/absence of such perturbations, as a measure of proprioceptive threshold. Following initial assessment, they were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: Control (no stimulation), Painless (non-nociceptive stimulation) and Painful (nociceptive stimulation). Electrodes placed on the right lateral malleolus delivered an electrical stimulation during the second assessment for Painless and Painful groups. A Kruskal-Wallis was used to compare the percentage of change of the three groups between the two assessments. Results A 31.80±32.94% increase in proprioceptive threshold, representing an increase of 1.3±1.2 Nm in the detection threshold, was observed for the Painful group only (p<0.005), with an effect size of 1.6. Conclusion Findings show that the presence of pain at the ankle can alter participants' proprioceptive threshold during gait. Clinical assessment of proprioception should therefore carefully consider the presence of pain when evaluating a patient's performance using clinical proprioceptive test and consider the negative effect of pain on proprioceptive threshold for test interpretation.


The purpose of the present study is to analyze the public expenditure contribution to the improvement of the profitable economic growth to the poor in Cote d'Ivoire. The paper tried to show out the explanatory power of the government actions concerning the poor populations' well-being. This reflection is based on a micro simulated general equilibrium analysis with the data provided by the national institute of the statistical (INS). These data are obtained from the investigations achieved on the households' level of the lives. The results of the study suggest that the Ivorian authorities contributed meaningfully to the reduction of poverty severity. In other words, the poor benefited from fruits of the economic growth induced by the public investments.


An approach to a robust reference image watermarking scheme in Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and edge detection has been proposed. Here the cover image has scrambled and then segmented into number of blocks. Based on number of edges in each block we form a reference image. Then modify the singular values of DWT applied reference image and the watermark image. The proposed algorithm provides good robustness against various attacks.


The authors discuss experimental findings on physical factors (impulse currents of different frequencies, SHF and IR laser radiation, coherent and non-coherent red light) effect on thymic cell genome in transcerebral exposure in models of some diseases running with immune disorders.


Two dimensional simulations of discrete dislocation dynamics were carried out to clarify a shielding effect due to dislocations at a crack tip. The configuration of dislocations around the crack tip was calculated under the conditions of mode I tensile load at high temperatures. The stress field around the crack tip due to dislocations was found to be compressive, accommodating mode I stress intensity at the crack tip. In order to experimentally confirm the stress accommodation, infrared photoelastic observation was also performed in a specimen pre-deformed at high temperatures. The experimental result is in good agreement with a simulated infrared photoelastic image derived from the stress field calculated.


Cross-linguistic research has shown that boundaries for lexical categories differ from language to language. The aim of this study is to explore these differences between languages in relation to the categorization differences within a language. Monolingual Dutch(N=400) and French-speaking (N=300) Belgian adults provided lexical category judgments for three lexical categories that are roughly equivalent in Dutch and French. Each category was represented by good, borderline, and bad examples. A mixture modeling approach enabled us to identify latent groups of categorizers within a language and to evaluate cross-linguistic variation in relation to withinlanguage variation. We found complex patterns of lexical variation within as well as between language groups. Even within a seemingly homogeneous group of speakers sharing the same mother tongue, latent groups of categorizers display a variability that resembles patterns of lexical variation found at a cross-linguistic level of comparison.


The application of model-based drug development in special populations becomes increasingly important for clinical trial optimization, mostly by providing rationale for dose selection and thereby aiding risk-benefit assessment. In this paper, a semi-physiological approach is presented enabling the extrapolation of the pharmacokinetics from healthy subjects to patients with different disease conditions. This semi-physiological approach was applied to solifenacin, using clinical data on total and free plasma and urine concentrations in healthy subjects. The analysis was performed using non-linear mixed effect modeling and relied on the utilization of a general partitioning framework to account for binding to plasma-proteins and to non-plasma tissues together with principles from physiology that apply to the main pharmacokinetic process, i.e., bioavailability, distribution and elimination. These physiology principles applied allowed quantification of the impact of key physiological parameters (i.e., body composition, glomerular function, liver enzyme capacity and liver blood flow) on the pharmacokinetics of solifenacin. The prediction of the time course of the drug concentration in liver and renal impaired patients only required adjustment of the physiological parameters that are known to change upon liver and renal dysfunction without modifying the pharmacokinetic model structure and/or its respective parameter estimates. Visual predictive checks showed that the applied approach was able to adequately predict the pharmacokinetics of solifenacin in liver and renal impaired patients. Also, a better insight into the pharmacokinetic properties of solifenacin was obtained. In conclusion, the proposed semi-DMD physiological approach is attractive for prediction of altered pharmacokinetics of compounds influenced by liver and renal disease conditions. impaired patients, the posterior predictive check results confirmed the improvements in the predictions observed after considering the potential involvement of hepatic uptake transporters. moderate group; crosses: observed data severe group; line; population prediction (median); shade: 90% including differences in the physiological parameters and random-effects.


This paper deals with model-based robust control of dc/dc power electronic converters. The converter is described by means of a Hammerstein model consisting of the nonlinear static characteristics of the converter and a linear time-invariant (LTI) uncertain model whose parameters depend on the actual duty-cycle operating range. This suggests that the controller be designed us- ing robust control techniques. In view of applying robust control, identification of the earlier LTI models is performed by means of simulation experiments, carried out on a converter switching model implemented on MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. Inter- nal model control (IMC) structure is employed for the controller design, but its implementation is performed using the equivalent feedback control structure. Comparison with some controllers de- signed starting from models that do not require identification steps is performed with the aim of showing the advantages connected to the availability of a suitable model, which describes the essential aspects of the behavior of the system, for control purposes. Com- parison with a PI controller designed by means of phase margin assignment is carried out with the aim of justifying the use of more sophisticated control methods. Experimental results are also shown that aimed to prove the validity of the whole approach. Comparison of experimental and simulation results is also performed.


D-Glyceraldehyde's capacity to mimic the effect of D-glucose on insulin secretion has not yet been sufficiently substantiated. It has been recently proposed, however, that they might act through different mechanisms in insulin-secreting tumoral cells. Therefore, we have performed a dose-related study of both the secretory and metabolic effects of D-glyceraldehyde on islets, which have been compared with those produced by D-glucose. D-Glyceraldehyde's capacity to stimulate secretion was paralleled in a dose-dependent manner by its rate of oxidation to 14CO2. Partial inhibition of D-glyceraldehyde oxidation by beta-iodoacetamide resulted in a proportional decrease in the secretory response. L-Glyceraldehyde, which was apparently very poorly oxidized by islets, did not stimulate secretion. The ratio of the maximum insulin responses D-glyceraldehyde and D-glucose (57%) correlated with the ratio of their respective maximum rates of oxidation (68%). At sub-maximal concentrations there was a potentiation of the secretagogue effects of the hexose by the triose, which was not apparent at a maximum effective dose of glucose. It is concluded that D-glyceraldehyde mimics the secretory effect of glucose because, similarly to the hexose, it is metabolized through islet aerobic glycolysis. The lower potency of D-glyceraldehyde as an insulin secretagogue than D-glucose is determined by the lower capacity of islets to oxidize the triose compared with the hexose. D-Glyceraldehyde, unlike D-glucose, is metabolized in islets to D-lactate. Alternative routes for the metabolism of D-glyceraldehyde might explain some of the secretagogue differences between the triose and the hexose.


This note argues that the continental shelf between Greece and Turkey should be delimited under general principles of international law. Part I discusses the present dispute and its historical underpinnings. Part II examines the relevant treaty and customary international law applicable to continental shelf delimitations. Part III analyzes the positions of the parties and proposes a solution under principles of customary international law. This Note concludes that the continental shelf should be delimited by drawing a median line between the two states giving half effect to Eastern Islands and then adjusting the line to avoid enclaving them. DELIMITATION OF THE CONTINENTAL SHELF IN THE AEGEAN SEA


Objective: To evaluate the impact of vitrifying embryo from mice on the development of testes of offspring.
Materials and methods: This study included 60 male offspring mice, 30 male mice from transferred vitrified embryos and 30 male mice from transferred fresh embryos. We tested the morphology and β-catenin gene expression of testes of difference time after they born.
Results: The HE staining results of the testes of the vitrification group and the fresh group showed dark blue staining in the nuclei and varying degrees of red staining in the cytoplasm and fibrous tissue. And there were no significant differences in the morphology of the testis tissues at the different developmental stages between the two groups. With the use of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, the data showed that there were no significant differences in the expression of β-catenin in the testes between the two groups of mice at different developmental stages.
Conclusion: These data suggest that vitrifying pre-implantation embryos may have no effects on morphology and β-catenin gene expression of the testes of offspring.


The locus coeruleus (LC) is composed of noradrenaline-producing neurons that project widely throughout the neuraxis. Subpopulations of LC neuron perikarya have been shown to contain neuropeptide Y (NPY) and galanin (GAL). In the major terminal fields of LC projections, the cerebral cortex, dorsal thalamus and cerebellar cortex, there are differing plexuses of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH), NPY and GAL immunoreactive axons. DBH immunoreactive plexuses are found in all areas which conform in appearance to previous demonstrations of noradrenaline localization by fluorescence histochemistry. In contrast, there are few NPY immunoreactive axons in thalamus and cerebellum, and the cortical plexus, while similar to the DBH immunoreactive plexus, is not affected by 6-hydroxydopamine treatment. Similarly, there are few GAL immunoreactive axons in either cerebral cortex, dorsal thalamus or cerebellar cortex. Transection of ascending LC axons results in accumulation of DBH but not NPY or GAL immunoreactivity proximal to the lesion. These observations indicate that NPY and GAL are distributed differently in LC neurons from noradrenaline and DBH.


Many persons living with HIV (PLWH) either reduced their employment capacity or stopped work completely due to disease progression. With the advent of effective antiretroviral therapy, some PLWH were able to return to the workforce and many are now transitioning into retirement. We examined the histories of employment, retirement and disability status on depression among 1,497 Participants living with HIV from 1997 to 2015 in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. Data were collected on depressive symptoms, employment, retirement, disability status as well as HIV-related and sociodemographic characteristics. Employment, retirement and disability status were lagged 2 years to assess whether the risk of depression at a given observation were temporally predicted by each respective status, adjusting for prior depressive symptoms and covariates. Being employed (aOR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.71–0.82) had lower odds of depression risk two years later compared to those unemployed. There were higher odds of depression risk associated with disability (aOR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.32–1.54) versus those not on disability. Retirement status was not associated with the risk of depressive symptoms. These findings could help inform policies and employment programs to facilitate the return to work for PLWH who are willing and able to work.


INTRODUCTION
Myotonic dystrophy (DM1) is an autosomal dominant disorder whose genetic defect consists of the amplification of an unstable CTG trinucleotide repeat in the 3' untranslated region of the dystrophia myotonica protein kinase gene (DMPK). This is a multi-systemic disease with a well-known endocrinological repercussion. With respect to the adrenal function variable results have been described, although lately they are interpreted as indicators of a hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Twenty-five patients (13 men and 12 women) with DM1 were recruited. They were analysed for: basal cortisol and ACTH, stimulus test with 0.25 mg of ACTH for cortisol and CRH test for cortisol and ACTH. Similarly, the degree of expansion of CTG was evaluated by Southern blot and PCR. Twenty-five healthy individuals, comparable by age and sex, were studied as a control group; the CRH test was carried out on 11 of them.

RESULT
One patient was diagnosed with primary non-autoimmune adrenal failure. In the rest of the cases there were no differences between the basal ACTH of patients and controls, and the cortisol response to ACTH was normal. The patients showed a lower level of basal cortisol (p<0.01) and also showed, following stimulation with CRH, a lower cortisol response (p<0.05) with higher average values of ACTH.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data differs from the latest publications and point to an adrenal hypofunction due to lack of efficacy of the ACTH on its receptor or at the post-receptor level. We suggest that the etiology might be related to the underlying defect in the gene that codifies DMPK.


Companies invest significant sums of money for major IT projects, yet success remains limited. Despite an abundance of IT Project Management (ITPM) resources, such as the PMI Body of Knowledge, IT standards and governance, a large percentage of IT projects continue to fail and ultimately get scrapped. Recent studies have shown an average of 66% IT project failure rate, with 52% of the projects being cancelled, and 82% being delivered late (Visitacion, M. 2006). The purpose of this research is to identify potential causes of IT project failures by the examination of four real world Commercial Off-the-Self Software (COTS) projects. The research approach involved the development of a systematic and holistic ITPM conceptual solution, which considers critical project management success factors including Business Process and IT Alignments, System Design, IT Architectural Foundations, Organizational Dynamics, IT Governance and Standards, and Software Vendor Responsiveness. The solution provides a method to evaluate the various critical success factors of a project, and their alignment with each other. The contribution of this research is summarized in terms of the design and development of the conceptual model; the validation of this model by industry experts, and its refinement into a conceptual solution; and the development of a systematic methodology for successfully implementing the conceptual solution. By following this methodology, a COTS project is expected to have a considerably increased potential for success, and a project leader would be alerted of problems throughout the life of the project.


Existing reasoning tasks often have an important assumption that the input contents can be always accessed while reasoning, requiring unlimited storage resources and suffering from severe time delay on long sequences. To achieve efficient reasoning on long sequences with limited storage resources, memory augmented neural networks introduce a human-like write-read memory to compress and memorize the long input sequence in one pass, trying to answer subsequent queries only based on the memory. But they have two serious drawbacks: 1) they continually update the memory from current information and inevitably forget the early contents; 2) they do not distinguish what information is important and treat all contents equally. In this paper, we propose the Rehearsal Memory (RM) to enhance long-sequence memorization by self-supervised rehearsal with a history sampler. To alleviate the gradual forgetting of early information, we design self-supervised rehearsal training with recollection and familiarity tasks. Further, we design a history sampler to select informative fragments for rehearsal training, making the memory focus on the crucial information. We evaluate the performance of our rehearsal memory by the synthetic bAbI task and several downstream tasks, including text/video question answering and recommendation on long sequences.


After making clear the influence of some sympathetic poisons upon the coagulative components, consequently, upon the blood coagulability, it was able to apprehend that the autonomic nerve system may have a close relation to the formation of each component, and also, having compared the action of other sympathetic poisons with those of adrenalin, it was brought to light that tyramin, when large doses are injected, acts upon the blood coagulation, quite dfferently from the case with adrenalin, and the action of tetrahydro-β-naphthylamin (β-T) manifests a still less analogous effect. 1) Adrenalin, when injected intravenously in small doses in a rabbit i.e. 0.001-0.01 mg per kg shortens the coagulation time to one-half or one-third of the former duration, iucreases fibrinogen and thrombin, and decreases antithrombin. By increasing of the dose, the shortening after small dose changes to a lengthening, which later is followed by a shortening after a medium dose as 0.01 mg, while after a large dose (i.e. 0.03-0.05 mg) comes to a lengthening only. As for coagulative components it decreases fibrinogen and thrombin, and increases antithrombin in these doses. The effects of adrenalin on the clotting time take no corresponding course with those on body temperature but consist with a part of those on the number of white blood corpuscles. Farther the addition of various amounts of adrenalin to the blood-plasma does not give any influence upon the clotting time. On the other hand there is a welldefined parallelism between both the curves of change in the amount of coagulative components, and the lengthening or shortening of the coagulation time. The action of adrenalin, therefore, seems principally due to the change of the quantity of coagulative elements in the blood. Secondly, from the cercumstances that the action of adrenalin in small doses on the coagulative components is reversed by the preliminary disposition of atropin (or yohimbin), I am led to a conclusion that adrenalin in small doses hastenes the coagulation by stimulating the accelerative fibres of the sympathic nerve, while in larger doses, retards it by irritating its inhibitory fibres. 2) Experimenting on a rabbit, tyramin given intravenously in small doses (i.e. 0.005-0.01 g) quickens the coagulation time of blood having no direct action on the blood with added tyramin. Fibrinogen and thrombin increases when small doses are injected, while fibrinogen decreases, and antithrombin increases with large doses. 3) By injecting β-T in large doses (i.e. 0.01-0.03 g) it retards the coagulation time, and decreases fibrinogen and thrombin, and increases antithrombin, but with small doses (i.e. 0.003-0.005 g) it hastenes, though the change of those coagulative components are similar but uncertain. 4) On the process of clotting, tyramin in large doses as well as β-T appear to be acted upon from some other unknown cause than by stimulating the sympathetic nerve, as adrenalin does.


According to the increasing importance of enzyme catalysed peptide synthesis the capability of the protease dipeptidyl peptidase IV is shown to form the peptide bond. To our best knowledge, it's the first time that has been used successfully proline as one of the amino acids. The formation of the peptide bond is kinetically controlled. Free amino acids have been used as nucleophiles. The reaction media contain 50 vol.-% glycerol. A first approach to a kinetic treatment is shown


Most murine thymocytes and mature T cells originate from a numerically minor population of CD8−4− (double‐negative, DN) thymocytes. In this study, we investigated the effects of rearranged T cell receptor (TcR) α and β transgenes on early T cell development. We analyzed the precursor potential, the expression of CD25 and TcR at mRNA and/or protein level in DN thymocyte subsets in TcR transgenic (Tg) mice. We report the following observations: (i) despite a large overrepresentation of total DN cells in TcR Tg mice, precursor‐containing CD25+ DN and CD810410 thymocytes are reduced to a third of the nontransgenic control numbers; (ii) like in the normal mice, CD25+ DN and CD810410 can, and TcR+ DN cells cannot generate other thymic subsets; (iii) TcR α mRNA and TcR α/β protein levels are quantitatively increased, but their developmental expression is similar to that in normal mice; and (iv) surface TcR αβ expression becomes detectable as the thymocytes down‐regulate CD25, paralleling the situation in normal mice. Our findings implicate stringent transcriptional control, rather than TcR gene rearrangement, as a decisive regulator of TcR αβ expression in early ontogeny.


This study investigates when and how disagreements in online customer ratings prompt more favorable product evaluations. Among the three metrics of volume, valence, and variance that feature in the research on online customer ratings, volume and valence have exhibited consistently positive patterns in their effects on product sales or evaluations (e.g., Dellarocas, Zhang, and Awad 2007; Liu 2006). Ratings variance, or the degree of disagreement among reviewers, however, has shown rather mixed results, with some studies reporting positive effects on product sales (e.g., Clement, Proppe, and Rott 2007) while others finding negative effects on product evaluations (e.g., Zhu and Zhang 2010). This study aims to resolve these contradictory findings by introducing preference heterogeneity as a possible moderator and causal attribution as a mediator to account for the moderating effect. The main proposition of this study is that when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high, a disagreement in ratings is attributed more to reviewers` different preferences than to unreliable product quality, which in turn prompts better quality evaluations of a product. Because disagreements mostly result from differences in reviewers` tastes or the low reliability of a product`s quality (Mizerski 1982; Sen and Lerman 2007), a greater level of attribution to reviewer tastes can mitigate the negative effect of disagreement on product evaluations. Specifically, if consumers infer that reviewers` heterogeneous preferences result in subjectively different experiences and thereby highly diverse ratings, they would not disregard the overall quality of a product. However, if consumers infer that reviewers` preferences are quite homogeneous and thus the low reliability of the product quality contributes to such disagreements, they would discount the overall product quality. Therefore, consumers would respond more favorably to disagreements in ratings when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high rather than low. This study furthermore extends this prediction to the various levels of average ratings. The heuristicsystematic processing model so far indicates that the engagement in effortful systematic processing occurs only when sufficient motivation is present (Hann et al. 2007; Maheswaran and Chaiken 1991; Martin and Davies 1998). One of the key factors affecting this motivation is the aspiration level of the decision maker. Only under conditions that meet or exceed his aspiration level does he tend to engage in systematic processing (Patzelt and Shepherd 2008; Stephanous and Sage 1987). Therefore, systematic causal attribution processing regarding ratings variance is likely more activated when the average rating is high enough to meet the aspiration level than when it is too low to meet it. Considering that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity occurs through the mediation of causal attribution, this greater activation of causal attribution in high versus low average ratings would lead to more pronounced interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity in high versus low average ratings. Overall, this study proposes that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high as compared to when it is low. Two laboratory studies lend support to these predictions. Study 1 reveals that participants exposed to a high-preference heterogeneity book title (i.e., a novel) attributed disagreement in ratings more to reviewers` tastes, and thereby more favorably evaluated books with such ratings, compared to those exposed to a low-preference heterogeneity title (i.e., an English listening practice book). Study 2 then extended these findings to the various levels of average ratings and found that this greater preference for disagreement options under high preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high compared to when it is low. This study makes an important theoretical contribution to the online customer ratings literature by showing that preference heterogeneity serves as a key moderator of the effect of ratings variance on product evaluations and that causal attribution acts as a mediator of this moderation effect. A more comprehensive picture of the interplay among ratings variance, preference heterogeneity, and average ratings is also provided by revealing that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity varies as a function of the average rating. In addition, this work provides some significant managerial implications for marketers in terms of how they manage word of mouth. Because a lack of consensus creates some uncertainty and anxiety over the given information, consumers experience a psychological burden regarding their choice of a product when ratings show disagreement. The results of this study offer a way to address this problem. By explicitly clarifying that there are many more differences in tastes among reviewers than expected, marketers can allow consumers to speculate that differing tastes of reviewers rather than an uncertain or poor product quality contribute to such conflicts in ratings. Thus, when fierce disagreements are observed in the WOM arena, marketers are advised to communicate to consumers that diverse, rather than uniform, tastes govern reviews and evaluations of products.


Landscape architecture mediates between nature and buildings in its task to develop open spaces into habitats for people. Today, this task implies ecological problem solving in addition to aesthetics. Fruitful combination of organic and constructed environments results in communicative spaces of great social significance. Using high-quality image material, detailed plans and explanatory texts, the present volume looks across the full spectrum of contemporary landscape architecture. In addition to the classical fields of gardens and parks, the book also examines the latest trends like green facades, interior gardens and land art. "Collection: Landscape Architecture" is a refreshing and informative tour of green oases around the world.


In this work, a versatile point-of-care assay platform based on a microfluidic paper-based analytic device (μPAD) was developed for the simultaneous detection of multiple targets. The μPAD with a central zone and six test zones is fabricated by a simple and inexpensive wax printing method. A flower-like hybrid nanocomplex synthesized with specific dual enzymes and Cu3(PO4)2 inorganic nanocrystals is spotted in the test zones on the μPAD, followed by the introduction of assay targets. Using dual-enzyme inorganic hybrid nanoflowers in the μPAD as nanobiocatalysts, which preserve the activity and enhance the stability of the enzymes, based on the H2O2-mediated catalytic oxidizing chromogenic reaction produced by glucose/uric acid, the developed multiplex paper-based nanobiocatalytic system is demonstrated to enable simultaneous and sensitive detection of glucose and uric acid with a detection limit of 60 and 25 μM, respectively. More importantly, it has been successfully used for detecting glucose and uric acid levels in human whole blood samples. The developed multiplex paper-based nanobiocatalytic system features very easy fabrication and operation, low cost, and high sensitivity and has promising prospects for a clinical multianalyte point-of-care test.


We discuss the Web Operating System (WOS ) approach to global computing. We show that the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of the Web or Internet makes it impossible to define a fixed set of operating system services, usable for all services. Rather, we propose that generalized software configuration techniques, based on a demand-driven technique called eduction, can be used to define versions of a Web Operating System that can be built in an incremental manner. This net-centric approach considers communication as the central issue as opposed to the common notion of central servers. We present the communication mechanisms as well as the WOS node architecture and components to achieve this.


Today's Internet backbone networking devices need to be tested under realistic traffic conditions at transmission rates of OC-48 and above. While commercially available synthetic traffic generators are capable of keeping up with high transmission rates, they fail to produce realistic mixes of flow, packet and address arrival patterns. We explore the alternative of replaying real packet traces from high-speed links using multiple commodity PCs equipped with lower-speed network interfaces. Such an approach is inherently cost-effective because of the use of commodity hardware and can scale up to any desired transmission rate. We first examine how to split a trace among multiple PCs for the purpose of replaying and validate our technique using simulations. We use a wavelet 'spectrum' or energy plot for this purpose which enables traffic processes to be viewed simultaneously on many time-scales. Then we present an implementation using Linux PCs with gigabit Ethernet interfaces to replay OC-48 packet traces from the Sprint backbone. Our results show that the replayed trace is very similar to the original trace at most time scales. We are also able to pinpoint the specific system components that contributed to the replay inaccuracy, as well as identify several important challenges that remain to be explored in-depth.


A new technique for VCO calibration is presented for clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits. This method is applicable to current controlled oscillators. After the frequency lock is achieved, the oscillator current is sampled by a simple current mode analog to digital converter (ADC) and a narrower range is generated around the sampled point. A CDR system, which operates at 5-Gb/s data rate, is designed and simulated in 0.18-µm CMOS technology to verify the proposed method.


Broadcasting in wireless mobile computing environments is an effective technique to disseminate information to a massive number of clients equipped with powerful, battery operated devices. To conserve the usage of energy, which is a scarce resource, the information to be broadcast must be organized so that the client can selectively tune in at the desired portion of the broadcast. In this paper, the efficient, energy conserving transaction processing in mobile broadcast environments is examined with widely accepted approaches to indexed data organizations suited for a single item retrieval. The basic idea is to share the index information on multiple data items based on the predeclaration technique. The analytical and simulation studies have been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of our methodology, showing that predeclaration-based transaction processing with selective tuning ability can provide a significant performance improvement of battery life, while retaining a low access time. Tolerance to access failures during transaction processing is also described


It is commonly held that Calvinism is committed to theological determinism, and therefore also to compatibilism insofar as Calvinism affirms human freedom and moral responsibility. Recent scholarship has challenged this view, opening up space for a form of Calvinism that allows for libertarian free will. In this article we critically assess two versions of 'libertarian Calvinism' recently proposed by Oliver Crisp. We contend that Calvinism (defined along the confessional lines adopted by Crisp) is implicitly committed to theological determinism, and even if it were not so committed, it would still rule out libertarian free will on other grounds.


This document reports data drawn from a study conducted in September 2002 that investigated the context of HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes among rural Tanzanian Maasai men and women. A primary focus of the work was exploration of the cultural context of condom knowledge and use. The study site was Ngorongoro District in rural northern Tanzania.

Low levels of condom knowledge were discovered through questionnaire and focus group research. Given the low levels of condom knowledge, the author argues that it is unsurprising that incorrect beliefs about condoms and their efficacy abound. The association of condoms with non-Maasai, or at least, non- ruralites (and thus non-Maasai), was expressed. The �otherness� of HIV and consequent condom use manifests itself in a variety of ways. For example, the highly ritualised nature of Maasai male circumcision results in a strongly held belief that condoms are unsuitable for penises that have undergone a Maasai circumcision.

This paper concludes that there is a rationale for the development of culturally-specific HIV/AIDS programmes. This is underscored by the fact that, although human biology is the same everywhere, sexual behaviour in general and condom use in particular are the result of complex socio- cultural values and economic and political conditions, which differ from one society to another and between different groups within a society.


Objective(s): Stroke may cause severe neuronal damage. The sesamin have been demonstrated to possess neuroprotection by its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. One sesamin derivative was artificially composited, 1, 2-bis [(3-methoxyphenyl) methyl] ethane-1, 2-dicaroxylic acid (MMEDA) had been developed to study its antioxidative activity and neuroprotection. Materials and Methods: The infaction of Sprague Dawley (SD) rats and hypoxia models of BV-2 microglia or PC12 cells were investigated for in vivo and in vitro test respectively. Lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species (ROS), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and related signaling pathways from hypoxic cells were analyzed by ELISA or Western blot assay, respectively. Results: MMEDA showed a protective effect when given 90 min after the focal cerebral ischemia. The neuroprotection of MMEDA was further confirmed by attenuating ROS and PGE2 release from hypoxic BV-2 or PC12 cells. MMEDA significantly reduced hypoxia-induced JNK and caspase-3 (survival and apoptotic pathways) in PC12 cells. Conclusion: The neuroprotective effect of MMEDA on ischemia/hypoxia models was involved with its antioxidative activity and anti-inflammatory effects. These results suggest that MMEDA exert effective neuroprotection against ischemia/hypoxia injury.


Three-dimensional scene recovery from two-dimensional image data is a challenging task. Typical methods compute two-dimensional image feature correspondences between image frames. However, these methods introduce errors as three-dimensional warping of image elements is not considered. Further, no previous method presented exploits the strong correlation between three-dimensional scene elements in adjacent video frames. In this work, we describe a simple three-dimensional scene recovery method which is extended using a novel extension exploiting temporal information, increasing efficiency of the method. The proposed method is applied to the recovery of outdoor scenes. Comparing with other, more traditional, three-dimensional recovery methods, the proposed method provides more accurate results and the addition of temporal information is shown to speed up execution without reducing accuracy.


We address the dynamic design of supply chain networks in which the moments of demand distribution function are uncertain and facilities' availability is stochastic because of possible disruptions. To incorporate the existing stochasticity in our dynamic problem, we develop a multi-stage stochastic program to specify the optimal location, capacity, inventory, and allocation decisions. Further, a data-driven rolling horizon approach is developed to use observations of the random parameters in the stochastic optimization problem. In contrast to traditional stochastic programming approaches that are valid only for a limited number of scenarios, the rolling horizon approach makes the determined decisions by the stochastic program implementable in practice and evaluates them. The stochastic program is presented as a quadratic conic optimization, and to generate an efficient scenario tree, a forward scenario tree construction technique is employed. An extensive numerical study is carried out to investigate the applicability of the presented model and rolling horizon procedure, the efficiency of risk-measurement policies, and the performance of the scenario tree construction technique. Several key practical and managerial insights related to the dynamic supply chain network design under uncertainty are gained based on the computational results. [Submitted: April 15, 2019


The manufacturing industry in industrialised countries is often argued to servicify - use and sell more services - but knowledge is poor. We examine the phenomenon using detailed and com-prehensive micro level data at both the firm and enterprise group level for Sweden (1997-2006). We find that manufacturing is servicifying substantially. Services and qualified services are increasingly characterising in-house activity in manufacturing. The results imply that treat-ing services and manufacturing separately - for instance in trade policy negotiations - may be inappropriate in industrialised countries. Finally, the findings illustrate the value of enterprise group level data when studying structural economic changes.


The Duke FEL storage ring is a 1 GeV electron ring, which is designed for driving UV-VUV free electron lasers. The ring has been in operation since November of 1994 but the beam position monitors (BPMs) were connected and operated just recently. The BPM pick-ups are 4 stripline electrodes. In order to reduce the higher-order-mode loss excited by the stored beam at the BPM pick-up area, the BPM vacuum chamber is designed with 4 grounding strips between the electrodes that have the same diameters as the electrode. This design allows the electron beam to see a much smoother vacuum chamber at the BPM area. The pick-up signals are processed by Bergoz's electronic modules, which give X/Y outputs directly. Each BPM has its own process module and 34 modules have been connected to the EPICS control system. The beam orbit now can be displayed and corrected through EPICS in the control room. The system performance and the test data are presented in this paper.


The inflammatory process contributes to immune tolerance as well as to tumor progression and metastasis. By releasing extracellular signals, cancerous cells constantly shape their surrounding microenvironment through their interactions with infiltrating immune cells, stromal cells and components of extracellular matrix. Recently, the pro-inflammatory interleukin 17 (IL-17)-producing T helper lymphocytes, the Th17 cells, and the IL-17/IL-17 receptor (IL-17R) axis gained special attention. The IL-17 family comprises at least six members, IL-17A, IL-17B, IL-17C, IL-17D, IL-17E (also called IL-25), and IL-17F. Secreted as disulfide-linked homo- or heterodimers, the IL-17 bind to the IL-17R, a type I cell surface receptor, of which there are five variants, IL-17RA to IL-17RE. This review focuses on the current advances identifying the promoting role of IL-17 in carcinogenesis, tumor metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy of diverse solid cancers. While underscoring the IL-17/IL-17R axis as promising immunotherapeutic target in the context of cancer managing, this knowledge calls upon further in vitro and in vivo studies that would allow the development and implementation of novel strategies to combat tumors.


PURPOSE
To investigate self-administered, at-home use of a perceptual learning-based video game consisting of target detection of stimuli in different sizes, spatial frequency, orientation, and contrast as a potential dichoptic therapy to improve binocular function in amblyopic patients resistant to patching.

METHODS
Children (ages 8 to 18 years) with strabismic and/or anisometropic amblyopia were recruited from a single institution. All participants (n = 25) were prescribed 6 weeks of patching for 2 hours per day, and those whose visual acuity did not improve were randomized to binocular perceptual learning (n = 7), monocular perceptual learning (n = 8), or patching (n = 10) groups for 8 weeks in this prospective cohort study. After an 8-week long period of treatment cessation, during which participants stopped patching or perceptual learning, participants in the patching group were randomized to binocular or monocular perceptual learning training; those in the perceptual learning groups remained the same. Visual function was assessed by visual acuity, low contrast acuity, reading speed, stereoacuity, and binocularity; compliance was evaluated by exercise logs.

RESULTS
There were no significant improvements in visual function parameters, which did not vary by treatment group. However, some visual outcomes, such as binocular summation and reading speed, correlated positively with compliance to perceptual learning therapy.

CONCLUSIONS
At-home, self-administered use of this perceptual learning-based video game-based visual training does not consistently add therapeutic benefit to those with amblyopia resistant to patching. Future investigation is required to determine whether methods to increase compliance will lead to more reliable outcomes. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2020;57(3):176-184.].


Stemming from work by Buntine and Weigend (1991) and MacKay (1992), there is a growing interest in Bayesian analysis of neural network models. Although conceptually simple, this problem is computationally involved. We suggest a very efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo scheme for inference and prediction with fixed-architecture feedforward neural networks. The scheme is then extended to the variable architecture case, providing a data-driven procedure to identify sensible architectures.


Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs, nomenclature as agreed by NC-IUPHAR [35]) are members of a Na+ channel superfamily that includes the epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC), the FMRF-amide activated channel (FaNaC) of invertebrates, the degenerins (DEG) of Caenorhabitis elegans, channels in Drosophila melanogaster and 'orphan' channels that include BLINaC [46] and INaC [47] that have also been named BASICs, for bile acid-activated ion channels [58]. ASIC subunits contain two TM domains and assemble as homo- or hetero-trimers [34, 31, 5] to form proton-gated, voltage-insensitive, Na+ permeable, channels (reviewed in [33, 57]). Splice variants of ASIC1 [termed ASIC1a (ASIC, ASICα, BNaC2α) [55], ASIC1b (ASICβ, BNaC2β) [13] and ASIC1b2 (ASICβ2) [50]; note that ASIC1a is also permeable to Ca2+] and ASIC2 [termed ASIC2a (MDEG1, BNaC1α, BNC1α) [45, 56, 30] and ASIC2b (MDEG2, BNaC1β) [40]] have been cloned. Unlike ASIC2a (listed in table), heterologous expression of ASIC2b alone does not support H+-gated currents. A third member, ASIC3 (DRASIC, TNaC1) [54], has been identified. A fourth mammalian member of the family (ASIC4/SPASIC) does not support a proton-gated channel in heterologous expression systems and is reported to downregulate the expression of ASIC1a and ASIC3 [1, 32, 24, 39]. ASIC channels are primarily expressed in central and peripheral neurons including nociceptors where they participate in neuronal sensitivity to acidosis. They have also been detected in taste receptor cells (ASIC1-3), photoreceptors and retinal cells (ASIC1-3), cochlear hair cells (ASIC1b), testis (hASIC3), pituitary gland (ASIC4), lung epithelial cells (ASIC1a and -3), urothelial cells, adipose cells (ASIC3), vascular smooth muscle cells (ASIC1-3), immune cells (ASIC1,-3 and -4) and bone (ASIC1-3). A neurotransmitter-like function of protons has been suggested, involving postsynaptically located ASICs of the CNS in functions such as learning and fear perception [25, 36, 63], responses to focal ischemia [59] and to axonal degeneration in autoimmune inflammation in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis [29], as well as seizures [64] and pain [19, 20, 10, 22]. Heterologously expressed heteromultimers form ion channels with differences in kinetics, ion selectivity, pH- sensitivity and sensitivity to blockers that resemble some of the native proton activated currents recorded from neurones [40, 3, 28, 8].


Bearing impedance vectors are introduced for plain journal bearings which define the bearing reaction force components as a function of the bearing motion. Impedance descriptions are developed directly for the approximate Ocvirk (short) and Sommerfeld (long) bearing solutions. The impedance vector magnitude and the mobility vector magnitude of Booker are shown to be reciprocals. The transformation relationships between mobilities and impedance are derived and used to define impedance vectors for a number of existing mobility vectors including the finite-length mobility vectors developed by Moes. The attractiveness and utility of the impedance-vector formulation for transient simulation work is demonstrated by numerical examples for the Ocvirk "p", and "2p" bearing impedances and the cavitating finite-length-bearing impedance. The examples presented demonstrate both bearing and squeeze-film damper application. A direct analytic method for deriving a complete set of (analytic) stiffness and damping coefficients from impedance descriptions is developed and demonstrated for the cavitating finite length-bearing impedances. Analytic expressions are provided for all direct and cross-coupled stiffness and damping coefficients, and compared to previously developed numerical results. These coefficients are used for stability analysis of a rotor, supported in finite-length cavitating bearings. Onset-speed-of-instability results are presented as a function of the L/D ratio for a range of bearing numbers. Damping coefficients are also presented for finite-length squeeze-film dampers.


In this research, , A total of 64 MM and 37 VV adult specimens from Turkish Thrace and 158 MM and 188 VV adult specimens from Anatolia were investigated comparatively as two separate populations groups to determine the subspecific status of the species in Turkey. No significant differences are discernible between the two population groups from the viewpoints of pholidosis, morphometrical measurements and rations and pattern and coloration characteiistics. So the Turkish L. viridis populations belong to a single subspecies L. v. meridionalis.


The catecholamine and cardiovascular responses to laryngoscopy alone have been compared with those following laryngoscopy and intubation in 24 patients allocated randomly to each group. Following induction with fentanyl and thiopentone, atracurium was administered and artificial ventilation undertaken via a face mask for 2 min with 67% nitrous oxide in oxygen. Following laryngoscopy, the vocal cords were visualized for 10 s. In one group of patients, ventilation was then re-instituted via a face mask, while in the second group the trachea was intubated during the 10-s period and ventilation of the lungs maintained. Arterial pressure, heart rate and plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline concentrations were measured before and after induction and at 1, 3 and 5 min after laryngoscopy. There were significant and similar increases in arterial pressure and circulating catecholamine concentrations following laryngoscopy with or without intubation. Intubation, however, was associated with significant increases in heart rate which did not occur in the laryngoscopy-only group.


We use the tight correlation between the geometry of the Peterson variety and the combinatorics the symmetric group to prove that homology of the Peterson variety injects into the homology of the flag variety. Our proof counts the points of intersection between certain Schubert varieties in the full flag variety and the Peterson variety, and shows that these intersections are proper and transverse.


This article explores translation in the lives of asylum seekers from various African countries living in state-provided accommodation in the region of Umbria, Italy. While (semi) professional translators and interpreters play a crucial part in interactions between institutions and asylum seekers, translation invests the totality of the asylum experience. Translation is a vital skill for asylum seekers, and their interactions with the landscape of Italian villages involve the transfer of meaning across different languages and semiotic systems (such as body language, social norms, and cultural practices). Building on recent semiotic and spatial approaches to translation, this article examines the experience of translation that emerged from conversations with asylum seekers, providing an overview of a complex ecosystem of translation and shedding light on the everyday reality of refugee integration.


We study the e(cid:11)ects of communication in Bayesian games when the players are sequentially rational but some combinations of types have zero probability. Not all communication equilibria can be implemented as sequential equilibria. We de(cid:12)ne the set of strong sequential communication equilibria (SSCE) and characterize it. SSCE di(cid:11)ers from the concept of sequential communication equilibrium (SCE) de(cid:12)ned by Myerson (1986) in that SCE allows the possibility of trembles by the mediator. We show that these two concepts coincide when there are three or more players, but the set of SSCE may be strictly smaller than the set of SCE for two-player games.


The SiO2 nanoparticles reinforced Cu-matrix composites were prepared by powder metallurgy technology.The influences of SiO2 volume fraction on the properties of hardness、conductivitity rate and wear behavior of Cu-matrix composites were studied. The results showed that conductivity rate was decreased with the increase of the SiO2 volume fraction;whereas the hardness was increased, then decreased and wear behavior was increased. Sintering an hour of performance was superior to the sintering half an hour.When SiO2 nanoparticle volume fraction was achieved 2.5%, comprehensive properties of SiO2/Cu composite were obviously increased.The microstructures revealed that the second phase particles precipitated dispersedly in copper matrix after hot extrusion. with the increase of the strengthen phase particle volume fraction, nanoparticles appeared together and gathered in grain boundary of copper matrix.


ABSTRACT Metastatic bone and soft tissue sarcomas often relapse after chemotherapy (CHT) and molecular targeted therapy (mTT), maintaining a severe prognosis. A subset of sarcoma cancer stem cells (sCSC) is hypothesized to resist conventional drugs and sustain disease relapses. We investigated the immunotherapy activity of cytokine induced killer cells (CIK) against autologous sCSC that survived CHT and mTT. The experimental platform included two aggressive bone and soft tissue sarcoma models: osteosarcoma (OS) and undifferentiated-pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS). To visualize putative sCSC we engineered patient-derived sarcoma cultures (2 OS and 3 UPS) with a lentiviral sCSC-detector wherein the promoter of stem-gene Oct4 controls the expression of eGFP. We visualized a fraction of sCSC (mean 24.2 ± 5.2%) and confirmed their tumorigenicity in vivo. sCSC resulted relatively resistant to both CHT and mTT in vitro. Therapeutic doses of doxorubicin significantly enriched viable eGFP+sCSC in both OS (2.6 fold, n = 16) and UPS (2.3 fold, n = 29) compared to untreated controls. Treatment with sorafenib (for OS) and pazopanib (for UPS) also determined enrichment (1.3 fold) of viable eGFP+sCSC, even if less intense than what observed after CHT. Sarcoma cells surviving CHT and mTT were efficiently killed in vitro by autologous CIK even at minimal effector/target ratios (40:1 = 82%, 1:4 = 29%, n = 13). CIK immunotherapy did not spare sCSC that were killed as efficiently as whole sarcoma cell population. The relative chemo-resistance of sCSC and sensitivity to CIK immunotherapy was confirmed in vivo. Our findings support CIK as an innovative, clinically explorable, approach to eradicate chemo-resistant sCSC implicated in tumor relapse.


OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to investigate the efficacy and safety of 0.1% topical tacrolimus in erosive or ulcerative oral lichen planus.

METHODS
This was an open-label, noncomparative study conducted in an outpatient oral medicine unit in London, United Kingdom. The study covered an 8-week period with a 22-week follow-up after cessation of therapy. Nineteen patients, aged 28 to 87 years with biopsy-proven oral lichen planus refractory to, or dependent on, systemic immunosuppressive agents, were enrolled. Seventeen patients (89%) completed the study. Application of 0.1% tacrolimus was administered to all symptomatic oral mucosal lesions. Clinical review took place 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8 weeks after commencing therapy. Alleviation of symptoms was evaluated by using a visual analogue scale as well as the McGill Pain and Oral Health Impact profile questionnaires. The extent of the oral mucosal erosion or ulceration was directly measured by the same clinician at all visits. Safety assessments included monitoring of adverse events, complete blood cell count, renal and hepatic clinical chemistry, and tacrolimus blood concentrations.

RESULTS
Tacrolimus caused a statistically significant improvement in symptoms within 1 week of commencement of therapy. A mean decrease of 73.3% occurred in the area of ulceration over the 8-week study period. Local irritation (in 6 subjects, 35%) was the most commonly reported adverse effect. Laboratory values showed no significant changes with time. Therapeutic levels of tacrolimus were demonstrated in 8 subjects but were unrelated to the extent of oral mucosal involvement. Thirteen of 17 patients suffered a relapse of oral lichen planus within 2 to 15 weeks of cessation of tacrolimus therapy.

CONCLUSION
Topical tacrolimus is effective therapy for erosive or ulcerative oral lichen planus.


In mass disaster situations, demands frequently exceed the capacity of personnel and facilities. In the last few years, there has been an increased incidence of civil disasters; the spectrum of possible catastrophes has also dramatically increased as a result of an increasingly technologically sophisticated society. During the last 15 years, varied terrorist activities have become increasingly common as expressions of the opinions of extreme political groups, especially in India. In Mumbai itself, we have witnessed disasters such as widespread riots, terrorist bomb blasts, floods, and fires. There have been other disasters in India, such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, as well as tsunamis Though most of the hospitals in India manage the medical problems associated with these disasters fairly efficiently, an analysis of the situation is presented so that this may form the basis for future planning in disaster preparedness and provide a template for other communities that may want to implement preparedness protocols. We present our experience with disaster management in Mumbai, India. A successful medical response to multi-injury civilian disasters, either natural or man-made, dictates formulation, dissemination, and periodic assessment of a contingency plan to facilitate the triage and treatment of victims of disaster.


The objective of this study is to investigate the flexural behaviors and ductility of reinforced concrete beam with near-surface mounted (NSM) GFRP bars. A total of 5, simply supported rectangular cross-section beams strengthened with NSM GFRP bars and two control beams are tested in this paper. The mode of failure, load-deflection relationship, strain distributions along the height of the beam on mid-span cross-section, and ductility of the beams are analyzed. The studies indicate that the yield and ultimate load have a significant increase compared with the control specimen. Especially, the ultimate load has a more measurable improvement than the yield load. The strain distribution along the height of specimen shows a clear nonlinear characteristic as a result of the crack propagating and steel yield. Also, the studies show that GFRP bars has played an important role in the flexural capacity of the strengthened beam during the stage from the yield to the failure of the beam. Besides, the strengthened beam is considered to be ductile using the displacement ductility index.


The Boolean Satisfiability Problem (SAT) was the first known NP-complete problem and has a very broad literature focusing on it. It has been applied successfully to various real-world problems, such as scheduling, planning and cryptography. SAT problem feature extraction plays an essential role in this field. SAT solvers are complex, fine-tuned systems that exploit problem structure. The ability to represent/encode a large SAT problem using a compact set of features has broad practical use in instance classification, algorithm portfolios, and solver configuration. The performance of these techniques relies on the ability of feature extraction to convey helpful information. Researchers often craft these features "by hand" to capture particular structures of the problem. Instead, in this paper, we extract features using semi-supervised deep learning. We train a convolutional autoencoder (AE) to compress the SAT problem into a limited latent space and reconstruct it minimizing the reconstruction error. The latent space projection should preserve much of the structural features of the problem. We compare our approach to a set of features commonly used for algorithm selection. Firstly, we train classifiers on the projection to predict if the problems are satisfiable or not. If the compression conveys valuable information, a classifier should be able to take correct decisions. In the second experiment, we check if the classifiers can identify the original problem that was encoded as SAT. The empirical analysis shows that the autoencoder is able to represent problem features in a limited latent space efficiently, as well as convey more information than current feature extraction methods.


The development of the BP NN is part of the research project of internet based intelligent supplier selection and evaluation system. According to obtained information from Google Search Engine, the possible suppliers will be classified and put into the data file which is used for the further evaluation. In the paper the BP NN model used for supplied evaluation is introduced first, and then the six input variables have been discussed for the BP NN model. The raw data of each variable has to be converted into BP NN model accepted format for training and application. The conversion methods for each valuable have been discussed in the paper as well. Final, the test results show the successful system running.


The human interpretation of analytical outputs is a significant challenge in forensic science, making it vital to explore the application of protocols as we enhance our practices. This study assesses decision making in forensic anthropological analyses utilizing eye-tracking technology to quantify an observer's estimate of confidence and reliability. Ten individuals with varying levels of education and experience were asked to score cranial morphologies for two human crania. Each participant's fixation points, fixation duration, and visit count and duration were assessed using Tobii™ Pro 2 eye-tracking glasses. Mid-facial morphologies capturing relative widths were the quickest scored traits, with an overall median time of 14.59 seconds; more complex morphological assessments took longer. Using time as a proxy for confidence, Kruskal-Wallis rank sum results indicate individuals with less experience differed significantly from individuals with greater experience (p = 0.01) although differences in level of education were not significant. Interestingly, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) indicate interobserver reliability is high between observers, suggesting experience only slightly improves agreement. These preliminary results suggest experience is more important than level of education. Through empirical decision making studies, forensic anthropologists can improve practices—increasing the transparency of evaluative decision making by targeting confusing or problematic aspects of a data collection practice, and in so doing, enhance training.


Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is the hallmark of the glomerular lesion that is characteristically observed in failing kidneys. FSGS is one of the leading causes of renal insufficiency. In this thesis the Thy-1.1 transgenic mouse model was used as a model of FSGS. We particularly evaluated the specific roles of podocytes and parietal epithelial cells (PECs) in the pathogenesis of FSGS. We showed that the FSGS lesions, which are typically observed in the Thy-1.1 model at 3 weeks after antibody injection, were preceded by cellular FSGS lesions that resemble human collapsing FSGS. Characterization of the cellular components of these lesions, revealed that the lesions consisted primarily of proliferating PECs. We concluded that PECs play an important role in the development and progression of FSGS in the Thy-1.1 transgenic mouse. Obviously, these observations in the mouse model prompted the question if PECs are also involved in human FSGS. Thusfar, most studies in patients with collapsing FSGS have attributed the epithelial hyperplasia to dysregulation of podocytes and ensuing proliferation. Therefore, we studied the cellular origin of the proliferating epithelial cells in human idiopathic FSGS and HIV associated collapsing FSGS. From these studies we concluded that the proliferating cells in Bowman's space in human FSGS are derived from PECs. Since the proliferating PECs deposit the newly formed extracellular matrix that leads to scarring, it can be concluded that PECs play an important role in the progression of human FSGS. In addition, we questioned if treatment with captopril could prevent the development of FSGS in the Thy-1.1 transgenic mouse. The data presented in this thesis clearly indicated that captopril reduced albuminuria and almost completely prevented the development of FSGS in our mouse model. Based on our observations we assume that the beneficial effects of captopril are related to its ability to block PEC activation and proliferation.


A harvesting system consisting of chainsaw felling and cable skidder extraction was studied to determine soil bulk density changes in a central Appalachian hardwood forest site. Soil bulk density was measured using a nuclear gauge preharvest and postharvest systematically across the harvest site, on transects across skid trails, and for a subset of skid trail transects closest to log landing after each of the first ten loaded machine passes. Bulk density was also measured in skid trails after their construction but prior to skidding. Bulk density did not change significantly across the harvest site, because the extraction equipment stayed on the preplanned skid trails. Bulk density increased on the skid trails as a result of construction by crawler bulldozer and during skidding. Bulk density in the skid trail increased by 30% because of construction by a crawler bulldozer. Fifty-five percent of the increase in bulk density attributable to skidding occurred after one loaded pass, and 80% of the bulk density increase was experienced after two loaded passes. Bulk density increased by only 5% between passes five and ten.


While decreasing occurrence and duration of lake ice cover is well‐documented, biogeochemical dynamics in frozen lakes remain poorly understood. Here, we interpret winter physical and biogeochemical time series from eutrophic Missisquoi Bay (MB) and hyper‐eutrophic Shelburne Pond (SP) to describe variable drivers of under ice biogeochemistry in systems of fundamentally different lake‐watershed physical configurations (lake area, lake : watershed area). The continuous cold of the 2015 winter drove the MB sediment‐water interface to the most severe and persistent suboxic state ever documented at this site, promoting the depletion of redox‐sensitive phases in sediments, and an expanding zone of bottom water enriched in reactive species of Mn, Fe, and P. In this context, lake sediment and water column inventories of reactive chemical species were sensitive to the severity and persistence of subfreezing temperatures. During thaws, event provenance and severity impact lake thermal structure and mixing, water column enrichment in P and Fe, and thaw capability to suppress redox front position and internal chemical loading. Nearly identical winter weather manifest differently in nearby SP, where the small surface and watershed areas promoted a warmer, less stratified water column and active phytoplankton populations, impacting biogeochemical dynamics. In SP, Fe and P behavior under ice were decoupled due to active biological cycling, and thaw impacts were different in distribution and composition due to SP's physical structure and related antecedent conditions. We find that under ice biogeochemistry is highly dynamic in both time and space and sensitive to a variety of drivers impacted by climate change.


Subacute thyroiditis (SAT) is a non-suppurative thyroid gland inflammation, which usually develops after viral upper respiratory tract infections, accompanied by pain and fever. Here, we present a 49-year-old Turkish man who developed SAT 10 days after the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). After the COVID-19 outbreak, affecting millions of people worldwide, millions of people are also likely to develop SAT. Therefore, clinicians should pay attention to the development of SAT after COVID-19. J Endocrinol Metab. 2020;10(3-4):110-112 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem678