Abstract. Tourism is a very important and fast growing industry worldwide that has generated 25% of all global net new jobs during the last 5 years. New tools can be valuable for relaunching the sector and provide alternative analysis and segmentation capabilities to organizations involved. We present an analysis and visualization framework for tourist behaviour study and segmentation based on tested methods and technologies, combined and extended in an innovative way. Our framework uses Flickr data as input and classifies users according to country of origin. Then, urban distribution patterns are obtained in two different spatial levels by using [Network] Kernel Density Estimation in 1D and 2D spaces, as well as spatial clustering with HDBSCAN. Basic Natural Language Processing is applied to extract and visualize semantics generated in the social media platform and a visualization of typologies of Points of Interest by nationality is proposed for the development of tourism dashboards. We have applied our framework to three European cities of different size to test the segmentation capabilities of the approach. Results suggest a good potential for tourism management in urban environments.


In many industries, customers are offered the opportunity to revise their initial decision in return for a superior but more expensive service option, a selling technique that is typically referred to as upselling. Drawing on the research on customers' service experience, cognitive effort, decision justification, and goal framing, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize upselling as a two-stage decision process where the process of making the first decision (i.e. deciding on an initial service option) affects the final decision (i.e. the decision for or against the upsell offer).,First, qualitative interviews were conducted both with customers as well as managers. Moreover, in two experimental studies, different scenarios depicted an upsell situation that is common in many service encounters. After choosing a hotel room or rental car for reservation, participants were confronted with differently framed arguments to induce a shift toward an enhanced but more costly version of the initially chosen service option.,The qualitative interviews reveal that upselling is a common practice in many companies and that the manner in which the upsell is communicated has a considerable influence on its effectiveness. The first experimental study finds that the cognitive effort that customers expend in the initial choice moderates the effect of upsell messages using different goal frames. The second experimental study shows that customers are only affected by different goal frames when they feel responsible for the outcome of the final decision.,The findings provide a number of useful guidelines for designing upselling strategies and may also be used to segment a firm's customer base. On a more general level, this research also raises managers' awareness of the sequential nature of upselling decisions and the customer's intrinsic need to justify an upsell choice.,The studies contribute to the literature on customers' service experience and upselling strategies. Upselling is conceptualized as a two-stage process in which customers' experience in one phase influences their behavior in later stages. The underlying psychological mechanisms of this effect are also highlighted by referring to customers' need to justify service choices to themselves.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the factor structure of social support among older spouses. The sample consisted of 298 older marital dyads who participated in the Aging Couples Study. Confirmatory factor analysis techniques were used to examine conjugal support in a series of nested measurement models at the couple and individual levels. Two research questions were addressed: (a) the viability of conjugal support as a couple's construct, and (b) the dimensionality of social support within the marital dyad. Results showed that conjugal support was a husband/wife, rather than a couple, construct. Findings also showed that conjugal support was a multidimensional construct consisting of three factors: instrumental support, emotional support, and confiding. Moreover, husbands and wives perceived the dimensions of conjugal support differently.


It has been claimed that following the decline of Marxism and Freudianism, Darwinism has become the dominant intellectual paradigm of our day. In the mass media there are many bitter disputes between today's new Darwinians and their opponents, often over religion. But the 'neo-Darwinian paradigm' is not as simple or as seamless as either its advocates or its opponents would sometimes have us believe. Biology is in a state of development which defies the standard stereotypes. The papers in this volume, written by some of the leading philosophers in the field, bring out many of the fascinating and complex issues which arise in current attempts to account for life and its development.


Both simulations and observations have found that the spin of halo/galaxy is correlated with the large scale environment, and particularly the spin of halo flips in filament. A consistent picture of halo spin evolution in different environments is still lacked. Using N-body simulation we find that halo spin with its environment evolves continuously from sheet to cluster, and the flip of halo spin happens both in filament and nodes. For the flip in filament can be explained by halo formation time and the migrating time when its environment changes from sheet to filament. For low-mass haloes, they form first in sheets and migrate into filaments later, so their mass and spin growth inside filament are lower, and the original spin is still parallel to filament. For massive haloes, they migrate into filaments first, and most of their mass and spin growth are obtained in filaments, so the resulted spin is perpendicular to filament. Our results well explain the overall evolution of cosmic web in the cold dark matter model and can be tested using high-redshift data. The scenario can also be tested against alternative models of dark matter, such as warm/hot dark matter, where the structure formation will proceed in a different way.


The water crisis in the Middle East is worsening. The indicators of this crisis include increasing population, scarce and unequally-distributed water resources, competing claims of co-riparian countries, conflicts in utilizing of transboundary waters, and deficiencies in international water law. The pressure that these problems cause in terms of water resources is most evident in transboundary river basins. These conditions have led to the emergence of the concept of integrated water resources management as a potential solution to this issue on an international level. The purpose of this study was to address the obstacles to management of integrated water resources in Euphrates-Tigris basin from the viewpoints of Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Also, certain principles originating from national and international law, as well as current specific data were taken into consideration.

 Key words: Integrated Water Resources Management, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, River Basin, Euphrates and Tigris


This article examines the naming practices of Hispanic parents who gave birth to children in Los Angeles County in 1995. The authors find that greater exposure to U.S. culture increases the chances of naming a child in English. However, they find that by giving children English names that are translatable into Spanish, U.S.‐born Hispanic parents are able simultaneously to assimilate while maintaining a connection to their ethnic origins. In addition, the authors find that attitudes favoring assimilation are particularly great when naming daughters. Immigrant Hispanic couples tend to give sons Spanish names, but they often give daughters English names without Spanish referents. These gender differences persist even among U.S.‐born Hispanics paired with non‐Hispanics. Among intermarried couples, father's ethnicity has a disproportionately large influence in naming, especially for sons' names. These findings have implications for how the assimilation process is gendered.


In this work, the geometry effect on the thermal shock behaviour of a nine layered Al2O3- 5%tZrO2/Al2O3-30%mZrO2 ceramic fabricated by slip casting has been studied. A finite element model has been used to estimate the magnitude and location of the maximum thermal stresses in the layered material as well as the influence of the variation of this layered architectural design in the thermal shock crack initiation and extend throughout the specimens of study. Experimental tests on various samples have been carried out to validate the model. The residual stress distribution profile in the laminate, due to the elastic mismatch of the different layers along with the zirconia phase transformation on the Al2O3-30%mZrO2 layers, conditions the thermal shock response of the material. It is demonstrated how the variation of the outer most layer thickness in the laminates modifies the stress state in the surface, affecting the thermal shock crack initiation.


Solid dispersions of naltrexone in natural glycerides were used to form injectable implants which continously release narcotic antagonists in vivo. The dispersions were formed and tested either as small cylindrical pellets, e.g. 1x3.0 mm in size, or as particles with diameters in size ranges between 125-250 mu, that are suspended in an aqueous methyl cellulose solution. Both types of implants delivered naltrexone to mice at rates that were effective in blocking the antiociceptive action of morphine for at least one month. The rate of naltrexone release was controlled by altering its concentration in the dispersion and by varying the glyceride composition. Degradation and absorption of the implants were found to depend on their composition, dimensions and location in the body. No appreciable tissue incompatibility was seen in mice, rats, rabbits, monkeys and swine, even when long-lasting preparations were removed a year after treatment.


McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission can only be understood against the deep shifts taking place in American politics. By some measures, party identity is very strong, and the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are at the height of their power. Other measures suggest that the parties are losing their grip on politics to "outside groups" – SuperPACs and nonprofits – which have taken over a startling array of core party functions. But these "outside groups" are are deeply and durably aligned with one party or the other and run by consummate party insiders. That's why we call them shadow parties. The explosive growth of outside groups explains why many campaign-finance supporters saw a silver lining to Shaun McCutcheon's suit. McCutcheon struck down the FECA's aggregate limits, which capped how much hard money into one donor could give to candidates and party committees in a given year. The crude version of the "silver lining" argument suggests that McCutcheon will shore up the parties against outside spenders. The more nuanced argument – and the emerging conventional wisdom in the field – is that McCutcheon will level the playing field between the official party leaders and the shadow parties by allowing donors to pour more money into the official party structure.We are skeptical. Some funds that would have flowed to outside groups will seep back into the official party structure, but the effect will be modest. Moreover, the crude argument – pitting "outside" funders against "the parties" – fundamentally misdiagnoses the problem. The real problem with the growth of shadow parties has less to do with the "strength" or "weakness" of the official parties relative to outside groups and more to do with who exercises power within the parties writ large. What we are witnessing is not outside spenders pulling power away from the parties but an intraparty battle for the heart and soul of the party writ large. Although we see this battle as an intraparty fight, its likely outcome is one that "small-d" democrats ought to find disquieting. The parties have been important sites of pluralist competition. The shift toward shadow parties threatens to flatten the party structure and inhibit pluralist politics. Money isn't just shifting from one place to another within the party writ large; it is shifting from one type of institution to another, quite different type of institution. Compared to the official parties, the shadow parties are more hierarchical and less porous. They are closed to most and controlled by few. We are especially concerned that the shift to the shadow parties will permanently squeeze out the party faithful – the activists and highly engaged citizens who serve as a bridge between everyday citizens and political elites – and largely eliminate their already-diminished role within the party writ large. The shift toward shadow parties thus raises important questions about the future of American politics and who ought to control political parties.


The present study was designed (1) to clarify the relationship between the flow experience and improvements in visuomotor skills, (2) to examine the effects of rotating the axis of a computer mouse on visuomotor skills, and (3) to investigate the effects of sleep for improving visuomotor skills. Participants (N = 18) responded to Perturbation and nap (PER+Nap), No-perturbation and nap (NoPER+Nap) and Perturbation and rest (PER+Rest) conditions. In the PER+Nap condition, participants conducted a visuomotor tracking task using a computer mouse, which was accompanied by perturbation caused by rotating the axis of their mouse. After the task, they took a 90 min nap. In NoPER+Nap condition, they conducted the same visuomotor task without any perturbation and took a nap. In the PER+Rest condition, participants conducted the task with the perturbation and took a 90 min break spent reading magazines instead of taking a nap. Results indicated (1) the flow experience did not occur when participants' skills and the degree of the visuomotor challenge were matching, (2) improvements of visuomotor skills occurred regardless of the perturbation, (3) improvements of visuomotor skills occurred unrelated to the flow experience, or to mood states, and (4) improvements of visuomotor performance occurred regardless of sleep. These findings suggest that improvements of visuomotor skills occur regardless of mood status and occur independently of perturbations by axis rotation. The study also suggests that the acquisition of skills is related to merely the time elapsed since learning, rather than to sleep.


In this work, the heat capacity in dimensionally quantized semiconductor thin films with Kane's dispersion law is investigated. Under certain conditions, quantum size effect occurs, depending on the thickness of the thin film, the concentration of conductive electrons, and the non-parabolicity parameters. In thin films having non-parabolic energy spectrum in degenerate electron gas, the film thickness depends on the subband number and the concentration. Therefore, heat capacity takes the form of the saw toothwise and changes as non-monotonous.


In this paper, we propose a new framework for the organization of the electric power industry, based on extensive use of information technology (IT) and on interactive decision making, where consumers and distributed producers join the traditional actors, utilities in particular, in making decisions. While many ideas considered in this paper have been put forward in recent years, such as the need to manage intermittency of renewable resources by means of proactive forecasting, and coordination with responsive demand and storage, we introduce a possible systematic IT-enabled mechanism necessary for the actual implementation of these technologies. We point out that in order to achieve a long-term sustainable energy utilization, it is essential to provide on-line information to internalize the value of just-in-time, just-in-place, and just-in-context distributed adaptation across the entire supply chain, ranging from the smallest consumers and energy providers, through their aggregators and system coordinators. We illustrate using our model-based novel simulator, how a carefully designed multidirectional and multitemporal information exchange could enable sustainable decision making while accounting for unique needs and capabilities of various resources and users. At the same time, information incentivizes the resources and users to contribute to system-wide sustainability objectives at value. We illustrate the dependence of such decisions-driven industry evolution on the industry rules (choice of performance objectives), as well as on the operating and planning practices for implementing the industry rules (temporal and spatial factors). Our model-based simulator could be used as a means of designing novel regulation defining rules, rights, and responsibilities regarding the type and rate of information to be exchanged in support of sustainable industry evolution.


It has long been recognized that visual speech information is important for speech perception [McGurk and MacDonald 1976] [Summerfield 1992]. Recently there has been an increasing interest in the verbal and non-verbal interaction between the visual and the acoustic modalities from production and perception perspectives. One of the prosodic phenomena which attracts much focus is prominence. Prominence is defined as when a linguistic segment is made salient in its context.


Globimetula braunii is a hemi-parasitic plant used in African ethnomedicine for the management of microbial infections, rheumatic pain and tumors amongst others. We report the isolation and characterization of eight compounds with their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The air-dried powdered leaf was macerated in EtOH/H20 (4:1). The extract was solvent-partitioned into n-hexane, EtOAc, n-BuOH and aqueous fractions. The fractions were screened for their antioxidant properties, using DPPH, FRAP, TAC and FIC assays. Antimicrobial analysis was performed using the micro-broth dilution method. The active EtOAc fraction was purified for its putative compounds on a repeated silica gel column chromatography monitored with TLC-bioautography. The isolated compounds were characterized using spectroscopic methods of UV, FT-IR, NMR and MS. Eight compounds (1–8) were isolated and characterized as 13,27-cycloursane (1), phyllanthone (2), globraunone (3), three phenolics: methyl 3,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxybenzoate (4), methyl 3-methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (5) and guaiacol (6), as well as two phenol derivatives: 4-formaldehyde phenone (7) and 6-methoxy-2H-inden-5-ol (8). The study identified 4 and 6 as natural antioxidant compounds with potential as antimicrobial agents.


Dopamine beta-monooxygenase (DBM), a cuproenzyme, converts dopamine to norepinephrine in selected cells. Studies were conducted in albino rats to resolve the known paradox of DBM after copper deficiency in which metabolite analyses of tissues suggest lower activity, whereas direct assay of homogenates suggests enhanced activity. After 4 wk of postweanling copper deficiency, male Holtzman rats exhibited 1.4-fold higher adrenal DBM activity and 1. 8-fold higher adrenal DBM mRNA levels than copper-adequate rats. Mixing experiments did not support the existence of endogenous activators or inhibitors. Adrenal catecholamine content indicated lower norepinephrine, higher dopamine and unaffected epinephrine content in copper-deficient compared with copper-adequate rats. Studies in 22-d-old male Sprague-Dawley offspring of dams started on copper deficiency at d 7 of gestation indicated similar results for adrenal DBM mRNA, a 1.75-fold increase compared with copper-adequate pups. Adrenal dopamine content was higher in female copper-deficient offspring compared with controls, but norepinephrine was not lower. Medulla oblongata/pons DBM mRNA concentration was higher in 22-d-old copper-deficient female but not male rats compared with controls. Six weeks of copper repletion to the 22-d-old rats restored adrenal DBM mRNA levels to control values. Enzyme assay and RNA results are consistent with enhanced formation of DBM in adrenal gland and noradrenergic cell bodies of copper-deficient rats. The molecular signal may not be solely lower norepinephrine content because adrenal DBM mRNA changes were evident in both nutritional models, whereas the norepinephrine content was altered only in the postnatal model.


Substitution of petro-based aviation fuel with biomass-derived aviation fuel is an emerging strategy to reduce the carbon footprint associated with the aviation sector. There are several pathways for the production of aviation biofuel, and most of them require the use of hydrogen. Therefore, the analysis of the aviation biofuel supply chain must incorporate the production of hydrogen. This paper presents an optimization approach for the strategic planning of aviation fuel supply chains, which considers hydrogen production from fossil and renewable raw materials. The approach also considers extraction of fossil materials, growth of biomass, selection and several processing routes of the feedstock, along with the distribution of products. As case study, the strategic planning of aviation biofuels in Mexico considering the generation of biomass and the hydrogen production is selected. The results show that significant decreases in producing costs and CO2 emissions can be obtained if aviation fuel is generate...


My thesis explores the era under which the military in Ethiopia usurped power, following the 1974 student-led demonstrations to dismantle the monarchy. The military regime, or Derg, were influence by socialist ideology as were the students that led the protests. These students would form revolutionary groups that came into conflict with the Derg and with each other, with the violence spilling over onto the civilian population. In addition to political violence, the Derg aimed to repress religious practices and prohibited many culturally based traditions completely changing the way of life for many Ethiopians. My research discusses the role of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony and how it functioned as a way for Ethiopians to cope with the social upheaval of Derg rule and how it became a space of cultural continuity and stability.


Familial benign hypercalcemia (or familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia), a syndrome of lifelong hypercalcemia inherited as an autosomal dominant trait, is distinct from the multiple endocrine neoplasia syndromes and other forms of inherited parathyroid disease. Familial benign hypercalcemia results from the inappropriate secretion of parathyroid hormone despite hypercalcemia, enhanced renal tubular reabsorption of calcium (independent of parathyroid hormone), and apparent tissue resistance to adverse effects of hypercalcemia. Heterozygosity for the familial hypercalcemia trait is benign, although homozygosity for the trait may lead to severe neonatal primary hyperparathyroidism. Genetic linkage studies show that most persons affected with familial hypercalcemia have a mutation on the long arm of chromosome 3 (3cen-q21), although one phenotypically indistinguishable family appears to have a mutation on the short arm of chromosome 19 (19p), and another family has neither 3q nor 19p mutations. One group has recently shown mutations in a putative parathyroid cell-surface calcium receptor that are plausible causes for the chromosome 3q variant of the familial hypercalcemia syndrome. Perhaps the other genes for this syndrome encode proteins representing hitherto-unknown regulators of systemic calcium metabolism independent of parathyroid cell calcium sensing or proteins involved in signal transduction from the calcium receptor.


The preparation conditions of complex fire-retardant (FR) agents containing boron compounds (BF, X1), nitrogen-phosphorus compounds (NPF, X2), silicon compounds (SF, X3), and halogen compounds (HF, X4) for ultra-low density fiberboard (ULDF) were optimized using a response surface methodology. The effects and interactions of X1, X2, X3, and X4 on the fire properties of ULDF were investigated. An optimum char yield of 61.4% was obtained when the complex fire-retardant agents contained 33.9% boron, 27.2% nitrogen-phosphorus, 15.0% silicon, and 28.6% halogen. Compared with control fiberboard (CF), the heat release rate (HRR) profiles of all fiberboards with FRs were reduced. The peak HRR reduction in BF and NPF was more pronounced than for SF and HF at this stage. And the mixed fiberboard (MF) had the lowest pkHRR of 75.02 kW m−2. In total heat release (THR) profiles, all fiberboards with FRs were lower than the CF. Unlike the HRR profiles, HF had the lowest THR profile of 15.33 MJ m−2. Additionally, Si compounds showed greater effectiveness in preventing ULDF mass loss than BF, NPF, and HF. MF showed the highest residual mass (40.94%). Furthermore, the synergistic effect between four FR agents showed more significant results in ULDFs.


In this work, we introduce a self-supervised feature representation learning framework DreamTeacher that utilizes generative networks for pre-training downstream image backbones. We propose to distill knowledge from a trained generative model into standard image backbones that have been well engineered for specific perception tasks. We investigate two types of knowledge distillation: 1) distilling learned generative features onto target image backbones as an alternative to pretraining these backbones on large labeled datasets such as ImageNet, and 2) distilling labels obtained from generative networks with task heads onto logits of target backbones. We perform extensive analyses on multiple generative models, dense prediction benchmarks, and several pre-training regimes. We empirically find that our DreamTeacher significantly outperforms existing self-supervised representation learning approaches across the board. Unsupervised ImageNet pre-training with DreamTeacher leads to significant improvements over ImageNet classification pre-training on downstream datasets, showcasing generative models, and diffusion generative models specifically, as a promising approach to representation learning on large, diverse datasets without requiring manual annotation.


The advent of Multislice Computed Tomography (MSCT) has made evaluation of the entire urinary tract with high-resolution sections during a single breath-hold a reality. Acquisition of multiple thin overlapping slices provides excellent two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) reformations of the urinary tract. The concept of "Multislice CT Urography (MSCTU)" has emerged from this technical improvement. As a result, a wide range of pathologies inside and outside the urinary tract can be identified. During the last several years, MSCTU has challenged intravenous urography (IVU) in the evaluation of urinary tract abnormalities. Compared with IVU, MSCT(U) is more sensitive and specific in the detection and characterization of a variety of urinary tract disorders, including renal masses and urolithiasis. The main advantage of IVU has been its ability to offer excellent delineation of pelvicalyceal and ureteral anatomy and to depict subtle uroepithelial abnormalities. MSCTU has already shown promising results for overcoming this challenge. Optimal opacification and distension appear to be an essential requirement for a thorough evaluation of the collecting system. Dedicated preparation strategies have been developed to meet these technical difficulties. The biggest disadvantage of MSCTU is the significant radiation exposure. For broad routine clinical application, there is still a need for dose reduction protocols despite the ongoing technical developments in MSCTU. In this article, we outline the different concepts of technical processing for MSCTU and summarize the current role of MSCTU in the evaluation of the upper urinary tract.


Insect pectinate antennae are very complex objects and studying how they capture pheromone is a challenging mass transfer problem. A few works have already been dedicated to this issue and we review their strengths and weaknesses. In all cases, a common approach is used: the antenna is split between its macro- and microstructure. Fluid dynamics aspects are solved at the highest level of the whole antenna first, ie, the macrostructure. Then, mass transfer is estimated at the scale of a single sensillum, ie, the microstructure. Another common characteristic is the modeling of sensilla by cylinders positioned transversal to the flow. Increasing efforts in faithfully modeling the geometry of the pectinate antenna and their orientation to the air flow are required to understand the major advantageous capture properties of these complex organs. Such a model would compare pectinate antennae to cylindrical ones and may help to understand why such forms of antennae evolved so many times among Lepidoptera and other insect orders.


The direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is a very promisingpower source for low power applications. High power and energydensity, low emissions, operation at or near ambientconditions, fast and convenient refuelling and a potentiallyrenewable fuel source are some of the features that makes thefuel cell very promising. However, there are a few problemsthat have to be overcome if we are to see DMFCs in our everydaylife. One of the drawbacks is the low performance of the DMFCanode. In order to make a better anode, knowledge about whatlimits the performance is of vital importance. With theknowledge about the limitations of the anode, the flow field,gas diffusion layer and the morphology of the electrode can bemodified for optimum performance.The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the limiting factorsof the DMFC anode. A secondary goal is to create a model of theperformance, which also has a low computational cost so that itcan be used as a sub model in more complex system models. Toreach the primary goal, to elucidate the limiting factors, amodel has to be set up that describes the most importantphysical principles occurring in the anode.In addition, experiments have to be performed to validatethe model. To reach the secondary goal, the model has to bereduced to a minimum. A visual DMFC has been developed alongwith a methodology to extract two-phase data. This has provento be a very important part of the understanding of thelimiting factors. Models have been developed from a detailedmodel of the active layer to a two-phase model including theentire three-dimensional anode.The results in the thesis show that the microstructure inthe active layer does not limit the performance. Thelimitations are rather caused by the slow oxidation kineticsand, at concentrations lower than 2 M of methanol, the masstransport resistance to and inside the active layer. Theresults also show that the mass transfer of methanol to theactive layer is improved if gas phase is present, especiallyfor higher temperatures since the gas phase then contains moremethanol.It is concluded that the mass transport resistance lower theperformance of a porous DMFC anode at the methanolconcentrations used today. It is also concluded that masstransfer may be improved by making sure that there is gas phasepresent, which can be done by choosing flow distributor and gasdiffusion layer well.Keywords: direct methanol fuel cell, fuel cell, DMFC, anode,model


Food Agriculture Environment are mutually connected with an organic, unbreakable, complex bond. Their balance depends not only on pedologic and climate factors or the degree of agricultural techniques development but above all on food processing and commercial policies carried out by National Governments and International Bodies. In order to protect availability, accessibility and quality of food processing products is necessary the contribute of political legislation. In the recent years, many times it has been established considerable paradoxes: surplus in farming production and growing prices; inadequate productivity and imports of farming products from Countries with very advantageous agronomic potentialities; abandonment of cultivable lands situated on hill and mountain areas and land grabbing in the poorest Countries; expansion of no food crops in the same regions where people are starving. In the nineties, whether capitalistic agriculture in western Countries or the collectivism one in Socialist Countries and in Developing Countries affi rmed the "rediscovery of territory and genius loci". The new Common Agricultural Policy ("CAP") will have to consider that in order to feed humankind will be necessary to dress Earth through a more respectful use of resources and natural environment and closer use to the traditional food crops of local communities. In this way, rural landscape, which tells stories of thousand-years old efforts and successes, becomes the paradigm more suitable to represent them and to protect quality of farming products and food.


Purpose: We evaluated the clinical significance of simultaneous transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURB) and the prostate (TURP) in patients who have superficial bladder cancer with bladder outlet obstruction. Materials and Methods: Between April 1997 to April 2006, 213 patients with superficial bladder cancer were included in this study. The patients were treated with TURB only (n=107, Group I) or TURB with TURP (n=106, Group II). Bladder cancer recurrence was observed by performing cystoscopy and urine cytology. Uroflowmetry was performed three months after surgery. Results: There were no significant differences in age, the tumor size or the number of tumors between groups I and II. There was no evidence of cancer implantation where TURP was applied. The recurrence rate of group II was significantly lower than that of group I (p=0.044), and the time to recurrence was longer for group II than for group I (p=0.026). There was no significant difference in the progression rate between the two groups (p=0.788). Three months after surgery, the mean residual urine volume was lower for group II (7.9ml) than that for group I (21.7ml). Conclusions: For superficial bladder cancer patients with bladder outlet obstruction, simultaneous TURB and TURP may help reduce the bladder cancer recurrence rate and delay the time to recurrence without the risk of cancer implantation at the site where TURP is applied. (Korean J Urol 2008;49:791-796) 󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏


Obesity develops due to an energy imbalance and manifests as the storage of excess triglyceride (TG) in white adipose tissue (WAT). Recent studies have determined that edible natural materials can reduce lipid accumulation and promote browning in WAT. We aimed to determine whether Ecklonia stolonifera extract (ESE) would increase the energy expenditure in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice and 3T3-L1 cells by upregulating lipolysis and browning. ESE is an edible brown marine alga that belongs to the family Laminariaceae and contains dieckol, a phlorotannin. We report that ESE inhibits body mass gain by regulating the expression of proteins involved in adipogenesis and lipogenesis. In addition, ESE activates protein kinase A (PKA) and increases the expression of lipolytic enzymes including adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), phosphorylated hormone-sensitive lipase (p-HSL), and monoacylglycerol lipase (MGL) and also thermogenic genes, such as carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1), PR domain-containing 16 (PRDM16), and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). These findings indicate that ESE may represent a promising natural means of preventing obesity and obesity-related metabolic diseases.


Because national nuclear waste management schemes have proven to be unsuccessful, an international nuclear waste scheme has been seriously entertained by numerous individuals and agencies. In this article I bring into question the range of motivating forces have been offered by such proponents. I conclude that the motivations for international repositories are so inflected with social, ethical and political problems that they hardly serve to contribute to a sound solution to the nuclear waste management.


The most frightful epidemic of any childhood disease in American history began in 1735. The disease was diphtheria which in colonial records was also known as cynanche, angina, canker, bladders, rattles, or throat distemper. The most characteristic feature of this epidemic was the occurrence of multiple deaths in families. There were at least six instances of eight deaths at a time due to diphtheria in a single family.1
 During this epidemic Colonial newspapers carried reports of methods to cure diphtheria as is evident in this notice from the Boston Gazette, dated March 18, 1735-1736.
 METHOD OF CURE OF THROAT DISTEMPER.
 What is used is as follows. First be sure that a vein be opened under the tongue, and if that can't be done, open a vein in the arm, which must be first done, as all other means will be ineffectual. Then take borax or honey to bathe or annoint the mouth and throat, and lay on the Throat a plaister Vngiuntum Dialthae. To drink a decoction of Devil's bitt or Robbin's Plantain, with some Sal Prunelle dissolved therein, as often as the patient will drink. If the body be costive use a clyster agreeable to the nature of the Distemper. I have known many other things used, especially a root called Physick Root, filarie or five-leaved physick; also a root that I know no name for, only Canker Root. But be sure and let blood, and that under the tongue. We have many times made Blisters under the arms, but that has proved sometimes dangerous.


In Re P (Adoption: Unmarried Couple) [2008] UKHL 38, [2008] 2 FLR 1084 the House of Lords held that a bar on adoption by unmarried couples is unlawful discrimination contrary to Article 14 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 (ECHR). In R v Secretary of State for Health and Kent County Council, ex p B [1999] 1 FLR 656, the High Court found that a bar on fostering by convicted sex offenders is lawful. In what follows, I argue that the reasoning in Re P applies mutatis mutandis to individuals such as those in ex p B prevented from adopting or fostering under vetting and barring schemes, the most prominent being the scheme introduced by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. I first consider various ways in which such individuals could bring themselves within the grounds protected by Article 14, and I argue that 'sex offender' itself could be a protected status, because sex offenders have the personal characteristic of 'risk'. I next analyse whether the bar on adoption and fostering, and vetting and barring schemes in their entirety, would fall within the ambit of a substantive Article of the ECHR, and I conclude that the whole Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act scheme would come within the scope of Article 8. Finally, I consider whether the bar on adoption and fostering by risky individuals is objectively justified, and I conclude that the argument that convinced the House of Lords in Re P applies equally in this context: it is impermissible to turn a reasonable generalisation into an irrebuttable presumption for individual cases, given the duty to treat the best interests of the child as paramount.


Roller ginning provided the first mechanical means of separating cotton lint from seed. The first true roller gin was the Churka gin, which produced up to 2.3 kg (5.0 lb) of lint/day. In 1840, the McCarthy gin was invented to gin extra-long-staple (ELS) cotton. Although the ginning capacity of the McCarthy gin was a major improvement over the Churka gin, capacity was limited to about 18 kg (40 lb) of lint per hour. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a rotary-knife roller gin was developed. The rotary-knife roller gin had a ginning rate 12 times higher than the McCarthy gin, though the rotary knife gin still processed cotton at only about one-fifth the rate of a saw gin with an equivalent width. Around 2005, commercial development of a high-speed rotary-knife roller gin was accomplished. The high-speed roller gin processes cotton at approximately the same rate per unit width as a saw gin. The high-speed roller gin not only allows ELS cotton (such as Pima) to be ginned more efficiently, but also permits high-quality Upland cotton to be roller ginned at a rate more comparable with the saw gin while achieving the benefits of better fiber quality resulting from roller ginning. Although variations of the McCarthy gin are used today in many countries to gin ELS cottons, the rotary-knife roller gin is the only type of roller gin used in the U.S.


Several flavors and fragrances (F&F) companies hold the economic leadership in the market, although not always have also the leadership in patent applications. The ranking of technological production in the fragrance area still remains with industries while scientific knowledge is equally shared between industries and academia. Contextualizing Brazil in this scene, despite all scientific expertise gained over the years, brazilian technological park is still at the beginning of the production of technologies applied directly to the F&F industries. The dependence on foreign technologies is remarkable as indicated by the great trade deficit in this sector.


Synthetic peptides representing T-cell epitopes of allergens and autoantigens have been employed to induce antigen-specific tolerance in vivo in experimental models and the clinical setting. Delivery of peptides orally or by injection leads to reduced reactivity to antigen accompanied by the induction of T cells with a regulatory phenotype. Peptide therapy may provide a safe, effective, and economically viable approach for disease-modifying therapy in autoimmune and allergic diseases.


Australian secondary schools in the 21st century are being called on by governments, parents and educators to promote wellbeing alongside academic pursuits. Emerging in this area is the science of positive psychology which focuses on the scientific enquiry into the factors that promote wellbeing from a preventative rather than a deficit model. The application of positive psychology to education is called positive education. This study explores the impact of a positive education program on the wellbeing of adolescent girls in their transition year to secondary school and following year. Researchers in the area of positive psychology are calling for more empirical studies to be done, particularly in the area of adolescent wellbeing, to address the limited amount of research in the area to date. That is, the current study contributes to this underresearched area by providing empirical evidence on a longitudinal study of a positive education program using five evidence-based constructs.


Left turns are known to be one of the most dangerous driving maneuvers.1 An effective way to mitigate this safety risk is to install a left-turn enforcement --- e.g., a protected left-turn signal or all-way stop signs --- at every turn that preserves a traffic phase exclusively for left turns. Although this protection scheme can significantly increase the driving safety, information on whether or not a road segment (e.g., intersection) has such a setting is not yet available to the public and navigation systems. This paper presents a system, called TurnsMap, that exploits mobile crowdsensing and deep learning to classify the protection settings of left turns. One of our key findings is that crowdsensed IMU sensor (i.e., gyroscope and accelerometer) data from onboard mobile devices can be used to recognize different types of left-turn protection. TurnsMap first collects IMU sensor data from mobile devices or smartphones carried by the driver/passenger(s) in a moving car. It then feeds the data to an analytics engine powered by (1) a data mining engine for extracting and clustering left turns by processing raw IMU data, and (2) a deep-learning pipeline for learning the model from the IMU data to identify the protection type of each left turn. We have built and used a large-scale real-world driving dataset to evaluate TurnsMap, demonstrating its capability of identifying different left-turn enforcements with 90.3% accuracy. A wide range of automotive apps can benefit (e.g., enhancing traffic safety) from the left-turns information unearthed by TurnsMap.


The following routing problem on an undirected graph is considered: Initially, each node of the graph contains exactly one packet. Each node is the destination node of exactly one packet, so the initial state can be considered a permutation of the packets. The packets are routed to their destination nodes by a sequence of steps. In one step, each packet can either remain at its current location, or it can be swapped with a neighbor, i.e., a step is determined by a matching of the participating nodes. The time complexity of the previously best algorithm for routing all packets to their destination nodes given any initial permutation in a graph with n nodes was bounded by 13/5 n. We present an algorithm running in at most 2n-3 steps, where n<1, at the same time simplifying the analysis of the time complexity.


The Chicago metropolitan area has long been the destination of immigrants from around the world. One of the features of the most recent wave of immigration is that immigrants are moving not just to the city of Chicago, but also to its suburbs—with some moving from the city to the suburbs, but many moving directly into the suburbs from their home countries. Researchers, community leaders, and residents themselves are interested in what this means for their communities and immigrant/non-immigrant relations. Lake County, Illinois has been one of these 'new' destinations, more than tripling (+332%) it's (largely Latino) immigrant population since 1980. Lake County therefore provides a window into the landscape of communities that are experiencing rapid increases in immigrant populations. At the same time, our nation has been engaged in debates at the local, state, and national level about immigration policy. Indeed, the lack of national leadership on immigration policy is regularly cited as prompting the patchwork pattern of state and local policies attempting to prevent, reverse, or in some cases, encourage immigration. Most recently, upon his re-election, President Obama and Congressional leaders are promising new action on a comprehensive plan that deals with the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country today and regulates flows of future migrants. This research brief reports basic results from a 2010 survey of residents in six communities in Lake County, IL. We provide these data as one window into the context in which the policy debates, and policies, have and will be playing themselves out. In 2010, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago began a large, multi-faceted study of how immigration was being experienced in six communities in suburban Lake County, IL. This project included in-depth interviews with residents, community leaders, and advocates as well as a large-scale representative survey of residents. Respondents were interviewed either in person or by telephone, and asked a number of questions about their attitudes toward and experiences with immigration and immigrants.


With the development of information technology, computer has played more and more important role in many regions and human's life. The number of computer and network users is increasing minutes by minutes which make this global network and its information expanding rapidly day by day. Meanwhile, the modern computerized information system has been developed rapidly and implemented in many regions, such as education regions, enterprise and provides an electronic means to access information and data. As the fast development of computerized system, the W3C group has developed a flexible language named XML. The W3C has deemed the Extensible Markup Language (XML) will form the important basis for the information interchange and accessing in the field of computer network. It will make the electronic exchange of documents and other exchangeable information much easier, convenient and less expensive. At the same time, the security requirement (e.g. integrity, authenticity of the information and/or data and/or signer authentication) of accessing and exchanging information and data in a modern computerized information system has increased rapidly, and now, as the development of XML function, a new efficient security technology is provided which is named XML digital signature (XMLDsig). The XML digital signature provides a more flexible secured technology to keep the integrity and authenticity of data and/or information. This paper aim to embed and implement XML based digital signatures to an existing Student Query System model in order to achieve the user authentication and integrity of accessing data and/or information from the system.


Some years back, knowing the anniversary was approaching, the Senator approached the Postmaster-General with a view to obtaining a stamp in honour of the occasion. Many other countries have had blood donor stamps to honour the thousands of blood donors who donate blood selflessly. However, the commitments of Australia Post precluded a stamp being issued for the occasion. The Senator, with the help of a philatelist colleague, Senator Christopher Puplick, apparently was undaunted and must have pushed the matter further. The result was that on November 13; 1979, a 20-cent stamped envelope was issued, depicting a blood donor donating blood with a Red Cross sister, together with a stylized Red Cross emblem on an envelope which can be purchased and used much in the same way as an air mail letter.


Abstract Systemic drug delivery via the pulmonary route has a critical limitation because dose uniformity is strongly dependent upon patient inhalation technique. The most frequent and critical errors in inhalation technique are overly forceful inspiration and insufficient breath-holding. In this study, response surface methodology was used with an in silico whole lung particle deposition model for bolus administration to investigate whether varying the inhaled drug particle size could reduce the dependence of deposition upon flow rate and/or breath-holding duration. The range of particle aerodynamic diameters studied was 0.1–10 µm for flow rates between 500–2000 mL/s and breath-holding duration between 0–15 seconds. Comparison with published experimental data showed that this modeling approach can accurately predict the lung deposition. The simulation results indicated that the deposition of particles with aerodynamic diameter in the range of 0.1–1.5 µm should be minimally affected by flow rate over the 500–2000 mL/s range. There was found to be no particle size whose deposition was completely independent of breath-holding duration. The smallest particles, whose deposition is diffusion-driven, were found to be the least sensitive to breath-holding time, but this size is of limited practical use. On the other hand, the simulations indicated that particles with a 1.5 µm diameter would provide acceptable consistency in dose reaching the acini region when the breath-holding duration was greater than 10 seconds. It is hoped that this finding could provide a means of improving dose uniformity for systemic delivery via the pulmonary route by facilitating simplified patient instructions.


Outburst cavity formed during coal and gas outburst can be pear shaped, elliptical, or just like an irregularly elongated ellipsoid, its capacity is always smaller than the volume of ejected coal. And the gas emission quantity is almost 4 to 10 times as gas content in ejected coal. These are two different expressions of the same problem. To find the reasons for the decrease of outburst cavity volume and the increase of gas emission quantity per ton, by using the finite element code ANSYS, the damage zone and the failure zone of the outburst cavity were determined based on the static and dynamic combination method. In this paper, the reason for the decrease of the outburst volume was explained.


OBJECTIVE
To determine how often preoperative localisation tests are performed on patients suffering from primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) without previous neck surgery and to analyse the predictive value of such tests.

DESIGN
Retrospective study.

SETTING
University Hospital Utrecht, the Netherlands.

METHODS
From 1988 to 1993 50 patients suffering from pHPT underwent initial surgical exploration of the neck. Clinical data, performed tests and results, findings at surgery, histological findings and clinical result were recorded.

RESULTS
Localisation tests were performed 41 times on 27 patients (54%): 19 times ultrasonography, 14 times scintigraphy, 7 times computer tomography and once, venous sampling. Independent of preoperative testing, all patients underwent systematical, bilateral exploration of the neck. In 49 patients a total of 53 enlarged parathyroid glands were removed, all patients became normocalcaemic. Exploration revealed no abnormalities in 1 patient, who received no further surgical treatment. In 15 patients (56%) the localisation tests predicted the correct side of the enlarged glands, in 5 patients the wrong side was predicted and in 7 patients no prediction was possible.

CONCLUSION
These results are in accordance with the poor predictive value of localisation tests prior to initial neck exploration as mentioned in other studies. The success rate of operation by an experienced parathyroid surgeon is 95-99 per cent. Preoperative localisation studies in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism without previous neck surgery are not only of poor predictive value, but should even be discouraged, because they may mislead the operating surgeon.


Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathies are a group of disorders with common symptoms such as neurological, cardiac, and muscular dysfunctions. Mutations in ATP6, a protein-coding gene in the mitochondria genome, can lead to NARP, MILS, or FBSN diseases. ATP6 encodes a protein subunit of the ATP synthase, also known as complex V. Currently, there is no cure for patients with ATP6 mutations, and pharmacotherapies provide limited benefits. Because manipulation of mitochondrial genome is extremely difficult, allotopic expression of ATP6 – specifically, expressing the mitochondrially-encoded ATP6 gene in the nucleus – has been championed as a potential gene therapy strategy. Efficacies of allotopic rescue in in vitro systems have been controversial, with some studies showing the restoration of ATP synthase activity and some showing the lack of any rescue effects. We have isolated a Drosophila strain with a missense mutation in ATP6. The phenotypes of this mutant ATP6 strain have been characterized and are very similar to those of human patients, making it an excellent model for diseases caused by ATP6 mutation. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to import nucleus-encoded ATP6 protein into the mitochondria. This work examines the efficacies of multiple strategies in enhancing the functional outcomes of the first animal model with a stable and endogenous ATP6 mutation and shows that algal ATP6 protein provides the most promising rescue results.


Emerging mobile applications rely upon knowing a user's location. A (geospatial) position is a low-level conception of location. A place is a high-level, usercentric conception of location that corresponds to a welldelineated set of positions. Place recognition deals with how to identify a place. Traditional place-recognition approaches (1) presuppose manual tuning of place parameters; (2) limit themselves to specific sensors; or (3) require frequent power-consuming sensor readings. We propose Platys, an adaptive, semisupervised approach for place recognition, which makes weak assumptions about place parameters, and the types and frequencies of sensor readings available. We evaluate Platys via a study of six users. A comparison with two traditional approaches indicates that Platys (without parameter tuning) performs better than traditional approaches (with optimally tuned parameters).


Mathematically precocious junior high school students have been encouraged by SMPY to take college courses. To be eligible, the student should score at least 550 on the matematical part of the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) as a seventh or eighth grader. A score of at least 400 on SAT-Verbal is also desirable. Courses should be taken for graded credit, preferably in the summer, and in the area of the individual's high ability. Many colleges and universities have proved willing or even eager to admit talented young students. The credits earned can be held in escrow for college later. In the last five years, 131 SMPY youths have taken 277 college courses and earned an over all GPA of 3.59, where 4:A and 3-B. Girls take fewer courses than boys and have a sightly lower GPA. Community colleges are a great deal easier for these students than either colleges of universities. These youths experience little social or emotional difficulty in the college classroom. A comparison group of considerably older high school students who took evening college courses did not do as well as the SMPY group (GPA 3.02 versus 3.59). This was probably due to the greater selectivity by SMPY on both ability and motivation to work in a college class.


The last fifty-two years have borne witness to the swift degradation and virtual irrelevance of the bargaining order. By the end of the twentieth century even pro-enforcement officials in the NLRB were acknowledging the difficulty of obtaining an enforceable bargaining order, and the remedy rarely appears these days in the agency's published decisions.

This is not the product of the usual economic or political factors cited as reasons for the labor movement's and its attendant regulating schema's diminishment. Rather, the decline of the bargaining order can be explained almost entirely by the disappearance of the so-called Joy Silk doctrine from the labor law landscape in 1969. Under Joy Silk, the NLRB would order an employer to recognize and bargain with a labor union if the union represented a majority of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit at the time it requested recognition, and the employer denied the request while lacking a good faith doubt as to the union's majority status and took action calculated to dissipate that majority status. Under closer examination, it has become clear that the NLRB's abandonment of the good-faith doubt test in favor of the misconduct-centric analysis enunciated in Gissel Packing is intimately connected to the agency's inability to enforce the law and, as a result, fulfill its statutory mission of encouraging collective bargaining.

This Article addresses the primary objections to the NLRB's use of the good-faith doubt test in the realm of union requests for recognition that were raised in its heyday and elucidates their lack of historical, legal, and practical foundations. The NLRB's inquiry into motive in the pre-recognition context was statutorily permissible, logically consistent, and effectively deterrent. Reviving the good-faith doubt test of Joy Silk and enforcing Section 8(a)(5) of the NLRA as written would better encapsulate the bargaining orders envisioned in past Supreme Court precedent and equip the NLRB with a tool historically proven to prevent misconduct in elections.


Introduction Demographic change and population ageing are global processes without precedent. The 21st century will witness even more rapid ageing than did the century just past and governments, private sector as well as civil society should work together to give answers to the social and economic challenges we will all be facing. Description Edad&Vida (Age and Life) (http://www.edad-vida.org) is from 2001 the meeting point of private companies, elderly associations and academic institutions, who work together to give an answer to the needs of elderly people and to promote initiatives to improve their quality of life in a responsible and sustainable way. Our 'raison d'être' is promoting the joint responsibility and balance between the public sector and the private initiative, with the aim of responding to the economic and social challenges of an ageing population. In this sense, some of the recommendations of Edad&Vida to the public administrations are: a stable and clear legal frame-work for the private initiative to make the necessary investment efforts; the health and social care integration; an offer of quality services to the elderly people and the accreditation system to guarantee this quality; a fair correlation between costs and prices paid; the long-term care system sustainability through co-payment etc. Conclusions Edad&Vida Foundation is a reference and pioneer institution in Spain and in Europe and fosters the dialogue and co-operation among public and private sector as well as elderly associations and academic institutions with the aim of improving the quality of life of elderly people.


In this thesis, the nutritional regulation and clinical significance of selenoprotein P (SeP) in human plasma of healthy and diseased subjects was investigated. For the analysis of SeP, a radioimmunoassay was developed using polyclonal antibodies. The epitope recognized by the antibodies was apparently stable after storage of plasma in the frozen state for years. In the studies included, the coefficient of variation for the concentration of SeP was 3.8-7.7% within assays, and 5.4-7.5% between assays.

The levels of SeP among healthy adults from different parts of Europe varied significantly. When the highest concentration of SeP encountered in samples from Maldegem (Belgium) was set to 100%, the mean concentration for the lowest region was 69% for Epirus (Greece). These differences would largely be expected to reflect differences in selenium intake. In two similar trials, healthy Finnish males were daily receiving oral supplements as inorganic or organic selenium during 11 to 16 weeks. At a low selenium status the SeP levels of all the supplemented groups increased in a similar way, approaching a plateau at 2 weeks, and reaching maximum values at 4 weeks. At a higher selenium status no significant effects on SeP levels were observed. In another study it was investigated if SeP in plasma is lost during treatment of hypercholesterolaemic patients with LDL-apheresis. Immediately after LDL-apheresis a substantial decrease of SeP in the plasma was observed. These results indicate that the decrease of plasma selenium during treatment was due to the binding of SeP to the dextran sulphate cellulose column to a large extent. The SeP lost during one treatment would correspond to 90 µg selenium. In a case-control study, the premorbid levels of SeP in the plasma of middle-aged men who later got different forms of cancer was compared with those of control subjects. Low SeP levels were associated with an increased risk of getting cancer in respiratory tract and digestive tract.

In all study groups, the correlations of SeP to plasma selenium and eGSHPx was positive, usually being more marked att low to moderate plasma selenium concentrations. SeP is evidently ubiquitously expressed and is associated with endotelial cells. Its localization is consistent with the assumption that it has an oxidant defense function. The marked variation in SeP levels observed in the present series of investigations may have several medical implications.


Biodegradation is the most viable alternative for numerous health and environmental issues associated with non-biodegradable materials. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in biodegradable nanomaterials due to their relative abundance, environmental benignity, low cost, easy use, and tunable properties. This chapter covers an overview of biodegradation, factors and challenges associated with biodegradation processes, involvement of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in biodegradation, and biodegradable nanomaterials. Furthermore, current chapter extensively discusses the most recent applications of biodegradable nanomaterials that have recently been explored in the areas of food packaging, energy, environmental remediation, and nanomedicine. Overall, this chapter provides a synopsis of how the involvement of nanotechnology would benefit the process of biodegradation.


Limited research exists on how students qualitatively interact with high-stakes standardized assessments. Using a think aloud methodology, this study focused on investigating the challenges Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) and English Learner (EL) high school students report while completing the critical reading section of the SAT, and the challenges the researcher observed. Another aim of the study was to investigate what types of reading, vocabulary, and testing strategies the students reported while taking the test and the strategies the researcher observed. The results yielded a higher percentage of reported challenges in the areas of reading and vocabulary, than observed challenges. For the strategies, there was a breakdown of observed and reported metacognitive and cognitive strategies for the areas of reading, vocabulary, and testing. There was a higher percentage of observed metacognitive strategies of underlining and rereading. In addition, reading strategies such as summarizing and analyzing were observed in this study, and a higher percentage of vocabulary and testing strategies were reported by the students during their think alouds. The study also examined the similarities and differences in challenges and strategies by student performance level on the critical reading test that was given to the students to complete. It was observed that the lower performance group experienced more reading challenges and the higher performance group reported more strategies overall. Considering that the vocabulary words in the reading passage played a big role in the challenges reported by the students, it can be said that the study has implications for the area of testing development, in that more appropriate reading passages should be created for RFEP and EL students. The study also has implications for educators in that they could implement a think aloud methodology in their English language arts curriculum and teach their students to be more metacognitive about their own challenges while reading. The results of this study suggest that the students who used a broader range of metacognitive strategies (including, reading, vocabulary, and testing strategies) had a better reading comprehension performance than the other students. Students can also learn what types of strategies to apply to try to overcome their challenges and comprehend the text they are reading.


Here we construct a low-dimensional Smoluchowski model for electric field mediated colloidal crystallization using Brownian dynamic simulations, which were previously matched to experiments. Diffusion mapping is used to infer dimensionality and confirm the use of two order parameters, one for degree of condensation and one for global crystallinity. Free energy and diffusivity landscapes are obtained as the coefficients of a low-dimensional Smoluchowski equation to capture the thermodynamics and kinetics of microstructure evolution. The resulting low-dimensional model quantitatively captures the dynamics of different assembly pathways between fluid, polycrystal, and single crystals states, in agreement with the full N-dimensional data as characterized by first passage time distributions. Numerical solution of the low-dimensional Smoluchowski equation reveals statistical properties of the dynamic evolution of states vs. applied field amplitude and system size. The low-dimensional Smoluchowski equation and associated landscapes calculated here can serve as models for predictive control of electric field mediated assembly of colloidal ensembles into two-dimensional crystalline objects.


Treatment for chronic viral hepatitis C has advanced dramatically to current standard of care all-oral direct-acting antiviral regimens with relatively short treatment duration and high efficacy. Patients with comorbid end-stage renal disease have constituted a "special patient population" with data and treatment options lagging behind that of the broader population of patients with chronic hepatitis C until recently. Herein we review the current evidence base for direct-acting antiviral therapy in this population. We provide a suggested algorithm for the evaluation of such patients for therapy. We highlight special considerations in regards to the choice of regimen, duration, and timing in regards to potential kidney transplantation.


Objectives: We investigated the association of working hours with occupational injuries in hospital shift work. Methods: Registry data of occupational injuries of hospital employees from 11 towns and 6 hospital districts were linked to daily payroll data to obtain working hours for 37 days preceding the first incidence of the injury (N=18 700). A case-crossover design and associated matched-pair interval analysis were used to compare working hour characteristics for three separate hazard windows among the same subjects. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: We found an elevated risk of an occupational injury for workdays with evening shifts (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.03–1.14) and workdays following night shifts (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.17–1.52). After excluding commuting injuries, the risk increased during the evening shifts (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.09–1.23) and the work days following night shifts (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.24–1.69), but was no more significant during the morning shifts. Injury risk increased following a week of ≥5 morning shifts or ≥3 evening shifts, but did not increase according to the number of preceding night shifts or quick returns. The length of the work shift (OR 1.22, CI 1.06–1.42) – not the length of the weekly working hours – was associated with an increased risk. Conclusions: The results indicate an increased occupational injury risk during the evening shifts and during work days following night shifts, with the risk increasing according to the number of evening but not night shifts.


Grain refinement of aluminum deformed by equal channel angular pressing is strongly dependent on the amount of strain. The refinement process at low to high strain level involves elongation of the existing grains by shear deformation, their subdivision into bands and subgrain formation within bands, intersection of the bands during subsequent passes and finally conversion of the subgrains to grains by continuous dynamic recrystallization process. At room temperature the conversion of subgrains to grains takes place by progressive lattice rotation.


Application-layer multicast (ALM) has grown tremendously in recent years, making the distribution of bulk data such as streaming video economically feasible for small companies and even individuals. The efficiency of an ALM network depends on its data distribution overlay, which is constructed based on metrics such as round-trip time (RTT) measurement between peers. However Internet measurement experiments revealed that RTT is far from an accurate estimator of bandwidth availability and as such, may lead to sub-optimal performance in the constructed ALM overlays. This paper tackles this problem by developing a new in-band bandwidth probing tool which can estimate the amount of achievable bandwidth available in the target network path so that excess data traffic can be diverted from the congested path without causing new congestion in the target path. Moreover, the probing tool does not incur any bandwidth overhead as it piggybacks on the existing data flow. Simulation results show that multioverlay ALM networks constructed based on achievable bandwidth consistently out-performs RTT-based and residual bandwidth- based approaches in terms of data delivery ratio and video playback continuity. Moreover, the proposed bandwidth probing tool can be implemented entirely within the application and thus can be readily incorporated into existing ALM protocols. Index Terms—Application layer multicast, bandwidth estima- tion, overlay network, video streaming.


OBJECTIVE
To measure the imposed power of breathing (imposed work of breathing per minute) associated with spontaneous breathing through an active impedance threshold device and a sham impedance threshold device.

DESIGN
Prospective randomized blinded protocol.

SETTING
University medical center.

PATIENTS
Nineteen healthy, normotensive volunteers (10 males, 9 females, age range 20-56 y, mean +/- SD weight 54.8 +/- 7.7 kg for females, 84 +/- 8 kg for males).

METHODS
The volunteers completed 2 trials of breathing through a face mask fitted with an active impedance threshold device set to open at -7 cm H(2)O pressure, or with a sham impedance threshold device, which was identical to the active device except that it did not contain an inspiratory threshold pressure valve diaphragm. Spontaneous breathing frequency (f), tidal volume (V(T)), exhaled minute ventilation, inspiratory pressure, and inspiratory time were measured with a respiratory monitor, and the data were directed to a laptop computer for real-time calculation of the imposed power of breathing.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences in heart rate, respiratory rate, tidal volume, and minute ventilation, with and without inspiratory impedance. For the sham and active impedance threshold device groups, respectively, the mean +/- SD imposed power of breathing values were 0.92 +/- 0.63 J/min and 8.18 +/- 4.52 J/min (p < 0.001), the mean +/- SD inspiratory times were 1.98 +/- 0.86 s and 2.97 +/- 1.1 s (p = 0.001), and the mean +/- SD inspiratory airway/mouth pressures were -1.1 +/- 0.6 cm H(2)O and -11.7 +/- 2.4 cm H(2)O (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Breathing through an active impedance threshold device requires significantly more power than breathing through a sham device. All subjects tolerated the respiratory work load and were able to complete the study protocol.


Organometallic complexes with novel activation mechanisms are attractive anticancer drug candidates. Here, we show that half-sandwich iodido cyclopentadienyl iridium(iii) azopyridine complexes exhibit potent antiproliferative activity towards cancer cells, in most cases more potent than cisplatin. Despite their inertness towards aquation, these iodido complexes can undergo redox activation by attack of the abundant intracellular tripeptide glutathione (GSH) on the chelated azopyridine ligand to generate paramagnetic intermediates, and hydroxyl radicals, together with thiolate-bridged dinuclear iridium complexes, and liberate reduced hydrazopyridine ligand. DFT calculations provided insight into the mechanism of this activation. GS− attack on the azo bond facilitates the substitution of iodide by GS−, and leads to formation of GSSG and superoxide if O2 is present as an electron-acceptor, in a largely exergonic pathway. Reactions of these iodido complexes with GSH generate Ir-SG complexes, which are catalysts for GSH oxidation. The complexes promoted elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human lung cancer cells. This remarkable ligand-centred activation mechanism coupled to redox reactions adds a new dimension to the design of organoiridium anticancer prodrugs.


Traditional multi-view photometric stereo (MVPS) methods are often composed of multiple disjoint stages, resulting in noticeable accumulated errors. In this paper, we present a neural inverse rendering method for MVPS based on implicit representation. Given multi-view images of a non-Lambertian object illuminated by multiple unknown directional lights, our method jointly estimates the geometry, materials, and lights. Our method first employs multi-light images to estimate per-view surface normal maps, which are used to regularize the normals derived from the neural radiance field. It then jointly optimizes the surface normals, spatially-varying BRDFs, and lights based on a shadow-aware differentiable rendering layer. After optimization, the reconstructed object can be used for novel-view rendering, relighting, and material editing. Experiments on both synthetic and real datasets demonstrate that our method achieves far more accurate shape reconstruction than existing MVPS and neural rendering methods. Our code and model can be found at https://ywq.github.io/psnerf.


International higher education policies and literature have called for students and faculty to collaborate effectively in the co-designing and co-teaching of curricula. In the fall of 2017, the Department of Electrical Engineering of National Taiwan University launched the "Creative Cornerstone Course Design for ICT+ and Engineering Education" course, which is a co-design course, to engage higher division and graduate students in co-creating and co-teaching the curriculum of a "Cornerstone EECS Design and Implementation" freshman course, which was a cornerstone course to be conducted in the spring of 2018. This paper presents the educational practice and learning outcomes of the co-design course. The implementation of the co-design course involved the following activities: (a) project- and team-based learning approaches, (b) active student partnership with teachers for designing the cornerstone course curriculum, and (c) preparatory cultivation of the students as teaching assistants for co-teaching. Learning outcome analysis indicated that freshman students significantly benefited in terms of their self-exploration of ICT-related subjects, basic professional knowledge, operational techniques, and confidence in self-learning when the cornerstone course was developed through co-designing.+ICT: Information and Communication Technology


Background: TGF-β signaling pathway plays an essential role in tumor progression and immune responses. However, the link between TGF-β signaling pathway-related genes (TSRGs) and clinical prognosis, tumor microenvironment (TME), and immunotherapy in gastric cancer is unclear. Methods: Transcriptome data and related clinical data of gastric cancer were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases, and 54 TSRGs were obtained from the Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB). We systematically analyzed the expression profile characteristics of 54 TSRGs in 804 gastric cancer samples and examined the differences in prognosis, clinicopathological features, and TME among different molecular subtypes. Subsequently, TGF-β-related prognostic models were constructed using univariate and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis to quantify the degree of risk in each patient. Patients were divided into two high- and low-risk groups based on the median risk score. Finally, sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and anti-tumor agents was assessed in patients in high- and low-risk groups. Results: We identified two distinct TGF-β subgroups. Compared to TGF-β cluster B, TGF-β cluster A exhibits an immunosuppressive microenvironment with a shorter overall survival (OS). Then, a novel TGF-β-associated prognostic model, including SRPX2, SGCE, DES, MMP7, and KRT17, was constructed, and the risk score was demonstrated as an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. Further studies showed that gastric cancer patients in the low-risk group, characterized by higher tumor mutation burden (TMB), the proportion of high microsatellite instability (MSI-H), immunophenoscore (IPS), and lower tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) score, had a better prognosis, and linked to higher response rate to immunotherapy. In addition, the risk score and anti-tumor drug sensitivity were strongly correlated. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of TSRGs, deepen the understanding of tumor immune microenvironment, and guide individualized immunotherapy for gastric cancer patients.


In insects changes in lipid metabolism may underlie a trade‐off between cold resistance and starvation resistance. To test this we examined correlated responses in independent sets of Drosophila melanogaster lines selected for increased cold resistance and increased starvation resistance. The starvation lines showed correlated patterns found in other D. melanogaster populations selected for this trait, including higher lipid levels and increased resistance to desiccation, although the selected lines did not show a longer development time as found in some other studies. Consistent with the trade‐off hypothesis, selected lines with increased starvation resistance showed decreased resistance to a cold stress as measured by mortality, whereas selected lines with increased cold resistance showed a decrease in starvation resistance. To counter the possibility of inadvertent selection accounting for these patterns, selected and control lines from both selection regimes were crossed to form mass bred populations, which were left for four generations prior to establishing isofemale lines. By scoring starvation and cold resistance in these lines derived from both sets of selection regimes, we confirmed the negative association between resistance to these stresses in females but not in males. Potential implications of this trade‐off for surviving cold conditions when food resources are limiting are discussed.


Abstract: Corals formed at least 15 symbiotic associations in the Devonian. Tabulates formed symbiotic associations more often than rugose corals, with the largest number of different taxa involved in stromatoporoid-syringoporid and brachiopod-auloporid symbioses. Eight of fifteen symbiotic associations first appeared in the Devonian, all of which except for the crinoid-tabulate association went extinct by the end of the Devonian. The general increase in symbiotic interactions involving corals in the Devonian can be explained by the increase in number of coral taxa. The influence of Ordovician/Silurian and Frasnian/Famennian mass extinctions on coral symbiosis was different: the Ordovician/Silurian mass extinction did not terminate coral symbiosis, whereas the Frasnian/Famennian mass extinction almost entirely terminated symbiotic interactions between the corals and other invertebrates.


The materials used were two sorts of reactor pressure vessel steels (RPVSs), which contain different amounts of impurity phosphorous (P) and copper (Cu). The specimens for Charpy V-notch impact tests and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) were irradiated in the Japan Materials Test Reactor (JMTR) at 290°C up to fluences of 6 × 1021 and 1 × 1024 n/m2 using a multi-division temperature control capsule which enables removal of a part of the sub-capsules during operation of the reactor. Neutron irradiation resulted in a significant shift in the ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) accompanied by a large irradiation hardening in the high P and high Cu steel. The AES measurements following the irradiations revealed that almost no phosphorous segregation occurred at grain boundaries. The DBTT shifts by neutron irradiation were reasonably interpreted in terms of a so-called hardening mechanism. The SEM observations of the fractured surface indicated that a very small amount of grain boundary fracture was induced at the irradiation conditions, and resultantly no grain boundary embrittlement was observed. Based on the results of irradiation experiments as well as long-term thermal aging experiments beyond 16 000 h, neutron irradiation-induced grain boundary embrittlement is considered to rarely happen to the RPVS that contains 110 wppm of phosphorous.


Objective To assess the impact of certolizumab pegol (CZP) on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to interpret these results using number needed to treat (NNT), and associations between PRO responses and longer term outcomes. Methods A total of 619 patients with active RA were randomised to CZP 200 or 400 mg, or placebo plus methotrexate (MTX). PROs assessed included pain, patient's global assessment of disease activity (PtGA), physical function, fatigue and health-related quality of life. Treatment impact on PROs, NNT to achieve simultaneous improvements in multiple PROs and correlations between PROs were calculated. Times to onset of improvements greater than or equal to minimum clinically important differences (MCIDs) in pain as a determinant of clinical outcomes at week 24 were compared between week 6 and 12 responders, and in patients with improvements in pain ≥MCID at week 12 (week 12 responders/non-responders). Results CZP 200 and 400 mg plus MTX were associated with rapid, clinically meaningful improvements in all PROs. The NNT for subjects to report changes ≥MCID in up to fi ve PROs was two to three, and fi ve for all six PROs (pain, PtGA, physical function, fatigue and short-form 36-item Physical and Mental Component Summary Scores). More patients with improvements ≥MCID in pain at week 6 than those at week 12 had lower disease activity at week 24. Week 12 pain responders had better clinical outcomes at week 24 than non-responders. Conclusions The data demonstrate that CZP provides broad relief from the burden of RA. Trial registration number NCT00160602.


Tumor infiltration with Va24-invariant NKT cells (NKTs) associates with favorable outcome in neuroblastoma and other cancers. Although NKTs can be directly cytotoxic against CD1d+ cells, the majority of human tumors are CD1d–. Therefore, the role of NKTs in cancer remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that CD68+ tumor-associated monocytes/macrophages (TAMs) represented the majority of CD1d-expressing cells in primary human neuroblastomas. TAMs stimulated neuroblastoma growth in human cell lines and their xenografts in NOD/SCID mice via IL-6 production. Indeed, TAMs produced IL-6 in primary tumors and in the BM of patients with metastatic neuroblastoma. Gene expression analysis using TaqMan low-density arrays of 129 primary human neuroblastomas without MYCN amplification revealed that high-level expression of TAMspecific genes (CD14, CD16, IL6, IL6R, and TGFB1) was associated with poor 5-year event-free survival. While NKTs were not cytotoxic against neuroblastoma cells, they effectively killed monocytes pulsed with tumor cell lysate. The killing of monocytes was CD1d restricted because it was inhibited by a CD1d-specific mAb. Cotransfer of human monocytes and NKTs to tumor-bearing NOD/SCID mice decreased monocyte number at the tumor site and suppressed tumor growth compared with mice transferred with monocytes alone. Thus, killing of TAMs reveals what we believe to be a novel mechanism of NKT antitumor activity that relates to the disease outcome. Research Article


Female genital cutting is waning in northeastern Ghana, even though NGO and state discourses suggest otherwise. Women who no longer perform the practice do not, as anthropologists often posit, resist anticutting advocacy. Rather, they critique what NGO and state interventions leave unaddressed. These women understand the ending of cutting as an index of food scarcity and governance that saps their blood and vitality. Cutting had to stop, they say, because they could no longer afford to lose more blood. Drawing on indigenous and biomedical understandings of health and popular notions of occult economies, they critique the contemporary governance that simultaneously invests in their lives and causes bodily attrition. "Slow harm" reveals how the invisible violence of neoliberal democracy produces ordinary crises and makes bodies vulnerable.


Child-centered play therapy (CCPT) is an empirically supported and developmentally appropriate counseling intervention for young children. Despite the clinical effectiveness of CCPT with children, no known study has been conducted in which parents were surveyed or interviewed regarding the services they have received as a part of their children's participation in CCPT. Therefore, this study was designed to gain a better understanding of parents' reported needs and expectations in CCPT. This study utilized Q-methodology in which participants completed a Q-sort by actively sorting 40 items on a continuum of least important to most important. Items included services and processes regarded by CCPT scholars and child therapy practitioners as being important to working with parents. Data was collected from 19 parents of children receiving CCPT services in a community-based counseling clinic. Participants included 16 females and 3 males; 15 Caucasian and 4 Hispanic; and 14 biological parents, 2 adoptive parents, and 3 other biological caregivers. Data was analyzed using centroid factor analysis, and results revealed a one factor solution representing 18 of the 19 participants. Eighteen parents reported similar beliefs regarding the processes they consider most and least important to their experience in working with child-centered play therapists. In general, parents' beliefs aligned with CCPT philosophy, particularly in regards to respecting children's natural pace of development and healing. Furthermore, parents shared preferences for play therapists who demonstrate expert knowledge and training and who understand the individual needs of their children. Discussion includes implications for the practice of CCPT and training of future play therapists, limitations of the study, and implications for future research.


BACKGROUND
Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is a rare life-threatening complication, which commonly affects the lung. Currently, the most widely accepted criteria for the diagnosis of FES are the Gurd and Wilson Criteria established nearly 40 years ago, but without pulmonary images involved. Our study aims to analyse the pulmonary computed tomography (CT) findings seen in FES.

CASE PRESENTATION
This report enrolled four cases of FES with lung involvement. The mainly symptoms and signs included dyspnea, disturbance of consciousness, anemia, thrombocytopenia and, most notably, ground-glass opacities, septal thickening, ill-defined centrilobular nodules, and patchy consolidation were demonstrated on bilateral lungs. Combining the clinical manifestations and laboratory tests, the diagnosis of FES was confirmed. With the treatment of steroids, anti-coagulation and supportive treatment, the four patients' symptoms were relieved, abnormalities in chest CT were absorbed significantly and the patients were finally discharged.

CONCLUSIONS
There are several common manifestations of FES in pulmonary CT images, and the lung parenchymal features give more information for the diagnosis of FES than the pulmonary vessel findings. Given the absence of a gold standard diagnostic test for FES, further investigation to explore new diagnostic criteria of FES involving pulmonary radiological features is needed in the future.


Data from research studies seem to support the validity of teacher judgments of student achievement; however, there are unresolved issues, including the focus of the judgment, the external validity or credibility of the assessment, and the process of the assessment itself. To achieve maximum benefits from this form of assessment/teaching interface, teachers may need to be sensitized to the extent and importance of the assessment role in the teaching process. Intensive experience with basic principles of measurement and assessment instruments and other devices is needed. Effective teaching is based on an ability to assess accurately: assessment does and should inform the teaching process. It becomes more powerful as the assessment becomes integrated into teaching. The more a teacher uses intuitive judgement and direct observation of a student's literacy development, the more powerful the assessment becomes in the classroom. The key to the development of a cohesive and coherent set of assessment tasks all directed toward the same developmental aim Is the existence of a criterion scale of development that can be used to link the teaching and learning process and the interpretation of assessment information. Linking assessment and reporting to teaching and learning is facilitated by the use of descriptive criterion scales which standardize the reporting terminology. The link between teaching, learning, and assessment, while having an undeniable internal validity, may at times need an external reference to establish external validity. (Two figures are included; 27 references ure attached.) (RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Literacy Assessment: Merging Teaching, Learning, and Assessment


The prognosis for normal medical and neurobehavioral outcome in NICU survivors has been progressively improving during the past few years. Prematurity per se does not reduce the potential for normal outcome, especially in greater than 1,500-gm preterm infants. For infants less than or equal to 1,500-gm birthweight, the potential for normal outcome is somewhat diminished, but is nevertheless very encouraging unless complicated by significant IVH. Improved survival and improved neurobehavioral outcome in less than 1,000-gm preterm infants remain as major challenges, especially in respect to the prevention of IVH. Although further improvements in neonatal care can be expected to yield modest additional improvements in neurobehavioral outcome, drastic further improvements will likely depend primarily on preventive measures, ie favorable trends in birthweight distribution related to improved methods for the prevention of prematurity.


We present spatial, temporal and spectral analyses of ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxies Ark 564, NGC 985, Kaz 163, Mrk 79 and RX J2256.6+0525. Ark 564 is a powerful narrow-line Seyfert 1 with strong Fe II emission. Several similar narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies have recently been found to have remarkably steep soft X-ray continua as well as rapid X-ray variability. We find that Ark 564 also has a very steep ($\Gamma > 3$) 0.1--2.5 keV spectrum and varies by $\sim 20$ per cent in 1500 s. We examine models for Ark 564 in light of both its X-ray and optical characteristics, and suggest a possible connection between the steep X-ray spectra of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and their narrow lines. NGC 985 has a large soft excess, a warm absorber, or both. The three other Seyferts have systematically steeper spectra than are typically observed for Seyferts in higher energy Ginga data, indicating that they also harbour further spectral complexity. Kaz 163 shows $\sim 45$ per cent intensity variability in the 0.1--2.5 keV band, and Mrk 79 shows evidence for variability as well.


Introduction Although survival has been improved in HIV-infected patients, the risk for atherosclerotic diseases has increased. Objective To evaluate the effect of HIV infection on atherosclerosis in asymptomatic patients. Subjects and methods Study design: observational, prospective case-control study, including 124 consecutive male and female HIV-infected patients, older than 18 year (HIV-group). Results were compared with 130 healthy volunteers of same gender and age (Control-group). Study protocol: Clinical evaluation followed by ultrasound exam of carotids for carotid intimal-medial thickness (CIMT) measurement. The presence of atherosclerosis plaques was recorded. Statistical analysis: Chi-square test and linear regression analysis. Significance level: p < 0.05. Result Age (HIV-group:43.87 ± 11.31 vs Control-group: 42.9 ± 11.54, p = 0.324) was similar in both groups. There was 52.00% male in HIV-group and 54.00% in Control group. Atherosclerotic plaque was identified in 30.64% of the patients HIV and in 3.84% of the control (p < 0.001). Surprisingly, 22% of HIV-infected patients, classified at low risk score Freminghan, presented plaques in the carotid arteries. For controls, there was an increase of 0.068 mm in the CIMT for each one-year increase in age (OR: 1.068; CI95%: 1.03–1.107; p < 0.001). The presence of HIV increased this increment for tenfold (OR: 10.7; CI95%: 3.58–31.76; p < 0.001). There was an interaction between age and HIV-infection to increase CIMT (p < 0.001). Conclusions Our results indicated that: 1- patients with HIV are at higher risk for atherosclerosis in the carotid artery than control individuals. 2- The effect of age on risk for atherosclerosis occurs in both groups, however it is more remarkable in HIV-infected patients.


To measure the similarity between two images, the local information around all the points were usually used for traditional image retrieval methods based on interest points. The accuracy would be influenced by the dissimilar interest points in the background region or in the uninterested regions. A new image retrieval method based on interest points was proposed in this paper. The most similar interest points were chosen firstly based on feature matching techniques, then the similarity was measured based on the local gray information around the preserved similar interest points. Experiments show that the proposed method is more accurate than traditional image retrieval method based on interest points.


The Drosophila Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channel is the founding member of a large and diverse family of channel proteins. These channels are evolutionarily conserved from yeast to mammals and are found in many organisms and tissues. The TRP family is classified into seven subfamilies, while the most closely related to the Drosophila TRP are members of the TRPC (Canonical) subfamily. This review focuses on a comparison between properties of Drosophila TRP, discovered in the native photoreceptor cells, and that of mammalian TRPC channels. These properties include: (i) organization of TRP channels in multimolecular signaling complexes via PDZ-containing scaffold proteins, (ii) mutations causing constitutive activity of TRP channels and cell degeneration, (iii) regulation of TRP channels by phosphorylation, and (iv) hypoxia/anoxia-activation of TRP channels. Hence, we suggest that knowledge gained from studies of Drosophila may guide studies in mammals that attempt elucidating diverse types of diseases caused by TRPC channel malfunction.