OBJECTIVE
There are varied reports on the effect of vitamin D supplementation on β-cell function and plasma glucose levels. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on β-cell function and plasma glucose levels in subjects with vitamin D deficiency.

METHODS
Nondiabetic subjects (N = 48) were screened for their serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD), albumin, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) status. Subjects with 25-OHD deficiency underwent a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test. Cholecalciferol (9,570 international units [IU]/day; tolerable upper intake level, 10,000 IU/day; according to the Endocrine Society guidelines for vitamin D supplementation) and calcium (1 g/day) were supplemented.

RESULTS
Thirty-seven patients with 25-OHD deficiency participated in the study. The baseline and post-vitamin D/calcium supplementation and the difference (corrected) were: serum calcium, 9 ± 0.33 and 8.33 ± 1.09 mg/dL (-0.66 ± 1.11 mg/dL); 25-OHD, 8.75 ± 4.75 and 36.83 ± 18.68 ng/mL (28.00 ± 18.33 ng/mL); PTH, 57.9 ± 29.3 and 36.33 ± 22.48 pg/mL (-20.25 ± 22.45 pg/mL); fasting plasma glucose, 78.23 ± 7.60 and 73.47 ± 9.82 mg/dL (-4.88 ± 10.65 mg/dL); and homeostasis model assessment-2-percent β-cell function C-peptide secretion (HOMA-2-%B C-PEP), 183.17 ± 88.74 and 194.67 ± 54.71 (11.38 ± 94.27). Significant differences were observed between baseline and post-vitamin D/calcium supplementation serum levels of corrected calcium (Z, -3.751; P<.0001), 25-OHD (Z, -4.9; P<.0001), intact PTH (Z, -4.04; P<.0001), fasting plasma glucose (Z, -2.7; P<.007), and HOMA-2-%B C-PEP (Z, -1.923; P<.05) as determined by Wilcoxon signed rank test. Insulin resistance as measured by HOMA was unchanged.

CONCLUSION
Optimizing serum 25-OHD concentrations and supplementation with calcium improves fasting plasma glucose levels and β-cell secretory reserve. Larger randomized control studies are needed to determine if correction of 25-OHD deficiency will improve insulin secretion and prevent abnormalities of glucose homeostasis.


Vision-based control of a robot formation is challenging because the on-board sensor (camera) only provides the view-angle to the other moving robots, but not the distance that must be estimated. In order to guarantee a consistent estimate of the distance by knowing the control inputs and the sensor outputs in a given interval, the nonlinear multi-robot system must preserve its observability. Recent theoretical studies on leader-follower robot formation exploit the interesting influence that the control actions have on observability. Based on these results, in this paper we present a switching active control strategy for formation control. Our control strategy is active in the sense that, while asymptotically achieving the formation control tasks, it also guarantees the system observability in those cases in which all the robots tend to move along non-observable paths. As a result, both estimation and formation performances are improved. Extensive simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed design.


Manifestation of western views above the culturally accepted standards in the society has been a major topical issue and over the year's African countries have been heavily influenced by western cultures which permeated their religion by the early missionaries and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that was predominant then. These western influence is prevalent in engineering education and it affects the discipline. Engineering education is important for national development and competitiveness and it is vital in terms of supply of electricity, water, roads, telecommunication, transportation, factories, machineries. This paper explores decolonization as a concept and a panacea to the challenges of engineering education in Nigeria, stressing the need to decolonize the discipline. The research was a theoretical study as it relied on relevant literature to address the topic under consideration. The findings of the study revealed that engineering education in Nigeria is constrained by lots of challenges which include fallen standards, obsolete curriculum, poor funding, inadequate infrastructure which affect the conduct of the discipline. It was also revealed that the engineering legacy the British bequeathed to Nigeria has continued without much change to it and there is therefore a need to decolonize engineering education in Nigeria. There is therefore the need to decolonize the curriculum, the teaching and learning approach, the language. The ministry of education must also coordinate with other engineering bodies to ensure that the curriculum is reviewed to suit the culture of the country.


This paper studies people's preferences for formal long-term care services provided at home, and examines how long-term care preferences relate to saving motives, such as the relative importance and type of the bequest motive, the availability of informal care, and health expectations. To elicit long-term care preferences, we use a stated choice experiment fielded in the Dutch LISS panel in which we ask people to choose between long-term care insurance plans offering in-kind benefits provided at home that differ in generosity. The results show that there is viable demand for insurance that covers long-term care services at home. Long-term care services represent a different value for different people depending on individual characteristics and expectations about long-term care needs. Having children, access to informal care, and a strong strategic-bequest motive reduces the willingness to pay for formal long-term care services. These results contribute to the understanding of saving behavior after retirement and design of long-term care insurance policies.


During colonial development, bacteria generate a wealth of patterns, some of which are reminiscent of those occurring in abiotic systems. They can exhibit rich behaviour, reflecting informative communication capabilities that include exchange of genetic materials and the fact that the colony's building blocks are biotic. Each has internal degrees of freedom, informatic capabilities and freedom to respond by altering itself and others via emission of signals in a self–regulated manner. To unravel the special secrets of bacterial self–organization, we conducted an integrative (experimental and theoretical) study of abiotic and biotic systems. Guided by the notion of general biotic motives and principles, I propose that the informative communication between individuals makes possible the enhancement of the individuals' regulated freedom, while increasing their cooperation. This process is accomplished via cooperative complexification of the colony through self–organization of hierarchical spatio–temporal patterning. The colonial higher complexity provides the degree of plasticity and flexibility required for better colonial adaptability and endurability in a dynamic environment. The biotic system can modify the environment and obtain environmental information for further self–improvement. I reflect on the potential applications of the new understanding on 'engineered self–organization of systems too complex to design' and other issues.


Deep models have advanced prediction in many domains, but their lack of interpretability  remains a key barrier to the adoption in many real world applications. There exists a large  body of work aiming to help humans understand these black box functions to varying levels  of granularity – for example, through distillation, gradients, or adversarial examples. These  methods however, all tackle interpretability as a separate process after training. In this  work, we take a different approach and explicitly regularize deep models so that they are  well-approximated by processes that humans can step through in little time. Specifically,  we train several families of deep neural networks to resemble compact, axis-aligned decision  trees without significant compromises in accuracy. The resulting axis-aligned decision  functions uniquely make tree regularized models easy for humans to interpret. Moreover,  for situations in which a single, global tree is a poor estimator, we introduce a regional tree regularizer that encourages the deep model to resemble a compact, axis-aligned decision  tree in predefined, human-interpretable contexts. Using intuitive toy examples, benchmark  image datasets, and medical tasks for patients in critical care and with HIV, we demonstrate  that this new family of tree regularizers yield models that are easier for humans to simulate  than L1 or L2 penalties without sacrificing predictive power.


Spontaneous isolated superior mesenteric artery dissection (ISMAD) is an uncommon cause of abdominal pain. Clinical presentation ranges from an asymptomatic incidental finding to acute bowel ischemia or fatal aneurysmal super mesenteric artery (SMA) rupture. We report the case of a 58-year-old male presenting with abdominal pain. Imaging studies revealed an ISMAD without radiological evidence of bowel ischemia. The patient was successfully treated using a conservative approach including bowel rest and anticoagulation. ISMAD incidence is expected to increase with the utilization of advanced imaging modalities. Thus, an ISMAD should be suspected when other common causes of an acute abdomen have been excluded. Given the lack of evidence-based guidelines, management options include conservative treatment and anticoagulation, endovascular stenting, or open surgical repair.


According to research in educational psychology, advance organizers lead to better learning and recall of information. In this research, the authors explored advance organizers from a business perspective, where larger documents are read under time pressure. Graphic and verbal advance organizers were manipulated into six versions of an advisory report, read by 159 experienced professional readers in a between-subjects design. Their reading time was limited to encourage selective reading. The results show that graphic advance organizers facilitate selective reading, but they do not enhance recall. Verbal advance organizers introducing a problem enhance recall, and graphic advance organizers moderate the effects on both selective reading and recall.


Aims. The aim of this work is to shed some light on the problem of the formation of carbon stars of R-type from a detailed study of their chemical composition. Methods. We use high-resolution and high signal-to-noise optical spectra of 23 R-type stars (both early- and late-types) selected from the Hipparcos catalogue. The chemical analysis is made using spectral synthesis in LTE and state-of-the-art carbon-rich spherical model atmospheres. We derive their CNO content (including the 12 C/ 13 C ratio), average metallicity, lithium, and light (Sr, Y, Zr) and heavy (Ba, La, Nd, Sm) s-element abundances. The observed properties of the stars (galactic distribution, kinematics, binarity, photometry and luminosity) are also discussed. Results. Our analysis shows that late-R stars are carbon stars with identical chemical and observational characteristics as the normal (N-type) AGB carbon stars. The s-element abundance pattern derived can be reproduced by low-mass AGB nucleosynthesis models where the 13 C(α ,n ) 16 O reaction is the main neutron donor. We confirm the results of the sole previous abundance analysis of early-R stars, namely that they are carbon stars with near solar metallicity showing enhanced nitrogen, low 12 C/ 13 C ratios and no s-element enhancements. In addition, we have found that early-R stars have Li abundances larger than expected for post RGB tip giants. We also find that a significant number (∼40%) of the early-R stars in our sample are wrongly classified, probably being classical CH stars and normal K giants. Conclusions. On the basis of the chemical analysis, we confirm the previous suggestion that late-R stars are just misclassified N-type carbon stars in the AGB phase of evolution. Their photometric, kinematic, variability and luminosity properties are also compatible with this. In consequence, we suggest that the number of true R stars is considerably lower than previously believed. This alleviates the problem of considering R stars as a frequent stage in the evolution of low-mass stars. We briefly discuss the different scenarios proposed for the formation of early-R stars. The mixing of carbon during an anomalous He-flash is favoured, although no physical mechanism able to trigger that mixing has been found yet. The origin of these stars still remains a mystery.


Saussurean and Chomskyan "conduit" views of meaning in communication, dominant in much of expert and lay linguistic semantics, presuppose a simple, closed and linear system in which outcomes can be predicted and explained in terms of finite sets of rules. Summarizing critical traditions of scholarship, notably those driven by Bateson's view of systems infused with more recent linguistic-anthropological insights into the ideologically mediated and indexically organized "total linguistic fact", this paper argues for a view of meaning in terms of complex open systems in which complex units of analysis invite more precise distinctions within "meaning". Using online viral memes and the metapragmatic qualifier of "cool" as cases in point, we see that the meaning of such memes is better described as a range of "effects", most of them nonlinear and not predictable on the basis of the features of the sign itself. Such effects suggest a revised and broader notion of nonlinear "perlocution".


The vision of the Semantic Web brings challenges to knowledge discovery on databases in such heterogeneous distributed open environment. The databases are developed independently with semantic information embedded, and they are heterogeneous with respect to the data granularity, ontology/scheme information etc. The Distributed knowledge discovery (DKD) methods are required to take semantic information into the process alongside the data, also to resolve heterogeneity issues among the distributed databases. Most current DKD methods fail to do so because they assume that distributed databases come from part of a virtual global table, in other words, they share the same semantics and data structure. In this paper, we propose a model-based clustering method on semantically heterogeneous distributed databases that can cope with these two requirements. It deals with data that are generated by a mixture of underlying distributions represented by a mixture model in which each component corresponds to a different cluster. It also resolves the heterogeneity caused by the heterogeneous classification schema simultaneously with the clustering process without previously homogenizing the heterogeneous local ontologies to a shared ontology.


This work expands upon existing approaches to text style transfer, the task of changing the style of a sentence without changing its content. This task could have many applications, from creating headlines for a general audience based on scientific paper headlines to making offensive language more suitable for children. We focus specifically on sentiment transfer, due to the availability of large sets of data. Text style transfer is uniquely difficult since it is hard to find parallel data, sentence-for-sentence translations, to train on. In this work, we begin by training an encoder neural network to produce representations of text that encode only content, not style, using an adversarial approach. We then introduce a new partly-shared decoder architecture to turn these representations back into sentences, attempting to achieve a better mix of content preservation and style modification. We find that a partly-shared decoder results in content preservation and style modification scores in between different baselines, suggesting a potential utility depending on the desired application.


Ruminant feed processing technology is really needed in an attempt to increase the quality of Benggala (Panicum maximum) grass and other waste products. One of new local feed resources in North Sulawesi categorized as waste product is Sago waste which is abundantly available and has a big potential in providing animal feedstuffs. The present study was designed to evaluate the utilization of urea and optimal incubation time to produce the best nutritive quality when added to ammoniated Benggala grass. A Pleurotus ostreatus fungus was used to determine the optimal incubation time to produce the best quality of Sago waste. Research results showed that the best quality of ammoniated Benggala grass was seen at the addition of 6% urea with an incubation time of 21 days, as indicated by the increasing of crude protein, cellulose, and hemicelluloses. The best nutrient quality of Sago waste fermented with Pleurotus ostreatus was shown at incubation time of 30 days, as indicated by significantly (P< 0.01) increasing in protein content and the decreasing of lignin of Sago waste. Nutritive value evaluation of ammoniated Benggala grass and fermented Sago waste as fed showed a significant (P< 0.01) increase in dry matter and organic matter digestibility in vitro. It can be concluded that nutritive value of determined ammoniated Benggala grass and fermented Sago was increased as well asdry matter and organic matter digestibility in vitro.


Phosphorylation of prohibitin (PHB) at threonine 258 (phospho-PHBT258) and tyrosine 259 (phospho-PHBY259) in human cancer-cell membranes is associated with an increase in the invasiveness and metastasis of cancer cells. Phospho-PHBY259 can regulate phospho-PHBT258 but not vice versa. Here, we found that stably overexpressing c-Kit in SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells (SKOV3_c-Kit) increased phospho-PHBY259, phospho-PHBT258 and PHB levels in the lipid raft domain of the plasma membrane. On the other hand, inhibition of c-Kit expression decreased PHB expression in SKOV3_c-Kit and Kuramochi ovarian cancer cells. Immunoprecipitation analysis showed that c-Kit interacts with PHB. SKOV3_c-Kit cells or SKOV3 cells overexpressing PHB in the lipid raft had higher levels of Notch3, NICD3 (Notch3 intracellular domain) and ABCG2 protein expression as compared to wild-type SKOV3 cells. Moreover, generation of SKOV3-G4 cells through serial passage of SKOV3 cells into nude mice ovary 4 times, revealed that the levels of c-Kit, Notch3, NICD3, phospho-PHBY259, phospho-PHBT258 and PHB in the lipid raft domain of SKOV3-G4 were significantly higher than wild-type SKOV3 cells. The SKOV3-G4 cells formed spheroids with stem cell-like properties such as higher expression of stem cell markers (Oct4, Nanog, SOX2). In addition, SKOV3-G4 cells exhibited more clonogenic potential and migration/invasion ability than wild-type SKOV3. These results suggest that c-Kit interacts with PHB in the lipid raft domain to phosphorylate PHB to increase invasiveness and stemness in ovarian cancer. Citation Format: Shu-Mei Y. Liang, Chia-Hsun Fang, Pu-Yuan Chang, Chi-Ming Liang. c-Kit enhances ovarian cancer stemness via upregulating phospho-PHB in the lipid raft domain of the plasma membrane [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-048.


Abstract Conservation of the built heritage requires knowledge of the characteristics and use of the constituent materials and their state of conservation. Knowledge of the material's source is important for laboratory studies and stone replacement, but it also has historic-cultural significance with respect to the exploitation of stone resources in the past. In this sense, we present a study of 'Pietra Gentile', a traditional building material of southern Italy, through which we aimed to acquire knowledge concerning the quarries, characteristics of extracted materials, use and decay features within buildings. Ancient and active quarries were identified and the petrographical, chemical-mineralogical and physical features of the quarry materials were studied. The use of the stone was documented in many historic towns in the area, including monuments and minor buildings, and the main decay morphologies were detected by field activities and laboratory analyses. The high susceptibility of the stone to the actions of water and salts was highlighted. Field and laboratory data of quarries and artefacts were organized into a database as a source of knowledge useful for the evaluation, preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.


Consumers are increasingly using online consumer reviews (OCRs) to help inform their purchasing decisions. As such, it is important for marketers and academics to improve their understanding of the behavioral consequences of e-Word-Of-Mouth. In this study, we adopt the information adoption moderated model (IAMM) to investigate the predictors of consumer's adoption of OCRs. Drawing on the IAMM, we analyse the influence of OCRs information quality, source credibility, and overall product ranking on perceived information usefulness. In addition we explore the relationship between information usefulness and information adoption using a structural equation model and data from 236 users of OCRs. The findings of this study suggest that consumers are primarily influenced by the quality of information in OCRs and subsequently by overall product ranking information. This relationship is not moderated by a consumer's degree of involvement. These results imply that in high involvement situations, consumers will adopt both central and peripheral cues of information processing. Central cues include information quality while peripheral cues include overall product ranking and source credibility.


The implementation of software based video/audio decoders is an advantageous solution over traditional dedicated hardware systems. However, simultaneously guaranteeing real-time performance, needed for processing video/audio bit-streams, and an efficient use of the processing power, remains a very difficult task. In this paper, we briefly discuss the main reasons for such difficulties and we present a new technique able to predict the decoding time of compressed video bit-streams without the need of the actual decoding. This result can be obtained when appropriate statistics about the actual decoding process are included and transmitted with the compressed video data. We also show how such results can be used to implement new efficient processing resource allocation strategies. New possible schemes of intelligent interactions, and in particular an efficient implementation of computational graceful degradation, between the encoder and the real-time OS are also proposed. An example of results obtained implementing the proposed technique for the MPEG-4 VM6 video algorithm is presented. Although the techniques and concepts presented in this paper are of general application, they can only be used for video compression standards capable of transmitting in any appropriate form the associated statistical coding information. This capability has been included in the new defined MPEG-4 standard.


On the occasion of the 9th ASEM leaders' summit in November 2012 in Vientiane, the ASEM process connects 52% of the world's GDP, almost 60% of the world's population and 68% of global trade. As a forum for dialogue, it is becoming increasingly important in addressing key global issues facing the international community. Given the size and further expansion of ASEM, it is evident that deepened Asia-Europe co-operation is no longer a luxury but a necessity. With this in mind, Asia and Europe need to rely on different dialogue frameworks, such as ASEM, to deepen their co-operation, improve dialogue both inter- and intra-regionally, and share the burdens of global responsibility. ASEM Outlook Report 2012 focuses on the future of Asia-Europe relations in four sectors (security and conflict management; economic and financial integration; environmental governance; and public health and pandemic preparedness). The report contains recommendations to address emerging global and regional challenges. ASEM Outlook Report 2012 was made possible through the collaboration between the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS).


. Adiabatic modes are cosmological perturbations that are locally indistinguishable from a (large) change of coordinates. At the classical level, they provide model independent solutions. At the quantum level, they lead to soft theorems for cosmological correlators. We present a systematic derivation of adiabatic modes in spatially-flat cosmological backgrounds with asymptotically-perfect fluids. We find several new adiabatic modes including vector, time-dependent tensor and time-dependent scalar modes. The new vector and tensor modes decay with time in standard cosmologies but are the leading modes in contracting universes. We present a preliminary derivation of the related soft theorems. In passing, we discuss a distinction between classical and quantum adiabatic modes, we clarify the subtle nature of Weinberg's second adiabatic mode and point out that the adiabatic nature of a perturbation is a gauge dependent statement.


Four IRUA universities - Macquarie University, Murdoch University, Flinders University and the University of Newcastle - have been collaborating on a project funded by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. This project investigates the impact of web based lecture recording technologies on current and future practice in learning and teaching.

The project aims are to identify:

 how web based lecture recording technology is being integrated into the curriculum, and its role and relationship with other elements within the curriculum;

how the technology can effectively support learning and teaching in different contexts, taking into account disciplinary differences, student diversity, specific teaching aims and learning outcomes; and
the educational implications of its use for:
the design and delivery of curricula
academics and their teaching
students, their learning and the establishment of effective learning environments
professional development of academic staff
academic policies and practices.

A multi-level research program is underway to investigate these questions, initially surveying students on their experiences in the use of web based lecture technologies. Subsequent stages will involve a staff survey, follow up interviews with students, the development of vignettes with staff about concerns they may have, and several case studies developing innovative ways of using these technologies.

This presentation focuses on the first stage of this project, a student survey focussing on pedagogical rather than technical aspects of web based lecture technology use. Preliminary results of the student survey, involving more than 750 responses from students in four universities, will be presented in this session.


In previous studies, Nigella sativa (NS) has been studied due to its various physiological and pharmacological activities. However, evidence on the effects of NS on physical fatigue following exhaustive swimming remains limited. In the present study, the authors evaluated the potential beneficial effects of NS against the fatigue activity following exhaustive swimming. Rats were orally administered with NS extract (2 g/kg/day) for 21 days, and the anti-fatigue effect was assessed by exhaustive swimming exercise. The presented results indicated that pre-treatment of NS extract significantly increased the time to exhaustion. In hemodynamic parameters, NS extract increased blood pO2 and O2sat, but decreased pCO2. For underlying mechanisms, NS extract protected depletion of energy, indicated by increased levels of blood pH, glucose and tissue glycogen contents, and decreased levels of blood lactate, tissue lactic dehydrogenase and creatine kinase, when the NS extract was pre-treated. In addition, the NS extract inhibited oxidative stress following exhaustive swimming, as reflected by the results of increased levels of superoxide dismutase and redox ratio, and decreased the level of malondialdehyde when the NS extract was pre-treated. Collectively, the present study demonstrated that NS extract has an anti-fatigue activity against exhaustive swimming by energy restoration and oxidative-stress defense.


This is the year-end report of the 2nd year of the NUMO-LBNL collaborative project: Development of Hydrologic Characterization Technology of Fault Zones under NUMO-DOE/LBNL collaboration agreement, the task description of which can be found in the Appendix 3. Literature survey of published information on the relationship between geologic and hydrologic characteristics of faults was conducted. The survey concluded that it may be possible to classify faults by indicators based on various geometric and geologic attributes that may indirectly relate to the hydrologic property of faults. Analysis of existing information on the Wildcat Fault and its surrounding geology was performed. The Wildcat Fault is thought to be a strike-slip fault with a thrust component that runs along the eastern boundary of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is believed to be part of the Hayward Fault system but is considered inactive. Three trenches were excavated at carefully selected locations mainly based on the information from the past investigative work inside the LBNL property. At least one fault was encountered in all three trenches. Detailed trench mapping was conducted by CRIEPI (Central Research Institute for Electric Power Industries) and LBNL scientists. Some intriguing and puzzling discoveries were made that may contradict with the published work in the past. Predictions are made regarding the hydrologic property of the Wildcat Fault based on the analysis of fault structure. Preliminary conceptual models of the Wildcat Fault were proposed. The Wildcat Fault appears to have multiple splays and some low angled faults may be part of the flower structure. In parallel, surface geophysical investigations were conducted using electrical resistivity survey and seismic reflection profiling along three lines on the north and south of the LBNL site. Because of the steep terrain, it was difficult to find optimum locations for survey lines as it is desirable for them to be as straight as possible. One interpretation suggests that the Wildcat Fault is westerly dipping. This could imply that the Wildcat Fault may merge with the Hayward Fault at depth. However, due to the complex geology of the Berkeley Hills, multiple interpretations of the geophysical surveys are possible. iv An effort to construct a 3D GIS model is under way. The model will be used not so much for visualization of the existing data because only surface data are available thus far, but to conduct investigation of possible abutment relations of the buried formations offset by the fault. A 3D model would be useful to conduct 'what if' scenario testing to aid the selection of borehole drilling locations and configurations. Based on the information available thus far, a preliminary plan for borehole drilling is outlined. The basic strategy is to first drill boreholes on both sides of the fault without penetrating it. Borehole tests will be conducted in these boreholes to estimate the property of the fault. Possibly a slanted borehole will be drilled later to intersect the fault to confirm the findings from the boreholes that do not intersect the fault. Finally, the lessons learned from conducting the trenching and geophysical surveys are listed. It is believed that these lessons will be invaluable information for NUMO when it conducts preliminary investigations at yet-to-be selected candidate sites in Japan.


This practice-oriented design research investigates opportunities for meaningful poetic expression within a digital medium. It aims to create born-digital poems that tightly tie content to its form, prioritising the presentation and textual content of the poem. It hypothesises that the digital medium offers more opportunities for personal expression than in traditional print. Digital poems can be dynamic with animation, interactivity, and discovery. They can allow a poet to draw readers deeper into their world, where actions are reacted to and become part of the expression. However, these come with added complexities. This space can be intimidating for creatives as practitioners must learn coding languages to create interactive experiences. This project sits within digital poetry but borrows ideas from other realms of knowledge and practice, such as aesthetic expressivism and hypertext. The practice focuses on testing, reflecting, and articulating the poetic expression present in three distinct characteristics of the digital environment: ephemerality, hidden content, and non-linearity. These were initially derived from obsolescence of digital poetry, lack of orientation within hypertextual media, and definitions of hypertext. These characteristics are further investigated through prototypes, where the research tests techniques that reflect their qualities to create poetic experiences. Within this project, the researcher navigates differing worldviews: the poet and the technician. The former brings expressive and subjective lenses, while the latter introduces objectivity and attention to technical skills. Both are integral, and their relationship is at the heart of this research. At times, these voices were dissonant, yet there have been glimpses of symbiosis during the process. Arguably, finding ways to encourage the symbiosis between these two voices can ensure greater synergy and meaningful connections between the poem and its form. The research explores when poetic writing occurs in the process, and whether poetry or its form are prioritised. However, a design perspective can serve as a bridge between these two worlds. It is a role that already deals with both functionality and creativity. For this reason, prototypes are evaluated against a framework of paired communication design principles: movement and rhythm, emphasis and hierarchy, unity and contrast, and balance and space. This framework provides a basis to determine the suitability of techniques towards expressing a poetic idea or message. As a result, the research will map a range of workflows used for approaching digital poetry through the outlined characteristics of the medium. It is believed that without a clear understanding of what the digital space could offer, a poem could have no difference in its reading experience from its written print form, or practitioners could create a jarring and meaningless experience. The final design outcome of this research is an interactive digital poem themed around online relationships. It will provide an example of how these characteristics can be applied and used, highlighting possibilities for supporting expression through their relationships with the poem.


Wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations in many areas of the Palearctic including the Iberian Peninsula have grown continuously over the last century. This increase has led to numerous different types of conflicts due to the damage these mammals can cause to agriculture, the problems they create in the conservation of natural areas, and the threat they pose to animal health. In the context of both wildlife management and the design of health programs for disease control, it is essential to know how wild boar are distributed on a large spatial scale. Given that the quantifying of the distribution of wild species using census techniques is virtually impossible in the case of large-scale studies, modeling techniques have thus to be used instead to estimate animals' distributions, densities, and abundances. In this study, the potential distribution of wild boar in Spain was predicted by integrating data of presence and environmental variables into a MaxEnt approach. We built and tested models using 100 bootstrapped replicates. For each replicate or simulation, presence data was divided into two subsets that were used for model fitting (60% of the data) and cross-validation (40% of the data). The final model was found to be accurate with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value of 0.79. Six explanatory variables for predicting wild boar distribution were identified on the basis of the percentage of their contribution to the model. The model exhibited a high degree of predictive accuracy, which has been confirmed by its agreement with satellite images and field surveys.


Early diagnosis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is associated with improved response to treatment and disease outcomes. Predicting patients at risk of developing symptomatic IBD would provide a window of opportunity to treat patients before irreversible bowel damage is caused. Our aim is to determine whether there is a pattern of change in use of health resources, medications and laboratory results in the years prior to diagnosis.

 This is a retrospective study performed using electronic medical records (EMR) of Maccabi Health Services (MHS) which insures 25% of the Israeli population with a nationwide distribution. Data was extracted using MDClone (MDClone Ltd). IBD patients ≥ 16 years of age and minimum of 5 years follow up were identified by entry into the MHS IBD registry and included in the study. Demographic, clinical, medication and laboratory data was collected. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) model was applied to study trends and compare between years.

 A total of 5643 IBD patients were included. Of these, 3039 (53.8%) had Crohn's disease (CD), 2322 (41.1%) had ulcerative colitis (UC) and 282 (5%) had indeterminate colitis (IC). The mean age of the total IBD population at inclusion to the registry was 39.3 ± 16.5 years. Overall, CD patients had significantly increased visits to general practitioners, emergency rooms and admissions compared to UC patients (33.2 vs 30, p<0.0001; 0.2 vs 0.17, p<0.0001 and 0.88 vs 0.71, p<0.0001, respectively). CD and IC patients had similar patterns of medical professional/institution visits. Laboratory parameters such as haemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume showed significant decrease and white blood count, platelets and c-reactive protein showed significant increase in mean values primarily in the 2 years prior to diagnosis with stable values prior to that (p<0.0001 for all parameters). In contrast, parameters such as creatinine, total protein, albumin and calcium showed earlier significant and progressive decreases in mean values starting 5 years prior to diagnosis (p<0.0001 for all parameters) (Figure 1). Use of medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, etanercept, steroids, proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics significantly increased in the 2 years prior to IBD registry entry (P<0.0001 for all).

 There are clear changes from baseline in uptake of medical resources, medication usage and laboratory results in the 5 years prior to IBD diagnosis. Parameters such as creatinine and albumin give earlier signal than others. This data may allow the development of an algorithm stratifying patients into those who need more intensive follow-up or investigations to enable earlier disease diagnosis.


We consider a Bose–Hubbard ladder subject to an artificial magnetic flux and discuss its different ground states, their physical properties, and the quantum phase transitions between them. A low-energy effective field theory is derived, in the two distinct regimes of a small and large magnetic flux, using a bosonization technique starting from the weak-coupling limit. Based on this effective field theory, the ground-state phase diagram at a filling of one particle per site is investigated for a small flux and for a flux equal to π per plaquette. For π-flux, this analysis reveals a tricritical point, which has been overlooked in previous studies. In addition, the Mott insulating state at a small magnetic flux is found to display Meissner currents.


The efficacy of fluoride in the community drinking water for the prevention of dental caries has been well established. The average daily intake of fluids in normal children varies with age, sex, temperature and season. Children with polydipsia as in nephrogenic diabetes insipidus consume excessive quantities of water. We are reporting two children with nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and fluorosis, and suggest looking for evidence of fluoride toxicity in individuals with polydipsia. Substituting nonfluoridated water as part of the fluid intake is recommended.


: The incidence of malignant neoplasms in men is higher versus women residing in Maritime Territory; neoplasms of the urogenital system account for an essential portion (13.6%) of all discussed diseases. Reduced funding to patient-care facilities, worse provision of hospitals and clinics with practitioners and paramedical personnel and minimal logistics supplies to medical facilities are the main causes that affect the quality of oncological medical care rendered to residents of Maritime Territory. Field medical check-ups practiced by oncology experts in the Territory for the purpose of diagnosing the early and asymptomatic types of cancer proved to be feasible in detecting actively the oncological pathology.


Post-Seismic satellite imagery after the 2003 earthquake near San Simeon confirmed 10s of millimeters of north-east side uplift along the Oceanic Fault. In order to determine whether or not there has been a history of tectonic uplift northeast of the Oceanic Fault zone, longitudinal profiles of Morro Creek and San Simeon were made using a digital planimeter and 1:24,000 scale maps. Utilizing the stream profiles, convexities could be observed in the streams coinciding where the streams crossed the Oceanic Fault; of the stream profiles, the convexity along San Simeon Creek could be confirmed to be caused by north-east side uplift along the Oceanic Fault.


It has been widely accepted that the discipline-specific professional knowledge of engineering graduates alone is not sufficient for a successful career. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to enhance also the abilities of a person to apply the knowledge into the real-world environments, characterized by change, complexity and uncertainty. The on-going scientific discussion has addressed this by sharing an importance of development of meta-cognitive abilities in education, enabling to foster entrepreneurship and employability of engineering students. This can be achieved thru appropriately focused and systematic entrepreneurship education programs in universities, while the goal of such programs is to facilitate students' preparedness for an enterprising life in the future. Moreover, it is acknowledged that any person should be able to benefit from entrepreneurship education programs even if not starting their own company, as the focus is on increasing the creativity, self-efficacy, systematic thinking, awareness about opportunities and learning to learn. Hence, persons who understand what they know and understand how to control their own learning are also more likely to understand how to apply what they have learned. The aim of the current paper is to further develop the scientific discussion on the development of metacompetencies of engineering-students through entrepreneurship education, with an emphasis towards metacognition and providing suggestions for the development of entrepreneurship courses with the aim of increasing the level of metacognitive abilities and awareness of students. Previous research on metacognition has largely concentrated on theoretically defining components of metacognition, explaining the relationship between the metacognitive awareness and propensity to start entrepreneurial careers, as well as on the importance of metacognition in learning. At the same time the amount of necessary empirical evidence is still limited. Current research is an attempt to contribute into the empirical analysis of self-assessment of metacognitive abilities of students with different personal characteristics, study level and disciplines. The study includes a quantitative survey using Likert scale. The results have been analysed with the means of linear statistical analysis for evaluating the level of students' metacognitive abilities and K-means clustering method for identifying groups of high- and low-achieving students. The results of study have confirmed that the differences and weaknesses in metacognitive awareness of students from different study levels and disciplines need to be considered when planning entrepreneurship courses. The article is contributing to the development of the courses of entrepreneurship education based on improving the weakest components of students' metacognitive abilities. In addition, the study contends that the issues of study environment and motivation of students are important factors to consider when designing entrepreneurship courses. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.26.3.5283


Abstract This article examines the policing of a major international political event (the G20 Meetings in Brisbane, Australia in 2014) from the perspective of the police and representatives of demonstrator groups who participated in the event. The article locates the policing of the 2014 G20 meetings within the history of the policing of major international political meetings in other countries. It analyses the legal framework within which the policing of the Brisbane G20 meeting was undertaken, comparing and contrasting these with legal frameworks developed for similar meetings and associated demonstrations in other jurisdictions. In the case of the Australian G20 Act, the legislation prioritized security over human rights, including the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. The strategies and planning processes applied by police in the lead up to the G20 are discussed, including the efforts made to ensure policing responses were respectful of the democratic rights of protesters. Drawing on interview and other data, the article reveals a diversity of perspectives on the 'human rights' policing and dialogue models, and provides an assessment of 'Operation Southern Cross' based on the post-event review of the G20 legislation undertaken by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission. The authors conclude that the policing of G20, based on extensive dialogue and minimization of coercive public order strategies, fostered a peaceful G20 event. The article concludes with observations about the perceived success of G20 policing in Australia, and indicates some lessons learned for best practice policing for future global events.


The objective of this work is assessment of the toxicological effects of the organophosphorus compounds (methidathion and chlorpyrifos) and the usefulness of some parameters as bioindicators. Haematology and serum biochemistry were assayed in 15 cockrels at random age of 4 - 6 weeks. The birds were randomly assigned to 3 oral (by mouth) pulse-dose treatments of 0, 3.5 mg/kg chlorpyrifos, and 7.5 mg/kg methidathion, respectively. Haematology and serum biochemistry were used as indices of toxicosis. Significantly (P < 0.05) reduced WBC, Neutrophils and Lymphocyte counts were observed in the groups of birds dosed with chlorpyrifos and methidathion. PCV, Hb, and RBC were significantly decreased by methidathion while chlorpyrifos caused a significant increase in these parameters. Results obtained in this study also showed that methidathion and chlorpyrifos caused significant decrease in the levels of ALP, ALT, TP, and ALB. While methidathion caused a significant decrease in the level of AST reverse is the case for chlorpyrifos with respect to AST. It was also observed that both organophosphates had no significant effect on the level of BIL. The study thus showed that the evaluated parameters can serve as useful bioindicators of the sub lethal exposure to organophosphorus compounds.

 Key words: Biochemistry, chlorpyrifos, methidathion, bioindicators, cockrels, haematology.


In February 2016, the results of the Flexibility in Duty Hour Requirements for Surgical Trainees (FIRST) Trial were released1 amidst controversy. Participating general surgical residency programs were randomized to either a control arm, which adhered to current Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty hour requirements, or an intervention arm, which relaxed many duty hour restrictions while still adhering to the 80-hour work week. Critics of the trial questioned the ethics of its design and conduct. Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, and the American Medical Student Association, filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the study's unethical nature. They contended that the FIRST Trial was misclassified as nonhuman subjects research, involved unacceptable risk for the residents in the intervention arm, and failed to satisfy informed consent requirements.2 While these complaints represented an oversimplified view of the relevant issues, they highlighted the need to discuss the inherent ethical complexities of this trial. These issues, which are not unique to the FIRST Trial and could arise in future randomized studies testing institutional policy changes, include (1) institutional review board (IRB) determination, (2) assessment of equipoise, and (3) informed consent.


Ruthenium red (RR), an ammoniated form of tris-ruthenium(III,IV,III) oxychloride, has been widely used in the micromolar range as a strong and specific inhibitor of in vitro and in vivo Ca(2+)-mediated biochemical processes without regard for its redox properties. We show here that in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) and an electron source, either succinate-energized rat liver mitochondria or ascorbate, RR amplifies the generation of methyl radicals. The EPR spin trapping signal of the 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide/methyl radical (DMPO/.CH3) adduct obtained from incubations of TBHP (1.5 mM) and mitochondria (5 mg protein/ml) in an adequate medium increases upon addition of RR in a concentration-dependent fashion: sixfold at 10 microM RR. Respiring mitochondria can be replaced by ascorbate (1 mM), the characteristic EPR signal of the ascorbyl radical also being observed (aH = 0.18 mT). Spectrophotometric, cyclic voltammetric and spectroelectrochemical studies unequivocally show oxidation of RR(III,IV,III) (lambda max = 538 nm) to the ruthenium(IV,III,IV) species ("ruthenium brown," RB; lambda max = 464 nm) by TBHP, followed by its one-electron back reduction to RR by the respiratory chain or ascorbate. The calcium chelator EGTA (1 mM) strongly binds and stabilizes the RR form, slowing down its recycling by TBHP and either ascorbate or the mitochondrial electron chain. These data clearly show that Ru(III) in the RR complex can reduce TBHP via a Fenton-type reaction and thus must be considered when RR is used as a tool to study biological processes simultaneously involving Ca2+ ions and peroxides.


IBM Rational Application Developer is a very important tool for developers, but it is also a complex product. An Introduction to IBM Rational Application Developer, A Guided Tour is designed to jumpstart the learning process with its focus on interactive hands-on learning through a wide variety of useful, practical, end-to-end tutorials. Hands-on exercises and in-depth explanations form chapter "modules" within the book, thereby providing a complete step-by-step guide to each specific topic while allowing readers to pick and choose which tutorials they want (or need) to study without necessarily going in chapter order. And, because of its modular structure, each tutorial's sample code is independent of any earlier tutorials, freeing readers to skip from tutorial to tutorial, based on their specific knowledge requirements. Because of this design, this book continues to be a useful reference as a reader's "need to know" increases.Using this book's method, readers quickly learn IBM Rational Application Developerregardless of their previous level of experience or inexperience. For beginners, there are tutorials that teach how to create Web, EJB, JMS, and Web Services applications using Rational Application Developer. For the more advanced readers, there are tutorials on security, publishing, testing, team development, profiling, and logging. Written to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, the tutorials run on common databases, including IBM Cloudscape, IBM DB2 Universal Database, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase Enterprise Systems, and Oracle Database.


This paper presents fast non-sampling based methods to assess the risk of trajectories for autonomous vehicles when probabilistic predictions of other agents' futures are generated by deep neural networks (DNNs). The presented methods address a wide range of representations for uncertain predictions including both Gaussian and non-Gaussian mixture models for predictions of both agent positions and controls. We show that the problem of risk assessment when Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) of agent positions are learned can be solved rapidly to arbitrary levels of accuracy with existing numerical methods. To address the problem of risk assessment for non-Gaussian mixture models of agent position, we propose finding upper bounds on risk using Chebyshev's Inequality and sums-of-squares (SOS) programming; they are both of interest as the former is much faster while the latter can be arbitrarily tight. These approaches only require statistical moments of agent positions to determine upper bounds on risk. To perform risk assessment when models are learned for agent controls as opposed to positions, we develop TreeRing, an algorithm analogous to tree search over the ring of polynomials that can be used to exactly propagate moments of control distributions into position distributions through nonlinear dynamics. The presented methods are demonstrated on realistic predictions from DNNs trained on the Argoverse and CARLA datasets and are shown to be effective for rapidly assessing the probability of low probability events.


Objectives: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors versus docetaxel in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Methods: A Markov model was constructed to simulate the clinical outcomes and costs of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Clinical outcomes data were derived from randomized clinical trials. Drug acquisition cost and other health resource use were obtained from the claim data of a tertiary hospital and the National Health Insurance. The outcome was an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio expressed as cost per quality-adjusted life year gained. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the uncertainty of the model parameters. Results: In the base case, patients treated with immunotherapies in the second line were associated with higher costs and higher mean survival. The incremental costs per quality-adjusted life year gained for pembrolizumab, nivolumab, or atezolizumab compared to docetaxel were NT$416,102, NT$1,572,912 and NT$1,580,469, respectively. Conclusion: The results showed that pembrolizumab was more cost effective than nivolumab and atezolizumab compared with docetaxel as a second-line regimen for patients with previously treated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer at willingness to pay threshold in Taiwan.


In this work, the isothermal decomposition of poly(methyl methacrylate) synthesized in bulk by the radical route of methyl methacrylate in the presence of azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator was carried out and monitored for the first time with the DART-Tof-MS technique at different temperatures. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis revealed a predominantly atactic microstructure, and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis indicated a number average molecular weight of 3 × 105 g·mol−1 and a polydispersity index of 2.47 for this polymer. Non-isothermal decomposition of this polymer carried out with thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) showed that the weight loss process occurs in two steps. The first one starts at approximately 224 °C and the second at 320 °C. The isothermal decomposition of this polymer carried out and monitored with the DART-Tof-MS method revealed only one stage of weight loss in this process, which begins at approximately 250 °C, not far from that of the second step observed in the case of the non-isothermal process conducted with the TGA method. The results obtained with the MS part of this technique revealed that the isothermal decomposition of this polymer regenerates a significant part of methyl methacrylate monomer, which increases with temperature. This process involves radical chain reactions leading to homolytic chain scissions and leading to the formation of secondary and tertiary alkyl radicals, mainly regenerating methyl methacrylate monomer through an unzipping rearrangement. Although they are in the minority, other fragments, such as the isomers of 2-methyl carboxyl, 4-methyl, penta-2,4-diene and dimethyl carbate, are also among the products detected. At 200 °C, no trace of monomer was observed, which coincides with the first step of the weight loss observed in the TGA. These compounds are different to those reported by other researchers using TGA coupled with mass spectrometry in which methyl isobutyrate, traces of methyl pyruvate and 2,3-butanonedione were detected.


In virtualized radio access network (vRAN), the base station (BS) functions are decomposed into virtualized components that can be hosted at the centralized unit or distributed units through functional splits. Such flexibility has many benefits; however, it also requires solving the problem of finding the optimal splits of functions of the BSs in such a way that minimizes the total network cost. The underlying vRAN system is complex and precise modelling of it is not trivial. Formulating the functional split problem to minimize the cost results in a combinatorial problem that is provably NP-hard, and solving it is computationally expensive. In this paper, a constrained deep reinforcement learning (RL) approach is proposed to solve the problem with minimal assumptions about the underlying system. Since in deep RL, the action selection is the outcome of inference of a neural network, it can be done in real-time while training to update the neural networks can be done in the background. However, since the problem is combinatorial, even for a small number of functions, the action space of the RL problem becomes large. Therefore, to deal with such a large action space, a chain rule-based stochastic policy is exploited in which a long short-term memory (LSTM) network-based sequence-to-sequence model is applied to estimate the policy that is selecting the functional split actions. However, the utilized policy is still limited to an unconstrained problem, and each split decision is bounded by vRAN's constraint requirements. Hence, a constrained policy gradient method is leveraged to train and guide the policy toward constraint satisfaction. Further, a search strategy by greedy decoding or temperature sampling is utilized to improve the optimality performance at the test time. Simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution using synthetic and real network datasets. Our numerical results show that the proposed RL solution architecture successfully learns to make optimal functional split decisions with the accuracy of the solution is up to 0.05% of the optimality gap. Moreover, our solution can achieve considerable cost savings compared to C-RAN or D-RAN systems and a faster computational time than the optimal baseline.


AIM OF THE WORK
The aim of the present work was to study the role of vascular surgery in the management of primary vasculitis patients with peripheral ischemic manifestations.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Ten primary vasculitis patients with peripheral ischemic manifestations were studied and reviewed for the diagnosis, clinical manifestations, investigations, treatment options and role of vascular surgery. The Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) was recorded.

RESULTS
Giant cell arteritis was present in one patient; granulomatosis with polyangiitis in 5, essential cryoglobulinemic vasculitis in 3 and 1 (child) had Henoch-Schönlein purpura. They showed the following peripheral vascular manifestations: intermittent claudications, Raynauds, deep venous thrombosis and thrombophelebitis in 10% each; digital ulceration and trophic changes in 20% while acrocyanosis and dry gangrene were present in 30%. Renal involvement was present in 60% of patients. The mean BVAS was 11.5 ± 6.57 at initial presentation. The disease activity remarkably improved over the disease course in all patients to be at their last visit (2.6 ± 2.22) (p=0.002). Regarding the vascular surgery role in their management, in addition to their medical treatment, 40% required an additional surgical intervention. Two had a minor amputation of the toes; one performed thoracoscopic cervical sympathectomy and another needed tibial angioplasty.

CONCLUSION
Primary vasculitis patients presenting with peripheral ischemic manifestations require surgical attention. Their management is essentially medical and individualized to the diagnosis and presenting symptoms. Endovascular treatment may offer a safe and less invasive approach in high surgical risk patients. Sympathectomy is of high therapeutic potential in those with severe pain and trophic changes.


ABSTRACT The concept of domestic veto players has become a popular explanation for foreign policy rigidity. We argue that veto players can be amenable to new policy initiatives – in our case preferential trade agreements (PTAs) – but then choose to exert a strong influence on their contents. Drawing upon more than a dozen PTA-design variables for an expanded collection of postwar trade agreements, our quantitative tests reveal that veto players systematically shape what is included in, and excluded from, PTAs. Most notably, agreements concluded under greater veto-player constraints contain fewer liberalization commitments, weaker dispute settlement, and more opt-outs in the form of trade remedies. Our findings highlight domestic political actors as important determinants of international institutional design and show that veto players exert additional, and perhaps stronger, influence on what is proscribed in agreements, not just whether they are enacted in the first place.


The stabilizing potentials and work functions of elemental metals were calculated for the flat surface, the (111), (100) and (110) faces using the stabilized jellium model. The calculated work functions were compared with experimental values and calculated values obtained using the ab initio method. The stabilizing potentials for the different faces of the metals revealed that the less densely packed faces require higher potential for stabilization in the stabilized jellium model. The calculated work functions for the flat surface of the metals were in perfect agreement with experimental values for metals in the low-density limit and the agreement with experimental values decreased towards the high-density limit. The calculated work functions for the body centred cubic metals were in good agreement with experimental values. The calculated work function for the hexagonal close packed metals were in fairly good agreement with experimental values while the degree of agreement with experimental values was least for face centred cubic metals. The work functions of metals calculated in this work revealed that the more closely packed faces have higher work functions. The results obtained in this work revealed that the stabilized jellium model could be used to predict fairly well the work function of metals and calculate other metallic properties. JONAMP Vol. 11 2007: pp. 445-454


This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of using finite element analysis to model the
thenno-mechanica1 effects of manufacturing processes on electronics interconnection.
The thesis has two significant complementary parts. The first of these explores
the modelling of heat transfer in a commercial solder reflow furnace to contribute to
the understanding of the non-unifonn distribution of heat on a printed circuit board
within the furnace. The second part of the thesis identifies the thermal stresses in a die
attach assembly using an electrically conductive adhesive, typically cured in a reflow
furnace, thereby indicating potential points of failure.
The first part of the thesis reports the calibrated modelling of a reflow furnace of commercial
complexity as part of the demonstration of the feasibility of creating a concurrent
engineering design tool for electronic interconnection. The application of a
technique using area proportional thermal conductances to model the convective heat
transfer between the furnace and board is demonstrated. The model explores the
effects of the mechanisms of heat transfer within the oven to show that this is more
uniform with the addition of convection and that edge heaters appear to have little
effect. In the second part of the thesis the effect of the material properties of glass transition
temperature, Youngs Modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion were quantified
using finite element modelling, to show that these properties significantly affect the
structural integrity of the interconnections constructed using conductive adhesives.
Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI) methods are also shown to be an
effective method of validating such finite element models. This work required the
measurement of the viscoelastic properties of typical materials using novel specimen
preparation techniques. It is anticipated that the conclusions presented are conservative
because of the assumptions and sensitivity analyses made during the modelling
activity.
The combined results of the two parts of this work demonstrates the feasibility of
modelling the solder reflow process and highlights the potential of electrically conductive
adhesives as replacement for solder in high temperature applications. Promising
avenues for further work include improved non-linear modelling of
interconnection systems and understanding of the effect of rework, including reliability
assessment. In addition, further work remains to be carried out in the determination
of relevant material properties in representative configurations.


BACKGROUND Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been shown to aid in the diagnosis of extremity acute compartment syndrome (ACS), offering continuous real-time capability to monitor perfusion in extremities. Porcine models of ACS have been developed to attempt to aid in the understanding of the development of ACS and provide better methods of diagnosing ACS. The objective of the present study was to assess and correlate NIRS, tibial intracompartmental pressure (TICP), tibial intracompartmental perfusion pressure (TIPP), serum markers of inflammation and muscle injury in a balloon compression model of ACS. METHODS Six swine were used. Balloon catheters were inflated below the cranial tibial muscle. Systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressures; compartmental pressures; and oximetry were measured before, during, and after balloon inflation/deflation. Cranial tibial muscle was collected for muscle damage scoring. Serum creatine kinase, myoglobin, tumor necrosis factor &agr;, IL-1&bgr;, and IL-6 were measured. Data analysis included comparing differences in TICP, NIRS, and TIPP measurements as well as creatine kinase, myoglobin, tumor necrosis factor &agr;, IL-1&bgr;, and IL-6 levels between time points. Pearson correlations were calculated for muscle degeneration and edema and NIRS. RESULTS Increases in TICP and decreases in TIPP were found. Near-infrared spectroscopy detected significant changes in tissue oxygenation at all the same time points. Myoglobin significantly increased from 45.7 ± 13.0 ng/mL (baseline) to 219.5 ± 57.3-ng/mL (balloon deflation) and continued to increase over the duration of the study. Creatine kinase significantly increased 2 hours after balloon deflation. Cranial tibial muscle degeneration, necrosis, and edema scores were higher in the test than the control legs. CONCLUSIONS Near-infrared spectroscopy of the compartment provided a reliable, sensitive measure of both an increase and decrease in TICP and TIPP in this porcine balloon model of ACS. Creatine kinase and myoglobin significantly increased following balloon removal. Significant correlations between muscle degeneration, edema, hemorrhage, and NIRS were found.


This paper presents a cost-benefit analysis of the Multi-Terminal Voltage Source Converter based HVDC (VSC-MTDC) using a proposed Mixed ac/dc Optimal Power Flow (M-OPF). In this analysis, the operational benefits of VSC-MTDC systems are evaluated and compared with their corresponding investment costs to derive the benefit-to-cost ratios (BCR) for selected candidates of VSC-MTDC systems in the transmission expansion planning. Case studies using a modified Nordic 32-bus system have been carried out. The results have shown that the embedded VSC-MTDC system might bring out a reduction in total operation cost depending on its configuration and location. The proposed M-OPF model incorporates a detailed model of a VSC-MTDC, and is suitable to the operation and planning analysis of the ac transmission grid with the embedded VSC-MTDC system.


More than 50 percent of the land area of the Nordic countries Finland, Norway, and Sweden are covered by dense forests and they are among the most important producers of forest products in the world. Forestry in these countries is based on sustainable management principles – reforestation follows harvesting. Furthermore, increasing demands for more gentle techniques and technologies with less negative impact on the environment ask for development and implementation of new processes and new machine solutions. The increasing interest in developing forest management approaches that are based on gentleness to the environment requires better understanding of the interaction between the forestry machines and the terrain in the harvesting process.


The accuracy of partial weightbearing was assessed in six healthy volunteers and 23 patients who had sustained either a fracture of a lower limb or surgery. They were trained to weightbear partially using the conventional bathroom scale method and were assessed in a gait laboratory using force platforms. The amount of weight exerted on the involved limb during three-point crutch walking was determined. Four of six volunteers exerted a mean of 27% of body weight more than required. The remaining two volunteers exerted a mean of 8.5% of body weight less than required. Of the 23 patients, 21 exerted a mean of 35.3% of body weight more than that prescribed and two patients exerted a mean of 11.97% of body weight less than that prescribed. In both groups there was little relationship between the weightbearing prescribed and actual weightbearing. None of the patients or volunteers was able to reproduce the extent of partial weightbearing for which they were trained using the bathroom scale method, confirming that this technique of instructing patients in partial weightbearing is inaccurate.


Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act gives the FTC an undefined mandate to prosecute "unfair methods of competition." For nearly 100 years, the Commission has searched tirelessly for the meaning of this amorphous concept. Since 1992, the FTC has continued to define Section 5 through a series of consent decrees. Absent any external constraint, the FTC appears to have broad discretion to define the reach of Section 5 beyond the Sherman Act. This discretion causes uncertainty, which is likely to deter beneficial conduct. It also creates incentives to divert resources from productive to redistributional purposes. The recent FTC investigation of Google illustrates the FTC's discretion to define the reach of Section 5. This paper suggests that the FTC issue a binding statement making Section 5 coterminous with the Sherman Act or limiting Section 5 to conduct that clearly harms consumers through adverse effects on competition, and that would not otherwise fall under the antitrust laws.


Abstract Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of enzymes whose members transduce a large variety of cellular signals instigated by the receptor-mediated hydrolysis of membrane phospholipids. While PKC has been widely implicated in the pathology of diseases affecting all areas of physiology including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease—it was discovered, and initially characterized, in the brain. PKC plays a key role in controlling the balance between cell survival and cell death. Its loss of function is generally associated with cancer, whereas its enhanced activity is associated with neurodegeneration. This review presents an overview of signaling by diacylglycerol (DG)-dependent PKC isozymes in the brain, and focuses on the role of the Ca2+-sensitive conventional PKC isozymes in neurodegeneration.


The fashion for leading a healthy lifestyle has recently reached Polish society. Inspired by exposure through the mass media, many people have decided to introduce changes into the way they eat and exercise, primarily in order to become healthier and slimmer. According to recent surveys, one of the most popular sources of information concerning healthy lifestyles is, of course, the Internet. It is an extremely functional tool that allows its users not only the possibility to find the relevant information they need, but it also helps them create their own resources containing advice and information for other like-minded users. This article analyzes examples of Polish vlogs posted on the Youtube.pl platform that are principally devoted to improving fitness, as well as showing the most effective ways to lose weight. The four main areas of focus investigated are: the vloggers' motivations for creating and publishing videos, the vloggers' reference to their own bodies, the reasons they offer for seeking a healthier way of living, the vloggers' bodies as their representation in the social space of the Internet, and the role of the Internet community in the many processes in helping people become slimmer.


A total of 243 Lesser White-fronted Geese Anser erythropus were counted along the Rauchua River and its main tributaries, the Konevaam and Ngagleyngyvaam Rivers, in July–August 2010. Average size of flocks that included broods was 27.5 individuals (s.d. = 10.7, range = 10–40, n = 8). Mean brood size was 3.57 goslings (s.d. = 1.22, range = 2–6, n = 14). Gosling age varied from 4 to 6.5 weeks. Of the Lesser Whitefronted Geese seen on the Rauchua River, 65% were young birds and 32.5% were brood-rearing (breeding) adults, whilst just 2.5% were non-breeders. We estimated that 500–600 pairs of Lesser White-fronted Geese bred in the Rauchua Basin in spring 2010, a dramatic increase from none present in 1983. This could indicate a local increase in response to human emigration from the catchment or a more general increase in the Eastern Population of the Lesser White-fronted Goose.


It is well known that the forestry sector is sensitive to climate change but most studies have examined impacts only through 2100 and warming of less than 4°C. This is the first timber analysis to consider possible climate change impacts out to 2250 and warming up to 11°C above 1900 levels. The results suggest that large productivity gains through 2190 lead to a continued expansion of the global timber supply. However, as carbon fertilization effects diminish and continued warming causes forestland to continue to shrink, warming above 8°C is predicted to become harmful to the forest sector.


2,3-O-Methylene-L-threitol (Thx) is a cyclic carbohydrate-based diol prepared by acetalization and subsequent reduction of the naturally occurring tartaric acid. The structure of Thx consists of a 1,3-dioxolane ring with two attached primary hydroxyl groups. Two series of partially bio-based poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) copolyesters were prepared using Thx as a comonomer by melt polycondensation (MP) and solid-state modification (SSM). Fully random copolyesters were obtained after MP using mixtures of Thx and 1,4-butanediol in combination with dimethyl terephthalate. Copolyesters with a unique block-like chemical microstructure were prepared by the incorporation of Thx into the amorphous phase of PBT by SSM. The partial replacement of the 1,4-butanediol units by Thx resulted in satisfactory thermal stabilities and gave rise to an increase of the Tg values, this effect was comparable for copolyesters prepared by MP and SSM. The partially bio-based materials prepared by SSM displayed higher melting points and easier crystallization from the melt, due to the presence of long PBT sequences in the backbone of the copolyester. The incorporation of Thx in the copolyester backbone enhanced the hydrolytic degradation of the materials with respect to the degradation of pure PBT.


Risk management is the responsible supervision of an activity, operation, or process so as to minimize the potential for loss and to maximize safety for all those involved. This book defines risk management and the aspects of loss including safety committees, accident investigation, risk management on the fireground, and the issues surrounding sexual harassment. Learn how to manage these problems, avoiding confrontation and possible risk exposure in the future with specific examples of common departmental loss. Contents: Risk management defined The nature of loss The five-step risk management process Methods of managing risk The safety committee Incedent investigation Managing risks and emergency operations Risk management and the quality management program Putting it all together Sexual harassment in the fire service Studies in case law Common departmental loss exposures.


There are investigated the possibilities to avoid or at least to reduce the Al2O3 scales formation on NiAl powder particles at its plasma spray deposition on steel substrates. The optimum processing parameters and the necessity to surround the plasma jet by an inert gas have been established. In appropriate processing conditions, the obtained coating layer is formed by flattened particles, welded together and to the substrate, proving their melting during spraying. It is dense and adherent, consisting of NiAl with only small Al2O3 inclusions, proving the NiAl stability preserving without decomposition or a notable oxidation, as premises of its desired functionality achievement.


A new small molecule-based hole selective material (HSM), 4,4′,4′′-(7,7′,7′′-(5,5,10,10,15,15-hexahexyl-10,15-dihydro-5H-diindeno[1,2-a:1′,2′-c]fluorene-2,7,12-triyl)tris(2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxine-7,5-diyl))tris(N,N-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)aniline) (TRUX-E-T), has been developed by a facile synthesis with reduced cost. The highest occupied molecular orbital energy level and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level of TRUX-E-T are −5.10 and −2.50 eV, respectively, making it a suitable HSM for lead iodide perovskite solar cells. TRUX-E-T can be smoothly deposited onto perovskite layers, enabling efficient perovskite solar cells with thin TRUX-E-T layers (∼50 nm), which helps cut the unit cost of the HSL used in PVSCs to approximately one-fortieth (1/40) of 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis (N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamino)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD). Additionally, TRUX-E-T exhibits hole mobilities as high as 2.47 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1, better than spiro-OMeTAD. As a result, our perovskite solar cells using TRUX-E-T have shown high fill factors up to 82%. The champion cell achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency of 18.35% (16.44%) when measured under reverse (forward) voltage scan under AM1.5 G 100 mW cm−2 illumination. Our un-encapsulated cells exhibited good stability in ambient air, maintaining 96.4% of their initial efficiency of 18.35% after 20 days of storage.


This paper's main goal is to study how religious studies teachers and religious studies teacherstudents reason concerning armed religious conflicts, with fundamentalism and terrorism ascentral concepts. The study does this with the use of semi-structured interviews. The resultsare analyzed with a phenomenographic analysis with the interviewees' understanding of thecentral concepts being the target of the interviews. The point being that they should deliberateand reason regarding the concepts and how these could be implemented in religious studies inupper secondary school. From the results of the study it is possible to see that the intervieweespossesses good understanding for the central concepts and how these could be used ineducation on armed religious conflicts. The factor that governed whether central conceptswould be brought up during the interviewees' teaching or not, was the notably smalltimeframe they felt limiting education in religious studies in upper secondary school.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the patterns of paging medical interns during night calls.

DESIGN
Descriptive study; diaries were used to log calls between 7 pm and 7 am for 1 week in February 1991.

SETTING
Two teaching hospitals in Halifax.

PARTICIPANTS
All 10 interns assigned to the 15 medical units and nurses from 3 representative medical units.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Number and nature of calls.

RESULTS
The overall response rate was 90%. A total of 309 calls were logged by the interns and 107 by the nurses. Each intern had 17 calls on average (range 6 to 33) per 12-hour period. Of the calls 27% occurred after midnight, 25% disrupted sleeping, and 19% interrupted direct patient contact. Overall, the most common reasons for paging interns were related to prescribing of medications (42% of the calls), direct patient assessment (25%) and reporting of laboratory results (18%). According to the nurses, there were no delays in the interns' responding to the pages, and 61% of the calls led to a new physician order.

CONCLUSIONS
Paging frequently interrupts interns during work and rest on night calls. Assessment of paging patterns may be useful in identifying specific interventions to reduce the number of calls so that interns will have fewer interruptions during patient encounters and more rest. The collection of data from nurses in a routine nursing audit may be useful for evaluating the communication between interns and nurses and, indirectly, for assessing interns' workload.


The phyllitic mudrocks, quartz wacke sandstones and mélange units of the Annascaul Formation in the SE Dingle Peninsula, SW Ireland have been previously assumed to be Silurian in age, similar to overlying fossiliferous Wenlock rocks of the Ballynane Member. The contact between the Ballynane Member and the underlying Annascaul beds is either faulted or unconformable , and the Annascaul mudrocks contain two or more cleavages not present in the Silurian Ballynane and younger strata. The Ballynane Member is therefore differentiated from the Annascaul Formation by upgrading the proven Wenlock Ballynane beds to formational status. Grey and black mudrocks in the Annascaul Formation have yielded diagnostic palynomorph assemblages indicative of an Early Ordovician age. The Annascaul Formation invites comparison with similar Early Ordovician rocks, south of the putative trace of the Iapetus Suture, in SE and eastern Ireland, in the English Lake District, and in central Newfoundland.


The Rural New York Minute is a publication of Cornell University's Community & Rural Development Institute (CaRDI), edited by Robin M. Blakely. These publications are free for public reproduction with proper accreditation. For more information on CaRDI, our program areas, and past publications, please visit: www.cardi.cornell.edu. Cornell University is an equal opportunity affirmative action educator and employer. Department of Development Sociology Cornell University


The delivery and content of interprofessional education (IPE) varies greatly. Currently there is little evidence to suggest the most effective approach. This paper describes an interprofessional learning programme offered to second year healthcare students (IPL2), which was developed together with the students. At the outset of developing IPL2, an interprofessional student planning group (supported by a facilitator) was formed. The student planning group (SPG) reported back their ideas to an IPL steering group. Student feedback forms from 2005–2006 were used for the review and further development of IPL2. Analysis of student feedback was completed using median (for the quantitative elements of the form) and content analysis (for the qualitative elements). Post-programme student feedback included suggestions such as improvements to the case scenario, issues such as the logistical problems associated with students being on placement and how to overcome this by expanding the use of a virtual learning environment. Student views have informed both the original and ongoing development of IPL2 and ensure that the IPL programme remains relevant to the students. This model of involving students in the development of IPL has proven effective and can be applied to other settings.


Background: The Well-being Process Questionnaire (WPQ) has proven to be a useful instrument in the measurement of well-being. This is because it uses single/short items to measure several well-being variables with the same instrument. This article attempts to add resilience, work-life balance and burnout to the WPQ to find out if they increase its predictive value. Aims: First, to confirm the effect of the established predictors from previous studies which used the WPQ. Secondly, to test new variables: resilience, work-life balance and burnout to observe how they relate with the established variables to check for the possibility of their subsequent addition to future iterations of the WPQ. Methodology: The research summarized in this paper comprises two studies. The sample for the first study comprised 105 White British workers (male and female), aged 18-66 (mean age: 39.8). The sample for the second study was 145 university undergraduates (male and female), aged 18-23 (mean age: 19.19). Ethical approval for both studies was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of the Cardiff University School of Psychology. The theoretical framework was the Demands-Resources Individual Effects (DRIVE) model, while the instruments used were the Well-being Process Questionnaire (WPQ) and the Student Well-being Process Questionnaire (Student WPQ) respectively. Regressions were carried out to test for the established effects. Stepwise regressions were performed to ascertain if the combination of the established effects and new variables had any significant implications for future WPQ iterations and studies. Results: Many of the established effects were replicated in both studies. The longer and shorter items for burnout and work-life balance showed moderate to strong correlations at P<0.001: emotional exhaustion, .67, depersonalization, .62 and personal efficacy, 0.58 Work-Family Conflict (WFC), .74 and Family-Work Conflict (FWC), .72. For resilience, the shorter and longer scales only correlated in one of the two steps of the confirmatory analyses. Some of the established effects remained after demographics and the new variables were controlled for in stepwise regressions for both studies. Both poor work-life balance and burnout seemed to be related to the negative established effects. Conclusion: All components of work-life balance and burnout (except personal accomplishment) should be included in future iterations of the WPQ.


Energetic electrons of Jovian origin have been observed for decades throughout the heliosphere, as far as 11 au, and as close as 0.5 au, from the Sun. The treatment of Jupiter as a continuously emitting point source of energetic electrons has made Jovian electrons a valuable tool in the study of energetic electron transport within the heliosphere. We present observations of Jovian electrons measured by the EPI-Hi instrument in the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun instrument suite on Parker Solar Probe at distances within 0.5 au of the Sun. These are the closest measurements of Jovian electrons to the Sun, providing a new opportunity to study the propagation and transport of energetic electrons to the inner heliosphere. We also find periods of nominal connection between the spacecraft and Jupiter in which expected Jovian electron enhancements are absent. Several explanations for these absent events are explored, including stream interaction regions between Jupiter and Parker Solar Probe and the spacecraft lying on the opposite side of the heliospheric current sheet from Jupiter, both of which could impede the flow of the electrons. These observations provide an opportunity to gain a greater insight into electron transport through a previously unexplored region of the inner heliosphere.


Evidence for electroweak production of two jets in association with a Z γ pair in √ s = 13 TeV proton– proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The analysis uses data collected by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36 . 1 fb − 1 . Events that contain a Z boson candidate decaying leptonically into either e + e − or μ + μ − , a photon, and two jets are selected. The electroweak component is measured with observed and expected significances of 4 . 1 standard deviations. The fiducial cross-section for electroweak production is measured to be σ Z γ jj − EW = 7 . 8 ± 2 . 0 fb, in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction. SCOAP 3 .


The incremental aggregated gradient algorithm is popular in network optimization and machine learning research. However, the current convergence results require the objective function to be strongly convex. And the existing convergence rates are also limited to linear convergence. Due to the mathematical techniques, the stepsize in the algorithm is restricted by the strongly convex constant, which may make the stepsize be very small (the strongly convex constant may be small). In this paper, we propose a general proximal incremental aggregated gradient algorithm, which contains various existing algorithms including the basic incremental aggregated gradient method. Better and new convergence results are proved even with the general scheme. The novel results presented in this paper, which have not appeared in previous literature, include: a general scheme, nonconvex analysis, the sublinear convergence rates of the function values, much larger stepsizes that guarantee the convergence, the convergence when noise exists, the line search strategy of the proximal incremental aggregated gradient algorithm and its convergence.


Within any space mission, the design of the trajectory that the spacecraft will travel across is one of the essential and most important steps. For the launch of smaller rockets, this is also a key analysis to be done during the development of the project, ensuring that the rocket achieves its flight objectives and enabling the definition of a safety radius based on its landing site. Therefore, the present work proposes the development of a tool to simulate the trajectory of small rockets that is satisfactory for use in academic projects, acting as a free alternative to similar software available on the market. For this task, the Python programming language is used, due to its open-source characteristic and shorter execution times compared to similar languages during the execution of numerical computation methods, which are necessary for modeling the rocket's flight dynamics. The results found with the use of the tool for simulating the trajectory of a model rocket are sufficient for the purpose of this work, reaching similar findings to those of simulations carried out in OpenRocket (a JAVA rocket trajectory simulation software, widely used in academic space). Moreover, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed, in which an impact point dispersion radius is estimated.


Brasgel clay has been modified via cation exchange reaction using quaternary ammonium chlorides (stearyl dimethylammonium chloride, Praepagen). Basal spacing, interlamellar structure clay have been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The organoclay was characterized by the Foster Swelling test. The results indicated that the quaternary ammonium salts were intercalated between the layers of clay. The Foster Swelling Test results indicated that the affinity of stearyl dimethylammonium chloride, Praepagen occurred in the treated clay tested in all organic solvents (diesel, gasoline, toluene and p-xylene), without and with agitation. the treated sample presented a high swelling capacity (with and without agitation) when tested in gasoline. On the other hand, when inserted in diesel oil without agitation, the treated samples presented low swelling capacity, but when the assay was performed under agitation, it yielded an intermediate swelling capacity. In Toluene, the samples presented intermediate swelling, both without and with agitation. In p-xylene, the samples presented low swelling, without and intermediate swelling, with agitation. Therefore, this clay can be used for the removal of oils and greases from polluted aqueous effluents of the petroleum industry.


A series of experiments were conducted to study impacts of the free stream Mach number, back pressure and bleed on the stability of a supersonic intake. The flow stability is related to the buzz phenomenon; oscillation of all shock waves of the intake and it may further occur during the time when the intake mass flow rate is decreasing. The present intake is an axisymmetric intake for Mach number of 2.0. The results showed that the stability margin of the intake decreases when the freestream Mach number increases for both bleed off and bleed on cases. For the configuration without bleed, the frequency of buzz oscillation is increased when the freestream Mach number is decreased or when the back pressure is increased. By applying the bleed and consequently preventing the flow separation, the intake is more stable and the shocks oscillate with a smaller amplitude during the buzz phenomenon. When the bleed is applied, the buzz triggering mechanism varied from the Dailey criterion to that of the Ferri one, a phenomenon that changes the stability characteristics of the intake considerably.


Pandemic threats of the H1N1 influenza virus have drawn attention to developing a universal vaccine against circulating and future strains of this virus. An immunoinformatics study was conducted to identify conserved peptides containing CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes from all the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) protein sequences available until February 2013 to cover the seasonal as well as the pandemic strains of the H1N1 virus. In the present study, six different immunoinformatics prediction programs were used in order to define the epitopes. Five conserved peptides of HA and six of NA protein were obtained that contained overlapping CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes. These identified peptides have a binding affinity for a large number of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) alleles. WHGSNRPWVSF of NA protein is a new peptide whose T-cell response has not been previously reported. Population coverage studies have shown that these peptide fragments have the capacity to induce a potent immune response among individuals from different populations around the world. Hence, these HA and NA peptides may be considered as interesting candidates for vaccine design.


The fatigue behaviour of the welded beam-to-column connections of steel moment resisting frame in seismic area must be evaluated. The cohesive zone model is an efficient solution to study such connections by finite elements. It respects the energetic conservation and avoids numerical issues. A three-dimensional cohesive zone model element has been implemented in the home made finite element code Lagamine [1]. It is coupled with the fatigue continuum damage model of Lemaître and Chaboche [2]. The cohesive parameters are identified by the inverse method applied on a three points bending test modelling.


Rates of molecular evolution along phylogenetic trees are influenced by mutation, selection and genetic drift. Provided that the branches of the tree correspond to lineages belonging to genetically isolated populations (e.g., multi-species phylogenies), the interplay between these three processes can be described by analyzing the process of substitutions to the common ancestor of each population. We characterize this process for a class of diffusion models from population genetics theory using the structured coalescent process introduced by Kaplan et al. (1988) and formalized in Barton et al. (2004). For two-allele models, this approach allows both the stationary distribution of the type of the common ancestor and the generator of the common ancestor process to be determined by solving a one-dimensional boundary value problem. In the case of a Wright-Fisher diffusion with genic selection, this solution can be found in closed form, and we show that our results complement those obtained by Fearnhead (2002) using the ancestral selection graph. We also observe that approximations which neglect recurrent mutation can significantly underestimate the exact substitution rates when selection is strong. Furthermore, although we are unable to find closed-form expressions for models with frequency-dependent selection, we can still solve the corresponding boundary value problem numerically and then use this solution to calculate the substitution rates to the common ancestor. We illustrate this approach by studying the effect of dominance on the common ancestor process in a diploid population. Finally, we show that the theory can be formally extended to diffusion models with more than two genetic backgrounds, but that it leads to systems of singular partial differential equations which we have been unable to solve.


Patients with functional vision disorder (FVD) may present with poor visual acuity, visual field loss, or a combination of the two. This paper illustrates the utility of objective tests in diagnosing FVD. We use sweep visual evoked potentials and eye tracking as objective tests for visual acuity and visual field, respectively. These measurements should be made early in the diagnostic process because appropriate treatment becomes more difficult the longer the patient has been undergoing medical workups and referrals. Additionally, objective proof of better visual functions can be used as confirmation of the absence of a serious organic disorder. The results are used to convince patients and parents that vision is potentially much better than the patient experiences and to explain FVD. Consultation should preferably take place in a multidisciplinary setting with trained ophthalmologists and psychologists.