CONTEXT
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), particularly among young adults, has been rising steadily during the past 2 decades. T2D, especially in its early-onset subtype, is under genetic control. TRIB3 inhibits insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation and subsequent insulin action. A TRIB3 gain-of-function polymorphism, Q84R (rs2295490), impairs insulin signaling.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to verify the association of TRIB3 Q84R with: 1) T2D, either subtyped or not according to age at diagnosis (early-onset, <45 yr, or >or= 45 yr); 2) insulin secretion and sensitivity in nondiabetic individuals; or 3) in vitro insulin secretion from isolated human islets.

DESIGN
Four different case-control samples comprising a total of 5,469 whites were examined. Insulinogenic and insulin sensitivity indexes and their interplay (disposition index) were assessed in 645 nondiabetic individuals at oral glucose tolerance test, glucose (16.7 mmol/liter)-induced in vitro insulin secretion was assessed in islets isolated from 54 nondiabetic donors.

RESULTS
In the whole sample, the R84 variant was nominally associated with T2D (odds ratio 1.17, 95% confidence interval 1.00-1.36, P = 0.04). When stratifying according to age of diabetes onset, R84 carriers had an increased risk of early-onset T2D (odds ratio 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.10-1.58, P = 0.002). Among 645 nondiabetic subjects, R84 carriers had higher glucose levels (P = 0.005) and lower insulinogenic (P = 0.03) and disposition index (P = 0.02) during the oral glucose tolerance test. R84 islets were more likely to display relatively low glucose-stimulated insulin release (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS
The TRIB3 R84 variant is associated with early-onset T2D in whites. Alteration in the insulin secretion/insulin sensitivity interplay appears to underlie this association.


Range expansions are common in natural populations. They can take such forms as an invasive species spreading into a new habitat or a virus spreading from host to host during a pandemic. When the expanding species is capable of dispersing offspring over long distances, population growth is driven by rare but consequential long-range dispersal events that seed satellite colonies far from the densely occupied core of the population. These satellites accelerate growth by accessing unoccupied territory, and also act as reservoirs for maintaining neutral genetic variation present in the originating population, which would ordinarily be lost to drift. Prior theoretical studies of dispersal-driven expansions have shown that the sequential establishment of satellites causes initial genetic diversity to be either lost or maintained to a level determined by the breadth of the distribution of dispersal distances. If the tail of the distribution falls off faster than a critical threshold, diversity is steadily eroded over time; by contrast, broader distributions with a slower falloff allow some initial diversity to be maintained for arbitrarily long times. However, these studies used lattice-based models and assumed an instantaneous saturation of the local carrying capacity after the arrival of a founder. Real-world populations expand in continuous space with complex local dynamics, which potentially allow multiple pioneers to arrive and establish within the same local region. Here, we evaluate the impact of local dynamics on the population growth and the evolution of neutral diversity using a computational model of range expansions with long-range dispersal in continuous space, with explicit local dynamics that can be controlled by altering the mix of local and long-range dispersal events. We found that many qualitative features of population growth and neutral genetic diversity observed in lattice-based models are preserved under more complex local dynamics, but quantitative aspects such as the rate of population growth, the level of maintained diversity, and the rate of decay of diversity all depend strongly on the local dynamics. Besides identifying situations in which modeling the explicit local population dynamics becomes necessary to understand the population structure of jump-driven range expansions, our results show that local dynamics affects different features of the population in distinct ways, and can be more or less consequential depending on the degree and form of long-range dispersal as well as the scale at which the population structure is measured.


Williams scholars who have focused on his relationship to the visual arts have tended towards formalistic analysis. Here is James Guimond: When Williams-particularly in the 1920's-or Demuth dealt with subjects they admired such as flowers, their reaction was to take them entirely out of life where they could decay and disappoint. Both Demuth's flower paintings and Williams' flower poems present their subjects as timeless, richly abstract, beautiful designs. (48-49) Peter Halter: The tension created by such a syntactic ambiguity can be directly related to the Cubist technique of including the ambiguous or contradictory overlapping of planes, or of fusing, or metonymically displacing, the material qualities of objects, so that a pipe becomes transparent while a glass or a carafe is opaque. (88) Dickran Tashjian: [Demuth's] commentary on the American scene emerges from the formal means that [he] has exercised. His Cubist-Realism, as some critics have designated his style, exploits the geometry inherent in the building, thereby creating its own pictorial structure. . . . [T]he clarity of lives (even in the passages that characterize the lower street in the closest approximation of Cubism), the rays that unite sky and building, the brightness of the colors, and the elegant twists of smoke all combine to create an aesthetic experience in marked tension with the drab architectural realities of such towns. (67) In these examples, the language of formalism obscures other interesting aspects of Williams's fascination with painters and painting. For one, the idea that blurring the boundaries of art forms (poetry and painting) was an expression of a transgressive poetics as it went against such modernist pieties (think Greenberg, think Kandinsky) as the separation of arts and the purity of form. For another, and perhaps most intriguing, the fact that many of the artists he came into contact with lived lives that I'd characterize as dissident, or nonheteronormative, or queer. The relationship with Demuth is an excellent case in point. As noted, scholars center discussions of their relationship on the mutual interest in defining a new type of American art that accepted the realities of urbanism and industrialism as appropriate subject matter, but that was, stylistically, influenced by European modernism's attention to experimental forms and sleek designs. Critics emphasize the Futurist influence-the possibly ironic celebration of machine age culture in the smoke stacks, grain elevators, skyscrapers, and auto plants that constituted what Demuth called "My Egypt." There is discussion of how Williams wanted to be a painter when young, and Demuth, then studying art at Drexel, a writer, and of how they knew each other in Philadelphia. A note about their first meeting in 1903 over a bowl of prunes at Mrs. Chain's boardinghouse on Locust Street is de rigueur. Williams is quoted as not realizing Demuth was gay, and Demuth himself not realizing it. The closest commentators get to suggesting the queer dimensions of Demuth's work is when they acknowledge, as do Peter Schmidt and Tashjian, that his flowers and industrial landscapes possess a veiled or displaced "erotic" dimension, even as the art works lack a specific sexual content. Of course, much of Demuth's work, especially his watercolors, is overtly, even scandalously, bawdy and homoerotic, but these works are not discussed in the context of Williams's interest in his art. Williams himself felt that the content of much of Demuth's work barred it from public appreciation. In Demuth's Three Sailors on the Beach, a watercolor from 1930, the artist depicts one of his most overt scenes of public homoeroticism through the image of men about to engage in fellatio. Demuth implicated himself in the scene by placing his own initials inside a heart-shaped tattoo upon the arm of one of the sailors.1 As Tashjian does helpfully point out, Distinguished Air (1930) depicts sailors admiring a giant phallus (based on a Brancusi) at an art gallery-a scene that Demuth drew from an episode deleted from a 1925 story by Robert McAlmon. …


The weights of the carotid bodies have been measured in an unselected group of 40 successive cases coming for routine necropsy. Although the mean weight of the carotid bodies was higher in those subjects with emphysema or Pickwickian syndrome, this difference did not reach a level of statistical significance. Nevertheless, in a group of two patients with cor pulmonale and one with the Pickwickian syndrome the mean weight of the carotid bodies was significantly higher than that of the rest. Such observations would be consistent with enlargement of the glomic tissue in response to chronic hypoxia. In addition to these observations there was a significant correlation between the size of the carotid bodies and the weights of the left and right ventricles separately, while there was a substantially higher correlation between the weights of the carotid bodies and the combined weights of the two ventricles. Should such a correlation be determined by a causative link between these two measurements, a new metabolic role of glomic tissue will have to be considered. The histology of the carotid bodies was studied and differential cell counts were carried out in 21 cases. Enlargement of the carotid bodies was not accompanied by any change in the differential cell count, except that in one case with `cor pulmonale' and large carotid bodies areas of hyperplasia showed a predominance of the dark variety of type 1 (chief) cell.


Renal tubular epithelial cells synthesize laminin (LN)5 during regeneration of the epithelium after ischemic injury. LN5 is a truncated laminin isoform of particular importance in the epidermis, but it is also constitutively expressed in a number of other epithelia. To investigate the role of LN5 in morphogenesis of a simple renal epithelium, we examined the synthesis and function of LN5 in the spreading, proliferation, wound-edge migration, and apical-basal polarization of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. MDCK cells synthesize LN5 only when subconfluent, and they degrade the existing LN5 matrix when confluent. Through the use of small-interfering RNA to knockdown the LN5 alpha3 subunit, we were able to demonstrate that LN5 is necessary for cell proliferation and efficient wound-edge migration, but not apical-basal polarization. Surprisingly, suppression of LN5 production caused cells to spread much more extensively than normal on uncoated surfaces, and exogenous keratinocyte LN5 was unable to rescue this phenotype. MDCK cells also synthesized laminin alpha5, a component of LN10, that independent studies suggest may form an assembled basal lamina important for polarization. Overall, our findings indicate that LN5 is likely to play an important role in regulating cell spreading, migration, and proliferation during reconstitution of a continuous epithelium.


Systematic collection of safety incident / accident data has been common in many industries for decades. An equivalent effort has not been made in the area of information security, exclusive perhaps of highly specialized organizations with such needs. The systematic collection of incident data allows scientific research and investigation into their causes, ultimately leading organizations to introduce more effective safeguards. Several authors have suggested that incident reporting systems should be used to collect information security incident data. This project explores a System Dynamics model of a general incident reporting system, previously developed by other researchers, and discusse hpw it can be usefuk in information security. The model is also compared to how an existing organization collects incident data, to find out if the assumptions of the model mathces a real world example, in this case a health care institution. The purpose of the developed model(s) is to help organizations in developing or improving incident reporting systems for information security, being an aid in evaluating their (planned or existing) procedures and tools. Whilst this might have had relevance to only a limited group of organizations in the past, when fewer worked with information security, we see today that any organization that works with information systems must also deal with information security in some degree. An organization does not need to grow very large before no individual can easily keep oversight of all its workings. Thus a need for structured management arises, just as much in information security as in other business processes.


Topological spin textures as an emerging class of topological matter offer a medium for information storage and processing. The recently discovered topological Hall effect (THE) is considered as a fingerprint for electrically probing the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction and corresponding non-trivial spin-textures. In this paper, the THE and its electrical control are observed in ultrathin (⩽8 unit cells. u.c.) 4D ferromagnetic SrRuO3 films grown on SrTiO3(0 0 1) substrates, indicating the existence of gate-bias-tunable DM interaction in the single SrRuO3 layer without contacting 5D oxide SrIrO3 layer. High-resolution lattice structure analysis revealed that the interfacial RuO6 octahedral tilting induced by local orthorhombic-to-tetragonal structural phase transition exists across the SrRuO3/SrTiO3 interface, which naturally breaks the inversion symmetry. Our theoretical calculations demonstrate that the DM interaction arises owing to the broken inversion symmetry and strong spin–orbit interaction of 4D SrRuO3. This interfacial RuO6 octahedral tilting-induced DM interaction can stabilize the Néel-type magnetic skyrmions, which in turn accounts for the observed THE in transport. Besides the fundamental significance, the understanding of THE in oxides and its electrical manipulation presented in this work could advance the low power cost topological electronic and spintronic applications.


The present study aimed to investigate EFL teachers' and students' views on the current practices of the student's portfolio in terms of teacher's purposes, students' purposes, teachers' roles and students' roles. The study sample included 953 EFL students and 258 teachers in the Sultanate of Oman. Data was collected using questionnaires. The major findings of the present study were that both teachers and students used the student's portfolio for achieving a variety of purposes; however, the roles that they played might not lead to the achievement of these purposes. Generally speaking, teachers rarely played their roles in implementing the student's portfolio. The results indicated that teachers hardly prepared their students to implement the student's portfolio and they assessed their students' portfolios at a moderate level. Regarding students, it was found that the students rarely participated in making decisions about their portfolios and they rarely prepared themselves to complete the portfolios. The most frequent role that they played in preparing their portfolios was to keep all materials, tasks and activities in their portfolios.


Omnidirectional images (ODIs) have obtained lots of research interest for immersive experiences. Although ODIs require extremely high resolution to capture details of the entire scene, the resolutions of most ODIs are insufficient. Previous methods attempt to solve this issue by image super-resolution (SR) on equirectangular projection (ERP) images. However, they omit geometric properties of ERP in the degradation process, and their models can hardly generalize to real ERP images. In this paper, we propose Fisheye downsampling, which mimics the real-world imaging process and synthesizes more realistic low-resolution samples. Then we design a distortion-aware Transformer (OSRT) to modulate ERP distortions continuously and self-adaptively. Without a cumbersome process, OSRT outperforms previous methods by about 0.2dB on PSNR. Moreover, we propose a convenient data augmentation strategy, which synthesizes pseudo ERP images from plain images. This simple strategy can alleviate the over-fitting problem of large networks and significantly boost the performance of ODISR. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the state-of-the-art performance of our OSRT.


Traits can evolve both in response to direct selection and in response to indirect selection on other linked traits. Although the evolutionary significance of coupled traits (e.g., through shared components of developmental pathways, or through competition for shared developmental resources) is now well accepted, we know comparatively little about how developmental coupling may restrict the independent responses of two or more phenotypically plastic traits in response to conflicting environmental cues. Such studies are important because coupled development, if present, could act as an important limit to the evolution of functionally independent plasticity in multiple traits. I tested whether developmental coupling can restrict the direction of plastic responses by studying how penis form and leg form--both highly plastic traits of barnacles--varied in response to differences in conspecific density and water velocity. Penis length and leg length in Balanus glandula varied in parallel with variation in wave-exposure but varied in opposite directions with variation in conspecific density. This study represents one of the rare tests of developmental coupling between multiple (demonstrably adaptive) plastic traits: Barnacle legs and penises appear to exhibit modular development that can respond concurrently--yet in independent directions--to conflicting environmental cues.


When a textbook has reached its 40th birthday and its 12th edition, 1 it becomes exceedingly difficult to review. Many reviews will appear, of course, but for the most part they will comment, say, on the number of pages and "view with alarm" the almost inevitable increases; they will indicate the major changes since the preceding edition, such as the number of new contributors and new articles—information the editors conveniently provide in the preface. The adventuresome reviewer may weigh the book and reveal its avoirdupois, leaf through the references to tell us what proportion bears a recent date, and then make a few comments on those textual areas with which he is best acquainted. But the book has now achieved such a solid position that a methodological and historical critique may be more significant than a conventional review. However, first let me provide the data which the reader naturally expects.


A simple technique to synthesis crystalline Tungsten Oxide nanowires is presented. Using a standard thermal hotplate, a pure 99.9% tungsten foil is annealed to 484 ± 5 oC under ambient condition to generate vapor deposition of the heated materials on a piece of 150μm thick glass cover slide pressing on the tungsten foil. Tungsten oxide nanowires are found to deposit on the cover slide facing the heated tungsten foil. These tungsten oxide nanowires were characterized with SEM, TEM, EDX, micro-Raman and XRD. The crystalline nanowires were found to be straight and clean with a diameter of 10-300nm and a length of a few tens of micrometers.


There is an urgency to address societal challenges due to earth's environmental crisis and its capacity to sustain human well-being. In this context, 'transformations towards sustainability' move to centre-stage and are increasingly institutionalised within global scientific and policy discourses. Sustainability transformations involve reorientation and restructuring of governance processes and actions. Though the governance of transformation involves multiple actors, this article examines the role of the judiciary in steering a transformation process towards a sustainable and equitable future. Judicial intervention, as a strategic tool, can effect change in human action thereby enabling transformative changes. Drawing on social science literature, the article offers a novel interdisciplinary analysis of illustrative Indian climate change legal decisions located within the sustainability transformations discourse underpinned by the environmental rule of law. The Indian judiciary, noted for expansive thinking, and acting as a 'lever of transformation', is slowly addressing climate cases. These cases categorised as – climate conscious, climate accountability and climate futurity – reflect progressive cumulative outcomes, albeit incremental, but they nevertheless enable conditions for transformative change.


The recent expansion and proliferation of legalized casino gaming has spurred debate at all levels of government. As a result, a number of studies have attempted to quantify many of the economic, social, and fiscal impacts of legalized casino gaming. This study reviewed existing literature on the effects of casino gaming in the Upper Midwest and discussed some of the issues associated with casino activities. The impacts of casino gaming have generally been evaluated at either the local and/or state or regional level. Positive economic impacts have been quantified more often than negative economic impacts. Few studies have attempted to quantify the social costs of casino gaming. The economic impacts of casino activities on local economies have generally been positive, with some debate over the magnitude or importance of those impacts. Other impacts at the local level have been mixed. The economic impacts on state economies are generally measured using gross economic indicators, such as primary and secondary employment and overall economic activity. Many issues remain regarding the real or true economic impacts to state economies, as many studies have not adequately addressed the issue of whether or not gaming revenues represent new wealth to the state. The debate over the impacts of casino gaming is likely to continue. The gambling industry has grown dramatically in many regions of the United States, and so have concerns over the long-term implications of expanded gambling activities.


ABSTRACT:This paper reviews the empirical literature on international spillovers and contagion. Theoretical models of spillover and contagion imply that the reduced-form observable variables suffer from two possible sources of bias: endogeneity and omitted variables. These econometric problems, in combination with the heteroskedasticity that plagues the data, produce time-varying biases. Several empirical methodologies are evaluated from this perspective: nonparametric techniques, such as correlations and principal components; and parametric methods, such as OLS, VAR, event studies, ARCH, and nonlinear regressions. The paper concludes that there is no single technique that can solve the full-fledged problem and discusses three methodologies that can partially address some of the questions in the literature.


Once every decade or so, a disruptive technology appears that has the potential to revolutionize
electrical and computer engineering (ECE) education. This paper considers the impact of one of
the most recent examples: a USB-powered instrument called Analog Discovery that is cheap
enough for students to own personally. Students are no longer bound by the constraints of fixed
space, equipment, and schedules in their institution to conduct experiments. Instructional
materials are posted for free and advice is provided by early adopters, working engineers and
hobbyists in forums on the internet to simplify the adoption of this pedagogical approach. The
paper outlines the experience of four universities with support from three companies to exploit
this technology in ECE curricula. Assessment of hands-on pedagogy shows that the approach
has very positive impact on the depth of understanding of complex concepts. Effects are
particularly profound in the early years of a university program and for underrepresented and
minority students or who have had a fractured educational experience. Just as profound, is the
impact "hands-on learning" has on college engineering program retention rates and students'
future employment opportunities. Experimenting and solving problems in a hands-on
environment can provide a solid grounding in engineering principles. More importantly, handson
learning with one of the various student learning tools is just plain fun for faculty as well as
students. The paper also considers the potential for this technology to seed a disruptive chain of
developments in higher education.


The marine energy (ME) industry historically lacked a standardized data processing toolkit for common tasks such as data ingestion, quality control, and visualization. The marine and hydrokinetic toolkit (MHKiT) solved this issue by providing a public software deployment (open-source and free) toolkit for the ME industry to store and maintain commonly used functionality for wave, tidal, and river energy. This paper demonstrates an initial model verification study in MHKiT. Using Delft3D, a numerical model of the Tanana River Test Site (TRTS) at Nenana, Alaska was created. Field data from the site was collected using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) at the proposed Current Energy Converter (CEC) locations. MHKiT is used to process model simulations from Delft3D and compare them to the transect data from the ADCP measurements at TRTS. The ability to use a single tool to process simulation and field data demonstrates the ease at which the ME industry can obtain results and collaborate across specialties, reducing errors and increasing efficiency.


Recent accounts in the press concerning the two employees of the National Security Agency who defected to the Soviet Union have understandably created a feeling of uneasiness about our entire security program in the minds of the public. The fact that one of the defectors had consulted a psychiatrist shortly before his defection has further confused the picture. As a result, the relationship of the individual patient to his psychiatrist when sensitive agencies are involved has become unclear for many patients undergoing psychiatric treatment, for the medical profession, and for the public at large. It may be useful, therefore, to restate certain basic principles in order to clarify some of the current misconceptions. The first misconception, bluntly stated, is that any employee of a sensitive agency receiving psychiatric treatment is ipso facto a security risk. This is untrue. The truth is that a substantial number of such employees have been


Examples of chant, song and written propaganda from the mid-1950s are examined here in order to probe the debates and relationships which influenced the political future of the Ewe-speaking areas of southern British Togoland. While microstudies have been important in explaining sources of division between communities in these areas, propaganda provides a means of understanding the arguments, idioms and ideas about the state which brought many different people together behind the apparently peculiar project of Togoland reunification. The main source of tension within this political movement was not competing local or communal interests, but the unequal relationships that resulted from uneven provision of education. Written and oral propaganda texts, and the rallies where they were performed and exchanged, point to a surprisingly participatory and eclectic political culture, where distinctions between the lettered and unlettered remained fluid and open to challenge.


Legislation or tnarket forces? Apothecaries and druggists in the Interwar Period In 1865, Dutch Parliament accepted four laws regulating the national health care system and the organization of the medical profession. Together with the Law on Higher Education, that went into effect in 1876, they led to the raising of pharmacy to academic levels. Many expected this would deal the death blow to the chemist and druggist profession (drogist) and leave the apothecaries with a monopoly. The opposite, however, happened. The number of druggists increased dramatically in the decades following the 1865 legislation; their business was thriving due to the sale of secret remedies, the new synthetic remedies and other remedies that were popular with the public. This article deals with the heated debates between apothecaries and druggists over their position on the pharmaceutical market as well as with their laborious efforts to cooperation, the main question being how to control the sale of medicines: either by state legislation or by market forces. It turns out that the apothecaries expected much of the former but did not, their academic status notwithstanding, reject the latter on fundamental grounds.


With the help of a study of the literature, I will argue for the need forresearch regarding crisis communication between the authorities and themedia in the event of extraordinary societal situations. Such research is ofimportance (both practical and theoretical), because this type of crisiscommunication can affect the authorities rescue work, the journalists´ newsreporting and the development of a societal extraordinary event into a crisissituation. The study is part of a forthcoming doctoral thesis which examinesthe interplay, the crisis communication, between the Swedish authorities andthe media in connection with the Estonia catastrophe of 1994.


Water policy offers opportunity for nonpartisan agreement Issues around fresh water are not particularly high on the U.S. political agenda. They should be. Water problems directly threaten food production, fisheries, energy generation, foreign policy, public health, and international security. Access to safe, sufficient, and affordable water is vital to well-being and to the economy. Yet U.S. water systems, once the envy of the world, are falling into disrepair, and new threats loom. Drinking water disasters in Flint, Michigan, droughts and floods increasingly attributable to anthropogenic climate change (1), and growing violence worldwide over water offer a glimpse of what we face unless new efforts are made to address failing infrastructure, worsening climate conditions, and ineffective policies and regulations (2). Yet, if there is any issue that offers the opportunity for nonpartisan agreement, it is to create and implement a 21st-century national water policy. In that vein, I detail national and international water challenges and recommendations for the next U.S. president, administration, and Congress.


Jackie McCluskey: Iron Acquisition in Listeria m onocytogenes This investigation was designed to study iron acquisition mechanisms of Listeria monocytogenes. Molecular biology techniques were employed. A listerial genomic library in E. coli and a library of listerial transposon mutants was constructed and screened. The assay used to screen both libraries was based on the ability of a ferrous iron chelator, ferrozine, to produce a red colour when complexed with ferrous iron. After screening approximately 10,000 clones from the genomic library and 12,000 mutants from the transposon library of mutants, 11 apparently ferric reductase-negative transposon mutants were identified. Subsequent analysis of these mutants showed them to be ferric reductase-positive. The reason for this reversal of phenotype is not known and was not investigated further. To identify genes which were involved in the growth of L. monocytogenes in low-iron environments, the library of listerial transposon mutants was screened in low-iron medium. From the 5,500 screened, two mutants were identified which showed reduced ability to grow in both low-ferric and low-ferrous iron medium. In the high-iron medium, the growth of the mutants was similar to that of the wild type. Mutant 9E was phenotypically similar to the wild type except for the inability to grow in low-iron medium. Mutant 7D had two additional difference; increased haemolytic activity and decreased motility when observed using phase microscopy. Sequencing of the flanking chromosomal DNA led to the identity of the genes which had been disrupted; flaA in mutant 7D and argC in mutant 9E. Sequence analysis upstream from the flaA gene identified a new gene, cheV, in L. monocytogenes. The relationship of these mutations to the observed phenotypes was discussed. The ability of both mutants to grow in vivo was similar to that of the parental wild type.


This paper presents the outcome of several machine learning techniques used for the task of bird/drone classification based on their tracks. Instead of using static images, the dynamics and features extracted from the trajectories captured in videos are used to provide a more accurate and reliable recognition task. Standard Machine Learning methods such as SVM and Random Forest are used for learning this classification. Features based on the kinematics, Gabor filter, and Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix are utilized. Several comparisons and experiments based on benchmark data sets are shown.


Text mining is used in various text related tasks such as information extraction, concept/entity extraction, document summarization, entity relation modeling (i.e., learning relations between named entities), categorization/classification and clustering. This paper focuses on document clustering, a field of text mining, which groups a set of documents into a list of meaningful categories. The main focus of this paper is to present a performance analysis of various techniques available for document clustering. The results of this comparative study can be used to improve existing text data mining frameworks and improve the way of knowledge discovery. This paper considers six clustering techniques for document clustering. The techniques are grouped into three groups namely Group 1 – K-means and its variants (traditional K-means and K* Means algorithms), Group 2 - Expectation Maximization and its variants (traditional EM, Spherical Gaussian EM algorithm and Linear Partitioning and Reallocation clustering (LPR) using EM algorithms), Group 3 Semantic-based techniques (Hybrid method and Feature-based algorithms). A total of seven algorithms are considered and were selected based on their popularity in the text mining field. Several experiments were conducted to analyze the performance of the algorithm and to select the winner in terms of cluster purity, clustering accuracy and speed of clustering.


The high temperature deformation behavior of AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel has been studied over a temperature range of 800 to 1000°C and strain rate of 0.05-5.0/sec. The evolution of flow stress and microstructures showed the characteristics of continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX). The flow stress curves gradually decreased with increasing strain over the peak stress until 500% of strain without any steady state shown in typical austenitic stainless steel. Sub-grains of low angle firstly formed along the original high angle grain boundary were propagated into the inside of original grain and transformed to high angle. The CDRX grain sizes of AISI 430 deformed at 1000 °C and 0.5/sec was about 30-35㎛.


The COVID-19 pandemic broke out at the end of 2019 and throughout 2020 there were intensive international efforts to find a vaccine for the disease, which has already led to the deaths of over 6 million people. In December 2020, several pharmaceutical companies announced that they had succeeded in producing an effective vaccine and after approval by the various regulatory bodies, countries started to vaccinate their citizens. With the start of the global campaign to vaccinate the world's population against COVID-19, there was a strong renewal of the debate about prioritizing the population for the vaccination. This article presents the moral approaches to this issue and their consequences.


Changing positions of genes on a chromosome is an informative way of learning about why an existing chromosome structure and gene order was selected by evolution in bacteria. In Salmonella gyrA and gyrB – genes encoding DNA gyrase – enzyme that introduces negative supercoils in DNA, are located almost at opposite poles of a chromosome. However, in many other bacteria they are arranged in a gyrBA operon. In order to investigate the significance of this fact, gyrBA operon was made in Salmonella by bringing gyrA open reading frame and its ribosome binding site directly downstream of gyrB and under a control of its regulatory regions, the original copy of gyrA was deleted. The gyrBA strain obtained as a result exhibits no differences from the wild type in growth and morphology, however, the ability to supercoil DNA is altered between gyrBA and the WT. This is specifically important at conditions mimicking environment inside a macrophage in terms of Mg2+ concentration, as it may suggest alteration of gyrBA survival inside a macrophage. An attempt to make strain with gyrAB operon was not successful, as it was not possible to delete the original gyrB, suggesting particular importance of its position.


There was performed the assessment of the degree of the impact of the chemical occupational factors on the development of allergic diseases in healthcare practitioners of the Sverdlovsk Region. According to results of the certification of 145 workplaces in medical institutions of the Sverdlovsk Region's it was revealed that the health care professionals mostly contact with the chemical substances which were the strong allergens with potent nfavorable impact on the health. In the formation of allergic diseases in healthcare practitioners the leading role is belonged to antibiotics, vitamins and other medicines, as well as formaldehyde; there is less detected sensitization to cotton dust and synthetic detergents.


To know the overall regional or international scientific production is of vital importance to many areas of knowledge. Nevertheless, in interdisciplinary areas such as Geographic Information Science (GISc) it is not enough to just count papers published in specific journals. Most of them, as is the case of the International Journal of Remote Sensing (IJRS), welcome GISc papers but are not exclusive to that area so the production assignable to authors in the region must consider not only affiliation but also whether or not each paper falls into the theme of GISc. IJRS publishes far more papers than any other GISc journal, so it is important to assess quantitatively how many of them are of GISc. In this work, a representative sample of IJRS articles published over a period of almost 30 years was analyzed using a specific GISc definition. With these data, a manual classification methodology through a set of experts was carried out, and a dataset was built, analyzed, and statistically tested. As a result we estimate that between 47 and 76articles can be considered from GISc, with a confidence level of 95could be used as a gold standard for future classification tasks. It constitutes the first GISc dataset of this kind, that may be used to train artificial intelligence systems capable of performing the same classification automatically and in a massive way. A similar procedure could be applied to other interdisciplinary fields of knowledge as well.


Abstract Can a few primarily Western States expand the right to self-defence against non-State actors, incorporating the unwilling or unable standard? Even on a traditional reading of customary law formation, the answer is no because proponents have failed to attract consistent and widespread support. What is more, using our interactional international law approach, we show that efforts to date have not been successful because they have failed to address fundamental rule of law concerns. The current state of world politics has perhaps caught proponents of the unwilling or unable standard in a difficult bind. We suggest how proponents might carefully develop the law on self-defence against non-State actors.


Budiana, Agnes Arum. 2011. The Use of Look and Say as a Technique in
Teaching Reading to Elementary School Students (The Case of the Fourth
Grade Students of SD Negeri Kambangan 1, Tegal in the academic Year
of 2010/2011). A final project, English Department, Faculty of Languages
and Arts, Semarang State University. Advisors: 1. Maria Johana Ari W.
S.S., M.Si., 2. Drs. La Ode Musyaridun.
Keywords: Look and Say, teaching reading, elementary school students.
Elementary school students have different characteristics from adults.
They easily get bored; lose interest after 10 minutes or so. The teacher of this
level have got challenging task to motivate them. They need to modify the way of
their teaching. So, they can use interesting technique in order to attract the
students' attention and interest. The objective of this study was to describe the
application of using look and say as a technique in teaching reading to the fourth
grade students of elementary school. This way hopefully, would be useful for
teachers and students in language teaching learning process.
The study was an action research with two cycles. Each cycle consisted of
teaching and learning process and a formative test. The difference between these
cycles was on the materials used or given. There were four tests in this study: pretest,
formative test of cycle 1, formative test of cycle 2, and post-test. The result of
the pre-test showed the average score was 58.10%. After having activities by
using look and say, the students' reading skill was improved. It was supported by
the result of the formative tests. The average score of cycle 1 was 71.05% and the
average score of cycle 2 was 82.36%. The result of the post-test indicated that the
average score was 83.89%. It was higher than the average score of the pre-test.
In the questionnaire session, the students chose learning English by using
look and say because it was enjoyable and lively. Furthermore, the result of the
field notes written by the English teacher showed that the students were interested
in the activities by using look and say to improve their reading skill.
Based on the result above, it could be concluded that the use of look and
say was effective as a technique in teaching reading to elementary school students.
In this study, I offer some suggestions. First, for students, it is good for them to
practice reading by using look and say. Second, for teachers, they should use look
and say as one of the techniques in teaching reading by regarding the students'
condition and characteristics. Third, for the next researchers, they could conduct
deeper research by developing other technique.


Background: The survival of patients with congenital heart disease has increased in the recent years, because of enhanced diagnostic capabilities, better surgical techniques, and improved perioperative care. Many patients will require reoperation as part of staged procedures or to treat grafts deterioration and residual or recurrent lesions. Reoperations favor the formation of cardiac adhesions and consequently increase surgery time; however, the impact on morbidity and operative mortality is certain. The objective of the study was to describe the risk factors for mortality in pediatric patients undergoing a reoperation for congenital heart disease. Methods: Historic cohort of patients who underwent reoperation after pediatric cardiac surgery from January 2009 to December 2015. Operations with previous surgical approach different to sternotomy were excluded from the analysis. Results: In seven years, 3,086 surgeries were performed, 481 were reoperations, and 238 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Mean number of prior surgeries was 1.4 ± 0.6. Median age at the time of reoperation was 6.4 years. The most common surgical procedures were staged palliation for functionally univentricular heart (17.6%). Median cross-clamp time was 66 minutes. Younger age at the moment of resternotomy, longer cross-clamp time, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons–European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Congenital Heart Surgery (STAT) Mortality Categories risk category greater than three were risk factors for mortality. The number of resternotomies was not associated with mortality. Mortality prior to hospital discharge was 4.6%, and mortality after discharge but prior to 30 days after surgery was 0.54%. Operative mortality was 5.1%. Conclusions: Resternotomy in pediatric cardiac surgery is a safe procedure in our center.


AIM
This study investigated the acceptance and attitudes of nursing students toward the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose in two Gulf Cooperation Countries and the potential influencing factors for taking a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose.

BACKGROUND
The world is still battling coronavirus because of the emerged of variants and protection against COVID-19 has waned over time. Vaccination is a powerful and effective method of reducing the outbreak of COVID-19 and decreasing the loss of lives.

DESIGN
This research was a survey using a cross-sectional design.

METHODS
The study's sample was two nursing colleges. The study tool was adopted according to recent information concerning the COVID-19 vaccine published by the World Health Organization. Data was collected through an online survey during March to April 2022.

RESULTS
A total of 216 nursing students completed the survey, of which 69.4 % (n = 150) were male students and more than half of the participants were from Saudi Arabia (55.1%, n = 119). Two-thirds of the students (75.5%, n = 161) reported that they agreed to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster. The total attitude scores for the students ranged from 28 to 35, with a mean score of 15.8 (SD = 2.5), representing 73% of the highest possible score, with 79.3% were classified as 'positive attitude toward booster dose of COVID-19. Vaccine booster might cause infection, vaccine booster ineffective, worried about adverse effects, and not safe were major barriers influencing the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine booster.

CONCLUSION
Nursing students revealed high acceptance rates related to COVID-19 vaccine booster. However, more attention should be paid from nursing educators to barriers influencing the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine booster. Preparing nursing students with positive attitude of COVID-19 vaccine booster is very important to patient and community safety.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
Nursing educators and managers must make an effort to educate the nursing students regarding safety and effectiveness from COVID-19 vaccine booster and ensure that is necessary to reduce their perception of the injury of COVID-19 infection.


Background:A critical component of teacher effectiveness is how teachers notice students' misconceptions and adjust the instructional approach accordingly.Taking a stance that the teachers' instructional quality is crucial to students' learning, a qualitative international comparison study was performed to examine science teachers' perceptions of and their approaches toward students' misconception on photosynthesis between the United States (US) and South Korea.Material and methods:A web-based on-line survey consisting of open-ended questions was administered to secondary science teachers and 85 and 81 teacher responses were collected from the US and Korea, respectively.Results:Constructed responses were analyzed using the constant comparative method and enumerative approach through which regularities and patterns in the responses emerged. Four categories emerged concerning teacher perceptions of misconceptions: Concept, Knowledge Construction, Curriculum, and Pedagogical. Most teachers employed Concept or Knowledge Construction perspective to identify and reason out student misconceptions in both countries. In respect to instructional strategies, two dominant patterns emerged: content-focused and student-focused strategies. Teachers from both countries demonstrated the most frequent use of content-centered approaches, although the patterns of the usage in relation to their perceptions towards misconceptions were different to some degree.Conclusions:Possible attributing factors for the observed patterns and some limitations of the study are further discussed.


A central but generally neglected objective of federal regulation of pension and welfare benefit plans was to improve overall economic efficiency by providing workers with accessible and reliable information on which to base their career and financial planning. Simple dissemination of plan terms and financial data (full disclosure) cannot achieve that objective because few workers are equipped with the skills needed to evaluate the costs and benefits of complex retirement saving or health care programs. For that reason ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, requires curated disclosure of plan-related information: it must be presented a format that is both understandable to the average plan participant and sufficiently complete to empower workers to make best use of the program. The length and complexity of most employee benefit plans creates tension between understandability and completeness, calling for tradeoffs to achieve optimal disclosure. As implemented ERISA's understandability standard has been jettisoned by plan sponsors seeking protection from liability for failing to tell workers enough. Required plan summaries became unreadable, but plan sponsors could get away with that, both because there was no administrative or judicial enforcement of the understandability standard, and because they could tout the advantages of their benefit plans to workers by means of unregulated informal communications. The demise of understandability is only half the story. Federal courts also degraded the reliability of mandatory disclosures by finding that the obligation to provide reasonably accurate and complete information is enforceable only in a suit for appropriate equitable relief. In consequence, disclosure defects are often presented as estoppel claims, which triggers search for individual detrimental reliance, and translates into widespread under-enforcement of the reliability standard. This article explores the policy dimension of ERISA disclosure law and chronicles the decay of the equilibrium Congress envisioned. From the perspective of workers it is a saga of disappointment, disillusionment, and defeat. The new balance serves the interests of federal courts (reduced caseload) and some employers (increased flexibility), but likely contributes to the increasing standardization of employee benefit plans, decreasing their utility as instruments of workforce management. Far worse, it abandons ERISA's goal of improved economic performance through better-informed career and financial planning. Yet those costs are not immutable: employers' liability exposure could be recalibrated by regulation to revive understandability and approach optimal disclosure.


We investigate the associated production of the neutral top-Higgs h0t with a pair of top-quarks in the context of the topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) model at the future e+e− Linear Colliders (LC) i.e. e+e− → th0t. We calculate the production rate and present the distributions of the transverse momenta of top-Higgs and top-quarks. The results show that the total cross section is typically of the order of 1.0–7.5 fb in the energy range between 1000 GeV and 2000 GeV of the LC for the whole top-Higgs mass region of interest. It should be distinctly possible that hundreds or even thousands of h0t signals can be produced per year at the LC given the luminosity .


Herbivore-vegetation interactions are important structuring forces in savanna that modify the availability and quality of forage resources. Elephant for example, are known for their ability to change the vegetation structure through toppling trees, uprooting, snapping, debarking and breaking branches. Controlling the number of elephant is a common response of wildlife managers who think that the increase of elephant will further destroy the habitat and hence cause loss of biodiversity. However, our knowledge on how elephant feeding habits affect other large herbivore species in habit use is limited. Therefore, the question in this thesis is: What is the impact of elephant feeding habits on species diversity of large herbivores in African savanna? To answer this question, it is important to understand the responses of trees when impacted by elephant. What proportion of the browsed biomass is made available after a tree is pushed over or snapped by elephant? How is the forage quality affected? Is the seasonal and intensity of browsing affecting forage availability? Field experiments and field surveys were used to investigate the tree's response and herbivore species responses to elephant impact. These experiments were (1) simulation of timing and intensity of browsing (hand defoliation) and (2) manipulation of vegetation i.e. simulated pushed over trees, uprooted trees (tree removal) and snapped trees (tree cut at the stem). The field survey involved measuring impacted trees by elephant. Leaf biomass and quality of pushed over, snapped and uprooted trees were measured. The defoliation experiment was conducted in the roan antelope enclosure in Kruger National Park South Africa, and the vegetation manipulation experiment was conducted in the Umbabati Private Nature Reserve, South Africa. The results indicate that elephant foraging habits change the distribution of forage, increasing the forage availability at lower feeding heights, which means that accessibility of forage to medium and small herbivores increases. Elephant browsing also improved forage quality and availability in the dry season, which is very important to browsing animals. A high intensity of browsing by elephant in the wet season increased the dry season forage, because the amount of new regrowth (leave compensation) is proportional to the amount of leaves that was removed. Elephant therefore initiate inter and intra-species facilitation processes. Inter-species facilitation occurs when other herbivores species utilize the regrowth stimulated by elephant, whereas intra-species facilitation occurs when the browse resource is exploited by other elephants. The herbivore responses to elephant browsing clearly indicated that facilitation effects occur, especially for certain guilds when selecting their habitat. For example, small predation-sensitive herbivore species (steenbok, impala and common duiker) preferred completely opened up areas, whereas large herbivores were less affected in their habitat preference by elephant impact. Greater kudu selected pushed over and control plots and rarely visited opened up areas. These differential response of herbivores species to elephant impact resulted in a high species richness of large mammals in elephant impacted areas. In conclusion, elephant feeding habits play a major role in structuring the herbivore assemblage/community through modifying the vegetation. Resource heterogeneity increased under the influence of elephant feeding, in particular through increasing the accessibility of leaf biomass at lower feeding heights, increasing green leaf availability in the dry season, and improving the nutrient content in re-growth. Moreover, habitat selection, especially that of small herbivores was positively influenced by elephant impact. With these findings, this study contributes to a better understanding of the role of elephant feeding habits and its cascading effects to other herbivore species.


There is a number of phase shifting transformers (PST) installed in power systems that needs to be taken into account when assessing a transient stability. A conventional method of transient stability analysis a digital simulation can easily satisfy demanded model complexity while direct methods require energy functions that adequately represent a post-fault system. We present two ways how to enter effects of phase angle regulator (PAR) that is a member of PST into a power systems' energy function. Consequently, several new energy functions are presented. Two cases were considered: first uses advantages of a reduced system; and a second one a structure preserving framework. Two numerical examples validate the proposed energy functions by comparing critical clearing times obtained and by a step-by-step time-domain simulation.


The 2014 Farm bill included a new supplementary coverage option (SCO) to provide additional protection against shallow losses not covered by the individual crop plans. SCO indemnification triggers off of county yields or revenues whereas individual plans trigger off of the individual farmers' yields or revenue. In this paper we examine the impact of supplementary coverage option on the optimum producer coverage level. Our findings indicate that the individual plan with SCO provides better protection but is distortionary to the current choice of coverage level. The new optimal coverage level choice is likely to differ and vary in counties depending upon the counties' respective yield variability.


This paper deals with different aspects of differentiation as a strategy to maintain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing environment. The specific aim of the study was to establish constraints in the use of product differentiation as a survivor technique in the building industry. The study shows that firms in the building industry perceive the structure and operation of different markets in the building industry as substantially different. If firms are to improve their market positions by differentiating their output, they need therefore to adjust the way they operate, their resources and their skills base.The survey result also showed that a substantial proportion of all firms are not prepared to be involved in diversification but elect to operate in one market only, despite the obvious advantages of diversification. It would therefore seem likely that the changes in the way a firm operates and the resources it employs when it moves into new markets are substantial.


Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) is the focus of global health problems with high mortality rate. The delay of reporting and giving a quick CPR are the common causes of the problem. The solution that can be done is to provide CPR training in the community to form a CPR bystander who can provide CPR to the victim. This study aimed to analyze the comparison of CPR training based on mobile application and simulation to the knowledge and skill of CPR. This research was quasi experimental with pretest-posttest design. Fifty respondents were divided into two groups: mobile application and simulation. Respondents were determined by purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaires and observation sheets. Data were analyzed using dependent t test and independent t test. The result of dependent t test showed that mobile application group had a significant influence on increasing the knowledge (p = 0.000) and the skill (p = 0.000) of CPR. The simulation group also showed the same result. Independent t test showed that there was a significant difference of knowledge between mobile application and simulation. Mobile application had greater score than simulation group (p=0.021). There were also significant differences between mobile application group and simulation group in skill of CPR. The simulation group had greater score of CPR's skill than mobile application group (p=0.044). The result shows that CPR training using mobile application can give bigger influence on increasing the knowledge, while simulation method can give bigger influence on increasing the skill in doing CPR.


The resistance and susceptibility of T cells to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-gp120 induced anergy was examined. Antigen-dependent proliferation of polyclonal T cells was markedly inhibited by gp120, whereas from the analysis of monoclonal populations, T cells resistant to the effects of gp120 could be identified. Similarly, exposure of monoclonal T cells to gp120 in the absence of accessory cells, also demonstrated that some T cells could resist the induction of anergy. Loss of antigen recognition was associated with phenotypic modulation of CD3 and CD28, which was not observed in T cells resistant to functional inactivation by gp120. Modulation of CD4 was not related to induction of anergy in the monoclonal T cells examined in this study. Inhibition of T-cell responses by anti-CD4 antibodies was compared to that by gp120. Anti-CD4 antibodies, which cross-compete with gp120 for binding to CD4, inhibited the response to antigen of monoclonal T cells. In contrast, no tolerogenic signals were delivered by pretreating T cells with the anti-CD4 antibodies in the absence of accessory cells, indicating that inhibition was due to abrogation of the interaction of CD4 with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules expressed on accessory cells. Although the free CD4-binding region peptide of gp120 could inhibit polyclonal T-cell responses, only the carrier-bound peptide was able to modulate cloned T cells, suggesting a conformational requirement for functional inactivation through engagement of CD4. The results reported here using clonal CD4+ T-cell populations demonstrate that effects of gp120 on antigen-dependent proliferation are not uniform, and that therapeutic intervention might be directed at T-cell populations identified as susceptible to HIV-gp120 induced anergy.


Objectives: This study aimed to compare open stoma (OS) creation with laparoscopic stoma (LS) creation considering the operation time, blood loss, time of oral intake, and complications. We also compared multiport LS and single-incision laparoscopic stoma (SILS) creation. Methods: We reviewed the demographic data, diagnosis, indications, operation time, blood loss, time of oral intake, operative procedure, and complications of 50 patients who underwent stoma creation between April 2014 and April 2016. Results: The mean blood loss was significantly lower in the LS group (7.85±18.4 ml) than in the OS group (38.1±73.2 ml; P=0.02). There were no statistical differences between the groups in terms of the operation time (LS, 72.1±32.7 min; OS, 61.2±31.2 min; P=0.23) or time of oral intake (LS, 1.0±0 days; OS, 1.91±2.71 days; P=0.17). Peristomal skin problems occurred in 11 patients (47.8%) in the OS group and 5 patients (18.5%) in the LS group. There were no statistically significant differences between the SILS and multiport LS groups, considering the operation time, amount of bleeding, and time of oral intake. Conclusions: LS is comparable with OS in terms of operation time and time of oral intake and may cause lesser blood loss. Considering its advantages, LS is a useful approach for patients requiring biopsies or intra-abdominal inspection. SILS is a minimally invasive technique, suitable for patients in whom the stoma site is preoperatively decided.


The emergence of strains of Plasmodium falciparum resistant to normal dosages of chloroquine or other 4-aminoquinolines has caused concern in a number of malarious areas. Well-documented reports have confirmed this resistance in wide areas of South-East Asia and in some areas of South America. Occasional reports have been received from parts of West Africa, and the present investigation sought to clarify the situation in two areas, Ouagadougou, Upper Volta, and Kpain, Liberia, from which such reports had emanated. Studies were carried out to determine the sensitivity of local strains of P. falciparum to chloroquine. The results, based on the rapidity of parasite clearance, indicated a normal sensitivity in the cases treated. Although it is concluded that strains of P. falciparum with significant resistance to chloroquine are not at present a problem in the areas concerned, a watch should be kept for the possible future emergence of this problem.


Healing defects with triiodide ions Deep-level defects in organic-inorganic perovskites decrease the performance of solar cells through unproductive recombination of charge carriers. Yang et al. show that introducing additional triiodide ions during the formation of layers of formamidinium lead iodide, which also contain small amounts of methylammonium lead bromide, suppresses the formation of deep-level defects. This process boosts the certified efficiency of 1-cm2 solar cells to almost 20%. Science, this issue p. 1376 Deep-level defect states in formamidinium lead perovskite layers can be minimized by the addition of triiodide ions. The formation of a dense and uniform thin layer on the substrates is crucial for the fabrication of high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) containing formamidinium with multiple cations and mixed halide anions. The concentration of defect states, which reduce a cell's performance by decreasing the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current density, needs to be as low as possible. We show that the introduction of additional iodide ions into the organic cation solution, which are used to form the perovskite layers through an intramolecular exchanging process, decreases the concentration of deep-level defects. The defect-engineered thin perovskite layers enable the fabrication of PSCs with a certified power conversion efficiency of 22.1% in small cells and 19.7% in 1-square-centimeter cells.


A method of analysing timbre in melody that takes account of its multidimensional characteristic is described. The aim of this analysis technique is to uncover the role of timbre as a structural element in melody. Gaining an understanding of how an abstract, multidimensional sound phenomenon such as timbre is used in a structured manner can lead to important insights into potential cognitive abilities; our ability to form mental representations of abstract phenomena so that they can be conserved and, subsequently, used in an organised or structured manner. This method of analysis comprises two main components, a first which carries out a time-frequency analysis of the melodic signal and processes the signal data using DSP techniques that model aspects of auditory processing before calculating the timbre descriptors, and a second that represents the melody in terms of its timbral changes rather than its absolute timbral values. A self-organising feature map is used to reduce the timbral detail and the dimensionality of the timbral representation, and to contrast-enhance the timbral changes. An example of the implementation of this analysis technique is presented using an extract from a Japanese shakuhachi honkyoku melody, chosen because of its accepted exploitation of timbre.


In this paper, we propose a method to control the motion of soft robots able to manipulate objects or roll from one place to another. We use the Finite Element Method (FEM) to simulate the deformations of the soft robot, its actuators, and surroundings when deformable. To find the inverse model of the robot interacting with obstacles, and with constraints on its actuators, we write the problem as a quadratic program with complementarity constraints. The novelty of this work is that friction contacts (sticking contact only) are taken into account in the optimization process, allowing the control of these specific tasks that are locomotion and manipulation. We propose a formulation that simplifies the optimization problem, together with a dedicated solver. The algorithm has real-time performance and handles evolving environments as long as we know them. To show the effectiveness of the method, we present several numerical examples, and a demonstration on a real robot.


Abstract This paper investigates the effect of privatization on a world-wide basis. Our analysis presents empirical findings, both favourable and unfavourable, of studies examining privatization. The exposition emphasizes the political and economic significance of the privatization process and the set of decisions that privatizing governments face. In addition, three pairs of empirical studies are analyzed in detail. These studies are comparable in terms of the period covered, the type of countries analyzed, and the issues investigated; however, they still yield divergent results regarding the impact of privatization. The current paper draws attention to the fact that caution needs to be used when defining variables and experimental settings.


The effects of small, involuntary eye movements have been counteracted by an optical system that fixes a test image at a given point on the retina. This causes the test object to disappear. In the present experiment the relative amount of image motion has been varied over a wide range, with special attention to the condition of nearly complete absence of image motion. The disappearance is greatest for low contrast images with minimal amounts of motion.


OBJECTIVE
Adenocarcinoma of the middle ear is a rare entity that must be distinguished from other adenomatous tumors of the temporal bone. We present the first patient of an intestinal-type adenocarcinoma originating from the middle ear.

PATIENTS
A 58-year-old woman presented with an 8-year history of left otorrhea. Her middle ear effusions were quite thick and gummy. She underwent eight sets of pressure-equalization tubes within 3 years. In 2011, her physical examination identified a middle ear mass, and she underwent mastoidectomy. A middle ear adenoma was resected. She underwent an additional three mastoidectomies for recurrence, with pathology from the 4th mastoidectomy revealing a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma. Imaging, at that time, showed an extensive temporal bone and Eustachian tube tumor.

INTERVENTIONS
She underwent a left subtotal temporal bone resection, parotidectomy, infratemporal fossa resection, dural resection, and microvascular free flap reconstruction followed by postoperative proton beam radiotherapy.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The final pathology report revealed intestinal-type adenocarcinoma.

RESULTS
Treatment was successful and the patient remains disease free 4 years later.

CONCLUSION
This is the first report of an intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the middle ear and temporal bone. This patient also illustrates the difficulty of accurate histologic diagnosis of adenomatous tumors of the middle ear.


Electrodeposition of ZnZr oxide composite was examined from an unagitated sulfate solution containing Zn2+ and Zr ions at pH 1 to 2 and 313 K under galvanostatic conditions. Zr content in deposits was higher in pH 2 than that in pH 1, and decreased for the moment with increasing current density, but the further increase in current density brought about the increase in Zr content in deposits. This increase in Zr content in deposits is attributed to the acceleration of the hydrolysis of Zr ions by means of an increase in hydrogen evolution in the cathode layer. In solution containing Zr ions, Zn deposition was significantly polarized due to the film resistance of Zr oxide formed by the hydrolysis of Zr ions. The pH in the vicinity of the cathode, as measured by an Sb microelectrode, was approximately 2.2, which is close to the critical pH for the formation of ZrO2. SEM and EDX point analysis of deposits revealed that the granular Zr oxide deposited at the surface of Zn platelet crystals and at the void between the Zn platelet crystals. It was found from the polarization curves in 3 mass NaCl solution that the corrosion potential of deposited Zn 1.1 mass Zr oxide films was more noble than that of pure Zn, and the corrosion current density of Zn1.1 mass Zr oxide films was lower than that of pure Zn. [doi:10.2320/jinstmet.J2015038]


Knowledge of immune cell phenotypes in the tumor microenvironment is essential for understanding mechanisms of cancer progression and immunotherapy response. We created an immune map of breast cancer using single-cell RNA-seq data from 45,000 immune cells from eight breast carcinomas, as well as matched normal breast tissue, blood, and lymph node. We developed a preprocessing pipeline, SEQC, and a Bayesian clustering and normalization method, Biscuit, to address computational challenges inherent to single-cell data. Despite significant similarity between normal and tumor tissue-resident immune cells, we observed continuous tumor-specific phenotypic expansions driven by environmental cues. Analysis of paired single-cell RNA and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing data from 27,000 additional T cells revealed the combinatorial impact of TCR utilization on phenotypic diversity. Our results support a model of continuous activation in T cells and do not comport with the macrophage polarization model in cancer, with important implications for characterizing tumor-infiltrating immune cells.


Background. Sepsis is a leading cause of mortality in intensive care units worldwide. A better understanding of the blood systems response to sepsis should expedite the identification of biomarkers for early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. Methods. We analyzed microarray studies whose data is available from the GEO repository and which were performed on the whole blood of septic patients and normal controls. Results. We identified 6 cohorts consisting of 450 individuals (sepsis = 323, control = 127) providing genome-wide messenger RNA (mRNA) expression data. Through meta-analysis we found the "Lysosome" and "Cytoskeleton" pathways were upregulated in human sepsis patients relative to controls, in addition to previously known signaling pathways (including MAPK, TLR). The key regulatory genes in the "Lysosome" pathway include lysosomal acid hydrolases (e.g., protease cathepsin A, D) as well as the major (LAMP1, 2) and minor (SORT1, LAPTM4B) membrane proteins. In contrast, pathways related to "Ribosome", "Spliceosome" and "Cell adhesion molecules" were found to be downregulated, along with known pathways for immune dysfunction. Overall, our study revealed distinct mRNA activation profiles and protein-protein interaction networks in blood of human sepsis. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that aberrant mRNA expression in the lysosome and cytoskeleton pathways may play a pivotal role in the molecular pathobiology of human sepsis.


Prediction of deliberate human decisions with potential negative impact on others would have great practical and scientific utility. The Conflicting Incentives Risk Analysis (CIRA) method defines risk as a result of misaligned incentives between various stakeholders. The method makes predictions based on action desirability from the perspective of the individual in the position to implement the action. Therefore, in order to assess action desirability it is necessary to characterize stakeholders and their perceptions about the situation as well. While classification systems and taxonomies related to stakeholder attributes are well-established, systematic classifications of situational aspects are underdeveloped in the literature. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to present a classification of situational variables in the form of a taxonomy capturing key situational features that exert influence on decision-makers. The development of the taxonomy begins with mapping two major types of risks distinguished in the CIRA method to relevant psychological constructs. The principled, systematic development of dilemmas enabled by the taxonomy allows researchers to investigate the predictability of stakeholder behavior which may result in various types of risks. The taxonomy is extensible, thus additional concepts and variables can be included depending on the needs of the analysis and according to future developments within the fields of psychology and information security.


The development of concern for others and externalizing problems were examined in young children with normative, subclinical, or clinical levels of behavior problems. There were no group differences in observable concern for others at 4-5 years of age. Children with clinical behavior problems decreased significantly in their concern by 6-7 years of age and were reported to have less concern at 6-7 years by mothers, teachers, and the children themselves, relative to other groups. Boys with clinical problems were more callous to others' distress at both time points. Girls showed more concern than boys across risk, time, and measures. Greater concern at 4-5 years predicted decreases in the stability and severity of externalizing problems by 6-7 years, and greater concern at 6-7 years predicted decreases in the stability of problems by 9-10 years. Finally, maternal socialization approaches predicted later concerned responding.


Infections with blood parasites are common phenomenon in reptiles from all over the world. Apicomplexan are the majority of blood parasites that frequently occur with high levels of parasitaemia in the snakes. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of blood parasites in some snakes Guilan province in the North of Iran. A total of 51 specimens of three snake species were captured including 18 specimens of Natrix natrix, 30 of Natrix tessellata and three from Zamenis longissimus. Blood sampling was carried out from the caudal vein by insulin syringe. The blood smears were stained with Giemsa solution and examined by light microscopy for heamoparasites. We found one species of Hepatozoon sp. as well as two intra-erythrocytic structures that we referred them to Rickettsia and Serpentoplasma in the snakes. The Serpentoplasmawith small amoeboid shape only detected in N. tessellate. But the Rickettsia which is bigger in size and formed roughly spherical inclusions detected in both Natrix species. This finding of haemoparasites represents for the first time in these snakes.


Two cases of diffuse peritoneal mesothelioma are reported. They were not associated with asbestos exposure and they presented as fever of unknown origin and ascitic syndrome, respectively. The literature is reviewed.


Background and purpose — The decision on and the outcome of treatment for a slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) depend on the severity of the slip. In 2015, web-based registration was introduced into the Swedish Pediatric Orthopedic Quality (SPOQ) register. To determine whether the inclusion of commonly used methods in Sweden for radiographic measurement of SCFE (the calcar femorale [CF] method and the Billing method) is justified, we measured the inter- and intraobserver reliability of these 2 measurements. We also evaluated the internationally more commonly used head-shaft angle (HSA) method. Material and methods — 4 observers with different levels of experience with radiographic measurements analyzed 77 routine preoperative hip radiographs of children with SCFE. Inter- and intraobserver reliability was evaluated. Results — The interobserver reliability analysis for the 4 observers showed for CF an ICC of 0.99 (CI 0.97–0.99) and for Billing an ICC of 0.99 (CI 0.98–0.99). The interobserver reliability analysis for 2 observers showed for HSA an ICC of 0.98 (CI 0.97–0.99). Intraobserver reliability (2 observers) showed a mean difference below 1° for all 3 methods and with a 95% limit of agreement not exceeding ±6.8°. Interpretation — We found good reliability for both intra- and interobserver measurements of all 3 methods used for the assessment of the slip angle on routine preoperative lateral hip radiographs.


In the wellbeing literature, different authors use different terminology. Commonly used terms are happiness, subjective wellbeing, satisfaction with life and the good life. In the literature, you also find many different ideas regarding how to explain individual happiness. I find these ideas confusing. I think that much of the confusion originates from misinterpreting survey answers. The aspirations model of happiness cannot explain three stylized facts. The aspirations model is inconsistent. In this paper, I propose a new model of satisfaction with life. This model creates some order and can explain the three stylized facts. It turns out that we do not need aspirations to explain the stylized facts. The conclusion is that aspirations may exist, but they may not be as important as suggested by earlier literature.


Background: Misoprostol a PGE1 analogue has increasingly
been used for cervical ripening in preparation for induction of labour with
variable outcome for both mother and baby. Objectives: To determine the
effectiveness of Misoprostol in cervical ripening and labour outcome in Aminu
Kano Teaching Hospital Kano. Study Design: A study of all patients who had
cervical ripening for induction of labour using Misoprostol at AKTH Kano,
Nigeria, between 1st Jan 2012-31st Dec 2013. Socio-demographic data of these
patients including number of doses inserted before ripening is achieved,
duration, course and outcome of labour were documented. Result: Four hundred
and two women were admitted for cervical ripening. 365 women met the inclusion
criteria out of the 358 folders retrieved, giving a retrieval rate of 98%.
Despite this six folders did not contain enough information for the study and
were excluded leaving us with a sample size of 352. They had a successful
cervical ripening with an average of 2 insertions. Spontaneous onset of labour
without further intervention was observed in 266 women (75.5%). However, 86
women (24.5%) were induced with oxytocin following cervical ripening. The mean
duration of labour among those that had spontaneous onset of labour following
Misoprostol insertion was 9.8 hours. 96% of the patients had vaginal delivery
while 4% had Caesarean section. Conclusion: Misoprostol was associated with
favorable outcome following cervical ripening with a low caesarean section
rate.


have been measured in crystals of metmyoglobin and deoxymyoglobin over a wide range of temperatures. Above a critical temperature common to both proteins (220 K), the dynamics of heme iron display a dramatic change, in that two kinds of thermal fluctuations come into play-a fast fluctuation associated with a steep decrease of the total resonance absorption with increasing temperature, and a slower fluctuation of characteristic time 10-8 sec, associated with bounded diffusive motion. By using both discrete jump and continuous diffusion models, the latter based on the Brownian motion of an overdamped harmonic oscillator, the essential parameters of the iron motion (mean square displacement and jump frequency or diffusion constant) can be derived as a function of temperature. Thus, for deoxy Mb at 288 K, the mean square displacement for the fast fluctuation is about 6 x 10-2 A2 and for the diffusive motion is 1.6 x 10-2 A2 the diffusion constant is 4 X 10-1? cm2/sec. The diffusive process is associated with an activation energy of about 0.75 kcal/mol. Although the same general kinds of phenomena are observed in crystals of MetMb and deoxy Mb, significant differences in behavior are found, which suggest that the main dynamical phenomenon observed reflects internal large-scale motions of the protein.


The effects of the putative serotonin (5-HT)1A receptor antagonists WAY-100135 (WAY) and spiperone on the neuronal activity recorded from medullary and dorsal raphe 5-HT neurons and the inferior cardiac sympathetic nerve were investigated in chloralose anesthetized cats. We also determined the effectiveness of WAY and spiperone to antagonize the sympathoinhibitory effects of the 5-HT1A agonist 8-hydroxy-(2-di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH DPAT). Intravenous administration of both WAY and spiperone produced a dose-related inhibition of the firing of medullary 5-HT neurons. WAY also inhibited firing of serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus. WAY treatment had no significant effect on inferior cardiac sympathetic nerve discharge (SND), whereas spiperone treatment caused a small, but significant, increase in SND. WAY treatment did not significantly affect 8-OH DPAT-induced inhibition of unit firing. Spiperone, however, did display antagonist activity at the presynaptic autoreceptor site. WAY and spiperone pretreatments resulted in significant rightward shifts in the 8-OH DPAT inhibition of SND dose-response curves and reversed the depressant effects of 8-OH DPAT. These results suggest that WAY and spiperone act as 5-HT1A antagonists postsynaptically, but WAY appears to have more potent agonist efficacy at the 5-HT1A presynaptic autoreceptor site in the cat. However, because all drugs were administered intravenously, conclusions regarding direct effects of WAY and spiperone on 5-HT1A receptors must be made cautiously.


ABSTRACT This paper considers the contribution made to transport geography research at the University of Aberdeen over the last century. In section one, the earliest work in transport geography emphasised the physical connectivity provided by transport through infrastructure networks. Section 2 discusses the contribution made at Aberdeen to debates around accessibility and connectivity. This work had a strong rural dimension and evidenced a growing recognition of the importance of technology in transport. It provided the springboard for research on digital connectivity with important contributions to the wider domain of transport studies in the fields of flexible transport, rural connectivity, transport and energy and social media and big data as reported in Section 3. Section 4 brings the story of transport research at Aberdeen up to the present. It frames research under the banner of intelligent mobility (IM), which links technology and mobility to the wider societal objective of enabling the smarter, greener and more efficient movement of people and goods. Contributions are reported to the fields of shared mobility, smart rural mobility, transport security and privacy and accessibility. Finally, a return to the theme of infrastructure networks and connectivity is highlighted in work on global production networks in aviation.


Assessment and control require a gauge or a scale to relate processes to results in
order to evaluate the strategies adopted and to enable effective variations to be made.
Assessment is a requisite to effective and efficient management. A firm needs to be
able to gauge the immediate and a future impact of its decisions and strategies.
Assessment is needed to enable structural adjustments to a business whenever it is
expedient. Both long term and short term assessment should encompass all aspects of
activities in a firm. This means that the facilities needed to implement the strategies
should be considered along with the traditional functions of management. The
assessment framework considers many factors including selecting the right qualities
to assess and also making the assessment right. A good classification and structuring
of the source information is needed to give a total picture of facilities and hence
enable an effective management brought about by total control of the situation.
This study examines and models factors that define suitability and viability of
facilities and proposes an assessment framework. It is envisaged that the results of
this study will enable a better understanding of facilities management and its related
use as a tool towards the bigger goal of portfolio management.


This paper addresses the effects of natural disaster on areas that are inhabited by citizens without formal property rights. This is an issue that must be addressed in the context of the tsunamis that devastated Southeast Asia in December 2004. When large portions of these communities are washed away and no formal titles exist to protect property rights, foreign investors are likely to face fewer barriers to entering local markets, leaving erstwhile informal property holders worse off economically and driving poverty levels to new heights. The paper suggests that governments in Southeast Asia should begin to implement a set of policies that will address these concerns and build a foundation for future economic growth based on formal property markets.


This paper discusses a probabilistic model-based approach to clustering sequences, using hidden Markov models (HMMs). The problem can be framed as a generalization of the standard mixture model approach to clustering in feature space. Two primary issues are addressed. First, a novel parameter initialization procedure is proposed, and second, the more difficult problem of determining the number of clusters K, from the data, is investigated. Experimental results indicate that the proposed techniques are useful for revealing hidden cluster structure in data sets of sequences.


We propose syntactic deliberation and goal election algorithms for possibilistic agents which are able to deal with incomplete and imprecise information in a dynamic world. We show that the proposed algorithms are equivalent to their semantic counterparts already presented in the literature. We show that they lead to an efficient implementation of a possibilistic BDI model of agency which integrates goal generation.


Household diversification into nonfarm work activities is a major rural livelihood strategy in many developing economies. In this paper, we explore empirically if rural households in Uganda leverage their nonfarm earnings to overcome credit constraints and invest in high yielding maize seed varieties. We use a semiparametric estimator of binary outcomes that accommodates endogenous regressors straightforwardly to estimate the effect of nonfarm income on technology adoption decisions. Our results show that nonfarm income has a positive and significant effect on the adoption of improved maize seed.


Multi-microgrid is an integrated system of microgrids, distributed generations, and battery energy storage system (BESS). As the significant equipment in microgrid, BESS can perform multitasking, such as load management and peak shaving. This study mainly focuses on the energy consumption scheduling of multi-microgrid considering the optimisation of BESS capacity. Energy management with BESS optimisation is studied by considering the cost of distributed generations, cost of BESS, and bidirectional energy trading. The optimisation problem is tackled from two different aspects: an individual-oriented optimisation and a coalition-based optimisation. In the first approach, each microgrid is optimised individually with a non-cooperative game; while in the second approach, the joint optimisation of all microgrids is formulated through cooperation among multi-microgrids. In order to achieve the optimal energy consumption strategy and BESS capacity, distributed algorithms for two formulations are presented, which combine particle swarm optimisation and interior point method. Simulation results show that both approaches can contribute to peak shaving and reducing the daily cost of multi-microgrid.


Background: A major challenge concerning breast cancer therapy is the occasional lack of effects using drugs that target cancer cells unspecifically. One possible explanation for this treatment failure is the existence of the small subpopulation of breast cancer stem cells that are believed to be more resistant towards conventional therapy and possesses the ability to drive tumor formation and disease progression. Cytokines secreted by nearby cells and other factors in the surrounding tumor microenvironment further stimulate the cancer cells, contributing to a heterogeneous and potentially more treatment resistant tumor. Thus, a more specific treatment approach targeting the breast cancer stem cell niche is crucial in preventing disease recurrences. In a cytokine screen, we identified progranulin as one of the main compounds secreted from cells exposed to hypoxia, leading to cancer stem cell propagation. Progranulin is involved in biological processes such as wound healing, inflammation and cancer progression. Progranulin and its receptor sortilin are known to be highly expressed in subgroups of breast cancer and are further associated with a clinically aggressive phenotype. Methods/Results: By carrying out a number of in vitro and in vivo like screening assays, we demonstrate that progranulin influences the stem cell population in breast cancer and is responsible for spreading a cancer stem cell promoting signal to normoxic tumor areas. In breast cancer, progranulin induces a dedifferentiation process in the receiving cancer cells and expression of cancer stem cell markers together with an EMT-associated gene expression profile, leading to cancer stem cell expansion. By using siRNA and pharmacological inhibition of sortilin, we show that sortilin is a functional receptor of progranulin and is responsible for driving progranulin induced breast cancer stem cell propagation. Supporting the role of progranulin in cancer progression, administration of progranulin in immunocompromised mice induce lung metastasis in our breast cancer xenograft models. The use of different approaches for blocking sortilin, such as sortilin inhibitors, down-modulators or sortilin-targeted antibodies can prevent this dedifferentiation process, both in vitro and in vivo , making the tumor cells less aggressive and metastatic. Conclusion: Targeting progranulin through its associated receptors is a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of patients with breast tumors having elevated progranulin or sortilin expression. By inhibiting the secretion based breast cancer progression, we could possibly block the formation of metastasis and cancer cell infiltration. Citation Format: Berger K, Rhost S, Hughes E, Harrison H, Rafnsdottir S, Jacobsson H, Gregersson P, Magnusson Y, Fitzpatrick P, Andersson D, Stahlberg A, Landberg G. Sortilin targeted therapy in breast cancer with elevated progranulin expression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-06-11.


A central step in content-based video retrieval is the temporal segmentation of video. An application independent approach to video segmentation is to detect temporally contiguous segments without significant content change between successive frames. Each such segment is termed a shot. A high-performance shot boundary detection-based video segmentation algorithm is proposed. The technique uses unsupervised clustering on a multiple feature input space, followed by a heuristic elimination process to detect, with almost perfect accuracy, shot boundaries in the video. With an extremely high accuracy coupled with a very small number of false positives, this algorithm outperforms most of the existing techniques.


We revisit the hard-spheres lattice gas model in the spherical approximation proposed by Lebowitz and Percus. Although no disorder is present in the model, we find that the short-range dynamical restrictions in the model induce glassy behaviour. We examine the offequilibrium Langevin dynamics of this model and study the relaxation of the density as well as the correlation, response and overlap two-time functions. We find that the relaxation proceeds in two steps as well as absence of anomaly in the response function. By studying the violation of the fluctuation–dissipation ratio we conclude that the glassy scenario of this model corresponds to the dynamics of domain growth in phase-ordering kinetics.


Collected and enhanced from Dennis Shasha's popular Scientific American column, here are thirty-five of the most innovative and emotive mathematical puzzles ever to appear in its pages. Edgy, challenging and representing the ultimate in recreational mathematical games, Puzzling Adventures dares the reader to work out the logic underlying venture fund investments, escape a Minotaur, catch a polar bear, play power politics, work out if a witness is lying, spy on contraband traders and verify DNA. An encrypted set of stories and commentary float above the puzzles. They need decrypting to discover their hints. The hints lead to a surprise-if the reader can work them out...


Rubella hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody responses were measured before and after immunization with HPV-77 DE/5 vaccine in 7 adult females with recurrent arthritis following rubella immunization and 24 hospital personnel studied prospectively while undergoing routine rubella immunization. The only distinctive serologic characteristic observed in all subjects developing rubella arthritis was a preimmunization HI titer of less than 1 : 8. No association was observed between the development of arthritis after immunization and prolongation of rubella HI IgM responses or elevation of rubella HI IgG responses.


Ixmyelocel-T, an expanded, autologous, multicellular therapy cultured from bone marrow, has recently demonstrated clinical promise in the treatment of patients with critical limb ischemia. At this time, mechanisms describing its beneficial effects remain unclear. We investigated the potential mechanisms by which ixmyelocel-T may improve recovery from ischemia. In a rat model of hind limb ischemia, ixmyelocel-T treated rats exhibited significantly increased blood flow recovery by comparison to their vehicle control counterparts, as measured by laser Doppler. Ixmyelocel-T treated rats exhibited increased plasma nitrate levels (6.2±2.8 vs 32.8±12.4 μM, p < 0.05) measured with the Greiss reaction, and decreased plasma lipid peroxidation (0.04±0.005 vs.0.03±0.003 μM, p < 0.05) measured with the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay, indicating a preservation in the bioavability of nitric oxide. Fluorescent imaging revealed that PKH-labeled ixmyelocel-T co-localizes with eNOS in the blood vessels of the ischemic limb. Co-culture experiments with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were employed to determine the effect of ixmyelocel-T on the endothelium. Co-culture resulted in increase of eNOS (1516±225 vs.1995±167 pg/ml, p < 0.05), as measured by ELISA, and nitric oxide (NO) production (71±1.4 vs.75±1.3 AU, p < 0.05), as measured with the intracellular NO probe DAF-2DA. Co-culture also resulted in reduced reactive oxygen species in TNFα activated HUVECs measured by an intracellular ROS probe (4.8±1.6 vs.1.4±0.4 nM DCF), as well as increased the release of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 by ixmyelocel-T. Ixmyelocel-T also promoted HUVEC migration in an
 in vitro
 scratch assay. Collectively, our data suggests that ixmyelocel-T stimulates recovery from ischemia through mechanisms involving stimulation of eNOS expression, increasing nitric oxide production, reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, and promoting endothelial migration, thereby promoting the preservation of vascular function. We hypothesize that these functions of ixmyelocel-T are responsible for the recovery of ischemic tissues in patients with CLI.