U.S. Trade Policy Toward the New NICs of Southeast Asia

As export and economic growth in Korea and Taiwan has slowed since 1988, it has increased dramatically in several countries of Southeast Asia. Thailand, for one, is chalking up a second year of eleven percent real GDP growth in 1989 to become the fastest-growing economy in the world. Malaysia and even the Philippines are not far behind, with growth predicted to reach the six to eight percent range for the second or third year in a row. Even Indonesia\u27s growth is rising above five percent for the first time since the oil price slump of the early 1980s. Manufactures now account for over half, in some cases well over half, of merchandise exports in all four of these ASEAN countries. This has caused them to be referred to by the international business press, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, as the next newly industrializing countries [ NICs ] - the next Koreas and Taiwans, only bigger (with the exception of Malaysia)

Automatic Segmentation Measuring Function for Cardiac MR-Left Ventricle (LV) Images

Automatic segmentation approaches are a desirable solution for Endocardium (inner) and Epicardium (outer) contours delineation using cardiac magnetic resonance left ventricle (CMR-LV) short axis images. The Level Set Model (LSM) and Variational LSM (VLSM) is the state-of-the-art in detecting the inner and outer contour for medical images. However, in CMR-LV images segmentation the LSM and VLSM are facing with the issue of re-initialisation because of irregular circle shape. In this paper, we developed an automatic segmentation measuring function based on statistical formulation to solve the re-initialisation issues in huge set of data images. The sign Euclidean distance function successfully classified the negative (inner contour) and positive (outer contour) features. The Fuzzy C mean interaction operator intersects the high membership degree that initialises the centre point. The experiments were conducted using the Sunnybrook and Pusat Juntung Hospital Umum Sarawak (PJHUS) cardiac datasets. This paper aims at developing a distance function to guide the automatic segmentation for LV contours and also to reduce segmentation error

Respiratory Infections during SARS Outbreak, Hong Kong, 2003

The effect of community hygienic measures during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong was studied by comparing the proportion of positive specimens of various respiratory viruses in 2003 with those from 1998 to 2002. Community hygienic measures significantly reduced the incidence of various respiratory viral infections

Immunoregulatory effects of testosterone supplementation combined with exercise training in men with Inclusion Body Myositis: A double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, cross‐over trial

Objectives Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) is an inflammatory muscle disease affecting individuals over the age of 45, leading to progressive muscle wasting, disability and loss of independence. Histologically, IBM is characterised by immune changes including myofibres expressing major histocompatibility complex molecules and invaded by CD8+ T cells and macrophages, and by degenerative changes including protein aggregates organised in inclusion bodies, rimmed vacuoles and mitochondrial abnormalities. There is currently no cure, and regular exercise is currently the only recognised treatment effective at limiting muscle weakening, atrophy and loss of function. Testosterone exerts anti-inflammatory effects, inhibiting effector T-cell differentiation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Methods We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial in men with IBM, to assess whether a personalised progressive exercise training combined with application of testosterone, reduced the inflammatory immune response associated with this disease over and above exercise alone. To assess intervention efficacy, we immunophenotyped blood immune cells by flow cytometry, and measured serum cytokines and chemokines by Luminex immunoassay. Results Testosterone supplementation resulted in modest yet significant count reduction in the classical monocyte subset as well as eosinophils. Testosterone-independent immunoregulatory effects attributed to exercise included altered proportions of some monocyte, T- and B-cell subsets, and reduced IL-12, IL-17, TNF-α, MIP-1β and sICAM-1 in spite of interindividual variability. Conclusion Overall, our findings indicate anti-inflammatory effects of exercise training in IBM patients, whilst concomitant testosterone supplementation provides some additional changes. Further studies combining testosterone and exercise would be worthwhile in larger cohorts and longer testosterone administration periods

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Wettability Switching Techniques on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

The wetting properties of superhydrophobic surfaces have generated worldwide research interest. A water drop on these surfaces forms a nearly perfect spherical pearl. Superhydrophobic materials hold considerable promise for potential applications ranging from self cleaning surfaces, completely water impermeable textiles to low cost energy displacement of liquids in lab-on-chip devices. However, the dynamic modification of the liquid droplets behavior and in particular of their wetting properties on these surfaces is still a challenging issue. In this review, after a brief overview on superhydrophobic states definition, the techniques leading to the modification of wettability behavior on superhydrophobic surfaces under specific conditions: optical, magnetic, mechanical, chemical, thermal are discussed. Finally, a focus on electrowetting is made from historical phenomenon pointed out some decades ago on classical planar hydrophobic surfaces to recent breakthrough obtained on superhydrophobic surfaces

Comparative genomics of plant-asssociated Pseudomonas spp.: Insights into diversity and inheritance of traits involved in multitrophic interactions

We provide here a comparative genome analysis of ten strains within the Pseudomonas fluorescens group including seven new genomic sequences. These strains exhibit a diverse spectrum of traits involved in biological control and other multitrophic interactions with plants, microbes, and insects. Multilocus sequence analysis placed the strains in three sub-clades, which was reinforced by high levels of synteny, size of core genomes, and relatedness of orthologous genes between strains within a sub-clade. The heterogeneity of the P. fluorescens group was reflected in the large size of its pan-genome, which makes up approximately 54% of the pan-genome of the genus as a whole, and a core genome representing only 45–52% of the genome of any individual strain. We discovered genes for traits that were not known previously in the strains, including genes for the biosynthesis of the siderophores achromobactin and pseudomonine and the antibiotic 2-hexyl-5-propyl-alkylresorcinol; novel bacteriocins; type II, III, and VI secretion systems; and insect toxins. Certain gene clusters, such as those for two type III secretion systems, are present only in specific sub-clades, suggesting vertical inheritance. Almost all of the genes associated with multitrophic interactions map to genomic regions present in only a subset of the strains or unique to a specific strain. To explore the evolutionary origin of these genes, we mapped their distributions relative to the locations of mobile genetic elements and repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) elements in each genome. The mobile genetic elements and many strain-specific genes fall into regions devoid of REP elements (i.e., REP deserts) and regions displaying atypical tri-nucleotide composition, possibly indicating relatively recent acquisition of these loci. Collectively, the results of this study highlight the enormous heterogeneity of the P. fluorescens group and the importance of the variable genome in tailoring individual strains to their specific lifestyles and functional repertoir

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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