Patients scheduled for atrial fibrillation (AF) cardioversion were excluded from clinical trials of novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs). We evaluated efficacy and safety of NOACs in patients undergoing electrical cardioversion for AF. We performed a monocentric study of all patients on NOACs who underwent elective electrical cardioversion for non-valvular AF between January 2012 and December 2014. We analyzed incidence of stroke and bleeding  at 30 days. Fifty patients were included, 28 receiving dabigatran, 22 rivaroxaban. Mean age was 65 ± 12 years. Mean CHADS2-VA2SC and HASBLED scores were 3 ± 1.8 and 2.2 ± 1.1 respectively. Transoesophageal echocardiography was performed in 41 (79%) patients, revealing a thrombus in 2 (5%). No clinical evidence of stroke occurred in the 30 days, 1 major gastrointestinal bleeding (2%) in patient on rivaroxaban (led to premature discontinuation) and 3 minor bleedings. NOACs seem to be safe in daily practice of electrical cardioversion in our population.


Rapid analysis of Q value of synthesized quartz was studied.Based on the experiential relationship between absorption factor α of infrared spectrophotometer instrument and the light strength,an α~Q working curve was established.The infrared light absorption of Z piece and Y stick crystal were measured as the wave length is fixed in 2785 nm.The impurities in Z piece and Y stick of synthesized quartz crystal were also measured by chemical spectroscopy analyze.The results show that the higher the impurities the Z and Y contain,the lower the Q value is,and vice versa.Based on this observation,a new rapid method to test the Q value of synthesized quartz crystal by infrared spectrophotometer was proposed.


Putting together a volume on a subject area as vast as 'society and social policy' would be no easy matter at the best of times if only because difficult choices have to be made about the areas and issues to include and exclude. However, it is something of an understatement to say that the 'times' societies and people across the globe are currently living through are not the 'best' and that the extraordinary complexity both of 'society' and, by extension, 'social policy' in the contemporary world adds to the trickiness of the task. Complexity, of course, has always been with us and it is therefore perfectly legitimate to maintain that, for all the difficulties with which 'we' – for which read citizens of the globe in general – are faced, there has never been a period in which social divisions of, for example, class, ethnicity, gender, age and belief, alongside the intricacies of the various political, social and economic structures that (re)produce them have not been beset by a range of deeply contested debates. These areas of contestation focus on a range of matters including the appropriate forms and structures of governmental systems and institutions designed to deliver social policies in different countries and regions, the relative influence of a number of mediating factors such as prevailing distributions of power and resources, and the wider economic and political contexts within which patterns of distribution and debates about these patterns are constructed and defined. Nevertheless, certain factors conspire to make the current challenges that face national governments and their welfare systems across the globe unique. For example: the effects of globalization and, paradoxically, emergent nationalism; the impact of austerity in some parts of the world and specifically the impact of spending reductions on marginal and minority populations; the growing tensions between rich and poor as inequalities escalate; the increasingly fractured nature of needs claims as they become entwined with demands for the greater recognition of diversity and particularly emerging culturally framed identities; growing demands for global social justice, particularly in view of the growing impacts of human movement, including trafficking; the inegalitarian effects of global heating as governments attempt to wrestle (and in some cases not wrestle) with this potentially devastating issue; and now the global health and economic crises sparked by the dramatic spread of Covid-19.1 This volume cannot adequately address these matters in their entirety. However, by exploring key aspects of society and social policy 'in the round' the book aims to provide an extensive overview of the main issues with which contemporary social policy is faced. To this


The curricular design of machine design is one of the most important practice during the course of teaching machine design curriculum.Improving the qualities of curricular design of machine design plays an important role in fostering student s' ability to analyze and solving problems of engineering design.This paper unifies the present situation and problem of their school in the curricular design of machine design and proposes the teaching reform ideas and measures.


This research aims to determine how engineering faculty students perceive climate change. Such perceptions of climate change were also investigated according to gender. Participants included 23 engineering faculty students who are continuing their education at a university in Turkey's Northwest Black Sea Region during the second semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. Data were collected through a climate change perception scale developed by the researcher. At the end of the study, it was determined that engineering faculty students had a high level of awareness of climate change. Further, it was found that climate change perceptions of engineering faculty students did not differ across genders.


Simple Summary The lung cancer treatment paradigm has been completely changed by immunotherapy; however, less than half of the treated patients obtain a response, and an even smaller proportion achieve a long survival. Primary and acquired resistance mechanisms and the immune-related adverse events limit the use of available immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed death protein 1/ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1). Several predictive biomarkers of ICI response have been evaluated so far, but only PD-L1 expression was approved for clinical use. In the last few years, new immune targets have been identified, and both inhibitory and stimulatory treatments have been developed. These molecules have shown to be safe and effective mostly in combination with anti CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1. Preliminary data indicate their activity in non-small- and small-cell lung cancer, thus allowing the scheduling of further studies to improve the still poor prognosis of these patients. Abstract Immunotherapy is an ever-expanding field in lung cancer treatment research. Over the past two decades, there has been significant progress in identifying immunotherapy targets and creating specific therapeutic agents, leading to a major paradigm shift in lung cancer treatment. However, despite the great success achieved with programmed death protein 1/ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) monoclonal antibodies and with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 plus anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), only a minority of lung cancer patients respond to treatment, and of these many subsequently experience disease progression. In addition, immune-related adverse events sometimes can be life-threatening, especially when anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 are used in combination. All of this prompted researchers to identify novel immune checkpoints targets to overcome these limitations. Lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), T cell immunoglobulin (Ig) and Immunoreceptor Tyrosine-Based Inhibitory Motif (ITIM) domain (TIGIT), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-3 (TIM-3) are promising molecules now under investigation. This review aims to outline the current role of immunotherapy in lung cancer and to examine efficacy and future applications of the new immune regulating molecules.


Abstract In this article a switching Model Predictive Controller for the attitude and hovering control of a prototype Unmanned quadrotor Helicopter (UqH) subject to atmospheric disturbances is presented. The control scheme is computed based on Piecewise Affine (PWA) models of the UqH's attitude and altitude dynamics, where the effects of the atmospheric turbulence are taken into consideration as additive disturbances. The switching of the MPC scheme is ruled by the estimation and the rate of the rotation angles, for the altitude and attitude control correspondingly. Extended experimental studies indicate the overall scheme's efficiency in hovering scenarios despite the applied wind–disturbances.


: Indonesia is a country that is rich in culture, traditions, and customs. Many of them are still maintained, one of which is still preserved and practiced is the robo-robo tradition among the people of West Kalimantan, especially the people of Mempawah. The purpose of discussing this topic is to describe the phenomenon of adult behavior today, contrary to traditional messages, advice from parents in the Malay philosophy of life. There is a need for replanting and re-understanding or reconstruction of the values contained in traditional messages as characteristics and self-identity of ethnic Malays, the values of traditional messages are contained in local wisdom called Robo-robo . The Malay community believes that the traditional value of Robo-robo is a message to become a civilized person according to the Malay philosophy of life. The traditional values in Robo-robo represent Islamic values because Islam is the religious identity of the Malays.


The paper focuses on determining the degree of correlation between land-use changes and demographic development in Slovenia. The authors conclude that there is still insufficient evidence in the literature for a correlation between these two processes, because quantitative studies addressing these links are very rare and mostly cover small and specific areas. In the case of Slovenia, Spearman's correlation coefficients are quite low, which confirms that land-use change processes are complex and not dependent solely on individual demographic and socioeconomic factors. Despite the low correlation coefficients, our findings indicate that changes in land use are significantly influenced by changes in age structure and population growth. In areas with population growth the share of arable land is shrinking, whereas in areas with depopulation and a rising aging index the share of partially overgrown land is growing. In the following analysis, the authors focus their analysis on a case study of the Mura and Central Slovenia statistical regions, which lie on opposite poles with regard to development, and thus show differing trends in land-use changes.


Circular cylindrical shells conveying subsonic flow are addressed in this study; they lose stability by divergence when the flow speed reaches a critical value. The divergence is strongly subcritical, becoming supercritical for larger amplitudes. Therefore the shell, if perturbed from the initial configuration, undergoes severe deformations causin g failure much before the critical velocity predicted by the linear threshold. Both Donnell's nonlinear theo ry retaining in-plane displacements and the nonlinear Sanders-Koiter theory are used for the shell. The f luid is modelled by potential flow theory. Geometric imperfections are introduced and fully studied. Non classical boundary conditions are used to exactly simulate the conditions of the experiments performe d. Comparison of numerical and experimental results is performed.


EDI (electronic data interchange), ERP (Enterprise resource planning), and extranets are all tools that chemical companies must use if they are to be competitive in the electronic world of the future.


predominantly male. Out of the 15 academic dermatology departments, we could identify a total of only four clinical lecturers; again, the University funding was only a minor component. At the time of the survey there were only three Wellcome/Medical Research Council training fellows and four other researchers funded by the British Skin Foundation and hospital endowments. Although our survey is limited it provides some pointers for the future. Firstly, as in many other disciplines, the Professor is now the career grade post in academia, rather than, as for 20 years ago, the senior lecturer title. Secondly, although longitudinal surveys are needed, the flow of staff into academic positions is very small (and may even be smaller than appreciated because we did not ask about the long-term career goals of the clinical lecturers, training fellows and other junior researchers). The Modernising Medical Careers changes may well diminish further this flow into academic dermatology. Finally, the fact that many medical schools function without an academic dermatology establishment needs to be addressed with an open mind: the historical role of the clinical academic as clinician, teacher, researcher and administrator may be no longer tenable.


Now the number of the people with mental disorders grows steadily, leading the patients to social deadaptation. The fact of the presence of a mental illness and progression of schizophrenic process can cardinally affect the social functioning of the patients and change their social status and social role. Currently quality of life and social functioning are one of the most important components of the assessment of the condition of mentally sick patients. Indicators of quality of life are used for the assessment of features of psychopathological symptomatology, its dynamics, the course (severity) of the disease. Indicators of quality of life become indispensable and extremely important components of the assessment of results of patients' treatment, the quality of the rendered assistance. In the article the results of the research of quality of life of the patients with schizophrenia are shown. The research was conducted using the international questionnaire WHOQOL -100. The received results allow to consider the quality of life defi ned on the basis of the questionnaire of WHOQOL -100, as an independent multiple-factor indicator of social determinancy of the tendencies of the resocialization of the patients with schizophrenia.


Cleavage faces of potassium chloride single crystals have been thermally etched. The thermal etch patterns consist of irregular spiral patterns and closed loops. Inter-ferometric study has revealed that they are depressions. The centres of the spirals are not distinct. It is therefore conjectured that the spirals without distinct centres might have been formed as explained by Lang (1957). While the patterns similar to that developing at Frank-Read sources and the complicated pattern originating from number of sources concentrated in a small region may be due to screw dislocations.


Chinese ginseng, Korean red ginseng, Panax ginseng: Panax spp. including P. ginseng C.C. Meyer and P. quinquefolius L., excluding Eleutherococcus senticosus) Natural Standard Bottom Line Monograph, Copyright © 2008 (www.naturalstandard.com). Commercial distribution prohibited. This monograph is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be interpreted as specific medical advice. You should consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about therapies and/or health conditions. While some complementary and alternative techniques have been studied scientifically, high-quality data regarding safety, effectiveness, and mechanism of action are limited or controversial for most therapies. Whenever possible, it is recommended that practitioners be licensed by a recognized professional organization that adheres to clearly published standards. In addition, before starting a new technique or engaging a practitioner, it is recommended that patients speak with their primary healthcare provider(s). Potential benefits, risks (including financial costs), and alternatives should be carefully considered. The below monograph is designed to provide historical background and an overview of clinically-oriented research, and neither advocates for or against the use of a particular therapy.


Flexible continuum robots are utilized for operational areas, in which discretely structured robots are not suitable due to their kinematic limitations. Continuum mechanisms feature adaptiveness, which is a prerequisite for constrained spaces. Furthermore, such robots can be integrated within human-robot interaction scenarios. The crucial contribution of this work is a novel intrinsic continuum worm-like robot based on a modular and decentral control architecture. It is actuated by pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), which result in an inherently compliant robotic system. To realize the modularity, the setup deploys a central air supply that feeds locally arranged valve cluster units, which are connected with short stub lines. Keeping the supply tubes between the valves and the PAMs short, guarantees a very direct control with good precision. This paper presents an implementation of a continuum robot with four segments comprising twelve degrees of freedom.


(57) The invention provides a method and apparatus for the thermal induced reactions such as temperature-sensitive transformation of polymerase chain reaction or other biological tissue. An electromagnetic energy is applied to the target (51,60), causing a rapid temperature rise in at least a portion of the target. This electromagnetic energy may be laser energy through a laser beam supplied from one or more laser sources (11) (10). It this laser beam is not 750nm having a wavelength in the infrared region of mm. The electromagnetic energy source is used in conjunction with a microscope and / or an objective lens, it is possible to irradiate the microscopic target.


Methods: Using an electronic health record, we conducted a retrospective review of patients seen at an urban academic medical center during a one month period. Physicians were considered to have assessed health literacy if there was documentation of the patient's understanding of and ability to adhere to the plan of care. Data regarding physicians' assessment of health literacy and patient demographics were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's Exact Test with signifi cance set at p < 0.05. Results: Th ere were 300 visits comprising 139 African American patients (46.3%), 90 Caucasians (30.0%), 10 Asian patients (3.3%), nine Latinos (3%), and 52 (17.3%) of other or undocumented ethnicity. Th ere was an assessment of health literacy in the offi ce notes of 70 African Americans (50.4%). Th e assessments were documented for 36 (40.0%) Caucasians (p=0.1371), three (33.3%) Latinos (p=0.4944), and four (40%) Asians (p = 0.7453). Among those whose ethnicity was not known, 18 (34.6%) had documentation of health literacy. Conclusion: Our study revealed that gastroenterologists document their patients' health literacy less than half the time. Interestingly, there was not a statistically signifi cant diff erence in rates of health literacy documentation between African American patients and those of other ethnicities. Health literacy is an important determinant of health outcomes. African Americans are at particular risk in gastroenterology as they have higher rates of advanced colon cancer and worse colon cancer outcomes. Assessing health literacy is always important, but this at-risk population warrants special attention.


This Special Issue of the North American Actuarial Journal contains 15 contributions to the academic literature all dealing with longevity risk and capital markets. Draft versions of the articles were presented at Longevity Eight: The Eighth International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conference, which was held in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on September 7–8, 2012. It was hosted by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo Research Institute in Insurance, Securities and Quantitative Finance (WatRISQ), and the Pensions Institute. It was sponsored by Prudential Financial, Inc., Sun Life Financial of Canada, Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking, the Society of Actuaries (SOA), and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA). Longevity risk and related capital market solutions have grown increasingly important in recent years, both in academic research and in the markets we refer to as the new Life Market, that is, the capital market that trades longevity-linked assets and liabilities.1 Mortality improvements around the world are putting more and more pressure on governments, pension funds, and life insurance companies as well as individuals to deal with the longevity risk they face. At the same time, capital markets can, in principle, provide vehicles to hedge longevity risk effectively and transfer the risk from those unwilling or unable to handle it to those willing to invest in such risk in exchange for appropriate risk-adjusted returns or who have a counterpoising risk that longevity risk can hedge, such as life offices with mortality risk on their books. Many new investment products have been created both by the insurance/reinsurance industry and by the capital markets. Mortality catastrophe bonds are an example of a successful insurancelinked security. Some new innovative capital market solutions for transferring longevity risk include longevity (or survivor) bonds, longevity (or survivor) swaps, and mortality (or q-) forward contracts. The aim of the International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conferences is to bring together academics and practitioners from all over the world to discuss and analyze these exciting new developments. The conferences have followed closely the developments in the market. The first conference (Longevity One) was held at Cass Business School in London in February 2005. This conference was prompted by the announcement of the Swiss Re mortality catastrophe bond in December 2003 and the European Investment Bank/BNP Paribas/PartnerRe longevity bond in November 2004. The second conference was held in April 2006 in Chicago and hosted by the Katie School at Illinois State University.2 Since Longevity One, there have been further issues of mortality catastrophe bonds, as well as the release of the Credit Suisse Longevity Index. In the United Kingdom, new life companies backed by global investment banks and private equity firms were setting up for the express purpose of buying out the defined benefit pension liabilities of U.K. corporations. Goldman Sachs announced it was setting up such a buyout company itself (Rothesay Life) because the issue of pension liabilities was beginning to impede its mergers and acquisitions activities. It decided that the best way of dealing with pension liabilities was to remove them altogether from the balance sheets of takeover targets. So there was now firm evidence that a new global market in longevity risk transference had been established. However, as with many other economic activities, not all progress follows a smooth path. The EIB/BNP/PartnerRe longevity bond did not attract sufficient investor interest and was withdrawn in late 2005. A great deal, however, was learned from this failed issue about the conditions and requirements needed to launch a successful capital market instrument.


This chapter evaluates the feature film industry in the 1950s. It begins by focusing on production context and women's union representation as shop stewards — within the broader social context of debates about women and work. The chapter provides an overview of women in the British film industry through union membership application data. It then turns to four complementary case studies that characterize women's work in film production during the 1950s: the production secretary, publicity assistant, paint and trace artist, and editors in the documentary sector. In a decade dominated by debate about women's place in the workforce, relative to the home, the chapter uses women's accounts to trace multiple instances of occupational autonomy and the performance of skilled labor, revealing not only how women sought out and secured avenues for professionally satisfying work but also how their careers bring into view forms of creativity that have been neglected in existing film histories.


The wood rotting fungi might have played an important role in sustaining the forest ecosystem since fungi are major decomposers where they break down organic matter which would otherwise not be recycled. Elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus are required in large quantities by biological systems which are not in abundant in the environment. The action from the fungi's allows the release of these elements from decaying woods and logs to be available to other living organism and having a balanced ecosystem in the forest. In the present investigation a survey was made in which eighteen samples of wood rotting fungi were collected from Bulileka and Valebasoga, Vanua Levu, Fiji Island. Morphological study of the collected fungi was carried out with the respect to common name, scientific name, locality, season, edibility and morphology of fruiting body.


ville Population 2,005 (They crossed out the two and changed it to five when Mrs. Blanchy had the town's triplets, Minnie, Winnie and Sam, Jr.). As you leave, there's a sign reading "Come again when you can stay longer B.Ville Chamber of Commerce". You'll come right in on Main Street. It goes straight to the town square where all the stores except Grandpa's grocery are located and where, not the court house, but the Buttonville Button Factory stands. The factory occupies the entire great square except for the corner across from Peabody's Picture House and the Buttonville Ice Cream Parlor. On this corner is old Mrs. Biddle's house. It is a big yellow place with a long side porch and a wide front porch. There are two pointed towers stuck, one a few feet higher than the other, on either side of the house. The factory heads gave up long ago trying to buy this land. Mrs. Biddle likes to be in the heart of things. If people want to know anything at all about the town they always go to her. She is the source of most of the news that goes in the Wednesday Morning Gazette which is delivered every Friday evening. When you knock on her door, Mrs. Biddle will drop the curtain on the front window back in place and come to the door just as if she didn't know who was there. If you're a stranger, after she's brought you sasafras tea and ginger cookies, she'll always get out her button string to show you. She has on it every style of button made since the factory began, and they are all coat buttons, for the factory manufactures only overcoat buttons. Starting with the very first button Mrs. Biddle will tell you the story of the town. Mr. Peter Adams (his family is the first button) lives in the large white house on the hill at the north end of the street that runs parallel to Main Street. His great grandfather was one of the town fathers and founded the factory. Mr. Adams has three towers on his house and a prominently situated two car garage where he keeps all the old license plates, tire tubing, a woodcutting machine (he makes wooden buttons as a hobby), bicycles, lawnmowers, etc., in fact he keeps everything but his cars in the garage. He wants people to see them, and they are always parked in


The majority of salivary stones are less than 8 mm in size and most frequently occur in the submandibular gland. Traditional management of larger stones involves gland resection. Sialendoscopy combined with an external or a transoral sialolithotomy, also called the combined approach technique, permits stone removal and gland preservation. A 31‐year‐old male presented to our service with a 20‐mm megalith in the left submandibular gland. Here we report the first description of a combined approach using the da Vinci Si Surgical System to facilitate transoral stone removal and salivary duct repair. Laryngoscope, 2011


Objective To determine the most cost-effective screening strategy of hepatitis B vaccination of young migrant workers in Dongguan city. Methods 3 122 young migrant workers in a foreign enterprise were chosen and their hepatitis B virus markers were detected. The most cost-effective screening strategy of young migrant workers was determined by the cost-effect analysis and decision tree model. Sensitivity analysis was used to determine the changes of screening strategy by different costs of vaccine and screening tests. Threshold positive rates of the parameters introduced in model were evaluated by threshold analysis. Results The most-effective screening strategy of young migrant workers in Dongguan city was to test anti-HBc only and the positive rate threshold of HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti-HBc were 0.40, 0.40 and 0.40 respectively. Conclusions The most-effective screening strategy for young migrant workers is to test anti-HBc only. It has the same preventive effect as testing HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti-HBc.


Objective To evaluate the 5 years disease free survival rate(5yDFSR)of patients with T1-2 stage rectal cancer after transanal local excision with and without postoperative radiotherapy.Methods 95 cases patients with T1-2 stage rectal cancer underwent transanal local excision.Compared 5yDFSR of patients after the transanal local excision with and without postoperative radiotherapy.Results The over all 5yDFSR of patients after transanal local excision with and without radiotherapy was 91.2% and 78.9% respectively,with no significant difference(χ2=2.911,P = 0.088).There was no difference in T1 patients with and without radiotherapy(5yDFSR:96.6% and 92.0% respectively).The 5yDFSR of T2 patients with and without radiotherapy was 85.7% and 53.8% respectively,with significant difference(χ2=4.889,P = 0.027).Conclusion Postoperative radiotherapy can reduce local recurrence and increase 5yDFSR after transanal local excision in rectal cancer,especially patients with T2 stage.It has been suggested that postoperative radiotherapy is needed for patients with T2 stage.


This article describes the spatial power combining techniques dealing with the state of the art of Spatial Power Combiners (SPC) considering recent developments. A brand- new splitting scheme is proposed where difierent types of SPC are grouped according to the space where power combining and splitting occur. This paper should provide compendium knowledge for SPC design and selection of the opportune SPC basing on the target application. 1. INTRODUCTION In airborne and space applications, characteristics like reliability, size, e-ciency and weight of the Power Ampliflers (PA) assume a very important role in the selection of the proper PA to be employed. High RF power levels are demanded to vacuum tubes ampliflers like TWTA, Klystron or Gyrotrons but those have the main disadvantage to use heated wires and bulky magnets or electromagnets that give greater size and weight and reduce e-ciency (1). So, combined Solid State PA (SSPA) would be greatly appreciated if they could give at least the same order of magnitude in RF power levels, since in this case graceful degradation is increased. Spatial power combining technique is an alternative one to combine many SSPA reducing to a minimum extent the combining losses (2{4). This article deals with the state of the art of Spatial Power Combiners (SPC) and their charac- teristics (14). In addition, it is proposed a new splitting scheme for the SPC family, grouped respect to the ambient where combining and splitting take place, as shown in Figure 1. The fundamental SPC Amplifler's concept is to provide a large power value with minimum losses. In SPC the elec- tromagnetic energy coming from input is divided as much as possible in the space, without using transmission lines, and it is sent to many SSPA's. After amplifled energy is collected, it is sent to output port with the lowest possible number of transmission lines. SPC employees probes, antennas or transitions to take the spatial RF energy and send it to a two wires transmission line: the use of connectors at the ampliflers ports exclude the combiner to belong to the class of SPC. The system's quality is usually determined from its e-ciency. SPC e-ciency can be deflned as how much power is sent to ampliflers respect to how much power is provided to input port, such as it quantifles the capability of the combiner to intercept incoming energy PI and distribute it to N energy dividing/combining internal ports, that is


Significance
 The bill, which now goes to the Lower House, is in line with demands from Gafilat, the Latin American affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which began a long-delayed evaluation of Paraguay's performance on May 7. This will probably avoid Paraguay returning to the FAFT 'grey list' but is unlikely to placate the international financial community.

 Impacts
 Abdo Benitez will face an uphill struggle to get anti-corruption legislation through Congress.
 US pressures will mount with respect to purported terrorism finance in the tri-border area.
 Lack of progress will complicate relations with the international financial community.


Research continued through the 2010 field season on the etiology of hickory decline that is characterized by thinning crowns with small, yellow leaves and hickory bark beetle attack on the upper main stem. This research is part of a larger project initiated in 2006 to assess the distribution and determine the cause(s) of Forest Health Monitoring reported decline and death of hickories in the north central and northeastern regions of the USA.


When deciding whether to invest in a business, investors evaluate the firm's value. The greater an investor's reliance, the more valuable the company. Among the factors that affect the value of a company is social media usage. This study seeks to empirically examine the impact of social media usage on corporate values as mediated by information asymmetry. This study utilizes secondary data. This study employed both purposeful sampling with several specified criteria and proportional stratified random sampling. Multiple linear regressions, path analysis, and the Sobel test were utilized in this study. According to the findings of this study, social media enhance corporate value. If social media does not affect information asymmetry, then information asymmetry can reduce firm value; therefore, the conclusion of this study would be that information asymmetry cannot be a mediator between social media and firm value because social media in Indonesia is still used to convey information to customers and investors are more interested in a company's website than its social media presence.


In failure detection, we have two incompatible demands: One is the high reliability for detection, the other is the short mean detection time. That is, if the mean detection time is long, the loss due to delays of detection will be large. On the other hand, if the mean detection time is short, the loss due to false alarms will be large. In this paper, we consider an optimization problem of a failure detection system that balances the two incompatible demands described above. Here, as a detection method, the modified Wald's SPRT is used. This method, which works well for detection of failures or parameter changes, uses a likelihood ratio computed from a sequence of observation data with noise. A proposed problem is as follows: find the optimal mean time T between two false alarms to minimize the mean performance deterioration of the given system, when the performance deterioration ratios for the false alarm and the miss alarm are known. A solution for this problem is given and finally a simple numerical example is given.


In the present study, we examined eye irritation of six anti-wrinkle agents (ascorbic acid, glycolic acid, all trans-retinoic acid, ginseng extract, retinol, EB). We also compared eye irritation with skin irritation and cytotoxicity in HaCaT cells by these agents. The highest eye irritation was found in glycolic acid, but all trans-retinoic acid showed the highest skin irritation. The rank of eye irritation was not correlated with the cytotoxicity of agents. This result shows that eye irritation potency by these agents were not correlated with skin irritation potency, and cytotoxicity in HaCaT cells.


The study analyzes the relationship between the temporal terms used by four-year-old children from different socio-economic backgrounds — marginalized urban neighborhoods and middle-income families — and the use of these terms in the spontaneous situations in which they participate in family and community contexts. The analysis assumes that the child develops knowledge about temporal expressions as they are used by others and as the child uses them herself (Nelson 2007; Tomasello 2003). Findings show that children from marginalized urban neighborhoods use fewer temporal terms than children from middle-income backgrounds. These differences correlate with differences in the input of both groups. The analysis shows differences in the interactional and discursive patterns of use of the terms in the homes of both groups of children.


The scaling relation between channel width and the spacing of macroscale bed forms has long interested earth scientists and engineers. The current paper conceptualizes flow over such macro bed forms using perturbation theory. The objectives are to characterize the response of flow to pressure gradients that occur in convectively accelerating flow and convectively decelerating flow (CDF), as occurs in pools and riffles, and to determine how the response is modified by the width of the channel. Flume experiments are described that use idealized two‐dimensional bed forms and an inner movable wall to isolate the effect of channel width. Ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry profilers operating at 40 Hz are used to measure velocity. Results show that the recovery of the shear velocity (u*) and Coles wake parameter (Π) follows a simple relaxation response toward uniform flow conditions that is insensitive to channel width, while the lateral concentration of flow (Ψ) and the principal Reynolds stress ( −u′w′¯ ) occur as two‐stage spreading and relaxation responses that follow a scaling relation on the order of 3–4 times the channel width, or approximately one half of the typical distance between pools. The −u′w′¯ increases during CDF, precisely in the location where mean bed velocity is at a minimum. It thus appears that hydrodynamic recovery from perturbation helps to explain the sensitivity of the scale of macro bed forms in rivers to channel width. Mobile beds and 3‐D geometries should be tested to verify how mean flow and turbulent scales evolve as linked aspects of a complex response to perturbation.


Abstract Examination of selected overseas collections of the genus Diphyscium, including the type of D. mucronifolium, confirms that all Australian material is referable to this species. The correct author citation for D. mucronifolium is shown to be Mitt. ex Dozy & Molk.


Optimum relocation of the brake relative to the accelerator can reduce stopping distance and may mean the difference between an accident and a near-accident. A driving simulator was used to examine efficiency of braking movement time. Movement times were measured for 60 participants (30 male, 30 female) in six different depth/lateral-separation conditions. Movement times were shown to improve as a result of moving the brake pedal from its typical heights above the accelerator to positions equal with and below the accelerator.


This paper presents a novel and unreported approach developed to filter T2-weighetd Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The MRI data is fitted with a parametric bivariate cubic Lagrange polynomial, which is used as the model function to build the continuum into the discrete samples of the two-dimensional MRI images. On the basis of the aforementioned model function, the Classic-Curvature (CC) and the Signal Resilient to Interpolation (SRI) images are calculated and they are used as filter masks to convolve the two-dimensional MRI images of the pathological human brain. The pathologies are human brain tumors. The result of the convolution provides with filtered T2-weighted MRI images. It is found that filtering with the CC and the SRI provides with reliable and faithful reproduction of the human brain tumors. The validity of filtering the T2weighted MRI for the quest of supplemental information about the tumors is also found positive.


ABSTRACT From the perspective of "new aesthetics," a trend of post-theoretical criticism, this paper looks back at some of the achievements of Influence Study (French school) in comparative literature, in particular those who are quite similar to the works of Jean-Marie Carré and Marius François Guyard. The two research areas mentioned above share a concern with the emotion of a text as well as its effect and transmittability. Bearing this in mind, this paper studies the indirect influence of Edgar Allan Poe on Han Mac Tu (Vietnam) through the intermediary Charles Baudelaire and considers the chain of "affective contagion." This is a case of interesting and complex indirect influence cited by the critic Hoai Thanh as early as 1942 in Vietnam.


1. Regular Polyhedra 2. The Fibonacci Sequence 3. Nested Polygons 4. The Distribution of Prime Numbers 5. Inversion in Elementary Geometry 6. Some Ruled Surfaces 7. Random Walks 8. The Four-Colour Problem 9. Dissection Problems in Two and Three Dimensions 10. Newton's Polygon and Plane Algebraic Curves 11. The Plane Symmetry Groups 12. The Real Number System 13. A Theorem of Combinatorial Geometry 14. The Number Pi 15. Rotors and Curves of Constant Breadth.


The patient, a 47-year-old white woman, was hospitalized complaining of a swishing and throbbing noise in the left ear, corresponding with the heart beat. The symptoms were of several months' duration, without history of trauma. Examinat ion . T h e ear showed no abnormalities, but a loud bruit could be heard in the left temporo-occipital region behind the ear, corresponding with the heart beat. The bruit disappeared on compression of the left carotid artery. Bilateral carotid arteriograms


Based on the first-principles calculation,density functional theory-generalized gradient approximation(DFT-GGA) and the full potential linear augmented plane wave(FLAPW) method,the equilibrium structure、charge density and density of states are calculated for the primary solid solution phase α-LaNi4.5Al0.5H0.5.It is calculated from the view of the energy that H atom is most likely to take the 6m position near Al atom.The pictures of DOSs and charge densities are also given.The results calculated exactly agreed with experimental results.


Communities of Practice (CoP) foster learning, transmission and knowledge production in organizations. Due to their characteristics, they can be a way to promote innovation and strategic partnerships around bioproducts. This work aims to develop a CoP that promotes the sharing of knowledge and partnerships around bioproducts between interested parties. To this end, an interview was conducted with an online focus group made up of 10 elements where the domain, community and practice of CoP was defined. A CoP prototype was built on a Moodle platform. This was evaluated by 2 specialists in humancomputer interaction design using a grid with 10 heuristics. In this way, some recommendations for improving the CoP were made, which will serve to bring together interested parties, promote knowledge and serve as a repository of reliable scientific and technical materials in bioproducts.


Repeatability is one of the most important features of an industrial robot. It is a key feature stated by commercial robot manufacturers. Details of repeatability calculation method for industrial robots is presented by ISO 9283. However, the well-known robot manufactures do not state how they calculate their repeatability. In this paper, the industrial FUM SCARA robot, designed by the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran, is used and its repeatability is measured according to the ISO 9283 method. Planetary reducers are applied as a part of the power transmission system. Although planetary reducers have pre-defined backlash, experimental results show satisfactory repeatability for the FUM SCARA. An ideal and intelligible mathematical model of backlash is developed to show the low effect of backlash in the repeatability calculation. Consequently, it is shown that the result of ideal backlash model corresponds with the experimental result.


......................................................................................................................................... iv Preface ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Fair Play .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Bird of Prey ................................................................................................................................... 18 From A to Z .................................................................................................................................. 30 Tread Lightly ................................................................................................................................ 48 Kings of the Road ......................................................................................................................... 64 Soul Kitchen.................................................................................................................................. 86 Head Laundry................................................................................................................................ 96 Ring of Fire ................................................................................................................................. 112 Vita .............................................................................................................................................. 121


TiO2 photocatalytic one-electron oxidation of 4-methyl-p-tolylsulfide (MTS), 4-(methylthio)phenyl methanol (MTPM), 4-(methylthio)benzoic acid (MTBA), and 4-(methylthio)phenyl acetic acid (MTPA) adsorbed on the surface of TiO2 powder slurried in acetonitrile (CH3CN) has been investigated by time-resolved diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. As compared to MTS, high concentrations of the adsorbed MTPM, MTBA, and MTPA determined by UV absorption spectral measurements clearly indicate that −OH and −COOH groups play an important role in being adsorbed on the surface of TiO2 particles. From Langmuir-type adsorption/desorption plots, the apparent equilibrium constants (Kad) of 20, 60, 2.3 × 104, and 1.1 × 104 M-1 were determined for MTS, MTPM, MTBA, and MTPA, respectively. The difference in the Kad values clearly indicates that −COOH and −CH2COOH groups are strongly adsorbed on the TiO2 surface compared with −CH2OH and −CH3 groups. The initial concentration of the radical cations generated from oxidation reactions ...


This article uses a Swedish perspective and context to illustrate general, theoretical and applied, discussions on defense-specific inflation, productivity in defense, cost escalation of defense equipment, absolute and relative defense capability plus the construction and use of defense price indices. Sweden uses a Defense Price Index (FPI) which is a composite index of different civilan, non-defense, indices to "automatically" adjust the defense budget for price changes. This should ideally allow decision makers to concentrate on incremental decisions and their economic consequences when deciding on a new defense budget. This approach requires a high precision from FPI in targeting defense inflation. The problems with achieving such a precise index are illustrated in the article. Critical points, in particular, are defining and measuring productivity in defense and price and/or cost escalation of defense equipment. Another complication is that defense, and not only defense equipment, is a "tournament good" where the most important capability is the relative capability compared mainly with potential opponents in military conflicts and not the absolute capability. Since Sweden recently abolished conscription there are reflections on opportunity costs of conscription in the article as well as results from Swedish and other studies on cost escalation of defense equipment.


This article attempts to bring to the fore the need for enhanced quality assurance processes in the award of PhDs by Kenyan universities. The findings reveal that quality challenges exist in the institutional processes established for the award of this advanced degree across the universities in the country. It is hoped that the findings will stir debate and urge the universities to re-evaluate and revamp their quality-control systems for the award of not only the PhDs but all their other degrees and diplomas, the ultimate outcome of this effort being a quality human resource for Kenya's socio-economic development.


Objectives Gentamicin is a potent aminoglycoside antibiotic. Ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity are the main side effects which restrict the use of gentamicin. Garlic with its intrinsic antioxidant activity may prove beneficial in prevention from ototoxicity. S-allylmercaptocysteine (SAMC), diallyl disulfide (DD), and S-allylcysteine (SAC) are three active compounds found in garlic. In this study, we investigated the effect of SAMC, DD, and SAC on the ototoxicity induced by gentamicin in rats, by using brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA). Methods Thirty male Wistar rats with intact Preyer's reflex initially weighing 220–260 g were randomly assigned to either the gentamicin injection with SAMC treatment group (Genta-w SAMC), DD treatment group (Genta-w DD), SAC treatment group (Genta-w SAC), gentamicin injection without any active compounds (AC) treatment groups (Genta-w/o AC), or control group (n=6 rats each group). Gentamicin was given 120-mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneally once daily for 25 days to subjects in all groups except the control group. SAMC 100-mg/kg, and DD 50-mg/kg body weight were given intragastrically, and SAC 250-mg/kg body weight was given intraperitoneally once daily to subjects in Genta-w SAMC, and Genta-w DD, and Genta-w SAC groups, respectively during the study. After 25 days hearing thresholds were evaluated by using BERA test. Results The mean amplitude of auditory thresholds (sensation level [SL]) measured by using BERA for the Genta-w SAMC, Genta-w DD, Genta-w SAC, Genta-w/o AC, and control groups were 22±8, 25±5, 30±9, 54±11, and 10±7 dB SL, respectively (mean±SD). The differences between every active compound group (Genta-w SAMC, Genta-w DD, and Genta-w SAC) and Genta-w/o AC were statistically significant (P<0.016). Conclusion SAMC, DD, and SAC are derivative of garlic seems to attenuate aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss. The effect of SAMC and DD seems to be more prominent than that of SAC.


Abstract : Activity-based costing has been embraced as the methodology which will be used to structure and organize cost management information for the Marine Corps. This methodology is applied to operations at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. Training operations have been examined for a three-year period from fiscal years 1997-1999. Cost analysis identifies total resource consumption of $230 million annually, depot level activities, and the services and products provided by the depot. Detailed information is provided for determining the cost to train a Marine, which is $13,300. Capacity analysis discusses the output of training operations under four capacity frameworks, theoretical, practical, normal, and annual budgeted capacity. Analysis of minimum resource usage examines process scheduling and the quantity of training companies needed. The core competencies of the depot are discussed and value chain analysis is used to map the depot activities into the Porter value chain model. Final recommendations offer improvements to existing ABC models and opportunities for operational cost savings.


Systems, methods and apparatus for remotely controlling the power management of a mobile device are provided. The system, method, and apparatus may include a mobile terminal wirelessly connected to a sensor platform. The sensor platform may send a constant awake message to the mobile terminal that prevents the mobile terminal from entering a sleep mode until the sensor platform sends a release signal to the mobile terminal.


IEEE Region 10 is home to some of the world's largest semiconductor design and manufacturing facilities. Electronic testing is a branch of a wide instrumentation and measurement field. It plays a key role in verifying and improving quality and functionality of the fabricated integrated circuits as well as in refining the manufacturing process so to reach a required high yield. However, the continuing shortage of qualified engineers in the test, failure analysis, instrumentation and measurement areas in the electronic industry and associated R&D organizations, makes it hard to cover the required production operations. Addressing the need, an integrated specialist education program in the Electronic Test Technology was developed and implemented by a team of university academics in cooperation and with support from management and engineering specialists of several leading electronic companies. The program was also sponsored by the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Faculty Course Development Award. The paper presents the summary of the developed contents of the teaching and training components. It also outlines the designed laboratory systems, and provides the feedback received from the students and industry.


On 28 October 2010, the National-led Government rushed through Parliament, under urgency, an amendment to the Employment Relations Act (ERA) 2000 that, in effect, redefined, by Government fiat, the employment status of workers in the film industry. The legal and employment implications of this decision have been discussed in detail elsewhere. In this article, I want to address the constitutional implications of this decision. It will be argued that the exercise of power by a Government that legally alters the status of employees and, thereby, their capacity to negotiate their remuneration and conditions of work without any opportunity of those affected to be consulted let alone participate in the decision, is an abuse of constitutional power.


In the application of deviation resistance relay,during the process of setting calculation,deviation resistance relay is replaced by direction resistance relay,occasionally.The paper provides a way of setting calculation of deviation resistance relay and explicates that under certain conditions,great errors will be made when the setting calculation of deviation resistance relay is replaced by the setting calculation of direction resistance relay.The conculsion is that generally,the two setting calculations are not replaceable.


CLIPS cannot effectively perform sound and complete logical inference in most real-world contexts. The problem facing CLIPS is its lack of goal generation. Without automatic goal generation and maintenance, Forward chaining can only deduce all instances of a relationship. Backward chaining, which requires goal generation, allows deduction of only that subset of what is logically true which is also relevant to ongoing problem solving. Goal generation can be mimicked in simple cases using forward chaining. However, such mimicry requires manual coding of additional rules which can assert an inadequategoal representation foreverycondition inevery rule that can have corresponding facts derived by backward chaining. In general, for N rules with an average of M conditions per rule the number of goal generation rules required is on the order of N*M. This is clearly intractable from a program maintenance perspective. We describe the support in Eclipse for backward chaining which automatically asserts goals as it checks rule conditions. Important characteristics of this extension are that it does not assert goals which cannot match any rule conditions, that 2 equivalent goals are never asserted, and thatgoals persistas long as, butno longer than, they remain relevant.


Plots of the index of refraction and of partial dispersion versus V-number have long been used as a standard tool in selecting glasses for chromatic correction. The change in the distribution of glasses on these plots for widely differing spectral regions has generally been ignored. Some sample plots demonstrate the adjustments in approach required for selecting glasses in alternative spectral regions.


The measurement of physical risk factors has been a challenge for ergonomists in various occupations. Practitioners and managers need to assess ergonomic risk factors accurately because they have to establish priorities for ergonomic interventions. Many methods are available for assessing physical risk factors including self-reporting assessment, paper-based observational methods, and direct measurement techniques. However, the precision and validity of these methods is still a matter of debate. Recent studies have shown that there is a lack of consensus about the accuracy of measurement methods. Stock et al 2005 reported the usability of questionnaires (operators assessment) as a practical instrument for to measure exposure. However, Burdorf et al 1991 and Spielholz et al 2001 showed low accuracy of this assessment method. Furthermore there are very few studies that have compared the methods for ergonomic risk measurement in the field such as a truck assembly plant. The aim of this study was therefore to compare three ergonomic methods for evaluation of risk exposure. The self-reported questionnaire and the observational/expert evaluation method were used to evaluate ergonomic risk exposure among truck assembly operators and the results were compared with the direct measurement method as a precise and reference assessment technique.


High-tech innovations are largely dictated by the requirements of the modern hospitality industry. Innovative technologies in the hotel are advanced multifunctional services that can perform many tasks that are characteristic of this particular type of business as a hotel. Using advanced automation tools within a few months of use will prove its effectiveness, positively affecting the number of room orders and eliminating human errors in the formation of the most critical reports. The world experience of using modern tools of hotel business management is studied. The article discusses such advanced hotel management tools as PMS, Channel Manager, Booking module, Internet Acquiring, Website, Chatbots. Particular attention is paid to the consideration of the Revenue Management system. Modern Revenue Management Systems for hotels use advanced algorithms and proven hotel profitability methodologies. They analyze hotel data, find growth opportunities and predict what price changes need to be made to earn more money. Several basic models for demand forecasting are considered that allow the revenue management system to maximize hotel profits.


Since the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) 40 years ago, the origin of the ``background'' that is systematically observed in SERS spectra has remained questionable. To deeply analyze this phenomenon, plasmon-resonant Raman scattering was recorded under specific experimental conditions on a panel of composite multilayer samples containing noble metal (Ag and Au) nanoparticles. Stokes, anti-Stokes, and wide, including very low, frequency ranges have been explored. The effects of temperature, size (in the nm range), embedding medium (${\text{SiO}}_{\text{2}}, {\text{Si}}_{\text{3}}{\text{N}}_{\text{4}}$, or ${\text{TiO}}_{\text{2}}$) or ligands have been successively analyzed. Both lattice (Lamb modes and bulk phonons) and electron (plasmon mode and electron-hole excitations) dynamics have been investigated. This work confirms that in Ag-based nanoplasmonics composite layers, only Raman scattering by single-particle electronic excitations accounts for the background. This latter appears as an intrinsic phenomenon independently of the presence of molecules on the metallic surface. Its spectral shape is well described by revisiting a model developed in the 1990s for analyzing electron scattering in dirty metals, and used later in superconductors. The ${g}_{s}$ factor, that determines the effective mean-free path of free carriers, is evaluated, ${g}_{s}^{\mathrm{expt}}=0.33\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04$, in good agreement with a recent evaluation based on time-dependent local density approximation ${g}_{s}^{\mathrm{theor}}=0.32$. Confinement and interface roughness effects at the nanometer range thus appear crucial to understand and control SERS enhancement and more generally plasmon-enhanced processes on metallic surfaces.


This article discusses the electronic readout design for tactile sensing transducers based on POSFETs (Piezoelectric Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors). The design approach, the proposed electronic architecture and the experimental results for validating the proof of concept are presented. This readout features a reduced number of circuits and is implemented with off-the-shelf electronic components. The design takes into account the application related requirements as well as the constraints posed by existing hardware on the humanoid robot 'iCub' [1].


The article explores sexual and gender discourses that circulate in the Russian media and their relationship to the sexual politics of the country. It explores what sexual devia-tion means, what sexual politics are and why the idea of moral panic provides a critical analytical tool for looking at the current Russian debates around normality, nation, gender and sexuality.


The present situation in the study of solar activity in China and abroad is briefly discussed.It is pointed out that due to effects of solar activity on the earth and human life,particularly with the development of space exploration and technology,the need for solar activity study is more urgent and more attention is called to the research of solar activity by the governments all over the world.Under this condition,with the progressing of high technologies and satellite surveying,a new era of solar activity study will be seen in the twenty-first century.The paper also gives suggestions for future direction,emphasis and measures in solar activity research in China.


The AKT kinase is a crucial component of the PI3K signaling pathway, which is often deregulated in human cancer. A novel mouse model was generated here to study celltype specific and inducible expression of a constitutive active mutant of AKT (AKT1-E17K), which was found in human tumor samples. In vivo expression in murine T-cells resulted in an aggressive Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma in mice. This model sheds new light on cancerogenesis caused by aberrations of the PI3K/AKT pathway and serves as a model for the human disease which can help to develop new therapeutic strategies.


The effects of genotype and relationship errors on linkage results arc evaluated in three of the Genetic Analysis Workshop 12 asthma genome scans. A number of errors are detected in the samples. While the evidence for linkage is not striking in any data set with or without error, in some cases the difference in test statistic could support different conclusions. The results provide empirical evidence for the predicted effects of genotype and relationship error and highlight the need for rigorous detection and elimination of data error in complex trait studies. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Commentary on the editorial by Martuzzi (see page 569)

In a short commentary it is hard to find room for the many positives about Martuzzi's editorial supporting the use of the precautionary principle to achieve public health goals.1 The precautionary principle is part of the admirable re-evaluation by the European Union of the relation between individual, community, nation, region and globe in a modern world. We all need to pay respectful attention.

Achieving the desired positive impacts of applying the precautionary principle to public health requires that advocates confront the following issues:

The vagaries of defining the precautionary principle present obstacles to its application to public health. Martuzzi tries to help by distinguishing between prevention, which he relates to known causes, and precaution which "is more relevant for uncertain determinants, complex scenarios, suspected risk factors, unpredictable circumstances". This distinction does not accord with longstanding core public health …


The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global pandemic (1). France and Spain occupy the top positions in the European league of death together with Italy and the United Kingdom (1, 2). Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection can develop interstitial pneumonia that evolves to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (3). Almost 5% of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 require ICU admission (4). The most critically ill patients may develop multiorgan failure including severe acute kidney injury (AKI). Available data initially suggested that the prevalence of AKI in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 was as low as 0.5% (4), but these figures seemed higher in a recent report from New York City (5). We aimed at assessing the incidence andmortality associated with severe AKI (stage 3 of Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes [KDIGO] classification) in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID19) and ARDS treated with invasive mechanical ventilation. We performed a European multicenter, retrospective observational study in nine ICUs located in four university hospitals (Avicenne Hospital, Louis Mourier Hospital, Bicêtre Hospital in France, and Bellvitge Hospital in Spain) from March 1 to March 31, 2020. We included adult patients with ARDS (according to the Berlin definition) (6) receiving invasive mechanical ventilation and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time RT-PCR in respiratory fluids. Patients with end-stage renal disease or who had sustained cardiac arrest before ICU admission were not included. We reviewed clinical electronic medical records, nursing records, and laboratory findings. We collected demographic data, comorbidities, exposition to nephrotoxic agents (nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, intravenous contrast agent, aminoglycoside, and vancomycin), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at ICU admission, respiratory parameters in the first 24 hours of invasive mechanical ventilation, inflammatory biomarkers, need for vasopressors infusion, antiviral and immunomodulator treatments received in the first 72 hours, and survival outcome 28 days after ICU admission. We also collected the occurrence of KDIGO stage 3 AKI in the first 7 days after ICU admission and the need for renal replacement therapy. Stage 3 AKI is defined by at least one of the following criteria: serum creatinine concentration of more than 4 mg/dl (354 mmol/L) or greater than three times the baseline creatinine concentration, anuria (urine output of 100 ml/d or less) for more than 12 hours, and oliguria (urine output below 0.3 ml/kg/h or below 500 ml/d) for more than 24 hours. Bivariable analyses were conducted to explore the association between death at 28 days after ICU admission and each of the predefined risk factors. Continuous variables were compared using a sample t test and Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical data were compared using the x test or Fisher's exact test. The independent predictors of death at Day 28 were identified using logistic regression including the factors with a P value, 0.10 in the univariate analysis. The association measures were calculated (adjusted odds ratio) with a confidence interval of 95%. The study was approved by the medical ethics committee of Avicenne University Hospital (CLEA-2020–115). From March 1 to March 31, 302 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infectionwere admitted in the participating ICUs. Eightytwo patients did not receive invasive mechanical ventilation, six already had end-stage renal disease before infection, and three had cardiac arrest before admission. The remaining 211 patients fulfilled the Berlin definition of ARDS and received invasive mechanical ventilation. Among these 211 patients, 55 (26%) developed KDIGO stage 3 AKI within 7 days after ICU admission (36 patients met the serum creatinine KDIGO criteria, 7 met the urine output KDIGO criteria, and 12 met both criteria). Of the remaining 156 patients, 24 (15%) developed KDIGO stage 2 AKI and 26 (17%) KDIGO stage 1 AKI within 7 days after ICU admission. The median (interquartile range) time from ICU admission to KDIGO stage 3 AKI criteria fulfillment was 3 (2–5) days. Table 1 shows the demographic data, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of these 211 patients according to their KDIGO stage 3 AKI status. Patients who developed KDIGO stage 3 AKI were more likely to have chronic kidney disease, a higher body mass index, and a higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score; they received higher positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), and they received nitric oxide therapy or vasopressor support more frequently. A total of 30 (54%) patients with KDIGO stage 3 AKI within 7 days after ICU admission required renal replacement therapy during the ICU stay. Among them, 13 (43%) were alive and still renal replacement therapy–dependent at Day 28. Assessment of the 55 patients with KDIGO stage 3 AKI at 28 days after ICU admission showed that 31 (56%) died, 12 (22%) were still hospitalized in the ICU, and 12 (22%) were discharged alive from the ICU. These figures were, respectively, 38 (24%), 38 (24%), and 80 (51%) for patients without KDIGO stage 3 AKI. Multivariable analysis (Table 2) showed that KDIGO stage 3 AKI was highly associated with 28-day mortality (odds ratio, 3.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.74–7.37). A recent large, multicenter epidemiological study (BAKIT [Beijing Acute Kidney Injury Trial] study) conducted in the ICU showed that KDIGO stage 3 AKI accounted for 16% of critically ill patients (7). This incidence was 15% in a secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE (Large Observational Study to Understand the Global Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Failure) study (8). In a group of critically ill patients with COVID-19 requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, our study shows a higher incidence of KDIGO stage 3 AKI (26%). Whether the AKI of COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus-induced cytopathic effect or the cytokine storm–induced systemic inflammatory response remains unclear (9). However, other causes of generic critical illness that promote AKI, such as hypotension, shock, hemodynamic alterations worsened by mechanical ventilation and/or high PEEP, ischemia, or drug side effects, can coexist, and AKI in patients with COVID-19 might be a combination of all these mechanisms. Severe AKI is associated with significant short-term mortality in critically ill patients (10). Furthermore, AKI is a major risk factor for This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). For commercial usage and reprints, please contact Diane Gern (email@example.com).


Broken Hill Proprietary Block 14 Co Ltd - Guide to Australian Business Records Corporate entry - The Guide to Australian Business Records is a biographical, bibliographical and archival database of Australian business entities with links to related articles and images.


In order to obtain the reliability life information of the white Organic Light-Emitting Diode(OLED) in a short time,failure data of OLED samples were collected by carrying out three groups of constant current stress accelerated life tests,and the lognormal distribution function was applied to describing the life distribution.The evolution of OLED's average life and the median life were achieved by applying the lognormal distribution to describing the life,and the self-developed life prediction software to plotting double coordinates' paper of lognormal probability,which based on map analysis method(MAM).Numerical results indicate that white OLED's life follows the lognormal distribution,that the acceleration model is consistent with inverse power law,and that the acceleration parameters which are accurately calculated make fast estimation of white OLED lifetime possible,which provides some significant guideline to its manufacturers and customers.


Bisphenol A (BPA), as a typical endocrine disruptor, has caused widespread concern in recent years, and its sensitive detection is particularly important. In this study, a sensitive BPA electrochemical sensor was fabricated using composites of copper-based metal-organic frameworks (Cu-MOFs) and electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO). The Cu-MOFs, ERGO, and Cu-MOFs/ERGO were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Compared with the Cu-MOFs- or ERGO-modified electrode, the Cu-MOFs/ERGO-modified electrode displayed significantly enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward BPA. The prepared electrode displayed linear range from 0.02 µM to 90 µM and limit of detection of 6.7 nM (S/N=3) for BPA detection as shown by differential pulse voltammetry results under optimized conditions. Such good sensitivity could be ascribed to the synergistic catalysis from high adsorption and catalytic capacity of Cu-MOFs and to the excellent conductive property of ERGO. The Cu-MOFs/ERGO-modified electrode also exhibited high stability and anti-interference ability. The proposed sensor was successfully applied to determine BPA in plastic products. Thus, a promising and reliable tool is provided for the rapid analysis of emergency pollution caused by BPA.


Four commercially available portable ultrasonic wattmeters, employing the radiation force principle, were evaluated for their capability of measuring ultrasonic power output in the therapy range (1–30 W). The wattmeters included two American‐made models, one English, and one Russian model. They were tested for the following measurement characteristics: reproducibility, sensitivity, resolution, and temperature and frequency dependence. An intercomparison of the four instruments was made from the results of these measured characteristics. In the absence of a national ultrasonic measurement standard, power output from a reproducible ultrasonic generating source was measured with these four wattmeters and an intercomparison was made with measurements made on proven laboratory measurement methods.


Abattoir effluent quality assessment is essential in providing sustainable water resource management developments. This study was carried out to assess the impact of abattoir effluent discharges on the physicochemical qualities of a receiving watershed in an urban community. Some physicochemical indicator variables of the effluent discharge and the receiving watershed were determined using standard analytical procedure. Ranges of values obtained from the study were: pH ( 5.79 ± 0.66 - 6.58 ± 0.46), electrical conductivity, EC (23.00 ± 13.89 - 305.33 ± 147.05) μS/cm, temperature, T (29.10 ± 1.01 - 29.80 ± 0.34) C, total dissolved solids, TDS (11.33 ± 6.65 - 153.00 ± 73.72) mg/L, total suspended solids, TSS (7.50 ± 0.78 - 30.93 ± - 5.08) mg/L, alkalinity, ALK (6.10 ± 0.00 - 63.03 ± 43.81) mg/L, chloride, Cl - (5.91 ± 2.04 - 29.57 ± 7.38) mg/L, calcium, Ca 2+ (1.92 ± 0.00 - 19.66 ± 7.29) mg/L, magnesium, Mg 2+ (0.52 ± 0.22 - 5.05 ± 2.42) mg/L, total + hardness, TH (7.47 ± 3.32 - 69.92 ± 27.37) mg/L, Sodium, Na + (1.71 ± 0.18 - 12.86 ± 2.29 ) mg/L, Potassium, K + (0.75 ± 0.35 - 9.33 ± 2.23) mg/L, turbidity (8.66 ± 1.35 - 63.12 ± 12.43) NTU, dissolved oxygen, DO (1.93 ± 0.41 - 5.86 ± 1.00) mg/L, biochemical oxygen demand, BOD (2.80 ± 0.60 - 33.06 ± 14.36) mg/L, chemical oxygen demand, COD (14.00 ± 2.00 - 60.66 ± 12.70) mg/L, sulphate, SO 4 2- (0.84 ± 0.61 - 7.18 ± 0.88) mg/L, phosphate, PO 3 -4 (0.01 ± 0.00 - 2.10 ± 1.22) mg/L, nitrate, NO 3 - (0.37 ± 0.42 - 8.70 ± 1.33) mg/L and ammonium NH 4 + (0.02 ± 0.01 - 2.46 ± 0.78) mg/L. The above data were compared with the recommended 4 permissible limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Federal Ministry of Environment (FME). Comparative correlation analysis of the effect of abattoir effluents on the receiving watershed from the studied locations revealed significant positive and negative correlations at probability value ( p -value) of 0.05 or 0.01. The study revealed that the effluents discharged from the abattoir facilities pose serious health and environmental risk to communities which rely on the receiving watershed as primary source for domestic or recreation activities. Keywords: Abattoir effluent; Pollution; Aquatic environment; Waste disposal; Water quality


Fig. 3: ADC change depending on pulse sequence and TE in the geometry of Fig. 1 for δΩ tD = 5, corresponding to native deoxygenation. The dip for TE < 5ms is the artifact of finite lattice step. The predicted ADC change is ~5% at TE = 90 ms in both hypercapnia and DfMRI. Susceptibility-induced increase of apparent diffusion coefficient: BOLD effect behind diffusion fMRI Dmitry S. Novikov, Marco Reisert, and Valerij G. Kiselev Radiology, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany


To develop a microarray for FMDV genotyping and serotyping,genotype specific oligonucleotide probes for eight genotypes in serotype O FMDV,three genotypes in serotype A and AsiaⅠFMDV were generated.A total of 547 complete VP1 gene sequences of serotype O,A and Asia I were downloaded from NCBI and WRLFMD GenBanks.The genotypes of the sequences were determined by Megalignment comparison and phylogenetic analysis of the VP1 gene using DNA Star ClustalW program and TreeView program.BioSun 2.0 software was used for genotype based database setting and oligonucleotide probe designing within each targeted genotype.A total of 104 candidate probes were designed and 12 of them were confirmed to be genotype specific by microarray testing.The PCR amplified target samples from cloned templates and their 10 time serial dilutions of the target samples were hybridized with the candidate probes to determine their sensitivity.The sensitivity test with 1 probe in each of 4 genotypes in type O FMDV showed that the probes were able to detect minimum 102 copies of positive targets.


Early clinical studies suggested that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was a rare disorder, but recent large-scale epidemiological research conducted in North America using standardized diagnostic criteria (DSM-III) report prevalence rates between 1 to 3%. A review of clinical and case reports of OCD among psychiatric population in non-Western countries reveals similar sociodemographic and clinical correlates for the disorder compared to Western findings. Epidemiological studies using translated versions of standardized diagnostic instruments and conducted in non-Western countries, report similar prevalence rates and clinical phenomenology for O CD as that found in Western settings. Methodological and measurement issues relevant to conducting valid cross- cultural psychiatric research are discussed in relationship to the diagnosis of OCD. The review concludes that OCD is generally similar in prevalence, sociodemographic characteristics and clinical features in both Western and non-Western countries for adult populations.


The dental structure of basal ceratopsians is described. Evolutionary trends in maxillary and dentary teeth of basal ceratopsians include decrease and possible loss of enamel on the occluding side of tooth crowns, increase in the angle of wear facet, development of a prominent primary ridge and deep indentations on mesial and distal sides of the primary ridge, and increase in tooth size in neoceratopsians. Premaxillary teeth in the basalmost ceratopsian Yinlong and basal neoceratopsian Archaeoceratops oshimai exhibit wear facets and denticles along the carina, which imply use for feeding. Maxillary and dentary teeth of basal ceratopsians were probably not as effective in feeding as those in ceratopsids because of the relatively less prominent primary ridges. Some dental characters can be used to identify taxon and tooth position of isolated basal ceratopsian teeth.


The main objective of this article is to reflect on the marketing approach as a strategic resource for positioning a company in the market and to understand its relationship and interfaces in obtaining, maintaining, retaining and recovering customers. To reach the objective, we opted for a literature review on basic concepts and, to achieve it, a survey was carried out on the subject in question. In the current market situation, the formation of a solid customer base is fundamentally necessary with regard to the process of survival, expansion and solidity of a company, considering that new competitors and new demands from customers all arise. days. The choice of this theme arose from the need to understand and know the importance of using relationship marketing in favor of competitive advantage for a company and its survival in an increasingly competitive business world, where the difference in customer service is considerable and potential to add value to the brand. It is understood that the in-depth study of customer loyalty and its aspects is a valuable resource for a company that seeks stabilization and consolidation in the field in which it operates. It is proposed, therefore, togetherwith the didactic contents of Marketing available, the observance of strategies and practices relevant tothe proposed theme. Based on the information collected during the survey, a reflection was carried out on the importance of customer satisfaction and captivation, showing what the main project and planning of an organization should be, from its creation to its solidity, resulting in the addition of valuein what it is about your name and your brand.


Objective To explore clinical features,diagnosis,treatment,prognosis and genovariation in Chinese patients with cystic fibrosis(CF).Methods Clinical data of 26 Chinese CF patients retrieved from CBM disc for WINDOWS(CBM) and Medline database were analyzed.Results All 26 patients suffered from recurrent respiratory infection,20 accompanied by malnutrition,4 had hepatomegaly with jaundice,6 had chronic diarrhea.The diagnoses based on clinical manifestations,sweat electrolyte examinations and autopsy;10 mutations were found,by genetic analysis,in CF transmembrane conductance regulator in ten patients,including 9 rare mutations.Twelve patients died.Conclusion The clinical manifestations of Chinese CF are similar to those of White people,but CFTR mutable site different.The diagnosis of CF is based on manifestations,sweat electrolyte examinations and autopsy.This disease has bad prognosis.


The nesting-cue hypothesis poses that avian brood parasites use nest-defence responses directed toward them by hosts as cues to locate nests to parasitize. Hosts that respond more intensely to brood parasites should provide more cues about nest location than those hosts giving lower intensity responses. Thus, the nesting-cue hypothesis predicts that within a species parasitized nest owners should respond more intensely than unparasitized nest owners to cowbirds perched near and away from nests. This assumes that hosts respond to cowbirds when they are encountered away from the nest and that host responses gradually increase in intensity as the cowbird nears the nest. The nesting-cue hypothesis, its assumptions and prediction were tested using six host species of the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater, Icterinae). We presented a female cowbird model at three distances from host nests and compared the responses elicited. All species responded to the cowbird at all distances, which supports the first assumption. Some of the rarely elicited responses (e.g. contacts) and the proximity of the host to the model varied significantly with distance, which suggests that cowbirds could use nest defence by the host as cues to the location of an active nest. However, parasitized nest owners did not respond more intensely than unparasitized nest owners to the cowbird positioned at any of the distances from the nest, which does not support the nesting-cue hypothesis itself. Further considerations are discussed that suggest that nest defence is not likely to be used as a nest-location cue.


We study the biphasic co-flow through an expansion (or contraction) of the shallow (Hele-Shaw) microchannel. Assuming gentle streamwise variation of the flow, we derive the 3rd-order nonlinear differential equation governing the steady-state shape of the interface separating the two fluids. The interfacial profiles obtained by integrating this nonlinear equation are further compared to numerical solution of the two-dimensional free-boundary problem and experimental results. The amplitude of the capillary ridge emerging upstream from a sudden expansion and leading to narrowing of the thread of the inner phase is substantial, however, not large enough to trigger instability and breakup.


Simultaneous birefringence and elongational viscosity measurements were carried out on molten commercial grade, low-density polyethylenes during simple elongational flow at constant strain rate and constant temperature. The birefringence increased with time during constant strain rate elongation. The increase in birefringence was a linear function of elongational stress throughout whole elongation, but the elongational viscosity increased in two stages. The increase in elongational viscosity can be divided into linear viscoelastic and nonlnear viscoelastic regions. The linear region appeared at small strain and the nonlinear region appeared at strain greater than 0.7. The elongational viscosity in the nonlinear region increased much more rapidly than that in the linear region. The Gaussian approximation, which is commonly used in molecular models, could be used for the transient elongational flow. A constant stress-optical coefficient C = 1.3 × 10−10 cm2/dyn was obtained for all the elongational experiments, independent of strain rate (0.002-0.2s−1). The stress-optical coefficients were weakly dependent on temperature, as predicted by the theory of rubber elasticity.


Industrial noise sources can impact nearby residential communities, especially in rural areas. In order to assess the situation after commissioning, plant noise must be reliably differentiated from prevailing ambient, transient environmental noises, and weather-related events. Continuously
 attending such measurements is generally impractical. On the other hand, classifying events by eyeballing a stream of Leq values after the fact isn't sufficiently reliable in most cases either. An effective approach is presented that involves measurement and statistical, observational, and
 analytical methods to perform much of the work in an automated fashion. Methods include statistically excluding transients from the Leq, filtering to eliminate birds and bugs, spectral characteristics of wind events, and potential spectral identifiers indicative of operation. Classifications
 are confirmed by listening to periodic and/or event-driven audio segments. This approach works best when both the plant noise and prevailing ambient are quasi-steady; plant-generated transients and weather events may require manual reclassification. Examples from long-term environmental noise
 studies are provided. The methods are neither dramatic nor novel but their effectiveness in combination may be useful, especially for those new to this type of work.


Sand fillers were studied under a variety of conditions to determine their usefulness as a filter medium for aerosols in low-velocity air streams. Ruthenium and iodine were removed from the vapor stream from a boillng mixture containing these isotopes, and it is thought that sand may be used to filter aerosols from either dry or moist gas streams.


: We report a case of rheumatoid arthritis associated with bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw(BRONJ)and methotrexate-associated lymphoproliferative disorder(MTX-LPD). A 60-year-old woman had spontaneous pain, swelling, and dehiscence of the right mandibular gingiva after the placement of dental implants. The patient was given MTX, steroids, and bisphosphonates to treat rheumatoid arthritis. BRONJ was diagnosed, and anti-inflammatory therapy was administered. On the day of admission, she had a high fever, pancytopenia, liver dysfunction, and hemostatic disorder. MTX-LPD was diagnosed on the basis of the results of a bone marrow biopsy and symptoms. MTX was withdrawn, and chemotherapy was begun. Three months after the start of chemotherapy, FDG-PET scanning showed uptake of FDG in the liver. The patient died 10 months after initial treatment despite intensive care, including several aggressive courses of chemotherapy.


This paper presents a teaching approach for an undergraduate course of project management under the learning by doing paradigm. The course experience as a whole is presented, including planning aspects for all scheduled activities, are provided later. The definition of the project is provided, as well as its specific details for practical project work, the main educative instrument of the course, in order to bring out the most relevant aspects of the approach. These include improving the learning process by means of a collaborative model and details of the assessment process that make continuous improvement possible. Detailed research to evaluate the effect of students' previous work experience of this learning model is also considered in this paper.


The more signicifant and contemporary themes in the public law of Scotland are discussed by a group of 18 contributors in this book. Each of the major component areas of public law are addressed with a more general theoretical discussion of issues raised. Separate sections deal with the structures of government, human rights and administrative law and legal and constitutional theory. Professor A.W.Bradley contributes an essay on the protection of human rights under the European Convention, Professor Neil Mac Cormick looks at constitutional interpretation, Professor Terence Daintith at political programmes and constitutional content and the Hon. Lord Clyde assesses the supervisory jurisdiction of the Court of High Session. This collection marks the retiring of Professor Bradley from the Chair of Constitutional Law at Edinburgh University.


Social tourism is popular abroad but a strange concept in China.For 50 years,many organizations and experts have studied on it and done great promotion.Here the original concept of social tourism and its development and trends are introduced to help to be familiar with them and understand them.


The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between attitudes toward and Physical fitness knowledge of health-related fitness among elementary physical education teachers. Teaching fitness at elementary levels is an important step toward the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, which are more difficult to prevent as we age. It is very important to teach physical fitness at elementary levels, and to instill positive attitudes in our younger students (Sander & Burton, 1989). It was descriptive survey method in which Teachers attitude towards physical activity and physical fitness questionnaire and physical fitness knowledge questionnaire used for the data collection. In this study 120 (90 male & 30 female) samples from elementary school physical education teachers were selected by using simple random sampling technique. Results shows according to gender wise there no significant correlation among attitude towards and physical fitness knowledge in elementary school physical education male teachers (p=0.49) & there no significant correlation in women (p=0.85). according to elementary school physical education teachers teaching experience wise 0 to5 years teaching experience attitude towards & physical fitness knowledge there no significant correlation (p=0.195), 6 to10 years teaching experience there no significant correlation (p=0.852) and above 11 years there no significant correlation (p=0.716). Conclusion of this study was there is no significant correlation among attitude towards & physical fitness knowledge of elementary school physical education teachers in Gender wise & Experience wise of Pune city.


According to real-time monitoring for the water loss and soil erosion in the engineering construction of Yu-Zhan(in Guangdong Province) Expressway, the destruction of environment because of the engineering construction are forecasted and the main points of prevention and control are presented.In the process of prevention and control,the protection of the ecological environment is unified with developing the local economy.


Although the self-consistency of the full matrix material constants of a piezoelectric sample obtained by the resonant ultrasonic spectroscopy technique can be guaranteed because all constants come from the same sample, it is a great challenge to determine the constants of a piezoelectric sample with strong anisotropy because it might not be possible to identify enough resonance modes from the resonance spectrum. To overcome this difficulty, we developed a strategy to use two samples of similar geometries to increase the number of easy identifiable modes. Unlike the IEEE resonance methods, sample-to-sample variation here is negligible because the two samples have almost the same dimensions, cut from the same specimen and poled under the same conditions. Using this method, we have measured the full matrix constants of a [011]c poled 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.29PbTiO3 single crystal, which has 17 independent constants. The self-consistency of the obtained results is checked by comparing the calculated elastic ...


Studies conducted to find the fungal species associated with plant tissues and rhizosphere samples of Taxus baccata Linn. (Taxaceae) during summer, rainy and winter seasons in Himachal Pradesh. Study revealed the presence of twelve rhizospheric fungal species belonging to 8 genera ( Aspergillus, Epicoccum, Fusarium, Mortierella, Mucor, Penicillium, Rhizopus and Trichoderma ). A total twelve species of endophytic fungi were isolated from various plant parts (viz. root, stem, needles and bark). These species belonged to 10 genera ( Absidia, Alternaria, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Epicoccum, Fusarium, Penicillium, Phoma, Rhizopus and Trichoderma ). A total of forty species of AM fungi belonging to 6 genera ( Acaulospora, Endogone, Entrophospora, Gigaspora, Glomus and Sclerocystis )were isolated from the mycorrhizosphere of T. baccata. Fungal colonization in roots revealed the presence of fungal hyphae and vesicles in them.


Background: Accompanying the increased use of biological and non-biological antirheumatic drugs, a greater number of cases of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation have been reported in inactive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carriers and also in HBsAg-negative patients (pts) who have resolved HBV infection (1). Romania has a high prevalence for HBV infection. According to a national epidemiological study conducted in 2013, 27,9% from the Romanian population has serological markers of resolved HBV infection, while 4.2% of inactive carriers of HBsAg (2). Objectives: To estimate the rate of HBV reactivation in a cohort of patients treated with biologics, in Romania. Methods: Data were gathered from the Romanian Registry of Rheumatic Diseases (RRBR) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The cohort included patients previously exposed to HBV: HBsAg inactive carriers or resolved HBV infection. HBV reactivation was considered as the presence of DNA-HBV or positivity of HBsAg in a previously negative patient. The collected data included exposure to biologics in person-years (PY) and serological markers of HBV. Results: The cohort included 1744pts (5505.95 PY): 936 RA pts (2762.97 PY), 640 AS pts (2037.64 PY) and 168 PsA pts (705.34 PY). The mean age was 58.72yrs (65yrs for RA, 49.58yrs for AS, 61.58yrs for PsA); 1058 (60.6%) women: 786 (74.2%) RA pts, 175 (16.5%) AS pts and 97 (9.1%) PsA pts. Mean disease duration was 14.5yrs for RA, 10.7yrs for AS and 10.5yrs for PsA.The prevalence of HBsAg inactive carriers were 44 (4.7%) in RA group, 53 (8.28%) in AS group and 6 (3.57%) in PsA. The frequency of resolved HBV infection was 892 (95.3%) in RA group, 587 (91.7%) in AS and 162 (96.4%) in PsA. The total number of observed HBV reactivation cases was 16 (0.9%). In RA, 9 (0.9%) cases of HBV reactivation (0.31/100 PY) were observed, all cases on resolved HBV infection state; 7 pts were treated with rituximab (RTX), 2 pts with TNFa blockers. 8 cases (0.28/100PY) of HBV reactivation were observed in those without antiviral prophylaxis, compared to a single reactivation case (0.03/100PY) when antiviral prophylaxis was used. In AS cohort occurred 6 (0.9%) cases of HBV reactivation (0.29/100 PY), all patients being treated with TNFa blockers (3 etanercept, 1 adalimumab, 1 infliximab, 1 golimumab): 4 cases of HBV reactivation developed in inactive carriers of HBsAg and 2 in resolved HBV infection. 5 cases (0.24/100PY) of HBV reactivation were observed in those without antiviral prophylaxis, compared to a single reactivation case (0.04/100PY) when antiviral prophylaxis was used. In PsA group, only 1 case of HBV reactivation (0.14/100PY), on inactive carrier of HBsAg state, during TNFa blocking agent (golimumab). Conclusion: HBV reactivation appeared more often on a resolved infection state, especially without antiviral prophylaxis. No cases of fulminant hepatitis were noted. Most cases developed in RTX exposed RA patients, while in AS group all HBV reactivation appeared with TNFa blockers exposure. References: [1] Shunsuke M, Shigetoshi F. World J Gastroenterol 2015 September 28; 21(36): 10274-10289 [2] https://www.cnscbt.ro/index.php Disclosure of Interests: None declared


Endophytic fungus were isolated,purified and identified from Juglans regia collected from Chuxiong,Yunnan.Antifungal activities of isolates were evaluated with Drechslera sp.,Alternaria sp.,Botrytis cinerea,Pestalotiopsis sp.and Phytophthora sp.as indicator strains.The results show that 22 strains of endophytic fungus were isolated from roots,stems and leaves of walnut respectively.They belong to 6 fungal genera.The dominant group is Penicillium strains and Fusarium strains.4 isolates(two Penicillium strains and two Fusarium strains) showed strong antifungal activities to Alternaria strain.Strain cx13(Penicillium sp.) and strain cx09(Fusarium sp.) show strong activity against serveral indicator strains.