BACKGROUND
The risk of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) may be related to low blood pressure (BP) relative to intraocular pressure (IOP), ie, to low perfusion pressure (PP). Alternatively, systemic hypertension may increase OAG risk.

OBJECTIVE
To clarify these possible relationships by evaluating hypertension and PP (where PP = BP - IOP) as risk factors for incident OAG in a black population.

DESIGN
Population-based cohort study (85% participation); simple random sample of residents of Barbados, West Indies, aged 40 years and older.

PARTICIPANTS
Two thousand nine hundred eighty-nine black participants at risk; 67 developed OAG after 4 years (2.2% incidence).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Adjusted relative risk (RR) of OAG from logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS
The 4-year risk increased markedly with baseline IOP. With an IOP less than or equal to 17 mm Hg, incidence was 0.7%, increasing to 18.3% with IOP greater than 25 mm Hg, for a 25-fold increase in RR. However, OAG developed throughout the IOP range and two thirds of incident cases had baseline IOP less than 25 mm Hg. Baseline hypertension was associated with a halving of the RR of OAG (RR, 0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.29-0.85); the RR also tended to decrease as systolic BP increased (P =.07). Consistent with these findings, a lower baseline PP increased RR (systolic PP <101 mm Hg, 2.6 [95% CI, 1.3-4.9]; diastolic PP <55 mm Hg, 3.2 [95% CI, 1.6-6.6]; mean PP <42 mm Hg, 3.1 [95% CI, 1.6-6.0]).

CONCLUSIONS
As baseline IOP increased, the risk of OAG substantially increased. In contrast, persons with systemic hypertension at baseline had half the RR, suggesting that hypertension does not increase (and may decrease) the 4-year risk of OAG. Lower PP at baseline increased RR approximately 3-fold, a result consistent with the vascular hypothesis of OAG pathogenesis.


The proposed method of common biliary duct cannulation is simple, easily performed and permits studying bile hydrodynamics biligenesis for a necessary time. Tightness of the system is completely preserved after removal a choledochostomical tube. Walls of the invaginated stump of the cystic duct are swiftly abated as a result of hydrostatic pressure and cover its gap. The presence of purse string kapron suture in a stump orifice creates an obstacle to deinvagination. Good reparation properties of serous and subserous membranes, covering the biliary duct, promote rapid closing of stoma. Effectiveness of the proposed method of common biliary duct cannulation by means of the invaginated stump of the cystic duct is confirmed by the smooth postoperative course and absence of a biliary fistula after the tube removal.


Zanamivir is an effective drug for influenza virus infection, but strong molecular polarity and aqueous solubility limit its clinical application. In recent years, selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have attracted attention in the biological field. In this study, surface decoration of SeNPs using zanamivir (ZNV) with antiviral properties was demonstrated. SeNPs co-delivery of a zanamivir nanosystem was designed to reverse influenza virus infection. In breif, the MTT assay, cytopathic effect and nucleic acid level of the virus suggested that zanamivir modified SeNPs (Se@ZNV) resisted proliferation of H1N1 virus and MDCK cells achieved higher viability after treatment with this compound. Besides, both activation and expression of caspase-3 induced during H1N1 virus infection were depressed when treated with Se@ZNV. Furthermore, phosphorylation of p38 and JNK were down-regulated by Se@ZNV. Taken together, our study indicates that Se@ZNV is a novel promising pharmaceutical against H1N1 influenza virus infection.


This paper establishes a surprising and robust empirical similarity between short-run heterogeneous consumption and long-term consumption growth risk models. The models not only deliver a similar fit on a given set of portfolios, their actual pricing errors are also highly correlated. In addition, we find that consumption dispersion is a robust predictor of the transitory component in aggregate consumption growth. To interpret these findings, we propose a model in which aggregate uncertainty is a function of idiosyncratic uncertainty and only long-term consumption growth risk is priced. An implication of this being that consumption dispersion is priced empirically not because markets are necessarily incomplete but because investors disagree in the short-run about their common long-term consumption prospects.


Load fluctuation of wind turbine under tower shadow was researched,introducing individual pitch control. First,establish the linear time-varying model of the rotor,make it into the linear time invariant model through Coleman transformation. Then,based on this model,achieving the design of individual pitch system with PID controller. Comparing the loads of wind turbine under tower shadow between individual pitch control and collective pitch control and analysing the fatigue damage of wind turbine through rainflow cycle counting.The result shows that load fluctuation of wind turbine using the individual pitch control under tower shadow has better effect and reduces the effect of tower shadow,extend the working life of wind turbine.


We consider the problem of adaptively stabilizing linear plants with unknown time-varying parameters in the presence of noise, disturbances, and unmodeled dynamics using the supervisory control framework, which employs multiple candidate controllers and an estimator based switching logic to select the active controller at every instant of time. Time-varying uncertain linear plants can be stabilized by supervisory control, provided that the plant's parameter varies slowly enough in terms of mixed dwell-time switching and average dwell-time switching, the noise and disturbances are bounded and small enough in terms of L-infinity norms, and the unmodeled dynamics are small enough in the input-to-state stability sense. This work extends previously reported works on supervisory control of linear time-invariant systems with constant unknown parameters to the case of linear time-varying uncertain systems. A numerical example is included, and limitations of the approach are discussed.


Abstract Cytochrome P450 (P450) reactions are of interest because of their relevance to the oxidative metabolism of drugs, steroids, carcinogens, and other chemicals. One of the considerations about functional characterization is which steps of the catalytic cycle are ratelimiting. Detailed analysis indicates that several different steps can be ratelimiting with individual P450 reactions. NDealkylation of parasubstituted N,Ndimethylanilines is a function of the electron withdrawing/donating properties of the substituent and the oxidationreduction potential of the substrate, supporting a role in ratelimiting electron transfer from substrate to the high valent P450. In the oxidations of ethanol and acetaldehyde by human P450 2E1, a step following product formation must be the slow step (but not product release per se). Several oxidations catalyzed by human P450s 1A2 and 2D6 show slow CH bond breaking, and apparent highvalent iron complexes accumulate in the reaction steadystate. Kinetic simulations were used to test the suitability of potential schemes and to probe the effects of changes in individual reaction steps.


Little attention has been paid to the mental processes and the story elements that influence perceived reality judgments of media stories. People often lack the motivation or ability to be thoughtful about perceived reality judgments. This is particularly true when the stimulus controls the pace of the story (e.g., television). It is possible that people use the typical and atypical elements of a story as a heuristic for making simple judgments about perceived reality of media narratives. In 2 studies, the careful manipulation of atypical and typical information in a soap opera and a news story predicted about half the variance in perceived reality. As the typicality of the stories increased, so did the participants' ratings of the perceived reality of the stories. In a 3rd study, while viewing entertainment television shows, participants used dials to continuously rate the selected programs for perceived reality, typicality, interest, and liking. Results indicate that viewers can make moment-to-moment reality judgments, and these judgments are strongly related to typicality. Interest-liking was related to typicality and perceived reality for drama. For comedy, however, situations with low reality produced greater interest and liking. Typicality appears to be a key psychological characteristic of media stories.


Background Passive blood-brain barrier permeability (BBB Pe), fraction bound to brain tissue (fb,brain) and efflux by transport proteins MDR-1 and BCRP are essential determinants for the brain uptake and disposition of drugs. Methods The main objective of the study was to use the software ANDROMEDA by Prosilico to predict passive BBB Pe- and fb,brain-classes and MDR-1- and BCRP-specificities for various classes of antidepressants and for CNS-active small drugs marketed during 2020 and 2021, and then to position them according to a new 2-dimensional Brainavailability-Matrix (8 passive BBB Pe x 4 fb,brain classes, where class 11 has highest and 84 lowest values/brainavailability). Predicted estimates were used, except for cases where measured values were available. Results and Conclusion Results for 53 drugs show that adequate CNS uptake and disposition are achieved for compounds placed in the zones for low, moderate and high brainavailability, despite efflux. They also show that high brainavailability and efflux are common for CNS-active drugs and that modern CNS-active drugs generally have lower brainavailability than older antidepressive drugs. Furthermore, they demonstrate that ANDROMEDA by Prosilico and the new Brainavailability-Matrix are applicable for prediction, optimization and positioning of CNS uptake and disposition of drugs and drug candidates in man.


The law of 20 August 2008 reformed the representativeness of French unions by imposing an obligation for 'financial transparency'. Building on exploratory research, we address the question of the organizational and political effects of the new regulation, which point to a traditional debate in union democracy studies: how do administrative and representative rationalities combine within trade union organizations? Drawing on interviews with union leaders and finance officers at various levels in three major labour confederations (CGT, CFDT and CGT†FO), we describe the different ways unionists have received the new accounting requirements and translated them into organizational practices and norms. Going beyond the traditional theses of compatibility and colonization, we make use of the body of work in critical legal and management studies to develop an endogenous approach of the relationships between trade unions and accounting management.


Living in modern times, people at home are greatly enjoying the convenience brought about by advanced technologies. With steadily increased home automation applications, it is becoming more and more popular for individuals to use one central control interface to set up and operate of all the audio, video and many household appliances in a home. However, such interfaces often are too complicated for people with a disability to operate. However, the technology has long been available to achieve Environmental Control (EC) for disabled people with limited mobility, which then helps them live with more independence.
This paper presents a specially designed EC system for use by people who have lost significant mobility but who have good control of their eye movements. Through attention responsive technology, a user will be able to perform either simple or complex operations of any electrical household appliance by directly gazing at it.


We introduce an alternative proof of the existence of certain $C^k$ barrier maps, with polynomial explosion of the derivatives, on weakly pseudoconvex domains in $\Bbb C^n$. Barriers of this sort have been constructed very recently by J. Michel and M.-C. Shaw, and have various applications. In our paper, the adaptation of Hormander's $L^2$ techniques to suitable vector-valued functions allows us to give a very simple approach of the problem and to improve some aspects of the result of Michel and Shaw, regarding the explosion of the barrier and the regularity assumption on the domain.


The control and maintenance of inventories is a problem common to all enterprises in any sector of a given economy. Two fundamental question that must be answered in controlling the inventory are when to replenish the inventory and how much to order for replenishment. The (Q,r) inventory models attempt to answer the two question under a variety of circumstances. Studies have shown, (1) that a company that ignores lead-time demand variability may suffer great financial damage, (2) that the gamma distribution provides the most common best fit to lead-time demand for variety of inventories items, (3) that a fixed lead-time demand assumption or a normal approximation to it will often yield significant errors (Namit and Chen, 1998).This research performed an efficient and accurate algorithm for solving (Q,r) inventory model with gamma lead-time demand.


The abstraction of meaningful diagnostic information from raw condition monitoring data in domains where diagnostic expertise and knowledge is limited and constantly evolving presents a significant research challenge. Expert diagnosis and location of partial discharges in high voltage electrical plant is one such domain. This paper describes the functionality of a knowledge-based decision support system capable of providing engineers with a comprehensive diagnosis of the defects responsible for partial discharge activity detected in oil-filled power transformers. Plant data captured from partial discharge (PD) sensors can be processed to generate phase-resolved partial discharge (PRPD) patterns. This paper proposes a means of abstracting the salient features characterizing the observed PRPD patterns. Captured knowledge describing the visual interpretation of these patterns can be applied for defect diagnosis and location. The knowledge-based PRPD pattern interpretation system can support on-line plant condition assessment and defect diagnosis by presenting a comprehensive diagnosis of PD activity detected and classification of the defect source. The paper also discusses how the system justifies its diagnosis of the PD activity to offer the expert greater confidence in the result, a feature generally absent in 'black-box' pattern recognition techniques. The incremental approach exhibited by the system reflects that of a PD expert's visual interpretation of the PRPD pattern. The paper describes how this functional system design has evolved from the approach taken by PD experts to the visual interpretation of PRPD patterns.


This paper employs the skyscraper to show how culture and economy are necessarily intertwined. I begin with the idea of the sublime, and then move on to consider representations of the tall building from the 1870s to the present day in order to illustrate what these artefacts are understood to 'mean'. But skyscrapers are not merely symbols of modern organization, they are themselves forms of economic organizing and the second section of the paper notes the various ways in which the tall building, and the divisions of labour that enabled it, began by 'making the land pay' in cities with a burgeoning rental market for small firms. This shift involves partly displacing the architect and the corporation, and instead focussing on project organization and rental values. I conclude by suggesting that the term 'organization', because of its mutability, can provide a bridge between culturalist and economic representations.


Polycomb-group (PcG) proteins are major chromatin complexes that regulate gene expression, mainly described as repressors keeping genes in a transcriptional silent state during development. Recent studies have nonetheless suggested that PcG proteins might have additional functions, including on targeting active genes or independently of gene expression regulation. However, the reasons for the implication of PcG and their associated chromatin marks on active genes are still largely unknown. Here, we report that combining mutations for CURLY LEAF (CLF) and LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN1 (LHP1), two Arabidopsis PcG proteins, results in the deregulation of the expression of active genes that are targeted by PcG proteins or enriched in associated chromatin marks. We show that this deregulation is associated with accumulation of small RNAs corresponding to massive degradation of active gene transcripts. We demonstrate that transcriptionally active genes and especially those targeted by PcG are prone to RNA degradation, even though deregulation of RNA degradation following the loss of function of PcG proteins is likely not mediated by a PcG-mediated chromatin environment. Therefore, we highlight that PcG function is essential to maintain an accurate level of RNA degradation to ensure a correct expression level of genes.


The preferentially expressed antigen in melanoma, Y-linked (PRAMEY) is a cancer/testis antigen expressed predominantly in bovine spermatogenic cells, playing an important role in germ cell formation. To better understand PRAMEY's function during spermatogenesis, we studied the dynamics of PRAMEY isoforms by Western blotting (WB) with PRAMEY-specific antibodies. The PRAMEY protein was assessed in the bovine testicular and epididymal spermatozoa, fluid and tissues, and as well as in ejaculated semen. The protein was further examined, at a subcellular level in sperm head and tail, as well as in the subcellular components, including the cytosol, nucleus, membrane, and mitochondria. RNA expression of PRAMEY was also evaluated in testis and epididymal tissues. Our WB results confirmed the previously reported four isoforms of PRAMEY (58, 30, 26, and 13 kDa) in the bovine testis and spermatozoa. We found that testicular spermatozoa expressed the 58 and 30 kDa isoforms. As spermatozoa migrated to the epididymis, they expressed two additional isoforms, 26 and 13 kDa. Similarly, the 58 and 30 kDa isoforms were detected only in the testis fluid, while all four isoforms were detected in fluid from the cauda epididymis. Tissue evaluation indicated a significantly higher expression of the 58 and 13 kDa isoforms in the cauda tissue when compared to both the testis and caput tissue (p < 0.05). These results indicated that testis samples (spermatozoa, fluid, and tissue) expressed predominantly the 58 and 30 kDa PRAMEY isoforms, suggesting their involvement in spermatogenesis. In contrast, the 26 kDa isoform was specific to epididymal sperm and the 13 kDa isoform was marked in samples derived from the cauda epididymis, suggesting their involvement in sperm maturation. Results from the sperm head and tail experiments indicated that the 13 kDa isoform increased 4-fold in sperm tails from caput to cauda, suggesting this isoform may have a significant role in tail function. Additionally, the 13 kDa isoform increased significantly (p < 0.05) in the cytosol during epididymal passage and tended to increase in other subcellular components. The expression of PRAMEY in the sperm subcellular components during epididymal maturation suggests the involvement of PRAMEY, especially the 13 kDa isoform, in sperm motility.


OBJECTIVE
In end-stage renal failure, dyslipoproteinemia is linked to risk of cardiovascular disease. Increased concentrations of triacylglycerol-rich, very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and decreased concentrations of high density lipoproteins (HDL) are usual, whilst total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) concentrations are not increased. Non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) are not transported by lipoproteins, but increased concentrations may also be associated with cardiovascular disease risk. In this study, plasma concentrations of NEFA and other lipids were compared in healthy subjects and patients with end-stage chronic renal failure who were either undialyzed or undergoing peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis.

METHODS
Fasted blood samples for measurement of albumin, total, free and HDL-cholesterol, triacylglycerols and NEFA were taken from 56 apparently healthy subjects and from 48, 28 and 46 patients from the United Arab Emirates during 2002 who were either untreated or on peritoneal or hemodialysis. Hemodialysis subjects were studied immediately before and after a single treatment session.

RESULTS
For all groups of patients, total, and LDL-cholesterol were unchanged, triacylglycerols and free cholesterol were raised and HDL-cholesterol concentrations and the percentage of esterified cholesterol were significantly decreased compared to controls. Plasma NEFA concentrations for untreated patients were similar to controls, but were decreased in peritoneal dialysis patients and markedly increased both before and, even more so, after dialysis in hemodialysis patients.

CONCLUSION
Patients with end-stage renal failure share common features of dyslipoproteinemia irrespective of whether they are untreated or on peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis. However, only hemodialysis patients show significantly increased concentrations of NEFA.


BACKGROUND
Isolated patellofemoral arthroplasty is discussed controversially. The aim of this nation-wide survey in Germany and review of the literature was to determine the current status of patellofemoral arthroplasty.

METHODS
A standardised questionnaire was sent to 744 German departments of orthopaedic surgery, traumatology and general surgery. In the first part, surgeons were asked general questions about their department size, case numbers of knee arthroplasties per year and non-endoprosthetic treatment of isolated patellofemoral disorders. If patellofemoral arthroplasty was conducted, parameters concerning age, gender, duration of complaints, indication for surgery, surgical approach, type of endoprosthesis used, additional surgical treatments and failures were evaluated in the second part. Furthermore we asked for the reasons if no isolated patellofemoral arthroplasty was performed. A systematic review of the literature was done including studies published until October 2007. The main inclusion criterion was the presentation of results after the implantation of a patellofemoral prosthesis for isolated patellofemoral osteoarthritis.

RESULTS
A total of 225 analysable questionnaires were returned. Of 53,420 knee arthroplasties performed per year, only 195 (0.37 %) were isolated patellofemoral arthroplasties. The majority of patients (91 %) were between 40 and 80 years old. The aetiology of isolated patellofemoral osteoarthritis was believed to be idiopathic in 41 % and traumatic in 8 %. Patellofemoral dysplasia was held to be responsible in 47 % and patellofemoral instability in 4 % of the cases. The main reason for failure and surgical revision was ongoing tibiofemoral osteoarthritis of the affected knee. Negative attitude and disbelief towards the success of isolated patellofemoral arthroplasty were stated by the majority (62 %) of non-users. A lack of appropriate indications was reported by 22 % and lacking know-how by 16 %. We analysed 12 studies (459 implantations; 390 patients) in the literature review. The treatment was considered successful in 67.8 % of cases. The overall revision rate was 30.3 %. The highest failure rates were in patients with progression of tibiofemoral osteoarthritis or malalignment.

CONCLUSIONS
Isolated patellofemoral arthroplasty has only low significance among surgeons performing knee arthroplasty in Germany. The majority of surgeons do not believe in the success of the procedure. Almost one third of published cases in the literature needed to be revised.


Given the change in federal legislation allowing the consideration of a Response-ToIntervention (RTI) approach to making eligibility decisions for specific learning disabilities (IDEIA, 2004), it is crucial to establish sufficient evidence for using curriculum-based measurements (CBM) or CBM-like measures (e.g., Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills; DIBELS) for monitoring students' responses to interventions as part of the identification process for Specific Learning Disabilities. One critical component in an effective RTI model is the availability of parallel measures suited for frequent progress monitoring to index student performance over time. The current study investigated the equivalence of the twenty first grade DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) progress monitoring probes using a one-way ANOVA for repeated-measures. Participants were 68 first grade students (36 females and 32 males) from two Midwestern elementary schools. No selection criteria other than parental consent were used. The DORF probes were given in a pseudo-counterbalanced order across four days at the end of the school year to avoid instruction and practice effects. The standard error of measurement (SEM) of the twenty first grade DORF progress monitoring probes was calculated using alternate form reliability coefficients. Results suggested that the equivalence assumption of the first grade DORF was not held. Most of the probes were significantly different in their difficulty level from each other and did not yield consistent mean levels of performance. The findings also suggested a significant magnitude of score fluctuation at the individual student level. The average SEM value was about 9 (ranging from 8 to 10), similar to previous research findings using test-retest reliability for calculation. Limitations, educational implications for CBM ORF users and researchers, and directions for future research are presented.


Accelerators are special purpose processors designed to speed up compute-intensive sections of applications. Two extreme endpoints in the spectrum of possible accelerators are FPGAs and GPUs, which can often achieve better performance than CPUs on certain workloads. FPGAs are highly customizable, while GPUs provide massive parallel execution resources and high memory bandwidth. Applications typically exhibit vastly different performance characteristics depending on the accelerator. This is an inherent problem attributable to architectural design, middleware support and programming style of the target platform. For the best application-to-accelerator mapping, factors such as programmability, performance, programming cost and sources of overhead in the design flows must be all taken into consideration. In general, FPGAs provide the best expectation of performance, flexibility and low overhead, while GPUs tend to be easier to program and require less hardware resources. We present a performance study of three diverse applications - Gaussian elimination, data encryption standard (DES), and Needleman-Wunsch - on an FPGA, a GPU and a multicore CPU system. We perform a comparative study of application behavior on accelerators considering performance and code complexity. Based on our results, we present an application characteristic to accelerator platform mapping, which can aid developers in selecting an appropriate target architecture for their chosen application.


In this paper, we analyze content sharing between news sources in the alternative and mainstream media using a dataset of 713K articles and 194 sources. We find that content sharing happens in tightly formed communities, and these communities represent relatively homogeneous portions of the media landscape. Through a mix-method analysis, we find several primary content sharing behaviors. First, we find that the vast majority of shared articles are only shared with similar news sources (i.e. same community). Second, we find that despite these echo-chambers of sharing, specific sources, such as The Drudge Report, mix content from both main-stream and conspiracy communities. Third, we show that while these differing communities do not always share news articles, they do report on the same events, but often with competing and counter-narratives. Overall, we find that the news is homogeneous within communities and diverse in be-tween, creating different spirals of sameness.


Developing efficient and inexpensive energy storage devices is an important as developing new sources of energy. The material element was designed for storing high charging and low discharging efficiency. The size of the element was taken such that exposed contact surface area could be high. The thermal energy storage (TES) can be defined as the temporary storage of thermal energy at high or low temperatures. . Energy storage can reduce the time or rate mismatch between energy supply and energy demand, and it plays an important role in energy conservation. Energy storage improves performance of energy systems by smoothing supply and increasing reliability. For example, storage would improve the performance of a power generating plant by load leveling. The higher efficiency would lead to energy conservation and improve cost effectiveness. The demand for energy, on the other hand, is also unsteady following yearly and diurnal cycles for both industrial and personal needs. The thermal properties are strongly influenced by the deposit physical structure, i.e. the particle size distribution, the porosity and the degree of sintering. Thermal storage can utilize sensible or latent heat mechanisms or heat from chemical reactions. Sensible heat is the means of storing energy by increasing the temperature of a solid or liquid. Latent heat, on the other hand, is the means of storing energy via the heat of transition from a solid to liquid state.


This experimental study investigated the effect of lifting task parameters (i.e., lifting weight, frequency, coupling, asymmetric angle, and vertical, horizontal, and travel distances) for various dynamic human lifting activities on the ground reaction forces of workers. Ten male workers loaded containers from different levels asymmetrically during experimental trials. The experimental design evolved using Taguchi's Fractional Factorial Experiments. Three factors (lifting weight, frequency, and vertical distance) were observed to be significant. The results showed that vertical reaction forces increase when workers lift weight from floor to shoulder height frequently. It was also observed that instantaneous loading rate increases with more weight, vertical distance, and frequency; a significant extra loading rate is required to change the lower level of load, frequency, and vertical distance to higher levels. Safe limits for significant factors were determined to result in optimal performance of the manual lifting task.


Differential GPS, or DGPS, is a medium frequency (MF) radio system that is used worldwide for the broadcast of differential corrections to users to improve the accuracy and integrity of the GPS. This communications system works by digitally modulating radio signals broadcast from a network of marine radio beacons operating in the medium frequency 283.5–325 kHz radio band. The modulation scheme called Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) is used to transmit the correction data at typical data rates of between 50 and 200 bits per second (bps). The U.S. Coast Guard has pioneered the use of MSK for transmission of differential GPS corrections, and has provided over ten years of worthy service with the system. The U.S. DGPS installation is nation-wide, with over 85 transmitters providing double coverage to most of the CONUS. Today, the Coast Guard is re-examining the role of DGPS/radio beacons with the goal of optimizing service for the next ten years. Here we suggest that the DGPS system has significant capability for use beyond that of its current mandate; specifically, there exists the potential for concurrently transmitting a second information-bearing signal on the beacon signal. We believe that this simultaneous transmission of the current navigation correction information (the primary channel) and additional messaging (perhaps DHS emergency messaging or other relevant information) could be accomplished at very minimal cost, and with minimal impact on current users, using a technique we have called phase trellis overlay. This idea has been proposed in earlier work by these authors; several variations of the approach have been designed, analyzed, and tested with results presented at Institute of Navigation conferences. These previous presentations have focused on the technical details of the method; for example, design of the new communications signals, bandwidth of the resulting signal relative to the DGPS system requirements, implementation concerns at the transmitter, and its impact on legacy user performance were analyzed. Here we summarize these earlier results within the context of a potential DHS emergency messaging system. We re-examine the technical details of this approach as a simply parameterized FM (frequency modulation) overlay which yields mathematically tractable performance results. Sample results of this analysis highlight the tradeoffs between coverage expected for legacy users and coverage expected for the new DHS messaging system.


Tuberculosis (TB), mostly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is one of the leading causes of death from infectious disease worldwide. Its coinfection with HIV and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) strains have further worsened the TB pandemic. Despite its global impact, TB is considered a neglected disease and no new anti-TB therapeutics have been introduced over the last four decades. The nonreplicating persistent form of TB (NRP-TB) is responsible for the length of the treatment and is the putative cause of treatment failure. Therefore, new anti-TB agents, which are active against both the replicating form of Mtb (R-TB) and NRP-TB, are urgently needed. Herein, we report the synthesis and structure-activity relationships (SAR) of a series of 5-[(E)-2-arylethenyl]-3-isoxazolecarboxylic acid alkyl esters as potent anti-TB agents. Several compounds had submicromolar minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against R-TB and were active against NRP-TB in the low micromolar range, thus representing attractive lead compounds for the possible development of new anti-TB agents.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the predictive value of clinical examination, laboratory tests and Doppler ultrasound examination in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and/or antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) pregnancies.

METHODS
A prospective study of 116 pregnancies followed in a single tertiary referral centre. Outcomes analysed were fetal/neonatal death and adverse pregnancy outcome. Univariate analysis was performed for: (i) medical and obstetric history; (ii) medical and obstetric clinical examination; (iii) biological data; (iv) Doppler ultrasound examination. Variables significantly associated with the outcomes in the univariate analysis were entered into a logistic regression model.

RESULTS
Sixteen out of 116 pregnancies ended in 12 fetal deaths and 4 embryonic losses. Hence, data for 100 pregnancies were analysed. Seven fetal deaths and one neonatal death occurred, associated with abnormal end-diastolic umbilical artery Doppler flow at the second trimester (P < 0.006), a history of thrombophlebitis (P < 0.001) or notched uterine artery and growth restriction at the second trimester (P < 0.002). Multivariate analysis retained abnormal end-diastolic umbilical artery Doppler flow (P = 0.047) and history of thrombophlebitis (P = 0.018) as significant predictors. Thirty-one adverse pregnancy outcomes occurred, associated with notched uterine artery (P < 0.00003), abnormal end-diastolic umbilical artery Doppler flow (P < 0.0006) and fetal growth restriction at the second trimester (P < 0.008), growth restriction (P < 0.00001) and notched uterine artery at the third trimester (P < 0.0008), use of heparin (P < 0.05) and history of thrombophlebitis (P < 0.04). Notched uterine artery at the second trimester remained the only predictor in multivariate analysis (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Results of the second trimester Doppler ultrasound examination are the best predictors for late pregnancy outcome in SLE and/or APS.


Urbanization coincides with remarkable environmental changes, including conversion of natural landscapes into urban. Moscow megapolis is among the largest urbanized areas in Europe. An ambitious New Moscow project expanded the megapolis on extra 1500 km 2 of former fallow lands, croplands and forests. The research aimed to monitor land use changes in New Moscow between 1989 and 2016 years. Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 images (30 m spectral resolution) and Sentinel – 2 images (10 m spectral resolution) were analyzed. All the images were collected for the similar summer period (from June to August). The images were preprocessed and classified by Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin in open source QGIS software to derive land cover maps. The following land cover classes were identified: water, built-up areas, bare soils, croplands and forested areas, and the total area covered by each class was estimated. The following land-use change pathways were reported: 1) reduction of the forested areas by 2.5% (almost 2000 ha) between 1989 and 1998; 2) partial reforestation (more than 1000 ha) and abandonment of croplands (more than 3000 ha) between 1998 and 2010 and 3) intensive urbanization (more than 11000 ha) between 2010 and 2016. New build-up areas and infrastructures were constructed on former forested areas and croplands. Although, some uncertainties in the absolute estimates are expected due to the classification errors, the general urbanization trend can be clearly distinguished as a principal outcome after the five years of New Moscow project.


Deprivation of Ca(2+) in crowded cultures of 3T3 cells inhibits the onset of DNA synthesis. By raising [Mg(2+)] to 15 mM the inhibition produced by Ca(2+) deprivation can be fully overcome. Sparse cultures are not inhibited by a similar deprivation of Ca(2+), and therefore are not stimulated by supranormal [Mg(2+)]. The time course of stimulation of the onset of DNA synthesis by supranormal [Mg(2+)] in low [Ca(2+)] is the same as that produced by serum in physiological concentrations of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+). Concentrations of Mg(2+) > 20 mM in low [Ca(2+)] reverse the stimulation, and [Mg(2+)] >/= 30 mM kills many cells. In contrast to the stimulation by 15 mM Mg(2+), supranormal [Ca(2+)] has no effect on the onset of DNA synthesis in cultures inhibited by Mg(2+) deprivation, if the formation of insoluble Ca-P(i) complexes is prevented. Neither Na(+) nor K(+) reproduces the effects of Mg(2+). The uptake of uridine is another parameter of the coordinate response of 3T3 cells to serum stimulation that is inhibited by Ca(2+) deprivation, and supranormal [Mg(2+)] also reverses this inhibition. The results support the thesis that the coordinate response of growth and metabolism to external effectors is regulated by the availability of Mg(2+) within the cell and that the inhibitory effects of Ca(2+) deprivation are indirect and caused by a reduction in the availability of Mg(2+).


In lymphopenic environments, secondary lymphoid organs regulate the size of B and T cell compartments by supporting the homeostatic proliferation of mature lymphocytes. The molecular mechanisms underlying these responses and their functional consequences remain incompletely understood. To evaluate homeostasis of the mature B cell pool during lymphopenia, we turned to an adoptive transfer model of purified follicular B cells into Rag2–/– mouse recipients. Highly purified follicular B cells transdifferentiated into marginal zone–like B cells when transferred into Rag2–/– lymphopenic hosts but not into wild-type hosts. In lymphopenic spleens, transferred B cells gradually lost their follicular phenotype and acquired characteristics of marginal zone B cells, as judged by cell surface phenotype, expression of integrins and chemokine receptors, positioning close to the marginal sinus, and an ability to rapidly generate functional plasma cells. Initiation of follicular to marginal zone B cell transdifferentiation preceded proliferation. Furthermore, the transdifferentiation process was dependent on Notch2 receptors in B cells and expression of Delta-like 1 Notch ligands by splenic Ccl19-Cre+ fibroblastic stromal cells. Gene expression analysis showed rapid induction of Notch-regulated transcripts followed by upregulated Myc expression and acquisition of broad transcriptional features of marginal zone B cells. Thus, naive mature B cells are endowed with plastic transdifferentiation potential in response to increased stromal Notch ligand availability during lymphopenia.


To prevent forgetting in working memory, the attentional refreshing is supposed to increase the level of activation of memory traces by focusing attention. However, the involvement of memory traces reactivation in refreshing relies in the majority on indirect evidence. The aim of this study was to show that refreshing relies on the reactivation of memory traces by investigating how the reactivation of an irrelevant trace prevents the attentional refreshing to take place, and (2) the memory traces reactivated are sensorial in nature. We used a reactivated visual mask presented during the encoding (Experiment 1) and the refreshing (Experiment 2) of pictures in a complex span task. Results showed impaired serial recall performance in both experiments when the mask was reactivated compared to a control stimulus. Experiment 3 confirmed the refreshing account of these results. We proposed that refreshing relies on the reactivation of sensory memory traces.


Approximately twenty Benedictine, Trappist, and Camaldolese men and women monastics met from April 13–18 with an equal number of Buddhist monastics at the Trappist Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky for five days of dialogue on the causes of suffering. The encounter, Gethsemani II, was a sequel to a similar 1996 meeting at the monastery made famous by the monk Thomas Merton, a noted twentiethcentury contemplative and peace activist who died in 1968. Merton's friendship with the Dalai Lama served as seminal inspiration for these two Buddhist-Christian dialogues. In a ritual at the opening of the Gethsemani II meeting, the participants, joined by a few advisors and observers to the dialogue, hung a wreath of flowers around the cross marking Merton's grave. Each day speakers from both sides initiated a conversation on a particular cause of suffering, such as greed and consumerism, personal and structural violence, sickness and aging. "I do not do well at conferences, and I came prepared to be bored," said John Daido Loori, abbot of the Zen Mountain monastery in Mount Tremper, New York, on day three, "but the level of honesty and depth of sharing in these exchanges has ripped open my heart." It is not possible in this forum to synthesize the penetrating reflections and stories on suffering offered by the participants. What may be even more important is the window offered by this dialogue into the dynamics of interfaith encounter no matter where it takes place. By sharing times of prayer, talk, meals, and rituals appropriate to each tradition, the participants became friends. They came for one thing, to talk about suffering, and in the process found another: an experience of community. They began each conversation with the musical and meditative interlude of a recorder, but the openness and sensitivity of the conversation itself became the real music. They didn't solve a single problem, but they kindled a vital force—friendship—with which to confront problems together in the future. Each brought passion for their own tradition—the gospel on the one hand and the dharma on the other—and each ended by recognizing in the other a powerful resource for healing the world. Evident in this dialogue was the emergence of a Euro-American Buddhist voice,


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Uremic encephalopathy is a metabolic disorder in patients with renal failure. The purpose of this study was to describe the MR imaging findings of uremic encephalopathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study retrospectively reviewed MR imaging findings in 10 patients with clinically proved uremic encephalopathy between May 2005 and December 2014. Parameters evaluated were lesion location and appearance; MR signal intensity of the lesions on T1WI, T2WI, and T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images; the presence or absence of restricted diffusion on diffusion-weighted images and apparent diffusion coefficient maps; and the reversibility of documented signal-intensity abnormalities on follow-up MR imaging. RESULTS: MR imaging abnormalities accompanying marked elevation of serum creatinine (range, 4.3–11.7 mg/dL) were evident in the 10 patients. Nine patients had a history of chronic renal failure with expansile bilateral basal ganglia lesions, and 1 patient with acute renal failure had reversible largely cortical lesions. Two of 6 patients with available arterial blood gas results had metabolic acidosis. All basal ganglia lesions showed expansile high signal intensity (lentiform fork sign) on T2WI. Varied levels of restricted diffusion and a range of signal intensities on DWI were evident and were not correlated with serum Cr levels. All cortical lesions demonstrated high signal intensity on T2WI. Four patients with follow-up MR imaging after hemodialysis showed complete resolution of all lesions. CONCLUSIONS: The lentiform fork sign is reliable in the early diagnosis of uremic encephalopathy, regardless of the presence of metabolic acidosis. Cytotoxic edema and/or vasogenic edema on DWI/ADC maps may be associated with uremic encephalopathy.


INTRODUCTION
Most correctional facilities have implemented tobacco restrictions in an effort to reduce costs and improve prisoner health, but little has been done to evaluate the impact of these policy changes. Patterns of tobacco use among prisoners were explored to determine the impact of incarceration in a facility with an indoor smoking ban on tobacco use behaviors.

METHODS
Recently incarcerated male inmates (n = 200) were surveyed about their tobacco use prior to and during incarceration.

RESULTS
Tobacco use was prevalent prior to arrest (77.5%) and increased during incarceration (81.0%). Though the number of cigarette smokers increased during imprisonment, per-capita cigarette consumption declined by 7.1 cigarettes/day (p < .001). Despite widespread tobacco use, most participants recognized that smoking is a cause of lung cancer (96.0%) and heart disease (75.4%) and that it can be addicting (97.5%). Most tobacco users (70.0%) reported a desire to quit, with 63.0% saying they intended to try quitting in the next year.

CONCLUSIONS
Indoor smoking bans do not promote cessation in prisons but may reduce the amount of tobacco consumed. Though smoking is commonplace in prisons, most prisoners recognize the risks involved and wish to quit. This creates an ideal setting for intervention. Evidence-based cessation assistance should be made freely available to all incarcerated smokers.


Agricultural insurance is considered to be an effective to manage rural risks. Surprisingly, its adoption by farmers is very limited all over the world. An outstanding exception is the United States of America, country in which this instrument has achieved remarkable success. Nevertheless, the process of diffusion of agricultural insurance in the USA was slow and expensive. It has also required significant government intervention through a variety of complementary actions. In this context, countries willing to introduce this instrument among other agricultural policy tools, as it seems the case of Brazil, should proceed with caution. Agricultural insurance success has important pre-requisites and its general diffusion may amplify its problems. The analysis of the North American experience provides worthwhile lessons.


Background Multiple studies have shown that patients with hepatitis C show significant improvement in inflammatory grade and have reversal of fibrosis following hepatitis C therapy, particularly when a sustained virologic response (SVR) is attained. However, data on new direct acting antivirals (DAAs) in fibrosis regression are reported less frequently because of their recent introduction. Purpose The aims of this study were:(i) to investigate the effect of new DAAs on the evolution of liver fibrosis; and(ii) to examine what conditions can influence this. Material and methods A retrospective study was undertaken in all hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with SVR treated with the new DAAs from May 2015 to May 2016 with at least one measurement of hepatic fibrosis by FibroScan before and after treatment. Fibrosis stage was defined as mild (Metavir F0–F1) if stiffness ≤7.1 kPa; moderate (F2) if 7.2–9.4 kPa; severe (F3) if 9.5–14 kPa and cirrhosis (F4) if >14 kPa. Data were collected from medical records, which also stored sociodemographic characteristics, HCV genotype, baseline viral load, coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), pretreatment, HCV treatment, hepatic fibrosis and transaminases, bilirubin and platelet count before and after treatment. Results We obtained data from 22 patients (age 51.2±16.8 years, 19 (86.3%) men), genotype 3=2 (9.1%), HCV-HIV coinfected patients=51.9%, stage F3 8 (36%) and stage 4 12 (55%) patients. After treatment, in 14 (63.6%) patients liver fibrosis was partially reversed (median kPa pretreatment 17.1 vs 13.8 post-treatment); 77% of all HCV monoinfected patients and 53.8% of HCV-HIV coinfected but none of genotype 3. There was equal fibrosis regression in patients with mild to moderate fibrosis (F1/F2/F3) compared with those with advanced stage of fibrosis (F4). Moreover, all patients with improved fibrosis regression also had improved bilirubin and transaminase levels. There was no relation between platelet count and fibrosis regression. Conclusion It is likely that patients included here had a worse fibrosis stage at baseline. However, we can conclude that fibrosis regression in HCV patients can be reversed with the new DAAs, regardless of the stage but dependent on genotype. Moreover, patients with improved fibrosis regression also experience a decrease in transaminases. No conflict of interest


: The object of this work was to study the effect of freezing down to--196 degrees C at different cooling and warming rates on the survival of T3, T4 and phiX174 phages. Phage particles survived when T3 phage was frozen at a rate of 20-400 degrees/min and phiX174 phage at a rate of 20-45 degrees/min. The survival rate of T4 phage was highest when it was frozen at a rate of 45 degrees/min. The survival of the phages depended also on the regime of warming. The susceptibility of the phages to freezing correlated with their sensitivity to osmotic shock in NaCl and sucrose solutions.


ELITE PERCEPTIONS AND THE ADOPTION OF AN EXTREMIST POLICY OF GENOCIDE: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF ARMENIA AND RWANDA by Nicole Powell University of New Hampshire, September, 2006 The events leading up to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 are similar to the events that led to the genocide that occurred in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Economic and political crises plagued both states, international pressures to democratize weighed on both states, and both states were subject to ethnic polarization. This project examines those common factors preceding the Rwandan and Armenian genocides; and looks at elite's perception of a threat to their power because of the existence of those factors. Furthermore, the paper examines the relationship between the perception of a threat to elite power and the subsequent adoption of a genocidal policy. This comparative, most similar systems case study of the Rwandan and Armenian genocides provides a model that suggests a trajectory for the adoption of a genocidal policy. Recognizing precursory factors that are perceived to threaten elite's and lead them to adopt a radical policy of genocide may enable the prevention of the most horrific atrocity still afflicting the twenty-first century.


Epiphora (watering eye) is generally caused by insufficient drainage of tears. The most common cause of epiphora in adults is idiopathic inflammatory obstruction of the nasolacrimal duct. The traditional surgical treatment of nasolacrimal duct obstruction is an external dacryocystorhinostomy, which has an 85% to 95% success rate. To eliminate cutaneus wounds and scarring some techniques were introduced, for example the endonasal laser dacryocystorhinostomy and the nasolacrimal stent. The aim of this report was to evaluate the first case of nasolacrimal stent implantation in Brazil. The procedure was performed in the "Hospital das Clínicas" of the University of São Paulo - USP. A female patient with tearing of the right eye and secretion was submitted to a nasolacrimal stent implantation, with fluoroscopic guidance. The stent used in this procedure was the polyurethane Tearleader stent set. (Dr. Wilhelm type-PBN MEDICALS - Denmark). After 3 months, the patient started complaining of tearing, so the stent was removed and the patient was submitted to an external dacryocystorhinostomy. At present the patient does not have any symptoms or complaints. This procedure is less invasive and simple, causes no facial scars and avoids surgical trauma, but the long term success rates achieved using polyurethane nasolacrimal stents are low as compared with the external dacryocystorhinostomy. In addition, the patients usually complaint of tearing even having patent lacrimal system. In summary, long-term studies are needed to resolve some complications. Maybe a new stent design and new methods of unblocking the stent in situ would improve in the near future the levels of patency that currently are modest.


In Opinion 2/13 the Court of Justice of the European Union found that the draft agreement on the EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights was "liable adversely to affect the specific characteristics of EU law and its autonomy." The Court in recent years has applied the principle of autonomy – a concept first developed regarding the relationship between the EU and its Member States – to the EU's relationship with third states and international organizations. The EU's increased interaction with external actors raises questions regarding the effects this might have on the integrity and unity of EU law and the EU legal order. What exactly does the principle of autonomy entail in EU external relations law? This Working Paper examines the case-law in which the Court has applied the principle of autonomy and argues that the principle is a more broad and all-compassing structural principle than is often presented. The Court's focus is almost entirely on what might be called the negative dimension of autonomy; it is about ensuring that the EU legal order is protected from external threats. It is less concerned, however, with the positive dimension of autonomy, which entails providing the EU with the ability to act effectively as a distinct actor on the international stage.


Author(s): Druffel, Ellen | Abstract: For more than two decades, coral skeletons have been used to reconstruct records of isotopic and chemical ratios in surface seawater (for reviews, see Druffel, 1997a; Gagan et al., 2000). Here I demonstrate how high precision 14C records (±3) reveal information regarding regional mixing of surface and subsurface waters. Climatic variability on many time scales (e.g. El Nino, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and the North Atlantic Oscillation) are detected in the corals by small changes in Δ14C. Radiocarbon records in corals have also been used to reconstruct the input of fossil fuel CO2 into the subtropical and tropical regions of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.


This guide will point researchers to relevant collections and resources. If you have any questions or suggestions for additions to the guide, please contact Peggy Alexander


A series of thienyl-substituted methanofullerenes as electron acceptors for bulk-heterojuction solar cells with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were synthesized and characterized with respect to electrochemical and photophysical properties. The first one-electron reduction potentials of the higher adducts are shifted toward more negative values by ∼100 mV as compared to the monoadduct. As a result, the solar cells composed of the bisadduct (2) and trisadduct exhibit a larger open-circuit voltage (Voc) than the solar cell composed of P3HT and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), as they have higher LUMO energy levels. Photophysical studies on spin-coated films by femtosecond laser flash photolysis indicate that ultrafast electron transfer from the P3HT donor polymer to all of the fullerene derivatives occurs to form the bound radical pair (BRP) state. No decay of the BRP state of P3HT:thienyl-substituted monoadduct (1) films was observed in the time range of 3 ns. The AFM investigation on P3HT:1 and P3HT:higher adduct films after thermal annealing showed fine donor and acceptor domains and larger domains, respectively. The bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells based on P3HT:1 exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.97%, which is comparable with that of the P3HT:PCBM cell. The P3HT:2 based cell showed a PCE value of 1.72% with a higher open-circuit voltage of 0.72 V.


Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an endogenous gasotransmitter recognized as an essential body product with a dual, biphasic action. It can function as an antioxidant and a cytoprotective, but also as a poison with a high probability of causing brain damage when present at noxious levels. In a previous study, we measured toxic liquoral levels of H2S in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and in the familial ALS (fALS) mouse model, SOD1G93A. In addition, we experimentally demonstrated that H2S is extremely and selectively toxic to motor neurons, and that it is released by glial cells and increases Ca2+ concentration in motor neurons due to a lack of ATP. The presented study further examines the effect of toxic concentrations of H2S on embryonic mouse spinal-cord cultures. We performed a proteomic analysis that revealed a significant H2S-mediated activation of pathways related to oxidative stress and cell death, particularly the Nrf-2-mediated oxidative stress response and peroxiredoxins. Furthermore, we report that Na2S (a stable precursor of H2S) toxicity is, at least in part, reverted by the Bax inhibitor V5 and by necrostatin, a potent necroptosis inhibitor.


This thesis aims to explore the factors associated with attrition and completion for a New Zealand based community situated family violence intervention programme. It takes a mixed methods approach across two studies. Study one quantitatively investigated the attrition rate of the programme, and factors that predict this attrition. It used survival analysis techniques to analyse data files collected during the assessment phase of the programme. An attrition rate of 46% was identified, which is slightly higher than the average rate of attrition across family violence prevention programmes internationally. Ethnicity was the only variable found to predict attrition. Study two qualitatively explored the experiences of men who completed the intervention programme. Men were interviewed to provide insights into the facilitators and barriers to programme completion. Thematic analysis identified three themes of overcoming barriers to engagement and attendance; motivating factors for engagement; and the importance of active participation in facilitating healing. Aspects of the programme that could be strengthened to improve the engagement and attendance of future participants are discussed alongside the wider implications for family violence prevention practice and policy.


Evolving from parallel computing, cluster computing, grid computing, to nowadays cloud computing, the distributed computing paradigm has been shifting from parallelization, distribution, sharing, to be able to support full-scale collaboration between systems and people. This new computing paradigm can be called collaborative computing, composing of technologies and techniques to facilitate people, software, and hardware working together via computer-assisted means. A number of well-known technologies are contributing to the emergence of this new computing paradigm, including computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and groupware, software agents and multi-agent systems, web services and semantic web, social networks and ad-hoc networks. This collaborative computing paradigm and related technologies have seen wide applications in many areas. At the same time, it also offers a lot of research and development opportunities across a number of disciplines and has attracted a lot of attention of many researchers around the world. This Special Issue includes original research papers that report recent advances in collaborative computing technologies and applications.


Aim: Cervical carcinoma is still one of the leading causes of mortality in women worldwide despite the preventing programmes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the comparison of results of the cytology and histopathology in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and squamous cell carcinoma cases and to confirm the presence of HPV-HR and p16. materials and methods: We evaluated fifty one cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and squamous cell carcinoma cases with their cytology results. HPV-HR was assesed by silver insitu hybridization and p16 immunohistochemical expressions in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and squamous cell carcinoma cases. Results: The level of CIn showed a significant difference for cytological results. Cases with a cytological diagnosis of atypical squamous cells, cannot exclude high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion had more CIn II and CIn III diagnosis in their histological materials. Histopathological types showed statistically significant difference for HR-HPV levels. p16 positive staining was detected in 35% of CIn I, 93.3% of CIn II, 92.9% of CIn III, and 100% of squamous cell carcinoma cases. Conclusion: For the early diagnosis and treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia; HPV-HR which is assessed by silver in situ hybridization and expression of p16 immunohistochemistry and the cytological results are important and necessary.


A part of the innate immune system is the complement system. The complement system consists of three pathways which can be activated in different ways. It turned out that the complement system is of great importance in kidney diseases, and especially the alternative pathway plays a major role.
Currently there are two approved drugs on the market which can intervene with the complement system and show beneficial effects in certain diseases. These are the drugs eculizumab and C1 inhibitors. However, eculizumab is very expensive and like C1 inhibitors, not that effective in some diseases. Therefore, it is important to look at inhibition of the complement system in different levels, also to minimalize the side effects. Some studies have been done for other drugs on other levels then eculizumab and C1 inhibitors. One of these drugs is compastin, which interferes with the complement system at C3, which could possible cause many side effects. Another target which is studied now is properdin, which is a specific factor for the alternative pathway. This seems to be a promising target, because other pathways will stay intact and inhibition in vivo already showed some promising effects. Then, there are receptor antagonists. Discussed in this review is the C5a receptor antagonist CCX168, which will be tested in a clinical trial this year. And as last, polysaccharide glycosaminoglycans are mentioned as a future target, because they interfere a lot with the complement system and have shown some inhibiting effects. Overall, there are some promising studies for new drugs to intervene with the complement system. Besides that, new studies should mainly focus on specific inhibiting the complement system to prevent side effects as many as possible.


The present article analyzes the polysemy of the element ti in Kituba from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, by applying the framework of dynamic semantic maps and waves. The qualitative and quantitative corpus study, enhanced by evidence provided by Kituba native speakers, demonstrates the following: although ti spans most parts of the typological map of the polysemy of conjunctive coordinators, its center of prototypicality is located in the initial stage (comitative) and two intermediate stages (possessive and certain types of coordinate-hood) available along the grammaticalization pathway underlying the map. This suggests a semi-advanced grammaticalization profile for ti. The study also proposes certain changes in the typological map of the polysemy of conjunctive coordinators, postulating new components of the map (or grammaticalization stages), and alternative linking directions. Additionally, a possible manner of introducing quantitative data (related to prototypicality) to the qualitative map of polysemy is presented. The resulting model is argued to exhibit properties typical of complexity: structural intricacy, gradience, fuzziness, and multi-causality.


Shallow coastal marine ecosystems are exposed to intensive warming events in the last decade, threatening keystone macroalgal species such as the bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus, Phaeophyceae) in the Baltic Sea. Herein, we experimentally tested in four consecutive benthic mesocosm experiments, if the single and combined impact of elevated seawater temperature (Δ + 5°C) and pCO2 (1100 ppm) under natural irradiance conditions seasonally affected the photophysiological performance (i.e., oxygen production, in vivo chlorophyll a fluorescence, energy dissipation pathways and chlorophyll concentration) of Baltic Sea Fucus. Photosynthesis was highest in spring/early summer when water temperature and solar irradiance increases naturally, and was lowest in winter (December to January/February). Temperature had a stronger effect than pCO2 on photosynthetic performance of Fucus in all seasons. In contrast to the expectation that warmer winter conditions might be beneficial, elevated temperature conditions and sub-optimal low winter light conditions decreased photophysiological performance of Fucus. In summer, western Baltic Sea Fucus already lives close to its upper thermal tolerance limit and future warming of the Baltic Sea during summer may probably become deleterious for this species. However, our results indicate that over most of the year a combination of future ocean warming and increased pCO2 will have slightly positive effects for Fucus photophysiological performance.


To compose the experiment, 160 male Topgen pigs - 80 surgically castrated (treatment 1) and 80 immunocastrated (treatment 2) - were randomly selected from a commercial swine farm at the moment of slaughter. Surgical castration was performed when the animals were seven days of age and immunocastration was performed by administering two doses (2 mL each) of immunocastration vaccine (analogue of GnRF linked to a carrier protein, development of anti-GnRF antibodies, 200 mg of a GnRF-protein conjugate/mL) when they were 104 and 132 days of age. Animals from both treatments were maintained in masonry stalls, where they received water and ad libitum diet (the same feed for both groups). The animals were slaughtered at 160 days of age, and the length and width of the testicles of immunocastrated animals were evaluated, along with the degree and number of carcass lesions, carcass traits and meat quality of both treatments. The means of these measurements were calculated and compared by Student´s t-test. For the immunocastrated treatment, Pearson´s correlation coefficients were also calculated for testicle length and width with backfat thickness. Approximately 80% of the immunocastrated animals had testicle widths of 11 cm or less. Immunocastrated animals showed higher degrees of lesions, pH (initial and 8 hours), hue, muscle depth and loin eye area and lower brightness, redness, chroma and backfat thickness than the surgically castrated animals. The correlation between testicle length and width with backfat thickness was inverse. Immunocastration can be an alternative to improve the proportion of lean meat (longissimus thoracis) instead of fat (backfat thickness) leading to better carcass and meat quality, since fat has become undesirable from a nutritional point of view in swine.


The effect of 2 tillage practices (zero v. conventional), fertiliser application (nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc), and pulse–cereal rotation on changes in soil mineral nitrogen, plant-available water in the soil, grain yield and protein, and key soil fertility parameters (total nitrogen, organic carbon) in the Central Highlands of Queensland were examined between 1991 and 1998. Four pasture treatments (perennial legume, perennial grass, annual legume and legume–grass mixes) were included in January 1995, following previously unsuccessful attempts to grow lucerne and annual medics.

The experiment was conducted as an opportunity cropping system on an open downs soil at Gindie that is representative of a large proportion (70%) of soils in the Central Highlands. Tillage practice did not affect the amount of mineral nitrate or the plant-available water content of the soil at planting, except in 1991 and 1998 when plant-available water content was higher under conventional tillage than zero tillage. However, zero tillage improved grain yield in 2 of 4 years (wheat in 1992; sorghum in 1996), increased uptake of nitrogen in every crop and produced greater grain protein levels in both wheat crops grown than conventional tillage. There were grain responses to nitrogen + phosphorus fertilisers (wheat in 1991 and sorghum in 1997). Grain protein was increased with applications of nitrogen regardless of whether phosphorus was added in 3 of the 4 crops planted. Sowing a pulse did not significantly increase grain yields in the following crop although it did increase soil mineral nitrogen at planting. Soil nitrate remained low in control (P0N0) plots (<39 kg N/ha) when crops were planted each year but increased significantly (average 84 kg N/ha) following a long fallow of 3.5 years resulting from drought. Plant-available water content of the soil at sowing was lower where chickpeas had been grown the previous season than with wheat. Neither tillage practice nor fertiliser application affected soil organic carbon or soil total nitrogen concentrations in the topsoil. However, all pasture treatments improved soil total nitrogen compared with continuous cropping, and with the exception of annual pasture legumes, also improved soil organic carbon after only 2 seasons. Largest improvements in soil fertility (total nitrogen and organic carbon) occurred with perennial species.

It was concluded that zero tillage practices can have beneficial impacts on grain yields as well as minimising environmental degradation such as soil erosion in this region. However, if soil fertility levels are to be maintained, or improved, perennial pasture rotations will need to be used as current levels of fertiliser application or rotations with pulses had no significant beneficial effect.


Bidding evaluation is an important aspect in equipment procurement, and there are still some problems with the current bidding evaluation method being used. This paper presents a bidding evaluation method which combines the entropy-weight method and the ELECTRE method to create a new bidding evaluation model. Finally, the application of this bidding evaluation method in power equipment purchase is illustrated by using thermal power auxiliary equipment bidding procurement as an example.


ABSTRACT This Special Issue expands mobilities research through the idea of therapeutic mobilities, which consist of multiple movements of health-related things and beings, including, though not limited to, nurses, doctors, patients, narratives, information, gifts and pharmaceuticals. The therapeutic emerges from the encounters of mobile human and non-human, animate and inanimate subjects with places and environments and the individual components they are made of. We argue that an interaction of mobilities and health research offers essential benefits: First, it contributes to knowledge production in a field of tremendous social relevance, i.e. transnational health care. Second, it encourages researchers to think about and through functionally limited, ill, injured, mentally disturbed, unwell and hurting bodies. Third, it engages with the transformative character of mobilities at various scales. And fourth, it brings together different kinds of mobilities. The papers in this Special Issue contribute to three themes key for the therapeutic in mobilities: a) transformations (and stabilizations) of selves, bodies and positionalities, b) uneven im/mobilities and therapeutic inequalities and c) multiple and contingent im/mobilities. Therapeutic mobilities comprise practices and processes that are multi-layered and mutable; sometimes bizarre, sometimes ironic, often drastically uneven; sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful – and sometimes all of this at the same time.


Bone quality generally is felt to be an important consideration when planning total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This prospective study was conducted to see if bone quality, as assessed intraoperatively in 346 knees, affects the outcome of ingrowth TKA. Group A consisted of 272 knees with good or excellent bone quality in all areas and Group B consisted of 74 knees with fair or poor bone in at least one area. The average follow-up was 48 months, with 301 knees (87%) available for follow-up. Group A knees had more males, were heavier, had fewer patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and exhibited more varus. Preoperatively, Groups A and B had modified Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) knee scores that averaged 55 and 48, respectively. At 4 years post-surgery, Groups A and B had HSS scores of 92 and 90, respectively. Fluoroscopic radiographs of the bone-prosthesis interfaces showed 13% incomplete radiolucencies in Group A and 7% in Group B. A complete radiolucency was seen in one patient in Group A. Based on these results, it can be concluded that bone quality as determined by gross intraoperative inspection had little effect on the 4-year outcome of this ingrowth TKA.


This comprehensive study of farming methods and agrarian organization in Russia before the time of Peter the Great shifts the emphasis from the great estates to the basic production unit, the peasant family farms, and uses archaeological and enthnographic materials to supplement the documentary evidence. The methods of production and the farm implements used are described in detail and Professor Smith argues that features inherent in peasant farming account for Russian backwardness during this period. Part I classifies and describes the range of agrarian activities carried on in Muscovy - arable farming, hayfields, livestock, and gathering from the forest - and presents a model of a hypothetical farm unit; Part II examines three regions -Moscow, Toropets and Kazan - which stretch across central European Russia; and Part III provides a chapter on the relationship between peasant farming and the state.


In this paper, we propose a fully automated system to extend knowledge graphs using external information from web-scale corpora. The designed system leverages a deep-learning-based technology for relation extraction that can be trained by a distantly supervised approach. In addition, the system uses a deep learning approach for knowledge base completion by utilizing the global structure information of the induced KG to further refine the confidence of the newly discovered relations. The designed system does not require any effort for adaptation to new languages and domains as it does not use any hand-labeled data, NLP analytics, and inference rules. Our experiments, performed on a popular academic benchmark, demonstrate that the suggested system boosts the performance of relation extraction by a wide margin, reporting error reductions of 50%, resulting in relative improvement of up to 100%. Furthermore, a web-scale experiment conducted to extend DBPedia with knowledge from Common Crawl shows that our system is not only scalable but also does not require any adaptation cost, while yielding a substantial accuracy gain.


There is little doubt that virtual currencies are here to stay in one form or another, and as means of payment, they invite if not require regulation and standardization to avoid abuse. Stakeholders of virtual currency regulation are companies involved in the blockchain economy, both new entrants and those already controlling part of the market; governments regulating both economic activity and consumer protection; and consumers. The interests of those parties naturally conflict, and given governmental regulatory powers, it is understandable that, faced with the significant risks and difficulties in coming up with a comprehensive regulatory concept, governments take a precautionary stance of wait and see, while in some cases leaning towards a prohibition of virtual currencies. But if regulators could start, more modestly, by finding ways to monitor virtual currency transactions and reliably identify their counterparties, the problem of money laundering and terrorist finance would be considerably easier to resolve than if conspirators were openly using bank wires and accounts in their own names. The problem, then, is not that it is impossible to control decentralized virtual currencies, but that state actors lack tools to decipher digital currency networks and gain access to the full measure of information contained therein. That, however, is more a question of cryptography and general computer science than of alien decentralized structures where traditional surveillance methods, such as wiretapping, simply will no longer work.


On May 17, 2022, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) Laboratory Response Network (LRN) laboratory confirmed the presence of orthopoxvirus DNA via real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from lesion swabs obtained from a Massachusetts resident. Orthopoxviruses include Monkeypox virus, the causative agent of monkeypox. Subsequent real-time PCR testing at CDC on May 18 confirmed that the patient was infected with the West African clade of Monkeypox virus. Since then, confirmed cases* have been reported by nine states. In addition, 28 countries and territories,† none of which has endemic monkeypox, have reported laboratory-confirmed cases. On May 17, CDC, in coordination with state and local jurisdictions, initiated an emergency response to identify, monitor, and investigate additional monkeypox cases in the United States. This response has included releasing a Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory, developing interim public health and clinical recommendations, releasing guidance for LRN testing, hosting clinician and public health partner outreach calls, disseminating health communication messages to the public, developing protocols for use and release of medical countermeasures, and facilitating delivery of vaccine postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) and antivirals that have been stockpiled by the U.S. government for preparedness and response purposes. On May 19, a call center was established to provide guidance to states for the evaluation of possible cases of monkeypox, including recommendations for clinical diagnosis and orthopoxvirus testing. The call center also gathers information about possible cases to identify interjurisdictional linkages. As of May 31, this investigation has identified 17§ cases in the United States; most cases (16) were diagnosed in persons who identify as gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men (MSM). Ongoing investigation suggests person-to-person community transmission, and CDC urges health departments, clinicians, and the public to remain vigilant, institute appropriate infection prevention and control measures, and notify public health authorities of suspected cases to reduce disease spread. Public health authorities are identifying cases and conducting investigations to determine possible sources and prevent further spread. This activity was reviewed by CDC and conducted consistent with applicable federal law and CDC policy.¶.


Introduction The Distress Thermometer (DT) as a brief holistic screening and assessment tool has been introduced, validated and widely adopted within Oncology Services and cancer networks internationally. Supportive and palliative care guidance recommends the use of a screening tool to identify and signpost appropriate services. Aim To modify the existing distress thermometer to fit hospice and palliative care needs, and pilot within specialist community palliative care services. Method A working party of individuals providing nursing, emotional, psychological and spiritual support within the specialist palliative care service formed to amend the DT to fit the needs of community palliative patients. The tool was piloted by two community clinical nurse specialists (CCNS) and qualitative information collated regarding the tools appropriateness. Furthermore both qualitative patient and nurse experience was considered. Patient demographic and illness information was gathered as a possible variable influencing appropriateness of use. Finally DT training was delivered to all hospice inpatient health professionals and evaluations collected regarding the appropriateness of the DT's use with new inpatient admissions. Results Of the 63 new referrals to two CCNS, 21 completed the tool. No age / malignant versus Non-malignant difference in those able/willing to complete the tool were identified. Qualitative experiential information supported the use of the tool within the community setting. Difficulties with usability were identified from both perspectives. Training evaluations were favourable with inpatient staff recommending the DT's use as part of the hospice admission process. Discussion There are relative benefits and drawbacks of adopting this tool from both patient and nurse perspectives. However, the modified DT appeared to meet service needs. The training format and evaluations will be discussed in detail. Conclusion Both pilot and training feedback supports the use of the DT within this palliative care service.


The citrus industry is very important to Jamaica's economy in terms of employment, exports and local consumption, with an estimated value of J$4 billion. Local citrus production has declined significantly over the last six years spurred by the effects of the Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), adverse weather conditions, poor management, ageing farmers and declining acreages, raising concerns of the negative impact of the decline on food security and the local economy. Since October 2009, the industry has faced a new threat when the presence of the Citrus Huanglongbing (HLB) or Greening Disease was confirmed. An island-wide survey in February 2010 revealed that HLB was present in all major citrus producing areas with the exception of the parish of Manchester. Further spread of the pathogen (Liberibacter asiaticus) is expected given the island wide distribution and abundance of the vector, the citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Kuwayama). In addition, Murrayapaniculata (L) Jack, a known host plant for the psyllid and recently reported a host for the HLB, is also extensively planted in the Jamaican landscape. The Government of Jamaica approached the FAO for technical support, as a result of which the two-year Project TCP/JAM/3302 "Assistance to manage Citrus Greening in Jamaica" was approved in October 2010. The Project aims to support the national effort to effectively manage the HLB, particularly in the small farms, through coordinated protection, mitigation and resuscitation strategies, resulting in sustained productivity of orchards. This is underpinned by a multi-pronged approach with five diverse components: Development of (1) an area-wide strategy for HLB management, (2) physical infrastructure, (3) capacity to produce disease-free nursery material, (4) diagnostic and detection capability, and (5) a public education and awareness campaign. Activities under project began in November 2010 and progress to date is presented in this paper. HLB has serious implications for the citrus industry in the Caribbean. The management strategies developed under the FAO Project in Jamaica will provide a model that other countries in the region can follow in the event that their citrus becomes infected by the HLB.


IA-2 (islet cell Ag 512) and IA-2 beta (phogrin/IAR) are related autoantigens associated with type 1 diabetes. To determine the critical regions for autoantibody binding and which of these autoantigens is the primary target, mutant and chimeric constructs were used to characterize Ab epitope binding in sera from 217 new onset patients with type 1 diabetes and sequential samples from 141 islet cell Ab positive first degree relatives of patients. All 22 relatives and 121 of 129 patients with IA-2/IA-2 beta Abs had reactivity to IA-2-specific epitopes. These epitopes were in the juxtamembrane region (residues 601-682) and the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP)-like domain of IA-2. Chimeras showed that IA-2 residues 795-889 were important for IA-2-specific Ab binding in the PTP-like domain, and mutation of IA-2 residues 877 and 911, previously indicated as relevant for phosphatase activity, also reduced Ab binding. In contrast, Ab binding to IA-2 beta was limited to its PTP-like domain, most IA-2 beta Abs recognized epitopes shared with IA-2, and only 20 patients and 2 relatives had Abs to IA-2 beta-specific epitopes. In 4 relatives, IA-2 and/or IA-2 beta Abs developed in follow-up samples. In each of these, Abs to IA-2-specific epitopes were the first detected. In three, spreading to epitopes shared between IA-2 and IA-2 beta in subsequent samples was seen. In the 17 relatives who developed type 1 diabetes, progression to disease was associated with reactivity to multiple IA-2/IA-2 beta epitopes. These data suggest that IA-2 is the primary phosphatase-like autoantigen associated with type 1 diabetes and that studying autoantibody epitope diversity may assist in disease prediction.


Hippocampus plays important roles in episodic memory formation, learning and spatial navigation. In rodents, hippocampal theta and gamma rhythms become prominent during locomotion and disappear during immobility. Many studies have been done to understand their functional roles. However, how these rhythms transit between mobile and immobile states is largely unknown. The most intuitive way to address this problem is to look at their dynamics as a function of the running speed of the animal. This thesis is focused on the speed dependence of theta and gamma rhythm as well as their coupling. In chapter 2, I showed that hippocampal gamma rhythm can be further divided into two subbands whose amplitudes are differentially correlated with the running speed. This speed dependence of gamma amplitude was restricted to a narrow range of theta phases. The preferred theta phase for slow gamma showed a precession with speed while the preferred theta phase for fast gamma remains unchanged. These results demonstrate a novel influence of speed on the amplitude and timing of the hippocampal gamma rhythm which could contribute to learning of temporal sequences and navigation. In chapter 3, I found that LFP-theta modulation of spikes (TMoS) is the largest during immobility when theta is weak and irregular. This can be explained by the fact that the hippocampal gamma oscillations become stronger with running speed and take over the control of spike-timing while reducing theta modulation through transient phase-phase coupling. This transition leads to improved precision of spike timing within theta cycle at high speeds which could facilitate precise spike-timing based neural computations and learning. Finally, in chapter 4, I am trying to explain these novel speed dependence of theta and gamma as well as theta-gamma coupling. The simulation results suggest that there could be just one parameter that speed modulates in order to generate all these results. This hypothesis, although needs to be confirmed by the experiments, provides a really profound possibility on how the running speed of the animal may influence the neural oscillations and thus control the neural activities.


The standard bilinear interpolation on normal maps results in visual artifacts along sharp features, which are common for surfaces with creases, wrinkles, and dents. In many cases, spatially varying features, like the normals near discontinuity curves, are best represented as functions of the distance to the curve and the position along the curve. For high-quality interactive rendering at arbitrary magnifications, one needs to interpolate the distance field preserving discontinuity curves exactly.
 We present a real-time, GPU-based method for distance function and distance gradient interpolation which preserves discontinuity feature curves. The feature curves are represented by a set of quadratic Bezier curves, with minimal restrictions on their intersections. We demonstrate how this technique can be used for real-time rendering of complex feature patterns and blending normal maps with procedurally defined profiles near normal discontinuities.


This book is a guide to the process and experience of complaints panels in social care, in
work both with adults and with children and young people. Whilst underpinned by the
legal requirements for setting up a panel, it:
� offers further information on how panels should be run
� suggests how to avoid potential problems
� gives advice on achieving 'best practice'.
The book aims to enhance the development of panels.
The book covers all aspects of the panel procedure, from the setting up of a panel
through to the panel recommendations being referred to the director for his decision. The
chapters include a summary of key issues, which will be of assistance in overcoming
problems which may be encountered in the panel process.
During the empirical research which formed the basis of this book, it became evident
that many local authority complaints managers were not aware of how other authorities
were conducting panels and that, beyond the legislation and Department of Health
guidance, there was no up-to-date guide to assist them in reviewing their procedure. This
book offers an opportunity for all readers to learn from the experiences of other local
authorities. It identifies potential pitfalls and demonstrates good practice in complaints
handling.


SYNOPSIS: The rising cost of healthcare is a globally pressing concern. This makes detailed attention to the way in which costing is carried out of central importance. This article offers a framework for considering the interdependencies between a dominant element of the contemporary healthcare context, i.e., Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) systems, and costing practices. DRG-based payment systems strongly influence costing practices in multiple ways. In particular, setting DRG tariffs requires highly standardized costing practices linked with specific skill sets from management accountants and brings other jurisdictions (e.g., clinical coding) to bear on costing practice. These factors contribute to the fragmentation of the jurisdiction of management accounting.


A melt blending process was employed to prepare nano-composites based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT). The content of MWNT filled in TPU was increased till 40phr (parts per hundreds of rubber). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) showed that the unmodified MWNT were dispersed uniformly in the TPU matrix beyond expectation. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) test demonstrated that the nano-composites possessed greatly increased modulus, and the flowing temperature moved to higher temperature with increasing MWNT content. Moreover, the nano-composites exhibited improved wear resistance, evidently increased thermal conductivity, and prominently raised electrical conductivity that might mean the TPU/MWNT nano-composites have potential application as multi-functional materials.


Weighted search is an essential component of many fundamental and useful algorithms. Despite this, it is relatively under explored as a computational effect, receiving not nearly as much attention as either depth- or breadth-first search. This paper explores the algebraic underpinning of weighted search, and demonstrates how to implement it as a monad transformer. The development first explores breadth-first search, which can be expressed as a polynomial over semirings. These polynomials are generalised to the free semimodule monad to capture a wide range of applications, including probability monads, polynomial monads, and monads for weighted search. Finally, a monad transformer based on the free semimodule monad is introduced. Applying optimisations to this type yields an implementation of pairing heaps, which is then used to implement Dijkstra's algorithm and efficient probabilistic sampling. The construction is formalised in Cubical Agda and implemented in Haskell.


Here, we review the basic concepts and applications of the phase-field-crystal (PFC) method, which is one of the latest simulation methodologies in materials science for problems, where atomic- and microscales are tightly coupled. The PFC method operates on atomic length and diffusive time scales, and thus constitutes a computationally efficient alternative to molecular simulation methods. Its intense development in materials science started fairly recently following the work by Elder et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002), p. 245701]. Since these initial studies, dynamical density functional theory and thermodynamic concepts have been linked to the PFC approach to serve as further theoretical fundamentals for the latter. In this review, we summarize these methodological development steps as well as the most important applications of the PFC method with a special focus on the interaction of development steps taken in hard and soft matter physics, respectively. Doing so, we hope to present today's state of the art in PFC modelling as well as the potential, which might still arise from this method in physics and materials science in the nearby future.


Based on a distributed method of bit-error-rate (BER) monitoring, a novel multi-link faults restoration algorithm is proposed for dynamic optical networks. The concept of fuzzy fault set (FFS) is first introduced for multi-link faults localization, which includes all possible optical equipment or fiber links with a membership describing the possibility of faults. Such a set is characterized by a membership function which assigns each object a grade of membership ranging from zero to one. OSPF protocol extension is designed for the BER information flooding in the network. The BER information can be correlated to link faults through FFS. Based on the BER information and FFS, multi-link faults localization mechanism and restoration algorithm are implemented and experimentally demonstrated on a GMPLS enabled optical network testbed with 40 wavelengths in each fiber link. Experimental results show that the novel localization mechanism has better performance compared with the extended limited perimeter vector matching (LVM) protocol and the restoration algorithm can improve the restoration success rate under multi-link faults scenario.


The Holocaust was perpetrated by the Nazis as a means of eliminating the Jews from the planet. It was an unprecedented event in history, inasmuch as a nation state had never before targeted an entire people for extinction. Yet, more than half a century later, there is a tendency to forget, if not to relativize, the Nazi extermination campaign against the Jews. More insidiously, a vicious effort is being made in limited circles to deny the Holocaust. The Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust is another reminder of what happened to the Jews and other victims of Nazi Germany's genocidal policies. In the years since the publication of the first edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust a significant amount of scholarship has been published. The second edition expands upon the first with an updated chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant events, personalities, issues, and films and literature-because much of the public derive their understanding of the Holocaust from the arts. Libraries will find this book to be an indispensable research tool.


Accurate simulation of free-surface wave flow s around a ship is very important for better hull-form design. In this paper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, termed SNUFOAM, which is based on the open source libraries, OpenFOAM, was developed to predict the wave patterns around a ship. Additional anti-diffusion source term for minimizing a numerical diffusion, which was caused by convection differencing scheme and temporal discretization, was considered in the volume-fraction transport equation. The influence of the anti-diffusion source term was tested by applying it to free-surface wave flow around the Wigley and KCS. For the Wigley case, the band width of the volume fraction contours between 0.1 to 0.9 at the hull surface was narrowed by considering the anti-diffusion term. In the KCS case, a non-physical wave profile at the hull surface was generated by considering the anti-diffusion term due to the highly skewed meshes around the stern of the KCS.