Computers still have a long way to go before they can interact with users in a truly natural fashion. From a users perspective, the most natural way to interact with a computer would be through a speech and gesture interface. Although speech recognition has made significant advances in the past ten years, gesture recognition has been lagging behind. Sign Languages (SL) are the most accomplished forms of gestural communication. Therefore, their automatic analysis is a real challenge, which is interestingly implied to their lexical and syntactic organization levels. Statements dealing with sign language occupy a significant interest in the Automatic Natural Language Processing (ANLP) domain. In this work, we are dealing with sign language recognition, in particular of French Sign Language (FSL). FSL has its own specificities, such as the simultaneity of several parameters, the important role of the facial expression or movement and the use of space for the proper utterance organization. Unlike speech recognition, Frensh sign language (FSL) events occur both sequentially and simultaneously. Thus, the computational processing of FSL is too complex than the spoken languages. We present a novel approach based on HMM to reduce the recognition complexity.


The assessment of credit risk of real-estate of Chinese banks has become a hot point nowadays. The daily ripening neural network technique has opened up a new idea for experts in fields of bank credit and credit evaluation. In this paper, BP-neural network technique is used in the evaluation of credit risk of real-estate in Chinese banks, and then tested with samples of listed real estate agencies. Results show that BP-neural network technique has superiority over other traditional models in quantizing and classifying gross risk of real estate agencies.


ABSTRACT The effectiveness of passive, covert, and overt methods of student response in individual television instruction was investigated. Students were classified on the basis of high and low achievers, then randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. Group 1 (passive) was given conventional television instruction without opportunity to respond during the instruction. Group 2 (covert) was given multiple-choice recall questions during the instruction and asked to make a mental selection of the correct answers. Groups 3 and 4 (both overt) were also given questions during the instruction and asked to actively select the correct answers. A two -way analysis of variance of the criterion test scores revealed significant differences on both the posttest and the delayed retention test. On the posttest, significant differences were found between the passive group and each of the three student response groups in both achievement levels. However, no significant differences were found among the three student response groups. On the retention test given one week later, low achievers in the covert group obtained significantly higher scores than the low achievers in the passive group. These findings, in favor of student response in individual television instruction, support the related research which has generally found student response superior in group instruction. They also support the concept that retention seems to be influenced more by the initial level of learning than by the method. (Author/BJG)


Objectives: The paper presents the results of an ecological-economic approach to identifying community-level factors that influence the physical growth of young children. Design: A cross-sectional design was used to obtain both the anthropometry and the ecological-economic data. Setting: The sites were 24 communities located in a tea plantation near Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Subjects: 415 children between the ages of 6 and 18 months living in the 24 communities. Methods: Epidemiological and ethnographic methods were used to measure community infrastructure and services related to child growth. Anthropometry was used to measure child growth. Econometric methods, including probit and ordinary least squares regression, were used to analyze the effect of community-level factors on child growth. Results: Community vaccination programs, child care services, environmental sanitation and latrines were associated with better child growth. We concluded that community-level goods and services substantially contributed to health in early childhood.


Abstract. Conservation programs for threatened species are greatly benefiting from genetic data, for their power in providing knowledge of dispersal/gene flow across fragmented landscapes and for identifying populations of high conservation value. The endangered southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus obesulus) has a disjunct distribution range in South Australia, raising the possibility that populations of the subspecies may represent distinct conservation units. In the current study, we used a combination of 14 microsatellite and two mitochondrial sequence markers to investigate the phylogeography and population structure of I. o. obesulus in South Australia and south-western Victoria, with the aim of identifying any potential evolutionarily significant units and management units relevant to conservation management. Our phylogenetic/population analyses supported the presence of two distinct evolutionary lineages of I. o. obesulus. The first lineage comprised individuals from the Mount Lofty Ranges, Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. A second lineage comprised individuals from the south-east of South Australia and south-western Victoria. We propose that these two lineages represent distinct evolutionarily significant units and should be managed separately for conservation purposes. The findings also raise significant issues for the national conservation status of I. o. obesulus and suggest that the current subspecies classification needs further investigation.


ABSTRACT Few studies, particularly few qualitative studies, have focused on the family and social contexts of young people with harmful sexual behaviours. This article, therefore, seeks to provide insight into the more detailed, lived experience of this group of young people. The article involved a thematic analysis of 117 cases, identified from nine services that work with children with sexual behaviour problems. While a number of young people were from stable backgrounds, others were from highly disrupted sociological situations characterised by chaotic families, erratic living situations, poor family relationships, unstable parental backgrounds, generalised neglect and abuse, sexual abuse and school/social problems. Many of these young people's lives appear to be characterised by varying degrees of liminality and chaos. Such chaos may not only be traumatic, it may potentially be traumagenic, and contribute to the emergence of sexual behaviour problems in some young people.


Pregnancy Specific β1 Glycoprotein (PSβ1G), human choriogonadotropin (hCG), α foeto protein (AFP) and Carcino Embryonic Antigen (CEA) were assayed in 58 patients with active germ cell tumors and 20 patients in complete clinical and radiological remission. The markers were negative in all the cases in remission as well as in one case of pure teratoma. The positivity rate of the four markers together is 76%, which is better than for any marker alone. All the markers except AFP seem ubiquitous with respect to the histological classification. The highest positivity rate is obtained for hCG in all the histological types. PSβ1G is related to hCG but its positivity rate is quite lower. AFP is mainly related to embryonal carcinoma but can be associated with any type of tumor except seminoma. CEA is less frequently positive, always associated with other markers and seems therefore useless for the diagnosis of germ cell tumors.


The study aimed at assessing the effect of leadership styles on employees' performance at Bank of Africa, Kenya. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different leadership styles (transformational, transactional, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles) on employees' performance of employees. A cross section descriptive survey research strategy was adopted in which 80 usable structured questionnaires were collected from 300 questionnaires distributed. The leadership styles were measured through the Multi factor Leadership Questionnaire developed by Avolio and Bass (1995), modified to fit the context of the study. Employee performance was measured by the scale of Yousef (2000). Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used for data analysis. In inferential statistics, Pearson's correlation and regression analysis were used to assess both relationships and effects as per the hypotheses of the study. The findings show that transformational leadership style is the most exhibited style at the bank followed by the transactional leadership style and laissez-faire. Employee performance is above average. Overall, scores in transformational leadership style were found to be strongly correlated with both measures of employee performance and overall performance except for the intellectual simulation dimension, which had insignificant positive correlation with quality of performance. Transactional
leadership style was found to be positively correlated with both measures of
employee performance as well as overall performance. However, contingent rewards had a negative but insignificant correlation with performance while management by exception had insignificant positive correlations. Authoritative leadership style had insignificant relationship while laissez faire style had insignificant positive correlation. The results suggest that supervisors in organizations need to use a lot of
transformational leadership behaviors or rather embrace transformational leadership style, but not laissez-faire leadership. From the results, transformational leadership
could have greater effects on employee productivity and quality of performance. It is recommended therefore that Transformational and transactional leaderships are the
most effective leadership styles.

Key words: leadership style, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, authoritative leadership, laissez fare leadership, employee performance, job performance, banking, Kenya.


The present thesis explores two different application areas of combinatorial optimization, the work presented, indeed, is two fold, since it deals with two distinct problems, one related to data transfer in networks and the other to object recognition. Caching is an essential technique to improve throughput and latency in a vast variety of applications. The core idea is to duplicate content in memories distributed across the network, which can then be exploited to deliver requested content with less congestion and delay. In particular, it has been shown that the use of caching together with smart offloading strategies in a RAN composed of evolved NodeBs (eNBs), AP (e.g., WiFi), and UEs, can significantly reduce the backhaul traffic and service latency. The traditional role of cache memories is to deliver the maximal amount of requested content locally rather than from a remote server. While this approach is optimal for single-cache systems, it has recently been shown to be, in general, significantly suboptimal for systems with multiple caches (i.e., cache networks) since it allows only additive caching gain, while instead, cache memories should be used to enable a multiplicative caching gain. Recent studies have shown that storing different portions of the content across the wireless network caches and capitalizing on the spatial reuse of device-to-device (D2D) communications, or exploiting globally cached information in order to multicast coded messages simultaneously useful to a large number of users, enables a global caching gain. We focus on the case of a single server (e.g., a base station) and multiple users, each of which caches segments of files in a finite library. Each user requests one (whole) file in the library and the server sends a common coded multicast message to satisfy all users at once. The problem consists of finding the smallest possible codeword length to satisfy such requests. To solve this problem we present two achievable caching and coded delivery scheme, and one correlation-aware caching scheme, each of them is based on a heuristic polynomial-time coloring algorithm. Automatic object recognition has become, over the last decades, a central toping the in the artificial intelligence research, with a a significant burt over the last new year with the advent of the deep learning paradigm. In this context, the objective of the work discussed in the last two chapter of this thesis is an attempt at improving the performance of a natural images classifier introducing in the loop knowledge coming from the real world, expressed in terms of probability of a set of spatial relations between the objects in the images. In different words, the framework presented in this work aims at integrating the output of standard classifiers on different image parts with some domain knowledge, encoded in a probabilistic ontology.


Parkinson's disease is neurodegenerative disorder with an initial robust response to levodopa. As the disease progresses, patients frequently develop dyskinesia and motor fluctuations, which are sometimes resistant to pharmacological therapy. In recent years, abnormalities in gut microbiota have been identified in these patients with a possible role in motor manifestations. Dysbiosis may reduce levodopa absorption leading to delayed "On" or "no-On" states. Among 84 consecutive patients with PD, we selected 14 with levodopa-induced dyskinesia and motor fluctuations with a Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part IV ≥ 8 points following a trial of pharmacological adjustment 2–3 months prior to study enrollment or adjustments in deep brain stimulation therapy. Patients received treatment with sodium phosphate enema followed by oral rifaximin and polyethylene glycol for 7 and 10 days, respectively. Evaluations between 14 to 21 days after starting treatment showed improvement in MDS-UPDRS-IV (P = 0.001), including duration (P = 0.001) and severity of dyskinesia (P = 0.003); duration of medication "Off"-state (P = 0.004); functional impact of motor fluctuations (P = 0.047) and complexity of motor fluctuations (P = 0.031); no statistical improvement was observed in "Off" dystonia (P = 0.109) and total motor scores (P = 0.430). Marked to moderate improvement in dyskinesia was observed in 57% of cases with blinded evaluation of videos. About 80% of patients perceived moderate to robust improvement at follow-up. A therapeutic strategy aimed at decontamination of intestines showed benefit in motor fluctuations and dyskinesia. Further studies should confirm and clarify the mechanism of improvement observed in these patients.


High quality, reference measurements of chemical and physical properties of seawater are of great importance for a wide research community, including the need to validate models and attempts to quantify spatial and temporal variability. Whereas data precision has been improved by technological advances, the data accuracy has improved mainly by the use of certified reference materials (CRMs). However, since CRMs are not available for all variables, and use of CRMs does not guarantee bias‐free data, we here present a recently developed Matlab toolbox for performing so‐called secondary quality control on oceanographic data by the use of crossover analysis. This method and how it has been implemented in this toolbox is described in detail. This toolbox is developed mainly for use by sea‐going scientists as a tool for quickly assessing possible bias in the measurements that can—hopefully—be remedied during the expedition, but also for possible post‐cruise adjustment of data to be consistent with previous measurements in the region. The toolbox, and reference data, can be downloaded from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC): http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/oceans/2nd_QC_Tool_V2/.


The main objective of this article is to demonstrate why despite the growing interest in justifying AI's trustworthiness, one can argue for AI's reliability. By analyzing why trustworthiness ethics in Nickel's sense provides some wellgrounded hints for rethinking the rational, affective and normative accounts of trust in respect to AI, I examine some concerns about the trustworthiness of Savulescu and Maslen's model of moral AI as an adviser. Specifically, I tackle one of its exemplifications regarding Klincewicz's hypothetical scenario of John which is refracted through the lens of the HLEG's fifth requirement of trustworthy artificial intelligence (TAI), namely, that of Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness.


Inclusion of crude fiber in diet is important for duck growth, but there is a limit in its use in order for the ducks to grow normally. The purpose of this study was to evaluate growth and carcass production responses of EPMp broiler ducks under different levels of crude fiber and protein in diets. Four hundreds and twenty day old ducklings were allocated into 7 treatments with 6 replications and each replication consisted of 10 ducks. The treatments were the factorial combinations of crude fiber content of 6 or 9% and protein content of 19, 21, or 23%; and BR-1 (starter diet) as positive control. The variables observed were: feed intake, weekly body weight, and percentage of carcass production. The results showed that all variables observed were not significantly affected by CF content, but highly significantly affected by crude protein levels in diet. Protein content of 19 or 21% in diet resulted in a better performance for EPMp ducks. The inclusion of high CF in diet did not affect carcass percentage, except for reduced abdominal fat. The study implies that administration of high CF (6 or 9%) with a protein content of 19 or 21% in the diet are still acceptable to EPMp ducks at 12 weeks


Karyotypic study of nine populations belonging to five Festuca species showed chromosome numbers of 2n = 2x = 14, 2n = 4x = 28 and 2n = 6x = 42. The chromosome number of F. elwendiana is reported for the first time. The chromosomes were mostly metacentric and sub-metacentric. Significant differences in the size of chromosomes and their arm ratios indicated the occurrence of quantitative changes in the chromatin (DNA) material during species diversification. The species also differed in their karyotypic formulae possibly due to the occurrence of chromosome structural changes. The karyotypic data and meiotic characteristics of the species were used for multivariate analysis, which partly supports taxonomic treatment of the genus Festuca in the flora of Iran.


Using the standard truncated Painlevé expansion, the residual symmetry of the (2+1)-dimensional modified dispersive water-wave system is localized in the properly prolonged system with the Lie point symmetry vector. Some different transformation invariances are derived by utilizing the obtained symmetries. The symmetries of the system are also derived through the Clarkson–Kruskal direct method, and several types of explicit reduction solutions relate to the trigonometric or the hyperbolic functions are obtained. Finally, some special solitons are depicted from one of the solutions.


The extent and mechanism of the cardiac benefit of early exercise training following myocardial infarction (MI) is incompletely understood, but may involve blunting of abnormalities in Ca2+-handling and myofilament function. Consequently, we investigated the effects of 8-weeks of voluntary exercise, started early after a large MI, on left ventricular (LV) remodeling and dysfunction in the mouse. Exercise had no effect on survival, MI size or LV dimensions, but improved LV fractional shortening from 8±1 to 12±1%, and LVdP/dtP30 from 5295±207 to 5794±207 mm Hg/s (both P<0.05), and reduced pulmonary congestion. These global effects of exercise were associated with normalization of the MI-induced increase in myofilament Ca2+-sensitivity (&Dgr;pCa50=0.037). This effect of exercise was PKA-mediated and likely because of improved &bgr;1-adrenergic signaling, as suggested by the increased &bgr;1-adrenoceptor protein (48%) and cAMP levels (36%; all P<0.05). Exercise prevented the MI-induced decreased maximum force generating capacity of skinned cardiomyocytes (Fmax increased from 14.3±0.7 to 18.3±0.8 kN/m2P<0.05), which was associated with enhanced shortening of unloaded intact cardiomyocytes (from 4.1±0.3 to 7.0±0.6%; P<0.05). Furthermore, exercise reduced diastolic Ca2+-concentrations (by ∼30%, P<0.05) despite the unchanged SERCA2a and PLB expression and PLB phosphorylation status. Importantly, exercise had no effect on Ca2+-transient amplitude, indicating that the improved LV and cardiomyocyte shortening were principally because of improved myofilament function. In conclusion, early exercise in mice after a large MI has no effect on LV remodeling, but attenuates global LV dysfunction. The latter can be explained by the exercise-induced improvement of myofilament function.


Prediction of human actions in social interactions has important applications in the design of social robots or artificial avatars. In this paper, we focus on a unimodal representation of interactions and propose to tackle interaction generation in a data-driven fashion. In particular, we model human interaction generation as a discrete multi-sequence generation problem and present SocialInteractionGAN, a novel adversarial architecture for conditional interaction generation. Our model builds on a recurrent encoder-decoder generator network and a dual-stream discriminator, that jointly evaluates the realism of interactions and individual action sequences and operates at different time scales. Crucially, contextual information on interacting participants is shared among agents and reinjected in both the generation and the discriminator evaluation processes. Experiments show that albeit dealing with low dimensional data, SocialInteractionGAN succeeds in producing high realism action sequences of interacting people, comparing favorably to a diversity of recurrent and convolutional discriminator baselines, and we argue that this work will constitute a first stone towards higher dimensional and multimodal interaction generation. Evaluations are conducted using classical GAN metrics, that we specifically adapt for discrete sequential data. Our model is shown to properly learn the dynamics of interaction sequences, while exploiting the full range of available actions.


Although many critical roles of the RUNX family proteins have already been identified, little attention has been given to how these proteins interact with other factors. Elucidating RUNX protein interactions will help extend our understanding of their roles in normal development and tumorigenesis. In this study, we performed large-scale RNAi screening to identify genes that genetically interact with rnt-1, the sole homolog of RUNX protein in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. To this end, we took advantage of the fact that C. elegans can survive a severe loss of RNT-1 function with only mild phenotypes, and we looked for genes that caused a synthetic phenotype in the rnt-1 mutant background. We identified seven genes, three of which (cdk-8, cic-1, and sur-2) are involved in transcription, two of which (pgp-2 and cct-5) are involved in stress response, and two of which (D2045.7 and W09D10.4) are involved in signaling cascades, according to their functional gene ontology terms. We further confirmed that the CDK8-containing mediator complex genetically interacts with RNT-1 by showing that knockdown of each component of the CDK8 mediator complex caused a synthetic phenotype, that is, the exploded intestine through the vulva (Eiv) phenotype, in the rnt-1 mutant background. We also identified a putative target gene, acs-4, which is regulated by the RNT-1 and CDK8 mediator complex. Our results strengthen the notion that the CDK8 mediator complex may also act together with RUNX proteins in mammals.


In this paper, we extend the cubature Kalman filter (CKF) to deal with nonlinear state-space models of the continuous-discrete kind. To be consistent with the literature, the resulting nonlinear filter is referred to as the continuous-discrete cubature Kalman filter (CD-CKF). We use the Itô-Taylor expansion of order 1.5 to transform the process equation, modeled in the form of stochastic ordinary differential equations, into a set of stochastic difference equations. Building on this transformation and assuming that all conditional densities are Gaussian-distributed, the solution to the Bayesian filter reduces to the problem of how to compute Gaussian-weighted integrals. To numerically compute the integrals, we use the third-degree cubature rule. For a reliable implementation of the CD-CKF in a finite word-length machine, it is structurally modified to propagate the square-roots of the covariance matrices. The reliability and accuracy of the square-root version of the CD-CKF are tested in a case study that involves the use of a radar problem of practical significance; the problem considered herein is challenging in the context of radar in two respects- high dimensionality of the state and increasing degree of nonlinearity. The results, presented herein, indicate that the CD-CKF markedly outperforms existing continuous-discrete filters.


The new Millennium brings a new breed of low vision assistive technology--some of it straight out of science fiction--and a surge in patients who can benefit from it.


The aspartate carbamoyltransferase (ATCase) genes of psychrophilic Vibrio strain 2693 were cloned by complementation in Escherichia coli and the enzyme was partly characterized. The genes constitute a pyrBI operon homologous to the cognate structure in E. coli where pyrB and pyrI respectively encode the catalytic and the regulatory chains of ATCase. The strong sequence similarities noted between Vibrio and E. coli ATCases include extensive conservation of residues involved in interactions between subunits, suggesting that the two enzymes have very similar tertiary and quaternary structures. Vibrio ATCase is, however, not activated by ATP and not synergistically inhibited by CTP and UTP. It is also much more thermolabile than E. coli ATCase. With respect to Pyrococcus abyssi and E. coli ATCases, Vibrio ATCase presents marked differences in composition which could be related to its psychrophilic character. The results of these structural and functional comparisons indicate that Vibrio 2693 ATCase is a suitable model for biochemical studies on structure-function relationships in a 'cold' allosteric enzyme. The operon is expressed from a promoter which is immediately followed by a pyrimidine-rich leader ORF terminating within a putative transcription attenuator. These genetic and enzymic data strengthen the evolutionary relationship already noted between Vibrionaceae and Enterobacteriaceae.


Society is under constant development and it directly entails greater comfort demands for daily activities; these demands are reflected in a continuous increase of energy consumption that is used to satisfy them. According to EU policies to reduce emissions of greenhouse effect gases and considering that the building sector in Spain consumes almost 20% of total primary energy, new solutions are required to be applied in the existing buildings, given that using passive architectural systems can reduce up to 75% of energy building demands. In this context, this project focuses in the study and quantification of the energy performance of the building systems and construction elements. Two methods lead to this quantification: energy dynamic simulation with PC software and energy monitoring in eeLAB laboratory. Comparing real data with simulation data will help to know both possible deviations of in situ test – due, for example, to small deviations in measuring instrumentation, as the limits or fluctuations in the software simulation results. To obtain real data, a proper enclosure was developed for data gathering (eeLAB) as a test equipment based on an open wireless protocol, which allows it to be easily implemented. The analysis of data obtained from the two methods will allow us to parameterize energetically the building systems most commonly used in construction. This quantification will provide the different agents of building process with objective criteria for selecting building products and building systems more energetically efficient and appropriate for each location and orientation of the building.


Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a major indicator of soil health. Globally, soil contains approximately 2344 Gt of organic carbon (OC), which is the largest terrestrial pool of OC. Through plant growth, soil health is connected with the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems. Provides ecosystem services which include climate regulation, water supplies and regulation, nutrient cycling, erosion protection and enhancement of biodiversity. Global increase in land use change from natural vegetation to agricultural land has been documented as a result of intensification of agricultural practices in response to an increasing human population. Consequently, these changes have resulted in depletion of SOC stock, thereby negatively affecting agricultural productivity and provision of ecosystem services. This necessitates the need to consider technological options that promote retention of SOC stocks. Options to enhance SOC include; no-tillage/conservation agriculture, irrigation, increasing below-ground inputs, organic amendments, and integrated, and diverse cropping/farming systems. In addition, land use conversion from cropland to its natural vegetation improves soil C stocks, highlighting the importance of increasing agricultural production per unit land instead of expanding agricultural land to natural areas.


Background and Objectives: To date, most trials in pediatric acute gastroenteritis have evaluated short-term clinical disease activity (eg, duration of diarrhea or vomiting, level of dehydration), laboratory outcomes (eg, rotavirus, norovirus), or a composite of these outcomes. Measuring health-related quality of life may also be important in evaluating the effect of interventions for acute gastroenteritis in children. The objectives of this study were to conduct individual interviews and, when possible, focus group discussions, with parents of children with acute gastroenteritis; to determine how parent and child quality of life is negatively affected by acute gastroenteritis; and, from the perspective of parents and children, to develop a conceptual framework for quality of life instrument specific to pediatric acute gastroenteritis. Methods: We conducted interviews and focus groups with parents of children (3 months–5 years of age) given a diagnosis of gastroenteritis in a hospital emergency department. Interviews and focus groups were conducted to determine the effect of gastroenteritis on quality of life in parents and children (as perceived by the parents). Results: Interviews and focus groups involving 25 parents suggested a conceptual framework that, for children, includes 2 domains (physical and emotional function) and 14 subdomains. For parents, our framework includes 3 domains (physical, emotional, and social function) with physical function including 4 subdomains, emotional function including 7 subdomains, and social function including 2 subdomains. The framework has been used to develop a preliminary quality of life questionnaire for parents and children. Conclusions: Acute gastroenteritis has an important adverse effect on health-related quality in both children and parents involving physical symptoms and restrictions in physical function and disturbed emotional function. Upon further research on the psychometric properties of the proposed questionnaires, future trials of effectiveness should consider measuring patient important outcomes such as health-related quality of life.


The maturation of the cortical gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) are described as sequential processes following multiple, but distinct rules. However, neither the mechanisms driving brain maturation processes, nor the relationship between GM and WM maturation are well understood. Here we use connectomics and two MRI measures reflecting maturation related changes in cerebral microstructure, namely the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) and the T1 relaxation time (T1), to study brain development. We report that the advancement of GM and WM maturation are inter-related and depend on the underlying brain connectivity architecture. Particularly, GM regions and their incident WM connections show corresponding maturation levels, which is also observed for GM regions connected through a WM tract. Based on these observations, we propose a simple computational model supporting a key role for the connectome in propagating maturation signals sequentially from external stimuli, through primary sensory structures to higher order functional cortices.


Advances in high throughput technologies, specially next-generation sequencing, have generated massive amounts of biological data. To take full advantage of these data and to extract as much information and knowledge from them as possible, we face many challenges. To help address and overcome these challenges and promote the application of informatics to translational research, we launched this special issue.

The biomedical data analyzed in this issue covers molecular, imaging, and clinical data. For instance, J. Shang et al. evaluated and compared multiple aligners for next-generation sequencing data, providing an important guide for biologists to select suitable aligners, and H. Li et al. proposed a method to identify mutated driver pathways in cancer. Y. Li et al. established a tissue type assignment method for glioblastoma multiforme by analyzing the magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging data and tissue distribution information. F. Liu et al. applied multiple technologies to integrate the clinical and genomic information and to investigate their association for facilitating the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer. X. Zhang et al. analyzed extensive clinical data, summarizing the disease spectrum, in China, and suggesting to pay more attention on disease prevention by promoting lifestyle changes.

In terms of translational research, two aspects, that is, biomarker discovery and drug design for diagnosis or treatment of diseases, were discussed based on computational studies. J. Huang and W. Yan identified micro-RNA biomarkers for sepsis and gastric cancer, based on miRNAs regulatory network analysis and systems biological approach, respectively. Y. Sun et al. successfully implemented big data technologies to a study of drug combinatorial effects. The Hadoop-based model showed higher efficiency and better performance than the traditional methods for the prediction of drug combination effects.

In this issue, we also compiled two technical works for biomedical data analysis. First is the work by H. Li et al., where they developed a hybrid support vector machine (SVM) model for privacy preserving data classification. The second is the work by J. Lei et al., where they made a systematic study on the usability of information technology, especially health information technologies, in China, by the analysis of publications during the past 30 years.

In addition to the analysis of static data, dynamic simulation is also important for biomedical data analysis. L. Jin performed a metadynamics simulation study of conformational transformation of HhaI methyltransferase and proposed that the induced fit model is necessary to understand the function of the studied molecule.

By launching this issue, we wish to give the readers a wider perspective on the future of data modeling and simulation and to leave the readers with the impression that informatics will be the key for successful translational research.

Bairong  Shen

Andrew  E.  Teschendorff

Degui  Zhi

Junfeng  Xia


ABSTRACT
 Schowalteria clemensi Fox and Naylor, from the latest Cretaceous lower Scollard Formation, Red Deer Valley, Alberta, is the only known Mesozoic member of the extinct mammalian order Taeniodonta. Schowalteria clemensi was originally classified in the derived family Stylinodontidae, but more recent studies employing computer-assisted phylogenetic and stratocladistic analyses of taeniodont interrelationships contend that S. clemensi is the basal taeniodont, whereas Onychodectes, long considered the basal taeniodont, is instead the sister group of stylinodontids alone. These studies, however, are deeply flawed, marred by selection of problematic outgroups, incorrect scoring of numerous character states and of the stratigraphic age of S. clemensi, omission of all stylinodontid-like characters of S. clemensi, and reliance on major, implausible reversals during early taeniodont history. The more recent of these analyses also examined the relationship of taeniodonts within Eutheria, but this data set includes 54 (61%) erroneous scores for S. clemensi, the only taeniodont in the analysis. Moreover, subsequently published errata introduced new errors into the analyses. Thus, the hypothesis that S. clemensi is the earliest discovered stylinodontid remains unrefuted by these studies: the earliest history of stylinodontids and that of more basal taeniodonts is still to be discovered, among species older than S. clemensi itself.


Dipeptidyl peptidase II (DPP II; EC 184.108.40.206) from rat kidney was purified to a specific activity of 65.4 micromol/min per mg of protein for Lys-Ala-beta-naphthylamide. The N-terminal and partial amino acid sequences of the enzyme were determined. The peptide sequences were used to identify expressed sequence tag (EST) clones. By using the cDNA fragment of one of the EST clones as a probe, we isolated a cDNA clone with 1710 bp encoding DPP II from a rat kidney cDNA library. The cDNA of rat DPP II contained an open reading frame of 1500 bp, coding for a protein of 500 amino acids. The first 10 residues of the purified enzyme matched the deduced protein sequence starting with residue 37, suggesting the presence of a signal peptide. The mature enzyme (464 residues) had a calculated molecular mass of 51400 Da, which was lower than the value (about 60000 Da) determined by SDS/PAGE; and the deduced amino acid sequence showed six potential N-glycosylation sites. The deduced amino acid sequence of rat DPP II shared high similarity with quiescent-cell proline dipeptidase (78% identity) and prolyl carboxypeptidase (38% identity) and bore the putative catalytic triad (Ser, Asp, His) conserved in serine peptidase families. We transiently transfected COS-7 cells with pcDNA3.1 containing the cloned cDNA and obtained the overexpression of an immunoreactive protein (of about 60000 Da). The transfected cells showed Lys-Ala-methylcoumarinamide-hydrolysing activity that was 50 times higher than the control cells.


This paper proposes a systematic approach for identifying the perturbation parameter in singular perturbation analysis of aircraft optimal guidance, and in particular considers a family of problems related to aircraft energy climbs. It is first shown that for energy climbs that take place on a vertical plane the singular perturbation parameter can always be taken to be the maximum allowed longitudinal loading factor of the vehicle. Two time scale behavior is suggested according to whether this parameter is sufficiently less than one. The approach, which is based on a nondimensionalization of the equations of motion, is then used to evaluate the appropriateness of forced singular perturbation formulations used in the past for transport and fighter aircraft, and to assess the applicability of energy state approximations and singular perturbation analysis for airbreathing transatmospheric vehicles with hypersonic cruise and orbital capabilities. Introduction The methods of matched asymptotic analysis in singular perturbation theory are based on the presence of small parameters in the differential equations of motion which give rise to multiple time scale behavior. It has been noted by several authors 1.2 that, in spite of a wide number of papers attesting to the applicability of singular perturbation methods to optimization problems in aircraft flight mechanics, few have been successful in first casting the equations of motion in a singular perturbation form. A few notable exceptions are Refs. 1-4. In Ref. 1 two methods for time scale separation analysis are proposed to identify the proper assignment of state variables to various time scales. These methods are based on forming an estimate of the state variable speeds. In Ref. 2 a rescaling to nondimensional variables is recommended. However, it is noted that the proper scaling transformation is not obvious, even if the time scale separation of the variables is well known from analysis or experience. Both of these papers (and in particular Ref. 1) provide extensive references to earlier studies which employ so-caUed forced singular perturbation formulations, in which the perturbation parameter (say e), nominally equal to 1, is artificially introduced as a book keeping parameter in a formal expansion of the solution about e = 0. In particular, there exists a large number of publications on the optimization of aircraft energy climbs (see


This paper proposes the enhanced application of superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for the effective compensation of power fluctuations based on the interleaving technique. With increases in demand for renewable energy based photovoltaic (PV) generation system, the output power fluctuations from PV generation system due to sudden changes in environmental conditions can cause serious problems such as grid voltage and frequency variations. To solve this problem, the SMES system is applied with its superior characteristics with respect to high power density, fast response for charge and discharge operations, system efficiency, etc. In particular, the compensation capability is effectively improved by the proposed interleaving technique based on its parallel structure. The dynamic performance of the system designed using the proposed method is evaluated with several case studies through time-domain simulations.


The selective affinities that growth cones display for specific axonal surfaces give rise to stereotyped patterns of selective fasciculation. Previous studies on cell recognition by neuronal growth cones in the grasshopper embryo led to the proposal and initial experimental testing of the labeled-pathways hypothesis. Here we report on a further experimental analysis of this hypothesis, using the first 3 longitudinal axon fascicles, which initially contain only the axons of 7 identified neurons. We describe and experimentally test the selective affinity of the pCC growth cone for the MP1 and dMP2 axons in the MP1/dMP2 fascicle. The pCC growth cone appears to demonstrate an absolute, rather than hierarchical, preference for the MP1/dMP2 fascicle, as compared with other longitudinal axon fascicles, which supports the notion that the surfaces of the MP1 and dMP2 axons have some special distinguishing label that guides the pCC growth cone onto and along them.


Conventional power factor correction (PFC) single ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) suffers from high conduction loss at the input bridge diode. To solve this problem, a bridgeless SEPIC converter with ripple-free input current is proposed. In the proposed converter, the input bridge diode is removed and the conduction loss is reduced. In addition, the input current ripple is significantly reduced by utilizing an additional winding of the input inductor and an auxiliary capacitor. Similar to the conventional PFC SEPIC converter, the input current in a switching period is proportional to the input voltage and near unity power is achieved. The operational principles, steady-state analysis, and design equations of the proposed converter are described in detail. Experimental results from a 130W prototype at a constant switching frequency of 100 kHz are presented to verify the performance of the proposed converter.


ABSTRACT Johnson, D.R.; Fischbach, J.R., and Ortiz, D.S., 2013. Estimating surge-based flood risk with the coastal Louisiana risk assessment model. The Coastal Louisiana Risk Assessment model (CLARA) was designed to facilitate comparisons of current and future flood risk under a variety of protection system configurations in a wide range of environmental, operational, and economic uncertainties. It builds on previous studies of coastal risk by incorporating system fragility and a larger number of future scenarios than previously analyzed. Flood depths and direct economic damage from a wide range of simulated storm events are aggregated to produce a statistical summary of coastal risk under different assumptions about future conditions. CLARA's estimates of project-level effects on flood risk reduction were used as one of the key decision drivers in selecting the risk reduction projects included in the Master Plan. Depending on the scenario, the final alternative is projected to reduce expected annual damage by approximately 60 to 80% during the next 50 years relative to a future without action and, at the same time, balance other decision criteria.


Q-lumps associated with the noncommutative CP{sup N} model in 2+1 dimensions are constructed. These are solitonic configurations which are time dependent and rotate with constant angular frequency. Energy of the Q-lumps is E=2{pi}k+{alpha}|Q|, and we find that in a regime in which the noncommutativity parameter {theta} is related to the moduli determining the size of the lumps, it can be viewed to depend on {theta} via the Noether charge Q. We present a collective coordinate-type analysis signalling that CP{sup 1} Q-lumps remain stable under small radiative perturbations.


To prevent dust explosions, electrical equipment in Class II hazardous locations must have special construction features that meet rigid performance criteria. Dust-ignition-proof, dust-tight, and intrinsically safe are types of constructions used. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has developed construction and performance standards for these types of equipment. UL's hazardous location equipment test lab is a specially designed facility that provides separation of dust and explosion testing areas from laboratory personnel working areas. The lab has two dust test chambers for conducting dust penetration and dust blanket temperature tests. After each test setup is completed, testing is controlled remotely to protect lab personnel in case of a dust explosion. Testing is conducted using either grain or magnesium dust. Intrinsically safe equipment undergoes spark Ignition tests with a specially constructed switching mechanism. This paper describes Class II hazardous locations, types of protection used for equipment, and how electrical equipment tests are performed.


Advanced nanotechnology has been emerging rapidly in terms of novel hybrid nanomaterials that have found various applications in day-to-day life for the betterment of the public. Specifically, gold, iron, silica, hydroxy apatite, and layered double hydroxide based nanohybrids have shown tremendous progress in biomedical applications, including bio-imaging, therapeutic delivery and photothermal/dynamic therapy. Moreover, recent progress in up-conversion nanohybrid materials is also notable because they have excellent NIR imaging capability along with therapeutic benefits which would be useful for treating deep-rooted tumor tissues. Our present review highlights recent developments in inorganic–inorganic nanohybrids, and their applications in bio-imaging, drug delivery, and photo-therapy. In addition, their future scope is also discussed in detail.


Certain groups are more vulnerable to climate change than others and will likely feel its effects more severely. These groups include children, older adults, refugees, minoritized racial and ethnic groups, and people living in poverty. To safeguard vulnerable groups, their knowledge and perspectives need to be integrated into climate change adaptation planning. Institutions of higher education have many resources to contribute to this effort. To inform and promote engaged scholarship focusing on adaptation planning in collaboration with vulnerable groups, this research presents a case study evaluation of a project conducted by researchers at Antioch University New England with the older-adult community of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The evaluation explores attributes of the project that contributed to both positive outcomes and challenges. Key themes include the value of developing a primary partnership with a local organization, fostering an accessible and inclusive process, connecting subject matter with participants' concerns, using an iterative process to build capacity, collaborating with multiple other local organizations, recognizing ongoing community efforts, and generating initial actions. This evaluation also explores potential transferability to other contexts.


Purpose: To report a case of caruncular dacryops in a 58-year-old man that was excised in its entirety and to offer an immunohistopathologic analysis. Methods: Sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid–Schiff, and Grocott methenamine silver (the latter 2 for identification of mucus) were evaluated, and immunohistochemical investigations were performed using cytokeratin (CK) 7, CK14, CK17, and smooth muscle actin. Results: Histopathologic examination revealed a cystic dilation of the lacrimal gland ducts containing secretory globules. The ducts were composed of double-layered cuboidal epithelium with rare scattered goblet cells and interspersed prominent lobules of lacrimal gland tissue, diagnostic of dacryops. Immunohistochemistry of cystic ducts demonstrated a CK profile identical to that of the conjunctiva including the absence of a myoepithelium. Conclusions: This is the first case of an intact caruncular lacrimal ductal cyst (dacryops). A previous report documented a spontaneously collapsed cyst with extrusion of secretory globoid bodies into extracellular space that elicited a foreign body giant cell response.


We employ molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and experiment to investigate the structure, thermodynamics, and transport of N -methyl-N -butylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsufonyl)imide ([pyr14][TFSI]), N -methyl-N -propylpyrrolidinium bis(fluorosufonyl)imide ([pyr13][FSI]), and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium boron tetrafluoride ([EMIM][BF4]), as a function of Li-salt mole fraction (0.05 ≤ xLi+ ≤ 0.33) and temperature (298 K ≤ T ≤ 393 K). Structurally, Li+ is shown to be solvated by three anion neighbors in [pyr14][TFSI] and four anion neighbors in both [pyr13][FSI] and [EMIM][BF4], and at all levels of xLi+ we find the presence of lithium aggregates. Pulsed field gradient spin-echo NMR measurements of diffusion and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements of ionic conductivity are made for the neat ionic liquids as well as 0.5 molal solutions of Li-salt in the ionic liquids. Bulk ionic liquid properties (density, diffusion, viscosity, and ionic conductivity) are obtained with MD and show excellent agreement with experiment. While the diffusion exhibits a systematic decrease with increasing xLi+ , the contribution of Li + to ionic conductivity increases until reaching a saturation doping level of xLi+ = 0.10. Comparatively, the Li + conductivity of [pyr14][TFSI] is an order of magnitude lower than that of the other liquids, which range between 0.1-0.3 mS/cm. Our transport results also demonstrate the necessity of long MD simulation runs (∼ 200 ns) required to converge transport properties at room T . The differences in Li+ transport are reflected in the residence times of Li+ with the anions (τLi/−), which are revealed to be much larger for [pyr14][TFSI] (up to 100 ns at the highest doping levels) than in either [EMIM][BF4] or [pyr13][FSI]. Finally, to comment on the relative kinetics of Li+ transport in each liquid, we find that while the net motion of Li+ with its solvation shell (vehicular) significantly contributes to net diffusion in all liquids, the importance of transport through anion exchange (hopping) increases at high xLi+ and in liquids with large anions.


The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how Bolaget, a paper published by the Swedish alcohol monopoly retailer Systembolaget, constructs issues of alcohol in 18 preventive articles published between 2009 and 2012. More specifically the essay focuses on the consequences of alcohol, as well as its consumers and functions. Systembolaget is a distributor of alcohol and at the same time has an assignment by the state to reduce alcohol-related harm. This double role makes the alcohol prevention of Systembolaget, and their perspective on consequences, consumers and functions of alcohol, an interesting object of study. The theoretical and methodological basis is Fairclough's critical discourse analysis. The results show that a medical expertise is given the power to define the problems of alcohol. This has implications for the field of social work since it suggests that alcohol problems are mainly of physiological concern. Regarding drinking behavior, sobriety and moderation are two competing discourses; both are portrayed as desirable. Men's and women's drinking is problematized differently. A hegemonic discourse on gender, in which men and women are constructed as essentially different and men constitute the norm, is reproduced.


: The effect of deregulation of nuclear export mediated by exportin-1, with consequent cellular mislocalization of p33 ING1b , a member of the tumor suppressor gene family, has not been previously investigated in head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). We evaluated the effect of reversing cytoplasmic p33 ING1b localization through inhibition of exportin-1 by leptomycin B (LMB) and the effect of nuclear entrapment of p33 ING1b on molecular alterations in primary and metastatic HNSCC lines. The expression and location of exportin-1 and p33 ING1b were analyzed by a quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction PCR (qRT-PCR), a Western blot, and immunostaining. Cell proliferation and migration assays were conducted to determine the effect of exportin-1 inhibition on the cell lines. Exportin-1 was overexpressed in metastatic HNSCC, whereas p33 ING1b was poorly expressed. Exportin-1 inhibition induced nuclear entrapment and upregulation of p33 ING1b , extensive apoptosis, and growth arrest. It also suppressed cell migration. Cytoplasmic p33 ING1b -mediated regulation of cell growth and nuclear entrapment of p33 ING1b via inhibition of exportin-1 may be a key mechanism for inducing HNSCC apoptosis.


Most Neotropical Psittacidae have a diploid number of 2n = 70, and a dichotomy in chromosome patterns. Long-tailed species have biarmed macrochromosomes, while short-tailed species have telo/acrocentric macrochromosomes. However, the use of chromosome painting has demonstrated that karyotype evolution in Psittacidae includes a high number of inter/intrachromosomal rearrangements. To determine the phylogeny of long- and short-tailed species, and to propose a putative ancestral karyotype for this group, we constructed homology maps of Pyrrhura frontalis (PFR) and Amazona aestiva (AAE), belonging to the long- and short-tailed groups, respectively. Chromosomes were analyzed by conventional staining and fluorescent in situ hybridization using whole chromosome paints of Gallus gallus and Leucopternis albicollis. Conventional staining showed a karyotype with 2n = 70 in both species, with biarmed macrochromosomes in PFR and telo/acrocentric chromosomes in AAE. Comparison of the results with the putative avian ancestral karyotype (PAK) showed fusions in PFR of PAK1p/PAK4q (PFR1) and PAK6/PAK7 (PFR6) with a paracentric inversion in PFR6. However, in AAE, there was only the fusion between PAK6/7 (AAE7) with a paracentric inversion. Our results indicate that PFR retained a more basal karyotype than long-tailed species previously studied, and AAE a more basal karyotype for Neotropical Psittacidae analyzed so far.


Mice, rats, rabbits, finches, pigeons, and roosters were exposed to +Gz, minus Gz, and minus Gx inertial forces due to acceleration. The range of body weight of all animals was from 14 g to 1.6 kg. The magnitude of G and duration of exposure time were within 130 G and 20 min and the average rate of changes of G was 2.8 G/s. The G tolerances of these animals were compared with one another at 50% mortality. The tolerance of each species was expressed as the area under the tolerance curve. Changes of tolerance were obtained by the changes of direction of G force. The tolerance ratio of minus Gz to +Gz force was 0.58 and that of minus Gx to +Gz was 2.12. Body weight was inversely related to the threshold G-value at which animals are resistant to the prolonged acceleration.


In several Caribbean states, unregulated investment schemes grew quickly in recent years by claiming unusually high monthly returns and through a system of referrals by existing members. These are features shared with traditional Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes. This paper describes the growth of such schemes, their subsequent collapse, and the policy response of regulators, and presents key policy lessons. The analysis and recommendations draw on country experiences in the Caribbean, and in such diverse countries as the United States, Colombia, Lesotho, and Albania.


Abstract:  The continental deposits of the Cuyana Basin, western Argentina, have yielded the most diverse, but so far almost unstudied, Triassic ichthyofaunas of South America. Here, we review these faunas and show that only eight of the 29 named taxa can be considered valid, including the chondrostean Neochallaia, the acrolepid Challaia, Guaymayenia, a taxon of uncertain affinities, and five species of the perleidiform family Pseudobeaconiidae. The first three taxa most probably come from Middle Triassic sediments, while the pseudobeaconiids are of Late Triassic age. Other material, although not diagnostic, probably represents other species, and thus, the diversity of actinopterygians in the Cuyana basin is certainly higher than currently recognized. For the Late Triassic fish fauna, the absence of crown‐group neopterygians and a single record of a sarcopterygian is noteworthy and probably indicates some degree of endemism in this fauna, also supported by the high abundance of pseudobeaconiids, which are unknown from other areas. Furthermore, on the basis of the age indicated by the fishes and the available geological information, we discuss the age of the local fauna of the Cerro Bayo, close to the city of Mendoza, and the Agua de la Zorra Formation, Uspallata.


Aim To study the association between player characteristics, technical components of the game and the risk of match injuries during the 2017 Men's Handball World Championship. Methods Team physicians of the participating teams (n=24) were requested to provide injury report forms throughout the Men's Handball World Championship (France, January 2017). The individual time played, age, number of international matches played and all technical and penalty variables for each player were extracted from the official International Handball Federation (IHF) online database and used as risk factors in a general logistic linear model analysis. Results Of 387 players, 49 sustained one or more injuries (93 injuries in total). The total incidence of match injuries was 82.1 injuries per 1000 hours (95% CI 66.2 to 100.5), non-time-loss injury incidence was 40.6 injuries per 1000 hours (95% CI 29.3 to 54.9), while time-loss injury incidence was 30.9 injuries per 1000 hours (95% CI 21.5 to 42.9). Multivariate analysis showed that age (OR 1.1, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.18, p=0.011), player position (backs: OR 6.79, 95% CI 2.25 to 20.54, p=0.001; goalkeepers: OR 5.03, 95% CI 1.15 to 21.94, p=0.031) and 2 min suspensions (1–2 times: OR 2.77, 95% CI 1.27 to 6.04, p=0.011; 3 or more times: OR 2.66, 95% CI 1.18 to 6.38, p=0.029) were significant risk factors for getting injured during competition matches. Conclusion Age, player position (backs, goalkeepers) and 2 min suspensions were associated with match injury. Stricter rule enforcement should be considered to prevent match injuries in elite handball.


Objective Physical inactivity is a public health priority and embedding promotion of physical activity (PA) within healthcare systems is an important lever for change. Many factors influence PA promotion in routine healthcare practice; these include the PA habits of healthcare professionals and also their knowledge of the PA guidelines. Little is known about the extent to which PA is currently promoted in physiotherapy practice or the factors that influence it. Methods Following ethical approval, a cross-sectional survey of UK physiotherapists was conducted. Findings were analysed and reported in accordance with STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology) guidelines. Results There were 522 respondents, 514 of whom were physiotherapists. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents routinely discussed PA with patients and 68% routinely delivered brief interventions. Assessment of PA status was not routine practice, neither was signposting to further sources of PA support. Only 16% of respondents correctly answered questions about the content of the PA guidelines. Only 38% of respondents met current PA recommendations. Clinicians' PA levels were not associated with PA promotion activity. Conclusion Despite the promising finding that some form of PA promotion is integrated into most respondents' practice, we report a poor understanding of brief interventions and poor knowledge of the PA guidelines. Additionally, the majority of respondents were not sufficiently active to meet current PA recommendations.


This paper is devoted to the stochastic approximation of entropically regularized Wasserstein distances between two probability measures, also known as Sinkhorn divergences. The semi-dual formulation of such regularized optimal transportation problems can be rewritten as a non-strongly concave optimisation problem. It allows to implement a Robbins-Monro stochastic algorithm to estimate the Sinkhorn divergence using a sequence of data sampled from one of the two distributions. Our main contribution is to establish the almost sure convergence and the asymptotic normality of a new recursive estimator of the Sinkhorn divergence between two probability measures in the discrete and semi-discrete settings. We also study the rate of convergence of the expected excess risk of this estimator in the absence of strong concavity of the objective function. Numerical experiments on synthetic and real datasets are also provided to illustrate the usefulness of our approach for data analysis.


Peripheral nerve injury can lead to a persistent neuropathic pain state in which innocuous tactile stimulation elicits pain behavior (tactile allodynia). Spinal administration of the anticonvulsant gabapentin suppresses allodynia by an unknown mechanism. In vitro studies indicate that gabapentin binds to the alpha(2)delta-1 (hereafter referred to as alpha(2)delta) subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels. We hypothesized that nerve injury may result in altered alpha(2)delta subunit expression in spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and that this change may play a role in neuropathic pain processing. Using a rat neuropathic pain model in which gabapentin-sensitive tactile allodynia develops after tight ligation of the left fifth and sixth lumbar spinal nerves, we found a >17-fold, time-dependent increase in alpha(2)delta subunit expression in DRGs ipsilateral to the nerve injury. Marked alpha(2)delta subunit upregulation was also evident in rats with unilateral sciatic nerve crush, but not dorsal rhizotomy, indicating a peripheral origin of the expression regulation. The increased alpha(2)delta subunit expression preceded the allodynia onset and diminished in rats recovering from tactile allodynia. RNase protection experiments indicated that the DRG alpha(2)delta regulation was at the mRNA level. In contrast, calcium channel alpha(1B) and beta(3) subunit expression was not co-upregulated with the alpha(2)delta subunit after nerve injury. These data suggest that DRG alpha(2)delta regulation may play an unique role in neuroplasticity after peripheral nerve injury that may contribute to allodynia development.


A major accomplishment of the recently completed Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Program was the development of an ocean observing system to support seasonal-to-interannual climate studies. This paper reviews the scientific motivations for the development of that observing system, the technological advances that made it possible, and the scientific advances that resulted from the availability of a significantly expanded observational database. A primary phenomenological focus of TOGA was interannual variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system associated with El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO).Prior to the start of TOGA, our understanding of the physical processes responsible for the ENSO cycle was limited, our ability to monitor variability in the tropical oceans was primitive, and the capability to predict ENSO was nonexistent. TOGA therefore initiated and/or supported efforts to provide real-time measurements of the following key oceanographic variables: surface winds, sea surface temperature, subsurface temperature, sea level and ocean velocity. Specific in situ observational programs developed to provide these data sets included the Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean (TAO) array of moored buoys in the Pacific, a surface drifting buoy program, an island and coastal tide gauge network, and a volunteer observing ship network of expendable bathythermograph measurements. Complementing these in situ efforts were satellite missions which provided near-global coverage of surface winds, sea surface temperature, and sea level. These new TOGA data sets led to fundamental progress in our understanding of the physical processes responsible for ENSO and to the development of coupled ocean-atmosphere models for ENSO prediction.


Existing billion-scale nearest neighbor search systems have mostly been compared on a single dataset of a billion of SIFT vectors, where systems based on the Inverted Multi-Index (IMI) have been performing very well, achieving state-of-the-art recall in several milliseconds. SIFT-like descriptors, however, are quickly being replaced with descriptors based on deep neural networks (DNN) that provide better performance for many computer vision tasks. In this paper, we introduce a new dataset of one billion descriptors based on DNNs and reveal the relative inefficiency of IMI-based indexing for such descriptors compared to SIFT data. We then introduce two new indexing structures, the Non-Orthogonal Inverted Multi-Index (NO-IMI) and the Generalized Non-Orthogonal Inverted Multi-Index (GNO-IMI). We show that due to additional flexibility, the new structures are able to adapt to DNN descriptor distribution in a better way. In particular, extensive experiments on the new dataset demonstrate that these data structures provide considerably better trade-off between the speed of retrieval and recall, given similar amount of memory, as compared to the standard Inverted Multi-Index.


A four‐year, high‐resolution (<2 mo) record of mineralogical and isotopic (Sr and Nd) characteristics of mineral dust deposited at NorthGRIP confirms the seasonal variability in the eastern Asian source regions providing dust to northern Greenland at present. Comparison of the Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of the dust with those of potential source area samples from China and Mongolia support that the Takla Makan desert is the primary source, supplying most if not all of the mineral particles during the dusty spring season. A different source area, however, plays a role during most of year and during the low‐dust season (summer through winter) in particular. Inner Mongolian deserts of northern China, including the Tengger and the Mu Us, are likely candidates but the Mongolian Gobi is ruled out as a significant contributor to Greenland.


Energy, one of the fundamentals for economic growth is also one of the fundamental sources of pollutions, through its byproducts, as gases emissions; namely particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). OSU night market on Lokko street, is an old popular market at Klottey Korle constitution of Accra. OSU is a suburb of Accra in which the market is situated. In this market activities normally starts at 3 pm and climax around 9 pm and ends completely around 2 am. During this period mainly, foods are sold to people from all corner of Ghana. Most travellers, mostly drivers and official from government establishment troop there to buy food for the evening. The delicacy or tasty nature of the food attracts people to the market. Food cooked and sold in the market are mainly, kenkey, rice, kelewele, fried yam, fufu, and porridge. Fish and meat like pork are also smoked and sold in the market to go with some of the food sold. It is the cooking and smoking with inefficient cookstove and smoking ovens in the market that causes the air pollution during trading activities. Firstly, a survey cookstoves, smoking oven and positions for taking air pollution measurement were marked. Air pollution levels were measured before and after interventions, and levels of carbon footprint recorded. New clean cookstoves and fish smoking oven with efficiency of 60% and fuel reduction of 66.66% were installed together with huge chimneys to direct the smoke away into the atmosphere. From our findings there was a rise in particulate matter from 820 ug/m 3 to 8024 ug/m 3 before the installation of the clean cookstoves and then decline from 8024 ug/m 3 to 35 ug/m 3 after the installation of the clean cookstoves. After the intervention the average PM2.5 reduced from 1821.625 ug/m3 to 494.75 ug/m 3 and that of Carbon monoxide reduced from 12.96 ppm to 2.575 ppm.


Electron-beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) is widely used for the application of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to turbine blades in jet engines. An emerging method, plasma-spray physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD), is a hybrid technique whereby coatings can be applied via the liquid phase to form lamellar microstructures or via the vapor to form columnar microstructures similar to that of EB-PVD. In this study, PS-PVD and conventional EB-PVD coated samples of a columnar configuration were prepared and thermally cycled to 300 and 600 cycles. These samples were subsequently characterized in-situ, under thermal load using synchrotron x-rays. From the high-resolution x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, the residual and in-situ strain in the TGO layer was obtained during a thermal cycle. At high temperature, the TGO layer for both deposition methods displayed a constant near zero-strain for all samples as anticipated. In the samples with 300 thermal cycles, both deposition methods showed similar strain profiles in the TGO layer. For samples with 600 cycles, PS-PVD samples showed a more significant strain relief in the TGO at room temperature compared to similarly cycled EB-PVD samples. This could explain the coating lifetime performance between the two deposition methods. The findings support ongoing efforts to tune the manufacturing of PS-PVD coatings towards the goal of meeting or exceeding the performance of currently used coatings on jet engines. This will pave the way for more affordable high temperature coating alternatives that meet durability needs.


What are the differences between experiences that people consider spiritual and experiences that they consider enjoyable? Participants were asked to provide autobiographical narratives of either spiritual or enjoyable experiences, and the two types of narratives were compared. In Study 1 (n = 142), the differences between the narratives was established via judge-based thematic content analysis. In Study 2 (n = 174), differences were established by the use of linguistic analysis software. Across both studies, spiritual experiences were more likely to involve tragedy and less likely to mention social relationships or materialistic pursuits. Hence, spiritual experiences are described as triggered by tragedy, reflect greater social isolation, and less materialistic than enjoyable experiences.


Understanding how visitors to marine protected areas connect with, and use, the natural environment is critical to their successful management. Visitors are attracted to particular natural resources (i.e. sheltered beaches, spectacular coral viewing and fishing opportunities) and access them via nodes of coastal infrastructure and travel networks. Defining the travel networks of visitors is one objective of a project mapping human use in the Ningaloo Marine Park (NMP). The NMP encompasses a diverse fringing coral reef system extending ~ 300 km along the coast of north-western Australia. Over 12-months, face-to-face interviews were conducted with > 1 200 recreational participants to collect information about their movements to, and within, the NMP. All data were geo-referenced and entered into a Geographic Information System. Three types of networks were defined: (1) travel from accommodation to (or within) the NMP for shore and boat-based recreation, (2) travel from beach access points for shore recreation and (3) travel from a launch site for boat-based recreation. For shore-based recreation, visitors travelled a median of 6.8 km from accommodation but only walked 0.1 km from their beach access point. In contrast, for boat-based recreation, interviewees travelled a median of 1.8 km to their launch site but motored 4.6 km to their recreation site. The results highlight strong clustering at coastal access points with rapid distance decay. There are several implications for planning and management of the NMP which are derived from the disjunct, node-focused nature of visitor use. For example, any provision of coastal access will have dramatic effects in terms of concentrating visitor use in that locale which can lead to overcrowding and habitat degradation. This is especially pertinent for sanctuary zones. A clear understanding of both marine and terrestrial travel networks can thus allow managers to focus their attention and resources in appropriate areas.


The rate equations of passively Q-switched lasers are considered. These equations represent the dynamics of the photon number in the laser cavity, the population inversion of the laser, and the ground-state population of the saturable absorber when excited by an input (pumping rate). In this work it is shown that for bounded inputs, the laser output is bounded. Furthermore, it is shown that when the input is switched off, the laser output converges to zero asymptotically. These stability results show that passively Q-switched lasers can operate safely.


In the foregoing description I have confined my remarks to the rightside of the skull. The observer will not fail to notice from the figures the disparities existing in the two sides. This asymmetryis particularly conspicuous ventrally, the region from which Huxley principally deduced the arguments in support of his more important speculations. The area of dislocation, the centre of which apparently lies in the crater-like opening of the left prtesplenial, extends from the left prasruaxillary to the pterygoid in the skull, and as far as the splenial on the lower jaw. Its place of greatest intensity has beenmarked by a + on the figure, where not only the surface of the bones is most damaged, but where the mandible has been so much compressed that a crest has actually been formed below the row of teeth on its outer wall.


Following-up on an ITC 2006 paper, "From RF to bits with Synthetic Beamforming", we follow the development and fielding of a Digital Beamforming (DBF) Antenna. This antenna, built for an airborne Telemetry application, supports 10 individual polarization-diverse beams and immediately converts RF to IF at the antenna element through a suite of LNBs. The IF is then digitized and all subsequent processing is performed through an array of 200+ FPGAs, including DBF, optimal combining, demodulation, and IF upconversion. We present our Model-Based Design approach, which allowed us to develop and test the system incrementally and rapidly, particularly during the transition from factory testing to flight operations, where several unexpected problems were discovered. Our software tool set enabled us to dissect the System behavior via post-mission replay, and our detailed simulations were instrumental in developing mitigation quickly. The System-level impacts and root causes of some of these issues are also discussed. We believe the flexibility of DBF and the modular software architecture were key in quickly mitigating many of these unforeseen real-world issues without hardware modification.


At the end of treatment with extraction, it is often found root paralleling problem on upper second insicive, lower premolar and adjacent teeth of extraction. This caused by failure of angulation correction on finishing stage. Objective : To describe whether any differences in angulation of teeth after treatment with extraction and without extraction of patients treated in Orthodontic Clinic, RSGM FKGUI. Material and methods : The angulation measurement is done by using Ursi methode on panoramic radigraphic. Result : Based on independent t test analysis, there were a significant differences (p<0.05) between tooth angulation after orthodontic treatment with extraction and without extraction on upper right second premolar and upper left canine, also on lower right canine and lower left second premolar, whereas there are no difference. Conclusion : It appeared that, tooth angulation after orthodontic treatment has a significant differences between extraction case and non extraction case (adjacent teeth of extraction). Panoramic radiograph required before finishing stage to evaluate tooth angulation and root parallelism for increase stability after orthodontic treatment. DOI:  10.14693/jdi.v16i1.16


The roles of maternal age and experience, on the one hand, and individual, year and random effects on the other, in influencing avian egg-size and hatching success have been much debated but seldom studied comprehensively. We investigated these topics with Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans of known age (7–30 years) and experience (1–8 breeding attempts) over a 10-year period. Older and more experienced birds laid larger eggs. After allowing for year and controlling for experience, significant age effects remained; after controlling for age, no detectable experience effects remained. However, age accounted for only 6% of the overall egg-size variation. Egg-size varied significantly between years and has increased over the last decade. Individuals laid eggs of consistent sizes; 55% of the random variation in egg-weight was due to such effects. Egg- and hatchling-weight were very closely linked; larger eggs also had higher hatching success. The latter was influenced significantly by age and experience but neither remained significant after controlling for the other. Year effects were also detectable.

That there are significant effects of age, experience, year and individual on egg-weight (and hatching success) is probably typical of seabirds generally, though with different balances between factors depending on species and situation; however, insufficient data exist to examine this critically. Our finding that age was a more important influence than breeding experience does not support recent suggestions that hatching success is mainly influenced by experience and that experience will have a greater effect on reproductive success in long-lived species with high mate-fidelity. However, Wandering Albatrosses may have acquired much relevant experience before even starting to breed.


Purpose: Big data, a buzzword of the present time, is a term used for extremly large data sets generated from the digital process which is not possible to analyze by traditional methods. These data sets are produced by digital devices such as smart phones, remote sensing, camera, microphones, RFID etc. The literature on big data is growing exponentially since 2011. Big data is tending to establish as a very important research field. This paper aims to explore the evolution, growth and scientific collaboration of the Indian publications in the field of big data. Design/methodology/approach: A survey approach is used in the study while data for the study is collected from Scopus database for the year 2001 to 2015. Bibliometric analysis, visualization and mapping software are used to present the current status, growth trends and collaboration in big data research to examine its diffusion in Indian scientific literature. Findings: We found that the big data research in India is gaining momentum and its diffusion and adoption is increasing tremendously. Conference and seminars are used to do social connect and interaction within the research community. The collaboration at institution level is found usual while collaboration at international level is low. Application of big data in health sciences and life sciences is yet to be explored in comparison to the social sciences and physical sciences. Originality/ Value: This paper presents the growth, trends and collaboration in big data literature by the use of sophisticated bibliometric software and visualization software. Keyword: Scientometrics, Big Data, Network Analysis, Visualization Paper Type: Research Paper


This project focuses on the use of splicing precast concrete beams to extend their span length. Precast prestressed concrete beams are economical solutions for many bridges, due to various restrictions such as weight and hauling length they are rarely used for spans greater than 40 m. This project was initiated by collecting the information from internet and technical reports of some bridge projects that have used spliced beam system. The experimental work has been carried out on three beams of 2.5 m span with different location of splice loaded to fail. The type of splice beam system used consisted of precast pretensioned beam joint together by post-tensioned method. The experimental results show the development at shear failures inclined the depth opposed with initial prediction to fail in flexure. Both spliced beam has achieved the ultimate load capacity. On the other hand, the actual load capacity for controlled beam was twice times higher than calculated. From this research, base on ultimate load failure, the spliced system applied for double spliced beam has succeeded to perform as calculated nominal beam. However, since the actual controlled beam perform better, and the splice beam fail unexpectedly in shear, the future research should focusing on the materials, location and type of splice section to improve the present research.


Summary The hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum) adult plant resistance gene, Lr34/Yr18/Sr57/Pm38/Ltn1, provides broad‐spectrum resistance to wheat leaf rust (Lr34), stripe rust (Yr18), stem rust (Sr57) and powdery mildew (Pm38) pathogens, and has remained effective in wheat crops for many decades. The partial resistance provided by this gene is only apparent in adult plants and not effective in field‐grown seedlings. Lr34 also causes leaf tip necrosis (Ltn1) in mature adult plant leaves when grown under field conditions. This D genome‐encoded bread wheat gene was transferred to tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum) cultivar Stewart by transformation. Transgenic durum lines were produced with elevated gene expression levels when compared with the endogenous hexaploid gene. Unlike nontransgenic hexaploid and durum control lines, these transgenic plants showed robust seedling resistance to pathogens causing wheat leaf rust, stripe rust and powdery mildew disease. The effectiveness of seedling resistance against each pathogen correlated with the level of transgene expression. No evidence of accelerated leaf necrosis or up‐regulation of senescence gene markers was apparent in these seedlings, suggesting senescence is not required for Lr34 resistance, although leaf tip necrosis occurred in mature plant flag leaves. Several abiotic stress‐response genes were up‐regulated in these seedlings in the absence of rust infection as previously observed in adult plant flag leaves of hexaploid wheat. Increasing day length significantly increased Lr34 seedling resistance. These data demonstrate that expression of a highly durable, broad‐spectrum adult plant resistance gene can be modified to provide seedling resistance in durum wheat.


We design an Acoustic Digital Signal Processor (ADSP) SoC, the primary signal processing module of an acoustic signal detection system, based on two design approaches: fully-synchronous (Fully-Sync), and globally-asynchronous-locally-synchronous (GALS). The emphasis of the ADSP designs is low power operation where both designs embody modular-level and circuit-level clock gating techniques. For sake of fair benchmarking, both ADSPs have identical functionality, are designed using the same 130 nm CMOS process, and largely embody the same library cells (save that for the signaling protocols in the GALS ADSP). The GALS ADSP is substantially more power-efficient (the Fully-Sync ADSP dissipates 1.9× more power @ nominal VDD = 1.2 V) and the only cost is the marginally higher (1.02×) IC area. Its higher power efficiency is largely attributed to the exploitation of asynchronous signaling between circuit modules by means of more finely-grained partitioning of the clock domains; intra-circuit signaling therein remains fully-sync. This provides for the ensuing simplification of the clocking infrastructure and subsequent reduction of the global clock rate. The prototype GALS ADSP is able to operate to specifications throughout the lifespan of the battery (VDD = 0.9 V-1.4 V, in part depicting Dynamic Voltage Scaling attributes) and at VDD = 1.2 V, it dissipates 186 μW.


Context: Disseminated TB patients are invariably immunocompromised and are susceptible to opportunistic infections. Candidaemia is an under-recognised infection in India. Therefore, we planned to evaluate the prevalence, survival and risk factors for the development of this infection in disseminated TB patients in a tertiary care hospital in southern India. Aims: To assess the prevalence of invasive candidiasis / candidaemia in disseminated TB patients in India and to determine the survival of these patients and risk factors for the development of candidaemia in disseminated TB patients Settings and Design: A prospective study conducted after obtaining the institutional ethical committee's approval. Methods and Material: Disseminated TB patients who came between February 2005 and February 2006 were included in the study after obtaining informed consent from the patients with assured confidentiality. The sources of the fungal culture were blood and ascitic fluid. Statistical analysis: Fisher's test, the level of significance was set at < 0.05 Results: 103 disseminated TB patients were enrolled into this study, but the prevalence of candidaemia was just 5 %. Intravenous broad spectrum antibiotics (P<0.001), oral broad spectrum antibiotics (P<0.01) and indwelling catheters (P<0.01) were the three important risk factors. Non candida albicans species were predominantly present. Conclusions: Candidaemia has a low prevalence in Indian climatic conditions. If the risk factors associated with this infection are avoided, survival can be improved.


Mariculture – the farming of marine organisms for food - is the fastest growing sub-sector of
aquaculture. The global mariculture production including the seaweeds was 54.0 million tonnes
(2014), which constituted 53.4% of the aquaculture production during the same period. In the recent
past the marine fish catch in the country is stagnating around 3.5 million tonnes annually indicating
that increasing the fish catch in the existing fishing grounds is not sustainable economically and
ecologically. Added to this dwindling catch in capture fisheries, rampant unemployment in the
coastal region and demand for additional seafood necessitates the development of mariculture as
a substantial seafood production sector. It has been projected that in India we need to produce
about 18 million tonnes of fishes by 2030 as compared to about 10 million tonnes we produce
today. It implies that our aquaculture production has to increase from 4 million tonnes to 12
million tonnes in the next 14 years. Enhancing fish production from inland sector has limited
scope and the major portion of the additional demand has to come from mariculture.
Sea cage farming is viewed as a major option for increasing the seafood production and has been
expanding rapidly in recent years at global level. Cage culture has made possible the large-scale
production of commercial fin fishes in many parts of the world and can be considered as the most
efficient and economic way of raising fish. When compared to many maritime countries, India is
still in its infancy in cage culture. Recently, it has been estimated that total number of cages of
varying sizes installed in the inshore and brackishwater areas number around 1500 with a total
estimated production of around 1500 tonnes. Hence, there is tremendous scope for the further
expansion of cage farming in India. The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI)
has projected that even if 1% of the inshore waters is used for cage farming, we can deploy
8,20,000 cages with a production potential of 3.2 million tonnes. Thus, there is an urgent need to
expand sea cage farming in India.
It is understood that availability of suitable sites for cage culture, well established breeding
techniques that yield sufficient quantity of fish fingerlings for farming, availability of supporting
industries like feed and net manufactures, strong R&D initiatives, social, economic and financial
logistics are prime factors that pave the way for expansion of sea cage farming as a commercial
activity. Currently guidelines on the above aspects are lacking in the country and hence a document
on the guidelines to be followed is felt desirable for sustainable growth of sea cage farming in the
country.


Deep neural networks provide state-of-the-art performance for many applications of interest. Unfortunately they are known to be vulnerable to adversarial examples, formed by applying small but malicious perturbations to the original inputs. Moreover, the perturbations can transfer across models: adversarial examples generated for a specific model will often mislead other unseen models. Consequently the adversary can leverage it to attack against the deployed black-box systems. In this work, we demonstrate that the adversarial perturbation can be decomposed into two components: model-specific and data-dependent one, and it is the latter that mainly contributes to the transferability. Motivated by this understanding, we propose to craft adversarial examples by utilizing the noise reduced gradient (NRG) which approximates the data-dependent component. Experiments on various classification models trained on ImageNet demonstrates that the new approach enhances the transferability dramatically. We also find that low-capacity models have more powerful attack capability than high-capacity counterparts, under the condition that they have comparable test performance. These insights give rise to a principled manner to construct adversarial examples with high success rates and could potentially provide us guidance for designing effective defense approaches against black-box attacks.


Participants evaluate several vignettes that describe a friend's behaviors, where friend's gender is the experimental manipulation. Results show that women are significantly more approving than men of a friend's crying or hugging, and less approving of shoving. Men are less disapproving of a male friend who cancels plans with them for a date, or a male friend who kisses someone who is not his current partner, than are women of a friend of either gender in these situations. Men also use approximately half as many normative words when evaluating a male friend as when evaluating a female friend, or as women use when evaluating a friend of either gender. Nevertheless, gender has less effect on evaluations of behavioral appropriateness than do the type of friendship behavior evaluated and the context. Finally, no support is found for the argument that cross-gender friendships are scriptless.


OBJECTIVE
To identify and classify risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in hospitalized patients, as well as to evaluate medical practices regarding prophylaxis for the disease.

METHODS
An observational cross-sectional study, carried out between January and March of 2006, involving inpatients at three hospitals in the city of Manaus, Brazil. Risk stratification for VTE was based on the criteria established by the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery and by the International Union of Angiology. Clinical, surgical and medication-related risk factors were analyzed. The statistical analysis of the data obtained was conducted, adopting an alpha error of 5% and 95% CI. Qualitative data were analyzed using the chi-square test, whereas quantitative data were analyzed using Student's t-test.

RESULTS
Of the 1,036 patients included (total number of admissions, 1,051), 515 (49.7%) were male, and 521 (50.3%) were female. A total of 23 risk factors for VTE were identified (total number of occurrences, 2,319). The stratified risk for VTE was 50.6%, 16.6% and 30.8% among the admissions of high-, moderate- and low-risk cases, respectively. In 73.3% of the admissions, nonpharmacological prophylaxis was not employed at any point during the study period. In 74% of those classified as high- or moderate-risk cases, no prophylactic medications were administered.

CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that, in the population studied, risk factors were common and that prophylactic measures were not employed in patients prone to developing VTE and its complications.


The 18S rRNA environment of the mRNA at the decoding site of human 80S ribosomes has been studied by crosslinking with derivatives of hexaribonucleotide UUUGUU (comprising Phe and Val codons) that carried a perfluorophe-nylazide group either at the N7 atom of the guanine or at the C5 atom of the 5 9 -terminal uracil residue. The location of the codons on the ribosome at A, P, or E sites has been adjusted by the cognate tRNAs. Three types of complexes have been obtained for each type derivative, namely, (1) codon UUU and Phe-tRNA Phe at the P site (codon GUU at the A site), (2) codon UUU and tRNA Phe at the P site and PheVal-tRNA Val at the A site, and (3) codon GUU and Val-tRNA Val at the P site (codon UUU at the E site). This allowed the placement of modified nucleotides of the mRNA analog at positions –3, 1 1, or 1 4 on the ribosome. Mild UV irradiation resulted in tRNA-dependent crosslinking of the mRNA analogs to the 18S rRNA. Nucleotide G961 crosslinked to mRNA position –3, nucleotide G1207 to position 1 1, and A1823 together with A1824 to position 1 4. All of these nucleotides are located in the most strongly conserved regions of the small subunit RNA structure, and correspond to nucleotides G693, G926, G1491, and A1492 of bacterial 16S rRNA. Three of them (with the exception of G1491) had been found earlier at the 70S ribosomal decoding site. The similarities and differences between the 16S and 18S rRNA decoding sites are discussed.


Commentators have likened the recent surge in social-media-driven (SMD) retail trading in securities such as GameStop to a roller coaster: "You don't go on a roller coaster because you end up in a different place, you go on it for the ride and it's exciting because you're part of it." The price charts for GameStop over the past few months resemble a theme-park thrill ride. Retail traders, led by some members of the "WallStreetBets" subreddit "got on" the GameStop roller coaster at just under $20 a share in early January 2021 and rode it to almost $500 by the end of that month. Prices then dropped to around $30 dollars in February before shooting back to $200 in March. But, like most amusement park rides that end where they start, many analysts expect market forces will ultimately prevail, and GameStop's share price will soon settle back to levels closer to what the company's fundamentals suggest it should. Conventional wisdom counsels that bubbles driven by little more than noise and FOMO—fear of missing out—should eventually burst. There are, however, signs suggesting that something more than market noise and over-exuberance is sustaining the SMD retail trading in GameStop.

There is evidence that at least some of the recent SMD retail trading in GameStop and other securities is not only motivated by the desire to make a profit, but rather to make a point. This Essay identifies and addresses the emerging phenomenon of "expressive trading"—securities trading for the purpose of political, social, or aesthetic expression—and considers some of its implications for issuers, markets, and regulators.


The semiclassical Schrodinger equation with multiscale and random potentials often appears when studying electron dynamics in heterogeneous quantum systems. As time evolves, the wavefunction develops high-frequency oscillations in both the physical space and the random space, which poses severe challenges for numerical methods. In this paper, we propose a multiscale reduced basis method, where we construct multiscale reduced basis functions using an optimization method and the proper orthogonal decomposition method in the physical space and employ the quasi-Monte Carlo method in the random space. Our method is verified to be efficient: the spatial gridsize is only proportional to the semiclassical parameter and the number of samples in the random space is inversely proportional to the same parameter. Several theoretical aspects of the proposed method, including how to determine the number of samples in the construction of multiscale reduced basis and convergence analysis, are studied with numerical justification. In addition, we investigate the Anderson localization phenomena for Schrodinger equation with correlated random potentials in both 1D and 2D.