In this report, I discuss the use of vision to support concrete, everyday activity. I will argue that a variety of interesting tasks can be solved using simple and inexpensive vision systems. I will provide a number of working examples in the form of a state-of-the-art mobile robot, Polly, which uses vision to give primitive tours of the seventh floor of the MIT AI Laboratory. By current standards, the robot has a broad behavioral repertoire and is both simple and inexpensive (the complete robot was built for less than \$20,000 using commercial board-level components). The approach I will use will be to treat the structure of the agent''s activity- --its task and environment---as positive resources for the vision system designer. By performing a careful analysis of task and environment, the designer can determine a broad space of mechanisms which can perform the desired activity. My principal thesis is that for a broad range of activities, the space of applicable mechanisms will be broad enough to include a number mechanisms which are simple and economical. The simplest mechanisms that solve a given problem will typically be quite specialized to that problem. One thus worries that building simple vision systems will be require a great deal of {\it ad-hoc} engineering that cannot be transferred to other problems. My second thesis is that specialized systems can be analyzed and understood in a principled manner, one that allows general lessons to be extracted from specialized systems. I will present a general approach to analyzing specialization through the use of transformations that provably improve performance. By demonstrating a sequence of transformations that derive a specialized system from a more general one, we can summarize the specialization of the former in a compact form that makes explicit the additional assumptions that it makes about its environment. The summary can be used to predict the performance of the system in novel environments. Individual transformations can be recycled in the design of future systems.


This paper describes a gestural approach to interacting with interactive narrative characters that supports co-creativity. It describes our approach using a Microsoft Kinect to created a short scene with an intelligent avatar and an AI-controlled actor. It describes our preliminary user studies and a recommendation for future evaluation.


Technology of Cruise Control have old introduced as alternative solution in make-up of freshment of driving functioning as driver assistant, where all system walk automatically. Determination of distance and position [is] oftentimes obtained from result of complex mathematical process which [is] its tardy process relative. Pursuant to [at] fact that, [at] taken away from [by] information human being navigasi [is] environment only in the form of condition of environment pursuant to nature of object distance [about/around] him. So that logic of fuzzy according to perception of us can be used as [by] method to process the navigasi.
[At] this final Duty will present implementation conduct logic of fuzzy [at] robot mobile to conduct Cruise Control, where all system walk automatically, control [so that/ to be] robot mobile remain to [at] band walke and accelerate with certain speed. To take care of constantly within band, robot mobile take data apart from six ultrasonic censor. By using logic control system of fuzzy, will be given [by] sinyal conduct [at] both motor of DC to lessen or speeding up [him/ it]. And if its front there are other robot mobile which [is] its lower speed hence Cruise Control to follow robot mobile will be active, and logic control system of fuzzy will always keep distance peaceful by arranging [his/its] [him/ it].


IMPORTANCE
Understanding the long-term participation restrictions after breast cancer (BC) is crucial for developing occupation-based interventions.

OBJECTIVE
To (1) compare women's participation during the BC subacute phase (2 yr postdiagnosis) with the chronic (5 yr postdiagnosis) phase, (2) explore factors associated with participation in the chronic phase, and (3) describe strategies women use to overcome participation restrictions.

DESIGN
Descriptive longitudinal study.

SETTING
A community health service in Israel.

PARTICIPANTS
A convenience sample of 30 women (M age = 53.9 yr, SD = 8.3) diagnosed with BC (Stages 1-3).

OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Demographic and BC-related symptom questionnaires; an adapted version of the Activity Card Sort, used to assess retained activity levels (RALs) compared with prediagnosis activity levels in sociocultural, physical, and instrumental domains; the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure; and one open-ended qualitative question, "How were you able to retain your participation in daily activities despite the long-term effects of BC?"

RESULTS
Significantly higher total RALs were found in most domains for women in the chronic (M = 0.93 RAL, SD = 0.27) compared with the subacute (M = 0.71, SD = 0.22) phase, t(29) = 4.72, p < .001. Almost half the women achieved clinically significant change in their meaningful activities. Lower levels of participation were significantly correlated with higher symptom severity. The qualitative findings indicated that coping strategies, such as positive thinking and changing priorities, helped in managing women's participation.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Participation restrictions and residual BC-related symptoms 5 yr postdiagnosis demonstrated the need for a comprehensive evaluation and early occupational therapy intervention to prevent long-term restrictions. What This Article Adds: This study highlights the value of a comprehensive assessment of daily participation (i.e., participation in various activity domains and in specific individual meaningful activities) of women with BC. The combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis provided a subjective perspective and deeper understanding of the associations among long-term symptoms, participation restrictions, and coping strategies.


Hospital admissions, cancer statistics, causes of death and data from general practice consultations have been reviewed to identify the challenges to health within the working life. Morbidity resulted commonly from trauma, malignant neoplasms especially of the female breast, melanoma, colorectal and cervical tumours, locomotor disorders especially of the spine, ischaemic heart disease, obstructive respiratory disorder, gynaecological problems, psychiatric disorders, hearing impairment and diabetes mellitus. Support for basic research and studies relating to approaches aimed at influencing community attitudes are discussed. Areas of particular research possibilities in New Zealand are identified in psychiatry, cost benefit studies in surgery, and health screening. A case is made for a strong improved complementary research effort within the clinical areas of the health service both in hospitals and in general practice especially in clinical conditions such as asthma and diabetes. Seeding money for voluntary societies and foundations closely involved with research and scientific merit may facilitate further financial support to such voluntary organisations and the prospect of expansion by them of the support of peer-reviewed research projects.


The distribution of glutamate receptor subtypes on the surface of neurons is highly relevant for synaptic activation and signal processing in the neocortex. As a novel approach we have used infra‐red videomicroscopy in combination with photostimulation or microiontophoresis in brain slices of rat neocortex to map the distribution of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) and α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors on pyramidal neurons of layer V. Both modes of application revealed a spatially distinct distribution of glutamate receptor subtypes: the soma and the proximal dendrite of neurons are highly sensitive to NMDA, whereas the more distal parts of the dendrite are more sensitive to AMPA. An implication is that NMDA receptors near the soma might regulate the amplification of synaptic signals resulting from AMPA receptor activation on remote dendritic sites.


The glass-ceramics, whose coefficient of thermal expansion approximately matched to that of silicon, were studied to replace conventional heat-resistant glass as substrate material for anodic bonding. The basic glasses of the Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2 system with TiO2 and ZrO2 as nucleation agents were prepared by melting technology, and the temperatures of nucleation and crystallization were determined. The glass-ceramics were obtained by two-step heat-treatment method. The oriented crystallization of glasses in gradient temperature field was studied. The crystal phases and microstructures of glass- ceramics were analyzed. Effect of heat-treatment schedule on the coefficient of thermal expansion was discussed. The results showed that the most of the main crystal phases of the samples were β-spodumene. The coefficient of thermal expansion of sample was about 32.5×10-7/°C, which was approach to that of silicon.


We have time resolved, for the first time to our knowledge, the field-induced second-harmonic generation in lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) thin films. Ultrafast nonlinear properties of 35/0/100 PLZT thin films are investigated with a Ti:sapphire laser, which generates 200-fs laser pulses. The PLZT responds with a rise time of 10 ps to a step-function electric field derived from a fast photoconductive coplanar waveguide structure switch. The dispersion characteristics of the measurements are addressed.


The article analyzes the screenplay "Check Your Watches" by Lina Kostenko and Arkadiy Dobrovolskiy in the context of intermedial studies. This text appears as an original intermedial genre construct, presenting a synthesis of two types of art (literature and cinema), but it also actively appeals to other arts: painting, sculpture, theater, music and, intertextually, to literature. Artistic codes permeate different levels of the text: the title complex, personosphere, composition, presenting the versatility, uniqueness and aesthetic level of the scriptwriters. The "decoding" of the screenplay artistic codes takes a leading position in the appropriate conceiving of the authors' intentions and overall understanding of the screenplay ideological subtext, that testifies to its multi-layered, extremely powerful receptive potential.


Background Management of a critical incident in theatre involves complex recognition and rapid decision making. Standard practice in the UK relies on memory alone to manage the situation. The concept of cognitive aids has been adopted by many high risk industries – such as aviation – as an aid to improve performance during critical events. Research supports improved team performance when cognitive aids are used in emergency medical situations.1 Methodology Following a funded visit to Stanford University's Simulation Centre, we have designed the first UK Theatre Emergency Cognitive Aid Manual which we aim to introduce into the operating theatre culture through simulation. Each cognitive aid contains a series of management steps, plus additional information regarding drug doses, equipment etc. The rolling crisis resource management (CRM) simulation programme will initially target consultant anaesthetists and ODPs. The ultimate objective is to train entire theatre teams together. In addition we are focusing on non-technical skills involved in critical incident management, and will deliver human factor training on educational half days. To formally evaluate the project, we will undertake a comparative study of performance with and without cognitive aids, as well as via a subjective questionnaire. Potential impact To our knowledge, this is the first venture of its kind in the UK. It is an exciting development for the two Trusts, with the programme commencing in September 2015. We aim to enhance non-technical as well as technical skills, encourage team-working, and develop the overall safety culture in theatres. Ultimately, we hope that simulation will improve the management of uncommon critical emergencies, thus optimising patient safety and outcome. Conclusion By employing multidisciplinary simulation, we aim to embed the use of a cognitive aid manual into clinical practice. This CRM training model can be applied across the UK to enhance both patient care and patient safety. Reference Arriaga AF, Bader AM, Wong JM, Lipsitz SR, Berry WR, et al. Simulation-based trial of surgical crisis checklists. N Engl J Med 2013;368:246–53


A ridge laser diode monolithically integrated with a buried-ridge-structure dual-waveguide spot-size converter operating at 1.58 μm is successfully fabricated by means of low-energy ion implantation quantum well intermixing and asymmetric twin waveguide technology. The passive waveguide is optically combined with a laterally tapered active core to control the mode size. The devices emit in a single transverse and quasi single longitudinal mode with a side mode suppression ratio of 40.0dB although no grating is fabricated in the LD region. The threshold current is 50 mA. The beam divergence angles in the horizontal and vertical directions are as small as 7.3°× 18.0°, respectively, resulting in 3.0 dB coupling loss with a cleaved single-mode optical fibre.


The tumor suppressor protein Scribble (SCRIB) plays an evolutionary conserved role in cell polarity. Despite being central for its function, the molecular basis of SCRIB recruitment and stabilization at the cell cortex is poorly understood. Here we show that SCRIB binds directly to the CH1 domain of β spectrins, a molecular scaffold that contributes to the cortical actin cytoskeleton and connects it to the plasma membrane. We have identified a short evolutionary conserved peptide motif named SADH motif (SCRIB ABLIMs DMTN Homology) which is necessary and sufficient to mediate protein interaction with β spectrins. The SADH domains contribute to SCRIB dynamics at the cell cortex and SCRIB polarity function. Furthermore, mutations in SCRIB SADH domains associated with spina bifida and cancer impact the stability of SCRIB at the plasma membrane, suggesting that SADH domain alterations may participate in human pathology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04726.001


There are new challenges for hazard and risk assessment in the chemical industry with regard to REACH legislation in Europe and related activities in the U.S. and Japan, which require the development of novel in vitro models for the molecular characterization of drug- or chemical-related effects replacing conventional animal testing. In the frame of a European FP6 project on reproductive toxicology ( www.reprotect.eu ), we prepared protein samples from mouse embryonic stem cells differentiated into contracting cardiomyocytes according to the validated embryonic stem cell test (EST) protocol, which had been exposed to toxic substances selected by an expert committee from different in vivo categories of embryotoxicity. Lysates were used to carry out the following investigations: (i) identify optimal dose range conditions in the EST that are suitable for (ii) performing a differential quantitative proteomic study of underlying molecular pathways, (iii) define classes of substances with similar proteomic response patterns, (iv) relate these classes to the traditional in vivo categories of embryotoxicity with (v) the final goal to identify novel surrogate protein biomarker candidates for embryo toxicity. We found two distinct classes of toxic substances (Dinoseb, Ochratoxin-A, and Nitrofen vs β-aminoproprionitril, Metoclopramide, Doxylamine succinate, and d-penicillamine) with clear pathway-related differences in their proteomic patterns. Most notably, different responses to cluster 1 and cluster 2 substances were observed for Heat shock protein β-1, Ras-GTPase-activating protein SH3-domain binding protein, Ran binding protein 5, and Calreticulin, Dihydropyrimidinase-like 2 (Ulip2 protein). On the other hand, Heat shock protein 8 and Fscn1 protein were down-regulated by all compounds from both clusters.


This paper constructs from the record values an estimator of the extreme-value index. It is proved that the estimator is consistent in the domain of attraction of extremesvalue distributions, and that under very mild conditions the estimator is asymptotically normal.


Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This study primarily identifies major environmental concerns in the Asia-Pacific region. It also addresses regional policy responses and directions. Further, it deals with (a) issues that the international community needs to address, (b) priorities among the plethora of environmental concerns, and (c) policy responses in the Asia-Pacific region.


The effects of an Nd:YAG laser interaction with titanium target using laser radiation at wavelengths 1.064 or 0.532 μm (40 picoseconds pulse duration) were studied. Modification of target surfaces at laser energy densities of 2.4 and 10.3 J/cm2 (λ1 laser= 1.064 μm) and 1.1 J/cm2 (λ2 laser= 0.532 μm) are reported in this article. Qualitatively, the titanium surface modification can be summarized as follows: (i) ablation of the titanium surface in the central zone of the irradiated area for both laser wavelengths; (ii) appearance of a hydrodynamic feature like resolidified droplets of the material (λ1 laser= 1.064 μm), as well as formation of the wave-like microstructures (λ2 laser= 0.532 μm); and (iii) appearance of plasma, in front of the target, with both laser wavelengths.


The role of films and literature in English Language Teaching (ELT) has recently emerged as a new field of enquiry. It is the buzzword in the learning domain: edutainment. Empirical studies in language acquisition time and again prove that it is a complex process where surroundings and cognitive processes play important roles. The paper addresses a supplementary approach to ELT through films and literature. It discusses the rationale of this approach along with the framework for implementing the methodology. The paper also seeks to interrogate the counterpoint that films as a pedagogical tool are easier to execute as they would involve only typical classroom discussions. The paper outlines a well-designed, structured approach right from the planning, execution and implementation stages encompassing choice of films and demographics of the learner, methodology and its link to listener/audience comprehension at the syntactic, semantic and stylistic levels. It also addresses the structural differences of ELT through multimedia versus ELT through films and its comparative merits. With respect to using literature for teaching English, sound suggestions are made by matching the key skills in English language acquisition (reading, writing, listening and writing) to the literary methods used to implement it. Despite growing innovations in ELT, much of it has also not been successful. The paper also addresses the challenges in ELT through films.


Modern telescopes of even modest aperture can show thousands of double stars. Many are faint and unremarkable but hundreds are worth searching out. Veteran double star observer Bob Argyle and his co-authors take a close-up look at their selection of 175 of the night sky's most interesting double and multiple stars. The history of each system is laid out from the original discovery to what we know at the present time about the stars. Wide-field finder charts are presented for each system along with plots of the apparent orbits and predicted future positions for the orbital systems. Recent measurements of each system are included, which will help you to decide whether they can be seen in your telescope as well as giving advice on the aperture needed. Double star observers of all levels of experience will treasure the level of detail given in this guide to these jewels of the night sky.


The bacterial growth curve is considered to involve four phases: lag, exponential, stationary and death/decline phase. The lag phase is the time that bacteria use to recover and adapt to a new environment before shifting to exponential growth at a rate determined by the environmental conditions and available resources. Aging, on the other hand, is the process in which the inheritance of "new" and "old" cell poles by bacterial cells during cell division as well as putative accumulation of protein aggregates. Stress has been shown to be needed to make aging inevitable, and aging leads to cells that lose fitness thus providing a finite duration to a stressed population. Significant knowledge gaps still exist about the lag phase and bacterial aging, in particular, mechanistic details of the processes and whether broad scale principals apply. The thesis study aims to describe the microbiological, biochemical and regulatory-level mechanisms of the effect of cell aging and lag phase recovery in Listeria monocytogenes (strain Scott A). L. monocytogenes was utilised in the study due to its comparatively streamlined genome, high level of genetic and protein-level characterisation and the fact it is an important food pathogen that causes the disease listeriosis. The species is adept at switching its lifestyle from an environmental saprophyte to a human parasite and thus has a capacity to respond and adapt to relatively hostile environments. In the environment, it can survive due to this high degree of adaptability, and this has resulted in a ubiquitous distribution. How it adapts in the scenarios of enforced aging and subsequent recovery was approached by mainly using quantitative proteomics, allowing assessment of most essential cell functions.
To enable understanding of the effect of culture-based aging on L. monocytogenes ScottA growth and survival behaviour, morphological and metabolic changes, virulence potential, and ATP levels during aging processes were assessed. Aging was enforced by holding cells at 37°C deep into the stationary growth phase for up to 21 days. The temperature used represents the optimal temperature for growth rate (T\(_{opt}\)). In older cultures (aged =≥7 d) lag phase was proceeded by possible short, rapid recovery of a small segment (0.5-1.5 log units) of the population. The duration of the lag phase increased with the length of time the cells were initially incubated. The generation time of outgrowth increased with the duration of initial incubation suggesting more aged cells lost fitness. Extended incubation resulted in increasingly poor growth on agar. Aged cultures lose the ability to retain crystal violet, indicative of a thinner, less networked peptidoglycan layer. They also demonstrated cell elongation (2-10 fold increase), evidence of failed septation completion, and autolysis. After 7 d incubation, ATP levels in the cells collapsed to <10\(^{-17}\) moles/cell from approximately 10\(^{-15}\) moles/cell. Catabolic enzymes associated with protein, lipid, phosphate, and carbohydrate metabolism though readily detected in young cultures become inactive in populations incubated ≥7 d. Haemolysis assays revealed no detectable listeriolysin activity was present in the bacterial supernatant fluid after ≥7 d, possibly suggesting reduced protein export. Overall, the results indicate that cell aging at the T\(_{opt}\) is associated with extensive loss of cell viability and results in lag phase extension and loss of fitness. Fitness loss may be attributable to depletion of ATP and reduced metabolism affecting protein secretion, cytokinetic and cell wall biogenic processes in the cell population.
Integrated global proteomic responses of L. monocytogenes ScottA incubated for 1 to 21 days at 37°C was performed to understand the metabolic mechanisms behind the loss of fitness and culturability in populations after extended incubation. The continued lack of availability of carbohydrates leads to an overall decrease in cellular metabolism, loss of culturability on agar, elongated multi-septated cells, autolysis, and non-detectable haemolysis. Protein samples were analysed by nano-LC-MS/MS using an LTQ-Orbitrap XL instrument with 686 proteins assessed. Metabolism reduction observed for aged cells is linked to empty ATP and precursor pools; there was no evidence of a harsh response. The process is demonstrated by a decline in phosphotransferase system protein abundances and associated compensatory adjustments to enzyme abundances within the glycolysis pathway, amongst mixed fermentation enzymes, and a possible shift in F\(_1\)F\(_0\) ATPase complex to a synthesis mode. The observed greatly enhanced abundances of glutamate dehydrogenase RocG in aged cells could suggest the use of oxidative deamination for resupply of pyruvate and NADH. Many central processes of the cell linked to growth such as the translational apparatus, ribosomal proteins and DNA methods showed a significant reduction. There is a greater emphasis on proteins involved in cytoplasmic homoeostasis, proteostasis, substrate scavenging, and amino acid/nucleic acid salvage processes in aged cells. Internalin A and B abundances were elevated in aged cells but were accompanied by reduced levels of wall teichoic acid synthesis enzymes. The abundances of several autolysins (including Spl, Iap, Auto, Ami) were substantially elevated, explaining aged induced autolysis. The increase in autolysins is potentially linked to cytokinetic dysfunction associated with the septal ring. The increase would likely explain the reason why the bulk of the cell population loses culturability though apparently, a subpopulation survives. The proteome data provides a perspective of L. monocytogenes in a state of decline deep in its stationary growth phase.
The proteome dynamics of L. monocytogenes ScottA recovering during the lag phase was investigated. A quantitative analysis of ScottA proteome was based on cells first being grown at 37°C over an extended stationary growth phases (1, 7, 14 and 21 days) and then allowed to recover in new TSYE media over 0.5 to 4 hours. A total 459 proteins were estimated for abundance for all treatments. During lag phase L. monocytogenes ScottA rapidly altered its proteome (within 0.5 h) partially rebounding from the aged state but not completely reattaining the original exponential phase state; this was evident at all time points. The length of initial incubation had no substantial effect on lag phase responses at the protein level. Proteins associated with carbohydrate catabolism became relatively abundant in the lag phase. Recovery of the intermediary metabolism based on protein abundance data revealed a shift to mixed acid fermentation occurs. The data also points to activation of initial stages of biosynthetic pathways for cell components including peptidoglycan, fatty acids, and menaquinone, but not broad-scale increased abundance of whole pathways. The molecular chaperone Hsp70 complex, detoxification-associated proteins, compatible solute uptake transporters, and metal ion homoeostasis transporters were detected at higher abundances relative to aged cells, potentially indicating processes are involved in remediation of the cytoplasmic contents. Overall, lag phase cells adjustments cover a wide range number of anabolic and remedial processes; however, the activation responses collectively do not represent a "full steam ahead" approach but is constrained possibly to ensure precursor and energy resources can be accumulated before the exponential growth phase.
Utilising proteomic data an original insight into the global regulation of protein production by L. monocytogenes ScottA during aging and lag phase processes at 37°C was performed. The data suggest that in lag phase SigB, SigH, CtsR, HrcA and AgrA regulons are more activated relative to old and exponential cells while the PrfA and SigC regulons were instead strongly repressed. CodY levels were highly elevated in lag phase resulting in intense repression and derepression of its previously defined regulon. The activation responses collectively link to increased fermentation and anabolic processes, protein folding and rescue, remediation of the cytoplasm from toxic compounds, and buffering of cytosolic proteins. At the same time the combined increased abundance of CodY and catabolite control protein CcpA seems to lead to constraints on the levels of enzymes that rely on expenditure ATP possibly allowing build-up of the precursor, ATP and reducing equivalent pools prior to exponential growth. The data support the observation that lag phase responses are rapid and that the proteomes do not rebound back to the previous exponential phase state. The data also suggest that the extent of aged incubation results in largely homogenous responses throughout the lag phase though subtle differences were observed in the degree of activation of regulons. This incomplete rebound effect creates the possibility that inputted cell recovery in lag phase manifests various outcomes for outgrowth in the exponential phase depending on the physiological nature of the coded cells.
Collectively, the results of this research provide an insight into the mechanisms engaged by L. monocytogenes ScottA during aging and recovery. The mechanism includes overviews if the morphological, metabolic and cell energetic changes during aging and the associated underlying mechanisms as revealed by proteomic assessments. Renewal of cells in lag phase showed the critical role of CodY and SigB in these processes as master regulators as well as providing some initial information of possible protein responses that could be linked to adaptation.


At E-Commerce stores such as Amazon, eBay, and Taobao, the shopping items and the query words that customers use to search for the items form a bipartite graph that captures search behavior. Such a query-item graph can be used to forecast search trends or improve search results. For example, generating query-item associations, which is equivalent to predicting links in the bipartite graph, can yield recommendations that can customize and improve the user search experience. Although the bipartite shopping graphs are straightforward to model search behavior, they suffer from two challenges: 1) The majority of items are sporadically searched and hence have noisy/sparse query associations, leading to a long-tail distribution. 2) Infrequent queries are more likely to link to popular items, leading to another hurdle known as disassortative mixing. To address these two challenges, we go beyond the bipartite graph to take a hypergraph perspective, introducing a new paradigm that leverages auxiliary information from anonymized customer engagement sessions to assist the main task of query-item link prediction. This auxiliary information is available at web scale in the form of search logs. We treat all items appearing in the same customer session as a single hyperedge. The hypothesis is that items in a customer session are unified by a common shopping interest. With these hyperedges, we augment the original bipartite graph into a new hypergraph. We develop a Dual-Channel Attention-Based Hypergraph Neural Network (DCAH), which synergizes information from two potentially noisy sources (original query-item edges and item-item hyperedges). In this way, items on the tail are better connected due to the extra hyperedges, thereby enhancing their link prediction performance. We further integrate DCAH with self-supervised graph pre-training and/or DropEdge training, both of which effectively alleviate disassortative mixing. Extensive experiments on three proprietary E-Commerce datasets show that DCAH yields significant improvements of up to 24.6% in mean reciprocal rank (MRR) and 48.3% in recall compared to GNN-based baselines. Our source code is available at https://github.com/amazon-science/dual-channel-hypergraph-neural-network.


Professor Jiri Syllaba, an eminent Czech internist, was born on March 14, 1902 in Prague. He graduated from the Medical Faculty of the Charles University in 1926, and became an assistant at the Institute of Physiology in Prague. He carried out his research in Cambridge, London and Paris (1928-29). He was interested in blood gases and acid-base equilibrium. In 1935, he completed his habilitation thesis on cardiac output. After another period of research in Paris, he continued his work at the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine in Prague. During the Second World War, Professor Jiri Syllaba was arrested and imprisoned in the nazi camp. After war, he became the head of the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine at the Charles University. He worked at this post for 25 years, and further he worked in Diabetic Outpatient Clinic until 1992. Professor Jiri Syllaba is an author of 7 books, 250 papers and 80 congress abstracts. His research were focused on several aspects of internal medicine including diabetic coma and nephropathy. Professor Jiri Syllaba was granted the honorary membership of the Polish Society of Internal Medicine on October 16, 1970. Since early years of his professional carrier, he has being cooperating with Polish internists.


Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced alumina composites were prepared by spark plasma sintering using pristine MWCNTs and acid-treated MWCNTs. The effect of acid treatment on the structure and surface potential of the MWCNTs was examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and zeta potential analyzer. It is demonstrated that with the acid treatment of the MWCNTs, we have deliberately introduced nanoscale defects and negatively charged functional groups on the surface of the MWCNTs. The average depths of the defects are typically 4.8-10.8 nm. Mechanical measurements revealed that surface modification of the MWCNTs is effective in improvement of bending strength and fracture toughness of the MWCNT/alumina composites. Only 0.9 vol.% acid-treated MWCNT addition results in 27% and 25% simultaneous increases in bending strength (689.6 MPa) and fracture toughness (5.90 MPa m1/2), respectively.


The impact of climate change on agricultural productivity is difficult to assess. However, determining the possible effects of climate change is an absolute necessity for planning by decision-makers. The aim of the study was the evaluation of the CSM-CROPGROSunflower model of DSSAT4.7 and the assessment of impact of climate change on sunflower yield under future climate projections. For this purpose, a 2-year sunflower field experiment was conducted under semi-arid conditions in the Konya province of Turkey. Rainfed and irrigated treatments were used for model analysis. For the assessment of impact of climate change, three global climate models and two representative concentration pathways, i.e. 4.5 and 8.5 were selected. The evaluation of the model showed that the model was able to simulate yield reasonably well, with normalized root mean square error of 1.3% for the irrigated treatment and 17.7% for the rainfed treatment, a d-index of 0.98 and a modelling efficiency of 0.93 for the overall model performance. For the climate change scenarios, the model predicted that yield will decrease in a range of 2.9–39.6% under rainfed conditions and will increase in a range of 7.4–38.5% under irrigated conditions. Results suggest that temperature increases due to climate change will cause a shortening of plant growth cycles. Projection results also confirmed that increasing temperatures due to climate change will cause an increase in sunflower water requirements in the future. Thus, the results reveal the necessity to apply adequate water management strategies for adaptation to climate change for sunflower production.


OBJECT
The goal of this paper is to elucidate the clinical presentation of tethered cord syndrome (TCS) following repair of a myelomeningocele.

METHODS
Approximately 10 to 30% of children will develop TCS following repair of a myelomeningocele. Because essentially all children with repaired myelomeningocele will have a tethered spinal cord, as demonstrated on MR imaging, the diagnosis of TCS is made based on clinical criteria. The six common clinical presentations of TCS are increased weakness (55%), worsening gait (54%), scoliosis (51%), pain (32%), orthopedic deformity (11%), and urological dysfunction (6%). The primary goal of surgery is to detach the spinal cord where it is adherent to the thecal sac, relieving the stretch on the terminal portion of the cord.

CONCLUSIONS
Early diagnosis and surgical release of the tethered cord results in stabilization or improvement in most cases. Because TCS may present with orthopedic and/or urological signs or symptoms, children with myelomeningocele should by followed, ideally in a multidisciplinary clinic, by neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and urologists who are aware of this condition.


In this paper the results of structural changes in ultra high molecular polyethylene (UHMWPE) upon gamma irradiation and storage in nitrogen environment are reported. Based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle x-ray scattering (WAXS), gel content, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscope (SEM), we show that upon gamma irradiation crystallinity percentage increases by 20% at high doses due to aging, at low doses up to 50 kGy there is no significant changes. Lamellar thickness increases with the dose, possibly due to chain scission and the addition of new molecular segments to the lamellae. Upon storage in nitrogen DSC data confirmed the appearance of new smaller lamellae. Crosslinking was achieved by irradiation but the ratio of scission to crosslinking is higher after aging. This was confirmed by the increase in the oxidation index and the high brittle behavior of the polymer after aging where fibrous surface was noticed.


Artificial intelligence (AI) seeks to emulate human reasoning, but is still far from achieving such results for actionable sensing in complex situations. Instead of emulating human situation understanding, machines can amplify intelligence by accessing large amounts of data, filtering unimportant information, computing relevant context, and prioritizing results (for example, answers to human queries) to provide human–machine shared context. Intelligence support can come from many contextual sources that augment data reasoning through physical, environmental, and social knowledge. We propose a decisions-to-data multimodal sensor and action through contextual agents (human or machine) that seek, combine, and make sense of relevant data. Decisions-to-data combines AI computational capabilities with human reasoning to manage data collections, perform data fusion, and assess complex situations (that is, context reasoning). Five areas of AI developments for context-based AI that cover decisions-to-data include: (1) situation modeling (data at rest), (2) measurement control (data in motion), (3) statistical algorithms (data in collect), (4) software computing (data in transit), and (5) human–machine AI (data in use). A decisions-to-data example is presented of a command-guided swarm requiring contextual data analysis, systems-level design, and user interaction for effective and efficient multimodal sensing and action.


AIMS
The aim of this study was to examine contemporary data on the 1-year prognosis of patients surviving acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and concomitant first-time detected atrial fibrillation (AF).

METHODS AND RESULTS
Using Danish nationwide registries, we identified all patients surviving a first-time admission with ACS from 2000 to 2018 and grouped them into (i) those without AF prior to or during ACS; (ii) those with a history of AF; and (iii) those with first-time detected AF during admission with ACS. With 1 year of follow-up, rates of ischaemic stroke, death, and bleeding were compared between study groups using multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazards analysis. We included 161 266 ACS survivors: 135 878 (84.2%) without AF, 18 961 (11.8%) with history of AF, and 6427 (4.0%) with first-time detected AF at admission with ACS. Compared to those without AF, the adjusted 1-year rates of outcomes were as follows: ischaemic stroke [hazard ratio (HR) 1.38 (95% CI 1.22-1.56) for patients with history of AF and HR 1.67 (95% CI 1.38-2.01) for patients with first-time detected AF]; mortality [HR 1.25 (95% CI 1.21-1.31) for patients with history of AF and HR 1.52 (95% CI 1.43-1.62) for patients with first-time detected AF]; and bleeding [HR 1.22 (95% CI 1.14-1.30) for patients with history of AF and HR 1.28 (95% CI 1.15-1.43) for patients with first-time detected AF].

CONCLUSION
In patients with ACS, first-time detected AF appeared to be at least as strongly associated with the 1-year rates of ischaemic stroke, mortality, and bleeding as compared with patients with a history of AF.


One of the activities producing a destructive impact on the environment is uncontrolled or illegal timber harvesting. It is a response to high market demand due to the modernisation of lifestyles. The awareness of world's population of the global environmental problems related to this issue has increased the popularity of natural fibre reinforced composites. Its availability and the data available on its properties tend to provide assurance for its application in many fields. The main objective of this project is to develop material using woven hemp fabric (WHF) and vinyl ester resin as a potential alternative to the utilisation of woods or engineered wood products. Apart from the composite development, fire retardant, water absorption and fatigue properties of the WHF reinforced composite are investigated.

Some characterisations of the fabric properties were undertaken to verify the data given by the supplier as well as to collect more data about the fabric since the data given by the supplier is usually more general and inadequate for technical purposes. Investigation was done on the properties of two batches of a similar nominal quality which were obtained within a three month time interval. The weight of fabric was found to be lower than what was provided by the supplier. Other properties measured were fabric densities, yarn sizes, yarn crimp percentage, cloth cover factors, chemical composition, thermal properties as well as fabric strength. It was concluded that the properties of the two batches are most likely not only identical from a textile point of view, but are also similar from an engineering point of view. Characterisation on the composite made of WHF with different layering orientations and vinyl ester (HVE) were found to have consistent density and fibre volume fraction due to properties of WHF. In terms of tensile, flexural and impact properties, depending on the layer orientation, their properties were slightly different. Inferential statistical analysis confirmed layering orientation affected the mechanical properties of the fabricated composite. Nevertheless, the differences among them less than 10% which suggests that any layering of this fabric can be used for composite fabrication. The properties of fabricated composites were comparable to some wood and engineered wood product. However, their densities were found to be higher than those of woods.

When the WHFs were treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), fire retardant chemical (FR) and combination of both (NaOH+FR), their densities and shrinkage properties increased due to the swollen fibres. The fire retardant properties of treated fabric also increased and this were proven by the burning, themogravimetry analysis and limiting oxygen index tests. However, all the treatments decreased the mechanical strength of WHFs. All these treated fabric were then utilised to reinforce vinyl ester using [0, 90]10 layering orientation. The changes in the WHFs's physical properties increased the density (ranging from 1.1 to 1.21g/cm3) and fibre volume fraction (ranging from 33 to 37.12%) of HVEs. Although the mechanical properties of HVEs made of treated WHFs were found to be decreased due to poor adhesion between hemp fibres and vinyl ester, they are still comparable to woods and engineered wood products. The improvements in fire retardant properties for treated fabrics were also proven to enhance their HVEs' fire retardant properties. HVE made of WHF treated with FR was found to be the best against the fire and its mechanical properties were still suitable for use as an alternative to woods and engineered wood products. This kind of HVE was then used to analyse it degradation properties (mechanical and fire retardant properties) when subjected to water absorption.

In terms of HVEs' water absorption properties, the maximum water uptake and time to reach saturation point were 3.27% and 552 hr respectively. The diffusion coefficient calculated using Fick's law, which is 4.71E-06 mm2/s and this was found lower than wood products. In terms of mechanical properties, the presence of water reduced the tensile strength and modulus up to 24% and 39% respectively due to the penetration of water which weakened the adhesion between the fibres and resin. The flexural properties was increased after 2688 hr of water immersion due to the swollen fibres which is attributed to high amount of water infiltration thus fill the gaps between the fibre and the matrix. The presence of water also degraded its fire retardant performance. It was found that the durability or fastness of fire retardant chemical treatment on this HVE composite was between 168 hr and 840 hr of water immersion. In terms of fatigue properties, the fatigue strength coefficient, b, was found to be 0.12 and these HVEs were tested under low load cycle with higher stress level ranging from 50% up to 80%. As suggested by other worker, the safety limits for sample HVE-UT (untreated WHF) and HVE-FR (FR treated WHF) are defined to be 30 and 24MPa respectively.

At the end of this study, a 'material selection guide' was established for the use by relevant stake holders when producing WHF reinforced vinyl ester. This selection guide is important which can be related in many ways such as in product life cycle, determination of cost/energy, identification of suitable application etc.


This experiment investigated the effects of differing nutritional levels on yearling pregnancy loss, and the live weight and survival of their offspring to weaning. Yearlings were offered either Medium or Ad-libitum levels of herbage from four days prior to breeding (P-4) until P145. Nutrition during pregnancy had no effect on pregnancy loss or lamb live weight from Day 0 of lactation (L0) until L55. Lambing percent was higher (P <0.05) in the Ad-libitum treatment compared to the Medium treatment. Single born lambs were heavier (P <0.05) than twin born lambs at L0 and at L55. Ad-libitum treatment yearlings were heavier (P <0.05) than Medium treatment yearlings at L55. Modelling of the live weight trends indicated that from P-4 until P145 the pregnant yearlings in the Medium and Ad-libitum treatment groups consumed 8.1 and 14.4 kg DM/kg of lamb live weight at L55. This indicates that the greater yearling live weight gain in the Ad-libitum group utilised more herbage during the yearling's first winter without any increase in the performance of their offspring. The extra 9 kg gained by the yearlings fed Ad-libitum may have positive effects on future performance as they will gain a suitable live weight for breeding as a two year old earlier.


Problems of form and content of an accusatory speech of the prosecutor, and also definition of her legal nature are considered. Requirements to speech of the state accuser are analyzed. Author's definition of an accusatory speech of the prosecutor is formulated.


Viral vectors have recently been used successfully to transfer genes and express different proteins in the brain. This review discusses the requirements to consider human clinical trials in which recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors are used to transfer the genes necessary to produce l-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-dopa) directly into the striatum of Parkinson's patients. Preclinical data that apply to the criteria defined as prerequisite for clinical trials are discussed. Thus, in animal models using recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors it has been demonstrated that l-dopa can be synthesized in the striatum after in vivo transduction. In addition, these l-dopa levels are sufficient to affect behavior in a dopamine-deficient animal model, the expression is extremely long-lasting, and the ability to transcriptionally regulate tyrosine hydroxylase has been demonstrated but not fully characterized. However, while immune responses to recombinant adeno-associated virus infection in the periphery have been studied, direct assessment of the potential immune response in the brain has not been sufficiently defined. Therefore, the rationale for delivering l-dopa directly to the striatum to treat Parkinson's disease is sound and the preclinical data are promising but all the issues surrounding this strategy are not resolved.


During the course of a study of certain of the Banks mite types in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College some cases of obvious synonymy were found. Two of these cases sink Banks' names; the remainder result in the establishment of his names as senior synonyms. In addition to those of Banks, the types of Ewing's, Furman's and Hicks' species (all in U.S. National Museum) were examined in connection with this work. I am grateful to Drs. H. W. Levi and W. L. Brown for arranging for me to study the Harvard collection and for their many kindnesses during my visit. The following lectotype designations are not as precise as one would wish. The Banks types in the Museum of Comparative Zoology are not numbered and most names are represented by cotypes. All of the suspected and certain type slides are arranged alphabetically according to species and kept as a unit in the Arachnida collection of the Museum. Thus the lectotypes designated herein will be found labeled as such in their proper place in the alphabetical filing scheme. It may also be noted here that some of Banks' species (none of those treated herein) are represented by cotypes in both the MCZ and the Acarina collection of the U.S. National Museum. The same is true of Jacot's material which has been divided evenly between these museums.


Viral infection requires stable binding of viral fusion proteins to host membranes, which contain hundreds of lipid species. How viruses sense lipid compositions to target suitable host cells is poorly understood. Using multi-scale molecular simulations, we computed 66 membrane binding free energies of fusion proteins from classes I–III with various lipid compositions and identified distinct mechanisms of lipid recognition. We find that membrane binding of class II and III proteins, but not of class I proteins, is greatly modulated by the content of polyunsaturated lipids, cholesterol, anionic lipids, or gangliosides. Fusion proteins bind specific membranes by chemically recognizing distinct head group moieties and by sensing packing defects. The results show that lipid recognition of class II and III fusion proteins is a key feature to selectively bind to mammalian plasma membranes or to membranes of the endosomal compartments.


Numerous techniques involve mining change data captured in software archives to assist engineering efforts, for example to identify components that tend to evolve together. We observed that important changes to software artifacts are sometimes accompanied by numerous non-essential modifications, such as local variable refactorings, or textual differences induced as part of a rename refactoring. We developed a tool-supported technique for detecting non-essential code differences in the revision histories of software systems. We used our technique to investigate code changes in over 24,000 change sets gathered from the change histories of seven long-lived open-source systems. We found that up to 15.5% of a system's method updates were due solely to non-essential differences. We also report on numerous observations on the distribution of non-essential differences in change history and their potential impact on change-based analyses.


Three reacting jet-in-crossflow (JiC) methane/air flames were numerically investigated in a lean axially staged combustor at a pressure of five atmospheres. A detailed chemistry Star-CCM+ computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used with 53 species considered and the result of turbulence-governed finite-rate modeling was validated with in-house experimental data. An optically accessible test section features three side windows, allowing local flow and flame analysis with particle image velocimetry (PIV) and CH* chemiluminescence as well as pressure, temperature, and species exit measurements. The research objective was to predict and verify NOx formation of the premixed 12.7 mm axial jet. Three headend temperature levels were investigated along with three premixed jets at lean (φJet = 0.75), near-stoichiometric (φJet = 1.07), and rich (φJet = 1.78) axial fuel line equivalence ratio. Based on the matching exit emission concentration, global emission benefits were investigated by adjustment of the fuel stratification. The perfectly premixed methane/air flames of this study were shown to ignite at the lee-side of the jet. For the elevated headend temperature level T = 1800 K, the flame extended beyond the windward jet trajectory and caused high axial NO production. For industry application, a firing temperature of 1920 K was achieved with a NOx optimized fuel split of 25%, combining a lean headend (φHeadend = 0.61) with a rich (φJet = 1.78) jet equivalence ratio. This operating point allowed minimization of the combustor residence time at temperatures above 1700 K as well as combustion in a compact flame at the jet lee-side along the counter rotating vortex pair.


It was shown that malate dehydrogenase of isolated membranes of the gramicidin S producer Bacillus brevis var. G.-B. (R.-form) is completely inhibited by the antibiotic (approximately 200 mkg/mg of protein). Succinate and NADH dehydrogenases at concentration up to 1 mg per mg of protein are insensitive to it, while corresponding oxidases are inhibited by the antibiotic not more than by 65 -- 75% apparently due to partial damage of the terminal parts of the respiratory chain. The respiration of the producer intact cells is inhibited by exogenous gramicidin S by not more than 55 -- 60%, while the respiration of antibiotic-sensitive cells of M.lysodeikticus is inhibited completely. It was shown that phosphatidyl ethanolamine (50%), phosphatidyl glycerol (15% and diphosphatidyl glycerol (25%) are the major phospholipid components of the membranes of the given strain of Bac. brevis. It was assumed that the resistance of Bac. brevis cells to gramicidin S is partly due to the constant ratio of the charged and amphoteric phospholipids. Using 31P-NMR spectroscopy, the kinetics of free phosphoric compounds in the cells and cell extracts of Bac. brevis during culture growth and gramicidin S synthesis were studied. The content of carbohydrate monophosphate, remained unaffected, while that of nucleoside di- and triphosphates and dinucleotides was low and at definite density and gramicidin S content (above 100 mkg/ml) fell down below the resolution capacity of the method employed. Evidence for gramicidin S localization of the Bac. brevis membrane and possible causes for the manifestation of the NADH dehydrogenase activity at a certain stage of culture growth are discussed.


Glutathione peroxidases (GPXs; EC 126.96.36.199) are key enzymes of the antioxidant network in plants and animals. In order to investigate the role of antioxidant systems in plant chloroplasts, we generated Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) transgenic lines that are depleted specifically in chloroplastic (cp) forms of GPX1 and GPX7. We show that reduced cpGPX expression, either in transgenic lines with lower total cpGPX expression (GPX1 and GPX7) or in a gpx7 insertion mutant, leads to compromised photooxidative stress tolerance but increased basal resistance to virulent bacteria. Depletion of both GPX1 and GPX7 expression also caused alterations in leaf cell and chloroplast morphology. Leaf tissues were characterized by shorter and more rounded palisade cells, irregular spongy mesophyll cells, and larger intercellular air spaces compared with the wild type. Chloroplasts had larger and more abundant starch grains than in wild-type and gpx7 mutant plants. Constitutively reduced cpGPX expression also led to higher foliar ascorbic acid, glutathione, and salicylic acid levels in plants exposed to higher light intensities. Our results suggest partially overlapping functions of GPX1 and GPX7. The data further point to specific changes in the chloroplast ascorbate-glutathione cycle due to reduced cpGPX expression, initiating reactive oxygen species and salicylic acid pathways that affect leaf development, light acclimation, basal defense, and cell death programs. Thus, cpGPXs regulate cellular photooxidative tolerance and immune responses.


Molecular imprinting is a technique that creates synthetic materials containing highly specific receptor sites that have an affinity for a target molecule. When large particles such as viruses are imprinted, special consideration must be taken to ensure the formation of complementary cavities. Factors that influence imprint formation, include uniformity of the precross-linked mixture and release of the virus template after cross-linking. In this study, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was used as a model virus. Polymer-virus aggregates formed when poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAA) was mixed with TMV at low polymer concentrations (<0.0001% w/v), but such aggregates were prevented at high polymer concentrations (>25% w/v). Various wash protocols were compared for their ability to remove the virus template from the cross-linked molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), with sodium hydroxide (1 M) exhibiting the best performance. On the basis of these results, optimized MIPs targeted for TMV virus were synthesized, exhibiting a high affinity to TMV (imprinting factor of 2.3) and low affinity to tobacco necrosis virus, the nontarget virus.


Importance
Immunotherapy has been associated with improved outcomes among patients who have received previous treatment for microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors.

Objective
To evaluate the antitumor activity of pembrolizumab therapy vs chemotherapy among patients with MSI-H advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) cancer regardless of the line of therapy in which it was received.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This post hoc analysis of the phase 2 KEYNOTE-059 (third-line treatment or higher) single-arm trial and the phase 3 KEYNOTE-061 (second-line treatment) and KEYNOTE-062 (first-line treatment) randomized trials included patients with advanced G/GEJ cancer from 52 sites in 16 countries enrolled in KEYNOTE-059, 148 sites in 30 countries enrolled in KEYNOTE-061, and 200 sites in 29 countries enrolled in KEYNOTE-062. Patients were enrolled from March 2, 2015, to March 26, 2016, in KEYNOTE-059; from June 4, 2015, to July 26, 2016, in KEYNOTE-061; and from September 18, 2015, to May 26, 2017, in KEYNOTE-062, with data cutoff dates of August 8, 2018; October 26, 2017; and March 26, 2019; respectively.

Interventions
Pembrolizumab monotherapy in KEYNOTE-059, pembrolizumab monotherapy or chemotherapy (paclitaxel) in KEYNOTE-061, and pembrolizumab monotherapy, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil or capecitabine), or chemotherapy alone in KEYNOTE-062.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Response was assessed centrally using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST), version 1.1; MSI-H status was determined centrally by polymerase chain reaction testing.

Results
At data cutoff, 7 of 174 patients (4.0%) in KEYNOTE-059, 27 of 514 patients (5.3%) in KEYNOTE-061, and 50 of 682 patients (7.3%) in KEYNOTE-062 had MSI-H tumors. Among those with MSI-H tumors, the median overall survival was not reached (NR) for pembrolizumab in KEYNOTE-059, KEYNOTE-061, and KEYNOTE-062 or for pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in KEYNOTE-062. The median progression-free survival (PFS) for pembrolizumab was NR (95% CI, 1.1 months to NR) in KEYNOTE-059 and 17.8 months (95% CI, 2.7 months to NR) in KEYNOTE-061 (vs 3.5 months [95% CI, 2.0-9.8 months] for chemotherapy). In KEYNOTE-062, the median PFS was 11.2 months (95% CI, 1.5 months to NR) for pembrolizumab, NR (95% CI, 3.6 months to NR) for pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, and 6.6 months (95% CI, 4.4-8.3 months) for chemotherapy. The objective response rate (ORR) for pembrolizumab was 57.1% in KEYNOTE-059 and 46.7% (vs 16.7% for chemotherapy) in KEYNOTE-061. In KEYNOTE-062, the ORR was 57.1% for pembrolizumab , 64.7% for pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, and 36.8% for chemotherapy.

Conclusions and Relevance
Findings from this study indicate that MSI-H status may be a biomarker for pembrolizumab therapy among patients with advanced G/GEJ cancer regardless of the line of therapy in which it was received.

Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifiers: NCT02335411, NCT02370498, and NCT02494583.


The intracellular chloride concentration ([Cl]i) in b-cells plays an important role in glucose-stimulated plasma membrane depolarisation and insulin secretion. [Cl]i is maintained above equilibrium in b-cells by the action of Cl co-transporters of the solute carrier family 12 group A (Slc12a). b-Cells express Slc12a1 and Slc12a2, which are known as the bumetanide (BTD)-sensitive Na-dependent K2Cl co-transporters 2 and 1 respectively. We show that mice lacking functional alleles of the Slc12a2 gene exhibit better fasting glycaemia, increased insulin secretion in response to glucose, and improved glucose tolerance when compared with wildtype (WT). This phenomenon correlated with increased Journal of Endocrinology (2012) 215, 59–70 0022–0795/12/0215–059 q 2012 Society for Endocrinology Printed in Great sensitivity of b-cells to glucose in vitro and with increasedb-cell mass. Further, administration of low doses of BTD to mice deficient in Slc12a2 worsened their glucose tolerance, and low concentrations of BTD directly inhibited glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from b-cells deficient in Slc12a2 but expressing intact Slc12a1 genes. Together, our results suggest for the first time that the Slc12a2 gene is not necessary for insulin secretion and that its absence increases b-cell secretory capacity. Further, impairment of insulin secretion with BTD in vivo and in vitro in islets lacking Slc12a2 genes unmasks a potential new role for Slc12a1 in b-cell physiology. Journal of Endocrinology (2012) 215, 59–70


This paper presents the methodologies developed for solving IJCNN 2011's Ford Challenge II problem, where the driver's alertness is to be detected employing physiological, environmental and vehicular data acquired during driving. The solution is based on a thorough four-fold framework consisting of temporal processing, feature creation and extraction, and the training and ensemble of several learning systems, such as neural networks, random forest, support vector machine, trained from diverse features. The selection of input features to a learning machine has always been critique on signal classification. In our approach, the employment of Bayesian network filtered out a set of features and has been proved by the ensemble to be effective. The ensemble technique enhanced the performance of individual systems dramatically. The performance acquired on 30% of the test samples reached an accuracy of 78.34%. These results are significant for a real-world vehicular problem and we are quite confident this solution will become one of the top ones on the competition test data.


An integrated system of intelligent acoustic buoys have been developed to detect, identify and localize whales in real-time in their environment and communicate this information to land-based stations or ships via satellite and Internet, and RF communications. The low-cost portable buoy network can be used as a marine mammal observatory to gather continuous space-time series of vocalizing animals over large basins, or as early warning systems for improving whale protection on navigation routes or around moving or fixed platforms during threatening high-level acoustic activity. The unit buoy is powered by two 12-V batteries connected to solar panels. The processor is an 800 MHz Pentium III PC equipped with 400-MB fast memory and a 100-GB hard disk. The clock is synchronized with the embarked GPS. Data from two georeferenced hydrophones equipped with depth and temperature sensors are flowing to a 16-bit 500-kHz A/D-DSP board. Two-way communication is through 900-MHz and an Iridium satellite modems. Specific whales target calls are detected in time-frequency domain after adaptive noise-filtration. The selected master buoy collects the precisely time-tagged detections from all units via RF communication, and locates the calling whales from hyperbolic and isodiachron-Monte Carlo fixing algorithms. A simple tracking algorithm then builds the individual tracks. All acoustic data or users' selected portions of them can be stored on the hard disk. The system is designed to accommodate future developments and be easily adapted to various tasks. It can be deployed as a drifting network or anchored to the bottom, as well as from the ice sheet. First sea trials will be in August 2006 in the St. Lawrence


AIM
The study of changes in functional activity of albumin ligand centers in the course of accumulation of metabolic products in the blood of hematological patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Blood serum albumin transport function (TF) was investigated in 22 and 24 patients with acute and chronic leukemia, respectively. Lipid analyser AKL-01 and the kit "Zond-Albumin" ("Zond", Moscow) were employed to assess total albumin concentration (TAC), effective albumin concentration (EAC), albumin binding reserve (ABR), the toxicity index (TI). The control group consisted of 38 blood donors. The findings were processed with statistical techniques.

RESULTS
In patients with manifest acute leukemia, ABR and TI decreased while TAC remained unchanged. Chronic leukemia patients had high EAC and close to control levels of ABR and TI. In terminal chronic leukemia ABR lowered, TI increased, TAC was high but EAC fell. In patients with chronic leukemia and acute leukemia remission changes in albumin TF was accompanied with growing TAC.

CONCLUSION
A decline of albumin TF was found in patients with manifest acute leukemia and terminal chronic leukemia. In non-terminal chronic leukemia and in remission of acute leukemia albumin TF was normal.


Abstract Tool lending is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of libraries. Instead of loaning books, libraries with tool collections lend kitchen and yard tools to ambitious do-it-yourselfers. These tools can be used to tackle home projects or do seasonal cleanup without burdening borrowers with concerns about cost or storage. As these libraries gain popularity and begin to expand in the U.S., it is worth taking a look at their origins. As it is presented in the current literature, tool libraries began in 1979 with the founding of the Berkeley Tool-Lending Library (BTLL). Information unearthed from newspaper clippings, blog posts, and websites, however, support the existence of a much earlier tool library in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Based on this finding, the paper will present a revised timeline that puts the birth of tool libraries in the 1940s. In doing so, the paper will correct the existing narrative of these unique libraries and firmly establish Grosse Pointe Library—not the BTLL—as the first of its kind.


Aims: The aims were to evaluate mandibular residual ridge resorption for patients wearing lower complete dentures made of heat curing acrylic resin lined with acrylic soft liner and compare it with patients wearing conventional heat curing dentures and compare patients satisfaction with dentures for both groups. Materials and Methods: Residual ridge resorption was evaluated in 35 male patients through a period of 6 months by means of digital panoramic radiographs, the patients divided into three groups, first group 5 patients not used prostheses, the second group 15 patients worn conventional heat curing dentures and the third group 15 patients worn dentures lined with acrylic based soft liner, the patients also surveyed about their satisfaction with dentures. Results: The results indicated insignificant difference in the rate of residual ridge resorption between the three tested groups in 6 months period. Conclusions: There is no significant difference between conventional heat curing dentures and dentures lined with acrylic based soft lining material regarding the rate of residual ridge resorption. Regarding denture satisfaction, most patients seem to have more comfortable denture and better chewing ability by using soft liners.


The role of the natural environment in the development of society has long been the subject of study by Marxist-Leninist theory. A characteristic feature of the society-nature interface is that the environment is one of the conditions of development of production as a process that takes place between society and nature. People use this condition depending on the attained level of the productive forces and production relations. The society-nature interface differs in each stage of social development, and man's use of the natural environment in a modern capitalist economy and under socialism — in the stage of developed socialist society — is earmarked by unique features.


Our goal is to identify and understand cellular behaviors using 3D live imaging of cell organization. To do this, we image human inducible pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines expressing fluorescently tagged protein representing specific cellular organelles and structures. To produce large numbers of standardized cell images, we developed an automated hiPSC culture procedure, to maintain, passage and Matrigel coat 6-well plastic plates and 96-well glass plates compatible with high-resolution 3D microscopy. Here we describe this system including optimization procedures and specific values for plate movement, angle of tips, speed of aspiration and dispense, seeding strategies and timing of every step. We validated this approach through a side-by-side comparison of quality control results obtained from manual and automated methods. Additionally, we developed an automated image-based colony segmentation and feature extraction pipeline to predict cell count and select wells with consistent morphology for high resolution 3D microscopy.


Intramontane basins in actively deforming regions contain significant information about the evolution of orogenic belts. We explored the tectonic characteristics and evolution of an intramontane basin between the Qilian Shan and Yumu Shan mountains on the NE Tibetan Plateau. We utilized the deformation of fluvial terraces along the Dahe River to constrain the rate and pattern of Quaternary deformation across the basin. Fluvial landforms include a widespread Mid-Pleistocene alluvial-fluvial fan surface and five terrace levels inset below this surface. We dated deposits associated with these landforms by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) analyses on eolian loess and fluvial sediments. Our results yield ages of 142.8 ± 11.3 ka (Fs), 103–125 ka (T5), 96–115 ka (T4), 87–104 ka (T3), and 13–15 ka (T2), which we interpret to reflect the abandonment of fluvial terrace surfaces. Elevation surveys indicate that the terrace surfaces are folded along the Dahe anticline and are gently tilted northward across the basin. Analysis of terrace deformation suggests that the Dahe anticline grew by limb rotation and accommodated upper-crustal shortening at a rate of 0.14 +0.14/–0.03 mm/a. We determined the onset of deformation to have occurred between 0.3 and 0.9 Ma, based on the rotation rate of the southern limb of the anticline. This age is significantly younger than the onset ages of the thrust faults along the Qilian Shan (ca. 10 Ma) and the Yumu Shan (ca. 3.7 Ma). The character of the terrace deformation suggests that the Dahe anticline was growing from a south-dipping decollement, which also induced surface tilting across the entire basin. The Late Quaternary activation of the Dahe anticline folding and the detachment slipping provide evidence that the deformation of the intramontane basin occurred much later than that of the surrounding mountain ranges and accommodated part of the crustal shortening through basin narrowing.


The term Fetal Alcohol Syndrome [5] (FAS) was first published in a 1973 article in the British medical journal The Lancet. In that article, a group of pediatricians and psychiatrists at the University of Washington Medical School helped to define the morphological defects and developmental delays that can affect children born to alcoholic mothers. Those observations include preand post-natal growth deficiencies, minor facial abnormalities, and damage to the developing brain that can result in behavioral, learning, and cognitive abnormalities.


The preparation of galactofuranosyl-containing disaccharidic parts of natural glycoconjugates was performed according to a chemo-enzymatic synthesis. Our goals were firstly to develop an alternative approach to standard chemical strategies by limiting the number of reaction and purification steps, and secondly to evaluate the scope of the Araf51 biocatalyst to transfer a galactofuranosyl moiety to a set of pyranosidic acceptors differing from each other by the series, the anomeric configuration as well as the conformation. The study of binding mode of the resulting disaccharides was also performed by molecular modeling and showed significant differences between (1→2)- and (1→6)-linked disaccharides.


Many universities have implemented Open journal system (OJS) to increase the publication performance. Such an Open source system can help journal staff in online publishing. There are ten tasks in journal management, but in this paper seven tasks are discussed, namely: writer, layout editor, proofreader, journal manager, reviewer, editor, and copy-editor. Hungarian algorithm was used as a task method of research methodology. This research used two applications (Excel QM and QM for Windows V5) and created two different task formations with the same time allocation (24 hours). Although different formations results, some staffs had the same task for both formation.

Keywords: excel QM V5.2, hungarian algorithm, journal management, open journal system, QM for Windows V5


This descriptive research aimed to evaluate and summarize lessons learned from A Network Building Project for Community-based Rehabilitation Program.  Dialogue process and Networking approach were used as strategies in this study. Fifty participants were consisted of rehabilitation service providers and people with disabilities from different sectors from Roi-Et, Kalasin, Khonkaen and Mahasarakham provinces.  Almost eighty percent of participants were female and forty-two percent aged between 36 and 41 years. Forty-four percent reported that they worked in hospitals and almost forty percent of them were physical therapists. After completing the project, we found that the positive attitude of participants towards taking care of PWDs by multidisciplinary teams using networking strategies was increased from low to the high-highest levels. Positive self-attitude was also changed to the high-highest levels. Project satisfaction level of participations was at the highest level. Essential lessons learned from the project are Dialogue and Self-Reflection methods could successfully connect providers from different backgrounds and create community of practice among those with common interest. It is likely that this could build capacity of oneself to contribute with multidisciplinary teamworking, as a result, quality of rehabilitation services could also be improved. It is suggested that the Community-based RehabilitationNetworking Project should be continued to involve service providers from other sectors. This could be one of the key success factors to improve quality of life of PWDs.


Atrial myocardium of guinea pigs was used to study effects of Escherichia coli endotoxin shock on inotropic characteristics of heart muscle free from noncardiac influences of the in vivo shock state. In vitro exposure of atrial muscle to large concentrations of endotoxin (10-1,000 microgram/ml, final concentration) for a prolonged period (90 minutes) had no effect on myocardial contractility. However, atrial muscle isolated from endotoxin-shocked guinea pigs exhibited clear evidence of mechanical depression, as reflected by markedly low values for both isometric contractile tension and maximal rate of tension development (dT/dt). Also, since systolic and diastolic time intervals of myocardial contractions were not discernibly affected by shock, the contractile deficit represented a true inotropic dys-function and was not due simply to a temporal change in the active state of the muscle. The shock-induced inotropic disorder was permanent enough to persist in vitro for several hours of observation. However, if the Ca++ concentration of the bathing medium was increased from 2.5 mM to maximally effective concentrations ( greater than 4.5 mM), contractile strength of heart muscle from the shocked group was equal to corresponding responses of control muscles. Present findings verify myocardial contractile dysfunction associated with in vivo endotoxin administration and provide characterization of a test system that should prove useful for further study of functional changes occurring to the heart in shock.


The eukaryotic green alga Chromochloris zofingiensis is a reference organism for studying carbon partitioning and a promising candidate for the production of biofuel precursors. Recent transcriptome profiling transformed our understanding of its biology and generally algal biology, but epigenetic regulation remains understudied and represents a fundamental gap in our understanding of algal gene expression. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-Seq) is a powerful tool for the discovery of such mechanisms, by identifying genome-wide histone modification patterns and transcription factor-binding sites alike. Here, we established a ChIP-Seq framework for Chr. zofingiensis yielding over 20 million high quality reads per sample. The most critical steps in a ChIP experiment were optimized, including DNA shearing to obtain an average DNA fragment size of 250 bp and assessment of the recommended formaldehyde concentration for optimal DNA-protein crosslinking. We used this ChIP-Seq framework to generate a genome-wide map of the H3K4me3 distribution pattern and to integrate these data with matching RNA-Seq data. In line with observations from other organisms, H3K4me3 marks predominantly transcription start sites of genes. Our H3K4me3 ChIP-Seq data will pave the way for improved genome structural annotation in the emerging reference alga Chr. zofingiensis.


BACKGROUND
Historically, mental health research has been strongly influenced by the underlying positivism of the quantitative paradigm. Quantitative research dominates scientific enquiry and contributes significantly to understanding our natural world. It has also greatly benefitted the medical model of healthcare. However, the more literary, silent, qualitative approach is gaining prominence in human sciences research, particularly mental healthcare research.

AIM
To examine the qualitative methodological assumptions of phenomenology to illustrate the benefits to mental health research of studying the experiences of people with mental illness.

DISCUSSION
Phenomenology is well positioned to ask how people with mental illness reflect on their experiences. Phenomenological research is congruent with the principles of contemporary mental healthcare, as person-centred care is favoured at all levels of mental healthcare, treatment, service and research.

CONCLUSION
Phenomenology is a highly appropriate and suitable methodology for mental health research, given it includes people's experiences and enables silent voices to be heard.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
This overview of the development of phenomenology informs researchers new to phenomenological enquiry.


At a meeting on marine ecosystem modelling held in Barcelona in November 2010, a wide range of tools were introduced by their developers. An officer of the European Commission was invited to the meeting as a key client of these tools, and he severely criticized the tools presented as being useless. This criticism led to a strong reaction by the modellers and an interesting debate. In this paper we summarize part of this debate, focusing on one of the potential reasons why final users are not using these tools: the isomorphism between the ecosystem and its deterministic representation through mathematical equations is fragile and a new generation of maps is necessary to represent the intrinsic uncertainty of their dynamics through models.


Water-soluble low-molecular-weight dicarboxylic acids (DCAs) and corresponding salts are ubiquitous in the atmosphere. They could efficiently form chelates with iron in atmospheric particles, which could be photoexcited to generate a series of strong oxidants, and have profound impacts on atmospheric chemistry. However, the influences of iron–DCAs complexes on the heterogeneous uptake of atmospheric trace gases are unclear. In this study, the effects of dominant dicarboxylic acid salts (including oxalate, malonate, and succinate) on the heterogeneous SO2 conversion with hematite nanoparticles were systematically investigated using film flow reaction and in situ DRIFTs experiments. It was found that a trace amount of DCA salts could significantly accelerate sulfate formation under solar light illumination. Additionally, similar results were also observed on the Arizona test dust, a proxy of authentic mineral dusts. Moreover, the iron solubility was increased owing to the effects of oxalate complexation, especially under light irradiation. Furthermore, the reaction mechanisms for the enhanced SO2 uptake and iron dissolution in the presence of DCA salts were proposed, and atmospheric environmental implications were discussed.


For undoped 6H-SiC boules grown by physical vapor transport the variations of resistivity, of the type and density of deep electron and hole traps, and of the concentration of nitrogen and boron were studied as a function of position in the cross section normal to the growth axis and along the growth direction. It was observed that the concentrations of all deep electron and hole traps decreased when moving from seed to tail of the boule and from the center to the edge of the wafers. Modeling of the growth process suggests that the C/Si ratio increases in a similar fashion and could be responsible for observed changes. We also discuss the implications of such stoichiometry changes on compensation mechanisms rendering the crystals semi-insulating and on electrical uniformity of SI-SiC wafers.


In this thesis we consider two problems regarding mappings between various two-dimensional
spaces with some constraint on their distortion.
The first question concerns the use of mappings of finite distortion that blow up
a point where the distortion is in some Lp class; in particular, we are interested in
minimal solutions to the appropriate functional. We first prove some results concerning
these minimal solutions for a given radially symmetric metric (in particular
the Euclidean and hyperbolic metrics) by proving a theorem which states the conditions
under which a minimizer exists, as well as providing lower bounds on the
Lp-norm of the function. We then apply these results to the problem of resolving
decompositions that arise in the study of Kleinian groups and the iteration of rational
maps. Here we prove a result concerning for which values of p we can find a
mapping of a particular form which shrinks the unit interval and whose inverse has
distortion in the Lp space.
The second is in regards to the Schoen conjecture, which expresses the hope that
every quasisymmetric self-mapping of the unit circle extends to a homeomorphism of
the disk which is both quasiconformal and harmonic with respect to the hyperbolic
metric. The equation for a harmonic map between Riemann surfaces with given
conformal structures is a nonlinear second order equation; one wishes to solve the
associated boundary value problem. We show here that the existence question can
be related to a nonlinear inhomogeneous Beltrami equation and discuss some of the
consequences; this result holds in more generality for other conformal metrics as
well.


Machining of brittle ceramics is a challenging task because the requirements on the cutting tools are extremely high and the quality of the machined surface strongly depends on the chosen process parameters. Typically, the efficiency of a machining process increases with the depth of cut or the feed rate of the tool. However, for brittle ceramics, this easily results in very rough surfaces or even in crack formation. The transition from a smooth surface obtained for small depths of cut to a rough surface for larger depths of cut is called a brittle-to-ductile transition in machining. In this work, we investigate the mechanisms of this brittle-to-ductile transition for diamond cutting of an intrinsically brittle 3C-SiC ceramic with finite element modeling. The Drucker–Prager model has been used to describe plastic deformation of the material and the material parameters have been determined by an inverse method to match the deformation behavior of the material under nanoindentation, which is a similar loading state as the one occurring during cutting. Furthermore, a damage model has been introduced to describe material separation during the machining process and also crack initiation in subsurface regions. With this model, grooving simulations of 3C-SiC with a diamond tool have been performed and the deformation and damage mechanisms have been analyzed. Our results reveal a distinct transition between ductile and brittle cutting modes as a function of the depth of cut. The critical depth of cut for this transition is found to be independent of rake angle; however, the surface roughness strongly depends on the rake angle of the tool.


Several hydrolytic and reductive bacterial enzymes (beta-glucuronidase, GN; beta-glucosidase, GS; arylsulphatase, AS; azoreductase, AR; nitroreductase, NR) involved in production of mutagenic or genotoxic metabolites were measured in human colonic contents. Cell-associated AS and extracellular GS were approximately twice as high in the distal colon compared with the proximal bowel, while AR changed little throughout the gut. Measurements of these enzymes in faeces from seven healthy donors confirmed that the majority were cell-associated, and demonstrated high levels of inter-individual variability. NR decreased four-fold between the proximal and distal colon while extracellular GN was reduced by 50%. Most probable number (MPN) analysis on faeces obtained from six healthy donors showed that counts of intestinal bacteria producing GS and AR were c. 10(10) and 10(11)/g, respectively, in all samples tested. Numbers of GN- and AS-forming organisms were between two and three orders of magnitude lower. Inter-individual carriage rates of bacterial populations synthesising NR were highly variable. Screening of 20 pure cultures of intestinal bacteria, belonging to six different genera, showed that Bacteroides ovatus, in particular, synthesised large amounts of GS, whereas B. fragilis, B. vulgatus and Bifidobacterium pseudolongum formed the highest cell-associated levels of GN. In general, bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus acidophilus did not produce significant amounts of AR. All five clostridia studied (Clostridium bifermentans, C. septicum, C. perfringens, C. sporogenes and C. butyricum) produced NR and AR, as did the bacteroides (B. fragilis, B. ovatus and B. vulgatus). Escherichia coli and C. perfringens formed large amounts of NR. Levels of AS production were invariably low and few of the organisms screened synthesised this enzyme. In-vitro studies investigating the effect of intestinal transit time on enzyme production, in a three-stage (V1-V3) continuous culture model of the colon operated at system retention times (R) of either 31.1 or 68.4 h, showed that specific activities of GS were up to four-fold higher (V3) at R = 31.1 h. Bacteriological analysis demonstrated that representative populations of colonic micro-organisms were maintained in the fermentation system, and indicated that changes in GS activity were not related to numbers of the predominant anaerobic or facultative anaerobic species within the model, but were explainable on the basis of substrate-induced modulation of bacterial metabolism.


Around 400,000 people tear their anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs) every year in the United States. The majority of these injuries occur during athletics, and most commonly to females. Their neuromuscular abilities, anatomies, and hormones put female athletes at a much higher risk of ACL injury than male athletes. The current gold standard of treatment, ACL reconstruction, is an imperfect technique at best. It leaves patients with much higher risk of both ACL reinjury and early onset of osteoarthritis. Prevention programs, aimed at reducing the neuromuscular risk factors in female athletes, have proved to effectively reduce the number of noncontact ACL injuries in many studies since the late 1990s. Despite their demonstrated success, ACL prevention programs are not commonplace in high school and collegiate athletics today. It is the responsibility of the athletes, parents, and coaches to educate themselves on the elevated risks of ACL injuries for female athletes. Furthermore, coaches, athletic trainers, and athletic directors must work together to create and implement ACL prevention programs specifically tailored to their sports teams' needs to eliminate this painful and detrimental commonality in today's female athletics. With the dedication to spreading knowledge about ACL injuries and implementing prevention programs, the number of ACL injuries in female athletes will undoubtedly decrease. 3


A technique for non-contact optical measurement of in-plane displacements based on correlation analysis is presented. This approach can be used to identify the position of a marker before and after deformation of a specimen or plane test-object. Some mechanical parameters of materials and strains can be calculated using information from several markers' displacements. The method is simpler than other optical techniques in experimental processing and can efficiently used to measure large deformations. The precision of marker identification method is analyzed. And some discussion on this method is also given.


We report here the effect of activated human platelets on the activation of human factor IX by human factor XIa. Factor IXa formed during activation was determined via its ability to activate bovine factor X. To increase sensitivity, phospholipids and bovine factor VIIIa were present in the assay. The kinetic parameters of the factor IX activation were determined in the presence of 10 mmol/L CaCl2. The Km for factor IX was 0.30 mumol/L and kcat was 2.4 s-1. Activated human platelets inhibited factor IX activation by factor XIa in a dose-dependent manner, whereas unstimulated platelets had no effect. Factor IX activation was inhibited for more than 90% at a platelet concentration of 4 X 10(8)/mL, whereas concentrations of less than 10(6)/mL had no influence. The inhibitory effect could be induced by thrombin, collagen, calcium ionophore A 23187, and adrenalin. The appearance of inhibitory activity could be blocked by the addition of the prostacyclin analogue ZK 36374 at any time during platelet activation. Stirring during platelet activation was not necessary. These results suggest that the inhibition is caused by a release reaction. This was confirmed by centrifugation experiments that showed that the inhibitory activity could be recovered from the supernatant of the activated platelets. The inhibitory activity was destroyed upon boiling and was susceptible to trypsin digestion. Passage of platelet supernatant over ACA 22 showed that the inhibitory activity eluted with an apparent molecular weight of less than 1,200,000 but greater than 669,000. The inhibition of factor XIa was reversible. These data suggest that platelets release an antiprotease of factor XIa that reversibly inhibits factor XIa. Lineweaver-Burk analysis showed that the inhibitor caused both an increase in Km for factor IX and a decrease in kcat of factor IXa formation by factor XIa.


This paper analyze the Armed personnel management system in Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal drawing information from secondary sources especially from APF headquarter including interview with key persons retired from APF. The study reveals that APF has moderately success to manage APF personnel to achieve its goal to maintain peace and security and safeguard national sovereignty. Because of its professional manpower produced by APF, almost all people appreciate its role played during natural disaster in the country. Despite of these activities performed by APF, there are vital issues revealed from the study that there needs proper human resource planning to promote effectiveness and efficiency in APF, Nepal. Recruitment of Armed personnel through open competition is delayed because of government's delayed decisions. Likewise, promotion process especially in higher position is more often impacted due to government delayed decisions. Trainings in APF have been conducting for promotion purpose without assessing training need. The trainings are also constrained due to inadequate resource allocation. APF personnel are also not satisfied with the existing salary system of the country. The study concludes that there are a lot of rooms to improve personnel management system in APF, Nepal for its betterment.


This paper illustrates how statistical decision theory can be used to model aspects of the effectiveness of a course placement system. The illustration is based on data from students who enrolled in a first-year mathematics course at a midwestern university. To model the placement of students, the author first elicited students' and instructors' preferences for the different outcomes of the course. Completed responses were received from 19 instructors and 40 percent of the 270 students questioned. About 3/4 of the student respondents and 4/5 of the instructor respondents were able to supply coherent grade value functions; the median value functions for the instructors were modestly but systematically higher than those for the students. Comparisons were then made of the actual outcomes of students who received remedial instruction before enrolling in the course with their predicted outcomes had they not done so; an analogous comparison was made between expected value functions. Although the number of students with previous remedial instruction was too small to permit drawing firm conclusions, results illustrate how, given sufficient sample sizes, one could use decision theory to develop indicators of the effectiveness of remedial instruction. Appendixes include the questionnaires and discussion of constructing summary value functions for course placement outcomes. (Contains 36 references.) (Author/NAV) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Assessing the Effectiveness of Course Placement Systems in College


A new impact energy absorber for a railway car, which maintains its optimal performances even when an impact with a vertical offset occurs, is described. Starting from the description of the concept design, the present paper moves on to the structural optimisation of its components, in respect of both the functionality of the entire system and the maximum deformation energy that it can absorb, even in the case of an offset. A numerical simulation of the impact between two absorbers with offset verifies the effectiveness of the design choices. The numerical model has been also developed to reproduce the behaviour of the absorber under a falling impact mass that is made by means of a full-scale drop test, achieving a support of the effectiveness of both the simulation and the proposed concept.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
The demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis has an autoimmune inflammatory component, which has dominated the description of multiple sclerosis. A degenerative component to multiple sclerosis was always apparent, but was underappreciated until recently. Recent work has brought axonal pathology and brain atrophy into new focus. The purpose of this review is to highlight the relative roles played by the inflammatory and degenerative processes in multiple sclerosis pathology.

RECENT FINDINGS
In the past year reports have been published to show that early disability and disease progression correlate with axonal damage, and that brain atrophy resulting from axonal loss is a feature of early multiple sclerosis, and is not restricted to the secondary progressive forms of the disease. Inflammatory mediators (CD8 T cells and antibodies) are implicated in axonal damage, and treatment with steroids or anti-inflammatory therapies reduce brain atrophy, pointing to the involvement of the inflammatory response in the initiation of degeneration. Reduced regenerative capability also contributes to degeneration, and inflammatory responses are shown to inhibit the growth and migration of precursor cells for oligodendrocytes.

SUMMARY
Oligodendrocyte precursors are abundant in multiple sclerosis lesions, but fail to remyelinate. Oligodendrocyte growth and regeneration are probably compromised by the action of growth inhibitory signals and lack of growth stimuli. Inflammatory cells and mediators induce axonal loss as well as demyelination. The degenerative response is therefore an integral and early component of multiple sclerosis.