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Infrastructure services are essential to human development. Yet, the drivers of service access at a global scale remain largely unexplored. This paper presents trends and global patterns in access to water, sanitation, electricity, and telephony services. Using a panel data set from 1990 to 2010, we empirically explore plausible determinants of access rates to key infrastructure services. Although per-capita GDP is correlated with access rates, access still varies significantly at comparable income levels. Much of this variation is explained by differences in population density. Access levels are higher for urban areas and highest for water, followed by sanitation, electricity, and telephony. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Whether specific T-cell clones are present in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in BCC is unknown. We employed deep sequencing of mRNA coding for the T-cell receptor (TCR) chains - and to characterize the repertoire of TILs in BCC. V and J gene-usage and CDR3 length were computed to determine the clonality of TCR and degree of overlap in TCR repertoires between skin resident T-cells and TILs. We found high diversity of the TCR repertoire in BCC and control skin with random V-J gene usage and similar CDR3-length distribution. Lack of TCR repertoire restriction indicates absence of tumor-specific TIL clones in BCC.

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol widely applied in the world of multimedia communication. Numerous SIP authenticated key agreement schemes have been proposed with the purpose of ensuring security communication. Farash recently put forward an enhancement employing smart cards counted on Zhang et al.'s scheme. In this study, we observe that the enhanced scheme presented by Farash has also some security pitfalls, such as disclosure of user identity, lack of a pre-authentication in the smart card and vulnerability to key-compromise masquerading attack which results in an off-line guessing attack. We then propose an anonymous modified scheme with elliptic curve cryptography to eliminate the security leakages of the scheme proposed by Farash. We demonstrate that our scheme is immune to different kinds of attacks including attacks involved in Farash's scheme. We mention Burrows-Abadi-Needham logic for completeness of the proposed scheme. Also, we compare the performance of our scheme with its predecessor schemes and the comparative results shows that it perfectly satisfies the needs of SIP.

The mathematics of filling and draining a permeable geotextile bag were developed in a previous investigation of how large geotextile containers can be used to dewater dredged material and mine tailings. The resulting outflow from the draining bag looks remarkably like an overland flow hydrograph. An analog model for overland flow is developed from the draining bag and compared with experimental runoff data obtained in the laboratory for a number of rolled erosion control blankets. The analog model is defined by a dimensionless parameter that includes a permittivity term that characterizes the rate of runoff. A comparison of the analog model with measured runoff is excellent across the entire range of natural and geosynthetic erosion control products investigated.

The main source of electricity in Brazil is from hydro, which has about 65.2% share of the country's electric energy matrix. However, over the last decade the wind energy increased from 19 MW to 2.2 GW. Since wind is an intermittent energy source, heavily determined by the weather and climatic conditions, and important effects on wind power generation can be expected in the mid and long term, in particular related to the impacts of extreme winds. The IPCC AR5 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) indicates changes in wind speed at the surface in some regions of the world, and increased wind strength in mid-latitude regions. This study scrutinizes future scenarios of extreme winds in Brazil by applying trend analysis techniques on a 50-year historical series of observational wind speed and meteorological parameters at 10 m height in Brazil. Embracing techniques of cluster analysis it was possible to characterize six main regions with macro climatic similarities. To assess the goodness fit distribution, we designate two stations per homogenous region, taking as criteria the stations with better performance in the qualification process to determine the wind distribution pattern in each region applying the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (KS) and the lowest standard error (SE). After evaluating the frequency distribution of wind speed, the best fit result for the frequency distribution of maximum wind speed is the Gumbel model. The analysis of climatic trends performed by Mann-Kendall test revealed that in minimum wind speed series is not conclusive because it shows disparate results between homogeneous regions. On the other hand, the analysis of climatic trends of maximum wind speed presents 100% positive trends in Group#1, an equal number of stations with not significant trends and positive trends for Group#2, 36.8% more stations with positive trends than negative trends for Group#3 and 20% of stations with more negative trends than stations with positive trends for Group#4. This way, based in these results, is possible assert that there are an increase in the maximum extreme wind in Brazil, mainly in mid-latitudes. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Although democracies should ideally elect leaders based on their abilities, voters are often biased by seemingly unrelated factors, such as a candidate's appearance. Prior work examining the relations between election outcomes and appearance has primarily focused on a restricted range of the top candidates, examined in pairwise comparisons. In the present study, we tested whether the predictive ability of ratings based on facial appearance would extend to a wider range of candidates. Specifically, we examined whether individuals in the US could predict outcomes in the 2011 Bulgarian presidential elections by evaluating the facial appearance of 18 candidates. The large number of candidates naturally running for the high level office allowed us to accurately test the strength of the relationship between judgments of facial appearance and election outcomes across a broad range of faces. We found that a strong correlation between ratings of facial competence and election outcomes persisted across the full range of candidates, and that US participants' hypothetical choices paralleled actual Bulgarian election outcomes. We demonstrated that competence ratings were more effective at predicting election outcomes than judgments on a variety of other characteristics deemed important by Bulgarian voters as well as ratings of attractiveness. Furthermore, judgments of competence largely drove the correlation between hypothetical and actual votes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Typical spinel ferrites of CoFe2O4 and MnFe2O4 were studied as heterogeneous catalysts of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the degradation of paracetamol (APAP) in water. The APAP degradation followed a pseudo-first-order kinetics pattern (R-2 >0.95) under conditions tested. In the presence of 0.2 catalyst, APAP with initial concentration of 10 mg/L would be 90.5% and 100% removed in CoFe2O4/PMS and MnFe2O4/PMS system, respectively. Higher catalyst dosage, higher PMS dosage, neutral pH and lower concentration of HA favored APAP degradation in each system. After being recycled for three times, MnFe2O4 and CoFe2O4 could still effectively catalyze PMS to react with APAP, with the removal efficiencies of 100% and 76.1%, respectively. The production of sulfate radical and hydroxyl radical was validated from the scavenging tests, results showed that sulfate radical was the main reactive species responsible for APAP degradation. Plausible mechanisms on the activation processes were proposed based on the radical identification tests and XPS analysis, showing that Mn2+-Mn3+/Fe3+-Fe2+ recycle and Co2+-Co3+/Fe3+-Fe2+ recycle on catalyst were responsible for the radical generation. The results demonstrated that both CoFe2O4 and MnFe2O4 MNPs activated PMS were promising technologies for water pollution caused by pharmaceuticals. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In the future, most of the population will settle in large cities and metropolitan areas, in basins where pressure over water resources is already very large. In this situation, the operators of water and sanitation services must make a continuous effort of planning, to reach effective application of the reduced natural and economic resources. However, the urban water systems are composed of many different elements that interact with each other, exhibiting feedback loops and emerging behaviors, so that no simple models could be used. In short, there are complex systems. Under these conditions, decision makers require appropriate methods and tools, such that allow them to examine several alternatives and their impacts in time. The systems approach and adaptive dynamic modeling is one of the most active and promising research fields in water resources management. In this paper the use of dynamic modeling applied to supply water to cities is proposed, a general model is shown and applied to the city of Puebla and its metropolitan area. A trend and a balance scenarios are analyzed, the second composed by a group of conservation, rainwater harvesting and reuse actions over a 15 years horizon, demonstrating the possibility of leading the system from a deficit into a surplus of water, and exemplifying the benefits of dynamic modeling in urban water systems.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is among the most stress-tolerant crops; however, not much is known about the genetic and environmental control of metabolic adaptation of barley to abiotic stresses. We have subjected a genetically diverse set of 81 barley accessions, consisting of Mediterranean landrace genotypes and German elite breeding lines, to drought and combined heat and drought stress at anthesis. Our aim was to (i) investigate potential differences in morphological, physiological, and metabolic adaptation to the two stress scenarios between the Mediterranean and German barley genotypes and (ii) identify metabolic quantitative trait loci (mQTLs). To this end, we have genotyped the investigated barley lines with an Illumina iSelect 9K array and analyzed a set of 57 metabolites from the primary C and N as well as antioxidant metabolism in flag leaves under control and stress conditions. We found that drought-adapted genotypes attenuate leaf carbon metabolism much more strongly than elite lines during drought stress adaptation. Furthermore, we identified mQTLs for flag leaf gamma-tocopherol, glutathione, and succinate content by association genetics that co-localize with genes encoding enzymes of the pathways producing these antioxidant metabolites. Our results provide the molecular basis for breeding barley cultivars with improved abiotic stress tolerance.

Image enhancements lead to improved performance and increased accuracy of feature extraction, recognition, identification, classification and hence change detection. This increases the utility of remote sensing to suit environmental applications and aid disaster monitoring of geohazards involving large areas. The main aim of this study was to compare the effect of image enhancement applied to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and Landsat 8 imagery in landslide identification and mapping. The methodology involved pre-processing Landsat 8 imagery, image co-registration, despeckling of the SAR data, after which Landsat 8 imagery was enhanced by Principal and Independent Component Analysis (PCA and ICA), a spectral index involving bands 7 and 4, and using a False Colour Composite (FCC) with the components bearing the most geologic information. The SAR data were processed using textural and edge filters, and computation of SAR incoherence. The enhanced spatial, textural and edge information from the SAR data was incorporated to the spectral information from Landsat 8 imagery during the knowledge based classification. The methodology was tested in the central highlands of Kenya, characterized by rugged terrain and frequent rainfall induced landslides. The results showed that the SAR data complemented Landsat 8 data which had enriched spectral information afforded by the FCC with enhanced geologic information. The SAR classification depicted landslides along the ridges and lineaments, important information lacking in the Landsat 8 image classification. The success of landslide identification and classification was attributed to the enhanced geologic features by spectral, textural and roughness properties. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Missense variants of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes pose a problem in clinical genetics as long as they cannot unambiguously be assigned as the cause of Lynch syndrome (LS). To study such variants of uncertain clinical significance, we have developed a functional assay based on direct measurement of MMR activity in mouse embryonic stem cells expressing mutant protein from the endogenous alleles. We have applied this protocol to a specific truncation mutant of MSH2 that removes 60 C-terminal amino acids and has been found in suspected LS families. We show that the stability of the MSH2/MSH6 heterodimer is severely perturbed, causing attenuated MMR in in vitro assays and cancer predisposition in mice. This mutation can therefore unambiguously be considered as deleterious and causative for LS.

The protection of the volatile memory data is an issue of crucial importance, since authentication credentials and cryptographic keys remain in the volatile memory. For this reason, the volatile memory has become a prime target for memory scrapers, which specifically target the volatile memory, in order to steal sensitive information, such as credit card numbers. This paper investigates security measures, to protect sensitive information in the volatile memory from disclosure attacks. Experimental analysis is performed to investigate whether the operating systems (Windows or Linux) perform data zeroization in the volatile memory. Results show that Windows kernel zeroize data after a process termination, while the Linux kernel does not. Next, we examine functions and software techniques in C/C++ programming language that can be used by developers to modify at process runtime the contents of the allocated blocks in the volatile memory. We have identified that only the Windows operating system provide a specific function named SecureZeroMemory that can reliably zeroize data. Finally, driven by the fact that malware scrapers primarily target web browsers, we examine whether it is feasible to extract authentication credentials from the volatile memory allocated by web browsers. The presented results show that in most cases we can successfully recover user authentication credentials from all the web browsers except when the user has closed the tab that used to access the website.

The current study integrated constructs from the fields of relationship science (i.e., similarity and familiarity) and intergroup research (i.e., racial ideologies, particularly color-blind racial ideology and multiculturalism) to explore interracial romantic attraction. Using a person-perception design, 124 Black (n = 62) and White (n =62) heterosexual college men indicated their romantic attraction to the dating profiles of three Black and three White women. Results from analyses consistent with a linear mixed-model approach supported most of the hypotheses, including participants in general were more attracted to women of the same race and that greater endorsement of multicultural ideological beliefs was associated with increased interracial attraction. For White men, greater endorsement of color-blind racial ideology was predictive of a decrease in interracial romantic attraction as hypothesized. Contrary to the hypotheses, increased interracial contact for Black men was associated with an increase in same race attraction. Results are discussed in the context of existing literature, and important next steps are also discussed.

Although homosexuality can evoke disgust, the extent to which disgust influences judgments about transgressions committed by homosexuals remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, participants high (HHD) and low (LHD) in homosexual disgust provided disgust and immorality ratings of offenses committed by homosexuals or heterosexuals. The present study also examined the extent to which judgments about violations of social mores by homosexuals or heterosexuals differed as a function of the purity of the violation. Consistent with predictions, HHD participants had significantly higher disgust and immorality ratings than LHD participants for violations committed by homosexuals. However, the two groups did not differ in ratings of violations committed by heterosexuals. The findings also revealed that the difference between violations committed by homosexuals and heterosexuals in disgust was greater when the violation did not contain impurity versus when impurity was present. However, this pattern of findings was not observed for differences in ratings of immorality. Lastly, pathogen, but not sexual or moral disgust mediated the association between moral purity and ratings of violations committed by homosexuals. This mediated effect was not observed for ratings of violations committed by heterosexuals. The implications of these findings for better understating moral perceptions of homosexuality are discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The importance of neuro-immune interactions in both physiological and pathophysiological states cannot be overstated. As our appreciation for the neuroimmune nature of the brain and spinal cord grows, so does our need to extend the spatial and temporal resolution of our molecular analysis techniques. Current imaging technologies applied to investigate the actions of the neuroimmune system in both health and disease states have been adapted from the fields of immunology and neuroscience. While these classical techniques have provided immense insight into the function of the CNS, they are however, inherently limited. Thus, the development of innovative methods which overcome these limitations are crucial for imaging and quantifying acute and chronic neuroimmune responses. Therefore, this review aims to convey emerging novel and complementary imaging technologies in a form accessible to medical scientists engaging in neuroimmune research. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recent literature has explored automated pornographic detection a bold move to replace humans in the tedious task of moderating online content. Unfortunately, on scenes with high skin exposure, such as people sunbathing and wrestling, the state of the art can have many false alarms. This paper is based on the premise that incorporating motion information in the models can alleviate the problem of mapping skin exposure to pornographic content, and advances the bar on automated pornography detection with the use of motion information and deep learning architectures. Deep Learning, especially in the form of Convolutional Neural Networks, have striking results on computer vision, but their potential for pornography detection is yet to be fully explored through the use of motion information. We propose novel ways for combining static (picture) and dynamic (motion) information using optical flow and MPEG motion vectors. We show that both methods provide equivalent accuracies, but that MPEG motion vectors allow a more efficient implementation. The best proposed method yields a classification accuracy of 97.9% an error reduction of 64.4% when compared to the state of the art on a dataset of 800 challenging test cases. Finally, we present and discuss results on a larger, and more challenging, dataset.

This multi-study analysis (6 fMRI studies; 142 participants) explores the functional activation and connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum during repeated behavioral information uptake informing about personality traits of different persons. The results suggest that trait repetition recruits activity in areas belonging to the mentalizing and executive control networks in the cerebrum, and the executive control areas in the cerebellum. Cerebral activation was observed in the executive control network including the posterior medial frontal cortex (pmFC), the bilateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and bilateral inferior parietal cortex (IPC), in the mentalizing network including the bilateral middle temporal cortex (MTC) extending to the right superior temporal cortex (STC), as well as in the visual network including the left cuneus (Cun) and the left inferior occipital cortex. Moreover, cerebellar activation was found bilaterally in lobules VI and VII belonging to the executive control network. Importantly, significant patterns of functional connectivity were found linking these cerebellar executive areas with cerebral executive areas in the medial pmFC, the left PFC and the left IPC, and mentalizing areas in the left MTC. In addition, connectivity was found between the cerebral areas in the left hemisphere involved in the executive and mentalizing networks, as well as with their homolog areas in the right hemisphere. The discussion centers on the role of these cerebello-cerebral connections in matching internal predictions generated by the cerebellum with external information from the cerebrum, presumably involving the sequencing of behaviors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A high-efficiency, high-power-density buffer architecture is proposed for power pulsation decoupling in power conversion between dc and single-phase ac. We present an active decoupling solution that yields improved efficiency and reduced circuit complexity compared to existing solutions. In the proposed architecture, the main energy storage capacitor is connected in series with an active buffer converter across the dc bus. The series-stacked capacitor blocks the majority of the dc bus voltage to reduce the voltage stress on the buffer converter, such that fast, low-voltage transistors can be employed for the buffer converter. Moreover, the series capacitor provides the majority of the power pulsation decoupling through a wide voltage swing, and the buffer converter only needs to process a small fraction of the total power of the entire architecture, allowing a very small active circuit volume and very high system efficiency. The circuit operation and design constraints are analyzed in detail. In the proposed buffer architecture, the series stacking of a nearly lossless capacitor and a lossy converter presents a challenge of capacitor voltage balancing and power loss compensation. We propose a control scheme exploiting the small ripple in the bus voltage and dc input current to compensate for the power loss in the buffer converter while maintaining the voltage balance. Light-load techniques are also introduced to ensure that the buffer architecture meets strict ripple requirements while providing sufficient loss compensation. A 2-kW hardware prototype based on low-voltage GaN switches has been built to demonstrate the performance of the proposed solution. A power density of 25W/cm(3) (410 W/in(3)) by rectangular box volume and an efficiency above 98.9% across a wide load range has been experimentally verified.

The importance of brain inflammation to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis has been accepted of late, with it currently being held that brain inflammation aggravates AD pathology. One important aspect of brain inflammation is the recruitment and activation of microglia, a process termed microgliosis. Kinins and bradykinin (BK), in particular, are major pro-inflammatory mediators in the periphery, although all of the factors comprising the kinin system have also been described in the brain. Moreover, it was shown that the amyloid beta (A beta) peptide (a component of AD plaques) enhances kinin secretion and activates BK receptors that can, in turn, stimulate A beta production. Still, the role of bradykinin in modulating brain inflammation and AD is not completely understood. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of the bradykinin B1 receptor (B1R) and bradykinin B-2 receptor (B2R) in regulating microglial secretion of pro-inflammatory factors in vitro. Furthermore, the effects of intranasal administration of specific B1R and B2R antagonists on A beta burden and microglial accumulation in the brains of transgenic AD mice were studied. The data obtained show that neither R-715 (a B1R antagonist) nor HOE 140 (a B2R antagonist) altered microglial cell viability. However, R-715, but not HOE 140, markedly increased lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) release, as well as inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in BV2 microglial cells. Neither antagonist altered NO nor TNF-alpha production in non-stimulated cells. We also showed that intranasal administration of R-715 but not HOE 140 to 8-week-old 5X familial AD mice enhanced amyloid burden and microglia/macrophage accumulation in the cortex. To conclude, we provide evidence supporting a role of B1R in brain inflammation and in the regulation of amyloid deposition in AD mice, possibly with microglial/macrophage involvement. Further studies are required to test whether modulation of this receptor can serve as a novel therapeutic strategy for AD.

The human body plays a central role in nonverbal communication, conveying attitudes, personality, and values during social interactions. Three experiments in a large, open classroom setting investigated whether the visibility of torso-located cues affects nonverbal communication of similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2, half the participants wore a black plastic bag over their torso. Participants interacted with an unacquainted same-sex individual selected from a large class who was also wearing (or also not wearing) a bag. Experiment 3 added a clear bag condition, in which visual torso cues were not obscured. Across experiments, black bag-wearing participants selected partners who were less similar to them on attitudes, behaviors, and personality compared to the bag-less-and clear bag-participants. Nonverbal cues in the torso communicate information about similarity of attitudes, behavior, and personality; the center of the body plays a surprisingly central role in early-stage person perception and attraction.

Objectives: Growth hormone (GH) and its main mediator, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), play a fundamental role in human metabolism. Previous epidemiological studies investigating the association of IGF-I and bone turnover markers (BTMs) yielded conflicting results and were limited by study design or sample size. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the associations between serum levels of IGF-I or the IGF-I/IGF binging protein 3 (IGFBP-3) ratio and levels of BTMs including procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide (PINP), C-terminal telopeptides of type 1 collagen (CTX), and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP). Methods: Data from 1463 men and 1481 women who participated in the first follow-up of the Study of Health in Pomerania were used. IGF-I and IGFBP-3 levels were measured using chemiluminescent immunometric assays on an Immulite 2500 analyzer. BTM levels were measured on the IDS-iSYS Multi-Discipline Automated Analyser. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) and quantile regression models were calculated. Results: In men <55 years and premenopausal women ANOVA and quantile regression analyses revealed positive associations between IGF-I or even stronger the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio and PINP [per unit increase in IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio in men: beta (95%-CI) 2.33 ng/ml (0.91; 3.75), p<0.01; women: 3.63 ng/ml (2.31; 4.95), p<0.01] or CTX [men: 20.8 ng/l (3.5; 38.0), p = 0.02; women: 12.0 ng/l (-1.2; 25.2), p = 0.07]. Furthermore in postmenopausal women, IGF-I and the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio were inversely related with CTX levels, whereas an inverse U-shaped relation between IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio and PINP was found. Regarding BAP, we observed borderline significant associations with IGF-I or the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio in older subjects only. Conclusion: IGF-I levels and particularly free IGF-I, estimated by the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio, are positively related with PINP as a bone formation marker and CTX as a bone resorption marker in healthy adult men younger than 55 years and premenopausal women. In older subjects the found positive as well as negative relations with BTMs have to be further investigated. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Vibration energy harvesting converts mechanical energy from ambient sources to electricity to power remote sensors. Compared to linear resonators that have poor performance away from their natural frequency, nonlinear vibration energy harvesters perform better because they use vibration energy over a broader spectrum. We present a hybrid nonlinear energy harvester that combines bi-stability with internal resonance to increase the frequency bandwidth. A two-fold increase in the frequency bandwidth can be obtained compared to a bi-stable system with fixed magnets. The harvester consists of a piezoelectric cantilever beam carrying a movable magnet facing a fixed magnet. A spring allows the magnet to move along the beam and it provides an extra stored energy to further increase the amplitude of vibration acting as a mechanical amplifier. An electromechanically coupled mathematical model of the system is presented to obtain the dynamic response of the cantilever beam, the movable magnet and the output voltage. The perturbation method of multiple scales is applied to solve these equations and obtain approximate analytical solutions. The effects of various system parameters on the frequency responses are investigated. The numerical approaches of the long time integration (Runge-Kutta method) and the shooting technique are used to verify the analytical results. The results of this study can be used to improve efficiency in converting wasted mechanical vibration to useful electrical energy by broadening the frequency bandwidth. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prostaglandins are small pro-inflammatory molecules derived from arachidonic acid that play roles in a multitude of biological processes including, but not limited to, inflammation, pain modulation, allergies, and bone formation. Prostaglandin analogues are the front-line medications for the treatment of glaucoma, a condition resulting in blindness due to the death of retinal ganglion cells. These drugs act by lowering intraocular pressure (IOP), a major risk factor for glaucoma. The currently used prostaglandin analogues (latanoprost, bimatoprost, tafluprost, and travoprost) mimic PGF2 and target one of the prostaglandin receptors (FP), though research into harnessing the other receptors using compounds like Sulprostone (EP3 receptor), or Iloprost (IP receptor) are currently ongoing. In this review, we summarize the research into each of the prostaglandin molecules (PGD2, PGE2, PGF2, PGI2, TXA2) and their respective receptors (DP, EP1, 2, 3, 4, FP, IP). We examine the modes of action of each of these receptors, their expression, their role in aqueous humour production and outflow within the eye, as well as their roles as medications for the treatment of glaucoma.

This article integrates knowledge from health psychology, life course development, and social psychology to outline a theoretical framework for identifying, investigating, promoting, and evaluating beneficial action. Beneficial action is defined as a subset of prosocial (motivated to benefit others that may include self-interest) and altruistic (prosocial motivation without self-interest) behavior that uses consequential (scientific) knowledge to increase freedom within the global population. Beneficial action theory seeks to increase political and social actions that are planned and evaluated to ensure key tasks in human development. Central among these is the broadening of social identity to ensure that the human potential to use science to modify the natural environment achieves benefits for the global population. This article presents a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the psychological processes that underlie the development, application and evaluation of beneficial action for individuals and populations. The need to conceptualize beneficial action arises from 3 related observations. First, the certainty of knowledge of the beneficial outcome of a specific human action increases the moral motivation to engage in that action. For example, there is consensus among psychologists and other professions that it is unethical to engage in therapeutic practices that have evidence for neutral or harmful consequences. Second, due to the rapid increase in scientific knowledge, the range of human action that has scientifically ascertainable consequences is rapidly expanding. Third, advancing scientific knowledge means that human actions have increasingly powerful consequences for humanity and the natural world, warranting careful consideration of how to ensure global population benefits.

The current study investigated ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) activity during impression formation of individuals varying on distinct dimensions of social status. In a block-design functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, participants were presented with photographs of faces paired with a colored background indicating their lower, same, or higher financial status, or lower, same, or higher moral status. Participants were asked to form an impression of the targets, but were not instructed to explicitly evaluate them based on social status. Building on previous findings (Cloutier, Ambady, Meagher, & Gabrieli, 2012), a region of interest analysis revealed the interaction of status dimension and level in VMPFC, finding not only preferential response to targets with higher compared to lower moral status as previously demonstrated, but also greater response to targets with lower compared to higher financial status. The implications of these results are discussed with an emphasis towards better understanding the impact of social status on social cognition and uncovering the neural substrates of person evaluation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In cities with problems of aridity and a shortage of drinking water supply, there is an urgent need to establish alternatives for an adequate water management program. This study proposes an estimation through which users can select a rainwater harvesting system for non-drinking water consumption. For the cities of Pachuca and Mineral de la Reforma, State of Hidalgo, Central Mexico, the historical record of rainfall analyzed covers a period of 33 years (1980-2013). We calculated the monthly volume of rainwater harvestable from roof areas (VR, m(3)) with household roof areas (Hra) of 45 m(2), 50 m(2), 100 m(2) and 200 m(2). It is proposed to replace in each single house the flush toilets and washing machine with ecological devices with consumptions of 4.8 L/flush and 70 L/load, respectively. Furthermore, a maximum and a minimum consumption of eight and six flushes/day/person (flush toilets) and five and four loads/week (washing machine), respectively, are proposed. From these considerations, our estimations of the harvestable rainwater showed that households with Hra of 45 m(2) and 50 m(2) would depend on the water supply system of the public network during part of the year. On the other hand, households with Hra of 100 m(2) and 200 m(2) might be able to store enough water to meet other needs besides toilet flushing and laundry.

Introduction: The PEI Programme in the WHO African region invested in recruitment of qualified staff in data management, developing data management system and standards operating systems since the revamp of the Polio Eradication Initiative in 1997 to cater for data management support needs in the Region. This support went beyond polio and was expanded to routine immunization and integrated surveillance of priority diseases. But the impact of the polio data management support to other programmes such as routine immunization and disease surveillance has not yet been fully documented. This is what this article seeks to demonstrate. Methods: We reviewed how Polio data management area of work evolved progressively along with the expansion of the data management team capacity and the evolution of the data management systems from initiation of the AFP case-based to routine immunization, other case based disease surveillance and Supplementary immunization activities. Results: IDSR has improved the data availability with support from IST Polio funded data managers who were collecting them from countries. The data management system developed by the polio team was used by countries to record information related to not only polio SIAs but also for other interventions. From the time when routine immunization data started to be part of polio data management team responsibility, the number of reports received went from around 4000 the first year (2005) to >30,000 the second year and to >47,000 in 2014. Conclusion: Polio data management has helped to improve the overall VPD, IDSR and routine data management as well as emergency response in the Region. As we approach the polio end game, the African Region would benefit in using the already set infrastructure for other public health initiative in the Region. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

In this paper, we analyse the local stability of a gene-regulatory network and immunotherapy for cancer modelled as nonlinear time-delay systems. A numerically generated kernel, using the sum-of-squares decomposition of multivariate polynomials, is used in the construction of an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional for stability analysis of the networks around an equilibrium point. This analysis translates to verifying equivalent LMI conditions. A delay-independent asymptotic stability of a second-order model of a gene regulatory network, taking into consideration multiple commensurate delays, is established. In the case of cancer immunotherapy, a predator-prey type model is adopted to describe the dynamics with cancer cells and immune cells contributing to the predator-prey population, respectively. A delay-dependent asymptotic stability of the cancer-free equilibrium point is proved. Apart from the system and control point of view, in the case of gene-regulatory networks such stability analysis of dynamics aids mimicking gene networks synthetically using integrated circuits like neurochips learnt from biological neural networks, and in the case of cancer immunotherapy it helps determine the long-term outcome of therapy and thus aids oncologists in deciding upon the right approach.

This study proposes a simple control scheme for using single-stage flyback (SSF) converters in lighting source applications for LEDs. Among the advantages of the average current mode is an I/O current ripple that is only one-half of the critical conduction mode (CRM). This condition helps extend the output capacitor lifetime while lowering the input EMI capacitance input EMI capacitance. The SSF converter proposed in this study operates in continuous conduction mode (CCM). In addition, two sample-and-hold (S/H) circuits are placed at the output voltage loop and feed-forward path, respectively. Since these S/H circuits access the average output current and average feed-forward voltage, the LED driver is unaffected by the 120-Hz ripple noise, the total harmonic distortion (THD) is reduced, and the transient response of the output current is improved. Finally, the operation principles and design considerations of the studied LED driver are analyzed and discussed. A laboratory prototype is also designed and tested to verify the feasibility. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Soil-reinforcement interaction mechanism is an important issue in the design of geosynthetic reinforced soil structures. This mechanism depends on the soil properties, reinforcement characteristics and interaction between these two elements (soil and reinforcement). In this work the shear strength of sand/geotextile interfaces were characterized through direct and simple shear tests. The direct shear tests were performed on a conventional direct shear device and on a large scale direct shear apparatus. Unreinforced sand and one layer reinforced sand specimens were characterized trough simple shear tests. The interfaces shear strength achieved with the large scale direct shear device were slightly larger than those obtained with the conventional direct shear apparatus. Notwithstanding the differences between the shear strength characterization through simple shear and direct shear tests, it was concluded that the shear strength of one layer reinforced sand is similar to the sand/geotextile interface direct shear strength.

In a petroleum cyber-physical system (CPS), interwell connectivity estimation is critical for improving petroleum production. An accurately estimated connectivity topology facilitates reduction in the production cost and improvement in the waterflood management. This paper presents the first study focused on computer-aided design for a petroleum CPS. A new CPS framework is developed to estimate the petroleum well connectivities. Such a framework explores an innovative water/oil index integrated with the advanced cross-entropy optimization. It is applied to a real industrial petroleum field with massive petroleum CPS data. The experimental results demonstrate that our automated estimations well match the expensive tracerbased true observations. This demonstrates that our framework is highly promising.

The authors show that two well-known and widely employed public-key encryption schemes - RSA optimal asymmetric encryption padding (RSA-OAEP) and Diffie-Hellman integrated encryption scheme (DHIES), instantiated with a one-time pad, - are secure under (the strong, simulation-based security notion of) selective opening security against chosen-ciphertext attacks in the random oracle model. Both schemes are obtained via known generic transformations that transform relatively weak primitives (with security in the sense of one-wayness) to indistinguishability (IND)-CCA secure encryption schemes. The authors also show a similar result for the well-known Fujisaki-Okamoto transformation that can generically turn a one-way secure public key encryption system and a one-time pad into a IND-CCA-secure public-key encryption system. The authors prove that selective opening security comes for free in these transformations. Both DHIES and RSA-OAEP are important building blocks in several standards for public key encryption and key exchange protocols. The Fujisaki-Okamoto transformation is very versatile and has successfully been utilised to build efficient lattice-based cryptosystems. The considered schemes are the first practical cryptosystems that meet the strong notion of simulation-based selective opening (SIM-SO-CCA) security.

Aeromonas media is an opportunistic pathogen for human and animals mainly found in aquatic habitats and which has been noted for significant genomic and phenotypic heterogeneities. We aimed to better understand the population structure and diversity of strains currently affiliated to A. media and the related species A. rivipollensis. Forty-one strains were included in a population study integrating, multilocus genetics, phylogenetics, comparative genomics, as well as phenotypics, lifestyle, and evolutionary features. Sixteen gene-based multilocus phylogeny delineated three clades. Clades corresponded to different genomic groups or genomospecies defined by phylogenomic metrics ANI (average nucleotide identity) and isDDH (in silico DNA-DNA hybridization) on 14 whole genome sequences. DL-lactate utilization, cefoxitin susceptibility, nucleotide signatures, ribosomal multi-operon diversity, and differences in relative effect of recombination and mutation (i.e., in evolution mode) distinguished the two species Aeromonas media and Aeromonas rivipollensis. The description of these two species was emended accordingly. The genome metrics and comparative genomics suggested that a third clade is a distinct genomospecies. Beside the species delineation, genetic and genomic data analysis provided a more comprehensive knowledge of the cladogenesis determinants at the root and inside A. media species complex among aeromonads. Particular lifestyles and phenotypes as well as major differences in evolution modes may represent putative factors associated with lineage emergence and speciation within the A. media complex. Finally, the integrative and populational approach presented in this study is considered broadly in order to conciliate the delineation of taxonomic species and the population structure in bacterial genera organized in species complexes.

Nitrogen excretion from sheep production systems is an important source of nitrate, ammonia, and nitrous oxide responsible for ground-water pollution and global warming. The present study aimed to identify key parameters influencing N utilization efficiency and develop prediction equations for manure N, feces N, and urine N outputs in sheep. Data used were collected from 82 sheep offered fresh perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) as the sole diet in 6 metabolism experiments (data from non-grassonly diets were not used). Sheep were from breeds of Highlander, Texel, Scottish Blackface, and Swaledale at the age of 5 to 18 mo and weighing from 24.5 to 62.7 kg. Herbage was harvested daily from 6 swards of contrasting harvest dates (May to December), offering wide variation in feed value to cover the range that would be offered in most practical farm situations. Before the commencement of each study, the experimental sward was harvested at a residual height of 4 cm and allowed to grow for 2 to 4 wk to target an average pregrazing sward height in a range of 8 to 15 cm depending on the time of year. Sheep were housed in individual pens for 14 d and then transferred to individual metabolism crates for 4 d with feed intake and feces and urine outputs measured. Data were analyzed using the linear mixed model procedure to develop prediction equations for feces N, urine N, and manure N outputs using N intake, herbage chemical composition, and digestibility with effects of sex, breed, and experimental periods removed. Nitrogen intake was the best single predictor for N output in feces, urine, and manure, and the r(2) value for prediction of manure N output was greater than those for feces N and urine N (0.86 vs. 0.70 and 0.77, respectively; P < 0.001). Animal BW and herbage DM, ether extract, NDF, ADF, water soluble carbohydrate, and DE concentrations and N digestibility were also used to predict N outputs because N intake may not be available in commercial practice. The prediction equations for N utilization efficiency indicated that increasing feeding level and ME concentration and reducing N concentration could improve N utilization efficiency and shift N excretion into feces rather than urine (P < 0.001). The equations developed in the current study provide an approach for sheep producers to quantify N excretion against production and, consequently, to develop their own mitigation strategies to reduce the environmental impact of sheep production systems.

The Leon Springs pupfish (Cyprinodon bovinus) is an endangered species currently restricted to a single desert spring and a separate captive habitat in southwestern North America. Following establishment of the captive population from wild stock in 1976, the wild population has undergone natural population size fluctuations, intentional culling to purge genetic contamination from an invasive congener (Cyprinodon variegatus) and augmentation/replacement of wild fish from the captive stock. A severe population decline following the most recent introduction of captive fish prompted us to examine whether the captive and wild populations have differentiated during the short time they have been isolated from one another. If so, the development of divergent genetic and/or morphologic traits between populations could contribute to a diminished ability of fish from one location to thrive in the other. Examination of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms and morphologic variation revealed no evidence of residual C. variegatus characteristics in contemporary C. bovinus samples. However, significant genetic and morphologic differentiation was detected between the wild and captive populations, some of which might reflect local adaptation. Our results indicate that genetic and physical characteristics can diverge rapidly between isolated subdivisions of managed populations, potentially compromising the value of captive stock for future supplementation efforts. In the case of C. bovinus, our findings underscore the need to periodically inoculate the captive population with wild genetic material to help mitigate genetic, and potentially morphologic, divergence between them and also highlight the utility of parallel morphologic and genomic evaluation to inform conservation management planning.

This study discusses about the biosorption of Cr(VI) ion from aqueous solution using ultrasonic assisted Spirulina platensis (UASP). The prepared UASP biosorbent was characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmet-Teller, scanning electron spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray and thermogravimetric analyses. The optimum condition for the maximum removal of Cr(VI) ions for an initial concentration of 50mg/l by UASP was measured as: adsorbent dose of 1g/l, pH of 3.0, contact time of 30min and temperature of 303K. Adsorption isotherm, kinetics and thermodynamic parameters were calculated. Freundlich model provided the best results for the removal of Cr(VI) ions by UASP. The adsorption kinetics of Cr(VI) ions onto UASP showed that the pseudo-first-order model was well in line with the experimental data. In the thermodynamic study, the parameters like Gibb's free energy, enthalpy and entropy changes were evaluated. This result explains that the adsorption of Cr(VI) ions onto the UASP was exothermic and spontaneous in nature. Desorption of the biosorbent was done using different desorbing agents in which NaOH gave the best result. The prepared material showed higher affinity for the removal of Cr(VI) ions and this may be an alternative material to the existing commercial adsorbents.

Experimental or operational modal analysis traditionally requires physically-attached wired or wireless sensors for vibration measurement of structures. This instrumentation can result in mass-loading on lightweight structures, and is costly and time-consuming to install and maintain on large civil structures, especially for long-term applications (e.g., structural health monitoring) that require significant maintenance for cabling (wired sensors) or periodic replacement of the energy supply (wireless sensors). Moreover, these sensors are typically placed at a limited number of discrete locations, providing low spatial sensing resolution that is hardly sufficient for modal-based damage localization, or model correlation and updating for larger-scale structures. Non-contact measurement methods such as scanning laser vibrometers provide high-resolution sensing capacity without the mass-loading effect; however, they make sequential measurements that require considerable acquisition time. As an alternative non-contact method, digital video cameras are relatively low-cost, agile, and provide high spatial resolution, simultaneous, measurements. Combined with vision based algorithms (e.g., image correlation, optical flow), video camera based measurements have been successfully used for vibration measurements and subsequent modal analysis, based on techniques such as the digital image correlation (DIC) and the point-tracking. However, they typically require speckle pattern or high-contrast markers to be placed on the surface of structures, which poses challenges when the measurement area is large or inaccessible. This work explores advanced computer vision and video processing algorithms to develop a novel video measurement and vision-based operational (output-only) modal analysis method that alleviate the need of structural surface preparation associated with existing vision-based methods and can be implemented in a relatively efficient and autonomous manner with little user supervision and calibration. First a multi-scale image processing method is applied on the frames of the video of a vibrating structure to extract the local pixel phases that encode local structural vibration, establishing a full-field spatioteMporal motion matrix. Then a high-spatial dimensional, yet low-modal-dimensional, over-complete model is used to represent the extracted full-field motion matrix using modal superposition, which is physically connected and manipulated by a family of unsupervised learning models and techniques, respectively. Thus, the proposed method is able to blindly extract modal frequencies, damping ratios, and full-field (as many points as the pixel number of the video frame) mode shapes from line of sight video measurements of the structure. The method is validated by laboratory experiments on a bench-scale building structure and a cantilever beam. Its ability for output (video measurements)-only identification and visualization of the weakly-excited mode is demonstrated and several issues with its implementation are discussed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Purpose of reviewNorovirus infection is an emerging chronic infection in immunocompromised hosts. The aim of this review is to discuss the pathophysiology of Norovirus infection and explore mechanistic models for chronic infection/shedder state, especially in patients with immune deficiency diseases.Recent findingsChronic Norovirus infection is increasingly associated with enteropathy associated with both primary and secondary immune deficiency diseases. There is an ongoing debate in the immune deficiency community whether it is truly a causative agent for the enteropathy or it is an innocent bystander.We describe the historic aspects of Norovirus infection, its immunology and viral structure and the basis for preventive and vaccination strategies.We also postulate in this review a disease model in immune deficiency subjects which creates a milieu for it to become a chronic and explore newer frontiers for disease modification and prevention.SummaryNorovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in general population but the factors that lead to its persistence in patients with immune deficiency need further holistic studies. This should include host assessment, microbiome signatures, and viral pathogenic factors assessment.

Revocation and key evolving paradigms are central issues in cryptography, and in PKI in particular. A novel concern related to these areas was raised in the recent work of Sahai, Seyalioglu, and Waters (CRYPTO 2012) who noticed that revoking past keys should at times (e.g., the scenario of cloud storage) be accompanied by revocation of past ciphertexts (to prevent unread ciphertexts from being read by revoked users). They introduced revocable-storage attribute-based encryption (RS-ABE) as a good access control mechanism for cloud storage. RS-ABE protects against the revoked users not only the future data by supporting key-revocation but also the past data by supporting ciphertext-update, through which a ciphertext at time T can be updated to a new ciphertext at time T 1 using only the public key. Motivated by this pioneering work, we ask whether it is possible to have a modular approach, which includes a primitive for time managed ciphertext update as a primitive. We call encryption which supports this primitive a self-updatable encryption (SUE). We then suggest a modular cryptosystems design methodology based on three sub-components: a primary encryption scheme, a key-revocation mechanism, and a time-evolution mechanism which controls the ciphertext self-updating via an SUE method, coordinated with the revocation (when needed). Our goal in this is to allow the self-updating ciphertext component to take part in the design of new and improved cryptosystems and protocols in a flexible fashion. Specifically, we achieve the following results: We first introduce a new cryptographic primitive called self-updatable encryption (SUE), realizing a time-evolution mechanism. In SUE, a ciphertext and a private key are associated with time. A user can decrypt a ciphertext if its time is earlier than that of his private key. Additionally, anyone (e.g., a cloud server) can update the ciphertext to a ciphertext with a newer time. We also construct an SUE scheme and prove its full security under static assumptions. Following our modular approach, we present a new RS-ABE scheme with shorter ciphertexts than that of Sahai et al. and prove its security. The length efficiency is mainly due to our SUE scheme and the underlying modularity. We apply our approach to predicate encryption (PE) supporting attribute-hiding property, and obtain a revocable storage PE (RS-PE) scheme that is selectively-secure. We further demonstrate that SUE is of independent interest, by showing it can be used for timed-release encryption (and its applications), and for augmenting key-insulated encryption with forward-secure storage. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper describes a series of reduced scale tests, at unit gravity, performed on circular footings supported by reinforced sand. Reinforcement by multiple layers of geocell was investigated and the performance of the footing was compared to one on the same sandy soil containing multi-layered planar geotextile reinforcement. The comparison used geocell and geotextile layers formed from the same parent geosynthetic material having the same characteristics but with a lower geocell mass. Results show that the efficiency of the reinforcement (described in terms of the load carrying and subgrade modulus enhancement) decreased as the number of layers increased. In tests at moderate and low footing settlements, significant improvements in bearing capacity and subgrade modulus were obtained with the application of three layers of geocell. On the whole, multi-layered geocell-reinforced soil provides a more effective and much stiffer system capable of delivering greater foundation loads and subgrade modulus than multi-layered planar reinforced soil, even when less parent geosynthetic material is used in the multi-layered geocell arrangement. Furthermore, reinforcement benefit is achievable at settlements as small as 0.2-0.4% of the footing diameter for the geocell installations, whereas settlements 4 to 5 times larger are needed before benefit is gained from a comparable planar geotextile system. To achieve comparable performances, the multi-layered geocell requires 1/4 to 1/2 the mass of geosynthetic material as that needed for multi-layered planar geotextile reinforcement (depending on the settlement allowable). The multi layered geocell reinforcement requires considerably less parent geosynthetic material (reducing transport and, perhaps supply costs), and because the size of reinforcement zone required is considerably smaller, the amount of excavation and backfill required is also significantly reduced. (C) 2017 The Japanese Geotechnical Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

A simple method to aid in the design of digital compensators for DC-DC power switching converter is presented. From simple equations, feasible designs are determined, depending on the characteristics of the converter, sampling frequency and time delay restrictions. It allows to carry out sensitivity analysis of different parameters, obtaining an insightful assessment of their influence on the system performance

Overuse of groundwater in coastal areas, due to high population and agricultural activity results in seawater intrusion into the coastal aquifer. This paper presents the control measures taken to manage aquifer recharge (MAR) and also to overcome the problem of seawater intrusion into the coastal aquifer along the Kalangi river, Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, India having connectivity with Pulicat (saltwater) lake estuary. Due to overexploitation of groundwater and less rainfall in past years, adjacent seawater has started intruding in the Kalangi river sub-surface and deteriorating groundwater quality up to 11.6 km from the confluence of the river with Pulicat lake. To prevent this situtation, subsurface dams were constructed in traditional manner using local earth material in three different places across the Kalangi river near Sullurpet town. The water storage capacities calculated after the sub-surface dams' construction are 1.28 mcft at GK Engineering College, 6.23 mcft at Challamagudi and 3.143 mcft at Holy Cross School sites. The Holy Cross School sub-surface dam is the first full scale dam-cum-check dam constructed to prevent salt water intrusion in the Kalangi river at Sullurpet, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh. At the Kalangi river estuary portion (at the mouth of sea) a groyne was reconstructed over old groyne site with the introduction of clay bed and wooden sheet piles at down stream. Apart from prevention of sea water entry into Kalangi river sub-surface (during seasons) the groyne top level was raised to prevent mixing of high sea water tides with fresh water and ensuring additional storage of fresh water at upstream side. The reconstructed groyne was serving the purpose of obstructing the surface seawater entry in the Kalangi river and water quality has improved in the river as well as in the wells. After construction of sub-surface dam, as per the Simpson ratio classification, there is substantial improvement of water quality in the SHAR infiltration well situated near the Holy Cross School sub-surface dam.

Recent studies showed that a large amount of graphene oxide accumulated in kidney and liver when it injected intravenously. Evaluation of lethal and apoptosis gene expression in these tissues, which are under stress is very important. In this paper the in vivo dose-dependent effects of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets on kidney and liver of mice were studied. Balb/C mice were treated by 20 mg/kg body weight of nanoplatelets. Molecular biology analysis showed that graphene nanoplatelets injected intravenously lead to overexpression of BAX gene in both kidney and liver tissues (P >= 0.01). In addition these nanoparticles significantly increase BCL2 gene expression in both kidney and liver tissues (P >= 0.05). Graphene significantly increase level of SGPT in groups 1 (220.64 +/- 13), 2 (164.44 +/- 9.3) in comparison to control group (P <= 0.05). Also in comparison with control group (148.11 +/- 10.4), (P <= 0.05), the level of SGOT in groups 1(182,01 +/- 12.6) and 2 (1782 +/- 22) significantly increased. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Integrins are a family of heterodimeric proteins expressed by cardiac fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes that provide critical adhesive and signaling functions through their interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the actin cytoskeleton. These adhesive processes are important for paracrine signaling, ECM homeostasis and for the intercellular interactions that impact cardiac cell biology and pathophysiological adaptation in disease. Despite considerable progress, our understanding of the interplay between cardiac cells, the ECM and integrins remains largely elusive. In this review, we examine the role of integrins in adhesive and signaling functions, and how these functions enable communication between cardiac fibroblasts, cardiomyocytes and the ECM. These processes strongly influence cardiac development and, later, the progression into cardiac disease. An improved understanding of this multi-dimensional system in cardiac tissues is needed to decipher the biological, spatiotemporal and mechanical cues that regulate cardiac health and the manifestation of cardiac disease. Greater insight into integrin function in cardiac tissues may also suggest new treatments for the prevention of heart failure.

Three spectral collocation methods, namely Laguerre collocation (LC), Laguerre Gauss Radau collocation (LGRC) and mapped Chebyshev collocation (ChC) are used in order to solve some challenging systems of boundary layer problems of third and second orders. The last two methods enable a Fourier type analysis, mainly (fast) polynomial transformations, which can be used in order to improve the process of optimization of the scaling parameters. Generally, the second method mentioned above produces the best results. Unfortunately they remain sub geometric with respect to the accuracy. However, all methods avoid domain truncation and rather arbitrary shooting techniques. Some challenging problems from fluid mechanics, including non-newtonian fluids are accurately solved.

Climate change is increasing mean temperatures and in the eastern Mediterranean is expected to decrease annual precipitation. The resulting increase in aridity may be too rapid for adaptation of tree species unless their gene pool already possesses variation in drought resistance. Vulnerability to embolism, estimated by the pressure inducing 50% loss of xylem hydraulic conductivity (P-50), is strongly associated with drought stress resistance in trees. Yet, previous studies on various tree species reported low intraspecific genetic variation for this trait, and therefore limited adaptive capacities to increasing aridity. Here we quantified differences in hydraulic efficiency (xylem hydraulic conductance) and safety (resistance to embolism) in four contrasting provenances of Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) in a provenance trial, which is indirect evidence for genetic differences. Results obtained with three techniques (bench dehydration, centrifugation and X-ray micro-CT) evidenced significant differentiation with similar ranking between provenances. Inter-provenance variation in P50 correlated with pit anatomical properties (torus overlap and pit aperture size). These results suggest that adaptation of P. halepensis to xeric habitats has been accompanied by modifications of bordered pit function driven by variation in pit aperture. This study thus provides evidence that appropriate exploitation of provenance differences will allow continued forestry with P. halepensis in future climates of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The primary use of imaging focuses on diagnostic evaluation, and pelvic radiography is still the primary modality for evaluation of disease in the sacroiliac joints. Its unreliability and inability to directly assess inflammation has led to increasing use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which directly assesses inflammatory changes as well as the structural changes associated with inflammation. Both radiography and MRI have therefore been incorporated into new classification criteria designed to capture both early and established spondyloarthritis. Fat metaplasia on T1-weighted MRI is an important intermediary tissue on the pathway from inflammation to ankylosis in both the sacroiliac joints and spine.

The River Ganga is the largest, perennial and one of the sacred rivers in India. It supports the lifeline of major population in urban and rural areas existing in the river basin. The river is a chief source of water supply, power generation, river-borne transport and expansion of the urban industrial belt. However, the river receives huge amount of untreated wastewater which imbalances the nutrient concentration at many points along the stretch. Therefore, the present study is focused to estimate the water pollution using water quality indices, such as OPI, national sanitation foundation index (NSFWQI), comprehensive pollution index (CPI) and heavy metal pollution index (HPI), and identify the imbalance nutrients (i. e. NO3, PO4, heavy metals, etc.) in the river. Also, the probability of health risk that might occur by drinking the river water has been classified using risk assessment index (RAI). The water samples were collected in post-and pre-monsoon months in year 2014-2015, from nine sampling locations between Haridwar and Garhmukteshwar. The results indicate that the water quality of River Ganga is unsuitable for drinking during sampling months, because the average NSFWQI was found to be 53.44 and 43.56, while CPI was 2.71 and 2.82 in post-and pre-monsoon, respectively. The river water has been found to be severely contaminated due to heavy metals (i. e. HPI >3) and indicates the human health risk (i. e. RAI >1). Therefore, it has been suggested that the river water must be treated to balance the nutrient concentration before used for drinking. Further, by a comparative analysis of indices, NSFWQI and CPI have been found as the better suitable indices to classify the status of water quality.

Background In developed Western settings, asthma is more prevalent among second-generation compared to first-generation migrants. However, these studies are difficult to interpret as they include migrants of various ethnicities and countries of origin. Objective We assessed the association of parental migrant status with wheezing disorders among children born in Hong Kong, a developed non-Western setting, where many children have migrant parents from mainland China of the same ethnicity. Methods We used Cox regression to examine the adjusted associations of parental migrant status with time to first public hospital admission for asthma, bronchitis and bronchiolitis (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Version Clinical Modification 466, 490 and 493) from 9 days to 12 years in a population-representative birth cohort of 8327 Chinese children in Hong Kong. Results Having both parents as migrants was associated with higher risk of hospitalization for asthma and other wheezing disorders, compared to both parents being Hong Kong born (hazard ratio 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.05-1.60 from 9 days to 6 years), adjusted for type of hospital at birth, parental history of allergies, mother's age at birth, father's age at birth and highest parental education. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance In the unique, non-Western context of Hong Kong, second-generation migrants had higher risk of hospitalization for childhood wheezing disorders compared to the native population, particularly before 6 years of age. Further study is required to clarify the underlying mechanisms involved.

Amino acids are key components of human and animal nutrition, both as part of a protein-containing diet, and as supplemented individual products. In the last 10 years there has been a marked move away from the extraction of amino acids from natural products, which has been replaced by efficient fermentation processes using nonanimal carbon sources. Today several amino acids are produced in fermentation plants with capacities of more than 100,000 tonnes to serve the requirements of animal feed and human nutrition. The main fermentative amino acids for animal nutrition are L-lysine, L-threonine, and L-tryptophan. DL-Methionine continues to be manufactured for animal feed use principally by chemical synthesis, and a pharmaceutical grade is manufactured by enzymatic resolution. Amino acids play an important role in medical nutrition, particularly in parenteral nutrition, where there are high purity requirements for infusion grade products. Amino acids are also appearing more often in dietary supplements, initially for performance athletes, but increasingly for the general population. As the understanding of the effects of the individual amino acids on the human metabolism is deepened, more specialized product mixtures are being offered to improve athletic performance and for body-building.

We present EasyHouse, a system developed to allow people with disabilities and their family members to control their home environment (e.g., turn on/off a light, turn on/off the TV) using a smartphone. The user interface was designed to be adjustable to the needs of each user. The development of EasyHouse followed an iterative user-centered design approach. A paper-based low-fidelity prototype was built based on user requirements and from the first author's own experience as a researcher with cerebral palsy. After several design and evaluation iterations, a functional prototype has been evaluated in a real context with real users. Preliminary results indicate that the proposed system is suitable for both people with and without motor disabilities, and provides an adequate method for controlling home appliances when there is a family member with motor disabilities.

The clinical progression of new chemical entities to pharmaceuticals remains hindered by the relatively slow pace of technology development in toxicology and clinical safety evaluation, particularly in vitro approaches, that can be used in the preclinical and early clinical phases of drug development. To alleviate this bottleneck, we have developed a metabolizing enzyme toxicology assay chip (MetaChip) that combines high-throughput P450 catalysis with cell-based screening on a microscale platform. The MetaChip concept is demonstrated by using sol-gel encapsulated P450s to activate the prodrug cyclophosphamide, which is the major constituent of the anticancer drug Cytoxan, as well as other compounds that are activated, by P450 metabolism. The MetaChip provides a high-throughput microscale alternative to currently used in vitro methods for human metabolism and toxicology screening based on liver slices, cultured human hepatocytes, purified microsomal preparations, or isolated and purified P450s. This technology creates opportunities for rapid and inexpensive assessment of ADME/Tox (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion/toxicology) at very early phases of drug development, thereby enabling unsuitable candidates to be eliminated from consideration much earlier in the drug discovery process.

Peyronie's disease (PD) is a localized disorder of the connective tissue of the tunica albuginea (TA) whose etiology has not been elucidated. Although several studies have implicated genetic susceptibility and/or mechanical trauma as triggering events for PD, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Aquaporin 1 (AQP1) is a water channel protein potentially implicated in connective tissue resistance to mechanical stress, acting primarily by increasing tension within the collagen network. Although it represents a potentially attractive molecular target in PD, to date no studies had ever addressed whether AQP1 is detectable and/or differentially expressed in the TA of these patients. Herein the present study, through immunohistochemical and biochemical approaches, we were able to detect AQP1 expression in the TA of control and PD affected patients. We demonstrated that AQP1-like immunoreactivity and expression are significantly increased in plaques of PD patients Vs controls, implying that AQP1 overexpression might be the consequence of a localized maladaptive response of the connective tissue to repeated mechanical trauma. In summary, these data support the idea that AQP1 might represent a potentially useful biomarker of mechanical injury in the TA and a promising target for the treatment of PD.

We used additive manufacturing (3D printing) to create ordered porous beds from a range of geometric shapes, including truncated icosahedra (approximating spheres), tetrahedral, octahedral, triangular bipyramid, and stellar octangular particles. We show that the printed porous media were highly reproducible and had excellent fidelity in physically reproducing computer-aided design models, with differences between designed and experimentally measured particle locations within +/- 0.5%, and within 13% in terms of bed porosity. Experimental residence time distributions were measured and the reduced plate height, h, was determined under different reduced velocities (Peclet number, Pe = 4-400). The results (using equivalent particle diameter to non-dimensionalize) show that, for the simple cubic (SC) arrangement, tetrahedral particles had a lower plate height (h(min) = 1.56) than all other particle shapes tested, including spherical particles. We also, for the first time, experimentally validated computational predictions of the performance of SC, body centered cubic (BCC) and face centered cubic (FCC) arrangements of spheres, confirming that FCC is indeed superior (h(min), = 1.12) to SC (h(min) = 1.62). We conclude that the capability offered by additive manufacturing in controlling not only packing configuration but also shape, position and orientation of the geometric elements within the porous bed may, in the future, play a fundamental role in the design of highly efficient 3D-printed columns. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Several sources of information suggest that man evolved on a diet with a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids of approximately 1 whereas today this ratio is approximately 10:1 to 20-25:1, indicating that Western diets are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids compared with the diet on which humans evolved and their genetic patterns were established. Omega-3 fatty acids increase bleeding time; decrease platelet aggregation, blood viscosity, and fibrinogen; and increase erythrocyte deformability, thus decreasing the tendency to thrombus formation. In no clinical trial, including coronary artery graft surgery, has there been any evidence of increased blood loss due to ingestion of omega-3 fatty acids. Many studies show that the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on serum lipids depend on the type of patient and whether the amount of saturated fatty acids in the diet is held constant. In patients with hyperlipidemia, omega-3 fatty acids decrease low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol if the saturated fatty acid content is decreased, otherwise there is a slight increase, but at high doses (32 g) they lower LDL cholesterol; furthermore, they consistently lower serum triglycerides in normal subjects and in patients with hypertriglyceridemia whereas the effect on high-density lipoprotein (HDL) varies from no effect to slight increases. The discrepancies between animal and human studies most likely are due to differences between animal and human metabolism. In clinical trials eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in the form of fish oils along with antirheumatic drugs improve joint pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis; have a beneficial effect in patients with ulcerative colitis; and in combination with drugs, improve the skin lesions, lower the hyperlipidemia from etretinates, and decrease the toxicity of cyclosporin in patients with psoriasis. In various animal models omega-3 fatty acids decrease the number and size of tumors and increase the time elapsed before appearance of tumors. Studies with nonhuman primates and human newborns indicate that DHA is essential for the normal functional development of the retina and brain, particularly in premature infants. Because omega-3 fatty acids are essential in growth and development throughout the life cycle, they should be included in the diets of all humans. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are not interconvertible in the human body and are important components of practically all cell membranes. Whereas cellular proteins are genetically determined, the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition of cell membranes is to a great extent dependent on the dietary intake. Therefore appropriate amounts of dietary omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids need to be considered in making dietary recommendations, and these two classes of PUFAs should be distinguished because they are metabolically and functionally distinct and have opposing physiological functions. Their balance is important for homeostasis and normal development. Canada is the first country to provide separate dietary recommendations for omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.

BackgroundPain acceptance involves willingness to experience pain and engaging in valued activities while pain is present. Though pain acceptance could limit both headache-related disability and pain interference in individuals with migraine, few studies have addressed this issue. This study evaluated whether higher levels of total pain acceptance and its two subcomponents, pain willingness and activity engagement, were associated with lower levels of headache-related impairment in women who had both migraine and overweight/obesity. MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, participants seeking weight loss and headache relief in the Women's Health and Migraine trial completed baseline measures of pain acceptance (Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire [CPAQ]), headache-related disability (Headache Impact Test-6), and pain interference (Brief Pain Inventory). Migraine headache frequency and pain intensity were assessed daily via smartphone diary. Using CPAQ total and subcomponent (pain willingness and activity engagement) scores, headache frequency, pain intensity, and body mass index (BMI) as predictors in linear regression, headache-related disability, and pain interference were modeled as outcomes. ResultsOn average, participants (n=126; age=38.58.2 years; BMI=35.3 +/- 6.6 kg/m(2)) reported 8.4 +/- 4.7 migraine days/month and pain intensity of 6.0 +/- 1.5 on a 0-10 scale on headache days. After correcting for multiple comparisons (adjusted =.008), pain willingness was independently associated with both lower headache-related disability (P<.001; =-0.233) and pain interference (P<.001; =-0.261). Activity engagement was not associated with headache-related disability (P=.128; =-0.138) and pain interference (P=.042; =-0.154). CPAQ total score was not associated with headache-related disability (P=.439; =0.066) and pain interference (P=.305; =0.074). Pain intensity was significantly associated with outcomes in all analyses (Ps<.001; s 0.343-0.615). ConclusionsHigher pain willingness, independent of degree of both migraine severity and overweight, is associated with lower headache-related disability and general pain interference in treatment-seeking women with migraine and overweight/obesity. Future studies are needed to clarify direction of causality and test whether strategies designed to help women increase pain willingness, or relinquish ineffective efforts to control pain, can improve functional outcomes in women who have migraine and overweight/obesity.

Background: Biologics seem to offer a promising nonsurgical approach in hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), especially in disease with highly pronounced inflammation. Recent studies revealed increased expression of a broad range of cytokines in lesional HS skin, including interleukin (IL)-17. Objective: This study was undertaken to determine IL-17 serum levels in this group of patients. Methods: Our study was conducted on a group of 86 patients between 16 and 72 years of age with HS. A total of 86 matched healthy volunteers constituted the control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits were used to quantify IL-17 serum concentration. Results: The mean IL-17 serum level of patients with HS was 3.68 +/- 2.08 pg/mL, which was significantly elevated (P <.0001) compared with that found in healthy volunteers (2.5 +/- 1.11 pg/mL). Moreover, there was a tendency toward higher serum concentrations of IL-17 in patients with more advanced disease (P = .005). Disease duration; patient sex, age, and body mass index; and smoking habits were not determining factors for IL-17 serum concentration. Limitations: Hospital-based study population was a limitation, as was a lack of posttreatment assessment. Conclusion: In light of our findings and literature on increased expression of IL-17 in HS lesions, evaluating the clinical effectiveness of using anti-IL-17 agents in the treatment of patients with HS is justified.

Heating of groundwater by thermal energy storage (TES) poses a potential for the formation of a separate gas phase. Necessary boundary conditions, potential effects and monitoring feasibility of this process were not focused within previous studies. Since the formation of a gas phase could change groundwater flow conditions, hydrochemistry, porous media properties and thus efficiency of TES applications, improved understanding of the process is needed. The temperature of percolated sediment column tests was adjusted to 10, 25, 40 and 70 degrees C to quantify temperature-induced physical gas-phase formation and its effect on electrical resistance. Gas-phase formation, its accumulation and effects on hydraulic conductivity, heat conductivity and heat capacity were investigated using scenario calculations based on a closed-loop borehole TES system at 60 degrees C for different geochemical conditions. Experimentally quantified degassing ratios were within the expected range of thermodynamic calculations. The laboratory time-lapse electrical resistivity measurements proofed as a suitable tool to identify the onset and location of the gas-phase formation. Depending on the geochemical conditions, hydraulic conductivity in the area of the simulated heat storage site decreased between 60% and up to one order of magnitude in consequence of degassing within the scenario calculations. Heat conductivity and heat capacity decreased by maximally 3 and 16%, respectively. The results indicate that gas-phase formation as a result of aquifer heating can have pronounced effects especially on groundwater flow conditions and therefore should be considered particularly for nearly or fully gas-saturated groundwater and aquifers containing gas sources.

The use of smartphone technology is increasingly considered a state-of-the-art practice in travel data collection. Researchers have investigated various methods to automatically predict trip characteristics based upon locational and other smartphone sensing data. Of the trip characteristics being studied, trip purpose prediction has received relatively less attention. This research develops trip purpose prediction models based upon online location based search and discovery services (specifically, Google Places API) and a limited set of trip data that are usually available upon the completion of the trip. The models have the potential to be integrated with smartphone technology to produce real-time trip purpose prediction. We use a recent, large-scale travel behavior survey that is augmented by downloaded Google Places information on each trip destination to develop and validate the models. Two statistical and machine learning prediction approaches are used, including nested logit and random forest methods. Both sets of models show that Google Places information is a useful predictor of trip purpose-in situations where activity- and person-related information is uncollectable, missing, or unreliable. Even when activity and person-related information is available, incorporating Google Places information provides incremental improvements in trip purpose prediction. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

IEEE 802.15.4 is a wireless standard that specifies physical layer and media access control while focusing on low-cost and low-power transmissions between devices, making it a framework of choice for upper layers developed to address the Internet of Things (IoT). However, this standard offers numerous possibilities regarding network topology, data transfer model and security suite. It has also rapidly evolved since its initial release in 2003. This combination of factors is creating room for security issues that are left in the hands of IoT architects, like unknown deviations from the standard as we highlight in this paper. Ensuring all aspect of security is essential to broad public and industrial acceptance and thus to the growth of IoT technologies. In this paper, we provide the necessary inputs to fully grasp the security issues behind this standard before examining all the elements that need to be investigated by auditors when assessing the level of security of a specific IEEE 802.15.4 infrastructure.

A new slicing algorithm that uses multiple sets of cutting planes to automatically determine parting curves for three-dimensional parts is proposed. In this algorithm, one set of cutting planes is used to generate the slicing profiles, and two others are used to determine the intersection points with the inner and outer loops of the parting curves. The algorithm provides a highly effective solution for handling complicated models that contain free-form surfaces. The features of the algorithm are highlighted in three case studies using tessellated geometry in STL file format as the input. The resultant parting curves overcome many problems inherent in the current methods and can be used by various downstream computer-aided design systems for three-dimensional mold design.

There has been an increasing interest in Lean thinking both in traditional manufacturing/engineering organizations and, more recently, in non-traditional/white-collar settings. Despite the potential benefits, organizations that have implemented lean are facing problems of sustainability. In this study, we examine the nexus between lean thinking and the role of HRM in helping with the sustainability of lean. This paper reports on how recent initiatives may be leading to changes in the ownership of the 'intellectual capital' surrounding lean thinking, new core expertise and the issue of where this expertise should lie. The study is based on 18 interviews with the senior managers responsible for the lean management activity and HR strategy within a dozen large organizations, both in traditional and non-traditional/white-collar organizations. It analyses expert opinions to identify the implicit strategies around lean implementation and generate insights into the spectrum of people-related issues needed for the success of lean and adjustments needed to HR architecture in terms of three core elements: skills and competencies that HR needs; implications for HR practices; and the essential role behaviours that these are intended to create amongst employees. It also examines where expertise and intellectual capital should lie, and identifies the structural solutions being pursued.

Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods allow high-order flow solutions on unstructured or locally refined meshes by increasing the polynomial degree and using curved instead of straight-sided elements. However, one of the currently largest obstacles to applying these methods to aerodynamic configurations of medium to high complexity is the availability of appropriate higher-order curved meshes. In this article, we describe a complete chain of higher-order unstructured grid generation and higherorder DG flow solution applied to a turbulent flow around a three-dimensional high-lift configuration. This includes (i) the generation of an appropriately coarse straight-sided mesh; (ii) the evaluation of additional points on the computer-aided design geometry of the curved-wall boundary for defining a piecewise polynomial boundary representation; (iii) a higher order mesh deformation to translate the curvature from the wall boundary into the interior of the computational domain; and (iv) the description of a DG discretization, which is sufficiently stable to allow a flow computation on the resulting curved mesh. Finally, a fourth-order flow solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes and k-! turbulence model equations is computed on a fourth-order unstructured hybrid mesh around the three-dimensional high-lift simulation of wing-flow noise generation configuration. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Using a music therapy approach to assess emotional communication and parent-child interaction is new to the field of child protection. However, musical improvisations in music therapy has long been known as an analogue to affect attunement and early non-verbal communication between parent and infant, which called for an investigation of the value of music therapy within the field of family assessment and family therapy. More specifically, we wanted to investigate and further strengthen assessment of parenting competencies (APC). We developed scores and examined the psychometric properties of the APC-R (revised version) in a quantitative study including a small, embedded qualitative component. A total of 52 dyads of children and their parents participated of whom 18 were in residential center to address emotional neglect and 33 functioned as a non-clinical comparison (children aged 5-12). All dyads underwent two video recorded music therapy assessment sessions. Video analyses focused on autonomy relationship, turns, and parental response types producing scores on Mutual Attunement, Nonverbal Communication Skills and Emotional Parental Response. Psychometric analyses of the APC-R included interrater reliability, test re-test reliability, internal consistency, and concurrent validity. We concluded that APC-R is reliable and valid and adds to the existing observational instruments of parent-child interaction.

Xanthine oxidase (XO) catalyses hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid in human metabolism. Overproduction of uric acid will lead to hyperuricemia and finally cause gout and other diseases. Luteolin is one of the major components of celery and green peppers, its inhibitory activity on XO and their interaction mechanism were evaluated by multispectroscopic methods, coupled with molecular simulation. It was found that luteolin reversibly inhibited XO in a competitive manner with inhibition constant (K-i) value of (2.38 +/- 0.05) x 10(-6) mol l(-1). Luteolin could bind to XO at a single binding site and the binding was driven mainly by hydrophobic interactions. Analysis of synchronous fluorescence and circular dichroism spectra demonstrated that the microenvironment and secondary structure of XO were altered upon interaction with luteolin. The molecular docking results revealed luteolin actually interacted with the primary amino acid residues located within the active site pocket of XO. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Due to the increasing incidence of hymenoptera venom allergies and the potentially life-threatening reactions, it is important for otolaryngologists working in allergology to have an understanding of modern diagnostic and treatment standards for this allergic disease. Molecular diagnosis with recombinant single allergens from bee and wasp venom components improves the diagnostics of insect venom allergies, particularly in patients with double-positive extract-based test results. Detection of specific sensitizations to bee or wasp venom enables double sensitizations to be better distinguished from cross-reactivity. Based on patient history and test results, the patient is initially advised on avoidance strategies and prescribed an emergency medication kit. Then, the indication for allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is evaluated. The dose-increase phase can be performed using conventional, cluster, rush, or ultra-rush schedules, whereby rapid desensitization (rush AIT) performed in the clinic seems to be particularly effective as initial treatment.

Objective: to describe parenting self-efficacy and family empowerment among expectant mothers with substance use disorders. Design: the study employed a quantitative cross-sectional design. Participants: participants were 71 pregnant women with substance use disorders entering a gender-specific, substance use disorder, residential treatment facility. Measurements: measurement tools included: the demographic data form, the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, the Addiction Severity Index, and the Family Empowerment Scale. Findings: women in their third trimester reported statistically significant higher levels of both parenting self-efficacy and family empowerment than women in their first trimester. Key conclusions: interventions that promote parenting self-efficacy and family empowerment need to target women in their first trimester. Implications for practice: midwives with specialized training in substance abuse disorders are in a unique position to bolster expectant mothers' parenting capabilities during the addiction recovery process.

The positivity and asymptotic stability of time-varying discrete-time and continuous-time linear systems and electrical circuits are addressed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the positivity of the time-varying linear systems and electrical circuits are established. Using the extension to positive fractional systems of the Lyapunov method the asymptotic stability of positive systems and electrical circuits is shown. Conditions for the positivity of descriptor time-varying discrete-time linear systems are established. Examples of positive and asymptotically stable systems and electrical circuits are presented.

A BWR-based SMR called the Novel Modular Reactor (NMR-50) is being developed at Purdue University. NMR takes the advantages of the two-phase flow driving head, which allows a much smaller and simpler reactor pressure vessel (RPV) compared to the integral PWRs. In this study, through a systematic stepwise optimization approach including a simulated annealing based optimization method, an optimum core design that meets a 10-year cycle length with a minimum fuel cost while satisfying safety related criteria was derived and analyzed. The lattice code CASMO-4, the whole core analysis code PARCS and the thermal-hydraulics code RELAP5 were used to perform calculations from pin cell up to whole core depletion calculations. The NMR-50 optimized core design is able to achieve a 10.2 year cycle length with an average fuel enrichment of 4.61 wt% of U-235 in a 10 x 10 lattice fuel assembly. The minimum critical power ratio (MCPR) and the maximum fuel linear power density (MFLPD) during the cycle are 1.99 and 18.25 kW/m, respectively, providing large margins to thermal design constraints. The NMR-50 control system design is able to provide a sufficient cold shutdown margin of 1.7%. With its small reactor core size, large negative void coefficient, and low operating thermal neutron flux, an enhanced xenon stability characteristic is possible. Peak fast neutron fluence of 8.8 x 10(21) n/cm(2) was below the industry standard limit, which from extensive plant data records, should not be a major concern to channel distortions from a radiation damage point of view. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrolytic cells for electrochemical oxygen demand (ECOD) measurements based on total electrolytic decomposition at a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode were developed for rapid measurement of organic pollutants at low concentrations. Using improved electrolytic cells designed for efficient mass transfer, the ECOD for 10 mu M potassium hydrogen phthalate (theoretical ECOD: 2.3 mg-O-2 L-1) was determined in a relatively short electrolysis time. Thus, ECOD measurements using these cells would be useful for estimating organic water pollution in industrial waste and lake water.

The present study defined a simplified physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for 1,4-dioxane in humans based on in vitro metabolic parameters determined using relevant liver microsomes, coefficients derived in silico, physiological parameters derived from the literature, and a developed PBPK model in rats. The model consists of a chemical absorption compartment, a metabolizing compartment, and a central compartment for 1,4-dioxane. Evaluation of the rat model was performed by comparisons with experimental pharmacokinetic values from blood and urine obtained from rats in vivo after daily oral treatment with 1,4-dioxane (500 mg/kg, a no-observed-adverse-effect level) for 14 days. Elimination rates of 1,4-dioxane in vitro were established using data from rat liver microsomes and from pooled human liver microsomes. 1,4-Dioxane was expected to be absorbed and cleared rapidly from the body in silico, as was the case for rats confirmed experimentally in vivo with repeated low-dose treatments. These results indicate that the simplified PBPK model for 1,4-dioxane is useful for a forward dosimetry approach in humans. This model may also be useful for simulating blood concentrations of other related compounds resulting from exposure to low chemical doses.

Electric machines and their corresponding power electronic drives are key components of electric/hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) powertrains. Thus, computationally-efficient models for electric machines and drives are essential for powertrain-level design, simulation, and optimization. In this paper, a finite-element-based method for quickly generating torque-speed curves and efficiency maps for electric machines and drives is presented. First, magneto-static finite element analysis (FEA) is conducted on a base machine design. This analysis produces normalized torque, flux linkage, current, and losses for the operating points of interest. These values are then adjusted based upon changing the size of the machine and the effective number of turns of the machine windings to quickly generate a variety of new machine designs and their corresponding efficiency maps. Results suggest that the proposed techniques can be useful for EV/HEV powertrain design and optimization.

Understanding key health concepts is crucial to participation in Precision Medicine initiatives. In order to assess methods to develop and disseminate a curriculum to educate community members in Northern Manhattan about Precision Medicine, clients from a local community-based organization were interviewed during 2014-2015. Health literacy, acculturation, use of Internet, email, and text messaging, and health information sources were assessed. Associations between age and outcomes were evaluated; multivariable analysis used to examine the relationship between participant characteristics and sources of health information. Of 497 interviewed, 29.4 % had inadequate health literacy and 53.6 % had access to the Internet, 43.9 % to email, and 45.3 % to text messaging. Having adequate health literacy was associated with seeking information from a healthcare professional (OR 2.59, 95 % CI 1.54-4.35) and from the Internet (OR 3.15, 95 % CI 1.97-5.04); having aegrade school education (OR 2.61, 95 % CI 1.32-5.17) also preferred information from their provider; persons >45 years (OR 0.29, 95 % CI 0.18-0.47) were less likely to use the Internet for health information and preferred printed media (OR 1.64, 95 % CI 1.07-2.50). Overall, electronic communication channel use was low and varied significantly by age with those ae45 years more likely to utilize electronic channels. Preferred sources of health information also varied by age as well as by health literacy and educational level. This study demonstrates that to effectively communicate key Precision Medicine concepts, curriculum development for Latino community members of Northern Manhattan will require attention to health literacy, language preference and acculturation and incorporate more traditional communication channels for older community members.

Quantification of the anthropogenic contribution for the pollution is important for the management of the environment. In this study, water samples from the Bian River in Suzhou, northern Anhui Province, China have been collected and analyzed for eight kinds of trace metal concentrations, and then analyzed by statistical methods for quantifying the natural and anthropogenic contributions. The results indicate that the water samples have mean concentrations of Cr >Cu >Ni >V >Zn >Ti >Co >Mn, and the medium coefficients of variations indicate that the water in the Bian River has not been dramatically affected by human activities. Factor analysis has identified three sources responsible for the trace metal concentrations, including two natural/geological sources and one anthropogenic source. Three sources have also been determined by Unmix model, and the anthropogenic contributions for the total Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn are 25.3%, 26.7%, 31.3%, 58.9%, 28.1%, 32.1%, 42.4% and 32.5%, respectively.

A visible light-active, hematite-based photoelectrode platform for suppressing -amyloid (A) self-assembly in vitro is reported. Upon illumination of a light-emitting diode with an anodic bias, the hematite photoanode generates reactive radical species, such as superoxide ions and hydroxyl radicals, via photoelectrocatalytic process. According to our analyses, the hematite photoanode exhibited a strong inhibitory effect on A aggregation under visible light illumination and anodic bias. We found that hole-derived radicals played a significant role of oxidizing A peptides, which effectively blocked further aggregation. The efficacy of photoelectrocatalytic inhibition on A aggregation was enhanced by introducing cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi) as a co-catalyst on the hematite photoanode, which facilitated the separation of electron-hole pairs. We verified that both bare and Co-Pi@hematite photoanodes are biocompatible and effective in reducing A aggregation-induced cytotoxicity.

This article examines the coordination of speech and gesture in teachers' definition talk, that is, vocabulary explanations addressed to language learners. By analyzing one ESL teacher's spoken definitions, the study demonstrates in the details of the unfolding talk how a teacher crafts and choreographs his definitions moment by moment, while attending to the student's linguistic needs. The study draws upon McNeill's (1999/1992) notion of gesture-speech co-expressiveness, McNeill and Levy's (1993) idea of gestural cohesion, and Kendon's (2000) notion of turn contextualization through gesture. The study identifies three major functional roles of gesture: reinforcing the meaning of verbal utterances; disambiguating the meaning of lexical items; and establishing gestural cohesion across turns at talk. Through the fine-grained analysis of five excerpts, this study contributes to our understanding of the interactional and informational aspects of gesture in second language teaching. The article discusses implications for the study of gesture in general, and the role of gesticulations in providing comprehensible input to second language learners in particular.

For decades, person perception research has grappled with the distinction between the targets' actual characteristics (substance) and how positively or negatively those characteristics are viewed by perceivers (evaluation); however, lack of an overarching theoretical framework makes it difficult to establish connections between related lines of research. We review the relevant literature, and present and test an algebraic model that incorporates the major insights from that literature. The model posits that all person judgments reflect substance and evaluation to different extents. The evaluation component reflects an interaction between the item's evaluative tone and the perceiver's evaluative attitude regarding the target person. The model may function as an integrative framework that helps improve conceptual clarity and cumulative progress in person perception research. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

A recent study by Hassabis et al. suggests that the brain constructs 'personality models' of other people. When imagining another individual, multi-voxel patterns of fMRI activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) contained information about the individual's unique combination of personality traits. The authors propose that, in concert with other regions, the mPFC assembles a model of another's personality that is ultimately used to predict behavior.

The switched reluctance motor (SRM) is a promising drive solution for electric vehicle propulsion thanks to its simple, rugged structure, satisfying performance and low price. Among other SRMs, the axial flux SRM (AFSRM) is a strong candidate for in-wheel drive applications because of its high torque/power density and compact disc shape. In this paper, a four-phase 8-stator-pole 6-rotor-pole double-rotor AFSRM is investigated for an e-bike application. A series of analyses are conducted to reduce the torque ripple by shaping the rotor poles, and a multi-level air gap geometry is designed with specific air gap dimensions at different positions. Both static and dynamic analyses show significant torque ripple reduction while maintaining the average electromagnetic output torque at the demanded level.

This paper introduces a highly flexible multichannel output stage for battery-powered portable electric stimulators (ESs), based on novel power converter architecture. Compared with other solutions, the presented output stage for transcutaneous (surface) stimulations increases the number of applicable therapies, improves the battery operating time through reduced power consumption, and potentially results in more comfortable and shorter healing therapies. The new hybrid switch-mode power converter is a combination of flyback and switched-capacitor (SC) topologies. The flyback steps up the battery voltage and provides galvanic isolation. The following power-efficient SC stage replaces lossy linear current sources (CSs) of conventional solutions and produces pulses with a much higher slew rate, reducing the pulse energy needed to cause the stimulus. The SC also inherently produces pulses with zero-net charge, eliminating bulky blocking capacitors and/or dedicated discharging circuits. The regulation of the amplitudes of the pulses is performed with a new digital voltage-programmed current mode controller, forcing the output of the SC stage to behave as a CS. The flexible digital controller allows for creation of various types of pulses and also features several levels of patient protection. An experimental prototype of the output stage has undergone proof of principle tests with able-bodied individuals. The results show that the new output stage produces pulses with a 1-mA/ns slew rate, about two orders of magnitude higher than the other known solutions. The trials show that the faster slew rate pulses generate the same muscle contraction with 34% lower amplitudes, reducing energy consumption by 55%, allowing longer battery life of portable ES applications.

The susceptibility of a 1.5 mm thick high-density polyethylene geomembrane to brittle rupture from long-term stress cracking in a simulated municipal solid waste landfill liner is examined. The geomembrane was pre-aged in a leachate at 85 degrees C to lower the notched constant tensile load stress crack resistance of the geomembrane to about 75 h. The aged geomembrane was then used as part of a composite liner system in geosynthetic liner longevity simulators (GLLSs) with a geosynthetic clay liner and sand foundation layer below the geomembrane and a 560 g/m(2) geotextile protection layer and 50 mm drainage gravel above the geomembrane. The GLLSs allow the simulation of field conditions including elevated temperatures, overburden pressure, leachate circulation, and composite liner exposure conditions. The geomembrane experienced brittle rupture on the side slopes of the local gravel indentations for temperatures between 55 and 85 degrees C. The higher the liner temperature, the shorter the time to rupture and the higher the tensile strain at rupture. Arrhenius modelling of the test data gave an activation energy of E-a = 112 kJ/mol.

A new disturbance automated reference toolset (DART) was developed to monitor human land surface impacts using soil-type and ecological context. DART identifies reference areas with similar soils, topography, and geology; and compares the disturbance condition to the reference area condition using a quantile-based approach based on a satellite vegetation index. DART was able to represent 26-55% of variation of relative differences in bare ground and 26-41% of variation in total foliar cover when comparing sites with nearby ecological reference areas using the Soil Adjusted Total Vegetation Index (SATVI). Assessment of ecological recovery at oil and gas pads on the Colorado Plateau with DART revealed that more than half of well-pads were below the 25th percentile of reference areas. Machine learning trend analysis of poorly recovering well-pads (quantile < 0.23) had out of-bag error rates between 37 and 40% indicating moderate association with environmental and management variables hypothesized to influence recovery. Well-pads in grasslands (median quantile (MQ] = 13%), blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) shrublands (MQ = 18%), arid canyon complexes (MQ = 18%), warmer areas with more summer-dominated precipitation, and state administered areas (MQ = 12%) had low recovery rates. Results showcase the usefulness of DART for assessing discrete surface land disturbances, and highlight the need for more targeted rehabilitation efforts at oil and gas well-pads in the arid southwest US. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This study hypothesises that an educational leaflet about psoriatic arthritis (PsA) will improve psoriasis patients' attendance for screening for PsA. A random sample of patients 18 years old with a coded diagnosis of psoriasis and no diagnosis of PsA, rheumatoid arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis were identified from five GP surgeries in Yorkshire, UK. Patients were randomised 1:1 to receive study information alone or with the educational leaflet, with an invitation to attend for a screening examination by a dermatologist and rheumatologist. Nine hundred thirty-two invitation packs were sent to recruit 191 (20.5%) participants. One hundred sixty-nine (88.5%) had current or previous psoriasis and 17 (10.1%) had previously undiagnosed PsA. The estimated prevalence of PsA was 18.1% (95% CI: 16.2, 20.1%). The response rate was lower than expected and was not significantly higher when patients received the educational leaflet (22.8 vs 18.3%, p = 0.08). Response rates varied by practice (14.7 to 30.6%). However, deprivation scores for each practice revealed a significant increase in response with the leaflet for deprivation decile of 3 (p < 0.001) but no significant differences in the other practices. An educational leaflet about PsA improves attendance for screening in primary care, but only in those practices with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation.

Drastic urbanization has taken place in China during the last two decades. Recently, a considerable number of ghost cities have emerged due to the extensive and unreasonable urban expansion which far exceeds the practical demand. In order to investigate ghost cities, we proposed a feasible framework by utilizing multi-source remote sensing datasets, including nighttime light imagery, land cover type products and population grid. After eliminating blooming effect of nighttime imagery by a proposed modified optimal threshold method (MOTM) and extracting built-up area from land cover type products, we developed a ghost city index (GCI) to quantify and evaluate the intensity of ghost city phenomenon in Yangtze River Delta at county/district level. The GCI was established according to the intrinsic features of ghost cities, comprising three criteria: consistency of lit area and built-up area, illumination intensity and population density. Then, we explored the spatial pattern of ghost cities of different GCI categories and the ternary contour was applied to demonstrate the key factor among three criteria. Our finding implies that ghost cities are prominently spatial clustered. Meanwhile, counties and new development zones have higher risk of suffering from the phenomenon, while capital cities and municipal cities have an alleviative effect for ambient regions. Besides, regions with higher intensity of the phenomenon tend to have less balanced composition among three criteria. Our results show good consistency with previous reports and studies, providing a more objective and spatial explicit insight into the ghost city phenomenon. Our findings do not only prove the capability of monitoring ghost cities using remote sensing data, but would also be beneficial to urban planning and regional sustainable development.(C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer systems are designed to help solve problems presented to our society. New terms such as computational sustainability and internet of things present new fields where traditional information systems are being applied and implemented on the environment to maximize data output and our ability to understand how to improve them. The advancement of richer and interconnected devices has created opportunities to gather new data sources from the environment and use it together with other pre-existent information in new reasoning processes. This work describes a sensorial platform designed to help raise awareness towards sustainability and energy efficient systems by exploring the concepts of ambient intelligence and fusion of data to create monitoring and assessment systems. The presented platform embodies the effort to raise awareness of user actions on their impact towards their sustainability objectives.

We present a visual assistive system that features mobile face detection and recognition in an unconstrained environment from a mobile source using convolutional neural networks. The goal of the system is to effectively detect individuals that approach facing towards the person equipped with the system. We find that face detection and recognition becomes a very difficult task due to the movement of the user which causes camera shakes resulting in motion blur and noise in the input for the visual assistive system. Due to the shortage of related datasets, we create a dataset of videos captured from a mobile source that features motion blur and noise from camera shakes. This makes the application a very challenging aspect of face detection and recognition in unconstrained environments. The performance of the convolutional neural network is further compared with a cascade classifier. The results show promising performance in daylight and artificial lighting conditions while the challenges lie for moonlight conditions with the need for reduction of false positives in order to develop a robust system. We also provide a framework for implementation of the system with smartphones and wearable devices for video input and auditory notification from the system to guide the visually impaired. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Similarities and differences in the cell cycle components, apoptosis and cytoskeleton-related molecules among mouse skin fibroblast cells (MSFs), mouse squamous cell lung carcinomas (SqCLCs) and mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) are important determinants of the behaviour and differentiation capacity of these cells. To reveal apoptotic pathways and to examine the distribution and the role of cell cycle-cell skeleton comparatively would necessitate tumour biology and stem cell biology to be assessed together in terms of oncogenesis and embryogenesis. The primary objectives of this study are to investigate the effects of flavopiridol, a cell cycle inhibitor, and geldanamycin, a heat shock protein inhibitor on mouse somatic, tumour and embryonic stem cells, by specifically focusing on alterations in cytoskeletal proteins, cell polarity and motility as well as cell cycle regulators. To meet these objectives, expression of several genes, cell cycle analysis and immunofluorescence staining of intracellular cytoskeletal molecules were performed in untreated and flavopiridol- or geldanamycin-treated cell lines. Cytotoxicity assays showed that SqCLCs are more sensitive to flavopiridol than MSFs and mESCs. Keratin-9 and keratin-2 expressions increased dramatically whereas cell cycle regulatory genes decreased significantly in the flavopiridol-treated MSFs. Flavopiridol-treated SqCLCs displayed a slight increase in several cell cytoskeleton regulatory genes as well as cell cycle regulatory genes. However, gene expression profiles of mESCs were not affected after flavopiridol treatment except the Cdc2a. Cytotoxic concentrations of geldanamycin were close to each other for all cell lines. Cdkn1a was the most increased gene in the geldanamycin-treated MSFs. However, expression levels of cell cytoskeleton-associated genes were increased dramatically in the geldanamycin-treated SqCLCs. Our results revealing differences in molecular mechanisms between embryogenesis and carcinogenesis may prove crucial in developing novel therapeutics that specifically target cancer cells.

Introduction: Five anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) agents have received regulatory approval for use in rheumatology: adalimumab, golimumab, infliximab, certolizumab, and etanercept. Apart from their well-documented therapeutic value, it is still uncertain to what extent they are associated with an increased risk of infectious adverse events. Areas covered: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published randomized studies to determine the effect of anti-TNF drugs on the occurrence of infectious adverse events (serious infections; tuberculosis; opportunistic infections; any infection). We searched Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library up to May 2014 to identify eligible studies in adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis that evaluated anti-TNF drugs compared with placebo or no treatment. Expert opinion: Our study encompassed data from 71 randomized controlled trials involving 22,760 participants (range of follow-up: 1-36 months) and seven open label extension studies with 2,236 participants (range of follow-up: 6-48 months). Quantitative synthesis of the available data found statistically significant increases in the occurrence of any infections (20%), serious infections (40%), and tuberculosis (250%) associated with anti-TNF drug use, while the data for opportunistic infections were scarce. The quality of synthesized evidence was judged as moderate. Further evidence from registries and long-term epidemiological studies are needed to better define the relationship between anti-TNF agents and infection complications.

Standard neutral population genetics theory with a strictly fixed population size has important limitations. An alternative model that allows independently fluctuating population sizes and reproduces the standard neutral evolution is reviewed. We then study a situation such that the competing species are neutral at the equilibrium population size but population size fluctuations nevertheless favor fixation of one species over the other. In this case, a separation of timescales emerges naturally and allows adiabatic elimination of a fast population size variable to deduce the fluctuation-induced selection dynamics near the equilibrium population size. The results highlight the incompleteness of the standard population genetics with a strictly fixed population size.

Return-oriented programming (ROP) has been crucial for attackers to evade the security mechanisms of operating systems. It is currently used in malicious documents that exploit viewer applications and cause malware infection. For inspecting a large number of commonly handled documents, high-performance and flexible-detection methods are required. However, current solutions are either time-consuming or less precise. In this paper, we propose a novel method for statically detecting ROP chains in malicious documents. Our method generates a hidden Markov model (HMM) of ROP chains as well as one of benign documents by learning known malicious and benign documents and libraries used for ROP gadgets. Detection is performed by calculating the likelihood ratio between malicious and benign HMMs. In addition, we reduce the number of false positives by ROP chain integrity checking, which confirms whether ROP gadgets link properly if they are executed. Experimental results showed that our method can detect ROP-based malicious documents with no false negatives and few false positives at high throughput.

Social identity theory suggests that people use social categories such as race and gender as the basis of interpersonal judgments and demonstrate biases favoring their ingroups, and that this discrimination against out-groups includes hiring and other personnel decisions. This research examines whether, in the context of other information, participants will use a person's religion and show typical intergroup biases often seen between racial groups. One hundred and seventy-five Black Christian participants viewed fictional job applicants of different religions (Christian/Muslim/atheist) and races (Black/White). Thirty-two percent of participants explicitly reported using the applicant's religion (but seldom reported using their race) as a source of evaluation and showed a consistent preference for Christian (ingroup) over Muslim and atheist (outgroup) applicants. In contrast, those who did not acknowledge using religion showed some racial ingroup bias but none for religion. This research has implications for workplace discrimination, hiring practices, and racial and religious group relations. (C) 2016 Western Social Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nutrition plays an important role in human metabolism and health. Metabolomics is a promising tool for clinical, genetic and nutritional studies. A key question is to what extent metabolomic profiles reflect nutritional patterns in an epidemiological setting. We assessed the relationship between metabolomic profiles and nutritional intake in women from a large cross-sectional community study. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were applied to 1,003 women from the TwinsUK cohort with targeted metabolomic analyses of serum samples using the Biocrates Absolute-IDQ (TM) Kit p150 (163 metabolites). We analyzed seven nutritional parameters: coffee intake, garlic intake and nutritional scores derived from the FFQs summarizing fruit and vegetable intake, alcohol intake, meat intake, hypo-caloric dieting and a traditional English diet. We studied the correlation between metabolite levels and dietary intake patterns in the larger population and identified for each trait between 14 and 20 independent monozygotic twins pairs discordant for nutritional intake and replicated results in this set. Results from both analyses were then meta-analyzed. For the metabolites associated with nutritional patterns, we calculated heritability using structural equation modelling. 42 metabolite nutrient intake associations were statistically significant in the discovery samples (Bonferroni P < 4 x 10(-5)) and 11 metabolite nutrient intake associations remained significant after validation. We found the strongest associations for fruit and vegetables intake and a glycerophospholipid (Phosphatidylcholine diacyl C38:6, P = 1.39 x 10(-9)) and a sphingolipid (Sphingomyeline C26:1, P = 6.95 x 10(-13)). We also found significant associations for coffee (confirming a previous association with C10 reported in an independent study), garlic intake and hypo-caloric dieting. Using the twin study design we find that two thirds the metabolites associated with nutritional patterns have a significant genetic contribution, and the remaining third are solely environmentally determined. Our data confirm the value of metabolomic studies for nutritional epidemiologic research.

This study designed an ambient intelligence (AmI)-based decision support system that combined an electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM) and sensory data to aid human operators in making decisions regarding the management of cascade hydropower systems. Currently, cascade hydropower systems are the primary source of hydropower in Taiwan, and the Dajia Hydropower System is the largest one in Taiwan. The operational considerations of the various plants in this system include water levels constraints, minimal water release constraints, and maximal water release constraints. These considerations must be emphasized to plan the hourly water release rate and to maximize the power generation profitability of the overall system. Although extant operations are viable, an accurate calculation method for maximizing the economic efficiency of hydropower generation is yet to be developed. The AmI-based system proposed in this study can be used to determine the periodic water release at each plant in the system, thereby maximizing the company's power-generation profit. In addition, the proposed system was compared with the scheduling system currently employed by the Dajia Hydropower System. The scheduling operations of the Dajia Hydropower System for 23 nonsummer days and a whole year were examined, respectively, and the hydropower plant's original scheduling method was compared with that of the proposed system. Test results indicated that the scheduling plan obtained from the proposed system increased the profit of the Taiwan Power Company.

Dopamine plays a crucial and essential role in the function of human metabolism. It is important to develop selective and sensitive materials for the detection of dopamine (DA) without the interference by coexisting compounds. In this study, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) conjugated graphene oxide (GO) microsheets were developed and this system was used as a novel supporting matrix for adsorption based selective and sensitive detection of dopamine. Fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugated graphene oxide microsheets (FITC-GOs) showed high affinity to DA. Selectivity of FITC-GOs to DA is 31 and 28 times higher than that of coexisting molecules, ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA), respectively. Compared with DA, affinity of FITC-GOs to AA and UA is non-specific and can be negligible. Low detection limit of 2 x 10(-7) M (0.2 mu M) for DA was obtained. All experiments were carried out in the neutral solutions at around physiological pH. This study provides a simple and easy method for selective and sensitive detection of dopamine in the mixture of other most abundant coexisting molecules that generally cause interference. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Sitting spinal alignment is increasingly recognized as a factor influencing strategy for deformity correction. Considering that most individuals sit for longer hours in a slumped rather than in an erect posture, greater understanding of the natural sitting posture is warranted. PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the differences in sagittal spinal alignment between two common sitting postures: a natural, patient-preferred posture; and an erect, investigator-controlled posture that is commonly used in alignment studies. DESIGN/SETTING: This is a randomized, prospective study of 28 young, healthy patients seen in a tertiary hospital over a 6-month period. PATIENT SAMPLE: Twenty-eight patients (24 men, 4 women), with a mean age of 24 years (range 19-38), were recruited for this study. All patients with first episode of lower back pain of less than 3 months' duration were included. The exclusion criteria consisted of previous spinal surgery, radicular symptoms, red flag symptoms, previous spinal trauma, obvious spinal deformity on forward bending test, significant personal or family history of malignancy, and current pregnancy. OUTCOME MEASURES: Radiographic measurements included sagittal vertical axis (SVA), lumbar lordosis (LL), thoracolumbar angle (TL), thoracic kyphosis (TK), and cervical lordosis (CL). Standard spinopelvic parameters (pelvic incidence, pelvic tilt [PT], and sacral slope) and sagittal apex and end vertebrae were also measured. METHODS: Basic patient demographics (age, gender, ethnicity) were recorded. Lateral sitting whole spine radiographs were obtained using a slot scanner in the imposed erect and the natural sitting posture. Statistical analyses of the radiographical parameters were performed comparing the two sitting postures using chi-squared tests for categorical variables and paired t tests for continuous variables. RESULTS: There was forward SVA shift between the two sitting postures by a mean of 2.9 cm (p<.001). There was a significant increase in CL by a mean of 11.62 degrees (p<.001), and TL kyphosis by a mean of 11.48 degrees (p<.001), as well as a loss of LL by a mean of 21.26 degrees (p<.001). The mean PT increased by 17.68 degrees (p<.001). The entire thoracic and lumbar spine has the tendency to form a single C-shaped curve with the apex moving to L1 (p=.002) vertebra in the majority of patients. CONCLUSIONS: In a natural sitting posture, the lumbar spine becomes kyphotic and contributes to a single C-shaped sagittal profile comprising the thoracic and the lumbar spine. This is associated with an increase in CL and PT, as well as a constant SVA. These findings lend insight into the body's natural way of energy conservation using the posterior ligamentous tension band while achieving sitting spinal sagittal balance. It also provides information on one of the possible causes of proximal junctional kyphosis or proximal junctional failure. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pooling designs are fundamental tools in many applications such as biotechnology and network security. Many famous pooling designs have been constructed from mathematical structures by containing relations. Recently, pooling designs constructed by intersecting relation have been proposed by Guo and Wang (2011). Constructing by intersecting relation provides much better error-tolerance capabilities. We study the error-tolerance capabilities of pooling designs constructed by intersecting relation from combinatorial structures proposed by D'yachkov et al. (2007) and Lv et al. (2014). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Empirical studies in software reliability have predominantly focused on end-user applications. Given the intrinsic dependency of user programs on the operating system (OS) software, OS failures can severely impact even the most reliable applications. Therefore, it is a major requirement to understand how OS failures occur in order to improve software reliability as a whole. In this paper, we present an exploratory study on OS failure causes, based on 7,007 real failure records collected from different computers running a mass-market operating system. We performed quantitative and qualitative analyses to investigate different properties of the OS failures analyzed. The findings indicate that OS services failed more than any other OS failure category. Empirical evidences confirmed the presence of failure correlation in the sample, where both cross-correlation and autocorrelation were found; in particular, causal relationship between different operating system failures was observed.

Despite renewed efforts to better understand glacier change and recognize glacier change trends in the Andes, relatively large areas in the Andes of Argentina and Chile are still not investigated. In this study, we report on glacier elevation and mass changes in the outer region of the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields in the Southern Patagonian Andes. A newly-compiled Landsat ETM+ derived glacier inventory (consisting of 2253 glaciers and similar to 1314 +/- 66 km(2) of ice area) and differencing of the SRTM and SPOT5 DEMs were used to derive glacier-specific elevation changes over the 2000-12 period. The investigated glaciers showed a volume change of -0.71 +/- 0.55 km(3) a(-1), yielding a surface lowering of 0.52 +/- 0.35 m a(-1) on average and an overall mass loss of 0.46 +/- 0.37 m w.e. a(-1). Highly variable individual glacier responses were observed and interestingly, they were less negative than previously reported for the neighboring Patagonian Icefields.

This paper explores the extent to which people of different origins, natives and migrants, come together in everyday life in Europe. Instead of looking at overall perceptions' and stances', which are context-dependent and mediated through political-ideological currents and discourses as well as broader patterns of prejudice, we focus on sustained close contacts that suggest meaningful and organic relationships. Since it is most often people of migrant background who are blamed for leading parallel lives' and not integrating', we chose to focus on them and their interethnic friendships. Moreover, we seek to understand the relevance and role of the neighbourhood context in the development of those relationships. Despite the expressive fears in public discourses about the supposed negative impact of the presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities on social cohesion, our findings indicate that close interethnic relationships are not uncommon in diverse European cities. They further highlight that the neighbourhood context plays an important role in the first years of migrants' settlement. Relationships in the neighbourhood develop in less formal social settings and are also less demanding in terms of host-country cultural skills on the part of the migrants, thus giving the opportunity to newcomers to develop close interethnic relationships with natives. Finally, the analysis supports the positive role of diversity at the neighbourhood level in the development of interethnic friendships and stresses the importance of the neighbourhood's socio-spatial characteristics and its location in the wider urban net.

Aims and Objectives:Recent studies show that lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) share similar genetic molecular biology. There are increasing concerns regarding the biological significance of LCIS. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the presence of coexisting LCIS in ILC affects tumor biology and behavior and to correlate it with other clinicopathologic parameters.Materials and Methods:In this study, 254 cases of ILC were included. Clinicopathologic parameters and immunohistochemical stains for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), E-cadherin, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2), and MIB-1 of 254 ILC cases were retrieved. The patient with ILC and coexisting LCIS were compared with pure ILC cases with respect to different clinicopathologic parameters.Results:Of the 254 cases, 107 cases were pure ILC and 147 cases were ILC with coexisting LCIS. Seventy-six (76/184, 41.32%) cases showed axillary lymph node metastases. Lymph node metastasis was absent in 108 cases, micrometastasis was present in 5 cases, and stage N1, N2, N3 in 51, 5, and 15 cases, respectively. Nodal involvement, locoregional and distant recurrence of ILC with LCIS were less frequent compared with ILC without LCIS with P-value of 0.034 and 0.007, respectively. The presence of coexisting LCIS in ILC predicted higher disease-free survival (DFS) compared with pure ILC (P=0.034, log-rank test). When divided into different strata, ER-positive ILC cases with associated LCIS cases showed better DFS than ER-positive pure ILC cases (P=0.021, log-rank test). Similarly, ILC cases with LCIS in patient less than 50 years showed better DFS than the patient less than 50 years with pure ILC (P=0.045, log-rank test).Conclusions:In conclusion, ILC coexisting with lobular carcinoma in situ (ILC+LCIS) is characterized by less nodal involvement, lower locoregional, and distant recurrence and better DFS than pure ILC. When divided into different strata, ER-positive and less than 50-year groups with ILC+LCIS show even significant better DFS than pure ILC. These findings suggest that there is biological significance of coexisting LCIS in ILC and that this may have more effect on tumor aggressiveness in certain strata of ILC.