With the rapid change in the Arctic sea ice, a large number of sea ice observations have been collected in recent years, and it is expected that an even larger number of such observations will emerge in the coming years. To make the best use of these observations, in this paper we develop a multi-sensor optimal data merging (MODM) method to merge any number of different sea ice observations. Since such merged data are independent on model forecast, they are valid for model initialization and model validation. Based on the maximum likelihood estimation theory, we prove that any model assimilated with the merged data is equivalent to assimilating the original multi-sensor data. This greatly facilitates sea ice data assimilation, particularly for operational forecast with limited computational resources. We apply the MODM method to merge sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT), respectively, in the Arctic. For SIC merging, the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) data are merged together with the Norwegian Ice Service ice chart. This substantially reduces the uncertainties at the ice edge and in the coastal areas. For SIT merging, the daily Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) data is merged with the weekly-mean merged CryoSat-2 and SMOS (CS2SMOS) data. This generates a new daily CS2SMOS SIT data with better spatial coverage for the whole Arctic.


Background & Aim: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) as a progressive disorder can deteriorate body image and the
feeling of attractiveness and influence patients' self-esteem through changing their cognitive experiences and
attitude towards their body. Accordingly this study was conducted with aim of assessing self esteem and its
related factors in patients with MS.
Material & Methods: It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. The subjects (n= 395) were recruited by
convenience sampling from Multiple Sclerosis Society in Tehran. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory was used as
data collection tool. Data was analyzed by independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, Spearman
correlation coefficient, chi-square test and post hoc Scheffe test using SPSS-PC (version 16).
Results: The mean score of self-esteem was 17/5 ± 53/20. Most patients had moderate self-esteem, and only a
small percentage of them (16.2%) had high self esteem. There were significant relationship between the
patients' self-esteem and their age, educational level, marital status, employment status and the duration of
disease (P<0.05).
Conclusions: Nurses are able to consider the patients' esteem needs by recognition of high risk groups and
provide appropriate interventions to improve the quality of life of these patients and their families.


Migrant remittances are an important source of external finance for developing countries. The current financial crisis is believed to have influenced migrant remittance flows as well as volume and patterns of use of remittances. In this special issue, a collection of cases from around the world is presented to understand the immediately felt effects of the crisis. Potential influences due to the crisis impact on migration patterns are yet to be seen and studied.


Abstract In the present study we investigated which role manipulated (i.e., experimentally induced) and perceived (i.e., self-reported) self-control depletion plays in students' (N = 176 seventh graders) achievement-related experiences and behaviour during a test of English as a foreign language, while controlling for trait self-control. Our successful experimental manipulation of self-control depletion revealed that there were no effects on any of the students' outcome variables. However, students who reported high self-control depletion immediately after the experimental manipulation were less motivated to work on the subsequent test, reported more distracting thoughts, showed lower performance, and felt more depleted at the end of the test session. Trait self-control turned out to be a protective and supportive factor for most of our outcome variables. Our results provide evidence that the perceived and not the manipulated level of self-control depletion is a predictor of achievement-related behaviour in tests on English as a foreign language.


In platelets, coagulation cofactor V is stored in complex with multimerin 1 in α-granules for activation-induced release during clot formation. The molecular nature of multimerin 1 factor V binding has not been determined, although multimerin 1 is known to interact with the factor V light chain. We investigated the region in factor V important for multimerin 1 binding using modified enzyme-linked immunoassays and recombinant factor V constructs. Factor V constructs lacking the C2 region or entire light chain had impaired and absent multimerin 1 binding, respectively, whereas the B domain deleted construct had modestly reduced binding. Analyses of point mutated constructs indicated that the multimerin 1 binding site in the C2 domain of factor V partially overlaps the phosphatidylserine binding site and that the factor V B domain enhances multimerin 1 binding. Multimerin 1 did not inhibit factor V phosphatidylserine binding, and it bound to phosphatidylserine independently of factor V. There was a reduction in factor V in complex with multimerin 1 after activation, and thrombin cleavage significantly reduced factor V binding to multimerin 1. In molar excess, multimerin 1 minimally reduced factor V procoagulant activity in prothrombinase assays and only if it was added before factor V activation. The dissociation of factor V-multimerin 1 complexes following factor V activation suggests a role for multimerin 1 in delivering and localizing factor V onto platelets prior to prothrombinase assembly.


Objective.

To evaluate antimicrobial resistance patterns of clinical Haemophilus influenzae isolates from different regions of Russia during 2014–2017.
Materials and Methods.

We included in the study 185 clinical H. influenzae isolates from 13 Russian cities. Susceptibility testing was performed by reference broth microdilution method (ISO 207761:2006). Susceptibility testing results were interpreted using EUCAST v. 10.0 breakpoints.
Results.

H. influenzae isolates were highly susceptible to all (96.8%-100%) β-lactams tested (amoxicillin/ clavulanate, cefixime, ceftaroline, ceftibuten, cefditoren, ertapenem) with the exception of ampicillin (15.1% isolates were resistant). Fluoroquinolones, – ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin were active against 95.7%, 94.6% and 97.9% of isolates, respectively. Chloramphenicol was active against 97.9% of isolates, tetracycline – against 98.4% of isolates. Activity of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole was low (69.2% of susceptible isolates).
Conclusions.

In general, we can state the favorable situation with the susceptibility of H. influenzae to antimicrobials in Russia. However, the increasing of resistance to aminopenicillins and emerging of quinolone-resistant strains could become a problem in the future. Study Results are deposited at on-line resource AMRmap (http://AMRmap.ru).


Chemically oxidative polymerization of aniline and o-anisidine with 5 molar rations was performed using ammonium persulphate as an oxidant in HCl medium at 0-4 0C.It was observed that the copolymers were not regularly dependent on the monomer ration for yield and intrinsic viscosity.The resulting copolymers were characterized by Fourier transform IR Spectroscopy,1H NMR Spectroscopy and electrical conductivity.The results showed that the actual content of the o-anisidine unit in the copolymers was much higher than the feed content of the o-anisidine unit. Given the same reaction conditions, o-anisidine showed a larger tendency toward homopolymerization rather than toward copolymerization with aniline. The electrical conductivity of the copolymers is strongly depends on the amount of aniline incorporated and it decreases with increasing the o-anisidine content in copolymer which may lowers the structural regularity of copolymer. It is suggested from the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity that the electrical conduction mechanism of copolymer is polaron hopping conduction similar to that of homopolymers. The application of copolymer as anion exchange resin and acid-base indicator are presented.


Research on provenance in databases (or other settings) sometimes has an arbitrary flavor. Once we abandon the classical semantics of queries there is a large design space for alternative semantics that could provide some useful provenance information, but there is little guidance for how to explore this space or justify or compare different proposals. Topics from mathematical or philosophical logic could be used as a way of inspiring, justifying or comparing different approaches to provenance in databases. This paper and invited talk will present several topics in logic that may be less familiar to database researchers and that could bear upon provenance techniques. These areas include nonclassical logics (e.g. relevance logic), algebraic logic (cylindric algebras), substructural logic (e.g. linear logic) and logics of knowledge, belief or causality.


10032 ullous pemphigoid antigen 1 (BPAG1) is a member of the plakin family with cytoskeletal linker properties. Mutations in BPAG1 cause sensory neuron degeneration and skin fragility in mice. We have analyzed the BPAG1 locus in detail and found that it encodes different interaction domains that are combined in tissue-specific manners. These domains include an actin-binding domain (ABD), a plakin domain, a coiled coil (CC) rod domain, two different potential intermediate filament–binding domains (IFBDs), a spectrin repeat (SR)-containing rod domain, and a microtubule-binding domain (MTBD). There are at least three major forms of BPAG1: BPAG1-e (302 kD), BPAG1-a (615 kD), and BPAG1-b (834 kD). BPAG1-e B has been described previously and consists of the plakin domain, the CC rod domain, and the first IFBD. It is the primary epidermal BPAG1 isoform, and its absence that is the likely cause of skin fragility in mutant mice. BPAG1-a is the major isoform in the nervous system and a homologue of the microtubule actin cross-linking factor, MACF. BPAG1-a is composed of the ABD, the plakin domain, the SR-con-taining rod domain, and the MTBD. The absence of BPAG1-a is the likely cause of sensory neurodegeneration in mutant mice. BPAG1-b is highly expressed in muscles, and has extra exons encoding a second IFBD between the plakin and SR-containing rod domains of


The Article deals with the differences in the legal culture in the pre-2004 and post2004 EU Member States and candidate states and examines whether such differences prevent successful participation of new Member States' courts in the Community legal order. Comparing three elements of legal culture, namely valid legal sources, interpretation of the law and argumentation by the courts, the author concludes that important differences do exist. It is further examined whether the last or future enlargements could endanger the functioning of the Community legal order due to the still existing differences in legal culture. The conclusion is that the membership is possible despite the differences, as with proper basic education in Community law, the judges will not endanger its application. On the other hand, in order to participate fully in the Community legal order, i.e. in order to acquire the ability to participate in the constitutional discourse in the EU, East European judges will need more time. However, EU membership may indeed only speed up the necessary process of changes in the legal culture.


Abstract The parietal bone seems to be the target for a number of different developmental conditions of the calvaria some of which are congenital whilst others develop in later life. The characteristic radiological patterns of a number of these lesions are described and illustrated, and an attempt is made to correlate the pathology with alterations in bone growth.


The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Research Library recently fulfilled a strategic goal of providing worldwide desktop access via the Internet to fullimage files of the complete unclassified holdings of Los Alamos technical reports in its Report Collection. This effort began in late 1994 with the scanning of paper and microfiche format reports. Concurrently, the Research Library helped to initiate shifting the model for publishing new technical reports from paper to electronic; the files could then be directly mounted on the Research Library's Web server. Providing desktop access to these reports was instrumental in expediting the development of internal policies that would better define what documents, previously restricted to the general public, could be publicly released. Undoubtedly, the most significant category of such reports were previously classified reports that had been declassified, but had not gone through a further review for public release. Collaboration with LANL's Classification Group led to approval for public release of 97% of these reports. The LANL Research Library's Web site now offers unique and unprecedented access to the world of a huge body of technical reports never available before anywhere in any form. This paper discusses the issues and steps involved in this achievement. Introduction The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was founded as the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1943 with a very specific mission: to design and develop an atomic weapon before the Germans and to be able to use it to assist in ending World War II. Through the massive undertaking known as the Manhattan Project, intellectual and financial resources were marshaled to make this happen. The world only learned, on August 6, 1945, what the Manhattan Project was about, when an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.


BACKGROUND
Cultural competency is often promoted as a strategy to address health inequities; however, there is little evidence linking cultural competency with improved patient outcomes. This article describes the characteristics of recent educational interventions designed to improve cultural competency in healthcare workers for First Nations peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.

METHODS
In total, 13 electronic databases and 14 websites for the period from January 2015 to May 2021 were searched. Information on the characteristics and methodological quality of included studies was extracted using standardised assessment tools.

RESULTS
Thirteen published evaluations were identified; 10 for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The main positive outcomes reported were improvements in health professionals' attitudes and knowledge, and improved confidence in working with First Nations patients. The methodological quality of evaluations and the reporting of methodological criteria were moderate.

CONCLUSIONS
Cultural competency education programs can improve knowledge, attitudes and confidence of healthcare workers to improve the health of First Nations peoples. Providing culturally safe health care should be routine practice, particularly in places where there are concentrations of First Nations peoples, yet there is relatively little research in this area. There remains limited evidence of the effectiveness of cultural education programs alone on community or patient outcomes.


A 256K bit CMOS ROM with a speed-power product of 0.085 pJ/bit has been developed. The excellent speed-power product and the high packing density have been achieved by using n-well CMOS technology and a serial-parallel ROM cell structure. The concept and characteristics of a serial-parallel ROM cell structure are discussed and compared to conventional ROM cell structures. The serial-parallel ROM cell structure gives more flexibility for ROM matrix design. The chip size and memory cell size of the 256K CMOS ROM are 5.98/spl times/6.00 mm and 7.0/spl times/7.0 /spl mu/m, respectively. Access time is 370 ns. The power supply currents in active and quiescent modes are 12 mA and less than 0.1 /spl mu/A at +5 V, respectively.


s Forest resources in Ethiopia provide multiple goods and services including food, medicine, energy, shelter, clean water, land stabilization, erosion control, maintaining biodiversity, and regulation of climate change. However, these resources have been facing numerous challenges and are increasingly under threat for quite a long time. This study adopted the Governance of Forests Initiative (GFI) framework to assess the impacts of policies and legal framework on sustainable forest governance in Ethiopia. The GFI framework is a comprehensive tool used to diagnose and assess strengths and weaknesses of legal and policy arrangement governing forestry sector. Ethiopia has formulated and implemented various forest policies and legal instruments to address the persistent challenges of sustainable forest management and to fulfill the economic and societal benefits expected from the sector. However, our analysis shows a huge gap between legal and policy design and implementation. The existing efforts have focused on developing policy and legal instruments, while little has been done to implement them at the local level. Implementation instruments such as regulations, directives and guidelines have not sufficiently developed to translate the broader policy intents into practice. Lack of proper implementation instruments not only undermine forest management but also hinder national efforts to halt deforestation and achieve the country's ambitious plan for fast and sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to translate policy and legal provisions regarding forest governance into implementation instruments such as regulations, directives, and guidelines. Accurate and up-to-date information and records that contain comprehensive legal and spatial information about forest conservation areas should be maintained centrally both at regional state and federal level and freely accessible by the public.


Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of varenicline (a licensed cigarette smoking cessation aid) in helping users of smokeless tobacco to quit. Design Double blind, placebo controlled, parallel group, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Setting Medical clinics (mostly primary care) in Norway and Sweden. Participants Men and women aged ≥18 who used smokeless tobacco at least eight times a day, with no abstinence period over three months within one year before screening, who wanted to quit all tobacco use. Participants were excluded if they used any other form of tobacco (except smokeless tobacco) or medication to stop smoking within three months of screening or had any pre-existing medical or psychiatric condition. Interventions Varenicline 1 mg twice daily (titrated during the first week) or placebo for 12 weeks, with 14 weeks' follow-up after treatment. Main outcome measures The primary end point was the four week continuous abstinence rate at the end of treatment (weeks 9-12) confirmed with cotinine concentration. A secondary end point was continuous abstinence rate for weeks 9-26. Safety and tolerability were also evaluated. Results 431 participants (213 varenicline; 218 placebo) were randomised and received at least one dose of study drug. Participants' demographics and baseline use of smokeless tobacco were similar (89% (189) and 90% (196), respectively, were men; mean age in both groups was 43.9; participants used smokeless tobacco products about 15 times a day, and about 80% first used smokeless tobacco within 30 minutes after awakening). Continuous abstinence rate at week 9-12 was higher in the varenicline group than the placebo group (59% (125) v 39% (85); relative risk 1.60, 95% confidence interval 1.32 to 1.87, P<0.001; risk difference 20%; number needed to treat 5). The advantage of varenicline over placebo persisted through 14 weeks of follow-up (continuous abstinence rate at week 9-26 was 45% (95) v 34% (73); relative risk 1.42, 1.08 to 1.79, P=0.012; risk difference 11%; number needed to treat 9). The most common adverse events in the varenicline group compared with the placebo group were nausea (35% (74) v 6% (14)), fatigue (10% (22) v 7% (15)), headache (10% (22) v 9% (20)), and sleep disorder (10% (22) v 7% (15)). Few adverse events led to discontinuation of treatment (9% (19) and 4% (9), respectively), and serious adverse events occurred in two (1%) and three (1%) participants, respectively. Conclusion Varenicline can help people to give up smokeless tobacco and has an acceptable safety profile. The response rate in the placebo group in this study was high, suggesting a population less resistant to treatment than smokers. Trial Registration NCT00717093.


"The Printed Picture" traces the changing technology of picture-making from the Renaissance to the present, focusing on the vital role of images in multiple copies. It surveys printing techniques before the invention of photography; the photographic processes that began to appear in the early 19th century; the marriage of printing and photography; and, the digital inventions of our time. From woodblocks to chromolithographs, from engravings to bar codes, from daguerreotypes to colour photographs, the book succinctly examines the full range of pictorial processes. Exploring how pictures look by describing how they are made, author Richard Benson reaches fascinating and original conclusions about what pictures can mean.Although many of the techniques he discusses have been used to create exceptional works of art, Benson concentrates on the typical, everyday pictures that have played and continue to play such a prominent role in our lives. Presented as a series of one-page essays opposite the pictures they examine, the book retains the lively, engaging style of the informal lectures through which Benson developed his ideas over the course of thirty years at Yale University. Rooted in hands-on descriptions of practical techniques, "The Printed Picture" offers a rich and imaginative interpretation of the enormous cultural and social influence of multiple images.


The production of lindane (gamma isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane, γ-HCH) in the second half of the twentieth century was an inefficient process that generated vast amounts of residues of other HCH isomers, without any pesticide activity. These residues were often dumped in an uncontrolled way or unsecured landfills in points near the production sites, causing hot spots of soil and groundwater contamination on all continents. Given the persistence and hydrophobicity of these pollutants, the problem generated decades ago is still a challenge to be solved. Several technologies, based on physical, chemical, and biological treatments, have been proposed for the remediation of HCH-contaminated soils. This chapter reviews the particularities of this kind of contamination and critically examines the bases and results of the technologies applied, paying special attention to the physicochemical remediation processes.


Author(s): Peters, Jeffrey Russell | Advisor(s): Bullo, Francesco | Abstract: Autonomous mobile sensor teams are crucial to many civilian and military applications. These robotic teams often operate within a larger supervisory system, involving human operators who oversee the mission and analyze sensory data. Here, both the human and the robotic system sub-components, as well as interactions between them, must be carefully considered in designing effective mission coordination strategies. This dissertation explores a series of representative sub-problems relating to the analysis and coordination of both mobile sensors and human operators within supervisory systems. The content herein is presented in three parts: Part I focuses on coordinating operator behavior independently (operator-focused methods), Part II focuses on coordinating mobile-sensor behavior independently (sensor-focused methods), and Part III focuses on jointly coordinating both operator and mobile sensor behavior (joint methods). The content herein is primarily motivated by a particular application in which Unmanned Aerial Vehicles collect visual imagery to be analyzed by a remotely located operator, although many of the results apply to any system of similar architecture. Specifically, with regard to operator-focused methods, Chapter 2 illustrates how physiological sensing, namely eye tracking, may provide aid in modeling operator behavior and assessing the usability of user interfaces. The results of a pilot usability study in which human observers interact with a supervisory control interface are presented, and eye-tracking data is correlated with various usability metrics. Chapter 3 develops robust scheduling algorithms for determining the ordering in which operators should process sensory tasks to both boost performance and decrease variance. A scenario-based, Mixed-Integer Linear Program (MILP) framework is presented, and is assessed in a series of numerical studies. With regard to sensor-focused methods, Chapters 4 and 5 consider two types of supervisory surveillance missions:Chapter 4 develops a cloud-based coverage strategy for persistent surveillance of planar regions. The scheme operates in a dynamic environment, only requiring sporadic, unplanned data exchanges between a central cloud and the sensors in the field. The framework is shown to provide collision avoidance and, in certain cases, produce convergence to a Pareto-optimal coverage configuration. In chapter 5, a heuristic routing scheme is discussed to produce Dubins tours for persistent surveillance of discrete targets, each with associated visibility and dwell-time constraints. Under some assumptions, the problem is posed as a constrained optimization that seeks a minimum-length tour, while simultaneously constraining the time required to reach the first target. A sampling-based scheme is used to approximate solutions to the constrained optimization. This approach is also shown to have desirable resolution completeness properties.Finally, Chapter 6 explores joint methods for coordinating both operator and sensor behavior in the context of a discrete surveillance mission (similar to that of Chapter 5), in which UAVs collect imagery of static targets to be analyzed by the human operator.In particular, a method is proposed to simultaneously construct UAV routes and operator schedules, with the goal of maintaining the operator's task load within a high-performance regime and preventing unnecessary UAV loitering. The full routing/scheduling problem is posed as a mixed-integer (non-linear) program, which can be equivalently represented as a MILP through the addition of auxiliary variables. For scalability, a MILP-based receding-horizon method is proposed to incrementally construct suboptimal solutions to the full optimization problem, which can be extended using a scenario-based approach (similar to that of Chapter 3) to incorporate robustness to operator uncertainty.


There is now overwhelming evidence that high-risk, sexually transmitted types of human papillomavirus (HPV) are the main causal agent in cervical cancer. Biobehavioral and psychosocial research is uniquely capable of addressing many of the issues raised by HPV and its link with cervical cancer. In this article we review current findings in this area and identify issues for future research. The first of the three sections explores issues associated with the introduction of HPV testing for the detection and management of cervical abnormalities and the impact of growing public awareness of the sexually transmitted nature of cervical cancer. The implications for public understanding of cervical cancer, psychosocial issues associated with screening, and the potential impact on screening uptake are discussed. The second section addresses the role of biobehavioral factors in the persistence and progression of HPV infection as well as possible interventions to minimize the risk of persistence. Finally, primary prevention of HPV is discussed.


A steady flow in collapsible tube as an in vitro model of the flow in the vein and the airway has been investigated. We think that the interaction between inner flow and largely deformation of collapsible tube cause it various problems. So when solving these problems, we must have simultaneous measurement to know interrelation between deformation of the tube and inner pressure which is influenced by the flow. When measuring the pressure, the sensor must be put in the collapsible tube. Because the sensor disturbs inner flow, it is difficult to know correct information. In this paper, we propose a computational method in which the measured area and shape of the tube cross-section is utilized in order to know undisturbed pressure. When largely deformed with contacting the tube wall and flow separation exists in the tube, it is found that we need to correct the method. As a result, the followings have been shown : The agreement of the experimental result with the computational one enables us to use this method for the prediction of pressure distribution along the tube.


We investigated the effects of transplantation of CXCR4-overexpressing adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) into a mouse diabetic hindlimb ischemia model on homing and engraftment as early as 48 h after transplant. CXCR4-overexpressing ADSCs were intramuscularly or intravenously injected into diabetic mice with hindlimb ischemia. After 48 h, muscle tissues in the femur and tibia were collected, and the CXCR4 expression pattern was analyzed by immunofluorescence staining. The homing and engraftment of transplanted CXCR4-overexpressing ADSCs into the ischemic area were significantly increased, and intravenous (systemic) injection resulted in the more effective delivery of stem cells to the target site 48 h posttransplantation. Furthermore, CXCR4-overexpressing ADSCs more efficiently contributed to long-term engraftment and muscle tissue regeneration than normal ADSCs in a limb ischemia model. In addition, the homing and engraftment of ADSCs were correlated with the CXCR4 transfection efficiency. These results demonstrated that enhanced CXCR4 signaling could significantly improve the early homing and engraftment of ADSCs into ischemic areas as well as the long-term engraftment and ultimate muscle tissue regeneration.


In this seventh volume of his collected essays, Professor Gombrich pays tribute to a variety of illustrious figures, to whom we owe the ideas and values that are woven into the fabric of our intellectual life. His bicentennial address on the humanities delivered at the American Academy of Arts and Science is followed by in-depth studies of such momentous figures as G E Lessing, G F Hegel, Lord Leverhulme, Sigmund Freud, Aby Warburg and Otto Kurz. The established author explains that he wanted to introduce such a varied selection of scholars and critics to the non-specialist reader, so as to bring to life the nature and value of branches of learning that are in danger of being squeezed out of higher education. His argument is dynamic and sincere, his writing dextrous and subtle. An essential volume for the scholar and amateur alike, Tributes is a book to which the reader will return, time and time again.


B[a]P (benzo[a]pyrene) has been used as a prototype carcinogenic PAH since its isolation from coal tar in the 1930's. One of its diol epoxides, BPDE-2, is considered its ultimate carcinogen on the basis of its binding to DNA, mutagenicity and extreme pulmonary carcinogenicity in newborn mice. However, BPDE-1 has a similar binding to DNA and mutagenicity but it is not carcinogenic. In addition, BPDE-2 is a weak carcinogen relative to B[a]P when repeatedly applied to mouse skin, the conventional assay site. Its carcinogenicity is increased when applied once as an initiator followed repeatedly by a promoter. This indicates a major role for promotion in carcinogenesis by PAHs. Promotion itself is a 2-stage process, the second of which is selective propagation of the initiated cells. Persistent hyperplasia underlies selection by promoters. The non-carcinogenicity of BPDE-1 has yet to be resolved. PAHs have long been considered the main carcinogens of cigarette smoke but their concentration in the condensate is far too low to account by themselves for the production of skin tumors. The phenolic fraction does however have strong promotional activity when repeatedly applied to initiated mouse skin. Several constituents of cigarette smoke are co-carcinogenic when applied simultaneously with repeated applications of PAHs. Catechol is co-carcinogenic at concentrations found in the condensate. Since cigarette smoking involves protracted exposure to all the smoke constituents, co-carcinogenesis simulates its effects. Both procedures, however, indicate a major role for selection in carcinogenesis by cigarette smoke. That selection may operate on endogenous mutations as well as those induced by PAHs. There are indications that the nicotine-derived NNK which is a specific pulmonary carcinogen in animals contributes to smoking-induced lung cancer in man. Lung adenoma development by inhalation has been induced in mice by the gas phase of cigarette smoke. The role of selection has not been evaluated in either of these cases.


The human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is a (cid:2) herpesvirus with oncogenic potential which establishes a chronic infection that is normally controlled by the immune system of healthy individuals. In particular, CTL responses seem to play a key role in control of the infection. In this study, we characterized epitope-specific CTL responses in healthy HHV-8-seropositive individuals against four HHV-8 lytic Ags: open reading frames (ORF) 26, 70, K3, and K5. We found that the majority of subjects responded to at least one HHV-8 lytic Ag-derived epitope, and some of these epitopes represented dominant targets, suggesting that they could be relevant targets of CTL-mediated immunity in vivo, and may be involved in host control of HHV-8. Specifically, we identified three CTL epitopes from ORF 26, which are presented by HLA-A2, six CTL epitopes from ORF 70 presented by HLA-A2 (three epitopes), -A24 (two epitopes), and -B7 (one epitope), three CTL epitopes from ORF K3 presented by HLA-A2 (two epitopes) and -B7 (one epitope), and one HLA-A2 presented epitope derived from ORF K5. The identified epitopes may be regarded as useful tools for understanding the role of CTL responses to lytic Ags in individuals affected by HHV-8-associated disorders, and for the development of immunotherapies for the treatment/prevention of HHV-8-associated malignancies. The Journal of Immunology, 2006, 176: 923–930.


Today, real-time measurement of dynamic power factor in resistance spot welding (RSW) is of increasing importance. On the basis of the welding transformer circuit model, a new method is proposed to measure the peak angle of the welding current and then calculate the dynamic power factor in each half-wave. The tailored sensing and computing system ensures that the measuring method possesses a real-time computational capacity with satisfying accuracy. Since the power factor cannot be represented via an explicit function with respect to measurable parameters, the traditional method(s) has to approximate the power factor angle with a constant phase lag angle and fails to detect its dynamic characteristics. An offline-trained embedded artificial neural network (ANN) successfully realizes the real-time implicit function calculation or estimation. A digital-signal-processor-based RSW monitoring system is developed to perform ANN computation. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is applicable for measuring the dynamic power factor in single-phase half-wave controlled rectifier circuits


Today, most active in research and development (R & D) activities are high technology industries such as electronics and computers. The semiconductor industry is one representative field. The semiconductor itself was invented in the United States in the late 1950s. Japan began its R & D based on technology imported from the United States. Since then, through fierce competition among firms in technological development and capital investment, this industry rapidly acquired its international competitive capability. Through this process, private firms conducted joint R & D, and the government actively supported and subsidized such private joint R & D activities. Today, Japan's semiconductor industry has reached the highest technological level in the world, and semiconductor products produced by Japanese firms are exported en masse to the world market. In this technological innovation process in the semiconductor industry, one can discern several characteristics common to all innovations in the Japanese economy. This discussion takes up the semiconductor industry as a case study of R & D by Japanese firms and of the government support.


The aim of our study is to assess the relation of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 or HER2/neu with the development of salivary gland carcinomas and use of Herceptin in the treatment of these cancers. A literature search was conducted using MEDLINE accessed via the National Library of Medicine PubMed interface searching for articles from 1994 up to 2014 relating to the existence of HER-2 protein and gene in salivary gland carcinomas and HER2/neu targeted therapy, written in English language. Almost all the studies in literature reported a frequent over expression and amplification of HER2/nue in salivary duct carcinomas (SDC) compared to other salivary gland cancers. Herceptin given as a monotherapy was not effective. The data on Herceptin combined chemotherapy are potentially promising but inadequate to evaluate drug activity, as patients also received a variety of cytotoxic agents. Therefore, Herceptin contribution to tumour response outcomes could not be precisely determined and the total number of cases is not sufficient. It is recommended that further work involves a large series of HER2/neu positive salivary gland cancers (randomized control trial) treated with chemotherapy with and without Herceptin. This might need multi-institutional cooperation.


The objective of this review is to analyze the evidence supporting selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) for the treatment of spastic cerebral palsy (CP). We reviewed 85 outcome studies from 12 countries between 1990 and 2017. The published results are overwhelmingly supportive of SDR, and 39 studies form a basis for this review. Also included is some of the clinical experience of the senior author. The results show that SDR plus postoperative physiotherapy (PT) improved gait, functional independence, and self-care in children with spastic diplegia. In adults with a follow-up of 20 to 28 years, the early improvements after childhood SDR were sustained and improved quality of life. Furthermore, majority of the adults who underwent SDR as children would recommend SDR to others. On the clinical side, while SDRs through multilevel laminectomies or laminoplasty were associated with spinal deformities (i.e., scoliosis, hyperlordosis, kyphosis, spondylolisthesis, spondylolysis, and nonhealing of laminoplasty), SDRs through a single level laminectomy prevented SDR-related spinal problems. The outcomes of SDR specific to spastic quadriplegia require further investigation because of the relatively small patient population with quadriplegia. Lastly, we found that SDR can prevent or reverse premature aging in adolescents and adults with spastic diplegia. In conclusion, the evidence supporting the efficacy of SDR is strong, and SDR is a well-established option for spasticity management in spastic CP.


At present, the domotization of homes and public buildings is becoming increasingly popular. Domotization is most commonly applied to the field of energy management, since it gives the possibility of managing the consumption of the devices connected to the electric network, the way in which the users interact with these devices, as well as other external factors that influence consumption. In buildings, Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems have the highest consumption rates. The systems proposed so far have not succeeded in optimizing the energy consumption associated with a HVAC system because they do not monitor all the variables involved in electricity consumption. For this reason, this article presents an agent approach that benefits from the advantages provided by a Multi-Agent architecture (MAS) deployed in a Cloud environment with a wireless sensor network (WSN) in order to achieve energy savings. The agents of the MAS learn social behavior thanks to the collection of data and the use of an artificial neural network (ANN). The proposed system has been assessed in an office building achieving an average energy savings of 41% in the experimental group offices.


This review discusses artificial organic fibers that are produced from materials of natural origin such as rayons, cellulose triacetates and proteins; or made from polymerised chemicals such as polyamides, polyesters, polyvinyls, modacrylics, carbon fibers, polyolefins, polyurethane and polytetrafluoroethylene. Chemicals involved include monomers, solvents, flame retardants, pigments and other additives. Occupational exposure to chemicals in the production stages are discussed and also the potential health hazards involved are reviewed. Current exposure levels, engineering controls and work practices for some of the chemicals used in the Ontario artificial fiber industry are discussed. Recommendations are made for areas that need further study and/or investigation.


The Ti/AS-4 Carbon Fiber/PEEK (Ti/APC-2) cross-ply nanocomposite laminates were fabricated. The Ti thin sheets were surface treated by anodic oxidation of electroplating to achieve good bonding with APC-2 laminates. Nanoparticles SiO2 were dispersed uniformly on the interfaces of APC-2 with the optimal amount of 1 wt%. The modified diaphragm curing process was adopted to fabricate the hybrid panels. Then, the panels were cut into samples. The centrally notched samples of hole diameter 6mm. First, we obtained the mechanical properties of unnotched samples as base-line data due to tensile and cyclic tests. Then, we performed both tests for the notched samples and found that the ultimate load was reduced 53%, nominal stress 38%, stiffness 3%, and also the fatigue lives compared with unnotched ones. Next, the two-step loading tests, such as high→low and low→high tests, were conducted. The average values of Miner's sum were less than 1.0 for both two-step tests. The total lives were in the range of 5780~29048 cycles for both tests. That evidently demonstrates the notched samples drastically drop the mechanical properties and lives from high cycle fatigue to low cycle fatigue.


Background: Critically ill patients are at increased risk of developing pressure ulcers because of the presence of confounding factors such as reduced mobility, poor nutrition, reduced tissue perfusion, neurologic deficits, faecal or urinary incontinence. This study determined the prevalence and risk factors for the development of pressure ulcer in the ICU.  Methods: A retrospective study of 499 critically ill patients from January 2010 to December 2012. Patients were excluded if they were admitted into the ICU for less than 48 hours or had a pressure ulcer at the time of admission.  Result: A total of 499 patients with mean age for of 34.95±18.48 years, (3months to 89years) were studied. Adults were 419(83.97%). The mean duration of ICU admission was 7.30±(SEM)0.43 days. The prevalence of pressure ulcer was 86(17.23%). The mean onset and duration of pressure ulcer was 3.55±2.11 and 6.44±(SEM)1.11 days respectively. The majority of the ulcers 57(66.28%) were located in the sacrococcygeal region, followed by head and neck region, 19(22.09%). The risk of development of pressure ulcers was higher in neurological pathology, odd ratio 1.985, (95% CI 1.242 3.173), p = 0.004, duration of ICU admission >3days, odd ratio 9.143, (95% CI 3.898 21.445), p<0.001, and mechanical ventilation, odd ratio 0.80 (95% CI 0.45-0.141), p <0. 001. The occurrence of pressure ulcers was significantly associated with poor ICU outcome, odd ratio 2.408, (95% CI 1.474-3.933), p<0.001.  Conclusion: Pressure ulcer is not uncommon in our ICU, therefore, there is a need to put in place guidelines and protocols to minimize the occurrence.  Keywords: Pressure ulcer, prevalence, risk factors, intensive care unit.


Abstract.  Two sampling methods (manual capture and live‐baited adhesive traps) were compared for collecting the bug Rhodnius neglectus Lent (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) from palm trees, Mauritia flexuosa L. (Arecaceae), in the savanna of Brasília DF. R. neglectus was found in 19/50 (38%) of palm trees sampled. The detection rate was much higher by visual inspection and manual capture (18/50 = 36%) than by our trapping method (5/50 = 10%), although one tree was found to be positive by trapping but not by manual capture. Bugs collected manually were mostly (146/154 = 95%) found among the dead organic material in palm crowns. In combination, these sampling techniques are useful for quick detection of triatomine bug infestation in palm trees, especially in areas of high ecological value where the palms should not be cut and dissected, but arboreal Rhodnius are suspected to transmit enzootic Trypanosoma cruzi that might represent a risk of causing human cases of Chagas disease.


Abstract A main concern of farmers worldwide is how to reduce crop losses to wildlife. Some potentially lethal crop protection methods are non-selective. It is important to understand the impact of such methods on species of conservation concern. Uganda has important populations of Endangered eastern chimpanzees Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii. Farmers sometimes use large metal mantraps to guard their fields against crop-raiding wildlife, particularly baboons Papio anubis and wild pigs Potamochoerus sp.. Chimpanzees that range onto farmland also step in these illegal devices and without rapid veterinary invention face severe injury or eventual death. Unlike inadvertent snaring of great apes in African forests, the problem of mantraps in forest–farm ecotones has received little attention. We report 10 cases of entrapped chimpanzees in the cultivated landscape surrounding Uganda's Budongo Forest during 2007–2011, undoubtedly only a portion of the actual number of cases. Mantraps currently present a substantial threat to ape populations in this important conservation landscape. Our data underscore the need for conservation programmes to consider the techniques used by rural farmers to protect their livelihoods from wild animals.


The characteristics of long time series of CO2 and CO surface concentrations, tropospheric and total column dry-air mole fractions (DMF) from May 2015 to December 2019 were investigated. Both CO2 and CO show different seasonality for the three datasets. The annual increasing trend of CO2 is similar for all three datasets. However, the annual decreasing trend of CO for surface concentration is high compared to the other two measurements, mainly due to the improved combustion efficiency from power generation in recent years. The correlation between the tropospheric and total atmospheric CO2 and CO is higher than that between the surface concentration and tropospheric CO2 and CO. This is because the tropospheric and total atmospheric results both have common vertical profiles for CO2 and CO respective mole fractions that were observed in troposphere. Furthermore, the enhancement ratios of CO2 to CO derived from the three datasets during the period from 2016 to 2019 were compared. The ratio of ∆CO2 to ∆CO has an obvious increase with altitude each year, which means that the combustion efficiencies obtained from the three datasets are different. All ratios for the three datasets showed a slight increasing trend in recent years, which is attributed to increased combustion efficiency due to governmental measures for energy savings and emission reductions.


ABSTRACT Lower-extremity injuries are common among soccer players, yet few studies have attempted to identify determinants of lower-extremity injury severity and recovery within this group. We aim to identify determinants of lower-extremity injury severity and recovery among high school (HS) soccer players in the US. We used soccer-related injury observations recorded within the NATION-SP during 2011/12-2013/14. Odds of a season-ending game-related injury were higher than a season-ending practice-related injury (Adj. OR = 2.64, 95% CI = [1.39, 5.01]). Gender, setting, and playing surface emerged as significant determinants of any time loss following lower-extremity injuries in multivariable logistic regression models, and multivariable random effects Poisson regression models also revealed significant differences in recovery durations across levels of these variables for "similarly severe" injuries. Findings suggest that gender, injury setting, playing surface contribute to injury corollaries differently. Similar multi-method approaches are needed to identify determinants of injury severity and recovery in this group.


Summary form only given. For reasonable power quality assessment of transient disturbances in electric power systems, new transient power quality indices are developed based on a signal processing technique, time-frequency analysis. Based on the time-frequency distribution of a transient disturbance, a set of time-frequency based power quality indices are developed. In this paper, the instantaneous disturbance energy ratio, normalized instantaneous disturbance energy ratio, instantaneous frequency, and instantaneous K-factor are suggested for transient power quality assessment. Time-frequency based power quality indices allow one to quantify the effects of transient disturbances with high-resolution and accuracy


Abstract The changes that occur in the labour market due to the recent evolution registered in the field of accounting, led us to initiate a study in which we have as a purpose to analyse the perception that employers and students enrolled in the faculties for accounting from the Western part of our country have regarding the importance of the professional and transversal competencies when they get hired. The research tools used within this research are on the one side grounded on the quiz for data collection, and on the other side the ANOVA method for the analysis of the perception differences found in these two groups discussed upon. The results found in this work represent in the opinion of the authors an important reference mark for the university instruction of the young people who are about to enter the accounting profession, but also for the future employers who are about to interact with them.


The application of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating within glacial settings can be limited where sediments have not had their OSL signal fully reset by sunlight exposure. Heterogeneous bleaching can result in age overestimations, and although it is recognized that certain depositional settings are more likely to have experienced sufficient sunlight exposure to bleach the OSL signal, no comprehensive study has empirically investigated the processes of sediment bleaching, or the variability in bleaching between deposits of the same type and within the same glacial catchment. A suite of modern glacial and glaciofluvial sediments from Fåbergstølsdalen, southern Norway, have been analysed to explore the controls that sedimentary processes and depositional setting have on bleaching of the OSL signal of quartz. There is considerable variability in the residual OSL ages of similar modern deposits, which reflects high sensitivity of the OSL signal to sediment source, sedimentary process, transport distance and depositional setting. Overdispersion values are greatest for the sediments which have been most heterogeneously bleached and these sediments have the lowest residual ages. Sampling strategies that incorporate sufficient consideration of the depositional framework of sample settings can minimize the effects of unbleached residuals on OSL age determinations.


Abstract Leminorella is a member of Enterobacteriaceae family and was known previously as Enteric Group 57. Based upon genetic differences using DNA hybridization, it has three taxa: Leminorella grimontii, Leminorella richardii, and Leminorella sp. strain 3. The third one is similar biochemically to the L. grimontii strains. The generic name has been derived on the name of a French microbiologist, Leon Le Minor. The biochemical properties includes being facultative anaerobes, growth on sheep blood, TSI, and MacConkey agar; hydrogen sulfide producer, l-arabinose fermenter, and tyrosine hydrolyzer; and are negative for d-mannose fermentation, urea, and lipase. They usually infect in adulthood and result in urinary tract infection, surgical site infection, bacteremia, peritonitis, respiratory tract infection, and soft tissue infection. We report the first case of L. grimontii sepsis in a very low birth weight neonate that died because of neonatal sepsis.


This paper derives the asymptotic distribution of the nonparametric neural network estimator of the Lyapunov exponent in a noisy system. Positivity of the Lyapunov exponent is an operational definition of chaos. We introduce a statistical framework for testing the chaotic hypothesis based on the estimated Lyapunov exponents and a consistent variance estimator. A simulation study to evaluate small sample performance is reported. We also apply our procedures to daily stock return data. In most cases, the hypothesis of chaos in the stock return series is rejected at the 1% level with an exception in some higher power transformed absolute returns.


Abstract Background Although peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) is highly effective for the management of achalasia, clinical failures may occur. The optimal management of patients who fail POEM is not well known. This study aimed to compare the outcomes of different management strategies in patients who had failed POEM. Methods This was an international multicenter retrospective study at 16 tertiary centers between January 2012 and November 2019. All patients who underwent POEM and experienced persistent or recurrent symptoms (Eckardt score > 3) were included. The primary outcome was to compare the rates of clinical success (Eckardt score ≤ 3) between different management strategies. Results 99 patients (50 men [50.5 %]; mean age 51.4 [standard deviation (SD) 16.2]) experienced clinical failure during the study period, with a mean (SD) Eckardt score of 5.4 (0.3). A total of 29 patients (32.2 %) were managed conservatively and 70 (71 %) underwent retreatment (repeat POEM 33 [33 %], pneumatic dilation 30 [30 %], and laparoscopic Heller myotomy (LHM) 7 [7.1 %]). During a median follow-up of 10 (interquartile range 3 – 20) months, clinical success was highest in patients who underwent repeat POEM (25 /33 [76 %]; mean [SD] Eckardt score 2.1 [2.1]), followed by pneumatic dilation (18/30 [60 %]; Eckardt score 2.8 [2.3]), and LHM (2/7 [29 %]; Eckardt score 4 [1.8]; P = 0.12). A total of 11 patients in the conservative group (37.9 %; mean Eckardt score 4 [1.8]) achieved clinical success. Conclusion This study comprehensively assessed an international cohort of patients who underwent management of failed POEM. Repeat POEM and pneumatic dilation achieved acceptable clinical success, with excellent safety profiles.


The knuckle creases present on the dorsal side of the human hand can play significant role in identifying the offenders of serious crime, especially when evidence images of more recognizable biometric traits, such as the face, are not available. These knuckle creases, if localized appropriately, can result in improved identification ability. This is attributed to ambient inclusion of the creases and minimal effect of background, which lead to quality and discerning feature extraction. This paper presents an ensemble approach, utilizing multiple object detector frameworks, to localize the knuckle regions in a functionally appropriate way. The approach leverages from the individual capabilities of the popular object detectors and provide a more comprehensive knuckle region localization. The investigations are completed with two large-scale public hand databases which consist of hand-dorsal images with varying backgrounds and finger positioning. In addition to that, effectiveness of the proposed approach is also tested with a novel proprietary unconstrained multi-ethnic hand dorsal dataset to evaluate its generalizability. Several novel performance metrics are tailored to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed knuckle localization approach. These metrics aim to measure the veracity of the detected knuckle regions in terms of their relation with the ground truth. The comparison of the proposed approach with individual object detectors and a state-of-the-art hand keypoint detector clearly establishes the outperforming nature of the proposed approach. The generalization of the proposed approach is also corroborated through the cross-dataset framework.


Astroblastoma (AB) is a rare glial tumor. The optimal treatment and prognosis of this tumor remain unclear. The authors retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics, neuroimaging findings, histopathological results, and treatment outcomes of 7 patients with AB.

 The study comprised 7 patients with pathologically proven AB who were surgically treated at Samsung Medical Center from November 1994 to January 2019. Clinicoradiological, histopathological, and surgical records were reviewed.

 The patients included 5 girls (71.4%) and 2 boys (28.6%), with a median age of 13 years. All patients showed contrast enhancement on preoperative MRI: 5 ABs (71.4%) showed a concomitant solid and cystic appearance, and 2 (28.6%) demonstrated a solid appearance. ABs in 6 patients (85.7%) showed a well-circumscribed, characteristic "bubbly" appearance on T2-weighted MRI. Gross-total resection (GTR) was achieved in all cases (100%). Six patients (85.7%) were diagnosed with high-grade AB and 1 (14.3%) with low-grade AB. Six (85.7%) of the 7 patients received adjuvant treatment after resection, including 5 (83.3%) with AB who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy and 1 (16.7%) who received proton therapy alone. The median clinical follow-up duration was 96 months (range 48-189 months). Two patients experienced recurrence, and all patients in this series were alive at the last follow-up.

 In this study, the clinicoradiological and histopathological features of AB were described. Based on the authors' limited experience with 7 cases, resection with the goal of GTR is currently the mainstream treatment for AB, and adjuvant radiation treatment should be considered after surgery.


The effects of reservoir heterogeneity on the development of submarine channel fields are still poorly understood because of lack of direct evidence for fluid flow. This study uses integrated well logs and three-dimensional seismic data from the Niger Delta Basin to characterize the previously undocumented spatial distribution of shale units and permeability contrasts within a submarine channel system. Combining these data with four-dimensional (4-D) seismic data facilitates the exploration of the controls of reservoir heterogeneity on fluid flow during development. The results show that the studied submarine channel system consists of multiple vertically stacked channel complex sets (CCSs) from CCS1 (oldest) to CCS5 (youngest), which are separated from each other by continuous shale barriers. The CCS2–CCS4, which are located in the stratigraphic middle of the channel system, are the main development layers because of their higher permeabilities and lower permeability contrasts. The 4-D seismic responses validate that the presence of shale barriers between vertically adjacent CCSs can hinder the flow of fluids between CCSs. Fluid flow between vertically adjacent CCSs barely occurs except in localized erosional locations where the sand fills of different CCSs are vertically connected. Each CCS consists of multiple individual channels, which can be separated by inclined shale baffles if they laterally migrate in one direction. As the 4-D seismic responses demonstrate, such inclined shale baffles can hinder fluid flow between adjacent individual channels and help to form multiple narrow flow paths in map view. The absence of inclined shale baffles also produces prominent permeability contrasts within each CCS, which are characterized by relatively high–permeability zones that are parallel to the channel axis. Comparison of this permeability distribution and the 4-D seismic responses shows that injected water preferentially sweeps along relatively high–permeability zones, which can help to form single wide flow paths with higher sweep efficiency or single narrow flow paths with lower sweep efficiency.


Abstract. We have made a number of developments to the Weather, Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), with the aim of improving model prediction of trace atmospheric gas-phase chemical and aerosol composition, and of interactions between air quality and weather. A reduced form of the Common Reactive Intermediates gas-phase chemical mechanism (CRIv2-R5) has been added, using the Kinetic Pre-Processor (KPP) interface, to enable more explicit simulation of VOC degradation. N2O5 heterogeneous chemistry has been added to the existing sectional MOSAIC aerosol module, and coupled to both the CRIv2-R5 and existing CBM-Z gas-phase schemes. Modifications have also been made to the sea-spray aerosol emission representation, allowing the inclusion of primary organic material in sea-spray aerosol. We have worked on the European domain, with a particular focus on making the model suitable for the study of nighttime chemistry and oxidation by the nitrate radical in the UK atmosphere. Driven by appropriate emissions, wind fields and chemical boundary conditions, implementation of the different developments are illustrated, using a modified version of WRF-Chem 3.4.1, in order to demonstrate the impact that these changes have in the Northwest European domain. These developments are publicly available in WRF-Chem from version 3.5.1 onwards.


Over the past two decades, nanoindentation has been the most versatile method for mechanical testing at small length scales. Because of large strain gradients, it does not allow for a straightforward identification of material parameters such as yield and tensile strength, though. This represents a major drawback and has led to the development of alternative microscale testing techniques with microcompression as one of the most popular ones today. In this research, the influence of the realistic sample configuration and unavoidable variations in the experimental conditions is studied systematically by combing in-situ microcompression experiments on ultrafine-grained nickel and finite element simulations. It will be demonstrated that neither qualitative let alone quantitative analyses are as straightforward as they may appear, which diminishes the apparent advantages of microcompression testing.


Sleep patterns and temperament in the first year of life are closely related. However, research utilizing objective, rather than subjective measurements of sleep and temperament is scarce and results are inconsistent. In addition, a relative lack of longitudinal data prevents inference of causality between the two constructs. In this study, infant sleep was objectively assessed among 95 infants at 3, 6, and 12 months-of-age with an actigraph in the home setting. Reactivity to sound, light, and touch, a specific aspect of temperament, was behaviorally assessed at 3 and 6 months, both during sleep (at home) and during waking (at the laboratory). Expected maturational trends were recorded in sleep, with a temporal increase in sleep efficiency and percent of motionless sleep. Quadratic (i.e., inverse U shape) relations were found, especially among girls, when predicting change in sleep by reactivity thresholds, suggesting that both hyposensitive and hypersensitive infants are at risk for poor sleep quality. These are the first research findings suggesting that low reactivity in infancy might be associated with compromised sleep quality. The observed nonlinear effects may account for null or inconsistent results in previous studies that explored only linear associations between temperament and sleep. Future studies should address both extremes of the temperament continuum when exploring relations with sleep patterns.


Sodium is a physiologically essential nutrient, but excessive intake is linked to the increased risk of various chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular. It is, therefore, necessary to accomplish an evidence-based approach and establish the Korean Dietary Reference Intakes (KDRIs) index, to identify both the nutritional adequacy and health effects of sodium. This review presents the rationale for and the process of revising the KDRIs for sodium and, more importantly, establishing the sodium Chronic Disease Risk Reduction Intake (CDRR) level, which is a new specific set of values for chronic disease risk reduction. To establish the 2020 KDRIs for dietary sodium, the committee conducted a systematic literature review of the intake–response relationships between the selected indicators for sodium levels and human chronic diseases. In this review, 43 studies published from January 2014 to December 2018, using databases of PubMed and Web of Science, were finally included for evaluating the risk of bias and strength of evidence (SoE). We determined that SoE of the relationship between dietary sodium and cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular disease, and hypertension, was moderate to strong. However, due to insufficient scientific evidence, we were unable to establish the estimated average requirement and the recommended nutrient intake for dietary sodium. Therefore, the adequate intake of sodium for adults was established to be 1,500 mg/day, whereas the CDRR for dietary sodium was established at 2,300 mg/day for adults. Intake goal for dietary sodium established in the 2015 KDRIs instead of the tolerable upper intake level was not presented in the 2020 KDRIs. For the next revision of the KDRIs, there is a requirement to pursue further studies on nutritional adequacy and toxicity of dietary sodium, and their associations with chronic disease endpoint in the Korean population.


As the age of technological advancement and occupational opportunity continues to progress, companies must be constantly adjusting and transforming in order to accommodate industry demands. With these quickly developing requirements comes an expectation of employee experience and skill sets. For individuals seeking a career in mechanical engineering, moving forward with the tools necessary for success in this continuously evolving world begins with higher education. This paper is the first of a three-part series to report on the progress of Boise State University's Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department's mission to implement a revolutionized curriculum in their academic program. This paper will describe the establishment of goals and processes used to design a curriculum that will provide undergraduates with an effective foundation for the future. Integrating a change of this magnitude necessitated consideration of a multitude of factors. The primary motivation being to allow students to pursue more diverse and relevant fields of knowledge; this includes more flexibility within course requirements, as well as offering more availability in degree emphases. Incorporating experiential learning was also given acute attention; constructing courses with an increase in hands-on learning, creating class curriculum focused on instilling proper communication and presentation skills, and merging previously taught subjects to better assist student understanding. With these initiatives in mind, the department began formulating a reformed mechanical engineering curriculum based off review of peer institutions and educational literature. Faculty, as well as student and industrial advisory boards, aided in validating this adjusted degree program. During this development phase, several constraints had to be addressed: the curriculum must continue to be ABET accredited, align with university degree policies, appease stakeholders, and serve as an overall practical solution. With all of these factors carefully considered, faculty can begin to develop a curriculum outline to be revised and implemented into their programs. The process of developing goals and constraints for a revolutionized mechanical engineering curriculum that will serve the students of the future is described in this paper.


Abstract Five pathogen-free miniature pigs (minipigs) were infected with the virulent strain SH08 of Streptococcus suis 2 (SS2) by intramuscular injection. The pigs died consecutively within 72 h after the challenge. An additional five non-infected pigs were euthanised and used as controls. Microstructural observations showed that degeneration, bleeding, congestion, cellular necrosis, and an increase in inflammatory cells were present in all organs and tissues except the brain. Ultrastructural observations revealed mitochondrial vacuolation and malformed or missing cristae, indicating that infection of minipigs with strain SH08 of SS2 can lead to extensive lesions in major internal organs and tissues. The findings also demonstrated that the minipig is a useful model for the study of SS2 infection.


I consider the workings, under free entry, of some plausible mechanisms enforcing product quality when it is not readily observed by buyers, but is chosen by sellers: there is a moral hazard problem to be overcome. In equilibrium, uninformed buyers can often take price as indicating quality. This is however not the sarne as Spence's signalling notion, since quality is chosen by sellers. It is fruitful to consider price as a commitment, which changes the quality-incentives in a common-knowledge way. In the introduction, I note briefly much of the relevant literature, including my M. Phil, thesis. In Chapter 1, on Repeat-Sales, I consider a continuous model of that incentive to quality. With strong simplifying assumptions, I am able to solve for 'competitive' equilibrium, which involves a bunding of buyers at the minimum quality level, price premia for higher qualities, and consequent inefficiencies. The second chapter is the theory of cheating. It is possible, but costly, for buyers to be 'vigilant'; but equilibrium cannot involve their all being vigilant. There are various externalities between buyers. Different prices can exist in equilibrium, with different honesty levels. I identify a key feature of the cost function, which (together with buyers' tastes, etc.) determines equilibrium. In Chapter 3, I consider introductory offers and their role in entry and quality-signalling, when buyers are very rational. When buyers are identical, a single entrant will never use introductory offers. If there are many entrants, a low first-period price will be observed, but it conveys no information. Only some quality levels can (credibly) be promised by an entrant, and the result is that an incumbent can make positive profits but prevent entry.


Background and purpose: Viable tissue detection after STEMI can lead to successful revascularization for reversing myocardial dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to compare the Thallium-201 SPECT and MRI findings in viability assessment. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 17 patients with STEMI. In addition to Thallium SPECT, contrast enhanced MRI imaging was done. Viability was determined as more than 50 percent thallium uptake after 4 hours in SPECT and lower than 50 percent gadolinium enhancement after 10 minutes in each segments in CMRI. Results: Two hundred eighty nine segments were studied using both methods. TL SPECT showed 15.6% of the segments as non-viable tissue while MRI showed 35% non-viable tissue. There was a substantial agreement between these methods in apical septal and apical segments (k: 0.653, k: 0.757, respectively). Conclusion: The percentage of non-viable myocardium in MRI was found to be higher than that of Thallium SPECT and also considerable agreement was seen between MRI and Thallium SPECT in determination of myocard viability in apical septal and apex segments.


In spite of the techniques based on the amplification of 16S rRNA genes (16S rDNA) to compare bacterial communities that are now widely in use in microbial ecology, little is known about the composition of the soybean continuous cropping (CC) and rotational cropping (RC) soil microbial community. To address this, we compared the levels of bacterial community diversity in RC and 5-year CC rhizosphere soil samples. We selected 407 clones in RC and 490 clones in CC for restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. A total of 123 phylotypes were identified among the 16S rDNA clones, while 78 unique and 21 common phylotypes were identified among the CC soil isolates. Analysis of sequences from a subset of the phylotypes showed that at least 11 bacterial divisions were represented in the clone libraries. The phylotype richness, frequency distribution (evenness), and composition of the two clone libraries were investigated using a variety of diversity indices. Although the analysis of diversity indices and LIBSHUFF comparisons revealed that the compared libraries were not significantly different (P=0.05) between the RC vs. CC soils, some differences could be observed in terms of specific phyla and groups. We concluded that the group variance was not determined immediately by the cropping system's induction, but was a long-term and slow process.


This paper develops measures, based on the Malmquist productivity index, that enables the decision making units internal efficiencies from those associated with their group characteristics. It has been assumed that the levels of inputs and outputs are not known exactly. The analysis involves the construction of an index reflecting the relative performance of example, which can be decomposed into an index for the comparison of efficiency change index and an index for comparison of technological change index. We provide a computational method for extension the Malmquist index group A relation to group B interval data. The utilization of the proposed approach is demonstrated with an illustrative example.


Daniel Poyner (ed.), Autonomy: The Cover Designs of Anarchy, 1961-1970 London: Hyphen Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-0907259466.In 1947 Colin Ward, aged twenty-three and having returned to London after five years as a military conscript, was invited to join the editorial group of the anarchist newspaper, Freedom. For the next fourteen years he and the other editors, never more than some half-a-dozen, brought the paper out weekly, writing the bulk of its contents themselves. It is scarcely surprising that, to break from this punishing regimen, he began to urge the case for a monthly, more reflective Freedom-, and finally his fellow editors responded by giving him his head with Anarchy from March 1961, while they continued to bring out Freedom for the other three weeks of each month.Ward had actually wanted his magazine to be called Autonomy, but this his traditionalist comrades were not prepared to allow - he had already been described as a 'revisionist' and they considered that he was backing away from the talismanic word 'anarchist' - although his subtitle of A Journal of Anarchist Ideas was initially, and now largely redundantly, retained, until ditched from no. 28 by Rufus Segar, the designer of the covers, the subject of the book under review.118 issues of Anarchy were published, the last appearing in December 1970. The content was always distinctive, blending such traditional anarchist preoccupations as progressive education and crime and punishment with Ward's own interests and enthusiasms: housing and squatting, workers' control, adventure playgrounds and the like. But the real originality lay in anarchism being seen not as a total system to be implemented sometime in the future - after an anarchist revolution - but as present all around us, in everyday human arrangements, in the here-and-now.Ward was given complete freedom - or autonomy - by Freedom Press to produce each number entirely by himself, laying it out on his kitchen table. A frequent though not uncritical contributor, Nicolas Walter, was to comment: 'Colin almost didn't do anything. He didn't muck it about, didn't really bother to read the proofs. Just shoved them all in. Just let it happen.' (p. 258) Although Ward's ideal was to produce special issues on single themes, most numbers were not. If a promised article failed to materialise, he would be obliged to write it himself, leading to a profusion of pseudonyms.Daniel Poyner understands the political and intellectual significance of Anarchy, indeed going as far as to reprint from New Society, very usefully, 'Utopian Sociology', the remarkable appreciation of 1987 by the Marxist historian, Raphael Samuel, reviewing^ Decade of Anarchy, Ward's selection of contributions by others than himself to his journal. (I have drawn attention in 'Colin Ward and the New Left', Anarchist Studies, 19, 2 (2011), pp. 52-3, to the friendship and mutual admiration of Ward and Samuel.) Yet Poyner's concern is with neither the contents of Anarchy nor Wardian anarchism but the magazine's cover designs. …


Purpose : Some changes in tissue iron concentration have been reported in animals exposed to electromagnetic fields. In other studies, variations in the haemoglobin level were occasionally observed. In the present experiment, the effects of exposing a rat to a 50 Hz magnetic field (MF) were therefore investigated for the possible induction of anaemia due to changes in iron metabolism. Materials and methods : Male Brown Norway rats (n =225) were exposed to a sinusoidal 50 Hz MF of 500muT for 15 weeks. Haematological parameters, differential bone marrow cell counts and sideroblasts were investigated. Blood parameters of iron metabolism were measured. Iron concentration and total iron content were also determined in the spleen and liver, to assess iron storage in these organs. Results : Significant differences between the exposed and control rat were only detected for iron storage in the spleen, and for the percentage of bone marrow cells of the red cell lineage. Conclusion : The changes observed were not associated with anaemia during the 15 weeks of MF exposure. However, the decrease in bone marrow cells of the red cell lineage and the changes in iron storage detected at the end of the experiment did not allow the possibility to be ruled out that exposure to 50Hz MFs may induced delayed biological effects.


Introduction: Hypertension is one of the risk factor of heart and blood vessels diseases which is categorized as the silent killer. There are two ways to manage the hypertention, namely the pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. One of the non-pharmacological intervention is relaxation techniques through Sundanese traditional kecapi suling music therapy. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of Sundanese traditional kecapi suling music on blood pressure of the elderly with hypertension in PSTW Pertiwi Bandung. Methods: The research design using pre-experimental with one group pre and post test design. The number of samples were 13 respondents. Sampling technique used was non-probability with purposive sampling technique. Data analysis was done in two stages, univariate and bivariate (t-dependent test). Result: the study had shown that there was differences in systolic (p value 0.0001) and diastolic (p value 0.001) blood pressure before and after intervention. Discussion: It suggested that the result of this research will be used as an input for PSTW Pertiwi Bandung and for nurses to apply this intervention as one of non-pharmacological intervention in managing the high blood pressure among elderly.


This paper discusses the analysis of Early Bronze Age 'Talioti'‐style ceramics found at sites in the Argolid and Corinthia, in the north‐east Peloponnese of mainland Greece. It presents the results of an integrated methodology that addresses questions relating to the potential sources of raw materials, the identification of potting practices, and the exchange of such vessels during the Early Bronze Age period. The work places site‐based results within a broader spatial and temporal context, specifically examining how this characteristic ceramic assemblage has been used as a chronological and cultural marker for the Early Bronze Age 1 (EB I) period in the north‐east Peloponnese. We argue that 'Talioti' pottery comprises the outcome of specific sets of knowledge, reputation and social practice in both its production and consumption, and that it is the determination of the location and method of production that allows an effective understanding of its chronological and spatial distribution. The case study is used to critically assess cultural and chronological interpretation of typological studies of ceramics, arguing that analytical understandings of provenance and technology are now fundamental to understanding both cultural identity and the passage of time.


Deep neural networks are a branch in machine learning that has seen a meteoric rise in popularity due to its powerful abilities to represent and model high-level abstractions in highly complex data. One area in deep neural networks that are ripe for exploration is neural connectivity formation. A pivotal study on the brain tissue of rats found that synaptic formation for specific functional connectivity in neocortical neural microcircuits can be surprisingly well modeled and predicted as a random formation. Motivated by this intriguing finding, we introduce the concept of StochasticNet where deep neural networks are formed via stochastic connectivity between neurons. As a result, any type of deep neural networks can be formed as a StochasticNet by allowing the neuron connectivity to be stochastic. Stochastic synaptic formations in a deep neural network architecture can allow for efficient utilization of neurons for performing specific tasks. To evaluate the feasibility of such a deep neural network architecture, we train a StochasticNet using four different image datasets (CIFAR-10, MNIST, SVHN, and STL-10). Experimental results show that a StochasticNet using less than half the number of neural connections as a conventional deep neural network achieves comparable accuracy and reduces overfitting on the CIFAR-10, MNIST, and SVHN data sets. Interestingly, StochasticNet with less than half the number of neural connections, achieved a higher accuracy (relative improvement in test error rate of ~6% compared to ConvNet) on the STL-10 data set than a conventional deep neural network. Finally, the StochasticNets have faster operational speeds while achieving better or similar accuracy performances.


Abstract Multidrug resistance (MDR) remains one of the major reasons for inefficiency of many chemotherapeutic agents in cancer therapy. In this study, a D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) and polylysine-deoxycholic acid copolymer (PLL-DA) co-modified cationic liposome coating with hyaluronic acid (HA) was constructed for co-delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) and chemosensitizing agent, sorafenib (SOR) to treat the MDR cancer. The multifunctional liposome (HA-TPD-CL-PTX/SOR) presented good stability against rat plasma and was capable of reversing surface zeta potential under acidic conditions in the presence of HAase. Additionally, experimental result confirmed that the PLL-DA copolymer would facilitate the endo-lysosomal escape of the liposome. In vitro study demonstrated that HA-TPD-CL-PTX/SOR could significantly enhance drug accumulation in resistant MCF-7/MDR cells by inhibiting the P-gp efflux, and effectively inhibited growth of tumor cells. Furthermore, the liposome showed an enhanced anticancer activity in vivo, with a tumor growth inhibition rate of 78.52%. In summary, HA-TPD-CL-PTX/SOR exhibited a great potential for effective therapy of resistant cancers by combining with chemotherapeutic agents and could be a promising nano-carrier for reversing MDR and improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy.


The isolated rat liver cells were dispersed in the medium under various conditions to observe the behavior of the leakage of the enzymes from liver cells. Furthermore, the hepatic artery of rat was ligated to examine the effect of hypoxia on the enzyme leakages from liver into the circulation. The alterations of the enzymes in serum and liver tissue were also examined using rats with liver cirrhosis induced by CCl(4). The enzymes assayed were Glutamate dehydrogenase (GLD), Transaminases (GOT and GPT), Isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICD) and Glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase). The following results were obtained. 1. When the liver cells were dispersed in the medium, there was a marked leakage of such activities as GOT and ICD, whereas GLD almost completely retained within the cells. 2. After incubating the isolated cells in the medium under hypoxia, an extremely increased leakage of GLD was observed. The leakage of other enzymes measured, however, was little influenced by hypoxia. Similar results were obtained with dinitrophenol. 3. The ligation of hepatic artery of rat caused the earliest and most remarkable increase of the serum GLD, whereas the rise of GOT was moderate. The serum levels of GPT, ICD and G-6- Pase did not changed essentially compared with control. 4. Despite of the marked elevation of the serum GLD, ADP/O ratio of the mitochondria of the hepatic cells was not effected by the ligation of the hepatic artery. This result suggests that the increase of the serum GLD does not always imply the irreversible damages of the hepatic mitochondria. 5. The activities of GLD and G-6-Pase within the experimentally induced cirrhotic liver of rat showed a remarkable diminution, whereas these activities in serum increased markedly.


The aim of this study is to evaluate many parameters in intermingling process and to determine the effects of these parameters on yarn properties statistically. For this purpose, POY (partially oriented polyester yarn) filaments, which have 283 dtex linear density and four different filament numbers (34, 47, 68, 100) in cross-section, were used as raw material. Samples were produced at speeds of 150, 300, 450 m/min and pressures of 3, 5, 6 bar, respectively. Intermingled yarn's strength, elongation, and the number of nips were tested and these features were evaluated as response (dependent) variables. Number of filaments in cross-section, intermingling speed, and intermingling pressure were taken as independent variables. General factorial design was applied by using Design Expert 6.0.1 and SPSS 15.0 software package, and therefore, the effects of selected independent variables on response variables were evaluated statistically. Results showed that the intermingling pressure and number of filaments have statistically significant effects on all the response variables. Moreover, it is observed that there is an interaction between pressure and the number of filaments. The intermingling speed on the other hand has no statistically significant effect.


Nowadays, face detection and recognition have gained importance in security and information access. In this paper, an efficient method of face detection based on principal components analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) is proposed. It firsly filter the face potential area using statistical feature which is generated by analyzing local histogram distribution. And then, SVM classifier is used to detect face feature in the test image, SVM has great performance in classification task. PCA is used to reduce dimension of sample data. After PCA transform, the feature vectors, which are used for training SVM classifier, are generated. Our tests in this paper are based on CMU face database. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is encouraging with a successful detection rate.


Leadership in early childhood education (ECE) has been promoted as a collaborative process in which all teachers, rather than just the positional leader, are involved (Thornton, 2010). Collaborative leadership practices are not well understood within the Singapore ECE context. Beyond mandatory leadership training, little is known how leaders are supported to strengthen their leadership practices and involve others in leadership activities. School-based literature suggests that learning through professional learning communities (PLCs) expands the collective capacity of organisations, however, literature on PLCs in ECE is limited. Located within an interpretive paradigm, this study employed a primarily qualitative approach with a supplementary quantitative strand. This mixed method design, encapsulated within a single embedded exploratory case study, embedded both face-to-face and online PLC processes over a period of 8 months. Qualitative data included both face-to-face and online activities whereas for the quantitative data the study used an adapted version of the PLCA-R survey designed by Olivier, Hipp and Huffman (2010).  Participants in two PLCs established as part of this study were six principals from an anchor group childcare provider and five principals from private childcare centres in Singapore. Two teachers working with each of the respective principals were also involved in focus group interviews to ascertain if there were changes in their principals' leadership practices. Data were collected from PLC meetings, online reflections, pre- and post-PLC interviews with the principals and follow-up focus group discussions with the teachers. Key findings suggest that praxis as a result of participation in their PLC led to some shifts in principals' thinking about collaborative leadership practices and resulted in changes to their leadership approaches, sharing of practices, distribution of leadership and improved collegiality and collaborative learning for teachers. Principals who participated in the study also indicated that the collaborative learning culture fostered through their PLC reduced their professional isolation and helped them to integrate ideas into practice. The study contributes to an understanding that considering and implementing collaborative leadership practices through PLCs, a collaborative learning model contextualised in Anglo-American settings, in the Singapore ECE context requires sensitivity towards Asian Singapore socio-cultural values related to hierarchy and economic pragmatism.


Backscatter communication --- reflecting or absorbing ambient wireless signals --- enables transmissions at several orders of magnitude lower energy cost when compared to conventional low-power radios. The past few years have seen signficiant progress with systems demonstrating the ability to synthesise transmissions that are compatible with WiFi, ZigBee or BLE at μWs of power consumption. However, these systems achieve a maximum communication range of tens of meters which severely limits the possible applications. On the other hand, our recent system LoRea demonstrates that backscatter communication can achieve a significantly longer range reaching up to a few kms when the tag is co-located with the carrier source. In our vision, such a large range could be a key enabler to develop wide-area networks of battery-free sensors. In this paper, we build on our system LoRea and identify issues of improving the reliability of weak backscatter links, increasing the range and supporting the operation of multiple tags as the key challenge to our vision, and present our preliminary efforts to address them.


Background Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) predicts mortality after ST‐elevation–myocardial infarction (STEMI). Arginine vasopressin (AVP) may be implicated, but data in humans are lacking, and no study has investigated the link between arginine vasopressin and invasive measures of CMD. Methods and Results We invasively assessed CMD in 55 patients with STEMI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), by measuring the index of microcirculatory resistance after PPCI. In a separate group of 45 patients with STEMI/PPCI, recruited for a clinical trial, we measured infarct size and microvascular obstruction with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging at 1 week and 12 weeks post‐STEMI. Serum copeptin was measured at 4 time points before and after PPCI in all patients with STEMI. Plasma copeptin levels fell from 92.5 pmol/L before reperfusion to 6.4 pmol/L at 24 hours. Copeptin inversely correlated with diastolic, but not systolic, blood pressure (r=−0.431, P=0.001), suggesting it is released in response to myocardial ischemia. Persistently raised copeptin at 24 hours was correlated with higher index of microcirculatory resistance (r=0.372, P=0.011). Patients with microvascular obstruction on early CMR imaging showed a trend toward higher admission copeptin, which was not statistically significant. Copeptin levels were not associated with infarct size on either early or late CMR. Conclusions Patients with CMD after STEMI have persistently elevated copeptin at 24 hours, suggesting arginine vasopressin may contribute to microvascular dysfunction. Arginine vasopressin receptor antagonists may represent a novel therapeutic option in patients with STEMI and CMD.