Recovering the 3D representation of an object from single-view or multi-view RGB images by deep neural networks has attracted increasing attention in the past few years. Several mainstream works (e.g., 3D-R2N2) use recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to fuse multiple feature maps extracted from input images sequentially. However, when given the same set of input images with different orders, RNN-based approaches are unable to produce consistent reconstruction results. Moreover, due to long-term memory loss, RNNs cannot fully exploit input images to refine reconstruction results. To solve these problems, we propose a novel framework for single-view and multi-view 3D reconstruction, named Pix2Vox. By using a well-designed encoder-decoder, it generates a coarse 3D volume from each input image. Then, a context-aware fusion module is introduced to adaptively select high-quality reconstructions for each part (e.g., table legs) from different coarse 3D volumes to obtain a fused 3D volume. Finally, a refiner further refines the fused 3D volume to generate the final output. Experimental results on the ShapeNet and Pix3D benchmarks indicate that the proposed Pix2Vox outperforms state-of-the-arts by a large margin. Furthermore, the proposed method is 24 times faster than 3D-R2N2 in terms of backward inference time. The experiments on ShapeNet unseen 3D categories have shown the superior generalization abilities of our method.


Migration of epidermal stem cells (EpSCs) into wounds may play an important role in wound healing. Endogenous electric fields (EFs) arise naturally at wounds. Consistent with previous reports, we measured outward electric currents at rat skin wounds using vibrating probes. Topical use of prostaglandin E2 significantly promoted wound healing. However, it is not known whether EpSCs respond to EFs. We first isolated and characterized EpSCs from rat skin. We then demonstrated that EpSCs isolated from the epidermis migrated directionally toward the cathode in EFs of 50–400 mV/mm. The directedness values increased in a dose‐ and time‐dependent fashion. The migration speed of EpSCs was significantly increased in EFs. EFs induced asymmetric polymerization of intracellular F‐actin and activation of the extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1/2 and phosphatidylinositol‐3‐kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B pathways. Inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor, extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1/2, or PI3K significantly inhibited the cathodal distribution of F‐actin and the electrotactic response of EpSCs. These data for the first time show that EpSCs possess obvious electrotaxis, in which the epidermal growth factor receptor–mitogen activated protein kinase–PI3K pathways are involved. These data thus suggest a novel aspect of electric signaling in wound healing—to stimulate and guide migration of EpSCs and to regulate wound healing.


Berkowitz (this issue) makes a cogent case for his cognitive neo-associationist (CNA) model that some aggressive behaviors occur automatically, emotionally, and through conditioned association with other stimuli. He also proposes that they can occur without "processing," that is, without meaning. He contrasts his position with that of social information processing (SIP) models, which he casts as positing only controlled processing mechanisms for aggressive behavior. However, both CNA and SIP models posit automatic as well as controlled processes in aggressive behavior. Most aggressive behaviors occur through automatic processes, which are nonetheless rule governed. SIP models differ from the CNA model in asserting the essential role of meaning (often through nonconscious, automatic, and emotional processes) in mediating the link between a stimulus and an angry aggressive behavioral response.


Although trauma is usually examined as an individual experience, it is a collective dynamic. Whole communities are traumatized and dynamics of trauma involve all of us and affect the course of history. An orientation to understanding trauma is needed that is at once personal, communal and political. This paper discusses why understanding the dynamics of trauma is essential for facilitators of conflict resolution in zones of conflict and for post-war reconciliation and community building. It also considers that, in addition to international tribunals and truth commissions, there is a need for community forums throughout society to work with issues of accountability and collective trauma concerning past and current conflicts. Trauma is also relevant to such issues as understanding dynamics of revenge, the silence accompanying atrocity, and historical revisionism. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd.


The one-dimensional self-consistent simulation of the band diagram and carrier distribution of the AlGaN/GaN double hetero-structure is firstly carried out to research the effect of the thickness and Al content of the AlGaN back-barrier layer on the carrier distribution. Then the AlGaN/GaN double hetero-structure materials with different back-barrier layers were grown by low-pressure MOCVD method on c-plane sapphire substrate. The mercury probe CV measurement was carried out to verify the results of theoretical simulation. The results of theoretical simulation and experiment both indicate that with the increase of Al content and thickness of the AlGaN back-barrier layer, the two-dimensional electron Gas density becomes low in the main channel and high in the parasitic channel gradually.The increase of Al content and thickness of the AlGaN back-barrier layer effectively enhances the two-dimensional electron Gas confinement but simultaneity produces higher-density parasitic channel. So a compromise has to be made between the improvement of the two-dimensional electron Gas confinement and the restraint of the carrier density in parasitic channel in designing the double heterostructure.


ABSTRACT Background Treatment success is the desired outcome in aphasia rehabilitation. However, to date, there is a lack of consensus on what defines a 'successful' result on a given aphasia outcome measurement instrument (OMI). Aim In this methodological paper, we present strategies for how to define and measure treatment success on a given OMI at the group-level, as well as for an individual person with aphasia. The latter is particularly important when research findings from group studies are clinically implemented for individuals in rehabilitation. Scope We start by presenting methods to calculate the average statistically significant change across several (group) studies (e.g., standardised mean difference, raw unstandardised mean difference) for a given OMI. Such metrics are useful to summarise the overall effect of the intervention of interest, particularly in meta-analyses. However, benchmarks based on group effects are not feasible for assessing an individual participant's treatment success and thus for determining the proportion of patients who had a beneficial response to therapy (overall response rate of an intervention). We therefore recommend a distribution-based approach to determine benchmarks of a statistically significant treatment response at the individual level, i.e., the 'smallest detectable change' for a given OMI, which refers to the smallest change that can be detected by the OMI beyond measurement error. However, the statistical significance of an individual treatment effect does not necessarily correspond to its clinical impact. This requires an additional indicator. The benchmark to determine a clinically relevant improvement on a given OMI is the 'minimal important change'. The minimally important change is defined as the smallest OMI change score perceived as important by the relevant stakeholder group (i.e., people with aphasia, their relatives/caregivers, clinicians). It therefore requires relating the individual OMI change scores to 'anchors', i.e., meaningful external criteria, preferably based on patient-perceived therapy success. Currently, there is no consensus regarding the optimal 'anchors' and their respective definition of clinically important change in aphasia outcome research. Conclusions/Recommendations Operationalising individual treatment success based on both statistically significant and (patient-reported) clinically meaningful benchmarks is a key priority in aphasia rehabilitation. Availability of such measures will (a) facilitate estimates of therapy response rate in intervention studies and thus optimise therapeutic decisions and (b) provide stakeholder groups (e.g., the society, the stroke team, people with aphasia, family, clinicians, healthcare professionals) with objective, statistically reliable and meaningful feedback on individual treatment response in the clinical setting.


Mineralization processes in ultramafic laterites are partly controlled by fluid flow regimes in these porous and permeable systems. During weathering of ultramafic rocks, exothermic chemical reactions, such as hydration of olivine, may generate shallow subsurface (< 200 m) temperatures of several tens of °C. The reaction-induced fracturing leads to further reactions and increases the permeability. For more than 20 Myr, the peridotite massifs of New Caledonia have undergone intense weathering, and the observable undulations along the weathering front, attest to a corrugated bedrock topography. Combined together, the excess heat (up to 70-90°C) and high permeability (10^-14 to 9 10^-13 m²) might have potentially triggered hydrothermal convection, as confirmed by Rayleigh number estimates. This was numerically modeled by accounting for temperature-dependent fluid properties, and for time-dependent and spatially varying parameters simulating the deepening of the weathering front. Modeling the transient evolution of the thermal and flow velocity fields over 10 Myr reveals that hydrothermal convection can develop in the New Caledonian laterites, even on sloped surfaces where topography-driven flow prevails. Convective cells develop above the weathering front, and the models reveal two-dimensional corrugations below which weathering is no longer efficient.


The lung-draining mediastinal lymph nodes (MLNs) are currently widely used to diagnose sarcoidosis. We previously reported that T-helper (Th) 17.1 cells are responsible for the exaggerated interferon-γ production in sarcoidosis lungs. In this study, we aimed to investigate 1) whether Th17.1 cells are also increased in the MLNs of sarcoidosis patients and 2) whether frequencies of the Th17.1 cells at diagnosis may correlate with disease progression. MLN cells from treatment-naive pulmonary sarcoidosis patients (n=17) and healthy controls (n=22) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (n=34) and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) (n=36) from sarcoidosis patients were examined for CD4+ T-cell subset proportions using flow cytometry. Higher proportions of Th17.1 cells were detected in sarcoidosis MLNs than in control MLNs. Higher Th17.1 cell proportions were found in sarcoidosis BALF compared with MLNs and peripheral blood. Furthermore, BALF Th17.1 cell proportions were significantly higher in patients developing chronic disease than in patients undergoing resolution within 2 years of clinical follow-up. These data suggest that Th17.1 cell proportions in pulmonary sarcoidosis can be evaluated as a diagnostic and/or prognostic marker in clinical practice and could serve as a new therapeutic target. Th17-lineage cells are increased in sarcoidosis MLNs and BALF Th17.1 cell proportions correlate with disease progression http://ow.ly/hBb730hSEv7


We clearly have the means to examine and reduce the amounts and types of disposable medical waste that health care institutions are creating. Although there may be special circumstances that prevent specific hospitals, or specific departments within a hospital, from converting to alternative products, much improvement can still be made. There are several strong examples of hospitals across the United States with programs that have drastically cut the amount of waste they are generating. They have eliminated disposable cups and eating utensils from the cafeterias, shifted to reusable underpads and surgical linens, and established recycling programs for paper and cardboard. These few cases are not enough. We cannot be lulled into believing that these exceptional efforts on the part of a few institutions are all that is needed. We should remember that if Mother Nature had intended for us to pat ourselves on the back, our hinges would be different. What is needed is a clear statement from the health care industry of its responsibility to society with regard to managing its waste. Leadership begins with action. If the health care industry does not take steps to regulate its disposable waste, the government undoubtedly will. We do not need to wait for our supervisors or administrators to fashion credos for us. All staff members know there are numerous ways that they can affect the amount of waste produced at their hospitals. They can also begin to affect the attitudes of those working around them. The consequences of inaction are simply too great. As fictional as half-empty grocery stores may have sounded at the beginning of this article, the problems that we face with waste disposal are certainly as grim. If we wait for our state and federal governments to solve the problems, it may be too late; and if it is too late, the solutions that they develop will certainly be extreme. We have the technology and the ability to cut dramatically the amount of disposable waste that health care generates. In practically every case, the lower-waste options also save the institution money. It is time that we honestly challenged our need for today's convenience at the expense of tomorrow's quality of life.


The gradual shift of transportation fuels from oil based fuels to the alternative fuel resources and worldwide demand for energy has been the impetus for research to produce alcohol biofuels from renewable resources. Current bioethanol and biodiesel can, however, not cover an increasing demand for biofuels. Hence, there is an extensive need for advanced biofuels with superior fuel properties. The present review is focused on the developments of biobutanol, which is regarded to be superior to bioethanol in terms of energy density and hygroscopicity. Although acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation is one of the oldest large-scale fermentation processes, butanol yield by anaerobic fermentation remains sub-optimal. For sustainable industrial scale butanol production, a number of obstacles need to be addressed including choice of feedstock, low product yield, product toxicity to production strain, multiple end-products and downstream processing of alcohol mixtures. Metabolic engineering provides a means for fermentation improvements. Different strategies are employed in the metabolic engineering of Clostridia that aim to enhance the solvent production, improve selectivity for butanol production, and increase the tolerance of Clostridia to solvents. The introduction and expression of a non-clostridial butanol producing pathway in E. coli is most promising strategy for butanol biosynthesis. Several rigorous kinetic and physiological models for fermentation have been formulated, which form useful tool for optimization of the process. Due to the lower butanol titers in the fermentation broth, simultaneous fermentation and product removal techniques have been developed to improve production economics. With the use of new strains, inexpensive substrates, and superior reactor designs, economic ABE fermentation may further attract an attention of researchers all over the world. The present review is attempting to provide an overall outlook on discoveries and strategies that are being developed for commercial n -butanol production.


BACKGROUND
There are many studies on the RIFLE classification to evaluate the occurrence rate and/or outcome of acute kidney injury (AKI) in ICU patients, but there are no studies on the RIFLE classification to evaluate the outcome of AKI in lupus patients.

METHODS
This retrospective study analysed the short-term outcomes of 79 diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis patients according to the RIFLE classification.

RESULTS
A total of 46% of patients were No AKI, 23% AKI-R, 16% AKI-I and 15% AKI-F according to the maximum RIFLE class reached on the first day of admission. The percentage of progression of AKI to the more severe RIFLE class was 6% for AKI-R, 23% for AKI-I and 75% for AKI-F (P < 0.0001), and there was an increased odds ratio (OR) of progression rate with more severe RIFLE category (OR 7.7, 95% CI 2.3-25.7, P < 0.001). The recovery rate at the end of a 24-week follow-up was 100% for AKI-R, 92% for AKI-I and 33% for AKI-F (P < 0.0001). The mean time to recovery for the groups AKI-R, AKI-I and AKI-F was 4, 11 and 20 weeks, respectively (P < 0.0001). The area under the ROC curve for progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD) was 0.96 (95% CI 0.91-1.0, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
The RIFLE classification is predictive of progression and short-term prognosis of AKI in diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis.


Under the Lisbon strategy, education and training form an essential element of the social pillar which aims to modernise the European social model through investment in human resources and combating social exclusion. Up to 2004, elearning was promoted as a key element in achieving the strategy especially through the Elearning Action Plan (2004-2006). This paper will analyse the process through which elearning emerged as a policy measure in implementing the Lisbon strategy. Using Kingdon's policy streams metaphor (Kingdon, 1995), this paper will outline the policy and problem streams which coalesced in the late 1980s, opening a 'policy window', and which pushed distance learning onto the EU political agenda in the early 1990s. These included the accretion of 'soft law' around the area of vocational education and training since the Treaty of Rome in 1957; the challenges offered by the emerging new information technologies, declining industries and changing demands for skills; the adoption of distance learning systems at national level to redress disadvantage, and to provide flexible, high-quality and cost-effective access to higher education to adults who were unable to attend on-campus; and the role of the Commission, policy entrepreneurs and networks in promoting distance education as a solution to the major social and economic problems facing Europe. The Treaty of Maastricht committed the EU to supporting education and training in the community, and in particular, to 'encouraging the development of distance education' (Art 126 changed to Art 149 in Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties). A series of implementation programmes in the 1990s, including Socrates, Tempus and Phare, funded distance learning initiatives in the EU and accession countries. With the development of the Internet and web technologies, elearning came to replace distance education in the EU discourse. The paper will conclude with some observations on the current role of elearning policy within the Lisbon strategy.


The purpose of this study is to assess climate change policies with a newly developed model which is capable of dealing with the changes in the energy systems and the industrial structure up to the middle of this century. Most of the assessments based on multi-sector economic models have mainly focused on the near future around 2020 while existing energy system models mainly address the long term up to 2100 and beyond. In addition, most of the economic models have mainly discussed country level while global climate policy models have the world disaggregated into 10-15 regions. In the past studies, intensive discussion was not made on globalization, industrial structure changes etc., which are important in the global environmental context. It is necessary to incorporate the industry structure changes for multi-regions to assess the longer term and global issue of carbon emission reduction potentials. The GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) model, which has a comprehensive and consistent world economic database, is a quantitative system that has been widely used for the economic analysis on the international trade and impacts across various sectors.
In this study, we integrated the static GTAP model and an energy technology assessment model, extending it to a dynamic model to assess the dynamics of the technologies and economy under climate policy. We formulated the model as an optimization model to evaluate the technology and policy options while the original GTAP model is a general equilibrium model without an objective function. The model described in this study has 18 economic sectors and 8 energy sectors, dividing the world into 18 regions. Carbon emission reduction strategies are evaluated for the multi-regions and multi-sectors up to the mid-century with the new model.


Occupational burnout has various complications in the family, social and personal life and organization. Absence and desertion, consecutive delays, different sociological complaints, conflict, changing the job and decreased quality of patients care and interpersonal conflicts with colleagues are of its most important complications. The occupational burnout imposes various consequences and costs on organizations and employees. Therefore, we have decided to compare the occupational burnout in the female nurses of the psychiatry and neurology wards of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2015. 80 nurses of Razi hospital in Tabriz who had fully answered the questionnaires of the study were included in the research and were examined. The questionnaire consisted of questions in the field of burnout syndrome examination which was designed by IBM criteria and three components of this syndrome i.e. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personalaccomplishment were investigated. In the studies carried out, no meaningful difference were observed for the emotional exhaustion among the nurses of the psychiatry and neurology wards which indicates the identical working condition in terms of emotional exhaustion based on the questionnaire of the study. Also, no meaningful differences were observed among the nurses in the depersonalization scale, either which indicates the identical nurses in these two wards in terms of depersonalization scale. In the studies carried out, meaningful differences were observed between the emotional exhaustion and the activity duration in the nursing profession. However, in the results obtained, no meaningful differences were observed between the activity duration in the nursing profession and the depersonalization scale. Nevertheless, the emotional exhaustion level among the studied nurses in the second decade of activity in the nursing profession showed a meaningful increase compared to other years of activity. In the overall results obtained, almost 60% of the nurses suffer from emotional exhaustion and 84% of them suffer from depersonalization for which special attention is required.


Author(s): Chapple, Karen | Abstract: California is a global leader in climate policy and sustainability planning, yet its tax system may not support its climate goals. The state's reliance on a mix of income, property, sales, and other taxes may contribute to sprawling land use patterns that increase vehicle miles traveled. This could make it challenging for the state to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals for passenger vehicles. This article uses a combination of literature review and original data analysis to examine the relationship between fiscal structure and land development patterns. Previous studies have established how tax systems affect state growth, fiscal stability, and social equity, as well as how property and sales tax shapes development patterns (and thus vehicle miles traveled). Since the literature specific to California is somewhat out of date, this research adds a new analysis of city tax revenue data linked to parcel- and neighborhood-level data on development and travel characteristics.California's biggest impact on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions comes not through its ability to reduce its emissions in absolute terms, but its innovation of climate change policies that make a difference. Reforming the tax code, even if it will not have a large impact, sends a signal that states and countries can change course and also address climate change goals through their regulatory structure. Theory and evidence suggest policy principles that would help incentivize new compact development where most needed: 1) return more property tax to municipalities based on their willingness to build more compact, high-density development; 2) share property and/or sales tax regionally, rewarding jurisdictions that meet their regional housing obligations; 3) avoid penalizing new development; and 4) connect future taxes directly to environmental goals.


To evaluate the safety and feasibility of admission for elective video-EEG monitoring during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We performed a retrospective review of elective inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit admissions at our institution from May 3rd, 2020 to August 12th, 2020. All patients were screened by telephone for symptoms concerning infection or recent diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 or excess medical risk prior to admission. Patients deemed eligible for admission underwent testing via a nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 within three days of admission, and were directed to self-quarantine between testing and admission. The community seven-day case rate for SARS-CoV-2 (new cases per 100,000 population) ranged from 2.8 to 28.9 during the study period in our region. A total of 95 patients (63 adults and 32 children) were admitted. One adult patient developed mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and one adult patient tested positive for asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. These findings illustrate that inpatient epilepsy monitoring can be safely performed in carefully selected patients when appropriate processes are in place, even in the setting of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. There is a risk of nosocomial spread, and the potential benefits of admission should be balanced against the risks of infection.


Simple Summary Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug approvals from July 2007 to June 2019 were reviewed to identify oncology approvals, and trials with age details were reviewed for the study. We hypothesized that the clinical trials that do not report race are likely to suffer from a higher degree of age disparity. The study demonstrated that a significant number of clinical trials leading to cancer drug approvals suffer from racial and age disparity when compared to real-world populations and that the two factors may be interrelated. Age discrepancy between the clinical trial population and the real-world population was higher for studies that did not report race (mean difference −8.8 years (95% CI −12.6 to −5.0 years)) vs. studies that did report it. We recommend continued efforts to recruit diverse populations in clinical trials and make concerted efforts to implement national strategies in order to realize healthcare equity. In the meantime, detailed reporting of patient demographic characteristics in publications should be considered standard. Abstract Background: Concern exists that the clinical trial populations differ from respective cancer populations in terms of their age distribution affecting the generalizability of the results, especially in underrepresented minorities. We hypothesized that the clinical trials that do not report race are likely to suffer from a higher degree of age disparity. Methods: Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug approvals from July 2007 to June 2019 were reviewed to identify oncology approvals, and trials with age details were selected. The outcomes studied were the weighted mean difference in age between the clinical trial population and real-world population for various cancers, the prevalence of race reporting and association of age and race reporting with each other. Results: Of the 261 trials, race was reported in 223 (85.4%) of the trials, while 38 trials (14.6%) had no mention of race. Race reporting improved minimally over time: 29 (85.3%) in 2007–2010 vs. 49 (80.3%) in 2011–2014 vs. 145 (85.4%) during the period 2015–2019 (p-value = 0.41). Age discrepancy between the clinical trial population and the real-world population was higher for studies that did not report race (mean difference −8.8 years (95% CI −12.6 to −5.0 years)) vs. studies that did report it (mean difference −5.1 years, (95% CI −6.4 to −3.7 years), p-value = 0.04). Conclusion: The study demonstrates that a significant number of clinical trials leading to cancer drug approvals suffer from racial and age disparity when compared to real-world populations, and that the two factors may be interrelated. We recommend continued efforts to recruit diverse populations.


To the Editor. —The article by Sawin et al 1 in the August 1985 issue of theArchivesdemonstrates that screening for hypothyroidism in the elderly by measuring serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels is much more sensitive than screening by checking thyroxine levels. While this is certainly true, screening for hypothyroidism in the elderly by checking TSH levels may also miss cases of hypothyroidism. Ordene et al 2 reported that when elderly patients were administered iodine to interfere with their normal thyroid function, approximately half of the patients failed to mount an increased TSH response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone, while the young control patients did. These results indicate that the true incidence of hypothyroidism in the elderly may be even higher than the 4.4% reported by Sawin et al, because elderly patients may have an impaired ability to mount a TSH response to hypothyroidism.


Distributed file searching in delay tolerant networks formed by mobile devices can potentially support various useful applications. In such networks, nodes often present certain social network properties of their holders in terms of contents (i.e., interests) and contacts. However, current methods in DTNs only consider either content or contact for file searching or dissemination, which limits the file sharing efficiency. In this paper, we first analyze real traces to confirm the importance and necessity of considering both content and contact in file search. We then propose Cont2, a social-aware file search method that exploits both node contents and contact patterns. First, considering people with common interests tend to share files and gather together, Cont2 virtually groups common-interest nodes into a community to direct file search. Second, considering human mobility follows a certain pattern, Cont2 exploits nodes' contact frequencies with a community to expedite file searching. To further improve the searching efficiency, Cont2 also integrates sub-communities and parallel forwarding as optional components for file searching. Trace-driven experiments on the GENI testbed and NS-2 simulator show that Cont2 can effectively improve the search efficiency compared to current methods.


Abstract Peptides obtained from different animal species have gained importance recently due to research that aims to develop biopharmaceuticals with therapeutic potential. In this sense, arthropod venoms have drawn attention, not only because of their toxicity but mainly for the search for molecules with various bioactivities, including anti-inflammatory activity. The purpose of the present study is to gather data available in the literature on new peptides derived from arthropod species with anti-inflammatory potential. This systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies on peptides from arthropods that display anti-inflammatory activity were retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. The bibliographic research started in 2020 and searched papers without a limit on the publication date. The articles were analyzed using a search string containing the following terms: "Peptides" and "Anti-inflammatory", in combinations such as "Ant", "Bee", "Wasp", "Crab", "Shrimp", "Scorpion", "Spider", "Tick" and "Centipedes". Besides, a search was carried out in the databases with the terms: "Peptides", "Antitumor", or "Anticancer", and "Arthropods". Articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria totalized 171, and these served for data extraction. Additionally, the present review included anti-inflammatory peptides with anticancer properties. Peptides with confirmed anti-inflammatory activity were from insects (ants, bees, and wasps), crustaceans (shrimp and crabs), arachnids (scorpions, spiders, and ticks), and centipedes. These arthropod peptides act mainly by decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines as analyzed in vitro and in vivo. Some showed significant antineoplastic activity, working in essential cellular pathways against malignant neoplasms.


In today's markets where high frequency traders (HFTs) act as both liquidity providers and takers, I argue that information asymmetry induced by liquidity-taking HFTs' use of machine-readable information is important. This particular type of information asymmetry arises because some machines may access the information before other machines or because of randomness in relative speed. Applying a novel statistical approach to measure HFT activity through limit order book data and using a natural experiment of index inclusion, I show that liquidity-providing HFTs supply less liquidity to stocks that suffer more from this information asymmetry problem. Moreover, when markets are volatile, this information asymmetry problem becomes more severe, and HFTs supply less liquidity. I discuss implications for market-making activity in times of market stress and for HFT regulations.


Linearly organized structures in language are supposed to be easy, while hierarchical information is difficult to process. Traditional accounts attribute the difficulty of processing hierarchical sentences (the dog the man walks, barks) to the long positional distances between dependencies (Gibson, 1998). Alternately, linear structures (the man walks the dog that barks) are easier to process. In a sentence comprehension study, structure (i.e., positional distance between dependencies) was manipulated (hierarchical versus linear), and congruency between the semantic and the positional dependencies, being either congruent as in the dog the man walks, barks, neutral, as in the dog the man sees, walks, or incongruent as in the man the dog walks, barks (barks being syntactically dependent on man, but semantically on dog). The data show that structure did not, whilst semantic-syntactic congruency did strongly affect comprehension, suggesting a striking new perspective on the cognitive versus formal complexity of human language.


We provide an overidentification test for a nonparametric treatment model where individuals are allowed to select into treatment based on unobserved gains. Our test can be used to test the validity of instruments in a framework with essential heterogeneity (Imbens and Angrist 1994). The essential ingredient is to assume that a binary and a continuous instrument are available. The testable restriction is closely related to the overidentification of the Marginal Treatment Effect. We suggest a test statistic and characterize its asymptotic distribution and behavior under local alternatives. In simulations, we investigate the validity and finite sample performance of an easy-to-implement wild bootstrap procedure. Finally, we illustrate the applicability of our method by studying two instruments from the literature on teenage pregnancies. This research is motivated by the observation that in the presence of essential heterogeneity classical GMM overidentification tests can not be used to test for the validity of instruments (Heckman and Schmierer 2010). The test complements existing tests by considering for the first time the subpopulation of compliers. Our approach can be interpreted as a test of index sufficiency and is related to the test of the validity of the matching approach in Heckman et. al 1996,1998. Conditional on covariates the propensity score aggregates all information that the instruments provide about observed outcomes given that the model is correctly specified. The estimated propensity score enters our test statistic as a generated regressor. We quantify the effect of the first stage estimation error and find that in order to have good power against local alternatives we have to reduce the bias from estimating the first stage nonparametrically, e.g., by fitting a higher order local polynomial. For the second stage no bias reduction is necessary. Previous literature (Ying Ying Lee 2013) establishes the validity of a multiplier bootstrap to conduct inference in a treatment model with nonparametrically estimated regressors. Our simulations illustrate that a much easier to implement na ve wild bootstrap procedure can have good properties. In our application we consider two instruments that have been used in the analysis of the effect of teenage child bearing on high-school graduation. For the binary instrument we use teenage miscarriage and for the continuous instrument we use age of first menstrual period. If teenage girls select into pregnancy based on some unobserved heterogeneity that is correlated with their likelihood of graduation miscarriage does not constitute a valid instrument. Our test confirms this line of argument by rejecting that the treatment model is correctly specified.


— Competition is commonly understood as a process where the market shares are reallocated from the less efficient firms towards the more efficient ones. Within the evolutionary framework it is also emphasized that innovation is an important competitive weapon that will allow the firm to escape fierce price competition. The findings from the Finnish games industry suggest that efficiency and market shares are not an insightful way to analyze competition as the size of the market is not constant even in the short run, the products are far from being perfect substitutes and, as it is a case of steep increasing returns, the efficiency in game development is not of prime importance. Also, additional consideration should be given to the competition over resources and the way in which competition both encourages and restricts innovation.


Much of the coniferous zones in the Western United States where fires were historically frequent have seen large increases in stand densities and associated forest fuels due to 20th century anthropogenic influences. This condition is partially responsible for contemporary large, uncharacteristically severe wildfires. Therefore, considerable effort is under way to reduce the potential for extreme wildfire behavior and effects, especially near communities, by manipulating canopy and surface fuels using mechanical thinning and/or prescribed burning. Treatment effectiveness, however, has been difficult to quantitatively assess, but methods are now available for estimating stand-level canopy and surface fuels with which fire behavior can be more accurately modeled and compared among different fuel treatments. The Sheafman Fuels Reduction Project was recently conducted by the Bitterroot National Forest incorporating various fuel treatments to reduce the probability of high intensity crown fire impacting a watershed adjacent to Pinesdale, MT. Detailed sampling of stand conditions was conducted before and after two treatments: overstory thinning with understory cutting, and understory cutting only. Both were followed by slash burning. Surface fuel loadings were estimated from intercept data, and canopy fuels were estimated from tree data using the FuelCalc program. Pre- and posttreatment fuels data were used to model surface and crown fire behavior using the NEXUS program. A comparison was made between fire behavior computed from treatment mean fuels data and individual plot fuels data. Results indicate that because surface fuels and estimated mid-flame wind speeds increased modestly with treatments, surface fire behavior was not greatly altered until 20-ft wind speeds exceeded 20 mph. Treatment effects on canopy base heights and canopy bulk densities within the small landscape determined the level of estimated treatment effectiveness. Both treatments reduced the probability of crown fire initiation by raising canopy base heights. The likelihood of crown fire spread was appreciably reduced only in the overstory thinning treatment. An examination of plot scale surface and crown fire behavior gave a more detailed assessment of treatment effectiveness than average treatment values.


Randle Manwaring's From Controversv to Coexistence : Erangelicals in the Church of England 1914-1980 (Cambridge University Press [ 1985 ], £19.50, pp. 227, ISBN 0-521-30380-X) is both an essay in popular Church History and an exercise in rigorous self-criticism. From within the tradition, he confesses the lack of 'interest in the arts, politics, social life and feeding the hungry'; the paucity of 'intellectual or scholarly minds'; the ghetto mentality which shunned much of normal social life: and 'a rigid, legalistic attitude on liturgical and ecclesiastical matters'.


Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) has become the preferred technique for characterizing the crystallographic orientation of individual grains in polycrystalline microstructures due to its ability to rapidly measure orientations at specific points in the microstructure at resolutions of approximately 20-50nm depending on the capabilities of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and on the material being characterized. Various authors have studied the angular resolution of the orientations measured using automated EBSD. These studies have stated values ranging from approximately 0.1° to 2° [1-6]. Various factors influence the angular resolution achievable. The two primary factors are the accuracy of the detection of the bands in the EBSD patterns and the accuracy of the pattern center (PC) calibration. The band detection is commonly done using the Hough transform. The effect of varying the Hough transform parameters in order to optimize speed has been explored in a previous work [6]. The present work builds upon the earlier work but with the focus towards achieving the best angular resolution possible regardless of speed. This work first details the methodology used to characterize the angular precision then reports on various approaches to optimizing parameters to improve precision.


In the last decade, video blogs (vlogs) have become an extremely popular method through which people express sentiment. The ubiquitousness of these videos has increased the importance of multimodal fusion models, which incorporate video and audio features with traditional text features for automatic sentiment detection. Multimodal fusion offers a unique opportunity to build models that learn from the full depth of expression available to human viewers. In the detection of sentiment in these videos, acoustic and video features provide clarity to otherwise ambiguous transcripts. In this paper, we present a multimodal fusion model that exclusively uses high-level video and audio features to analyze spoken sentences for sentiment. We discard traditional transcription features in order to minimize human intervention and to maximize the deployability of our model on at-scale real-world data. We select high-level features for our model that have been successful in non-affect domains in order to test their generalizability in the sentiment detection domain. We train and test our model on the newly released CMU Multimodal Opinion Sentiment and Emotion Intensity (CMU-MOSEI) dataset, obtaining an F1 score of 0.8049 on the validation set and an F1 score of 0.6325 on the held-out challenge test set.


Objectives: To describe the clinical and neurophysiologic patterns of patients with neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses associated with CLN6 mutations. Methods: We reviewed the features of 11 patients with different ages at onset. Results: Clinical disease onset occurred within the first decade of life in 8 patients and in the second and third decades in 3. All children presented with progressive cognitive regression associated with ataxia and pyramidal and extrapyramidal signs. Recurrent seizures, visual loss, and myoclonus were mostly reported after a delay from onset; 7 children were chairbound and had severe dementia less than 4 years from onset. One child, with onset at 8 years, had a milder course. Three patients with a teenage/adult onset presented with a classic progressive myoclonic epilepsy phenotype that was preceded by learning disability in one. The EEG background was slow close to disease onset in 7 children, and later showed severe attenuation; a photoparoxysmal response (PPR) was present in all. The 3 teenage/adult patients had normal EEG background and an intense PPR. Early attenuation of the electroretinogram was seen only in children with onset younger than 5.5 years. Somatosensory evoked potentials were extremely enlarged in all patients. Conclusions: In all patients, multifocal myoclonic jerks and seizures were a key feature, but myoclonic seizures were an early and prominent sign in the teenage/adult form only. Conversely, the childhood-onset form was characterized by initial and severe cognitive impairment coupled with electroretinogram and EEG attenuation. Cortical hyperexcitability, shown by the PPR and enlarged somatosensory evoked potentials, was a universal feature.


Rijndael algorithm was unanimously chosen as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) by the panel of researchers at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in October 2000. Since then, Rijndael was destined to be used massively in various software as well as hardware entities for encrypting data. However a few years back, Daniel Bernstein devised a cache-timing attack that was capable enough to break Rijndael's seal that encapsulates the encryption key. In this paper, we propose Dynamic Cache Flushing (DCF) algorithm which shows a set of pragmatic software measures that would make Rijndael impregnable to cache timing attack. The improved Rijndael algorithm viz, DCF Algorithm provides better security by encrypting key at constant time.


Abstract The development of a comprehensive mesoscale atmospheric simulation system (MASS) is described in detail. The modeling system is designed for both research and real-time forecast applications. The 14-level numerical model, which has a 48 km grid mesh, can be run over most of North America and the adjacent oceanic regions. The model employs sixth-order accurate numerics, generalized similarity theory boundary-layer physics, a sophisticated cumulus parameterization scheme, and state of the art analysis and initialization techniques. Examples of model output on the synoptic and subsynoptic scales are presented for the AVE-SESAME I field experiment on 10–11 April 1979. The model output is subjectively compared to the observational analysis and the LFM II output on the synoptic scale. Subsynoptic model output is compared to analyses generated from the AVE-SESAME I data set.


Recently, under a fixed power budget, asymmetric multiprocessors (AMP) have been proposed to improve the performance of multi-threaded applications compared to symmetric multiprocessors. An AMP is a multiprocessor system in which its processors are not operating at the same frequency. Power consumption has become an important design constraint in servers and high-performance server clusters. This paper explores the power-performance efficiency of hyper-threaded (HT) AMP servers, and proposes a new scheduling algorithm that can be used to reduce the overall power consumption of a server while maintaining a high level of performance. Prototyping AMPs on a commercial 4-way SMP server, we show that on average 15.6% energy savings and 6.1% slowdown for the HT-disabled case, and 7.1% energy savings and 4.8% slowdown for the HT-enabled case can be achieved across NAS and SPEC OpenMP applications.


Teleportation of a quantum state may be used for distributing entanglement between distant qubits in quantum communication and for quantum computation. Here we demonstrate the implementation of a teleportation protocol, up to the single-shot measurement step, with superconducting qubits coupled to a microwave resonator. Using full quantum state tomography and evaluating an entanglement witness, we show that the protocol generates a genuine tripartite entangled state of all three-qubits. Calculating the projection of the measured density matrix onto the basis states of two qubits allows us to reconstruct the teleported state. Repeating this procedure for a complete set of input states we find an average output state fidelity of 88%.


The eelpout population in Kald Cove has been sampled in five consecutive years, from 1969-1974. Each winter a sample including mother-offspring combinations was procured and analyzed for Est/I/ . The samples in the years 1969-1971 have been published. This paper reports on the samples in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The total data of the five year period analyzed here comprised 12,607 adults (5935 motheroffspring combinations) and 253 adolescents. The adults have been sorted into five age classes, which permits the observation of seven discrete cohorts. The data have been subjected to a refined selection component analysis, introducing analysis of the time stability of the population and the adult zygotic selection component, i.e. the viability of differences between the genotypes during their mature life. The new data support the previously found deficit of heterozygotes among adults and indicate that it arises from juvenile zygotic selection, i.e. selection occurring by differential elimination of the zygotes before maturity. The previous preliminary indications of reproductive selection have not been confirmed in this more extensive analysis.


Venous thrombosis is a common adverse effect of modern therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Prior studies to identify risks of thrombosis in pediatric ALL have been limited by genetic screens of pre-identified genetic variants or genome wide association studies (GWAS) in ancestrally uniform populations. To address this, we performed a retrospective cohort evaluation of thrombosis risk in 1005 children treated for newly diagnosed ALL. Genetic risk factors were comprehensively evaluated from genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and were evaluated using Cox regression adjusting for identified clinical risk factors and genetic ancestry. The cumulative incidence of thrombosis was 7.8%. In multivariate analysis, older age, T-lineage ALL, and non-O blood group were associated with increased thrombosis while non-low-risk treatment and higher presenting WBC trended toward increased thrombosis. No SNP reached genome-wide significance. The SNP most strongly associated with thrombosis was rs2874964 near RFXAP (G risk allele, p=4x10-7, hazard ratio [HR] 2.8). In patients of non- European ancestry, rs55689276 near the alpha globin cluster (p=1.28x10-6, HR 27) was most strongly associated with thrombosis. Among GWAS catalogue SNPs reported to be associated with thrombosis, rs2519093 (T risk allele, p=4.8x10-4, HR 2.1), an intronic variant in ABO, was most strongly associated with risk in this cohort. Classic thrombophilia risks were not associated with thrombosis. Our study confirms known clinical risk features associated with thrombosis risk in children with ALL. In this ancestrally diverse cohort, genetic risks linked to thrombosis risk aggregated in erythrocyte-related SNPs, suggesting the critical role of this tissue in thrombosis risk.


The compressional strength of sea ice is a key parameter to determine the interaction between ice cover and offshore structure. In this study, the discrete element model (DEM) with particle bonding function is adopted to model the sea ice compressional strength. The bonding strength is set as a function of the ice temperature and ice salinity, and their influences on sea ice compressional strength are observed. The simulated results are compared well with the physical experimental data. With the improvement of this DEM, the ice load and ice-induced vibration of offshore structure can be simulated.


Burkina Faso is a landlocked country of the Sahel, bordered on the south by the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin, on the east by Niger, and on the northwest by Mali. The climate of Burkina is primarily sudanian. The country lacks mineral resources that can be exploited profitably with present technology. Burkina economic progress depends primarily on the performance of its agricultural sector, which employs 80-90 percent of the population. Crop cultivation is still the dominant activity in agriculture. Cotton is the main export crop and a growing source of farmer income. In Burkina Faso, cotton represented some 40 percent of the total recorded exports in recent years. In view of the prominent position of cotton in the Burkina economy, the expansion of cotton production has become an important agricultural policy issue. Therefore, studies are needed concerning the major determinants of the supply of cotton in the country.


: Kyzgyzstan is situated in an area which is potentially at risk for malaria. In 1995-1999, 58 cases of malaria were recorded, six of them were local cases. The factors that promote the spread of malaria in Kyrgyzstan are the widespread and constant migration of people from Tajikistan and close economic ties between Kyrgyzstan and a number of Asian countries with widespread malaria epidemics. Most cases of malaria in Kyrgyzstan were imported from Tajikistan (39 cases or 75% of all imported cases). Plasmodium vivax, P. falciparum and P. malariae were identified in 95.9, 1.7, and 2.1%, respectively. There is a widespread irrigation network in the country, along with a large number of reservoirs, ponds, lakes, springs, streams, gullies, and marshy floodplains. As of 1 January 2000, there are 2833 water areas that can support Anopheles mosquitoes, with a total area of 5008.5 ha. The total length of the sewerage and drainage system is 5,440 km. There is a great potential for the spread of malaria in the south of the republic, i.e. the Osh and Zhalalabad Regions, especially due to a large number of state rice (paddy) fields covering an area of over 3,500 ha. Small rice-growing plots close to private dwellings, which are cultivated without any mosquito control measures, currently provide further breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Almost 80% of the population of these areas is at risk for malaria. Almost all species of malaria mosquitoes have been identified in Kyrgyzstan. An. claviger and An. messeae have too, two other species have also spread through the country, these are An. martinius and An. superpictus which became the main vectors of malaria epidemics in the south in the 1930s-1950s. Large-scale development of the pre-imago stages of the mosquito (a larval, water-based stage) takes place 5-7 months within which 4-6 mosquito generations develop. At present, there is a shortage of staff in Kyrgyzstan, especially at a local level, who has thorough knowledge of malaria and experience with its control and who can define the highest priorities and the most appropriate and effective within the Global Malaria Control Strategy at the current stage. Laboratory services are in need of considerable support: stocks of essential supplies for laboratory tests are almost exhausted, there is a shortage of essential equipment, the staff is not well enough trained. There is an acute shortage of insecticides and larvicides for mosquito control. Entomologists have no sufficient insect control equipment to treat water areas (e.g. sprayers), there is no equipment for monitoring water areas or introducing larvicidal fishlaria (Gambusiae) either, and local monitoring is hampered by shortages of vehicles, fuel, and lubricants. Since malaria control is an urgent problem, Kyrgyzstan has developed a comprehensive and integrated malaria programme for 2000-2004 and a plan of actions to study malaria vector resistance to insecticides in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan in 2000.


In and around wooded areas P. h. javanicus feeds almost entirely on berries and pulpy fruits, perhaps rarely on small, slow animals. It does not damage the seeds it swallows and which it deposits later, up to a few kilometers from the tree wherefrom it took the fruit. The deposited seeds are fully germinable and cleansed of the adhering fruit meat, thus preventing possible destruction of the germ through moulds. Notably for some palm seeds — such as those of the sugar palm — passage through the Tody Cat's intestinal tract seems necessary for rendering them germinable. A typical habit seems to be its accomplishing an auto-peristaltic movement whenever it arrives at an open spot, a fresh earthslide or the like. Right here it prefers to deposit its droppings and in so doing start reforestation. For many seeds it is the only agent performing this service. Its usefulness in this respect is hardly known, much less appreciated and honoured. Its alleged rapacity as to poultry is definitely exaggerated, probably false, and certainly needs scientific investigation and proof. The quantity of consumption-fruit it takes from man-owned fruit trees must be considered trivial as compared to what other animals take, and for which it is too often blamed. The evidence available strongly supports the desirability to protect Paradoxurus hermaphroditus javanicus against indiscriminate killing.


Abstract We conducted an epidemiologic study on the incidence of Salmonella infections and the associated risk factors in children aged <1 in the state of Michigan. Data on laboratory-confirmed cases of salmonellosis from 1995–2001 were abstracted from the records of Michigan Department of Community Health. We computed the incidence of the disease by sex, race, and area of residence and analyzed the relationships between selected demographic characteristics and Salmonella infection using Poisson regression analysis. Based on a total of 690 cases, an overall incidence of 73.3/100,000, with an incidence of 84.3/100,000 in male children and 64.9/100,000 in female children, were found. The final covariate-adjusted Poisson model showed that children aged 1–5 months are at higher risk for salmonellosis compared to children aged 6–11 months (RR: 1.80, CI: 1.54–2.10), African-American children are at higher risk than their Caucasian counterparts (RR: 2.63, CI: 2.16–3.19), and male children more commonly represented among cases (RR: 1.30, CI: 1.12–1.51). These findings should be considered by healthcare authorities in Michigan and in states with similar population demographics to investigate possible risk factors that may be associated with the high incidence of salmonellosis in African-American children and in children <6 months.


Let \(G\) be a graph with the eigenvalues \(\lambda_1(G)\geq\cdots\geq\lambda_n(G)\). The largest eigenvalue of \(G\), \(\lambda_1(G)\), is called the spectral radius of \(G\). Let \(\beta(G)=\Delta(G)-\lambda_1(G)\), where \(\Delta(G)\) is the maximum degree of vertices of \(G\). It is known that if \(G\) is a connected graph, then \(\beta(G)\geq0\) and the equality holds if and only if \(G\) is regular. In this paper we study the maximum value and the minimum value of \(\beta(G)\) among all non-regular connected graphs. In particular we show that for every tree \(T\) with \(n\geq3\) vertices, \(n-1-\sqrt{n-1}\geq\beta(T)\geq 4\sin^2(\frac{\pi}{2n+2})\). Moreover, we prove that in the right side the equality holds if and only if \(T\cong P_n\) and in the other side the equality holds if and only if \(T\cong S_n\), where \(P_n\) and \(S_n\) are the path and the star on \(n\) vertices, respectively.


Palmitoylation is a reversible post-translational modification of proteins which involves the addition of the C16 saturated fatty acid palmitic acid to sulfhydryl groups on cysteine residues, forming a thioester linkage. The addition of palmitate allows proteins to associate with different cellular membranes and membrane subdomains. Palmitoylation is catalysed by the DHHC family of palmitoyl-acyl transferases (PATs), named for their characteristic DHHC motif in a cysteine-rich domain (CRD). Reversibility is conferred by palmitoyl-protein thioesterases (PPTs), which cleave the thioester linkage. The study of palmitoylation has recently gathered pace with the development of methods which allow proteome-scale identification of candidate palmitoyl-proteins.

Despite the importance of model organisms in several key studies in the field, palmitoylation has barely been studied in the simple eukaryote Caenorhabditis elegans, the nematode worm. This study commenced with the use of the C. elegans genome data to identify its PATs and PPTs, using the DHHC-CRD and homology respectively. The 15 DHHC PATs were officially named using a dhhc-x system and the two previously known PPTs were confirmed as the only ones with homology to other known PPTs. The current knowledge on palmitoylation enzymes and substrates was collated and analysed to predict possible phenotypes resulting from mutation or knockdown of the enzymes and potential substrates.

All available C. elegans strains containing a mutation in an individual PAT or PPT were obtained, covering about half of the PATs and both PPTs, and assayed for various gross phenotypes. In addition a complete library of bacteria able to express double-stranded RNA against PAT or PPT genes was sourced and used to perform similar assays using feeding RNA interference (RNAi). A number of small but significant differences were seen both with mutant and RNAi-treated strains, especially in lifespan assays. To test for possible redundancy and compensation amongst the enzymes, double RNAi was performed against selected closely related PATs and both PPTs. This resulted in the largest phenotype seen: a reduction in lifespan after simultaneous knockdown of both ppt-1 and ath-1.

As there are no known palmitoyl-proteins in C. elegans, the proteomic approaches acyl-biotin exchange (ABE) and acyl-resin-assisted capture (acyl-RAC) were employed to provide a list of candidates. These were first optimised using rat brain material and the results compared with previous proteomic studies to find that two-thirds of the hits had been previously found. With this validation, both methods were applied to wild-type C. elegans lysates to give 91 hits as putative palmitoyl-proteins. Mutants for the PPT ath-1 were also profiled by ABE, showing 33 hits which were not present in the wild-type profile. These are potential ATH-1 substrates whose lack of depalmitoylation in the mutant leads to their enrichment relative to wild-type. However, further repeats of these analyses are required for rigorous statistical testing.

Taken together, this study shows the first characterisation of palmitoylation in C. elegans, encompassing all of the DHHC PAT and PPT enzymes, putative palmitoyl-proteins and potential substrates of the PPT enzyme ATH-1.


Advances in systems immunology, such as new biomarkers, offer the potential for highly personalized immunosuppression regimens that could improve patient outcomes. In the future, integrating all of this information with other patient history data will likely have to rely on artificial intelligence (AI). AI agents can help augment transplant decisionmaking by discovering patterns and making predictions for specific patients that are not covered in the literature or in ways that are impossible for humans to anticipate by integrating vast amounts of data (e.g. trending across numerous biomarkers). Similar to other clinical decision support systems, AI may help overcome human biases or judgment errors. However, AI is not widely utilized in transplant to date. In this rapid review, we survey the methods employed in recent research in transplant-related AI applications and identify concerns related to implementing these tools. We identify three key challenges (bias/accuracy, clinical decision process/AI explainability, AI acceptability criteria) holding back AI in transplant. We also identify steps that can be taken in the near term to help advance meaningful use of AI in transplant (forming a Transplant AI Team at each center, establishing clinical and ethical acceptability criteria, and incorporating AI into the Shared Decision Making Model).


This study aimed to measure the variation in the levels of risk perception associated with various health risk factors. We analyzed the variables of psychological paradigms that may affect such risk perception levels. According to the perception survey results, the perception of the risk of medical malpractice appeared to be at the highest level compared to other risk factors. According to the analysis of differences in psychological paradigms of health risk factors between genders, the known extent of hazard that medical malpractice, medicines side effects, vaccination accidents, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and food poisoning was much high in female than in male. According to the evaluation of the severity of the risk to future generations, it appeared that women believed that vaccination accidents, AIDS, chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, smoking, and drinking would have a greater effect on the risk to future generations than did men. The significance of this study is that the psychological paradigm affecting the perception level of health risk factors and the risk perceptions themselves have been analyzed by a survey of adults from the general population of Korea.


This report summarizes the experimental process executed to study fin flutter characteristics. The experiment analyzed the influence of the relationship between structural dynamics and aerodynamics on flutter characteristics. Theoretical models were created in PATRAN/NASTRAN and FinSim for comparison to experimental results and to set the envelope of the physical experiments. The theoretical analysis predicted the occurrence of flutter near Mach 1 or Mach 5. The physical model was constructed of solid aluminum with machined holes for the inertial sensors. Two test runs were completed to collect data on the displacement of the fin in the supersonic wind tunnel. Additionally, the tests sought to identify any evidence of flutter as determined by the theorized model. The results showed evidence of both bending and twisting in the fin.


OBJECTIVE
To verify the effect of an educative nursing intervention composed of home visits and phone calls on patients' knowledge about the disease, self-care and adhesion to the treatment.

METHODS
Randomized clinical trial with patients with recent hospitalization caused by decompensated heart failure. There were two groups: the intervention group, which has received four home visits and four phone calls to reinforce the guidelines during six months of follow up; and the control group, which has received conventional follow up with no visits or phone calls.

RESULTS
Two hundred patients were randomized (101 in the intervention group and 99 in the control group). After six months, a significant improvement was observed in self-care and knowledge about the disease in the intervention group (P=0.001 and P<0.001), respectively; the adhesion to the treatment, measured and compared between the groups, was significantly higher in the intervention group (P=0.001).

CONCLUSION
the strategy of home visits to patients who were recently hospitalized with decompensated heart failure was effective in improving the outcomes assessed and its implementation deserves to be considered in Brazil aiming at avoiding unplanned hospitalizations. NCT-01213862.


This paper describes the development of a methodology for the case-mix adjustment of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) data permitting the comparison of outcomes between providers on a like-for-like basis. Statistical models that take account of provider-specific effects form the basis of the proposed case-mix adjustment methodology. Indirect standardisation provides a transparent means of case mix adjusting the PROMs data, which are updated on a monthly basis. Recently published PROMs data for patients undergoing unilateral knee replacement are used to estimate empirical models and to demonstrate the application of the proposed case-mix adjustment methodology in practice. The results are illustrative and are used to highlight a number of theoretical and empirical issues that warrant further exploration. For example, because of differences between PROMs instruments, case-mix adjustment methodologies may require instrument-specific approaches. A number of key assumptions are made in estimating the empirical models, which could be open to challenge. The covariates of post-operative health status could be expanded, and alternative econometric methods could be employed.


The experimental literature on the pragmatic abilities of bilinguals is rather sparse. The only study investigating adult second language (L2) learners ( Slabakova, 2010 ) found an increase of pragmatic responses in that population relative to monolinguals. The results of studies on early bilingual children are unclear, some finding a significant increase in pragmatic responses in early bilingual children (preschoolers) relative to monolinguals ( Siegal et al., 2007 ), while another ( Antoniou and Katsos, 2017 ), testing school children, does not. We tested adult French L2 learners of English and Spanish (in their two languages) as well as French monolingual controls in Experiment 1 and Italian-Slovenian early bilingual children (in both languages) and Slovenian monolingual controls in Experiment 2. Our results were similar to those of Antoniou and Katsos (2017) in early bilingual children, but different from those of Siegal et al. (2007) . We found no pragmatic bias in adult L2 leaners relative to adult monolinguals.


Abstract Paleocommunity research efforts have explored a multitude of faunal assemblages using a wide range of sampling and analytical methods to infer a paleoecological signal. Here, we derive six secondary datasets from a single stratigraphic series of faunal assemblages in the Finis Shale (Pennsylvanian) of Jacksboro, Texas, USA, using a variety of data categorization decisions (i.e., abundance versus calcified biomass, all taxa versus selected indicator taxa, and generic versus higher clade resolution). Biomass- and abundance-derived datasets were not significantly different in terms of evenness, Shannon's information index, or Simpson's diversity index. Using Bray-Curtis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordinations, with Sorenson and relative Sorenson distance measures, ordination axis scores of the six derived datasets were all significantly correlated with one another, suggesting little difference in their respective paleoecological signals. Three potential explanations for this consistent paleoecological signal, regardless of which data categorizations are employed, include: (1) the dominance of a few brachiopod taxa overwhelmingly influenced the community structure, (2) relatively constrained environmental conditions limited community variation, and (3) low variation in specimen size minimized potential differences among abundance and calcified biomass categorizations. We suggest that other datasets with greater diversities, greater evenness, or from a wider range of paleoenvironments might not show this consistency. Thus, to the degree possible and appropriate, paleoecological investigators should test the effects of these data categorization decisions on a paleoecological signal, regardless of the analytical method employed.


A 50 year-old man, a United States resident, presented in Texas with a violaceous non-ulcerating lesion, involving the entire lower eyelid. The patient had traveled to a jungle area of Belize several hours drive from the capital city. Leishmania mexicana was isolated. The lesion only partially resolved after an initial course of sodium stibogluconate, requiring retreatment. At two years of follow-up, there was no relapse. The parasite isolated from the patient caused a progressive, non-ulcerating lesion in an experimental mouse footpad infection. This is an unusual case of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a traveler. Travelers must be educated about personal protective measures to prevent exotic infections acquired during travel.


ABSTRACT Background: Once a biliary injury has occurred, repair is done by a hepaticojejunostomy. The most common procedure is to perform a dilatation with balloon with a success of 70 %. Success rates range using biodegradable stents is from 85% to 95%. Biodegradable biliary stents should change the treatment of this complication. Aim: To investigate the use of biodegradable stents in a group of patients with hepaticojejunonostomy strictures. Methods: In a prospective study 16 biodegradable stents were placed in 13 patients with hepaticojejunostomy strictures secondary to bile duct repair of a biliary surgical injury. Average age was 38.7 years (23-67), nine were female and four male. All cases had a percutaneous drainage before at the time of biodegradable stent placement. Results: In one case, temporary haemobilia was present requiring blood transfusion. In another, pain after stent placement required intravenous medication. In the other 11 patients, hospital discharge was the next morning following stent placement. During the patient´s follow-up, none presented symptoms during the first nine months. One patient presented significant alkaline phosphatase elevation and stricture recurrence was confirmed. One case had recurrence of cholangitis 11 months after the stent placement. 84.6% continued asymptomatic with a mean follow-up of 20 months. Conclusion: The placement of biodegradable stents is a safe and feasible technique. Was not observed strictures caused by the stent or its degradation. It could substitute balloon dilation in strictures of hepaticojejunostomy.


Spinal pain, especially low back pain (LBP), is a widespread clinical and diagnostic problem for both patients and physicians, because back pain has an equivalently wide variety of causes and provocations. Because of its variable nature and manifestations, back pain is challenging to diagnose and treat correctly. In addition, the pain is induced not only by direct mechanical pressure such as a herniated disk or degenerated bone but also by inflammation and associated proinflammatory cytokines. To help guide further diagnostic workup or the next step in management, radiologists should be familiar with the causes, mechanisms, and diagnostic clues provided by MRI. The authors review the microscopic and macroscopic mechanisms for each category of LBP and depict the relationship between imaging findings and pain mechanisms. This review focuses on the detailed anatomy related to the pain-signaling pathway and the roles of chemicals in inducing different mechanisms of LBP. MRI findings that serve as representative examples of key concepts are demonstrated according to each mechanism, and treatment options are reviewed on the basis of different causes of LBP. By knowing these concepts, radiologists can help correlate imaging findings with potential underlying mechanisms and help guide clinicians in the management of LBP. ©RSNA, 2020.


To specify correlations between neuromuscular, vegetative functions and CSF dynamics in patients with primary arterial hypotension, 22 young patients were examined with the aid of stimulation electroneuromyography, registration of evoked sympathetic cutaneous potential, echoencephalography and electrothermometry. The data obtained before and after antiorthostatic test were compared. A group of healthy subjects served as control. It has been shown that in patients with primary arterial hypotension with compensated neurological microsymptomatology, unpronounced under common conditions, there are well-defined signs of disorders in the work of neuromuscular structures, vegetative fibers, and in thermoregulation. These disorders undergo different changes under the influence of the antiorthostatic test and are accompanied in the majority of the patients by the enlargement of the ventricular system of the brain. It is assumed that in view of this fact, potentialities of adaptation are decreased in the disease in question. It is recommended that electroneuromyography and echoencephalography be used in an all-round estimation of the health status of patients suffering from primary arterial hypotension.


Abstract The objectives of this research were to find out the types of processes, participants, and circumstances, the dominant types of processes, participants and circumstances, and the implication of the dominant process, participant and circumstance in Barrack Obama's speeches. It was a descriptive quantitative design. The analysis was based on two speeches of Barrack Obama, they were Election Night Victory Speech (November 4th, 2008) in Grant Park, Chicago, Illionis and Obama Inaugural Address (January 20th, 2009) in Washington DC and there were 525 processes, 618 participants, and 204 circumstances in 525 clauses. The result showed the       most dominant process was Material process (54,6%), the most dominant of participant was Actor (31,1%), and the most dominant of circumstance was (46,1%). Material Process is the most dominant process because it indicates activities that happen in the outside world of human beings. Furthermore, the speeches of Barrack Obama told about many activities that can be done        to make America better. So, the physical or action verbs are mostly used as the representation of the physical experience of human beings. As the process controls the participant so the most dominant participant which appeared in the analysis was Actor. And the last, the most dominant   circumstance appeared in this analysis was Location. It was caused Obama mentioned more both place and time in his speeches as the implication of the most dominant process, participant, and circumstance. Keywords: Speech; transitivity


The Pharmaceutical industry is evaluating modes of delivery for their prized therapeutics at every step of the design cycle. In recent years, pH dependent drug delivery systems have focused much for specific purposes. Synthesis of pH dependent polymer in different monomeric ratio were intended to be used for controlled drug delivery systems. Previously synthesized monomers i.e; ethyl methacrylate (EMA) and acrylic acid (AA)took in different monomeric ratio (in moles) as -  EMA:AA(0.7 : 0.3), EMA : AA (0.6 : 0.4), EMA : AA (0.5 : 0.5), EMA : AA (0.4 : 0.6) and EMA : AA (0.3 : 0.7) with solvent Tetrahyrdrofuran(THF) and Azobis-iso butyronitrile (AIBN) initiator, which under goes polymerization .Polymers were prepared by solution polymerization technique and free radical mechanism. Swelling behavior of different polymeric films (polymers) which have obtained from polymerization in different monomeric ratios, studied in different pH buffer solutions. The different pH buffer solutions were  Hydrochloric acid buffer pH 1.2, Hydrochloric acid buffer pH 2.0, Phosphate  buffer pH 6.0,  Phosphate buffer pH 7.4, Phosphate buffer pH 8.0.These different pH buffer solutions were prepared according to Indian Pharmacopoeia 2007.The changes in polymeric films in  phosphate buffer (pH 8.0, pH 7.4) after 15,30, 45,60,75,90,120 minutes were noted. In buffer (pH 6.0,  pH2.0, and pH 1.2) the changes were noted after 1 hour,2hours,2 days,3 days,4 days,5 days,6 days,7 days. Swelling ratio calculated by formula. For microencapsulation paracetamol drug was taken as a model drug.  Emulsification solvent evaporation method have used for micro encapsulation of model drug. The standard calibration curve of paracetamol obtained a straight line. The relation between drug concentration & absorbance measured at 249 nm found linear. The drug was estimated by UV spectrophotometer at 249 nm using a calibration curve based on standard solutions. The percentage of Paracetamol encapsulated with respect to total amount of Paracetamol encapsulation taken loading efficacy. In vitro dissolution release of Paracetamol from micro spheres was evaluated using paddle dissolution apparatus (Lab India Disso 2000 dissolution tester). Dissolution media was 900 ml phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) & to this media the microspheres containing 200 mg of Paracetamol were added. The system was stirred at 500 pm & temp at 37oC± 0.5 oC  samples were drawn at specified time intervals (10 min, 20 min, 30 min, 40 min, 50 min & 60 min) filtered & assayed spectrophotometrically  at 249nm.  For swelling study, all the copolymers in different monomeric ratio did not show good swelling or dissolution characteristic in acidic pH (pH 1.2-pH6.0) ethylmethacrylate : acrylic acid with monomer ratio 3:7 completely dissolved within 2 hours.

Keywords: Polymers, Ethylmethacrylate, Acrylic acid, Ultraviolet Spectrophotometer, Dissolution apparatus.


Summary
Dispersal is the central mechanism that determines connectivity between populations yet few studies connect the mechanisms of movement with realized dispersal in natural populations. To make such a link, we assessed how physiological variation among individuals predicted dispersal in natural populations of unisexual (all-female) and sexual Ambystoma salamanders on the same fragmented landscape in Ohio.
Specifically, we assessed variation in a trait that influences long-distance animal movement (locomotor endurance) and determined whether variation in endurance matched patterns of realized dispersal assessed using genetic assignment tests. A possible mechanism for why unisexuals would have lower locomotor endurance than a sympatric sexual species (Ambystoma texanum) is the potential energetic cost of evolutionarily mismatched mitochondrial and nuclear genomes within polyploid unisexuals.
We found that sexuals walked four times farther than unisexuals during treadmill endurance trials that mimic the locomotor endurance required for dispersal.
We then applied landscape genetic methods to identify dispersed adults and quantify realized dispersal. We show that the differences in locomotor endurance between unisexual and sexual salamanders scale to realized dispersal: dispersing sexual individuals travelled approximately twice the distance between presumed natal wetlands and the site of capture compared to dispersing unisexuals.
This study links variation in individual performance in terms of endurance with realized dispersal in the field and suggests a potential mechanism (physiological limitation due to mitonuclear mismatch) for the reduced endurance of unisexual individuals relative to sexual individuals although we discuss other possible explanations.
The differences in dispersal between these two types of salamanders also informs our understanding of sexual/unisexual coexistence by suggesting that unisexuals are at a competitive disadvantage in terms of colonization ability under a extinction-colonization model of coexistence.

A lay summary is available for this article.


We present a spectrometer design candidate for the X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) observatory, being planned by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a long-lived large-area array of tele scopes. The science requirement of moderate resolution (E/AE ^ 100) spectroscopy in a two octave region (0.5-2 KeV) with extremely high throughput (effective area > 500 cm2) results in the use of grazing incidence reflection gratings. Due to the low image quality of the telescopes (^ 1 minute of arc), the grating dispersion must be maximized by use of the classical grating mount in which the spectrum is dispersed within the plane of incident radiation. Due to the small field of view afforded by the x-ray telescopes, the gratings must be situated in the converging beam at the exit of the telescope. A spectrometer module consists of a thin-foil conical mirror telescope, a stack of plane varied-space reflection gratings and an imaging proportional counter. This system is analyzed on the basis of dispersion, geometric aberrations and efficiency. At a spectral resolution of 0.15 A, a twenty module XMM would attain an average effective area of ^ 900 cm2, reaching twice this value at the peak wavelength (15 S). Similar throughput is obtained in second order centered at 7.5 8, the two spectral orders separated by the non-dispersive energy resolution of the proportional counter. Continuous spectra are obtained in the 6-25 8 band (0.5-2 KeV), and can be extended to 45 A if desired by tuning of the grating. The instrument sensitivity is sufficient to allow the first spectral detection of soft x-ray features in external galaxies, with access to an estimated population of several hundred active galactic nuclei. Such observations will expand vastly the roles feasible for spectroscopy in x-ray astrophysics, marking the beginning of a new era in space astronomy.


The exponential surge in the number of vehicles on the road has aggravated the traffic congestion problem across the globe. Several attempts have been made over the years to predict the traffic scenario accurately and consequently avoiding further congestion. Crowdsourcing has come forward as one of the most adopted methods for predicting traffic intensity using live data. However, the privacy concerns and the lack of motivation for the live users to help in the traffic prediction process have rendered existing crowdsourcing models inefficient. Towards this end, we present an advanced blockchain-based secure crowdsourcing model. Not only does our model ensure privacy preservation of the users, but by incorporating a revenue model, it also provides them with an incentive to participate in the traffic prediction process willingly. For accurate and efficient traffic jam probability estimation, our work proposes a neural network-based smart contract to be deployed onto the blockchain network. The results reveal that the proposed model is highly efficient in terms of attaining high participation and consequently obtaining highly accurate predictions.


As the last working procedure in the paper production process, re-winder control technology is crucial to the quality of finished paper scroll. To obtain the paper scroll with inner tight and outer loose, the control of bottom rollers must satisfy the double closed-loop feedback control with torque difference. While the feedback control exists time-delay and may cause the slowness of system response. Here on the basis of re-winder production process and control requirements, a novel feed-forward control tactics is proposed to combine with feedback control. According to the compensation of feed-forward control, rapid system response is obtained and system performance is improved. And corresponding simulation shows the validity and feasibility of the feed-forward control tactics.


data were collected by using a semi-structured interview, using open-ended questions then the major themes Transcribed for thematic analysis. Two Main categories were identified; the experience of nurses in Stroke rehabilitation units and the challenges in nursing contribution in stroke units, and the recommended strategies to enhance the role of the nurses in stroke rehab units. The study provided evidence that nurses believe in themselves as effective team members in stroke rehabilitation, and they are enjoying while helping patients to recover to allow them to reintegrate and adapt to their new life situations. However, this study showed a lot of obstacles that minimize the contribution of nursing in stroke rehabilitation units. The future nursing rehab role should also be developed to be cope and adapt to the post-discharge needs and the emerging rehabilitation services and technologies, moreover, nurses have to clear and specify their specific bedside care and interventions. Nurses have to adopt new knowledge and competencies in collaboration with other disciplines such as occupational therapies, physical therapy, and speech therapy, to upgrade their assessment and intervention skills that enable the nurses to provide systematic and therapeutic feedback about the patient progress and the proper interventions that needed to reflects that on the functional abilities on discharge. Keywords: Nursing rehabilitation; Stroke; Nursing role; Attitudes; Inpatient; Qualitative Biography: Ahmad Mohammad Abdalla Hajaj has completed his Bachelor at the age of 22 years from Department of Nursing Administration; currently he is working in the Qatar Rehabilitation Institute in Qatar. His research involves in Nursing. Publication of speakers: 1. Linzer M. The journal club and medical education: over one hundred years of unrecorded history. Postgrad Med J. 1987 2. Lachance C. Nursing journal clubs: a literature review on the effective teaching strategy for continuing education and evidence-based practice. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2014; 3. Deenadayalan Y, Grimmer-Somers K, Prior M, et al. How to run an effective journal club: a systematic review. J Eval Clin Prac. 2008;


Firms are increasingly turning to social media platforms for complaint handling. Previous research and practitioners' reports highlight the benefits of complaint handling on social media, urging firms to provide prompt and detailed responses to complaints. However, little research has explored the possible drawbacks of such practices, especially when responses inadvertently further publicize complaints. Utilizing two unique data sets in a series of observational and quasiexperimental analyses, this research provides the first evidence of "complaint publicization" in social media, a phenomenon in which firm responses to complaints on popular social media platforms increase the potential public exposure of complaints. This negative effect can outweigh any positive customer care–signaling impact from firm responses. The authors show that a response strategy that engenders a high level of complaint publicization (e.g., providing detailed responses through multiple communication exchanges with a complainant) could negatively impact perceived quality and firm value, diminish the positive impact of a firm's own posts, and increase the volume of future complaints. Additional analyses reveal that these adverse impacts are stronger for firms that are targeted by retail investors. The authors also uncover specific response strategies and styles that could mitigate these effects.


A sustainable and resilient society requires equitable access for all to partake and contribute. Focusing on several interdisciplinary case studies, this paper explores how 'oblique co-design' and other design-inspired methodologies can reveal latent and tacit knowledge towards community impacts. A recent collaborative design workshop with Plan International Australia, Monash University XYX Research Lab, community stakeholders, and young female activists, pioneers a scalable methodology for involving diverse members of the community. This case study transformed a user-created, digital cultural map into actionable proposals and initiatives. The research finds that initial designerly analysis of the data explored through these co-design methods, provides insights of direct use to those concerned with the cultural vibrancy and safety of the city of Melbourne (including the police, public transport operators and local government). Like all cities, Melbourne is changing rapidly and the need for feedback about the city from underrepresented voices is essential to monitor the transition towards greater equity of access. This paper examines how these design techniques can be a valuable disruptive mechanism for engaging citizens and synthesizing diverse perspectives in order to inform an inclusive future vision


Project Management Consultant (PMC) has become an important entity in the construction industry and the use of its services has increased significantly in recent years. Even though PMC concept is relatively new in Malaysia, applied only after Malaysia had successfully completed the Petronas Twin Tower Project and the KL International Airport (KLIA Project), several issues related to failure of the PMC concept have been raised by the public and government. As a result of the many PMC failures highlighted by the mainstream media, the success of completed projects handled by Project Management Consultant had been overshadowed. This study is carried out to investigate the services provided by Project Management Consultant (PMC) in the Malaysian construction industry. A framework of PMC Services that suits the local construction environment was developed from the combination of three Project Management Consultant's Contract based on the case studied carried out. The study found that most of the services listed by the author were regarded by the respondents as "important� services and should be carried out by the Project Management Consultants. The results of the survey for the level of satisfaction on the services provided by Project Management Consultant (PMC) show that the respondents had categorized the level of satisfaction under two main factors which are satisfied and fairly conducted


During the Drosophila life cycle, the steroid hormone ecdysone regulates cell shape changes and movements associated with metamorphosis. Kozlova and Thummel report that this hormone also acts at an earlier time point of the life cycle to establish the body plan of the early larva. This earlier pulse of hormone appears to arise from the amnioserosa, the presumed equivalent of the vertebrate placenta, which suggests a parallel between the two tissues as a critical source of hormone during development. T. Kozlova, C. S. Thummel, Essential roles for ecdysone signaling during Drosophila mid-embryonic development. Science 301, 1911-1914 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Subject matter of this report is the development of the 20 Austrian libraries at
federal universities. Main topics are national and international cooperations and projects during 2009. Legal framework conditions for the federal universities and the observance of the university libraries in Wissensbilanz and Leistungsbericht are discussed. Important focal points of cooperations at the national level are activities of Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Bibliotheksdirektor/-innen, Austrian Library Consortium and Austrian Academic Consortium. In 2009 cooperation took place on an international level with Electronic Journals Library, Database Information System, subito, eBooks on Demand, BIX library index and German Library Statistics. Special cases are the provenance research projects at six Austrian university libraries about Nazi-looted property. These projects started
individually but close cooperation between libraries is intended for the future.


The unstructured and dynamic nature of construction projects and the on-site work complexities have been inevitably leading to claims. These evolve according to a staged mechanism set forth in the adopted conditions of contracts. More specifically, claims might progress expeditiously or drag depending on the nature of the applied mechanism and the behavior and interaction among contractual parties. As such, this complex problem of claim progression, which entails a lot of parameters and variables, is addressed in detail in this paper by resorting to three simulation techniques namely: (1) Discrete-Event Simulation (DES), (2) Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), and (3) System Dynamics (SD). The purpose behind this study is two-fold: (1) capturing and visualizing, through three different simulation models, the dynamic and interaction among the different entities as claims are progressing and defining the weak links hindering the efficiency improvement of such a process, and (2) comparing DES, ABM, and SD simulation approaches, using choose-by-advantage technique, and evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of each when studying the progression of claims. Results of all approaches are presented and analyzed followed by a discussion of the effectiveness of each simulation technique and the potential applicability of a hybrid approach in modeling the progression of claims.


Real-time data dissemination to a multicast group is data delivery to each member in the multicast group within the desired time deadline. The hardest aspect of this mission is to enforce the real-time constraint in the communication between a source and the furthest member since an end-to-end delay is proportional to a physical distance in wireless sensor networks. We call it the critical distance. The critical distance should be most important constraint for real-time multicasting. That is, the delivery distance from a source to each member should not be longer than the critical distance even by any reason. However, since the traditional multicast protocols lay the strong emphasis only on the overall communication cost rather than delivery distance to each member, they may violate the real-time constraint related to the critical distance. In this letter, we propose a novel multicast protocol for real-time data dissemination.