Glioblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumor [BS1], infiltrate into peritumoral brain structures, making clinical management challenging. An unmet need is to develop a biomarker that reliably characterize infiltration in the peritumoral region, where surgical biopsy or resection may be hazardous. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with multicompartment modeling can characterize extracellular free water, providing unique information of the tissue microstructure that is able to capture this heterogeneity. We propose a novel biomarker based on peritumoral tissue microstructure, using deep-learning on DTI-based free water map.

 Peritumoral regions were automatically segmented for 136 patients with brain tumors (86 glioblastomas and 50 metastases, ages 23–87 years, 65 females). We trained a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on free-water maps using automatically defined patches in the peritumoral area from glioblastomas and metastases, labeled as low free-water and high free-water to extract a microstructural index for each voxel. To extract the biomarker, we grouped peritumoral voxels into connected components (CCs) where adjacent voxels have high (>0.9) microstructural index values. Two independent test sets related to two clinically significant problems were evaluated: i) metastases vs. glioblastomas; ii) glioma patients categorized into short and long survival groups and the number of CCs were statistically compared.

 Two-sample t-tests showed significant group difference in the number of CCs between metastases and glioblastomas (p< 0.05), and short and long-survivals (p<0.05) with higher number of CCs in metastases and long-survivals, which suggests smaller number of voxels in CCs.

 The proposed biomarker based on CCs of microstructural index captures the differences in infiltration of the peritumoral region, showing larger CCs in glioblastomas and short-survivals corresponding to higher infiltration.

 The proposed biomarker provides a novel insight into the peritumoral microenvironment and can be derived from clinically feasible DTI data, providing new possibilities for the diagnosis and treatment of glioblastoma.


This book presents a mathematical treatment of the radio resource allocation of modern cellular communications systems in contested environments. It focuses on fulfilling the quality of service requirements of the living applications on the user devices, which leverage the cellular system, and with attention to elevating the users quality of experience. The authors also address the congestion of the spectrum by allowing sharing with the band incumbents while providing with a quality-of-service-minded resource allocation in the network. The content is of particular interest to telecommunications scheduler experts in industry, communications applications academia, and graduate students whose paramount research deals with resource allocation and quality of service.


Disclosed is a fast balancing device for electric charge and discharge of a storage battery and a super capacitor bank. The invention relates to electric charge and discharge monitoring area of the storage battery and the super capacitor bank. The device solves the problem of slow balancing speed of an existing balancing device thus effectively avoids overcharge or overdischarge of individual monomer during the electric charge and discharge process. A single chip microcomputer of a balancing controller is in connection with a charge and discharge monomer and a voltage measuring and conditioning circuit of a flight capacitor, of which the voltage controls the photoelectric relay to gate through a decoder, and the single chip microcomputer is also in connection with a current sensor which is used to detect charge and discharge current, and an MOSFET drive which is used to control a buck-boost transform type flight capacitance equalizer and a digital output translator which is used to control the relay array, in which the relay array is used to control the switching of the equalizer and the charge and discharge monomer, and the MOSFET drive is controlled by the single chip microcomputer to control the quantity of the equalizing current. The device achieves the aims of protecting charge and discharge monomer and prolonging service life by meeting the demand for the balancing speed from high current charge and discharge.


The role of the vocational training at the present stage of development of Russia is defined by problems of its transition to democratic and to a lawful state. It is proved by the experience of many generations that the idea of designing always becomes actual during the time of changes. Having passed a long way of development, having gone through years of crisis, the design method again becomes actual in the light of those problems that the varying civilization puts before our vocational training.


In this paper, magnetic levitation characteristics of hybrid magnets are experimentally shown under the newly proposed airgap condition. The digital PID controller is utilized to control the airgap of the magnetic levitation system.


Purpose. The aim of the article is substantiation of expediency of strategic planning of activity of hotel and restaurant business and formation of model of strategic management that will allow to activate potential of subjects of managing and to provide their stable development in strategic perspective.

Methodology of research. The authors used empirical, statistical and questionnaire research methods to identify the factors influencing the activities of hotel and restaurant business. It allowed substantiating the stages of business planning and describing their implementation, the formation of an improved model of strategic management, development of proposals for baseline indicators. It is expedient to make decisions on the basis of indicators concerning directions and the purpose of development of business on rendering of services in this sphere.

Findings. The reasons for the imbalance of the hotel and restaurant business are analysed and the need for strategic planning and management in this area is substantiated. The stages of planning of hotel and restaurant business are defined taking into account current and strategic factors of its development that will allow to form balance between the realized services and their needs in the market.

A model of strategic management of the hotel and restaurant business has been developed, which is focused on the existing social and economic level achieved in this area, resource potential and assessment of the initial conditions and opportunities for development. The main problems of the hotel and restaurant business have been identified, taking into account which will allow to achieve a positive result in the long run and to form a sufficient level of competitiveness of business entities.

Originality. The organizational and methodological bases of formation of effective management of hotel and restaurant business which are based on theories of sustainable, competitive and innovative development that will allow to develop various scenarios of business development taking into account current and strategic factors are deepened.

Practical value. The obtained results form an important methodological basis for improving the mechanisms of strategic planning and management of hotel and restaurant business entities, as well as allow to form competitive and functional strategies for their development in the long run.

Key words: hotel and restaurant business, model of strategic management, stages of planning, business plan, current factors, strategic factors.


REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY
Many studies of respiratory disease in racehorses have focused on a combination of increased tracheal mucus and airway neutrophilia. Examination of each component separately should provide further insight into this condition.

OBJECTIVES
To identify infectious risk factors for endoscopically visible tracheal mucus in National Hunt racehorses.

STUDY DESIGN
A 2 year prospective longitudinal study.

METHODS
Monthly quantitative bacteriological examinations of tracheal wash samples and viral serological examinations were conducted. Risk factors for 'small amounts of mucus' (mucus score = 1/3) and 'increased mucus' (score ≥2/3) were identified.

RESULTS
There were increased odds of small amounts of mucus when both Streptococcus zooepidemicus and nonhaemolytic streptococci (NHS) were isolated (odds ratio [OR] 2.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.5-4.6; P<0.001) but not when either species was isolated in the absence of the other. Increased odds of increased mucus were associated with the isolation of either S. zooepidemicus (OR 5.6; 95% CI 1.2-25.9; P = 0.03) or NHS (OR 3.7; 95% CI 1.2-11.6; P = 0.02), with an increased effect when both were isolated together (OR 12.5; 95% CI 3.7-41.6; P<0.001). Approximately 6-fold increased odds of small amounts of mucus were associated with the first 3 months in training (OR 6.3; 95% CI 2.0-19.4; P<0.001) and 3-fold increased odds of increased mucus associated with the first 6 months in training (OR 2.9; 95% CI 1.3-6.4; P = 0.01). Coughing at exercise and increased serous nasal discharge were specific but insensitive indicators of increased mucus.

CONCLUSIONS
Associations with S. zooepidemicus corroborate previous research, but an independent effect of NHS has not previously been reported. The possibility that there are individual pathogenic species within this group should be considered. Further work is required to identify S. zooepidemicus subtypes and NHS species associated with disease. Closer monitoring of the respiratory health of horses entering training for the first time is likely to be valuable.


Over the last 15 years, many corporations have pursued systems integration to streamline operations, reduce costs and increase efficiency, resulting in enhanced competitiveness and greater profits. Has the time come for systems integration for corporate real estate? How can integration of systems support and enhance portfolio management? What are the data dependencies and relationships? What about the Internet? This atricle discusses the challenges, issues and opportunities of real estate information systems integration.


In the paper a novel approach is suggested for solving the inverse kinematic task of redundant open kinematic chains. Traditional approaches as the Moore-Penrose generalized inverse-based solutions minimize the sum of squares of the timederivative of the joint coordinates under the constraint that contains the task itself. In the vicinity of kinematic singularities where these solutions are possible the hard constraint terms produce high time-derivatives that can be reduced by the use of a deformation proposed by Levenberg and Marquardt. The novel approach uses the basic scheme of the Receding Horizon Controllers in which the Lagrange multipliers are eliminated by direct application of the kinematic model over the horizon in the role of the "control force", and no reduced gradient has to be computed. This fact considerably decreases the complexity of the solution. If the cost function contains penalty for high joint coordinate time-derivatives the kinematic singularities are ab ovo better handled. Simulation examples made for a 7 degree of freedom robot arm demonstrate the operation of the novel approach. The computational need of the method is still considerable but it can be further decreased by the application of complementary tricks.


A robot hand-over control scheme is proposed achieving human-like haptic interaction during object load transfer from a giver to a receiver hand for the planar case. It is assumed that the object has parallel surfaces and unknown mass. The giver initiates the hand-over process while the receiver estimates the transferred object mass adapting its grip force accordingly in a three stage process. The control laws are based on a dynamically stable grasp controller which is modified for the hand-over task. A stable load transfer is securely achieved as shown by the theoretical analysis and illustrated by the simulation results.


In order to prove that the color pattern in the photo is indeed the tertiary rainbow, a careful analysis of the angular distance from the sun was carried out by means of standard spherical geometry. From geometric optics, we expect the angles of extreme deviation for red (610 nm), green (530 nm) and blue (450 nm) to be 41.6°, 40.6°, and 39.1° from the sun, respectively. The wavelengths were chosen to match approximately the sensitivity maxima of a typical CMOS sensor.


Radiation induced intracranial neoplasms are uncommon but well described and include gliomas, meningiomas, and sarcomas. The development of primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs) following prophylactic craniospinal irradiation has been infrequently reported previously. The authors present four additional cases of PNETs that developed after previous cranial irradiation.


ABSTRACT The properties of the set of trajectories of the control system described by Urysohn type integral equation are considered. It is assumed that the system is affine with respect to the control vector and control functions are chosen from the bounded and closed ball of the space , q>1. The trajectory of the system is the function from the space , , which satisfies the system's equation almost everywhere. The path-connectedness and compactness of the set of trajectories are proved. The existence of the optimal trajectories in the optimal control problem with lower semicontinuous payoff functional is discussed.


Many population models which are far from stationarity can nevertheless be written in autoregressive format, perhaps with random coefficient. It is the thesis of this paper that procedures developed for stationary time series models are a useful guide to inferential results for population processes and may indeed be directly applicable. The illustrations concentrate on estimation of the matrix of mean vital rates in an age-structured population.


Software and evolution are very general terms. Hence, people use them in different contexts with quite different semantics, with the risk of inconsistent conclusions. To avoid this problem, this chapter focuses on terminology in the area of software evolution. It is intended to motivate other software engineering researchers to precisely define the scope of the problems they are addressing in their research and to help students understand the breadth of the topic. On the basis of reflections on the nature of software and on aspects of evolution, a categorisation of software is proposed to help practicing software engineers to choose a proper evolution strategy, depending on the nature of both, the system at hand and the change to be performed. To advance in any discipline requires that one emphasises the role of efficient communication. Interactive speech acts allow the communicating partners to probe directly whether the frame of reference is adequately adjusted so that the terms used in the communication are properly understood. With written communication, one has to be more careful. Notably, when using highly generic terms, speaker and listener take a risk to find themselves, perhaps unknowingly, caught in a homonym trap. Different mental specialisations of the generic term might be so far apart that miscommunication will eventually set in. Software and evolution are both generic terms. It is, therefore, no wonder that in discussions involving these terms, participants talk at cross purposes, unaware of the fact that they are addressing different problems and proposing different cures.


Objective: To check aspects related to the prescription, preparation and administration of metronidazole for the control of odor in neoplastic wounds. Methodology: Cross-sectional study with 80 health professionals from five reference hospitals in oncology in Recife-PE, between August and October 2017. The following variables were analyzed: professional characterization, criteria for prescription, presentation, dilution, application, frequency and care in the application. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for obtaining the discrete rational variables, and chi-square test with Yates correction was used for dichotomous categorical variables. Results: The nurses had little professional experience (1-3 years), less specialization compared to physicians, but had greater expertise in palliative care. Regarding the prescription and use of the product, 14 (53.8%) professionals used alternative and empirical prescriptions, with maceration of tablets, and five (19.3%) used injectable solution. Conclusion: According to the results obtained, there are few studies on the subject and protocols based on scientific evidence should be constructed. DESCRIPTORS: Oncological nursing; Wounds and Injuries; Anti-Infective agents; Metronidazole; Odorants. HOW TO REFERENCE THIS ARTICLE: Souza NR, Lima MTC, Batista RPS, Santos AMS, Bushatsky M, Santos ICRV. Prescription and use of metronidazole for the control of odor in neoplastic wounds. Cogitare enferm. [Internet]. 2019 [access "insert day, monh and year"]; 24. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5380/ce.v24i0.57906. 1Nurse. MSc in Nursing. Universidade de Pernambuco. Recife, PE, Brazil. 2Nurse. Universidade de Pernambuco. Recife, PE, Brazil. 3Nursing Student. Universidade de Pernambuco. Recife, PE, Brazil. 4Nursind Student. Universidade de Pernambuco. Recife, PE, Brazil. 5Nurse. PhD in Nursing. Professor from Universidade de Pernambuco. Recife, PE, Brazil. 6Nurse. PhD in Public Health. Professor, Postgraduate Nursing Program from Universidade de Pernambuco. Recife, PE, Brazil. Nauã Rodrigues de Souza1, Maria Theresa Camilo de Lima2, Rayanne Paullyne da Silva Batista3, Aline Milany da Silva Santos4, Magaly Bushatsky5, Isabel Cristina Ramos Vieira Santos6 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. PRESCRIÇÃO E USO DE METRONIDAZOL PARA CONTROLE DO ODOR EM FERIDAS NEOPLÁSICAS RESUMO Objetivo: verificar os aspectos relacionados à prescrição, preparo e administração do metronidazol para controle do odor em feridas neoplásicas. Metodologia: estudo transversal, com 80 profissionais de saúde de cinco hospitais referência em oncologia em Recife-PE, entre agosto e outubro de 2017. Foram analisadas as variáveis: caracterização profissional, critérios para prescrição, apresentação, diluição, aplicação, frequência e cuidados na aplicação. Calculou-se média e desvio padrão para as variáveis racionais discretas, e para categóricas dicotômicas, teste qui-quadrado com correção de Yates. Resultados: os enfermeiros caracterizaram-se pelo pouco tempo de experiência (1-3 anos), menor frequência de especialização comparados aos médicos, porém maior frequência de atualização em cuidados paliativos. Quanto à prescrição e utilização do produto, observou-se prescrições alternativas e empíricas, com maceração de comprimidos 14 (53,8%) ou solução injetável em cinco (19,3%). Conclusão: resultados evidenciam a escassa literatura sobre a temática e levantam a necessidade de construção de protocolos fundamentados em evidências científicas. DESCRITORES: Enfermagem oncológica; Ferimentos e Lesões; Anti-Infecciosos; Metronidazol; Odorantes. Nauã Rodrigues de Souza | Maria Theresa Camilo de Lima | Rayanne Paullyne da Silva Batista | Aline Milany da Silva Santos | Magaly Bushatsky | Isabel Cristina Ramos Vieira Santos ARTIGO ORIGINAL / ARTÍCULO ORIGINAL ASPECTOS ASOCIADOS A LA PRESCRIPCIÓN Y USO DE METRONIDAZOL EN EL CONTROL DEL OLOR EN HERIDAS NEOPLÁSICAS RESUMEN: Objetivo: verificar los aspectos asociados a la prescripción, preparación y administración del metronidazol para control del olor en heridas neoplásicas. Metodología: estudio transversal, con 80 profesionales de salud de cinco hospitales referencia en oncología en Recife, PE, entre agosto y octubre de 2017. Se analizaron las variables: caracterización profesional, criterios para prescripción, presentación, dilución, aplicación, frecuencia y cuidados en la aplicación. Se calcularon el promedio y la desviación típica para las variables racionales discretas, y para categóricas dicotómicas, test chi cuadrado con corrección de Yates. Resultados: los enfermeros se caracterizaron por el poco tiempo de experiencia (1-3 años), menor frecuencia de especialización en comparación con los médicos, pero con más frecuencia de actualización en cuidados paliativos. Acerca de la prescripción y uso del producto, se observaron prescripciones alternativas y empíricas, con maceración de pastillas 14 (53,8%) o solución inyectable en cinco (19,3%). Conclusión: resultados evidencian la escasa literatura sobre la temática y apuntan a la necesidad de construcción de protocolos basados en evidencias científicas. DESCRIPTORES: Enfermería oncológica; Heridas y lesiones; Anti-Infecciosos; Metronidazol; Odorantes. dx.doi.org/10.5380/ce.v24i0.57906 Cogitare enferm. 24: e57906, 2019 Cogitare enferm. 24: e57906, 2019 Prescription and use of metronidazole for the control of odor in neoplastic wounds INTRODUCTION Neoplastic wounds are defined as a tumor infiltration or skin metastasis that may involve blood and afferent lymphatic vessels and are more common in breast cancer patients, despite its also high incidence in patients with head and neck cancer (1,2). The prevalence of these wounds is unknown due to the lack of population-based studies. However, it is estimated that neoplastic wounds affect 5% of patients with cancer in advance stages and 10% of patients with metastasis, with an average life expectancy of 6 to 12 months (2,3). Neoplastic wounds produce various physical symptoms such as foul smell, pain, pruritus, exudate and bleeding. Among these, odor, often described by patients, family members and other caregivers including nurses, as similar to the foul odor of litterboxes, rotten meat and decomposing flesh, is attributed to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. The latter thrive in necrotic, oxygen-free tissue found in the bed of these wounds(4) and contribute substantially to low self-esteem, social isolation and lower quality of life. Interventions aimed at reducing suffering caused by the odor, among other physical and psychological symptoms, are part of palliative care and aim at ensuring the best possible quality of life, based on the best evidence, balancing care objectives with the available resources (4). Although odor is a symptom that greatly contributes to social isolation due to stigma, there is scarce evidence on the ideal topical therapy for its control. Several topical products have been used, such as metronidazole, an antimicrobial agent derived from imidazole that can interact with the DNA molecules of the microorganism, preventing the synthesis of enzymes essential for the survival of the pathogen and thus indirectly controlling the odor(5). In Brazil, the use of metronidazole 0.8% gel in neoplastic wounds has been recommended because of its excellent results in odor control, without the induction of the side effects of systemic therapy. In cases where metronidazole gel is not available, the proposed alternative has been the topical use of macerated tablets or the pure injectable solution (6). Nonetheless, some review studies demonstrate the lack of robust evidence to recommend topical use, because of the small sample sizes and randomization methods used, generating uncertainties about the validity of the results(5-7), as well as problems related to special prescription requirements that may influence its use (8). Moreover, there was no consensus on the recommended presentation of the drug or method of drug use based on the comparison of effectiveness in cost-effectiveness analyzes. Therefore, the institutions prepare different topical formulations of metronidazole for patients with neoplastic wounds (9). More scientific evidence in Brazil is needed for the elaboration of protocols that systematize the care provided to patients with neoplastic wounds. Since it is important to know how the healthcare institutions are using metronidazole to control the odor of neoplastic wounds, in order to add evidence and contribute to the standardization of clinical practices and the construction of care protocols, the present study aimed to verify aspects related to the prescription and use of metronidazole for odor control in neoplastic wounds.


This paper presents a novel approach for the creation of intelligent machine learning programs. It introduces generic learning tasks as the basic learning processes and describes their representation and integration. The role of knowledge in an intelligent machine learning system is identified to a fine granularity. The new approach allows the integration of multiple learning processes into a system that can select the appropriate process based on its background knowledge and the task. Three ways in which the system improves its learning bias over similar classes of problems are identified. The approach is demonstrated in the domain of bridge design. This work has been supported by the Engineering Design Research Center, an NSF Engineering Research Center, and in part by the Sun Company grant for Engineering Design Research. University Libraries Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213


We consider the problem of computing the outer-radii of point sets. In this problem, we are given integers $n, d$, and $k$, where $k \le d$, and a set $P$ of $n$ points in $\Re^d$. The goal is to compute the outer $k$-radius of $P$, denoted by ${\cal R}_k(P)$, which is the minimum over all $(d-k)$-dimensional flats $F$ of $\max_{p \in P} d(p,F)$, where $d(p,F)$ is the Euclidean distance between the point $p$ and flat $F$. Computing the radii of point sets is a fundamental problem in computational convexity with many significant applications. The problem admits a polynomial time algorithm when the dimension $d$ is constant [U. Faigle, W. Kern, and M. Streng, Math. Program., 73 (1996), pp. 1-5]. Here we are interested in the general case in which the dimension $d$ is not fixed and can be as large as $n$, where the problem becomes NP-hard even for $k=1$. It is known that $R_k(P)$ can be approximated in polynomial time by a factor of $(1 + \varepsilon)$ for any $\varepsilon > 0$ when $d - k$ is a fixed constant [M. Babdoiu, S. Har-Peled, and P. Indyk, in Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 2002; S. Har-Peled and K. Varadarajan, in Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Computing Geometry, 2002]. A polynomial time algorithm that guarantees a factor of $O(\sqrt{\log n})$ approximation for $R_1(P)$, the width of the point set $P$, is implied by the results of Nemirovski, Roos, and Terlaky [Math. Program., 86 (1999), pp. 463-473] and Nesterov [Handbook of Semidefinite Programming Theory, Algorithms, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, 2000]. In this paper, we show that $R_k(P)$ can be approximated by a ratio of $O(\sqrt{\log n})$ for any $1 \leq k \leq d$, thus matching the previously best known ratio for approximating the special case $R_1 (P)$, the width of point set $P$. Our algorithm is based on semidefinite programming relaxation with a new mixed deterministic and randomized rounding procedure. We also prove an inapproximability result that gives evidence that our approximation algorithm is doing well for a large range of $k$. We show that there exists a constant $\delta > 0$ such that the following holds for any $0 < \eps < 1$: there is no polynomial time algorithm that approximates $R_k(P)$ within $(\log n)^{\delta}$ for all $k$ such that $k \leq d - d^{\varepsilon}$ unless NP $\subseteq$ DTIME $[2^{(\log m)^{O(1)}}]$. Our inapproximability result for $R_k(P)$ extends a previously known hardness result of Brieden [Discrete Comput. Geom., 28 (2002), pp. 201-209] and is proved by modifying Brieden's construction using basic ideas from probabilistically checkable proofs (PCP) theory.


Anxiety has a significant effect on oral communication, particularly when it occurs in the form of a public address. The quality of a public speaker's oral presentation may highly be determined by a variety of emotive elements. However, this has received much too little attention in the realm of academic conference presentations, despite the fact that this process may be incredibly nerve-wracking for both novice and experienced postgraduate students. In the current study, 137 Chinese EFL postgraduate students consented to complete a revamped version of the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA). Chinese EFL postgraduates reported a high level of public speaking anxiety during their international conference presentations, as measured by three categorical variables: public speaking apprehension, self-behavior management, and fear of negative evaluation. During the international conference presentations, ten questionnaire items were recognised to be the most anxiety-provoking conditions in terms of public speaking anxiety. In addition, differences in gender and graduate study specialization were not significantly associated with Chinese EFL postgraduates' experiences with public speaking anxiety. Nevertheless, it was discovered that Chinese EFL graduate students reported statistically significant levels of public speaking anxiety, and pedagogical suggestions were offered.


Summary An identification method based on the failure of methicillin (5 μg) and oxacillin (1 μg) disks to inhibit enterococci on Mueller-Hinton Agar was evaluated. All strains tested of Streptococcus faecalis and its varieties and of S. faecium grew up to the edge of the disks; inhibition of S. faecium var. durans and of S. bovis was variable. In contrast, S. equinus and almost all streptococci not belonging to group-D streptococci showed inhibition zones of 10 mm or more. The methicillin test seems suitable for use in the clinical laboratory in view of the scarcity of S. faecium var. durans, S. bovis and S. equinus in pathological material from man and of the margin of error of the traditional tests for enterococci.


© Journal of Xiangya Medicine. All rights reserved. J Xiangya Med 2020 | http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jxym-20-65 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently an unprecedented dreadful pandemic. Following the identification of its first case in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the disease has rapidly spread and was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 (1). On May 08, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 3,807,852 persons were infected (in conformity with the case definitions and diagnostic test used in the various affected countries) by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV2) worldwide and COVID-19 was responsible for 269,068 global deaths (2). After affecting the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system is one of the main body systems affected by SARSCOV2. Several cardiovascular complications have been described in COVID-19 patients namely: myocarditis, myocardial infarction, heart failure, arrhythmia, venous and arterial thrombosis (3). The pathogenesis of cardiovascular involvement in COVID-19 results either from a direct or indirect mechanism. The direct mechanism involves the viral infiltration of myocardial tissues, cardiac and vascular endothelial cells, resulting in cellular death. On the other hand, the indirect mechanism is due to a severe acute lung inflammatory injury, electrolyte imbalance and iatrogenic effects caused by the use of QT prolongation drugs (chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine and/or azithromycin) (3,4). Also, in animal models, the expression of the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE 2) in the heart has an important cardio-modulating function. Mice that developed ACE 2 anomalies had severe left ventricular dysfunction. SARS-COV2 appears to down-regulate ACE 2, which may theoretically contribute to myocardial dysfunction (5). It is now established that patients with cardiovascular risk factors or diseases are more prone to poor outcomes and that these patients often die secondary to cardiovascular events in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (3). As the COVID-19 pandemic persists due to no evidencebased treatment at this write-up, the long-term prognosis especially due to cardiovascular complications remains uncertain. However, some hypotheses on the long-term outcomes of cured COVID-19 persons can be made from the appraisal of previous coronavirus-related epidemics. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, two other major coronaviruses had infected human beings. These were the SARS-COV which caused SARS between the years 2002-2003 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-COV) which caused MERS between the years 2012–2016. At the end of the epidemic of SARS, China reported more than 8,000 cases of the disease and 774 deaths equivalent to a case-fatality rate of 7%. MERS, the second identified coronavirus accounted for a major global health crisis too. MERS first emerged in the year 2012 in Saudi Arabia. Two years following its outbreak, there was a total of 662 infected patients and its casefatality was 32.97%. Between 2014 to 2016, the number of infections increased to 1,364 cases in Saudi Arabia. Letter to the Editor


We discuss pure q (q) over bar axial-vector mesons in the Tamm-Dancoff approximation of the Coulomb-gauge QCD model from North Carolina State University. While recent studies have put emphasis in configuration mixing with open meson-meson channels, we here concentrate on the simpler closed-channel problem and follow the 1(+) mixing through a wide range of quark masses. We also examine their radial excitations and discuss with them the concept of insensitivity to chiral symmetry breaking.


The purpose of this placebo-controlled study was to evaluate the efficacy of the homoeopathic simillimum treatment in halitosis in terms of the volatile sulphur compounds being measured objectively by the portable sulphide monitor and subjectively by organoleptic measurement\x87


Over the past decades, numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate models around the world have been utilizing several ad-hoc approaches (e.g., long-tail stability correction functions, friction velocity limiters) to avoid three interrelated modeling issues -- decoupling of boundary layer from underlying land-surface, run-away cooling, and crashing -- in the context of stably stratified flows. In order to explain these NWP and climate modeling issues, a few researchers performed idealized single column and large-eddy simulations. They documented that these idealized simulations crashed (without much warning) when substantial amounts of downward (negative) sensible heat flux are prescribed as lower surface boundary conditions. Since these crashing simulations were usually accompanied by substantial temperature drop, these simulations were identified as runaway cooling events. In this presentation, we demonstrate that the previously reported crashing events in idealized simulations are not related to the runaway cooling problem experienced by the atmospheric models. The crashing and runaway cooling events in these models occur when surface fluxes become negligibly small (very stable condition). In contrast, the root of the crashing problem in the idealized simulations can be traced back to the prescription of un-physically large downward (negative) sensible heat flux.


of the original article 1 During normal bone remodeling, the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB (RANK) interacts with its ligand RANKL, which is present on pre-osteoclasts, resulting in bone resorption and initiation of new bone formation. When breast cancer metastasizes to bone, normal bone remodeling is disturbed by invasion of tumor cells, resulting in osteolytic lesions. We have studied the expression of both RANK and RANKL in 10 nonneoplastic breast samples, 58 infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC), and 43 breast cancer bony metastases (BTM). RANK seemed to be present in all samples tested. However, whereas RANKL expression was observed in 90% of nonneoplastic breast, RANKL expression was only observed in 62% of nonmetastatic IDC, 31% of metastatic IDC, and 2% of osteolytic BTM lesions. This decreased or absent expression of RANKL in the tumor cells may allow RANK, which is normally expressed as a receptor on the cell surface, to target RANKL present on the cell surface of normal osteoblasts and stromal cells of the bone. Stimulation of the normal osteoblasts and stromal cells by the tumor cells may then lead to secondary osteoclastogenesis, resulting in the osteolytic phenotype common to breast metastases. Citation of original article 2: R. B. Riggins, A. Zwart, R. Nehra, R. Clarke. The nuclear factor kappaB inhibitor parthenolide restores ICI 182,780 (Faslodex; fulvestrant)-induced apoptosis in antiestrogen-resistant breast cancer cells. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2005; 4(1): 33–41. Abstract of the original article 2 The molecular mechanisms underlying the acquisition of resistance to the antiestrogen Faslodex are poorly understood, although enhanced expression and activity of nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB) have been implicated as a critical element of this phenotype. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanism by which NFkappaB up-regulation contributes to Faslodex resistance and to determine whether pharmacologic inhibition of NFkappaB by the small molecule parthenolide could restore Faslodex-mediated suppression of cell growth. Basal expression of multiple NFkappaB-related molecules in MCF7-derived LCC1 (antiestrogen-sensitive) and LCC9 (antiestrogen-resistant) breast cancer cells was determined, and cells were treated with Faslodex or parthenolide. The effect of these drugs either singly or in combination was assessed by cell proliferation, estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent transcriptional activation, cell cycle analysis, and apoptosis assays. Expression of the p65 NFkappaB subunit and the upstream NFkappaB regulator IkappaB kinase gamma/NFkappaB essential modulator were increased in the resistant MCF7/LCC9 cells (P 0.001 and 0.04, Journals Clubof the original article 2 The molecular mechanisms underlying the acquisition of resistance to the antiestrogen Faslodex are poorly understood, although enhanced expression and activity of nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB) have been implicated as a critical element of this phenotype. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanism by which NFkappaB up-regulation contributes to Faslodex resistance and to determine whether pharmacologic inhibition of NFkappaB by the small molecule parthenolide could restore Faslodex-mediated suppression of cell growth. Basal expression of multiple NFkappaB-related molecules in MCF7-derived LCC1 (antiestrogen-sensitive) and LCC9 (antiestrogen-resistant) breast cancer cells was determined, and cells were treated with Faslodex or parthenolide. The effect of these drugs either singly or in combination was assessed by cell proliferation, estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent transcriptional activation, cell cycle analysis, and apoptosis assays. Expression of the p65 NFkappaB subunit and the upstream NFkappaB regulator IkappaB kinase gamma/NFkappaB essential modulator were increased in the resistant MCF7/LCC9 cells (P 0.001 and 0.04, Journals Club Correspondence to: Christopher C. Benz, MD, Director, Cancer and Developmental Therapeutics Program, Buck Institute for Age Research, 8001 Redwood Boulevard, Novato, CA 94945, USA. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; Tel: 1 415 209 2092; Fax: 1 415 209 2232 Publication date 31/05/05 BCO/442/2005/JC https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1470903105004426 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 126.96.36.199, on 02 May 2019 at 21:21:35, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at Journals Club Review BCO.442.2005.JC doi:10.1017/S1470903105004426 © Cambridge University Press, Breast Cancer Online (www.bco.org) 2005; 8(5) Review The nuclear factorB (NF B) complex encompasses a family of inducible transcription factors expressed in almost all cells and mediating a signaling pathway now recognized as lying 'at the crossroads of life and death' [1]. NF B activation occurs in response to extracellular chemical stresses, cytokines, and growth factors; and directly regulates the expression of hundreds of genes whose cellular influences extend well beyond those of the immune system where its critical role was first recognized almost two decades ago [2]. The NF B family consists of five mammalian members (p50/NF B1, p52/NF B2, p65/relA, c-rel, and relB), all share a conserved 300 amino acid N-terminal Rel homology domain (homologous to that encoded by the avian oncogene, v-Rel) responsible for their dimerization, nuclear translocation, DNA-binding, and association with I B inhibitory proteins [3,4]. All exist as homoor heterodimers (the most abundant form is generally thought to be the p50/p65 heterodimer), although in resting cells NF B is cytoplasmically sequestered as a latent complex bound to one or more members of the I B protein family (I B , I B , I B , I B , Bcl-3, and the precursor Rel proteins p100 and p105). Through different signaling intermediates, various NF B stimuli (e.g. TNF , CD40 ligand, IL-1, LPS, TRANCE/receptor activator of nuclear factorB ligand (RANKL), EGF, phorbol esters, peroxides, ionizing radiation) converge to activate I B kinase (IKK), a heterotrimeric cytoplasmic complex with two catalytic kinase subunits (IKK and IKK , either of which may be phosphorylated by upstream kinases) and a regulatory scaffolding component (IKK /NEMO). This activated IKK complex in turn phosphorylates I B, leading to its proteasomal degradation and translocation of NF B into the nucleus, where it binds promoter-specific B consensus DNA elements to direct transcription of over 180 known NF B target genes. NF B regulated genes are known to affect a wide variety of anti-apoptotic, proliferative, motility and invasion promoting cellular responses critical for normal organ development and homeostasis, including that of the mammary gland [5]. Thus, it is not surprising that within the past decade we have seen a rapid surge in the number of reports implicating NF B dysregulation in various chronic inflammatory disorders and assorted hematopoietic and epithelial malignancies, and identifying this pathway as a promising target for new molecular therapies [6–10]. Among the experimental and medicinal strategies shown to inhibit constitutively active NF B are drugs that target either upstream NF B activating signals or downstream I B degradative mechanisms [11], including the potent and specific antioxidant pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate [12], proteasome inhibitors like MG-132 and PS-341 (bortezomib/velcade) [7], and sesquiterpene lactones like parthenolide (PA), a specific IKK inhibitor and component of feverfew now being evaluated in cancer patients [13,14]. Two new breast cancer studies, Bhatia et al. [15] and Riggins et al. [16], implicate distinct but equally devious roles for NF B dysregulation in the clinical progression of breast cancer. Both reports offer compelling findings that need further validation and mechanistic clarification. The immunohistochemical study of Bhatia et al. evaluated tumor expression of RANKL, which activates NF B upon binding to the surface receptor, receptor activator of nuclear factorkappaB (RANK). They hypothesized that differential expression of RANKL or RANK might identify cancer cells predisposed to metastasis, and in particular formation of bony metastases associated with osteolytic complications. RANK is also known as osteoclast differentiation and activation receptor for its essential role in bone remodeling, mediated by osteoclastic activation of NF B, and bone resorption. RANKL, widely expressed on the surface of both osteoblasts and bone stroma, can bind to either cellular RANK or the soluble decoy receptor, osteoprotegerin (OPG), also known as osteoclastogenesis inhibitory factor because of its role in preserving bone density. For example, the bone mineral preserving activity of estrogen is mediated by stromal estrogen receptor (ER)-induction of OPG; and in an opposite manner, excess glucocorticoids can demineralize bone by inhibiting synthesis of OPG. Thus, local bone density and homeostasis are regulated by the competitive balance between OPG and RANK for binding to RANKL [17]. Comparing respectively). Whereas MCF7/LCC9 cells were unresponsive to Faslodex alone, parthenolide effectively inhibited MCF7/LCC9 cell proliferation and the combination of Faslodex and parthenolide resulted in a 4-fold synergistic reduction in cell growth (P 0.03). This corresponded to a restoration of Faslodex-induced apoptosis (P 0.001), with no observable changes in ER-dependent transcription or cell cycle phase distribution. Because parthenolide has shown safety in Phase I clinical trials, these findings have direct clinical relevance and provide support for the design of clinical studies combining antiestrogens and parthenolide in ER-positive


This work proposes the design of optical SR latch. The fundamental component of the latch is a micro-ring resonator (MRR), which utilizes a plasma dispersion effect with an applied reverse bias voltage to tune its resonance wavelength. The proposed SR latch is made up of two identical micro-ring resonators with similar doped regions and the same logic mode of operation. The memory properties are realized by implementing the feedback loop between the input and output of the circuit. A time-varying simulation is carried out by applying two pseudorandom electrical input signals S and R into the circuit at a data rate of 25 Gbps. The work concludes with a comparative analysis between two optical SR latches (NOR-based and NAND-based).


Objectives: 1) Determine the prevalence of caretaker reported dysphonia in children undergoing medical evaluation. 2) Determine whether subspecialty pediatric clinics are associated with variable patterns of pediatric dysphonia compared to primary care. Methods: Cross-sectional survey recording demographic data, caretaker perception of their child's voice, and the validated pediatric voice related quality of life (PVRQOL) instrument administered to caregivers of children undergoing evaluation in primary care and subspecialty clinics. Survey responses and PVRQOL scores were stratified by clinic type and compared to general pediatrics using Fisher's exact test for categorical data and the Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test for interval data. Results: A total of 406 complete surveys were analyzed. The mean PVRQOL score for all children was 90.6 (95%CI:88.7, 92.4). Compared to general pediatrics, PVRQOL scores were lower in developmental pediatrics (P = .0004), genetics (P = .0240), and otolaryngology (P = .0332) clinics. Children in developmental pediatrics also were more likely to have a prior speech evaluation (P < .001) and speech therapy (P = .001). Otolaryngology patients were more likely to have undergone speech evaluation (P = .030). Of note, no difference was found comparing PVRQOL scores in general pediatrics to gastroenterology (P = .2086) or pulmonology (P = .6633). Conclusions: Children undergoing evaluation in developmental pediatrics, genetics, and otolaryngology have lower PVRQOL scores than children evaluated in primary care. No other significant differences between subspecialty clinics were identified. These data reinforce that all practitioners caring for children should seek to identify voice disorders and highlight the importance of subspecialists who treat developmentally challenged children to exert particular vigilance.


In this paper, the dependences of the semiconductors' photoelectrochemical properties on the experimental conditions were studied for the solid solution of CdS and ZnS, graphitic carbon nitride, and the platinized carbon nitride. The cyclic voltammograms were obtained under different scan rates. The sample investigations were carried out by two ways, at the constant external voltage and varied amplitudes and at different external voltages and the fixed amplitude. The Mott – Schottky dependences were studied at different frequencies. The basic dependences of the changes in the photoelectrode target characteristics on the experimental condition were found. Some recommendations for the correct comparison of qualitative and quantitative photoelectrochemical data were formulated.


Manufacturing cluster is a group of manufacturing enterprises and other relevant organizations. The enterprises in the cluster have a strong competitive advantage in the process of development because of the aggregation effect. At the same time the concept of coupling has also been quoted in more and more subjects. On the basis of this situation this article studies the coupling degree of the manufacturing cluster. It introduces the concept of manufacturing cluster, the concept of coupling, the coupling structure of the manufacturing cluster, the coupling degree and its model of manufacturing cluster, and through the analysis of the model it obtains the development state of the manufacturing cluster at different coupling degrees.


The present invention relates to an integrated two-way radio interface function universal wireless transceiver unit and a method for the trainable units. By using a scanning, buttons or training mode channel, the user can enter the two-way wireless interface mode trainable transceiver. This mode allows the user to select the interface include, but are not limited to a subset of the following modes: diagnostic, flash memory, and the vehicle interface. Each mode allows the trainable transceiver for bidirectional way radio communication with another remote device.


The thesis deals with the analysis of Real estate register data and its usability for the analysis of the existing housing fund within municipality of Crnomelj.
The first part of the thesis shows the results of the analysis based on the existing housing fund; characteristics of the housing fund according to the year of their construction are presented as well as the material from which housing is constructed, data regarding electricity and water supply, data about roof and facade renovations and the type of the heating used in housing.
Results of the analysis are presented on maps as well. The result of the analysis show that Real estate register data can be used to present characteristics of the housing fund within selected municipality, but with some limitations regarding the usability of the data about roof and facade renovations. Precisely compete and accurate data about roof and facade renovations of the existing housing fund would be useful in the next few years, which will be dedicated to energy efficient renovations of
Housing stock.


A case of soft-tissue injury to the hand resulting from an accident with a mercury thermometer in which there was no serious untoward effect other than a local fibrous and lymphoreticular reaction is described. Other instances of similar soft-tissue injuries from the literature, illustrating the unpredictable and sometimes fatal consequences of such accidents, are reviewed. Injuries with metallic mercury through iatrogenic means, or by self-administration into arteries, veins, and gastrointestinal tract, are also mentioned.


In the past few years, the deep learning is widely used in the medical industry due to its advantage. Constructed using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), the U-Net framework has become the industry standard for solving medical image segmentation tasks. Nonetheless, this framework is incapable of entirely learning all global and remote semantic information. It has been demonstrated that the transformer structure collects more global information than U-Net but less local information than CNN. To improve the performance of segmentation and classification in medical images while maximizing global and local data, we integrate O-Net with Mixed Transformer [1], this fuses the advantages of CNN and Transformer. This enables us to maximize both types of data. We combine CNN, Mixed Transformer, and Local-Global Gaussian-Weighted Self-Attention (LGG-SA) in the encoder component of our proposed O-Net architecture to obtain more global and local background information. The decoder part combines the Mixed Transformer and CNN blocks to obtain the results. The segmentation capability of the proposed network is evaluated by the multi-organ CT dataset containing synaptic information. The results of our trials demonstrate that the proposed MT-ONet can deliver superior segmentation performance relative to cutting-edge methods, resulting in improved classification precision.


We study stability and average delay in single-source single-destination delay tolerant networks with random message arrivals. In particular, we analyze source spray-and-wait routing protocol without feedback. We obtain conditions on arrival rate under which the source queue is stable. We show that the maximum supported arrival rate is linearly proportional to the number of relays and inversely proportional to the spray-and-wait parameter. Further, we obtain an approximate expression for the average queueing delay. We show that it increases with the spray-and-wait parameter. Through simulations, we show that the average delivery delay and average end-to-end delay first decreases and then increases with the spray-and-wait parameter. We also validate our analytical findings through simulations.


We show that the space of chains of smooth maps from spheres into a fixed compact oriented manifold has a natural structure of a transversal $d$-algebra. We construct a structure of transversal 1-category on the space of chains of maps from a suspension space $S(Y)$, with certain boundary restrictions, into a fixed compact oriented manifold. We define homological quantum field theories \HL and construct several examples of such structures. Our definition is based on the notions of string topology of Chas and Sullivan, and homotopy quantum field theories of Turaev.


In this paper we define and solve the following new problem: Given a set of n elements, we are interested in determining the largest number of subsets of size k that have at most m elements in common. We prove that in the worst-case scenario, a brute force solution requires a double exponential time with respect to n. Afterwards, we show that our problem is in the class NEXP by reducing it to the succinct K-coloring problem. We use in our proof ordered binary decision diagrams to determine whether there is an edge between two nodes of a graph that corresponds to an instance of our problem. We also show that it is at least EXP-hard.


Objective To investigate the effect of rosuvastatin for concentration of serum cytokines and cardiac function of patients with chronic cardiac failure. Methods 86 cases of patients with chronic cardiac failure admitted to Rongcheng People′s Hospital from September 2012 to November 2013 were selected and randomly divided into treatment group and control group,with 43 cases in each group.All patients were given conventional therapy for anti-heartfailure,on basis of which,the treatment group was added with rosuvastatin,once 10 mg,once a day,12 weeks were as a course.After one course,the efficacy was evaluated. Results The levels of TNF-α,IL-6,hs-CRP,TC,LDL-C after treatment in the treatment group were all decreased significantly compared with before treatment(P0.05),and there were statistically significant differences of the levels of indexes above after treatment between treatment group and control group(P 0.05).Compared with before treatment,the level of LVESV after treatment in the treatment group was decreased significantly(P0.05),while the level of LVEF after treatment was increased significantly(P0.05),and there were also statistically significant differences of the levels of indexes above after treatment between treatment group and control group(P0.05). Conclusion Rosuvastatin in the treatment of patients with chronic cardiac failure can significantly decrease the level of serum cytokines,improve patyients′ cardiac function,which is worthy of clinical promotion and application.


Introduction. Sharpening attention to environmental issues and finding new marketing approaches and forms of rational use of natural recreational resources in the Carpathian region will contribute to the formation of environmental culture, environmental values, ability to follow moral and legal norms and rules of environmentally sound behavior and more. An important place in the problems solving is given to eco-tourism and marketing in the organization of ecotourism development, which will help to realize that rational recreational nature using will not only stimulate the flow of entry into the region, increase welfare, but also play an important role in preserving natural resources as parts of global resources.The purpose of the study is to identify ecologically attractive areas for the development of ecological tourism, substantiate the unique potential of the Carpathian region for this type of tourism and identify areas of creative implementation of foreign experience to establish stages of marketing process in the organization of ecological tourism.Methods. The using of the analysis method, questionnaires, study of foreign experience, system-structural approach became the methodological basis of the study.Results. The uniqueness of the region for ecological tourism is established on the analysis of opportunities for the ecological tourism development in the Carpathian region, in particular, the distribution of protected lands and their functional structure, the availability of reserves and national parks, etc. A high level of interest in ecological tourist products was established by surveying tourists who visited Vyzhnytsia National Park. Based on the study of foreign experience, the stages of the marketing process that can be implemented in the practice of organizing the development of ecotourism in the Carpathian region are identified. The most promising types of ecological tourist products are offered and the influence of ecotourism development on the balance of nature protection, economic, social, cultural, integration and other interests in the region is established.Discussion. Important areas of further research in the context of determining the role and place of marketing in the ecotourism development are, in particular, the determination of target categories of visitors, assessing the demand for various ecotourism programs and competition analysis.


The utility model discloses an electricity meter box used for rapidly adjusting a three-phase load. The electricity meter box comprises a main switch arranged in the electricity meter box, wherein the main switch is connected with a terminal row through isolating switches, the terminal row is connected with electricity meters, and the electricity meter box is internally provided with a load adjustment mechanism. The electricity meter box provided by the utility model presets three isolating switch units and three terminal position units on the basis that the isolating switches and the terminal row are configured so as to satisfy the electricity meter box households, and the line structure of the original electricity meter box is not changed; and the electricity meter box does not cause inconvenience for power utilization of other users, adjustment on load is realized under normal user power supply, the workload is reduced, the power supply volume is increased, and the management on the line loss is realized.


The study deals with a comprehensive analysis of constitutional fundamentals of state administration of the social sphere in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The content of the constitutional law social sphere institution is unfolded by means of the inter-sectoral analysis of legal regulations of which it consists and the inter-disciplinary study of the elements of its structure. The essence and the content of state administration of the social sphere in the contemporary environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan is presented in correlation with related areas of administration. The authors studied the organization of public authorities in the social sphere and examined the specifics of activities of appropriate public authorities. A special attention was paid to the issues of efficient realization of the administrative and legal and social reforms in this area of social relations. The practical value is that the submissions can be useful for the improvement of the provisions of the effective legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and of practices of applying the law in the context of the process of the progressive formation of the Republic of Kazakhstan as a social welfare state


How refreshing it was to read the letter from Jon Siviter (November p17), concerning Oundle School's success at boosting A-level physics. He seems to have found something for which many have been searching. His methods remind me of those of the US Physical Sciences Study Committee in the early 1960s, when American physics needed a boost.


Why is promoting productive use of electricity important? Providing universal access to sustainable energy is an international priority. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a specific goal (SDG 7) to achieve 'universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services' by 2030. Productive use of electricity (PUE) refers to using electricity to generate income (in formal and informal enterprises, both home based and in enterprise locations), including farm and non-farm income generation.


The papers collected in this double-length special issue each touch upon the keynote essay republished here, Bridget Fowler and Fiona M. Wilson's ''Women Architects and Their Discontents'', first published in 2004 in Sociology. Each thematic issue of Architectural Theory Review focuses on a specific compelling object— whether a text, a drawing, a building, or otherwise—the implications of which are ''reviewed'' by the contributors to that issue. This issue invited submissions reflecting on Fowler and Wilson's essay, which, co-authored by a sociologist and a specialist in organisational behaviour, is provocative in its approach to the architecture profession from an outsider's point of view. In selecting the keynote paper, I was mindful of how its authors had themselves settled upon the architecture profession as an object of study. They take architecture as an anomaly within a general trend towards the end of patriarchalism—''since the practice of creating large-scale buildings is still virtually monopolized by men''—and also as an indicative case study of a ''typical masculine dominated profession''. In between these two extremes, of a profession that is both an anomaly and an exemplar, lies a world of complexity.


Cognitive radio (CR) provides a promising solution to the spectrum scarcity problem by implementing opportunistic spectrum access over the licensed spectrum. However, spectrum holes are discontinuous in frequency and time, resulting in a challenge to CR transmissions. Fortunately, rateless codes can be utilised to exploit these distributed spectrum opportunities in an aggregate way. In such system, how to conduct the sensing and transmission is a key problem that affects the system performance. Therefore in this study, the authors propose a rateless-coded transmission protocol in a multi-channel CR system, addressing the media access control (MAC) layer sensing issues. Specifically, how many channels and which ones should be sensed in each time slot. Owing to the dynamics of channel availability, stochastic control is a necessity. Therefore the authors analyse the average throughput and formulate an optimisation problem to find the optimal sensing policy based on the theory of partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). The myopic sensing policy is also studied owing to intractable computation complexity of a general POMPD. Moreover, the authors propose a heuristic policy with comparable performance and low complexity. Simulation results will show that the heuristic policy is superior to the static policy and has almost the same performance as the myopic policy.


In this article we shall investigate Hardy-Sobolev inequalities and improve them by adding a term with a singular weight of the type (log(1/‖x‖)) - 2 . We show that this weight function is optimal in the sense that the inequality fails for any other weight more singular than this one. As an application, we use our improved inequality to study the weighted eigenvalue problem stated in Β5.


Steganography is the science of dissimulation or data hiding. Its goal is to communicate in the secret i.e. The message is transferred via a media support without being visible. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach of data hiding. On the one hand, this method is based on the use of chaotic map to ensure security in the embedding phase. The chaos is characterized by many properties as ergodicity, sensitivity to initial conditions and parameters, random appearance. These properties make chaotic systems a favorable candidate for their use in secure applications as data hiding, watermarking and cryptography. Besides, we protect secret information by maximizing the number of embedded bits in each embedding zone.


Background and Objectives We sought to understand the impact of COVID‐19 on emergency department (ED) overdoses and county coroner verified overdose deaths. Methods Electronic medical health record and county coroner data were gathered and comparisons were made between three 16‐week time periods. In the three time periods, 873 individuals had an overdose diagnosis in the ED and 440 individuals in the county died of drug overdose. Results While total ED patient volume decreased substantially, the number of ED overdose patients increased between March 6 and June 25, 2020. Furthermore, during this same period, coroner data revealed an increase in overdose deaths. Conclusion and Scientific Significance This preliminary evidence provides a key insight into the impact of COVID‐19 on both overdose presentations to the ED and county overdose deaths. These results emphasize the critical need for increasing vigilance to prevent overdose by continuously developing and optimizing both accessible and quality treatment as we navigate through this pandemic and its ongoing effects on persons with substance use disorder. (Am J Addict 2021;00:00–00)


This paper is a quantitative study. It introduces the basic situations of interpersonal relations in university students' dormitory. According to various influence factors of the sex, the grade, the household register (city or countryside), only child or not and so on, it forms the current situations of interpersonal relations in university students' dormitory. Based on these analyses, the paper advises to use intervention idea and intervention strategy of social work.


BIOGRAPHERS OF H. G. Wells have noted that the success of his Time Machine (May 1895) owed much to W T Stead's very positive reviews of the novel in the Review of Reviews.' Bernard Bergonzi was convinced that Stead's high praise of the book in the March, April, and May issues of the "influential" Review of Reviews, while it was being serialized in the New Review, assured the success of the novel.2 Similarly, Mark R. Hillegas stated that the "editor of the powerful Review of Reviews" drew attention to Wells's work by hailing The Time Machine as "the work of a man of genius."3 More recently, Lovat Dickson wrote that although such critics as Edmund Gosse, Arthur Waugh, and W. Robertson Nicoll favorably reviewed the four novels (The Stolen Bacillus, The Wonderful Visit, Select Conversations with an Uncle, and The Time Machine) which Wells published during summer and autumn, 1895, it was not until Wells was "loudly hailed as a genius by W T Stead, [that] those publishers who had earlier been reluctant to offer contracts now fell over themselves in their anxiety to sign up his future work."4 Even Wells acknowledged that Stead's Review of Reviews was the "first paper to make a fuss over [The] Time Machine-for which I shall never cease to be grateful."5 Later, however, Stead's assistant editor, Grant Richards, took credit for having brought The Time Machine to Stead's notice and claimed that he, rather than Stead, wrote the favorable notice in the Review of Reviews.6 But Richards' assertion was refuted by Frederic Whyte, the biographer of Stead and of the publisher William Heinemann, when he averred that the "enthusiastic lines ... [on The Time Machine] were from Stead's own pen"; that Wells, in some letters to Stead, "expressed his gratitude for this early and cordial recognition


In recent years, in both Russia and the West, an increasing number of people have adopted the view that Russia's cooperation with the European Union (EU) and the United States is doomed to be situational rather than strategic in nature, as the two sides have different value systems because of civilizational differences. The EU and the United States are considered an integrated Western (Euro-Atlantic) civilization, whereas Russia is seen as a separate type of civilization, as yet far removed from Western values. Moreover, when people in the West talk about Russia, "Western civilization" invariably has positive connotations, and "Russian civilization" has mostly negative ones. In Russia, the opposite view is increasingly expressed. Western public opinion of Russia is becoming more critical with each passing year—as is Russian public opinion of the West.


From a sociological perspective this article introduced the social background and social influence of the worldwide formation and development of the reproductive health movement since the late 20 Century briefly analyzed the way in which major social factors such as poverty and gender discrimination affected reproductive health problems and explained the significance of reproductive health services to social development. (authors)


The present invention provides a mobile communication terminal and a method of adjusting the mobile communication terminal based on a screen. Screen adjustment method comprising: acquiring a first and a second fingerprint minutiae data feature data, wherein the first data comprises a first fingerprint and a first fingerprint information of the fingerprint direction, the second fingerprint data comprises a second fingerprint information and the second fingerprint direction. When it is determined that the first fingerprint information is consistent with the second fingerprint information, further calculates the direction angle difference between the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint direction, the angle difference value is within the threshold range, the display mode is switched to the second screen. By the above embodiment, the present invention can freely switch user vertical screen display mode of the mobile communication terminal, the effect of improving the user experience.


1. Apply the communication theory in order to: analyze their own social environments public opinion and mass culture phenomena; understand and explain the reality in where they live; value the theoretical approach on communication. 2. Elementally determine mass communication methods and research techniques, practice them, and derive their social implications. 3. Differentiate and relate multiple perspectives on mass communication theory, from the traditional approaches to the ones emerged in the network society. 4. Estimate the market as a core player in the development and expansion of mass communication and culture. 5. Achieve a critical analysis of the social, political and cultural implications of the communication modalities emerged in the information society.


History tells us that many P.E. teachers' understanding and patricians to new curriculum is the successful prerequisite of P.E. curricular reform. Moreover, P.E. teacher is the subject of applying new curriculum. They want to be active promoter of P.E. new curricular reform, those who need to establish a point of view of lifelong study and enrich knowledge of various aspects, have the ability to reform teaching pattern and cultivate students' creative power, have the abilities to use modern educational technique and means and have the definite abilities to P.E. teaching and research and educational reform.


A demonstration project has been carried out on the Dutch state road 6 between Almere and Lelystad, in which 20% milled asphalt has been re-used in a dense asphaltic concrete wearing course. The specification was that the regenerated dense asphaltic concrete had to be at least as good as the dense asphaltic concrete prepared in the conventional way. To determine whether this is so, test pieces have been taken from the demonstration section to be examined for different pavement characteristics. This test showed that the earlier mentioned equality was achieved. Because of the application in wearing courses, the old asphalt must come from binder and wearing courses that contain neither gravel nor other materials that are not suitable for wearing courses. Pressure points when introducing this form of recycling are especially of an economic nature (such as the market value of the milled asphalt, the cost of transport or storage). The acceptance by the commissioner of the work is not very high as yet. A stimulating policy, by Dutch "Rijkswaterstaat" for example, will be necessary to promote the recycling of old asphalt. Drawing up more stringent regulations is a possibility, e.g. by prescribing recycling in wearing courses. (TRRL)


PHS Chronicles presents short articles about significant happenings in the nearly 200-year history of the Public Health Service. The Office of the PHS Historian oversees preparation of the Chronicles. Contributions of less than 1,500 words are welcomed. Contact John Parascandola, PhD, PHS Historian, 17-31 Parklawn Bldg., 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857, tel. 301-443-5363, FAX 301-443-0358 (E mail jparasca @ oash.ssw.dhhs.gov).


Efficiency of white organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) based on phosphor sensitized fluorescence is improved by using an unusual device structure, in which an undoped blue emissive layer is sandwiched between two phosphorescent doped ones. This blue emissive layer blocks a triplet-triplet energy transfer between the two phosphorescent emissive layers, leading to balanced emissions of blue, green, yellow, and red. Thus, an efficient WOLED with a maximum luminous efficiency of 13.8cd∕A, a maximum power efficiency of 8.0lm∕W, a color rendering index of 79, and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage coordinates of (0.33, 0.35) is achieved.


The aim of the study is to compare learning styles of students in the department of chemistry education in education faculties and learning styles of students in the department of chemistry in faculties of science or faculties of arts and sciences in Turkey. The study group of the study is comprised of 1291 undergraduate students in total from the chemistry departments in eight universities and from Chemistry Education departments in 5 universities located in different geographical regions in Turkey. Data was obtained using Kolb Learning Style Inventory. When the entire study group is considered, it is observed that chemistry undergraduate students have diverging learning style as the dominant and that the assimilating learning style as the second among their learning style preferences. It is concluded that chemistry students have assimilating learning style while chemistry education students have diverging learning style as the dominant one according to the departments.


This paper aims to develop a new probabilistic monitoring-based framework for damage detection of long-span bridges, by eliminating the temperature effects from the measured modal frequencies, probabilistic modeling of modal frequencies using kernel density estimate, and detection damage using the control chart. A methodology is presented to address the issue of modal frequencies' non-normal distribution, which has been neglected in the past studies using the control chart to detect the modal frequencies' abnormality caused by structural damages. The efficiency of the proposed framework is validated through a case study of long-term monitoring data of a long-span suspension bridge. The results show that after elimination of the temperature effects, the selected modal frequencies are not normally distributed, while the Q statistics transferred from the modal frequencies follow the standard normal distribution. The abnormality of modal frequencies can be detected when the data points of the Q statistics exceed the limits of the control chart. Further, the control chart has sufficient sensitivity and thus can be used to detect minor abnormalities of the prototype bridge's modal frequencies. It is concluded that the proposed probabilistic monitoring-based framework offers an effective technique for structural health monitoring of long-span bridges.


The present invention is directed to the prior art and the lack of market demand, there is provided a high-strength cold cable sheath rubber and its preparation process. The high-strength cold M300 elongation strength cable sheath rubber is 6.5 ~ 7.0N / mm 2 , a breaking elongation of 400 to 500%, a tensile strength of 12.5 ~ 13.8N / mm 2 , permanent deformation after fracture was 30 ~ 50%, "T" type tear strength of 6.5 ~ 7.5N / mm, after 75 ℃ × 240h after hot air aging, the tensile strength retention ≥90%, retention of elongation at break ≥80%. Extremely cold temperature impact predetermined by the standard UL44 finished cable sheath with the present invention in the preparation of rubber and very low temperature bending test, flame retardancy by burning test. Compared with the prior art, the mechanical properties of the rubber sheath of the present invention is not only higher than ordinary rubber, and has a low temperature, resistance characteristics of the medium, at a low temperature extension cable, with a service life under conditions of an oil.


The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) as established in the Egyptian Competition Act approved in 2005, lacked of autonomous decision-making powers relating to the possibility to settle or…


For each new machine designed operational parameters exist and the realisation of these parameters determines the ability to perform the operations which it is designed for. It was proved both technically and practically that there is an impact of the using time of machines on the level of realisation of the operational parameters. based on a selective the statistic survey, the impact is analysed in the article of the using time of selected agricultural machines and tractors on the residual market price, repair costs, and the trend of annual utilisation. The outcome is a functional dependency of decreased residual market price, the growth of repair costs, and the trend of annual utilisation. The changes are presented by means of the proportions to the designed parameters and the outcomes can be used for the calculation of operational costs of the machines.


The mixed metal oxides CoAl2O4 and NiAl2O4 were prepared in a high surface area form by using a sol-gel method which involves hydrolysis of cobalt-aluminium and nickel-aluminium isopropoxides. The resulting gels were calcined at 673 K to yield the corresponding spinel-type metal oxides. Powder X-ray diffraction was used to confirm spinel formation. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements have shown the materials obtained to be highly porous. The BET surface area was found to be 240 m2g−1 for CoAl2O4 and 255 m2g−1 for NiAl2O4. Both materials showed a unimodal distribution of pore radii, where the most frequent pore radius is 5 nm for cobalt aluminate and 3 nm for nickel aluminate.


Integration of computational methods, X-ray crystallography, and structure-activity relationships will be disclosed, which lead to a new class of p38 inhibitors that bind to p38 MAP kinase in a Phe out conformation.


The deregulation of immune system cell response implies loss of T-cell apoptosis, high rate of proinflammatory cytokines production and subsequent exacerbate activation of TNF-α pathway. The use of biologic antibody decrease inflammation rate and symptoms, but it remains unclear if it has a direct effect on the pathways activation/inactivation on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The aim of this study is evaluate the role of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) applied to the metabolomic study of serum samples isolated from fresh blood from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients under IFX treatment to understand the activated/inactivated pathways of PBMCs.

 A case–control study was performed. Inclusion criteria were IBD patients under IFX treatment. Blood samples were obtained in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) patients before IFX and in healthy controls (CTRL). CD patients were divided into subgroups according to the gut affected, in Ileocolic (IC), ileum and colon. NMR samples of the serum were collected and measured according to Standard Operation Procedures. Three types of NMR spectra were measured for each serum sample (1Hnoepresat, 1Hcpmgpresat and 1HDfilterpresat). The signal in each NMR spectrum was integrated in a series of equidistant little portion of the spectrum called buckets of a constant width of 0.04 ppm, covering the complete 1H NMR spectral window from −5 to 14 ppm. Buckets in regions depleted from signal at the two extremes of the spectrum were discarded as well as those in the proximity of the water peak at ca. 4.7 ppm which was affected by the presaturation. The vectors corresponding to a number of samples of two or more groups can be rapidly analysed using Multivariant Statistical Analysis methods.

 Twenty-two IBD patients (12 CD and nine UC) were included, 10 CTRL were also included. The metabolomic analyses of the NMR spectra of the serum of the different patients and control groups by the fingerprinting and targeting profiling strategies provided OPLS-DA statistical models (Figure 1) that permitted the successful classification of certain groups of samples which are summarised in Table 1.

 The results of this pilot NMR metabolomic study of serum samples of IBD found a series of spectral fingerprints that are able to discriminate between groups of patients CTRL and CD, which underlines its potential use for the diagnosis of the disease.


We present a primal–dual algorithm for solving a constrained optimization problem. This method is based on a Newtonian method applied to a sequence of perturbed KKT systems. These systems follow from a reformulation of the initial problem under the form of a sequence of penalized problems, by introducing an augmented Lagrangian for handling the equality constraints and a log-barrier penalty for the inequalities. We detail the updating rules for monitoring the different parameters (Lagrange multiplier estimate, quadratic penalty and log-barrier parameter), in order to get strong global convergence properties. We show that one advantage of this approach is that it introduces a natural regularization of the linear system to solve at each iteration, for the solution of a problem with a rank deficient Jacobian of constraints. The numerical experiments show the good practical performances of the proposed method especially for degenerate problems.


The development of solar cells on Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x} might be interesting because they might present more current photo-response than the silicon cells, based on the lower bandgap of the alloyed crystal. In particular the use of Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x} solar cells in dual bandgap concentration structures as GaAs/Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x} can lead to total efficiency increase of about 1% as compared to the GaAs/Si structure, according to our calculations. Our effort is devoted to solar cells with low content of Ge, lower than 20% at. This choice is based on two previous hypothesis (1) A low content of Ge suggests that the well known silicon cell process, slightly modified, can be applied to the Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x} cells. (2) Calculations suggest that for utilisation in tandem with GaAs cells, the gain of efficiency is low above 20at % Ge.


From strong demand of police work properties and technology feasibility of mobile terminal access public security intranet,this paper introduces security risk existing in the mobile terminal from three aspects,puts forward a mobile terminal security access control system.The system is designed based on the M/S structure by using access permission control technology which is combined with the validity check of terminal access authentication,forced terminal registration and terminal application environment.Linkage of client program and control end can realize real-time patrols of mobile terminal network behavior.The real-time monitoring of state for the mobile terminal from multi-dimensional can make the terminal always consistent with security strategy to ensure that the mobile police accesses public security intranet safely.


Exploiting heterosis is one method to increase cotton yields that have stagnated in recent years. We produced 120 F2 cotton ( Gossypi um hirsutum L.) hybrids from a half diallel of 15 cultivars and one strain. The parents and their F2s (136 genot ypes) were evaluated in three Mississippi Delta locations in 1990. Total and fir st harvest lint yields were taken from four replications per location. Yield components and fiber properties were determined from two replications. The primary objecti ve of this study was to determine if parental region of origin was related to midparent and useful heterosis. We also explored the use of molecular markers (restriction fragment length polymorphisms, RFLPs) and coeff icients of parentage in identifying heterotic effects. Significant heterosis over all crosses for total and first harvest yield, lint percentage, boll weight, and 50% span length were detected. For total yield, the speci fic combining ability and speci fic combining ability by location interaction components accounted for 79% of the total genetic variance components. General combining ability effects accounted for the remaining 21%. Four of the highest six general combiners for yield were from the Delta region. One each came from the East and West regions. The F 2s derived from the West's cultivar, Prema, were not only high in yield, but also resulted in the highest bundle strength. The correlation of genetic distance ( calculated from RFLP data) and heterosis was 0.08, and that for coefficient of parentage and heterosis was 0. 5. Region of origin for one parent of a cross was an important factor in the expression of F2 heterosis from crosses among Delta culti vars. But, a similar relationship with F2 heterosis in crosses between Delta cultivars and those from other regions was not observed. General approaches to producing high yielding F2s are: (i) choose at least one parent well adapted to the targeted region; (ii) the second parent may come from any region or country; and (iii) if fiber quality is a breeding objective, at least one parent must have above average fiber quali ty as well as be a good yield combiner. W.R. Meredith, Jr., USDA, ARS, P. O. Box 345, St oneville, MS 39776. Recei ved 19 Sept. 1997. *Corresponding author (firstname.lastname@example.com ov). Abbreviations: RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism. 78 MEREDITH & BROWN: HETEROSIS AND COMBINING ABILITY OF U.S. COTTONS Using heterosis to increase yield of cotton has long been an objective of breeders. Except in countries where a vast labor force is available to make emasculations and crosses by hand, no commercial use of heterosis currently exists in cotton (Chaudhry, 1997b). In India, at least 40% of cotton's production is derived from intraspecific hybrids of G. hirsutum, and 8% of its production is from G. hirsutum x G. barbadense L. hybrids (Chaudhry, 1997b). The yield increase of hybrids over the better parent or best commercial cultivar (useful heterosis) has been documented in numerous reviews (Loden and Richmond 1951; Davis 1978; Meredith 1984; Basu 1995). A review using more recent data (Meredith, 1998) showed an average useful heterosis of 21.4% (or 276 kg ha ) for F1 hybrids, and 10.7% or (158 kg ha ) for F2s. These reviews conclusively show that both F 1 and F2 hybrids can produce significantly higher yields than the current best yielding parent or commercial cultivar. Breeding research needs to address all possibilities to increase yield, including the use of heterosis. The average cotton yields for the United States and world have shown no increase since the early 1990s (Chaudhry, 1997a). Meredith et al. (1997) have reported that breeding progress for increased yield has greatly decreased in recent times. The major limiting factor to using heterosis in cotton is the lack of an efficient, dependable crossing system. While numerous male sterile systems have been explored (Percy and Turcotte, 1991), male steriles and their restorer factors have often not been stable from environment to environment. Also, the genetics of the restorer factors to produce good "R" lines are complex. To avoid the inconsistency of results from male steriles and restorer factors and the cost of producing F 1 seed, the commercial use of F 2 hybrids has been proposed (Olvey, 1986). In the United States, Chembred released the first commercial F2 cultivars in 1992, but ceased operations in October 1995. Several factors contributed to the lack of F 2 commercial success. First, and perhaps the major factor, was the ineffectiveness of the male gametocide, TD-1123. The gametocide had to be applied every 14 to 21 days and, depending on the female's genotype, resulted in varying amounts of both male and female fertility. Incomplete male sterility resulted in nonhybrid seed and female sterility resulted in reduced yields. The carry-over effects of TD-1123 in the seed also reduced F 1 plant growth and yield the following year. The competitiveness of some F 2 cultivars produced using TD-1123 seemed to be less than the same F 2s produced by hand crossing. To some, the lack of success by Chembred was the final chapter on the use of F 1 and/or F2 hybrids in the United States. However, several well-designed studies show the potential for using F 2 hybrids. Tang et al. (1993) evaluated yield performance of 64 F 2s from four environments. The design was a North Carolina II with four females crossed with 16 males. The females were commonly grown cultivars DES 119, Deltapine 50, Stoneville 453, and Coker 315. The males were lines that had shown good host-plant resistance to many cotton pests. The best male yield combiner was Delcot 344 that averaged 151 kg ha -1 (11.8%) higher yields than the commercial cu ltivars. Weaver (1984) compared 66 F 1s and F2s from a half-diallel with their parents. The average midparent heterosis for F 1s and F2s was 13.2% (118 kg ha ) and 7.1% (6.3 kg ha ), respectively. He indicated certain F2s such as Dixie King x Pope were as productive as the best F 1 hybrids. Due to the genetic variation within an F 2, the possibility exists that F 2s might have a broader range of adaptation than conventional cultivars. R.H. Sheetz (1997, personal communication) reported that, in his experience with F 2s, they tended to have a broader range of adaptation than did commercial cultivars and that they frequently showed their greatest superiority when grown under stress conditions. Reid (1995) reported that F 2 superiority over their best parents was only detected under stress conditions. These conditions were lower yielding Verticillium wilt (Verticillum dahliae_Kleb.) and nonirrigated environments. Bauer and Green (1996) also reported F 2s' greater superiority over parents was in the lower yielding sites. That F 2s can also produce better combinations of yield and fiber quality than their parents has been demonstrated by Meredith (1990). In that study, F 2 performance was highly correlated ( r = 0.86) with F1 yield performance. Occasionally, F 2 heterosis equaled F 1 heterosis. The mean yield of Deltapine 16, Stonev ille 603, their F1, and F2 populations were 856, 862, 920, and 940 kg ha , respectively (Meredith and Bridge, 1972). 79 JOURNAL OF COTTON SCIENCE, Volume 2, Issue 2, 1998 Breeders of all crops that use heterosis have the challenge of finding good combiners; cotton is no exception. The general approach is to cross genetically unrelated cultivars, but no information is apparent as how to select these parents in cotton. The objective of this study was to determine if the parental region of origin for cultivars was related to midparent and useful heterosis. We also explored the use of molecular markers (RFLPs) and coefficient of parentage in identifying heterotic effects. MATERIALS AND METHODS A half-diallel genetic design consisting of 15 cultivars and one strain, PD 6179, and their 120 F 2 populations were grown at three Mississippi Delta locations in 1990. Soil types over locations were a Beulah fine sandy loam (a coarse-loamy, silt loam, fine-silty, mixed, thermic Typic Hapludalf), Dubbs silt loam (a fine-silty, mixed, thermic Typic Hapludalf) near Stoneville, and Commerce silt loam (a fine-silty, mixed, nonacid, thermic Aeric Fluvaquent) near Scott, MS. A fourth location was lost due to flooding. Planting dates were 8 May, 7 May, and 30 April, respectively, at the three sites. The 16 genotypes listed in Table 1 originated from the four major cotton growing regions of the United States-four each from the West, Plains, Delta, and East. These 16 entries constituted more than 50% of U.S. plantings in 1990 and 1991 (USDA, AMS, 1991, 1992). The experimental design was a randomized complete-block with four replications. Standard cultural methods for the Mississippi Delta were used. The 136 genotypes were grown in onerow plots; rows were 1.02 by 5.02 m at Stoneville and 0.97 by 5.47 m at Scott. Seeding rate was 18 seed m of row. Fifty boll samples were handharvested from each replication. The samples from the first two replications and from the last two replications were combined to form two 100-boll samples from which yield components were determined and lint obtained for fiber quality Table 1. Mean lint yield, yield components, and fiber properties of 16 parents from four regions of the United States and means by region for their 120 F2 populations. <LHOGýFRPSRQHQWV )LEHUýSURSHUWLHV /LQWý\LHOG /LQW %ROO 6HHG 6SDQýOHQJWK 6SDQýOHQJWK 0LFURQDLUH 5HJLRQV 3DUHQWV 7RWDO ìýKDUYï ZWï ZWï èíø ëïèø èíø ëïèø ---------NJýKD--------ø --------J-------ð ------PP-----kmNkg % units West Prema 844 509 35.3 5.75 11.9 15.2 30.7 266 7.3 3.67 Acala 1517-75 880 577 34.6 5.33 11.3 14.8 31.0 225 7.4 3.62 Acala SJ-2 741 438 34.3 5.77 12.1 14.3 29.4 218 7.3 3.37 Acala 510 837 534 35.5 5.46 11.6 14.6 29.7 224 6.8 3.87 Plains Lankart PR-75 937 698 36.6 5.55 11.3 13.8 28.8 197 7.3 3.73 Tamcot CD3H 974 847 36.1 5.38 10.2 13.6 28.7 188 7.8 3.68 Paymaster 145 1024 874 33.4 5.34 11.2 13.8 28.2 19


There is a strong belief that Republicans are more pro-business than Democrats. In this paper, we investigate the causal impact of partisan allegiance of governors (Republican or Democratic) on business creation using entrepreneurship data constructed from the Census Population Surveys and establishment creation data from the Business Dynamics Statistics. By exploiting random variation in close gubernatorial elections in 50 states over the last three decades in a Regression Discontinuity design, we find, surprisingly, that Republicans are not different than Democrats in business creation. Our findings are robust to a number of different specifications, samples, and controls.


Erythrocyte complement receptor type one (E‐CR1) is thought to protect against immune complex (IC) disease through interactions that lead to E‐CR1 consumption, and low E‐CR1 levels are characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that E‐CR1 consumption can predict or mark SLE flare. Recurrently active SLE patients [n = 43; 28 with past or present major renal manifestations (SLER) and 15 without (SLENR)], were evaluated every 2 months by detailed protocol testing (mean follow‐up 22 months), including direct measurements of E‐CR1 levels using a radioimmunoassay. In all patients, detectable E‐CR1 levels fluctuated widely through acute periods of consumption and regeneration, preventing the use of any single value as a baseline. However, when individual chronic baseline values were used, determined as the mean of all E‐CR1 values 4 months or more from a flare, a clear trend was observed. In 16 of 16 instances of non‐renal flare in SLER patients, E‐CR1 levels decreased at flare (mean decrease 34%, P < 0·0001). In contrast, no consistent difference was observed for flare in SLENR patients or for renal flare in SLER patients. Changes in E‐CR1 levels did not correlate with plasma CR1 levels. In conclusion, single occurrences of E‐CR1 consumption did not generally predict or mark SLE flare. However, compared to the average E‐CR1 levels measured during no‐flare intervals, E‐CR1 consumption in SLER patients at flare was strongly associated with freedom from signs of renal involvement. We postulate that E‐CR1 consumption reflects E‐CR1 function that includes protecting against SLE nephritis.


The preparation method of barium titanate (BaTiO3) includes the following steps: using titanium tetrafluoride and barium chloride or barium hydroxide as main raw material to prepare precursor body slurry liquor, then adding organic additive according to a certain ratio, placing them into reaction still to make hydrothermal reaction so as to obtain the invented product BaTiO3 powder body whose grain size is 20-200 nm. Said invented advantage lies in that it utilizes the regulation of class of organic additive and reaction condition to can regulate grain size distribution of product and make its product possess good grain uniformity, high sintering activity, high material property and chemical activity, and said method is easy to implement large-scale industrial production.