Introduction: The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the parameters of bone turnover and the levels of hormonal parameters, such as total testosterone (TT), bioavailable and free testosterone (FT), and estradiol (E2) in men. Material and methods: The study group included 63 men with testosterone deficiency syndrome (TDS). The control group consisted of 112 patients without TDS. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine the levels of osteocalcin (OC), parathyroid hormone (PTH), E2, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), insulin (I), Serum CrossLaps (CtX-I), human procollagen I N-terminal peptide (PINP), and TT. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results: The groups with TSD and without TDS differed in terms of the following parameters: body weight (p = 0.001), BMI (p = 0.003), TT (p = 0.001), FT (p = 0.004), bioavailable testosterone (p = 0.001), E2 (p = 0.003), SHBG (p = 0.003), and PINP (p = 0.004). In the group without TDS, higher PINP levels were accompanied by higher levels of E2 (beta = 0.360, p = 0.002) and TT (beta = 0.389, p = 0.001). In the group without TDS, PINP was positively correlated with E2 (beta = 0.726, p <0.001). Patients with TDS had significantly lower PINP levels (p < 0.004). Conclusions: Analysis of sex hormones and biochemical bone markers in reflecting the quality of the bone tissue in men may suggest a relationship between these parameters. Nevertheless, further research based on a larger sample size is necessary to better describe this relationship.


Published each spring from 1962-1968, Eclipse was the first literary magazine produced by the San Fernando Valley State College English Department.


Alone, in the dark. Narrative practices and videogame experiences of fear. In contemporary mediascape, video games represent the only narrative medium where the danger for the fate of the protagonist represents an ordinary event. However, this is not an intrinsic bias of the game form, but a potentially problematic convention inherited from an era related to the early days of gaming, where it made sense to look at games from a perspective based on basic rules such as "try again" (James Paul Gee, 2005). I propose to examine the cybernetic interaction between player and machine, where the digital figure - simulating autonomous action - makes the boundaries between the game object and interactive subjectivity blurred. Analyzing the genre called "survival horror", I want to draw a parallel between the architectures of videogames with those of literature and genre cinematography


Background: Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer, a perennial herb from the Araliaceae family, is a commonly used medicinal plant. Many studies have been conducted on the biologically active constituents of whole parts of P. ginseng (i.e., roots, leaves, flower buds, and fruits). However, the seeds of P. ginseng have not been intensively investigated. A new sterol glucoside,3-O-b-d-glucopyranosyl-5,22,24-stigmastatrienol (1), and a known sterol, 5,22-stigmastadienol (2), were isolated from seeds of P. ginseng and were evaluated for their inhibitory activities on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α-induced nuclear factor (NF)-κB and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) transcription in transfected HepG2 cells. The present work deals with the isolation, identification, and antiinflammatory activities of the two compounds. Materials and Methods: The compounds were isolated by a combination of silica gel and YMC R-18 column chromatography, and their structures were identified by analysis of spectroscopic data (1D, 2D-NMR, and MS). The antiinflammatory activities of the isolated compounds 1 and 2 were evaluated by luciferase reporter gene assays. Results: Two sterols have been isolated from the seeds of P. ginseng. Compound 1 is a previously unreported glucosidyl sterol. Compounds 1 and 2 both inhibited NFκB-luciferase activity, with IC50 values of 8.1 and 4.8΅M, respectively. They also inhibited iNOS-luciferase activity in TNFα-induced HepG2 cells, with IC50 values of 2.2 and 2.9΅M, respectively. Conclusion: The two isolatedsterols have inhibitory effects on inflammation-related factors in HepG2 cells, as determined by luciferase reporter gene assays. Thus, seeds of P. ginseng are worthy of consideration for the development and research of antiinflammatory agents.


[1] We calculate the sensitivity of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) to the global vertical distribution of tropospheric ozone using ozone profile estimates from Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (Aura-TES) along with the partial derivatives of spectral radiance with respect to ozone from the Aura-TES operational retrieval algorithm. Accounting for anisotropy, we calculate top of atmosphere instantaneous radiative kernels (IRKs), in W/m2/ppb, for infrared ozone absorption from 985 to 1080 cm−1. Zonal mean distributions for August 2006 show significant variations in the IRK between clear and cloudy sky, ocean and land, and day and night over land. For all sky (clear and cloudy conditions), OLR is significantly less sensitive to ozone in the middle and lower troposphere due to clouds, especially in the tropics. We also compute the longwave radiative effect (LWRE), i.e., the reduction in OLR due to absorption by tropospheric ozone, and find a global average LWRE of 0.33 ± 0.02−0.007+0.018 W/m2 (with uncertainty and bias) for tropospheric ozone with significant variability (σ = 0.23W/m2) under all sky conditions for August 2006. For clear sky, tropical conditions we examine the effect of water vapor in reducing the LWRE from tropospheric ozone.


BACKGROUND
Self-rated health (SRH) is a predictor of several clinical outcomes, including mortality. Physical activity is associated with SRH; however, the specific role that resistance training (RT) plays in this relationship is unknown. We explored the independent association between self-reported RT and SRH in a cross-sectional survey (National Physical Activity and Weight Loss Study; NPAWLS) conducted by the University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center in 2002.

METHOD
Subjects were 9651 men and women (mean age 46.5 yrs) classified as having high or low SRH; and they were categorized into 2 groups: (1) meeting nationally recommended levels for RT (>or= 2 days/week); (2) not meeting levels (<2 days/week or no RT).

RESULTS
Meeting national recommendations was associated with male gender (P < .01), normal BMI (P < .01), and higher education (P < .01). When compared to individuals with low SRH, those with high SRH were 2 times as likely to meet recommended levels of RT (OR = 2.32; 95% CI = 1.96 to 2.76). The model modestly attenuated when fully adjusted for confounding variables, including other exercise (OR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.49 to 2.15).

CONCLUSION
This study identifies the specific positive relationship between RT and SRH, further supporting the health benefits of meeting the national recommendations for RT.


Permeable concrete has been widely used in infrastructure constructions due to its excellent water permeability and environmental protection function. In this paper, a silane coupling agent (SCA) was utilised to modify a cement paste and permeable concrete with an emulsified asphalt (EA) for improving the workability of the cement paste and the frost resistance of the permeable concrete. A rheometer was used to characterise the rheological properties of the cement paste. The results of the experiment suggested that the hysteresis loop area of the cement paste increased 10.2 % to a value of 22739 Pa∙s, proving that the utilisation of the SCA was suitable to enhance the workability of the cement paste with the EA. The frost resistance of the permeable concrete increased 4.2 % while its 120-day dry shrinkage reduced 40.7 %. In addition, the bonding strength of the cement paste and the 28-day compressive strength of the permeable concrete increased 40.7 % and 61.4 % by the 0.14 % SCA, respectively. Furthermore, the difference of the total void ratio and interconnected void ratio of the permeable concrete was reduced by the SCA, which suggested the utilisation of the SCA was beneficial in ensuring the mechanical properties and water permeability of the concrete.


Heuristic forward search is the dominant approach to satisficing planning to date. Most successful planning systems, however, go beyond plain heuristic search by employing various search-enhancement techniques.  One example is the use of helpful actions or preferred operators, providing information which may complement heuristic values.  A second example is deferred heuristic evaluation, a search variant which can reduce the number of costly node evaluations. Despite the wide-spread use of these search-enhancement techniques however, we note that few results have been published examining their usefulness. In particular, while various ways of using, and possibly combining, these techniques are conceivable, no work to date has studied the performance of such variations.  In this paper, we address this gap by examining the use of preferred operators and deferred evaluation in a variety of settings within best-first search. In particular, our findings are consistent with and help explain the good performance of the winners of the satisficing tracks at IPC 2004 and 2008.


Heavy alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for various forms of dementia and the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this work, we investigated how intragastric alcohol feeding may alter the liver-to-brain axis to induce and/or promote AD pathology. Four weeks of intragastric alcohol feeding to mice, which causes significant fatty liver (steatosis) and liver injury, caused no changes in AD pathology markers in the brain [amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin], except for a decrease in microglial cell number in the cortex of the brain. Interestingly, the decline in microglial numbers correlated with serum alanine transaminase (ALT) levels, suggesting a potential link between liver injury and microglial loss in the brain. Intragastric alcohol feeding significantly affected two hepatic proteins important in amyloid-beta (Aβ) processing by the liver: 1) alcohol feeding downregulated lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1, ∼46%), the major receptor in the liver that removes Aβ from blood and peripheral organs, and 2) alcohol significantly upregulated APP (∼2-fold), a potentially important source of Aβ in the periphery and brain. The decrease in hepatic LRP1 and increase in hepatic APP likely switches the liver from being a remover or low producer of Aβ to an important source of Aβ in the periphery, which can impact the brain. The downregulation of LRP1 and upregulation of APP in the liver was observed in the first week of intragastric alcohol feeding, and also occurred in other alcohol feeding models (NIAAA binge alcohol model and intragastric alcohol feeding to rats). Modulation of hepatic LRP1 and APP does not seem alcohol-specific, as ob/ob mice with significant steatosis also had declines in LRP1 and increases in APP expression in the liver. These findings suggest that liver steatosis rather than alcohol-induced liver injury is likely responsible for regulation of hepatic LRP1 and APP. Both obesity and alcohol intake have been linked to AD and our data suggests that liver steatosis associated with these two conditions modulates hepatic LRP1 and APP to disrupt Aβ processing by the liver to promote AD.


Based on the bending experiment for two-span continuous beams of retard-bonded prestress concrete, the analysis of the stress increment of prestressed tendons is made in the loading process. The theory that the working performance of retard-bonded prestressed concrete members is as same as unbonded prestressed concrete members during the retarding period is demonstrated. It is feasible to use the formulas for the reference (Technical specification for concrete structures prestressed with unbonded tendons) to calculate σputhe ultimate stress and Δσp the Stress increment of the retard-bonded prestressed tendons and the recommended formulas are advised to use. It is also demonstrated that retard-bonded prestressed concrete members have the same working performance as bonded prestressed concrete members after the retarding period. The conclusion of this paper can provide the reference date for the design of retard-bonded prestressed concrete continuous beam.


The demand imposed on utility networks is a fundamentally uncertain quantity that varies in both space and time. Utilities have long dealt with this uncertainty by maintaining additional capacity. But, technological advances in measuring and especially transmitting water usage information allow further improvement in operational efficiency. Unlike the monthly or annual values obtained by automatic meter reading, smart water meters measure consumption at sub-daily intervals. This increased resolution, combined with measurements of bulk flows and network pressures, presents an opportunity to characterize the spatio-temporal distribution of demand. Once this representation of demand uncertainty is available, it can be used within optimization models to support decisions in network operations and planning. Several methods are available for dealing with uncertain parameters in optimization problems including sensitivity analysis, stochastic programming and robust optimization. This work deals with robust optimization, which characterizes uncertainty by scenarios or uncertainty sets. The robust solution to an optimization problem gives the best objective value in the worst case, which is feasible over the range of possible values. The choice of scenarios is a critical step in obtaining meaningful solutions with the right compromise between system performance (value of the objective function) and robustness to variations in uncertain parameters. This paper examines several techniques for generating scenarios of uncertain demands. Based on the spatial distribution of demands modeled as a multi-variable Gaussian with a mean vector and covariance matrix calculated at each time step, a technique is proposed to generate scenarios of demand which (a) cover a given probability level and (b) adhere to the spatial correlation of demands between nodes. The technique is compared with Monte Carlo sampling using the same co-variance matrix. Particular emphasis is given to the interpretation of scenarios and their effect on the solution to the operational problem of finding valve set points for a water


We propose a Gauss-Legendre quadrature based sampling on the rotation group for the representation of a band-limited signal such that the Fourier transform (FT) of a signal can be exactly computed from its samples. Our figure of merit is the sampling efficiency, which is defined as a ratio of the degrees of freedom required to represent a band-limited signal in harmonic domain to the number of samples required to accurately compute the FT. The proposed sampling scheme is asymptotically as efficient as the most efficient scheme developed very recently. For the computation of FT and inverse FT, we also develop fast algorithms of complexity similar to the complexity attained by the fast algorithms for the existing sampling schemes. The developed algorithms are stable, accurate and do not have any pre-computation requirements. We also analyse the computation time and numerical accuracy of the proposed algorithms and show, through numerical experiments, that the proposed Fourier transforms are accurate with errors on the order of numerical precision.


A girl aged 2 years and 10 months repeatedly suffered viral (thrice) and bacterial (colitis, salmonellosis, pneumonia 6 times) infections. At an age of 2 years primary pulmonary hypertension was diagnosed. Diagnostic catheterization was performed to exclude a congenital heart disease. The death occurred during the catheterization. An increase of beta-lymphocytes and plasma cells, a reduction of the T-lymphocyte zone were detected in the immunocompetent system during postmortem histological examination. The pathology diagnosis: primary immunodeficiency with a predominant suppression of cell-mediated immunity; hyperplasia of the lymph nodes with their plasmacytization; pneumosclerosis of all lobes of both lungs (a syndrome of primary pulmonary hypertension clinically); hypertrophy of the muscles of both atria and right ventricle, dilation of the heart cavities; acute heart insufficiency.


Aggregation behavior of herbivorous insects is mediated by a wide range of biotic and abiotic factors. It has been suggested that aggregation behavior of the blue willow leaf beetle Phratora vulgatissima is mediated by both host plant odor and by odor released by the beetles. Previous studies show that the beetles respond to plant odors according to their prior host plant experiences. Here, we analyzed the effect of the host plant species on odor released and perceived by adult P. vulgatissima. The major difference between the odor of beetles feeding on salicin-rich and salicin-poor host plants was the presence of salicylaldehyde in the odor of the former, where both males and females released this compound. Electrophysiological studies showed that the intensity of responses to single components of odor released by beetles was sex specific and dependent on the host plant species with which the beetles were fed. Finally, behavioral studies revealed that males feeding on salicin-rich willows were attracted by salicylaldehyde, whereas females did not respond behaviorally to this compound, despite showing clear antennal responses to it. Finally, the ecological relevance of the influence of a host plant species on the plasticity of beetle odor chemistry, perception, and behavior is discussed.


In a crossover clinical trial, including period-specific baselines as covariates in a regression model is known to increase the precision of the estimated treatment effect. The potential efficiency gain depends, in part, on the true model, the distribution and covariance matrix of the vector of baselines and outcomes, and the model chosen for analysis. We examine improvements in power that can be achieved by incorporating optimal linear combination of baselines (LCB). For a known distribution, the optimal LCB minimizes the conditional variance corresponding to a treatment effect. The use of a single metric to capture the information in the baseline measurements is appealing for crossover designs. Because of their efficiency, crossover designs tend to have small sample sizes and thus the number of covariates in a model can significantly impact the degrees of freedom in the analysis. We start by examining optimal LCB models under a normality assumption for uniform and incomplete block designs. For uniform designs, such as the AB/BA design, estimation is entirely through within-subject contrasts (and thus ordinary least squares [OLS]) and the optimal LCB minimizes the conditional variance corresponding to the treatment effect. However, since the optimal LCB is a function of the unknown covariance matrix, we propose an adaptive method that uses the LCB covariate corresponding to the most plausible covariance structure guided by the data. For incomplete block designs, data are commonly analyzed using a mixed effects model. Treatment effect estimates from this analysis are complex functions of both within-subject and between-subject treatment contrasts. To improve efficiency, we propose incorporating period-specific optimal LCBs which minimize the conditional variance of the period-specific outcomes. A simpler fixed effects analysis of covariance involving only within-subject contrasts is also described for small sample situations. In the latter, hypothesis tests based on the mixed effects analyses exhibit inflated type I error rates even when using a Kenward and Rogers approach to adjust the degrees of freedom. Lastly, we extend this work to the more general setting where the optimal LCB depends on the distribution of the response vector. In practice, the distribution is unknown and the optimal LCB is estimated under some loss function. To handle both normal and non-normal response data, OLS and a rank-based nonparametric regression model (R-estimation), are considered. A data-driven approach is then proposed which adaptively chooses the best fitting model among a set of models which work well under a range of conditions. Relative to commonly used methods, such as change from baseline analyses without use of covariates, our methods using functions of baselines as period-specific or period-invariant covariates consistently demonstrate improved power across a number of crossover designs, covariance structures, and response distributions. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Epidemiology & Biostatistics This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2360 First Advisor Mary E. Putt Second Advisor Devan V. Mehrotra


Abstract Holmiids are a major component of the trilobite fauna in the middle part of the Montezuman Stage, the lowermost stage of the Cambrian of Laurentia with a continuous trilobite record. They are less common in the upper Montezuman where nevadiids predominate and other trilobite families appear. New material from western Nevada allows a revision of these holmiids. Palmettaspis parallela Fritz, 1995 and Palmettaspis cometes (Fritz, 1995) are assigned to a new genus, Montezumaspis, based primarily on thoracic characters, including a prominent axial spine on the thorax. A second new genus, Grandinasus, is based on Esmeraldina argenta (Walcott, 1910), in which the L3 lobe is incorporated in an expanded anterior lobe (LA) of the glabella. New species described are Esmeraldina elliptica, Grandinasus auricampus, G. patulus, Holmiella falx, and H. millerensis. The Laurentian taxa appear to be more primitive than the holmiids of Baltica by having simple, unfurrowed ocular lobes that are separated from the LA by an axial furrow. Three informal biofacies are suggested with a holmiid-dominated biofacies in a deep subtidal dysoxic environment, and two nevadiid-dominated biofacies in shallower subtidal environments.


This article reports the findings of research commissioned by the Royal National Institute of Blind People to explore the impacts of reading for pleasure on blind and partially sighted adults. Data were collected via interviews, an online survey and six case studies. The results reveal that for 82% of participants reading for pleasure was 'very important' especially to relax and 59% of participants read for more than 10 hours a week. Multiple reading formats including traditional hard copy and digital formats were used by 85% of participants. The implications for materials provision and presentation for libraries and charitable organisations are considered in light of the findings.


In this letter, a fast digital image stabilization method based on local binary pattern (LBP) for real time applications is presented. The LBP approach utilized in this work enables efficient representation of the image frames in 1-bit depth resolution. A simple Boolean exclusive-OR (XOR) based matching criterion is employed to decide global motion vector between consecutive image frames. The constant velocity model based Kalman filtering is executed on the global motion vectors to obtain smoothed frame positions. Experiments show that the proposed approach provides comparable or better performance against the methods at the same category by requiring lower computational complexity.


The Allied strategic bombing of Germany during World War II was a significant event in the history of Europe. Social representations of this event were investigated at the level of individual knowledge. To establish an index of British collective memory for this event, 169 adults (aged 18–87 years), divided into three generational groups, completed a questionnaire. The findings showed a disparity between subjective knowledge and historical actuality across all three age groups. A decline in understanding across time also suggests that a large degree of social, cultural and institutional forgetting has taken place since 1945 leading to misapprehension and widespread inability to comprehend the scale, intensity and destructiveness of the campaign. Social representations of the Allied bombing of Germany continue to endorse a British narrative that is unable to articulate with any accuracy the effects of the campaign on German civilians or British airmen. Representations of this historical event appear to be shifting in ways that may eventually lead to an unintended state of denial in the future, i.e. that the human consequences of the campaign were rather limited.


In this article, we identify in the formation of U.S. college composition courses a tacit policy of English monolingualism based on a chain of reifications of languages and social identity. We show this policy continuing in assumptions underlying arguments for and against English Only legislation and basic writers. And we call for an internationalist perspective on written English in relation to other languages and the dynamics of globalization.


The number, and size, of digital video databases is continuously growing. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the video content in these databases is stored without any sort of indexing or analysis and without any associated metadata. If any of the videos do have metadata, then it is usually the result of some manual annotation process rather than any automatic indexing. Thus, locating clips and browsing content is difficult, time consuming and generally inefficient. The task of automatically indexing movies is particularly difficult given their innovative creation process and the individual style of many film makers. However, there are a number of underlying film grammar conventions that are universally followed, from a Hollywood blockbuster to an underground movie with a limited budget. These conventions dictate many elements of film making such as camera placement and editing. By examining the use of these conventions it is possible to extract information about the events in a movie. This research aims to provide an approach that creates an indexed version of a movie to facilitate ease of browsing and efficient retrieval. In order to achieve this aim, all of the relevant events contained within a movie are detected and classified into a predefined index. The event detection process involves examining the underlying structure of a movie and utilising audiovisual analysis techniques, supported by machine learning algorithms, to extract information based on this structure. The result is an indexed movie that can be presented to users for browsing/retrieval of relevant events, as well as supporting user specified searching. Extensive evaluation of the indexing approach is carried out. This evaluation indicates efficient performance of the event detection and retrieval system, and also highlights the subjective nature of video content.


In the past decade, wearable sensors and devices have evolved as key technological objects which have dramatically revolutionized the next generation healthcare solutions. This is the era of cut-throat competition filled with immense stress which leads to the detection of various diseases even in the people of early age. Moreover, people are becoming more health conscious in developed as well as developing countries. The miniaturization of sensors and devices and tendency of people to be physician-independent have lead the researchers across the globe to come up with numerous healthcare solutions which are not only ubiquitous but are affordable also. Wearable medical devices (WMDs) capable of monitoring some of the most common physiological parameters- pulse, blood oxygen saturation, 2 lead ECG, heart rhythm, skin temperature etc. have already been popular. Ambulatory and long-term health monitoring for elderly people is another aspect, particularly for countries like China and Japan where population aging is increasing. With the development of networks, collected health information can be sent to the cloud server of the nearest clinic or hospital. Doctors can then provide patients with medical advice. Thus, WMDs or WMD-based applications can help both patients and doctors in daily health monitoring. The paradigm has gradually shifted to the mobile health (mHealth) - an integration of ever advancing wireless communication, ubiquitous computing, and wearable device technologies. The mHealth can be regarded as the most advanced version of healthcare monitoring.


Rationale: Fructose-1, 6-bisphosphatase 1 (FBP1), a rate-limiting enzyme in gluconeogenesis, was recently shown to be a tumor suppressor and could mediate the activities of multiple transcriptional factors via its non-canonical functions. However, the underlying mechanism of posttranscriptional modification on the non-canonical functions of FBP1 remains elusive. Methods: We employed immunoaffinity purification to identify binding partner(s) and used co-immunoprecipitation to verify their interactions. Kinase reaction was used to confirm PIM2 could phosphorylate FBP1. Overexpression or knockdown proteins were used to assess the role in modulating p65 protein stability. Mechanistic analysis was involved in protein degradation and polyubiquitination assays. Nude mice and PIM2-knockout mice was used to study protein functions in vitro and in vivo. Results: Here, we identified Proviral Insertion in Murine Lymphomas 2 (PIM2) as a new binding partner of FBP1, which could phosphorylate FBP1 on Ser144. Surprisingly, phosphorylated FBP1 Ser144 abrogated its interaction with NF-κB p65, promoting its protein stability through the CHIP-mediated proteasome pathway. Furthermore, phosphorylation of FBP1 on Ser144 increased p65 regulated PD-L1 expression. As a result, phosphorylation of FBP1 on Ser144 promoted breast tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, the levels of PIM2 and pSer144-FBP1 proteins were positively correlated with each other in human breast cancer and PIM2 knockout mice. Conclusions: Our findings revealed that phosphorylation noncanonical FBP1 by PIM2 was a novel regulator of NF-κB pathway, and highlights PIM2 inhibitors as breast cancer therapeutics.


The aim of this work is to apply the Water Safety Plan – the effective methodology for waterborne risk management in waterworks (WHO) – to hospital settings, such as those in the AOU of Sassari.
WSP was applied to an hospital within the AOU, to control the waterborne risk from Legionella and Pseudomonas. The Control Plan was draft, team inspections, meetings, water samples were performed (Legionella, Ps.aeruginosa, CRAL, T) and organizational/operative information were taken. The following steps were the hazard analysis of criticalities and the identification of the priority control measures.
L. pneumophila (L.pn.) 1 was isolated in the water from and returning to the hot water tank/boiler and from 53,3% of the hot water samples of the plumbing system. Random samples in the cold water system revealed L.pn. 7 and L.spp in unused taps. Pseudomonas was never found. CRAL was always lower than the optimal value. It has been performed an organizational criticalities analysis. After the hazard analysis, the identified priority control measures were focused on CRAL, verification of performed controls, T of hot water, cleaning and sanification of hot water tank/boilers and system, pipes with little or no flow, coordination among persons in charge of, support to health care personnel participation.
WSP proves to be an essential instrument for waterborne risk management, allowing to understand criticalities, to perform hazard analysis, to identify priority control measures.


The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Rev and human T-cell leukemia virus type I Rex transactivators are posttranscriptional regulatory proteins that promote retroviral gene expression by interacting with specific viral mRNAs. Rev and Rex have markedly dissimilar amino acid sequences and RNA target specificities but are thought to act through the same cellular pathway. In this report, we demonstrate that short peptide domains which are required for effector activity in Rev and Rex are functionally interchangeable. Activity of these effector domains depends upon a previously unrecognized tetrapeptide motif that is present in both Rev and Rex and also in analogous proteins from other complex retroviruses. The conserved effector motif may mediate essential interactions of Rev, Rex, and other transactivators of this type with a common cellular cofactor.


Philornis downsi (Dodge and Aitken) is a bird-parasitic muscid fly native to mainland South America that recently invaded the Galápagos Islands where it is parasitizing Darwin's finches and other land birds. This parasite was previously known only from Argentina, Brazil, and Trinidad and Tobago. The first report of P. downsi from mainland Ecuador is provided, supporting the hypothesis that the invasion route of P. downsi from its native range to the Galápagos Islands includes mainland Ecuador. Four different morphologies of pupal exuviae, which belong to different fly species, were uncovered. Dipteran puparia were found in 20% of naturally occurring nests collected in 2013 and in 27% of nests in 2014 at the two sites in western Ecuador. P. downsi accounted for 74% and 40% of the puparia in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Two new bird host species for the genus Philornis were recorded: the streakheaded woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes souleyetii) and the fasciated wren (Campylorhynchus fasciatus). The levels of nest parasitism found were much lower than levels reported for the Galápagos Islands. Finally, parasitism of P. downsi by a parasitoid in the genus Brachymeria (Hymenoptera, Chalcididae) is documented. Overall, 9% of fly puparia collected in 2013, and 19% of those collected in 2014, had parasitoid emergence holes.


Abstract I defend what I take to be a genuinely Kantian view on temporal extension: time is not an object but a human horizon of concrete particulars. As such, time depends on the existence of embodied human subjects. It does not, however, depend on those subjects determined as spatial objects. Starting with a realist notion of "apperception" as applied to indexical space (1), I proceed with the need for external criteria of temporal duration (2). In accordance with Kant's Second Analogy of Experience, these criteria are found in concepts and laws of motion and change (3). I then see what follows from this for a reasonable notion of transcendental idealism (4). Finally, in support of my Kantian conclusions, I argue for the transcendentally subjective nature of particular temporal extension (5).


Anti-NMDAR encephalitis often causes profound neuropsychiatric symptoms in reproductive aged women. Diagnosis is based on identification of anti-NMDAR antibodies in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and such cases are commonly associated with ovarian teratomas. We present four cases of anti-NMDAR encephalitis with ovarian teratoma, and discuss their management, with special emphasis on the surgical approach. We propose laparotomy and systemic examination of both ovaries in such cases to avoid missing small teratomas. J Med Cases. 2017;8(2):52-57 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2734w


Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing grids consist of peer nodes that communicate directly among themselves through wide-area networks and can act as both clients and servers. These systems have drawn much research attention since they promote Internet-scale resource and service sharing without any administration cost or centralized infrastructure support. However aggregating different application services into a high-performance distributed application delivery in such systems is challenging due to the presence of dynamic performance information, arbitrary peer arrivals/departures, and systems' scalability requirement. In this paper we propose a scalable QoS-aware service aggregation model to address the challenges. The model includes two tiers: (1) on-demand service composition tier which is responsible for choosing and composing different application services into a service path satisfying the user's quality requirements; and (2) dynamic peer selection tier, which decides the specific peers where the chosen services are actually instantiated based on the dynamic, composite and distributed performance information. The model is designed and implemented in a fully distributed and self-organizing fashion. Conducting extensive simulations of a large-scale P2P system (10/sup 4/ peers), we show that our proposed model and algorithms achieve better performance than several common heuristic algorithms.


This thesis investigates the fast-reaction limit for a one dimensional reaction-diffusion system describing the penetration of the carbonation reaction in concrete. Three conceptually different scaling regimes of the effective diffusivities of the driving chemical species are explored using matched asymptotics. The limiting models include one-phase and two-phase generalised Stefan moving boundary problems as well as a nonstandard two-scale (micro-macro) moving boundary problem. These sharp interface models are studied to uncover the mechanisms at the free boundary. A power law for the concentration of the chemical species at the interface is derived, as well as the large and small time asymptotic behaviour of the free boundary and the concentration profiles. Numerical results, supporting the analytical results, are presented throughout this thesis, including the application of the method of lines to solve the limiting Stefan problems. To conclude, numerical illustrations of different two-dimensional geometries are included.


Charcoal broiling is becoming an increasingly popular method for cooking meat. Little scientific work has been done in this area. Information presently available on charcoal broiling consists of broad generalizations which have developed from trial and error testing. With the current interest in charcoal broiling, there is a need for more factual, scientific information as to the proper procedure. Cooking method affects palatability and nutritive value of meat. Chemical and physical changes occur during the cooking process and the reactions which take place are not fully known or understood. Each cooking method has a specific effect upon meat due to the rate of heat penetration and the reactions which take place during the cooking period. Broiling usually takes place at high temperature, making this method of cooking meat contrary to recommendations . Generally broiling is done with the thermostat set at 500 F . The heating element is constantly energized when turned on. Attempts are made to adjust to the desired temperature by varying the distance from the heat source. Cover et al. (1957) showed actual surface temperature of the broiler often fluctuated from the desired temperature. Preliminary testing in our laboratory showed that it was impossible to regulate heat at a constant temperature with an electric broiler.


Morphine, codeine, morphine‐6‐glucuronide, and morphine‐3‐glucuronide are synthesized de novo in mammalian cells and in the central nervous system. Knowledge on endogenous morphine‐like compound distribution in the adult mouse brain has been recently improved, and new hypotheses have been suggested about the potential implications in brain physiology. Endogenous morphine‐like compounds have been shown to be synthesized in the spinal cord, but their localization is unknown. Here we describe the distribution of endogenous morphine‐like compounds (morphine and/or its glucuronides and/or codeine) in the adult mouse spinal cord using a well‐validated antibody. By using different microscopy approaches, we found the presence of morphine, codeine, or morphine glucuronides in γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)‐ergic neurons and astrocytes of the spinal cord. Whereas GABAergic neurons containing endogenous morphine‐like compounds were located primarily in the ventral horn, astrocytes that were labeled for morphine‐like compounds were found throughout the gray matter and the white matter. Our study demonstrates the possibility that endogenous morphine‐like compounds in the central nervous system have other functions beyond their analgesic functions. J. Comp. Neurol. 520:1547–1561, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Recent concerns about environmental pollution and escalating energy consumption accompanied by the advancements in battery technology have initiated the electrification of the transportation sector. With the universal resurgence of Electric Vehicles (EVs) the adverse impact of the EV charging loads on the operating parameters of the power system has been noticed. The detrimental impact of EV charging station loads on the electricity distribution network cannot be neglected. The high charging loads of the fast charging stations results in increased peak load demand, reduced reserve margins, voltage instability, and reliability problems. Further, the penalty paid by the utility for the degrading performance of the power system cannot be neglected. This work aims to investigate the impact of the EV charging station loads on the voltage stability, power losses, reliability indices, as well as economic losses of the distribution network. The entire analysis is performed on the IEEE 33 bus test system representing a standard radial distribution network for six different cases of EV charging station placement. It is observed that the system can withstand placement of fast charging stations at the strong buses up to a certain level, but the placement of fast charging stations at the weak buses of the system hampers the smooth operation of the power system. Further, a strategy for the placement of the EV charging stations on the distribution network is proposed based on a novel Voltage stability, Reliability, and Power loss (VRP) index. The results obtained indicate the efficacy of the VRP index.


By interpreting traditional stress-strength interference model as a statistical average of the probability that strength (a random variable) is greater than stress (another random variable) over its whole distribution range, the same model configuration, which was conventionally applied only to the case of same system-of-units parameters (e.g., stress and strength, both are measured in MPa), was applied to more general situation of different system-of-units parameters. That is to say, the traditional model was extended to more general situations of any two variables, as long as one of the variables can be expressed as a function of the other. Further more, the probabilistic fatigue life under random stress can be predicted, with known probabilistic fatigue lives under several deterministic cyclic stress amplitudes and known distribution of the random cyclic stress amplitude. The underlying principle is that the fatigue life under random stress is equal to the statistical average of the fatigue lives under cyclic stress of deterministic amplitudes which can be considered as the samples of the random stress.


The objectives were to explore, among university students, the level of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, and resistancy and to determine the motivations and barriers, and the reasons that may change student vaccination decision making. An online observational cross-sectional study was conducted among students of a French university in January 2021 with questions about the intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the motivations and the barriers. The convenience sample included 3089 students, with a mean of age of 20.3 (SD = 1.9). To the question on the intention to vaccinate against the COVID-19, 58.0% of students reported that they would choose to have a vaccination, 17.0% reported that they would not and 25.0% were not sure. The main motivations for vaccine acceptance were "I don′t want to transmit COVID-19 to others", the main barriers for vaccine resistance or hesitancy were "I prefer to wait until I have more experience with these new vaccines". Age, female gender, being in first three years of study, studied sciences courses and neither sciences nor healthcare courses of study were significantly associated with a higher risk of vaccine hesitancy or resistancy. Self-estimated knowledge of conventional vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines, and confidence in efficiency and safety of conventional vaccination were associated with a lower risk of vaccine hesitancy or resistancy. It is relevant to disseminate evidence-based interventions to promote COVID-19 vaccine acceptability for college students, especially for the students in neither sciences nor healthcare courses of study, as college students will soon be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.


Do you remember "one-to-ones" in acute care? A "one-to-one" (not to be confused with "one-on-one," an individual staff member who closely monitors a patient at all times) is a concept that may be unfamiliar to nurses who entered acute care psychiatric/mental health nursing within the past 10-15 years. One-to-ones are uninterrupted, lengthy, individual sit-down nurse-patient interactions. These one-to-ones were once an expected, necessary aspect of psychiatric/mental health nursing practice. Acute care psychiatric/mental health nurses were supposed to have at least one, one-to-one interaction daily with each patient he or she was assigned to. Nurses who worked in psychiatric settings when this was the norm and continue work in acute care now know that one-to-ones have all but disappeared.


We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave (FP-LAPW) calculations to study the electronic structure of BaCo2As2. The Fermi surface (FS) maps and the corresponding band dispersion data (at 90 K and 200 K) reveal a small electron pocket at the center and a large electron pocket at the corner of the Brillouin zone. Therefore the nesting between electron and hole FS pockets is absent in this compound, in contrast to the parent compounds of FeAs-based high-T_c superconductors. The electronic structure at about 500 meV binding energy is very similar to features at the chemical potential in BaFe2As2. This indicates that complete substitution of Co for Fe causes a nearly rigid shift in the Fermi energy by adding two electrons per formula unit without significant changes in the band dispersions. The experimental FS topology as well as band dispersion data are in reasonable agreement with the FP-LAPW calculations.


ABSTRACT Introduction: The clinical use of tacrolimus is characterized by many side effects which include neurotoxicity. In contrast, tacrolimus has also shown to have neuroregenerative properties. On a molecular level, the mechanisms of action could provide us more insight into understanding the neurobiological effects. The aim of this article is to review current evidence regarding the use of tacrolimus in peripheral nerve injuries. Areas covered: Available data on tacrolimus' indications were summarized and molecular mechanisms were elucidated to possibly understand the conflicting neurotoxic and neuroregenerative effects. The potential clinical applications of tacrolimus, as immunosuppressant and enhancer of nerve regeneration in peripheral nerve injuries, are discussed. Finally, concepts of delivery are explored. Expert opinion: It is unclear what the exact neurobiological effects of tacrolimus are. Besides its known calcineurin inhibiting properties, the mechanism of action of tacrolimus is mediated by its binding to FK506-binding protein-52, resulting in a bimodal dose response. Experimental models found that tacrolimus administration is preferred up to three days prior to or within 10 days post-nerve reconstruction. Moreover, the indication for the use of tacrolimus has been expanding to fields of dermatology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery and rheumatology to improve outcomes after various indications.


There have been some rapid advances on the design of full duplex (FD) transceivers in recent years. Although the benefits of FD have been studied for single-hop wireless communications, its potential on throughput performance in a multi-hop wireless network remains unclear. As for multi-hop networks, a fundamental problem is to compute the achievable end-to-end throughput for one or multiple communication sessions. The goal of this paper is to offer some fundamental understanding on end-to-end throughput performance limits of FD in a multi-hop wireless network. We show that through a rigorous mathematical formulation, we can cast the multi-hop throughput performance problem into a formal optimization problem. Through numerical results, we show that in many cases, the end-to-end session throughput in a FD network can exceed 2x of that in a half duplex (HD) network. Our finding can be explained by the much larger design space for scheduling that is offered by removing HD constraints in throughput maximization problem. The results in this paper offer some new understandings on the potential benefits of FD for end-to-end session throughput in a multi-hop wireless network.


Critical dimension (CD) control is one of the most difficult challenges in semiconductor manufacturing. In photolithography, factors associated with individual technologies, lithography tools, product levels, reticles, and product specifications dictate unique exposure conditions for each lithography tool set-up. In a multi-part number mixed technology environment, sophisticated controls are required to ensure that correct exposure conditions are used for each wafer processed. A process control system was developed by IBM Microelectronics using simple process rules and feedback to provide CD control. The system provides the control necessary to meet customization requirements in a highly automated low maintenance environment. It is driven by defined rules based on documented specifications of each technology. With documentation in place, new products can be introduced into the manufacturing facility without engineering assistance. The rules-based system eliminates traditional tool-setting tables by capturing engineering strategies for selecting relevant feedback information. A specific rule defines strategies for selecting the best available sample of historical tool setting and metrology data. CDs for each product are centered to their respective targets by the system's use of feedback algorithms which are integrated with a centralized specification database. Customized CD targets can be entered into the specification system for immediate customization of a particular part. A key feature of the system is its ability to learn the character of each reticle and the differences between each lithography tool.


ABSTRACT To secure food and water safety, quantitative information on multiple pathogens is important. In this study, we developed a microfluidic quantitative PCR (MFQPCR) system to simultaneously quantify 11 major human viral pathogens, including adenovirus, Aichi virus, astrovirus, enterovirus, human norovirus, rotavirus, sapovirus, and hepatitis A and E viruses. Murine norovirus and mengovirus were also quantified in our MFQPCR system as a sample processing control and an internal amplification control, respectively. River water contaminated with effluents from a wastewater treatment plant in Sapporo, Japan, was collected and used to validate our MFQPCR system for multiple viruses. High-throughput quantitative information was obtained with a quantification limit of 2 copies/μl of cDNA/DNA. Using this MFQPCR system, we could simultaneously quantify multiple viral pathogens in environmental water samples. The viral quantities obtained using MFQPCR were similar to those determined by conventional quantitative PCR. Thus, the MFQPCR system developed in this study can provide direct and quantitative information for viral pathogens, which is essential for risk assessments.


The intention of the 21 st century we entered a strong global growth in the multitude of comparatively few in number, large cities. Large, dense cities can be highly efficient. It is most desirable that side, by the heads of the green, and the future porticos. Bearing to the influx of the citizens of the new challenges of the rapid advance to command positions. To accumulate the benefits, with a positive, as well as a dense fog, in one state, to measure the informal are the negative aspects of the development of equal, traffic congestion, waste, wealth management approach is wrong. The demand for services is immediate, tribute, and custom, that you might found after them. At the same time in the company the first side of the planet will be in the forms of competition which known to you - a capital for the sake of wealth, and the creative class. These challenges to an approach to the design of new experiments, A finance committee, to the construction of the urban infrastructure and services, which is similar to the operation of the government and the smart cities. Fact this approach to the emerging of the knowledge of the time, technology. This paper is devoted to investigate concepts and principles of Smart City and sustainable urban development, components and urban planners' role. Keywords: Smart, City, Smart City, Sustainable Development, Urban Development


In general, the fatigue life of major nuclear components has been evaluated based on design codes conservatively. However, sometimes, more exact fatigue life evaluation is required for continued operation beyond the endorsed life. The purpose of this paper is to carry out 3-D stress and fatigue analyses reflecting full geometry as well as actual operating data. The actual operating data acquired through a monitoring system were filtered and assessed. Then, temperature and stress transfer Green's functions were developed and applied to critical locations of reactor pressure vessel. The finite element analyses results for representative design transients were verified through comparison to reference solution and showed that the conservatism of current 2-D evaluation. Therefore, it is anticipated that the proposed scheme adopting Green's function and real operating histories can be utilized for remaining life time evaluation of major components.


The aim of the scientific research provided in the article is to increase the operational reliability of high-voltage power transformers by reducing the possible risks when diagnosing high-voltage equipment based on the analysis of gases dissolved in oil. We described the method for determining the boundary (typical) gas concentrations by the integral function method, which is recommended by some existing standards, and the author's method for determining the boundary concentrations of gases ensuring a minimum of possible economic damage in case of taking erroneous decisions. The analysis of boundary concentrations of gases obtained by the method of integral functions and the method of minimum risk showed that boundary values differ significantly for the same data, depending on the method of determination. To determine the reliability of decision-making we used a comparative analysis of risk values that may arise while making a diagnosis of high-voltage transformers based on the analysis of gases dissolved in oil, the boundary values of gas concentrations obtained by the integral function method and the minimum risk method, as well as the boundary values of gas concentrations regulated by known international and national standards were used. The study has revealed that the use of typical values of gas concentrations obtained by integrated distribution functions is accompanied by one of the highest risk values. The lowest risk value is provided by the boundary concentrations obtained by the minimum risk method. The method proposed for determining the boundary values of gas concentrations, taking into account the influence of the most relevant factors, allows significantly lower the values of possible risks and consequently can increase the operational reliability of high-voltage transformers, especially those that are used outside the normative service life.


In this paper, RF noise in 0.18-mum NMOSFETs concerning the contribution of carrier heating and hot carrier effect is characterized and analyzed in detail via a novel approach that modulates the channel carrier heating and number of hot carriers using body bias. We confirm qualitatively a negligible role of hot carrier effect on the channel noise in deep-submicrometer MOSFETs. For a device under reverse body bias (Vb), even though the increase in hot carrier population is clearly characterized by dc measurements, the device high-frequency noise is found to be irrelevant to the increase in the channel hot carriers. Experimental results show that the high-frequency noise is slightly reduced with the increase in |Vb|, and can be qualitatively explained by secondary effects such as the suppression of nonequilibrium channel noise and substrate induced noise. The reduction of NFmin and Rn with the increase in |Vb| may provide a possible methodology to finely adjust the device high-frequency noise performance for circuit design


This substantive and original contribution to the study of urbanization in India critically analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian urban system and provides new insights into contemporary urban problems. The author's perspective of urban development in India interrelates the geographical dimension with historical and socio-economic aspects. The book focuses on the processes of urbanization and the nature of interdependence among urban centres and between urban centres and their hinterlands. The approach is at the macro level. The first chapter provides an overview of studies of urbanization in India, and a detailed chapter on the history of urbanization follows. These provide the necessary background to the chapter on urbanization processes. The locational aspects of urbanization are covered in the next five chapters which discuss the problem of defining an urban place, spatial patterns of urbanization, classification of cities, theories of settlement location and the analysis of settlement systems. The relationships between a city and its surrounding area are then studied at two levels - the larger area of city dominance and the city fringe area. Finally, the author examines the fundamental issues involved in framing a national urbanization policy, and expresses the hope that the development of smaller cities and towns may provide some relief from the problems of overcrowding and unplanned growth.


Evidence supporting the use of second generation antipsychotics (SGAs) in the treatment of acute depression with mixed features (MFs) associated with bipolar disorder (BD) is scarce and equivocal. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and preliminary meta-analysis investigating SGAs in the treatment of acute BD depression with MFs. Two authors independently searched major electronic databases from 1990 until September 2015 for randomized (placebo-) controlled trials (RCTs) or open-label clinical trials investigating the efficacy of SGAs in the treatment of acute bipolar depression with MFs. A random-effect meta-analysis calculating the standardized mean difference (SMD) between SGA and placebo for the mean baseline to endpoint change in depression as well as manic symptoms score was computed based on 95% confidence intervals (CI). Six RCTs and one open-label placebo-controlled studies (including post-hoc reports) representing 1023 patients were included. Participants received either ziprasidone, olanzapine, lurasidone, quetiapine or asenapine for an average of 6.5 weeks across the included studies. Meta-analysis with Duval and Tweedie adjustment for publication bias demonstrated that SGA resulted in significant improvements of (hypo-)manic symptoms of bipolar mixed depression as assessed by the means of the total scores of the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) (SMD −0.74, 95% CI −1.20 to −0.28, n SGA = 907, control = 652). Meta-analysis demonstrated that participants in receipt of SGA (n = 979) experienced a large improvement in the Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores (SMD −1.08, 95% CI −1.35 to −0.81, p < 0.001) vs. placebo (n = 678). Publication and measurement biases and relative paucity of studies. Overall, SGAs appear to offer favorable improvements in MADRS and YMRS scores vs. placebo. Nevertheless, given the preliminary nature of the present report, additional original studies are required to allow more reliable and clinically definitive conclusions.


The hereby proposed terminology called "Q-Codes" can be defined as an extension of the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). It deals with non-clinical concepts that are relevant in General Practice/Family Medicine (GP/FM). This terminology is a good way to put an emphasis on underestimated topics such as Teaching, Patient issues or Ethics. It aims at indexing GP/FM documents such as congress abstracts and theses to get a more comprehensive view about the GP/FM domain. The 182 identified Q-Codes have been very precisely defined by a college of experts (physicians and terminologists) from twelve countries. The result is available on the Health Terminology/Ontology Portal (http://www.hetop.org/Q) and formatted in OWL-2 for further semantic considerations and will be used to index the 2016 WONCA World congress communications.


Author(s): Vasquez, Valentina Alejandra | Advisor(s): Restrepo, Jose I. | Abstract: The use of high-strength steel reinforcement in seismic design of bridges is currently under investigation. Several benefits will come from its use, which includes a reduction in the construction time, a reduction in congestion and cost savings, among others.Lotfizadeh (2019) performed an experimental work at the University of California San Diego to study the use of large-diameter high-strength steel reinforcement in earthquake resisting bridge elements. Part of the study considered a quasi-static test of a full-scale bridge column extending into a Type II shaft (enlarged diameter shaft) all reinforced with high-strength ASTM A706 Grade 80 reinforcement.Data obtained from the study was used through this research to calibrate a detailed nonlinear finite element model. For this purpose, continuum 3D elements with fracture-plastic constitutive material law were used to represent the concrete and line elements with uniaxial constitutive materials to characterize the axial stress-strain response of high-strength steel reinforcement.Calibration of the constitutive laws with the experimental data gave a good prediction of the overall and local behavior. The analysis was able to capture the opening and closure of flexural cracks by providing a lower limit to the tensile concrete stress, with smear tension stiffening. The numerical simulation's state of the art can fit the overall response of analytical models with a pretest, but to our knowledge, the distribution of the spread plasticity is usually not addressed or shown. In this research, a comprehensive study of both responses is addressed. Even when the model captured the overall structural behavior, the spread plasticity did not match with the experimental data as well as it did with the overall response.


Mitral regurgitation (MR) remains the second dominant defect in the structure of valvular cardiac diseases.It affects more than 2 million people in the USA. Basic causes are classified as degenerative (with valve prolapse) and ischemic (due to ischemic heart disease) in advanced countries or rheumatic ones (in developing countries).Alone radical method of MR treatment is surgical correction through mitral valve repair (MVRe) or replacement (MVR) yielding definitely higher survival percentage and improvement of heart failure (HF) class comparing to pharmacotherapy.Evolution of approaches to the management of non-ischemic MR passed through some stages starting from predominantly MVR to organ-preserving approaches like plastic repair.In the prospective single-center study were analyzed the results of treatment of 72 patients with primary MR (PMR) who were subjected to mitral valve replacement (MVR) or plastic mitral valve repair (MVRe) performed in the Department of cardiac surgery affiliated with Lviv regional clinical hospital (Ukraine) since October, 2013 till February, 2016.The conclusions of performed study are next:1) Key direct cause of MR is the chordal rupture of MV cusps; etiological factor in the majority of advanced countries is degenerative changes in contrast to rheumatic changes in the developing countries.2) Principal method of MR surgical correction in out center is MVR, though the preferable global trend is MVRe.3) Complications and lethality percentages in this study were higher among the patients from MVR group. Improvement of HF class according to NYHA was more evident in the MVRe group.This corresponds to results of other studies and guidelines that recommend MVRe as optional method for MR correction.


Background: The authors' purpose was to document speech outcome after cleft palate repair in patients with syndromic versus nonsyndromic Robin sequence. They also report the results of secondary correction of velopharyngeal insufficiency using a superiorly based pharyngeal flap or double-opposing Z-palatoplasty. Methods: Charts of patients with Robin sequence and cleft palate between 1980 and 2007 were reviewed. Data collected included date of birth, sex, syndrome/association, cleft palatal type (Veau class I or II), age at palatoplasty, incidence of palatal fistula, postoperative speech assessment, videofluoroscopic results, need for secondary operation for velopharyngeal insufficiency, and type of secondary operation (pharyngeal flap or double-opposing Z-palatoplasty). Results: The authors identified 140 patients with Robin sequence who had palatal closure. Postoperative speech evaluation was available for 96 patients (69 percent). A syndrome or association was identified in 42 patients (30 percent). Primary palatoplasty was successful in 74 patients (77 percent); speech was characterized as competent and competent to borderline competent. The authors found a significantly higher incidence of velopharyngeal insufficiency following palatal repair for syndromic (38 percent) than nonsyndromic Robin sequence (16 percent). (p = 0.039). In patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency, competent or borderline competent speech was determined after double-opposing Z-palatoplasty (two of five patients) or pharyngeal flap (eight of 10 patients). Conclusions: The rate of velopharyngeal insufficiency in syndromic Robin sequence is significantly greater than in nonsyndromic Robin sequence. The authors prefer pharyngeal flap for velopharyngeal insufficiency in patients with Robin sequence, whether syndromic or nonsyndromic, without retrognathism or signs/symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Risk, II.


Speech disorders often occur at the early stage of Parkinson's disease (PD). The speech impairments could be indicators of the disorder for early diagnosis, while motor symptoms are not obvious. In this study, we constructed a new speech corpus of Mandarin Chinese and addressed classification of patients with PD. We implemented classical machine learning methods with ranking algorithms for feature selection, convolutional and recurrent deep networks, and an end to end system. Our classification accuracy significantly surpassed state-of-the-art studies. The result suggests that free talk has stronger classification power than standard speech tasks, which could help the design of future speech tasks for efficient early diagnosis of the disease. Based on existing classification methods and our natural speech study, the automatic detection of PD from daily conversation could be accessible to the majority of the clinical population.


: A study on the quantitative-determination of a synthetic new drug--(+/-) anisodamine with HPLC is described. The analysis was completed on a stainless steel column (phi 4 X 250 mm) packed with a chemical bonded phase (YWG-C18H37), the mobile phase being a mixture of methanol, water and triethylamine (V/V/V 255:45:0.01) with a flow rate of 1 ml/min at room temperature. The (+/-)-anisodamine was detected by UV at 254 nm. This method is rapid, reproducible and accurate, and can be used for quantitative determination of (+/-) anisodamine in different product batches.


Low-frequency noise (LFN) is of significant implications in ion sensing. As a primary component of LFN for ion sensing in electrolytes, the solid/liquid interfacial noise remains poorly explored especially regarding its relation to the surface binding/debinding dynamic properties. Here, we employ impedance spectroscopy to systematically characterize this specific noise component for its correlation to the dynamic properties of surface protonation (i.e., hydrogen binding) and deprotonation (i.e., hydrogen debinding) processes. This correlation is facilitated by applying our recently developed interfacial impedance model to ultrathin TiO2 layers grown by means of atomic layer deposition (ALD) on a TiN metallic electrode. With an excellent fitting of the measured noise power density spectra by the model for the studied TiO2 layers, we are able to extract several characteristic dynamic parameters for the TiO2 sensing surface. The observed increase of noise with TiO2 ALD cycles can be well accounted for with an increased average binding site density. This study provides insights into how detailed surface properties may affect the noise performance of an ion sensor operating in electrolytes.


Efforts to promote forest conservation have focused on two separate types of policy reforms.  Decentralization reforms have attempted to make local forest governance more accountable to demands from voters.  Meanwhile, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes like the REDD program (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) have sought to use economic incentives to promote conservation.  These programs make different assumptions about the incentives most likely to work in forest conservation.  Decentralization reforms assume that citizen pressures on politicians will encourage conservation, while PES approaches assume that an economic incentive—money—is the best approach.  Which type of incentive works best in settings with weak institutions?  Here, using a unique longitudinal dataset of forest policy in 100 Bolivian municipalities, we examine the relationships between citizen pressures and economic incentives on forest policy.  We find that both types of incentives are positively and significantly associated with government investments in forest conservation, and that the magnitudes of these relationships are similar.  Further, we find that economic incentives may be especially effective at promoting conservation where citizen pressures are weak or absent.


The 17 August 1999 Izmit earthquake occurred on the northern strand of the North Anatolian fault zone. The earthquake is associated with a 145-km-long surface rupture that extends from southwest of Duzce in the east to west of Hersek delta in the west. Detailed mapping of the surface rupture shows that it consists of five segments separated by releasing step-overs; herein named the Hersek, Karamursel-Golcuk, Izmit-Sapanca Lake, Sapanca-Akyazi, and Karadere segments from west to east, respectively. The Hersek segment, which cuts the tip of a large delta plain in the western end of the rupture zone, has an orientation of N80°. The N70°-80°E-trending Karamursel-Golcuk segment extends along the linear southern coasts of the Izmit Gulf between Karamursel and Golcuk and produced the 470-cm maximum displacement in Golcuk. The northwest-southeast-striking Golcuk normal fault between the Karamursel-Golcuk and Izmit-Sapanca segments has 2.3-m maximum vertical displacement. The maximum dextral offset along the Izmit-Sapanca Lake segment was measured to be about 3.5 m, and its trend varies between N80°E and east-west. The Sapanca-Akyazi segment trends N75°-85°W and expresses a maximum displacement of 5.2 m. The Karadere segment trends N65°E and produced up to 1.5-m maximum displacement. The Karadere and Sapanca-Akyazi segments form fan-shape or splaying ruptures near their eastern ends where the displacement also diminished.


Abstract A humorous competition called "The Adventures of Naked Man" ran in a New Zealand newspaper from 1999 to 2000. The competition's protagonist is the sole naked person in a drawn setting where, because of some convenient object or body position, his penis is always obscured from sight. Entrants to the competition submitted a caption to go with the drawn setting, the task being to make humor; the common solution to this task being some form of penis joke based upon double entendre. The editors of the competition employed a "taste test" to reject entries that were too vulgar thus protecting the competition from attack by "moral guardians," although the details of the test were never fully explained. This article analyzes the full corpus of Naked Man episodes in regard to the finely detailed work of categorization. Drawing on some basic principles of Membership Categorization Analysis, it is shown that the degree of sexual allusiveness in the humor is closely connected to categorizations of people and activities, and in this process the fine detail of quite simple drawings are very significant.


Investigation of noise mechanisms due to unsteady transonic flow is important for aircraft noise reduction. In this work, the near-field impulsive noise due to an oscillating flap is simulated numerically. The problem is modeled by the two-dimensional high frequency transonic small disturbance equation (VTRAN2 code). The three types of unsteady shock wave motion have been identified. Two different important disturbances exist in the pressure signal. The disturbances are related to the unsteady motion of the supersonic pocket and fluctuating lift, and drag forces. Pressure wave signatures, noise frequency spectra, and noise directivity are shown.


Data acquired by the Galileo magnetometer on five passes by Ganymede have been used to characterize Ganymede's internal magnetic moments. Three of the five passes were useful for determination of the internal moments through quadrupole order. Models representing the internal field as the sum of dipole and quadrupole terms or as the sum of a permanent dipole field upon which is superimposed an induced magnetic dipole driven by the time varying component of the externally imposed magnetic field of Jupiter's magnetosphere give equally satisfactory fits to the data. The permanent dipole moment has an equatorial field magnitude 719 nT. It is tilted by 176° from the spin axis with the pole in the southern hemisphere rotated by 24° from the Jupiter-facing meridian plane toward the trailing hemisphere. The data are consistent with an inductive response of a good electrical conductor of radius approximately 1 Ganymede radius. Although the data do not enable us to establish the presence of an inductive response beyond doubt, we favor the inductive response model because it gives a good fit to the data using only four parameters to describe the internal sources of fields, whereas the equally good dipole plus quadrupole fit requires eight parameters. An inductive response is consistent with a buried conducting shell, probably liquid water with dissolved electrolytes, somewhere in the first few hundred km below Ganymede's surface. The depth at which the ocean is buried beneath the surface is somewhat uncertain, but our favored model suggests a depth of the order of 150 km. As both temperature and pressure increase with depth and the melting temperature of pure ice decreases to a minimum at ∼170 km depth, it seems possible that near this location, a layer of water would be sandwiched between layers of ice.


Metastatic capacities are fundamental features of tumor malignancy. ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) 1 has emerged as a key regulator of invasion in breast cancer cells. However, the importance of this GTPase, in vivo, remains to be demonstrated. We report that ARF1 is highly expressed in breast tumors of the most aggressive and advanced subtypes. Furthermore, we show that lowered expression of ARF1 impairs growth of primary tumors and inhibits lung metastasis in a murine xenograft model. To understand how ARF1 contributes to invasiveness, we used a poorly invasive breast cancer cell line, MCF7 (ER+), and examined the effects of overexpressing ARF1 to levels similar to that found in invasive cell lines. We demonstrate that ARF1 overexpression leads to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Mechanistically, ARF1 controls cell–cell adhesion through ß-catenin and E-cadherin, oncogenic Ras activation and expression of EMT inducers. We further show that ARF1 overexpression enhances invasion, proliferation and resistance to a chemotherapeutic agent. In vivo, ARF1 overexpressing MCF7 cells are able to form more metastases to the lung. Overall, our findings demonstrate that ARF1 is a molecular switch for cancer progression and thus suggest that limiting the expression/activation of this GTPase could help improve outcome for breast cancer patients.


Background and purpose: Aminoglycosides are broad-spectrum antibiotics that are often used in combination with other antibiotics for the treatment of severe S. aureus infections. This research aimed at investigating the phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of aminoglycoside resistance in clinical isolates of MRSA in Kerman, Iran. Materials and methods: During a one year period, a total of 57 MRSA isolates was collected from 130 isolates of S. aureus. MRSA isolates were tested for susceptibility to 13 antimicrobial agents using disc diffusion method. Then, the presence of aminoglycoside modifying enzymes (AMEs) was evaluated by multiplex polymerase chain reaction. Results: In the MRSA isolates, high resistance rates were observed for tetracycline, erythromycin, kanamycin and gentamicin. In fact, 73.7% and 68.4% of the isolates were found to be resistant to kanamycin and gentamicin, respectively. aac(6′)-Ie-aph(2′′), aph(3′)-III, ant(4′)-Ia, and aph(2ʹʹ)-Id genes were detected in 40.3%, 15.7%, 12.2%, and 3.5% of the aminoglycosides–resistant isolates, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of aminoglycosides resistance among MRSA isolates is rising, therefore, identification of resistance genes in order to achieve the exact pattern of resistance is helpful in preventing the spread of resistant strains.


Often, land-use models do not take into account social aspects. But in particular farmers' attitudes seem to be one of the driving forces for agricultural land-use and therefore for economic, ecological and social developments in rural areas. The presented land-use model is an attempt to incorporate data which are in a strict sense not economic. The farm must be viewed as the basic entity for many questions because farmland, farm equipment, and farmer's attitudes differ from farm to farm. Furthermore interactions between farms like knowledge transfer or market behaviour must kept in mind. Therefore the model presented conceives the farms as independent agents aiming at maximum individual utility which is dependent on personal attitudes. The utility is calculated by a linear programming algorithm which takes into account natural, economic and personal restrictions. Interactions between farms take place on the land market, which is modelled as an equilibrium market. Land distribution as well as corresponding land rents are calculated with the help of a modified Sequential Simplex Algorithm (SSO). The calculations yield data on two levels: On farm level economic and social data like income and workload are calculated. Regional results, as aggregation of the regarded farms, show regional opportunities and threats.


Mercury (Hg) is a toxic agent that evaporates in room temperature and its inhalation may cause poisoning. Due to the nonspecific symptoms, diagnosis is difficult in special circumstances with no initial history of Hg exposure. We report two such cases of Hg poisoning. The patients were two sisters, presenting with pain in extremities, itchy rashes, sweating, salivation, weakness, and mood changes. They have used a compound that contains mercury, for treatment of pedicullosis three months before admission. This compound was purchased from a herbal shop and was applied locally on the scalps for 2 days. Their urinary mercury concentrations were 50 and 70 mg/L. They were successfully treated by D-penicillamine and gabapentin. In a patient with any kind of bone and joint pain, skin rash erythema and peripheral neuropathy, mercury poisoning should be considered as a differential diagnosis.


This essay compares two philosophical proposals concerning the relation between values and science, both of which reject the value-free ideal but nevertheless place restrictions on how values and science should interact. The first of these proposals relies on a distinction between the direct and indirect roles of values, while the second emphasizes instead a distinction between epistemic and nonepistemic values. We consider these two proposals in connection with a case study of disputed research on the topic of environmental justice and argue that the second proposal has several advantages over the first.


A 64-year-old male was treated for acute myeloid leukemia with idarubicin and cytarabin. He developed pulmonary mycosis (radiologically consistent with aspergillosis), which responded to intravenous amphotericin B.


LiCl is a kosmotrope that generally promotes protein salvation in aqueous solutions. Herein we report that LiCl embedded in electrospun polymeric nanofibers interestingly induced an abnormal protein adsorption and substantially augmented the adsorption capacity of the fibers. As a result, equilibrium protein loadings reached over 64% (w/w) of the dry mass of fibers, 9-fold higher than that observed in the absence of the salt. The adsorption appeared to be irreversible such that little protein loss was observed even after washing the fibers vigorously with fresh buffer solutions. We further examined the application of such intensified protein adsorption for enzyme immobilization. Proteins including bovine serum albumin (BSA) and protamine were first adsorbed, followed by covalent attachment of an outer layer of an enzyme, α-chymotrypsin. Such a multilayer-structured nanofibrous enzyme exhibited extremely high stability with no obvious activity loss even after being incubated for 8 months at 4 °C in aqueous buffer solution. The LiCl induced irreversible protein adsorption, which has been largely ignored in previous studies with electrospun materials, rendering an interesting scenario of interfacial protein-material interactions. It also reveals a new mechanism in controlling and fabricating molecular interactions at interfaces for development of a broad range of biomaterials.


In this work, the effect of ZrO2 doping on the properties of PbTiO3 ceramics was investigated. PbTiO3 powders were prepared via a mixed oxide method with a calcination temperature of 750 °C for 2 h. The various amounts of ZrO2, between 0 and 2 wt.%, were added to the calcined powders to decrease the c/a ratio. The mixed powders were sintered at 1225 °C for 2 h. The samples were characterized using X–ray diffractrometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). It was showed that the ZrO2 phase was not detected in all of the powder and ceramic samples. The highest density in the ceramics was found in the sample with 0.5 wt.% of ZrO2. The average grain size slightly increased with the increase of ZrO2. The phase transition temperature from tetragonal ferroelectric to cubic paraelectric was about 465 to 466 °C for all sintered samples.


Abstract The purpose of this survey study was to collect faculty perceptions toward changes made to the faculty merit evaluation process in a college of education at a state comprehensive university. The changes in the evaluation occurred over a two-year period, where a formative rubric and faculty self-assessment were incorporated into the merit instrument. The sampling frame for the study included the college of education faculty members at the university. The data for the study were collected in two different phases using a field-tested online survey that was created to collect the faculty perceptions of the newly developed instrument and process for completing the merit evaluation. The data collected from the surveys were analyzed using nonparametric tests and qualitative textual analysis. Findings from the study indicated favorable perceptions of the new merit evaluation and only a limited number of differences among the demographic groups.


Dimensionless and criterial complexes are successfully used in many technical fields. They play an important role in research and design. There are a large number of dimensionless and criterial complexes, which have their advantages and are chosen depending on the topic and specific objectives of the study. The article considers dimensionless and criterial complexes most often used in studies of turbomachines, in particular vortex expansion machines - relative internal (isoentropic) efficiency, degree of pressure drop, adjusted wheel speed, speed coefficient, adjusted diameter, flow factor and coefficient. The authors processed the data of the experimental study of the turbogenerator with a peripheral-side channel and presented them in the form of graphical dependences using these complexes. The improvement of these energy-saving turbogenerators is important because they are used to generate electricity from excess gas pressure, are considered environmentally friendly and are needed for the development of distributed energy. Vortex expansion machines with a peripheral-lateral channel are also poorly understood, so the topic is relevant. In this study, their area of use was determined and reflected in the ns - Ds diagram among radial and other vortex expansion turbomachines to facilitate their comparison and design.


Abstract We use isotopic analyses of authigenic siderite and calcite cements within Rosselia socialis burrows from shoreface deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada, to reveal the early cementation history of the burrow and geochemical conditions of the initial sedimentary environment. Within the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, two forms of the Rosselia burrows are present: bulbous in situ burrows, and transported, spindlelike burrows, which display similar internal shaft diameters but smaller overall size compared to in situ forms. Transverse, incremental sampling of calcite and siderite cements in the Rosselia burrows reveals symmetrical isotopic deviation in δ13C and δ18O around the burrow core, representing accretionary records of evolving pore-water conditions. The number of isotopic deviations recorded in bulbous specimens is equal to those observed in spindle-shaped burrows, suggesting that in situ and transported burrows underwent similar periods of cementation. Cementation, however, was limited during each accretionary event in the spindle-shaped burrows, making them more susceptible to transport by storm waves because of their small size. Early cementation of Rosselia, thus, took place very close to the sediment-water interface at depths where storm waves could rework sediments (i.e., less than 1 m sediment depth). The enriched δ13C values for calcite and siderite (3.06-9.45‰ PDB [Peedee belemnite]) suggest that cement precipitation followed bacterially mediated decomposition of the organic matter concentrated within Rosselia in the zone of methanogenesis. Oxygen isotope compositions are enriched also, ranging in siderite from 17.5‰ to 29.4‰ SMOW (standard mean ocean water) and in calcite from 16.8‰ to 23.0‰ SMOW, and are more akin to the composition of subsurface groundwater than marine waters. Freshwater discharging through shoreface sediments explains the δ18O isotopic signature of calcite and accounts for the early diagenetic precipitation of siderite in shallow marine sediments. In addition, the coexistence of authigenic calcite and siderite cements was most likely controlled by variation in the mixing ratio of meteoric and marine fluids related to variable discharge rates for the freshwater aquifer.


NLP has achieved great progress in the past decade through the use of neural models and large labeled datasets. The dependence on abundant data prevents NLP models from being applied to low-resource settings or novel tasks where significant time, money, or expertise is required to label massive amounts of textual data. Recently, data augmentation methods have been explored as a means of improving data efficiency in NLP. To date, there has been no systematic empirical overview of data augmentation for NLP in the limited labeled data setting, making it difficult to understand which methods work in which settings. In this paper, we provide an empirical survey of recent progress on data augmentation for NLP in the limited labeled data setting, summarizing the landscape of methods (including token-level augmentations, sentence-level augmentations, adversarial augmentations, and hidden-space augmentations) and carrying out experiments on 11 datasets covering topics/news classification, inference tasks, paraphrasing tasks, and single-sentence tasks. Based on the results, we draw several conclusions to help practitioners choose appropriate augmentations in different settings and discuss the current challenges and future directions for limited data learning in NLP.


Objective To develop dual-energy computed tomography methods for identification of hyperenhancing, hypoenhancing, and nonenhancing small-bowel pathologies. Methods Small-bowel phantoms simulating varying patient sizes and polyp types (hyperenhancing, hypoenhancing, and nonenhancing) contained bismuth suspension in the lumen. Dual-energy CT was performed at 80/140 kV and 100/140 kV. Computed tomographic number ratios (CT numbers at low/high kilovoltage) were calculated. Two radiologists evaluated polyp detection and conspicuity using bismuth-only, iodine-only, iodine-overlay, and mixed-kilovoltage displays. Results Computed tomographic ratios for bismuth and iodine did not overlap. For hyperenhancing and nonenhancing polyps at 80/140 kV, iodine-overlay display yielded higher detection rate (96%, 94%) and conspicuity score (3.5, 3.1) than mixed-kilovoltage images (88%, 68%; 1.5, 2.7). Mixed-kV images performed slightly better for hypoenhancing polyps (92%, 3.4 vs. <80%, <2.9). Similar results were observed at 100/140kV. Conclusions Dual-energy CT and a bismuth-containing enteric contrast permitted simultaneous identification of hyperenhancing, hypoenhancing, and nonenhancing polyps over a range of patient sizes.


A technique has been developed for the demonstration of lymphatic capillaries in the ear of the mouse by means of vital dyes and for tests of their permeability under normal and pathological conditions. The lymphatics become visible as closed channels from which the dyes escape secondarily into the tissue. Some of them, cross-connections, with extremely narrow lumen, would seem ordinarily not to be utilized. There is active flow along the lymphatics of the mouse ear under ordinary circumstances. The movement of dye was always toward the main collecting system. The valves of the lymphatics as well as fluid flow prevented distal spread. There was in addition slow migration, apparently interstitial in character, but in the same general direction, of dots of color produced by the local injection of dye. The normal permeability of the lymphatics was studied with dyes of graded diffusibility. Their walls proved readily permeable for those highly diffusible pigments that the blood capillaries let through easily, but retained those that the latter retained. Finely particulate matter (India ink, "Hydrokollag"), they did not let pass. No gradient of permeability was observed to exist along them such as exists along the blood capillaries of certain organs. The observed phenomena of lymphatic permeability, like those of the permeability of the blood capillaries, can be explained on the assumption that the lymphatic wall behaves like a semipermeable membrane.


The detection of Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) by neutron interrogation is extensively studied by Monte Carlo simulation at the Nuclear Measurement Laboratory of CEA Cadarache (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission). The active inspection system is based on the Associated Particle Technique (APT). Fissions induced by tagged neutrons (i.e. correlated to an alpha particle in the DT neutron generator) in SNM produce high multiplicity coincidences which are detected with fast plastic scintillators. At least three particles are detected in a short time window following the alpha detection, whereas nonnuclear materials mainly produce single events, or pairs due to (n,2n) and (n,n'γ) reactions. To study the performances of an industrial cargo container inspection system, Monte Carlo simulations are performed with the MCNP-PoliMi transport code, which records for each neutron history the relevant information: reaction types, position and time of interactions, energy deposits, secondary particles, etc. The output files are post-processed with a specific tool developed with ROOT data analysis software. Particles not correlated with an alpha particle (random background), counting statistics, and time-energy resolutions of the data acquisition system are taken into account in the numerical model. Various matrix compositions, suspicious items, SNM shielding and positions inside the container, are simulated to assess the performances and limitations of an industrial system.


The gut bacterial community of a bark beetle, the pine engraver Ips pini (Say), was characterized using culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. Bacteria from individual guts of larvae, pupae and adults were cultured and DNA was extracted from samples of pooled larval guts. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences amplified directly from the gut community suggests that the gut bacterial communities associated with I. pini are relatively simple, compared to many other systems. Six bacterial genera from four classes were detected by culturing gut bacteria from larvae, pupae and adults. Two genera, Pantoea and Stenotrophomonas (γ-Proteobacteria) were found in all life stages of I. pini, consistently in larvae and adults, and less commonly in pupae. Sequences that affiliate with the Enterobactereaceae of the γ-Proteobacteria were found in 95% of the clones sampled. The Enterobactereaceae genera, Pantoea and Erwinia, accounted for 88% of all clone sequences. These results are consistent with previous work indicating that another bark beetle, the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmerman, also has a relatively simple gut flora, compared with wood colonizing insects such as wood borers and termites. The composition and abundance of bacteria associated with different life stages of I. pini are possibly associated with specific functions of the gut bacterial communities of larvae, pupae, and adults.


For medium voltage high power application the modulation technique for power converters based on pre-computed Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) switching patterns can be very useful since the generated harmonic content can be previously known and optimize. The main challenge in applying harmonics elimination techniques at lower switching frequency is in solving the system of non-linear transcendental equations obtained by Fourier analysis. The numerical techniques offer simple solving procedure for lesser number of switching angles with proper initial guess. However, without proper initial guess and for large number of switching angles, the method fails to solve the system of equations. In this paper an improved numerical technique is proposed to solve the large number of harmonics elimination equations with any random initial guess. The method proposed also ensures multiple solutions of the simultaneous equations, hence gives more degree of freedom to operate converter at a particular modulation index. Simulation results are provided to validate the concept.


In this paper, an open-architecture, reconfigurable microassembly workstation for efficient and reliable assembly of micromachined parts is presented. The workstation is designed to be used as a research tool for investigation of the problems in microassembly. The development of such a workstation includes the design of: (i) a manipulation system consisting of motion stages providing necessary travel range and precision for the realization of assembly tasks, (ii) a vision system to visualize the microworld and the determination of the position and orientation of micro components to be assembled, (iii) a robust control system and necessary mounts for the end effectors in such a way that according to the task to be realized, the manipulation tools can be easily changed and the system will be ready for the predefined task. In addition tele-operated and semi-automated assembly concepts are implemented. The design is verified by implementing the range of the tasks in micro-parts manipulation. The versatility of the workstation is demonstrated and high accuracy of positioning is shown.


An electroencephalogram taken on two patients suffering from a thyrotoxic crisis, showed the presence of typical triphasic waves. This pattern was first described in 1950 by Foley et al., who believed that it occurred specifically in patients with hepatic encephalopathy. Since then, however, it has been shown that triphasic waves can be identified in other (e.g. renal) metabolic brain diseases and, less commonly, in a variety of either organic or functional cerebral disorders.


A wireless network with fading and a single source-destination pair is considered. The information reaches the destination via multiple hops through a sequence of layers of single-antenna relays. At high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the simple amplify-and-forward strategy is shown to be optimal in terms of degrees of freedom, because it achieves the degrees of freedom equal to a point-to-point multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. Hence, the lack of coordination in relay nodes does not reduce the achievable degrees of freedom. The performance of this amplify-and-forward strategy degrades with increasing network size. This phenomenon is analyzed by finding the tradeoffs between network size, rate, and diversity. A lower bound on the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff for concatenation of multiple random Gaussian matrices is obtained. Also, it is shown that achievable network size in the outage formulation (short codes) is a lot smaller than the ergodic formulation (long codes).