This study investigated rice cropping practices and rice growing areas in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta using MODIS 250 × 250 m normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data acquired during the 2002 and 2007 rice cropping seasons. Data processing was conducted in five main steps: (1) constructing time-series MODIS NDVI data; (2) noise filtering of the time-series MODIS NDVI data using empirical mode decomposition (EMD); (3) extracting and evaluating phenological rice training patterns from the smooth time profiles of NDVI; (4) classifying rice cropping systems using support vector machines (SVMs); and (5) conducting an error analysis using ground reference data and government rice statistics. The results indicated that EMD was an efficient filter for noise removal in the time-series MODIS NDVI data. The filtered temporal NDVI profile characterized the distinct behaviors of the rice cropping systems. The estimated sowing and harvesting dates were compared with the field-survey data and indicated root mean square error (RMSE) values of 7.5 and 8.2 days, respectively. The comparison results between the 2002 classification map and the ground reference data indicated that the overall accuracy for the 2002 data was 92.9% with a Kappa coefficient of 0.89, while in 2007 these values were 93.8% and 0.90, respectively. At the district level, there was good agreement between the MODIS-based estimated areas and government rice statistics for 2002 and 2007 (R 2 ≥ 0.85). An investigation of changes in cropping practices from 2002 to 2007 showed that 12.9% of the area used for double-cropped irrigated rice in 2002 had been converted to triple-cropped irrigated rice by 2007, whereas 27.4% of the area used for triple-cropped irrigated rice in 2002 had been converted to double-cropped irrigated rice by 2007.


Following the shift towards more intensive agriculture in cultivated lowlands in Europe, field sizes have increased and stream valley meanderings have been suppressed and realigned along new straight field borders. These modifications have led to profound alterations of the hydromorphology of the streams. To test the importance of these modifications, the objective of this study is to assess the potential of using high resolution DTM (Digital Terrain Model) to quantify the current volume of small drainage ditches at catchment scales and to assess the evolution of these ditches using archival data. The method has been applied to a small agricultural catchment drained by an artificial stream network. A specific 1400 m long ditch was chosen to estimate the capacity of a DTM (0.5 m) and to evaluate the actual topography and volume of stream. Forty-four channel cross sections measured with a centimeter DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) have been compared with the same profiles measured with the DTM. The average DTM error in estimating stream depth is approximately 13% and is less than 12% for stream width detection. Estimates of the ditch volume using DTM sections instead of DGPS sections produces a result of 3100 m3. An average error of 11% can be ascribed to the difference in the estimated ditch volume between the DGPS and DTM approaches, which was principally caused by under-estimates of bottom ditch morphology by the DTM. This study highlights the ability of airborne instruments to quickly and robustly detect and estimate the volume occupied by small-width stream networks (1.5 to 4 m) over large areas. This approach has opened new perspectives for the study of current and past bank activities at catchment scales to quantify bank erosion contributions to the overall sediment budget.


Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories of a City is a narrative that is defined by the impossibility to define it within fixed terms. Thematically and structurally, it stands on slippery grounds that are constantly moving, hence obliterating any definition that would confine it within predetermined boundaries. Istanbul: Memories of a City portrays the first twenty-two years of Pamuk's life using various approaches that range from autobiographical details from his own childhood memories, to photographs from the family album, newspaper articles, paintings as well as writing on Istanbul by various artists. The multiplicity of sources that Pamuk incorporates into the narrative echoes his experience of the city, while also offering the reader a non-linear journey with various diverging points along the streets of Istanbul. Pamuk reinvents himself in Istanbul: Memories of the City as Orhan, the narrator who recounts his experience of the city in terms of autobiographical anecdotes, journalistic comments, personal impressions as well as dreams. Alongside the different Orhans that appear throughout the narrative, Istanbul: Memories of the City also portrays the construction of Orhan as a writer. In many respects Istanbul: Memories of a City mirrors Pamuk's experience of the city in the sense that it brings together various components without trying to reach a harmonious, unified whole. The thirty-seven chapters that compose the narrative appear to be placed randomly without following a thematic order. The lack of a linear development, the shift of tone in different chapters, and the coexistence of image and text are among the strategies that Pamuk uses in order to underline his experience of the city as fragmented and fluid. The narrative thus invites the reader to experience the city the way Orhan did, getting lost along the streets without necessarily following a predetermined itinerary. Instead, Istanbul: Memories of a City invites the reader to create his/her own journey, exploring the different spatial, literary and temporal dimensions of Orhan's Istanbul. In this paper I will present Pamuk's construction of his experience of the city as a state of being 'in-between', both culturally and geographically. While following Orhan the narrator in his search for the other Orhan in Istanbul, I will discuss the reverberations of this state in the creation of Pamuk's Istanbul.


The thesis is an investigation of how medium of instruction (MOI) as a factor interacts with relevant socio-cultural contextual factors to create impacts on the attitudes, motivation and academic performance of secondary school children studying in two branches of the same school, one with Chinese as MOI and one with English as MOI, called MOI bifurcation. It attempts to use both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques to investigate the impacts of the streaming of students to learn either in their first language or the second language on the attitudinal, motivational as well as behavioural development of students of the two respective MOI streams. The setting for the thesis was the secondary sector of Hong Kong, a city of People's Republic of China with the unique presence of two dominant languages, namely, Chinese, the first language of the majority of the population, and English, the socially and economically powerful second language. Subjects were 213 male and 188 female students from three secondary schools with Chinese as the medium of instruction (CMI), who were allocated to either the Chinese stream or the English stream (EMI) upon transition to Secondary 4 being the penultimate year of the 5 year secondary system. The subjects shared similar cultural and educational backgrounds, all with at least 12 years of education learning through the Chinese medium. Results revealed that differences were consistently identified between the students of the two MOI groups, both immediately upon and some time after the transition to the bifurcation settings, in their attitudinal as well as behavioural development, and in their self-reported academic performance. It was also found that the differences identified were found to either continue or grow in strength in the course of time, though some of the differences only emerged at a later stage. Findings also indicated that in a context where the differences between the two learning media are substantial in terms of status and educational values, the MOI streaming had a unique and more positive impact on students studying through the high power second language (i.e. English), e.g. more favourable attitudes towards English, higher level of L2 motivation, better self-concept and an inclination to a higher level of internality. On the other hand, those studying in their native but low status mother-tongue were found to be more susceptible to less favourable development in the above aspects, in comparison with their EMI counterparts.


Objective: To determine if there are monthly variations in the rate of deliveries in Burdwan Medical College West Bengal, India. Materials and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study carried out in the Burdwan Medical College. We extracted the total number of deliveries from the hospital records for over four year period and analyzed the figures for the monthly variation in delivery rates. This was repeated for a standardized 30-day month and the findings noted. The extracted data then fed into a computer and analysis was performed, based on the grouping of the delivery rates per month. Results: The monthly distribution of total deliveries showed a slightly sinusoidal pattern with two peaks. A major peak spanning two months, August and September and another small peak in April and May. The figure also depicted the nadir number of deliveries to occur majorly in February and March and another in December. Conclusion: There is a seasonal variation in


The use of light as a means of therapy for bladder cancer (BC) has a long history but has been hampered by a lack of tumor specificity and therefore, damage to the normal bladder mucosa. Here, we describe a targeted form of photo-therapy called photoimmunotherapy (PIT) which targets EGFR-expressing BC. Anti-EGFR antibody panitumumab (pan) was labeled with the photo-absorber (PA), IRDye 700Dx (IR700), to create a pan IR700 antibody-PA conjugate which is activated by near-infrared radiation (NIR). BC tissue microarray (TMA) and BC cell lines were analyzed for expression of EGFR. Mechanism of PIT induced cell death was studied using proliferation assays, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and production of reactive oxygen species. Finally, the in vivo effect was studied in xenografts. EGFR staining of TMAs showed that while most BCs have expression of EGFR to a varying degree, squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) have the highest expression of EGFR. Pan IR700 activated by NIR light rapidly killed UMUC-5 cells, a bladder SCC line. Pan alone, pan IR700 without NIR, or NIR alone had no effect on cells. TEM demonstrated that cell death is due to necrosis. Singlet oxygen species contributed towards cell death. NIR-PIT with pan IR700 reduced growth compared to only pan IR700 treated UMUC-5 xenograft tumors. PIT is a new targeted treatment for bladder cancer. Pan IR700-induced PIT selectively kills EGFR-expressing BC cells in vitro and in vivo and therefore warrants further therapeutic studies in orthotopic xenografts of BC and ultimately in patients. on October 28, 2017. © 2017 American Association for Cancer Research. mct.aacrjournals.org Downloaded from Published OnlineFirst June 15, 2017; DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-16-0924


ABSTRACT Pepper golden mosaic virus (PepGMV) is an important begomovirus infecting solanaceous crops in Mexico and Central America. Under controlled conditions for growth and inoculation with a low-pressure biolistic device, PepGMV-infected pepper plants consistently showed symptom remission or host recovery 12 to 15 days postinoculation (dpi). Inoculated plants initially developed the characteristic PepGMV symptoms; however, newer leaves presented a significant decrease or disappearance of symptoms. Younger asymptomatic, recovered leaves accumulated lower quantities of viral DNA and transcripts than the ones found in the symptomatic tissue. Nonetheless, viral DNA did not disappear during the evaluation period (up to 35 dpi), suggesting that a population of viral molecules escape from plant defensive mechanisms to maintain a subliminal, symptomless infection. Recovery was correlated with a specific resistance to PepGMV but not to Pepper huasteco yellow vein virus, a different gemi-nivirus commonly found in mixed infections with PepGMV. Virus-related small interfering RNAs were detected in practically all tissues (from symptomatic to recovered leaves) but it was not possible to establish a correlation between concentration and symptom severity. The participation of a posttranscriptional gene silencing mechanism in the recovery process and specific resistance is discussed.


In this paper, we generalise the constant market shares (CMS) framework, with particular attention to the underlying theoretical conditions required for diagnostic interpretation. The approach is applied to the analysis of the export performance of the Australian processed food sector in South-East Asia over the period 1980-2003. We conclude that the usefulness of CMS analysis for evaluating a country's international trade performance depends upon the empirical validity of the aggregation assumptions implicit in the diagnostic interpretation.


We analyze the transmission of a Single mode - Multimode -Multimode (SMm) fiber structure with the aim of exciting a single radial mode in the second multimode fiber. We show that by appropriate choice of the length of the central multimode fiber one can obtain > 90% of the total core power in a chosen mode. We also discuss methods of removing undesirable cladding and radiation modes and estimate tolerances for practical applications.


Aims Continuous intravenous infusion using an elastomeric pump is an alternative delivery method in paediatric patients who need intravenous antibiotics (IVAB) which would otherwise need to be administered three times daily, such as piperacillin/tazobactam or ceftazidime.1 We describe our experience using elastomeric pumps in the OPAT setting. Methods A retrospective case series of 5 children (aged 5–17 years) discharged home on IVAB continuous infusion administered via an elastomeric pump. One child received this mode of delivery twice therefore 6 patient-episodes are described in this case series. Outcomes were assessed using the BSAC p-OPAT (British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Paediatric-OPAT) criteria. Ethics approval was not required because the information was gathered retrospectively and patient data has been anonymised. Results In 5 of the episodes the indication was lower respiratory tract infection treated with continuous IV piperacillin/tazobactam. All patients had a background of neurodisability, recurrent respiratory tract infections and Pseudomonas aeruginosa carriage. The remaining patient was treated for an infective exacerbation of cystic fibrosis with a regimen that included continuous IV ceftazidime. All episodes had an outcome defined as 'Success' according to the BSAC p-OPAT criteria; having an infection outcome of 'improved' or 'cured' with no adverse events reported. Conclusions The successful outcomes in this case series suggest that elastomeric pumps are a safe and effective option for administering selected antibiotics by continuous IV infusion to children, although central venous access is a requirement. This option should be considered to facilitate the early discharge of patients to be treated with IVAB such as piperacillin/tazobactam under the guidance of an OPAT service. Reference Patel S, Abrahamson E, Goldring S, Green H, Wickens H, Laundy M. Good practice recommendations for paediatric outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (p-OPAT) in the UK: A consensus statement. J Antimicrob Chemother2015;70(2):360–73.


ABSTRACT This study examines the short run and long run causal relationships among macroeconomic variables and equity market returns in the emerging equity market for the period of 6/1998 to 6/2008 by employing the VAR framework on monthly data. Macroeconomic variables include industrial production index, consumer price index, money supply, exchange rate, foreign portfolio investment, Treasury bill rates and oil prices. Results support the finance theory and provide evidence that long term relationship exist among equity market and macroeconomic factors. Unidirectional causality has been observed flowing from consumer price index, exchange rates, money supply and interest rate to equity market. No granger causality is observed among industrial production, foreign portfolio investment and equity market returns. This insignificant relationship with industrial production, oil indicates that market movement is not based on fundamentals and real economic activity. The cointegration analysis only captures the long-run relationship among the variables, it does not provideinformation on responsiveness of equity market returns to shocks in macroeconomic variables so impulse response function and Variance decomposition analysis based on VECM has also been performed. Variance decomposition analysis also confirms that monetary variables are a significant source of volatility in equity market. INTRODUCTION During last decade phenomenal growth has been observed in emerging equity markets and Pakistan is no exception. The KSE- 100 index, which is the benchmark for the Pakistani equity market, has exhibited unparalleled growth and moved from 921 in 2002 to over 16000 points. This remarkable growth has been a subject of global interest. During said period significant changes has also been observed in macroeconomic factors. An unprecedented change has also been observed in Interest rates, inflation, exchange rates, capital flows and Oil prices in the country. So question arises whether there exists a relationship among equity markets and macroeconomic factors. The link among macroeconomic variables and the equity market has always attracted the curiosity of academicians and practitioners as it has an innate appeal. Finance theory suggests that prices of financial instruments are based on expected cash flows and discount factor. Macroeconomic variables affect both expected cash flows as well as discount rates. Therefore macroeconomic changes should be priced by market. The traditional dividend discount model is also based on above theoretical framework. Therefore it is a well established fact that equity prices are influenced by economic information but theory is silent about specific variables which may influence equity prices. The empirical work has attempted to establish the relationship but results are yet inconclusive Chen, Roll, and Ross (1986) explore this new avenue by examining the link among equity prices and macroeconomic variables by employing a multifactor model which provides evidence that macroeconomic factors are priced. Pearce and Roley (1985), Hardouvelis (1987), McElroy and Burmeister(1988), Hamao (1988) and Cutler, Potterba and Summers (1989) also confirm that equity prices react to arrival of macroeconomic information. At the same time, Poon and Taylor(1991), Shanken(1992) contradict the results. Some studies are in partial agreement. Flannery and Protopapadakis (2002) are of opinion that macroeconomic variables can predict future equity market returns to some extent and exact relationship among is difficult to establish. Therefore empirical evidence on relationship among macroeconomic variables and equity market is mixed Under this cloud of uncertainty, number of studies has been conducted in various parts of globe by using various methods of exploring long term relationship among time series data. Mukherjee and Naka (1995), Cheung and Ng (1998), Nasseh and Strauss (2000), McMillan (2001) and Chaudhuri and Smiles (2004) employs cointegration analysis and granger causality test to explore long run relationship among equity prices and macroeconomic variables. …


This paper introduces a heterogeneous agent discrete choice probit demand model with a structural interpretation of product choice covariance designed to overcome two hurdles in discrete choice demand modeling. One hurdle is the curse of dimensionality implicit in covariance probit demand models and the other hurdle is the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) implicit in logit demand models. The structured covariance probit exploits the fact that choice models rely on utility differences to achieve identification. The utility difference structure implied by the additive random utility model is imposed on the covariance matrix and requires just one parameter in addition to those specified in the deterministic component of consumer utility. As an additional advantage the structured covariance probit is a better out-of-sample predictor because it allows covariance to change according to characteristics of the market. To estimate the model the paper develops a Bayesian estimation approach. The model also incorporates a Dirichlet process prior over normally distributed consumer segment clusters to flexibly model demand heterogeneity. The new model is evaluated relative to the widely used heterogeneous consumer logit demand model. Sampling experiments confirm that the model performs well under misspecification. An empirical analysis demonstrates that the new probit model captures realistic unrestricted switching behavior whereas its logit counterpart exhibits restrictiveness inconsistent with the utility theory on which the model is based.


In the early 1970s, planning and city officials in St. Louis, Missouri were grappling with the consequences of white flight, urban renewal, and a withdrawal of federal funding on the city's increasingly abandoned and tax delinquent housing stock. In response, the city government implemented a land bank to acquire tax foreclosed housing and other property and re-sell it through an urban homesteading plan. Later that decade, a similar program was implemented in Cleveland, Ohio. By the early 2000's the land banking idea had transformed from a city agency to a near-governmental non-profit regional organization with the powers to acquire abandoned property and find "productive uses" for it. This dissertation examines the history, development, and current practices of land banking using three case studies: St. Louis, Missouri, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and Syracuse, New York. Based on a combination of archival research, semistructured interviews, participant observation, and GIS-based property data analyses, I argue that land banks are a consequence of neoliberal state restructuring that has shifted the role of the shadow state towards property governance in post-industrial cities. Through a mission of resisting speculation in vacant housing, land banks further challenge the neoliberal orthodoxy of market-first policies, even while their work still reproduces existing capitalist property relations. Ultimately, land banks fail to take their critique of urban land speculation far enough in developing and articulating appropriate productive uses for their properties. Throughout this analysis, I highlight the centrality of abandoned property in the housing landscapes of postindustrial cities in the U.S. Valuing Vacancy: Land Banking and Property Governance in the U.S. Rust Belt


Gender identity disorder (GID, transsexualism) is a multidisciplinary problem of an unclear aetiology. Although the diagnosis of GID is generally established by psychiatrists, the diagnostic team always includes an endocrinologist, who is responsible for hormonal therapy. Hormonal therapy is the first step in the sex reassignment procedure and requires careful monitoring in the initial phase and in later years of treatment. In this paper we review the latest aspects of the diagnosis and treatment of transsexualism and the most common complications of hormonal intervention. (Pol J Endocrinol 2010; 61 (4): 412–416)


This paper describes a case study of an institution promoting sustainability goals but acting to restrict innovation and implementation of those same goals.

The issue is important because institutions have cultures which may feel antipathy to a paradigm shift toward sustainability, whilst required to usher in sustainability. There are a multitude of conservative forces representing the Dominant Social Paradigm restricting innovation, despite sustainability policy.

People engaging in sustainability implementation may come into conflict with institutional representatives of the old paradigm.

Resistance to the New Environmental Paradigm may permeate our own organisations. Trying to strike a balance between implementing ecologically sustainable development and respecting institutions' behaviour may require courage and perseverance.

Institutions are often big, powerful, conservative and may tolerate bullying behaviour if threatened by innovation. With most development takes place in urban settings, concepts of urban sustainability attempt to merge two very different fields of human endeavour - how we modify our landscape, our built environment, and how we behave in that environment. Transport planning in Queensland, Australia displayed a tension between the infrastructure providers and the intending behaviour changers, so that project managers vested with encouraging travel behaviour change, badged as 'TravelSmart', appeared to fear innovation, fear action research which was, definitively, not under their full control.

This paper explores this apparent 'internal dissonance' between the accepted need for, yet fear of change, via a case study attempting to introduce a pilot TravelSmart Destinations project to a provincial Queensland University, and the ways perseverance and maintaining focus on goals in both infrastructure and behaviour will make sustainability gains.


This article discusses the legal concept of excessive use of force by analyzing a particular incident that took place in Israel in the summer of 1997: eighty families, faced with dire housing needs, squatted in vacant apartments in an immigrant absorption center in the town of Mevasseret Zion near Jerusalem. After a period of failed attempts to persuade the families to leave the apartments peacefully, the police moved to evacuate the families, and did so by use of massive force. In the article I describe the violent measures used by the State (police), and analyze the media portrayal of the squatting and the evacuation. I argue that both these forceful measures and the media portrayal of the squatting and evacuation cumulatively took part in constructing the squatters as criminal deviants rather than political protesters. I claim further that we should understand the concept of use of force not only as a means to achieve certain ends by the state, but also as a mechanism through which the state constructs a social problem and presents it in a manner beneficial to its own interests. Excessive use of force, in this sense, is not just a disproportionate response to a real or perceived threat posed by an individual or group, but a means by which the state fosters a belief that the individual or group present some danger, which must be tackled through the use of a certain level of force. By drawing a line between the legitimate (that is, not excessive) and illegitimate (defined as excessive) use of force, the state affirms its monopoly on violence, which ultimately can be used to suppress political resistance.


Objectives The well-being of doctors is recognised as a major priority in healthcare, yet there is little research on how general practitioners (GPs) keep well. We aimed to address this gap by applying a positive psychology lens, and exploring what determines GPs' well-being, as opposed to burnout and mental ill health, in Australia. Design Semi-structured qualitative interviews. From March to September 2021, we interviewed GPs working in numerous settings, using snowball and purposive sampling to expand recruitment across Australia. 20 GPs participated individually via Zoom. A semi-structured interview-guide provided a framework to explore well-being from a personal, organisational and systemic perspective. Recordings were transcribed verbatim, and inductive thematic analysis was performed. Results Eleven female and nine male GPs with diverse experience, from urban and rural settings were interviewed (mean 32 min). Determinants of well-being were underpinned by GPs' sense of identity. This was strongly influenced by GPs seeing themselves as a distinct but often undervalued profession working in small organisations within a broader health system. Both personal finances, and funding structures emerged as important moderators of the interconnections between these themes. Enablers of well-being were mainly identified at a personal and practice level, whereas systemic determinants were consistently seen as barriers to well-being. A complex balancing act between all determinants of well-being was evidenced. Conclusions GPs were able to identify targets for individual and practice level interventions to improve well-being, many of which have not been evaluated. However, few systemic aspects were suggested as being able to promote well-being, but rather seen as barriers, limiting how to develop systemic interventions to enhance well-being. Finances need to be a major consideration to prioritise, promote and support GP well-being, and a sustainable primary care workforce.


Endogenous precursor cells are manipulated/modified in situ to induce the cells, by the application of one or more growth factors or similar compounds, to proliferate, differentiate and migrate within the CNS so as to replace lost or non-functional cells. The precursor cells are also altered in situ (in vivo) so as to secrete a compound which alters the function of other differentiated CNS cells. The endogenous precursor cells can also be treated with one or more growth factors in situ in order to increase the yield of stem cells that can be isolated from the adult CNS and proliferated in vitro.


One of the most powerful internet communication channels is email. As employees and their clients communicate primarily via email, much crucial business data is conveyed via email content. Where businesses are understandably concerned, they need a sophisticated workflow management system to manage their transactions. A workflow management system should also be able to classify any incoming emails into suitable categories. Previous research has implemented a system to categorize emails based on the words found in email messages. Two parameters affected the accuracy of the program, namely the number of words in a database compared with sample emails, and an acceptable percentage for classifying emails. As the volume of email has become larger and more sophisticated, this research classifies email messages into a larger number of categories and changes a parameter that affects the accuracy of the program. The first parameter, namely the number of words in a database compared with sample emails, remains unchanged, while the second parameter is changed from an acceptable percentage to the number of matching words. The empirical results suggest that the number of words in a database compared with sample emails is 11, and the number of matching words to categorize emails is 7. When these settings are applied to categorize 12,465 emails, the accuracy of this experiment is approximately 65.3%. The optimal number of words that yields high accuracy levels lies between 11 and 13, while the number of matching words lies between 6 and 8.


System area networks (SANs), which usually accept irregular topologies, have been used to connect nodes in PC/WS clusters or high-performance storage systems. Since wormhole or virtual cut-through transfer is used for low latency communication, deadlock-free routings are essential in SANs. We propose a novel deadlock-free deterministic routing called descending layers (DL) routing for SANs. In order to reduce both nonminimal paths and traffic congestion, the network is divided into layers of subnetworks with the same topology using virtual channels, and a large number of paths across multiple subnetworks are established. The DL routing is implemented on a real PC cluster called RHiNET-2, and execution results show that its throughput is improved up to 33% compared with that of up*/down* routing. Its execution time of a barrier synchronization is also improved 29% compared with that of up*/down* routing. Simulation results of various sizes and topologies also show that the DL routing achieves up to 266% improvement on throughput compared with up*/down* routing.


Patients with active bleeding complications who concomitantly develop overt pulmonary embolism (PE) present distinct therapeutic dilemmas, since they are perceived to be at substantial risk for the progression of the embolism in the absence of treatment and for aggravation of the hemorrhagic lesions if treated with anticoagulants. A 76-year-old patient with nephrotic syndrome, which is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolism, concurrently developed acute PE and intracranial bleeding because of traumatic brain injury. In this case, we prioritized the treatment for PE with the intravenous unfractionated heparin followed by warfarinization. Despite the transient hemorrhagic progression of the brain contusion after the institution of anticoagulation, our patient recovered favorably from the disease without any signs of neurological compromise. Several conundrums regarding anticoagulation that emerged in this case are also discussed.


Bifurcation problems in which periodic boundary conditions or Neumann boundary conditions are imposed often involve partial differential equations that have Euclidean symmetry. As a result the normal form equations for the bifurcation may be constrained by the 'hidden' Euclidean symmetry of the equations, even though this symmetry is broken by the boundary conditions. The effects of such hidden rotation symmetry on D4+T2 mode interactions are studied by analysing when a D4+T2 symmetric normal form F can be extended to a vector field F with Euclidean symmetry. The fundamental case of binary mode interactions between two irreducible representations of D4+T2 is treated in detail. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given that permit F to be extended when the Euclidean group E(2) acts irreducibly. When the Euclidean action is reducible, the rotations do not impose any constraints on the normal form of the binary mode interaction. In applications, this dependence on the representation of E(2) implies that the effects of hidden rotations are not present if the critical eigenvalues are imaginary. Generalization of these results to more complicated mode interactions is discussed.


Reforming of tars and methane (CH4) in syngas is a significant challenge for low-temperature biomass gasification. For a dual fluidised bed gasifier (DFBG), catalytic bed materials are usually used to promote the reforming reactions. Intensive contact between gas and catalytic bed material at high temperature enhances the internal tar/CH4 reforming. The MIUN gasifier, built for research into synthetic fuel production, is a dual fluidised bed gasifier (DFBG). The results with different bed materials (silica sand, olivine and Fe-impregnated olivine) give roughly equivalent amounts of methane and gravimetric tar in the raw untreated syngas, and need to be reduced to an acceptably low level. The gasification research group at MIUN investigates a novel design in the MIUN gasifier, to increase the gasification efficiency, suppress the tar generation and to upgrade the syngas quality. The first step is taken towards a novel design in the MIUN gasifier. The application is expected to significantly enhance the syngas quality.


With market share of electric vehicles continue to grow, there is an increasing demand of mobile heat pump for cabin climate control, as it has much higher energy efficiency than electric resistive heating and hence much less impact on electric drive range. However, current mobile heat pump systems using low pressure refrigerants like R134a and R1234yf suffer from significant heating capacity loss at low ambient temperature. As a result, a large electric heater needs to be installed to supplement the capacity shortage at low ambient temperature, and electric drive range can be greatly reduced due to large power consumption for cabin heating. In this paper, the drop of heating capacity at low ambient temperature was experimentally and numerically studied. Pressure drop and refrigerant maldistribution in the outdoor heat exchanger in HP mode were found to be the most important factors. A novel design of the outdoor heat exchanger using intermediate vapor bypass in HP mode and the corresponding system architecture were proposed. The proposed outdoor heat exchanger turns into a condenser with integrated receiver and subcooler in A/C mode. A proof-of-concept heat exchanger prototype was made by modifying the baseline heat exchanger and tested in the lab. The result has shown 35% improvement of heating capacity at -20 °C ambient condition. Optimization of the outdoor heat exchanger design was investigated with a system model.


In a world where autonomous driving cars are becoming increasingly more common, creating an adequate infrastructure for this new technology is essential. This includes building and labeling high-definition (HD) maps accurately and efficiently. Today, the process of creating HD maps requires a lot of human input, which takes time and is prone to errors. In this paper, we propose a novel method capable of generating labelled HD maps from raw sensor data. We implemented and tested our methods on several urban scenarios using data collected from our test vehicle. The results show that the pro-posed deep learning based method can produce highly accurate HD maps. This approach speeds up the process of building and labeling HD maps, which can make meaningful contribution to the deployment of autonomous vehicle.


Primary breast actinomycosis is a rare condition that has been previously reported in the female breast. Male breast infection is uncommon and most often associated with trauma to the skin or predisposing conditions like diabetes. We report the first case to our knowledge of primary breast actinomycosis in the male breast caused by Actinomycesneuii (A. neuii), a rare strain of Actinomyces. Mammography demonstrated periareolar skin thickening with a mottled pattern. Sonography showed multiple small cystic structures. Definitive diagnosis was made by culture of the nipple discharge.


Chromospheric Ca II activity cycles are frequently found in late-type stars, but no systematic programs have been created to search for their coronal X-ray counterparts. The typical time scale of Ca II activity cycles ranges from years to decades. Therefore, long-lasting missions are needed to detect the coronal counterparts. The XMM-Newton satellite has so far detected X-ray cycles in five stars. A particularly intriguing question is at what age (and at what activity level) X-ray cycles set in. To this end, in 2015 we started the X-ray monitoring of the young solar-like star ɛ Eridani, previously observed on two occasions: in 2003 and in early 2015, both by XMM-Newton. With an age of 440 Myr, it is one of the youngest solar-like stars with a known chromospheric Ca II cycle. We collected the most recent Mount Wilson S-index data available for ɛ Eridani, starting from 2002, including previously unpublished data. We found that the Ca II cycle lasts 2.92 ± 0.02 yr, in agreement with past results. From the long-term XMM-Newton lightcurve, we find clear and systematic X-ray variability of our target, consistent with the chromospheric Ca II cycle. The average X-ray luminosity is 2 × 1028erg s−1, with an amplitude that is only a factor of 2 throughout the cycle. We apply a new method to describe the evolution of the coronal emission measure distribution of ɛ Eridani in terms of solar magnetic structures: active regions, cores of active regions, and flares covering the stellar surface at varying filling fractions. Combinations of these three types of magnetic structures can only describe the observed X-ray emission measure of ɛ Eridani if the solar flare emission measure distribution is restricted to events in the decay phase. The interpretation is that flares in the corona of ɛ Eridani last longer than their solar counterparts. We ascribe this to the lower metallicity of ɛ Eridani. Our analysis also revealed that the X-ray cycle of ɛ Eridani is strongly dominated by cores of active regions. The coverage fraction of cores throughout the cycle changes by the same factor as the X-ray luminosity. The maxima of the cycle are characterized by a high percentage of covering fraction of the flares, consistent with the fact that flaring events are seen in the corresponding short-term X-ray lightcurves predominately at the cycle maxima. The high X-ray emission throughout the cycle of ɛ Eridani is thus explained by the high percentage of magnetic structures on its surface.


The multivesicular body (MVB) sorting pathway provides a mechanism for delivering transmembrane proteins into the lumen of the lysosome/vacuole. Recent studies demonstrated that ubiquitin modification acts in cis as a signal for the sorting of cargoes into this pathway. Here, we present results from a genetic selection designed to identify mutants that missort MVB cargoes. This selection identified a point mutation in ubiquitin ligase Rsp5 (Rsp5-326). At the permissive temperature, this mutant is specifically defective for ubiquitination and sorting of the ubiquitin-dependent MVB cargo precursor carboxypeptidase S (pCPS), but not ligand-induced ubiquitination of Ste2. A previous study implicated Tul1 as the ubiquitin ligase responsible for MVB sorting of pCPS. However, we detected no defect in either the sorting or ubiquitination of pCPS in tul1 mutants. We had previously shown that Fab1 phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate 5-kinase is also required for MVB sorting of pCPS, but not Ste2. However, our analyses reveal that fab1 mutants do not exhibit a defect in ubiquitination of pCPS. Thus, both Rsp5 and Fab1 play distinct and essential roles in the targeting of biosynthetic MVB cargoes. However, whereas Rsp5 seems to be responsible for cargo ubiquitination, the precise role for Fab1 remains to be elucidated.


Human temporal lobe epilepsy is a severe and potentially life-threatening disorder. Cohen et al. (see the Perspective by Köhling) recorded from neurons in specimens from epileptic patients who had undergone surgery for treatment of the disease. In a brain area called the subiculum, they observed synchronous discharges reminiscent of the patients' EEG records. In a subpopulation of pyramidal neurons from this area, GABAergic input was not inhibitory but rather depolarizing and therefore excitatory. I. Cohen, V. Navarro, S. Clemenceau, M. Baulac, R. Miles, On the origin of interictal activity in human temporal lobe epilepsy in vitro. Science 298, 1418-1421 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] R. Köhling, GABA becomes exciting. Science 298, 1350-1351 (2002). [Summary] [Full Text]


In this research, mucosal localizations of bombesin, glucagon and somatostatin-14 immunoreactive in some regions of digestive tract of Gallus gallus domestica during the prenatal and postnatal periods were examined using an immunohistochemical technique. For this purpose 80 embryos (beginning from the 6th day of incubation to end of incubation every days), 5 chicks (a-week-old chick) and 10 adult chicken (45 and 60 days old) were used as material. The sections which taken from proventriculus and gizzard stained immunohistochemically. Bombesin immunoreactive cells were firstly observed in Lamina epithelialis (L. epithelialis) of proventriculus on 17 day of incubation (d.i.). Glucagon immunoreactive cells were firstly seen at few numbers in glands of proventriculus and L. epithelialis of gizzard at 9 d.i. Somatostatin-14 immunoreactive cells were firstly observed in stratified epithelium of proventriculus and gizzard at 6 d.i. In adult period, bombesin, glucagon and somatostatin-14 immunoreactive cells weren' t found in glandular epithelium of gizzard.


In post-Christian American culture, emerging adult vocational discernment has become a more protracted and complex process. If ministers are going to utilize this discernment process for emerging adult spiritual formation, they must address two significant domains. First, this culture tends to produce a dualistic and compartmentalized vision of vocation, constricting the fullness of the Christian story. Second, the culture has deified choice, threatening vocational commitment while blinding emerging adults to the already-present action of God. This article addresses these challenges and discusses the theological and practical means by which the Church can foster a renewed vision of vocational faithfulness. While the cultural scripts for vocational living emphasize a narrowed vocational sphere and the expansion of options, the Christian narrative points to a different posture: vocation rooted in purpose and providence.


A theory of system justification was proposed 25 years ago by Jost and Banaji (1994, Br. J. Soc. Psychol., 33, 1) in the British Journal of Social Psychology to explain 'the participation by disadvantaged individuals and groups in negative stereotypes of themselves' and the phenomenon of outgroup favouritism. The scope of the theory was subsequently expanded to account for amuchwider range of outcomes, including appraisals of fairness, justice, legitimacy, deservingness, and entitlement; spontaneous and deliberate social judgements about individuals, groups, and events; and full-fledged political and religious ideologies. According to system justification theory, people are motivated (to varying degrees, depending upon situational and dispositional factors) to defend, bolster, and justify aspects of existing social, economic, and political systems. Engaging in system justification serves the palliative function of increasing satisfaction with the status quo and addresses underlying epistemic, existential, and relational needs to reduce uncertainty, threat, and social discord. This article summarizes themajor tenets of system justification theory, reviews some of the empirical evidence supporting it, answers new (and old) questions and criticisms, andhighlights areas of societal relevance anddirections for future research.


COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected sports worldwide Usual practice can't be done due to high viral transmission, yet prolonged inactivity leads to detraining and deconditioning and threatens ending of sporting career Depending on the present guidelines of the government, a safe and evidence based gradual resumption of training and sports is essential The cardiorespiratoryneuromuscular system involvement among others in COVID-19 directly affects exercise-sports performance and health, and the possibility of sub-clinical transmission poses immense challenge Like other games, swimming is also heavily affected Although COVID-19 is transmitted by droplets, the prolonged presence of virus in the air currents, commonly-touched surfaces and in stool of those infected should be kept in mind Importance of hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, social distancing, use of mask while not exercising hard, other good public hygiene practices, staying home if sick, frequent cleaning and disinfection of pool and frequently touched surfaces, early detection, isolation and adequate treatment for the positive cases and strictly following government guideline should be compulsory Awareness program and continued education for athletes, parents, coaches, support staff and other management team should be done This review is intended to understand the course of COVID-19 and to formulate guidelines for resumption of swimming in India, based on recommendations by various organisations like WHO, CDC etc The aim being to act as a key support for safely resuming swimming yet reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection


Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus express and secret staphylococcal peroxidase inhibitor (SPIN) proteins to help evade neutrophil-mediated immunity by inhibiting the activity of the main oxidative-defense player myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzyme. SPIN contains a structured 3-helix bundle C-terminal domain, which can specifically bind to MPO with high affinity, and an intrinsically disordered N-terminal domain (NTD), which folds into a structured β-hairpin and inserts itself into the active site of MPO for inhibition. Mechanistic insights of the coupled folding and binding process are needed in order to better understand how residual structures and/or conformational flexibility of NTD contribute to the different strengths of inhibition of SPIN homologs. In this work, we applied atomistic molecular dynamics simulations on two SPIN homologs, from S. aureus and S. delphini, respectively, which share high sequence identity and similarity, to explore the possible mechanistic basis for their different inhibition efficacies on human MPO. Direct simulations of the unfolding and unbinding processes at 450 K reveal that these two SPIN/MPO complexes systems follow surprisingly different mechanisms of coupled binding and folding. While coupled binding and folding of SPIN-aureus NTD is highly cooperative, SPIN-delphini NTD appears to mainly utilize a conformational selection-like mechanism. These observations are in contrast to an overwhelming prevalence of induced folding-like mechanisms for intrinsically disordered proteins that fold into helical structures upon binding. Further simulations of unbound SPIN NTDs at room temperature reveal that SPIN-delphini NTD has a much stronger propensity of forming β-hairpin like structures, consistent with its preference to fold and then bind. These may help explain why the inhibition strength is not well correlated with binding affinity for different SPIN homologs. Altogether, our work establishes the relationship between the residual conformational stability of SPIN-NTD and their inhibitory function, which can help us develop new strategies towards treating Staphylococcal infections. Graphical Abstract


Septic arthritis (SA) and osteomyelitis (OM) can present as medical emergencies in children. Typically, antimicrobial treatment for bone and joint infections is between 1 and 2 weeks of intravenous treatment followed by an oral antibiotic course of 2–4 weeks.1 2 However, recent data from a large randomised controlled trial in adults3 show that oral therapy is non-inferior to intravenous therapy. Short intravenous courses reduce length of hospital stay, support antimicrobial stewardship and improve patient quality of life. We describe the epidemiology of bone and joint infections at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, over the last decade in order to inform improved management.

We identified cases of SA and OM from September 2009 to February 2019 using hospital discharge clinical coding data. Inclusion criteria were (1) children <16 years of age (2) with clinical or radiological features typical of SA or OM who …


This Article uses critical race theory and lessons from social psychology to examine police violence. Many accounts attempt to explain instances of racial violence at the hands of the police, ranging from arguments that the police acted justifiably to arguments likening these killings to Jim Crow lynchings. Certainly, it is tempting to blame this violence either on the racial animus of officers or the purportedly threatening behaviors of victims because it simplifies the problem; either the individual officer or citizen is at fault. This Article argues that reducing the problem of racial violence to the individual police-citizen interaction at issue obscures how current policing practices and culture entrench racial subordination and, thus, racial violence. As a result, unless institutional interventions are made, racial violence is inevitable regardless of whether officers have malicious racial motives or citizens engage in objectively threatening behaviors.


The agile development of Internet technology and cloud computing are frequently prevailing create small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have an opportunity to be able to utilize information technology at a cost that is affordable and does not require massive investment. Based on the previous study SME's belief that Point of Sales (POS) based on cloud computing is the alternative technology to accelerate their business. Nowadays not only large-scale business uses the internet in business processes, but many micro enterprises able to use it, especially when internet users outside of their organization is also increasing. From the data gathering done by the qualitative methodology from SME's entity, there were features necessary need for Indonesian Small Medium Enterprise and the most important factor in cloud computing POS infrastructure is reliability, security, and scalability. The result of this study is Point of Sales based on cloud computing for the small-medium enterprise.


We present an analysis of the optical properties of three Ultra Luminous X-ray (ULX) sources identified in NGC 925. We use Integral field unit data from the George Mitchel spectrograph in the context of the Metal-THINGS survey. The optical properties for ULX-1 and ULX-3 are presented, while the spaxel associated with ULX-2 had a low S/N, which prevented its analysis. We also report the kinematics and dimensions of the optical nebula associated with each ULX using ancillary data from the PUMA Fabry–Perot spectrograph. A BPT analysis demonstrates that most spaxels in NGC 925 are dominated by star-forming regions, including those associated with ULX-1 and ULX-3. Using the resolved gas-phase metallicities, a negative metallicity gradient is found, consistent with previous results for spiral galaxies, while the ionization parameter tends to increase radially throughout the galaxy. Interestingly, ULX-1 shows a very low gas metallicity for its galactocentric distance, identified by two independent methods, while exhibiting a typical ionization. We find that such low gas metallicity is best explained in the context of the high-mass X-ray binary population, where the low-metallicity environment favors active Roche lobe overflows that can drive much higher accretion rates. An alternative scenario invoking accretion of a low-mass galaxy is not supported by the data in this region. Finally, ULX-3 shows both a high metallicity and ionization parameter, which is consistent with the progenitor being a highly accreting neutron star within an evolved stellar population region.


Tinder is the most popular and most used dating app in the world today. Due to the recent popularization of the phenomenon of dating apps, there are still some gaps in the literature. Therefore, this study had a threefold objective: (1) to determine the prevalence and characteristics of Tinder users and Tinder use among young university students; (2) to know why these young people use Tinder; and (3) to analyze the relationship between Tinder use and different psychosocial correlates (positive and negative affect, body satisfaction, sociosexuality, and attitudes towards consensual nonmonogamy) and psychosexual well-being (self-esteem as a sexual partner, satisfaction with sex life, and preoccupation with sex). Participants were 1261 Spanish university students (77.4% women, 77.5% heterosexuals) between ages 18 and 26 (M = 20.59, SD = 2.04) who completed a battery of online questionnaires. A prevalence of Tinder use of about 15% was found. The motives for use most frequently reported by the participants were those of curiosity, passing time/entertainment, and sexual orientation. Besides, Tinder users showed greater sociosexuality than nonusers, as well as increased dissatisfaction with their sex life and sexual preoccupation, and more positive attitudes towards consensual nonmonogamy. Importantly, no or very small differences were found in the general emotional well-being-related variables. Tinder seems like just another tool used by young people for their romantic and/or sexual interactions, without any negative connotation.


Under study there was a group of 16 patients with seizures the structure of which included sideward adversion of the head or the head and the eyes. Surgical interventions on the cortex of the premotor and motor zones have given no positive effect in these patients. After the operation the seizures did not cease, moreover, they even retained their former structure. Anatomic and clinicophysiological findings have shown that the head adversion as a manifestation of the orientation reflex occurs on irritation of the thalamostrial system, and of the caudate nucleus, in particular. The seizures studied could be identified, as regards their outward manifestation, with the orientation reflex. This gives one grounds to think that it is subcortical structures, and first of all, the caudate nucleus, which are responsible for the paroxysm type described. On this basis a striopallidar form of epilepsy is distinguished.


The article examines the efforts for collective action of ten village communities in the state of Orissa to manage their local forest resources from an institutional perspective. It explores the differential levels of success in the collective action efforts of these communities, and the role of local level community institution therein, for ensuring sustainable resource use and management. The article concludes that only presence or absence of the institution is not always sufficient for sustainable resource management outcomes, despite being a necessary condition for it. The existing institution must be a robust one with strong rules for resource appropriation and good monitoring system. Institutional arrangements for sustainable resource management at the community level must be understood as a dynamic process, which involve a continuous interaction among the community members and the designed institution. The institution formulates the rules and expects the community members to comply such rules. The rule formation should necessarily be backed by a strong and efficient monitoring system to ensure that rules are complied, and accordingly the institution can accord positive incentive in the form of rewards to those who show conformity to rules and negative incentive through punishment to those who violate them. The institutional arrangements without such a strong monitoring system fail to restrict free-ride and hence, could not establish a well-defined property right regime over the resource, which is very much essential for ensuring successful collective action.


This thesis is a cross-cultural comparative study on media representations of older people in UK and Taiwanese TV advertisements. Three analytical approaches (content analysis, the constant comparative method and critical discourse analysis) were employed. The content analytical study in this thesis revealed that older people were still under-represented as suggested in existing literature. Role salience and visibility of older characters were greater in Taiwanese TV advertisements than in UK TV advertisements. Taiwanese older characters were more likely associated with family relationships and indoor/home contexts while UK older characters were more frequently depicted at outdoor and entertainment settings. Nine character types emerged in the constant comparative study to describe media representations of older people in UK and Taiwanese TV advertisements. They are 'Competent', 'Conservative/Traditional', 'Engaged in Female-Male Relations', 'Golden Ager', 'Humorous', 'Unwell and Declining Health', 'Incompetent', 'Engaged in Intergenerational Relations', and 'Vulnerable'. Results of the cross-cultural comparisons indicated that the Confucian tradition of filial piety was a defining factor that distinguished the portrayals of older adults in Taiwanese TV adverts from those in the UK TV adverts. The critical discourse analysis in this thesis focused on UK and Taiwanese TV adverts for over 50s life insurance products. It was found that a positive construction of ageing was commonly linked to consumer choices so as to legitimate the advertised products (targeting older people) in the two cultural contexts. However, the positive ageing was arguably offset by ageist ideological presuppositions behind the product messages which conventionally highlighted low cost, eligibility, medical exemption and free gifts both in the UK and Taiwanese data


The paper evaluates methods of selecting mobile devices (i.e., Smartphones and tablets) to test mobile software applications. Due to the number of such devices on the market and the variations in their characteristics, it is hard to guarantee that an application will work properly on all devices. Software faults found only in certain devices are known as device-specific faults. The goal of this research was to determine how many devices must be tested and which methods of device selection are best for revealing these device-specific faults. To collect the experimental data, 15 Android applications were tested on 30 mobile devices using real devices and remote testing services such as Test Object, pCloudy, and others. In total, 24 device-specific faults were detected. Using our data, we analyzed the different methods of selection based on the characteristics of each device. Our research showed that a random selection of 13 devices achieved 100% effectiveness. However, coverage of device characteristics in the selection process enables the achievement of an acceptable 90% level of effectiveness with sets of only five devices. The most successful approach was the coverage of different types of Android operating systems. Our results include recommendations that will help increase the effectiveness and decrease the costs of mobile testing.


This article uses panel data to investigate the extent of income-related inequity in the likelihood of visiting a General Practitioner (GP), specialist, dentist and hospital among individuals aged 65 years and over in the UK. The probability of accessing health care is predicted with separate random effects probit panel models using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for the period 1998 to 2006. We use well-established methods based on the concept of the concentration curve to compare the cumulative distribution of health care utilization with the cumulative distribution of the population ranked by income. The results find evidence for inequity in specialist and dental care, but only slight inequity for GP care and not significant inequity in hospital admissions. Levels of inequity are highest for specialist and dental care, even when users of the private sector are excluded from analyses. The Mobility Index (MI) is also used to compare short- and long-run estimates of inequities and show that upwardly income mobile individuals contribute to inequity in the long run.


The authors attempted to use norm type correlation coefficient of single-look intensity data (intensity correlation) and complex correlation coefficient of single-look complex data (coherence) for the purpose of detecting the ground surface change due to urban damages. The test site was Kobe city area in Japan where a lot of buildings were collapsed by an earthquake in 1995. The test data were ERS-1 SAR data, three of which were observed before the earthquake and the other three were observed after the earthquake. According to the comparison of decorrelation patterns between the intensity correlation and the coherence, both of the correlation coefficients were found to behave almost similarly. The correlation patterns were related to the land cover types. The data pairs taken before and after the earthquake indicated clear decorrelation at damaged city areas. For additional similarity, the long baseline distance data pairs showed large decorrelation on whole image and their correlation patterns were obscure. It is supposed from these correspondences that the major factor in the intensity decorrelation is still related to the interferometric decorrelation process, namely, the change of speckle patterns due to the change of urban surface patterns. The change of the cardinal effect is also suggested for additional factor in the intensity decorrelation. From this result, the coherency is important for detecting the damaged urban area using the correlation of SAR data.


Abstract: We introduce a new class of distributionally robust optimization problems under decision-dependent ambiguity sets. In particular, as our ambiguity sets we consider balls centered on a decision-dependent probability distribution. The balls are based on a class of earth mover's distances that includes both the total variation distance and the Wasserstein metrics. We discuss the main computational challenges in solving the problems of interest, and provide an overview of various settings leading to tractable formulations. Some of the arising side results are also of independent interest, including mathematical programming expressions for robustified risk measures in a discrete space. Finally, we rely on state-of-the-art modeling techniques from machine scheduling and humanitarian logistics to arrive at potentially practical applications.


The meaning of the term 'object oriented' is examined in the context of the general-purpose programming language C++. This choice is made partly to introduce C++ and partly because C++ is one of the few languages that supports data abstraction, object-oriented programming, and traditional programming techniques. The support of programming paradigms by languages is discussed and four paradigms are examined: procedural, data hiding, data abstraction, and object-oriented programming. The support of the latter two by C++ is discussed in some detail.<<ETX>>


Abstract — research goal was to determine the expression levels cDNA of brain embrio at gestation days 10 (GD-10). The Electroforesis DNA results showed that GAPDH, Fibronectin1, Ncam1, Tenascin, Vimentin, Neurofilament heavy, Neurofilament medium and Neurofilament low were 447 bp, 462 bp, 293 bp. 416 bp, 327 bp, 301 bp, 398 bp and 289 bp. Result of real-time RT-PCR on brain Embryo at gestation days 10 showed that the expression of copy gen Fibronectin 36 copies, Ncam 21,708 copies; Tenascin 24,505 copies; Vimentin 538,554 copies; Neurofilament heavy 2,419 copies; Neurofilament medium 92,928 copies; Neurofilament low 125,809 copies. Vimentin expressed gene copies is very high compared with other gene copies. This condition are caused by Vimentin, that contribute to proliferate of brain development. The vimentin role to cell proliferation of brain. Keywords — GAPDH, Fibronectin, Ncam,Tenascin, vimentin, Neurofilamen heavy, Neurofilament medium, Neurofilamen low. I.I NTRODUCTION DHESIVE


Understanding the driving factors of land-use spatio-temporal change is important for the guidance of rational land-use management. Based on land-use data, household surveys and social economic data in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, this study adopted the Binary Logistic Regression Model (BLRM) to analyze the driving factors of land-use spatio-temporal change in a large artificial forest area in the Ximeng County, Yunnan province, in Southwest China. Seventeen factors were used to reflect the socio-economic and natural environment conditions in the study area. The results show a land use pattern composed of forestland, dry cropland, and rubber plantation in Ximeng County. Over the past fifteen years, the area of artificial forests increased rapidly due to the "Grain for Green" policy, which has led to increases in rubber plantations, tea gardens, eucalyptus forests, etc. In contrast, the area of natural forest and dry cropland decreased due to reclamations for farming and constructions. The BLRM approach helped to identify the main driving factors of land-use spatio-temporal change, which includes land-use policies (protection of basic farmlands and natural reserves), topography (elevation and slope), accessibility (distance to the human settlements), and potential productivity (fertility and irrigation). The study revealed the relationship between land-use spatio-temporal change and its driving factors in mountainous Southwest China, providing a decision-making basis for rational land-use management and optimal allocation of land resources.


This study assessed the issue of membrane fouling in a Hybrid Membrane Process (HMP) due to the export of powdered activated carbon (PAC) fines from a pretreatment contactor. Two parallel pilot-scale ceramic and polymeric membranes were studied. Reversible and irreversible foulings were measured following three cleaning procedures: Physical backwashing (BW), chemically enhanced backwashing (CEB) and Clean-in-Place (CIP). The impacts on fouling of membrane type, operation flux increase and the presence/absence of the PAC pretreatment were investigated. Membranes without pretreatment were operated in parallel as a control. In addition, CIP washwaters samples were analyzed to measure organic and inorganic foulants removed from the membranes. It was observed that for the polymeric membranes, fouling generally increased with the presence of the PAC pretreatment because of the export of fines. On the contrary, the ceramic membranes were not significantly impacted by their presence. The analysis of CIP washwaters showed a greater total organic carbon (TOC) content on membranes with a PAC pretreatment while no similar conclusion could be made for inorganic foulants.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to detect the expression of long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) colorectal neoplasia differentially expressed gene (CRNDE) in the kidney tissues of mice with sepsis-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) and its effect on KI, and to further explore its mechanism.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 60 male C57 mice were randomly divided into 3 groups based on a random number table, including the control group (Sham group, n=20), sepsis-related KI group [lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group, n=20] and CRNDE inhibition group [LPS + CRNDE small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) group, n=20]. Mice in LPS and LPS + CRNDE siRNA groups were intraperitoneally injected with 5 mg/kg LPS, while the tail vein was injected with 5 μL CRNDE siRNAs. After 12 h, the expression level of lncRNA CRNDE in kidney tissues of mice in each group was detected via Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). At the same time, 2 mL of orbital blood was collected from each mouse, and the levels of creatinine and blood urea nitrogen were detected. Subsequently, kidney tissue samples were collected from mice in each group. Periodic acid Schiff (PAS) staining was used to assess the injury of renal tubulointerstitium, followed by scoring. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was applied to detect cell injury in kidney tissues. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining was adopted to examine the apoptosis in kidney tissues in mice of each group. Meanwhile, the distribution and expression of p65 in kidney tissues of mice in each group were determined via immunohistochemical staining. Finally, the expression of Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)/nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) pathway in kidney tissues of mice in each group was detected using Western blotting.

RESULTS
Compared with the Sham group, lncRNA CRNDE level in the kidney of the LPS group was remarkably up-regulated (p<0.05). The levels of creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in LPS + CRNDE siRNA group were notably lower than those of the LPS group (p<0.05). PAS staining results manifested that renal tubulointerstitial injury in the LPS group was significantly more serious than that of the LPS + CRNDE siRNA group (p<0.05). According to H&E staining results, serious edema, rupture and necrosis observed in kidney tissue cells of the LPS group. However, after the intervention of CRNDE siRNA, cell edema and necrosis were markedly relieved. In addition, TUNEL staining results indicated that the apoptotic level of kidney tissue cells in the LPS + CRNDE siRNA group was significantly lower than that of the LPS group (p<0.05). Subsequent immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that p65 expression in the LPS group increased significantly, which was markedly inhibited by CRNDE siRNA intervention (p<0.05). Furthermore, Western blotting displayed that CRNDE siRNA could effectively inhibit the activation of TLR3 and p65 in mouse kidney tissue induced by LPS (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Inhibition of CRNDE can reduce sepsis-induced KI by blocking the activation of the TLR3/NF-κB pathway. Moreover, CRNDE is expected to become a target for clinical treatment of sepsis-related KI.


ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF DYNAMIC SPECTRUM SHARING FOR COGNITIVE RADIO NETWORKS Manish Wadhwa Old Dominion University, 2010 Director: Dr. Min Song The goal of this dissertation is to present the analysis and optimization of dynamic spectrum sharing for cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Spectrum scarcity is a well known problem at present. In order to deal with this problem, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) was proposed. DSS is a technique where cognitive radio networks dynamically and opportunistically share the channels with primary users. The major contribution of this dissertation is in analyzing the problem of dynamic spectrum sharing under different scenarios and developing optimal solutions for these scenarios. In the first scenario, a contention based dynamic spectrum sharing model is considered and its throughput analysis is presented. One of the applications of this throughput analysis is in finding the optimal number of secondary users in such a scenario. The problem is studied for fixed and random allocation of channels to primary users while secondary users try to opportunistically use these channels. Primary users contend for the channels, and secondary users try to use the channels only when primary users are not using it. These secondary users themselves contend for the opportunistic usage. The numerical formulas developed for finding the optimal number of secondary users have been carefully analyzed with the solutions obtained using the throughput model directly and finding the optimal number of secondary users. These two match very closely with each other and hence provide simple numerical formulas to calculate the optimal number. The second scenario studied is based upon the idea of pre-knowledge of primary user activity. For instance, the active broadcasting periods of TV channels can be obtained from past measurements as the TV channels activities are approximately fixed. In this scenario, time spectrum block (TSB) allocation for DSS is studied. Optimal TSB allocation is considered to minimize the total interference of the system and hence maximize the overall throughput of the system of community networks. The results obtained using the proposed ABCD algorithm follow very closely with the optimal results. Thus the simple algorithm developed can be used for time spectrum block allocation in practical scenarios.


Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) is an extraordinarily powerful and versatile tool for calculating the properties of materials. In its conventional form, this approach scales cubically with the size of the system under study. This scaling becomes prohibitive when investigating larger arrangements such as biomolecules and nanostructures. More recently linear-scaling approaches have been developed that overcome this limitation, allowing calculations to be performed on systems many thousands of atoms in size. An example of such an approach is the ONETEP code which uses a plane wave-like basis set and is based upon the use of spherically-localised orbitals. A simple yet common calculation performed using ab initio codes is the total (ground state) energy calculation. By comparing the energy of isolated parts of a system to the energy of the combined system, we are able to obtain the energy of interaction. This quantity is useful as it provides a relative measure of the enthalpic stability of an interaction which can be compared to other systems. Equally, however, this quantity gives little indication of the driving forces that lead to the interaction energy we observe. A number of approaches have been developed that aim to identify these driving forces. Energy decomposition analysis (EDA) refers to the set of methods that decompose the interaction energy into physically relevant energy components which add to the full interaction energy. Few studies have applied EDA approaches to larger systems in the thousand-atom regime, with the vast majority of investigations focussing on small system studies (less than 100 atoms in size). These methods have shown varying degrees of success. In this work, we have evaluated the suitability of a selection of popular EDA methods in decomposing the interaction energies of small biomolecule-like systems. Based on the results of this review, we developed a linear-scaling EDA approach in the ONETEP code that separates the intermolecular interaction energy into chemically distinct components (electrostatic, exchange, correlation, Pauli repulsion, polarisation, and charge transfer). The intermediate state used to calculate polarisation, also known as the absolutely localised molecular orbital (ALMO) state, has the key advantage of being fully antisymmetric and variationally optimised. The linear-scaling capability of the scheme is based on use of an adaptive purification approach and sparse matrix equations. We demonstrate the accuracy of this approach in reproducing the energy component values of its Gaussian basis counterparts, and present a remedy to the limitation of polarisation and charge transfer basis set dependence that is based on the property of strict localisation of the ONETEP orbitals. Additionally, we show the method to have mild exchange-correlation functional and atomic coordinate dependence. We have demonstrated the high value of our method by applying it to the thrombin protein interacting with a number of small binders. Here, we used our scheme in combination with electron density difference (EDD) plots to identify the key protein and ligand regions that contribute to polarisation and charge transfer. In our studies, we assessed convergence of the EDA components with protein truncation up to a total system size of 4975 atoms. Additionally, we applied our EDA to binders that had been partitioned into smaller fragments. Here, we accurately quantified the bonding contributions of key ligand moieties with particular regions of the protein cavity. We assessed how accurately the ligand binding components are reproduced by the fragment contributions using an additivity measure. Using this measure, we showed the fragment binding components to add up to the full ligand binding component with overall minimal additivity error. We also investigated the energy components of a series of small thrombin S1 pocket binders all less than 30 atoms in size. In this study, we demonstrate the EDA and EDD plots as tools for understanding the relative importance of different binder structural features and positionings within the pocket. Overall, we show our EDA method to be a stable and powerful approach for the analysis of interaction energies in systems of large size. The application of this method is not limited to biomolecular studies, and we expect that this approach can be readily applied to analyses within other fields, for example materials, catalysts, and nanostructures.


In this paper, we investigate a mobile edge computing (MEC) network with two computational access points (CAPs), where the source is equipped with multiple antennas and it has some computational tasks to be accomplished by the CAPs through Nakagami- $m$ distributed wireless links. Since the MEC network involves both communication and computation, we first define the outage probability by taking into account the joint impact of latency and energy consumption. From this new definition, we then employ receiver antenna selection (RAS) or maximal ratio combining (MRC) at the receiver, and apply selection combining (SC) or switch-and-stay combining (SSC) protocol to choose a CAP to accomplish the computational task from the source. For both protocols along with the RAS and MRC, we further analyze the network performance by deriving new and easy-to-use analytical expressions for the outage probability over Nakagami- $m$ fading channels, and study the impact of the network parameters on the outage performance. Furthermore, we provide the asymptotic outage probability in the low regime of noise power, from which we obtain some important insights on the system design. Finally, simulations and numerical results are demonstrated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It is shown that the number of transmit antenna and Nakagami parameter can help reduce the latency and energy consumption effectively, and the SSC protocol can achieve the same performance as the SC protocol with proper switching thresholds of latency and energy consumption.


With more than 58,000 casualties and 300,000 wounded, at a cost of more than $130 billion, the Vietnam War became one of the most divisive conflicts in American history. The scars left by the war can still be felt today, making it crucial that we have the facts about this watershed event. Vietnam War Almanac contains a chronological history of the war in Vietnam, with day-by-day listings of the war on the ground, in the air, and at sea; international and U.S. events; and a biographical dictionary of major military and civilian figures. It may be impossible to fully understand such a complicated and horrible struggle, but for the families of veterans and for historians, the thorough presentation here, along with its extensive bibliography and index, is an excellent place to start. Coverage here includes: * The Tet Offensive * Walter L. Cronkite * The Battle of Dien Bien Phu * Vo Nguyen Giap * Ngo Dinh Diem * The Battle of Ia Drang Valley * Robert S. McNamara * The Battle of Hamburger Hill * Abbie Hoffman * The Battle of An Loc * And much more President Nixon claimed that the war was "misreported then, and it is misremembered now." This almanac will ensure that it is remembered correctly.


Among the many theoretical mechanisms proposed for higher T c , the interfacial mechanism provides not only continual inspiration but also hope. Difficulties do exist, as most of the materials proposed to exhibit the interfacial mechanism are artificially formed heterostructures and are by nature delicate and easily disturbed by strain and change in the stoichiometry at the interface. The discovery of superconductivity in naturally assembled rare-earth(R)-doped CaFe 2 As 2 (Ca122) with T c up to 49 K, has brought an alternate route to tackle the problem. Detailed magnetization, resistivity, chemical composition, specific heat, and annealing studies have been systematically carried out on R-doped Ca122 single crystals with R = La, Ce, Pr, and Nd. The experimental observations lead us to the conjecture that the T c enhancement may be related to naturally occurring chemical interfaces associated with defects. Most recently, we successfully induced superconductivity in undoped Ca122 with a T c up to 25 K through proper thermal treatment. We later conducted systematic annealing for different time periods at a constant temperature of 350 ◦ C on the a singe crystal Ca122 sample quenched rapidly from 850 ◦ C to room temperature. The room temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows an initial tetragonal structure (PI) with a c I = 11.547(1) Å prior to any annealing and remains to be a tetragonal phase (PII) with only a slightly larger c II = 11.702(2) Å following prolong annealing. Neither PI or PII phase is superconducting above 2 K. However, superconductivity was detected after intermediate annealing, when mixture of the two phase appears. The evolution of mixed phase as suggested by the XRD results is consistent with that shown by the XRD simulations with microstructures of stacking of the two phases. The observation has provided the most direct evidence of interfacial induced superconductivity in Ca122 to date and possibly in R-doped Ca122.


The efficacy of the FHWA pile design method was explored using data made possible by the 2017 release of FHWA Deep Foundation Load Test Database (DFLTD) v.2. Information contained within DFLTD v.2 was leveraged to evaluate the most common pile design methods against failure loads obtained via in situ static load testing procedures. In the process, the authors developed a custom relational database and software to batch process the available information. The scope was limited to impact-driven, un-tapered, steel and concrete piles, loaded in compression, using a static load test. DFLTD v.2 contains 3,116 unique-combination project/exploration/foundation/test cases of which 213 contained sufficient data to permit batch processing of the results to compute the axial load capacity and interpret the static failure load, according to the study scope. Scatter between measured (interpreted) and predicted capacities is significant; the computed capacity was off by a factor of 2 in many tests. The range in calculated to measured capacities (Qc/Qm) was from 0.12 to 8.88, and the mean Qc/Qm was 1.48. Preliminary evaluation suggests that the method performs better in clay than in sand, and overpredicts the capacities of long and larger diameter piles. The authors trust that this study will permit engineers and state agencies to better understand the efficacy of the most commonly employed design methods, resulting in a more resilient infrastructure.


GeophysicsHistorical records and ash layers indicate that Mount Paektu, a volcano that straddles the border between North Korea and China, explodes to life every 100 years or so, the last time in 1903. (Two-thirds of the mountain is in China, where it is called Changbai.) Around 1000 years ago, the volcano rained tephra—pumice and ash—across 33,000 square kilometers of northeast China and Korea, dumping 5 centimeters of ash as far away as Japan. Scientists are keeping a wary vigil. Because Changbai's silica-rich magma is viscous and gassy, allowing pressure to build, the next eruption should be explosive, researchers say. In recent months, Chinese researchers have observed geophysical anomalies, including elevated temperatures of hot springs and deflation of the caldera rim. But most concur that there is no evidence of magma rising toward the surface, which would signal an imminent eruption.


Imaging techniques have been used to elucidate the neural correlates that underlie deception. The scientifically best understood paradigm for the detection of deception, however, the guilty knowledge test (GKT), was rarely used in imaging studies. By transferring a GKT‐paradigm to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, while additionally quantifying reaction times and skin conductance responses (SCRs), this study aimed at identifying the neural correlates of the behavioral and electrodermal response pattern typically found in GKT examinations. Prior to MR scanning, subjects viewed two specific items (probes) and were instructed to hide their knowledge of these. Two other specific items were designated as targets and required a different behavioral response during the experiment and eight items served as irrelevant stimuli. Reaction times and SCR amplitudes differed significantly between all three item types. The neuroimaging data revealed that right inferior frontal and mid‐cingulate regions were more active for probe and target trials compared to irrelevants. Moreover, the differential activation in the right inferior frontal region was modulated by stimulus conflicts. These results were interpreted as an increased top‐down influence on the stimulus‐response‐mapping for concealed and task‐relevant items. Additionally, the influence of working memory and retrieval processes on this activation pattern is discussed. Using parametric analyses, reaction times and SCR amplitudes were found to be linearly related to activity in the cerebellum, the right inferior frontal cortex, and the supplementary motor area. This result provides a first link between behavioral measures, sympathetic arousal, and neural activation patterns during a GKT examination. Hum Brain Mapp 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


: Nurse executives, faculty, and nursing leaders who want to mentor colleagues to write can help them by using a step-by-step system with frequent feedback as they develop the manuscript. This breaks down the multiple steps to do-able ones and gives the new authors help at each juncture, so they avoid the most common reasons for rejection. These experienced publishing mentors give an example and advice on how nursing leaders can mentor new nurse authors.


Introduction In Alzheimer's disease clinical research, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) released into the cerebrospinal fluid and blood is widely measured and perceived as a biomarker of reactive astrogliosis. However, it was demonstrated that GFAP levels differ in individuals presenting with amyloid-β (Aβ) or tau pathology. The molecular underpinnings behind this specificity are unexplored. Here we investigated biomarker and transcriptomic associations of GFAP-positive astrocytes with Aβ and tau pathologies in humans and mouse models. Methods We studied 90 individuals with plasma GFAP, Aβ- and Tau-PET to investigate the association between biomarkers. Then, transcriptomic analysis in hippocampal GFAP-positive astrocytes isolated from mouse models presenting Aβ (PS2APP) or tau (P301S) pathologies was applied to explore differentially expressed genes (DEGs), Gene Ontology processes, and protein-protein interaction networks associated with each phenotype. Results In humans, we found that plasma GFAP associates with Aβ but not tau pathology. Unveiling the unique nature of GFAP-positive astrocytic responses to Aβ or tau pathology, mouse transcriptomics showed scarce overlap of DEGs between the Aβ and tau mouse models, While Aβ GFAP-positive astrocytes were overrepresented with genes associated with proteostasis and exocytosis-related processes, tau hippocampal GFAP-positive astrocytes presented greater abnormalities in functions related to DNA/RNA processing and cytoskeleton dynamics. Conclusion Our results offer insights into Aβ- and tau-driven specific signatures in GFAP-positive astrocytes. Characterizing how different underlying pathologies distinctly influence astrocyte responses is critical for the biological interpretation of astrocyte-related biomarker and suggests the need to develop context-specific astrocyte targets to study AD. Funding This study was supported by Instituto Serrapilheira, Alzheimer's Association, CAPES, CNPq and FAPERGS.


E-negotiation involves two or more agents multilaterally bargaining for mutual gain, using information technologies in a cooperative problem-solving (CPS) environment. This paper only focuses on integrative negotiations. For example, one party reaches its goals and the other party also gains benefits. One of the strategies for achieving integrative solutions is called logrolling. Logrolling in two-issue two-party negotiation is defined as the exchange of loss in one issue for gain in other issues that result in an increase of the overall value for both parties. Each party can increase the overall value by trading the less preferred issue for the more preferred, provided that a trade-off ratio is satisfactory. Traditionally, the concept of logrolling has only been applied in the trading of votes by legislators. For example, a legislator offers to another to trade his vote on a certain bill in return for the other's votes on other bills. Not much research work about logrolling has been studied in other research areas such as operation research, information systems and electronic commerce. This paper overview issues of logrolling in the context of e-negotiation. In particular, this paper introduces a linear programming model for optimizing trade-off ratios in the context of two-issue two-party logrolling.


Identifying vortices is the key to understanding the turbulence in plasma shear layers. This paper aims to provide general guidelines for identifying 3‐D vortex structures. Currently, no single precise definition of a vortex is universally accepted, despite the significance of vortices in fluid and plasma dynamics. Recently, various vortex identification methods using Galilean invariance have been proposed by numerous researchers. These methods are general for different fluid and plasma visualization applications. In the present paper, we describe how we have identified 105 vortex structures by applying these methods to Cluster data near the duskside of the magnetopause. Four sets of Cluster satellite magnetic field data are used to linearly approximate the magnetic field. We identify the 3‐D magnetic vortex structures by using various vortex identification criteria as follows: (i) the first criterion is Q‐criterion that defines vortices as regions in which the vorticity energy prevails over other energies; (ii) the second criterion is the λ2‐criterion that is related to the minus eigenvalue of the Hessian matrix of the pressure terms; and (iii) the third criterion called the geometrical line‐type method requires the existence of Galilean‐invariant vortex core inside the four Cluster tetrahedral regions. In reality, both Q‐ and λ2‐criteria are also related to Galilean invariance. The present analysis evidences that the geometrical line‐type method is more precise than the other two using Cluster satellite magnetic field data.


Introduction and Objectives Differentiating tuberculosis and sarcoidosis can be difficult, particularly in the context of mediastinal lymphadenopathy, because both diseases are characterised by overlapping clinical phenotypes and histologically similar granulomatous inflammation. Currently, diagnosis relies heavily on microbiological confirmation of tuberculosis which is only available in <50% of cases. Therefore, novel diagnostic strategies are needed to prevent morbidity associated with delayed or inappropriate treatment. We tested the hypothesis that genome wide transcriptional profiling of mediastinal lymph node samples obtained by minimally invasive endobronchial ultrasound guidance could identify gene signatures that differentiate tuberculosis and sarcoidosis. Methods In vivo immune responses were compared in mediastinal lymph node biopsies obtained via endobronchial ultrasound guidance from patients with tuberculosis, sarcoidosis or non-granulomatous disease using genome-wide transcriptional profiling. Machine learning algorithms were used to test the discriminatory power of identified gene signatures which distinguished granulomatous from non-granulomatous disease or tuberculosis from sarcoidosis. Results Comparison of lymph node genome‑wide transcriptional profiles by principal component analysis revealed clear differences between granulomatous and non-granulomatous disease. Granulomatous profiles showed significant enrichment for genes involved in antigen presentation, inflammatory responses, innate immune responses and T cell activation, in keeping with the processes involved in granuloma generation. As expected, sarcoidosis and tuberculosis sample profiles were very similar, however, significant gene expression differences were still evident between these two groups. In particular, several genes related to development of granuloma architecture were more highly expressed in sarcoidosis samples. Next we used machine learning tools in order to test the discriminatory power of differentially expressed gene signatures and found that the support vector machines algorithm correctly classified up to 97% of granulomatous and non-granulomatous disease cases. Importantly, this technique successfully distinguished sarcoidosis from tuberculosis in up to 100% cases. Conclusions Transcriptomic analysis of lymph node samples from the site of disease identifies gene signatures that can reliably distinguish tuberculosis from sarcoidosis using computational classification tools. Our data highlight the superior discriminatory power of multiple gene expression differences over a single marker in complex disease and generate a pathway for biomarker discovery in the management of tuberculosis and sarcoidosis.


Mangosteen has several important elements for biological activities such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer. There are γ-mangostin, α-mangostin, flavonoids, saponins, and tannins which could stimulate the collagen deposition and accelerate wound healing process. Burn injury cause deep wound in the skin and often cause cicatrix and keloid scar on the skin. However, there is limited information about role of mangosteen in skin wound healing after burn injury. Fifty 10 week-old male rats, were subjected to burn injury using automatic temperature control. Burn injury was created by direct contact of hot plate (170°C) for 15 seconds on rats' inter scapula region. We elaborated the role of extract mangosteen in skin wound healing by applying daily gel contain with active compound derived from mangosteen. There was no significant weight change during treatment period. We observed that there was significant increase of Epidermal Growth Factors (EGF) expression in 14 as shown in immunohistochemistry and confirmed by western blot protein results. Taken together, mangosteen peel extract-mediated changes in the expression of growth factors in burned rat skins. Mangosteen peel extract might have a role in the acceleration of skin wound healing.


This paper deals with the classical problem of transmission-reflection and modes conversion due to the presence of acoustic liners in duct. The model consists of an infinite rectangular duct with an unlined and lined section. The approach is based on the modal calculation of the total acoustic sound power in a duct by the determination of the modal coefficients of the transmitted waves at the impedance discontinuity junction. For a given propagating mode (plane wave or higher order mode), incident from the rigid duct, the total sound power is calculated in the lined section by summing the acoustic power over all generated modes. The example studied here shows how the conversion affects the nature of the incident mode as a function of the admittance of the liner, frequency and mode number. It also allows for the quantification of the attenuation provided by an acoustic duct liner.