Abstract Various time- and space-resolved spectroscopies have been developed and applied to thin films and nanoparticles. Dynamic reflection spectroscopies of total internal, diffuse, and regular reflection modes analyze photophysical and photochemical processes at the interface/surface layers with thicknesses of a few tens to a few hundreds of nm and of optically scattering materials. The excited singlet, triplet, and ionic states are identified, and intersystem crossing, isomerization, electron transfer and recombination, and photothermal conversion due to excited-state annihilation are analyzed, just as by transmittance mode spectroscopy. Fluorescence and Rayleigh light-scattering spectroscopies are developed for elucidating excited-state dynamics of single nanoparticles. The optical properties are related to their size, shape, internal structure, and environmental conditions. We prove that organic molecular materials show novel nanometer-size effects due to structural confinement. The high-intensity laser excitation induces ablation whose dynamics and mechanism are considered on the basis of time-resolved spectroscopy and imaging. For nanosecond and femtosecond ablation, we propose cyclic multiphotonic absorption and photomechanical mechanisms, respectively, while purely photochemical ablation was confirmed. Ablation studies have opened a new research approach toward expansion and contraction dynamics of polymer films, nanoparticle preparation, crystal growth control, crystallization in saturated solution, and others.


Chinese features extraction is indispensable in a processing of Chinese natural language because it is beneficial to Chinese text knowledge discovery and information retrieval. Chinese Segmentation is the precondition of features extraction. To conquer the disadvantage of current Chinese segmentation methods, such as lexicon-based scheme, syntax and rules-based scheme, statistics-based scheme and the integration method of the above scheme, the maximum matching and frequency statistics (MMFS) segmentation method based on length descending and string frequency statistics was put forward. To extract shorter words and phrases included in longer ones, a novel Chinese hierarchy feature extraction method based on MMFS and iterative learning was proposed. This method can obtain hierarchy feature according to morphology with no lexicon, no acquiring the probability between words in advance and no Chinese character index. Experimental results confirmed the efficiency of this statistical method in extracting Chinese hierarchy feature.


Nagaland produces 1,32,720 t of pineapples in an area of 9,528 ha. This organic fruit has excellent flavour and taste. However, marketing is a constraint because of transportation and distance to metropolitan cities in India. This investigation studied the value chain for marketing organic pineapple of Nagaland. Pineapples were collected from an organic farm at Molvom village Dimapur District, Nagaland during 2014-2016. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design in which the main plot was harvesting stage H1 (fully matured but no colour development), H2 (1/8th colour development), H3 (1/4th colour development) and H4 (1/2 colour development) and packaging containers (P1 - wooden boxes, P2 - bamboo boxes, P3 - CFB boxes and P4 - used carton boxes) as sub plot with three replications. Fruits were harvested and transported to New Delhi (2158 km from production site) by train taking 92 h. Samples were checked for spoilage on arrival and then taken to laboratory for further analysis. Harvesting stage and packaging containers and their interaction significantly influenced physicochemical qualities, organoleptic qualities, shelf life and benefit cost ratio. More matured fruit at harvest (H4) had the best physicochemical qualities and organoleptic scores (sweetness, aroma and fibre content). However, fruit from H1 had less PLW (physiological loss in weight) and postharvest loss (PHL) and thus maximum shelf life followed by H2. Fruit packed in CFB boxes (P3) had higher sweetness, fibre content, shelf life and lower postharvest loss, as well as the best physicochemical parameters. The highest benefit:cost ratio (BCR) was for fruit from treatment H1P4 in both the years.


Lubricating oil, used in cutting equipment, works in the so-called open lubrication system and is entirely emitted to the environment. When such an oil contains even a small portion of the crude oil-derived fraction, which is still very common, the oil is a serious environmental pollution. In addition, the oil mist poses a serious threat to the health of employees. Current legal regulations require users of saws and harvesters to use only biodegradable oils. In the case of hydraulic oils used in machines and vehicles, there is always a risk of leakage into the environment e.g. in case of breakage of connecting pipes or other types of breakdowns. Therefore, it seems reasonable to postulate the use of biodegradable oils in power hydraulics systems of machines used in forests, fields, mines or in rail or road vehicles. Bio-degradable oil, most often, with base vegetable oil, is more expensive than lubricating oil produced with the use of an oil-based oil base – i.e. a product of oil refining. Today, users of saws and harvesters still use mineral lubricating oils from crude oil, without any attention to the negative consequences for health and the environment. The known methods of the assessment of biodegradability of lubricating oils are expensive and time-consuming. The paper proposes a principle of method and equipment for performing a quick and cheap screening test for the presence of petroleum-derived fractions containing aromatic hydrocarbons in the analyzed lubricating oil samples. The test uses an oil fluorescence test under UV light of wavelength λ = 365 nm. The proposed method is simple and does not require specialist qualifications from the user. Easy-to-prepare equipment for repetitive testing in field conditions has been described.


Open Source Software (OSS) is typically viewed as a cooperative approach for software development and hence, more of a technology rather than a business model. Yet, there is an increasing number of profitable activities around the OSS ecosystem, proving that OSS is not only an innovative model of production, but also a sustainable business model. OSS creates value both on the supply and demand sides and an increasing number of firms are deploying their strategies around this value with considerable profits. Although it seems that OSS does have an impact on software markets, there is little scientific evidence for that and no evaluation on the degree of influence for software markets. Towards this direction, this paper examines OSS economic attributes and their correlation with software markets' special characteristics that affect competition. Competition under the scope of OSS is further explored by identifying the new dynamics formed in software markets. In order to further validate our results, the HHI concentration index is applied to three widely used software market segments.


Overall, the initial and long-term results of LABA have been disappointing. Poor initial recanalization rates and high restenosis and hemodynamic failure rates have caused investigators to reevaluate the indications for LABA. This reevaluation has resulted in an appropriate limitation of the indications for LABA. At present, LABA is probably indicated only for the treatment of patients with symptomatic, isolated arterial occlusions in whom conventional balloon angioplasty cannot be done because mechanical recanalization using a guidewire is not possible. Other uses of LABA in patients with peripheral vascular disease are discouraged and should be considered experimental. New innovations in technology, including improved arterial imaging techniques and better laser delivery systems, are required before LABA can become a standard therapy for the treatment of patients with peripheral vascular disease. A search for an "ideal" laser wavelength for arterial recanalization is futile until these developments occur. Once these innovations are in use, laser angioplasty may be an important technique in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease. This potentially valuable tool for the vascular surgeon should not be abandoned. Rather, it should be laid aside until it is better developed.


Friedreich's ataxia, an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive gait and limb ataxia, cardiomyopathy, and diabetes mellitus, is caused by decreased frataxin production or function. The structure of human frataxin, which we have determined at 1.8-Å resolution, reveals a novel protein fold. A five-stranded, antiparallel β sheet provides a flat platform, which supports a pair of parallel α helices, to form a compact αβ sandwich. A cluster of 12 acidic residues from the first helix and the first strand of the large sheet form a contiguous anionic surface on the protein. The overall protein structure and the anionic patch are conserved in eukaryotes, including animals, plants, and yeast, and in prokaryotes. Additional conserved residues create an extended 1008-Å2 patch on a distinct surface of the protein. Side chains of disease-associated mutations either contribute to the anionic patch, help create the second conserved surface, or point toward frataxin's hydrophobic core. These structural findings predict potential modes of protein-protein and protein-iron binding.


Differential attainment (DA) exists in research and academia, where individuals with protected characteristics face barriers to progression at different stages from selection in training or career pathways through to obtaining funding and getting research published. The causes of DA are multifactorial, however more barriers are associated with an individual's gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability or other social and economic factors rather than academic factors related to research. DA is seen across medicine and healthcare therefore it is likely a manifestation of wider inequalities experienced by these individuals within society. This scoping review takes a first step at exploring DA through the lens of equality, diversity and inclusion in research and academia, specific to healthcare professionals in medicine, in the UK. Given the paucity of published data, benchmarking and investigation of the causes of DA and access in this area, this review seeks to identify what published reports exploring this issue reveal. There has been mixed success in the area of gender equality with the Athena Swan benchmarking exercise; however differences in outcomes exist within gender when other protected characteristics, such as ethnicity, are also explored. The DA observed among women despite the Athena Swan programme demonstrates other factors such as allyship, apprenticeship, sponsorship and mentoring which may be accessible to some individuals, but not others. Furthermore, ethnicity appears to be a barrier to accessing this form of support, and non-Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women appear to be more privileged to receiving this type of support. Without more research into the lived experiences of individuals from non-traditional backgrounds at the microlevel, as well as data across the career progression pathway over time at the macro-level, the problem of DA is unlikely to improve. If anything, lack of openness and transparency around such data at an organisational level, may exacerbate the sense of injustice within research and academia among individuals with protected characteristics, especially given that the perceived sense of DA is very real for them. The purpose of this paper is to start the conversation with stakeholders within research and academia, about DA and commence the process of reducing the gap using equality, diversity and inclusion as fundamental concepts for achieving a level playing field for all. This type of accountability is essential for developing trust and in the system. Such open conversations need to happen across every organisation, that is a stakeholder of research and academia in the UK.


ABSTRACT In data collection process of Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys (TDHSs), only printed questionnaire in Turkish is used. Therefore, on-the-spot translation was performed during the data collection process, rather than using printed questionnaires in Kurdish or Arabic. From the item-level nonresponse perspective, this study examines the quality of birth date data with two different but interrelated angles (1) impact of the language mismatch between language of interview and mother tongue of women; (2) impact of on-the-spot translation from Turkish into Kurdish and Arabic. The findings suggest that interviews with language mismatch and interviews conducted with on-the-spot translations, especially translations performed by local interpreters tended to produce high item-level nonresponse when compared with matched interviews. For this reason, an organized interviewer training session for increasing the effectiveness of on-the-spot translation with explanatory documentations and/or printed questionnaires in Kurdish and Arabic may be considered as options to decrease the item-level nonresponse further.


Throughout human history, medical practices have evolved and adapted to the prevailing knowledge, culture, and technology of their time. One such ancient medical technique that holds a significant place in history is "Agnikarma," a fire-based therapeutic intervention. Originating in civilizations such as India, China, Greece, and Egypt, Agnikarma's evolution and significance are explored within their cultural and medical contexts. Its origins are traced to ancient medical texts, including the "Sushruta Samhita" and the "Huangdi Neijing," which document its application in Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), respectively. Agnikarma's role in treating a wide array of conditions, from pain relief to chronic ailments, is examined, reflecting its diverse applications across cultures. Agnikarma involves the application of heat to specific points on the body using a variety of instruments, such as metal rods, needles, and cow dung cakes. By stimulating blood circulation and promoting the body's natural healing process, Agnikarma has been used to address conditions ranging from musculoskeletal pain to skin disorders. An attempt is made using this article to review how the process started from being worshipped like God to a therapeutic procedure, the step-by-step development. This review article explores the historical origins and contemporary use of Agnikarma therapy. The article also discusses the future directions for the research and development of this ancient healing technique. In essence, this historical review illuminates Agnikarma's cultural significance, medical impact, and role in shaping the trajectory of medical practices through time.


Simulation analysis of thermal performance for vacuum glazing was conducted in this paper. The heat conduction through the support pillars and edge seal and the radiation between two glass sheets were considered. The heat conductance of residual gas in vacuum gap was ignored for a low pressure of less than 0.1Pa. Two pieces of vacuum glazing with sizes of 0.3 × 0.3 m and 1.0 × 1.0 m were simulated. In order to check the accuracy of simulations with specified mesh number, the thermal performance of a small central area (4mm×4mm) with a single pillar in the center was simulated using a graded mesh of 41×41×5 nodes. The heat transfer coefficients of this unit obtained from simulation and analytic prediction were 2.194Wm-2K-1 and 2.257Wm-2K-1 respectively, with a deviation of 2.79%. The three dimensional (3D) isotherms and two dimensional (2D) isotherms on the cold and hot surfaces of the specimens were also presented. For a validity of simulated results, a guarded hot box calorimeter was used to determine the experimental thermal performance of 1.0m×1.0m vacuum glazing. The overall heat transfer coefficients obtained from experiment and simulation were 2.55Wm-2K-1 and 2.47Wm-2K-1 respectively, with a deviation of 3.14%.


In 2D, specularly-reflected multiples, when migrated with the velocity of the primaries, map to negative subsurface offsets in Subsurface-Offset-Domain Common-Image Gathers (SODCIGs). In Angle-Domain Common-Image Gathers (ADCIGs) they map with curvature towards increasing depths. Here we show, through a 3D synthetic prestack dataset, that specularly-reflected multiples in 3D have a similar behavior with an interesting addition: in 3D ADCIGs, the multiples exhibit an azimuth rotation proportional to the dip of the reflecting interface generating the multiple. This attribute may be used to discriminate between primaries and multiples in 3D ADCIGs and therefore help in the attenuation of the multiples.


The paper initially explains some fundamentals of interactive decision-making ("game theory") and then applies different approaches of game theory to different aspects of Brexit. The first analysis perceives the 2016 referendum as a "simple voting game" and challenges the view that the observed outcome of about 52% percent in favor of Brexit have to be interpreted that the "vox populi" (and, thus, also the "vox dei") is in favor of a "no-deal" Brexit. Rather, there seem to have existed three camps among the voters, of whom 25% have actually opted for a no-deal Brexit, whereas 27% seem to have approved Brexit in the expectation of a sensible deal. Hence, the 48% who favored "remain" have been by far the largest homogeneous group, although they fall short of an absolute majority. Social choice theory shows that, in a situation without an option supported by a clear majority, no aggregation procedure – such as majority voting or pairwise binary voting – exists that guarantees collective rationality (Arrow theorem) or satisfies some desirable properties (Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem).
The next analysis scrutinizes the hypothesis that the observed outcome of the referendum was due to the "remainers'" failure to participate. The economic theory of voter participation explains intermediate participation rates as a mixed strategy equilibrium. For the two or three groups mentioned above, the incentives to participate were different. The third model section takes a closer look at the negotiations between the UK and the EU, focusing on the transition from Theresa May to Boris Johnson. A simple Nash bargaining model demonstrates that the bargaining outcome may depend on the preferences of the delegate who negotiates on behalf of the represented party. Switching from one delegate to another, hence, may lead to a more favorable outcome. A final section discusses existing literature on game theoretic analysis of Brexit, which essentially deals with various non-cooperative bargaining models


Proximal femoral nail anti-rotation (PFNA)-2 is an intramedullary implant designed specifically for the Asian population for managing intertrochanteric (IT) fractures among the elderly. We presented this cases series with an objective to use and document the effectiveness of PFNA-2 for the management of unstable IT fracture among patients aged 60 years and above in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Four females were treated above 65 years with severe pain in the hip region after a trivial fall on the ground over a period of 2 years (2018–2020), diagnosed with T3 and T4 unstable IT fracture. All the patients were hypertensive, with two having diabetes. It was decided to manage the fracture site by PFNA-II implant following baseline clinical and biochemical investigations. The duration of surgery took around 70–75 min with a blood loss of 100–150 ml, and there was no intraoperative complication. Early mobilisation and toe touch walking was achieved within 2 days postoperatively. Harris hip score was 'good' for all patients within 3 months, which became 'excellent' after 6 months for all except one. Union was achieved in all the cases with a full weight-bearing period ranging from 9 to 11 weeks. The usage of PFNA-2 for IT fractures among elderly having co-morbidities such diabetes and hypertension is perfectly promising good results for such reason we strongly recommend it. However, future prospective clinical trials using sufficient sample size, comparing PFNA-2 with PFN and dynamic hip screws are needed for better decision-making.


Sutureless aortic valve implantation has emerged as an innovative alternative for treatment of aortic stenosis. By avoiding the placement of sutures, this approach aims to improve surgical outcomes by facilitating less traumatic minimally invasive approaches and reducing cross-clamp and cardiopulmonary bypass duration. However, the absence of sutures may have detrimental effects after sutureless interventions, including paravalvular leakages, valve dislocation, and stent-infolding. Transcatheter aortic valve-in-valve implantation (A-ViV) is emerging as a valuable procedure in patients with dysfunctioning biological aortic valves who are deemed inoperable with conventional surgery. Here we present the first-in-man case of trans-femoral implant of a balloon expandable aortic valve in a leaking sutureless self-expandable valve.


One of NAM's Rotliegend prospects is situated at c . 2800 m below a major wrench-fault zone. Large lateral impedance contrasts across the faults are believed to be one of the main causes for the poor seismic imaging at the Rotliegend objective. Three-dimensional pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) seismic processing using hard-layer model updating was applied to the data in 2000. The results showed a significant improvement compared to previous post-stack depth migration (post-SDM) results and the original post-time migration processing. Despite these improvements in data quality, ambiguity still remained over the exact seismic pick of the top Rotliegend objective at the prospect. There was a clear case to optimize further the data quality at the prospect because only the high case interpretation proved to be economically viable. A review of the 2000 PSDM processing concluded that there was still considerable scope for further improvement of the data by fine-tuning the velocity model near the complex re-activated fault systemas well as by detailed pre-stack data analysis. It was decided to embark on another 3D PSDM iteration to improve the structural definition of the prospect by using the latest available velocity modelling tools within Shell. The selected technique is based on non-layer constrained RMO measurements, followed by a velocity model inversion. This approach allows full and flexible interaction with the pre-stack data, a pre-requisite for proper velocity modelling in complicated wrench-fault systems.


Introduction: Prostate cancer has the highest incidence in American men and accounts for about 21% of newly diagnosed cancers (Siegel, Ma, Zou, & Jemal, 2016). African American (AA) men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, are likely to be diagnosed at a younger age with higher prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels and tend to have more aggressive tumors and higher recurrence rates than Caucasian men (Odedina et. al., 2009, Alanee, et.al., 2010, Kim et. al., 2010, Caso et. al., 2010). In spite of these documented disparities in prostate cancer, racial differences in mortality rates in prostate cancer gives mixed evidence. Cohen et. al. (2006) conducted a study on Medicare patients and concluded that AA men had lower disease free survival when compared to Caucasian men. In contrast, some studies have shown that AA men have either better survival or no difference in survival when compared to Caucasian men (Shah et. al., 2011, Brawn et. al., 1993, Powell et. al., 1995). This mixed evidence regarding racial disparities and survival in this common cancer leads to difficulty in establishing treatment and follow up guidelines. The objective of this meta-analysis is to compare existing studies in literature to estimate a summary statistic (crude and adjusted HR) of mortality according to race in prostate cancer. It also aims to ascertain the consistency of the association between AA race and mortality in prostate cancer across different studies. Methods: An extensive literature search for articles published between 1995 and 2014 was conducted using the keywords "racial", "disparities", "mortality", "death", "prostate" and "African American" using the PUBMED search engine. Screening was done on 172 identified articles using a 2-step process, and resulted in eight articles included in the final analysis (Albain et. al., 2009, Antwi et. al., 2013, Howard et. al., 2000, Mahal et. al., 2014, Mirabeau-Beale et. al., 2013, Moses et. al., 2010, Schwartz et. al., 2009, Tewari et. al., 2009). The primary outcome was crude HR and the secondary outcome was adjusted HR. Meta-analysis was conducted on the summary statistics of these eight studies using the metagen command in R. Results: All eight articles were cross sectional studies published between 2000 and 2014. Seven out of eight articles controlled for age, type of treatment, number of comorbidities, educational level and type of insurance, except Howard et al (2000) that only controlled for socio-economic status. All eight articles reported both crude and adjusted HR. Seven articles reported 95% confidence intervals and one reported standard error. Using meta-analysis, the overall crude HR was 1.41 (95% CI: 1.25 to 1.59) and the overall adjusted HR was 1.29 (95% CI: 1.10 to 1.50), suggesting an increased risk of mortality in African American men when compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Publication bias was assessed using the funnel plot. For crude HR, only one study showed more dispersion than the others, while for adjusted HR, three studies showed dispersion. Discussion: This study demonstrates that AA men have higher risk of mortality when compared to Caucasians. The higher hazards for African Americans are consistent for both crude and adjusted HR. Thus, in conclusion, AA men are at higher risk of mortality due to prostate cancer than Caucasian men, even after accounting for potential confounders. Further research should be conducted to stratify and summarize the hazards by stage, grade and age. This can help establish better management guidelines so that AA men receive more aggressive treatment for prostate cancer, which in turn, can combat the increased risk of mortality in these patients. Citation Format: Rasmi G. Nair, Praveen Ramakrishnan Geethakumari, Andre A.A. Williams, Stephen J. Lepore. Race and mortality in prostate cancer: A meta-analysis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B17.


The architecture and localization of the endo-lysosomal system are highly dependent on the WASH complex, a pentameric protein complex which promotes the formation of branched actin patches on endosomes. These actin deposits form endosomal subdomains and are requisite for the maintainance of the endo-lysosomal structure. The endo-lysosomal system is indispensable for intracellular cholesterol transport. Cholesterol is transported from the endo-lysosomal systems to other organelles, such as the plasma membrane, the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus. This process is facilitated mainly via membrane contact sites, disruption of which disturbs cellular cholesterol homeostasis. Here, we have studied how perturbation of the endo-lysosomal network by WASH depletion affects hepatic cholesterol homeostasis, by quantifying pathways of cholesterol and bile acid metabolism. We show that WASH depletion results in impaired transactivation of liver X receptor (LXR) target genes. Nevertheless, we found no alterations in cholesterol and bile acid excretion, or in hepatic cholesterol synthesis and lipogenesis. Overall, our data suggest that under the conditions studied the perturbed lysosomal architecture and localization upon WASH ablation do not result in abnormal hepatic cholesterol and bile acid metabolism.


Critics have often assumed that realism betrays its dedication to ordinary reality when it takes on lots of narrative and political excitement, but this article argues that realism works best when it combines humdrum routine with narrative shock. Levine claims that the nineteenth-century novel invented a paradoxical realist technique that has been adopted by contemporary serial television, which she calls "the shock of the banal." Representing daily routines in ways that render them unfamiliar, funny, or strange, realist fictions strive to make ordinary experience feel extraordinary. This essay explores the formal, historical, and political implications of "the shock of the banal" in Adam Bede, Bleak House, and Uncle Tom's Cabin, and their echoes in The Sopranos, Mad Men, and The Wire.


This paper addresses the problem of building a unified structure to describe a peer-to-peer system. Our approach uses the well-known notations in the P2P area, and provides a global architecture that puts a separation between the platform specific characteristics and the logical ones. In order to enable the navigation of the peer across platforms, a roaming layer is added. The latter provides a capability to define a unique identification of peer and assures the mapping between this identification and those used in each platform. The mapping task is assured by special wrapper. In addition, ontology is proposed to give a clear presentation of the structure of the P2P system without interesting in the content and the resource managed by the peer. The ontology is created according to the web semantic paradigm and using OWL language; so, the structure of the system is considered as a web resource. Keywords—Peer to peer, ontology, owl.


© Yanlin Wang, Haoyuan Zhang, Bruno C. d. S. Oliveira, and Marco Servetto. Multiple inheritance is a valuable feature for Object-Oriented Programming. However, it is also tricky to get right, as illustrated by the extensive literature on the topic. A key issue is the ambiguity arising from inheriting multiple parents, which can have conflicting methods. Numerous existing work provides solutions for conflicts which arise from diamond inheritance: i.e. conflicts that arise from implementations sharing a common ancestor. However, most mechanisms are inadequate to deal with unintentional method conflicts: conflicts which arise from two unrelated methods that happen to share the same name and signature. This paper presents a new model called Featherweight Hierarchical Java (FHJ) that deals with unintentional method conflicts. In our new model, which is partly inspired by C++, conflicting methods arising from unrelated methods can coexist in the same class, and hierarchical dispatching supports unambiguous lookups in the presence of such conflicting methods. To avoid ambiguity, hierarchical information is employed in method dispatching, which uses a combination of static and dynamic type information to choose the implementation of a method at run-time. Furthermore, unlike all existing inheritance models, our model supports hierarchical method overriding: that is, methods can be independently overridden along the multiple inheritance hierarchy. We give illustrative examples of our language and features and formalize FHJ as a minimal Featherweight-Java style calculus.


(Note: this paper is now superseded by a book. The book is called Picturing Corporate Practice (West Academic 2016). The paper served as a working paper in the development of the book.) This paper is about practicing corporate law. It offers some ways of thinking about the core professional tasks of advice development and deal planning, and about the products corporate lawyers make for those purposes. The paper also suggests a practical technique — sketching — for gaining traction on the analysis and communication at the core of the practice. The sketching discussion draws on the extensive literature in cognitive science, psychology, engineering, architecture, and design about sketching, cognition, and collaboration. The paper is not in conventional form; it is written in an informal style, and makes extensive use of graphics. The content, format, and style reflect the fact that the paper is designed as a resource for law students and new corporate lawyers, and as a possible source of teaching ideas for classroom and clinical instructors.


An identity of Chung, Graham and Knuth involving binomial coefficients and Eulerian numbers motivates our study of a class of polynomials that we call binomial-Eulerian polynomials. These polynomials share several properties with the Eulerian polynomials. For one thing, they are $h$-polynomials of simplicial polytopes, which gives a geometric interpretation of the fact that they are palindromic and unimodal. A formula of Foata and Sch\"utzenberger shows that the Eulerian polynomials have a stronger property, namely $\gamma$-positivity, and a formula of Postnikov, Reiner and Williams does the same for the binomial-Eulerian polynomials. We obtain $q$-analogs of both the Foata-Sch\"utzenberger formula and an alternative to the Postnikov-Reiner-Williams formula, and we show that these $q$-analogs are specializations of analogous symmetric function identities. Algebro-geometric interpretations of these symmetric function analogs are presented.


Linguistic borrowings occur in all languages. Andic languages of the Caucasus have borrowings from different donor-languages like Russian, Arabic, Persian. To automatically detect these borrowings, we propose a logistic regression model. The model was trained on the dataset which contains words in IPA from dictionaries of Andic languages. To improve model's quality, we compared TfIdf and Count vectorizers and chose the second one. Besides, we added new features to the model. They were extracted using analysis of vectorizer features and using a language model. The model was evaluated by classification quality metrics (precision, recall and F1-score). The best average F1-score of all languages for words in IPA was about 0.78. Experiments showed that our model reaches good results not only with words in IPA but also with words in Cyrillic.


The mechanical properties of the 316L stainless steel subjected to surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) have been studied, these properties are hardness, tensile properties and wear resistance. The research shows that the thickness of the hardened layer increases with the increasing of the treating time. The refined microstructure in the treated layer led to increasing in hardness, strength, and wear resistance. It is obvious that the surface layer hardness and bulk yield strength are increasing when the SMAT time reaches 5 minutes. The increase of surface layer wear resistance is obvious when the SMAT time is 15 minutes. The SEM observation of the wear scars shows that the nanocrystalline layer might reduce the effect of adhesive wear of 316L stainless steel. Therefore, the wear mechanism changes from adhesive abrasion to grinding particle abrasion after SMAT.


The European Commission (EC) as well as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published legislations to regulate or encourage the use of low Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants applied to Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) systems. Europe mandates a GWP less than 150 of MAC refrigerants for new vehicle types. The thermodynamic refrigerant properties of R-1234yf are slightly different from the properties of R-134a, currently used in MAC systems. Although the basic material data show that R-1234yf is flammable, ignition tests performed for an automotive engine under-hood environment reveal design and packaging influences of its ignition behavior. After extensive collaborative research in 2009, the Society of Automotive Engineers Cooperative Research Team (SAE CRP1234) concluded that R-1234yf is suitable for use in automotive applications. Further ignition risk assessment regarding R-1234yf usage in MAC systems was done by SAE CRP1234-4 in 2013. They concluded that "risks are still very small compared to the risks of a vehicle fire from all causes and well below risks that are commonly viewed as acceptable by the general public." This paper will compare under-hood hot surface ignition behavior of five different vehicles under specific test conditions. Out of these five, two vehicles were further investigated and the engine compartment designs were assessed. A broad range of flammability testing was completed to study release of the R-1234yf and Polyalkylene Glycol (PAG) oil mixture. Both vehicles were equipped with a transverse gas engine, front take down exhaust routing, turbo charger, and single evaporator MAC system. This engine architecture was chosen due to the short distance from a potential condenser leak and the hot exhaust system components in case of a frontal crash. Although the engine architecture was the same for both vehicles, the engine design and packaging were different and were described in this paper. Parameters that were considered include heat shield design, engine packaging, exhaust system surface temperatures during refrigerant release, and the impact on the time to ignition of the R-1234yf/PAG mixture. Mitigation measures were also identified and their potential integration into a vehicle were discussed. As engine coolant will be released in many real-world frontal crash scenarios, the impact of vaporized glycol water mixture on the ignition behavior was assessed. This paper further describes the MAC systems, the test facility used, and the testing procedure applied. Language: en


BACKGROUND
Obesity is associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), but it is unknown whether the association differs by duration or persistence of AF. It is also unknown to what extent cardiovascular risk factors may mediate this association.

METHODS
This population-based case-control study included 425 subjects with new-onset AF and 707 controls. The AF cases were identified through International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes for inpatient and outpatient visits and verified by medical record review. Medical records provided data on height, weight, and cardiovascular risk factors.

RESULTS
On average, AF risk was 3% higher (95% confidence interval [CI], 1%-5%) per unit increment in body mass index (BMI) (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared). For sustained AF (duration > or =6 months), risk was higher by 7% (95% CI, 3%-11%) per unit BMI increment; for intermittent AF (duration > or =8 days or recurrent), 4% (95% CI, 1%-6%); and for transitory AF (duration <8 days), 1% (95% CI, -1% to +4%). Compared with those with normal BMI, the odds ratios for overweight and obese subjects were as follows: overweight, 0.97 (95% CI, 0.68-1.38); obese class 1, 1.18 (95% CI, 0.80-1.73); obese class 2, 1.34 (95% CI, 0.82-2.18); and obese class 3, 2.31 (95% CI, 1.36-3.91) (P = .002 for trend). When diabetes mellitus, a possible mediator, was added to the model, the odds ratio per unit increment of BMI decreased from 1.034 to 1.028. Adjustment for other cardiovascular risk factors including hyperlipidemia and blood pressure did not attenuate the BMI-AF association.

CONCLUSIONS
The association with BMI was stronger for sustained AF than for transitory or intermittent AF. The obesity-AF association appears to be partially mediated by diabetes mellitus but minimally through other cardiovascular risk factors.


Objectives Describe characteristics of cervical cancer patients managed with surgery at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI). Methods Data collected prospectively and analysed of patients operated for Cacx over 17months. Results Thirty five (35) radical hysterectomies with pelvic lymph node dissection were carried out. Five were post neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) patients. Of the 35 surgeries, a fellow was first assistant in 19(54%) of the cases and primary surgeon in the rest.The youngest age was 24 years and the oldest 71 years with median age of 48.5 years, commonest histology type was squamous cell carcinoma. Of the five post NAC patients, three were FIGO stage 2A while two were FIGO stage 2B.Of the thirty patients who had primary surgery, one had surgery abandoned after being upstaged to stage 2B yet one patient died on table. The remaining 29 had complete surgery as planned average hospital stay was 5 days. Stage 1B1 accounted for twenty two (73.3%) patients followed by 1A2 five patients(16.6%),1B2 three patients and none with 1A1 disease. At least one ovary was left in three of the patients and the rest (90%) had BSO. Lymphnode Pathology report was done in only seven patients who were negative while excision margins were commented on in six patients, as free and the rest were not reported. Stromal invasion was commented on among eleven patients and of these 10 had evidence of stromal invasion. Conclusions Patients managed with radical hysterectomy at the UCI are young patients with mainly IB1, squamous cell carcinoma with under reporting on the histologic specimen after surgery.


Accelerating digitization of critical infrastructures is increasing interconnection and interdependence among high-reliability subsystems. The resulting dependencies create new challenges in preventing underinvestment in high impact, low probability (HILP) events which can have disastrous consequences for society's critical subsystems. These more impactful events highlight the differences between reliability and resiliency, with the latter applicable to black swans. A number of approaches for quantifying resiliency have been proposed; however, a review of literature identified conceptual gaps when applied to empirical event data. This chapter provides a scenario agnostic method to quantify resiliency by applying concepts from materials science in a generalized form. This new formulation resulted from a mapping of constructs used in tensile testing to characteristics of protracted subsystem disruptions. Based on the mapping and gap analysis, a resiliency index calculation was developed and applied using examples based on empirical data from high impact events.


In the realm of contemporary politics, the need to "communicate" is paramount. Some call political communication a process of manipulation, others a dark art of depict. Here, it will be examined as a form of promotion; as a form of advertising. However, it is an advertising typology that clearly appropriates architecture to its own persuasive ends. The world of advertising has been subject to numerous developments throughout the course of its history. In the last three decades this has seen what had become the standard mode of visual communication, semiotics, replaced by divergent and ever more sophisticated systems. These systems, we suggest, require the application of phenomenology as an analytical framework if we are to fully understand how they work. However, the importance of semiotic systems of communication has not evaporated. They remain core to advertising and, although obvious to a now fully visually literate public, a reasonably effective technique. They also remain evident in the realm of architecture, political communication and, as we describe here, the combination of the two. Examining two images of Barack Obama form the 2008 Presidential election in the United States, this paper underlines how core aspects of the standard semiotic system of analysis clearly reveal the promotional and persuasive techniques employed in "political imagery". However, it also describes how they are incorporated into a broader framework of the politico-media-complex and how this has helped transform their communicative strategies into techniques which require the application of a phenomenological analysis. Employing the terminology of Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Judith Williamson, Noam Chomsky and Maurice Merleau Ponty it will describe these images in fully advertising terms; an approach that turns the politics in play into a form of commercial exercise and the candidate promoted into a "product". The communicative techniques revealed are of course applied by all parties and individuals operating within the competitive political arena but these images of Barack Obama are perhaps the ones that reveal the similarities between the advertising and politics, and their use of architecture, most succinctly. ARCHITECTURE_MEDIA_POLITICS_SOCIETY Vol. 1, no.1. September 2012 DOI: 10.14324/111.444.amps.2012v1i1.000


Purpose
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, project management was undergoing gradual shift and moving from traditional ways of working toward embracing digitization. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation. This paper highlights the importance of digital project management (DPM), its adoption of digital technologies, the changing role of digital project manager, significant and abrupt swing in the rise of virtual teams and the benefits and challenges of remote project teams. This paper aims to discuss the latest development in project management and to lay out the rationale why DPM is here to stay even after the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach
The author has based this research on reviewing publications from the project management journals and publications, interviews of project management professionals and analyzing data from a project management consultancy.

Findings
The pandemic accelerated the digitalization of project management including the adoption of digital tools and technologies, embracing an agile approach to implementing projects; working collaborative in remote teams; and breaking traditional barriers of geography, time zones and fundamentally how project teams collaborate.

Practical implications
Project management is being digitized, changing how teams work. Fueled by the pandemic, DPM accelerated its momentum. The rate of adoption is likely to be strong after the pandemic. Organizations and individuals should consider embracing DPM but with the full knowledge of both benefits and challenges.

Originality/value
DPM is still in its early days even though the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated its use. Today and likely after the pandemic, organizations and people are increasingly embracing digital technologies, remote teams and agile project management approaches to project management. It is likely that in the foreseeable future, nearly all project managers will be digital project managers, giving rise to the importance of understanding the challenges and benefits and building the digital skills for both individuals and organizations.


A Heckman's two-stage method is used in conjunction with data from the 1998 Agricultural Resource Management Study to estimate the likelihood of adopting a variable rate application technology (VRT) and the impact of such adoption on the per-acre costs of fertilizers and lime in cash grain production. Results highlight the importance of operator's level of human capital and attitude toward risk, along with size and location of farm in impacting VRT adoption decisions. Results also indicate no significant cost-savings attributable to VRT adoption.


"Federal Reclamation and the American West in the Twentieth Century" looks at four phases in the history of the Bureau of Reclamation. The first phase lasted from the adoption of the Reclamation Act of 1902 into the 1930s. In those years, the bureau attempted to create small family farms by bringing water to the desert lands of the West. That effort failed, in part because farming was becoming less attractive in the United States during the early decades of the 20th century, in part because irrigation was too expensive, and in part because the bureau made many mistakes in administering the 30 projects it created. A second phase of the bureau's life began in the 1930s, with the "high dam era." From 1930 into the 1950s, the bureau's mission became inconsistent as it strived to serve a new constituency, city dwellers and industries on the Pacific Coast, at the same time it continued to push the family farm. The bureau entered a third phase of life after World War II, when the power it generated became identified with winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union and agribusiness eclipsed the family farm in the West. Finally, once big dams began to look too expensive and like "old technology," the bureau recreated itself into an agency which now claims to work in the interest of protecting the environment and serving as the West's "water broker." The Bureau of Reclamation, which has done as much as any federal agency to build the modern American West, has shown an amazing ability to pursue inconsistent objectives and to recreate itself.


Over the past two decades, several researchers have presented experimental data from pressure-driven liquid flows through nanotubes. They quote flow velocities which are four to five orders of magnitude higher than those predicted by the classical theory. Thus far, attempts to explain these enhanced mass flow rates at the nanoscale have focused mainly on introducing wall-slip boundary conditions on the fluid mass velocity. In this paper, we present a different theory. A change of variable on the velocity field within the classical Navier–Stokes equations is adopted to transform the equations into physically different equations. The resulting equations, termed re-casted Navier–Stokes equations, contain additional diffusion terms whose expressions depend upon the driving mechanism. The new equations are then solved for the pressure driven flow in a long nano-channel. Analogous to previous studies of gas flows in micro- and nano-channels, a perturbation expansion in the aspect ratio allows for the construction of a 2D analytical solution. In contrast to slip-flow models, this solution is specified by a no-slip boundary condition at the channel walls. The mass flow rate can be calculated explicitly and compared to available data. We conclude that the new re-casting methodology may provide an alternative theoretical physical explanation of the enhanced mass flow phenomena.


The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 Study produced comparable estimates of the burden of 291 diseases and injuries in 1990, 2005, and 2010. This article reports on the global burden of untreated caries, severe periodontitis, and severe tooth loss in 2010 and compares those figures with new estimates for 1990. We used disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLDs) metrics to quantify burden. Oral conditions affected 3.9 billion people, and untreated caries in permanent teeth was the most prevalent condition evaluated for the entire GBD 2010 Study (global prevalence of 35% for all ages combined). Oral conditions combined accounted for 15 million DALYs globally (1.9% of all YLDs; 0.6% of all DALYs), implying an average health loss of 224 years per 100,000 population. DALYs due to oral conditions increased 20.8% between 1990 and 2010, mainly due to population growth and aging. While DALYs due to severe periodontitis and untreated caries increased, those due to severe tooth loss decreased. DALYs differed by age groups and regions, but not by genders. The findings highlight the challenge in responding to the diversity of urgent oral health needs worldwide, particularly in developing communities.


The computation of mutual informations of large scale systems with finite input alphabet and Gaussian noise has often prohibitive complexities. In this paper, we propose a novel approach exploiting the sphere decoding concept to bound and approximate such mutual information term with reduced complexity and good accuracy. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, the method is numerically demonstrated for the computation of the mutual information of a frequency- and time-selective channel with QAM modulation.


After several years of product development, animal trials and human cadaver testing, the SpineAssist®–a miniature bone-mounted robotic system–has recently entered clinical use. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the only available image-based mechanical guidance system that enables pedicle screw insertion with an overall accuracy in the range of 1 mm in both open and minimally invasive procedures. In this paper, we describe the development and clinical trial process that has brought the SpineAssist to its current state, with an emphasis on the various difficulties encountered along the way and the corresponding solutions. All aspects of product development are discussed, including mechanical design, CT-to-fluoroscopy image registration, and surgical techniques. Finally, we describe a series of preclinical trials with human cadavers, as well as clinical use, which verify the system's accuracy and efficacy.


This article examines the origins of the unique schooling system for Palestinian refugees run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Examining developments c. 1950–57, it illuminates the programme's beginning and explores the objectives of those behind it. Using archival evidence from numerous international welfare organizations and testimonies from refugees themselves, this article argues that the parties providing education and the refugees receiving it often had conflicting objectives that were highly politicized on both sides. Despite the comparatively greater power and resources of the United Nations, the Palestinian refugees were able to make use of their limited leverage in order to shape the education system as they preferred. The UNRWA education programme thus serves as a revealing case study for explaining developmental aid to refugee populations and its inevitable intersection with politics.


ossified metacarpals with two digits with ossified phalanges in both hands. X-ray of the feet demonstrated a claw-like deformity in both and no ossified metatarsals were identified. To our knowledge this is the first report on diagnosis of SHFM in first trimester. In agreement with others, the observation of a more severe phenotype in the offspring of a mildly affected parent suggests anticipation. First trimester diagnosis of SHFM is feasible and may provide the couple with early knowledge of recurrence and severity.


Aim p16 Methylation frequently occurs in carcinogenesis. While it has been hypothesized that the p16 methylation states are dynamically maintained in cancer cells, direct evidence supporting this hypothesis has not been available until now. Methods A fusion cell model was established which reprogrammed the native DNA methylation pattern of the cells. The methylation status of the p16 alleles was then repeatedly quantitatively analyzed in the fusion monoclonal, parental cancer cell lines (p16-completely methylated-AGS and unmethylated-MGC803), and HCT116 non-fusion cell using DHPLC and bisulfite sequencing. Histone methylation was analyzed using chromatin immuno-precipitation (ChIP)-PCR. P16 expression status was determined using immuno-staining and RT-PCR. Results The methylation status for the majority of the p16 alleles was stably maintained in the fusion monoclonal cells after up to 60 passages. Most importantly, focal de novo methylation, demethylation, and hydroxymethylation were consistently observed within about 27% of the p16 alleles in the fusion monoclones, but not the homozygously methylated or unmethylated parental cells. Furthermore, subclones of the monoclones consistently maintained the same p16 methylation pattern. A similar phenomenon was also observed using the p16 hemi-methylated HCT116 non-fusion cancer cell line. Interestingly, transcription was not observed in p16 alleles that were hydroxymethylated with an antisense-strand-specific pattern. Also, the levels of H3K9 and H3K4 trimethylation in the fusion cells were found to be slightly lower than the parental AGS and MGC803 cells, respectively. Conclusion The present study provides the first direct evidence confirming that the methylation states of p16 CpG islands is not only homeostatically maintained, but also accompanied by a dynamic process of transient focal methylation, demethylation, and hydroxymethylation in cancer cells.


The epidemiological survey of 126 foci with patients having acute hepatitis B (AHB) and 120 foci with patients having chronic hepatitis B (CHB) was conducted. The observation of the susceptible members of the family showed that a significantly higher level of infection was found in persons having contacts with CHB patients (44.4 +/- 2.3%) in comparison with the members of the families of AHB patients (33.2 +/- 2.3%). The study revealed that children under 14 years were actively involved into the epidemic process; in these children the highest levels of infection were observed in the families of AHB patients (40.2 +/- 3.7%) and CHB patients (57.1 +/- 3.5%). High detection rate of HbsAg were noted in brothers and sisters in the foci of AHB (42.3 +/- 6.4%) and the foci of CHB (52.3 +/- 5.4%), also in parents: 32.4 +/- 5.2% and 46.5 +/- 4.2%, in children: 28.8 +/- 3.4% and 35.6 +/- 3.6% respectively.


Climate change, historical fire suppression, and a rise in human movements in urban-forest boundaries have resulted in an increased use of long-term fire retardant (LTFR). While LTFR is an effective fire-fighting tool, it contains high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, and little is known about how this nutrient pulse affects terrestrial ecosystems. We used field surveys and greenhouse experiments to quantify effects of LTFR on plant productivity, community composition, and plant interactions with the ubiquitous root symbiont arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). In the field, LTFR applications were associated with persistent shifts in plant communities toward exotic annuals with little or no dependency of AMF. Plants exposed to LTFR were less colonized by AMF, both in field surveys and in the greenhouse, and this was most likely due to the substantial and persistent increase in soil available phosphorus. All plants grew bigger with LTFR in the greenhouse, but the invasive annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) benefitted most. While LTFR can control fires, it may cause long-term changes in soil nutrient availabilities, disrupt plant interactions with beneficial soil microbes, and exasperate invasion by some exotic plants.


Al substituted MoSi2 composites were prepared by using microwave assisted synthesis method, which is a self-propagation synthesis ignited by microwave energy. The composition and microstructure of as combusted powder had been detected by XRD and SEM analysis. Result shows that the pre-heating temperature and phase composition of microwave assisted combustion synthesis is largely influenced by the content of aluminum. The phase structure of Mo(Si, Al)2 alter from a mixture of MoSi2 and Mo5Si3 to nearly pure Mo (Si, Al)2 with the increasing of Al substitution. The main mechanism is dissolution separation..


The purpose of study is to evaluate the challenges of IGAD-led peace process of South Sudan. Its objective is to evaluate and assess the challenges surrounding the South Sudan peace process mediated by the IGAD-led team. To address these objectives, the researcher employed qualitative research design to make use of its advantage in gaining detailed information about the issue, to examine reflections, understandings and knowledge of negotiators and refugees by offering an in-depth understanding of a particular problem and challenges. South Sudan became an independent state from the Sudan in July 9, 2011, following an internationally monitored referendum, which was held on 9 January. However, almost after three years of independence, the world newest state backslide into the horrific civil war on 15, December 2013, due to the power rivalry within SPLM/A. The war resulted in the massive loss of human life and property destruction. Consequently, the regional organization, IGAD swiftly launched the peace process on Saturday 4th January 2014, in order to halt the crisis in South Sudan. Nevertheless, the peace process faced enormous internal and external challenges during the peace talk and also at present the Joint Monitoring and Evolution Commission (JMEC) is facing impediment in the implementation process. Based on the findings of this study, the researcher recommends the concerned bodies such as the IGAD, AU, IGAD-Plus and UN should exert pressure on both warring parties so as to speed up the implementation process of Peace Agreement because the South Sudanese are suffering by intense security problems and food crisis associated with the conflict up until now. Besides, the international community should keep out, those who are uncompromising and create impediment to the implementation of the peace accord, from the rank of Transitional Government of National Unity (TGONU). Because the evidences indicate that both belligerent parties leaders are not portrayed their political will and good faith to implement the Peace Concord.


Objective
To culture and identify corneal fibroblasts from human keratoconus patients (HKCs).

Methods
HKCs and corneal fibroblasts from human healthy controls (HCFs) were cultured by tissue block adherence method.Cellular morphology and ultrastructure were observed by inverted phase contrast microscope and electron microscopy respectively.Cell viability was detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay.α-Smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), collagen type 1 alpha 1 (COL1A1) and collagen type 3 alpha 1 (COL3A1) protein expression levels were detected by Western blot.This study protocol was approved by Ethic Committee of Xi'an No.1 Hospital (No.1504).

Results
Compared with HCFs, HKCs showed several distinguishing properties.First of all, its growth speed was faster, with collagen fibers decreased and attenuated.At the same time, mitochondrion swelled and mitochondrial cristae disappeared.Additionally, Golgi apparatus presented significant expansion and endoplasmic reticulum displayed severe swelling.There were statistically significant differences in A values between the two kinds of corneal fibroblasts at different time points after culture (Fgroup=5 023.13, P<0.01; Ftime=38 518.16, P<0.01), the A value of HKCs was significantly higher than that of HCFs at the same time point, and the difference was statistically significant (all at P<0.01). The relative expression of α-SMA, COL3A1 and COL1A1 was 120.00±5.77, 158.33±4.41 and 88.33±1.67, respectively in HKCs, the relative expression of α-SMA, COL3A1 and COL1A1 was 100.00±0.00, 100.00±0.00 and 100.00±0.00, respectively in HCFs, the relative expressions of α-SMA and COL3A1 were significantly increased in HKCs than those in HCFs, the relative expression of COL1A1 was significantly decreased in HKCs than that in HCFs, with significant differences between them (t=-3.46, P<0.05; t=-13.23, P<0.01; t=7.00, P<0.05).

Conclusions
HKCs are cultured and identied, which is suitable for establishing in vitro cell model of keratoconus.

Key words:
Keratoconus; Fibroblasts; Cell culture; Identification


27.07.2022 COVID-19 often leads to neurological symptoms, such as a loss of taste or smell, or cognitive impairments (including memory loss and concentration difficulties), both during the acute phase of the disease and over the long term with "long COVID" syndrome. But the way in which the infection reaches the brain was previously unknown. Scientists from Institut Pasteur and CNRS laboratories have used state-of-the-art electron microscopy approaches to demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 hijacks nanotubes, tiny bridges that link infected cells with neurons. The virus is therefore able to penetrate neurons despite the fact that they are lacking the ACE2 receptor that the virus usually binds to when infecting cells.


The aim of this work is to show how dynamic graphics can supplement, and in some instances even surrogate, techniques of model validation traditionally adopted in economic and business applications. A case study considers a production function estimated over an unbalanced panel of technically efficient countries, where standard validation tools cannot be applied. Yet, the dynamic use of the summary plot and the added variable plot allows even in this case to assess the role of potentially influential observations. Through these procedures, a simple intervention model is implemented, obtaining coefficient values more in line with a priori expectations. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We have examined the ameba Dictyostelium discoideum for evidence of a discrete, prelysosomal, acidic receiving compartment in endocytosis. We observed in the cytoplasm abundant round vacuoles with diameters up to 2 microns that concentrated acridine orange by a process inhibited by 7- chloro-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD-Cl). They were therefore taken to be acidic. The vacuoles were observed to fuse nearly quantitatively with primary phagosomes over 30 min and thereby to confer upon them the ability to accumulate acridine orange. The entry into lysosomes of phagocytic cargo occurred later. In the absence of phagocytosis, almost all of the acidic vacuoles rapidly accumulated fluorescent markers that had either been covalently coupled to the cell surface or fed as the soluble dextran conjugate. Therefore, these vacuoles also lie on the pathway of pinocytosis. A prominent subcellular ATPase activity inhibited by 25 microM NBD-Cl co- distributed on sucrose equilibrium density gradients with vacuoles capable of concentrating acridine orange in vitro. The peak was broad and more buoyant than that bearing lysosomal acid hydrolases, which contained only a minor amount of this ATPase. Also migrating in the buoyant peak were internalized plasma membrane markers; e.g., 3H- galactose had been covalently coupled to the surface of intact cells and allowed to enter pinosomes. We conclude that in D. discoideum an extensive prelysosomal vacuolar compartment provides the proton pumps that acidify both phagosomes and pinosomes.


An expression for the dynamic density response function has been obtained for an interacting quantum gas in Random Phase Approximation (RPA) including first order self and exchange contribution. It involves the single particle wave functions and eigen values. The expression simplifies when diagonal elements are considered. The diagonal elements of the imaginary part of Fourier transformed response function is relevant in the measurement of Bragg scattering cross‐section and in several other applications.


From the fundamental studies of Louis Pasteur in the XIX century to the current genomic analysis, the essential role of microorganisms in winemaking industry is well recognised. In the last decades, selected Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains with excellent fermentative behaviour have been widely commercialised in form of active dry yeasts. Currently, the production of organic and "natural" wines represents a new economically relevant trend in the wine sector. Based on this market demand, the use of industrial yeast starter could be perceived as non-organic practice and then, rejected. However, in order to preserve wines sensory quality, healthiness, and to avoid organoleptic defects given by undesirable microorganisms, the "yeast factor" (S. cerevisiae or non-Saccharomyces) cannot be ignored. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the methods of selection of wine yeasts focusing the attention on indigenous S. cerevisiae strains. In fact, the use of ecotypic yeasts may represent a good compromise between the needs of microbiologically controlled fermentation and a modern vision of wine as natural expression of its "terroir", also from the microbiological point of view.


The relationship between complaints about temporomandibular joint (TMJ) sounds and the prevalence of disc displacements was studied. The rate of incidence of TMJ sounds was 42% in the 50 subjects investigated. In the subjects with TMJ sounds, 19% were diagnosed as having articular disc displacements. In the 58% sound-free subjects, 14% were found to have disc displacements.Therefore, it seems that patients with TMJ sounds do not always have disc displacements, and that a sound-free state does not necessarily indicate a healthy TMJ.


Spontaneous or idiopathic perforation of the bile duct (IPBD) in neonates and infants is a rare disease. An 1-year-5-month-old female child admitted with progressive abdominal distension and generalized jaundice. She had previously been treated for bacterial peritonitis at another hospital by using strong antibiotics. Abdominal tapping revealed bilious ascites suggesting a possible biliary tree perforation and was later confirmed by the scintigraphy study. She was subsequently operated and recovered uneventfully. The mode of presentation, diagnosis and treatment are described and the literature reviewed.


The starting point for this paper is an evaluation of the role of Catholics in French consumer associations in the 20th century. The author focuses on two associations where Catholic men and women were activists: the Ligue sociale d'acheteurs (Social Buyers' League), before the First World War, and the Union féminine civique et sociale (Women's Civic and Social Union), from the 1930s to the 1960s. In the first part, the paper investigates what was transmitted from one organisation to the other. Light is cast on an indirect legacy: home economics training. In the second part, the messages and practices of the two organisations are compared; emphasis is notably placed on the shared culture of social investigation. Lastly, the author focuses on the range of activist activities used by both organisations.


This work is a sustained philosophical reflection on some of the metaphysical and moral issues presented by genetics and different forms of genetic intervention. Advances in genetics will make it possible to intervene in human biological development in ways that will give us considerable control over our personal properties and the length and quality of our lives, and the lives of those we bring into existence. This study examines how genes determine our lives, as well as the moral implications implicit in the manipulation of genes: how will intervention benefit or harm the people we cause to exist in the near future?


The study was a survey type with a quantitative method in which usage of ICT by research students and its impact on their performance was investigated. The population of the study was students of public sector universities. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample of the study. The sample of the study was 600 research students of postgraduate who were almost near to complete their research. Data was assembled from the students with the help of a questionnaire. From the findings of the study, it was concluded that usage of ICT has a significant impact on the performance of research students. Based on findings it was recommended that research students should be trained to best utilized the ICT for academic purposes so they can enhance their performance at high to a very high level.


Despite its importance in fisheries studies, there is insufficient understanding on the effect of sampling error or bias on individual growth and other stock indicators. We show the influence of sample length distributions on parameter estimates, illustrating with an example. For the brown swimming crab, we simulated length samples in five configurations and estimated parameters of von Bertalanffy (k, L∞L∞ , t0), asymptotic weight ( W∞W∞ ), weight-length relationship (a, b), growth performance (ϕ') and condition factor (Kn). Parameter estimates were compared with baseline values using relative bias, standard error and root mean square error. The results show that the accuracy and bias of parameter estimates depend on the lengths sampled. For example, the bias and accuracy of L∞L∞ and W∞W∞ vary inversely with sampled length, whereas combining length segments yields smaller biases of k and t0 than those of L∞L∞ and W∞W∞ . In general, the accuracy of parameter estimates does not always depend on sampling the entire length range, and errors are not the same for all parameters. These results are useful to guide sampling when resources are scarce. We discuss potential reasons for incomplete length sample structure and offer recommendations to obtain best estimates for parameters of interest.


ABSTRACT Objective: To explore the prevalence, type, frequency and causes of domestic marital violence among Turkish women in a socio-economically developed metropolitan setting. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 2003. All married women, aged 18 years and over, who were visiting any of the 50 primary health care units for different purposes were asked to participate in the study. Of 1427 asked, 1010 gave consent and completed face-to-face interviews. Multiple correspondence analysis, and logistic regression were used for statistical analyses. Results: Domestic violence was statistically significantly associated with educational level. Illiterate women reported marital abuse 2.6 times more than university or more educated women. No statistically significant relationship was observed between domestic marital violence and women's age or occupation, marital duration or family income. The most frequently reported type of violence was physical, followed by psychological. Among women reporting domestic violence, those with the lowest educational level and income were experiencing all types of domestic violence frequently. Conclusion: Placing more importance on educating girls could be a key component of preventing domestic violence.


In this study, the effect of conductivity on the stability of the discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method, which uses Runge-Kutta (RK) or leap-frog (LF) (time-averaging, time-forward, and time-backward) schemes to integrate the Maxwell equations in time, is studied. As a test case, transient reflection from one-dimensional conductive half-space, for which the analytical solution exists, is considered. Numerical results demonstrate that the LF-DGTD schemes, which use time-averaging and time-forward, are significantly more stable and faster than the RK-DGTD scheme for problems involving conductive materials.


Cancer is the disease of uncontrollably dividing cells in the body. As cancer cells proliferate at higher rates, they need more energy in a short time necessitating deregulation of energy-generating pathways for their benefit. Although oxidative phosphorylation generates more energy from a glucose molecule, cancer cells have a tendency to enhance aerobic glycolysis by consuming more glucose and producing lactate as a by-product even if oxygen is present. In addition to the generation of rapid energy to fulfill their increasing demands, this strategy also provides the use of glucose metabolites such as lactate as a source for the synthesis of anabolic molecules, such as nucleotides, amino acids, and lipids during the rapid phase of the proliferation. Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is an isoform of pyruvate kinase, which mediates the balancing of energy generation mechanisms during the anabolic and catabolic events. Due to its vital role in glycolysis, PKM2 has been investigated to target cancer cell metabolism for several years. However, recent studies demonstrate that PKM2 may also promote cancer progression by regulating core steps in metastasis such as migration, angiogenesis, and stemness. Of note, it is estimated that 90% of cancer-related deaths are due to metastasis. This review is intended to summarize the recent advances in the non-metabolic roles of PKM2 in cancer progression and to indicate its potential uses for the development of new treatment strategies.


In the history of geographical discovery and exploration, a well-known cast of European characters and events takes center stage. While the importance of achievements by Columbus, Cortes, Magellan, Cook, Lewis and Clark, and Neil Armstrong remains unassailable, the participation of Russia in the European era of exploration, conquest, expansion, and colonization deserves equal attention. This study provides a narrative survey and critical analysis of a rich but overlooked tradition of geographical exploration by Russians and others in Russian service since 1580. Following Russian pioneers across Siberia, Alaska, Brazil, Hawaii and the Pacific, Central Asia, Australasia, the Arctic and Antarctic, and into space, this work establishes Russia in the history of world exploration and connects the Russian experience of exploration to Russian national identity past and present.


Background The number of elderly individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is expanding in Europe, mainly due to an increase in life expectancy. As a result, management of these patients, e.g. the application of the treat-to-target and tight control principles, shall have to account for frailty and comorbidity. However, knowledge about how rheumatologists perceive and manage RA in the elderly patient population is limited. Objectives To explore the viewpoints of rheumatologists on management goals in elderly RA patients and the influence of factors such as age, frailty and comorbidity on these goals. Furthermore, experiences of rheumatologists with regard to outcome instruments to guide management in elderly patients were assessed. Methods A qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with rheumatologists was conducted. Two readers independently annotated the transcripts of the interviews. Important concepts were taxonomically categorized and later combined in overarching themes by using NVivo 11. Results Seventeen rheumatologists were purposively sampled from nine medical centres (mean age: 44.8 years (SD 7.7 years); 29% male). High levels of frailty and comorbidity frequently influenced management goals of rheumatologists: in these cases, preserving an acceptable functional status prevailed over the treat-to-target and tight control principles. For instance, most rheumatologists accepted the presence of tender and swollen joints when overall functioning and social participation were not or only minimally impaired. In patients ≥80 years, age instead of frailty and comorbidity was the most prominent factor that steered management. On that line, almost all rheumatologists admitted that their management strategy is less driven by the result of the Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS28), since comorbidity (e.g. osteoarthritis) and an age-related physiological Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR)-elevation might distort the DAS28 value. Instead, before adapting anti-rheumatic therapy, rheumatologists weighted the frailty and comorbidity levels of a patient and the functional consequences of these factors such as cognitive and physical decline, dependency and polypharmacy (quote 1, Table 1). This frequently resulted in a less future-oriented management approach that was not aimed at the maximal prevention of joint erosions and deformities (quote 2, Table 1). Rheumatologists reported that a lack of time to evaluate all comorbid conditions, as well as contradictory advices of other medical specialists often complicated the management of elderly RA patients. Conclusions Commonly accepted RA treatment paradigms such as treat-to-target and tight control are not automatically adopted in the elderly patient population. Maintaining a patient acceptable functional status prevails. Future RA management recommendations for elderly RA patients are needed and should account for factors such as frailty and comorbidity. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Music listening patterns can be influenced by contextual factors such as the activity a listener is involved in, the place one is located or physiological constants. As a consequence, musical listening choices might show some recurrent temporal patterns. Here we address the hypothesis that for some listeners, the selection of artists and genres could show a preference for certain moments of the day or for certain days of the week. With the help of circular statistics we analyze playcounts from Last.fm and detect the existence of that kind of patterns. Once temporal preference is modeled for each listener, we test the robustness of that using the listener's playcount from a posterior temporal period. We show that for certain users, artists and genres, temporal patterns of listening can be used to predict music listening selections with above-chance accuracy. This finding could be exploited in music recommendation and playlist generation in order to provide user-specific music suggestions at the "right" moment.


Cameras are having a large impact on our society, every cellphone is equipped with a camera and in the very near future all cars will feature cameras to improve traffic safety and even clothing will be equipped with integrated cameras. While cameras are continuing to pervade our daily lives, optics developers are working on increasing the field of view of the cameras. If the field of view of a camera exceeds 180 degrees, it is called an omnidirectional camera. Up until three years ago, these cameras were too heavy, expensive, and bulky to be integrated in commercial products. However today, omnidirectional cameras have become sufficiently small to be installed in cars and even carried on small lightweight helicopters. The market of these cameras is increasing and accordingly, the demand for software that enables their use in the real world is rising. In this talk, I will present how to combine omnidirectional vision and robotics in two applications: ground robots and micro aerial vehicles. After a brief overview on omnidirectional vision, I will show some result on vehicle motion estimation for ground vehicles and autonomous flight of micro helicopters by just using a single miniature omnidirectional camera as a sole input. SSRR-2010 Program Overview


Seizures are the most common pediatric neurologic disorders with 4% to 10% of children suffering at least one seizure in the first 16 years of life. More than half of CT scans are found to be abnormal in childhood symptomatic seizures. Finding out a cause and early treatment can be not only life-saving but can increase the IQ and long term survival of a child. Ring enhancing lesion is a neuroimaging finding detected in selected cases of seizures in children. It is an abnormal radiologic sign that appears as hypodense or isodense disc or target lesion with perifocal vasogenic edema. Worldwide, Neurocysticercosis prevails as the top most cause while Tuberculoma is the commonest cause in developing countries. This was a hospital based prospective study aimed to find out the clinicopathological features of seizures in 5-14 years age group showing ring enhancing lesion on neuroimaging. Out of 42 cases, majority of lesions found were tuberculoma (38%) followed by neurocysticercosis (33%) and brain abscess (20%). Nearly half of all lesions were detected in parietal lobe. Among tuberculoma cases, 13 lesions (81.2%) were found to be solitary and one was multiple (6.3%). But, out of all neurocysticercosis cases 7 (50%) were multiple and 5 (35.7%) were solitary lesions. Out of 42 cases, 24 (57.1%) got cured, 12 (28.6%) died and 6 children (14.3%) survived with sequlae after successful therapy. Distinguishing non-neoplastic causes from neoplastic ones is important because a misdiagnosis can lead to unwarranted neurosurgery and exposure to toxic chemotherapy and harmful brain irradiation.


The article sketches the history, internal organisation, the general tasks and duties as well as actual projects of the Council of Austrian University Libraries.


This study examines gender-wise the relationship between SMEs' financing, development and trade in Botswana.  Data was collected through personal interviews and questionnaires to two sets of 100 SMEs selected randomly. The data was analysed using essentially SPSS. The results reveal that lack of funds especially for "large" SMEs (mainly medium) is not considered to be a major problem in Botswana because the government has instituted mechanisms for assisting SMEs in accessing affordable sources of funds. Some of the SMEs regarded stiff competition, lack of  a market and non-payment of accounts by clients as big problems.. However, women experienced more problems in raising funds, competing and accessing markets than their male counterparts. It is recommended that women should further be empowered economically and should form networks and get into joint ventures. SMEs should be encouraged to participate in international trade in order to expand the market.


Learning about concurrency and synchronization is difficult for novices. Our research seeks to support and improve the teaching and learning of concurrency concepts and to improve comprehension of the intricacies of multiple thread interactions. This paper describes a series of empirical studies in the first phase of our research. We began by conducting a comparative study to empirically evaluate the usability by novices of the existing variants of the UML sequence diagram notation in solving comprehension tasks involving multiple thread interactions. The results implied that a deliberately designed variant of this notation may provide better support for reasoning about concurrent behavior. We then investigated the factors that complicate learning, with the idea that the same complexities would also complicate comprehension tasks. In order to understand the practical difficulties novices encounter in learning about concurrency, we conducted an instructor interview and an observational study. These investigations guided us in determining the desirable properties of a new notation. We then designed synchronization-adorned UML (saUML) sequence diagrams, which extend UML sequence diagrams with those properties. Finally, we performed four empirical studies to evaluate the usability and efficacy of saUML. Through these empirical studies, we were able to validate the benefits of saUML in enhancing novices' understanding of programs with different levels of synchronization complexity.


Wetting of methylated glass and of Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer coated mica by water and ethanol-water mixtures was investigated by applying the Wilhelmy plate technique. A detailed characterization of the hydrophobized solid surfaces is achieved by a high-resolution continuous record of the wetting tension as a function of the position of the partly immersed plate, the speed of the immersion and retraction, and the time immersed. Among several nonequilibrium and irreversible phenomena studied are (i) static and dynamic wetting tension hysteresis, (ii) wetting tension relaxation and the attainment of equilibrium tension, (iii) desorption and/or reorientation effects at the three-phase contact line and at the solid-liquid interface, and (iv) electrification of solid surfaces on retraction from liquid. The layers produced by dimethyldichlorosilane on glass are stable in both water and ethanol. Dynamic and static wetting tensions are increased, and the equilibrium values are attained at shorter times with increasing alcohol content. The superimposed effect of electrostatic charging also diminishes on the transition from pure water to pure ethanol. Monolayers on mica are generally unstable and undergo degradation both at the three-phase contact line and at the interface with water (similar changes can be traced with composite silane layers on glass before extraction with ethanol). Wetting scanning reveals the changes of wetting tension along the plate arising from the instability of the hydrophobic layer. A rapid desorption of deposited Langmuir-Blodgett layers is observed on immersion in ethanol.


The aim of this paper is to ascertain the attitudes English native speakers have towards the Spanish language and culture, specifically, in relation to the speech act of thanking and in connection with Brown and Levinson's model of politeness ([1978] 1987). Two sources of data were used: First, a corpus of 64 course books which included 250 situations representing the speech act of thanking and, second, a questionnaire for the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language. The situations including the speech act of thanking were analysed and then categorized according to various criteria. The criteria were created by taking into consideration Coulmas' (1981) proposal for the classification of thanking as well as the components of this specific speech act. The most frequent situations found in the course books were then used to devise the second source of data. The aim of this was to determine the attitudes of 300 participants, divided equally between the nationalities used in the investigation, Spanish, British and American. The questionnaire included 12 scenarios in which the thanking formula was omitted. Participants were prompted to answer questions based on their perceptions and to include other responses whenever they considered them to be appropriate. The main findings provided evidence of different facework values across the three groups of informants for some of the specific scenarios. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of data showed that some of the responses were connected to the thanking formulae, but others to speech acts such as request formulae.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Seventeen aurones were subjected to quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis based on their cytotoxicity and tumor-specificity, in order to find their new biological activities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cytotoxicity against three human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines and three oral mesenchymal cells was determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. Tumor specificity (TS) was evaluated by the ratio of the mean 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) against normal cells to that against tumor cell lines. Potency-selectivity expression (PSE) value was calculated by dividing TS by CC50 against tumor cells. Physicochemical, structural and quantum-chemical parameters were calculated based on the conformations optimized by force-field minimization.

RESULTS
Sixteen out of seventeen aurones showed relatively higher cytotoxicity and tumor specificity. Among them, (2Z)-2-[(4-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]-3(2H)-benzofuranone [7] showed the highest TS value and PSE values, comparable with those of doxorubicin and higher than 5-FU, respectively. TS values were correlated with molecular shape, size and polarizability rather than the types of substituted groups.

CONCLUSION
Chemical modification of the lead compound may be a potential choice for designing a new type of anticancer drugs.


Germination and emergence of sudangrass (Sorghum sudanense Stapf 'Piper'), barley (Hordeum vulgare L. 'Numar'), radish (Raphanus sativus L. 'Cherry Belle'), and spinach (Spinacea oleracea L. 'Bloomsdale') in a glasshouse were investigated using a Chino loam soil where various amounts (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% dry manure by weight) of dairy manure were added. The degree of germination injury depended on the crop species and rate of application or the salt and N inputs. The crop sensitivity to salt or NH3 were as follows: barley < sudangrass and spinach < radish. Barley and sudangrass were more tolerant to salt or NH3 than spinach and radish. Barley germination data from treatments which had NaCl added to the soil extracts to obtain the same osmotic potential as those treated with urine, urea, or manure suggest that the germination injury was not salt specific and that other compounds such as NH3 were also contributing factors.

Germination injury can be minimized by planting several days after soil application of large amounts of dairy or feedlot manure to allow volatilization of a significant quantity of NH3 or after adequate preirrigation, or both.


Adopting expert hardware to physical isolate the Trusted network from the Non-Trusted network can prevent all kinds of attack basing on network layer and operating system layer etc. This paper comes up with network isolation system model based on Reflective architecture. The Reflective GAP is hardware-based and its purpose is to rapidly mirror buffers between the Non-Trusted memory and the Trusted memory. We realize it by LVDS bus and high speed double switch technique. Its activities are achieved using store & forward of memory blocks. Its software system comprises with seven main basic modules. Its session strides over both sides of the network. Based on several kinds of agent component with file accumulation, content inspection, file transmittance, protocol stream control and so on, it can easily establish a new connection, dealt with protocol events and close a connection process in a session. According to practice it indicates the session mechanism basing on agent can effectively increase the security of the internal network and keep the adaptability of network security system.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common disease affecting 6 million people in the U.S., but no cure exists. To create therapy for AD, it is critical to detect amyloid-β protein in the brain at the early stage of AD because the accumulation of amyloid-β over 20 years is believed to cause memory impairment. However, it is difficult to examine amyloid-β in patients' brains. The development of a simple method to predict the presence of amyloid-β without harming patients would be helpful for clinical applications. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a testing method that records brain activity using electrodes attached to the scalp without harming the brain. In this study, we hypothesized that we could accurately predict the presence of amyloid-β using EEG data and machine learning. To test this, we analyzed published EEG data recorded from healthy mice and AD mice. Machine classifiers were trained using EEGs of old mice with and without amyloid-β. We then tested if the best trained machine classifier (Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB) classifier) could predict amyloid-β in young mice from their EEG data. Results showed that GNB classifier can predict if a given mouse has amyloid-β or not at 81% accuracy when theta waves were used for classifier training. The accuracy of the classifier was at chance level when beta or gamma waves were used. These results indicate that amyloid-β presence can be predicted at high accuracy using EEG and machine learning and suggest that this method may be useful for early diagnosis of AD patients.


Research summary: Many boards view their chairs as valuable resources. We predict that whether a board adopts such a view depends on the board chair's human and social capital. Data from S&P 500 firms suggest that while a board chair's human capital increases the probability that the board views him or her as a resource, social capital has no overall effect. In a post-hoc investigation, however, we find the board chair's independence to be an important boundary condition for the effect of social capital. With this exploratory research, we aim to spur research devoted specifically to board chairs. Such research will become increasingly important over time as firms continue to separate their CEO and board chair positions.

Managerial summary: The purpose of this research was to determine the factors that lead a board of directors to view its chair as a valuable resource. We expected that board chairs with high human and social capital would be more likely to be viewed as a resource by their colleagues. Surprisingly, only human capital exhibited such an effect overall. Social capital increases the likelihood a chair is viewed as a resource when the chair is independent, but actually decreases the likelihood a chair is viewed as a resource when the chair is either the current or former CEO. These results suggest that boards generally value human capital in their chairs, but view social capital through a somewhat more complex lens. We explore the possible implications of these findings in the article. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


BACKGROUND
The beneficial effects of immunocell therapy, using either activated lymphocytes (ALs) or dendritic cells (DCs), in the treatment of melanoma has been demonstrated. DCs are professional antigen-presenting cells that induce cytotoxic T lymphocytes against tumor cells. DC therapy may be promising when combined with ALs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients with advanced melanoma, who underwent immunocell therapy with both ALs and DCs, were reviewed. DCs were pulsed with tumor lysates, peptides or both.

RESULTS
Side-effects were occasional slight fever and skin erythema. Among 8 of the 14 patients treated with immunocell therapy alone, 1 showed a mixed response (MR) and 1 prolonged stable disease (SD). In the remaining 6 patients treated with immunocell therapy and other conventional therapies, 1 CR, 1 MR and 1 prolonged SD for 24 months were observed.

CONCLUSION
Combined immunocell therapy was well tolerated and showed a relatively high tumor response. This treatment may have therapeutic potential for some refractory malignancies.