This study addresses the problem of carrier frequency offset (CFO) tracking in co-operative space-frequency block-coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with multiple CFOs. Considering that the inserted pilot tones are decayed by data subcarriers in the presence of multiple CFOs, a novel recursive residual CFO tracking (R-RCFOTr) algorithm is proposed. This method first removes CFO-induced inter-carrier interference from data subcarriers, and then updates the residual CFO (RCFO) estimation of each OFDM block recursively. When used in conjunction with a multiple CFOs estimator, the proposed R-RCFOTr can effectively mitigate the impacts from the multiple RCFOs with affordable complexity. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of our proposed R-RCFOTr algorithm, which has performance close to that of perfect CFO estimation at moderate and high signal-to-noise ratio, and significantly outperforms conventional CFO tracking algorithm for large CFOs.


The precipitation of struvite (MgNH4P04·6H20) in a variety of wastewaters and other environmental sources has been described by a number of authors. This technique offers the opportunity of simultaneous removal of soluble nitrogen (in the form of ammonia) and phosphorus (as ortho-phosphate) from wastewaters, thus moderating their impact in natural receiving waters, as well as producing a slow release fertilizer of considerable agronomic value.

The solution chemistry of struvite precipitation is not well described, despite a number of pilot scale investigations having been mounted.

A model of struvite solution chemistry was developed for pure component (Mg-NH3-P04-H20) solutions in order to elucidate the precipitation.

So that this model might be applied more generally to appropriate wastewater solutions, the significance of (struvite) non-reacting components was also considered, particularly solution ionic equilibrium.

Analysis of literature data for a range of wastewater solutions indicated a list of components of greatest significance to the wastewater ionic equilibrium.

A series of ionic equilibrium simulations were performed, based on the components and concentrations determined above. Directed by the results of these simulations, a number of field site wastewaters (suitable for struvite precipitation) were selected and analysed.

Field wastewater sample analysis extensively characterised the solutions, both by component chemical analysis and acid-base titration. The acid-base titrimetric analysis has proven useful on a number of levels. In the first instance, complete pH scans from 2 to 12 furnish data as to possible struvite precipitation process pH operating conditions. At a further level, the nature of the experimental (automated) titration apparatus and the data collected meant a novel solution 'fingerprinting' type technique was developed which clearly identifies a range of the major acid-base components (and concentrations). This work was conducted in the context of its application to struvite precipitation from the analysed samples, however the technique may find wider application in a variety of water and wastewater technologies.

The titrimetric analysis of composite solutions (based on the field and literature solution samples) identified these equilibria and precipitation independent of the non-ionic organic and particulate constituents of the field samples. The combined data of composite and field solution samples (and further equilibrium calculations) has indicated significant component interactions and how they relate to struvite precipitation and the development of a comprehensive struvite solution chemistry model for wastewaters.


Pore structural changes in hardened cement pastes, subjected to drying and wetting/drying cycles, were studied at micrometer and nanometer levels. Characterization techniques included Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), nitrogen and water vapor adsorption, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and under-water weighing. Coarsening of pore structure was observed with MIP and increase in the true density of C-S-H was suggested by the result of under-water weighing. Decrease in specific surface area due to drying was observed with nitrogen adsorption, and water vapor adsorption associated with Excess Surface Work (ESW) analysis suggested a development of cohesive structure in C-S-H. NMR confirmed polymerization of silicate anion chains. The drying-induced coarsening of pore structure is probably attributed to polymerization of silicate anion chains and development of cohesive structure in C-S-H.


Local search is increasingly becoming a major focus point of research interest. It is a widely-recognized speciality search with a large application area. Its data is usually aggregated from a variety of sources. One as yet largely untapped source of location data is the WWW. Today, the Web does not explicitly reveal its location-relation; rather this information is hidden somewhere within pages' contents. To exploit such location information, we need to find, extract and geo-spatially index relevant Web pages. For an effective retrieval of such content, this paper examines the application of focused Web crawling to the geospatial domain. We describe our approach for a geo-aware focused crawling of urban areas and other regions with a high building density. We present our experimental results that give us insight into spatial Web information such as location density and link distance between topical pages. Our crawls and evaluations back our hypothesis that geospatially focused crawling is suitable for the urban geospatial topic.


Human activities have profoundly transformed mountain woodland landscapes, particularly in the Pyrenees where they have intensified and diversified since the Bronze Age. Quantification of the role played by past practices with regard to woodland cover is critical for accurate assessment of how ongoing global environmental change may affect its dynamics in the future. A local study was made of charcoal remains from an ancient charcoal-making woodland (ca. 30 ha), the forêt de Bernadouze, located on a north-facing slope in the Vicdessos valley in the French central Pyrenees. This valley is well known as having had a long history of human influence related to pastoralism, iron ore mining and smelting. A total of 1,695 charcoal pieces from soils in three sampling pits was extracted, identified, quantified and dated in order to identify tree canopy openings and patterns of change in the woodland driven by past human uses. The results provide new and original insights regarding 1, the past higher biodiversity and the ancient character of the forêt de Bernadouze, 2, the dynamics and history of the main trees and 3, successive phases of human activity. We show that the current woodland has resulted from several millennia of human activities such as pasturing and use of the wood for making charcoal. From the Bronze Age, humans have progressively transformed a natural fir-dominated wood into a managed beech-dominated one, and caused the elimination of Taxus baccata L. (yew).


Uncover the magic and truth behind this compelling topic.In more than 480 entries, ""The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca, Third Edition"" is an exciting update to one of the landmark references on the subject - by paranormal expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley. This new edition provides unparalleled coverage of witchcraft practices around the world - spanning different time periods and societies - including entries on magic, shamanism, the occult, and wizardry. Now covering Wicca-related material not included in the previous editions, as well as updates of contemporary biographies and Wicca material, this encyclopedia is perfect for casual readers and those fascinated by this spellbinding topic. All material has been expanded considerably, providing updates and new information about the key topics of witchcraft.The new and revised coverage includes: a treatment of the Inquisition; biographies of contemporary Wiccans; ""Book of Shadows""; familiars; folklore relating to witchcraft; historical cases of witchcraft trials; magic and Wicca; salem witches; Wicca practices, rituals, beliefs, and traditions; and, witches in entertainment: films, television, stage, and popular fiction.


The National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) in 1974 in response to public concerns about the safety of manipulating genetic material through recombinant DNA. The accumulation of 40 years of experience with gene transfer research has led to a better understanding of the risks. Yet, as gene transfer research has matured, the complexity of the overall regulatory environment has remained. Gene transfer research continues to be subjected to multiple layers of review: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), institutional review boards, institutional biosafety committees, and the RAC. It is within the context of overlapping regulatory authority and improved scientific understanding and social acceptance that the NIH commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assess whether gene transfer research continues to warrant additional oversight.The overarching goal of the IOM was to ensure patient safety and the ethical conduct of research, while not subjecting scientists to unnecessary regulatory burdens, which can impede or delay scientific exploration and medical innovation. The IOM Committee recommended that the RAC should review individual protocols only if other regulatory authorities could not adequately do so, and the study meets one of the following criteria: (1) the protocol uses a new vector, genetic material, or delivery methodology representing a first-in-human experience; (2) the protocol relies on preclinical safety data obtained using a new preclinical model system of unknown and unconfirmed value; or (3) the protocol involves a vector, gene construct, or method of delivery associated with possible toxicities that are not widely known.Gene transfer research no longer stands alone as the only human application of an emerging technology that could benefit from additional oversight. Consequently, the IOM Committee recommended that the NIH Director charge a standing or new committee to examine the need for additional or different oversight for clinical applications of emerging novel technologies.


In this study, a parsimonious framework for supporting Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) was proposed to seek a tradeoff between investment of WSUD features and mitigation of urban flood damage. A two-dimensional (2D) hydrological-hydraulic simulation model, PCSWMM, was adopted to simulate the rainfall-runoff process and inundation scenarios, and the flood damages was evaluated based on inundated water depths and damage curves. The sensitivity of deploying various design features to flood control effects was also tested, which provided useful information for identifying potential design parameters (like conduit sizes and pond locations). The proposed framework was applied to a hypothetical case adapted from an urban district in the tropical region considering various WSUD features (i.e. rainwater storage pond, rain garden, and conduit upgrading). The results showed that when the gross investment of WSUD features increased from 0 to 1.19 million $, the damage cost would decrease from 4.61 to 3.41 million $; a linear relationship (with a R-square fit at 0.9) was found suitable to represent the relationship between the investment and the damage. The proposed framework is effective in helping assess the balance between mitigation of urban flood damage and adoption of WSUD features, and could be used to support urban water managers for a more science-based decision making towards flood risk management.


Recently, the ubiquitous environment in which anybody can reach a lot of information data without any limitations on the place and time has become an important social issue. There are two basic requirements in the field of information storage devices which have to be satisfied; the first is the demand for the improvement of memory capacity to manage the increased data capacity in personal and official purposes. The second is the demand for new development of information storage devices small enough to be applied to mobile multimedia digital electronics, including digital camera, PDA and mobile phones. To summarize, for the sake of mobile applications, it is necessary to develop information storage devices which have simultaneously a large capacity and a small size. Korea possesses the necessary infrastructure for developing such small sized information storage devices. It has a good digital market, major digital companies, and various research institutes. Nowadays, many companies and research institutes including university cooperate together in the research on small sized information storage devices. Thus, it is expected that small form factor optical disk drives will be commercialized in the very near future in Korea.


The chances that children have to participate in child protection services are largely contingent upon the attitudes and skills of case managers. They have a crucial role in ensuring that a child's voice is being listened to and acknowledged in often sensitive dialogues. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate what case managers need to facilitate child participation. By handing case managers a participation toolbox developed by children and through the use of reflexive monitoring in action, we elaborated on the barriers faced in practice. The results show that the intention to facilitate child participation is quickly overruled by often subconscious thoughts and beliefs, stemming from the complex interplay of child image, protection, and participation. Case managers need to be aware of this interplay and how this unknowingly steers their actions. Therefore, iterative reflection should be facilitated within organizations for an actual change in their daily practice and to amplify the role of children in the decision-making processes within child protection services.


The societal interest of public health protection has driven Australia's regulation of tobacco products for many years. The recent decision of the World Trade Organization Appellate Body, Australia – Tobacco Plain Packaging, should encourage states to protect supportable societal interests even if they restrict the exercise of intellectual property rights. As the decision suggests that non-World Trade Organization agreements can support tobacco control measures, this article advocates for greater attention towards the human rights implications of these measures. A primary objective of tobacco plain packaging measures is to protect young people, engaging Australia's obligations pursuant to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The article argues that explicit engagement with children and recognition of their human rights in the development and implementation of plain packaging measures could have strengthened Australia's defence of its plain packaging measures. It provides novel insights into what a child rights-based approach could mean for the future development of tobacco control measures worldwide.


Speech misperceptions provide a window into the processes underlying spoken language comprehension. One approach shown to catalyse robust misperceptions is to embed words in noise. However, the use of masking noise makes it difficult to measure the relative contributions of low-level auditory processing and higher-level factors which involve the deployment of linguistic experience. The current study addresses this confound by comparing noise-induced misperceptions in two languages, Spanish and English, which display marked phonological differences in properties such as consonant-vowel ratio, rhythm and syllable structure. An analysis of over 5000 word-level misperceptions generated using a common experimental framework in the two languages reveals some striking similarities: the proportion of confusions generated by three distinct types of masker are almost identical for the two languages, as are the proportions of phonemic and syllabic insertions, deletions and substitutions. The biggest difference is seen for babble noise, which tends to induce relatively complex confusions in English and simpler confusions in Spanish. We speculate that the inflectional morphology of Spanish lends itself to more easily recruit single elements from a babble masker into valid word hypotheses.


We have compared the roles of adenosine diphosphate (ADP), thromboxanes and the integrin alpha(2)beta(1) in the activation of washed platelets by collagen in the presence of the alpha(IIb)beta(3) antagonist lotrafiban. The stimulation of protein tyrosine phosphorylation by a collagen suspension is markedly delayed in the presence of the above inhibitors but shows substantial recovery with time. In comparison, activation of phospholipase C (PLC), Ca(2+) elevation and dense granule secretion are more severely suppressed by the above inhibitors. alpha(2)beta(1) blockade has a slightly greater inhibitory effect on all of the above responses than a combination of ADP receptor antagonists and cyclooxygenase inhibitor. Platelets exposed to a collagen monolayer show robust elevation of Ca(2+) that is delayed in the presence of the above inhibitors and which is accompanied by alpha-granule secretion. These results demonstrate that secondary mediators and alpha(2)beta(1) modulate collagen-induced intracellular signaling but have negligible effect on GPVI signaling induced by the specific agonist convulxin. This work supports the postulate that the major role of alpha(2)beta(1) is to increase the avidity of collagen for the platelet surface and by doing so enhance activation of GPVI. Therefore we propose an important role of secondary mediators in collagen-induced signaling is the indirect regulation of GPVI signaling via activation of alpha(2)beta(1).


In this study, the authors consider the problem of multiple antenna spectrum sensing by exploiting the prior information about unknown parameters. Under assumption that additional statistical side information is available about unknown parameters, a novel framework and some detectors are proposed, which are optimal for finite number of received samples. locally most powerful, average likelihood ratio and the novel generalised likelihood ratio detectors are calculated for the different practical conditions in wireless channels. In addition, the analytical performance evaluation for proposed detectors is provided whenever possible. The simulation and analytical results show that the a-priori information can be used for better spectrum sensing using finite number of samples.


This paper develops simple feed-forward neural networks that achieve the universal approximation property for all continuous functions with a fixed finite number of neurons. These neural networks are simple because they are designed with a simple, computable, and continuous activation function $\sigma$ leveraging a triangular-wave function and the softsign function. We first prove that $\sigma$-activated networks with width $36d(2d+1)$ and depth $11$ can approximate any continuous function on a $d$-dimensional hypercube within an arbitrarily small error. Hence, for supervised learning and its related regression problems, the hypothesis space generated by these networks with a size not smaller than $36d(2d+1)\times 11$ is dense in the continuous function space $C([a,b]^d)$ and therefore dense in the Lebesgue spaces $L^p([a,b]^d)$ for $p\in [1,\infty)$. Furthermore, we show that classification functions arising from image and signal classification are in the hypothesis space generated by $\sigma$-activated networks with width $36d(2d+1)$ and depth $12$ when there exist pairwise disjoint bounded closed subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that the samples of the same class are located in the same subset. Finally, we use numerical experimentation to show that replacing the rectified linear unit (ReLU) activation function by ours would improve the experiment results.


OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS
Cochlear implant surgery now aims to preserve residual low frequency hearing. The current research explores whether fluctuations in the electrical impedance of cochlear implant electrodes may act as a biomarker for pathological changes that lead to the delayed loss of residual hearing.

STUDY DESIGN
Secondary analysis of a double-blinded randomized trial, where methylprednisolone was administered intravenously before cochlear implantation with a view to preserving residual hearing.

METHODS
Seventy-four patients with residual hearing after cochlear implant surgery were investigated for an impedance "spike," defined as a median rise of ≥4 kΩ across all electrodes from the baseline measurements. Spikes were related to objective and subjective hearing loss, dizziness, and tinnitus.

RESULTS
An impedance spike occurred in 14% (10/74) of enrolled patients. Three months after surgery, five patients exhibited spikes and three of these patients had a total loss of their residual hearing. 4.3% of the 69 patients without spikes lost residual hearing. At 1 year, 9 of 10 patients who exhibited spikes had lost all their residual hearing. 8.1% of the 37 patients who did not experience a spike lost their residual hearing. Seventy percent of patients exhibiting a spike also experienced vertigo. The administration of steroids at the time of surgery did not influence the occurrence of spikes.

CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that there is a relationship between a spike and the loss of residual hearing. It seems that rises in impedance can reflect pathology within the inner ear and predict the future loss of residual hearing.


Low frequency noise has been investigated at room temperature for asymmetric double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions (DBMTJs), where the coupling between the top and middle CoFeB layers is antiferromagnetic with a 0.8-nm thin top MgO barrier of the CoFeB/MgO/CoFe/CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB DBMTJ. At enough large bias, 1/f noise dominates the voltage noise power spectra in the low frequency region, and is conventionally characterized by the Hooge parameter αmag. With increasing external field, the top and bottom ferromagnetic layers are aligned by the field, and then the middle free layer rotates from antiparallel state (antiferromagnetic coupling between top and middle ferromagnetic layers) to parallel state. In this rotation process αmag and magnetoresistance-sensitivity-product show a linear dependence, consistent with the fluctuation dissipation relation. With the magnetic field applied at different angles (θ) to the easy axis of the free layer, the linear dependence persists while the intercept of the linear fit satisfies a cos(θ) dependence, similar to that for the magnetoresistance, suggesting intrinsic relation between magnetic losses and magnetoresistance.


The financial statements are used to communicate financial information between stakeholders cause management to hide some information and sparked the management to do earnings management. To assess the fairness of financial statements, need an auditor. The length of an auditor assignment (audit partner tenure) and a public accountant firm (audit firm tenure) audited a company are feared would reduce the independence, objectivity, and the auditor's professional skepticism, which can increased earnings management. However, on the other hand, understanding client's business better enables auditor to detect the earnings management better. Therefore, this study examines the effect of audit partner tenure and audit firm tenure on earnings management in banking companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange. This quantitative research is conducted using audit partner tenure and audit firm tenure as the independent variables and earnings management as dependent variables. Data analysis was performed with multiple linear regression analysis. The data analysis indicated statistically insignificant result but in negative direction. It concluded that the longer audit partner tenure and audit firm tenure, it progressively decrease earnings management. This is because that a better understanding of the client's business will make auditor and accounting firm is enables to detect earnings management better.


Citokines are proteins produced by several cell types and secreted in response to various
stimuli. These molecules are able to modify the behaviour of other cells inducing activities
like growth, differentiation and apoptosis.
In the last years, veterinary scientists have investigated the role played by these factors; in
fact, cytokines can act as intercellular communicative signals in immune response, cell
damage repair and hematopoiesis. Up to date, various cytokines have been identified and in
depth comprehension of their effects in physiology, pathology and therapy is an interesting
field of research.
This thesis aims to understand the role played by these mediators during natural or
experimentally induced pathologies. In particular, it has been evaluated the genic and protein
expressions of a large number of cytokines during several diseases and starting from different
matrix.
Considering the heterogeneity of materials used in experimentations, multiple methods and
protocols of nucleic acids and proteins extractions have been standardized.
Results on cytokines expression obtained from various in vitro and in vivo experimental
studies have shown how important these mediators are in regulation and modulation of the
host immune response also in veterinary medicine.
In particular, the analysis of inflammatory and septic markers, like cytokines, has allowed a
better understanding in the pathogenesis during horse Recurrent Airway Obstruction, foal
sepsis, Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus infection and dog Parvovirus infection and the effects of
these agents on the host immune system.
As experimentations with mice have shown, some pathologies of the respiratory and nervous
system can be reduced or even erased by blocking cytokines inflammatory production.
The in vitro cytokines expression evaluation in cells which are in vivo involved in the
response to exogenous (like pathogens) or endogenous (as it happens during autoimmune
diseases) inflammatory stimuli could represent a model for studying citokines effects during
the host immune response. This has been analyzed using lymphocytes cultured with several
St. aureus strains isolated from bovine mastitic milk and different colostrum products. In the
first experiment different cytokines were expressed depending on enterotoxins produced,
justifying a different behaviour of the microrganism in the mammal gland. In the second one,
bone marrow cells derived incubated with murine lymphocytes with colostrum products have
shown various cluster of differentiation expression , different proliferation and a modified
cytokines profile.
A better understanding of cytokine expression mechanisms will increase the know-how on
immune response activated by several pathogen agents.
In particular, blocking the cytokine production, the inhibition or catalyzation of the receptor
binding mechanism and the modulation of signal transduction mechanism will represent a
novel therapeutic strategy in veterinary medicine.


The Kalman filter has long been regarded as the optimal solution to many applications in computer vision for example the tracking objects, prediction and correction tasks. Its use in the analysis of visual motion has been documented frequently, we can use in computer vision and open cv in different applications in reality for example robotics, military image and video, medical applications, security in public and privacy society, etc. In this paper, we investigate the implementation of a Matlab code for a Kalman Filter using three algorithm for tracking and detection objects in video sequences (block-matching (Motion Estimation) and Camshift Meanshift (localization, detection and tracking object)). The Kalman filter is presented in three steps: prediction, estimation (correction) and update. The first step is a prediction for the parameters of the tracking and detection objects. The second step is a correction and estimation of the prediction parameters. The important application in Kalman filter is the localization and tracking mono-objects and multi-objects are given in results. This works presents the extension of an integrated modeling and simulation tool for the tracking and detection objects in computer vision described at different models of algorithms in implementation systems.


The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how knowledge contained in traded goods influences firms' demand for labor, and how knowledge-rich routines across space affect the innovative performance in firms and regions.Four research questions are presented that address how knowledge can travel in space. Each research question forms an individual paper in the thesis and can be read separately. The first part of the thesis gives a general introduction and outlines the theoretical background and motivation for the research questions examined in Papers 1 through 4.Papers 1 and 2 address how the knowledge composition of the labor force in Swedish manufacturing firms is impacted by changes in imported goods. Paper 1 analyzes imports of capital and intermediate goods and how their quality influences labor demand in different firm size categories. In Paper 2 the analysis is directed toward an examination of how offshoring of intermediate goods affects different occupations. The technology-specific content of the offshored intermediate goods is emphasized.Moreover, Papers 3 and 4 address how knowledge embodied in exported goods and codified knowledge in patents are affected by changes in new routines. Paper 3 analyzes how firms' knowledge absorption capacity affects the development, adoption and introduction of new export products among Swedish manufacturing firms. Finally, the focus in Paper 4 is on innovations measured in terms of local patents production in European regions. In this paper, we analyze how the local patents production in a European region benefits both from local R&D inputs in its own region and from spillovers of R&D inputs in other European regions.


Object navigation is defined as navigating to an object of a given label in a complex, unexplored environment. In its general form, this problem poses several challenges for Robotics: semantic exploration of unknown environments in search of an object and low-level control. In this work we study object-guided exploration and low-level control, and present an end-to-end trained navigation policy achieving a success rate of 0.68 and SPL of 0.58 on unseen, visually complex scans of real homes. We propose a highly scalable implementation of an off-policy Reinforcement Learning algorithm, distributed Soft Actor Critic, which allows the system to utilize 98M experience steps in 24 hours on 8 GPUs. Our system learns to control a differential drive mobile base in simulation from a stack of high dimensional observations commonly used on robotic platforms. The learned policy is capable of object-guided exploratory behaviors and low-level control learned from pure experiences in realistic environments.


Complex coacervate core micelles (C3Ms) are formed by mixing aqueous solutions of a charged (bio)macromolecule with an oppositely charged-neutral hydrophilic diblock copolymer. The stability of these structures is dependent on the ionic strength of the solution; above a critical ionic strength, the micelles will completely disintegrate. This instability at high ionic strengths is the main drawback for their application in, e.g., drug delivery systems or protein protection. In addition, the stability of C3Ms composed of weak polyelectrolytes is pH-dependent as well. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of covalent crosslinking of the complex coacervate core to improve the stability of C3Ms. We studied the formation of C3Ms using a quaternized and amine-functionalized cationic-neutral diblock copolymer, poly(2-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (QP2VP-b-PEO), and an anionic homopolymer, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA). Two different core-crosslinking strategies were employed that resulted in crosslinks between both types of polyelectrolyte chains in the core (i.e., between QP2VP and PAA) or in crosslinks between polyelectrolyte chains of the same type only (i.e., QP2VP). For these two strategies we used the crosslinkers 1-ethyl-3-(3'-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and dimethyl-3,3'-dithiopropionimidate dihydrochloride (DTBP), respectively. EDC provides permanent crosslinks, while DTBP crosslinks can be broken by a reducing agent. Dynamic light scattering showed that both approaches significantly improved the stability of C3Ms against salt and pH changes. Furthermore, reduction of the disulphide bridges in the DTBP core-crosslinked micelles largely restored the original salt-stability profile. Therefore, this feature provides an excellent starting point for the application of C3Ms in controlled release formulations.


Substantial evidence indicates that aspirin has antitumour activity against large bowel cancer and modulation of the NF-kappaB (NF-kappaB) signalling pathway has been identified as a key mechanism in this effect. However, studies examining how aspirin affects the NF-kappaB pathway to promote apoptosis have been restricted to in vitro analysis in tissue culture systems and have produced contrasting results. Here, we employed two animal models of human colorectal cancer to determine aspirin effects on the NF-kappaB pathway in colorectal neoplasia in vivo, and the relationship of such effects to the induction of apoptosis. We demonstrate that aspirin induces phosphorylation and degradation of cytoplasmic IkappaBalpha in xenografted HT-29 tumours and in adenomas from APC(Min+/-) mice. Furthermore, we show that this response occurs in a time-dependent manner and is paralleled by nuclear translocation of p65 and caspase activation. Using high performance liquid chromatography analysis, we demonstrate that >0.5 mM salicylate levels are achievable in xenografted tumours after low-dose aspirin (40 mg/kg) treatment and that these levels, which are pharmacologically relevant to humans, are sufficient to stimulate an NF-kappaB and apoptotic response. We demonstrate that activation of the NF-kappaB pathway is associated with increased apoptosis in neoplastic epithelial cells, but found that aspirin has a minimal effect on nuclear p65 and apoptosis in normal intestinal mucosa from APC(Min+/-) mice. These in vivo findings further establish that aspirin induces activation of the NF-kappaB pathway in neoplastic epithelial cells and provide further support that this effect is important for the antitumour activity of the agent. These data have considerable relevance to cancer prevention and therapy.


Objectives
The teratogenic effects of alcohol differ among individuals, and maternal nutriture may contribute to these differences. In this regard, our group has shown that maternal iron deficiency (ID) exacerbates alcohol's toxicity on fetal development, and maternal iron fortification (IF) improves the poor developmental outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). Although the interactive effects of iron and PAE in fetus have been examined, their effects in placenta are less clear. Here, we sought to determine the effects of iron and PAE on placental cytokines that affect nutrient supply efficiency. We hypothesized that ID-PAE impairs placental and fetal growth, and alters placental cytokine expression to favor a pro-inflammatory profile; maternal IF attenuates some of these outcomes.

Methods
We fed pregnant rats an ID (2-6 ppm), iron-sufficient (100 ppm) or IF (500 ppm) diet throughout gestation. From gestational day (G) 13.5-19.5, we gavaged them with alcohol (5g/kg BW) or isocaloric control (maltodextrin, MD). We weighed the placentas and fetuses on G20.5, and quantified placental cytokine expression using qPCR. Data were analyzed by mixed linear model and 2-way ANOVA.

Results
As expected, fetal weight, placental weight and placental efficiency were lower (P < 0.05) in response to PAE compared to MD. We found that PAE altered the expression of IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-10 (P = 0.034, 0.030, 0.09, respectively), but not IFN-γ, IL-6 or IL-4, suggesting a selective effect of alcohol on placental cytokine expression. Maternal ID worsened these outcomes such that ID-PAE had the lowest fetal weight and placental efficiency and a heightened pro-inflammatory placental profile. Maternal IF normalized the alcohol-reduced placental efficiency by modulating placental cytokines to enhance nutrient transport. However, it didn't fully rescue fetal weight. Nevertheless, these cytokines were correlated with and explained 45% variability in fetal weight in this PAE model.

Conclusions
These data provide insights into how iron and alcohol interact to alter placental functions and fetal growth. Further, the cytokines reported in this study may potentially be used as diagnostic markers to identify individuals who are prenatally exposed to alcohol.

Funding Sources
NIH/NIAAA F32-AA027121 (STCK), R01-AA22999 (SMS).


Climate change is likely to impact the Australian continent by changing the trends of rainfall, increasing temperature, and affecting the accessibility of water quantity and quality. This study investigates the possible impacts of future climate change on the hydrological system of the Harvey River catchment in Western Australia by using the conceptual modelling approach (HBV mode). Daily observations of rainfall and temperature and the long-term monthly mean potential evapotranspiration, from six weather stations, were available for the period (1961-2015). The observed streamflow data at Clifton Park gauging station for 33 years (19832015) in line with the observed climate variables were used to run, calibrate and validate the HBV-model prior to the simulation process. The calibrated model was then forced with the downscaled future climate signals from a multi-model ensemble of fifteen GCMs of the CMIP3 model under three emission scenarios (A2, A1B and B1) to simulate the future runoff at the catchment outlet. Two periods were selected to represent the future climate conditions including the mid (2046-2065) and late (2080-2099) of the 21st century. A control run, with the reference climate period (1981-2000), was used to represent the current climate status. The modelling outcomes show an evident reduction in the mean annual streamflow during the mid of this century particularly for the A1B scenario relative to the control run. Toward the end of the century, all scenarios show a relatively high reduction trends in the mean annual streamflow, especially the A1B scenario, compared to the control run. The decline in the mean annual streamflow ranged between 4-15% during the mid of the current century and 9-42% by the end of the century. Keywords—Climate change impact, Harvey catchment, HBV model, hydrological modelling, GCMs, LARS-WG, Australia.


[1] Using nutrient concentrations on neutral density surfaces in the Southern Ocean and climatological winds, both of which are fairly well constrained, we have estimated the long-term average of net export from the upper ocean (i.e., the net supply of nutrients in Circumpolar Deep Water and Antarctic Intermediate Water to the surface layer) over the whole of the Southern Ocean south of the wind stress maximum at an average latitude of 50°S. We calculate net new production (equivalent to export production) values of 51 ± 3 Tmol Si yr−1 and 14 ± 3 Tmol N yr−1. The latter is equivalent to 1.1 ± 0.2 Pg C yr−1 when scaled with the Redfield ratio of C to N. These values are in good agreement with recent observational and modeling estimates and are reasonably in line with inverse model calculations. Interpolating the high-quality data from meridional World Ocean Circulation Experiment sections onto the neutral density surfaces revealed remarkable constancy of nutrient concentrations at all longitudes and depths below about 340 ± 100 m, which we call the surface-influenced depth. This indicates that isopycnic stirring by eddies in the Southern Ocean is efficient at homogenizing nutrient concentrations and removing any signature of remineralization. The large depth of the surface-influenced depth, over twice the winter mixed layer depth, also indicates that eddies must be responsible for transferring nutrient deficits resulting from drawdown in the surface layer across the pycnocline to several hundred meters deep.


Due to feasibility issues and musical preferences, Web audio applications have tended to emphasize the use of synthesized instruments and short samples (e.g., drums) over large banks of longer files that sample other acoustic instruments such as a violin or piano. As the sounds generated by sampled acoustic instruments are quite realistic, they are likely to be of interest to many users of Web audio applications. Using the Tone.js Web Audio framework, this paper describes an initial investigation into load times when rendering music with such sampled instruments. A method is proposed for reducing load times, and hence optimizing Web Audio playback, based on empirical analysis of the note durations used across different music corpora. Experimental results for 400 randomly selected short music excerpts indicate that the proposed method does lead to significant load time reductions, from 3.87 s to 1.72 s. Researchers interested in replicating the results of these experiments or downloading and exploring our playback solution are pointed to http://tomcollinsresearch.net/research/wac/2016/


Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted wireless systems require accurate channel state information (CSI) to control wireless channels and improve overall network performance. However, CSI acquisition is non-trivial due to the passive nature of RIS, and the dimensions of the cascaded channel between transceivers increase with the large number of RIS elements, which requires high training overhead. Prior art has considered frequency-selective channel estimation without considering the beam squint effect in wideband systems, severely degrading channel estimation performance. This paper proposes a novel data-driven approach for estimating wideband cascaded channels of RIS-assisted multi-user millimeter-wave massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with limited training overhead, explicitly considering the effect of beam squint. To circumvent the beam squint effect, the proposed method exploits the common sparsity property among the different subcarriers as well as the double-structured sparsity property of the users' angular cascaded channel matrices. The proposed data-driven cascaded channel estimation approach exploits denoising neural networks to detect channel supports accurately. Compared to beam squint effect agnostic traditional orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) approaches, the proposed data-driven approach achieves 5-6dB less normalized mean square error (NMSE) and reduces the lower bound gap to only 1dB for the oracle least-square benchmark.


In this paper, we develop a pipelining schema for image deep learning on GPU cluster to leverage heavy workload of training procedure. In addition, it is usually necessary to train multiple models to obtain a good deep learning model due to the limited a priori knowledge on deep neural network structure. Therefore, adopting parallel and distributed computing appears is an obvious path forward, but the mileage varies depending on how amenable a deep network can be parallelized and the availability of rapid prototyping capabilities with low cost of entry. In this work, we propose a framework to organize the training procedures of multiple deep learning models into a pipeline on a GPU cluster, where each stage is handled by a particular GPU with a partition of the training dataset. Instead of frequently migrating data among the disks, CPUs, and GPUs, our framework only moves partially trained models to reduce bandwidth consumption and to leverage the full computation capability of the cluster. In this paper, we deploy the proposed framework on popular image recognition tasks using deep learning, and the experiments show that the proposed method reduces overall training time up to dozens of hours compared to the baseline method.


A comprehensive review of 300 patients undergoing reduction mammaplasty (576 breasts) based on an inferior glandular pedicle is presented. The average age was 31.7 years, weight 146.6 lbs., and the amount of tissue removed 1313.6 gm. No deepithelialization of the skin was performed, and average operating time was 174 minutes. The average distance the nipple-areola complex was moved was 12 cm, with the longest being 22.5 cm. Fifty-seven percent had fibrocystic mastopathy on histologic analysis, and no malignancies were found, even in patients who had undergone a previous mastectomy for breast carcinoma. The most common complication (3.1 percent) was minor suture line necrosis along the infra-mammary crease. All healed without intervention. There was no necrosis or sensory loss to the nipple-areola complex in any patient, and cosmesis was excellent. The analysis also showed that the use of epinephrine, injected subcutaneously just prior to the operation, significantly decreased intraoperative blood loss (p less than 0.0005), regardless of the amount of tissue removed, and eliminated the need for transfusions.


The current trend in operating systems research is to allow applications to dynamically extend the kernel to improve application performance or extend functionality, but the most effective approach to extensibility remains unclear. Some systems use safe languages to permit code to be downloaded directly into the kernel; other systems provide in-kernel interpreters to execute extension code; still others use software techniques to ensure the safety of kernel extensions. The key characteristics that distinguish these systems are the philosophy behind extensibility and the technology used to implement extensibility. This paper presents a taxonomy of the types of extensions that might be desirable in an extensible operating system, evaluates the performance cost of various extension technologies currently being employed, and compares the cost of adding a kernel extension to the benefit of having the extension in the kernel. Our results show that compiled technologies (e.g. Modula-3 and software fault isolation) are good candidates for implementing general-purpose kernel extensions, but that the overhead of interpreted languages is sufficiently high that they are inappropriate for this use.


Flexible microsupercapacitors (fMSCs) with interdigitated electrode design are a promising platform as a power source or energy storage unit for wearable microelectronics. In this work, a facile fabrication of all‐solid‐state fMSCs is reported through a combination of simple technologies including bar coating and laser etching, to generate the interdigitated patterned electrodes. These novel fMSC devices made with interdigitated patterned electrodes can deliver outstanding areal capacitance (84.7 mF cm−2 at 5 mV s−1 and 45.5 mF cm−2 at 200 mV−1), high volumetric capacitance (14.5 F cm−3 at 5 mV s−1 and 7.83 F cm−3 at 200 mV−1), and high cycling stability (94.3%, 10 000 cycles). In addition, the fabrication method employed allows for facile fabrication of various interconnects between several fMSCs on a single device, which enables for the required voltage and/or current output to be tuned easily prior to device fabrication. These fMSCs can power 20 light‐emitting diodes even when bent demonstrating versatility for practical applications.


Active neurons release neuroligin-3, which stimulates glioma proliferation. Neuronal activity promotes proliferation of neuronal precursors and oligodendrocytes, which are cells that can give rise to deadly brain cancers called gliomas (see Lehrman and Stevens). Venkatesh et al. used optogenetics to enhance neuronal activity and found that increased neuronal activity promoted the proliferation of a patient-derived high grade glioma (HGG) xenografted into mouse brains. Compared with control mice with the xenografted HGG (exposed to the same handling and light), mice with both xenografted HGG and light-activated channel rhodopsin to stimulate neuronal activity had increased proliferating tumor cells in response to either a single or repetitive light stimulation. Conditioned medium from light-exposed slice preparations from the channel rhodopsin-expressing mice increased proliferation and the number of viable cells in cultures of HGGs isolated from various patients. Conditioned medium from slice preparations from wild-type control mice also stimulated proliferation and enhanced viability in a manner dependent on neuronal activity, but these slices requires a longer incubation to produce active conditioned medium, consistent with spontaneous activity producing the necessary factor(s). Biochemical analysis followed by mass spectrometric analysis identified 11 candidates for the activity-released mitogen with the extracellular domain of neuroligin-3 (Nlgn3) as the top candidate. Indeed, recombinant human NLGN3 added at the concentration present in the conditioned medium exhibited a mitogenic effect on HGG cells in culture, and addition of the Nlgn3-binding protein neurexin-1β to the conditioned medium reduced the mitogenic effect. Transcriptome analysis of HGG cells identified genes activated in response to either the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway or PI3K-Akt-mTOR (phosphoinositide 3-kinase to the kinase Akt to the kinase complex containing mechanistic target of rapamycin) pathway, but Western blot analysis for active proteins in these pathways indicated that recombinant NLGN3 stimulated the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway. Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition or knockdown of components of this pathway blocked the mitogenic effect of NLGN3. NLGN3 was increased at both transcript and endogenous protein levels in HGG cells exposed to recombinant Flag-tagged NLGN3, suggesting a positive feedback loop. The abundance of NLGN3 transcript inversely correlated with patient survival. Because Nlgn3 is a transmembrane protein, the mechanism of its cleavage and release of the extracellular domain remains an open question. However, this study not only demonstrated that neuronal activity promotes glioma growth but also identified Nlgn3 as a cleaved mitogenic factor produced in response to spontaneous or evoked neuronal activity. H. S. Venkatesh, T. B. Johung, V. Caretti, A. Noll, Y. Tang, S. Nagaraja, E. M. Gibson, C. W. Mount, J. Polepalli, S. S. Mitra, P. J. Woo, R. C. Malenka, H. Vogel, M. Bredel, P. Mallick, M. Monje, Neuronal activity promotes glioma growth through neuroligin-3 secretion. Cell 161, 803–816 (2015). [PubMed] E. K. Lehrman, B. Stevens, Shedding light on glioma growth. Cell 161, 704–706 (2015). [PubMed]


1897-1914 was a period of rapid scientific progress with respect to atomic modeling. In just seventeen years Thomson, Rutherford, and Bohr would transform the world's conception of the atom from a simple, indivisible building block of matter to a semi-classical, complex system of interacting positive and negatively charged particles that could explain experimentally observed phenomena ranging from the periodicity of the elements to the large angle scattering of αparticles and the atomic spectrum of hydrogen. After offering a detailed historical investigation of this period, this thesis considers whether any of the events of period constituted a Kuhnian scientific revolution. In particular, I argue that certain difficulties in analyzing this period using Kuhn's theory suggest that, instead of analyzing this period in Kuhnian terms, we should revise Kuhn's theory of scientific revolution in light of the events of this period. In doing so, I argue that scientific revolutions actually occur in two main varieties, which can be articulated in terms of two of the main analogies Kuhn offered to explain his theory of scientific revolution. Further, I show that this revision allows us to take a thoroughly realist (though fallibilist) approach to scientific progress, scientific revolution, and science as a whole.


Implementation of information systems is one of the supporting facilities for the performance in an agency. Utilization of information system aims to facilitate the task of the user (user) in order to achieve savings in time, cost, and resources in decision-making. Satisfaction User Satisfaction or user of an information system is one factor or measure the success of the process of development and implementation of information system on an institution. This study analyzes the service quality information system using the method of Kano. Kano method used to identify the level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction through 25 service attributes to be used as an attribute in the study.


Living Labs increasingly enable innovations to be facilitated and implemented in a fast and efficient way. Key element is the active involvement of users. This case presents the needsfinding phase of an infrastructure Lab within the context of cycling. Since effectuation costs are high (roads and buildings are capital intensive), the need for focus (tackling the right user needs) is essential for funding of the lab. The needsfinding phase aims to generate user needs and requirements, which is researched by investigating bicycle commuting intention. This is tested using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The results show convincingly that bicycle commuting intention can be explained by the variables of the TPB model (R2=.808). Within the context of a Living Lab, this model can be used as a very effective tool to instigate behavioral change. The insights can be generalized and are readily applicable in other areas.


We use two methods, analytic modeling and event-driven simulation, to evaluate the performance of communication in the XYZ 1 multicomputer under a variety of workloads. This work has two purposes: to learn about the behavior of the XYZ machine, and to explore the tradeoos between analytic modeling and simulation as performance prediction techniques. We nd that the system's performance depends mostly on the behavior of the endpoints; most of the message latency is spent arbitrating for the sender's and receiver's memory buses, and doing DMA transfers of data to and from memory. The raw speed of the network is relatively unimportant. Performance is mainly determined by details of DMA speed, network connectivity, and policies for arbitrating for buses and network links. Even for very simple synthetic benchmark programs, the analytic model and the simulator diier by roughly 10% in their performance predictions. Although we believe the simulator to be more accurate than the model, each method has diiculty accurately representing some feature of the real system. Finally, we observe that each of the two tools was valuable in helping to improve the accuracy of the other.


The isocitrate lyases (ICL1/2) are essential enzymes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis. At present, no ICL1/2 inhibitors have progressed to clinical evaluation, despite extensive drug discovery efforts. Herein, we surveyed succinate analogs against ICL1 and found that dicarboxylic acids constrained in their synperiplanar conformations, such as maleic acid, comprise uncompetitive inhibitors of ICL1 and inhibit more potently than their trans-isomers. From this, we identified cis-2,3 epoxysuccinic acid (cis-EpS) as a selective, irreversible covalent inactivator of Mtb ICL1 (kinact/Kinact= (5.0 ± 1.4) × 104 M-1 s-1; Kinact = 200 ± 50 nM), the most potent inactivator of ICL1 yet characterized. Crystallographic and mass spectrometric analysis demonstrated that Cys191 of ICL1 was S-malylated by cis-EpS, and a crystallographic "snapshot" of inactivation lent insight into the chemical mechanism of this inactivation. Proteomic analysis of E. coli lysates showed that cis-EpS selectively labeled plasmid-expressed Mtb ICL1. Consistently, cis-EpS, but not its trans-isomer, inhibited the growth of Mtb under conditions in which ICL function is essential. These findings encourage the development of analogs of cis-2,3-epoxysuccinate as antituberculosis agents.


Although wastewater reuse in agriculture can eases water scarcity, this practice also alters the variation of groundwater recharge and groundwater levels. This study employed a geostatistical method to systematically investigate the spatio-temporal variations and storage fluctuations of groundwater in a wastewater irrigation area in a southeastern suburb of Beijing. Specifically, we generated an optimal geostatistical model for measuring groundwater levels. Furthermore, we proposed that universal kriging is a suitable method for examining groundwater spatial variations, whereas a raster-based model can provide high accuracy for studying groundwater fluctuations; the nugget effect value of groundwater levels increases with increasing exploitation intensity. Our results indicated that groundwater levels increased overall in the early stages of wastewater irrigation development, followed by local increases in some pockets in the middle stages of development, large-scale increases in the late stages and an increasing variation of magnitude over time. The results also showed that groundwater level declined less on farmlands than that in urban areas, suggesting that wastewater irrigation facilitates groundwater conservation by reducing groundwater exploitation and enhancing groundwater recharge. Our results are conducive to developing an effective groundwater management plan and for improving the accuracy of groundwater resource assessments.


Abstract Auditory streaming based on amplitude modulations (AMs) might be responsible for concurrent vowel identification and F0 difference limen for high pass filtered harmonics. However, no clear evidence is available for the contribution of AM in concurrent stream segregation. This study aimed to investigate the role of high rate AM in concurrent stream segregation using a behavioral task and object-related negativity (ORN). Ten adults aged 18–25 years participated in the study. Three participants coherently or incoherently modulated narrow band noises with the bandwidth of 1 ERBN were presented for a perceptual stream segregation task, as well as for eliciting ORN. In the incoherent condition, the middle band was modulated at 1, 2, and 4 semitones higher than 120 Hz and other two bands were modulated at 120 Hz. In the coherent condition, all three bands were modulated at the same rate. It was expected that the incoherently modulated stimuli would produce the perception of two streams, whereas coherently modulated stimulus would produce single stream perception. The d-prime analysis revealed that listeners had low sensitivity to stream segregation even at 4 semitone differences and d-prime was not significantly different from 0. Similarly, differences in AM did not elicit ORN. The results of this study suggest that differences in AM up to 4 semitones do not lead to concurrent stream segregation.


In recent years there has been a significant increase in the scrutiny of head trauma in football. This attention is due largely to a host of studies that have been highly publicized and linked the repetitive head trauma in football to late-life neurological impairment. Scientists and physicians familiar with boxing have been aware of such impairment, resulting from repeated head impacts, for more than 80 years. Few, however, made the connection between the similarity of head impacts in boxing and football until recent decades. This article examines the medical and scientific literature related to head trauma in both boxing and football, paying particular attention to the different emphases of that research. Further, the literature is used to trace the understanding of sport-related chronic head trauma as well as how that understanding has prompted reform efforts in each sport. Finally, in light of the current understanding of the long-term sequelae of repetitive head trauma, some consideration is given to...


Presentation differs from that in the young, as does choice of therapy, which tends to be empiric. The tricyclics are considered the best treatment, although electroconvulsive therapy may be preferable in severe delusional depression.


BACKGROUND
Over the past years, the vast majority of blood grouping research in Saudi Arabia has been noted to be mainly focusing on ABO and D antigens. Consequently, knowledge on other clinically significant antigens regarding the RH and KEL blood group systems is required. Therefore, an experimental study using serotyping of ABO antigens, five main antigens (D, C, c, E and e) of the RH blood group system and the KEL1 antigen of the KEL blood group system will be carried out.

METHODS
A total number of 3,563 blood samples obtained from Saudi volunteer blood donors in Jazan Province were investigated. The following antigens were included in this study: A, B, AB, O, and D type (D VI) and C, c, E, e, and KEL1 antigens. Moreover, RH phenotypes and haplotypes were also determined. Serological analysis was performed using ID System gel cards. DiaClon ABO/D + Reverse grouping and DiaClon Rh subgroups + K were used. Statistical analysis was used to determine the frequency of all antigens, phenotypes, and RH haplotypes.

RESULTS
Regarding the ABO blood group system, observations were as follows: A, 29.44%; B, 10.44%; AB, 1.15%; and O, 58.97%. Antigens of RH blood group systems demonstrated as follows: D, 93.32%; C, 70.97%; E, 18.91%; c, 75.38% and e, 97.95%. The frequency of KEL1 antigen is 4.54%. The frequencies of RH haplotypes are as follows: Dce, 0.0078; DCe, 0.4723; DcE, 0.2736; DCE, 0.0051; dce, 0.2410; dCe, 0; dcE, 0.0001; and dCE, 0.

CONCLUSIONS
We established the frequencies of ABO, RH, and KEL1 antigens in Jazan Province of Saudi Arabia. In addition, RH phenotypes and haplotypes were determined. This blood donor screening may help provide compatible blood units for transfusion and patient safety. Therefore, this might be recommended to other provinces of Saudi Arabia to investigate the prevalence of these antigens for better transfusion practice.


Mycoplasma pneumonia of swine (MPS) is responsible for significant economic losses in the swine industry. We selected Landrace pigs for reduced MPS pulmonary lesions over five generations, and measured concentrations of the following cytokines: interleukin (IL)-10, IL-13, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ to estimate their correlation with MPS lesions. Sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were injected twice intramuscularly at 70 and 95 kg body weight. Blood serum samples were collected after 1 week of secondary SRBC inoculation and cytokine concentrations were analyzed by ELISA. Genetic parameters and breeding values were estimated. The heritability estimates of IL-10, IL-13, IL-17, TNF-α and IFN-γ were 0.20 ± 0.06, 0.12 ± 0.06, 0.27 ± 0.07, 0.20 ± 0.10 and 0.05 ± 0.03, respectively. Genetic correlations of IL-17 and TNF-α with pulmonary MPS lesions were high (-0.86 ± 0.13 and 0.69 ± 0.29, respectively) and those of IFN-γ and IL-13 with MPS lesions were moderately negative (-0.45). Through selection, the breeding values of IL-17 and IFN-γ increased substantially and those of TNF-α decreased. These results suggest that innate and cellular immunity are more important for the suppression of pulmonary lesions in MPS than humoral-mediated immunity, such as antibody response.


We investigated the quench development in resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) based on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi-2212) bulk coils. In order to protect them from hot spot formation, the bulk coils were either attached with a metal shunt layer or connected with a shunt coil in parallel. The bulk coils also had a plastic support for enhanced mechanical strength and insulation. The SFCLs were subjected to simulated AC fault currents for quench measurements. They were immersed in liquid nitrogen during the experiment for effective cooling. The resistance of the Bi-2212 bulk coil stayed low for a few milliseconds, until it increased rapidly. The increase was more rapid in the SFCL with a shunt coil than with a shunt layer. Once the quench was completed, the resistance increased at slower rates. The average temperature of the bulk coil reached about 230 K at 3 cycles after quench start at application voltage of 2.4 Vrms/cm with a shunt coil, and at 0.4 Vrms/cm with a shunt layer. The resistance development in Bi-2212 bulk coils could be quantitatively explained with the concept of transfer of heat generated during quenches to the liquid nitrogen as well as within the Bi-2212 bulk. The fault period was divided into three regions: flux-flow region, region prior-to quench completion, and region after quench completion. Resistance was calculated separately for each region and compared with data. The results agreed well with data.


We explain and explore class-theoretic potentialism -- the view that one can always individuate more classes over a set-theoretic universe. We examine some motivations for class-theoretic potentialism, before proving some results concerning the relevant potentialist systems (in particular exhibiting failures of the .2 and .3 axioms). We then discuss the significance of these results for the different kinds of class-theoretic potentialist.


A major feature in the classical conception of the morphology of the T-even type coliphage is the shape of the head, believed to be a bipyramidal hexagonal prism. The present paper shows that this shape is not consistent with the appearance in electron micrographs, and an alternative model is proposed. The fine structure of the head is compared with that of polymerized head protein (polyhead) obtained from naturally-occurring lethal mutants. Certain hexagonal and star-shaped objects have been described in the literature as base-plates. Because of inconsistencies in their appearance, they have now been measured and studied. The results given here indicate that the star-shaped objects are disorganized base-plates and the hexagonal objects are collars. By using the rotation method for printing micrographs of collars it is found that they have a hollow subunit at each corner.


This thesis explores the role of social protection transfers and remittances in the fight against poverty, an objective pursued by governments around the world. Even though these transfers share many similarities, there is scant literature comparing them. Findings suggest that both remittances and social assistance transfers are spent on basic needs as well as on human capital goods, such as food and education. Moreover, these transfers improve food security, but they are not sufficient to reduce malnutrition. Finally, while remittances lead to improvements in subjective well-being, social assistance transfers have no effects or even negative effects on this dimension.


This research experiments an innovative integrative model of professional support in collaboration with two health and physical education teachers. The objectives of this article are to describe: 1) the modifications made to the model by the participants and 2) the strengths and the elements to improve this process. To meet these objectives, two methods of data collection were used in a collaborative action research: 1) group interviews and 2) logbooks. The main finding is that this professional development device has several strengths, but requires a significant commitment from the participants.
Keywords: professional support, professional development, collaborative action research, health education, health and physical education


We describe the case of a female 7 year-old patient who sustained a minor trauma in the right ring finger causing pain and functional disability. The only finding of the physical exam was pain. The imaging studies showed a distal metadiaphyseal lesion in the proximal phalanx of the ring finger that thinned the dorsal cortex. An excisional biopsy was performed and the pathology report was aneurysmatic bone cyst. The report of this lesion is interesting because it has an extremely low incidence, particularly in the hand. It is always very important to consider that hand tumors are usually benign. However, despite the fact that cartilage tumors, like enchondromas, are the most common ones, there are lesions like the one described herein with a high potential of aggressiveness and relapse that warrants several interventions.


massage failed to produce a palpable femoral pulse, and we assumed that the reason for this was that the grossly over-distended lungs cushioned the pressure applied to the anterior chest wall, and prevented it from being transmitted to the heart. In the next two cases external cardiac massage was similarly ineffective, but open massage immediately produced a palpable femoral pulse and was rapidly followed by a restoration of spontaneous cardiac pulsation in sinus rhythm. Unfortunately, in one case open cardiac massage was not started in time to prevent irreparable cerebral damage. Open cardiac massage may seem a formidable undertaking, particularly to a physician, but it is in fact a simple procedure, and in almost every hospital the services of a surgeon can readily be obtained to close the wound. In the light of our recent experience, which is happily not extensive, we now take the view that when a patient with status asthmaticus develops cardiac arrest in hospital and this is shown to be due to ventricular asystole the proper course is to undertake open cardiac massage without delay.We are, etc., I. W. B. GRANT. W. P. U. KENNEDY. D. N. MALONE. Respiratory Diseases Unit, Northern General Hospital, Edinburgh S.


Internships in the health profession, specifically in public and community health education and promotion, are a valuable opportunity for students to acquire new skills, as well as implement their recently acquired academic knowledge. There are generally three key players in the internship process: the faculty advisor or coordinator, the site supervisor, and the student intern. There are processes and procedures that can greatly help facilitate a positive experience for all three parties. Essential to this internship process are good organization skills, meticulous planning abilities, and clear communication channels. This article provides easy steps that all three individuals can benefit from during the planning and implementation phases of the internship experiences. © 2005 Californian Journal of Health Promotion. All rights reserved.


This introduction to Religious Freedom, LGBT Rights, and the Prospects for Common Ground--a groundbreaking volume of leading voices in the faith and LGBT advocacy communities, equality and religious liberty scholars, and legislative stakeholders--surveys the volume's far-reaching exploration of the deeply contested question of whether respect for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ("LGBT") and faith communities can be reconciled in the law. In identifying the topics presented by the volume's thirty-five chapters, the introduction opens the door to dialogue and negotiation for mutually acceptable laws for faith and LGBT communities. Discussions span from state funding of religious for-profit and non-profit organizations, to the reach of LGBT nondiscrimination law, to approaches in tolerance and collaborative lawmaking. Setting the stage for the dialogue, the introduction notes the shift in policies from the Obama to the Trump administrations, a concerning report by the US Commission on Civil Rights, and political and legal developments that cast issues in a win/lose framework. This lead-in to an overdue conversation, one that began with the volume's contributors at a two-day summit at Yale University, asks whether we must remain divided as a nation over matters at the intersection of faith and sexuality.


BACKGROUND
In cystic fibrosis (CF), prophylactic supplementation of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K is recommended. Limited data is available describing vitamin prescription adherence by adult patients. The aim of this study was to assess the use of prescribed vitamins and other nutritional supplements by adult CF patients.

METHODS
All adult CF patients (n=111) registered at the Utrecht CF Center were invited to participate in a telephone survey on supplement use. Supplemental vitamin intakes were compared with recommendations. In a subsample, associations between supplemental intake and serum vitamin D and E values were assessed.

RESULTS
In this study 80% of the patients reported the use of vitamin and/or mineral supplements. Fat-soluble vitamins were used by 43% of pancreatic-sufficient (PS) and 81% of pancreatic-insufficient (PI) patients. Of PI patients reporting supplemental vitamin use, only 9% met the recommendations for vitamin A, 32% for vitamin D, 59% for vitamin E, and 81% for vitamin K. Multivitamin supplements were used by 42% of PI and by 29% of PS patients. Other nutritional supplements were rarely used.

CONCLUSION
A high percentage of PI patients use fat-soluble vitamins below recommendations. Therefore adequate monitoring of vitamin supplementation and status is warranted.


Introduction We have previously reported prospective data of TB risk in close contacts of tuberculosis with single step interferon gamma release assay (IGRAs) screening 8–12 weeks after index notification and shown a lower positive predictive value of the test in contacts with a higher risk of prior exposure and remote latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). We hypothesised that a dynamic change in IGRA response using a two step approach may better identify recent LTBI. Method Two-step IGRA screening with QuantiFERON TB Gold-In Tube (QFT) was implemented in adult (>16 years) contacts of smear positive pulmonary TB at Leicester. QFT testing was performed as soon as possible after index notification (T1) and if negative repeated after 8–12 weeks (T2). Quantitative QFT values were recorded in all contacts and in those having two tests, the change calculated. Data was mapped to the contacts' risk of remote infection (low, moderate, high) and estimated duration of exposure to the index case based on the reported date of symptoms onset. Results 397 contacts of 46 smear positive TB cases were identified. 116 children were excluded. 49 adults did not attend for testing (17.4%). 100 contacts (43%) were QFT positive at T1. In regression analysis duration of index symptoms was independently associated with this outcome (p = 0.001). ROC curve analysis in subgroups stratified by risk of remote LTBI demonstrated the strongest association to be in the lowest risk group (AUC = 0.93, p < 0.0001), with no significant association in the high risk group (AUC = 0.57, p = 0.404). 132 contacts were QFT neg at T1 and 109 returned for repeat testing. For the persistently QFT neg group the change in QFT was ± 1 log10 fold between visits. 9 (8.2%) contacts seroconverted. Two subgroups were identified based on the magnitude of change. In 4 contacts the change was within 1 log fold. In the remainder the change was ≥ 2 log fold and all in this subgroup seroconverted with 150 days of symptoms onset in the index. Conclusions Serial IGRA with ≥ 2 log10 fold change may indicate recent infection. This may be detectable in contacts of index cases with an early diagnosis.


A Rh(III)-catalyzed C–H activation/cyclization cascade reaction is described. The reaction involves cyclic 2-diazo-1,3-diketones and N-arylamides, and it proceeds via an intermolecular C–C bond formation and subsequent intramolecular C–N bond formation. A variety of N-acyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-carbazol-4(9H)-ones were obtained under mild conditions in good to excellent yields (65–90%). Key features of this strategy include high-efficiency, operational simplicity, scalability, and broad functional-group tolerance. In addition, H2O and N2 are the only byproducts. Carbazole derivatives with free NH groups can be easily obtained through N-deprotection reactions.


What kind of critical approach do literary texts require that portray environmental misdeeds and display an ethos ostensibly calling into question the practices responsible for those misdeeds? Novels and poetry that address guilt and responsibility in the Anthropocene often aestheticize supposedly natural conditions, evoke nostalgic settings, and imagine a return to better times. Thus, they require literary criticism to focus on human responsibility and culpability toward the environment. However, the notion of responsibility is not only to be found in the text as a topic but might also be a necessary stance toward the text. Then, literary criticism would be a matter of responding and making responsibility productive. That means making intelligible the potential of being (speaking) with one another inherent in the structures of language. Drawing on the concept of interpellation and analyzing Juliana Spahr's poem "Gentle Now, Don't Add to Heartache", this article examines the relevance of the notion of responsibility for literary criticism.


Dilute combustion is an effective approach to increase the thermal efficiency of spark-ignition (SI) internal combustion engines (ICEs). However, high dilution levels typically result in large cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV) and poor combustion stability, therefore limiting the efficiency improvement. In order to extend the dilution tolerance of SI engines, advanced ignition systems are the subject of extensive research.When simulating the effect of the ignition characteristics on CCV, providing a numerical result matching the measured average in-cylinder pressure trace does not deliver useful information regarding combustion stability. Typically Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are performed to simulate cyclic engine variations, since Reynold-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) modeling is expected to deliver an ensemble-averaged result.In this paper it is shown that, when using RANS, the cyclic perturbations coming from different initial conditions at each cycle are not damped out even after many simulated cycles. As a result, multi-cycle RANS results feature cyclic variability. This allows evaluating the effect of advanced ignition sources on combustion stability but requires validation against the entire cycle-resolved experimental dataset.A single-cylinder GDI research engine is simulated using RANS and the numerical results for 20 consecutive engine cycles are evaluated for several operating conditions, including stoichiometric as well as EGR dilute operation. The effect of the ignition characteristics on CCV is also evaluated. Results show not only that multi-cycle RANS simulations can capture cyclic variability and deliver similar trends as the experimental data, but more importantly that RANS might be an effective, lower-cost alternative to LES for the evaluation of ignition strategies for combustion systems that operate close to the stability limit.© 2015 ASME


This paper studies, theoretically and empirically, the impact of imposing preferences-on-preferences (POP) within the context of a deferred-acceptance matching process with uncertainty. Theoretically, this type of rules make students misrepresent their preferences to secure a spot in a POP program, particularly when uncertainty is large. Applicants to Chilean universities responded as predicted by our model to a 2003 policy where one of the main university, UChile, imposed POP and then to a change in the entrance exam, increasing uncertainty. We show that not only were applications altered but eventual outcomes and welfare as well, particularly with higher uncertainty.


Knowledge of difficulty level of questions helps a teacher in several ways, such as estimating students' potential quickly by asking carefully selected questions and improving quality of examination by modifying trivial and hard questions. Can we extract such benefits of instance difficulty in Natural Language Processing? To this end, we conduct Instance-Level Difficulty Analysis of Evaluation data (ILDAE) in a large-scale setup of 23 datasets and demonstrate its five novel applications: 1) conducting efficient-yet-accurate evaluations with fewer instances saving computational cost and time, 2) improving quality of existing evaluation datasets by repairing erroneous and trivial instances, 3) selecting the best model based on application requirements, 4) analyzing dataset characteristics for guiding future data creation, 5) estimating Out-of-Domain performance reliably. Comprehensive experiments for these applications lead to several interesting results, such as evaluation using just 5% instances (selected via ILDAE) achieves as high as 0.93 Kendall correlation with evaluation using complete dataset and computing weighted accuracy using difficulty scores leads to 5.2% higher correlation with Out-of-Domain performance. We release the difficulty scores and hope our work will encourage research in this important yet understudied field of leveraging instance difficulty in evaluations.


The Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films were deposited on the glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures. The effect of substrate temperature on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of AZO films was investigated. The results indicate each of the films has a preferential c-axis orientation. The grain size increases with substrate temperature increasing. All the films exhibit a high transmittance in visible region and have sharp ultraviolet absorption characteristics. The resistivity decreases with substrate temperature increasing up to 250oC, then increases for higher temperature.


Abstract The investigation examined a collaborative teaching and learning house structure at a New Zealand intermediate (or middle) school. Using observations, questionnaires, and interviews, we explored the perceptions of staff, children, and parents about the educational value of such a model and whether it meets the principles of good education for the young adolescent age group. We found that a sizeable majority of the participants viewed this model positively and that it does reflect established principles of good education for young adolescent children, such as employing multiple learning and teaching approaches that respond to young adolescents' diversity and providing an organizational structure that supports meaningful relationships and learning (National Middle School Association, 2010). It corresponds particularly well with the principles of collaborative teaching and learning and the practice of keeping classes together for two years. Many parents wanted more information about this collaborative teaching and learning option prior to the current decision point at enrolment. We recommend continuing with this collaborative house structure at the school and suggest this school and other New Zealand intermediate schools explore ways to include more children in this form of education.


Abstract In this paper we present a comprehensive approach to automatic organization and hybrid navigation of text databases. An organizing stage first builds a particular lattice representation of the data, through text indexing followed by lattice clustering of the indexed texts. The lattice representation, then, supports the navigation stage of the system, a visual retrieval interface that combines three main retrieval strategies: browsing, querying, and bounding. Browsing and querying are used to search the retrieval space, bounding is used to restrict it based on the information that users have, or get during their interaction with the system. We show that such a hybrid paradigm permits high flexibility in trading off information exploration and retrieval and, in addiiton, has good retrieval performance. We compared information retrieval using lattice-based hybrid navigation with conventional Boolean querying. The results of an experiment conducted on two medium-sized bibliographic databases showed that the performance of lattice retrieval was comparable to or better than Boolean retrieval.


Abstract
Purpose
Identity exploration is a central mechanism for identity formation that has been found to be associated with intense engagement, positive coping, openness to change, flexible cognition, and meaningful learning. Moreover, identity exploration in school has been associated with adaptive motivation for learning the academic material. Particularly in the fast-changing environment of contemporary society, confidence and skills in identity exploration and self-construction seems to be increasingly important. Therefore, promoting students' identity exploration in school within the curriculum and in relation to the academic content should be adopted as an important educational goal. The purpose of this paper is to describe a conceptual framework for interventions to promote students' identity exploration within the curriculum. The framework involves the application of four interrelated principles: (1) promoting self-relevance; (2) triggering exploration; (3) facilitating a sense of safety; and (4) scaffolding exploratory actions.

Approach
We begin the paper with a conceptual review of identity exploration. We follow by specifying the conceptual framework for interventions. We then present a methodological-intervention approach for applying this framework and describe three such interventions in middle-school contexts, in the domains of environmental education, literature, and mathematics.

Findings
In each intervention, applying the principles contributed to students' adaptive motivation and engagement in the academic material and also contributed to students' identity exploration, though not among all students. The findings highlight the contextual, dynamic, and indeterminate nature of identity exploration among early adolescents in educational settings, and the utility of the conceptual framework and approach for conceptualizing and intervening to promote identity exploration among students.

Value
This paper contributes to the conceptual understanding of identity exploration in educational settings, highlights the benefits and the challenges in intervening to promote identity exploration among students, and discusses the future directions in theory, research, and practice concerned with the promotion of identity exploration in educational settings.


An automatic multi-organ segmentation method using hierarchical-shape-prior guided level sets is proposed. The hierarchical shape priors are organized according to the anatomical hierarchy of the human body, so that major structures with less population variety are at the top and smaller structures with higher irregularities are linked at a lower level. The segmentation is performed in a top-down fashion, where major structures are first segmented with higher confidence, and their location information is then passed down to the lower level to initialize the segmentation, while boundary information from higher-level structures also provides extra cues to guide the segmentation of the lower-level structures. The proposed method was combined with a novel coherent propagating level set method, which is capable to detect local convergence and skip calculation in those parts, therefore significantly reducing computation time. Preliminary experiment results on a small number of clinical datasets are encouraging, the proposed method yielded a Dice coefficient above 90% for most major organs within a reasonable processing time without any user intervention.


A new liveness detection scheme for iris based on quality related measures is presented. The novel anti-spoofing technique is tested on a database comprising over 1,600 real and fake (high quality printed images) iris samples proving to have a very high potential as an effective protection scheme against direct attacks. Furthermore, the liveness detection method presented has the added advantage over previously studied techniques of needing just one iris image (the same used for verification) to decide whether it comes from a real or fake eye.


OBJECT
The purpose of this study is twofold: 1) to test antisense genetic techniques used in the prevention of cerebral vasospasm in a canine model of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), targeting the endothelin-1 (ET-1) gene; and 2) to determine if fibrinolysis of subarachnoid clot with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) could enhance the effect of antisense treatment.

METHODS
A total of 39 dogs were studied in this experiment. Placebo (six animals), rtPA (six animals), antisense preproET-1 oligodeoxynucleotide (ASOD; five animals), or rtPA plus ASOD (combined treatment; six animals) was injected into the cisterna magna 30 minutes after a second SAH was induced on the 2nd day of the experiment. The animals were observed until Day 7, when they underwent follow-up angiography and then were killed; their basilar arteries were removed for analysis. Control animals included in this study (two animals in each group) received placebo, rtPA, ASOD, or rtPA plus ASOD without induction of SAH, or rtPA with mismatched (nonsense) preproET-1 oligodeoxynucleotide following SAH. Six additional dogs were analyzed earlier following SAH. Dogs that received placebo developed severe vasospasm (51+/-8% of baseline caliber). Administration of ASOD alone resulted in a mild reduction in vasospasm (64+/-13% of baseline caliber) and rtPA alone resulted in a moderate reduction in vasospasm (81+/-5% of baseline caliber); however, the combined therapy of rtPA plus ASOD almost completely prevented vasospasm (95+/-6%, of baseline caliber), which was significantly different from all other groups (p < 0.05). Morphological analysis of the basilar arteries yielded results similar to angiography with respect to vasospasm severity. The ASOD treatment combined with rtPA resulted in reduced ET-1 expression, as demonstrated by immunohistochemical staining of the arteries, and reduced preproET-1 levels on Day 4, as measured by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Nonsense DNA sequences had no effect on the vessels.

CONCLUSIONS
Antisense preproET-1 oligodeoxynucleotide treatment, when combined with clot lysis caused by rtPA, reduced vasospasm in the canine model of SAH, and this effect appeared to be related to reduced ET-1 synthesis. The results of this experiment support a causative role for ET-1 early in the course of vasospasm development in dogs. The apparent additive therapeutic effects of antisense and fibrinolytic treatments could be due to clot lysis, which allows better delivery of oligodeoxynucleotides to arteries within the subarachnoid space.


We present observations of the spiral galaxy M33 with Spitzer at 24, 70, and 160 μm. The excellent resolution and mapping capabilities of Spitzer combined with the proximity of M33 result in observations that enable a detailed study of the distribution of star formation (SF) and dust in the galaxy. We compare the morphology of M33 at far-infrared wavelengths with other standard SF indicators such as Hα and radio continuum using a Fourier filtering technique to separate the diffuse emission components from compact sources. We find that the infrared emission at 24 and 70 μm follows closely the structure of the ionized gas, indicating that it is heated largely by hot, ionizing stars. At 160 μm a diffuse cold dust component matches only approximately the structure of the old red stellar population or the distribution of blue light. It is, however, very similar to the structure of the diffuse nonthermal radio emission.


Carbon-based material has
been regarded as one of the most promising electrode materials for Potassium-ion
batteries (PIBs). However, the battery performance based on reported porous
carbon electrodes is still unsatisfactory, while the in-depth K-ion storage
mechanism remains relatively ambiguous. Herein, we propose a facile "in situ
template bubbling" method for synthesizing interlayer tuned hierarchically
porous carbon with different metallic ions, which delivers superior K-ion
storage performance, especially the rate capability (158.6 mAh firstname.lastname@example.com
A g-1) and high-rate cycling stability (82.8% capacity retention
after 2000 cycles at 5.0 A g-1). The origin of the excellent rate
performance is revealed by the deliberately designed consecutive CV
measurements, Ex situ Raman tests, GITT and theoretical simulations. Considering
the facile preparation strategy, superior electrochemical performance and insightful
mechanism investigations, this work can provide fundamental understandings for high
performance PIBs and related energy storage devices like sodium-ion batteries,
aluminum-ion batteries, electrochemical capacitors and dual-ion batteries.


The paper focuses on two aspects of Hugh McCann's theory of action and shows that they stand in conflict. The first of them is McCann's defense of the claim that all overt actions are grounded in a special kinds of mental action – volitions (from the Gilbert Ryle's famous 'dilemma' argument). The second aspect is his answer to the problem of causal deviance. The paper shows that the same element that makes his theory immune to Ryle's argument limits its strength in dealing with the problem of causal deviance. In conclusion it appears that the only version of volitionism that can be defended is its understanding which restricts the scope of human action to mental activity.


Purpose: VB-111 is an antiangiogenic agent consisting of a nonreplicating adenovirus vector (Ad-5) with a modified murine pre-proendothelin promoter leading to apoptosis of tumor vasculature by expressing a Fas-chimera transgene in angiogenic endothelial cells. In a phase I dose-escalation study, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, safety, and efficacy of a single dose of VB-111 in patients with advanced solid tumors were evaluated. Experimental Design: VB-111 was administered as a single i.v. infusion at escalating doses from 1 × 1010 (cohort 1) to 1 × 1013 (cohort 7) viral particles (VP) in successive cohorts. Assessments included pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles, tumor response, and overall survival. Results: Thirty-three patients were enrolled. VB-111 was safe and well-tolerated; self-limited fever and chills were seen at doses above 3 × 1011 VPs. Transgene expression was not detected in blood but was detected in an aspirate from a subcutaneous metastasis after treatment. One patient with papillary thyroid carcinoma had a partial response. Conclusions: VB-111 was safe and well tolerated in patients with advanced metastatic cancer at a single administration of up to 1 × 1013 VPs. Evidence of transgene expression in tumor tissue and tumor response was observed. Clin Cancer Res; 19(14); 3996–4007. ©2013 AACR.


The cost of delay is a serious and increasing problem in the airline industry. Air travel is increasing, and already domestic airports incur thousands of hours of delay daily, costing the industry $2 billion a year. One strategy for reducing total delay costs is to hold planes for a short time at the gate in order to reduce costly airborne congestion. In a network of airports involving hundreds of ights, it is di cult to determine the amount to hold each ight at the gate. This paper discusses how the optimization procedure simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) can be used to process delay cost measurements from air tra c simulation packages and produce an optimal gate holding schedule. As a test case, the SIMMOD air tra c simulation package was used to model a simple four-airport network. Initial delay costs are reduced up to 10.3%.


The meaning of art changes in various contexts. This article examines how an outdoor performance transformed an urban street in the Mission District of San Francisco into a site of citizenship and political communication. This is the story of how choreographer Jo Kreiter and her small group of dancers used the power of memory, the social narratives about her San Franciscan performance site and symbolism to enhance the political message about gentrification embedded in her dance piece Mission Wall Dances. The relevance of public performance, however, does not come exclusively from its location, but rather includes its engagement with civic life. The performance of Mission Wall Dances became a dialogue between the physical site, the specific subject matter and the experiences and memories of the audience members. The associations made between the performance and its neighbourhood location in the minds of the audience members can build a sense of civic identity, at both individual and group levels. The images and ideas present in the performance commingled in the minds of the audience creating a new meaning for an urban landscape.


The present study was designed to estimate the level of measles IgG antibody in infants early after vaccination and in preschool children to determine their immune status. Three groups were studied: Group I, unvaccinated infants, Group II, recently vaccinated infants and Group III vaccinated preschool children. Measles IgG antibody was measured using the ELISA technique. The study showed that 90% (18/20) of the unvaccinated Group I infants were seronegative and only 10% were seropositive for measles IgG antibody representing most probably persisting maternal antibodies. Fifty percent (15/30) of recently vaccinated Group II infants were seropositive. A statistically significant higher antibody level was observed in Group II infants in comparison to those of Group I. The majority of seropositive infants of Group II (10/15 = 66.7%) showed high antibody level representing successful vaccination. Seropositives represented 77.4% (24/31) of Group III preschool children and the majority of them 75% (18/24) showed high antibody level which was significantly higher than the comparable in Group II infants, most probably due to subclinical infection in addition to successful vaccination. Fifty percent (15/30) of Group II infants and 22.6% (7/31) of Group III children were seronegative, more likely due to failure of initial vaccination.