Relaxation of the mouse pubic symphysis during late pregnancy is not accompanied by the influx of granulocytes

In some animals, such as mice and guinea pigs, a hormonally controlled mechanism increases the flexibility of the pubic symphysis and enhances the cervical remodeling necessary for safe delivery. Cervical ripening during pregnancy is associated with a paradoxical influx of leukocytes. However, the changes in cell metabolism during relaxation of the mouse pubic symphysis for delivery have not been extensively studied. In this work, we used light microscopy and transmission and scanning electron microcopy, as well as immunohistochemistry and Western blotting for MMP-8, to investigate the involvement of granulocytes or resident stromal cells in the relaxation of the virgin pubic symphysis during late pregnancy (days 18 and 19, before delivery) in vivo and in explanted joints. MMP-8 was studied because this collagenase is a hallmark for cervical ripening associated with the influx of granulocytes during late pregnancy. Extensive dissolution and disorganization of the extracellular matrix was seen around fibroblastic-like cells in late pregnancy. In contrast to the cervix (positive control), morphological and immunohistochemical analyses revealed that there was no characteristic cellular inflammatory response in the interpubic tissue. Staining for MMP-8 was observed in chondroid and fibroblastic-like cells of virgin and relaxed interpubic ligament, respectively. However, no granulocytes were seen during the extensive remodeling of the pubic joint in late pregnancy. These results indicate that constitutive stromal cells may have an important role in tissue relaxation during remodeling of the pubic symphysis in pregnancy.     

Influence of green creativity on organizations: A case study from the perspectives of leaders and subordinates

The sustainability framework has a strong influence on the policies, practices and procedures of companies. Green creativity plays a pivotal role in the development of initiatives and innovations for the environmental pillar of sustainability. Based on a survey applied to a Portuguese company with an accredited environmental management system (N = 146), the findings reveal that green creativity is influenced in different ways when analysed from distinct perspectives. The leader's green creativity is positively influenced by the subordinate's green self-efficacy and personal identification with the leader, whereas the subordinate's green creativity is positively influenced by their green passion and green self-efficacy, and the leaders' green creativity. This study shows that green creativity develops differentially according to distinct job positions and expectations that in practice must be complementary and synergistic for its effective development.     

Social impacts of road traffic: perceptions and priorities of local residents

The assessment of the social impacts of road traffic is usually based on objective indicators or on expert judgement, without input from the affected communities. This paper considers the perceptions and priorities of local residents about traffic impacts and possible mitigation measures, using as a case study a rural area that will be affected by traffic associated with the construction of a nuclear power station. The study consisted of a qualitative phase followed by a stated preference survey. Econometric models were used to measure the relative priority of different impacts and mitigation measures. The most impactful aspects were noise, vibration and increased car or bus travel times. The most preferred measures were night-time restrictions to HGVs, parking restrictions and safety measures for pedestrians and cyclists. There were significant differences in preferences according to residence location, gender, employment status and household composition. The results provide information about aspects that tend to be aggregated in existing assessment frameworks, separating the reduction in the utility of some activities (like walking and driving) and the suppression of those activities.     

Dynamic fatigue behaviour of a steatite ceramic

Dynamic fatigue of a low dielectric loss steatite was investigated. To this end, the values of n and B, the so‐called subcritical crack growth (SCG) parameters were experimentally determined. The steatite exhibited the expected dynamic fatigue behaviour, so that the stress corrosion susceptibility parameter, n, of 24 was obtained. In addition, the material/environment parameter B, which is a constant for a given test environment, was also attained. These parameters are instrumental in predicting the lifetime of components under stress. When the applied load is such that the resulting strength equals half of the inert strength (σ_i), defined as the strength of a sample tested in an inert environment or at a fast stress rate, i.e. where no subcritical crack growth occurs, the time to failure (t_f) of the material was found to be ～140 h. Measurement of the fracture toughness of steatite is also of upmost importance and so it was determined using three test methods. A value of K_Ic = 1.91 ± 0.29 MPa m^1/2 was attained by the indentation fracture method through measurement of the cracks emanating from the Vickers indentation. This value is in good agreement with those determined using the K_Isc (surface crack in flexure) test method (2.21 ± 0.07 MPa m^1/2) and fractography analysis test method (2.00 ± 0.44 MPa m^1/2). Differences in test procedure and analysis causing the values from each test method to be different are discussed.     

On the Structure of Amorphous Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles by Aberration‐Corrected STEM

Mesoporous silica materials have demonstrated a vast spectrum of applications, stimulating an intensive field of study due to their potential use as nanocarriers. Nonetheless, when produced at the nanoscale, their structural characterization is hindered due to the re‐arrangement of the pores. To address this issue, this work combines molecular dynamics simulations with electron microscopy computer simulations and experimental results to provide an insight into the structure of amorphous mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The amorphous silica model is prepared using a simple melt‐quench molecular dynamics method, while the reconstruction of the mesoporous nanoparticles is carried out using a methodology to avoid false symmetry in the final model. Simulated scanning transmission electron microscopy images are compared with experimental images, revealing the existence of structural domains, created by the misalignment of the pores to compensate the surface tension of these spherical nanoparticles.     

Diagnostic value of nasal provocation testing and rhinomanometry in allergic rhinitis

Assessment of the hemodynamic and anatomic results following balloon angioplasty of discrete native coarctation of the aorta, with particular attention to "remodeling," has required repeat cardiac catheterization and angiography, which is invasive and has limited resolution. Eight patients with hypertension and discrete native coarctation with an otherwise normally developed aortic arch underwent angioplasty at 5.0 +/- 6.8 years of age. Angiographic cross-sectional areas of the aorta indexed to body surface area at the isthmus (I), coarctation site (C), and 1 cm distal to the coarctation site (Cd) pre- and postangioplasty were compared with MRI-indexed cross-sectional areas 18 +/- 10 months (MRI-1) and 35 +/- 11 months (MRI-2) postangioplasty. From preangioplasty to MRI-2, the isthmus was smaller (149 +/- 22 versus 127 +/- 27 mm2/m2; p < 0. 05). The coarctation site was larger postangioplasty (25 +/- 9 versus 116 +/- 40 mm2/m2; p < 0.001) with continued growth at latest follow-up (116 +/- 40 versus 164 +/- 36 mm2/m2; p < 0.01). The segment 1 cm distal to the coarctation site continued to decrease in area at latest follow-up (267 +/- 78 versus 163 +/- 38 mm2/m2; p < 0. 001). I versus C versus Cd at MRI-2 were similar, whereas postangioplasty and MRI-1 cross-sectional area measurements were significantly different. Following angioplasty of discrete native coarctation, the aorta becomes more uniform or undergoes "remodeling." Noninvasive MRI is an effective means of evaluating the anatomic result following balloon angioplasty, obviating the need for repeated invasive cardiac catheterizations.     

Shortcut fusion rules for the derivation of circular and higher-order programs

Functional programs often combine separate parts using intermediate data structures for communicating results. Programs so defined are modular, easier to understand and maintain, but suffer from inefficiencies due to the generation of those gluing data structures. To eliminate such redundant data structures, some program transformation techniques have been proposed. One such technique is shortcut fusion, and has been studied in the context of both pure and monadic functional programs. In this paper, we study several shortcut fusion extensions, so that, alternatively, circular or higher-order programs are derived. These extensions are also provided for effect-free programs and monadic ones. Our work results in a set of generic calculation rules, that are widely applicable, and whose correctness is formally established.     

Quantum-inspired design of resilient substitution boxes: From coding to hardware implementation

S-boxes constitute a cornerstone component in symmetric-key cryptographic algorithms, such as DES and AES encryption systems. In block ciphers, they are typically used to obscure the relationship between the plaintext and the ciphertext. Non-linear and non-correlated S-boxes are the most secure against linear and differential cryptanalysis. In this paper, we focus on a twofold objective: first, we evolve regular S-boxes with high non-linearity and low auto-correlation properties; then automatically generate evolvable hardware for the obtained S-box. Targeting the former, we use a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm to optimize regularity, non-linearity and auto-correlation, which constitute the three main desired properties in resilient S-boxes. Pursuing the latter, we exploit the same algorithm to automatically generate the evolvable hardware designs of substitution boxes that minimize hardware space and encryption/decryption time, which form the two main hardware characteristics. We compare our results against existing and well-known designs, which were produced by using conventional methods as well as through genetic algorithm. We will show that our approach provides higher quality S-boxes coding as well as circuits.     

Improving the non-extensive medical image segmentation based on Tsallis entropy

Thresholding techniques for image segmentation is one of the most popular approaches in Computational Vision systems. Recently, M. Albuquerque has proposed a thresholding method (Albuquerque et al. in Pattern Recognit Lett 25:1059–1065, 2004) based on the Tsallis entropy, which is a generalization of the traditional Shannon entropy through the introduction of an entropic parameter q. However, the solution may be very dependent on the q value and the development of an automatic approach to compute a suitable value for q remains also an open problem. In this paper, we propose a generalization of the Tsallis theory in order to improve the non-extensive segmentation method. Specifically, we work out over a suitable property of Tsallis theory, named the pseudo-additive property, which states the formalism to compute the whole entropy from two probability distributions given an unique q value. Our idea is to use the original M. Albuquerque’s algorithm to compute an initial threshold and then update the q value using the ratio of the areas observed in the image histogram for the background and foreground. The proposed technique is less sensitive to the q value and overcomes the M. Albuquerque and k-means algorithms, as we will demonstrate for both ultrasound breast cancer images and synthetic data.