On a Problem in Quantum Summation

We consider the computation of the mean of sequences in the quantum model of computation. We determine the query complexity in the case of sequences which satisfy a $p$-summability condition for $1\le p<2$. This settles a problem left open in Heinrich (2001).Comment: 21 pages, paper submitted to the Journal of Complexit

Human Capital and Economic Growth by Municipalities in Slovenia

This article presents the analysis of the nature of economic growth of the Slovenian economy at the aggregate level and at the level of Slovenian municipalities for the period 1996–2002. The aggregate cross sectoral time series dataset and the regional cross-sectional time series dataset are used to econometrically test the significance of labour reallocation between sectors and municipalities on the nature of economic growth of the Slovenian economy. For this purpose we compare estimates of average and marginal stochastic frontier production functions. The estimated parameters of these two groups of production functions clearly indicate an inefficient use of human capital in the Slovenian economy during the analysed period. The uncompleted process of sectoral labour reallocation is found as the main factor that has a negative impact on the growth of total factor productivity in the Slovenian economy.economic growth, sectoral reallocation of labour, total factor productivity, stochastic frontier model

Technological Intensity and Patterns in Slovenian Merchandise Trade

This paper analyses the technological intensity of industries classified by technology levels (low-technology, medium-low-technology, medium-high-technology and high-technology) and patterns in Slovenian merchandise trade developments between and within industries in the post-independence years since 1992. Merchandise trade flows by industries are rather homogeneous in the extent of a decline in the external trade integration measured by intra-industry trade indices and in the presence of relative trade advantages. More considerable differences are found in trade structures and trade quality using the ratio of export to import unit values. In exports we confirm the climbing-up technological development approach, including the jump-up in the medium-high-technology industries in the non-EU-15 markets. Medium-low- and medium-high-technology industries experienced greater price competitiveness in trade with the EU-15 countries. High-technology industries and to a lesser extent low-technology industries experienced a greater competitiveness in the EU-15 internal and external trade. These similarities and differences imply implications for industries with different technological intensity, which are associated with trade and policy shifts before and after the accession of Slovenia to the EU.merchandise trade, trade structures, intra-industry trade, comparative trade advantages, price competitiveness

New superconformal multiplets and higher derivative invariants in six dimensions

Within the framework of six-dimensional ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ conformal supergravity, we introduce new off-shell multiplets ${\cal O}{}^{*}(n)$, where $n=3,4,\dots,$ and use them to construct higher-rank extensions of the linear multiplet action. The ${\cal O}{}^{*}(n)$ multiplets may be viewed as being dual to well-known superconformal ${\cal O}(n)$ multiplets. We provide prepotential formulations for the ${\cal O}(n)$ and ${\cal O}{}^{*}(n)$ multiplets coupled to conformal supergravity. For every ${\cal O}{}^{*}(n)$ multiplet, we construct a higher derivative invariant which is superconformal on arbitrary superconformally flat backgrounds. We also show how our results can be used to construct new higher derivative actions in supergravity.Comment: 17 pages; V2: comments and reference adde

Permanently installed rope monitoring in conveyor systems

A permanently installed rope monitoring system can help to avoid unplanned downtimes and increase the safety level. The aim here is to set up a rope monitoring system that helps to monitor the hoisting rope as a critical component and to minimise downtimes in the context of "predictive maintenance". The already applied magnetic inductive rope testing can be used as a testing method. The paper deals with the topic of integrating such a permanently installed testing device, its use and evaluation strategies, and it identifies possibilities for new business areas for rope testing

An unusual pseudolymphoma in the context of necrotizing fasciitis: A case report.

RATIONALE The diagnosis of lymphoma in routine diagnostics can be challenging due to clinical, morphological and immunphenotypical overlap with unusual reactive processes termed "pseudolymphomas." PATIENT CONCERNS 45-year-old male that underwent surgical debridement for a necrotizing fasciitis of the thigh with concomitant excision of a regional lymph node. DIAGNOSES The lymph node demonstrated an architecture-effacing activation and proliferation of lymphoblasts and was initially misdiagnosed as an aggressive lymphoma. Only in consideration of the clinical context and with the help of additional immunohistochemical and molecular analyses the final diagnosis of a reactive lymphadenopathy could be made. INTERVENTIONS No further therapy was required after the final diagnosis of a reactive lymphadenopathy was made. OUTCOMES The clinical follow-up was unremarkable, with no evidence of residual disease after 6 months. LESSONS This case report adds the parafollicular activation and proliferation of blasts and plasmablasts in the drainage area of an active infection to the spectrum of "pseudolymphomas" and reiterizes the importance of placing histopathological findings in the proper context

To shear failure of steel and fibre-reinforced concrete circular hollow section composite column at elevated temperature

[EN] This study predicts the shear strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) members at elevated temperature using numerical modelling. The authors derived the stress-strain relation in the pure shear mode at ambient temperature based on a damage model calibrated at ambient and elevated temperatures. The model was validated on the special experimental arrangement for the pure shear mode of the SFRC in torsion. These results enables to determine the stress-strain diagram at elevated temperature. The shear strength of SFRC is compared with the compressive and tensile strength and used to observe reasons for experimentally observed failure model. The work is a part of comprehensive project focused on development of design models for the steel and SFRC composite columns with circular hollow section (CHS) at elevated temperature. Research includes two levels accuracy/complexity, allowing simplified or advanced approach to design following the coming changes in European standard for composite member design in fire, EN1994-1-2:2021. Experimental studies of the project include mechanical material tests of heated fibre-concrete samples in tension and compression, thermal uniform and non-uniform tests of insulated fragments of CHS and tests of full scale SFRC CHS columns in steady-state and transient-state regimes. Developing advanced FEM simulation of global mechanical behaviour of SFRC CHS columns is a multi-levelled composite mechanical and thermo-model and provide numerous numerical experiments. Together with steel material model in fire, validated FEM model of mechanical behaviour of fibre-reinforce concrete at elevated temperature is performed. Validated simplified and advanced thermal model of SFRC in CHS at elevated temperature gives temperature fields and moisture distribution inside section which depends on direction, heat flux, sizes and gives possibility to model different fire cases of full-scale columns in bending, shear, and buckling at elevated temperature. Proposed analytical and simplified FEM mechanical model of column is taking into account degradation of mechanical properties, analytical models of transfer of heat inside the column section and provides simple solutions for designers.This publication was supported by grant of Grant Agency Czech Republic, No. 15-19073S, Models of steel and fibre concrete composite columns exposed to fire.Arha, T.; Křístek, V.; Tretyakov, A.; Blesak, L.; Tkalenko, I.; Wald, F.; Stefan, R.... (2018). To shear failure of steel and fibre-reinforced concrete circular hollow section composite column at elevated temperature. En Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Steel-Concrete Composite Structures. ASCCS 2018. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 863-869. https://doi.org/10.4995/ASCCS2018.2018.7201OCS86386

SOX5 is involved in balanced MITF regulation in human melanoma cells

Background: Melanoma is a cancer with rising incidence and new therapeutics are needed. For this, it is necessary to understand the molecular mechanisms of melanoma development and progression. Melanoma differs from other cancers by its ability to produce the pigment melanin via melanogenesis; this biosynthesis is essentially regulated by microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF). MITF regulates various processes such as cell cycling and differentiation. MITF shows an ambivalent role, since high levels inhibit cell proliferation and low levels promote invasion. Hence, well-balanced MITF homeostasis is important for the progression and spread of melanoma. Therefore, it is difficult to use MITF itself for targeted therapy, but elucidating its complex regulation may lead to a promising melanoma-cell specific therapy. Method: We systematically analyzed the regulation of MITF with a novel established transcription factor based gene regulatory network model. Starting from comparative transcriptomics analysis using data from cells originating from nine different tumors and a melanoma cell dataset, we predicted the transcriptional regulators of MITF employing ChIP binding information from a comprehensive set of databases. The most striking regulators were experimentally validated by functional assays and an MITF-promoter reporter assay. Finally, we analyzed the impact of the expression of the identified regulators on clinically relevant parameters of melanoma, i.e. the thickness of primary tumors and patient overall survival. Results: Our model predictions identified SOX10 and SOX5 as regulators of MITF. We experimentally confirmed the role of the already well-known regulator SOX10. Additionally, we found that SOX5 knockdown led to MITF up-regulation in melanoma cells, while double knockdown with SOX10 showed a rescue effect; both effects were validated by reporter assays. Regarding clinical samples, SOX5 expression was distinctively up-regulated in metastatic compared to primary melanoma. In contrast, survival analysis of melanoma patients with predominantly metastatic disease revealed that low SOX5 levels were associated with a poor prognosis. Conclusion: MITF regulation by SOX5 has been shown only in murine cells, but not yet in human melanoma cells. SOX5 has a strong inhibitory effect on MITF expression and seems to have a decisive clinical impact on melanoma during tumor progression

Improved survival rates of AML patients following admission to the intensive care unit.

Induction chemotherapy in AML patients may have life-threatening side effects requiring intensive care unit (ICU) treatment. We analyzed all AML patients receiving intensive chemotherapy at a single academic center between 01/2006-12/2016. At least one ICU admission was observed in 32% (76/240) patients, and 33% of those died following ICU admission. Whereas the ICU admission proportion remained stable, mortality after ICU admission decreased from 14% (2006-2008) to 3% (2014-2016; p = .056). The number of failing organ systems inversely correlated with surviving ICU admission (p 50% even after 14 days of ICU treatment. Progression-free and overall survival were comparable between ICU surviving patients and patients never needing ICU support. In conclusion, outcome after ICU admission of AML patients has substantially improved in recent years

Boolean network model predicts cell cycle sequence of fission yeast

A Boolean network model of the cell-cycle regulatory network of fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces Pombe) is constructed solely on the basis of the known biochemical interaction topology. Simulating the model in the computer, faithfully reproduces the known sequence of regulatory activity patterns along the cell cycle of the living cell. Contrary to existing differential equation models, no parameters enter the model except the structure of the regulatory circuitry. The dynamical properties of the model indicate that the biological dynamical sequence is robustly implemented in the regulatory network, with the biological stationary state G1 corresponding to the dominant attractor in state space, and with the biological regulatory sequence being a strongly attractive trajectory. Comparing the fission yeast cell-cycle model to a similar model of the corresponding network in S. cerevisiae, a remarkable difference in circuitry, as well as dynamics is observed. While the latter operates in a strongly damped mode, driven by external excitation, the S. pombe network represents an auto-excited system with external damping.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure