Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) activates a widely expressed family of G protein-coupled receptors, serves as a muscle trophic factor and activates muscle stem cells called satellite cells (SCs) through unknown mechanisms. Here we show that muscle injury induces dynamic changes in S1P signaling and metabolism in vivo. These changes include early and profound induction of the gene encoding the S1P biosynthetic enzyme SphK1, followed by induction of the catabolic enzyme sphingosine phosphate lyase (SPL) 3 days later. These changes correlate with a transient increase in circulating S1P levels after muscle injury. We show a specific requirement for SphK1 to support efficient muscle regeneration and SC proliferation and differentiation. Mdx mice, which serve as a model for muscular dystrophy (MD), were found to be S1P-deficient and exhibited muscle SPL upregulation, suggesting that S1P catabolism is enhanced in dystrophic muscle. Pharmacological SPL inhibition increased muscle S1P levels, improved mdx muscle regeneration and enhanced SC proliferation via S1P receptor 2 (S1PR2)-dependent inhibition of Rac1, thereby activating Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3), a central player in inflammatory signaling. STAT3 activation resulted in p21 and p27 downregulation in a S1PR2-dependent fashion in myoblasts. Our findings suggest that S1P promotes SC progression through the cell cycle by repression of cell cycle inhibitors via S1PR2/STAT3-dependent signaling and that SPL inhibition may provide a therapeutic strategy for MD. Citation: Loh KC, Leong W-I, Carlson ME, Oskouian B, Kumar A, et al. (2012) Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Enhances Satellite Cell Activation in Dystrophic Muscles through a S1PR2/STAT3 Signaling Pathway. PLoS ONE 7(5): e37218. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037218 Editor: Claude Beaudoin, Blaise Pascal University, France Received December 20, 2011; Accepted April 15, 2012; Published May 14, 2012 This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. Funding: This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants GM66954 and CA77528 (JDS), 5T32CA009041 (WIL), NIH 5R24HD050846-06 (EPH) and CIRM TG2-01164 (KCL), and grants from the Muscular Dystrophy Association USA (EPH and JDS). This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Programs of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (RLP). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com . These authors contributed equally to this work


Kayal, Saha and Tavenas (Theory of Computing, 2018), showed that any bounded-depth homogeneous formula of bounded individual degree (bounded by r ) that computes an explicit polynomial over n variables must have size exp € Ω € 1 r n 4 1/∆ŠŠ for all depths ∆ ≤ O € log n log r+log log n Š . In this article we show an improved size lower bound of exp € Ω € ∆ r n r 2 1/∆ŠŠ for all depths ∆ ≤ O € log n log r Š , and for the same explicit polynomial. In comparison to Kayal, Saha and Tavenas (Theory of Computing, 2018) (1) our results give superpolynomial lower bounds in a wider regime of depth ∆, and (2) for all ∆ ∈ " ω(1), o € log n log r Š— our lower bound is asymptotically better. This improvement is due to a finer product decomposition of general homogeneous formulas of bounded-depth. This follows from an adaptation of a new product decomposition for bounded-depth multilinear formulas shown by Chillara, Limaye and Srinivasan (SIAM Journal of Computing, 2019).


A general method is presented for computing the atomic coordinates of helices in which a dipeptide is the repeating unit. The method will generate both single‐ and double‐stranded model helices having idealized bond lengths and angles, and any arbitrary, user‐specified, pitch and number of residues per turn. The variation of inter‐ and intrastrand hydrogen bonds with pitch and number of residues per turn can thus be examined. An application of the method is the construction of a β‐helix having pitch of 6.3 Å per turn and 4.85 residues per turn, a model which can pack nicely into the unit cell of crystals of cation‐bound gramicidin A.


Cylindrical flexures (CFs) are composed of curved
beams whose length is defined by a radius, R, and a sweep angle,
[phi], [1]. The curved nature of the beams results in additional
kinematics, requiring additional design rules beyond those used for
straight-beam flexures. The curvature also adds additional
parameters that allow for adjustments, suggesting that CFs may meet
requirements that cannot be met with straight-beams. CFs have the
potential to further open the flexure design space. In this study,
cylindrical flexure design rules and models were used to optimize
an x-y-[theta]z stage design for a Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN)
application. DPN a nanometer-scale fabrication technology that uses
an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevered tip to place chemical
compounds on a substrate. The flexure designed aids in alignment of
the tip relative to the machine, increasing accuracy and
repeatability. The first step to design a flexure system is
applying CF design rules to create a system that best fits
functional requirements. Several different system configurations
were considered, since reaching an optimal design is a highly
iterative process. Once the best configuration was determined,
element parameters were optimized using CF design rules. The
optimized design was then corroborated using finite element
analysis (FEA). The CF design rules greatly informed the design,
reducing time spent on FEA by quickly narrowing in on successful
designs. The finalized flexure design was fabricated using a
waterjet machine and placed in a testing apparatus designed to
measure predicted stiffnesses and verify functionality. The CF
model predicted the final measurements quite closely, although
there were variability in the measurements and simplifications in
the model. In K[theta]z, the error was as small as 0.3%, while the
other stiffnesses had errors around 30%, except for Kx, which is
twice as stiff than the model. This could be due to the
simplification of more complicated tip boundary condition effects
in the model or error in measurement of the fabricated flexure.
Although the model did not predict the final stiffness values
exactly, it was critical in reducing time spent optimizing the
system by quickly determining key parameters. The process of design
and optimization shed light on advantages and disadvantages of
using cylindrical flexures for an x-y-[theta]z stage in general,
and demonstrated the usability of CF rules. Observations from this
research augmented the design guidelines, which will help others
design CFs for other functional requirements.


An operational statistical method suitable for nearly real-time estimate of land surface and atmospheric parameters was developed and applied to the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) observations. The proposed method utilized three steps to solve the ill-posed problems and to stabilize the solution in a fast speed regression manner: 1) the atmospheric profiles and land surface emissivity spectra were expressed by their eigenvectors to reduce the number of unknowns; 2) a ridge regression procedure was introduced to improve the conditioning of the problem and to lessen the influence of noises; 3) a set of optimal channels was selected to decrease the effect of forward model errors or uncertainties of trace gases, and to increase computational efficiency. The retrieval results using the independent simulated data indicate the proposed method is promising. The root mean squared error (RMSE) of land surface temperature is 3.5 K, the RMSE of land surface emissivity at the selected channels is 0.01, and the RMSE of atmospheric temperature and moisture profile are about 2.0K and 0.001g/g, respectively.


This conceptual paper, based on an examination of the theoretical and empirical literature, aims at a better understanding of the influence of father-daughter relationship on the selfesteem of the daughter later as an adult woman. Implications are discussed as to future research, education and counselling.


Dropout has lately been recognized as an effective method to relieve over-fitting when training deep neural networks. However, there has been little work studying the optimal dropout scheme for neural machine translation (NMT). NMT models usually contain attention mech-anisms and multiple recurrent layers, thus applying dropout becomes a non-trivial task. This paper approached this problem empirically through experiments where dropout were applied to different parts of connections using different dropout rates. The work in this paper not only leads to an improvement over an established baseline, but also provides useful heuristics about using dropout effectively to train NMT models. These heuristics include which part of connections in NMT models have higher priority for dropout than the others, and how to correctly enhance the effect of dropout for difficult translation tasks.


The principle of the bistable display device, the significance of bistable display technique and the basic clue were introduced in the paper. Based on above knowledge, the current bistable display devices and its principle, research headway and existent problem were presented, including the bistable devices based on liquid crystal, based on combination of light interference and bistable mechanic display device (iMod), base on electrophoresis of zero electric field bistable E-ink display device. Due to history of development of bistable display device is quite long, Purpose of the overview is not only introduce the status of the field, moreover, purpose of the overview is to provide the creative ideas and the solutions for bistable display device.On the foundation of bistable idea, the bistable structure of OLED array, of FED will be presented. By combination of existed technology, the clue of development of large screen display by bistable technology is presented.


Four stocks of spore-forming lactic acid bacteria, i.e. Bacillus coagulans IAM 1115, 1146, 1171 and 1194, were tested for the aroma producibility in milk culture. No utilization of citrate was confirmed by two techniques. The flavor of yoghurt and cottage cheese was improved by the use of B. coagulans in starter mixture. A noted flavor was observed in yoghurt manufactured by the use of B. coagulans IAM 1194; while the employmont of either B. coagulans IAM 1146 or 1171 resulted in the appearance of strong flavor and acidity in cottage cheese. Increase in acetoin content was observed during the storage (48 hrs at 4°C) of cottage cheese, prepared employing B. coagulans. However, there are still many technical problems to be conquered for the use of B. coagulans as a single starter for the manufacture of soured milk products. (Received July 21, 1969)


In this work, an attempt was made to determine trends in backscatter variation due to row orientation for four crop types: winter wheat, spring barley, rapeseed, and corn. An averaged backscatter from the fields of three study areas with different geographic locations was considered over 5 years (2017-2021) by considering ascending/descending orbits and different phenological groups.The results of this study indicate that VV polarization is higher when the SAR signal is directed perpendicular or parallel to the rows of winter wheat, barley, and canola (at a 0°, 90° aspect angle) and lower at 45° (90° scale). For a 10° difference in aspect angle, variation in VV was observed at one standardized unit for spring barley and winter wheat.The trend has been observed for all considered study areas, thus validating our observations.


This paper presents the magnetic characteristic measurements of filtering reactors for grid interface of photovoltaic systems. The standard procedure, generally used for this scope, is performed using different transient period in comparison with the conventional ones. The aim of this work is to show limitations and unsuitability of this procedure for some specific cases. A benchmark reactor with laminated FeSi core and suitable air gaps is presented and analyzed.


Magnetization and Mossbauer measurements were performed for PuNi3 type alloys Y(Fe1−xCox)2.9 and their hydrides. The composition dependencies of magnetization, Curie temperature, and average hyperfine field of 57Fe in the alloys show a maximum near x=0.5, and those in hydrides decrease with increasing x. This behavior suggests that the magnetic moments of iron and cobalt are nearly the same, except for cobalt rich alloys. Numerical fitting using a Stoner theory with a parabolic band was performed. It was assumed that the alloys and hydrides are ferromagnets of 3d-band-hole with incomplete saturation. It was shown that both the exchange energy kθ and Fermi energy e0 decrease with substitution of cobalt for iron, and that the difference in the composition dependencies of kθ/e0 in alloys and hydrides leads to different composition dependencies of the magnetization and Curie temperature. It was shown that e0 and kθ decrease with hydrogenation, but kθ/e0 increases to lead magnetization increase only in YFe3.


The measures of directed divergence of parametric entropy have been obtained which are generalizations of Shannon's Kapur's, Bose Einstein, Fermi-Dirac, and Havrda-Charvat's measures of Entropy. We have also examined its concavity property and some special cases.


In this article, a new type of two-Higgs-doublet model will be exhibited. It not only solves the FCNC problem naturally, but also derives complex CKM-matrices. However, the CP thus derived is neither spontaneous nor explicit. It is originated in the $S_3$ and $S_3 +S_2$ symmetric patterns revealed in the derived mass matrices, which is a new origin of CP we never thought of. Though this model is obviously far from mature for now, it still provides us a new aspect of the nature of CP.


There are growing amount of very high-resolution polarized scattered light images of circumstellar disks. Naturally, the question arises whether the circumplanetary disk forming around nascent planets can be detected with the same technique. Here we created scattered light mock observations at 1.2 and 1.6 microns for instruments like SPHERE and GPI, for various planetary masses and disk inclinations. We found that the detection of a circumplanetary disk is significantly favored if the planet is massive ($\geq 5 \rm{M_{Jup}}$) and the system is nearly face-on ($\leq 30^\circ$). Its detection is hindered by the neighboring circumstellar disk that also provides a strong polarized flux. However, the comparison between the $PI$ and the $Q_\phi$ maps, as well as the contrasts between the J and H bands are viable tools to pinpoint the presence of the circumplanetary disk within the circumstellar disk, as the two disks are behaving differently on those images.


Dicyclohexylammonium nitrite is a powerful inhibitor for corrosion of steel by fresh water. Since this nitrite salt is slightly volatile, it has commercial application in a new method for preventing corrosion of packaged steel articles by the moisture that enters or is present within a package. It functions by vaporization and transport of its vapor to the metal surface where it condenses or dissolves in condensing moisture. The duration of protection is dependent upon the quantity of inhibitor present and the rate of loss as vapor and by decomposition. The compound has properties of chemical stability, compatibility, volatility, vapor transport, diffusion, solubility, and corrosion inhibition, that are important to its functions as an inhibitor in packages. The absence of undesirable effects with nonmetallic materials, nonferrous metals, bi-metallic couples and in handling by people are also of practical importance. A large number and variety of tests in the laboratory and in outdoor exposure racks have ...


Freight volume forecast is the foundation of the railway transportation planning.A single prediction method is difficult to accurately and effectively forecast the traffic volume.A combined model is proposed with its application to the prediction of railway freight volumes,with the railway freight volume and the status of the socio-economic development as a sample,and the predictions for the future railway freight volume.Empirical prediction results show that the combination forecast model can effectively integrate the useful information of each model in order to improve the forecast accuracy of models.Compared with the single model,the method proves to be with practical value.


Precise measurements made in the 50 GHz to 60 GHz band on a two-mile triangular loop of 2 inch diameter helix waveguide are presented. The measuring technique is discussed in some detail regarding accuracy. A brief comparison of the experimental results with theory is made. The average measured attenuation of the waveguide varies smoothly from 2.62 dB per mile at 50 GHz to 2.32 dB per mile at 60 GHz. Fast variations versus frequency were within experimental error. Several short-radius bends of different angles were measured; losses less than 0.8 dB across the band were observed for a 42° bend made of mitered elbows.


KAMI, K,, M, MASUHARA, H. KASHIBA, Y, KAWAI, K. N(}GUCHI,andE.SENBA.Changesofvincutinandextraee]lularmatnx components fo11owing blunt trauma to rat skeletal musele, ded Sti. Sbens Exerc., Vol, 2S, No, 7, pp. 832-840, 1993, The purpose ofthe prescntstudywastodeterminechangesinthelocalizationofvinculi", Type IV coLlagen, larninin, a d fibronectin during the.damage-repair process in thc skeletal muscle over sevval days followtng acute b]unt trauma,Asingleblunttraumatothegastrocnemiusmuscleoftherat was induced by applying 1.S7 J of kinetic energy to one ]eg. By day 2aftettrauma,vincutinhaddisappcarodrapidlyfromthcintracellular submembrancous rwfen corresponding to the costamere, wherpas Type IV collagen and laminin penisted around the dcgeneratsng myofibers (correspanding to the basement membrane), gibronec tin ceuld be observed -Ling the vvidened endomysiurn and in the rup tured myofibers. In the early phase of muscle regeneratien (day 5 , Type IV coliagen, and after trauma), newly synthesized vlnculin laminin formed ring・Iike sttuctures around the rngeneratins myotubes. Fibronectin couLd also be ebserved fi1ling the widened end" mysiuin around the regenerating rnyotubes, Further, when srnal1 newly formed eF splitted rnyofibers wcre observed in the areas of regenerating myofibers (day 10 after trauma), vincu]in, Type IV co11agen, latninin, and fibronectin were loealized in specialized re・ gions correspon(ling to the costarnerc, hasement memljrane, and endemysium, Tliese results demanstrated that restoratien of the costarnere, basement mcmbrane, and endemysium are essentiai to the maturation of regenerating myefibers after iajury, COSTAMERE.BASEMENTMEMBRANE,ENDOMYSIUM, DAMAGE, REGENERATION he sarcolemrna was originally defined as a sheath Tzs:o,g,nl,i?g.2,,m,vwSz,?・Y.er6,A,t,thsfais.ctEok,m.i: brane, the basement rnembrane, and endomysium. The sarcolernma of the skeletal muscle consists of severa1 OL9S.9t3ei9312S070B3as3,coro MEDIaNEANDSCIewCE]NS?ORrsANDEXERaSE CopyrishtO1993bythcAmdicanCollestofSpo,tsMedicint Subrnittedforpub)icatienJunt1991. AcceptedforpabiieetibnJanuary]993, 832 extrace]lular matrix (ECM) components. Moleculcs distinguishing the endomysiurn are mainly fibronectin and Type V collagen, and the components of the basement membrane are laminin, Type IV collagen, entactin, and heparan su]fate proteoglycan (!,S}, Skeletal muscle is capable of extensive regenerauon after injury, The ECM not only helps to resist the deformation of {he tissue but also maintains a scaffbld for myofiber regeneration (l5,30), The basernent membrane, particularly, serves as a seaffold for the reconstruction of the regenerating myofiber (29), Thus, in the regenerating rnyofiber, the ECM components are important in directing further differentiation of rnyoblasts into a functional rnuscle, Vinculin is an ubiquitous, cytoskeletal protein that is primarily }ocated at specialized sites on cellular mernbranes and involved in the linkage ofactin bundles to the cell membrane (4,9,27). In mature skeletal muscle, vinculin is localized at the sarcolemma in structures called costameres, which are located between the cell rnembrane and the Z-disk of the contracti}e apparatus, Vinculin is one ofthe elements ofa sarcolemmal lattice and serves to integrate he contractile apparatus with the sarcolemma (21,23), It is linked to the sarcolemma by the cytoplasmic domain of integrins, which in turn arc receptors for ECM components (3,26), Vinculin is an essential cytoskeletal component involved in the translation ofinformation frorn the ECM to the internal mechanisrns of the cell, The interaction of ECM and vinculin plays an impQrtant role in cell rnigration, adhesion, and alteration of its phenotype (2, 1 3,22). Although changes of ECM components during the damage-repair p ocess in the skeletal musele have been reported by several investigators (6,7, 1 1 , 1 2,24), changes in yinculin and its functional association with ECM


The article proposed a kind of new structure for aircraft tire, which includes double firm rings. The aircraft tire of double firm rings was simulated in the instant of landing by finite element analysis, then the simulation result was compared with the one of ordinary aircraft tire. The result indicated that the grounding area and deformation of aircraft tire with double firm rings was less than that of ordinary aircraft tire, which can decrease the rolling resistance and improve high speed performance. In addition, the larger contact pressure located the central region of the contact surface, which can reduce the damage of shoulder rubber and lengthen the life of the aircraft tire.


Aeroplanes in clouds, submarines in murky water and cancerous tumours in breast tissue all have one thing in common – they are objects hidden in highly scattering media. Imaging through such media remains one of the most challenging problems in science and engineering but the advent of ultrafast lasers and detectors, coupled with a range of time-resolved techniques, has led to breakthroughs. Interest is currently focused on developing a time-resolved imaging technique to detect breast cancer tumours as early as possible.


Description: tbg-1 encodes gamma-tubulin, a ubiquitous and highly conserved component of centrosomes in eukaryotic cells (Strome et al, 2001). Using smFISH we determined the localization of tbg-1 transcripts (red). tbg-1 transcripts are detected within distinct foci throughout the cytoplasm during both the first (A) and second (B) mitosis. tbg-1 transcripts are not enriched at centrosomes or either blastomere. In contrast, GFP tagged TBG-1 proteins (green signal; arrowheads) localize at centrosomes, as previously shown (Strome et al, 2001). Shown are projections from selected focal planes. Bar=10μm.


In this paper I will argue that to accept the principle of tolerance does not provide us with a good  explanation of the phenomena of vagueness. I will be mainly concerned with the incoherentist  strategy, which accepts tolerance and the consequent incoherence of vague predicates. In fact,  incoherentism seems to be the most plausible way of accepting tolerance. Because of this, the  rejection of incoherentism might be seen as a way to rescue the alternative theories from the  objection that they do not respect the principle of tolerance as a literal truth about vagueness. Despite this, I will conclude that neither incoherentism nor the main alternatives satisfy the  criteria for an ideal theory of vagueness.


Abstract. Skin cancer is one of the world's most common cancers. Among different skin cancer types, melanoma is very dangerous. Its treatment is possible if detected at an early stage. Detection of skin cancer is still challenging, even for experienced dermatologists, due to the high similarity between benign and malignant lesions. Deep learning technologies help in diagnosing skin lesions and classifying them. They are used to detect lesions at an early stage. However, it still struggles with complex skin lesions because of complicated properties such as fuzzy boundaries, artifacts, low background contrast, and insufficient training datasets. Medical images require information security also. This paper proposes a method using particle swarm optimization (PSO) with the ensemble of pretrained convolutional neural network PSOCNN architecture for skin disease classification with information security. To evaluate the proposed architecture, 10,015 samples of the publicly available HAM1000 (human against machine) dataset comprise seven distinct classes. It is the case of a multiclass skin lesion classification problem. This method achieves 97.82% accuracy and a macroaverage ROC curve area of 0.99. The average F1 score obtained is 0.98. This work has been compared with different studies present in the literature. The result shows that this work has achieved comparable classification accuracy. It helps in achieving better performance for all classes of multi-class classification.


The article discusses the implementation of directions for using the volunteer resource to solve significant problems of modern society. The article presents the results of a sociological study of medical volunteers of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Kursk State Medical University" of the Ministry of Health of Russia in order to study their attitude to personal participation in volunteer activities"; the experience of the youth club "Vysota" of the Solntsevskaya secondary school of the Solntsevsky district of the Kursk region is presented; the technology "get into a good company" is described, aimed at involving children from disadvantaged families in organizing and holding events together with socially active youth.


The wild pear (Pyrus biossieriana Buhse) is a speacies of pear that belonges to the plant family rosaceae. (Pyrus biossieriana Buhse) grows in the north of Iran. The pear leaves are useful for treatment of hyperglycaemia and hyperlipidemia with antioxidant activity [1]. Research shows that pear leaves contain arbutine[2] and other valuable compound such as fatty acids. Fatty acids play important roles in biological tissues and as constituents of lipid in biological membranes that influences on lipid properties such as fluidity integrity and the activities of membrane-bound enzymes[3]. Fatty acids in food and biological samples are commonly analysis by GC-MS technique after estrification [4]. The aim of this work is determination of fatty acids in wild pear leaves where growth in the north of Iran. The fatty acids were extracted using soxhlet apparatus, After the extraction, solvent was evaporated to near-dryness oil, The fatty acids were methylated into fatty acid methyl esters by saponification with sodium hydroxide. The compound were separated with GC and identification by MS, the results show that this plant leaves contains three unsaturated fatty acids i.e. : α-linolenic acid (48.36%), linoleic acid (14.98) and palmitoleic acid (0.60%), Respectively. It shoud be noted that α-linolenic acid is a member of 3 which is belonged to essential fatty acid groups. Essential fatty acids are fatty acids that human and other animals must ingest because the body requires them for good health but cannot synthesize these compounds. In other hand linoleic acid and palmitoleic acid are nonessential fatty acids. Keyword : Pyruse biossieriana, Buhse,fatty acid, α-linolenic acid


Interactions between physical and industrial chemistry. The most important interactions for the two areas of chemistry are found in the following three fields: (1)states of materials (states of aggregation) and thermodynamics; (2) kinetics of molecular processes as a basis for macroscopic models; (3) methods of testing and measurement and development of equipment. The "classical state" of each of these areas is first sketched out and then the principal developments which are still in course of flux; directions of future development are then deduced. Such directions are exposed to be: extension of the scope of application of supercritical states as solvents and reaction media, as part of a general expansion of industrial application of elevated pressures; increase in knowledge of nonlinear dynamics of chemical systems with regard to transient behaviour and control mechanisms; increase in basic research on molecular structure and dynamics at the interfaces of dispersed systems – especially micelles and catalyst surface – using "in situ" methods, and more extensive utilization of the results in industrial chemistry.


This paper classifies traditional Chinese translation terminologies into four categories,i.e.,translation strategy,translation evaluation,translation process and general theories.These terminologies stand in a variety of relationship to one another,namely,general-specific,binary opposition,parallelism,synonym,inclusion and derivation.In terms of thought pattern,traditional translation theories illustrate classical Chinese philosophy.The framework of modern translation studies,although crude,is discernable in traditional Chinese translation theories.


The Freight Rail Improvement Project (FRIP) involves the construction of a third line adjacent to two existing Amtrak lines that will accommodate a new freight rail service. Due to the existence of a layer of peat below the boat section, the original design called for the use of piles for foundation support. Through value engineering, the costly deep foundations were eliminated and replaced with Rammed Aggregate Piers designed to stabilize the organic soils and allow for the use of slab-on-grade construction. Results from the modulus test and inclinometer measurements demonstrate that the piers were sufficiently strong to withstand the applied loads without bulging and adequately stiff to achieve the required pier modulus value for settlement control. The piezometer readings indicated that excess pore pressure buildup within the organic layer during pier installation quickly dissipates. The testing results demonstrate that Rammed Aggregate Piers are a cost-effective system for stabilizing organic soils to allow the use of shallow foundations and limit post-construction settlements.


Objective To discuss the mechanisms of "Bao Gan Ning" against liver fibrosis.Methods Compound factors were adopted to set up fibrosis rat model,and 50 fibrosis rats were randomized into 5 groups:normal control,model,colchicine and large-and medium-dose of "Bao Gan Ning" groups,10 rats in each group.Observe the changes of general condition and hepatosplenic index of model rats,and the pathological changes in liver tissue by optical microscope,with the grading comparison of liver fibrosis degrees.Employ Western Blot to detect the protein phosphorylation expression level of JAK2 and STAT3 in liver cells.Results Compared with model group,"Bao Gan Ning" could apparently lower the hepatosplenic index of liver fibrosis model rat,with notable significances in their differences(P 0.01),and evidently lower the pathological level of liver fibrosis of model rat(P 0.01).Compared with the normal group,the expression levels of protein phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT3 rose in the model and drug groups.In the drug groups,the levels decreased significantly compared with the model.Meanwhile,the expression level also decreased evidently in the large-and medium-dose of "Bao Gan Ning" groups compared with the colchicines.Conclusion "Bao Gan Ning" can effectively reduce the hepatosplenic index of liver fibrosis model rat,and obviously lower the pathological level of liver fibrosis of model rat,whose mechanism may be related with the reduction of protein phosphorylation level of JAK2 and STAT3,the inhibition of JAK2/STAT signal pathway,and the direct suppression of HSC activation,consequently to fight against liver fibrosis.


We present a new segmentation method called weighted Felzenszwalb and Huttenlocher (WFH), an improved version of the well-known graph-based segmentation method, Felzenszwalb and Huttenlocher (FH). Our algorithm uses a nonlinear discrimination function based on polynomial Mahalanobis Distance (PMD) as the color similarity metric. Two empirical validation experiments were performed using as a golden standard ground truths (GTs) from a publicly available source, the Berkeley dataset, and an objective segmentation quality measure, the Rand dissimilarity index. In the first experiment the results were compared against the original FH method. In the second, WFH was compared against several well-known segmentation methods. In both cases, WFH presented significant better similarity results when compared with the golden standard and segmentation results presented a reduction of over-segmented regions.


Using object-oriented idea,considering such factors as spectrum value,smooth,compaction and aspect ratio,segmenting the road object,building a library of rule learning,this paper proposed a method of road extraction in high spatial resolution remote sensing image based on multi-factor objects. Partial QuickBird image of Xiamen City was choosen as experimental data to verify the proposed method. The experiment result showed that the road objects were fully segmented when the segmentation scale was 75,and that the extraction precision by this method was higher than that by the traditional supervised classification based on spectrum information of single pixel.


The aim of this paper is to discuss a novel framework designed for discovering frequent event graphs from uncertain spatio-temporal data. We consider the problem of discovering hidden relations between event types and their set of uncertain spatio-temporal instances. For that purpose, we designed the following data mining framework: microclustering of uncertain instances, generating set of possible worlds according to the possible worlds semantic technique, creating a microclustering index for each world, generating a set of event graphs from created microclusters and defining apriori based algorithm mining frequent event graphs (EventGraph Miner). To the best of our knowledge this is the first approach to discover hidden patterns from event-type spatio-temporal data when dataset contains uncertain instances. While the paper does not present experimental results for the proposed framework, it presents its potential for futher studies in the topic.


Significant progress has been made in understanding the study orientations of tertiary learners, their processing styles and strategies, and the links between learning approaches and outcomes. Break‐throughs in this area have resulted mainly from research into students' self‐perceptions about how they study. What is not clear is whether, in actual study sessions, students do what they say they do. In other words, the extent to which mere is congruence between their espoused theories about how they study and their theories‐in‐use is not known. In fact, very little is known at all about the actual thought processes of students during study sessions. This paper reports an attempt to trace the moment‐by‐moment thinking of 17 tertiary students as they interact with textual materials in private study settings. All students were enrolled in undergraduate programmes offered in the distance education mode.


The revised and updated seventh edition of this text for students, scholars and policymakers takes into account the broad changes in federal assistance programmes since 1991. It reviews the erosion of entitlement programmes to families with dependent children, single-parent households, youth, veterans and the elderly. It looks particularly at the impact of the 1996 welfare reform which dramatically reconfigured the aid landscape. Following an examination of the characteristics of the American poor, the book analyzes four strategies of assistance programmes: income maintenance programmes directed mainly at the poor who are outside the workforce; programmes supplying goods and services; programmes designed to prevent the spread of poverty to new generations; and programmes to aid the working poor. The concluding chapter explores feasible approaches to the alleviation of poverty.


In view of complex model and poor real-time performance of current multi-target tracking algorithms, a real-time online multi-target tracking method based on deep learning is proposed. Firstly, the detector is used to detect the target in video image space and obtain its detection frame. After that, the position, coordinates and motion of the next frame of the target are predicted by the Kalman filter. Then Complete Intersection over Union (CIOU) is used as the distance measure to calculate the overlap between the detection box and the prediction box, and further generate the similarity matrix. Finally, the Hungarian algorithm finds optimal matching in the bipartite graph formed by the two boxes, so as to realize the data association between multiple targets. Experimental evaluation shows that this method finishes real-time and online multi-target tracking well.


High activity vanadia-based catalysts for isobutane dehydrogenation have been prepared by hydrothermal method.The structure and properties of catalysts were characterized by XRD,H2-TPR,RAMAN,BET and XPS.It was found that the structure of vanadium oxide on surface of catalyst convert from isolated monomeric vanadia species to polymeric vanadia species with increasing of vanadia content.Catalytic test shows that isolated vanadia has higher catalytic activity for isobutane dehydrogenation than polymeric vanadia.The catalyst with 16% vanadia content has higher catalytic activity.The isobutane conversion and isobutene selectivity achieve 55% and 85%,respectively.Whether or not,all catalysts prepared by hydrothermal method have high stability for isobutane dehydrogenation to isobutene.


s of contents JAMES F. COX FRED P. ADAMS Manufacturing Resource Planning: an Integrated Decision Support System A manufacturing resource planning system provides a vertically and horizontally integrated set of plans for each level of management and for each of the supporting areas of the organization. Computer simulations are used to generate these coordinated plans. Thus a total system model is available for simulating alternative actions and evaluating the effects of each strategy on the business enterprise. The input requirements, benefits, and problems associated with such a planning and control system are also discussed. V. ARUMUGAM S. RAMANI Comparison of Simple Loading Rules in a ReaZ-WorZd Job Shop A case study of a job shop in the engineering industry that manufactures 19 types of products against orders is described. The objective was to evaluate any two proposed new loading rules based on the monetary value of the orders. A review of past studies of job-shop scheduling shows that rules of this type have not been analyzed. To carry out the investigations, a simulation model using GPSS was developed. The model is described and the results of the simulation study are summarized. KAMBIZ E. MAANI Analysis of Production Facilities-a Network Simulation Approach The existing analytic and heuristic techniques for the assembly-line problem are generally limited in scope and applicability. The restricted and often unrealistic assumptions of these procedures handicap them as a practical tool for modern manufacturing problems. This article presents a comprehensive model for the design and analysis of production-line facilities. The Generalized Network Simulator (GNS), a networkbased simulation model, integrates the handling of time, queue, resource, and cost characteristics of realistic situations in a single package and offers a &dquo;total system&dquo; tool for systems analysis and research. A companion Assembly Line Information System (ALIS) facilitates both the construction of the data base through interactive data input entry and the specification of desired statistical outputs. An example illustrates the application of the model in a fictitious manufacturing environment involving the cost and resource features of the GNS/ALIS programs.


In recent years, environmental justice has been central in many Social Sciences discourses; yet it has gained limited recognition in planning, particularly in spatial planning theories. The extent of environmental justice in planning theory remains unrecorded or subtle in planning research. This study evaluates planning theories against the criteria that constitute the dimensions of environmental justice. The results of the work reveal that planning theories generally incorporate environmental justice to a limited extent. The study recommends the introduction of a new environmental justice paradigm shift in planning to bridge the identified gap in planning theory and practice. Regarding planning practice, the study highlights the need for planners to apply the principles of environmental justice in planning to achieve fairness in distribution, recognition, participation, capability consideration, and effects in monitoring and evaluation. Keywords: Environmental justice, planning, spatial planning, spatial planning theories, planning theories


Aleksandra Gorostowicz1, Marcin Siwek2 © Medical Communications Sp. z o.o. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND). Reproduction is permitted for personal, educational, non-commercial use, provided that the original article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited. Received: 22.06.2018 Accepted: 10.09.2018 Published: 28.09.2018 © Psychiatr Psychol Klin 2018, 18 (3), p. 296–305 DOI: 10.15557/PiPK.2018.0037 Rola aripiprazolu w leczeniu schizofrenii oraz zaburzeń nastroju / The role of aripiprazole in the treatment of schizophrenia and mood disorders


A new spaceborne remote sensing principle and method of two-dimensional object polarization measurement, which is based on the novel polarization interference imaging spectrometer (NPIIS) using the field of view compensated Savart polariscope, is presented. Without modification of the optical system of the NPIIS, the Stokes vector, the degree of polarization and polarization direction expressions are derived by measuring the intensity of one pixel on the image plane after three rotations of the polarization interferometer. The method and principle is verified by computer simulation, and the results appear to be well consistent with the theoretical analysis. The research extends the measurement function of the interference imaging spectrometer. Compared with the existing imaging spectrometers which can measure the two-dimensional image information and one-dimensional spectral information, another method to acquire the object information by measuring the polarization state is developed.


In this paper we will show that if E is an injective module over a commutative ring A, then the sequence of sets is increasing and ultimately constant. Also we will obtain some results concerning the integral closure of ideals related to some modules.


Author(s): Balla, Keir | Advisor(s): Troemel, Emily R | Abstract: The success of pathogens depends on their access to host space and resources. In addition to optimizing their use of the host environment, pathogens must evade host defenses. We investigated the growth dynamics of fungal-related obligate intracellular pathogens from the microsporidia group in the context of a whole animal host. Microsporidia infect virtually all animal phyla, but the details of their growth and interactions with the host are poorly characterized. We examined infections of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans by its natural microsporidian pathogens in the genus Nematocida. From these studies we have identified surprising pathogen growth strategies and constraints that limit this growth based on the host environment. Infection by just a single Nematocida parisii cell in a single host intestinal cell grows to fill the majority of the host organ before reaching the spore-formation stage of the life cycle. Microsporidia infections spread between neighboring host cells by inducing them to fuse into syncytia. Nematocida displodere infections caused syncytia formation in the muscle and epidermis, but not in the intestine. We also found that the decision to switch from replication to differentiation in N. parisii was altered by the density of infection, suggesting that environmental cues influence the dynamics of the pathogen life cycle. Additionally, we found that the success of N. parisii growth varies depending on the host environment. Specifically, we determined that host genotype and age could strongly affect the outcome of infection. In particular we found that a strain of C. elegans from Hawaii was resistant to N. parisii growth and could eliminate infection in an age-dependent manner, which is a trait with a complex genetic basis. Thus, we show how microsporidia can maximize the use of host space for growth, that environmental cues in the host can regulate a developmental switch in the pathogen, and that certain host environments can clear microsporidia infection. These findings advance our understanding of the selective pressures that can shape both host and microsporidia genomes over the course of their co-evolution.


A case of Idiopathic Macular Hemorrhage (IMH) is described in a 26-year-old female patient presented with a sudden unilateral central scotoma in her left eye without any precipitating factors her vision was 20/40 in the left eye (OS) and Fluorescein angiography showed a well-defined hypofluorescent area corresponding to the macular Hemorrhage. An optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan revealed an intraretinal hemorrhage. This case is unusual, in that the IMH developed in a young lady with no significant past medical history and with the absence of retinal, choroidal, systemic or autoimmune diseases, medications, allergies, straining or any family history of eye diseases that leads to an IMH diagnosis by exclusion. Idiopathic Macular Hemorrhage is generally a disorder that primarily affecting patients younger than 40 years and can cause sudden unilateral loss of vision. It usually occurs in an otherwise healthy eye and mostly females. The exact pathogenesis of IMH remains unclear and poorly understood. Conservative management is observation of complete spontaneous resolution, which occurs within few weeks. Case report A 26-year-old Caucasian female presented with a central scotoma in her left eye 2 days ago without any precipitating factors. She was referred with macular hemorrhage OS. Blood pressure (BP) was normal, and there was no history of any systemic diseases as hypertension, diabetes, medications, allergies, Straining or any family history of eye diseases. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) for far and near was 20/20 OD and 20/40 OS. Amsler grid was unremarkable on both eyes. Color vision was intact in each eye on Ishihara Pseudo isochromatic plates. Pupillary responses were equal, round and reactive to light with no afferent defect O.U. Extraocular muscle movements were normal and unrestricted in all positions of gaze O.U. Cover test demonstrated orthophoria at distance. Gross inspection of the face and lids was negative for ecchymosis, edema or asymmetry. Anterior segment evaluation on biomicroscopy revealed that the eyelids and lashes were clear without evidence of inflammation. The corneas were clear and without evidence of scarring, edema, neovascularization, infiltrates or dendrites. The bulbar and palpebral conjunctivae were clear without injection, chemosis, melanosis, papillae or follicles. The anterior chambers were deep and quiet with absence of cells or flare, hyphema or hypopyon. The irides were flat and without transillumination defects or other signs of atrophy, tears, nodules or neovascularization. No posterior synechiae were present. Anterior chamber angles were estimated to be grade 4 O.U. by the Van Herick method. Intraocular pressure measured 17/18mm Hg O.U. at 3:25 p.m. A dilated posterior segment evaluation of each eye revealed clear crystalline lenses without opacification or congenital cataract. No red or white cells were found in the vitreous of either eye and there was no evidence of posterior vitreous detachment or syneresis. Dilated ophthalmoscopy with did not reveal any retinal holes, tears, detachments or vitreous traction. The optic nerve measured 0.3mm in the horizontal and vertical meridians, and was pink, well-perfused and round with distinct margins in both eyes. I saw no notching, Correspondence to: Mina Abdelmseih, Department of Ophthalmology, Augenärzte am Meer Clinic, 26389 Wilhelmshaven, Germany; E-mail: dr.mina. firstname.lastname@example.com Received: June 07, 2017; Accepted: June 24, 2017; Published: June 26, 2017 beanpodding, Drance hemorrhage or retinal nerve fiber layer loss in either eye. The macula of the right eye was unremarkable and demonstrated a positive foveal reflex. However, a macular exam of the left eye revealed a small, isolated macular haemorrhage (Figure 1) I performed color fundus photography on left eye (Figure 1) On FA, there was preretinal blockage OS, An optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan revealed an intraretinal hemorrhage as well as an area of black located below the hemorrhage (an artifact representing blocked light) . I infomed the patient that she should be observed and reassured her that this condition would likely resolve with short time (Figure1-7). Prognosis Excellent. Complete resolution of the intraretinal hemorrhage was seen in 3 weeks . Differential diagnoses Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a microangiopathy affecting all of the small retinal vessels, such as arterioles, capillaries and venules, is characterized by increased vascular permeability, ocular haemorrhages, lipid exudate, by vascular closure mediated by the development of new vessels on the retina and the posterior vitreous surface [1]. Hypertensive retinopathy signs can be broadly classified into arteriolar changes (generalized arteriolar narrowing, focal arteriolar narrowing, arteriovenous nicking and arteriolar wall opacification) and more advanced retinopathy lesions (microaneurysms, blot and flame-shaped haemorrhages, cotton-wool spots, hard exudates and optic disk swelling). With the exception of disk swelling, these signs Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 2-8 Figure 1. Color Fundus Photography showing Left isolated macular haemorrhage. Figure 2. Fundus fluorescein angiography (Right Eye) showing no abnormality. Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 3-8 Figure 3. Fundus fluorescein angiography (Left eye) showing preretinal blockage due to hemorrhage. can be detected fairly frequently in adult populations, even in persons without a known history of hypertension [2]. Valsalva retinopathy was first described by Duane1 in 1972 for preretinal haemorrhages occurring as a result of sudden rise in venous pressure as seen in Valsalva manoeuvre. It is an uncommon condition and has been reported to occur with various forms of Valsalva stress such as weight lifting, physical exercise, balloon blowing, birth labour etc. The present case developed Valsalva retinopathy following a bout of emesis. Valsalva retinopathy is typically seen in young males. Ophthalmologic examination reveals either a circular or a bilobed haemorrhage which sometimes has a fluid level associated with it [3]. Idiopathic Macular Telangiectasia Type 1 :This congenital or developmental form of IJFT occurs predominantly in males and is typically unilateral (97% of cases).Although the onset of symptoms can occur at any age, the mean age at presentation is 40 years. On biomicroscopy, prominent easily visible telangiectatic retinal capillaries, with variable-sized aneurysmal dilations are a consistent hallmark of this type of IJFT. The telangiectasis usually involves a twodisc diameter area or greater temporal to the fovea .Macular edema and lipid deposition of variable amount is a characteristic feature. Of note, no blunted right-angled venules, superficial vitreoretinal interface crystalline deposits, plaques of pigment epithelial hyperplasia, intraretinal pigment migration or subretinal neovascularization are seen in this type of IJFT [4]. Sickle cell eye disease is characterized by microvascular occlusion that affects the peripheral retinal vasculature and results in retinal ischemia and the development of proliferative sickle cell retinopathy. Complications of proliferative sickle cell retinopathy such as vitreous hemorrhage and retinal detachment are the most common causes of visual loss in this disease [5]. Radiation retinopathy is a chronic and progressive condition that results from exposure to any source of radiation. It might be secondary to radiation treatment of intraocular tumors such as choroidal melanomas, retinoblastomas, and choroidal metastasis,.. The condition manifests as a radiation vasculopathy clinically seen as microaneurysms and telangiectases, with posterior development of retinal hard exudates and hemorrhages, macular edema, neovascularization and tractional retinal detachment [6]. Purtscher's retinopathy presents to the clinician as loss of vision in a patient with a history of a possible precipitating event such as recent major trauma, pancreatitis, childbirth or renal failure. The ophthalmological picture is one of ischaemia at the posterior pole with white patches of oedema and haemorrhages concentrated around the optic disc [7]. Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 4-8 Figure 4. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) (Right Eye) showing no abnormality. Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 5-8 Figure 5. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) (Left Eye) showing an intraretinal hemorrhage. Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 6-8 Figure 6. Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Analysis by OCT (Right Eye) showing a healthy optic nerve with no optic neuropathy. Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 7-8 Figure 7. Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Analysis by OCT (Left Eye) showing a healthy optic nerve with no optic neuropathy. Abdelmseih M (2017) Idiopathic macular hemorrhage New Front Ophthalmol, 2017 doi: 10.15761/NFO.1000167 Volume 3(3): 8-8 Anemia has been reported as an important risk factor for developing retinopathy in many case series, with a prevalence of 20– 28.3%. The retinopathy was described due to several types of anemia such as iron deficiency anemia, aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia, beta-thalassemia, pernicious anemia, and drug-induced anemia. We diagnosed megaloblastic anemia as a cause of bilateral subinternal limiting membrane hemorrhage. The manifestations of anemic retinopathy are nonspecific and may closely simulate hypertensive or diabetic retina. Retinal changes in anemia are cotton wool spots, venous tortuosity, an


Since the first coining of the term 'intellectual capital' (IC) in Stewart's "Brainpower" article of 1991, IC
has gained popularity and interest amongst researchers from different disciplines as a source of
attaining and maintaining competitive advantages. The result of these disciplines (e.g. human
resources, accounting, marketing and finance) feeding into the IC literature has been a dramatic
increase in the number of IC models. The diversity of the models has given rise to different
approaches for realising the value of IC, provided different taxonomies for classifying IC, and
introduced different practices for managing, measuring and reporting IC. This variety has made it a
challenge for organisations to select the appropriate model to systematically manage, measure and
report their organisational knowledge.
This paper visualises the roots of IC models in the literature by examining the foundations and
principles on which they are based. Such a visualisation affords the opportunity to establish common
bases for IC modelling in order to reduce the diversity between IC models and increase their practical
applicability. These bases are: the tendency towards enhancing the taxonomy of IC, and the tendency
towards establishing the practices of managing, measuring and reporting IC. The main contribution of
this paper is three ancestry/chronology diagrams that visualise fifty-four IC models and the rationale
behind their development, which in turn brings greater coherence to the literature on IC modelling and
conceptualisation.


We report on measurement of transmission spectra of commonly used explosives (RDX, PETN, HMX) covered by popular materials: paper, polyester and cotton in THz range (0.3-2.5 THz). Explosives were prepared as pellets, where Teflon was applied as the matrix material. We made use of Time Domain Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, which are described and results are compared. We show that characteristic features of explosives can be still identified up to 2.0 THz.


In previous publications, we presented a general framework, which we called "box tomography", that allows the coupling of any two different numerical seismic wave propagation solvers, respectively outside and inside a target region, or "box". The goal of such hybrid wavefield computations is to reduce the cost of computations in the context of full-waveform inversion for structure within the target region, when sources and/or receivers are located at large distances from the box. Previously, we had demonstrated this approach with sources and receivers outside the target region in a 2D acoustic spherical earth model, and demonstrated and applied this methodology in the 3D spherical elastic earth in a continental scale inversion in which all stations were inside the target region. Here we extend the implementation of the approach to the case of a 3D global elastic earth model in the case where both sources and stations are outside the box. We couple a global 3D solver, SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, for the computation of the wavefield and Green's functions in a reference 3D model, with a regional 3D solver, RegSEM, for the computation of the wavefield within the box, by means of time-reversal mirrors. We briefly review key theoretical aspects, showing in particular how only the displacement is needed to be stored at the boundary of the box. We provide details of the practical implementation, including the geometrical design of the mirrors, how we deal with different sizes of meshes in the two solvers, and how we address memory-saving through the use of B-spline compression of the recorded wavefield on the mirror. The proposed approach is numerically efficient but also versatile, since adapting it to other solvers is straightforward and does not require any changes in the solver codes themselves, as long as the displacement can be recovered at any point in time and space. We present benchmarks of the hybrid computations against direct computations of the wavefield between a source and an array of stations in a realistic geometry centered in the Yellowstone region, with and without a hypothetical plume within the "box", and with a 1D or a 3D background model, down to a period of 20 seconds. The ultimate goal of this development is for applications in the context of imaging of remote target regions in the deep mantle, such as, for example, Ultra Low Velocity Zones.


The present claim repricing system generally includes a processor and a program and data memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores the requisite database tables, as well as program instructions for repricing several different types of claims, including physician, inpatient, and outpatient claims. The claim repricing system includes instructions for determining availability of insurance plan coverage to the patient based on an effective date of the employer insurance plan, as well as determining the availability of the physician or provider based on an effective provider date. The claim repricing system further handles specialty codes and exceptions. For example, the claim repricing system includes instructions for determining the presence of anesthesia specialty codes, and for determining the correct number of anesthesia units and an anesthesia repricing indicator. The anesthesia repricing indicator may be a percentage discount, for example, or a rate. Furthermore, the claim repricing system may operate in a batch processing mode to quickly, accurately, and reliable reprice large amounts of claims.


Four damaged concrete filled steel tube columns strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced plastics(CFRP) and four contrast columns were tested.All specimens were notched in the central zone to simulate the loss of section due to corrosion.All specimens were axially loaded while strain and displacement were measured to demonstrate the effectiveness of this repair concept.Influences of the CFRP confinement and the aspect ratio on the load bearing capacity of the columns are analyzed.The test results show that within the scope of the test,CFRP would enhance the load bearing capacity of the damaged concentrically compressed concrete filled steel tube columns effectively;the increase rate of load bearing capacity due to CFRP decreases with the increase of aspect ratio.A calculating method is also presented,capable of predicting the axial load strength of concrete filled CFRP steel tube members.Experimental results are in good agreement with the predicted values.


Abstract: Open Top Chamber (OTC) and Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) are currently the prevailing approaches to study plant responses to elevated carbon dioxide. Method-inherent characteristics of either method distinctively influence results. Advantages and disadvantages of both methods are reviewed here, leading to the conclusion that Open Top Chambers seem to be more suitable for investigating the physiological responses of single trees to high levels of carbon dioxide, while Free Air CO2 Enrichment systems are more useful for studying the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on whole forest ecosystems since they have a large diameter, thus allowing to work with larger trees. Free Air CO2 Enrichment systems also provide a natural microclimate, thus leading to ecologically more meaningful results. Methods involving Screen-Aided CO2 Control (SACC) are proposed as a compromise eliminating disadvantages and combining advantages of both the Open Top Chamber and the Free Air CO2 Enrichment methods. Considering the wide variety of experiments under a range of additional environmental factors it is difficult to identify a typical bias that may be inherent in the data generated by the Open Top Chamber and the Free Air CO2 Enrichment. Meta analysis of large number of past studies revealed that Open Top Chamber experiments produce a stronger growth enhancing effect of carbon dioxide than Free Air CO2 Enrichment experiments. Future comparative discussion of Open Top Chamber and Free Air CO2 Enrichment data needs to take into account this potential bias to yield biologically meaningful interpretations.


The use of technology such as podcasts, social networking sites, wikis, and Google docs for communicating information which supports teaching and learning in tertiary institutions is well documented (Bates, 2005). These tools have been shown to enhance traditional lectures and tutorials (Salmon, 2007). Little attention, however, has been given to the use of conversational approaches when using these tools and their potential in developing alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching. This article examines the use of a conversational style podcast in an online pre-service early childhood teacher education programme. The podcasts were initially used to disseminate information and respond to the students' needs, however, their conversational use revealed a number of unexpected outcomes. Analysis of the podcast conversations that occurred between the two lecturers, and the student feedback to these, were used to identify unexpected outcomes for students enrolled in the programme. These included the 'humanising' of the e-learning environment and the sense of community that emerged. This paper argues that the affordance of conversational podcasts personalises the e-learning environment, enhances students' and lecturers' motivation, and engenders a greater connectedness with the university context.


Background Heart murmur is present in approximately 10% of babies on routine postnatal examination. Currently, various investigational approaches are undertaken in asymptomatic heart murmur to identify babies who might have a significant congenital heart disease (CHD). Aim To evaluate the current practice of the management asymptomatic heart murmurs in UK. Methods In August–September 2010 we undertook a telephone survey of neonatal units in UK enquiring about the investigations utilised in the assessment of asymptomatic heart murmurs. Results 116 units participated in the survey. Of this 24 were from Level 1, 52 from Level 2 and 40 from Level 3 units. The survey was predominantly answered by registrars. The majority of units undertake pulse oximetry and blood pressure measurement. There some units still doing chest x-rays (32) and ECGs (40) in asymptomatic heart murmurs. In-house echocardiography skills were available in 46% of Level 1, 67% Level 2 and 80% Level 3 units. Despite this only a handful of units echo asymptomatic babies with heart murmur before discharge home. Conclusion Currently there is a spectrum of practice in the management of asymptomatic heart murmur in neonates in UK. The majority use pulse oximetry and blood pressure measurements. There is very little evidence for doing ECGs and CXRs in asymptomatic babies which is supported by the findings of the survey. We hope this survey would help support the current evidence in the proposal of a consensus based guidelines for the management of asymptomatic heart murmur in UK.


The present invention discloses a method for transmitting channel measurement pilot information, and the method includes: a network side transmits the channel measurement pilot information of each other cell in a long-term coordinated set to the terminal, wherein the channel measurement pilot information includes at least the transmission cycle of the channel measurement pilot of the each other cell in the long-term coordinated set as well as the number of channel measurement pilot ports. The present invention also discloses a device for transmitting channel measurement pilot information, the device is applied at the network side, and the device includes a unit for transmitting channel measurement pilot information. With the invention, it is guaranteed that any terminal within a cell can receive a channel measurement pilot in a long-term coordinated set, the requirement of channel measurement of the coordinated multiple point transmission can be met, the less signaling overhead is used, the reliability and extensiveness of the information communication can be guaranteed.


Over the course of the last ten years, information production has increased dramatically as a result of the easy publishing enabled by the World Wide Web. As a result, information architects need to find ways to help users find the right answers to their questions as easily as possible and to retain relevant information as well as possible. One technique that has gone unexplored in prior literature is the use of color as a tool to help users in online information spaces orient themselves. Because color helps humans distinguish and categorize information, this study investigated the relationship of color and online navigation. Based on literature in color theory, cognitive psychology, and visual communication that predict color would have an effect on how a website is used, this study proposed the hypothesis that «users who view a website that uses color as part of a navigation system will perform faster on tasks, will recall more information that they see, and will subjectively rate a color website as more successful and pleasing than a black and white website with identical construction.» The results were not conclusive but they do suggest that using color as part of a website's navigation might improve the user's performance and subjective satisfaction of an online space. Participants of the experimentally constructed color website consistently performed better than participants who used an identical black and white experimental website. Based on these preliminary data, this study gives website designers some empirical support for using color as part of a navigation scheme since it appears that using such a scheme might aid in performance, recall, and in subjective ratings of a website's quality. The inconclusive, but promising, findings also suggest that more studies of this type need to be completed to confirm or refute the tentative success of this study. Paraules clau colour in interfaces, visual communication, visual perception, colour in information retrieval, usability, web


The endosperm acts as a signaling hub to orchestrate developmental processes in the Arabidopsis seed. [Also see Research Article by Costa et al.] Double fertilization is a key feature of flowering plants. One sperm cell from the pollen grain fertilizes the egg cell to form the embryo while the other sperm fuses with a second female gamete, called the central cell. The second fertilization event gives rise to the endosperm, long thought to be mainly a nourishing tissue supporting the developing embryo or the germinating seedling (1). In this issue, Costa and co-workers report on page 168 that in Arabidopsis thaliana the endosperm also provides crucial signals for the apical-basal patterning process of the embryo (2).


This paper proposes the use of infrastructure of both power transformers MV/LV remote monitoring and automated meters reading (AMR) system as the support for combined operation of distributed renewable energy sources (RES) and demand side management (DSM). The goal is to mitigate some problems, which can occur by intensive apply of strongly fluctuating RES, especially during low-load periods, and to improve the operating regime of networks elements, e.g., power transformers. The proposal of technical solution has been illustrated and elaborated here. The simulation results of its possible apply with supposed RES & DSM program in one particular consumption area have been presented in the paper, too.


In electrical power dispatch, the interruptible load participating in shifting peak load is propitious to optimize the configuration of power syste m resources. Analyze and compare peak regulating load cost between interruptible load consumer and peak regulating unit in Pool mode, establish the model of int erruptible load cost. Analyze the interruptible load impacting SMP(system margin al price) after participating in shifting peak load. The case study proves the r ationality and validity of the standpoint.


WWW.MDEDGE.COM/DERMATOLOGY PLEASE TURN TO PAGE E6 FOR THE DIAGNOSIS An 8-day-old female infant presented with a mass on the lower back that had been present since birth. The patient was well appearing, alert, and active. Physical examination revealed a 6×5-cm, erythematous, ill-defined, indurated plaque on the lower thoracic back. There was no associated family history of similar findings. According to the mother, the patient was feeding well with no recent fever, irritability, or lethargy. The patient was born via elective induction of labor at term due to maternal intrauterine infection from chorioamnionitis. The birth was complicated by shoulder dystocia with an Erb palsy, and she was hospitalized for 5 days after delivery for management of hypotension and ABO isoimmunization and to rule out sepsis; blood cultures were negative for neonatal infection.


Mobile communications has become an everyday commodity. The work on LTE was initiated in late 2004 by 3GPP. The multiple access schemes in LTE downlink uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). Power saving in transmission is an extensive issue for the multiple access techniques used in LTE, therefore in this paper, an important transmission factor PAPR for OFDMA system, is considered. This paper provides comparison of PAPR performance of OFDMA system for different modulation schemes (QPSK,16QAM and 64QAM) used in LTE for different channel bandwidths supported by LTE (1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz).


Introduction: A high burden of vaccine-preventable diseases, increasing elderly population, immunosenescence, and emerging drug resistance emphasize the need for robust adult immunization in India. While immunization guidelines from various societies exist, there is inadequate implementation of the same. Aim: We undertook this narrative review of the adult vaccination ecosystem in India to (i) gain insights into existing adult vaccination practices, (ii) identify barriers to adult vaccination and possible solutions, and (iii) improve collaboration between various stakeholders to help establish adult vaccination centers in the country. Results: Besides the high cost and lack of insurance coverage, the lack of adult vaccination centers contributes to the low coverage of adult immunization. Discussion: These challenges can be addressed through multiple approaches including community awareness and immunization programs, setting up mobile vaccination vans, patient/consumer education, and adequate training of healthcare providers. Successful implementation of these strategies requires active collaboration between the government, hospitals, different stakeholders, and policymakers.


Objective To compare the adhesion ability of oral microorganisms to BPS resin,heat-polymerized resin and Lucitone 199 in vitro.Methods The quantification of the attached Streptococcus sanguis,Actinomyces viscosus and Saccharomyces albicans on the surfaces of the BPS resin,heat-polymerized resin and Lucitone 199 were assayed by means of clone forming unit(CFU) method in vitro.Results After 24,48,168 hours,in the quantification of the attached Streptococcus sanguis and Saccharomyces albicans,statistical differences were observed between groups of heat-polymerized resin and BPS resin,heat-polymerized resin and Lucitone 199(P0.001).There was no significant difference between groups of BPS resin and Lucitone 199(P0.05).In the quan-tification of the attached Actinomyces viscosus,after 24 hours,statistical difference was observed between groups of heat-polymerized resin and BPS resin(P0.05).Statistical differences were observed between groups of heat-polymerized resin,BPS resin and Lucitone 199 after 48 and 168 hours(P0.05).Conclusion Compared with heat-polymerized resin,BPS resin and Lucitone 199 could decrease the adhesion of Streptococcus sanguis,Actinomyces viscosus and Saccharomyces albicans.


S UBDURAL h e m a t o m a is one of the mos t common neurosurg ica l condi t ions . At t he same t ime it is one of the mos t baffling. I t is unp red i c t ab l e in t h a t the p a t i e n t m a y m a k e a r e m a r k a b l e recovery af te r surgical evacua t ion ; on the o the r hand the pa t i e n t m a y expire in spi te of surgical ther apy . F o r this reas3n i t was dec ided to a t t e m p t to learn more a b o u t the n a t u r a l hist o ry of pa t i en t s wi th subdura l collect ions. P a t i e n t s wi th ang iograph ica l ly d e m o n s t r a t e d subdura l collect ions who had min ima l neurological deficits were selected.


It can be observed that today we live in a hectic environment, filled with lots of strict deadlineswhich we are obliged to meet by society standards. Today we have to be in a place at ten a.m. and onekilometer away at 10:05. Transportation is probably one of the most essential instruments of our success inmodern society, and fits in the same category as skill. In this idea, the paper develops the design of anelectric scooter having mechanisms used to improve the transportation and storage characteristics, and inthe end the best solution will be proposed. There will also be presented some design ideas of threeconstructive solutions iteratively refined.


Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a major cause of morbidity and mortality in premature infants, occurs after the introduction of oral feedings in conjunction with initial bacterial colonization of the gut and is hypothesized to be due to an immature (inappropriate) enterocyte response to bacterial stimuli. To test this hypothesis, we compared the enterocyte IL-8 response to inflammatory stimuli [lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and IL-1β] in immature vs. mature human small intestine. Initial in vitro studies comparing confluent Caco-2 cells, a model for mature human enterocytes, with a primary human fetal intestinal cell line (H4 cells) demonstrated that after inflammatory stimulation fetal cells secreted more IL-8 (LPS, 8-fold; IL-1β, 20-fold) than Caco-2 cells. IL-8 mRNA activity in fetal compared to Caco-2 cells was proportionately increased by the same magnitude with both stimuli. To validate the in vitro observations, small intestinal organ cultures from fetuses vs. older children were exposed to LPS and IL-1β. Again in human organ cultures from fetuses compared to older children, IL-8 secretion was greater (LPS, 2.5-fold; IL-1β, 200-fold) and mRNA activity after stimulation was comparably higher, suggesting that increased transcription of the IL-8 gene may account for the excessive response. Using immunohistochemical staining to identify the cellular source of IL-8, activity was noted predominantly in villous and crypt epithelium but also in a few immunoresponsive lymphoid cells. The observation that immature human enterocytes react with excessive pro-inflammatory cytokine production after inflammatory stimulation may help in part explain why prematures exposed to initial colonizing bacteria develop necrotizing enterocolitis. were then transported to the laboratory in ice-cold fresh CMRL 1066 media containing 40 μg/ml of penicillin and gentamicin. Tissues were processed as described below and rewashed in fresh icecold CMRL media. The gestational age averaged between 18 and 21 wk as determined by standard tables for developmental age. Small intestinal (duodenal) mucosal biopsies from infants and older children were obtained by endoscopy with informed consent in the Pediatric Endoscopy Suite at MGH when these children were endoscoped for diagnostic purposes. Only biopsies from patients without any histologic abnormalities were used in these studies. Tissues were transported to the laboratory in ice-cold CMRL 1066 media containing 40 μg/ml penicillin and gentamicin and processed (15). Samples of intestine from all specimens tested were assayed for sucrase enzymatic activity before and after treatment with endotoxin and IL-1β. Samples of tissues before and after treatment were also obtained for histologic examination. Intestinal Cell Lines The H4 cell line was developed from a 20-wk-old normal fetal small intestine by our laboratory and characterized in detail (13). The Caco-2/15 cell line at confluency is an established cell model for mature differentiated enterocytes (16). The cells were placed into 6-well Falcon plates (Fisher Scientific) at an initial density of 1 × 105 cells/cm2. Both cell lines were grown in DMEM (GIBCO/BRL) supplemented with 10% FCS, 2 mM glutamine, 100,000 units/liter penicillin, 100 gm/liter streptomycin, 0.1 mM MEM, nonessential amino acid, and 10 mM Hepes buffer in a humid atmosphere of 95% O2/5% CO2, as described previously (43). On day 7 after both cultures were grown in duplicate as described previously (43) and allowed to reach confluence, cultures were changed into a serum-free media with or without 1 mM sodium butyrate. After 24 h, the cells were treated with media containing either 50 μg/ml of LPS, 1 ng/ml IL-1β, or media alone as a control. After 24 h, the media were collected and stored at −20°C for subsequent analysis of IL-8 secretion. Cells were extracted with lysis buffer and centrifuged to clear particulate matter. Supernatants were collected and the protein concentration was determined using a BCL kit (Pierce) with BSA as a standard. The capacity of LPS and IL-1β to stimulate IL-8 secretion were quantitated by an ELISA assay and expressed as ng/mg of total cellular protein. Using trypan blue exclusion, approximately 95–98% of the cells were determined to be viable before and after each experiment. Intestinal Organ Culture To confirm any differences in the endotoxin/IL-1β response between fetal human primary immature cells and mature confluent human Caco-2 colon cancer cells, we compared the endotoxin/IL-1β response in human small intestinal tissues from fetuses, neonates, and children. Proximal small bowel was stripped of its mesentery, split longitudinally, washed in fresh culture media, and cut into explants (5 × 5 mm2), for deposit onto a Falcon organ culture dish maintained in culture media at 37°C in an environment of 95% O2/5%CO2 and saturated water vapor as described previously (17). The culture medium was CMRL 1066 supplemented with glucose (5 g/liter), methionine (1 μg/liter), tricine buffer (20 mmol, pH 7.4), hydrocortisone hemisuccinate (0.5 μg/liter), b-retinyl acetate (1 mg/liter), glutamine (3 mmol/liter), 5% FBS (HyClone), penicillin G (100 units/liter), and gentamicin (50 mg/liter). Initially organ cultures were mounted on triangular wire-mesh grids as described by MacDonald and Spencer (14), but subsequent experiments demonstrated that the wire mesh was not necessary for the viability of the organ culture if cultures were grown on organ culture dishes for 24 h. The tissues were allowed to equilibrate for up to 12 h before beginning the experiments. At least 12 explants were cultured as described above from each fetal intestinal sample. The cultures were allowed to equilibrate for 12 h before one-half of them were treated with media containing either 50 μg/ml of LPS or IL-1β (1 ng/ml) or with media alone as control. Six separate fetuses were used for 12 organ culture experiments. The intestinal biopsies were grouped into three categories: biopsies up to 2 yr were grouped as infants, from 2 to 8 yr were grouped as young children, and from 8 to 14 yr were grouped as older children. For organ cultures, at least 6–8 biopsies were obtained from the duodenum of each patient. One was stored for sucrase activity, another frozen for histology, and the remaining biopsies were treated in duplicate with media containing either LPS, IL-1β, or media alone. The media and tissue were collected and stored as described above 24 h after treatment with LPS, IL-1β, or media alone. The capacity of LPS and IL-1β to induce IL-8 was quantitated by an ELISA assay and expressed and ng/mg of total tissue protein. Tissue was homogenized in 9 vol of 0.154 M KCl and assayed for total protein using a BCL kit with a BSA standard. Sucrase activity was determined to assess functional viability of the organ culture after each experiment and histologic sections obtained to assess structural integrity. RNA Isolation and Northern Blot Analysis Human fetal/neonatal small intestinal samples were rinsed and rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen. Total RNA was extracted from epithelial cells or whole intestinal preparations by a single-step method of RNA isolation using acid guanidinum thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction (18). RNA from each intestinal resection or cell line sample was denatured in 50% formamide at 65°C, subjected to electrophoresis on a 1% agarose gel containing formaldehyde, and transferred onto a Gene Screen-Plus membrane (Dupont) (19,20) and probed with IL-8 and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) cDNA labeled by a random-primer labeling method (18–20). The membrane was hybridized according to the method of Church and Gilbert (19), washed, and exposed to films. Using a densitometer, the bands were quantitated and expressed as a IL-8:GAPDH ratio. GAPDH is a ubiquitous gene used here to control for sample variation.


The present method groups a transmission data stream, taking a combination of data bits (b1 and b2) to be transmitted from a part or all of the plurality of transmission antennas at the same time as one group; and performs transmission processing, including at least either of bit repetition processing or retransmission processing by the unit of the group (bit combination). As a result, in MIMO communication, etc., it is possible to suppress deterioration of reception characteristic due to vanishing of correlation among bits transmitted at the same time.


Objectives: Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. In Taiwan, about 2000 new cases are diagnosed and about 800 women die each year. The objective of this study was to examine the mortality rates and their trends between aboriginal and non-aboriginal areas from 1986 to 2010. Methods: Data were accessed from the mortality registry kept by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Demographic data were obtained from the Ministry of the Interior. We used the 5-year demographic distribution in Taiwan in 2000 as the standardized population to calculate the direct standardized mortality rates for cervical cancer. We then compared temporal changes in mortality rates that occurred during 1986-2010. Results: The standardized mortality rates for cervical cancer in Taiwan declined between 1986 and 2010, from 13.18 to 4.45 (per 100,000). Joinpoint regression analysis identified two significant inflection points and three distinct trends between 1986 and 2010. A steady decline from 1986 to 1997 (APC=-1.5, p<.05), and then an acceleration downward after 1997 (APC=-5.3, p<.05), were followed by the largest mortality rate decrease from 2004 to 2010 (APC=-8.7, p<.05). Mortality rates in aboriginal areas fell consistently between 1981 and 2010 (APC=-2.3, p<.05), but no inflection point was identified. In non-aboriginal areas, the joinpoint analysis identified one significant inflection point generating two distinct trends between 1986 and 2010. The first was a steady decline in mortality rates from 1986 to 2002 (APC=-2.3, p<.05), and then a downward acceleration after 2002 (APC=-9.2, p<.05). Conclusions: Standardized mortality rates for cervical cancer declined after the Papanicolaou test was implemented in 1995; however, the mortality rates in aboriginal areas were still higher than those in non-aboriginal areas. The health authorities need to focus on health education and health promotion activities to improve female health in aboriginal areas.


In this paper, the experimental data of CO, CO2 and total volatile organic compound (TVOC) concentration in a residential kitchen are presented. Based on them, a simulation software with friendly and simply operating interfaceis is developed on the platform of VC++. The distribution law of the contaminants is studied via the simulation results, and it is obvious that location of accumulation of the contaminants are highly relevant to the location of stove and closer to the walls. An addition natural air makeup system is proposed to improve indoor airenvironment in kitchens, the effection of the air makeup system is analyzed with exergy theory.


Abstract Selected econometric methods of modelling the world's population size based on historical data are presented in the paper. Periodical variables were used in the models proposed in the paper. Moreover, a logistic-type function was used in modelling. The purpose of the paper was to obtain a model describing the world's population with the lowest possible maximal relative error and possibly the longest period of durability. In this work, 13,244 models from three families models were analyzed. Only a small part of such a large number of models satisfies the conditions of stability. The method of modelling the world's population size allows to obtain models with maximal relative errors not exceeding 0.5%. Selected models were used to prediction of the world's population up to 2050. The obtained results were compared with data published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.


The work has as perspective to present resulted of activities developed by means of the "Project Young Popular:  Access and Permanence in the University", focando more specifically the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS).  It analyzes the meanings of "being a university student" for young of popular origin, the strategies integrators  that they adopt to insert itself in the academic world, the conditions of insertion in the superior level, the daily  life of these students, strategies of permanence in  the University, beyond identifying possible institucional  actions that can supply the extended insertion of these young in the academic world. One is about a qualitative  boarding, carried through in two stages, in which, readings of texts and election of the interviewed ones had been  carried through parallel.


Objective To study the correlation between the expressions of estrogen receptor-α (ER-α) and-β (ER-β) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in endometriosis (EMs) and their association with the prognosis of the disease.Me-thodsThe ER-α, ER-β and VEGF were detected by immunohistochemical technique in endometriosis tissues of 79 patients and normal endometrium of 20 subjects. Their relationship with the prognosis of EMs was analyzed. ResultsThe expressions of ER-α and-β in ectopic endometrium were lower (χ2=9.98,P0.01), and of VEGF was higher than that of normal endometrium (χ2=4.11,P0.05). The expression of ER-β was also lower than that in normal endometrial tissue (χ2=4.23,P0.05). The recurrence rate in patients with high VEGF expression was significantly higher than those with lower VEGF expression (χ2=6.39,P0.05). A higher or lower expression of ER-α in ectopic endometrium was along with a higher or lower expression of VEGF, accordingly (r=0.93,P0.01). ConclusionER-α and ER-β probably involve in the occurrence and development of EMs and in the regulation of angiogenesis of ectopic endomembrane, a detection of VEGF is of great clinical value in predicting the prognosis of endometriosis.


A formulation for the plane 4-node quadrilateral finite element is developed based on the principle of virtual displacements for a deformable body. Incompatible modes are added to the standard displacement field. Then expressions for gradient operators are obtained from an expansion of the basis functions into a second-order Taylor series in the physical co-ordinates. The internal degrees of freedom of the incompatible modes are eliminated on the element level. A modified change of variables is used to integrate the element matrices.

For a linear elastic material, the element stiffness matrix can be separated into two parts. These are equivalent to a stiffness matrix obtained from underintegration and a stabilization matrix.

The formulation includes the cases of plane stress and plane strain as well as the analysis of incompressible materials. Further, the approach is suitable for non-linear analysis. There, an application is given for the calculation of inelastic problems in physically non-linear elasticity.

The element is efficient to implement and it is frame invariant. Locking effects and zero-energy modes are avoided as well as singularities of the stiffness matrix due to geometric distortion. A high accuracy is obtained for numerical solutions in displacements and stresses.


Outsourcing computation allows for outsourced function evaluation from a resource-constrained client to a powerful server which may be not honest. In this paper we propose an outsourcing algorithm of modular exponentiations. In the computation process, the sensitive information during the modular exponentiation computation is hidden to the server, while the computation results can be efficiently verified by the client. Compared with the existing solutions, our algorithm is superior in check ability.


In spite of the increasing popularity of Internet applications to the hotel industry, and the large number of published Internet-related articles in the hospitality and tourism literature, the topic of the usability of Web sites has been largely overlooked by hospitality and tourism researchers. In other words, the ease of use of hotel Web sites remains largely unknown to hotel customers, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers. This article presents an exploratory study in which a modified heuristic technique for evaluation was developed to measure the usability of hotel Web sites. The research evaluated the Web sites of all members of the Hong Kong Hotels Association. Empirical evidence showed that minor problems of usability existed on the Web sites of Hong Kong hotels, and no significant difference was found among luxury, mid-priced, and economy hotels.


Thanks to advances in the science of intimate relationships (Bell, 2011; Gottman, 2001; Gottman, Gottman, & DeClaire, 2007; Parker-Pope, 2010) as well as a plethora of self-help books and TV shows on the topic, we are now swimming in a sea of knowledge about relationships. A great deal of our interest in family nursing has been focused on examining the impact of illness on families and wondering how we can best translate this knowledge into better nursing practice with families. What would happen if family nurses would continue to focus on families but with a keener interest and heightened sensitivity to relationships—not only relationships between family members and relationships between the family and the larger systems within which they are embedded but also relationships between ourselves as health care professionals and the families with whom we are privileged to work? If health and illness and family nursing were conceptualized as relationship issues, how might our family nursing practice, education, and research be transformed? In September 2010, I was invited to offer a keynote on this topic at the 3rd Nordic Conference on Family Focused Nursing in Kalmar, Sweden (see Benzein, 2011 for a report of the conference in this issue). In this editorial based on my conference keynote, I focus on enlarging our understanding of "family" to think about the nurse–family relationship, in particular. From my personal and professional observations, illness reverberates at the level of relationships within and outside the family. Serious illness can strengthen, renew, and deepen relationships; serious illness can also cause relationships to become conflicted, troubled, fragmented, and broken. By orienting our assessment and intervention to focus on relationships, I believe family nursing practice, family nursing education, and family nursing research might be expanded in several ways.


The paper discusses the work of the Brazilian Parliamentary Delegation to Mercosur, initially to the Joint Parliamentary Committee and then to its successor, the Parliament of Mercosur. It examines the process whereby the Delegation became institutionalized within the Brazilian National Congress and gained competences, functioning in a very similar manner to a bicameral parliamentary committee. It describes the evolution of these functions, considering them mainly at the national parliament"s level. During the XXVII Meeting of the Mercosur Heads of State, on December 17, 2004, the Common Market Council (CMC) instructed the Joint Parliamentary Commission (JPC) to prepare a draft protocol establishing the Mercosur Parliament, and recommended its completion before 31 st December, 2006. The Joint Parliamentary Commission successfully created the draft protocol and on December 9, 2005, in Montevideo, the Presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay signed the Constitutive Protocol of the Parliament of Mercosur, that replaced the Joint Parliamentary Commission. With very weak competences, consultative in nature, the Parliament"s most distinguishing feature, when compared to other parliaments of integration processes, is the consultative function contained in art. 4, no 12, which creates a link between the national parliaments and the regional Parliament. Its objective is to speed up the approval, by national parliaments, of norms issuing from the integration agreements, thus conferring legal security to the integration process. The paper discusses the manner whereby the Brazilian delegation succeeded in incorporating the mechanism devised by art. 4 into the proceedings of the National Congress, and evaluates its work as a channel of communication with civil society. Throughout the process of creating the Parliament, and later on, during the present stage of its establishment, the Brazilian delegation has possibly been the most effective, among the four delegations, in consolidating a role for itself in the proceedings of the National Congress, while at the same time participating in the monthly sessions of the Parliament in Montevideo. However, its existence is now facing a serious challenge, since the Congress Resolution that created it lapsed on 31 st December, 2010. In spite of the fact that this paper refers to a "Brazilian parliamentary delegation" in its title, the word "Representation" is used in most of the work, pursuant to the provisions of Resolution CN no 1 of 1996, and Resolution CN no 1of 2007 of the Brazilian National Congress.


Privacy is an increasingly important theme in communications. With increasing mobile users, previously neglected aspects as location privacy become important in our social life. Currently, Instant Messaging applications are considered to have a strong privacy model between users, because all communications are mediated by the service. In this paper, we analyse IM under the light of location privacy. We devise a set of potential attacks, and analyse the behaviour of many systems under these attacks. Our results show that while not all implementations are vulnerable, some popular IMs are breachable by one or more of these location privacy attacks. With browser based and mobile implementations being less vulnerable because they tend to provide a reduced set of features, thus reducing the attack surface.


Case Theory is an important component in Chomsky's generative grammar,which offers a great many accounts for sentence generation.However,as to the accounts of existential sentence,there exist certain problems unsolved.Under the direction of Case Theory,the subject-predicate agreement and constraints on the definiteness of noun phrases in existential sentences are rediscussed in the light of case assignment and LF affix.