Abstract Water-vapor sorption isotherms, relative humidity (RH) controlled powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data, and new and previously published multi-nuclear NMR spectroscopic data for a wide range of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) provide greatly increased understanding of the effects of hydration state on the structure and dynamical behavior of interlayer and surface anions and the factors controlling the expansion behavior of this group of minerals. Li,Al and Mg,Al LDH phases containing SO42-, SeO42-, PO43-, HPO42-, MoO42-, ClO4- , SeO32-, CO32-, F-, Cl-, Br-, I-, OH-, and NO3- were examined. The phases studied can be grouped into three types based on basal spacing expansion, water sorption, and interlayer anion dynamics: Type 1, significantly expandable (1.5-3.0 Å); Type 2, slightly expandable (expansion <0.5 Å) and with significant interlayer water exchange; and Type 3, essentially non-expandable (0-0.2 Å) and with little interlayer water exchange. For Type 1, the fully expanded phases have a two-water layer structure, and the phase transition from one layer to two layers as determined by XRD consistently correlates with a significant step in the water sorption isotherm and with changes in the interlayer structure and dynamics as observed by NMR spectroscopy. For Type-2 phases, only one-water layer structures form, and the interlayer anions may undergo dynamical disordering with increasing RH, as observed by NMR. For both Types 1 and 2, the first water layer does not cause significant basal spacing expansion due to occupancy of vacant interstitial sites between the anions by the water molecules. For Type-3 phases, there is little interlayer water sorption because the interlayers are essentially closed due to the small size or planar shape of the anions and their strong electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interaction with the hydroxyl layers. RH has no effect on the structural environments and dynamics of the interlayer anions in this group.


Ultrastructural studies were made of the central nervous system of three goats during the early stages of viral leukoencephalomyelitis of goats and of one goat 3 years after onset of the disease. In both early and late lesions, the following features were recognized: loss of myelin from normal axons, separation of the myelin sheath from the axon by cell processes, pronounced astrocytosis with numerous cell processes packed with heavy fibrils, paucity of oligodendrocytes, normal capillaries, and normal cellular elements in the adjacent gray matter. Early lesions also had many cells of the lymphoid series infiltrating perivascular spaces, within lesions, and, particularly, along axons undergoing demyelination. Although viral particles were extensively sought, only one suspect structure, with a tubular nucleocapsid-like configuration, was seen. Individual tubules of this particle measured 22 nm. in diameter. The ultrastructural features of demyelination in viral leukoencephalomyelitis of goats were compared with those described for demyelination that occurs in multiple sclerosis, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, canine distemper encephalomyelitis, and that produced by diphtheria toxin.


Coastal ecosystems are increasingly impacted by man-made disturbances including pollution from agriculture, aquaculture and municipal waste. This study employed multiple ecological indicators to assess environmental quality of the Densu Estuary and understanding of environmental controls on the spatial distribution of organisms. Physicochemical parameters were measured in situ. Water and sediment samples were collected from ten stations and analysed for nutrients, total suspended solids and organisms using standard methods. The water quality index for the Densu Estuary ranged from 359.5 to 484.4, suggesting an unhealthy ecosystem. The abundance of indicator species, e.g. faecal bacteria (Escherichia coli, Enterococcus species) and polychaetes (Capitella and Nereis species) varied significantly (p<0.05) among stations. Contaminated sites are located landwards with high human impacts. Faecal bacteria and polychaete abundance correlated significantly (p<0.05) with the respective physicochemical parameters. Canonical analysis (74.11%) showed the physicochemical influence on the spatial distribution of species. The pH significantly (p<0.05) controlled the spatial distribution of faecal bacteria and polychaetes in the Densu Estuary. The results suggest environmental pollution in the Densu Estuary, useful baseline information for effective legislation towards its sustainable management.

 Key words: Biological indicators, water quality index, pollution, estuarine ecology, Densu Estuary.


Following our preceding works (de Courcy et al. J Chem Theo Comput 2008, 4, 1659; de Courcy, et al. Interdiscip Sci Comput Life Sci 2009, 1, 55), we have studied by quantum chemistry a model of the alcohol dehydrogenase Zn-metalloenzyme (ADH) binding site. Using several interpretative techniques such as the topological analysis of the electron localization function (ELF) and quantum theory of atoms in molecules combined with energy decomposition analysis schemes, we have analyzed the physical origin of the interactions occurring in this site, which is stabilized by an indirect cation-π interaction. While polarization effects are important for the metal, which is able to adapt its outer-shell density (the so-called subvalence domains) to its ligands, they do not play a key role in the overall interaction of the system that is dominated by dispersion. The ELF analysis shows that only minor charge transfer phenomena are observed between the constitutive fragments of the system. From a methodological standpoint, density functional theory functionals appear unable to handle the system whereas dispersion-corrected methods (DFT-D) perform significantly better, giving reasonable answers as compared with post-Hartree-Fock methods. The stabilization energy brought by the presence of Phe93 to the active binding site of ADH is about −3 kcal/mol. The importance of accounting for basis set superposition error is also emphasized. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This paper shows that balanced realizations in the wide sense have minimum statistical sensitivity and pole sensitivity, if the transfer functions have interlacing poles and zeros on the real axis of z-plane (i. r. p. z.). If the transfer functions have i. r. p. z., the balanced realizations in the wide sense can be easily obtained by computing the partial fraction expansion of the transfer functions. Since the state transition matrices of the obtained balanced realizations are diagonal, they can be implemented with much fewer parameters than balanced realizations with fully dense coefficient matrices.


An electromagnetic gun provides a new component that must be integrated into the power system of an electric ship. An interesting topology for the power supply is a set of pulsed alternators with sufficient energy stored in the kinetic energy of the rotors to power the shot. In this configuration, when no shot is required, the machine topology is analogous to that of a flywheel battery used to provide ride-through capability and improve power quality in land-based power systems. This paper expands upon earlier published work showing worst case perturbation to the power system, in this approach, and the use of the pulsed alternators as high-energy active filters to improve power system performance.


Effects of pretreatments with different alkali and acid concentrations, and extraction temperatures on fish gelatin extraction and properties was studied. The resultant fish gelatins were evaluated in terms of extraction yield, viscosity, gel strength, and pH. The combination of higher acid pretreatment concentrations and extraction temperatures removed the noncollagenous protein and provided proper pH extraction condition which resulted higher gelatin extraction yield. However, the gel strength decreased with the increase of acid concentration. The gel strength and pH of gelatin increase proportionally to the increase in alkali concentration and extraction temperature. No significant effects of the three treatments on the gelatin viscocity. The recommended gelatin extraction process conditions was using alkali concentration (NaOH) of 0.55 N, acid (HCl) of  0.95 N, and a temperature of 60 °C. The optimal solution formula had optimization targets of 79.5% and was predicted to produce a gel with 11.21% yield and pH 3.4


Background. We examined correlates of past year suicidal thoughts and behavior (STB) and described past year treatment experiences among young people who inject drugs (PWID). Methods. Participants were 570 adults (18-25 years) who injected primarily heroin. Interviews were conducted at field stations operated by Community Outreach Intervention Projects in Chicago, Illinois (USA). Interviewers administered the Psychiatric Research Instrument for Substance and Mental Disorders. Substance use and mental disorders were based on DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Past year STB was based on multiple questions. Results. Sixteen percent of men and 25% of women reported STB in the past year. In multivariable analysis, STB was associated with non-heterosexual orientation, foster care, and being raised by two parents. Primary major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, other anxiety disorders, and borderline personality disorder had independent effects on suicidality. Among those reporting past year STB (n=111), 83% ever received mental health treatment, while 44% did so in the past year. While 24% of respondents indicated that at least one treatment matched their needs very well, 30% reported treatment that did not match their needs at all. The most common reason for ending treatment was program completion (about 50%) while getting better was endorsed by about 25%. Nearly half reported ending treatment due to a bad experience, logistical issues, or expense. Conclusions. Young PWID are at high risk for suicidal behavior and their mental health treatment experiences often do not meet their needs. There is a pressing need for more integrated substance use and mental health treatment.


Author(s): Behera, Ishani | Advisor(s): Muller, Ulrich F | Abstract: The Tetrahymena group I intron was one of the two first catalytic RNAs (ribozymes) to be discovered. Group I introns are sequences that can exist between exons in pre-mRNAs, that are able to self-splice and remove themselves when forming mature mRNAs in the absence of the spliceosome. The Tetrahymena cis-splicing ribozyme was engineered to accept substrate RNAs in trans. The designed trans-splicing ribozyme was termed the "spliceozyme". The spliceozyme could in principle be used in therapeutic applications. However, there are two hurdles to overcome; the delivery of the ribozyme into cells and its efficiency once delivered. The focus of this study is to improve the efficiency of the trans-splicing ribozyme in cells by evolving the ribozyme in E. coli. In a previous study, an evolution system in cells was developed for the spliceozyme which was used to generate a clone, W11, that increased product formation. However, this evolution used high ribozyme expression levels and focused on a single splice site. To improve the efficiency and sequence generality, the spliceozyme was evolved at low expression levels at two different splice sites with different flanking sequences. The results of the spliceozyme evolution in bacterial cells showed that specific mutations are able to improve spliceozyme efficiency in bacterial cells. This suggests that further analysis, and perhaps further evolution experiments, could generate spliceozymes with improved efficiency on a broad range of substrate sequences.


In reference to this special issue, the idea of transformative educational research (TER) brings into light the integrated meanings on 'the what', 'the why', 'the how', 'the who', and 'what next' of transformative research approach in education, bringing together the ideas shared in the conference, and existing theoretical referents in this area of knowledge/practice. This concept note, thus, primarily seeks to define transformative research approach in education, taking into consideration what an associated research and practitioner agenda might look like. So as to achieve this purpose, this paper frames TRE practices so far, and creates space to think on future directions for education, and educational research through different sub-headings: (1) TER as multidimensional approach, (2) TER as a response to paradigm shift, (3) TRE as arts-based multi-paradigmatic space, (4) TER for emerging leaders at various spheres of life-world, and (5) TER as imagining the world beyond the given.


Teotihuacan-Matthew Robb 2017-09-26 Founded in the first century BCE near a set of natural springs in an otherwise dry northeastern corner of the Valley of Mexico, the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan was on a symbolic level a city of elements. With a multiethnic population of perhaps one hundred thousand, at its peak in 400 CE, it was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of ancient Mesoamerica. A devastating fire in the city center led to a rapid decline after the middle of the sixth century, but Teotihuacan was never completely abandoned or forgotten; the Aztecs revered the city and its monuments, giving many of them the names we still use today. Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire examines new discoveries from the three main pyramids at the site—the Sun Pyramid, the Moon Pyramid, and, at the center of the Ciudadela complex, the Feathered Serpent Pyramid—which have fundamentally changed our understanding of the city's history. With illustrations of the major objects from Mexico City's Museo Nacional de Antropología and from the museums and storage facilities of the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan, along with selected works from US and European collections, the catalogue examines these cultural artifacts to understand the roles that offerings of objects and programs of monumental sculpture and murals throughout the city played in the lives of Teotihuacan's citizens. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco, September 30, 2017–February 11, 2018 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), March–June 2018


The near optimal control design for singularly perturbed systems with small time-delay is proposed. Based on the slow-fast decomposition theory of singular perturbations, the system is first decomposed into a fast subsystem and a slow time-delay subsystem. Then, the perturbation approach is proposed to solve the slow-time scale time-delay optimal control problem. The near optimal control law obtained consists of exact term and approximate one. The former can be found by solving a Riccati equation, and the latter can be approximately obtained by an iterative formula of adjoint vector equations. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design approach.


Introduction: A Conductive Education (CE) program and a Cognitive Stimulation (CS) program were implemented in Sizanani Children's Home, a residential facility in South Africa for children and young adults with mental and physical disabilities, most of them diagnosed as cerebral palsy. The effect of one year CE on the development of functional skills and the effect of three months CS on play abilities were evaluated. Methods: The CE program included 39 participants in the age of 8 to 33 years, whereas the CS program included 18 participants in the age of 8 to 30 years. Gross motor functioning was assessed with the Gross Motor Functioning Classification System (GMFCS), whereas the functional skills were assessed with either the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) or the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) and with the Functional Motor Assessment Scale (FMAS) and the Level of intervention Observation Instrument (LOI). For the CS program the Play Observation Scale (POS) was developed to measure play abilities. The CS program had two experimental conditions; one with and one without social interaction, in addition to a control condition. Results: One year of CE showed an improvement in the functional motor abilities of the participants measured with the GAS and FMAS. According to the PEDI, functional skills only improved in Caregiver Assistance in the Self-care scale, whereas the LOI showed an improvement in functional skills in dressing. No relation was found between the change in functional skills measured with the FMAS and the LOI and the level of gross motor functioning measured with the GMFCS. The CS program resulted in a non-significant improvement of the play abilities of the participants in the two experimental conditions. Conclusion: The results show that continuation of the CE program is beneficial for the functional skills of the children and young adults of Sizanani Children's Home. The effectiveness of the CS program at a longer term has to be awaited.


Video analytic is the important tool for smart city development. The video analytic application requires more memories and high processing devices. The problems of cloudbased approach for video analytic are high latency and more network bandwidth to transfer data into the cloud. To overcome these problems, we propose a model based on dividing the jobs into smaller sub-tasks with less processing requirements in a typical video analytics application for the development of smart city. The object detection, tracking and pattern recognition method to reduce the size of videos based on edge network will be proposed. We will design a video analytic model, and simulation is performed using iFogSim simulator. We will also propose Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based object tracking model. The experimental verification shows that our tracking model is more than 96% accurate, and the proposed edge and cloud-based model is more than 80% effective than only cloudbased approach for video analytic applications. Keywords—Video analytic; cloud computing; smart city; object detection; object tracking; edge network


We present a web application for creating games and exercises for teaching English as a foreign language with the help of NLP tools. The application contains different kinds of games such as crosswords, word searches, a memory game, and a multiplayer game based on the classic battleship pen and paper game. This application was built with the aim of supporting teachers in rural schools that are teaching English lessons, so they can easily create interactive and engaging activities for their students. We present the context and history of the project, the current state of the web application, and some ideas on how we will expand it in the future.


The fish assemblage and diversity in relation to water quality of three coastal rivers Sita, Swarna and Varahi of Udupi district, Karnataka, India was studied. 71 species representing 7 orders, 20 families and 41 genera were recorded from 21 sites along the three rivers. Species composition varied longitudinally in relation to the environmental factors of the habitat. The downstream change in the three rivers indicates that fish assemblage changed with increasing loss of riparian canopy cover and increasing agricultural land-use. The richness and abundance of fishes were correlated with land-use type, canopy cover, pH and turbidity. Diversion of water, discharge of domestic sewage and agricultural runoff were prominent among the disturbances that alter the habitat quality.


The upcoming generation of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) surveys will shed fresh light onto the study of clusters. What will this new observational window reveal about cluster properties? What can we learn from combining X-ray, SZE, and optical observations? How do variations in the gas entropy profile, dark matter concentration, accretion pressure, and intracluster medium (ICM) mass fraction affect SZE observables? We investigate the signature of these important cluster parameters with an analytic model of the ICM. Given the current uncertainties in ICM physics, our approach is to span the range of plausible models motivated by observations and a small set of assumptions. We find a tight relation between the central Compton parameter and the X-ray luminosity outside the cluster core, suggesting that these observables carry the same information about the ICM. The total SZE luminosity is proportional to the thermal energy of the gas and is a surprisingly robust indicator of cluster mass: LSZ ∝ fICMM5/3. We show that a combination of LSZ and the half-luminosity radius rSZ provides a measure of the potential energy of the cluster gas, and thus we can deduce the total energy content of the ICM. We caution that any systematic variation of the ICM mass fraction will distort the expected LSZ-M calibration to be used to study the evolution of cluster number density, and propose a technique using the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect to constrain fICM(M,z).


Private-heavy welfare systems, in which low or moderate state benefits are topped up by private welfare arrangements, are expected to undermine political support for the extension of social rights and perpetuate benefit fragmentation over time. And where low state benefits are means tested, political support is expected to be particularly prone to erosion. In this article I develop the argument that the combination of private pensions and means-testing does not always perpetuate fragmentation. Rather, it structures the policy preferences of pension industry representatives and right-of-centre parties such that these actors push for reforms to make the state pension more universal. I make my argument by examining the reform history of nine private-heavy pension systems in the three decades since 1980. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis maps the conditions under which universalizing reforms have occurred, and two case studies link institutional conditions to reform outcomes via the policy preferences of key political actors.


Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to compare the locking compression plate (LCP) with polyaxial locking system (PLS) using single cycle to failure 4-point bending test and to investigate the behaviour of PLS with screws inserted mono- and polyaxially using cyclic fatigue test in two bending directions. Materials and Methods Tests were performed on bone surrogates in a fracture gap model. The 3.5 LCP and 3.5 PLS plates were tested in single cycle to failure. The 3.5 PLS plates with mono- and polyaxial screws were compared in a cyclic fatigue tests in two orthogonal directions. For both experiments, micro-computed tomography (CT) scans were performed pre- and post-testing to investigate the connections between the screw head and the plate hole. Means of forces and cycles needed to failure were statistically compared. Results The PLS plates were on average 30% weaker than LCP plates. Mode of failure was plate bending in the single cycle to failure tests, and plate breakage in the cyclic fatigue tests. Neither screw breakage nor loss of the screw–plate interface occurred. Mono- and polyaxial constructs performed similarly when loaded in the same direction. Micro-CT revealed no additional internal cracks in the plates or screws after testing. It also showed for both PLS and LCP that there was only partial contact of the screw head with the plate hole. Clinical Relevance PLS offers a durable locking system, even when the screws are placed polyaxially. The weaker bending properties of the PLS compared with LCP should be considered during preoperative planning.


Abstract Exotic annual grasses now cover large areas of southern California that were once stands of native California sage scrub (CSS), or a mixture of native grasses, forbs, and CSS. Both CSS and California grasslands are threatened habitats, where restorations of type-converted landscapes are often burdened by the persistent dominance of non-native annual grasses. Research finds that once exotic grasses take hold in these areas, native plant communities are extremely slow to recover, if they recover at all. Coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis DC) is a native shrub common to CSS habitat and often appears in a complex mosaic with other vegetation types including grasslands. Coyote brush has been documented invading grasslands, resulting in a change of state from grassland to shrubland in northern California. This study investigates the long-term consequences of coyote brush invasion in a type-converted landscape of southern California. Stands of expanding coyote brush were transected to identify species composition along a spatial and temporal continuum. Results show that, following initial invasion, non-native species are gradually replaced by, not only coyote brush, but also several other noteworthy native species. This study finds that over the 37 yr timeframe, exotic grasses gradually decline while native plant cover increases in landscapes invaded by coyote brush. We conclude that in the Santa Monica Mountain areas studied, coyote brush invasion of type-converted landscapes leads to increased native plant diversity that includes native grasses and a variety of shrubs.


The protein super-family of medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenases (and glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase), polyol dehydrogenases, threonine dehydrogenase, archaeon glucose dehydrogenase, and eye lens reductase-active zeta-crystallins also includes Escherichia coli quinone oxidoreductase, Torpedo VAT-1 protein, and enoyl reductases of mammalian fatty acid and yeast erythronolide synthases. In addition, two proteins with hitherto unknown function are shown to belong to this super-family of medium-chain dehydrogenases and reductases (MDR). Alignment of zeta-crystallins/quinone oxidoreductases/VAT-1 reveals 38 strictly conserved residues, of which approximately half are glycine residues, including those at several space-restricted turn positions and critical coenzyme-binding positions in the alcohol dehydrogenases. This indicates a conserved three-dimensional structure at the corresponding parts of these distantly related proteins and a conserved binding of a coenzyme in the two proteins with hitherto unknown function, thus ascribing a likely oxidoreductase function to these proteins. When all forms are aligned, including enoyl reductases, a zeta-crystallin homologue from Leishmania and the two proteins with hitherto unknown function, only three residues are strictly conserved among the 106 proteins characterised within the superfamily, and significantly these residues are all glycines, corresponding to Gly66, Gly86 and Gly201 of mammalian class I alcohol dehydrogenase. Notably, these residues are located in different domains. Hence, a distant origin and divergent functions, but related forms and interactions, appear to apply to the entire chains of the many prokaryotic and eukaryotic members. Additionally, in the zeta-crystallins/quinone oxidoreductases, a highly conserved tyrosine residue is found. This residue, in the three-dimensional structure of the homologous alcohol dehydrogenase, is positioned at the subunit cleft that contains the active site and could therefore be involved in catalysis. If so, this residue and its role may resemble the pattern of a conserved tyrosine residue in the different family of short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDR).


Land clearance and agriculture have long been associated with fire.  Open fire, whether from natural or human ignition, has changed the face of many natural landscapes, especially in frontier regions. Much of modern China's landscape has been shaped by fire, yet fire has been treated as a "disaster" ( huozai ) in official literature. However, fire in Chinese agriculture also played a positive role in the development of regional economies. This essay will review different meanings of "fire disasters" in recent Chinese environmental history by analyzing a few illustrative examples of late Imperial to Mao-era agricultural development, warfare, and legal institutions.  By examining these elements of fire-culture landscapes, this paper will consider problems and management practices of Chinese environmental history, especially distinct ethnic, regional, and temporal trends in legal and administrative forms of fire control.  These examples enable us to examine aspects of China military, agricultural, and social and ethnic history that lend themselves to cross cultural and environment comparison.


Same-sex couples increasingly often live in legally recognized unions and have children as a couple. The accessibility of parenthood, however, depends on intersecting contextual and couple-level characteristics. Using Finnish register data on female same-sex couples who registered their partnership in 2006–2015, during which important legal reforms regarding same-sex parenthood took place, we explore how education and the existence of prior children predict childbearing within the same-sex partnership. Female same-sex couples' likelihood of having a child within five years of registering a partnership increased from 34% to 43% over the observation window. This increase was not universal. For couples educated to tertiary level, the increase was from 39% to 52%. For primary and lower-secondary levels, the likelihood decreased from 26% to 8%. Couples with the highest level of education and no prior children were most likely to have a child, and couples with low education and a prior child born before the partnership were least likely to do so. These results highlight how intersectional factors shape female same-sex couples' fertility behavior. Intensifying educational differences in couples' fertility may reflect changes in couple-level characteristics as well as institutional barriers to childbearing that need more attention.


Over the last several years, multidimensional data modeling has had several proposals for its formalisation; on the other hand, the incorporation of fuzzy logic in databases has increased the need to represent uncertainty. However, to our knowledge, so far projects in both areas have not been developed. This paper suggests joining those two needs to create a solution; proposing a UML profile oriented to design multidimensional data models with the presence of fuzzy elements.


After World War II the devastated Japanese landscape was ravaged repeatedly by heavy typhoons causing severe damages. Nevertheless, a hydrological data acquisition system was not adequately provided for. The concept of synthetic unit hydrograph and Thiessen methods were applied in research projects in order to clarify the river basin runoff mechanism. In Japanese river basins with generally steep slopes, however, the portion of direct surface runoff during flood periods is so predominant that the nonlinear runoff mechanism is of great importance. Certain revisions might be necessary to account for the total runoff based on the unit hydrograph. Refs.


Although passive margins have been explored for decades, they remain frontier zones with commonly little or no data available for calibration of basin models. The thermal history modeling of these margins, critical for maturity assessment, thus strongly relies on the rifting models available in basin-modeling tools. Coupling lithospheric evolution with sedimentation and integrated petroleum system modeling has proven to add value compared with user-defined heat flows applied at the base of sediments. However, classic approaches based on uniform stretching factors are limited in hyperextended margins where more complex models are required. The different basement domains and their structural complexity as well as rock-property evolution through time must be considered. An improved lithospheric model has been developed with this objective. Still coupled with sedimentation, it allows a precise description of the lithosphere's shape and properties through time. This new model is applied to a two-dimensional cross section located on the Iberia margin. A basin model is built from published data, and focus is on the basement using a conceptual model as input only and using available surface-heat-flow measurements for calibration. Thermal stress and maturity resulting from the margin evolution are analyzed and discussed. Results demonstrate the strength of the approach to build reliable geological reconstruction of the heat flow through time in areas where classic rifting models cannot be applied, from a minimum of data and in a limited time, leaving room for sensitivity analysis to reduce exploration risk.


Complying with, and teaching young people about, copyright in an educational setting often feels burdensome. That's because copyright laws were not designed to facilitate the sort of sharing and collaborating that has become widespread in the digital age. The innovative nonprofit organization Creative Commons turns the process around, making the concept of protecting and sharing work online not onerous, but positive. We asked Ahrash Bissell, Executive Director of Creative Commons' ccLearn division, for a primer:


One of the major promises of quantum computing is the realization of SIMD (single instruction - multiple data) operations using the phenomenon of superposition. Since the dimension of the state space grows exponentially with the number of qubits, we can easily reach situations where we pay less than a single quantum gate per data point for data-processing instructions, which would be rather expensive in classical computing. Formulating such instructions in terms of quantum gates, however, still remains a challenging task. Laying out the foundational functions for more advanced data-processing is therefore a subject of paramount importance for advancing the realm of quantum computing. In this paper, we introduce the formalism of encoding so called-semi-boolean polynomials. As it turns out, arithmetic $\mathbb {Z}/2^{n}\mathbb {Z}$ ring operations can be formulated as semi-boolean polynomial evaluations, which allows convenient generation of unsigned integer arithmetic quantum circuits. For arithmetic evaluations, the resulting algorithm has been known as Fourier-arithmetic. We extend this type of algorithm with additional features, such as ancilla-free in-place multiplication and integer coefficient polynomial evaluation. Furthermore, we introduce a tailor-made method for encoding signed integers succeeded by an encoding for arbitrary floating-point numbers. This representation of floating-point numbers and their processing can be applied to any quantum algorithm that performs unsigned modular integer arithmetic. We discuss some further performance enhancements of the semi boolean polynomial encoder and finally supply a complexity estimation. The application of our methods to a 32-bit unsigned integer multiplication demonstrated a 90% circuit depth reduction compared to carry-ripple approaches.


Herbaceous perennial species are receiving increased attention for their potential to provide both edible products and ecosystem services in agricultural systems. Many legumes (Fabaceae Lindl.) are of special interest due to nitrogen fixation carried out by bacteria in their roots and their production of protein-rich, edible seeds. However, herbaceous perennial legumes have yet to enter widespread use as pulse crops, and the response of wild, herbaceous, perennial species to artificial selection for increased seed yield remains under investigation. Here we compare cultivated and wild accessions of congeneric annual and herbaceous perennial legume species to investigate associations of lifespan and cultivation with seed size, germination, and first year vegetative growth patterns, and to characterize covariation among traits. We use "cultivated" to describe accessions with a history of human planting and use, which encompasses a continuum of domestication. Analyses focused on three annual and eight perennial Lupinus species, and three annual and four perennial Phaseolus species. We found a significant association of both lifespan and cultivation status with seed size (weight, area, length), germination proportion, node number, stem diameter, shoot dry mass, and root dry mass. Wild seed size was greater in annuals for Lupinus and greater for perennials in Phaseolus. Germination was lower in wild perennials than wild annuals in both genera, and vegetative allocation was roughly equivalent across lifespans in wild Phaseolus. Relative to wild forms, both cultivated annual and cultivated perennial accessions exhibited greater seed size, lower germination proportion, and larger overall plant size. Seed size traits were positively correlated with vegetative growth traits, and all biomass traits examined here were positively correlated. This study highlights some basic similarities and differences between annual and herbaceous perennial legumes, and provides insights into how perennial legumes might respond to artificial selection compared to annual species.


textabstractIt is certainly true to say that the present
situation is unfortunate -the situation
with respect to the use of mathematics in economic
science -and improvement may be obtained
as a consequence of a clearer understanding
of the functions of mathematics. I
very much welcome the attempt made by Dr.
Novick, although I am inclined to put things
somewhat differently. To what extent there is
between us only a difference in wording and to
what extent one of substance, I do not quite
see. Therefore let me give my own view in my
own words.
The functions of mathematical treatment in
economic research may perhaps best be discussed
on the basis of a breakdown into various
elements of a complete piece of econometric
research. Not all pieces of important
economic analysis are by necessity also "complete":
sometimes certain elements are absent,
as a consequence of the special features of the
problem handled. I do not want to say therefore
that every contribution to economic science
should show all the elements to be enumerated;
but the function of mathematics
becomes clearer if we consider this complete
set of elements.


Targeted delivery of therapeutic drugs into cancer cells is a facile method to improve therapeutic efficacy. Focused on this point, a functionalized porous hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticle-based nanocarrier consisting of polyethyleneimine (PEI) coating and outer hyaluronic acid (HA) modification (HAp–PEI–HA) has been developed. In this nanocarrier, PEI was coated onto the HAp to stabilize the nanoparticles, and HA acted as an efficient targeting ligand to selectively bind the CD44 receptors which are overexpressed on the surface of some cancer cells. Various techniques demonstrated the successful preparation of the HAp–PEI–HA nanoparticles. The resulting HAp–PEI–HA nanoparticles showed better dispersibility and stability in aqueous solution compared to bare HAp. In addition, the DOX released from DOX@HAp–PEI–HA exhibited a pH-responsive release profile. The targeting property of HAp–PEI–HA was investigated on A549 cells with high CD44 receptor expression and U87 cells with low CD44 receptor expression. The result showed enhanced cellular uptake of HAp–PEI–HA nanoparticles in A549 cells through CD44 receptor mediated cellular endocytosis. Furthermore, the effective targeted delivery of DOX by HAp–PEI–HA in A549 cells led to enhanced therapeutic efficacy. Thus, the designed HAp–PEI–HA nanocarrier showed promising potential for targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy.


Fostriecin is a natural product purified from Sterptomyces extracts with antitumor activity sufficient to warrant human clinical trials. Unfortunately, difficulties associated with supply and stable drug formulation stalled further development. At a molecular level, fostriecin is known to act as a catalytic inhibitor of four PPPfamily phosphatases, and reports describing the design of molecules in this class suggest derivatives targeting enzymes within the fostriecin-sensitive subfamily can be successful. However, it is not clear if the tumorselective cytotoxicity of fostriecin results from the inhibition of a specific phosphatase, multiple phosphatases, or a limited subset of fostriecin sensitive phosphatases. How the inhibition of sensitive phosphatases contributes to tumor-selective cytotoxicity is also not clear. Here, high-content time-lapse imaging of live cells revealed novel insight into the cellular actions of fostriecin, showing that fostriecin-induced apoptosis is not simply induced following a sustained mitotic arrest. Rather, apoptosis occurred in an apparent second interphase produced when tetraploid cells undergo mitotic slippage. Comparison of the actions of fostriecin and antisense-oligonucleotides specifically targeting human fostriecin-sensitive phosphatases revealed that the suppression PP4C alone is sufficient to mimic many actions of fostriecin. Importantly, targeted suppression of PP4C induced apoptosis, with death occurring in tetraploid cells following mitotic slippage. This effect was not observed following the suppression of PP1C, PP2AC, or PP5C. These data clarify PP4C as a fostriecinsensitive phosphatase and demonstrate that the suppression of PP4C triggers mitotic slippage/apoptosis. Implications: Future development of fostriecin class inhibitors should consider PP4C as a potentially important target. Mol Cancer Res; 11(8); 845–55. 2013 AACR.


Among all blind channel estimation problems, subspace-based algorithms are attractive due to its fast- converging nature. It primarily exploits the orthogonality structure of the noise and signal subspaces by applying a signal-noise space decomposition to the correlation matrix of the received signal. In practice, the correlation matrix is unknown and must be estimated through time averaging over multiple time samples. To this end, the wireless channel must be time-invariant over a sufficient time interval, which may pose a problem for wideband applications. We proposed a novel subspace-based blind channel estimation algorithm with short time averaging periods, as obtained by exploiting the frequency correlation among adjacent OFDM subcarriers. In this paper, asymptotic performance bounds of the proposed algorithm are investigated by using perturbation analysis. We also present numerical results of the proposed as well as referenced subspace-based methods, including cyclic prefix and virtual carriers approaches. Based on the asymptotic performance bounds, the proposed scheme is justified in obtaining a desired correlation matrix efficiently by reducing the number of the OFDM blocks for time averaging up to 85%.


The goal of the present study was to develop a competitive PCR assay to measure changes in the expression of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA in myelomonocytic HD11 cells after Salmonella typhimurium lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. Pro-opiomelanocortin mRNA could be detected in HD11 cells by reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). To our knowledge, this is the first observation of a POMC mRNA transcript in avian macrophages. Based on this observation, the effect of stimulation with bacterial LPS on the POMC expression in HD1 cells was investigated by means of a competitive PCR assay. For this purpose, the HD 11 cells received a one-hour LPS challenge with LPS concentrations ranging from 10 to 100 ng/ml. A PCR MIMIC (consisting of a heterologous DNA fragment flanked by templates for the gene-specific primers) was used as an internal control in the competitive PCR assay. A ten-fold dilution series of the MIMIC was co-amplified with a constant amount of experimental cDNA. While HD11 POMC mRNA expression showed an increase of one order of magnitude following treatment with 100 ng/ml LPS as compared with untreated controls, no significant differences could be observed after treatment with 50 and 10 ng/ml LPS. Quantitative measurement of POMC mRNA levels is a first step towards a better understanding of the physiological role of non-hypophysial POMC-derived peptides in the response to immune stress in birds.


Progression of melanoma is dependent on cross-talk between tumor cells and the adjacent microenvironment. The thrombin receptor, protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR-1), plays a key role in exerting this function during melanoma progression. PAR-1 and its activating factors, which are expressed on tumor cells and the surrounding stroma, induce not only coagulation but also cell signaling, which promotes the metastatic phenotype. Several adhesion molecules, cytokines, growth factors, and proteases have recently been identified as downstream targets of PAR-1 and have been shown to modulate interactions between tumor cells and the microenvironment in the process of melanoma growth and metastasis. Inhibiting such interactions by targeting PAR-1 could potentially be a useful therapeutic modality for melanoma patients.


ABSTRACT Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult vertebrate brain are found in a quiescent state and can preserve long-lasting progenitor potential (stemness). Whether and how these two properties are linked, and to what extent they can be independently controlled by NSC maintenance pathways, is unresolved. We have previously identified Notch3 signalling as a major quiescence-promoting pathway in adult NSCs of the zebrafish pallium. We now show that Notch3 also controls NSC stemness. Using parallel transcriptomic characterizations of notch3 mutant NSCs and adult NSC physiological states, we demonstrate that a set of potentially direct Notch3 target genes distinguishes quiescence and stemness control. As a proof of principle, we focus on one 'stemness' target, encoding the bHLH transcription factor Hey1, that has not yet been analysed in adult NSCs. We show that abrogation of Hey1 function in adult pallial NSCs in vivo, including quiescent NSCs, leads to their differentiation without affecting their proliferation state. These results demonstrate that quiescence and stemness are molecularly distinct outputs of Notch3 signalling, and identify Hey1 as a major Notch3 effector controlling NSC stemness in the vertebrate adult brain. Highlighted Article: Notch3 signalling selectively controls neural stem cell stemness through the activity of the Hey1 transcription factor, independently of its molecular regulation of neural stem cell quiescence.


A ferromagnetic quantum critical point is thought not to exist in two- and three-dimensional metallic systems yet is realized in the Kondo lattice compound YbNi_{4}(P,As)_{2}, possibly due to its one-dimensionality. It is crucial to investigate the dimensionality of the Fermi surface of YbNi_{4}P_{2} experimentally, but common probes such as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and quantum oscillation measurements are lacking. Here, we study the magnetic-field dependence of transport and thermodynamic properties of YbNi_{4}P_{2}. The Kondo effect is continuously suppressed, and additionally we identify nine Lifshitz transitions between 0.4 and 18 T. We analyze the transport coefficients in detail and identify the type of Lifshitz transitions as neck or void type to gain information on the Fermi surface of YbNi_{4}P_{2}. The large number of Lifshitz transitions observed within this small energy window is unprecedented and results from the particular flat renormalized band structure with strong 4f-electron character shaped by the Kondo lattice effect.


Part I: Real Threats to Your Children on the Internet and What You Can Do about Them Chapter 1: What Is the Internet? Chapter 2: What Are the Threats to Your Children and How Serious Are They? Chapter 3: How to Avoid and Reduce the Risks to Your Kids on the Internet Part II: The Best (Not Necessarily the Most Expensive) Software to Protect Your Kids Chapter 4: Content-Filtering Software Chapter 5: Using Filtering Software to Keep Out the Junk Mail Chapter 6: Internet Firewall Software Chapter 7: Antivirus Software Chapter 8: Malicious Software Detection Chapter 9: Putting Your Defense into Place Appendix: Spyware and Adware


The current state of the world which is getting worse in terms of awareness as servants and shallow in terms of faith, this requires us to further increase our faith and devotion to Allah SWT. Increased faith and piety can work if done by people who are aware of their duties and roles as servants of Allah and the Caliph who convey the message of Da'wah from the Creator to all mankind. So we need an implementation in tiered and continuous learning through education Education is a process for self-development so that one is able to find a theory or skill so that one is able to internalize oneself in the form of cognitive, affective and psychomotor abilities into a single unit that cannot be separated in the process of Islamic education. The awareness and attitude of a Muslim will be able to give birth to humans who think in accordance with the Aqeedah, Shari'a and Akhlaq of Muslims, from the results of this thinking, humans are able to find a science that makes changes and human civilization


Author(s): Seashore, Kimberly Holmes | Advisor(s): Schoenfeld, Alan H | Abstract: This dissertation is an exploratory study that investigates what and how teachers learn from use of instructional materials. Over the course of one school year, eight secondary mathematics teachers in two urban schools interspersed their usual instruction with "formative assessment lessons" (FALs), based on lessons and lesson guides designed to allow teachers to use student thinking to inform instructional decision-making. The focus of the study was on understanding how the teachers interpreted the goals and uses of these materials for their own and their students' learning and how the materials supported teachers' learning about formative assessment. Teachers were expected to enact five FALs, which they selected from the Mathematics Assessment Project web site (map.mathshell.org) to place in curriculum units in accordance with their instructional goals. The lessons were planned and enacted without formal professional development. However, five collaboration meetings allowed teachers time to plan with colleagues and reflect on their experiences. Teacher surveys, classroom observations, and classroom artifacts were analyzed in order to examine the placement and enactment of the lessons as well as the influence of enacting the lessons on teachers' classroom practices and use of formative assessment. The teachers' choices in selecting, placing, planning, and implementing the lessons significantly limited their potential to support teacher learning. However, analyses of student explanations and the teachers' interactions with small groups of students provide evidence of changes in classroom practices that allowed instruction to be better informed by student thinking. Two case studies detail how teachers' knowledge, goals, and beliefs, their perceptions of the lesson designers' intentions, and the school environment influenced their use of the FALs and other materials, e.g., a monitoring sheet. Although the materials provided affordances that could support a range of teacher learning, the teachers' choices played a fundamental role in determining what they learned from teaching the FALs and using the materials. In one case, the teacher developed and refined new classroom routines that reflected his goals for his students about communication and accountability. In the other case, the teacher began to change her teaching practices when using the FALs and monitoring sheet, but later adapted her use of the FALs and altered the monitoring sheet to be more consistent with her routine instruction, limiting her opportunities for exploration and learning. The implications of these findings for research on teacher learning, for revision of the FALs, and for professional development are discussed.


This article analyses the ways in which socio-political opposition is expressed by looking into the morally loaded discourse of political legitimacy in Burkina Faso that emerged after the assassination of the journalist Norbert Zongo in December 1998. Through the analysis of different political statements, newspapers and various comments from the 'street', it locates the struggle against impunity in a social and political undercurrent in Burkinabe society. In this context, notions of the public space are central, because the public space defines both the boundaries of public debate and the behaviour of key political actors. Two recurrent themes in Burkinabe political discourse, namely ideas of truth and courage, and the legitimacy of White people, illustrate the various ways in which socio-political opposition seeks to define the public space within which politics is to be practised and the behaviour to be observed by those acting there. But the struggle against impunity also takes place on a symbolic level at which key symbols are appropriated, interpreted and incorporated into political discourse.


Some prospective, randomized clinical trials, including ATAC and BIG 1–98, demonstrated superior treatment effect of third‐generation aromatase inhibitors (AIs) versus tamoxifen in postoperative therapy for patients with breast cancer. In retrospective genotyping analyses of the 2 studies using tumor samples, no difference in the treatment effect of tamoxifen was observed by CYP2D6 genotypes. However, those analyses did not consider loss of heterozygosity that could have occurred when genotyping using tumor tissue. The present simulation study aimed to comparatively evaluate the treatment effect of tamoxifen versus AIs of anastrozole and letrozole by CYP2D6 genotypes. A meta‐analysis was conducted to estimate disease‐free survival (DFS) hazard ratios of CYP2D6 genotypes representing extensive metabolizers (EMs), HRW/W,TAM, versus intermediate metabolizers (IMs)/poor metabolizers (PMs), HRV/W,TAM, using previous study results in which genotypes were determined using blood samples. Based on known allele frequencies, the CYP2D6 genotype distribution of participants in ATAC and BIG 1–98 trials were simulated. Subsequently, DFS HRs of AIs versus tamoxifen by CYP2D6 genotypes (HRAI/TAM,W for EMs, HRAI/TAM,V for IMs/PMs) were estimated via regression analyses using NONMEM, based on the simulated genotype distributions, HRV/W,TAM, and HRs, of AIs versus tamoxifen (HRAI/TAM) reported in the ATAC and BIG 1–98 trials. Median HRAI/TAM,V (95% prediction interval [PI]) was 0.43 (0.23–0.79) and 0.40 (0.22–0.73) for the ATAC and BIG 1–98 trials, respectively. However, the corresponding HRAI/TAM,W values were 0.97 (0.84–1.11) and 0.91 (0.77–1.08), respectively. These results suggest that in patients with the CYP2D6 genotype representing EMs, the treatment effect of tamoxifen is comparable to that of AIs.


ABSTRACT: Synaptic degeneration and death of nerve cells are defining features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), the two most prevalent age‐related neurodegenerative disorders. In AD, neurons in the hippocampus and basal forebrain (brain regions that subserve learning and memory functions) are selectively vulnerable. In PD dopamine‐producing neurons in the substantia nigra‐striatum (brain regions that control body movements) selectively degenerate. Studies of postmortem brain tissue from AD and PD patients have provided evidence for increased levels of oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired glucose uptake in vulnerable neuronal populations. Studies of animal and cell culture models of AD and PD suggest that increased levels of oxidative stress (membrane lipid peroxidation, in particular) may disrupt neuronal energy metabolism and ion homeostasis, by impairing the function of membrane ion‐motive ATPases and glucose and glutamate transporters. Such oxidative and metabolic compromise may thereby render neurons vulnerable to excitotoxicity and apoptosis. Studies of the pathogenic mechanisms of AD‐linked mutations in amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilins strongly support central roles for perturbed cellular calcium homeostasis and aberrant proteolytic processing of APP as pivotal events that lead to metabolic compromise in neurons. Specific molecular "players" in the neurodegenerative processes in AD and PD are being identified and include Par‐4 and caspases (bad guys) and neurotrophic factors and stress proteins (good guys). Interestingly, while studies continue to elucidate cellular and molecular events occurring in the brain in AD and PD, recent data suggest that both AD and PD can manifest systemic alterations in energy metabolism (e.g., increased insulin resistance and dysregulation of glucose metabolism). Emerging evidence that dietary restriction can forestall the development of AD and PD is consistent with a major "metabolic" component to these disorders, and provides optimism that these devastating brain disorders of aging may be largely preventable.


The Iranian revolution—the political realization of the "Great Refusal" of Western modernization—was a direct consequence a half century later of the forced secularization of the Ottoman Caliphate by Kemal Ataturk. With the superstructure of the Muslim ummah dismantled and replaced by the Turkish nation state, insurgent religious movements, from the (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the Shiite imams of Qum and Najaf, moved into the vacuum to reclaim Islam from the shadow of Western dominance.

Now, history is turning again. Iran has been seized by violent turmoil as it seeks to reconcile democracy and religious rule. Secular Turkey is governed by an Islamist-rooted party. As they struggle to regain their balance, the global economic meltdown threatens a convergence against globalization that joins the Islamist resistance with populist backlashes elsewhere.

Two legendary intelligence agents, a Hezbollah leader, an Iranian dissident philosopher and Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate, examine this historical turn.


Catalytic DNA sequences (deoxyribozymes, DNA enzymes, or DNAzymes) have been identified by in vitro selection for various catalytic activities. Expanding the limits of DNA catalysis is an important fundamental objective and may facilitate practical utility of catalysts that can be obtained from entirely unbiased (random) sequence populations. In this study, we show that DNA can catalyze Zn2+-dependent phosphomonoester hydrolysis of tyrosine and serine side chains (i.e., exhibit phosphatase activity). The best deoxyribozyme decreases the half-life for phosphoserine hydrolysis from as high as >1010 y to <1 h. The phosphatase activity also occurs with nonpeptidic substrates but with reduced efficiency, indicating a preference for phosphopeptides. The newly identified deoxyribozymes can function with multiple turnover using free peptide substrates, have activity in the presence of human cell lysate or BSA, and catalyze dephosphorylation of a larger protein substrate, suggesting broader application of DNA catalysts as artificial phosphatases.


Abstract Integral membrane proteins fulfil important roles in many crucial biological processes, including cell signalling, molecular transport and bioenergetic processes. Advancements in experimental techniques are revealing high resolution structures for an increasing number of membrane proteins. Yet, these structures are rarely resolved in complex with membrane lipids. In 2015, the MemProtMD pipeline was developed to allow the automated lipid bilayer assembly around new membrane protein structures, released from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). To make these data available to the scientific community, a web database (http://memprotmd.bioch.ox.ac.uk) has been developed. Simulations and the results of subsequent analysis can be viewed using a web browser, including interactive 3D visualizations of the assembled bilayer and 2D visualizations of lipid contact data and membrane protein topology. In addition, ensemble analyses are performed to detail conserved lipid interaction information across proteins, families and for the entire database of 3506 PDB entries. Proteins may be searched using keywords, PDB or Uniprot identifier, or browsed using classification systems, such as Pfam, Gene Ontology annotation, mpstruc or the Transporter Classification Database. All files required to run further molecular simulations of proteins in the database are provided.


This article presents the results of a study in Flanders (Belgium) (N = 264) on the relationship between adolescents' peer group status, their gender and their involvement in different types of mobile phone cyberbullying. By means of a (within-classroom) free nominations procedure, likeability and perceived popularity scores were calculated for each respondent. Based on these scores, four groups were identified: popular controversial, popular liked, average and rejected adolescents. Even after controlling for age, gender, the frequency of voice calling and the frequency of text messaging, popular controversial adolescents were significantly more likely to make or send threatening/ insulting voice calls or text messages. They also gossiped significantly more frequently by means of voice calls or text messages. No relationship was found between peer group status and making hurtful pictures or videos. A significant interaction effect with gender was found for mobile phone gossiping: Popular controversial girls were more involved in gossiping than popular controversial boys.


Abstract A shortcoming of the laminated bending process is that the products may become distorted after moulding and during use. In this study, we have examined the influence of different UF-adhesive systems, adhesive distribution, and veneer properties such as species, moisture content, and fibre orientation. Two different species were studied: beech (Fagus silvatica L.) and birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.). Distortion was determined directly after moulding and after storage in a changing relative humidity. The aim of the work was to study how the above-mentioned material and process parameters influence the distortion. The results show that the material and process parameters and the storage in a changing relative humidity had a clear impact on distortion. Fibre orientation, differences in moisture content between veneers, and the moisture gradient in the final product are identified in this study as being the most important parameters influencing the distortion and shape stability of laminated veneer products.


With the advent of quantum and quantum-inspired machine learning, adapting the structure of learning models to match the structure of target datasets has been shown to be crucial for obtaining high performance. Probabilistic models based on tensor networks (TNs) are prime candidates to benefit from data-dependent design considerations, owing to their bias towards correlations which are local with respect to the topology of the model. In this work, we use methods from spectral graph theory to search for optimal permutations of model sites which are adapted to the structure of an input dataset. Our method uses pairwise mutual information estimates from the target dataset to ensure that strongly correlated bits are placed closer to each other relative to the model's topology. We demonstrate the effectiveness of such preprocessing for probabilistic modeling tasks, finding substantial improvements in the performance of generative models based on matrix product states (MPS) across a variety of datasets. We also show how spectral embedding, a dimensionality reduction technique from spectral graph theory, can be used to gain further insights into the structure of datasets of interest.


Faster technologies, tougher competition, and an uncertain economy have made success more elusive - and the workplace environment more stressful - than ever. To keep up, employees have felt increasingly compelled to spend more of their waking hours at the office. How can individuals balance daunting career demands and personal and family needs? How can managers lead employees in a business environment where work and personalities invariably conflict? Dr. Hal Levinson, a groundbreaking medical researcher, has explored these difficult questions for decades. This timely "Harvard Business Review Paperback" book marshals more than a dozen of Levinson's most insightful writings on work-life issues. From avoiding burnout to pursuing a second career, from dealing with abrasive personalities to handling the emotional and career challenges facing middle-aged managers, "Hal Levinson on the Psychology of Leadership" helps managers successfully work through common and vexing human issues encountered in the workplace.


The article presents a summary of the findings from a residents' survey conducted by the students of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (former Vilnius Pedagogical University) from 2007 to 2010 as part of their fieldwork practice in regional studies. Based on the data of 74 questionnaires, the article discusses the information that the residents have about hillforts in general and their relationship with the specific hillfort in their immediate environment.
 The survey was based on the following principles: (1) to be eligible for the survey, residents must have lived in the environment of a hillfort for a longer proportion of their life or must still live in the area of the hillfort, i.e., the hillfort must be constantly in a resident's field of vision, (2) residents have to be at least 50 years of age at the time of the survey, (3) former or present history teachers cannot take part in the survey, (4) the hillfort in the area the respondents of which are sought has to be sufficiently beautiful and easily recognisable, and (5) hillforts located in an urban area are excluded from the survey.
 The questionnaire was developed with reference to the current recommendations for survey methodology. It included a total of 70 questions covering various aspects starting from the information about the hillfort and its environment, and childhood memories, and ending with the current relationship with it. Considering the age group of the respondents, all questions were open-ended, and interviewing took place in the form of a conversation. In terms of gender, most respondents were women (58, or 78.4%), whereas men comprised about one-fifth of the respondents (16, or 21.6%). As regards age, residents born between 1931 and 1940 made up the majority of the respondents (31.4%), with six men and 25 women among them.
 Twelve questions were used to highlight the information about hillforts. The majority of the respondents were fairly well aware of the origin and purpose of hillforts; they knew a lot of hillforts and visited some of them; some were interested in the issues of hillfort origin and read something about it. Fourteen questions were used to identify the relationship with "one's own" hillfort. Despite the fact that the majority of the respondents viewed the hillfort as a witness of the past, they first of all saw it through their emotional and family prism. The majority of the residents were satisfied with the neighbourhood of a hillfort, which had become an indispensable part of their life and a very strong centre of attraction.
 The survey pinpointed yet another aspect – the attitude towards a hillfort as a witness of the fights of the past. Although the respondents were not asked about it, this aspect stood out in their answers about the definition of a hillfort, its purpose, the period of its origin, function, its name, legends and stories told by parents and teachers, and its peculiar features.


The study of a fluid trapped inside a spherical shell is of fundamental
interest in fluid mechanics, having given rise to numerous
theoretical and experimental studies. This is also a geometric
feature shared by geo- and astrophysical objects such as the interior
and atmosphere of the Earth, the interiors of stars, gas
giants, exoplanets and so on. Driven by these motivations, the
present work builds over past studies of the spherical Couette
system - two concentric differentially rotating spheres with the
space in between filled with a fluid. Despite the numerous theoretical
and experimental investigations, several aspects of this
system still remain elusive. Examples are the origin of special instabilities
called 'inertial modes', transition to turbulence and the
effect of magnetic fields on inertial modes. In the first part of
this work, numerical simulations are compared with experiments.
The focus is mainly on the origin of inertial modes in the system
which are global oscillatory modes of a rotating fluid restored by
the Coriolis force. Continuing this comparison, the work then focuses
on the transition to turbulence and features of the turbulent
regime. Lastly, an external axial magnetic field is applied to the
setup with a conducting fluid and its effect on the flow is studied
with special emphasis on the effect on inertial modes and
rise of a class of magneto-Coriolis modes where the restoring
forces consist of the Lorentz and Coriolis forces. Some aspects
are compared to observations in magnetohydrodynamic experiments.


The Synaptic Weight Matrix: Dynamics, Symmetry Breaking, and Disorder Francesco Fumarola A key role in simplified models of neural circuitry (Wilson and Cowan, 1972) is played by the matrix of synaptic weights, also called connectivity matrix, whose elements describe the amount of influence the firing of one neuron has on another. Biologically, this matrix evolves over time whether or not sensory inputs are present, and symmetries possessed by the internal dynamics of the network may break up spontaneously, as found in the development of the visual cortex (Hubel and Wiesel, 1977). In this thesis, a full analytical treatment is provided for the simplest case of such a biological phenomenon, a single dendritic arbor driven by correlation-based dynamics (Linsker, 1988). Borrowing methods from the theory of Schrödinger operators, a complete study of the model is performed, analytically describing the break-up of rotational symmetry that leads to the functional specialization of cells. The structure of the eigenfunctions is calculated, lower bounds are derived on the critical value of the correlation length, and explicit expressions are obtained for the long-term profile of receptive fields, i.e. the dependence of neural activity on external inputs. The emergence of a functional architecture of orientation preferences in the cortex is another crucial feature of visual information processing. This is discussed through a model consisting of large neural layers connected by an infinite number of Hebb-evolved arbors. Ohshiro and Weiliky (2006), in their study of developing ferrets, found correlation profiles of neural activity in contradiction with previous theories of the phenomenon (Miller, 1994; Wimbauer, 1998). The theory proposed herein, based upon the type of correlations they measured, leads to the emergence of three different symmetry classes. The contours of a highly structured phase diagram are traced analytically, and observables concerning the various phases are estimated in every phase by means of perturbative, asymptotic and variational methods. The proper modeling of axonal competition proves to be key to reproducing basic phenomenological features. While these models describe the long-term effect of synaptic plasticity, plasticity itself makes the connectivity matrix highly dependent on particular histories, hence its stochasticity cannot be considered perturbatively. The problem is tackled by carrying out a detailed treatment of the spectral properties of synaptic-weight matrices with an arbitrary distribution of disorder. Results include a proof of the asymptotic compactness of random spectra, calculations of the shape of supports and of the density profiles, a fresh analysis of the problem of spectral outliers, a study of the link between eigenvalue density and the pseudospectrum of the mean connectivity, and applications of these general results to a variety of biologically relevant examples. The strong non-normality of synaptic-weight matrices (biologically engineered through Dale's law) is believed to play important functional roles in cortical operations (Murphy and Miller, 2009; Goldman, 2009). Accordingly, a comprehensive study is dedicated to its effect on the transient dynamics of large disordered networks. This is done by adapting standard field-theoretical methods (such as the summation of ladder diagrams) to the nonHermitian case. Transient amplification of activity can be measured from the average norm squared; this is calculated explicitly for a number of cases, showing that transients are typically amplified by disorder. Explicit expressions for the power spectrum of response are derived and applied to a number of biologically plausible networks, yielding insights into the interplay between disorder and non-normality. The fluctuations of the covariance of noisy neural activity are also briefly discussed. Recent optogenetic measurements have raised questions on the link between synaptic structure and the response of disordered networks to targeted perturbations. Answering to these developments, formulae are derived that establish the operational regime of networks through their response to specific perturbations, and a minimal threshold is found to exist for counterintuitive responses of an inhibitory-stabilized circuit such as have been reported in Ozeki et al. (2016), Adesnik (2016), Kato et al. (2017). Experimental advances are also bringing to light unsuspected differences between various neuron types, which appear to translate into different roles in network function (Pfeffer et al., 2013; Tremblay et al., 2016). Accordingly, the last part of the thesis focuses on networks with an arbitrary number of neuronal types, and predictions are provided for the response of networks with a multipopulation structure to targeted input perturbations.


The market share of freight transport which is dominated by road transport and accompanied by unbalanced of infrastructure's growth and freight demand has created various negative impacts on existing transportation system. The shift of freight transport from road to rail and sea is expected to reduce those impacts. Research on the behavior of freight mode choice and the extent to which the user is willing to trade off the attribute change needs to be done so that the amount of modal shift will be known. The main objective of the study was to produce a model of mode choice based on preference surveys among forwarders, as well as to provide inputs for policy improvement and or improvement of freight transportation services. One of the surveys to be conducted is the revealed preference (RP) survey. The important stage before the RP survey is to conduct a preliminary survey. This stage aims to determine the important trends related to the choice of modes by the forwarder and test the response rate of respondents. The survey is also useful for assessing the credibility of the data instrument, identifying potential errors in the data instrument, and determining non-conformities in survey management before the actual survey. Data collection was done by sending questionnaires. The structure of the questionnaire consists of questions about characteristics of : shipment, travel, and modes. The results of survey showed relatively low response rate because it was only 8 respondents who were willing to answer the questionnaire. This indicates that the questionnaire needs to be combined with other methods, such as: face to face interviews and or focus groups. The results of the preliminary survey show that the main factors for the choice of existing modes are: shipment costs, loss/damage, and time travel. The implementation of the next stage survey should consider that each company has more than one shipping commodity so it is necessary to group questions and analysis based on each commodity.


Polystyrene formwork of lattice concrete wall is a set of lightweight, insulation, sound insulation, fireproof, bearing multi-function in one of the "EPS new energy-saving" wall structure system. Through the polystyrene formwork structure forms of optimized improvement built in construction process of collapse produced high wall plate phenomenon. Do an axial compression ratio of 0.2 lattice specimens of reinforced concrete shear wall in axis pressure and reciprocating level forces test. The damage form of that wall for wall bottom beam-column central cross core ring crack and appear "X" type crack and are crushed. The mesh wall formed strong vertical limb and weak horizontal limb,belongs to the ductility structure , and has more yield , and energy dissipation capacity , and wall overall performance is strong , and avoid brittle failure , and has good ductility、deformation ability and bearing capacity of the characteristics of big .The finite element analysis and experimental results indicated that the ultimate bearing capacity of the wall are the same. For new formworks do wall by finite element analysis, in do not affect its aseismic capacity premise that wall structure forms are optimized design.


A complementary DNA clone derived from rat brain messenger RNA has been isolated on the basis of homology to the human thyroid hormone receptor gene. Expression of this complementary DNA produces a high-affinity binding protein for thyroid hormones. Sequence analysis and the mapping of this gene to a distinct human genetic locus indicate the existence of multiple human thyroid hormone receptors. Messenger RNA from this gene is expressed in a tissue-specific fashion with highest levels in the central nervous system.


Traditional theories of aging claim that basic processing speed and memory capacities show inevitable decline with increasing age. Recent research, however, has shown that older experts in some domains are able to maintain their superior performance into old age. but even they display the typical age-related decline in performance on psychometric tests of fluid intelligence. The study of expert performance shows that adults retain the capacity to acquire and maintain performance with the appropriate type of training and practice, even speeded actions and many physiological adaptations. In fact, experts' performance keeps improving for several decades into adulthood and typically reaches its peak between 30 and 50 years of age. The experts can then maintain their attained performance level into old age by regular deliberate practice. Much of the observed decline in older adults' performance can be attributed to age-related reductions in engagement in domain-related activities—in particular, regular deliber...


Ditylenchus dipsaci Kühn were equally attracted to and equally invaded resistant ('Lahontan') and susceptible ('Ranger') germinating alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) seedlings exposed singly in moist sand except at a distance of 12.5 mm at 20 C when the susceptibles proved more attractive than the resistants. Larvae hatching from egg-masses of Meloidogyne hapla Chitwood were also attracted equally to germinating seedlings of resistant ('M-9') and susceptible ('Lahontan') alfalfa offered singly. When hatched midway between resistant and susceptible, however, more larvae were attracted to the susceptibles. M. hapla larvae were attracted equally to the root and stem apices, region of elongation, and upper hypocotyl of resistant and susceptible plants.


Here's the baseline. We have been living together in cities for more than 7,000 years. By and large, we used those seven millennia to hammer out some serious best-practices about cohabitation and transport in the urban theater and the importance of social fabric. We threw most of that knowledge under the wheels of the automobile shortly after we invented it and have subsequently suffered through a saeculum horribilis in the urban context. Our overenthusiasm for technology and our human tendency to suffer from short-term urban memory loss have further contributed to our zealous disregard for past experience.


Estragole is a naturally occurring food-borne genotoxic compound found in a variety of food sources, including spices and herbs. This results in human exposure to estragole via the regular diet. The objective of this study was to quantify the dose-dependent estragole-DNA adduct formation in rat liver and the urinary excretion of 1'-hydroxyestragole glucuronide in order to validate our recently developed physiologically based biodynamic (PBBD) model. Groups of male outbred Sprague Dawley rats (n = 10, per group) were administered estragole once by oral gavage at dose levels of 0 (vehicle control), 5, 30, 75, 150, and 300mg estragole/kg bw and sacrificed after 48h. Liver, kidney and lungs were analysed for DNA adducts by LC-MS/MS. Results obtained revealed a dose-dependent increase in DNA adduct formation in the liver. In lungs and kidneys DNA adducts were detected at lower levels than in the liver confirming the occurrence of DNA adducts preferably in the target organ, the liver. The results obtained showed that the PBBD model predictions for both urinary excretion of 1'-hydroxyestragole glucuronide and the guanosine adduct formation in the liver were comparable within less than an order of magnitude to the values actually observed in vivo. The PBBD model was refined using liver zonation to investigate whether its predictive potential could be further improved. The results obtained provide the first data set available on estragole-DNA adduct formation in rats and confirm their occurrence in metabolically active tissues, i.e. liver, lung and kidney, while the significantly higher levels found in liver are in accordance with the liver as the target organ for carcinogenicity. This opens the way towards future modelling of dose-dependent estragole liver DNA adduct formation in human.


The synergy between peer-to-peer systems and semantic Web technologies supports large-scale sharing of semantically rich data, usually represented through schemas such as RDF. Peers rarely share the same vocabulary, so the resulting heterogeneity of data representations introduces new challenges for the efficient and effective retrieval of relevant information. The authors leverage the presence of semantic approximations between peers' schemas to improve query routing by identifying the peers that best satisfy the user's requests, and to inform users of the relevance of the returned answers through a ranking mechanism that promotes the most semantically related results.


The study is based in the Mpumalanga Province and focused on a sample of 18 externally evaluated underperforming secondary schools across all four districts of the province. The schools obtained less than 30% average pass rate of learners in the 2011 Grade 12 examinations. The main objectives of the study were to analyse the purpose of Whole School Evaluation (WSE) from a quality assurance perspective, investigate the significance of a key component of WSE, namely, teaching, learning and educator development, analyse the Grade 12 results of externally evaluated underperforming secondary schools prior and post evaluation, analyse monitoring and evaluation reports for changes in teaching, learning and teacher development, as well as identify factors impeding teaching, learning and teacher development in underperforming secondary schools. The mixed methods approach was used. This approach made it easy to reconcile findings through triangulation and complementing qualitative and quantitative data (both primary and secondary).This study relied on secondary data (WSE external evaluation reports and Grade 12 results), as well as primary data obtained from questionnaires administered to school management teams (SMTs) of the sampled underperforming secondary schools. The study exposed the great level of acceptance of the external WSE process by SMTs in Mpumalanga Province underperforming secondary schools, as a means of quality assurance towards improvement. Furthermore, it revealed the extent to which improvement and development of schools in the underperforming schools as a result of the external WSE process. The study also indicated that the results of seventeen of the eighteen schools (94.4%) improved. Furthermore, the study confirmed that what was revealed in the external WSE as areas for development became a revelation to SMTs. As a result, the manner in which teaching, learning and teacher development (AFE4) as a key component of WSE is viewed by teachers and SMTs, has been positively influenced. The study produced new knowledge through the development of a theoretical model. This model is based on the view that effective external WSE process, as a dependent variable, is significantly influenced by predictor (independent) variables. The predictor (independent) variables are planning for teaching; teaching strategies; assessment of learners; teacher development; and management of teaching and learning processes (curriculum management). This emerging theoretical model is based on the belief that, the more one increases independent variables (they can be from any of the nine AFEs' criteria), the more the dependent variable (effectiveness of external WSE process) is strengthened.


Many of the questions of concern to information system (IS) researchers and practitioners are, in essence, behavioral questions. Behavioral considerations in the design and implementation of information systems and in the management of IS professionals are crucial to the successful development and delivery of quality services to users. Implementation of IS may provide a beneficial means to facilitate changes in task design, organizational structure, and social relations. Guidance for interpreting past MIS behavioral research and suggestions for future studies are provided by a proposed research framework. The importance of adopting behavioral science research standards, e.g., theory-based research questions and appropriate methodology, is stressed.


The synthesis of the hydrophobic mesoporous silica MS(F) was performed using tetraethyl orthosilicate, triethoxyfluorosilane as the source of the fluoride and dodecylamine as templates. The TiO2 loaded on the hydrophobic MS(F) (TiO2/MS(F)) exhibited the efficient photocatalytic performance for the degradation of alcohols (iso-butanol) diluted in water. The photocatalytic reactivity for the degradation increased with increasing the content of fluoride ions on these photocatalysts. The hydrophobic mesoporous surface is suitable as the photocatalytic reaction field for the degradation of organic compounds diluted water.


Novel material for chromatographic separations, processes for its preparation, and separations devices containing the chromatographic material. In particular, the disclosure describes porous inorganic/organic hybrid particles having a chromatographically-enhancing pore geometry, which desirably may be surface modified, and that offer more efficient chromatographic separations than that known in the art.


Existing Web search systems have the following problems. They cannot show Web contents that are related to the keywords but do not match to them. And the relationship between contents is unknown. This makes continuous navigation between contents through keywords impossible. The purpose of this study is to solve these problems, as examined in terms of visualization of the search results and of the strengths of relationships between Web contents. The paper proposes some visualization models, it also describes the development of a Web search system. The system has the following functions: (1) reference based on the strengths of relationships between Web contents; (2) visualization of the relationships among Web contents; (3) continuous navigation between Web contents through characteristic keywords. By using the system, users can navigate on Web pages from different viewpoints.


It is well known that neonatal cardiac surgery is frequently associated with poor neurodevelopmental outcome. Researchers from the Netherlands performed a systematic review of the outcome from non-cardiac neonatal surgery. They identified 23 studies of 895 children operated in the first 4 weeks of life. The development of 511 (57%) was assessed at 12 and 24 months using Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Children with known chromosomal or syndromic abnormalities were excluded. Developmental delay was identified in a median of 23% (range 3–56%). Meta-analysis showed a mean cognitive score 0.5 standard deviation below the population average (Mental Development Index 92 13, mean standard deviation; P < 0.001). Motor development was delayed in 25% (0–77%). Reported risk factors for psychomotor delay included low birth weight, a greater number of congenital anomalies, duration of hospital admission and repeated surgery. Limitations included small sample sizes, heterogeneous study populations and relatively few neurodevelopmental assessments. It seems probable that children requiring neonatal surgery are more likely to have associated congenital neurodevelopmental problems, but anaesthesia and surgery might conceivably be harmful.


Aged skeletal muscle is characterized by poor muscle recovery following disuse coinciding with an impaired muscle pro‐inflammatory macrophage response. Macrophage inflammatory status is regulated by its metabolic state, but little is understood of macrophage metabolism and its relation to macrophage inflammation in the context of muscle recovery and aging. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to thoroughly characterize macrophage metabolism and inflammation in aged muscle during early recovery following disuse atrophy using single cell transcriptomics and functional assays. Young (4–5 months) and old (20–22 months) male C57BL/6 mice underwent 14 days of hindlimb unloading followed by 4 days of ambulatory recovery. CD45+ cells were isolated from solei muscles and analyzed using 10x Genomics single cell RNA sequencing. We found that aged pro‐inflammatory macrophage clusters were characterized with an impaired inflammatory and glycolytic transcriptome, and this dysregulation was accompanied by a suppression of HIF‐1α and its immediate downstream target, Glut1. As a follow‐up, bone marrow‐derived macrophages were isolated from a separate cohort of young and old mice at 4‐d recovery and were polarized to a pro‐inflammatory phenotype and used for glycolysis stress test, phagocytosis activity assay, and targeted GC‐MS metabolomics. Aged bone marrow‐derived pro‐inflammatory macrophages were characterized with impaired glycolysis and phagocytosis function, decreased succinate and an accumulation of glycolytic metabolic intermediates overall supporting reduced glycolytic flux and macrophage function. Our results indicate that the metabolic reprograming and function of aged skeletal muscle pro‐inflammatory macrophages are dysfunctional during early recovery from disuse atrophy possibly attributing to attenuated regrowth.


Many benign lesions can arise from oral soft tissues: they are inflammatory lesions like pyogenic granuloma or papillary hyperplasia and benign neoplasms as minor salivary gland adenoma or nodular fasciitis. All of these lesions have similar clinical presentation: they usually present as painless mass of the oral soft tissues associated with overlying skin and oral mucosa that are intact; in other cases the lesions involve the oral mucosa that can be ulcerated and bleeding.
The differential diagnosis of all of these lesions among them and with malignant primitive and metastatic tumours can be very difficult because of their clinical presentation and instrumental examinations that are often equivalent.
In this research project the author has evaluated and followed 63 patients that presented to the Maxillo-Facial Unit of the University of Sassari in the period fom 2006 until 2008 with benign lesions of the oral soft tissues.
The most frequent lesion was the squamous papilloma, then in descending order the patients presented benign histiocytoma, pyogenic granuloma, minor salivary gland adenoma, peripherical ossifying fibroma, solitary fibrousus tumour and oral mucinosis.
The author has demonstrated that the histologic examination of a preoperative biopsy or of the entire lesion, if its dimension are less than 2 cm, is the only possibility to make the right diagnosis and to decide the correct treatment.


: Histone-like proteins were isolated from blood plasma of rats with tumors. By polyacrylamide gel disc electrophoresis the proteins were separated into two fractions, resembling in their mobility histone fractions H1 and H2b+H2a. Basic proteins, occurring in blood plasma and used as standards (globulin, interferon, RNAase, lysozyme), were markedly distinct in their electrophoretic properties from both histone fractions and the histone-like proteins isolated from blood plasma. These histones apparently originate from nucleoproteins of blood plasma.


Nearly half a century after it unfolded, American anthropology's so-called "Thailand Controversy" remains a matter of contention, as controversial as ever. In his recent contribution to SOJOURN, "Phantom Scandal: On the National Uses of the 'Thailand Controversy'", Hjorleifur Jonsson (2014) argues that the episode is best understood as a witch hunt conducted by anthropologists and that it constitutes an unfortunate blight on the discipline of anthropology. I want to take issue both with significant aspects of the story as Jonsson recounts it and with some of the lessons that he draws from it. As one whose anthropological career has been profoundly shaped by my experiences in Southeast Asia and by the Thailand Controversy as it happened, my perspective on the matter differs distinctly from Jonsson's. Moreover, the events concerned continue to inform anthropology's ties to the military; the controversy's relevance is of more than antiquarian interest.


Using Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations we numerically calculate the disorder averaged density of states of disordered semiconductor nanowires driven into a putative topological p-wave superconducting phase by spin-orbit coupling, Zeeman spin splitting and s-wave superconducting proximity effect induced by a nearby superconductor. Comparing with the corresponding theoretical self-consistent Born approximation (SCBA) results treating disorder effects, we comment on the topological phase diagram of the system in the presence of increasing disorder. Although disorder strongly suppresses the zero-bias peak (ZBP) associated with the Majorana zero mode, we find some clear remnant of a ZBP even when the topological gap has essentially vanished in the SCBA theory because of disorder. We explicitly compare effects of disorder on the numerical density of states in the topological and trivial phases.


A speech recognizer includes a plurality of stored constrained hidden Markov model reference templates and a set of stored signals representative of prescribed acoustic features of the said plurality of reference patterns. The Markov model template includes a set of N state signals. The number of states is preselected to be independent of the reference pattern acoustic features and preferably substantially smaller than the number of acoustic feature frames of the reference patterns. An input utterance is analyzed to form a sequence of said prescribed feature signals representative of the utterance. The utterance representative prescribed feature signal sequence is combined with the N state constrained hidden Markov model template signals to form a signal representative of the probability of the utterance being each reference pattern. The input speech pattern is identified as one of the reference patterns responsive to the probability representative signals.


Background Depressive symptoms negatively influence global cognition in the elderly; however, the mechanism of this effect remains unclear. Objective To investigate whether depressive symptoms influence global cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) by impeding specific neuropsychological abilities and under what conditions this effect might occur. Method A sample of 259 participants (104 cognitively normal elderly controls, 66 patients with MCI and 89 patients with mild AD) underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Global cognitive impairment was indexed by the composite of Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores and severity of depressive symptoms was measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Results Among patients with MCI, greater severity of depressive symptoms was associated with greater global cognitive impairment, with a moderate effect size. A mediation analysis revealed that patients with MCI experiencing depressive symptoms may exhibit global cognitive impairment because their depressive symptoms were reducing their capacity for working memory, episodic memory and non-speed-based executive functions. A moderation analysis indicated that this effect was consistent across age, gender, years of education and APOE-e4 status for working memory and episodic memory, and was observed in patients with MCI older than 65 years for executive functions. In cognitively normal elderly adults and patients with AD, depressive symptoms were not associated with global cognitive impairment. Conclusions Depressive symptoms influence global cognitive function in patients with MCI indirectly by reducing mental space, mental flexibility and their capacity for consolidating and retrieving memories. These findings may guide clinicians to better diagnose and manage cognitive impairment in the context of concomitant depressive symptoms.