On the basis of the research on natural and man-established vegetation communities on the eroded red soil in south Jiangxi,the characteristic and species diversity of those communities were analyzed. The results show that the communities of severely eroded red soil is a piece of secondary vegetation that mainly consists of mesic or xeric-mesic perennial herb, belonging to shrub-herb vegetation. The floristic composition of plant community is very simple and the stratification and structure are uniform with a low coverage. Herbs dominate in the primary stage of restoration. Both richness and diversity of species are fairly low at the beginning of the recovery stage. With time going by, the community structure changes from single-story to multi-story, the community species diversity and richness increase.


THAT a persistent search for malaria parasites must be made in all cases in whom the cause of the pyrexia is uncertain is exemplified by the following case :(Jase 2.-Signaller H. was admitted to the B.M.H., Sabathu, on September 22, 1928, complaining of generalized pains and fever. There was no previous history of malaria and he had been at Sabathu without a break since March ~ Blood-slides were negative. On the day following admission the percussion note and air entry were slightly impaired at the base of his right lung and his sputum was tinged with blood. He was transferred to the


Background Several studies have demonstrated a causal link between asthma and obesity. Investigations of the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), a marker of eosinophilic airway inflammation in asthmatics, have produced conflicting results. The influence of obesity on eNO in controlled versus uncontrolled asthmatics is unidentified. Objective We aimed to evaluate the relationship between BMI and eNO in a sample of controlled and uncontrolled Tunisian asthmatics. Methods It was a cross sectional study including adult patients treated for asthma. All patients completed an Asthma Control Test and underwent testing for eNO and spirometry. Obesity was defined as a BMI≥30 Kg/m 2 . Results The mean age for the 148 asthmatics enrolled was 44.2 ± 14.7years. Controlled asthma was diagnosed in 71.7% of patients and uncontrolled asthma in 28.3%. Obesity was present in 20% of patients. Obese asthmatics had a higher eNO than non obese (32.5 vs 29.4 ppb, p=0.5). Among uncontrolled asthma, mean eNO level was higher in obese patients than in non obese (50.4 vs 38.3 ppb, p=0.4). However, eNO of obese patients was not different from non obese patients in controlled asthmatics (28.4 vs 26.8 ppb, p=0.7). Pearson9s rank correlation coefficients revealed no correlation between eNO and BMI in controlled asthmatics. However, there was a very weak negative correlation between eNO and BMI in uncontrolled asthmatics (r=-0.05, p=0.7). Conclusion Our data show that in people with established asthma, there is no relationship between BMI and eNO. Obesity is not associated with eosinophilic airway inflammation, neither in controlled, nor in uncontrolled asthmatics.


A method for improving the sensitivity of an FBG demodulation system based on sideband filtering relates to the field of sideband filtering-based FBG demodulation. The invention aims to solve the problem that the existing FBG demodulation system is low in sensitivity and cannot detect weak signals or that weak signal change is not obvious. Sideband filtering is carried out by adoption of n sideband filters to obtain the total power of reflected light of an FBG; when the center wavelength lambda 0 of the FBG changes with time, the wavelengths lambda 1 and lambda 2 of the left and right boundaries of the spectrum of the FBG can be obtained according to the center wavelength lambda 0 of the FBG; lambda 0, lambda 1 and lambda 2 are substituted into the total power of reflected light of the FBG to obtain the value of the time t and a corresponding fitting equation of the total power of the reflection spectrum of the FBG; an expression reflecting the relation between the sensitivity and the wavelengths and the power is obtained according to the fitting equation and an expression reflecting the change of the center wavelength of the FBG with time; and when the slope of the adopted sideband is changed, the relational expression of the sensitivity and the sideband slope is obtained, and the sensitivity of the FBG demodulation system is obtained. The method of the invention can be used in the FBG demodulation system.


INTRODUCTION
Aluminum toxicity is commonly verified in acidic soils, and poses a severe limitation to plant growth and development. Therefore, Al complexation by the root system mucilage, Al complexation by organic compounds that are exuded by the roots and internal metabolic processes must be monitored by organic acids (OA), since they play a central role in these aluminum tolerance mechanisms.

OBJECTIVE
To optimise a capillary zone electrophoresis method able to perform simultaneous separation of acetic, citric, formic, lactic, malic, oxalic, pyruvic, succinic, tartaric and aspartic acid in plant extract solutions.

METHODOLOGY
Method optimisation was achieved by a chemometric approach through experimental designs. The optimal condition found was: 20 mmol/L phthalic acid buffer; 0.8 mmol/L cetyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide; pH 3.4 adjusted with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (around 16 mmol/L); -15 kV of voltage; 25 °C of cartridge temperature; indirect ultraviolet detection at 240 nm; and 25 mbar injection for 2 s, within an analysis time of 4 min.

RESULTS
As a repeatability test of the optimal condition, 30 replicates were carried out with the same working electrolyte, where the relative standard deviation of each peak ranged from 0.081 to 0.36% (for migration time) and from 2.4 to 4.6% (for peak area).

CONCLUSION
The methodology was successfully applied to simultaneously determine citric, malic and aspartic acid in roots and leaves extract solutions of Brachiaria brizantha, demonstrating its usefulness to study aluminum tolerance.


Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. BACKGROUND Hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers have been studied extensively on the face; however, their safety and efficacy on the neck has not yet been evaluated in a prospective trial in the United States. OBJECTIVE Analyze the efficacy and safety of a HA filler for static horizontal neck rhytides using either a cannula or needle. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-six subjects were randomized to receive up to 1 mL of the HA filler Restylane Refyne (HARR, n = 20) or saline (n = 6) using a cannula on one side and a needle on the other with optional repeat treatment. Subjects were graded using the Transverse Neck Line Scale, Canfield photography, and the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale. RESULTS A significant improvement 30 days after the last treatment was achieved on the Transverse Neck Line Scale when comparing HARR with saline according to the blind evaluator, subjects, and investigator without any significant side effects. In addition, the blind evaluator, subjects, and investigator rated the side of the neck injected with a needle as having significantly greater improvement than the cannula. CONCLUSION The hyaluronic acid filler, Restylane Refyne, achieved significant improvement in static horizontal neck rhytides using either a cannula or needle without any serious side effects, although the needle was more effective.


The paper studies logarithmic convexity and concavity of power series with coefficients involving q-gamma functions or q-shifted factorials with respect to a parameter contained in their arguments. The principal motivating examples of such series are basic hypergeometric functions. We consider four types of series. For each type we establish conditions sufficient for the power series coefficients of the generalized Turánian formed by these series to have constant sign. Finally, we furnish seven examples of basic hypergeometric functions satisfying our general theorems. This investigation extends our previous results on power series with coefficient involving the ordinary gamma functions and the shifted factorials.


Genetic recombination between pairs of ts mutants of reovirus occurs with a relatively high frequency or not at all (1, 2). The results of pairwise crosses between some 70 such mutants has permitted their classification into seven groups designated A to G. No recombination could be detected between the mutants of a given group but recombination between the groups gave frequencies of 3 to 8% ts+ recombinants. Since the genome of this virus is comprised of 10 distinct segments of doublestranded RNA (dsRNA) each class of mutants is considered to be associated with one or other single genomic segment and recombination is thought to occur through reassortment ofwhole segments of the genomes (1, 2). On the other hand complementation between mutants in this viral system is very inefficient. Complementation indexes up to 5 have been measured between mutants (2, 7) but with the inherent errors in the standard complementation assay these levels are on the borderline of significance. Another type ofassay, which measured the increased viral RNA synthesis in cells coinfected with two ts mutants at 39 C over that found in cultures infected separately with the mutants (4), suggested that complementation occurred but the test is tedious to perform and is confined to dsRNAmutants. We have recently shown that when monolayers of L cells are coinfected at the nonpermissive temperature with defective reovirions, which lack the largest (L,) segment of the viral genome, and certain classes of ts mutants there is marked increase in the number ofplaques compared with monolayers infected separately with each of the viral populations (7). This test showed that complementation can occur between defective virions and classes A, B, D, F, and G ts mutants; it permitted the assignation of the class C mutation to the L, segment and the E mutation to a cis-function (6, 7). Nevertheless, it is important to classify the ts mutants into complementing groups and to determine whether or not these groups correspond to the classification based on recombination frequencies. The complementation test with defective virus could not do this, but it did suggest that complementation between ts mutants of reovirus could be measured by an infectious center assay and the present paper describes such a test. An infectious center method has been used previously to detect complementation between ts mutants of influenza virus (3). The growth of cells, purification of virus and its assay, and the nomenclature used for the various strains have been described (6, 7). The wild-type strain from which the ts mutants of Fields and Joklik were derived (2) has been designated R2 (6). Isolation of defective virions from the wild-type strain R1 has been described (6) and these are referred to as R,d (L1). Purified viral populations were used for all infections carried out in this work and the relative efficiencies of plating (EOP) at 39 and 31 C for most of the strains used here have been described (7). Recently W. K. Joklik kindly sent us three additional mutants and the relevant data for these strains are shown in Table 1 of the present paper. The infectious center assay has been described in detail (8). In summary, confluent monolayers of cells were infected with ts mutants at a multiplicity of infection of 10 PFU/ cell for each mutant or defective virions at an MOI of 200 particles/cell (8). In coinfections with two mutants each virus preparation was diluted and the required amount of each virus was added directly to the plate with the minimum of time between additions. Adsorption of virus was for 1 h at room temperature, the plates were then washed three times with minimal essential medium, and the cells were suspended with trypsin. A known number of these


While most developing countries contribute to less emission globally, the effects of climate change impact them more than the developed world, causing a rise in temperature over the years. These increasing temperatures cause more damage to economies and livelihoods over years as they lead to extreme weather events, in which developing countries are highly vulnerable. The use of spatial models such as GIS and satellite models are thus essential in forecasting future climate in relation to past information if well applied. This study aimed at finding out the role of spatial modelling in understanding temperature patterns in relation to climate change in Kenya. Mann-Kendall statistical method and modelling reanalysis were used to understand the relationship between observed and modelled temperature patterns from 1980 to 2015. A direct relationship between observed and modelled data was found, indicating that observations and models can give similar output of past climatic conditions under temperature parameter. On both scenarios, the average seasonal temperatures indicated an increasing rate on DJF and MAM seasons despite them being short and long rainy seasons respectively. This indicated that more practical sessions of observations and spatial modelling relationships could be done to understand past climate, and enhance newer models for forecasting future temperature patterns in Kenya and regionally.


The primary function of the dsRNA binding protein (dsRBP) PACT/RAX is to activate the dsRNA dependent protein kinase PKR in response to stress signals. Additionally, it has been identified as a component of the small RNA processing pathway. A role for PACT/RAX in this pathway represents an important interplay between two modes of post-transcriptional gene regulation. The function of PACT/RAX in this context is poorly understood. Thus, additional models are required to clarify the mechanism by which PACT/RAX functions. In this study, was employed to identify Drosophila melanogaster functionally orthologous dsRNA-binding proteins. Transgenic Drosophila expressing human PACT were generated to determine whether PACT is capable of functionally substituting for the dsRBP R2D2, which has Drosophila a well-defined role in small RNA biogenesis. Results presented here indicate that PACT is unable to substitute for R2D2 at the whole organism level. Ganes C Sen ( ) Corresponding author: email@example.com Dickerman BK, McDonald JA and Sen GC. How to cite this article: The Human dsRNA binding protein PACT is unable to functionally 2013, :220 (doi: substitute for the dsRNA binding protein R2D2 [version 1; referees: 2 approved] Drosophila F1000Research 2 ) 10.12688/f1000research.2-220.v1 © 2013 Dickerman BK . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the , Copyright: et al Creative Commons Attribution Licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication). Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver This work was supported by NIH grant CA062220, awarded to G. Sen. Grant information: The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed. 18 Oct 2013, :220 (doi: ) First published: 2 10.12688/f1000research.2-220.v1 1,2 1


In order to explore influence of immunopolysaccharide on resistant to Vibrio alginolyticus of Charybdis japonica,C.japonicas were injected with saline(control group),V.alginolyticus(bacterial infected group),immunopolysaccharide(immune group),immunopolysacchride and V.alginolyticus(immune plus bacterial infected group),and then the changes of the lysozyme(LZM) and superoxide dismutase(SOD) in the hepatopancreas and muscle were assaied.The results showed as follows: the activities of LZM and SOD in hepatopancreas were higher than in the muscle,and the immune enhancement effect on the hepatopancreas was significantly higher than on the muscle.The LZM's activities of the immune group in the hepatopancreas and muscle were significantly elevated to the peak(P0.05) after C.japonica were injected at the 24h,which were(11.2 ±2.78)U/mg and(3.75±1.05) U/mg.And SOD's activities of in the hepatopancreas and muscle also reached the peak at the 24h,which were 2.2 and 1.4 times as high as that of control group.At the 72h,LZM's activities in the hepatopancreas and muscle of the immune plus bacterial infected group were 62.8% and 75.2% higher than those of the bacterial infected group.The SOD's activities were also significantly higher than those of bacterial infected group(P0.05),which were 3.5 and 4.2 times as high as that of the bacterial infected group.Therefore,immunopolysaccharide makes a effective influence on resistant to Vibrio alginolyticus of C.japonica,and it can get the optimal immune protection at 72h.


Proceedings of the Conference on Stormwater Detention Facilities: planning, design, operation, and maintenance , Proceedings of the Conference on Stormwater Detention Facilities: planning, design, operation, and m... , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی


A rapid, specific and visible detection method for Salmonella enteric serovar typhimurium (S. typhimurium) was developed based on a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) conjugated bifunctional oligonucleotide probe and aptamer. AuNPs were conjugated with bifunctional oligonucleotide probes and aptamer, then the target bacteria S. typhimurium cells were incubated with the conjugated AuNP. Since the aptamer had a higher affinity and specificity on binding with the cells and its configurations was therefore changed, AuNPs particles were released. These AuNPs particles would aggregate with NaCl and the color of the solution would turn blue from red. Under the optimal conditions, the correlation between the concentration of S. typhimurium and the intensity of the signals was observed to be linear within the range of 1.0 × 10¹∼1.0 × 10⁶ cfu/ml (R² = 0.9952), and the detection limit of the proposed method was observed to be 10 cfu/ml. This developed method offers the potential for rapid, sensitive, and visible detection of S. typhimurium in milk and shrimp samples. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The developed method in this study can be used for the detection of S. typhimurium in food samples such as milk and shrimp. Furthermore, the developed method can be easily modified for the simultaneous detection of S. typhimurium and other bacteria.


Ophiogomphus caudoforcipus Yousuf & Yunus, 1977, is only known from a single male collected on 04-viii-1966 at Mingora (Pakistan). Based on a comparison between the description and material of O. reductus at the RMNH it is concluded that O. caudoforcipus is a junior synonym of O. reductus. Further key words. Dragonfly, Anisoptera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Swat, Pakistan


This article examines the contested versions of history, defined as a kind of discourse, surrounding the attempt to establish a museum in Tampa, Florida. As part of a strategy of urban redevelopment, white elites in Tampa in the early 1990s attempted to attract a museum with a piracy theme based on artefacts recovered from The Whydah Galley, an 18th-century pirate ship — the piracy image fitting well with their own `invented tradition'. However, when it was discovered that the ship was originally used in the slave trade, local African American civic leaders mounted a protest, using a counter-discourse that challenged interpretations of `history' by addressing issues of identity, partially through references to slavery and utilizing a rhetoric of cultural authenticity, questioning the elites' cultural and class ascendancy. The project was eventually cancelled.


The unemployment rate fell by nearly 1 percentage point between November 2010 and March 2011. Was this drop due to unemployed workers exhausting their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and choosing to stop looking for work or due to more positive labor market developments, such as fewer workers losing their jobs or more workers finding new jobs?


Bornholm disease (or 'devil's grip') is a rare but highly contagious viral infection that begins with sudden, severe and intermittent pleuritic pain. Debbie Duncan explains what practice nurses need to know


A system and a method for sensing a moving body by using structured light, and a mobile robot including the system are provided to sense a moving body by predicting an image after the movement of the system from an existing image and compare the predicted image with a current image, thereby sensing the moving body during movement, sensing a wide range of the moving body and sensing the moving body without light. A system for sensing a moving body(100) includes an image acquiring unit(110), an image predicting unit(120) and a comparing/analyzing unit(130). The image acquiring unit acquires a first image in a predetermined location and a second image in a location after the system moves by using a light source. The image predicting unit predicts the second image in the location after the movement of the system by using the first image and information about the movement of the system. The comparing/analyzing unit compares and analyzes the second image acquired in the image acquiring unit with the second image predicted in the image predicting unit.


There is an object/artefact of circus and a subject/process that makes it. This research considers the subject of the circus-making in order to bring it to the foreground of future discussions abou ...


We investigate the notion of «logicality» for arbitrary categories of linguistic expression, viewed as a phenomenon which they can all possess to a greater or lesser degree. Various semantic aspects of logicality are analyzed in technical detail: in particular, invariance for permutations of individual objects, and respect for Boolean structure. We show how such properties are systematically related across different categories, using the apparatus of the typed lambda calculus


This paper illustrates some of the shortcomings of current conceptualframeworks used in disability research, and indicates both the need for and the direction of the type of conceptual change that may result in more signfi cant research in the sociology of disability and its practical applications. A more meaningful approach lies in the macrosociological structural analysis of institutions and how they impinge directly or indirectly on the disabled, their families, and the professionals who work in the rehabilitationfield.


ABSTRACT Introduction and purpose: The ability of apple rootstocks to become infected by Neonectria ditissima, the cause of European canker, was studied over two years. Materials and methods: Rootstocks B9 and M9 with a size suitable for grafting (6-10 mm stem diameter, termed rootstocks), and smaller sized rootstocks (<5 mm stem diameter, termed transplants) of B9, M9, M26, MM106 and Antonovka were inoculated with N. ditissima at different times, either with contaminated map pins or with spore suspensions. In addition, the rootstocks were either defeathered (side shoots removed), topped (top shoot headed) or both, to create wounds that would normally occur during propagation, while wounds on transplants were made by removing leaves. Results and discussion: One month after inoculation, slightly sunken canker lesions had developed around the inoculation points of the map pins or wounds. No lesions developed on the non-inoculated controls. Map pin inoculation resulted in 30% to 89% infection and spore suspension sprayed on wounds from 5% to 45% infection. When the cankered areas were split open, brown lesions with necrotic tissue due to infection by N. ditissima appeared. The transplants of M9, M26 and MM106 inoculated with contaminated map pins in 2014 developed necrosis on 40% to 67% of the plants, but there were no differences in the incidence or severity among the different types. On the transplants of B9, Antonovka and M9 inoculated in 2015, there was more necrosis on B9 (42%) than on Antonovka (11%) and more sporulating lesions on B9 (29%) than on M9 (9%) or on Antonovka (4%). Conclusion: It can be concluded that rootstocks used for apple trees may become infected by N. ditissima, and wounds should thus be protected during propagation.


CMA Canada has designed and implemented a new educational program designed to produce strategic managers. We suggest that traditional business management programs do not provide students with the higher order skill set necessary to be relevant managers and strategic decision makers.


The invention blongs to the communication field, and provides a remote alteration signing method, apparatus and terminal thereof. The method comprises the steps of sending an alteration signing request message to a source remote management platform of a source operator, so as to enable the source remote management platform to send the alteration signing request message to a target remote management platform, the alteration signing request message being used for requesting to change a terminal signing to a target operator; receiving an execution file of a target operator network provided by the target remote management platform according to the alteration signing request message; activating the execution file; and accessing the activated execution file to the target operator network. The technical solution provided by the invneiton has the advantage of realizing switch signing across the remote management platform.


Applying FLAC3D to simulating coal mining under the condition of complex gob,the influence of different mining lengths on plastic failure area of basic roof and abutment pressure distribution was analyzed.First weighting pace of immediate roof,periodical weighting pace of basic roof,mining length when roof connected overlying broken strata,and mining place where powered supports were easy to be crushed.Numerical simulation could fully reveal roof plastic failure characteristic and range,and abutment pressure distribution characteristic under the condition of complex gob.It was suitable for selecting and optimizing design projection,and finding rational location of mining face under gob.


This study explores motivations underlying managers' resource adjustments. We focus on the impact of incentives to meet earnings targets on resource adjustments and the ensuing cost structures. We find that, when managers face incentives to avoid losses or earnings decreases, or to meet financial analysts' earnings forecasts, they expedite downward adjustment of slack resources for sales decreases. These deliberate decisions lessen the degree of cost stickiness rather than induce cost stickiness. The results suggest that efforts to understand determinants of firms' cost structures should be made in light of the managers' motivations, particularly agency‐driven incentives underlying resource adjustment decisions.


A panel of geographically separate Mus m. domesticus and Swiss mice from several sources was screened for deletions in the T cell receptor variable (V) β locus. Four out of forty‐three strains tested show a deletion identical to or larger than the deletion previously described in SJL mice. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such important Vβ deletions are described in inbred or partially inbred wild‐derived strains of mice. On the other hand there seems to be very little polymorphism between the remaining Vβ genes. Expression of Vβ genes in peripheral and intra‐thymic T cells was tested using antibodies specific for different Vβ polypeptide chains. Flow cytometry analysis revealed a high expression of Vβ6 and Vβ17 genes in the Copacabana Swiss‐derived strain and an absence of Vβ17 expression in the WLA wild‐derived strain.


The utility model relates to an orthodontic force measuring device based on a force sensor, which comprises a mounting bracket and a measuring main body component, wherein the mounting bracket is connected with an arc-shaped bracket; the arc-shaped bracket is provided with a regulating mechanism used for regulating the position of the measuring main body component; the arc-shaped bracket is connected with the measuring main body component through the axial regulating mechanism; the measuring main body component comprises a threaded rod and an elastic gripping claw; a regulating tube and the force sensor are arranged between the threaded rod and the elastic gripping claw; one end of the regulating tube is connected with one end of the threaded rod; the other end of the regulating tube is connected with one end of the force sensor; the other end of the force sensor is connected with the elastic gripping claw; and the other end of the threaded rod is connected with the regulating mechanism. The orthodontic force measuring device based on the force sensor is capable of simultaneously measuring multiple orthodontic forces and is capable of carrying out direct measurement in an oral cavity.


The pupils' Learning style,which has always been a hot topic in the field of education,has certain impart upon their studies as well as their charaters.This paper is intended to present the positive effects of cooperative learning,through its comparison with competitive learning,on the development of pupils' charaters,with the change of learning style as the first step.


This paper presents the method for tackling the challenge of fully automatically image colorization. We improve U-net by fusion multi-level feature from the pre-trained ImageNet to enhance the model under the small datasets. Furthermore, we reduce the unbalance colors by the enhancement distribution over quantized colors based on the smoothness of the prior distribution. The experiments in the DIV2K dataset show that our results are very encouraging. Our method improves PSNR as well as colorizes the images under complex textures.


Background: Exogenous sex hormone supplements had been associated with increased lung cancer mortality in a large clinical trial. No study to date has evaluated temporal trajectories of circulating sex hormones and aromatase activity and their associations with lung cancer survival.
 Objective: To characterize temporal changes in prediagnostic levels of circulating sex hormones and aromatase activity and to evaluate their associations with overall survival in lung cancer patients.
 Methods: Included in the analysis were 385 incident lung cancer patients identified in a large prospective cohort among postmenopausal women who had never used cigarette products nor exogenous sex hormone supplements. Concentrations of sex hormones were quantitated using LC-MS/MS assays in prediagnostic plasma samples. The product-substrate molar ratio of estrone to androstenedione was used as an index of aromatase activity (IAA). A multivariable Cox model with restricted cubic spline functions was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) for overall survival.
 Results: Of 385 patients with lung cancer, 308 died during a median follow-up of 18.1 years. Initial analyses in all patients showed that higher levels of circulating estrone and IAA and lower levels of androstenedione and testosterone were associated with poorer overall survival after adjusting for nonclinical covariates. In analyses restricted to those with clinical data (n=281), stronger associations were found after further adjustment for tumor stage and treatment regimens. Compared with patients at the median level of IAA, adjusted HRs (95% CI) for total mortality in those at the 30th, 70th, 90th and 95th percentiles were 0.98 (0.84-1.13), 1.05 (0.94-1.16), 1.28 (1.06-1.54), and 1.64 (1.27-2.12), respectively, with P-overall < 0.001. A similar positive association was observed for estrone. In contrast, inverse associations were seen for androgens. For example, compared with the median level of testosterone, HRs (95% CI) for those at the 5th, 10th, 30th, 70th percentiles were 2.10 (1.43-3.09), 1.69 (1.29-2.23), 1.45 (1.19-1.76), and 0.86 (0.78-0.94), respectively, with P-overall = 0.001. Further, we found that circulating levels of sex hormones changed during disease progression. The closer the hormone measurement to cancer diagnosis the higher the IAA and estrone levels (P-overall < 0.001 for both), and the temporal change plateaued 10 years before cancer diagnosis (P-nonlinearity < 0.001 for both). An opposite temporal pattern was found for testosterone. Moreover, the significant association between sex hormones and lung cancer survival was only observed when sex hormones were measured within 10 years before diagnosis.
 Conclusions: Findings from our study, for the first time, demonstrate temporal changes in circulating sex hormones and their associations with lung cancer survival in postmenopausal women.
 Citation Format: Yingya Zhao, Xiao-Ou Shu, Yu-Tang Gao, Mark M. Kushnir, Qiuyin Cai, Hui Cai, Qing Lan, Nathaniel Rothman, Wei Zheng, Gong Yang. Temporal changes in circulating sex hormones and aromatase activity and associations with lung cancer survival in postmenopausal women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 6491.


The crude alcoholic extract of Brassica napus L. bee pollen was treated by solvent extraction and macroporous resin,and α-glucosidase inhibition test on the depurated flavonoids in vitro was carried out. The components which had the strongest inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase were analyzed by IR and LC-MS.Results showed that the flavonoids played a vital role in inhibiting α-glycosidase enzymes. The purity of PEFS-3 which was made by AB-8 macroporous resin was 68.77%,and its IC50 was 72.16μg/m L,far less than the IC50 of acarbose(1124.86μg/m L). Based on IR and LC-MS,five main components were identified in PEFS-3,and four kinds among them were flavonoid aglycones:Quercetin-3-O-β-D-pyranoid glucose base-(1→2)-β-Dpyranoid glycosidase,Kaempferol-3,4 '-double-O-β-D-pyranoid glycosidase,Isohtamnetin-3-O-β-D-pyranoid glucose base-(1→2)-β-D-pyranoid glycosidase,Kaempferol-3-O-β-D-pyranoid glucose base-(1→2)-β-D-pyranoid glycosidase,and the fifth one was inferred to be sec-O-glucosylhamaudol or flavanol,its specific structure still need further confirmation.


As part of an investigation of the use of geometric painting on ceilings in late-antique Egypt, this article will focus on the evidence found in a 4th-c. A.D. church at the polis of Trimithis (Amheida), located in the Dakhla Oasis of Egypt's Western Desert. Excavation in 2012-13 as part of a project directed by R. S. Bagnall highlighted the church's rôle for both cult and burials. Thousands of fragments of painted plaster, part of the church's collapsed flat ceiling, revealed a wide array of interlocked geometrical shapes in vivid colors, creating a visually dramatic contrast with the church's seemingly white walls. The polychrome decoration was probably meant to replicate the effect of a coffered ceiling. Similar geometric schemes are found elsewhere in the Western Desert in both domestic and funerary contexts, and there is evidence of other Egyptian Early Christian churches that had flat ceilings, but a flat roof with painted geometric decoration in the context of an Early Christian church is thus far unattested elsewhere in Egypt. This article will highlight the popularity and longevity of this decorative style in Egypt throughout the Roman period and well into late antiquity and will point to similarities between this type of ceiling decoration and Alexandrian models of the Ptolemaic period, as well as mosaic designs found throughout Mediterranean lands.


Abstract The systematic position of species hitherto allocated In Taeniathrips, principally from the Oriental Region, is reevaluated. 135 nominal specics are treated, of which 85 have been reallocated their genera. Only 15 species, 11 of them from the Oriental Region, can be placed in Taeniothrips according to its revised interpretation. Three new genera are described: Amomothrips for associatus Priesner; Javathrips for cyrtandrae Pr., lagoenifer Pr. (type-species) and mischocarpi Zimmermann; and Pelikanothrips for kratochvill Pelikan. Three species arc transferred to Craspedothrips zur Strassen, and Toxothrips Dhatti is synonymised. 10 species are transferred to Dorcadothripi Pr., and a key to the known species is provided. One species each has been transferred to Myeterothrips Trybom and Laplothrips Bhatli; J species each to Ceratothrips Reuter and Cerctioihripoides Bagnall; and 40 species to Thrips. Three subgenera of Taeniothrips, i.e., Acrertionothrips Pr., Firmothrips Schliephake and Lefroyothrips P...


The coherent Doppler lidar approach for acquiring global profilometry of tropospheric winds from Earth orbit is reliant on off-nadir beam scanning geometry for retrieval of vector winds by Doppler analysis of laser radiation backscattered by entrained aerosols and cloud particles.


A novel family of water-soluble π-conjugated hexaazatrinaphthylenes-based dendritic architectures constructed by hexaketocyclohexane and 1,2,4,5-benzenetetramine units is developed in a microwave-assisted organic synthesis (MAOS) approach. The structures and purity of these compounds are verified by 1H and 13C-NMR, MALDI-TOF MS, UV-vis, elemental analysis, DSC, AFM, STM and cyclic voltammetry.


Previous investigations in rats 24 and 48 h after nephrectomy revealed normal or even increased cardiac output and arterial blood pressure, normal arterial and tissue oxygen partial pressures, and decreased PaC02 [1]. The whole body oxygen consumption was depressed by about 40 and 60%, respectively, whereas BUN was in the range of 140–280 mg/dl, and serum potassium between 7 and 12 mmol/l [1–3]. During these studies, we occasionally observed respiratory arrest about 48 h after surgery. As there is no study on breathing in this model of acute uremia, the present investigations were performed. We used 24 male Wistar rats weighing 160–212 g. The rats were randomly divided into two groups which were either bilaterally nephrectomized or sham operated under ether anesthesia After surgery, the animals were deprived of water. In a body plethysmo-graph for unanesthetized animals tidal volume, the rate of breathing, and colonic temperature were measured before, and 24 and 48 h after surgery. Then the animals were anesthetized with urethane (1.3 g/kg i.p.), their trachea cannulated, and their ventilation monitored in a body plethysmograph until respiratory arrest occurred. Minute ventilation was calculated and related to body weight.


Dear Editor, Acrodermatitis continua of Hallopeau (ACH) is a localized form of pustular psoriasis characterized clinically by recurrent eruption of pustular lesions over digits, which extends proximally and over a period of time can result in onychodystrophy and anonychia. Treatment options for ACH are numerous including topical steroids, topical vitamin D analogue, methotrexate, cyclosporine, systemic retinoid, phototherapy, and recent use of biologicals such as IL-17 inhibitor secukinumab, IL-12/23 inhibitor ustekinumab, and anti-TNF alpha infliximab. But in the times of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), prescribing a patient with systemic immunosuppressant such as methotrexate or biologicals might outweigh the benefit as compared to the risk to the patient and might make the patient prone to the infection. A 34-year-old female presented to outpatient department with complains of pustulation and pain over right great toe nail unit from 2 years. Lesions were gradually progressing proximally toward the dorsa of great toe and distally toward nail unit resulting in the loss of nail. The past history of treatment with oral antibiotics and topical steroids was present with no improvement. Examination revealed anonychia, pustules over the nail bed, peripheral scaling, and pigmentation over great toe extending up to the proximal nail fold. A nail bed biopsy was performed, which showed hyperkeratosis, parakeratosis, decreased thickness of granular layer, epidermal collection of neutrophils, and psoriasiform hyperplasia with regular elongation of rete ridges with dermis showing dense perivascular collection of lymphocytes, neutrophils, and few mast cells (Figure 1). Histopathological features confirmed the clinical diagnosis of ACH. Patient had received treatment with topical steroids in the past with no improvement. Systemic methotrexate therapy for one toe involvement was not justified as it requires baseline blood parameters with regular monitoring along with the risk of systemic toxicity. Hence, a local, safe, and cheap alternate solution was required. Ampule of 1 mL of 15 mg methotrexate was diluted with 2 mL of sterile distilled water to reach a concentration of 5 mg/mL. The solution of 0.2 mL was injected intramatricially on either sides of right great toe using an insulin syringe. The needle was inserted laterally at an angle of 45 from the proximal nail fold, and the solution was injected into the matrix. An appropriate level of placement was indicated by blanching/yellowish discoloration. Sessions were repeated on monthly basis for a total of four sessions. Patient reported significant improvement with the first session with no appearance of new pustules or scaling. Lesions disappeared by fourth session completely (Figure 2). Patient was advised follow-up on a monthly basis, and there were no signs or symptoms of relapse for 6 months postcompletion of intramatricial injections. Methotrexate is a folic acid analogue with anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and immunosuppressive effects. The mechanism of actions of methotrexate can be divided into DHR (dihydrofolate reductase) mediated and non-DHR mediated. Methotrexate also promotes apoptosis of activated CD4 T cells and reduces neovascularization. Intralesional methotrexate has been tried for the treatment of keratoacanthoma, CD30+ lymphoma, nail psoriasis, and resistant case of pyoderma gangrenosum in the past. Yoo and Kim reported 11 cases of keratoacanthoma who were treated with 0.1 to 0.8 mL of 12.5 to 25 mg/mL methotrexate intralesional at an interval of average 10 days with significant reduction in the size of lesions with an average of 4.3 sessions per patient. The literature review shows the use of low-dose intralesional methotrexate is a relatively safe procedure and is not associated with any significant adverse effects. This is the first case illustrating the use of intralesional methotrexate for ACH. As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has captivated more than 4.9 million people across the globe with more than 40% to 60% patients being asymptomatic, treating recalcitrant cases of ACH intramatricial methotrexate might be a considerable alterative bypassing the systemic adverse effects of immunosupression while providing optimum results.


Quality of Service (QoS) metrics deal with network quantities, e.g. latency and loss, whereas Quality of Experience (QoE) provides a proxy metric for end-user experience. Many papers in the literature have proposed mappings between various QoS metrics and QoE. This paper goes further in providing analysis for QoE versus bandwidth cost. We measure QoE using the widely accepted Mean Opinion Score (MOS) rating. Our results naturally show that increasing bandwidth increases MOS. However, we extend this understanding by providing analysis for internet access scenarios, using TCP, and varying the number of TCP sources multiplexed together. For these target scenarios our analysis indicates what MOS increase you get by further expenditure on bandwidth. We anticipate that this will be of considerable value to commercial organizations responsible for bandwidth purchase and allocation.


The summation by David Buck and the "Forum on Universalism and Relativism in Asian Studies" (JAS, February 1991) demonstrate the profound utility of Asian studies to the development of a global philosophical dialogue on great issues. More by the undramatic accumulation over decades of increasingly precise and perceptive studies of elements within Asia's diverse cultural systems than by awesome theories rooted in abstractions (Asian or non-Asian), Asianists have picked away at the task of revealing Asians as human beings to those of other regions. By taking the particulars of each culture with deadly seriousness (which carries no necessary implication of relativism), Asianists advocate a universalist humanism, i.e., each person is equal in value and meaning (whether those be transcendent or minimal in ultimate terms). As the "Forum" bears out, perspectives can be skewed by a scholar's disciplinary origins as well as by cultural origins. As some other disciplines, law has its own peculiar set of culture-specific obstacles to crosscultural comprehension. Law is one of the few universals of civilization (i.e., community rules and legal processes and attitudes thereto, formally and informally manifested). I would suggest that American law, as an academic discipline and as a living reality, has an intricate inwardness that blocks proportionate U.S. participation in world legal discourse (e.g., the law of the sea and human rights law). On the other hand, within the American Asian studies community a small number of professionals play a disproportionately important liaison role in facilitating Asia's gradual inclusion in the world's law dialogue. Over the past twenty years, some of these scholars have served on the Association for Asian Studies Committee on Asian Law. Like many other Americans, lawyers are so inward-looking that they use the term "West" when they mean the U.S. Perhaps no other legal culture matches that of the U.S. in idiosyncratic complexity, with its many thousands of sometimes overlapping federal, state, and local jurisdictions, each of these with its own highly defined rule-making authority and processes; a regime of rules, a "nomocracy." No wonder lawyers reign. An unrepeatable system, perhaps buttressing a relativist leaning. To make matters worse, compared to the ordinary educational practices of many countries in Asia and elsewhere, American college education egregiously neglects the study of law and the nation's own Constitution—even in this Bicentennial era. On the failure of the overwhelming majority of Political Science programs to require minimal familiarity with law, even of majors, see John Wahlke et al., "Political Science," in Reports from the Fields: Project on Liberal Learning, Study-in-Depth and the Arts and Sciences Major, Association of American Colleges, 1991:131-49. Moreover, in general, American government courses present the U.S. as if it were a separate planet, not one of many systems on earth. Law is studied primarily in law schools, themselves almost unique in the world as a type of educational institution. Even there, the few major legal traditions of the world, let alone the most influential of Asia's many cultural particularizations of these—for example, the crucial traditions


Aluminium multistage wire drawing process is challenging in the surface as the wire is hard and abrasive and the dust and powder generation is higher. A lower tensile strength requires accurate tension control to avoid lack of roundness of the finished wires in reels. Here Deform 3DVer.10.2 application software was used to optimize the process parameters, unnecessary tension which cause damage in the Al 1080A wire was analysed and load and amount of strain generation was also evaluated so that a high strength wire production was possible. Thesis work was carried out to develop new process design by optimization of process parameters for aluminium 1080A. The work aim was to analyse and numerically study the process parameters using finite element model and also to investigate the effect of loads on drawing of wire and other process parameter on drawing process. In experimental methodology, first step was to find out the drawbacks in existing multistage wire drawing process, second step was various cause for low strength in the wire. So a new process design was carried out with optimized process parameters by use of hit and trial method. A shop floor experiment takes lots of time and cost. So simulation was done with use of DEFORM 3D Ver.10.2 application software, where post processing results was analysed and finally optimized new design of process parameter was obtained by hit and trial method. In this work the effect of speed drawing (1mm/sec) kept constant only die diameter was changed to see the effect of other parameter. Shear friction is 0.2, reduction of die was taken 15% for three stages of drawing. All stages were compared with each other and analysis was done on load, force, stress effective, strain effective, stress max principal and damage in the wire. A tensile stress produced desired is as needed so strength of wire become high. By hit and trial method an optimized data is obtained for wire drawing process design. Only dimension of dies were changing by 15% to obtain desired diameter of wire 1.8 mm of original diameter 3 mm. On the basis of analysis of the results. It was concluded that the friction coefficient and drawing speed also kept constant for all stages of drawing. Finally optimised process parameter design was obtained for multistage wire drawing.


Education supervisors based on the Decree of the Minister of State for The Utilization of State Apparatus No. 118/1996, are civil servants who are given full duties, responsibilities and authority by officials authorized to conduct supervision by carrying out assessments and coaching in terms of technical education and administration in pre-school, primary and secondary education units. This study aims to know and describe the influence of competence on the performance of education supervisors, knowing and describing the influence of functional tasks on the performance of education supervisors, knowing and describing the influence of competencies and functional tasks simultaneously on the performance of education supervisors in the Education Office of Wajo Regency. This research was conducted in May-June of 2019 at the District Education Office wajo with the object of this research is all education supervisors in the scope of the Wajo Kebupaten Education Office of 42 people. Respondents who were used by the population to give in this study were all education supervisors within the Wajo Kebupaten Education Office. The results of this study show that: 1) shows that competence has a significant positive effect on education supervisors; 2) demonstrate that functional tasks have a significant positive effect on education supervisors; and 3). Competencies and functional tasks together have a significant positive effect on the performance of education supervisors in the Education Office of Wajo Regency. Keywords: Competence, Functional Tasks, Performance, and Supervisory Education.


Witness at the court stand is of great significance in reforming the traditional court trial.The unwillingness to stand at the court stand on the part of the witness is mainly out of the indeterminacy of legal stipulations,the inconsistency of witness protection in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law,and the insufficiency of witness protection in legalization and practice.To perfect witness protection system must be proceeded on in terms of legal perfection, strengthening of witness legal awareness and transforming of legal enforcement.


Political science and organization theory - parallel agendas but mutual disregard, Johan P. Olsen it's still missing - what's up?, Gerhard Lehmbruch political institutions, decision styles and policy choice, A. Windhoff-Heritier interest heterogeneity and organizing capacity - two logics of collective action?, Wolfgang Streeck can transaction cost economic explain trade associations?, Marc Schneiberg and J. Rogers Holligsworth the institutional control for organized interest intermediation - a political perspective, Franz Lehner interest groups, selfishness and the formation of social rule-systems, R. Czada.


Usage of power electronics based devices of those voltage and current characteristics are nonlinear, is increasing. This development causes an enormous increase on harmonic pollution, and as a result power loss on the electricity network. The ideas "higher pricing of energy consumption which creates harmonics" or "possible sanctions against the consumers who cause high harmonic generating loads" to be able to increase power quality and reducing power losses are common. Therefore, methods/indices with a single point asynchronous and multiple point synchronous measurement approaches have been developed in order to detect harmonic sources. In this study, we are investigating how to design a portable device with embedded systems that measures, calculates and identifies harmonic sources via single point asynchronous measurement which are commonly known in the literature. The accuracy of the system is evaluated with index results obtained in Matlab by evaluating measured data on a test system.


Wirelessly interconnected nanorobots, i.e., engineered devices of sizes ranging from one to a few hundred nanometers, are promising revolutionary diagnostic and therapeutic medical applications that could enhance the treatment of major diseases. Each nanorobot is usually designed to perform a set of basic tasks such as sensing and actuation. A dense wireless network of nano-devices, i.e., a nanonetwork, could potentially accomplish new and more complex functionalities, e.g., in-vivo monitoring or adaptive drug-delivery, thus enabling revolutionary nanomedicine applications. Several innovative communication paradigms to enable nanonetworks have been proposed in the last few years, including electromagnetic communications in the terahertz band, or molecular and neural communications. In this paper, we propose and discuss an alternative approach based on establishing intra-body opto-ultrasonic communications among nanorobots. Opto-ultrasonic communications are based on the optoacoustic effect, which enables the generation of high-frequency acoustic waves by irradiating the medium with electromagnetic energy in the optical frequency range. We first discuss the fundamentals of nanoscale opto-ultrasonic communications in biological tissues, and then we model the generation, propagation, and detection of opto-ultrasonic waves.


False smut of rice is one of the major emerging and destructive diseases especially in high yielding rice varieties of many rice growing regions of the India. False smut disease infection may initiate at the booting/ flowering stage and visible symptoms appear at the grain filling stage. For tracking the disease status, we undertook a survey to assess the disease incidence and severity levels in the rice growing areas of South Gujarat. Rice growing areas viz., Navsari, Surat, Valsad, Tapi and Dang and NAU farm were surveyed at grain maturity stage during the kharif 2017 and kharif 2018. In a random survey, two villages were selected in each district and per cent disease incidence, average smutted ball per panicle and disease severity index were recorded in each season. During field visits, we also recorded the symptoms of false smut on the basis of changing the colour of smut balls. Among the eleven surveyed locations, Jamalapada recorded maximum per cent disease incidence i.e., 12.15, 10.06 and 11.11 during 2017, 2018 and mean of two years, respectively. The maximum average smutted ball per panicle recorded was 2.80 per cent in Jamalapada, during 2017 and 2.52 per cent in Khatal, during 2018, while the mean maximum average smutted ball was 2.63 per cent in Jamalapada. Maximum disease severity index, observed in Jamalapada was 34.02, and 24.65 and during 2017 and 2018, respectively with a mean of 29.15. Infected spikelets of the panicle transformed into yellowish-orange to olive-green colour smut ball, almost double the size of the normal rice grains and unfertilized florets infection led to the production of chaffy grains. In severe cases, complete chaffy panicles with numerous smut balls were observed.


As laboratories are an important part of practical teaching in colleges and universities,their construction and management are closely related to the cultivation of an innovative spirit and practical abilities of the students.Starting with a discussion of the prob- lems in the hardware and software conditions in laboratory construction and management in colleges and universities,this article puts forward some suggestions for their solution.


The development requirements for sports panorama synthesis technology, which rely on modern network technology, abandon traditional basketball training forms, and make effective use of the application and development of video panorama technology in the actual training process, are not only an important response to the current characteristics of students' physical education learning and physical and mental growth but also an important response to the current characteristics of students' physical education learning and physical and mental growth. In sports video analysis technology, a sports video panorama is a technical tool that converts an action video into a static action panorama to achieve the effect of action freezing and make overall analysis and mastery of the action easier. Shot segmentation is the foundation of hierarchical video structure, and it necessitates the accurate detection of all types of complex edited shot boundaries, as well as the effective distinction of motion changes in shots, in order to avoid shot boundary recognition being hampered. The synthesis technology for sports video panorama is investigated in this paper using edge computing and video shot boundary detection. After obtaining the boundary feature that describes the video shot, a comparison of this feature with a predetermined threshold value can be used to determine whether there is shot shear.


The purpose of this article is to examine the protection of the human security of the smaller minority during and after the conflict. It will illustrate the mentioned problematic with an analysis of the case of Sri Lanka's Muslim IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) focusing on the effectiveness and the limit of international response to human security of the Muslim IDPs through the evaluation of the World Bank Housing Project in the Puttalam district of Sri Lanka. The protracted armed conflict which started in 1983 between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has killed 90,000 people and left over one million IDPs, most of these IDPs were Tamils and Muslims (the two minority groups). The victimization of Muslim IDPs was caused by the nature of this war, as ethnic cleansing was convicted by the LTTE against the Muslim population. As a result, Muslim families were largely expelled from the Northern Province and have been living under the IDP camps in the North Western Province (Puttalam district) of Sri Lanka. This study reviews the World Bank Housing Project (the Puttalam Housing Project), one of the biggest projects done in 2007 for the IDPs at the time, and evaluates the degree to which the World Bank as a major donor international organization was able to protect the Muslim IDPs and response to their human security challenges. This article will ultimately argue that a special attention is needed to protect the smaller minority (Muslim IDPs) in the conflict both domestically and internationally.


An innovative multigeneration energy system driven by solar energy is proposed in this paper. The integrated model produces electricity, hydrogen, oxygen, and steam for heating purposes. The energy system comprises a pressurized cavity-based solar power tower, latent thermal energy storage (TES) unit, unfired gas turbine (GT) unit, regenerative steam Rankine cycle (SRC), copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) thermochemical cycle, and heat recovery units. By utilization of a high-temperature ternary eutectic phase change material (PCM), a dynamic model is developed to deal with the intermittency of solar energy. Using energy and exergy approaches, the proposed system is investigated to assess exergy destruction rates and the overall system performance. A parametric study is performed to investigate the influence of design parameters such as the number of heliostats, the pressure ratio of GT, and temperatures of reactions on the system performance. The results showed that the energy system produces electricity, steam, hydrogen, and oxygen at a rate of 41.9 MW, 12.6 kg/s, 0.19 kg/s, and 0.76 kg/s, respectively. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the integrated system are found to be 49.9%, and 44.9%, respectively.


A review of the contemporary literature that influences current district nurse practice reveals that district nursing is singled out as a (female) gender role. Within this gender role, district nurses are described as acquiescent, maintaining professional role relationships that resemble the traditional, patriarchal family unit. While this gender role is maintained, district nursing is of considerable use to health care by fulfiling women's caring role. There is a surprising lack of discussion related to gender and gender issues, suggesting that a serious debate on gender and district nursing is long overdue.


Objective: To assess the effect of endotoxemia on hepatic lipid content during parenteral nutrition (PN) in rats. Methods: Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats (185–230 gm) were randomized to receive PN (n=9) or PN plus a continuous infusion of E. coli 026:B6 lipopolysaccharide (LPS; n=11). All animals received isocaloric (170 kcal/kg/day), isonitrogenous (1.1 g N/kg/day), glucose-based PN for the next 78 hours. After 30 hours of adaptation to TPN, the animals were randomized to receive PN or PN plus LPS at 6 mg/kg/day for the remaining 48 hours of study. The animals were euthanized and the livers were harvested. Results: Liver weight increased significantly (by 60%) from 7.5 ± 0.6 g to 12.1 ± 2.4 g (p ≤ 0.01) in the animals who received PN versus LPS, respectively. The proportion of liver water remained the same for PN and LPS groups (72.9 ± 3.2% versus 72.3 ± 3.8%, respectively, p = N.S.). However, liver fat increased disproportionately (by about 130%) from 0.20 ± 0.05 g to 0.46 ± 0.20 g (p ≤ 0.01) total fat weight or from 9.6 ± 1.8% to 13.6 ± 4.1% (p ≤ 0.02) lipid content (g/g) of the dry liver weight for the PN and LPS groups, respectively. Conclusion: Endotoxin, when given concomitantly with parenteral nutrition, increases hepatic lipid accumulation and thus augments the development of parenteral nutrition-associated fatty liver in rats.


While esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the predominant histological type in Japan, concern has been expressed over an increase in the proportion of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), especially in middle‐aged populations. This study aimed to assess long‐term trends in esophageal cancer incidence by histological type.


A general approach for the quantization of statistical data and distributions is considered. The concept is closely related to the statistical measurement of concentration and to the mathematical theory of majorization. In particular, it is the theoretical basis of those compression algorithms which are analysed by P¨otzelberger and Strasser (2001).


Advances in liver transplantation have produced long survival and improved the quality of life of transplant recipients. 1 Despite these advances, liver transplantation is still confronted with clinically important problems. One of these is dealing with the donor shortage. In Japan, living donor liver transplantation has become increasingly popular because of the lack of cadaver donors. The other problems are complications related to prolonged immunosuppressive therapy. Many patients experience diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, progressive renal insufficiency, hypertension, and osteoporosis. Furthermore, the chronic use of immunosuppressive agents seems to increase the risk of development of de novo malignancies as well as major infections. De novo malignancies in liver transplant recipients include skin cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (LPD), sarcoma, renal cell carcinoma, and hepatobiliary carcinomas. Nevertheless, acute leukemia is a rare complication after liver transplantation, and only seven patients who developed post-liver transplant leukemia have been reported. 2–6 Although liver injuries may occur as a side-effect of the chemotherapy for leukemia, liver dysfunction as an initial manifestation of leukemia is generally unusual. 7


The night of 6 April 1712, when twenty-five to thirty slaves resolved to win their freedom and take revenge on their masters in New York City, has failed to strike the collective memory.2 However, for the first time on the North American continent, a group of slaves assembled and killed nine Whites while wounding twelve others. The insurgents gathered at midnight and set fire to Peter Van Tilburg's shed two hours later. Alerted by the flames, New York inhabitants were ambushed by the slaves, who attacked them with rifles, knives, clubs, swords, axes and hatchets. One Robin stabbed his master, Adrian Hoghlandt, in the back, one Tom shot Andries Beekman in the chest while a slave known as Peter the Porter hit Joris Marschalk, his master's son, in the chest too.3 This uprising triggered off a real movement of panic in the city as Governor Hunter sent the New York and Westchester militias to search every corner of the town for the culprits. The fear even spread to the colony of Massachusetts where the Boston Weekly News-Letter published an account of the event, concluding "this has put [us] into no small Consternation the whole town being under Arms."4 This revolt has generated remarkably little scholarly interest: only two articles have been devoted to it as opposed to the flow of works dedicated to the 1741 New York slave conspiracy, the West Indies or the Southern rebellions – the 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina, Gabriel's conspiracy in Virginia in 1800, Denmark Vesey's alleged revolt in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822 or Nat Turner's rebellion in Virginia in 1831.5


The flux and LET-spectra of heavy cosmic ray nuclei and their secondary progeny have been calculated at aircraft flight altitudes. The associated frequency of single event upsets is presented and compared with neutron-induced events.


The method of moments is accelerated by the fast multipole method (FMM) and applied to solve the integral equation with respect to the equivalent currents on the surface of a dielectric cylinder, and then the electromagnetic scattering analysis of the dielectric cylinder. After FMM acceleration, both the computing time and memory needs are reduced from O(N 2) to O(N 3/2 ) without increasing the complexity of implementation.


Based on growing awareness of dual threats of Freon refrigerant ozone depletion potential and global warming potential,the specific heat and surface tension of natural CO2 and three kinds of Freon refrigerant were employed.Performance comparison analysis of the CO2 transcritical cycle and Freon refrigerant cycle were also analyzed in this paper,and some fundamental data were obtained for developing CO2 heat pumps water heater with characteristic of high efficiency and energy conservation.


Synopsis: Embrittlement due to the high temperature solution annealing (H.T.S.A.) in 18%Ni maraging steels has been reported, but the mechanism is not known. A study has been made of the effects of the solution annealing condition, aging condition and cold working on this embrittlement, and discussions are given on the cause of the embrittlement. The embrittlement is not observed in high temperature solution annealed condition. However, it becomes pronounced with increase in the aging temperature or aging time. The degree of the embrittlement becomes larger with higher solution annealing temperature or with increase in the strength level. The embrittled specimens show the characteristic bamboo blind-like fracture surfaces. When the cold working is applied after the H.T.S.A., the toughness recovers. On the other hand, H.T.S.A. specimens as-quenched show a very large uniform elongation in the liquid nitrogen, probably due to the twin deformation. From the above results and the microstructure observations,it is infered that abnormal precipitation on the lath boundary is accelerated during aging in the H.T.S.A. specimens because of the characteristic martensite substructure (lower dislocation density or grid-like dislocation arrangement), and consequently that the cracks can form easily in the H.T.S.A. specimens. It is also made clear that stringer-like martensite is introduced when quenched from the temperatures below austenite recrystallization temperature, while blocky martensite is formed from recrystallized austenite.


A battery pack cooling structure using a cooling plate, wherein the battery pack is efficiently cooled using the cooling plate.
A separator (20) is provided with: upper surface holding sections (31) for holding the upper surfaces (24) of rectangular batteries (10); a pair of side surface holding sections (34) for holding side surfaces (27) of the rectangular batteries; lower surface holding sections (35) for holding the lower surfaces of the rectangular batteries; and an insulation section (30) extending between the rectangular batteries (10). A lower surface holding section (35) is located on the side of a surface (41) of a rectangular battery (10), said surface (41) being that which is to be cooled, and in order to expose the surface (41) of the rectangular battery (10) which is to be cooled, a cutout (36) is formed by cutting away the lower surface holding section (35) except a pair of corners (38) located on the surface (41)-side of the rectangular battery (10) which is to be cooled. A heat conductive sheet is made to be in contact with the surfaces (41) to be cooled of a battery pack (11) through the cutouts (36), and a cooling plate is made to be in contact with the heat conduction sheet.


Harmonic contamination is a serious problem in Low Tension power distribution systems employing several types of non-linear loads e.g. diode/thyristor rectifiers, cyclo-converters, IGBT/MOSFET based inverters, adjustable speed drives, Switched Mode Power Supply, etc. Each of these load, overheat the distribution transformers and hamper the power quality. Hence, it is necessary to limit the harmonics to meet IEEE: 519-2014 harmonic standard. To reduce the harmonic currents, the simplest method is to utilize the passive filters generally known as Harmonic Traps. However, passive filters alone cannot eliminate all harmonic components. Besides, there are limitations on the use of passive filtering. Hence, hybrid filtering technique incorporating passive and active filters is the solution for the present power electronic systems. The active filters may be connected either in series or parallel with the mains. Hybrid harmonic filter considered in this paper is an effective solution for harmonic mitigation and its effective implementation. The detail design and simulation of a innovative hybrid filter for harmonic elimination in low tension power distribution systems is presented in this paper. The percentage total harmonic distribution of the compensated load voltage has been considered as a measure of performance.


AIM: To observe the effects of Decoction of Bu-Shen-Huo-Xue-Xie-Zhuo (BSHXXZ) on focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in rats. METHODS: Unilateral nephrectomy was adopted firstly, one week later adrimycin was intravenously adminstered to 20 rats twice in a 23-day period to establish an advanced focal segmental glomerulosclerosis model in the rat. Changes in urine protein, blood chemistry, and histology of the kidney were investigated for 110 days after unilateral nephrectomy. RESULTS: The BSHXXZ decoction reduced edema, proteinuria, hyperlipidemia, azotemia and ascites, and increased albumin in blood. Light microscopic, electron microscopic, immunohistochemical and polarizing microscopic examination all showed that the pathologic changes in the treatment group were less than that of the model group. CONCLUSION: Decoction of BSHXXZ could markedly improve renal function and delay the progression of glomerulosclerosis and renal interstitial fibrosis.


Many special problems commonly ascribed to differential geometry have proved accessible to a purely geometric treatment without any differentiability assumptions. The present paper tries to develop systematically the foundations for a general geometric theory of Finsler spaces. It is naturally divided into two parts. The first (chapters I and II) covers the basic concepts such as line elements, extremals, their parametrizations and so forth ; briefly all those facts which are usually derived from the theory, of differential equations. The second part (chapters III and IV) shows that these concepts suffice to build a geometric theory on them. It is largely inspired by Cartan [l](l) which sets forth admirably the simple geometric facts underlying the results of Riemannian geometry. A brief résumé of the results follows: Chapter I contains the general tools and is believed to prove useful also for other fields. After defining metric spaces so as to include the case where the distance is not symmetric (the spaces occurring in the calculus of variations are in general of this type) §1 discusses the concept of finite compactness. In §2 the subsets of a metric space are metrized by a distance similar but superior to the known Hausdorff distance inasmuch as it is not restricted to bounded sets. §3 defines a similar metric for the motions of a metric space. These distances will serve to replace local coordinates or other parameters in analytical arguments. Chapter II contains the fundamental definitions and facts. First (§4), the basic Axioms A, B, C, D for a Finsler space are given, and their implications for the local geometry are discussed. Then (§5), extremals are defined, in a rather unorthodox way, as classes of segments. It is shown that they have parametric representations with the properties commonly used for the definition. Next (§6), convergence of extremals as point sets, sets of line-elements, and curves is analyzed. In the symmetric case (yx=xy) it is natural to consider non-oriented segments and extremals (called geodesies). They have many additional properties (§§7 and 8)(2) which may all be traced to the fact that two different geodesies have at most countably many common points. Chapter III presents a theory of parallelism for rays in unbounded spaces. Prolongation of a segment beyond its end point leads either to the absolutely


Elastomeric dampers have potential application in rotating machinery vibration control. They are however not widely used due to lack of reliable data on their loss factor. Most available data on these dampers are obtained from testing undertaken during stationary condition of the shaft. When the shaft rotates, the dampers are subjected to rotating load that may affect their loss factor. The effect of shaft rotation on the loss factor is experimentally examined in this work. Impact test was used to determine the frequency response function (FRF) of the dampers. For the dampers subjected to rotating load, the loss factor values derived from the FRF was found to be in good agreement with those determined from the half-power bandwidth method. The results further showed that the loss factor at resonant frequency determined from testing of the dampers under stationary shaft condition underestimates the values of the loss factor when the shaft is rotating. The effect of shaft rotation on the values of the damper's loss factor was more noticeable for the response in the X-direction as opposed to the Y-direction, indicating that pre-strain plays a more dominant role in influencing the loss factor of the dampers compared to the dynamic amplitude.


(57) in the Abstract: The present invention is entirely manufactured of biodegradable products, it may be used particulate material obtained by spray drying the dispersion as needed intermediates are prepared from selected starting materials to the use of dispersions of urea group-containing polyurethane that.


Background:  Laparoscopic approach for cholecystectomy has already become the standard of care for the management of symptomatic and (in selected cases) asymptomatic cholelithiasis. Despite proven advantages laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is known to be associated with certain complications. Methods: This prospective study was undertaken to document the incidences of such complications and to compare them to those in already published data. A total of 750 cases of LC performed in the department of general surgery at IPGME and R and SSKM hospital, Kolkata were observed for a minimum period of 8 weeks following surgery. The complications were noted and their incidences calculated using simple statistical tools. These were then compared with those in already published data. Results:  A total of 493 complications occurred in 483 patients (64.4%). The most common complication was port-site infection (PSI) occurring in 476 patients (63.5%). The other complications included bleeding (1.2%), bowel injury (0.7%) and bile duct injury (0.4%). Mortality occurred in 3 cases (0.4%). Conversions to open cholecystectomy (OC) due to inability to proceed in a timely manner because of difficult exposure or unclear anatomy were not considered as complications rather as an inevitable extension of the primary approach in some difficult scenarios. Conclusions:  At the end of our study period we could conclude that the incidences of specific complications in our study are less than those reported from different centres across the globe except for PSI. The alarmingly high incidence of PSI noted is a matter for introspection. A detailed study needs to be undertaken so that appropriate measures may be taken to prevent this scourge.


SUMMARY

The spatial distribution of soil in the Wyre Forest of England was analysed in two phases. In the first the soil was examined at sites chosen using a five-stage nested design with spacings increasing geometrically from 6 m to 600 m. Some 80% of the variance was contributed by components for the spacings between 6 m and 60 m. Measurements were then made on transects at 5 m intervals and semi-variograms estimated to 70 m. Except for those of pH the semi-variograms of the soil properties had the same general transitive form and a common effective range of about 40 m. This short range meant that very intensive sampling, approximately one point per 400 m2, is needed to map the soil variation. A survey was made of a small portion of the forest on a 20m × 25 m grid to test the inference. Maps of clay and sand content were made successfully by kriging from the data. The mutual correlations between soil properties and the common range of their semi-variograms enabled a general purpose and spatially coherent soil classification to be created from the data. Its mapping confirmed the intricacy of the soil pattern in the Forest.


Previous studies have reported that intra-urban variability of NO2 concentrations is even higher than inter-urban variability. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have developed satellite-derived land use regression (LUR) models to predict ground-level NO2 concentrations, though only a few have been conducted at a city scale. In this study, we developed a satellite-derived LUR model to predict seasonal NO2 concentrations at a city scale by including satellite-retrieved NO2 tropospheric column density, population density, traffic indicators, and NOx emission data. The R2 of model fitting and 10-fold cross validation were 0.70 and 0.61 for the satellite-derived seasonal LUR model, respectively. The satellite-based LUR model captured seasonal patterns and fine gradients of NO2 variations at a 100 m × 100 m resolution and demonstrated that NO2 pollution in winter is 1.46 times higher than that in summer. NO2 concentrations declined significantly with increasing distance from roads and with increasing distance from the city center. In Suzhou, 84% of the total population lived in areas with NO2 concentrations exceeding the annual-mean standard at 40 μg/m3 in 2014. This study demonstrated that satellite-retrieved data could help increase the accuracy and temporal resolution of the traditional LUR models at a city scale. This application could support exposure assessment at a high resolution for future epidemiological studies and policy development pertaining to air quality control.


To make a meaningful response logic to future exchange rate pressures, we monitor the determinants of the current account and exchange rate. First, according to the analysis of current account determinants, the current account imbalance will gradually ease from a long-term and structural perspective if the domestic financial market develops or access to the international financial market is strengthened. In addition, existing structural current account estimates that do not take into account international financial market conditions may have underestimated the structural current account balance of emerging countries such as Korea. Second, based on the analysis of the currency determinants, we can argue that the weak won is structurally inevitable due to the weak yuan.


The most stringent water resources management system proposed by the central government in 2011 is the development direction of efficient agricultural water use in the future of China.With the increasing of water resource shortage,the efficient agricultural water use is used as the important direction of relieving the contradiction between the supply and demand of agricultural water resources and realizing connotative development of agricultural water resources.This paper establishes the dynamic evolution model of efficient agricultural water use.We can conclude that efficient agricultural water use can solve the contradictions between the supply and demand of water resources,and it is induced by market factors and based on the income maximization of farmers.The policy-driven impact can reduce the cost of investment and accelerate the pace of the process,but did not change its evolution mechanism.


ABSTRACT Lignin is one of the main components of wood and the second most abundant natural polymer. It is appreciated as a synthesis starter due to its aromatic and hydroxyl functionalities. Adhesive systems (PF or PUR) comprising lignin as a raw material are recently on the rise as this natural product could replace petroleum derivatives in the industry. Lignin extraction from wood is a complex procedure, and purification treatments are required to ensure an efficient reactivity in most applications. One-component polyurethane systems (1C PUR) are used in the wood panel industry due to the good compatibility between MDI and wood, which generally favours resin penetration. However, this family of adhesives does not always fulfil the requirements of applications where thick glue lines are needed, such as structural wood bonding, where absorption of the resin and reaction with moisture can cause poor glue intimacy or foaming, respectively. In this study, differently extracted lignins have been dispersed in 1C PUR and used for the structural bonding of beech wood. The dispersion methodology was a key parameter to obtain homogeneous systems with small particle size, which improved stability. The mechanical properties of glued specimens have all been enhanced by the incorporation of lignin in this way.


As a result of the newly established role of clinical outcome manager, North Mississippi Medical Center Home Health (NMMCHH) measurably improved patient care while decreasing the cost of care. The success of the initial clinical outcome manager project of improving the outcome of urinary incontinent patients gave credence to the role and set the focus for NMMCHH on improving outcomes. NMMCHH added eight additional projects directed by clinical outcome managers. Additional results from the clinical outcome managers' concentration on patient outcomes included an excellent Joint Commission on Health Care Accreditation survey, facilitation of an increase in patient satisfaction rate, and a contribution to a reduction in staff turnover for NMMCHH. One success leads to another.


Little is known about how vertical rock habitats are selected by organisms in forest ecosystems. Multiple lungless salamanders use rock outcrops in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America, with Green Salamanders (Aneides aeneus (Cope and Packard, 1881)) showing the strongest associations as an outcrop specialist. Although previous work has identified environmental correlates of rock face and arboreal habitat use in this species, it remains to be known if and how Green Salamanders select crevice refugia as a function of both outcrop morphology and the context of outcrops within the surrounding forest. We performed an intensive survey of an abundant Green Salamander population on Virginia's Appalachian Plateau to examine which features of vertical habitats are associated with salamander occupancy. Occupancy was highest in deeper rock crevices closer to surrounding trees, a likely consequence of arboreal behavior and the ability for crevice refugia to modulate the surrounding microclimate. Althoug...


The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of high‐intensity interval training (HIIT) on anthropometric variables in adults afflicted with overweight or obesity and to compare the effects with those of moderate‐intensity continuous training.


Fourier analysis of the chaotic neural network model of the dynamics of the feedback since the value of the sensitivity of the right to connect to study the function of the annealing process of optimizing the accuracy and speed of impact.And using transient chaotic neural network of sub-annealing process of thinking of the Fourier chaotic neural network model to improve,a co-exist with uncertainty and randomness of the optimization algorithm,to ensure accuracy of optimization algorithm,on the basis of speeding up convergence rate,and using the classic traveling salesman(TSP) study show that the algorithm is very strong capacity to overcome a local minimum,the greater the increase optimization,time and the initial value of robust performance,the certification of this optimization and the effectiveness of strategies.Gives the model parameters on the performance of some of the conclusions.


In this paper we propose the optimization of Rough Set method using ant colony for oil-impregnated paper bushings. Ant colony is used to discretize the training data set. The ant colony optimized rough set is compare to a rough set who's data is discretized using equal frequency bin (EFB). Ant colony optimized (ACO) rough set results show an improvement compared to the EFB. The ACO rough set has an accuracy 4% high than that of EFB rough set. Rules generated are only a third for ACO compared to EFB. Although ACO takes longer to train, it proves to outperform EFB in all other respects.


In this paper, a multilayer distributed multi-agent framework under the smart grid umbrella is proposed as a control structure to tackle technical challenges for distribution systems with high penetration of distributed generation. The proposed multi-agent control structure has been divided into three main layers. In the first layer, the functions of the local agents is defined according to the concept of intelligent agents and the characteristic of the individual DG and utility devices such as load tap changer, shunt capacitors and protection devices. Based on the concepts of microgrids, cells and virtual power plants, regional coordination agents are defined and chosen as a second layer. To achieve global objective(s), the distribution management system DMS is selected as the highest layer supervisor agent.


Considering from such a viewpoint as realizing the non-contact and driving-type painting or forced drying system of sphere, which has the advantage of leaving no mark on the sphere at the top of supporting pins, it is basically important to control the movement of sphere. A rotational motion recognition technique of sphere, which is considered to be essential for developing such a control system, is newly proposed in this paper. It consists of three modules ; a principle of detecting the axis and speed of rotation using Hall elements, a way of producing magnetic flux required onto the surface of sphere and evaluation of experimental results. Although having disturbance caused by the vibration and dimples of a golf ball chosen as the object, the proposed method is proved to be effective and valuable.


A natural way to solve the problem of string matching with k mismatches, is to construct a nite automaton recognizing the language L P;k of all strings being at a distance k of the searched pattern P, and to use it for a linear search in the text. The problem of this approach is a high space complexity. In this paper, we show that, even if we consider the minimal DFA recognizing L P;k , the memory space required remains large, and the number of states C of the minimal automaton increases quickly with the size m of P. For a pattern composed of the repetition of one character, the exact number of states is C = ? m+1 k+1. For a pattern composed of characters that are all diierent, an accurate lower bound on C is P k i=1 i b i , where, for all i, b i is the (i + 1) th Catalan number and i is a positive integer depending on m and k. For a random pattern P, a lower bound is obtained by considering the longest preex of P consisting, either in the repetition of a single character, or in characters that are all diierent.


Molecular species of collagen in the mantle muscle and skin of the squid Todarodes pacificus were examined by biochemical techniques. A major collagen and a minor collagen which showed distinct patterns of SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were isolated from the pepsin-solubilized collagen from both of the tissues by differential salt precipitation and phosphocellulose column chromatography. By peptide mapping, the major and minor collagens which existed in the mantle muscle were shown to be essentially identical to the major and minor collagens in the mantle skin, respectively. The major and minor collagens, termed Type SQ-I and SQ-‡U collagens (SQ: squid), respectively, in the muscle were demonstrated to be genetically distinct from each other by peptide mapping and amino acid analysis.


Purpose and Background:Clinical interpretations of Degenerative Lumbar Disc Disease are not described in the literature. The purpose of this study was to establish a consensus of expert clinical opinion in order to fuel further research.Methods:A reliable and valid electronic survey was designed to include theoretical constructs relating to training and education, general knowledge, assessment and management practices. Clinicians from the Society of Back Pain Research U.K. were invited to take part. Quantitative data was collated and coded using Bristol on-line survey software, and content analysis was used to systematically code and categorize qualitative data.Results:Respondents represented a wide range of clinical specialties. The majority graduated in the U.K. (87%), were clinically active and had greater than 9 years postgraduate clinical experience (84%).MRI (36%) and physical assessment (21%) were cited as the most important clinical assessment tools. Reduction in disc height (92%) and disc dehydra...


Reducing grid reliability, the problem of Preparation important loads in times of critical and Production shortfall during peak hours are the factors that lead to the development of load demand response program by electric Power distribution (EPDC). Given that almost one-third of the electricity consumed in the industrial sector and the many industries are able to change their production cycle with shifts or to use of diesel generators and as well The majority of industries in order to fix the annual period should not shut its production line. That's why the industry have great potential for the implementation demand response activities. In this paper, with the implementation of incentive policies, we review the case study of the implementation demand response various activities and operation reserve for Guilan Province's industrial customers and By categorizing industries, will see the impact of the implementation of each project in each category of industry and in the following, show The impact of the project on reducing peak demand. Finally we model the economic assessment of the project in terms of the EPDC and will show the efficiency of projects and On the basis of costs and benefits, we calculate the billable amount.


Silicon nanoparticles (Si-NPs) are useful phosphor materials for light emitting devices because of their multicolor luminescence, low production cost, and abundance. The luminescence properties of Si-NPs strongly depend on their surface condition. To improve their luminance and luminance stability, Si-NPs are combined with an alkyl group. We used ultraviolet irradiation to couple the surface of SiNPs with an organic layer consisting of an alkyl group. The surface-modified Si-NPs demonstrated bright and stable luminance in air. Our findings suggest that alkyl-passivation of Si-NPs has future practical applications for light emitting devices and displays.