The impediments facing women in Iran in areas of employment have caused their elimination from the formal job market and have inclined them to informal employment. This situation has caused a surge in gender discrimination against women in employment and has made earning a living more difficult for those from lower economic classes. The current paper is a qualitative study, with data gathered from observations and in-depth interviews with 26 women peddlers on Tehran's Subway. One of the major problems with these women peddlers is their encounters with authority agents. The research seeks to answer this question: "What are their tactics to handle the authority agents?" The theoretical framework of the paper is based on the theory of Asef Bayat's "quiet encroachment." The findings of the study show that women's tactics to reduce the risk of an encounter with authority agents include: avoidance and reduction of travel in insecure stations (with more agents); avoidance and reduction of entry through the insecure stations; concealing their merchandise; reduction of the amount of their merchandise; pretending to be a commuter; seeking the favor of the authority agents; befriending the authority agents; obedience; escape; collecting the merchandise on display in case of attack by agents, and avoiding the station CCTV as much as possible. Keywords: peddling, women peddlers, quiet encroachment, authority agents, tactics


Abstract. Medical geography and medical cartography can be denoted as classical application domains for Geographical Information Systems (GISs). GISs can be applied to retrospective analysis (e.g., human population health analysis, medical infrastructure development and availability assessment, etc.), and to operative disaster detection and management (e.g., monitoring of epidemics development and infectious diseases spread). Nevertheless, GISs still not a daily-used instrument of medical administrations, especially on the city and municipality scales. In different regions of the world situation varies, however in general case GIS-based medical data accounting and management is the object of interest for researchers and national administrations operated on global and national scales. Our study is focused onto the investigation and design of the methodology and software prototype for GIS-based support of medical administration and planning on a city scale when accounting and controlling infectious diseases. The study area is the administrative territory of the St. Petersburg (Russia). The study is based upon the medical statistics data and data collection system of the St. Petersburg city. All the medical data used in the study are impersonalized accordingly to the Russian laws.


Series Preface Preface Foreword List of Contributors Part One - Growth 1 Bulk Growth of Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) P. Capper 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Phase Equilibria 1.3 Crystal Growth 1.4 Conclusions References 2 Bulk growth of CdZnTe/CdTe crystals A. Noda, H. Kurita and R. Hirano 2.1 Introduction 2.2 High-purity Cd and Te 2.3 Crystal Growth 2.4 Wafer processing 2.5 Summary Acknowledgements References 3 Properties of Cd(Zn)Te (relevant to use as substrates) S. Adachi 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Structural Properties 3.3 Thermal Properties 3.4 Mechanical and Lattice Vibronic Properties 3.5 Collective Effects and Some Response Characteristics 3.6 Electronic Energy-band Structure 3.7 Optical Properties 3.8 Carrier Transport Properties References 4 Substrates for the Epitaxial growth of MCT J. Garland and R. Sporken 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Substrate Orientation 4.3 CZT Substrates 4.4 Si-based Substrates 4.5 Other Substrates 4.6 Summary and Comclusions References 5 Liquid phase epitaxy of MCT P. Capper 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Growth 5.3 Material Characteristics 5.4 Device Status 5.5 Summary and Future Developments References 6 Metal-Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) Growth C. M. Maxey 6.1 Requirement for Epitaxy 6.2 History 6.3 Substrate Choices 6.4 Reactor Design 6.5 Process Parameters 6.6 Metalorganic Sources 6.7 Uniformity 6.8 Reproducibility 6.9 Doping 6.10 Defects 6.11 Annealing 6.12 In-situ monitoring 6.13 Conclusions References 7 MBE growth of Mercury Cadmium Telluride J. Garland 7.1 Introduction 7.2 MBE Growth theory and Growth Modes 7.3 Substrate Mounting 7.4 In-situ Characterization Tools 7.5 MCT Nucleation and Growth 7.6 Dopants and Dopant Activation 7.7 Properties of MCT epilayers grown by MBE 7.8 Conclusions References Part Two - Properties 8 Mechanical and Thermal Properties M. Martyniuk, J.M. Dell and L. Faraone 8.1 Density of MCT 8.2 Lattice Parameter of MCT 8.3 Coefficient of Thermal Expansion for MCT 8.4 Elastic Parameters of MCT 8.5 Hardness and deformation characteristics of HgCdTe 8.6 Phase Diagrams of MCT 8.7 Viscosity of the MCT melt 8.8 Thermal properties of MCT References 9 Optical Properties of MCT J. Chu and Y. Chang 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Optical Constants and the Dielectric Function 9.3 Theory of Band-to-band Optical Transition 9.4 Near Band Gap Absorption 9.5 Analytic Expressions and Empirical Formulas for Intrinsic Absorption and Urbach Tail 9.6 Dispersion of the Refractive Index 9.7 Optical Constants and Related van Hover Singularities above the Energy Gap 9.8 Reflection Spectra and Dielectric Function 9.9 Multimode Model of Lattice Vibration 9.10 Phonon Absorption 9.11 Raman Scattering 9.12 Photoluminescence Spectroscopy References 10 Diffusion in MCT D. Shaw 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Self-Diffusion 10.3 Chemical Self-Diffusion 10.4 Compositional Interdiffusion 10.5 Impurity Diffusion References 11 Defects in HgCdTe - Fundamental M. A. Berding 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Ab Initio calculations 11.3 Prediction of Native Point Defect Densities in HgCdgTe 11.4 Future Challenges References 12 Band Structure and Related Properties of HgCdTe C. R. Becker and S. Krishnamurthy 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Parameters 12.3 Electronic Band Structure 12.4 Comparison with Experiment Acknowledgments References 13 Conductivity Type Conversion P. Capper and D. Shaw 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Native Defects in Undoped MCT 13.3 Native Defects in Doped MCT 13.4 Defect Concentrations During Cool Down 13.5 Change of Conductivity Type 13.6 Dry Etching by Ion Beam Milling 13.7 Plasma Etching 13.8 Summary References 14 Extrinsic Doping D. Shaw and P. Capper 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Impurity Activity 14.3 Thermal Ionization Energies of Impurities 14.4 Segregation Properties of Impurities 14.5 Traps and Recombination Centers 14.6 Donor and Acceptor Doping in LWIR and MWIR MCT 14.7 Residual Defects 14.8 Conclusions References 15 Structure and electrical characteristics of Metal/MCT interfaces R. J. Westerhout, C. A. Musca, Richard H. Sewell, John M. Dell, and L. Faraone 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Reactive/intermediately reactive/nonreactive categories 15.3 Ultrareactive/reactive categories 15.4 Conclusion 15.5 Passivation of MCT 15.6 Conclusion 15.7 Contacts to MCT 15.7 Surface Effects on MCT 15.8 Surface Structure of CdTe and MCT References 16 MCT Superlattices for VLWIR Detectors and Focal Plane Arrays James Garland 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Why HgTe-Based Superlattices 16.3 Calculated Properties 16.4 Growth 16.5 Interdiffusion 16.6 Conclusions Acknowledgements References 17 Dry Plasma Processing of Mercury Cadmium Telluride and related II- VIs Andrew Stolz 17.1 Introduction 17.2 Effects of Plasma Gases on MCT 17.3 Plasma Parameters 17.4 Characterization - Surfaces of Plasma Processed MCT 17.5 Manufacturing Issues and Solutions 17.6 Plasma Processes in Production of II-VI materials 17.7 Conclusions and Future Efforts References 18 MCT Photoconductive Infrared Detectors I. M. Baker 18.1 Introduction 18.2 Applications and Sensor Design 18.3 Photoconductive Detectors in MCT and Related Alloys 18.4 SPRITE Detectors 18.5 Conclusions on Photoconductive MCT Detectors Ackowledgements References Part Three - Applications 19 HgCdTe Photovoltaic Infrared Detectors I. M. Baker 19.1 Introduction 19.2 Advantages of the Photovoltaic Device in MCT 19.3 Applications 19.4 Fundamentals of MCT Photodiodes 19.5 Theoretical Foundations for MCT Array Technology 19.6 Manufacturing Technology for MCT Arrays 19.7 Towards "GEN III" Detectors 19.8 Conclusions and Future Trends for Photovoltaic NCT Arrays References 20 Nonequilibrium, dual-band and emission devices C. Jones and N. Gordon 20.1 Introduction 20.2 Nonequilibrium Devices 20.3 Dual-Band Devices 20.4 Emission devices 20.5 Conclusions References 21 HgCdTe Electron Avalanche Photodiodes (EAPDs) I. M. Baker and M. Kinch 21.1 Introduction and Applications 21.2 The Avalanche Multiplication Effect 21.3 Physics of MCT EAPDs 21.4 Technology of MCT EAPDs 21.5 Reported Performance of Arrays of MCT EAPDs 21.6 Laser-gated Imaging as a Practical Example of MCT EAPDs 21.7 Conclusions and Future Developments References 22 Room-temperature IR photodetectors Jozef Piotrowski and Adam Piotrowski 22.1 Introduction 22.2 Performance of Room-Temperature Infrared Photodetectors 22.3 MCT as a Material for Room-Temperature Photodetectors 22.4 Photoconductive Devices 22.5 Photoelectromagnetic, Magnetoconcentration and Dember IR Detectors 22.6 Photodiodes 22.7 Conclusions References Index


CONTEXT
Determinants of adiponectin and its association with insulin resistance (IR) are less well studied in youth than in adults.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of the study was to describe, in youth, the age- and sex-specific distribution of adiponectin concentrations and the association with demographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle factors, parental diabetes, and markers of IR.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS
We studied 1632 French Canadian youth aged 9, 13, and 16 yr who participated in the Québec Child and Adolescent Health and Social Survey, a province-wide, school-based survey conducted in 1999.

RESULTS
Boys had lower adiponectin concentrations than girls by 17% (P < 0.0001). At age 16 yr, mean adiponectin concentrations were 27.7% (boys, P < 0.0001) and 13.3% (girls, P < 0.0001) lower than at age 9 yr (p(interaction) = 0.009). Mean adiponectin decreased for every unit increase in body mass index (BMI) Z-score by 8.1% in boys and 11.2% in girls (P < 0.0001). Growth-related change in BMI explained half the age effect in boys and all the age effect in girls. Self-reported pubertal status, physical activity, smoking, and parental diabetes were not independently associated with adiponectin. Fasting insulin and homeostasis model assessment-IR were not associated with adiponectin concentration. However, the interaction of adiponectin and BMI Z-score was significant in a multiple regression model of fasting insulin.

CONCLUSIONS
Male sex and changes in body fat may be major determinants of the decreasing adiponectin concentrations of growing youth, which are accompanied by a dissociation of adiponectin and markers of IR. The relationship between adiposity and markers of IR is attenuated in those with higher adiponectin concentrations, making adiponectin a potential intervention target or risk marker.


Wholesale electricity markets in many jurisdictions use a two-settlement structure: a day-ahead market for bulk power transactions and a real-time market for fine-grain supply-demand balancing. This paper explores trading demand response assets within this two-settlement market structure. We consider two approaches for trading demand response assets: (a) an intermediate spot market with contingent pricing, and (b) an over-the-counter options contract. In the first case, we characterize the competitive equilibrium of the spot market, and show that it is socially optimal. Economic orthodoxy advocates spot markets, but these require expensive infrastructure and regulatory blessing. In the second case, we characterize competitive equilibria and compare its efficiency with the idealized spot market. Options contract are private bilateral over-the-counter transactions and do not require regulatory approval. We show that the optimal social welfare is, in general, not supported. We then design optimal option prices that minimize the social welfare gap. This optimal design serves to approximate the ideal spot market for demand response using options with modest loss of efficiency. Our results are validated through numerical simulations.


The availability of various sensors and sophisticated technology providing digital data means that today's hydrographers must attune to the idea that the final products should be available in a hydrographic database. This will facilitate accessing marine data in hydrographic information systems. Almost all institutions of higher learning that specialise in geomatics-engineering now tend to provide education in marine geographic information systems (GIS) and this is already reflected in the syllabus in M8 of the IHO Standards of Competence for Nautical Cartographers.


Almost every institution currently uses attendance system that ensures maintaining control over the attendance of employees, students and other persons. By using attendance system we can provide the right to enter certain rooms for only designated people. On the basis of reports from attendance system we can evaluate a monthly attendance of employees and the by that determine their real movement within the institution. Today is this system the usual standard in every medium and large institution, for example businesses, schools, universities and many others. The price for such a system, however, is often too high. Therefore companies opt also for other alternatives. Our task was to create a working prototype of such a system. Such a system must dispose at least with function for indicating the arrival and departure of employees to be able to determine the time of stay in the workplace. For this purpose we used the platform of microcontroller Arduino with a several basic sensors and software Arduino IDE. In this paper we present the achieved results in terms of applying different access cards.


The paper reports on the operation of the Engineering Clinic program at Harvey Mudd College, and describes the characteristics of the industry-sponsored projects which are carried out in the program. The special nature of the experiential activity that takes place in the Engineering Clinic calls for different roles from students, faculty and industry in the reaching and learning process. The paper examines these new roles in the light of recent surveys of students, faculty advisors and company liaisons who work together on clinic projects during each academic year.


This study deals with the experience of the Scottish Jewish community in the Gorbals district of Glasgow during the inter-war period through the prism of autobiography. There are a number of published autobiographical accounts of this community, which provide an insight into many aspects of its life. Taken together, these works provide a variety of perspectives on the life of the district. This article will consider these autobiographies from several angles. It will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of autobiographies as an historical source, as well as considering what these autobiographies tell us about life within the Gorbals in this period, particularly in relation to differences between the first and second generation of Jewish migrants to Glasgow, and attitudes towards religion and politics. In addition, the notion of 'community' in general needs to be considered critically, and the extent to which the Gorbals formed a coherent community also needs to be questioned. It will be argued that the Gorbals was a community according to the definition offered by Robert Redfield, in that it was distinctive, small and self-sufficient (inasmuch as it provided for all of the needs of the people within it, and was thus a 'cradle-to-the-grave arrangement').1


This paper aims to show instances of wh-movement in the DP of the Eastern Indo-Aryan language Bangla. It further discusses the licensing position of the moved wh-phrase in the Bangla DP, which happens to be not in the DP-initial position but below the position of the subject of the DP. The paper also views the relationship of the wh words and the demonstratives. In the Bangla DP the wh words do not occur with the demonstratives. However, there are certain contexts in which an anaphoric demonstrative apparently occurs with the wh words in the DP.


Emerging economies have rebounded relatively quickly from the 2008 global financial crisis, and despite various challenges they face resulting from the European sovereign debt crisis, they face bright economic futures. While many observers have focused on China and India, Brazil is an emerging economy that has enjoyed increasing visibility. This Article examines Brazil's evolution into an emerging economy, or given the market-based nature of the term, an emerging market economy (EME). The economic, social, political, and legal reforms that have contributed to Brazil's status as an EME have bolstered the power and legitimacy of its voice in international affairs, giving the country an important role in articulating a new global order as envisioned by former president Lula da Silva. However, its voice will resonate only to the extent it continues to address a number of challenges ranging from economic policy to corruption. * Professor of Law, The University of Iowa College of Law; J.D., Georgetown University


Ethernet ring protection (ERP) is an emerging solution for carrier-grade optical Ethernet networking developed as an ITU-T recommendation. The most recent development of the ERP technique provides multi-ring protection in a mesh packet transport network. The ERP configuration and capacity planning in a ring mesh topology can be optimized in the selection of the interconnected ring hierarchy and logical loop prevention block positions. This paper reports the first investigation to understand the designing principles of protected Ethernet ring mesh networks and proposes an optimized design scheme for cost-effective and reliable ERP networking.


Just over three years after enacting a Minimum Exchange Rate policy for the Swiss Franc vs. Euro (EUR/CHF), the Swiss National Bank (SNB) removed it in a surprise announcement on January 15, 2015. The announcement shocked the FX market — EUR/CHF dropped 25.5 percent in the minutes that followed the press release. The JPMorgan Chase Institute leveraged a data asset of 395 million de-identified transactions executed by over 44,000 institutional investors to measure hedge fund net flows in EUR/CHF spot and forward transactions during the SNB's Minimum Exchange Rate policy period. Our analysis uncovers two key findings related to hedge fund trading in EUR/CHF during the Minimum Exchange Rate policy period. First, we observe that after hedge funds executed the long EUR/CHF strategy, they then sold EUR/CHF in the days immediately preceding the next regularly scheduled SNB announcement, reducing their potential losses if the Minimum Exchange Rate policy was removed at that meeting. Second, hedge fund's confidence in the persistence of the SNB's Minimum Exchange Rate policy appears to have peaked in the four weeks before the policy was removed. Taken together, our findings have implications for central banks as they consider how their choices with respect to communicating policy changes might impact financial market stability. When choosing the most appropriate method to communicate policy changes, policymakers can use our results to help weigh market expectations with respect to both the timing of announcements and the policy outcomes in the context of the central bank's desired market impacts.


Each task requires a specific motor behavior that is tuned to task demands. For instance, writing requires a lot of accuracy while clapping does not. It is known that the brain adjusts the motor behavior to different task demands as predicted by optimal control theory. In this study, the mechanism of this reoptimization process is investigated by varying the accuracy demands of a reaching task. In this task, the width of the reaching target (0.5 or 8 cm) was varied either on a trial-to-trial basis (random schedule) or in blocks (blocked schedule). On some trials, the hand of the subjects was clamped to a rectilinear trajectory that ended 2 cm on the left or right of the target center. The rejection of this perturbation largely varied with target width in the blocked schedule but not in the random schedule. That is, subjects exhibited different motor behavior in the different schedules despite identical accuracy demands. Therefore, while reoptimization has been considered immediate and automatic, the differences in motor behavior observed across schedules suggest that the reoptimization of the motor behavior is neither happening on a trial-by-trial basis nor obligatory. The absence of trial-to-trial mechanisms, the inability of the brain to adapt to two conflicting task demands and the existence of a switching cost are discussed as possible sources of the non-optimality of motor behavior during the random schedule.


Post-exercise hypotension (PEH) may follow a session of physical exercises. This effect has high clinical relevance for hypertensive individuals. Although there are several studies on the subject, an analysis is still lacking on a state-of-art approach considering different types of exercises. Using a review of literature, the aim of this paper was to verify the relationship between aerobic exercise and resistance exercise in PEH in hypertensive people. For the purpose of this study, Scielo and Medlinedatabases were surveyed, and the main inclusion criteria were studies on the subject in English language and a sample of hypertensive adults. One hundred and twenty-six studies were found. However, only 32 papers, 5 of which on resistance exercise and 27 on aerobic exercise were used for this study. Although the studies surveyed used different prescription models for resistance exercise, PEH was observed mainly in the laboratory setting. After aerobic exercise, it was noted that PEH occurred for longer periods. However, there are differences of opinion as to the best intensity and duration of the exercise to be prescribed. Therefore, in hypertensive individuals declines in arterial pressure following aerobic exercise are apparently greater than those observed with resistance exercise. Nevertheless, in order to achieve sounder conclusions, further studies on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring should be conducted.


Average student Moritaka Mashiro enjoys drawing for fun. When his classmate and aspiring writer Akito Takagi discovers his talent, he begs Moritaka to team up with him as a manga-creating duo. But what exactly does it take to make it in the manga-publishing world. As the veteran manga artists start taking over Weekly Shonen Jump, the younger artists start feeling the pressure. But what is behind this sudden surge of older artists making a comeback in the magazine? And what is the connection between Azuma and Moritaka's late uncle?


Background: The ability to climb stairs (ascending and descending stair without using a handrail) and rise from a chair (rising from chairs without using an elbow rest) are among the most important measures of physical function for ADL evaluation for the independent living, and assessed by the questioners on many epidemiological studies in elderly. But little is known about the relationship between the self-reported performance level of the tasks and lower leg strength and power in very elderly people. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationship between the self-reported performance level of two tasks and the lower leg function in community-dwelling 80-year-old population. Methods: Out of 994 persons who were 80 years old living in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, 607 individuals (236 men and 371 women) underwent a physical fitness test that included measurements of leg extensor power and knee extensor strength. The ability to climb up stair and to rise from a chair was assessed by self- reported questionnaire which was ranked in three levels. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the measurements. Results: The cut-off points for the leg extensor power of subjects who could completely perform the stair-climbing and chair-rising functions were determined to be approximately 8.6 watt/kg body mass for men and 5.6 watt/kg body mass for women. In addition, the cut-off points for the knee extensor strength of subjects who could completely perform the stair-climbing and chair-rising functions were determined to be approximately 0.97 kg/kg body mass for men and 0.84 kg/kg body mass for women. Conclusions: From a practical viewpoint, the present study suggested that the cut-off points of leg extensor power and knee extensor strength can be used as targets in simple self-reported questionnaires to help in screening for mobility in 80-year-old population


A solution to second order in thickness is derived for harmonically oscillating two-dimensional airfoils in supersonic flow. For slow oscillations of an arbitrary profile, the result is found as a series including the third power of frequency. For arbitrary frequencies, the method of solution for any specific profile is indicated, and the explicit solution derived for a single wedge. Nonlinear thickness effects are found generally to reduce the torsional damping, and so enlarge the range of Mach numbers within which torsional instability is possible.


Background/aim The known pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus (DM) in acromegaly is mainly based on growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) excess. Fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP-4), a novel adipokine, is found to induce insulin resistance and type 2 DM. We aimed to investigate the possible effect of FABP-4 on glucose metabolism in patients with acromegaly. Materials and methods This case-control study included 28 patients newly diagnosed with acromegaly and 57 healthy volunteers. The patients with acromegaly were classified according to their glycemic status as with DM, prediabetes, and normal glucose tolerance. Anthropometric measurements, laboratory test results, and FABP-4 levels of the subjects were evaluated. Results Although no difference was observed in FABP-4 levels between acromegaly and control groups, the FABP-4 level was higher in the patients with acromegaly having DM compared to the patients with acromegaly having prediabetes and NGT, and the control group (p = 0.004, p = 0.001, p = 0.004, respectively). Logistic regression analysis suggested that the FABP-4 is an independent predictor of DM in acromegaly (β = 7.382, OR = 38.96, 95% CI: 1.52-5.76, p = 0.018). Conclusion The FABP-4 may be a helpful predictor of acromegaly-associated DM.


A new series of Isatin Thiosemicarbazone (I-TSC) ligands were synthesized. The ligands were synthesized with the following substituent groups: methyl thiosemicarbazone, ethyl thiosemicarbazone, tert-butyl thiosemicarbazone, phenyl thiosemicarbazone, and benzyl thiosemicarbazone. These ligands were then characterized by NMR spectroscopy in order to verify their structures. The following test were ran on the compounds: 1H, 13C, gradient selected COSY, 1H-13C multiplicity, and 1H-13C HMBC. The compounds were then reacted with CuCl to form metal complex [Cu(I-TSC)Cl]. An inhibition assay study on these Isatin ligands and copper compounds for evidence of inhibition of Topoisomerase II α will be presented.


The Universal Morphology UniMorph project is a collaborative effort to improve how NLP handles complex morphology across the world's languages. The project releases annotated morphological data using a universal tagset, the UniMorph schema. Each inflected form is associated with a lemma, which typically carries its underlying lexical meaning, and a bundle of morphological features from our schema. Additional supporting data and tools are also released on a per-language basis when available. UniMorph is based at the Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and is sponsored by the DARPA LORELEI program. This paper details advances made to the collection, annotation, and dissemination of project resources since the initial UniMorph release described at LREC 2016. lexical resources} }


Background In Indonesia, malaria remains a public health problem. In North Sumatra between 2000 and 2004, an estimated 50,670 clinical cases occurred every year, leading to the deaths of 9-10 people per year. Objectives To determine the short-term impact of acute uncompli- cated malaria on the cognitive performance of school children. Methods A prospective study was conducted on students at four elementary schools in Madina, North Sumatra, Indonesia, from August 15 to September 3, 2006. Subjects were classified into malaria and non-malaria groups based on microscopically confirmed blood smears; they were selected by means of random sampling. Cognitive performance was measured with two examination papers on mathematics and Indonesian language before and two weeks after artesunate and amodiaquin treatment for three days in the malaria group. Independent or paired t-tests were used to analyze differences in mean scores of cognitive performance. Results From 925 children examined, 384 suffered from malaria. One-hundred and thirty three children were recruited from the malaria group and 132 children were recruited from the non- malaria group. There was no difference in the distribution of general characteristics of the subjects. There was a significant difference in cognitive performance between the malaria and non-malaria groups (P<0.0001) before and after treatments. In the malaria group, there was a significant difference in cognitive performance before (mean 38.9; SD 15.19) and after treatment (mean 72.9; SD 10.41) with P


Abstract. Define to be the complexity of n, the smallest number of ones needed to write n using an arbitrary combination of addition and multiplication. John Selfridge showed that for all n. Define the defect of n, denoted by , to be ; in this paper we present a method for classifying all n with for a given r. From this, we derive several consequences. We prove that for with m and k not both zero, and present a method that can, with more computation, potentially prove the same for larger m. Furthermore, defining to be the number of n with and , we prove that , allowing us to conclude that the values of can be arbitrarily large.


Housing programme has been robustly implemented in Malaysia since Independence. At the commencement of the programme, the Federal Government provided housing accommodation to its citizens. However, due to the high demand for housing and the inability of the Government, the Government invited private sector to cooperate in supplying housing. Several laws have been enacted to control the housing industry. Among the laws are the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974 (Act 133)('SDBA') and the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984 (G.N.5178/1984) ('UBBL'). Despite there are various housing policies and legislations to support housing programme, there are still many problems arising from the housing programmes in Malaysia. An example of the problems is the abandoned housing projects. Since the 1970s until todate, this issue is still occurring in Malaysia. Many purchasers have become aggrieved, suffered damage and losses. This paper aims to highlight the problems of abandoned housing projects through the analysis of building laws in Malaysia. This paper used qualitative case study and legal research methodologies to analyse the issues and to meet the research objectives. Through this paper, it is evident that there are weaknesses in the building laws. Hence, appropriate amendments and improvements to the laws should be made to empower the laws and provide adequate measures against the issues. The results of this paper will provide new ideas to housing practitioners and policymakers in dealing with the problems of abandoned housing projects in Malaysia towards achieving the 11 th Malaysia Plan and National Housing Policy (2018-2025)('DPN').


This dissertation is concerned with a study of soil nailing, in particular the interaction mechanism between the soil and a nail and the failure mechanism and suitable design procedure for nailed slopes in sand. The interaction mechanism of a nail was studied by carrying out a number of pull-out tests, direct shear tests of nailed sand and interface tests using two uniform sands. Major parameters of the tests were flexibility, surface roughness and diameter of a nail. From the tests, it was found that: (1) flexibility of a nail significantly influences the interaction mechanism. Both the interaction parameter and apparent friction coefficient differ between a flexible and a stiff nail. Theoretical consideration indicates that the mobilization of nail forces is dominated by the relative stiffness between soil and nail. (2) a smooth-surface nail produces smaller bond friction than the critical state friction angle and mineral-to-mineral angle of the soil. This is due to the very thin rupture surface developed around the nail. On the other hand, a rough-surface nail was observed to produce two to four times larger bond friction than the direct shear friction angle of sand, due to the thick rupture surface developed and the dilatancy of the soil. (3) increasing the diameter of a nail produces a smaller apparent friction coefficient. Restrained dilatancy was found to play an important role. (4) the pull-out test, direct shear test of nailed sand and interface test produce different values of apparent friction coefficient , due to the different amount of restrained dilatancy effect around the nail (or reinforcement). The overall behaviour of nailed slopes was studied by carrying out a comprehensive series of centrifuge tests. Excavation of soil was simulated by draining water from two rubber bags in front of the facing wall. The centrifuge tests have provided much useful information on the mechanics of soil nailing. From the tests, it was found that: (1) draining of the water significantly influences both the earth pressure on the facing wall and the displacements of the nailed slope. Horizontal displacements of the facing wall were decreased by increasing the length and/or friction (bond) of the nail. (2) earth pressures on the facing wall do not exhibit a simple hydrostatic distribution. The deviations of the earth pressure are not negligible especially near the top and bottom of the facing wall. (3) roughness and bending stiffness of the facing wall considerably influence the stability and displacement of the nailed slope, respectively. (4) the observed failure surfaces were well described by a logarithmic spiral passing through the toe of the facing wall. (5) fairly good predictions for the failure acceleration were made using stability analysis of the nailed slopes based on the limit equilibrium method, provided an accurate friction angle for the sand and pull-out resistance of each nail could be determined. The factor of safety F5 of the nailed slopes was estimated by comparing the total available force and the total required force based on the observed failure surfaces.


In order to study the influence of stress ratio and WC grain size, the characteristics of fatigue crack growth were investigated in WC-Co cemented carbides with two different grain sizes of 3 and 6 µm. Fatigue crack growth tests were carried out over a wide range of fatigue crack growth rates covering the threshold stress intensity factor range DKth. It was found that crack growth rate da/dN against stress intensity factor range DK depended on stress ratio R. The crack growth rate plotted in terms of effective stress intensity factor range DKeff still exhibited the effect of microstructure. Fractographic examination revealed brittle fracture at R=0.1 and ductile fracture at R=0.5 in Co binder phase. The amount of Co phase transformation for stress ratio was closely related to fatigue crack growth characteristics.


This paper presents a method for online measurement of the dimensions of thermal train wheel by one frame of photo-thermal image. A measurement system and its mathematics model is setup. The effect of the spectrum of laser source to restrain thermal background noise is analyzed, then, a special laser is selected. A weighting method of the gray value transform is added into the image process. The high temperature fields of a measured train-wheel are analyzed by use of limited element method. The experiment result shows that the measurement standard deviation of the thermal train-wheel rim is less than 0.55 mm.


The recent introduction of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) into the sentencing phase of capital murder trials has heightened concerns about the potentially prejudicial impact of such information on jurors, who might give disproportionate weight to this diagnosis when determining whether a defendant is a "continuing threat to society". To investigate this issue, 238 undergraduates read a case summary based on US v. Barnette ( 2000 ), in which prosecution testimony was presented regarding the presence of a mental disorder (psychopathy, psychosis, or no disorder). Compared to the "no disorder" condition, participants rated psychopathic defendants as more likely to be violent in the future, even though testimony related to level of risk (high or low) was held constant. The difference in perceived dangerousness across the psychopathy and no disorder groups was particularly pronounced when the experts described the defendant as being at low risk. A similar pattern of effects was noted for the psychosis condition, suggesting that the impact of mental disorder testimony on perceptions of dangerousness may not necessarily be specific to the PCL-R.


This notice provides necessary information for each State which chooses to adjust the capital expenditure and annual operating cost expenditure minimums that are used to determine whether proposals are subject to review under a State's certificate of need program. The notice also provides guidance to assist a State Health Planning and Development Agency (State Agency) in determining the exact minimum dollar figure it will use and in seeking further information.


Aortic diseases may be diagnosed after a long period of subclinical development or they may have an acute presentation. Acute aortic syndrome is often the first sign of the disease, which needs rapid diagnosis and decision making to reduce the extremely poor prognosis. Aortic dilatation is a well-recognised risk factor for acute events and can occur as a result of trauma, infection, or, most commonly, from an intrinsic abnormality in the elastin and collagen components of the aortic wall. Over the years it has become clear that a few monogenic syndromes are strongly associated with aneurysms and often dictate a severe presentation in younger patients while the vast majority have a multifactorial pathogenesis. Conventional cardiovascular risk factors and ageing play an important role. Management strategy is based on prevention consisting of regular follow-up with cross-sectional imaging, chemoprophylaxis of further dilatation with drugs proved to slow down the disease progression and preventative surgery when dimension exceeds internationally recognised cut-off values for aortic diameters and the risk of rupture/dissection is therefore deemed very high.


The focus of my thesis is the reception of classical myth in Georgian Britain as exemplified by responses to the garden imagery at Stourhead, Wiltshire. Previous explanations have tended to the view that the gardens were designed to recapitulate Virgil's Aeneid. However, the garden owner, Henry Hoare II, left no record to substantiate this, or any other theme, and it is not mentioned in the many extant visitor accounts from the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.

My approach to understanding the garden began with the systematic collection of information on the garden's content and evolution. This endeavour yielded more than 20 further visitor reports, as well as visual and literary sources not considered in previous secondary accounts. This research has shown that the garden included a number of artefacts unknown to previous theorists. It has also shown that the true provenance and acquisition of extant garden elements is often different to that listed in the Stourhead secondary literature.

I conclude that visitor reception of the gardens yields highly idiosyncratic interpretation, the emotional and cognitive content of which was largely determined by information obtained from published literature, garden guides and fellow visitors. A strong further influence on the interpretation of the gardens by some visitors was familiarity with the Roman and wider Italian influences on the garden content. I have especially considered visitor experience of the Grand Tour in this context. I propose that visits to Stourhead elicited emotional and cognitive responses from visitors. An effect of encountering the garden edifices and artefacts was to prompt memories, particularly of prior visits to the original Roman or Italian buildings and artefacts, but also of copies encountered in English landscape gardens and elsewhere.


Although behavioral economists have criticized the empirical accuracy of the neoclassical rationality assumption, they support the normative view that welfare-increasing choice presupposes stable, context-independent preferences. We argue that this position neglects important features of decision-making that were essential to the thinking of Frank H. Knight and James M. Buchanan (Old Chicago economics). Knight and Buchanan embrace the idea that well-integrated preferences are an intellectual construct that cannot be the normative basis for welfare assessments. They argue that the only trait that is stable in real time and across individuals is the urge to have some vaguely defined better preferences. In other words, exploring, learning, and being contradictory and ambivalent are all part of the process both before and after a temporary maximization. We illustrate their view, present some empirical evidence, and discuss the normative implications especially for the character of a liberal social order such as Richard Epstein has advocated.


BACKGROUND
Proteins and phytohemagglutinins from Vigna species have been known to possess α-amylase inhibitory activity. Therefore, it was thought worthwhile to evaluate the lectins from Vigna radiata for antidiabetic activity. The literature reveals that such studies have not yet been carried out. The principal object of this study  is to evaluate antidiabetic activity of the lectins from V. radiata. Another object of this study  is binding of the zinc with the lectins obtained from V. radiata and evaluation of its antidiabetic activity.
RESULTS
 The V. radiata seed found contain galactose specific lectin.  The MBL-I (Mung Bean Lectin I ) may be a tetrameric protein with molecular weight 160-180 kDa and may be composed of identical or nearly identical relative subunit of molecular weight of 45-50 kDa.  Amino acid analysis of purified Mung bean lectin by reverse phase HPLC revealed that, it contains Glutamate in highest proportion followed by Aspartate and also contains Histidine, which indicates it has good zinc binding potential Binding of the lectins with zinc improved overall stability and efficacy of the lectins.  The antidiabetic acativity was evaluated in Wistar rats using alloxan induced diabetic model and the studies indicated significant (P<0.001) reduction in elevated sugar levels. It's probable mechanism of antidiabetic action may be insulinomimetic, since, it was found to bind with insulin antibodies in Western Blotting Analysis
CONCLUSION
The lectin obtained from V. radiata seed and zinc lectin complex has good potential to be explored as a safe natural antidiabetic agent acting with controlled reduction in blood glucose levels. These findings indicates that the mungbean lectins and zinc lectins complex have tremendous medicinal potential as a herbal antidiabetic drug which need to be explored.


Purpose

The professionalization of project management (PM) profession has developed differently according to the different environments in which it has been introduced. The purpose of this paper is to examine an example of this professional project (Italy) with this research question: "what have been the professionalization strategies of PM professional associations within Italian field?"

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a qualitative case study made up of semi-structured interviews and archival data.

Findings

The analysis demonstrates how PM in Italy has embarked on a clear upward trajectory in terms of its occupational size, economic significance and institutional development. However, the development of PM in Italy considerably lags behind Anglo-Saxon countries. The authors also identify three main strategies through which this professionalization project is being accomplished (see Section 5). These are corporate engagement, expanding membership and institutional recognition.

Research limitations/implications

The study reviews the professionalization of PM in Italy. This is not a comparative study, but rather highlights Italian PM professionalization. Moreover, the authors expect significant findings could be reached with a comparable research across different national contexts.

Originality/value

This work constitutes the first detailed and comprehensive study in the field of PM within the Italian context.


Historical data sets from vast and relatively inaccessible areas are sources of potentially unique information still valuable for biodiversity studies today. In many research fields, ranging from climate change to projection of species loss, great efforts have been made to integrate historical data sets with recent data to create databases that are as complete as possible. Unlocking the information contained in presence‐only data, largely prevalent in such databases, presents a challenge for statistical modeling because of insidious observational errors due to the opportunistic nature of the data‐gathering process. In this article, we propose an appropriate statistical method for the joint analysis of historical and newly collected presence‐only data, that is, a Bayesian semiparametric generalized linear mixed model with Dirichlet process random effects. The potential of the method is illustrated by considering the Ross Sea section of the SOMBASE, an international compilation of Southern Ocean Mollusc distributional records, from 1899 to 2004 and beyond. Despite the presence of sampling bias and nondetection errors, the proposed model draws latent information from the data, such that the resulting estimates of the parameters of interest not only are coherent with those obtained in indirectly related studies based on well‐structured data but also suggest interesting ideas for further research.


Dr A. E. Mussett observed that little was known about secular variation in Precambrian times but, to judge by its behaviour of the last few thousand years it should be averaged out if the samples acquired their magnetism in a period of more than a few thousand years. Thus a previous comment that the data may represent a 'spot' value of the field is to re-invoke the old idea of catastrophism with a vengeance. Surely the speaker does not believe magnetization could have taken place in so short a time? The Author replied: I believe that there were limited differences in the times of magnetization of the stable rock units. I speculate that these time differences were of the order of tens of millions of years. I have suggested the possibility that four of the dykes having high precision parameters may have each been magnetized by specific shocks; if this is correct, 'spot' values of the field would have been recorded in these cases. This may be true for the remaining stable units, or secular variation may have been averaged out by shocks occurring over a period of time.


This study offers an extensive survey of previous literature dealing with the provenance of the song in Deuteronomy 32, a renewed discussion of its text and language as well as an analysis of its poetic structure with the help of a new method. The author tests the tenability of older theories and proposes a new theory based on systematic research into the intertextual links with other parts of the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical literature of the Ancient Near East. Separate sections are dedicated to the song's descriptions of the relationship between YHWH and the gods and to the identity of the hostile people to which the song refers. The author concludes that a pre-exilic date is extremely likely for the song in its entirety.


Cerebro –vascular accident (CVA) is the sudden onset of focal neurological deficit resulting from brain infarction/ischaemia or vessel injury. It is a common debilitating ailment seen in hypertensive and diabetics patients. Differentiation of CVA sub-types is the bedrock of corresponding management. The aim of this work is to audit the brain computed tomograms of cerebro-vascular accident patients in Douala, Cameroon. A prospective study of brain computed tomograms (CT) of concurrent patients with provisional diagnosis of CVA was done. Study duration was 11 June, 2009 to 3 December, 2009. Shumadzu CT scan machine with continuous rotational system was used. It was conducted in Polyclinic Bonanjo, Douala. A total of 41 patients comprising 68.29% (n=28) males and 31.71% (n=13) females in the age range of 1-89 years and mean age of 44.5 years were evaluated for CVA. The number of CVA cases was 13.05% of all brain CT done in same period. Highest incidence of CVA was 24.39% in the 60-69 age range. 30 cases (73.17%) had obvious features of CVA, shared into haemorrhagic CVA (26.67%) and ischaemic (73.33%). The commonest regional localizations were parietal and frontal cerebral lobes. Cerebral atrophy was 11 cases (26.83% of all clinical diagnosed CVA). Ischaemic CVA is more common than haemorrhagic. The middle cerebral arteries followed by anterior cerebral artery are the commonest vascular territories affected.


Microbiology
For microorganisms in the open ocean, where oligotrophic waters are limited in essential nutrients such as nitrogen, there is a delicate balance between growth and survival. Adapting to maximize the efficiency of biosynthesis may help defray the costs associated with nutrient limitation, but is there also a pressure over time to actually reduce assimilation of such nutrients into biomolecules as a means of minimizing costs? To answer this, Grzymski and Dussaq evaluated several whole-genome sequences and over 20 million protein fragments from databases to look for differences in the use of nitrogen between open-ocean and coastal microbial communities. Indeed, the atomic compositions of amino acids produced by open-ocean microorganisms contain systematically less nitrogen than coastal microbial proteomes to the point that the overall nitrogen requirement is reduced by up to 10% in the open ocean; however, as nitrogen use is minimized, the average mass of amino acids actually increases. Because the effect is pronounced in highly expressed proteins, there must be a fitness trade-off between increased biosynthetic costs of making larger amino acids and minimizing the use of nitrogen. The results show that nutrients are not only important in the life cycle of extant microorganisms, but that their limitation exerts a strong selective pressure on microorganisms over time.

ISME J. 10.1038/ismej.2011.72 (2011).


Robert Frost wrote ... No one can know how glad I am to find On any sheet the least display of mind. Some authors of medical articles or books have something to say, but cannot write intelligibly. Others write well but have nothing to tell. To the compulsive reader, Sidney Licht is a paragon. His pages alone would be worth the price of purchase of this volume. Read from the preface: "... it is difficult to explain some reported effects of ultrasound on the basis of heat alone. It is also difficult to repeat all the reported effects of ultrasound." Or from the chapter, "History of Therapeutic Heat," discussing a sadistic-sounding prescription by Celsus, "However, it is questionable whether Celsus ever did this, since, although we have proof that he was an informed writer, we have none that he ever practiced medicine." Dr. Licht's pages are pithy with content as well as


Three patients with vascular hamartomas of the gastro-intestinal tract are described. These congenital lesions are distinct from hereditary telangiectasia and acquired lesions including vascular ectasia (angiodysplasia). The classification of these hamartomas is based on the capillary and reticular phases of development of the vascular tree, and the reticular forms are further subdivided into venous, arterial or arteriovenous fistulas, and haemolymphatic hamartomas. The typical features diagnosis and management are discussed.


In geometric calibration of cone-beam (CB) scanners, point-like marker objects such as small balls are imaged to obtain positioning information from which the unknown geometric parameters are extracted. The procedure is sensitive to errors in the positioning information, and one source of error is a small bias which can occur in estimating the detector locations of the CB projections of the centers of the balls. We call these detector locations the center projections. In general, the CB projection of a ball of uniform density onto a flat detector forms an ellipse. Inside the ellipse lie the center projection M, the ellipse center C and the centroid G of the intensity values inside the ellipse. The center projection is invariably estimated from C or G which are much easier to extract directly from the data. In this work, we quantify the errors incurred in using C or G to estimate M. We prove mathematically that the points C, G, M and O are always distinct and lie on the major axis of the ellipse, where O is the detector origin, defined as the orthogonal projection of the cone vertex onto the detector. (The ellipse can only degenerate to a circle if the ball is along the direct line of sight to O, and in this case all four points coincide.) The points always lie in the same order: O, M, G, C which establishes that the centroid has less geometric bias than the ellipse center for estimating M. However, our numerical studies indicate that the centroid bias is only 20% less than the ellipse center bias so the benefit in using centroid estimates is not substantial. For the purposes of quantifying the bias in practice, we show that the ellipse center bias ||CM|| can be conveniently estimated by where A is the area of the elliptical projection, e is the eccentricity of the ellipse and is an estimate of the focal length of the system. Finally, we discuss how these results are affected by physical factors such as beam hardening, and indicate extensions to balls of non-uniform density.


Although it is disregarded and banned, a person can be discriminated in the society according to various attributes – due to the person's language, religion, nationality, social background. The problem touches upon not only individuals but minorities as well. Almost all states have one or several groups – minorities – that differ from the main population in ethnic, linguistic or religious lines. Most international treaties on human rights contain anti-discriminatory provisions. In addition to the main rights of the freedom of conscience, thought and associations, the principal legal guarantees for each representative of minorities consist in being treated equally by the law and courts and in equal protection of laws. The paper studies the problems of legal, sociolinguistic and educational basis of linguistic discrimination in the communicative space of Tajikistan. Linguistic discrimination and political correctness are closely connected with the language policy of the state. With exoglossic linguistic situation being characteristic for Tajikistan arises a need to study the questions related to linguistic discrimination. This will allow making certain adjustments to language building and harmonizing the ethnic and interethnic interests on the basis of a balanced and scientifically justified language policy.


Background Lupus nephritis (LN) affects up to 50% of patients with SLE and is a major cause of morbidity, despite modern therapeutic approaches [1,2]. To date, renal biopsy is still the gold standard for diagnosing and classifying the degree of renal inflammation and scarring, but its invasiveness makes it unsuitable for serial monitoring. A novel biomarker to predict the evolution of renal inflammatory injury is still needed. Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) has important functions in adult tissues, being involved in axonal guidance, vascular endothelial sprouting, regeneration and organ repair and immunosupression [3]. Objectives Evaluate the protein and expression levels of NRP-1 at the time of the renal flare in patients with lupus nephritis and determine whether they could predict the disease progression. Methods Urine and serum of 70 patients with LN with nephrotic proteinuria, 25 patients with chronic non-lupus related nephopathy, and 25 healthy controls were analyzed by qPCR-RT and ELISA to determinate the levels of mRNA/protein of NRP-1. Immunohistochemistry of protein levels were done in renal biopsy (N=5). Urine and serum from 39 other patients with LN with nephrotic proteinuria were collected prospectively during two years. Results Increases in mRNA expression and protein concentration of NRP-1 were identified in urine samples of LN patients in flare compared with the different control groups. However, significant NRP-1 levels were found in LN patients that gone into remission compared with patients in non-remission after one year of treatment (p<0.0001). Urinary VEGFA, VEGFR1, VEGFR2 and SEMA3A mRNA and protein levels were also determinate. Results were confirmed with immunohistochemistry in renal biopsies (N=5). We observed a strong correlation with NRP-1 protein levels and VEGFA protein levels (r=0.466, p<0.0001). Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of urinary NRP-1 and VEGFA protein levels to distinguish between remission and non-remission patients were 0.8384 and 0.7706, respectively (Figure 1). In a prospective study (N=39), urinary protein NRP-1 and VEGFA levels decreased in LN patients going to complete remission; but no those with non-response that maintain their low levels during all the follow-up. Conclusions For first time, we demonstrate that urinary levels of NRP-1 might reflect the evolution of renal inflammatory injury and could be used as novel biomarker to predict the recovery of LN. References Cervera R, Khamashta MA, Font J, et al. Morbidity and mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus during a 10-year period: a comparison of early and late manifestations in a cohort of 1,000 patients. Medicine (Baltimore) 2003;82:299–308. Baker KP, Edwards BM, Main SH, et al. Generation and characterization of LymphoStat-B, a human monoclonal antibody that antagonizes the bioactivities of B lymphocyte stimulator. Arthritis Rheum.2003;48:3253–65. Gagnon ML, Bielenberg DR, Grechtman Z, et al. Identification of a natural soluble neuropilin-1 that binds vascular endothelial growth factor: in vivo expression and antitumor activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA2000;97:2573–2578. Disclosure of Interest None declared


We have previously shown that single linear epitopes of the major human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) antigens, expressed as fusion proteins or synthesized as oligopeptides, can be valuable diagnostic material in the serology of HCMV infection (M. P. Landini, M. X. Guan, G. Jahn, W. Lindenmaier, M. Mach, A. Ripalti, A. Necker, T. Lazzarotto, and B. Plachter, J. Clin. Microbiol. 28:1375-1379, 1990; M. P. Landini, T. Lazzarotto, A. Ripalti, M. X. Guan, and M. La Placa, J. Clin. Microbiol. 27:2324-2327, 1989; A. Ripalti, M. P. Landini, E. S. Mocarski, and M. La Placa, J. Gen. Virol. 70:1247-1251, 1989). In this work we addressed the question of whether the expression of more than one linear epitope on a single fusion protein could increase the reactivity of genetically engineered antigenic material with human antibody. To answer this question we fused sequences expressing two different epitopes contained in the basic phosphoprotein of 150 kDa encoded by UL32 (M. S. Chee, A. T. Bankier, S. Beck, R. Bohni, C. M. Brown, T. Cerny, T. Hornsel, C. A. Hutchinson, T. Kouzarides, J. A. Martignetti, and B. G. Barrell, Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immunol. 154:125-169, 1990; G. Jahn, T. Kouzarides, M. Mach, B.-C. Scholl, B. Plachter, B. Traupe, E. Preddie, S. C. Satchwell, B. Fleckenstein, and B. G. Barrell, J. Virol. 61:1358-1367, 1987), ppUL32, which was repeatedly shown to be the strongest immunogen present in the viral particle. We also made fusions with sequences expressing a single epitope repeated once, twice, or three times. The different fusion proteins were tested with HCMV-positive human sera. We found that fusion proteins expressing different epitopes together were recognized by a larger number of serum specimens and with more intense reactions in Western blot (immunoblot) experiments. We also found evidence that expression on the same polypeptide of the two distinct epitopes produced a stronger antigen than the mere addition of two fusion proteins which each carried one copy of one of these epitopes. Furthermore, we found that while the same epitope expressed two or three times on the same fusion protein was not better recognized by immunoglobulin G than the single epitope, immunoglobulin M reactivities to the double and triple epitopes were enhanced.


Transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II was often considered an invariant non-regulated process. However, genome-wide studies have shown that transcriptional pausing during elongation is a frequent phenomenon in tightly-regulated metazoan genes. Using a combination of ChIP-on-chip and genomic run-on approaches, we found that the proportion of transcriptionally active RNA polymerase II (active versus total) present throughout the yeast genome is characteristic of some functional gene classes, like those related to ribosomes and mitochondria. This proportion also responds to regulatory stimuli mediated by protein kinase A and, in relation to cytosolic ribosomal-protein genes, it is mediated by the silencing domain of Rap1. We found that this inactive form of RNA polymerase II, which accumulates along the full length of ribosomal protein genes, is phosphorylated in the Ser5 residue of the CTD, but is hypophosphorylated in Ser2. Using the same experimental approach, we show that the in vivo–depletion of FACT, a chromatin-related elongation factor, also produces a regulon-specific effect on the expression of the yeast genome. This work demonstrates that the regulation of transcription elongation is a widespread, gene class–dependent phenomenon that also affects housekeeping genes.


This paper describes the basic structure and flow of the rain profiling algorithm for the TRMM Precipitation Radar, and discusses the major assumptions and sources of error in the algorithm. In particular, it describes how the uncertainties in individual parameters affect the attenuation correction and rain estimates. Major parameters involved are the drop size distribution, the phase state of precipitating particles, their density and shape, inhomogeneity of precipitation distribution within the footprint, attenuation due to cloud liquid water and water vapor, freezing height, uncertainty of the surface scattering cross section, and fluctuation of the radar echo signal. Among these parameters that affect the rain estimates, the effect of inhomogeneity of rain distribution is summarized in detail. The paper also describes how these parameters are taken into account in different versions of the standard algorithm 2A25.


The effect of transforming growth factors (TGFalpha and TGFbeta) on mouse sperm motion chemotactic behavior was examined. In an in vitro model, the number of mouse sperm cells migrating to medium containing TGFalpha in concentration 500 ng/mL were significantly higher than the number migrating to control. This effect was observed after 3 and 5 h of incubation. The presence of 100 ng/mL of TGFalpha and TGFbeta in concentration 100 and 500 ng/mL in incubation fluid did not cause any statistically visible changes on the migration of sperm. Effect of combination of both cytokines was similar to influence purely TGFalpha. These effects were interpreted as chemotaxis but not chemokinesis of sperm induced by influence of this cytokine on membrane receptors. It is suggested that of TGFs contained in follicular fluid plays a direct and important role in the process of mammalian fertilization.


Exosomes, nanosized membrane vesicles secreted by cardiac progenitor cells (Exo-CPC), inhibit cardiomyocyte apoptosis under stress conditions, promote angiogenesis in vitro, and prevent the early decline in cardiac function after myocardial infarction in vivo in preclinical rat models. The recognition of exosome-mediated effects has moved attempts at developing cell-free approaches for cardiac repair. Such approaches offer major advantages including the fact that exosomes can be stored as ready-to-use agents and delivered to patients with acute coronary syndromes. The aim of the present work was the development of a good manufacturing practice (GMP)-grade method for the large-scale preparation of Exo-CPC as a medicinal product, for a future clinical translation. A GMP-compliant manufacturing method was set up, based on large-scale cell culture in xeno-free conditions, collection of up to 8 l of exosome-containing conditioned medium and isolation of Exo-CPC through tangential flow filtration. Quality control tests were developed and carried out to evaluate safety, identity, and potency of both cardiac progenitor cells (CPC) as cell source and Exo-CPC as final product (GMP-Exo-CPC). CPC, cultured in xeno-free conditions, showed a lower doubling-time than observed in research-grade condition, while producing exosomes with similar features. Cells showed the typical phenotype of mesenchymal progenitor cells (CD73/CD90/CD105 positive, CD14/CD20/CD34/CD45/HLA-DR negative), and expressed mesodermal (TBX5/TBX18) and cardiac-specific (GATA4/MESP1) transcription factors. Purified GMP-Exo-CPC showed the typical nanoparticle tracking analysis profile and expressed main exosome markers (CD9/CD63/CD81/TSG101). The GMP manufacturing method guaranteed high exosome yield (>1013 particles) and consistent removal (≥97%) of contaminating proteins. The resulting GMP-Exo-CPC were tested for safety, purity, identity, and potency in vitro, showing functional anti-apoptotic and pro-angiogenic activity. The therapeutic efficacy was validated in vivo in rats, where GMP-Exo-CPC ameliorated heart function after myocardial infarction. Our standardized production method and testing strategy for large-scale manufacturing of GMP-Exo-CPC open new perspectives for reliable human therapeutic applications for acute myocardial infarction syndrome and can be easily applied to other cell sources for different therapeutic areas.


Understanding how to engage users is a critical question in many applications. Previous research has shown that unexpected or astonishing events can attract user attention, leading to positive outcomes such as engagement and learning. In this work, we investigate the similarity and differences in how people and algorithms rank the surprisingness of facts. Our crowdsourcing study, involving 106 participants, shows that computational models of surprise can be used to artificially induce surprise in humans.


Anyone working in the field of language arts knows the major impact "Active Voice" has had in curriculum development. The program Moffett outlines in his text ten years ago helped to pioneer now will-established practices like workshops, the process approach, writing portfolios, and writing across the curriculum. Ideal for use as a classroom sourcebook for individual teachers, an inservice text by schools and school districts, or as a supplement to the main textbook in a methods course, "Active Voice" transformed theory into practice, helping educators deliberate how to initiate a total writing program-even one going beyond English. In this edition, "Active Voice" has been expanded to include student samples of the writing activities recommended in the text. From monologues and autobiography to narratives and essay, Moffett discusses particular compositional issues arising form each type of writing and provides innovative way of treating them. A new chapter, "Bridges: From Personal Writing to the Formal Essay," is included in response to demand for help with this key writing issue.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to obtain normative nasalance scores for adult subjects speaking the Flemish language. Additional objectives of the study were to determine if speaker sex played a role in differences in nasalance scores and if significantly different nasalance scores existed for Flemish compared with other languages or dialects. Design: Nasalance scores were obtained while young Flemish adults read three standard nasalance passages. These passages were an oronasal passage (a text that contained the same approximate percentage of nasal consonants as found in the standard Dutch speech), an oral passage (a text that excluded nasal consonants), and a nasal passage (a reading text loaded with nasal consonants). Participants: Subjects included 58 healthy young Flemish adults with normal oral and velopharyngeal structure and function, normal hearing levels, normal voice characteristics, and normal resonance and articulation skills. Methods: The Nasometer (model 6200) was used to obtain nasalance scores for the three reading passages. These three reading passages were designed specifically for use with the nasometer. The nasalance data were analyzed for sex dependence, using Student's t test for each reading passage. This same test was used for comparison of our data with data of other languages. Results: Normative nasalance data were obtained for the oronasal text (33.8%), the oral text (10.9%), and the nasal text (55.8%). Female speakers exhibited significantly higher nasalance scores than male speakers on the passages containing nasal consonants (normal text, p 5 .001; nasal text, p 5 .042). Furthermore, statistically significant cross-linguistic nasality differences were observed. The English and Spanish languages were found to have more nasalance than the Flemish language. For the North Dutch and Flemish languages, this cross-linguistic phenomenon was absent. Conclusion: These normative nasalance scores for normal young adults speaking the Flemish language provide important reference information for Flemish cleft palate teams. Sex-related differences and cross-linguistic differences were shown.


Data caches are essential in modern processors, bridging the widening gap between main memory and processor speeds. However, they yield very complex performance models, which make it hard to bound execution times tightly. This paper contributes a new technique to obtain predictability in preemptive multitasking systems in the presence of data caches. We explore the use of cache partitioning, dynamic cache locking, and static cache analysis to provide worst-case performance estimates in a safe and tight way. Cache partitioning divides the cache among tasks to eliminate inter-task cache interferences. We combine static cache analysis and cache locking mechanisms to ensure that all intra-task conflicts, and consequently, memory access times, are exactly predictable. To minimize the performance degradation due to cache partitioning and locking, two strategies are employed. First, the cache is loaded with data likely to be accessed so that their cache utilization is maximized. Second, compiler optimizations such as tiling and padding are applied in order to reduce cache replacement misses. Experimental results show that this scheme is fully predictable, without compromising the performance of the transformed programs. Our method outperforms static cache locking for all analyzed task sets under various cache architectures, with a CPU utilization reduction ranging between 3.8 and 20.0 times for a high performance system.


The main objective of PROFORM is to develop the professional and transversal competences of the teaching staff and the school managers at the level of the counties, to increase their motivation and stability in their position, in order to ensure the quality of the education.
This paper describes a selection of the best practices and opened sessions proposed in order to fulfill the main objective of PROFORM. The main tracks of the material are connected to the following topics: information technologies to access, the impact of new IC technologies for teaching, learning and evaluation, STE(A)M educational requirements and performability, open educational resources developed according to the ADDIE-SAMR methodology, and different aspects of computational intelligence (fuzzy reasoning, nature inspired computing, spatial reasoning, connectionism and distributed computing, neutrosophic computing etc.). It is important to mention that educational items refer to z-generation and new challenge is described for xy-generation. There are no results available on z-teachers for z-students. Such new aspects will be considered for the next 10 years when more projects will be developed for Z-teachers.
As case study, results are provided for educational programs in Giurgiu County, along six modules selected from the list presented below and full education stages. The main modules are: (1) Information Processing, Communication (ICT) and e-Learning technologies in education; (2) Methods and techniques for optimizing teaching activities; (3) Innovative methods and techniques for evaluating school results; (4) Cognitive behavioral coaching to optimize professional performance; (5) School-family-community partnership for school inclusion; (6) Career management through personal and professional development; (7) Student's knowledge and assessment of learning progress; (8) Differentiated training - the theory of multiple intelligences; (9) Evaluation adapted to the individual particularities of the beneficiaries of education; (10) School management for institutional capacity development; (11) Educational projects and programs; (12) Performance and motivation in the school organization.


The incidence and mortality of breast cancer are rising in the whole world in the past few decades, adding up to a total of around two million new cases and 620,000 deaths in 2018. Unlike what occurs in developed countries, most of the cases diagnosed in the developing world are already in advanced stages and also in women younger than 50 years old. As most screening programs suggest annual mammograms starting at the age of 50, we can infer that a considerable portion of the new breast cancer cases is missed with this strategy. Here, we will propose the adoption of an alternative hierarchical patient flow, with the creation of a diagnostic fast track with referral to timely treatment, promoting better resources reallocation favoring the least advantaged strata of the population, which is not only ethically acceptable but also a way of promoting social justice.


A shearing operation using a phlebotome has been used on 26 limbs of 24 patients with venous ulceration to deal with incompetent perforating veins. Only one ulcer has failed to heal or remain healed at mean operative follow-up of 24 months. Numbness, usually transient, and haematoma formation have been the only recorded complications. This procedure is recommended in the management of incompetent perforating veins associated with venous ulceration.


Dust storms and sandy dust events originating in arid and semi-arid areas can transport particulate material, pollutants, and potential transport long distances from their sources. Exposure to desert dust particles is generally acknowledged to endanger human health. However, most studies have examined anthropogenic particulate sources, with few studies considering contributions from natural desert dust. A systematic literature review was undertaken using the ISI Web of Knowledge and PubMed databases with the objective of identifying all studies presenting results on the potential health impact from desert dust particles across the world. This review reveals an imbalance between the areas most exposed to dust and the areas most studied in terms of health effects. Among the human health effects of dust storms are mortality and morbidity, arising from respiratory system, circulatory system, and other diseases. We summarize the quantitative results of current scientific health research and possible pathological mechanisms, and describe some of the many challenges related to understanding health effects from exposures to desert dust particles. Overall, for respiratory and circulatory mortality, both positive and negative associations have been reported for PM10 of desert dust, but only a positive relationship was reported between PM2.5–10 and mortality, and a positive relationship was also reported between PM2.5 and human mortality. Future pathological studies should continue to focus on those mechanisms causing the most harmful effect of desert dust on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. More attention should also be paid to the association between desert dust and the morbidity of other diseases, such as those affecting the reproductive system and nervous system.


Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) is an uncommon and self-limiting skin rash commonly caused by drugs and is characterized by the acute onset of fever, pustulosis, and neutrophilia from 4 to 10 days after the drug intake. We describe a case of AGEP in a 61-year-old woman that was hospitalized for the acute onset of fever, erythroderma, and pustulosis. Clinical history revealed that she had been treating a bacterial inguinal intertrigo for 4 days with ciprofloxacin 500 mg tablets twice daily and desloratadine 5 mg tablet once daily. To the best of our knowledge, this is the third reported case of AGEP caused by ciprofloxacin, supporting two other previous reports.


Summary
Inactivation of Japanese encephalitis virus by Na deoxycholate was due to release of RNA-like material sensitive to RNase and detectable under assay conditions for infectious RNA. The RNA-like material released by Na deoxycholate was similar to infectious RNA extracted by phenol in such properties as RNase sensitivity, increased plaque formation in hypertonic salt and ether resistance, but differed from it in such characteristics as heat-lability and sensitivity to isobutanol. The mechanism of inactivation of the virus by ether was not quite identical with that by Na deoxycholate treatment, because ether treatment might have denatured virus protein and damaged the RNA.


Concrete is the most important building material in the world due to the fact that it is versatile and gives architectural freedom. For sustainable construction solutions concrete is the material of choice if the embodied CO2 content is considered. In concrete, cement is the main constituent and due to the limit on the availability of natural minerals used, the energy released and the CO2 emissions produced during its manufacture, it can be partially replaced using industrial by-products e.g. Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA), Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS) and silica fume. The effects of the partial replacement of cement with these industrial by products on fresh and hardened properties of concrete cured under summer and winter environments are established and compared with the Portland cement (PC) concrete.
Early age strength of concrete containing GGBS and PFA is less than the PC concrete, which would prevent its use in the in the post tensioned concrete and in fast-track construction, where early removal of formwork, or early application of load to the structure are the main requirements. For this reason, and due to the demand of high strength concrete in construction, for its improved durability properties, concrete containing GGBS and PFA was produced by keeping the water/cement ratio low and a superplasticiser was used to achieve the required workability. At low water/cement ratio, concrete containing GGBS up to 50 % and PFA Lip to 30 % can achieve the required early age strength for the removal of formwork if cured properly. At the age of 28 days, the flexural strength and modulus of elasticity of concrete in which PC is partially replaced with GGBS and PFA are increased in comparison to where this is not carried out. For practical applications of the sustainable concrete mixes in structural concrete production and due to the limited data availability on punching shear strength, concrete containing GGBS and PFA in flat slab specimens were tested for this property. In flat slabs without beams, the design criteria is often the resistance against punching shear failure at the column/slab connection. Punching failure is the separation of the portion of the slab surrounding the column from the rest and is a brittle failure. Experimental punching shear results are compared to the estimates of BS 8110, BS EN1992-1-1 and ACI 318 and it was found that the estimates of ACI318 and BS 8110, ignoring the partial safety factors, are close to the experimental results and the estimates of BS EN 1992-1-1 are over conservative. Based on the test results of punching shear resistance of flat slabs, and the materials used, it is concluded that concrete containing GGBS up to 50 % and PFA up to 30 % can be used in flat slabs without any special design requirements and the design rules given in different codes of practice can be used without modifications. It is evaluated that for a concrete, designed for characteristic strength of 30 MPa, a reduction of 152 kg/m3 of CO2 and 0.65 GJ/m30f energy consumption can be achieved by replacing PC with 50 % GGBS and a reduction of 62.5 kg/m3 of C02 and 0.27 GJ/m3 of energy can be achieved by using 30 % PFA concrete.


Marine litter in the Arctic Basin is influenced by transport from Atlantic and Pacific waters. This highlights the need for harmonization of guidelines across regions. Monitoring can be used to assess temporal and spatial trends but can also be used to assess if environmental objectives are reached, for example to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation measures. Seafloor monitoring by trawling needs substantial resources and specific sampling strategies to be sufficiently robust to demonstrate changes over time. Observation and visual evaluation in shallow and deep waters using towed camera systems, ROVs and submersibles are well suited for the Arctic environment. The use of imagery still needs to be adjusted through automation and image analyses, including deep learning approaches and data management, but will also serve to monitor areas with a rocky seafloor. We recommend developing a monitoring plan for seafloor litter by selecting representative sites for visual inspection that cover different depths and substrata in marine landscapes, and recording the litter collected or observed across all forms of seafloor sampling or imaging. We need better coverage and knowledge of status of seafloor litter for the whole Arctic and recommend initiatives to be taken for regions where such knowledge is lacking.


Well drilling and wellbore conditioning typically involve multiple specialized drilling tools. Systematic application of such tools can be a challenge from a logistics and maintenance perspective, which eventually has an impact on the efficiency of the drilling process as well as the resulting wellbore condition. This paper presents a new multifunctional drilling tool developed to address such operational challenges. The tool's effect on the drilling and logging process is illustrated through a field case study.
 The CRS is a multifunctional drilling tool able to Cut, Ream and Stabilize when installing in a BHA. It is envisioned as an integral bottom hole assembly (BHA) component replacing the uppermost stabilizer while selectively acting as a fixed blade cutter, roller-reamer, lateral vibration damper, friction reducer, stabilizer and/or key-seat wiper. The specific function is dependent on wellbore conditions and is passively activated or engaged during operation. The CRS was successfully field-tested in a middle east field late 2018. Offset well data were used to validate the effectiveness of the tool and provide recommendations for future development.
 An offset well was used as a benchmark for comparison to characterize CRS performance. The CRS replaced the stabilizer directly above the measurement while drilling (MWD) tools as part of the BHA used for drilling the interval from 1800 to 2520 meters. When compared to the offset well, the tool had no negative effect on trajectory or dogleg severity. Tight spots required significant back-reaming in the offset well during pull-out-of-hole (POOH). Using the CRS saved 63 hours of rig time when POOH due to the tool's effective tight spot cutting capability. High torque fluctuations ranging between 2 to 13 klbs-ft were observed in the offset well while drilling formations mainly composed of sticky claystone and limestone. The resulting poor wellbore quality rendered significant logging challenges. The CRS's ability to damp lateral vibration while engaging in its reaming function resulted in the mitigation of these challenges. Another innovative feature of the CRS's reaming function is the complete elimination of cutter loss risk. The CRS body is, by far, the industry's largest area bearing mounted reaming structure and its concentric design eliminates the possibility of it being lost in the hole. The CRS body rotates in response to lateral vibration and drill string whirl when in a vertical or deviated wellbore, effectively contributing to the damping of both vibration modes. The body acts as friction reducer at high deviations. The rotating body also translates on the tool mandrel when faced with a tight spot or pack-off. This translation is opposed by a unique spring assembly that can deliver full top drive torque to the body to cut through the formation.


Identification of distinct and independent participants (entities of interest) in a narrative is an important task for many NLP applications. This task becomes challenging because these participants are often referred to using multiple aliases. In this paper, we propose an approach based on linguistic knowledge for identification of aliases mentioned using proper nouns, pronouns or noun phrases with common noun headword. We use Markov Logic Network (MLN) to encode the linguistic knowledge for identification of aliases. We evaluate on four diverse history narratives of varying complexity. Our approach performs better than the state-of-the-art approach as well as a combination of standard named entity recognition and coreference resolution techniques.


In this study, we propose an aircraft 4D trajectory optimization model based on Bezier curve. Many real-world factors (such as winds, obstacles, uncertainties) and actions (the modification of departure time, the trajectory shape, aircraft speed and altitude) are taken into account. To solve the model, an improved simulated annealing algorithm with two phases was proposed: the first phase for reducing the number of conflicts and the second phase for decreasing the total flight time. A national-size dataset for France which is provided by a fast time simulator (ΠRATS) is used as a case study. The experimental results show that the algorithm provides conflict-free trajectories within a very short time for all instances. For the objective to deconflict aircraft, the algorithm is almost linearly scalable for large-scale instances. For a given limited run time (such as 6 hours), the algorithm provides good solutions with small values of objective function (total flight time, changes of aircraft speed and obstacles encounters).


We study a corporate board tasked with monitoring a firm's CEO and providing incrementally decision-relevant information. The board has both compensation and non-pecuniary incentives—we label the latter board bias. Friendly boards have muted information gathering incentives, but can more effectively engage in cheap talk communication with management. As a result, the direction of the optimal board bias is determined by the CEO's initial information advantage: the board should be weakly friendly if the CEO is endowed with precise information, and weakly antagonistic (to the CEO) otherwise. Aside from assembling a friendly board, another way for shareholders to foster CEO/board communication is by granting the CEO more equity. In general, we find board friendliness and CEO equity grants to be positively associated, in equilibrium. This provides an optimal contracting rationale for an empirical regularity often interpreted as friendly boards facilitating rent extraction.


Climate warming changes the phenology of many species. When interacting organisms respond differently, climate change may disrupt their interactions and affect the stability of ecosystems. Here, we used GBIF occurrence records to examine phenology trends in plants and their associated insect pollinators in Germany since the 1980s. We found strong phenological advances in plants, but differences in the extent of shifts among pollinator groups. The temporal trends in plant and insect phenologies were generally associated with interannual temperature variation, and thus likely driven by climate change. When examining the synchrony of species-level plant-pollinator interactions, their temporal trends differed among pollinator groups. Overall, plant-pollinator interactions become more synchronized, mainly since the phenology of plants responded more strongly to climate change than that of the pollinators. However, if the observed trends continue, many interactions may become more asynchronous again in the future. Our study suggests that climate change affects the phenologies of both plants and insects, and that it also influences the synchrony of plant-pollinator interactions.


ICELW is an international conference focused on e-learning in the workplace.
 With researchers and practitioners coming from around the globe--and from university and business settings--the
 ICELW community works to improve online learning so that it makes a measurable difference in workplace performance and morale.
 By uniting the corporate and academic worlds, ICELW is creating a new synergy--one with the unique
 capability to realize the vast potential of e-learning in business and industry.


Evidence has shown that thin, horizontally extending phytoplankton layers may be comprised of smaller high-concentration aggregations of phytoplankton, rather than a homogeneous high-concentration sheet. A 2-D (horizontal and vertical dimensions) individual-based model of cope- pod foraging was developed, in order to examine whether the foraging success of a copepod would be significantly affected by phytoplankton patchiness. The foraging rules for the simulated copepods were to decrease speed and increase turning angle when high food concentrations are encountered. The underlying distributions of phytoplankton used in the model were, for the patchy layer scenario, representations of raw 2-D field fluorescence obtained using the Optical Serial Section Tomography (OSST) device, and for the homogeneous layer scenario, distributions created by simulated vertical sampling of the OSST distributions with a CTD/Fluorometer. In both the patchy and homogeneous layer scenarios, the copepods always had higher net foraging efficiency than randomly behaving controls, suggesting that the simple behavioral rules adopted are advantageous for copepod-like organisms. Foraging efficiency was significantly greater for the patchy layer scenarios than for the homogeneous layer scenarios when patches were small (i.e. one step length in width) and intense (i.e. near ingestion-saturating concentrations). Ingestion was up to 30% higher in the most patchy case versus its paired homogeneous case, suggesting that the existence of patchiness is critical to copepod survival, and that sampling scales should not exceed the step length of a copepod.


CD4+ T cells regulate the protective immune response which follows exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis by activating macrophages through the cytokines the CD4+ T cells secrete. In addition CD4+ T cells have been shown to be directly cytotoxic for antigen-pulsed mononuclear phagocytes (monocytes-macrophages). To explore the functional interaction between mycobacterial antigen-specific CD4+ T cells and mononuclear phagocytes further, CD4+ T-cell clones were derived from healthy purified protein derivative-positive individuals. Five T-cell clones were selected for detailed analysis. None responded to the purified recombinant or native mycobacterial antigens of 14, 19, 65, 71, and 30 (alpha-antigen/Ag6) kDa. However, the T-cell clones demonstrated heterogeneity in antigen recognition as measured by their Western blot (immunoblot) responses. Some T-cell clones made only interleukin 2, while others made only interleukin 4; all produced gamma interferon, although in differing amounts. Four of five T-cells clones were cytotoxic for purified protein derivative-pulsed monocytes at 1:1 and 10:1 effector-target cell ratios. When monocytes infected with live M. tuberculosis were used as targets, comparable levels of cytotoxicity were observed. The cytotoxicity was major histocompatibility complex class II restricted and inhibited by antibodies to ICAM-1 and LFA-1 and not by antibodies to tumor necrosis factor alpha, lymphotoxin, and gamma interferon. Cytotoxicity by CD4+ T cells for monocytes pulsed with mycobacterial antigens or infected with live M. tuberculosis is a common property of these cells and appears to be independent of the repertoire of lymphokines produced and not limited to recognition of defined mycobacterial heat shock proteins. Lysis of heavily infected mononuclear phagocytes may be one manner in which CD4+ T cells regulate host immune response to M. tuberculosis.


In Cloud computing, energy consumption and resource utilization are strongly coupled. Specifically, resources with a low utilization rate still consume an unacceptable amount of energy compared to the energy consumption of a fully utilized or sufficiently loaded Cloud computing. To increase resource utilization, task consolidation is an effective technique, greatly enabled by virtualization technologies, which facilitate the concurrent execution of several tasks and, in turn, reduce energy consumption. The authors use two energy-conscious heuristics for task consolidation: MaxUtil, which aims to maximize resource utilization, and Energy-Conscious Task Consolidation (ECTC) which explicitly takes into account both active and idle energy consumption. ECTC computes the energy consumption based on an objective function derived from findings reported in the literature. The chapter deals with the Cloud computing, energy models, and task consolidation algorithms. It describes the complementarity approach and the related mathematical model. The chapter finally summarizes the simulation results and discussions.


Algorithms used for multichannel adaptive feedforward control, such as the multiple error LMS algorithm, require a model of the cancellation paths, which a control engineer would refer to as the plant, to update the signals driving the secondary sources. Uncertainties in this plant model or in the physical plant can lead to instability or suboptimal performance. This paper describes the effect of practically realistic uncertainties in both estimated and physical plant on the stability and performance of such a control algorithm. The system used here has 32 error sensors and 16 secondary sources and is designed to control a pure tone of 88 Hz. We consider the structured uncertainties due to changes in the error sensor locations, changes in the secondary source locations, and the excitation frequency. Results of preliminary experiments and numerical simulations show that these uncertainties have very different effects on the stability and performance of the control system. The singular value decomposition of the transfer matrix is used to discuss the characteristics of each type of plant error in the principal coordinates of the system.


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Given a set of images we propose an algorithm that approximates all images simultaneously. The algorithm finds the best common partition of the images' domain at each step, this is accomplished by maximizing an appropriate inner product. The algorithm is a pursuit algorithm constrained to build a tree, the optimization is done over a large dictionary of wavelet-like functions. The approximations are given by vector valued discrete martingales that converge to the input set of images. Several computational and mathematical techniques are developed in order to encode the information needed for the reconstruction. Properties of the algorithm are illustrated through many examples, comparisons with JPEG2000 and MPEG4-3 are also provided.


HTTPS is vital to protecting the security and privacy of users on the Internet. As the cryptographic algorithms and standards underlying HTTPS evolve to meet emerging threats, website owners are responsible for updating and maintaining their HTTPS configurations. In practice, millions of hosts have misconfigured and insecure configurations. In addition to presenting security and privacy risks, misconfigurations can harm user experience on the web, when browsers show warnings for deprecated and outdated protocols. We investigate whether sending direct notifications to the owners of misconfigured sites can motivate them to fix or improve HTTPS misconfigurations, such as outdated ciphersuites or certificates that will expire soon. We conducted a multivariate randomized controlled experiment testing multiple variations of message content through two different notification channels. We find that security notifications alone have a moderate impact on remediation outcomes, similar to or less than notifications for other types of security vulnerabilities. We discuss how notifications can be used in conjunction with other incentives and outreach campaigns, and identify future directions for improving the security of the HTTPS ecosystem.