Preface List of Contributors Part I. Dynamic-Differential Games: Theoretical Developments On Differential Games with Long-Time-Average Cost / Martino Bardi Fields of Extremals and Sufficient Conditions for a Class of Variational Games / Dean Carlson Linear Quadratic Differential Games: An Overview / Jacob Engwerda A Neumann Boundary Control for Multidimensional Parabolic 'Minmax' Control Problems / Andrzej Nowakowski Non-Cooperative and Semi-Cooperative Differential Games / Wen Shen Part II. Pursuit-Evasion (P-E) Games Some Geometrical Properties of the Phase Space Structure in Games on Manifolds / Andrei Akhmetzhanov Strategies for Alternative Pursuit Games / Igor Shevchenko Some Sufficient Conditions for Multi-Player Pursuit-Evasion Games with Continuous and Discrete Observations / D. M. Stipanovic, A. Melikyan, and N. Hovakimyan Part III. Numerical Approaches to Dynamic-Differential Games A Numerical Approach to the 'Princess and Monster' Game on an Interval / S. Alpern, R. Fokkink, R. Lindelauf, and G. J. Olsder Numerical Approximation and Optimal Strategies for Differential Games with Lack of Information on One Side / Pierre Cardaliaguet Fully-Discrete Schemes for the Value Function of Pursuit-Evasion Games with State Constraints / E. Cristiani and M. Falcone Numerical Solution of the Game of Two Cars with a Neurosimulator and Grid Computing / H.-J. v. Mettenheim and M. H. Breitner Numerical Investigation of the Value Function for the Homicidal Chauffeur Problem with a More Agile Pursuer / V. S. Patsko and V. L. Turova Part IV. Applications Credible Linear-Incentive Equilibrium Strategies in Linear-Quadratic Differential Games / G. Martin-Herran and G. Zaccour Robust Control Approach to Digital Option Pricing: Synthesis Approach / S.Thiery, P. Bernhard, and G. J. Olsder Part V. Search Games A Search Game with a Strategy of Energy Supply for Target / R. Hohzaki and K. Ikeda The LQG Game Against Nature / Meir Pachter Part VI. Evolutionary Games Is Deterrence Evolutionarily Stable? / D. Ellison and M. Rudnianski Evolutionarily Robust Strategies: Two Nontrivial Examples and a Theorem / A. J. Shaiju and P. Bernhard Part VII. Stopping Games Nash Equilibrium in a Game Version of Elfving Problem / E. Z. Ferenstein and A. Krasnosielska Cooperative Strategies in Stopping Games / D. Ramsey and D. Cierpial Part VIII. Stochastic Games and Large 'Neighborhood' Games Pure Equilibrium Strategies for Stochastic Games via Potential Functions / J. A. M. Potters, T. E. S. Raghavan, and S. H. Tijs Fibonacci Numbers and Equilibria in Large 'Neighborhood' Games / Andrzej Wieczorek


Improvement of litter size (lambs bprn/ewes lambing) in sheep is difficult for several reasons. The experimental results on direct selection for litter size, coupled with generally low estimates of genetic parameters of litter size led to widespread interest in the use of indirect selection criteria for genetic improvement of litter size. It has been argued that ovulation rate is the main limiting factor to improve reproduction rate in sheep. The understanding of the physiological basis of genetic variation in ovulation rate would allow development of physiological criteria for genetic improvement of ovulation rate and development of reliable means of phenotypic modification of gonadal function. Literature on the indirect methods of selecting for litter size is reviewed with emphasis on the ovulation rate. Postulated physiological methanism of between breed variation in ovulation rate in sheep, the variation of the sensitivity of the hypothalamus/pituitary to negative feed-back of gonadotrophin release, is further investigated and its genetic nature is examined. In passive immunization studies gonadotrophic releasing patterns were studied in 5 groups of Welsh Mountain sheep (10 each) before and after passive immunization against oestrone (E1), estradiol 17 (E2), androstenedione (A), testosterone (T) and Control (C). Immunization against all four steroids increased the / LH pulse frequency and mean LH levels. FSH levels were increased only in the group immunized against E1 and E2. However, after 12-15 hours the trophic and negative feed-back system tended to equilibrate Immunization against all four steroids increased the ovulation rate significantly. It also slightly changed the oestrous cycle length. Number of animals showing oestrus also were affected by the high antibody titres. The lambing percentage was increased after immunization against testosterone. The half life of the four antibodies in the circulation varied from 12-16 days. In the between breed study of the hypothalamic sensitivity to negative feed-back in Scottish Blackface and Finnish Landrace . sheep the--basal LH levels, LH pulse frequency and FSH levels were studied before and after insertion of silasticoestradial implants. The ovulation rate and the number of animals ovulating were studied after implant insertion. In this study the previous finding of between breed variation in hypothalamic/pituitary sensitivity to negative feed-back of gonadotrophin release was confirmed and extended the findings to LH pulse frequency, basal FSH levels and to intact animals. In the mouse study the direct effect of the oestradiol 17 antiserum on 'the ovulation rate was studied. The heritability of the hypothalamic pituitary sensitivity to negative feed-back was estimated by offspring parent regression. Passive immunization against E2 increased ovulation rate significantly. The heritability estimated was not significantly different from zero. In the concluding section the results are discussed and prospects for further research are outlined. It is argued that the / most fruitful approach for developing physiological selection criteria for increasing ovulation rate is to study the within breed or strain physiological basis of differences in ovulation rate.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

PURPOSE:

The AXL receptor tyrosine kinase has been suggested as a prognostic factor and a therapeutic target in esophageal adenocarcinoma. Whether AXL play some role in the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is unknown. We aim to investigate the association of AXL expression in tumor tissues with the prognosis of patients with ESCC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

The study was analyzed retrospectively. A total of 57 patients diagnosed with ESCC were enrolled in the study. AXL expression in esophageal timorous tissues was detected by immunnohistochemisty (IHC), and was correlated with the overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) of patients by multivariate Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival function.

RESULTS:

AXL could be detected in 38 patients (66.7%). Elevated expression of AXL was associated with increased risk of both death and recurrence (HR[95 % CI]=1.46 [1.05-2.04], Ptrend=0.026 in death and HR[95 % CI]=1.75[1.24-2.48], Ptrend=0.002 in recurrence). Patents expressing high levels of AXL (n=25, 43.9 %) exhibited a 2.15 fold increased risk of recurrence compared to those absence or with low level of AXL (HR[95 % CI]=2.15[1.08-4.28], P=0.029). Kaplan-Meier survival function demonstrated that the progression-free duration was significantly different among the patients expressing different levels of AXL (log-rank P=0.029).

CONCLUSION:

Expression of AXL in esophageal tumor tissues is a prognostic predictor of ESCC. The results revealed AXL could also be a therapeutic target of ESCC.

Citation Format: Pei-Wen Yang, Min-Shu Hsieh, Ya-Chuan Huang, Tzu-Hsuan Chiang, Jang-Ming Lee. AXL receptor tyrosine kinase is associated with the prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4405. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4405


In this editorial we report on a workshop of editors of educational technology and open and distance education journals held in Barcelona, Spain in June of this year, attended by Barney Dalgarno on behalf of the AJET editorial team. Some of the key issues discussed during the workshop included editorial processes, author services, sustainability of business models, and emerging impact metrics. Overall the workshop was a valuable opportunity to compare the processes used by AJET with those used by other journals. An online network of participating editors has now been established and a commitment has been made to come together for similar events in the future.


This paper concerns He's Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM) which has been applied to solve some nonlinear differential equations. In HPM, at first, we construct a homotopy that satisfies an equation which is called the perturbation equation. Moreover, in this method, the solution is considered as power series in p. By substituting this series into an equation and equating the coefficient of the terms with identical powers of p, the researcher obtained a set of equations. These equations can be solved in various methods. Here Adomian decomposition method (ADM) is employed for solving equations, obtained from the homotopy perturbation method.


Building machine learning models for low resource languages is extremely challenging due to the lack of available training data (either un-annotated or annotated). To support such scenarios, zero-shot cross lingual transfer is used where the machine learning model is trained on a resource rich language and is directly tested on the resource poor language. In this paper, we present a technique which improves the performance of zero-shot cross lingual transfer. Our method performs multi-task pre-finetuning on a resource rich language using a multilingual pre-trained model. The pre-finetuned model is then tested in a zero-shot manner on the resource poor languages. We test the performance of our method on 8 languages and for two tasks, namely, Intent Classification (IC) & Named Entity Recognition (NER) using the MultiAtis++ dataset. The results showed that our method improves IC performance in 7 out of 8 languages and NER performance in 4 languages. Our method also leads to faster convergence during finetuning. The usage of pre-finetuning demonstrates a data efficient way for supporting new languages and geographies across the world.


Stimulation of an effective in vitro or in vivo response by naive CD8 T cells requires three signals: TCR engagement, costimulation/IL-2, and a third signal that can be provided by IL-12. In addition to being required for acquisition of cytolytic function, IL-12 is required for optimal IL-2-dependent proliferation and clonal expansion. In experiments examining in vitro stimulation of naive CD8 T cells, IL-12 is shown to stimulate expression of the IL-2R α-chain (CD25) to much higher levels than are reached in response to just TCR and costimulation and/or IL-2. In addition, high CD25 expression is substantially prolonged in the presence of IL-12. As a consequence, the cells proliferate more effectively in response to low levels of IL-2. Examination of adoptively transferred TCR transgenic CD8 T cells responding to peptide Ag confirmed that IL-12 up-regulates CD25 in vivo, even when B7-mediated costimulation is largely blocked. TCR- and IL-2-dependent proliferation of CD8 T cells from mice deficient in CD25 was also found to increase in the presence of IL-12, indicating that CD25 up-regulation is not the only mechanism by which IL-12 increases clonal expansion of the cells. IL-2 and IL-12 both act to increase expression of both CD25 and the IL-12R, thus providing positive cross-regulation of receptor expression. These results suggest that when cross-priming dendritic cells present class I/Ag and costimulatory ligands, and produce IL-12, naive CD8 T cells will begin to produce IL-2 and both receptors will be optimally up-regulated to insure that an effective response is generated.


An estimated 1,018,700 or 3.7 percent of African-American adults consider themselves lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) and 34 percent of African-American same-sex couples are raising children. Currently, the estimated 84,000 African-American individuals in same-sex couples tend to live in areas where there are higher proportions of African-Americans. For example, a quarter of African-American same-sex couples live in Georgia, New York, North Carolina, and Maryland. The report finds overall higher unemployment rates (15 percent v. 12 percent) and lower proportions with a college degree (23 percent v. 26 percent) among LGBT African-Americans, when compared to their non-LGBT counterparts. However, these disadvantages are not present among African-Americans in same-sex couples. Twenty-five percent of African-Americans in same-sex couples have completed a college degree, compared to 22 percent of African-Americans in different-sex couples. In addition, 71 percent of African-Americans in same-sex couples are employed compared to 68 percent of their counterparts in different-sex couples. LGBT African-Americans are also less likely than their non-LGBT counterparts to have health insurance. African-American same-sex couples raising children, report household median incomes $15,000 lower than comparable African-American different-sex couples ($47,300 vs. $63,020). Female African-American same-sex couples, which comprise 58 percent of all African-American same-sex couples, earn over $20,000 less than male African-American same-sex couples. LGBT African-American females and African-American females in same-sex couples are three times more likely to report military service than their non-LGBT counterparts.


The relation between quantified emphysema and measured lung content of coal and silica was investigated in the lungs of 264 deceased underground coalworkers who had been exposed to mixed coal and silica dust. Lung specimens obtained at postmortem and inflated and fixed under standard conditions were used to quantify the extent of emphysema and then to measure the amount of coal and silica present in the lungs at the time of death. These data were combined with clinical and other pathological information from the subjects. Multiple regression analysis showed that the extent of emphysema (E score) had a strong positive quantitative relation with coal content of the lungs (p < 0.0003), age (p < 0.0001), and smoking (p < 0.0001). There was a significant negative interaction of uncertain biological importance between coal content of the lungs and smoking (p < 0.004; E score = -1.79 + 0.62 coal + 0.06 age + 0.21 smoking -0.17 coal x smoking; adjusted R2 = 0.25). In lifelong non-smokers emphysema was particularly strongly related to coal content and age (coal: p < 0.001; age: p < 0.002; E score = -1.56 + 0.78 coal + 0.06 age; adjusted R2 = 0.66). The relation was basically unchanged by adding a lung silica content term. Emphysema score was highly negatively correlated with forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1; % predicted, obtained within five years of death) (r = -0.44, p < 0.0001). Degree of lung fibrosis was highly positively associated with lung silica content (chi 2(1) = 12.9, p < 0.0003). These results provide strong evidence that emphysema in coalworkers is actually related to lung coal content. The role silica in development of emphysema, however remains unclear.


Employee silence is increasingly prevalent within modern organizations and has been considered a significant issue linking to a number of important organizational outcomes, hence attracting academic interest. In this study, we developed and tested a model of leader's destructive personality, trust in leader, and employee silence with a sample of 205 supervisor–subordinate dyads. We found that (a) leader's destructive personality was positively related to employee silence, and (b) trust in leader mediated the relationship between leader's destructive personality and employee silence. Implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.


The long time horizon of sustainable energy developments is often associated with all sorts of issues that are caused by changes in values. The public attitude can be affected by these changes and potential risks in the lack of social acceptance could occur, which always lead to public oppositions to the implementation of the sustainable energy system in a city district. Integrating social acceptance into the long-term planning of energy projects is necessary to lower the risks. However, it is hard to assess the future acceptance of energy consumers in different sustainable energy options. Also, different stakeholders always have different opinions and concerns on the public accepted solutions, which causes conflicts in negotiation in the planning and decision-making phases. This research employed a participatory modelling approach to forecast the possible future developments in the district heating network in Amsterdam Southeast concerning the value changes. This method also helps stakeholders to understand the design requirements of the more public accepted sustainable energy system in the future.


The review includes 84 references on the genus Pulsatilla, and comprises ethnopharmacology, morphology, phytoconstituents, pharmacological reports, clinical study and adverse effects of the prominent species of Pulsatilla. Triterpenoid saponins and flavonoids constitute major classes of phytoconstituents of the genus. A few species of this genus have medicinal value, among these, P. nigricans Stoerck. (family Ranunculaceae) has been traditionally used in the treatment of nervous disorders, and as a remedy for ovaritis, ovaralgia and sexual debility. Despite a long tradition of use of some species, the genus has not been explored properly. In the concluding part, the future scope of Pulsatilla species, especially P. nigricans, has been emphasized with a view to isolate bioactive moieties which could be used for multifarious biological activities.


Abstract Objective To evaluate visual outcomes and potential complications for optic nerve decompression using an endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) for fibrous dysplasia. Design Retrospective chart review of patients with fibrous dysplasia causing extrinsic compression of the canalicular segment of the optic nerve that underwent an endoscopic endonasal optic nerve decompression at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center from 2010 to 2013. Main Outcome Measures The primary outcome measure assessed was best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) with secondary outcomes, including visual field testing, color vision, and complications associated with the intervention. Results A total of four patients and five optic nerves were decompressed via an EEA. All patients were symptomatic preoperatively and had objective findings compatible with compressive optic neuropathy: decreased visual acuity was noted preoperatively in three patients while the remaining patient demonstrated an afferent pupillary defect. BCVA improved in all patients postoperatively. No major complications were identified. Conclusion EEA for optic nerve decompression appears to be a safe and effective treatment for patients with compressive optic neuropathy secondary to fibrous dysplasia. Further studies are required to identify selection criteria for an open versus an endoscopic approach.


The Biodiversity Heritage Library contains 57 million pages of biological information. The majority of this information is a scanned and digitized non-structured text. This "raw" text is hard to access by computers or humans, without the addition of rich metadata. Recent improvements in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) promise to facilitate the creation of such metadata.
 One obvious approach to improve BHL usability is to extract and provide an index of scientific names thereby enabling biologists to find useful information easier and faster. The Global Names Architecture (GNA) detects, verifies, collects, and indexes scientific names from many sources. Six years ago GNA developers created an index of the scientific names in the BHL by parsing every page one by one. This took 45 days to accomplish. Almost immediately BHL users began to find problems in the index and suggest improvements. However, the cost of repeating such a gigantic job was insurmountable and as a result the index remained nearly unchanged for 6 years.
 Two problems were at the heart of dealing with the "Big Data" of the BHL, the time it took to transfer the raw data prior to processing, and the computational time it took to detect the names themselves.To solve these problems we could either throw more hardware resources into the problem (expensive), or find ways to dramatically improve performance of the tasks (cheaper). We decided to achieve our goal by utilizing hardware more effectively, and by using fast, scalable programming languages.
 We wrote several Open Source applications in Go and Scala to detect candidate scientific names then verify them as names by comparing them to 27 million scientific name-strings aggregated by GNA. We were able to speed up data mobilization from 24 hours to 11 minutes, and decrease the time for name detection from 35 days to 5 hours. Name-verification time decreased from 10 days to 9 hours. Overall our computing requirements shrank from 4 high-end servers to one modern laptop. As a result we achieved our goal and indexed BHL in only 14 hours and unlocked the reality of iterative improvements to the scientific name index.
 We also wanted to make it possible to study BHL data in its entirety remotely, in real-time. We created an HTTP2 service that is able to stream gigantic amounts of BHL textual data together with scientific names to a researcher. Sending the text of 50 million pages with an associated 250 million name occurrences takes ~5 hours. For comparison, simply copying BHL text data from Smithsonian Institute to University of Illinois using more traditional methods took us 10 days.
 What do we hope to achieve with these tools as next steps? To make it possible for everyone to make new discoveries by computing in real-time across the complete BHL text. For example 20% of all names in BHL are abbreviated, and, as a result, very poorly searchable given their existing full-text indexing. We plan to develop algorithms to expand abbreviated genera reliably. Digitized texts contain huge amounts of character recognition mistakes. The tools might help to detect badly digitized pages and mark them for re-digitization. Tools can help to extract scientific names that are identical to "normal" words, such as "Atlanta", or "America", to find common names in texts, and to localize information on locations, adding new search contexts. Finally, we are exploring tools that allow researchers to stream such results back to source thereby growing the "Big Data" and ultimately improving the BHL's end-user experience.


1Birmingham Acute Care Research Group, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; 2NIHR Clinical Research Facility Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK Abstract: Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is a genetic condition characterised by low circulating levels of alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT), a serine proteinase inhibitor. The most common deficiency variants are the S and Z mutations, which cause the accumulation of misfolded AAT in hepatocytes resulting in endoplasmic reticular stress and insufficient release of AAT into the circulation (<11μmol/L). This leads to liver disease, as well as an increased risk of emphysema due to unopposed proteolytic activity of neutrophil-derived serine proteinases in the lungs. AATD has been traditionally viewed as an inflammatory disorder caused directly by a proteinase-antiproteinase imbalance in the lung, but increasing evidence suggests that low AAT levels may affect other cellular functions. Recently, AAT polymers have been identified in both monocytes and macrophages from AATD patients and evidence is building that these cells may also play a role in the development of AATD lung disease. Alveolar macrophages are phagocytic cells that are important in the lung immune response but are also implicated in driving inflammation. This review explores the potential implications of monocyte and macrophage involvement in non-liver AAT synthesis and the pathophysiology of AATD lung disease.


Acetate-1-14C was added to anaerobic glucose-fermenting cultures of Escherichia coli and Aerobacter cloacae. In the E. coli culture, lactate formation occurred late in the fermentation, when the rate of production of formate and acetate had decreased. The occurrence of acetate label in the lactate indicated formation of pyruvate from acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) and formate. In the A. cloacae cultures, substantial amounts of acetate label were found in the 2,3-butanediol formed. Evidence is presented that the label could have entered the diol only by conversion of formate and acetyl-CoA into pyruvate. The observed levels of radioactivity in the diol indicated that during diol formation the reaction yielding formate and acetyl-CoA from pyruvate CoA was operating close to equilibrium. The shift in metabolism from formation of acetate, ethyl alcohol, and formate to the formation of butanediol or lactate appears to be due basically to an approach to equilibrium of the pyruvate-splitting reaction, whatever the induction mechanism by which the shift is implemented.


Study Design. Review article of medical complications related to adult spinal deformity surgery. Objective. To identify medical complications related to surgery for adult spinal deformity and suggest ways to minimize their occurrence and to avoid them. Summary of Background Data. Medical complications are a major consideration in adult spinal deformity surgery. Few studies have been done to identify the medical complication rate in relation to these procedures. Methods. We review the literature pertaining to medical complications regarding spinal deformity surgery. Results. Urinary tract infections are the most frequently seen complication. Additionally, pulmonary complications are the most common life-threatening complication. Medical complications are a frequent occurrence with adult deformity spinal surgery. Conclusions. Awareness of the presentation, treatment, and prevention of medical complications of deformity surgery may allow minimization of their occurrence and optimize treatment should they occur.


The addition of magnesium alloy elements followed by a flame-hardening process will change the phase configuration in gray cast iron. This study aims to investigate changes in microstructure and hardness due to these two processes. The addition of magnesium is conducted by adding FeSiMg as a carrier for magnesium. Metallographic examination to observe changes in microstructure was carried out using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The formed phase is examined by X-ray diffraction testing. The hardness test was carried out using the Vickers technique on the surface of the gray cast iron, the nodular cast iron, and the flame-hardened nodular cast iron. Whilst for flame-hardened nodular cast iron, the Vickers technique was also conducted on a cross-section. The addition of the FeSiMg compound changed flake graphite into spherical graphite with increased hardness from 130 HV to 313.22 HV. The flame-hardening process in nodular cast iron results in the formation of a martensite phase and the disappearance of graphite on the surface of the material. The hardness on the surface of the material due to the flame-hardening process increased by 82.4% compared to the substrate.


Multiphase phase induction machines are usually modeled using multiple dq planes, where complete decoupling between these sequence planes is usually assumed. This assumption may be accepted if the magnetic circuit is assumed linear. However, at rated operating conditions, a degree of magnetic saturation is normally expected in induction machines, which breaks this generic complete decoupling assumption. Considering the saturation effects in multiphase induction machine, mathematical modeling has not been widely addressed in the literature. This paper introduces a five-phase induction machine model based on the well-known conventional dq model with multiple planes considering the effect of magnetic saturation. The flux correction method is used to represent the effect of magnetic saturation with modifications to include the effect of cross coupling between fundamental and third sequence planes due to the saturation effect. Experimental validation is carried out using a 1.5Hp prototype five-phase induction machine.


In the present article the Author examines the relationship between Andrology and Bioethics. He takes into consideration the historical context in which the two new disciplines were born. They are practically coeval, being both come to the light about at the 60th years of XXth Century. He analyses the clinical problems of the sexuality and some diagnostic and therapeutic potentialities of the Andrology in connection with the implications of moral order. After synthetically outlining the most diffuse Bioethics' theories, and later outlining a scheme of methodological approach, he reaches the conclusions inclining for a personalist vision of the moral problems and he is wishing a theoretical and practical attitude by Andrology specialist doctor in conformity with virtues' ethics.


ABSTRACT Background High concentrations of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and −9 (MMP-9) are associated with inflammation early after stroke. In chronic stages, the elevation of some cytokines is related to the presence of co-morbid conditions in these individuals. In addition to this, some characteristics such as sensorimotor impairment, atrophy, and sedentary lifestyle predispose the system to an inflammatory response. Objective To quantify MMP-2 and −9 serum activity in chronic post-stroke individuals and correlate it with variables of physical activity level, body composition, functional and walking capacity, and with inflammatory biomarkers. Additionally, gelatinase activity was characterized according to motor impairment. Methods Fourteen patients with stroke onset >6 months and seven healthy individuals were enrolled in this study. The clinical assessment included: body composition, measure by bioelectrical impedance analyzer; Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment Scale; six-minute and ten-meter walk tests, and physical activity level assessed by the StepWatch® Activity Monitor. Blood samples were collected from antecubital vein and serum MMP-2 and −9 activity was analyzed using gelatin Zymography, and the TNFα, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-10 biomarkers using ELISA kits. Results Chronic post-stroke individuals presented an increased activity of MMP-2 and −9 compared to healthy individuals. Positive correlations with time and steps in low cadence and negative ones with medium cadence and peak activity index were observed. According to the motor impairment, the MMP-2 activity was increased in the mild-moderate group compared to the control group. Conclusion Increased gelatinases in chronic post-stroke individuals could describe an inflammation process related to the limited capacity of walking in high intensities.


DOI:10.22044/jme.2021.10656.2023 In this work, we determine the factors affecting soil erosion and its effect on dust formation around the Mineral Salts Company in Mighan playa of Arak. Seventy samples are randomly sampled from a depth of 10 cm above the ground around Mighan playa. Some factors involved (e.g. sample aggregation, lime, organic matter, pH, Na, K, Ca, and electrical conductivity) are determined and compared with the statistical parameters such as the correlation matrix and cluster analysis in order to determine the erosion rate in each sample based on the soil properties. The results obtained show that soil salinity, as a major factor in erosion, causes soil depletion and degradation in the area. Also a high amount of sand in the environment causes the soil texture instability. The factors such as the amount of gravel, organic matter, and K are the main erosion inhibiting factors, which have little effect on the majority of the samples. The organic matter content in most samples is less than 4%, and does not have much effect on erosion. The amount of clay in the samples is less than 10%, and has no effect on the adhesion of soil texture. The main factor affecting the erosion rate is EC and Na in the soil. The inhibitors such as gravel, organic matter, K, and clay amount in the samples can be considered as a protective or reducing factor in erosioning. Rising in the mentioned factors in the soil causes a lack of density and instability in the soil, and increases the rate of soil erosion. The results of this work show that addition of soil erosion increases the amount of fine-grained soil, and dust is a result of increased production. Also the presence of mineral salt in the area increases the production rate of dense soil, and as a result, rises the amount of dust produced in the area. Therefore, we need to stabilize mining soil, and prevent dust generation around the Mineral Salts Company. Keywords


In common with other developed countries, the UK population is ageing with today's older workers facing pressures from greater financial stress. Reasons for this include changes to pension systems, increased longevity, and an increasing need for informal care provision. Understanding the retirement transition and different retirement outcomes is important for older adults themselves as well as for policy makers and organisations seeking to provide support to those forced to work well beyond traditional retirement ages.

In this thesis, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing dataset is used to investigate which segments of the ageing population are susceptible to experiencing lower subjective wellbeing in the retirement transition. It includes two studies: Firstly, informed primarily by social capital theory, it highlights the disparities in social connectedness between older workers receiving no pension, 'bridge employees' (working in a reduced capacity whilst in receipt of a pension) and those fully withdrawn from the labour market as well as the significance of close and supportive social networks in improving subjective wellbeing and reducing social isolation. Study two then focuses on the importance of the wider contextual landscape surrounding the retirement transition. It does so by including a second series of data analysis that focuses on a much narrower band of ages.

Study one's findings suggested that the significance of the effects of social capital on subjective wellbeing are dependent on labour force participation. For adults fully withdrawn from the labour market, social capital has a bigger positive effect on wellbeing than for workers not receiving a pension. Furthermore, bridge employees and workers with no pension experienced similar effects on wellbeing when it came to social capital and that bonding social capital had a bigger positive effect on subjective wellbeing for fully withdrawn adults than the bridging type of social capital. Study two's findings suggested that resources older adults have to draw from are not only important in determining life satisfaction but also that they are shaped by the wider societal, political and economic contexts.

The thesis then concludes with a detailed discussion on the theoretical and practical implications of the study's findings and how these results relate to extant literature. In particular, it highlights the importance of better access to volunteering opportunities and social activities and services. In addition, providing work-based incentives that promote the development of social capital could improve retention of older workers, therefore keeping their experience and unique skillsets with the organisation. Also discussed is the importance of understanding contextual issues when policies relating to older workers are formulated and implemented.


The dynamic viscosities (η) and densities (ρ) of aqueous NaOH/NaAl(OH)4 mixtures have been determined for solutions at constant ionic strength and total concentrations of [NaOH]T ≤ 13.6 mol·kg-1 and [Al(III)]T/[Na+]T ≤ 0.6 at 25 °C using a Ubbelohde viscometer and a vibrating tube densimeter, respectively. The viscosities are precise to ±0.1% and the densities to ±5 × 10-6 g·cm-3. The densities of the mixtures at constant ionic strength vary linearly with substitution of OH- by Al(OH)4-, consistent with Young's rule. This enables calculation of the density of the hypothetical aqueous solution of pure "NaAl(OH)4" at [Al(III)]T ≤ 13 mol·kg-1. Viscosities of these mixtures, as with other electrolytes, are overestimated by Young's rule. Viscosities of the hypothetical pure "NaAl(OH)4" solutions (≤6 mol·kg-1) were accordingly determined by nonlinear extrapolation. The η values so obtained are unusually high but show a dependence on [NaAl(OH)4]T similar to that of common electrolyte solutions. An empirical corr...


This article builds on the many calls for teaching business acumen and transactional skills in law school with a timely insight: the shift to remote legal education creates opportunities to do so, in particular by incorporating practice problems and mini-simulations in doctrinal courses. Weaving together the literature on emerging best practices in online legal education, cognitive psychology, and the science of teaching and learning, Prof. Reise argues that adding formative assessments and experiential education is effective teaching and is critical in remote learning.

Offering vivid examples from her experience teaching Business Organizations online, she urges law teachers to use the opportunity presented by the shift to remote education to incorporate problems and simulations as an effective way to motivate students to prepare for class, to expose them to transactional practice skills, and to effectively teach key doctrinal concepts.


The pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis involves lung epithelial injury and aberrant proliferation of fibroblasts, and results in progressive pulmonary scarring and declining lung function. In vitro, fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 2 promotes myofibroblast differentiation and proliferation in cooperation with the profibrotic growth factor, transforming growth factor-β1, but the in vivo requirement for FGF2 in the development of pulmonary fibrosis is not known. The bleomycin model of lung injury and pulmonary fibrosis was applied to Fgf2 knockout (Fgf2(-/-)) and littermate control mice. Weight loss, mortality, pulmonary fibrosis, and histology were analyzed after a single intranasal dose of bleomycin. Inflammation was evaluated in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and epithelial barrier integrity was assessed by measuring BAL protein and Evans Blue dye permeability. Fgf2 is expressed in mouse and human lung epithelial and inflammatory cells, and, in response to bleomycin, Fgf2(-/-) mice have significantly increased mortality and weight loss. Analysis of BAL fluid and histology show that pulmonary fibrosis is unaltered, but Fgf2(-/-) mice fail to efficiently resolve inflammation, have increased BAL cellularity, and, importantly, deficient recovery of epithelial integrity. Fgf2(-/-) mice similarly have deficient recovery of club cell secretory protein(+) bronchial epithelium in response to naphthalene. We conclude that FGF2 is not required for bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis, but rather is essential for epithelial repair and maintaining epithelial integrity after bleomycin-induced lung injury in mice. These data identify that FGF2 acts as a protective growth factor after lung epithelial injury, and call into question the role of FGF2 as a profibrotic growth factor in vivo.


Author(s): Brega, Moorea | Advisor(s): Wachter, Kenneth W | Abstract: Recent genetic studies suggest that many age-related diseases may be attributed not to a single or small number of mutations, but rather to a large number of mutations, each of which is individually slightly deleterious. Following in the tradition of Kimura and Maruyama, we consider mutation accumulation in an infinite population with a large number of mutation types. We compare the distribution of genotypes under two extreme assumptions regarding genetic recombination: no recombination versus ``free" recombination, in which recombination acts more rapidly than mutation and selection. Under a range of assumptions, including realistic mutation rates and demographic fitness measures, we find unexpected similarities in the predictions from the different models. While recombination predictably affects the level of mutant alleles present in the population, the overall shape of the genotype distribution under the two models is quite similar, as are the general behavior of demographic outcomes such as lifespan and hazard rates. Furthermore, the distribution of genotypes under the assumption of no recombination may be well approximated by a Poisson random measure. The qualitative similarities in genotype distributions and demographic characters under these extreme models of genetic recombination suggest that attempts to model recombination in a more realistic manner may not add much to our understanding when viewed from a demographic perspective.The two models analyzed here, developed by Steinsaltz, Evans, and Wachter, are general enough to connect age-specific effects on demographic characters, such as mortality, to mechanisms of genetic change. While the 2005 model without recombination has a series solution, it cannot be directly evaluated except in the simplest of cases. Sampling from the distribution of genotypes in cases with a large number of mutation types is challenging. In this work we utilize a multiple-try Metropolis algorithm to sample from the distribution of genotypes for spaces containing up to 1000 different mutation types. We consider a variety of test cases, finding scenarios in which typical genotypes contain 100, 350 or even 850 mutations. Our success at accurately estimating genotype distributions and demographic outcomes under assumptions that produce such a large average number of mutations suggests that this model could be utilized under more realistic scenarios, such as mutations associated with age-related disease.


We comment on the jitter model model proposed by Stark [ J. Opt. Soc. Am., 5, 700, ( 1977)] to explain the spectal properties of a nonoverlapping grain structure (NOGS), and we discuss the points of concordance and disparity between Stark's work and our own. A more general formulation for the two-dimensional jitter model is established on a theoretical basis. This different approach permits deeper insight into the interpretation of jitter model spectral properties, as confirmed by our experimental results. A one-dimensional model generated by a Poisson process is used to establish the NOGS.


In transgenic mice expressing an antisense mRNA against the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which partially blocks GR expression, impaired glucocorticoid feedback efficacy is accompanied by reduced hypothalamic corticotropinreleasing hormone (CRH) and vasopressin (AVP) activity and reduced peripheral sympathetic tone, indications of a shift in the balance of hypothalamic CRH and sympathetic regulation. As angiotensin II (Ang II) regulates CRH, AVP and sympathetic activity, we studied the expression of Ang II receptors in the hypothalamus and adrenal gland of GR transgenic and wild-type mice, adrenal catecholamines and mRNA for their rate-limiting enzyme, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). We found that transgenic mice expressed significantly less numbers of Ang II AT1 receptors in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus and median eminence, lower numbers of AT2 receptors in supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei and lower numbers of AT2 receptors in the adrenal medulla when compared with wild-type controls. The expression of TH mRNA and the concentration of adrenomedullary epinephrine and norepinephrine were also lower in transgenic mice when compared with wild-type controls. Decreased hypothalamic and adrenal Ang II receptor stimulation as a result of decreased GR expression may explain the decreased hypothalamic CRH and AVP and decreased adrenomedullary and sympathetic activities in this model. Copyright © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel


The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis derives from the epidemiological and basic/mechanistic health sciences. This well‐supported hypothesis holds that environment during the earliest stages of life—pre‐conception, pregnancy, infancy—shapes developmental trajectories and ultimately health outcomes across the lifespan. Evolutionary anthropologists from multiple subdisciplines are embracing synergies between the DOHaD framework and developmentalist approaches from evolutionary biology. Even wider dissemination and employment of DOHaD concepts will benefit evolutionary anthropological research. Insights from experimental DOHaD work will focus anthropologists' attention on biochemical/physiological mechanisms underpinning observed links between growth/health/behavioral outcomes and environmental contexts. Furthermore, the communication tools and wide public appeal of developmentalist health scientific research may facilitate the translation/application of evolutionary anthropological findings. Evolutionary Anthropology, in turn, can increase mainstream DOHaD research's use of evolutionary theory; holistic, longitudinal, and community‐based perspectives; and engagement with populations whose environmental exposures differ from those most commonly studied in the health sciences.


Carbazole derivative is one sort of important nonlinear optical materials. In this work, new symmetric-type D-π-D carbazole derivatives, 3, 6 - di- substituted carbazole chromophores with two styryl bridges of the two-dimensional conjugated D-π-D system were synthesized via Witting reaction and characterized by IR, NMR and MS. The third-order nonlinear optical properties of the material were investigated using single-beam Z-scan technique with Sapphire femtosecond laser pulses at 800nm, repetition rate of 1 KHz and pulse width of 140fs. The results of Z-scan with and without an aperture showed that larger third-order nonlinear optical polarizabilities γ can be readily obtained in such carbazole chromophores because of the incorporation with two styryl bridges, increasing of conformational planarity and molecular conjugation length.


"Regional Policy in a Multiregional Setting: When the Poorest are Hurt by Subsidies" Regional subsidies have a positive short-term effect on the recipient regions, but as they alter migration patterns the long-term effects are less clear. This paper demonstrates using a three-region general equilibrium model that subsidising the poorest region may be to its detriment in the long term and thereby increase inter-regional inequality, if the subsidy draws firms from a nearby region that would function better as a production centre. The result has important implications for the design of regional policies, which are often applied simply according to per-capita incomes. "Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets" Standard trade models are essentially static and do not explain why entry to export markets would be delayed after the instant a firm is formed. This paper proposes a model that endogenously generates the timing of entry to new markets through a learning mechanism. Firms in the model gain experience by entering markets, which eases entry to subsequent markets. The mechanism motivates delays in entry to some markets. More productive firms are less sensitive to the learning effect and thus enter markets sooner and begin by exporting to larger markets. These predictions are confirmed using Swedish firm-level data. "Airports and the Production of Goods and Services" This paper estimates the effects of airport infrastructure on local employment in certain sectors, using data from the United States. Airport sizes are instrumented for using the 1944 National Airport Plan of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Airport size is found to have a positive effect on local employment in tradable services, with an elasticity of approximately 0.1, and a negative effect on manufacturing. There is no measurable effect on non-tradable services. The results are relevant to the evaluation of airport improvement projects, which are often carried out using public funds.


Management of legal compliance in the field of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has become a significant policy management challenge for French companies. Pushed to take action as a result of pressure that is as much socio-economic as legal or even moral, practical difficulties in the implementation of compliance management tools remain. In practice, whether it is the determination of the applicable legal requirements, the assessment of compliance with these requirements or the management of action plans, the methodological and technological difficulties are multiple. Standards, such as OHSAS 18001, attempt to provide solutions that improve management of OHS legal compliance through integration into a broader management system. Moreover, as standards offer a way to certify the quality of these systems they have a particular role to play in improving companies' awareness of OHS legislation. In order to clearly identify the obstacles encountered by OHS professionals, a wide-ranging quantitative survey of 820 OHS professionals was carried out in 2011. It had two principal objectives. The first was to study business practices in the area of regulatory monitoring and the assessment of legal compliance in the OHS domain. The second was to highlight the positive and/or negative relationships that may exist between the processes of compliance management and certification. This article consists of four parts. The first two describe the challenges presented by the development of the quantitative survey and the methodology used in its implementation. The third and fourth parts present the principal results.


The unicellular freshwater alga Micrasterias denticulata is an exceptional organism due to its complex star-shaped, highly symmetric morphology and has thus attracted the interest of researchers for many decades. As a member of the Streptophyta, Micrasterias is not only genetically closely related to higher land plants but shares common features with them in many physiological and cell biological aspects. These facts, together with its considerable cell size of about 200 μm, its modest cultivation conditions and the uncomplicated accessibility particularly to any microscopic techniques, make Micrasterias a very well suited cell biological plant model system. The review focuses particularly on cell wall formation and composition, dictyosomal structure and function, cytoskeleton control of growth and morphogenesis as well as on ionic regulation and signal transduction. It has been also shown in the recent years that Micrasterias is a highly sensitive indicator for environmental stress impact such as heavy metals, high salinity, oxidative stress or starvation. Stress induced organelle degradation, autophagy, adaption and detoxification mechanisms have moved in the center of interest and have been investigated with modern microscopic techniques such as 3-D- and analytical electron microscopy as well as with biochemical, physiological and molecular approaches. This review is intended to summarize and discuss the most important results obtained in Micrasterias in the last 20 years and to compare the results to similar processes in higher plant cells.


Background: Various hepatoprotective herbal products from plants are available in Mexico, where up to 85% of patients with liver disease use some form of complementary and alternative medicine. However, only few studies have reported on the biological evaluation of these products. Objective: Using a model of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatotoxicity in rats, we evaluated the effects of commercial herbal extracts used most commonly in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico. Materials and Methods: The commercial products were identified through surveys in public areas. The effect of these products given with or without CCl4 in rats was evaluated by measuring the serum concentrations of aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT), and histopathological analysis. Legalon® was used as the standard drug. Results: The most commonly used herbal products were Hepatisan® capsules, Boldo capsules, Hepavida® capsules, Boldo infusion, and milk thistle herbal supplement (80% silymarin). None of the products tested was hepatotoxic according to transaminase and histological analyses. AST and ALT activities were significantly lower in the Hepavida+CCl4-treated group as compared with the CCl4-only group. AST and ALT activities in the silymarin, Hepatisan, and Boldo tea groups were similar to those in the CCl4 group. The CCl4 group displayed submassive confluent necrosis and mixed inflammatory infiltration. Both the Hepatisan+CCl4 and Boldo tea+CCl4 groups exhibited ballooning degeneration, inflammatory infiltration, and lytic necrosis. The silymarin+CCl4 group exhibited microvesicular steatosis. The Hepavida+CCl4- and Legalon+CCL4-treated groups had lower percentages of necrotic cells as compared with the CCl4-treated group; this treatment was hepatoprotective against necrosis. Conclusion: Only Hepavida had a hepatoprotective effect.


Background Accelerated atherosclerosis has become the main cause of morbidity in patients with autoimmune diseases such as RA and SLE [1]. The Cholesterol/High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (TC/HDL-C) ratio is a high discriminatory power index for coronary heart disease. A high TC/HDL-C ratio has been intensively used as a predictor of CVDs [2]. EULAR Task Force recommended that the TC/HDL-C ratio should be regarded as an important prognostic indicator for future cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [3]. However, the relationship between the TC/HDL-C ratio and disease activity of Takayasu arteritis (TAK) is unclear. Objectives To investigate changes in the TC/HDL-C ratio and to evaluate the relationship between the TC/HDL-C ratio and disease activity of TAK. Methods A retrospective study of 103 patients with TAK and 73 healthy controls was performed. We compared the triglyceride (TG), TC, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL-C and TC/HDL-C ratio between patients and healthy controls, and we analyzed correlations between the lipid parameters and indexes of TAK activity. A ROC curve was used to determine the predictive value of TC/HDL-C ratio in patients group. Results The TG level was higher in patients with TAK than in the controls (p=0.000). The TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C levels were significantly lower in patients with TAK than in the controls (p=0.000, p=0.000, and p=0.000, respectively). The HDL-C level was significantly lower in the active TAK group than in the inactive TAK group (p=0.005). The TC/HDL-C ratio was significantly increased in patients with disease activity (p=0.001), and it exhibited a positive relationship with the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level (r=0.234, p=0.003) and Kerr score (r=0.219, p=0.031). In addition, the TC/HDL-C ratio of 3.698 was determined as a predictive cut-off value of TAK (sensitivity 61.0%, specificity 78.6%, area under the curve=0.743) (Figure 1). Conclusions For the first time, we showed that serum levels of TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C were significantly lower in patients with TAK, and the TC/HDL-C ratio has a positive relationship with the disease activity of TAK, suggesting that the TC/HDL-C ratio may be a potential indicator for monitoring the disease activity of patients with TAK. References Symmons DP, Gabriel SE: Epidemiology of CVD in rheumatic disease, with a focus on RA and SLE. Nat Rev Rheumatol 2011, 7(7):399–408. Zhou Q, Wu J, Tang J, Wang JJ, Lu CH, Wang PX: Beneficial Effect of Higher Dietary Fiber Intake on Plasma HDL-C and TC/HDL-C Ratio among Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Workers. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2015, 12(5):4726–4738. Peters MJ, Symmons DP, McCarey D, Dijkmans BA, Nicola P, Kvien TK, McInnes IB, Haentzschel H, Gonzalez-Gay MA, Provan S et al: EULAR evidence-based recommendations for cardiovascular risk management in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other forms of inflammatory arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 2010, 69(2):325–331. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Abstract. We present a statistical study of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) as observed by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) during the continuous IPY-run (March 2007–February 2008) with field-aligned measurements. We have developed a semi-automatic routine for searching and extracting Atmospheric Gravity Wave (AGW) activity. The collected data shows that AGW-TID signatures are common in the high-latitude ionosphere especially in the field-aligned ion velocity data (244 cases of AGW-TID signatures in daily records), but they can be observed also in electron density (26 cases), electron temperature (12 cases) and ion temperature (26 cases). During the IPY campaign (in solar minimum conditions) AGW-TID events appear more frequently during summer months than during the winter months. It remains still as a topic for future studies whether the observed seasonal variation is natural or caused by seasonal variation in the performance of the observational method that we use (AGW-TID signature may be more pronounced in a dense ionosphere). In our AGW-TID dataset the distribution of the oscillation periods has two peaks, one around 0.5–0.7 h and the other around 1.1–1.3 h. The diurnal occurrence rate has a deep minimum in the region of magnetic midnight, which might be partly explained by irregular auroral activity obscuring the TID signatures from our detection routines. As both the period and horizontal phase speed estimates (as derived from the classical AGW dispersion relation) show values typical both for large scale TIDs and mesoscale TIDs it is difficult to distinguish whether the generator for high-latitude AGW-TIDs resides typically in the troposphere or in the near-Earth space. The results of our statistical analysis give anyway some valuable reference information for the future efforts to learn more about the dominating TID source mechanisms in polar cap conditions, and to improve AGW simulations.


Legal inheritance is one of the most important institutions of inheritance law which regulates the process of legal transition of property of the decedent to one or several heirs. The establish-ment of the legal framework has brought about new reforms to the Inheritance Law. This has enabled the enrichment and functio-ning of the law. A particularly important step was taken towards regulation of legal procedures regarding to how courts, other or-gans and other persons should act regarding inheritance issues. Concretization of the legal authorizations of bodies authorized to enforce the procedure of processing hereditary property has estab-lished the legal basis for realization of the iso jure principle, accor-ding to which, at the moment of death of the person, the heirs gain the right of inheritance and the hereditary property is never left without a titleholder. This is a great advantage that we have noted in undertaking this analysis of the norms in this work, because leaving hereditary property for a longer period of time without a titleholder would render the property vulnerable to des-truction, theft and extermination. The goal of this paper is to avoid focusing only on finding the positive sides of the normative regulation of the legal inheritance process, but also in finding practical deficiencies that are weighing down at the moment on this important process in Kosovo, and in proposing measures for overcoming them. The dark side of the legal inheritance process is linked to the inefficiency of courts and the still fragile legal system in Kosovo. By implementing empirical methods, we have come to the con-clusion that the low number of judges in proportion with the huge number of cases has become a key liability for practical implemen-tation of the principle of initiating the legal procedure ex officio . The failure in enforcing this principle and initiating the procedu-res for processing of hereditary property by courts, even though they are obli-gated by law (article 96 of the Non-contentious Procedure Law), has caused a chaotic state in legal proceeding of hereditary property, because many physical persons have died or have been declared dead, while legal procedures for pro-perty proceeding have not been initiated, or even if they have, cases remain pending for years in courts. To overcome this situation, it is imperative to increase the number of judges in a short period of time.


WHEN considering and discussing the fate of the Britons within AngloSaxon England, we invariably seem to find ourselves forced to choose between two hypotheses. The first of these, and perhaps currently the less fashionable, is that a 'mass migration' of Germanic peoples committed genocide against the inhabitants of the Insular territories they conquered, creating a situation in which all subsequent generations of Anglo-Saxons were descended entirely, or almost entirely, from fifth-century immigrants. The second, the 'elite emulation model', perhaps most clearly articulated in our editor's 1992 monograph Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons, holds that incoming Germans supplied only an aristocratic elite who farmed large estates tilled by native Britons, who gradually aped their lords and became culturally indistinguishable from them over time.1 Whilst the elite emulation model has become widely accepted amongst British archaeologists, who have, perhaps, become used to the concept of the diffusion of trends in material culture without recourse to models requiring large-scale population movement, it has proved less easy for historians and linguists to accept. This has largely been due to the perceived problem created by the AngloSaxon language: Old English seems far too close in both structure and form to its nearest Continental Germanic neighbours and to lack any substantive evidence of influence from either a Celtic or Romance substratum underlying it, which one would expect had large numbers of Britons switched language on passing acquaintance with their landlords then reinforced their competence only by practising amongst themselves. Archaeologists have tended to be dismissive of this evidence, Richard Hodges even describing language as an insoluble 'conundrum'.2 To some extent this disciplinary divide is the result of natural selection. As youngsters beginning to show an interest in the past, most of us did not clearly distinguish between Archaeology and History, but at university, or shortly before, when we were forced to make the choice between the two, it was only natural that those of us who were more attracted to and had a greater affinity for material culture went down one route and those whose fascination lay with words down another. For this reason archaeologists and historians are likely to place different values upon linguistic evidence.


Studies of brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) are traditionally based on biochemical assays, immunoreactivity, and histochemistry. Conventional histochemistry yields rich morphological data from tissue sections but yields quantitative results only with great difficulty. Several histochemical methods developed in recent years, including microdensitometry, microphotometry, and video-based histochemistry, are effective in quantitative and detailed study of AChE in tissue sections. However, they are usually time-consuming. As we report here, we adapted digital scanning densitometry to quantitate AChE histochemical staining in brain sections. The AChE and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), as measured by the method, were heterogeneously distributed throughout the brain, results that are consistent with those obtained by biochemical methods. The staining intensity is dependent on section thickness, substrate concentration, and reaction time. The cholinesterase inhibitor methyl paraoxon significantly decreased AChE staining intensity. Furthermore, data acquired from densitometry are similar to those obtained by video-based microscopy or by spectrophotometry. The advantage of the densitometric measurements compared to other quantitative histochemical methods is that it is very rapid while collecting data that are equivalent in quality. Because the digital scanning densitometers provide high quality and sensitive imaging, wide dynamic ranges, and convenient image analysis software, they are very useful tools in quantitative histochemistry.


If fear memory is expressed by a long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission in the amygdala, then reversal of LTP (depotentiation) in this area of the brain may provide an important mechanism for amelioration of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Herein, we show that low-frequency stimulation (LFS) of the external capsule elicits a depotentiation in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala. The induction of depotentiation requires activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and voltage-dependent calcium channels but is independent of adenosine A(1) and metabotropic glutamate group II receptors. Extracellular perfusion or loading cells with protein phosphatase (PP) 2B (calcineurin) inhibitors prevents depotentiation. The same stimulating protocol applied to the amygdala in vivo attenuates the expression of fear memory measured with fear-potentiated startle and reduces conditioning-elicited phosphorylation of Akt and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). This is paralleled by an increase in the activity of calcineurin. In addition, application of calcineurin inhibitor blocks LFS-induced extinction of fear memory and MAPK dephosphorylation. Taken together, this study characterizes the properties of LFS-induced depotentiation in the amygdala and suggests an involvement of calcineurin cascade in synaptic plasticity and memory storage.


We present a pulsed THz Imaging System with a line focus intended to speed up measurements. A balanced 1-D detection scheme working with two industrial line-scan cameras is used. The instrument is implemented without the need for an amplified laser system, increasing the industrial applicability. The instrumental characteristics are determined.


Rationale: β-catenin is a component for cell adhesion and a transcriptional coactivator in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Previously we found that catalytically active PLK1 drives EMT in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), upregulating extracellular matrix factors including TSG6, laminin γ2, and CD44. To understand the underlying mechanism and clinical significance of PLK1 and β-catenin in NSCLC, their relationship and function in metastatic regulation were investigated. Methods: The clinical relevance between the survival rate of NSCLC patients and the expression of PLK1 and β-catenin was analyzed by a KM plot. Immunoprecipitation, kinase assay, LC-MS/MS spectrometry, and site-directed mutagenesis were performed to reveal their interaction and phosphorylation. A lentiviral doxycycline-inducible system, Transwell-based 3D culture, tail-vein injection model, confocal microscopy, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were used to elucidate the function of phosphorylated β-catenin in the EMT of NSCLC. Results: Clinical analysis revealed that the high expression of CTNNB1/PLK1 was inversely correlated with the survival rates of 1,292 NSCLC patients, especially in metastatic NSCLC. In TGF-β-induced or active PLK1-driven EMT, β-catenin, PLK1, TSG6, laminin γ2, and CD44 were concurrently upregulated. β-catenin is a binding partner of PLK1 in TGF-β-induced EMT and is phosphorylated at S311. Phosphomimetic β-catenin promotes cell motility, invasiveness of NSCLC cells, and metastasis in a tail-vein injection mouse model. Its upregulated stability by phosphorylation enhances transcriptional activity through nuclear translocation for the expression of laminin γ2, CD44, and c-Jun, therefore enhancing PLK1 expression by AP-1. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence for the critical role of the PLK1/β-catenin/AP-1 axis in metastatic NSCLC, implying that β-catenin and PLK1 may serve as a molecular target and prognostic indicator of the therapeutic response in metastatic NSCLC patients.


This report presents descriptive statistics from Colombian water and sanitation data, and corresponding public opinion data. The water and sanitation data are at the firm and municipality level and produced by several Colombian government agencies. The public opinion data are provided by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP).


Currently, it still lacks the controlled studies which compare differences in the machinability between the TA15 alloy and network-structured TiBw/TA15 composites, which is not conducive to promoting the design and practical application of the TiBw/TA15 composites. Therefore, in this paper, the impact of material properties on the micro-cutting performances of the two materials is explored through the in-situ high-speed imaging and digital image correlation (DIC) technique. During the investigation, the chip formation process is recorded under diverse cutting load conditions, and the thermoplastic deformation in the shear plane is quantified using successive images and analyzed based on the microstructural and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the microstructural deformations in the machined subsurface are observed and evaluated for the two materials. The results indicate that the inhomogeneous deformation in micro-cutting that inevitably occurs in the TA15 alloy is improved in the TiBw/TA15 composites. And in comparison to the TA15 alloy, the TiBw/TA15 composites have greater temperatures and smaller accumulative plastic strain at failure in the shear plane due to the influences of macro- and micro-mechanical properties. While the comparison of equivalent strain rates between the two materials depends on the chip type of TA15 alloy. Accordingly, the subsurface deformation of the TA15 ally is notably anisotropic, while the micro-cracks and voids induced by TiBw reinforcement damage are evident in TiBw/TA15 composites. These findings can provide new insights for the future simulation and prediction of micro-cutting multiphase materials.


High-resolution imagery reveals unprecedented lines of evidence for the presence of deformation band clusters in layered sedimentary deposits in the equatorial region of Mars. Deformation bands are a class of geologic structural discontinuity that is a precursor to faults in clastic rocks and soils. Clusters of deformation bands, consisting of many hundreds of individual subparallel bands, can act as important structural controls on subsurface fl uid fl ow in terrestrial reservoirs, and evidence of diagenetic processes is often preserved along them. Deformation band clusters are identifi ed on Mars based on characteristic meter-scale architectures and geologic context as observed in data from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The identifi cation of deformation band clusters on Mars is a key to investigating the migration of fl uids between surface and subsurface reservoirs in the planet's vast sedimentary deposits. Similar to terrestrial examples, evidence of diagenesis in the form of lightand dark-toned discoloration and wall-rock induration is recorded along many of the deformation band clusters on Mars. Therefore, these structures are important sites for future exploration and investigations into the geologic history of water and waterrelated processes on Mars.


Summary Currently multimedia services for customers are rapidly being deployed (e.g. IPTV), and scalable multicasting is required for the needs of the services, e.g. robustness, security, and QoS. While native IP multicast is considered a good solution for the multimedia services, variety of overlay multicast mechanisms have been suggested to remove the barriers that block deployment of IP multicast on Internet. However, most of overlay multicast mechanisms do not consider host group model, which is not a problematic portion, but an advantageous feature of traditional IP multicast in terms of scalability, robustness, and security. In this paper, we propose a hybrid and hierarchical scheme to take advantages of both IP multicast and overlay multicast, based on host group model to gain performance efficiency for many group members on subnet dense mode. Overall network performance enhancement is shown in the performance analysis of our scheme, regarding low latency, small stress, and optimal stretch for multimedia receivers in subnet dense mode.


Label Distribution Learning (LDL) is a novel learning paradigm, aim of which is to minimize the distance between the model output and the ground-truth label distribution. We notice that, in real-word applications, the learned label distribution model is generally treated as a classification model, with the label corresponding to the highest model output as the predicted label, which unfortunately prompts an inconsistency between the training phrase and the test phrase. To solve the inconsistency, we propose in this paper a new Label Distribution Learning algorithm for Classification (LDL4C). Firstly, instead of KL-divergence, absolute loss is applied as the measure for LDL4C. Secondly, samples are re-weighted with information entropy. Thirdly, large margin classifier is adapted to boost discrimination precision. We then reveal that theoretically LDL4C seeks a balance between generalization and discrimination. Finally, we compare LDL4C with existing LDL algorithms on 17 real-word datasets, and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of LDL4C in classification.


Hundreds of thousands of people from different physical locations can join virtual worlds whenever they want to interact with each other and create objects in a computer-based simulated environment, typically in an interactive 3D format. The rich social media data generated in virtual worlds has important implications for business, education, social science, and society at large. However, how to collect such social media data is a relatively unexplored topic and remains an issue. In this study, we developed an integrated framework combining both bot-based and spider-based approaches to collect avatar behavioral and profile data. Following the proposed framework, we conducted a case study to examine avatar action differences between the two genders as well as between young-aged and old-aged avatars. The results of the case study indicated that in general male avatars tended to perform more active physical actions than female avatars, and young-aged avatars tended to perform more active physical actions than old-aged avatars.


ABSTRACT In this paper, we identify ways in which the learning of very young children can be supported by practitioners developing a schematic pedagogy which focuses on structures of children's thinking. First, we provide a critical overview of relevant literature on schemas and schematic approaches to pedagogy. We then outline an original study undertaken to identify and support the learning of seven young children. Taking one child, whom we call Annie, we illustrate how her attention to the fine detail of elements of her home and group environments as she played offered strong clues to her pedagogues about her persistent interests (schemas). We show how careful observation by practitioners can be used to understand and support future learning encounters through a schematic pedagogy, and we consider implications of such an approach for practice in toddlers' early learning.


A radio transceiver architecture for concurrent processing of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (IEE 802.11b) radio signals in the 2.4 GHz ISM band is presented. The architecture is tailored for low power implementation in a standard deep sub-micron CMOS process. It adopts an innovative frequency plan exploiting adaptive frequency hopping for the concurrent processing and of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radio signals. A link budget analysis is performed to map out system level requirements to block level specifications.


INTRODUCTION: Back pain can affect quality of life and independence of elderly people. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of back pain in a cohort of elderly primary health care patients, as well as to analyse pain therapy and level of satisfaction with therapy. METHODS: In a monitored prospective cohort study (German epidemiological trial on ankle brachial index, getABI), 6 880 unselected patients aged 65 years and above have been followed up by 344 representative primary care physicians in Germany since October 2001. In the 5-year follow-up, 2 120 patients (median age 76; 70-94 years; 53.7% women) were interviewed by telephone about location and intensity of pain during the past 3 months, about impairment due to pain, about pain therapy and satisfaction with therapy. RESULTS: Of the 2 095 patients who answered the questions on pain, 803 (38.3%) had suffered from pain of the upper and/or lower back within the past 3 months. The prevalence of back pain was higher in female than in male patients (45.0% vs. 30.6%; p<0.05). In about half of the men and half of the women with back pain, the back was also the main pain region. This subsample (n=409) with the back as main pain region (BMP) was analysed in more detail. The mean "von Korff intensity score" (scale 0-100) was 46.5±19.9, the mean "von Korff impairment score" (scale 0-100) was 23.6±23.0. Women reported a higher mean intensity of back pain than men (48.8±20.0 vs. 42.4±19.3; p<0.05) and complained about a higher pain-related impairment (26.2±23.5 vs. 19.2±21.5; p<0.05). Of all BMP patients, 253 (61.9%) visited a physician (at least once) during the past 3 months due to pain. The treatments most frequently applied (multiple answers permitted) were: oral medication (62.5%), injections (38.6%), and physiotherapy (35.9%). Patients (n=224) were asked to rate the therapy on a scale from 1 to 6 (1 being the highest grade). The mean rating was 3.1±1.4. 36.8% were not satisfied with pain relief. 61.4% wished for a considerable improvement of their pain therapy. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of back pain in elderly people is high and leads to functional limitations. As a consequence of the rather low mean satisfaction with pain therapy, future studies on back pain therapy should include an assessment of patient preferences and satisfaction with therapy. It remains questionable, if the current medical care for elderly people with back pain complies with the latest guidelines that demand for multimodal therapy.


English language, as a vital foreign language, has received considerable attention in the last 25 years in education in the People's Republic of China. Moreover, with the development of second language acquisition theories in these years, more theories and ideologies have been introduced into China. Autonomous learning is an important case in point. When the idea of 'autonomous learning ' was brought into EFL teaching and learning at the beginning of the 1990s, some Chinese scholars accepted the concept without any critical thought of its application in a Chinese context, which results in an increasing blurring of its boundaries. This paper firstly gives an overview of the development of autonomous learning in the PRC , and then secondly moves to present the model of English language learning and teaching by using autonomous learning theory within the Chinese context., Finally it utilizes information that leads to the suggestions and recommendations to university staff, students and SAC managers in the PRC.


Changes of membrane potential (MP), amplitude of action potential (AAP) and continuence of AP (CAP) of identified neurons of leech Haemopis sanguisuga have been investigated at high intracellular Na+ concentration. It has been shown that a moderate increase of intracellular Na+ concentration leads to hyperpolarization of the membrane to 15 mV and a certain increase of AAP and CAP. A further increase of [Na+]in leads to a sharp decrease of AAP and small decrease of CAP. Possible mechanisms of the phenomena described are discussed.


Introduction We reviewed our experience of the multidisciplinary collaboration between ophthalmologists, head and neck surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists and oncologists in the management of extensive tumors treated by orbital exenteration at the Humanitas Research Institute, Milan, Italy, over the past 10 years. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of all patients who underwent orbital exenteration between March 2005 and August 2014 at the Humanitas Research Institute. The 10-year cohort of exenterated patients was identified through operating room notes using the clinical code set of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10). Results A total of 26 patients were identified, including 19 (73.1%) males. The median age was 65.5 years (range 37-87). Eighteen (69.2%) patients had major skin cancers extending to the orbit. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts: cohort 1 comprising patients with sinus or craniofacial cancers requiring orbital exenteration, and cohort 2 comprising patients with advanced periorbital skin cancers. The two cohorts were well matched for sex, age at surgery, degree of invasion, extension of surgical removal, necessity of adjuvant radiotherapy, reconstruction processes, and rehabilitation. Conclusions In our experience patients never died of the primary lesion but because of the occurrence of other problems. So we encourage local surgical radicality.


This article argues that visual representations of the U.S.–Mexico border wall in the popular media, including Time Magazine and National Geographic, portray the border region as lifeless and desolate. These representations negate the possibility of viewing the border as a dynamic and diverse area that is verdant and home to communities and rich cultural histories. The article begins with an overview of popular representations of the U.S.–Mexico border, focusing on the ways that this imagery reinforces calls for militarizing it. The authors then offer alternative representations of the border through their own anthropological photo essay of the U.S.–Mexico border wall.


In this paper we present a new class of language models. This class derives from link grammar, a context-free formalism for the description of natural language. We describe an algorithm for determining maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters of these models. The language models which we present differ from previous models based on stochastic context-free grammars in that they are highly lexical. In particular, they include the familiar $n$-gram models as a natural subclass. The motivation for considering this class is to estimate the contribution which grammar can make to reducing the relative entropy of natural language.


Abstract. The flexible Cartesian robotic manipulator (FCRM) is coming into widespread application in industry. Because of the feeble rigidity and heavy deflection, the dynamic characteristics of the FCRM are easily influenced by external disturbances which mainly concentrate in the driving end and the load end. Thus, with the influence of driving base disturbance and terminal load considered, the motion differential equations of the FCRM under the plane motion of the base are constructed, which contain the forced and non-linear parametric excitations originated from the disturbances of base lateral and axial motion respectively. Considering the relationship between the coefficients of the motion differential equations and the mode shapes of the flexible manipulator, the analytic expressions of the mode shapes with terminal load are deduced. Then, based on multiple scales method and rectangular coordinate transformation, the average equations of the FCRM are derived to analyze the influence mechanism of base disturbance and terminal load on the system parametric vibration stability. The results show that terminal load mainly affects the node locations of mode shapes and mode frequencies of the FCRM, and the axial motion disturbance of the driving base introduces parametric excitation while the lateral motion disturbance generates forced excitation for the transverse vibration model of the FCRM. Furthermore, with the increase of the base excitation acceleration and terminal load, the parametric vibration instability region of the FCRM increases significantly. This study will be helpful for the dynamic characteristics analysis and vibration control of the FCRM.


The article argues that Turkish foreign policy has moved beyond slogans. An overview of Turkey's relations with Syria, Iraq, Iran and Israel shows that Turkey is increasingly more relaxed, mature and flexible in its foreign policy, and is constantly enhancing its repertoire of policy tools. As far as security is concerned, relying mainly on soft power, Turkish strategy is closer to the European strategy in that it tries to look to the security of whole population groups and their general welfare. Turkey's domestic transformation, consolidation of democracy and economic growth have been major factors in the formulation of this new foreign policy and in the emergence of Turkey as a trading power, stabilizing force and peace-promoter in the region. Nevertheless, it is also seen that Turkey is now mature enough to employ different strategies in its relations with regional actors and in dealing with security issues


Purpose

This paper presents a thematic review of app-enabled learning in the context of recent developments in mobile technology and m-learning. Three key themes are presented that reflect the issues that teachers, school leaders and systems have grappled with in recent years.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on findings from a range of case studies and literature reviews, the present time is examined as an opportunity to explore more pedagogically informed uses of mobile devices, and "app smashing" is suggested as an approach that moves the learner beyond the underlying limitations of constraining the learning to individual apps.

Findings

Findings include the benefits and limitations of mobile devices for learning in current education institutions. The paper also highlights several contexts where "app smashing" has been achieved and identifies the implications for educators across all educational contexts moving forward.

Research limitations/implications

While educators and learners alike continue to wrestle with understanding and meaningfully using a growing number of tools, platforms and ecosystems, more recent paradigms such as cloud computing now point to "device agnosticism" and "convergence" as the new normal (Garner et al., 2005; Prince, 2011).

Practical implications

At the same time, there is the emergence of what Rideout et al. (2013) refer to as the "app gap", in which "lower-income children (ages 0-8) have more than 50 per cent less experience using mobile devices than higher-income children in the same age group" (p. 10). Combined with the problems of app overload, the lack of institutional support, insufficient guidance and unclear policy, there remain some pressing issues that need to be addressed.

Social implications

By designing the learning task as independent of the technology, the teacher is arguably better equipped to carefully and purposefully select apps as cognitive steppingstones within the learning task, resulting in tasks that more consistently challenge students to develop a wide range of digital skills. As Berson et al. (2012) note, through the use of carefully selected apps, students "learn a new form of literacy as they move between apps and engage in both personalized and collaborative learning experiences" (p. 89).

Originality/value

The paper sheds light on the areas where mobile devices are most likely to benefit learning in the coming years.


Multisensor data fusion is highly applicable in robotics applications because the relationships among objects and events changes due to the change in orientation of robot, snag in sensory information, sensor range and environmental conditions etc. High level and low level image processing in machine vision are widely involved to investigate object identification in complex application. Due to the limitations of vision technology still it is difficult to identify the objects in certain environments. A new technique of object identification using sonar sensor fusion has been proposed. This paper explains the computational account of the data fusion using Bayesian and neural network to recognize the shape of object in the dynamic environment.


As the energy crisis and environment pollution growing severely, the hydrogen fuel motor vehicle has got more and more attention, many automobile companies and research institutions invest significant R&D resources to research and develop the hydrogen fuel vehicles. With the development of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fuel motor vehicles, the hydrogen had more to more extensive application. According to the categories of the hydrogen fuel vehicles, the characteristics of hydrogen fuel vehicle fire risk and accidents are analyzed in this paper. As for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the function of its key components such as the fuel cell, the high-pressure storage tank is presented firstly. Then, based on the low density, fast diffusion and flammable of hydrogen, the probable scenarios of accident such as fuel leak, jet flame are analyzed and the fire risk of the key components and the whole vehicle is evaluated. Finally, the development trend of the emergency warning system of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is analyzed and some recommendations are proposed referring to the detection, pre-warning and control technologies used in the industrial sites. Aiming at the hydrogen car structure characteristics and the fire accident modes and accidents evolution rules, the emergency disposal technology system for hydrogen fuel motor vehicles is put forward.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of the determinants of credit risk in commercial banks in Kosovo through the use of regression analysis for a dataset covering a time series of 7 years (2012 - 2018). Design/Methodology/Approach: The data have been collected from publications of Central Bank of Kosovo and from Kosovo Agency of Statistics The data have been analyzed on quarterly basis. In order to conduct the empirical part of the study that gives us the answer to the relationship between credit risk and the determinants of this risk, we analyzed 6 variables in the study. To perform the necessary analysis we have used the statistical software SPSS 23. Through the regression analysis, the main findings and results of the study were generated. Findings: After analyzing the necessary data, the paper concludes that, among credit risk determinants, interest rates on loans and profitability of banks (ROA) have the largest and most significant impact on credit risk, namely non-performing loans as the credit risk measure. Practical implications: For researchers and academics, the study provides a useful basis on which further studies on credit risk and the factors that cause this risk can be conducted. Originality/Value: The research paper is based on recent studies that assess credit risk in other countries and use reliable data on the banking sector in Kosovo.


Managing radio spectrum resources is a crucial issue. The frequency assignment problem (FAP) basically aims to allocate limited number of frequencies to communication links in an efficient manner. Geographically close links, however, cause interference, which complicates the assignment, imposing frequency separation constraints. The FAP is closely related to the graph-coloring problem and it is an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we propose to incorporate the randomization into greedy and fast heuristics. As far as being implemented, the proposed algorithms are quite straight forward and are unencumbered by system parameters that need to be tuned whenever the system changes. The proposed algorithms significantly improve, quickly and effectively, the solutions obtained by greedy algorithms in terms of the number of assigned frequencies and the range. The enhanced versions of the proposed algorithms perform close to the lower bounds while running in a reasonable duration. Another novelty of our study is its consideration of the net filter discrimination effects in the communication model. Performance analysis is done by synthetic and measured data, where the measurement data includes the effect of the real 3-dimensional (3D) geographical features in the Daejeon region in Korea. In both cases, we observe a significant improvement by employing randomized heuristics.


Hemoptysis is an infrequent symptom in childhood and potentially life threatening. The most common causes in this age group are bronchiectasis secondary to cystic fibrosis, cardiovascular and pulmonary congenital anomalies and a miscelaneous group of causes including retained intrabronchial aspirated foreign bodies. We report a previously healthy 5-year-old girl with recurrent pneumonias associated with episodes of hemoptysis. She was admitted in our institution to investigate the persistence of hemoptysis. Based on clinical history, aspiration of a vegetal foreign body was postulated as the etiology and it was confirmed in the pathological examination after surgical exploration, with pulmonary lobe resection. The importance of a good history taking in pediatric hemoptysis is emphatized


Objective This study aimed to investigate the relationship between persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical lesion. Methods Clinical data of 16,320 patients who visited our clinic between January 2009 and December 2013 were collected. Retrospective analysis was performed to analyze the overall HPV infection and compare the infection rates of different subtypes among different age groups, to reveal the relationship between persistent HPV infection and cervical cytology. Results The overall prevalence of HPV was 26.54%. The most common genotypes were HPV 52, HPV 16, HPV 58, CP8304, and HPV 53. The highest overall high-risk HPV prevalence was found in women older than 60 years, and the lowest prevalence was found in women between the ages of 30 and 39 years. There was no significant difference in low-risk HPV prevalence among different age groups (p = .693). The HPV clearance rate after 1 year among those with initial positive test was 87.65%. The constituent ratios of high- or low-risk HPV subtypes were not significantly different (p = .545) between nonpersistent-positive and persistent-positive (PP) groups. Conversely, the constituent ratios of singe- or multi-type HPV infection were significantly different (p < .05) between these 2 groups. The most common subtypes in PP group were HPV 16, 52, 58, CP8304, and 33. The occurrence rates of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, and squamous cell carcinoma in the PP group significantly increased (p < .05). Conclusions Persistent HPV infections are mainly caused by multiple types of HPV and high-risk HPV. Our region should particularly pay attention to the prevention and treatment of HPV 16, 52, and 58.


This article proposes a conceptual framework of learning based on perspectives and methodologies being employed in the study of complex physical and social systems to inform educational research. We argue that the contexts in which learning occurs are complex systems with elements or agents at different levels—including neuronal, cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal, cultural—in which there are feedback interactions within and across levels of the systems so that collective properties arise (i.e., emerge) from the behaviors of the parts, often with properties that are not individually exhibited by those parts. We analyze the long-running cognitive versus situative learning debate and propose that a complex systems conceptual framework of learning (CSCFL) provides a principled way to achieve a theoretical rapprochement. We conclude with a consideration of more general implications of the CSCFL for educational research.


Proinsulin C-peptide causes multiple molecular and physiological effects, and improves renal and neuronal dysfunction in patients with diabetes. However, whether C-peptide controls the inhibitor kappaB (IkappaB)/NF-kappaB-dependent transcription of genes, including inflammatory genes is unknown. Here we showed that 1 nM C-peptide increased the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA and its protein in Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts. Consistently, C-peptide enhanced COX-2 gene promoter-activity, which was inhibited by GF109203X and Go6976, specific PKC inhibitors, and BAY11-7082, a specific nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) inhibitor, accompanied by increased phosphorylation and degradation of IkappaB. These results suggest that C-peptide stimulates the transcription of inflammatory genes via activation of a PKC/IkappaB/NF-kappaB signaling pathway.


This book provides a compact yet comprehensive treatment of advanced data-driven signal processing techniques for the analysis and characterization of both ambient power system data and transient oscillations resulting from major disturbances. Inspired by recent developments in multi-sensor data fusion, multi-temporal data assimilation techniques for power system monitoring are proposed and tested in the context of modern wide-area monitoring system architectures. Recent advances in understanding and modeling nonlinear, time-varying power system processes are reviewed and factors affecting the performance these techniques are discussed. A number of algorithms and examples are presented throughout the text as an aid to understanding the basic material provided. Challenges involved in realistic monitoring, visualization and analysis of actual disturbance events are emphasized and examples of applications to a wide range of power networks are provided. Topics covered include: wide-area monitoring and analysis
systems; wide-area monitoring system architectures; spatio-temporal modeling of power system dynamic processes; advanced data processing and feature extraction; multi-sensor multitemporal data fusion; monitoring the status of the system; near real-time analysis and monitoring; and interpretation and visualization of wide-area PMU measurements. This book will be of interest to students, researchers and engineers involved in the study, design, analysis and control of power systems.