The comparison of images of a patient to a reference standard may enable the identification of structural brain changes. These comparisons may involve the use of vector or tensor images (i.e., 3-D images for which each voxel can be represented as an RN vector) such as diffusion tensor images (DTI) or transformations. The recent introduction of the Log-Euclidean framework for diffeomorphisms and tensors has greatly simplified the use of these images by allowing all the computations to be performed on a vector-space. However, many sources can result in a bias in the images, including disease or imaging artifacts. In order to estimate and compensate for these sources of variability, we developed a new algorithm, called continuous STAPLE, that estimates the reference standard underlying a set of vector images. This method, based on an expectation-maximization method similar in principle to the validation method STAPLE, also estimates for each image a set of parameters characterizing their bias and variance with respect to the reference standard. We demonstrate how to use these parameters for the detection of atypical images or outliers in the population under study. We identified significant differences between the tensors of diffusion images of multiple sclerosis patients and those of control subjects in the vicinity of lesions.


This report presents information on the state of U.S. health care in mid-2002. It provides data on the uninsured and underinsured and their difficulties in finding health care; the increasing costs of care; health, social, and economic inequalities; and the role of corporate money in health care. Information is also presented on mental health care, the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, Medicare HMOs, and the state of nursing. The author then provides updates on Congressional activity and the results of polls on matters of health, and some data on health care systems elsewhere in the world.


This study aims at determining the elastic stress and displacement fields around a crack in a microstructured body under a remotely applied loading of the antiplane shear (mode III) type. The material microstructure is modeled through the Mindlin-Green-Rivlin dipolar gradient theory (or strain-gradient theory of grade two). A simple but yet rigorous version of this generalized continuum theory is taken here by considering an isotropic linear expression of the elastic strain-energy density in antiplane shearing that involves only two material constants (the shear modulus and the so-called gradient coefficient). In particular, the strain-energy density function, besides its dependence upon the standard strain terms, depends also on strain gradients. This expression derives from form Il of Mindlin's theory, a form that is appropriate for a gradient formulation with no couple-stress effects (in this case the strain-energy density function does not contain any rotation gradients). Here, both the formulation of the problem and the solution method are exact and lead to results for the near-tip field showing significant departure from the predictions of the classical fracture mechanics. In view of these results, it seems that the conventional fracture mechanics is inadequate to analyze crack problems in microstructured materials. Indeed, the present results suggest that the stress distribution ahead of the tip exhibits a local maximum that is bounded. Therefore, this maximum value may serve as a measure of the critical stress level at which further advancement of the crack may occur. Also, in the vicinity of the crack tip, the crack-face displacement closes more smoothly as compared to the classical results. The latter can be explained physically since materials with microstructure behave in a more rigid way (having increased stiffness) as compared to materials without microstructure (i.e., materials governed by classical continuum mechanics). The new formulation of the crack problem required also new extended definitions for the J-integral and the energy release rate. It is shown that these quantities can be determined through the use of distribution (generalized function) theory. The boundary value problem was attacked by both the asymptotic Williams technique and the exact Wiener-Hopf technique. Both static and time-harmonic dynamic analyses are provided.


In order to improve the efficacy of 5‐aminolevulinic acid‐based (ALA) photodynamic therapy (PDT), different ALA derivatives are presently being investigated. ALA esters are more lipophilic and therefore may have better skin penetration properties than ALA, possibly resulting in enhanced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) production. In previous studies it was shown that ALA pentyl ester (ALAPE) does considerably enhance the PpIX production in cells in vitro compared with ALA. We investigated the in vivo PpIX fluorescence kinetics after application of ALA and ALAPE to hairless mice with and without UVB‐induced early skin cancer. ALA and ALAPE (20% wt/wt) were applied topically to the mouse skin and after 30 min, the solvent was wiped off and PpIX fluorescence was followed in time with in vivo fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging. At 6 and 12 h after the 30 min application, skin samples of visible lesions and adjacent altered skin (UVB‐exposed mouse skin) and normal mouse skin were collected for fluorescence microscopy. From each sample, frozen sections were made and phase contrast images and fluorescence images were recorded. The in vivo fluorescence kinetics showed that ALAPE induced more PpIX in visible lesions and altered skin of the UVB‐exposed mouse skin, but not in the normal mouse skin. In the microscopic fluorescence images, higher ALAPE‐induced PpIX levels were measured in the stratum corneum, but not in the dysplastic layer of the epidermis. In deeper layers of the skin, PpIX levels were the same after ALA and ALAPE application. In conclusion, ALAPE does induce higher PpIX fluorescence levels in vivo in our early skin cancer model, but these higher PpIX levels are not located in the dysplastic layer of the epidermis.


The application of neural networks as a tool for reactor diagnosis is examined. Reactor pump signals utilized in a wear-out monitoring system developed for early detection of the degradation of a pump shaft are analyzed as a semi-benchmark test to study the feasibility of neural networks for monitoring and surveillance in nuclear reactors. The Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART 2 and ART 2A) paradigm of neural networks is used. The signals are collected signals as well as generated signals simulating the wear progress. The wear-out monitoring system applies noise analysis techniques and is capable of distinguishing these signals and providing a measure of the progress of the degradation. Results are presented of the analysis of these data, and the performances of ART 2-A and ART 2 for reactor signal analysis are evaluated. >


Okajimas Folia Anatomica Japonica was first published in 1922 through the private funding of Professor Keiji Okajima, the first head of the Department of Anatomy, Keio University School of Medicine. Back then it was the only western-language anatomical journal available in our country, through which the researchers could present their achievements worldwide. To this date, for about 100 years, it has been published periodically by the editorial committee in the department.  This time, the committee decided to put a break constructively; we suspend publication of this journal while anticipating the future resumption as a form adapted to the times. Accordingly, we have closed new submissions on September 30, 2019. Thank you for understanding and continuous support for Okajimas Folia Anatomica Japonica.


This paper addresses theoretical aspects of global multinational trade models of the computable general equilibrium (CGE) type. We define and discuss the concepts of model homogeneity, model closure rules, and consistency in calibration. We examine and illustrate these issues using a highly simplified skeleton model derived from the PEP-w-1 CGE world model, to represent the essential structure of world trade models. Model closure issues, including how to correctly fix current account balances, are scrutinized. We also consider the role of nominal exchange rates in Walrasian "real" CGE models (without money), which can be, and often are written without exchange rates. But when exchange rates are present, we show that a model can be solved equivalently by exogenously fixing either exchange rates (FE) or regional price indexes (FP), and we weigh the advantages of either closure for economic interpretation of simulation results. The model is implemented in GAMS and is made available to readers as a supplementary download.


We test the hypothesis that language models trained with reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) have the capability to"morally self-correct"-- to avoid producing harmful outputs -- if instructed to do so. We find strong evidence in support of this hypothesis across three different experiments, each of which reveal different facets of moral self-correction. We find that the capability for moral self-correction emerges at 22B model parameters, and typically improves with increasing model size and RLHF training. We believe that at this level of scale, language models obtain two capabilities that they can use for moral self-correction: (1) they can follow instructions and (2) they can learn complex normative concepts of harm like stereotyping, bias, and discrimination. As such, they can follow instructions to avoid certain kinds of morally harmful outputs. We believe our results are cause for cautious optimism regarding the ability to train language models to abide by ethical principles.


This study investigates an existing steel plate girder railroad bridge in order to monitor static and dynamic responses using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. This paper also presents an experimental technique to estimate the vertical deflection of the bridge using FBG sensors. Seven FBG sensors are multiplexed in a single optical fiber and installed in parallel pairs along the length of the bridge, with one set on the top flange and the other on the bottom flange. The train passes over the bridge at different speeds, ranging from 10 km/h to 90 km/h, so as to monitor the dynamic response of the bridge. The results show that the proposed instrumentation technique is capable of estimating the deflection of the bridge for various loading conditions, which is crucial in structural monitoring.


Working at home is widely viewed as a useful travel-reduction strategy, and partly for that reason, considerable research related to telecommuting and home-based work has been conducted in the last two decades. The contribution of this study is to examine the effect of residential neighborhood built environment (BE) factors on working at home. Using data from a survey of eight neighborhoods in Northern California, we develop a multinomial logit (MNL) model of work-at-home (WAH) frequency. Potential explanatory variables include sociodemographic traits, neighborhood preferences and perceptions, objective neighborhood characteristics, and travel attitudes and behavior. The results clearly demonstrate the contribution of built environment variables to WAH choices, in addition to previously-identified influences such as sociodemographic predictors and commute time. The findings suggest that land use and transportation strategies that are desirable from some perspectives will tend to weaken the motivation to work at home, and conversely, some factors that seem to increase the motivation to work at home are widely viewed as less sustainable. Accordingly, this research points to the complexity of trying to find the right balance among demand management strategies that sometimes act in competition rather than in synergy.


A stochastic nonlinear dynamical system generates information, as measured by its entropy rate. Some---the ephemeral information---is dissipated and some---the bound information---is actively stored and so affects future behavior. We derive analytic expressions for the ephemeral and bound informations in the limit of small-time discretization for two classical systems that exhibit dynamical equilibria: first-order Langevin equations (i) where the drift is the gradient of a potential function and the diffusion matrix is invertible and (ii) with a linear drift term (Ornstein-Uhlenbeck) but a noninvertible diffusion matrix. In both cases, the bound information is sensitive only to the drift, while the ephemeral information is sensitive only to the diffusion matrix and not to the drift. Notably, this information anatomy changes discontinuously as any of the diffusion coefficients vanishes, indicating that it is very sensitive to the noise structure. We then calculate the information anatomy of the stochastic cusp catastrophe and of particles diffusing in a heat bath in the overdamped limit, both examples of stochastic gradient descent on a potential landscape. Finally, we use our methods to calculate and compare approximations for the so-called time-local predictive information for adaptive agents.


ABSTRACT Subnational economic governance has witnessed ongoing transformation as part of what is argued as a financialization of the policy process. Within England, recent reform has seen two specific tendencies: a transformation attempting greater integration between industrial structure and subnational spaces; and more entrepreneurial practices incorporating businesses as key actors. Here, city-regional agglomeration models have been adopted to activate internal resource. This paper explores the effect of these changes on policy continuity amongst constituent parts of the city-region through the concept of goodwill. It focuses on the Greater Birmingham and Solihull region of the UK and its relationship with a constituent locality: Southern Staffordshire. It argues reform has redrawn the subnational map with greater sensitivity around industrial structure. Adapting modes of financializing the governance process, however, using city-regions' presumed benefits around competitiveness and efficiency, frame this sensitivity. A form of goodwill has thus emerged founded around compliance with orthodox city-regional interpretations, supplementing financial shortfalls yet reinforcing further space–policy separation.


This paper discusses traceability as part of information management in fruit supply chains of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. A review of the rules in use for traceability distinguishes between a proper traceability and a traceability plus (T+), embedded of many value attributes. Elements of competitive strategy, considered in the analysis of fruit supply chins of Emilia-Romagna, try to demonstrate that not only strategic but also operative choices determine the way a single firm or filiere manages traceability and information issues. Applications of such elements to buyers and sellers selection as well as to competing retailers of fruit supply chain, verify the hypothesis.


This study was undertaken to establish the tartar control efficacy and long-term safety of a new tartar control dentifrice that was formulated to enhance aesthetics and consumer acceptability. In a partially randomized, examiner-blind clinical trial, the experimental dentifrice, Crest MultiCare with 3.3% pyrophosphate, was compared to two currently marketed control dentifrices, Crest Regular Paste or Crest Tartar Protection Paste with 5.0% pyrophosphate. The eight-month trial model included a two-month pretest period to establish calculus formation after prophylaxis, followed by a six-month test period to evaluate efficacy and safety. Following the pretest period, 456 subjects were allocated to one of the three treatment groups and then monitored for calculus accumulation. After three and six months' test product use, the Crest MultiCare group experienced reductions in calculus accumulation of 28.9% and 32.3%, respectively compared to the regular control dentifrice. Over the six-month observation period, the experimental tartar control and the marketed tartar control dentifrices were comparable on adverse event frequency, type or severity, and no subject discontinued treatment due to an oral soft tissue adverse event. In this partially randomized and controlled six-month clinical trial, this new dentifrice exhibited tartar control efficacy, with a comparable overall safety profile to a marketed tartar control dentifrice.


The diapause is a specific physiological phenomenon induced by circadian zeitgebers of temperature and photoperiod at the stage of maternal embryonic development. In this research, the authors investigated the linkage of diapause and the regulation of circadian rhythm by inspecting the expression profiles of a circadian clock gene timeless (tim) under diapause-inducing temperature and photoperiod in Bombyx mori . The results show that the level of tim mRNA was higher in 25LL than in 20LD or in 15DD during the late embryonic stages (EAT 2520-3240°C·h), which is the most effective inducing period of temperature and photoperiod on diapause in the progeny. The tim transcription level was significantly higher in darkness than in light during postembryonic development, which contradicted the results found in the pupa and adult stages at 25°C. Exposure of maternal embryos to a high temperature (25°C) resulted in up-regulated levels of tim mRNA in egg stage of progeny. However, this up-regulation only occurred before egg-age at 72 h, which was a pivot for diapause and diapause termination. In conclusion, diapause-inducing temperature and photoperiod of incubation directly affect tim gene expression throughout the life cycle of B. mori .


SUMMARY We investigated a possible outbreak of H. pylori in a rural Northern Plains community. In a cross-sectional survey, we randomly sampled 244 households from a geocoded emergency medical system database. We used a complex survey design and global positioning system units to locate houses and randomly selected one eligible household member to administer a questionnaire and a 13C-urea breath test for active H. pylori infection (n = 166). In weighted analyses, active H. pylori infection was detected in 55·0% of the sample. Factors associated with infection on multivariate analysis included using a public drinking-water supply [odds ratio (OR) 12·2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2·9–50·7] and current cigarette smoking (OR 4·1, 95% CI 1·7–9·6). People who lived in houses with more rooms, a possible indicator of decreased crowding in the home, were less likely to have active H. pylori infections (OR 0·7, 95% CI 0·5–0·9 for each additional room).


We consider a supply network where a retailer sources from multiple economically weaker suppliers for a high-quality key material. The production of the material needs to comply with social and environmental standards over time. However, such compliance is costly, and the cost varies with privately observed dynamically changing environment (termed as the state), so the suppliers may cut corners, risking losing the ability to supply in the future. While retailer can invest to reduce the compliance cost, the investment outcome is uncertain. Therefore each party faces a trade-off between short-term gains/losses and long-term losses/gains. We present a dynamic model to capture these complexities and explore incentive mechanisms that enable all parties collaborate to achieve sustainable quality supply. We propose a sustainability index that reflects the supplier's compliance status, and then construct a dynamic mechanism to achieve the first-best index in each period. The payments to the suppliers reflect both current and future states. This mechanism allows suppliers' voluntary participation and induces truthful information exchange, self-enforcement, as well as first-best retailer investments. We show that the retailer commits and invests in a supplier only if the collaboration is longer than a certain contract length. Thus, we uncover situations where the support from the non-for-profit organizations is particularly valuable. Finally, we discuss additional strategies the retailer may adopt to scale up the program.


INTRODUCTION
meningococcal disease is an important health problem worldwide. Since 1991 the vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC has been used in Cuban under one-year old infants.

OBJECTIVE
to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine VA-MENGO-BC METHODS: for the evaluation after licensing this vaccine, all the infants affected by meningococcal disease between 1997 and 2008 were studied.

RESULTS
a total number of 114 cases were recorded. The annual average incidence was 7.1 per 100 000 infants. The mean vaccinal effectiveness for the period was 84.0 %, ranging from 68 % to 104 %. The frequency of disease in unvaccinated children was 20.2 % (23/114); 79.8 % (91/114) within the vaccination age, but only 75.8 % (69/91) of them had confirmed the immunization date. Only 26.4 % (24/91) had one single dose applied whereas 73.6 % (67/91) had completed their vaccination schedule (2 doses). The meningococcal disease prevailed in the first six months of life, declined afterwards and then started to rise again at 10 and 11 months of age. The meningeal form of clinical presentation predominated (89.5 %); case-fatality rate was 7.0 % (8/114), being 4.4 % for meningococcemia and 2,6 % for meningitis.

CONCLUSIONS
the vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC effectiveness in infants was satisfactory. It is suggested that further analysis be made by a group of experts on the use of a booster dose.


If exchange-traded fund prices diverge from net asset values, institutional investors may arbitrage the shares through an in-kind creation/redemption process sponsored by the fund company. This study analyzes the size and duration of exchange-traded fund premiums and the efficacy of arbitrage in reducing these premiums. While premiums are observed, they are rarely persistent. The fund-facilitated arbitrage process is generally successful in aligning price and value. However, even small premium fluctuations can mean the difference between a profit and loss for the short-term investors who dominate the trading of these securities.


iAbstract Background: Intimacy in marital relations has been conceptualized as a very important behavioral pattern that is made based on acceptance, satisfaction and love and this love is a way toward meaning full life. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of meaning-centered training on marital intimacy of women. Methods: This quasi experimental research was conducted on 24 women that referred to one of the healthy home of region 7 in Tehran and voluntarily participated in this research. The women were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Measurement tool consisted of Marital Intimacy Scale that was completed as pre-test and post-test. The intervention group participated in 10 sessions of meaning-centered training. Data were analyzed by covariance analysis. Findings: After adjusting for pre-test scores, there were significant differences between subjects of two groups (F(1, 21) =36.922, P<0.05, Partial n 2 =0.637). The adjusted mean scores showed that after implementing the independent variable, marital intimacy in the intervention group was increased compared to the control group. Conclusion: With regard to results, having shared meaning in life can be used as a way to increase intimate relations between spouses.


Using ultrafast, time-resolved, 1.54 angstrom x-ray diffraction, thermal and ultrafast nonthermal melting of germanium, involving passage through nonequilibrium extreme states of matter, was observed. Such ultrafast, optical-pump, x-ray diffraction probe measurements provide a way to study many other transient processes in physics, chemistry, and biology, including direct observation of the atomic motion by which many solid-state processes and chemical and biochemical reactions take place.


The study of two major risk factors in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, namely persistent hepatitis virus infection and exposure to dietary aflatoxins, has been hampered by lack of an experimental system. To this end we have used a Pekin duck model to examine the effect of congenital duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) infection and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) exposure in the induction and development of liver cancer. AFB1 was administered to DHBV infected or noninfected ducks at two doses (0.08 and 0.02 mg/kg) by i.p. injection once a week from the third month posthatch until they were sacrificed (2.3 years later). Two control groups of ducks not treated with AFB1 (one of which was infected with DHBV) were observed for the same period. Each experimental group included 13-16 ducks. Higher mortality was observed in ducks infected with DHBV and treated with AFB1 compared to noninfected ducks treated with AFB1 and other control ducks. In the groups of noninfected ducks treated with high and low doses of AFB1, liver tumors developed in 3 of 10 and 2 of 10 ducks; in infected ducks treated with the high dose 3 of 6 liver tumors were observed and none in the low dose of AFB1. No liver tumors were observed in the two control groups. Ducks infected with DHBV and treated with AFB1 showed more pronounced periportal inflammatory changes, fibrosis, and focal necrosis compared to other groups. All DHBV carrier ducks showed persistent viremia throughout the observation period. An increase of viral DNA titers in livers and sera of AFB1 treated animals compared to infected controls was frequently observed. No DHBV DNA integration into the host genome was observed, although in one hepatocellular carcinoma from an AFB1 treated duck, an accumulation of viral multimer DNA forms was detected. The metabolism of AFB1 in infected and noninfected duck liver was also examined. The study on the role of DHBV infection and AFB1 in the etiopathogenesis of liver tumors may help to clarify some of the basic mechanisms of carcinogenesis.


BACKGROUND: The balance of oxygen delivery and consumption is essential in patients who are critically ill. Mixed venous oxygen saturation (Sv̄O2) is a standard method to evaluate oxygen delivery and consumption during anesthesia. However, Sv̄O2 is monitored through a pulmonary artery catheter, which is invasive. Regional cerebral oxygenation (rScO2) reflects oxygen saturation in a small region of the frontal lobes and is monitored noninvasively through near-infrared spectroscopy. In the present study, the correlation between rScO2 and Sv̄O2 was calculated during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery to determine whether a positive correlation exists between rScO2 and Sv̄O2. METHODS: A total of 56 subjects were consecutively enrolled in the study. Then rScO2 and Sv̄O2 were simultaneously monitored. The parameters were recorded at 5 time points: T1, 10 min after intubation (1.0 FIO2 for 10 min); T2, 20 min after intubation (0.60 FIO2 for 10 min); T3, at the end of the revascularization of the left anterior descending artery (0.60 FIO2); T4, after protamine infusion (0.60 FIO2); and T5, 10 min after protamine infusion (1.0 FIO2 for 10 min). The correlation between rScO2 and Sv̄O2 and the variation trend between rScO2 and Sv̄O2 when FIO2 increased from 0.60 to 1.0 were analyzed. RESULTS: There was a significant positive correlation between rScO2 and Sv̄O2 at these 5 time points (r2 = 0.77, 0.81, 0.70, 0.83, and 0.92, respectively). There also was a significant positive correlation between Δ rScO2 and Δ Sv̄O2 (n = 112, r2 = 0.72, P < .001). Linear regression analysis revealed that Sv̄O2 had a positive correlation with rScO2 and cardiac output (r2 = 0.68, P = .013). CONCLUSIONS: There was a positive correlation between rScO2 and Sv̄O2 during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, and there also was a positive correlation in the variation trend between rScO2 and Sv̄O2.


Over the past 15 to 20 years, changes such as retail concentration (fewer, larger stores owned by fewer corporations), technological innovation, and new labor practices have transformed the retail industry. These broad changes affect rural communities where the retail sector still employs a large portion of the workforce. When combined with the declining population of many rural areas in regions like the Great Plains, the impact of retail change is even more significant. Explored in this paper is how restructuring in the retail sector is accelerating the loss of retail firms in many rural parts of the Great Plains, a region already suffering retail losses from depopulation processes and increased accessibility to larger urban retail centers. The analysis presented will show the changes in retail that took place between 1988 and 1999, and investigate how retail restructuring and demographic change interact at the county level to produce new rural economic landscapes for people in the Great Plains, a situation that is likely to be found in other rural areas with similar demographic structures.


It is August 2007, and I am sitting a few rows up and to the side in a partially darkened auditorium, looking down on a rectangle of folding tables. Beside and behind me are perhaps a hundred museum staff members. Around the tables, men and women in business attire gather, arranging folders, notepads, and laptops. Two fiddle with the PowerPoint projector, while others wait, sitting quietly, or whispering to a neighbor. The meeting is called to order, introductions made, the printed agenda handed around, and protocols for commenting are laid out. With the two teams now facing each other, presentations by the contracted design firm begin, with points raised by and clarified for the museum team in between. Today's presentations explain the firm's general design plans, their own team leaders' duties and deadlines for exhibit content development and design production, and preparatory assignments and deadlines for Museum staff in its anthropology and history sections for their respective content development dea...


The NETTAB 2014 Workshop will be held in Torino, by the Molecular Biotechnology Center, from October 16 to 17, 2014. The workshop is aimed at discussing how to manage and elaborate structural and high-throughput proteomics data so that it may be integrated with information from other life sciences disciplines in the context of Systems Biology. The workshop title, which is "From high-throughput structural bioinformatics to integrative systems biology", reflects this scope. The topics of the workshop will relate to methods, tools, applications, and perspectives on structural bioinformatics, proteomics and integrative systems biology.


When blood plasma proteins are depleted by bleeding with return of the washed red blood cells (plasmapheresis) it is possible to bring dogs to a steady state of hypoproteinemia and a uniform plasma protein production on a basal low protein diet. These dogs are clinically normal but their resistance to infection is distinctly below normal. Introduction of variables into this standardized existence gives information relative to plasma protein production. Plasma protein production under these conditions with a plasma protein concentration of 3.5 to 4.2 gm. per cent is relatively constant. As the plasma protein concentration rises the plasma protein removed falls rapidly (Table 1). At 4.6 gm. per cent the protein removed is less than 50 per cent of the amount removed at a plasma protein level of 4.0 gm. per cent. Cystine appears to be an important amino acid for plasma protein formation. This shows in Table 2 and is supported by data coming from published experiments. These experiments related to the factors which control plasma protein production bear on the problems of shock, hemorrhage, and protein wastage and their treatment by plasma injections which hold the attention of surgeons and physiologists at the moment. Again we would emphasize the fluidity of body protein including plasma protein—an ebb and flow between protein depots and plasma protein—a "dynamic equilibrium" of body protein. A discussion of the passage of large protein molecules through cell borders is submitted.


BACKGROUND
The contribution of human rhinovirus (HRV) to severe acute respiratory illness (ARI) is unclear.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the association between HRV species detection and ARI hospitalizations.

METHODS
Children <5 years old hospitalized for ARI were prospectively enrolled between December 2003 and April 2005 in 3 US counties. Asymptomatic controls were enrolled between December 2003 and March 2004 and between October 2004 and April 2005 in clinics. Nasal and throat swab samples were tested for HRV and other viruses (ie, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza virus, and influenza virus) by reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and genetic sequencing identified HRV species and types. HRV species detection was compared between controls and patients hospitalized during months in which controls were enrolled.

RESULTS
A total of 1867 children with 1947 ARI hospitalizations and 784 controls with 790 clinic visits were enrolled and tested for HRV. The HRV-A detection rate among participants ≥24 months old was 8.1% in the hospitalized group and 2.2% in the control group (P = .009), and the HRV-C detection rates among those ≥6 months old were 8.2% and 3.9%, respectively (P = .002); among younger children, the detection rates for both species were similar between groups. The HRV-B detection rate was ≤1%. A broad diversity of HRV types was observed in both groups. Clinical presentations were similar among HRV species. Compared with children infected with other viruses, children with HRV detected were similar for severe hospital outcomes and more commonly had histories or diagnoses of asthma or wheezing.

CONCLUSIONS
HRV-A and HRV-C were associated with ARI hospitalization and serious illness outcomes.


: A case of dermatitis caused by the Northern fowl mite is presented. Fowl mites and their clinical significance are discussed.


In this paper, the hot deformation behavior of GH4169 superalloy were investigated at temperature of 900-1020°C and at strain rate of 0.001-0.1up to a 60% height reduction of the sample using isothermal constant strain rate compression tests on process annealed material. The high temperature deformation behaviour of pure titanium was characterized based on an analysis of the stress–strain curves The proposed constitutive equation and the stress-strain curves were implanted into DEFORM2D, a hot forging process for the disc of GH4169 was simulated, and the micro-variable, recrystallized volume fraction, average grain size, recrystallized grain size and etc., were plotted with a contoured figure. According to the comparision between the experimental and predicted result, the absolute error between them is acceptable. The method for microstructure prediction will be significant to the engineering.


This paper presents a dynamic output feedback control with adaptive rotor-imbalance compensation based on an analytical Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model for complex nonlinear magnetic bearing systems with rotor eccentricity. The rotor mass-imbalance effect is considered with a linear in the parameter approximator. Through the robust analysis for disturbance rejection, the control law can be synthesized in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Based on the suggested fuzzy output feedback design, the controller may be much easier to implement than conventional nonlinear controllers. Simulation validations show that the proposed robust fuzzy control law can suppress the rotor imbalance-induced vibration and has excellent capability for high-speed tracking and levitation control.


We examine the relationship of banking crises with economic growth and recessions. Our data cover 21 economies from around the world, most from 1870 to 2009 with the rest starting in 1901 or earlier. The data include capital investment and human capital formation. We have two major findings. First, there is very large heterogeneity in growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and capital investment after banking crises. Most strikingly, twenty-five percent of counties experience no decrease in real GDP per capita in the year of the crisis or the following two years. Some countries see an increase in long run growth after a crisis while others see a fall, with no clear overall pattern. Second, we find clear evidence consistent with Zarnowitz's Law. If there is a contraction in economic activity after a banking crisis, larger decreases in real GDP per capita are followed by faster subsequent growth.


In many parts of the world, row crops are treated with herbicides. Because of environmental concerns, crop cultivation is suggested as an excellent method of weed control. The object of this study was to design and construct a high speed inter-row cultivator. The speed of plowing has a significant effect not only on the depth of plowing but on factors which affect the quality of soil preparation such as loosening of the upper soil layer, cutting roots of the previous crops, covering and plowing in of weeds, leveling the finished surface of the field, displacement of the son layer and so on. In this study, the designed and constructed cultivator has a toolbar, unit frame, disk coulter and a flat sweep. The unit frame is attached to a tractor mounted tool bar by a suspension linkage. The suspension linkage allows the unit frame to move up and down relative to a tool bar that the cultivator unit is attached to. The numerical analysis was performed with COSMOS/M 1.71 FEM software (Structural Research and Analysis Corporation, CA).


The rapid growth of mobile usage in the world has created many opportunities to leverage the ubiquity of mobile network. Mobile applications have gained momentum in many sectors including agriculture. However, development of mobile apps is still facing many challenges, including platform fragmentation and rapid changes of the mobile technology. It hence has a great benefit to identify common frameworks and solutions that allow developers to leverage a single codebase and deploy it on multiple platforms, both on different mobile devices and mobile web. This paper explores current mobile technologies and design options of mobile databases to develop cross-platform mobile apps. Discussions are made using the proposed framework for a mobile project named Southeast Landscape Pests developed at University of Florida/IFAS. The project leverages cross-platform technologies and JSON as an alternative for database storage. The solution is a cost effective approach to deploy apps to iOS, Android and Web and could be adopted for other small size mobile projects.


Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a rare but life-threatening medical and surgical emergency. It is characterized by necrosis of the soft tissue leaving the overlying tissue unaffected, which delays the diagnosis and treatment. Delay in recognition of the severity of necrotizing fasciitis might lead to serious morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis of NF relies on strong clinical judgment, predictable by severe pain, erythema, and a presence of air under the skin, but all of them are not always present. Management of NF is prompt surgical intervention and antimicrobial therapy. The effectiveness depends on the timely diagnosis of NF because it rapidly spreads and may cause irreversible damage. Various investigations for necrotizing fasciitis have been proposed. However, misdiagnosis is not infrequent and more work is needed to identify the different presentations across the spectrum. We consider changing it to discuss the role of procalcitonin in the diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis.There is scarce literature about its clinical role in necrotizing fasciitis although it has evolved not only as a prognostic marker but also as a way of differentiating between cellulitis and necrotizing fasciitis. It can also predict the future consequences of septic shock. Categories: Internal Medicine, Plastic Surgery, General Surgery


In the Fall of 1977 I gave a paper at a conference organized by the Center for Twentieth Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The title of the paper, published in 1980, was "The American Ideal of a Democratic Technology." Reading it over now, some thirty-seven years later, I am excited all over again by the debate over the nature and role of technology which was so prominent a part of the 1970s, but actually had its roots in the 19th century. But I am also profoundly dismayed by the ways in which America has squandered the insight and the momentum of that debate. Today there are issues with large components of technology and science on the political agenda; fracking and coal seam gas extraction, the spread of crops of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the vacuuming up of masses of private electronic data by the National Security Agency (NSA) for example. By and large, however, they are not understood to be part of the same political issue of social inequality. And of course there is still the obfuscating, and therefore dangerous, insistence on using the terms "science" and "technology" strategically when discussing these topics, and still the Sacred Cows such as space exploration and the dream of unlimited energy through fusion which seem to float above any consideration of opportunity costs where real social needs are concerned.


Inequality continues to plague the boardrooms of companies worldwide. In the UK, only 20% of the directors of the FTSE100 are women. This paper will examine legal, social, and cultural barriers to greater equality in corporate leadership roles and strategies for changing long-standing inequalities in the business world.

For many businesses, the law is simply a hurdle to clear, an obstacle to work around or a box to tick: business first; law second. Companies can carefully risk-assess legal challenges and factor the cost of non-compliance into their business plan. Although Section 172 Companies Act 2006 was in part adopted to introduce more ethical behaviour into corporate boardrooms, directors may still comply in a way that does not affect business decision-making in any meaningful way. This paper asks what regulations, incentives or sanctions can be successful in challenging the accepted norms and inequalities of the business world more than superficially, focusing on the slowly-changing norm of the male-dominated board. It will also critically analyse the reasons for the gradual increase in women serving on corporate boards in the UK and some parts of Europe, whether the result of legislation; quotas; disclosure; customer demands; changing attitudes; or sound economic reasoning.


Background : Coffee, these days is widely used before exercise to improve performance and prevent muscle fatigue. It's main component, caffeine, plays a role in Calcium ion transport in muscle contraction, increases fatty acid availability to be oxidated to provide energy and reduces carbohydrate oxidation so that glycogen depletion that causes muscle fatigue can be delayed. Based on recent studies ,coffee's role in improving exercise performance still remains in controversy. This study is aimed to prove the effect of coffee ingestion before exercise on muscle fatigue with anaerobic fatigue (AF) as anaerobic parameter , and VO2max as aerobic parameter.
Methods : This was experimental study with post test only controlled group design. The subjects of this study were 48 male students of medical faculty Diponegoro university (19-21 years old of range )that fulfilled the exclution and inclution criterias. The subjects were divided into 2 groups, control group (without treatment) and treatment group. Treatment group was given a cup of coffee consists of 15 grams of instant coffee dan 200 ml of water 6o minutes before the test. Anaerobic phase of muscle fatigue was measured with Wingate test, aerobic phase was measured with Ergocycle test.
Results: Measurement with Wingate test, proportion of fatigue(in %) based on AF value on treatment group was smaller than the control group. Chi square test result in p=0,119, so that it can be concluded as unsignificant. Measurement with ergocycle test result in VO2max mean difference between treatment and control group, where the mean of control group was smaller than the treatment group. T-independent test result in p=0,071, so it can be concluded that the difference was not significant.
Conclusion: Coffee ingestion, 60 minutes before exercise doesn't affect muscle fatigue neither anaerobic (AF) nor aerobic phase (VO2max).

Keywords : Coffee, Anaerobic fatigue(AF), VO2max


Key Points CD56pos NKG2Chigh NK cell individuals have lower frequencies of TEMRA CD8 T cells. Depletion of NKG2Cpos NK cells augments expansion of CMV-specific CD8 T cells. NKG2Cpos NK cells negatively regulate HLA-Ehigh CD8 T cells. Infection with the human CMV associates with phenotypic alterations in lymphocyte subsets. A highly reproducible finding in CMV-seropositive individuals is an expansion of NKG2Cpos NK cells. In this study, we analyzed if the altered NK cell compartment in CMV-seropositive human donors may affect CMV-specific CD8 T cells. Resting CMV-specific CD8 T cells were terminally differentiated and expressed high levels of the NKG2C ligand HLA-E. Activation of CMV-specific CD8 T cells with the cognate Ag further increased HLA-E expression. In line with a negative regulatory effect of NKG2Cpos NK cells on HLA-Ehigh CD8 T cells, depletion of NKG2Cpos NK cells enhanced Ag-specific expansion of CMV-specific CD8 T cells in vitro. In turn, the activation of NK cells in coculture with CMV-specific CD8 T cells promoted a selective loss of HLA-Ehigh CD8 T cells. To test if NKG2Cpos NK cells can target HLA-Ehigh CD8 T cells, Jurkat T cells with and without stabilized HLA-E on the surface were used. NKG2Cpos NK cells stimulated with HLA-Ehigh Jurkat cells released higher levels of Granzyme B compared with NKG2Cneg NK cells and NKG2Cpos NK cells stimulated with HLA-Elow Jurkat cells. Moreover, intracellular levels of caspase 3/7 were increased in HLA-Ehigh Jurkat cells compared with HLA-Elow Jurkat cells, consistent with higher rates of apoptosis in HLA-Ehigh T cells in the presence of NKG2Cpos NK cells. Our data show that NKG2Cpos NK cells interact with HLA-Ehigh CD8 T cells, which may negatively regulate the expansion of CMV-specific CD8 T cells upon activation.


We examine the effects of privacy policies regarding transactions (e.g., price/quantity) data on online shopping platforms. Disclosure of transactions data induces consumer signaling behavior that affects merchant pricing decisions and the welfare of platform participants. A profit‐maximizing platform prefers the disclosure policy that maximizes total welfare. Although this policy benefits sophisticated consumers, it harms unsophisticated (myopic) consumers. Consequently, the welfare effects of alternative privacy policies, data breaches, deceptive privacy policies, and opt‐in/opt‐out requirements can differ sharply, depending on the level of consumer sophistication and on other factors such as the prevailing status quo.


In a model of a joint venture between a local and a foreign firm who provide complementary inputs, this paper derives optimal ownership structures under different sharing rules. The local firm's profits may be maximized by assigning a majority share to the foreign firm. Efficiency (i.e., the minimization of double moral hazard) requires that the firm with the more productive input should get majority ownership. When only the foreign firm can upgrade its input, it should receive a larger share than what it receives in the absence of upgrading. The analysis implies that a blanket policy of prohibiting majority foreign ownership is theoretically unfounded.


This study aims to understand what kind of entrepreneurial learning obtained by entrepreneurs after experiencing business failure and how they obtain such lessons. By understanding the essence of post-failure entrepreneurial learning, entrepreneurs would be able to acknowledge the insights gained by fellow failed entrepreneurs. In order to achieve that goal, a phenomenological study was conducted towards purposively-selected participants, namely entrepreneurs who had experienced failure from their businesses Data was collected using phenomenological semi-structured interview and analyzed using interpretative phenomenology analysis. This research shows that there are two types of lesson learned from business failure: 1) lesson about technical knowledge in how to manage business (which includess knowledge in financial management, marketing, and relationship management) and 2) lessons about personal growth (which includes detailed business planning and commitment in managing business). Moreover, entrepreneurs tend to learn from two sources; 1) personal reflection and 2) other entrepreneur, which includes entrepreneurial community and business mentors


HISTAMINE plays an important role in the mechanism of allergy or hypersensitive diseases of the constitution. This substance is to be found preformed as histidin in the cells; by the antigen-antibody reaction which acts on the cell-walls, histamine is released and thereafter produces the allergic symptoms. This clRssically simple interpretation of,the allergic process was renewed lately in a more complicated and theoretically preferable form. Several authors believe the allergic reaction to be the result of allergen activating the preformed reagin contained in the cells, and this as catalyser releases a great quantity of H. substance. These H. substances, of which histamine i§ the most important, produce the symptoms which can be observed clinically. These H. substances which produce the allergic symptoms are products of the irritation of the cells caused by the allergen reaction which starts those well-known changes in the small veins -,namely, increase in diameter and permeability. This short sketch of the allergic mechanism shows the need for variability in the treatment of allergic diseases. Anti-allergic treatment can be specific when we try to prevent the real cause, the meeting of allergen-reagin, by preventing' access of the specific allergen to the system. In other cases we try to exclude the reagin by desensitization. This specific treatment is rather complicated, and demands special technique. Therefore simpler methods have been sought in the treatment of allergic diseases, including those of ocular origin. Such were found when the significance of the H. substances in the causation of allergic diseases became known, and it seemed desirable to eliminate these H. substances. Such treatment was not specific, and had formerly been tried in utilising the fermenfation of histamine to alleviate allergic diseases. Long ago we used " Torantil " for this purpose. This proteid substance, derived from the mucuous membrane of the intestines, can inactivate histamine and sometimes restrains allergic manifestations. One tablet was prescribed three times daily, but it often fails in practice notwithstanding its theoretical value. The difficulty of searching for a specific antigen and the technical obstacles to be overcome before it can act as a desensitiser induced me some years ago to use histamine to lessen or abolish constitutional hypersensitivity. The diagnostic value of the histamine


The journalist/publicist Rupert Lockwood (1908-1997) was one of Australia's best known Cold War communists, his name synonymous with the Royal Commission into Espionage in Australia, 1954-1955, as author of the notorious Document J. However the communist journalist did not spring fully formed into history. He joined the Australian Communist Party in 1939. This article traces Lockwood's development as a journalist and his evolution as a communist between the wars. It is a story that ranges from small-town Western Victoria, and the West Wimmera Mail, to Melbourne and Sir Keith Murdoch's Herald. In between, much of the world is traversed--significantly, South East Asia and Civil War Spain. Lockwood was part of a generation of Australian journalists, arguably the best of that generation (people like Brian Fitzpatrick, Douglas Wilkie, John Fisher, Clive Turnbull, Wilfred Burchett, later Alan Moorehead, and James Aldridge). This account of his pre-communist career is as much a glimpse of the world of these journalists as it is an individual's biography.


Chemodectomas (Paragangliomas, Glomus tumours, Carotid body tumours) are extra-adrenal chromaffin tumours. Historically, in the year 1743, von Haller first reported a gross description of a structure lying at the bifurcation of the carotid artery, which he termed the "ganglion minutum." The microscopic appearance of this organ was described by von Luschka in 1862, and the first tumour of this body was surgically removed by Riegner in 1880 and described by Marchand in 1891. In 1950, Mulligan renamed this type of neoplasm as a chemodectoma to reflect its origins from chemoreceptor cells. In 1974, Glenner and Grimley renamed the tumour paraganglioma on the basis of its anatomic and physiologic characteristics. Presentation is normally history of a slow growing mass. Most cases are benign with scant record of malignant variants. There is no report of chemodectoma from this centre in literature. We present three cases of chemodectoma seen in this centre within one year.


This Article identifies and measures dimensions of judicial behavior separate from ideology to improve both the understanding of and vocabulary surrounding debates about judges. In particular, it recognizes both independence and partisanship as aspects of judicial behavior that are distinct from ideological activism. Using a new dataset of more than 10,000 cases from eleven U.S. courts of appeals in 2008, this Study computed and applied Partisanship and Independence Scores for 178 judges. Based upon regression analysis of those measures, the identified dimensions of judicial behavior offer superior predictive capabilities of decisions to dissent, to concur separately, and to reverse lower court judgments in a partisan manner than the dominant models used by researchers. There are also several notable findings of statistically significant relationships between the Independence and Partisanship Scores and background characteristics of the judges studied. Of particular note, judges appointed by Republican Presidents are on average twenty percent more partisan in reviewing district court judgments than those appointed by Democrats. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are on average responsible for appointing the most partisan judges studied. Further, if a judge had been a law professor, she is more likely to be independent. Legislative or executive experience is associated with lower independence. Work experience at the Department of Justice is correlated with higher partisanship.


Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the concept of a good death from the perspectives of both the dying person and the family caregiver, as perceived by bereaved family caregivers of advanced cancer patients. Method: The data were gathered from five focus group discussions and one face-to-face qualitative interview conducted over 8 months among 18 bereaved family caregivers recruited from a local hospice. The transcripts of the focus groups and the interview were entered into NVivo Version 8 and were analyzed using the thematic approach. Results: A good death may be understood as having the biopsychosocial and spiritual aspects of life handled well at the end of life. Five major themes were identified. These were preparation for death, family and social relationships, moments at or near death, comfort and physical care, and spiritual well-being. Differences were also noted in what is important at the end of life between the patients and caregivers. Having a quick death with little suffering was perceived to be good by the patient, but the family caregiver wanted to be able to say a final goodbye to the patient. Patients tend to prefer not to die in their children's presence but the children wished to be present for the final moment. In addition, family caregivers reported it was important for them to be able to give the patients permission to die, to feel recognized for the efforts made, and to have had a fulfilling caregiving experience. Significance of results: Whereas there are global attributes of a good death, our findings suggest that patients and family caregivers may define a good death differently. Therefore, there is a need to respect, address, and reconcile the differences, so that all parties may have a good experience at the end of a person's life.


The interaction between the ribosomal protein S15 and its binding sites in the 16S RNA was examined from two points of view. First, the isolated protein S15 was studied by comparing NMR conformer sets, available in the PDB and recalculated using the CNS-ARIA protocol. Molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories were then recorded starting from a conformer of each set. The recalculation of the S15 NMR structure, as well as the recording of MD trajectories, reveals that several orientations of the N-terminal alpha-helix alpha1 with respect to the structure core are populated. MD trajectories of the complex between the ribosomal protein S15 and RNA were also recorded in the presence and absence of Mg(2+) ions. The Mg(2+) ions are hexacoordinated by water and RNA oxygens. The coordination spheres mainly interact with the RNA phosphodiester backbone, reducing the RNA mobility and inducing electrostatic screening. When the Mg(2+) ions are removed, the internal mobility of the RNA and of the protein increases at the interaction interface close to the RNA G-U/G-C motif as a result of a gap between the phosphate groups in the UUCG capping tetraloop and of the disruption of S15-RNA hydrogen bonds in that region. On the other hand, several S15-RNA hydrogen bonds are reinforced, and water bridges appear between the three-way junction region and S15. The network of hydrogen bonds observed in the loop between alpha1 and alpha2 is consequently reorganized. In the absence of Mg(2+), this network has the same pattern as the network observed in the isolated protein, where the helix alpha1 is mobile with respect to the protein core. The presence of Mg(2+) ions may thus play a role in stabilizing the orientation of the helix alpha1 of S15.


The interactions between heterogeneous components in a biomimetic bilayer controls its physical properties such as its rigidity, local and bulk curvature and propensity towards phenomena such as membrane fission and fusion. In particular, membrane proteins (MPs) and nanoparticles (NPs) have been subjects of intense interest due to their similar scale to the bilayer width and because of their ability to affect local membrane structure. However, how such NPs interact in the presence of heterogeneous aggregates in the bilayer has been the subject of much debate, especially its effect on raft-like structures. To better understand the effects of hydrophobic integration of nanoscale components on such raft-like structures, we have simulated a series of generic hydrophobic NPs interacting with a phase-separating two-component surfactant bilayer. We find that the hydrophobic NP tends to aggregate at the phase interface, acting as a line tension relaxant i.e. a lineactant on the phase separated interface, which results in differing demixing behavior. In particular, we demonstrate that depending on the size of the NP, the effect of the line tension can drive the a cap/bud formation around the NP, ultimately resulting in the formation of a NP-micelle structure.


In this paper we explore the possibility of automatic model selection in the supervised learning framework with the use of prediction intervals. First we compare two families of non-parametric approaches of constructing prediction intervals for arbitrary regression models. The first family of approaches is based on the idea of explaining the total prediction error as a sum of the model's error and the error caused by noise inherent to the data - the two are estimated independently. The second family assumes local similarity of the data and these approaches estimate the prediction intervals with use of the sample's nearest neighbors. The comparison shows that the first family strives to produce valid prediction intervals whereas the second family strives for optimality. We propose a statistic for model selection where we compare the discrepancy between valid and optimal prediction intervals. Experiments performed on a set of artificial datasets strongly support the hypothesis that for the correct model, this discrepancy is minimal among competing models.


Accurate land use land cover (LULC) classification is vital for the sustainable management of natural resources and to learn how the landscape is changing due to climate. For accurate and efficient LULC classification, high-quality datasets and robust classification methods are required. With the increasing availability of satellite data, geospatial analysis tools, and classification methods, it is essential to systematically assess the performance of different combinations of satellite data and classification methods to help select the best approach for LULC classification. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the LULC classification performance of two commonly used platforms (i.e., ArcGIS Pro and Google Earth Engine) with different satellite datasets (i.e., Landsat, Sentinel, and Planet) through a case study for the city of Charlottetown in Canada. Specifically, three classifiers in ArcGIS Pro, including support vector machine (SVM), maximum likelihood (ML), and random forest/random tree (RF/RT), are utilized to develop LULC maps over the period of 2017–2021. Whereas four classifiers in Google Earth Engine, including SVM, RF/RT, minimum distance (MD), and classification and regression tree (CART), are used to develop LULC maps for the same period. To identify the most efficient and accurate classifier, the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient for each classifier is calculated throughout the study period for all combinations of satellite data, classification platforms, and methods. Change detection is then conducted using the best classifier to quantify the LULC changes over the study period. Results show that the SVM classifier in both ArcGIS Pro and Google Earth Engine presents the best performance compared to other classifiers. In particular, the SVM in ArcGIS Pro shows an overall accuracy of 89% with Landsat, 91% with Sentinel, and 94% with Planet. Similarly, in Google Earth Engine, the SVM shows an accuracy of 87% with Landsat 8 and 92% with Sentinel 2. Furthermore, change detection results show that 13.80% and 14.10% of forest areas have been turned into bare land and urban class, respectively, and 3.90% of the land has been converted into the urban area from 2017 to 2021, suggesting the intensive urbanization. The results of this study will provide the scientific basis for selecting the remote sensing classifier and satellite imagery to develop accurate LULC maps.


Abstract Qatar plays a key role in the understanding of the Phanerozoic petroleum geological history of the Arabian plate through the continuous influence of the Qatar high on the regional sedimentation patterns and deformation styles. This tectonic unit originated in the Late Pre-Cambrian, when it separated the hormuz salt, as a high, into an eastern and western basin. Ever since it has functioned as a stable area in between two differently behaving halokinetic regimes and has provided a relative high at various times in the Mesozoic. Notably, in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, it formed a shallow water carbonate platform between intra-shelf basins, which later became the focus for oil and gas migration. Taking into account tectonic control, depositional systems, and climatic variations, the Phanerozoic history of Qatar can be subdivided into six tectono-sedimentary phases: 1) late Pre-Cambrian rifting with the development of the Qatar high surrounded by the hormuz Salt Basin; 2) Paleozoic clastic-dominated, mostly shallow marine sedimentation, interrupted by a phase of erosion and non-deposition representing the local equivalent of the Hercynian orogeny–Ice age-influenced sedimentation occurred during the Silurian and early Permian; 3) Late Permian–Triassic regional carbonate-evaporite shelf deposition; 4) Jurassic to Middle Cretaceous carbonate platforms and intra-shelf basins, controlled by local subsidence patterns, eustatic sea level fluctuations, and local siliciclastic influx; 5) latest Cretaceous to Middle Miocene Foreland Basin creation and infill by siliciclastics and carbonates; and 6) Middle Miocene to recent mostly non-deposition due to both uplift caused by the Neo-Tethys closure with continued foreland basin development and glacio-eustatic sea level lows. Three known petroleum systems developed within this geological setting: the Paleozoic Khuff–Qusaibah system, the Mesozoic Arab-Hanifa, and the Middle Cretaceous–Hanifa systems. The crest of the Qatar high hosts both the Khuff gas reservoirs of North field, sourced by Silurian Qusaibah shales, and the stacked Middle Cretaceous oil reservoirs of the Al Shaheen field, sourced by the Jurassic hanifa shales. The Jurassic oil reservoirs of the Dukhan field are located on the northern flank of the high, whereas smaller occurrences are present in Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of salt dome structures in the Rub Al Khali Basin in the east. Oil for these was sourced from the underlying Jurassic organic-rich intra-shelf basinal deposits of the hanifa and Jubailah Formations, which matured in the oil kitchens adjacent to the Qatar high.


Patrick Kavanagh was born in 1904, came of age just after the First World War, and began his poetic apprenticeship in the 1920s when he wrote verses which were the essence of pastoral. Just before the break-out of the Second World War, he came to Dublin, where he was to spend most of his life, with some time spent in London in the 1950s. In his work, we can trace a journey from the first self-conscious verses of a country poet imbued with the spirit of creation, to an artist of major importance in the 20th century, when he developed and evolved a new aesthetic about the situation of a country man in Dublin. This personal aesthetic, which has been defined in the 1990s by the eco-critic and poet Terry Gifford as "post-pastoral," was not only bound to have resonance with all city dwellers, but also indirectly touched upon issues of religious, national and social identities in its combined preservation and transformation of Kavanagh's rural Irish roots as an alternative to the discourses prevailing at the time―revivalist nationalism and political polarisations. His work can now be read as an illustration of the place of human consciousness in the ecological web, for his poetic autobiographies intertwine with his first experience of an unbounded Nature in the countryside, a love that, when recollected, transformed his poetry in the city in his later years. As this biographical survey of his poetic development shows, Kavanagh's particular brand of "urban pastoral," what the Romans would have called rus in urbe, is not merely elegiac for the past left behind in the countryside; we can see it too as a "post-pastoral" move that relies on the categories of "immanence" and "beauty" to make Culture inseparable from Nature. Kavanagh's poetry, therefore, also constitutes an idyllic quest for personal integrity in our times.


This paper describes the development of regional hospital input price indexes that is consistent with the general methodology used for the National Hospital Input Price Index. The feasibility of developing regional indexes was investigated because individuals inquired whether different regions experienced different rates of increase in hospital input prices. The regional indexes incorporate variations in cost-share weights (the amount an expense category contributes to total spending) associated with hospital type and location, and variations in the rate of input price increases for various regions. We found that between 1972 and 1979 none of the regional price indexes increased at average annual rates significantly different from the national rate. For the more recent period 1977 through 1979, the increase in one Census Region was significantly below the national rate. Further analyses indicated that variations in cost-share weights for various types of hospitals produced no substantial variations in the regional price indexes relative to the national index. We consider these findings preliminary because of limitations in the availability of current, relevant, and reliable data, especially for local area wage rate increases.


Existing pre-trained models for knowledge-graph-to-text (KG-to-text) generation simply fine-tune text-to-text pre-trained models such as BART or T5 on KG-to-text datasets, which largely ignore the graph structure during encoding and lack elaborate pre-training tasks to explicitly model graph-text alignments. To tackle these problems, we propose a graph-text joint representation learning model called JointGT. During encoding, we devise a structure-aware semantic aggregation module which is plugged into each Transformer layer to preserve the graph structure. Furthermore, we propose three new pre-training tasks to explicitly enhance the graph-text alignment including respective text / graph reconstruction, and graph-text alignment in the embedding space via Optimal Transport. Experiments show that JointGT obtains new state-of-the-art performance on various KG-to-text datasets.


This article examines the evolution of peer review and the modern editorial processes of scholarly journals by analyzing a novel data set derived from the Royal Society's archives and covering 1865-1965, that is, the historical period in which refereeing (not yet known as peer review) became firmly established. Our analysis reveals how the Royal Society's editorial processes coped with both an increasing reliance on refereeing and a growth in submissions, while maintaining collective responsibility and minimizing research waste. By engaging more of its fellows in editorial activity, the society was able to establish an equilibrium of number of submissions per reviewer that was relatively stable over time. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that the distribution of editorial work was significantly uneven. Our findings reveal interesting parallels with current concerns about the scale and distribution of peer review work and suggest the strategic importance of the management of the editorial process to achieve a creative mix of community commitment and professional responsibility that is essential in contemporary journals.


A novel trans-scale precision positioning stage based on the stick-slip effect was developed. Combining with LuGre friction model, the flexible movement model of the stick-slip driving was established and simulated in Simulink software. Simulation analysis got the displacement and speed curve of slider and the net displacement of each step was calculated. The movement of slider lags behind the PZT actuator. The testing prototype of the stage driving by stick-slip effect was designed and the movement parameters of forward and reverse direction was tested, the results of movement model and simulation was verified by the testing datas. The problem of the difference of forward and reverse movement was proposed.


Autonomous multientity systems are plentiful in natural and artificial worlds. Many systems have been studied in depth and some models of them have been built as computational systems for problem solving. Central to these computational systems is the notion of autonomy. This article surveys research work done along this direction and presents autonomy-oriented computing (AOC) as a paradigm to describe systems for solving hard computational problems and for characterizing the behaviors of a complex system. AOC differs from major complex-system-related studies such as artificial life, simulated evolution, and multiagent systems in that AOC is not just intended to replicate complex behavior, emulate evolution, or coordinate the functioning of many interacting agents. AOC emphasizes the modeling of autonomy in the entities of a complex system and the self-organization of them in achieving a specific goal. Through implemented applications, we describe three main approaches to AOC, as well as an AOC framework with formal definitions of essential constructs and their interrelationships, including the notions of emergent autonomy, self-organization, and the interactions among entities and environment.


EU carbon emission targets related to climate change has set in motion a process of transition towards an environmentally clean and sustainable power system. A central focus on this process is the transition from fossil fuel based energy sources to clean Renewable Energy Sources (RES). However, the intermittency of RES (e.g. solar and wind) presents a formidable challenge to achieve a stable and reliable supply-demand balance in grid oper- ations. To achieve high levels of RES deployment, increasing the power system flexibility will be central to accommodate large fluctuations in supply and to cope with peak demand. Prospects of electricity storage technologies have emerged as a potential key technology to manage high levels of RES in the power system. Recent projections on the cost of electricity storage show a high decrease in the next five years ([1],[2], [3]). As the commercial maturity of batteries might become a reality within the next decade, many questions remain on the role of batteries in the power system, where batteries should be located? What capacity will be optimal? What kind of battery services are the most valuable? How do batteries contribute to the large deployment of distributed RES installations? Significant research has been done on estimating sizing and sitting of storage in power systems. Yet, most of this research treat storage capacity as continuous instead of discrete, i.e. allocating storage by percentages of a total allowed capacity, wherever necessary in the grid. Despite these previous studies have provided interesting contributions on the value of storage in the power system, many of them lack the modelling of power flows, technical limits, or voltage considerations. This thesis focuses on battery flexibility in medium voltage grids. Specifically, how to define cost-effective strategies to deploy batteries in a medium voltage grid? What is the optimal battery location in a distribution grid? And how do the technical limits of the power grid influence the allocation of storage? To address these questions, an optimization model was developed to simulate half-hourly operational decisions for a distribution grid. The model is multi-period and includes: power flows, diverse technical consideration for different battery sizes, high RES penetration levels, time of use electricity prices (half-hour dynamic prices), load data of actual customers and battery costs. To decide on the battery location, the model employs binary variables to determine the investment and sitting of the battery in a distribution grid. That is, the model is a mixed integer linear program with multi-period features which provides an investment analysis for the cost-effective sitting of batteries in a time horizon of 10 years. The model is implemented to the IEEE 33 bus test system. Results show that in general battery location and size strategies are driven by multiple factors, which can be either fixed or dynamic, like thermal limits and power load consumption, respectively. Some relevant findings are: First, flexibility in terms of power arbitrage delivers costs reductions of around 4% when RES production is low, compared to a No-Batteries case. Moreover, when RES production is high, the reductions in total costs can ramp up to 12% below the No-Batteries case. Also, this model decides to al- i locate batteries only if they are economically feasible for a 10-year time horizon. These results indicate a potential revenue up to 2.1 million pounds (GBP) based on the investment in batteries. And they are based on battery cost prices from 2008, together with several optimistic projections for the next decade. Furthermore, depending on battery size, RES penetration, RES generation and technical limits, batteries tend to be located for buses at the entrance of branches with high loads. Likewise, line limits and voltage limits proved to be decisive in the election of buses and the number of batteries placed. On one hand, results show that optimal allocation strategies depend on grid topology features and technical limits, on the other hand, they also have a high dependency on time- varying and unsteady factors (e.g. power generation and loads). The optimal location strategies tend to change and adapt to the dynamics of the system. Moreover, with the exception of the slack bus, every bus in the system turned out to be an optimal location, at least once. These results indicate that batteries might be useful in every bus of the dis- tribution grid, but only if each battery is operated in coordination and cooperation with one another. These insights support the idea of designing local electricity markets. Based on a reflection of this work, we recommend a market design that retrieves day-ahead and intraday DSO-reports of the battery operations and the flexibility that is available in the distribution grid. And also a subsequent structure of market incentives and penalties that maximizes the value of flexibility while keeping non-optimal operations to a minimum. In short, this thesis contributes with a novel modelling approach that can shed some lights on the optimal battery allocation problem for distribution grids. Moreover, it pro- vides insights on how location affects the value of storage, how optimal locations are affected by multiple technical factors. And finally, it also provide some reflections on the need to collectively, cooperatively and coordinately operate the storage resources in the grid by considering market-based solutions.


A. Benz, W. Zenker, T.B. Hildebrandt, G. Weissengruber, K. Eulenberger & H. Geyer Microscopic morphology of the elephant's hoof J. of Zoo and Wildlife Med. 40 (2009) 711-725 Abstract. As a result of the lack of basic microscopic anatomy of the elephants' foot, this study deals with the normal microscopic morphology of both the Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephant foot with consideration of pathologic changes. A total of 727 histologic samples from de ned locations of 24 hooves of both species (17 Asian and seven African species) were studied, measured, and evaluated. Minor differences between the feet and species are seen histologically. Poor horn quality in captive elephants' hooves and loci of minor resistance in captive and wild animals are detected. The thickness of the weight-bearing surface of the captive elephants' hooves is histologically measured as "very thin" (about 10 mm). The normal histologic ndings provide a basis for assessing histopathologic changes and especially horn quality. The histologic ndings might explain some of the foot problems, but they also give rise to questions about the quality and correctness of current husbandry techniques. © 2009 American Association of Zoo Veterinarians.


Historically, continuous improvements in general-purpose processors have fueled the economic success and growth of the IT industry. However, the diminishing benefits from transistor scaling and conventional optimization techniques necessitates moving beyond common practices. Approximate computing is one such unconventional technique that has shown promise in pushing the boundaries of general-purpose processing. This paper sets out to employ approximation for processors that are commonly used in cyber-physical domains and may become building blocks of Internet of Things. To this end, we propose AxMemo to exploit the computation redundancy that stems from data similarity in the inputs of code blocks. Such input behavior is prevalent in cyber-physical systems as they deal with real-world data that naturally harbors redundancy. Therefore, in contrast to existing memoization techniques that replace costly floating-point arithmetic operations with limited number of inputs, AxMemo focuses on memoizing blocks of code with potentially many inputs. As such, AxMemo aims to replace long sequences of instructions with a few hash and lookup operations. By reducing the number of dynamic instructions, AxMemo alleviates the von Neumann and execution overheads of passing instructions through the processor pipeline altogether. The challenge AxMemo facing is to provide low-cost hashing mechanisms that can generate rather unique signature for each multi-input combination. To address this challenge, we develop a novel use of Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC) to hash the inputs. To increase lookup table hit rate, AxMemo employs a two-level memo-ization lookup, which utilizes small dedicated SRAM and spare storage in the last level cache. These solutions enable AxMemo to efficiently memoize relatively large code regions with variable input sizes and types using the same underlying hardware. Our experiment shows that AxMemo offers 2.64× speedup and 2.58× energy reduction with mere 0.2% of quality loss averaged across ten benchmarks. These benefits come with an area overhead of just 2.1%.


OBJECTIVE
To assess and compare results of anterior segment angiography of ophthalmologically normal cats following IV injection with indocyanine green and sodium fluorescein dyes.

ANIMALS
10 client-owned cats.

PROCEDURES
Anterior segment angiography was performed in anesthetized cats following administration of 0.25% indocyanine green (1.0 mg/kg, IV) or 10% sodium fluorescein (20 mg/kg, IV) solution. All cats received both treatments. Imaging (1 eye/cat) was performed with a full-spectrum digital single-lens reflex camera equipped with an adaptor (1 image/s for 30 seconds) immediately following IV dye injection and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes after injection. Onset and duration of arterial, capillary, and venous phases of iris vasculature were identified and compared statistically between treatments. Degree of iridal pigmentation, leakage of dye from iris vasculature, and image quality were subjectively assessed.

RESULTS
No differences were found in onset or duration of vascular phases between treatments. Visibility of the iris vasculature was not impaired by poor or moderate iridal pigmentation with either method. Indocyanine green provided subjectively better vascular detail and image contrast than sodium fluorescein. No vascular dye leakage was observed following indocyanine green administration. Leakage of dye from blood vessels in the stroma (in 10 cats) and presence of dye in the anterior chamber (in 5 cats) were detected after sodium fluorescein administration.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Images obtained with either fluorescent dye were considered to be of diagnostic quality. Lack of leakage following indocyanine green administration suggested this treatment may have better diagnostic utility for anterior segment angiography. The photographic equipment used provided a cost-effective alternative to existing imaging systems.


Toxoplasmosis is an anthropozoonosis of medical and veterinary importance, caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. Oocysts shed by felids play a key role in parasite transmission as they contaminate meat-producing animals, vegetables and water consumed later by humans. In this work, we aimed to identify T. gondii isolated in Dakar (Senegal). The modified multiplex PCR technique based on length polymorphism of 15 microsatellite markers was used on a total of 10 isolates. The study shows that stem called Africa 1 or Type I / III (90%) and Africa 2 or Type I / II / III (10%) circulate in Dakar. Toxoplasma isolates and DNA extraction for genotyping analysis was performed directly on clinical samples for 56 patients and indirectly on infected mouse tissue (brain or ascitic fluid) or infected cell cultures after inoculation of clinical samples for 32 patients. These first results need to be followed by more extensive investigations.

 Key words: Genotype, toxoplasmosis, Toxoplasma gondii.


Remarkably, there have been three decisions by the Court of Appeal and one decision by the Supreme Court (including notably R(G) v Governors of X School) in the space of three years on the same question as to whether the procedural guarantees of Article 6 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) can apply to disciplinary proceedings in the workplace. The earlier recent domestic decisions held that Article 6(1) could apply or did apply to workplace disciplinary procedures and could imply or did imply a right to legal representation. More recently, employees have used Article 6 to argue for a right to independent disciplinary panels. In comparison, the more recent domestic decisions have held that Article 6(1) did not apply to workplace disciplinary procedures. This article explores the scope for Article 6(1) to apply to workplace disciplinary procedures by looking at the Strasbourg case law and explores the additional possibility that Article 6 could be engaged in workplace disciplinary procedures based on the alternative civil rights not to be wrongfully dismissed or unfairly dismissed. The benefit of these alternative civil rights would be that they would open up the protection of Article 6 to more employees than just professionals. This article also discusses the apparent conflict between the aims of employees in the cases on Article 6 ECHR and recent broader policy developments in favour of early and informal resolution of employment disputes. It is concluded that these cases reinforce objections to the Coalition Government's broader 'rebalancing' agenda, as dismissal laws require strengthening and not further weakening.


Ship motion prediction is an important practical problem in design of many ocean systems i.e. fire controls, air craft landing and take off. As such the problem has received considerable attention in the past and various attempts for designing estimators via the statistical methodology were made. In this paper the design of the ship position estimator via neural networks is considered. The ship position estimation is viewed as an adaptive estimation problem for partially unknown systems. New powerful neural estimators based on dynamic recurrent neural networks are applied to the solution of the ship position problem. The new proposed neural estimators, and the state of the art statistical filters, are comparatively evaluated via extensive simulations. The results show that the neural algorithms have excellent performance, achieving significant computational savings due to their massively parallel structure.<<ETX>>


3D printing enables the production of personalized designs that are desirable in the medical industry for applications including orthopedics, tissue engineering, and personalized nutrition. Currently, the design process relies on trial-and-error approaches, especially for biomaterial development, and there is a need for methodologies to streamline the design process to facilitate automation. Here, we investigate a design methodology for printing foods by mixing novel biomaterial combinations informed by rheological measurements that indicate printability. The process consists of first printing basic designs with chocolate, marzipan, and potato biomaterials known to print consistently. Rheological measurements are collected for these materials and compared to a novel pumpkin biomaterial. The pumpkin had a higher complex modulus and lower mechanical loss tangent than all other biomaterials, therefore motivating the addition of rheological agents to reach more favorable properties. Varied concentrations of corn starch and guar gum were added to the pumpkin to improve printability while altering the nutrient distribution. A 4% inclusion of guar gum provided the most consistent pumpkin prints. A complex 3D object was fabricated with the 4% guar gum pumpkin material, therefore demonstrating the merits in using rheological properties to inform printability for use in design automation routines. The design approach enabled comparisons of relative nutrition and printability trade-offs to demonstrate a proof-of-concept user interface for design automation to facilitate customized food production. Further research to develop a complete design methodology for linking rheological properties to printability would promote consistent prediction of print quality for novel formulations to support design automation, with potential generalizability for diverse biomaterials.


by Joseph Dan. Texts and Studies in Medieval and Early modern Judaism 15. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999. 296pp. DM 168.00.In The Unique Cherub Circle Joseph Dan offers a groundbreaking study of a dozen treatises that constitute a seminal and intriguing corpus of medieval Jewish mystical writings. Thirty years ago Professor Dan identified the Unique Cherub Circle (hereafter UCC), and it is therefore fitting that he publish the first scholarly monograph devoted to these texts. Some of these treatises had been previously ascribed to members of the hasidei ashkenaz and specifically R. Eleazar b. Judah. Dan successfully demonstrated that in contradistinction to the theology of the hasidei ashkenaz, the UCC uniformly placed special emphasis upon a celestial figure that they referred to as the keruv hameyuhad, the Unique Cherub "who resides on the Throne of Glory, receiving divine emanation from the Shekhinah". The UCC originated in late twelfth-century Western Europe and constitutes an important stage in the evolution of proto-Kabbalah. Dan characterizes the significance of this group as follows: "This circle of writers probably was the first in Medieval Jewry to present a theology which postulated a view of the divine realm as a series of divine emanations, in which several divine powers have distinct functions in the celestial and material worlds". Accordingly, this represents a conceptual forerunner of the doctrine of the ten sefirot, which would become the centerpiece of the Kabbalah and by extension, medieval Jewish mysticism.Professor Dan divides his discussion into fifteen well-defined chapters. He also appends a trenchant essay, "The Language of the Mystics of Medieval Germany." This serves as an intriguing foretaste of a forthcoming expansive study of the mystical language of Jewish luminaries throughout the ages. One of the distinguishing features of the UCC is its utilization of pseudepigraphic attributions. Central to its worldview is the fictionalized biblical lineage of the prophet Jeremiah, his supposed son Ben Sira and grandson Joseph b. Uzziel. The latter is the pseudepigraphic author of The Barayta, a short text that constitutes the heart of the UCC. Another important treatise of the corpus is falsely ascribed to the protean Jewish philosopher, Saadia.Chapter One sets the stage for understanding the emergence of various protokabbalistic and kabbalistic groups in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Dan identifies three key elements. The first is the transition to Hebrew as the language of expression (as opposed to the reliance upon Arabic by many of the twelfth-century Jewish sages). Secondly, there evolved identifiable schools of transmission from teacher to disciple (as opposed to individual theoreticians operating in relative isolation). Finally there was a proliferation of pseudepigraphy as a means to authenticate novel formulations, by attributing them to ancient authorities. Dan's discussion of pseudepigraphy is rich and nuanced. One of his many insights is the contention that the medieval mystic assumed that the religious truths that he espoused were most certainly known to the ancients, as well. …


Ultrasonic fusion bonding is a potential method for mass-production of polymer microfluidic chips. However, the micro structures in the chips are easily damaged or even destroyed due to poor controllability and uniformity of the melted energy directors in ultrasonic bonding process. In this paper, a novel micro joint including energy directors and flow blocks is presented. The flow profile of the melted energy directors is controlled by the dimensions of the flow blocks, auxiliary energy-equilibrating structures are also designed to prevent the uneven melt of energy directors. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microfluidic chips with the new joints were fabricated and ultrasonic bonding experiments were conducted. Micro channels with characteristic dimension of tens of microns were successfully sealed in 0.3 s and free of deformation.


This thesis comprises three essays on determinants and consequences of international labor migration at individual, family and country level.
The first chapter explores the effect of parents' absence due to migration on the educational outcomes of children left behind. The estimated reduced form model relies on an educational production function where the total effect of migration is the combination of the positive effect of remittances, and the negative effect of a parent's absence. The results suggest that parental absence offsets the positive impact of remittances on children's schooling achievements and that a mother's absence is more detrimental than a father's absence.
The second chapter examines the effects of family size and demographic structure on offspring's international migration. The potential endogeneity of parental fertility choices is addressed by using infertility shocks and miscarriage before first birth as exogenous variation in family size. The positive correlation between fertility and migration disappears when the potential endogeneity of sibship size is addressed. A deeper analysis reveals that the chances to migrate are not equally distributed across children within the family. Older siblings are more likely to migrate, while having more sisters than brothers may increase the chances of migration, particularly among girls.
The third chapter studies the effect of granting the right to vote in local elections to non citizens of non Eu origin. In the spirit of a differences-in-differences strategy, election results and economic outcomes of municipalities with more immigrants entitled to vote are compared with municipalities with a smaller share of immigrant voters, before and after the introduction of a new law. Preliminary results indicate that, depending on the economic and demographic context, and on the immigration policies, the effect can vary substantially: the pro immigrants parties can either gain on lose votes, with relevant consequences for public good expenditures.


Apoptosis is a physiological form of programmed cell death characterized by phosphatidylserine externalization, caspase activation, and genomic DNA fragmentation. Recent studies have shown that apoptosis may be reversed even in its late stages, calling the previous notion of a 'point of no return' into question. This recovery process has been termed anastasis ('rising to life'), but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Our lab has developed a model of studying anastasis using cultured mouse HT‐2 lymphocytes dependent on the cytokine interleukin 2 (IL2). Our previous findings have shown that HT‐2 cells accumulate in the G1 stage of the cell cycle following 24 hours of IL2 deprivation and can be rescued by adding IL2 back into the culture medium. In this study, we have used quantitative flow cytometry to investigate which apoptotic events are congruent with anastasis. HT2 cells were deprived of IL2 for 24 hours and then rescued for periods of 0, 24, 48, and 72 hours. CD25 surface expression (high‐affinity IL2 receptor) and phosphatidylserine externalization (annexin V staining) were subsequently monitored prior to and following recovery, as markers of T cell activation and early stage apoptosis, respectively. Control HT2 lymphocytes continuously maintained in IL2 comprised a single viable population of CD25HIGHAnnexin−cells. Cells deprived of IL2 for 24 hours were observed to fall into two populations: CD25LOWAnnexin+early apoptotic and CD25LOWAnnexinnon‐apoptotic cells. In both populations, CD25 expression was reduced approximately 10‐fold when compared to IL2‐maintained controls. During anastasis, three distinct viable cell populations emerged: 1) CD25LOWAnnexin+cells that did not progress into the later stages of apoptosis, 2) CD25LOWAnnexin−non‐apoptotic cells, and 3) CD25HIGHAnnexin−non‐apoptotic cells. With advancing recovery time, viable CD25LOWpopulations decreased as CD25HIGHcells increased. By 72 hours post‐recovery, the majority of cells were actively cycling, annexin negative cells. These findings suggest that IL2‐dependent mouse HT‐2 lymphocytes may be a promising model to study the mechanisms of anastasis.


Ethanol interacts allosterically with the picrotoxin binding sites on the oligomeric GABA receptor complex in vitro. Chronic ethanol treatment does not alter the binding properties of [35S]t-butyl-bicyclophosphorothioate or [3H]flunitrazepam to brain membranes. In behavioral studies, ethanol prevents convulsions induced by bicuculline, picrotoxin and maximal electroshock seizures. Further, subprotective dose of ethanol in combination with other facilitators of GABAergic transmission, provide protection against these convulsions. Finally, ethanol potentiates the effect of GABA on 36Cl-influx in cultured spinal cord neurons. These studies indicate a role for GABAAergic transmission in the actions of ethanol.


Titanium carbide particle reinforced titanium composites were prepared by in-situ synthesis reaction between titanium and carbon liquid alloys. The phases constitute and microstructures of titanium composite have been investigated by OM, XRD, SEM and EPMA. Although it was possible to synthesize titanium carbide particle reinforced titanium composites, the morphology of in-situ titanium carbide grows into typically dendritic shape due to the compositional supercooling theory. Using computerized image analysis, the average particle size and aspect ratio of in-situ formed titanium carbide is about 28.1 ㎛ and 1.9, respectively.