Text: As part of the USDA Conservation Effectiveness Assessment Program (CEAP), we are studying the effectiveness of conservation practices at the watershed scale using data from Paradise Creek watershed, located near the town of Moscow in northern Idaho. Using these data and geo-spatial modeling, we examine how watershed restoration in a mixed-land use watershed can be optimized by considering its biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. We report on progress towards cumulative effects modeling and integration of socio-economic data and physical data. In this presentation, our objective is to provide an overview and status update of the following activities in the project: geo-spatial modeling of soil loss and sediment delivery using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model, sediment transport in the stream using CONCEPTS, as well as interdisciplinary analyses of the physical, economic and social data. In the cumulative effects modeling, we show effectiveness at the field scale and watershed scale, with emphasis on the time lag. In the integrated modeling framework, our project evaluates different management scenarios to arrive at the optimal suite of practices at the watershed scale. We briefly introduce a regional survey conducted during year three of the project, with reference to poster presentations at the meeting.


This paper responds to the Alpine Rendez-Vous (ARV) 'crisis' in technology enhanced learning (TEL). It takes a contested area of policy, rapid change in the National Health Service (NHS), and documents the responses to 'information overload' by group of General Practitioners Practices in the North of England. Located between the spaces identified by Traxler and Lally as 'competitive industrialisation' and Web 1.0, and the consumer/ customer focus and ubiquitous ownership enabled by portable and devices and web 2.0, in this work we see the parallels of the responses of publicly funded bodies moving towards privatisation as part of a neo-liberal agenda. Interviews with health professionals revealed marginalized spaces for informal learning in their workplaces; and a desire to build a community that would enable them to overcome the time/space barriers to networking. The EU Learning Layers Integrating Project develops mobile and social technologies that unlock and enable peer production within and across traditional workplace boundaries. Through the health professional narratives, we capture insights into their daily life, enable the articulation of their needs for an online 'Help-Seeking' networking service, underpinned by their desire to consult what Vygotsky calls 'the more capable peer'.


We present a multivariate fitting method to determine the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients of turbid biological tissue, from diffuse reflectance spatial distribution in the range of 0.4 to 2mm. This range of distance is about 0.5 to 5 times the reduced mean free path for most of the optical parameters we measure. Monte Carlo simulation provides numerical estimates of reflectance profiles for a limited set of optical parameter combinations. This forms a Osampling gridO of the forward mapping from the two dimensional space of absorption and scattering coefficients to the reflectance profiles represented by N values. Through interpolation and least square fitting, in the inverse process the optical parameters can be determined with finer resolution than the sampling grid. We present a few strategies to search for the least square fit, including one step and iterative refinement. The precision of absorption and scattering coefficients is affected by the number of detection points, measurement errors, forward mapping grid points, and Monte Carlo simulation statistical errors. There is a trade-off between the resolution of optical coefficients and computation time or memory. Examples of tissue phantoms and in vivo skin optical property determination are presented.


ing with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from firstname.lastname@example.com. © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery. 2378-962X/2020/12-ART6 $15.00 https://doi.org/10.1145/3404500 ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems, Vol. 5, No. 1, Article 6. Publication date: December 2020. 6:2 H. Rathore et al. ACM Reference format: Heena Rathore, Abhay Samant, and Murtuza Jadliwala. 2020. TangleCV: A Distributed Ledger Technique for Secure Message Sharing in Connected Vehicles. ACM Trans. Cyber-Phys. Syst. 5, 1, Article 6 (December 2020), 25 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3404500


This presentation is about a project that I had given some of my students including Chris Hornisch and Muhammad Chowdhury from the past few years while teaching at Winona State University. After giving calculus and numerical analysis students a sequence of different small projects involving technology, it occurred to me that, out of a collection of these mini-projects, we could have one single project for numerical analysis students that would highlight different numerical techniques for finding approximate solutions for different classes of mathematical problems. The plan was for an exercise that would make the students work with modeling and take advantage of technology. I had wanted to include modeling as one of the tasks to help reinforce the notion that actual physical applications do provide a backdrop for certain mathematical ideas. On the whole, this is not a project I would have required had we not the computing tools that we have today.


The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a scaffold of glycoproteins and proteoglycans that stabilizes cells and synapses, thereby limiting synaptic remodeling. The appearance of specialized ECM structures called perineuronal nets closes the critical period of elevated synaptic plasticity during development. But assembly and disassembly of ECM occurs locally in adults, and this might regulate the balance between retention of old memories and formation of new ones. To test this hypothesis, Niekisch et al. trained mice on an auditory discrimination task in which one sound preceded the administration of an electric shock and a different sound indicated that no shock would be administered; mice learned to move to another part of the cage to avoid shock in response to these signals. The authors measured levels of the ECM protein brevican at multiple stages of learning: the avoidance stage, ending when mice learned that sound predicted shock but did not yet discriminate between the two sounds; the acquisition stage, ending when mice began to discriminate the sounds; the retrieval stage, after mice had discriminated sounds for several days; and the long-term recall stage, 4 weeks after successful learning. They also measured protein levels in mice that failed to learn the task and mice that were exposed to unpaired sounds and shocks. Brevican levels differed across training stages, and the pattern of changes differed depending on brain area (hippocampus or auditory cortex), protein state (full-length or cleaved), and localization (soluble or associated with cell membranes). The level of membrane-associated cleaved brevican was reduced in both the auditory cortex and hippocampusduringall stagesoftraining,butnot at the long-term recall stage. Levels of soluble fragments were significantly reduced only in animals that failed to learn the task. In contrast, levels of soluble full-length brevican increased during the retrieval stage selectively in auditorycortex.The levelwaspositivelycorrelated with the degree to which animals discriminated sounds and did not change in animals that failed to learn. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ECM remodeling occurs during learning. In particular, reduced levels of membrane-associated brevican during a salient event may enable synaptic plasticity. The production and secretion of new full-length brevican may then stabilize synaptic changes, enabling consolidation and long-term retention.


The effects of the stereospecificity of a polymer chain and of the interaction in polypropylene (PP) solutions on the relation between liquid-liquid phase separation and crystallization were investigated by using an isotactic PP (i-PP) and a syndiotactic PP (s-PP) of high stereoregularity and of similar molar mass. Dialkyl phthalate was used as a solvent. A series of dialkyl phthalates with a different number of carbon atoms in the alkyl chain was employed to control the interaction between polymer and solvent. Phase transition temperatures were measured by optical microscopy with a hot stage. Liquid-liquid phase separation temperature (TL-L) in the system of i-PP and dihexyl phthalate was located below its melting temperature (Tm). However, TL-L for the s-PP system in the same solvent was elevated much above its Tm due to a decreased Tm and increased TL-L. The reduced solubility of s-PP is primarily attrib- uted to enhanced hydrophobicity arising from alternate positioning of the methyl groups along the polymer chain. As the length of the alkyl chain in the phthalate increases, TL-L decreases significantly and Tm decreases slightly, resulting in the value of TL-L shifting below that of Tm for the solution of s-PP and dinonyl phthalate. q 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 67: 159-163, 1998


Background: Plasma exchange is first-line therapy for patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Splenectomy is often indicated for patients with relapsing or refractory disease. Concerns exist about its efficacy and safety in these patients. We describe a series of patients whose TTP was treated with laparoscopic splenectomy. We also reviewed the literature in order to describe the use and safety of splenectomy for refractory or relapsing TTP. Methods: We reviewed the charts of consecutive patients with TTP referred for splenectomy and searched MEDLINE for studies describing outcomes following splenectomy for relapsing or refractory TTP. Results: In all, 5 patients were referred for relapsing TTP and underwent uneventful laparoscopic splenectomy. All 5 were in remission after more than 40 months of follow-up. We found 18 studies (87 patients) reporting the results of splenectomy for relapsing TTP and 15 studies (74 patients) involving patients who underwent splenectomy for refractory TTP. The aggregate complication (6% v. 10%) and mortality rates (1.2% v. 5 %) were lower for patients who received treatment for relapsing versus refractory TTP. The rate of postsplenectomy relapse among patients with relapsing disease was 17%, whereas the nonresponse rate was 8% for patients with refractory TTP. There were no complications among the 22 laparoscopic cases reported. Conclusion: Although the data supporting splenectomy for treatment of TTP are limited to case series with no control groups, they suggest that splenectomy is an option for patients with refractory or relapsing disease. When performed laparoscopically in patients with relapsing disease, splenectomy is associated with minimal morbidity and mortality.


We describe a case of small cell carcinoma of the lung presenting as a mediastinal mass detected incidentally on transthoracic echocardiography and nuclear SPECT imaging.


Low temperature scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X‐ray fluorescent microanalysis were applied to bulk potato tissue samples. Morphological changes and relative distributions for K, P, S and CI were evaluated at various stages of starch gelatinization. Mineral movements into the starch granules were observed as gelatinization took place. Commercially extracted potato starch granules were observed and analysed at low temperatures. Also, these granules were cracked by raising the stage temperature to 153 K. Ice crystal growth appears to induce cracks in a radial and tangential manner along sites of weakness in a pattern that is supportive of the theory of complex starch granule formation.


Using 13X molecular sieve modified by CuSO4 impregnation method as adsorbent,the adsorption characteristics of H2S and PH3 mixture were experimentally studied at 20 60 ℃,in oxygen-free or micro-oxygen(1%,volume fraction) ambience.The results show that in the absence of oxygen,the adsorption process of H2S and PH3 is mainly physisorption,and with trace oxygen the adsorption process of H2S is the same as the former.However,that of PH3 is mainly chemisorption,the isosteric heat of adsorption decreases with the increase of adsorption capacity,the isosteric heat of adsorption is 33.33 51.01 kJ/mol calculated by Clausius-Clapeyron equation.


Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy in conjunction with second-order auto-correlation measurements of g2(τ) allows to extensively study the synchronization of photon emitters in low-dimensional structures. Co-existing excitons in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers provide a great source of identical photon emitters which can be simultaneously excited by an electron. Here, we demonstrate large photon bunching with g2(0) up to 156±16 of a tungsten disulfide monolayer (WS2), exhibiting a strong dependence on the electron-beam current. To further improve the excitation synchronization and the electron-emitter interaction, we show exemplary that the careful selection of a simple and compact geometry—a thin, monocrystalline gold nanodisk—can be used to realize a record-high bunching g2(0) of up to 2152±236 . This approach to control the electron excitation of excitons in a WS2 monolayer allows for the synchronization of photon emitters in an ensemble, which is important to further advance light information and computing technologies.


In November 2008 Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook Phase 2 of an archaeological field evaluation at Radlett 500, Colney Street, St Albans on behalf of Bilton plc. This revealed no archaeological deposits.


Adsorption of CO on Pd/WO3-ZrO2 sample at 85 K results in formation of carbonyls typical of the support as well as of Pd3+-CO species (2212 cm−1). The latter are masked by the strong Zr4+-CO band. Even at 90 K the Pd3+ sites are reduced to Pd2+
(the respective carbonyls absorbing at 2184 cm−1) and, at higher temperatures, to Pd+
(carbonyl bands at 2145 and 2139 cm−1) and Pd0. Adsorption of NO on a CO precovered sample results in formation of Pd2+-NO complexes (1850 cm−1) that are stable towards evacuation. Subsequent CO adsorption leads to the appearance of mixed Pd2+(CO)(NO) complexes (νCO at 2150 cm−1 and νNO at 1803 cm−1). Decrease of the CO equilibrium pressure and evacuation result in decomposition of these species to CO and Pd2+-NO nitrosyls. The existence of some mixed complexes with the participation of Pd3+ cations is also proposed.


Objective To observe the effect of mental skill training on social adaptability for chronic schizophrenia.Method Divide 80 patients with schizophrenia into observation group and control group equally according to hospitalizing order.All of the patients receive treatment by antipsychotic drugs and routine psychiatrical nursing care.Patients in observation group receive mental skill training based on the therapy above.Assess the patients in two groups by Social Dysfunction Screening Scale(SDSS) and Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation(NOSIE) at admission and discharge.Result There is significant difference on the assessment between two groups at discharge(P0.05).But there is no significant difference between two groups at admission(P0.05).Conclusion Mental skill training can improve the social adaptability for chronic schizophrenia.


Apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) of tissue water were determined in chronic brain lesions of a rat stroke model, stroke‐prone spontaneously hypertensive rats and compared with histology. ADCs increased in the order control < edema < gliosis < cyst. The differences between individual groups were statistically significant. The increase in ADC is thought to mainly reflect a relative increase in the extracellular space in brain tissue. ADC values may be a clinically useful parameter for tissue characterization.


Availability of state Medicaid coverage for abortion is associated with decreased abortion appointment wait times, abortion earlier in the first trimester, and decreased patient travel time. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between state Medicaid coverage for abortion and abortion access measures among U.S. patients. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Guttmacher Institute's 2014 Abortion Patient Survey. Respondents were included if they reported being enrolled in Medicaid, regardless of whether Medicaid covered the abortion. The exposure was self-report of residence in a state where Medicaid can be used to pay for abortion. Access outcomes included more than 14 days' wait time between decision for abortion and abortion appointment, presentation at more than 10 weeks of gestation when in the first trimester, and travel time more than 60 minutes to the clinic. Multivariable regression was performed to test the association between state Medicaid abortion coverage and dichotomous access outcomes, controlling for patient demographics. RESULTS: Of 2,579 respondents enrolled in Medicaid who reported state of residence, 1,694 resided in states with Medicaid coverage for abortion and 884 resided in states without Medicaid coverage for abortion. Patients residing in states with Medicaid coverage for abortion had lower odds and rates of waiting more than 14 days between deciding to have an abortion and the appointment (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.70; 95% CI 0.57–0.85, 66.8% vs 74.1%, P<.001), having abortions at more than 10 weeks of gestation when in the first trimester (aOR 0.62; 95% CI 0.49–0.80, 13.6% vs 20.1%, P<.001), and traveling more than 60 minutes to the abortion clinic (aOR 0.63; 95% CI 0.51–0.78, 18.7% vs 27.6%, P<.001) when compared with patients residing in states without Medicaid coverage for abortion. CONCLUSION: Availability of state Medicaid coverage for abortion is associated with increased abortion access. Our findings support repealing the Hyde Amendment to promote equitable access to reproductive health care, particularly in the post-Roe era.


We present a lattice QCD determination of the distribution amplitude (DA) of the pion and the first few Mellin moments from an analysis of the quasi-DA matrix element within the leading-twist framework. We perform our study on a HISQ ensemble with a = 0 . 076 fm lattice spacing with the Wilson-clover valence quark mass tuned to the physical point. We analyze the ratios of pion quasi-DA matrix elements at short distances using the leading-twist Mellin operator product expansion (OPE) at the next-to-leading order and the conformal OPE at the leading-logarithmic order. We find a robust result for the first non-vanishing Mellin moment (cid:104) x 2 (cid:105) = 0 . 287(6)(6) at a factorization scale µ = 2 GeV. We also present different Ans¨atze-based reconstructions of the x -dependent DA, from which we determine the perturbative leading-twist expectations for the pion electromagnetic and gravitational form-factors at large momentum transfers.


Abstract The syntheses of 4,4′-(1,n-dioxaalkane)-bis(α-methoxyphenylacetic acids) were conducted using a base-catalyzed reaction. The reactants were potassium hydroxide (or lithium hydroxide/lithium chloride), bromoform, methanol and 4,4′-(1,n-dioxaalkane)-bisbenzaldehydes. The aldehyde starting materials were prepared using the Williamson ether synthesis, by condensing p-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 1,n-dibromoalkanes with lithium hydride in ethanol. The effect of varying the hydrocarbon length in the dioxaalkane bridge unit is a significant consideration (the number of CH2 units in the bridge varying from two to eight) in their acid salt formation. †Current address: D-54Z, R-13, Abbott Laboratories, 1401 Sheridan Road, North Chicago, IL 60064-4000.


This paper addresses some of the topics in the current debate about the genesis of Neolithic civilizations in the Middle East: the sedentarization process beginning with the Epipaleolithic, the move from circular to quadrangular buildings, the appearance of buildings intended for collective use, and the establishment of a vast cultural complex in the ninth and eighth millennia BCE (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), which was characterized by vigorous trade and the emergence of social gradations. The paper discusses the conceptual and symbolic factors on the one hand and the economic factors (cultivation, animal husbandry) on the other that help explain the transition. It then moves on to explore how a production economy spread in northern Africa, and particularly in the Mediterranean and in southern Europe, and what part indigenous populations played in that process. Finally, it looks at the evolution of Neolithic communities towards increasingly complex and organized societies. The amount of archaeological data available means it is now possible to go beyond merely "reading" the material to suggesting valid historical scenarios for the period.


Objective: The aim of this research work was to study the in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of the methanolic leaf extract of Litsea quinqueflora (Dennst.) Suresh. Methods: Methanolic extract of the powdered leaves was subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening as per the standard protocols of Trease and Evans. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by HRBC membrane stabilization method with slight modifications. Results: Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids, tannins, terpenoids, anthraquinones, phenols, reducing sugars and carbohydrates. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity was tested using various concentrations of the extract such as 400, 800, 1200, 1600 and 2000 µg/ml along with standard drug ibuprofen. As the concentration of the extract increased the anti-inflammatory property also increased and a maximum of 96.5% inhibition of red cell lyses was reported in 2000 µg/mlof the extract and the response was monophasic. Statistical analysis using one way ANOVA showed that the variations with respect to percentage of protection and drug concentration between and within groups were significant at 5% level (p<0.05). Conclusion: On the basis of the present investigation it could be inferred that the methanolic extract of Litsea quinqueflora leaves possesses significant anti-inflammatory activity. Ongoing studies using cell lines could throw more light on the in vitro anti-inflammatory property and detailed phytochemical investigation could identify the exact compound responsible for it. The plant therefore could be considered as a natural source of membrane stabilizers and is capable of providing an alternative remedy for the treatment of inflammatory disorders.


Branding is a managed process of the trade mark transformation into a brand. During the research aimed to form the trade mark branding instruments the author has come to the conclusion that this subject area is not only an economic category today, but also a socioeconomic one. The article considers the branding as the socioeconomic category impacting substantially the modern society.


The grammaticalization of verbs meaning 'say' and 'do', in periphrastic constructions traditionnally named 'descriptive compounds' allows transcategorial and intracategorial derivation, leading to more or less deep reorganizations of the verbal systems. This is a recurring phenomenon, attested over a period of five milleniums, in Afroasiatic languages. The issue is dealt with from a syntactic, morphological, semantic, diachronic, typological and areal perspective in dead and living languages of North-East Africa, genetically linked or not (Cushitic, Omotic, Afro-Semitic, Egyptian, Coptic, a Nilo-Saharan language and Nubian). The study in then extended to some Saharan and Chadic languages spoken further in Central Africa where the phenomenon has not always been recognized as such. A typological classification is proposed. The sudy shows that the use of descriptive compounds is linked to inter-subjective modalities but not to any TAM value, and that it is possible to find synchronically all the stages of the grammaticalization process.


Fine layering is known to cause both seismic attenuation and VTI-anisotropy. In typical geological environments, the contrast in elastic properties of adjacent layers rarely exceeds 30% so that the layer-induced effects are negligible. However, it's not true for the overburden of Northern Carnarvon basin (Northwest shelf of Western Australia) that is characterized by very stiff carbonates alternated with more porous and softer rocks. In this paper, we present a workflow for preliminary analysis of seismic wavefield and, in particular, effects of layer-induced scattering attenuation and anisotropy in the target area. The workflow is based on the walk-away VSP full-wave modelling (5-100 Hz) for the flat-layered elastic models that are constructed using logs of four wells, namely, Dampier 1, Parker 1, Wilcox 2 and Withnell 1. We show that particular sequences with carbonates produce significant amplitude loss and degradation of spectrum of a transient seismic pulse. Maximum attenuation is observed for Withnell 1 borehole and is characterized by the drop of 30% in the centroid frequency in the 200 m interval. Anellipticity parameter n is estimated by fitting of the moveout curves and varies from 0.1 to 1.5. In addition, the modelling reveals a very complex wavetrain with energetic reflected and converted waves at large offsets. All these effects should be taken into account in seismic processing and imaging.


Serum thyrotropin (TSH) values in normal adults and patients with thyroid disorders were estimated by radioimmunoassay with the double antibody technique , using HTSH Radioimmunoassay kit (supplied from Daiichi Radioisotope Laboratories , Ltd.) The values in 30 normal adults ranged from undetectable (<2 pUfml) to 7.8 ,u1 / ml, and 10 of them were undetectable. In cases with untreated thyroid disorders, TSH values in 25 patients with Graves' disease ranged from undetectable (18 cases, 72%) to 4.4 , 2U/ml; in 14 patients with hypothyroidism due to chronic thyroiditis, from 105 to 260 pU/m1; in 15 euthyroid with chronic thyroiditis, from undetectable (3 cases, 20%) to 105 ,aU/ml; in 14 with simple goiter , from undetectable (7 cases, 50%) to 44 pU/m1; in 37 with follicular adenoma , from undetectable (10 cases, 27%) to 10.3 pU/m1; and in 11 with thyroid carcinoma , from undetectable (4 cases, 36%) to 7.3 pU/ml. The patients with Graves' disease had significantly lower TSH levels than the normal adults and other patients with thyroid disorders (p< 0.05). Serum TSH values were estimated in the patients with Graves' disease during tithyroid drug therapy who were classified as hyperthyroid, euthyroid and hypothyroid . The TSH values in 71 hyperthyroid patients during antithyroid drug therapy , were distributed the same as untreated Graves' disease (p<0.05). But the TSH values in 66 euthyroid patients ranged from undetectable (26 cases, 39%) to 175 pU/ml , and in 6 hypothyroid, from 5.2 to 59 pU/ml. In the patients treated with subtotal thyroidectomy for Graves' disease, the TSH levels changed as follows: in 15 cases continued hyperthyroid within 1 month after operation, were distributed in the same way as untreated cases (p<0.05) ; in 44 cases continued euthyroid within 1 month after operation ranged from undetectable (21 cases, 48%) to 160 pU/m1; in 37 euthyroid continued over 6 months, from undetectable (5 cases, 14%) to 180 pU/m1; in 29 patients developed hypothyroid within 6 months after operation , from undetectable to 340 pU/ml, and 14 of them were within normal range (<10 pU/m1) . Adn of 7 hypothyroid over 6 months after operation, from 81 to 170 pU/ml. In 8 euthyroid patients treated with radioiodine for Graves' disease more than 12 months previously, 6 of them had undetectable TSH values . During triiodothyronine or desiccated thyroid therapy for chronic thyroiditis , serum TSH values in 43 euthyroid patients ranged from undetectable to 450 pU/ml , and in 14 hypothyroid ranged from undetectable to 152 pU/ml . (See pp. 1135-,-1146)


Simple Summary In marine turtles, sex is determined during a precise period during incubation: males are produced at lower temperatures and females at higher temperatures, a phenomenon called temperature-dependent sex determination. Most predictions about the long-term persistence of sea turtle populations in the face of climate change have focused on the effect of incubation temperature on sex ratios. In Central America, the alternations in dark sand beaches (hotter sand) and light sand beaches (cooler sand) are observed. Due to the higher production of females at high temperatures and the natal homing phenomenon in marine turtles, the largest proportion of nests on dark sand beaches was expected. However, the inverse was observed. We hypothesize that high beach temperatures, being seen in darker sand, increased female-biased primary sex ratios but reduced the output of female hatchlings due to embryo thermal lethality at high temperature. Our study reveals that when we think about sea turtle population dynamics, we should consider a variety of factors and not only sex ratio. Abstract In marine turtles, sex is determined during a precise period during incubation: males are produced at lower temperatures and females at higher temperatures, a phenomenon called temperature-dependent sex determination. Nest temperature depends on many factors, including solar radiation. Albedo is the measure of the proportion of reflected solar radiation, and in terms of sand color, black sand absorbs the most energy, while white sand reflects more solar radiation. Based on this observation, darker sand beaches with higher temperatures should produce more females. As marine turtles show a high degree of philopatry, including natal homing, dark beaches should also produce more female hatchlings that return to nest when mature. When sand color is heterogeneous in a region, we hypothesize that darker beaches would have the most nests. Nevertheless, the high incubation temperature on beaches with a low albedo may result in low hatching success. Using Google Earth images and the SWOT database of nesting olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea) in the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America, we modeled sand color and nesting activity to test the hypothesis that darker beaches host larger concentrations of females because of feminization on darker beaches and female philopatry. We found the opposite result: the lower hatching success at beaches with a lower albedo could be the main driver of nesting activity heterogeneity for olive ridleys in Central America.


Conditions of older care recipients and their care providers are supposed to affect each other, in light of a dialectical perspective. A possibility is the reciprocal influences between a care recipient's quality of life and his or her care provider's burnout. A study of the possibility surveyed 232 Hong Kong Chinese older care recipients, their professional care providers, and primary informal caregivers twice in two consecutive years. Results showed that the professional's earlier burnout, but not the informal caregiver's earlier burnout, had a negative effect on the elder's quality of life later. Furthermore, the influence of the professionals' burnout partly relied on the mediation of professional encouragement for the elder's community participation. The elder's earlier quality of life (i.e., low physical dependence) also manifested a negative effect on the professional's later burnout but not on the informal caregiver's later burnout. These results suggest that interpersonal influence springs from the older care recipient on the professional care provider, but not on the informal caregiver.


This study aimed to perform the SWOT Internal and external strategic analysis of intramural programs of Islamic Azad Universities in North West of Iran. This was a descriptive case study. The population consisted of all physical education managers of Islamic Azad Universities in North West of Iran (N=36). Due to limited population, all 36 managers were selected as a sample. The data were collected through interview, questionnaire, library content, and literature review. The researcher-made questionnaire consisted of 50 questions about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of intramural programs of Islamic Azad Universities in North West of Iran. Its validity was confirmed by a number of experts; also, its reliability was confirmed by using Cronbach's alpha (alpha = 96%). After collecting the data, the factors were ranked. Based on the findings, the intramural programs of Islamic Azad Universities in North West of Iran have 72 units and a total of 199368 students. The strategic position was determined to be in WT in SWOT matrix. The organizations which determine WT strategies are defensive; they aim to reduce internal weaknesses and avoid threats of the external environment. After determining strategic position, the WO, WT, SO, and ST were developed.


A bottleneck-based decomposition heuristic algorithm is proposed for dealing with computational complexity in large-scale flow shop scheduling problems.Based on the characteristic of bottleneck,the flow shop is decomposed into bottleneck and non-bottleneck machines.A single-machine scheduling problem with release time and delivery time is built for the bottleneck machine,which is solved optimally,while simple priority rules are used for scheduling the non-bottlenecks.The correlations between the bottleneck and non-bottleneck machines are coordinated by adjusting the release time and delivery time of jobs on the bottleneck machine.Simulation results show that the heuristic algorithm can obtain better solution in quite short time and be suitable to large-scale problems.


Using level of income inequality, the clustering of post-communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe is carried out by the following indicators: Gini index, share in the national income of the second quintile group, share in the national income of the third quintile group, share in the national income of the fourth quintile group, share in the national income of 10% of the poorest, share in the national income of 20% of the richest.,Сluster analysis (k-means method), in the programming environment Statistica is used as analysis tool and five clusters are obtained. The first cluster includes 8 countries (Albania, Hungary, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Сroatia, Russia, Slovakia) is characterized by sufficiently low level of income inequality and can be explained by flow of foreign investment and business transnationalization contributing to the increase of incomes of the main population groups of these countries. The second cluster includes 4 countries (Belarus, Slovenia, Ukraine, Moldova) and is characterized by comparatively low level of income inequality, but high level of property inequality due to heredity, аccumulated wealth та concentration of physical and financial capital by so called «oligarchic clans». The third cluster includes 5 countries (Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia) and is characterized by medium level of income inequality. The fourth and fifth clusters include so called «Baltic tigers» (Latvia, Lihuania, Estonia) and is characterized by high level of income inequality as the result of the occurrence of «excess profits» of financial assets owners. In order to decrease the income inequality in the investigated countries, the following measures are proposed: for the countries of the first cluster to accelerate deconcentration of capital ownership by «spaying» (redemption) of privatized enterprises shares by all categories on preferential terms (so called «ESOP programs»); for the countries of the second cluster to implement progressive tax scale where the tax rate for different groups of population vary depending on the income received and citizens with the lowest incomes (at the level of subsistence minimum or minimum wage) do not pay individual taxes at all; for the countries of the third cluster to cope with «shadow» economy and informal unemployment; for the counties of the fourth and fifth clusters to decrease tax burden on private entrepreneurs and thus stimulate self-employment.


When attempting to code faces for modeling or recognition, estimates of dimensions are typically obtained from an ensemble. These tend to be significantly sub-optimal. Firstly, ensembles are rarely balanced with regard to identity and expression. This can be overcome by dividing the ensemble by type of variation and rotating sub-spaces relative to one another. Secondly, each face contains both predictable and non-predictable qualities; only the predictable aspects are useful for defining coding systems for other faces. Variance-based methods of defining codes (PCA) will provide eigenvectors which are themselves potential faces. Predictable aspects will induce eigenvectors with comparable levels of spatial redundancy to the ensemble. We show that this gives relatively short and consistent codes, and allows fast and accurate fitting of codes to faces.


In this paper the normal and abnormal biosignals of ECG and EMG can be denoised and visualized in a single window for finding out the changes that occur in the abnormal signal during critical moments. The ECG/EMG signal is de-noised by using Variational Mode Decomposition and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The normal, abnormal ECG signals and normal, abnormal EMG signals are classified and viewed using Self Organizing Maps (SOM). Each signal is assigned a neuron in the output lattice of SOM. The weights are updated for the neurons according to the SOM algorithm. Euclidean distance measure is used for calculating the minimum distance between the neurons. The various normal and abnormal signals are identified and classified using SOM. Silhouette plot is utilized to check the validation of clusters. Keywords—Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD), Self-Organizing Map(SOM).


The method based on the interval algorithm is one of the techniques used to find all direct current operating points of nonlinear circuits. Many approaches have been proposed to enhance the efficiency of the interval method. Amongst them, the linear programming narrowing (LP‐narrowing) strategy has been proposed and it shows very promising results. In this paper, a modification of the LP‐narrowing technique is proposed. The proposed technique is applied with the interval‐based method to find all direct current solutions of a circuit whose nonlinear elements are only diodes and bipolar junction transistors. It employs the voltage‐current characteristic of diodes to contract the size of the box under consideration before applying the interval operator. The proposed technique has been implemented by using the C‐XSC Toolbox and the GNU Linear Programming Kit package (GLPK). Its performance is evaluated by testing with some nonlinear circuits. The results indicate that the proposed technique can reduce the number of search boxes and improve the computation time. Copyright © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Lots of studies have been conducted on work-life balance in various fields. In particular, while a plethora of studies on the work–life balance have focused mainly on organizational culture and work performance, research to investigate the impact of work-life balance on employees' organizational commitment is scarce. This study aims to empirically analyze how work-life balance of employees affects organizational commitment and mediation effects of job satisfaction on the relationships through a survey of 463 employees working in small and medium-sized enterprises, public institutions, and conglomerates in the COVID-19 era. Also, it examines the impact of a smart work environment as a new way of working during the COVID-19 pandemic on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The findings of the study are summarized as follows. First, work-life balance was shown to positively affect job satisfaction, and job satisfaction had a positive influence on emotional organizational commitment of employees. Second, job satisfaction was found to be completely mediated both in the relationship between work-life balance and organizational commitment and in the relationship between work-family balance and organizational commitment, and partially mediated in the relationship between work-growth balance and organizational commitment. Third, the smart work environment had a positive effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The results of the study show that work and family, work and leisure, and work and growth balance are significantly important factors to improve employees' work attitudes in the changing work environment as a result of COVID-19. The present results suggest that the introduction of work-life balance and the smart work environment is required to increase organizational productivity. ■ keyword :∣Work-life Balance∣Job Satisfaction∣Organizational Commitment∣Smart Work Environment∣ 접수일자 : 2021년 01월 26일 수정일자 : 2021년 02월 23일 심사완료일 : 2021년 02월 23일 교신저자 : 서영욱, e-mail : firstname.lastname@example.com 한국콘텐츠학회논문지 '21 Vol. 21 No. 3 506


Ethernet is starting to replace the industrial fieldbuses that were developed in the 1990s. Not only that it's going after the domain reserved for high-speed fibre optic buses like SERCOS. There are now three proposals for real time Ethernet. Two are from German companies, Siemens and Beckhoff, and the third is from B&R Automation, based near Salzburg. We endeavor to give some idea of how these three real-time Ethernet proposals work.


Active databases are usually centered around the notion of Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules. An ECA rule's action is executed upon detection of an event whenever the rule's condition is true. Events are traditionally described using an event algebra. Virtually every proposed active database management system (ADBMS) brings about a different event algebra. This makes it very difficult to analyze these proposals in a uniform way by spelling out what they may have in common, or how they may differ. Typically, logic might act as a framework for dealing with these issues. This paper treats events as (somewhat constrained) formulas of the situation calculus, a (second order) logic for reasoning about actions in general, and database updates and transactions in particular. We provide a framework for devising the semantics of complex events in this logic. Such semantics, formulated as theories of a special kind, are used for reasoning about the occurrence and consumption modes, which are an important dimension of events.


Privacy and security are major concerns for many users of social media. When users share information (e.g., data and photos) with friends, they can make their friends vulnerable to security and privacy breach with dire consequences. In our recent work, we show that it is feasible to measure user vulnerability and reduce one's vulnerability without changing the structure of a social networking site. The approach is to unfriend one's most vulnerable friends. However, when such a vulnerable friend is also socially important, unfriending him would significantly reduce one's own social status. In this work, we address the problem of vulnerability minimization with social utility constraints. We formally formulate the optimization problem, propose an approximation algorithm with a proven bound, and conduct empirical experiments with different forms of social utility on a large-scale Facebook dataset for performance evaluation and comparison.


Having a film-forming active substance carrier containing an active substance matrix particles, which particles may be applied to the surface of the carrier, characterized in that the particles are fixedly connected to the film forming surface of the active substance carrier or are embedded therein.


A stable finite precision recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm is derived for the prewindowed growing memory case (forgetting factor, lambda =1). The prewindowed growing memory RLS algorithm diverges under fixed-point implementation. The random walk phenomenon due to roundoff errors in the weight update causes the divergence of the algorithm. To overcome this effect, these roundoff errors are modeled such that their effect is incorporated into the algorithm. The steady-state behavior of this new algorithm is analyzed, and it is shown that the divergence phenomenon is actually eliminated, and the new algorithm converges. >


This research examines community empowerment through the Village Owned Enterprise program which is being developed in Janji Silangge Village, Dolok District, North Padang Lawas Regency. This type of research is field research with a Juridical Empirical approach. The primary data sources are the Village Head, Village Officials, Community. Secondary data sources are books, data and documents. Data collection techniques used Observation, Interview and Documentation methods. The data analysis technique is qualitative and descriptive. The results of this study explain that the development process in which the people of Janji Manahan Silangge Village, Dolok District, North Padang Lawas Regency took the initiative to start a process of social activities to improve their own situation and condition. on the edge of tourist attractions. Village-owned enterprise programs, namely water tourism, stalls, lubukban, the process of profit sharing from the village-owned enterprise program of 20%, The supporting factors in the development program for village-owned enterprises are appropriate and running well because Janjimanahan village Silangge is between two regencies, namely Labuhan Batu Selatan and Labuhan Batu regencies, before the dam was made into a tourist spot, this dam has been around for a long time and before this tourist spot existed, this dam was often visited by local and foreign people to visit . The inhibiting factors for the BUM Desa program in Janjimanahan Village, Dolok District, North Padang Lawas Regency, where the village community is envious in running this program and human resources are far different from those in urban areas.


The sewage sludges are the byproducts of the wastewater treatment. The new perspective of the wastewater value chain points to a sustainable circular economy approach, where the residual solid material produced by sewage sludge treatments is a resource rather than a waste. A sewage sludge treatment system consists of five main phases; each of them can be performed by different alternative processes. Each process is characterized by its capability to recover energy and/or matter. In this paper, a state of the art of the sludge-to-energy and sludge-to-matter treatments is provided. Then, a scenario analysis is developed to identify suitable sewage sludge treatments plants that best fit the quality and flowrate of sewage sludge to be processed while meeting technological and economic constraints. Based on the scientific literature findings and experts' opinions, the authors identify a set of reference initial scenarios and the corresponding best treatments' selection for configuring sewage sludge treatment plants. The scenario analysis reveals a useful reference technical framework when circular economy goals are pursued. The results achieved in all scenarios ensure the potential recovery of matter and/or energy from sewage sludges processes.


Abstract : An analytical technique suitable for& the solution of complex energy transfer problems involving coupled radiant and convective energy transfer is developed. Solutions for the coupled axial wall energy flax distribution in rocket nozzles using hydrogen as a propellant are presented. Flow rates and temperatures studied are near those forecast for gaseous-core nuclear-propulsion systems. Parameters varied are nozzle shape, inlet propellant temperature, mean reactor cavity temperature, and nozzle wall temperature level. The effects of variation of the propellant radiation absorption coefficient with pressure, temperature, and wavelength are presented, and real property variations are used where they appear to be significant. Comparison is made to a simplified, coupled solution using a modified second-order one-dimensional diffusion equation for the radiative transfer. At the temperature levels assumed, radiative transfer may account for a greater portion of the total energy transfer over important portions of the nozzle, and its effects cannot, therefore, be neglected. Extreme energy flaxes (near 3XlO to the 8 Btu/(hr)(sq ft)) are observed for certain cases, and this implies that new nozzle cooling techniques must be developed.


recently, the International Organization for Standardization published the ISO22400 standard, offering a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for manufacturing operation management. This set is declared to be specifically referred to production execution. However, the standard includes either tactical indicators and operative ones. Moreover, production planning indicators are currently not taken into consideration, neither in ISO22400 not in other standards. Through an extensive literature review, this paper aims at investigating manufacturing operations management indicators and finding possible connections with ISO22400 standard, while identifying eventual needs for integration at tactical level. A framework for operations management KPIs is proposed and used to classify 743 indicators identified among scientific papers, white papers, reports and international standards. This lead to considerations on ISO22400 completeness and coherence; moreover, this classification can represent a reference for future standards formalization.


Two cases of oral early carcinoma that developed from precancerous lesions showed the usefulness of mucosal staining with iodine and toluidine-blue solutions during follow-up. The appearance of toluidine-blue stained areas and enlargement of iodine-unstained areas indicated transformation from epithelial dysplasia.


In social media, mainly due to length constraints, users write succinct messages and use hashtags to refer to entities, events, sentiments or ideas. Hashtags carry a lot of content that can help in many tasks and applications involving text processing such as sentiment analysis, named entity recognition and information extraction. However, identifying the individual words of a hashtag is not trivial because the traditional POS taggers typically consider it as a single token, despite the fact that it might contain multiple words, e.g. #fergusondecision, #imcharliehebdo. In this work, we propose a generic model for hashtagtokenisation that aims to split up one hashtag into several tokens corresponding to each individual word contained in it (e.g. "#imcharliehebdo" would become four tokens, "#", "i", "am" and "Charlie Hebdo"). Our hashtagtokenizer is based on a machine learning segmentation method for Chinese language and makes also use of Wikipedia as encyclopedic knowledge base. We have evaluated the inference power of our approach by comparing the tokens produced by our approach to those produced by human taggers. The results demonstrated the good accuracy and applicability of the proposed model for general-purpose applications.


Colonization and abundance of soybean looper, Pseudoplusia includens (Walker), and cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hubner), adults and larvae were monitored in cotton and soybean cropping systems in the Delta region of Mississippi for three growing seasons (1994–1996). Soybean looper and cabbage looper adults were initially observed in pheromone traps during the last week of May or first week of June, although adults may have been present in the collection area prior to trap establishment. Adult populations of both species remained low until early August, after which moth density increased coincident with the bloom stages of cotton and soybean. Larvae were first collected from the crops when plants were in bloom, with the greatest increase in population density occurring in early to mid-August. Although samples were not taken after mid-August, looper populations generally decline to low levels during September in Mississippi. More soybean looper larvae usually were collected from soybean than in cotton, ...


Archives of Plastic Surgery (APS) is the official journal of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (KSPRS). In 2012, KSPRS's Korean-language journal, Taehan Songhyong Oekwa Hakhoe chi (Journal of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons; ISSN, 1015-6402), was converted into an English-language journal and renamed APS. APS aims to be the leading forum for communication of surgical techniques related to the needs of Asian patients. APS also embraces its identity as the leading plastic surgery journal in Asia, aiming to become the main forum for communication among plastic surgery scholars and clinicians of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and the main voice presenting this group's technical innovations to an international audience. I consider myself lucky to be able to take part in the publication of this excellent academic journal, especially in the English journal publication project.

In July, at the request of the Editor-in-Chief to evaluate objectively and think seriously about the direction of development of APS, I spent some time thoroughly taking stock of the state of APS for the first time in a while. In just a year and a half after its launch, APS has been indexed in the major research databases, including KoreaMed, KoreaMed Synapse, PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, Embase, Chemical Abstract Service, EBSCO Host, Directory of Open Access Journals, and CrossRef. I consider this to be a good outcome achieved in just a short period of time.

In order to objectively evaluate APS, the evaluation was carried out using the Thomson Reuters Journal Selection Process [1] as a standard. As shown in Table 1, APS has fulfilled all of the basic publishing standards. In particular, it has comprised a variety of article types, such as editorials, review articles, original articles, case reports, ideas and innovations, letters, images, communications, continuing medical education (CME), and book reviews. On a few occasions, the description of Institutional Review Board approval and informed consent was omitted from the Methods section, suggesting the need to place more emphasis on publication ethics.

Table 1

Thomson Reuters' evaluation process and the current state of Archives of Plastic Surgery (APS)

In order to evaluate the editorial content, I examined the surgery-related academic journals of different nations included in Journal Citation Reports (JCR). There were 189 academic journals that pertained to the field of surgery. Within Asia, Japan and Korea had two journals each, and India and Singapore each had one journal included in JCR. All together, they accounted for only 3% of the 189 journals dealing with surgery. Furthermore, when restricted to plastic surgery, JCR included no journals originating from Asia. There is a need for clinical journals that take Asian characteristics into consideration, and in that sense, I believe that APS has an important role to play.

The current state of international diversity is depicted in Table 2. Though 87% of the papers published in APS are from Korean authors, 65% of the authors that read and cite the papers included in APS are non-Korean. It is clear that APS is being widely used internationally.

Table 2

Archives of Plastic Surgery's internationalization

The weakest point for APS is its citation rates. When we looked at citations of APS from the Web of Science, there were only 17 citations, and 60 citations in Scopus. The low number of citations is due to the fact that only a year and six months have passed since the conversion to an English journal, which is not enough time for papers that would cite APS to be published.

The APS citation rates were also analyzed according to the publication type (Table 3). The type that seemed to be cited the most was the review article with a citation rate of 110%. The citation rates of case reports and special topic papers were 50% for each, and those of editorials and original articles were 33% and 32%, respectively. In general, case reports are cited less frequently than original articles [2,3], but the citation rate of case reports was higher for APS, which can be attributed to the characteristics of the plastic surgery field. Recently, there has been a trend toward including fewer case reports in academic journals, but I believe that the inclusion of a variety of good cases would benefit readers.

Table 3

Citation rates by APS publication type

For APS to develop even further, it would behoove us to refer to the research of Chew et al. [4]. In their study, Chew et al. [4] recommended the active recruitment of good papers that could receive many citations as a method for obtaining more citations. Examples of good papers that would be expected to be cited often are good systematic reviews and meta-analyses. They also advised improving services for authors, a representative example being minimizing the time it takes for reviewing and publishing. Reducing the time it takes to publish papers could be helpful in attracting even better papers.

In addition, I also believe that we need active cooperation with associations from the Asia-Pacific region to make APS a plastic surgery journal that represents Asia. When the Journal of Gynecologic Oncology, put out by the Korean Society of Gynecologic Oncology, was chosen to become the official journal of the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology, it gained the interest of various nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

In light of all this, based on the current state and direction of development of APS, I look forward to what APS can be expected to achieve in the near future.


Intense Beam and Accelerator Laboratory(IBAL) at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST) is building a miniaturized Electron Beam Ion Trap(mini-EBIT) for the spectroscopy of the highly charged ions(HCIs). The compact, easily portable table-top mini-EBIT, which has the vacuum level of $\pmb{10^{\wedge}\{-10\}}$ mbar confines the electron impact ionized atoms in both longitudinal and radial directions using the electric and magnetic fields respectively. The mini-EBIT with an on-axis electron gun which generates up to 8 keV energy-tunable electron beam, and a 0.86 T room-temp permanent magnets, allows us to do the X-ray spectroscopy of the HCIs in a cost effective and low maintenance way. In this work, we present the overall vacuum structure of the EBIT with the simulations for the electron and ion confinements using the COMSOL and SIMION.


Background.  The clinicoepidemiological characteristics and course of bullous pemphigoid (BP) have not been described in populations from the Arabian Gulf.


Students from area middle schools will have the opportunity to learn about several of the NASA missions that NASA's Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program


Mary Maxwell, in The Sociobiological Imagination, sets an admirable array of tasks: "to acknowledge the remarkablywide influence ofa central idea, to demonstrate that the research of human biology takes place in disparate fields, and to introduce the major principles of sociobiology" (p. 9). Her unstated task is to help legitimate the presence of the paradigm of evolutionary biology in the social sciences by allowing practitioners in many social disciplines to demonstrate the usefulness of this paradigm in their work. In all these endeavors, I think she succeeds.


With the advent of color management systems, and other methods of controlling the color reproduction of computer systems and their imaging peripherals, the use of colorimetric techniques to encode color information is gaining prominence. The calculation of colorimetric quantities to describe reflective materials always involves the use of an illuminant spectrum. This paper examines how the results of these calculations differ as the illuminant is changed from the standard CIE D50 daylight spectrum to a more realistic fluorescent viewing booth lamp intended to simulate D50. Color difference formulae are used to quantify the difference for a wide variety of color printing devices. In the case of certain colors, differences of greater than 6 (Delta) E*ab units are found for virtually all of the devices considered. The interaction of the illuminant spectra with the spectral reflectance of printer colorants is analyzed in some detail. Also, a method is presented which allows for the device specific transformation of colorimetric variables appropriate for one of the illuminants into those appropriate for another illuminant. Finally, recommendations are made concerning the standardization of practical D50 illuminants and their importance to the digital communication of color images.


Based on the research background of meteorological early-warning management system with LED electronic screen and voice horn in village disaster prevention and mitigation of Ningxia,system structure,function,problems and countermeasure of application is introduced.The system is based on C/S framework,combining with LED meteorological earlywarning electronic screen terminals and voice horn terminals.The system mainly completes the information editing,recording,reviewing,publishing for LED electronic screen and voice horn terminals,as well as GPRS terminal management.The system provides a safe,fast and effective publish management platform for the weather service and disaster prevention and mitigation service in Ningxia.


Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) is one of the most economically important species in the Percomorpha group of teleost fishes. Their migrations are extensive and depend upon continuous swimming at a high rate of speed throughout their life. The draft genome sequence of this species has been reported but remains highly fragmented. We constructed a Pacific bluefin tuna genetic linkage map using microsatellite markers developed on each of the scaffolds from the draft genome sequence to link these genome fragments and understand the genomic structure of species in Percomorpha. Of the 606 polymerase chain reaction microsatellite primer pairs tested, 473 were polymorphic in the mapping populations for the linkage analysis. We constructed sex-specific maps for 24 linkage groups consisting of 470 markers, which allowed us to place scaffolds that cumulatively represented 20.8% (153.8 Mb) of the sequenced genome onto the linkage groups. The distribution of orthologous genes on the chromosomes of tuna and four other teleost fish species suggested that the constitution of tuna chromosomes is closest to that of medaka. Both species have the 24 chromosomes of the ancestral teleost, including several chromosomal inversions. The integrated map developed in this study will be useful to construct a complete physical map to conduct comparative teleost genomics and genetic studies on economically useful traits in Pacific bluefin tuna.


Introduction:  Readiness to speak is a major problem for many tracheostomized patients. Evaluation for tracheostomy tube capping or speaking valve is often subjective.


This article describes a laboratory study on stabilizing peat soil using Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to improve its strength. Peat soil commonly occur as extremely soft, wet, unconsolidated surficial deposits that are the major parts of the wetland systems. These problematic soils are well known for its high compressibility and low in shear strength. Therefore this soil were stabilized in order to solve the major problem that always encountered by the civil engineer in Malaysia. Various percentages of OPC which is 4, 6, and 8% were added to peat soil at optimum moisture content and the sample was cured for 7, 14 and 28 days before conducting Unconfined Compressive Strength test. The Unconfined Compressive Strength test show that the strength of the peat soil will increase as the percentage of the stabilizer increases.


2,2'-Azobis(2,4-dimethyl)valeronitrile (ADVN), an azo compound, is widely used as free initiator in the polymer industry due to its specific chemical structure, N-N bond, which can supply abundant free radicals and high energy to promote cross-linking and initial reaction. It is also applied for dope dyeing. However, ADVN is extremely photo sensitive. The thermal decomposition properties may be changed by UV irradiation, resulting in amounts of heat and toxic gas being released that can cause human injury or environmental disruption. To avoid the above thermal hazards for ADVN, we studied the thermal stability characteristics and decomposition products with different exposure time of UV irradiation by calorimetric and product analysis technology for ensuring the safe use, storage, transportation, and discard conditions. Kinetic parameters were also obtained by various kinetic models to predict the kinetic behaviors of ADVN. Historically, the concerns of environmental protection and sustainable energy are crucial topics for industrial process. In this study, a preventive mechanism was established for eliminating the hazards of highly energetic chemicals to reduce the occurrence of industrial accidents.


This paper proposes a method for reconfigura tion of power distribution network to reduce power loss of the network. When the load flow solution of tree shape network is obtained, the bus voltage, branch current and bus injection current can also be estimated. With all links closed, the economic current distribution of the meshed network can be calculated in the assumption of all branches to be only modeled by resistance. A new network can be built up through the superposition of the meshed network and the circulating network. After opening some branches, a new tree is obtained,and the loss must be greater than that of [WT5",6BZ]the economic meshed network. The goal of reconfiguration is to search a tree with minimum loss. Hence the network reconfiguration problem can be converted to the problem of searching the branches which should be opened to reach the minimum loss of the circulating network. Using the loop formulation of the circulating network, the relation of the circulating network loss and branch current can be evaluated, then the tree with minimum loss can be obtained. The branches which should be opened are worked out step by step and the tree network with the minimum loss will be accomplished. Case studies are given to show that the method is efficient and practical. Another advantage of the method is that some constraints such as branch load limit can be easily included in.


To construct an ultrasound partogram using serial transperineal sonographic measurements of the angle of fetal head progression during the first stage of labor, and to compare it with a conventional partogram based on digital vaginal examinations.


Background: The most crucial problem with in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles is still oocyte quality. The women age and the condition of their ovarian reserve are the primary determinants of oocyte quality. Objectives: to assess the effects of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on the result of pregnancies and the coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) value in follicular fluid (FF) in the women who had the procedure. Patients and methods: this cohort investigation was conducted on 81 infertile patients (age between 20-42 years, both normal or poor responders ' patients and patients with unexplained infertility) who underwent ICSI cycles. Results: patients were divided into two groups: the pregnant group (n= 32) and the non-pregnant group (n= 49). There was a statistically insignificant difference in antral follicle count (AFC), number of retrieved oocytes, number of embryos, number of metaphase II (MII) oocytes, and maturation index between pregnant and non-pregnant females. CoQ10 level in FF was substantially greater in pregnant than non-pregnant females. Conclusion: FF CoQ10 levels were positively correlated with eventual embryo quality and rates of conception. Our findings might be in favour of CoQ10 supplementation in women undergoing IVF for enhancement of the ovum and embryo quality.


Sports is essential for our life whether you are athlete or not. The important facts in sports are efficiency and safety. To raise their level, the player should make correct stance during exercise. But the instruction style of storytelling is not efficient. Recently, we can capture motion data using optical sensor, 3 axis sensor or camera, then a computer present the data as kinematic 3D avatar on monitor. So we can analyze biomechanics in detail. It means that we can apply the technology in learning stance of sports. So the environment of capturing may determine the success of that system. In this paper, we analyze research trends in cases of building database in sports domestically or oversea such as cycling, golf swing, boat race, horse riding, soccer, skate and ect.


MLO-induced murine orbital lyiphoid pseudotumor. Extensive orbital ononuclear. leuko- cytic infiltrate in mouse dying 9 months after MLO inoculation into eyelids was accompanied by exophthalmus. MLO parasitized leukocytes were readily found in infiltrate by electron mi- croscopy (lbematoxylin-eosin, x 92) (fromn Wirostko et a124). will provide samples that can be reimbedded in plastic for electron microscopy. Our report in the Bnitish Joutrnal of Ophthalmology 1991; 75:671-674, provides details on this methodology, and gives details of the MLO within parasitized intra-lenticular leukocytes. Human postinflammatory cataracts need to be studied for MLO using the transmission electron microscope and molecular biologic techniques. If MLO are found in human postinflammatory cataracfs, such material might be used to induce cataracts in laboratory animals.


T ransportation problem is a well-known topic and is used very often in solving problem of Engineering and Management Science. In this paper, a new method, Modified Vogel's Approximation Method (MVAM) is used to solve the transporting the items form cookies and confectionary stockiest to the retailers. Further, comparative study among the new procedure and the ot\her existing procedure is established. The procedure for the solution is illustrated with a real valued problem.


Abstract 4939

Background: High dose cytarabine containing regimens are still considered standard options for pts (pts) with AML relapsing after a first complete remission (CR1) lasting more than 12 months. No standard options exist for pts relapsing after shorter remission duration or with primary refractory disease. We conducted a phase II study assessing the efficacy and safety of twice daily fludarabine and cytarabine (BID FA) in pts with R/R AML, high-risk MDS and CML-BP.

Pts and Methods: 147 pts with de Novo AML, R/R AML, intermediate-2 and high-risk MDS, and CML-BP, with a performance status of 3 or less, as well as normal organ functions were eligible. Pts were scheduled to receive fludarabine 15 mg/m2 intravenously (IV) q12 hrs on days 1 to 5 as well as cytarabine at the dose of 0. 5 g/m2IV over 2 hrs q12 hrs on days 1 to 5. GO was administered at the dose of 3 mg/m2 IV on day 1 for the first 70 pts enrolled. Courses were repeated every 4 to 6 weeks for a maximum of 7 courses. Pts with CML-BP were allowed to receive concomitant tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Four pts with AML who had FLT3 mutation were allowed to receive BID FA and sorafenib.

Results: A total of 147 pts were treated. The median age was 63 years (range, 20 to 85 years). 131 (89%) had AML, 7 (5%) had high-risk MDS, and 9 (6%) had CML-BP. Of the 131 AML pts, 17 (12%) were de novo AML, 50 (38%) were in first salvage: first CR duration (CRD1) of less than 12 months in 39 pts (29%), and more than 12 months in 11 (9%) pts. Cytogenetic studies showed diploid karyotype in 52 pts (35%) and unfavorable chromosomal abnormalities involving chromosomes 5 and 7 in 30 pts (20%). 128 pts (87%) had a PS ≥1. Sixty-four pts (44%) had failed previous intensive chemotherapy, while 21 (14%) had failed targeted and hypomethylating agents. Forty-three (29%) pts had failed both. Overall, 34 pts (23%) achieved a complete remission (CR) and 8 (6%) achieved a CR without platelet recovery (CRp), for an overall response rate (ORR) of 29%. 6 pts received reinduction therapy, of which 3 achieved a CR. The CR rates for AML pts with frontline therapy, with relapsed AML with CRD1 ≥12 months, relapsed AML with CRD1< 12 months, and R/R AML beyond first salvage were 47%, 64%, 21%, and 14%, respectively. In CML-BP, 2 (22%) of 9 pts had objective responses (1 CR, 1 CRp). 1 of the 7 pts with MDS responded ([Table 1][1]). The treatment was well tolerated with only 7 of the pts experiencing grade 3 and 4 toxicities including mainly skin rash and increased liver enzymes. The overall 4-week mortality rate was 13%. With a median follow-up of 24 months (range, 10 to 33), 20 patients (14%) remained alive. The overall 6-month survival rate was 44%. The median overall survival (OS) and event free survival (EFS) were 5 months (range, 0. 1 to 33) and 1 month (range, 0. 1 to 33), respectively. The median CR/CRp duration was 12 months. Median OS for pts with de novo AML, a CRD1≥12 months, pts with CRD1<12 months and pts receiving second salvage and beyond were 8, 12, 5, and 4 months respectively. Median EFS for pts with de novo AML, a CRD1≥12 months, pts with CRD1<12 months and pts receiving second salvage and beyond were 3, 7, 1 and 1 month respectively.

Conclusion: BID FA appears to be active with an ORR of 29% in a heavily pre-treated population. This combination is safe with a low rate of 4-week-mortality of 13%.

| | | Percentage |
|:------------------- | --- | ---------- | -- |
| Status | N | OR | CR | CRP |
| De novo AML | 17 | 59 | 47 | 12 |
| S1, CRD1≥ 12 months | 11 | 64 | 64 | |
| S1, CRD1< 12 months | 39 | 26 | 21 | 5 |
| ≥S2 | 64 | 19 | 14 | 5 |
| Disease | 147 | 29 | 23 | 6 |
| AML | 131 | 30 | 25 | 5 |
| MDS | 7 | 14 | 14 | |
| CML-BP | 9 | 22 | 11 | 11 |
| GO | | | | |
| Yes | 70 | 30 | 26 | 4 |
| No | 77 | 27 | 21 | 6 |

* OR=objective response; CR=complete remission; CRp=complete remission without platelet recovery; S1=salvage 1; S2=salvage 2; CRD1=first complete remission duration; AML=acute myeloid leukemia; MDS=myelodysplastic syndrome; CML-BP=chronic myeloid leukemia in myeloid blast phase; GO=gemtuzumab ozogamicin.

Table 1:
Overall response by disease and subset groups

| | % ORR |
|:-------------------- | ----- | -------- |
| Parameter | BIDFA | Expected |
| S1, CRD1 ≥ 12 months | 64 | 50 |
| S1, CRD1 < 12 months | 26 | 11 |
| ≥ S2 | 19 | 7 |

* S1=salvage 1; S2=salvage 2; CRD1=first complete remission duration.

Table 2:
Comparison to historical data

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: #T1


The interaction of TeV gamma rays from distant blazars with the extragalactic background light produces relativistic electron–positron pair beams by the photon– photon annihilation process. The created pair beam distribution is unstable to linear two-stream instabilities of both electrostatic and electromagnetic nature in the unmagnetized intergalactic medium (IGM). The maximum electrostatic growth rate occurs at angles of 39.°2 with respect to the pair beam direction, and is more than three orders of magnitude greater than the maximum Weibel growth rate, indicating that the linear oblique electrostatic instability operates much faster than the Weibel instability. The dissipation of the generated electrostatic turbulence is different for intense and weak gamma-ray blazars. For intense blazars, the normalized number of generated pairs n22 = nb/[10−22 cm−3] exceeds the critical density nc(T) = 4.8 × 10−3 T4 for given normalized IGM temperature T4 = T/[104 K] necessary for the onset of the modulation instability, so that all free kinetic pair energy is dissipated in heating the IGM in cosmic voids. For weak blazars, half of the initial energy density of the beam particles is transferred to the electrostatic and electromagnetic fluctuations on timescales smaller than the inverse Compton energy loss timescale of the pairs. In both cases, this prevents the development of a full electromagnetic pair cascade as in vacuum. For weak blazars, the superluminal electrostatic fluctuations are dissipated by the inverse Compton scattering into transverse electromagnetic waves by the relaxed relativistic pair particles to optical frequencies, implying the occurrence of optical electrostatic bremsstrahlung pair halos from weak blazars with spectral flux densities below 50 μJy.


Abstract Recently, the native shrub or small tree Aralia spinosa has been reported from the northeastern United States farther north of its traditional range, while the Asian shrub A. elata has been reported to be naturalizing across the same region. Herbarium and field studies have clarified the current ranges of A. spinosa and A. elata in the eastern United States, with almost all recent reports of A. spinosa in the northeastern United States north of Maryland and Delaware being based on misidentifications of A. elata. Aralia elata is well established and rapidly spreading throughout all 25 counties in the New York metropolitan area. The most reliable characters for separating the two species are the length of the central inflorescence axis, fruit size, and seed size. Many herbarium specimens of these woody Aralia species cannot be confidently identified to species because they lack or have incomplete inflorescences/infructescences. Proper preparation of voucher specimens requires at a minimum the collection of the proximal portion of the inflorescence/infructescence.


The turbulence sustained by the gradient of the ion temperature (ITG turbulence) is considered as one of the main sources of the transport which limits the energy confinement in tokamaks. It is known that the differential equation describing the ITG mode has turbulent as well as very regular exact solutions of the vortex type. This makes very problematic the use of renormalization methods, since the later are necessarly perturbative. New methods have been proposed [1], inspired by nonperturbative ("semiclassical") methods developed in field theory. A problem of great interest is the relation between the ITG turbulence and the sheared poloidal plasma rotation, due to the strong effect of the rotation on the radial correlation length of the fluctuating field with possible formation of transport barriers. Beside the Reynolds stress as a source of rotation torque and inverse spectral cascade (sustained by the ion polarization nonlinearity) the possibility has been noticed that the ITG turbulence generates the zonal flows via the modulation instability of the envelope of the fluctuating field [2]. The studies have been focused on the possibility that the modulational instability provides very long poloidal wavelength needed to build the zonal flow. We present here a complementary point of view on the effects of the modulational instability. Our object of analysis is the ITG turbulent electrostatic field in the presence of sheared plasma rotation. The main objective is to find the possible evolutions of the envelope of the amplitudes of the fluctuating field, analysing their stability properties. The main conclusion is that the ITG-turbulent plasma spontaneously evolves to a poloidally asymetric profile of the turbulence amplitude; since this induces a transport rate which is poloidally nonuniform, a torque arises which acts to enhance the rotation of the plasma. Our results are the following:


The assignment of wavelength in the design of optical path layer is the hot topic in the wavelength-routed optical network.Combining the characteristics of the wavelength-routed optical network and the theory of graph coloring,the minimum number of wavelength required of the network is obtained based on the algorithm of simulated annealing.By this method the algorithm of wavelength assignment is optimized.Compared with the existing algorithms,Simulated Annealing Algorithm can effectively eliminate the randomicity and blindness of the former algorithms.Making use of computer,regular stochastic networks of various sizes and some traffic requests are produced.Simulation and comparison is carried out,and the result shows that the new algorithm acquires higher wavelength assignment efficiency.The number of wavelength required through this method is closer to the minimum value theoretically.


One of the geological structures accountable for the implementation of seismic potential of the region is the largest vertical faults in the Earth's interior, where earthquake foci are usually located. This article is aimed at developing a better method for calculation of stresses and strains that occur in such seismogenic areas. According to the results of the analysis of data collected during the expeditionary work, the geophysical medium is modeled by a block structure in the form of a half-space with a cut rectangular parallelepiped, which is divided into five block elements. The state of material in the geological medium is described in each block by motion equations for a homogeneous, isotropic elastic medium in the Lame form. Following the block element method, the algorithm of the differential factorization method is implemented in each block. Based on the numerical analysis results, the main trends in contact stresses and dynamics of displacement amplitudes were determined depending on the mechanical property values of the block material and the geometric parameters of the structure.


Objective To explore relationships between B-type natriuretic peptide(BNP),tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) and left ventricular mass index(LVMI),mean wall stress(MWS)in patients with chronic heart failure(CHF).Methods CHF group included 81 patients,healthy control group included 27 healthy volunteers.The levels of plasma BNP and TNF-α were measured.LVDd,LVDs,IVSs,LVPWd and LVPWs were determined by echocardiography and LVMI,MWS and left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) were calculated.Results The levels of BNP,TNF-α and LVMI,MWS in the patients with CHF were higher than those in healthy subjects.With the increase in NYHA and progress of disease,the levels of BNP and TNF-α significantly increased.The level of BNP was positively correlated with TNF-α,but negatively correlated with LVEF(P0.01).MWS and LVMI increased with aggravation of heart failure,and were negatively correlated with LVEF(P0.01) and positively correlated with levels of BNP and TNF-α.Conclusion Changes of the levels of plasma BNP,TNF-α,LVMI and MWS in the patients with CHF can reflect impairment of the cardiac function and the degree of ventricular remodeling.Changes of the levels of TNF-α,LVMI and MWS play a role in the pathophysiological course and pathogenesis of chronic heart failure.


The concentration of N-terminal fragment of pro-BNP in the blood plasma is significantly higher than the normal rates during the first week from the moment of development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS patients with medium and severe degree manifest higher rates of this biomarker compared to patients with mild ARDS. However the rate of NT-proBNP is only of the limited value for diagnosis of pulmonary edema in such patients.


This study show the empirical results and the models that explain the content creator's personal brand value in the user-generated content platform. Producer's brand value performance could have enhancement and dilution by their activities for the long-term and repetitive change. Therefore, for the measure and analysis, the models have to catch the effect from producer's the diverse activities. This study would find the guideline by competitive analysis between (1) the impact of in-group user's self-motivated participation and (2) the impact of the social links from the outside platform. Based on the analysis results, producer's creation activity as focused on the specific and professional category increase their brand value for the long-term. However, producers would have to upload diverse category, after users are bored to their similar videos' as before. These empirical results would be a guidelines to the content management strategies for producers and the platform.


With the steady development of strong smart grid construction in our country,the State Grid Corporation of China increases the scientific research funds constantly. The research project is different from the general electric power project,and the traditional project audit can not meet the requirement of the standardized management in research project. To deal with this problem,this paper analyzes the difficulties of the audit in current research project,and further explores the comprehensive approach of audit based on the characteristic of the research project. Finally,the applicable audit approach on the research project is obtained,and the relevant suggestions on improving the audit management of the research project are proposed.


Practical implementation of internet-of-things (IoT) rely on time-critical status updates. A well-known measure of the time-dependency in IoT data is the age of information (AoI). Most of the existing literature considers a theoretical analysis on AoI. Practical considerations and implications of AoI in IoT and cognitive radio (CR)-IoT scenarios have received less attention. In this paper, we consider an experimental Raspberry Pi-based prototype where two sources transmit their status over a common channel – mimicking CR-IoT, whose freshness and relevance are measured by the AoI.For statistical characterization, we let the status updates in each of the nodes to follow uniform, Poisson, and exponential distributions for the inter-packet arrival rate and transmission delay. Further, through real-time experiments based on ThingSpeak, we highlight the dependency of the average AoI on the inter-generation rates and inter-transmission delays.


Leeds University developed a course finder module for the Jadu CMS, managing the content of hundreds of academic courses using the Jadu web content management system.


We examine the problem of building or fortifying a network to defend against enemy attack scenar- ios. In particular, we examine the case in which an enemy can destroy all or part of the arcs that we construct on the network, subject to some interdiction budget. This problem takes the form of a three-level, two-player game, in which we act first to construct our network and simultaneously transmit an initial set of flows through the network. The enemy acts next to destroy a set of con- structed arcs in our network, and we act last to transmit a final set of flows in the network. Most studies of this nature assume that the enemy will act optimally; however, in real-world scenarios one cannot assume rationality on the part of the enemy. Hence, we prescribe network design principals for three different profiles of enemy action: an enemy destroying arcs based on capacities, based on initial flows, or acting optimally to minimize our maximum revenues obtained from transmitting flows.


Push pull strategy of integrated pest management in agriculture involves the behavioral manipulations of insect pests and their natural enemies by the use of behavior modifying stimuli which makes the main crop comparatively unattractive and unpalatable to the pests while diverting them to the more attractive sources from where they are removed. Continuous injudicious application of long persistent broad spectrum pesticides for pest control, essentially debilitate the beneficial natural enemies, essential pollinators and foragers, thereby enter into vertebrate food chain resulting into bio-magnification. These result into secondary pest outbreak and development of pesticide resistance in insect pests and emergence of pest biotypes. Push pull strategy of integrated pest management is a newly emerged pest control method which uses non-toxic components for pest population reduction with reduced pesticide input. The Push pull effect is established by the use of exploiting semiochemicals which deter the pests from the main crop ("push") and attract them into trap crops ("pull"). Intercropping or companion cropping is done for semiochemicals delivery which mask host stimuli and act as a repellent and deterrent. However, the Push-pull method has a number of advantages in agriculture. Companion crops and intercrops usually serve as a good fodder for the farm animals, while leguminous intercrops add adequate organic matter and nitrogen to the soil by nitrogen fixation. A good number of trap crops help with the water retention and bind the soil particles, thus prevent soil erosion and nutrient leaching. The major benefit is that certain intercrops and trap crops used in this strategy may also help in the control of weeds by dramatic reduction of the weed seed bank in the soil due to allelopathic effect. Thus Push pull strategy could be a useful method in Integrated pest management programme to increase agricultural productivity.


In this study, HfxAlyOz nanolaminate, single-layer Al2O3, and HfO2 gate insulators were fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to successfully integrate the InGaZnO (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). Compared with single-layer HfO2-based TFTs, the HfxAlyOz-based IGZO TFTs showed a larger field-effect mobility of 10.31 cm2/Vs and a smaller subthreshold swing of 0.12 V/decade. Moreover, it showed a smaller threshold voltage shift of 0.5 V than that of HfO2-based TFTs under gate-bias stress at +5 V for 900 s due to the smooth surface. Moreover, the high dielectric HfxAlyOz nanolaminate had a larger equivalent SiO2 thinness than that of Al2O3 gate insulators, which are beneficial in applications of high-resolution display. Thus, the high mobility and high stability TFTs could be regarded as good candidates for active-matrix flat panel displays.


Two experiments were designed to provide practical guidelines to improve the effective use of browse plants as ruminant feed, especially during dry summers. The effects of planting stock and cutting management on forage yield and quality of Tangoio hybrid willow (Salix matsudana x alba), Kinuyanagi willow (Salix kinuyanagi) and erect dorycnium (Dorycnium rectum), a small leguminous shrub, were determined over one summer from 1- and 3-year-old trees. Experiment 1 was arranged as a 2×2 factorial with 2 species and 2 planting stock in 5 randomised complete blocks. Experiment 2 was also arranged as a split plot design with cutting heights allocated to main plots and species × frequency to sub-plots in 3 randomised complete blocks. At the hill country site (Ballantrae), the yields of Tangoio (66 g DM/tree) and Kinuyanagi (27 g DM/tree) were low, owing probably to the low soil nutrient status and the harsh climatic conditions. Poor regrowth after the summer harvest at Ballantrae suggested that willows can be utilised only once during the growing season in such environments. At the lowland site (Aokautere), Tangoio was higher yielding (P 0.05) and are cheaper to establish. Tangoio and Kinuyanagi have potential as drought fodder in addition to their traditional roles in soil conservation and rehabilitation.


Over nearly thirty years now, Erik Millstone has been – for me – a greatly valued teacher, mentor, colleague, comrade, protagonist, friend and inspiration. His unique mix of forensic rigour, dogged determination, contagious good humour and deep humanity continues to build a lasting legacy among the many whose paths he has crossed, and also leaves memorably instructive marks on a fair few of the policy agencies and global corporations with which he has tangled. No-one among many candidates encapsulates better the buccaneering SPRU tradition in fearlessly independent interdisciplinary policy research and teaching.


Learning a second language is a complex process. For a long time and in many scientific investigations, it has been possible to reach a better understanding of the processes taking place and the components that influence them. The same acquisition is not simply a matter of intelligence and aptitude but attitude and motivation. This is essential in all areas of learning. There are two fundamentally important aspects in learning a second language: communicative needs and attitudes of students towards the community that speaks.

For this research topic, quantitative-qualitative approach, all studies explained in a process of categorization and conceptualization in the theoretical and legal framework were taken into account. Then went on to make all the instruments that were applied to the population under study, which offers very significant results for all policy proposals of the mayor and municipal secretary in Cajica. We could appreciate the financial support from governmental and non-governmental organizations to strengthen the teaching and learning of a second language in the municipality where other student populations involved were also present.

Finally the overall objective was to create an approach to bilingualism (English) from the social context in the transitory situation of basic primary to secondary basic, strengthen communication skills (speaking, reading, writing and listening) of the Students in the Pablo Herrera institution of Cajica where were linked some higher level of education institution like a (universities) that offer academic programs in modern languages.


Background: The use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) has skyrocketed among adolescents and young adults. E-cigs are promoted as safer than combustible cigarettes but their long term effects on human health are still unknown. E-cig aerosols contain significantly lower number of chemicals than tobacco smoke, however they also contain known carcinogens, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and unique chemicals poorly studied. In vitro and animal studies revealed that e-cig aerosols increases DNA damage and reduces DNA repair. There have been no studies assessing e-cig-induced DNA damage in human subjects. This reflects, at least in part, technical limitations that make it quite challenging to measure the in vivo steady-state levels of DNA damage, particularly for relatively low levels of genotoxic exposure. Our lab has previously developed and validated a novel quantitative primer anchored DNA damage detection assay (q-PADDA) to quantify in vivo DNA damage. We have also reported that, in an in vitro setting, q-PADDA has high sensitivity to detect e-cig-induced DNA damage. Here, we take advantage of this assay to start assessing the potential long-term impact of e-cig use on human health. Aim: To determine whether e-cig users have higher levels of DNA damage on oral epithelial cells than non-users. Methods: Ethics Committee approval was obtained. Participants were recruited through internet ads, leaflets, flyers and word-of-mouth. After written informed consent, a total of 35 individuals were included in this study: 20 exclusive e-cigarette users and 15 individuals reporting no e-cig or tobacco use. Self-report of tobacco use was biochemically confirmed by salivary cotinine and by measuring exhaled carbon monoxide (CO). Oral mucosa samples were collected by cytobrush and used for DNA extraction and damage quantification. DNA damage was quantified by q-PADDA within p53, the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer. Plasma nicotine levels were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Data was analyzed by Student's t test. Results: The study including participants using high and low voltage e-cig devices. E-cig users (33 ± 8) and non-users (33 ± 7) had similar age distribution. We observed that oral epithelial cells collected from e-cig users have significantly higher levels of DNA damage in both transcribed and non-transcribed DNA strands of the p53gene when compared to never users. Conclusion: Our work is the first study to measure DNA damage in e-cig users. Our study shows for the first time that e-cig users have significant levels of DNA damage in their oral mucosa epithelium. These data has major clinical implications and suggest that e-cig users might have an increased cancer risk. Further studies are urgently needed to expand these kind of studies and to characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying e-cig induced DNA damage which may leads to cancer. Citation Format: Vengatesh Ganapathy, Theodore Wagener, Lurdes Queimado. Electronic cigarettes induce DNA damage in the oral epithelium of users [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1756.


The field of quantum machine learning (QML) explores how quantum computers can be used to more efficiently solve machine learning problems. As an application of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, it promises a potential quantum advantages in the near term. In this thesis, we use the ZXW-calculus to diagrammatically analyse two key problems that QML applications face. First, we discuss algorithms to compute gradients on quantum hardware that are needed to perform gradient-based optimisation for QML. Concretely, we give new diagrammatic proofs of the common 2- and 4-term parameter shift rules used in the literature. Additionally, we derive a novel, generalised parameter shift rule with 2n terms that is applicable to gates that can be represented with n parametrised spiders in the ZXW-calculus. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, we give the first proof of a conjecture by Anselmetti et al. by proving a no-go theorem ruling out more efficient alternatives to the 4-term shift rule. Secondly, we analyse the gradient landscape of quantum ans\"atze for barren plateaus using both empirical and analytical techniques. Concretely, we develop a tool that automatically calculates the variance of gradients and use it to detect likely barren plateaus in commonly used quantum ans\"atze. Furthermore, we formally prove the existence or absence of barren plateaus for a selection of ans\"atze using diagrammatic techniques from the ZXW-calculus.