All DNA transactions involving overtwisting or undertwisting of the double helix alter the topological state of DNA, yielding distortions known as DNA supercoiling or DNA torsional stress. Under conditions of negative supercoiling susceptible sequences within B-form DNA may be transformed to stable, non-B-DNA structures such as G-quadruplex. G-quadruplex DNA has the potential to create or destroy transcription factor binding sites or influence nucleosome positioning and so may contribute to gene regulation, making it an attractive therapeutic target. Although in vitro and in silico studies support the notion that G-quadruplex is regulatory, a compelling in vivo demonstration of G-quadruplex function is lacking.
Using computational and experimental approaches previously developed to identify DNA segments that actually adopt non-B DNA conformations in vivo, I have identified sequences with a high probability of secondary structure formation. Identified sequences are located in the promoters of three genes central to cancer biology where much of the work in G-Quadruplex has been focused. I have expanded this focus into the field of neuroscience by identifying a further three sequences in the promoters of genes implicated in a range of neurological disorders.
Preliminary biochemical analysis of these regions assessed methylation status and transcription factor binding profiles corresponding to a dynamic model of G-quadruplex formation at the well characterised CT element in the c-MYC promoter.
In order to provide definitive structure function analysis of G-quadruplex I designed a gene editing strategy to reengineer the well characterized CT element of c-MYC.
The initial strategy used AAV- targeting vectors to introduce strategic mutations that destabilize G-quadruplex DNA conformations in the CT element of c-MYC in the HCT-116 cell line via homologous recombination. In parallel to these structure-destabilizing mutations, neutral base changes were targeted to the 5´-UTRs of the targeted alleles, distinguishing them from their respective unmodified homologous partners. qPCR and ChIP analysis of the relative expression and factor binding profiles of targeted and wild-type alleles will enable a definitive structure function analysis of basal or induced expression; determining whether these secondary structures have a functional role in regulating gene expression and the factors involved.
Low targeting efficiencies of the AAV gene editing strategy prompted me combine the recent technology of the CRISPR-Cas system with traditional AAV targeting to produce a highly efficient, high fidelity and streamlined approach to gene editing.


Despite the substantial reliability and power quality improvements, the proliferation of distributed energy resources can introduce many protection complexities in distribution networks (DNs). This research article presents a comprehensive investigative analysis of the distributed generation (DG) impacts on the protection performance of the DN. Various protection coordination case studies have been analyzed under different operating conditions by varying the DG penetration level or the fault conditions to highlight the potential risks of the protection networks. The severity of the risks is evaluated by considering the DG locations, protection settings, and fault types/impedance parameters on a standardized IEEE 13 node test feeder in DIgSILENT Power Factory/MATLAB softwares. The subsequent protection hazards are examined for the mutual coordination of the overcurrent relays, auto-reclosers, and series fuses in DNs along with the differential protection issues for dc bus system. Furthermore, the impacts of DGs/PDs types are assessed on the nuisance tripping of the protection networks and results are reported.


Purpose - The purpose of this study is to gain some insights into how managers perceive and achieve financial flexibility and its value in coping with the 2008 global financial crisis. The study focuses on the following questions: What are the sources and measures of financial flexibility? Do financially flexible firms suffer a lower impact from the crisis? Is financial flexibility related to business flexibility? and Is financial flexibility important for the firm's capital structure decision? Design/methodology/approach - This paper employs two methods: a questionnaire survey and interviews with chief financial officers (CFOs). The results are used to examine the relation between the firm's financial flexibility level and the impact of the global financial crisis on its liquidity, investments, capital structure and business operations. The results are used to analyze the robustness of different financial flexibility measures constructed from the survey data to identify an appropriate financial flexibility measure. Findings - The main finding is that firms with high financial flexibility suffer lower impact from the crisis. The results show that firms with greater internal financing are likely to have lower leverage, higher cash ratios, and suffer a lower impact from the crisis on their business operations. The analysis indicates that an index based on the firm's leverage, liquidity, and operating ratios, similar to the Altman Z-score, might be a better financial flexibility measure than long-term debt ratio. The evidence also suggests that financial flexibility is a part of the firm's business strategy and is important for its capital structure decisions. Originality/value - A major challenge for researchers is how to measure the firm's financial flexibility level, as it is unobservable and difficult to quantify. The innovation of this paper is to directly ask managers about the firm's financial flexibility, from both internal and external financing, construct several financial flexibility variables based on the survey data, and examine their correlations with the global financial crisis impact, to identify a robust financial flexibility measure. The research also provides unique data to investigate the value of financial flexibility during a severe credit crisis.


This chapter overviews research on older adults television viewing and discusses the assumptions and empirical findings in terms of a life-span perspective. The life-span perspective emphasizes that gains and losses jointly occur in later life. Selection and compensation constitute two central strategies in gerontological models of how people adapt to gains and losses. With regard to television viewing, selection means that people can choose television viewing over other activities for reaching goals in high-priority domains because television viewing is appropriate given environmental demands and individual motivations, skills, and capacities. Compensation means that people can use television viewing as a substitute for diminished abilities or activities. This chapter reviews available literature in three sections: time use, social functions, and content preferences. A large share ofprevious research on older adults television viewing appears to be biased toward compensation, whereas research in this field insufficiently considered selection strategies.


In quantum cryptography, the key can be directly distributed to the communicating parties through the communication channel. The security is guaranteed by the quantum properties of the channel. However, the transmitted key may contain errors due to the noise of the channel. Key integrity verification is an indispensable step in quantum cryptography and becomes an important problem in higher speed systems. Computing only one hash value for the key string does not provide an effective solution as it may lead to dropping all the bits once the hash values on both sides do not agree. In this paper, we introduce a new idea of using the technique of combinatorial group testing, which seems to be an unrelated topic, to design a scheme to identify the error bits to avoid dropping all the bits. Our scheme can precisely locate the error bits if the number of error bits is within the maximum set by the scheme while the overhead is insignificant based on our experiments (additional bits: 0.1% of the key; time for computing the hash values: 16ms; verification time: 22 ms). Also, even if the number of error bits is higher than the maximum set by the scheme, only some correct bits may be misclassified as error bits but not the vice versa. The results show that we can still keep the majority of the correct bits (e.g. the bits discarded due to misclassification is only 5% of the whole string even if the number of error bits is 10 times of the maximum).


Objective: To investigate the insertion/deletion(I/D) polymorphism of angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE) in NIDDM with CHD in Hans, and analyse their genetic characteristics.Methods: 34 patients genomic DNA was amplified by polymorphic region in intron 16 of the ACE gene.Allele were detected on agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide.Results: The frequencies of DD,DI and II genotype were 0.58,0.15 and 0.26 in NIDDM with CHD;and 0.33,0.31 and 0.35 in the control respectively.Conclusion: The polymorphism of ACE gene are associated with NIDDM with CHD in Hans.


Paints are the main protection method for atmospheric deterioration of metallic structures. Their performance in service depends largely on the nature of organic coatings and environmental and meteorological factors. For these reasons, it is essential for development, selection and evaluation of paints to identify the deterioration phenomenology as well as the methods used for modeling and predicting the behavior of coatings, the preventive maintenance o replacement dates and the life time of repaired structures. In this review the main employed methods used for the modeling of such deterioration for predictive purposes are presented.


The morphodynamic evolution of subaqueous sand dunes is investigated, using a 2-D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes numerical model. A laboratory experiment where dunes are generated under stationary unidirectional flow conditions is used as a reference case. The model reproduces the evolution of the erodible bed until a state of equilibrium is reached. In particular, the simulation exhibits the different stages of the bed evolution, e.g., the incipient ripple generation, the nonlinear bed form growing phase, and the dune field equilibrium phase. The results show good agreement in terms of dune geometrical dimensions and time to equilibrium. After the emergence of the first ripple field, the bed growth is driven by cascading merging sequences between bed forms of different heights. A sequence extracted from the simulation shows how the downstream bed form is first eroded before merging with the upstream bed form. Superimposed bed forms emerge on the dune stoss sides during the simulation. An analysis of the results shows that they emerge downstream of a slight deflection on the dune profile. The deflection arises due to a modification of the sediment flux gradient consecutive to a reduction in the turbulence relaxation length while the upstream bed form height decreases. As they migrate, superimposed bed forms grow on the dune stoss side and eventually provoke the degeneration of the dune crest. Cascading merging sequences and superimposed bed forms dynamics both influence the dune field evolution and size and therefore play a fundamental role in the dune field self-organization process.


The effect of Fe-doping on the magnetic properties of the ABO3-type perovskite cobaltites La0.7Ba0.3Co1–yFeyO3 (0 ≤ y ≤ 0.80) is reported. With no apparent structural change in any doped sample, the Curie temperature (TC) and the magnetization (M) are greatly suppressed for y ≤ 0.30 samples, while a distinct increase in TC for the y = 0.40 sample is observed. With the further increase of Fe concentration, TC increases monotonically. Griffiths-like phases in 0.40 ≤ y ≤ 0.60 samples are confirmed. The formation of the Griffiths-like phase is ascribed to B-site disordering induced isolation of ferromagnetic (FM) clusters above TC.


Although communication delays can disrupt multiagent systems, most of the existing multiagent trajectory planners lack a strategy to address this issue. State-of-the-art approaches typically assume perfect communication environments, which is hardly realistic in real-world experiments. This paper presents Robust MADER (RMADER), a decentralized and asynchronous multiagent trajectory planner that can handle communication delays among agents. By broadcasting both the newly optimized trajectory and the committed trajectory, and by performing a delay check step, RMADER is able to guarantee safety even under communication delay. RMADER was validated through extensive simulation and hardware flight experiments and achieved a 100% success rate of collision-free trajectory generation, outperforming state-of-the-art approaches.


A number of studies have suggested that high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation may be associated with a variety of abnormalities of psychological function including sexual dysfunction. However, few studies have prospectively evaluated the association between sexual dysfunction and BMT. In particular, there are very little baseline data about sexual function immediately before transplant. The sexual function of 30 patients was assessed immediately prior to high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation using the Derogatis Interview for Sexual Functioning (DISF) for males and females. More than 80% of patients had hematological malignancies; more than half were allograft recipients. Forty-seven percent of patients were found to have global sexual dysfunction and 60% had abnormalities of at least one parameter of sexual function. Forty-seven percent were dissatisfied with their sex life. Sexual dysfunction was associated with ejaculatory problems (P < 0.02) and erectile problems (P = 0.06) but not with amenorrhea. There was an association between cancer-related psychological problems and sexual dysfunction. A control group of inpatients with cancer had a similar incidence of sexual dysfunction (53% vs 47%, P = NS) suggesting that the tumor and its therapy were the major reasons for the sexual problems and not the prospect of transplant per se. This study emphasizes the need for baseline (pre-BMT) studies of quality of life and psychological function in BMT patients. We conclude that sexual dysfunction is a common finding prior to BMT; whether intervention can reduce this problem requires further study.


Isolation of MPB83 from Mycobacterium bovis BCG Tokyo culture fluid is described. MPB70 and MPB83 have similar molecular mass as judged by SDS‐PAGE but differ in isoelectric points. Peptides isolated after CNBr cleavage of MPB83 revealed extensive homology as well as distinct differences from corresponding parts of the amino acid sequence deduced from the mpb70 gene cloned by Terasaka et al. Antibodies produced by immunization with MPB70 and MPB83 had distinctly different fine specificity revealing cross‐reactivity between the proteins. These findings indicate that two distinct, homologous genes code for these proteins. Sensitization with live BCG Tokyo also induced T cell responses to MPB83 with development of delayed type hypersensitivity in guinea pigs.


We present discrete stochastic optimization algorithms that adaptively learn the Nernst potential in membrane ion channels. The proposed algorithms dynamically control both the ion channel experiment and the resulting hidden Markov model signal processor and can adapt to time-varying behavior of ion channels. One of the most important properties of the proposed algorithms is their its self-learning capability-they spend most of the computational effort at the global optimizer (Nernst potential). Numerical examples illustrate the performance of the algorithms on computer-generated synthetic data.


Today, the comprehensive surgical treatment for gastrointestinal cancer is almost in the perfect stage. It is difficult to further improve the curative effect by surgery only. To improve the overall curative effect of gastrointestinal tumor, translational medicine research should be promoted in the fields of the early diagnosis, etiology and pathogenesis and comprehensive treatment. Researches of discovering the new tumor markers for early diagnosis of tumor, etiology and pathogenesis involve many aspects, including environmental factors, genetic susceptibility, variation and accumulation of genetics, and epigenetic changes, which should be transferred to new methods of treatment. This review summarizes the gastrointestinal tumor-associated hot topics in the field of basic research and its progress, and provides the clinical clues from their conversion.


There is a growing interest in the combined use of NLP and machine learning methods to predict gaze patterns during naturalistic reading. While promising results have been obtained through the use of transformer-based language models, little work has been undertaken to relate the performance of such models to general text characteristics. In this paper we report on experiments with two eye-tracking corpora of naturalistic reading and two language models (BERT and GPT-2). In all experiments, we test effects of a broad spectrum of features for predicting human reading behavior that fall into five categories (syntactic complexity, lexical richness, register-based multiword combinations, readability and psycholinguistic word properties). Our experiments show that both the features included and the architecture of the transformer-based language models play a role in predicting multiple eye-tracking measures during naturalistic reading. We also report the results of experiments aimed at determining the relative importance of features from different groups using SP-LIME.


In this paper, we propose a novel nonlinear signal equalization and detection scheme applying the support vector machine (SVM) technique for downlink multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems. The SVM is gaining popularity in the field of pattern classification due to its promising empirical performance, moderate computation complexity and its strong mathematical foundation. In the proposed scheme, the SVM-based equalizer is trained with the frequency domain received signal for the implicit frequency diversity effect. Simulations are conducted under time-varying multipath fading channel to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in the presence of multiuser interference (MUI) and inter-channel interference (ICI), two major impairments that severely degrade the performance of MC-CDMA systems employing conventional linear equalizers. Simulation results confirmed that the proposed scheme effectively mitigates MUI and ICI and outperforms conventional linear equalizers with perfect channel estimation.


Turbo codes are typically represented as parallel concatenated convolutional codes, but will be treated as serially concatenated codes in this paper. Treating turbo codes as serially concatenated codes makes possible the general description of their generator and parity-check matrices. Given the generator and parity-check matrices, turbo codes may be analyzed from a block and low-density parity-check code point of view.


In a large scale trapped atomic ion quantum computer, high-fidelity two-qubit gates need to be extended over all qubits with individual control. We realize and characterize high-fidelity two-qubit gates in a system with up to four ions using radial modes. The ions are individually addressed by two tightly focused beams steered using microelectromechanical system mirrors. We deduce a gate fidelity of 99.49(7)% in a two-ion chain and 99.30(6)% in a four-ion chain by applying a sequence of up to 21 two-qubit gates and measuring the final state fidelity. We characterize the residual errors and discuss methods to further improve the gate fidelity towards values that are compatible with fault-tolerant quantum computation.


Micro-ultrasound is an invaluable imaging tool for many clinical and preclinical applications requiring high resolution (approximately several tens of micrometers). Imaging systems for micro-ultrasound, including single-element imaging systems and linear-array imaging systems, have been developed extensively in recent years. Single-element systems are cheaper, but linear-array systems give much better image quality at a higher expense. Annular-array-based systems provide a third alternative, striking a balance between image quality and expense. This paper presents the development of a novel programmable and real-time annular-array imaging platform for micro-ultrasound. It supports multi-channel dynamic beamforming techniques for large-depth-of-field imaging. The major image processing algorithms were achieved by a novel field-programmable gate array technology for high speed and flexibility. Real-time imaging was achieved by fast processing algorithms and high-speed data transfer interface. The platform utilizes a printed circuit board scheme incorporating state-of-the-art electronics for compactness and cost effectiveness. Extensive tests including hardware, algorithms, wire phantom, and tissue mimicking phantom measurements were conducted to demonstrate good performance of the platform. The calculated contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the tissue phantom measurements were higher than 1.2 in the range of 3.8 to 8.7 mm imaging depth. The platform supported more than 25 images per second for real-time image acquisition. The depth-of-field had about 2.5-fold improvement compared to single-element transducer imaging.


Abstract 2212 Introduction: Factor Xa is protected within the prothrombinase complex from inhibition by heparin. We have developed a covalent antithrombin-heparin complex (ATH) with enhanced anticoagulant activity. Previously, we have shown that ATH is able to inhibit coagulation enzymes much more efficiently than regular antithrombin+heparin (AT+UFH). For example, ATH inhibited TF/VIIa ∼30-fold faster compared to AT+UFH. Furthermore, we have also demonstrated that ATH is capable of inhibiting Xa within a prothrombinase complex assembled on synthetic phospholipid vesicles better than AT+UFH. However, ATH9s effect on prothrombinase when the complex is formed on a more native system such as platelets has never been explored. Thus, the objective of the present study is to determine the ability of ATH vs AT+UFH to inhibit Xa within the prothrombinase complex when the enzyme complex is assembled on the platelet system. Methods: Discontinuous second order rate constant assays were performed to obtain k 2 -values for inhibition of free or prothrombinase-bound Xa by AT+UFH or ATH. Freshly prepared resting platelets were subjected to inhibition analysis by first incubating them with Xa, Va, Ca 2+ and pefabloc ® -TH (thrombin inhibitor) in different wells of a 96-well plate for 3 min at 37 °C. Prothrombin was then simultaneously added to all wells to initiate thrombin generation, followed by addition of AT+UFH or ATH inhibitors to each well at specific time intervals. Reactions were neutralized by simultaneous addition of polybrene, Na 2 EDTA and Xa-specific substrate S-2222™ in buffer. The remaining Xa enzyme activity was obtained and final k 2 -values calculated. For experiments requiring activated platelets, freshly isolated platelets were activated with 5 μM calcium ionophore A23187 + 4 mM CaCl 2 for 15 min at room temperature. The activated platelets were then tested in inhibition assays as described above. To investigate the roles of individual components of the prothrombinase complex on the anticoagulant effects of AT+UFH and ATH, additional experiments were performed where components of the complex (prothrombin, activated platelets or Va) were omitted prior to reaction with inhibitors. Thrombin generation was used to assess functionality of the activated platelet-prothrombinase system in the presence of inhibitors using a thrombin-specific substrate S-2238™. Results: The k 2 -values (×10 8 M −1 min −1 ) for inhibition of free Xa or resting platelet-prothrombinase were similar for both inhibitors, although the overall inhibition rates achieved by the ATH were 2-fold faster than AT+UFH ( p 0.001 ). Since activated platelets are required for enhanced prothrombinase function, we then compared inhibition of free vs activated platelet-prothrombinase by the two inhibitors (platelet activation was confirmed with flow cytometry using an anti CD-41 antibody). No differences were observed in the k 2 -values between free Xa (3.96±0.23) and activated platelet prothrombinase (3.83±0.39) for ATH reactions. However, the k 2 -values for inhibition of free Xa by AT+UFH was 2.37±0.32, and assembly of Xa within the activated platelet-prothrombinase resulted in a reduction in the k 2 -values to 0.99±0.22 ( p 0.001 ), thus confirming a moderate 60% protection of Xa by the prothrombinase components. However, omitting the components (prothrombin, activated platelets or Va) from the complex resulted in higher k 2 -values (1.76±0.37, 2.29±0.26 and 2.52±0.32, respectively p 0.01) for AT+UFH, and as expected, no net effect was observed for ATH. Thrombin generation was inhibited significantly by both AT+UFH and ATH compared to the control ( p 0.001 ), but further analysis of thrombin potential yielded greater inhibition by ATH compared to AT+UFH ( p 0.05 ). Conclusion: In this study, we report inhibition of the prothrombinase complex on the surface of resting and activated platelets. Consistent with previous investigations, a moderate protection of Xa was observed when the activated platelet-prothrombinase was inhibited by AT+UFH. ATH on the other hand, targets and inhibits prothrombinase complexed-Xa as fast as free Xa, and at inhibition rates that were significantly faster than AT+UFH. Thus, overall the covalent conjugate enhances anticoagulation of surface-bound enzymes and offers advantages over conventional heparin for the treatment of cell-based coagulation in vivo . Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Changes in the male chicken somatotroph during growth and maturation have been examined by morphometric and immunocytochemical (ICC) analysis of serial sections of the anterior pituitary gland and by flow cytometry of dispersed anterior pituitary cells. ICC showed that somatotrophs are confined to the middle and caudal thirds of the anterior pituitary gland at all ages from 5 to 26 weeks. At a given age somatotrophs are of equal size at all positions along the cephalocaudal axis of the anterior pituitary gland. However, there are age-related changes: from 5 to 11 weeks rises occur in both the mean total somatotroph volume per gland (64%) and the mean number of somatotrophs (78%), while the mean volume of the single somatotroph is unchanged. From 11 to 18 weeks the mean volume of the single somatotroph decreases 41%. From 18 to 26 weeks the mean volume of the somatotroph, the mean total somatotroph volume, and the mean number per gland do not change. Flow cytometry studies suggested that somatotrophs from adults have less growth hormone (GH) than somatotrophs from young birds. The increases in total somatotroph volume and number from 5 to 11 weeks are consistent with the rise in anterior pituitary GH reported previously. Basic quantitative morphological information about age-related changes in somatotrophs is reported here. When combined with additional facts from future work, they may explain the well-documented sharp decline in circulating GH from 5 to 11 weeks.


We propose a streaming algorithm, based on the minimal description length (MDL) principle, for extracting non-redundant sequential patterns. For static databases, the MDL-based approach that selects patterns based on their capacity to compress data rather than their frequency, was shown to be remarkably effective for extracting meaningful patterns and solving the redundancy issue in frequent itemset and sequence mining. The existing MDL-based algorithms, however, either start from a seed set of frequent patterns, or require multiple passes through the data. As such, the existing approaches scale poorly and are unsuitable for large datasets. Therefore, our main contribution is the proposal of a new, streaming algorithm, called Zips, that does not require a seed set of patterns and requires only one scan over the data. For Zips, we extended the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) compression algorithm in three ways: first, whereas LZ assigns codes uniformly as it builds up its dictionary while scanning the input, Zips assigns codewords according to the usage of the dictionary words; more heaviliy used words get shorter code-lengths. Secondly, Zips exploits also non-consecutive occurences of dictionary words for compression. And, third, the well-known space-saving algorithm is used to evict unpromising words from the dictionary. Experiments on one synthetic and two real-world large-scale datasets show that our approach extracts meaningful compressing patterns with similar quality to the state-of-the-art multi-pass algorithms proposed for static databases of sequences. Moreover, our approach scales linearly with the size of data streams while all the existing algorithms do not.


Globular clusters (GCs) and many nuclear clusters (NCs) show evidence of hosting multiple generations of stellar populations. Younger stellar populations in NCs appear to reside in disk-like structures, including the NC in our own Galactic center as well as in M31. Kinematic studies of the anomalous GC ω Centauri, thought to possibly be a former dwarf galaxy (or a galactic nucleus), show evidence of hosting a central, kinematically cold disk component. These observations suggest that formation of second- (or multiple) generation stars may occur in flattened disk-like structures. Here, we use detailed N-body simulations to explore the possible evolution of such stellar disks embedded in GCs. We follow the long-term evolution of a disk-like structure similar to that observed in ω Centauri and study its properties. We find that a stellar-disk-like origin for second-generation stellar populations can leave behind significant kinematic signatures in properties of the clusters, including an anisotropic distribution and lower velocity dispersions, which can be used to constrain the origin of second-generations stars and their dynamical evolution.


We incorporate CO2 dissolution due to convective mixing into a sharp-interface mathematical model for the post-injection migration of a plume of CO2 in a saline aquifer. The model captures CO2 migration due to groundwater flow and aquifer slope, as well as residual trapping and dissolution. We also account for the tongued shape of the plume at the end of the injection period. We solve the model numerically and identify three regimes in CO2 migration with dissolution, based on how quickly the brine beneath the plume saturates with dissolved CO2. When the brine saturates slowly relative to plume migration, dissolution is controlled by the dimensionless dissolution rate. When the brine saturates "instantaneously" relative to plume migration, dissolution is instead controlled by the solubility of CO2 in brine. We show that dissolution can lead to a several-fold increase in storage efficiency. In a companion paper, we study migration and pressure limitations on storage capacity [Szulczewski et al., GHGT10, Paper 917 (2010)]. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved


Dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) is considered to play a crucial role in motor preparation, yet how the variation of neuronal activity affects the generation of different circumstances dependent movements remains unclear. Here we trained two monkeys to perform a delayed reaching task instructed by two sets of cues, one for indicating the target locations and another for indicating a conditionally presented virtual obstacle in the reaching path, which required the monkey to make a bypassing instead of straight reaching. We recorded the activity of PMd neurons and investigated how they responded to the switching of intended hand path induced by obstacle bypassing. Comparing the neuronal activity between hand bypassing trials and straight reaching trials, we found 30% of the total 687 set-related neurons showed different overall discharging level, and another 24% showed different onset time during the delay period. We also found 16% of the neurons were modulated only by target location and 14% were modulated by both target location and path switching. Our results demonstrate PMd neurons not only represent the planning of reaching to different target locations, as many previous studies have shown, but also represent the switching of intended reaching path induced by hand bypassing, suggesting how PMd neurons coordinate for such circumstances dependent motor planning.


In this study, it was demonstrated that the original forms of toothbrush bristle ends undergo morphological changes during the preparatory procedures required prior to their examination by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In particular, the distance of the specimens from the cathode of a traditional sputter-coater and the time of gold-palladium coating influence the temperature inside the vacuum compartment. Moreover, the temperature influences the original morphology of toothbrush bristles. 2 segments of each toothbrush head with nylon or ultralon bristles were cut off the brush: one was mounted vertically and one horizontally on stubs for SEM analysis. Different temperatures were measured inside the sputter-coater at the level of the bristle ends, during coating with gold-palladium alloy. The temperature at the level of the bristles that were placed horizontally was about 38 degrees C, and 59 degrees C when they were placed vertically. SEM analysis of the specimens showed that the same toothbrush has end-rounded bristles at about 59 degrees C and non-acceptable irregular bristles at about 38 degrees C. Retraction of bristles (which appeared shortened and with increased diameters) and superficial cracks were particularly present in the vertically placed ultralon bristles.


The aim of this study is to determine the role of total quality management (TQM) in controlling occupational health and safety operations which is highly significant to enterprises. Data has been obtained by survey technique which is one of the initial collection techniques. A questionnaire with 34 questions used by Gungor (2008) earlier has been conducted. Data has been attained from the employees' answers to the questions of the survey who work at two different machine-manufacturing enterprises. Enterprises have been chosen intentionally from those that one of them applies TQM and the other doesn't. Data was analyzed by SPSS-20 software. At the end of the research, it has been revealed that the enterprise which implements TQM, has more regulations about occupational safety than the other enterprise which doesn't implement TQM. In conclusion, it has been detected that the TQM applications have a positive effect on occupational safety regulations.


This paper is devoted to investigating the global existence of weak solutions for the compressible primitive equations (CPE) with damping term in a three-dimensional torus for large initial data. The system takes into account density-dependent viscosity. In our proof, we represent the vertical velocity as a function of the density and the horizontal velocity which will play a role to use the Faedo-Galerkin method to obtain the global existence of the approximate solutions. Motivated by Vasseur and Yu [yucheng2016], we obtain the key estimates of lower bound of the density, the Bresch-Desjardin entropy on the approximate solutions. Based on these estimates, using compactness arguments, we prove the global existence of weak solutions of CPE by vanishing the parameters in our approximate system step by step.


VAR models of the kind developed by Shiller and Beltratti (1992) and Campbell and Ammer (1993) are used to analyze the Danish stock and bond markets and their comovement. In contrast to these papers, however, VAR parameter estimates are bias-adjusted and VAR generated statistics, including their standard errors and confidence intervals, are computed using bootstrap simulation. In addition, we modify the Campbell-Ammer variance decomposition such that it can handle returns from a long-term coupon bond. Some parts of the results for the Danish stock and bond markets are quite similar to the US results reported by Shiller and Beltratti and Campbell and Ammer, but other parts stand in sharp contrast to the results for the US. The most important differences between the US and Denmark are that in Denmark news about higher future inflation lead to an increase in expected future stock returns, and that excess stock return news and excess bond return news are negatively correlated.


Abstract The question of the application and impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU ('Charter') in quotidian practice of human rights protection and review is a strategic one. Given the predominantly decentralised effects of EU law and with the due account to the wide interpretation of the scope of the Charter's application (Art. 51(1)) presented by the CJEU (C-617/10 Fransson), the national dimension of the application of the Charter forms the crucial issue for the functioning of the EU system of fundamental rights protection. The Charter itself has a big potential to influence the content, nature and mechanisms of the fundamental rights protection at the national level. The present paper focuses on this phenomena in connection to the case-law, opinions and workload of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal ('TK'). It analyses the approach of TK towards the Charter in abstract manner as well as the (non)appearance of the Charter in the reasoning of the court in concrete cases. The article reports on the main cases and analyses the reasons of the aloof approach of the TK towards the EU human rights catalogue.


PURPOSE OF STUDY
To assess whether selected periapical radiographs, taken according to High Yield Criteria, can reveal as much intra-osseous pathology as universal panoramic screening.

POPULATION STUDIED
The records of 1101 RAF recruits enlisted in 1988-89, average age 19 years (range 16-26).

METHODS
The clinical records and bitewing radiographs of the recruits were examined and the requirement for periapical radiographs determined according to high yield criteria. A template, cut out to simulate the area covered by a periapical bitewing radiograph, was placed over the suspect region on the panoramic film and any findings found within the template recorded. The entire dental panoramic tomograph was then examined on a masked screen under 2X magnification and any further findings recorded.

FINDINGS
There was a considerable number of findings reported, including three large isolated radiolucent areas, 75 periradicular radiolucent areas, four probable cysts and 1187 unerupted mandibular third molars. However, when the clinical significance of these 'lesions' was assessed only those related to dental causes appeared to have significant clinical implications and the results indicated that these could have been detected by selective radiology.

CONCLUSION
This study showed that the only pathology which occurs frequently enough to justify radiographic screening of the jaws in young adults is related to teeth. It seems probable that this type of pathology can be at least as well detected by selective periapical screening, using high yield criteria, as is possible by universal panoramic screening.


In this article, a stochastic modeling approach was employed for the detection of epidemics in advance that was based on a negative binomial model with 2 components: an endemic component and an epidemic component. This study used monthly measles cases from January 2000 to August 2009 collected from the Expanded Program on Immunization, Bangladesh. General optimization routines provided the maximum likelihood estimates with corresponding standard errors. The negative binomial model with both seasonal endemic and epidemic components was shown to provide adequate fit with no measles epidemic during September 2008 to August 2009.


In the quest of new materials that can withstand severe irradiation and mechanical extremes for advanced applications ( e.g. fission reactors, fusion devices, space applications, etc), design, prediction and control of advanced materials beyond current material designs become a paramount goal. Here, though a combined experimental and simulation methodology, the design of a new nanocrystalline refractory high entropy alloy (RHEA) system is established. Compositions of this alloy, assessed under extreme environments and in situ electron-microscopy, revealed both high mechanical strength and thermal stability, grain refinement under heavy ion irradiation and outstanding irradiation resistance to dual-beam irradiation and helium implantation, marked by remarkable resistance to defect generation, growth and coalescence. The experimental and modeling results – which demonstrated notable agreement – can be applied to design and rapidly assess other alloys subjected to extreme environmental conditions.


Brazil has a vast use of concrete in the construction sector. Having the ability to store carbon for long periods, the development of concretes mixed with bio-based materials can be a promising alternative to ordinary concrete products in the Brazilian building sector, as a measure to reduce the GHG emissions. A bio-concrete with bamboo waste (BB) as main material, mixed with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), metakaolin (MK) and fly ash (FA), has been developed in laboratory for use as building panels for walls, roofs and floors. This article aims to investigate the effect of storing carbon in three different mixes of bamboo bio-concrete, considering the mass relation of OPC/MK/FA mixed with bamboo waste, additives and water. A cradle to grave life cycle carbon assessment (LCCA) was carried out, considering the production, transportation and end-of-life stages in a Brazilian context, based on data collected in laboratory, literature and the Ecoinvent database.  A dynamic LCCA method was applied in order to investigate overall GHG-emissions from compared system and the impact of biogenic carbon emissions and removals over the investigated time-frame. The influence from different transport distances were evaluated through a sensitivity analysis. The bio-concrete with the highest replacement of OPC with MK and FA presented 77% reduction in terms of the sum of instantaneous global warming impact (GWIcum), when compared to no substitution of OPC. When the strength of the bio-concretes (in kg CO2-eq /m²·MPa) was considered, it presented a reduction of 88%. The use of SCMs, especially FA in the cementitious materials relation, also results in great benefits between the three bio-concretes. The use of DLCCA allowed a more consistent and informed assessment of life cycle GHG emissions flows and global warming impact of the bamboo bio-concretes.


Quantification of cellular structures in fluorescence microscopy data is a key means of understanding cellular function. Unfortunately, numerous cellular structures present unique challenges in their ability to be unbiasedly and accurately detected and quantified. In our studies on stress granules in yeast, users displayed a striking variation of up to 3.7-fold in foci calls and were only able to replicate their results with 62-78% correlation, when requantifying the same images. To facilitate consistent results we developed HARLEY (Human Augmented Recognition of LLPS Ensembles in Yeast), a customizable software for detection and quantification of stress granules in S.cerevisiae. After a brief model training on ~20 cells the detection of foci is fully automated and based on closed loops in intensity contours, constrained only by the a-priori known size of the features of interest. Since no shape is implied, this method is not limited to round features, as is often the case with other algorithms. Candidate features are annotated with a set of geometrical and intensity-based properties to train a kernel Support Vector Machine to recognize features of interest. The trained classifier is then used to create consistent results across datasets. HARLEY is aimed at users without technical expertise, allows for batch processing and is freely available, which should be of broad interest to users focused on analysis of microscopy data in yeast.


Catalytic wet air oxidation(CWAO) was employed to reduce the organic compounds in landfill leachate and the effects of temperature, oxygen pressure, catalyst dosage, and concentration of the organic compounds on the TOC and COD Cr removal rates were studied. The degradation kinetics of landfill leachate was also investigated and an exponential experiential model consisting of four influential factors was established to describe the reduction of the organic compounds in the landfill leachate. Meanwhile, the GC-MS technique was used to detect the components of the organic intermediates for the inference of the decomposition mechanisms of the organic compounds in landfill leachate. The results reveal that the reaction temperature and the catalyst dosage are the most important factors affecting the degradation reaction of the organic compounds and that the principal intermediates confirmed by GC-MS are organic acids at a percentage of more than 88% with no aldehydes or alcohols detected. The decomposition mechanisms of the organic compounds in landfill leachate were inferred based on the GC-MS information as follows: the activated gas phase O 2 captured the hydrogen of the organic pollutants to produce free radicals, which then initiated the catalytic reaction. So most of the organic compounds were oxidized into CO 2 and H 2O ultimately. In general, catalytic wet air oxidation over catalyst Co 3O 4/Bi 2O 3 was a very promising technique for the treatment of landfill leachate.


The 8q24 genomic interval has been implicated in prostate cancer risk and has been universally replicable. Importantly the region has been replicated in African American prostate cancer cohorts as well; however little or no work has been done in African populations outside of the US. We have genotyped 13 known genetic variants at 8q24 in a cohort of 650 sporadic prostate cancer cases and 700 matched controls from the island country of Barbados. Although our group has previously determined European admixture estimates in the Afro-Barbadian population for a set of 40 AIMs, we have now typed 100 genome wide AIMs and additional chromosome 8 specific AIMs, allowing us to control for both genome wide and local admixture. All genotyping has been completed and data are being analyzed using logistic regression. Our data will be used to further validate the overall risk of prostate cancer with the 8q locus among men of recent African decent. We hope to continue our investigations to further refine the true causative allele contributing to prostate cancer risk at the 8q locus.


Results of the initial calibration of the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) were reported earlier by Tandon et al. The results reported earlier were based on the ground calibration as well as the first observations in orbit. Some additional data from the ground calibration and data from more in-orbit observations have been used to improve the results. In particular, extensive new data from in-orbit observations have been used to obtain (a) new photometric calibration that includes (i) zero points, (ii) flat fields, and (iii) saturation; (b) sensitivity variations; (c) spectral calibration for the near ultraviolet (NUV; 2000–3000 Å) and far ultraviolet (FUV; 1300–1800 Å) gratings; (d) point-spread function; and (e) astrometric calibration including distortion. Data acquired over the last three years show continued good performance of UVIT with no reduction in sensitivity in both UV channels.


Although the morbidity and mortality caused by cigarette smoking occur in adulthood, the initiation of tobacco use and the development of nicotine addiction typically occur during adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of nicotine addiction, focusing on the development of addiction in youth, and to explore implications for public health policy. An understanding of the pharmacological and nonpharmacological factors that determine the course of nicotine addiction is critical in developing rational policies regarding tobacco products. The Food and Drug Administration's rule to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products is discussed. The fact that smokers typically make the transition from casual use to nicotine addiction during adolescence argues for developing and implementing effective prevention efforts and smoking cessation treatment programs that are youth-oriented.


Monoclonal antibody to L3T4 has been used successfully to suppress autoimmunity in the New Zealand black/New Zealand white F1 (B/W) mouse model for systemic lupus erythematosus. To clarify the immunopathology of murine lupus and determine the effects of anti-L3T4 treatment on the cellular composition and histopathology of lymphoid organs, we examined the distribution of lymphocyte subsets in cryostat sections of the thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes of B/W mice. Immunohistologic specimens were obtained from female B/W mice that had received weekly intraperitoneal injections of either rat monoclonal antibody to L3T4 (2 mg/mouse/week) or phosphate buffered saline (200 microliters/mouse/week) from age 5 months until euthanasia at 8 months. B and T cell domains in each organ were identified on serial sections with monoclonal antibody directed against B220 (all B cells), Thy-1.2 (all T cells), L3T4 (helper T cells), and Ly-2 (cytotoxic/suppressor T cells). In control mice, striking cytoarchitectural abnormalities were identified in the thymuses, and the spleen and lymph nodes were hypertrophied relative to anti-L3T4 treated mice. Thymic abnormalities included amplification of medulla, formation of thymomas, and cortical atrophy. Amplified medullary regions and thymomas in B/W mice contained numerous B cells and L3T4+ T cells but few Ly-2+ T cells. The enlarged spleens and lymph nodes of control mice consisted of numerous secondary follicles with germinal centers containing an unusual subpopulation of T cells that expressed L3T4 but not Thy-1.2. In contrast, mice treated with anti-L3T4 did not develop histopathologic changes characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus in any organ. However, treatment depleted L3T4+ cells from the spleen and lymph nodes, and it modulated the expression of L3T4 by thymocytes. These observations demonstrate that treatment with anti-L3T4 not only interferes with L3T4-dependent T cell functions, but it also prevents progressive abnormalities in lymphoid tissue in lupus-prone B/W mice. This preservation of normal lymphoid structure may contribute to the beneficial effects of anti-L3T4 on autoimmunity.


The author explores the problem of choice of young professionals an effective life strategy that contributes to the top of professionalism, building a successful career


In high-affinity iron uptake in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Fe(II) is oxidized to Fe(III) by the multicopper oxidase, Fet3p, and the Fe(III) produced is transported into the cell via the iron permease, Ftr1p. These two proteins are likely part of a heterodimeric or higher order complex in the yeast plasma membrane. We provide kinetic evidence that the Fet3p-produced Fe(III) is trafficked to Ftr1p for permeation by a classic metabolite channeling mechanism. We examine the (59)Fe uptake kinetics for a number of complexes containing mutant forms of both Fet3p and Ftr1p and demonstrate that a residue in one protein interacts with one in the other protein along the iron trafficking pathway as would be expected in a channeling process. We show that, as a result of some of these mutations, iron trafficking becomes sensitive to an added Fe(III) chelator that inhibits uptake in a strictly competitive manner. This inhibition is not strongly dependent on the chelator strength, however, suggesting that Fe(III) dissociation from the iron uptake complex, if it occurs, is kinetically slow relative to iron permeation. Metabolite channeling is a common feature of multifunctional enzymes. We constructed the analogous ferroxidase, permease chimera and demonstrate that it supports iron uptake with a kinetic pattern consistent with a channeling mechanism. By analogy to the Fe(III) trafficking that leads to the mineralization of the ferritin core, we propose that ferric iron channeling is a conserved feature of iron homeostasis in aerobic organisms.


In 2014, the international official financing for development amounted to 245 billion dollars, just over 1% of total investment in the world, which adds up to trillions of dollars. Does this imply the inevitable marginalization of public actors? Quite the contrary. The overall figures reveal the essential point: the irreplaceable role of public development donors when they are able to adjust their policies, practices and instruments.


The issue of suburban sprawl in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTA) has been increasing the pressures of land consumption, infrastructure development, resource consumption, and population growth over the past 50 years. The same can be said for many peripheral regions of Canada's urban areas. In 2011, two thirds of the population of Canada lived in some form of suburban neighbourhood, and for the GTA a larger percentage of 86%. Though this growth continues, the vast expansions of automobile-dependent neighbourhoods have shown to have prolonged effects on resource consumption, carbon emissions, ecosystem devastation, declining health rates, social segregation, and the destruction of available agricultural land in Ontario. Yet these problems are not new. Neither are the solutions. Suburbs have been the centre of angst for many contemporary urban planners in North America for over thirty years. This has been the motivation for theories such as New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Sustainable Development, three ideologies which have already been integrated into Provincial and Municipal Policies in Ontario. Most of which are focused on general themes of traditional aesthetics and densities of suburban development and most of which have failed to change the form of suburban development in Ontario. In order to explore these issues, this project looked at the current consumption data through ecological footprint analysis. The largest contributors to consumption included housing (energy), mobility, food, and threats to ecosystem services. In order to explore sustainability in the region, these themes were broken down into indicators which would analyse the growth patterns of the city. In order to compare these findings to current and future growth, growth typologies were created and ranked on performance through the process. Based on the performance conclusions, strategies, scenarios, and future recommendations were developed for future growth planning in the region.


Desirability ratings and endorsements are significantly lower for new MMPI-2 items than for MMPI-2 items that initially appeared on the MMPI. Interpretation of the findings is uncertain because different samples rated the desirability of the old and new items. Ratings of all items by a single sample are required.


We studied the effects of lisinopril (Lis) and captopril (Cap), two angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, on calcium in ischemia/reperfusion and normal rat hearts. Ischemia/reperfusion hearts were subjected to 15 min ischemia followed by 1 or 30 min reperfusion. Lis 0.1 mumol.L-1 and Cap 200 mumol.L-1 decreased the concentration of calcium in ischemia/reperfusion hearts (the content of calcium in reperfusion 1 min heart were reduced from 4.0 +/- 0.6 to 2.7 +/- 0.5 and 3.0 +/- 0.9 mumol/g dry wt respectively). In cultured cell of neonatal rat heart, both drugs inhibited the uptake of 45Ca2+. The activity of Na+,K(+)-ATPase prepared from rat heart was increased (activity increased from 15.7 +/- 2.3 in control group to 21.2 +/- 2.0 and 22.0 +/- 3.1 mumol/h mg protein in Lis and Cap groups, respectively). This calcium lowering effects of Lis and Cap may be important in protecting the ischemia/reperfusion damage of myocardium.


This paper presents studies for the end-to-end QoS of IP over integrated terrestrial and Next Generation Satellite Network (NGSN) using FTP. We compare between LEO and GEO satellites constellations for the QoS parameters (i.e. delay, jitter, loss rate and throughput) of file transfer from a remote server in London and a remote client in Boston. We model the file transfer with multiple connections and file size variation according to Exponential and Pareto distributions respectively. We create the scenario with error model to simulate transmission loss environment using the NS-2 simulation software. A Differentiated Services (Diffserv) queue interface is placed in the server side to regulate the traffic flows across the narrow bandwidth of the satellite links. The results showed the performance evaluation and presented a good comparison of the QoS parameters involved in the data transfer across LEO and GEO satellites systems. Keywords-component; Quality of Service (QoS); IP over Satellite; Diffserv; FTP Application; Integrated Network


This article considers the role of the Civilian Joint Task Force (popularly called CJTF), a group of armed local population participating in the joint battle against Boko Haram, has become a platform for recruitment into the Nigerian security institutions in north-eastern Nigeria. CJTF members have played many roles, from mostly discrete surveillance networks in the north-eastern region of Nigeria to military combat auxiliaries or semi-autonomous fighting forces in the country. For the region's overstretched and under pressure militaries, they have somewhat filled the security gap and provided local knowledge. CJTF can be a powerful counter-insurgency tool, but there is a compelling need to confront the immediate concerns it raises, notably in terms of impunity, and to begin planning for its long-term post-conflict transformation. The article adopts Galula's theory of counter-insurgency. It reveals several lessons in how a community-based security structure can be applied to a conventional security engagement.


A GAS Surveillance Study Group was organized to analyze group A streptococci (GAS) isolated from patients with acute pharyngotonsillitis, with participating pediatricians submitting swab samples between April and October 2012. Molecular analysis of emm typing and multilocus sequence typing (MLST), as well as antimicrobial susceptibility testing, were carried out for 363 GAS isolates. Strains belonging to emm1 were most prevalent (25.6%), followed in turn by emm12 (23.7%), emm28 (16.3%), and emm89 (15.3%). In emm1, 87.2% of strains, typed as ST28 or ST661, showed macrolide (ML) resistance mediated by the mef(A) gene. In emm12 (ST36 and ST465), 64.3% of strains were resistant to MLs because of mef(A) or erm(B), as was also true for 81.7% of emm28 (ST52). In emm89 (ST101 and ST646), however, such resistance was not seen. Due to the high levels of ML resistance observed, GAS isolates from individuals with penicillin allergies need to be isolated and their antimicrobial susceptibility tested, rather than automatically giving the patient a ML.


This paper proposes a new method to measure health inequalities that are caused by conditions amenable to policy intervention. The method is built on a technique that can separate avoidable and unavoidable mortality risks, using world mortality data compiled by the World Health Organization for the year 2000. The new method is applied to data from 191 countries to estimate health inequalities between age groups, between gender groups, and between and within countries. It is found that, firstly, even for countries with very high life expectancy at birth, such as Japan, there can still be substantial health inequality across different age groups. Secondly, there is a much larger prevalence of gender inequality against females than against males across countries. Moreover, gender inequality against either sex is more prevalent amongst those in the age group 1 and 15. Thirdly, although countries with higher life expectancy at birth tend to have lower health inequality, there are significant variations in health inequalities across countries with the same life expectancy. The results therefore support the notion of using health inequality as a distinct parameter from the average level of health in assessing the performance of health systems. Keyword: Mortality risk, life tables, avoidable deaths, length of life, inequality. JEL Classification: D6, I12 * Corresponding author. Address: School of Economics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia. Telephone: +617 3365 9796. Fax: +617 3365 7299. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.


Osteomyelitis in long bones remains challenging and expensive to treat, despite advances in antibiotics and new operative techniques. Plain radiographs still provide the best screening for acute and chronic osteomyelitis. Other imaging techniques may be used to determine diagnosis and aid in treatment decisions. The decision to use oral or parenteral antibiotics should be based on results regarding microorganism sensitivity, patient compliance, infectious disease consultation, and the surgeon's experience. A suppressive antibiotic regimen should be directed by the results of cultures. Standard operative treatment is not feasible for all patients because of the functional impairment caused by the disease, the reconstructive operations, and the metabolic consequences of an aggressive therapy regimen. Operative treatment includes debridement, obliteration of dead space, restoration of blood supply, adequate soft-tissue coverage, stabilization, and reconstruction.


High-density Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) materials are prepared via the mechanical alloying and high pressure sintering method using Cu2S, ZnS and SnS2 as the raw materials. The morphological, structural, compositional and electrical properties of the materials are investigated by using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, as well as by the Raman scattering and the Hall Effect measurements. The CZTS synthesized under 5 GPa and 800°C shows a p-type conductivity, with a resistivity of 9.69 × 10−2 Ωcm and a carrier concentration of 1.45 × 1020 cm−3. It is contributed to by the large grains in the materials reducing the grain boundaries, thus effectively reducing the recombination of the charge carriers.


[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of moment arm of the muscle on the myoelectric activity. [Methods] The subjects included 104 upper-limbs of 52 healthy young adult males. They held the weight in 3 different positions (25, 70, 120 degrees) of elbow flexion since the previous studies reported that the 70 degrees of the elbow flexion became the longest moment arm of the biceps brachii muscle, and 25 and 120 degrees had nearly same moment arm. We measured the myoelectric activity on the biceps brachii muscle, then calculated IEMG of the interval during subjects' holding the weight for 1 second, and normalized with a value of maximum contraction (%IEMG). For the statistical analysis, repeated measure analysis of variance was applied as well as Bonferroni method for multiple comparisons. [Results] The %IEMG in 70 degrees showed the significant low value in comparison with 25 or 120 degrees. The %IEMG in 120 degrees was significant lower than one in 25 degrees. [Conclusion] This study suggested that it was necessary to consider the influence of the difference in moment arm of the muscle when physical therapists interpreted the value of myoelectric activity of the muscle.


Abstract 1513 Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive, genetically heterogeneous malignancy wherein immature progenitors crowd out the normal hematopoietic cells, leading to marrow failure and death. In 2013, it is projected that there will be 13,780 new cases and 10,200 deaths from AML in the United States. Even with decades of research into this disease, treatments remain unchanged and patient survival dismal. Standard treatment for AML is combination chemotherapy with cytarabine and an anthracycline. Treatment will often lead to a remission; however, most patients relapse with chemoresistant disease. This highlights the need for the development of new therapies. Ribonucleotide reductase (RR) facilitates the rate-limiting reaction in DNA synthesis. Hydroxyurea (HU) is a well-known inhibitor of RR, resulting in the depletion of purine nucleotides. It has a role in AML as a cytoreductive agent and in the palliative setting, where other regimens have been deemed too intensive. However, its myelosuppressive and GI toxicities are dose-limiting. Didox is an inhibitor of RR, which inhibits both purine and pyrimidine synthesis, and has been shown to be less myelosuppressive than HU. In our previous studies in a panel of human AML cell lines, Didox had an average IC 50 of 5.76 μM (range 3.62–7.37 μM). To evaluate if Didox treatment resulted in DNA damage we assessed γH2AX foci formation in KG1a cells. After a 24-hour exposure to a titration of Didox nuclei were scored for the presence of γH2AX foci. Didox induced DNA damage in this erythroleukemia cell line at 24 hours, with a mean score of 0.480 in the negative control, 0.852 with 5 μM, 0.907 with 10 μM, and 0.976 at 20 μM Didox (p=0.0015 by 1-way ANOVA). Consistent with Didox exposure resulting in DNA damage, we saw induction of p53 in OCI/AML3 cells by Western blot following Didox treatment. To determine if Didox exposure culminated in induction of apoptosis, we performed an annexin V/propidium iodide assay. Didox induced apoptosis in KG1a cells (45.27% positive compared to 3.15% positivity in the negative control). To determine the effect of Didox on leukemic progenitor cells we exposed KG1a cells to a titration of Didox for 24 hours and then performed a colony formation assay. Didox reduced the colony-forming potential of KG1a cells (5% at 200nM, 21.9% at 2μM, 60.6% at 20 μM, and 84.3% reduction at 200 μM). These data demonstrate that Didox is an active agent which inhibits RR resulting in DNA damage, p53 induction and culminating in cell death via apoptosis. Previous in vivo studies carried out in syngeneic, therapy-resistant MLL-ENL-driven AML models (one expressing Flt3 ITD and one over-expressing NRas G12D ) yielded a reduction in leukemic burden (p= 0.0342 and 0.0026, respectively) and a survival benefit (p= 0.0094 and 0.0001, respectively) with a five-day Didox treatment at 425 mg/kg/d compared to vehicle-treated controls. We evaluated the impact of Didox given in this fashion on normal progenitors by treating normal 8-week-old C57Bl/6. 72 hours post-treatment, the animals were sacrificed and the bone marrow, sternum, and small intestine (SI) were harvested for toxicity studies. The sternum and SI from the Didox and control-treated samples were reviewed by a veterinary pathologist blinded to the treatment group. No differences were observed between Didox treated and control groups. To determine if Didox exposure affected the activity of normal hematopoietic stem cells bone marrow was harvested from treated mice and injected into Ly5.1+ secondary recipients. After 21 days recipient mice were sacrificed, bone marrow harvested, and evaluated for engraftment. Preliminary data suggested that Didox treatment did not alter engraftment potential of normal progenitors (Didox treated bone marrow 87.44% versus control marrow 89.75% engraftment). Didox is a RR inhibitor with activity in models of AML. Our in vitro data indicate that Didox is active against leukemic progenitor cells with reduced colony-formation potential of treated cells. Furthermore, at the effective dose, Didox was not toxic to normal tissues. Most importantly, preliminary data suggests it does not alter the engraftment potential of normal hematopoietic cells. The activity of Didox combined with its favorable toxicity profile makes it an ideal candidate for further translation to the clinic. Disclosures: Elford: Molecules for Health: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees.


Trust is a key variable for successful natural resource management and is commonly the focus of conceptual and methodological development. Distrust, on the other hand, is frequently cited as an obstacle to management, but appears to be rarely defined, conceptually underdeveloped, and inconsistently examined. This systematic review protocol (OSF preregistration https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GKUAW) was developed to answer two primary questions in relation to protected area and natural resource management: 1) How is distrust conceptualized, and 2) What methods are used to gather evidence of distrust? The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of how distrust is theoretically developed and what questions are used to uncover distrust. Also, it will summarize findings on what leads to and results from distrust. Four academic and eight gray literature databases will be searched using Boolean keyword searches. Articles eligible for inclusion are those that present original research, gather and present evidence of distrust, and focus on protected areas and/or natural resource management. The review will result in a narrative synthesis that summarizes approaches to distrust within protected area and natural resource management.


The conservation of geological remains in China, especially in renowned sites with historical or cultural significance, has long been paid attention to. As the urban residents become more interested in returning to and harmony with the nature, tourism related sciences and knowledge gets more attractive. Geosites and geoparks can definitely play an important role to lead this historic tendency.


We establish a multi-user extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart area theorem for the interleave-division multiple-access (IDMA) scheme, a special form of superposition coding, in multiple access channels (MACs). A low-cost multi-user detection (MUD) based on the Gaussian approximation (GA) is assumed. The evolution of mean-square errors (MSE) of the GA-based MUD during iterative processing is studied. We show that the K-dimensional tuples formed by the MSEs of K users constitute a conservative vector field. The achievable rate is a potential function of this conservative field, so it is the integral along any path in the field with value of the integral solely determined by the two path terminals. Optimized codes can be found given the integration paths in the MSE fields by matching EXIT type functions. The above findings imply that i) low-cost GA-based MUD can provide near capacity performance; ii) the sum-rate capacity (region) can be achieved independently of the integration path in the MSE fields; and iii) the integration path can be an extra degree of freedom for code design.


Spectral anti-crossings between the fundamental guided mode and core wall resonances alter the dispersion in hollow-core anti-resonant-reflection photonic crystal fibers. Here we study the effect of this dispersion change on the nonlinear propagation and dynamics of ultrashort pulses. We find that it causes emission of narrow spectral peaks through a combination of four-wave mixing and dispersive wave emission. We further investigate the influence of the anti-crossings on nonlinear pulse propagation and show that their impact can be minimized by adjusting the core-wall thickness in such a way that the anti-crossings lie spectrally distant from the pump wavelength.


This paper proposes a new neural network based on Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) manifold learning for real-time skeleton-based hand gesture recognition. The transformation of the input skeletal data into SPD matrices allows to encode efficiently high-order statistics such as covariances or correlations between the joints' features. These matrices are combined and transformed by our deep neural network which is thus constrained to work on the manifold of such matrices. The online recognition is performed using two sliding windows moving along the gesture's stream in order to simultaneously detect and classify the occurrence of a new gesture within the stream. The proposed network is validated on a challenging dataset and shows state-of-the-art performances both in terms of accuracy and inference time.


SUMMARY: The changes in fowl-plague infected tissue cultures have been investigated by the phase-contrast, and electron microscopes. The nucleolus of infected cells first increased in size and then became granular and highly refractile, finally disintegrating into fragments about 64 hr. after infection. After 36– 48 hr., when the inclusions were already developed, filaments were found, usually in bundles, possibly having escaped from the nucleus into the cytoplasm; a few filaments showed segmentation into spherical bodies and shorter filaments. A possible life cycle is suggested for the virus: first, penetration of the nucleus and growth within it, then extension into the cytoplasm in a filamentous form, and eventual segmentation of some of the filaments into elementary bodies.


A hyperplane arrangement is a polyhedral cell complex where the relative position of each cell of the arrangement and the composing hyperplanes are summarised by a sign vector computable in polynomial time. This tool from computational geometry enables the development of a fast and efficient algorithm to translate the composition of discrete-time linear hybrid systems into an equivalent piecewise affine model and to determine if the composition is well posed. The tool also provides information on the real combinatorial degree of the system which can be used to reduce the size of the search tree and the computation time of the optimisation algorithms underlying optimal and model predictive control. Examples are presented illustrating the algorithm and showing its computational effectiveness.


"A creative-relational inquiry," writes Dan Harris, "might be so small as to be imperceptible to the human eye . . . [b]ut it might also simultaneously be so big that whole universes exist within, between, and through it." In this brief article, I take up Harris' claim, writing into questions of scope and pace at this pandemic time, like how the small and the slow of an Edinburgh lockdown flutters into writing, poetic and therapeutic life, while around, within and beyond there is the multiplicity of the small, vast and fast of a virus. The text mutates with one small word, "how."


Antithrombin III was determined by the van Kaulla method in 19 women taking combined oral contraceptives containing 75-150 mcg estrogen 60 women taking pills containing 50 mcg ethinyl estradiol and .5 mg norgestrel and in 79 controls. Subjects were aged 20-45 had been taking pills from 3 months to 5 years and were sampled on Day 23 of the menstrual cycle. The antithrombin assay measured by fibrometer neutralization of a given amount of thrombin in the presence of fibrinogen by serum stored frozen in plastic tubes: controls with Michaelis buffer took 7 seconds. The women on 75-150 mcg estrogen pills had mean antithrombin values of 33 seconds with 12 (63%) blow normal limits (<30 seconds). This was signifigantly lower than the values for the controls. (p<.001) Those on 50 mcg ethinyl estradiol averaged 60 seconds with 7 (12%) abnormal. The controls mean antithrombin values were 79 seconds with 4 (5%) abnormal.


Recently, content delivery services have grown rapidly over the Internet. For ASPs (Application Service Provider) providing content delivery services, P2P architecture is beneficial to reduce outgoing traffic from content servers. On the other hand, ISPs are suffering from the increase in P2P traffic. The P2P traffic is unnecessarily redundant because the same content or the same fractions of content are transferred through an inter-ISP link several times. Subscriber ISPs have to pay a transit fee to upstream ISPs based on the volume of inter-ISP traffic. In order to solve such problems, several works have been done for the purpose of P2P traffic reduction. However, these existing works cannot control the traffic volume of a certain link. In order to solve such an ISP's operational requirement, we propose a method to control traffic volume for a link within a preconfigured upper bound value. We evaluated that the proposed method works well by conducting a simulation on a 1,000-user scale. We confirm that the traffic volume could be controlled at a lower level than the upper bound for all evaluated conditions. Moreover, our method could control the traffic volume at 98.95% link usage against the target value. Keywords—P2P, traffic control, traffic localization, ALTO.


This paper presents the performance results in using Client/Server and Agent based communication techniques in wireless sensor networks for health-based applications. The performance study was carried out using an environment comprised of the JADE-LEAP Agent Middleware and the Sun Microsystems SunSpot sensor hardware (via emulation). The performance studied showed that the overall throughput and individual sensor performance seems to be marginally better without the agent based middleware. However, this is misleading since in the ideal system, the entire agent would have moved from device to device rather than having to spend processing time creating a static agent / container on each sensor as was done in our study. A couple of interesting possibilities can be seen from the research carried out. The first would be to utilize a different type of sensor node that is not limited to the MIDP framework in order to allow the JADE-LEAP Pjava version to be used. Another opportunity would be to look into enhancing the MIDP version of JADE-LEAP so that it can support mobility, or finding an alternative agent middleware.


The purpose of this study was to examine the inter- and intratester reliability of lower extremity circumference measurements obtained by two testers using the same tape measure and two different tape measures. Twenty-one male high school student-athletes participated in this study. Two testers measured lower extremity circumference at three sites using a standard flexible tape measure and a Lufkin tape measure with a Gulick spring-loaded handle attachment. Measurement sites were medial joint line, 20 cm above medial joint line, and 15 cm below medial joint line. Intraclass correlation coefficients were computed for inter- and intratester comparisons for each measuring device and each measurement site. Results indicated high reliability but a significant difference between the two tape measures. These findings indicate that the reliability of lower extremity circumference measurements is not influenced by tester experience and that the Lufkin tape measure with the Gulick handle attachment is the more accu...


SUMMARY
Spatial data visualization is very useful to represent biological data and quickly interpret the results. For instance, to show the expression pattern of a gene in different tissues of a fly, an intuitive approach is to draw the fly with the corresponding tissues and color the expression of the gene in each of them. However, the creation of these visual representations may be a burdensome task. Here we present SVGMap, a java application that automatizes the generation of high-quality graphics for singular data items (e.g. genes) and biological conditions. SVGMap contains a browser that allows the user to navigate the different images created and can be used as a web-based results publishing tool.

AVAILABILITY
SVGMap is freely available as precompiled java package as well as source code at http://bg.upf.edu/svgmap. It requires Java 6 and any recent web browser with JavaScript enabled. The software can be run on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows systems.

CONTACT
email@example.com


This paperl2 analyzes the geometric and disturbance aspects of utilizing the International Space Station for remote sensing of earth targets. The proposed instrument (in prototype development) is SHORE (Station High-Performance Ocean Research Experiment), a multi band optical spectrometer with 15 m pixel resolution. The analysis investigates the contribution of the error effects to the quality of data collected by the instrument. This analysis supported the preliminary studies to determine feasibility of utilizing the International Space Station as an observing platform for a SHORE type of instrument. Rigorous analyses will be performed if a SHORE flight program is initiated. The analysis begins with the discussion of the coordinate systems involved and then conversion from the target coordinate system to the instrument coordinate system. Next the geometry of remote observations from the Space Station is investigated including the effects of the instrument location in Space Station and the effects of the line of sight to the target. The disturbance and error environment on Space Station is discussed covering factors contributing to drift and jitter, accuracy of pointing data and target and instrument accuracies.


Abstract Europe provides a suitable scenario for testing empirical regularities of growth since, to a large extent, its countries share institutions, policies, and resource endowments. Patterns of development, which associate structural change with variations in GDP per head and population, are constructed for modern Europe (1850–1990) along the lines of Chenery and Syrquin's pathbreaking work. Thus, it is possible to discern whether a common set of development processes is observable for the whole continent and whether countries that had a late start exhibited, as suggested by Gerschenkron, a differential behaviour in terms of accumulation, resource allocation, and demographic transition. The results tend to confirm the different nature of latecomers' development.


566 Background: An elevated BMI is associated with improved survival in mRCC patients treated with oral targeted therapies (TT); however, this relationship in the contemporary treatment landscape is unknown. We investigated the effect of BMI on outcomes in mRCC patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 ICB. Methods: We analyzed 147 patients with mRCC who received ICB alone or in combination with VEGF or other therapies. The association of BMI with objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) was evaluated using logistic and Cox regression models, adjusted for known prognostic factors including International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium (IMDC) risk groups, line of therapy, ECOG (0 vs ≥1), and histology. Results: Median follow up was 25.5 (4.3-78.6) months (mos). Median time on ICB was 5.1 ( < 0.1-69.7) mos. Overall, most patients were male (71%), had clear cell histology (85%), and were intermediate risk (60%). 43% received first-line ICB and 45% received ICB in combination therapy (37% with VEGF inhibition, 8% with other therapies). At ICB initiation, 46 (31%) patients were considered underweight/normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2), 56 (38%) overweight (BMI 25-30 kg/m2), and 45 (31%) obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2). Patients with high BMI (≥ 25) had improved OS (median 34.3 vs 16.7 mos, 2-yr OS 61 vs 42%, p = 0.016) compared to those with low BMI ( < 25), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.74 (0.44-1.26). ORR (33 vs 28%, p = 0.7) and PFS (median 8.2 vs 5.9 mos, p = 0.4) did not statistically differ. Patients who experienced a BMI change from ≥ 25 at start of first-line TT to < 25 at start of subsequent-line ICB displayed shorter OS (adjusted HR = 2.25 (0.94-5.35)) compared to those with no change. Conclusions: High BMI appears to be associated with improved OS in mRCC patients treated with ICB. This contemporary data is consistent with the "obesity paradox" demonstrated in the TT era. Validation with the IMDC database and examination of underlying mechanisms are ongoing.


Throughout American history, parental involvement has been a "hot topic" in American education. Parents have great influence on their children's schooling. Chinese immigrants are one of the largest populations in the United States, which introduces new challenges for American teachers. Along with the increasing numbers of Chinese in the United States, many American teachers have limited knowledge and resources to help them. Using Joyce Epstein's six types of parental involvement and Grolnick and Slowiaczek's three dimensions of parental involvement as a theoretical framework, this study investigated 10 Chinese immigrant parents in northwest of America. The purpose of this study was to explore how Chinese immigrant parents' heritage, culture, and beliefs affect their understanding of American education. In addition, this study explored the factors that affect Chinese immigrant parents' participation in their children's cognitive development.


222 Background: Prescription opioid abuse is an epidemic in the US. Of the abusers, 75% obtain the opioid from a friend or relative, which may be related to improper opioid storage and disposal practices. Our aim was to determine patients' practices of opioid use, storage, and disposal.

METHODS
We surveyed 300 cancer outpatients presenting to our Supportive Care Center who were receiving opioids for at least 1 month and collected information regarding opioid use, storage, and disposal along with patient characteristics and scores on Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener (CAGE) questionnaire for alcoholism. Sharing or losing their opioids was defined as an unsafe use.

RESULTS
The median age of the patients was 57 years; 53% were female, 72% were white, and 63% were married. Most (89%) had advanced cancer, and lung cancer was the most common (22%). CAGE was positive in 19%, 9% had history of illicit drug use, and 36% lived with adult/young adult children. Of the 300 respondents, 19% stored opioids in the open, 69% kept opioids hidden but unlocked, and 9% locked their opioids. Patients with history of CAGE positivity (P=.007), illicit drug use (.0002), smoking (P=.03), and those living with adult children (P=.004) were more likely to keep their opioids locked. 66% were unaware of proper opioid disposal methods. 46% had unused opioids at home. 53% did not routinely dispose opioids, of whom 44% saved them for future use. 26% indulged in unsafe use by sharing (9%) or losing (17%) their opioids, and 44% informed their family and friends that they were on pain medications. 39% were unaware that their opioid could be fatal when taken by others. Compared with married patients, those who were never married [OR=2.92; 95% CI 1.48-5.77], separated [OR=11.38; 1.52-112.5], or divorced [OR=1.27; 0.55-2.91] had higher odds of unsafe use (P=.006). CAGE positivity (40% vs. 21%, P=.003) and illicit drug use (42% vs. 23%, P=.031) were also significant predictors of unsafe use.

CONCLUSIONS
An alarming proportion of patients improperly and unsafely use, store, and dispose of opioids. Patient education by physicians/pharmacists and creation of more drug take back programs may reduce availability of prescription opioids for potential abuse. More research is needed in this area.


Objective: This work examines the trend in obesity and abdominal obesity in the Spanish population aged 60 years and over during the first decade of the 21st century. Methods: We analyze data from a representative study of the Spanish population aged 60 years and older conducted in 2000-2001 and from the Study on Nutrition and Cardiovascular Risk in Spain (ENRICA) conducted in 2008-2010. Results: In men, the distribution of BMI did not vary in the period 2000-2010. In contrast, in women there was a reduction in both mean BMI - from 29.3 to 28.8 kg/m2 - and the prevalence of obesity - from 40.8 to 36.3%. This decline was greatest in women aged 60-69 years. In men, no significant changes were observed in mean waist circumference (WC) or in the prevalence of abdominal obesity. In contrast, WC decreased by 3.6 cm and abdominal obesity prevalence by 12.7% in women. The decline was greatest in women aged 60-69 years, in whom mean WC decreased by 5.1 cm and abdominal obesity prevalence by 18.6%. Conclusion: These findings show that the frequency of obesity has begun to decline in Spanish women aged 60 and over. The causes of this decline are unclear.


Since Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) operate in real-time, they should be light-weighted to detect intrusions as fast as possible. Distance-based Outlier Detection (DBOD) is one of the most widely-used techniques for detecting outliers due to its simplicity and efficiency. Additionally, DBOD is an unsupervised approach which overcomes the problem of the lack of training datasets with known intrusions. However, since IDSs usually have high-dimensional datasets, using DBOD becomes subject to the curse of the dimensionality problem. Furthermore, intrusion datasets should be normalized before calculating pair-wise distance between observations. The purpose of this research is conduct a comparative study among different normalization methods in conjunction with a well-known feature extraction technique; Principle Component Analysis (PCA). Therefore, the efficiency of these methods as data preprocessing techniques can be investigated when applying DBOD to detect intrusions. Experiments were performed using two kinds of distance metrics; Euclidean distance and Mahalanobis distance. We further examined the PCA using 7 threshold values to indicate the number of Principle components to consider according to their total contribution in the variability of features. These approaches have been evaluated using the KDD Cup 1999 intrusion detection (KDD-Cup) dataset. The main purpose of this study is to find the best attribute normalization method along with the correct threshold value for PCA so that a fast unsupervised IDS can discover intrusions effectively. The results recommended using the Log normalization method combined the Euclidean distance while performing PCA.


We have successfully designed single-flux-quantum (SFQ) universal gates with a wide operating margin. We have previously presented universal gates such as NAND and NOR gates. These universal gates have a small operating margin and should be optimized to realize a wide operating margin. In this study, we newly designed universal gates and optimized the device parameters using an SFQ circuit-optimizing tool. Assuming a 1 kA cm−2 Nb/Al–AlOx/Nb junction technology, the newly designed NAND and NOR gates had a critical margin of more than ±20% for 20 GHz operation. Direct-current bias margins for NAND and NOR gates were also exceeded by ±30% for 20 GHz operation.


We investigated the effects of ingestion of a meal on colonic motor activity in six conscious dogs, each instrumented with seven strain-gauge transducers to record circular muscle contractions. A 1,300-kcal meal was given after a 4-h control recording. The post-prandial period of 8 h was subdivided into an early period lasting 2 h and a late period lasting 6 h. The ingestion of the meal did not disrupt the colonic migrating myoelectric complexes (CMMCs) but prolonged their cycle length in the early postprandial period. The cycle length was not different from the control during the late postprandial period. The mean and total duration of contractile activity per hour increased significantly during the early postprandial period in the distal colon but not in the proximal or the middle colon. During the late postprandial period the mean and total duration of contractile activity per hour increased significantly throughout the colon. Giant migrating contractions occurred rarely during the 8-h postprandial period. We conclude that different parts of the colon respond to the ingestion of a meal in different ways. The response also depends on whether the fresh digesta has reached the colon. The late postprandial response is likely to be due to the entry of fresh digesta into the colon.


Variously substituted alkylanthracenes were studied as models for polycyclic hydrocarbon oxidations. 9-Methylanthracene was oxidized to 9-(hydroxymethyl)anthracene, 10-methyl-10-hydroxy-9-anthrone, and anthraquinone in several systems, including (i) NADPH- and O2-fortified rat liver microsomes, (ii) cytochrome P450 (P450) 2B1 Supported by either iodosylbenzene (PhIO) or a mixture of NADPH-P450 reductase, NADPH, and O2, (iii) horseradish peroxidase and either H2O2 or ethyl hydroperoxide, and (iv) a mixture of iron tetraphenylporphine (FeTPP) and PhIO (in anhydrous CH2Cl2/MeOH). The microsomal system also formed dihydrodiols from 9-methyl- and 9-ethylanthracenes. The formation of the three oxidized products by the P450/NADPH/O2 system was dependent upon O2 label from 18O2 was incorporated into the products, and no label from H2(18O) was incorporated. No label from 18O2 was incorporated into the three products in the FeTPP/PhIO system. In the horseradish peroxidase/H2O2 system, the formation of the three products was decreased when O2 was omitted, and label from both H2(18)O and 18O2 was incorporated into all three products. The results are interpreted in terms of three mechanisms. One is used by the FeTPP and P450 systems, with all oxygen transfers coming from an FeO entity. The other two pathways are utilized by horseradish peroxidase and begin with formation of a radical cation, which can undergo reactions either with H2O or with O2 to form the products detected here. The involvement of a 9-methylanthracene radical cation in the P450 and FeTPP pathways is a possibility, but rapid rearrangement and oxygen rebound must be invoked. Comparisons of products from various 9-alkylanthracenes do not provide evidence that one-electron oxidation is an integral part of the epoxidation process with these compounds. The significance of the lack of trapping of radical (by H2(18O) in the P450 reactions to DNA adduct formation is considered.


BACKGROUND
It has been suggested that exposure to elevated levels of endotoxin decreases the risk of allergic sensitization.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the associations between current exposure to bacterial endotoxin in house dust and allergic sensitization in adults.

METHODS
In 1995-1996, we conducted a nested case-control study following a cross-sectional study performed within the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS). Data of 350 adults aged 25-50 years was analysed. Allergic sensitization was assessed by measurement of specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) against several inhalant allergens. Living room floor dust samples were taken. The endotoxin content was quantified using a chromogenic kinetic Limulus amoebocyte lysate test.

RESULTS
Multiple logistic regression analysis showed a negative association between exposure to house dust endotoxin and severe allergic sensitization. Odds ratios (95% CI) adjusted for place of residence, gender, age, and 'caseness' were 0.80 (0.64-1.00) for sensitization to >/=1 allergen and 0.72 (0.56, 0.92) for sensitization to >/=2 allergens using 3.5 kU/l as a cut-off value for sensitization. With regard to single allergens, the protective effect of endotoxin was strongest for pollen sensitization [aOR (95% CI) = 0.74 (0.58, 0.93)].

CONCLUSION
Our results indicate that current exposure to higher levels of house dust endotoxin might be associated with a decreased odds of allergic sensitization in adults.


The proliferation of content in electronic format and other emerging technologies was a chief impetus in the creation of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, the ISBD Area 0, and the development of RDA: Resource Description and Access. RDA in particular relies upon extensive sets of small vocabularies used in bibliographic data elements to describe carriers and content. These vocabularies provide a foundation for universal bibliographic control that supports Linked Data. However, some established technologies do not have appropriate vocabulary terms in RDA, relegating these resources to an undocumented area of description that inhibits universal bibliographic control. In conclusion, there are some methods for updating data element vocabularies in RDA. Review of emerging technologies by a committee designated for such oversight may aid universal bibliographic control as technologies are introduced and adopted.


While Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have rapidly advanced the state of the art in deep generative modeling, they require a large amount of diverse datapoints to adequately train, limiting their potential in domains where data is constrained. In this study, we explore the potential of few-shot image generation, enabling GANs to rapidly adapt to a small support set of datapoints from an unseen target domain and generate novel, high-quality examples from that domain. To do so, we adapt two common meta-learning algorithms from few-shot classification– Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) and Reptile–to GANs, meta-training the generator and discriminator to learn an optimal weight initialization such that fine-tuning on a new task is rapid. Empirically, we demonstrate how our MAML and Reptile meta-learning algorithms, meta-trained on tasks from the MNIST and SVHN datasets, rapidly adapt at test time to unseen tasks and generate high-quality, photorealistic samples from these domains given only tens of support examples. In fact, we show that the generated image quality of these few-shot adapted models is on par with that of a baseline model vanilla-trained on thousands of samples from the same domain. Intriguingly, meta-training also takes substantially less time to converge compared to baseline training, indicating the power and efficiency of our approach. We also demonstrate the generalizability of our algorithms, working with both CNNand Transformer-parametrized GANs. Overall, we present our MAML and Reptile meta-learning algorithms as effective strategies to enable few-shot image generation, improving the feasibility of deep generative models in practice.