SmartShapeâ"¢/SmartStretchâ"¢ is technology that uses air pressure to shape meat into an even form and to stretch hot-boned meat to prevent muscle contraction during rigor mortis, which produces more tender meat. A project that was designed to research the ability of the technology to create more tender meat and to introduce the technology to industry was conducted from April 2007 to June 2011. Varied success in research results and the needs of industry have shown that the SmartShapeâ"¢ function, which shapes pieces of meat into an even and easy to manage form, is of most value to industry. The technology is being adopted by a major Australian beef processor and will be commercialised in late 2011.


Landfill leachate contains a large amount of organic, inorganic and heavy metal contents. Untreated leachate is a potential source to effect of soil, surface and groundwater. The combined treatment offers an alternative technique in dealing to leachate treatment. This research is to determine the effectiveness of combined electro-Fenton and sequencing batch reactor (SBR) method on the removal of SS, colour, COD and NH3-N. The experimental involved three major parts were coagulation-flocculation, electro-Fenton and SBR method. This process could be operated independently in a batch mode and optimum conditions for each treatment were identified. In the combined process, leachate was first fed to coagulationflocculation for pre-treatment. Then, the effluent from that process was oxidized in electro-Fenton process. The final process is the effluent of leachate was fed to a SBR method. The combined treatment was operated under the optimum conditions for all the processes. The result of coagulation-flocculation shown PAC is more effective at 2500 mg/L of optimum dosage. After coagulation-flocculation process, the removal of SS, colour, COD and NH3-N were 80%, 77%, 61% and 35% respectively. The result of electro-Fenton shown Al-Al is more effective at 200 A/m 2 of optimum current density, 25 minutes of optimum reaction time, 4 of optimum pH, 800 mg/L of optimum H2O2 dosage and 1000 mg/L of optimum FeSO4•7H2O dosage. After electro-Fenton process, the removal of SS, colour, COD and NH3-N were 87%, 95%, 82% and 65% respectively. The final process of SBR effluent was approaching neutral pH at 6.90 at 2800 mg/L of optimum MLSS and 6 h of optimum reaction time. The overall performance of combined treatment on the removal of SS, colour, COD and NH3-N were 84%, 82%, 87% and 78% respectively. Thus, this combined treatment offers as an alternative technique for landfill leachate treatment on the removal of pollutants.


Porous Al2O3 ceramic/Al2O3 ultrafine particle/epoxy new composites were fabricated using the ordered Al2O3 porous ceramic as the frame. The effects of three-dimension interpenetrated Al2O3 ceramic, load, and sliding velocity on friction coefficient and wear rate of the composites were studied. The results showed the new composites had better wear resistance compared with Al2O3 ultrafine particle/epoxy composites. The friction coefficient and wear rate of new composites with the porous Al2O3 ceramic frame of 16.8% were 0.32 and 0.76×10-6 mm3/N-1m-1, respectively. The new composites had stable friction coefficient and low wear rate with the change of load and sliding velocity, which is due to the porous Al2O3 ceramic frame as undertaker of load during friction process.


Autotomy is an adaptive response in which animals escape from predators by shedding their own appendages. It is made possible by the presence of an efficient mechanism for regeneration. Decapod crustaceans frequently exhibit excellent abilities to regenerate complete pereopods in just a few molts following autotomy. The molecular basis of regeneration pereopods in decapods remains unclear. We identified the primary structure of Baboon (Babo), a type I TGF-β superfamily receptor involved in the activin pathway, in the crayfish, Procambarus fallax f. virginalis Martin, Dorn, Kawai, Heiden and Scholtz, 2010. Molecular cloning revealed that babo possesses three splice variants. The expression levels of the functional babo transcript did not show increases during regeneration. RNA interference (RNAi) targeting a common region of the babo sequence, however, caused a reduction in regenerated pereopod lengths. No loss or reduction in a specific article was observed. Instead, the regenerated legs were smaller but retained the morphology and proportions of regenerated legs from control animals. Babo thus appears to control the growth, but not the pattern, of legs during the regeneration process in decapod crustaceans.


While bartering is arguably the world's oldest form of trade there are still many instances where it surprises us. One such case is the remarkable story of Kyle MacDonald who, by means of a sequence of bartering exchanges between July 2005 and July 2006, managed to trade a small red paperclip for a full sized house in the town of Kipling Saskatchewan. Although there are many factors to consider in this achievement, his feat raises basic questions about the nature of the trades made and to what extent they are repeatable by others. Furthermore, it raises issues as to whether such events could occur in Agent–based Electronic Environments – and under what conditions. In this paper we provide an intuitive model for the type of trading environment experienced Kyle and study its consequences. In particular the work is focused on understanding whether such trading phenomena require altruistic agents to be present in the environment and under what conditions agents can reach their individual goals. Results cover both the case of a single


Background No longitudinal studies exist on the natural history of food hypersensitivity and IgE sensitisation to food allergens in adults. Objective To examine the natural history of food hypersensitivity, the natural history of IgE sensitisation to food allergens and to investigate the risk factors for new onset food hypersensitivity. Methods Food hypersensitivity was questionnaire-assessed in 2307 individuals (aged 20–45 years) from Iceland and Sweden during the European Community Respiratory Health Survey both at baseline and follow-up 9 years later. IgE food and aeroallergen sensitisation were assessed in a subgroup of these individuals (n = 807). Values of 0.35 kU/L and above were regarded as positive sensitisation. Results Food hypersensitivity was reported by 21% of the subjects and this proportion remained unchanged at follow-up (p = 0.58). Fruits, nuts and vegetables were the three most common causes of food hypersensitivity, with a similar prevalence at baseline and follow-up. The prevalence IgE sensitisation to food allergens decreased in general by 56% (p<0.001) and IgE sensitisation to peanut decreased in particular by 67% (p = 0.003). The prevalence of timothy grass IgE sensitisation decreased by 15% (p = 0.003) while cat, mite and birch IgE sensitisation did not decrease significantly. Female sex, rhinitis, eczema and presence of IgE sensitisation to aeroallergens were independently associated with new onset food hypersensitivity. Conclusion The prevalence of food hypersensitivity remained unchanged while the prevalence of IgE sensitisation to food allergens decreased in adults over a 9-year follow-up period. The decrease in prevalence of IgE sensitisation to food allergens was considerably larger than the change in prevalence of IgE sensitisation to aeroallergens.


Do the former Soviet societies possess a stratum of citizens sufficiently active--and active in the proper way--to support the consolidation of democracy? What impact did the Soviet regime have on its citizens' predilection for taking political action? Using data from surveys of mass public opinion in Russia, Ukraine, and Lithuania conducted in 1990, 1991, and 1992, we analyze patterns of political participation before and immediately after the break-up of the Soviet Union. This period provides a rare opportunity to examine political participation at several points during a process of regime transition. To assess what these patterns of participation mean for democratic consolidation, we compare them with findings from surveys of political participation in Western and developing countries. The several activities we examine are not unidimensional but rather fall into modes of political action matching those found by studies of participation outside the Soviet bloc. Former Soviet citizens are more participatory than totalitarian images of the Soviet period would suggest, generally approximating or exceeding levels found in established democracies. Because the organizational development of these societies remains limited, however, democratic institutions lack a key form of support present in long-standing democracies.


Current avionics systems specifications, developed after conceptual design, have a high degree of uncertainty. Since specifications are not sufficiently validated in the early development process and no executable specification exists at aircraft level, system designers cannot evaluate the impact of their design decisions at aircraft or aircraft application level. At the end of the development process of complex systems, e. g. aircraft, an average of about 65 per cent of all specifications have to be changed because they are incorrect, incomplete or too vaguely described. In this paper, a model-based design methodology together with a virtual test environment is described that makes complex high level system specifications executable and testable during the very early levels of system design. An aircraft communication system and its system context is developed to demonstrate the proposed early validation methodology. Executable specifications for early conceptual system architectures enable system designers to couple functions, architecture elements, resources and performance parameters, often called non-functional parameters. An integrated executable specification at Early Conceptual Architecture Level is developed and used to determine the impact of different system architecture decisions on system behavior and overall performance.


Plant mitochondria unlike their animal counterpart have some unique features with highly branched respiratory chain. The present work was undertaken in order to investigate the effect of loss/dysfunction of plant mitochondrial complex I on the relative flux of electrons through alternative oxidase (AOX) and cytochrome oxidase. Loss of a major subunit of mitochondrial complex I in cytoplasmic male sterile II (CMS II) mutant of Nicotiana sylvestris caused respiratory redox perturbations, as evident from the differential CO sensitivity of cytochrome oxidase. The leaf segments of CMS II mutant when exposed to CO under dark aerobic condition were insensitive to the inhibition of cytochrome oxidase, as against the wild type (WT). The differential CO response of WT and CMS II mutants appeared to be due to differences in the redox state of cytochrome a 3 (cyt a 3 ), the terminal electron acceptor during in situ respiration. Cyt a 3 appeared to be more in its oxidized form in CMS II and hence unable to form cyt a 3 -CO complex. Pre-treatment of CMS II leaves with 2,4-dinitrophenol, an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation increased the CO response. The slight increase in rotenone-insensitive respiration of CMS II could be attributed partly to enhanced flux of electrons through cytochrome pathway to compensate for the loss of phosphorylation site and partly through AOX, which was induced by nitrate.


This study addresses the question of human factors in verbal communications in AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System). It aims to improve selection, training and learning by developing a tool focused on attentional division and multiple communications management. Radio communications management seems to be highly dependent on crew expertise. Indeed, many instructors say that several years of experience on AWACS are required in order to develop communications management skills and to improve their intelligibility. On the basis of our preliminary observations, we propose three hypotheses which would account for this expertise effect, focused on automatisms, volumes management of radio networks and attentional division. In the first hypothesis we assume that experts would benefit from more attentional resources for communications management compared to beginners because experts automate technical tasks. A laboratory experiment was designed for testing this hypothesis. Our goal is to improve technical training for operators in communications management.


Hydroxyapatite-coated unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is a debatable approach to unicompartmental knee arthritis because UKA isoften viewed as a short-term solution, at best, fora condition that will eventually require a total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty is a more technically demanding procedure than TKA, and appropriate patient selection, careful surgical technique, and correct choice of implant geometry are all critical components to its success. A fundamental issue surrounding UKA is whether hydroxyapatite-coated unicompartmental components can provide a long-term solution to unicondylar arthritis. We address this issue in the current study, which is based on a prospective series of 125 hydroxyapatite-coated Unix knee prostheses implanted consecutively between 1994 and 2002, with a 5-year minimum follow-up and a 13-year maximum follow-up. The results of our study indicate that uncemented hydroxyapatite-coated UKA can be successful in the long term.


The minimisation of asymmetry between the lower and upper side band intermodulation products is discussed in the first part of this contribution using a Volterra series analysis. From the inferred relationships, not only the base band but also the harmonic device terminations effects were analysed, establishing new conditions to minimise the IMD asymmetry. Under these conditions and following the Volterra approach, also the IM3 products were minimized through a suitable second harmonic load selection as verified by nonlinear simulations on a HEMT device model. This approach allows to avoid complex linearization schemes in the base band frequencies obtaining similar results and simpler design.


K-band observations of the galaxy populations of three high-redshift (z= 0.8–1.0), X-ray-selected, massive clusters are presented. The observations reach a depth of K≃ 21.5, corresponding to K*+ 3.5 mag. The evolution of the galaxy properties is discussed in terms of their K-band luminosity functions and the K-band Hubble diagram of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs).

The bulk of the galaxy luminosities, as characterized by the parameter K* from the Schechter function, are found to be consistent with passive evolution with a redshift of formation of zf≈ 1.5–2. This is consistent with observations of other high-redshift clusters, but may be in disagreement with galaxies in the field at similar redshifts. A good match to the shape of the Coma cluster luminosity function is found by simply dimming the high-redshift luminosity function by an amount consistent with passive evolution. The evolution of the cumulative fraction of K-band light as a function of luminosity shows no evidence of merger activity in the brighter galaxies.

The evolution of the BCGs is tested by their K-band Hubble diagram and by the fraction of K-band cluster light in the BCGs. The evolution observed is consistent with recent previous observations although the scatter in the Hubble diagram allows for a range of evolutionary histories. The fraction of cluster light contained in the BCGs is not smaller than that in Coma, suggesting that they are already very massive with no need to hypothesize significant mergers in their futures.


The purpose of the current study was three-fold. The first purpose was to examine preservice chemistry teachers' cognitive structures in order to define their conceptual understanding and misconceptions of "greenhouse gases and their effects." The second purpose was to determine their knowledge level regarding this topic by means of different kinds of concept tests. The third purpose was to analyze the correlation between the preservice chemistry teachers' success on the tests and their conceptual understanding. Thirty preservice chemistry teachers from Hacettepe University participated in the study. To define their cognitive structures relevant to the topic, the flow map method was used. Correct Concept Test, Incorrect Concept Test and Multiple Choice Concept Test were used to determine their knowledge level of "greenhouse gases and their effects". The analysis on the flow maps showed that they do not have enriched cognitive structures and lack knowledge. Also we observed that they have some misconceptions. It was determined that there is a significant, positive correlation between their success on the Correct Concept Test scores. However, their scores on the Incorrect Concept Test and Multiple Choice Concept Test were insignificant when assessed in relation to conceptual understandings.


Purpose: High levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol are associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Subjects with high levels of HDL cholesterol (>70 mg/dl; 1.79 mmol/l) as well as high levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, could represent a group with longevity syndrome (LS). Since HDL particles are influenced by cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) activity, it is worth studying the CETP polymorphism. The aim of the study was to detect whether 2 genetic variants of the CETP are associated with the LS. Subjects and Methods: The study population consisted of 136 unrelated men and women with no personal and family history of CHD; 69 met the criteria for LS and 67 did not meet these criteria and had "normal" HDL cholesterol (>40 and <70 mg/dl; >1.03 and <1.79 mmol/l). All patients were genotyped for the TaqIB and I405V polymorphisms. Results: The B2 allele frequency of TaqIB polymorphism was higher in the LS in comparison with the non-LS group (p=0.03) whereas B1 allele frequency was higher in the non-LS group (p=0.03). Conclusions: Gene polymorphisms could help decide whether individuals who have increased levels of both LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol require treatment. Some of the prerequisites could include that subjects with LS should not only have very high levels of HDL cholesterol but also favorable gene polymorphisms. However, further investigations with a larger sample and including other gene polymorphisms, are needed.


Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are organic-inorganic hybrid materials with ordered pore structures assembled by metal centers and organic ligands through coordination bonds, but conventionally they are mostly in powder form. In recent years, metal-organic framework films have received increasing attention due to their potential applications in nanotechnology and nanodevices. The intrinsic ultrahigh porosity of MOFs may lead to a low refractive index of MOF materials. In addition, over 70,000 types of MOFs exist, and their properties can be tuned through the adoption of different metal motifs, organic ligands, or crystal mor-phologies. These characteristics make MOFs a potential new generation of optical thin film materials. In this chapter, the fabrication methods of MOF thin films, the optical properties of MOF optical thin films, and their application in optical sensors were described.


Context Treatment of advanced and recurrent endometrial cancer (EC) is still an unmet need for oncologists and gynecologic oncologists. The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network (TCGA) recently provided a new genomic classification, dividing EC in four subgroups. Two types of EC, the polymerase epsilon (POLE)-ultra-mutated and the microsatellite instability-hyper-mutated (MSI-H), are characterized by a high mutation rate providing the rationale for a potential activity of checkpoint inhibitors. Materials and Methods We analyzed all available evidence supporting the role of tumor microenvironment (TME) in EC development and the therapeutic implications offered by immune checkpoint inhibitors in this setting. We performed a review on Pubmed with Mesh keywords 'endometrial cancer' and the name of each checkpoint inhibitor discussed in the article. The same search was operated on clinicaltrial.gov to identify ongoing clinical trials exploring PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 axis in EC, particularly focusing on POLE-ultra-muted and MSI-H cancer types. Results POLE-ultra-mutated and MSI-H ECs showed an active TME expressing high number of neo-antigens and an elevated amount of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Preliminary results from a phase-1 clinical trial (KEYNOTE-028) demonstrated antitumor activity of Pembrolizumab in EC. Moreover, both Pembrolizumab and Nivolumab reported durable clinical responses in POLE-ultra-mutated patients. Conclusions Immune checkpoint inhibitors are an attractive option in POLE-ultra-mutated and MSI-H ECs. Future investigations in these subgroups include combinations of checkpoints inhibitors with chemotherapy and small tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) to enhance a more robust intra-tumoral immune response.


Mandatory managed-care programs for Medicaid beneficiaries typically require enrollees to select the provider who will act as gatekeeper to the medical care system. A substantial number of beneficiaries, however, do not exercise this choice and are assigned a gatekeeper. Using consumer survey data from the Missouri Managed Health Care Project, we examined characteristics and use experiences of assignees compared with selectors. We found that the assignees enjoyed better health than the selectors and were less likely to have had a regular source of care prior to the program. The utilization experience was similar for both groups. We conclude that the basis for not making a choice is one of indifference.


In this paper, we present a probabilistic analysis of iterative node-based verification-based (NB-VB) recovery algorithms over irregular graphs in the context of compressed sensing. Verification-based algorithms are particularly interesting due to their low complexity (linear in the signal dimension n). The analysis predicts the average fraction of unverified signal elements at each iteration ℓ where the average is taken over the ensembles of input signals and sensing matrices. The analysis is asymptotic (n → ∞) and is similar in nature to the well-known density evolution technique commonly used to analyze iterative decoding algorithms. Compared to the existing technique for the analysis of NB-VB algorithms, which is based on numerically solving a large system of coupled differential equations, the proposed method is much simpler and more accurate. This allows us to design irregular sensing graphs for such recovery algorithms. The designed irregular graphs outperform the corresponding regular graphs substantially. For example, for the same recovery complexity per iteration, we design irregular graphs that can recover up to about 40% more non-zero signal elements compared to the regular graphs. Simulation results are also provided which demonstrate that the proposed asymptotic analysis matches the performance of recovery algorithms for large but finite values of n.


: The DNA complexes with actinocyl-bis-bithiazole have been investigated by spectrophotometry, viscometry and flow birefringence. It was estimated, that at low degrees of binding (r < or = 0.07) this compound binds to DNA by bisintercalation via bithiazole groups located in positions 1 and 9 of the phenoxazone chromophore. The phenoxazone moiety plays in this case the role of a link connecting two intercalating fragments. As r increases, external groove binding becomes the second type of complex formation.


Multi-span Pre-tensioned Pre-stressed Concrete Beam (PPCB) bridges made continuous usually experience a negative live load moment region over the intermediate support. Conventional thinking dictates that sufficient reinforcement must be provided in this region to satisfy the strength and serviceability requirements associated with the tensile stresses in the deck. The AASHTO LRFD bridge design manual recommends negative moment reinforcement be extended beyond the inflection point. Based upon satisfactory previous performance and judgment, the Iowa DOT OBS currently terminates b2 reinforcement at 1/8 of the span length. Although the Iowa DOT policy results in approximately 50% shorter b2 reinforcement than the AASHTO LRFD specifications, the Iowa DOT has not experienced any significant deck cracking over the intermediate supports. The primary objective of this project is to investigate the Iowa DOT OBS policy regarding the required amount of b2 reinforcement to provide the continuity over bridge deck. Other parameters, such as termination length, termination pattern and effects of the secondary moments were also studied. Live load tests on five bridges were carried out. The data were used to calibrate three-dimensional finite element models of two bridges. A parametric study was conducted on the bridges with uncracked deck, a cracked deck, and a cracked deck with cracked diaphragm. The general conclusions were as follows.  The parametric study results show an increased area of the b2 reinforcement slightly reduces the strain over the pier. Whereas, increased length and staggered reinforcement pattern slightly reduce the strains of the deck at 1/8 of the span length.  Secondary moments affect the behavior in the negative moment region. The impact may be significant enough that the deck over piers may never experience a tensile stress.  Finite element results suggested that the transverse field cracks over the pier and at 1/8 of the span length, are mainly due to the deck shrinkage.  Bridges with higher skew angles have lower strains over the intermediate supports.


This study measures the impact of supermarkets on traditional markets in urban centers in Indonesia quantitatively using difference-in-difference and econometric methods as well as qualitatively using in-depth interviews. The quantitative methods find no statistically significant impact on earnings and profit but a statistically significant impact of supermarkets on the number of employees in traditional markets. The qualitative findings suggest that the decline in traditional markets is mostly caused by internal problems from which supermarkets benefit. Therefore, ensuring the sustainability of traditional markets would require an overhaul of the traditional market management system, enabling them to compete with and survive alongside supermarkets.


Series of trials were conducted on a laboratory rolling mill to evaluate the influence of intercritical rolling on the microstructure and texture of steel with 0.082%C, 1.54% Mn, 0.35% Si, 0.055%Nb and 0.078%V. Two parallel rolling schedules A and B were designed on the base of the experimentally deduced CCT diagram of the steel. In rolling schedule A the material was subjected to accelerated cooling and coiling simulation after final rolling in the intercritical region, whereas in rolling schedule B the last rolling pass in the intercritical region was replaced by a water quench at the same temperature of the intercritical rolling pass in schedule A. Microstructure and texture were characterized by means of light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, EBSD and XRD. It was found that the average grain diameter and the texture depend significantly on the final rolling temperature in the intercritical region. The decrease of the intercritical rolling temperature leads to an increase of the {111}〈uvw〉 /{001}〈uvw〉 ratio, but at the same time the increase of the average ferrite grain size was also observed. A phenomenological model based on the K–S orientation relationships was used to predict the texture formation in the intercritical region.


A research team at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital and the University of Bern has identified and tested the use of an agent that can effectively inhibit the proliferation of leukemia stem cells. Metoclopramide (MPR), used as an anti-emetic medication, interrupts the unique CD93 signaling pathway that only leukemia stem cells use to proliferate. This opens up a therapeutic approach using MPR to selectively eliminate leukemia stem cells.


Stable angina is managed primarily through lifestyle advice, medication therapy, and coronary revascularization procedures. Some patients with refractory angina exhibit symptoms that are not optimally controlled with the optimal medication and revascularization options available. Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is a technique that can be used to improve symptoms in chronic stable angina. However, the role of EECP has also been investigated following positive outcomes in patients with both angina and heart failure in multicenter studies. We performed a systematic review of the evidence of the clinical effectiveness of EECP. EECP has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the management of refractory angina (Class IIb). About 200 hospitals across India have adopted this technique. EECP uses three sets of pneumatic cuffs that sequentially contract during diastole, increasing aortic diastolic pressure, augmenting coronary blood flow, and central venous return. EECP improves anginal symptoms and exercise tolerance, and reduces nitroglycerin use in patients with chronic, stable angina. EECP has also been shown to be safe and beneficial in patients with symptomatic stable congestive heart failure. It has been postulated that cardiac benefits of EECP are mediated through vascular endothelial growth factor, and nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation and angiogenesis. In June 2002, the FDA also approved EECP therapy for heart failure patients. EECP is cost-effective if the observed quality of life benefits are assumed to continue throughout a patient's lifetime. However, there remain uncertainties around the long-term effects of the intervention.


Objective: To determine the efficacy of osteopontin (OPN) targeting in hepatocellular cancer (HCC). Summary/Background: OPN is associated with HCC growth and metastasis and represents a unique therapeutic target. Methods: OPN and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, &agr;-smooth muscle actin (SMA), vimentin, and tenascin-c, were measured in archived human HCC tissues from metastatic (n = 4) and nonmetastatic (n = 4) settings. Additional studies utilized human Sk-Hep-1 (high OPN expression) and Hep3b (low OPN expression) HCC cells. An RNA aptamer (APT) that avidly binds (K d = 18 nM; t 1/2 = 7 hours) and ablates OPN binding was developed. Adhesion, migration/invasion, and EMT markers were determined with APT or a mutant control aptamer (Mu-APT). RFP-Luc-Sk-Hep-1 were implanted into NOD-scid mice livers and followed by using bioluminescence imaging. After verification of tumor growth, at week 3, APT (0.5 mg/kg; n = 4) or Mu-APT (0.5 mg/kg; n = 4) was injected q48h. When mice were killed at week 8, tumor cells were reisolated and assayed for EMT markers. Results: OPN and EMT markers were significantly increased in the metastatic cohort. APT inhibited Sk-Hep-1 adhesion and migration/invasion by 5- and 4-fold, respectively. APT significantly decreased EMT protein markers, SMA, vimentin, and tenascin-c. In contrast, APT did not alter Hep3B adhesion, or migration/invasion. EMT markers were slightly decreased. In the in vivo model, at weeks 6 to 8, APT inhibited HCC growth by more than 10-fold. SMA, vimentin, and tenascin-c mRNAs were decreased by 60%, 40%, and 49%, respectively, in RFP-positive Sk-Hep-1 recovered by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (P < 0.04 vs Mu-APT for all). Conclusions: APT targeting of OPN significantly decreases EMT and tumor growth of HCC.


Autonomous agents are designed to carry out problem solving actions in order to achieve given, or self generated, goals. A central aspect of this design is the agent's decision making function which determines the right actions to perform in a given situation to best achieve the agent's objectives. Traditionally, this function has been solipsistic in nature and based upon the principle of individual utility maximisation. However we believe that when designing multi-agent systems this may not be the most appropriate choice. Rather we advocate a more social view of rationality which strikes a balance between the needs of the individual and those of the overall system. To this end, we describe a preliminary formulation of social rationality, indicate how the definition can vary depending on resource bound, and illustrate its use in a fire-fighting scenario.


This paper put forward a new method of co-occurrence matrix to describe image features. In this paper putting a new implemented work which is comparison with texton co-occurrence matrix to describe image features. Maximum work done successfully using texton co-occurrence matrix. A new class of texture features based on the co-occurrence of gray levels at points. These features are compared with previous types of co-occurrence based features, and experimental results are presented indicating that the new features should be useful for texture. The results demonstrate that it is much more efficient than representative image feature descriptors, such as the auto-correlogram and the texton co-occurrence and the texton co-occurrence matrix. It has good discrimination power of texture features.


Nowadays, efficiency and power density are the most important issues for Power Factor Correction (PFC) converters development. However, it is a challenge to reach both high efficiency and power density in a system at the same time. In this paper, taking a Bridgeless PFC (BPFC) as an example, a useful compromise between efficiency and power density of the Boost inductors on 3.2kW is achieved using an optimized design procedure. The experimental verifications based on the optimized inductor are carried out from 300W to 3.2kW at 220Vac input.


In this article we zoom in on the Verbs of Instrument of Communication (B. Levin 1993) in English and French and address a number of interesting issues. We examine the structural possibilities of the old and new Verbs of Instrument of Communication in comparison with one another and across the two languages. First, despite the creative uses of these verbs, some structural differences between the languages still prevail in the old and new Verbs of Instrument of Communication. For instance, while English allows non-pronominal realisation of object and recipient in the so called double-object construction, this is not the case for French. Secondly, it can be observed that some verbs are more frequent in one construction than in another. For instance, while 'fax someone something' does occur with significant frequency in English and French, 'telephone someone something' occurs much less frequently. The observed cross-linguistic syntactic differences are explained in terms of a different conceptualisation of the communicative event where the structural possibilities correspond to different semantic frames.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder characterized by myofiber degeneration, muscle weakness, and increased fibrosis. Transforming growth factor type-β (TGF-β), a central mediator of fibrosis, is upregulated in fibrotic diseases. Angiotensin-(1-7) [Ang-(1-7)] is a peptide with actions that oppose those of angiotensin-II (Ang II). Ang-(1-7) effects are mediated by the Mas receptor. Treatment with Ang-(1-7) produce positive effects in the mdx mouse, normalizing skeletal muscle architecture, decreasing local fibrosis, and fibroblasts, and improving muscle function. Mdx mice deficient for the Mas receptor showed the opposite effects. To identify the cell type(s) responsible for Mas receptor expression, and to characterize whether profibrotic effectors had any effect on its expression, we determined the effect of profibrotic agents on Mas expression. TGF-β, but not connective tissue growth factor or Ang-II, reduced the expression of Mas receptor in fibroblasts isolated from skeletal muscle cells and fibroblasts from two established cell lines. In contrast, no effects were observed in myoblasts and differentiated myotubes. This inhibition was mediated by the Smad-dependent (canonical) and the PI3K and MEK1/2 (noncanonical) TGF-β signaling pathways. When both canonical and noncanonical inhibitors of the TGF-β-dependent pathways were added together, the inhibitory effect of TGF-β on Mas expression was lost. The decrease in Mas receptor induced by TGF-β in fibroblasts reduced the Ang-(1-7) mediated stimulation of phosphorylation of AKT pathway proteins. These results suggest that reduction of Mas receptor in fibroblasts, by TGF-β, could increase the fibrotic phenotype observed in dystrophic skeletal muscle decreasing the beneficial effect of Ang-(1-7).


According to analyze damage of current aluminum electrolytic rectifier, one second order high pass filter was presented, which can complete harmonic suppression and power compensation. At the same time, principle and parameters computation method of it were given in the paper. Experiment results proved, it could reduce harmonic currents and increase power factor effectively if the according methods were used to design filter, it is obvious economic effects and good application prospects in the aluminum electrolytic enterprises. With the current power system harmonic pollution becoming serious, its damage is given great concern by the electrical profession. The aluminum electrolytic rectifier is great harmonic source in power system, which output currents to it, and which bright large sum of extra power rate to enterprises according to current power rate metering method[1].Furthermore, it can reduce rectifier units power factor. Accordingly, it is necessary to complete harmonic suppression and reactive power compensation for power system supplying good quality electrical energy. The given company 160KA aluminum electrolytic rectifier was presented for the experiment object in our country in the paper. According to analyzing its structure and parameters, one design method of second order high pass filter was given, which could complete harmonic suppression and power compensation. After the filter was used, it not only could suppress harmonic current, but also could increase power factor to reasonable level so as to reach anticipation effects.


The analytical intractability of generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) has generated a lot of research in the past two decades. Applied statisticians routinely face the frustrating prospect of widely disparate results produced by the methods that are currently implemented in commercially available software. This article is motivated by this frustration and develops guidance as well as new methods that are computationally efficient and statistically reliable. Two main classes of approximations have been developed: likelihood-based methods and Bayesian methods. Likelihood-based methods such as the penalized quasi-likelihood approach of Breslow and Clayton (1993) have been shown to produce biased estimates especially for binary clustered data with small clusters sizes. More recent methods such as the adaptive Gaussian quadrature approach perform well but can be overwhelmed by problems with large numbers of random effects, and efficient algorithms to better handle these situations have not yet been integrated in standard statistical packages. Similarly, Bayesian methods, though they have good frequentist properties when the model is correct, are known to be computationally intensive and also require specialized code, limiting their use in practice. In this article we build on our previous method (Capanu and Begg 2010) and propose a hybrid approach that provides a bridge between the likelihood-based and Bayesian approaches by employing Bayesian estimation for the variance components followed by Laplacian estimation for the regression coefficients with the goal of obtaining good statistical properties, with relatively good computing speed, and using widely available software. The hybrid approach is shown to perform well against the other competitors considered. Another important finding of this research is the surprisingly good performance of the Laplacian approximation in the difficult case of binary clustered data with small clusters sizes. We apply the methods to a real study of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and illustrate their properties using simulations based on a widely-analyzed salamander mating dataset and on another important dataset involving the Guatemalan Child Health survey. A hybrid Bayesian Laplacian approach for generalized linear mixed models MARINELA CAPANU, MITHAT G ONEN, COLIN B. BEGG Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center


This thesis describes the advantages of hydroformylation, when incorporated into natural product synthesis as well as, flow chemistry. The first chapter gives a brief overview of application of hydroformylation in natural product synthesis. It highlights the importance of hydroformylation as a tool for formation of a new carbon-carbon bond and its capability of introducing reactive aldehyde functional groups. The second and third chapters describe the synthesis of pseudoconhydrine and azimic acid using a common methodology that incorporates hydroformylation, for a simple yet efficient stereoselective synthesis of these types of piperidine alkaloids. The fourth chapter explores the advantages of application of hydroformylation in flow chemistry. It discusses the improvement in the safety profile, the simplification in the experimental procedures and the efficient synthesis of styrenes as compared to batch chemistry. The fifth chapter explores the possibilities of inducing a 1,2-alkyl shift in 2,3,6-trisubstituted piperidines.


In the past decade in the UK there has been an increasing emphasis and amplification of student voice in higher education, raising questions around its purpose and use. The aim of this perspective paper is to consider the role student voice can play in a UK higher education sector that is heavily dominated by marketised and consumerist discourses and perspectives. The paper draws on scholarship from both the UK and international perspectives and argues that student voice should focus on transformation and empowerment of the learner and not just listening to students. Adopting such approaches to student voice shares commonalities with research and practice that focuses on working with students-as-partners. The paper, argues that there is a need and value to foster and develop a culture of partnership between staff and students and suggests how adopting a partnership approach has the potential to change the culture and relationships between students, academics and their institution. To conclude, the paper provides a number of recommendations to assist practitioners in developing their approaches to student voice and suggests that creating institutional approaches will never be fixed, requiring constant development of practice.


In this handsome book, a leading authority on Impressionist painting offers a new view of this admired and immensely popular art form. John House examines the style and technique, subject matter and imagery, exhibiting and marketing strategies, and social, political, and ideological contexts of Impressionism in light of the perspectives that have been brought to it in the last twenty years. When all of these diverse approaches are taken into account, he argues, Impressionism can be seen as a movement that challenged both artistic and political authority with its uncompromisingly modern subject matter and its determinedly secular worldview. Moving from the late 1860s to the early 1880s, House analyzes the paintings and career strategies of the leading Impressionist artists, pointing out the ways in which they countered the dominant conventions of the contemporary art world and evolved their distinctive and immediately recognizable manner of painting. Focusing closely on the technique, composition, and imagery of the paintings themselves and combining this fresh appraisal with recent historical studies of Impressionism, House explores how pictorial style could generate social and political meanings and opens new ways of looking at this luminous art.


Methanol-{beta}-hydroquinone clathrate has been established as a model system for dielectric ordering and fluctuations and is conceptually close to magnetic spin systems. In x-ray and neutron diffraction experiments, we investigated the ordered structure, the one-dimensional (1D) and the three-dimensional critical scattering in the paraelectric phase, and the temperature dependence of the lattice constants. Our results can be explained by microscopic models of the methanol pseudospin in the hydroquinone cage network, in consistency with previous dielectric investigations. A coupling of the 1D fluctuations to local strains leads to an anomalous temperature dependence of the 1D lattice parameter in the paraelectric regime.


Agricultural practices often involve tank-mixing and co-application of insecticides with fungicides to control crop pests. However, natural methods relying on biological control agents such as hymenopteran parasitoids have been shown to be highly effective in suppressing crop pest populations. The current body of insecticide risk assessment data accounting for fungicide co-application is very small, the present study being the first to examine this in a parasitoid wasp. Through low-dose exposure to dry residues of the neonicotinoid insecticide thiacloprid, we examined its mortal and knockdown effect on Aphelinus abdominalis when co-applied with increasing doses of the fungicide tebuconazole. Both of these acute effects of thiacloprid were synergised (toxicity increased to a greater-than-additive effect) by tebuconazole, resulting in significant mortality from low-dose co-applications of tebuconazole, and significant knockdown even without co-applied tebuconazole, the effect increasing as tebuconazole concentration increased. We show the highly toxic effect that a low dose of thiacloprid imposes on A. abdominalis populations, and a synergistic toxicity when co-applied with low doses of tebuconazole. Our work suggests a need for updating pesticide risk assessment methods, accounting for pesticide mixtures, in order to make these risk assessments more field relevant.


Milkfat composition influences the nutritional value and manufacturing characteristics of milk. This research studied the influence of: 1) stage of lactation on the concentration of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) in milkfat of Holstein-Friesian, Jersey and Crossbred cows, 2) segregation of cows according to their UFA concentration in milkfat. The concentration of UFA in milkfat was predicted with a calibration equation using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The data (21,757 test-day records) were analysed using a mixed model with a third-order orthogonal polynomial. In the three breeds studied, after early lactation the concentration of UFA in milkfat decreased steadily as the lactation progressed, but in Holstein-Friesian cows it increased slightly at the end of lactation. Throughout lactation, Holstein-Friesian cows produced milkfat with a higher concentration of UFA than Jersey and Crossbred cows. In each herd, cows were split into a high and a low group according to the average UFA concentration of the herd. The high UFA group had higher (P <0.001) milk yield, but lower (P <0.001) yields and concentrations of fat and protein than the low UFA group. This study indicates that concentration of UFA in milkfat is affected by breed and stage of lactation in New Zealand dairy cattle.


Nowadays alternative energies are an extremely important topic and the possibility of using hydrogen as an energy carrier must be explored. Many problems infer the technological application of this abundant and powerful resource, one of them the possibility of storage.
In the framework of suitable materials for hydrogen storage, magnesium has been the center of this study because it is cheap and the amount of stored hydrogen that it achieves (7.6 wt%) is extremely appealing. Nanostructure helps to overcome the slow hydrogen diffusion and the functionalization of surfaces with transition metals or oxides favors the hydrogen molecule dissociation/recombination.
The aim of this research is the investigation of the metal-hydride transformation in magnesium nanoparticles synthesized by inert-gas condensation, exploiting the fact that they are a simple model system. The so produced nanostructured powder has been analyzed in response to nanoparticles surface functionalization by transition metal clusters, specifically palladium, nickel and titanium, chosen on the basis of their completely different Mg-related phase diagrams. The role of the intermetallic phases formed upon heating and hydrogenation treatments will be presented to provide a comprehensive picture of hydrogen sorption in this class of nanostructured storage materials.


The Author examines the Supreme Court's use of "preferential judicial activism" — whereby justices decide whether to formalistically dismiss cases or instead choose to engage judicial activism based on their policy preferences — through contrasting the Court's reasoning in Shelby v. Holder with its decisions in cases concerning national security. In Shelby, the majority characterized the Court's review of the Voting Rights Act of 2006 as necessary given the fundamental rights at stake and the unusually broad reach of the Act in mandating federal jurisdiction over voting matters. However, in national security-related cases in which plaintiffs have alleged violations of fundamental rights, the Court's response has been a rigid and formalistic refusal to address the plaintiffs' claims, usually based on the acceptance of government invocations of procedural barriers to litigation. This judicial formalism has consistently led to the dismissal of cases alleging serious government abuse in the post-September 11 context. The Author argues that these instances of judicial formalism illustrate the judiciary's internal struggle to determine its appropriate role when confronted with questions of constitutional rights during times of war or perceived emergency. Ultimately, taking this dynamic together with Shelby's preferential judicial activism and its undermining of voter protections for racial minorities, it becomes clear that multiple reforms must be undertaken to protect individual rights. The Author concludes that Congress should better assert its role to protect the civil rights of vulnerable populations through passing additional legislation and that courts must acknowledge their own ongoing preferential judicial activism.


A new laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) where the waveform of Doppler signal changes according to the direction of the velocity vector is proposed. This feature makes it possible to measure selectively a specified velocity vector. A practical LDV system is constructed to be applied to the measurement of the falling velocity of raindrops. In this system the selection of a specified velocity vector is carried out by the detection of a difference between the two periods separated by one cycle of Doppler frequency in a Doppler burst. The experimental results show clearly the usefulness of this system.


Some recent developments in the author's laboratory which rely upon the techniques of radioreceptor assays (RRA) for drugs and hormones are reviewed. These receptor studies have led, for example, to (a) the identification of 17-alpha estrogens that interact with the opiate receptor, (b) the delineation of a unique class of opiate receptor that mediates explosive motor behavior and is resistant to naloxone, (c) the discovery of progesterone derivatives and active tissue fractions that compete for specific binding sites for cardiac glycosides, (d) the observation that both the opiate and digitalis RRA's permit discrimination between classes of centrally active compounds that differ only trivially in their physicochemical properties but exert opposing actions on nerve excitability, and (e) the hypothesis that the correlation between lipid solubility and potency of general anesthetics applies to the accommodation of this class of drugs by hydrophobic crypts of membrane proteins and other proteins rather than to an ill-defined hydrophobic interaction with membrane lipid. Examples are given to demonstrate that the radioreceptor technique promises (a) to continue as a major contributing methodology in the design of pharmacological agents of greater specificity with respect to organ systems and neuronal pathways affected and, thus, of potential clinical usefulness, and (b) to expose as yet unidentified physiologically important humoral factors.


Abstract We report impact pressures exerted by three wet-snow avalanches on a pylon equipped with piezoelectric load cells. These pressures were considerably higher than those predicted by conventional avalanche engineering guidelines. The time-averaged pressure linearly increased with the immersion depth of the load cells and it was about eight times larger than the hydrostatic snow pressure. At the same immersion depth, the pressures were very similar for all three avalanches and no dependency between avalanche velocity and pressure was apparent. The pressure time series were characterized by large fluctuations. For all immersion depths and for all avalanches, the standard deviations of the fluctuations were, on average, about 20% of the mean value. We compare our observations with results of slow-drag granular experiments, where similar behavior has been explained by formation and destruction of chain structures due to jamming of granular material around the pylon, and we propose the same mechanism as a possible microscale interpretation of our observations.


We introduce a variant of Multicut Decomposition Algorithms (MuDA), called CuSMuDA (Cut Selection for Multicut Decomposition Algorithms), for solving multistage stochastic linear programs that incorporates strategies to select the most relevant cuts of the approximate recourse functions. We prove the convergence of the method in a finite number of iterations and use it to solve six portfolio problems with direct transaction costs under return uncertainty and six inventory management problems under demand uncertainty. On all problem instances CuSMuDA is much quicker than MuDA: between 5.1 and 12.6 times quicker for the porfolio problems considered and between 6.4 and 15.7 times quicker for the inventory problems.


Offering a survey of the life and work of the 2001 Nobel Laureate for Literature, "V. S. Naipaul, Man and Writer" introduces readers to the writer widely viewed as a curmudgeonly novelist who finds special satisfaction in overturning the vogue presuppositions of his peers. Gillian Dooley takes an expansive look at Naipaul's literary career, from "Miguel Street" to "Magic Seeds". From readings of his fiction, nonfiction, travel books, and volumes of letters, she elucidates the connections between Naipaul's personal experiences as a Hindu Indian from Trinidad living an expatriate life and the precise, euphonious prose with which he is synonymous. Dooley assesses each of Naipaul's major publications in light of his stated intentions and beliefs, and she traces the development of his writing style over a forty-year career. Devoting separate chapters to three of his chief works, "A House for Mr. Biswas", "In a Free State", and "The Enigma of Arrival", she analyzes their critical reception and the primacy of Naipaul's specific narrative style and voice. Dooley emphasizes that it is, above all, Naipaul's refusal to compromise his vision in order to flatter or appease that has made him a controversial writer. At the same time, she sees the integrity with which he reports his subjective response to the world as essential to the lasting success of his work.


In this paper, I will examine John Smeaton's contribution to the vis viva controversy in Britain, focusing on how the hybridization of science, technology, and industry helped to establish vis viva, or mechanic power, as a measure of motive force. Smeaton, embodying the 'hybrid expert' who combined theoretical knowledge and practical knowhow, demonstrated that the notion of vis viva possessed a greater explanatory power than momentum, because it could be used to explain the difference in efficiency between overshot and undershot waterwheels. Smeaton's conclusions were correct since waterwheel efficiency was already measured in terms that were proportional to vis viva, not momentum, as a result of the industrial applications of waterwheel technology, which favored measuring efficiency by the product of mass and vertical displacement. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the loss of motive force in the inelastic collision driving the undershot wheel began to be seen as equivalent to the expenditure of labor in the manufacture of commodities, further underlining how strictly scientific conclusions about motive force could have their origin in industrial practices.


The paper presents a model-based method for the design of diagnostics for a large-scale system. The method is demonstrated by application to the diagnostic design for the longitudinal control system of a fully automated vehicle capable of platooned operation. It is assumed that the system is modelled by continuous and discrete event models (DEM). We comment on the abstraction of continuous models into discrete event models and show how DEM may be constructed in a modular manner for a given set of sensors, observers and controllers defined in the continuous domain. The method is modular in the sense that the model of the integrated system is built by composing unit models using mathematically well-defined operators. We provide a formal way of defining a diagnostic requirement and thereafter proving whether a given diagnostic scheme satisfies the requirement. We also provide a means of generating a FSM specification of the residue processing software. The paper provides two examples to intuitively explain the working of the methods. It also provides the verification results and models for the diagnostic design of the longitudinal control system of a fully automated vehicle.


Concern about polyethylene wear and related osteolysis after knee arthroplasty has developed in the last years. Mobile-bearing knee prostheses were designed in order to reduce the influence of this critical factor on long-term success of total knee replacement. We present a prospective study comparing clinical and radiological results with a mobile-bearing (Ceragyr) and a fixed-bearing knee prosthesis (posterior stabilized Hermes). Clinical results did not show any significant differences in Knee Society scores. We found better results in the mobile-bearing group for pain scores and subjective preference, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Within the time limits of this study, radiological analysis showed no osteolysis in either group, but longer follow-up will be needed to confirm this.


The statistics of X-ray flares in the afterglow of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been studied extensively without considering the possible different origins of each flare. By satisfying six observational criteria, we find a sample composed of $16$ long GRBs observed by \textit{Swift} satellite may share a same origin. By applying the Markov chain Monte Carlo iteration and the machine learning algorithms (locally weighted regression and Gaussian process regression), impressively, the flares in these GRBs show strong correlations with the energy released in the prompt emission. These correlations were never discovered in previous papers, and they could not be well explained by previous models. These correlations imply that the prompt emission and the X-ray flare are not independent, they may be originated following a same sequence. The new THESUS satellite will provide us a larger sample and more detailed spectra to refine the results we obtained in this article.


Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is associated with frequent deletions of specific chromosomal regions within 1p, 3p, 6q, 9p, 13q, 15q, and 22q. In this retrospective review of our patients with MPM, the tumor tissue of 40 patients (31 male and 9 female) was evaluated for chromosomal deletions and was karyotyped. Chromosomal deletions in regions 1p, 3p, 6p, 9p, 6q, 9q, 22q were observed in 22 of 40 patients (55%). Of this group of 22 patients, 15 (68%) demonstrated deletions in chromosome 6; 12 (54%) exhibited deletions in chromosome 22q; and 13 (59%) had deletions in chromosome 9p. Asbestos exposure was found in only 13 of the 22 patients (59%) with chromosomal deletions. There was no correlation between asbestos exposure and chromosomal deletion (95% CI -0.38-0.23, P=0.63). Chromosomal deletion did not correlate with age (95% CI -0.45-0.14, P=0.29). The majority of patients with chromosomal deletions had epithelial histology (17 of 22 patients; 77%), which was not statistically significant (95% CI -0.14-0.46, P=0.27). Chromosomal deletion is common in tumor tissue of MPM and the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) residing in these chromosomes may contribute to mesothelial cell tumorigenesis.


Background Age‐related heart diseases are significant contributors to increased morbidity and mortality. Emerging evidence indicates that mitochondria within cardiomyocytes contribute to age‐related increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation that plays an essential role in aging‐associated cardiac diseases. Methods and Results The present study investigated differences between ROS production in cardiomyocytes isolated from adult (6 months) and aged (24 months) Fischer 344 rats, and in cardiac tissue of adult (18–65 years) and elderly (>65 years) patients with preserved cardiac function. Superoxide dismutase inhibitable ferricytochrome c reduction assay (1.32±0.63 versus 0.76±0.31 nMol/mg per minute; P=0.001) superoxide and H2O2 production, measured as dichlorofluorescein diacetate fluorescence (1646±428 versus 699±329, P=0.04), were significantly higher in the aged versus adult cardiomyocytes. Similarity in age‐related alteration between rats and humans was identified in mitochondrial‐electron transport chain‐complex‐I‐associated increased oxidative‐stress by MitoSOX fluorescence (53.66±18.58 versus 22.81±12.60; P=0.03) and in 4‐HNE adduct levels (187.54±54.8 versus 47.83±16.7 ng/mg protein, P=0.0063), indicative of increased peroxidation in the elderly. These differences correlated with changes in functional enrichment of genes regulating ROS homeostasis pathways in aged human and rat hearts. Functional merged collective network and pathway enrichment analysis revealed common genes prioritized in human and rat aging‐associated networks that underlay enriched functional terms of mitochondrial complex I and common pathways in the aging human and rat heart. Conclusions Aging sensitizes mitochondrial and extramitochondrial mechanisms of ROS buildup within the heart. Network analysis of the transcriptome highlights the critical elements involved with aging‐related ROS homeostasis pathways common in rat and human hearts as targets.


In this paper, surrogate modelling of on-chip spiral inductors along with their inherent physical characteristics is presented. Taking the skin effect into consideration, enhanced singlen model is employed to account for parasitic effects manifesting themselves at higher frequencies. Based on the circuit representation using Y-parameters, both shunt and differential models are explained by means of frequency-dependent impedance and quality factor graphics. In order to extract physical parameters from a predetermined inductance-frequency curve, we offered a novel algorithm which produces distinct combinations of model parameters that evolve through iterations until the result converges to the predetermined data within a 5% error margin. This methodology is a variability analysis approach that can explain which model parameters yield low Q factors due to process variations during integrated inductor manufacturing.


Computing the equilibrium properties of complex systems, such as free energy differences, is often hampered by rare events in the dynamics. Enhanced sampling methods may be used in order to speed up sampling by, for example, using high temperatures, as in parallel tempering, or simulating with a biasing potential such as in the case of umbrella sampling. The equilibrium properties of the thermodynamic state of interest (e.g., lowest temperature or unbiased potential) can be computed using reweighting estimators such as the weighted histogram analysis method or the multistate Bennett acceptance ratio (MBAR). weighted histogram analysis method and MBAR produce unbiased estimates, the simulation samples from the global equilibria at their respective thermodynamic state--a requirement that can be prohibitively expensive for some simulations such as a large parallel tempering ensemble of an explicitly solvated biomolecule. Here, we introduce the transition-based reweighting analysis method (TRAM)--a class of estimators that exploit ideas from Markov modeling and only require the simulation data to be in local equilibrium within subsets of the configuration space. We formulate the expanded TRAM (xTRAM) estimator that is shown to be asymptotically unbiased and a generalization of MBAR. Using four exemplary systems of varying complexity, we demonstrate the improved convergence (ranging from a twofold improvement to several orders of magnitude) of xTRAM in comparison to a direct counting estimator and MBAR, with respect to the invested simulation effort. Lastly, we introduce a random-swapping simulation protocol that can be used with xTRAM, gaining orders-of-magnitude advantages over simulation protocols that require the constraint of sampling from a global equilibrium.


Transformational Preaching: Speaking Spiritual Practices into Life at Highland Park Presbyterian Church Bryan H. Dunagan Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2015 The purpose of this project is to develop a model of transformational preaching that will foster sustained spiritual growth in the lives of church attenders at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Texas. What follows is a model of biblical communication that engages people in the regular practice of spiritual disciplines. To achieve this purpose, a cross-mentoring pilot project was created to empower Highland Park's biblical communicators in their respective teaching environments. The desire was not simply to refine styles of preaching but to ground the act of communicating the Scriptures in the experience of spiritual practices. This paper is divided into three parts. Part One examines both the Park Cities community surrounding Highland Park Presbyterian Church and the unique ministry culture of this growing congregation. This portion connects Highland Park's historic mission with its current leadership distinctives, focusing in particular on methods of communicating the gospel in a mainline Reformed setting. Part Two establishes the biblical and theological foundations relevant to building a transformational model of preaching. This discussion engages key theological sources from the Reformed tradition as well as a review of literature on the spiritual disciplines. Special attention also is given to the role of the preaching moment in the formation of Christlike character, both individual and corporate. This section concludes by examining the catalytic role of discipline and habit in the church's ministry of spiritual transformation. Part Three introduces a cross-mentoring group aimed at implementing this transformational model of preaching at Highland Park. This initiative will enable church leadership to explore the individual and communal impact of teaching the spiritual disciplines in different learning environments throughout the congregation. Careful consideration will be given to the content, structure, and assessment of this ministry pilot project. Content Reader: Randy L. Rowland, DMin Word Count: 287


Information concerning a patient's functional status is often obtained by asking the patient about activities that cannot be assessed directly in the clinical setting. This information is usually acquired through a verbal exchange between the clinician and patient. The measurement properties of the verbal exchange are unknown. An alternate method of obtaining this information is when patients self-report their functional status. The measurement properties of self-report questionnaires are well known; however, these measures are used infrequently for the evaluation of functional status, progress, and outcome in the clinic. Two reasons are possible for the infrequent use of self-report questionnaires: (1) values obtained from self-report measures have not been used to guide the care of the patient, and (2) a perception exists that these measures take a great deal of time to administer and score. The purpose of this clinical commentary was to describe the application, scoring, and use of a functional status measure (the Roland-Morris Questionnaire) for persons with low back pain and to illustrate how this questionnaire can be efficiently incorporated into clinical practice to aid decision making concerning individual patients. Three patient scenarios are used to illustrate the issues raised in this paper.


Traditional software engineering is not really a branch of engineering at all as it lacks any kind of systematic measurement framework on which to base improvement, [16]. There are many dierent facets to the notion of software improvement but here, the focus will be on just one, that of the prevention of defect. In this context, Forensic Software Engineering is an amalgam of techniques specifically aimed at extracting patterns of failure associated with software controlled systems, categorising them and using the information to prevent future failures of the same kind. This is in fact a classic engineering paradigm but there is a particular need in the software community to isolate it from the unusually creative but generally measurement-free mainstream. This article introduces some of the ideas and hopes.


Recently, a family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors have been identified in many cell types as important effectors of cyclic adenosine 3′,5′‐monophospahte (cAMP) signalling that is independent of protein kinase A (PKA). In the heart, investigation of exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac) has yielded conflicting results. Since cAMP is an important regulator of cardiac contractility, this study aimed to examine whether Epac activation modulates excitation–contraction coupling in ventricular preparations from rat hearts. The study used 8‐(4‐chlorophenylthio)‐2′‐O‐methyladenosine‐3′, 5′‐cyclic monophosphate (cpTOME), an analogue of cAMP that activates Epac, but not PKA. In isolated myocytes, cpTOME increased Ca2+ spark frequency from about 7 to 32/100 μm3/s (n = 10), P = 0.05 with a reduction in the peak amplitude of the sparks. Simultaneous measurements of intracellular Ca2+ and isometric force in multicellular trabeculae (n = 7, 1.5 mmol/L [Ca2+]o) revealed no effect of Epac activation on either the amplitude of Ca2+ transients (Control 0.7 ± 0.1 vs cpTOME 0.7 ± 0.1; 340/380 fura‐2 ratio, P = 0.35) or on peak stress (Control 24 ± 5 mN/mm2 vs cpTOME 23 ± 5 mN/mm2, P = 0.20). However, an effect of Epac in trabeculae was unmasked by lowering extracellular [Ca2+]o. In these depotentiated trabeculae, activation of the Epac pathway increased myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity, an effect that was blocked by addition of KN‐93, a Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II (CaMK‐II) inhibitor. This study suggests that Epac activation may be a useful therapeutic target to increase the strength of contraction during low inotropic states.


The aim of this study was to describe and discuss the scientific production on Learning Needs Assessment at work (LNA) in the last five decades (1970 – 2019) through a bibliometric study. Bibliometric and longitudinal reviews on LNA are virtually nonexistent. Therefore, little is known about how LNA knowledge was in the past, is in the present and can be in the future. A survey of scientific articles was conducted in eight globally indexed databases between 2007 and 2019. Only blind review peer journals were utilized. After the application of sample selection criteria, 282 articles were considered valid for analysis. The three quantitative analysis dimensions were demographical, methodological and theoretical, and they were measured by twenty categorical and descriptive variables. In sum, results show that there is a substantial increment in the number of papers on LNA published in the last decade around the world, especially in Africa. Methodologically, it can be said that the studies have made important advances, mainly when it comes to learning needs processes and measures improvements, but there is still an extensive research agenda. On the other hand, it seems that the LNA still have made little conceptual progress since the 1960s. The predominant use of the term "training needs" to refer to skills gaps at work needs to be discussed and reviewed. In the near future, studies need to further investigate innovative theories and methods on LNA, as the application of multilevel modeling, alignment of needs and context/organizational strategy, the use of learning taxonomies, among others.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * When a lessee terminates a lease by purchasing the leased property, the IRS requires capitalization of the entire purchase price, However, some courts have allowed the excess of the price over the fair market value to be deducted as the cost of buying out a burdensome lease, * Under IRC [section] 1234A, lessors receiving payment from a lessee purchasing the leased property realize a capital gain or loss on the entire transaction if the property qualifies as a capital asset. * However, this treatment would not apply when the lessor sells a lease contract to a third party, In that case, the seller would recognize ordinary income from the sale's proceeds, * A third party that acquires property subject to a lease must record the entire adjusted basis for tax purposes and recover it by depreciation. Lease payments received would be ordinary income. ********** [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An economic downturn like the current one can cause fixed lease obligations to become burdensome and trigger a significant negative impact on leasing in many markets. Real property and other business assets may have been leased in a sale-leaseback transaction, or the lessee may have simply desired use but not ownership of the asset. Some lease contracts may provide favorable terms to the lessee in the early years, but the terms purposely turn unattractive in later years to ensure that lessees eventually purchase the property. When a lease becomes burdensome (the obligation exceeds the benefits), a taxpayer may try to terminate it. If the lessee pays a cancellation fee, tax law generally allows a deduction, because no future benefit is created. As an alternative to cancellation, the lessee could buy the property from the lessor. Recent litigation demonstrates that the lessee's tax treatment of such a purchase is unsettled, though the tax results of lease terminations from the landlord's perspective are more predictable. LESSEE PAYMENTS The IRS may allow a lessee to deduct lease cancellation payments if they are not integrated in some way with the acquisition of another property right. In Letter Ruling 9607016 issued in 1996, the IRS said a lease termination payment could not be deducted in the year paid where it was part of an overall plan to acquire and relocate to another site. The IRS held that the lessee's right to terminate was conditioned on acquiring a new site and starting construction. The IRS noted that in a prior case and ruling, termination payments had been deductible when they were paid to eliminate expenses or relieve a taxpayer from an uneconomic contract and those situations were not integrated with the acquisition of another property right. When a lessee terminates a lease by buying the leased property, the acquisition of a property right is obviously integrated with the lease termination. Not surprisingly, the IRS will also require capitalization in this situation. Its rationale is that IRC [section] 167(c)(2) prohibits an allocation of a portion of the cost to the leasehold interest. The Tax Court agrees, but a district court recently allowed a lessee to deduct the portion of the purchase price allocable to a burdensome lease. In what circumstances may a lessee reasonably take the position that the amount paid for property in excess of its value is a deductible lease termination payment? The Tax Court in Union Carbide Foreign Sales Corp. (115 TC 423 (2000)) considered a situation in which the lessee of a ship had the option to pay $135 million to terminate a burdensome lease or buy the ship for nearly $108 million. The ship's fair market value without the lease was less than $14 million. The taxpayer exercised the purchase option and deducted nearly $94 million ($108 million-$14 million) as a lease termination expense. The Tax Court did not allow the deduction, with the result that the taxpayer had to recover the entire $108 million over the remaining life of the ship. …


As a graduate student at the University of Louisville, you will face many exciting and rewarding challenges. You are about to discover that graduate study is quite different from your undergraduate experience. Instead of taking coursework from a broad range of disciplines, you will have a much narrower—and much deeper—focus. Classes tend to be relatively smaller in graduate school, and opportunities to work with faculty members one-on-one are considerably greater than generally found in undergraduate programs. Graduate programs also usually require much greater individual initiative than undergraduate courses of study, and you will be responsible for your own progress toward the degree. Be sure to consult the Graduate Catalog (online at the Graduate School website) as you make decisions about your academic career in order to comply with the policies and regulations governing graduate education at the University. There are some policies that are unique to graduate education, so don't rely on your experiences as an undergraduate to guide your decisions, and when in doubt, consult the director of your program.


The Chinese caterpillar fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis (syn. Cordyceps sinensis) is an endemic species to alpine sub-meadow habitats of Nepal Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau. Owing to its crucial and elusive medicinal attributes and known rarity and availability in the high Himalayas, extraction and exploitation of this fungus has caused extreme biotic pressure on the Himalayan alpine meadows of Nepal. Changes in micro-climatic conditions, unprecedented collection intensity and profound economic dependence of rural communities certainly affect stages of the life-cycle of this fungus, which ultimately calls for sustainable resource management. Several studies strongly indicate that this fungus and its as yet unidentified relatives possess high amounts of potentially bioactive chemical compounds, endowing it with medicinal properties. These issues, together with its natural historical attributes, harvesting techniques, and an understanding of the genetic diversity and genesis of O. sinensis would provide important clues regarding its evolution as well as needed information for in situ and ex situ conservation of this fungus. Molecular analyses and the development of microsatellite markers would allow for the authentication of this medicinal fungus, differentiating it from several closely related Cordyceps species, thus preventing falsification and discouraging illicit trade and the marketing of available counterfeits. This review highlights the importance of this fungus through studies on its status, diversity, ecological niches, socio-economic, administrative and mycological perspectives, and practices that have been and should be performed for its effective sustainable management in the highly diverse Nepal Himalayas.


Policies for sustainability transitions necessarily have three main characteristics: they are prescriptive with regard to dynamic societal processes, linked to the normativity of sustainable development, and are able to interlink both the societal and the individual levels. Taking transition management as a starting point, the paper elaborates that it cannot well address the second and third characteristic. We therefore suggest complementing transition management approaches with the individualistic capability approach and the more structural practice theory. We suggest a heuristic combination that places individuals back into the study of sustainability transitions and show with three suggestions how this might change research on and for transitions. Firstly, we propose to assess sustainability on individual, niche, and regime level; Secondly, we show that the crucial learning processes occurring in the transition processes can be better understood when interrelating the three levels; Finally, we elaborate that the governance of sustainability transitions necessarily has - at the same time - to foster free spaces for experimentation and to select those niches that are conducive to more instead of less sustainability.


Parasitic electromagnetic couplings result in the transfer of interfering energy from the interference source to the interference receiver. Inside the IC's the principal sources of interference are usually the clock circuits, output drivers and other circuits with low output impedance. The most frequent receivers of interference are the input circuits, flip-flops and circuits with high input impedance. The small distances of leads result in increased signal crosstalk inside the integrated circuit.


This report address considerations in the 1995 farm bill debate for dairy, including market conditions, policy proposals, trade agreements, and the interactions between policy and markets for selected commodities. The U.S. dairy industry is heavily influenced by public dairy policies and programs. The 1980s were marked by attempts to reduce government program costs by adjusting dairy price supports and initiating voluntary supply control measures. So far the same trends have continued into the 1990s. General issues of concern for the industry include: structural change in milk production, surplus production, international trade issues, and price policies. A key issue for legislators in 1995 will be price volatility in milk and dairy product markets.


Creatures have evolved extremely intelligent and complex adaptive systems for conducting their movements. They are protein motors with typical sizes of a few tens of nanometers. Protein motors include three major protein families, myosin, kinesin and dynein, which participate in a wide range of cellular processes, using energy from the hydrolysis of adenosinetriphosphate ATP. To harness these protein motors to power nanometer-scale devices, we have investigated effective and non-destructive methods for immobilizing protein motors on surfaces and to arrange the output of these motors, e.g. force and movement, to be in a defined direction. We found NEB-22 to be useful for retaining the abilities of protein motors to support the movement of protein filaments. We fabricated various patterns of tracks of NEB-22 on coverslips and protein motors were introduced and immobilized on glass surface. The trajectories of protein polymers were confined to these tracks. Simple patterns readily biased and guide polymer movement confining it to be unidirectional. In addition, having used dynein c purified from Chlamydomonas flagellar axoneme, we showed that microtubules driven by surface-bound dynein were self-organized into dynamic streams through collisions between the microtubules and their subsequent joining.


Gram-negative bacterial pathogens have developed specialized secretion systems to transfer bacterial proteins directly into host cells. These bacterial effectors are central to virulence and reprogram host cell processes to favor bacterial survival, colonization, and proliferation. Knowing the complete set of effectors encoded by a particular pathogen is the key to understanding bacterial disease. In addition, the identification of the molecular assemblies that these effectors engage once inside the host cell is critical to determining the mechanism of action of each effector. In this work we used stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC), a powerful quantitative proteomics technique, to identify the proteins secreted by the Salmonella pathogenicity island-2 type three secretion system (SPI-2 T3SS) and to characterize the host interaction partners of SPI-2 effectors. We confirmed many of the known SPI-2 effectors and were able to identify several novel substrate candidates of this secretion system. We verified previously published host protein-effector binding pairs and obtained 11 novel interactions, three of which were investigated further and confirmed by reciprocal co-immunoprecipitation. The host cell interaction partners identified here suggest that Salmonella SPI-2 effectors target, in a concerted fashion, cellular processes such as cell attachment and cell cycle control that are underappreciated in the context of infection. The technology outlined in this study is specific and sensitive and serves as a robust tool for the identification of effectors and their host targets that is readily amenable to the study of other bacterial pathogens.


This paper proposes a method for estimating multiple change points in panel data models with unobserved individual effects via ordinary least-squares (OLS). Typically, in this setting, the OLS slope estimators are inconsistent due to the unobserved individual effects bias. As a consequence, existing methods remove the individual effects before change point estimation through data transformations such as first-differencing. We prove that under reasonable assumptions, the unobserved individual effects bias has no impact on the consistent estimation of change points. Our simulations show that since our method does not remove any variation in the dataset before change point estimation, it performs better in small samples compared to first-differencing methods. We focus on short panels because they are commonly used in practice, and allow for the unobserved individual effects to vary over time. Our method is illustrated via two applications: the environmental Kuznets curve and the U.S. house price expectations after the financial crisis.


The Universal Virtual Laboratory (UVL) is a realistic, real-time, electrical engineering virtual laboratory. The software developed targets individuals who do not have adequate mobility of their upper bodies to perform laboratory experiments. To provide a more realistic and enhanced learning experience, the users of the virtual laboratory are allowed the freedom to build and test a wide variety of realistic electrical circuits, and be able to perform curriculum-based experiments. Typically, this laboratory would accompany an introductory electrical circuits course sequence. The virtual laboratory also contains an intelligent lab assistant that can guide the student and answer student queries.


This paper presents a low temperature (200°C) CMOS-compatible fabrication process for integrating high-temperature deposited lead zirconate titanate (PZT) on thin film monocrystalline-silicon piezoelectric actuators, onto an RF substrate, and successful demonstration of this process for fabrication of metal-contact RF-MEMS switches. The patterned PZT/silicon multi-layer stack is transfer-bonded from a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) donor wafer to an AF-45 glass RF substrate using adhesive wafer transfer bonding. Furthermore, several strategies have been investigated to drastically reduce the post bonding misalignment created by the shear forces between the bonding chucks during wafer bonding.


Banks can enter new countries either through greenfield entry or by acquiring local banks. I model the effect of a foreign bank's mode of entry on the stability of the local financial sector. Banks exert costly effort when they extend credit. Limited liability creates an agency problem which leads to under provision of effort. I show that the diversification of the foreign bank.s loan portfolio mitigates the agency problem, and permits the foreign bank to extend credit during downturns where the local banks are forced to contract credit. The risk management framework employed by the foreign bank creates a divergence in the behaviour of a greenfield entrant and an acquirer. The greenfield entrant does not own a portfolio of local loans, and therefore, it has a greater risk taking capacity than the acquirer. Thus, competition, and thereby the distortion of the local banks' incentives to exert effort, is greater following greenfield entry than following entry through acquisition.


The Virtual Reality Center is a mobile virtual reality experience created to provide opportunities for learning, socializing and gaining cutting edge proficiency for SJR State students.


Channel distortion is one of the major factors degrading the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. Most of the current compensation methods rely on the assumption that the channel distortion remains unchanged within an utterance or globally. However, we show in this letter that the distortion varies over speech frames even if the channel response is unchanged. To address this problem, we relax the above-mentioned assumption and propose a new method to compensate the channel distortion for each Gaussian of the acoustic models. Firstly, we derive the relationship between the clean and distorted models, and then estimate the channel magnitude response with the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Finally, we obtain the matched models with the estimated magnitude response and the clean models. Experiments were conducted on the TIMIT/NTIMIT databases and the results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Summary.  Background: Laminin is the most abundant non‐collagenous protein in the basement membrane. Recent studies have shown that laminin supports platelet adhesion, activation and aggregation under flow conditions, highlighting a possible role for laminin in hemostasis. Objective: To investigate the ability of laminin to promote coagulation and support thrombus formation under shear. Results and methods: Soluble laminin accelerated factor (F) XII activation in a purified system, and shortened the clotting time of recalcified plasma in a FXI‐ and FXII‐dependent manner. Laminin promoted phosphatidylserine exposure on platelets and supported platelet adhesion and fibrin formation in recalcified blood under shear flow conditions. Fibrin formation in laminin‐coated capillaries was abrogated by an antibody that interferes with FXI activation by activated FXII, or an antibody that blocks activated FXI activation of FIX. Conclusion: This study identifies a role for laminin in the initiation of coagulation and the formation of platelet‐rich thrombi under shear conditions in a FXII‐dependent manner.


In the present study, we analyzed the capacity of CD34+/CD36- sorted bone marrow cells of myelodysplasia patients (n = 4) to differentiate along the erythroid lineage in the presence of erythropoietin (Epo) and mast cell growth factor (MGF). Two subgroups could be identified. In 6 patients, a normal number of burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-Es) were cultured from CD34+/CD36- sorted cells. Cells from these patients did have the capacity to differentiate to colony-forming units-erythroid (CFU-Es) progenitors in cell suspension cultures with Epo plus MGF followed by Epo in the culture assay. Moreover, the cells became CD34-/CD36+/gly-cophorin A (GpA)+ after 7 days of culture with Epo plus MGF, a pattern comparable to that of normal progenitors. In contrast, in 8 patients, a different pattern was observed. No BFU-Es or a low number of BFU-Es were cultured from the CD34+/CD36- sorted cell fraction that was, in most of the cases, incapable of differentiating to CFU-E progenitors. Flow cytometry of the sorted population showed that, after 7 days of culture with Epo plus MGF, a high proportion of CD34+/CD36- cells persisted, whereas a low proportion of cells became CD34-/CD36+/GpA+. The unresponsiveness is not caused by the used growth factor combination, because the addition of interleukin-3 did not correct the defect. Evi-1 expression was studied in 9 cases to show whether an aberrant Evi-1 expression correlates with a disturbed erythroid development. Evi-1 expression was shown in 4 of 9 cases, whereas 3 of 9 cases did have a disturbed erythroid differentiation. In summary, the results show that the defects in the erythroid development in a subpopulation of patients with myelodysplasia is localized at an early stage of the erythroid differentiation and is associated with the persistent expression of the CD34 antigen and, in some cases, with the expression of Evi-1.


Excessive traffic noise is a major environmental complaint in residential areas. This paper investigates a SOA based hierarchical services structure for urban traffic strategic noise mapping. Service Oriented Computing Environment (SORCER) is employed to build a highly flexible distributed platform. As the key service in our structure, Noise Propagation Calculation Service and its technical detail will be introduced. The service implements functions of sound objects generation, attenuation terms calculation and line source segmentation. The Noise Propagation Calculation Service aims to generate good-quality calculation solutions in a reasonable time. At last, this paper introduces a real traffic noise mapping project to demonstrate the service and the architecture.


Opinions have varied on the utility of local government administration in  promoting sustainable grassroots development. Scholars are apprehensive of the prevalence of high degree of corruption and systemic inefficiency at the local government. This paper evaluates the system of financial  regulations put in place to curtail the degree of corruption at the local  government level with a view to ascertaining the efficiency of its operation. A critical analysis of the inbuilt financial control mechanisms reveals that  they are sidetracked by state and local government officials for selfish  ends. The paper is analytical in nature and used the theory of revenue  exaction to examine the dynamics of fiscal policy at the local government level. The paper frowned at the existence of municipal area councils and recommends the abolition of metropolitan councils, the creation of more rural based local government councils and the strict enforcement of fiscal laws as means of promoting fiscal efficiency and sustainable development at the grassroots. Key words : Fiscal Policy; Fiscal Discipline; Local Government; Human Resources; Sustainable Development; Tax Liability; Tax Eligibility


We have extended the Falkon execution framework to make loosely coupled petascale systems a practical and useful prog This work studies and measures the perf involved in applying this approach to enable th systems by a broader user community, and w Our work enables the execution of highly para composed of loosely coupled serial jobs with no the respective applications. This approach all potentially far larger—class of applications to l systems, such as the IBM Blue Gene/P sup present the challenges of I/O performance encou this model practical, and show resul microbenchmarks and real applications from economic energy modeling and molecular benchmarks show that we can scale up to 160K with high efficiency, and can achieve sustained thousands of tasks per second. Keywords-many task computing; high throu loosely coupled applications; petascale; Blue Gene


AIM
To determine if the social cognitive theory (SCT)-constructs of oral health-related efficacy, knowledge and fatalism were indicators of non-toothbrush ownership in a metropolitan-based homeless population in Australia.

METHODS
Self-report data were collected from a convenience sample of 248 homeless participants located in Adelaide, Australia. Log binomial regression was used to estimate the strength of the association of the SCT constructs efficacy, knowledge and fatalism with the frequency of non-ownership of a toothbrush before and after adjusting for selected characteristics and associated factors.

RESULTS
Of the study population (aged 17-78 years, 79% male) just over one-fifth (21%) did not own a toothbrush. In an unadjusted model, low self-efficacy (PR = 1.18) and low knowledge (1.27) were indicators for non-toothbrush ownership. These relationships were attenuated by 5.2% and 3.2% respectively after adjusting for social determinants, health factors, substance use and dental service utilisation-related factors, but remained statistically significant in the final model.

CONCLUSIONS
Poor oral health-related self-efficacy and knowledge were both indicators for non-ownership of a toothbrush among a homeless population. This relationship held even after adjustment for relevant social and behavioural factors. Fatalism was not an indicator for non-toothbrush ownership in this population.