Method and system for monitoring the formation of biofilms. a system designed to track the formation of biofilms is described. The system comprises an environmental sampler biofilms formed by a packed bed reactor, through which is circulated the liquid to be analyzed. The system consists of several identical samplers, which in turn have a porous medium as carrier material adhesion. This arrangement multiple reactors packed bed allows maximum sample with minimal space as possible, especially when compared with existing samplers and, simultaneously, allows to track the development of biofilms. The development has been aimed at obtaining a system and an easily operational methodology, low maintenance and applicable under both field and laboratory situations. Furthermore, the methodology used for sampling, the disintegration and separation of the biofilm of the porous medium, prevents further contamination or alteration of the samples, which could be a serious impediment to evaluate and accurately monitor the biofilm .


ALTHOUGH relatively rare, adenoma of the pancreas associated with hypoglyczmia has been recorded in a sufficient number of cases for the clinical syndrome to be well recognized, and for the value of operative treatment to be appreciated. In this short communication, therefore, no attempt will be made to summarize the literature. Those who are interested in this aspect will do well to study Whipple's masterly artic1e.l In his monograph the clinical aspects of the subject are well reviewed, and our case is of interest in that it stresses this well-defined clinical picture and the rapidity with which the symptoms can be alleviated, and thus the diagnosis established, by the administration of glucose. In Whipple's article and in other published papers, attention has been directed to the fact that in many cases, although the symptoms seemed definite, no adenoma could be found at operation, in which case the consensus of opinion seems to be that the tail and body of the pancreas should be removed, partly in the belief that this portion of the gland is more likely to contain the adenoma, and partly in the hope that if the adenoma is left behind, the removal of this amount of the normal gland may be sufficient to control the hypoglycaemia. A search of the literature has failed to reveal to us any case in which the adenoma has been found unattached to the pancreas, and the fact that in our patient it was so situated, stresses the importance at the operation, of conducting a search around the pancreas, and this is perhaps the more emphasized in that in our case, the mass which ultimately proved to be the tumour was removed more in hope than in certainty.


Sixty patients, who were to be performed an operation under the epidural anesthesia going down to abdomen and lower limber, were picked out and were randomly divided into 2 groups, i.e., group A (experimental group to which Yijishu is applied) and group B (control group to which Haes is applied). 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, 30 min around druginfusion, the values of MAP, HR,SPO2 at every timepoints were observed. The results indicated as follows: in group A, at every timepoints, there was a significant difference (P0.01) between the MAP values before infusion and those after infusion; but in group B, only the MAP value which was at 20 min after infusion could show a significant difference (P0.05) when compared with that before infusion, and there was no statistical significances at other timepoints. When a comparison was made between group A and Group B, the results also showed that there was no significant difference between the MAP value at 10 min after infusion and that before infusion; however, at 15 min, 30 min after infusion, there existed a very significant difference (P0.01) in the MAP values between group A and group B, while the MAP at 20 min after infusion only showed a significant difference (P0.05); as for the changes of HR and SPO2, there was no significant difference between the two groups. Thus a conclusion was drawn that Yijishu could rapidly expand the blood volume and raise the blood pressure, with a better effect compared with Haes.


Archeria victori, sp. nov., is an amphibian from the Wellington (Lower Permian) collected near Eddy, Oklahoma. That the specimen represents an animal new to science is borne out by the character of the teeth and the absence of small secondary teeth on the lingual wall of the jaw.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network where physical devices, sensors, appliances and other different objects can communicate with each other without the need for human intervention. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are main building blocks of the IoT. Both the IoT and WSNs have many critical and non-critical applications that touch almost every aspect of our modern life. Unfortunately, these networks are prone to various types of security threats. Therefore, the security of IoT and WSNs became crucial. Furthermore, the resource limitations of the devices used in these networks complicate the problem. One of the most recent and effective approaches to address such challenges is machine learning. Machine learning inspires many solutions to secure the IoT and WSNs. In this paper, we survey the different threats that can attack both IoT and WSNs and the machine learning techniques developed to counter them.


. Then, rats were sacrificed, neurons in the hippocampal CA1, CA2, CA3 regions were evaluated. Results: Groups 3, 4, 5 had longer latency periods than groups 1 and 2. The neuron density in the CA1, CA2, CA3 regions had decreased in groups 1 and 2 compared to groups 3, 4, 5. There were significantly more neurons in groups 3, 4, 5 than in groups 1 and 2. Conclusion: We found that TQ alone and in combination with MEM showed ameliorative effects on memory and hippocampal morphology. TQ may offer a promising treatment strategy for AD.


Research studies indicate that, the rate of burnout among professional counselors is a continued concern. The nature of the work that counselors do make them susceptible to stress and poor self-care leading to possible burnout. Counselors and counselors in training need to develop awareness about the possibility of burnout when entering the world of professional counseling. Developing a self-care awareness component in counseling programs is advocated by the American Counseling Association as part of counselor training to help prepare future counselors against burnout that leads to counseling impairment. The aim of this study was to examine a group of counseling student participants to obtain measurable data regarding the presence of indicators of burnout. The purpose of the study was to determine the presence of burnout among this student population. This research was conducted using a two-part survey that included demographic data, and a burnout assessment tool, based on the Freudenberger Burnout Scale, (2007), which examined what they were presently experiencing that could lead to burnout. Over 85% of the participants in this study have some degree of indication that burnout is either something they should be aware of and paying attention to, or they are overtly demonstrating indication that they are burned out, with a situation that may be threatening to their physical and mental well-being.


This study explored the peer status, self-concept, perceived peer status, friendship preferences, and interpersonal needs of LD and nondisabled students. Although some of these variables have been discussed before, they have not previously been studied in the same group of students. It was found that learning disabied students were less popular and had poorer self-concepts than contrast students and were less accurate than contrast students in assessing their own social status. They appear, however, to have chosen friends on the same basis as other students. They evidenced the same interpersonal needs as contrast students, except they had a higher need to express control.


BACKGROUND
For therapeutic efficacy, molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir-ritonavir must be started to treat patients within 5 days of disease onset to treat patients with COVID-19. However, some patients spend more than 5 days from disease onset before reporting to the Public Health Office. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of patients with reporting delay.

METHODS
This study included data from 12,399 patients with COVID-19 who reported to the Public Health Office from March 3rd, 2021 to June 30th, 2021. Patients were stratified into "linked" (n=7,814) and "unlinked" (n=4,585) cases depending on whether they were linked to other patients. A long reporting delay was defined as the difference between the onset and reporting dates of 5 days or more. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using log-binomial regression to identify factors related to long reporting delay, and prevalence ratios with corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated.

RESULTS
The proportion of long reporting delay was 24.4% (1904/7814) and 29.3% (1344/4585) in linked and unlinked cases, respectively. Risks of long reporting delay among linked cases were living alone and onset on the day with a higher 7-day daily average confirmed cases or onset on weekends; whereas, risks for unlinked cases were age over 65 years, without occupation and living alone.

CONCLUSION
Our results suggest the necessity to establish a Public Health Office system that is less susceptible to the rapid increase in the number of patients, promotes educational activities for people with fewer social connections, and improves access to health care.


VII. We should re-examine our policy and practices for evaluating, recording, and reporting the progress of pupils. The need for developing a new approach to the evaluation and reporting of pupil progress is mentioned in almost every discussion of needed changes in our schools. The chief difhculty seems to lie in the fact that the junior high-school teacher has so many pupils under his supervision. Obviously, a detailed and comprehensive evaluation of the progress of each child presents a tremendous task. We must continue to study this problem so that we may evaluate more effectively all aspects of a pupil's growth in school, and then give parents a comprehensive and meaningful report of that evaluation.


The traditional Story-telling made great contributes to the moral education.However,with change of time,the materials of story detached from the living,boring teaching way and serious classroom atmosphere,the traditional Storytelling is on the dilemma and unable to adapt to the modern moral requirements.So,there are three methods to solve the problem and reform the traditional story-telling,such as: the modern life story,the modern steps and the modern emotion of teacher and students.This article mainly Focuses on how we can improve the effect of the moral education.


This study investigates determinants of the cargo damage risks of barge accidents in U.S. waters. Probit estimation results suggest that these risks in both bulk and tank barge accidents are greater: (1) for collision and material/equipment failures than for grounding accidents and (2) if the accident occurs in a river and at night. Among categorical variables, a fire/explosion (material/equipment failure) in a bulk (tank) barge accident has the largest marginal probability effect upon cargo damage. Specifically, a fire/explosion (material/equipment failure) increases the risk of cargo damage in a bulk (tank) barge accident by .085 (.044). The results suggest that policies that reduce fire/explosion (material/equipment failure) accidents are likely to be efficacious in reducing bulk (tank) barge cargo damage.


Uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a rare but deadly disease. Due to poor understanding of the molecular and genetic causes of the disease, the diagnosis of LMS has been based primarily on histology. Nuclear atypia is one of hallmarks in LMS, however, it also occurs in 2 clinically benign variants, including smooth muscle tumors with fumarate hydratase alteration (SMT‐FH) and leiomyoma with bizarre nuclei (LM‐BN). In addition to nuclear atypia, many well recognized biomarkers used for LMS are also frequently overexpressed in LM‐BN, and the histogenesis and molecular natures for LM‐BN and LMS remain largely unknown. To characterize the molecular profiling of LMS, SMT‐FH, and LM‐BN, we performed integrated comprehensive genomic profiling including whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) and RNA sequencing and genomic microarray analyses to assess genome‐wide copy number alterations (CNAs) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in all 3 tumor types. We found that both LM‐BN and LMS showed genomic instability and harbored extensive CNAs throughout the whole genome. By contrast, the SMT‐FH presented its characteristic 1q43‐44 deletions in all cases tested, with minimal CNAs in the rest of genomic regions. Further analyses revealed that LMS and LM‐BN groups showed similar patterns of CNAs that are tended to cluster together and separated from the SMT‐FH group. The integrated molecular profiling enabled the detection of novel and traditional biomarkers and showed excellent discrimination between LM‐BN and LMS. Our study suggests that LM‐BN, despite having similar nuclear atypia to SMT‐FH, showed similar genomic instability but distinct genomic alterations with its malignant counterpart of LMS. The integrated molecular profiling is of clinical importance in characterizing these rare uterine smooth muscle tumors.


1. Introduction 2. National Parliaments in the European Union 3.The Institutional and Procedural Logic of the Early Warning System 4. The Material Scope of the EWS: Subsidiarity and Other Criteria 5. The EWS as an Accountability Mechanism 6. The EWS as Legal Review: National Parliaments as Councils of State 7. National Parliaments in the Constitutional Reality of the Early Warning System


It was investigated that the emulsion graft copolymerization of St/MMA onto starch was carried out by manganic pyrophophate as initiator and Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate as emulsifier. The effects of conversion of grafted monomers ( X %), yield of grafting ( G %), and grafting efficiency ( E %) in this emulsion copolymerization were also investigated under different initiator concentrations, reaction temperatures and monomer concentrations.Experimental results showed that the maximum yield of grafting and grafting efficiency were 52.4% and 77.2% respectively.


The Portuguese FCT-"Excellence Stimulus" prize is attributed to Investigators and Professors that published at least 100 papers in the Web of Science-WoS with 500 citations or else 50 papers published in the WoS with 250 citations and the supervision of 10 PhD Thesis. So far almost 70% of these prizes have been awarded to investigators and Professors working in the field of Chemistry. The present paper shows that the fact that this prize has never been award to an Investigator or to a Professor working in the field of Civil Engineering does not mean that excellence is lacking in this particular field. The highest h-index for Associate and Full Professors of Civil Engineering Departments of the six most productive Portuguese Universities are presented in this paper. Comparisons with world top Professors and researchers in the field of Civil Engineering are made.


In every age man has attempted, in more or less radical ways, to utilize various natural resources. Virtually all human activity affects the natural environment, which has different but not independent functions: it acts as a resotirce and a storehouse; it must accept waste products; and it provides recreation and beauty. Thus, the history of man in his environment is the history of mankind. Section I will therefore discuss and define some lines of demarcation to make the problem possible to handle. 20


This research examined the opinions of current soldiers regarding the most expensive campaign ever used by the U.S. Military: the Army's "Be All You Can Be" campaign. The campaign emphasizes the role of the army in providing instrumental and intrinsic rewards to soldiers. Although the campaign is aimed at potential enlistees, active duty soldiers attend to the same media channels and content and thus also receive high exposure to the advertisements. Results of focus group interviews with 87 male and 27 female soldiers indicate soldiers believe there is a wide gap between the promises of Army advertising and the actual performance of the Army in keeping its promises. This perception was expressed by many soldiers as disillusionment, frustration, and anger. The advertisements appear to damage soldier morale, commitment to the military, and reenlistment potential. For both ethical and pragmatic reasons it is suggested that future advertising should be designed with a concern for both effectiveness and honesty and that future advertisements should be concerned with increased sensitivity for the immediate and long-term effects on both the target audience of potential recruits and the unintended audience of active duty soldiers.


We study how free trade agreements between countries and international R&D networks between firms emerge endogenously. The government of each country can initiate bilateral free trade agreements to abolish the import tariffs of other countries. Firms can decide whether and with whom to form R&D collaborations. We build a new model of double-layer networks where the network of free trade agreements is formed in the first layer, and the R&D network is formed in the second layer. Consistently with the stylized facts, we find that free trade agreements can promote international R&D collaboration between firms. Private incentives to form free trade agreements are aligned with societal ones. For R&D networks, by contrast, we identify a conflict between private and social incentives.


The excitation of in-plane surface plasmon polariton (SPP) bottle beams through a single slit or two slits etched in a silver film under multiple-incident-light illumination is investigated. The relationship between the size of an SPP bottle beam and the incidence angle is derived. To generate SPP bottle beams, the two slits and the single slit are respectively illuminated by two and three incident light beams. The results show that the coupling structure is simple, and the size of SPP bottle beams can be precisely modulated by adjusting the incidence angles. The proposed scheme enriches the method of generating and modulating SPP bottle beams.


Walking the TalkThe Oregon Coast Aquarium Practices Ocean Stewardship By Cindy Hanson The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an extraordinary place to discover what lives in Oregon's coastal environment. Visitors can touch tide pool critters, watch sea lions up close and


Nowadays it is desirable to operate flexible production plants, where products can be produced in various individual designs. As a result, more functionality needs to be integrated into existing control systems, which rapidly increases the complexity of the control applications and brings the programmable logic controllers to their limits. Unfortunately, control applications are hardly reusable for other platforms. Increasing the reusability of control applications is, therefore, an important task, which can be achieved by a strict separation of control logic and hardware configuration. Current standards lack this separation, as there is usually hardware dependent software on the application level. This paper introduces a generic device configuration model, applicable to common standards in the industrial automation domain. With this model, it is shown how to control applications can specify generic I/O requirements which are then linked to the specific I/Os during the final deployment of the specific control devices.


The effective management of lymphedema risk following breast cancer surgery and treatment requires enactment of simple behavioural strategies, including regularly checking for early lymphedema symptoms. Adopting a broad self‐regulatory perspective, our aim for this study was to identify psychological factors associated with adherence to these risk management strategies.


Present virtual reality systems often use unconstrained sensors like Polhemus Tracker. These have advantages of unconstrainedness and wider motion range, but have deficiencies of low sampling rate (/spl sim/60 Hz) and critical latency (/spl sim/100 ms). This paper proposes a method, which raises the sampling rate and compensates the latency of Polhemus on rotational motion through the "sensor fusion" of gyro sensor, and Polhemus measurements and a method of evaluating the performance of unconstrained motion sensors quantatively. The validity of the methods was confirmed by off-line computation of actual data.<<ETX>>


Scientific inquiry is a representative practice of scientists and could, therefore, be a basis for science in schools. As an effort to support students' increased participation in inquiry, this study developed a project with seven instruction modules on genetic experimentation using Drosophila melanogaster. The modules were consisted of observing both wild type and mutant flies, preparing media and mating flies, observing salivary chromosome, conducting F1 analysis, verifying statistics and discussing the results, conducting F2 analysis, and, finally giving a presentation to the whole class and participating in a concluding discussion. The seven modules are flexible and can be reconstructed depending on the students' grade or laboratory conditions. This project can contribute to the spread and settlement of experimentation classes in secondary schools. It can also be applied as teaching material for teachers and students who have not had extensive practice in experimentation.


The paper commences with a continuation for the years 1864-66 of Tables II and III. of a previous paper by the same authors ; it then proceeds to a discussion of the value of the pictures of the sun made by Hofrath Schwabe, which had been placed at the disposal of the authors, and the result is that these pictures, when compared with simultaneous pictures taken by Carrington and by the Kew heliograph, are found to be of great trustworthiness. From 1832 to 1854 the pictures discussed are those of Schwabe, who was the only observer between these dates; then follows the series taken by Carrington, and lastly the Kew series, which began in 1862.


This paper discusses the prospects of photonics, shows the relevance and applicability of photonics research. The poten-tial of photonics technologies to answer the socio-economic challenges of the digital transformation age is revealed. Opportunities that emerge with the introduction of photonic devices to various technical systems designed for environ-mental protection and quality of life improvement are demonstrated. Concrete photonics structures and devices for such key applications as spectroscopy, analog optical calculations, and optical neural networks are closely examined. Possi-ble applications for photonic sensors and new type spectrometers are outlined, their competitive advantages explored. Various geometries of extra fine compact photonic spectrometers are presented: based on digital planar diagrams, inte-grated into the photonic waveguides, metasurfaces, diffraction gratings with varying parameters. The benefits of analog optical computations against conventional electronic devices are discussed. Various nanophotonic structures designed for differential and integral operators are studied, solutions for edge detection are proposed. The concept for artificial intelligence implementation on the photonics platform using optical neural networks is analyzed. Various solutions are examined: containing sequences of diffraction elements and based on Huygens–Fresnel principle, as well as planar structures comprised of waveguides that interact as Mach–Zehnder interferometer. SPIE estimation of the international photonics market proposes that the peak of interest for this field is yet to be achieved and photonics will claim its place in the future technological landscape.


Earlier work at ATIRA has shown that there exists a quantitative relationship between warp-breakage rate and grey cotton yarn quality. This work attempts to restructure the earlier formula in such a way that it can be used to predict individually the relative contributions of three factors: the general inadequacy of yarn to withstand the load, stretch, and abrasion imposed on it during weaving; the obstruction or tensile/abrasive failure of thick places; and the failure or obstruction of knots and other miscellaneous faults. The formula has also been extended to blend yarns, and the accuracy of prediction is quite high.


The energy absorbing device (5) for a motor vehicle comprising: - a first energy-absorption member (50) made of a first plastic material which is provided in order to deform plastically under the effect of an impact of given energy by absorbing a first portion of the energy of said impact; - a second energy-absorption member (52) of a second plastic material different from the first plastic material which is provided so as to deform plastically under the effect of an impact of given energy by absorbing a second portion of the energy of said impact; - wherein the first and second energy-absorption member (50, 52) are adapted such that the energy-absorption device (5) has at any temperature between -30 ° C and 80 ° C included a total intrusion resistance of 75-200 kN included.


The healthy breast is a tissue composed of centrally located milk producing glands connected to the nipple by ducts, surrounded by fat tissue and connective tissue. The growth of the breast is prim ...


Let D be a division ring with center F. An element of the form xyx-1y-1 ∈ D is called a multiplicative commutator. Let T(D) be the vector space over F generated by all multiplicative commutators in D. In this paper it is shown that if D is algebraic over F and Char(D) = 0, then D = T(D). We conjecture that it is true in general. Among other results it is shown that in characteristic zero if T(D) is algebraic over F, then D is algebraic over F.


Currents were measured in an area of the Labrador current off the Coast of Newfoundland. The measurements were made at four stations over a period of three days. Three of the stations were along a two-mile line perpendicular to the expected mean flow. The fourth station was six miles upstream of the other three. Of the eight current measuring meters which operated successfully, three were at depths of approximately 15 m, two at 65 m and one each at 106 m and 218 m. -- The currents were found to be rotary in a clockwise direction. A comparison with theory showed that the near-surface currents were of an inertial nature; the measured periods of the near-surface currents being almost equal to the theoretical inertial period of 15.5 hrs. A curve was constructed showing the form of the correlation between the rotary currents at different depths at one of the stations. A vertical spiral effect similar to the Ekman spiral but rotating in time was interpreted from the shape of the curve. -- A study of measured iceberg tracks showed that the loops sometimes made by icebergs could quite possibly be caused by inertial current effects. One particular track which included several loops was examined in detail. The period and radius of the looping motion were found to be in the ranges of the inertial period and radius of influence. -- Geostrophic current profiles were constructed for a line near our research area. The oceanographic data used were obtained through the Canadian Oceanographic Data Centre and came originally from the International Ice Patrol. In the years 1961 to 1964 the oceanographic data were obtained using nansen casts while from 1965 onward the data were obtained using a Bisset-Berman, Salinity/Temperature/Depth (STD) Environmental Profiling System. All data were measured at approximately the same time of year. There were order-of-magnitude consistencies from profile to profile. It was hypothesized that a significant inertial current could result from a geostrophic current if the driving force behind the geostrophic current disappeared.


ABSTRACT Using a panel vector auto-regressive model, we study interactions between innovation, financial development and economic growth in 18 Eurozone countries between 1961 and 2013. We focus on whether causality runs between these variables both ways, one way, the other way or not at all. Our empirical results show that development of the financial sector and enhanced innovative capacity in the Eurozone contributes to long-term economic growth in the countries in the region.


In the pulp and paper industry in Iberian Peninsula there is an intensive use of eucalyptus globulus that has a fast growth and a high productivity. There are large areas of forest dedicated to its growth. After 9 to 12 year rotation cycles trees are cut and the stumps are left in the fields. After 2 or 3 harvesting cycles these tree stumps are removed from the fields and considered low value biomass wastes. This corresponds to depletion on organic matter and of valuable minerals related to soil fertility. The use of these biomass wastes in thermochemical conversion processes like gasification or combustion may be a valuable alternative solution as it allows taking profit of these wastes energetic content. The solid by-products obtained by thermal conversion (ashes) may be incorporated in soils to return the valuable minerals and to ensure a good forest management system. Stumps removed from eucalyptus stands were used in combustion trials to improve the burning conditions and in gasification tests with different experimental conditions to obtain syngas suitable to be used in furnaces (chemical recover) of pulp industries. Stumps combustion and gasification processes were compared in terms of stumps energetic valorisation, gaseous emissions and gasification gas utilisation.


In this research single point diamond turning (SPDT) is coupled with the micro-laser assisted machining (µ-LAM) technique to machine an unpolished single crystal silicon (100) wafer. SPDT of silicon (Si) can be an extremely abrasive process due to the hardness of this material. Manufacturing this material without causing surface and subsurface damage is extremely challenging due to its high hardness, brittle characteristics and poor machinability. However, ductile regime machining of Si is possible due to the high pressure phase transformation (HPPT) occurring in the material caused by the high compressive and shear stresses induced by a single point diamond tooltip. The µ-LAM system is used to preferentially heat and thermally soften the workpiece material in contact with the diamond cutting tool. Different outputs such as surface roughness (Ra, Rz) and depth of cut (DoC) for different sets of experiments with and without the laser were compared and analysed.


A plasma display panel is provided with a front substrate (2) and a back substrate whereupon an address electrode is formed. The front substrate (2) is provided with a display electrode (6) having first electrodes (42b, 52b) and second electrodes (41b, 51b) formed on a front glass substrate (3); and a dielectric layer (8) covering the display electrode (6). Furthermore, the first electrodes (42b, 52b) and the second electrodes (41b, 51b) include a glass flit, which includes at least molybdenum oxide or magnesium oxide or cerium oxide, and bismuth oxide and has a softening temperature of 550 DEG C or higher. Thus, a plasma display panel having high luminance is provided by suppressing coloration phenomenon of the dielectric layer (8) and the front glass substrate (3).


The geometric characteristics for the general course of machining helicoids using a formed milling cutter was discussed. The characteristics of the contact line for the conjugate mation of the cutter and the machined part were analysed. Further more, a method was presented to check gouging between the cutter and the workpiece. In this paper, two aspects of the milling process were considered: First, the machining types of helicoids using a formed milling cutter can be expanded while avoiding gouging. Second, the reasonable locus of the contact points can be given for five axis NC machining and the machining precision can be improved.


Dear Editor, The resection of cystic renal masses (CRMs) represents a challenging process in terms of nephron-sparing surgery because the mostly fluid-filled growth pattern of renal cancers causes them easy to rupture.1 As the malignant tumours rupture, cancer cells metastasize in the abdominal cavity, patients face a high risk of recurrence.2 Meanwhile, studies have shown that more functional nephrons correlate with a better prognosis of patients.3 Therefore, it is crucial to achieving accurate and complete tumour resection during partial nephrectomy (PN). The near-infrared II (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) window fluorescence imaging is a highly promising strategy for medical applications. Based on our experience of imageguided surgery,4 a novel NIR-II fluorescence imaging system was developed for helping the resection of CRM (Supplementary S1). From October 2019 to November 2020, nine patients who underwent PN for resection of CRM were enrolled (Table 1). After exposing tumours, indocyanine green (ICG, 0.5 mg/kg body weight) was injected intravenously, theNIR-II fluorescence imaging systemwas used for the visualization of tumours (Figure 1, Supplementary S2). Under the guidance of NIR-II fluorescence imaging, all tumours were completely resected without rupture, no recurrence or metastasis was found after 4–17 months of follow-up. For a representative patient, the enhanced CT examination revealed a renal mass located at the right kidney (Figure 2A and B). After kidney exposure, the surgical region was first imaged under white light illumination (Figure 2C). One minute after ICG injection, NIR-II fluorescence was observed in renal parenchyma and partial of the tumour vessels. The boundaries between tumour and renal parenchyma were distinct in the NIR-II fluorescence images (Figure 2D and E), in which the renal parenchyma-to-tumour (RP/T, defined in Supplementary


The invention relates to a straw heat-insulating raw sol brick. The straw heat-insulating raw sol brick comprises a straw insulation layer, a raw soil protective layer and a raw soil keel, wherein the thickness of the straw insulation layer is in a range from 150mm to 700mm, and thicknesses of the raw soil protective layer and the raw soil keel are in a range from 60mm to 80mm. Agricultural waste materials can be used for producing energy-saving building wall materials, the environment pollution is saved, a lot of fertile land clay is saved, the waste is turned into useful things, and a lot of fuel coal is saved. The brick is capable of improving energy-saving capability of buildings greatly, improving the heat insulation effect, insulating sound effectively and saving materials, durable, safe, fire-proof, convenient to construct, quick, high in bricking efficiency, light in weight and low in cost.


The invention transformer coupling ring N, N- diethyl-2-methyl-deca-hydro-quinolinyl prepared using the cation structure directing agent novel crystalline molecular sieve SSZ-56, SSZ-56 and the synthetic methods of SSZ-56 the invention relates to a method of using a catalyst. Molecular sieves, transformer coupled, structure directing agent, hydrocarbon conversion reactions


SUMMARY

The tolerance of plants produced from reciprocal grafts between cv. Cara and cv. Pentland Dell were compared in field plots containing different initial population densities of Globodera rostochiensis. Both stock and scion contributed to the greater tolerance of cv. Cara as compared with cv. Pentland Dell. Ground cover measurements, made by a novel photographic method, showed that a heavy infestation of G. rostochiensis decreased the top growth of all plants: more for those with scions of Pentland Dell than those with scions of Cara. The stock did not initially affect the extent to which top growth was reduced in the heavily infested plots but later measurements showed a progressively increased effect on top growth for plants with stocks of Pentland Dell and a decreased effect for those with Cara. In a destructive harvest 13 wk after planting the relatively small effect of G. rostochiensis on the top growth of plants with Cara scions was not reflected in the tuber yields which were markedly decreased. However, plants with Cara stocks were considerably more tolerant (i.e. tuber yields were affected less) than those with stocks of Pentland Dell. Overall, plants of Pentland Dell scions on Cara root stocks were most tolerant at this stage. Between 13 and 16 wk, when a second destructive harvest was made, plants with Pentland Dell scions were senescent and their yield increased little. In contrast, plants with Cara scions were still growing and their yield increased markedly so that by 16 wk the most tolerant combination was Cara on Cara.


Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has a poor outcome with a 5-year survival rate of only about 15–25%.Immunotherapy targeting the checkpoint programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) has been shown to be effective in the management of melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and renal cell carcinoma.To assessed the safety and activity of anti-PD-1 antibody in patients with metastatic ESCC.PD-L1expression, mutation load were also assessed in this study.

 A retrospective analysis of 52 patients with advanced ESCC received anti-PD-1 antibody or chemotherapy, all patients has previously received first- or multi-line chemotherapy.26 patients in the observation group received continuous treatment of anti-PD-1 antibody: Q2W with initial dose of 200mg until disease progression or intolerable toxicity. 26 patients in the control group received irinotecan intravenously on day 1 and 8 at a dose of 80 mg·m-2.During this process, efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1 antibody and irinotecan were also evaluated.

 Total 52 patients were participated in the study from January 2016 to June 2017, and all of them could be evaluated for objective efficacy and safety.In observation group, ORR and DCR were 26.9% and 46.2% respectively.In control group, ORR and DCR were 23.1% and 42.3% respectively.PFS were 3.5months (95% CI, 1.3–7.9 months) and 3.1months (95% CI, 1.9–5.4 months) in observation group and in control group respectively.The differences between the 2 groups in ORR, DCR and PFS were not statistically significant(P>0.05).In observation group, treatment-related AEs occurred in 20 patients (76.92%), most commonly reactive capillary hemangiomas(76.92%), pruritus(19.23%) and hypothyroidism(11.54%).Most events were grade 1 or 2. Two(7.69%) treatment-related grade 3 events(pneumonitis) were reported, No grade 4 or grade 5 treatment-related adverse events were reported.In control group,25 patients (96.15%) experienced treatment-related adverse events,19(73.08%) treatment-related grade 3 or grade 4 events were reported.509 genes panal sequencing showed that the TMB in the group with clinical benefit (CB) was much higher than that in that without clinical benefit (NCB) (P = 0.0479).An objective response was more common in patients with PD-L1-positive tumors as defined by > 5% staining than in those with PD-L1-negative tumors.

 In this population of ESCC patients, anti-PD-1 antibody had a manageable safety profile and promising antitumor activity.

 All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Ormat sited 2 full-size exploration wells based on 3D seismic interpretation of fractures, prior drilling results, and temperature anomaly. The wells indicated commercial temperatures (>300 F), but almost no permeability, despite one of the wells being drilled within 820 ft of an older exploration well with reported indications of permeability. Following completion of the second well in 2012, Ormat undertook a lengthy program to 1) evaluate the lack of observed permeability, 2) estimate the likelihood of finding permeability with additional drilling, and 3) estimate resource size based on an anticipated extent of permeability.


Magnesium hydroxide, which recently registered as a Mg fertilizer, is greatly different from magnesium sulfate in its solubility and effect on soil pH. In this study, the effects of magnesium hydroxide and magnesium sulfate on growth of chinese cabbage were compared at the application rate of in a Gyeongsan clay loam soil. Although magnesium hydroxide was effective in increasing number of leaf and fresh weight, overall effects of magnesium hydroxide and magnesium sulfate on the growth of chinese cabbage were not significantly different (). Comparing the two magnesium fertilizer treatments, magnesium content of chinese cabbage was relatively higher in the magnesium sulfate treatment in the early stage of growth, but it was higher in the magnesium hydroxide treatment at harvest. Contents of Ca, P, and K in chinese cabbage were relatively higher in the magnesium hydroxide treatment than those in magnesium sulfate treatment. But, the differences in nutrient uptakes by chinese cabbage between the treatments were not significant (). Therefore, magnesium hydroxide is expected to be used with nearly the same effects on crops as magnesium sulfate at the same application rate of Mg. Soil pH in the treatment of magnesium sulfate was lower than that of control treatment, but magnesium hydroxide could increase pH. Magnesium hydroxide can be used preferentially in acid and/or sandy soils, where magnesium sulfate can induce further soil acidification and leaching loss of Mg is often a severe problem.


The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected humanity at large all over the globe. The cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is very much similar to its homologous virus SARS-CoV which caused SARS in many people in 2003. This epidemic started in Wuhan, China and it quickly spread its wings all over the world. COVID-19 has lower severity and mortality than SARS but is much more transmissive and affects more elderly individuals than youths and more men than women. Co-occurrence of distinct ailments like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and respiratory issues place individuals at a greater risk of having COVID- 19 complications. There is age specific corona spread pattern as observed in cases reported from China and Italy, it is known fact that the general immunity reduces, as one gets older. The health and immunity is mainly determined by what kind of diet we follow, a well-balanced diet containing antioxidants, minerals and vitamins plays a key role in health-promoting, disease-fighting activities of our body. To boost immunity in vulnerable population it is essential to include food and nutritional supplements, which can help in prevention and management of viral infections. This article attempts to provide a timely and comprehensive review of the role of immunity enhanced with balanced diet and nutritional supplements to fight corona virus especially in vulnerable population. During these testing times when no conclusive medication is available strengthening the immune system can also safeguard us from mutating forms of other viruses in the near future too.


The authors examine the policy on the Quality Use of Medicines and its place in the National Medicines Policy. Definitions, partnerships, framework and evaluation are discussed. (non-author abstract)


Because of the growing importance of microfluidic analytical devices in chemistry, biology, and medical applications, more and more researchers are interested in utilizing this new platform to investigate their personalized samples, targets, and systems. Taking a "do-it-yourself" approach to fabricating chips of desired shapes creates a microenvironment that provides new ways to study subjects of research interest. Obviously, a cost-effective, high-throughput microfluidic device fabrication protocol, which is readily accessible to universal laboratories, would be highly appreciated. To this aim, for the first time, Parafilm® film, a universal laboratory staple, has been shaped and laminated with transparent thin poly(ethylene terephthalate) film to build versatile two- and three-dimensional microfluidic chips. This cost-effective, high-throughput, and fast prototyping strategy could promote the adoption of microfluidic devices by researchers from different fields to investigate customized samples, targets, and systems.


Abstract Dermatophytes are pathogenic fungi with high affinity for keratinised structures present in nails, skin, and hair causing superficial infections known as skin mycoses or dermatomycoses. The disease is characterised by variable prognosis. Its clinical picture is largely dependent on the immune status of the host and can range from local skin or subcutaneous infections to invasive, disseminated, and life-threatening infections. In the first decades of the 20th century, the first concerns were raised about the growing prevalence of fungal infections in humans, which was ascribed to various environmental factors and anthropopressure. Consequently, the first therapeutic attempts were made to treat these infections. At present, at least several different groups of antifungal drugs are available for medical treatment. Nevertheless, the overlapping mechanisms of action of these substances and discontinuation of therapy by patients may contribute to the emergence of resistance of strains, including multi-drug resistance. The aim of this study is to review the literature focused on the mechanisms of resistance developed by dermatophytes to antifungal substances. Through evolution, these fungi have developed complex cellular response systems comprising elements of the environment-cell signalling system, responses to stressors, and tolerance to harmful chemical substances. Such stimuli as exposure of dermatophytes to an antifungal drug, damage to their cell wall, and disturbances in the osmolarity of the environment with generation of reactive oxygen species can be activators of signalling pathways targeted at mitigation of the effects of sudden cellular stress. A majority of molecular mechanisms underlying the response to these stressors also constitute a mechanism of tolerance and resistance to antifungal substances. In the future, elucidation of these mechanisms may lead to development of new chemotherapeutics that will become a key strategy in the treatment of dermatophyte strains exhibiting resistance to currently available antifungal drugs. 1. Introduction. 2. Current antifungal drugs. 3. Exposure of the pathogen to drugs, stress response, and adaptation. 4. Mechanisms of drug efflux from the cell. 5. Mechanisms of drug detoxification. 6. Transcriptional modulation of signalling pathway genes. 7. Role of heat shock proteins in drug resistance. 8. Mutations in target enzyme genes inducing drug resistance. 9. Structural elements of the cell contributing to drug resistance. 10. Summary


To observe antibodies morphology by electron micros copy we use avian antibodies. The study was do it in the Electron Microscopy Cent r in Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj. In the analysed images we can identify singular for ms witch was morphological characterised. We observed in the first way the"Y" antibodies forms and such morphological aspects. Electron microscopy images relieve great f orm similarity within quail and hen antibodies. Literature papers confirm the fact in the structural point it is too mach similitude within .hen and quails antibodies. To the anserifo rm birds, studies releves a special antibodies forms with molecular wight 120 kDa, ( ∆ Fc), without terminal dominies C3-C4. Regards in detail the images from this three specie s, w can observe particular aspects in the duck case.


A theoretical and experimental study is presented for the damping of circular plates by constrained viscoelastic layers when only a concentric portion of the plate is covered. For the flexural vibration of the plates, the equations of motion are derived by treating the in-plane displacements of the base and constraining layers as being independent, and by taking account of the in-plane force and displacements of a homogeneous part. The solutions of the equations of motion are given in a form of superposition of the solutions of the flexural vibration and the static in-plane deformation. Loss factors are determined by evaluating strain energies. Both theory and experiment show that partial coverage can give almost as much damping as full coverage.


The paper describes investigations into the performance characteristics of ball-bearings and roller-bearings running under conditions similar to those encountered in gas turbines. The majority of the work was carried out on ball-bearings, suitable for shafts of 2 inches diameter, which were run under various combinations of radial load and thrust load. Modifications were made to diametral clearance and track curvature of the bearings and to the material, design, and dimensions of the cages. The effects of these on bearing performance are given and discussed. Investigations on larger (5-inch bore) bearings indicate additional precautions necessary with this size. Work on roller-bearings was confined to the 2-inch size and the variables investigated included diametral clearance of bearing and end clearance of rollers. An interesting comparison is provided by the performance of a cageless roller-bearing.


The male and female adults, pupa, and larva of Maruina chiringa sp.n., from Cundinamarca Department, Colombia, are described and figured.


In this note we denote by G a compact connected Lie group. We shall be interested in the situation where G acts as a topological transformation group on a space E. Such a group is called effective if the identity is the only element of G which leaves every point of E fixed. If G is transitive on E, that is, for any two points x and y of E there is an element g of G such that g(x) =y, then E is called a homogeneous space or a coset space of G. Our purpose is to prove the following theorem:


Abstract BACKGROUND 80% of childhood cancer are located in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC). The most common form of presentation is disseminated or metastatic disease. The rate of survival has not been equitable across the world, since in these countries only 1 of 5 children are cured. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical and histopathological features of patients with metastatic pediatric solid tumors, in a single referral cancer center in Honduras. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of patients diagnosed with pediatric solid tumors from January 2010 to April 2020. Among the 260 patients through a collection form, we obtained: sociodemographic characteristics, clinical presentation at diagnosis, common histological subtypes, sites of metastasis, treatment and outcome at the time of follow-up. RESULTS During the last 10 years, 260 cases of childhood cancer were referred to our center for treatment. 127 patients (48.8%), have a solid tumor, patients ranged in age from 1 to 18 years and distribution for sex were 38% for males and 62% females. At the time of initial diagnosis 40/127 (31%) have advanced disease (stages III and IV). We found brain metastases in 22/40 cases (55%), the primary cancer was localized at CNS in 13/22 (59%) and the most common extracranial tumors causing brain metastases were neuroblastoma (4/22), rhabdomyosarcoma (3/22), retinoblastoma (2/22). Currently in the follow-up there were 18/22 (82%) died and 4/22 (18%) are in treatment with palliative intent. CONCLUSION There is a lack of information about the epidemiology of brain metastases among children with solid tumors in the low/middle income countries (LMIC) where the prognosis of metastatic disease is very poor, despite efforts, multimodal therapy and multidisciplinary management, in absence of other options like bone marrow transplantation, and reliable access to high-quality medicines. For our countries, timely diagnosis is still the main determining factor for cure.


Tea polyphenols,a new natural antioxidant,has important applications in food industry,medicaments and chemical products for daily use.Its extraction and applications have become one of hot topics in developing green engineering at home and abroad.A new ion-coprecipitating agent to extract tea polyphenols from a green tea and the application prospect of tea polyphenols was introducted in detail in this paper.


Knowledge of natural disturbance factors that influence ecosystems over large temporal and spatial scales is essential for understanding interactions among ecosystem processes. Repeated assessment of forest stand structure after disturbance events may aid in identifying ecosystem processes and components affected by disturbance that are not readily apparent until long after the disturbance event. In northeastern Oregon, conifer defoliation by phytophagous insects occurs over large temporal and spatial scales and often leads to tree mortality. The current composition and stand structure in mixed conifer stands were documented after two such disturbances: stands 23 years after defoliation by Douglas-fir tussock moth (Orgyia pseudotsugata McD.) in the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, and stands 12 years after defoliation by the western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman) in the Starkey Experimental Forest. Assessment of these areas includes the density of snags, the density and size of down logs, and the change in associated vegetation. The research suggests that similar patterns of stand dynamics, including tree mortality and eventual conversion of standing dead to down logs, along with new seedling establishment, can result from defoliation events with vastly differing durations. This work provides valuable insights into the role of large insect outbreaks and the dynamics of dead wood in these mixed conifer stands.


The micro- efficiency of rural microfinance comprehend organization efficiency and market efficiency,and the influence factors include operating efficiency and development efficiency of rural microfinance organization,also include the moving efficiency of microfinance market and motive efficiency to rural economy development.Under the influence of relatively low operating efficiency and development efficiency,the rural microfinance organization efficiency is relatively low.Under the influence of relatively low moving efficiency of microfinance market and motive efficiency to rural economy development,the rural microfinance market efficiency is relatively low.Due to aforementioned factors influence,the micro- efficiency of rural microfinance is relatively low.


Presented is a multilingual (English, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French) key to the 119 currently recognized genera and subgenera of scarabaeine dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) occurring in the New World. Also included are illustrations of representative species of all taxa included in the key as well as supplementary references to studies at the species level.


33 PLK1 (Polo-like kinase 1) plays a critical role in cancer progression of lung adenocarcinoma 34 (LUAD). Recent studies have demonstrated that targeting PLK1 improves the efficacy of 35 immunotherapy, indicating its important role in the regulation of tumor immunity. However, the 36 correlation between PLK1 and tumor microenvironment (TME) is poorly understood. Here, using 37 genetically engineered mouse model and single-cell RNA-seq analysis, we report that PLK1 38 promotes a general immunosuppressive TME in LUAD characterized with impaired tumor39 infiltrating lymphocytes, enhanced M2 polarization and suppression of antigen presentation 40 process. Mechanistically, elevated PLK1 coincides with increased secretion of CXCL2 cytokine, 41 which promotes M2 polarization of macrophages and decreases expression of class II major 42 histocompatibility complex (MHC-II) in professional antigen-presenting cells. Furthermore, PLK1 43 negatively regulates MHC-II expression in cancer cells, which has been shown to be associated 44 with poor tumor immunity and patients' outcomes. Taken together, our results reveal PLK1 as a 45 novel modulator of TME in LUAD and provide possible therapeutic interventions. 46 47 Significance 48 The characterization of PLK1 as a promoter of immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment 49 enhances our understanding of PLK1's role in anti-tumor immunity and supports the idea of 50 targeting PLK1 in cancer treatment. 51 52 53 54 Introduction 55 Lung cancer accounts for one-fifth of all cancer mortalities in the US, making it the leading cause 56 of cancer-related deaths [1]. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the major type of this disease, 57 comprising almost half of all cases [2]. LUAD is characterized by genetic alternations that drive 58 tumor heterogeneity and the most common forms are mutations involved in receptor tyrosine 59 kinase pathways, including EGFR, KRAS, ALK, and ROS1 genes [3]. These mutations have been 60 demonstrated to have significant impact on disease progression and patients' response to treatment. 61 Hence, targeted therapies have been developed for individualized treatment. Despite the advances 62 in treatment options, the prognosis for LUAD remains poor, with the 5-year survival rate for 63 metastatic disease is less than 5%. Therefore, precise early screening and the development of more 64 effective treatment options are essential to improve patients' outcomes. 65 Recently, immunotherapies have emerged as a novel treatment option for LUAD [4]. Drugs that 66 target the immune checkpoint have shown significant benefit to manage disease by reinvigorating 67 the tumor immunity and allowing immune system to attack cancer cells. While immunotherapies 68 marks the new era of cancer treatment, the success of immunotherapies depends on several factors, 69 including the patient's immune status, and most importantly, the characteristics of the tumor 70 microenvironment (TME), which has emerged as a pivotal area of cancer research [5]. The TME 71 is composed of various types of tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells and lymphocytes. The interactions 72 between cancer cells and immune cells shape the properties of tumor growth, invasion, and 73 metastasis. More closely, immunosuppressive TME can render immunotherapies ineffective. 74 Unfortunately, most patients don't respond to immunotherapy [6, 7]. Specifically for lung cancer, 75 only 20% of patients respond to monotherapy with checkpoint blockade, and this number increases 76 to 40% when combined with standard chemotherapy [8, 9], suggesting a more complex yet 77 underexplored features of TME in LUAD. Therefore, a better understanding of the TME is critical 78 for developing effective immunotherapies. 79 Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is a serine/threonine kinase that plays a critical role in various cellular 80 processes. The canonical function of PLK1 largely focuses on the regulation of cell division at 81 multiple phases [10-15]. Beyond its canonical role, studies have identified several non-mitotic 82 functions of PLK1, including the regulation of DNA damage repair, metabolism, and immune 83 response [16]. Due to the wide involvement of PLK1 in many critical biological events, 84 Dysregulation of PLK1 has been implicated in tumorigenesis, with elevated expression observed 85 in various types of cancers [17]. Considering its importance in tumorigenesis, novel therapies 86 targeting PLK1 have been developed with observable efficacy in cell and animal models [18]. 87 Both our lab and others have proven that PLK1 overexpression in LUAD leads to cancer 88 progression and associates with poor overall survival [19, 20]. Interestingly, recent studies have 89 validated PLK1 as a potential target to improve the efficacy of immunotherapies in lung cancer 90 [21], consistent with our finding in pancreatic cancer that targeting PLK1 in pancreatic cancer 91 enhances the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blockade [22]. While these results indicate that 92 PLK1 may be an important modulator of tumor immunity, whether and how PLK1 functions in 93 the TME of LUAD is largely unknown. Here, using single-cell sequencing, we show that elevation 94 of PLK1 incurs a suppressive TME in LUAD, marked by decreased infiltration of immune cells, 95 M2 polarization and suppression of antigen presentation process. Elevation of PLK1 promotes M2 96 polarization and attenuates the expression of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II) 97 in professional antigen presentation cells and cancer cells, leading to impaired antigen presentation 98 and anti-tumor immunity. Our results reveal PLK1 as a key regulator of TME and provide evidence 99 of targeting PLK1 to improve immunotherapies in LUAD. 100 Methods 101 Sample preparation for single-cell sequencing 102 All animal experiments used in this study were approved by the University of Kentucky Division 103 of Laboratory Animal Resources. 8-week-old LSL-KrasG12D/Tp53f/f (KP) and LSL104 KrasG12D/Tp53f/f/LSL-Plk1 (KPP) mice were intratracheally instilled with adenovirus-expressing 105 Cre recombinase at a viral titer of 2.5 × 107 PFU per mouse according to the protocol [23]. Tumor 106 formations were monitored every week by MRI and harvested after 12 weeks of adenovirus 107 delivery. Single cell suspensions were prepared following 10x Genomics Cell Preparation Guide. 108 Briefly, mice lung tissues were harvested and cut into smaller pieces, then used pipette to 109 extensively pipette up and down to get tissue mixture in DMEM medium containing 2% FBS. This 110 mixture was filtered with a 70 μm nylon mesh strainer, centrifuged at 300g for 10 mins, then 111 resuspended in DMEM medium containing 2% FBS to get single cell suspension. The single cell 112 suspension was further sorted to enrich immune cell populations, and this suspension was used for 113 single-cell sequencing. Cell viability was at least 95% for all samples. 10000 cells were targeted 114 for sequencing and loaded onto a Chromium Controller (10x Genomics) for gel beads-in-emulsion 115 formation. Library preparation was conducted using Chromium Next GEM Single Cell 3' Gene 116 Expression Kit (v3.1, 10x Genomics) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Single indexed, 117 paired-end libraries were sequenced on an HiSeq 2500 sequencer (Illumina). 118 Analysis of single-cell RNA-seq 119 Single-cell RNA-seq gene expression libraries were mapped to mm10 mouse reference (10x 120 Genomics pre-built reference, mm10-2020-A) using Cell Ranger (v6.1.1, 10x Genomics). For each 121 library, Cell Ranger filtered matrix was subjected to QC filters to remove low quality cells with 122 ≤ 500 features or percentage of mitochondrial transcripts ≥ 15. DoubletFinder analysis was then 123 performed on each library separately to identify and filter potential doublets with default 124 parameters [24]. Additionally, cells with features > 8000 or counts > 50,000 were removed. Pass 125 QC cells from the KP and KPP groups were combined and processed using the Seurat (v3) R 126 package [25]. Count matrices were Log-normalized and scaled. The top 2,000 highly variable 127 genes (HVGs) were selected to define principal components (PCs). Batch integration was 128 performed via Harmony algorithm (v0.1.0) to the combined data for batch effect corrections with 129 default settings [26]. Neighbor analysis was performed by FindNeighbors function using the PCs 130 from the Harmony dimension. Clustering was identified with FindClusters function at resolution 131 = 0.8. UMAP was calculated based on the Harmony dimension for clusters visualization. 132 Identification of cluster markers was performed using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test by comparing 133 each cluster with the rest of the cells. For differential gene expression analysis for each cell 134 population, we used DESeq2 test in Seurat [27], to identify the up/down-regulated sets of genes 135 between treatment groups in the cell populations. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was 136 performed with fgsea R package [28], using KEGG and HALLMARK datasets [29, 30]. The two137 sample binomial test will be used to compare the distribution of cell clusters between the two 138 groups. 139 Analysis of public dataset and bulky RNA-seq 140 For STRING analysis [31], genes functionally associated with CXCL2 were directly checked with 141 online STRING tool (https://string-db.org/). For gene expressions, correlation, and survival 142 analyses of TCGA-LUAD dataset, patients' demographic data with RSEM and zscore values 143 (normalized to all samples) of gene expressions were downloaded from cBioportal [32-34]. 144 Analysis of bulky RNA-seq data from KP and KPP tumors was described previously [20]. 145 Cell culture 146 KP and KPP cell lines were isolated from transgenic mice 12–14 weeks after adenovirus infection, 147 which was described before [20]. H358 cell line was purchased from ATCC (CRL-5807). All cell 148 lines were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium c


Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) thin films have been deposited on Si substrates by radio frequency sputter. Sputtering target was hot pressed hexagonal boron nitride of 4N purity. Sputtering gas was the mixture of nitrogen and argon. During depositing c-BN thin films, substrates were biased by dc voltage negatively with respect to ground. By optimizing the deposition conditions, the boron nitride (BN) films containing a large amount of cubic phase were obtained. The samples were characterized with Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). According to FTIR, the cubic phase content of c-BN thin films was evaluated to be 92. The B/N ratio was estimated to be approximately 1 from XPS. The AFM shows that the c-BN thin films delaminated from Si substrates obviously.


This paper presents a formative model to determine the intention to adopt a mobile commerce application in China based on a set of 13 indicators. Significance of these indicators is determined by using Structural Equation Modeling Partial Least Squares technique. It is found that Education level and Perceived Lack of Critical Mass or Perceived Subjective Norm are significant factors determining the intention to adopt a new m-commerce application by buyers. These results are similar to previously available results for buyers in China but are different to those indicating the intention to adopt the same m-commerce application but by sellers.


The pteropod Cuvierina constructs very lightweight, thin, flexible, and resistant shells with the most unusual microstructure: densely packed, continuous crystalline aragonite fibers that coil helically around axes perpendicular to the shell surface. The high degree of fiber intergrowth results in a particular interlocking structure. The shell is constructed by guided self‐assembly, outside the animal's soft body. A prerequisite to understand its formation is to resolve the underlying crystallographic building principle. This is basic in order to use this hierarchically structured and highly functional biomaterial as inspiration for the production of new materials. It teaches us about the optimization of structures over millions of years of evolution under strict consideration of energetic costs and efficient use of available resources and materials. We have described how helical coiling proceeds by using a combination of diffraction and imaging techniques, which complement at different levels of resolution. Despite their curling, the fibers are continuously crystalline and show a preferred crystallographic growth direction. When the latter can no more be maintained due to the imposed curving, abrupt changes across twins permit to continue growth in the desired direction. This is a nice example of how crystallographically continuous fibers can grow helically.


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Can a family physician practise good medicine without following clinical practice guidelines? Obviously, you have the right to come back with, "What do you mean by good medicine ?" Let's define it for our present purposes as that promoted by the 4 principles of family


Trissocyclid Radiolaria from 54 samples of Eocene to Quaternary age, including deep sea cores from the Pacific and outcrops in the Antilles, are described and illustrated. The family Trissocyclidae is raised from subfamily rank and emended to include members of the suborder Nassellarina that have sagittal rings. Skeletal morphology is described. Seven evolutionary lineages are arranged in five emended genera. The genera Dendrospyris and Liriospyris are emended and 9 (5 new) and 10 (6 new) species, respectively, described herein.


The receiver for the Small Radio Telescope (SRT) is being upgraded to a new, digital receiver to enable interferometry experiments. Part of our summer work was to test and debug this new receiver. Initial tests were done by observing the Sun using a short baseline of about 50 feet. During the recent high solar activity, the baseline was increased to about 200 feet. To compensate for the deviation from the typical solar behavior, we studied the effects of limb brightening and sunspots on the cross-correlation values. Additional summer work involved the layout and design of the new ground control unit for the SRT.


Blockmans, W., Holenstein, A., & Mathieu, J. (eds.), Empowering Interactions: Political Cultures and the Emergence of the State in Europe 1300 – 1900


This paper presents a novel ultra-wideband (UWB) planar monopole antenna with dual-band notched characteristics achieved by embedding sub-wavelength meta-resonators (Complementary Split Ring Resonators and modified mushroom EBG elements) in the antenna structure. The proposed antenna structure is simulated in HFSS and it shows wide impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 2) covering the FCC specified UWB range (3.1-10.6 GHz), with satisfactory rejection in the desired frequency bands of IEEE 802.11a / HIPERLAN-2 and X-band communication along with good average gain (>3 dBi) and stable monopole-like radiation pattern in the other parts of the UWB regime. KeywordsUltra-wideband (UWB), Planar Monopole Antenna, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI), Band-notched Characteristics, Complementary Split Ring Resonator (CSRR), Modified Mushroom Electromagnetic Band-gap (EBG) Structure.


Preliminary survey result showed the employee job involvement rate of Rumah Sakit Mata Undaan Surabaya reached 65.26%. It meant that employee job involvement rate was low (standard 80%). Job involvement consist of three factors there are support from co-workers, employee participation in decision making, and the dependence of the tasks. The aim of this study was to analyze the infl uence supervision and working condition to employee job involvement. Observational analysis was used in this research with the cross sectional design. The data was obtained through questionnaire with simple random sampling involving 62 employees as the sample of the research. The obtained data were analyzed using logistic regression test univariate (α = 0.05) to examine the infl uence of supervision and working condition toward the employee's job involvement. The test result indicated that supervision signifi cantly infl uenced employee job involvement at signifi cance value was 0.000201. Better supervision made better employee job involvement. On the other hand, working condition did not infl uence the employee job involvement (signifi cance value was 0.097), but cross tabulation result indicated that better working condition made better employee job involvement. It can be concluded that supervision affects job involvement while working condition does not affect the job involvement.


Four white clover varieties, 2 annual ryegrass varieties, and 2 perennial ryegrass varieties from the Barenbrug Group were introduced to the Chengdu region and tested Results showed that all of the 8 varieties could adapt to the local climate The white clover varieties Sustain and C6151 had good regeneration, and high yield at 88 389 kg/hm 2 and 84 492 kg/hm 2, respectively The annual ryegrass varieties not only had fast regenerative rates and high yields, but also had long green periods and high nutritive values They are suitable for planting extensively in the Sichuan basin However, the perennial ryegrass varieties regenerated slowly, had low yields, and poor summer survival They are suitable for planting in plateau pastoral areas


Performance of the Surface Response to Excitation (SuRE) method was evaluated by using a low cost DSP system and spectrum analyzer. SuRE method excites the surface of the structure with a piezoelectric element. The generated vibrations of a critical point on the surface are measured with (a) piezoelectric element(s) or other sensor(s). The magnitude of the transfer function between the excitation and the sensory signal is monitored. The accuracies of the Teager-Kaiser (TKA), Goertzel, RMS and average of the positive values algorithms were evaluated for magnitude estimation. The SuRE method was used successfully for detection of the compression by using the DSP system. In addition, an applied compressive force, a change of the diameter of a hole and a composite coating was detected by using a spectrum analyzer. The study indicated that the SuRE may be used as a low cost alternative to impedance method. The cost and inconvenience of using multiple piezoelectric elements are the disadvantageous of the method. The main advantages of the SuRE are requirement of much cheaper and simpler equipment. Test time may be drastically shortened in low noise environments, many different transducers may be used for sensing and some directionality may be gained by carefully selecting the location of the sensor(s).


State territory — Parts of State territory — Territorial waters — Breadth and delimitation of the maritime belt — Base Linen — Islands — State sovereignty over tidelands and subsoil — Demarcation of coastline — United States practice in its international relations — Determination of low-water mark on coast of California — Status of certain islands, straits and bays — Historical waters — California's evidence to establish sovereignty and jurisdiction over certain waters — Harbours — The law of the United States


Toroni's book explores the sequence "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" in drawings (of fingers, of playing cards, etc.) and handwritten numbers.


Methods for on-line monitoring of the pressure in vacuum interrupters were investigated. Some experiments were carried out to investigate the characteristics of an inverted magnetron vacuum gauge in pulsed operation mode. According to the experimental results, a kind of vacuum chamber with intellectualized vacuum sensor was developed to implement the on-line monitoring of pressure in vacuum interrupters. The vacuum sensor can measure pressures ranging from 3times10-4 Pa to 0.5 Pa


Arif Sirinterlikci is a University Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and the Department Head of Engineering at Robert Morris University. He holds BS and MS degrees, both in Mechanical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in Turkey and his Ph.D. is in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Ohio State University. He has been actively involved in ASEE and SME organizations and conducted research in Rapid Prototyping and Reverse Engineering, Biomedical Device Design and Manufacturing, Automation and Robotics, and CAE in Manufacturing Processes fields.


In this paper, we present a relaxed version of the SpecHybrid Algorithm originally proposed for wireless cellular systems, and apply it to text document clustering problem. We conduct several experiments on two different datasets; a widely used benchmark dataset in English, and a Turkish textual dataset commonly used in text classification. Our results show that the proposed algorithm gives superior performance in text document clustering as compared to the standard k-means algorithm for any number of clusters while giving a comparable or better performance as compared to the standard EM algorithm for relatively large number of clusters depending on the similarity matrices used.


We aimed to investigate the influenza immunisation status of caregivers and household contacts of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and potential barriers to vaccine uptake.


Plasmodiophora brassicae causes the clubroot disease of Brassicaceae by its obligate biotrophic lifestyle within host roots. The pathogen enters the root cortex, but is soon found near the vascular tissue. There are basically two possibilities for the distribution of Plasmodiophora within the root tissue: 1. distribution by simultaneous division with the host cell or 2. by active migration from cell to cell. It has been shown that plasmodia of the pathogen are indeed able to penetrate plant cell walls. We have therefore begun to isolate a cellulase gene from the pathogen by using degenerated primers to different fungal cellulases. It was possible to amplify specifically a fragment from infected roots 14 days after inoculation which was not present in healthy roots and later time points of infection. The fragment was sequenced and showed high homology to various fungal cellulases. Cloning of the complete cDNA and expression analysis of the putative Plasmodiophora cellulase is in progress.


Tuberculous meningitis is a very rare, but serious extrapulmonary complication of mycobacterial infections in immuno compromised patients, such as peritoneal dialysis recipients. A retrospective study of 455 peritoneal dialysis patients was made to determine the incidence and understand the demographic features of patients that lead to the development of Tuberculous meningitis on the basis of CSF for cell count, routine, ADA estimation, ZN Stain, culture&PCR. Between Jan 2000 and March 2017 4.39% patients of the total patients studied had Tuberculous meningitis. CSF smear was positive for AFB in 22.2% patients, CSF culture isolated AFB in 52.8% patients, PCR was found positive in 36.1% cases, and 4.39% patients were found to be having CSF ADA above cut off value. Pearson correlation indicates that lymphocyte counts and protein levels both increase as ADA increases, however sugar decreases as ADA, lymphocyte counts and protein increase in Tuberculous meningitis patients which is also proven by regression analysis. Outcome analysis revealed 30% mortality rate in diagnosed Tuberculous meningitis cases while maximum loss of life (36.36%) was seen in diabetic patients. It is concluded that the incidence of Tuberculous meningitis in peritoneal dialysis recipients was 4.39% and mortality rate was 30%. The rapid diagnosis of Tubercular meningitis is fundamental to clinical outcome. The present study clearly states that ADA is a rapid and fairly specific method for the diagnosis of Tuberculous meningitis. The early diagnosis and treatment help in achieving an improved outcome for PD patients. However, other techniques like AFB smear, PCR for M.tuberculosis and rapid culture would be required for confirmation of the diagnosis.


Visibility of the submucosa is important for safe and quick gastric endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) [1–4]. Thus, we have developed a new efficient traction method called the "pulley clip with elastic line"method (PEM). A commercially available elastic line (elastic synthetic fiber with a diameter of 0.5mm), hemostatic clip (HX-610-090S/ HX-610-090L; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan), and hemoclip applicator device (HX110QR; Olympus) are used (▶Video1). First, an incision is made around the lesion, as in normal ESD. The normal mucosal border and direction in which the lesion is to be pulled are determined. A clip is attached to the contralateral normal gastric mucosa on the tow direction line (▶Fig. 1 a). The endoscope is withdrawn. Then, a hemoclip applicator device is inserted into the accessory channel of the endoscope, and a hemoclip is mounted onto the tip of the clip device. A length of elastic line is tied directly to the stainless steel ribbon of the clip so that the elastic line clip assembly is contained in the channel of the scope. After reinsertion of the scope into the stomach, a clip is attached to a suitable site on the lesion for oral or anal traction (▶Fig. 1b). When a clip-on-clip attachment is performed, as shown in ▶Video1, the middle clip plays the role of a pulley, and the lesion Video 1 The "pulley clip with elastic line" method and its use in gastric endoscopic submucosal dissection. c b a


Several members of the Gram-negative environmental bacterial genus, Achromobacter, are associated with serious infections in immunocompromised individuals, of which Achromobacter xylosoxidans is the most common. Despite their pathogenic potential, comparatively little is understood about these intrinsically drug-resistant bacteria and their role in disease, leading to suboptimal diagnosis and management of Achromobacter infections. Here, we performed comparative genomics of 158 Achromobacter spp. genomes to robustly identify species boundaries, to reassign several incorrectly speciated taxa, and to identify genetic sequences specific for the Achromobacter genus and for A. xylosoxidans. Next, we developed a Black Hole Quencher probe-based duplex real-time PCR assay, Ac-Ax, for the rapid and simultaneous detection of Achromobacter spp. and A. xylosoxidans from both purified colonies and polymicrobial clinical specimens. Ac-Ax was tested on 119 isolates identified as Achromobacter spp. using phenotypic or genotypic methods. In comparison to these routine diagnostic methods, the duplex assay showed superior identification of Achromobacter spp. and A. xylosoxidans, with five Achromobacter isolates failing to amplify with Ac-Ax confirmed to be different genera according to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Ac-Ax quantified both Achromobacter spp. and A. xylosoxidans down to ∼110 genome equivalents, and detected down to ∼12 and ∼1 genome equivalent/s, respectively. In silico analysis, and laboratory testing of 34 non-Achromobacter isolates and 38 adult CF sputa, confirmed duplex assay specificity and sensitivity. We demonstrate that the Ac-Ax duplex assay provides a robust, sensitive, and cost-effective method for the simultaneous detection of all Achromobacter spp. and A. xylosoxidans, and will facilitate the rapid and accurate diagnosis of this important group of pathogens.


In the title compound, [Ir(C11H6F2N)2(C22H17N4O)]·CH3OH, the coordination at iridium is essentially octahedral, but with distortions associated with the bite angles of the ligands [76.25 (9)–80.71 (12)°] and the differing trans influences of C and N ligands [Ir—N = 2.04 Å (average) trans to N but 2.14 Å trans to C]. All three bidentate ligands have coordinating ring systems that are almost coplanar [interplanar angles = 1.7 (1)–3.8 (2)°]. The vinylbenzyl group is disordered over two positions with occupations of 0.653 (4) and 0.347 (4). The methanol solvent molecule is involved in a classical O—H⋯N hydrogen bond to a triazole N atom.


For policy iteration reinforcement learning methods, the construction of basis functions is an important factor of influencing the accuracy of action-value function approximation. In order to construct appropriate basis functions for the action-value function approximation, a policy iteration reinforcement learning method based on geodesic Gaussian basis defined on state-action graph is proposed. At first, a state-action graph for a Markov decision process is constructed according to an off-policy method. Secondly, geodesic Gaussian kernel functions are defined on the state-action graph and a kernel sparsification approach based on approximate linear dependency is used to automatically select centers of the geodesic Gaussian kernels. At last, the geodesic Gaussian kernels based on the state-action graph is used to approximate the action-value function during the process of policy evaluation, and then the policy is improved based on the estimated action-value function. Simulation results concerning a 10 × 10 grid-world illustrate that the proposed method can accurately approximate the action-value function having smoothness and discontinuity properties with less basis functions as compared with the policy iteration reinforcement learning methods based on either ordinary Gaussian basis or geodesic Gaussian basis defined on a state graph, which is helpful for obtaining an optimal policy effectively.


In this study,electronic nose technology combined with quality and physiological indexes was used to evaluate three levels of maturity of 'Jinxiuhuangtao' peach.The results showed that color turning peaches could be distinguished from mature and ripe peaches using the score plot of principal component analysis(PCA) by the electronic nose measurement.However,mature and ripe peaches were not well distinguished from each other because of existence of overlapping.The predicted results were compared with the results of the traditional chemical and physical test methods(firmness,total soluble solids,titration acid volatile and aromatic constituents) and physiological indexes(ethylene release rate).The comparisons showed that PCA analysis was more accurate than discriminant factor analysis(DFA).Electronic nose technology could provide a basic tool for distinguishing different levels of maturity of peaches.


Unload Container is a critical problem in transportation working of port logistics. This problem is studied on the basis of the transportation characters and a model of optimal problem of Unload Container working is established. Finally, a heuristic optimal algorithm based on genetic algorithm is designed. By using this algorithm, working optimal problem can be satisfactorily solved.


Organic acids, including Land D-lactate, explain most but not the entire elevated anion gap in diarrhea-associated metabolic acidosis. Also, D-lactate has been implicated in the neurological symptoms associated with this condition. Less-common organic compounds may influence the anion gap and neurological symptoms. This research aimed to characterize and attempt to identify a previously unidentified compound, Compound X, first noted in diarrheic acidotic calves with elevated anion gap (Omole, 1999). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to measure Compound X in biological fluids from diarrheic and healthy calves; diarrheic piglets, foals, and human infants; and calves experimentally infused with saline or acid. Attempts were made to identify Compound X using HPLC with tandem and Fourier-transform mass spectrometry. Compound X was significantly higher in diarrheic calf serum (p<0.001) and lower in feces (p<0.001) and rumen fluid (p<0.001) than those fluids from healthy calves. Compound X in serum from acid-infused calves (median peak area ratio = 1.5 – 1.9) was lower than that of diarrheic calves (median = 4.8) and only slightly greater than that of healthy calves (median = 1.2). Serum Compound X correlated with serum D-lactate in diarrheic and healthy calves combined; however, no such correlation was observed in acid-infused calves. Conversely, a relationship between Compound X and neurological disturbance was present in acid-infused calves, but not in diarrheic calves. In other species, Compound X was highest in diarrheic infants and lowest in diarrheic piglets. Although mass spectrometry and database library searches revealed several compounds as putative matches for Compound X, none of the compounds made sense within the context of acidosis and mammalian biological fluids. Therefore, the identity of Compound X remains unknown. Compound X has been established as a ubiquitous compound(s) present in the biological fluids of mammals. Compound X may be a normal intestinal compound or bacterial metabolite that crosses the intestinal epithelium during diarrhea. In spite of this, Compound X was associated with the neurological manifestations of D-lactic acidosis. Compound X`s identity was not determined, and some reasons for this and future directions are discussed.


The Lockheed Airline System Simulation is discussed as a step-by-step evaluation of the economics of different ways of routing passenger travel demand. Interacting items that are discussed include forecast passenger traffic demand, persistence of demand, purpose of travel, passenger preferences toward fare and speed, aircraft characteristics, flight frequency, route interaction, and competitive and regulatory influences. Also discussed are specific uses of the simulation program during the design of the supersonic transport. The first use is in determining the optimum SST size, speed, and sonic boom characteristics. The impact of a refined SST on the air transport environment is then discussed. This latter subject is presented in terms of airplane requirements, load factors, airline earnings, and airline return on investment.


antithesis of ultra-montanism. It has been well said that it has proved a revelation to many of how a "liberal" Roman Catholic theologian applies the canons of modern criticism and the principles of the evolution philosophy to the exposition of the great problems of Christianity. No wonder that it was interdicted by the Archbishop of Paris. The book is worth reading, too, if only to see how an enlightened Roman Catholic regards worship-how he attempts to trace and justify the immense "development" from the few simple data of worship in apostolic Christianity, into the prolonged, complicated and elaborate service of the Roman Catholic mass, with its incense, responses, confessions, glories, kissings, crosses and genuflections. Alas I what creatures of education we are -at least" alas I" when the education gives a fatally false direction to development. GEO. B. EAGER.


The daytime thermospheric emission at 630 nm from the ({sup 3}P-{sup 1}D) transition of atomic oxygen is examined using data from the Atmosphere Explorer C and E spacecraft. Observed altitude distributions of the emission rate measured using the Visible Airglow Experiment are compared with those calculated from in situ measurements of ion and neutral densities and temperatures, and from a model of the photon and photoelectron flux. Good agreement is obtained for most orbits with photoelectron impact on O, photodissociation of O{sub 2}, and dissociative recombination of O{sub 2}{sup +} providing most of the production. Implications for some of the controversial points of O({sup 1}D) chemistry, such as the solar EUV and Schumann-Runge continuum flux, the yield of O({sup 1}D) from the reaction of N({sup 2}D) with O{sub f2}, the value of spontaneous transition coefficients, and the rate of quenching by O({sup 3}P) are discussed.


The end purpose of all geologic field work in the U. S. S. R. should be the detection of useful mineral resources necessary to the Soviet national economy. At the present time unfortunately, the numerous guides, instructions, and manuals on the methods of geologic surveying, prospecting, and exploration do not clearly define the nature and tasks of each form of geologic investigation. The various guides, at times, overemphasize their own discipline to the detriment of a related phase of geologic investigation or, conversely, so identify one discipline with another that the role of each is not quite clear. The present practice of a large-scale survey followed by a medium-scale survey, and then by a small-scale survey is time consuming and expensive. There is no reason why a survey on a 1:200, 000 or 1:100, 000 scale should always be followed by a survey on a 1:50, 000 or 1:25, 000 scale and only then by a survey on a 1:10, 000 scale. Proper instruction of the field geologist would improve the quality of su...


I thank Yayla et al for their interest in my article entitled "The nonalcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score is related to epicardial fat thickness and complexity of coronary artery disease." They ask if there are any data about the Synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with Taxus and cardiac surgery (SYNTAX) score II in this study. Unfortunately, it does not include data on the SYNTAX score II. The SYNTAX score is an anatomy-based tool used for the objective assessment of the complexity of coronary artery lesions. It is dependent only on the anatomical features of abnormal coronary vessels and lesion characteristics. The SYNTAX score II incorporates clinical variables (age, sex, creatinine clearance, left ventricular ejection fraction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and peripheral artery disease) and includes long-term prognostic information on percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients. I preferred to compare the clinical variables with anatomical severity of coronary artery disease (CAD), when designing the study. Furthermore, the exclusion criteria included heart failure (ejection fraction <50%) and renal insufficiency (creatinine >1.5 mg/dL). Therefore, considering that these 2 parameters are also associated with SYNTAX score II, the additional benefit of including that score would be decreased. The study simply aimed to investigate the relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score (NFS) and the presence and severity of CAD. However, studies investigating the relationship between NFS and SYNTAX score II, as an indicator of long-term prognosis after PCI, may provide a different perspective on the relationship between NFS and CAD. Yayla and colleagues also ask for the mean SYNTAX score of the patients and whether the patients with CAD were divided into 2 groups according to the SYNTAX score. These results were not included in order to make the manuscript more understandable and simple. The mean SYNTAX score of the CAD group was 15.5 + 11.3. When the patients with CAD were divided into 2 groups according to the SYNTAX score, as low SYNTAX ( 22) and high SYNTAX score (>22) groups, epicardial fat thickness (5.93 + 1.37 vs 7.71 + 1.65 mm; P < .001) and NFS ( 1.13 + 1.51 vs 0.13 + 1.51; P 1⁄4 .001) were significantly higher in the high SYNTAX group. As Yayla and colleagues mention in their letter, these results may contribute to the evidence of a link between CAD severity and the NFS.


Complexes of the type Cp*TiX2(ONR′R′′) (Cp* = η5-C5Me5; X = Me, Cl; R = R′ = Et, TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl); X = R′ = Me, R′′ = tBu) were synthesized by several routes. Upon activation with [Ph3C]+[B(C6F5)4]− and AliBu3, these complexes generate highly active catalysts for propylene polymerization, although significant catalyst deactivation was observed. Activation with B(C6F5)3/AliBu3 or methylaluminoxane (MAO) resulted in reduced polymerization activity, the latter leading to increased catalyst lifetime. Model studies showed that the interaction of AlMe3 with Cp*Ti(Me)2(ONEt2) led to the formation of Cp*Ti(Me)2(η2-O(AlMe3)NEt2). The X-ray crystal structure confirmed that the hydroxylaminato ligand remained η2 bound to the titanium center with the AlMe3 bound to the complex through the oxygen atom of the hydroxylaminato ligand. Exchange reactions with organic ethers revealed the metalloether to be a comparable donor to PhOMe. Cp*Ti(Me)2(ONtBu(Me)) was revealed to be a weaker donor than Cp*Ti(Me)2(ONEt2); Cp*Ti(Me)2(TEMPO) did not bind to AlMe3. AliBu3 bound more weakly to Cp*Ti(Me)2(ONEt2) than AlMe3. Reaction of Cp*Ti(Me)2(ONEt2) and Cp*Ti(Me)2(ONtBu(Me)) with B(C6F5)3 resulted in clean formation of the zwitterionic contact ion pairs [Cp*Ti(Me)(η2-ONEt2)]+[MeB(C6F5)3]− and [Cp*Ti(Me)(η2-ONtBu(Me))]+[MeB(C6F5)3]−, respectively, whereas reaction of Cp*Ti(Me)2(η2-ONtBu(Me)) with [Ph3C]+[B(C6F5)4]− resulted in the clean formation of the solvent-separated ion pair [Cp*Ti(Me)(η2-ONtBu(Me))]+[B(C6F5)4]−. Reaction of Cp*Ti(Me)2(η1-TEMPO) with B(C6F5)3 results in the elimination of methane to result in the formation of the contact ion paired [Cp*Ti(η2-TEMPO)]+[MeB(C6F5)3]−, in which one of the TEMPO methyl groups has undergone C−H activation, resulting in a η2-bound TEMPO ligand, confirmed by 1H, gROESY, and 1H−15N HMBC NMR. Addition of AliBu3 or AlMe3 to the cationic [Cp*Ti(Me)(ONtBu(Me))]+[B(C6F5)4]− resulted in decomposition of the cations.


In this letter, a wideband circular polarization (CP) metasurface (MS) antenna is proposed, which is composed of a centrosymmetric structure with a mode suppressor and an asymmetric aperture-coupled feed structure separated by dielectric substrates. Based on the characteristic mode theory, the aperture-coupled feed structure consisted of an L-shaped slot and a microstrip line is employed to excite two orthogonal modes, which have a 90° phase difference to obtain CP radiation. Meanwhile, two methods have been proposed to expand CP bandwidth: one is the direct suppression of characteristic mode by decreasing the overlap frequency of operating and nonoperating mode. The other one is indirect suppression using a mode suppressor. Finally, the MS antenna with a low profile of λ0 × λ0 × 0.075 λ0 at 5 GHz is fabricated and measured. The measured results show that the proposed antenna has a 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 45.2% from 4.1 to 6.5 GHz and an impedance bandwidth of 41.8% from 4.1 to 6.31 GHz, and a peak gain of 7.94 dBic at 5.9 GHz.


This paper reports the synthesis and reactivity of different Benzyl derivative protecting groups. The synthesis and stability of Benzyl halides, 4-methoxybenzyl halides, 3,5-dimethoxybenzyl halides, 3,4-dimethoxybenzyl halides, 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl halide protecting groups and their reactivity towards nitrogen atom of a di-substituted pyridine ring in formation of pyridinium salts is also reported.