Unconventional Reservoir simulations involve several challenges not only arising from geological heterogeneities, but also from strong nonlinear physical coupling terms. All exiting upscaling and multiscale methods rely on a classical sequential formulation to treat the coupling between the nonlinear flow-transport equations. Unfortunately, the sequential strategies become severely inefficient when the flow and transport equations are strongly coupled. Examples of these cases include compositional displacements, and processes with strong capillarity effects. To extend the applicability of the multiscale methods for these challenging cases, in this paper, we propose a Constrained Pressure Residual Multiscale (CPR-MS) method. In the CPR-MS method, the CPR strategy is used to formulate the pressure equation, the approximate conservative solution of which is obtained by employing a few iterations of the iterative multiscale procedure. Several local- (ILU(k), BILU(k), etc.) and global-stage (Multiscale Finite Volume, MSFV, and Multiscale Finite Element, MSFE) solvers with different localization conditions (Linear BC, Reduced Problem BC, etc.) are employed in order to find an optimum strategy for the highly nonlinear compositional displacements. Numerical results for a wide range of test cases are presented, discussed and future studies are outlined.


This note explores land governance-related constraints holding back the growth potential of the agriculture and tourism sectors in the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe (STP). The absence of a proper land information system and a weak land governance framework are identified as the major constraints to rural development and tourism. This note provides insights, identifies the most salient weaknesses, and presents recommendations to address these issues. The first section describes the history of land tenure in the country. The second section focuses on the positive impacts that the establishment of a land information system can have for rural development and the tourism sectors and describes the institutions in charge of land management and related legislation. The fourth section identifies the main inefficiencies in land administration affecting economic growth. The final sections outline the activities currently in execution to address such issues and present policy recommendations.


The study sought to determine the impact of credit risk management on financial performance of selected commercial banks in Kenya. Empirical evidence indicates that the effects credit risk management on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya are positive.The study employed descriptive research design while probability method of sampling was used to obtain a sample of 42 respondents from five banks. Data was collected using questionnaires. The study found that debt recovery process does not significantly affect bank performance whereas loan appraisal process, lending requirements and credit policies were found to have a significant effect on bank performance. The study concluded that the banks need to maintain credit risk exposure within acceptable parameters to maximise a bank's risk adjusted rate of return. Based on the findings, the study made recommendations to commercial banks management, academicians and policymakers. The study recommended that commercial banks in Kenya should put stringent measure when conducting loan appraisal process and ensure that officers responsible should adhere to all the lending requirements stipulated in order to enhance financial performance. Future researcher should focus on the challenges commercial banks face when implementing credit risk management strategies.


ABSTRACT This paper examines the concept of open-source data interoperability in the United States' K-12 education domain, specifically addressing the implications of interoperability for data justice. The term 'data justice' is a relatively recent coinage; the framing and meaning of this term are still evolving, and it has not yet been applied in the educational domain. Building on the nascent research and theorizing in the fields of both data justice and interoperability in educational contexts, this paper provides an overview of the current state of this intersection. Additionally, the authors draw on their direct experiences implementing interoperability initiatives in several U.S. states in order to build a foundational understanding of the risks and opportunities for data justice in the realm of interoperability and data standards in education. The paper concludes with a call for more research to be completed on this complex sociotechnical topic.


Comparison between epoxidised natural rubber (ENR) and natural rubber (NR) filled with organoclay in terms of curing characteristics, tensile properties, thermal stability and morphology were studied. Organoclay loadings from 2 to 10 phr loading were used in this study. The nanocomposites were compounded using laboratory-sized two roll mills and cured at 150 ° C. The results indicate that the tensile strength and tensile modulus reached a maximum at 8 phr of organoclay, but elongation at break and thermal stability increased with increasing organoclay loading. Overall results show that organoclay-filled ENR nanocomposites exhibited shorter processing time and higher tensile properties than organoclay-filled NR nanocomposites. The enhanced properties were due to the homogenous dispersion of individual silicate layers in the ENR matrix, which is shown in the X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results.


Effective Pricing with SAP ERP is a comprehensive guide that teaches consultants, super users, and functional and business analysts about the business processes and configuration of pricing in SAP ERP. The book discusses the key elements of pricing in Sales and Distribution and Materials Management, and provides complete, step-by-step instructions on how to configure pricing in SD and MM. Coverage includes basic and advanced configuration and condition techniques, as well as integration points with other SAP tools, such as Financial Accounting and Cost Accounting, for a practical and complete perspective on the entire pricing process. Each chapter provides real-world examples, case studies, and practical tips to help readers understand and master pricing in SAP ERP.


OBJECTIVE
To identify factors associated with utilization of breast clinical examination (BCE) and their relationship with institutional medical practice.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This is a qualitative study conducted between 1996 and 1997 in medical units of Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Institute of Social Security) and Secretaria de Salud (Ministry of Health). Eight focus groups were included: four groups of female users and four groups of health professionals; in total, 47 users and 29 physicians and nurses participated. Interpretations of information were based on the organizational ability to respond to the user's expectations, "ability/knowledge" within the organization and the institutional medical practice, at the light of the Grounded Theory.

RESULTS
Service demand was conditioned on the perception of poor quality of care, lack of trust in physicians, and organizational aspects. When providing care, male physicians were not interested and felt uneasy about performing the BCE. Female physicians seemed more interested and were well accepted by users.

CONCLUSIONS
Psychological, cultural, social, and institutional barriers exist in the access and utilization of BCE. Identifying these barriers and their origins could support the development of actions to improve the physician-patient relationship. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html.


To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, development of rapid, selective, sensitive diagnostic systems for early stage β-coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) virus protein detection is emerging as a necessary response to generate the bioinformatics needed for efficient smart diagnostics, optimization of therapy, and investigation of therapies of higher efficacy. The urgent need for such diagnostic systems is recommended by experts in order to achieve the mass and targeted SARS-CoV-2 detection required to manage the COVID-19 pandemic through the understanding of infection progression and timely therapy decisions. To achieve these tasks, there is a scope for developing smart sensors to rapidly and selectively detect SARS-CoV-2 protein at the picomolar level. COVID-19 infection, due to human-to-human transmission, demands diagnostics at the point-of-care (POC) without the need of experienced labor and sophisticated laboratories. Keeping the above-mentioned considerations, we propose to explore the compartmentalization approach by designing and developing nanoenabled miniaturized electrochemical biosensors to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus at the site of the epidemic as the best way to manage the pandemic. Such COVID-19 diagnostics approach based on a POC sensing technology can be interfaced with the Internet of things and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques (such as machine learning and deep learning for diagnostics) for investigating useful informatics via data storage, sharing, and analytics. Keeping COVID-19 management related challenges and aspects under consideration, our work in this review presents a collective approach involving electrochemical SARS-CoV-2 biosensing supported by AI to generate the bioinformatics needed for early stage COVID-19 diagnosis, correlation of viral load with pathogenesis, understanding of pandemic progression, therapy optimization, POC diagnostics, and diseases management in a personalized manner.


Far-red (FR) insensitive 219 (FIN219) was previously shown to be involved in phytochrome A-mediated FR light signaling. To further understand its function and regulatory relation with other light-signaling components, a yeast two-hybrid approach was used to isolate FIN219-interacting partners. Here, we demonstrate that FIN219-interacting protein 1 (FIP1) interacts with FIN219 in vitro and in vivo and is composed of 217 amino acids that belong to the tau class of the large glutathione S-transferase gene family. FIP1 was further shown to have glutathione S-transferase activity. The gain offunction and partial loss of function of FIP1 resulted in a hyposensitive hypocotyl phenotype under continuous FR (cFR) light and a delayed flowering phenotype under long-day conditions, which suggests that FIP1 may exist in a complex to function in the regulation of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) development. In addition, FIP1 mRNAwas down-regulated in the suppressor of phytochrome A-105 1 mutant and differentially expressed in constitutive photomorphogenic 1-4 (cop1-4) and cop1-5 mutants under cFR. Intriguingly, FIP1 expression was up-regulated in the fin219 mutant under all light conditions, except cFR. Furthermore, promoter activity assays revealed that FIP1 expression was light dependent, mainly associated with vascular tissues, and developmentally regulated. Subcellular localization studies revealed that the b-glucuronidase-FIP1 fusion protein was localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Taken together, these data indicate that FIP1 may interact with FIN219 to regulate cell elongation and flowering in response to light.


Aim To describe progress of a study that will evaluate in a randomised controlled trial the effect of a formal advance care planning intervention (ACP) on: The documentation and compliance with patients EOL wishes. The quality of death, costs of care and mental health outcomes of nominated family or friends will also be assessed. Method 334 patients, who have incurable cancer with disease progression after 1st line chemotherapy and an expected survival of 3–12 months, as well as their nominated family or friend, will be randomised to receive usual care or usual care plus ACP. Result ACP research can be challenging. 95 participant dyads (of 334) have been randomised to the study (data available for 89). Participants had a median age of 63 (M = 63.3, SD = 10), were married (70%) and non-tertiary educated (83%). The majority identified their ethnicity as Australian (72%). Mean oncologist estimated median survival was 7.7 months (SD = 2.9). Current progress on the study and challenges to implementation of the research and recruitment will be presented, as well as data regarding screening, inclusion and exclusion of participants. Conclusion Barriers to the implementation of ACP research include: availability of skilled staff, standardisation of ACP interventions, cultural, administrative and technical barriers at hospital sites such as reluctance by clinical staff to introduce ACP research to patients and medical record systems which do not support ACP documentation. Barriers to recruitment include: patient refusal due to time barriers and fear of distress, carer refusal and low referral rate from oncologists.


The purpose of the study was to assess attitudes toward AIDS as measured by physical distance. Fifty-two female students were told that they would be interviewing an AIDS patient, a homosexual, a cancer patient, or another student. While waiting, they arranged the two chairs for the interview. The distance between chairs was measured. Subjects placed the chairs significantly farther apart when they anticipated interviewing an AIDS patient than when they anticipated interviewing people under the other conditions. The results suggest that people are still uncomfortable with AIDS patients even under casual circumstances that require minimal physical contact. Implications for social interactions are discussed.


Does it matter that almost all juries in England and Wales are all-White? Does it matter, even if this result is the unintended and undesired result of otherwise acceptable ways of choosing juries? Finally, does it matter that almost all juries are all-White if this has no adverse effect on the treatment of non-White defendants and victims of crime? According to Cheryl Thomas, there is no injustice in a system of jury selection, which predictably results in juries with no minority members, so long as this result is not deliberate and does not adversely affect the treatment of minority defendants and victims of crime. My view is different. In and of itself, I believe, something is wrong with a system of jury selection that predictably results in all-White juries in a diverse society, such as our own. Absent reason to believe that we lack a better alternative to current modes of jury selection, a commitment to democratic government and to the equality of citizens – or so I will argue – condemns existing arrangements as unjust, whether or not they have adverse effects on jury decisions, or on the ways in which our society approaches issues of race and crime.


AIM
To evaluate the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with high-risk endometrial cancer (EC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We prospectively included 28 patients with a preoperative diagnosis of grade 3 EC undergoing surgery from June 2010 to December 2011. Their preoperative blood samples were tested for the presence of CTCs using an immunomagnetic and immunofluorescence assay technique.

RESULTS
Overall, 2 out of 28 patients (7%) were positive for CTCs. The presence of positive CTCs was significantly associated with myometrial invasion (MI) (33% vs. 0% for MI>50% vs. ≤50%; p=0.04) and lymph node positivity (40% vs. 0% for positive vs. negative nodes; p=0.03). Only patients with endometrioid histology had positive CTCs (29% in endometrioid vs. 0% in nonendometrioid; p=0.06).

CONCLUSION
The presence of positive CTCs was associated with deep MI and lymph node positivity. The absence of CTCs in patients with type II histology suggests the need to find other markers in this sub-group of patients.


Oocytes of the shrimp Sicyonia ingentis are naturally activated upon contact with seawater Mg2+. We investigated the mechanism of Mg2+-induced intracellular Ca2+ release and cortical contraction through treatment of oocytes with various activators and inhibitors of signal transduction pathways. Injection of oocytes with the second messenger inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate resulted in an immediate rise in intracellular Ca2+ and normal cortical contraction. By contrast, injection of the GTP analog guanosine 5′-O-(3′-thiotriphosphate) to activate G-proteins did not affect intracellular Ca2+ levels but did induce cortical contraction. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (tyrphostin and staurosporine) suppressed the Mg2+-induced Ca2+ rise and contraction, and the inhibition could be overcome by injection with inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. Immunoprecipitation of phosphotyrosine- containing proteins from oocyte lysates showed that a 110x103 Mr protein was phosphorylated within seconds of oocyte exposure to Mg2+, and tyrphostin inhibited the phosphorylation of this protein. Pretreatment of oocytes with the protease trypsin abolished their ability to release Ca2+ in response to extracellular Mg2+, indicating a role for a cell surface protein during normal oocyte activation; treated oocytes could be rescued by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate injection. These results suggest that S. ingentis oocytes are activated through a Mg2+ 'receptor' which activates a tyrosine kinase and results in the production of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate to release intracellular Ca2+ stores and induce cortical contraction. A G-protein/GTPase may also be involved in the pathway leading to cortical contraction.


s | 87 the studied polymorphisms via the restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Clinical factors such as gender, age, duration of illness, and final medication dosage were noted as well. The researchers measured psychopathology biweekly, using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) fivefactor model scale (positive, negative, excitement, cognitive, and depressive). A mixed model regression approach (SAS Proc MIXED) was used to analyze the effects of genetic and clinical factors on PANSS performance after aripiprazole treatment. Results: We found that the A1/A1 (T/T) genotype of DRD2/ ANKK1 Taq1A (rs1800497) polymorphism predicted superior aripiprazole treatment response specifically for positive and excitement symptoms. Otherwise, the T/T and T/C genotype groups of 5-HT2A T102C (rs6313) polymorphism predicted superior aripiprazole treatment response specifically for negative symptoms. Furthermore, the C/C genotype of 5-HT1A C-1019G (rs6295) polymorphism predicted superior aripiprazole treatment response specifically for cognitive and depressive symptoms. Finally, the clinical factors including dosage of aripiprazole and duration of illness were found to influence PANSS performance upon aripiprazole treatment. Conclusions: Our study shows DRD2, 5-HT1A, and 5-HT2A gene polymorphisms and clinical factors modulate aripiprazole efficacy in different symptom dimensions of schizophrenia.


Tandem repeats (TRs) extensively exist in the genomes of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Based on the sequenced genomes and gene annotations of 31 plant and algal species in Phytozome version 8.0 (http://www.phytozome.net/), we examined TRs in a genome-wide scale, characterized their distributions and motif features, and explored their putative biological functions. Among the 31 species, no significant correlation was detected between the TR density and genome size. Interestingly, green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (42,059 bp/Mbp) and castor bean Ricinus communis (55,454 bp/Mbp) showed much higher TR densities than all other species (13,209 bp/Mbp on average). In the 29 land plants, including 22 dicots, 5 monocots, and 2 bryophytes, 5′-UTR and upstream intergenic 200-nt (UI200) regions had the first and second highest TR densities, whereas in the two green algae (C. reinhardtii and Volvox carteri) the first and second highest densities were found in intron and coding sequence (CDS) regions, respectively. In CDS regions, trinucleotide and hexanucleotide motifs were those most frequently represented in all species. In intron regions, especially in the two green algae, significantly more TRs were detected near the intron–exon junctions. Within intergenic regions in dicots and monocots, more TRs were found near both the 5′ and 3′ ends of genes. GO annotation in two green algae revealed that the genes with TRs in introns are significantly involved in transcriptional and translational processing. As the first systematic examination of TRs in plant and green algal genomes, our study showed that TRs displayed nonrandom distribution for both intragenic and intergenic regions, suggesting that they have potential roles in transcriptional or translational regulation in plants and green algae.


This is a music album comprising of 10 original instrumental tracks written to celebrate the genres of surf, spies and film noir. This release led to me being approached by Michele Brittany to write the afterword for her book 'James Bond and Popular Culture' - One track 'The Big Sleep' was nominated for an Award in Los Angeles and another two tracks received honours in the songoftheyear.com awards in America (Bridge Of Spies and Mission Improbable), a third track Smoking Gunn is currently on hold for a film in the United States. I am also investigating the possibilities of the album being performed as a new way of experiencing the genres within the contexts of a live concert featuring a live band, freshly generated film noir footage, real actors and multi-media elements. More information can be found at http://mtmmedia.co.uk/wp/about-4/


In this study, weighted least square method (WLSM) is used for attitude determination of nanosatellite. To apply the WLSM, three different vectors are used. These vectors are; Earth's Magnetic Field vector, Sun vector and Nadir vector. Using these vectors, three different vector pairs are obtained and with these pairs three algorithms are examined; (1) Earth's Magnetic Field vector and Sun vector, (2) Sun vector and Nadir vector, (3) Earth's Magnetic Field vector and Nadir vector. In simulations the actual values of Euler angles are compared with obtained angles via WLSM and the error rate is investigated. This process is done for all the three algorithm and the results are shown in graphic using MATLAB program. According to the results, these three algorithm are compared and the algorithm and the vector pair is determined which gives the most accurate results.


ILINet is used by sentinel healthcare providers for reporting influenza surveillance data. The Florida Department of Health receives urgent care center data through the ESSENCE syndromic surveillance system from participating facilities, and which can include discharge diagnoses. Seminole County is unique in that its sentinel providers located in four separate urgent care centers report into both systems, and their discharge diagnoses are recorded in ESSENCE. Data from the two systems were therefore compared both among and between the individual sentinel providers in order to identify differences in reporting influenza in ILINet from actual discharge diagnoses for influenza identified through ESSENCE.


In this paper, we introduce a novel cycle identification algorithm using MATLAB programming to automatically identify cycles in tidal breathing signals. The algorithm was designed in four steps using filtering, derivation, and other signal processing techniques. To verify the accuracy of the proposed algorithm, its results were compared with those of cycles identified manually by a human coder. Simulations results showed that despite the complexity of respiratory signals, the proposed algorithm could identify cycles more accurately than the human coder. This algorithm could serve as an important first step toward timely identification and coding for more complex respiratory signals, such as those underlying speech productions.


Learning-based visual odometry and SLAM methods demonstrate a steady improvement over past years. However, collecting ground truth poses to train these methods is difficult and expensive. This could be resolved by training in an unsupervised mode, but there is still a large gap between performance of unsupervised and supervised methods. In this work, we focus on generating synthetic data for deep learning-based visual odometry and SLAM methods that take optical flow as an input. We produce training data in a form of optical flow that corresponds to arbitrary camera movement between a real frame and a virtual frame. For synthesizing data we use depth maps either produced by a depth sensor or estimated from stereo pair. We train visual odometry model on synthetic data and do not use ground truth poses hence this model can be considered unsupervised. Also it can be classified as monocular as we do not use depth maps on inference. We also propose a simple way to convert any visual odometry model into a SLAM method based on frame matching and graph optimization. We demonstrate that both the synthetically-trained visual odometry model and the proposed SLAM method build upon this model yields state-of-the-art results among unsupervised methods on KITTI dataset and shows promising results on a challenging EuRoC dataset.


This article highlights the way in which Chinese protestors resisting home eviction and demolition have begun to develop innovative, media-savvy tactics for winning public sympathy for their causes and framing their plights as unjust, and considers the political implications of this trend.


Network-on-chip (NoC) communication architectures are increasingly being used today to interconnect cores on-chip multiprocessor (CMP) based embedded systems. Permanent faults in NoCs due to fabrication challenges in sub-65 nm CMOS technologies and due to wearout underscore the need for fault tolerant design. In this letter, we propose a novel low-overhead neighbor aware, turn model based fault tolerant routing scheme (NARCO) for NoCs which combines threshold-based replication in network interfaces, a parameterizable region-based neighbor awareness in routers, and the odd-even and inverted odd-even turn models. The proposed scheme enables better packet arrival rate than state of the art, while enabling a tradeoff between communication reliability and energy overhead.


This article examines how the Internet's e-mail infrastructure should evolve to better support continuous media e-mail, such as audio and video. We assert that the problem is not simply a matter of adding the obvious new functionality to user agents (mail readers), such as audio and video capture, but requires the adoption a new delivery model. We do this by examining the problems that arise using current methods to deliver video messages, and we show how sender-side storage and media streaming solve these problems. Finally, we describe an implementation strategy that requires changes only to individual sender systems, but enables CM e-mail to be delivered universally to any recipient, thus providing a realistic evolutionary path that can be adopted incrementally by individual mail systems.


Molecular dioxygenases include JmjC-containing histone demethylases and PHD enzymes, but only PHDs are considered to be molecular oxygen sensors in cells. Although, it is known that hypoxia can alter chromatin, whether this is a direct effect on histone demethylases or due to hypoxia induced HIF-dependent transcriptional changes is not known. Here, we report that hypoxia induces a rapid and HIF-independent alteration to a variety of histone methylation marks. Genomic locations of H3K4me3 and H3K36me3 following short hypoxia predict the hypoxia gene signature observed several hours later in cells. We show that KDM5A inactivation mimics hypoxic changes to H3K4me3 in its targets and is required for the cellular response to hypoxia. Our results demonstrate a direct link between oxygen sensing and chromatin changes via KDM inhibition. One Sentence Summary Rapid oxygen sensing by chromatin


This book will be of interest to serious students of fracture or of certain aspects of numerical analysis. It contains five chapters on dynamic crack growth and two on crack detection. The authors, 13 in all, come variously from the USA, Japan, Britain and Poland. The numerical techniques used are finite element, boundary integral and finite volume methods; the applications are predominantly elastic. In most chapters an analysis of a certain dynamic fracture problem is given and then one or more computational methods of solution detailed. The numerical analyst may focus on the comparisons, some direct, some implied, between chapters of the several techniques. To many, the application of boundary element methods to dynamic problems and of finite volume methods to any crack problem may well be rather novel, since such developments have only caught up with the well known finite element methods in the last two or three years. It is of interest to note that one author switches from modelling crack growth by nodal release using finite elements to a boundary integral formulation in order to adopt a moving mesh technique, whereas another author advocates a moving mesh technique with finite elements in the first place. The impact loading problem used here to illustrate the finite volume method has previously been solved by finite element methods. So this reviewer will offer no conclusion on which method is preferable; it may be "horses for courses" or just that whichever horse is in your own stable will naturally be the favourite.


The geophysics of extrasolar planets is a scientific topic often regarded as standing largely beyond the reach of near-term observations. This reality in no way diminishes the central role of geophysical phenomena in shaping planetary outcomes, from formation, to thermal and chemical evolution, to numerous issues of surface and near-surface habitability. We emphasize that for a balanced understanding of extrasolar planets, it is important to look beyond the natural biases of current observing tools, and actively seek unique pathways to understand exoplanet interiors as best as possible during the long interim prior to a time when internal components are more directly accessible. Such pathways include but are not limited to: (a) enhanced theoretical and numerical modeling, (b) laboratory research on critical material properties, (c) measurement of geophysical properties by indirect inference from imprints left on atmospheric and orbital properties, and (d) the purpose-driven use of Solar System object exploration expressly for its value in comparative planetology toward exoplanet-analogs. Breaking down barriers that envision local Solar System exploration, including the study of Earth's own deep interior, as separate from and in financial competition with extrasolar planet research, may greatly improve the rate of needed scientific progress for exoplanet geophysics. As the number of known rocky and icy exoplanets grows in the years ahead, we expect demand for expertise in 'exogeoscience' will expand at a commensurately intense pace. We highlight key topics, including: how water oceans below ice shells may dominate the total habitability of our galaxy by volume, how free-floating nomad planets may often attain habitable subsurface oceans supported by radionuclide decay, and how deep interiors may critically interact with atmospheric mass loss via dynamo-driven magnetic fields.


The rates of oxidation of cyanide with Fe(VI) were measured as a function of pH and temperature. The reaction was found to be first order for each reactant. The rates decrease with increasing pH. The energy of activation was found to be 38.9 {+-} 1.0 kJ mol{sup {minus}1} at pH 9.0. The removal of cyanide by oxidation with Fe(VI) was studied at pH 7.5, 9.0, and 12.0. Fe(VI) removal efficiency was greater at pH 9.0 than at pH 7.5 and 12.0. At pH 9.0, Fe(VI) molar consumption was nearly equal to that of oxidized cyanide. Cyanate and nitrite ions were identified as the products of the reaction at pH 7.5. The experiments indicated 1:1 stoichiometric conversion of cyanide to nitrite ion at pH 9.0 and 12.0. Experiments were conducted to test the Fe(VI) removal efficiency of cyanide in electroplating rinsewater. The results indicate that Fe(VI) has the potential to serve as a reliable and safe oxidative treatment for removing cyanide in wastewater effluent.


We study the practical consequences of dataset sampling strategies on the performance of recommendation algorithms. Recommender systems are generally trained and evaluated on samples of larger datasets. Samples are often taken in a naive or ad-hoc fashion: e.g. by sampling a dataset randomly or by selecting users or items with many interactions. As we demonstrate, commonly-used data sampling schemes can have significant consequences on algorithm performance -- masking performance deficiencies in algorithms or altering the relative performance of algorithms, as compared to models trained on the complete dataset. Following this observation, this paper makes the following main contributions: (1) characterizing the effect of sampling on algorithm performance, in terms of algorithm and dataset characteristics (e.g. sparsity characteristics, sequential dynamics, etc.); and (2) designing SVP-CF, which is a data-specific sampling strategy, that aims to preserve the relative performance of models after sampling, and is especially suited to long-tail interaction data. Detailed experiments show that SVP-CF is more accurate than commonly used sampling schemes in retaining the relative ranking of different recommendation algorithms.


Author(s): Owens, Peter Brouhard | Advisor(s): Snow, David A | Abstract: This dissertation uses theories of ethno-racial competition, boundary work, and collective action to explain the variable mobilization of collective ethnic violence against indigenous peoples in early American California, ca. 1850-1865. To do so, the dissertation proceeds through three chapters. The first chapter, "American Settler Colonialism, Racial Formation, and Competition Theory," provides a theoretical framework that supports the empirical inquiries in the subsequent two chapters. To develop this framework, I draw from the American settler colonialism, collective action, ethnic competition, and mass violence and atrocities literatures to suggest new directions for the study of settler-colonial (i.e. inter-polity) intergroup competition and conflict. The second chapter provides a regional analysis of the dynamics of collective ethnic violence against indigenous peoples in central and northern California, ca. 1850-1865. This chapter focuses on the role of frame disputes as a mediating mechanism in intergroup conflicts. The central theoretical claim, which finds strong support, is that frame disputes among settlers in different California regions influenced the dynamics of collective violence by attributing different levels of collective out-group "threats" to proximate indigenous groups. As in contemporary cases, this ethno-racial polarization and subsequent violence was produced by the explicit attempts of local political actors to durably politicize ethno-racial group membership. The third empirical chapter looks more closely at the mechanisms supporting varying annual levels of collective ethnic violence against indigenous peoples in the Humboldt Bay region of California, ca. 1853-1865. This chapter continues my emphasis on framing and boundary work mechanisms as mediators of collective conflicts, while focusing my theoretical attention more squarely on issues of threat assessment, or the ways in which group-based threats are collectively appraised by nominal power-holding group members. Drawing from theories of mediated competition, I demonstrate the specific necessity of organizational resources for extremist mobilization, and that elite framing and boundary work were required to link aggrieved individuals with these mobilizing resources. These findings confirm the role of framing and associated boundary work mechanisms in the politics of collective threat assessment. To conclude, I discuss the implications of these threat assessment issues for future historical and contemporary study of reactive mobilization.


The ability of cancer cells to adapt to non-cell autonomous (extrinsic) and cell autonomous (intrinsic) stresses is critical for maintaining cell viability and growth. The Integrated Stress Response (ISR) pathway is essential in cancer cell adaptation to extrinsic stresses such as hypoxia and nutrient deprivation both in vitro and in vivo. The ISR kinases, PERK and GCN2, phosphorylate eIF2α, transiently inhibiting protein translation during times of stress. Phosphorylation of eIF2α promotes the preferential translation of the transcription factor ATF4, which activates a gene expression program that enhances uptake and synthesis of amino acids, antioxidant defense and chaperone expression to promote recovery from nutrient deprivation and ER stress. Here, we demonstrate the importance of ISR signaling in MYC oncogene induced intrinsic stress both in vitro and in vivo. We previously reported that activation of PERK, during c-Myc induction is vital for activating cytoprotective autophagy and suppressing c-Myc induced apoptosis. Here, we demonstrate GCN2 is also robustly activated during c-Myc induction. GCN2 activation after c-Myc induction regulates ATF4 transcription and translation. ATF4 was necessary for survival and suppression of oxidative stress during c-Myc activation. We have identified ATF4 targets that regulate amino acid uptake and involved in amelioration of oxidative stress. Furthermore, siRNA mediated knockdown or genetic knockout of GCN2 was synthetic lethal with c-Myc activation. Interestingly, PERK is still able to phosphorylate eIF2α in the absence of GCN2. However, eIF2α phosphorylation was completely inhibited in the absence of both kinases suggesting that these kinases compensate for each other and both are required for optimal phosphorylation of eIF2α after c-Myc activation. Consistent with our in vitro data, we observe higher levels of p-eIF2α and ATF4 in lymphoma cells compared to WT B cells in vivo in a mouse model of Myc driven lymphoma. These findings highlight a novel mechanism of stress response pathway activation to support c-Myc driven tumorigenesis involving an amino acid sensor kinase GCN2. Citation Format: Feven Tameire, Maria A. Monroy, Constantinos Koumenis. The role of integrated stress response (ISR) transcription factor ATF4 in metabolic adaptation of tumors to c-Myc activation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 230.


An effective method for the synthesis of photochromic diarylethenes through the generation of heteroaryllithiums and subsequent reaction with octafluorocyclopentene has been developed by using integrated flow microreactor systems. Reactions can be conducted without using cryogenic conditions by virtue of effective temperature and residence time control, although much lower temperatures (<-78 °C) are needed for batch macroreactions. Moreover, the synthesis of unsymmetrical diarylethenes, which is difficult to achieve when using conventional batch macrosystems, has been accomplished based on the selective introduction of one aryl group to give arylheptafluorocyclopentene followed by the introduction of another aryl group. The productivity of the laboratory-scale system is approximately 0.5 mmol min(-1). Therefore, the present integrated flow microreactor method serves as a practical way of synthesizing various photochromic diarylethene derivatives.


Intraoperative ultrasonography (US) of the pancreas is a versatile technique that provides excellent spatial and contrast resolution and realtime imaging capabilities, making it useful for diagnostic imaging as well as for guidance of laparoscopic and open operative procedures. Intraoperative US may be used for applications such as staging and localizing tumors; performing regional metastatic surveys; documenting arterial and venous patency; identifying endocrine tumors; distinguishing pancreatitis from a neoplasm; and guiding biopsy, duct cannulation, and drainage of abscesses or cysts. The scanning approach and technique vary according to the application, with many different equipment and transducer options and sterilization methods available. With increasing clinical demands for intraoperative US, it is essential that radiologists be familiar with its uses and technique. In addition, to properly perform intraoperative US and accurately interpret the images, knowledge of normal and variant pancreatic and vascular anatomy and relevant landmarks is needed. Supplemental material available at http://radiographics


Objective: Nosocomial infections are of serious problems in hospital. In addition, they are imposed heavy costs on hospitals, causing increased hospitalization time, increased morbidity and mortality. In this study, we aimed to determine the epidemiological status of nosocomial infections in the Medical Ward of a tertiary care hospital. Study design: Descriptive-analytical study. Study site: Department of Medicine, CSM Medical University, Lucknow. Patients: The patients admitted in the Department of Medicine were included in this study. Results: The present study has been done on 80 patients of Medicine Wards (MW) including Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) of CSSMU, Lucknow. Among them, 65 (81.3%) were from Medical Ward and 15 (18.7%) were from MICU. This study was conducted between January to June, 2011. The average patient's stay in both MW and MICU was 13.56 days. All the 80 patients were clinically examined and only 18 patients were selected for the study of nosocomial infection on clinical grounds. A total of 42 different types of specimens were collected from 18 nosocomially infective patients. In 5 specimens, there was no yield of any bacterial organism. The predominant bacterial isolates both in MW and MICU were Escherichia coli (40.5%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (18.9%), Acinetobacter spp (13.5%), Pseudomonos aeruginosa (10.8% ), Enterococcus faecalis (8.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.1%). Conclusions: Bacterial isolates in MW and MICU were similar meaning thereby that it is auto infection. Nosocomial infection was more common in patients who stayed for longer period in hospital. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are predominant to cause nosocomial infection.


Some results from an experimental and theoretical investigation of cake washing assisted by d.c.
electrical fields are reported. Electric fields are shown to increase the rate of removal of cations
(Na+) from rutile filter cakes when the downstream electrode was the cathode. For anions (NO3
-)
under the same experimental conditions, the removal rate also varied with the electric field but the
effect was to slow the rate of mass transfer.
To give initial insight into the observed phenomena, the effects are explained through a first order
model. The basic assumptions of the model are that: (1) there are two external forces driving the
transport of ions: (i) a pressure difference that causes a mean fluid flow in which the ions are
embedded, and (ii) the DC electric field applied across the cake; and (2) there are two pools of
ions: (i) those trapped in the pores, and (ii) those that move with either the main fluid flow or the
electrically generated ionic current.
The model demonstrates the same qualitative effects as seen in the experiments, with the
magnitude of the effects dependent on the magnitudes of lateral and axial ion flux component
constitutive forms.


Nowadays, distributed denial of service (DDoS) becomes a major challenge in the network as it affects the network at multi-level. This leads to traffic overhead and wastage of bandwidth utilisation. In order to overcome these issues, ant-based DDoS detection technique using roaming virtual honeypots is proposed. In this technique, virtual roaming honeypot along with the multi-level secure architecture is used to collect the information about the various intruders at different levels in the network. Ant colony optimisation technique is used to detect the intruders based on the pheromone deposit on that considered area. A multi-level IP log table is used to detect the intruders at different levels of the network. Once the affected area is found, the information is sent to multi-level architecture to limit the spread of the affected area to the honeypot. This information is sent to the honeypot to make a defence system against the attackers. The advantage of the proposed technique is that it provides a full defence against DDoS at multi-level without creating any traffic overhead.


U. S. states and cities have attempted to regulate or ban the practice of the so-called "crafty sciences," including palmistry, tarot card reading, astrology, and clairvoyance, since before the founding of the Republic. Early statutes banned such practices in the interests of combatting fraud. The rise of the Spiritualist movement emphasized communication with the dead through "rappings" and the use of practices that seemed to resemble these banned activities very closely. Because no "ministerial exceptions" existed in the statutes to exempt Spiritualist practitioners, prosecutors often filed charges against these practitioners for breaking fraud and vagrancy laws. Because many legislators found themselves out of sympathy with Spiritualism in general, they saw no reason to enact "ministerial exceptions" that would protect Spiritualist clergy from accusations of fraud. Consequently, Spiritualist practitioners spent decades arguing, often unsuccessfully, a First Amendment defense in the courts, as intellectual, political, and scientific interest in Spiritualism came and went. While other minority religions came to accommodations with state and federal governments by abandoning or modifying questioned practices, thus coming into less conflict with the legal system over the period I examine, Spiritualists continued to find themselves at odds with the legal system and society until nearly the end of the Second World War. Indeed, this conflict continues to this day. What accounts for the delay in granting Spiritualist practitioners the same First Amendment protections as other religious observers? I suggest that a number of factors were at work, including the fact that Spiritualism was and is a decentralized religion, that it did and does attracts primarily female followers (though not necessarily primarily female practitioners), and that when it first appeared it seemed to display elements of what we would now label a cult, causing members of mainstream religions to distrust its founders and those attracted to it. Further, it required a firm belief in practices that mainstream religions seemed to have abandoned, namely, spirit communication and prophecy — the practice of communicating with the dead and the belief that the dead could communicate messages that could reveal both the existence of life after death and certainty about the future. Many, but not all adherents of mainstream religions had rejected the notion that the dead could communicate anything at all to the living. While some attorneys, judges, and members of the middle and upper classes of society found themselves attracted to Spiritualism, their numbers were not sufficient to overcome prejudices in society against this odd belief system. Spiritualist appeals to a right to free exercise did not prevail until U.S. society in general began to change its attitude toward religion and became somewhat more inclusive, a change in attitude that began slowly and only after the end of the First World War. The case law prior to the 1940s suggests that many judges and juries viewed Spiritualism and its adherents with at best a doubting eye.


Background: Focus groups are a widely utilised research method in an array of disciplines including the social sciences and, more specifically, in counselling and psychotherapy. They can be effective in assessing attitudes, opinions and experiences relative to a specific context and are relatively time and cost efficient. However, there are also potential limitations with this method, such as a reduced opportunity to participate for individuals and an increased likelihood of conformity in the group setting.

Aims: This paper explores methodological issues in conducting and interpreting focus groups, illustrated with data from our own study on couple counsellors' experiences of working with same-sex couples.

Method: Data was collected via three focus groups with 11 Relate counsellors and analysed using thematic analysis. The research process was used to reflect upon the experience of conducting and interpreting focus group data.

Results/Discussion: The advantages and disadvantages of using focus groups are exemplified in various ways, including evaluating benefits and shortcomings in a different light by considering them as situation specific methodological issues of group interaction and group dynamics. Issues in data analysis are demonstrated by stressing the importance of appraising the content, interaction, and the socio-cultural and biographical contexts of the focus group, participants, and the moderator.

Implications: The paper concludes with implications for future research employing focus group methodology.


The UK has many excellent care homes that provide high-quality care for their residents; however, across the care home sector, there is a significant need for improvement. Even though the majority of care homes receive a rating of 'good' from regulators, still significant numbers are identified as requiring 'improvement' or are 'inadequate'. Such findings resonate with the public perceptions of long-term care as a negative choice, to be avoided wherever possible-as well as impacting on the career choices of health and social care students. Projections of current demographics highlight that, within 10 years, the part of our population that will be growing the fastest will be those people older than 80 years old with the suggestion that spending on long-term care provision needs to rise from 0.6% of our Gross Domestic Product in 2002 to 0.96% by 2031. Teaching/research-based care homes have been developed in the USA, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia in response to scandals about care, and the shortage of trained geriatric healthcare staff. There is increasing evidence that such facilities help to reduce inappropriate hospital admissions, increase staff competency and bring increased enthusiasm about working in care homes and improve the quality of care. Is this something that the UK should think of developing? This commentary details the core goals of a Care Home Innovation Centre for training and research as a radical vision to change the culture and image of care homes, and help address this huge public health issue we face.


A number of aspects must be kept in mind when interpreting cost-effectiveness ratios; it is important to realise, for example, that a cost-effectiveness ratio is a relative and not an absolute measure of efficiency. A cost-effectiveness ratio always involves a comparison of two interventions; therefore, the choice of the competing alternative has great impact on the reported, 'incremental', cost-effectiveness ratio and requires careful study. Furthermore, a cost-effectiveness ratio is meant to support a choice or decision. A check must be done to see whether the study context and the resulting cost-effectiveness ratio are appropriate for the choice or decision under consideration.


www.sciencemag.org (this information is current as of February 1, 2007 ): The following resources related to this article are available online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5803/1272 version of this article at: including high-resolution figures, can be found in the online Updated information and services, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5803/1272/DC1 can be found at: Supporting Online Material http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5803/1272#otherarticles , 4 of which can be accessed for free: cites 15 articles This article http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/collection/geochem_phys Geochemistry, Geophysics : subject collections This article appears in the following http://www.sciencemag.org/help/about/permissions.dtl in whole or in part can be found at: this article permission to reproduce of this article or about obtaining reprints Information about obtaining


Abstract There are few available methods for qualitatively evaluating patients with primary progressive aphasia. Commonly adopted approaches are time-consuming, of limited accuracy or designed to assess different patient populations. This paper introduces a new clinical test—the Mini Linguistic State Examination—which was designed uniquely to enable a clinician to assess and subclassify both classical and mixed presentations of primary progressive aphasia. The adoption of a novel assessment method (error classification) greatly amplifies the clinical information that can be derived from a set of standard linguistic tasks and allows a five-dimensional profile to be defined. Fifty-four patients and 30 matched controls were recruited. Five domains of language competence (motor speech, phonology, semantics, syntax and working memory) were assessed using a sequence of 11 distinct linguistic assays. A random forest classification was used to assess the diagnostic accuracy for predicting primary progressive aphasia subtypes and create a decision tree as a guide to clinical classification. The random forest prediction model was 96% accurate overall (92% for the logopenic variant, 93% for the semantic variant and 98% for the non-fluent variant). The derived decision tree produced a correct classification of 91% of participants whose data were not included in the training set. The Mini Linguistic State Examination is a new cognitive test incorporating a novel and powerful, yet straightforward, approach to scoring. Rigorous assessment of its diagnostic accuracy confirmed excellent matching of primary progressive aphasia syndromes to clinical gold standard diagnoses. Adoption of the Mini Linguistic State Examination by clinicians will have a decisive impact on the consistency and uniformity with which patients can be described clinically. It will also facilitate screening for cohort-based research, including future therapeutic trials, and is suitable for describing, quantifying and monitoring language deficits in other brain disorders.


The effect of CoA and fatty acyl-CoA esters on Ca2+ fluxes has been studied in isolated liver microsomes and in digitonin-permeabilized hepatocytes. When microsomes were loaded with increasing concentrations of Ca2+ (6-29 nmol/mg of protein), the extent to which CoA and palmitoyl-CoA released Ca2+ increased. At 23 nmol of Ca2+/mg of protein, half-maximal [CoA] and [palmitoyl-CoA] were 35 and 50 microM respectively. Under conditions of minimal Ca2+ loading, net release of Ca2+ was absent, but Ca2+ translocation from a CoA-sensitive to a CoA-insensitive pool took place. The effect of CoA required the presence of fatty acids, probably to form fatty acyl esters. In permeabilized hepatocytes, the pool(s) mobilized by CoA (or by palmitoyl-CoA) appeared to be different from that mobilized by Ins(1,4,5)P3.


An experiment was conducted at the Seed Laboratory of the Department of Agronomy, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from January to April 2012 to study the effect of osmopriming of Boro rice seed (cv. BRRI dhan29). Seeds were soaked in 1%, 3% and 5% solutions of ZnSO 4 , KCl and CaCl 2 for 24 hours, respectively, with 30 hours incubation at 35°C temperature. Seed quality tests such as percent germination, mean germination time, vigor index, shoot length, root length, shoot dry weight and root dry weight of rice seedlings were measured for all treatments. Population m -2 was also calculated to investigate the field establishment of primed seeds. The highest germination, vigor index, population m -2 , shoot length and shoot dry weight at 15 and 30 DAS, root length at 15 DAS, root dry weight at 15 and 30 DAS and the lowest mean germination time was observed from priming of seeds with 3% ZnSO 4 . Exceptionally, priming with 3% CaCl 2 showed the highest root length at 30 DAS. On the contrary, 3% and 5% CaCl 2 priming treatment showed the lowest germination, vigor index, population m -2 , shoot length and shoot dry weight at 15 and 30 DAS, root length at 15 DAS, root dry weight at 15 and 30 DAS and the highest mean germination time. It can be concluded that rice seed (cv. BRRI dhan29) can be primed with 3% ZnSO 4 solution for improving germination and field establishment of rice seedlings. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v1i4.9131  Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol. 1(4): 228-232


The energy consumption needed for establishing a good indoor climate in shopping centres is often very high due to high internal heat loads from lighting and equipment and from a high people density at certain time intervals. This heat surplus result in a need for cooling during most of the year, typically also during the winter, and often the needed cooling is provided by a mechanical ventilation system with integrated mechanical cooling. However, for certain areas, especially the hallways connecting the individual shops, natural ventilation might be an energy efficient alternative or supplement to the traditional mechanical system. This paper presents a case study on an existing shopping centre in Copenhagen, Denmark (Fields shopping centre). The building owner's key reason for considering natural ventilation was a desire to improve the thermal indoor climate in the hallways, and, at the same time, reduce the energy consumption for ventilation. On this background, WindowMaster conducted a number of simulations in the dynamic simulation program BSim2002. These calculations suggested a significant energy saving potential (60% reduction) and a significant improved thermal indoor climate (70% reduction of annual hours above 28 °C) by adding natural ventilation to the ventilation strategy. Thus, in the beginning of 2011 the building owner decided to install automatically controlled natural ventilation in the hallways in the shopping centre in addition to the existing mechanical ventilation system. The basic control idea was to use the natural ventilation system in the summer and transient seasons and the mechanical ventilation system in the winter (hybrid ventilation). Measurements of the thermal indoor climate in the first year (September 2011 august 2012) show that the indoor climate has improved significantly. In this year, the actual results outperform the expected results from the simulations, and the building owner has expressed his satisfaction with the improvements in the thermal indoor climate.


Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most common cause of vascular mortality worldwide and comprises deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). In this review, we discuss how an understanding of VTE epidemiology and the results of thromboprophylaxis trials have shaped the current approach to VTE prevention. We will discuss modern thromboprophylaxis as it pertains to genetic risk factors, exogenous hormonal therapies, pregnancy, surgery, medical hospitalization, cancer, and what is known thus far about VTE in COVID-19 infection.


The aim of this work is to assess an automatic optimized algorithm for the positioning of the Motor Units (MUs) within a multilayered cylindrical High Density surface EMG (HD-sEMG) generation model representing a skeletal muscle. The multilayered cylinder is composed of three layers: muscle, adipose and skin tissues. For this purpose, two different algorithms will be compared: an unconstrained random and a Mitchell's Best Candidate (MBC) placements, both with uniform distribution for the MUs positions. These algorithms will then be compared by their fiber density within the muscle and by using a classical amplitude descriptor, the Root-Mean-Square (RMS) amplitude value obtained from 64 HD-sEMG signals recorded by an 8×8 electrode grid of circular electrode during one contraction at 70% Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) in both simulation and experimental conditions for the Biceps Brachii (BB) muscle. The obtained results clearly exposed the necessity to use a specific algorithm to place the MUs within the muscle representation volume in agreement with physiology.


Introduction: Individuals with chronic hepatitis B virus infection (HBV) or previous infection with HBV are at increased risk of HBV exacerbation or reactivation when they receive treatment with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies like rituximab (RTX). HBV screening and appropriate use of prophylactic antiviral therapy is recommended to prevent reactivation. A software program named Beacon Oncology was integrated into Epic, which creates an automated alert for HBV screening before starting first dose of chemotherapy with RTX and results the previously resulted HBV test results. Retrospective data analysis for screening was done after implementation of the software and its impact was assessed. Methods: We conducted retrospective chart review on screening for HBV before starting treatment with RTX before and after implementation of the electronic health record (EHR) alert system. Results: A baseline review (before software introduction) of 165 patients showed that only 40 (24%) had screening tests for HBV (hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] and hepatitis B core antibody [anti-HBcAb]) before receiving rituximab. Following introduction of the automated electronic alert system, chart review for HBV testing rates among patients being initiated onto rituximab was performed. There was a marked increase in pre-rituximab testing for HBsAg from 24% to 88% and for anti-HBcAb from 24% to 76%. The remainder cases also had the HBV screening done but after the first dose of the RTX chemotherapy between 1.3 to 7.5 days. There was one patient identified as anti-HBcAb-positive after the implementation of the protocol. Conclusions: This retrospective single-institution study clearly indicates that simple strategies can markedly improve appropriate HBV screening. There was a more than 3-fold increase in HBV testing before the first dose of HBV after implementation of the EHR alert system. There has been increased use of EHR alert systems recently to improve implementation of clinical guidelines, and they have been shown to improve patient outcomes. In conclusion, an automated EHR alert directed toward screening for HBV before initiating RTX effectively increased the number of HBV screening tests completed, and similar protocols could be implemented to identify other at-risk patient groups.


BACKGROUND: Intraoperative mechanical ventilation may yield lung injury. To date, there is no consensus regarding the best ventilator strategy for abdominal surgery. We aimed to investigate the impact of the mechanical ventilation strategies used in 2 recent trials (Intraoperative Protective Ventilation [IMPROVE] trial and Protective Ventilation using High versus Low PEEP [PROVHILO] trial) on driving pressure (&Dgr;PRS), mechanical power, and lung damage in a model of open abdominal surgery. METHODS: Thirty-five Wistar rats were used, of which 28 were anesthetized, and a laparotomy was performed with standardized bowel manipulation. Postoperatively, animals (n = 7/group) were randomly assigned to 4 hours of ventilation with: (1) tidal volume (VT) = 7 mL/kg and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) = 1 cm H2O without recruitment maneuvers (RMs) (low VT/low PEEP/RM−), mimicking the low-VT/low-PEEP strategy of PROVHILO; (2) VT = 7 mL/kg and PEEP = 3 cm H2O with RMs before laparotomy and hourly thereafter (low VT/moderate PEEP/4 RM+), mimicking the protective ventilation strategy of IMPROVE; (3) VT = 7 mL/kg and PEEP = 6 cm H2O with RMs only before laparotomy (low VT/high PEEP/1 RM+), mimicking the strategy used after intubation and before extubation in PROVHILO; or (4) VT = 14 mL/kg and PEEP = 1 cm H2O without RMs (high VT/low PEEP/RM−), mimicking conventional ventilation used in IMPROVE. Seven rats were not tracheotomized, operated, or mechanically ventilated, and constituted the healthy nonoperated and nonventilated controls. RESULTS: Low VT/moderate PEEP/4 RM+ and low VT/high PEEP/1 RM+, compared to low VT/low PEEP/RM− and high VT/low PEEP/RM−, resulted in lower &Dgr;PRS (7.1 ± 0.8 and 10.2 ± 2.1 cm H2O vs 13.9 ± 0.9 and 16.9 ± 0.8 cm H2O, respectively; P< .001) and less mechanical power (63 ± 7 and 79 ± 20 J/min vs 110 ± 10 and 120 ± 20 J/min, respectively; P = .007). Low VT/high PEEP/1 RM+ was associated with less alveolar collapse than low VT/low PEEP/RM− (P = .03). E-cadherin expression was higher in low VT/moderate PEEP/4 RM+ than in low VT/low PEEP/RM− (P = .013) or high VT/low PEEP/RM− (P = .014). The extent of alveolar collapse, E-cadherin expression, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha correlated with &Dgr;PRS (r = 0.54 [P = .02], r = −0.48 [P = .05], and r = 0.59 [P = .09], respectively) and mechanical power (r = 0.57 [P = .02], r = −0.54 [P = .02], and r = 0.48 [P = .04], respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In this model of open abdominal surgery based on the mechanical ventilation strategies used in IMPROVE and PROVHILO trials, lower mechanical power and its surrogate &Dgr;PRS were associated with reduced lung damage.


The problem of failure mode analysis of stochastic structural systems, dealing with the design variables expression, reliability-based structural optimization and improved stability of girders, have been studied in this paper. Considering the material intensity, girder section area, panel thickness and loads as stochastic variables, a mathematical model of optimization is constructed. In the iterative procedure, the optimum vector method was adopted to optimize the object and the gradient step; and the optimum vector step have been used alternatively, and these can speed up the iterative procedure. The calculation of a numerical example shows this method is exact and free from the selection of optimum start point, further more the convergence is stable and fast.


Modern computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools raise the need for traceability, i.e. the ability to control the consistency between software documents produced at different stages of the software life-cycle. The authors describe the transformation between an integrated requirements engineering language based on structured analysis and the entity relationship model, and a modern design language. The transformation works incrementally and is sensitive to changes to already transformed parts. The authors outline the transformation algorithm and compare the approach to those found in the literature. A tool which implements the proposed algorithm and supports the proposed traceability is described. The potential and the limits of this approach are highlighted.<<ETX>>


Interactive segmentation consists in building a pixel-wise partition of an image, into foreground and background regions, with the help of user inputs. Most state-of-the-art algorithms use scribble-based interactions to build foreground and background models, and very few of these work focus on the usability of the scribbling interaction. In this paper we study the outlining interaction, which is very intuitive to non-expert users on touch devices. We present an algorithm, built upon the existing GrabCut algorithm, which infers both foreground and background models out of a single outline. We conducted a user study on 20 participants to demonstrate the usability of this interaction, and its performance for the task of interactive segmentation.


We present the results of the measurements of the detection efficiency for a 4.7 \r{A} neutron beam incident upon a detector incorporating a stack of up to five MultiWire Proportional Counters (MWPC) with Boron-coated cathodes. The cathodes were made of Aluminum and had a surface exhibiting millimeter-deep V-shaped grooves of 45°, upon which the thin Boron film was deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. The incident neutrons interacting with the converter layer deposited on the sidewalls of the grooves have a higher capture probability, owing to the larger effective absorption film thickness. This leads to a higher overall detection efficiency for the grooved cathode when compared to a cathode with a flat surface. Both the experimental results and the predictions of the GEANT4 model suggests that a 5-counter detector stack with coated grooved cathodes has the same efficiency as a 7-counter stack with flat cathodes. The reduction in the number of counters in the stack without altering the detection efficiency will prove highly beneficial for large-area position-sensitive detectors for neutron scattering applications, for which the cost-effective manufacturing of the detector and associated readout electronics is an important objective. The proposed detector concept could be a technological option for one of the new chopper spectrometers and other instruments planned to be built at the future European Spallation Source in Sweden. These results with macrostructured cathodes generally apply not just to MWPCs but to other gaseous detectors as well.


Ehime University Hospital has been conducting a four-week practical hospital training course, consisting of 18 programs, for undergraduate students. The course includes experience-oriented programs, such as drug counseling training using case-based learning procedures (CBL practice), evidence based medicine (EBM practice) based on the provision of drug information, and training to avoid adverse drug reactions (pre-avoid practice). A previous study based on a questionnaire survey showed that experience-oriented programs enhanced students' understanding of the hospital practical training, while also increasing their satisfaction. In this trial, written examinations were given to 24 students to evaluate their clinical knowledge and problem-solving abilities at the start and the end of the practical hospital training course to evaluate the educational effects of this curriculum objectively. The problem-solving abilities were examined using a test of a case analysis, which required the students to answer multiple clinical problems or proposals. The examination scores on the clinical knowledge at the end of the practical hospital training course had significantly increased by 9.5% (p<0.01) in comparison to that at the start. In addition, the accuracy rate regarding their problem-solving abilities markedly increased by 28.8% (p<0.001). Moreover, the number of answers also significantly increased by about 1.5-fold (p<0.001). These results suggested that the experience-oriented programs for hospital practical training increased the clinical knowledge and the problem-solving abilities of these students.


This article analyzes the factors that caused recent conflicts between the Korean government and civil society over e-government initiatives and draws implications for e-governance. The disputes over the government's digitalization initiatives in Korea, for example the conflicts over the electronic education system and the national electronic ID card, show that the government in Korea as in other countries has faced fierce opposition from citizens and suffered major setbacks in pursuing its ICT projects. This article argues that the current cases in Korean society should be understood from a new perspective, one which emphasizes the interaction between the technical standard and the social standard. It shows that the gaps between technical standards, which idealize efficiency, and social standards, which weigh e-privacy as supreme, breed conflict. Finally, the research draws some implications of the analysis for e-governance and democracy.


Recent advances in vascular surgery have made many previously hopeless lesions of the thoracic aorta amenable to surgical correction. A major need exists, however, for improvement in the radiologic visualization of suspected lesions of the thoracic aorta. The purpose of this paper is to present a new method for thoracic aortography, utilizing the right supraclavicular approach. Although a number of techniques have been employed in performing thoracic aortography, none seems to be entirely satisfactory. Retrograde arterial catheterization and injection of a radiopaque dye via the carotid artery, 1 the radial artery, 2 or the femoral artery 3 often provide adequate visualization of the thoracic aorta but require operative arteriotomy and occasionally ligation of the vessel. Percutaneous parasternal aortic punctures are technically difficult and involve the risk of coronary perfusion.* Recently Wickbom 6 reported a simple direct method of percutaneous aortic injection via a cervical approach, with the needle paralleling the


Scalp wounds attended by loss of substance are commonly managed either by direct skin grafting or a large transposition flap of adjacent scalp and skin grafting of the donor site defect. Either of these methods has all of the inherent disadvantages of the results of skin grafting: insensate, glabrous surface devoid of hair, recurrent ulceration after minor trauma, and, finally, abnormal appearance. In the past 5 years 23 patients at Emory Affiliated Hospitals have undergone a procedure whereby all existing scalp has been mobilized by fashioning arterialized flaps and the scalp reconstructed with normal hairbearing skin. Multiple relaxing incisions in the galea are requisite to the success of the method. An underlying defect in the bony calvaria can be reconstructed at a second stage by multiple split rib grafts.


The present study was performed to assess the protective effect of fluoxetine (FLX) on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) via the regulation of miR-450b-5p/Nrf2 axis in male rats. In vivo, these male rats were randomly divided into different treatment groups. The rats were administered with FLX (20 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) once daily for 3 days before operation. The pathomorphological changes of renal tissues were assessed by histological examination and Masson staining. In vitro, HK-2 cells were used to detect the activity by CCK-8 assay in Hypoxia/Reoxygenation (H/R) group and Hypoxia/Reoxygenation+Fluoxetine (H/R+FLX) group. In addition, the oxidative stress biomarkers were evaluated. Subsequently, Nrf2, NF-κB, and Nrf2-dependent antioxidant enzymes, were detected by Western blot assay. In vivo, the pathological changes and serological renal function were significantly relieved in the rats with the pre-treatment of FLX, compared to IRI group. After FLX stimulation, the expression levels of oxidative stress indices significantly decreased, while tissue antioxidant indices significantly increased, compared to IRI group. The differently expressed miRNAs on renal IRI in male rats were screened out by miRNA microarray, especially showing that miR-450b-5p was selected as the target miRNA. Following miR-450b-5p agomir injection, the pathological changes and oxidative stress biomarkers significantly aggravated, whether in IRI group or IRI+FLX group. Bioinformatics analysis and double-luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that miR-450b-5p directly targeted Nrf2. The expression level of NF-κB significantly increased, while the expression levels of Nrf2 and Nrf2-dependent antioxidant enzymes significantly decreased after miR-450b-5p agomir injection. Furthermore, the expression levels of Nrf2 and it-dependent antioxidant enzymes were apparently increased in ischemic kidney after the transfection of miR-450b-5p mimic+recombination protein Nrf2, as well as the decreased expression levels of intracellular ROS and iNOS. In vitro, FLX significantly increased HK-2 cell viability, and relieved H/R HK-2 cell oxidative injury via down-regulating ROS and iNOS. In addition, H/R-induced oxidative damage was recovered with miR-450b-5p mimic and recombination protein Nrf2. Consequently, FLX played an important protective role in renal IRI-induced oxidative damage by promoting antioxidation via targeting miR-450b-5p/Nrf2 axis.


Rice is the most important crop in Assam, India, grown on about 70% of the total cultivated land (3.63 million ha) in the state (MA 2003). In fact, about 70% of the rice area of the seven northeast Indian states is under Assam. Rice is mostly grown in the low-lying deltas of the Brahmaputra and Barak rives; some rice is also cultivated in upland situations in the northern hill region. The sali (monsoon crop: transplanted lowland rainfed rice and deepwater rice) rice is dominant, occupying 68.8% of the total rice area of 2.54 million ha, followed by ahu (summer rice) (18.3%) and boro (dry-season/winter) rice (12.9%). To understand Assam's current pest problems in rice, and their management, we arranged four 2h discussion sessions on each of the major groups of pests (insects, weeds, diseases, and rodents) during an integrated pest management training course implemented at Assam Agricultural University (AAU) in Jorhat on 5-15 Jul 2004, The discussion sessions were led by AAU experts and 19 trainees involved in rice pest management education, research, and extension participated. The gists of these sessions are presented.


Motivated by robust dynamic resource allocation in operations research, we study the Online Learning to Transport (OLT) problem where the decision variable is a probability measure, an infinite-dimensional object. We draw connections between online learning, optimal transport, and partial differential equations through an insight called the minimal selection principle, orig-inally studied in the Wasserstein gradient flow setting by Ambrosio et al. [2005]. This allows us to extend the standard online learning framework to the infinite-dimensional setting seamlessly. Based on our framework, we derive a novel method called the minimal selection or exploration (MSoE) algorithm to solve OLT problems using mean-field approximation and discretization techniques. In the displacement convex setting, the main theoretical message underpinning our approach is that minimizing transport cost over time (via the minimal selection principle) en-sures optimal cumulative regret upper bounds. On the algorithmic side, our MSoE algorithm applies beyond the displacement convex setting, making the mathematical theory of optimal transport practically relevant to non-convex settings common in dynamic resource allocation.


Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) is a methodology developed by UNICEF which provides a comprehensive approach to the multidimensional aspects of child poverty and deprivation. MODA builds on earlier multidimensional poverty studies and encompasses a large set of tools ranging from deprivation headcounts in single dimensions via multiple overlap analysis to multidimensional deprivation ratios and their decomposition. The MODA methodology places the child at the heart of the analysis and concentrates on those aspects of well-being that are relevant for the children at particular stages of their lives. Moreover, the analysis indicates which deprivations children experience simultaneously.


Koopmans, Sietse J., Lawrence Mandarino, and Ralph A. DeFronzo. Time course of insulin action on tissue-specific intracellular glucose metabolism in normal rats. Am. J. Physiol. 274 (Endocrinol. Metab. 37): E642– E650, 1998.—We investigated the time course of insulin action in conscious rats exposed to constant physiological hyperinsulinemia (,100 mU/l) while maintaining euglycemia (,100 mg/dl) for 0, 0.5, 2, 4, 8, or 12 h. [3-3H]glucose was infused to quantitate whole body glucose disposal (rate of disappearance, Rd), glycolysis (generation of H2O in plasma), hepatic glucose production (HGP), and skeletal muscle and liver glycogen synthesis ([3-3H]glucose incorporation into glycogen and time-dependent change in tissue glycogen concentration). The basal Rd, which equals HGP, was 6.0 6 0.3 mg·kg21 ·min21. With increased duration of hyperinsulinemia from 0 to 0.5 to 2 to 4 h, Rd increased from 6.0 6 0.3 to 21.0 6 1.1 to 24.1 6 1.5 to 26.6 6 0.6 mg·kg21 ·min21 (P , 0.05 for 2 and 4 h vs. 0.5 h). During the first 2 h the increase in Rd was explained by parallel increases in glycolysis and glycogen synthesis. From 2 to 4 h the further increase in Rd was entirely due to an increase in glycolysis without change in glycogen synthesis. From 4 to 8 to 12 h of hyperinsulinemia, Rd decreased by 19% from 26.6 6 0.6 to 24.1 6 1.1 to 21.6 6 1.8 mg·kg21 ·min21 (P , 0.05 for 8 h vs. 4 h and 12 h vs. 8 h). The progressive decline in Rd, in the face of constant hyperinsulinemia, occurred despite a slight increase (8–14%) in glycolysis and was completely explained by a marked decrease (64%) in muscle glycogen synthesis. In contrast, liver glycogen synthesis increased fourfold, indicating an independent regulation of muscle and liver glycogen synthesis by long-term hyperinsulinemia. In the liver, during the entire 12-h period of insulin stimulation, the contribution of the direct (from glucose) and the indirect (from C-3 fragments) pathways to net glycogen formation remained constant at 77 6 5 and 23 6 5%, respectively. HGP remained suppressed throughout the 12-h period of hyperinsulinemia.


Policy diffusion means that policy choices in one unit (such as states, cantons, and cities) are influenced by the policy choices of other units. This idea has been studied extensively in several social sciences and, within political science, in subfields such as international relations, American federalism, and public policy. While scholars have demonstrated convincingly that policy diffusion is a real and important phenomenon, much less is known about why and exactly how policies diffuse. We argue that this condition is due to the inherent limitations of existing research designs. This paper puts forward a new approach based on automated frame analysis. Theoretically, the paper focuses on how the perception of policy problems and solutions changes as a result of the adoption of policies elsewhere. We apply this approach to the spread of smoking bans among US states and Swiss cantons. Preliminary results from an analysis of thirteen American newspapers shows that media coverage intensifies when major legislation and illustrates how it prioritizes different consequences of smoking bans, such health, economic fallout for businesses, and enforcement issues.


The chronicle of Klaas Kolijn pretended to be a thirteenth-century account of the history of the counts of Holland, but it was a forgery. Written around 1700 by Reinier de Graaf, it was held genuine until as late as 1777. This article tries to explain why the forgery was able to confuse serious scholars during three quarters of a century. It looks for answers in the history of Dutch philology, in the aims of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century antiquarian research and in contemporary epistemologic theories of probability. The debates on Kolijn were held on three moments throughout the century. Around 1710, Kolijn's text was edited for the first time, as it fitted perfectly in an antiquarian quest for more knowledge on the earliest history of Holland. Around 1745, debates on Kolijn shifted the focus from the text itself to its constitutional consequences and to the epistemological and moral reliability of the scholars Gerard van Loon and Pieter vander Schelling, who edited and studied Kolijn. Finally, in the 1770s, Balthasar Huydecoper focused back on Kolijn's text, ascertaining with linguistic arguments that it could not be written at the time it pretended. The final argument discrediting Kolijn, brought up by historian Jan Wagenaar at the learned society of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, was the absence of an old manuscript. Thus, Wagenaar transferred an old antiquarian epistemological requirement of material evidence to the Dutch philology, newly organised in a learned society.


We incorporate terms-of-trade externality into a small open economy featuring an incomplete market, sterilized intervention, and capital controls as in Chang et al. (2015), and we highlight the central banks reaction to exchange rate movement. Our calibrated model using data from China shows that an optimal monetary policy is crucially dependent on the Armington elasticity between domestic and foreign goods. For a wide range of Armington elasticity values, an intermediate exchange rate regime dominates the bipolar (fixed or floating) exchange regimes in terms of welfare gains.


Abstract Ethologists and comparative psychologists have found that the social behavior, discrimination learning, and especially the communicative behavior of many animals are sufficiently versatile to call into question the customary denial that animals have mental experiences comparable to our own. Many of their behavior patterns suggest that animals have mental images of objects, events, or relationships remote from the immediate stimulus situation, as well as self-awareness and intentions concerning future actions. Our behavioristic Zeitgeist has inhibited investigation of such possibilities, but reopening these long-neglected questions requires no departure from the materialistic approach to biological and behavioral science. The basic question at issue involves a comparison of those aspects of human and nonhuman brain function that sometimes lead to what we call mental experiences, at least in our own species. It seems more feasible to devise objectively verifiable tests for the existence of these general categories of mental experiences than for that of many others. While many other kinds of evidence could well be used (with appropriate caution and all possible controls) to weigh the likelihood that animals sometimes know what they are doing, the experimental use of communicative behavior seems especially promising, because the latter could serve a function analogous to human language, which provides our best evidence about the mental experiences of our fellow men.


Leaf death in avocado during drought is strongly associated with embolism in the xylem. The driver of leaf mortality during drought stress is a critical unknown. We used the commercially important tree Persea americana, in which there is a large variation in the degree of drought-induced leaf death across the canopy, to test whether embolism formation in the xylem during drought drives this leaf mortality. A large range in the number of embolized vessels in the petioles of leaves was observed across the canopy of plants that had experienced drought. Despite considerable variation between leaves, the amount of embolized vessels in the xylem of the petiole strongly correlated with area of drought-induced tissue death in individual leaves. Consistent with this finding was a large interleaf variability in xylem resistance to embolism, with a 1.45 MPa variation in the water potential at which 50% of the xylem in the leaf midrib embolized across leaves. Our results implicate xylem embolism as a driver of leaf mortality during drought. Moreover, we propose that heterogeneity in drought-induced leaf mortality across a canopy is caused by high interleaf variability in xylem resistance to embolism, which may act as a buffer against complete canopy death during prolonged drought in P. americana.


Embryonic axis patterning in Drosophila melanogaster is partly achieved by mRNAs that are maternally localized to the oocyte; the spatio-temporal regulation of these transcripts' stability and translation is a characteristic feature of oogenesis. While protein regulatory factors are necessary for the translational regulation of some maternal transcripts (e.g. oskar and gurken), small RNA pathways are also known to regulate mRNA stability and translation in eukaryotes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA regulators of gene expression, widely conserved throughout eukaryotic genomes and essential for animal development. The main D. melanogaster anterior determinant, bicoid, is maternally transcribed, but it is not translated until early embryogenesis. We investigated the possibility that its translational repression during oogenesis is mediated by miRNA activity. We found that the bicoid 3'UTR contains a highly conserved, predicted binding site for miR-305. Our studies reveal that miR-305 regulates the translation of a reporter gene containing the bicoid 3'UTR in cell culture, and that miR-305 only partially contributes to bicoid mRNA translational repression during oogenesis. We also found that Processing bodies (P-bodies) in the egg chamber may play a role in stabilizing bicoid and other maternal transcripts. Here, we offer insights into the possible role of P-bodies and the miRNA pathway in the translational repression of bicoid mRNA during oogenesis.


A discrete space-filling curve provides a 1-dimensional indexing or traversal of a multi-dimensional grid space. Applications of space-filling curves include multi-dimensional indexing methods, parallel computing, and image compression. Common goodness-measures for the applicability of space-filling curve families are locality and clustering. Locality reflects proximity preservation that close-by grid points are mapped to close-by indices or vice versa. We present an analytical study on the locality property of the 2-dimensional Hilbert curve family. The underlying locality measure, based on the p-normed metric dp, is the maximum ratio of dp(u, v) m to dp(ũ, ṽ) over all corresponding point-pairs (u, v) and (ũ, ṽ) in the m-dimensional grid space and 1-dimensional index space, respectively. Our analytical results identify all candidate representative grid-point pairs (realizing the locality-measure values) for all real norm-parameters in the unit interval [1, 2] and grid-orders. Together with the known results for other norm-parameter values, we have almost complete knowledge of the locality measure of 2-dimensional Hilbert curves over the entire spectrum of possible norm-parameter values.


This paper describes application-specific and technology specifications related to ICT-based approach for the support of policy modelling as proposed in the EU funded FP7 ICT OCOPOMO project. In this particular approach strategic planning is supported by a combination of narrative scenarios, agent-based modelling, and e-Participation tools (all integrated via an ICT e-Governance platform). The policy model for a given domain is created iteratively using cooperation of several stakeholder groups (decision makers, analysts, companies, civic society, and the general public). In this paper we will provide principles and key concepts of collaborative policy modelling, but the main focus is on the discussion of high-level architecture of ICT tools and software components, envisioned platform functionality and preliminary view of detailed architecture and technological details for implementation and integration of software components. An overall approach is presented also from the view of a particular pilot application, built around development of a strategy of renewable energy use. The process of development of a new strategy is described using standard BPMN. The process models correspond to AS-IS and TO-BE (i.e. after incorporation of scenario generation and policy modelling) situations.


This study examined the relation of elementary-school children's externalizing behaviour to emotion attributions, evaluation of consequences, and moral reasoning. Externalizing behaviour was rated by the parents using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL/4 – 18). Moral development was assessed by three stories describing different types of rule violation and a moral conflict in friendship including obligations and self-interest. The children were asked about the emotions they would attribute to the hypothetical victimizer (or protagonist) and the self-as-victimizer (or protagonist), the evaluation of the interpersonal consequences of the rule violation (or action decision) as well as their justifications. Boys who made selfish action decisions and attributed positive emotions to the protagonist of the moral dilemma displayed more externalizing behaviour than girls. Furthermore, boys with consistent moral (negative) emotion attributions to the self-as-victimizer across the rule violations showed less externalizing behaviour than boys with inconsistent moral emotion attributions. Younger children who anticipated negative interpersonal consequences of transgressions displayed higher rates of externalizing behaviour than younger children who anticipated less negative consequences. Moral reasons in the context of emotion attributions to the self-as-victimizer were negatively associated with externalizing behaviour.


AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a metabolitesensed protein kinase in various eukaryotes. The activated AMPK regulates important proteins which cause diabetes, obesity, metabolic aberrant, and also breast cancer. In this study, the yeast AMPK structure was used as a template to model the human AMPK structure. By homology modeling, the reliable AMPK structure was built, and the active binding site was defined corresponding to X-ray crystal structure of yeast AMPK By virtual screening the database. All the potent ligands had the H-bond interaction in the key residues, same as the control. Thus, we suggested the phenylamide derivates might be the potent AMPK agonists. KeywordsAMPK; AMP; AICAR


An approach is presented for approximating the expected spread rate of fires that burn across 2-dimensional landscapes with random fuel patterns. The method calculates a harmonic mean spread rate across a small 2-dimensional grid that allows the fire to move forward and laterally. Within this sample grid, all possible spatial fuel arrangements are enumerated and the spread rate of an elliptical fire moving through the cells is found by searching for the minimum travel time. More columns in the sample grid are required for accurately calculating expected spread rates where very slow-burning fuels are present, because the fire must be allowed to move farther laterally around slow patches. This calculation can be used to estimate fire spread rates across spatial fuel mixtures provided that the fire shape was determined from wind and slope. Results suggest that fire spread rates on random landscapes should increase with fire size and that random locations of fuel treatments would be inefficient in changing overall fire growth rates.


Recently, the applications of face recognition are increasing significantly. Some methods have already been tried, but the results have not optimal yet. This paper tries to overcome this problem, using haar cascade as face detection algorithm, whereas face recognition uses local binary pattern histogram method. This system uses a webcam as a camera and programming exploit OpenCV library. This system enables to differentiate the face of the human with others objects with the best range from the camera to the object is 50 cm until 150 cm. In addition, this system is capable to recognize faces from the 6 subjects of faces listed in the database, alone and in a group as well in one frame.


Acephala applanata gen. et sp. nov. is described. A. applanata is a dark-septate endophyte (DSE) of conifer roots and belongs to the Phialocephala fortinii species complex. Several genetic markers, including isozymes, inter-simple-sequence-repeat (ISSR) fingerprints, single-copy restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) and sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS), let us unambiguously separate isolates of A. applanata from isolates of P. fortinii s.l. and other dark-septate endophytes. Alleles at four RFLP loci and two fixed nucleotides in the ITS region were diagnostic for A. applanata. One of the fixed nucleotides resulted in the addition of an Afa I restriction site. PCR amplification with primers prITS4 and the newly developed primer PF_ITS_F (ACT CTG AAT GTT AGT GAT GTC TGA GT) and restriction digestion with Afa I yielded three fragments (203 bp, 117 bp, 56 bp) in A. applanata but only two (260 bp and 117 bp) in P. fortinii s.l. Population differentiation (GST) between A. applanata and other cryptic species of P. fortinii was pronounced, and the index of association (IA) did not deviate significantly from zero, showing that recombination occurs or had occurred in A. applanata. Although isolates of A. applanata never were observed to sporulate, it can be distinguished morphologically from P. fortinii s.l. by the scarcity of aerial mycelium, significantly slower growth and denser mycelium on cellophane overlaid on water agar. These phenotypic characteristics, combined with diagnostic RFLP alleles and/or PCR-RFLP of the ITS fragment with the fixed Afa I restriction site, unequivocally allow identification of A. applanata.


What we critically ascertain in this essay is how the modern university is increasingly drifting away from the key ambitions of its own mission statement, and largely by its own doing. Although the typical university in its mission statement claims to aspire outstanding quality, academic freedom, and to contribute to society, in its daily organization, the modern university has normalized and internalized a neoliberal metrical governmentality, in which quality, freedom, and societal benefit risk being exchanged for quantity, managerial control, and status benefit. In this essay, we stand up against this worrying self-harming protection strategy, what we term—following Jacques Derrida—the autoimmunity of the university. To structure our argument, we will discern the main worrying autoimmune paradoxes of this university policy in the hope to further the debate and potentially remedy the university of this self-inflicted harm.