Reserpine exerts direct effects on several tissues, including inhibition of hormone release from rat anterior pituitary cells. To test the hypothesis that reserpine may be acting as a calcium channel antagonist, normal or GH3 rat anterior pituitary cells were preincubated in reserpine or the conventional calcium channel blocker, D-600, followed by exposure to 45Ca2+ together with stimulants of calcium uptake: maitotoxin, a potent calcium channel activator; A23187, a calcium ionophore; or 50 mMK+. After incubation, the cells were harvested by vacuum filtration and cell-associated radioactivity determined. In normal cells, reserpine blocked both basal and K+-stimulated calcium uptake. Reserpine selectively blocked maitotoxin but not A23187-induced calcium uptake. In GH3 cells 9 microM reserpine and 30 microM D-600 were equally effective in blocking maitotoxin-stimulated calcium uptake. Reserpine appears to block voltage-dependent calcium channels in pituitary cells in a concentration-dependent manner but not calcium uptake caused nonspecifically by A23187.


Abstract We summarize the known methods of producing a non-supercompact strongly compact cardinal and describe some new variants. Our Main Theorem shows how to apply these methods to many cardinals simultaneously and exactly control which cardinals are supercompact and which are only strongly compact in a forcing extension. Depending upon the method, the surviving non-supercompact strongly compact cardinals can be strong cardinals, have trivial Mitchell rank or even contain a club disjoint from the set of measurable cardinals. These results improve and unify Theorems 1 and 2 of [5], due to the first author.


A series of 5-carbethoxy-4-chloro-6-(substituted amino)pyrimidines was designed on the basis of its good 3-dimensional structural similarity with mefenamic acid (CAS 61-68-7), a well known anti-inflammatory drug. Synthesis of some 5-carbethoxy-4-chloro-6-(substitutedamino)pyrimidines has been achieved by cyclization of N-(cyanovinyl)formamidine intermediate in the presence of dry HCl. Target compounds were evaluated for their analgesic and anti-inflammatory potential by known experimental models. Some of the compounds emerged as more potent analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents than the standard drug diclofenac sodium (CAS 15307-79-6). A very low ulcer index was observed with the most potent compound.


Background: Homeless young people represent one of the most vulnerable groups in society, yet little is known about cognition, and especially executive functioning, in this group. Executive functions (EFs), higher-order cognitive processes important for adaptation, have been identified as likely key contributors to the capacity to exit homelessness. However, most homeless young people have experienced multiple adversities, with potential
implications for EF development. To address gaps in current knowledge, this thesis aimed to profile executive functions among homeless young people and compare the profile to housed young people. Associations between EFs and mental health, and relationships between EFs and short-term housing outcomes were also explored.
Methods: Sixty-nine homeless young people (16-19 years) from a homelessness charity, and 37 age-matched housed young people from a college/sixth form participated. Computerised EF tasks spanned the domains of working
memory, set shifting/flexibility, planning, impulsivity/risky decision making, selective attention/inhibition, creative thinking, and verbal fluency.
Results: Homeless young people demonstrated worse performance than housed youth on several EF tasks, particularly working memory and impulsivity/risky decision making. No differences were found between the
groups in creativity. Rates of anxiety were higher in the homeless group, but not depression. Working memory predicted progression into more independent accommodation, such that those with longer working memory
spans were twice as likely to have progressed rather than maintained after six months. Anxiety and depression did not seem to moderate this effect. A minority of young people had negative housing outcomes and were profiled
separately. Conclusion: Findings from this thesis suggest that EFs should not continue to be overlooked by researchers and services, as they can impact on a homeless young person's ability to move towards independence. Emerging adulthood, as a sensitive period for EF development, is likely to represent an opportune
time for intervention to improve the likelihood of positive housing outcomes in homeless young people.


Recently we have demonstrated that tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) can be activated by cervical carcinoma cells expressing the costimulatory molecule CD80, which may be used as a therapeutic vaccine for patients with cervical cancer. For activated CTLs to be effective, appropriate amounts of MHC class I expression are required on target tumor cells. In this study, we found that some cervical carcinoma cells expressed only low levels of MHC class I and adhesion molecules such as CD54. We further demonstrated that tumor cells (CaSki and SiHa) expressing low levels of MHC class I were more resistant to lysis by specific CTLs than tumor cells (HeLa) expressing high levels of MHC class I. Treatment of CaSki or SiHa cells with interferon-gamma resulted in an increased expression of MHC class I, MHC class II, and CD54. Expression of CD58 and CD80 was not up-regulated or induced. Treatment of the tumor cells with interferon-gamma significantly enhanced the lysis of the tumor cells by specific CTLs which had been activated by the respective CD80-expressing tumor cells. The enhancement of cytolysis could be blocked by monoclonal antibodies to MHC class I and CD54, but not by that to MHC class II. Furthermore, we found that interferon-gamma induced apoptosis in cervical carcinoma cells but not in tumor-specific CTLs.


The characteristics of QSH (quasi shear horizontal) acoustic waves propagating in thin plates of Y-cut, X-propagation lithium niobate are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The fractional velocity change (/spl Delta//spl nu///spl nu/) produced by electrical shorting of the surface is calculated as a function of the normalized plate thickness h//spl lambda/ (h=plate thickness, /spl lambda/=acoustic wavelength). It was found that values of /spl Delta//spl nu///spl nu/ as high as 0.18 could be obtained. Experimental measurements show good agreement with theory. The properties of QSH waves propagating in the presence of a perfectly conducting electrode separated from the piezoelectric plate by a small air gap have been studied theoretically and experimentally. It was found that by varying the height of the gap, the phase shift through a 3.2-MHz QSH wave delay line can be varied by more than 230/spl deg/. We have also theoretically investigated the influence of a thin layer of arbitrary conductivity on the velocity and attenuation of the QSH wave. Calculations show that the variations in these parameters can be as high as 18% and 5 dB per wavelength for a change in layer surface conductance from 10/sup -7/ to 10/sup -5/ S. Results obtained in this paper confirm the attractive properties of QSH waves for a variety of sensing and signal processing applications.


Low concentrations of methanol, 2-propanol and ethylene glycol increase the asymmetry of the flagellar waveforms ad the turning rate of both live sperm and potentially symmetrical sperm reactivated with 1 mM-MgATP2-, while at the same time causing a decrease in the heat frequency. Similar effects are observed if the solvents are added to preparations of potentially symmetrical sperm reactivated in the presence of 1 mM free Ca2+, or to potentially asymmetrical sperm reactivated without added Ca2+, A second group of solvents, N,N-dimethylformamide, formamide and p-dioxane, also decrease the flagellar beat frequency, but have the opposite effect on symmetry, reducing the asymmetry of the waveforms and the turning rate of potentially symmetrical sperm reactivated in the presence of 1 mM free Ca2+. These effects of solvents are all reversible within about 5 min after initial exposure to solvent. Higher concentrations of methanol and 2-propanol (above approximately 5 and 0.8 mole %, respectively) induce quiescence in potentially asymmetrical sperm reactivated with concentrations of MgATP2- ranging from 10 microM to 1 mM. The quiescent flagella initially assume a bent form very similar to that seen in Ca2+-induced quiescence, and show a subsequent time-dependent distortion of the initial bent from with eventual disintegration and splitting off of bundles of microtubules. Dimethylformamide, formamide and dioxane have almost no effect on the intrinsic asymmetry of potentially asymmetrical sperm reactivated in the absence of added Ca2+, but addition of these solvents to potentially asymmetrical sperm that have been induced to become quiescent by addition of 0.1 mM free Ca2+ causes the sperm to resume swimming with flagellar waveforms that are substantially more symmetrical that those of the starting preparation before the addition of Ca2+. Mild digestion with trypsin of reactivated sperm that have been induced either to beat asymmetrically or to become quiescent by addition of methanol causes a gradual appearance of symmetrical flagellar beating, as in the case of Ca2+-induced quiescence. The flagellar beat frequency, however, remains low, at about 20 Hz. The results suggest that the solvents either mimic or block the action of CA2+ by interaction with a Ca2+-dependent regulatory protein, and may also induce alteration in the rate constants of dynein ATPase.


OBJECTIVE
In this study, we aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of canine leishmaniosis among dogs that live in the town center due to a lack of data on the prevalence of canine leishmaniasis (CanL) in Edirne.

METHODS
In the present study, 37 dogs living in a municipal dog and cat shelter in Edirne were screened for leishmaniosis by the ındirect fluorescent antibody test.

RESULTS
All samples were found to be seronegative.

CONCLUSION
Our study is a preliminary study for Edirne. We wish to perform a large-scale seroepidemiological study with a larger number of dogs from different regions and identify Phlebotomus species.


Motor cortex output is capable of considerable reorganization, which involves modulation of excitability within the cortex. Does such reorganization also involve changes beyond the cortex, at the level of throughput from single motor cortex neurons to muscle activity? We examined such throughput during a paradigm that provided incentive for enhancing functional connectivity from motor cortex neurons to muscles. Short-latency throughput from a recorded neuron to muscle activity not present during some behavioral epochs often appeared during others. Such changes in throughput could not always be attributed to a higher neuron firing rate, to more ongoing muscle activity, or to neuronal synchronization, indicating that reorganization of motor cortex output may involve rapid changes in functional connectivity from single motor cortex neurons to α-motoneuron pools.


Abstract Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are structural materials, which have useful properties that combine high strength at high temperatures with moderate toughness. Carbon fibers within a matrix of carbon and silicon carbide, called C/C–SiC, are a particular class of CMC noted for their high oxidation resistance. Here we use a combination of four-point bending and X-ray radiography, to study the mechanical failure of C/C-SiC CMCs. Correlating X-ray radiographic and load/displacement curve data reveals that the fiber bundles act to slow down crack propagation during four-point bending tests. We attribute this to the fact that strain energy is expended in breaking these fibers and in pulling fiber bundles out of the surrounding matrix material. In addition, we find that the local distribution and concentration of SiC plays an important role in reducing the toughness of the material.


With the bone impaction grafting technique, a 50/50 volume mix of morselized cancellous bone (MCB) with TCP-HA granules was used to reconstruct a critical sized acetabular defect in the goat. The biological activity of the MCB/TCP-HA mix was assessed after 15 weeks. Defects filled with 100% MCB, currently the gold standard for this technique, were used as controls. In the 100% MCB defects, a new trabecular bone structure was found in which scarce incorporated remnants of the original graft material were present. In the MCB/TCP-HA defects, MCB was also resorbed or incorporated into new bone. Deep in the MCB-TCP-HA defects, large TCP-HA granules were generally totally osseous-integrated with new bone. Superficially, more fragmented TCP-HA granules of various sizes were present in the medullar tissue or in the interface with the cement layer. Here, the crushed TCP-HA granules were generally surrounded by osteoclasts and giant cells. The soft tissue interface between the reconstruction and cement did not differ between both groups. In conclusion, from a biological point of view, this short-term follow-up study suggests that TCP-HA granules can be safely used in a mix with MCB as bone graft extender in acetabular revision surgery with the bone impaction grafting technique.


Taiwan Southern Min ka and hoo have been broadly investigated in the literature (e.g., Cheng et al. 1999, Lien 2002, Tsao 2005). However, very little of the previous research has focused on the interaction between these two functional words. This paper thus explores structures with a ka…hoo configuration. Through the examination of corpus data, this paper finds that ka…hoo constructions are mainly separated into two constructions: ditransitive and resultative constructions. Based on the constructional approach, the ditransitive construction is found to include four construction patterns which can help differentiate verb types. In addition, the event structure account of the resultative ka…hoo construction is explored. It is posited that the event telicity may change when the causative word hoo overtly occurs. The distinction between a ditransitive and a resultative ka…hoo construction significantly reduces the confusion in data where the ka…hoo configuration is found.


The Kerr reflection and the Faraday transmission relations are calculated for a magnetized slab of homogeneous isotropic material bounded by two nonmagnetic lossless media. Only the electric dipole contributions to optical properties of the media are considered. The light is obliquely incident on the slab and the applied magnetic field is placed in the polar, the longitudinal, and the transverse directions. Calculations for a single pass of the light through the slab are carried out for the transmitted light. The polar and longitudinal Faraday effects for a thin slab are shown to contain a constant term independent of thickness. The first-order transmission effect for a transverse magnetic field is independent of thickness.


Although the phenomenal relationship between epigenetics and aging phenotypic changes is built up, an intrinsic connection between the epigenetics and aging requires to be theoretically illuminated. In this study, we propose epigenetic recording of varied cell environment and complex history could be an origin of cellular aging. Through epigenetic modifications, the environment and historical events can induce the chromatin template into activated or repressive accessible structure, thereby shaping the DNA template into a spectrum of chromatin states. The inner nature of diversity and conflicts born by cell environment and its historical events are hence recorded into the chromatin template. This could result in a dissipated spectrum of chromatin state and chaos of overall gene expressions. An unavoidable degradation of epigenome entropy, similar to Shannon entropy, would be consequently induced. The resulted disorder in epigenome, characterized by corrosion of epigenome entropy as reflected in chromatin template, can be stably memorized and propagated through cell divisions. Furthermore, hysteresis nature of epigenetics responding to emerging environment could exacerbate the degradation of epigenome entropy. Besides stochastic errors, we propose that epigenetics disorder and chaos derived from unordered environment and complex cell experiences play an essential role in epigenetic drift and the as-resulted cellular aging.


Perioperative organ injury is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality of surgical patients. Among different types of perioperative organ injury, acute kidney injury occurs particularly frequently and has an exceptionally detrimental effect on surgical outcomes. Currently, acute kidney injury is most commonly diagnosed by assessing increases in serum creatinine concentration or decreased urine output. Recently, novel biomarkers have become a focus of translational research for improving timely detection and prognosis for acute kidney injury. However, specificity and timing of biomarker release continue to present challenges to their integration into existing diagnostic regimens. Despite many clinical trials using various pharmacologic or nonpharmacologic interventions, reliable means to prevent or reverse acute kidney injury are still lacking. Nevertheless, several recent randomized multicenter trials provide new insights into renal replacement strategies, composition of intravenous fluid replacement, goal-directed fluid therapy, or remote ischemic preconditioning in their impact on perioperative acute kidney injury. This review provides an update on the latest progress toward the understanding of disease mechanism, diagnosis, and managing perioperative acute kidney injury, as well as highlights areas of ongoing research efforts for preventing and treating acute kidney injury in surgical patients.


We describe a new species of purple nonsulfur bacteria, which has the ability to grow under photoautotrophic growth conditions with sulfide as an electron donor and shows the characteristic properties of Rhodobacter species (i.e., ovoid to rod-shaped cells, vesicular internal photosynthetic membranes, bacteriochlorophyll a and carotenoids of the spheroidene series as photosynthetic pigments). In its physiological properties this new species is particularly similar to the recently described species Rhodobacter adriaticus, but it shows enough differences compared with R. adriaticus and the other Rhodobacter species to be recognized as a separate species. In honor of Hans Veldkamp, a Dutch microbiologist, the name Rhodobacter veldkampii sp. nov. is proposed.


Conventional password-based authentication is considered inadequate by users as many online services started to affect each other. Online credentials are used to recover other credentials and complex attacks are directed to the weakest one of many of these online credentials. As researchers are looking for new authentication techniques, one time passwords, which is a two-factor authentication scheme, looks like a natural enhancement over conventional username/password schemes. The manuscript places the OTP verifier to the cloud to ease adoption of its usage by cloud service providers. When the OTP verifier is placed on the cloud as a service, other cloud service providers could outsource their OTP deployments as well as cloud users could activate their respective account on the OTP provider on several cloud services. This enables them to use several cloud services without the difficulty of managing several OTP accounts for each cloud service. On the other hand, OTP service provision saves inexperienced small to medium enterprises from spending extra costs for OTP provisioning hardware, software, and employers. The paper outlines architecture to build a secure, privacy-friendly, and sound OTP provider in the cloud to outsource the second factor of authentication. Cloud user registration to OTP provider, service provider activation, and authentication phases are inspected. The security and privacy considerations of the proposed architecture are defined and analyzed. Attacks from outsiders, unlinkability properties of user profiles, attacks from curious service providers or OTP verifiers are mitigated within the given assumptions. The proposed solution, which locates the OTP provider in the cloud, is rendered robust and sound as a result of the analysis.


Background The number of female smokers developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is rapidly increasing, but whether or not there exists a differential susceptibility by gender remains controversial. Methods How smoking behaviour and subsequent lung function reduction differed by gender was examined in a study including 954 subjects with COPD and 955 subjects without COPD. The study focused on two subgroups: subjects with COPD <60 years of age (early-onset group, n=316) and subjects with COPD with <20 pack-years of smoking (low exposure group, n=241). Results In the low exposure group, female subjects with COPD had lower forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) % predicted (48.7% vs 55.8%, p=0.001) and more severe disease (50.4% vs 35.6%, p=0.020, in GOLD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) stage 3 and 4) than male subjects with COPD. Females also had lower FEV1% predicted (50.6% vs 56.0%, p=0.006) and more severe COPD (41.7% vs 31.1% in GOLD stage 3 and 4, p=0.050) in the early-onset group. Using multivariate regression, female gender was associated with 5.7% lower FEV1% predicted in the low exposure group (p=0.012) and a similar trend was observed in the early-onset group (p=0.057). The number of pack-years was not significantly associated with lung function in female subjects with COPD in this study, and the dose–response relationship between smoking and lung function differed by gender at lower levels of smoking exposure. Interaction analysis suggested that the effect of smoking on lung function might be different by gender (p=0.027 in all subjects with COPD). Conclusions Female gender was associated with lung function reduction and more severe disease in subjects with COPD with early onset of disease or low smoking exposure. The findings may suggest a gender difference in susceptibility to the lung-damaging effects of cigarette smoking, but alternative explanations should be considered.


Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2002. 64 pages including color plates. $29.00. Valentin Lustig is the son of Holocaust survivors from Cluj, Romania. Art Historian Edith Balas calls him not a child of survivors (Lustig was born in 1955) but "a child of the Holocaust" (p. 10). Lustig studied art in Romania with Lazlo Toth, arrived in Israel in 1974, went on to study painting in Florence, and now lives in Europe. Well exhibited in Europe, his work on the Holocaust has largely been unknown until the welcome research by Edith Balas helped create this volume, which appears more like a catalogue. Lustig's paintings, well-documented in this work, strike one at first as surrealist in nature but also harken back to the Renaissance style of Breugel and Bosch, and more recently to the fantastic realism of Vienna artist Erich Brauer, who also painted some extraordinary themes about Jewish history and the Holocaust. Most significantly, of the twenty-five paintings shown and discussed in this volume, none have titles that mention the Holocaust. In terms of subject, a viewer not familiar with the Holocaust might discern ominous symbols in these works but no clear narrative dedicated to the representation of Jewish suffering. Thus, an essential question that runs through Lustig's painting, and all such post-Holocaust painting, is the question of what the artist intends to represent, and how it should be represented. Among post-Holocaust artists, many have sought new inroads of representation but have become slaves to the well-known symbols of oppression, which by now have become cliches: the guard tower, barbed wire, railroad tracks, the Yellow Star, the camp uniform, the Swastika, and so forth. Chances are the proliferation of art laden with such symbolism will be relegated to the trash heap, despite the serious intentions of every artist. Those artists who have created works with new insights seem to be those who have used elements such as classicism and mythological references, fragmented images not dependent on those so well-known from the camps and ghettos themselves, new symbolic language, metaphor, contemporary poetry, subjects and mediums with an edge, and even "beautiful" images with strong colors. Lustig falls into this latter category. His works are allegorical, mysterious, colorful, sometimes fantastic and even beautiful. Once the artist's biography is introduced, a Holocaust context is established which becomes easier to comprehend. One such image is of exile. "The Traveler" (1992), "Cautious Approach to the Monuments" (1997), "The Solemn Reception of Maria Theresia in the Harbor of Klausenburg" (1999), "The Never-Ending Ascension to the Alps" (1999), and "Ellis Island" (2000) all contain images of presumably Jewish refugees in some stage of their exile carrying suitcases. Lustig, however, does not make this theme so obvious, as the images are often concealed in a complex landscape that includes foreboding places, competitive events, and the gaze of onlookers. In essence the viewer gets no easy answers but has to play detective. The images are powerful, but they also raise the issue of alternative interpretation which is so common and necessary in art. "Cautious Approach to Monuments," for example, is sufficiently generic with its refugee image and East European landscape to be symbolic of not only the Jewish issues, but also more recent refugee questions in Bosnia and Kosovo. …


The respective involvement of transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms in coupling H3 and H4 histone gene expression to the S phase of the cell cycle has been studied in synchronized tobacco cells. Induction of histone gene expression at the G1/S transition is shown to be essentially directed by an increase in the transcription rate in response to cellular signals occurring at the initiation step of DNA replication. Histone gene induction thus precedes the burst of DNA synthesis. However, when the elongation step of DNA replication is ineffective or artificially arrested, feedback mechanisms apparently act at the translation level to avoid overproduction of histone proteins from their mRNAs. At the end of S phase, post-transcriptional mechanisms ensure a rapid degradation of histone mRNAs. Transcription factors are bound to the cis -elements of histone promoters throughout the cell cycle, thus suggesting a post-translational modification of some of them to trigger promoter activation at the G1/S transition. Based on these results, a model is proposed for histone gene transcriptional induction in connection with the components of the cell cycle machinery.


Abstract Coxsackieviruses (CV), as all enteroviruses, are small, non-enveloped, icosahedral-shaped capsid viruses. They belong to the family Picornaviridae. This group was named after the town of Coxsackie in New York State (USA) where was recognized the first human case of coxsackievirus infection in the 40s of the XX century. Coxsackie B (CVB) are distinguished from other enteroviruses by ability to infect many types of tissues and organs. This wide tropism reason that these viruses are etiologic agents of large number of different diseases. CVB cause infection of the heart, pleura, pancreas, lungs and liver, causing myocarditis, pleurodynia, pericarditis, pneumonia and hepatitis. They can invade the central nervous system and induce meningitis, encephalitis, or acute flaccid paralysis. They also cause systemic neonatal disease and chronic infections such as type 1 diabetes and chronic myocarditis. This pantropic character of CVB can be determinate by specific virus – receptor interaction, which initiate the infection and viral spread. CVB attach at least two receptor proteins: the coxsackievirus – adenovirus receptor (CAR) and the decay – accelerating factor (DAF). Moreover, other anonymous determinant may play a role in tissue permissiveness and disease severity. This article summarizes the main aspects of Coxsackieviruses B infection: replication, virus-receptor interaction, genetic variability, pathogenesis, epidemiology and diagnostics.


Achieving the full promise of the Thermodynamic Variational Objective (TVO), a recently proposed variational lower bound on the log evidence involving a one-dimensional Riemann integral approximation, requires choosing a "schedule" of sorted discretization points. This paper introduces a bespoke Gaussian process bandit optimization method for automatically choosing these points. Our approach not only automates their one-time selection, but also dynamically adapts their positions over the course of optimization, leading to improved model learning and inference. We provide theoretical guarantees that our bandit optimization converges to the regret-minimizing choice of integration points. Empirical validation of our algorithm is provided in terms of improved learning and inference in Variational Autoencoders and Sigmoid Belief Networks.


BACKGROUND
Recognizing cardiovascular risk in overweight adults is challenging, as they usually have a low Framingham risk score (FRAM). In these subjects, non-traditional biomarkers could improve risk stratification.

AIM
To assess carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) and ultrasensitive C-reactive protein (usCRP) among overweight and obese subjects without metabolic syndrome (MetSyn).

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
In 1558 asymptomatic participants (816 women, 45 ± 11 years) we measured body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, lipid profile, blood glucose, FRAM, usCRP and CIMT. For analytical purposes, we divided the subjects in three groups according to BMI and number of ATPIII-MetSyn risk factors (RF): 1) BMI < 25 and < 3RF, 2) BMI ≥ 25 and < 3RF and 3) BMI ≥ 25 and ≥ 3RF.

RESULTS
Participants of group 2 (BMI ≥ 25 and < 3RF) had a low FRAM (8%). Compared with participants of group 1, they had a higher CIMT (0.61 ± 0.1 and 0.57 ± 0.09 mm, respectively, p < 0.01) and usCRP (2.1 ± 2.1 and 1.5 ± 1.9 mg/L respectively, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that although subjects with overweight/obesity without MetSyn have low cardiovascular risk based on FRAM, they have higher CIMT and usCRP than their normal weight counterparts.


Abstract We are in the midst of a digital revolution in health care, although the application of new and useful technology in routine clinical practice is variable. The Characterizing Atrial fibrillation by Translating its Causes into Health Modifiers in the Elderly (CATCH ME) Consortium, in collaboration with the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), has funded the creation of two applications (apps) in atrial fibrillation (AF) for use in smartphones and tablets. The patient app aims to enhance patient education, improve communication between patients and health care professionals, and encourage active patient involvement in the management of their condition. The health care professional app is designed as an interactive management tool incorporating the new ESC Practice Guidelines on AF and supported by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), with the aim of improving best practice approaches for the care of patients with AF. Both stand-alone apps are now freely available for Android and iOS devices though the Google Play, Amazon, and Apple stores. In this article, we outline the rationale for the design and implementation of these apps. Our objective is to demonstrate the value of integrating novel digital technology into clinical practice, with the potential for patient engagement, optimization of pharmacological and interventional therapy in AF, and ultimately to improve patient outcomes.


No man in their rightful mind would kill their wife miles from home. Chuck Rittersdorf has recruited some robot help, and now, in the madness and dysfunction of the Alphane moon, there seems no better place to carry out his cruel plans unless he too is part of a much larger conspiracy. Alpha Centauri, a star within the closest star system to earth, has several orbiting moons, among which is Alpha III M2. On this remote moon, a colony, originally set up to provide respite for the mentally ill is about to become the focus of a secret invasion plan. Among them is Chuck Rittersdorf, a 21st century CIA robot programmer, who has decided to kill his own wife via a remote control simulacrum. He enlists the aid of a telepathic Ganymedean slime mould called Lord Running Clam, an attractive female police officer and various others both witting and unwitting. But when Chuck finds himself in the midst of an interplanetary spy ring on the Alphane moon inhabited entirely by certified maniacs, his personal revenge plans begin to awry as the nature of reality itself is called into question in this brilliantly inventive tale of interstellar madness, murder and violence.


WiMax means Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is the wireless technology and enhancement of 802.16 standards. WiMax has many salient advantages suchas: high data rates, quality of service, scalability, security, and mobility. Many sophisticated authentication and encryption techniques have been embedded into WiMAX but it still exposes to various attacks. In WiMax, security is the major issue for transmission of data from end to end. We discuss the WiMax security mechanisms for authentication, encryption, and availability. Security protocols are essential for secure transmission of data. Throughput and Packet delivery ratio (PDR) can be increased by using security protocols like AES and RSA. In this report, we study the comparative results of different security protocols in terms of Throughput and PDR by applying encryption schemes of RSA and AES.


Proton therapy has recently garnered significant attention as an effective treatment for cancer that can effectively damage tumor tissues while reducing doses to healthy tissues and organs. However, secondary neutrons generated by interactions with protons and brass collimators or the patient's body may cause harm to the human body. Nevertheless, the risks are yet to be precisely assessed or reflected in actual treatment plans. In this study, we develop a novel neutron camera that enables the visualization of spatial dose distribution by secondary neutrons. First, a neutron camera comprising two layers of units is constructed; each of the layer is composed of a plastic scintillator coupled with a photomultiplier tube. As a preliminary experiment, it is confirmed that the developed camera can visualize fission neutrons from a 252Cf source. Subsequently, secondary neutrons are observed from a brass (imitating the brass collimator) and water (imitating the patient's body) phantom irradiated with a 70 MeV proton beam, in which the neutron camera is placed at 0∘, 15∘ (only in the case of brass) and 30∘ from each phantom 30 cm ahead. Following neutron/gamma event selections using two methods, i.e., time of flight and pulse shape discrimination, each of the reconstructed images successfully converged at the correct positions, with average angular resolutions of 21∘ (brass, full width at half maximum (FWHM)) and 19∘ (water, FWHM). Furthermore, dosimetry using the G(E) function method is applied to the images, enabling a dose distribution image to be created using secondary neutrons. As a result, the evaluated dose rate is 307 μSv/min for brass and 88.1 μSv/min for water, which are 86 % and 64 % those of the simulated dose rates, respectively. Eventually, future tasks for the utilization of the camera in actual proton therapy are discussed.


Amphiphilic copolymers which can self-organize into distinct nano vesicles comprising of hydrophilic core and a hydrophobic bilayer membrane with innumerable morphologies have wide applications ranging from cell mimics to diagnostics. The flexibility to control the size, shape, morphology, functionality and surface properties makes polymersomes widely acceptable. The suitability of these systems for various biomedical applications exhilarated because of its robust responsiveness to both internal and external stimuli at the site of interest. The biodegradability with lesser toxicity adds up to its acceptability as an innate cargo molecule. A large share of research works published on the polymersomes in recent years showcase this vesicle as a future device of choice for targeted drug delivery and bio imaging. But the effectiveness of these systems meticulously relays on the precise engineering of physical, morphological and surface characteristics supported by thorough understanding on the various aspects of its designing. With an intention of accelerating multiple dimensions of polymersome research, this article focuses on recapitulating those controllable essential attributes of polymersomes. It also reveals how changes in these variables contribute to polymersomes becoming an important potential freight moiety for a variety of biomedical relevence.


The purpose of this study was to idntify the controlling factors to construct tidal flat ecosystems having similar characteristics as natural ones. We transplanted the soil in a constructed tidal flat to a natural one and vice versa. Parameters monitored after these transplantations were silt content, organic matter, bacterial population and oxidation-reduction potential. Moreover, the relationship among silt content, organic matter and bacterial population was investigated by laboratory column experiment.The silt content, organic matter, bacterial population and vertical profile of oxidation-reduction potential in the soil transplanted from the constructed tidal flat to the natural one changed to similar values to those in the natural one. On the contrary, all the parameters for the soil transplanted from the natural tidal flat to the constructed one changed to similar values as those in the constructed one. The silt contents in these two transplanted soils were in proportion to the organic carbon contents and bacterial population. Similary, the bacterial population in laboratory column experiment increased with the increase in silt and organic matter contents. It seemed to be important to select a place to enhance accumulative of silt and/or to maintain the silt content by hydrodynamical control of seawater in order to construct a tidal flat having similar characteristics as natural one.


We present a solution for viewing high dynamic range (HDR) images with spatially-varying distributions of glossy materials printed on reflective media. Our method exploits appearance variations of the glossy materials in the angular domain to display the input HDR image at different exposures. As viewers change the print orientation or lighting directions, the print gradually varies its appearance to display the image content from the darkest to the brightest levels. Our solution is based on a commercially available printing system and is fully automatic. Given the input HDR image and the BRDFs of a set of available inks, our method computes the optimal exposures of the HDR image for all viewing conditions and the optimal ink combinations for all pixels by minimizing the difference of their appearances under all viewing conditions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method with print samples generated from different inputs and visualized under different viewing and lighting conditions.


Intro: This paper presents an advance overview of utilizing Augmented Reality (AR) in smart cities. Although, Smart cities contain six major aspects (mobility, economy, government, environment, living, and people), this paper focuses on three of them that have more potentiality in using virtual assistant (mobility, environment, and living). Methodology: Presenting a state-of-the-art review studies undertake between 2013 and 2017, which is driven from highlighted libraries is the aim of this research. After exact examine, 15 emphasized studies are chosen to divide the main aspects while 120 selective articles are supporting them. These categorizes have been critically compared with an aim, method and chronological perspectives. Results: First of All, Environmental issues (Museums industry) attract the most attention of researchers while the living issues (maintenance) have lower significant compare t latter and mobility (indoor-outdoor navigation) attract the least. Moreover, a close connection between academic and industry fields is going to be created. Conclusions: it has been concluded that, because of economic advantages, utilizing AR technology has improved in the tourism and maintenance. Moreover, until now, most of studies try to prove their concept rather than illustrate well stablished analytic approach. Because of hardware and software improvement, it is essential for the future studies to evaluate their hypothesis in a real urban context.


Today resource adequacy is most often maintained by installing natural gas plants to meet the peak load. In California, the current risk of inadequate electricity supply is highest around sunset in late summer. In a zero-carbon grid, resource adequacy will increasingly require adequate stored energy throughout the entire year. Here we seek to develop an intuition about the times of the year when resource adequacy may be most challenged for a solar-dominant system. We use a simplified approach and show that the month of the biggest challenge occurs in winter and can shift by more than two months depending on the amount of solar and storage that are built.


Regarded nowadays as an instrument of strategy implementation of government policy and establishment mechanism of public administration, the administrative contract raises many debates on its applicable regime, but also on the jurisdiction, to solve litigations arising from their interpretation and execution. In this paper we proposed that, based on the analysis of the laws in force, doctrine, jurisprudence, and previous research results related to the subject, using the comparative method, to clarify the mentioned issues. The conclusions of this paper will strengthen the practice on the referral of courts competent to solve litigations arising from the implementation of the administrative contracts in the context where the administrative contract has profound implications in the administrative, economic and social field.


Deoxyribonucleic acid relatedness studies (S1 nuclease method) showed that 23 unidentified Staphylococcus strains form two homogeneous genomic species related 1 to 9% to 24 type strains representing known Staphylococcus species. These new species were named Staphylococcus lugdunensis and Staphylococcus schleiferi. Strains of S. lugdunensis were susceptible to novobiocin, produced a fibrinogen affinity factor, and failed to produce coagulase, heat-stable nuclease, and staphylokinase. S. lugdunensis strains differed from S. hominis (the phenotypically closest species) by production of ornithine decarboxylase and the fibrinogen affinity factor. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid was 32 mol%. The type strain is N860297 (= ATCC 43809). Strains of S. schleiferi were susceptible to novobiocin, produced a heat-stable nuclease and a fibrinogen affinity factor, and failed to produce coagulase and staphylokinase. S. schleiferi strains differed from S. aureus by production of an antigenically different heat-stable nuclease and the lack of pigmentation, free coagulase, protein A, and β-ribitol teichoic acid. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid was 37 mol%. The type strain is N850274 (= ATCC 43808).


Sirtuins are critical players within multiple cellular pathways such as stress response, apoptosis and energy metabolism. They are associated with metabolic and degenerative diseases, the pathogenesis of cancer and are key elements in the regulation of cellular life span. From within the 7 known human sirtuins, SIRT3 recently stepped out of the shadow of SIRT1 showing strong effects on stress response, apoptosis, cell cycle and energy metabolism, mimicking effects of caloric restriction. We have identified two non-synonymous human SIRT3 SNPs and evaluated their impact on SIRT3 activity and stability. We assessed their influence on cellular energy metabolism in relation to SIRT1 and identified SIRT3 to increase cellular respiration by 80% when compared to SIRT1, which increased cellular respiration by only 30%.


Prior to the advent of modern minimally invasive surgery techniques, the primary surgical management of symptomatic leiomyomata for women desiring future fertility or uterine conservation was through laparotomy. Today, many cases of intramural and subserous leiomyomata are managed with laparoscopic myomectomy and selected cases of submucosal leiomyomata are managed with hysteroscopic myomectomy. The management of leiomyomata endoscopically is one of the more challenging procedures in minimally invasive surgery and requires a skilled surgeon. Despite its benefits, such as faster postoperative recovery and potentially less postoperative adhesions compared with laparotomy, many concerns still exist. Although pregnancy rates for women with leio-myomata managed endoscopically are similar to those after laparotomy, a major worry continues to be the risk of uterine rupture. The risk is essentially unknown. Lastly, the risk of recurrence seems higher after laparoscopic myomectomy compared with laparotomy.


Ceftriaxone was administered intravenously in a single dose of 1.0 g 15 minutes prior to surgical intervention for peptic ulcer and gastric or duodenum tumor in 31 patients at the age of 33 to 74 years. In all the patients primary adhesion of the surgical wound was recorded. No signs of local or general infection were observed. The indices of the total blood count, urinalysis and blood biochemical analysis came to normal by the 5th or the 7th day of the postoperative period. The levels of ceftriaxone in the blood, urine, stomach wall, small intestine tissues and subcutaneous fat were evaluated. The indices of the cellular and humoral immunity in the pre- and postoperative periods in the patients prophylactically treated with ceftriaxone were analyzed.


Information Content (IC) analysis can be used before an instrument is built to estimate its retrieval uncertainties and analyse their sensitivity to several factors. It is a very useful method to define/optimize satellite instruments. IC has shown its potential to compare instrument concepts in the infrared or the microwave. IC is based on some hypotheses such as the the Gaussian character of the radiative transfer (RT) and instrument errors, the first‐guess errors (Gaussian character, std and correlation structure), or the linearization of the RT around a first guess. These hypotheses are easier to define for simple atmospheric situations. However, even in the clear‐sky case, their complexity has never ceased to increase towards more realism, to optimize the assimilation of satellite measurements in numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems. In the cloudy/precipitating case, these hypotheses are even more difficult to define in a realistic way as many factors are still very difficult to quantify. In this study, several tools are introduced to specify more realistic IC hypotheses than the current practice. We focus on microwave observations as they are more pertinent for clouds and precipitation. Although not perfect, the proposed solutions are a new step towards more realistic IC assumptions of cloudy/precipitating scenes. A state‐dependence of the RT errors is introduced, the first‐guess errors have a more complex vertical structure, the IC is performed simultaneously on all the hydrometeors to take into account the contamination effect of the RT input uncertainties, and the IC is performed on a diversified set of cloudy/precipitating scenes with well‐defined hydrometeor assumptions. The method presented in this study is illustrated using the HYperspectral Microwave Sensor (HYMS) instrument concept with channels between 6.9 and 874 GHz (millimetre and sub‐millimetre regions). HYMS is considered as a potential next generation microwave sounder.


The interacting multiple model (IMM) estimator has been proven to be effective in tracking agile targets. Smoothing or retrodiction, which uses measurements beyond the current estimation time, provides better estimates of target states. Various methods have been proposed for multiple model (MM) smoothing in the literature. A new smoothing method is presented here which involves forward filtering followed by backward smoothing while maintaining the fundamental spirit of the IMM. The forward filtering is performed using the standard IMM recursion, while the backward smoothing is performed using a novel interacting smoothing recursion. This backward recursion mimics the IMM estimator in the backward direction, where each mode-conditioned smoother uses standard Kalman smoothing recursion. The resulting algorithm provides improved but delayed estimates of target states. Simulation studies are performed to demonstrate the improved performance with a maneuvering target scenario. Results of the new method are compared with existing methods, namely, the augmented state IMM filter and the generalized pseudo-Bayesian estimator of order 2 smoothing. Specifically, the proposed IMM smoother operates just like the IMM estimator, which approximates N2 state transitions using N filters, where N is the number of motion models. In contrast, previous approaches require N2 smoothers or an augmented state.


The exo-1,3-β-glucanase (Exg) from Candida albicans is involved in cell wall β-d-glucan metabolism and morphogenesis through its hydrolase and transglycosidase activities. Previous work has shown that both these activities strongly favor β-1,3-linkages. The E292S Exg variant displayed modest glycosynthase activity using α-d-glucopyranosyl fluoride (α-GlcF) as the donor and pNP-β-d-glucopyranoside (pNPGlc) as the acceptor but surprisingly showed a marked preference for synthesizing β-1,6-linked over β-1,3- and β-1,4-linked disaccharide products. With pNPXyl as the acceptor, the preference became β-1,4 over β-1,3. The crystal structure of the glycosynthase bound to both of its substrates, α-GlcF and pNPGlc, is the first such ternary complex structure to be determined. The results revealed that the donor bound in the -1 subsite, as expected, while the acceptor was oriented in the +1 subsite to facilitate β-1,6-linkage, thereby supporting the results from solution studies. A second crystal structure containing the major product of glycosynthesis, pNP-gentiobiose, showed that the -1 subsite allows another docking position for the terminal sugar; i.e., one position is set up for catalysis, whereas the other is an intermediate stage prior to the displacement of water from the active site by the incoming sugar hydroxyls. The +1 subsite, an aromatic "clamp", permits several different sugar positions and orientations, including a 180° flip that explains the observed variable regiospecificity. The p-nitrophenyl group on the acceptor most likely influences the unexpectedly observed β-1,6-specificity through its interaction with F229. These results demonstrate that tailoring the specificity of a particular glycosynthase depends not only on the chemical structure of the acceptor but also on understanding the structural basis of the promiscuity of the native enzyme.


Numerical methods such as the finite element method (FEM) have been used to evaluate the reliability of electronic packages. However, it is difficult to assure the accuracy of numerical analyses of electronic packages, which require nonlinear analyses. In this study, we evaluated the thermal strain of a test chip for three-dimensional stacked integrated circuits (3D SIC) with both measurement and analyses. First, the distribution of thermal strain on the cross-section of the test chip was measured using the digital image correlation method (DICM). Then, the distribution of strain on the surface of a cut test chip was also analyzed by the FEM while considering the viscoelasticity of underfill (UF) resin measured with the stress relaxation test and the elastic-plasticity of components measured with nanoindentation testing. Based on the comparison between the DIC measurements and the FEM analyses, we improved the accuracy of the nonlinear finite element analyses.


The use of a vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) device has been associated with accelerated development of granulation tissue, earlier re-epithelialization of wounds, and faster closure of complex wounds than traditional dressings. Extensive and multiple wounds can present a challenge to traditional VAC use, especially when the wounds are separated by areas of normal tissue. A 56-year-old obese diabetic female presented with a lesion on her inner thigh. She had a 2 cm lesion on her inner thigh that was draining a grayish fluid. Extensive crepitus was palpated on both thighs and her perineum. She was diagnosed with an advanced Fournier's gangrene. An extensive debridement of all involved tissue was performed, including her labia and perineum, mons pubis, buttocks, left leg to the level of the knee, and right leg to mid-thigh level. We elected to use a VAC device for wound management. Given the complexity and extent of her wound, the traditional method of one sponge and suction tubing per wound would have required several negative-pressure devices. We devised a method using bridges of VAC foam that were effective for closing this complex series of wounds, requiring only a single negative-pressure device and two connectors. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical knowledge, Patient care. Republished with permission from: Pryor III R, Sparks D, Chase D, Bogen G. Wound VAC for Fournier's gangrene: A new technique for applying a vacuum-assisted closure device on multiple wound sites using minimal connectors. OPUS 12 Scientist 2009;3(3):47-49.


Analog testing is a difficult task without a clearcut methodology. Analog circuits are tested for satisfying their specifications, not for faults. Given the high cost of testing analog specifications, it is proposed that tests for analog circuits should be designed to detect faults. Therefore analog fault modeling is discussed. Based on an analysis of the types of tests needed for different types of faults, algorithms for fault-driven test set selection are presented. A major reduction in testing time should come from reducing the number of specification tests that need to be performed. Hence algorithms are presented for minimizing specification testing time. After specification testing time is minimized, the resulting test sets are supplemented with some simple, possibly non-specification, tests to achieve 100% fault coverage. Examples indicate that fault-driven test set development can lead to drastic reductions in production testing time. >


Oxidation of particulate organic carbon (POC) during fluvial transit releases CO2 to the atmosphere and can influence global climate. Field data show large POC oxidation fluxes in lowland rivers; however, it is unclear if POC losses occur predominantly during in-river transport, where POC is in continual motion within an aerated environment, or during transient storage in floodplains, which may be anoxic. Determination of the locus of POC oxidation in lowland rivers is needed to develop process-based models to predict POC losses, constrain carbon budgets, and unravel links between climate and erosion. However, sediment exchange between rivers and floodplains makes differentiating POC oxidation during in-river transport from oxidation during floodplain storage difficult. Here, we isolated in-river POC oxidation using flume experiments transporting petrogenic and biospheric POC without floodplain storage. Our experiments showed solid phase POC losses of 0%–10% over ∼103 km of fluvial transport, compared to ∼7% to >50% losses observed in rivers over similar distances. The production of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved rhenium (a proxy for petrogenic POC oxidation) was consistent with small POC losses, and replicate experiments in static water tanks gave similar results. Our results show that fluvial sediment transport, particle abrasion, and turbulent mixing have a minimal role on POC oxidation, and they suggest that POC losses may accrue primarily in floodplain storage.


Access-control strategies and rational pricing in code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems need exact knowledge of the available transmission capacity and its limiting boundaries. We use the term "capacity region" to specify the set of user-transmission demands that can be supported at the desired quality of service (QoS). In this paper, we investigate the geometrical properties of the capacity region for a fixed number of users in a CDMA radio network under general QoS characteristics and general power constraints. It turns out that, under very mild assumptions, the capacity region is convex, and has an appealing monotonicity property. As a side result, we develop an elementary theory for characterizing the existence of solutions to systems of linear equations with nonnegative elements, analogous to Perron-Frobenius' theory, but bypassing irreducibility.


Screening and Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Children in Madrid, Spain As the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads, new data emerge and understanding of the disease improves. Reports associated with children are growing but still scarce.1-3 The epicenter of the epidemic has displaced to Europe. The first case in Spain was declared on January 31, 2020, and the first case in the Madrid region was declared on February 27, 2020.


Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume's chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, law and medicine, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 10 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Thomas White, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume.


The early shale gas mining in North America mainly used linear adhesive fracturing fluid, and later, with the deepening of the research and the requirements of component control, the slippery water fracturing fluid system was gradually used. Because of its low viscosity, slippery water can easily communicate micro-cracks and layered seams at different scales, forming a complex volume of network cracks.
 Hydraulic fracturing technology has been widely used in oil and gas industry to increase production since 1947. Linear and crosslinked guars are the most commonly used fracturing fluid system. Concerns over damage to conductivity caused by viscous fluids in unconventional reservoirs, the industry has developed an alternative fracturing fluid called slickwater, which consists mainly of water and the low concentration of linear polymer. Slickwater has the characteristic of poor sand carrying capacity, and it is necessary to develop a smart slickwater to improve sand carrying capacity.
 The paper introduces a new smart slickwater with high proppant- carrying capability for shale reservoirs. The fluid system consists of linear self-assembled agent, which can improve the viscosity of slickwater at low concentration and maintain a high drag reduction rate. The advantage of the smart slickwater is that only one chemical additive is used, and when the concentration is 0.05%, the drag reduction rate can reach more than 75%, and when the concentration is 0.2%, the proppant ratio can reach 30%, replacing the linear and crosslinked guars.
 Laboratory experiments were conducted using the smart slickwater to display excellent static and dynamic sand carrying capacity. The smart slickwater is used in Changqing Oilfield(China), compared with the traditional slickwater, the product is less expensive to use, less water for fracturing, less types and dosage of chemicals required, less equipment needed.
 The new smart slickwater with high proppant- carrying capability can change the existing structure of fracturing fluid system.


Machine learning (ML), especially deep learning (DL) techniques have been increasingly used in anomaly-based network intrusion detection systems (NIDS). However, ML/DL has shown to be extremely vulnerable to adversarial attacks, especially in such security-sensitive systems. Many adversarial attacks have been proposed to evaluate the robustness of ML-based NIDSs. Unfortunately, existing attacks mostly focused on feature-space and/or white-box attacks, which make impractical assumptions in real-world scenarios, leaving the study on practical gray/black-box attacks largely unexplored. To bridge this gap, we conduct the first systematic study of the gray/black-box traffic-space adversarial attacks to evaluate the robustness of ML-based NIDSs. Our work outperforms previous ones in the following aspects: (i) practical —the proposed attack can automatically mutate original traffic with extremely limited knowledge and affordable overhead while preserving its functionality; (ii) generic —the proposed attack is effective for evaluating the robustness of various NIDSs using diverse ML/DL models and non-payload-based features; (iii) explainable —we propose an explanation method for the fragile robustness of ML-based NIDSs. Based on this, we also propose a defense scheme against adversarial attacks to improve system robustness. We extensively evaluate the robustness of various NIDSs using diverse feature sets and ML/DL models. Experimental results show our attack is effective (e.g., >97% evasion rate in half cases for Kitsune, a state-of-the-art NIDS) with affordable execution cost and the proposed defense method can effectively mitigate such attacks (evasion rate is reduced by >50% in most cases).


This book, based on a conference at Yale University, explores ways of understanding the first industrial cities to cities of today. The essays in the book define what has come to be known as the "new urban history." The cities studied range from small communities – such as Springfield, Massachusetts – to giants like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston. While the majority of the contributors deal with American cities, four essays examine cities in Canada, England, France, and Colombia. The essays explore such areas as urban patterns of class stratification, changing rates of occupational and residential mobility, social origins of particular elite groups, the relations between political control and social class, differences in opportunities for various ethnic groups, and the relationships between family structure and city life. In all these fields, the authors relate sociological theory to the historical materials.


We use historical BGP data and recent active measurements to analyze trends in the growth, structure, dynamics and performance of the evolving IPv6 Internet, and compare them to the evolution of IPv4. We find that the IPv6 network is maturing, albeit slowly. While most core Internet transit providers have deployed IPv6, edge networks are lagging. Early IPv6 network deployment was stronger in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, than in North America. Current IPv6 network deployment still shows the same pattern. The IPv6 topology is characterized by a single dominant player -- Hurricane Electric -- which appears in a large fraction of IPv6 AS paths, and is more dominant in IPv6 than the most dominant player in IPv4. Routing dynamics in the IPv6 topology are largely similar to those in IPv4, and churn in both networks grows at the same rate as the underlying topologies. Our measurements suggest that performance over IPv6 paths is comparable to that over IPv4 paths if the AS-level paths are the same, but can be much worse than IPv4 if the AS-level paths differ.


Abstract. Tie-stall housing (93%) and solid manure management (44%) are used on many dairy farms in the province of Québec, Canada. However, this could change in the near future because the rise in average herd size and the popularity of milking robots are such that the industry expects an increase in free-stall dairies managing manure with liquid systems. This shift could affect the carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) footprints of Québec's dairy production. In this context, whole-farm modeling (N-CyCLES), considering all the production cycle, provides a tool for evaluating the economics and environmental impacts of standard housing and manure management systems (Part I) in combination with different mitigation approaches (Part II). Two representative dairy farms in southwestern Québec (SWQ; 45.3° N, 73.2° W) and eastern Québec (EQ; 48.45° N, 68.1° W) were simulated considering four scenarios involving combinations of tie-stall or free-stall housing and solid or liquid manure management. Maximum farm net income (FNI) was $0.33 and $0.18 kg-1 of fat- and protein-corrected milk (FPCM) for the SWQ and EQ farms, respectively, with N and P footprints of 12.22 to 16.99 g N kg-1 and 0.52 to 0.79 g P kg-1 of FPCM in SWQ, and 11.48 to 15.39 g N kg-1 and 1.41 to 1.88 g P kg-1 of FPCM in EQ. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reached 1.78 to 1.87 kg CO2e kg-1 and 1.67 to 1.71 kg CO2e kg-1 of FPCM in SWQ and EQ, respectively. The SWQ farm was associated with greater production of cash crops but also greater imports of fertilizers and purchased feeds, which negatively affected the N footprint and GHG emissions. Housing and manure management types did not influence FNI. Free-stall dairies were associated with greater N surpluses. Nevertheless, they emitted slightly less GHG than tie-stall dairies. Dairy farms under liquid manure management imported less fertilizers and produced less GHG despite greater CH4 emissions. As a result, the current transition toward free-stall barns and liquid manure systems in Québec seems advantageous from an environmental standpoint without compromising economic profitability. Keywords: Climate change, Dairy cow, Farm net income, Free stall, Greenhouse gas emission, Manure handling, Mitigation, Nutrient footprint, Tie stall, Whole-farm model.


Based on the monthly precipitation data of 126 observation stations from 1961-2000 in Yunnan Province, the interannual and decadal variability of precipitation in rainy seasons are studied by using wavelet analysis. It is shown that there is a 2-6 year oscillation at the interannual time scales and a quasi-30 year oscillation at the decadal time scales. These periodic oscillations relate to the distribution of tropical heat content. When the precipitation is much more (less) than normai, the upper seawater is colder (warmer) in almost all the tropical Indian Ocean, and warmer (colder) in the western Pacific as well as colder (warmer) in the eastern Pacific. The key areas of the anomaly heat content distribution that have significant correlation to the Yunnan precipitation in rainy season are in the southern hemispheric Indian Ocean with a dipole pattern in the winter as well as in the deep basin of the South China Sea (SCS) before the Yunnan rainy season begins. Therefore, the anomalous distributions of the heat content in the southern Indian Ocean and the SCS in winter are good indicators for predicting the drought or flood in Yunnan Province in the following rainy season.


Early childhood education for sustainable development roots on environmental, socio-cultural and economic ground for encouraging lifelong learning and improving values and behaviors that support sustainable development such as use of natural resources, cultural awareness, gender equality, and democracy. Educational drama contributes to the development of skills necessary for sustainable development such as communication, cooperation and decision-making. This study has two main objectives: the former is to raise awareness and to develop these skills of pre-service teachers by organizing drama activities in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); the later objective is to implement and to evaluate the activities based on the data collected from pre-service teachers and from one specific pre-school teacher, in whose classroom these activities were carried out. Phenomenographic approach was adapted for the current study and the data was collected through interviews, photos, and field notes. The study shows that the drama activities increase awareness and improve skills for ESD within pre-service teachers. Furthermore, opinions and experiences of the pre-service teachers and the preschool teacher state that drama has positive impact on learning of pre-school children about sustainable development.


To investigate the mechanism of the antagonistic effect of Na-((1S,2R)-2-methyl-4-oxocyclopentylcarbonyl)-L-histidyl-L-prolin amide monohydrate (CAS 131404-34-7, JTP-2942) on reserpine-induced hypothermia, the role of the autonomic nervous system, adrenal gland, and thyroid gland regarding the effects of JTP-2942 has been studied in mice. Both phenoxybenzamine and propranolol significantly attenuated the hyperthermic effect of JTP-2942 on reserpine-induced hypothermia, although neither drug caused complete inhibition. A high dose of hexamethonium also significantly antagonized the hyperthermic effect of JTP-2942. The hyperthermic effect of JTP-2942 was almost abolished by adrenal demedullation. In mice with thiouracil-induced hypothyroidism, both thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and JTP-2942 significantly increased the rectal temperature. However, the increase induced by TRH was smaller in hypothyroid mice than in control mice, while the temperature increase induced by JTP-2942 was similar in both hypothyroid and control mice. These results suggest that the hyperthermic effect of JTP-2942 is mainly mediated by the adrenal gland and the autonomic nervous system. In addition, the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis does not regulate the hyperthermic effect of JTP-2942, unlike that of TRH.


A novel strategy for the covalent coverage of the graphene surface with brush-like PMMA–SH or multidentate P(MMA-co-SEMA) copolymers by the thiol–ene click reaction is reported. The new graphene@polymer materials were characterized by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and AFM, TEM and SEM. AFM images and 2D Raman mapping of the D/G ratio of CVD-graphene covered with brush and multidentate polymers clearly illustrated a more homogeneous modification in the case of the latter. The multidentate-copolymer forms a thin layer covering the graphene surface, contrary to the case for typical polymer brushes. It also displays good conductivity values on the order of the initial unmodified graphene material suggesting that the covalent modification with the polymer is not detrimental to the sp2 network. A conductivity of ∼2 × 10−3 S cm−1 was achieved in a graphene-based PMMA nanocomposite using graphene@P(MMA-co-SEMA) as a filler, highlighting the importance of engineering the graphene–polymer interface through multidentate copolymer functionalization of graphene.


The aim was to evaluate the clinical outcome of hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) with CyberKnife for nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma. From October 2000 to March 2009, 100 patients with nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma were treated with hypofractionated SRT. Forty-three patients were male, and 57 were female. The patient's ages ranged from 16 to 82 years (median, 59 years). Five patients were medically inoperable, and 1 refused surgery; the remaining 94 were recurrent cases or those receiving postoperative adjuvant SRT. No patients had a history of previous cranial radiotherapy. Tumor volume ranged from 0.7 to 64.3 mL (median, 5.1 mL). The marginal doses were 17.0 to 21.0 Gy for the 3-fraction schedule and 22.0 to 25.0 Gy for the 5-fraction schedule. Toxicities were evaluated with the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4.0. The median follow-up period for living patients was 33 months (range, 18-118.5 months). The 3-year overall survival and local control rates were 98% and 98%, respectively. In-field and out-field tumor regrowth were observed in 3 and 2 patients, respectively. Transient cyst enlargement occurred in 3 cases. A post-SRT grade 2 visual disorder occurred in 1 patient. Symptomatic post-SRT hypopituitarism was observed in 3 of 74 patients who had not received hormone replacement therapy after surgery. CyberKnife SRT involving 21 Gy in 3 fractions or 25 Gy in 5 fractions is safe and effective for surgical treatment of nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma. Hypofractionated SRT appears useful for protecting the visual nerve and neuroendocrine function, especially for tumors located near the optic pathways and large tumors.


Understanding the intricate interplay of defects and electron–electron interactions is crucial to exploiting the full potential of materials for practical applications. At the nanoscale, the combined effects are more pronounced due to quantum confinement and can have both positive and negative subtle effects on device performance. Herein, we report optoelectronic properties of pristine and disordered monolayer PbTe. We obtain the pristine electronic structure from first-principles calculations with the modified Becke–Johnson potential. We study the combined impact of random defects due to Te and Pb vacancies and material-specific electron–electron interactions on the electronic and optical properties of monolayer PbTe. We use a generalized energy-dependent Anderson–Hubbard Hamiltonian within a first-principles-based many-body typical medium method to self-consistently calculate the single-particle electronic structure. The absorption spectra, which also accounted for the effects of electron–hole interactions, are studied using valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) and they are obtained by solving the Bethe–Salpeter equation. Our results show an anomalous dependence on spin–orbit coupling for the pristine nanostructure and demonstrate that increased vacancy concentrations lead to, among other things, enhancement of the band gap, resonant shallow impurities, strong renormalization of the VEELS, and a systematic increase of the effective plasmon energy.


Circadian rhythms in mammals are generated by a negative transcriptional feedback loop in which PERIOD (PER) is rate-limiting for feedback inhibition. Casein kinases Iδ and Iε (CKIδ/ε) can regulate temporal abundance/activity of PER by phosphorylation-mediated degradation and cellular localization. Despite their potentially crucial effects on PER, it has not been demonstrated in a mammalian system that these kinases play essential roles in circadian rhythm generation as does their homolog in Drosophila. To disrupt both CKIδ/ε while avoiding the embryonic lethality of CKIδ disruption in mice, we used CKIδ-deficient Per2Luc mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and overexpressed a dominant-negative mutant CKIε (DN-CKIε) in the mutant MEFs. CKIδ-deficient MEFs exhibited a robust circadian rhythm, albeit with a longer period, suggesting that the cells possess a way to compensate for CKIδ loss. When CKIε activity was disrupted by the DN-CKIε in the mutant MEFs, circadian bioluminescence rhythms were eliminated and rhythms in endogenous PER abundance and phosphorylation were severely compromised, demonstrating that CKIδ/ε are indeed essential kinases for the clockwork. This is further supported by abolition of circadian rhythms when physical interaction between PER and CKIδ/ε was disrupted by overexpressing the CKIδ/ε binding domain of PER2 (CKBD-P2). Interestingly, CKBD-P2 overexpression led to dramatically low levels of endogenous PER, while PER-binding, kinase-inactive DN-CKIε did not, suggesting that CKIδ/ε may have a non-catalytic role in stabilizing PER. Our results show that an essential role of CKIδ/ε is conserved between Drosophila and mammals, but CKIδ/ε and DBT may have divergent non-catalytic functions in the clockwork as well.


Electrical conductivities of Alaska pollock surimi mixed with native and pregelled potato starch at different concentrations (0%, 3%, and 9%) were measured at different moisture contents (75% and 81%) using a multifrequency ohmic heating system. Surimi-starch paste was tested up to 80 degrees C at frequencies from 55 Hz to 20 KHz and at alternating currents of 4.3 and 15.5 V/cm voltage gradient. Electrical conductivity increased when moisture content, applied frequency, and applied voltage increased, but decreased when starch concentration increased. Electrical conductivity was correlated linearly with temperature (R(2) approximately 0.99). Electrical conductivity pattern (magnitude) changed when temperature increased, which was clearly seen after 55 degrees C in the native potato starch system, especially at high concentration. This confirms that starch gelatinization that occurred during heating affects the electrical conductivity. Whiteness and texture properties decreased with an increase of starch concentration and a decrease of moisture content.


Research on supply chain relationships tends to focus on power and asymmetric dependency. Our objective is to complement this approach by examining contractual challenges in the context of bilateral dependency. Our specific empirical focus is on how Indian Railways, one of the largest railroads in the world, manages warranty claims related to engine failures. Warranty resolution is complex, because failures typically involve the simultaneous failure of several engine subsystems provided by different suppliers, giving rise to supplier performance ambiguity. Through a combination of theoretical reflection rooted in transaction cost economics and an empirical analysis of Indian Railways supply chain, we argue that in the case of bilateral dependency, the "benign approach" is more efficient than the "muscular approach," to use Oliver Williamson's terminology. Specifically, while the latter is founded on unilateral decisions by the comparatively more powerful party, the former is based on voluntary long-term cooperation, and calls for mutual credible commitments and joint problem-solving. Additionally, we highlight that even if dependency is asymmetric at the outset, it can develop bilateral features over time. Theoretically, our research offers an enhanced understanding of trust in buyer-supplier relationships, emphasizing its organizational as opposed to personal basis.


Purpose of Study Acute lung injury (ALI) is a devastating syndrome characterized by pulmonary inflammation and vascular barrier dysfunction with protein-rich edema. Mechanical ventilation at high tidal volumes can worsen existing ALI and even cause ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) de novo. Previous studies have demonstrated that oxidized 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphorylcholine (OxPAPC) enhances basal endothelial cell (EC) barrier properties and prevents acute lung inflammation and EC dysfunction in response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) via direct Rac-Cdc42-mediated effects on EC cytoskeleton and via competitive inhibition of LPS binding to toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Methods Adult male Brown Norway rats (250-350 g) were ventilated at low tidal volume (LTV, 7 mL/kg) or high tidal volume (HTV, 20 mL/kg) for 2 hours, 85 breaths/min. A subset of animals received intravenous OxPAPC (1.5 mg/kg) at the start of mechanical ventilation. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cell count and protein concentration were measured as markers of inflammation and vascular permeability. IL-6, IL-1beta, and hyaluronan levels in BAL were quantitatively assessed by enzyme linked immunoabsorbance assays (ELISA). Results HTV caused a 70% increase in BAL total cell count (p < .05) and a 169% increase in BAL protein (p < .01) compared with controls. OxPAPC reduced HTV-induced elevations in total cell count (41% decrease versus HTV alone) and protein (42% decrease versus HTV alone). HTV also caused an increase in the hyaluronan levels found in BAL samples, which was completely abrogated by intravenous injection of OxPAPC. HTV also caused a 223% increase in the IL-6 levels in BAL samples as compared to controls, which was attenuated by OxPAPC treatment (130% versus control, p < .05). HTV had only a modest effect on IL-1beta up-regulation (45% increase versus control), which still was attenuated by OxPAPC treatment (27% increase versus control). Conclusion: These studies demonstrate for the first time the protective effect of membrane-derived oxidized phospholipids on ventilator-induced lung inflammation and barrier dysfunction. HL75349, HL76259, HL58064.


Markov models are important tools for quantitative social research. In this article, new methods for discrete Markov chains are presented. These methods allow us to calculate the distribution of the occupation time in a subset of the state space, the distribution of the waiting time to first entry into a subset of the state space, and the distribution of the waiting time to final exit from a subset of the state space. To demonstrate the usefulness of these methods, we apply them to working life tables for Spanish males to assess how the recent financial crisis affected the length of working life. The results show that the duration of working life decreased considerably, a pattern that can largely be explained by later entry to and earlier exit from the labor market. The findings also indicate that inequality in the length of working life increased.


OBJECTIVES
To ascertain the range of services provided by the various health providers, to study their criteria for determining fees for the services provided, to understand the barriers in providing the services and to study the factors responsible for their job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

METHODS
A cross sectional study was conducted in rural areas of Udupi taluk between September 2007 and October 2008 among 150 rural practitioners. Data was collected by interviewing the practitioners using pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS 11.5.

RESULTS & CONCLUSION
Provision of preventive health services and participation in national programmes by the private practitioners was found to be inadequate. Practitioners determine their fees based on the economic status of the patient and the cost of medicines dispensed. Inadequate and irregular income is the major barrier for both government and private sector doctors and most of them were moderately satisfied with their job.


IT entrepreneurs represent a valuable source to the societies. They prompt socio-economic growth, and innovation. Despite the increasing awareness of this importance, evidence indicates that women engagement in technology entrepreneurship is scant, which has received limited attention in both information systems and female entrepreneurship literature. Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this research highlights the existing gap by analyzing influential aspects that affect the decision-making process of women techentrepreneurs in the Saudi context. Hypotheses were tested using survey data that has been collected from different Saudi female public universities as well as technology incubators, and entrepreneurship programs. Findings from PLS support the core entrepreneurial intention model and highlight the important role of traditional determinants of intention. In addition, the research findings highlight and contribute a new understanding of the value of IT factors for women in increasing their entrepreneurial intention and subsequent decisions, actions, and outcomes.


s 16th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine s31 cations and anions. Strong-Ion Gap (SIG) better accounts for unmeasured anions because it corrects for alterations in variables not included in AG calculation. Objective: To utilize SIG to identify critically ill patients requiring ICU admission or a composite end-point of inhospital death, transfusion, and/or vasopressor requirements. Methods: Inclusion Criteria: Emergency department patients with impending respiratory or circulatory collapse. Exclusion Criteria: Patients dead-on-arrival or before labs drawn, or inter-institutional transfers. Lactate, AG, and SIG were calculated for 80 patients, and need for ICU admission, in-hospital death, transfusion, or vasopressor use. Calculations: SIGmEq/L = SIG(apparent) SIG(effective); SIGmEq/L(apparent) = [Na] + [K] + [iCa] + [iMg] [C1-] [LAC"]; SIGmEq/L(effective) = ((1000 x 2.46 x 10 x PCO2 (mmHg)) /10P ) + [Alb"] + [PO]. Cutoffs: SIG <2.0 mEq/L(literature-based), AG <15.0 mEq/L and lactate <2.2 mEq/L (hospital norms). Results: n = 80, 55.8 ±17.8 years 62.5% male. Twenty had elevated SIG and normal AG and LAC. None of these had the composite endpoint, but four (20%) required ICU admission. A total of 42 patients required ICU admission, 22 (52%) had elevated lactate; 22 (52%) had elevated AG; 32 (76%) had elevated SIG. 12 patients met the composite endpoint: nine (75%) had elevated lactate; 10 (83%) elevated AG; 12 (100%) elevated SIG. Conclusions: SIG better identifies critically ill patients requiring ICU admission and in predicting the composite end-point of in-hospital death, transfusions, and/or vasopressor requirements.


This section provides links to organizations, associations and collections pertaining to Aboriginal art and culture. It also contains links to Aboriginal art galleries and places where Aboriginal culture is promoted.


Purpose of Review: This article focuses on the most prevalent forms of autonomic neuropathies, but also discusses conditions such as focal and dysfunctional syndromes (altered autonomic function in the absence of structural lesions). The goal of this review is to allow the reader to promptly recognize these disorders, identify potentially reversible or treatable causes, and implement the appropriate treatment as well as supportive care. Recent Findings: Secondary forms of autonomic neuropathies (eg, diabetes mellitus, amyloidosis) are much more common than primary forms, of which autoimmune ganglioneuropathies represent a major component. However, the spectrum of the latter is continuously evolving and has diagnostic and therapeutic implications. Testing modalities such as autonomic testing, serum autoimmune antibody testing, and skin biopsies are becoming more widely available. Summary: Autonomic neuropathies are relatively common conditions, and, because of the prognostic implications as well as impact on patient quality of life, they should be promptly recognized and treated aggressively. Testing is critical as other conditions may mimic autonomic neuropathies. Treatment is symptomatic in many cases, but specific therapies are also available in selected autonomic neuropathies.


This paper describes an original way of dealing with the measuring and modelling of microwave transistor nonlinear behavior. Although generalizations are possible, the method described in this particular paper deals with transistor behavior under a large signal one-tone excitation, with arbitrary impedance terminations for the fundamental and the harmonics. First the mathematical theory of the "nonlinear s-parameters " is described. Next the measurement set-up and the actual extraction of the model parameters is highlighted. Finally the model is implemented in a commercial harmonic balance simulator. Using the simulator, model verification is performed by comparing measured and modelled behavior.


BACKGROUND
Vitamin B-12 is an important cofactor required for nucleotide and amino acid metabolism. Vitamin B-12 deficiency causes anemia and neurologic abnormalities-a cause for concern for the elderly, who are at increased risk of vitamin B-12 malabsorption. Vitamin B-12 deficiency is also associated with an increased risk of neural tube defects and hyperhomocysteinemia. The metabolism of vitamin B-12 and folate is interdependent, which makes it of public health interest to monitor biomarkers of vitamin B-12, folate, and homocysteine in a folic acid-fortified population.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to determine the vitamin B-12, folate, and homocysteine status of the Canadian population in the period after folic acid fortification was initiated.

DESIGN
Blood was collected from a nationally representative sample of ∼5600 participants aged 6-79 y in the Canadian Health Measures Survey during 2007-2009 and was analyzed for serum vitamin B-12, red blood cell folate, and plasma total homocysteine (tHcy).

RESULTS
A total of 4.6% of Canadians were vitamin B-12 deficient (<148 pmol/L). Folate deficiency (<320 nmol/L) was essentially nonexistent. Obese individuals were less likely to be vitamin B-12 adequate than were individuals with a normal BMI. A total of 94.9% of Canadians had a normal tHcy status (≤13 μmol/L), and individuals with normal tHcy were more likely to be vitamin B-12 adequate and to have high folate status (>1090 nmol/L).

CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 5% of Canadians are vitamin B-12 deficient. One percent of adult Canadians have metabolic vitamin B-12 deficiency, as evidenced by combined vitamin B-12 deficiency and high tHcy status. In a folate-replete population, vitamin B-12 is a major determinant of tHcy.


Is the implementation of power-sharing provisions the key to durable peace? This study analyzes whether the implementation of political, military, and territorial power-sharing provisions contributes to peace. We introduce a new dataset (IMPACT), which contains unique information on the implementation of power-sharing pacts in peace accords in the post—Cold War period. Based on the logic of costly signaling, we demonstrate that when the parties engage in costly concessions by implementing military and territorial provisions, peace is more likely to prevail. In contrast, the implementation of political pacts is less costly, and hence does not increase the prospects of peace.


The Process of Adaptation to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

This study was conducted to describe the adaptation process to illness. The study subjects were 50 AIDS patients. The study variables and tools of measurement were chosen according to the Psychosocial Adaptation Model of Craig and Edwards (1983).
It was found that throughout the disease process an appraisal-reappraisal of the situation is continuous. The sick person constantly evaluated the severity of his losses and the availability of the coping strategies at his disposal.
The study results demonstrated that persons afflicted with AIDS suffer considerable amount of physical and psychosocial prejudice. It was apparent that the patients who suffered severe physical, psychological and social losses used avoidance strategies. Those preoccupied with the physical losses had a tendency to use the strategy of emotional discharge. Otherwise the study subjects sought information rather than emotional discharge to come to terms with their losses.
In addition, the use of logical analysis strategies was associated with an increase in psychological well-being. In contrast, the strategy of avoidance was associated with a decrease in well-being. Finally, the subjects with the advanced disease experienced more severe losses of a social nature and made less use of logical analysis strategies than did subjects in the early phases of the disease.


The present religious presence is required to be active in solving the problems and challenges facing its adherents. The position and role of religion is not only a symbol of piety but can play a role in solving the existing problems. The psychological approach in Islamic studies has a significant role to explain the outward symptoms of religious people. Armed with psychological theories will be easy to know the level of religion that is understood, lived and practiced by someone. The cognitive theory of religion is able to provide answers related to the limitations beyond human capabilities. In addition, religious-based psychotherapy is one concept of psychotherapy in the perspective of Islam that can be used as a therapy to cure various diseases both physical and mental disorders.


Low-frequency noise characteristics in ion-implanted GaN/AlGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN HEMTs were investigated. The normalized spectral noise density was about 6 dB lower in GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMTs than in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. The normalized spectral noise density dependence on the gate length Lg indicates that the main origin of low-frequency noise is at the region under the gate in both devices. The Hooge parameters alphaH for both devices are on the order of 10-1-10- 2. The ion implantation process introduces a lot of defects in the source/drain regions, but the values of alphaH are comparable with those for conventional GaN-based HEMT devices. The values of alphaH are also lower in GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMTs than in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, which is due to the decrease of surface potential fluctuations in GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.


The localism strategies of the UK government provide a suite of 'rights' for community organisations that licence place-based political imaginaries with the intent to construct the community as a proxy for a smaller state. Conflating place with participation and promising to devolve power, localism authorises a performative enactment of democracy, citizenship and the 'public' through the lived experience of space. In constituting the local as a metaphor for democracy and empowerment, however, community localism foregrounds the pivotal role played by place and scale in cementing social differentiation and in naturalising hierarchical power relations. This paper explores the subaltern strategies of localism that may emerge when the rights of localism are exercised by residents' organisations in marginalised communities of social housing. Drawing on research with community-led housing organisations it demonstrates how the spatial imaginations and spatial practices of localism can be implemented to assert new claims on democracy and citizenship. In particular it identifies four spatial practices – the extension of domestic space, the invocation of locality, the construction of domestic scale, and the scalar reimagining of democracy – that subvert the reordering of political space that is localism's regulatory intent.


Trust has been recognized as a significant factor in the sharing economy. However, there is still a lack of research that empirically examines the critical antecedents of trust in the ridesharing service, especially in China. Drawing upon Zucker (1986)'s trust building framework, this study develops a theoretical model to examine four antecedents, regarding structural assurance, government support, platform reputation and disposition to trust, on users' trust beliefs and continuance intention of ridesharing. 307 valid data was collected in one of the largest ridesharing platforms in China, and structural equation modelling method was used to examine the research model. Empirical results suggest that platform reputation is the most significant antecedent of trust, followed by government support, structural assurance and disposition to trust. Specifically, user experience positively moderates the impact of structural assurance on trust, while negatively moderates the influences of government support and platform reputation on trust. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the final section.


The Ceratopsia is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. In my PhD thesis, I carried out research on the evolution of ceratopsians through bone histology and numerical analysis. Based on numerous specimens of Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis in different ontogenetic stages, a bone histological study of ontogenetic growth in Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis shows some differences from Psittacosaurus mongoliensis. Bone thin sections from individuals of particular ontogenetic ages revealed some novel aspects of dinosaur behaviour, such as posture shift and juvenile-only clusters. Numerical analyses on phylogeny, diversity and disparity show the macroevolutionary patterns of ceratopsians. The mechanism of postural shift in Psittacosaurus is revealed by histological study, and the transition from quadrupedality to bipedality appears to have occurred at about age 2. Juvenile-only clusters in Psittacosaurus, ranging from five to 34 individuals, and with evidence for a variety of ages in at least one specimen (lVPP V14341) suggests some unique juvenile-only behaviour. The series of thin sections from P. lujiatunensis indicated five types of bone tissue and four histological ontogenetic stages, i.e., hatchling, juvenile, sub-adult, and adult. None of the specimens was fully-grown. P. mongoliensis and P. lujiatunensis are similar in external morphology, but their growth patterns in terms of bone histology show several differences. According to the cladistic analysis, which combines basal and derived ceratopsians for the first time, Chaoyangsaurus youngi is the most basal ceratopsian, and Yin long downsi is the most basal neoceratopsian, instead of Chaoyangsaurus


A novel low-complexity trellis design technique for linear binary block codes is introduced. It is shown that, for some linear block codes, the problem of finding the permutation minimal trellis is very simple. For linear binary block codes, a heuristic algorithm for the reduction of trellis complexity is proposed. A reduction in trellis complexity is achieved by the implementation of a new permutation algorithm, which is based on column and row permutations in the minimal weight generator matrix of the code. The 'permutation-oriented' generator matrix for obtaining permutation minimal or near-minimal trellises is defined.