The Senior Living Lab has run a number of participatory workshops with seniors with a view to brainstorming and developing products and services to improve the quality of life of ageing populations in Switzerland. This project aims to combine and adapt design thinking and living lab methodologies to be suitable with elderly participants. It gathers various qualitative techniques and deploys an interdisciplinary methodology based on community-based participatory research. This living lab project highlights the key success factors and the challenges in order to successfully involve seniors during complex innovation processes, such as time essential to tackle logistic issues and the ability to adapt participatory initiatives to an elderly public.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Physicians frequently search bibliographic databases, such as MEDLINE via PubMed, for best evidence for patient care. The objective of this study was to develop and test search filters to help physicians efficiently retrieve literature related to dialysis (hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis) from all other articles indexed in PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
A diagnostic test assessment framework was used to develop and test robust dialysis filters. The reference standard was a manual review of the full texts of 22,992 articles from 39 journals to determine whether each article contained dialysis information. Next, 1,623,728 unique search filters were developed, and their ability to retrieve relevant articles was evaluated.

RESULTS
The high-performance dialysis filters consisted of up to 65 search terms in combination. These terms included the words "dialy" (truncated), "uremic," "catheters," and "renal transplant wait list." These filters reached peak sensitivities of 98.6% and specificities of 98.5%. The filters' performance remained robust in an independent validation subset of articles.

CONCLUSIONS
These empirically derived and validated high-performance search filters should enable physicians to effectively retrieve dialysis information from PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase.


To organize community-oriented oral health promotion programs systematic analysis of the oral health situation would be needed, including information on oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP). Aim: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward oral health among 7 to 12 year old school children of various Govt. and private schools of Srinagar, Kashmir. Materials & Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 7 to 12 year old school children of various govt. and private schools of Srinagar, Kashmir. A convenient sample of 600 students was selected for the study. A 14-item pre-formed, self-administered validated questionnaire was distributed among the study subjects. The confidentiality of the responses to the questionnaire was assured to the participants. The questionnaire included the questions regarding the basic oral health knowledge and also those related to attitude and practice towards oral health. The duly filled questionnaires were collected the same day from the respondents so as to avoid the influence of parents on the responses of the students. Results: About 31% of the respondents acquired information regarding the oral health from their parents; 20.75% from the dentists; around 18% from friends; 16.6% gain information from teachers while as the rest attained their information from relatives, television and radio. Majority (77.35%) of the children were scared of visiting the dentist thinking that the dental treatment causes pain. Majority (79.05%) of the students brushed their teeth once; 18.1% children brushed their teeth twice; 1.88% brushed their teeth sometimes; and 0.94% did not brush their teeth at all. Conclusion:  It was concluded that oral health knowledge among children was poor and needs to be improved.


Completed Updated for iOS 7 and Xcode 5 Auto Layout transforms the way you create iOS user interfaces. As flexible as it is powerful, Auto Layout gives you unprecedented control over your iOS user interfaces. But Auto Layout has a reputation for difficulty. In iOS Auto Layout Demystified, Second Edition, world-renowned iOS developer and author Erica Sadun strips away the confusion, helping you gain Auto Layout mastery the easiest way possible: by example. Fully updated for iOS 7 and Xcode 5, this tutorial delivers everything Saduns guides are famous for: clear explanations, expert tips, proven best practices--and, above all, plenty of code to learn from and reuse. Step by step, Sadun explains how Auto Layout thinks, how it works, where it fits, and why its more useful (and simpler) than you ever imagined. She offers practical solutions for a wide variety of real-world iOS development challenges, plus innovative ways to use Auto Layout to build interactive elements, animations, and more. If youre an experienced iOS developer, this guide will expand your design possibilities, helping you build apps that are superbly usable and intuitive and stand out even in the most crowded marketplace. Coverage includes Mastering Auto Layouts basic concepts, techniques, and approach Defining unambiguous, satisfiable constraints that express your layout exactly how you intend Overcoming obstacles to constraint-based user interface design in Interface Builder Using visual formatting to express how items are laid out vertically and horizontally Making visual formats more flexible with metrics dictionaries and layout options Debugging constraints and deciphering those bewildering Xcode log messages Using descriptive techniques to uncover and express natural relationships in your design Applying iOS Auto Layout techniques in Mac OS X apps too


TCP is widely used in commercial multimedia streaming systems, with recent measurement studies indicating that a significant fraction of Internet streaming media is currently delivered over HTTP/TCP. These observations motivate us to develop analytic performance models to systematically investigate the performance of TCP for both live and stored-media streaming. We validate our models via ns simulations and experiments conducted over the Internet. Our models provide guidelines indicating the circumstances under which TCP streaming leads to satisfactory performance, showing, for example, that TCP generally provides good streaming performance when the achievable TCP throughput is roughly twice the media bitrate, with only a few seconds of startup delay.


Inclusion cysts are benign lesions that appear as a consequence of traumatic inclusion of epidermal cells into the dermis. They can be painful if they appear under pressure areas, especially the metatarsal heads. We report a case of a 36-year-old woman with an intractable plantar keratosis lesion under the third metatarsal head of 3 years' duration. Ultrasonography revealed the presence of a subcutaneous mass with a growing epidermoid. It was surgically excised, and pathology confirmed the diagnosis of a plantar epidermoid cyst. All symptoms disappeared after the excision of the lesion. This case should alert the clinician about the existence of keratotic lesions in the metatarsal heads commonly diagnosed and treated as intractable plantar keratosis, although they are not directly derived from metatarsal overload. Some of the lesions could be directly derived from skin problems aggravated by pressure from the metatarsal head. This should be taken into consideration when addressing the management of these lesions. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 99(2): 148-152, 2009)


We have applied the use of next-generation sequencing of whole genomes in fifty matched pretreatment tumor core biopsy specimens and blood normals resulting from a clinical trial of aromatase inhibitor therapy, from the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z1031 study. We also have studied the whole genomes of the post-treatment samples obtained from surgical resection, for additional comparison. We used additional accrued samples from this clinical trial to extend our findings. I will present our analysis of these data, including significantly mutated genes and pathways, the impact of aromatase inhibitor therapy on genomic heterogeneity, and integrated analyses to reveal a genomic signature predictive of aromatase inhibitor response. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr SY10-01. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-SY10-01


The lockdowns enforced in many countries to contain the spread of COVID-19 had important consequences for the domestic sphere. This paper analyzes the division of domestic work among heterosexual couples in France during the lockdown. In particular, we analyzed the role of time constraints and availability and expected to find a more egalitarian division of domestic work among couples in which the man had more time than his partner due to not working or working from home. We used data from the ELIPSS panel, a representative survey of the French population, and ran OLS regressions on the division of domestic work among 406 couples. The results show that men's time availability was associated with a more egalitarian division of domestic work, even if gender inequalities persisted. However, we did not find any clear differences between men who did not work and men who worked from home, leading us to hypothesize that men's presence at home is an important factor.


Large‐scale electronic health record research introduces biases compared to traditional manually curated retrospective research. We used data from a community‐acquired pneumonia study for which we had a gold standard to illustrate such biases. The challenges include data inaccuracy, incompleteness, and complexity, and they can produce in distorted results. We found that a naïve approach approximated the gold standard, but errors on a minority of cases shifted mortality substantially. Manual review revealed errors in both selecting and characterizing the cohort, and narrowing the cohort improved the result. Nevertheless, a significantly narrowed cohort might contain its own biases that would be difficult to estimate.


Aims: The paper aims at providing an exhaustive overview of studies of small-scale multilingualism, a type of language ecology typical of—but not exclusive to—indigenous communities with small numbers of speakers. We identify the similarities and differences among situations of such multilingualism, which lay the foundations for a future typology of this kind of language ecology. Approach and data: We outline the importance of language ideologies for multilingualism in small-scale societies, highlight the sources of this type of language ecology, with a special focus on the impact of marriage patterns, discuss to what extent situations of small-scale multilingualism are truly egalitarian and symmetric, and survey the different methods used in the study of this domain. In order to do so, we survey studies devoted to multilingualism in indigenous communities of all continents: the New World (especially South America), Australia, Melanesia, Africa, Europe and Asia. Conclusions: The multilingual ecologies of the pre- and postcolonial world are extremely diverse, with many factors playing a role in their constitution. They are also highly endangered, and thus their study is of the utmost urgency. Originality: The domain of small-scale multilingualism is still novel for sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Although the researchers working with indigenous groups have been describing the peculiarities of multilingual repertoires, language acquisition and language attitudes in various parts of the world, the domain lacks the kind of comparison and generalizations that we provide here. Significance: The increased interest in small-scale multilingualism has been boosted by the realization of its significance for reconstructing the social conditions that favoured linguistic diversity in the precolonial world. Furthermore, insights into this type of multilingualism—which differs considerably from the better-studied situations of bi- and multilingualism in urban contexts and large nation states—are of prime importance for a better understanding of the human language faculty.


Testicular-epididymal hemodynamics is studied by ultrasonographic color velocity imaging (CVI) in patients with primary, uncomplicated inguinal hernias. This procedure allows more precision than any other known Doppler system in measuring hemodynamic parameters such as peak systolic and diastolic velocity, resistance index and pulsatility index. The results of the exploration of 480 arteries of various testicular vascular territories are compared with those obtained by other authors in young healthy individuals using color Doppler. This procedure shows that the hernia does not cause significant alterations in the arterial circulation of the testicle and epididymis.


Taking issue with many official accounts, the essay traces the origins of the German autobahn back to the Battle of Verdun (1916). The military necessity to organize rigidly enforced, intersection-free two-way traffic becomes the model for the construction of the autobahn. Kittler further elaborates its martial character by connecting the movement of military equipment during war to the "tourist invasions" in peacetime.


Australian artist Danius Kesminas is the brainchild behind some of the most ambitious and dynamic contemporary art projects developed in the past decade. Working collaboratively, across diverse dsciplines - art, music, performance, video, publishing, agit-prop and opera - Slave Pianos | Punkasila | Pipeline to Oblivion presents three major projects by Danius Kesminas and his respective collaborators.

Slave Pianos is a provocative and highly inventive collective of artists, composers and musicians devoted to the exhibition, collection, analysis, performance and re-composition of sound work by visual artists.

Punkasila is an Indonesian-Australian band and art project, whose name is derived from Pancasila, the five tenets devised for the unitary basis of Indonesian nationhood and the music genre of punk. Punkasila have evolved to encompass a unique blend of traditional Indonesian crafts, homemade military outfits, machine gun guitars, pop murals and political banners, and 'post-disaster rock' with lyrics that give voice to the cacophony of conflicting political, military, religious, cultural and bureaucratic organisations constituting the Indonesian body politic.

Exploring deep cultural networks, dismantled economic borders, and political implications of Eastern Europe in the post-communist era, Pipeline to Oblivion takes as its starting point the discoveries of illegal underground pipelines pumping vodka into Lithuania in the period since the country's admission to the European Union.


Plains Midstream Canada (PMC) completes a watercourse crossing program as part of its overall integrity management program. The approximately 9,900 kilometers of operating and discontinued pipelines are evaluated within the watercourse crossing program. The pipelines are located throughout the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. The terrain traversed ranges from relatively steep near the Rocky Mountains to extremely flat in northern Alberta and Southern Ontario. Since 2008, PMC's systematic watercourse crossing program has evolved and now consists of approximately 5,000 individual watercourse crossings. The bankfull width of the watercourses ranges from less than 1 m for intermittent streams to more than 700 m at major rivers.
 The watercourse crossing program is subjected to a continuous improvement process, with a focus on key learnings from pipeline failures, free spans and exposure. This paper describes the results from the program over the last 10 years and highlights program improvements. In addition, data from a failure and three free spans on the pipelines now owned by PMC, but where the exposure, free span or failure occurred prior to PMC purchasing the pipelines were added to expand the available data for the key learnings.


Abstract Objective Vulnerable Road Users (VRU), including pedestrians and cyclists, are generally the least protected road users and are frequently missed in the planning process of preventive measures. Rubberized asphalt mixtures were originally developed as a possible environmentally friendly solution to recycle the End-of-Life Tires while making the pavements more durable. The objective of the current study was to explore the effects of increasing the rubber content of the common rubberized asphalt mixtures in reducing the head injuries risk for VRUs. Method To achieve this purpose, four different sample series with 0, 14, 28, and 33 weight percent rubber in each were tested. A compressive test without permanent deformation and one with failure were performed on each sample series. The mechanical behavior of each set was modeled using a MAT_SIMPLIFIED_RUBBER material model in LS-Dyna and validated against a standard Head Injury Criterion (HIC) drop test. Ultimately, previously low-speed accident reconstructed cases, a bicycle and a pedestrian one, were used to assess the effect of varying the rubber content on reducing the head injury risk. Results In the bicycle accident case, the risk of skull fracture was reduced from 0.99 to 0.29 when comparing the non-rubberized asphalt mixture with the 33% rubber mixture. In the same accident case, the risk of concussion, evaluated using the logistic regression method, was reduced from 0.97 in the non-rubberized mixture to 0.81 in the 33% rubber mixture. The initial conditions, linear and rotational velocities, were lower for the pedestrian case compared to the bicycle case (the bicycle case was more severe compared to the pedestrian case), which led to lower strains in the pedestrian case. In the pedestrian accident case, the risk of skull fracture was reduced from 1.00 in the non-rubberized mixture to 0.63 in the 33% rubber mixture, while the risk of concussion was reduced from 0.64 to 0.07. Conclusion The rubberized asphalt mixtures could reduce the head injury risk for the studied cases when the rubber content in the asphalt mixture increases.


OBJECTIVE
The authors conducted a scoping review to survey the evidence landscape for studies that assessed outcomes of treating patients with opioid use disorder with methadone in office-based settings.

METHODS
Ovid MEDLINE and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched, and reference lists were reviewed to identify additional studies. Studies were eligible if they focused on methadone treatment in office-based settings conducted in the United States or other highly developed countries and reported outcomes (e.g., retention in care). Randomized trials and controlled observational studies were prioritized; uncontrolled and descriptive studies were included when stronger evidence was unavailable. One investigator abstracted key information, and a second verified data. A scoping review approach broadly surveyed the evidence, and therefore study quality was not rated formally.

RESULTS
Eighteen studies of patients treated with office-based methadone were identified, including six trials, eight observational studies, and four additional articles discussing use of pharmacies to dispense methadone. Studies on office-based methadone treatment, including primary care-based dispensing, were limited but consistently found that stable methadone patients valued office-based care and remained in care with low rates of drug use; outcomes were similar compared with stable patients in regular care. Office-based methadone treatment was associated with higher treatment satisfaction and quality of life. Limitations included underpowered comparisons and small samples.

CONCLUSIONS
Limited research suggests that office-based methadone treatment and pharmacy dispensing could enhance access to methadone treatment for patients with opioid use disorder without adversely affecting patient outcomes and, potentially, inform modifications to federal regulations. Research should assess the feasibility of office-based care for less stable patients.


Natural gas is an abundant and inexpensive fuel in North America. It produces lower greenhouse gas emissions than diesel fuel when burned in an internal combustion engine. It is also considered to be a clean fuel because it generates lower particulate matter emissions than diesel fuel during combustion.In this study, an experimental study was conducted to investigate the combustion and emissions performance of a natural gas – diesel dual fuel engine at low and medium loads. A single cylinder direct injection diesel engine was modified to operate as the dual fuel engine. The diesel fuel was directly injected into the cylinder, while natural gas was injected into the intake port. The operating conditions, such as engine speed, load, intake temperature and pressure, were well controlled during the experiment. The effect of natural gas fraction on energy efficiency, cylinder pressure, exhaust temperature, and combustion stability were recorded and analyzed. The emissions data, including particulate matter, nitric oxides, carbon monoxide, and methane at various natural gas fractions and operating conditions were also analyzed. The results showed that natural gas – diesel dual fuel combustion slightly decreased brake thermal efficiency at low and medium load conditions and significantly reduced carbon dioxide and particulate matter emissions. Methane and NOx emissions increased in dual fuel combustion mode compared to diesel operation. The variation of carbon monoxide emissions in dual fuel mode depended on load and speed conditions.Copyright © 2015 by Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada


Opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are used commonly to manage pain in the early phase of spinal cord injury (SCI). Despite its analgesic efficacy, however, our studies suggest that intrathecal morphine undermines locomotor recovery and increases lesion size in a rodent model of SCI. Similarly, intravenous (IV) morphine attenuates locomotor recovery. The current study explores whether IV morphine also increases lesion size after a spinal contusion (T12) injury and quantifies the cell types that are affected by early opioid administration. Using an experimenter-administered escalating dose of IV morphine across the first seven days post-injury, we quantified the expression of neuron, astrocyte, and microglial markers at the injury site. SCI decreased NeuN expression relative to shams. In subjects with SCI treated with IV morphine, virtually no NeuN+ cells remained across the rostral-caudal extent of the lesion. Further, whereas SCI per se increased the expression of astrocyte and microglial markers (glial fibrillary acidic protein and OX-42, respectively), morphine treatment decreased the expression of these markers. These cellular changes were accompanied by attenuation of locomotor recovery (Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan scores), decreased weight gain, and the development of opioid-induced hyperalgesia (increased tactile reactivity) in morphine-treated subjects. These data suggest that morphine use is contraindicated in the acute phase of a spinal injury. Faced with a lifetime of intractable pain, however, simply removing any effective analgesic for the management of SCI pain is not an ideal option. Instead, these data underscore the critical need for further understanding of the molecular pathways engaged by conventional medications within the pathophysiological context of an injury.


Most existing topic models make the bagof-words assumption that words are generated independently, and so ignore potentially useful information about word order. Previous attempts to use collocations (short sequences of adjacent words) in topic models have either relied on a pipeline approach, restricted attention to bigrams, or resulted in models whose inference does not scale to large corpora. This paper studies how to simultaneously learn both collocations and their topic assignments. We present an efficient reformulation of the Adaptor Grammar-based topical collocation model (AG-colloc) (Johnson, 2010), and develop a point-wise sampling algorithm for posterior inference in this new formulation. We further improve the efficiency of the sampling algorithm by exploiting sparsity and parallelising inference. Experimental results derived in text classification, information retrieval and human evaluation tasks across a range of datasets show that this reformulation scales to hundreds of thousands of documents while maintaining the good performance of the AG-colloc model.


Gas may be considered today both as a reliable tracer for the understanding of associated liquid hydrocarbons and as an economic target. Isotopic measurements of stables isotopes and noble gases give important clues to reconstruct the geological history of hydrocarbons from their generation to their accumulation. Recent analytical advances in carbon isotopes of natural gases (methane to butane and carbon dioxide) duemainly to the development of GC-C-IRMS (Gas Chromatograph-Combustion-Isotopic ratios mass spectrometer) have allowed to reconstruct some of the physico-chemical processes which affect naturalgas chemical signatures, instead of using these signatures as simple fingerprinting of origins as it was the case some time ago. These reconstructions provide important information on both the origins and the dynamic behavior of hydrocarbon fluids between the source rocks and the accumulations in reservoirs. Correlating this methodology with other natural tracers increases the understanding of hydrocarbon history in sedimentary basins. Among other new potential methodologies, noble gas coupled to stable isotopes are the new frontier tool, as their chemical inertia enables their use as precise tracers of sources and of associated physical processes (state of the phases, migration and leakage). Moreover, because some isotopes (4He, 40Ar for example) are produced by natural radioactivity, they may very well represent geological "clocks", giving potentially a quantification of the residence times of hydrocarbons in a reservoir. Several new applications of this association of stable isotopes and noble gases are presented in this paper: a new way for distinguishing bacterial and thermogenic gas origins, and the characterization of the parameters related to the genesis of thermogenic gas (primary versus secondary cracking, openness of the system, relations between gas isotope signatures and biodegradation). At last is presented a tentative quantification of the proportion of hydrocarbon gases leaked from a reservoir, and a quantitative relative residence times of hydrocarbons in heterogeneous reservoirs.


The scope of this study was the creation of a methodology that would adequately quantify and incorporate the interrelationship between the various seismic parameters and recorded structural damage. Based upon the need to establish whether traditionally selected seismic parameters were truly representative of the expected structural damage and overall structural vulnerability an extensive set of seismic data and subsequent computer assisted analyses were synthesized and used throughout this project. Having established the fact that MMI and PGA seismic parameters are currently the seismic intensity indicating parameters of choice in most contemporary vulnerability studies it was only logical to test such hypothesis based on this study"s results. In several of the above cases discrepancies between those parameters and the overall structural damage recorded has been observed. This led to the need of identification of other potentially more suitable seismic parameters that would better and more accurately convey structural damage information.

This study provided a methodology that circumvents the shortcomings of such an a-priori selection by facilitating the selection of the most descriptive, in terms of seismic damage, earthquake parameter; hence, enhancing vulnerability methodology"s usefulness as a mitigation tool in pre-earthquake damage assessment. This has been accomplished by studying the interrelationship between various seismic intensity parameters and the overall seismic structural damaging potential recorded during the analyses undertaken in an attempt to streamline the selection of a specific seismic parameter. The thesis essentially investigated a methodology that enables such a selection that better describes a strong motion event"s damaging potential, for any individual type of structure, in accordance with regional or selected seismic characteristics.

Due to the very nature of the methodology proposed can be utilized for different types of structures other than the mid-rise reinforced concrete frame type that has been used in this project, with the necessary modifications and due care. With the identification of the aforementioned parameter, the current trend of an a-priori selection of either PGA or MMI, as structural seismic demand descriptors, can be avoided: leading to the creation of more realistic vulnerability curves. In effect, allowing for a better approximation of structural vulnerability; hence more closely approximate the observed structural damage.


Goal-oriented requirements analysis techniques provide ways to refine organizational and technical objectives, to more effectively explore alternatives during requirements definition. After selecting a set of alternatives to achieve these objectives, you can elaborate on them during subsequent phases to make them more precise and complete. The authors argue that goal-oriented analysis complements and strengthens traditional requirements analysis techniques by offering a means for capturing and evaluating alternative ways of meeting business goals. They detail the five main steps that comprise goal-oriented analysis. These steps include goal analysis, softgoal analysis, softgoal correlation analysis, goal correlation analysis, and evaluation of alternatives. To illustrate the main elements of the proposed analysis technique, they explore a typical scenario that involves defining requirements for a meeting scheduling system.


Reinforcing earlier findings from other data, college senior fraternity/sorority members are more likely to consume alcohol frequently. Large reductions in estimates upon controlling for time spent partying, and to a lesser extent cigarette use and intramural sports involvement, suggest considerable unobserved heterogeneity in the relationship. Yet, effects remain substantive and are invariant to conditioning on numerous further measures of socializing, sports participation, academic performance and mental health. The conclusion holds when non-member comparison groups are restricted to drinkers who smoke, party and/or play intramurals, or matched to members based on drinking propensities, suggesting that fraternity/sorority membership raises alcohol use frequency.


Although HAART has introduced great improvements in the clinical outcome of HIV-1- infected individuals, the current protocols often fail in completely restoring the CD4+T-cell lymphopenia. Therefore, innovative approaches based on the use of immune adjuvants to HAART, including cytokines like IL-2, IL-15 and IL-7, are being explored. The present thesis aims at investigating the immunomodulatory effects of IL- 7 in HIV /SIV infection, focusing on its pro-survival properties. The first part of this work describes the results of a study in vitro to evaluate the effects of IL-7 on T cells from HIV -l-infected individuals, and shows that this cytokine strongly protects both CD4+ and CD8+T cells from spontaneous apoptosis. IL-7-mediated apoptosis reduction ex vivo inversely correlated with the CD4+T-cell count of the patient in vivo, suggesting that IL-7 treatment could be useful also for patients at with advanced disease. Moreover, the protective effect of IL-7 was not associated with the induction of cellular proliferation or viral replication. The second part of this work describes the results of a study in vivo of IL-7 administration during the acute phase of SIV infection in rhesus macaques, the pathogenic animal model for AIDS. IL-7 treatment prevented the depletion of circulating naive and memory CD4+T cells that typically occurs within the very first weeks of infection, primarily by reducing the levels of apoptosis. Moreover, IL-7 treatment also induced sustained increases in all subsets of circulating CD8+T cells. Of note, treatment with IL-7 did not have any effect on SIV plasma viral load nor on the content of SIV DNA provirus. Finally, IL-7-treated animals developed earlier and stronger CD8+ and CD4+T-cell responses as compared to untreated animals, although overall no protective effects on disease progression were observed. Taken together, these data further support the use of IL-7 as an immunomodulatory adjuvant to HAART in HIV-I-infected individuals, and suggest that this cytokine may be a useful tool to preserve or restore the CD4+T-cell pool during both the acute and chronic phases of the infection.


Introduction/Background Risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) around the age of 40 is recommended for BRCA1/2 germline mutation carriers. As recent data indicate the Fallopian tube as origin of high grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC), risk-reducing salpingectomy (RRS) with delayed oophorectomy (RRO) is studied as an innovative strategy to delay premature menopause. The TUBA-study (NCT02321228) compares menopause-related quality of life (QOL) between standard RRSO and the innovative RRS with delayed RRO. Methodology A multicentre preference trial in 13 Dutch centres started in January 2015. BRCA1/2 mutation carriers choose between the standard strategy (RRSO at age 35–40 (BRCA1) or 40–45 (BRCA2)) and the innovative strategy (RRS with delayed RRO until the age of 40–45 (BRCA1) or 45–50 years (BRCA2)). Results August first 2019, 493 participants were included with a mean age of 37 years: 51% carried a BRCA1 and 49% carried a BRCA2 mutation. In total, 72% of women chose RRS with delayed RRO. At three months and one year after surgery, data showed a better menopause-related QOL in women after RRS when compared to women after RRSO (P<0.001), also after adjustment for age, hospital and baseline score. Additionally, a decline in cancer worry was found at three months and one year after surgery in both groups. Conclusion The menopause-related QOL is significantly better in BRCA mutation carriers after RRS (with delayed RRO) when compared to RRSO. Furthermore, a favourable effect on cancer worry is found among participating women in both arms. At the time of the conference we will have finished recruitment and have one year of follow up in more than 300 women. Based on our results, the Dutch TUBA and American WISP study (NCT02760849) are initializing a combined international TUBA-WISP-II study to assess the safety of RRS with delayed RRO in BRCA germline mutation carriers. Disclosure Nothing to disclose.


This paper reports a research on the properties of synthetic sodium aluminosilicate hydrate gels as models for the gels arising in alkali-activated aluminosilicate systems. The interaction between these N-A-S-H gels and aqueous calcium was studied to explore a potential consequence of mixing conventional Portland cements and alkali-activated systems. The properties of two N-A-S-H gels (with Si/Al = 1 and 2) synthesized in highly alkaline media, in the presence of calcium are reported. N-A-S-H gels were synthesized using aluminum nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and a sodium silicate. FTIR, NMR, and TEM/EDX techniques were used to characterize N-A-S-H gels before and after adding calcium. The results obtained show that calcium is uptaken in N-A-S-H gels resulting in a modification of the chemical composition due to the substitution of sodium per calcium.


Our body is made of flesh and bones. We know it, and in our daily lives all the senses constantly provide converging information about this simple, factual truth. But is this always the case? Here we report a surprising bodily illusion demonstrating that humans rapidly update their assumptions about the material qualities of their body, based on their recent multisensory perceptual experience. To induce a misperception of the material properties of the hand, we repeatedly gently hit participants' hand with a small hammer, while progressively replacing the natural sound of the hammer against the skin with the sound of a hammer hitting a piece of marble. After five minutes, the hand started feeling stiffer, heavier, harder, less sensitive, unnatural, and showed enhanced Galvanic skin response (GSR) to threatening stimuli. Notably, such a change in skin conductivity positively correlated with changes in perceived hand stiffness. Conversely, when hammer hits and impact sounds were temporally uncorrelated, participants did not spontaneously report any changes in the perceived properties of the hand, nor did they show any modulation in GSR. In two further experiments, we ruled out that mere audio-tactile synchrony is the causal factor triggering the illusion, further demonstrating the key role of material information conveyed by impact sounds in modulating the perceived material properties of the hand. This novel bodily illusion, the 'Marble-Hand Illusion', demonstrates that the perceived material of our body, surely the most stable attribute of our bodily self, can be quickly updated through multisensory integration.


PURPOSE
To report the endovascular exclusion of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in a patient with a horseshoe kidney and an isthmus mass with preservation of accessory renal vessels.

CASE REPORT
A 70-year-old man with a 5-cm AAA and renal cell carcinoma involving a horseshoe kidney was treated with an AneuRx bifurcated graft. Two accessory renal arteries believed to feed the isthmus mass were sacrificed, but 2 other accessory renal arteries from the left common iliac artery (CIA) were preserved by using an extension cuff to cover the aneurysmal left CIA distal to their origins. The right renal isthmus mass decreased in size on follow-up imaging. At 9 months, there was no endoleak evident on computed tomographic scans, and the aneurysm measured 4.8 cm.

CONCLUSIONS
The presence of accessory renal arteries in AAA patients with horseshoe kidneys should not automatically exclude them from consideration for endovascular repair. Creative stent-graft arrangements can be a treatment option.


The actual scientific and practical task, which consists in the analysis of existing and development of new methods and methods for assessing the technical condition of main oil pipelines, which will ensure safe automated management of the oil transportation system, is researched. It has been determined that in conditions of intensive aging of fixed assets of oil transportation systems and financial constraints, comprehensive technical diagnostics of main oil pipelines becomes the most effective means ensuring the reliability and safety of the entire oil transportation system. That is why the development of new and promising means of control and management on the basis of artificial intelligence is an actual scientific and practical task, the results of which identify the main scientific problems that require further research.


s (11): Abstract 2: A New Perspective on Adversarial Perturbations in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Madry 10:00 AM2: A New Perspective on Adversarial Perturbations in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Madry 10:00 AM The widespread susceptibility of the current ML models to adversarial perturbations is an intensely studied but still mystifying phenomenon. A popular view is that these perturbations are aberrations that arise due to statistical fluctuations in the training data and/or high-dimensional nature of our inputs. But is this really the case? In this talk, I will present a new perspective on the phenomenon of adversarial perturbations. This perspective ties this phenomenon to the existence of "non-robust" features: features derived from patterns in the data distribution that are highly predictive, yet brittle and incomprehensible to humans. Such patterns turn out to be prevalent in our real-world datasets and also shed light on previously observed phenomena in adversarial robustness, including transferability of adversarial examples and properties of robust models. Finally, this perspective suggests that we may need to recalibrate our expectations in terms of how models should make their decisions, and how we should interpret them. Abstract 3: Similarity of Neural Network Representations Revisited in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Kornblith 10:30 AM3: Similarity of Neural Network Representations Revisited in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Kornblith 10:30 AM Recent work has sought to understand the behavior of neural networks by comparing representations between layers and between different trained models. We introduce a similarity index that measures the ICLR 2019 Workshop book Generated Fri Mar 13, 2020 Page 6 of 15 relationship between representational similarity matrices. We show that this similarity index is equivalent to centered kernel alignment (CKA) and analyze its relationship to canonical correlation analysis. Unlike other methods, CKA can reliably identify correspondences between representations of layers in networks trained from different initializations. Moreover, CKA can reveal network pathology that is not evident from test accuracy alone. Abstract 6: Verifiable Reinforcement Learning via Policy Extraction in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Bastani 11:10 AM6: Verifiable Reinforcement Learning via Policy Extraction in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Bastani 11:10 AM While deep reinforcement learning has successfully solved many challenging control tasks, its real-world applicability has been limited by the inability to ensure the safety of learned policies. We propose VIPER, an approach to verifiable reinforcement learning by training decision tree policies, which can represent complex policies (since they are nonparametric), yet can be efficiently verified using existing techniques (since they are highly structured). We use VIPER to learn a decision tree policy for a toy game based on Pong that provably never loses. Abstract 7: Debugging Machine Learning via Model Assertions in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Kang 11:40 AM7: Debugging Machine Learning via Model Assertions in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Kang 11:40 AM Machine learning models are being deployed in mission-critical settings, such as self-driving cars. However, these models can fail in complex ways, so it is imperative that application developers find ways to debug these models. We propose adapting software assertions, or boolean statements about the state of a program that must be true, to the task of debugging ML models. With model assertions, ML developers can specify constraints on model outputs, e.g., cars should not disappear and reappear in successive frames of a video. We propose several ways to use model assertions in ML debugging, including use in runtime monitoring, in performing corrective actions, and in collecting "hard examples" to further train models with human labeling or weak supervision. We show that, for a video analytics task, simple assertions can effectively find errors and correction rules can effectively correct model output (up to 100% and 90% respectively). We additionally collect and label parts of video where assertions fire (as a form of active learning) and show that this procedure can improve model performance by up to 2×. Abstract 10: Discovering Natural Bugs Using Adversarial Data Perturbations in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Singh 12:10 PM10: Discovering Natural Bugs Using Adversarial Data Perturbations in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Singh 12:10 PM Determining when a machine learning model is "good enough" is challenging since held-out accuracy metrics significantly overestimate real-world performance. In this talk, I will describe automated techniques to detect bugs that can occur naturally when a model is deployed. I will start by approaches to identify "semantically equivalent" adversaries that should not change the meaning of the input, but lead to a change in the model's predictions. Then I will present our work on evaluating the consistency behavior of the model by exploring performance on new instances that are "implied" by the model's predictions. I will also describe a method to understand and debug models by adversarially modifying the training data to change the model's predictions. The talk will include applications of these ideas on a number of NLP tasks, such as reading comprehension, visual QA, and knowledge graph completion. Abstract 11: "Debugging" Discriminatory ML Systems in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Raji 12:40 PM If a machine learning (ML) model is illegally discriminatory towards vulnerable and underrepresented populations, can we really say it works? Of course not! That illegal behaviour negates the functionality of the ML model, just as much as overfitting or other typically acknowledged ML "bugs". This talk explores the redefinition of what it means for a model to "work" well enough to deploy and dives into the analogy of software engineering debugging practice to explain current strategies for diagnosing, reporting, addressing and preventing the further development of discriminatory ML models.11: "Debugging" Discriminatory ML Systems in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Raji 12:40 PM If a machine learning (ML) model is illegally discriminatory towards vulnerable and underrepresented populations, can we really say it works? Of course not! That illegal behaviour negates the functionality of the ML model, just as much as overfitting or other typically acknowledged ML "bugs". This talk explores the redefinition of what it means for a model to "work" well enough to deploy and dives into the analogy of software engineering debugging practice to explain current strategies for diagnosing, reporting, addressing and preventing the further development of discriminatory ML models. Abstract 12: NeuralVerification.jl: Algorithms for Verifying Deep Neural Networks in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Arnon, Lazarus 01:00 PM12: NeuralVerification.jl: Algorithms for Verifying Deep Neural Networks in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Arnon, Lazarus 01:00 PM Deep neural networks (DNNs) are widely used for nonlinear function approximation with applications ranging from computer vision to control. Although DNNs involve the composition of simple arithmetic operations, it can be very challenging to verify whether a particular network satisfies certain input-output properties. This work introduces NeuralVerification.jl, a software package that implements methods that have emerged recently for soundly verifying such properties. These methods borrow insights from reachability analysis, optimization, and search. We present the formal problem definition and briefly discuss the fundamental differences between the implemented algorithms. In addition, we provide a pedagogical example of how to use the library. Abstract 15: Safe and Reliable Machine Learning: Preventing and Identifying Failures in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Saria 03:30 PM15: Safe and Reliable Machine Learning: Preventing and Identifying Failures in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Saria 03:30 PM Machine Learning driven decision-making systems are being increasingly used to decide bank loans, make hiring decisions,perform clinical decision-making, and more. As we march towards a future in which these systems underpin most of society's decision-making infrastructure, it is critical for us to understand the principles that will help us engineer for reliability. Drawing from reliability engineering, we will briefly outline three principles to group and guide technical solutions for addressing and ensuring reliability in machine learning systems: 1) Failure Prevention, 2) Failure Identification, and 3) Maintenance. In particular, we will discuss a framework (https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.07204) for preventing failures due to differences between the training and deployment environments that proactively addresses the problem of dataset shift. We will contrast this with typical reactive solutions which require deployment environment data and discuss relations with similar problems such as robustness to adversarial examples. Abstract 16: Better Code for Less Debugging with AutoGraph in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Moldovan 04:00 PM16: Better Code for Less Debugging with AutoGraph in Debugging Machine Learning Models, Moldovan 04:00 PM The fast-paced nature of machine learning research and development, with many ideas advancing rapidly from research to production, puts it at increased risk of programming errors, which can be particularly insidious when combined with machine learning. In this talk we discuss defensive design as a way to reduce the chance for such errors to occur in the first place, and present AutoGraph, a tool which facilitates defensive design by allowing more legible code that is still efficient and portable. Abstract 18: The Scientific Method in the Scien


We examined the effects of a variety of conditions upon the IF1-mediated inhibition of the ATPase in both intact and sonicated mitochondria and in IF1-depleted submitochondrial particles (SMP) in species-homologous and species-heterologous combinations of IF1 and ATPase. IF1-mediated ATPase inhibition occurred in intact rabbit heart mitochondria at low matrix pH and low membrane potential, but not in intact pigeon and rat heart mitochondria under the same conditions. IF1-mediated ATPase inhibition was, however, demonstrable in both the rabbit and pigeon heart systems in sonicated mitochondria incubated at low ionic strength. The rat heart system failed to exhibit significant IF1-mediated ATPase inhibition in either intact or sonicated mitochondria due to the low amount of IF1 present. When rabbit heart IF1-containing extracts were incubated with IF1-depleted rabbit heart SMP over a range of KCl concentrations, increasing the [KCl] to 100 mM had little effect on IF1-mediated ATPase inhibition. When pigeon heart IF1-containing extracts were incubated with IF1-depleted pigeon heart SMP under the same conditions, increasing [KCl] to 100 mM nearly completely blocked IF1-mediated ATPase inhibition. While the species-endogenous level of rat heart IF1 (i.e., 1x IF1) inhibited IF1-depleted rat heart SMP virtually not at all at any [KCl] examined, the 8x rat heart IF1 was nearly as inhibitory as the 1x rabbit heart IF1 at varying ionic strengths. When rabbit, pigeon, or rat heart IF1 was bound to rabbit versus pigeon IF1-depleted SMP, the effect of varying ionic strength on IF1-mediated ATPase inhibition was related to the species source of the IF1, not to the species source of the enzyme; 1x bovine heart IF1 purified to homogeneity behaved much like 1x crude rabbit heart IF1 when binding to either the rabbit or the pigeon heart enzyme. This suggests that an IF1-ATPase complex stabilizing factor such as has been isolated from baker's yeast cells in neither lacking in the pigeon heart system nor required for the more ionic-strength-resistant binding of IF1 observed in slow heart-rate mammalian heart mitochondria.


According to Anvisa risk rating, hypodermic needles offer medium risk to the user's health. This study discussed the importance of the corrosion resistance test in tubes of hypodermic needles, in the product quality control. A review of cannulas of hypodermic needles was carried out according to ISO 9626:2003 and 9259:1997 ABNT NBR. For the results evaluation, a scale which classifies the extent of corrosion was adjusted. 174 samples of PNI needles from 17 States and 9 different record holders were analyzed. According to the methodology of ISO 9626:2003, 100% of the samples were considered satisfactory. However, in accordance with the methodology of ISO 9259:1997, 97.1% of the samples were rejected. Irregularities can lead to impairment of product quality, resulting in risks to the consumer's health. Since 2011 the product has undergone certification, so it is necessary to reflect on the importance of corrosion resistance testing and mandatory certification for health monitoring.


RNA interference (RNAi) is a regulatory gene silencing system found in nearly all eukaryotic organisms that employs small RNAs, typically 20-25 nucleotides long, to target complementary sequences found in mRNAs. RNA helicases use ATP to unwind double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), and are known to participate at nearly every level of RNA metabolism. A multitude of RNA helicases have been isolated from screens for essential RNAi factors, and even the earliest models of the RNAi pathway have presumed an RNA helicase to function at the level of small RNA duplex unwinding. However, while many components that function in RNAi have been uncovered and characterized, the exact placement in the pathway and ascription of a specific biochemical function of an RNA helicase in RNAi remains elusive. Recent studies have delved deeper into the precise role of some RNA helicases. Surprisingly, these studies have revealed nontraditional roles, which may not even require the helicase activity. Such findings suggest that RNA helicases regulate gene silencing at nearly every level of the RNAi pathways.


One of the goals of functional genomics is the description of reliable and complete protein interaction networks. To facilitate ligand discovery from complex protein mixtures, we have developed an improved approach that is affected by a negligible fraction of false positives. We have combined a novel technique based on the display of cDNA libraries on the capsid of bacteriophage lambda and an efficient plaque assay to reveal phage displaying ligands that are enriched after only a couple of affinity purification steps. We show that the lambda display system has a unique ability to display, at high density, proteins ranging in size from a few to at least 300 amino acid residues. This characteristic permits attenuation of the size bias in the selection procedure and, at the same time, offers a sensitive plaque assay that permits us to do away with the ligand background without unduly increasing the number of selection cycles. By using a proline-rich fragment of the synaptojanin 1 protein as a bait, we have identified, in a brain cDNA display library, seven ligands all containing either SH3 or WW domains. Four of these correspond to proteins that have already been validated as physiological partners, while the remaining three are new partners, whose physiological relevance remains to be established. Two different proline-rich regions of the p21-activated protein kinase 1 (Pak1) and WAVE/SCAR2 protein retrieve from the library different proteins containing SH3 or WW domains.


The IEEE 802.15.4 Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) is a widely used standard technology for industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The applications of such networks have diverse Quality-of-Service (QoS) demands that should be satisfied. Optimal configuration of the network parameters based on their QoS requirements and run-time adaptation to continuously meet the QoS requirements given all network dynamics is a great challenge for large-scale networks. The configuration space is very large for large-scale networks resulting in space exploration to be complex and extremely time-consuming. Moreover, such space exploration needs to be performed multiple times at design-time to give insight into the worst and best case performance of the mechanisms and network topology. Yet, it is needed for the run-time reconfiguration upon changes in the network. To address the stated challenges, we propose a fast and accurate enough algorithm based on Pareto algebra to extract a subset of Pareto configurations for large TSCH networks in a very short time. A proper configuration can be then picked from this set. Having such a fast optimization algorithm, the network can react to the changes in the link quality, routing topology, and reconfigure itself optimally at an appropriate time. The performance of the proposed technique is extensively evaluated, and compared with other approaches such as basic incremental Pareto analysis, and genetic algorithm, showing its superior execution time and quality of configurations in terms of accuracy and diversity.


In this paper, the crossing point property of the i–v hysteresis curve in a memristor–capacitor (MC) circuit is analyzed. First, the ideal passive memristor on the crossing point property of i–v hysteresis curve is studied. Based on the analysis, the analytical derivation with respect to the crossing point location of MC circuit is given. Then the example of MC with linear memristance-versus-charge state map is demonstrated to discuss the drift property of cross-point location, caused by the frequency and capacitance value.


The usage of effective composite materials currently became a regular trend in different field of industrial works and production factories. Composite materials being having a property of fulfilling more than one property simultaneously became an effective material recently in practical life. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite, due to its low weight, high stiffness huge load carrying capacity, corrosion less property, it became a friendly material for different engineering purposes where materials get include. In the world of Civil Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Automobile Engineering, currently the trend of FRP became very familiar for increasing the strength of materials for different properties and from different orientations. Strengthening and retrofitting of any structural elements become mandatory when the structure gets distressed due to several loading and aging effects. This research paper contains the concept of Aramid Fiber Reinforced Polymer (AFRP) composite and its application in the strengthening of corroded Steel Hollow Tubular Sections (SHTS). The improvement in the properties of SHTS after applying AFRP is discussed in this research content and its polymerization effect on strengthening. To establish a comparison on the recent research trend in this area, a special way of retrofication scheme was involved in this investigation, by following a practice of spiral or helical wrapping of AFRP to achieve a continues stiffness with a uniform unity across the height of the column. To analyze the proposed strengthening scheme, a comparative study has been done with respect to the traditional approach. A series of experimental investigation was done to come up with the result and later a brief discussion has been done regarding the usage of AFRP in different fields of Engineering. Totally 21 samples were casted both in horizontal and spiral jacketing and tested experimentally under axial compressive load by sustaining several parameters to observe the variation in the change of the properties of SHTS to verify the axial load carrying capacity along with the stiffness and Young's modulus. The experimental investigation showed that there is a remarkable improvement in the properties of AFRP strengthened specimens with respect to different parameters after the application AFRP and the effect of its polymerization with the bonding agent. Thus after the strengthening of column specimens with AFRP, the overall increment in the load ringing capacity of the SHTS was 23.27% and also the proposed scheme of spiral wrapping provided a superior result as compared to the traditional method of horizontal stripping. Revised Manuscript Received on December 15, 2019. Mr. Nabajyoti Modak*, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Anand Institute of Higher Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Email ID: email@example.com Mr. Durlab Das, Completed M. Tech in Aeronautical Engineering, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Email ID: email@example.com Mr. R Vinodh Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,, Meenakshi College of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Email: email@example.com


Telomerase activity is present in most malignant tumors and provides a mechanism for unlimited replication of neoplastic cells. This study was undertaken to investigate the expression of the gene encoding human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the telomerase catalytic subunit gene in lung carcinoma, by in situ hybridization (ISH). hTERT is associated with telomerase activity, and overexpressed in most lung carcinomas. We assayed hTERT gene expression by ISH to study telomerase activity in lung carcinomas of 27 patients, and compared these results with those of telomerase activity by telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. TERT gene expression by ISH was detected mainly in the nuclei of lung carcinoma cells. Some specimens showed a significant expression in only infiltrating lymphocytes. hTERT gene expression by ISH was found in 16 of 27 (59%) cases. On the other hand, telomerase activity by TRAP assay was detected in 21 of 27 (78%) cases. In 7 cases, TRAP assay detected telomerase activity, but ISH did not detect hTERT expression. TRAP assay might detect telomerase activity in not only carcinoma cells, but also in infiltrating lymphocytes. Our findings therefore suggest that ISH-based analysis of hTERT gene expression is superior to TRAP assay as a means of determining telomerase status during carcinogenesis.


Zooplankton abundance in the waters around Bombay was studied at Versova, Bombay Harbour (less polluted), Mahim and Thana (highly polluted) from October 1977 to December 1978. A rich zooplankton population was observed throughout the period of study especially during the low tide with peaks in October/November and March/April. Mean zooplankton dry weight at the different stations were 8.7 mg/100 m3 (Thana), 5.8 mg/100 m3 (Versova), 4.04 mg/100 m3 (Harbour) and 3.84 mg/100 m3 (Mahim). Eventhough numerically Mahim station sustained the maximum population of zooplankton, the recorded mean biomass was the lowest for the area studied. No correlation was found between the population density peak of either the high or low tide of any month among the four stations. Group diversity of zooplankton was relatively more in unpolluted waters than in polluted waters


Response surface methods are often used to solve reliability analysis problems of complex engineering structure. But the solved reliability index of these methods is mostly geometric reliability. Some errors exist in geometric reliability index compared with the reliability in practical engineering which need to be improved. The importance sampling method in V-space was lead into this paper to transform the basic random variable space to V-space by Rosenblatt transformation and linear orthogonal transformation basing on the designed checking points and its nearby response surface, the complex structure reliability value was solved out by using Monte Carlo importance sampling method. The comparative analysis of several numerical examples' results have showed that the method put forward in this paper is of high precision and suitable for the reliability solution of complex structures with strong nonlinear performance function.


Urbanization is transforming and fragmenting natural environments worldwide, driving changes in biological communities through alterations in local environmental conditions as well as by changing the capacity of species to reach specific habitats. While the majority of earlier studies have been performed on higher plants and animals, it is crucial to increase our insight on microbial responses to urbanization across different spatial scales. Here, using a metacommunity approach, we evaluated the effects of urbanization on bacterioplankton communities in 50 shallow ponds in Belgium (Flanders region), one of the most urbanized areas in Northwest Europe. We estimated the relative importance of local environmental factors (35 abiotic and biotic variables), regional spatial factors and urbanization (built-up area) quantified at two spatial scales (200 m × 200 m and 3 km × 3 km). We show that urbanization at local or regional scales did not lead to strong changes in community composition and taxon diversity of bacterioplankton. Urbanization at regional scale (3 km × 3 km) explained only 2% of community composition variation while at local scale (200 m × 200 m), no effect was detected. Local environmental factors explained 13% (OTUs with relative abundance ≥ 0.1%) to 24% (12 dominant OTUs -≥ 1%) of community variation. Six local environmental variables significantly explained variation in bacterioplankton community composition: pH, alkalinity, conductivity, total phosphorus, abundance of Daphnia and concentration of copper (Cu), of which pH was partly mediated by urbanization. Our results indicate that environmental rather than spatial factors accounted for the variation in bacterioplankton community structure, suggesting that species sorting is the main process explaining bacterioplankton community assembly. Apparently, urbanization does not have a direct and strong effect on bacterioplankton metacommunity structure, probably due to the capacity of these organisms to adapt toward and colonize habitats with different environmental conditions and due to their fast adaptation and metabolic versatility. Thus, bacterioplankton communities inhabiting shallow ponds may be less affected by environmental conditions resulting from urbanization as compared to the impacts previously described for other taxa.


Author(s): Cherukumilli, Aruna Kirani Katyayani | Advisor(s): Gadgil, Ashok J | Abstract: Globally, 200 million people are at risk of adverse health effects from drinking groundwater contaminated with geogenic fluoride concentrations exceeding the World Health Organization's maximum contaminant limit (WHO-MCL = 1.5 mg F−/L). Although many defluoridation technologies have been demonstrated to work in lab, most have proven inappropriate for developing countries because they are cost-prohibitive, require skilled labor, or are difficult to scale. Activated alumina (AA) column filters are widely used by the upper middle class but production of AA remains costly in terms of money, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions. Eliminating these energy-intensive steps in refining bauxite, a ubiquitous aluminum-rich ore ($30/tonne), to AA ($1500/tonne), has the potential to reduce the annual per-capita material cost of treated water significantly. The purpose of this dissertation is to ascertain the use of bauxite as a potentially inexpensive defluoridation technology through experimental studies characterizing globally diverse bauxite ores and tradeoffs associated with mild processing steps to enhance fluoride removal performance. Chapter 1 presents an overview of fluoride as a geogenic groundwater contaminant worldwide and in India, the health effects of excess fluoride consumption, and existing treatment technologies. Chapter 2 establishes proof of concept that mildly processed bauxite can effectively remediate field-relevant fluoride concentrations to below the WHO-MCL in synthetic and real groundwater matrices at comparable kinetics and significantly lower cost than AA. This chapter also characterizes intrinsic features of globally diverse bauxite ores (from Guinea, Ghana, USA, and India) to identify factors predicting bauxite's performance. Chapter 3 utilizes insights on underlying molecular mechanisms and proposes thermal activation and groundwater pH adjustment as two processing methods to optimize the fluoride removal performance of bauxite. Chapter 4 discusses some remaining practical challenges and unknowns for implementing our scalable and affordable fluoride removal (SAFR) process in the field. Chapter 5 concludes this dissertation by discussing the implications of the research findings and by suggesting additional future studies needed before field implementation of the proposed SAFR groundwater treatment technology.


Abstract Some bounds about the solution of the linear Volterra integral equations of the second type of the form with unit source term and positive monotonically increasing convolution kernel were obtained in [5, 6, 8-10]. The boundedness of functions f′; f″; ... ; f(n); (n ∈ ℕ) defined on the infinite interval [0;1) were shown in [10, 12]. In this paper, it is shown that the results in [10, 12] for an equation in the same form can also be derived under different conditions than those of [10, 12].


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to examine the effects of apigenin (API) on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of human tongue squamous cell carcinoma Tca8113 cells and explore its probable mechanisms.

METHODS
After treating Tca8113 cells with API, the cell proliferation, migration, and invasivecapacities were identified by te-trazolium salt colorimetry(MTT) assay, cell scratch test, and Transwell chamber test. Cellular immunofluorescence staining was used to localize mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1) and extracellular regulated protein kinase (ERK) 1/2 proteins. Western blot was used to detect the variations of the related protein expression levels.

RESULTS
① Through the MTT assay, API significantly inhibited cell proliferation (P<0.01). ②In the cell scratch test, the dis-tance of lateral migration after the API treatment was significantly shorter compared to the control group (P<0.01). ③The inva-sion rate in the lower chamber of the Transwell chamber was lower in the API group (P<0.01). ④ Cellular immunofluores-cence staining presented that the total-MEKK1 was localized in the cytoplasm, p-MEKK1 was localized in the nuclear mem-brane and cytoplasm, and p-ERK1/2 was localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus. ⑤ After API was applied to cells, the expres-sions of p-MEKK1 and p-ERK1/2 proteins significantly reduced (P<0.01).

CONCLUSION
Apigenin(API) significantly inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of Tca8113 cells and its mecha-nism may be associatedwith the MAPK signaling pathway.


The psychological factors underpinning responses to sexual offenders are beginning to receive increased empirical scrutiny. One such factor is offender representativeness, which refers to the extent to which a given offender example matches a stereotype of those who are typically labelled as "sexual offenders". Using a sample of 252 community members, we examined the role of implicit theories about sexual offenders (ie whether sexual offending is seen as fixed or malleable) in mediating the relationship between affective responses to sexual offenders and policy outcome judgements. We found support for this mediating effect, although this was eliminated when participants were presented with a "non-representative" offender vignette. We argue that the relationship between affective responses and policy judgements is contingent on the activation of a sexual offender stereotype, and that this link can be disrupted via the increased presentation of nonstereotypical case examples. Implications for public debate and professional practice are discussed. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 15 August 2016 Revised 10 October 2016 Accepted 17 October 2016


OBJECTIVES
Traditionally, nerve conduction study (NCS) are used to diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). However, no NCS has the sufficient sensitivity or specificity values to diagnose CTS by itself. Median terminal latency index (mTLI) and median residual latency (mRL) are parameters that calculated to identify abnormalities in distal segments of the median motor nerve. There are few studies on mTLI and mRL in the diagnosis of CTS. The objective of this study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of mTLI and mRL together with NCS in the diagnosis of CTS.

PATIENTS AND METHODS AND RESULTS
The diagnostic sensitivity of mTLI and mRL were calculated and compared with the conventional NCS. Sensitivity values of electrophysiological findings were as follows: median distal sensory latency (mDSL) 91.5%, fourth finger median-ulnar sensory (M4-U4) latency difference 91.5%, mTLI 90.1%, median sensory nerve conduction velocity (mSNCV) 87.4%, and median motor distal latency (mMDL) 68.6%. Specificity values of electrophysiological findings in those with carpal tunnel syndrome were mSNCV 98.6%, mMNCV (median motor nerve conduction velocity) 98.6%, median motor wrist muscle action potential amplitude 98.6%, median sensory nerve action potential amplitude 97.4%, mSDL 97.3% and M4-U4 (fourth finger median-ulnar sensory peak latency difference) latency difference 97.3%. In all CTS patients with long mMDL values, mTLI was found to be lower, however in 22 CTS patients (22.6%) with normal mMDL, mTLI was also found to be lower. Compared with mMDL, the sensitivity of mTLI in the diagnosis of CTS was found to be higher but its specificity was lower. No differences were found in the sensitivity and specificity of mRL and mMDL. The electrophysiological findings with the highest sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing CTS among conventional NCS were mSDL, M4-U4 peak latency difference and mSNCV.

CONCLUSIONS
It was concluded that mTLI and mSDL can complete each other in the detection of abnormalities of sensory and motor fibres in the diagnosis of CTS.


The development of a neurocomputing technique to forecast the average winter shower in India has been modeled from 48 years of records (1950–1998). The complexities in the rainfall–sea surface temperature relationships have been statistically analyzed along with the collinearity diagnostics. The presence of multicollinearity has been revealed and a variable selection has been executed accordingly. The absence of persistence has also been revealed. For this reason, an Artificial Neural Net Model as a predictive tool for the said meteorological event in the form of a Multiple Layer Perceptron has been generated with a sea surface temperature anomaly and monthly average winter shower data over India during the above period. After proper training and testing, a Neural Net model with small prediction error is developed and the supremacy of the Artificial Neural Net over conventional statistical predictive procedures has been established statistically.


The paper reports experience from the development and use of eleven different software maintenance effort prediction models. The models were developed applying regression analysis, neural networks and pattern recognition and the prediction accuracy was measured and compared for each model type. The most accurate predictions were achieved applying models based on multiple regression and on pattern recognition. We suggest the use of prediction models as instruments to support the expert estimates and to analyse the impact of the maintenance variables on the maintenance process and product. We believe that the pattern recognition based models evaluated, i.e., the prediction models based on the Optimized Set Reduction method, show potential for such use. >


On systems consisting of packet switched networks (e.g. LANs, HSLANs and ATM/BISDN) which are linked over satellite, there are packet losses due to buffer overflow at bridges and routers as well as bit errors on the satellite link. The resulting high error probability requires error correction methods, which are simple and effective in terms of throughput and memory requirements. For packet switched communications, quite a number of ARQ (automatic repeat request) protocols have been designed which are able to cope with stringent memory requirements, but they either lack safety at high block error rates, or they require a large bandwidth due to low throughput. We introduce a simple and effective strategy (called Stutter-XOR or SXOR strategy) to increase throughput of existing protocols. In contrast to existing hybrid schemes (combinations of ARQ and forward error correction), it does not only correct bit errors, but also handles block losses. This is achieved by sending additional blocks, so called XOR blocks, which are created by combining other block using the XOR (modulo 2 addition) operation. We developed several variants of this strategy. Two of them are evaluated by means of analysis and simulation.<<ETX>>


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate areas of articular contact of the proximal portions of the radius and ulna in normal elbow joints of dogs and the effects of axial load on size and location of these areas.

SAMPLE POPULATION
Forelimbs obtained from cadavers of 5 adult mixed-breed dogs.

PROCEDURE
After forelimbs were removed, liquid-phase polymethyl methacrylate was applied to articular surfaces of the elbow joint, and limbs were axially loaded. Articular regions void of casting material were stained with water-soluble paint. Relative articular contact areas were determined by computer-assisted image analyses of stained specimens. Repeatability of the technique was evaluated by analyses of casts from bilateral forelimbs of 1 cadaver. Incremental axial loads were applied to left forelimbs from 4 cadavers to determine effects of load on articular contact.

RESULTS
Specific areas of articular contact were identified on the radius, the craniolateral aspect of the anconeus, and the medial coronoid process. The medial coronoid and radial contact areas were continuous across the radioulnar articulation. There was no articular contact of the medial aspect of the anconeus with the central trochlear notch. Coefficients of variation of contact areas between repeated tests and between contralateral limbs was < 20%. Significant overall effects of axial load on contact area or location were not identified.

CONCLUSIONS
Three distinct contact areas were evident in the elbow joint of dogs. Two ulnar contact areas were detected, suggesting there may be physiologic incongruity of the humeroulnar joint. There was no evidence of surface incongruity between the medial edge of the radial head and the lateral edge of the medial coronoid process.


This condition has characteristic findings on excretory urography and ascending urography as demonstrated in our case. Graham et al. (1965) have used lymphangiography in the diagnosis of this condition but Halverstadt (1968) states that it may not always be conclusive in this disease and an abnormal lymphangiogram is not always an absolute diagnostic criterion for idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis. The definitive treatment favoured is ureterolysis in the early stages but for a patient coming with uraemia or anuria this is combined with nephrosotomy or ureterostomy. The ureters can be approached retroperitoneally on either side but this has the disadvantage of not preventing re-investment of the ureter by the fibrotic process. To overcome this certain special procedures such as closing the channel or filling it with fat, or transplanting the ureter away from its former course, or wrapping the ureter with fat, or embedding it in a muscular bed are advisable. The ureters can be approached transperitoneally and this was advocated by Ormond (1948) and Raper (1955) as the better approach, as both the ureters can be inspected and treated and moreover the chances of re-investment with fibrosis are rare as the posterior peritoneum is stitched beneath the freed ureters. This procedure has however, the drawback that ureteroplasty or nephrostomy, if desirable, is made more difficult. Shaheen & Johnston (1959) have recorded a case in which the recurrence of ureteral obstruction with symptoms after bilateral ureterolysis was successfully treated with cortisone. Radiotherapy was suggested by Oppenheimer, Narins & Simon (1952) and Bradfield (1953) for the treatment of this condition but its success has not been proved. Harrow & Solan (1962) think that the radiosensitivity of the fibrous mass may be due to its marked vascularity. With all these empirical therapies there is no record of the plaque remaining unchanged or receding although the patient might show clinical improvement.


This paper provides an empirical test of the Engerman-Sokoloff hypothesis that factor endowments influenced the development of the rule of law, which in turn has shaped the income distribution. Using a measure of the suitability of land for growing wheat relative to sugarcane as an instrument for the rule of law, as measured by area 2 of the Economic Freedom of the World index, we estimate the potential causal impact of the rule of law on the long-run net income inequality. Conditioning on geography, ethnolinguistic fractionalization and legal tradition, the rule of law exerts a negative impact on inequality that is both economically and statistically significant. The results are robust to additional control variables, two alternative measures of the rule of law, an alternative instrumental variable, and the exclusion of strategic country samples and outliers.


"The Shift" project aimed to provide a participatory online learning environment, one aspect of which is an online embodied companion agent (or bot) to support the learner, provide advice, and direct the learners to relevant learning. This paper presents the findings of workshops with potential users of the system to identify the preferred appearance and functionality for the bot. The findings revealed a range of attitudes towards both appearance realism and behavioural realism in bots and the functionality that learners desire, and specifically do not want. The students showed high resistance to an anthropomorphic appearance; participants describing the nature of the agent in terms that match the literature's discussions of "the uncanny". Realistic behaviour such as personality produced a strongly positive response. The learners therefore preferred realism but not anthropomorphism and these are often blurred together in the literature.


Perception of Rorshach's tables was examined in 124 patients with tumors of the frontal lobes. Statistically significant differences were found in the interpretation of the tables depending upon the affection site. The patients with tumors of the left frontal lobe show an increase of the mean time of reaction and response, a decrease of the general amount of interpretations, a relatively high percentage of answers with a distinct form and answers to large details, and an increased fatiguability. The patients with tumors of the right frontal lobe show a decreased amount of answers with a distinct form, an increase of colour form, purely coloured, whole and confabulatory interpretations with bad forms. In bilateral frontal tumors there are more signs inherent in lesions of the right frontal lobe. Comparison of the data obtained with literary evidence suggests that differences in the perception of the tables in patients with organ brain lesions are to a higher degree determined by the lateralization of the pathological process, rather than by the etiology of the disease.


Constant stress tensile creep tests were conducted on AZ91D–20 vol.%, 25 vol.%, and 30 vol.% Al2O3-SiO2 short fiber composites and on an unreinforced AZ91D matrix alloy. The creep resistance of the reinforced materials is shown to be considerably improved compared with the matrix alloy. With the increasing volume fraction of short fibers, the creep resistance of AZ91D composites is improved, and their creep threshold stresses are also increased accordingly. Because of the increasing volume fraction of short fibers, loads of bearing and transmission of short fibers will increase, and thus the creep resistance of AZ91D composites further improves, but the precipitation of β-Mg17Al12 precipitate increases in the number, it is easy to soften coarse, so that threshold stress of AZ91D composite does not increase greatly.


Abstract We determine the growth rate of linear instabilities resulting from long-wavelength transverse perturbations applied to periodic nonlinear wave solutions to the Schamel–Korteweg–de Vries–Zakharov–Kuznetsov (SKdVZK) equation which governs weakly nonlinear waves in a strongly magnetized cold-ion plasma whose electron distribution is given by two Maxwellians at slightly different temperatures. To obtain the growth rate it is necessary to evaluate non-trivial integrals whose number is kept to a minimum by using recursion relations. It is shown that a key instance of one such relation cannot be used for classes of solution whose minimum value is zero, and an additional integral must be evaluated explicitly instead. The SKdVZK equation contains two nonlinear terms whose ratio b increases as the electron distribution becomes increasingly flat-topped. As b and hence the deviation from electron isothermality increases, it is found that for cnoidal wave solutions that travel faster than long-wavelength linear waves, there is a more pronounced variation of the growth rate with the angle θ at which the perturbation is applied. Solutions whose minimum values are zero and which travel slower than long-wavelength linear waves are found, at first order, to be stable to perpendicular perturbations and have a relatively narrow range of θ for which the first-order growth rate is not zero.


Written by a Johns Hopkins pediatric endocrinologist and an award-winning medical writer, Clinical Management of the Child and Teenager with Diabetes is a comprehensive and accessible clinical guide to the modern medical management of Type 1 diabetes. Emphasizing the concerns and needs of the child and family, the book is addressed to primary care clinicians, who are increasingly responsible for managing the care of patients with diabetes. With detailed guidelines for establishing a comprehensive patient management plan, this book discusses how to effectively ensure the health and well-being of the child or adolescent with diabetes. The authors cover the basic mechanisms of disease, provide diagnostic and treatment guidelines, describe the spectrum of management options, and offer valuable advice on how to achieve effective communication among parent, child, and members of the health care team. Throughout, the authors stress the importance of helping children with diabetes to live as normally as possible. They address a wide range of management alternatives, including practical issues - snacking at the mall after school (and how to adjust insulin to cover it), what to do about insulin shots during sleepovers, what to tell friends and classmates as well as teachers and other educators, and how to counsel adolescents about the effect of alcohol on blood sugar levels. The text is enhanced by a variety of sample forms and documents: assessment and other record-keeping forms; sample letters to teachers describing activity restrictions and warning signs they should watch for; growth charts; tables of timing and duration of action for different types of insulin; and diabetic ketoacidosis treatment flow sheets.


Purpose: The focus of this study was to analyze crisis management in a context of HighReliability Organizations (HRO) evidenced in two cases of Brazilian air disasters. Aspects of human and technological natures were examined, addressing the complex socio-technical system. Methodology: This in-depth case study addressed the two most serious air disasters on Brazilian territory. The first case involved a mid-air collision between Gol Flight 1907 and the Legacy jet. In the second case, TAM flight 3054 had difficulty braking when landing at the airport and crashed into a building. Data were collected from official disaster documents. Findings: The results revealed that the management and operational activities aimed to maintain the necessary conditions that prioritize a high level of reliability. High reliability mainly involves concern over failure, reluctance to accept simplified interpretations, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience and detailed structure specifications. Practical Implications: The implications are based on alerting highly reliable organizations, emphasizing the focus on managing more reliably, resiliently and conscientiously. Changes will be required in the operations of organizations seeking to learn to manage unexpected events and respond quickly to continually improve the responsiveness of their services. Originality: In the perspective of an intrinsic case study for crisis management in a context of HRO and disaster risk management, the originality of this study lies in its examination of the paradoxical nature of control within the systems of dangerous operations in complex organizations, as well as their contradictions in a high-reliability system.


The authors analyze the feasibility and performance of a particular tomographic system for atmospheric pollution monitoring over limited areas (e.g. urban areas). Such a system exploits attenuation-based infrared measurements of the average concentration of the fundamental molecular species of pollutants along rectilinear paths. First, the paper demonstrates the feasibility of an apparatus based on semiconductor infrared laser diode transmitters and passive retroreflectors, capable of measuring the average concentration of pollutants along rectilinear paths with 2 km maximum length, by exploiting their infrared absorption properties. For each gaseous species of interest, the optimal wavelength is then singled out, with the purpose of applying the derivative method for measuring the corresponding average atmospheric concentration. The optimal wavelengths are determined based on both absorption data of atmospheric components and plausible ranges of variation of their concentration. Finally, the authors present simulations carried out to evaluate the reconstruction of spatial concentration fields of several air pollutants, obtained through a tomographic inversion algorithm exploiting simultaneous attenuation measurements made along different infrared links. Two different network topologies for such measurements are considered.


Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex process resulting into structural brain damage and functional deficits as a result of an external mechanical force. This study aimed to investigate the possible ameliorative effect of Raphia hookeri ethanol extract (RHEE) on induced acute traumatic brain injury in rats. The choice of the plant was based on its reported anti-oxidative property. Thirty-six female Wistar rats were divided into six groups of six animals each. I: CONTROL - distilled water orally; II: RHEE - 100 mg/kg RHEE; III: Sharp trauma brain injury (STBI); IV: STBI+RHEE; V: Blunt trauma brain injury (BTBI); VI: BTBI+RHEE.  Brain injury was inflicted using modified weight drop technique on experimental day 1 while RHEE was given orally by gavage for 7 days post-injury. Blood was collected serially 24hrs, 72hrs and 7 days post-trauma for full blood count and differentials of the white blood cells. On day nine, rats were euthanized and brain harvested for biochemical and histological analyses. Trauma significantly (p<0.05) reduced the relative brain weight of rats compared with the control. Lymphocyte count increased while neutrophils reduced in all traumatized rats compared with control group. Both BTBI and STBI significantly (p<0.05) elevated MDA and significantly (p<0.05) reduced the level of GSH, the activities of SOD and CAT enzymes compared with control group. Histologically, the extent of haemorrhage into the subarachnoid and brain parenchyma in STBI and BTBI groups was reduced in the BTBI+RHEE and STBI+RHEE groups. Administration of RHEE reduced oxidative damage and ameliorated neuronal damage in sharp and blunt brain injuries.


Using data from 2005-2013, this paper analyzes banks efficiency across the GCC countries. This study
examines the efficiency of GCC conventional and Islamic banks across the GCC countries while considering the
impact of ownership type and listing status on banks efficiency by employing the Data Envelopment Analysis
(DEA) and a second stage Tobit regression analysis with bootstrapping. It is found that GCC conventional
banks are by far more efficient than GCC Islamic banks and this conclusion holds across all GCC countries. It is
also found that GCC state-owned banks outperform the GCC private-owned banks in general and across all
GCC countries; and interestingly, GCC listed banks were less efficient than GCC unlisted banks. More, the
main source of inefficiency in GCC banks was the scale inefficiency and GCC banks exhibited a decreasing
return to scale. Therefore, GCC policymakers and regulators should not support any expansionary strategy in
their banking industry.


Abstract. The accurate knowledge of sea ice parameters, including sea ice thickness and
snow depth over the sea ice cover, is key to both climate studies and data
assimilation in operational forecasts. Large-scale active and passive remote
sensing is the basis for the estimation of these parameters. In traditional
altimetry or the retrieval of snow depth with passive microwave remote
sensing, although the sea ice thickness and the snow depth are closely
related, the retrieval of one parameter is usually carried out under
assumptions over the other. For example, climatological snow depth data or as
derived from reanalyses contain large or unconstrained uncertainty, which
result in large uncertainty in the derived sea ice thickness and volume. In
this study, we explore the potential of combined retrieval of both sea ice
thickness and snow depth using the concurrent active altimetry and passive
microwave remote sensing of the sea ice cover. Specifically, laser altimetry
and L-band passive remote sensing data are combined using two forward models:
the L-band radiation model and the isostatic relationship based on buoyancy
model. Since the laser altimetry usually features much higher spatial
resolution than L-band data from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS)
satellite, there is potentially covariability between the observed snow
freeboard by altimetry and the retrieval target of snow depth on the spatial
scale of altimetry samples. Statistically significant correlation is
discovered based on high-resolution observations from Operation IceBridge
(OIB), and with a nonlinear fitting the covariability is incorporated in the
retrieval algorithm. By using fitting parameters derived from large-scale
surveys, the retrievability is greatly improved compared with the
retrieval that assumes flat snow cover (i.e., no covariability).
Verifications with OIB data show good match between the observed and the
retrieved parameters, including both sea ice thickness and snow depth. With
detailed analysis, we show that the error of the retrieval mainly arises from
the difference between the modeled and the observed (SMOS) L-band brightness
temperature (TB). The narrow swath and the limited coverage of the sea ice
cover by altimetry is the potential source of error associated with the
modeling of L-band TB and retrieval. The proposed retrieval methodology can
be applied to the basin-scale retrieval of sea ice thickness and snow depth,
using concurrent passive remote sensing and active laser altimetry based on
satellites such as ICESat-2 and WCOM.


Supermartensitic stainless steel grades are widely used in oil and gas industries to substitute duplex and super duplex stainless steels these years. In this paper the corrosion behavior of supermartensitic stainless steels with different chemical compositions, S-165 and HP, was investigated in Cl- environment. All the samples were treated by quenching at 1000 °C followed by tempering at 630 °C for 2h. After heat treatment, potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were determined on both kinds of samples. Polarization curves shows that the metastable pitting nucleuses were formed in passive area and the Cr content is the most important factor leading to the differences of pitting potential. The potentiodynamic polarization curves were conducted at various NaCl contents (5000, 15000 and 35000 ppm) and emphasized the need to account for the Cl- sensitivity of samples under corrosion environment. The results show that, the pitting potential decrease with the increase of chloride contents. The behavior of passive film was analyzed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.


One constant in our history of the past century has been complaints about the quality of schooling students receive in K-12 public education institutions. The complaints themselves are remarkably similar, be they made in 1900 or in 1988, although the intensity of those complaints has increased significantly in recent years. The solutions designed to address them are likewise similar, although the disparity between what we hope those solutions will do and what actually happens has grown increasingly large. Applying a theoretical framework derived from Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and sociology of knowledge research, the author demonstrates that the persistent resistance of educational problems to reform efforts is related to the characteristics of the institution itself. The current construct of schooling, based on an industrial, bureaucratic model, reflects most of the social expectations set for schools during the late nineteenth century. That construct or paradigm dictates the parameters within which discussions about the nature of schooling, the activities related to teaching and learning, and efforts at reform are conducted.


Urine from one female and 2 male Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) with bilateral renal calculi, one female with unilateral calculi, and one nonaffected male were evaluated for abnormal urinary crystalloid excretion. One otter with bilateral renal calculi had cystic calculi composed of calcium oxalate monohydrate and dihydrate. The 2 affected males were littermates, as were the 2 affected females, but the 2 litters were from different parents. At the time of the study, the otters did not have clinical signs of disease. Hematologic and serum biochemical, electrolyte, and enzyme values were normal. The urinary excretion of calcium, oxalate, uric acid, phosphate, citrate, and amino acids in otters with renal calculi was similar to that of the nonaffected otter. The 4 otters with renal calculi had glucosuria but the nonaffected otter did not have glucosuria. The glucosuria, in the absence of hyperglycemia, suggested a renal tubular transport defect for glucose. Other renal abnormalities were not found.