Despite rapid internal migration to cities across the developing world, little is known about identity formation within poor urban migrant communities. When will ethnic differences socially and politically divide poor migrants in the city? And when will ascriptive differences be obscured by shared class identities? I study these crucial questions through six months of ethnographic fieldwork and a large-scale vignette-experiment (N=3018) conducted among internal migrants in urban India. Intra-class ethnic divisions prove highly salient in interactions exclusively between poor migrants, but irrelevant in interactions that also include urban elites. I introduce a new mechanism to explain this variation: a solidarity effect produced by city elites who perceive and treat migrants of different ethnicities in shared class terms. Elite behavior stems from the concentration of poor migrants into ethnically heterogeneous, economically homogeneous urban worksites and settlements. Such concentration reverses the visibility advantage ethnicity enjoys over class in villages structured along ethnic lines.


This is the final draft, after peer-review of a manuscript published in Learning: Research and Practice. The published version is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/23735082.2017.1360631


The article attempts to analyse the current situation in training scientific and pedagogical personnel, as well as certain reasons for the low indicators of candidate-of-sciences theses defended in recent years. There are analyzed the state and dynamics of the system of postgraduate training in the post-Soviet period, including changes that came into force in 2013 and 2014 – those of assigning an educational status to postgraduate studies and of increasing requirements imposed on applicants of academic degrees. It is discussed how these changes fit the global context of postgraduate education development, whether they can be considered an explanation for the decrease of theses defences. The article proves that the negative trends observed today in the sphere of scientific and pedagogical personnel training are determined by the processes occurring in higher education and science in the post-Soviet period and by the problems arisen as a result of these processes. The empirical base of the research is a survey of 1,866 graduate students in 11 Russian universities participating in Project 5–100, as well as semi-structured interviews with 20 graduate students and 11 university staff responsible for the implementation of graduate programmes. The key problems of the Russian postgraduate studies identified on the basis of the empirical study are the following: (1) poor quality of enrollment; (2) poor quality of scientific advisory; (3) insufficient financial support of postgraduates. The article suggests possible steps to overcome these problems.


In this paper we draw on the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data to examine the impact of pre-recession socio-economic characteristics on the economic stress levels of households with children. Our results provide some support for the polarisation argument, with the largest increases in absolute percentage point terms occurring towards the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy. However, this was accompanied by sharp attenuation of socio economic inequalities in stress and a dramatic increase in the heterogeneity of economically stressed households. The analysis shows that the reality is more complex than either the "class polarisation" or "middle class squeeze" hypotheses would suggest. The results create a new set of challenges for policy that require a careful balancing of issues of legitimacy, the need to meet very broad-based needs for services and the more traditional targeted assistance to vulnerable groups.


Before a helicopter leaves the plant, it needs to be tuned so that its vibrations meet the required specifications. Helicopter track and balance is currently performed based on sensitivity coefficients which have been developed statistically after years of production experience. The fundamental problem with using these sensitivity coefficients, however, is that they do not account for the nonlinear coupling between modifications or their effect on high amplitude vibrations. In order to ensure the reliability of these sensitivity coefficients, only a limited number of modifications are simultaneously applied. As such, a number of flights are performed before the aircraft is tuned, resulting in increased production and maintenance cost. In this paper, the application of feedforward neural nets coupled with back-propagation training is demonstrated to learn the nonlinear effect ofmodifications, so that the appropriate set of modifications can be selected in fewer iterations (flights). The effectiveness of this system of neural nets for track and balance is currently being investigated at the Sikorsky production line.


Cigarette smoke exposure, increasing oxidative stress, may accelerate senescence processes. The effects of carbocysteine on the molecular mechanisms of cellular senescence in human bronchial epithelial cells stimulated with cigarette smoke extracts (CSE) are largely unknown. This study was aimed to explore whether carbocysteine, in a bronchial epithelial cell line (16-HBE), counteracted some CSE-mediated effects and in particular some molecular mechanisms associated to cellular senescence. Methods: Bronchial epithelial cells were stimulated with CSE and/or carbocysteine. Cell proliferation was assessed by flow-citometry (72 hours colture) and by clonogenic assay (21 days colture); SIRT-1 and FOXO-3 expression were assessed by flow-citometry and by western blot analysis, respectively. Results: CSE decreased cell proliferation as well as the expression of SIRT-1 and FOXO-3. Carbocysteine in CSE stimulated bronchial epithelial cells reverted these phenomena increasing the cell proliferation, the expression of SIRT-1 and of FOXO-3. In conclusion, the present study provides compelling evidences that carbocysteine may contribute to revert some senescence processes induced by oxidative stress due to cigarette smoke exposure. Funded by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and by Dompe.


Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is a common T-cell-mediated inflammation resulting from repeated contact with allergens (e.g. nickel or poison ivy). Current treatments typically involve topical corticosteroids, which non-specifically and transiently suppress inflammation, but fail to address the underlying allergen-specific immune dysfunction. Here, we present two novel approaches that teach the immune system to tolerate contact allergens by inducing suppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs). Specifically, we leveraged biomimetic delivery systems to modulate the skin draining lymph node (DLN) microenvironment with microparticles (MPs) that release TReg-Inducing (TRI) factors, or the skin microenvironment with microneedle arrays (MNAs) that deliver vitamin D3 analog (MC903) to cultivate Treg-inducing tolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs).

We previously demonstrated that TGF-β1, rapamycin, and IL-2 (TRI) promote Treg differentiation in vitro; however, original TGF-β1 MPs exhibited an unexpected two-week delay in release, inconsistent with existing models of controlled release. Suspecting electrostatic interactions between cationic TGF-β1 and negatively charged PLGA MPs were responsible, we characterized the influence of charge on release from PLGA MPs. Release assays revealed inverse correlations between positive charge on encapsulated agents and release rates, and effects of polymer charge density. These results helped us to rationally reformulate TRI MPs using less charged PEG-PLGA to achieve faster release.

In acute murine models of ACD, new TRI MP formulations were injected near sites of allergen exposure to condition the skin DLN. By expanding allergen-specific Tregs and reducing pro-inflammatory effector T cells (Teff), TRI MPs inhibited hypersensitivity responses to subsequent allergen exposure in an allergen-specific manner, effectively preventing or reversing ongoing ACD. Much like TRI MP therapy, intradermal delivery of allergen and MC903 with MNAs also prevented sensitization and inhibited subsequent hypersensitivity responses in naive and allergic mice by expanding Tregs and reducing Teff. Notably, treatment of human skin explants with MC903 MNA promoted tolerogenic cutaneous microenvironments and caused preferential migration of more tolerogenic DCs, previously shown to support Treg-induction. Collectively, these results suggest that simultaneous introduction of antigen and modulation of local skin or skin DLN with MC903 MNA or TRI MP can induce antigen-specific tolerance, with broad therapeutic applications for other inflammatory disorders, autoimmune diseases, or transplant rejection.


This handbook describes methods for processing and analyzing functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fcMRI) data using the CONN toolbox. The first chapter (fMRI minimal preprocessing pipeline) describes standard and advanced preprocessing steps in fcMRI. These steps are aimed at correcting or minimizing the influence of well-known factors affecting the quality of functional and anatomical MRI data, including effects arising from subject motion within the scanner, temporal and spatial image distortions due to the sequential nature of the scanning acquisition protocol, and inhomogeneities in the scanner magnetic field, as well as anatomical differences among subjects.Even after these conventional preprocessing steps, the measured blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal often still contains a considerable amount of noise from a combination of physiological effects, outliers, and residual subject-motion factors. If unaccounted for, these factors would introduce very strong and noticeable biases in all functional connectivity measures. The second chapter (fMRI denoising pipeline) describes standard and advanced denoising procedures in CONN that are used to characterize and remove the effect of these residual non-neural noise sources.Functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies attempt to quantify the level of functional integration across different brain areas. The third chapter (functional connectivity measures) describes a representative set of functional connectivity measures available in CONN, each focusing on different indicators of functional integration, including seed-based connectivity measures, ROI-to-ROI measures, graph theoretical approaches, network-based measures, and dynamic connectivity measures.Second-level analyses allow researchers to make inferences about properties of groups or populations, by generalizing from the observations of only a subset of subjects in a study. The fourth chapter (General Linear Model) describes the mathematics behind the General Linear Model (GLM), the approach used in CONN for all second-level analyses of functional connectivity measures. The description includes GLM model definition, parameter estimation, and hypothesis testing framework, as well as several practical examples and general guidelines aimed at helping researchers use this method to answer their specific research questions. The last chapter (cluster-level inferences) details several approaches implemented in CONN that allow researchers to make meaningful inferences from their second-level analysis results while providing appropriate family-wise error control (FWEC), whether in the context of voxel-based measures, such as when studying properties of seed-based maps across multiple subjects, or in the context of ROI-to-ROI measures, such as when studying properties of ROI-to-ROI connectivity matrices across multiple subjects.


As a unique machining way, Abrasive Waterjet Machining (AWJ) is one of the fastest developing new non-traditional machining methods and has a wide range of machinable materials. In this paper, the machining mechanism in AWJ is theoretically analyzed by impact dynamic mechanics method. There is stagnancy layer between waterjet and workpiece surface. It is found that the stagnancy layer and low energy abrasive particle are the main factors, which weaken machining capability and effective utilizing ratio of energy of AWJ machining. Ultrasonic Vibration Abrasive Waterjet Machining, a new machining method, is put forward and the influence of ultrasonic vibration on machining mechanism of AWJ machining is discussed.


This paper presents a musical genre classification system based on the combination of two kinds of information of very different nature: the instrumentation information contained in a MIDI file (metadata) and the chords that provide the harmonic structure of the musical score stored in that file (content). The fusion of these two information sources gives a single feature vector that represents the file and to which classification techniques usually utilized for text categorization tasks are applied. The classification task is performed under a probabilistic approach that has improved the results previously obtained for the same data using the instrumental or the chord information independently.


This paper describes how the Zimbabwe Natural Resources Act of 1941 nurtured a civic landholder-based conservation movement, the Intensive Conservation Area movement (ICA). This is not recorded in the published literature. It provides a rare insight into the efficacy of environmental regulation that legally devolves use rights and regulatory responsibility to communities of landholders, and favours democratic processes above top-down regulation. The main message is that natural resource governance is effective when (a) landholders are genuinely empowered with the rights to use and manage natural resources provided, and (b) this occurs within a framework of devolved and collective self-regulation through structures built democratically from the bottom up. The effectiveness of these structures is surprisingly sensitive to any reduction in democratic control. The ICA movement anticipates, and is aligned with, the emerging theories of common property, scale, management, systems thinking and new institutional economics. These have common roots in the principle that human affairs and complexity are best managed where hierarchies of nested institutions serve the bottom layers, not the top. This suggests that entitling landholders, including communities, with full choice to use and management natural resources, and relying on local collective action to control environmental abuses or externalities, will strengthen future approaches for natural resource governance, including for wildlife and southern Africa.


Midwives and general practice nurses are ideally positioned to provide nutrition education to pregnant women. However, it appears that they do not receive sufficient nutrition training to enable them to fulfil this role. This study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate a suite of learning resources developed specifically for midwives, general practice nurses and student nurses. A four-module suite of learning resources was developed based on recommendations in the Australian Antenatal Care Clinical Guidelines as well as formative evaluation with stakeholders. The feasibility of these modules was tested using a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design with three arms using convenient sampling (face-to-face with midwives; online with student nurses; and online with midwives, nurses and practice nurses). Completion rates across the three study arms were poor (n=40 participants in total). For the combined data, there was a significant increase in knowledge scores across all modules from the pretest score (median (IQR): 3.46 (2.09–4.13)) to the post-test score (5.66 (4.66–6.00)) (p<0.001). Studies of high quality are required to determine if changing the nutrition knowledge and confidence in delivering nutrition care of health professionals results in sustainable changes to their clinical practice.


Conclusion. Through the application of high resolution X-ray micro-tomography and a method of contrast enhancement based on en bloc staining in osmium tetroxide (OsO4), we report an approach that facilitates accurate three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction to reveal the fine structure of the inner ear. Objectives. To overcome the problems of artefacts, including tissue distortion and loss of 3D context that are inherent in existing methods that rely on manual dissection and/or histological sectioning. Materials and methods. A staining protocol was developed that involved the en bloc application of the OsO4solution (2% w/v) for an extended period of time. The samples were then scanned using an X-ray micro-tomography platform and subsequent 3D visualizations were constructed. Results. The digital nature of the data allowed a complete 3D contextual visualization to be constructed whereby the individual sensory structures could be seen in relation to other inner ear structures. This included a detailed anatomy of the membranous labyrinth and nerve supply including the spatial configuration of the utricular and saccular maculae. This is a new way of undertaking temporal bone histology.


Many recent experiments probed the off equilibrium dynamics of spin glasses and other glassy systems through temperature cycling protocols, and observed memory and rejuvenation phenomena. Here we show through numerical simulations, using powerful algorithms, that such features can already be observed to some extent in simple models such as two dimensional ferromagnets. We critically discuss these results and review some aspects of the literature in the light of our findings.


Artificial intelligence has undergone immense growth and maturation in recent years, though autonomous systems have traditionally struggled when fielded in diverse and previously unknown environments. DARPA is seeking to change that with the Subterranean Challenge, by providing roboticists the opportunity to support civilian and military first responders in complex and high-risk underground scenarios. The subterranean domain presents a handful of challenges, such as limited communication, diverse topology and terrain, and degraded sensing. Team MARBLE proposes a solution for autonomous exploration of unknown subterranean environments in which coordinated agents search for artifacts of interest. The team presents two navigation algorithms in the form of a metric-topological graph-based planner and a continuous frontier-based planner. To facilitate multi-agent coordination, agents share and merge new map information and candidate goal points. Agents deploy communication beacons at different points in the environment, extending the range at which maps and other information can be shared. Onboard autonomy reduces the load on human supervisors, allowing agents to detect and localize artifacts and explore autonomously outside established communication networks. Given the scale, complexity, and tempo of this challenge, a range of lessons was learned, most importantly, that frequent and comprehensive field testing in representative environments is key to rapidly refining system performance.


The main contribution of this paper is the stability analysis and adaptive control design of a hyperbolic Partial Differential Equation (PDE) system model for crowd dynamics. The feedback control of crowd dynamics has become an important area of research and has been under investigation in recent years. The control of such systems is difficult to achieve as the dynamics are governed by hyperbolic PDEs. This paper presents the design of a nonlinear adaptive controller for a hyperbolic partial differential equation model representing crowd dynamics. Most of the adaptive control in literature is studied for parabolic PDEs. In this paper, adaptive control is studied for hyperbolic PDEs. The feedback control is designed in the presence of uncertainties due to unknown parameters. The controller is designed using the Lyapunov method. The controller designed is shown to achieve uniform boundedness.


International business exchanges between and with Asian countries have increased enormously over the last few years. As a natural consequence, this has brought about an increasing number of trade disputes that are being resolved through arbitration as an effective alternative to more expensive litigation. This volume offers a variety of perspectives on this important international dispute resolution practice in Asia. Essentially interdisciplinary in approach, it brings together specialists in law, international commercial arbitration and discourse analysis. The contributing authors include practitioners as well as academics. Together they explore the interrelations between discourses and practices in the field of arbitration in Asia. The work also investigates the extent to which the 'integrity' of arbitration principles, typical of international commercial arbitration practice, is maintained in various Asian contexts. The authors focus particularly on arbitration norms and practices as they are influenced by local juridical, cultural and linguistic factors.


Viability of alternative crops in a monoculture grass seed cropping system will be enhanced if minimum tillage establishment through grass seed stubble is successful without burning. Our objective was to compare agronomic performances of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), white clover (T. repens L.), meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba L.), and pea (Pisum sativum L.) when drill-seeded in the stubble of a third-year perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) seed crop, with and without burning stubble. Four field experiments were conducted during a 6-yr period on a Woodburn silt-loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic Aquultic Argixerolls) soil in western Oregon. Ryegrass stubble was either propane-burned or was not burned before drill-seeding the rotational crops. In one experiment, a rotary strip-till drill was also compared with a no-till drill for establishing white clover in perennial ryegrass stubble. Burning the stubble enhanced spring growth of red clover ; however, forage and seed yields in the first crop year were 47 and 66% higher, respectively, for the nonburned than the burned treatments. There were no differences among treatments for forage and seed yields of red clover in the second crop year. Treatments did not affect dry matter or seed production of white clover and spring pea. Meadowfoam forage and seed yields were 26 and 24% lower, respectively, for the nonburned than the burned treatments. We concluded that burning stubble before seeding may be advantageous for winter annual seed crops that mature during the spring or early summer months. However, burning stubble is not beneficial, or may be disadvantageous, for crops that mature during the late summer in areas such as Oregon with a Mediterranean climate. The no-till drill was superior to the strip-till drill for establishing white clover in perennial ryegrass stubble regardless of stubble management method.


The paper defines a new theoretical measure Total Influence, of a node as well as a set of nodes in the social network. Total influence uses probabilistic theory to obtain the expected size of the information spreading in the social network under the independent cascade model of diffusion. In order to quantify the size of the spreading practically, the paper proposes a new hybrid simulation methodology for the independent cascade model. The hybrid method uses rough set theory and defines rough knowledge agents around all the seed nodes from which the information is propagating. The lower approximation is calculated using the probabilistic approach, while the size of influence in the boundary region is quantified by Monte-Carlo simulation on a reduced network. The reduce network is formed by compacting all the nodes in the lower approximate region as a super-node. Experimental results on two synthetically generated directed network show that the hybrid method runs magnitude faster than its counterpart with a similar accuracy of the spreading size.


In this paper, a multimedia synchronization model is proposed. The purpose of this model is description for temporal relationships(i.e. time ordering and synchronization for multimedia presentation) among various media. In the model, user interactions, such as conditional branching and menu selection, are also considered. For the description of the temporal relationships, Boolean Expressions are used. The concept of media objects would be a great help to manipulate multimedia data. The functions of the media objects are defined in this paper. A media object is an entity that contains associated data and a media variable representing its presentation state. Various types of media are classified into two types: OUTPUT and INPUT media objects. OUTPUT media objects have data perceived by the user such as graphics, image, drawings, animation, audio and video. INPUT media objects such as buttons and menus can handle input from the user.
Temporal relationships among media objects can be represented by a set of presentation expressions consisting of a Boolean expression; three logical operators(and, or, and not) and media variables. The value of the media variable indicates the state of media(e.g., in the case of video object, it has two states; playing and not playing.) Furthermore, by describing temporal relationships between input media objects and output media objects, user interaction can be successfully described in our model.
A multimedia animal guide system, prototype system base on the model, was implemented. The system can synchronously present the media such as video, audio, image, and text, and can explain the feature and characteristics of animals, and the sequence of the presentation can be controlled by the user.


Frequent itemset mining (FIM) is an essential task within data analysis since it is responsible for extracting frequently occurring events, patterns, or items in data. Insights from such pattern analysis offer important benefits in decision‐making processes. However, algorithmic solutions for mining such kind of patterns are not straightforward since the computational complexity exponentially increases with the number of items in data. This issue, together with the significant memory consumption that is present in the mining process, makes it necessary to propose extremely efficient solutions. Since the FIM problem was first described in the early 1990s, multiple solutions have been proposed by considering centralized systems as well as parallel (shared or nonshared memory) architectures. Solutions can also be divided into exhaustive search and nonexhaustive search models. Many of such approaches are extensions of other solutions and it is therefore necessary to analyze how this task has been considered during the last decades.


In this paper, a three-dimensional finite element model is developed to simulate and analyze the turbulent flow in the mould of billet continuous casting. The result shows that if the SEN is used in the continuous casting process, there exists a symmetrical stronger vortex in the middle of the mould and a weaker vortex above the nozzle. The casting speed, the depth and diameter of SEN all have significant effect on the fluid flow field and the turbulent kinetic energy on the meniscus, and then have effect on the billet quality. At the given conditions, the optimum set of parameters is: the casting speed 0.035 , the depth of the SEN 0.1 , the diameter of the SEN 0.025 . Online verifying of this model has been developed, which can be proved that it is very useful to control the steel quality and improve the productivity.


A recombinant fusion protein composed of the full-length extracellular domain (soluble) of human receptor tyrosine kinase ephrin type-B receptor 4 (sEphB4) and fused, at its C-terminus, to full-length human serum albumin (HSA), with potential antineoplastic and anti-angiogenic activities. sEphB4-HSA functions as a decoy receptor for the membrane-bound ligand Ephrin-B2 (Efnb2) and interferes with the binding of Efnb2 to its native receptors, including EphB4 and EphA3. This may result in a reduction of angiogenesis and a reduction in cell growth of Efnb2 and/or EphB4 over-expressing tumor cells. In addition, this agent also prevents the angiogenic effects of numerous growth factors due to interactions between Efnb2 and EphB4. Efnb2 and EphB4 are overexpressed in a variety of tumor cell types; the bi-directional signaling of Efnb2-EphB4 plays an important role in angiogenesis and tumor cell migration, invasion, and proliferation. Albumin reduces this agent's degradation, improves circulation time and may thus improve efficacy.


One can distinguish a culturally valued aesthetic response to music9s intrinsic syntax from a culturally devalued aesthetic response to music9s more extrinsic meaning. Experts probably hold a highly syntactic aesthetic ideal. By some accounts, novice listeners hold a less syntactic, more romantic ideal. If so, two aesthetic styles would coexist in musical culture, with experts broadcasting their syntactic ideal to the culture and listeners echoing it in their ideas of musical greatness. However, novices would have a musical split personality—with romantic preference at odds with the expert ideal, but a syntactic ideal of greatness congruent with it. An analysis of American classical music culture of the 1940s (using preference, eminence, space allocation, and musical performance data on Western composers collected by Farnsworth, Hevner-Mueller, etc.) confirmed these predictions. The results indicate the importance of nonsyntactic responses to listeners and suggest further research on these aesthetic dimensions which the culture9s syntactic focus has orphaned. Such research might illuminate another cultural phenomenon—the rejection of contemporary music by audiences.


In this paper, we study a specific type of Engineer-to-Order (ETO) firms called Complex ETO characterized by one-of-a-kind products with high complexity and low volumes. Such firms are at high risk of encountering significant engineering changes due to their characteristics. The management of engineering changes have a large impact of time, cost, and quality of the project. The purpose of this paper is therefore to provide a holistic taxonomy for Engineering Change Management (ECM) that can guide the companies with set of actions to prevent, handle, and manage engineering changes. The study is based on literature and empirical findings from a single case study conducted in an offshore platform producer, which resulted in development and verification of the taxonomy.


This paper experimentally tests the contribution of two distinct aspects of social interaction to the creation of shared symbols: behaviour alignment and concurrent partner feedback. Pairs of participants (N= 120, or 60 pairs) completed an experimental-semiotic game, similar to Pictionary, in which they tried to communicate a range of recurring meanings to a partner by drawing on a shared whiteboard (without speaking or using numbers of letters in their drawings). The opportunity for sign alignment and/or concurrent partner feedback was manipulated in a full factorial design. Each process made a distinct contribution to the evolution of shared symbols: sign alignment directly influenced communication success, and concurrent partner feedback drove sign simplification and symbolization. These complimentary processes led to the interactive evolution of effective and efficient human communication systems.


In today's highly competitive environment, Health care centers realize the importance of service quality as a measure to improve their competitive position. Consumer's perceptions about the health care services play an important role when choosing a hospital. In this paper, the service quality in corporate and non-corporate health care centers has been measured. Actually, this research work is the extension of the research work done by Sharma and Chahal, 2003 and Chahal and Sharma, 2004. The well-documented 'Service Quality model' was used as a conceptual framework for understanding service quality delivery in health care centers. An analysis covering a sample of 2.00 patients from corporate and non-corporate health care centers. The analysis revealed that the important service quality factors in health care centers are physician behaviour, supportive staff, atmospherics and operational performance. The corporate health care centre are highly rated them the non corporate health centers regarding all service quality factors. The perception on service quality factors in health care centers has a significant and positive impact on the patients' perception on the overall performance of the health care centre. The important discriminant service quality factors among the two type of health care centre are atmospherics and supportive staffs. The study suggests improvement across all service quality factors and formulation of suitable strategies for enhancing patients' satisfaction.


We present a first-principles study of ferroelectric domain walls (FE-DWs) in multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ (BFO), a material in which the FE order parameter coexists with anti-ferrodistortive (AFD) modes involving rotations of the O$_6$ octahedra. We find that the energetics of the DWs are dominated by the capability of the domains to match their O$_6$ octahedra rotation patterns at the plane of the wall, so that the distortion of the oxygen groups is minimized. Our results thus indicate that, in essence, it is the discontinuity in the AFD order parameter, and not the change in the electric polarization, what decides which crystallographic planes are most likely to host BFO's FE-DWs. Such a result clearly suggests that the O$_6$ rotational patterns play a primary role in the FE phase of this compound, in contrast with the usual (implicit) assumption that they are subordinated to the FE order parameter. Our calculations show that, for the most favorable cases in BFO, the DW energy amounts to a several tens of mJ/m$^2$, which is higher than what was computed for other ferroelectric perovskites with no O$_6$ rotations. Interestingly, we find that the structure of BFO at the most stable DWs resembles the atomic arrangements that are characteristic of low-lying (meta)stable phases of the material. Further, we argue that our results for the DWs of bulk BFO are related with the nanoscale-twinned structures that Prosandeev et al. [Adv. Funct. Mats. (2012), doi: 10.1002/adfm.201201467] have recently predicted to occur in this compound, and suggest that BFO can be viewed as a polytypic material. Our work thus contributes to shape a coherent picture of the structural variants that BFO can present and the way in which they are related.


The pathogenesis of EBV+ Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) suggests evasion of the CTL response against EBV. Two important features of this tumor have been previously suggested to explain this immune evasion, (a) absence/low expression of cellular adhesion molecules and (b) restricted expression of EBV latent Ag. To determine the relative importance of these features in relation to evasion of EBV-specific CTL, a group of BL cell lines with variable expression of the aforementioned phenotypic characteristics were assayed for specific CTL lysis after exogenous addition of EBV peptide epitopes. In spite of down-regulated expression of the adhesion molecules LFA-1, LFA-3, and/or ICAM-1, peptide-sensitized BL cells were recognized and lysed by EBV-specific CTL. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the CTL lysis of the BL cells and that of adhesion molecule-positive control cells over a wide range of peptide epitope concentrations. Blocking experiments with mAb to individual adhesion molecules suggested that virus-specific CTL recognition of lymphoblastoid cell lines was dependent on an intact LFA-3/CD2 pathway. In contrast, the CTL recognition of peptide-sensitized BL cells was critically dependent on the LFA-1/ICAM pathway, with an insignificant contribution by CD2/LFA-3. The consistently high expression of ICAM-2 on all BL cell lines suggests that the accessory function in CTL recognition of these cells is mediated by the LFA-1/ICAM-2 pathway. Thus, down-regulation of LFA-1, LFA-3, and/or ICAM-1 expression on BL cells does not provide an absolute barrier to tumor cell recognition by virus-specific CTL. The ability of virus-specific CTL to recognize peptide epitope-sensitized BL cells as efficiently as normal cells has demonstrated the importance of latent Ag expression in the CTL control of EBV+ tumors.


Abstract Objective To demonstrate clinical importance of the 75-g glucose tolerance test (GTT) in the prediction of large for gestational age (LGA) fetuses in non-diabetic pregnancies. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 75-g GTT screening results of 356 pregnancies without prompt diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) between January 2013 and December 2017. Newborns with a birthweight greater than the 90th percentile were evaluated as LGA. Pregnancies with LGA and non-LGA fetuses were compared by demographic and historical factors – maternal age, gravidity, parity, birthweight, birthweek, GTT results and birthweight percentiles – via Student's t-test. Multiple linear regression using the backward elimination method was performed to define the correlation between parameters and LGA (P-value of <0.20 was identified as the threshold). Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was performed for further analysis. Results The cohort was consisted of 45 (12.6%) and 311 (87.4%) pregnancies with LGA and non-LGA fetuses, respectively. Maternal age and 2nd-h GTT results were found to be significantly higher in patients with LGA newborns (P<0.001 and P=0.016, respectively). Fasting glucose levels and GTT 1st-h results were also higher (P=0.112, P=0.065). The coefficient of multiple determination (R2) was 0.055 by multiple linear regression analysis. Accordingly, GTT 2nd-h result and maternal age were statistically significant and contributed to the explanation of LGA, although the R2 value was not that much higher (P=0.016; P=0.001). Maternal age and GTT 2nd-h results were found to be associated with LGA fetuses with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.662 and 0.608 according to ROC curve analysis. Conclusion Maternal age and 75-g GTT 2nd-h results were significantly higher in gestations with LGA newborns without GDM.


In this paper, an adaptive preconditioner is constructed for Jacobian-free Newton-GMRES(m) [JFNG(m)] methods, which is devised for solving coordination equations in distributed simulations of power systems. The preconditioner is updated during both Newton iterations and GMRES iterations by means of a rank-one update algorithm. The proposed preconditioned JFNG(m) is applied to power flow calculations for test. The results show that the adaptive preconditioner can enhance convergence of Newton-GMRES(m) iteration schemes greatly and has stronger robustness compared with other precondition methods. Moreover, the proposed method has strong parallelism and scalability, which makes it feasible to solve distributed simulation problems of power systems


WHILE I WAS ON A CLERKSHIP IN THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (ICU), A FRIEND drew my attention to a chapter in Robert Zussman's book, Intensive Care. In this chapter, an intern on an ICU rotation reports a bizarre dream in which he finds penguins in a basement. In order to save one of these penguins, who can only survive in a cold environment, he puts it in a blender with some ice and turns the blender on. For me, the enduring lesson of my time in the ICU was that bad things can sometimes happen to people in the hospital. Sometimes a treatment can be worse than the disease itself. Sometimes our efforts seem only to prolong a patient's suffering. Many medical students have had a similar ICU experience at some point in their training; from this, it requires no great leap of reasoning to reconsider the role of the physician in addressing pain and suffering. Should unwilling patients be allowed to forgo life-sustaining therapy? Most systems of law concede this right. But this raises a more difficult question: Should physicians assist certain patients—perhaps those who meet some predefined criteria for measuring distress—in ending their own lives? Within the medical profession and among ethicists there are strong opinions, but there is no widely agreed-upon answer. Perhaps mirroring or perhaps causing this conflicted thinking, lawmakers in our country are similarly divided. In 1997, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution neither explicitly permits nor prohibits physician-assisted suicide. Since then, the states have been free to consider on their own the question of legalizing the practice of assisted suicide. Measures to legalize physician-assisted suicide have been proposed and defeated in eight state legislatures—bringing the number of states outlawing its practice to 38. Oregon, which held a popular referendum on this issue in 1994, became the only state to legalize assisted suicide by implementing its Death With Dignity Act in 1997. In this issue of MSJAMA Juan Carlos Batlle clarifies terminology in recounting the legal and historical differences among assisted suicide, euthanasia, and the withdrawal of life support. Joanne Lynn and Karl Lorenz examine some of the ethical problems that physicians might face in responding to a patient's request for assisted suicide and draw attention to the failure of the US health care system to provide reliable supportive and palliative care for the dying. Larry Palmer sizes up the legal struggle between the US attorney general and the state of Oregon over that state's assisted suicide law. All of these authors challenge us to think about this issue, which yields no easy answers.


Iron accelerates the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Excessive levels of ROS are thought to accelerate skeletal muscle fatigue and contribute to the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function with age. Patients with an iron overload disease frequently report symptoms of weakness and fatigue, which is attributed to reduced cardiac function. The contribution of skeletal muscle to these symptoms is unknown. Using a mouse model of iron overload, we determined the extent of iron accumulation in skeletal muscle and the concentrations of the iron storage protein ferritin. The level of oxidative stress, changes in antioxidant enzymes and exercise performance were also assessed. Compared with control mice, the iron overloaded mice had elevated levels of iron in the tibialis anterior muscle and a fourfold increase in ferritin light chain. The oxidative stress product malondialdehyde was increased in the iron group compared with the control group, as was the antioxidant enzyme activity of glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase. The iron group performed less work on an endurance test and produced less force in a strength test. Body weight and skeletal muscle weight were lower in the iron group following the intervention. Iron loading reduced the weight of the fast‐twitch extensor digitorum longus muscle more than the slow‐twitch soleus muscle. In summary, iron accumulation in skeletal muscle may play a significant role in the reduced exercise capacity seen in iron overload disorders and in ageing, and may play an underlying role in skeletal muscle atrophy.


Abstract. Many questions about earthquake (EQ) generation remain standing. Fracture induced electromagnetic (EM) fields allow real-time monitoring of damage evolution in materials during mechanical loading. An improved understanding of the EM precursors has direct implications for the study of EQ generation processes. An important challenge in this direction is to identify an observed anomaly in a recorded EM time series as a pre-seismic one and correspond this to a distinct stage of EQ generation. In previous papers (Kapiris et al., 2004; Contoyiannis et al., 2005; Papadimitriou et al., 2008), we have shown that the last kHz part of the emerged precursory EM activity is rooted in the fracture of the backbone of asperities distributed along the activated fault, sustaining the system. The crucial character of this suggestion requires further support. In this work we focus on this effort. Tools of information theory (Fisher Information) and concepts of entropy (Shannon and Tsallis entropies) are employed. The analysis indicates that the launch of the EM precursor is combined with the appearance of a significantly higher level of organization, which is an imprint of a corresponding higher level of organization of the local seismicity preceding the EQ occurrence. We argue that the temporal evolution of the detected EM precursor is in harmony with the Intermittent Criticality approach of fracture by means of energy release, correlation length, Hurst exponent and a power-law exponent obtained from frequency-size distributions of seismic/electromagnetic avalanche events. The candidate precursory EM activity is also consistent with other precursors from other disciplines. Thus, accumulated evidence, including laboratory experiments, strengthen the consideration that the emergence of the kHz EM precursor is sourced in the fracture of asperities indicating that EQ occurrence is expected.


Shaping and patterning of bulk or thin layer crystals and ceramics are one of the new frontiers in the field of laser and nonlinear optics. These technical aspects are rarely published, but they are crucial for the fundamental studies as well as for technology and applications. This special issue features 15 articles that focus on the orienting, cutting, polishing, coating, bonding, writing guides, or poling crystals and ceramics for bulk- or micro-optics. We have here a corpus of contributions describing the techniques as well as the gain they bring in terms of functionality or performance of the fabricated components devoted to optics and photonics.


We introduce the spatially correlated multi-armed bandit as a task coupling function learning with exploration-exploitation. Participants interact with bi-variate reward functions on a two-dimensional grid, with the goal of either gaining the largest average score or finding the largest payoff. By providing an opportunity to learn the underlying reward function through spatial correlations, we model to what extent people form beliefs about unexplored payoffs and how that guides search behavior. Participants adapted to assigned payoff conditions, performed better in smooth than in rough environments, and—surprisingly—sometimes seemed to perform equally well in short as in long search horizons. Our modeling results indicate a tendency towards local search options, which when accounted for, suggests participants were best-described as forming only very local inferences about unexplored regions, combined with a search strategy that directly trades off between exploiting high expected rewards and exploring to reduce uncertainty.


One of the main features of globalisation has been the enormous growth in commodity chains that span national boundaries. These chains, which link large numbers of poor workers in developing countries with consumers in the North, potentially offer promising opportunities to spread the gains from globalisation to broader segments of the population. The Kenya horticulture industry is a good example of a global commodity chain, and is widely considered a success story for African development, creating substantial opportunities for employment and self-employment. This paper explores the nature of employment in the production and processing parts of the export horticulture value chain. It describes the characteristics of workers currently employed in the sector, and explores the motivations underlying their choice to engage in wage employment. Due to the large numbers of female workers in the industry, the focus of the paper is on the gender dimensions of horticulture employment. The paper shows that there are not only gender dimensions to the consequences for workers participating in the chain (e.g. wages, skills) but that gender itself is a strong determinant for participating in the chain. We gratefully acknowledge funding for this research from the Department for International Development's Globalisation and Poverty Research Programme. We are also indebted to several Kenyan export companies who will remain anonymous, the Fresh Produce Association of Kenya (FPEAK), and the Horticultural Crops Development Authority (HCDA) for their invaluable assistance. Thanks are also extended to Mary Omosa of IDS, University of Nairobi for managing data collection, and to Neil McCulloch and Masako Ota of IDS, University of Sussex for their generous contribution of quantitative data and continued co-operation. All errors remain our responsibility. Catherine Dolan is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Kirsty Sutherland is a Research Assistant at the Overseas Development Group, Norwich, UK. Correspondence should be addressed to firstname.lastname@example.com.


Simple statisticalmodel has been used to report the thermodynamic, structural, transport and surface properties of liquidAl-Mg alloys at 1073K. In thermodynamic properties we have studied the free energy of mixing and the chemical activity of both components of the alloys. For the structural investigation, our study includes concentration fluctuation in longwave length limit andWarren-Cowley short range order parameter.Viscosity and diffusivity of the alloys have been studied to understand transport properties. The surface behavior has been analyzed by computing surface concentration and surface tension of the alloys. The structural behaviors of the alloys are found to be symmetric with respect to concentrations of the species. The computed results are in good agreement with experimental data. Positive deviation of viscosity isotherms from linear law is observed. Surface tension of the alloys is found to be smaller than ideal values throughout bulk concentration ofAl. For all theoretical analysis, concentration independent energy parameter takes important role, which is found to be temperature dependent.


Finite element analysis is a basic foundational topic that all engineering majors need to understand in order for them to be productive engineering analysts for a variety of industries. This book provides an introductory treatment of finite element analysis with an overview of the various fundamental concepts and applications. It introduces the basic concepts of the finite element method and examples of analysis using systematic methodologies based on ANSYS software. Finite element concepts involving one-dimensional problems are discussed in detail so the reader can thoroughly comprehend the concepts and progressively build upon those problems to aid in analyzing two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems. Moreover, the analysis processes are listed step-by-step for easy implementation, and an overview of two dimensional and three-dimensional concepts and problems is also provided. In addition, multiphysics problems involving coupled analysis examples are presented to further illustrate the broad applicability of the finite element method for a variety of engineering disciplines. The book is primarily targeted toward undergraduate students majoring in civil, biomedical, mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering and any other fields involving aspects of engineering analysis.


1. A histological method is described for a study of post-mortem cytoplasmic changes; the method depends upon observed variations in staining capacity.

2. By the application of this method, a series of cytoplasmic changes were found in ox pituitary glands which had been exposed, after the death of the animal, for varying times to different temperatures. These changes correspond to alterations in the biological activity and chemical content previously investigated.

3. These methods showed that freezing apparently causes no alteration in the distribution of biological activity.

4. It is possible that the histological appearance can be used to determine the suitability of ox pituitary glands for the preparation of active extracts of the anterior lobe.


Inflammasomes represent a group of protein complexes that contribute to host defense against pathogens and repair processes upon the induction of inflammation. However, aberrant and chronic inflammasome activation underlies the pathology of numerous common inflammatory diseases. Inflammasome assembly causes activation of the protease caspase-1 which in turn activates proinflammatory cytokines and induces a lytic type of cell death termed pyroptosis. Although NLRP1 (NACHT, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain containing 1) was the first inflammasome sensor, described almost 20 years ago, the molecular mechanisms underlying its activation and the resulting downstream events are incompletely understood. This is partially a consequence of the poor conservation of the NLRP1 pathway between human and mice. Moreover, recent evidence demonstrates a complex and multi-stage mechanism of NLRP1 inflammasome activation. In contrast to other inflammasome sensors, NLRP1 possesses protease activity required for proteolytic self-cleavage and activation mediated by the function-to-find domain (FIIND). CARD8 is a second FIIND protein and is expressed in humans but not in mice. In immune cells and AML (acute myeloid leukemia) cells, the anti-cancer drug talabostat induces CARD8 activation and causes caspase-1-dependent pyroptosis. In contrast, in human keratinocytes talabostat induces NLRP1 activation and massive proinflammatory cytokine activation. NLRP1 is regarded as the principal inflammasome sensor in human keratinocytes and UVB radiation induces its activation, which is believed to underlie the induction of sunburn. Moreover, gain-of-function mutations of NLRP1 cause inflammatory skin syndromes and a predisposition for the development of skin cancer. SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) of NLRP1 are associated with several (auto)inflammatory diseases with a major skin phenotype, such as psoriasis or vitiligo. Here, we summarize knowledge about NLRP1 with emphasis on its role in human keratinocytes and skin. Due to its accessibility, pharmacological targeting of NLRP1 activation in epidermal keratinocytes represents a promising strategy for the treatment of the numerous patients suffering from NLRP1-dependent inflammatory skin conditions and cancer.


: A procedure for preparative separation of proteins from bovine brain precipitated in a saturated solution by ammonium sulfate (pH 4.0) and remaining in the supernatant is described. It was shown that not less than 22 fractions (up to 28 fractions considering the "equivocal" reaction) produce different responses to the antiserum against the major protein, i.e. S100.


With Fourier series and Fourier integrals, a new and systematic approach, called the Amir and Nasser (AMN) method, is proposed to derive exact analytical expressions for step input response of distributed resistance capacitance (RC), inductance-capacitance (LC), and resistance-inductance-capacitance (RLC) models of interconnects. These solutions are obtained for time-domain responses of any arbitrary point on a finite interconnect line, considering initial voltage through the line. This method is appropriate for both on-chip and printed circuit board wires without any limitations in their length or characteristic parameters. The developed solutions are expressed as infinite summation of sinusoidal terms. An accuracy of over 99.5% is observed for the expressions compared with the HSPICE simulations for at most a number of several tens of sinusoidal terms for Fourier series. It is shown that ignoring the initial voltage through the line leads to considerable error as high as 33% at the far end voltage in global interconnects for 65-nm technology node. The AMN method is extended to semi-infinite distributed RC and RLC interconnects for which exact closed-form expressions are achieved.


The linear rolling guideway is one of the most essential parts of the machine tool. So it is very important to analyze the dynamic-static characteristic of the machine tool by considering rolling guideway for the study of the effect on machinery function. The research is based on a NC machine tool produced by a certain plant of machine tools. In this study, methods of simulating the rolling guideway support were studied; and the configuration of the spring damper elements of the bearing supports were investigated. The finite element analysis on the CKS6125 machine tool was used to confirm its dynamic characteristics. The finite element analysis models were validated by some experiments.


Hierarchical temporal memory (HTM) is an emerging machine learning algorithm, with the potential to provide a means to perform predictions on spatiotemporal data. The algorithm, inspired by the neocortex, currently does not have a comprehensive mathematical framework. This work brings together all aspects of the spatial pooler (SP), a critical learning component in HTM, under a single unifying framework. The primary learning mechanism is explored, where a maximum likelihood estimator for determining the degree of permanence update is proposed. The boosting mechanisms are studied and found to be only relevant during the initial few iterations of the network. Observations are made relating HTM to well-known algorithms such as competitive learning and attribute bagging. Methods are provided for using the SP for classification as well as dimensionality reduction. Empirical evidence verifies that given the proper parameterizations, the SP may be used for feature learning.


ABSTRACT Background: Disclosing the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to a patient is controversial. There is significant stigma associated with a diagnosis of AD or dementia in China, but the attitude of the society toward disclosure of such a diagnosis had not been formally evaluated prior to our study. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the attitude toward disclosing an AD diagnosis to patients in China with cognitive impairment from their caregivers, and the factors that may affect their attitude. Methods: We designed a 17-item questionnaire and administered this questionnaire to caregivers, who accompanied patients with cognitive impairment or dementia in three major hospitals in Shanghai, China. The caregiver's attitude toward disclosing the diagnosis of AD as evaluated by the questionnaire was compared to that of disclosing the diagnosis of terminal cancer. Results: A majority (95.7%) of the 175 interviewed participants (mean 14.2 years of education received) wished to know their own diagnosis if they were diagnosed with AD, and 97.6% preferred the doctor to tell their family members if they were diagnosed with AD. If a family member of the participants suffered from AD, 82.9% preferred to have the diagnosis disclosed to the patient. "Cognitive impairment" was the most accepted term by caregivers to disclose AD diagnosis in Chinese. Conclusion: This study suggests most of the well-educated individuals in a Chinese urban area favored disclosing the diagnosis when they or their family members were diagnosed with AD.


The rehabilitation of the extensively burned patient aims to prevent and minimize consequences of the own lesion this is supported by three pillars: 1) postural treatment to prevent contractures; 2) kinesiotherapy to maintain/restore joint range of movement and muscle strength; 3) functional recovery. Physical therapy is essential in the multidisciplinary team. A coordinated team assures better results and positively influences the quality of life of the patients.


The Optical Hawaiian Array for Nanoradian Astronomy (OHANA) will allow resolutions on the order of a fraction of a milliarcsecond in the near infrared. This corresponds to the suspected size of the Broad Line Region and might even allow to study the structure of the base of jets. Preliminary studies with baselines on the order of or greater than 200 meters will be needed to understand these complex objects and successively refine existing models. The continuum visibilities will distinguish any unresolved source from resolved ones. Spectrally resolved visibilities in the H band and in Paschen lines will directly test competing models for the velocity structures that produce the observed line broadening. According to the unified model, the results of these measurements may be expected to depend on the relative viewing geometry. In Phase II, OHANA will be able to select, from many dozens of candidate sources, those most likely to present distinctive differences. A preparatory survey with adaptive optics is already under way. Four different scientific cases involving the OHANA array are reviewed: Active Galactic Nuclei geometries, Broad Line Region tomography, Broad Line Region dynamics, absolute distance measurements with Active Galactic Nuclei.


Typically, in finite element model analysis and automated fiber placement, composite fiber orientations are computed using either simple coordinate axis rotations or a complicated full analysis model. The former performs well on simple surfaces with single axis curvature but degrades in performance when used on doubly-curved surfaces due to fiber crossing and buckling. A full analysis model provides the accuracy of a truly physically based solution, however this process can be quite extensive and does not lend itself well to industrial use. Therefore, this work presents a new two-step process for defining optimal composite fiber paths for use in automated fiber placement machines and finite element analysis models. Building upon work done previously in the area of discrete geodesic path generation, a method for optimizing fast approximate geodesic paths on triangular meshes using a strain energy minimization technique is presented. A comparison of the effectiveness of this process with those already discussed in the literature show how this process is fast, accurate, and ready to use in commercial applications. This study also shows how this process effectively finds optimal fiber paths on complex, non-developable surfaces, which will improve finite element analysis models and provide composite manufacturers with the ability to create components with complex geometry. Improvements to this process are discussed and have been implemented such as utilizing the parallel computing capabilities of a GPU, which speeds up the process by computing geodesics in parallel for large surfaces. The algorithms presented in this study are available freely online and have been successfully integrated into an automated finite-element model-building software called De-La-Mo (https://idealab-isu.github.io/autofiber/).


Significance In virtually all human groups, differences in popularity induce social status and shape interactions. How do we recognize that certain individuals are popular—highly liked by the group—even when this collective preference differs from our own? Our results suggest that group members' popularity is tracked by activity in neural valuation systems, which in turn engage social cognition systems that facilitate understanding others' mental states. Popular participants' valuation systems demonstrated enhanced sensitivity to differences among other group members' popularity. These neural data offer insights into how status guides social behavior and reinforces social network structures, and why the affective valuation and social cognition systems are critical for navigating these networks and achieving high status within them. Differences in popularity are a key aspect of status in virtually all human groups and shape social interactions within them. Little is known, however, about how we track and neurally represent others' popularity. We addressed this question in two real-world social networks using sociometric methods to quantify popularity. Each group member (perceiver) viewed faces of every other group member (target) while whole-brain functional MRI data were collected. Independent functional localizer tasks were used to identify brain systems supporting affective valuation (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum, amygdala) and social cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, temporoparietal junction), respectively. During the face-viewing task, activity in both types of neural systems tracked targets' sociometric popularity, even when controlling for potential confounds. The target popularity–social cognition system relationship was mediated by valuation system activity, suggesting that observing popular individuals elicits value signals that facilitate understanding their mental states. The target popularity–valuation system relationship was strongest for popular perceivers, suggesting enhanced sensitivity to differences among other group members' popularity. Popular group members also demonstrated greater interpersonal sensitivity by more accurately predicting how their own personalities were perceived by other individuals in the social network. These data offer insights into the mechanisms by which status guides social behavior.


A total of 157 women attending departments of genitourinary medicine were treated for chlamydial infection of the cervix with erythromycin stearate 500 mg twice a day. Chlamydiae were eradicated from the cervix in 64/80 women treated for seven days and in 51/77 women treated for 14 days. In 12 of those treated for seven days and 15 of those treated for 14 days, reinfection was the probable cause of reisolation after treatment. The possibility of latent infection with Chlamydia trachomatis could not be excluded in five women, but was not more likely to occur with the shorter treatment course. Erythromycin stearate 500 mg twice daily for seven days appears to be an effective regimen for the treatment of uncomplicated chlamydial infection of the cervix.


Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Wittgenstein were contemporaries. Freud created psychoanalysis, and Wittgenstein was perhaps the greatest 20th century philosopher. Both thinkers are essentially concerned with our inveterate tendency to deceive ourselves. Freud approaches this problem from a psychiatric angle - the cure of neurosis, psychosis, perversion and so on. He assumes that his readers can see through the self-deceptions of the neurotics he describes. Wittgenstein, on the other hand, takes an ironical approach to himself and his readers, believing that we are almost certainly deluded, even if we have been analyzed by an orthodox analyst. He makes us feel that language, understanding and knowledge are but a thin net over an abyss. "Wittgenstein and Psychoanalysis" brings these two great, enormously influential Viennese thinkers together in the arena of a postmodern encounter. The question at issue is - which of these two philosophies is the better form of relevant "therapy" for us today? Or is it ever a matter of "contest" between them?


Communities are emergent, holistic living systems. Understanding the impact of social complex systems through spatial interactions via the lens of scalability requires the development of new methodological behavioural approaches. The evolution of social complex systems of cities and their regions can be investigated through the evolution of spatial structures. The clustering of entities within cities, regions and beyond presents behavioural elements for which methodological approaches need to be considered. The emergent aspect of complex entities by their very nature requires an understanding that can embrace unpredictability through emergence. Qualitative methodological approaches can be holistic with the ability to embrace bottom up and top down methods for analysis. Social complex systems develop structures by connecting "like minded" behaviour through scalability. How "mobile" these interactions are, is a concept that can be understood via "inter-organizational" and "inter- structural" comparative approaches. How do we indeed convey this adequately or appropriately? Just as a geographical area may contain characteristics that can help to support the formation of an emergent industry cluster, similar behaviours occur through emergent characteristics of complex systems that underpin the sustainability of an organization. The idea that complex systems have tacit structures, capable of displaying emergent behaviour, is not a common concept. These tacit structures can in turn, impact the structural sustainability of physical entities. More often than not, there is a focus on how these concepts of complex systems work, but the "why" questions depends upon scalability. Until recently, social complex adaptive systems were largely over looked due to the tacit nature of these network structures.


Blood-based protein biomarkers have revolutionized several fields of medicine by enabling molecular level diagnosis, as well as monitoring disease progression and treatment efficacy. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) so far has benefitted only moderately from using protein biomarkers to improve injury outcome. Due to its complexity and dynamic nature, TBI, especially its most prevalent mild form (mTBI), presents unique challenges toward protein biomarker discovery and validation as blood is frequently obtained and processed outside of clinical laboratory (e.g., athletic fields, battlefield) under variable conditions. As it stands, the field of mTBI blood biomarkers faces a number of outstanding questions. Do elevated blood levels of currently used biomarkers, UCH-L1, GFAP, NFL and tau/p-tau truly mirror the extent of parenchymal damage? Do these different proteins represent distinct injury mechanisms? Is the blood brain barrier a "brick wall"? What is the relationship between intra vs extra cranial values? Does prolonged elevation of blood levels reflect, de novo release or extended protein half-lives? Does biological sex affect the pathobiological responses after mTBI and thus blood levels of protein biomarkers? At the practical level, it is unknown how preanalytical variables - sample collection, preparation, handling and stability affect the quality and reliability of biomarker data. The ever-increasing sensitivity of assay systems, the lack of quality control of samples combined with the almost complete reliance on antibody-based assay platforms represent important unsolved issues as false negative results can lead to false clinical decision making and adverse outcomes. This article serves as a commentary on the state of mTBI biomarkers and the landscape of significant challenges. We highlight and discusses several biological and methodological "known unknowns" and close with some practical recommendations.


Process analyses are becoming more and more standard in research on computer-supported collaborative learning. This paper presents the rational as well as results of an evaluation of a tool called TagHelper, designed for streamlining the process of multi-dimensional analysis of the collaborative learning process. In comparison with a hand-coded corpus coded with a 7 dimensional coding scheme, TagHelper is able to achieve an acceptable level of agreement (Cohen's Kappa of .7 or more) along 6 out of 7 of the dimensions when we commit only to the portion of the corpus where the predictor has the highest certainty. In 5 of those cases, the percentage of the corpus where the predictor is confident enough to commit a code is at least 88% of the corpus. Consequences for theory-building with respect to automatic corpus analysis are formulated. Potential applications as a support tool for process analyses, as real-time support for facilitators of on-line discussions, and for the development of more adaptive instructional support for computer-supported collaboration are discussed.


Introduction Educational supervisors (ESs) play a critical role in the training of Foundation doctors. Many hospital trusts do not currently offer formal mechanisms to ensure the quality of supervision is at a high standard. Our Trust wanted to empower trainees to offer objective feedback on the quality of the supervisors. Methods We introduced a feedback form sent to all Foundation doctors at our Trust. The questionnaire was designed to identify whether ESs were meeting their responsibilities as defined by the Health Education England South West's Severn Deanery. We collected data throughout the academic year 2017–2018 (Year 1) as a pilot, before rolling out the definitive questionnaire with minor modifications from 2018 to 2019 (Year 2). Results All respondents met with their supervisor within the first month of the placement and 90.7% of the trainees found it easy to meet with their supervisor. The Trust received generally very good feedback for all of its supervisors. Low numbers (4/120 trainees) reported supervisors not engaging with the exception reporting process. Conclusion Our Trust provides ESs of a high standard. The authors believe collecting feedback for ESs will achieve three things: 1) Drive up standards through increasing accountability of ESs receiving objective feedback. This will be of critical importance in the context of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic and the changes to our work it has necessitated. 2) Empower trainees to make informed decisions about where they wish to train and under which supervisors. 3) Facilitate revalidation and appraisal for supervisors by collecting data from trainees on the quality of their supervision.


1. Associate Professor, Department of Politics & IR, University of Sargodha, Pakistan 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science & International Relations, Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan 3. Assistant Professor, Department of Politics & IR, University of Sargodha, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: January 7, 2020 Accepted: March 14, 2020 Online: March 31, 2020 This paper analyzes prospects and challenges for Pakistan at national and international levels for the creation of mechanism to defeat the contemplations of rivals. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is being considered as a game changer project. It will be a source of bringing peace, harmony and prosperity not only in Pakistan but also in the entire region. It is a multidimensional developmental project in the global, regional, bilateral and domestic scenario. The power centers are being changed very rapidly due to CPEC, as many European countries are also interested in the project for their trade enhancement. The myth of "One Belt One Road" has international strategic implication. It would create opportunities not only for Asian, European and African states but also for Oceania through an effective diplomacy for the creation of new infrastructure and free trade zones. The role of international players to destabilize CPEC is also the burning question of the time that needs to be dealt with iron hands.


Most state-of-the-art binary image steganographic techniques only consider the flipping distortion according to the human visual system, which will be not secure when they are attacked by steganalyzers. In this paper, a binary image steganographic scheme that aims to minimize the embedding distortion on the texture is presented. We extract the complement, rotation, and mirroring-invariant local texture patterns (crmiLTPs) from the binary image first. The weighted sum of crmiLTP changes when flipping one pixel is then employed to measure the flipping distortion corresponding to that pixel. By testing on both simple binary images and the constructed image data set, we show that the proposed measurement can well describe the distortions on both visual quality and statistics. Based on the proposed measurement, a practical steganographic scheme is developed. The steganographic scheme generates the cover vector by dividing the scrambled image into superpixels. Thereafter, the syndrome-trellis code is employed to minimize the designed embedding distortion. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed steganographic scheme can achieve statistical security without degrading the image quality or the embedding capacity.


This paper presents HEADY: a novel, abstractive approach for headline generation from news collections. From a web-scale corpus of English news, we mine syntactic patterns that a Noisy-OR model generalizes into event descriptions. At inference time, we query the model with the patterns observed in an unseen news collection, identify the event that better captures the gist of the collection and retrieve the most appropriate pattern to generate a headline. HEADY improves over a state-of-theart open-domain title abstraction method, bridging half of the gap that separates it from extractive methods using humangenerated titles in manual evaluations, and performs comparably to human-generated headlines as evaluated with ROUGE.


The importance of teaching and learning about multicultural issues was explored. The author contends that along with the increasing need for multicultural awareness, there is an increasing need for experiential exercises to effectively gain this awareness. The literature was reviewed and shown to support the necessity for both of these important issues. The growing need for counselor training programs to incorporate experiential teaching methods as well as the traditional teaching methods was also explored. Potential risks to clients whose counselors are not multiculturally aware were elaborated upon. The limitations of traditional teaching methods for multicultural learning were discussed. The importance of combining traditional methods with experiential learning was explored. In particular, using a group format as a method for enhancing understanding and awareness was discussed. A study was run to measure the effectiveness of a group discussion experience on increasing the multicultural awareness of MBA students with a concentration in international business. Results were shown to support the effectiveness of the group format. Strengths, limitation, and recommendations for future research were also elaborated upon. Building Multicultural 4


This study determined the relationship between school effectiveness and academic performance of students in secondary schools of Central Kenya. The study examined how implementation of the following seven correlates of Effective Schools Model influenced students' academic performance: instructional leadership, focus on school mission, school safety and orderliness, expectations for success, home-school relations, monitoring of students' progress, and opportunity to learn. A survey design was used targeting all principals, heads of departments (HODs), teachers, and District Education Officers (DEOs) in charge of 501 provincial and district public secondary schools in Kiambu and Nyeri counties. Stratified sampling was used to select 40 schools, comprising 20 schools from the top performing category and 20 from the bottom performing category. Study participants comprised 40 principals, 120 HODs, 240 teachers and 17 DEOs. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Data was analysed using Pearson correlation coefficient and the t-test. Results showed that, in comparison with bottom performing schools, top performing schools were putting more emphasis on six of the seven correlates, with only frequent monitoring of students progress returning no significant results. The study concludes that the seven correlates are good predictors of academic performance in Kenyan schools. It is noteworthy that the seven correlates require minimal financial inputs, meaning that even the financially constrained schools can still achieve school effectiveness by practising the correlates.


Biomass is a major source of energy in India. However, as in the case of most developing countries, reliable estimates of biomass energy use in different sectors of the country are not available. An assessment of sectoral biomass energy consumption in India has been presented in this paper. It is estimated that the total biomass consumption for energy was about 321 billion kg or 380 kg/capita/year (103 MTOE or 0.12 TOE/capita/year) in the year 1990-1991; this amounted to 45% of the total primary energy consumption of the country. The share of fuel wood in the traditional energy is about 53%. The household sector is the major end user and consumes 83% of then total biomass energy. The traditional cook stoves are the major end users of biomass energy, and accounted for about 76% of the total consumption.


An important step toward adoption of formal methods in software development is support for mainstream programming languages. Unfortunately, these languages are often rather complex and come with substantial standard libraries. However, by choosing a suitable intermediate language, most of the complexity can be delegated to existing execution-oriented (as opposed to verification-oriented) compiler frontends and standard library implementations. In this paper, we describe how support for C++ exceptions can take advantage of the same principle. Our work is based on DiVM, an LLVM-derived, verification-friendly intermediate language.Our implementation consists of 2 parts: an implementation of the 'libunwind' platform API which is linked to the program under test and consists of 9 C functions. The other part is a preprocessor for LLVM bitcode which prepares exception-related metadata and replaces associated special-purpose LLVM instructions.


Recent approaches to twelfth-century papal finance have drawn a distinction between 'voluntary' gifts to the pope and the prescribed dues which clergy and laity across Europe were legally bound to pay. Such a distinction is often unhelpful; for both types of income, the onus and agency tended to be on the part of the payers themselves: most papal income was in fact voluntary. This had an effect on how income and expenditure were recorded in Rome. Since it was the payer who decided when to send money to the Curia, the papal financial administration had no consistent expectations of what their income might be. Consequently an itemised record of income was not a necessity in the later twelfth century. On the other hand, by the end of the twelfth century expenditure was being recorded in detail at the Curia: the Gesta of Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) includes a gift-list which has clearly been culled from a record of expenditure. As well as giving an insight into methods of accounting, this gift-list allows us to speculate about what forms—coins, fabrics, chalices—papal income took. Overall the character of papal finance is dissimilar to that of contemporary European monarchies because it depended to a greater extent on the will of the many people across Europe who chose to go to Rome.


The global financial crisis and its aftermath put into sharp relief the structure and performance of the global financial services industry. Questions have been raised as to what intermediaries separately and together add to the production of investment returns and social welfare (in general). In this paper, we look at the roles and responsibilities of investment advisers and consultants in relation to asset owners of various types including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and family offices. Focusing upon the relationship between investment advisors and clients, it is suggested that this relationship is characterised by ambiguity; there is a lack of clarity as to the precise roles and responsibilities of both parties. This argument is developed by reference to a set of three prototypical pension funds, distinguished by asset size — a proxy for capabilities and resources. It is argued that ambiguity can be of benefit to both parties. But ambiguity can impose costs upon clients, unable or unwilling to remake their relationships with intermediaries. Our paper highlights instances of innovation, and the ways in which these relationships have been redrawn so as to respond to the challenges of operating in global financial markets.


We report a bimodality in the azimuthal angle (Φ) distribution of gas around galaxies traced by O vi absorption. We present the mean Φ probability distribution function of 29 Hubble Space Telescope-imaged O vi absorbing (EW > 0.1 Å) and 24 non-absorbing (EW < 0.1 Å) isolated galaxies (0.08 < z < ?> 0.67) within ∼200 kpc of background quasars. We show that equivalent width (EW) is anti-correlated with impact parameter and O vi covering fraction decreases from 80% within 50 kpc to 33% at 200 kpc. The presence of O vi absorption is azimuthally dependent and occurs between ±10°–20° of the galaxy projected major axis and within ±30° of the projected minor axis. We find higher EWs along the projected minor axis with weaker EWs along the project major axis. Highly inclined galaxies have the lowest covering fractions due to minimized outflow/inflow cross-section geometry. Absorbing galaxies also have bluer colors while non-absorbers have redder colors, suggesting that star formation is a key driver in the O vi detection rate. O vi surrounding blue galaxies exists primarily along the projected minor axis with wide opening angles while O vi surrounding red galaxies exists primarily along the projected major axis with smaller opening angles, which may explain why absorption around red galaxies is less frequently detected. Our results are consistent with a circumgalactic medium (CGM) originating from major axis-fed inflows/recycled gas and from minor axis-driven outflows. Non-detected O vi occurs between Φ = 20°–60°, suggesting that O vi is not mixed throughout the CGM and remains confined within the outflows and the disk-plane. We find low O vi covering fractions within ± 10 ° ?> of the projected major axis, suggesting that cool dense gas resides in a narrow planer geometry surrounded by diffuse O vi gas.


Chronic inflammation is highly prevalent in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, and it has been shown to be a strong predictor of morbidity and mortality. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) released into circulation after cell damage can promote inflammation in patients and animal models. However, the role and mechanisms of circulatory mtDNA in chronic inflammation in MHD patients remain unknown. Sixty MHD patients and 20 health controls were enrolled in this study. The circulatory mtDNA was detected by quantitative real-time PCR assay. Plasma interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were quantitated by ELISA assay. Dialysis systems in MHD patients and in vitro were used to evaluate the effect of different dialysis patterns on circulatory mtDNA. Circulatory mtDNA was elevated in MHD patients comparing to that of health control. Regression analysis demonstrated that plasma mtDNA was positively associated with TNF-α and the product of serum calcium and phosphorus, while negatively associated with hemoglobin and serum albumin in MHD patients. MtDNA induced the secretion of IL-6 and TNF-α in the THP-1 cells. Single high-flux hemodialysis (HF-HD) and on line hemodiafiltration (OL-HDF) but not low-flux hemodialysis (LF-HD) could partially reduce plasma mtDNA in MHD patients. In vitro, both HD and hemofiltration (HF) could fractional remove mtDNA. Collectively, circulatory mtDNA is elevated and its level is closely correlated with chronic inflammation in MHD patients. HF-HD and HDF can partially reduce circulatory mtDNA in MHD patients.


ABSTRACT Optimization of major aroma compounds in olive oils produced from fruits at three maturity stages wasstudied. A central composite design was used for the optimization of malaxation conditions of temperature and times, each at five levels with 13 runs including five central points. The responses of interest were trans-2-hexenal and hexanal, which were investigated and their contents were optimized. A full quadratic second order regression model including the linear, quadratic, and two factor interaction effects was proposed to explain the variation in the contents of target compounds depending on the malaxation conditions. Adequacies of models were evaluated by checking regression coefficients for each model. Models were found to work with high success for trans-2-hexenal prediction for oils from fruits at both purple and black stages, whereas the model for hexanalwas only in black stage oil. Their regression coefficients were higher than 0.86. Influences of time and temperature for the malaxation process were found to be significant for the transition of major aroma compounds from the fruit matrix to olive oil. The optimum conditions of temperature and time pairs to maximize trans-2-hexenal and hexanal was found to be 23°C/31 minutes for black olive and to maximize only trans-2-hexenal was also 29°C/41 minutes for purple olive.


Biochar, a carbon-rich product, can be obtained from crop residues via pyrolysis. Its properties may vary widely depending upon the pyrolysis conditions and feedstock type. Physicochemical properties were studied for biochars produced from rice straw, wheat straw, corn stover, rape stalk, and cotton stalk pyrolyzed at 300 °C to 700 °C. At higher pyrolysis temperatures, the carbon content, pH, and electrical conductivity of the biochars slightly increased, while the O/C and H/C ratios decreased. The pH values had a strong negative linear correlation with the H/C ratio. Higher carbonization temperatures resulted in larger pores and increased the aromatic/aliphatic carbon ratio in the biochars. The oxygen functional groups in the biochars, such as -COOH and -OH, decreased with an increasing carbonization temperature. The combustion performance of the biochars varied with the carbonization temperature because of the differences in the physicochemical compositions of the biochars. Additionally, the crop residue types also influenced the physicochemical properties. The cotton stalk biochar had the highest fixed carbon content and lowest H/C ratio, and thus can be used as a solid biofuel. The rice straw biochar, which had the highest N and O contents, may be a potential soil amendment.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
A combination of 8-methoxypsoralen and ultraviolet-A radiation (PUVA) is used for the treatment of T cell-mediated disorders, including chronic graft-versus-host disease. The mechanisms of action of this therapy, referred to as extracorporeal phototherapy, have not been fully elucidated. PUVA is known to induce apoptosis in T lymphocytes collected by apheresis, however scarce information is available concerning the apoptotic pathways activated by PUVA.

DESIGN AND METHODS
We used Jurkat human T leukemia cells and normal T lymphocytes to analyze the PUVA-triggered caspase activation pattern by means of immunoblot analysis, in vitro caspase activity assays, and selective caspase inhibitors coupled to flow cytometric analysis.

RESULTS
PUVA treatment induced activation of apical caspases-9 and -8, and of effector caspases-3 and -7 in Jurkat cells and human T lymphocytes. While activation of caspase-9 occurred as early as 1 h after PUVA treatment of Jurkat cells, procaspase-8 cleavage was delayed and was detected 6 h after the exposure. Also in normal T lymphocytes, cleavage of caspase-8 was subsequent to activation of caspase-9. PUVA-dependent proteolytic cleavage of procaspase-8 was blocked by inhibitors selective for either caspase-9 or -3. Moreover, procaspase-8 was cleaved in vitro by activated caspase-3, which gave rise to proteolytic fragments equivalent to those generated in vivo.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Activation of caspase-8 in PUVA-treated Jurkat cells and normal T lymphocytes is secondary to up-regulation of caspase-9. Overall, our results identify caspase-9 as the critical upstream caspase initiating apoptosis by PUVA in Jurkat T-cells and human T lymphocytes.


Objective The goal of the study was to provide missing data on the accuracy of enhanced transcutaneous bilirubinometry in a monoracial population of term neonates, considering three different measurement sites. Material and Methods Transcutaneous bilirubin was measured using the JM-105 device on the forehead, chest, and abdomen. Blood sampling for total serum bilirubin concentration has been performed within 10 minutes of transcutaneous measurements. Paired transcutaneous bilirubin and total serum bilirubin measurements were statistically analyzed. Results The study group consisted of 102 healthy term Slovak infants. The correlation between total serum bilirubin and transcutaneous bilirubin was significant (coefficient of determination R2: 0.9045 forehead, 0.8808 sternum, 0.8467 abdomen). Transcutaneous measurements underestimated serum bilirubin levels significantly when total serum bilirubin values were higher than 15 mg/dL, irrespective of the site of transcutaneous measurements. The lowest mean difference between total serum bilirubin and transcutaneous bilirubin was identified on the sternum (median: −1.1 mg/dL). The area under the curve was >0.97 and >0.93 for detecting total serum bilirubin levels >10 mg/dL and >13 mg/dL, respectively, for all measurement sites. Transcutaneous measurements on the forehead and sternum provided very high sensitivity, with the best performance at the forehead. Conclusion Transcutaneous bilirubinometry using an enhanced device is an accurate, sensitive, and convenient screening method in term Caucasian neonates. Transcutaneous bilirubin measurements on the forehead, sternum, and abdomen are reliable, with the best performance on the forehead. It is necessary to confirm higher transcutaneous bilirubin values with a total serum bilirubin measurement.


This book reviews a big window of opportunity for piezoelectric ceramics, such as new materials, material combinations, structures, damages and porosity effects. In addition, applications of sensors, actuators, transducers for ultrasonic imaging, positioning systems, energy harvesting, biomedical and microelectronic devices are described. The book consists of fourteen chapters. The genetic algorithm is used for identification of RLC parameters in the equivalent electrical circuit of piezoelectric transducers. Concept and development perspectives for piezoelectric energy harvesting are described. The characterization of principal properties and advantages of a novel device called ceramic-controlled piezoelectric with a Pt wire implant is included. Bio-compatibility studies between piezoelectric ceramic material and biological cell suspension are exposed. Thus, piezoelectric ceramics have been a very favorable solution as a consequence of its high energy density and the variety of fabrication techniques to obtain bulk or thin films devices. Finally, the readers will perceive a trend analysis and examine recent developments in different fields of applications of piezoelectric ceramics. following:


We report on a ∼5σ detection of polarized 3–6 keV X-ray emission from the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The overall polarization degree of 1.8% ± 0.3% is detected by summing over a large region, assuming circular symmetry for the polarization vectors. The measurements imply an average polarization degree for the synchrotron component of ∼2.5%, and close to 5% for the X-ray synchrotron-dominated forward shock region. These numbers are based on an assessment of the thermal and nonthermal radiation contributions, for which we used a detailed spatial-spectral model based on Chandra X-ray data. A pixel-by-pixel search for polarization provides a few tentative detections from discrete regions at the ∼ 3σ confidence level. Given the number of pixels, the significance is insufficient to claim a detection for individual pixels, but implies considerable turbulence on scales smaller than the angular resolution. Cas A's X-ray continuum emission is dominated by synchrotron radiation from regions within ≲1017 cm of the forward and reverse shocks. We find that (i) the measured polarization angle corresponds to a radially oriented magnetic field, similar to what has been inferred from radio observations; (ii) the X-ray polarization degree is lower than in the radio band (∼5%). Since shock compression should impose a tangential magnetic-field structure, the IXPE results imply that magnetic fields are reoriented within ∼1017 cm of the shock. If the magnetic-field alignment is due to locally enhanced acceleration near quasi-parallel shocks, the preferred X-ray polarization angle suggests a size of 3 × 1016 cm for cells with radial magnetic fields.


Erectile dysfunction (ED) is one of the most neglected complications of diabetes. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous concentrate prepared from the collected blood and contains a high concentration of platelet growth factors which induce angiogenesis and provide the nerve regeneration. Clopidogrel is a platelet inhibitor or thienopyridine class inhibitor of P2Y12 ADP platelet receptors. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of intracavernous injection of PRP and clopidogrel on ED in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. A total of thirty Sprague-Dawley rats was divided into two groups: control and STZ-induced diabetic (45mg/kg, 8wk). In vivo erectile responses were measured after intracavernosal injection of PRP or clopidogrel and their combination in anesthetized rats. The relaxant effect of Clopidogrel in corpus cavernosum (CC) was obtained from in vitro study. The protein expression of endothelial and neuronal markers (eNOS, nNOS), HIF-1α and VEGF in the penile tissue was determined by Western blotting. Diabetic rats displayed significantly reduced in vivo erectile responses and basal intracavernosal pressure after were partially restored by intracavernosal administration of PRP and clopidogrel. Interestingly, combined intracavernosal administration completely improved decreased in vivo erectile responses. Clopidogrel caused marked relaxation in diabetic and control rat CC. In the diabetic group, increased HIF-1α protein levels and decreased eNOS, nNOS and VEGF protein levels were prevented by the combined treatment. These results may contribute to new insights in the management of ED linked to diabetes and encourage the development of novel therapeutic strategies in regenerative medicine. Further studies should need to focus on expanding combinations of PRP and an antiplatelet agent useful for clinical outcomes in diabetic men with ED. Disclosure S. Gur: None. D. Yilmaz-Oral: None.