We numerically study the interactions of solitary waves in granular media, by considering a chain of beads, which repel upon contact via the Hertz-type potential, V∝δn, with 5/2≤ n≤3 and δ≥0, δ being the bead–bead overlap. There are two collision types of solitary waves, overtaking collision and head-on collision, in the chain of beads. Our quantitative results show that after collision the large solitary wave gains energy and the small one loses energy for overtaking type while the large one loses energy, and the small one gains energy for head-on type. The scattering effects decrease with n for overtaking collision whereas increase with n for head-on collision.


Tertiary trisomy is uncommon and may arise only when one of the derivatives is small and, in the abnormal individual with karyotype 47, exists as a supernumerary derivative chromosome (+der). We describe a case of 47, XY, +der(9)t(5;9) (q33.1;q13)mat. The patient (a 1-day-old male) presented with multiple congenital anomalies including microcephaly, wide fontanelles and sutures, microphthalmia, deep-set eyes, short palpebral fissures, bulbous nose, wide nasal bridge, high arched palate, low-set and posteriorly rotated ears, micrognathia, short neck, ptosis, patient ductus arteriosus, hypoplastic external genitalia, cryptorchidism, inguinal hernia, flexion contractures of joints, short stature, clenched hands, rocker-bottom feet, simian crease, distal mottling of the skin, nail hypoplasia, hypoplasia of bones and hydrocephalus. The supernumerary derivative chromosome resulted from a meiotic recombination of a maternal balanced translocation, t(5;9) (q33.1;q13), suggesting that 3:1 disjunction in the oocyte occurred.


A liquid chromatography method with indirect fluorescence detection has been developed for simultaneous detection of cysteine, cystine, homocysteine, homocystine, glutathione and glutathione disulfide. After separation in their native forms, a post-column solution of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) at 32 mM, pH 8 is added to reduce the disulfides on-line to the corresponding thiol. The effluent is then merged with a second post-column solution of the highly fluorescent complex Cd(HQS)(2)(2-). The cadmium is complexed by the eluting thiols, effectively quenching the fluorescence. Optimization of the separation, the on-line reduction and the indirect fluorescence detection are discussed. Detection limits from 0.3-4.3 microM (0.04 to 2.6 ppm) are achieved for the six analytes in a 20 min separation.


Emotion differentiation, which involves experiencing and labeling emotions in a granular way, has been linked with well-being. It has been theorized that differentiating between emotions facilitates effective emotion regulation, but this link has yet to be comprehensively tested. In two experience-sampling studies, we examined how negative emotion differentiation was related to (a) the selection of emotion-regulation strategies and (b) the effectiveness of these strategies in downregulating negative emotion (Ns = 200 and 101 participants and 34,660 and 6,282 measurements, respectively). Unexpectedly, we found few relationships between differentiation and the selection of putatively adaptive or maladaptive strategies. Instead, we found interactions between differentiation and strategies in predicting negative emotion. Among low differentiators, all strategies (Study 1) and four of six strategies (Study 2) were more strongly associated with increased negative emotion than they were among high differentiators. This suggests that low differentiation may hinder successful emotion regulation, which in turn supports the idea that effective regulation may underlie differentiation benefits.


We investigated two stalagmites from the Saripa Cave and Bumi Cave in southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, using high-precision U-series dating and high-resolution trace element and C-O-Sr isotope analysis. The growth record (from 10.4 ± 0.1 ka to 77.4 ± 0.9 ka) of the Saripa Cave stalagmite (SR04-ST3) is fragmented with two major (at the top: 10.4-11.6 ka and middle: 43.8-44.7 ka sections of the stalagmite) and some short (middle and bottom sections) growth phases, interrupted by long-lasting growth hiatuses. Both the timing of the growth phases and the δ18O values for different growth phases are correlated with those of cold/dry (~22 ka and 43.8-44.7 ka) and wet/warm periods (e.g., Greenland Interstadials 12, 14, and 21) in the northern hemisphere speleothem records, displaying both anti-phase and in-phase relationships with the northern hemisphere records. This observation is unique in the Western Pacific tropical region, mostly likely because the Saripa Cave is located within the region of the latitudinally migrating Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), whereby the rainfall seasons may have changed through time depending on the mean latitude of the ITCZ. The Saripa Cave stalagmite contains textural laminae, which are here interpreted as a record of rapid environmental changes, possibly caused by volcanic eruptions at around 22.55 ka and 44.73 ka BP. The Bumi Cave record (stalagmite BC-09-3-C), on the other hand, presents very little variation in stable isotope and trace element compositions between 26.8 ka and 18.5 ka and does not seem to be influenced by any possible volcanic activity. More detailed future studies investigating millimeter- to submillimeter-scale geochemical time-series constrained by accurate ages in speleothems can be useful in unfolding the effects of eruptions and provide parallel records of climate and sudden environmental changes.


Christopher Ray addresses many of the fundamental issues of the philosophy of space and time, while avoiding daunting technicality and jargon. The paradoxical nature of space and the problem of infinitesimals are aspects of a discussion which debates the premises of the work of Newton, Einstein and other scientific giants, presenting these ideas in a philosophical context. Ray applies his findings to questions of cosmology, including the big bang and determinism, and concludes with a re-evaluation of the philosophy of relativity. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of philosophy of science, metaphysics and mathematics.


Composition Based Modeling of Silicone Nickel Nano-Composite Strain Sensors with Applications in Fetal Monitoring Daniel Alexander Baradoy Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science In this work a review of the technology surrounding high deflection strain sensing with an emphasis on that of a recently developed nickel nano-composite strain sensor is presented. A new base silicone material was identified for the nickel nano-composite strain sensor that improves its mechanical stiffness and conductive properties. A previously identified cyclic creep concern was mitigated through preconditioning and the use of adhered backing materials. Through a block design experiment the strain/resistance curves for the strain sensors were characterized over a wide range of nano-filler material compositions. An analytical model was developed based on observation that the resistance of the sensors follows a log-normal response with respect to applied strain. The model demonstrated high fidelity in representing the resistance-strain relationship of the sensors yielding an average R value of .93. A standard least squares statistical analysis confirmed strong relationships between curve fit parameters of the modified log-normal model and additive volume fractions with significance at the .05 level for each case. A suitable strain gauge composition was selected for a specific application: a fetal monitoring device. A prototype belt was developed that is worn over the abdomen to detect deflections cause by labor contractions and other fetal movements. Simulation testing on the device was performed and the device was found to be a feasible option for fetal monitoring.


: Globally, there are several initiatives being undertaken to ensure the availability of information across countries that can be used to analyse the inequality phenomenon in and among countries. The data are easily accessible for use in comparative research on inequality across regions and countries, especially those covered by the UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID) initiative. This initiative is among the leading data innovations in the field of inequality research. This study explores how well the WIID Companion's standardized inequality measures relate to those derived using locally based data, such as the Kenyan inequality diagnostics and the fiscal incidence studies conducted by the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR). The findings show that the WIID Companion's standardized inequality measures are much higher than those in the original WIID, the Kenyan inequality diagnostic, and the fiscal incidence studies. The study demonstrates that inequality measures based on per capita consumption are likely to be lower than those based on net per capita income, partly due to the former not capturing the savings portion of disposable income. It is difficult to authenticate how well the WIID's standardized inequality measures relate to measures of per capita income inequality in Kenya due to lack of quality data on income and taxation. This issue needs to be investigated further as better data become available.


Coping is defined as "constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person" (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 141). It has been suggested that research is needed to explore and evaluate the effectiveness of the coping strategies that athletes use to deal with the organizational stressors they encounter (Fletcher, Hanton, & Mellalieu, 2006). Therefore, this study explored the relationships between the organizational stressors encountered and the coping strategies employed to manage them. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these strategies was examined. Data were collected from eight Caucasian male squash players (Mage 20.88, SD = 1.46 years) using daily diaries over a 28-day period of training and competition. The results reveal that participants encountered a wide range of organizational stressors, the most common being "factors intrinsic to the sport" and "sport relationships and interpersonal demands". The most common coping strategy employed to manage these demands was problem-focused coping, few strategies were used to cope with more than one stressor, and the effectiveness of the coping strategies used varied for each dimension of stressors. By investigating the relationships between organizational stressors and coping, and examining the effectiveness of these strategies, this study furthers our understanding of coping in sport performers and highlights the important role of effective coping in the organizational stress process. Furthermore, the results suggest that the most effective coping strategies were stressor-specific, which has important implications for applied practitioners. In order to implement effective psychological skills training and encourage athletes to manage the array of organizational stressors that they encounter, the stressor-coping relationships should be considered to allow practitioners to educate athletes on the most effective ways to deal with different stressors.


The wide use of different alternative fuels (AL) has led to challenges to the internal combustion (IC) engine tribology. To avoid any unpredicted damages to lubrication joints by using AL fuels, this study aims to accurately evaluate the influences of alternative fuels on the tribological behavior of IC engines. Recent achievements of the acoustic emission (AE) mechanism in sliding friction provide an opportunity to explain the tribological AE responses on engines. The asperity–asperity–collision (AAC) and fluid–asperity–shearing (FAS) mechanisms were applied to explain the AE responses from the piston ring and cylinder liner system. A new adaptive threshold–wavelet packets transform (WPT) method was developed to extract tribological AE features. Experimental tests were conducted by fueling three fuels: pure diesel (PD), biodiesel (BD), and Fischer–Tropsch (F–T) diesel. The FAS–AE indicators of biodiesel and F–T diesel show a tiny difference compared to the baseline diesel using two types of lubricants. Biodiesel produces more AAC impacts with higher AAC–AE responses than F–T diesel, which occurs at high speeds due to high temperatures and more particles after combustion than diesel. This new algorithm demonstrated the high performance of using AE signals in monitoring the tribological impacts of alternative fuels on engines.


The interlayer space of the highly charged synthetic Na-Mica-4 can be modified by ion-exchange reactions involving the exchange of inorganic Na(+) cations by surfactant molecules, which results in the formation of an organophilic interlayer space. The swelling and structural properties of this highly charged mica upon intercalation with n-alkylammonium (RNH(3))(+) cations with varying alkyl chain lengths (R = C12, C14, C16, and C18) have been reported. The stability, fine structure, and evolution of gaseous species from alkylammonium Mica-4 are investigated in detail by conventional thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) techniques. The results clearly show the total adsorption of n-alkylammonium cations in the interlayer space which expands as needed to accommodate intercalated surfactants. The surfactant packing is quite ordered at room temperature, mainly involving a paraffin-type bilayer with an all-trans conformation, in agreement with the high density of the organic compounds in the interlayer space. At temperatures above 160 °C, the surfactant molecules undergo a transformation that leads to a liquid-like conformation, which results in a more disordered phase and expansion of the interlayer space.


We analyze a quantum reservoir engineering method, originally introduced by Sarlette et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 010402 (2011)], for the stabilization of nonclassical field states in high-quality cavities. We generalize the method to the protection of mesoscopic entangled field states shared by two nondegenerate field modes. The reservoir consists of a stream of atoms consecutively interacting with the cavity. Each individual atom-cavity interaction follows the same time-varying Hamiltonian, combining resonant with nonresonant parts. We gain detailed insight into the competition between the engineered reservoir and decoherence. We show that the operation is quite insensitive to experimental imperfections and that it could thus be implemented in the near future in the context of microwave cavity or circuit quantum electrodynamics.


Over thousands tons of animal manures are produced in Iran. The major animal manures producers are located in central regions. Animal manures collection is an autochthonous and important renewable energy sources that in most cases are released in nature by ranchers. In this paper, a typical animal manure producer region is considered and optimal location and size of a typical biomass fueled power plant is determined. Genetic algorithm (GA) is used as the major approach of determination and effectively this approach will make possible to determine the optimal location, biomass supply area and power plant size that offer the best profitability for investor. Binary particle swarm optimization algorithm is also used as the second approach of optimization and eventually results obtained from both algorithm are compared. In this work we use profitability index (PI) as the fitness function of Genetic algorithm and the point with the maximum PI is selected.


In the recent years the East-Christian iconographical art works have been digitized providing a large volume of data. The need for effective classification, indexing and retrieval of iconography repositories was the motivation of the design and development of a systemized ontological structure for description of iconographical art objects. This paper presents the ontology of the East-Christian iconographical art, developed to provide content annotation in the Virtual encyclopedia of Bulgarian iconography multimedia digital library. The ontology's main classes, relations, facts, rules, and problems appearing during the design and development are described. The paper also presents an application of the ontology for learning analysis on an iconography domain implemented during the SINUS project "Semantic Technologies for Web Services and Technology Enhanced Learning".


AbstractIn view of the current fragmentation in management and organisation studies, we argue that there is a need to elaborate techniques that help reconcile contradictory and superficially incommensurable standpoints. For this purpose, we draw on 'pre-modern' Aristotelian epistemological and methodological sources, particularly the idea of 'saving the appearances' (SA), not previously introduced into organisation studies. Using SA as our starting point, we outline a methodology that helps to develop reasonable and acceptable intermediary positions in contemporary debates between 'modernism' and 'post-modernism'. We illustrate the functioning of SA in the case of three issues in the philosophy of science where 'modernist' and 'post-modernist' scholars seem to have incommensurable standpoints: the nature of scientific knowledge; the conception of causality; and the epistemology of practice. We show in particular how to use the logics of 'qualification', 'new conception', and 'complementary combination' to form the basis for mediating positions which could then be accepted by less extreme proponents of both 'modernism' and 'postmodernism'.


Large amounts of nitrogen fertiliser are often applied to field vegetable crops to ensure the maximum yield of quality produce. To avoid unnecessary environmental pollution the amounts of N could easily be optimised. However the process of devising N recommendation systems can be complex, as crops are so diverse and can be grown in intensive and varied rotations. An analysis of crop parameters, such as total dry matter yield, and critical N content, of optimally fertilised crops across a relatively small dataset, may be used to define crop requirement. For this purpose, data could be pooled between researchers. Soil N supply needs to take account of the rooting pattern; available N, and what has been released from the soil organic matter, and any fresh residues and manures. Whilst there are many uncertainties in this assessment, data can be pooled across crop sectors to help. Overall, N balance could provide prescriptive recommendations, but there will be situations where recommendations will need fine tuning, a corrective approach, during the season. Tools for such corrective actions will all require the setting of trigger values, which may be difficult to define without specific crop research. All recommended systems will need to be designed with all stakeholders, particularly the users, in mind. Knowledge transfer will require a mix of communication methods to ensure buy in. Systems that bring Win Win benefits to the growers, the industry and the environment will be the most successful. The input required for knowledge transfer cannot be regarded as trivial.


Coffea canephora has two botanical varieties, Robusta and Conilon. Intraspecific variability was hypothesized and projected for the selection of C. canephora plants able to maintain production in the context of global climate changes. For that, architectural, C-assimilation and biomass analyses were performed on 17-month-old Robusta (clones 'A1' and '3 V') and Conilon (clones '14' and '19') varieties grown in non-limiting soil, water, and mineral nutrient conditions. Nondestructive coffee plant architecture coding, reconstruction, and plant photosynthesis estimations were performed using a functional-structural plant modeling platform OpenAlea. 3D reconstructions and inclusion of parameters calculated and estimated from light response curves, such as dark respiration (Rd), maximum rate of carboxylation of RuBisCO, and photosynthetic electron transport allowed the estimation of instantaneous and daily plant photosynthesis. The virtual orchard leaf area index was low, and light was not a limiting factor in early C. canephora development stages. Under such conditions, Robusta assimilated more CO2 at the plant and orchard scale and produced higher total biomass than Conilon. Lower plant daily photosynthesis and total biomass were correlated to higher Rd in Conilon than in Robusta. Among the architectural traits, leaf inclination, size, and allometry were most highly correlated with plant assimilation and biomass. Relative allocation in leaf biomass was higher in '19' Conilon than in young Robusta plants, indicating intraspecific biomass partitioning. Similarly, variation in relative distribution of the root biomass and the root volume reflected clonal variation in soil occupation, indicating intraspecific variability in space occupation competitiveness. C. canephora denoted high root allocation in both Conilon and Robusta clones. However, relevant differences at sub-specific levels were found, indicating the high potential of C. canephora to cope with drought events, which are expected to occur more frequently in the future, due to climate changes. The methodology developed here has the potential to be used for other crops and tree species.


H. T. Lambrick: Sind: a General Introduction (History of Sind Series, Vol. I). Hyderabad, Sind: Sindhi Adabi Board, 1964.289 pp., 15 maps. 90s. This book is presented as a general introduction to a series of eight volumes on the history of Sind. Such an introduction could be written from several different points of view: the author's is essentially that of historical geography. It is difficult to think of a more appropriate or rewarding approach. The resulting work constitutes an original and challenging statement, reviewing sometimes long-held opinions and not rarely finding them wanting. The first four chapters are devoted to the physical geography of the different sections of the region; then follow two relating to archaeological cultures, primarily pre-Harappan and Harappan; the next two deal mainly with classical sources and contain a thoughtful discussion of Alexander's passage through Sind and the Panjab; the ninth chapter deals with the geographical data in the Chinese pilgrims' accounts of Sind; the tenth with Sind in Muslim times; and the last two chapters with races and people and the Sindhi language. There are two appendixes, of which the longer and more interesting discusses the 'lost' river of the Indian desert, the Hakra or Nara. For the reader of ANTIQUITY, and indeed for the archaeologist, the earlier chapters are likely to prove the most thought-provoking. The author is at his best when he is calling upon his own personal observations of landscape or climate, or of sites, and forming his own strictly empirical deductions for archaeological purposes. He is less at home in dealing with the sort of problems of chronology and sequence which have played so large a part in archaeological writing on this region in recent decades, and indeed he shows little interest in such matters. His methods are best displayed in the chapter on the Indus civilization where he estimates the population of Mohenjo-daro at around 35,000, or where he exposes the weakness of almost all the earlier arguments in support of a hypothetically wetter climate at that time. His reconstruction of the agricultural system, and its relationship to and exploitation of the Indus inundations, is most convincing. Equally significant is his discussion of the role of the Indus in bringing about the end of Mohenjo-daro. He postulates a calamitous alteration of the river's course upstream, above Sukkur, as the most likely cause, with consequent desiccation of the agricultural lands in the neighbourhood of the city. Such a condition could have caused depopulation and made the city an easy prey to invaders from without. Since Lambrick wrote this Dales and Raikes have published their new 'inundation' theory [I]. One can only say that Lambrick's argument, both here and as he has developed it more recently [2], presents a powerful case for quite another interpretation, based on an extensive, geographical hypothesis, rather than on intensive, archaeological evidence. One awaits with interest the further development of this controversy. In sum, this book is a useful and eloquent reminder of the contribution geography can make to almost all aspects of archaeology and history.


Background: The COICA study is an ambispective, observational trial that was conceived to assess the clinical course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in cancer patients. A recently published, population-based, case-control study reported a reduced vaccine efficacy at 3–6 months in cancer patients compared to individuals without cancer. Objectives: The aim of the study was to describe coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) outcomes in cancer patients and analyze differences in SARS-CoV-2 outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Methods: Descriptive statistics and frequency counts were used to summarize characteristics of the study population. χ2 test and the log-rank test were used to compare outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Results: A total of 141 cancer patients (80 males, 61 females) were recruited at two participating Institutions from March 2020 until April 2022 and observed from the time of positive SARS-CoV-2 test to the time of negativization or death. Approximately 35% of patients had been vaccinated at the time of infection with 2 (16 patients) or 3 (33 patients) vaccine doses. Vaccinated patients consistently and significantly showed improved COVID-19 outcomes compared to unvaccinated patients, with CT-diagnosed pneumonia, hospitalization, O2 therapy, and death reported in 0% versus 48.6%, 2.0% versus 15.2%, 0% versus 14.1%, and 0% versus 7.6%, respectively, of assessable patients (p < 0.05). Vaccinated versus unvaccinated patients showed a significantly shorter time to negativization, with a median (95% confidence interval) time of 12 (10–14) versus 20 (17–23) days, respectively (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Vaccination consistently improved all COVID-19 outcomes. No death was recorded among vaccinated patients. Additional research is especially warranted to establish optimal timing and patient selection for administration of the fourth vaccination dose.


Background: In developing countries like India lower socioeconomic status and lack of proper eye care are responsible for increase in the number of preventable and avoidable causes of blindness as compared to developed countries of the world. One-third of India's blind population lose their eyesight before 20 years of age. Therefore, early detection and treatment of ocular morbidity is important. The best option to reduce ocular morbidity is to bring eye care services to their doorsteps in the form of outreach programs. The aim of the study was to assess the morbidity pattern of ocular disease in the region, which will show the trend of ocular morbidities in our society and help to provide basic data for planning and provision of adequate eye care services, appropriate treatment and intervention for management of these diseases. Methods: This was a cross-sectional type of study conducted at District Hospital, Bhilwara. For the study, total of 200 patients who attended OPD of Ophthalmology in the duration of 1 year were included. Results: Out of 200 patients majority (67%) of the patients were found to be in the age group of 30-60 years and there was no sex preponderance as ratio of male to female was found to be 1.1:1 among the patients which shows that common eye diseases are usually not sex linked but may be linked with age. Distribution of diseases treated in OPD showed that allergic conjunctivitis (51.33%) was the most common disease followed by infective conjunctivitis (21.00%) which was found to be the second most common problem. Conclusions: It has been observed that allergic conjunctivitis is the most common disease due to hot and dry environment, dust and more of pollution due to marble mining in the region.


Code smells as symptoms of poor design and implementation choices. Many times they are the result of so called technical debt. Our study showed that the interest in code smells research is increasing. However, most of the publications are appearing in conference proceedings. Most of the research is done in G7 and other highly developed countries. Four main research themes were identified namely code smell detection, bad smell based refactoring, software development and anti patterns. The results show that code smells can also have a positive connotation, we can develop software which smells good and attracts various customers and good smelling code could also serve as a pattern for future software development.


Up- and downstream processing of human monoclonal IgM is known to bring about problems with respect to clone stability and quantity of antibodies produced. A human B cell hybridoma producing a natural polyreactive IgM antibody (CB03) was adapted to growth in serum-free medium and scaled-up using a hollow fiber bioreactor system. The process of fermentation has been carried out continuously over a period of 4 months. In comparison to stationary culture conditions in the presence of 10% fetal calf serum, antibody concentrations in hollow fiber bioreactor supernatants were found to be significantly increased. Semicontinuously harvested supernatants contained up to 400 mg/liter immunoreactive IgM antibody. During the last weeks of fermentation, a markedly reduced number of viable cells was observed, whereas antibody production seemed to remain stable. Furthermore, we detected formation of cell clusters in the fermentor system. These clusters carried IgM on the surface and secreted immunoreactive IgM antibodies. Clusters were found to represent fusions of hybridoma cells using electron microscopy. Cluster formation was accompanied by decreased glucose consumption and lactate accumulation and was not seen during growth of other human hybridomas. We discuss these results in the content of the polyreactive binding properties of this particular antibody.


The general aim in this thesis is to study different factors that might affect antisocial and violent behaviour in incarcerated Russian juvenile delinquents, such as: psychopathic tendencies; personality traits; impulsiveness; antisocial attitudes; and, alcohol problems. The thesis consists of two studies, Study 1 and Study 2. The purpose of Study I was: a) to examine the discriminative power of the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD), aggressive traits, impulsiveness, antisocial attitudes and alcohol-related problems between subgroups of juvenile delinquents with low versus high levels of violent behaviour; and, b) to compare the predictive value of these variables in two subgroups defined by higher vs lower levels of psychopathic traits. The participants (n=175) were assessed with the APSD by trained staff, further they were selfassessed by the Antisocial Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), Barrat Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), Antisocial Attitudes Scale (AAS), the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale (AAIS), and Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI). There were also data on type of crime committed (violent/non-violent). Results revealed that only the APSD score, traits of physical aggression, and alcoholrelated problems were able to discriminate between groups with various levels of violence. Furthermore, the level of violence was the only variant factor when comparing levels of psychopathy, the psychopathic group being more violent. Different sets of predictors emerged for the group with higher versus lower psychopathy scores. The results suggest that psychopathic youth are more prone to become violent while using alcohol. The objective of study II was to evaluate a new scale aimed at assessing antisocial attitudes, the Pro-Bullying Attitude Scale (PAS), on a group of male juvenile delinquents. The participants (n=171) were assessed with the Childhood Psychopathy Scale (CPS) by trained teachers and completed the PAS, the ABC, the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the Youth Self-Report (YSR). As in Study I, there were also data on type of crime. Principal Components Analysis with Direct Oblimin Rotation gave a two-factor solution: Factor 1 denoted Callous/Dominance, and Factor 2 Manipulativeness/Impulsiveness. The subjects were divided into two extreme groups (first and fourth quartile) according to their sum scores on PAS and the two factor scores, respectively. The extreme groups of PAS and Factor 1 differed in both delinquent, aggressive, and violent behaviour, and psychopathic tendencies, those in the fourth quartile being more delinquent, aggressive, violent and psychopathic. The extreme groups of PAS and Factor 1 differed in the personality trait Harm Avoidance, the fourth quartile being scoring lower in Harm Avoidance. The fourth quartile in Factor 2 had more aggressive behavior and was low in the personality trait SelfDirectedness. When PAS was used as a continuous variable, those who scored high in PAS and Factor 1 were more likely to have committed a violent crime. Pro-bullying attitudes were suggested as a link between certain personality traits and psychopathic tendencies on the one hand and between antisocial and violent behaviour on the other. The general discussion stressed the importance of psychopathy, antisocial attitudes and impulsivity in predicting antisocial and violent behavior. Treatment implications were also discussed, such as specific treatment for highly psychopathic individuals and using PAS as an instrument in identifying high risk individuals for bullying tendencies, prison misconduct and violent behaviour among incarcerated delinquents.


The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of microwave pretreatments on methane production from two switchgrass tissues (leaf vs. stem). The methane production from the leaf fraction was significantly affected by the microwave final temperature, while production from the stem fraction was affected by the combination of the microwave final temperature and heating rate. Thus, the highest methane yield from the leaf (134.81 mL CH4/g of volatile solids (VS)) was obtained at 100 °C, while the highest yield from the stem (99.35 mL CH4/g VS) was obtained at 150 °C, with a heating rate of 10 °C/min. Although methane production from the leaf fraction was merely enhanced by 9.1% after microwave pretreatments, the time required to reach 80% of ultimate methane production was reduced by 12 days. For the stem fraction, methane production was improved by 5.2% after microwave pretreatment, and the time to obtain 80% of ultimate methane production increased.


The interaction between Clostridium butyricum and Helicobacter pylori was examined in vitro and in vivo. The culture supernate of C. butyricum MIYAIRI 588 inhibited the growth of H. pylori even when its pH was adjusted to 7.4. The bactericidal effect of butyric acid on H. pylori was stronger than that of lactic, acetic or hydrochloric acids. Flow cytometric analysis showed that pre-incubation of gastric epithelial (MKN45) cells with H. pylori and C. butyricum inhibited the adhesion of H. pylori to the cells. Persistent infection with H. pylori in the gastric mucosa of germ-free mice was observed for 5 weeks. Cure of persistent infection with H. pylori in the gnotobiotic mice was demonstrated following infection with C. butyricum. The probiotic agent, C. butyricum MIYAIRI 588 may have some beneficial effects on H. pylori infection.


Purpose of review To examine the status of racial and ethnic inequalities in fertility care in the United States (U.S.) at inception of 2022. This review highlights addressable underpinnings for the prevalent differentials in access to and utilization of infertility treatments and underscores gaps in preventive care as key contributors to racial and ethnic disparities in risk burden for subfertility and infertility. Recent findings Significant gaps in access to and utilization of fertility care are consistently reported among racial and ethnic minorities, particularly Black and Hispanic women. Access to and utilization of contraceptives, human papilloma virus vaccination rates, preexposure prophylaxis use, and differentials in treatment of common gynecologic disorders are relevant to the prevalent racial and ethnic disparities in reproductive health. The spectrum of differential in reproductive wellness and the magnitude of reproductive health burden afflicting racial minorities in the U.S. raise concerns regarding systemic and structural racism as plausible contributors to the prevalent state of affairs. Summary Despite efforts to reform unequal reproductive health practices and policies, racial and ethnic disparities in fertility care are pervasive and persistent. In addition to measures aimed at reducing barriers to care, societal efforts must prioritize health disparity research to systematically examine underpinnings, and addressing structural racism and interpersonal biases, to correct the prevalent racial inequities and mitigate disparities.


Six patients with acute and chronic myeloid leukemia (AML and CML) showed a low incorporation of labeled DNA precursors into basophilic erythroblasts. Based on mitotic indices and the use of vincristine as a stathmokinetic tool, it was evident that brisk proliferation in this cell compartment took place. Mic rospectrophotometric determination of single-cell DNA content showed that a considerable fraction of the erythroid cells were in DNA synthesis without incorporating an exogeneously supplied DNA precursor. Following inhibition of the de novo synthesis of nucleoside tnphosphates, the cells showed capacity for precursor incorporation. It is suggested that a biochemical abnormality, which leads to a high intranuclear nucleoside tniphosphate pool, may inhibit nucleoside kinases and hence the utilization of labeled nucleosides, as well as diluting the labeled precursors. The defect should probably be considered to be a biochemical expression of "leukemicness" of the erythroid cells. The frequency of the phenomenon described here cannot be determined from the present study. The patients are part of a series of 44 patients who were studied with the purpose to investigate the effect of cytostatic treatment on the cell cycle of the leukemic cells. Many of the patients' had so little erythropoiesis left that studies as those described here could not be carried out. Therefore, the reported frequency of 6/44 of the observed phenomenon is almost certainly an underestimate. Consequently, cytokinetic studies of erythropoiesis in CML and AML, using tracer techniques alone, must be evaluated with caution.


Biological productivity is a key factor controlling the ocean's ability to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the ecological dynamics that drive regions of intense productivity and carbon export are poorly understood. In this study, we present high‐spatial‐resolution estimates of air‐sea CO2 flux, net community production (NCP) rates calculated from O2/Ar ratios, and phytoplankton population abundances determined by continuous underway measurements on a cruise across the Gulf of Alaska in May 2010. The highest rates of NCP (79.2 ± 13 mmol C m‐2 d‐1) and oceanic CO2 uptake (air‐sea flux of −14.7 ± 2.4 mmol C m‐2 d‐1) were observed across a transition zone between the high‐nitrate low‐chlorophyll (HNLC) waters of the Alaskan Gyre and the coastal waters off the Aleutian Islands. While the transition zone comprises 20% of the total area covered in crossing the Gulf of Alaska, it contributed 49% of the total NCP and 48% of the total CO2 uptake observed along the cruise track. A corresponding transition zone phytoplankton bloom was dominated by two small‐celled (<20 µm) phytoplankton communities, which were distinct from the phytoplankton communities in the surrounding Alaskan Gyre and coastal waters. We hypothesize that mixing between iron‐rich coastal waters and iron‐limited Alaskan Gyre waters stimulated this bloom and fueled the high NCP and CO2 export observed in the region.


The effect of the putative 5-HT1A agonists 8-OH-DPAT and ipsapirone and 5-HT1B agonists TFMPP and m-CPP on respiratory activity in rats has been examined. In chloral hydrate-anesthetized rats, respiratory counts were decreased in a dose-dependent manner by both TFMPP and m-CPP, with an ED50 of 0.30 mg/kg (1.1 mumol/kg) and 3.0 mg/kg (11.0 mumol/kg) respectively. In contrast, both 5-HT1A agonists tested, 8-OH-DPAT and ipsapirone, produced an increase in respiratory rate at all doses tested. Moreover, the TFMPP-induced decrease in respiratory rate was antagonized by 8-OH-DPAT. The 5-HT2 antagonist ketanserin had no effect on the TFMPP-induced decrease in respiratory activity. However, methylsergide (5-HT1/5-HT2 antagonist) and (-)-cyanopindolol (5-HT1B antagonist) antagonized the TFMPP-induced respiratory rate decrease. The results of these experiments, coupled with the predominant presence of 5-HT1B receptors in the lower brainstem, pons, and medulla, as established by autoradiography studies, suggest a possible involvement of the 5-HT1B receptor subtype in the control of respiratory mechanisms, especially those involved in respiratory rhythmicity.


This was a contribution to the lecture notes on the 44th IFF Spring School held at Forschungszentrum J\"ulich in 2013 on "Quantum Information Processing". The school as a whole had a strong focus on solid state systems. It was the purpose of this contribution to give a brief pedagogical introduction into quantum information processing with atoms and ions.


In this study, we examined how preschool students with language delays engaged in interactive dialogue during regular circle time and dramatic inquiry activities. Using frequency recording of three preschool students' linguistic engagement and multimodal analysis of classroom video data, this article explores how these students produced social, instructional, and academic language as well as multimodal actions to engage in interactive dialogue with their teachers and peers. Overall, students exhibited higher levels of linguistic engagement during traditional instruction; however, multimodal analysis revealed the ways students engaged in interactive dialogue during dramatic inquiry was far more complex. We conclude that dramatic inquiry created opportunities for students to learn and produce academic language and corresponding multimodal actions while regular instruction provided students opportunities to practice social and instructional language. Our analysis demonstrates the complexities of how preschoolers with language delays use different forms of verbal and non-verbal language to share their personal experiences and content knowledge with others. In all, this study emphasizes the importance of considering both quantitative and qualitative data when trying to understand how preschoolers engage in interactive dialogue in the classroom.


Lumbar fusion has been criticized for variable patient outcomes, though little is known regarding how outcomes vary across procedures. We examined outcomes of posterolateral versus BAK interbody lumbar fusion in workers' compensation cases. A medical record review and a follow-up survey were completed. The sample included 185 posterolateral and 185 lumbar interbody fusions. An outcome survey was conducted an average of 5 years after surgery. Arthrodesis rates, satisfaction, function, and health were better for the BAK interbody lumbar fusion cohort. Results suggest greater efficacy of the BAK interbody approach over posterolateral approaches to lumbar fusion in compensated patients.


The high-frequency operation of a lateral hot-electron transistor is discussed. Analytical expressions for the induced collector current and collector transport factor are found and analyzed. It is shown that lateral geometry of the transistor results in specific features of the frequency dependence of the collector transport factor, namely, slower degradation at high frequencies in comparison with the same parameter of the hot-electron transistor with vertical structure.


During pyrolysis of holocellulose, secondary reactions of the primary pyrolytic products inevitably occur, affecting the final pyrolytic product distribution. Carboxylic acids from primary pyrolysis process have significant interaction effects on both holocellulose and its pyrolytic products, whereas, the interaction mechanisms are still unclear. In the present study, acetic acid is selected as the typical carboxylic acid product, and glycerol is selected to represent the various hydroxyl-based compounds (both holocellulose and pyrolytic products such as anhydrosugars, etc.). The density functional theory (DFT) method is adopted to investigate the interaction mechanisms between them. Calculation results indicate that acetic acid and glycerol have strong interactions, with acetic acid acting as a catalyst for these interactions in two patterns. (I) Acetic acid enhances the dehydration reactions of glycerol with low energy barriers. (II) Acetic acid and glycerol undergo esterification to form an ester intermediate which then decomposes via various reactions. In addition, the decomposition of acetic acid can also be promoted by the catalysis of glycerol in a certain degree. This study reveals the basic interaction mechanisms between carboxylic acids and hydroxyl-based compounds, providing fundamental information to understand the secondary reactions during pyrolysis of holocellulose.


The Al-enriched intermetallic compound DO23-Al3Zr was directly formed by Zr ion implantation into Al films at a current density of 64 µA cm-2 using a metal vapour vacuum arc (MEVVA) ion source at a dose of 4×1017 ions cm-2. With increasing ion dose the crystallinity of the DO23-Al3Zr phase was gradually improved, and at a dose of 5×1017 ions cm-2 the DO23-Al3Zr layer was about 100 nm thick. The formed DO23-Al3Zr phase played a significant role in enhancing the hardness as well as the elastic modulus of the Al films.


Introduction: Androgenetic Alopecia (AA) is characterised by progressive-patterned hair loss from the scalp affecting males and females alike. Miniaturisation of the hair follicle with associated hereditary tendency is one of the major primary causal factors for the pathogenesis of AA. Various treatment modalities have been proposed for the management of AA including minoxidil, finastride, etc.; however, they are associated with known side-effects. Aim: To evaluate the effect of intradermal Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) administration, along with oral biotin supplement for the management of AA in males. Materials and Methods: The present randomised clinical study was conducted at Department of Dermatology, B.J. Medical College and Hospital, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India from January 2012 to May 2013. A total of 40 healthy adult males of Indian origin, with a history of hair loss, completed the 12 month trial. They were equally randomised into two groups. Subjects enrolled in group A (n=20) received intradermal administration of autologous PRP, every 15 days for three months along with oral biotin tablets, once daily for three months, while those in group B (n=20) received oral biotin tablets, once daily for three months. Hair regrowth was evaluated using a standardised 7-point rating scale at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months intervals, by the same investigator. Chi-square test was used to statistically assess the data. The p-value for significance was established at <0.05. Results: Individuals in group A had mean age of 32.3±6.1 years and showed statistically significant (p-value <0.05) increase in hair regrowth at 6 months, 9 and 12 months; compared to Group B with mean age of 30.7±5.2 years. Conclusion: Intradermal administration of PRP along with oral biotin tablet supplementation resulted in a statistically significant increase in hair regrowth, without any remarkable side-effects. PRP is a safe and effective treatment modality in adult males, with AA.


This essay, to be published in a collection of essays edited by Glenn Cohen, argues that basic moral rights to health care exist in two cases. First, they exist when persons have a moral duty to respect the sanctity of life, by avoiding injury or risk to others, or to give aid to those in need. This also creates a right to be rescued by those to whom we are in some special relationship or in special proximity. There is also, second, a basic political right to health care against one's own government, whenever such a government exercises jurisdiction over persons and territory. The content of the right is the setting up of an effective health system – parallel, perhaps to a general system of civil and criminal justice – enabling individuals to enjoy the fruits of common life without fear of violence or exploitation. The source of this right includes a principle of equal citizenship which ought to be a constitutional pre-condition of political legitimacy. Other rights and duties of the human rights canon are simply legislated rights or established policies. I conclude that it is a mistake to see the international human right to health as a single moral principle. Behind the slogan there are several other principles at work.


Purpose: Online adaptive MLC morphing is desirable over translational couch shifts to accommodate target position as well as anatomic changes. A reliable method of adaptive MLC segment to target during prostate cancer IMRT treatment is proposed and evaluated by comparison with daily online-image guidance (IGRT) correction and online-IMRT planning. Methods: The MLC adaptive algorithm involves following steps; move the MLC segments according to target translational shifts, and then morph the segment shape to maintain the spatial relationship between the planning-target contour and MLC segment. Efficacy of this method was evaluated retrospectively using daily-CBCT images on seven prostate patients treated with seven-beam IMRT treatment to deliver 64Gy in 20 fractions. Daily modification was simulated with three approaches; daily-IGRT correction based on implanted radio-markers, adaptive MLC morphing, and online-IMRT planning, with no-residual variation. The selected dosimetric endpoints and nEUD (normalized equivalent uniform dose to online-IMRT planning) of each organ of interest were determined for evaluation and comparison. Results: For target(prostate), bladder and rectal-wall, the mean±sd of nEUD were 97.6%+3.2%, 103.9%±4.9% and 97.4%±1.1% for daily-IGRT correction; and 100.2%+0.2%, 108.9%±5.1% and 99.8%±1.2% for adaptive MLC morphing, respectively. For daily-IGRT correction, adaptive MLC morphing and online-IMRT planning, target D99 was <95% of the prescription dosemore » in 30%, 0% and 0% of 140 fractions, respectively. For the rectal-wall, D5 exceeded 105% of the planned-D5 in 2.8%, 11.4% and 0% of 140 fractions, respectively. For the bladder, Dmax exceeded 105% of the planned-D5 in 2.8%, 5.6% and 0% of 140 fractions, respectively. D30 of bladder and rectal-wall were well within the planned-D30 for all three approaches. Conclusion: The proposed method of adaptive MLC morphing can be beneficial for the prostate patient population with large deformation and rotation. It is superior to the daily-IGRT correction, and comparable to the online-IMRT planning for dose to the target and rectal-wall.« less


Abstract : Deterrence is an ancient concept, common to nearly all human interactions. At its core, deterrence involves the act of influencing behavior by manipulating an adversary s cost-benefit analysis. Still, following the attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11), many policy makers and academics were quick to dismiss the strategic role that deterrence could play in counterterrorism policy. This lack of confidence has been continually echoed by policy makers and scholars alike. Chiefly, former president George W. Bush concluded that the traditional concepts of deterrence were meaningless in dealing with terrorist networks, which had no nation to claim as their own and whose members were willing to die for their cause.1 As a result, policy makers, military officials, and US allies have focused instead on militaristic, preemptive strategies for counterterrorism operations.2 The purpose of this research is to examine critically the role of deterrence theory and analyze whether it can be applied to counterterrorism operations as a means of increasing international security and realizing national objectives with minimal military investment. Alternatively, many people contend that the road to real success in foreign policy entails hard power alone, often in the form of military strength. However, we believe that it is not solely military power that leads to successful deterrence but the calculated and complementary application of each instrument of power.3 The principal instrument of this complementary power should be diplomacy. Military strength is still necessary, particularly following a large-scale terrorist attack such as 9/11, but to truly deter terrorism, one must take many other actions.


Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term used to identify individuals with a history of prenatal alcohol exposure which results in a spectrum of diagnostic disorders. 1 in 20 infants born in the U.S. has been diagnosed with an FASD, creating a major public health crisis. Deficits in corpus callosum myelination resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure have been correlated with impairments to perceptual learning and executive function in adolescents diagnosed with FASD. This study investigates the therapeutic potential of an exercise intervention to ameliorate alcohol-induced damage to corpus callosum myelination in a rodent model of FASD.


Audiometric testing by means of the nonspecific evoked cerebral potential (NECP) was performed in 20 children (11 with normal hearing, 6 with conductive and 3 with sensorineural hearing loss). The threshold as determined by this method was 20-30 dB higher than the threshold of the subjective tonal audiograms in the majority of the cases. Only in two cases the difference was up to 70 dB. There were no significant differences between the results of the methods in the three groups of children. The possible reasons for the described discrepancy between the thresholds of the ECP audiometry and the subjective tonal audiometry are discussed. It is pointed out that either of the two methods explores one of two different functional systems: the nonspecific activating system of the brain stem and the auditory pathway. It is suggested that the observed discrepancy between the results of the two methods may mainly be due to different thresholds of the two systems. To avoid false negative results of the ECP audiometry in subjects with 'constitutionally' low amplitude of the NECP it is proposed to routinely determine the amplitude of the NECP produced by somatosensory stimuli. Careful evaluation of the recorded data can improve the diagnostic value of ECP audiometry.


This paper reports a new device for electrocardiogram (ECG) signal
monitoring and software for signal analysis and artificial intelligence (AI)
assisted diagnosis.

The hardware
mitigates the signal loss common in previous products by enhancing the ergonomy,
flexibility, and battery life. The power efficiency is optimized by design
using switching converters, ultra-low-power components, and efficient signal
processing. It enables 14-day of uninterrupted ECG monitoring and connectivity
with a smartphone and microSD card storage.The software is
implemented in Android app and web-based platforms via Internet of Things
(IoT). This component provides cloud-based and local storage and uses AI for
arrhythmia detection. The arrhythmia detection algorithm shows 98.7% accuracy
using Artificial Neural Network and K-Nearest Neighbors methods, and 98.1%
using Decision Tree method on test data set.


The BRAF-MEK pathway is frequently mutated in human melanoma. Inhibitors of these kinases have proven to prolong survival in melanoma patients. However, clinical benefit is relatively short-lived due to acquired drug resistance. To explore mechanisms of resistance in melanoma cells treated with dual BRAF and MEK inhibitors, A375, a cell line harboring the BRAF V600E mutation, was treated with escalating doses of vemurafenib and cobimetinib to generate a cellular population resistant to combination therapy. These cells display a reversible resistance phenotype. Upon initial treatment of the drug combination, upregulation of pSTAT3 is observed but the cells lose dependency on the pSTAT3 pathway upon prolonged drug treatment. A pharmacological synthetic lethal screen was performed and the FGFR inhibitor class re-sensitizes the cells to BRAF and MEK inhibition through inhibitions of pERK. The dual resistant cells also displayed hyperactivation of the PI3K-AKT pathway. Interrogation of patient samples confirmed these findings. These findings provides a biological rationale for a polytherapy strategy using a FGFR inhibitor in patients with resistance to dual BRAF and MEK inhibition. Citation Format: Victoria E. Wang, Jeffrey Settleman, Frank McCormic. FGFR inhibition re-sensitizes BRAF/MEK dual resistant cells to the BRAF/MEK inhibitor combination [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1209. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1209


Two bacterial isolates, designated S1.1 and S3.1, were recovered from oil-well produced water extracted from a deep and hot oil-well in the Thar Jath oil-field in South Sudan, and characterized. Based on their 16S rRNA gene sequences and phenotypic properties, the isolates were identified as members of the genus Thermoanaerobacter, possibly representing novel species. Both strains are strict anaerobes, grow optimally at 65 – 70°C at neutral pH and with ~0.3% NaCl, and can use various carbohydrates, proteinaceous compounds and organic acids as growth substrates. Strain S1.1 differs from strain S3.1 in its ability to grow on xylan and D-ribose, and S3.1 from S1.1 in its capacity to grow on acetate, arabinose, cellulose and lactate. Both produced acetate, ethanol, carbon dioxide and hydrogen as fermentation by-products from glucose, and growth was stimulated by thiosulphate. Strain S1.1 actively reduced Fe(III) as revealed by the formation of a dark paramagnetic  precipitate  and  increased  growth  in  cultures  supplemented  with  Fe2O3. Cultures of both strains survived autoclaving at 121°C for 40 min, suggesting the formation of extremely heat-resistant endospores.

 Key words: Thermoanaerobacter, oil-well, produced water, deep biosphere, petroleum microbiology, thermophiles, Thar Jath.


A highly peaked density profile was obtained in pellet-injected discharges in LHD. The peaking factor, which is the ratio of the central to volume-averaged densities, increased from around 0.8 in the gas puff fuelled phase, up to more than 2.0 after multiple pellet injection. The core density reached to several times 1020m-3. Temporal changes of density profiles were measured using a CO2 laser imaging interferometer. The change of the particle flux was estimated from temporal variations of measured density profiles. The diffusion coefficient (D) and the convection velocity (V) were then obtained from temporal traces of the relationship between the normalized density gradient and the normalized particle flux. Thus-obtained diffusion coefficients increased monotonically toward the plasma edge, while the convection velocity was inwardly directed. These observations are clearly different from those in the low collision regime, where D was spatially almost constant and V was outwardly directed. Three different regimes of particle transport were identified after the pellet injection. The first phase is characterized by a constant density peaking just after the pellet injection. In this phase, negative slopes between the normalized particle flux and the normalized density gradient were found, implying that D and V could not be determined. The second phase is at an additional density peaking, where the normalized particle flux increased with an increase in the normalized density gradient. In this phase, the core diffusion coefficient (ρ < 0.6) was reduced compared with that before the pellet injection, and an inwardly directed pinch was observed. The third phase is with the density broadening, where the normalized particle flux was reduced with a decrease in the normalized density gradient. Here, the core diffusion coefficients were further reduced, and the core pinch velocity (ρ < 0.8) became close to zero. The transition from the first (the constant peaking phase) to the second phase (the additional peaking phase) occurred almost simultaneously in the entire region of the plasma, while the transition from the second to third phase (the broadening phase) occurred from the outer region to the inner region of the plasma. The collisionality dependence of D and V at ρ = 0.4~0.7 was studied in the wide range of collisionality (νb* = 0.3~30) from density modulation experiments and the SDC analysis. A minimum value of D was likely to exist in the plateau regime (νb* = 1~5) together with almost zero convection velocity. This may be favourable for future high density reactor operations of the heliotron reactor.


Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) has been adopted in organizations in various tasks, including interpreting models to identify indicators of service failures. To avoid misleading practitioners, AIOps model interpretations should be consistent (i.e., different AIOps models on the same task agree with one another on feature importance). However, many AIOps studies violate established practices in the machine learning community when deriving interpretations, such as interpreting models with suboptimal performance, though the impact of such violations on the interpretation consistency has not been studied.
 In this article, we investigate the consistency of AIOps model interpretation along three dimensions: internal consistency, external consistency, and time consistency. We conduct a case study on two AIOps tasks: predicting Google cluster job failures and Backblaze hard drive failures. We find that the randomness from learners, hyperparameter tuning, and data sampling should be controlled to generate consistent interpretations. AIOps models with AUCs greater than 0.75 yield more consistent interpretation compared to low-performing models. Finally, AIOps models that are constructed with the Sliding Window or Full History approaches have the most consistent interpretation with the trends presented in the entire datasets. Our study provides valuable guidelines for practitioners to derive consistent AIOps model interpretation.


The energy efficiency of future networks is becoming a significant and urgent issue, calling for greener network designs. However, the increasing complexity in network structure and resource space lead to growing problem scales and coupled resource dimensions, which bring great challenges in obtaining a joint solution in optimizing the energy efficiency. In this paper, we develop a multi-dimensional network model on the basis of tuple-links associated with transmission patterns (TPs) and formulate the optimization problem as a TP based scheduling problem which jointly solves transmission scheduling, routing, power control, radio, and channel assignment. In order to tackle the complexity issues, we propose a novel algorithm by exploiting the delay column generation technique to decompose the coupled problem into recursively solving a master problem for scheduling and a sub-problem for power allocation. Further, we theoretically prove that the performance gap between the proposed algorithm and the optimum is upper bounded by that for the sub-problem solution, where the latter is derived by solving a relaxed version of the sub-problem. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the multi-dimensional framework and the benefit of the proposed joint optimization in improving network energy efficiency.


Thiophosphate analogs (C-S-P bond) of phosphatidylinositol (Cn-thio-PI: racemic hexadecyl-, dodecyl-, and octylthiophosphoryl-1-myo-inositol) and a fluorescent analog (pyrene-PI: rac-4-(1-pyreno)-butylphosphoryl-1-myo-inositol) were all substrates for phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C from Bacillus cereus. Hydrolysis of thio-PI was followed by coupling the production of alkylthiol to a disulfide interchange reaction with dithiobispyridine. Hydrolysis of pyrene-PI was followed using a HPLC-based assay with fluorescence detection. The activity of PI-PLC with thio-PI analogs showed an interfacial effect. C16-Thio-PI, which had a critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 7 microM, gave a hyperbolic activity versus concentration curve between 0 and 2 mM, while C8-thio-PI, which had a CMC above 10 mM, showed very low activity which increased greatly upon introduction of an interface in mixed micelles with hexadecylphosphocholine (HDPC). Pyrene-PI, which aggregates above 0.3 mM, gave a sigmoidal activity curve with much higher activity above the CMC. All three thio-PI homologs as mixed micelles with HDPC gave hyperbolic activity curves with PI-PLC that were a function of bulk concentration of substrate at constant surface concentration and surface concentration of substrate at constant bulk concentration. The maximal activity of PI-PLC with pure C16-thio-PI micelles was 6.25 mumol min-1 mg-1, while that with pyrene-PI was estimated to be 68 mumol min-1 mg-1. With pure C16-thio-PI micelles, 0.022 mM substrate gave half Vmax, similar to that in mixed micelles with HDPC.


Dynactin is a 1.1 MDa complex that activates the molecular motor, dynein, for ultra-processive transport along microtubules. In order to do this it forms a tripartite complex with dynein and a coiled-coil adaptor. Dynactin consists of an actin-related filament whose length is defined by its flexible shoulder domain. Despite previous cryo-EM structures, the molecular architecture of the shoulder and pointed end of the filament is still poorly understood due to the lack of high-resolution information in these regions. Here we combine multiple cryo-EM datasets and define precise masking strategies for particle signal subtraction and 3D classification. This overcomes domain flexibility and results in high resolution maps into which we can build the shoulder and pointed end. The unique architecture of the shoulder positions the four identical p50 subunits in different conformations to bind dynactin's filament and securely houses the p150 subunit. The pointed end map allows us to build the first structure of p62, and reveals the molecular basis for cargo adaptor binding to different sites at the pointed end.


The sorption of toxic metals by fungal mycelia grown in clay-containing medium is reported in this work. Biomass of melanin-producing microfungi of the genus Cladosporium (C cladosporioides, C resinae and C herbarum) and Aureobasidium pullulans, clay minerals and fungal mycelia grown in clay-containing medium were compared for their equilibrium Cu and Cd uptake from pH-buffered solutions using experimental sorption isotherms. Bentonite (Cherkassy) in the natural form was shown to be the best Cu sorbent compared with the other clays and clay minerals tested. Cu sorption isotherms fitted the Langmuir sorption model for all cases. Comparison of Cu and Cd uptake for biomass and bentonite showed a lower biomass uptake capacity but a considerably higher affinity of the biosorbent for the solute. The presence of kaolinite and palygorskite in the medium generally reduced both Cu and Cd sorption capacity and the metal-binding ability of the fungal–clay mixtures. In contrast, addition of bentonite into the medium did not appreciably alter the Cd sorption ability but increased the sorption of Cu by A pullulans and C cladosporioides grown in this medium. A common feature for all fungi grown in the presence of bentonite was an increase in the Cu sorption capacity (Qmax) of the biomineral sorbents and a reduction in their affinity (Langmuir parameter b) compared with control biomass. A difference between predicted and experimental data obtained for biomass grown on bentonite medium was also observed. The connection between the sorption capacity of biomass grown in clay-containing medium, mycelial morphology and the structure of fungal pellets is discussed and a mechanism for the changed sorption capacity of the combined biomineral sorbents is proposed which involves blocking or modification of binding sites on biotic and abiotic components of the 'biomineral' association.

© 2002 Society of Chemical Industry


Despite many advances in program comprehension, polymorphism and inheritance are still the cause of many misunderstandings in object-oriented code. In this paper, we present a suite of such concrete, recurrent patterns where particular ways of using inheritance and polymorphism can easily mislead developers and maintainers during software understanding activities. We define these as comprehension pitfalls. Furthermore, the paper describes a metric-based approach aimed to automatically detect such situations in code. The experimental results presented in this paper, based on three medium-sized systems, indicate that the identified comprehension pitfalls and the approach used to detect them are a promising support for maintenance.


Though teacher well‐being (TWB) has been decreasing over time, there is an identified lack of awareness in schools across England on how settings can support TWB. To address this gap, this study provides teachers with a space to share their conceptualizations of well‐being, evaluate current school‐level TWB provisions, and provide recommendations for ways that existing TWB support could be enhanced. Semi‐structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 16 primary school teachers across England. Reflexive thematic analytic findings indicated that participants defined well‐being in relation to their unique contexts, and cited some current school practices, including school and academy‐wide support and social support, as being effective for TWB. However, participants emphasized that they perceived current TWB provisions as tokenistic, which was suggested to be accentuated by poor understandings of TWB and pressures from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and COVID‐19. To address these issues, participants outlined the need for improvements in communication, the attitudes and approaches of Senior Leadership Teams toward TWB, increased provisions to both manage and decrease workload and increasing the amount of time that they have to meet expectations. Implications for policy and practice to enhance TWB are discussed.


Pulmonary manifestations of pyoderma gangrenosum are relatively rare. We report the case of a 45-year-old patient with multiple pulmonary nodules with central necrosis as assessed by CT scan. The patient had a 4-year history of pyoderma gangrenosum with only minor skin manifestations. A CT-guided, fine-needle biopsy of the lung revealed a nonspecific, inflammatory, aseptic necrotic process, which was comparable to the skin biopsy of one pyoderma lesion. Following the initiation of oral prednisolone therapy, a rapid resolution of the pulmonary nodules occurred. We conclude that pulmonary nodules represent a rare pulmonary manifestation of pyoderma gangrenosum.


The key concept of micromachining technologies is to extend the VLSI fabrication capability to realize three-dimensional microsystems which are composed of electrical, mechanical, chemical and optical elements. Using VLSI fabrication processes such as photolithography, film deposition and etching, it is possible to obtain sub-micrometer-precision structures in a large quantity with excellent alignment between each other. In addition, movable structures such as micro gears and motors can be made by surface micromachining processes. Precise V-grooves and moles going through the substrate can be etched bp dry and wet etching. Such micromachining technologies have the following implications for optical systems: integration of devices; accurate pre/passive alignment; feature size comparable to wavelength; arrayed and repetitive structures; wavelength independence; free-space optics with short propagation path; high sensitivity and fast response; local servo feedback; hermetic/vacuum packaging. Examples of these implications are given for a pigtailed silicon platform for integrating optical fibres and micromachined devices, and a 2D micro-optical scanner.


Cactus pear [Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.], commonly known as prickly pear or tuna, is a new crop in India although its spiny type, bearing very small fruits (locally called nagphani), is found wild in arid and semiarid plateau regions. Owing to its xerophytic characteristics and capability for greater conversion of water to dry matter than by either C3 or C4 plants through a specialized photosynthetic mechanism called Crassulacean acid metabolism (Felker et al, 1997; Mizrahi et al., 1997), it was considered as a potential crop species for the water-scarce arid parts of India. Also, cactus pear has multiple uses. It produces sweet, nutritionally rich edible fruits, its tender cladodes are used as fresh green vegetable and salad, mature cladodes or cactus stems are used as nutritive fodder for milch animals. The fruit, as well as cactus stem are used to prepare value-added products, such as jam, squash, wine, pickle, body lotions, shampoo, creams, etc. It also has several medicinal and industrial uses (Singh and Felker, 1998). In view of these characteristics and potentials of this species, collections of different clones were made. In this paper, the performance of these cactus pear clones in the arid region of northwestern India has been discussed.


Chance-constrained optimal power flow (CC-OPF) formulations have been proposed to minimize operational costs, while controlling the risk arising from uncertainties like renewable generation and load consumption. To solve CC-OPF, we often need access to the (true) joint probability distribution of all uncertainties, which is rarely known in practice. A solution based on a biased estimate of the distribution can result in poor reliability. To overcome this challenge, recent work has explored distributionally robust chance constraints, in which the chance constraints are satisfied over a family of distributions called the ambiguity set. Commonly, ambiguity sets are only based on moment information (e.g., mean and covariance) of the random variables; however, specifying additional characteristics of the random variables reduces conservatism and cost. Here, we consider ambiguity sets that additionally incorporate unimodality information. In practice, it is difficult to estimate the mode location from the data and so we allow it to be potentially misspecified. We formulate the problem and derive a separation-based algorithm to efficiently solve it. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the proposed approach on a modified IEEE-30 bus network with wind uncertainty and compare it with other distributionally robust approaches. We find that a misspecified mode significantly affects the reliability of the solution, and the proposed model demonstrates a good tradeoff between cost and reliability.


In clinical terms, compartment syndrome is caused by an increase in the pressure of the fluid within an anatomically defined compartment and is exacerbated by a decrease in the size or elasticity of the compartment 1. The causes of increased pressure include intracompartmental bleeding due to trauma, muscle contusion leading to extravasation of fluid into the compartment, or hypoxemia secondary to arterial or venous occlusion. There have, however, been various reports of spontaneous compartment syndrome in patients without a clear history of preceding trauma 2-6. We describe an unusual case of an eight-year-old girl who had spontaneous development of bilateral anterior compartment syndrome of the leg. Despite the initial complete paralysis of the anterior compartment muscles, early recognition and appropriate surgical decompression led to complete functional recovery of the affected muscles in both legs. The case of this patient emphasizes the importance of considering the diagnosis of compartment syndrome in patients with familial rhabdomyolysis who have development of myalgia, swelling, and muscle weakness.

An eight-year-old girl was in good health until two days prior to presentation, when pain and swelling developed in both legs. She was evaluated in a local hospital and then was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at our institution because of deteriorating renal function. Soon after she arrived, the pediatric orthopaedic team was consulted to evaluate the bilateral lower-extremity pain. There was no history of rash or drug ingestion prior to presentation and no evidence of intercurrent infections or illnesses.

The patient's brother had a similar clinical problem at the age of two years. He had swelling in the compartments of the upper and lower extremities and myalgias, which led to renal and cardiac failure with a fatal outcome.

The patient had a temperature of 36.8dC, a pulse rate of 140 …


The purpose of this research to know of aspiration of education, aspiration of career, aspiration of other nuptials or aspiration as temperature of the adolescent mud flow victim in Sidoarjo. In line with this research, the subject of the research the victim of the mud flow of Sidoarjo which is adolescent where live in evacuation of new market of Porong and also which has contracted house which amounts to 15 ( fifteen) people. The technique collecting data which were applied in the research were FGD. FGD technique were divided subject to become 2 ( two) group of FGD. The result of the technique are sentences, the analize data have been done by describe the words or sentences according to the information result of information or data obtained, the analysis named " descriptive analysis". The result from this have research is in victim of the mud flow of Sidoarjo is not only have one aspirations, they have another aspiration like aspiration of education, aspiration of work and aspiration of nuptials, but in victim of victim of the mud flow of Sidoarjo has another aspiration beside of education and work. The adolescent victim of the mud flow of Sidoarjo most of having aspiration of education and factor is background of overshadows because before the disaster happened adolescent has gone to school, in society there are a lot of support from the parents to make their children can back to school. But there are another aspiration that is most uppermost and hardly expected by the mud victim adolescent subject Sidoarjo is the competent and normal life, to realize the aspiration the adolescent meet resistance inexistence of cost.


We report the design of broadband highly reflective subwavelength high-index-contrast gratings (HCGs) for both TE and TM polarizations in the visible regime. Results show that high reflectivity above 99% covering 544–726 nm or 510–666 nm can be achieved, corresponding to a fractional bandwidth of Δλ/λ0 = 28.7% or 26.5% for the TM or TE polarization, respectively. We reveal that these broad high-reflectivity bands originate from a blend of multiple leaky modes, similar to the counterparts operating in the near-infrared regime. By investigating the effects of the grating height, period, and width, we find that the broadband high reflectivity requires careful optimization. We expect that this work will advance the engineering of broadband HCG reflectors and promote their applications in the visible regime.


Existing conditional video prediction approaches train a network from large databases and generalise to previously unseen data. We take the opposite stance, and introduce a model that learns from the first frames of a given video and extends its content and motion, to, e.g., double its length. To this end, we propose a dual network that can use in a flexible way both dynamic and static convolutional motion kernels, to predict future frames. We demonstrate experimentally the robustness of our approach on challenging videos in-the-wild and show that it is competitive w.r.t related baselines.


This paper describes the results of the analyses of High Level Waste (HLW) sludge slurry samples and of the calculations necessary to decay the radionuclides to meet the reporting requirement in the Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS) [1]. The concentrations of 45 radionuclides were measured. The results of these analyses provide input for radioactive decay calculations used to project the radionuclide inventory at the specified index years, 2015 and 3115. This information is necessary to complete the Production Records at Savannah River Site's Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) so that the final glass product resulting from Macrobatch 5 (MB5) can eventually be submitted to a Federal Repository. Five of the necessary input radionuclides for the decay calculations could not be measured directly due to their low concentrations and/or analytical interferences. These isotopes are Nb-93m, Pd-107, Cd-113m, Cs-135, and Cm-248. Methods for calculating these species from concentrations of appropriate other radionuclides will be discussed. Also the average age of the MB5 HLW had to be calculated from decay of Sr-90 in order to predict the initial concentration of Nb-93m. As a result of the measurements and calculations, thirty-one WAPS reportable radioactive isotopes were identified for MB5. The total activity of MB5 sludge solids will decrease from 1.6E+04 {micro}Ci (1 {micro}Ci = 3.7E+04 Bq) per gram of total solids in 2008 to 2.3E+01 {micro}Ci per gram of total solids in 3115, a decrease of approximately 700 fold. Finally, evidence will be given for the low observed concentrations of the radionuclides Tc-99, I-129, and Sm-151 in the HLW sludges. These radionuclides were reduced in the MB5 sludge slurry to a fraction of their expected production levels due to SRS processing conditions.


We present a modeling technique for the efficient broadband simulation of infrared HgCdTe-based focal plane arrays. The approach performs a single broadband FullWAVETM FDTD optical simulation and a series of discrete Fourier transforms for obtaining absorbed photon density profiles on a set of frequencies. These distributions are then aggregated, through a weighted average, and imported as a generation term into a single Sentaurus Device electrical simulation, which calculates the corresponding photocurrent and inter-pixel crosstalk. This technique can save an order of magnitude in memory and computation time compared to performing multiple monochromatic optical and electrical simulations.


Excello is a spreadsheet-based music composition and programming environment. We co-developed Excello with feedback from 21 musicians at varying levels of musical and computing experience. We asked: can the spreadsheet interface be used for programmatic music creation? Our design process encountered questions such as how time should be represented, whether amplitude and octave should be encoded as properties of individual notes or entire phrases, and how best to leverage standard spreadsheet features, such as formulae and copy-paste. We present the user-centric rationale for our current design, and report a user study suggesting that Excello's notation retains similar cognitive dimensions to conventional music composition tools, while allowing the user to write substantially complex programmatic music.


As a sequel paper to our study of the elastic scattering for electron collisions with phosphorus trifluoride, PF3 molecules, we report absolute inelastic differential and integral cross sections (DCS and ICS) of vibrational excitations for the compound fundamental vibrational modes v13 (v1 + v3), v24 (v2 + v4), and their sum in the impact energy range of 2.0-10 eV and over a scattering angle range of 20°-130°. The measured angular distributions of scattered electron intensities for the present inelastic scattering are normalized to the elastic peak intensity corresponding to the DCSs of He. These vibrational excitation measurements demonstrate the presence of resonances around 2 eV and also around 6-10 eV. In addition, a generalized oscillator strength analysis is applied to derive oscillator strength f0-values and (unscaled Born) ICSs from the corresponding DCSs measured for the low-lying optically allowed 8a1-1 → 7e (σ*) excitation band, which is assigned as the Jahn-Teller splitting and 8a1-1 → 4s Rydberg transition at impact energies of 100, 200, and 300 eV, over a scattering angle range of 1.0°-15°. The f0-values obtained in the present study are compared with the results of previous photoabsorption and pseudo-optical measurements. The unscaled Born ICSs are compared with the binary-encounter f-scaled Born ICSs estimated over a wide impact energy region from the excitation thresholds.


BACKGROUND
Deep venous refluxes play an important triggering role for the development of venous leg ulcers. Compression therapy is able to reduce these refluxes depending on pressure and the kind of material being used.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the efficacy of compression bandages of varying pressure and material (elastic, long-stretch versus inelastic, short-stretch bandages, four-layer bandages).

METHODS
Venous volume (VV) and venous filling index (VFI) as a quantitative parameter of venous reflux were measured using an airplethysmograph (APG) in a total of 21 patients presenting with venous leg ulcers and deep venous refluxes. Bandage pressure was measured in every experiment. The influence of elastic and inelastic bandages with increasing pressure and the changes in these parameters using different bandages with the same pressure were investigated.

RESULTS
The initial median value of VFI without compression was 8.45 ml/sec. VV and VFI were significantly reduced by increasing external pressure, more strongly with inelastic than with elastic material. With a pressure of 25 mmHg inelastic bandages diminished VFI to a median of 3.25 ml/sec while the elastic material did not even approach this value with a pressure of 40 mmHg (4.25 ml/sec). Applying bandages of different material with the same pressure of 30 mmHg, the most intense reduction of VV and VFI was obtained by inelastic and by four-layer bandages. The effect on venous reflux was statistically significantly superior with inelastic compared to elastic material.

CONCLUSION
Using the same bandage pressure, inelastic material is more effective at reducing deep venous refluxes than elastic bandages in patients with venous ulcers. Four-layer bandages show similar efficacy to inelastic bandages.


Received: Revised: Accepted: June 10, 2013 September 11, 2013 September 15, 2013 The cytogenetic effect of heavy metal was studied in Clarias gariepinus using the micronucleus test, chromosomal aberrations and sister chromatid exchange. The fish were kept separately and treated with four different concentrations of mercuric chloride for a period of 7 days. For the micronucleus test blood samples were obtained from the caudal vein. The mean micronuclei frequencies were recorded as 0.20, 0.25, 0.50, 0.65 and 0.79 in controls and 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 ppm in groups treated with mercuric chloride, respectively. Kidney tissues were used for in vivo chromosome preparation. The mean frequencies of cells with chromosomal aberrations were 0.21, 0.32, 0.49, 0.70 and 0.97 in the control and 1, 3, 5 and 7 ppm in groups treated with mercuric chloride, respectively. Similarly, the mean frequencies of sister chromatid exchange were recorded as 0.10, 0.28, 0.47, 0.58 and 0.64 in controls and 1, 3, 5 and 7 ppm in groups treated with mercuric chloride, respectively. The findings of present experiment suggest that HgCl2 caused genotoxic effects in fish. ©2013 PVJ. All rights reserved


Background Spatial transcriptomics (STs) simultaneously obtains the location and amount of gene expression within a tissue section. However, current methods like FindMarkers calculated the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) based on the classical statistics, which should abolish the spatial information. Materials and methods A new method named spatial analysis of spatial transcriptomics (saSpatial) was developed for both the location and the amount of gene expression. Then saSpatial was applied to detect DEGs in both inter- and intra-cross sections. DEGs detected by saSpatial were compared with those detected by FindMarkers. Results Spatial analysis of spatial transcriptomics was founded on the basis of spatial statistics. It was able to detect DEGs in different regions in the normal brain section. As for the brain with ischemic stroke, saSpatial revealed the DEGs for the ischemic core and penumbra. In addition, saSpatial characterized the genetic heterogeneity in the normal and ischemic cortex. Compared to FindMarkers, a larger number of valuable DEGs were found by saSpatial. Conclusion Spatial analysis of spatial transcriptomics was able to effectively detect DEGs in STs data. It was a simple and valuable tool that could help potential researchers to find more valuable genes in the future research.


Abstract
The main problem of this study was: is it significantly effective to teach reading comprehension by applying of asking stage strategy. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to find out whether or not it is significantly effective to teach reading comprehension by applying of asking stage strategy to the seventh grade students. Method used was pre-experimental method with one group pre-test post-test design. Population was all of the seventh grade students at SMP Negeri 5 Lubuklinggau which consisted of 8 classes with 261 students. Sample of this study was taken by using cluster random sampling, with number of sample 35 students. Data were collected through test consisting 20 items of multiple choices. The obtained data were analyzed through three techniques: 1) Individual Score, 2) conversion of score range, 3) the matched t-test. There were three major findings in this study, they are: (1) students' mean score in the pre-test was (67.14), (2) students' mean score in the post-test was (79.29), and (3) the result of matched t-test calculation should that t obtained was (6.75), which is higher than 1.697 as the critical value of the t table for degree of freedom 34 (35-1) with 95% significant level for one-tailed test. It can be concluded that the null-hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. The fact shows that it was significantly effective to apply asking stage strategy for teaching reading comprehension for the seventh grade students at SMP Negeri 5 Lubuklinggau.


I. INTRODUCTION AND POSSIBLE ETIOLOGIC FACTORS Polycythemia vera in its numerous manifestations and course lends itself readily to a discussion of physiopathologic principles. Fundamentally, the disease may be considered as a disorder of the bone marrow characterized by an excessive production of blood cells by all the marrow elements, i. e., the nucleated red cells, the granulocytes and the megakaryocytes. To use Greek terms, there is panmyelopathy, which in turn results in pancytosis. The cause of the great and continuous blood production is obscure, but its results lead to many diverse manifestations which, as they are better understood, should lead to better control of the disease. A large body of knowledge has accumulated in recent years relating to the various substances required for erythropoiesis. Thus, iron, "liver extract factor" (now almost certainly vitamin B 12 ), certain other constituents of the vitamin B complex, including folic acid, certain amino acids and


BACKGROUND
Psychotic depression is widely accepted as a specific subtype of unipolar major depression. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have begun to investigate the neurobiological changes that differentiate this subtype of major depression from non-psychotic depression. Any differences may eventually be useful in aiding diagnosis patients for whom there is diagnostic uncertainty. This review collates the currently available evidence.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
A systematic search of the Medline, PubMed, Embase & Web of Science databases was used to identify all articles comparing structural grey matter or functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) differences between adults (18+) with previously diagnosed psychotic and nonpsychotic depression in predefined regions of interest (hippocampus, amygdala, cingulate, insula & frontal cortices). The results were collated and organised according to brain region.

RESULTS
There is a paucity of studies addressing structural and functional changes differentiating these two disorders and recommendations regarding use of these modalities in diagnosis cannot be made. From the available studies decreases in frontal cortex grey matter volumes may differentiate psychotic from non-psychotic depression whilst further studies are required to confirm decreases in insula cortex volumes. fMRI studies show associations between altered activity in these two regions and cognitive impairments in patients with psychotic depression. The volumes of putative emotional processing regions including the amygdala, hippocampus and anterior cingulate show no difference between psychotic and nonpsychotic depression.

CONCLUSIONS
Structural and functional changes in the higher associative regions of the frontal and insular cortices appear to differentiate psychotic and nonpsychotic depression to a greater degree than changes in putative emotional processing regions. The quality of the evidence both in terms of numbers of studies available and sample sizes involved is very poor but in regard to directing future study, understanding the neurobiology of psychotic depression may benefit from a more detailed assessment of these two regions.


Through a phenomenologically-inspired approach, the purpose of this article is to examine the different ways in which sportspeople experience asthma, a condition that affects 5.4 million people in the UK. To date, sociological phenomenology has been under-utilised both in relation to health and illness experiences and vis-a-vis sporting embodiment. Drawing on in-depth interview data from non-elite sportspeople (n = 14), all of whom had been diagnosed with asthma, ranging in degree of severity, here we explore asthma sporting embodiment via a threefold asthma identity typology. The findings are communicated through vignettes, assembled from participants' accounts, in order to highlight the multifaceted and multilayered 'voices' of sportspeople with asthma. Transforming data in this way can, we argue, resonate with others – both those with asthma and those without – to give a 'feel' for asthma experiences and sporting embodiment. This form of typology may be useful as a heuristic framework to assist healthcare and sports professionals in understanding asthma experiences as lived in everyday life, and potentially in developing more appropriate and effective care regimes for sportspeople in order to improve the quality of that everyday life.


Background Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious nervous system condition that can cause lifelong disability. The aim of this study was to identify potential molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets for SCI. Material/Methods We constructed a weighted gene coexpression network and predicted which hub genes are involved in SCI. A compression model of SCI was established in 45 Sprague-Dawley rats, which were divided into 5 groups (n=9 per group): a sham operation group, and 1, 3, 5, and 7 days post-SCI groups. The spinal cord tissue on the injured site was harvested on 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after SCI and 3 days after surgery in the sham operation group. High-throughput sequencing was applied to investigate the expression profile of the mRNA in all samples. Differentially expressed genes were screened and included in weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA). Co-expressed modules and hub genes were identified by WGCNA. The biological functions of each module were investigated using the Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases. Results According to the RNA-seq data, a total of 1965 differentially expressed genes were screened, and WGCNA identified 10 coexpression modules and 5 hub genes. Module function analysis revealed that SCI was associated with immune response, cell division, neuron projection development, and collagen fibril organization. Conclusions Our study revealed dynamic changes in a variety of biological processes following SCI and identified 5 hub genes via WGCNA. These results provide insights into the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets of SCI.


This paper describes a case study to find the location of the voltage sag source at a petroleum industrial facility where sags are causing undesired trips on critical loads. The network that supplies this industrial facility is operated by basically two transmission and distribution utilities. Therefore, finding the location of the disturbance source is a first step in mitigation and decisive in allocating responsibilities.


Time of flight based Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging approaches require precise calibration of illumination and detector positions on the visible scene to produce reasonable results. If this calibration error is sufficiently high, reconstruction can fail entirely without any indication to the user. In this work, we highlight the necessity of building autocalibration into NLOS reconstruction in order to handle mis-calibration. We propose a forward model of NLOS measurements that is differentiable with respect to both, the hidden scene albedo, and virtual illumination and detector positions. With only a mean squared error loss and no regularization, our model enables joint reconstruction and recovery of calibration parameters by minimizing the measurement residual using gradient descent. We demonstrate our method is able to produce robust reconstructions using simulated and real data where the calibration error applied causes other state of the art algorithms to fail.