Abstract. Climate changes are predicted to drive changes in plant species composition and vegetation cover around the world. Preserved specimens and other botanical information that we gather today—a period future practitioners may look back on as an early stage of modern anthropogenic climate change—will be of value to conservation managers and conservation biologists in the decades and centuries ahead. Here, we present suggestions for the systematic collection, long-term curation (in museums, herbaria, and other research institutions), and maintenance of plant specimens, along with associated data and analyses on the plants and vegetation present today and in the past. The primary aim of this systematic survey is to provide information of high value to conservation researchers and managers both in the near term (the next several years) and through the century to come. Such a systematic survey would build on a strong foundation of research and adaptive management on the island. It would fill gaps in less well-studied groups of organisms and identify environmental, ecological, and cultural factors related to current patterns of distribution. It would also archive previously collected data, photographs, and other materials which would otherwise gradually degrade and become inaccessible. As a case study, we use Santa Cruz Island, California, which is managed for conservation. We are confident that the same approach may be applied to other lands and waters around the world. We argue that there is a particular need to collect and archive herbarium specimens and seeds from today's populations, activities largely overlooked in recent decades. We encourage conservation researchers and managers to consider what information will be most important for future managers and to help launch studies, monitoring programs, and collections to prepare their successors for success.


SUMMARY

Many physical characteristics of planets, such as their topography, magnetic and gravitational fields, are routinely detected and measured by spacecrafts. At satellite altitudes, even if little is known about the measured signal, it is possible to separate the large-scale components from other contributions by a spectral analysis carried out along the spacecraft orbit. This procedure, which dates back to the early age of the satellite era, is routinely applied with spherical harmonics analysis for the study of large-scale planetary magnetic fields, particularly those that vary rapidly in time. In this paper, we review the approximations of this procedure for investigating internal and external magnetic fields of planets. We show that the magnetic field analyses along the orbits are limited by a finite frequency resolution that is known to introduce a spectral leakage. This leakage may lead to artificial spatio-temporal variations of the magnetic field, such as an apparent internal field secular variation, an asymmetry of the magnetospheric field and a regional distortion of the lithospheric field structures. We quantify the errors for the Earth's lithospheric field and display its distribution in the spatial and the spectral domains. We also discuss these limits for the Moon and Mars lithospheric magnetic fields. Our analytical results illustrate the pros and cons of the orbit-by-orbit analyses and should allow us to avoid the pitfall of geophysical overinterpretation of some artificial magnetic field variations.


This paper describes the preparation, characterization and properties of nanostructured composite materials based on poly(butylene adipate-co-polycaprolactam) (PBA-co-PCL)/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polycaprolactone (PCL)/MWCNTs. The polymer/MWCNTs nanocomposites were prepared by mixing the polymers with various amounts of MWCNTs using both solution and melt blending processes. The dispersion of MWCNTs into the polymer matrix was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the thermal stability of the nanocomposites was studied by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the crystallization and melting behaviour of the polymer matrices containing the MWCNTs.


The present study addresses the first steps of development and validation of a coupled CFD-BE (Blade Element) simulation tool dedicated to offshore wind turbine farm modelling. The CFD part is performed using a weakly-compressible solver (WCCH). The turbine is taken into account using FAST (from NREL) and its effects are imposed into the fluid domain through an actuator line model. The first part of this paper is dedicated to the presentation of the WCCH solver and its coupling with the aero-elastic modules from FAST. In a second part, for validation purposes, comparisons between FAST and the WCCH-FAST coupling are presented and discussed. Finally, a discussion on the performances, advantages and limitations of the formulation proposed is provided.


Background and Objectives: The development in the technology have witnessed that there is a revival of interest in drug discovery from medicinal plants for treatment of the most destructive diseases. Our investigation characterizes the usage of digital image processing techniques in Matlab to process and analyze the antimicrobial effects of the selected herbal plants.
Methods: The first stage of our investigation involves the extraction of components with methanol from the selected three herbal plants- Solanum xanthocarpum, Solanum nigrum and Helianthus annuus by using soxhlet apparatus. These plant extracts were assayed for antimicrobial activity against 4 different bacterial and fungal species using disk diffusion method.
Results: Notable cell growth inhibitions were observed from the selected microbes. Solanum xanthocarpum exhibits better antibacterial properties on comparison to other two extracts. Solanum nigrum and Helianthus annuus exhibit better antifungal properties by being sensitive factor towards fungal medium. The obtained images were processed using color coding techniques to determine the activity of the extract by isolating the region of inhibition area. The region of inhibition was measured using matlab code and tabulation was compiled to compare the manually measured distances to the automated measurements.
Conclusions: The results provided evidence that the studied plant extracts might indeed be potential sources of natural antimicrobial agents and the introduction of an evaluation technique using image processing was shown to be suitable for the purpose of accurate measurements of zone of inhibition.


Problem statement: Today, the rapid growth of technology and communication technologies has inevitably transformed human life and shaped concepts, viewpoints, and lifestyles. According to Manuel Castells' theory of culture, in today's world, technological developments and the emergence of new media are essential factors in social and cultural changes and the creation of multiple discourses in societies. But the problem of the present study is different aspects of the new culture from Castells perspective on the works of the eighth biennial of Iranian national painting (2011), that aspects such as multiple discourses, independence from regional geography and self-selection and self-production of cultural content are important issues for the artist and are reflected in their work. Research objectives: This study investigates the works of the eighth biennial based on modern communication processes and the formation of spontaneous mass communication using Castells' theory in explaining culture in the era of communication. Because ongoing discourses are important factors in shaping the culture of a society and creating works of art of any period, this article seeks to examine the multiple discourses of the eighth biennial of painting, based on Castells' theory of culture. Research method: The research method is descriptive-analytical, analyzes have been done qualitatively and the statistical population of the research includes 186 works of the eighth biennial of National Painting of Iran (2011). Conclusion: Based on Castells' theory that the technology revolution and the spread of information have transformed all levels of society, this paper proves that free and quick access to the wide range of cultural data and contents caused most of the participating artists in the biennial to choose the content of their works individually and experience self-selection and selfproduction of cultural content in this era.


Drawing upon equity and gender theories, we investigate Chinese couples' perceived fairness of the wife's disproportionately heavy household responsibility. Data come from in-depth interviews with 39 married couples in Beijing during the summer of 1998. Although housework division remained unequal among dual-earner couples, the majority of wives and husbands saw it as fair. We explore the notion of gendered resources by examining husbands' and wives' opinions about both paid and domestic work. We find that husband's breadwinner role and wife's housekeeper role retain their primary place in the family and that gender-role expectations produce gendered resources to both wives and husbands. These expectations release both the husbands, who have fulfilled the provider role, from the obligation to share housework equally, and the wives, who combine paid and domestic work, from an equal responsibility of breadwinning. Therefore, the failure to bring adequate gendered resources to a marriage, rather than the unequal distribution of housework, causes a sense of unfairness.


Cinclodes pabsti is an endemic passerine restricted to the highland areas in southern Brazil. The aim of this study was to provide information on its breeding biology. The nesting cavities along road cuts were monitored from May 2008 to March 2011. The survey was carried out monthly from May to July 2008, February to July 2009, 2010 (non-breeding season), weekly from August 2008 to January 2009, 2010 (breeding season), and on a 2 to 4-days basis from August 2010 to January 2011. The geographic location, physical characteristics, and soil/substrate type in which the nesting cavities were situated were recorded. The total number of cavities used in the three breeding seasons was 136, resulting in 295 nests. The distance of a nest to its nearest neighbor ranged from 24-2,368 m, with a higher number of nests (n = 34; 59.7%) in the distance interval of 24-500 m. There was a greater usage of cavities located in Inceptisols, and the distances of nesting cavity entrances to the ground and to the top of road cuts were 1.6 ± 0.9 m and 0.8 ± 0.62 m, respectively. The breeding season lasted 148 days from mid-August to early January. Clutch size (n = 256) varied from 2 to 3 eggs, and the eggs (n = 155) had a total length of 27.2 ± 1.3 mm, breadth of 20.9 ± 0.8 mm, and mass of 6.2 ± 0.7 g. The incubation phase lasted 17.3 ± 0.8 days and the nestling phase for 18.3 ± 1.5 days. The body mass of the chicks was 6.0 ± 1.0 g just after hatching and reached a maximum of 59.6 ± 2.4 g at 16 days of age. Our results can contribute to filling the gaps in knowledge of C. pabsti ecology, because its habitat is under high anthropic pressures and the information on its life history is yet limited.


Thermal aberrations in diode-pumped solid-state laser media are well known. To avoid these effects we propose to end-pump separated zones of a laser crystal with elementary beams of moderate power. We present a multi-axis laser cavity with a single-gain medium longitudinally pumped by four fibre-coupled laser diodes. The four elementary laser beams are coherently combined inside the cavity by a diffractive optical element. 82% of the laser power is focused in a single diffraction limited beam.


In this paper, the role of human factors associated with the grid operators, e.g., human-error probability (HEP) are modeled as a function of the grid conditions as well as operators' training and experience levels. Moreover, the HEP is embedded in a previously reported Markov-chain model that generates the probability distribution of blackout as a function of time following a trigger. Specifically, through the HEP, the Markov-chains transition matrix includes the dynamics of detailed smart-grid operator attributes. To derive the grid-state dependent HEP, three real-valued performance shaping factors (PSFs), representing key human attributes of the operators, are mapped to the grid-state variables, thereby capturing the correlation between the evolution of the PSF levels and the propagation of transmission-line failures. This mapping is established based on a histogram-equalization principle, which utilizes the experimentally-estimated probability distribution of the PSF levels while assuming a monotone relationship between the HEP values and number of line failures. Further, the distribution of the PSF levels was used to identify the critical combinations of PSF levels that corresponds to an event with high joint probability as well as a high HEP.


Objective—The purpose of this study was to determine the role of smooth muscle cell–derived hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; (Hif-1&agr;) in the pathogenesis of aortic aneurysms. Approach and Results—Control mice and smooth muscle cell–specific hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr;–deficient mice were infused with &bgr;-aminopropionitrile for 2 weeks and angiotensin II for 6 weeks to induce aortic aneurysm formation. Mutant mice experienced increased levels of aneurysm formation of the thoracic or abdominal aorta with more severe elastin disruption, compared with control mice. Smooth muscle cell–specific hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; deficiency did not affect matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity; however, the activity of lysyl oxidase and the levels of tropoelastin mRNA in the angiotensin II– and &bgr;-aminopropionitrile–treated aortae, associated with elastin fiber formation, were suppressed. Furthermore, we observed reduced volumes of mature cross-linked elastin in the thoracoabdominal aorta after treatment with angiotensin II and &bgr;-aminopropionitrile. Conclusions—Deficiency of smooth muscle cell–derived hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; augments aortic aneurysms, accompanied by disruption of elastin fiber formation, but not changes of elastin fiber degradation.


Tablets of mutual prodrugs of ibuprofen, i.e, 'ibuprofen with paracetamol' and 'ibuprofen with salicylamide,' were prepared by direct compression method. The preformulation studies such as flow property, solid state stability at elevated temperatures, solid state stability under different humidity conditions, photolytic stability and compatibility studies of prodrugs with excipients were also performed to design and develop tablet formulations of prodrugs. Quality control tests and in vivo studies of prepared tablets of prodrugs were performed. The result of preformulation studies revealed that prodrugs have good flow property, good solid state stability at elevated temperatures and unstable under different humidity conditions. The photolytic stability study showed that prodrugs are quite stable to light; hence prodrugs are nonphotolytic. The compatibility study indicated that there was no incompatibility or interaction between prodrugs and excipients, which were tried. The prepared tablets of prodrugs were found to satisfy all quality control requirements of tablets mentioned in the Indian Pharmacopoeia. In vivo study of tablet formulations of prodrugs confirmed that they possessed the ability of parent drug, i.e., ibuprofen. In vivo study also showed better extent of bioavailability (indicated by AUC 0-24 ) of tablet of prodrugs as compared to tablets of ibuprofen.


This paper tests the hypothesis that education improves health and increases life expectancy. The analysis of smoking histories shows that after 1950, when information about the dangers of tobacco started to diffuse, the prevalence of smoking declined earlier and most dramatically for college graduates. I construct panels based on smoking histories in an attempt to isolate the causal effect of smoking from the influence of time-invariant unobservable characteristics. The results suggest that, at least among women, college education has a negative effect on smoking prevalence and that more educated individuals responded faster to the diffusion of information on the dangers of smoking.


1. Despite advances in the art and science of fluid balance, exertional heat illness -- even life-threatening heat stroke -- remains a threat for some athletes today. 2. Risk factors for heat illness include: being unacclimatized, unfit, or hypohydrated; certain illnesses or drugs; not drinking in long events; and a fast finishing pace. 3. Heat cramps typically occur in conditioned athletes who compete for hours in the sun. They can be prevented by increasing dietary salt and staying hydrated. 4. Early diagnosis of heat exhaustion can be vital. Early warning signs include: flushed face, hyperventilation, headache, dizziness, nausea, tingling arms, piloerection, chilliness, incoordination, and confusion. 5. Pitfalls in the diagnosis of heat illness include: confusion preventing self-diagnosis; the lack of trained spotters; rectal temperature not taken promptly; the problem of "seek not, find not;" and the mimicry of heat illness. 6. Heat stroke is a medical emergency. Mainstays of therapy include: emergency on-site cooling; intravenous fluids; treating hypoglycemia as needed; intravenous diazepam for seizures or severe cramping or shivering; and hospitalizing if response is slow or atypical. 7. The best treatment is prevention. Tips to avoiding heat illness include: rely not on thirst; drink on schedule; favor sports drinks; monitor weight; watch urine; shun caffeine and alcohol; key on meals for fluids and salt; stay cool when you can; and know the early warning signs of heat illness.


This paper explains how to organize a mock murder trial in a both ESL and ESP classrooms. Although focusing on mock jury trials of a literary character, the paper does explore many other options for ESP and ESL university courses for non-English majors. First the paper briefly states the theoretical basis and benefits of mock jury trials. Conducting mock trials is content-based instruction which utilizes critical thinking skills. Both CBI and critical thinking have been documented as effective teaching methods in teaching English to nonnative speakers. Students actively employ all four skills while preparing and conducting mock trails: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Mock trials are student-centered learning and each one is unique because students determine the course and outcome.
After theory, the paper delves into the practical aspects of conducting a trial. Starting with possible applications in other disciplines and the possibility of interdisciplinary cooperation. It gives university professors a suggested blueprint or plan to follow for implementing mock trials in their classrooms from organizing students, determining their roles, where to find laws, legal definitions, and the roles of prosecution, defense, jury, and witnesses. The structure of a trial is covered as well as follow up activities for students after the trial is finished. Keywords: mock jury trials, content-based instruction, critical thinking, ESP, ESL


We show that it is beneficial for a buyer to conduct a multi-stage mechanism if bidders are loss averse. In a first step, we derive a revenue equivalence principle. Fixing the multi-stage structure, the revenue is independent of the chosen payment rule. Secondly, we introduce a simple two-stage mechanism which always leads to a decrease in procurement costs compared to any single-stage auction. Finally we derive the optimal efficient two-stage mechanism.


Background: The new nurse-led COPD-Guidance, Research on Illness Perception (COPD-GRIP) intervention translates the evidence concerning illness perceptions and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) into a care plan to guide COPD patients and to improve HRQoL. The aim: was to assess whether the COPD-GRIP intervention in primary care is more effective in improving HRQoL of COPD patients compared to usual care. Method: A pragmatic, two arm cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted within 35 general practices throughout the Netherlands in 204 COPD patients GOLD I-IV (NTR3945).Of 17 practices, 103 patients were randomly assigned to the intervention group and of 18 practices 101 patients to the usual care group. To assess differences for all continues outcomes, repeated linear mixed modelling (LMM) analyses were used. Primary outcome was change in HRQoL on the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) at 9 months. Secondary outcomes were daily activities, health education impact and illness perceptions. Results: After 6 weeks there was an improvement in the CCQ, in illness perceptions and health-directed activities within the intervention group, however no statistical difference was seen between the groups in the CCQ at 9 months (mean difference -0.21, 95% confidence interval -0.6 up to 0.2; P=0.32). No statistical differences were seen in the secondary outcomes. Conclusion: Our results show a benefit of the COPD-GRIP intervention in the short term, however the results do not support the benefit of the COPD-GRIP intervention in improving HRQoL in the longer term.


The scan-velocity dependence of friction force microscopy (FFM) is characterized on gelatin films and related to the rate dependence of molecular relaxations. For selected scanning-parameter values the velocity dependence of frictional force is affected by the measurement process, because of energy imparted to the tip-sample contact region : a peak in the friction-velocity relationship, attributed to the glass-to-rubber transition, shifts to higher velocity for increasingly-perturbative scanning. Subsequent imaging at less perturbative scanning conditions reveals residual elevated frictional forces, but no corresponding morphological changes, in the perturbed regions. This is attributed to greater relaxational dissipation of energy from higher-energy molecular conformations attained in the rubbery state. Relaxation to lower-energy conformations in turn leaves the scanned region exhibiting lower frictional forces, i.e., in a less dissipative state characteristic of the scanning conditions during repeated imaging. The ability to image variations in frictional dissipation tens of nanometers in lateral size is demonstrated. These variations are sampled statistically over micrometer-scale regions to yield friction spectroscopy histograms, i.e., number of image pixels versus frictional force. Histogram breadth and symmetry apparently reflect the energy dispersion of relaxations characteristic of glassy or rubbery behavior. The fundamental understandings of FFM derived in this study are applied to assess crystallinity and aging in gelatin films.


The major driver for future debris proliferation, besides the intentional and unintentional release of objects, is the abundance of objects with large masses and sizes in orbit that could be involved in catastrophic collisions. Mitigation measures thus concentrate on the prevention of object release (explosions, mission-related objects, SRM (Solid Rocket Motor) exhaust products), the disposal of objects and active collision avoidance. As ESA's simulations show, the most effective means of stabili zing the space debris environment is the removal of mass from regions with high spatial densities. A limitation of the residence time of controlled objects in altitudes below 2000km to 25 years followed by either atmospheric re-entry or reboost to higher altitudes allows to limit the growth of object numbers in the densely populated LEO environment. This is the most relevant requirement for operations. In this paper we look into the achievements of all spacefaring nations with respect to this requirement. For this purpose, ESA has developed a method to determine the operational status of running missions, by monitoring their manoeuvre activity with the help of the publicly available orbit data distributed by the US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). Missions that have been found to have terminated their operational li fe will be processed to determine the remaining orbital lif etime. The results will be presented in a statistical manner.


Between 1776 and 1784, eleven of the original thirteen states made some provision for the continuing authority of the common law and British statutes. But there were highly significant variations in the pattern from state to state, variations that helped to differentiate each state as a unique jurisdiction. In Maryland, despite the effort of leading lawyers to settle the matter once and for all in 1776, the precise effects of Article 3 had to be worked out over several decades of political, legal, and intellectual maneuvering. As a result, Marylanders left a remarkable record of politicians, lawyers, and judges contesting for different views of the importance of legal continuity in a democratic republic. This history helps explain why Marylanders are still entitled to the benefits of the common law by the authority of Article 5 of their current constitution, and it also illuminates a defining feature of American democracy, the tension between its theory of sovereignty and the rule of law in practice. As historians and students of the revolutionary era in Maryland well know, the constitution of 1776 as a whole was a defeat for direct democracy and any popular agenda of social leveling or economic equality that may have been in play, A few idealists, notably Colonel Rezin Hammond of Anne Arundel County, were elected to the 1776 convention but were unable to build a strong statewide political coalition. Effectively led by their wealthy and worldly leaders, notably Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Matthew Tilghman, Samuel Chase, Thomas Johnson, Charles Carroll the Barrister, and William Paca, a majority of delegates embraced independence from the British Empire but voted consistently for a style of government that was familiar and predictable. Why was this plan so conservative? In part because delegates embraced a conception of democratic legitimacy shaped not just by Revolutionary ideals and rhetoric about liberty and rights, but also by the particulars of local legal history.


Longitudinal biomedical data are often characterized by a sparse time grid and individual‐specific development patterns. Specifically, in epidemiological cohort studies and clinical registries we are facing the question of what can be learned from the data in an early phase of the study, when only a baseline characterization and one follow‐up measurement are available. Inspired by recent advances that allow to combine deep learning with dynamic modeling, we investigate whether such approaches can be useful for uncovering complex structure, in particular for an extreme small data setting with only two observations time points for each individual. Irregular spacing in time could then be used to gain more information on individual dynamics by leveraging similarity of individuals. We provide a brief overview of how variational autoencoders (VAEs), as a deep learning approach, can be linked to ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for dynamic modeling, and then specifically investigate the feasibility of such an approach that infers individual‐specific latent trajectories by including regularity assumptions and individuals' similarity. We also provide a description of this deep learning approach as a filtering task to give a statistical perspective. Using simulated data, we show to what extent the approach can recover individual trajectories from ODE systems with two and four unknown parameters and infer groups of individuals with similar trajectories, and where it breaks down. The results show that such dynamic deep learning approaches can be useful even in extreme small data settings, but need to be carefully adapted.


Introduction : Obstructive sleep apnoea is an increasingly prevalent clinical condition with significant impact on individuals and public health. Continuous positive airway pressure therapy is the standard treatment, but adherence is limited and alternative treatments are needed. In this context, non-invasive and invasive methods for electrical stimulation of upper airway dilator muscles have been demonstrated to be effective in selected patients. Areas covered : Investigations on the clinical effects, safety, and tolerability of non-invasive and invasive electrical stimulation of the upper airway for the management of obstructive sleep apnoea. Following a search of the relevant literature published on Pub Med this review is focused mainly on data obtained from randomized clinical trials and clinical studies. Expert commentary : The available evidence provides a rationale to consider upper airway electrical stimulation as treatment for selected patients with obstructive sleep apnoea, who have poor adherence or experience difficulties with continuous positive airway pressure therapy. Non-invasive stimulation using transcutaneous electrodes and implantable hypoglossal nerve stimulator technologies may provide an alternative to continuous positive airway pressure for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea via restoration of neuromuscular tone and improved upper airway patency.


A great number of studies have been carried out during many years in order to evaluate the histological changes that take place after the insertion of a cochlear implant, having been experimentally and histologically, in temporal bones, demonstrated its relative harmlessness. We have focused our functional investigation induced by the implants through the shift of pre- and postoperative tonal audiometric thresholds, in 13 carriers on an C. I. Nucleus 22. Most of them suffered minimal or even showed no shift of thresholds. Therefore we consider the functional alterations due to the insertion of electrodes as practically nonexistent.


The electrophysiological characteristics of the period of supernormal excitability and supernormal conduction were investigated in the isolated canine His-Purkinje system. Strength-interval curves were determined as the minimum transmembrane current required to bring the impaled fiber to threshold potential following a conducted action potential. During the period of supernormal excitability, 17.0 ± 4.6% (SD) less current than that required during diastole was needed to reexcite fibers throughout the left and right bundle branch-Purkinje system. A period of supernormal excitability was not found in the His bundle proximal to its pseudobifurcation or in ventricular muscle. The period of supernormal excitability was voltage dependent in the bundle branch-Purkinje system; it began during phase 3 at full repolarization (88.8 ± 5.6 [SD] mv) and reached minimum current requirements at about 74.3 ± 5.8 mv. Action potentials evoked during this period were conducted faster than they were during diastole. The maximum rates of depolarization of these supernormally conducted action potentials were not greatly depressed compared with control rates. A period of supernormal conduction was not observed in the His bundle. When the external potassium concentration was increased from 2.7 mM to 5.0 um or 7.5 mM, both the supernormal period of excitability and the period of supernormal conduction were eliminated in Purkinje fibers.


Abstract:  This study examines primary (resulting from blast wave) and secondary (resulting from disintegrated, penetrating fragments) blast trauma to the skeleton. Eleven pigs were exposed to semi‐controlled blast events of varying explosive type, charge size, and distance, including some cases with shrapnel. Skeletal trauma was found to be extensive, presenting as complex, comminuted fractures with numerous small, displaced bone splinters and fragments. Traumatic amputation of the limbs and cranium was also observed. Fractures were concentrated in areas nearer the blast, but there was generally no identifiable point of impact. Fractures were more random in appearance and widespread than those typically associated with gunshot or blunt force injury events. These patterns appear to be uniquely associated with blast trauma and may therefore assist forensic anthropologists and other forensic examiners in the interpretation of skeletal trauma by enabling them to differentiate between blast trauma and trauma resulting from some other cause.


High‐frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the thalamus alleviates most kinds of tremor, yet its mechanism of action is unknown. Studies in subthalamic nucleus and other brain sites have emphasized non‐synaptic factors. To explore the mechanism underlying thalamic DBS, we simulated DBS in vitro by applying high‐frequency (125 Hz) electrical stimulation directly into the sensorimotor thalamus of adult rat brain slices. Intracellular recordings revealed two distinct types of membrane responses, both of which were initiated with a depolarization and rapid spike firing. However, type 1 responses repolarized quickly and returned to quiescent baseline during simulated DBS whereas type 2 responses maintained the level of membrane depolarization, with or without spike firing. Individual thalamic neurones exhibited either type 1 or type 2 response but not both. In all neurones tested, simulated DBS‐evoked membrane depolarization was reversibly eliminated by tetrodotoxin, glutamate receptor antagonists, and the Ca2+ channel antagonist Cd2+. Simulated DBS also increased the excitability of thalamic cells in the presence of glutamate receptor blockade, although this non‐synaptic effect induced no spontaneous firing such as that found in subthalamic nucleus neurones. Our data suggest that high‐frequency stimulation when applied in the ventral thalamus can rapidly disrupt local synaptic function and neuronal firing thereby leading to a 'functional deafferentation' and/or 'functional inactivation'. These mechanisms, driven primarily by synaptic activation, help to explain the paradox that lesions, muscimol and DBS in thalamus all effectively stop tremor.


It appears that string theory can give rise to many different 4d worlds, manifesting different values of fundamental parameters such as the cosmological constant. We discuss the structure of this 'landscape' of string vacua, and show that some aspects are amenable to calculation. We also describe simple models of inflation, dark energy, and particle physics that have been proposed in this context


Attributed graphs are widely used to represent network data where the attribute information of nodes is available. To address the problem of identifying clusters in attributed graphs, most of existing solutions are developed simply based on certain particular assumptions related to the characteristics of clusters of interest. However, it is yet unknown whether such assumed characteristics are consistent with attributed graphs. To overcome this issue, we innovatively introduce an inductive clustering algorithm that tends to address the clustering problem for attributed graphs without any assumption made on the clusters. To do so, we first process the attribute information to obtain pairwise attribute values that significantly frequently co-occur in adjacent nodes as we believe that they have potential ability to represent the characteristics of a given attributed graph. For two adjacent nodes, their likelihood of being grouped in the same cluster can be weighted by their ability to characterize the graph. Then based on these verifed characteristics instead of assumed ones, a depth-first search strategy is applied to perform the clustering task. Moreover, we are able to classify clusters such that their significance can be indicated. The experimental results demonstrate the performance and usefulness of our algorithm.


Abstract Consider the problem of estimating the parameters in a continuous-time autoregressive (CAR) model from discrete-time samples. In this paper a simple and computationally efficient method is introduced, and analyzed with respect to bias distribution. The approach is based on replacing the derivatives by delta approximations, forming a linear regression, and using the least squares method. It turns out that consistency can be assured by applying a particular prefilter to the data; the filter is easy to compute and is only dependent on the order of the continuous-time system. Finally, the introduced method is compared to other methods in some simulation studies.


Traditionally, large areas of research in machine learning have concentrated on pattern recognition and its application to many diversified problems both within the realm of AI as well as outside of it. Over several decades of intensified research, an array of learning methodologies have been proposed, accompanied by attempts to evaluate these methods, with respect to one another on small sets of real world problems. Unfortunately, little emphasis was placed on the problem of learning bias - common to all learning algorithms - and a major culprit in preventing the construction of a universal pattern recognizer. State of the art learning algorithms exploit some inherent bias when performing pattern recognition on yet unseen patterns. Automatically adapting this learning bias - dependent on the type of pattern classification problems seen over time - is largely lacking. In this paper, weaknesses of the traditional one-shot learning environments are pointed out and the move towards a learning method displaying the ability to learn about learning is undertaken. Trans-dimensional learning is introduced as a means to automatically adjust learning bias and empirical evidence is provided showing that in some instances learning the whole can be simpler than learning a part of it.


A novel aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) gas sensor based on gas discharge has been achieved. The sensor was composed of aluminum cathode electrode, insulated film and CNTs anode electrode. Due to adopting the method of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template to grow aligned CNTs, the electrode and CNTs were integrated, so the gas sensor simplified its structure and processing technics. As different gases have their unique breakdown voltage and discharge current, it is possible to identify one gas or certain mixture gases. Experimental results showed that the CNTs gas sensor proposed in this paper had the merits of small size, fast response, good sensitivity and selective, and it was very easy and convenience to be operated at normal temperature and atmosphere pressure, so it had the practical value.


This study evaluated the bacteriological quality of fresh and smoke-dried oysters (Crassostreagasar) from Okrika fishing port, sold at the Creek Road market, Port Harcourt, found to have high bacterial load. Smoke-drying significantly reduced total aerobic count by 3 log cycles (p< 0.01) from an average of 1.26x10 9 cfu/g to 1.42x10 6 cfu/g and average pH value from 6.51 to 5.69. Total coliform and Escherichia coli counts, indices of sanitary quality, were also high but not significantly different for the sample types (p<0.05). Average counts for total coliforms and E. coli were 5.78x10 8 cfu/g and 2.36x10 8 cfu/g for fresh oysters respectively compared to 4.1x10 7 cfu/g and 1.46x10 7 cfu/g for smoke-dried samples. Bacterial isolates found in fresh oyster were Klebsiella sp. Escherichia sp., Proteus mirabilis , Citrobacter sp., Micrococcus sp., Bacillus  sp., Staphylococccus sp. and Serratia sp. while E. coli , Streptococcus sp., Staphylococcus sp. and B . cereus predominated in dried oysters. The oyster meats did not meet the standards of International Commission on the Microbiological Specification of Foods (ICMSF) for raw oysters of 5x10 5 cfu/g for total aerobic count and 230/100g for E. coli using 5 sampling units and are therefore considered hazardous for export and consumption. However the pH of fresh oyster samples met the proposed standard for freshness of 6.2-5.9 while dried oysters did not. Keywords: Fresh and dried Oysters, Bacteriological Quality, ICMSF, Port Harcourt


We present a new fractional-order resistor—capacitor controller and a novel control method based on the fractional-order controller to control an arbitrary three-dimensional fractional chaotic system. The proposed control method is simple, robust, and theoretically rigorous, and its anti-noise performance is satisfactory. Numerical simulations are given for several fractional chaotic systems to verify the effectiveness and the universality of the proposed control method.


In almost all systems there have been unethical behaviors that take place in written and visual media. Of all these unethical behaviors, favoritism takes precedence. This study was conducted to investigate whether or not the administrators favor some people in the Turkish national education system and also to reveal the teachers' thoughts on whether or not the administrators (central, provincial, and school administrators) show favoritism in their decisions and practices. In the study, a scale was constructed to collect data, and its validity and reliability were checked. After a group of teachers tested the scale, the results indicated that the teachers tend to believe that central, provincial and school administrators are partial in favor of some people in the Turkish national education system. Teachers believe that favoritism has existed in the following areas: the appointment of central administrators in the ministry of national education, in school administrators and teachers, in providing educational materials for schools, in selecting schools to take part in activities, in promoting teachers to a higher position or appointing them to positions abroad; about tendering investments in the provincial education administration, in opening private schools, courses and institutions, in the distribution of funds to schools, as well as the use of buildings, establishments and materials provided by the ministry; in the practice of school administrators about the tolerance for teachers' having permission for any reasons, in teachers beginning courses and leaving classrooms on time, and finally in selecting participants for activities from which they can benefit financially and academically. Participants believe that administrators neglect skills and abilities, and that they behave show favoritism about the issues mentioned above in favor of their friends, fellow countrymen, and those having political views that align with their own.


Dedicated outdoor air(DOA) system which conditions the outdoor air separately is superior to conventional Cooling + reheating system with respect to energy consumption and indoor comfort. Since the sensible and latent load characteristics of indoor and outdoor are different, it is more efficient to treat them separately. In this study, cycle analysis and on-site performance test of DOA system have been conducted. The study shows that DOA requires 50% less equivalent energy than the conventional system. The on-site performance test of a prototype shows that the coefficient of performance(COP) of the DOA system is 37% higher than the conventional system.


Cell death-inducing DFF[DNA fragmentation factor]-like effector-a (CIDEa), may initiate apoptosis by disrupting a complex consisting of 40-kDa caspase-3-activated nuclease (DFF40/CAD) and its 45-kDa inhibitor (DFF45/ICAD). CIDEa, however, was found to be localized in mitochondria. We have performed immunodetection of CIDEa in whole cells and subcellular fractions of HeLa cells adapted for a tetracycline-inducible CIDEa expression. Using immunocytochemistry we observed redistribution, enhanced upon treatment with camptothecin or valinomycin, of CIDEa to nucleus. Similarly, CIDEa content increased in the nuclear fraction but decreased in cytosolic fraction in cells treated to initiate apoptosis. We hypothesize that CIDEa is sequestered in mitochondria while transfer of this potentially dangerous protein from mitochondria into nucleus intensifies or even initiates apoptosis.


Pigmentary aberrations are known side effects of cancer chemotherapy. Doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin) is one of the chemotherapeutic agents that is well documented to cause hyperpigmentation. 1-6 Increased pigmentation due to doxorubicin is seen most often in the form of nail bands, 2-4 although more diffuse pigmentary changes have been observed involving the palms, soles, dermal creases, and, rarely, the oral mucosa. 1,5,6 Blacks appear to have an unexplained predilection for doxorubicin-induced hyperpigmentation, accounting for over half of the reported cases in which race is recorded. 1,2,4-6 Daunorubicin hydrochloride (Cerubidine), an anthracycline antibiotic chemically related to doxorubicin, has also been observed to cause transverse nail pigmentation 7 but, to our knowledge, more extensive pigmentary abnormalities secondary to this agent have not been recorded. We report herein the case of a Hispanic man with acute myelocytic leukemia in whom hyperpigmentation of the exposed skin developed three weeks after his initial course of


This guide is in support of CPELI Level 4, taught by Jim Hays, Jonathan Lucero and others, for researching argumentation essay topics.


Platelet additive solutions (PASs) are becoming increasingly popular for storage of platelets, and PAS is steadily replacing plasma as the storage medium of platelets. PASs are electrolyte solutions intended for storage of platelets, and they are used to modulate the quality of the platelets by adding specific ingredients. All currently available PASs contain acetate. Acetate reduces the amount of glucose that is oxidised into lactic acid and thereby prevents the lowering of pH, which decreases platelet quality. Furthermore, the oxidation of acetate leads to the production of bicarbonate, which serves as buffer. The presence of potassium and magnesium in PAS prevents the lowering of pH and reduces the degree of spontaneous activation of the platelets during storage. In the hospital, platelets stored in PAS result in about half of the number of allergic transfusion reactions as compared with platelets in plasma. Recovery and survival after transfusion, as well as corrected count increments, are at least as good for platelets in PAS as for plasma, and recent data suggest they may even be better. Therefore, with the current generation of PASs, PAS should be preferred over the use of plasma for the storage of platelet concentrates.


There are three objectives of this study; first, to examine the level of compliance with the requirements of IFRS disclosure of Malaysian corporations; second, to identify which IFRS are problematic to comply with by the majority of Malaysian corporations; and, third, to understand why Malaysian corporations have difficulty in complying with the identified problematic IFRS. To achieve these objectives, we examine the annual reports of public listed companies and interview the accounting practitioners. Our results show that none of the examined companies fully complies with the requirements of IFRS disclosure. In addition, three IFRS are identified as problematic – accounting standards on impairment of assets, leases and employee benefits. Overall, this study demonstrates that the mere adoption of IFRS does not necessarily mean that the financial reports are transparent.


Efforts to recapitalize banks in the current crisis have to date been focused on government assistance under the TARP, rather than private investment, and on bank holding companies, rather than banks. We describe three alternative or complementary approaches designed to lower the cost of bank recapitalizations by drawing in funds from the private sector and focusing on banks: rights offerings, debt restructurings, and FDIC-assisted bridge banks. Each approach was used in dealing with problem banks in the 1990s; each can be pursued without additional legislation; and each is worth considering now. We also propose two legal changes that would assist bank recapitalization: (1) the Fed should further modestly relax its rules under the Bank Holding Company Act to eliminate the presumption of "control" by investors at the current threshold of 5%, which would permit more capital to be invested in banks by private equity and other institutional investors; and (2) Congress should consider a new statute to streamline the recapitalization of bank holding companies by moving them outside current bankruptcy laws into a new resolution regime similar to the FDIC regime currently used for banks.


The subject of adaptation of products in an international context has gained popularity in recent years and it is desirable to conduct a systematic review on the subject by identifying and synthesizing relevant studies to date, in order to gain a better understanding of this concept and to guide future research. A systematic review of the literature on the topic of products adapting on internationalization of firms has definitely deepened our understanding of it. It is worth recalling here that the product adaptation is considered as the degree to which a product for a foreign market is different from that offered in the domestic market of a firm in terms of positioning, design, creation, logo, style, quality, features/special attributes, branding, packaging, labeling, warranties and extended product line. Using a rigorous scientific methodology, it was possible to answer two research questions. These were to know the factors influencing the degree of product adaptation on internationalization of firms and thereafter the impact on performance.


In 1988, Barzilai and Borwein presented a new choice of step size for the gradient method for solving unconstrained minimization problems. Their method aimed to accelerate the convergence of the steepest descent method. The Barzilai-Borwein method requires few storage locations and inexpensive computations. Therefore, several authors have paid attention to the Barzilai-Borwein method and have proposed some variants to solve large-scale unconstrained minimization problems. In this paper, we extend the Barzilai-Borwein method and establish global and Qsuperlinear convergence properties of the proposed method for minimizing a strictly convex quadratic function. Furthermore, we discuss an application of our method to general objective functions. Finally, some numerical experiments are given.


When participants in an experiment have to name pictures while ignoring distractor words superimposed on the picture or presented auditorily (i.e., picture-word interference paradigm), they take more time when the word to be named (or target) and distractor words are from the same semantic category (e.g., cat-dog). This experimental effect is known as the semantic interference effect, and is probably one of the most studied in the language production literature. The functional origin of the effect and the exact conditions in which it occurs are however still debated. Since Lupker reported the effect in the first response time experiment about 40 years ago, more than 300 similar experiments have been conducted. The semantic interference effect was replicated in many experiments, but several studies also reported the absence of an effect in a subset of experimental conditions. The aim of the present study is to provide a comprehensive theoretical review of the existing evidence to date and several Bayesian meta-analyses and meta-regressions to determine the size of the effect and explore the experimental conditions in which the effect surfaces. The results are discussed in the light of current debates about the functional origin of the semantic interference effect and its implications for our understanding of the language production system.


Twin-Roll-Casting process is a rapid solidification process combining with hot rolling deformation. The liquid metal will be squeezed out but not sucked in from the mush zone caused by rolling deformation. This is different from conventional continuous casting process and will greatly affect the microstructure morphology and surface cracks of as-cast strip. In this paper, a 2D FEM model was employed to simulate the thermal mechanical behavior during twin-roll casting process of Mg alloy AZ31. The FEM results were compared with experimental results and show the effect of rolling deformation on the microstructure morphology and surface cracks of as-cast sheet.


In this paper, we examine two markers of verbal plurality, C 1 C 2 reduplication and ablaut, in PayPaju8@m, a Central Salish language. C 1 C 2 reduplication marks event external pluractionality, where subevents are distributed in both space and time. It also applies in the nominal domain creating a plurality of individuals, but does not impose temporal or spatial distribution in the nominal domain. Following Henderson (2012, 2017), we propose that events are individuated through their temporal and spatial traces, so that events distribute in order to pluralize, whereas this is not required in the nominal domain. Ablaut marks event-internal pluractionality where subevents are grouped into a larger whole ( Wood 2007 ; Henderson 2012 , 2017 ). While ablaut pluractionals typically involve numerous subevents that are closely spaced in time, they can involve as few as two subevents and do not require strict adjacency of all subevents. We propose that they denote an atomic group event that is mapped to a plurality of events via a membership function ( Barker 1992 ). This contrasts with event-internal pluractionals that require a high number of temporally adjacent subevents and have been analyzed as being grouped through their temporal configuration ( Henderson 2012 , 2017 ), indicating that there is more than one way to group events, just as there is more than one way to group individuals in the nominal domain ( Barker 1992 ; Henderson 2012 , 2017 ).


In 2012, Russia will celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of its first legislative act protecting the rights of inventor, the famous Manifesto of 1812. This event appears as highly emblematic because of a constantly growing role played in today's Russian economy by the private enterprising. In this new situation, a claim for an adequate and well elaborated legislation protecting the private property, including intellectual one, naturally stimulates the public interest toward the historical inheritance. A best testimony of it is an increasing number of historical overviews, published in hard version and/or on line during a few last years. At the same time, the academic works in this field are still not numerous, and many aspects of the Russian patent law remain scarcely and insufficiently studied. In addition, even the existing historiography which includes, however, a series of important works, is mainly in Russian, with the only exception of Anneli Aer's fundamental study Patents in Imperial Russia published in 1995 in Finland, in small number of exemplars, and thus, hardly accessible. as a result, the history of patent law in Russia still remains a kind of 'white spot' for the West-European readers. This particular condition incited the authors, who met this problematic while studying the inventive activity of foreign engineers on the Crown service during the 18th and 19th centuries, to tempt a short synthetic overview of the rise of privileges system in Russia, from its timid beginnings to the developed and highly regulated State legislation.


ABORTION, stillbirths and neonatal deaths are an important source of economic loss for an equine industry. Many of the infectious disease agents that have been implicated are important from the viewpoint of international trade (Butler and others 2011). Having knowledge of the likely presence of specific infectious agents in an area is very useful for clinicians when attempting to identify the cause of an abortion and when assessing the predictive value of a diagnostic test.

As reported in previous studies (Hong and others 1993, Butler and others 2011, Laugier and others 2011), the causes of abortion can change over time, as a reflection of improved diagnostic capability or because of background differences in at-risk equine populations. Moreover, regional differences can also influence the cause and frequency of pregnancy loss (Giles and others 1993, Hong and others 1993, Tengelsen and others 1997, Smith and others 2003, Butler and others 2011, Laugier and others 2011). Monitoring and surveillance of the causes of fetal loss over time is very important.

The aim of this study was to investigate the principal causes of abortion, stillbirth and neonatal mortality in horses in central Italy, with particular emphasis on those of infectious aetiology.

Abortion was defined as fetal loss before 300 days' gestation, stillbirth as delivery of a dead foal after 300 days of gestation and neonatal mortality as foals that die within seven days of birth. A total …


Addressing safe and efficient interaction between connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and human-driven vehicles in a mixed-traffic environment has attracted considerable attention. In this paper, we develop a framework for stochastic time-optimal trajectory planning for coordinating multiple CAVs in mixed-traffic merging scenarios. We present a data-driven model, combining Newell's car-following model with Bayesian linear regression, for efficiently learning the driving behavior of human drivers online. Using the prediction model and uncertainty quantification, a stochastic time-optimal control problem is formulated to find robust trajectories for CAVs. We also integrate a replanning mechanism that determines when deriving new trajectories for CAVs is needed based on the accuracy of the Bayesian linear regression predictions. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our proposed framework using a realistic simulation environment.


Background and Aim: Fatigue is one of the most common problem of multiple sclerosis. It is a sign of inefficiency in the physical, social, and cognitive function. It is a major factor in limiting the responsibilities of social work of patients.The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) in Iranian and create an appropriate tool for measuring the impact of fatigue and effectiveness of treatment and also rehabilitation interventions on fatigue in Iranian patients. Materials and Methods: In order to use the FIS in Iranian patients, the forward and backward translation and assessing the patient's perspective was done and the Persian version of the questionnaire was prepared. Results: The questionnaire was completed by twenty patients with multiple sclerosis. The time duration of filling out of each questionnaire took ten to twenty minutes .The final corrections was carried out. All questions of patients was acceptable and understandable and questions of "sexual activity" was completed only by married patients. The question of "financial support" was completed only by employed person (working people). Finally, as much as possible, this questionnaire was adapted with Iranian culture and sentences were confirmed by MAPI Institute. Conclusion: Persian version of the FIS is an appropriate tool for measuring the impact of fatigue, effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation interventions on fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis.


Studies of genetic diversity in Tuscany, Italy, have recently been used to suggest that ancient accounts of the Etruscan people as migrants to Italy from Lydia, now in south-western Turkey, may be correct. This interpretation of the data runs against the current archaeological consensus that sees the Etruscans as a people indigenous to Italy. This paper explores alternative explanations for the presence in Tuscany of genetic material that is more commonly found in Near Eastern populations. The genetic evidence points towards the exchange of maternal genetic material in the post-Neolithic period between Italy and the Near East. Rather than interpreting this in terms of the movements of peoples, this paper investigates genetic exchange in the context of cultural interaction across the Mediterranean, focussing on the Orientalizing Period (800-600 BCE). In this period there is archaeological evidence for intensive cultural contact and economic exchange between the south-eastern shores of the Mediterranean and Italy leading to a widespread cultural hybridity. The DNA studies may, in this context, be seen as providing evidence for a genetically hybrid population in the central Mediterranean. This interpretation challenges basic assumptions about genetic identity, ethnicity and cultural identity.


IMPORTANCE
Theory of mind (ToM) can be divided into two constructs: capacity and performance. Although severity of autism traits and verbal comprehension have been identified as being associated with ToM capacity, no study has yet verified their role in predicting the ToM performance of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

OBJECTIVE
To examine the differences and associations between ToM capacity and ToM performance and to verify the role of autism traits and verbal comprehension in predicting ToM performance in children with ASD.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SETTING
Pediatric rehabilitation hospitals and clinics.

PARTICIPANTS
One hundred four children with ASD who met the inclusion criteria.

OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
We examined ToM capacity and ToM performance with the Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToMTB) and the Theory of Mind Inventory-2-Chinese version (ToMI-2-C). Severity of autism traits and verbal comprehension were assessed with the Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2), and the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) of either the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth Edition or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition. We conducted correlation and hierarchical regression analyses.

RESULTS
Scores on the ToMI-2-C were significantly correlated with those on the ToMTB, SRS-2, and VCI (rs = .613, -.344, and .566, respectively; p < .01).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
ToM capacity is significantly correlated with ToM performance. Both severity of autism traits and verbal comprehension played an important role in predicting ToM performance of children with ASD after controlling for ToM capacity.

WHAT THIS ARTICLE ADDS
ToM capacity, severity of autism traits, and verbal comprehension were all significant predictors of ToM performance. Improving ToM capacity, severity of autism traits, and verbal comprehension of children with ASD would be beneficial to their ToM performance.


In the United States there is a significant gap between Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) rates of Caucasians and African Americans. This disparity is attributed to many causes including access to health care, socioeconomic status, and social dynamics. The objective of this research is to describe the racial demographics of STI infections in the Air Force and explore possible disparities based on military pay grades. The military enforces many of the recommendations on how to limit STI health disparities by offering easy access to free health care and mandatory regular checkups. Despite these policies, the data reveals significant disparities based on race and military rank. The Air Force Reportable Events Surveillance System (AFRESS) tracks medical events along with demographic information. In all, 22,000 records spanning January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2012 were collected from AFRESS and combined with demographic data obtained from the Air Force Personnel Center. Relative risk was calculated using population demographics from 2009. For African Americans compared to Caucasians there is a relative risk of 9.81 for Gonorrhea, 3.2 for Chlamydia, and 3.48 for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea combined. Despite having easy and free access to medical care and pay above the poverty level, African Americans still bear a disproportionate burden of STIs. The evidence describes disparities based on rank with enlisted ranks E-1 through E-5 experiencing an increased relative risk as compared to O-1s. Future studies must explore other possible causes for these disparities, assess confounding factors and develop programs to reduce racial health inequity.


Recent advances in cellular immunotherapy show that cancer cells can be efficiently eliminated by adoptive transfer of modified patient T cells. The main effector functions can be provided by genetically engineered lymphocytes expressing T cell receptors (TCR) isolated from tumor antigen-specific cytotoxic CD8+ lymphocytes, which recognize tumor-associated antigens presented on HLA class I molecules. Nevertheless, for efficient and sustained cytotoxic and memory CD8+ T cell responses, T cell help delivered by CD4+ T lymphocytes plays a critical role. Multifunctional CD4+ T cells are essential to activate, control and maintain immune responses. CD4+ T cells recognize antigen-derived peptides presented by HLA class II molecules, thereby HLA class II tumor antigen-positive cells may also be efficiently eliminated by direct CD4+ cytotoxic mechanisms. Recently it has been shown that adoptive transfer of tumor antigen-specific CD4+ T cells alone can lead to substantial regression of epithelial tumors (Science. 2014 May 9;344(6184):641-5). To appropriately employ CD4+ T cells in tumor defense, detailed molecular knowledge regarding the antigens and corresponding epitopes they recognize is essential. We recently expanded our TCR platform by introducing a fast and efficient method for direct identification of antigens and respective epitopes recognized by CD4+ T cells. During method development, elucidated viral antigens allowed rapid clinical application, and the methodology was also applied for rapid identification of epitopes of CD4+ T cell clones recognizing multiple cancer-testis antigens (CT). For this, PBL from a healthy donor were stimulated with a mixture of autologous APCs transfected with in vitro transcribed RNA encoding various CT antigens fused to targeting signals for directed HLA class II cross-presentation. Antigen-reactive CD4+ T cells were isolated and expanded. In order to identify the antigen and epitope specificity of each T cell clone, DNA sequences of each CT antigen were randomly digested and DNA fragments introduced in a vector mixture that allows expression of the fragments in all possible reading frames fused to a bacterial selection marker. These vectors were then expressed in XL1 blue bacteria and fed as pools to autologous APCs. Thereby the APCs phagocytosed and directly presented random CT epitopes on their HLA class II molecules. Subsequently, these pool-loaded APCs were tested with CT-antigen-specific CD4+ T cell clones. In a second step, the single bacterial colonies of a positive pool were re-tested individually and the antigen fragments recognized were identified by DNA sequencing, and confirmed by testing of synthetic peptides. HLA restriction was determined by testing responses against antigen-positive HLA allogenic cells. Using this approach, TCR sequences, epitope sequences and respective MHC-restriction elements were identified for multiple antigens in a single round procedure. This method has broad application for identification of: 1) antigens and epitopes recognized by CD4 tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, 2) immune relevant patient-specific mutations recognized by CD4+ T cells, 3) defined epitopes recognized by T helper cells for generation of tumor vaccines, 4) epitope-specificity of CD4+ T cells, against any selected antigen. This technology enables the generation and molecular characterization of TCRs originating from tumor-specific CD4+ helper T cells, complementing our already established approach for isolation of high affinity TCRs derived from cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. Citation Format: Milosevic Slavoljub, Ellinger Christian, Wehner Carina, Raffegerst Silke, Wilde Susanne, Weis Manon, Sailer Nadja, Schendel Dolores. Method for molecular characterization of antigens, epitopes and T cell receptors for adoptive CD4 immunotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A017.


The trailing edge slot is a canonical representation of the pressure-side bleed flow encountered in high pressure turbines. Predicting the flow and temperature downstream of the slot exit remains challenging for RANS and URANS, with both significantly overpredicting the adiabatic wall-effectiveness. This over-prediction is attributable to the incorrect mixing prediction in cases where the vortex shedding is present. In case of RANS the modelling error is rooted in not properly accounting for the shedding scales while in URANS the closures account for the shedding scales twice, once by resolving the shedding and twice with the model for all the scales. Here, we present an approach which models only the stochastic scales that contribute to turbulence while resolving the scales that do not, i.e. scales considered as contributing to deterministic unsteadiness. The model for the stochastic scales is obtained through a data-driven machine learning algorithm, which produces a bespoke turbulence closure model from a high-fidelity dataset. We use the best closure (blowing ratio of 1.26) for the anisotropy obtained in the a priori study of Lav, Philip & Sandberg [A New Data-Driven Turbulence Model Framework for Unsteady Flows Applied to Wall-Jet and Wall-Wake Flows, 2019] and conduct compressible URANS calculations. In the first stage, the energy equation is solved utilising the standard gradient diffusion hypothesis for the heat-flux closure. In the second stage, we develop a bespoke heat-flux closure using the machine-learning approach for the stochastic heat-flux components only. Subsequently, calculations are performed using the machine-learnt closures for the heat-flux and the anisotropy together. Finally, the generalisability of the developed closures is evaluated by testing them on additional blowing ratios of 0.86 and 1.07. The machine-learnt closures developed specifically for URANS calculations show significantly improved predictions for the adiabatic wall-effectiveness across the different cases.


PHP is a popular language for server-side applications. In PHP, assignment to variables copies the assigned values, according to its so-called copy-on-assignment semantics. In contrast, a typical PHP implementation uses a copy-on-write scheme to reduce the copy overhead by delaying copies as much as possible. This leads us to ask if the semantics and implementation of PHP coincide, and actually this is not the case in the presence of sharings within values. In this paper, we describe the copy-on-assignment semantics with three possible strategies to copy values containing sharings. The current PHP implementation has inconsistencies with these semantics, caused by its naïve use of copy-on-write. We fix this problem by the novel mostly copy-on-write scheme, making the copy-on-write implementations faithful to the semantics. We prove that our copy-on-write implementations are correct, using bisimulation with the copy-on-assignment semantics.


Aims Obstructive sleep apnoea–hypopnoea (OSAH) is a prevalent condition characterized by repetitive pharyngeal collapse during sleep, leading to hypoxemia, hypercapnia, and persistent inspiratory efforts against an occluded airway until arousal. Several studies demonstrated that OSAH exerts acute and chronic effects on the cardiovascular system. Thus, although being a respiratory problem, the most important consequences of OSAH are cardiovascular, among which there are arrhythmias. The purpose of this review is to systematically analyse what has been recently published about the relationship between OSAH and every cardiac arrhythmia separately. Methods We searched Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Collaboration databases for 'OSAHS arrhythmias', 'OSAH arrhythmias' and 'OSA arrhythmias'. We analyse 1298 articles and meta-analyses, excluding already edited reviews. Results Arrhythmias, especially of ventricular origin, are frequent in OSAH. Ventricular premature beats, couplets and ventricular tachycardia runs are even more frequent in patients suffering from heart failure. They may be due to left heart remodelling, overwork and ischaemia and can explain at least some sudden deaths occurring between midnight and 6 a.m. Sinus pauses and atrioventricular blocks are increased according to the severity of the disturbance and may be reduced by continuous positive airway pressure therapy, preventing pace-maker implantation. Finally, atrial fibrillation, resistance against antiarrhythmic drugs and recurrences after surgical procedures are strongly related to OSAH. Conclusion Arrhythmias are frequent in OSAH. Treatment of OSAH may reduce some of them. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and continuous positive airway pressure should be considered in some patients.


Ultrashort channels of electrodes are essential for the construction of advanced functional devices with high-level integration and high operation speed. However, the channel length of fabricated electrodes is limited to 20 μm in inkjet printing. Although several methods have been previously proposed to obtain short channels, they require extra processing steps. In this paper, channel self-aligning phenomenon was observed in directly patterned electrodes on unmodified substrate by inkjet printing, when using an interspace defects growing method. Further exploring the underlying mechanism reveals that the capillary force induced air film prevents droplets coalescence, even on a substrate with no temperature differences. The wetting region, which is generated by the receding droplets impingement, will draw droplets closer together at a larger drop space, thus demanding smaller air pressure for coalescence inhibition and contributing to the self-aligning phenomenon of micro-sized droplets released by inkjet printing. Accordingly, an ultrashort channel of 2.38 μm is obtained with relatively smooth boundaries, when electrodes are printed on a slightly heated substrate, which reduces the air pressure between two neighboring droplets. This work will provide a significant reference for future high resolution applications of inkjet printing technology.


In end-of-life cancer care, nurse clinicians strive to deliver an effective care plan to minimise pain, manage debilitating symptoms, and improve patients' quality of life as they approach end of life. Sadly, existing research literature is replete with studies contesting that sub-optimal pain and symptom management remains the reality for many end-of-life cancer patients, resulting in unnecessary suffering and a diminished quality of life. To begin to overcome the chasm between inadequate pain and symptom management currently delivered in end-of-life care, and the excellent standard of care that could be achieved, nurse clinicians need only leverage knowledge from existing knowledge resources. Researchers assert that clinical decision making for care planning in end-of-life cancer care can be improved by ensuring access to contextually relevant, medical knowledge resources at the point-of-care. Collectively, these medical knowledge resources represent a valuable asset which can improve clinical decisions and the delivery of best clinical practice, while reducing medical uncertainty, unnecessary clinical variation, and medical errors. In this research we present a clinical decision support system to bridge the knowledge gap that currently impedes the planning, and delivery, of effective pain and symptom management in end-of-life cancer care. This system enables nurse clinicians to: (a) make informed clinical decisions based upon the patient's presenting situation, care priorities, preferences, and standards of care; and (b) create personalised care plans for effective pain and symptom management in end-of-life cancer care.


Vibrationally elastic cross sections for electron scattering from difluoromethane are calculated at the collision energies 3-30 eV. No elaborate study for the system has been published to date. Present calculation is based on the fixed-nuclei approximation. As for an interaction potential, effects of an ab initio electrostatic, electron-exchange and target polarization are taken into account. The latter two effects are considered by means of a model potential approximately. The closure formula is employed to obtain a converged cross section. The agreement between the present differential cross section and the experimental one is generally good. The integral and momentum transfer cross sections are estimated theoretically for the first time.


Thanks to several works on classical logic in proof theory, it is now well-established that continuation-passing style (CPS) translations in call by name and call by value correspond to different polarisations of formulae (Girard, 1991; Danos, Joinet, and Schellinx, 1997; Laurent, 2002). Extending this observation and building on Curien and Herbelin's abstract-machine-like calculi (2000), the last author proposed a term assignment for a polarised sequent calculus (where the polarities of formulae determine the evaluation order) in which various calculi from the literature can be obtained with macros responsible for the choices of polarities (Munch-Maccagnoni, 2013). It aims to explain several CPS translations from the literature by decompositing them through a single CPS for sequent calculus. It has later proved to be a fruitful setting to study the addition of effects and resource modalities (Curien, Fiore, and Munch-Maccagnoni, 2016), providing a categorical proof theory of Call By Push Value semantics (Levy, 2004). We propose to bring together a dependently-typed theory (ECC) and polarised sequent calculus, by presenting a calculus L dep suitable as a vehicle for compilation and representation of effectful computations. As a first step in that direction, we show that L dep advantageously factorize a dependently typed continuation-passing style translation for ECC + call/cc . To avoid the inconsistency of type theory with control operators, we restrict their interaction. Nonetheless, in the pure case, we obtain an un-restricted translation from ECC to itself, thus opening the door to the definition of dependently typed compilation transformations.


Background Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID/CID) is a primary immune deficiency and usually has severe defect in both T- & B-lymphocyte systems. This usually results in onset of one or more serious infections within first few months of life. Aim Review all cases presented or referred to our immunology department in the past 8 years with suspected immune deficiency. Methods Case notes, correspondence and results were reviewed for all children diagnosed with SCID/CID at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital in last 7 years. Results A total of 19 patients were reviewed: 10 males and 9 females were identified. All were born at term and had no antenatal diagnosis of SCID. 9 were born to consanguineous parents and 9 had family history of immunodeficiency. The initial age at presentation varied from 1 day to 24 months. The age at final diagnosis was 2 days to 5 years. Symptoms at presentation included chest infections, diarrhoea, failure to thrive, skin infections and complicated medical problems. 11 were referred to our department for paediatric immunological opinion from other hospitals. 18 of these children were referred for bone marrow transplant to Great Ormond Street Hospital, London or Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals and 10 have been transplanted to date. 3 are awaiting a donor. One is currently receiving gene therapy and 1 awaiting thymus transplant. 6 of these children did not survive (3 died post transplant and 3 while awaiting transplant) and rest are still under follow up. Conclusions SCID / CID is a relatively common condition in West Midlands. Presentation of infants with SCID is variable and needs to be considered. Universal screening of Guthrie card heel pricks for T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) would allow patients to be identified sooner and hopefully improve survival rates.


Information technology is rapidly diffused throughout the world. Unfortunately, as the technology goes on the disabled vocational rehabilitation is more isolated in physically and mentally. A new paradigm, 'Digital practical use Opportunity' is a product of the tremendous technological changes driving the disabled vocational rehabilitation. The employment for the disabled vocational rehabilitation is a hot issue. Because lack of education rehabilitation cause many problems for the employer. Relating program of employment and education for the disabled vocational rehabilitation, they can get a job in a better condition. This study propose a model of good environmental employment for the disabled vocational providing them the way of getting a job so that they can go as a member of highly developed society. It conducted in society could fundamentally advance our knowledge about the structure of the employment of the disabled vocational rehabilitation, cure their feelings, give them a chance to live happier, stronger, healthier.


Portfolio assessment-as-pedagogy, as implemented in a college writing course, is examined in light of the themes present in the literature concerning portfolio assessment. The instructional processes used in English 155, Scientific and Technical Writing, at Lethbridge Community College, are described; and ten students' portfolios are analyzed, with primary emphasis on students' learning as expressed in their final reflective letters. Consideration is also given to their reflection worksheets and to drafts and revisions of individual projects. Together, these documents reveal the students' insights into their development as writers and into the significance of their writing products. Grounded in a constructivist view of learning, a portfolio classroom fosters social construction of knowledge. When students develop a sense of community, their participation in collaborative writing and peer revision can become an important part of composing. Because portfolios are informed by process theory of composition, they are not only a means of assessing writing, but they also guide student learning by documenting their writing processes and giving them a voice in interpreting their development. This reflection helps students identify themselves as writers who have ownership over their work and their learning. Portfolios also give the instructor a window into students' rhetorical awareness, perceptions of thinking and writing, and sentence skill development. Although this project was limited to one course, the depth of learning demonstrated by the students suggests that they may benefit from increased power in creating and assessing their portfolios. Other future possibilities include collaborative assessment among writing instructors and program-wide applications of portfolio assessment.


Savannah grazing lawns are a key food resource for large herbivores such as blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) and white rhino (Ceratotherium simum), and impact herbivore densities, movement and recruitment rates. They also exert a strong influence on fire behaviour including frequency, intensity and spread. Thus, variation in grazing lawn cover can have a profound impact on broader savannah ecosystem dynamics. However, knowledge of their present cover and distribution is limited. Importantly, we lack a robust, broad-scale approach for detecting and monitoring grazing lawns, which is critical to enhancing understanding of the ecology of these vital grassland systems. We selected two sites in the Lower Sabie and Satara regions of Kruger National Park, South Africa with mesic and semiarid conditions, respectively. Using spectral and texture features derived from WorldView-3 imagery, we (i) parameterised and assessed the quality of Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) models for general discrimination of plant functional types (PFTs) within a sub-area of the Lower Sabie landscape, and (ii) compared model performance for probabilistic mapping of grazing lawns in the broader Lower Sabie and Satara landscapes. Further, we used spatial metrics to analyse spatial patterns in grazing lawn distribution in both landscapes along a gradient of distance from waterbodies. All machine learning models achieved high F-scores (F1) and overall accuracy (OA) scores in general savannah PFTs classification, with RF (F1 = 95.73±0.004%, OA = 94.16±0.004%), SVM (F1 = 95.64±0.002%, OA = 94.02±0.002%) and MLP (F1 = 95.71±0.003%, OA = 94.27±0.003%) forming a cluster of the better performing models and marginally outperforming CART (F1 = 92.74±0.006%, OA = 90.93±0.003%). Grazing lawn detection accuracy followed a similar trend within the Lower Sabie landscape, with RF, SVM, MLP and CART achieving F-scores of 0.89, 0.93, 0.94 and 0.81, respectively. Transferring models to the Satara landscape however resulted in relatively lower but high grazing lawn detection accuracies across models (RF = 0.87, SVM = 0.88, MLP = 0.85 and CART = 0.75). Results from spatial pattern analysis revealed a relatively higher proportion of grazing lawn cover under semiarid savannah conditions (Satara) compared to the mesic savannah landscape (Lower Sabie). Additionally, the results show strong negative correlation between grazing lawn spatial structure (fractional cover, patch size and connectivity) and distance from waterbodies, with larger and contiguous grazing lawn patches occurring in close proximity to waterbodies in both landscapes. The proposed machine learning approach provides a novel and robust workflow for accurate and consistent landscape-scale monitoring of grazing lawns, while our findings and research outputs provide timely information critical for understanding habitat heterogeneity in southern African savannahs.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of NFTs in revolutionizing innovation management and information systems. Innovations done by firms are blatantly used by other firms to develop cheap knock-off. This leads to huge economic loses to the firm investing in research and development activities. Firms are in need of trusted, immutable and verifiable means of storing information which cannot be used by others, even if publically available without their consent. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) appear to be one such solution to this problem that has recently attracted a lot of investor interest. Using NFTs the information is tokenized and is stored in a secure manner.

Design/methodology/approach
Through this scoping review, the authors investigate the influence of NFTs towards the innovation management from the dual aspects of management and information systems. This scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework by Arksey and O'Malley. The five stages of Arksey and O'Malley's framework were used in this analysis to classify the literature through five stages of identifying the initial research questions; locating relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; and compiling, summarizing and reporting the results.

Findings
This study suggests that NFTs on the blockchain have significant potential to revolutionize innovation management and information systems. Theoretical frameworks used in investigating the role of digital tokens in blockchain management are mainly based on contracts, diversity theory, portfolio theory and faking likelihood theory. The study reveals gaps in the literature, particularly in the under-researched areas of behavioural psychology and social psychology theories. The appropriate regulation and regulation authority for different types of digital tokens are required. The study also presents archetypes that represent patterns in the current landscape of blockchain tokens, which have significant potential for future research and practical applications.

Originality/value
This study is unique in its approach to assessing the future of NFTs in the field of innovation and information management. While many existing reviews have focused on describing the progress and development of NFTs in the past, this study takes a forward-looking perspective and projects the future potential of NFTs. This innovative approach allows for a deeper understanding of the potential impact of NFTs in various fields such as entrepreneurship, innovation management and tokenomics. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature on NFTs by providing insights and recommendations for future research and practical applications.


ABSTRACT Many disadvantaged students with refractive errors, such as myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness), do not have eyeglasses, and their reduced vision may impact reading proficiency. Providing eyeglasses may increase their reading success. This article reports the findings of a study in Baltimore City in which disadvantaged second and third graders were assessed for vision problems. Of 317 students, 182 were given glasses. Those who needed glasses were given two pairs, one for home and one for school, as well as replacements if glasses were lost or broken. School staff assisted in ensuring that students wore their glasses, storing them safely, and replacing glasses when necessary. Students who received glasses improved more on Woodcock reading measures than those who never needed glasses (ES = +0.16, p < .03). The study demonstrates the potential of providing eyeglasses to disadvantaged students who need them to improve their reading performance.


Methanol poisoning in Forensic Medicine has been rarely seen in the Czech Republic before 2012. Almost all of those rare cases were due to mistaking a high content alcoholic beverages for methanol solution – for instance drinking a presumed ethanol stored in an unlabeled container. This mistake resulted in poisoning of one or more people and had a high mortality. The cause of death was evident after toxicology examination following poor autopsy findings. The lethal concentration of methanol was determined in blood samples using the method of gas chromatography. In September 2012 there was a mass criminal methanol poisoning caused by adding the methanol into alcoholic beverages in order to increase the profit by the producer. There were high content alcohol bottles distributed with the ratio of ethanol to methanol up to 1:1. The ethanol portion affected the progress of the poisoning, therefore the death did not occur immediately and most of the patients were admitted to the hospital. Nevertheless the overall mortality was over 30 %. Toxicology examinations of the blood samples from both living and dead did not always detect methanol, but only its metabolite (formic acid). All of the toxicology laboratories in the Czech Republic were overloaded with examination demands. Main ways of treating the methanol poisoning was ethanol, fomepizole and hemodialysis. The state authority issued an official regulation which prohibited alcoholic beverages over 20 % alcohol by volume for two weeks to investigate the origin. The mass poisoning in 2012 caused at least 49 deaths. There were many accuseds and two main alcohol producers were sentenced to life imprisonment.


Introduction: During nonnutritive suck, infants must intermittently swallow. When a swallow occurs, it must interact with respiration in 2 main ways. We have previously labeled HOW the interaction occurs as "swallow-breath interaction" (SwBr), and WHERE in the respiratory cycle the swallow occurs as "phase of respiration incident to swallow" (POR). We have described SwBr and POR in preterm infants with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia and term infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Objective: The objective of this work is to describe SwBr and POR in term infants (TRM) and compare those findings to our previous study of low-risk preterm (LRP) infants.
Method: Suckle, swallow, nasal airflow and chest movement were recorded during nonnutritive suck in 12 TRM infants, collecting 94 swallows. SwBr and POR for each swallow were characterized by our previously described method. Generalized estimating equations were developed to relate the 3 types of SwBr and 5 types of POR to gender, birth weight, gestational age, postmenstrual age (PMA), and weeks post-first nipple feed. The percentages of SwBr and POR were compared to 16 LRP infants, with 176 swallows over 35 encounters.
Results: TRM infants had more swallows with attenuated respiration (AR) with advancing weeks post-first nipple feed and fewer swallows occurring with obstructive apnea (OA) in males and with increasing birth weight. More swallows occurred at mid-expiration (ME) with increasing gestational age, PMA, and male gender and at mid-inspiration (MI) with increasing weeks post-first nipple feed. Fewer swallows occurred at MI in males. Infants in the LRP group studied before 35 weeks PMA were different from TRM infants but become indistinguishable from TRM infants as PMA approached 40 weeks. SwBr and POR in LRP infants progress towards improved feeding efficiency and safety. These results are similar to studies of nutritive feeding.
Conclusion: SwBr and POR during nonnutritive suck in LRP infants become more like TRM infants with advancing PMA. Because the same brainstem centers are activated in both nutritive and nonnutritive suck, investigation of swallow during nonnutritive suck may provide similar information as nutritive feeding with easier analysis.


To date, there has been no way to examine induced human p53 gene mutations in cell cultures exposed to mutagenic factors, other than by restriction site analysis. Here, we used embryonic cells from our Hupki (human p53 knock-in) mouse strain to generate human p53 DNA-binding domain (DBD) mutations experimentally. Twenty cultures of untreated primary mouse Hupki fibroblasts and 20 short-wavelength UV light (UVC)-treated cultures (20J m2) were passaged >20 times. Established Hupki embryonic fibroblast cell lines (HUFs) were genotyped by dideoxy DNA sequencing of p53 exons 4–9. Seven of the HUFs harbored point mutations in the humanized p53 DBD. Of the 9 mutations (6 singleand 1 triple-site mutation), 2 were at the most frequently mutated codons in human cancers (c.248 and c.273). The Affymetrix p53 GeneChip assay also readily identified the 6 single-base substitutions. All mutations in HUFs from UV-treated cultures were at dipyrimidine sites, including 3 nontranscribed strand C 3T transitions. The mutant HUFs were deficient in p53 transactivation function, and missense mutants had high levels of nuclear p53 protein. In a second experiment, primary Hupki cells were exposed to the carcinogen aristolochic acid I (AAI). Five of 10 cultures that became established within 2 months harbored p53 DBD mutations. All were transversions, including 4 A 3 T substitutions on the nontranscribed strand, a hallmark of DNA mutation by AAI. We conclude that establishment of Hupki mouse fibroblasts in culture readily selects for p53 DBD mutations found in human tumors, providing a basis for generating experimental mutation patterns in human p53.


InAlAs alloy was grown by MOCVD on an InP (311) substrate with different polarities. Measurements of photoluminescence (PL) and photoreflectance (PR) were performed to study the impact of the V/III flux ratio. It is discovered that the PL line was shifted to a greater energy side with the increasing excitation power density, and no saturation was observed of its related PL intensity. It is a fingerprint of type II transition emission. However, the recombination of the type II interface showed a powerful dependence on AsH3 overpressure and substrate polarity. In fact, we have noted an opposite behavior of type II energy transition shift from A to B polarity substrate in respect to V/III ratio variation. PR signals corresponding to Franz-Keldysh Oscillation (FKO) were observed. The analysis of their period has allowed one to assess the value of the PZ field in the samples. PL-luminescence measurements were performed out as a function of temperature. PL peak energy, PL intensity, and half maximum full width show anomalous behaviors. Indicating the existence of localized carriers, they were ascribed to the energy potential modulation associated with the indium cluster formation and PZ field.


ABSTRACT Self-evaluation of one's own performance has been found in prior research to be an enabler of professional development. The task of evaluation is also a core component of a model of the investigative interviewing of victims, witnesses and suspects, being increasingly used throughout the world. However, it remains the case that there has been little research as to how practitioners approach the task itself. The present study examined the topic through the lens of observing how effectively 30 real-life investigators in the UK undertook evaluation of their interviews, representing almost the entire investigative frontline workforce of a small law enforcement agency in this country. Using an established scale of measurement, both investigators' and an expert's ratings of the same sample of interviews were compared across a range of tasks and behaviours. It was found that in almost all the assessed behaviours, requiring of the investigators to provide a self-rating, their scores tended to significantly outstrip those applied to the sample by the expert. Reasons are explored for the investigators' overstated assessments. Implications for practice are then discussed.


This paper proposes a new mathematical framework that can be applied to biological problems such as analysis of the structures of proteins and protein complexes. In particular, it gives a new method for encoding the three-dimensional structure of a protein into a binary sequence, where proteins are approximated by a folded tetrahedron sequence. It also gives a new algebraic framework for describing molecular complexes and their interactions.
For simplicity, we shall explain the framework in the case of two-dimensional objects. Then, the binary code of a plane curve is obtained as the ``second derivative'' of the curve and ``fusion and fission'' of closed trajectories is described algebraically.