The Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Construction Management program is one of the best in the nation. With nearly 100% of its undergraduate students having a job set in place before graduation, it is interesting seeing students pass on the opportunity to stay and work in the area in which they are taught about the profession. There are many local builders in the Central Coast that are looking for new-hires, and with all the new developments starting up in nearby cities, as in San Luis Obispo; newly graduates are choosing instead to look and go elsewhere to start their careers in the industry. There seems to be a disconnect between the Construction Management students and local builders in the area; However, if communication is established, and relationships are built, then this could result to students choosing to stay as opposed to leave. This would In turn, help stimulate and grow the local economy, making it possible for more construction projects, and opportunities to flourish. The question here is, what have been the common misconceptions, and factors that have resulted to students searching for employment upon graduation elsewhere and not in the central coast. Surveying the current undergraduate Construction Management students and reaching out to local well-known builders are ways in which this information can be attained. The results would benefit both parties in that it could lead the way to bridging the gap between the program and builders in the community. It would also open doors to students and newly graduates to stay.


Sovereignty has continuously metamorphosed over the years in terms of its norms and practices. This evolving character of sovereignty has been hailed by those who advocate a responsible and accountable sovereign authority, and lamented by those who are strictly wedded to the Westphalian concept of sovereignty. However, this evolutionary process does not necessarily diminish the fact that, since the advent of the Westphalian state, sovereignty has been used as a shield and sword to justify states' policies and actions. It is argued in this policy brief that the weakening of state sovereignty and the prominence and institutionalisation of people's sovereignty will be a welcome development, in terms of governance fundamentals, on the African political and socio-economic development scene. Indeed, it may be a key to addressing Africa's chronic political, socio-economic and human development challenges.


The covalent modification of chicken liver fatty acid synthase by 4-(1-pyrenyl)butyryl-CoA (PBA-CoA), a fluorescent analogue of acetyl- and malonyl-CoA, has been studied. The binding isotherms and the kinetics of inactivation suggest 2 mol of PBA-CoA/mol of enzyme is specifically incorporated into the enzyme. Two classes of binding sites have been identified by determining the fluorescence lifetimes of enzyme-bound pyrene, by the quenching of enzyme-bound pyrene fluorescence with iodide, and by neutral hydroxaminolysis of both the native and denatured PBA-CoA-modified enzymes. Hydroxaminolysis of the denatured enzyme indicates that 4-(1-pyrenyl)butyric acid is esterified to both hydroxyl and thiol groups. The portion esterified to the hydroxyl is readily removed from the native enzyme by treatment with neutral hydroxylamine, indicating that the oxygen ester is unstable to hydroxylamine in the native enzyme. Iodide and acrylamide quenching of the enzyme-bound pyrene fluorescence shows that solvent access to both classes of pyrene binding sites is restricted. Iodide preferentially quenches one class of sites in the native enzyme, but these sites are not differentiated in the monomeric or denatured enzyme. The steady-state anisotropy, 0.083, indicates the enzyme-bound pyrene has considerable rotational freedom. The dynamic anisotropy can be characterized solely by a viscosity-dependent rotational correlation time of 610 ns, which is ascribed to the rotational motion of the dimeric enzyme.


This vibrantly illustrated book is an original look at the myriad roles played by textiles in all aspects of human life, from ancient weavings to light-sensitive and other futuristic fabrics of our own era. Beverly Gordon discusses how textiles are an integral part of the human life journey from cradle to grave in a multitude of practical, symbolic and spiritual ways. The many uses of textiles in our everyday lives and their sources are illustrated, along with a discussion about how, as a valuable commodity, in some communities textiles function as money. Finally, the author outlines how textiles are a means of communication functional, political and artistic and a metaphor for transcendence. This book will captivate and inspire anyone who has a passion for textiles and textile arts, whether educational, creative or professional.


Recently, ad hoc networks have been widely used because of the progress of the Internet of Things (IoT). A long-range wide-area network (LoRaWAN) is one of a number of low-cost wide-area networking technologies and has been drawing attention because of its outstanding performance in long-range low-power communication. LoRa is an implementation of LoRaWAN that is now used in many applications, including grazing management for livestock monitoring. LoRa uses carrier-sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) to improve resilience against interference. However, in our personal experience implementing livestockmonitoring networks using LoRa, we have encountered performance degradation issues due to collisions among channels. In this paper, we first explain the problems that we encountered. Then, we explain the experiments undertaken herein to investigate these problems. Finally, we propose a solution and evaluate its effectiveness based on a simulation, which simulated real-world conditions. In the preliminary experiment, we used two transmitters to measure interference at different channel distances, bandwidths (BWs), and spreading factors (SFs) and found that a closer channel, smaller BW, and/or larger SF led to a higher carrier sense rate and greater interference distance. Thus, we proposed a cellular communication network for channel allocation to reduce adjacent-channel interference and a duration division mode to solve the insufficient channel issue. The calculations demonstrated that the proposed solution can monitor approximately 3,000 cows in a pasture with an area of 4 × 4 km.


In applications where a priori determination of location is infeasible, node localization schemes are desirable, which allow the node to estimate its location during network operation. The majority of these schemes are based on ranging between node pairs, which should ideally be performed without adding cost or size to the sensor node. Two-way time-of-flight schemes can fulfill this desire, by utilizing the measurement of the time-of-flight of electromagnetic waves to determine the distance between two sensor nodes. In this paper, we present the implementation and analysis of such a ranging scheme. Because a small error in time measurement can result in a large distance estimation error, the focus of this work lies on the determination and analysis of influencing factors, which limit the accuracy of round-trip-time measurements. We analyze two main contributing factors to the accuracy of the ranging scheme, namely the radio transceiver clock quantization and the link quality during round-trip-time measurement. These effects and their impact on the overall ranging error have been investigated by means of simulation and experimentation. Initial ranging errors as large as 24 m RMS were observed, which could be reduced to errors between 5 and 8 m RMS by utilizing compensation techniques.


Ten years of latitudinal variation of minimum Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) over South East Asia was examined by using weekly OLR data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar-orbiting satellites. The study was carried out using data collected from January 2000 to December 2010 which covered a region from longitudes 95°E-110°E; latitudes 20°N-20°S. Fourier function fitting was used to show the annual propagation of minimum OLR and created a new model of latitudinal variation of minimum OLR. The created model can be used to examine the latitude where minimum OLR occur.


Over the last decade corporate insolvency laws and processes have changed in two important ways. There has been a philosophical shift away from ex post responses to corporate crises and towards influencing the way that corporate actors manage the risks of insolvency ex ante. In addition, there has been a revision of insolvency roles so that participants in corporate and insolvency processes are increasingly encouraged to see corporate decline as a matter to be anticipated and prevented rather than responded to after the event. In this development turnaround specialists have gained a new prominence. These are changes that reflect broader social and governmental trends to audit performance more actively and to see issues in terms of needs to manage risks. Such developments are important for corporate and insolvency lawyers – they recast a host of issues within new framing assumptions and they force a re-thinking of corporate insolvency law's challenges and agendas.


Multijunction/tandem solar cells have naturally attracted great attention because they are not subject to the Shockley–Queisser limit. Perovskite solar cells are ideal candidates for the top cell in multijunction/tandem devices due to the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and relatively low voltage loss. Herein, sandwiched gold nanomesh between MoO3 layers is designed as a transparent electrode. The large surface tension of MoO3 effectively improves wettability for gold, resulting in Frank–van der Merwe growth to produce an ultrathin gold nanomesh layer, which guarantees not only excellent conductivity but also great optical transparency, which is particularly important for a multijunction/tandem solar cell. The top MoO3 layer reduces the reflection at the gold layer to further increase light transmission. As a result, the semitransparent perovskite cell shows an 18.3% efficiency, the highest reported for this type of device. When the semitransparent perovskite device is mechanically stacked with a heterojunction silicon solar cell of 23.3% PCE, it yields a combined efficiency of 27.0%, higher than those of both the sub‐cells. This breakthrough in elevating the efficiency of semitransparent and multijunction/tandem devices can help to break the Shockley–Queisser limit.


Canal control algorithm is very import in the process of water delivery. The paper presents a parameters-self-adapting canal flow fuzzy P+PR control according to the merits of fuzzy-control and the features of P+PR control algorithm through fuzzy inference method. The model uses the canal automation history control experiences to realize the optimization of parameters and make the control process always running in the optimal state. The parameters of fuzzy rule-table are built, the solution processes are deduced. The simulation results show that the overshoot is reduced significantly, and the dynamic behaviors are improved by using this adaptive fuzzy P+PR control model.


Abstract The Lee–Carter (LC) model is a basic approach to forecasting mortality rates of a single population. Although extensions of the LC model to forecasting rates for multiple populations have recently been proposed, the structure of these extended models is hard to justify and the models are often difficult to calibrate, relying on customised optimisation schemes. Based on the paradigm of representation learning, we extend the LCmodel to multiple populations using neural networks, which automatically select an optimal model structure. We fit this model to mortality rates since 1950 for all countries in the Human Mortality Database and observe that the out-of-sample forecasting performance of the model is highly competitive.


CFD simulations of floating wave energy converters are computationally very heavy. This paper deals with a straightforward attempt to cut down on the computational effort by using adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). We investigate the use of AMR for simulations involving floating bodies inside the open-source finite volume framework OpenFOAM. A simple error indicator based on the pressure jump over cell faces is used to drive the AMR. First the use of the error indicator is illustrated for propagation of a very steep stream function wave. Then the AMR technique is applied to two cases of floating bodies: (i) a floating box and (ii) a bottom reacting point-absorber. As expected the AMR significantly reduce the number of cells in the computational meshes and subsequently lower the computational effort.


Ischaemic heart disease (IHD), in particular acute coronary syndrome (ACS), comprising ST-elevation myocardial infarction, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction and unstable angina, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Age is a major predictor of adverse outcome following ACS. COVID-19 infection seems to escalate the risk in older patients with heart disease. Increasing odds of in-hospital death is associated with older age following COVID-19 infection. Importantly, it seems older patients with comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), in particular IHD, diabetes and hypertension, are at the highest risk of mortality following COVID-19 infection. The evidence is sparse on the optimal care of older patients with ACS with lack of robust randomised controlled trials. In this setting, with the serious threat imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of rapidly evolving knowledge with much unknown, it is important to weigh the risks and benefits of treatment strategies offered to older patients. In cases where risks outweigh the benefits, it might not be an unreasonable option to treat such patients with a conservative or a palliative approach. Further evidence to elucidate whether invasive management is beneficial in older patients with ACS is required out-with the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it is hoped that the actual acute phase of COVID-19 infection will be short lived, it is vital that important clinical research is continued, given the long-term benefits of ongoing clinical research for patients with long-term conditions, including CVD. This review aimed to evaluate the challenges and the management strategies in the care of older patients presenting with ACS in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.


New polyol (citrate) for the production of PUR-PIR foams was obtained. The hydroxyl number of the obtained compound is 496 mg KOH/g. The amount of water in the new compound was 0.98%. Due to this amount, the foam recipe does not need to be modified. The obtained foam series contain from 0.1 R to 0.5 R of the new compound. The T5% values were higher by about 50% for the foams examined under nitrogen. The foams showed similar T10% values under both atmospheres. The T20% were higher by around 15°C for foams heated in nitrogen. The difference in the T50% was circa 150°C and foams heated in oxygen registered better value. The foams showed slight decrease in the T5%, T10%, T20% and T50% values in both atmospheres, as well as a decrease in the softening temperatures, along with the increasing amount of the tris(5-hydroxypentyl) citrate compound in them. New compound is new product, doesn't described in literature. It has good thermal properties as industrial polyols but it is cheaper. Foams with this product have good thermal properties and they may be used in the building industry for thermal insulation


This paper offers an explanation for observed differences across countries in educational policies and in resulting interpersonal distributions of human capital. We analyze a general-equilibrium model in which, as a result of the apportionment of natural ability, nurturing, and publicly financed education, some people can be well endowed with human capital, while others are poorly endowed. We assume people can choose to be either producers or predators. An An increase in a person's human capital makes predation a less attractive choice for them. As a result, it is possible that by using some of their human capital to educate the poorly endowed people rather than to produce consumables the well endowed people can increase their own consumption. We also find that the nature of the educational policy that maximizes the the consumption of the well endowed depends on the ability of producers to enforce a collective choice of the amount of resources to be allocated to guarding against predators. Our theory predicts that, if producers choose choose the amount of guarding against predators, then the well endowed prefer a relatively egalitarian educational policy that increases the human capital of all the poorly endowed. Such an educational policy either decreases the cost of deterring predation or makes deterrence possible. In contrast, if producers or small subsets of producers individually choose the amount of their resources to allocate to guarding, taking the ratio of predators to producers as given, then the well endowed prefer a more elitist educational policy that decreases the number of poorly endowed, thereby decreasing the number of predators, without increasing the human capital of the remaining poorly endowed people. These implications seem to be consistent with the facts about differences across countries in educational policy.


Penicillin has become a leading cause of allergic reactions, which range in severity from mild pruritus to sudden death. Testing for sensitivity to penicillin is necessary, but hazardous, since occasional fatalities from the skin test itself have been recorded. An in vitro test has therefore been developed. This indirect basophil degranulation test requires one drop each of the patient's serum, of the penicillin solution, and of rabbit leukocytes (buffy coat). A positive reaction is a progressive degranulation observed in the basophil cells. In severe reactions the cell granules are extruded slowly or even explosively. The method has been tested and contratested in many patients. It can be extended not only to the newer synthetic penicillins but also to other drugs such as the sulfonamides and local anesthetics.


Substance abuse is a rare but known cause of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). We report a case of acute SNHL in a 28-year-old man following an overdose of methamphetamine and incidental ingestion of fentanyl. On initial encounter, he had moderate-to-severe hearing loss in the right ear and severe-to-profound hearing loss in the left ear in addition to acute kidney injury, liver failure, and lactic acidosis. The patient was treated with a two-week course of high-dose steroids and expressed a subjective improvement in hearing. This case highlights the importance of auditory testing following a drug overdose and is one of the only documented cases of hearing loss following methamphetamine use in recent years. There is a paucity of literature regarding the mechanism causing acute SNHL secondary to methamphetamines. Proposed etiologies include neurotransmitter depletion or reduced cochlear blood flow as possible causes of ototoxicity.


ABSTRACT

 New emerging and re-emerging threats, the weight of public opinion and new technology for surveillance and treatment are likely to impact on how, and if, effective surveillance can be performed in the future. If surveillance fails to address the needs of practitioners and policy-makers, it is likely that there will be loss of confidence. Current surveillance systems are reasonably effective at detecting significant events that are localised in time and space. It is more difficult to detect diffuse and progressive events with a slow increase over time or sporadic and widespread events without obvious links to time, place or person. Detection of these events relies on good data collection, comparative background data and sophisticated analytical tools. To improve surveillance systems, we need methods with the appropriate sensitivity and specificity for the outputs desired. Targeted surveillance should enable better ascertainment of those cases which must be considered and those which can be dismissed. New methods, such as mathematical modelling and geographical information systems, support conventional surveillance in moving events into the known and predictable category. It is important to integrate surveillance across local, regional and international levels and to base surveillance on local public health structures. The purpose and value of data aggregation at each level and the amount of detail needed at each level must be carefully evaluated. The key to all these improvements is developing the workforce. Surveillance needs individuals with a broad range of skills: clinical, epidemiological, anthropological, and mathematical; in particular, people who can think laterally. These individuals must be encouraged through effective training courses, good mentorship, networking and clear career structures.


The experiments reported in this paper tested the hypothesis that the afferent potential elicited by a tendon tap in an isometrically recorded phasic stretch reflex can be detected in the surface EMG of normal humans when appropriate techniques are used. These techniques involved (1) training the subjects to relax mentally and physically so that the EMG was silent before and immediately after the diphasic MAP which reflects a highly synchronous discharge of afferent impulses from low threshold muscle stretch receptors after a tendon tap, and (2) using a data retrieval computer to summate stimulus-locked potentials in the EMG over a series of 16 samples using taps of uniform peak force and duration on the Achilles tendon to elicit the tendon jerk in the calf muscles. A discrete, diphasic potential (`A-wave') was recorded from EMG electrodes placed on the surface of the skin over the medial gastrocnemius muscle. The `A-wave' afferent potential had the opposite polarity to the corresponding efferent MAP. Under control conditions of relaxation the `A-wave' had a latency after the onset of the tap of 2 msec, the peak to peak amplitude was of the order of 5 μV and the duration was in the range of 6 to 10 msec. Further experiments were conducted to show that the `A-wave' (1) was not an artefact of the instrumentation used, (2) had a threshold at low intensities of stimulation, and (3) could be reliably augmented by using a Jendrassik manoeuvre compared with the potential observed during control (relaxation) conditions. The results support the conclusion that the `A-wave' emanates from the pool of muscle spindles which discharges impulses along group Ia nerve fibres in response to the phasic stretch stimulus because the primary ending of the spindles is known to initiate the stretch reflex and the spindles can be sensitized by fusimotor impulses so that their threshold is lowered as a result of a Jendrassik manoeuvre. The finding has important implications for the investigation of the fusimotor system in intact man.


This paper is concerned with a formation shaping problem for point agents in a two-dimensional space, where control avoids the possibility of reflection ambiguities. One solution for this type of problems was given first for three or four agents by considering a potential function which consists of both the distance error and the signed area terms. Then, by exploiting a hierarchical control strategy with such potential functions, the method was extended to any number of agents recently. However, a specific gain on the signed area term must be employed there, and it does not guarantee the global convergence. To overcome this issue, this paper provides a necessary and sufficient condition for the global convergence, subject to the constraint that the desired formation consists of isosceles triangles only. This clarifies the admissible range of the gain on the signed area for this case. In addition, as for formations consisting of arbitrary triangles, it is shown when high gain on the signed area is admissible for global convergence.


Oncolytic viral vectors have shown promise as antitumor therapeutic agents but their effectiveness is complicated by induction of antiviral antibody responses and rapid host clearance of recombinant vectors. We developed a recombinant oncolytic vaccinia virus expressing the 4-1BBL T-cell costimulatory molecule (rV-4-1BBL) and showed modest tumor regression in the poorly immunogenic B16 murine melanoma model. To improve the therapeutic potential of this vector, we tested the antitumor activity of local intratumoral injection in the setting of host lymphodepletion, which has been shown to augment vaccination and adoptive T-cell therapy. In this model, rV-4-1BBL injection in the setting of lymphodepletion promoted MHC class I expression, reduced antiviral antibody titers, promoted viral persistence, and rescued effector-memory CD8(+) T cells, significantly improving the therapeutic effectiveness of the oncolytic vector. These data suggest that vaccination with rV-4-1BBL in the setting of host nonmyeloablative lymphodepletion represents a logical strategy for improving oncolytic vaccination in melanoma, and perhaps other cancers as well.


Background Ganciclovir is approved for the treatment of cytomegalovirus infections in patients with complications and for its prevention in recipients of solid organ transplants. This drug must be diluted by a hospital pharmacist. To our knowledge, there are no data about ganciclovir stability in two kinds of containers: polyolefin and polyethylene. Purpose To demonstrate the stability of ganciclovir sodium in 0.9% sodium chloride in two different types of containers: polyethylene [Ecoflac] and polyolefin [Viaflo]. It is very important to attribute a suitable expiry for this drug, prepared for infected hospital patients, in order to organise the work better and optimise the use of time and resources. Materials and Methods Twelve admixtures were prepared, six for every concentration (4.55 and 0.8 mg/mL), of ganciclovir sodium in 0.9% sodium chloride, stored at room temperature, at 4°C and −20°C (in darkness) in two type of containers, polyethylene and polyolefin. The admixtures were evaluated for up to 21 days at the three temperature conditions. To cheque the concentrations a UPLC-PDA method was developed. Results The method developed showed no interference peaks, and was reproducible and linear. There was no significant loss of ganciclovir during the study period. The drug at the concentrations considered showed no more than 5% of degradation during the analysis period in all the storage conditions. Moreover, there were no appreciable pH changes, and no evidence of visual incompatibility. Conclusions Ganciclovir sodium 4.55 mg/mL and 0.8 mg/mL in 0.9% sodium chloride in two different kind of bags (Viaflo and Ecoflac 100 mL) was visually and chemically stable for at least three weeks when stored at room temperature, 4°C and −20°C. No conflict of interest.


The proliferation and activation of microglial cells is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative conditions. This mechanism is regulated by the activation of the Colony-Stimulating Factor 1 Receptor (CSF1R), thus providing a target that may prevent the progression of conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the study of microglial proliferation in AD and validation of the efficacy of CSF1R-inhibiting strategies has not yet been reported. In this study we found increased proliferation of microglial cells in human AD, in line with an increased upregulation of the CSF1Rdependent pro-mitogenic cascade, correlating with disease progression. Using a transgenic model of Alzheimer's-like pathology (APPswe, PSEN1dE9; APP/PS1) we define a CSF1R-dependent progressive increase in microglial proliferation, in the proximity of Amyloid β (Aβ) plaques. Prolonged inhibition of CSF1R in APP/PS1 mice by an orally available tyrosine kinase inhibitor (GW2580) resulted in the blockade of microglial proliferation and a shift in the microglial inflammatory profile to an antiinflammatory phenotype. Pharmacological targeting of CSF1R in APP/PS1 mice resulted in an improved performance in memory and behavioural tasks and a prevention of synaptic degeneration, although these changes were not correlated with a change in the number of Aβ plaques. Our results provide proof of the efficacy of CSF1R inhibition in a model of AD, and validate the application of a therapeutic strategy aimed at modifying CSF1R activation as a promising approach to tackle microglial activation and the progression of Alzheimer's disease.


The musical plane is different than the Euclidean plane: it has two different and incomparable dimensions, pitchspace and time, rather than two identical dimensions. Symmetry and transformations in music have been studied both in musical and geometric terms, but not when taking this difference into account. In this paper we show exactly which isometric transformations apply to musical space and how they can be arranged into repeating patterns (frieze patterns and variations of the wallpaper groups). Frieze patterns are created intuitively by composers, sometimes with timbral color patterns or in sequence, and many examples are shown. Thinking about symmetry in the musical plane is useful not just for analysis, but as inspiration for composers.


The question of why a child may be diagnosed as having pragmatic difficulties or pragmatic impairment is one which is currently being asked by researchers and other speech and language professionals. The identifiying criteria for such a diagnosis remain unclear. This paper reports on a detailed case study of a child, Sarah (aged 9;8–10;3), who was reported to have pragmatic impairment as her primary difficulty by her speech and language therapist. The child attends a language unit within a mainstream school in the UK. A number of language (including narrative) and non-verbal tasks have been carried out with the child over a seven-month period, and spontaneous conversational data has also been obtained. The data is explored from grammatical, lexical and pragmatic perspectives. This child's performance is also compared with that of two groups of normal children, 6-year-olds and 8-year-olds. It is argued that Sarah has demonstrable pragmatic impairments, especially with inferencing skills, and that these impairments represent more than a developmental delay. It is also argued that these impairments cannot be explained by other linguistic difficulties that she may have. Sarah's difficulties are discussed in terms of problems building up a 'mental model' (Johnson-Laird, 1983) of situations in order to be able to make effective inferences. It is hope to carry out a further study with children who have a range of specific language impairments to see to what extent such problems are restricted to the pragmatic domain, or influenced by deficits at other levels.


The amplification of demand variation in a supply chain network (SCN) is a well-known phenomenon called the bullwhip effect, which creates inefficiencies due to high variation in the order quantities placed between companies, leading to a flow of a larger number of units than the actual need, increasing stock and generating stock-outs. Since this phenomenon has been recognised as one of the main obstacles for improving SCN performance, recently it has received a lot of attention by SCN managers and researchers. One of the most common simplifying assumptions in the literature is to assume that the SCN adopts a serial structure. The present work addresses a comparative analysis of the bullwhip effect between a serial SCN and a more complex divergent SCN. To do so, we analyse the response of both SCNs under two different input demands: a stationary demand and an impulse demand. The results reveal that there are not significant differences in terms of bullwhip effect between both SCNs for a stationary demand. Nevertheless, we show how for a violent disturbance in customer demand there is a great different between the two SCNs.


Abstract Cloud contamination is one of the major barriers for wider applications of MODIS snow cover products. This study presents a cloud-removal approach, through multiday backward replacements based on Terra and Aqua daily MODIS snow cover products (MOD10A1 and MYD10A1), to generate a series of daily cloud-free snow cover products for advanced applications (MODMYD_MC). The products are evaluated using in situ snow depth data measured during 2000 to 2010 at 53 weather stations in the Heilongjiang Province, northeast China. The results show that the annual mean cloud covers of MOD10A1, MYD10A1, MODMYD_DC (the daily combination of MOD10A1 and MYD10A1), and MODMYD_MC are 50%, 54%, 35%, and 0%, mean snow covers are 6%, 6%, 10%, and 19%, and their mean agreements of snow cover mapping are 42%, 40%, 51%, and 91%, respectively. The snow-covered days (SCDs) derived from MODMYD_MC are also in good agreement (91%) with those obtained from in situ observations. The MODMYD_MC snow cover images are then used to investigate the detailed variation of snow cover in the XiaoXing'AnLing watershed. The snow-covered area in the watershed has an increasing trend in the recent decade, with the minimum present in the 2002 (hydrologic year) and the maximum present in 2010. The plains with lower elevation show shorter SCD but larger interannual variations than in the mountainous areas. This study indicates that MODMYD_MC can be applied to monitor the spatiotemporal variations of snow cover in northeast China and elsewhere in the world.


Epidemiology and Genetic Determinants of Diabetes Mellitus. Type 2 Diabetes In Youth: A New Epidemic H. Dean. Undiagnosed Diabetes Burden and Significance in the Canadian Population T.K. Young. Genes, Environment and Diabetes in Canadian Aboriginal Communities R.A. Hegele. Diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa T.J. Aspray, N. Unwin. Coronary Heart Disease and Risk Factors in Asian Indians M. Chandalia, P.C. Deedwania. Metabolic Risk Factors in Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. The Plasma Glucose Level - A Continuous Risk Factor for Vascular Disease in Both Diabetic and Non-Diabetic People H.C. Gerstein. Modified Lipoproteins and Cardiovascular Risk W. Aldahi, J. Frohlich. Advances in Lipid-Lowering Therapy in Atherosclerosis J. Davignon. Homocysteine as a Risk Factor in Cardiovascular Disease D.E.C. Cole. Endothelial Function and Diabetes. Endothelial Integrity and Repair T.J. Lee , et al. Molecular Mechanisms of Endothelial Dysfunction in the Diabetic Heart P.Rosen, et al. A Study of Vascular Wound Healing in a Rabbit Model of Type I Diabetes N.K. Schiller, et al. Endothelins in the Microvasculature and Heart in Diabetes S,Chakrabarti, et al. Diabetes and Endothelial Function: Implications for Coronary Angioplasty T.J. Anderson. Hypertension and diabetes mellitus. The Effect of Hypertension in Diabetes E.D. Burgess. The Diabetic Hypertensive (or Hypertensive Diabetic) - A Compelling Need to Optimize Blood Pressure S.G. Carruthers. Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in Diabetic or Hypertensive Subjects: Role of Collagen Alterations T.J. Regan, et al. Alterations in the Vascular Actions of Insulin in the Pathogenesis of Insulin Resistance and Hypertension S. Verma, J.H. McNeill. Cardiac Hypertrophy in DiabetesPatients with and without Hypertension: Effects of Troglitazone, A Novel Antidiabetic Drug, on Diastolic Function N. Makino, et al. Cost and Benefits of Blood Pressure Monitoring and Control A. Chockalingam, N.R.C. Campbell. Cardiac lipid metabolism in diabetes. Malonyl COA Control of Fatty Acid Oxidation in the Diabetic Rat Heart G.D. Lopaschuk. Alterations in 1,2-Diacylglycerols and Ceramides in Diabetic Rat Heart K. Okumura, et al. Regulations of Myocardial Phospholipid N-Methylation by Insulin and Diabetes S.W. Schaffer, M. Mozaffari. Reduction Of Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-Bisphosphate Mass In Heart Sarcolemma During Diabetic Cardiomyopathy P.S. Tappia, et al. Tumor Necrosis Factor-a, Sphingomyelinase and Ceramides Activate Tyrosine Kinase, P21ras and Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase: Implications for Glucose Transport and Insulin Resistance A.N. Hanna, et al. Cardiac Function and Oxidative Stress in Diabetes. Antioxidants, Free Radical Stress and Diabetes S.S. Rastogi, R.B. Singh. Oxidative Stress and Functional Deficit in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy P.K. Singal. Ketosis and the Generation of Oxygen Radicals in Diabetes Mellitus S.K. Jain, K. Kannan. Effect of Diabetes Mellitus on Hemodynamic and Cardiometabolic Correlates in Experimental Myocardial Infarction S.K. Gupta, et al. Cardiac Function in Perfused Hearts From Diabetic Mice D.D. Belke. Mg2+-Dependent Atpase Activity In Cardiac Myofibrils From The Insulin Resistant Jcr: La-Cp Rat T. Misra. Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase Families in Intracellular Signalling And Diabetes C. Lugnier. Alterations in G-Protein-Linked Signal Transduction in Cardiovascular Smooth Muscle in Diabetes M.B. Anand-Srivastava. Glycemic Control and Improved Cardiovascular Function. Mechanism of HDL Lowering in


This paper deals with the calibration of bed resistance to flow in a straight open channel contained within a laboratory flume. The longitudinal slope of the flume was able to be varied, and so the flow could be subcritical or supercritical. The flow was in the transitional turbulent region, with Reynolds numbers in the range 3 × 104 to 2 × 105. The calibration demonstrates experimentally a prediction linking the value of Manning's n with longitudinal slope in this region, and indicates a useful approach to define this relationship. This is of benefit for laboratory work in the smooth or transitional turbulent region, particularly if it is wished to employ Manning's formula because of its extensive use in river engineering practice.


This paper offers an overview of the enterprise architecture integration issues that exist currently at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the result of the ongoing integration of 22 separate federal agencies, each specializing in one or more aspects of homeland security issues. This paper outlines these architecture integration challenges experienced by DHS within the Zachman framework, a well-known structure for capturing and defining an enterprise architecture, and offers future steps for DHS in designing and implementing its integrated enterprise architecture.


Synchronous oscillations in certain frequencies of the sub-thalamic nucleus (STN) neurons are closely related to the physical symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Recent results have highlighted the importance of calcium channels in the synchronization properties and regulation of STN neurons. In this paper, a novel hybrid neuron model which can capture the electrophysiological signature of neurons with low or high density of calcium channels is used to explore the synchronization propensity and regulation by firing frequencies of neurons. Numerical simulations show that the synchronization propensity of networks consisting of the novel hybrid neurons is quite distinguishing in low and high calcium conductance modes, especially, the synchronization can be differentially modulated by network frequencies in the two modes. By analyzing the firing frequency and phase response curve of the individual neuron, we find that a single parameter of the hybrid neuron, which is a direct image of the calcium conductance, is crucial in determining the excitability and response properties of the neuron. Different phase response properties of single neurons in different calcium conductance modes lead to network synchronization discrepancies.


This is a guide to resources available to CSUF faculty through the Pollak Library, including information on instruction sessions, copyright, publication, reserves and more.


1. Two fungi, Coniothyrium minitans Campbell and Trichoderma viride Pers. ex Fr., were grown on autoclaved crushed scierotia of the species Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, which they parasitize. 2. In vitro the crude culture filtrates would lyse walls isolated from hyphal cells or the inner pseudoparenchymatous cells of the sclerotia, in which a branched /-(l -.3)-I.{1 -+6)-glucan, sclerotan, is a major constituent. 3. Chromatographic fractionation of the enzymes in each culture filtrate revealed the presence of several laminarinases, the most active being an exo-fi-(1 -*3)-glucanase, known from previous studies to attack scierotan. Acting alone this brought about a limited degradation of the glucan, but the addition of fractions containing an endo-fi-(1-*3)-glucanase led to almost complete breakdown. A similar synergism between the two enzymes was found in their lytic action on cell walls. 4. When acting alone the endo-fl-(1-÷3)-glucanase had a restricted action, the products including a trisaccharide, tentatively identified as 62-fl-glucosyl-laminaribiose. 5. These results are discussed in relation to the structure of the cell walls and of their glucan constituents.


It is known that an informal learning environment (i.e., out-of-school) increases the quality of teaching and learning activities. Informal environments also provide many advantages such as enriching the content of learning. Moreover, it is emphasised that the science-technology-society-environment (STSE) learning does not effectively involve in the Turkish education system. From this point of view, informal learning environments should be considered in order to enable students' understanding of the STSE relation. Within the scope of this study, it was aimed to determine the effectiveness of study visit on students' understanding of STSE. The research was conducted with 14 male students in the 5th-grade level in the 2016– 2017 academic year. This research, which used a recycling-solid waste collection centre, a botanic garden, a planetarium, a science centre and a zoo, a few informal learning environments, was conducted according to the case study design method. In the study, views on science-technology-society questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, observation forms and diaries were used as data collection tools. The data indicated that the informal learning environments were inadequate to promote conceptual change; however, it was effective to comprehend newly learnt concepts. In addition, it was also concluded that informal learning environment provided students to capture the understanding of STSE relations.


Complexity of dietary fiber composition, differences of their chemical structure and ratio of components, dependence of composition and properties upon the methods of isolation resulted in different definitions of dietary fibers and misunderstanding of their nature and role in nutrition. Among different definition--dietary fibers, raw fibers, crude fibers, vegetable fibers--the most adequate the definition 'dietary fibers'. This definition indicates on fibrous nature of main components: celluloses, hemicelluloses, pectines and on their significance in nutrition. The term dietary fibers obtains recognition and supplements the other synonyms.


Down syndrome is one of the major causes of mental retardation and congenital heart malformations. Other common clinical features of Down syndrome include gastrointestinal anomalies, immune system defects and Alzheimer's disease pathological and neurochemical changes. The most likely consequence of the presence of three copies of chromosome 21 is the overexpression of its resident genes, a fact which must underlie the pathogenesis of the abnormalities that occur in Down syndrome. Here we show that DSCR1, the product of a chromosome 21 gene highly expressed in brain, heart and skeletal muscle, is overexpressed in the brain of Down syndrome fetuses, and interacts physically and functionally with calcineurin A, the catalytic subunit of the Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase PP2B. The DSCR1 binding region in calcineurin A is located in the linker region between the calcineurin A catalytic domain and the calcineurin B binding domain, outside of other functional domains previously defined in calcineurin A. DSCR1 belongs to a family of evolutionarily conserved proteins with three members in humans: DSCR1, ZAKI-4 and DSCR1L2. We further demonstrate that overexpression of DSCR1 and ZAKI-4 inhibits calcineurin-dependent gene transcription through the inhibition of NF-AT translocation to the nucleus. Together, these results suggest that members of this newly described family of human proteins are endogenous regulators of calcineurin-mediated signaling pathways and as such, they may be involved in many physiological processes.


. Privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) are ubiquitous nowadays. They are beneficial for a wide range of users: for businesses, journalists, bloggers, etc. However, PETs are not always used for legal activity. There a lot of anonymous networks and technologies which grants anonymous access to digital resources. The most popular anonymous networks nowadays is Tor. Tor is a valuable tool for hackers, drug and gun dealers. The present paper is focused on Tor users' deanonimization using out-of-the box technologies and a basic machine learning algorithm. The aim of the work is to show that it is possible to deanonimize a small fraction of users without having a lot of resources and state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. The first stage of the research was the investigation of contemporary anonymous networks. The second stage was the investigation of deanonimization techniques: traffic analysis, timing attacks, attacks with autonomous systems. For our system, we used website fingerprinting attack, because it requires the smallest number of resources needed for successful implementation of the attack. Finally, there was an experiment held with 5 persons in one room with one corrupted entry Tor relay. We achieved a quite good accuracy (70%) for classifying the webpage, which the user visits, using the set of resources provided by global cybersecurity company. The deanonimization is a very important task from the point of view of national security.


We are studying a Next Generation X-ray Observatory, NGXO, that will provide a high resolution spectral capability with large collecting area, at a relatively low cost. The mission consists of two co-aligned telescope systems that provide coverage from 0.3 - 60 keV. One is optimized to cover the 0.3 - 12 keV band with 2 eV spectral resolution using an array of quantum calorimeters with a peak effective area of 2,000 cm2. The spectral resolution will be five times better than the calorimeter planned for Astro-E, with more than a ten-fold increase in effective area over previous high resolution x-ray spectroscopy missions. The second telescope will be the first focusing optics to operate in the 10 - 60 keV energy range, and will have arc minute angular resolution with 500 cm2 collecting area at 30 keV. The sensitivities of the two telescopes are matched to make possible many thousands of high quality x-ray spectral observations, from an available population of more than one million galactic and extragalactic x-ray sources. The NGXO mission is capable of addressing new astrophysical problems which include: determining the mass of a black hole, neutron star, or white dwarf in binary systems from x-ray line radial velocity measurements; determining the 0.3 - 60 keV x-ray spectrum from AGN and determining their contribution to the x-ray background in this energy band; measuring Compton reflection spectra from cold material in accretion driven systems; determining the Hubble constant using resonant line absorption of QSO spectra by rich clusters; searching for a hot 10 million degree intergalactic medium; mapping the dynamics of the intracluster medium; mapping the ionization state, abundance and emission from supernova remnants on a 15 arc second angular scale; and measuring mass motion in stellar flares and the dynamics of accretion flows.


Presented on December 10, 2008 from 6 to 7:30 pm in the Instructional Center, room 205 on the Georgia Tech campus.


The problem of patient no-shows (patients who do not arrive for scheduled appointments) is significant in many health care settings, where no-show rates can vary widely. No-shows reduce provider productivity and clinic efficiency, increase health care costs, and limit the ability of a clinic to serve its client population by reducing its effective capacity. In this article, we examine the problem of no-shows and propose appointment overbooking as one means of reducing the negative impact of no-shows. We find that patient access and provider productivity are significantly improved with overbooking, but that overbooking causes increases in both patient wait times and provider overtime. We develop a new clinic utility function to capture the trade-offs between these benefits and costs, and we show that the relative values that a clinic assigns to serving additional patients, minimizing patient waiting times, and minimizing clinic overtime will determine whether overbooking is warranted. From the results of a series of simulation experiments, we determine that overbooking provides greater utility when clinics serve larger numbers of patients, no-show rates are higher, and service variability is lower. Even with highly variable service times, many clinics will achieve positive net results with overbooking. Our analysis provides valuable guidance to clinic administrators about the use of appointment overbooking to improve patient access, provider productivity, and overall clinic performance.


An item response theory (IRT) analysis of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was performed on 26,831 (19,067 male and 7,764 female) federal probationers and compared with results obtained on 3,266 (3,039 male and 227 female) prisoners from previous research. Despite the fact male and female federal probationers scored significantly lower on the PICTS thinking style scales than male and female prisoners, discrimination and location parameter estimates for the individual PICTS items were comparable across sex and setting. Consistent with the results of a previous IRT analysis conducted on the PICTS, the current results did not support sentimentality as a component of general criminal thinking. Findings from this study indicate that the discriminative power of the individual PICTS items is relatively stable across sex (male, female) and correctional setting (probation, prison) and that the PICTS may be measuring the same criminal thinking construct in male and female probationers and prisoners.


The cytochrome oxidase activity of Bacillus strains was analyzed quantitatively by colorimetric N, N, N', N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylene-diamine (TMPD) oxidase assay. Twenty six type strains were readily grouped, the oxidase positive, the oxidase negative, and the oxidase indeterminate groups. TMPD-dependent oxidase activities for whole cells and sonicated cells were compared. Spectral absorbance analyses of membrane fractions showed that all 26 Bacillus type strains contained the o-type cytochrome oxidase; 19 strains contained cytochrome a + a3 and among which 5 strains contained cytochromed. All of the 10 thermophilic Bacillus strains, which were predominantly oxidase positive, exhibited maximum oxidase activity when grown at optimum temperature (65 degrees C). The other three "caldo-active" thermophiles exhibited maximum oxidase activities when grown at their optimum temperatures, 70 degrees C to 80 degrees C. Mesophilic B. cereus and B. subtilis exhibited maximum oxidase activity in cells grown at 42 degrees C and 55 degrees C, respectively. In no case did growth temperature induce oxidase negative strains to exhibit an oxidase positive reaction, and vice versa.


BACKGROUND
Recurrence is a major factor leading to treatment failure and death in gastric cancer (GC) patients following surgical resection. Importantly, the prediction of recurrence is critical in improving clinical outcomes. We isolated a group of microRNAs (miRNAs) and evaluated their usefulness as prognostic markers for the recurrence of GC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 65 GC patients were selected for systematic analysis, 29 patients with recurrence and 36 patients without recurrence. Firstly, miRNAs microarray and bioinformatics methods were used to characterize classifiers from primary tumor samples (n = 8). Following, we validated these predictors both in frozen fresh and paraffin-embedded tissue samples (n = 57) using quantitative PCR.

RESULTS
We have identified 17 differential miRNAs including 10 up-regulated and 7 down-regulated miRNAs in recurrence group. Using k-top scoring pairs (k-TSP) method, we further ascertained hsa-miR-375 and hsa-miR-142-5p as a classifier to recognize recurrence and nonrecurrence cases both in the training and test samples. Moreover, we validated this classifier in 34 frozen fresh tissues and 38 paraffin-embedded tissues with consistent sensitivity and specificity with training set; among them, 15 cases were matched. A high frequency recurrence and poor survival were observed in GC cases with high level of hsa-miR-375 and low level of hsa-miR-142-5p (P < 0.001). In addition, we evaluated that hsa-miR-375 and hsa-miR-142-5p were involved in regulating target genes in several oncogenic signal pathways, such as TP53, MAPK, Wnt and vascular endothelial growth factor.

CONCLUSION
Our results indicate that the combination of hsa-miR-375 and hsa-miR-142-5p as a predictor of disease progression has the potential to predict recurrence risk for GC patients.


INTRODUCTION: Various pathways, such as personperson, fecal-oral, and oral-oral transmission, play a role in transmission of Helicobacter pylori infection. It can be transferred from mother to infant in either the perinatal or postnatal periods. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this prospective study was to determine the course of H pylori infection in motherinfant pairs in early years of life. METHODS: Forty-eight mother-child pairs were followed for 12 months. H pylori and hepatitis A virus immunoglobulin G levels were measured in maternal sera, infant sera, and breast-milk samples at birth and in breast-milk samples and infant sera at follow-up visits. RESULTS: At birth, the seropositivity for H pylori was 81.25% and hepatitis A was 68.75% in breast milk and 95.8% in maternal and infant sera for both microorganisms. Although there was a decrease in seropositivities for both agents in both infant sera and breast milk at the age of 9 months, an increase was observed in the twelfth month. CONCLUSIONS: High seroprevalence rates of H pylori and hepatitis A virus and similar monthly changes in seroprevalence could be indicators of the same transmission routes.


This paper reviewed the efforts of the government in community greening during pre and post climate change era in third world cities using Lagos, Nigeria as a case study. This was with a view of understanding the importance green space as a measure of adaptation to climate change in recent years in the study area. The study reviewed secondary data on provision of green space in purposively selected scheme and master plan that pre-date climate change era. Primary data in the form of field observation of the location and size of green space initiated within the city in the post climate change knowledge era, particularly in the last past five (5) years were also considered. The study further reviewed contemporary law and policies of the government as an approach to community greening in the city during the pre-climate change era.Finding revealed that the government is keener toward the provision and maintenance of green space in the study area during the post climate change era than during the pre-climate change era. Within the past six years, 14 public parks and 128 landscape garden were created and maintained in the city. Nineteen (19) of these public parks and garden covers a total land area of 314409.43m2 (77.69 acres). Furthermore, an agency was established for the sole aim of promoting or increasing green area in the city. A fine of N50,000 ($318.5) or one year imprisonment is attached to felling of these trees. There was also massive tree planting exercise, between 2009 and 2010, when about 300,000 trees were planted across the city. The study recommended that the use of hard landscaping element around buildings should be discouraged and appropriate authorities should involve the available local associations and non-governmental organizations (NGO) in all their environmental programmes. It concluded that environmental benefits of providing green space should be given utmost priorities because of the importance of greening the environment during this post climate knowledge eraKey Words: Community, Cities, Greening, Climate Change and Third World


This vignette describes the R hglm package via a series of applications that may be of interest to applied scientists. The hglm package implements the estimation algorithm for hierarchical generalized linear models. The package fits generalized linear models with random effects, where the random effect may come from a conjugate exponential-family distribution (Gaussian, Gamma, Beta or inverse-Gamma). The design matrices both for the fixed and random effects can be explicitly specified, which allows fitting correlated random effects as well as random regression models. Fixed effects may also be modeled in the dispersion parameter. The hglm package produces estimates of fixed effects, random effects, variance components as well as their standard errors. Model diagnostics such as deviances and leverages can be visualized. At the end of this vignette, estimates from the hglm package are compared to the ones from GenStat for several examples previously published by Lee and Nelder.


Out casting, sharing, and publishing the collected knowledge, experiences, and outputs of scientific works, regardless of being empirical or purely theoretical, has always been one of the key assets of human evolution. However, on one hand, re-usability of published work depends on accessibility, and, on the other hand, om the correctness of published work. Studies on the traditional scientific publishing platforms reveal many deficits with those systems, which had been addressed with the proposed blockchain-based solution called Eureka. Eureka enables high quality reviews of tthe published work, while incentivizing authors and reviewers to participate in this decentralized, open, and public scientific publishing platform.


: Multifocal angiosarcoma of the lower extremities developed in a 23-year-old patient with generalized lymphangiectasia. Eighteen cases of angiosarcoma complicating congenital or idiopathic lymphedema have previously been reported. The ages of the patients ranged from 13 to 65 years, with an average age of 40 years. There was an equal sex ratio. The extremities were the principal sites of involvement. No conclusion can be made regarding blood vessel or lymphatic origin of these tumors.


The present study is integrated within the project of research DER 2012-36755 "labour market, career transitions and age: young people and over 55 years of age", financed by the Secretariat of State for Research, Development and Innovation. Therein, it is left from the set of measures that the Government of Spain approved in March 2013 called 'Strategy 2013-2016 youth employment and entrepreneurship' which is part of the national reform plan presented by the Government in response to the European Union recommendations in the field of youth employment. Among the 100 proposals have been identified for our study a total of 30 irectly related to vocational training for the integration of young people into the labour market. Specifically, in this paper, an analysis of state regulation, Andalusian and ARGOS observatory on the m3 measure, which projects the permanence of students in the education system and ensure access to the labor market on equal terms is presented. Pretending to know also, training and integration into the labor market in the Andalusian autonomous community from the gender point of view, as the situation of women in vocational training and the labor market has been taken as a case study. The main conclusion that vocational training has become much more egalitarian, as it has significantly matched the proportion of men and women who enrolled, but still a great professional branches segregation and gender Palabras clave: Igualdad de oportunidades; Género; Formación profesional; Sistema educativo; Mercado laboral


This concise technical handbook, written to aid drilling engineers and drilling supervisors in underbalanced drilling (UBD) operations, includes detailed calculations. In fact, readers can easily code the mathematical models presented in this book and build their own UBD simulators in spreadsheet programs. Guo and Ghalambor cover much needed information on the applications for drilling water wells, mine boreholes, geotechnical boreholes, and oil and gas recovery wells by providing illustrative examples throughout the text. Further, they include a complete set of engineering charts with a thorough description of theory and principles. Contents: Underbalanced drilling basics Air, gas, mist, and unstable foam drilling Stable foam drilling Aerated liquid drilling Selecting compressor units Field applications Appendices (Required air flow rates for air drilling vertical holes; required gas flow rates for gas drilling vertical holes; required air flow rates for air drilling deviated holes).


Treatment responses of BRAF mutant melanoma to BRAF inhibitors are often limited by the development of resistance. This case report describes the use of multiplatform molecular profiling in sequential surgical samples of a treatment-resistant tumour site subjected to ongoing treatment with dabrafenib in a patient with metastatic cutaneous BRAF mutant melanoma. Next-generation sequencing showed the presence of the V600E, fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2), phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) and p53 gene mutations. With a continuous presence of the BRAF V600E, FGFR2 and PTEN mutations and appearances of new mutations in the PTEN gene at R137H and T321fs and p53 R273C genes during ongoing treatment, this case report indicates intratumoural clonal evolution as a resistance mechanism. Two new mutations, the G542E exon 12 mutation variant of the FGFR2 gene and the R273C mutation variant of the p53 gene, are reported for the first time in BRAF mutant melanoma.


ABSTRACT Epilimnetic temperatures from early 1980s through 2017 were analyzed for 12 Wisconsin (USA), German, and Finnish lakes. Seasonal temperature metrics exhibited large interannual variability with trends differing among regions. In the Wisconsin lakes, only late summer and fall temperatures increased significantly. In the 2 northeastern German lakes, temperatures increased in all seasons (not all significantly). The 3 Finnish lakes exhibited large spring temperature increases influenced by earlier ice-out; summer and fall temperatures also increased except for Konnevesi (central Finland) in early summer and polar Kevojärvi in midsummer. Kevojärvi also exhibited no increase in maximum recorded temperatures. Earlier records from 4 lakes were analyzed to elucidate longer-term epilimnetic temperature patterns. For Lake Mendota (southern Wisconsin), spring and late fall temperatures have increased modestly but significantly since 1894; summer temperatures have also increased modestly because of higher frequency of warm temperatures in recent summers and not from new record high temperatures. Trout Lake (northern Wisconsin) exhibited warm temperatures in some summers during the 1930s–1940s, similar to warm temperatures in some recent summers. Air–water temperature relationships coupled with long-term regional air temperature data also indicated summer epilimnetic temperatures in the study lakes were likely as warm in the 1930s–1940s as in recent years. Lake data confirmed cooler epilimnetic temperatures occurred in many summers during the 1950s–1980s coincident with cooler air temperatures. Because epilimnetic temperatures have not increased monotonically since 1900, our study supports continued temperature monitoring in lakes with extensive historical data to better understand and predict future effects of climate change on lake ecosystems.


This pest survey card was prepared in the context of the EFSA mandate on plant pest surveillance (M 2017-0137) at the request of the European Commission. Its purpose is to guide the Member States in preparing data and information for Thaumatotibialeucotreta surveys. These are required to design statistically sound and risk-based pest surveys, in line with current international standards. Thaumatotibia leucotreta is a clearly defined taxonomic entity, currently absent from the EU and surveys would thus be aimed at substantiating pest freedom. In the EU, T. leucotreta is expected to be able to become established outdoors in the southernmost parts and indoors in other areas where susceptible crops are grown in greenhouses only if there is a year-round availability of fruit. The most likely introduction of T. leucotreta would be via transport of infested fruit or cut flowers. Imports of fruit of the major host plants is currently subject to specific measures aiming to prevent entry of the pest into the EU. Thaumatotibia leucotreta is a moderate disperser; the maximum annual spread distance is estimated to be approximately 1.5 km. Thaumatotibialeucotreta is a highly polyphagous species and a large number of hosts are cultivated in the EU. The recommended hosts for detection surveys in the EU would be the main hosts that are grown on a large scale (e.g. Capsicum spp., Citrus spp. and Prunus spp.). Surveys should be based on a trapping strategy and target the adult moths. Both morphological and molecular methods are available for the identification of the pest.


Each industry has unique managerial factors that have a critical impact on a firm's success. These factors, known as key success factors, are the characteristics, conditions, or managerial variables that need to be maintained to achieve prosperity in a given industry. Although techniques for identifying KSFs have been developed, the determination of their priorities will help management allocate resources. Furthermore, connecting KSFs to a firm's major value activities will assist management in planning the firm's business. This article proposes an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) which integrates and operationalizes the theories associated with the KSFs and value chain for the above purposes. The proposed process is applied to the analog integrated circuit (IC) design industry to illustrate its efficacy.


As an initial step to implement total quality management (TQM) in a small manufacturing enterprise (SME) of electrical products, we applied statistical techniques to quantify and evaluate the data collected in order to improve the quality characteristics of a selected product circuit breaker. A circuit breaker will "jump" or the current will be cut short if a current stronger than 15A passes through the equipment. The time required for the circuit breaker to stop the flow of the current is called the trip‐time. Our major concern is to find out how sensitive a 15A circuit breaker is, and how reliable is the device. We were able to confirm several dominant factors that influence the trip‐time of the circuit breaker after conducting several experiments. We used regression analysis to find out the model that best fits the relationship between the current supply and the trip‐time of the 15A circuit breaker. Meanwhile reliability testings of the circuit breaker were performed. Balanced factorial design techniqu...


We analyze the stability of networks of passive systems with time delays in the interconnections. Building upon previous work where we complemented the passivity property with a "roll-off" integral quadratic constraint (IQC), here we expand our results to state space models. We first demonstrate how to verify that a state space model satisfies passivity and roll-off IQCs when the equilibrium is not known. We then illustrate the result on an Internet congestion control problem.


This paper will discuss how, along with the rapid growth of energy shortage and environmental pollution, the improvement of road vehicles' overall efficiency has become a major research topic argument in automotive areas. A significant contribution towards this goal, apart from modifying the powertrain layout and optimizing engine and mechanical components, could be provided by the development of computer-aided energy management systems. Vehicular powertrain is a nonlinear dynamic integrated system of electrical, mechanical, chemical and thermodynamic devices, whose primary objective is providing the power needed to move vehicles. In order to analyze such a complex system, a simulation platform for a generic vehicle powertrain has been developed in the Matlab/Simulink environment, on the basis of vehicle characteristics and loads. The paper studies the development of a validated powertrain simulation model, able to test different on-board power and energy management strategies. The paper also identifies a series of key parameters useful for the study of the overall vehicle efficiency, highlighting the energy losses associated to each powertrain component and plotting energy flows balance diagram. The models of the different powertrain components have been characterized and cascade-connected. The powertrain operational logics has been implemented in a control system including power distribution and advanced energy management strategies (e.g. overdrive, Stop&Start system, regenerative braking). The simulation model has been validated with New European Driving Cycle literature data and experimental road tests.


Magnetic iron oxide nanomaterials (e.g. Fe3O4 and γ-Fe2O3) with different morphologies have aroused extensive attention due to their fundamental research and potential technological applications such as magnetic recording media, magnetic fluids and magnetic drug-targeting. In this article Fe3O4 nanosheets were successfully synthesized using triblock copolymer (PEO)20(PPO)70(PEO)20 (P123) micelles as structure-directing agents in the presence of surfactant-assisted ethylene glycol (EG) and precipitator hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) at 70 °C for 2 h in N2. The Fe3O4 nanosheets have irregular shape with thickness of the Fe3O4 nanosheets about 10-15 nm. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirms the Fe3O4 nanosheets have magnetite structure and its nine distinguishable diffraction peaks can be perfectly indexed to the (111), (220), (311), (222), (400), (422), (511), (440), and (533) planes of the fcc structure of magnetite. Its saturation magnetization (σs) is 58.4 emu/g. The possible formation mechanism of the Fe3O4 nanosheets in present work is proposed.


Our bodies are continually passing on information about our prosperity. This information can be collected using physiological instruments that measure beat, circulatory strain, oxygen drenching levels, blood glucose, nerve conduction, mind activity, and so on. For the most part, such estimations are taken at unequivocal spotlights in time and noted on a patient's outline. Working with conventional bio-estimation apparatuses, the sign can be figured by programming to give doctors continuous information and more noteworthy bits of knowledge to help in clinical evaluations. By utilizing progressively modern intends to break down what our bodies are stating, we can conceivably decide the condition of a patient's wellbeing through increasingly noninvasive measures.


The period-doubling Cantor sets of strongly dissipative Henon-like maps with different average Jacobian are not smoothly conjugated, as was shown previously. The Jacobian rigidity conjecture says that the period-doubling Cantor sets of two-dimensional Henon-like maps with the same average Jacobian are smoothly conjugated. This conjecture is true for average Jacobian zero, for example, the one-dimensional case. The other extreme case is when the maps preserve area, for example, when the average Jacobian is one. Indeed, the main result presented here is that the period-doubling Cantor sets of area-preserving maps in the universality class of the Eckmann-Koch-Wittwer renormalization fixed point are smoothly conjugated.


A retrospective analysis of 2450 case histories of primary Hodgkin's disease established bone lesions incidence at 3.8%. They occurred in cases of general symptoms (6%) rather than otherwise (1.6%). Bone involvement came about chiefly via the blood flow pathway (59%), with several bones being involved in most cases. Dissemination through contact was less frequent 39%), the breast bone or vertebrae being involved relatively more often. Both radiation and polychemotherapy caused local healing effect which would lead to full recovery of bone structure in some cases. Therefore, combined (polychemotherapy + radiation) treatment should be recommended in cases of single lesions whereas treatment for multiple lesions may be limited to medication.


Observation bias correction schemes are important components of the data assimilation (DA) systems used in operational numerical weather prediction (NWP). They are used at present mainly to correct for biases in satellite radiance observations and their observation operators. These schemes attempt to remove biases in observations relative to the NWP model background or analysis field. The presence of bias in the NWP model itself can substantially complicate this process. Using a very simple scalar forecast model and DA system, this study explores the extent to which model bias leads to biases in the background and analysis states. Theory is presented for systems that attempt to remove observation bias relative to the background or relative to the analysis. It is shown that background and analysis biases are functions of three parameters: the weights given within the DA system to the observations to be bias‐corrected and to the other 'anchoring' observations, and the rate at which the NWP model state relaxes towards its own climatology. These effects are quantified for 'baseline' values of these three parameters intended to be representative of the current Met Office global NWP system, and for large variations around these baseline values. If the baseline values are indeed representative, then background and analysis biases in the range 0.21–0.33 of the model bias are expected. However, substantial variations are expected within the model domain, depending on variations in observation density, in the balance between bias‐corrected and anchoring observations, and in the rate at which the NWP model state relaxes towards its own climatology. Moreover, the effect of model bias on background and analysis biases will increase as more observations are bias‐corrected and a smaller proportion are used as 'anchor' observations. This has important implications for observation bias correction strategies used in NWP and in reanalyses.


This article applies the realized GARCH model, which incorporates the GARCH model with realized volatility (RV), to quantile forecasts of financial returns such as Value-at-Risk and expected shortfall. This model has certain advantages in the application to quantile forecasts because it can adjust the bias of RV casued by microstructure noise and non-trading hours and enables us to estimate the parameters in the return distribution jointly with the other parameters. Student's t- and skewed strudent's t-distributions as well as normal distribution are used for the return distribution. The EGARCH model is used for comparison. Main results for the S&P 500 stock index are: (1) the realized GARCH model with the skewed student's t-distribution performs better than that with the normal and student's t-distributions and the EGARCH model using the daily returns only, and (2) the performance does not improve if the realized kernel, which takes account of microstructure noise, is used instead of the plain realized volatility, implying that the realized GARCH model can adjust the bias of RV caused by microstructure noise.


PURPOSE
It is desirable to compute polyenergetic digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) in many radiotherapy tasks, especially when investigating beam hardening effects in CT/CBCT reconstruction and studying 2D-3D registration. The standard polyenergetic DRR calculation performs ray-tracing for each energy bin. The computation time scales with the number of bins in the spectrum and the ray tracing operation for each bin dominates the computation time. This work develops a novel algorithm to enhance the efficiency of polyenergetic DRR computation.

METHODS
The inputs of our algorithm are 3D density and material arrays along with the energy spectrum. We compute a modified projection by ray tracing through the density data and saving the results from each material into separate 2D arrays. For each energy bin, the product of each density projection and its corresponding energy dependent mass attenuation coefficient is summed over all materials. The exponential of the results from each energy bin are weighted and summed to create a final polyenergetic DRR. Our new algorithm is mathematically equivalent to the standard approach. We use our algorithm to simulate a 512×512 polyenergetic DRR of a 512×512×182 phantom comprised of 3 materials (air, tissue, bone). A realistic 120kVp energy spectrum with 114 bins was used. The computation times and results of the new algorithm are compared to those of the standard algorithm.

RESULTS
We successfully improved the efficiency of the polyenergetic DRR calculation by a factor of 63.85 in our testing case. The average error between the results from our algorithm and that from the standard algorithm is on the order of machine precision.

CONCLUSION
We have substantially improved the efficiency of the standard polyenergetic DRR algorithm without sacrificing accuracy. This new approach enables fast and accurate DRR calculations that will facilitate many tasks in radiotherapy.


The aim of this study is to create a Turkish Red List of the longicorn beetles. Moreover, presence such a Red List is necessary for Turkey. Even governmental evaluations could cause some erroneous decisions due to absence such a Red List. Since, governmental evaluations at the present time are based on the works that are realized with respect to the European Red List. Furthernore, Turkey appears a continental property changeable in very short distances in terms of climatical features and field structures. So, the status of European fauna and the status of Turkish fauna are not the same. Clearly, there is no any work that subjected to create a Turkish Red List except Parts I-V. Hence, a series work is planned with this purpose. This type of study is the sixth attempt for Turkey.


In the roaring 1990s, many companies seemed to claim great victories-acquiring another company, obtaining state-of-the art technology, or hiring a potential CEO savior-only to find that they had made a great mistake. The term "Winner's Curse" was coined by economists to explain an effect commonly observed in auctions. In such situations, since the winning bidder is usually the most optimistic about the value of the item being auctioned, there is a very good chance that the bid will be more (sometimes much more) than the item is worth. So a company that overvalues a good or service, or bids higher than its value has the potential of experiencing this Winner's Curse. In this book, G. Anandalingam and Henry C. Lucas, Jr. expand the model of the Winner's Curse to explain how companies like Tyco, MCI-WorldCom and Bank One overpaid for acquisitions, and how shareholders suffered as a result. They elucidate the disasters that happened during the rush to acquire new technologies and illuminate the reasons that companies that were seemingly pioneers in the dot-com era fell by the wayside. Beginning by exploring the psychological, personal and market factors that can encourage a decision maker to overvalue an asset and experience the Winner's Curse, the book goes on to examine several case studies, including the disastrous wireless spectrum auctions that have devastated the telecommunications industry, and the dot-com bust. It concludes by discussing ways to avoid the Winner's Curse, calling for major changes in the behavior of CEOs and members of boars of directors, as well as the use of powerful techniques for analyzing decisions, including a systems approach to decision making, scenario analysis and game theory.


Spectrodirectional experiments with goniometer systems are only able to observe approximations of truly directional surface reflectance properties (BRDF). The directly observed quantity in field experiments is called hemispherical directional reflectance factor (HDRF), corresponding to hemispherical illumination, which depends on the atmospheric conditions, and directional observation. Laboratory experiments suffer from imperfect illumination resulting in a biconical rather than bidirectional reflectance factor. Quantitative comparison of field and laboratory measurements is not only important to ensure effective comparability, but also to permit cross-calibration of the experimental devices and to document the degree of compatibility. It is further a prerequisite for determining for which targets a replacement of field by laboratory experiments is feasible. Preliminary studies (i) revealed that the diffuse illumination present in the field is one of the major differences between field and laboratory measurements. A goal of this study is to characterize and correct the diffuse influence in spectrodirectional field measurements more accurately and validate previously achieved results. Spectrodirectional field measurements were accomplished using a GER3700 spectroradiometer mounted on the field goniometer system (FIGOS) of the Remote Sensing Laboratories (RSL, Switzerland). Additionally, an MFR and a REAGAN sun photometer were permanently monitoring the atmospheric conditions. The laboratory goniometer system (LAGOS) uses a 1000W brightness-stabilized quartz tungsten halogen lamp as illumination source. For both field and laboratory measurements, we used an inert and highly anisotropic target. Field data were corrected for diffuse illumination following a procedure proposed by Martonchik (ii).The diffuse influence is then computed as a correction term depending on the angular characteristic of the target BRDF and of the amount of diffuse irradiance. Additionally, the diffuse sky radiance distribution is simulated through multiple runs of MODTRAN (iii) and will be implemented within the correction algorithm in further studies.


This Article studied the actual effect of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal on the cohort of more than 264 federal pharmaceutical and medical device cases of every type, released from the day of the decision in Iqbal through August 31, 2010. The results of this study of more than 15 months of case law suggest that Iqbal is not having a dramatic impact on this cohort, although its impact cannot be conclusively dismissed as inconsequential either. There have been aggressive applications of Iqbal on occasion. In the 21.2% of the time when Iqbal appears facially to be impactful, a closer examination reveals that this observed effect is, in large measure, decreasing in incidence, coupled with an ability for correction, and frequently avoidable through accessible sources of information. Moreover, it is possible that those perceived effects may be phantoms, because repeated, longstanding, and frequently cited federal precedent among the lower federal courts may well have led to functionally identical results even without Iqbal's emergence.


The fortified palace of Ibn Ḥafṣūn and its ḥuṣūn-abwāb. The supposed ḥafṣūní architecture and the oriental models in western MalagaNew interpretative approaches are raised about ḥafṣūní architecture based on the archeological data in the medieval city of Bobastro and its most immediate castles, all located in the limits of the municipal terms of Ardales and Alora, to the northwest from the capital of Malaga. We focus our attention on the palatine complex built by Ibn Ḥafṣūn during the Umayyad emirate and we present numerous nearby fortress, which has allowed us to first approach the knowledge of the defensive system that protected the medieval city. Among the recent evidence of the ḥafṣūní palace, as a result of this study, structural and ornamental elements are discovered that derive from the classical tradition, but they are unknown by local structures and must respond to the influence of the Syrian-Byzantine model.


Abstract This paper discusses the ethics of public health communication. We argue that a number of commonplace tools of public health communication risk qualifying as non-honest and question whether or not using such tools is ethically justified. First, we introduce the concept of honesty and suggest some reasons for thinking it is morally desirable. We then describe a number of common ways in which public health communication presents information about health-promoting interventions. These include the omission of information about the magnitude of benefits people can expect from health-promoting interventions, and failure to report uncertainty associated with the outcomes of interventions. Next we outline some forms of behaviour which are generally recognised by philosophers as being non-honest, including deception, manipulation, and so on. Finally, we suggest that many of the public health communicative practices identified earlier share features with the non-honest behaviours described and suggest this warrants reflection upon whether such non-honesty is justified by the goals of public health communication.


INTRODUCTION
When used to counteract the effects of sleep deprivation, multiple doses of caffeine are typically ingested across an extended period of time. The goal of this study was to determine the optimal dose of caffeine for sustaining performance during sleep loss with administration of multiple doses.

METHODS
There were 48 subjects (28 men, 20 women) who were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups (placebo, 50, 100, or 200 mg caffeine). After an overnight 8-h sleep period, subjects were required to remain awake for the ensuing 29 h. Control data were collected until 03:00 (Day 3), followed by three 2-h test blocks. At 03:00, 05:00, and 07:00 subjects chewed two sticks of gum (Stay Alerts chewing gum) containing caffeine or placebo. Six 10-min sessions on a version of the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) were completed during each 2-h test block. The Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) was administered after each PVT.

RESULTS
Lapses on the PVT were categorized as response times greater than 1, 3, or 5 s. Lapses in all categories significantly increased in the placebo group. Caffeine significantly reduced the number of lapses in a dose-related manner; and performance was maintained at baseline levels for the entire sleep loss period with multiple doses of 200 mg caffeine. There was a significant main effect for session on the SSS, the score increasing over time, but no significant differences between groups.

DISCUSSION
These results indicate that a bi-hourly administration of 200 mg of caffeine maintains vigilance performance across a single night without sleep.


My research focuses on how a user communicates with a programming-by-demonstration (PBD) system. In particular, I experimenting with new nonverbal, direct manipulation techniques that will enhance a user's expressiveness and subsequently will make it possible to infer a broader range of application behavior. The techniques include a new form of demonstrational interaction called nudges used to specify behavior. Complementing nudges is a special form of selection which is used to give the system hints by identifying significant objects. A new deck-of-playing-cards metaphor is also introduced for specifying useful effects such as randomness and sequencing. Other techniques use objects for annotating examples such as behavior icons for manipulating and editing behaviors, and temporal ghosts to allow explicit references to past states. Finally, using guide objects is a technique for demonstrating constraints and hidden connections between objects. Complementing these new techniques will be an inferencing algorithm sufficiently powerful to convert data from all these sources into application behavior. Special attention will be given toward how hints are used to regulate inferencing. By fostering better communication between the user and the system, these techniques should allow the user to create highly interactive software with minimal programming expertise.


This report sets out to take stock of the current relations between SADC and its international co-operating partners (ICPs) - the foreign donor agencies providing support and assistance to the institution and its programme of action. It identifies obstacles and opportunities for making progress and discusses the current efforts to establish modalities and mechanisms for a new partnership between SADC and donors. Chapter 1 briefly summarises the history of SADC and its relations with external aid agencies and outlines the structure of the report. Chapter 2 provides an overview and analysis of the volume, composition and main trends in regional support by major donor countries and agencies. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the current mechanisms for dialogue and co-ordination between SADC and the foreign donors. The final chapter analyses the new efforts to restructure a partnership between SADC and the donors based on the Paris Declaration.


OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate an association between thrombocytopenia and platelet behavior in predicting mortality in septic patients.

METHODS
Patients with criteria for sepsis at admission or at any time during hospitalization were selected; patients hospitalized for less than 24 hours were excluded. Thrombocytopenia was defined as a platelet count lower than 150.000/mm³, and recovery was defined as returning to levels above 150.000/mm³ after showing thrombocytopenia. We assessed the admission prognosis variables (APACHE II), platelet counts during the hospitalization and outcomes.

RESULTS
Of the 56 patients included, 34 developed thrombocytopenia during sepsis (Group 1) and had a 76.4% mortality rate. The mortality rate among patients not showing thrombocytopenia (Group 2) was 40.9% (RR 1.87; 95% CI 1.12 - 3.12; p = 0.0163). In 44.1% of Group 1 patients, the platelet counts drops by >50% compared with the admission counts; 93.3% of these patients eventually died (RR 1.48; 95% CI 0.93 - 2.36; p = 0.0528). Among the Group 1 patients showing recovered platelet counts, 53.3% survived; 100% of the patients with unrecovered thrombocytopenia died (RR 2.14; 95% CI 1.35 - 3.39; p = 0.0003). Among the patients with APACHE II scores > 22, the thrombocytopenic patients had an 81.8% mortality rate (p = 0.25), while no deaths occurred among the non-thrombocytopenic patients. For the patients with APACHE II scores ≤ 22, the mortality rate of the thrombocytopenic patients was 74% (p = 0.0741), versus 42.8% for the non-thrombocytopenic patients.

CONCLUSION
For this sample of septic patients, thrombocytopenia and its progression, defined as a >50% drop or failure to recover platelet count, were shown to be markers of poor prognosis.


Tetrahydrobiopterin, the hydroxylase cofactor (BH4) was administered (i.v. 20 mg/kg) to Rhesus monkeys. Within 90 min of its administration CSF cofactor levels increased significantly above baseline levels. Peak CSF levels were attained at 90-180 min time period following cofactor injection and returned to baseline gradually over the next 15 hrs. The increased brain cofactor levels had no apparent effect on synthesis of dopamine, norepinephrine or serotonin as evidenced by a lack of change in the levels of the metabolites homovalillic acid, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyleneglycol, and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid. The present results using primates suggest no apparent effect of increased cofactor levels on monoamine biosynthesis. However, it remains to be explored whether monoamine synthesis could be affected by increased cofactor levels in the pathological situation.


The rate of groin breakdown after radical wide vulvar excision and inguinal lymphadenectomy for vulvar cancer remains significant despite conservative surgical approaches. An 86-year-old Latin American woman underwent wide radical excision and bilateral inguinal lymphadenectomy for vulvar cancer. The postoperative course was complicated by bilateral groin wound separation and high output lymphorrhea. The patient responded to the application of a gelatin matrix-thrombin tissue sealant (FloSeal®) to the bases of each groin with resolution in lymphorrhea and formation of granulation tissue. The application of a gelatin matrix-thrombin tissue sealant (FloSeal®) may be a viable treatment in the management of groin breakdown in selected patients when conventional therapy produces suboptimal results.


The research environment in the global South faces many pressing challenges given resource inequality. Technical and financial issues aside, Laura Czerniewicz asserts it is the values and practices shaped by the Northern research agenda which contribute just as much to the imbalance. In order to confront these inequities, perceptions of "science" and research outputs must be broadened, and the open access movement needs to also broaden its focus from access to knowledge to full participation in knowledge creation and in scholarly communication.


Each patient in the European Union has a right of access to care. National governments face the challenge to balance resources against healthcare demand to ensure that populations enjoy equitable access to effective, affordable and sustainable healthcare. This study describes the main challenges with regard to access to affordable medicines, including Research & Development, pricing and reimbursement of medicines and the influence of the economic crisis. Potential policy options to tackle these challenges are presented, drawing on best practices and a review of specific measures implemented in different European countries. This document was provided by Policy Department A for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.


Abrupt cold events have been detected in numerous North Atlantic climate records from the Holocene. Several mechanisms have been discussed as possible triggers for these climate shifts persisting decades to centuries. Here, we describe two abrupt cold events that occurred during an orbitally forced transient Holocene simulation using the Community Climate System Model version 3. Both events occurred during the late Holocene (4305–4267 BP and 3046–3018 BP for event 1 and event 2, respectively). They were characterized by substantial surface cooling (−2.3 and −1.8 C, respectively) and freshening (−0.6 and −0.5 PSU, respectively) as well as severe sea ice advance east of Newfoundland and south of Greenland, reaching as far as the Iceland Basin in the northeastern Atlantic at the climaxes of the cold events. Convection and deep-water formation in the northwestern Atlantic collapsed during the events, while the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation was not substantially affected (weakening by only about 10 % and 5 %, respectively). The events were triggered by prolonged phases of a positive North Atlantic Oscillation that caused substantial changes in the subpolar ocean circulation and associated freshwater transports, resulting in a weakening of the subpolar gyre. Our results suggest a possible mechanism by which abrupt cold events in the North Atlantic region may be triggered by internal climate variability without the need of an external (e.g., solar or volcanic) forcing.


This paper examines the columns of Ian Mayes, the first Readers' Editor of The Guardian, and of Daniel Okrent, the first Public Editor of The New York Times, to provide an empirically grounded and theoretically informed analysis of the emergent role of newspaper public editors. To do this, the paper positions the emergence of public editors as part of a wider trend towards the adoption of mechanisms of media accountability, and engages with academic literature that has positioned this trend within an emergent paradigm of "media governance". The empirical dimension of the paper is grounded in quantitative and qualitative analysis of columns written by Mayes and Okrent during their tenure as public editors at the two newspapers, as well as key organisational documents. The findings of the data analysis suggest that, in the context of debates around media accountability and governance, there is a need to consider forms of governance such as public editors in the context of broader social and organisational concerns with declining trust, managing corporate risk and providing external demonstrations of legitimacy, and a renewed and targeted emphasis on journalistic professionalism.


The research in the last decade regarding their cutting machinability have highlighted the insufficiency of the data for establishing of the optimum cutting processing conditions and the optimum cutting regime. The purpose of this article is the optimization of the tool life and the cutting speed at the drilling of the stainless steels in terms of the maximum productivity. A nonlinear programming mathematical model to maximize the productivity at the drilling of a stainless steel is developed in this paper. The optimum cutting tool life and the associated cutting tool speed are obtained by solving the proposed mathematical model. The use of this productivity model allows greater accuracy in the prediction of the productivity for the drilling of a certain stainless steel and getting the optimum tool life and the optimum cutting speed for the maximum productivity. The obtained results can be used in production activity, in order to increase the productivity of the stainless steels machining. Finally the paper suggests new research directions for the specialists interested in this field.


Two prenatal diagnoses were carried out by the technique of intragenic polymorphous marker detecting heterozygosity in pregnant women in the families with cases of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In both cases the DNA fragment from pERT87-15 region was amplified. This fragment includes a polymorphous site in BamHI region of recognition. DNA analyses of the families members have been made and the genetical risk has been calculated by the Bayes method. The prognoses for both fetuses are good.