Sum frequency generation (SFG) surface vibrational spectroscopy was used to characterize interfaces pertinent to current surface engineering applications, such as thin film polymers and novel catalysts. An array of advanced surface science techniques like scanning probe microscopy (SPM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), gas chromatography (GC) and electron microscopy were used to obtain experimental measurements complementary to SFG data elucidating polymer and catalyst surface composition, surface structure, and surface mechanical behavior. Experiments reported in this dissertation concentrate on three fundamental questions: (1) How does the interfacial molecular structure differ from that of the bulk in real world applications? (2) How do differences in chemical environment affect interface composition or conformation? (3) How do these changes correlate to properties such as mechanical or catalytic performance? The density, surface energy and bonding at a solid interface dramatically alter the polymer configuration, physics and mechanical properties such as surface glass transition, adhesion and hardness. The enhanced sensitivity of SFG at the buried interface is applied to three systems: a series of acrylates under compression, the compositions and segregation behavior of binary polymer polyolefin blends, and the changes in surface structure of a hydrogel as a function of hydration. In addition, a catalytically active thinmore » film of polymer coated nanoparticles is investigated to evaluate the efficacy of SFG to provide in situ information for catalytic reactions involving small mass adsorption and/or product development. Through the use of SFG, in situ total internal reflection (TIR) was used to increase the sensitivity of SFG and provide the necessary specificity to investigate interfaces of thin polymer films and nanostructures previously considered unfeasible. The dynamic nature of thin film surfaces is examined and it is found that the non-equilibrium states contribute to practical applications of acrylates, blends and hydrogels. Lastly, nanoparticle surfaces and the catalytic activity and selectivity of platinum cube nanoparticles are correlated to the surface intermediates in a high pressure flow reactor.« less


Stable matching mechanisms are used to clear many two-sided markets. In practice, these mechanisms leave many agents on both sides unmatched. What factors determine the number of unmatched agents, and the quality of matches that do form? This paper answers this question, with a particular focus on how match outcomes depend on correlations in agent preferences. I consider three canonical preference structures: fully idiosyncratic preferences, common preferences (agents agree on the attractiveness of those on the opposite side), and aligned preferences (potential partners agree on the attractiveness of their match).I find that idiosyncratic preferences result in more matches than common preferences do. Perhaps more surprisingly, the case of aligned preferences results in the fewest matches. Regarding match quality, the story reverses itself: aligned preferences produce the most high quality matches, followed by common preferences. These facts have implications for the design of priority rules and tie- breaking procedures in school choice settings, as they point to a fundamental tradeoff between matching many students, and maximizing the number of students who get one of their top choices.


Abstract. In this work, a new filtering approach is proposed for a fully automatic Digital Terrain Model (DTM) extraction from very high resolution airborne images derived Digital Surface Models (DSMs). Our approach represents an enhancement of the existing DTM extraction algorithm Multi-directional and Slope Dependent (MSD) by proposing parameters that are more reliable for the selection of ground pixels and the pixelwise classification. To achieve this, four main steps are implemented: Firstly, 8 well-distributed scanlines are used to search for minima as a ground point within a pre-defined filtering window size. These selected ground points are stored with their positions on a 2D surface to create a network of ground points. Then, an initial DTM is created using an interpolation method to fill the gaps in the 2D surface. Afterwards, a pixel to pixel comparison between the initial DTM and the original DSM is performed utilising pixelwise classification of ground and non-ground pixels by applying a vertical height threshold. Finally, the pixels classified as non-ground are removed and the remaining holes are filled. The approach is evaluated using the Vaihingen benchmark dataset provided by the ISPRS working group III/4. The evaluation includes the comparison of our approach, denoted as Network of Ground Points (NGPs) algorithm, with the DTM created based on MSD as well as a reference DTM generated from LiDAR data. The results show that our proposed approach over performs the MSD approach.


Human resource is the most valuable resource and has an increasingly important position in achieving the objectives of the organization. Human is the core driving force of all activities and is also a major part in the processing of the input into the output. This research was conducted in the territory of the city of Pontianak. Independent variables (X) in this study consist of 3 individual characteristics, job characteristics, and environmental characteristics, while dependent variable (Y) is motivation. The data in this study were obtainet from the results of the questionnaire to 34 respondents who also as samples in this research. The data later processed using multiple Linear Regression analysis. The result showed that only one individual characteristics, job charakteristics and environmental characteristics had a significant influence on employee motivation at Civil Service Police Unit Pontianak.


Base metal smelting activities can produce acidic rain that promotes vegetation loss and the development of black coatings on bedrock. Such coatings can form over large areas and are among the most prominent long-term vestiges of past smelting activities. In this study, multispectral images derived from Hyperion reflectance data were evaluated with regard to their utility in the discrimination and mapping of black rock coatings near Sudbury. Spectral angle mapper (SAM) classifications generated on the basis of image-derived endmember spectra could not be used to properly identify major exposures of coated bedrock without also producing substantial confusion with uncoated classes. Neural network and maximum likelihood classifications produced improved representations of the spatial distribution of coated bedrock, though confusion between coated and uncoated classes is problematic in most outputs. Maximum likelihood results generated using a null class are noteworthy for their effectiveness in highlighting exposures of coated bedrock without substantial confusion with uncoated classes. Although challenges remain, classification results confirm the potential of remote sensing techniques for use in the worldwide detection, mapping, and monitoring of coating-related environmental degradation in the vicinities of base metal smelters.


The continuing lack of recognition by the corporation of the need to perceive its own social role has led to its failure to develop new responses to rapidly changing conditions. The traditional responses to outside pressures have proven to be i11r adequate and at times disastrous. With the realization that traditional attitudes are no longer acceptable, corporations must face the need to seek new attitudes. The authors consider the reasons for the lack of success of the traditional responses, make recommendations for new responses, and suggest changes in organization and internal procedures which may be necessary before new responses are possible.


Introduction: Gastrointestinal tract involvement of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a rare entity with a poor prognosis and can occur via hematogenous route or direct invasion. Here we report a case with de novo HCC after liver transplantation who had rising alfa-fetoprotein (AFP) levels and was found to have gastric metastases incidentally. Case: A 62 year old man underwent liver transplantation with a diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma Three years after the liver transplantation, bone and liver metastasis developed and palliative treatment plan was made. During follow-up AFP levels began to rise subsequently and computed tomography of chest and abdomen revealed stable liver lesions and a suspicious gastric luminal nodule. Upper endoscopy showed polypoid lesions in stomach and the pathology of the biopsies taken from these lesions were consistent with HCC metastasis. Discussion: Patterns of metastases in patients with recurrent HCC after liver transplantation might be different. Immunsuppressive treatment in transplant patients might have a negative effect on disease biology and may result in more disseminated disease and atypical sites of metastases as in our case. In patients with rising AFP in the absence of progressive disease on radiologic evaluation, gastrointestinal system metastases via hematogenous route should be kept in mind and upper endoscopy should be considered even in the absence of gastric symptoms, particularly if the presence of extrahepatic disease will change treatment decisions.


This article examines two recent scientific studies about reading fiction in order to argue for more thoroughly interdisciplinary work that crosses the too-often-upheld boundary between the humanities and sciences. Taking one of these in particular as a case study, I explore how including a humanist in the experimental process could have impacted many stages of inquiry: from developing more interesting and better contextualized research questions and methods, to providing rhetorical expertise that could reduce the role of "neurohype" as research moves from the lab to the press, to providing an important counterweight to the urge to make hasty recommendations about the translatability of basic science. I argue that the sciences and humanities are important partners in demystifying press coverage of neuroscience and cognitive science developments, and suggest that incorporating humanities approaches could improve the practice of science as it approaches topics typically in the purview of the humanities or social sciences, asking how the goals of scientific advancement could be shaped by work across the disciplines. My ultimate aim is to ask how we can improve science literacy and interdisciplinarity—two pursuits that I argue are inextricably linked.


This paper describes Laser Speckle Image Pattern Correlation (LSIPC) technique, a nondestructive method for the measurement of deformation/displacement of the specimen in metrology using Fast Fourier Transform. A diffuse object is illuminated with laser light, a random interference effect known as `speckle pattern' is produced. If there is movement in the object, the speckle patterns fluctuate in intensity. These fluctuations can be used to provide information about the movement. The experimental arrangement is based on the Michelson Interferometer method. The object is a thin steel plate fastened by means of screws at four points. A screw set into the center of the plate and inducing flexure of the plate is used to produce deformation of the plate. Illumination of the plate and photography were performed along directions close to the normal. The principle of this technique is capturing of two speckle patterns of a specimen, one before deformation (Reference image) and the other after deformation/displacement (Deformed image) by a CCD camera and registered by a frame grabber. The above deterministic increment in the phase difference of the two interfering fields is displayed in the difference pattern of intensities. Small sub images are obtained by segmenting process and analyzed point wise. An algorithm has been written using Fast Fourier Transform to obtain the information about the deformation. This method consists of simple and robust optical setup to perform non invasive measurement to the sub micron level for the measurement of deformation.


Objective. To describe the outcomes of MTX and biologic DMARD (bDMARD) treatment in patients with RA and assess unmet needs in patients who fail treatment, using real-world data from the Norwegian DMARD (NOR-DMARD) registry. Methods. Data included RA treatment courses from January 2007 until July 2016. Patients received MTX monotherapy (in MTX-naı̈ve patients), bDMARD monotherapy, bDMARDs + MTX, or bDMARDs + other conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs). DAS28-4(ESR) was used to measure remission (<2.6) and inadequate response (>3.2) across all groups at Months 6 and 12. Estimated ACR20/50/70 and EULAR good and good/moderate response rates (based on DAS284[ESR] score) for bDMARDs were modelled at Months 6 and 12 using logistic mixed regression. DAS28-4(ESR) scores and changes from baseline, and rates and reasons for discontinuation, were evaluated for all groups over 24 months. Results. The 2778 treatment courses in this analysis included 714 MTX monotherapy, 396 bDMARD monotherapy, 1460 bDMARDs + MTX and 208 bDMARDs + other csDMARDs. Of patients with DAS28-4(ESR) data at Months 6 and 12 (25.0 34.1%), 33.9 47.2% did not switch treatment and were inadequate-responders at Month 12. There were no significant differences in efficacy between bDMARD groups (bDMARD monotherapy, or bDMARDs + MTX or other csDMARDs). Lack of efficacy was the most common reason for stopping treatment across all groups (13.7 22.1% over 24 months). Conclusion. An unmet treatment need exists for patients still experiencing inadequate response to MTX monotherapy and bDMARDs as monotherapy or in combination with MTX/other csDMARDs after 12 months. Trial registration. ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01581294.


To enhance fleet operation and management, logistics companies instrument their vehicles with GPS receivers and network connectivity to servers. Mobility traces from such large fleets provide significant information on commuter travel patterns, traffic congestion and road anomalies, and hence several researchers have mined such datasets to gain useful urban insights. These logistics companies, however, incur significant cost in deploying and maintaining their vast network of instrumented vehicles. Thus research problems, that are not only of interest to urban planners, but to the logistics companies themselves are important to attract and engage these companies for collaborative data analysis.
 In this paper, we show how GPS traces from taxis can be used to answer three different questions that are of great interest to a taxi operator. These questions are 1) What is the occupancy rate of the taxi fleet?, 2) What is the effect of route selection on the distance and time of a chosen route?, and 3) Does an analysis of travel times show deviations from the posted speed limits? We provide answers to each of these questions using a 2 month dataset of taxi records collected from over 10,000 taxis located in Singapore.
 The goal of this paper is to stimulate interest in the questions listed above (as they are of high interest to fleet operators) while also soliciting suggestions for better techniques to solve the problems stated above.


This research enquiry explores the life-history narratives of three Pakistani female expatriate tertiary-level English language teachers at Gulf Coeducational University (GCU). The study was conducted in order to investigate the participants' journeys as learners and how they perceive themselves as teachers. The historical, educational, and linguistic background of Pakistan is provided along with an overview of GCU, where all the participants presently teach. Harre's conception of personhood (1983) is related to the identity formation of the participants. Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital in society (1986, 2001), applied to the hierarchical status of languages in Pakistan (Rahman, 2004a; Mansoor, 2004), serves as a theoretical framework. A discussion of what Pakistani identity may entail, with emphasis on the significance of language on cultural identity, is given. Narrative research methodology is utilised (Clandinin and Connelly, 1996, 2000), to conduct three in-depth semi-structured interviews with the participants. Emerging themes are explored and research findings discussed with reference to relevant literature. The significance of their cultural capital, experiences of teacher-centred approaches in Pakistan and abroad, and the gender-based constraints the participants experienced during their educational trajectories are analysed. The implications of the study: for professional development, teacher training programmes and for the internationalisation of education can be explored in further research. Key words


Abstract In our data-driven society, personal data affecting individuals as data subjects are increasingly being collected and processed by sizeable and international companies. While data protection laws and privacy technologies attempt to limit the impact of data breaches and privacy scandals, they rely on individuals having a detailed understanding of the available recourse, resulting in the responsibilization of data protection. Existing data stewardship frameworks incorporate data-protection-by-design principles but may not include data subjects in the data protection process itself, relying on supplementary legal doctrines to better enforce data protection regulations. To better protect individual autonomy over personal data, this paper proposes a data protection-focused data commons to encourage co-creation of data protection solutions and rebalance power between data subjects and data controllers. We conduct interviews with commons experts to identify the institutional barriers to creating a commons and challenges of incorporating data protection principles into a commons, encouraging participatory innovation in data governance. We find that working with stakeholders of different backgrounds can support a commons' implementation by openly recognizing data protection limitations in laws, technologies, and policies when applied independently. We propose requirements for deploying a data protection-focused data commons by applying our findings and data protection principles such as purpose limitation and exercising data subject rights to the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. Finally, we map the IAD framework into a commons checklist for policy-makers to accommodate co-creation and participation for all stakeholders, balancing the data protection of data subjects with opportunities for seeking value from personal data.


Abstract We compare levels of financial literacy between the general adult population of New Zealand, people of Māori ethnicity, and people of Ngāi Tahu, a Māori tribe that is providing financial education to its members. While the level of financial knowledge of Māori people is generally lower than for non-Māori (controlling for demographic and economic factors), there is little difference between the financial knowledge of the people of Ngāi Tahu and other New Zealanders. Moreover, we find that financial literacy is not significantly associated with planning for retirement. This could reflect the dominant role of New Zealand's universal public pension system in providing retirement income security.


In this paper we investigate how neural fields can produce an elegant solution for the problem of moving multiple robots in formation. The objective is to acquire a target, avoid obstacles and keep a geometric configuration at the same time. Several formations for a team of three robots are considered.


Most heterogenous metal catalysts consist of metal nanoparticles on a ceramic oxide support, but for systems that exhibit strong metal-support interactions (such as noble metals with cerium oxide), the maximum interaction might involve completely coating a metal nanoparticle with oxide. Yeung et al. have used a modified microencapsulation method, previously demonstrated for silica, for encapsulating platinum nanoparticles with ceria. Increasing the Pt loading from 1 to 5% created particles with larger Pt cores and thinner coatings of ceria. The thinnest coating (1.7 nm) increased the band transition for ceria from 3.18 to 3.33 electron volts, and increased the water-gas shift (WGS) activity (H2O + CO → H2 + CO2) from negligible CO conversion for pure ceria to 63%. Unlike most other noble metal−ceria catalysts, these nanoparticles, which expose few noble metal sites, exhibit no activity for the competing reactions of methanation and higher hydrocarbon formation. — PDS


Most studies on social integration of ethnic minorities focus on the role of segregation, intergroup threat and hostility. The role of parents and the values they try to convey has received much less attention. These may include ideas about the appropriate choice of friends and spouses. Previous studies have shown an impact of parental attitudes and contacts on the interethnic contacts of their school-aged children. But do adult children also reflect parental attitudes in their attitudes and social networking? Parental influence may begin to wane when children become older. This article investigates the influence of parents on their adult children's attitudes and interethnic social contacts. Based on a unique data-set with parent–child dyads from a random sample of Turkish minorities in France, Germany and the Netherlands, I test first, whether parents influence their adult children's attitudes and second, the extent to which the ethnic composition of the social circle of parents affects that of their children. Third, I study how parents' and children's attitudes relate to children's interethnic social contacts. I find that parental attitudes do not have a direct impact on the interethnic social contacts of their children, but that they affect them indirectly through children's attitudes towards intermarriage.


This thesis describes the understudied interactional practice of co-animation: during the development of an activity in conversation, a speaker incorporates an animation -i.e. a quote, or (re)enactment - and a co-participant responds, pre-emptively, or in the contiguous turn, with a completion or continuation of the animation of the same figure. Based on the study of 89 co-animation sequences found in 10 hours of video-recordings of naturalistic English interaction between friends, relatives or co-workers, this thesis adopts the theoretical and methodological tenets of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics to describe the multimodal, sequential, and relational organisation of this practice.
This thesis analyses how participants mark the shift from the here-and-now into the animation space, and how co-participants make their contributions both hearable as coherent with prior animations, and as fitted affiliative responses that further the ongoing course of action. Lexico-grammatical, phonetic, and gestural-postural resources are analysed for their interactional import in their concurrent framing of animation and the display of stance and conditional relevance. The organisation of resources in responsive co-animations is found to be positionally-sensitive, with co-participants negotiating agency and epistemic access and entitlement differently relative to the onset of co-animation and to the stage in the ongoing activity.
The scrutiny of the situated deployment of co-animation in the social activities of troubles-tellings/complaint stories on the one hand, and teasing/joint fictionalisation on the other, reveals how co-animation contributes to the process of association, that is, the building of single momentary units of participation (collectivities). Co-participants are found to team up around what is presented as a shared stance, values, and identity, against absent but invoked behaviours or individuals engaging in moral transgressions, by jointly "doing being" the same voice.


Numerical weather prediction and climate models comprise a) a dynamical core describing resolved parts of the climate system and b) parameterizations describing unresolved components. Development of new subgrid-scale parameterizations is particularly uncertain compared to representing resolved scales in the dynamical core. This uncertainty is currently represented by stochastic approaches in several operational weather models, which will inevitably percolate into the dynamical core. Hence, implementing dynamical cores with excessive numerical accuracy will not bring forecast gains, may even hinder them since valuable computer resources will be tied up doing insignificant computation, and therefore cannot be deployed for more useful gains, such as increasing model resolution or ensemble sizes. Here we describe a low-cost stochastic scheme that can be implemented in any existing deterministic dynamical core as an additive noise term. This scheme could be used to adjust accuracy in future dynamical core development work. We propose that such an additive stochastic noise test case should become a part of the routine testing and development of dynamical cores in a stochastic framework. The overall key point of the study is that we should not develop dynamical cores that are more precise than the level of uncertainty provided by our stochastic scheme. In this way, we present a new paradigm for dynamical core development work, ensuring that weather and climate models become more computationally efficient. We show some results based on tests done with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) dynamical core.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate possible mechanisms that may contribute to neutrophil hyperactivity and hyper-reactivity. One possibility is the presence of a neutrophil priming factors within the peripheral circulation of periodontitis patients. To examine this possibility differentiated HL-60 cells and primary neutrophils were studied in the presence and absence of plasma from periodontitis patients. In independent experiments, plasma was depleted of IL-8, GM-CSF, interferon-a, immunoglobulins and albumin. This work demonstrated that plasma factors such as IL-8, GM-CSF, and interferon-a present during periodontitis may contribute towards the reported hyperactive neutrophil phenotype. Furthermore, this work demonstrated that products from Pg may regulate neutrophil accumulation at infected periodontal sites by promoting gingipain-dependent modification of IL-8-77 into a more biologically active chemokine. To elucidate whether the oxidatively stressed environment that neutrophils are exposed to in periodontitis could influence hyperactivity and hyper-reactivity, neutrophils were depleted of glutathione. This work showed that during oxidative stress, where cellular redox-levels have been altered, neutrophils exhibit an increased respiratory burst. In conclusion, this work highlights the multiple mechanisms that may contribute to neutrophil hyperactivity and hyperreactivity including gingipain-modulated activity of IL-8 variants, the effect of host factors such as IL-8, GM-CSF, interferon-a on neutrophils priming and activation, and the shift of neutrophil GSH:GSSG ratio in favour of a more oxidised environment as observed in periodontitis.


OBJECTIVE
To survey the medical literature directed to the study of cognitive dysfunction in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy through description of the milestones of neurological development and psychometric tests for quantifying intelligence.

SOURCES
Non-systematic review of aspects of cognition in Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the major medical scientific bases: MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO and Cochrane Library.

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS
Patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy exhibited delay in walking and language development, which correlated with lower scores on future intelligence tests. There is marked impairment in the verbal subtests.

CONCLUSIONS
Average IQ has standard deviation below the average of the population. The greater the cognitive impairment, the worse aspects related to morbidity and mortality in the disease will be.


As one of the most visible and vulnerable manifestations of the presence of Latino immigrants in "new destination" communities across the United States, day laborers have become a locus of conflict over the past fifteen years for local policy makers, advocacy organizations, and neighborhood residents. Communities have dealt with day labor in drastically different ways. Some have passed harsh anti-immigrant ordinances, hoping that a hostile environment will encourage immigrants to leave. Restrictionist state and local legislation, however, has proven costly to enforce, has been challenged in court, and has hindered immigrant integration. Other communities have gone against the restrictionist tide. This paper argues that organized day labor centers, such as the El Sol Resource Center in Jupiter, Florida, address many of the fundamental fears that polarize local policymaking and the national immigration reform debate. In Jupiter, El Sol has not only eliminated a controversial open-air labor market by bringing the process into a formal and organized structure, it has also provided access to English and civics classes, preventive health screenings and legal services in cases of wage theft. Furthermore, through El Sol the Town of Jupiter has opened a two-way process of immigrant integration. Jupiter's day laborers are no longer "hiding in the shadows," but rather are engaging in active citizenship and working with native-born community volunteers to run the center.


This article discusses business development (BD) as an activity different from selling or key account management, intended to find and develop new revenue opportunities. The case is made that BD's role is particularly important in the commercialization of disruptive innovations – innovations that disrupt the current infrastructure of market structure of an industry. The authors present the results of a comparison of two popular conceptual models of the commercialization of disruptive innovation: Moore's technology adoption life cycle (TALC) and Christensen's model of disruptive innovation (MDI). This comparison is limited to the early part of each model, covering the period from the beginning of commercialization to the point at which rapid growth in sales is established. Each model draws implications for marketing actions to expand beyond first customers and grow sales. However, the two models taken together make the implications for marketing actions unfeasible in some way. This article raises several research questions and considerations for methodology, to better understand these commercialization processes. The article also suggests that "BD" – exploratory customer contact to find, learn about, and address opportunities – is a way to overcome problems that emerge from the comparison of the models.


Villalobos and Razeto-Barry argue that all living beings possess discrete bodies and that, as a consequence, embodied living beings are merely embedded in the environment surrounding them. The upshot of their analysis is that an extended conception of life is misguided. I fundamentally agree with their argument. The authors make their case by clarifying the conceptual scaffolding of the theory of autopoiesis that supposedly engenders the extended approach. I think the critical argument can be supported in a more straightforward way by showing that the biological fact of entrenchment (West-Eberhard 2003, pp. 500-503) does not imply an extension of the physical boundaries of the organism.


This study was conducted to evaluate students' (n=70) learning performance after their participation in lectures using enhanced guided notes (EGN) in an electric circuits course for non-electrical engineering students. Unlike traditional guided notes, EGN include questions that prompt students to evaluate their metacognitive knowledge. The results of the study demonstrate a significant increase in student learning performance with the application of EGN, as measured by an AC/DC Circuit Concept Inventory. Students reacted positively to the use of the EGN in a survey given to assess their learning experience.


Along the design process of interactive system many intermediate artefacts (such as user interface prototypes, task models describing user work and activities, dialog models specifying system behavior, interaction models describing user interactions …) are created, tested, revised and improved until the development team produces a validated version of the full-fledged system. Indeed, to build interactive systems there is a need to use multiple artefacts/models (as they provide a complementary view). However, relevant information for describing the design solution and/or supporting design decisions (such as rational about the design, decisions made, recommendations, etc.) is not explicitly capturable in the models/artefacts, hence the need for annotations. Multi-artefacts approaches usually argue that a given information should only be present in one artefact to avoid duplication and increase maintainability of the artefacts. Nonetheless, annotations created on one artefact are usually relevant to other artefacts/models. So that, there is a need for tools and techniques to coordinate annotations across artefacts/models which is the contribution of the present work. In this paper, we propose a model-based approach that was conceived to handle annotations in a systematic way along the development process of interactive systems. As part of the solution, we propose an annotation model built upon the W3C's Web Annotation Data Model. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by means of a tool suite featuring a plugin, which has been deployed and tested over the multi-artefacts. The overall approach is illustrated on the design of an interactive cockpit application performing two design iterations. The contribution brings two main benefits for interactive systems engineering: i) it presents a generic pattern for integrating information in multiple usually heterogenous artefacts throughout the design process of interactive systems; and ii) it highlights the need for tools helping to rationalize and to document the various artefacts and the related decisions made during interactive systems design.


This paper evaluates the effect of variation in red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) irradiance on the growth rate and biomass productivity of a mixed culture of microalgae grown on synthetic municipal wastewater, with and without CO2 addition. Red LEDs were used to illuminate microalgal culture from the centre of 21-L stirred-tank photobioreactors made of transparent Plexiglas, each reactor having a working volume of 16 L. The reactors were operated in batch mode with pH control, and under continuous illumination for 30 days at ambient temperature. Mixing was achieved through the use of overhead mechanical stirrers operated at 100±1 and 60±1 revolution per minute, before and after the addition of CO2, respectively. Three average values of irradiance of 429.9, 582.7 and 730 .8 µmol.s -1 .m -2 were used to illuminate the reactors, with a control reactor operated in the dark. CO2 addition resulted in about two-fold increase in biomass productivity in all the experimental reactors. The bioreactor with medium irradiance yielded the highest biomass productivity and maximum specific growth rate of 0.034 g.L -1 .d -1 and 0.109 d -1 , respectively. The findings in this study show that both microalgal growth rate and biomass productivity are not always directly proportional to irradiance, despite the influence of process and operational parameters. Furthermore, a medium amount of irradiance resulted in optimum growth and productivity of the mixed microalgal culture.


This paper studies the formal labor market integration and firm creation of Venezuelan immigrants and refugees in Colombia between late 2019 to late 2021. It applies a novel framework to identify segments of the Colombian economy where Venezuelan immigrants and refugees are lagging behind. When it comes to labor market dynamics, we identify professional services as one of the sectors where Venezuelan workers are not integrating fast enough consistently across different parts of the country, hinting that the recognition of professional credentials might be an important bottleneck to effective integration. As for entrepreneurship, we find that sectors where there are fewer firm creations by foreigners as compared to locals include commerce and service industries all across the nation. This paper is accompanied by a set of downloadable files which list sectors of the economy in each geographic department with poor integration of Venezuelan immigrants both for labor markets and firm creation. These lists are meant to be used by national and local policymakers for further investigation of possible market failures or distortions hindering immigrant integration, given our results. Economic Integration of Venezuelan Immigrants in Colombia A Policy Roadmap


A small size zero-level packaging method, by using wafer-level benzocyclobutene (BCB) adhesive bonding and a pyrex glass wet-etching technique, is presented. A simple process was developed to make a pyrex glass to have housing cavities and BCB sealing ring for a packaging. During a wet-etching of glass for making a cavity and pad feedthroughs, BCB was protected by 1.2 /spl mu/m-thick AZ1512 photoresist. To estimate a pyrex 7740 packaging material in W-band, a 50 W coplanar waveguide (CPW) was designed and an insertion loss (S/sub 12/) was measured. The insertion loss change of CPW lines by the fabricated package is below 0.1 dB from DC to 110 GHz.


Acceptance testing validates that a system meets its requirements and determines whether it can be sufficiently trusted and put into operation. For cyber physical systems (CPS), acceptance testing is a hardware-in-the-loop process conducted in a (near-)operational environment. Acceptance testing of a CPS often necessitates that the test cases be prioritized, as there are usually too many scenarios to consider given time constraints. CPS acceptance testing is further complicated by the uncertainty in the environment and the impact of testing on hardware. We propose an automated test case prioritization approach for CPS acceptance testing, accounting for time budget constraints, uncertainty, and hardware damage risks. Our approach is based on multi-objective search, combined with a test case minimization algorithm that eliminates redundant operations from an ordered sequence of test cases. We evaluate our approach on a representative case study from the satellite domain. The results indicate that, compared to test cases that are prioritized manually by satellite engineers, our automated approach more than doubles the number of test cases that fit into a given time frame, while reducing to less than one third the number of operations that entail the risk of damage to key hardware components.


Ferroic materials are critical components in many modern devices. Polycrystalline states of these materials dominate the market due to their cost effectiveness and ease of production. Studying the coupling of ferroic properties across grain boundaries and within clusters of grains is therefore critical for understanding bulk polycrystalline ferroic behavior. Here, three-dimensional X-ray diffraction is used to reconstruct a 3D grain map (grain orientations and neighborhoods) of a polycrystalline barium titanate sample and track the grain-scale non-180° ferroelectric domain switching strains of 139 individual grains in situ under an applied electric field. The map shows that each grain is located in a very unique local environment in terms of intergranular misorientations, leading to local strain heterogeneity in the as-processed state of the sample. While primarily dependent on the crystallographic orientation relative to the field directions, the response of individual grains is also heterogeneous. These unique experimental results are of critical importance both when building the starting conditions and considering the validity of grain-scale modeling efforts, and provide additional considerations in the design of novel ferroic materials.


Cell-based therapies cure some hematologic malignancies, although little information exists on solid cancer cell responses. The study objective was to test the hypothesis that xenogeneic fibroblasts can inhibit the growth of human cancer cell lines in vitro. Seven human cell lines (pancreatic cancer HPAF II; brain cancer U-87 MG; fibrosarcoma; ovarian cancer OVCAR3 and SKOV3; and breast cancer MCF7 and MDA-MB231) were co-cultured with two xenogeneic fibroblast cell lines (CV-1; monkey, Cercopithecus aethiops and DF-1; chicken, Gallus gallus) in a Transwell culture system. Cancer cell proliferation was assessed colorimetrically. Different concentrations of breast and ovarian cancer cells were tested. Gene expression induced by DF-1 xenogeneic fibroblasts was assessed by RNAseq of MCF7 breast cancer cells. The proliferation of the majority of the cancer cell lines was altered by co-culture with xenogeneic fibroblasts. Cell proliferation was increased (4-17%) by CV-1; DF-1 increased brain cancer cell proliferation (16%), decreased breast and ovarian cancer cell growth (15 and 26% respectively) but did not affect fibrosarcoma and pancreatic cancer cells. When the initial cancer cell concentrations were lowered 4-fold, growth inhibition of breast and ovarian cancer increased more than 2-fold. DF-1 fibroblasts induced significant differential expression of 484 genes in MCF7 breast cancer cells; 285 genes were downregulated and 199 genes were upregulated compared to control. Genes involved in the immune response were the major downregulated entities. RNAseq results were validated by qRT-PCR of 12 genes. The results show that xenogeneic fibroblasts can alter the growth and gene expression of cancer cells in vitro. This suggests a potentially novel investigational approach to the control of cancer cell growth.


Introduction As a result of high burden of infection, men who have sex with men (MSM) are a priority for sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention interventions including promoting regular testing. Effective intervention design requires understanding of MSM's knowledge and perceptions of STIs and their social representations which may affect attitudes and behaviour related to risk, testing and treatment. To inform STI prevention interventions and development of questions inclusion in an online survey that would link with surveillance data on testing and diagnosis we assessed MSM's knowledge and attitudes towards STIs. Methods We recruited a diverse sample of MSM in 4 English cities, through social networking and community organisations.61 MSM attended one of eight 90 min focus group discussions. Topics included knowledge of, and attitudes towards STIs. We ran a discussion and ranking exercise in which names of 11infections, specified below, printed in large font on separate sheets were laid out and respondents were asked what they knew about each and to rank them in order of most to least 'scary', giving reasons for their ranking. Infections included: HIV, syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia, HPV/genital warts, genital herpes, Shigella, scabies, hepatitis A (HAV), B (HBV) and C (HCV). Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed and thematic data analysis conducted. Results Participants demonstrated both wide and detailed knowledge as well as lack of awareness depending on individuals and infections. While the greatest knowledge and experience was of HIV, few had heard of or knew much about Shigella. No focus groups were unanimous in their ranking of infections and patterns were not the same across groups. HIV and HCV were ranked the two most 'scary' by all groups and syphilis was among the three most scary. Herpes was also ranked highly by all but one group while scabies was similarly ranked least scary. Other infections ranked between with no clear patterning within or between groups. The exercise produced a complex range of explanations relating to fear of individual infections and of STIs in general. Participants weighed up the scary and less scary attributes of the infections depending on the extent of their knowledge about and experience of them, their prevalence among MSM, associated stigma, transmission mechanisms, contagiousness, symptoms, severity and the availability, effectiveness and ease of use of vaccines, treatment and/or cure. Conclusion While knowledge of individual STI infections varies, knowledge and awareness about Shigella was particularly low. MSM expressed a range of nuanced concerns related to individual STI sand STI testing and treatment. Fears influence and relate to each other e.g. considerable fear of a disfiguring infection may be reduced if the treatment is seen to be relatively easy, short and effective. MSM articulated a range of concerns which were subsequently used as categories in a self-completion survey to inform STI risk reduction, testing and treatment interventions.


A theoretical model is proposed to simulate the large deflection dynamic behaviour of an elastic–plastic, hardening–softening cantilever beam with an attached end mass subjected to a suddenly applied force pulse at its free end. The model is a development of a previous one by the present authors which was based on a small deflection formulation. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effects of the softening parameter, α, the ratio of the end mass to the mass of the beam and the intensity of the force pulse on the dynamic reponse of a beam. The changes in shape of the beams, the growth of the softening region and the possible onset of local collapse are examined. The model, though applicable generally to beams with elastic–plastic hardening–softening characteristics, was developed primarily to describe the phenomenon of pipe whip, the large deflection behaviour of a high–pressure piping system following a sudden rupture of the pipe. During the motion and deformation of a whipping pipe, softening can occur in the local bending characteristic and this in turn can lead to severe localization of the deformation, i.e. the formation of a 'kink'. Following initial elastic behaviour, the local bending behaviour of the pipe involves sequential hardening and softening phases as the pipe deforms plastically. This results from the interaction between the material properties of the pipe and the ovalization of its cross–sections as it undergoes large plastic deformations. It has been demonstrated recently that the model can accurately predict the transient deformation of the centre lines of freely whipping pipes (Reid et al. 1996). The practical issues associated with applying the theory to tubular beams (pipes) and the mesh sensitivity of the numerical solution of the governing equations are discussed herein. However, the main aim of the paper is to add to the range of beam models available for the solution of dynamic structural plasticity problems.


Seizures have a variety of etiologies and manifestations. Descriptions of various epiletic seizures as well as electroencephalographic findings have led to a unifying international classification of epileptic seizures and epilepsy syndromes. The development of this classification system and the emergence of several new antiepiletic drugs have led to progress in the refractory pediatric patient particularly disorders which are traditionally difficult to treat such as infantile spasms and the Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. However, there is limited data regarding optimal use in children. The childhood epilepsy syndromes are reviewed as well as the newer antiepileptic drug treatments - felbamate, gabapentin, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, tiagabine, topiramate, and zonisamide. Efficacy data and toxicity are discussed from both the adult, and when available, pediatric data.


Control of growth and surface morphology of perovskite oxide thin films is essential for future electronic devices based on such materials. Uncommon crystallographic orientations, like (111), are particularly interesting in order to control domain formations, but have been shown to grow in a rough manner, because of their polar surfaces. This work aims to elucidate the growth mode of (111) oriented systems, to enable smooth surface structured films. We have investigated the growth of La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_3 (LSMO) thin films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on (111)oriented SrTiO_3 (STO), characterized by AFM and x-ray diffraction. Substrate surface preparation has been optimized to yield uniform straight step-and-terrace surface structures, as well as the ability to tune the surface structure by different surface preparations. The film surface structure is observed to duplicate the substrate surface; hence, control of the film surface structure is obtained. A detailed description of the growth mode, from thin films of only a few mono layers to thick films of 70nm is presented. The growth mode is complex showing in principle an unstable growth. For the first 20 mono layers (2nm) a roughening transition from step-flow to layer-by-layer is observed. At higher thicknesses a second transition is seen, where the surface breaks up to a 3D surface structure. The critical thickness of the second transition is delayed by reducing the deposition temperature, as expected for strained surfaces, resulting in epitaxial thin films of step-and-terraces structure at least 70nm thick. The crystallinity of the films has been confirmed by XRD measurements. The transition to 3D growth is shown to initiate at the step-edges, and stabilizes with step-bunched steps. A speculative discussion of step-induced strain, and consequently the surface breakup is presented. Furthermore magnetic measurements by VSM in room temperature are presented. The saturation magnetic moment is measured to be $330 emu/cm^3$ at room temperature, which is 100 emu/cm3 larger than other reported values for LSMO/STO(111). The improved understanding of substrate preparation and growth mode in LSMO/STO(111) is important for further work on oxide interfaces, as we believe these results can be expanded to other (111) systems. The magnetic measurements give a preliminary indication that high quality films are necessary to exploit the full potential of these materials.


Purpose:  To determine the frequency of posterior segment pathologies caused by ocular trauma using B scan USG.
Study Design:  Descriptive, cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study:  Holy family hospital, Rawalpindi, from September 2015 to March 2016.
Methods:  One hundred patients of ocular trauma, 12 to 45 years of age were included in the study. Patients who had any posterior segment pathology prior to the ocular trauma were excluded. B scan was performed in all patients. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS version 17. For all the categorical variables like gender, type and site of ocular injury, the side of eye involved, type of posterior segment pathology as detected on B Scan, frequencies and percentages were calculated. For the continuous variables like age and time since injury, mean and standard deviation were calculated.
Results:  Mean age was30.43 ± 9.58 years. Majority of the patients (35.0%) were between 26 to 35 years of age. Out of these 100 patients, 73 were males and 27 were females with male to female ratio of 2.7:1. Vitreous hemorrhage was the most common and ocular pathology (38 patients). Retinal detachment was seen in 21 patients. Intra-ocular foreign bodies were seen in 12 patients.
Conclusion:  Vitreous hemorrhage was the most common posterior segment pathology in ocular trauma followed by retinal detachment and intra-ocular foreign bodies.
Key Words:  Trauma, B-scan, Vitreous hemorrhage, Retinal detachment.


Particle deposition and erosion can affect mirrors used in plasma diagnostics and this is a major concern for future fusion reactors. This subject is analysed for the first and second mirrors of the proposed motional Stark effect edge plasma current diagnostic for ITER. Particle fluxes to the diagnostic module aperture are given by edge plasma/impurity-transport solutions for convective plasma flow for full-power fusion conditions. The MC-Mirror code with input of TRIM-SP results is used to compute in-module direct, reflected and sputtered particle transport. Particles analysed are D–T and He atoms/ions from the plasma, and Fe, Be and W from first wall sputtering and/or in-module sputtering. Many of the results are encouraging for optical diagnostic use in ITER and possibly for post-ITER high duty-factor reactors. The LLNL-4B module design analysed works well in minimizing particle flux to the mirrors, with a factor of ∼200–400 reduction in aperture-to-first-mirror flux. Sputtering erosion/degradation of Mo or Rh coated mirrors by incident D, T and He is negligible. IMD optical effects code analysis shows probably tolerable changes in light reflection and polarization due to mirror beryllium deposition. Tungsten flux to the mirrors is very low. Based on available but limited data, however, there is major concern about the effect of the predicted helium flux on mirror optical properties.


Open Source Software (OSS) is software which can be freely used, modified and redistributed, generally produced in a collaborative fashion by global communities of firms and individuals. In this paper we consider OSS ecosystems using an analytical device which we refer to as the OSS Stakeholder triangle. We believe that the OSS Stakeholder triangle constitues a useful means for analysing many aspects of Open Source ecosystems, including interaction between stakeholder roles and the overall health of an ecosystem.


Web Services form the basis of the web based eCommerce eScience applications so it is vital that robust services are developed. Traditional validation and verification techniques are centred around the concept of removing all faults to guarantee correct operation whereas Dependability gives an assessment of how dependably a system can deliver the required functionality by assessing attributes, and by eliminating threats via means attempts to improve dependability. Fault injection is a well-proven dependability assessment method. Although much work has been done in the area of fault injection and distributed systems in general, there appears to have been little research carried out on applying this to middleware systems and Web Services in particular. There are additional problems associated with applying existing fault injection technologies to Web Services running in a virtual machine environment since most are either invasive or work at a machine level. The Fault Injection Technology (FIT) method has been devised to address these problems for middleware systems. The Web Service-Fault Injection Technology (WS-FIT) implementation applies the FIT method, based on network level fault injection, to Web Services to create a non-invasive dependability assessment method. It allows targeted perturbation of Web Service RFC parameters as well as more traditional network level fault injection operations. The WS-FIT tool includes taxonomies that define a system under test, fault models to apply and failure modes to be detected, and uses these taxonomies to generate fault injection campaigns. WS-FIT has been applied to a number of case studies and has successfully demonstrated its effectiveness. It has also been successfully applied to a third-party system to evaluate dependability means. It performed this dependability assessment as well as allowing debugging of the means to be undertaken uncovering unknown faults.


The current study was undertaken to compare the organ protective effects of an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, temocapril, with those of an angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist, CS-866 (olmesartan medoxomil), alone or combined, in the remnant kidney model of rats. Eight-week-old spontaneously hypertensive male rats were subjected to five-sixths nephrectomy. At the age of 10 weeks, the rats were randomly allocated to groups that received two doses of CS-866 (CS-L, 3 mg/kg/day; CS-H, 10 mg/kg/day), temocapril (TEM, 10 mg/kg/day), CS-866 (3 mg/kg/day) plus temocapril (10 mg/kg/day), or a vehicle alone (untreated control group). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and urinary protein excretion (UprotV) were measured every 2 weeks. When the rats were 18 weeks old, biochemical measurement and histologic examination were performed. All the drug treatments significantly reduced SBP, UprotV, glomerular sclerosis index (GSI), relative interstitial volume (RIV), and heart weight. The hypotensive effects were on the order of combination therapy > CS-H = TEM > CS-L. Correlational analysis was based on the values for SBP and UprotV derived from the average of values obtained when the rats were 12 to 18 weeks of age. UprotV, GSI, and RIV were found to be highly correlated with SBP among the individual rats pooled from all the groups, and the correlation was maintained among the group means. A similar correlation was found between heart weight and SBP. The results suggest that the organ protective effects of temocapril, CS-866, and combination therapy are closely related to the magnitude of their antihypertensive effects.


This paper explores meta-learning in sequential recommendation to alleviate the item cold-start problem. Sequential recommendation aims to capture user's dynamic preferences based on historical behavior sequences and acts as a key component of most online recommendation scenarios. However, most previous methods have trouble recommending cold-start items, which are prevalent in those scenarios. As there is generally no side information in sequential recommendation task, previous cold-start methods could not be applied when only user-item interactions are available. Thus, we propose a Meta-learning-based Cold-Start Sequential Recommendation Framework, namely Mecos, to mitigate the item cold-start problem in sequential recommendation. This task is non-trivial as it targets at an important problem in a novel and challenging context. Mecos effectively extracts user preference from limited interactions and learns to match the target cold-start item with the potential user. Besides, our framework can be painlessly integrated with neural network-based models. Extensive experiments conducted on three real-world datasets verify the superiority of Mecos, with the average improvement up to 99%, 91%, and 70% in HR@10 over state-of-the-art baseline methods.


PURPOSE
Small-N studies are the dominant study design supporting evidence-based interventions in communication science and disorders, including treatments for aphasia and related disorders. However, there is little guidance for conducting reproducible analyses or selecting appropriate effect sizes in small-N studies, which has implications for scientific review, rigor, and replication. This tutorial aims to (a) demonstrate how to conduct reproducible analyses using effect sizes common to research in aphasia and related disorders and (b) provide a conceptual discussion to improve the reader's understanding of these effect sizes.

METHOD
We provide a tutorial on reproducible analyses of small-N designs in the statistical programming language R using published data from Wambaugh et al. (2017). In addition, we discuss the strengths, weaknesses, reporting requirements, and impact of experimental design decisions on effect sizes common to this body of research.

RESULTS
Reproducible code demonstrates implementation and comparison of within-case standardized mean difference, proportion of maximal gain, tau-U, and frequentist and Bayesian mixed-effects models. Data, code, and an interactive web application are available as a resource for researchers, clinicians, and students.

CONCLUSIONS
Pursuing reproducible research is key to promoting transparency in small-N treatment research. Researchers and clinicians must understand the properties of common effect size measures to make informed decisions in order to select ideal effect size measures and act as informed consumers of small-N studies. Together, a commitment to reproducibility and a keen understanding of effect sizes can improve the scientific rigor and synthesis of the evidence supporting clinical services in aphasiology and in communication sciences and disorders more broadly. Supplemental Material and Open Science Form: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21699476.


As part of a trial of ethics education in a university-based, categorical, internal medicine training program, we surveyed all medical house officers at our institution regarding their knowledge of medical ethics, their attitudes and beliefs about selected issues in medical ethics, and their confidence in dealing with ethical problems. In a multivariate linear regression model, house officer knowledge scores were negatively correlated with postgraduate year, and positively correlated with age and with reporting a Jewish religious identity. A multivariate linear regression model predicting house officer confidence in dealing with ethical issues revealed a positive correlation with self-reported quality of ethics training in medical school and with being in the experimental group of house officers receiving ethics education. Attitudes and beliefs were largely uncorrelated with training or demographic characteristics. These results have implications for ethics education of both medical students and residents.


This paper examines the impact of Brexit on the financial services regulation in relation to three areas linked to executive remuneration. They include: the bonus cap, the clawback of pay and the level of disclosure needed by shareholders regarding details of directors' remuneration. It will be argued that legally, Brexit will have little impact on all three areas. UK legislation has already incorporated a great deal of EU legislation. Status quo of retaining such legal restrictions seems sensible in light of public sentiment towards unfairness in executive compensation and uncertainty towards the Brexit negotiations. Nevertheless, London faces stiff competition from other major international financial centres in a post-Brexit era. The loss of single passporting rights is also encouraging major banks to invest in other European financial centres. Brexit creates opportunities too. With the integration of digital technology, it is possible to create convenient platforms where investors can read reports on executive remuneration.


This study demonstrates that the chemical energy contained in human urine can synergize the in situ nutrient recovery and purification of urine itself. This process was achieved using a urine-powered microbial electrochemical system named U-Power, which can provide a maximum power density of 21.3 W m−3via the degradation of fresh human urine. Urea hydrolysis was induced by anodic microorganisms and further accelerated by the electrical potential inside U-Power to provide ammonium and balance the pH in the anode. Driven by the electrical potential generated by U-Power, the NH4+ and PO43− contained in urine migrated into the high nutrient concentration recovery solution. On average, 93.8% of organics, 73.1% of nitrogen and 86.2% of phosphorus were removed, along with recovery concentrations of 1234 mg L−1 nitrogen and 101 mg L−1 phosphorus. Both the above purification and recovery processes require no energy input but output a satisfactory power density among all present urine treatment studies, together with an average current efficiency of 178% and a coulombic efficiency of 26%. By achieving the triple benefits of energy-positive recovery of nutrients from urine, avoiding the complicated and energy-intensive process of nutrient removal in downstream wastewater treatment facilities, and avoiding the energy and hygiene issues combined with the storage and reuse of urine, U-Power represents a promising tool to pave the way for a sustainable water–energy–nutrient nexus.


Abstract Historical records show that Chaetoceros furcillatus occurred sporadically in the Canadian Maritimes, but when abundant it grew in early spring for a few weeks following the decline of Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii and preceded the rise of C. debilis. Spores were present along with the vegetative cells even at early stages of the bloom, but they contributed most of the cell densities at the end of the maximum growth period. Spores sank out of the photic zone in a few days. Spore frequency correlated negatively to temperature and positively to salinity. Two spore morphotypes were found in our samples; paired, large cells with a fused (double) set of setae, and non-paired, small cells with a single (non-fused) set of setae. Non-paired spores are more frequently found in relatively less saline and somewhat warmer stations. Nevertheless, we interpret these two different spore types as a distinct morphological expression of the same species, perhaps at sub-specific level of a form. A nine year record shows a change in relative abundance of this species in Passamaquoddy Bay since 1991, and in the Outer Quoddy region since 1994. Chaetoceros furcillatus has become a consistent and a more abundant component of the local phytoplankton. Two alternative explanations for this increase are considered. Firstly, that the species demonstrates natural cyclicity of population dynamics. Secondly, it has responded to unidentified changes in the environment that result in increased abundance. We draw attention to the fact that this increase coincides with the growth of fish farming in this region. The mid-1980s marks the beginning of an explosive growth and the early-1990s mark economic commercialization of fish aquaculture industry. We also designate the lectotype of the species as a pair of spores on slide # 654 curated at the Farlow Herbarium Bailey Diatom Collection and restore the original epithet for this diatom.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common and most lethal fibrosing interstitial pneumonia, with a mortality rate that exceeds that of many cancers. Currently, there is no standard treatment recommended by the guidelines. A number of high-quality clinical trials evaluating novel potential therapies have recently been concluded. While the results have mostly been disappointing, some compounds appear promising in reducing disease progression. In this regard, pirfenidone is the most advanced molecule for IPF treatment, having been approved in Europe, Japan, India, and Canada. However, due to the complexity and uncertainties intrinsic to IPF, it is essential that each therapeutic strategy be tailored to the individual patient, after evaluation of potential benefits and pitfalls. Randomised controlled trials represent a valid choice for IPF patients. Many agents with high potential are being tested and many more are ready to be tested in clinical trials. Their completion is critically important to achieve the ultimate goal of curing IPF.


Background and Aims Engaging patients nearing the end of life in discussion about their subsequent treatment is regarded as a vital aspect to the provision of effective and cost-effective palliative care (Department of Health, 2011; National Institute of Clinical Excellence, 2012). There is little research to date which suggests how such discussions can be easier to initiate or how clinicians can optimise their communication with patients and their families on end of life care. These issues are typically addressed using Advance Care Plans such as the Liverpool Care Pathway or a locally developed Treatment Escalation Plan (TEP) and a multi professional framework for the delivery of compassionate care in the last hours and days of life. The TEP was developed in response to variability in care planning and the lack of patient and carer involvement in it. In this paper, I discuss clinician's accounts of the barriers and facilitators to initiating conversations about advanced care planning at the end of life with patients and their families and their approaches to overcoming these challenges. Methods and Results Data collected from 20 qualitative in-depth interviews with Palliative Care Consultants and other senior clinician's in a hospice and hospital environment show that several domains were identified as vital to the provision of a compassionate approach to end of life care. These include, developing a trusting and ongoing relationship with both the patient and family members, adopting a multi disciplinary approach, engaging in opportunistic and ongoing discussions concerning malignant and non-malignant disease. Clinicians who engaged patients and their families in multiple conversations about their needs and treatments, and who sought to include psychological, social as well as biomedical aspects of care, report providing this aspect of end of life care as integral to providing compassionate care at the end of life.


The main purpose of this study is to analysis the thermomechanical behavior of the dry contact between the brake disc and pads during the braking phase. The simulation strategy is based on computer code ANSYS11. The modeling of transient temperature in the disk is actually used to identify the factor of geometric design of the disk to install the ventilation system in vehicles. The thermal-structural analysis is then used to determine the deformation established and the Von Mises stresses in the disk, the contact pressure distribution in pads. The results are satisfactory compared to those found in the literature


This work deals with the search for new molybdate-type catalyst formulations for the activation of light alkanes and their conversion to alkenes. In the first part, we showed that is possible to stabilize the beta-phase of NiMoO4 (as pure phase) by incorporating a certain amount of Co in its lattice. The sol-gel method was also applied to the synthesis of solid solutions of NiMoO4 and CoMoO4. The main difference between the bulk and silica-dispersed Ni-Co-Mo catalysts prepared by citrate or sol-gel methods as well as impregnation, is related to the fact that it is possible to stabilize the beta-Ni1-xCoxMoO4 phase throughout the whole composition range in the dispersed catalysts. Moreover, the catalytic data emphasize the advantage of using mixed Ni-Co molybdates in comparison with simple Ni or Co molybdates and also the fact that a higher activity is reached when these active phases are dispersed in a silica matrix. In the second part, we reported on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of solid solutions of Ni and Co molybdates dispersed on different supports such as Al2O3, MgO, TiO2, ZrO2 and Al2O3-MgO. These experiments demonstrate that supporting or dispersing the mixed Ni1-xCoxMoO4 phase on any kind of support leads to the preferential stabilization of the beta-phase. It was also shown that catalysts characterized by intermediate acid-base properties give better catalytic performances than those with high acidity or high basicity. Bi and/or Ln- (La, Ce, Pr, Sm, Tb) modified Ni, Co and mixed Ni-Co molybdates were prepared, characterized and investigated from the point of view of their catalytic behaviour. The incorporation of a lanthanide in Ni and/or Co molybdate stabilizes the b-phase for citrate-prepared catalysts. Concerning the catalytic activity of these solids, a strong enhancement of the catalytic activity and the selectivity towards propene is observed when solid solutions of beta-NiMoO4 and beta-CoMoO4 are modified by a lanthanide, except in the case of Sm. The Tb-modified catalyst is the one displaying the highest propene productivity, but the most selective catalysts are those modified by La or Pr. Incorporation of Ce strongly improves the catalytic activity, more than propene selectivity. The presence of Bi in the formulation of the catalyst results in a lower propene selectivity.


Background: Intra-myometrial injection of vasopressin during myomectomy is another method that could minimize of blood loss during myomectomy. However, there is paucity of knowledge to guide its use in myomectomy. Objective: To assess the efficacy of intra-myometrial vasopressin by determining whether it is noninferior to (as good as) a placebo in reducing intra-operative blood loss during abdominal myomectomy. Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind non-inferiority trial. This study was carried out in University of Abuja Teaching Hospital from September 2016 to May 2017. One hundred and twenty-eight patients with uterine leiomyoma of 14 – 30 weeks size they were randomized to either receive 20 IU (1 ml) of vasopressin in 19 mls of normal saline or 20 ml of normal saline at the planned uterine incision site during myomectomy after traditional tourniquet application. Myomectomy was then performed and the efficacy of vasopressin was assessed by a primary outcome and two secondary outcomes. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant at 95% confident level. Results: A total of 128 women were randomized. However, only data from 125 women were analyzed. The mean estimated blood loss in the vasopressin group was 503.2 ml (SD, 97.5) compared with 841.3 ml (SD, 316.0) In the placebo group. The adjusted mean difference in intraoperative blood loss between the two groups, -359.3 (95% CI = -426.2 to -292.4), was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Post-operatively, the mean packed cell volume was significantly higher in the vasopressin group compared with the placebo group (29.5%, SD = 1.6 versus 27.7%, SD = 2.0; p<0.001). Furthermore, the need for blood transfusion was significantly higher in the placebo group compared with the vasopressin arm (OR =5.06; 95% CI = 2.07 – 12.4; p<0.001). Uterine size was a significant independent predictor of estimated blood loss in both groups (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Intra-myometrial vasopressin injection significantly reduced blood loss during abdominal myomectomy in this study.


The world of electronics and through the move from one machine to all the multi-purpose devices, by moving from device to network devices. On the other hand, users do not face the complexities and problems of establishing a network of connections between devices and each other. Hence we can set multiple network functions are handled in the computer world, but not in the world of electronics. , Using the protocol (NFCIP-1), according to which users of electronic devices, which provide the use of secure means of communication between various devices without effort is considerable intellectual in the formation of their own network concept is simple striking: According also to communicate between two devices, and bring them together, using Protocol NFCIP-1 and the wireless network to deal with them in the peer Baland and here is the exchange of configuration data using NFC, and here you can not continue with the devices, some of the longer and faster than protocols such as Bluetooth or wireless Ethernet (WiFi).


Intraspecies prokaryotic diversity is a multifaceted research field with widespread connections to other biological disciplines. The dynamics of intraspecies diversity can be understood within models of bacterial microevolution, as population genetics is the basic theoretic foundation for explaining the mechanisms of evolution and speciation. Also, it directly relates to functional molecular biology, physiology and metabolism. Last, but not least, intraspecies diversity is inseparably linked to systematics and taxonomy, and to the current discussions on the prokaryotic species concept.

Key concepts

The field of prokaryotic intraspecies diversity is inseparably linked to the issue of species concepts. Currently, there is a strong debate as to whether further apply the historically evolved and pragmatic but in several aspects dissatisfying operational-based species definition, or to develop theory-based species concepts leading to new definitions. Any theory-based species concepts that might be implemented must respect the current set of rules of naming species, the Bacteriological Code, to avoid substantial confusion.

Although this may seem on the first spot trivial and self-evident, it must become clear that strains within a so-called species can be fundamentally different from each other. The theoretical foundation for understanding such intraspecies diversity is the field of population genetics, which is based on analytical mathematics. Intraspecies diversity can be analysed using three principal approaches (i) theoretical studies including computer simulation, (ii) Experimental Evolution and (iii) the study of natural populations. Ideally, these approaches should be combined. Each of these principal approaches should be based on three equivalent pillars (i) genetic markers, (ii) phenotypic traits and (iii) a solid knowledge on the habitat in which the bacterial strains most probably evolved.

Keywords:

population genetics;
microevolution;
theory-based species concepts;
prokaryote taxonomy;
prokaryote nomenclature


The first aim of this study was to explore the prevalence of Exercise Dependence (ED) in the Norwegian male population. The second aim was to examine what characterize men with high scores on Exercise Dependence Scale–Revised (EDS-R), when it comes to mode of exercise, exercise frequency, exercise intensity, exercise at a competitive level and hours exercising at the gym. To achieve these aims 5000 questionnaires were sent to randomly selected men between 18 and 65 years in Norway, and 1824 returned completed forms. Cases were excluded when data were missing and the final sample consisted of 1546 men. The questionnaire consisted of the Norwegian translated version of the Exercise Dependence Scale- Revised (EDS-R), demographic items and items that inquired about exercise-related characteristics. Results showed prevalence of exercise dependence in the male Norwegian population of 0.4%, and a higher occurrence of exercise dependence symptoms (21.4%). Higher total EDS-R score were found among these sub-groups of men: men engaging in power and weight class sports, exercising frequently, that often exercise with high intensity, exercising at a competitive level, and exercising more than 5 hours a week at the gym. The results offer insight into ED in the Norwegian male population, but more research is needed to further elucidate the phenomenon.


Hydrogen accumulation during fatigue of bake-hardened Al-Mg-Si alloys was investigated by means of hydrogen microprint technique. As a result of S-N curve relation as a function of testing frequency, effect of environmental hydrogen on fatigue properties was not clearly identified. Based on the low cycle fatigue test with 60MPa stress amplitude, it was revealed that hydrogen was preferentially accumulated on slip lines and that distribution of hydrogen emission was changed in the crack propagation direction. Hydrogen was preferentially accumulated at the coarse slip lines near the fatigue cracks where the separation of slip planes was observed in the fracture surface. On the other hand, hydrogen was observed on the slip lines arranged like steps where the fatigue striations were formed in the fracture surface. At near the final fracture area where the finer slip lines were formed on specimen surface, hydrogen was arranged on each slip lines formed by multiple slips. Morphology of hydrogen accumulation on slip lines was not changed when the testing frequency was changed from 2Hz to 15Hz.


necessary to do a pre-operative abdominal X ray and ultrasound examination before the procedure. series were able to cope with this situation and settled well with incremental doses of intravenous diazepam and fentanyl. Some patents cannot pass easily into the scanner if they are in the lateral position. It is also convenient to perform bilateral blockade in the prone position. Dr Singh's technique using image intensification is standard practice and we are not advocating that it be abandoned. We do not. however, see any need for the use of a dextran 70 infusion (with its attendant dangers) and hypotension has not been found to be a problem in two large series of chemical lumbar sympathectomies.''2 Analgesics, although not essential, are anxiolytic and are useful in alleviating pain that may arise during the block. We also do not consider it to be Department of Anaesthesia. D.R.O. REDMAN St Mary's Hospital, P.N. ROBINSON London W2


Automatic evaluation of text generation tasks (e.g. machine translation, text summarization, image captioning and video description) usually relies heavily on task-specific metrics, such as BLEU and ROUGE. They, however, are abstract numbers and are not perfectly aligned with human assessment. This suggests inspecting detailed examples as a complement to identify system error patterns. In this paper, we present VizSeq, a visual analysis toolkit for instance-level and corpus-level system evaluation on a wide variety of text generation tasks. It supports multimodal sources and multiple text references, providing visualization in Jupyter notebook or a web app interface. It can be used locally or deployed onto public servers for centralized data hosting and benchmarking. It covers most common n-gram based metrics accelerated with multiprocessing, and also provides latest embedding-based metrics such as BERTScore.


Hyperglycemia-inducing hyperosmolality has recently been proven beneficial in the maintenance of blood volume and extracellular fluid volume during early hemorrhagic hypotension. Fed animals benefitted from better plasma refill compared with starved ones when subjected to equal blood loss. Using lightly sedated fed and 24-30 h starved rats, hormones with relevance to glucose homeostasis were studied during 90 min of hemorrhagic hypotension of 70 mmHg (1 mmHg = 133.32 Pa). Marked differences in the overall hormonal developments were found between the two groups. In fed rats, insulin and glucagon responses were initially attenuated, while somatostatin increased to an early peak level at 30 min, returning to basal at 90 min. In starved rats, somatostatin increased gradually during the 90 min. Adrenaline release was massive in both groups. Corticosterone showed no increase from basal levels in the fed group during hemorrhage, while starved rats increased their basal level fourfold already at 30 min. These data are presented as evidence that changing nutritional status alters hormonal response to hypovolemic stress.


Over the past two decades, scientists have attempted to evaluate whether the point of maximal fat oxidation (FATmax) and the aerobic threshold (AerT) are connected. The existence of such a relationship would allow a more tailored training approach for athletes while improving the efficacy of individualized exercise prescriptions when treating numerous health-related issues. However, studies have reported conflicting results, and this issue remains unresolved. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed: (i) to examine the strength of the association between FATmax and AerT by using the effect size (ES) of correlation coefficient (r) and standardized mean difference (SMD); (ii) to identify potential moderators and their influence on ES variability. This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021239351) and ClinicalTrials (NCT03789045). PubMed and Google Scholar were searched and fourteen articles, consisting of overall 35 ES for r and 26 ES for SMD were included. Obtained ESs were analyzed using a multilevel random-effects meta-analysis. Our results support the presence of a significant association between FATmax and AerT exercise intensities. In conclusion, due to the large ES variance caused by clinical and methodological differences among the studies, we recommend that future studies follow strict standardization of data collection and analysis of FATmax and AerT-related outcomes.


Over the past 30 years, research has validated the success of osseointegrated implants as a viable alternative to fixed or removable prosthetic restorations. Periodontists are extensively trained in surgical procedures to treat and maintain patients with edentulous and partially edentulous arches. They also have a primary role in treatment planning and maintenance therapy. Thus, periodontists routinely integrate endosseous implants into periodontal therapy. This paper was prepared by the Research, Science and Therapy Committee of the American Academy of Periodontology and is intended to inform the dental profession regarding the utility of endosseous dental implants in the treatment of full and partial edentulism.


The musealisation of Castalla Castle (Spain): a project that could have been possible Between 2009 and 2017, the Castalla Castle Heritage Site Social Regeneration Project was executed with the aim of managing its entire cultural and natural heritage. Castalla Castle was one of the basic pillars of this project, and therefore its musealisation began in 2016. In this way, the fortification was equipped and included some contents that made the visit more attractive. The abrupt termination of this social regeneration project made it impossible to continue with its musealisation, as originally planned. Thus, this paper will explain the proposals that were intended to be carried out in three parts –Palau (Palace), Pati d'Armes (Lower Ward) and Torre Grossa (Large Tower)– in order to enrich the limited offer of musealised fortifications in the province of Alicante and turn Castalla Castle into a reference.


The recent development of the collaborative positioning (CP) algorithm enables a new possibility to improve the positioning performance, by making use of the measurements from neighboring road agents. Among different CP algorithms, the 3D mapping aided (3DMA) GNSS based CP has shown great potential to improve the GNSS positioning performance for the road agents located in the urban canyon. However, due to the difficulty of conducting real experiments, the 3DMA GNSS CP is usually only validated by the collaboration between few agents. The influence of the collaboration network size on the CP performance is worth to be investigated before its practical applications. Besides, the communication latency during CP may also degrade the positioning performance in real applications. In this study, based on a realistic GNSS measurement simulator, the impacts of the network size and the communication latency on the performance of the centralized 3DMA GNSS CP algorithm are investigated. The scalability analysis result shows that, simply enlarging the network size may not always improve the CP performance, or even worse, degrades the performance by involving additional error sources. On the other hand, the CP performance can be sensitively degraded by communication latency, which needs to be mitigated in practical applications.


The Altar de Muertos (Altar of the Dead), as a part of the celebration of Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead), was a traditional memorial altar and calaveras exhibit held throughout the month of November in 2016. The altar paid tribute to Mexican journalists and activists whose voices were silenced through violence and coercion. Sugar skulls, flowers, candles, plastic food items, and other memorabilia were placed on a three tiered altar with photographs of the deceased. Two posters were present to give context to the tradition of altars and information about the deceased.


NPY exhibits a broad distribution throughout the body. NPY has been localized in neurons that synthesize norepinephrine or epinephrine and also in many cell bodies which are not catecholaminergic. Coexistence of NPY and several other peptides has also been observed. Accordingly, NPY displays a wide variety of functional activities depending on its location and coexistence with other substances, especially catecholamines. NPY exerts direct effects at several targets and also modulates the cellular response to catecholamines and to peptides such as LHRH. It is reasonable to expect that NPY will modulate the pre- and postjunctional effects of catecholamines at many of their targets in view of the distribution of NPY in central catecholaminergic neurons and throughout the preaortic and sympathetic chain ganglia. Virtually nothing is known at the time of this writing about NPY receptors and postreceptor transduction mechanisms at different sites of NPY activity. Equally mysterious are the pre- and postjunctional receptor-coupled transduction mechanisms which are involved in the modulation of catecholaminergic or other peptidergic effects by NPY. The distribution of NPY and its involvement in cardiovascular, GI, endocrine, and neuroendocrine systems suggest that NPY may be an extremely important regulator of a spectrum of physiological functions.


The rate of degradation, organ deposition, and blood clearance of SBSA, SRSA, and IRSA has been measured in the newborn, 6-, and 30-day-old rabbits. When the animals were injected with a weight-graded dose of the 3 proteins, differences in their catabolism in the newborns were demonstrable as compared to the 6-, and 30-day-old animals. The capacity to degrade the azo compounds was shown to be incompletely developed at birth. At 6 days of age, however, the rabbits catabolized these proteins much at the same rate as the 30-day-old animals. Addition of the benzenesulfonate moiety determined the rate of degradation organ deposition and excretion rather than the carrier protein when the azo compounds were injected. The biosynthetically labeled S25 rabbit serum albumin (IRSA) was catabolized at a slower rate than the azoproteins in all age groups. Very little difference in the metabolism and organ deposition of the IRSA was shown to exist between the newborn and maturing animals. A dosage schedule, therefore, designed to test the immunological capacity of developing animals may not be valid when calculated upon body weight. The low level of activity of enzyme systems present at birth which degrade anti-genic material may serve as an explanation as to why this period of development is so vulnerable to the induction of tolerance rather than immunity when compared to the adult.


Objective & design Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a clinical condition that refers to progressive histological changes ranging from simple steatosis (SS) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We evaluated the status of cytosine methylation (5mC) of liver mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in selected regions of the mtDNA genome, such as D-loop control region, and mitochondrially encoded NADH dehydrogenase 6 (MT-ND6) and cytochrome C oxidase I (MT-CO1), to contrast the hypothesis that epigenetic modifications play a role in the phenotypic switching from SS to NASH. Methods We studied liver biopsies obtained from patients with NAFLD in a case-control design; 45 patients and 18 near-normal liver-histology subjects. Results MT-ND6 methylation was higher in the liver of NASH than SS patients (p<0.04) and MT-ND6 methylated DNA/unmethylated DNA ratio was significantly associated with NAFLD activity score (p<0.02). Liver MT-ND6 mRNA expression was significantly decreased in NASH patients (0.26±0.30) versus SS (0.74±0.48), p<0.003, and the protein level was also diminished. The status of liver MT-ND6 methylation in NASH group was inversely correlated with the level of regular physical activity (R=-0.54, p<0.02). Hepatic methylation levels of D-Loop and MT-CO1 were not associated with the disease severity. DNA (cytosine-5) methyltransferase 1 was significantly upregulated in NASH patients (p<0.002). Ultrastructural evaluation showed that NASH is associated with mitochondrial defects and peroxisome proliferation. Conclusion Hepatic methylation and transcriptional activity of the MT-ND6 are associated with the histological severity of NAFLD. Epigenetic changes of mtDNA are potentially reversible by interventional programs, as physical activity could modulate the methylation status of MT-ND6.


BACKGROUND
To determine the accuracy of several preoperative tests in predicting lymph node (LN) metastases and the feasibility of doing a routine lymphadenectomy in clinical stage-I endometrial cancer.

MATERIAL/METHODS
We reviewed 132 patients with clinical stage-I endometrial cancer. The preoperative tests used to predict LN metastases were serum CA-125 level, histologic type and grade, LN status assessed by pelvic magnetic resonance image (MRI) or computed tomography (CT), and depth of myometrial invasion assessed only by pelvic MRI. The cutoff value of the serum CA-125 level was determined using receiver operating characteristic curves. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine which tests are good predictors of LN metastases.

RESULTS
Of 132 patients, 13 (9.8%) had LN metastases. On univariate logistic regression analysis, a high CA-125 level and preoperative LN evaluation by pelvic MRI or CT were significant predictors for LN metastases (OR=17.41, 95% CI: 4.36-69.56 and OR=14.30, 95% CI: 4.02-50.63, respectively). However, on multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and all preoperative tests, a high CA-125 level was the most significant predictor (OR=13.73, 95% CI: 2.03-92.73). Among the 97 patients with no significant predictor of LN metastases, pelvic LN metastases were observed in 3 patients (3.1%) and para-aortic LN metastases were observed in 1 patient (1.1%). Surgical complications were mild (lymphocele, n=9; lymphedema, n=2; wound problem, n=2).

CONCLUSIONS
Considering the importance of LN metastases as an indicator of prognosis, and the relatively low surgical risk of lymphadenectomy, clinicians should cautiously consider routine lymphadenectomy in patients with clinical stage-I endometrial cancer.


Objective. It is unclear if skin cancer risk is affected by the use of immunomodulatory medications in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The purpose of this study is to evaluate and summarize the available data pertinent to this question. Methods. The English language literature on PubMed was searched with a combination of phrases, including "malignancy," "skin cancer," "squamous cell carcinoma," "basal cell carcinoma," "melanoma," "psoriasis," "psoriatic arthritis," and "rheumatoid arthritis" in addition to the generic names of a variety of common immunomodulatory drugs. Relevant articles were identified and data were extracted. Results. In total, 2218 potentially relevant articles were identified through the search process. After further screening, 20 articles relevant to RA were included. An additional 19 articles relevant to either psoriasis or PsA were included as well. RA may be a risk factor for the development of cutaneous malignancy. Treatment with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors increases the rates of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) in RA and psoriasis. This risk doubles when combination methotrexate therapy is used in RA. Methotrexate may increase the risk of malignant melanoma in patients with RA and the risk of NMSC in psoriasis. Cyclosporine and prior phototherapy significantly increase the risk of NMSC. Conclusion. RA may potentiate the risk of cutaneous malignancy and therefore dermatologic screening in this population should be considered. The use of immunomodulatory therapy in RA, psoriasis, and PsA may further increase the risk of cutaneous malignancy and therefore dermatologic screening examinations are warranted in these groups. More careful recording of skin cancer development during clinical trials and cohort studies is necessary to further delineate the risks of immunomodulatory therapy.


Low-grade systemic inflammation in adipose tissues or liver, is an important etiologic factor in insulin resistance. LPS is an important element causing such metabolic inflammation, and intestinal flora is considered a major source of systemic LPS. We studied changes of intestinal microbiota associated with high-fat diet (HFD) that causes insulin resistance and metabolic stress. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that HFD significantly decreased the abundance of a mucin-degrading bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila compared to control diet. Reduced abundance of Akkermansia in HFD-fed mice was reversed by metformin, a widely prescribed anti-diabetic medicine. Oral administration of Akkermansia to HFD-fed mice significantly enhanced insulin sensitivity and attenuated adipose tissue inflammation probably by inducing Foxp3 regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the visceral adipose tissue. We also studied Paneth cells, specialized intestinal epithelial cells that produce antimicrobial peptides (AMP) and shape gut microbial milieu. We studied whether high-fat diet (HFD) impairs the function of Paneth cells and interferes with intestinal microbial homeostasis, potentially contributing to the development of metabolic syndrome. HFD-fed mice exhibited reduced expressions of some AMP and defective antimicrobial activity, which led to loss of epithelial integrity and a significantly higher content of LPS in the liver and serum of HFD-fed mice compared to chow-fed mice. Antibiotic treatment reduced translocation of bacterial components, steatosis, and inflammation in the liver of HFD-fed mice, which in turn improved systemic glucose metabolism. HFD-fed mice were also more susceptible to dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis, probably due to impaired Paneth cell function. Our data suggest that Paneth cell dysfunction may be one of the underlying mechanisms of glucose intolerance and inflammatory bowel disease associated with western diet. These results suggest that high-fat diet could be a risk factor not only for metabolic syndrome but also for colitis, and modulation of the gut microbiota or Paneth cell function could be a new therapeutic modality against metabolic syndrome or colitis associated with western diet.