Abstract. The relationship between modern pollen-rain taxa and measured climate variables was explored along the elevational gradient of the southern slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Pollen assemblages in 28 pollen traps positioned on 14 montane forest vegetation plots were identified and their relationship with climate variables was examined using multivariate statistical methods. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that the mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and minimum temperature each account for significant fractions of the variation in pollen taxa. A training set of 107 modern pollen taxa was used to derive temperature and precipitation transfer functions based on pollen subsets using weighted-averaging-partial-least-squares (WA-PLS) techniques. The transfer functions were then applied to a fossil pollen record from the montane forest of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the climate parameter estimates for the Late Glacial and the Holocene on Mt. Kilimanjaro were inferred. Our results present the first quantitatively reconstructed temperature and precipitation estimates for Mt Kilimanjaro and give highly interesting insights into the past 45 000 yr of climate dynamics in tropical East Africa. The climate reconstructions are consistent with the interpretation of pollen data in terms of vegetation and climate history of afro-montane forest in East Africa. Minimum temperatures above the frostline as well as increased precipitation turn out to be crucial for the development and expansion of montane forest during the Holocene. In contrast, consistently low minimum temperatures as well as about 25% drier climate conditions prevailed during the pre LGM, which kept the montane vegetation composition in a stable state. In prospective studies, the quantitative climate reconstruction will be improved by additional modern pollen rain data, especially from lower elevations with submontane dry forests and colline savanna vegetation in order to extend the reference climate gradient.


Three female patients, 39, 39 and 46 years old, had recurrent, non-puerperal, subareolar abscesses caused by obstructed and dilated lactiferous ducts and resulting in paramamillary fistulas. Further recurrence was stopped by surgery. Based on the pathogenesis, surgery is the recommended treatment for this chronic ailment, i.e. fistulectomy using a radial incision through the centre of the nipple and excising the pathological nipple-areolar complex. Only the nipple is reconstructed, leaving the remainder of the wound open for healing by secondary intention and thus preventing recurrence.


OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk of cervical precancer and cancer associated with detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) 6, 11, and 42. METHODS: We used data from the New Mexico Human Papillomavirus Pap Registry. A stratified sample of 59,644 residual cervical cytology specimens from a population of 379,000 underwent HPV genotyping. We measured the 3-year cumulative incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or more severe (CIN 2+) and grade 3 or more severe (CIN 3+) after detection of single HPV 6, 11, or 42 infections or single or multiple infections of HPV 6, 11, or 42 ("HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations"; n=581). RESULTS: The overall prevalence of a single infection of HPV 6, 11, or 42 was 0.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.7–0.9%). The 3-year risks of CIN 2+ and CIN 3+ after HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations infections (n=581) were 0.4% (CI 0.1–0.7%) for CIN 2+ and 0.0% for CIN 3+ (nota bene, no CI was calculable because no events occurred), respectively. By comparison, the 3-year risks of CIN 2+ and CIN 3+ after a negative HPV result (n=27,522) were 0.2% (95% CI 0.1–0.2%) and 0.1% (95% CI 0.0–0.1%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Detection of HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations in the absence of high-risk HPV types does not identify women at increased 3-year risk for cervical precancer. Testing for HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations of those types should be discontinued because it has no proven benefit to patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II


Abstract Tillling, (2002) examines the history of the industrial revolution, seeking to parallel developments during the Industrial Revolution with those in our own time—sometimes referred to as the "information revolution". He uses history in this context as a source of understanding of the present times, and the focus of his analysis is the university as a social institution. Taking Tilling's work as a starting point, this paper considers the role of universities during times of change, considering especially the link between wider social, economic and political change, and resistance to change in the university. The ideological hegemony of the prevailing political and economic order, and, in revolutionary times, of the pre-existing order, is seen to be significant in shaping university responses to social and political change. The university as an institution is shown to have been, throughout history, a tool of the dominant hegemony and contemporary change in universities is, in this sense, a repeat of history. As the dominant politico-economic capitalist mode of economic rationalism is imposed on and in universities, with business and corporate interests coming to dominate the agenda both within and without universities, the institution and its constituents face a choice of falling into line (again) or taking up the struggle for the ideal university, with a progressive and critical social and political role. For academics who organically belong to, and identify with, a range of oppositional movements that strive for a better society, informed action in the present can contribute to the formation of a historical bloc that develops a counterhegemonic position to challenge the prevailing order.


A review is presented of publications dealing with analysis of species richness of island biological communities and habitat islands based on the equilibrium theory of insular biogeography by MacArthur and Wilson (1963). Principal points of the theory are considered along with its shortcomings, problems and results of its testing. Also, possibilities are appraised for using recommendations elaborated on the base of the theory in nature conservation practice. The results of island and habitat island biota studies indicate that in many cases data corroborate the equilibrium theory while in many other cases they do not. In particular, for cenoses fragmented 50-250 years ago, especially for the ones formed by long living species, there have been no conspicuous effects of species relaxation detected. At that, the theory prediction of substantial reduction in species richness of fragmented communities in the long run is hardly disputed. The results of studies conducted in the field of insular biogeography are taken as a basis for recommendations on the long-term conservation of isolated communities integrity, although mostly they are of qualitative nature.


ABSTRACT Purpose: Encountering patients with chest pain is common for Registered Nurses (RNs) in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) who are responsible for the patient's medical and nursing care . From a lifeworld perspective, bodily illness is related to existential suffering, requiring knowledge to asses the situation from a holistic perspective . The aim of this study is to describe the caring approach when RNs encounter patients with chest pain. Methods: A phenomenological methodology to capture RNs' lived experiences was chosen. Seven qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted at three ambulance stations in Sweden. Results: The essence of the caring approach while encountering patients with chest pain comprises two constituents; "trust based on confidence and competence" and "the collegial striving towards the best possible care". Trust is two-parted; trust in oneself, and striving towards gaining the patient's trust . Competence and experience when combined, develop into confidence especially in stressful situations. The caring approach is nurtured in a well-functioning collegial team. Conclusions: This study contributes to understanding the caring approach based on the specific patient's lifeworld in holistic EMS care. By trusting oneself, the patient, and one's colleague, RNs in EMS shift focus from medical-orientated care to a holistic lifeworld caring approach. More research is needed on trust as a phenomenon in EMS, both from caregivers' and patients' perspectives.


Two formalisms used in index profile reconstructions are compared. We develop a novel formulation of the WKB inverse method and show that this method is not sufficient to recover the entire index profile in ion-implanted waveguides. A reflectivity calculation involving a matrix formalism solves the problem. The index profile parameters are adjusted to fit experimental mode indices. With this formalism, the reconstruction of the entire index profile is achieved. An application is shown in a BaTiO3 sample.


Unsupervised word representation learning from large corpora is badly needed for downstream tasks such as text classification, information retrieval, and machine translation. The representation precision of the fastText language models is mostly due to their use of subword information. In previous work, the optimization of fastText subword sizes has been largely neglected, and non-English fastText language models were trained using subword sizes optimized for English and German. In our work, we train English, German, Czech, and Italian fastText language models on Wikipedia, and we optimize the subword sizes on the English, German, Czech, and Italian word analogy tasks. We show that the optimization of subword sizes results in a 5% improvement on the Czech word analogy task. We also show that computationally expensive hyperparameter optimization can be replaced with cheap n-gram frequency analysis: subword sizes that are the closest to covering 3.76% of all unique subwords in a language are shown to be the optimal fastText hyperparameters on the English, German, Czech, and Italian word analogy tasks.


The ageing of the population and improved survival following acute cardiac events have led to an increased prevalence of heart failure (HF), especially in the elderly. Establishing the presence of HF based only on signs and symptoms is often inaccurate. Additional investigations (e.g. echocardiography) are recommended but may be difficult in patients with a wide range of comorbidity and in a setting without direct access to echocardiography, such as in geriatric practice or primary care. The main focus of this thesis is to optimize the diagnostic management of geriatric patients suspected of HF. In addition, the prognosis and evidence-base for drug treatment of geriatric patients with established HF is studied. The pivotal study population consisted of 206 patients (mean age 82 years, 70% women) referred to the geriatric outpatient clinic for a variety of reasons who presented with symptoms of breathlessness, fatigue, or ankle swelling. All participants underwent a diagnostic work-up including clinical history, physical examination, electrocardiography, chest X-ray, laboratory tests (including N-terminal pro B-type Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP) levels), and echocardiography. In case of HF, patients were treated according to the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). An expert panel consisting of a cardiologist, general practitioner, pulmonologist and geriatrician determined the presence of HF applying the diagnostic criteria for HF of the ESC, using all available diagnostic information, as well as 6-months follow-up data. Heart failure was present in 94 of 206 participants (46%). In our geriatric cohort loss of appetite, lower body mass index and absence of wheezing were independently associated with the presence of HF, as were age, male gender and nocturnal dyspnoea. Of all additional diagnostic tests (excluding echocardiography) NT-proBNP had the most profound effect on the c-statistic. With these variables we developed a diagnostic rule that accurately predicts the presence or absence of HF (negative predictive value 0.89; positive predictive value 0.88), in 84% of the patients. Half of the geriatric outpatients with HF died within three years. Comorbidity summarized in the Charlson Comorbidity Index, was the strongest predictor of mortality, independent of the severity of HF. The evidence supporting the use of cornerstone drugs (diuretics, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta-blockers and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists) in elderly HF patients is scarce as we determined in a systemic review. The mean age of participants of randomised controlled trials of these drugs was in the order of 65 years. Concluding, in almost half of geriatric patients suspected of new, slow onset HF, HF is actually present. The presentation of HF in this group is often atypical (e.g. loss of appetite and weight loss). The diagnostic algorithm developed in this thesis, based on findings from history taking, physical examination and levels of NT-proBNP, accurately establishes the presence or absence of HF in the majority of geriatric patients suspected of HF with only 15% of patients needing additional investigations (i.e. echocardiography). The prognosis of geriatric patients with HF is mainly driven by comorbidity. Given the paucity of evidence based data to guide drug therapy in elderly patients with HF, future research should especially focus on this growing group of patients.


Benthic habitat maps of the nearshore marine environment of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands were created by visual interpretation of remotely sensed imagery. The objective of this effort, conducted by NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment - Biogeography Branch in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), was to provide spatially-explicit information on the habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover of St. John's coral reef ecosystem. The data described herein represent accuracy assessment (AA) sites explored by NOAA field scientists to evaluate the thematic accuracy of the benthic habitat maps of St. John. Considering vessel drift during habitat characterization, the entire evaluation period was most accurately represented by a series of GPS points logged at five-second intervals.


Implicit Processes (IPs) represent a flexible framework that can be used to describe a wide variety of models, from Bayesian neural networks, neural samplers and data generators to many others. IPs also allow for approximate inference in function-space. This change of formulation solves intrinsic degenerate problems of parameter-space approximate inference concerning the high number of parameters and their strong dependencies in large models. For this, previous works in the literature have attempted to employ IPs both to set up the prior and to approximate the resulting posterior. However, this has proven to be a challenging task. Existing methods that can tune the prior IP result in a Gaussian predictive distribution, which fails to capture important data patterns. By contrast, methods producing flexible predictive distributions by using another IP to approximate the posterior process cannot tune the prior IP to the observed data. We propose here the first method that can accomplish both goals. For this, we rely on an inducing-point representation of the prior IP, as often done in the context of sparse Gaussian processes. The result is a scalable method for approximate inference with IPs that can tune the prior IP parameters to the data, and that provides accurate non-Gaussian predictive distributions.


This Article seeks to shed light on the nature, purpose and prospects of ESG investing. Along the way, it develops an explanation for why so-called "ESG" or Environmental, Social and Governance principles suddenly have emerged to dominate the corporate governance and investing landscape. Clearly, the real and existential threat of climate change has galvanized the investing public into taking some sort of action. As such, I argue that the ESG movement reflects a significant libertarian turn in the history of American politics. This is because one naturally would think that government rather than the private sector would be the place to look for solutions to broad societal problems like social injustice and protecting the environment. The emergence of ESG investing and governance demonstrates a consensus that government lacks credibility and is not viewed by rational citizens as a likely source of solutions to these broad problems. In simple terms, government unresponsiveness and ineptitude have created a vacuum, and the ESG movement reflects a broad shift from primary reliance on government to primary reliance on the private sector as the source of solutions to broad social problems. Thus, ESG investing and governance can be explained, at least in part, as a response to the failure of government. People are turning to corporations for solutions to problems that are in the proper domain of government because government has failed. This explains the "E" and the "S" in ESG. But it does not explain the "G" or governance component. Besides lack of faith in government, the emergence of ESG is attributable to the fact that the ESG movement focuses intensely on allowing management to govern for the "long term," and this serves the private interests of important political groups such as organized labor and corporate management because it takes pressure off of management to focus on profit maximization or on objective criteria such as share prices for evaluating managerial performance. In addition, ESG governance is a new form of antitakeover device and a convenient tool for enabling ineffective management to escape accountability. Thus the recent success of the ESG movement is attributable to the confluence of the private interests of management with a secular loss of confidence in the ability of government even to address, much less to solve, the important environmental and social problems of the day. This loss of confidence has played conveniently into the hands of corporate managers who wish to avoid accountability. While the ESG movement has found success in attracting investors, I argue that it will not be successful in ameliorating the fundamental problems of global warming and income inequality that it purports to address. In fact, much, if not most of ESG investing is "cheap talk" in light of three fundamental realities: (a) corporate managers are overwhelmingly compensated by bonuses, stock and stock options, all of which are forms of compensation that reward strong shareholder performance rather than the achievement of ESG objectives; (b) activist investors, particularly activist hedge funds and other elements of the market for corporate control post an existential threat to managers who ignore the shareholder wealth maximization paradigm; and (c) corporations are run by or under the direction of their boards of directors, who are elected exclusively by shareholders.


Noisy genes flush HIV out of hiding HIV can hide in the body, making it hard to kill with drugs. Increasing variation or "noise" in the virus's gene expression turns out to be an effective strategy for reactivating latent HIV. Once reawakened, the virus is more sensitive to antiviral drugs. Dar et al. screened for agents that increased variation in the expression of HIV genes. In a model system with HIV-infected human cells, the noise enhancers worked with existing compounds used to reactivate latent HIV and helped eradicate the virus. Science, this issue p. 1392 Turning up the noise in HIV gene expression can help HIV drugs be more effective. Stochastic fluctuations are inherent to gene expression and can drive cell-fate specification. We used such fluctuations to modulate reactivation of HIV from latency—a quiescent state that is a major barrier to an HIV cure. By screening a diverse library of bioactive small molecules, we identified more than 80 compounds that modulated HIV gene–expression fluctuations (i.e., "noise"), without changing mean expression. These noise-modulating compounds would be neglected in conventional screens, and yet, they synergized with conventional transcriptional activators. Noise enhancers reactivated latent cells significantly better than existing best-in-class reactivation drug combinations (and with reduced off-target cytotoxicity), whereas noise suppressors stabilized latency. Noise-modulating chemicals may provide novel probes for the physiological consequences of noise and an unexplored axis for drug discovery, allowing enhanced control over diverse cell-fate decisions.


Coating quality and electroplating efficiency can be improved by application of ultrasonic agitation. The nickel coatings and electroplated diamond tools were fabricated. The effects of ultrasonic agitation on tool fabrication processes were analyzed. Cathode polarization curves and coating hardness were measured. Diamond grains on tool substrate were observed with microscope. Alumina grinding experiments were carried out and grinding ratios were calculated. Experimental results show that cathode polarization degree reduced during ultrasonic electroplating processes. Before diamond grain tack-on operation, ultrasonic agitation can make grain dense and guarantee nice contact between substrate and grains. High grain density of diamond tool can be obtained in tack-on operation after above ultrasonic agitation operation. Ultrasonic agitation is not suitable for the tack-on operation of diamond grains. During buildup processes, some buildup time is needed to obtain enough thickness of nickel coating before ultrasonic agitation is applied. The diamond tools fabricated with ultrasonic agitation present better cutting ability. During tool fabricating processes, the reasonable application of ultrasonic agitation is necessary.


Posttraumatic responses of veterans have an adverse impact on the family unit. These impacts include a variety of psychiatric, emotional, and behavioral problems in the veteran's partner and children. Despite the increased attention given today to the central role of the family in the aftermath of trauma, studies in families of non-Western minority servicemen almost do not exist. The current study examined the associations between veterans' posttraumatic symptoms and familial distress in an ethnic minority sample of 112 families of Bedouin members of the Israeli Defense Forces. Specifically, we have studied the relationship between the men's posttraumatic symptoms, wife's psychological symptoms, and maternal reports about children's wellbeing. Results showed that while fathers' posttraumatic symptoms were related to their wives' psychological distress, they were not related to maternal reports about children's problems. However, mothers with higher levels of depression and anxiety tended to report more emotional and behavioral problems of their children. This study sheds light on the various trajectories by which military trauma affects different family members in a traditional, non-clinical population, and emphasizes the need to address trauma from a systemic perspective that goes beyond the individualistic approach to posttraumatic stress disorder.


There is a long and distinguished history of research on communication and other types of social networks. Some trace the intellectual foundations of this tradition to the work of John Stuart Mills and Herbert Spencer in the 19th century (Mattelart, 2000/1996), and others to the pioneering empirical work of Jacob Moreno in the early 20th century (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Much has been learned about a wide variety of social networks, such as the use of mobile telephones in rural Africa (Castells et al., 2007), the spread of sexually transmitted disease among high school students (Bearman et al., 2004), and the development of transactive memories in work teams (Palazzolo et al., 2006), to name just a few. Interestingly, almost all of the published research has explored a single set of objects and a single set of relational links that connect them. In network parlance, these are called unidimensional networks, or equivalently, unimodal, uniplex networks. And yet, multiple types of objects can be tied together into a single network, such as a set of people (one type of object) who attend a number of different social events (a different type of object) (Davis et al., 1941). Likewise, the same set of objects can have multiple relations as reflected in the differences between formal (authority) and informal (social) communication relations that are typical in organizational networks (Krackhardt & Hanson, 1993). The "multiple types of objects network with single relations" model is called a multimodal, uniplex network, and the "single set of objects with multiple relations" model is called a unimodal, multiplex network. Both would be considered to be partial multidimensional networks because they contain only multiple sets of objects or multiple sets of nodes, but not both. Of course, it is possible to construct multidimensional networks that have two or more relations defined on two or more different types of objects, that is, partial multidimensional


The market for structured products has grown dramatically in the past decade. Their diversity and complexity have led to the development of many different valuation approaches, and it is not always clear which approach to use to value a given product. In this article the authors discuss four approaches to valuing structured products: simulation of the linked financial instrument's future values, numerical integration, decomposition, and partial differential equation approaches. As an example, the authors use all four approaches to value a common type of structured product, and discuss the virtues and pitfalls of each.


This paper explores the role of counties in the deployment of high-speed internet ("broadband") networks in the United States. Counties play crucial roles in local governance, but have been absent from discussions of broadband policy, planning and deployment by both lawmakers and scholars. Rectifying this, this paper reports the results of a survey of counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Using thematic coding analysis, themes from our survey include (1) mapping and the ongoing issue of identifying un- and under-connected areas; (2) funding and the use of public money; (3) strategic partnerships with electric cooperatives, investor-owned ISPs, and other counties and (4) urban bias. Based on these themes, we argue that countries play three crucial, but heretofore neglected, roles in broadband deployment: funder, partner, and mobilizer. Moreover, we argue that counties are eager for greater responsibility and authority over deployment. This paper concludes with recommendations for how Virginia can amplify the roles and responsibilities of counties in broadband deployment.


Introduction:
Capnocytophaga species are rare keratitis‐causing pathogens. We herein report a case of keratitis caused by a drug‐resistant Capnocytophaga species in association with contact lenses.
Case presentation:
A 64‐year‐old female who wore a contact lens in her right eye to facilitate repair of the corneal epithelium complained of infection and discharge. Slit‐lamp biomicroscopy showed corneal abscessation and hypopyon. Thus, infectious keratitis was diagnosed. Direct microscopy and bacterial culture of a corneal scraping were performed. Because direct microscopy demonstrated the presence of Gram‐negative rods, we began treatment with topical 1.5 % levofloxacin and 0.3 % tobramycin every hour. The corneal infiltration increased 4 days after initiating the therapy. The culture report confirmed the presence of a Capnocytophaga species with fluoroquinolone and aminoglycoside resistance and susceptibility to cephalosporins and minocycline. We switched to topical 0.5 % cefmenoxime every hour and oral minocycline at 200 mg day−1. The corneal inflammation subsided within 2 weeks. The bacterial isolate was identified as Capnocytophaga sputigena using 16S rRNA sequencing.
Conclusions:
We encountered a case of keratitis caused by C. sputigena with reduced fluoroquinolone and aminoglycoside susceptibility.


Direct Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) was used to fabricate thin-wall Ti-6Al-4V using the powder mixture of Ti-6 wt.%Al-4 wt.%V. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy (OM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were employed to examine the chemical composition and microstructure of the as-deposited sections. Vickers hardness tests were then applied to characterize the mechanical properties of the deposit samp les which were fabricated using pre-mixed elemental powders. The EDS line scans indicated that the chemical composition of the samples was homogenous across the deposit. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used for the phase identification. After significant analysis, some differences were observed among two sets of deposit samples which varied in the particle size of the mixing Ti-6wt.%Al-4wt.%V powder. It could be found that the set with similar particle number for Ti, Al and V powder made composition much more stable and could easily get industry qualified Ti-6Al-4V components.


This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation—Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers' adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community. School of Interactive Computing College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0760 What Makes Teachers Change? Factors that Influence Post-secondary Teachers' Adoption of New Computing Curricula Lijun Ni and Mark Guzdial College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332 {lijun, email@example.com} Abstract: This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation—Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers' adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community. This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation—Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers' adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community.


In ocean exploitation, long hydraulic pipelines are usually applied. Using SimHydraulic software, the model of hydraulic system including hydraulic fluid, pump, hydraulic cylinder, directional control valve, relief valve, accumulator, long supply pipeline and return pipeline, is established. The position of the cylinder piston is measured by position sensor, while the supply pressure of the cylinder and the system supply pressure are measured by pressure sensors, the directional control valve is controlled by an on-off signal. The simulation was carried out, the impact of long hydraulic pipeline on system performance is also analyzed.


This paper will describe the development of Institutional Repositories (IRs) in Irish third level institutions – starting with the development of stand-alone repositories in the mid 2000's and the move later in that decade towards collaboration and resources sharing through the development of National Research Portals and also Learning Resource Portals. We will briefly look at the various institutional repositories in existence in Ireland and also National Portals such as RIAN which are helping to make Irish research more visible and accessible. Some important European Union initiatives will also be dealt with and finally we will look briefly at the NDLR – Ireland's National Digital Learning Repository.


As an improvement on our previous work [J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 45 085101 (2012)], an accurate method combining the spheroidal coordinates and B-spline basis is applied to study the ground state 1σg and low excited states 1σu, 1πg,u,1δg,u,2σg of the in magnetic fields ranging from 109 Gs (1 Gs = 10−4 T) to 4.414 × 1013 Gs. Comparing the one-center method used in our previous work, the present method has a higher precision with a shorter computing time. Equilibrium distances of the states of the in strong magnetic fields were found to be accurate to 3~5 significant digits (s.d.) and the total energies 6~11 s.d., even for some antibonding state, such as 1πg, which is difficult for the one-center method to give reliable results while the field strength is B ≥ 1013 Gs. For the large disagreement in previous works, such as the equilibrium distances of the 1πg state at B = 109 Gs, the present data may be used as a reference. Further, the potential energy curves (PECs) and the electronic probability density distributions (EPDDs) of the bound states 1σg, 1πu, 1δg and antibonding states 1σu, 1πg, 1δu for B = 1, 10, 100, 1000 a.u. (atomic unit) are compared, so that the different influences of the magnetic fields on the chemical bonds of the bound states and antibonding states are discussed in detail.


. The analysis of facial expressions is currently a favored method of inferring experienced emotion, and consequently significant efforts are currently being made to develop improved facial expression recognition techniques. Among these new techniques, those which allow the automatic recognition of facial expression appear to be most promising. This paper presents a new method of facial expression analysis with a focus on the continuous evolution of emotions using Generalized Additive Mixed Models and Significant Zero Crossing of the Derivative (SiZer). The time-series analysis of the emotions experienced by participants watching a series of three different online videos suggests that analysis of facial expressions at the overall level may lead to misinterpretation of the emotional experience whereas non-linear analysis allows the significant expressive sequences to be identified.


Purified brush-border membrane vesicles (BBMV) of lobster antennal gland labyrinth and bladder were separately formed by a magnesium precipitation technique. L-[3H]proline uptake was stimulated by a transmembrane NaCl gradient [outside (o) greater than inside (i)] to a greater extent in BBMV from labyrinth than those from the bladder. Detailed study of the labyrinth proline-transport processes revealed a specific dependence on NaCl, with negligible stimulatory effects by NaSCN, Na-gluconate, or KCl. A transmembrane proton gradient (o greater than i) was without stimulatory effect on proline transport. A transmembrane potential difference alone, in the presence of equilibrated NaCl and L-[3H]proline, led to net influx of the labeled amino acid, suggesting that the uptake process was electrogenic and capable of bringing about the net transfer of positive charge to the vesicle interior. Although a transmembrane Na gradient alone, in the presence of equilibrated Cl and L-[3H]proline, was able to bring about the net influx of the amino acid, a transmembrane Cl gradient alone under Na- and L-[3H]proline-equilibrated conditions was not, suggesting that only the Na gradient could energize the carrier process through cotransport, while the anion served an essential activating role. Proline influx by these vesicles occurred by the combination of at least one saturable Michaelis-Menten carrier system (apparent Kt = 0.37 mM; apparent JM = 1.19 nmol.mg protein-1.10 s-1) and apparent diffusion (P = 0.33 nmol.mg protein-1.10 s-1.mM-1). Static head analysis of the transport process suggested a cotransport stoichiometry of 2 Na:1 proline with essential activation by Cl ion.


Characterizations of gelatinous zooplankton communities are necessary for an improved understanding of the ecological and temporal dynamics of such communities and their composing taxa. Yet, studies on gelatinous zooplankton communities are scarce in the Red Sea, which is characterized by extreme temperature, high salinity and oligotrophic conditions. Here, we analyzed the occurrence of gelatinous zooplankton taxa in a time-series of epipelagic samples taken from September 2016 to May 2018 in the central Red Sea to deliver the first complete characterization of gelatinous zooplankton in the Red Sea. General seasonal dynamics were found over the year, where higher gelatinous zooplankton abundances correlated mostly with lower temperatures, lower salinity and to a lesser extent, with chlorophyll a, cross-shelf and along-shelf Ekman transport. Tunicates and siphonophores presented seasonal patterns, whereby total biovolume values were 103- 105 higher in winter – early spring than in summer, and numbers >100 higher in the bloom event of 2017/2018 than in 2016/2017. Ulmaridae (Aurelia sp.) peaked after the main bloom event of siphonophores and tunicates, and dominated total biovolume when present. Porpitidae was consistently present and showed no clear seasonality. Our results suggest that there is a noticeable seasonal trend in gelatinous zooplankton, marked by high occurrences in winter-early spring, very low occurrences over summer, and mostly dominated by Salpidae and Dyphidae. Porpitidae was a dominating group with aseasonal occurrence, and Ulmaridae was also dominating but with very short and few occurrences. In addition, low abundance and biovolume (max. 8 ind m-3 and max. 103 – 106 mm3 m-3) suggest that oligotrophic conditions may be limiting the productivity of gelatinous zooplankton communities in the Red Sea.


ABSTRACT Community resilience is a critical determinant of how a community can cope with stressors and disturbances, but has proved difficult to conceptualise and measure. This paper uses a resilience framework that suggests resilience is quantifiable, comprises several dimensions and operates with thresholds or 'tipping points'. A paired-sample case study of four rural communities in New Zealand was used to test the framework. It was found that indicators of resilience in the form of official statistics were not significantly related to communities' actual perceptions of resilience (overall). Experts were also unable to accurately predict 'more' or 'less' resilient communities. Communities' ratings on individual resilience dimensions were only significantly related to overall resilience when summed. These results suggests that the resilience dimensions are compensatory, and 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in the context of community resilience. The findings raise concerns about how to collect data from rural communities regarding their resilience, for making policy decisions.


This paper analyzes the principle of Viterbi algorithm which can be used in the norm of the mobile communication system. Then a new Viterbi decoding scheme of (2, 1, 7) convolutional code is presented for FPGA implementation. To take advantage of the FPGA, a new branch weight algorithm and uniform state weight memories is used. At last, a new decoding circuit which can work on 35MHz and can achieve 120 kbs in decoding speed was designed. To use the design of survival path exchange register module, it can decrease the power consumption and the RAM size.


Three crew members of Expedition 49/50 are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station at 4:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 19 (2:05 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Live launch coverage will begin at 3:15 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency's website.


Since the United Nations made a call in 2016 to facilitate online education for migrants worldwide, the number of online initiatives targeting this profile of students has been growing. The rapid growth in course offerings and students' enrolment has mistakenly been considered evidence for the increased accessibility of university education. However, improving access to higher education is a complex and multidimensional social issue beyond allowing the disadvantaged in universities. Thus, our research aims to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the accessibility of online higher education rooted in an actual online HE practice, going beyond the point of entrance. This article focuses on the biographical narratives of three alumni from the Open University of Catalonia, each with migratory backgrounds from a different continent of origin and previous university experience, illustrating the journey of obtaining an online bachelor's degree. A set of influencing factors has been identified, based on which the accessibility of online education has been reconceptualised. Additionally, we suggest strategies to better support this profile of students in the context of online universities.


Technical advances such as the development of molecular cloning, Sanger sequencing, PCR and oligonucleotide microarrays are key to our current capacity to sequence, annotate and study complete organismal genomes. Recent years have seen the development of a variety of so-called 'next-generation' sequencing platforms, with several others anticipated to become available shortly. The previously unimaginable scale and economy of these methods, coupled with their enthusiastic uptake by the scientific community and the potential for further improvements in accuracy and read length, suggest that these technologies are destined to make a huge and ongoing impact upon genomic and post-genomic biology. However, like the analysis of microarray data and the assembly and annotation of complete genome sequences from conventional sequencing data, the management and analysis of next-generation sequencing data requires (and indeed has already driven) the development of informatics tools able to assemble, map, and interpret huge quantities of relatively or extremely short nucleotide sequence data. Here we provide a broad overview of bioinformatics approaches that have been introduced for several genomics and functional genomics applications of next-generation sequencing.


The Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) network has undergone several improvements in the last decade with the upgrade to dual-polarization capabilities and the ability for forecasters to re-scan the lowest levels of the atmosphere more frequently through the use of Supplemental Adaptive Intra-volume Scanning (SAILS). SAILS reduces the revisit period for scanning the lowest 1 km of the atmosphere but comes at the cost of a longer delay between scans at higher altitudes. This study quantifies how often radar Volume Coverage Patterns (VCPs) and all available SAILS options are used during the issuance of 148,882 severe thunderstorm and 18,263 tornado warnings, and near 10,474 tornado, 58,934 hail, and 127,575 wind reports in the dual-polarization radar era.
A large majority of warnings and storm reports were measured with a VCP providing denser low-level sampling coverage. More frequent low-level updates were employed near tornado warnings and reports compared to severe thunderstorm warnings and hail or wind hazards. Warnings issued near a radar providing three extra low-level scans (SAILSx3) were more likely to be verified by a hazard with a positive lead time than warnings with fewer low-level scans. However, extra low-level scans were more frequently used in environments supporting organized convection as shown using watches issued by the Storm Prediction Center. Recently, the number of mid-level radar elevation scans is declining per hour, which can adversely affect the tracking of convective polarimetric signatures, like ZDR columns, which were found above the 0.5° elevation angle in over 99% of cases examined.


ABSTRACT Six classes of alkaline hot springs and geysers are here distinguished in Yellowstone National Park based on activity and eruptive style: (1) non-surging, non-boiling springs, (2) gently surging, non-boiling springs, (3) non-surging to gently surging, boiling springs; (4) strongly surging springs, (5) fountain geysers, and (6) cone geysers. Each displays morphologically distinctive siliceous sinter deposits in the high-temperature (> 73°C) parts of the vent and outflow systems. Non-surging and gently surging, non-boiling springs that do not overflow their rims develop thin digitate to lilypad-like sinter rims that grow horizontally over the pool surfaces. Similar springs with rim overflow have rims that accrete vertically. Boiling springs often have nearly circular, steep-sided pools and rims dominated by splash and rim-overflow and composed mainly of spicular and columnar sinter. Fountain geysers, characterized by broad fountain-like eruption bursts, have a central vent surrounded by a zone of spicular sinter beyond which is a broad, flat-bottomed moat, but lack steep sinter cones. Cone geysers have narrow vents, jet-like discharges that cool rapidly and fall close to the vent, and steep-sided spicule-dominated sinter cones. Sinter deposition takes place within three main zones: (1) fully subaqueous sides and bottoms of vent pools, outflow basins, and outflow channels; (2) periodically wetted splash zones surrounding hot springs and geysers; and (3) largely subaerial parts of the rim and outflow areas wetted mainly by overflow and surging and that dry quickly. Fully subaqueous surfaces are covered by fine earthy particulate siliceous sediment (PSS) composed largely of amorphous silica spherules and spherule aggregates that appear to have precipitated around heterogeneous nuclei, including microbes. Splash zones of hot springs and geysers are characterized by spicular sinter. Largely subaerial zones, wetted mainly by rim overflow and surging with little or no splash, show complex varieties of terraced, columnar, and knobby sinter. The highest silica deposition rates occur where surfaces are wetted frequently and evaporate to dryness, such as the tops of spicules, columns, and knobs. Associated lower areas and crevices that remain wet or moist show slow accumulation of PSS. Most continuously wet surfaces in high-temperature (> 73°C) hot spring and geyser vent and outflow systems are probably covered by microbial biofilms. Although microbes may locally influence rates of silica deposition and sinter microstructure, the results of this study suggest that the depositional sites, morphology, and macrostructuring of high-temperature sinter are controlled largely by the processes of surface wetting, evaporation, and drying.


In light of contemporary criminal policy, the accused has become a target of the theories and ideas of most jurists, who hastened to search for the most successful way to achieve the functions of punishment, most notably the social defense movement, whose principles are the need to reject the idea of deterrence and pain, to be replaced by the idea of reform and treatment, as it is no longer one of the purposes of punishment Revenge against the accused, but the primary goal has become, is to reform and rehabilitate the accused, which cannot be achieved with predetermined rigid penalties, which requires recognition of the criminal judge's discretion in determining the punishment, which is called modern judicial individualization. Where the principle of modern judicial exclusivity has revolutionized criminal law, it has turned its concepts and shifted its focus from the act that is a legal crime to the perpetrator, so the act is no longer considered according to the objective criterion regulated by the law, which depends on its seriousness and the degree of criminal intent of the perpetrator, but according to the personal elements of the accused, That is, by researching his personality, biological composition, psychological state, personal history and social status, which requires scientific research on the personality of the accused, which is prepared by experts and specialists, supervised by a judge specialized in criminal cases, who has experience and knowledge of the sciences related to the methods of treating the accused. This principle has confirmed its efficacy and usefulness in realistic application, and its role has emerged in positively affecting the personality of the accused and rehabilitating him, which made most criminal legislation keen to report it, especially in juvenile legislation, in an attempt to find ways to enhance the role of the criminal judiciary in choosing The appropriate penalty for the accused, achieving the purposes of punishment on the one hand, and reducing the phenomenon of criminality on the other.


Francis Henry Dumville Smythe, a humble clergyman from England, spent a lifetime amassing his private collection of watercolours. During the 1950s, he decided to gift them to two art institutions in New Zealand – Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery in Wellington. They were welcomed with open arms and celebrated as "the finest collection of water colour pictures in the Southern Hemisphere." However, they soon fell out of favour: rarely exhibited, the collection remains poorly understood and unexplored to this day. Was their initial praise simply a matter of taste?
This project looks at the rise and fall of the Smythe collection and aims to reveal the circumstances that led to its current low profile within its respective institutions. The collection itself will be analysed in depth for the first time, and the impact that changing artistic tastes have had on its status will be examined. In New Zealand's case, these shifting tastes are symptomatic of the redefinition of national and cultural identity during the 1950s-1980s. How did this redefined national and cultural identity contribute to the continued drop in status of the Smythe collection in New Zealand? This dissertation considers the geographical contexts of both Britain and New Zealand and seeks to explore new ways of engaging with New Zealand's public art collections, through combining the different research fields of watercolours, taste, and identity. While British watercolours are now mostly considered old fashioned, this thesis will find new ways of making them relevant again.


With the "cultural turn" English philology has changed in many places into a kind of super-discipline by taking over, at least in part, the work of sociology, history, psychology, and philosophy. The article argues that in order to avoid dilettantism, the excellent qualification for a semiotic or signifying approach to all aspects of culture should be made use of, especially since this approach goes well together with the more recent view of culture as an immaterial construct in terms of an ensemble, or rather a specific hierarchy, of values. In order to discuss the role of literature in and for the wider domain of culture it seems necessary to first delimit this textual corpus, and for that reason a number of recent attempts to define "literature" or "the literary" are considered \-\- including one of my own that sees its specificity in a validational modesty resulting from a focusing on the particular and the suspension of reference. Due to this modest confinement to the presentation of merely possible worlds, literature is granted a "free space" in culture where it can even intimate the limits of the culture of its origin. For this reason it deserves special attention even at a time when the study of culture and media studies are in vogue.


When an ion transports from water to oil through water-oil interface, it accompanies hydrated water molecules and transiently forms a chain of water, called "water finger." We thoroughly investigated the role of the water finger in chloride ion transport through water-dichloromethane interface by using molecular dynamics technique. We developed a proper coordinate w to describe the water finger structure and calculated the free energy landscape and the friction for the ion transport as a function of ion position z and the water finger coordinate w. It is clearly shown that the formation and break of water finger accompanies an activation barrier for the ion transport, which has been overlooked in the conventional free energy curve along the ion position z. The present analysis of the friction does not support the hypothesis of augmented local friction (reduced local diffusion coefficient) at the interface. These results mean that the experimentally observed rate constants of interfacial ion transfer are reduced from the diffusion-limited one because of the activation barrier associated to the water finger, not the anomalous local diffusion. We also found that the nascent ion just after the break of water finger has excessive hydration water than that in the oil phase.


Magnetoelastic sensors are widely used for chemical and biological monitoring including measurement of pH, glucose, carbon dioxide, and Escherichia coli by applying a mass- or elasticity-changing coating that shifts the sensor's resonant frequency in response to the target analytes. However, the sensor's resonant frequency also varies with the ambient temperature and earth's magnetic fields, reducing the accuracy and reliability of the measurements. This paper presents a technique to eliminate the effects of temperature and earth's magnetic field on the magnetoelastic sensor by detecting the change in its higher order harmonic magnetic fields, which are generated by the sensor when excited by a low frequency magnetic field. The higher order harmonic response of the magnetoelastic sensor is a function of temperature and DC field but remains unaffected by the mass/elasticity change from the chemical or biological responsive coating, thus allowing the calibration of both interfering quantities. This paper illustrates the application of this technique on a magnetoelastic pH sensor, where the results show the calibrated measurements are independent from the ambient temperature and DC magnetic fields such as the earth's field.


The rapid paces of technological innovations all over the world have led to many new developments in the Saudi Arabia's higher education system. The kingdom's government has in the past few years given much consideration to the introduction and incorporation of ICT technologies in its current traditional education system in order to cater for the increased demands posed by its large student population through e-learning. In this paper we will discuss the both of benefits and barriers of applying E-learning in higher education in Saudi Arabia.


one case was lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 16 pregnancies, 15 women delivered at term and all the infants were healthy. The remaining case delivered a stillborn fetus at 28 week due to an E. coli intrauterine infection. The cause of death was considered unrelated to the PSC. Discussion: According to this series, PSCs are associated with a good perinatal outcome. In contrast with umbilical cord cysts, it is unlikely that PSCs can jeopardize fetal wellbeing, despite continuous growth during pregnancy in some of them. Owing to the close proximity to the umbilical cord in most cases, PSCs should be clearly differentiated from umbilical cord cysts, which carry a poorer prognosis.


In this study, we aim at developing a mechanical device to support human rehabilitation motion of their wrist joint instead of a physiotherapist. Pneumatic parallel manipulator is introduced as a mechanical equipment from a view that pneumatic actuators bring minute force control property owing to the air compressibility and parallel manipulator's feature of multiple degrees of freedom is suitable for the complex motion of human wrist joint. To cope with the shortage of physiotherapist, we propose a method to acquire P.T.'s rehabilitation motion and implement it for a patient using the equipment. The validity of the proposed system is conrmed through some experiments.


This paper studied the integration of Evaporative Gas Turbine (EvGT) cycle with oxy-fuel combustion for CO2 capture. The impact of key parameters on system electrical efficiency, such as the oxygen purity, Water/Gas ratio (W/G) has been investigated concerning thermal efficiency. The performance of dry recycle and wet recycle also has be analyzed and compared. Simulation results shows that: (1) 97% can be considered as the optimum oxygen purity taking into account the trade-off between the air separation unit (ASU) consumption penalty of producing higher-purity oxygen and electrical efficiency; (2) there exists an optimum point of W/G for both EvGT and EvGT combined with oxy-fuel combustion CO2 capture technology; (3) dry recycle has a considerably higher electrical efficiency comparing with wet recycle, but more cooled water can be saved in the wet recycle. The performance of EvGT cycle was also compared to the combined cycle (CC) when CO2 capture was considered. The comparison shows that CC has a higher net power output and electrical efficiency than the EvGT cycle no matter if combined with oxy-fuel combustion CO2 capture technology or not.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudes towards and knowledge about entrepreneurship and small business among the people of Nebraska, a mid-western state in the USA. Design/methodology/approach - The paper discusses the importance of understanding attitudes and knowledge about entrepreneurship at the state-level. It uses a parsimonious framework to present the findings based on data collected by a Gallup Organization survey of Nebraska residents and small business owners. Findings - Data reveals low interest in becoming entrepreneurs among Nebraskans. Interestingly, however, Nebraskans believe their educational experience is significantly more valuable and applicable to business start-up than does the US general population. They are also less likely than the US population to believe that successful entrepreneurs and small businesses should give back to their communities. Practical implications - The paper highlights the need to examine attitudes and beliefs about entrepreneurship in individual states and comparing the findings from the state level data to those from the national data. The results have important implications for teachers interested in providing training to potential entrepreneurs, as well as policy-makers in states such as Nebraska interested in encouraging entrepreneurial activity in their state. Originality/value - This paper is the first study to focus on attitudes and beliefs about entrepreneurship among the people of Nebraska, a rural state in USA, an otherwise highly industrialized country. It is also the first study to use the data collected at the state-level to compare it to findings from a national sample.


It is well known that friction in haptic devices plays a key role in dissipating surplus energy to maintain passivity of the haptic system. This paper shows that the surplus energy can also be dissipated by careful exploitation of human operator's damping and analyzes the effects of the time-varying human arm impedance on the passivity of a haptic system. The human arm impedance is modeled as a second-order mass-damper-spring system. An impedance model is developed to describe the dynamic behavior of a haptic system that includes the human arm impedance. A new necessary and sufficient passivity condition of the haptic system is derived using an energy-based approach. The analytical results are experimentally validated using a one-degree-of-freedom haptic device. Experimental results show that the maximum achievable stiffness of the haptic system varies widely according to the degree of human arm impedance and is predictable more accurately using the newly derived passivity condition compared to the previous results in the literature.


Lysolecithin exhibits a lytic activity on acholeplasmas and mycoplasmas. The acholeplasmas studied, viz. Acholeplasma laidlawii A and B, were found less susceptible than were the mycoplasmas, viz. Mycoplasma gallisepticum and M. pneumoniae. The sensitivitxy to lysis was found to differ according to species, growth temperature and number of organisms used. Variations in age of the population and the concentration of bivalent ions in the test medium had but little influence. The greatest lytic activity of lysolecithin was found at the optimal growth temperature and decreased with lowering of the temperature. This lytic activity was inversely proportional to the density of the cell suspensions used. The possible mechanism of the lytic effect of lysolecithin is discussed.


Let $P$ be a partially ordered set. If the Boolean lattice $(2^{[n]},\subset)$ can be partitioned into copies of $P$ for some positive integer $n$, then $P$ must satisfy the following two trivial conditions: (1) the size of $P$ is a power of $2$, (2) $P$ has a unique maximal and minimal element. Resolving a conjecture of Lonc, it was shown by Gruslys, Leader and Tomon that these conditions are sufficient as well. In this paper, we show that if $P$ only satisfies condition (2), we can still almost partition $2^{[n]}$ into copies of $P$. We prove that if $P$ has a unique maximal and minimal element, then there exists a constant $c=c(P)$ such that all but at most $c$ elements of $2^{[n]}$ can be covered by disjoint copies of $P$.


Properly citing your sources is a fundamental part of the research process—the foundation upon which scholarship is based. Here are tools available through the library and on the web to help you cite sources correctly.


BACKGROUND
Effective control of the lesser mealworm beetle, Alphitobius diaperinus, relies heavily on insecticides. The susceptibility level of beetles to these insecticides can be dependent on active ingredient, population treated, formulation, surface treated and timing of observation. The susceptibility of adult beetles from six populations to β-cyfluthrin was determined up to 48 h after exposure. The susceptibility of adult beetles to the label rate of β-cyfluthrin and permethrin formulations on concrete, wood-chip-type particle board and pressure-treated wood was determined up to 48 h post-exposure.

RESULTS
Variation in LC50 values at 2 and 24 h was found within and between beetle populations from two regions of Texas. The permethrin formulation had lower mean mortality than the β-cyfluthrin formulation on all surfaces tested. The permethrin formulation had high levels of recovery on all surfaces tested after 2 h. Surface affected the efficacy of the insecticides tested on killing adult beetles.

CONCLUSION
Permethrin-based insecticide had lower knockdown and persistence on various surfaces over time than β-cyfluthrin-based insecticide. Beetle recovery in less susceptible populations may necessitate longer observation periods for efficacy evaluations. Our study also shows that surfaces chosen can affect the efficacy of the compound on killing adult beetles. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.


els of the human lung airway and unsteady periodic breathing conditions. The computational domain included fully coupled representations of the orotracheal region and large conducting zone up to generation four (G4) obtained from patient-specific CT data, and the small conducting zone (to the 16th generation) obtained from a stochastically generated airway tree with statistically realistic morphological characteristics. A reducedgeometry airway model was used, in which several airway branches in each generation were truncated, and only select flow paths were retained to the 16th generation. The inlet and outlet flow boundaries corresponded to the oral opening, the physical inlet/outlet boundaries at the terminal bronchioles, and the unresolved airway boundaries created from the truncation procedure. The total flow rate was specified according to the expected ventilation pattern for a healthy adult male, which was supplied by the wholebody modeling software HumMod. The unsteady mass flow distribution at the distal boundaries was prescribed based on a preliminary steady-state simulation with an applied flow rate equal to the average flow rate during the inhalation phase of the breathing cycle. In contrast to existing studies, this approach allows fully coupled simulation of the entire conducting zone, with no need to specify distal mass flow or pressure boundary conditions a priori, and without the use of impedance or one-dimensional (1D) flow models downstream of the truncated boundaries. The results show that: (1) physiologically realistic flow is obtained in the model, in terms of cyclic mass conservation and approximately uniform pressure distribution in the distal airways; (2) the predicted alveolar pressure is in good agreement with correlated experimental data; and (3) the use of reduced-order geometry modeling allows accurate and efficient simulation of large-scale breathing lung flow, provided care is taken to use a physiologically realistic geometry and to properly address the unsteady boundary conditions. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4027485]


Objective. To examine the cross-sectional relationships between weight concerns, weight control behaviors, and initiation of tobacco use among youths. Study Design. Smoking status, weight concerns, and weight control behaviors were assessed in a cross-sectional sample of 16 862 children, 9 to 14 years of age, in 1996. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between weight concerns, weight control behaviors, and early stages of smoking initiation (precontemplation, contemplation, and experimentation). All analyses were adjusted for age, body mass index, and known predictors of initiation. Results. Approximately 9% of participants had experimented with cigarettes, and 6% were contemplating cigarette smoking. Contemplation of tobacco use was associated with misperception of being overweight (boys: odds ratio [OR], 1.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–2.48), unhappiness with appearance (girls: OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.48–2.84; boys: OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.05–2.42), and a tendency to change eating patterns around peers (girls: OR, 2.87; 95% CI, 2.28–3.62; boys: OR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.25–2.66). Experimentation with cigarettes was associated with daily exercise to control weight among boys (OR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.07–3.43) and with monthly purging (OR, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.27–5.07) and daily dieting among girls (OR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.09–2.96). Conclusions. Our findings suggest that, among both girls and boys, contemplation of smoking is positively related to weight concerns. Experimentation seems to be positively related to weight control behaviors. It is important for both pediatricians and comprehensive school health programs to address healthy methods of weight maintenance and to dispel the notion of tobacco use as a method of weight control.


BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
Xerostomia, also known as "dry mouth," is a common but frequently overlooked condition that is typically associated with salivary gland hypofunction, which is the objective measurement of reduced salivary flow. Patients with dry mouth exhibit symptoms of variable severity that are commonly attributed to medication use, chronic disease and medical treatment, such as radiotherapy to the head and neck region. Chronic xerostomia significantly increases the risk of experiencing dental caries, demineralization, tooth sensitivity, candidiasis and other oral diseases that may affect quality of life negatively. This article presents a multidisciplinary approach to the clinical management of xerostomia, consistent with the findings of published systematic reviews on this key clinical issue.

CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Initial evaluation of patients with dry mouth should include a detailed health history to facilitate early detection and identify underlying causes. Comprehensive evaluation, diagnostic testing and periodic assessment of salivary flow, followed by corrective actions, may help prevent significant oral disease. A systematic approach to xerostomia management can facilitate interdisciplinary patient care, including collaboration with physicians regarding systemic conditions and medication use. Comprehensive management of xerostomia and hyposalivation should emphasize patient education and lifestyle modifications. It also should focus on various palliative and preventive measures, including pharmacological treatment with salivary stimulants, topical fluoride interventions and the use of sugar-free chewing gum to relieve dry-mouth symptoms and improve the patient's quality of life.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) may play a key role for the management of patients with glioma. We highlighted the utility of MRS in the noninvasive diagnosis of gliomas with mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) genes, by providing an overview of the neurochemical alterations observed in different glioma subtypes, as well as during treatment and progression, both in vivo and ex vivo.

RECENT FINDINGS
D-2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG) decrease during anticancer treatments was recently shown to be associated with altered levels of other metabolites, including lactate, glutamate and glutathione, suggesting that tumour treatment leads to a metabolic reprogramming beyond 2HG depletion. In combination with 2HG quantification, cystathionine and glycine seem to be the most promising candidates for higher specific identification of glioma subtypes and follow-up of disease progression and response to treatment.

SUMMARY
The implementation of advanced MRS methods in the routine clinical practice will allow the quantification of metabolites that are not detectable with conventional methods and may enable immediate, accurate diagnosis of gliomas, which is crucial for planning optimal therapeutic strategies and follow-up examinations. The role of different metabolites as predictors of patient outcome still needs to be elucidated.


This paper is addressed to expanding our understanding of the effects of hypoxia training on our bodies to better model its dynamics and leverage some of its implications and effects on human health. Hypoxia training is a recommended practice for military and civilian pilots that allow them to recognize their early hypoxia signs and symptoms, and Scientist Astronaut Candidates (SACs) who underwent hypobaric hypoxia (HH) exposure as part of a training activity for prospective suborbital flight applications. This observational-analytical study describes physiologic responses and symptoms experienced by a SAC group before, during and after HH exposure and proposes a model for assessing predicted versus observed physiological responses. A group of individuals with diverse Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) backgrounds conducted a hypobaric training session to an altitude up to 22,000 ft (FL220) or 6,705 meters, where heart rate (HR), breathing rate (BR) and core temperature (Tc) were monitored with the use of a chest strap sensor pre and post HH exposure. A pulse oximeter registered levels of saturation of oxygen (SpO2), number and duration of desaturations during the HH chamber flight. Hypoxia symptoms as described by the SACs during the HH training session were also registered. This data allowed to generate a preliminary predictive model of the oxygen desaturation and O2 pressure curve for each subject, which consists of a sixth-order polynomial fit during exposure, and a fifth or fourth-order polynomial fit during recovery. Data analysis showed that HR and BR showed no significant differences between pre and post HH exposure in most of the SACs, while Tc measures showed slight but consistent decrement changes. All subjects registered SpO2 greater than 94% for the majority of their individual HH exposures, but all of them presented at least one clinically significant desaturation (SpO2 < 85% for more than 5 seconds) and half of the individuals showed SpO2 below 87% for at least 30% of their HH exposure time. Finally, real time collection of HH symptoms presented temperature somatosensory perceptions (SP) for 65% of individuals, and task-focus issues for 52.5% of individuals as the most common HH indications. 95% of the subjects experienced HH onset symptoms below FL180; all participants achieved full recovery of HH symptoms within 1 minute of donning their O2 mask. The current HH study performed on this group of individuals suggests a rapid and fully reversible physiologic response after HH exposure as expected and obtained in previous studies. Our data showed consistent results between predicted versus observed SpO2 curves during HH suggesting a mathematical function that may be used to model HH performance deficiencies. During the HH study, real-time HH symptoms were registered providing evidenced SP and task focusing as the earliest and most common indicators. Finally, an assessment of HH signs of symptoms in a group of heterogeneous, non-pilot individuals showed similar results to previous studies in homogeneous populations of pilots. P. Llanos is an Assistant Professor in Spaceflight Operations with EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL 32114 USA (phone: 3286-226-7754; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). D. Garcia is an Adjunct Professor in Aerospace and Occupational Safety Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL 32114 USA (email: firstname.lastname@example.com). Keywords—Altitude sickness, cabin pressure, hypobaric chamber training, symptoms and altitude, slow onset hypoxia.


The aim of this article is to describe a minimally invasive iliac crest-sparing approach (ICSA) allowing common iliac osteotomies in children. The ICSA was used for 98 hips in 72 consecutive patients who underwent a pelvic osteotomy. The mean follow-up duration ranged from 3 to 7 years. Skin incision ranged from 3 to 5.5 cm. Displacement of the distal osteotomy fragment was easy and without tension. The duration of surgery varied from 50 min in the beginning of our experience to 20–25 min for the last cases of the series. In conclusion, the ICSA fulfills all the criteria of minimally invasive surgery.


The primary objective of this publication is to provide an overview of the species identity, invasion status, geographical extent, and abundance of alien plants in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho, based on field records from 1979 to the end of 2000. The dataset is all the species records for the study area in the Southern African Plant Invaders Atlas (SAPIA) database during this time period. A total of 548 naturalized and casual alien plant species were catalogued and invasion was recorded almost throughout the study area. Most invasion, in terms of both species numbers and total species abundance, was recorded along the southern, southwestern and eastern coastal belts and in the adjacent interior. This area includes the whole of the Fynbos and Forest Biomes, and the moister eastern parts of the Grassland and Savanna Biomes. This study reinforces previous studies that the Fynbos Biome is the most extensively invaded vegetation type in South Africa but it also shows that parts of Savanna and Grassland are as heavily invaded as parts of the Fynbos. The Fabaceae is prominent in all biomes and Acacia with 17 listed species, accounts for a very large proportion of all invasion. Acacia mearmii was by far the most prominent invasive species in the study area, followed by A. saligna , Lantana camara , A. cyclops , Opuntia ficus-indica . Solarium mauritianum , Populus alba/xcanescens , Melia azedarach , A. dealbata and species of Prosopis .


AIM
Despite the recognized association between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Parkinson's disease (PD), the implications of glycaemic variability for patients with PD are as yet unknown. For this reason, our study assessed the future risk of incident PD according to visit-to-visit fasting plasma glucose (FPG) variability, as calculated by standard deviation (FPG-SD), coefficient variance (FPG-CV) and variability independent of the mean (FPG-VIM).

METHODS
Using the Korean National Health Insurance Service Health Screening Cohort, 131,625 Korean adults without diabetes were followed. They were divided into a midlife group (age<65 years) and an elderly group (age ≥ 65 years) throughout a median follow-up of 8.4 years.

RESULTS
Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using multivariable Cox proportional-hazards analysis. In the midlife group, HRs for incident PD in the highest quartile of FPG variability (as measured by SD, CV and VIM) were 1.37 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09-1.73], 1.33 (95% CI: 1.06-1.68) and 1.35 (95% CI: 1.07-1.70), respectively, vs the lowest variability quartile group. However, while incident PD did not differ according to FPG variability in the elderly group, Kaplan-Meier curves of PD probability in the midlife group showed a progressively increasing risk of PD the higher the FPG variability. According to a multivariable adjusted model, every 1-SD unit increment in glycaemic variability was associated with a 9% higher risk of incident PD in the midlife group.

CONCLUSION
Increased long-term glycaemic variability may be a precipitating risk factor for developing PD in the midlife population without diabetes.


Mexico has an important diversity of cacti. Coryphantha species are abundant in Lagos de Moreno, located in the highlands of Mexico, in the state of Jalisco. However, little is known about their chemical composition. In this research work, three Coryphantha species (Coryphantha bumamma, C. clavata and C. cornifera) were studied to determine their chemical composition of primary metabolites (proximate analysis) and to identify the presence or absence of some secondary metabolites (phytochemical profile). Results showed a higher concentration for moist, ash, fat and fiber in C. bumamma and C. clavata. Coryphantha clavata and C. cornifera presented higher content of protein and carbohydrates. Alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids and sterols (triterpenes) were detected in all three species; while tannins and quinones were absent in all samples. The results were compared to chemical information reported for other Cactaceae. The information here presented is valuable in order to establish a database for the potential use of these species as phytochemical source.


We present a case with lacrimal gland metastasis and paraneoplasticorbital myositis due to breast carcinoma. A 66 year-old woman with a history of breast carcinoma was seen with the complaints of headache, blurred vision, and diplopia. On neuro-ophthalmologic examination restriction of left, right and up gaze in her left eye was found. Magnetic resonance imaging of orbit revealed enlargement of all extraocular muscles, heterogeneous enhancement of lacrimal gland and retroorbital fat in her left eye. The patient underwent biopsy of lacrimal gland and extraocular muscles. Lacrimal gland metastasis was shown by histopathologic examination, but there was no tumor cells in the extraocular muscles. After radiotherapy for lacrimal gland metastasis, her symptoms relieved remarkably. In patients with a history of malignancy, orbital symptoms and findings should be thought as a cause of malignancy primarily.


Efficient water oxidation remains a principal challenge for clean fuels via water splitting. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are promising water oxidation catalysts in a neutral medium but their application is commonly limited by low electrical conductivity and poor adhesiveness arising from bulky and electrically insulating ligands. Here we report linker-free spontaneous binding of tetracobalt-based polyoxometalates (Co4POMs) on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) via electrostatic hybridization. Protonated nitrogen-dopant sites at NCNTs enable linker-free immobilization of the Co4POMs and fluent electron transfer in the resultant Co4POM/NCNT hybrid structures, as demonstrated by the low overpotential of 370 mV for the water oxidation at pH 7. Accordingly, the hybrids exhibit fast reaction kinetics with a turnover frequency of 0.211 s−1 at 2.01 V vs. RHE. Density functional theory calculation proposes that POMs vertically align at the NCNT surface exposing the maximal catalytic surfaces. This work suggests a reliable route to highly efficient water oxidation catalysis by employing POMs under neutral conditions and NCNTs as self-binding nanoelectrodes in a synergistic well-oriented hybrid structure.


Objective: Cancer stem-like cells (CSC) are thought to be involved in the cisplatin resistance of tumors. This study was designed to investigate the effect of PRDX6 on CSCs present in cisplatin-resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors. Materials and methods: CD133+/ABCG2+ H1299 CSCs and A549 CSCs were isolated. The IC 50 values for cisplatin in treatment of CSCs were detected using the CCK8 assay. Then the isolated cells were identi fi ed using CD133. Wnt/ β -catenin expression was evaluated by Western blot assays. Specimens of tumor and adjacent para-carcinoma tissue were collected from 30 NSCLC patients and examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC), qRT-PCR, and Western blotting to determine and compare their levels of PRDX6 and CD133 expression. Finally, siRNA-mediated silencing of PRDX6 was employed with both types of CSCs to determine the impact of PRDX6 on CD133 enrichment by fl ow cytometry, cell viability, and sphere formation ability. Results: High levels of PRDX6 and CD133 expression were detected in samples of tumor tissue from NSCLC patients, and expression of PRDX6 and CD13 presented a positive relationship. Increasing levels of cisplatin resistance and upregulated levels of PRDX6, ABCG2, Wnt, and β -catenin expression were detected in CD133+/ABCG2+ H1299 and A549 CSCs. Transfection with siRNA targeting PRDX6 changed these cellular character-istics by decreasing the levels of PRDX6, ABCG2, Wnt, and β -catenin expression. We further demonstrated that exogenous silencing of PRDX6 effectively inhibited the sphere formation ability of CSCs and re-sensitized them to cisplatin. Conclusion: Our results strongly suggest that PRDX6 promotes cisplatin resistance in human lung cancer cells by promoting the stem-like properties of cancer cells. Our fi ndings also suggest PRDX6 as a target for treating cisplatin resistant NSCLC.


Drug release of watersoluble active agent (ephedrine hydrochloride) and water-insoluble ones (griseofulvine, salicylic acid, sulfadimidine) from hydrogels containing different polymers was investigated. The rheological behaviour of polymer matrices was characterized by flow curves and viscosity curves. These hydrogels were not thixotropic systems, unlike more authors' statement. The values of rheological constants increase exponentially with concentration of polymers. The liberation of active agents can be characterized by a multiplicative function. The constant of viscosity vs. concentration function was determined and it was called as characteristic of structure formation. A linear relationship between constant of structure formation and drug liberation was demonstrated.


Objectives: The aim of the present study was two-fold: first, to quantify characteristic parameters of the pulmonary venous flow pattern in patients with mitral regurgitation by using magnetic resonance phase velocity mapping; second, to determine whether this pattern is dependent on the vein being investigated and the direction of the regurgitant jet.

Background: Echocardiographic findings threw doubt on whether the pulmonary venous flow pattern is independent of the vein being investigated and whether the flow velocities in the pulmonary veins have a linear relationship with the volume flow.

Subjects and methods: Flow patterns were assessed in all four pulmonary veins by magnetic resonance velocity mapping in healthy volunteers and in 17 patients with echocardiographically mild and 13 patients with severe regurgitation.

Results: No differences were found between the use of velocity or volume flow for characterizing individual curves. The pulmonary venous flow pattern in controls was characterized by six points, a biphasic systolic wave (maximum systolic volume flow: (29 ± 18 ml. s−1), and end-systolic descent (24 ± 18 ml. s−1), a biphasic diastolic wave (maximum diastolic volume flow: 69 ±22 ml. s−1) and an end-diastolic reversed flow. Reversed end-systolic flow was a characteristic sign of severe regurgitation ( −10 ± 18ml. s−1). The systolic-to-diastolic flow ratio was lower in severe regurgitation (0.5 ±0.6) than in mild regurgitation (1.4 ±0.9), P<0.0001). In severe regurgitation, the normalized time intervals from Q wave to the highest systolic peak and end-systolic descent were of less prolonged duration than in mild regurgitation and controls (P<0.01). Flow patterns between veins were similar and the median of the correlation coefficients between the curves was the same in patients with or without an eccentric jet, 0.80 and 0.81, respectively.

Conclusion: Magnetic resonance velocity mapping is helpful in determining and understanding pulmonary venous flow characteristics. It is demonstrated that the pulmonary venous flow pattern is independent of the vein being investigated irrespective of the regurgitant jet direction, and that it is useful in grading mitral regurgitation.


Plant shoot apical meristems (SAM) and root apical meristems (RAM) contain stem cells that form overall-plant architecture. Mechanisms acting in these regions keep a balance between the stem cell population and differentiation. These mechanisms are well-studied in Arabidopsis, but little is known in the legume soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). In Arabidopsis, the Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) Receptor kinase CLAVATA1 (CLV1) is a crucial regulator of this process in the SAM. In soybean, the receptor most similar to ATCLV1 is GmNARK, which is involved in nodulation control. In contrast, the homeologous partner of GmNARK in soybean, called GmCLV1A, appears to have no function in 'Autoregulation of nodulation' (AON) a role in regulating shoot architecture in the SAM. Here, the transcriptome of the shoot and root tip areas of a chemically induced and TILLING-selected GmCLV1A missense mutant, S562L, and its wild type, cultivar Forrest, were analysed to identify genes which are affected by impaired function of GmCLV1A. Among the differentially expressed genes identified, many were categorised as having a role in receptor kinase activity, transcription or defense/stress-response. Molecular categories over-represented in the shoot tip of the mutant include those involved in hormone biosynthesis/activity and secondary metabolism, signalling, photosynthesis, and transport. Functional categories including those involved in polyamine metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, RNA regulation, protein targeting and protein degradation were under-represented in the shoot tip of the mutant. In the root tip, categories associated with signal ling, transport, protein synthesis and metabolism were over-represented in the mutant, while categories associated with cell wall degradation, stress, RNA regulation, protein degradation and targeting were under-represented in the mutant. Factors similar to Arabidopsis regulatory components are most likely functioning in specialised shoot structures in legumes. Furthermore, GmCLV1A may have an unexpected role in the regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis in soybean.


We study some properties of an embedded variety covered by lines and give a numerical criterion ensuring the existence of a singular conic through two of its general points. We show that our criterion is sharp. Conic-connected, covered by lines, QEL, LQEL, prime Fano, defective, and dual defective varieties are closely related. We study some relations between the above mentioned classes of objects using basic results by Ein and Zak.


Algorithmic cooling (AC) of spins applies entropy manipulation algorithms in open spin systems in order to cool spins far beyond Shannon's entropy bound. Algorithmic cooling of nuclear spins was demonstrated experimentally and may contribute to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Several cooling algorithms were suggested in recent years, including practicable algorithmic cooling (PAC) and exhaustive AC. Practicable algorithms have simple implementations, yet their level of cooling is far from optimal; exhaustive algorithms, on the other hand, cool much better, and some even reach (asymptotically) an optimal level of cooling, but they are not practicable. We introduce here semioptimal practicable AC (SOPAC), wherein a few cycles (typically two to six) are performed at each recursive level. Two classes of SOPAC algorithms are proposed and analyzed. Both attain cooling levels significantly better than PAC and are much more efficient than the exhaustive algorithms. These algorithms are shown to bridge the gap between PAC and exhaustive AC. In addition, we calculated the number of spins required by SOPAC in order to purify qubits for quantum computation. As few as 12 and 7 spins are required (in an ideal scenario) to yield a mildly pure spin (60% polarized) from initial polarizations of 1% and 10%,more » respectively. In the latter case, about five more spins are sufficient to produce a highly pure spin (99.99% polarized), which could be relevant for fault-tolerant quantum computing.« less


Compared with the roads and reinforced concrete bridges inland, roads and bridges in coastal region is easier to be destroyed which makes its durability lower because of chloride ion erosion. Steel structures in coastal roads and bridges have been corroding by chloride ion for a long time which caused fast collapse after rotten and aged steel appeared. For coastal region, therefore, every year, a large amount of money is used to reinforce and maintain the roads and bridges, which brings serious economic losses and in a way affects the social environment in coastal region.


Explaining the Iraq War: Counterfactual Theory, Logic and Evidence. By Frank P. Harvey. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 360p. $103.00 cloth, $29.99 paper. The Iraq War initiated by the Bush administration in 2003 was and perhaps continues to be an important episode in world politics, US politics, and the politics of the Middle East. The war also galvanized controversy among public intellectuals and broader publics, and generated strong opposition in many European and Middle Eastern countries. In Explaining the Iraq War, Frank P. Harvey offers an interesting analysis of the war and its causes, and does so in a way that raises broader questions about politics and about the scientific study of politics. We have thus invited a distinguished group of political scientists from a variety of subfields to review the book, both as an account of the Iraq War and as a contribution to political science more generally.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor


Chile's free‐market Water Code turned 20 years old in October 2001. This anniversary was an important milestone for both Chilean and international debates about water policy because Chile has become the world's leading example of the free‐market approach to water law and water resources management, the textbook case of treating water rights not merely as private property but also as a fully marketable commodity. The predominant view outside of Chile is that Chilean water markets and the Chilean model of water management have been a success, and this perception has encouraged other countries to follow Chile's lead in water law reform. Much of the debate about Chilean water markets, however, has been based more on theoretical or political beliefs than on empirical study. This paper reverses that emphasis by reviewing the evolution of empirical research about these markets since 1990, when Chile returned to democratic government after 16 years of military rule. During the period since 1990, understanding of how Chilean water markets have worked in practice has gradually improved. There have been two major trends in this research: first, a gradual shift from exaggerated claims of the markets' success toward more balanced assessments of mixed results and, second, a heavy emphasis on the economics of water rights trading with very little attention given to the Water Code's impacts on social equity, river basin management, environmental protection, or resolution of water conflicts. The analysis in this study is qualitative and interdisciplinary, combining law, economics, and institutions.


Electroencephalography (EEG) has received much attention because it provides comprehensive information of human perception and is relatively spaceand costeffective compared with the other functional brain imaging methods. In this paper, we present an approach to model undirected and directed cross-regional dependence of EEG signals with convolutional neural networks (CNNs). It considers the brain connectivity that measures simultaneous activation of different brain regions. Furthermore, the spatial arrangement of EEG electrodes is examined. We verify the effectiveness of the method for EEG-based emotion recognition.


Inflammation is part of the physiological innate immune response to invading pathogens and tissue injury. However, unresolved inflammation leads to human disease. The tribbles (TRIB) family of pseudokinase proteins has been shown to modulate key inflammatory signalling pathways, including the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) and PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) networks. This review summarizes our current knowledge on TRIBs in the context of inflammation, both at the level of molecular mechanisms and in disease development.


Minimally invasive, transcatheter therapeutic interventions for structural heart disease have evolved over the past several decades as appealing alternatives to open-chest surgery. Smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery are outcomes that are ubiquitous to all approved transcatheter procedures, in comparison to traditional surgery. X-ray fluoroscopy (XRF) is the most commonly used imaging modality to guide transcatheter procedures. XRF offers certain advantages. Interventionalists have close familiarity with XRF systems. These systems are also widely available in centers with cardiac catheterization laboratories. XRF can visualize high X-ray attenuating devices such as radio-opaque catheters and metallic stents. However, XRF has certain disadvantages. For example, soft tissues such as myocardium, and valves are visualized poorly. Chambers and vessels are only transiently visible when filled with boluses of iodinated contrast, which can be nephrotoxic in susceptible individuals. Conventional X-ray also images using the principle of "projection" imaging, making it difficult to judge three dimensional (3D) perspective. Finally, over-reliance on XRF as the sole imaging modality exposes the patient and in-room personnel to the harmful effects of ionizing radiation. Wholly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (1-4) and ultrasound guided (US) (5,6) cardiovascular interventions have been tested in animal models and clinical studies as ionizing radiation-free alternatives to XRF. However, wide adoption of these methods has been prevented in large part by the lack of visually conspicuous devices that still maintain high mechanical performance.


In the present work, an extensive research program has been undertaken to characterise a wide spectrum of properties of nano-metals. In particular, the effect of grain refinement on such properties as fatigue, corrosion and wear resistance, conductivity and thermal stability has been studied for various nano-metals (aluminium, copper and iron alloys). The results have revealed that nano-grain refinement also improves physical properties of single phase metals. A disadvantageous effect of large (micron sized) particles, which do not undergo refinement during the processing, has been also recognized.