Abstract. We use a three-dimensional regional chemical transport model (PMCAMx) with high grid resolution and high-resolution emissions (4 × 4 km2) over the Paris greater area to simulate the formation of carbonaceous aerosol during a summer (July 2009) and a winter (January/February 2010) period as part of the MEGAPOLI (megacities: emissions, urban, regional, and global atmospheric pollution and climate effects, and Integrated tools for assessment and mitigation) campaigns. Model predictions of carbonaceous aerosol are compared against Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer and black carbon (BC) high time resolution measurements from three ground sites. PMCAMx predicts BC concentrations reasonably well reproducing the majority (70 %) of the hourly data within a factor of two during both periods. The agreement for the summertime secondary organic aerosol (OA) concentrations is also encouraging (mean bias = 0.1 µg m−3) during a photochemically intense period. The model tends to underpredict the summertime primary OA concentrations in the Paris greater area (by approximately 0.8 µg m−3) mainly due to missing primary OA emissions from cooking activities. The total cooking emissions are estimated to be approximately 80 mg d−1 per capita and have a distinct diurnal profile in which 50 % of the daily cooking OA is emitted during lunch time (12:00–14:00 LT) and 20 % during dinner time (20:00–22:00 LT). Results also show a large underestimation of secondary OA in the Paris greater area during wintertime (mean bias =  −2.3 µg m−3) pointing towards a secondary OA formation process during low photochemical activity periods that is not simulated in the model.


— Multilevel inverters such as flying capacitor, diode-clamped, and cascaded H-bridge inverters are very popular particularly in medium and high power applications. This paper focuses on a cascaded H-bridge module using a single direct current (DC) source in order to generate an 11-level output voltage. The noble approach reduces the number of switches and gate drivers, in comparison with a conventional method. The anticipated topology produces more accurate result with an isolation transformer at high switching frequency. Different modulation techniques can be used for the multilevel inverter, but this work features modulation techniques known as selective harmonic elimination (SHE).This modulation approach reduces the number of carriers with reduction in Switching Losses, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), and thereby increasing Power Quality (PQ). Based on the simulation result obtained, it appears SHE has the ability to eliminate selected harmonics by chopping off the fundamental output component. The performance evaluation of the proposed cascaded multilevel inverter is performed using PSIM simulation package and THD of 0.94% is obtained.


Abstract. The Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a U.S.-based observational facility dedicated to the discovery and characterization of exoplanets around a nearby sample of bright stars. MINERVA employs a robotic array of four 0.7-m telescopes outfitted for both high-resolution spectroscopy and photometry, and is designed for completely autonomous operation. The primary science program is a dedicated radial velocity survey and the secondary science objective is to obtain high-precision transit light curves. The modular design of the facility and the flexibility of our hardware allows for both science programs to be pursued simultaneously, while the robotic control software provides a robust and efficient means to carry out nightly observations. We describe the design of MINERVA, including major hardware components, software, and science goals. The telescopes and photometry cameras are characterized at our test facility on the Caltech campus in Pasadena, California, and their on-sky performance is validated. The design and simulated performance of the spectrograph is briefly discussed as we await its completion. New observations from our test facility demonstrate sub-mmag photometric precision of one of our radial velocity survey targets, and we present new transit observations and fits of WASP-52b—a known hot-Jupiter with an inflated radius and misaligned orbit. The process of relocating the MINERVA hardware to its final destination at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona has begun, and science operations are expected to commence in 2015.


The absence of formal employment opportunities in African cities leaves many men unable to achieve an idealized, modern wage-earning masculinity, such that socially they remain boys. They may contest their denigrated status by investing in practices that supplant this dominant narrative of masculinity. Specifically, images of iconic black men invoke an experience of modernity-as-alterity, shared across the global black diaspora. As men assert their common blackness through visual expression, they fuel lucrative economies. In this transatlantic interplay, the urban periphery transforms supralocal cultural references into material practices that buttress local identities. This article introduces the concept of status economies to examine the politics of representation and to track the dollars and dreams on Africa's urban periphery. The author discusses the practice of gbaka (bus) portrait art as an example of a status economy in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. She explores the nexus between gbaka art, changing work regimes, and masculinity to understand how peripheral men's search for status generates a cultural movement and an associated economy. In English, extended summary in Russian.


Reverse transcription of RNA molecules inside intact bacterial cells was carried out by using reverse transcriptase with a single oligonucleotide complementary to specific 16S rRNA or mRNA sequences. Fluorescently labeled nucleotides were incorporated into each transcribed cDNA inside cells. This protocol is termed in situ reverse transcription (ISRT). In this study, by using species-specific primers targeting unique regions of the 16S rRNA sequences, ISRT was used successfully to detect and enumerate the two lignin-degrading bacteria Microbulbifer hydrolyticus IRE-31 and Sagittula stellata E-37 in culture mixtures and complex enrichment communities selected for lignin degradation. Image analysis revealed that M. hydrolyticus IRE-31 and S. stellata E-37 accounted for approximately 30 and 2%, respectively, of the total bacterial cells in lignin enrichment communities. Populations estimated by ISRT were comparable to those estimated by in situ hybridization (ISH) techniques and to those estimated by hybridization against extracted community DNA. ISRT was also successfully used to detect Pseudomonas putida F1 expressing the todC1 gene in seawater exposed to toluene vapor. ISRT provided a higher signal intensity than ISH, especially when targeting mRNA. The calculated pixel intensities resulting from ISRT were up to 4.2 times greater than those from ISH. This suggests that multiple incorporation of fluorescently labeled nucleotides into cDNA provides a high sensitivity for phylogenetic identification of bacterial populations as well as detection of cells expressing a specific functional gene within complex bacterial communities.


After describing the main features of the Spanish companies belonging to the FinTech, InsurTech, and PropTech sectors, the main objective of this study is to analyze whether their B2B/B2C business models are related to the existence of sustainability plans. Specifically, this paper analyzes whether the existence of a sustainability department is a determining factor for the business model adopted by the Spanish FinTechs, InsurTechs, and PropTechs. By using the multinomial logit regression, other factors such as the current closeness of companies to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the sensitivity to domestic and European FinTech/InsurTech regulations, and the perception of FinTechs about such European regulations are debated before conclusions are drawn for a future research agenda.


ABSTRACT Non-normality and heteroscedasticity are common in applications. For the comparison of two samples in the non-parametric Behrens–Fisher problem, different tests have been proposed, but no single test can be recommended for all situations. Here, we propose combining two tests, the Welch t test based on ranks and the Brunner–Munzel test, within a maximum test. Simulation studies indicate that this maximum test, performed as a permutation test, controls the type I error rate and stabilizes the power. That is, it has good power characteristics for a variety of distributions, and also for unbalanced sample sizes. Compared to the single tests, the maximum test shows acceptable type I error control.


ABSTRACT This paper provides an inventory and summary of current and planned international information clearing house services In the field of population/family planning, worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on services relating to audio-visual aids, educational materials, and information/education/communication support, as these items and activities have the function of enabling concerned individuals, agencies, and country programs to keep informed of key developments in the world population movement. Sixteen selected agencies are reviewed in narrative mid chart form together with an explanation of the eight major categories of services they can provide. These include: (1) storage and retrieval of sample or prototype education and training materials, (2) storage and retrieval of research and consulting reports and other ',fugitive literaturern (3) information services for population/family planning professionals, (4) staff information services, (5) information services for general public, elites, and professionals outside of population/family planning, (6) translation services, (7) storing and cataloging of holdings referring user to original sources, and (8) grants to other agencies for any of these services. Future services, both necessary and desirable, as well as the directions clearing houses should take regarding the scope of information resources are


SIMPLE: System Automatic Essay Assessment for Indonesian Language Subject Examination. Evaluation of study of a student is a very important aspect of an educational process. Evaluation is aimed at measuring the level of student understanding of the given lecture materials. Measuring student understanding of the course material, using essay-type exam, is generally used as the evaluation tool. In this essay-type exam, the student has to answer questions using sentences, whereby choices of possible answers are not indicated. The student has to answer the questions with his/her sentences. The answers may vary, since it reflects the student's best thoughts of the materials. One of the weaknesses of essay-type exam is the difficulty to grade the answers and it tends to be time consuming. Currently, automatic grading systems that may speed up the grading process, are being developed in many research institutions. The method used to grade, varies form one system to another, and one of the popular system is the Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). LSA is a method of grading essay by extracting words and representing the sentence in the form of mathematical or statistical formulation, from a text with a relatively large number of words. The grade of the essay is determined, by matching the important words to a group of words prepared by the human rater. This paper describes an effort to developed LSA, enhanced with word weighting, word order and the word synonym to improve the accuracy of grading. This system is called SIMPLE. SIMPLE is used to grade answers using bahasa Indonesia. The exam is carried out on-line through the Web. From the experiments conducted, for small classes, the conformity of grade compared to the grade of human rater lies between 69.80 % – 94.64 %, and for medium size classes the conformity lies between 77.18 % 98.42 % with the human rater. These results are roughly proportional with the result of LSA system, which grade essay given in English.


Aberrant regulation of myocardial force production represents an early biomechanical defect associated with sarcomeric cardiomyopathies, but the molecular mechanisms remain poorly defined. Here, we evaluated the pathogenicity of a previously unreported sarcomeric gene variant identified in a pediatric patient with sporadic dilated cardiomyopathy, and we determined a molecular mechanism. Trio whole-exome sequencing revealed a de novo missense variant in TNNC1 that encodes a p.I4M substitution in the N-terminal helix of cardiac troponin C (cTnC). Reconstitution of this human cTnC variant into permeabilized porcine cardiac muscle preparations significantly decreases the magnitude and rate of isometric force generation at physiological Ca2+-activation levels. Computational modeling suggests that this inhibitory effect can be explained by a decrease in the rates of cross-bridge attachment and detachment. For the first time, we show that cardiac troponin T (cTnT), in part through its intrinsically disordered C terminus, directly binds to WT cTnC, and we find that this cardiomyopathic variant displays tighter binding to cTnT. Steady-state fluorescence and NMR spectroscopy studies suggest that this variant propagates perturbations in cTnC structural dynamics to distal regions of the molecule. We propose that the intrinsically disordered C terminus of cTnT directly interacts with the regulatory N-domain of cTnC to allosterically modulate Ca2+ activation of force, perhaps by controlling the troponin I switching mechanism of striated muscle contraction. Alterations in cTnC–cTnT binding may compromise contractile performance and trigger pathological remodeling of the myocardium.


We propose a different way to obtain the distribution of the luminosity function of quasars by using the Principle of Maximum Entropy. The input data come from Richard et al 2006 quasar counts, extending up to redshift 5 and limited from apparent magnitude i = 15–19.1 at z ≲ 3 to i = 20.2 for z ≳ 3. Using only few initial data points, the principle allows us to estimate probabilities and hence that luminosity curve. We carry out statistical tests to evaluate our results. The resulting luminosity function compares well to earlier determinations, and our results remain consistent either when the amount or choice of sampled sources is unbiasedly altered. Besides this, we estimate the distribution of the luminosity function for redshifts in which there is only observational data in the vicinity.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is the set of systems that enable sensors and actuators to be connected to the Internet. It is estimated that there are already more IoT devices than humans, and that by 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices. A review of related literature outlines concerns regarding security and privacy of the IoT, demonstrating that IoT devices are creating the opportunity to infringe on security and privacy in numerous ways. One significant challenge is to manage the identity of IoT devices in an effective way. Many IoT systems are built using middleware systems. The main research question of this thesis is whether an improved model for IoT middleware systems — based around federated identity — can provide significant improvements to security and privacy while maintaining reasonable costs in terms of user experience and performance. In a review of related work, a matrix of IoT threats is presented and from this a number of requirements are identified. A structured survey of literature around IoT middleware systems and platforms identifies 20 systems which are evaluated against those requirements. From this, a set of gaps in IoT middleware systems are identified. This work addresses a number of these gaps in a novel approach for linking IoT devices to cloud and web systems. A proposed architecture supports an integrated set of privacy preserving controls based on federated identity and access management patterns. In particular, a model introduces device and user registration processes that are adapted to support constrained IoT devices. Federation and de-coupling of systems are incorporated to allow choice of where data is shared with the result that users can choose to avoid sharing data with systems that may infringe privacy. Users are automatically provisioned with a cloud service that manages their devices and data. Summarisation and filtering of data are incorporated to protect raw data and prevent fingerprinting attacks. A formal model of the approach is presented and properties are proved mathematically, and these properties are used to inform a threat model of the system, which demonstrates benefits of the model in enhancing privacy and security. The model is implemented in a prototype system and experimental results on this system are presented, including energy usage, cost, scalability and performance. The prototype demonstrates that the approach is both feasible and cost-effective. Performance data demonstrates that the impact on users of the approach is minimal and within norms for such systems. Finally, areas of further research are presented.


Samantha J. King Locating Moral Responsibility for War Crimes: the New Justiciability of `System Criminality' and its Implications for the Development of an International Polity This thesis examines the question of international responses to system criminality. It argues that the assignation of moral responsibility, expressed in the act of prosecuting individuals, expresses a fundamental conceptual shift towards an international polity. Although political rhetoric, the media and international legislation express the moral dimension of system criminality, the character of humanitarian law and the contingency of its operation is the most concrete indicator of such a development. The status of an embryonic international polity becomes particularly evidentwith `individual responsibility' being a criminally liable offence, as set against `collective responsibility' which entails `civil', (non-penal) liabilities. However, the principle of individual criminal responsibility, and therefore the expression of a nascent international polity, is by no means as well developed as it may appear because the moral consensus necessary to fully support this shift is still undeveloped. A thoroughly radical re-orientation to a potential international polity had not fully arrived with the Nuremberg Principles and a paucity of individual prosecutions for system crimes indicates the limits of this development. Nevertheless, the contribution to knowledge of this thesis lies in its finding that with the radical developments of criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court there has been a qualitative shift in the structure of international legal


Background In the general population, even mild renal disease is associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) complications. Whether this is true in liver transplant recipients (LTR) is unknown. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of 671 LTR (2002-2012) from a large urban tertiary care center and 37 322 LTR using Vizient hospitalization data linked to the United Network for Organ Sharing. The 4-variable Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equation estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Outcomes were 1-year CV complications (death/hospitalization from myocardial infarction, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, cardiac arrest, pulmonary embolism, or stroke) and mortality. Latent mixture modeling identified trajectories in eGFR in the first liver transplantation (LT) year in the 671 patients. Results Mean (SD) eGFR was 72.1 (45.7) mL/min per 1.73 m2. Six distinct eGFR trajectories were identified in the local cohort (n = 671): qualitatively normal-slow decrease (4% of cohort), normal-rapid decrease (4%), mild-stable (18%), mild-slow decrease (35%), moderate-stable (30%), and severe-stable (9%). In multivariable analyses adjusted for confounders and baseline eGFR, the greatest odds of 1-year CV complications were in the normal-rapid decrease group (odds ratio, 10.6; 95% confidence interval, 3.0-36.9). Among the national cohort, each 5-unit lower eGFR at LT was associated with a 2% and 5% higher hazard of all-cause and CV-mortality, respectively (P < 0.0001), independent of multiple confounders. Conclusions Even mild renal disease at the time of LT is a risk factor for posttransplant all-cause and CV mortality. More rapid declines in eGFR soon after LT correlate with risk of adverse CV outcomes, highlighting the need to study whether early renal preservation interventions also reduce CV complications.


Abstract The so-called Landau–Levich–Deryaguin problem treats the coating flow dynamics of a thin viscous liquid film entrained by a moving solid surface. In this context, we use a simple experimental set-up consisting of a partially immersed rotating disc in a liquid tank to study the role of inertia, and also curvature, on liquid entrainment. Using water and UCON$^{\textrm{TM} }$ mixtures, we point out a rich phenomenology in the presence of strong inertia: ejection of multiple liquid sheets on the emerging side of the disc, sheet fragmentation, ligament formation and atomization of the liquid flux entrained over the disc's rim. We focus our study on a single liquid sheet and the related average liquid flow rate entrained over a thin disc for various depth-to-radius ratio $h/R < 1$. We show that the liquid sheet is created via a ballistic mechanism as liquid is lifted out of the pool by the rotating disc. We then show that the flow rate in the entrained liquid film is controlled by both viscous and surface tension forces as in the classical Landau–Levich–Deryaguin problem, despite the three-dimensional, non-uniform and unsteady nature of the flow, and also despite the large values of the film thickness based flow Reynolds number. When the characteristic Froude and Weber numbers become significant, strong inertial effects influence the entrained liquid flux over the disc at large radius-to-immersion-depth ratio, namely via entrainment by the disc's lateral walls and via a contribution to the flow rate extracted from the three-dimensional liquid sheet itself, respectively.


The aim of the current work is two-fold: First, the aim is to investigate the transition, for a number of metals, from a smooth ablation process to an explosive one. Secondly we aim to study the dependence of the ablation threshold in metals on the applied laser shot number. Ablation of polycrystalline metal samples was performed with multiple pulses from a femtosecond laser (Clark MXR, CPA2001). Morphological investigations of the laser processed areas were recorded using optical and scanning electron microscopies (SEM) and white light interferometry. The investigations have been carried out on sample matrices which were processed for a range of laser fluences and applied laser shots for four metals. Data obtained on ablation rates, ejected particle sizes and crater morphologies prove that ablation changes from a smooth to an explosive process at high fluences, as identified with changes in the material removal mechanisms. Threshold fluences were measured for both the smooth and explosive ablation processes. The ablation threshold fluence depends on the number of pulses applied to the same spot. It was found that the build up of laser induced mechanical stresses, due to the heating and cooling cycles of the samples between consecutive laser shots, plays an important role in the material modification process. It leads to the observed dependence of ablation threshold on shot number, which is described by a power law based on a mechanical fatigue model. The strength of the dependence is governed by the incubation coefficient, S, which has been measured for all materials studied. It is expected that the build up of laser energy or incubation leads to the accumulation of material defects and residual stresses which has the effect of lowering the energy required to cause ablation using a large number of incident laser shots.


The digestibility of AA in dry extruded-expelled soybean meal (DESBM) and regular, solvent-extracted soybean meal (SBM) were determined in pigs and poultry. In the pig assay, 4 Cotswold barrows (average initial BW of 80.4 kg) fitted with a T-cannula at the distal ileum were allotted to 4 semipurified diets in a 4 x 4 Latin square design. Diet 1, a low protein diet (5% casein), was used to quantify endogenous CP and AA losses. Diets 2, 3, and 4 were formulated to contain 35% regular, solvent-extracted SBM; batch 1 of DESBM (DESBM-1); and batch 2 of DESBM (DESBM-2), respectively, as the sole source of protein. The DESBM samples were obtained from 2 different batches but were subjected to the same processing conditions. Chromic oxide (0.3%) was included as a digestibility marker in all diets. Compared with DESBM-1 and DESBM-2, apparent ileal digestibility of DM in SBM was greater (P < 0.05). Apparent and true ileal digestibilities of AA in SBM were greater (P < 0.05) compared with DESBM-2. In the poultry assay, 4 dietary treatments were each assigned to adult cecectomized roosters in a completely randomized design. Treatment 1 was a nonnitrogenous diet (NND; 90% sucrose and 10% vegetable oil) used to estimate endogenous N and AA losses. Treatments 2, 3, and 4 contained SBM, DESBM-1, and DESBM-2 as the only source of protein. Each of these diets was fed in 25-g quantities formulated to provide 5 g of CP from the respective soybean meal source. The SBM had greater (P < or = 0.05) true digestibility for isoleucine, leucine, cysteine, proline, serine, and tyrosine compared with DESBM-1. The results indicate that, relative to regular, solvent-extracted soybean meal, AA digestibilities of different batches of dry extruded-expelled soybean meal varied in pigs and poultry.


The magnetic field in the corona is important for understanding solar activity. Linear polarization measurements in forbidden lines in the visible/IR provide information about coronal magnetic direction and topology. However, these measurements do not provide a constraint on coronal magnetic field strength. The unsaturated, or critical regime of the magnetic Hanle effect is potentially observable in permitted lines for example in the UV, and would provide an important new constraint on the coronal magnetic field. In this paper we present the first side-by-side comparison of forbidden versus permitted linear polarization signatures, examining the transition from the unsaturated to the saturated regime. In addition, we use an analytic 3D flux rope model to demonstrate the Hanle effect for the line-of-sight versus plane-of-sky (POS) components of the magnetic field. As expected, the linear polarization in the unsaturated regime will vary monotonically with increasing magnetic field strength for regions where the magnetic field is along the observer's line of sight. The POS component of the field produces a linear polarization signature that varies with both the field strength and direction in the unsaturated regime. Once the magnetic field is strong enough that the effect is saturated, the resulting linear polarization signal is essentially the same for the forbidden and permitted lines. We consider how such observations might be used together in the future to diagnose the coronal magnetic field.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment is an
important instrument to enhance the clinical decision in the daily practice as
well as to improve the preventive health care promoting the transfer from the
hospital to patient's home. Due to its importance, clinical guidelines recommend
the use of risk scores to predict the risk of a cardiovascular disease event. Therefore,
there are several well known risk assessment tools, unfortunately they present
some limitations.This work addresses this problem with two different methodologies:1)
combination of risk assessment tools based on fusion of Bayesian classifiers
complemented with genetic algorithm optimization;2) personalization of risk assessment
through the creation of groups of patients that maximize the performance of
each risk assessment tool. This last approach is
implemented based on subtractive clustering applied to a reduced-dimension
space.Both methodologies were developed to short-term CVD risk prediction for
patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes without ST segment eleva-tion
(ACS-NSTEMI). Two different real patients' datasets were considered to validate
the developed strategies:1) Santa Cruz Hospital, Portugal, N=460
patients;2)LeiriaPombal Hospital
Centre, Portugal, N=99 patients.This work improved the
performance in relation to current risk assessment tools reaching maximum
values of sensitivity, specificity and geometric mean of, respectively, 80.0%, 82.9%,
81.5%. Besides this enhancement, the proposed methodologies allow the
incorporation of new risk factors, deal with missing risk factors and avoid the
selection of a single tool to be applied in the daily clinical practice. In
spite of these achievements, the CVD risk assessment (patient stratification)
should be improved. The incorporation of new risk factors recognized as
clinically significant, namely parameters derived from heart
rate variability (HRV), is introduced in this work. HRV is a strong and
independent predictor of mortality in patients following acute myocardial
infarction. The impact of HRV parameters in the characterization of coronary
artery disease (CAD) patients will be conducted during hospitalization of these
patients in the Leiria-Pombal Hospital Centre (LPHC).


All the species of the family Meschiidae, known until now only from India and Australia, are reviewed. A new species, Meschia zoui sp. nov. from southern China, is described as the first representative of this family from China, also its cuticular structures are studied using the scanning electron microscope. A key to all species of Meschiidae is provided, along with a re-description of Meschia quadrimaculata Distant.


Abstract The computational efficiencies of two nodal integral methods for the numerical solution of linear convection-diffusion equations are studied. Although the first, which leads to a second-order spatial truncation error, has been reported earlier, it is reviewed in order to lead logically to the development here of the second, which has a third-order error. This third-order nodal integral method is developed by introducing an upwind approximation for the linear terms in the "pseudo-sources" that appear in the transverse-averaged equations introduced in the formulation of nodal integral methods. This upwind approximation obviates the need to develop and solve additional equations for the transverse-averaged first moments of the unknown, as would have to be done in a more straightforwardly developed higher-order nodal integral method. The computational efficiencies of the second-order nodal method and the third-order nodal method—of which there are two versions: one, a full third-order method and the other, which uses simpler second-order equations near the boundaries—are compared with those of both a very traditional method and a recently developed state-of-the-art method. Based on the comparisons reported here for a challenging recirculating flow benchmark problem it appears that, among the five methods studied, the second-order nodal integral method has the highest computational efficiency (the lowest CPU computing times for the same accuracy requirements) in the practical 1% error regime.


BACKGROUND
Although long treatment courses of outpatient antimicrobials are often used in pediatric patients, few data exist regarding the frequency of adverse events (AEs) associated with these medications.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective cohort study of all patients seen in the Infectious Diseases clinic at a tertiary referral children's hospital from August 1, 2009 to August 1, 2011. We included patients who received ≥14 days of oral or intravenous antibiotic, antiviral, or antifungal medications. Patients receiving only prophylactic medications or human immunodeficiency virus treatment were excluded.

RESULTS
Three hundred thirty-five subjects met inclusion criteria, with a median age of 7.4 years at start of therapy. The cohort was predominantly male (60%), white (54%), and previously healthy (59%). A majority (88.4%) of subjects were treated for bacterial infections. β-Lactam agents were the most commonly used antimicrobial class (210 subjects; 62.7%), followed by clindamycin (86; 25.7%), rifampin (76; 22.7%), and vancomycin (62; 18.5%). Overall, 107 (31.9%) subjects experienced 151 distinct AEs. The most common individual AE noted was diarrhea (44; 29.1% of all AEs). Serious AEs developed in 42 (12.5%) subjects, including allergic reactions (15; 11.3% of all AEs), venous catheter-related complications (14; 13.0% of those with catheters), neutropenia (9; 3.0%), renal insufficiency (7; 2.5%), and hepatotoxicity (3; 1.1%). Rates of AEs were similar between those on oral and intravenous antimicrobials.

CONCLUSIONS
In our study population, patients on prolonged oral or intravenous outpatient antimicrobials experienced AEs frequently. These findings support the need for close monitoring of pediatric patients on prolonged antimicrobial therapy and vigilance for unwanted effects of these medications.


We evaluate the Mexican training program for the unemployed PROBECAT/SICAT using methods that control for observable and non-observable factors. Comparing the different results over time allows us to gauge the size and evolution of hidden bias. We also compute the average treatment effect and the treatment effect on the treated. Our approach reveals the evolution of the program's selection mechanism and judges the consequences of its expansions and contractions. We find that the program has a small though significant effect on employability, but no effect on wages. The hidden bias is large but declines over time and the selection mechanism turns from negative to neutral. These two aspects seem to be related to an important structural change in the design of the program that took place during the period under evaluation. All these results lead us to conclude that a parametric method controlling for un-observables provides the most complete tool for evaluating this program.


Background Ballet loads the hip joint in extreme ranges of movement (ROM). Abnormal bony morphology and joint laxity may enable this movement, but predispose dancers to hip injury. Objective To compare hip injury and bony morphology between ballet dancers and non-dancing athletes, and to investigate relationships between these factors and clinical features. Design Blinded, case-control study. Participants 49 professional ballet dancers and 49 age- and sex-matched non-dancing athletes. Setting Professional ballet company and sporting clubs. Assessment of Risk Factors Lateral centre edge angles, anterior and superior alpha angles, femoral neck-shaft angles and acetabular version angles measured with 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (3-T MRI), ROM and hypermobility testing. Main Outcome Measurements Cartilage, labral, ligamentum teres (LT) lesions and effusion scored on MRI, and HAGOS (Copenhagen Hip and Groin Outcome Score). Results Cartilage defect and labral tear prevalence was similar in dancers and athletes (p>0.05); LT tears were more prevalent in dancers compared to athletes (p=0.001). Dancers had higher neck-shaft angles (p=0.002); lower acetabular version angles (p=0.003); lower superior alpha angles (p<0.001); similar anterior alpha angles (p=0.2); and similar lateral acetabular coverage (p=0.07), compared to athletes. There was no significant association between the morphological parameters and cartilage, labral, LT injury or effusion (p>0.01 for all). All 6 dancers with cam morphology (α angle >50°) measured anteriorly had cartilage defects, and 5 had labral tears; a trend not observed in athletes. Joint effusions were larger in dancers compared to athletes (p=0.009), and the only factor related to lower HAGOS pain and sports/recreation scores in female dancers (p=0.001 for both). Conclusions Professional ballet dancers had a high incidence of LT tear, and hip bony morphology that may allow extreme motion. Dancers with cam morphology had cartilage defects, but joint effusion was the only correlate with symptoms. Longitudinal studies are required to determine the clinical sequelae.


Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), was established in 1988. It was given the status of a company under the Companies Act, and had for its objectives the commercialization of local Research and Development output and the development of indigenous technology. Other technopoles are the Johor Technology Park, the Technovation Park and the Kulim High Technology Park. All of these are property based developments that seek to attract high-technology firms by providing advanced infrastructure, a pool of technology specialists, Rand D facilities, business management expertise and venture capital within the confines of a single compound. Technology parks in Malaysia promote interaction between academia and industry, encourage the development of knowledge-based industries and stimulate job creation. As companies, these parks are also supposed to earn profits, providing a return on investment for their sponsors. They focus on programmes designed to stimulate innovation and sustain the development of novel products based on Rand
D conducted in local institutions and the commercialization of those products. Technology Park Malaysia also has to provide their tenant with good services to ensure it can be a leader in incubator operator in Malaysia. This is crucial to the company to achieve the customer satisfaction and maintain the customer loyalty.

TPM, which currently comprises 12 buildings, is located on 3.25 square kilometers of land in the MSC zone. It provides ultra-modern infrastructure and services to facilitate private sector Rand D as well as innovation, particularly in knowledge-based industries. This includes a LAN infrastructure, a dedicated Internet connection and tele-conferencing facilities. Facilities such as a business centre, an auditorium, conference and meeting rooms, an exhibition area, a multimedia centre and a "smart" learning centre are also available for tenants' use. TPM participates in the commercialization of research results and facilitates technology development partnerships between government and private sector firms. It also provides counseling and support in marketing and management for start-ups. TPM's tenants, of which there are currently more than 140, focus on the following technological fields:

(a) Information technology;
(b) Advanced materials;
(c) Biotechnology and biomedical and pharmaceutical technologies;
(d) Aerospace, defence and remote sensing;
(e) Environmental and pollution control technologies;
(f) Technologies for the agro-food industry;
(g) Manufacturing and robotics technologies;

This research done to find out at what actually TPM's tenants feel about services and facilities providing for them.


Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) has emerged as a key signaling receptor that induces proinflammatory cytokines, and small molecule STING agonists are being developed as anticancer and antiviral agents. Here we report a strategy of delivering a STING agonist from within live BCG. We generated a recombinant BCG (BCG-disA-OE) that overexpresses the endogenous mycobacterial diadenylate cyclase gene and releases high levels of the STING agonist c-di-AMP. In macrophages BCG-disA-OE elicited statistically significantly stronger TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, IRF3, and IFN-β levels than BCG-WT. In a 24-week guinea pig vaccination-Mtb challenge model, BCG-disA-OE reduced lung weights, pathology scores, and Mtb CFU counts in lungs by 28% (p<0.05), 34%, and 2.0 log10 CFU units (p < 0.5) compared with BCG-WT, respectively. Overproduction of the STING agonist c-di-AMP significantly enhanced the protective efficacy of BCG against pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Our findings support the development of BCG-vectored STING agonists as a TB vaccine strategy.


Solitary gingival enlargements are the commonly occurring soft-tissue tumors of the oral cavity. These lesions occur in response to local irritation or may occur as exaggerated tissue response to underlying systemic conditions. Commonly occurring solitary gingival enlargements include the pyogenic granuloma, peripheral giant cell granuloma, fibroma, peripheral ossifying fibroma, exophytic squamous cell carcinoma, abscesses, hemangioma, Kaposi's sarcoma etc., When present, they result in the diagnostic dilemma when the diagnosis is entirely based on clinical findings, in such conditions proper history and histopathological examination may aid in proper diagnosis and case management. This article is intended to address the importance of histopathological examination of various solitary enlargements that resemble clinically alike though they are different histpathologically. Biopsy results in turn will dictate the further treatment depending on the recurrence rate and the nature of the lesion. This article also focuses on few case reports of solitary gingival enlargements.


Neural networks were used to generalize common themes found in transmembrane-spanning protein helices. Various-sized databases were used containing nonoverlapping sequences, each 25 amino acids long. Training consisted of sorting these sequences into 1 of 2 groups: transmembrane helical peptides or nontransmembrane peptides. Learning was measured using a test set 10% the size of the training set. As training set size increased from 214 sequences to 1,751 sequences, learning increased in a nonlinear manner from 75% to a high of 98%, then declined to a low of 87%. The final training database consisted of roughly equal numbers of transmembrane (928) and nontransmembrane (1,018) sequences. All transmembrane sequences were entered into the database with respect to their lipid membrane orientation: from inside the membrane to outside. Generalized transmembrane helix and nontransmembrane peptides were constructed from the maximally weighted connecting strengths of fully trained networks. Four generalized transmembrane helices were found to contain 9 consensus residues: a K-R-F triplet was found at the inside lipid interface, 2 isoleucine and 2 other phenylalanine residues were present in the helical body, and 2 tryptophan residues were found near the outside lipid interface. As a test of the training method, bacteriorhodopsin was examined to determine the position of its 7 transmembrane helices.


Abstract Objective To investigate the reliability and the validity of the long format, Chinese version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-LC). Design Cross-sectional study, examining the reliability and validity of the IPAQ-LC compared with a physical activity log (PA-log) and objective accelerometry. Setting Self-reported physical activity (PA) in Hong Kong adults. Subjects A total of eighty-three Chinese adults (forty-seven males, thirty-six females) were asked to wear an ActiTrainer accelerometer (MTI-ActiGraph, Fort Walton Beach, FL, USA) for >10 h over 7 d, to complete a PA-log at the end of each day and to complete the IPAQ-LC on day 8. On a sub-sample of twenty-eight adults the IPAQ-LC was also administered on day 11 to assess its reliability. Results The IPAQ-LC had good test–retest reliability for grouped activities, with intra-class correlation coefficients ranging from 0·74 to 0·97 for vigorous, moderate, walking and total PA, with between-test effect sizes that were small (<0·49). The Spearman correlation coefficients were statistically significant for vigorous PA (r = 0·28), moderate + walking PA (r = 0·27), as well as overall PA (r = 0·35), when compared with the accelerometry-based criterion measures, but none of the IPAQ activity categories correlated significantly with the PA-log. In absolute units, only the IPAQ light and overall PA did not differ significantly from the accelerometry measures, yet overall PA was able to faithfully discriminate between quartiles of PA (P = 0·019) when compared to accelerometry. Conclusions The IPAQ-LC demonstrated adequate reliability and showed sufficient evidence of validity in assessing overall levels of habitual PA to be used on Hong Kong adults.


Few diagnosticians have the clinical acumen of M. Michael Cohen, Jr, DMD, PhD, who has made many seminal contributions to syndromology and dysmorphology. In this volume, he gives the reader a unique approach to the understanding and diagnosis of the child with multiple congenital anomalies. The first 3 chapters consist of definitions and vocabulary for syndromes, associations, sequences, malformations, deformations, disruptions, and minor anomalies. This is followed by information about facial dysmorphology and a guide to physical measurements. A chapter on genetics covers the state of the art on cytogenetics, contiguous gene syndromes, gene mapping, genetic heterogeneity, mosaicism, uniparental disomy, imprinting, and mitochondrial inheritance. Other chapters include teratogens, syndrome classification and delineation, heterogeneity, syndrome diagnosis, and dysmorphic growth and development. In the last 2 chapters, mental deficiency is briefly summarized by categories and psychosocial considerations; these chapters include a table with references for the behavioral characteristics of some dysmorphic syndromes.


The reactive behavior of GABA and its agonist molecules have been investigated using B3LYP hybrid density functional method at the 6-311++G** basis set level, in the gas phase and dielectric media. The calculations have been performed to obtain optimized geometries, relative energies, net atomic charges, HOMO, and LUMO energies. Solvent effects have been analyzed using isodensity polarized continuum model (IPCM) for four different solvents, which are chloroform, ethanol, DMSO, and H2O. The results have suggested that both the amino group and carboxyl group have been two of the most important active site for interactions between all compounds and their receptors. In addition they have suggested that the amino group reflects the difference in biological activity for each all molecules. The structures of these agonists have provided an essential foundation for subsequent structure-activity analysis of ligand binding at GABA receptors, neuronal uptake inhibitors and transporters. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011


The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) Georgia office, in cooperation with local, State, and other Federal agencies, maintains a long-term hydrologic monitoring network of more than 340 real-time continuous-record streamflow-gaging stations (streamgages), including 10 real-time lake-level monitoring stations, 67 real-time surface-water-quality monitors, and several water-quality sampling programs. Additionally, the SAWSC Georgia office operates more than 180 groundwater monitoring wells, 39 of which are real-time. The wide-ranging coverage of streamflow, reservoir, and groundwater monitoring sites allows for a comprehensive view of hydrologic conditions across the State. One of the many benefits of this monitoring network is that the analyses of the data provide a spatially distributed overview of the hydrologic conditions of creeks, rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers in Georgia. Streamflow and groundwater data are verified throughout the year by USGS hydro graphers. Hydrologic conditions are determined by comparing the results of statistical analyses of the data collected during the current water year1 (WY) to historical data collected over the period of record. Changing hydrologic conditions emphasize the need for accurate, timely data to help Federal, State, and local officials make informed decisions regarding the management and conservation of Georgia's water resources for agricultural, recreational, ecological, and water-supply needs and for use in protecting life and property. Drought conditions, persistent in the area since 2010, continued into the 2013 WY. In February 2013, Georgia was free of extreme (D3) drought conditions, as defined by the U.S. Drought Monitor, for the first time since August 2010 due to extended periods of heavy rainfall (U.S. Drought Monitor, 2013). According to the Office of the State Climatologist, the city of Savannah recorded 9.75 inches of rain in February 2013, the highest monthly total in February out of 143 years of record. Macon and Columbus also received record rainfalls in February 2013. Abovenormal precipitation continued in June 2013, and the cities of Augusta and Savannah recorded the wettest June on record. In July, precipitation for the entire State of Georgia was 3.53 inches above normal (Dunkley, 2013). Above-normal rainfall from February to September 2013 increased streamflow and raised groundwater levels, and lakes and reservoirs were raised to full-pool elevations. Water Resources Internet Tools


To investigate the role of carcinogenic chemicals as a possible cause for oxidative damage, rats were treated with N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and various measures of lipid peroxidation were followed. As an indication of enhanced peroxidative processes in vivo, NMDA treatment produced rapidly an increase in the rate of ethane exhalation. A single i.p. or p.0. injection of 10mg/kg b.w. elevated ethane exhalation by 13-14 fold; a single dose of 0.5 mg/kg of NDMA (the smallest dose tested) increased 5-fold the amount of ethane exhaled. Similarly. lipid peroxidation in the liver of NDMA-treated rats (measured by dime conjugation. chemiluminescence, the production of fluorescent and TBA-reactive material) was round to be increased rapidly showing a peak already 20 min after dosing. Simultaneously, NDMA-treatment slightly decreased antioxidant enzyme activities and GSH contents in the liver. In isolated rat hepatocytes the lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence, as well as H202 release, were increased by micromolar concentrations of NDMA. Finally, it was shown that the rate of NADPH-stimulated ethane production by hepatic microsonies, prepared from untreated rats. was increased in the presence of NDMA. Thus, our results demonstrate that the alkylating NDMA can induce oxidative stress in rodents. Whether the same is true for other classes of carcinogens and processes known to affect tumor initiation/progression is presently under investigation.


ABSTRACT Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA-3C) is essential for EBV-mediated immortalization of human B lymphocytes and regulates both the cell cycle and transcription. Transient reporter gene assays have implicated a pivotal role for EBNA-3C in the regulation of transcription of the majority of latency-associated genes expressed during the EBV growth program, including the viral oncoprotein LMP-1. To examine the regulation of latency gene expression by EBNA-3C, we generated an EBV-positive cell line that inducibly expresses EBNA-3C. This cell line allowed us to examine expression from the endogenous latency gene promoters in the context of an actual latent infection and the presence of other EBNA proteins, in particular EBNA-2, which is presumed to coregulate transcription with EBNA-3C. EBNA-3C induced the expression of both LMP-1 and LMP-2B mRNAs from the bidirectional LMP-1/LMP-2B promoter. In contrast, no effect was seen on expression from the common EBNA promoter Cp, which is responsive to EBNA-3C in reporter assays. Activation of LMP expression was not the consequence of increases in EBNA-2, PU.1 or Spi-B transcription factors, all of which are believed to be critical for activation of LMP-1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays furthermore indicated that EBNA-3C is present at the bidirectional LMP-1/LMP-2B promoter. These results indicate that EBNA-3C directly activates the expression of LMP-1 and LMP-2B but is unlikely to significantly regulate EBNA expression via Cp under normal growth conditions.


As part of their preparation, athletes are often required to complete cognitive skills training using targeted sports-specific software applications. When cognitive load is very high, the quality of performance can be negatively affected and learning can be inhibited. The aim of this study is to verify whether cognitive load can be inferred directly from speech signal changes collected using one such training application. We expect that the quality of the communicative signals during interaction will change as cognitive load increases. Twelve recreational basketball players completed training requiring them to recall aloud the positions of increasing numbers of team players, and draw symbols to represent those players onto a court schematic on a digital surface. This paper focuses on the analysis of the speech data only, testing whether the speech signal changes due to high cognitive load. We describe the techniques used to build the speech load models and present the classification results. Using only automated speech signal analysis, we can identify participants experiencing low or high load with an accuracy of 92.3%. We envisage it is possible to discern broad level cognitive load ranges through speech signal changes and may provide the opportunity to tailor the training application in more appropriate ways for each learner in real time.


Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that can be obtained from foods and fluids originating from soils containing fluoride, as well as by drinking water that has been fluoridated. While consuming adequate fluoride intake can deliver benefits for dental and bone health, there have been concerns that excessive fluoride intake could lead to dental fluorosis, or even cause harm to bones. This article considers the balance of evidence in this area, and discusses the benefits and potential risks of fluoride in the UK diet. The role of tea as a major contributor to normal fluoride intake is highlighted, alongside some positive implications of this. Information is also provided to help nurses and midwives communicate the latest advice and guidance on fluoride to their patients.


When it comes to Venn Diagrams most people use a combination of Microsoft PowerPoint to generate two or three way Venn diagrams, and use filtering in Excel to count the numbers in each group. Not many people know about the four way Venn diagram and when it comes to counting the numbers in each of the 16 groups and inputting the figures into the right group it is usually done nervously and is very time consuming. There are some websites that enable you to create 2, 3, and 4 way Venn Diagrams quite easily, however they only work with qualitative data, assume that all the elements are within the union of the groups, and do not offer you the ability to drill down in to each of the 16 groups to see the elements that are making up the groups. This paper shows how you can combine SAS Macro, logical data steps, DSGI, and HTML to generate 2, 3 and 4 Way Venn Diagrams with Drill Down Functionality very quickly. This algorithm is very useful when looking at results of transcriptomic experiments because of the huge volume of data.


Carbophilic Additions of Organocuprates and 1,3-Thiazole-5(4H)-thiones

Organocuprates and 1,3-thiazole-5(4H)-thiones 1 react in THF at 0° via carbophilic addition onto the CS bond to give 4,5-dihydro-1,3-thiazole-5-thiols 3 (Scheme 3). This observation is in marked contrast to the previously described reaction of organolithium compounds and 1, which undergo a thiophilic addition onto the exocyclic S-atom. As an exception, treatment of the 1,3-thiazole-5(4H)-thione 1a with tert-butyl cuprate leads to 7a (Scheme 3).


ABSTRACT The value of simulations in the classroom is well established, and there are numerous publications that feature specific role-play exercises that can readily be introduced into the classroom. Frequently, however, instructors would like to design their own simulations to fit their specific learning objectives for a class, but don't know where to start. This article lays out a series of structural and design questions for instructors to consider in order to craft their own simulations. We recognize that there is no singularly "best" way to design simulations, so this article focuses on the key components of simulations and explores different possibilities for each of these components depending on the desired goals of the instructor. We begin with the basics of class size, topic selection, learning objectives, length, and timing. Next, we discuss the design parameters—including the nature of student interaction, desired output, background information, role-specific instructions, and a timeline for the phases of the simulation. We move on to considerations about the actual running of the simulation, and wrap up with reflections on debriefing, grading, and assessment. By stepping through the design questions that are summarized in the Appendix, any instructor, experienced or new to role-playing, can develop a custom simulation to help meet the learning objectives for their courses.


The principal aim under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been to establish a legally-binding regime regulating emission of greenhouse gas. The hopes were tempered at Copenhagen which charted no clear path towards a treaty with binding commitments. The result, instead, was the Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding agreement that captured political consensus on a number of core issues absent its formal adoption by the Conference of the Parties. Thus, the achievement of an agreement in the climate summit at Cancun seemed a herculean task. However, after two weeks of hectic UN-led parleys, the nations of the world arguably reached a forward-looking deal that leaves open an extension of the Kyoto Protocol as well as the crucial question of the level of emission limitation and reduction commitments. Cancun outcome can be perceived in twin contexts; (a) As a continuation of series of efforts since the establishment of UNFCCC to have a legally binding regime; and (b) as a resurgent hope to get on board after a failed effort at Copenhagen. The dynamics of climate change presents varied dilemmas of justice. The paper, in particular, delves upon the issue of distributive justice in reference to Cancun agreements, to intuit the viability of a new era that would lead to a climate responsible pathway.


A novel interconnection network architecture is proposed for integrating tightly coupled distributed systems. It allows the implementation of service address routing (SAR): network communications between components are based on the "name" of requested services. It is a client server communications model, and includes the traditional physical addressing schemes. This enhanced network architecture registers the capabilities of the components attached to its ports and directs service requests to appropriate server nodes. The network can perform resource allocation by placing services in nodes that can support them. Load distribution can be achieved by binding requests to adequate servers with enough free resources. Furthermore, SAR effects a simple, yet efficient and transparent resource discovery mechanism by means of a distributed content addressable search at each network port. When migration of services is allowed SAR permits the network to realize more resource management functions, such as load balancing, normally ascribed to higher level SSI distributed operating systems.


IntroductionEarly initiation of sex increases the risks of unprotected sex, multiple partners, and sexually transmitted infections. The effective factors of premarital sexual intercourse have not been widely studied.ObjectiveThis study aimed at identifying environmental factors influencing premarital sexual intercourse from the Iranian youths' perspective.Materials and MethodsUsing a qualitative content analysis method, we carried out on students of the Payame Noor University of Shiraz, Iran. A total of 30 single male and female students were selected using a purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The obtained data were analyzed via thematic analysis. Participation in the study was voluntary with informed consent.ResultsSeven teen subjects were male, and 13 were female. Analysis of the transcripts yielded 5 main categories: Culture, Cocio-economic status, Family, Media, and Friends, and Peers. The sub-categories were acculturation, cultural norms, economic problems, heavy dowry, availability of unhealthy options, family support, family values and norms, control and supervision, parent-child relationship, satellite, Internet, friends,and peer pressure, and lack of resistance to peer and friends' influence.ConclusionThe educational programs and interventions should emphasize the role of cultural factors and family support and monitoring by families to help correct sexual orientation and healthy behaviors among adolescents. Furthermore, training programs should consider the negative impacts of western media and the effects of peer pressure on the formation and correction of premarital sexual behavior.


Prevention of immune rejection without immunosuppression is the ultimate goal of transplant immunobiology. One way to achieve this in cellular transplantation, such as with islet transplantation, is to create a favorable local environment at the transplant site. In the present study, we found that streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic C57BL/6 mice remained normoglycemic for more than one year after transplantation of BALB/c islets without immunosuppression when the inguinal subcutaneous white adipose tissue (ISWAT) was the site of transplantation and when the site was pretreated with basic fibroblast growth factor. Mechanistically, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) expanded in the ISWAT after the treatment was found to produce TGFβ and prevention of islet allograft rejection could be achieved by co-transplantation with syngeneic MSCs isolated from the ISWAT after the treatment, which was abolished by anti-TGFβ antibody treatment. Importantly, TGFβ-producing cells remained present at the site of co-transplantation for up to the end of observation period at 240 days after transplantation. These findings indicate that prevention of islet allograft rejection without immunosuppression is feasible with the use of syngeneic TGFβ-producing MSCs expanded in the ISWAT after the treatment with bFGF, providing a novel strategy for prevention of islet allograft rejection without immunosuppression.


We introduce the Tensor Tree representation for bidirectional scattering distribution functions (BSDFs), a variableresolution data structure designed to minimize storage and computation. We offer a method for reducing fullresolution BSDF data into this format, and relate techniques for the efficient generation of uniformly weighted Monte Carlo samples. The Tensor Tree BSDF representation has been tested and incorporated into the 4.1 release of LBNL's Radiance lighting simulation and rendering system, with additional methods for modeling the appearance of complex fenestration systems. Finally, an independent software library is described for third-party developers who wish to support BSDF data outside of Radiance, and recommendations are made for future development directions.


Nowadays, one of the most important objectives in the study of digital processing
of audio signals is to nd an algorithm that allows encoding and decoding the signal by obtaining the highest quality so it can be sent through the channel with the lower bit rate. When the level of technology in the design of integrated circuits is insu cient and cannot use all quantization bits required in an algorithm to obtain an optimum quality that the human heard will not notice the difference between the original signal and the coded signal, it is imperative to develop and design new algorithms that can produce the same results using fewer quantization bits without increasing processing complexity.
The rst objective of this paper is to develop a software that allows the analysis
of the theoretical and perceptual quality and the bit rate of the information of an audio signals using an algorithm designed according to the doctrines of binaural cue coding which can be considered a generalization of the parametric stereo idea, delivering multi-channel audio output from a single channel plus some side information.
The second objective is to perform such tests in order to study the quality of the audio signal once coded and the bit rate of the side information and determine
the parameters which affect the variation in results. Thus, it has used samples of different audio tracks like vocals, instruments, synthetic sounds or sounds of nature among others, and their parameters have been varied such as the source localization, the number of quantization bits, the reverberation or the model of the pinna ear.
This project seeks to determine whether the quality and bit rate of different
types of sounds behave in different ways under the same and different conditions,
and characterize the binaural cue coding algorithm with values as the minimum
number of quantization bits to be used for optimum quality for the human heard and the resulting low bit rate to be achieved.


Introduction: With the advent of complex treatment techniques like volumetric modulated arc therapy, there has been increasing interest in treatment planning technologies aimed at reducing planning time. One of these such technologies is auto-planning, which is an automated planning module within Pinnacle3. This study seeks to retrospectively evaluate the dosimetric quality of auto-planning-derived treatment plans as they compare to manual plans for intact prostate, prostate and lymph nodes, and brain treatment sites. Materials and Methods: Previous clinical plans were used to generate site-specific auto-planning templates. These templates were used to compare the 3 evaluated treatment sites. Plans were replanned using auto-planning and compared to the clinically delivered plans. For the planning target volume, the following metrics were evaluated: homogeneity index, conformity index, D2cc, Dmean, D2%, D98%, and multiple dose fall-off parameters. For the organs at risk, D2cc, Dmean, and organ-specific clinical metrics were evaluated. Statistical differences were evaluated using a Wilcoxon paired signed-rank test with a significance level of 0.05. Statistically significant (P < 0.05) differences were noted in organs at risk sparing. Results: For the prostate, there was as much as 6.8% reduction in bladder Dmean and 23.5% reduction in penile bulb Dmean. For the prostate + lymph nodes, decreases in Dmean values ranging from 4.1% in the small bowel to 22.3% in the right femoral head were observed. For brain, significant improvements were observed in Dmax and Dmean to most organs at risk. Conclusion: Our study showed improved organs at risk sparing in most organs while maintaining planning target volume coverage. Overall, auto-planning can generate plans that delivered the same target coverage as the clinical plans but offered significant reductions in mean dose to organs at risk.


The number of colonies of Bact. lactis aerogenes appearing on solid media containing proflavine (2:8-diaminoacridine) under different conditions has been determined. The statistical variation is greater with samples taken from different cultures than with the same number taken from a given culture. This might appear to correspond to the Luria-Delbrück criterion that the resistant colonies are formed from spontaneously appearing mutants in the cultures under test. It is pointed out, however, that this greater variation may in the present example depend equally well upon other factors than mutations, since separate cultures cannot be so closely controlled as any single culture in respect of age, pH and degree of aeration. The effects of these factors are studied, and it is shown that varying efficiency of aeration has a specially marked influence on the number of resistant survivors. It is shown, moreover, that there is a competition between the development of resistance and death of the population, and that the times at which the last surviving cell in a proflavine culture can be detected itself shows a very great variation. Thus the variation in the colony number can be a function of survival rather than of mutation. The form of the curve showing the initial decline of population followed by growth of resistant survivors is difficult to reconcile quantitatively with a simple form of the mutation hypothesis.


Abstrach Object-oriented programs are difficult to optimize because they execute many dynamically-dispatched calls. These calls cannot easily be eliminated because the compiler does not know which callee will be invoked at runtime. We have developed a simple technique that feeds back type information from the runtime system to the compiler. With this type feedback, the compiler can inline any dynamically-dispatched call. Our compiler drastically reduces the calI frequency of a suite of large SELF applications (by a factor of 3.6) and improves performance by a factor of 1.7. We believe that type feedback could significantly reduce call frequencies and improve performance for most other objectoriented languages (statically-typed or not) as well as for languages with type-dependent operations such as generic arithmetic.


In this article, the author focuses on the theme of family legacies. The research is based on a qualitative study of family caregiving practices in a cohort of teenage mothers and their families. Families were first interviewed in 1988-1989 and reinterviewed in 1993, 1997, and 2001. The author explored continuities and turning points in caregiving practices over the 12-year period. Eleven families participated at Time 4, including 9 mothers, 3 of their partners, 6 first-born children, and 9 grandparents of the children (N = 27). At each time period, family caregiving legacies emerged as a salient theme as the mothers and partners described their concerns, accomplishments, and the resources for or impediments to becoming the parents they wanted to be. Four cases are presented to highlight how family legacies were refined, rejected, or modified over time. The author also describes implications of the findings for clinical practice and future research.


Galectin-3 is a beta-galactoside binding protein expressed by activated macrophages, epithelial cells, and certain other cell types. Galectin-3 has a C-terminal carbohydrate binding domain, an N-terminal part consisting of a proline- and glycine-rich repetitive domain, and a small N-terminal domain. Two independent LPS binding sites on galectin-3 were demonstrated by binding of biotinylated LPS to immobilized recombinant galectin-3. One appears to be the carbohydrate binding site in the C-terminal domain that confers binding of LPS from Klebsiella pneumoniae that has a beta-galactoside-containing polysaccharide chain. This binding is best demonstrated using galectin-3 immunocaptured by a mAb to the N-terminal part (M3/38) and is inhibited by lactose. In contrast, Salmonella minnesota R7 LPS (Rd mutant), which is devoid of beta-galactosides, appears to bind to a site within the N-terminal part of galectin-3. This interaction is best demonstrated using galectin-3 directly immobilized in wells, and it is inhibited by the Ab M3/38, but not by lactose. Binding inhibition by polymyxin B and the profile of inhibition by a panel of LPSs with different amounts of the inner and outer cores present indicate that this second binding site recognizes the lipid A/inner core region of LPSs.


The field of speciation has seen much renewed interest in the past few years, with theoretical and empirical advances that have moved it from a descriptive field to a predictive and testable one. The goal of this review is to provide a general background on research on speciation as it pertains to fishes. Three major components to the question are first discussed: the spatial, ecological and sexual factors that influence speciation mechanisms. We then move to the latest developments in the field of speciation genomics. Affordable and rapidly available, massively parallel sequencing data allow speciation studies to converge into a single comprehensive line of investigation, where the focus has shifted to the search for speciation genes and genomic islands of speciation. We argue that fish present a very diverse array of scenarios, making them an ideal model to study speciation processes.


This dissertation describes, compares and analyzes policies of the United Nations Secretariat and the European Commission concerning staff appointment, placement and separation. It finds that recent reforms did not affect the existence of the concept of international civil service in these institutions, but that the emphasis has moved more towards ensuring a less costly and more flexible work force. While continuing to provide for a number of important legal safeguards for the independence and impartiality of staff, even improving the previous state of affairs in a number of areas, the study argues that the situation is not yet ideal. It recommends, for example, that the UN Secretariat revises its legal framework for ensuring adequate geographical representation and introduces better promotion and mobility frameworks. For the European Commission, the study calls for more transparency on de facto national quotas and for simplification of the legal framework concerning various types of appointment. The study also argues that proper procedures are needed for appointment of all, not merely some of, UN and EU staff.


Soon after the appearance of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America, a number of public health authorities designated the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) a sentinel for WNV detection. Although preliminary studies have suggested a positive association between American crow mortality and increased risk of WNV infection in humans, we still know little about dynamic variation in American crow mortality, both baseline levels and mortality associated with WNV. We hypothesized that the complex social behavior of American crows, which is shaped by age and seasonal factors, influences both baseline mortality and WNV mortality in American crow populations. We examined American crow mortality data from Quebec for the 2005 WNV surveillance year, which lasted from 5 June to 17 September 2005. The variables of interest were age, gender, body condition index, time of year, and land cover. We used a log-linear model to examine baseline mortality. Logistic regression and general linear regression models were constructed to examine variables associated with mortality due to WNV. We found that both age and time of year were key variables in explaining baselinemortality.These2variableswerealsoriskfactors for WNV mortality. The probability that a carcass tested positive for WNV increased with the age of the dead bird and as summer progressed. WNV-positive carcasses also had a lower body condition index than WNV-negative carcasses. We believe that the first major wave of American crow mortality observed in the early summer of 2005 was the result of natural mortality among young American crows. Because this mortality was not linked to WNV, it appears that American crow may not be a good species forearly detection of WNV activity. Our dataalso suggest that second-year American crows play a major role in propagating WNV during their movements to urban land covers during midsummer.


The "Valdilocchi Battery" in La Spezia, digital survey and documentation of an architecture on the edge of an epochAll the fortifications have their time. They respond to specific way of defending and attacking they change in time accordingly to the terrible habits of the weaponry and technology evolution. For a long time, from the age of the great fortifications, to the use of cannons, to the invention of the aerial war, the military built heritage have seen a long transformation made of sudden architectural changes, until the moment when the possibility of bombing and attacking from the sky signed the sunset of the large over ground buildings in favour of mimetic and underground structures. The "Valdilocchi Battery" belong to the last age of the large fortress, capable to resist to ground attack while showing the aspect of an inexpugnable stronghold. Sited on the top of a hill in the eastern part of the La Spezia gulf, this battery had the function of second line defense to control the neighboring valleys. The particular pentagonal plant and the state of excellent preservation, except for a part of collapse on the front of the gorge due to the German bombing, make it an artifact of great value.


This paper presents a high-level approach for assessing the performance behavior of complex scientific applications running on a high-performance system through simulation. The proposed methodology relies on high-level descriptions of both application and system. The application is described in MetaPL, an XML-based description language, and the system is modeled and simulated by using HeSSE, an extensible distributed heterogeneous system (DHS) simulator. This modeling technique is applied to the performance analysis of a real-world scientific application (LAPWO), running on a cluster of SMP nodes. Extendibility features of both MetaPL and HeSSE were largely used, developing extensions for the MetaPL language and new components for the simulator. The paper closes with the validation of the performance model, obtained through the comparison of the predicted performance results with measurements on test runs of the application on the real system.


The FluorImager SI® (FSI) from Molecular Dynamics is one of several scanning instruments available for the detection of fluorescent emissions associated with DNA samples in a variety of matrices (agarose and polyacrylamide gels, membranes and microplates). In our laboratory, we measured the electrophoretic mobility of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fragments stained with ethidium bromide in agarose using the FSI to scan gels and the associated Molecular Dynamics software (ImageQuaNT®, and FragmeNT Analysis) for analysis. Initial scans and analyses resulted in inconsistent band detection across the same gel and across several scans of the same gel. To determine the best types of calibration for the instrument, several factors were considered and then evaluated. Tests of calibration acceptability were also evaluated. Band detection by FragmeNT Analysis was improved following optimization of matrices and parameters used in calibration and experimental scans. In addition, use of software templates for analysis and modifications in the staining procedure, which have resulted in decreased instrument associated variance, are discussed.


Purpose: Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) are specialized cells to produce type I IFN. Infiltration of pDCs in cancer tissues that have impaired ability to produce IFN-α has been suggested to play immunosuppressive roles in tumor immunity. To identify potential mechanisms causing pDC impairment in the cancer microenvironment, expression of immunoglobulin-like transcript 7 ligands (ILT7L), which inhibits pDC production of type I IFNs on the surface of various human cancer and noncancer cells, was examined. Experimental Design: To detect unidentified ILT7L, reporter cells, which express green fluorescent protein on interaction with ILT7L, were constructed. ILT7L expression on various human cancer cell lines as well as various noncancerous stromal cells and immune cells was examined. Cytokines and signals involved in the ILT7L expression were also investigated. Results: ILT7L was detected on all of the various types of human cancer cell lines tested. IFN-α, IFN-β, IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, transforming growth factor-β, lipopolysaccharide, and imiquimod induced ILT7L expression on cancer and noncancer cells. High ILT7L-expressing cancer cells inhibited production of IFN-α and tumor necrosis factor-α by pDC stimulated with CpG. ILT7L does not appear to be a member of classic or nonclassic HLAs. Additionally, NF-κB and mammalian target of rapamycin are involved in regulating ILT7L expression. Conclusions: ILT7L expression on cancer cells may be one of the mechanisms for impairment of pDCs in the cancer microenvironment. ILT7/ILT7L signaling may normally enable a negative immune response feedback following viral infection. Intervention of the ILT7L/ILT7 system may be useful for enhancing antitumor immunity as well as antiviral immunity. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(18):5733–43)


Abstract Growing sociological interest in the timing and sequencing of important life events continues to fuel the development of sophisticated analytic methods. The life history calendar (LHC) was designed as a method of collecting detailed individual-level event timing and sequencing data. This paper describes new innovations which make gathering retrospective event history data with an LHC more feasible in a wider range of settings and for a broader set of substantive topics. These innovations allow researchers to accommodate broader age-range populations, populations who do not use standardized time measures, and an expanded set of behaviors. The innovations themselves include adding a more detailed set of timing cues, reorganizing the life history calendar's visual cues, and using new recording strategies. Together these new methods expand the applicability of this well-established data collection tool, increasing the opportunities for using life history calendars to study the timing and sequencing of life events.


This paper describes a new fabrication method for obtaining anisotropic spherical hydrogel microparticles with different types of extracellular matrix (ECM) hemispheres for use in 3D cell culture. To fabricate the microparticles, a mixture of an ECM precursor solution and sodium alginate is ejected into a calcium chloride solution under large centrifugal acceleration by a centrifuge‐based microfluidic device; the calcium alginate hydrogel plays a significant role as a "sacrificial gelation template" to maintain the ECM molecules in each hemisphere. This fabrication method enables gaining control of the hemispherical volume, density, and type of ECM. Using the microparticles, cells could be successfully encapsulated in each hemisphere selectively with high viability, which are then suitable for culture in the microparticles to form microtissues. It is believed that the proposed anisotropic ECM microparticles will facilitate the coculture of multiple cell types in different ECMs, which is similar to in vivo microenvironments, facilitating control of cell behavior in an anisotropic microenvironment for the benefit of large‐scale and quantitative analyses in vitro.


We study the welfare cost of inflation in a general equilibrium life cycle model with growth, costly financial intermediation, and taxes on nominal quantities. We find a stationary equilibrium of the model matches a wide variety of facts about the postwar U.S. economy. We then calculate that the inflation policy of the monetary authority has welfare consequences for agents that are an order of magnitude larger than existing estimates in the literature. These effects are large even at very low inflation rates. The bulk of the welfare cost of inflation can be attributed to the fact that inflation increases the effective tax rate on capital income.


A number of new diets and new products were apparaised from the standpoint of their effect on metabolic and pathophysiological disturbances seen in peptic ulcer. Application of new protein products, and qualitatively different fat that exert pathogenetic action on metabolism and function of the gastroduodenal system is especially promising. The enhanced acid-producing and enzyme-excretory functions of the gastric mucosa seen in peptic ulcer are less amenable by the alimentary factor. In this aspect it is necessary to go on with studies into the inhibitory effect of different dietary factors on proteolytic enzymes. The new data on the pathogenesis and symptomatology of peptic ulcer enabled a more weighed approach to the diet with the use of products having the increased biological value.


Computational tools and methods employed in corpus linguistics are split into three main types: compilation, annotation and retrieval. These mirror and support the usual corpus linguistics methodology of corpus collection, manual and/or automatic tagging, followed by query and analysis. Typically, corpus software to support retrieval implements some or all of the five major methods in corpus linguistics only at the word level: frequency list, concordance, keyword, collocation and n-gram, and such software may or may not provide support for text which has already been tagged, for example at the part-of-speech (POS) level. Wmatrix is currently one of the few retrieval tools which have annotation tools built in. However, annotation in Wmatrix is currently limited to the UCREL English POS and semantic tagging pipeline. In this paper, we describe an approach to extend support for embedding other tagging pipelines and tools in Wmatrix via the use of APIs, and describe how such an approach is also applicable to other retrieval tools, potentially enabling support for tagged data.


The objective of this study was to describe trends in the incidence rates of primary liver cancer in a geographically defined Chinese population. Primary liver cancer cases (N=13 685) were diagnosed between 1981 and 2000 and identified by the Tianjin Cancer Registry. Age-adjusted and age-specific incidence rates were examined in both males and females. Poisson regression was employed to assess the incidence rate trends. Crude and age-adjusted incidence rates in the study period were: 27.4/100 000 and 16.4/100 000 in males and 11.5/100 000 and 6.4/100 000 in females, respectively. While the results from Poisson regression analyses suggest statistically significant trends of declining incidence rates of primary liver cancer overall, trends were not consistent across age and sex groups. The decline in incidence was observed, for the most part, in the 40–69 age group, with a greater decrease in males. Our findings provide a new evidence of a downward trend in incidence rates of this disease in China for a period of 20 years. As the observed decline is relatively small and inconsistent across sex and age groups, a continued epidemiological observation on this condition is required.


Objective: To assess smoking habits and nicotine dependence (ND) in patients with head and neck cancer Methods: This study involved 71 smokers or former smokers with squamous cell carcinoma in the oral cavity, pharynx, or larynx who were treated at a university hospital in the city of São Paulo between January and May of 2010. We used the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence to evaluate smoking habits and ND in the sample. Data regarding cancer treatment were collected from medical records. Depending on the variables studied, we used the chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, Student's t-test, or Spearman's correlation test. Results: Of the 71 patients, 47 (66.2%) presented with high or very high ND, 40 (56.3%) smoked more than 20 cigarettes/day, and 32 (45.1%) smoked their first cigarette within 5 min of awakening. Advanced disease stage correlated significantly with the number of cigarettes smoked per day (p = 0.011) and with smoking history (p = 0.047). We found that ND did not correlate significantly with gender, disease stage, smoking cessation, or number of smoking cessation attempts, nor did the number of cigarettes smoked per day correlate with smoking cessation or gender. Treatment for smoking cessation was not routinely offered. Conclusions: In most of the patients studied, the level of ND was high or very high. The prevalence of heavy smoking for long periods was high in our sample. A diagnosis of cancer is a motivating factor for smoking cessation. However, intensive smoking cessation treatment is not routinely offered to smoking patients diagnosed with cancer.


Abstract In December of 2020, the Argentine Congress legalized abortion through 14 weeks, vastly increasing access to abortion care in the country. The law's passage followed years of advocacy for abortion rights in Argentina - including mass public and civil society mobilization, vocal support from an established pool of abortion providers who offered abortion services under specific legal exceptions prior to the new law, and the growth of community groups such as the Socorristas en Red who provide support for people to self-manage abortions. Aided by ample political will, the number of health facilities offering services increased substantially after the law was passed, and the public visibility around the law has helped assure people seeking abortion that it is their right. Proyecto mirar is an initiative focused on both gathering and using qualitative and quantitative data to inform stakeholders about the progress and obstacles of the law's implementation. In this review, we present an overall summary of the first two years of implementation of the abortion law in Argentina based on proyecto mirar data and contextualized through the historical processes that have contributed to the law's passage and application. While we see increases in abortion services and improved public perception around abortion rights, inequities in access and quality of care persist throughout the country. Specifically, providers in some regions are well trained, while others create obstacles to access, and in some regions health services provide high quality abortion care whereas others provide substandard care. To be sure, the implementation of public policies does not happen overnight; it requires government support and backing to tackle obstacles and solve implementation problems. Our findings suggest that when new abortion laws are passed, they must be supported by civil society and government leaders to ensure that associated policies are well crafted and monitored to ensure successful implementation.


An optimized electrodropping system produces homogeneous core-shell microcapsules (C-S MCs) by using poly(L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and alginate. Fluorescence imaging clearly shows the C-S domain in the MC. For release control, the use of high-molecular-weight PLGA (HMW 270 000) restrains the initial burst release of protein compared to that of low-MW PLGA (LMW 40 000). Layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly of chitosan and alginate on MCs is also useful in controlling the release profile of biomolecules. LBL (7-layer) treatment is effective in suppressing the initial burst release of protein compared to no LBL (0-layer). The difference of cumulative albumin release between HMW (7-layer LBL) and LMW (0-layer LBL) PLGA is determined to be more than 40% on day 5. When dual angiogenic growth factors (GFs), such as platelet-derived GF (PDGF) and vascular endothelial GF (VEGF), are encapsulated separately in the core and shell domains, respectively, the VEGF release rate is much greater than that of PDGF, and the difference of the cumulative release percentage between the two GFs is about 30% on day 7 with LMW core PLGA and more than 45% with HMW core PLGA. As for the angiogenic potential of MC GFs with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), the fluorescence signal of CD31+ suggests that the angiogenic sprout of ECs is more active in MC-mediated GF delivery than conventional GF delivery, and this difference is significant, based on the number of capillary branches in the unit area. This study demonstrates that the fabrication of biocompatible C-S MCs is possible, and that the release control of biomolecules is adjustable. Furthermore, MC-mediated GFs remain in an active form and can upregulate the angiogenic activity of ECs.


In spite of various measures to rejuvenate farm credit, the flow of credit to agriculture sector remained inadequate quantitatively and qualitatively. The study is based on a random sample of 600 farm households covering 11 districts in Punjab, comprising 107 marginal, 150 small, 53 semi-mediums, 87 medium and 103 large farmers and pertains to the year 2005-06. The total debt per sample farm household from both institutional and non-institutional sources has been found to be Rs 178934 in the year 2005-06. The institutional sources have contributed about 62 per cent to the total debt and non-institutional 38 per cent. Although the institutional credit has increased rapidly in recent years in Punjab, it still lacks behind the productive needs of the farmers in Punjab. A farmer on an average has to incur Rs 4016 for obtaining a loan from commercial banks, which amounts to 5 per cent of the total loan obtained by him. In the case of cooperatives, the transaction cost has been worked out to be 1.2 per cent of the loan and the cooperatives are located right in the villages. About 59 per cent farmers have reported the procedure to get loans from the institutional agencies to be complicated and time-consuming. On the contrary, availing non-institutional loan has been found easy and is the reason of preference given by 51 per cent farmers to it. Policy implications include issuing of a simple but comprehensive record book to farmers containing information relating to his land record and institutional transactions; computerization of land records by the state government; simplification of loan application form; and maintenance of proper records of loan applications and making disbursement of loan mandatory.


AIMS
To apply capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF) to identify the N-glycosylation structures of serum and saliva IgA from healthy controls and patients with malignant hematological diseases having cytostatic treatment induced mild oral mucosal lesions.

BACKGROUND
Altered N-glycosylation of body fluid glycoproteins can be effective indicators of most inflammatory processes. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is the second highest abundant of the immunoglobulins and has a major role in the immune-defense against potential pathogen attacks. While IgA is abundant in serum, secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) is one of the most prevalent proteins in mucosal surfaces such as in saliva.

OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to investigate the changes of IgA glycosylation in serum and saliva as a response to an administered cytostatic treatment in patients with malignant hematological disorders.

MATERIALS
Capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescent detection (CE-LIF) was used to analyze the N-glycosylation profiles of Z(IgA1) partitioned immunoglobulin A in pooled serum and saliva of 10 control subjects and 8 patients with malignant hematological diseases having cytostatic treatment induced mild oral mucosal lesions.

RESULTS
Eight of 31 and four of 38 N-glycans in serum and saliva, respectively, showed significant (p<0.05) differences upon comparison to the control group. Thirteen glycans were present in the saliva but not in the serum, on the other hand six structures were found in the serum samples not present in the saliva.

CONCLUSION
The developed Z(IgA1) partitioning and the high resolution CE-LIF based glyocoanalytical methods provided an efficient and sensitive workflow to detect and monitor IgA glycosylation alterations in serum and saliva with the scope for widespread molecular medicinal use.


Lack of the viability and vitality and totally well- being in life and low-level of the rural community wellbeing, could have decreased the belonging to the community and caused less participation. It also would lead to non- qualitative life and satisfaction. On the other hand, low level of the wellbeing and lack of the attractive situation put the sustainability and stability of the rural in danger. Therefore this study aimed to recognize the definition of the well-being and the life with high quality in rural regions of Shabestar. So, data of this study were gathered by qualitative method and interview and FGD techniques. The result has proved that life with high quality is the reflex of the effect of the situation and factors in three spheres which are individual, family and community. These factors in material and economic dimension include high profit/ having enough, financial independency and the living opportunities and earning money in rural region. In social dimension, social viabilities of living in community, social-demographical vitality, satisfaction of life, happiness and security are included. In health and environmental dimension, factors such as physical and mental health, air condition, peace of life and silence is considered.


Natural fractures exist in many oil and gas reservoirs. On the other hand, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is needed to create fractures in some reservoirs to improve the production rate. For example, shale gas reservoirs typically have extremely low permeability but have become an attractive source for natural gas production largely due to the advancement of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. The permeability in fractures are much higher than that in other parts of the reservoir but the sizes of the fractures are much smaller. Thus, it is desirable to place more mesh elements around the fractures during the simulation and computations. Mesh adaptation is a very useful technique to help improving the accuracy and efficiency of the computation, and can be applied in computations for many problems such as plasma physics, image processing, and reservoir simulation in petroleum engineering. This study will focus on mesh adaptation in fractured reservoir simulation. The mesh will be adapted automatically so that more elements are concentrated around the fractures and less elements are distributed in other places. By this way, the reservoir simulation can be more accurate and efficient which is critical in helping control the production rate, optimize hydraulic fracturing design, and evaluate enhanced oil recovery processes. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of different mesh adaptation methods when solving a partial differential equation called porous media equation (PME). iv The porous media equation is solved using Finite Element Method with the software FreeFem++ that has built-in mesh adaptation functionality. The mesh is adapted based on a metric tensor that determines the shape, size and orientation of the mesh elements. The results are compared with uniform meshes and meshes created based on log-spacing. The numerical results show that adaptive meshes based on metric tensor provide the best results.