International data demonstrate convincingly that lung cancer death rates follow and parallel cigarette smoking prevalence rates in both men and women. Effective control of lung cancer and the many other diseases associated with smoking can be achieved only by continued reductions in smoking prevalence in developed countries and the arrestment of smoking in developing countries. Smoking control strategies can take the form of prevention programs, cessation programs, regulatory and legislative measures, and modifications in tobacco product composition. Because of uncertainties surrounding the efficacies of specific smoking control approaches, the National Cancer Institute recently initiated a major intervention research program to identify and assess the most promising strategies to reduce smoking prevalence in the general public and high-risk populations; heavy smokers, blacks, Hispanics, women, youth, and smokeless tobacco users. By 1990, trial results will be available to allow systematic application of smoking control strategies (demonstrations) using physicians and dentists, mass media, school programs, self-help materials, and the community as a laboratory. For a number of reasons, such approaches are strongly recommended over efforts to reduce cigarette tar and nicotine levels as the primary focus of lung cancer control.


Excerpt] When most of the nation was recovering from the Great Recession, Rhode Island was on a different path. From June 2009 to June 2016, national employment increased by 10.1 percent while employment in Rhode Island increased by only 5.1 percent. To examine why Rhode Island lagged behind employment growth rates nationwide, this Beyond the Numbers article compares industry employment growth trends in Rhode Island with overall growth trends over the 2009–16 period for the United States, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. This 7-year period generally coincides with the national economic recovery, which officially began in June 2009. Using methodology that can be used for any state, this article isolates the impact of industry job growth on overall statewide job growth. The analysis suggests that had employment growth in the state's largest supersector, education and health services, matched that of the national average, the gap between overall state employment growth and the national average would have closed by more than half. Specifically, job losses in the colleges and universities industry, within the educational services sector, and the hospital subsector, within the healthcare and social assistance sector, were responsible for depressed overall growth in this supersector and the state overall.


In Building and Construction Engineering field, one of the most needed and valued skills by the professional sector is theteamwork ability. The affirmation is based on previous researches that have demonstrated how such competence is not onlyrequired in this sector, and identified as key by the professional world, but also necessary in academic processes. Based on thispremise, the present work focuses its research on the design, implementation and assessment of a methodological change applied inthe Final Degree Project (FDP) of Building and Construction Engineering degree, going from being an individual work to ateamwork. It has been demonstrated, how main specific competences required by professional sector are properly worked andvalidated in the design of the current curricula and in the FDP development. However, the same researches have allowed us toidentify transversal or generic competence as teamwork that should be improved. Starting from current FDP development,traditionally based on the PBL (Project Based Learning) method, this work is focused on evolving FDP towards a CBLI approach(Challenge Based Learning Initiatives), through a collaborative work between student's teams, assessing what happens during thedifferent stages of the learning activity and what each team member has done. For the proposal assessment, we focused on a mixedstudy (quantitative and qualitative), which will allow us to analyze in a specific way the relationship between the research variablessuch as motivation, competency requirements and academic results. This approach bases its effectiveness on previous researchesthat demonstrate its usefulness when study sample is reduced, as the case in question.


Osteoporosis is a serious public health problem, especially in the elderly. The most clinical importance of osteoporosis is its association with bone fragility. Bone geometry is an important risk factor for fracture, independent to BMD, and is genetically determined. However, genetic studies on bone geometry compared with BMD are scarce. Estrogen receptor a (ER-a) gene and its products have been shown to be of functional importance in bone metabolism. Although many studies have been performed to test the associations of BMD and ER-a gene, the results are controversial. In this study, seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ER-a gene were studied to examine the importance to the variation of femoral neck geometry. The study group included 1873 subjects from 405 Caucasian nuclear families. I used DXA-derived BMD and bone area to estimate 6 important geometry parameters: cross-sectional area (CSA), endocortical diameter (ED), sectional modulus (Z), cross-sectional moment of inertia (CSMI), cortical thickness (CT), and buckling ratio (BR). Haplotypes were reconstructed based on the half length of linkage disequilibrium (LD). The quantitative transmission disequilibrium test (QTDT), a family based association approach robust to population stratification was employed for analyses. Evidence of within-family association between SNP4 (rsl801132) and ED was detected in single locus analyses (P = 0.008) and verified in haplotype analyses (P = 0.034). The association was strengthened in total association analyses with P values of 0.005 and 0.031 for single locus and haplotype analyses, respectively. I also found weaker association between SNP5 (rs932477) and CT and BR in total association analyses with P values of 0.035 and 0.041 for single locus analyses and 0.010 and 0.004 for haplotype analyses, respectively. These findings suggest that the ER-a gene may be important for femoral neck geometry variation, though the significance is dampened by correction for multiple testing. Denser markers and larger sample may be necessary to finally elucidate the relationship between the ER-a gene and bone geometry.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the content of anthocyanin and total phenols, in some wild bilberry populations, grown in natural conditions in northern Albania. This study aimed at identifying the wild bilberry populations, whose fruits are rich in anthocyanin and as such, can be selected and cultivated for production in the future. Thirteen bilberry fruit (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) samples were collected from wild bilberry populations in Puka and Tropoja region. Collected fruit samples were evaluated for chemical traits (myrtellin, kuromanin, oenin, total anthocyans, and total phenolic compounds) using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses. This study confirmed significant chemical differences between two regions (Puka-Tropoja) as well as within one region. The bilberry fruit analyses showed that the total anthocyans (calculated as cyanidin-3-glucozide) concentration ranges from a minimum of 2473 mg/kg FW (Shale e madhe Iballe/Puke) to a maximum 7774 mg/kg FW (Maja e zeze Doberdol/Tropoje). In addition, it was confirmed that the total phenolic compounds (min 4558 to max 8980 mg/kg FW) was significantly higher for bilberry fruits samples collected in Tropoja compared to the ones collected in Puka region. Statistical analyses showed that elevation gradient has a great effect on chemical composition of bilberry fruit samples. It also showed that among analysed anthocyanidins, myrtellin have the highest concentration (43%).

 Key words: Chemical variability, wild bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) populations, northern part of Albania.


Objectives Noise control in open offices should aim at reducing disturbances caused by speech noise (ie, improve speech privacy). Room acoustics can be controlled with high room absorption, high screens and book cases, and sufficient masking sound. The interaction between these means is complicated, especially when speech privacy is studied at different distances from a speaking worker. The aim of this study was to develop a simple and fast model that predicts the room acoustics in an open office in a way that has a high correlation with the experienced acoustic environment.

Methods Room acoustics were measured in 15 open offices. The model was developed using a multivariable regression analysis of the experimental data.

Results The accuracy of the model was found to be sufficient for practical design work.

Conclusions The modeling tool is freely available on the Internet. It facilitates acoustical design significantly in all phases of building design.


Background—Human hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in the young, is characterized by cardiac hypertrophy, myocyte disarray, and interstitial fibrosis. The genetic basis of HCM is largely known; however, the molecular mediators of cardiac phenotypes are unknown. Methods and Results—We show myocardial aldosterone and aldosterone synthase mRNA levels were elevated by 4- to 6-fold in humans with HCM, whereas cAMP levels were normal. Aldosterone provoked expression of hypertrophic markers (NPPA, NPPB, and ACTA1) in rat cardiac myocytes by phosphorylation of protein kinase D (PKD) and expression of collagens (COL1A1, COL1A2, and COL3A1) and transforming growth factor-&bgr;1 in rat cardiac fibroblasts by upregulation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-p100&dgr;. Inhibition of PKD and PI3K-p110&dgr; abrogated the hypertrophic and profibrotic effects, respectively, as did the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonist spironolactone. Spironolactone reversed interstitial fibrosis, attenuated myocyte disarray by 50%, and improved diastolic function in the cardiac troponin T (cTnT)-Q92 transgenic mouse model of human HCM. Myocyte disarray was associated with increased levels of phosphorylated &bgr;-catenin (serine 38) and reduced &bgr;-catenin–N-cadherin complexing in the heart of cTnT-Q92 mice. Concordantly, distribution of N-cadherin, predominantly localized to cell membrane in normal myocardium, was diffuse in disarrayed myocardium. Spironolactone restored &bgr;-catenin–N-cadherin complexing and cellular distribution of N-cadherin and reduced myocyte disarray in 2 independent randomized studies. Conclusions—The results implicate aldosterone as a major link between sarcomeric mutations and cardiac phenotype in HCM and, if confirmed in additional models, signal the need for clinical studies to determine the potential beneficial effects of MR blockade in human HCM.


Cold seeps are locations where hydrocarbons emanate from the seabed, fueling chemoautotrophic production that may support macrofaunal communities via chemosymbiosis or trophic inter actions. The recent discovery of offshore sub-seabed gas reservoirs and venting methane at the seabed in Svalbard (75 to 79° N) provides the context to examine the influence of cold seeps on macrofaunal community structure in the high-Arctic. We compared benthic macrofaunal community structure from cold-seep environments and paired control stations from 3 regionally distinct areas along the western Svalbard margin and the western Barents Sea. Specialized seep-related polychaetes (e.g. siboglinid tubeworms) were found at seep stations in the Barents Sea in high densities (up to 7272 ind. m−2). The presence of obligate seep-associated faunal taxa demonstrates that chemoautotrophic production, fueled by methane and sulfur, influences benthic communities at these seeps. Further, total biomass was significantly higher at seep-impacted stations compared to controls (mean = 20.7 vs. 9.8 g wet weight sample−1), regardless of region. Four methane seep-influenced samples showed clear indications of seep impact, with reduced diversity and with a few species dominating, compared to controls. Our results demonstrate that the effect of methane seeps on the Svalbard shelf benthic community are highly localized (i.e. meter scale), reflecting strong gradients associated with the point-source impacts of individual seeps. Regional differences and the restricted spatial extent of focused emissions likely drive the observed complexity and heterogeneity at Svalbard cold seeps. These results provide key baseAmerican plaice Hippoglossoides platessoides in a dense field of chemosymbiotic polychaetes at a Svalbard cold seep. Photo: CAGE OPEN ACCESS line observations in a high-Arctic location that is likely to be influenced by warming sea temperatures, which may lead to increased seabed methane release.


The importance of portal insulin delivery in the regulation of postprandial carbohydrate metabolism is uncertain. To address this question, three groups of dogs were studied: one group in which pancreatic venous drainage was transected and reanastomosed (portal insulin delivery), one in which the pancreatic drainage was transected and anastomosed to the inferior vena cava (peripheral insulin delivery), and one that received only a sham operation. Plasma insulin was greater (P < 0.05) during peripheral insulin delivery than in either the portal or sham groups, respectively, before and after meal ingestion. On the other hand, C-peptide concentrations did not differ between groups, resulting in a higher (P < 0.001) insulin to C-peptide ratio in the peripheral group. This indicated that the hyperinsulinemia in the peripheral group was due to decreased insulin clearance rather than increased insulin secretion. Isotopically determined splanchnic uptake of ingested glucose, postprandial suppression of hepatic glucose release, incorporation of CO2 into glucose (a qualitative measure of gluconeogenesis), and total-body glucose uptake were virtually identical in all groups. Similarly, plasma lipid, β-hydroxybutyrate, and lactate concentrations did not differ between groups. Our data indicate that, despite differences in systemic insulin concentration, portal and peripheral insulin delivery comparably regulate hepatic and extrahepatic carbohydrate metabolism after meal ingestion.


We analyse N-body galaxy merger experiments involving disc galaxies. Mergers of discbulge-halo models are compared to those of bulge-less, disc-halo models to quantify the effects of the central bulge on the merger dynamics and on the structure of the remnant. Our models explore galaxy mass ratios 1:1 through 3:1, and use higher bulge mass fraction than previous studies. A full comparison of structural and dynamical properties to observations is carried out. The presence of central bulges results in longer tidal tails, oblate final intrinsic shapes, surface brightness profiles with higher Sérsic index, steeper rotation curves, and oblate-rotator internal dynamics. Mergers of bulge-less galaxies do not generate long-lasting tidal tails, and their strong triaxiality seems inconsistent with observations; these remnants show shells, which we do not find in models including central bulges. Giant ellipticals with boxy isophotes and anisotropic dynamics cannot be produced by the mergers modeled here; they could be the result of mergers between lower luminosity ellipticals, themselves plausibly formed in disc-disc mergers.


The top media companies increasingly do a lot more than create content. The 12 companies outlined in this article deliver content via cable systems and the Internet. They also have investments in makers of personal video recorders (PVRs) and set-top boxes and suppliers of video on demand. Consider the former Moxi Digital, builder of a personal entertainment hub that can play DVDs and CDs and can function as a PVR and a set-top box. Moxi's investors, before Vulcan purchased it, included AOL Time Warner, Vulcan, and Scientific-Atlanta. Vulcan also owns Digeo, another hub maker, with which Moxi was merged. Eight of the companies listed-AOL Time Warner, Comcast, Disney, GE, Liberty Media, Sony, Viacom, and Vulcan-were investors in ReplayTV before it was bought by SonicBlue. TiVo, an up-and-coming PVR maker, has attracted hefty investments from almost all major media companies. The most-connected company is AOL Time Warner. Under its umbrella one of its several movie or TV studios can create a film that gets shown on its HBO channel via the Time Warner cable system. Only US business interests are shown here. Many have overseas media holdings, notably France's Vivendi Universal, Japan's Sony, and News Corp. in Australia.


Abstract Our study aimed to (i) utilize novel electrical cardiometry and observe acute changes in cardiac biomarkers among 24-h and 48-h ultra-marathoners, and (ii) examine whether alterations in cardiac responses were associated with the average running speed of these participants. Twenty-four 24-h and sixteen 48-h ultra-marathoners were recruited. Electrical cardiometry in the 2 groups showed significant post-race drops in systolic pressure (24-h: p=0.001; 48-h: p=0.016) and rapid increases in heart rate (24-h, p=0.004; 48-h, p=0.001). Cardiac output increased in 48-h runners (p=0.012) and stroke volume decreased in 24-h runners (p=0.009) at post-test. Six of 20 (30%) 24-h and 4 of 16 (25%) 48-h runners had high-sensitivity troponin T values above the reference interval after the races. N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide levels showed a 15-fold increase in 24-h runners and a 10-fold increase in 48-h runners at post-race. There was a positive correlation between delta N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide and running mileage (rs=0.629, p=0.003) in 24-h ultra-marathoners. In conclusion, stroke volume and cardiac output showed inconsistent changes between the 2 groups. Average running speed has a significant effect on post-exercise elevation in cardiac biomarkers.


Achiral 2-hydroxy-N-(diphenylmethyl)acetamide (HNDPA) crystallizes in the P 6 1 chiral space group as a hydrate, building up permeable chiral crystalline helical water channels. The crystallization driven chiral self-resolution process is highly robust, with the same air stable crystalline form readily obtained from a variety of conditions. Interestingly, the HNDPA supramolecular helix inner pore is filled by a helical water wire. The whole edifice is mainly stabilized by robust hydrogen bonds involving the HNDPA amide bonds and CH … π interactions between the HNDPA phenyl groups. The crystalline structure shows a breathing behavior, with completely reversible release and reuptake of water inside the chiral channel, under ambient conditions. Importantly, the HNDPA channel is able to transport water very efficiently and selectively in biomimetic conditions. With a permeability per channel of 3.3 million water molecules per second in large unilamellar vesicles (LUV) and a total selectivity against NaCl, the HNDPA channel is a very promising functional nanomaterial for future applications.


In this article, tussah silk was treated with 3, 4- dihydroxy benzaldehyde solution under concentrated nitric acid conditions, and its coloration characteristic was discussed, including the effects of concentrations, temperature and time on the coloration, finally the property of the treated fiber was tested. As the results showed, the treated tussah silk was in bright yellow, and both of its color fastness to washing and rubbing achieved 4 grade or above. The optimum process was that concentrations of 3, 4- dihydroxy benzaldehyde and concentrated nitric acid were 1.5% and 3% respectively, reacting temperature was 70 °C, reacting time was 10min and bath ratio was 1:25.


The search for high speed, high bandwidth A/D converters is ongoing, and techniques to push the envelope are constantly being developed. In this paper an open loop, scalable, time-interleaved ADC architecture is presented, as well as a 60 GHz Colpitts oscillator. With the use of double-sampling, the timing skew requirements between channels is greatly relaxed, allowing sampling rates of up to 40 Gs/s at 4-bits of accuracy. This circuit is implemented using the IBM 8HP SiGe technology, with fT of 210 GHz. The performance of the 8HP ADC is validated by measurement. In addition, simulations with an experimental 8XP transistor model provided by IBM with a 350 GHz fT suggest that 30% more circuit speed is possible by just swapping the transistors.


The stock market is a common feature of a current economy and it is reputed to achieve some necessary functions, which promote the growth and development of the economy. To achieve this objective, the endogenous growth literature and research, and recent theoretical studies have tried to provide a link between the literature of endogenous growth theory and financial markets. Providing evidence of stock market development will assist policy makers in designing reforms that do indeed promote the growth rate, enhancing stock market development as economic growth through to the banking system of financial sectors, and to the degree of investor's right; furthermore, allowing risk sharing encourages speculative and productive investment (see, e.g. Greenwood and Jovanovic (1990) and Bencivenga and Smith (1991)). The results of the previous study, which established positive links between the stock market and economic growth, suggests the pursuit of policies geared towards rapid development of the stock market. Keyword: Stock market Development, Economic growth, New Endogenous growth theory JEL Classifications: F43; G0; G10; G15; R11 © 2013 Published by SSBFNET


This research aims to find and analyze influence risk profile, good corporate governance, earnings, and capital on the banking sector companies in Indonesia public company. Based on the completeness of data, there are only 14 banks to the period observation in 2009-2011 that able to be analyzed. The analysis used is multiple regression. The research results show that risk market and risks reputation impact on value of enterprise, while credit risk, risk liquidity, operational risk, risk law, and risks compliance have not been affecting the value of enterprise. Size of the board of commissioners, independence of the board of commissioners, size of the board of directors, and the number of audit committee have not been affecting the value of enterprise. While, ROE impacts on value of enterprise. In the other hands, ROA, BOPO, and CAR values have not been affecting the value of enterprise. Keywords: corporate value, tobin's Q, risk profile, good corporate governance, earnings.


Abstract Acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase)–resistant Italian ryegrass is one of the most difficult-to-control weeds in United States wheat-production systems. Seed was collected from a suspected ACCase-resistant Italian ryegrass population in a winter wheat field with a history of ACCase-inhibitor herbicide use. This study investigated cross-resistance patterns in this Italian ryegrass population. Resistance was identified to the commercial dose of the ACCase herbicides pinoxaden, clethodim, sethoxydim, and clodinafop. Partial chloroplastic ACCase sequences revealed aspartate-to-glycine or isoleucine-to-asparagine substitutions at positions 2078 or 2041 in individuals of the resistant population. This is the first report, to our knowledge, of Asp-2078-Gly and Ile-2041-Asn substitutions in ACCase-resistant Italian ryegrass in the United States. Associating the occurrence of resistance alleles with resistance to specific active ingredients provides a better understanding of ACCase cross-resistance in Italian ryegrass and possibly options for its control. Nomenclature: Clethodim; clodinafop; pinoxaden; sethoxydim; Italian ryegrass, Lolium perenne L. ssp. multiflorum (Lam.) Husnot LOLMU; winter wheat, Triticum aestivum L.


Abstract In this paper, we review changes in the insurance industry due to new risk-based regulations such as Solvency 2 and Swiss Solvency Test. The move from corporate management based on cash-flow to risk-based management is described and discussed through its consequences on capital management, economic valuation and the internal model. We discuss the limits and difficulties of enterprise risk management and its effect on the organisation of companies and the role of actuaries in insurance. The risk/return relation is becoming a central element of the company's management slowly supplanting the traditional accounting view.


The crystal structures of NaxCoO2 phases based on three-layer NaCoO2, with x=0.32, 0.51, 0.60, 0.75, and 0.92, determined by powder neutron diffraction, are reported. The structures have triangular CoO2 layers interleaved by sodium ions, and evolve with variation in Na content in a more complex way than has been observed in the two-layer NaxCoO2 system. The phases with highest and lowest Na content studied x=0.92 and 0.32 are trigonal, with three CoO2 layers per cell and octahedral Na ion coordination. The intermediate compositions have monoclinic structures. The x=0.75 compound has one CoO2 layer per cell, with Na in octahedral coordination and an incommensurate superlattice. The x=0.6 and 0.51 phases are also single layer, but the Na is found in trigonal prismatic coordination. The magnetic behavior of the phases is similar to that observed in the two-layer system. Both the susceptibility and the electronic contribution to the specific heat are largest for x=0.6.


Background— The single-procedure efficacy of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is less than optimal in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). Adjunctive techniques have been developed to enhance single-procedure efficacy in these patients. We conducted a study to compare 3 ablation strategies in patients with persistent AF. Methods and Results— Subjects were randomized as follows: arm 1, PVI + ablation of non-PV triggers identified using a stimulation protocol (standard approach); arm 2, standard approach + empirical ablation at common non-PV AF trigger sites (mitral annulus, fossa ovalis, eustachian ridge, crista terminalis, and superior vena cava); or arm 3, standard approach + ablation of left atrial complex fractionated electrogram sites. Patients were seen at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year; transtelephonic monitoring was performed at each visit. Antiarrhythmic drugs were discontinued at 3 to 6 months. The primary study end point was freedom from atrial arrhythmias off antiarrhythmic drugs at 1 year after a single-ablation procedure. A total of 156 patients (aged 59±9 years; 136 males; AF duration, 47±50 months) participated (arm 1, 55 patients; arm 2, 50 patients; arm 3, 51 patients). Procedural outcomes (procedure, fluoroscopy, and PVI times) were comparable between the 3 arms. More lesions were required to target non-PV trigger sites than a complex fractionated electrogram (33±9 versus 22±9; P<0.001). The primary end point was achieved in 71 patients and was worse in arm 3 (29%) compared with arm 1 (49%; P=0.04) and arm 2 (58%; P=0.004). Conclusions— These data suggest that additional substrate modification beyond PVI does not improve single-procedure efficacy in patients with persistent AF. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00379301.


A stable system time scale is a fundamental part of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs). The composite clock approach provides a method for the generation of a stable and robust time scale. However, it can still be impacted by failures in single clocks. This paper describes two dedicated statistical tests aiming to detect and identify slow deviations from the clocks' nominal behavior. First, the batch test is described, which computes the overlapping Allan deviation (OADEV) of differential clock measurements over a sliding window and compare it to a nominal model. Second, the envelope test is developed. It compares the measured phase deviations with the expected value at each time step. The tests are derived for an arbitrary size of the ensemble, while their performance are evaluated with simulations and on a real testbed using three cesium frequency standards. Two fault scenarios are analyzed. The first case involves a linearly increasing frequency bias, while the second includes an oscillating frequency behavior, which intends to simulate a bias with period signature. The fault detection capabilities of the statistical tests are given in terms of time-to-detect and minimum detectable biases.


ABSTRACT
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 3rd most common cancer and the 4th highest cause of cancer deaths in the world. Genetic factors play a major role in its predisposition, initiation and development. Inherited variants in the CASP8 gene, a key regulator of apoptosis, have a potential yet controversial association with CRC risk. Sporadic CRC develop through different molecular pathways of genomic instabilities and mutations in key cancer driver genes. Classification of sporadic CRC into these molecular pathways has potential implications for diagnosis and treatment and it is an integral part of CRC studies, however, current published research suffers from lack of standardisation. Chromosomal Instability (CIN) drives CRC by affecting cancer driver genes, many of which are still to be identified.
This project aimed to: (a) further investigate the role of CASP8 inherited variants in CRC risk, (b) to molecularly classify sporadic CRC tumour DNA samples using standard techniques and definitions, and (c) to identify novel CRC driver genes affected by CIN. A CASP8 promoter in/del variant was genotyped in 1193 CRC cases and 1388 matching controls. The coding region of the CASP8 gene was sequenced in 94 CRC cases to identify potential novel variants and a copy number variant was also investigated. A cohort of 53 paired CRC tumour and normal DNA samples were molecularly classified using standard techniques and definitions. Common aberration analysis was performed on high resolution array comparative genome hybridisation data from 45 chromosomally unstable CRC cases to identify focal minimal common regions (FMCR).
CASP8 inherited variants did not significantly affect CRC risk in the investigated cohort. CRC molecular classification confirmed the heterogeneity of sporadic CRC
vii
and a novel molecular subtype was proposed. FMCR were shown to target cancer related genes and novel CRC driver genes were proposed. Finally, preliminary studies supported the tumour suppressor role of NFKBIA, one of the novel candidate driver genes affected by a deletion FMCR.


Abstract The sponge biomarker hypothesis argues that 24-isopropylcholestanes preserved in Neoproterozoic-age rocks are "molecular fossils" left behind by marine sponges. Despite genetic and geologic support for this hypothesis, 24-isopropylcholestane has never been reported from a sponge body fossil. This lack of direct evidence regarding the source of sponge biomarkers through deep time leaves unanswered questions, such as whether their biosynthesis evolved once in sponges or multiple times across different lineages. In this study, we analyzed 10 sponge fossils from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History collections in pursuit of evidence of sterane biomarkers. We failed to recover 24-isopropylcholestane and instead found a near-identical sterane profile across all samples. This result indicates a combination of little to no sterane preservation in the fossils themselves, coupled with anthropogenic hydrocarbon contamination during their collection and storage. However, signals from bacterial biomarkers (hopanes) were more diverse across samples and consistent with a priori expectations, meaning that we cannot rule out the possibility that at least part of the hydrocarbon signal is syngenetic. We suggest that future attempts to extract biomarker hydrocarbons from sponge fossils be performed on freshly collected and specially prepared field samples. Despite the fact that demosponges or their ancestors still present the most likely source of Neoproterozoic 24-isopropylcholestanes, multiple evolutionary scenarios are consistent with current genetic and biomarker evidence: the "sponge biomarker" could represent an evolutionary novelty in demosponges, or a trait that evolved deeper in the animal tree. We therefore continue to affirm the validity of the sponge biomarker hypothesis but caution against using Neoproterozoic 24-isopropylcholestanes as a calibration point for sponges in molecular clocks. Instead, we recommend using it as a reference point for comparison, as scenarios where crowngroup demosponges radiate after the Neoproterozoic remain inconsistent with the geologic record.


theoretical investigation has been undertaken to study operating temperatures, heat fluxes and radial thermal stresses in the valves of a modern diesel engine with and without air-cavity. Temperatures, heat fluxes and radial thermal stresses were measured theoretically for both cases under all four thermal loading conditions. By creating an air cavity inside the valves stem, it acts as an insulating medium and prevents the heat flow, hence the need of providing insulation coating on valves is minimized. The main motive of this is to reduce the weight of engine and cost associated with thermal coating. Results observed in the engine valves revealed that after creating an optimized air cavity in the valve, thermal stresses and temperatures at all nodal points decreases slightly. The weight of the valve decreased up to 11% without losing its strength. In addition to heat transferred by convection and radiation from combustion gases, the temperature and heat flux distributions are considerably affected by heat conduction from valve seat. The temperature field, heat transfer rate and thermal stresses were investigated with numerical simulation models using FORTRAN FE (finite element) software. Keywords : combustion chamber, temperatures field, diesel engine valve, finite elements.


SYSTEMS Albert Ting-pat So and Wai Lok Chan, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999. This is the fifth book of the Kluwer International Series on Asian Studies in Computer and Information Science. The 13th book published recently, and most of them are fairly valuable books like this one. The phrase "Intelligent Buildings" sounds like a concern of the future. How many intelligent buildings are there in the world? Not even one in a thousandth building today has intelligent systems one way or another. However, no one is able to predict the near future in our time. Within the next five years, probably 10% of the buildings in the world will have intelligent systems. Who knows? So and Chan introduce us to intelligent building systems in 17 short chapters. Therefore, "Introduction to Intelligent Building Systems" would have been a better title for this book, I suppose. The first seven chapters summarize the structure and operating principles of building systems like heating, air conditioning and fire, security, and transportation systems. The next four chapters are on electronics and artificial intelligence, which are necessary to perceive intelligent building systems. These chapters are full of flow diagrams and equations, unlike the easy-to-read previous chapters. The last part of the book summarizes research on the applications of heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; electrical systems; fire services; vertical transportation; and energy management and design. Quite a number of data are from the research of the authors. The future of intelligent building systems is discussed in the last chapter. There are nice and clear figures in the book as well as some pale and some tiny ones, which would be somewhat difficult to make out by some elderly readers. Up-to-date references are given at the end of each chapter, and I think it is better this way since the subjects of the chapters are rather discrete from each other. The titles of the tables in the first half of the book are below the table, which should not be in a scientific publication. Nevertheless, they go above the tables in the second half. There is another phenomenon in the book—all the chapters end at the bottom of the even numbered pages. I do not understand how they managed that. The book would be useful for researchers in the area and for students as well; in other words, it is suitable as a textbook and as a reference book. It could be of interest to any engineer since the subject covers almost all the engineering disciplines. It is a nice book to start with. Dr. Agah Uguz Uludag University, Turkey


Scientific workflows typically comprise a multitude of different processing steps which often are executed in parallel on different partitions of the input data. These executions, in turn, must be scheduled on the compute nodes of the computational infrastructure at hand. This assignment is complicated by the facts that (a) tasks typically have highly heterogeneous resource requirements and (b) in many infrastructures, compute nodes offer highly heterogeneous resources. In consequence, predictions of the runtime of a given task on a given node, as required by many scheduling algorithms, are often rather imprecise, which can lead to sub-optimal scheduling decisions.We propose Reshi, a method for recommending task-node assignments during workflow execution that can cope with heterogeneous tasks and heterogeneous nodes. Reshi approaches the problem as a regression task, where task-node pairs are modeled as feature vectors over the results of dedicated micro benchmarks and past task executions. Based on these features, Reshi trains a regression tree model to rank and recommend nodes for each ready-to-run task, which can be used as input to a scheduler. For our evaluation, we benchmarked 27 AWS machine types using three representative workflows. We compare Reshi's recommendations with three state-of-the-art schedulers. Our evaluation shows that Reshi outperforms HEFT by a mean makespan reduction of 7.18% and 18.01% assuming a mean task runtime prediction error of 15%.


An apparatus and a method for treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia are disclosed. The apparatus includes an applica torpiece carrying a set of electrodes shaped and positioned to create a substantial electric field in the volume of hyperplasia and a pulse generator adapted for delivery of electrical pulses above the upper electroporation limit for the neoplastic cells. The amplitude, duration and number of the electrical pulses are generally selected to cause necrosis of a significant frac tion of the Volume of benign prostatic hyperplasia. The appa ratus may include a high frequency system for heating the prostatic tissue and a cooling system for cooling the urethra. The combined action of heating and cooling may increase the temperature of the prostate cells to 45 degrees C. to 55 degrees C., while keeping the urinary tractata temperature 15 degrees C. to 20 degrees C. This temperature distribution can increase the selectivity of the treatment by increasing Suscep tibility of the neoplastic cells to the electroporation treatment and decreasing it for the normal urethral tissues.


This study describes our experience in the surgical treatment of neuralgia of the glossopharyngeal and vagal nerves. Over the last 19 years, 21 patients underwent surgery. Their case notes were reviewed to obtain demographic information, clinical presentation, surgical findings and early results. All patients were then contacted by telephone for long-term results and complications. Independent analysis of results was carried out by a Neurology team. Ten patients had microvascular decompression (MVD). Four patients had MVD and nerve section. In the remaining seven patients, the glossopharyngeal and first two rootlets of the vagal nerve were sectioned. Nineteen (90%) of 21 patients experienced complete relief of pain immediately after surgery. The remaining patients reported an improvement in their symptoms. There were no mortalities. Four patients experienced short-term complications, which resolved. Two patients were left with a persistent hoarse voice. At follow-up (mean duration of 4 years), there was no recurrence in symptoms. In our experience, surgery is safe and effective for the treatment of vago-glossopharyngeal neuralgia.


CONTEXT
Harmonization and standardization of results among different clinical laboratories is necessary for clinical practice guidelines to be established.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the state of the art in measuring 10 routine chemistry analytes.

DESIGN
A specimen prepared as off-the-clot pooled sera and 4 conventionally prepared specimens were sent to participants in the College of American Pathologists Chemistry Survey. Analyte concentrations were assigned by reference measurement procedures.

PARTICIPANTS
Approximately 6000 clinical laboratories.

RESULTS
For glucose, iron, potassium, and uric acid, more than 87.5% of peer groups meet the desirable bias goals based on biologic variability criteria. The remaining 6 analytes had less than 52% of peer groups that met the desirable bias criteria.

CONCLUSIONS
Routine measurement procedures for some analytes had acceptable traceability to reference systems. Conventionally prepared proficiency testing specimens were not adequately commutable with a fresh frozen specimen to be used to evaluate trueness of methods compared with a reference measurement procedure.


Hypotonia and ex vacuo hemorrhages are the most grave complications of vitreoretinal surgery; the known methods of their prevention are altogether inadequate. The authors have developed extra-scleral ballooning (ESB) methods that improve the efficacy of surgery and reduce the rate and severity of complications in subretinal fluid draining during surgery for detachment of the retina and in arresting intraocular hemorrhages during closed vitrectomy. ESB application helped elevate intraocular pressure in the patients with drastic hypotonia, permitting a reliable and easy-to-perform monitoring of intraocular pressure over the course of surgery. This was conducive to complete evacuation of subretinal fluid, thus preventing the development of hypotonia and its complications, as well as to a rapid arrest of intraocular hemorrhage due to rapid elevation of intraocular pressure up to the values essential for the bleeding vessel collapse. Surgical methods are described and their results analyzed in 65 cases. The developed ESB methods for the prevention of hypotonia and intraocular hemorrhages in vitreoretinal surgery are effective, low traumatic, and may be recommended as alternative ones.


Augmentation of natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity is one of the greatest challenges for cancer immunotherapy. Although histidine‐rich glycoprotein (HRG), a 75‐kDa glycoprotein with various immunomodulatory activities, reportedly elicits antitumor immunity, its effect on NK cell cytotoxicity is unclear. We assessed NK cell cytotoxicity against K562 cells. We also measured concentrations of cytokines and granzyme B in the cell supernatant. The proportion of CD56bright NK cells and NK cell surface PD‐1 expression was assessed with flow cytometry. The neutralizing effects of anti‐C‐type lectin‐like receptor (CLEC) 1B against HRG were also measured. NK cell morphological changes were analyzed via confocal microscopy. HRG significantly increased NK cell cytotoxicity against K562 cell lines. HRG also increased the release of granzyme B and the proportion of CD56bright NK cells. Further, HRG was able to decrease NK cell surface PD‐1 expression. The effects of HRG on NK cells were reversed with anti‐CLEC‐1B antibodies. Additionally, we confirmed NK cell nuclear morphology and F‐actin distribution, which are involved in the regulation of cytotoxic granule secretion. Because both PD‐1 and CLEC‐1B are associated with prognosis during malignancy, HRG incorporates these molecules to exert the antitumor immunity role. These facts indicate the potential of HRG to be a new target for cancer immunotherapy.


Small-variance asymptotics is emerging as a useful technique for inference in large-scale Bayesian non-parametric mixture models. This paper analyzes the online learning of robot manipulation tasks with Bayesian non-parametric mixture models under small-variance asymptotics. The analysis yields a scalable online sequence clustering (SOSC) algorithm that is non-parametric in the number of clusters and the subspace dimension of each cluster. SOSC groups the new datapoint in low-dimensional subspaces by online inference in a non-parametric mixture of probabilistic principal component analyzers (MPPCA) based on a Dirichlet process, and captures the state transition and state duration information online in a hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM) based on a hierarchical Dirichlet process. A task-parameterized formulation of our approach autonomously adapts the model to changing environmental situations during manipulation. We apply the algorithm in a teleoperation setting to recognize the intention of the operator and remotely adjust the movement of the robot using the learned model. The generative model is used to synthesize both time-independent and time-dependent behaviors by relying on the principles of shared and autonomous control. Experiments with the Baxter robot yield parsimonious clusters that adapt online with new demonstrations and assist the operator in performing remote manipulation tasks.


Telomerase activity was measured in isolated cells from bovine and human adrenal cortex, in cells in primary culture, in cells in later passages in culture, and in cells genetically modified by expression of hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase). Telomerase activity in freshly isolated bovine adrenocortical cells and in human adrenal cells from donors of various ages (6-79 years) was very low or undetected. However, primary bovine adrenocortical cell cultures were strongly positive for telomerase activity, and primary human adrenocortical cell cultures were weakly positive. Both cell types proliferate in primary culture but proliferation of bovine cells is much more vigorous. When primary bovine cells were subcultured to make successively secondary and tertiary cultures, telomerase activity declined strongly, and was undetected by the third passage. There was only a slight decrease in growth rate over this period. Levels of the telomerase RNA component did not change with passage number when assessed by semi-quantitative competitive RT-PCR. When both bovine and human cells were infected with a retrovirus encoding hTERT, telomerase activity in the cells was very high. We conclude that in the adrenal cortex, as in some other tissues, TERT expression is regulated and upregulation of telomerase activity is associated with rapid proliferation in primary culture. Telomerase activity is not maintained, and introduction of TERT is required for stable telomerase activity and for immortalization.


The published research of Ross Harrison, the inventor of tissue culture, and amongst the greatest of experimental embryologists, spans a period of 54 years. Before describing this immensely important contribution to biological knowledge, which must be the main concern of this memoir, the biographical framework in which it was made needs first to be sketched. Harrison was born on 13 January 1870, in Germantown (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania. His father, Samuel Harrison, was an engineer whose work took him for long periods abroad. His mother died when he was a child. After schooling in Baltimore, he entered Johns Hopkins University in 1886, somewhat undecided about his future. He recalls, in his Croonian Lecture, that it was Newell Martin, T. H. Huxley's assistant and one of the original group of professors at Johns Hopkins, who first inspired him to become a zoologist. He started graduate work with W. K. Brooks, Martin's successor, in 1889, amongst his fellow-students being two of his great contemporaries, E. G. Conklin and T. H. Morgan. He went abroad to work with Nussbaum in Bonn in 1892, establishing a connexion with German anatomists which was of great importance in his development. His Ph.D. at Hopkins followed in 1894, and after a year as Lecturer in Morphology at Bryn Mawr College, where T. H. Morgan had become Associate Professor of Biology, and another visit to Bonn, in 1896 he joined the staff of F. P. Mall, Professor of Anatomy at Johns Hopkins and a distinguished embryologist. In 1896 he married Ida Lange, whom he had met on his first visit to Bonn. They had a family of three daughters and two sons. He returned briefly to Bonn twice before the end of the century, and took his M.D. there in 1899, the same year that he became Associate Professor of Anatomy at Johns Hopkins. He stayed a further eight years in Baltimore, and this was the period of his momentous invention of tissue culture. The brilliance of this research is all the more astonishing in that he was at this same time launching and guiding, as managing editor, the new Journal of Experimental Zoology ; and as he later ruefully remarked, in those days the editor of a scientific journal had to be business manager and office boy as well.


As the first paper of a series devoted to study the old stellar population in clusters and fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), we present deep observations of NGC 121 in the F555W and F814W filters, obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. The resulting color–magnitude diagram reaches ∼3.5 mag below the main-sequence turn-off, deeper than any previous data. We derive the age of NGC 121 using both absolute and relative age-dating methods. Fitting isochrones in the ACS photometric system to the observed ridge line of NGC 121 gives ages of 11.8 ± 0.5 Gyr (Teramo), 11.2 ± 0.5 Gyr (Padova), and 10.5 ± 0.5 Gyr (Dartmouth). The cluster ridgeline is best approximated by the α-enhanced Dartmouth isochrones. Placing our relative ages on an absolute age scale, we find ages of 10.9 ± 0.5 Gyr (from the magnitude difference between the main-sequence turn-off and the horizontal branch) and 11.5 ± 0.5 Gyr (from the absolute magnitude of the horizontal branch), respectively. These five different age determinations are all lower by 2–3 Gyr than the ages of the oldest Galactic globular clusters (GCs) of comparable metallicity. Therefore we confirm the earlier finding that the oldest globular cluster in the SMC, NGC 121, is a few Gyr younger than its oldest counterparts in the Milky Way and in other nearby dwarf galaxies such as the Large Magellanic Cloud, Fornax, and Sagittarius. If it were accreted into the Galactic halo, NGC 121 would resemble the "young halo globulars," although it is not as young as the youngest globular clusters associated with the Sagittarius dwarf. The young age of NGC 121 could result from delayed cluster formation in the SMC or result from the random survival of only one example of an initially small number of star clusters.


In this paper, a direct steam generation (DSG) collector is researched. To determinate the DSG collector efficiency, a simplified heat loss correlation is applied. A one-dimensional steady state heat transfer model and an energy balance equation for DSG collector are developed. A Visual basic program coupled with fluid parameters is compiled to compute fluid temperature, heat transfer coefficient and heat loss along the absorber tube by iterations for given accuracy. The variation trends of many kinds of fluid parameters along the absorber tube are revealed. The effect of length of dry steam region on collector efficiency is accounted for also.


It is claimed in van Kemenade (2000: 62) that clauses with initial negative constituents are a context in which subject–verb inversion occurs throughout the history of English. However, different patterns of negative inversion are seen at different periods of English. I argue that changes in the availability of negative inversion reflect changes in the way sentential scope for negation is marked in negative concord constructions. Thus, negative concord involving Middle and Early Modern English not does not co-occur with negative inversion, but negative concord involving Middle English ne does. Changes to negative inversion can be seen to parallel changes in the way sentential scope negation is expressed at successive stages of the Middle English Jespersen Cycle. I propose that the changes to negative inversion and Jespersen's Cycle should both be analysed as changes in the ability of negative items to mark sentential scope for negation. This observation can be formalised within a Minimalist framework as variation in the LF-interpretability of negative features, following the account of Jespersen's Cycle proposed by Wallage (2008).


ABSTRACT We assessed the mechanisms of resistance to macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLSB) antibiotics and related antibiotics in erythromycin-resistant viridans group streptococci (n = 164) and Gemella spp. (n = 28). The macrolide resistance phenotype was predominant (59.38%); all isolates with this phenotype carried the mef(A) or mef(E) gene, with mef(E) being predominant (95.36%). The erm(B) gene was always detected in strains with constitutive and inducible MLSB resistance and was combined with the mef(A/E) gene in 47.44% of isolates. None of the isolates carried the erm(A) subclass erm(TR), erm(A), or erm(C) genes. The mel gene was detected in all but four strains carrying the mef(A/E) gene. The tet(M) gene was found in 86.90% of tetracycline-resistant isolates and was strongly associated with the presence of the erm(B) gene. The catpC194 gene was detected in seven chloramphenicol-resistant Streptococcus mitis isolates, and the aph(3′)-III gene was detected in four viridans group streptococcal isolates with high-level kanamycin resistance. The intTn gene was found in all isolates with the erm(B), tet(M), aph(3′)-III, and catpC194 gene. The mef(E) and mel genes were successfully transferred from both groups of bacteria to Streptococcus pneumoniae R6 by transformation. Viridans group streptococci and Gemella spp. seem to be important reservoirs of resistance genes.


The collaboration between septins and myosin-II in driving processes outside of cytokinesis remains largely uncharted. Here, we demonstrate that Bni5 in the budding yeast S. cerevisiae interacts with myosin-II, septin filaments, and the septin-associated kinase Elm1 via distinct domains at its N- and C-termini, thereby tethering the mobile myosin-II to the stable septin hourglass at the division site from bud emergence to the onset of cytokinesis. The septin and Elm1-binding domains, together with a central disordered region, of Bni5 control timely remodeling of the septin hourglass into a double ring, enabling the actomyosin ring constriction. The Bni5-tethered myosin-II enhances retrograde actin cable flow, which contributes to the asymmetric inheritance of mitochondria-associated protein aggregates during cell division, and also strengthens cytokinesis against various perturbations. Thus, we have established a biochemical pathway involving septin-Bni5-myosin-II interactions at the division site, which can inform mechanistic understanding of the role of myosin-II in other retrograde flow systems. Summary Okada et al. have determined the molecular mechanism underlying the Bni5 interactions with septins and myosin-II at the cell division site and uncovered its roles in promoting retrograde actin flow and the robustness of cytokinesis in budding yeast.


Purpose: This work measures peripheral doses and estimates the risk of secondary fatal malignancies associated with pediatric brain and adult prostate treatments delivered with a Cyberknife and a conventional, gantry‐based accelerator. Method and Materials: Comparable Cyberknife and IMRTbraintreatment plans were developed for a pediatric anthropomorphic Rando phantom using the Cyberknife Multiplan and Phillips Pinnacle treatment planning system, respectively. Similarly, adult prostate treatment plans were generated using the Multiplan and Pinnacle planning systems for an adult Rando phantom. Target and organs at risk were contoured for each phantom and equivalent, clinically appropriate normal tissue constraints were utilized for each treatment modality. TLD were positioned in specific organ locations within each anthropomorphic phantom and were irradiated three times per plan. The average dose was determined for each out‐of‐field organ site and was compared between the two different treatment delivery devices. Organ weighted, linear non‐threshold dose response model risk factors were then used to estimate the risk of secondary fatal malignancies.Results:Doses calculated from the adult TLD data were equal to or lower for all organs with the IMRTtreatment, and hence, the overall risk was lower. The pediatric TLDdose findings were mixed between the IMRT and Cyberknife treatments.TLD located in cranial organ sites, proximal to the treatment field, exhibited higher readings for the IMRTtreatment. However, the Cyberknife treatment consistently resulted in higher average doses at all distant organ sites. Conclusion: The overall risk of secondary fatal malignancies was higher for the Cyberknife compared to the IMRT adult and pediatric treatments, with the exception of critical organs adjacent to the treatment field for the pediatric case. This appears to be due to higher out‐of‐field secondary radiation doses resulting from the greater number of monitor units and longer treatment times associated with Cyberknife treatments.


[Objective] In 2006 the WHO/WPRO agreed on standard acupuncture point locations. To promote these standards, in 2009 the Second Japan Acupuncture Standardization Committee published a Japanese edition of "WHO STANDARD ACUPUNCTURE POINT LOCATIONS FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC REGION ". Based on this Japanese edition, a new textbook was published by the Japan Association of Massage & Acupuncture Teachers and the Japan College Association of Oriental Medicine. One year has passed since the start of education based on standard meridian point locations at Japanese universities, colleges, vocational schools and training centers for anma (Japanese traditional massage), massage, and shiatsu (acupressure), acupuncture and moxibustion therapies. In this survey, we administered a questionnaire as an evaluation of international standardization and the problems of introducing standard meridian point locations. [Subjects and methods] Subjects were mainly teachers and a small number of researchers, clinicians, and other groups concerned with acupuncture and moxibustion. We used the questionnaire that we originally created by the Working Group of the Japan Standardization of Acupuncture Point Locations Committee between in Oct. 2010 and in Feb. 2011. [Results] Among the 180 institutions surveyed, we obtained answers from 149 people from 93 institutions. Agreement on the question of standard meridian points, "functional existence" (44.3%) was most common, and "anatomical existence" came next at 26.6%. As for the question on acupuncture treatment, 82.4% replied with "use of both meridian points and reactive points". As for issue of agreement with international standardization, "no comment" was 41.7% and 51.7% for "agreement". However, both of those groups appreciated the necessity of globalization of acupuncture and moxibustion expressed in a common language. There were many differing opinions about proportional bone measurement. Specifically, opinions indicated a change "from the elbow crease to the wrist crease" (from 10 B-cun to 12 B-cun) and a need for proportional bone measurement of the upper arm. Whereas, for each meridian point, opinions expressed the difficulty of locating the newly defined meridian points and not understanding reasons for changes and notations including body surface landmarks. [Discussion] We were able to classify the opinions collected into the following groups: (1) problems that can be corrected immediately, including typographic errors, (2) problems that need to be reviewed at the next international gathering, and (3) problems that need to be investigated by making full use of related documents. [Conclusion] We were able to gather data from a wide range of teachers, revealing problems understanding individual meridian point locations, including consideration of changes in meridian point locations, evaluation of standardization of meridian point locations, and other guidelines.


Principled development techniques could greatly enhance the understandability of expert systems for both users and system developers. Current systems have limited explanatory capabilities and present maintenance problems because of a failure to explicitly represent the knowledge and reasoning that went into their design. This paper describes a paradigm for constructing expert systems which attempts to identify that tacit knowledge, provide means for capturing it in the knowledge bases of expert systems, and apply it towards more perspicuous machine-generated explanations and more consistent and maintainable system organization.


When different cultures come in contact with one another, the impact on the course of history can be dramatic and unexpected. Encounters between separate societies or civilizations have resulted in the spread of major religions, vast migrations, scientific breakthroughs, the dissemination of powerful political notions, and many other transformations. This unique book brings to life key episodes of cultural contact in world history, from the beginnings of civilization to the present. Through a combination of vivid case studies and imaginative colour maps, award-winning history professor Peter Stearns shows how we can better understand world history by examining what happens when culture meets culture. New contacts can lead to assimilation, rejection, or, most often, a merging of elements from both cultures. Stearns focuses on fourteen important historical examples of intercultural exchange from around the globe. He considers: * the spread of major religions, such as Buddhism and Islam * voluntary and forced migrations, such as the Jewish and African diasporas * the dissemination of modern forces, including nationalism and Marxism * the impact of European colonial rule on gender relations in India and in Africa * recent international diffusion of consumer culture as well as much else. For each example, original maps reveal geographic patterns and provide a clear sense of the impact of that particular meeting of cultures.


INTRODUCTION
Although spironolactone and telmisartan are reported to reduce the risk of morbidity and death, direct studies on their effects on isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy are scanty. Hence the present investigation was carried out to study the effect of spironolactone, telmisartan and their combination on isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy.

METHODS
Isoproterenol was administered intra-peritoneally in a dose of 5 mg/kg once daily for 10 days to Wistar rats. Spironolactone (20 mg/kg/ day) (SL), telmisartan (5 mg/kg/day) (TM) or their combination (SLTM) was administered for 10 days after which various biochemical and cardiac parameters were measured.

RESULTS
Isoproterenol produced dyslipidaemia, hypertension, elevated cardiac enzyme and C-reactive protein levels (CRP), worsened haemodynamic parameters and produced cardiac hypertrophy, left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and oxidative stress. Chronic treatment with SL,TM or SLTM significantly controlled dyslipidaemia and produced a significant reduction in the elevated creatine-kinase (CK) and CRP levels. TM or SLTM produced a decrease in elevated lactate de-hydrogenase levels; however, SL failed to produce this effect. Hypotension, tachycardia, and decreased rate of pressure development and decay were prevented by SL, TM and SLTM treatment. Chronic treatment with SL, TM or SLTM also produced significant reduction in LV collagen levels, cardiac and LV hypertrophy index and prevented oxidative stress.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggests that SL, TM and SLTM produced a beneficial effect on cardiac hypertrophy.


Spectroscopic investigations of protein folding mechanism(s) require the elucidation of the relationship between spectral features and the protein folding reaction coordinate(s). This thesis describes the development and demonstrates the applications of a novel UV resonance Raman (UVRR) spectroscopic methodology, which quantitatively correlates the UVRR amide III3 (AmIII3) frequency of a peptide bond to its Psi Ramachandran angle (which is arguably the most important folding reaction coordinate). This information, then, allows us, for the first time, to obtain Psi angular population distributions of peptide bonds in peptides and proteins from their UVRR AmIII3 band profiles, as well as the Gibbs free energy landscapes along the Psi Ramachandran angle folding coordinate. Application of this methodology allows us to quantitatively characterize the ensembles of folded and unfolded states in peptides and proteins. We show that the unfolded state ensembles show no evidence of completely disordered "random coil" conformation, and are usually dominated by PPII-like conformations. In addition, we for the first time experimentally detected the extended 2.51-helix conformation in poly-L-lysine and poly-L-glutamic acid, which is stabilized by electrostatic repulsion between side-chain charges. Most importantly, we resolved and quantitatively characterized the 310-helix and pi-bulge contributions within the "alpha-helix melting" of ala-rich peptides. We for the first time obtained their individual experimental melting curves, estimated their Zimm and Bragg parameters, and estimated their individual kinetic (un)folding rates. These results challenge the classical view of protein folding and provide an important quantitative basis for future studies.


Brain tumors are characterized by a microvascular network which differs from normal brain vascularity. Different tumors show individual angiogenic patterns. Microvascular heterogeneity can also be observed within a neoplastic histotype. It has been shown that quantification of neoplastic microvascular patterns could be used in combination with the histological grade for tumor characterization and to refine clinical prognoses, even if no objective parameters have yet been validated. To overcome the limits of the Euclidean approach, we employ fractal geometry to analyze the geometric complexity underlying the microangioarchitectural networks in brain tumors. We have developed a computer-aided fractal-based analysis for the quantification of the microvascular patterns in histological specimens and ultra-high-field (7-Tesla) magnetic resonance images. We demonstrate that the fractal parameters are valid estimators of microvascular geometrical complexity. Furthermore, our analysis allows us to demonstrate the high geometrical variability underlying the angioarchitecture of glioblastoma multiforme and to differentiate low-grade from malignant tumors in histological specimens and radiological images. Based on the results of this study, we speculate the existence of a gradient in the geometrical complexity of microvascular networks from those in the normal brain to those in malignant brain tumors. Here, we summarize a new methodology for the application of fractal analysis to the study of the microangioarchitecture of brain tumors; we further suggest this approach as a tool for quantifying and categorizing different neoplastic microvascular patterns and as a potential morphometric biomarker for use in clinical practice.


A stand-alone digital relay has been designed and implemented. The relay can be modified easily to accommodate the protection of different types of transformers by changing the software only. Presented in this paper are the real-time experimental results of five selected algorithms implemented using this digital relay. These algorithms are: discrete Fourier transform, Walsh function, rectangular transform, finite impulse response and least-square. Based on the experimental results, the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) algorithm is found to be the best algorithm in terms of accuracy and speed for digital implementation of the differential relay for power transformers.


Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of perceptual ratings of nasality by experienced listeners, measures of nasalance, and the size of the nasal port opening for three simulated English corner vowels, /i/, /u/, and /a/. Design Samples were generated using a computational model that allowed for exact control of nasal port size and a direct measure of nasalance. Perceptual ratings were obtained using a paired-stimulus presentation. Participants Five experienced listeners. Main Outcome Measures Measures of nasalance and perceptual nasality ratings. Results Differences in nasalance and perceptual ratings of nasality were noted among the three vowels, with values being greater for the high vowels /i/ and /u/ compared to the low vowel Id. Listeners detected nasality for the high and low vowels simulated with nasal port areas of 0.01 and 0.15 cm2, respectively. Correlations between ratings of nasality and nasalance were high for all three vowels. Conclusions Results of the present study show a high correlation between ratings of nasality and measures of nasalance for nasal port areas ranging from 0 to 0.5 cm2. The correlations were based on sustained vowel samples. The restricted speech sample limits generalization of the findings to clinical data; however, the results are a demonstration of the usefulness of modeling to understand the perceptual phenomena of nasality.


The Korean Medicine (KM) incorporates same clinical techniques as East Asian traditional medicine; however it also has typical characteristics such as Sasang typology, Sa-am acupuncture, Chuna therapy, pharmacopuncture, and Korean psychotherapy. Modernized KM currently utilizes cutting-edge techniques of orthodox medicine, though it is rooted on the Donguibogam, one of the best Korean medical classics written in 1610 and enlisted on the Memory of the World by UNESCO in 2009. In 2013, the National Health Insurance of Korea paid about 2 billion dollars for medical services provided by 18,000 KM doctors in 210 KM hospitals and 13,200 KM local clinics. The role of KM in health service is expected to expand since Korea is anticipated to be an aged society in 2018 and hyperaged society in 2028 which means increased chronic disease patients. Thus the evaluation of efficacy and safety of KM and improvement of its clinical skills have been emphasized recently.

Our special issue, which had opened for 6 months in the first half of 2015, focused on scientific evidence for KM and its integrative medical research.

An article by C. Na et al. described that Jakyak-Gamcho decoction extracted with 70% ethanol exhibits higher amounts of effective index components than that extracted with water; it may be worthwhile to investigate alternative extraction methods in terms of extraction efficiency and in vivo effectiveness for other herbal medicines besides Jakyak-Gamcho decoction. A study by D.-S. Hwang et al. evaluated that Kyung-Ok-Ko significantly protects against heat-induced damage to testicular function in male mice by inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis. B. Joh et al. described that Morus alba treatment of infertility, jaundice, cognitive disorder, and hyperpigmentation is found to be effective and diabetes with Morus alba is recognized to have clinical importance. An interesting study by S. J. Lee et al. elucidated the biopsychological mechanism underlying the Sasang typology (a traditional Korean personalized medicine) using Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioral Activation System (BAS) scale. S. J. Lee et al. reported significant differences in BIS and BAS scores between So-Yang and So-Eum Sasang types.

K. Lee and B.-J. Lee reported the exact plant origins, efficacies, uses, components, and toxicities of Polygoni Multiflori Radix, Cynanchi Wilfordii Radix, and Cynanchi Auriculati Radix so that they can be correctly understood and used. A study by D. R. Kim et al. reported that Trigonellae semen treatment could enhance sperm function by promoting spermatogenesis and the expression of cation channel of sperm proteins in mouse testes. J.-H. Hwang et al. reported that intratracheal Chung-pae administration effectively decreases the chronic inflammation and pathological changes in a porcine pancreatic elastase- and lipopolysaccharide-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mouse model. An interesting study by H.-G. Kim et al. suggested that one can find the Bonghan systems under the skin as putative acupuncture points by tracing the intraexternal Bonghan systems, from which a new KM will be born.

T.-H. Kim et al. suggested a recommendation for reporting cases of acupuncture-related infections. The recommendation includes items on patient's condition and adverse events (or complications) in detail, which are necessary to establish the causality between acupuncture and the event as well as to provide information for judging appropriateness of acupuncture practice. A study by M.-H. So and Y.-K. Choi reported that the water extracts of Scutellariae radix and Liriopis Tube significantly suppressed the increased production of nitric oxide, interleukin-6, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, macrophage inflammatory protein-1s, macrophage inflammatory protein-2, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor as well as the increase of the intracellular free calcium in mouse macrophages induced by lipopolysaccharide. A research article by J. S. Ha et al. reported that the ethyl acetate fraction from Actinidia arguta containing physiological phenolics might enhance drug-induced amnesia through acetylcholinesterase inhibition and neuroprotection.

Another study by W.-M. Jung et al. demonstrated that the indications of each acupoint were primarily associated with the corresponding meridian system, using data mining methods to analyze the characteristics of the indications of each acupoint and to visualize the relationships between the acupoints and disease sites in the classic KM text Chimgoogyeongheombang. A study by J. Y. Park et al. suggested that Artemisia asiatica extract and eupatilin could cure or prevent cisplatin-induced renal toxicity without any adverse effect; Artemisia asiatica extract can be used in combination with cisplatin to prevent nephrotoxicity. An interesting review article by M. Park and S. Kim reported that Sa-am acupuncture, which operates with five shu points as a main aspect of treatment, has the advantage of increasing parasympathetic nerve activity and adjusting the balance of the autonomic nervous system; to maximize this effect, inserting a needle into the skin layer and providing gentle and light stimulation while considering the respiratory phase may be desirable.

A research article by K. Kim et al. reported that KM combination therapy may be beneficial for decreasing pain and improving function in lumbar spinal stenosis patients and may produce comparatively few adverse events. Another study by J. W. Suh et al. reported that the Emotional Freedom Technique, a meridian-based psychological therapy that alleviates psychologic and psychosomatic conditions by applying tapping stimulations at certain meridian acupoints, is more effective in improving anger and anxiety in the Hwabyung patients compared to the conventional meditation technique of Progressive Muscle Relaxation. An interesting study by H. G. Kim et al. suggested that those with a Taeumin type (one of four Sasang types) may tolerate psychological or oxidative stress better than those with the other types in accordance with the differences in the serum levels of stress hormones and the oxidative stress markers.

In conclusion, we expect that this special issue updates scientific evidences in KM and makes useful progress on KM integrative research.


We identify the roles played by design versions and alternatives in an engineering database. The obvious way to implement versions is to maintain each in a separate collection of files. Because several versions must be kept on line in a design environment, the approach leads to large disk requirements. We develop B-tree-based storage structures to encode versions as ``negative'' differential files. Our objective is to keep the disk requirements small. We discuss the effect of enormous amounts of cheap archival storage (write-once optical digital disks) on the proposed structures. We have implemented versions in the Wisconsin storage system (WiSS), an experimental database component developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Pneumonia contributes to between 750 000 and 1.2 million neonatal deaths and an unknown number of stillbirths each year world wide. The aetiology depends on time of onset. Gram negative bacilli predominate in the first week of life, and Gram positive bacteria after that. Streptococcus pneumoniae probably causes about 25% of neonatal pneumonia. Interventions that would reduce mortality from this condition would have a large range of beneficial effects: improved maternal health, better management of other common neonatal conditions, and reduced long term childhood and adult morbidity.


Floods are natural disasters that pose a direct threat to human life and often cause significant economic loss. River floods are caused by heavy and/or prolonged rainfall, causing rivers and streams to overflow and sometimes also burst dams or levees. Forest fires increase the risk factor to which humans and properties are exposed during flood events, by intensifying and accelerating the peak volume of the overflow water. Wildfires alter significantly the geomorphological characteristics of a river basin, thus affecting both directly and indirectly its hydrological behavior. A forest fire, followed by a rainfall event, may cause a significant flood downstream. This paper presents a hydrological analysis of the eastern Attica region, which is performed both prior to and after forest fire events, in order to assess the change in the consequent flood risk. The study area is the eastern part of the greater Athens area in Attica (Greece). This is a peri-urban area experiencing rapid urban growth, and its hydrometeorological conditions are being monitored though a dense hydrometeorological network for the past 10 years. A fire model is set up to simulate the characteristics of the development of three hypothetical fire events of low, medium and high severity accordingly. The parameters that affect fire intensity and rate of spread (e.g. topographic factors such as slope steepness, elevation, aspect, and configuration of land) are taken into consideration and the temporal and spatial distribution of a forest fire is studied. Of additional interest in this study is the fact that a recent forest fire event devastated a significant part of its northern, mountainous area and the consequences of this event are further examined. A detailed simulation of the three hypothetical fire scenarios and the real fire event is performed and the outcomes of the analysis are used as an input in a rainfall – runoff model that allows for an enhanced hydrological study of the affected area. Land use changes and geomorphological and hydrological alterations as a result of the fire event are taken into consideration during a post-fire hydrological analysis, which eventually demonstrates the impact of fire on the hydrological response of the study area. This impact is assessed by means of application of a methodological framework for the estimation of post-fire values for three hydrological parameters (CN, initial abstraction and lag time) and the paper concludes that the fire impact has rendered the downstream areas more prone to floods.


Defining the RNA target selectivity of the proteins regulating mRNA metabolism is a key issue in RNA biology. Here we present a novel use of principal component analysis (PCA) to extract the RNA sequence preference of RNA binding proteins. We show that PCA can be used to compare the changes in the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum of a protein upon binding a set of quasi-degenerate RNAs and define the nucleobase specificity. We couple this application of PCA to an automated NMR spectra recording and processing protocol and obtain an unbiased and high-throughput NMR method for the analysis of nucleobase preference in protein–RNA interactions. We test the method on the RNA binding domains of three important regulators of RNA metabolism.


The barnacle, Balanus glandula has recently invaded along the Pacific coast of eastern Hokkaido, Japan. To evaluate the direct and indirect effects of endemic seaweeds, barnacles, and invertebrate predators on the abundance of B. glandula on the rocky intertidal coast of eastern Hokkaido, we conducted a field experiment from June 2011 to October 2012 in which we manipulated the presence or absence of these factors. Seaweeds showed no significant effect on the abundance of B. glandula. The endemic barnacle Chthamalus dalli and the invertebrate predator Nucella lima reduced the abundance of B. glandula. However, the simultaneous influence of N. lima and C. dalli was compensative rather than additive, probably due to keystone predation. These findings suggest that competition by the endemic barnacle C. dalli and predation by the invertebrate predator N. lima decreased the abundance of B. glandula, but that N. lima predation on C. dalli weakened the negative influence of C. dalli on B. glandula. The implications of these findings are twofold: the endemic competitor and invertebrate predator may have played important roles in decreasing the abundance of B. glandula in natural habitats, and conservation of endemic invertebrate predators may be crucial to impede the establishment and survival of introduced barnacles in rocky intertidal habitats.


Cultural diversity has been dealt with in various ways in Spanish classrooms, from practically not being taken into account to receiving major recognition in documentation (although less in practice) given the arrival of foreign-origin pupils and families. However, this incorporation is in an educational system with serious future challenges (improving skills to adapt better to the job market, reducing the drop-out rate, reinforcing continuity to non-mandatory levels, etc.). This article analyses, from a qualitative methodological perspective with the empirical focus on Catalonia, the process of schooling foreign-origin pupils. The specific emphasis is on the experience of this process among members of the school management teams, teachers, and parents of pupils.


Infections with HIV-1 group M subtype B viruses account for the majority of the HIV epidemic in the Western world. Phylogeographic studies have placed the introduction of subtype B in the United States in New York around 1970, where it grew into a major source of spread. Currently, it is estimated that over one million people are living with HIV in the US and that most are infected with subtype B variants. Here, we aim to identify the drivers of HIV-1 subtype B dispersal in the United States by analyzing a collection of 23,588 pol sequences, collected for drug resistance testing from 45 states during 2004–2011. To this end, we introduce a workflow to reduce this large collection of data to more computationally-manageable sample sizes and apply the BEAST framework to test which covariates associate with the spread of HIV-1 across state borders. Our results show that we are able to consistently identify certain predictors of spread under reasonable run times across datasets of up to 10,000 sequences. However, the general lack of phylogenetic structure and the high uncertainty associated with HIV trees make it difficult to interpret the epidemiological relevance of the drivers of spread we are able to identify. While the workflow we present here could be applied to other virus datasets of a similar scale, the characteristic star-like shape of HIV-1 phylogenies poses a serious obstacle to reconstructing a detailed evolutionary and spatial history for HIV-1 subtype B in the US.


Background Various fields of study have alluded to food textural, and its associated acoustic, properties (i.e. food textural acoustics). However, because of the challenging nature of the inclusion of acoustic properties in diet textural modifications in dysphagia (swallowing disorders), this construct has not been sufficiently considered in the field. Objective To investigate the sensibility of food textural acoustics as a construct to understand eating for individuals with dysphagia. Method The study design was based on qualitative evidence synthesis methodologies. This involved revised scoping review methods (peer-reviewed published articles from 1980 to 2020 over seven databases), with an adapted consultation phase through online focus group discussions with six world experts. The data was analysed using frequency and thematic analysis, and ideology critique. Results A total of 11 articles were included in the revised scoping review analysis (seven research studies and four review articles). The analysis of these articles revealed a lack of diversity in geography, discipline and perspective exploring the construct of food textural acoustics. A total of three themes with three associated core arguments emerged from the revised scoping review and the consultation phase. These arguments highlighted (1) the need to study food textural acoustics because of its salience and pleasure responses, (2) possible methodological dilemmas in studying food textural acoustics due to the complexity of eating, and (3) considerations with regard to the approach and positioning adopted when studying the construct. Conclusion Food textural acoustics may be a sensible construct to understand eating for individuals with dysphagia. As eating is a complex process, there is a need to challenge the methods we use when studying this construct of food textural acoustics. We hope that this article inspires researchers and practitioners to think differently by using textural, and its associated acoustic, properties as a way to reimagine dysphagia practice, especially for those from low- to middle-income contexts such as South Africa and Brazil.


Christmas dreams become nightmares when toys turn deadly. Tiny helicopters attack holiday shoppers. Cannons shoot out rubber duckies. Even a bouncing soccer ball is transformed into a deadly weapon. SUPERMAN must save LOIS LANE and a group of children trapped on a runaway holiday parade float. But when the float hides inside a giant tunnel made of lead, even SUPERMAN'S super-vision cannot find the victims. Only one person can be behind all the mayhem, the TOYMAN!


The spionid polychaete Dipolydora blakei is identified from benthic samples collected in the Aegean Sea off Chalkis and the Ionian Sea off Kalamitsi, both on the coast of Greece. Adults of D. blakei are characterized by having the falcate spines of chaetiger 5 with a large lateral tooth and bristles on the convex side of a long and pointed main fang, awl-like spines in posterior notopodia, branchiae beginning from chaetiger 7 and a pygidium with two lateral lobes. This is the first report of the species from the Mediterranean Sea and European waters and the second record (after one from Brazil) outside its type locality in deep-water off New England in the north-west Atlantic Ocean. The morphology of the Greek specimens is described and illustrated and diagnostic characters of the species are discussed. The origin of these specimens in the coastal waters of Greece is uncertain and the species is considered as cryptogenic in the Mediterranean Sea. An identification key to Dipolydora species with bristle-topped falcate spines in chaetiger 5 known from the Mediterranean Sea and European waters is provided.


This study aims to describe the application of E-Village Budgeting System at Genteng Wetan Village based on Banyuwangi Regent Regulation No. 15 of 2015 about Village Finance Management. And analyze the effectiveness of E-Village Budgeting System Based on indicators of technology-based information systems. This research method is Descriptive research using qualitative approach. The results of this study show that Village Finance Management using E-Village Budgeting System in Genteng Wetan Village is in accordance with Banyuwangi Regent Regulation No. 15 year 2015. Security aspect is sufficient but there are still some deficiencies such as the autosave data and external disturbances. Aspects of Speed already good can be seen from the fast E-Village Budgeting system in input, process, and analyze data. Aspects of Accuracy are good enough but still needed separator to reduce errors in input data. Variation Aspects Report (output) and Relevance is sufficient can be seen from the results or outputs are produced in accordance with applicable accounting standards. The quality of financial reports generated with the help of the E-Village Budgeting system is good. So, in general the application of E-Village Budgeting system is quite good and effective.  However, there are still some lack of security aspects of the E-Village Budgeting System At Genteng Wetan Village


In this study using genetic approaches in mouse we demonstrate that the secreted protein Wise plays essential roles in regulating early bone formation through its ability to modulate Wnt signaling via interactions with the Lrp5 co-receptor. In Wise−/− mutant mice we find an increase in the rate of osteoblast proliferation and a transient increase in bone mineral density. This change in proliferation is dependent upon Lrp5, as Wise;Lrp5 double mutants have normal bone mass. This suggests that Wise serves as a negative modulator of Wnt signaling in active osteoblasts. Wise and the closely related protein Sclerostin (Sost) are expressed in osteoblast cells during temporally distinct early and late phases in a manner consistent with the temporal onset of their respective increased bone density phenotypes. These data suggest that Wise and Sost may have common roles in regulating bone development through their ability to control the balance of Wnt signaling. We find that Wise is also required to potentiate proliferation in chondrocytes, serving as a potential positive modulator of Wnt activity. Our analyses demonstrate that Wise plays a key role in processes that control the number of osteoblasts and chondrocytes during bone homeostasis and provide important insight into mechanisms regulating the Wnt pathway during skeletal development.


Abstract : Due to the increase of system complexity and the existing draw down of manpower allocations, today's acquisitions environment desperately needs a systems approach to decision making. Many studies have been performed to model the entire government acquisition environment. Due to the high degree of aggregation, front line decision-makers have had no use for the information these models provide. This research focuses on the Air Force's largest functional support element in aircraft systems development, engineering. I will only consider one phase of the government acquisition cycle the Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development (EMD). This is the development cycle, which begins with initial contract award (Milestone II), through the production approval (Milestone III). The structure of this model will be a building block to help USAF leadership in the determination of required engineering skill-set and manpower to perform activities which can meet short term requirements while minimizing the intrinsic cost, schedule, and performance risks associated system development. The simulation model will be used by USAF leadership as an alternative decision making tool for manpower allocations for government organic engineering workforce during an eight year development effort. In addition, this study investigates the benefit of using system engineering tools and processes, like Functional Allocation (FAST) and Quality Functional Deployment, to improve the process for generating system dynamics simulation models. For years, the systems engineering field has developed tools to graphically represent complex system structure. Graphical representations allow individuals and teams to visually identify interrelationships and dependencies within a system. Academic research and the successful implementation of these tools within the industrial communities validate the utility of these tools.


This is a guide for finding books, articles, and data in chemistry. It also includes links to download ChemDraw and other software, and information about using the proxy prefix and bookmarklet for off-campus access.


The South African mobile telecommunications environment has become increasingly competitive, thus there is increased focus on acquiring and retaining loyal customers in order to facilitate repeat purchases, guarantee future revenues and shield the customer base from competitive activity. In the light of the aforementioned, this paper outlines how customer loyalty in the cellphone network service provider industry differ among early and late stage customers. Data collection for this study was conducted using two stage non-probability sampling together with convenience and quota sampling. An aggregate of 20 questionnaires were issued and were validated and analysed. Based on the results from the study, it is proposed that cellphone network service providers should find ways in which to arouse and delight early and late stage customers for example, use incentives like free data upon first month subscription for early customers and loyalty rewards benefits for late stage customers. This study provides rich insights for cellphone network service providers regarding aspects to focus on when targeting and servicing early and late stage customers.


Economic growth is one of the goals of national development. The decentralization policy implemented Indonesia currently provides opportunity for each region to develop the potential of the area, so that each region is able to achieve an economic growth rate that make walfare for community analysis used in this paper is a multiple linear regression with panel data (pooling data) 9 (nine) districts in Bali Province 2009-2015. Year period of data analysis showed that Pendapan Asli Daerah and Dana Perimbangan affect the economic growth of the district in the province of Bali. Pedapatan Asli Daerah (PAD) and a real positive influence on economic growth district in Bali Province, Dana Perimbangan partially negatively affect economic growth in the district in the province of Bali during the period from 2009 - 2015 increased economic growth in an era of fiscal decentralization have not fully followed by the distribution of economic growth districs in Bali Province. This is evidenced by the Williamson index value stood at 0,687, which means there is still inequality regional GDP per capita among districts in Bali Province. Still there is an imbalance between districts shows that the achievement of development objectives are not yet capable of prospering society.


Our work investigates theoretical approximations to the interface specific sum frequency generation (SFG) spectra at aqueous interfaces constructed using time correlation function (TCF) and instantaneous normal mode (INM) methods. Both approaches lead to signals in excellent agreement with experimental measurements. This work demonstrates how TCF and INM methods can be used in a complementary fashion to describe interfacial vibrational spectroscopy. Our approach is to compare TCF spectra with experiment to establish that our molecular dynamics (MD) methods can reliably describe the system of interest. We then employ INM methods to analyze the molecular and dynamical basis for the observed spectroscopy. We have been able to elucidate, on a molecularly detailed basis, a number of interfacial line shapes, most notably the origin of the complex O-H stretching SFG signal, and the identity of several intermolecular modes in the SFG spectra for the water/vapor interface.


In this paper, a power-aware dual-tree-based multicast routing protocol (PDTMRP) for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is proposed. In the proposed scheme, all nodes are randomly classified into two types, group-0 and group-1. To achieve the load balance, two multicast trees (tree-0 for group-0 and tree-1 for group-1) were constructed. Simulation results show that the proposed PDTMRP scheme outperforms MAODV and RMAODV schemes.


The antitumor anthracycline doxorubicin induces a dose-related cardiotoxicity that correlates with the myocardial levels of its secondary alcohol metabolite doxorubicinol. Combining doxorubicin with taxanes such as paclitaxel or docetaxel may aggravate cardiotoxicity, presumably because the taxanes cause an allosteric-like stimulation of cytoplasmic aldehyde reductases that convert doxorubicin to doxorubicinol in the heart. A less severe aggravation of cardiotoxicity was observed on combining taxanes with epirubicin, a closely related analog of doxorubicin; therefore, we characterized whether the cardiac tolerability of epirubicin-taxane therapies could be due to a defective taxane stimulation of the conversion of epirubicin to its secondary alcohol metabolite epirubicinol. Comparisons between doxorubicin and epirubicin in isolated human heart cytosol showed that epirubicin exhibited a lower Vmax/Km value for reaction with aldehyde reductases and a defective stimulation of epirubicinol formation by paclitaxel or docetaxel. A similar pattern occurred in the soluble fraction of human myocardial strips incubated in plasma with anthracyclines and paclitaxel or docetaxel, formulated in their clinical vehicles Cremophor EL or polysorbate 80. Doxorubicin, but not epirubicin, was also able to generate reactive oxygen species in the membrane fraction of myocardial strips; however, the levels of doxorubicin-derived reactive oxygen species were not further augmented by paclitaxel. These results support the notion that taxanes might aggravate the cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin through a specific stimulation of doxorubicinol formation. The failure of paclitaxel or docetaxel to stimulate epirubicinol formation therefore uncovers an important determinant of the improved cardiac tolerability of epirubicin-taxane combinations.