ABSTRACT Modern dispersal of sea-ice-rafted debris (IRD) is important for the Arctic Ocean sediment budget from sources to sinks. Sediment entrainment occurs mainly through the action of small ice crystals (frazil) attaching to sedimentary particles in shallow water, a mechanism that could be selective. The principal source for entrainment of IRD by suspension freezing into the Beaufort Gyre, western Arctic Ocean, is the adjacent shallow ( 250 m) lithology, and carbon and carbonate content of IRD in the Beaufort Gyre were compared to sediments from the probable source surface, in order to determine whether preferential entrainment occurs with any of these sediment parameters. IRD is generally much finer grained than the source surface, showing that silt- and clay-size particles are preferentially entrained by frazil ice, although anchor ice can locally incorporate very high percentages of sand and coarser clasts. The coarsest IRD is also the most poorly sorted. The clay mineralogy of the < 2 m IRD fraction is very similar to that of the source surface, indicating no selective entrainment within the clay fraction. The lithology of sand in IRD also matches that of the source surface, although the number of coarse grains is too small (< 100) in most samples for a statistically meaningful count. The average organic-carbon content of IRD is three times higher than that of the source surface, but we attribute this to summer algal growth on ice floes rather than to selective entrainment. A relatively low carbonate content in IRD may be because much of the carbonate in the source is of silt size while about 50% of the IRD measured is clay size. The low carbonate content may also reflect solution under acidic summer conditions on sea ice. Selective export of silt- and clay-size particles by ice rafting from the shallow shelf with time should lead to the formation of a slightly coarser lag, even though some of the dirty ice drops its sediment load in the entrainment area. Further mineralogical and lithological analysis on IRD promises to become a useful tool for the study of sediment dispersal paths by drift ice in the Arctic today and in the past, and also for the study of sources of anthropogenic pollutants found in sea ice.


This paper describes a series of experiments undertaken to investigate the slamming of an Oscillating Wave Surge Converter in extreme sea states. These two-dimensional experiments were undertaken in the Wave Flume at Ecole Centrale Marseille. Images from a high speed camera are used to identify the physics of the slamming process. A single pressure sensor is used to record the characteristic of the pressure. Finally numerical results are compared to the output from the experiments.


This paper proposes a method to deal with linkage analysis under the existence of association between a disease and a marker locus. We specially consider the disease as a quantitative trait. At first, we propose a so-called "a minimum sum of square errors approach" to classify individuals in a family genetically, then use the classification results to detect linkage with association by the developed method.


: The intraosseous ganglion is a rare benign cystic lesion of bone which is frequently located in close association with the articular cartilage of the distal metaphysis of long bones. In many cases, it is clinically silent but it may cause persistent pain. The commonest location is at the ankle. It appears radiographically as a well-demarcated circular or oval radiotranslucent defect surrounded by a thin margin of sclerotic bone. Treatment consists of curettage and bone grafting.


This work aims at characterising an alumina powder obtained by combustion synthesis, and at evaluating the technical properties of sintered bodies. Particle size distribution and XRD were used to characterise the alumina powder; electrophoresis and rheological measurements were used to select the most suitable processing conditions. Sintered density, flexural strength, Vickers hardness and SEM analysis were used to characterise the bodies sintered at 1600°C. The experimental results showed that a density of 3.60 g/cm3 could be obtained in absence of sintering aids and that the sintered bodies exhibited a flexural strength of 220 MPa and a Vickers hardness of 1100.


The SOAP Service Description Language (SSDL) is designed for describing asynchronous, message-oriented, and multimessage interactions between Web services. SSDL provides the basis for a range of protocol description frameworks. At one end of the spectrum, such frameworks can be simple, SOAP-centric replacements for the Web Services Description Language. At the other end, they're a more expressive contract-definition language enabling formal verification of asynchronous application protocol properties. This is possible because SSDL focuses on the "message" abstraction as the building block for service-oriented applications.


Abstract
This chapter explores the notion of teacher identity and how teacher education might help to create a strong and clear vision for what it means to be a professional teacher. Within the organizational features and structures of teacher education, the pedagogy that students of teaching experience is crucial in shaping their understanding of their sense of identity. Teacher education needs to acknowledge and respond to the needs, issues, and concerns students of teaching have and create expectations that push beyond the personal and strive for the professional. This chapter suggests that in recognizing the importance of pedagogical reasoning and understanding learning about teaching through an inquiry stance, that students of teaching might begin to not only recognize the importance of knowledge of practice but also begin to see how to create knowledge from practice. A vision for their professional identity is then borne of a need to see value in "noticing" through practice in order to become more informed about teaching and learning. In doing so, the importance of pedagogy as a relationship between teaching and learning and the teacher's role in mediating that relationship can support the development of an identity as a professional teacher.


The increase in energy consumption and an increase in the plastic waste generation are two major problems that arise along with economic growth and the increase in population. Styrofoam is one type of polystyrene plastic waste that can be processed into liquid fuels by cracking process. In this study, the cracking process of polystyrene plastic waste into liquid fuel carried by the catalytic cracking process using Al2O3 as a catalyst. This study aimed to determine the effect of the catalyst weight, length of cracking time and range of temperature in the catalytic cracking process of polystyrene plastic waste into liquid fuel toward the mass and characteristics of liquid fuels produced and to determine the composition of liquid fuels produced. The catalytic cracking process of polystyrene plastic waste with catalyst was done in the fixed bed type reactor by heating the reactor with a heater, where the process took place at temperature of 150°C, 200°C, 250°C and 300°C and the length of the process was varied into 20, 40, and 60 minutes and the catalyst weight was also varied, which were 4%, 6% and 8%, while the styrofoam weight was 250 grams. From the research, the highest mass of liquid fuel derived from polystyrene catalytic cracking process was in the amount of 48.8 grams and liquid yield percentage of 19.5% at temperature of  250°C, cracking time of 60 minutes and weight of 8% catalyst, while the characteristics of liquid fuel that were approaching the characteristics of gasoline was at temperatures of 250°C, cracking time of 60 minutes and weight of 6% catalyst, in which each value of density of 0.763 g/ml, specific gravity of 0.778 and oAPI gravity of 50.2. While other liquid fuels obtained from the cracking of polystyrene were still within the tolerance range characteristic properties of gasoline. Liquid fuels produced from the catalytic cracking process was analyzed using a GC-MS, in which the analysis results indicated that liquid fuels were included in the gasoline fraction.


Online social networks like Twitter and Facebook produce an overwhelming amount of information every day. However, research suggests that much of this content focuses on a reasonably sized set of ongoing events or topics that are both temporally and geographically situated. These patterns are especially observable when the data that is generated contains geospatial information, usually generated by a location enabled device such as a smartphone. In this paper, we consider a data set of 1.4 million geo-tagged tweets from a country during a large social movement, where social events and demonstrations occurred frequently. We use a probabilistic graphical model to discover these events within the data in a way that informs us of their spatial, temporal and topical focus. Quantitative analysis suggests that the streaming algorithm proposed in the paper uncovers both well-known events and lesser-known but important events that occurred within the timeframe of the dataset. In addition, the model can be used to predict the location and time of texts that do not have these pieces of information, which accounts for the much of the data on the web.


The goal of execution monitoring is to determine whether a system or person is following a plan appropriately. Monitoring information may be uncertain, and the plan being monitored may have complex temporal constraints. We develop a new framework for reasoning under uncertainty with quantitative temporal constraints - Quantitative Temporal Bayesian Networks - and we discuss its application to plan-execution monitoring. QTBNs extend the major previous approaches to temporal reasoning under uncertainty: Time Nets (Kanazawa 1991), Dynamic Bayesian Networks and Dynamic Object Oriented Bayesian Networks (Friedman, Koller, & Pfeffer 1998). We argue that Time Nets can model quantitative temporal relationships but cannot easily model the changing values of fluents, while DBNs and DOOBNs naturally model fluents, but not quantitative temporal relationships. Both capabilities are required for execution monitoring, and are supported by QTBNs.


Cast, sub-rapidly solidified and rapidly solidified Al-5Fe alloy and Al-5Fe-3Y alloy were respectively prepared by vacuum melting, suction casting and melt spinning. The effect of increasing cooling rate and adding rare earth Y alloy on microstructures and phase composition were investigated. The results showed that the acicular Al3Fe phase transferred to spherical phase and dispersed secondary precipitations were also found when 3.0 wt% Y was added in the Al-5Fe alloy. Meanwhile, the microstructures were apparently refined by the increasing of cooling rate. The metastable phase A16Fe and intermetallic compound A110Fe2Y phase have been observed in Al-5Fe alloy and Al-5Fe-3Y alloy, respectively.


In the present work cubic 3C-(Si1-xC1-y)Gex+y solid solutions were grown at different^temperatures by molecular beam epitaxy on on-axis 4H-SiC (0001) substrates. Two different growth methods are compared in order to explore the optimal growth conditions for the incorporation of Ge into the SiC lattice during the low temperature epitaxy. For this reason simultaneous growth and migration enhanced epitaxy were used. The chemical composition of the grown layers were analyzed by energy dispersive x-ray methods during transmission electron microscopy investigations. It was found that the migration enhanced epitaxy is a more suitable technique for the formation of high quality (Si1-xC1-y)Gex+y solid solutions. Additionally, polytypes transition from 4H-SiC to 3C-SiC occurs during the growth independent of the applied growth technique.


This paper presents the detailed numerical analysis including parametric studies on the aerodynamic excitation mechanisms in a turbine stage due to the unsteady stator-rotor interaction, The work is part of the predesign study of a high-pressure subsonic turbine,for a rocket engine turbopump. The pressure level in such turbines can be remarkably high (in this case 54 MPa inlet total pressure). Hence, large unsteady rotor blade loads can be expected, which impose difficult design requirements, The parameter studies are performed at midspan with the numerical flow solver UNSFLO, a 2-D/Q3-D unsteady hybrid Euler/Navier-Stokes solver. Comparisons to 2-D and steady, 3-D results obtained with a fully viscous solver VOLSOL, are made. The investigated design parameters are the axial gap (similar to8-29 percent of rotor axial chord length) and the stator vane size and count (stator-rotor pitch ratio similar to1-2.75), For the nominal case the numerical solution is analyzed regarding the contributions of potential and vortical flow disturbances at the rotor inlet using rotor gust computations. It was found that gust calculations were not capable to capture the complexity of the detected excitation mechanisms, but the possibility to reduce excitations by enforcing cancellation of the vortical and potential effects has been elaborated. The potential excitation mechanism in the present turbine stage is found dominant compared to relatively small and local wake excitation effects. The parameter studies indicate design recommendations for the axial gap and the stator size regarding the unsteady rotor load.


Multiply Sectioned Bayesian Networks (MSBNs) extend single-agent Bayesian networks to the setting of multi-agent probabilistic reasoning. The MSBN global propagation is conducted through inter-agent message passing, coupled with intra-agent (local) message passing at local domains. Existing LJF-based MSBN inference algorithms require repeated full-scale local propagation, which may cause bottlenecks in a non-sparse network. We propose a novel method that conducts 1) delayed inter-agent message manipulation, and 2) partial local message propagation. Analysis shows that our approach significantly reduces the amount of local computation while maintaining the correctness of MSBN global propagation.


This paper demonstrates that standard multiplexers as generalized Mach-Zehnder interferometers or waveguide grating routers can be designed to generate/process a set of orthogonal optical codes (OCs) with very high-correlation performances. The same device can be used at the ingress node of a generalized multiprotocol label switching network to generate the photonic labels and at each routing node to perform all the correlations simultaneously. To enhance the code cardinality, without increasing the code length, this paper shows that it is possible to use the proposed encoder/decoder architectures to generate/process multidimensional OCs.


Measurements of the rate of air exchange in residential buildings have been carried out by the Swedish Institute for Building Research since 1970. The results of an analysis of these measurements are presented in this paper for about 500 buildings not having mechanical ventilation. The studied buildings include one- and two-story, detached, single-family houses, row houses, and multifamily residential buildings built between 1900 and 1982 and of various design. In some cases, the buildings have been retrofitted by improving the insulation of the attic or the exterior walls. The building sites vary from freely exposed to a sheltered urban environment. Tracer gas measurements using the decay technique have been used for the determination of the rate of air exchange. In about 300 cases, the measurement of air change rates has been complemented by measurements using pressurization techniques. Data on 50 other parameters also have been collected. These parameters describe the building geometry, the building design, and the meteorological conditions at the time of measurement. The measurements have been performed with the outdoor temperature varying from -15 to +25°C and for wind speeds from 0 to 10 m/s. The calculation model used for the analysis includes two dimensionless variables and two parameters. The dependent variable is given by the measured air change rate and the geometric properties of the building, while the other variable is defined as the ratio of the aeromotive force to the buoyancy force. The two parameters of the model represent the degree of wind shelter and the leakage area of the building, respectively. For the analysis, the buildings have been divided into classes according to the building environment, the year of construction, and the type of building.


The capacity region of frame-synchronous and asynchronous discrete two-user multiple-access channels with finite memory is obtained. Frame synchronism refers to the ability of the transmitters to send their codewords in unison. The absence of frame synchronism in memoryless multiple-access channels is known to result in the removal of the convex hull operation from the expression of the capacity region. We show that when the channel has memory, frame asynchronism rules out nonstationary inputs to achieve any point in the capacity region, thereby allowing only coding strategies that involve cooperation in the frequency domain but not in the time domain. This restriction drastically reduces the capacity region of some multiple-access channels with memory, and in particular the total capacity of the channel, which is invariant to frame asynchronism for memoryless channels.


This paper examines a commonly used measure of persuasion whose precise interpretation has been obscure in the literature. By using the potential outcome framework, we define the causal persuasion rate by a proper conditional probability of taking the action of interest with a persuasive message conditional on not taking the action without the message. We then formally study identification under empirically relevant data scenarios and show that the commonly adopted measure generally does not estimate—but often overstates—the causal rate of persuasion. We discuss several new parameters of interest and provide practical methods for causal inference.


Gizzard fat (GF), wing fat (WF), eviscerated body weight (BW) spleen weight, and thyroid weights were analyzed in ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) to determine area, sex, and seasonal variations. Birds were collected from 2 study areas in the Texas Panhandle during 4 seasons. Area differences in major grain crops were not reflected in the nutritional indices examined. However, differences in pheasant densities between areas were detected. Thus, pheasants appear to adapt population size rather than individual nutritional status to food availability. Gizzard fat and WF were greater in hens than in cocks. Highest values for GF and BW occurred in February; lowest values occurred in August. In May, a drastic decline in WF and GF occurred in cocks, probably reflective of reproductive/territorial activities. Spleen weights were greatest in males and in August. In juveniles, no differences between sexes in WF were detected, but GF was greater in hens than cocks. Sex X Month and Area X Month interactions were detected in the GF analysis. Helminth parasitism, also was analyzed by area, sex, age, and seasonal variations. Two nematode and 1 cestode species were recovered from 18 of 84 (21%) birds examined. Heterakis spp. (H. gallinarum or _H. isolonche) were found during August, November and February but with very low prevalence. Choanotaenia infundibulum was the most common helminth with specimens found during February, May and August. The highest incidence occurred during the warm season with prevalence of 7/16 and 6/23 and abundance of 2.4 and 1.7 for May and August, respectively.


We propose that microRNAs could modulate RNA-binding protein binding sites in a dynamic manner. We suggest that the cis-regulatory code targeted by microRNAs is at least in part, the same as that read by mRNA-binding proteins. Our hypothesis predicts that microRNAs indirectly or directly bind to RNA-binding protein binding sites. Alternatively, the microRNA-mRNA interactions can themselves be the target of an mRNA-binding protein. Lastly, we envision examples where multiple mRNA regulatory elements are simultaneously influenced by microRNA-mRNA interactions such that the binding of one or more microRNA results in conformational changes in the structure of the mRNA, thereby, either revealing or masking a second regulatory element.


SNR1 is an essential subunit of the Drosophila Brahma (Brm) ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complex, with counterparts in yeast (SNF5) and mammals (INI1). Increased cell growth and wing patterning defects are associated with a conditional snr1 mutant, while loss of INI1 function is directly linked with aggressive cancers, suggesting important roles in development and growth control. The Brm complex is known to function during G1 phase, where it appears to assist in restricting entry into S phase. In Drosophila, the activity of DmcycE/CDK2 is rate limiting for entry into S phase and we previously found that the Brm complex can suppress a reduced growth phenotype associated with a hypomorphic DmcycE mutant. Our results reveal that SNR1 helps mediate associations between the Brm complex and DmcycE/CDK2 both in vitro and in vivo. Further, disrupting snr1 function suppressed DmcycEJP phenotypes, and increased cell growth defects associated with the conditional snr1E1 mutant were suppressed by reducing DmcycE levels. While the snr1E1-dependent increased cell growth did not appear to be directly associated with altered expression of G1 or G2 cyclins, transcription of the G2-M regulator string/cdc25 was reduced. Thus, in addition to important functions of the Brm complex in G1-S control, the complex also appears to be important for transcription of genes required for cell cycle progression.


* Corresponding Author Email: firstname.lastname@example.com How to cite this article Mohagheghpour E, Rajabi M, Gholamipour R, Hosseinabadi S. Optical properties and surface growth mechanism of amorphous Carbon nanolayers. Int. J. Nano Dimens., 2021; 12(4): 402-410. Abstract In this article, the growth kinetic and optical property of amorphous carbon (a-C) nanolayers deposited by ion beam sputtering deposition technique on glass substrates are investigated. The atomic force microscopy is used to measure the variation of surface roughness versus deposition time. According to the calculations, the roughness of thin films increases during the growth process as a fractal scaling law. The Hurst exponent (α) has a value higher than 0.5, and the growth exponent (β) changes in the range of 0.02 to 0.22. These fractal exponents predict that the growth process of amorphous carbon nanolayers obeys the rules of the WolfVillain model belonging to the Edwards-Wilkinson universality class, in which the relaxation and surface diffusion happen during the growth process. The results indicate that the optical band gap decreases by reducing the surface roughness, Hurst exponent and the correlation length during thin film growth which is the first observation of this trend.


We propose a model for the charge transfer mechanism in Y0.8(Ca)0.2Ba2Cu3O6+x to count the hole doping of CuO2 planes and the x dependence of the critical transition temperature Tc. It is assumed that the total number of doped holes in the planes is the sum of the numbers of holes that are introduced through two separate channels: substitution of Y3+ by Ca2+ and from CuO chains that are longer than a minimal (critical) length lmin needed for charge transfer to take place. The Tc(x) dependence is obtained by combining the calculated x dependence of doping, p(x), and the universal Tc versus p relation. Although calculated Tc(x) dependences for lmin = 3 and 4 both correlate remarkably well with the experimental Tc(x), we argue that the value lmin = 3 gives a reasonable overall agreement.


Zinc oxide tetrapods (T-ZnO) were synthesized using thermal oxidation technique from Zn powders mixed with hydrogen per oxide (H2O2). Through a detailed field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the T-ZnO exhibited single crystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure. The leg tip of the T-ZnO was about 8.17±1.17 µm in length and 47.80 nm in diameter. The ethanol sensors, based on the T-ZnO and the T-ZnO doped with Au nanoparticles (Au/T-ZnO), were fabricated and investigated for the ethanol sensing properties. The ethanol sensor response of the T-ZnO and the Au/T-ZnO sensors was tested at the operating temperature of 260-360°C with the ethanol concentration of 50, 100, 500, and 1000 ppm. The results showed that the Au/T-ZnO sensors exhibited exceptionally higher sensitivity than the pure T-ZnO sensors for entire ethanol concentration with optimum temperature of 340°C and 320°C, respectively. This enhancement can be explained in terms of the electron concentration of sensor in air, n0 and the reaction rate constant, kEth between the adsorbed oxygen species and the ethanol vapor due to the increase of effective surface for adsorption of ethanol on the surface. With an excellent catalytic ability, the Au nanoparticles doping on the T-ZnO sensors would result in higher reaction rate constant than the undoped T-ZnO sensors.


In this paper, the results on the surface morphology, nanohardness and tribocorrosion properties of electrodeposited nanostructured Ni/TiC hybrid layers compared with pure Ni layers are presented. The Ni/nano-TiC hybrid layers were obtained by electro-codeposition of TiC nanoparticles (50 nm mean diameter) with nickel from a Watts type bath, on 316L stainless steel support. The combined fretting-corrosion performance was investigated using a reciprocating ball-on-disk tribometer coupled to an electrochemical cell in an electrolyte which simulates the primary water circuit of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). Open circuit potential, as in situ electrochemical technique was performed before, during and after fretting tests in order to obtain information on the changes in surface conditions induced by fretting. The results clearly revealed enhanced nanohardness, improved tribocorrosion properties and reduced coefficients of friction for Ni/nano-TiC hybrid layers as compared to pure Ni layers. The much improved nanohardness and tribocorrosion behaviour can be attributed to the TiC nanoparticles reinforced into Ni matrix.


This study, conducted at the University of Memphis (Tennessee) , compared the effects of a self-paced method of instruction on the attitudes and perceptions of students enrolled in an undergraduate statistics course with those of a comparable group of students taking statistics in a traditional lecture setting. The non-traditional course used a modified version of the Personalized System of Instruction. Students learned the material at different rates ising the standard of unit perfection before advancing, retesting as necessary, and criterion-referenced testing. Many of those enrolling in the course were non-traditional students and female. The study surveyed 105 graduate and undergraduate students and of :hese, 18 were in the self-paced course and the others were in the traditional introductory course. The "Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics" was used to assess students' attitudes before and after course completion. A comparison of post-test attitude scores found no signir:cant difference in attitude between students enrolled in the self-paced statistics course and those in the traditional course. A t.s.-st of attitude differences between males and females also found no significant difference between these two groups. Eleven tables provide additional detail on the study's findings. (Contains 15 references.) (JB) * * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made . from the original document. *********************************************************************** 7*: THE RELATIONSHIP OF INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS WITH STUDENT RESPONSES TO THE SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TOWARD STATISTICS FOROOZANDEH FAGHIHI 84 ERNEST A. RAKOW, PHD THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS MEMPHIS, TN.


This thesis presents a PhD research project using a mathematical programming approach to solve a home healthcare problem (HHC) as well as general workforce scheduling and routing problems (WSRPs). In general, the workforce scheduling and routing problem consists of producing a schedule for mobile workers to make visits at different locations in order to perform some tasks. In some cases, visits may have time-wise dependencies in which a visit must be made within a time period depending on the other visit. A home healthcare problem is a variant of workforce scheduling and routing problems, which consists in producing a daily schedule for nurses or care workers to visit patients at their home. The scheduler must select qualified workers to make visits and route them throughout the time horizon. We implement a mixed integer programming model to solve the HHC. The model is an adaptation of the WSRP from the literature. However, the MIP solver cannot solve a large-scale real-world problem defined in this model form because the problem requires large amounts of memory and computational time. To tackle the problem, we propose heuristic decomposition approaches which split a main problem into sub-problems heuristically and each sub-problem is solved to optimality by the MIP solver. The first decomposition approach is a geographical decomposition with conflict avoidance (GDCA). The algorithm avoids conflicting assignments by solving sub-problems in a sequence in which worker's availabilities are updated after a sub-problem is solved. The approach can find a feasible solution for every HHC problem instance tackled in this thesis. The second approach is a decomposition with conflict repair and we propose two variants: geographical decomposition with conflict repair (GDCR) and repeated decomposition and conflict repair (RDCR). The GDCR works in the same way as GDCA but instead of solving sub-problems in a given sequence, they are solved with no specific order and conflicting assignments are allowed. Later on, the conflicting assignments are resolved by a conflicting assignments repair process. The remaining unassigned visits are allocated by a heuristic assignment algorithm. The second variant, RDCR, tackles the unassigned visits by repeating the decomposition and conflict repair until no further improvement has been found. We also conduct an experiment to use different decomposition rules for RDCR. Based on computational experiments conducted in this thesis, the RDCR is found to be the best of the heuristic decomposition approaches. Therefore, the RDCR is extended to solve a WSRP with time-dependent activities constraints. The approach requires modification to accommodate the time-dependent activities constraints which means that two visits may have time-wise requirements such as synchronisation, time overlapped, etc. In addition, we propose a reformulated MIP model to solve the HHC problem. The new model is considered to be a compact model because it has significantly fewer constraints. The aim of the reformulation is to reduce the solver requirements for memory and computational time. The MIP solver can solve all the HHC instances formulated in a compact model. Most of solutions obtained with this approach are the best known solutions so far except for those the instances for which the optimal solution can be found using the full MIP model. Typically, this approach requires computational time below one hour per instance. This problem reformulation is so far the best approach to solve the HHC instances considered in this thesis.
 The heuristic decomposition and model reformulation proposed in this thesis can find solutions to the real-world home healthcare problem. The main achievement is the reduction of computational memory and computational time which are required by the optimisation solver. Our studies show the best way to control the use of solver memory is the heuristic decomposition approach, particularly the RDCR method. The RDCR method can find a solution for every instance used throughout this thesis and keep the memory usage within personal computer memory ranges. Also, the computational time required to solve an instance being less than 8 minutes, for which the solution gap to the optimal solution is on average 12%. In contrast, the strong point of the model reformulation approach over the heuristic decomposition is that the model reformulation provides higher quality solutions. The relative gaps of solutions between the solution for solving the reformulated model and the solution from solving the full model is less than 1% whilst its the computational time could be up to one hour and its computational memory could require up to 100 GB. Therefore, the heuristic decomposition approach is a method for finding a solution using restricted resources while the model reformulation is an approach for when a high solution quality is required. Hence, two mathematical programming based heuristic approaches are each more suitable in different circumstances in which both find high quality solutions within an acceptable time limit.


PURPOSE
Careful selection of beam number and orientation is of critical importance for external beam treatment planning. The utilization of well-chosen non-coplanar beams could allow the generation of high-quality plans. This study is to evaluate the quality of the IMRT plans generated with the non-coplanar (NCP) beams selected with our in-house program by comparing it with coplanar (CP) IMRT and RapidArc (ARC) plans for prostate and pancreatic cancer treatments.

METHODS
Ten patients with prostate and pancreas cancer treated previously were selected for this study. A set of 13 non-coplanar beams was selected with our in-house program based on the CT data of one patient and was used to generate NCP plans for the ten cases. For each case we also generated an eight-beam CP and a double-arc ARC plan. All plans were generated with the Varian Eclipse TPS. For individual cases, the same dose-volume constraints and weightings were used for all three plans.

RESULTS
All plans provided conformal and complete converge of the PTV and led to clinically acceptable doses to the organs-at-risk. The NCP plans show the best quality in terms of PTV Dmean, Dmax and HI, while the ARC plans are best in terms of PTV Dmin and CI. For the prostate cases, the NCP plans show the best V40 and V60 for rectum and bladder, and best D2% for the right-femoral head, while the ARC plans show the best left-femoral head D2%. For the pancreas cases, the NCP plans show the best sparing of the left-and right-kidney as well as the spinal cord. However, the NCP plans lead to slightly worse Dmean and D1/3 to the liver than the CP plans.

CONCLUSION
We have shown that the non-coplanar beams selected with our program allow the generation of high-quality IMRT plans, by comparing them with the conventional IMRT and RapidArc plans.


Albumin, an abundant plasma protein with multifunctional properties, is mainly synthesized in the liver. Albumin has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) since it can bind to and transport amyloid beta (Aβ), the causative agent of AD; albumin is also a potent inhibitor of Aβ polymerization. Despite evidence of non-hepatic transcription of albumin in many tissues including kidney and pancreas, non-hepatic synthesis of albumin at the protein level has been rarely confirmed. In a pilot phase study of Human Brain Proteome Project, we found evidence that microglial cells in brain may synthesize albumin. Here we report, for the first time, the de novo synthesis of albumin in human microglial cells in brain. Furtherore, we demonstrate that the synthesis and secretion of albumin from microglial cells is enhanced upon microgial activation by Aβ1–42- or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treatment. These data indicate that microglial cells may play a beneficial role in AD by secreting albumin that not only inhibits Aβ polymerization but also increases its clearance.


The purpose of this book is to disseminate contemporary knowledge and practical experiences concerning problems and solutions related to urban hydrology and drainage. Although the main focus is on developing countries, the book draws from experiences in many other parts of the world. Based upon numerous practical examples and case studies, the book provides information to assist in the management, planning and engineering design processes.

Urban Stormwater Management in Developing Countries covers a wide range of methods and approaches to improve the understanding and ability of local stakeholders to solve stormwater problems within the framework of integrated urban water management. As well as structural interventions, the book describes various non-structural approaches for flood mitigation and pollution control.

This book encourages the reader to adopt an integrated approach towards stormwater management and considers the importance of institutional arrangements, participation of local stakeholders in planning, as well as aspects of financing and cost recovery.

This comprehensive and topical book:

Addresses the broad range of issues related to urban stormwater management with a specific focus on developing countries.

Covers the main aspects of planning, design, operation and maintenance of urban drainage systems as well as socio-economic and institutional issues related to urban stormwater management.

Presents structural and non-structural approaches for flood mitigation and pollution control within an integrated water resource management framework.

Provides extensive examples and case studies of "best practice".

ISBN: 9781843390572 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780402574 (eBook)


Members of the p24 family of putative cargo receptors (subdivided into p24-alpha, -beta, -gamma and -delta) are localized in the intermediate-and cis-Golgi compartments of the early secretory pathway, and are thought to play an important role in protein transport. In the present study, we wondered what effect increased biosynthetic cell activity with resulting high levels of protein transport would have on the subcellular localization of p24. We examined p24 localization in Xenopus intermediate pituitary melanotrope cells, which in black- and white-adapted animals are biosynthetically highly active and virtually inactive respectively. In addition, p24 localization was studied in Xenopus anterior pituitary cells whose activity is not changed during background adaptation. Using organelle fractionation, we found that in the inactive melanotropes and moderately active anterior pituitary cells of white-adapted animals, the p24-alpha, -beta, -gamma and -delta proteins are all located in the Golgi compartment. In the highly active melanotropes, but not in the anterior cells of black-adapted animals, the steady-state distribution of all four p24 members changed towards the intermediate compartment and subdomains of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), most probably the ER exit sites. In the active melanotropes, the major cargo protein pro-opiomelanocortin was mostly localized to ER subdomains and partially co-localized with the p24 proteins. Furthermore, in the active cells, in vitro blocking of protein biosynthesis by cycloheximide or dispersion of the Golgi complex by brefeldin A led to a redistribution of the p24 proteins, indicating their involvement in ER-to-Golgi protein transport and extensive cycling in the early secretory pathway. We conclude that the subcellular localization of p24 proteins is dynamic and depends on the biosynthetic activity of the cell.


In the past several years, computational models for free surface flow simulations have been increasingly in demand for engineering, construction and design, legislation, land planning, and management decisions. Many computational models have been hastily developed and delivered to clients without the proper scientific confirmation and certification. In order to correct this, the ASCE/EWRI Task Committee developed a new rigorous and systematic verification and validation process, Verification and Validation of 3D Free-Surface Flow Models, which discusses this procedure in detail. The topics include terminology and basic methodology; analytical solutions for mathematical verification; mathematical verification using prescribed or manufactured solutions; physical process validation; application site validation; the systematic model verification and validation procedure; systems analysis considerations, findings, and conclusions; and recommendations. The appendixes contain input data for test cases and formulations and codes for manufactured solutions. This publication will be indispensable for students and professionals working on computational models and environmental engineering.


Background and Purpose— No previous study has investigated the incidence or risk of cerebrovascular diseases developing after the sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). This study sets out to estimate the risk of stroke development among SSNHL patients during a 5e-year follow-up period after hospitalization for acute episodes of SSNHL. Methods— Our study design features a study cohort and a comparison cohort. The study cohort consists of all patients hospitalized with a principal diagnosis of sudden hearing loss (n=1,423), whereas the control cohort comprised all patients hospitalized for an appendectomy in 1998 (n=5692) as a surrogate for the general population. Each patient was tracked from hospitalization in 1998 until the end of 2003. Cox proportional hazard regressions were performed as a means of computing the 5-year stroke-free survival rates after adjustment for possible confounding factors. Results— Of the total sample, 621 patients (8.7%) had strokes during the 5-year follow-up period: 180 (...


This study provides a small-scale comparative analysis of the religious outlook and practice of two generational groups of Masorti Jews in Israel. Conducted from an insider perspective, it aims to provide insights into changes of religious outlook and practices between the two generations. The first-generation participants comprised immigrants from North America whereas the second-generation participants were born and raised in Israel. Its results are mat to inform and support the future development of Masorti Judaism in Israel while also making an original contribution to sociological knowledge about the lived experiences of religiously motivated migrations from a generational perspective.

The research adopts a pragmatic, predominantly qualitative approach, utilizing the Bourdieusian concepts of habitus, doxa, field, and capital to better understand how religious outlook and practices were sustained and transmitted across generations. The use of the Bourdieusian theory has provided a framework for structuring and conceptualizing day-to-day behaviors, actions and statements, as presented in the interviews, and for developing an analysis of the different fields which each generational group encountered, the ways that different forms of capital were valued and transformed, and how this affected interviewees' habitus. Data were gathered from interviews with nine members of the first generation and eight members of the second generation. The data relating to second generation participants were ultimately supplemented by a short questionnaire completed by thirty additional members of the same generation.

The Bourdieusian analysis has provided a holistic approach that illuminated important differences in religious outlook and practices between the generational groups. The first generation group had generally tried to maintain the religious outlook and practice with which they came to Israel. They also created new congregations and institutions to sustain and perpetuate them. The second-generation participants displayed a reduced commitment to Jewish law and religious-communal structures. Both generational groups shared a strong commitment to Jewish activism as a feature of their Jewish outlook, although this outlook was carried out in different ways.


Despite considerable advancements with deep neural language models, the enigma of neural text degeneration persists when these models are tested as text generators. The counter-intuitive empirical observation is that even though the use of likelihood as training objective leads to high quality models for a broad range of language understanding tasks, using likelihood as a decoding objective leads to text that is bland and strangely repetitive.
In this paper, we reveal surprising distributional differences between human text and machine text. In addition, we find that decoding strategies alone can dramatically effect the quality of machine text, even when generated from exactly the same neural language model. Our findings motivate Nucleus Sampling, a simple but effective method to draw the best out of neural generation. By sampling text from the dynamic nucleus of the probability distribution, which allows for diversity while effectively truncating the less reliable tail of the distribution, the resulting text better demonstrates the quality of human text, yielding enhanced diversity without sacrificing fluency and coherence.


The present study evaluated pAKT, pmTOR, and PTEN expression in a tissue microarray of primary renal cell carcinomas (PRCCs), their metastases, and normal renal parenchyma (NRP) (N = 45) by means of immunohistochemistry. Metastases in most subcellular compartments showed comparable and stronger expression for pAKT, pmTOR, and PTEN than PRCC and NRP, which was even more pronounced in patients with high-risk Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) score. Furthermore, most subcellular compartments showed no differences between lymphogenous, haematogenous, synchronous, and metachronous metastases, which is interesting with regard to sensitivity to mTOR inhibitor therapy in metastasized RCCs with alterations in the PI3K/AKT pathway.


The study was conducted to determine the effect of replacing oyster shell fraction in the diet of growing-finishing cockerel chickens partially or wholly with eggshell. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) 8 weeks old Harco cockerel chicken of mean weight 515.78 ± 3. 8g were used for the feeding trial that lasted for ten weeks. The birds were allotted to four dietary treatments in which oyster shell fraction of the diet was replaced at 0% (T 1 ), 50% (T 2 ), 75% (T 3 ), and 100% (T 4 ). Each treatment was replicated 3 times with 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The diets were formulated to contain about 16% crude protein and energy of about 2600 kcal/kgME. Variables measured were feed intake, weight gain. Feed efficiency, dressing percentage and cost /weight gain were calculated. The results showed that the mean feed intake and weight gain were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by varying levels of eggshell in the diet. The efficiency of feed utilization was relatively similar (P>0.05) in all the treatments. Dressing percentage and organs weight were relatively similar in all the treatments (P>0.05). The total feed cost and cost per weight gain reduced as the level of oyster shell in the diet increased. The highest cost per weight gain of N145.35 was recorded in T1 while the lowest cost per weight gain of N133.89 was recorded in cockerel fed diet containing 100% eggshell as replacement for oyster shell fraction of the diet. It could be concluded that eggshell could replace oyster shell up to 100% in the diet of growing finishing cockerels at reduced cost. Keywords: Cockerel chicken, egg shell, feed utilization, oyster shell, replacement,


ABSTRACT Forest areas in Sumatra, Indonesia are continuously shrinking, leading to depletion of forest resources. Daemonorops spp., locally known as Jernang, is one of the most sought-after non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and has a high commercial value. Recently, conversion of its forest habitat and growing international market demand have placed Jernang in the vulnerable species category on the IUCN Red List. Official statistics on Jernang trade and consumption are scant as it is part of the informal rural economy and customs data are aggregated, without specifying volumes of Jernang exported from Indonesia. The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of Jernang to rural incomes with a particular focus on the producers (collectors and cultivators) and entrepreneur groups at the village level. In the present case study, the absolute income of Jernang to annual household economies ranged from 386 US dollars per adult equivalent units (USD/aeu) for Jernang collectors through 1389 USD/aeu for Jernang cultivators, and up to 2106 USD/aeu for entrepreneurs. The relative income from Jernang trade was highest for the cultivator and entrepreneur groups (54% and 64%, respectively). Collector households were the poorest group, both in terms of land ownership and income. The high relative contribution of Jernang to the incomes of cultivator households may prevent conversion of rural agroforestry systems to monocropping. Jernang cultivation may compensate for declining wild resources.


Objectives To assess the incidence of cerebral palsy among children born to mothers who had their pregnancy complicated by a motor vehicle crash. Design Retrospective longitudinal cohort analysis of children born from 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2012 in Ontario, Canada. Participants Cases defined as pregnancies complicated by a motor vehicle crash and controls as remaining pregnancies with no crash. Main outcome Subsequent diagnosis of cerebral palsy by age 3 years. Results A total of 1 325 660 newborns were analysed, of whom 7933 were involved in a motor vehicle crash during pregnancy. A total of 2328 were subsequently diagnosed with cerebral palsy, equal to an absolute risk of 1.8 per 1000 newborns. For the entire cohort, motor vehicle crashes correlated with a 29% increased risk of subsequent cerebral palsy that was not statistically significant (95% CI −16 to +110, p=0.274). The increased risk was only significant for those with preterm birth who showed an 89% increased risk of subsequent cerebral palsy associated with a motor vehicle crash (95% CI +7 to +266, p=0.037). No significant increase was apparent for those with a term delivery (95% CI −62 to +79, p=0.510). A propensity score-matched analysis of preterm births (n=4384) yielded a 138% increased relative risk of cerebral palsy associated with a motor vehicle crash (95% CI +27 to +349, p=0.007), equal to an absolute increase of about 10.9 additional cases per 1000 newborns (18.2 vs 7.3, p=0.010). Conclusions Motor vehicle crashes during pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy among the subgroup of cases with preterm birth. The increase highlights a specific role for traffic safety advice in prenatal care.


The self-incompatibility in Lilium longiflorum was investigated using the differently grafted pistils. Pistils of Lilium longiflorum cv. Georgia and Hinomoto were cut transversely into two parts at 15 or 25mm from stigma tips. They were then grafted in different combinations with silicone rubber tube (2.5mm in inner diameter). Pollen tube growth in the grafted pistils was somewhat reduced as compared with that in the intact style, but the incompatibility responses of the pollen tubes could be studied in the grafted styles.In the pistils grafted with different cultivar, the appearance of self-incompatible responses was observed on the style from the same cultivar. The ovary end portion of the grafted styles seemed to be more influential.In the pistils grafted with cross-pre-pollinated pistil segment, the incompatible pollen tube growth was faster than in the pistils grafted with non- or self-pre-pollinated pistil segments. The necessary condition for the rapid growth of pollen tube was generated in the styles after cross-pollination, with a qrobable velocity of 0.5cm/h from the stigma to the ovary.In self-pre-pollinated pistils, the necessary condition for the rapid growth of pollen tube seemed not to be generated in the style and further any inhibitor for the pollen tube growth was not produced.


Achieving accurate orthorectification is a major constraint to upscaling the use of historical aerial imagery for 20th century change detection. This paper presents a series of aerial triangulation bundle block adjustment post-processing model tests to determine the planimetric accuracy obtainable for large historical image blocks, which inherently contain film deformations e.g. warpage and shrinkage. Photo jobs with a range of photo numbers (12-237 images) and area coverage (>33 000-~150 000ha) were included. Self-calibration with 44-parameters and fixing the model to the ground control network achieved the highest final planimetric accuracy (total root mean square error [RMSE] ranging from 18.6 – 25.7px [7.1 – 21.8m] at ground control points and 20.5 – 27.7px [7.8 – 23.5m] at checkpoints). Allowing movement in the model by increasing standard deviations at ground control points or automating the removal of blunders in the model significantly reduced final planimetric accuracy. Removing automated points and running post-processing with no self-calibration also increased the error at checkpoint locations. This study shows that automatic aerial triangulation can assist towards reducing the number of ground control when orthorectifying large blocks of historical aerial photos. However, the study highlights the importance of post-orthorectification accuracy assessment because aerial triangulation accuracy results were not a correct reflection of the error in final orthoimages. Further work should focus on attempting to increase final planimetric accuracy by adjusting the accuracy and number of manual tie points and ground control in combination with altering the amount and positioning of automatic tie points.


The impetus for this research is the hypothesis that certain techniques, using simple mathematical procedures, as well as rigorous techniques can be used to determine and analyze the effect of partial nonuniform spacing on sidelobe performance of the rectangular microstrip array antenna. An extensive literature survey, conducted in order to shed some light on this particular subject, has yielded a sparsity of work addressing this issue, indicating a need for further research. This paper describes a study of the relative performance of the far field radiation pattern using different methods from the view point of reducing the sidelobe levels. Also, the implementation of the fractional change for nonuniform spacing to reduce the sidelobe levels is introduced. Detailed formulation and the computational procedures are presented and compared. Moreover, it is confirmed that, the field pattern can be calculated by the principle of pattern multiplication (PM) as well as by full wave analysis.


PURPOSE
Current endoscopy-based screening and surveillance programs have not been proven effective at decreasing esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) mortality, creating an unmet need for effective molecular tests for early detection of this highly lethal cancer. We conducted a genome-wide methylation screen to identify novel methylation markers that distinguish EAC and high grade dysplasia (HGD) from normal squamous epithelium (SQ) or non-dysplastic BE (NDBE).

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
DNA methylation profiling of samples from SQ, NDBE, HGD and EAC was performed using HM450 methylation arrays (Illumina) and reduced-representation bisulfite-sequencing. Ultra-sensitive methylation-specific droplet digital PCR and NGS-based bisulfite-sequencing assays were developed to detect the methylation level of candidate CpGs in independent esophageal biopsy and endoscopic brushing samples.

RESULTS
Five candidate methylation markers were significantly hypermethylated in HGD/EAC samples compared to SQ or NDBE (P < 0.01) in both esophageal biopsy and endoscopic brushing samples. In an independent set of brushing samples used to construct biomarker panels, a 4-marker panel (Model 1) demonstrated sensitivity of 85.0% and 90.8% for HGD and EACs respectively, with 84.2% and 97.9% specificity for NDBE and SQ respectively. In a validation set of brushing samples, the panel achieved sensitivity of 80% and 82.5% for HGD and EAC respectively, at specificity of 67.6% and 96.3% for NDBE and SQ samples.

CONCLUSIONS
A novel DNA methylation marker panel differentiates HGD/EAC from SQ/NDBE. DNA-methylation based molecular assays holds promise for the detection of HGD/EAC using esophageal brushing samples.


Earthquakes that have occurred worldwide during the period of 1896 to 2009 with magnitude of 8.0 or greater on the Richter scale are assumed to follow a Poisson process. Several autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models with different time steps are proposed to predict the occurrences of large scale earthquakes by fitting the model with a sequence of empirical recurrence rates (ERRs) time series. The last five or ten data points are used as prediction sets to check the predictive ability of the candidate models developed by the time series modeling techniques. For a full scale forecast, the best fitted model predicts a total number of 12 large scale earthquakes in the next 6 years worldwide. The application of ERR based ARIMA models to long-term earthquake prediction not only serves as a linking bridge between point processes and the classical time series but also extends the usage of statistical methods to a wide area of natural disaster predictions.


Communication is commonly cited as a contributing factor to adverse events causing patient harm (Baker et al., 2004). There are numerous ways and reasons that communication failures can occur, such as poor handwriting, transcription errors, lack of verification, lack of integration of information, and ineffective team functioning. Errors that can occur in critical care with the verbal communication and receipt of a telephone order will be highlighted. These examples, together with proposed strategies for improving telephone order safety, are intended to promote awareness and potential practice changes in the critical care environment.


Citizens in rich countries should shoulder the burden of alleviating global poverty because they are harming the poor, or so many argue. But the baseline for assessing harm is often unclear. This paper recommends a baseline for harm as rights violations. This baseline makes it clear that many of the attributions of harm made by proponents of the harm argument, instead of representing cases of harms caused, are rather instances of benefits withheld from the poor. A moral case can be made that benefits should be extended by the rich countries toward poor ones, but this case will look very different from a case for responsibility for harm.


Kisumu city, like many cities in the developing world, has increased burden of urban informal settlements where access to basic sanitation and water remain a challenge. Despite several studies focussing on sanitation and water situation within Kisumu environment, elaborate research on the influence of shallow water table on the construction of facilities and quality of structures has however not been extensively reported. In order to discuss potential implications of sanitation facility quality on public health in the informal settlements, this study characterised sanitation facilities by depth and quality of superstructure, analysed association between depth of pit latrines and types, and between depth of pit latrines and shallow wells (SWs). The study targeted five urban informal settlements in Kisumu city namely Nyalenda A, Nyalenda B, Manyatta B, Manyatta A and Obunga, and two peri-urban informal settlements of Korando and Kogony. The study involved physical ground surveys on all SWs in the study area and convenience sampling of toilet facilities within 30 m radius to the water points. Analysis was carried descriptively and with the help of GIS spatial analysis tool. A total of 100 SWs and 400 pit latrines were studied. Our findings revealed some evidence of the influence of shallow water table on the construction quality and depth of pit latrines and SWs both in the urban informal settlements and those of the peri-urban. The mean depth of pit latrines and SWs in the urban informal settlements ranged from 0.25 m–3.8 m and 0.0 m–4 m, respectively, while peri-urban areas ranged from 3.5 m–8.1 m and 7.6 m–14.4 m. The study also established that most pit latrines were raised to a mean height of 0.25 m–0.5 m above ground. Analysis of depth revealed that the depth of pit latrines and shallow wells in the urban informal settlements were overlapped while those of the peri-urban were not overlapped. Moreover, majority of pit latrines in the urban informal settlements were raised by an average 0.25 m–0.5 m above mean ground level, a strategy, identified by residents, to overcoming the double challenge of flooding and cross contamination. Overall, the study established that, where construction depth of both pit latrines and shallow wells is limited, the incentive to construct quality pit latrines or SWs lessens, the possible reason for the prevalence of low quality and less durable facilities in the urban informal settlements as opposed to peri-urban areas where deeper and improved pit latrines and wells exist. In conclusion, the high prevalence of poor-quality pit latrines and SWs in the informal settlement predisposes residents in these settlements to public hygiene challenges with potential escalation during floods. Creation of awareness on improved toilet facilities with potential of withstanding the challenges of raised water table and frequent flood risks is recommended in the short term while development of specific toilet construction guidelines concerning depth and superstructure recommended on the long term.


BACKGROUND
Recent randomized trials report that mortality is lower with high-convection-volume hemodiafiltration (HDF) than with hemodialysis (HD).

STUDY DESIGN
We used data from the French national Renal Epidemiology and Information Network (REIN) registry to investigate trends in HDF use and its relationship with mortality in the total population of incident dialysis patients.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
The study included those who initiated HD therapy from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2011, and were dialyzed for more than 3 months; follow-up extended to the end of 2012.

FACTOR
HDF use at the patient and facility level.

OUTCOMES
All-cause and cardiovascular mortality, using Cox models to estimate HRs of HDF as time-dependent covariate at the patient level, with age as time scale and fully adjusted for comorbid conditions and laboratory data at baseline, catheter use, and facility type as time-dependent covariates. Analyses completed by Cox models for HRs of the facility-level exposure to HDF updated yearly.

RESULTS
Of 28,407 HD patients, 5,526 used HDF for a median of 1.2 (IQR, 0.9-1.9) years; 2,254 of them used HDF exclusively. HRs for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality associated with HDF use were 0.84 (95% CI, 0.77-0.91) and 0.73 (95% CI, 0.61-0.88), respectively. In patients treated exclusively with HDF, these HRs were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.67-0.87) and 0.66 (95% CI, 0.50-0.86). At the facility level, increasing the percentage of patients using HDF from 0% to 100% was associated with HRs for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality of 0.87 (95% CI, 0.77-0.99) and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.54-0.96), respectively.

LIMITATIONS
Observational study.

CONCLUSIONS
Whether analyzed as a patient- or facility-level predictor, HDF treatment was associated with better survival.


During the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, Albania built nearly 200 000 bunkers as a measure of protection towards an imaginary attack from (un)known enemies of the Popular Socialist Republic. Most of these structures built in concrete are still part of the landscapes almost in every part of the territory. While the most common type is small and identified from the semi spherical shape, particular bunkers have quite large dimensions and specific features related to their function and location. During the last five years, three of the most unique modern fortifications built during socialism for the displacement of the governmental authorities in case of war, were revealed and made accessible to the public. These structures, transformed today in museums, cultural spaces or simply visitable attractions, are the symbol of an auto-referenced reality within Europe, where the paranoia produced an unusual typology of modern age fortifications. These bunkers, planned to withstand twentieth century military attacks, are extraordinary structures in terms of engineering and building features, and at the same time they represent a very valuable heritage related to the history of communism in Albania. This article aims to offer a comprehensive analysis of the fortification of the Albanian territory during the twentieth century as an overall country defence plan, while focusing on the governmental bunkers in order to understand how the ideological differences with the rest of the world created the need for protection and produced an amazing military infrastructure. The discussion on the future of these structures seems to be strongly related to the ability of recognising these modern fortifications on the Mediterranean as cultural heritage.


Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF), i.e., finding collision-free paths for multiple robots, is important for many applications where small runtimes are necessary, including the kind of automated warehouses operated by Amazon. CBS is a leading two-level search algorithm for solving MAPF optimally. ECBS is a bounded-suboptimal variant of CBS that uses focal search to speed up CBS by sacrificing optimality and instead guaranteeing that the costs of its solutions are within a given factor of optimal. In this paper, we study how to decrease its runtime even further using inadmissible heuristics. Motivated by Explicit Estimation Search (EES), we propose Explicit Estimation CBS (EECBS), a new bounded-suboptimal variant of CBS, that uses online learning to obtain inadmissible estimates of the cost of the solution of each high-level node and uses EES to choose which high-level node to expand next. We also investigate recent improvements of CBS and adapt them to EECBS. We find that EECBS with the improvements runs significantly faster than the state-of-the-art bounded-suboptimal MAPF algorithms ECBS, BCP-7, and eMDD-SAT on a variety of MAPF instances. We hope that the scalability of EECBS enables additional applications for bounded-suboptimal MAPF algorithms.


WHAT IS A " DISEASED" TONSIL? SIR,-Mr. Stuart Carruthers's letter in your issue of June 9th (p. 995) recalls at least one other which dealt with the same subject-'namely, that of " Clinic " (July 9thi, 1921). Mr. Carruthers calls for a " definiition." Is it possible to make a general one, to order, in this way? And if so, of what practical use would that be? Perhaps that is why, as he states, olne has never been forthcoming. The real question is, surelv, whether in such and such <. case under consideration the tonsils can be held responsible for certain pathological symptoms. Ther-e is obviously nlo difficulty in recognizing as diseased " or " unhealthy " tonsils which are acutely infected, subject to malignant clhanges, or the invasion of serious clhronic disorders. This class, however, is small. I think there should be no misgivings about pronouncilng tonisils of the following types " diseased "-even if there should be no symptoms at the moment:


Malicious software (malware) performs a malicious function that compromising a computer system's security. Many methods have been developed to improve the security of the computer system resources, among them the use of firewall, encryption, and Intrusion Detection System (IDS). IDS can detect newly unrecognized attack attempt and raising an early alarm to inform the system about this suspicious intrusion attempt. This paper proposed a hybrid IDS for detection intrusion, especially malware, with considering network packet and host features. The hybrid IDS designed using Data Mining (DM) classification methods that for its ability to detect new, previously unseen intrusions accurately and automatically. It uses both anomaly and misuse detection techniques using two DM classifiers (Interactive Dichotomizer 3 (ID3) classifier and Naive Bayesian (NB) Classifier) to verify the validity of the proposed system in term of accuracy rate. A proposed HybD dataset used in training and testing the hybrid IDS. Feature selection is used to consider the intrinsic features in classification decision, this accomplished by using three different measures: Association rules (AR) method, ReliefF measure, and Gain Ratio (GR) measure. NB classifier with AR method given the most accurate classification results (99%) with false positive (FP) rate (0%) and false negative (FN) rate (1%).


This study comprises part of the World Mental Health Survey (WMH) of the World Health Organization (WHO) and describes the prevalence of mental disorders, variations in the geographic distribution of disorders, the sociodemographic correlates and the utilization of services in the adult urban population. The Estudio Nacional de Salud Mental Colombia 2003 (ENSM) is based on a probabilistic, multistage and stratified sampling design within 5 regions of Colombia. The target population was urban non-institutionalized inhabitants of permanent dwellings, between the ages of 18 to 65 years. The response rate was 87.7%. The instrument used for this study was a computerized version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) (registered version 15) that provides diagnoses in agreement with the Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV and the International Classification of Disease, edition 10. Fiftysix percent of the sample was female, 37% was between the ages of 18 and 29 years old, and 26% had only a primary education while 45% had secondary education. Lifetime prevalence rates were calculated at 40.1% for any of the 23 DSM-IV disorders included in the CIDI, 16% for the past 12 months, and 7.4% for the past 30 days. Anxiety disorders were most frequently reported (19.3% lifetime prevalence rates) followed by affective disorders (15.0%) and substance use disorders (10.6%). Lifetime rates for suicide attempts for the overall sample were calculated at 4.9% with 1.3% reported suicide attempts in the past 30 days. The data indicates that only one out of every 10 individuals with one mental disorder and only one out of every five with two or more mental disorders receives any type of treatment. This represents a challenge to the system of health care and demonstrates the need to focus our attention and resources toward the treatment of mental disorders.


Wear limits the life-span of many mechanical devices with moving parts. To reduce wear, lubricants are frequently enriched with additives, such as zinc phosphates, that form protective films on rubbing surfaces. Using first-principles molecular dynamics simulations of films derived from commercial additives, we unraveled the molecular origin of how antiwear films can form, function, and dissipate energy. These effects originate from pressure-induced changes in the coordination number of atoms acting as cross-linking agents to form chemically connected networks. The proposed mechanism explains a diverse body of experiments and promises to prove useful in the rational design of antiwear additives that operate on a wider range of surface materials, with reduced environmental side effects.


Most studies on the effect of a pathogen on a plant host have been made with single inoculations, although usually with several inoculum levels. In nature, however, plants are subject to invasion (infestation) by pathogens on several occasions during their period of growth, and this is certainly so with root-knot nematodes. Moreover, the effect of the secondary infestation is likely to be modified by the first. Jatala and Jensen (1976) investigated self interaction of Meloidogyne hapla and Heterodera schachtii on Beta vulgaris and concluded that neither pathogen produced any form of immunity in the host which would interfere with the secondary infestations. We have studied the effect of repeated inoculations of Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid et White) Chitw. on the growth of tomato and the development of the nematode populations.


ABSTRACT Association of pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage with the concentration and opsonophagocytic activity (OPA) of serum serotype-specific antibodies was determined for toddlers 1 month after immunization with a 9-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Higher anti-serotype 14 and anti-serotype 19F IgG and anti-serotype 14 IgM correlated with a lowered probability of pneumococcal acquisition. Postvaccination OPA did not correlate with pneumococcal carriage.


Saudia Arabia: Saudi Arabia is the leading remitting country for Pakistan in terms of Home Remittances, fully understanding the business dynamics; NBP is aggressively conducting business development activities in the Kingdom. In this regard, Mr. Khalid Bin Shaheen SEVP/Group Chief-NBP and Chairman NBP Exchange Company Limited recently held a series of meetings with senior banking counterparts at Saudi Arabia to promote home remittances through the formal channels. NBP has made remittance arrangements with all leading banks in the Kingdom to provide fast, convenient, reliable and absolutely free of charge remittance services to expat Pakistanis while creating awareness in the community about the availability of theses efficient services through various marketing campaigns while simultaneously discouraging the use of illegal Hawala/Hundi channels. The Pakistani community living in Saudi Arabia is also very responsive to the efforts and has overwhelmingly adopted the formal remittance channels in support of the national cause.


Nine patients are described with unilateral wasting of the hand muscles associated with elongated C7 transverse processes or with rudimentary cervical ribs. In three patients there was selective wasting of the lateral part of the thenar pad, accompanied by mild weakness of the other hand muscles. In four patients all the hand muscles were wasted, but this was more marked in the lateral part of the thenar pad than elsewhere. In two patients wasting was uniformly distributed throughout the hand. Weakness and wasting in the forearm was only present in four patients and was relatively mild. Sensory loss, when present, affected mainly the inner side of the forearm. Nerve conduction studies revealed no abnormality in the distal part of the median nerve, but some patients had reduced or absent sensory action potentials when the fifth finger was stimulated. In all nine patients a sharp fibrous band was found at operation, which extended from an elongated C7 transverse process or from a rudimentary cervical rib to the region of the scalene tubercle on the first rib. The fibrous band caused angulation of the C8 and T1 roots in five patients, and of the lower trunk of the brachial plexus in three. Pathological changes were frequently visible in affected nerves at the site of angulation. Division of the fibrous band relieved pain and paraesthesiae in eight patients and arrested muscle wasting and weakness in nine patients. There was, however, only slight recovery of power in affected muscles; wasting in the hand appeared to be unchanged after periods of up to eight years.


This paper discusses the Xinfang institution of petitions (letters and visits) and explores the ways in which the Chinese Communist Party regime utilizes social control mechanisms to identify, oversee, and suppress socially discontented people with grievances in the post-Mao market reform era. This public-facing institution for managing participation and rightful resistance, which aims to oversee local officials and redress mass grievances, also plays an unexpected role in social control. Unlike the social control exercised by police patrols in police states, Xinfang functions first as a "fire alarm" in this authoritarian regime; then, if necessary, as a selective "police patrol," collecting information on discontented people with grievances, monitoring them, quelling and even preempting their protests, and referring dangerous petitioners to higher levels of government to prevent disruption in politically critical regions. This argument is supported with a detailed institutional analysis of the nationwide structure of Xinfang and several case studies of Xinfang's multi-layered response to petitioners to Beijing, during the Falun Gong incidents in 1999 and 2000 in particular. Several complementary case studies on the behavior of local petition mechanisms and statistical evidence are also analyzed.


Objective: To compare complications and functional outcomes between supination adduction type II (SAD) injuries and torsional ankle injuries (TAI). Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Level 1 trauma center. Patients and Methods: Patients (n = 1531) treated for ankle fractures (OTA/AO 43B or 44) over 16 years were identified. The most recent 200 consecutive adult patients treated for TAI (OTA/AO 44, not SAD) served as controls. Main Outcome Measures: Complications, unplanned secondary procedures, and patient-reported functional outcome scores, as measured by the Foot Function Index and Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment. Results: Sixty-five patients with SAD injuries (4.2%) were included. They were younger (43.2 vs. 47.7 years, P = 0.08) and more commonly involved in a motorized collision, (58.5% vs. 29.0%) and more often multiply injured: other orthopaedic injuries (66.2% vs. 31.0%) and other nonorthopaedic injuries (40.0% vs. 7.5%, all P < 0.001 vs. TAI). Overall complication and unplanned secondary procedure rates were not different between groups. Those with a SAD injury had more posttraumatic arthrosis (80.0% vs. 40.9%, P = 0.004), but no differences were noted in infection, wound healing, malunion, or nonunion. The mean functional outcome scores were worse for SAD patients over 6 years after injury among all the Foot Function Index and Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment categories; however, these differences were not significant. Conclusions: SAD injuries represented 4.2% of all ankle fractures, occurring in younger patients through higher-energy mechanisms and more often associated with polytrauma. Despite 80% of SAD patients developing posttraumatic arthrosis, secondary procedures were not more common, and functional outcomes after a SAD injury were not different from TAI. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


This research attempts to find improvement opportunities for the campaign setup processes at
Gladior BV, a firm specialized in search engine marketing. Since the foundation of Gladior in the
late 1990s, the demand for search engine marketing has grown considerably each year. This led to
a focus on growth at Gladior. Over the years search engines have changed much, which
complicated the process for setting up search engine marketing campaigns. Besides that, due to
these changes the performance of campaigns also became more uncertain.
The changes created over time all kinds of problems in the campaign setup processes. These
problems negatively affected customer loyalty and campaign performance.
In this research, improvement opportunities for the campaign setup processes are formulated
based on the insight in the course of processes, problems that occur in those processes and the
causes of those problems. The processes are analyzed with the use of process management
theories suited for analyzing primary processes in service industries.
Theoretical framework
In a literature review several suited process management theories are identified. From the
identified theories
selected for the analysis of the campaign setup processes.
removing non value adding activities from processes. By removing non value adding activities,
capacity can be saved. This capacity can be used for executing activities that add value from a
customer viewpoint.
processes by analyzing the internal cooperation and customer interactions in the service delivery
process. This theory is suited for this research because it pays attention to special aspects of the
service delivery process and because setting up campaigns involves multiple departments. Several
tools are selected from these theories that can support in detecting problems in the current
processes. These tools can also support in formulating solutions to those problems identified.
Analysis of the current situation
In order to analyze the processes, interviews with employees were carried out. Besides that, data
was collected by observations and by verifying information by employees. Additional information
was collected by tracking five orders through the campaign setup process.
The campaign setup processes exist of several steps. First, the order has to be matched with a
customer, before keywords can be determined on which the customer should become findable in
search engines. After determining the keywords, texts have to be written for these keywords.
When the texts are finished, a special webpage can be build for each keyword. Those pages, which
are called landing pages, are optimized for generating visitors and customers via search engines.
All landing pages together form a campaign. The final step of this process is supporting the
customer with implementing the campaign to his website.
In the analysis of the campaign setup processes, several main problems are identified. Most
outstanding is a lack of flow in these processes. Besides that, rework occurs due to quality
problems in campaign items. Finally the process flow and the quality of the campaign are
negatively influenced by poor customer contributions in the process.
M. Bieze Improving the business processes at Gladior BV Page 5
After grouping the problems together based on their cause-and-effect relations, fou
are created for the prevention and detection
of quality problems, customer participation in the process, and the existence of waste in the
internal processes.
Solutions
After the identification of the problems, solutions are formulated for the problems identified in the
focus areas. The allocation of tasks can be improved by applying job rotation at Gladior Partner (a
department of Gladior) and by applying a highest priority system for determining priorities of tasks.
Finally visual management can be applied to improve the clarity about process status and
performance.
The prevention and detection of quality problems can be improved by executing processes
according to their natural course. Besides that, Poke-Yoka and Peer review can be applied at all
process where it is currently absent (and where it is also possible to apply). At those processes
Poke-Yoka can (partially) prevent quality problems from occurring, while peer review can prevent
that quality problems reach the next process step or the customer.
Customer participation can be improved by educating customer about the business processes in
the sales processes, by making appointments with the customers concerning the matching of
campaign items, and by using more media rich communication mediums for matching campaign
items with the customer. If the customer allows it, Gladior should also implement the campaign
instead of the customer. Even though the implementation of campaigns leads to additional work, it
can ensure the implementation is carried out correctly. And a correct and complete implementation
can positively affect campaign performance.
In order to remove waste from the internal processes, Gladior should improve the transfer of
orders from the sales process to the campaign setup process. Next to that, Gladior should also
automate process steps in which data is currently entered into a database for the second time.
The main benefits that Gladior can derive from implementing these solutions are:
1. Higher quality campaigns, that have a better chance on a good campaign performance.
2. Less rework on campaign items created in setup process. Due to less rework cost savings
and capacity gains can be realized.
3. Less customer demands from customers to analyze campaigns or to implement
improvement opportunities to campaigns, because the customer is unsatisfied with the
performance.
4. A better quality perception by the customer, due to a better campaign performance and a
better experienced guidance at customer participation moments.
5. An increased process flow, due to a decrease in waiting time on customer contributions and
better task scheduling.
6. More clarity for employees about task priority and process status.
7. And hopefully: an improvement in customer loyalty.


Wireless high-speed digital communications systems are becoming increasingly commonplace for both commercial and military applications. One of the most effective techniques for combating multipath interference is the multicarrier OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) scheme. However, the high PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio) of OFDM signals constitutes a problem when non-linear amplifiers are used. In this thesis the PAPR problem is introduced and the LINC (Linear Amplification with Nonlinear Components) technique is considered as a possible solution to counteract the PA (Power Amplifier) nonlinearity distortion. The proposed LINC technique can be implemented using DSP (Digital Signal Processing) techniques, has the potential of high IMD (Inter-modulation Distortion) suppression and it is unconditionally stable, which is a key advantage in broadband applications. It's well known that the unwanted imperfections like the I/Q (In-phase/Quadrature) imbalances present in the analogue IQ modulators in a direct conversion OFDM system contribute to a loss of orthogonality and create ICI (Inter-carrier Interference). These impairments can also severely reduce the efficiency of the LINC technique itself. This thesis investigates a digital compensation mechanism to reduce the IQ imbalance errors in the direct conversion OFDM LINC transmitter. The LINC technique is considered in the first part of this thesis as a possible linearisation technique to counteract the non-linear distortion caused by both the mixer and power amplifier in a single-carrier QPSK (Quaternary Phase Shift Keying) transmitter. Prototype systems for single-carrier QPSK transmitter and multi-carrier OFDM transmitter have been constructed to demonstrate the proposed method's capability.


It is said among historians, that there are two remarkable innovations in modern finance: deposit banking in southern Europe and negotiable bills in northern Europe, especially Antwerp. Although negotiable bills are as important as deposit banking (because they became a foundation of modern commercial banking and stock markets), they are not often studied. Part I of the thesis studies indirect loan contracts which do not rely on either bank-specific technologies or legal protection. It focuses on the concept of negotiability and explains its characteristics, including the substitutability of deposit banking and negotiable bills. Negotiable bills, or resaleable bills, can be interpreted as an indirect loan contract. The buyer of the bill, i.e. the initial lender, can re-sell the bill to a third party to satisfy his liquidity needs. So the initial issuer of the bill borrows from a third party, through the initial lender (acting as an intermediary). Previous studies have focused on direct loan contracts: between banks and borrowers, depositors and banks, or suppliers and buyers. There are few papers studying the incentive problems faced by all three players. To fill this gap, in Chapter Two, we study indirect loan contracts that a lender and a borrower can make only through an intermediary agent, where the borrower and the lender cannot observe any transaction between the other two. Under this severe information asymmetry, the existence of loan contracts as a sequential equilibrium is proved, although they are less efficient compared with direct loan contracts. In Chapter Three, we consider role of collateral in improving efficiency. Chapter Four concludes, summarising the characteristics of these contracts: only less risky borrowers can issue negotiable bills and riskier borrowers need to seek a direct relationship with lenders (or, they are rationed).
In the 1990s, the Japanese economy experienced a prolonged recession, the so-called 'lost decade'. It is discussed that a cause of the problem was the "zombie lending" problem: chronic loss-making firms (zombies) still obtained finance from their banks. Part II of the thesis aims to address the following issues with a microeconomic model. Firstly, why did banks not liquidate bankrupt borrowers? Secondly, how did it affect macroeconomic productivity? And thirdly, how did it affect the procyclicality of land prices as in Kiyotaki and Moore(1997)'s credit cycle? A bank, in this model, has an incentive not to liquidate insolvent borrowers: the liquidation of collateral asset (land) will invite the collapse of land market and the bank has to bear a large loss. The loss may make the bank under-capitalised and force it to close its business. The bank, to avoid the forced closure, does not liquidate insolvent borrowers. This "zombie borrowers" occupy their land unused, and the bank can squeeze land supply to push up land price: the bank's own capital is then kept higher than it should be. In the final chapter, based on this model, optimal post-crisis policies are discussed by comparing two options; public capital injection and toxic asset purchasing scheme.


A primary lung cancer can produce a cavity in three ways. The first is 'cavitary necrosis' due to breakdown of the growth itself. The second is 'stenotic abscess' due to infection and break-down of the lung parenchyma distal to bronchial obstruction caused by the growth. The third type is 'spill-over abscess'. In the present series, necrosis and cavitation were observed in 100 cases out of a total of 632 primary ibronchial carcinomas seen at the London Chest Hospital from July 1967 to June 1970. There were 91 males and nine females with an average age of 58-45 years. All except one smoked very heavily and had considerable symptoms. The size of the cavities ranged from 1 to 10 cm and their wall thickness from 0 5 to 3 cm. They were single in 92 cases and multiple (up to four) in eight. In 42 cases, the cancerous cavitation was central, in 38 intermediate, and in 20 peripheral. The segments most frequently affected were the apicoposterior segment of the left upper lobe and the superior segment of the left lower lobe. For descriptive purposes, these cavitating carcinomas were also divided into six broad groups on the basis of radiological and pathological correlations. Neoplastic cells in the sputum were found in 64 cases. Bronchoscopy revealed growth in 42 cases and biopsy was positive in 48. The main microscopic feature was vascular invasion of medium-sized muscular arteries and veins found in the vicinity of every cavitating bronchial carcinoma. Invasion along with tumour plugging of the vessels was observed in 75 cases and thrombosis alone in 55 cases. There were 82 squamous-cell carcinomas, 11 undifferentiated carcinomas of large polygonal-cell type, and Iseven adeno-alveolar cell carcinomas. The single most important and noteworthy feature in the present series was that oat-cell carcinoma


Objective: To report a dramatic improvement in respiratory rate and Apgar score in a newborn suffering from Transient Tachypnea of Newborn (TTN) following a reduction of vertebral subluxation. Clinical Features: A newborn male presented with a respiratory rate of 93 breaths/min and an Apgar score of 6 at 1 and 5 minutes. Symptoms included inability to cry out loud, nasal flaring, and grunting. He was given the diagnosis of Transient Tachypnea of Newborn. Interventions and Outcomes: A chiropractic examination of the baby's upper cervical spine revealed vertebral subluxation at the atlanto-occipital region. An infant toggle recoil adjustment was given to reduce the subluxation. Within minutes of the adjustment the respiratory rate decreased to 80 breaths/min and Apgar score improved to a 9. At 5 hours after birth the respiratory rate was 70 breaths/min and at 12 hours after birth was 60 breaths/min. Conclusions: The case of a newborn diagnosed with Transient Tachypnea of Newborn is presented. Respiratory rate, Apgar score, and other signs of TTN improved following an upper cervical adjustment to reduce vertebral subluxation. Further research on respiratory disorders in newborns and the efficacy of chiropractic is warranted.


Metal-dielectric superlenses for ultraviolet and visible light This thesis describes a variety of experiments towards the goal of improved superlensing. This new type of lenses are based on materials with a negative refractive index, which opens up the possibility of resolving details that are significantly smaller than the wavelength of light. The results show that a resolution of 80nm can be achieved at a wavelength of 365nm, which is well below the diffraction limit, and thus proves that the superlensing effect is occurring. The use of a superlens to translate an optical hotspot was tested. For this purpose, a silver superlens was used to image the enhanced field local field intensity from a nanoantenna array, and the results indicate a successful transfer, which opens up a number of possibilities within the fields of biological, chemical and medical diagnostics. The use of multilayer lenses to improve imaging was also tested, for which a very low roughness lens consisting of alternating silver and silicon dioxide layers was fabricated. Unfortunately no clear conclusion could be reached, due to problems with the underlying chrome test structure. Finally, experiments were performed on the use of metal-dielectric composites as a superlensing material, due to their tunable optical properties. The results show, that when using such composites, it is indeed possible to selectively alter the real part of the permittivity, as predicted by effective medium theory, but the loss is much higher than expected.


We proved that the hardware implementation of the proposed code and the new packet synchronization system was effectively realized by using a unique circuit configuration. A three-dimensional size-five coder and decoding-synchronization system was implemented on FPGA. The developed FPGA was applied to a high-speed MPEG communication device, which can transmit a movie signal of 20 Mbps.


It has been shown that serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6 are elevated in patients with various types of cancer. However, the exact source of IL-6 in these patients and its role in tumor progression remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that the autocrine production of IL-6 by tumor cells promotes resistance of the cells to chemotherapy, a novel function of IL-6 in cancer biology. Breast cancer cells that are sensitive to drug treatment do not express IL-6, whereas high levels of IL-6 are produced by multidrug-resistant breast cancer cells. Expression of the IL-6 gene in drug-sensitive breast cancer cells increases their resistance to drug treatment by activating the CCAAT enhancer-binding protein family of transcription factors and inducing mdr1 gene expression. Thus, the autocrine production of IL-6 by tumor cells is an important factor in determining the susceptibility or resistance of these cells to drug treatment. Because tumors from some breast cancer patients contain IL-6-producing cells, it is possible that IL-6 could potentially be used as a prognostic factor for chemotherapy resistance.


Rockfalls and rock avalanches are active processes in the Mont Blanc massif, with infrastructure and alpinists at risk. Thanks to a network of observers (hut keepers, mountain guides, alpinists) set up in 2007 present rockfalls are well surveyed and documented. Rockfall frequency over the past 150 years has been studied by comparison of historical photographs, showing that it strongly increased during the three last decades, especially during hot periods like the summer of 2003 and 2015, due to permafrost degradation driven by the climate change. In order to decipher the possible relationship between rockfall occurrence and the warmest periods of the Lateglacial and the Holocene, we start to study the morphodynamics of some selected high-elevated (>3000 m a.s.l.) rockwalls of the massif on a long timescale. Contrary to low altitude, deglaciated sites where study of large rockfall deposits allows to quantify frequency and magnitude of the process, rockfalls that detached from high-elevated rockwalls are no more noticeable as debris were absorbed and evacuated by the glaciers. Therefore, our study focuses on the rockfall scars. Their 10Be dating gives us the rock surface exposure age from present to far beyond the Last Glacial Maximum, interpreted as the rockfall ages. TCN dating of rockfalls has been carried out at the Aiguille du Midi in 2007 (Boehlert et al., 2008), and three other sites in the Mont Blanc massif in 2011 (Gallach et al., submitted). Here we present a new data set of rockfall dating carried out in 2015 that improves the 2007 and 2011 data. Furthermore, a relationship between the colour of the Mont Blanc granite and its exposure age has been shown: fresh rock surface is light grey (e.g. in recent rockfall scars) whereas weathered rock surface is in the range grey to orange/red: the redder a rock surface, the older its age. Here, reflectance spectroscopy is used to quantify the granite surface colour. Bohlert, R., Gruber, S., Egli, M., Maisch, M., Brandova, D., Haeberli, W., Ivy-Ochs, S., Christl, M., Kubik, P.W., Deline, P. (2008). Comparison of exposure ages and spectral propierties of rock surfaces in steep, high alpine rock walls of Aiguille du Midi, France. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Permafrost, 143-148. Gallach, X. et al. (submitted). Timing of rockfalls in the Mont Blanc massif (western Alps). Evidences from surface exposure dating with cosmogenic 10Be. Landslides.