Abstract This symposium will highlight the implementation of nutrition, body composition and functional assessment in vulnerable older adults. Understanding the barriers and enablers of implementing traditional nutrition screening and assessment tools, nutrition focused physical examination, body composition analysis, functional assessment and biomarkers can aid researchers in the design of pragmatic nutrition studies in vulnerable older adults. DiMaria-Ghalili will provide an introduction to overall nutrition assessment in community-dwelling older adults and present lessons learned in regards to nutrition assessment protocols (Mini-Nutritional Assessment, hand-grip strength, and inflammatory biomarkers) from an ongoing clinical trial. Starr will discuss the issues surrounding nutrition screening and assessment in high-risk older adults undergoing abdominal surgery. A comparison of data on different nutrition screening and assessment tools (NRS-2002; PG-SGA, Nutrition Focused Physical Examination) in older adults undergoing abdominal surgery will be presented. Batsis will discuss the controversies and challenges in body composition assessment focusing on sarcopenic obesity. Data highlighting the different diagnostic criteria of sarcopenic obesity and diagnostic accuracy will be presented. The link between overall nutrition status and physical function on health outcomes is emerging in older adults. Bales will discuss the types of physical function assessment tools used in studies of older adults and discuss her findings on the impact of higher protein intake on functional outcomes. The symposium will conclude with a discussion led by Locher on practical implications of integrating best assessment techniques into clinical practice.


We investigated the influence of recreational trails on breeding bird communities in forest and mixed-grass prairie ecosystems in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, during 1994 and 1995. Species composition, nest predation, and brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) were examined near and away from existing recreational trails. Bird species composition was altered adjacent to trails in both ecosystems. Generalist species were more abundant near trails, whereas specialist species were less common. Within the grassland ecosystem, birds were less likely to nest near trails. Within both ecosystems, nest predation was greater near trails. In forests, the rate of brood parasitism was not influenced by trails. No brood parasitism was found in the grassland ecosystem. Our results may be useful to natural-lands managers who must implement management policies regarding the spatial arrangement of trails and trail-use restrictions.


Three percids occur in Finland: the Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis), the pikeperch (Stizostedion lucioperca), and the ruff (Gymnocephalus cernua). Perch occur throughout Finland, whereas ruff and pikeperch show a more southerly distribution. The pikeperch prefers lakes of medium or large area and the perch small lakes. A negative correlation was found between the size of the population of the perch and the number of fish species present. The growth rate for all species is higher in brackish water than in freshwater, and also has been higher in recent than earlier years.The correlation between the intensity of color of the water and the percentage of predaceous fish in catches, perch and pikeperch included, is negative. Perch lived longer in ponds with dark water than in those with clear and eutrophic waters. Ruff and small perch are typically prey species, while the pikeperch is a major predator.The environmental toxins cadmium, lead, DDT, and PCBs were found in only slight concentrations in percids. H...


OBJECTIVE:To summarize the experiences of pharmacists in clinical pharmaceutical care for pharmacists' references.METHODS:By reviewing pertinent literature and data,we summarized pharmacists' daily practices such as carrying out medication education among patients,ADR monitoring in endemic area,involving in formulation of pharmacotherapy,providing medication guidance for patients on discharge,providing pharmaceutical information for nursing staff etc.RESULTS:Through this practice,clinical pharmacists' role was brought to full play practically by offering help for physicians,nursing staff and patients,which served as guidance for pharmacists' work.CONCLUSION:By carrying out the above work,the pharmaceutical care provided by clinical pharmacists gained positive feedback clinically,meanwhile,pharmacists' quality were also improved.This pharmaceutical care is suitable to be carried out in clinical practice.


Synthetic liquid fuels produced from bio-sources (BTL fuels) and renewable electricity (PTL fuels) represent one of the alternatives to reduce the environmental impact caused by the combustion gas emissions. This work analyses the production costs of fuels from 10 simulations with different technologies provided by other authors, using the method of levelized cost of production, adapted to two standardization models; the first standardizes macroeconomic factors, the second also provides an overview of how these costs would be if production were in Germany.In addition, trends in the future production costs of these fuels in Germany until 2040 were investigated.


Leonhard et al. analyzed the pattern of preceding infections in a large cohort of 768 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) from 19 countries spread over 5 continents.1 To some extent, this study is biased because the majority of the patients were from temperate regions and testing for preceding infections was limited to only 5 microorganisms (Campylobacter jejuni, hepatitis E virus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus). The burden of infections varies significantly across tropical and temperate regions, with arboviral infections being quite prevalent in the tropics. Dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, and zika have consistently been associated with GBS.2-4


Ring flange is often made according to the unloading processing technology of gas cutting with consuming both more time and idle material,and processing difficulty.A new forming machine for flange is introduced in this paper;it is one kind of machine that is used for making ring flange simply and easily.Its structure and operating principle is analyzed in this paper,and the forming machine is a very practical simple tool for enterprises where equipment is made.


The gut microbiome has a role in the growth of many diseases such as cancer due to increased inflammation. There is an unmet need to identify novel strategies to investigate the effect of inflammation mediated by gut microbiome on cancer cells. However, there are limited biomimetic co-culture systems that allow to test causal relationship of microbiome on cancer cells. Here we developed a microfluidic chip that can simulate the interaction of the gut microbiome and cancer cells to test the effects of bacteria and inflammatory stress on cancer cells in vitro. To quantify the effect of bacteria on the growth of colorectal cancer cells, we cultured colorectal cancer cell line with Bacillus or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which is a purified bacterial membrane and induce major inflammatory response, in the PDMS microfluidic device. We found that both LPS and Bacillus significantly accelerate the growth of colorectal cancer cells. These results show that the increased presence of certain bacteria can promote cancer cell growth and that these microfluidic chips can be used to test the specific correlation between bacteria and cancer cell growth. These microfluidic devices can have future implications for various cancer types and to identify treatment strategies.


Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics Siena Research topics Molecular basis of the penetration of herpes simplex virus into the cell as the basis for the design of oncolitic viruses (Prof. Campadelli-Fiume) Mechanisms of regulation of gene expression by eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I (Top1) (Prof. Capranico) Structure and function of proteins involved in metal metabolism (Prof. Ciurli) Study of the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases (Prof. Contestabile) Molecular mechanisms of energy transduction in membrane protein complexes (Prof. Francia) The Drosophila as a model system for the study of gene function in development and cancer (Prof. Gargiulo) Genetic factors in the pathogenesis of autism (Prof. Maestrini) Epigenetic regulation of gene expression in tumors (Prof. Perini) Cancer modelling in Drosophila (Prof. Pession) Mitochondrial genetics and dysfunctions in neurodegenerative disorders and tumorigenesis (Prof. Rugolo) Molecular and genetic basis of bacterial pathogenicity (Prof. Scarlato) Molecular mechanisms of redox signaling and regulation of energy metabolism in plants (Prof. Trost and Prof. Sparla) Role of conformational dynamics and protein-solvent interaction in the photocatalytic activity of photosynthetic reaction centers (Prof. Venturoli) Molecular aspects of microbial bioremediation (Prof. Zannoni) Nanobiotechnological methodologies in the study of the structural basis of neurodegenerative proteopaties and DNA-based nanofabrication (Prof. Zuccheri) Requirements and admission procedures


Has been conducting research with the title: "Application of Model Problem Based Learning Approach Scientific to Increase Activity and Learning Outcomes Grade VIIII SMP Negeri 5 Kendari Main Material Plane Simple (Class Action Research in Class VIIIi SMP Negeri 5 Kendari Semister I Academic Year 2014 / 2015) ". This research has been conducted in the first semester of the academic year 2014/2015, which took place on October 1 to October 7 2014 Junior High School 5 Kendari. Subjects in this study were students VIIIiSekolah SMP Negeri 5 Kendaripada semester of academic year 2014/2015 the number of students 35 people. The data obtained in this study is the activity and the thoroughness of learning outcomes derived from observations and test results sheet belajar.Analisis data were statistically deskriptif.Hasil of this research are: 1) the activity of students in the process pembelajan tends to increase, which is shown by the acquisition score on average in the first cycle of 2.45 included in the category enough and rose by 0.65 in the second cycle to 3.1 were categorized as good; 2) learning outcomes VIIIi grade science students SMP Negeri 5 Kendari taught with the application of Problem Based Learning with Scientific approach to the range of scores obtained as follows: the first cycle obtained a score of 1.4 up to 3.7 with an average score of 2, 84 and a standard deviation of 0.44; in the second cycle obtained a score of 2.00 up to 3.85 with an average score of 3.15 and a standard deviation of 0.37; and 3) learning outcomes VIIIi grade science students SMP Negeri 5 Kendari on the subject matter of simple air can be improved by applying the model of Problem Based Learning with Scientific approach, with the acquisition of an average score of student learning outcomes in the first cycle of 2.84 with the percentage of students who has been thoroughly studied by 71.43%, while in the second cycle of the average student learning outcomes increased to 3.15 with the percentage of students who have thoroughly studied by 91.43%


In our professional readings, it is valuable on occasion to step back from the standard journal articles and textbooks and take a look at the pioneers in medicine and physics to understand the struggles that brought us to our current level of sophistication. Such an insight into the development of


An spectroscopy method to fast determination of the degree of unsaturation of oils and fats is described by measurement of intensity of the olefinic band at 3007 cm -1 Using SNGLE program, the peak heigt and peak area and also 1st derivate and 2nd derivate at 3007 cm -1 are calculated and relationships between these parameters and iodine values are studied. The best relationships were obtained with the measurements of net absorbance (r=0,9992: error index=1,75%) and area (r=0,9992; error index= 1,77%).


We aimed to derive a kernel function that accounts for the interaction among moving particles within the framework of particle method. To predict a computationally more accurate moving particle solution for the Navier-Stokes equations, kernel function is a key to success in the development of interaction model. Since the smoothed quantity of a scalar or a vector at a spatial location is mathematically identical to its collocated value provided that the kernel function is chosen to be the Dirac delta function, our guideline is to derive the kernel function that is closer to the delta function as much as possible. The proposed particle interaction model using the newly developed kernel function will be validated through the two investigated Navier-Stokes problems which have either the semianalytical or the benchmark solutions.


Now a day's failure of system outages in cloud application is the main drawbacks of cloud environment. It reduces the economic losses for the business environment. Anomaly detection in the cloud system will reduce the loss. Anomaly detection at the user end is difficult, particularly Rolling Upgrade operation. Due to the enormous anomaly the operations are indistinguishable. It is very difficult to find the faults or anomalies. Current system fails to provide reliable assurance of successful execution to the system. Proposed anomaly detection using Decision tree J48 classifier giving the reliable assurance during running virtual machine upgrade operation. The proposed method was evaluated on the Google Cloud Platform. It will give the high precision, recall, accuracy to the cloud environment.


Because of today's education system, providing excellent education to students is extremely tough for educational institutions/colleges. Information technology can help students and educational institutions overcome the challenges they encounter owing to a lack of infrastructure and resources; nevertheless, the centralized approach is hindering progress. The Internet is now more widely dispersed than ever before, because of the widespread availability of a diverse variety of telecommunications devices, as well as music players like the iPad and iPod. Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular in a variety of industries because of its many advantages, and educational institutions can benefit from this by reducing the cost of infrastructure by using cloud computing services. Additionally, e-learning is becoming a widely accepted and widely used trend. Many resources are needed for e-learning systems, including both Hardware and Software. Such investments are excessively expensive at many educational institutions.


In this work, the output-feedback fault-tolerant tacking control issue for underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with actuators faults is investigated. Firstly, an output-feedback error tacking system is constructed based on the theoretical model of underactuated AUV with actuators faults. Then, an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) based fault-tolerant control controller is developed. In our proposed control scheme, a neural-network observer is designed to approximate the system states with actuators faults. An online policy iteration algorithm is designed with critic network and action network in order to improve the tracking accuracy. Based on Lyapunov stability theorem, the stability of the error tracking system is guaranteed by the proposed controller. At last, the simulation results show that the underactuated AUV achieves better tracking performance.


Plantago ovata is very important medicinal herb mainly used in intestinal disorders. Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria(NFB) have ability to fix atmospheric dinitrogen in to ammonia. Present study was carried out to isolate nitrogen fixing bacteria from soil and their application on Plantagoovata (Isabgol) plant. NFB were isolated on different nitrogen free media such as Ashby's Mannitol Agar, Nitrogen Free Bromothymol blue medium, Rc medium etc,. Total twenty five strains were isolated and their morphological and biochemical characteristics were studied. Isolates AM1, AM2, MM5,MB2 and MB9 were selected on the basis of nitrate reduction activity. All isolates showed NH 3 production. Maximum IAA production (9.0 ìg/ ml) was showed in MM5 culture in 500 ìg/ ml of tryptophan concentration.Zone of phosphate solubilization showed in MM5 which was3mm in diameter. Pot experiment was done to study the effect NFB on isabgolplant. The treatment T3 was showed the best growth followed by T2, T1, T4, and T5 as compared to control. From the all treatments the highest length of root and shoot showed in T3 (3.2, 7.1 cm) as compared to control plantand maximum Chlorophyll a, b content showed in T3 (2.6 mg/ ml and


Vinyl acetate (VAc) was polymerized at temperature ranging from -30°C to +60°C in the presence of catalysts prepared from tri-n-butyl boron (BBu3) and a, a′-azo-bisisobutylonitrile (AIBN).In addition, polymerization of VAc was carried out at 30°C using BBu3 as catalyst in methanol (MeOH) and in methylacetate (MeOAc), and also carried out at 60°C in MeOH using three kinds of catalysts, (1) AIBN, (2) BBu3 and (3) AIBN-BBu3 mixtures.These polyvinyl acetates thus obtained were saponified to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and further deesterified.From the viewpoint of crystallinity and stereoregularity, the PVA prepared at the lower polymerization temperature has better qualities and the PVA (A) derived from polymerization in MeOH has much higher crystallinity and regularity than the PVA (B) derived from polymerization in MeOAc.Heat treated and not formalized PVA fibers derived from PVAc polymerized temperature below 10°C, neither dissolves nor shrinks in hot water up to 115°C. These fibers have very good resitance to hot water but their properties, such as tenacity, elongation and elastic recovery are not influenced by the polymerization temperature.Heat treated fibers prepared from PVA (A) have much better resistance to hot water at 110°C than those prepared from PVA (B), but other properties do not differ between (A) and (B).The properties of PVA and the fibers obtained from it are not influenced by the kinds of catalysts, when the polymerization temperature is same.


an important source of competitive challenge to larger firms forcing them into a more efficient use of the resources under their control. Second, small businesses as a whole command considerable economic resources. By increasing the educational effort directed towards the small firm the country could expect an improvement in their management, for example by reducing the real cost of a given level of output. These are the economic benefits sought from an educational programme. Policy should, we think, be founded in a demonstration of a specific connection between a given increase in the availability of education and economic performance.2 It must also consider whether the increase in resources devoted to


In this work random arbitrage opportunities and their implications in hedging for pricing financial derivatives will be studied. In particular, we will extend the asymptotic pricing theory and we will focus our study to discover confidence intervals for hedging. Hedging confidence intervals and their linchpin to the amount of arbitrage risk an investor will permit to be exposed to will be founded. Moreover, sufficient evidence in order to indicate that the resulting hedging zones are independent of the detailed statistical characteristics of certain profit opportunities will be provided. In addition, numerical results based on pricing theory about hedging, which will focus on effective hedging ratio's largest deviations from the usual BlackScholes hedging ratio will be provided, and finally useful conclusions will be given. Note that the results are consistent with empirical work in the literature.


Sculpture is one of the subjects studied in second cycle and tertiary institutions in Ghana. Due to its relevance in the socio-economic development of the country, materials for production of sculpture are of much importance. In some Second Cycle institutions where Visual Art is studied, many of the materials for sculpture production are imported, expensive or inaccessible to students due to the inadequate funding in purchasing materials for studio work. This has restricted Visual Arts teachers and students with limited materials resulting in less and monotonous practical works, depriving students of mastering effectively, the skills in sculpture production. Eggshells from hatcheries, homes and fast food industries have been used for art for centuries across the world. But they have also been disposed of as waste materials that may cause environmental pollution in some places including Ghana. This study experiments with eggshell powder for sculpture production that will be of benefit to Visual Art teachers and students in skills development lessons and the enhancement of creative ideas. This study has identified eggshell powder as a viable sculpture material through quasi experiments conducted with selected binders to ascertain its potential for modeling and casting. The methodology involves preparation of the Eggshells, milling of shells into powder, laboratory test for chemical composition of the powder, mixing with variety of binders, sculpting and finishing. Although eggshell powder reacted differently to the various binders, the results show that eggshell powder is a suitable unconventional material for modeling and casting figures. Second Cycle and tertiary Institutions are therefore encouraged to use it as alternative sculpting material to enrich the practical session of the visual art programme.


Dear Editor, We read the article titled "Evaluation of oncologic outcomes in head and neck cancer patients ≥80-year-old based on adherence to NCCN guidelines for postoperative adjuvant treatment" with great interest. We appreciate the authors for bringing out an important management issue of adjuvant treatment in elderly patients. The dilemma arises as most of these guidelines do not stratify patients based on their age while recommending treatments for them. The treatment of elderly patients with cancer poses a different set of challenges—the presence of comorbidities, extent of active lifestyle (age is just a number!), and social and financial support. In the study, the authors analyzed the effect of nonadherence to guidelines over the survival outcome in elderly patients with head and neck cancers following surgical resection. The authors divided the patients into two groups—one group treated in adherence to NCCN guidelines while adjuvant treatment in the other group could not be in accordance with these guidelines. We believe that there are two important issues to be discussed here. Firstly, the question of multimodality management in head and neck cancer usually arises in the setting of locally advanced cancers. As more than 50% of the patients in the study group belonged to stage I or II, they would have been advised to be on surveillance as per the prevailing guidelines. How these patients did not adhere to the NCCN guidelines is difficult to interpret. Or, if they did require multimodality management, it would be very pertinent to know what the reasons were? Secondly, what were the factors that led to this nonadherence to NCCN guidelines—whether it was patient refusal, or absence of financial and/or social support, or presence of comorbidities that did not allow the institution of adjuvant treatment. Analysis of these factors would have greatly added the scientific value to this article. Interestingly, none of the patients in the noncompliance group received chemotherapy. A number of factors may be responsible for this—financial constraints, fear of side effects, long duration of therapy, absence of family support, and unavailability of treatment facility in the vicinity. There are few other things that we would like to highlight also regarding this paper. Though sample size in the study is relatively large (n = 159), the authors have included different types of cancers making it a very heterogeneous group for any significant comparison. The authors have not stated how many patients had a positive margin resection, which has an undisputed bearing in deciding the adjuvant treatment. We would have greatly appreciated, had the authors also reported 95% confidence interval for the comparison outcomes. There has been enough literature to suggest that mere description of P value is not sufficient and 95% confidence interval must be displayed. We believe a proper study design to address this question would be to divide patients requiring adjuvant treatment following surgical resection into two groups—one adhering to treatment guidelines and another having individualized approach. Also, equally important would be to analyze the factors that do not allow them to be compliant to the advised treatment based on guidelines. However, it cannot be overstressed that patients must be a party to all the decisions taken for their treatment as they would be the one bearing the consequences—favorable or not.


THE quantitative analysis of the amount of total purine bases present in organs or in specimens of nucleic acids can be carried out with great accuracy. The same cannot be said however of the estimation of the individual purine bases. After acid hydrolysis, the total bases may be quantitatively precipitated, either by means of an ammoniacal silver solution or by the copper bisulphite reagent. The quantitative separation of the two main purine bases guanine and adenine is a much more difficult task. Generally their different solubilities in dilute ammonia or hot water have been used for this purpose. Adenine itself however is not soluble enough in neutral or weakly alkaline solution to allow of a quantitative separation of the two purine bases in this way.


The design,implementation,and characterization of an image-rejection double quadrature conversion mixer based on RC asymmetric polyphase filters(PPF) are presented.The mixer consists of three sets of PPFs and a mixer core for quadrature down conversion.Two sets of PPFs are used for the quadrature generation and the other one is used for the IF signal selection to reject the unwanted image band.Realized in 0.18-μm CMOS technology as a part of the DVB-T receiver chip,the mixer exhibits a high image rejection ratio(IRR) of 58 dB,a power consumption of 11 mW,and a 1-dB gain compression point of-15 dBm.


The use of mouthwash is an effective way to help cure gingivitis. Mouthwash that is often used is mouthwash containing antiseptic. Recently, there has been increasing use of traditional medicines that are considered safer such as areca nuts compared to chemically synthesized agents. The aim of this study was to calculate the difference in the healing of chronic gingivitis due to calculus between gargling using areca nut (Areca catechu) extract and using Chlorhexidine 0.2% solution. This was an experimental test with pre and post-test control group design and involved two treatment groups. A total of 30 subjects with grade 2 gingivitis were being admitted. The first group was given mouthwash with areca nut (Areca catechu) extract and another group with Chlorhexidine 0.2% twice daily for three days. The mean gingival index in the group which gargled using betel nut seed (Areca catechu) extract on the first day was 1,93±0,704 followed by 0,40±0,507 on the second day, and 0,00±0,00 on the third day, on the other hand the mean gingival index in the group which gargled using Chlorhexidine 0.2% solution was 1,93±0,704 on the first day, 0,40±0,507 on the second day, and 0,00±0,00 on the third day. The mean gingival index decreased significantly during observation period in both treatment groups but when being compared to each other there was no significant difference in the healing time of chronic gingivitis in group which gargled using betel nut seed extract (Areca catechu) and Chlorhexidine 0.2% solution.


In this paper,we combine with Chinese ecological function regionalization system framework and the modern GIS technology,and employ the spatial-temporal diversification method,taking the old town in Wucheng country for example,it can be divided into four eco-environmental function areas.Research shows that the partition management of ecological construction and the basis of ecological environment sustainable development can depend on the application of eco-environmental function division,and it also lays a solid foundation for the rapid and good development of country economy.At the same time,it illuminates that eco-environmental function division plays an important role in the sustainable development index system.


The Church drew no distinction between such utterances by Christian prophets (ascribed to the ascended Christ) and the sayings of Jesus in the tradition, for the reason that even the dominical sayings in the tradition were not the pronouncements of a past authority, but sayings of the risen Lord, who is always a contemporary for the Church.


Introduction: In the available literature there are sporadic data about the relationship between the impaired collagen synthesis and poor posture on one side, and the occurrence of varicose veins and uterine prolapse on the other side. However, there are no studies which specifically target this issue. Aim of the Study: To determine the prevalence of varicose veins and/or uterine prolapse occurrence in women previously treated for idiopathic scoliosis in comparison to the control group women who have never been treated for idiopathic scoliosis. Patients and Methods: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study. The frequency of occurrence of varicose veins and/or uterine prolapse in a group of women previously treated for scoliosis was compared with a control group. The results were obtained through descriptive analysis and through conclusive results of statistical tests, where p < 0.05 was set as a statistically significant value. Results: In comparison to the control group, the frequency of varicose veins occurrence was higher, with a statistically significant difference in the group of women treated for idiopathic scoliosis. There was not a single case of uterine prolapse. Conclusion: Modern approach to scoliosis treatment requires the involvement of multidisciplinary teams for scoliosis in specialized health care facilities which have developed the expertise in this field. These teams should work on prevention, early detection and diagnosis, promoting the adequate treatment approaches anchored in evidence based medicine, but also get involved in the continuous research striving to improve the quality of life of their patients.


Engineering high quality software is a tough task. In order to know whether a certain quality attribute has been achieved or degraded, it has to be quantified by analysis or measured. However, determining what to quantify and how these quantities are related to each other is the difficult part. Early analysis of the quality attributes of a software system on the basis of the system's planned architecture allows informed decisions on design trade-offs. Such decisions can be later validated by measurements on the running system.
 In this paper, we revisit software quality attributes. In particular, we introduce a generic taxonomy of quality attributes, the relationship between the attributes is argued, and finally we devise future work leading to an attribute-based methodology for evaluating software architectures. The goal is reasoning about multiple quality attributes of software systems to achieve the ability to quantitatively evaluate and trade-off them.


Sub‐podocyte spaces (SPS), regions bounded by podocyte cell bodies or primary processes and glomerular capillary wall (GCW), cover 50–65% of the outer GCW aspect. The abundance and restrictive dimensions of SPS indicate a potential role in glomerular permeabilitya. We sought to identify SPS using multiphoton microscopy in living intact isolated perfused glomeruli. Single glomeruli were manually dissected from fresh cortical slices of rabbit kidney, and perfused through the afferent arteriole with 20μm quinacrine via concentric pipettes. Tissue was excited with 860nm wavelength laser, and z‐stack images at 0.375μm intervals were recorded with Leica confocal software. SPS, identified as non‐fluorescent regions bounded by podocyte cell bodies/processes and GCW, had mean dimensions 2.3μm depth × 4.0μm width × 0.8μm height (n=5). Mean SPS height compares favourably with that reported using electron microscopy (0.3–1.3μm)a. Fluid and solute movement through SPS regions were characterised with different molecular weight fluorescent tracers. This technique confirms the presence of SPS in living tissue.


As a sense of practical field, most researchers emphasize the importance of safety management to prevent marine accidents. The purpose of this paper...


The motivation for developing the technique described arose from a desire to restore old gramophone recordings which were spectrally distorted during the original recording process. This distortion was caused by the horn used to focus the sound. White noise tests on an original recording horn suggest that its frequency response contains several strong resonances which are modeled as a stationary autoregressive subsystem. The signal to be recovered is modeled as a time-varying autoregressive subsystem. Given knowledge of the parameters of the overall system, it is shown how the two systems can be separated to obtain the parameters of the horn distortion subsystem. An inverse filter can then be designed to recover the original signal. Initial results from experiments on subsystem separation are presented using a simple technique to identify the overall system. Better methods for the overall system identification stage are discussed.<<ETX>>


Nitric oxide (NO) is synthesized from L‐arginine via NO synthase (NOS) that exists as 3 isoforms: neuronal, inducible and endothelial (eNOS). We examined the role of eNOS within the periaqueductal gray mater (PAG) on cardiovascular responses and glutamate (GLU) and GABA concentrations during mechanical, thermal, and cold nociception to the hind paw in anesthetized rats. Mechanical stimulus (bilateral hindpaw pinch, 10 sec) increased mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), & GLU in PAG while GABA decreased. Bilateral microdialysis of a selective eNOS antagonist, 7‐nitroindazole (7‐NI; 1μM), into the PAG had no effect on MAP, HR, GLU & GABA during a mechanical stimulus. A heat stimulus (immersing a hindpaw metatarsus in water, 52°C, 10 sec) increased MAP, HR and GLU, while GABA decreased. Administration of 7‐NI into PAG augmented cardiovascular and GLU responses, and attenuated GABA changes. In contrast, a cold water stimulus (10°C, 10 sec) decreased MAP, HR, and GLU, but increased GABA. However, following microdialysis of 7‐NI into the PAG, a cold stimulus evoked pressor and tachycardic responses, augmented GLU and attenuated GABA levels. Results demonstrate that eNOS within the PAG plays a differential role in modulating cardiovascular responses and GLU/GABAergic neurotransmission during mechanical‐, heat‐, and cold‐mediated nociception.


Novel method for spatially coding ultrasonic detectors is described and experimentally demonstrated by in vivo Optoacoustic imaging of a mouse leg using a single detector, effectively transformed to a 2D detection array with 1763 elements.


A brief review of methods used in the production of shrink-resisting wool and of the effects of the processes on the properties of wool and fibres mixed with it is given. Reasons are advanced for considering shrink-resisting wool as a new "man-modified" fibre and some novel effects that can be produced by their use are described. The final section of the paper gives some notes on experiments that have led to the development of a new shrink-resist process.


This under graduate final project aimed to analyze and adjust the bench available for testing evaporative panels in order to obtain accurate data enabling to determine the coefficients of heat and mass transfer n direct evaporative cooling. By experimental data and a computational routine of fitting curves calculate the dimensionless numbers necessary to determine the characteristics listed for each material and geometry of the panel. The importance of determining these coefficients is to provide a more accurate dimensioning and less costly for this type of cooling. And being able to compare different materials and geometries. The tests are done under controlled psychrometric conditions varying the temperature and air flow settings for different evaporative media.


This paper provides the duality structure of the optimal two-block H∞ problem. The dual description leads naturally to a numerical solution based on convex programming for LTI (including infinite dimensional) systems. Alignment conditions are obtained and show that the optimal solution is flat in general, and unique in the SISO case. It is also proved that under specific conditions a well-known HankelToepltiz operator achieves its norm on the discrete spectrum, therefore generalizing a similar result obtained formerly for finite-dimensional (rational) systems. The norm of this HankelToeplitz operator corresponds to the optimal two-block H∞ performance.


Ecuador-European Union Multipart Agreement was signed to create changes in our country`s
productive matrix, in order to improve development that will help us to increase employment
sources through the growth of exports and foreign investment.
This analysis is based on identifying these changes, since the implementation of the agreement
in 2017 until the second semester of 2018, so we can show the results that this agreement has
produced in the economic development of our country. Despite the lack of mechanisms for the
international trade cooperation agreement to benefit the development of economic and public
policies in the change of the productive matrix.
The study will be focused on the possible development that this agreement has produced. We
will begin on the analysis of the economic situation of our country before the agreement and
during its implementation, the most important points present in the agreement to generate the
development of our country, the products with the highest percentage of exports to European
countries, identification of the European countries that represent a potential market for
Ecuadorian products until the analysis of the Ecuadorian Trade Balance and its development
from the signing and implementation of this agreement, we also will analyze foreign
investment rates in our country.
Keywords: Globalization, competitiveness, SMEs, international market.


Change is a crucial property from a security perspective. The detection of change underpins many of the operational security activities that organizations typically carry out. For example, the essence of security monitoring is to detect changes, then analyze those changes in the context of the applicable security policy. Security tools are available to perform change detection at a host level. Such tools typically employ a local software agent, and identify changes that occur in the filesystem of the host. We describe a tool that performs a similar role in a network environment. The tool employs a variety of visualization techniques to efficiently communicate changes that occur in enterprise networks


The political and economic pressures which gave rise to the current agricultural policy environment in Kenya are reviewed. Colonial policies were favourable to agriculture and its mainly large (European) landholder focus. After independence policies at first antithetical to agriculture were followed once again by favourable policies reflecting the power of the African political elite, many of whom became large landholders after independence. Interventionist but favourable initiatives in agriculture have continued to the present.


A METHOD FOR PREPARING PLASMID DNA, COMPRISING THE STEPS OF CULTURING HOST CELLS CONTAINING PLASMID DNA; LYSING THE HOST CELLS TO OBTAIN A LYSATE; ISOLATING SAID PLASMID DNA FROM SAID LYSATE TO FORM ISOLATED PLASMID DNA; AND PURIFYING THE ISOLATED PLASMID DNA; CHARACTERIZED IN THAT THE LYSATE IS SUBSTANTIALLY LYOPHILIZED AND SUBSEQUENTLY RESUSPENDED WITH WATER, PRIOR TO ISOLATION. (FIG 5A)


The transfer of knowledge and skills to the K-12 classroom is a central objective for any teacher preparation program. This chapter highlights how the skill of developing critical conversations around diverse literature can be woven into the coursework of any teacher preparation program. Theories such as Rings of Culture, Authentic Text, and Implicit Learning anchor this chapter. This chapter provides a practical strategy for building the capacity in teacher candidates necessary to transfer the authentic application of diverse literature to promote social justice and action to the K-12 classroom. The authors articulate how the high-leverage practice of developing Curated Conversations can be used to create environments that foster student voice, student choice, and student interest in any classroom. When modeled for teacher candidates, this strategy can become internalized into their practice and promote the development of professional educators committed to social justice and action.


The effects of the temperature, volatile content, and ash content on the volatilization kinetics of arsenic were discussed. Six Chinese coals were tested in an isothermal thermogravimetric reactor at 600–1300 °C. Sequential chemical extraction analysis was employed to know the speciation transformation of arsenic during coal combustion. Results show that the volatilization ratio of arsenic increases with the temperature, and most arsenic volatilizes between 700 and 1000 °C. The volatile content has a positive effect on the volatilization rate of arsenic in the initial stage of combustion. With the same level of ash content, high-volatile coals (>30%) own a larger volatilization rate of arsenic (0.55–0.6% s–1) than the low-volatile coals (<12%) (0.25% s–1). In contrast, coals with a higher ash content tend to obtain a lower volatilization rate of arsenic during the process. Despite the effect of volatile and ash contents on the volatilization rate of arsenic, the final volatilization ratio of arsenic large...


The high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method was established for determining the swine plasma concentration of lincomycin and gentamicin compound injection.The plasma samples were extracted by acetonitrile and trichloroacetic acid,purified by C18 Column of solid-phase extractio(SPE),concentrated by Nitrogen,then detemined by diode array detector.The result showed that the linear response in the range of 0.5-50 μg·mL-1 for lincomycin hydrochloride and in the range of 0.33-33 μg·mL-1 for gentamicin sulfate were good,with correlation coefficients(R2) of 0.9994 and 0.9996,respectively;the RSD within-day and between-day were respective less than 5% and 8%,the recovery were 90.85% and 88.43%,and the limit of detection were 0.5 μg·mL-1 and 0.33 μg·mL-1 respective for lincomycin hydrochloride and gentamicin sulfate.So the method is suitable for determining plasma concentration.


Through-wall moving target tracking is an essential part of applications with the purpose of sensing moving human in the sealed building. However, the major challenge stems from the multipath effect in the actual environment, which creates errors in the range delay of moving target. In this letter, an effective through-wall moving target tracking algorithm in multipath is proposed. This method based on the correlation of human motion can restore and estimate the range delay of the moving target in the strong multipath interference. Both simulation and experiment results indicate that the proposed method can not only suppress multipath but also smooth the trajectory.


The hydrides α-P4S4(H)R (R = H, I, NMePh or SPh) have been prepared in solution by the reaction of α-P4S3I2 or of the corresponding α-P4S3(I)R with SnBun3H, and identified by 31P NMR spectroscopy. The compounds were unstable and not isolated. Ab initio molecular orbital calculations of geometry have been carried out for α-P4S3H2, α-P4S3(NMe2)2 and α-P4S3H(NMe2).


The experience of reality is comprised of data from both the external and the internal environments. The inputs are mediated, structured, and reframed via constructs which activate introjects to produce automatic thoughts. These thoughts affect behaviours intended to modify the environment to conform to a self-state, buttress, and validate it. Constructs also select memories in order to prevent dissonance and anxiety between recall and self-state. They dissociate memories, alter their emotional content and correlate via attribution and reframing, and impose selectivity. The construct organizes the output from the introjects according to an algorithm ("identity") which provides, for each specific environment, selection criteria of self-states and corresponding introjects.


Studies with motheaten mice, which lack the SHP1 protein tyrosine phosphatase, indicate that this enzyme plays an important negative role in T cell antigen receptor (TCR) signaling. The physiological substrates for SHP1 in T lymphocytes, however, have remained unclear or controversial. To define these targets for SHP1 we have compared the effects of constitutively active and inactive mutants of SHP1 on TCR signaling. Expression of wild‐type SHP1 had a very small effect on the TCR‐induced tyrosine phosphorylation of ZAP‐70 and Syk, even when SHP1 was overexpressed 20 – 100‐fold over endogenous SHP1. Inactive SHP1‐D421A and wild‐type SHP2 were without effects. Constitutively active SHP1‐ΔSH2 had a more pronounced effect on ZAP‐70 and Syk, even when expressed at near physiological levels. SHP1‐ΔSH2 also inhibited events downstream of ZAP‐70 and Syk, such as activation of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase Erk2 and the transcriptional activation of the interleukin‐2 gene. In contrast, a constitutively active SHP2‐ΔSH2 had no statistically significant effect (although it caused a slight augmentation in some individual experiments). None of the constructs influenced the anti‐CD3‐induced tyrosine phosphorylation of the TCR ζ‐chain or phospholipase Cγ1, indicating that Src family kinase function was intact. Taken together, our findings support the notion that ZAP‐70 and Syk can be direct substrates for SHP1 in intact cells. However, the two SH2 domains of SHP1 did not facilitate its recognition of ZAP‐70 and Syk as substrates in intact cells. Therefore, we suggest that SHP1 is not actively recruited to inhibit TCR signaling induced by ligation of this receptor alone. Instead, we propose that ligation of a distinct inhibitory receptor leads to the recruitment of SHP1 via its SH2 domains, activation of SHP1 and subsequently inhibition of TCR signals if the inhibitory receptor is juxtaposed to the TCR.


With the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the forming of The Military Historical Society of Australia, it is an appropriate time to give members a brief outline of its history. It was formed in Melbourne on 17 May 1957 and was initially known as 'The Military Collectors Society'. In those days, the primary role of the Society surrounded a number of collectors who were interested in the hobby of making and exhibiting model soldiers, weapons and military vehicles. The original title for the Society lasted until July 1959 when it was changed to 'The Military Research and Collectors Society of Australia'. In April 1964 it became 'The Military Historical Society of Australia and still holds that title today'.


Abstract : The number of applications using the Ada language is increasing rapidly with the availability of over 200 base and derived validated compilers. Reports indicate that many of these applications have been successfully developed from reusable software parts or have been developed to yield reusable software parts. In contrast of these reports, other applications have identified deficiencies in the Ada RunTime Environment (RTE) that have necessitated restricted use of the Ada with a consequent impact on the potential reuse of Ada software. Therefore, improving the reuse of software in these applications depends to some extent upon careful analysis and understanding of the issues related to software reuse and the Ada RTE. The latter applications typically comprise embedded Mission Critical Computer Resource (MCCR) systems that must satisfy real-time performance constraints that are usually dependent upon specialized hardware. These constraints have caused the intrusion of non-Ada code into the applications and the exploitation of specific idiosyncrasies of the RTE that are within the semantic fringes of the Ada standard DoD83. While reducing the use of non-Ada code may not be feasible for applications that must interact with special controls, devices, and weapon systems, ameliorating the deleterious effects of deficiencies and idiomatic behavior of the RTE on the reuse of Ada parts must receive prompt attention. (KR)


INEL's Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC), is a controlled area for disposal of solid radioactive wastes generated by DOE operations at the INEL and other DOE sites. The Buried Waste Program of the INEL and other DOE sites. The Buried Waste Program of the INEL has responsibility for the remediation of the RWMC. The RWMC is one of 10 waste Area Groups at the INEL and consists of fourteen operable units involving buried waste and approximately 20 [times] 10[sup 6] ft[sup 3] of potentially contaminated soil spread over 144 acres. Consistent with the National Contingency Plan (NCP) bias for action'' philosophy, the INEL Federal Facilities Agreement and Consent Order (FFA/CO) encourages and provides the necessary flexibility to reach an early on an operable unit when there is sufficient information. This flexibility is implemented through the use of generic Tracks'', which allow some decisions to be made based on reviews of historical and existing data or with limited sampling efforts. Both radionuclides and organics have been detected in areas surrounding and beneath operable units in the RWMC. The extent of contaminant migration from various operable units is not known and is currently being determined through the use of both non-invasive andmore » invasive technologies. Non-invasive surveys using electromagnetic, magnetic, and gravity methods are currently being used to characterize the RWMC. Bore holes are currently being drilled and samples taken for chemical analysis. Sampling and analysis are being implemented in a phased approach to minimize the number of bore holes and samples. Additional bore holes and samples will only be taken if data are needed for decision-making.« less


The aim of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between Rotter's (1966) internal-external control dimension (I-E) and academic achievement. Although no previous investigators have reported significant associations between these two variables (Eisenman & Platt, 1968), it seems a logical extension of the perceived locus of control dimension that internals would manifest more achievement-striving behavior than externals, who feel they have little control over their environment. Accordingly, it was predicted that internally controlled college students would obtain significantly higher quality point averages than their externally controlled counterparts. The I-E scale was administered to several sections of introductory psychology at Villanova University. From the total pool of Ss who responded to this questionnaire (N = 483), 31 males and 10 females who scored on the internal end of the scale (18 to 23) and 76 males and 22 females who scored on the external end (0 to 9) were selected. The measure of S's academic achievement was taken to be cumulative quality point average (QPA), retrieved for each S from the university's computer science center. Insofar as the over-all OPA means for males (2.48) and females (2.41) did not . . differ significantly, data were analyzed for sexes combined. Internals and externals were separately assigned to one of three a prior; QPA categories (3.00 to 4.00; 2.00 to 2.99; 1.00 to 1.99) and the resulting frequency data (I-E X QPA) yielded a x2 of 2.98 (df = 2, p < .250) indicating only marginal support for the prediction. Two distinct possibilities may account for the lack of relationship berween the I-E and academic achievement variables. First, and along the same lines as suggested by Rotter (1966), there may be an overabundance of college Ss who have arrived at an external view of the world as a defense against failure but who were initially highly competitive. Thus, externals would still maintain comparatively strong achievement motivauon in clearly structured competitive situations but defensively account for failure by externally controlled attitudes. Second, the I-E dimension is probably not generalizable across situations, and in the highly structured academic achievement situation there is probably more specificity determining QPA than in other kinds of competitive situations. In either event, subsequent research should attempt to clarify the interaction of personality factors and academic achievement.


Pediatric low‐grade gliomas (pLGGs) are the most frequent brain tumor in children. Adjuvant treatment, consisting in chemotherapy and radiotherapy, is often necessary if a complete surgical resection cannot be obtained. Traditional treatment approaches result in a significant long‐term morbidity, with a detrimental impact on quality of life. Dysregulation of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway is the molecular hallmark of pLGGs and hyperactivation of the downstream mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is frequently observed. We report clinical and radiological results of front‐line treatment with everolimus in 10 consecutive patients diagnosed with m‐TOR positive pLGGs at the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital in Rome, Italy. Median duration of treatment was 19 months (range from 13‐60). Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed stable disease in 7 patients, partial response in 1 and disease progression in 2. Therapy‐related adverse events were always reversible after dose reduction or temporary treatment interruption. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of everolimus treatment for chemo‐ and radiotherapy‐naïve children with pLGG. Our results provide preliminary support, despite low sample size, for the use of everolimus as target therapy in pLGG showing lack of progression with a manageable toxicity profile.


Summary: These studies were implemented to assess the relationship between fetal vasopressin secretion and the progression of parturition as well as the contribution of specific stimuli to vasopressin release during labor. In chronically catheterized fetal lamb preparations, labor was induced by infusion of adrenocorticotropin (12.5 mg/kg/hr) to seven fetuses at 130 ± 1 day of gestation. Before labor, fetal plasma vasopressin concentrations were 2.1 ± 1.4 pg/ml and remained low (5.3 ± 3.4 pg/ml) during prodromal and early phases of labor, but rose significantly in the active and expulsive phases (39.6 ± 27.5 and 173.3 ± 152.9 pg/ml) to reach peak values at delivery (584.2 ± 433 pg/ml) and decrease by 30 min after birth (359.8 ± 90.0 pg/ml).At delivery, fetal plasma vasopressin concentrations were strongly correlated (P < 0.001) with hormone values obtained during the latter phases of labor. Fetal arterial pH and oxygen tension was inversely correlated with plasma vasopressin (P < 0.01). No similar correlations were found with arterial PCO2, K, Na, Cl, osmolality, or packed cell volume. Unexpectedly, we observed a significant (P < 0.001) and progressive decrease in fetal oxygen tension during the induction process. Other characteristics of adrenocorticotropin-induced parturition seemed to mimic those of spontaneous labor.Speculation: Many of the biophysical and biochemical changes that occur during spontaneous term labor in the sheep can be studied in a more controlled fashion during premature labor induced by infusion of adrenocorticotropin to the fetus. Vasopressin hypersecretion during the latter stages of labor is in part mediated by hypoxia. The elevated plasma hormone concentrations may play a major role in the fetal cardiovascular response to hypoxia including the redistribution of cardiac output. The progressive gradual decrease in fetal oxygen tension noted before the onset of labor may be related to morphologic changes at the fetal maternal interface in the placenta.


How do you define success? This is a question I ask my undergraduate students, and they have no trouble answering. "When I achieve an A—ideally in all my classes," one responded, and I suspect most of his classmates—and their parents—would agree.


Objective: To evaluate the development of the research and the scientific publications of Argentine nutritionists through the historical and bibliometric analysis of the journal Diaeta. Methodology: Descriptive transverse design. All the issues of the journal Diaeta, from the beginning of its edition in 1981 to 2008 were included in this study. A sample of 63 units of study was obtained from a random stratified sampling per year, considering 50 % of the publications for every period.
Results: There was an increase in the Original Articles and other thematic areas other than the
traditional Dietotherapy. The average of the authors per article was three for Original Articles and
two authors for Review and Progress articles. The most frequent language for the bibliographical
references was English, and Spanish in the second place. The profession of the more productive
authors in addition to nutritionist were; Physician, Chemistry and Chemical Engineers.
Conclusions: The Journal DIAETA has showed in a few years a rapid improvementaccompanying the progress in the development of the research of Argentine nutritionists.


The compact and high efficiency coolers working in the liquid nitrogen temperature region play an important role in HTS Applications. Stirling type pulse tube cooler servers as a promising candidate for cooling HTS devices for its advantages such as low vibration, high reliability and low cost due to absence of the moving parts in the cold head compared with traditional coolers. However, phase shift mechanisms used in a conventional pulse tube cryocooler need to dissipate expansion power at the ambient end of the pulse tube, which leads to a lower thermodynamic efficiency than that of a Stirling cryocooler. In order to improve the efficiency and obtain a reliable cryocooler system, this article presents a pulse tube cryocooler which uses room temperature displacers as the phase shifter, which aims at providing more than 10 W cooling power at 77 K. The cryocooler with a model number of TC4189 consists of linear compressor, coaxial pulse tube and two dual-opposed ambient displacers. High pressure ratio and high frequency operation are used to increase the power density. The whole system has a total mass of 4.3 kg. At an optimum working point, a lowest no-load temperature of 44 K has been obtained and the cooling power at 80K reaches 15 W with an input electric power of 240 W, which means an efficiency of 17.1% of Carnot. The influence of displacers operating and structural parameters were investigated through simulations and experiments.


Various models of the conditional scalar dissipation rate are evaluated, including a mappingclosure model, a model using counterflow assumptions, a model from the homogeneous transport PDF equations, and a phenomenological model. It is found that the mappingclosure and the counterflow models give exactly the same results, even though they have different forms and are derived from different approaches. It is also found that the results from the mapping closure model and the counterflow model are very close to the exact solutions in homogeneous turbulence when the scalar variance is significant. On the other hand, the mapping closure model and the counterflow model misrepresent the physics when the scalar variance is small or the stoichiometric scalar value is significantly different from the scalar mean value. These results are validated by the a priori tests.


Introduction On a regular basis, new and innovative medicines come to the market; with uncertainties surrounding their exact effect in patients. To address these uncertainties, disease-specific registries are commonly being used. The Dutch National Health Care Institute (Zorginstituut Netherland [ZIN]) started, in collaboration with stakeholders, a national program on the management and coordination of disease-specific registries. The main goal is to improve the quality and consistency of these registries and thereby increase the value of the data in monitoring innovative, expensive medicines. As a starting point for this program, we performed a study on the current state of these registries in the Netherlands. Methods Using an initial list of 114 registries, we sent out questionnaires to 58 disease-specific registries that collected information on medicine use. Thirty registries responded and their registries were used for the analysis. Results Of 30 registries that responded, 15 registries collect information on orphan medicinal products. Most registries are in the field of internal medicine (n = 8), oncology (n = 6), and rheumatology (n = 5). The size of the registries ranged between 250 patients (orphan diseases) and more than 10,000 patients (oncology). Only 13 registries collect information on patient reported outcomes. Data collection is mostly performed manually and standard coding systems such as Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes (LOINC), and The International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) are not routinely used. Finally, our results show that most registries are (partly) dependent on the funding of pharmaceutical companies. Conclusions Our assessment shows variation in the type, goal of, governance, and funding of the disease-specific registries investigated. We believe that these results show the importance of further national coordination of the disease-specific registries to increase the usability of their data to address the uncertainties surrounding these innovative, expensive medicines.


The proof of the existence of a global connection in differential systems is generally a difficult task. Some authors use numerical techniques to show this existence, even in the case of continuous piecewise linear systems. In this paper we give an analytical proof of the existence of a reversible T-point heteroclinic cycle in a continuous piecewise linear version of the widely studied Michelson system. The principal ideas of this proof can be extended to other piecewise linear systems.


Crop residue burning has a great negative impact on the ecosystem and environment in China.Remote sensing can provide abundant information of surface fire and thus support the government to forbid the crop residue burning effectively.Although "Contextual Fire Detection Algorithm" is an automatic fire-detecting algorithm with good accuracy,its fixed parameters and thresholds can not perform well in detecting fires of different kinds or in varied situations.Therefore some of the key parameters are adjusted according to the practical observations,in order to better monitor the surface fire in China.On the basis of data from EOS/Terra-MODIS,the crop residue burning in North China has been monitored from May to August in 2007,the accuracy of which can satisfy the requirement of practical applications.In addition,based on the IGBP classification data,the detected fire pixels are separated into 3 types of biomass burning,namely crop residue burning,forest fire and grass fire.Then the statistics and analysis of several parameters of the 3 types of fire are implemented respectively,on the basis of which the possibility of identifying the type of fire pixels according to their radiant characteristics is discussed.It is concluded that surface classification data is still necessary when identifying the fire pixels.


The causes of spontaneous internal biliary fistula are briefly stated and two cases of choledochoduodenal fistula resulting from ulceration of the first part of the duodenum are reported. The value of demonstrating the actual site of the fistula during barium meal examination is noted. Other suggestive signs are discussed.


Launched in 2004, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft continues on its journey to become, in 2011, the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The goal of MESSENGER's one-year orbital mission is to answer several key questions about the structure and history of Mercury and its environment. The science and mission operations teams are testing a concept of operations to use the instrument payload most efficiently and to achieve full mission success. To ensure that all essential observations are obtained and to allow for contingencies, an advance science planning (ASP) effort will develop the full yearlong mission baseline plan prior to orbit insertion. To ensure that the plan can be adapted in response to unexpected events over time, an adjusted baseline plan will be regenerated in the ASP process every five weeks during the actual orbital mission. The near-term science planning (NTSP) activity converts weeklong portions of the baseline plan into executable commands to conduct the orchestrated observations. A feedback process from NTSP to ASP will be used to ensure that the baseline observing plan accounts for and reschedules any unsuccessful observations. A testing and validation plan has been developed for the processes and software that underlie both advance and near-term science planning.


Spatial data on temperature are of importance to the studies concerning the roles of climate, including the impacts of climate change on ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. However, most temperature data are available at station level, sparsely and irregularly distributed across space as points, and the accuracies of spatial-interpolation-based surface models decrease with decreasing density of the observation points. Meanwhile, relationship between elevation and temperature has been acknowledged, which basis is grounded in thermodynamics theory by Robert Clausius, and later known as altitudinal temperature lapse rate. Most studies related to altitudinal temperature lapse rate in Indonesia have been using and scaling-up the findings from Cornelis Braak, based on his research in Java during the 1920s. According to Braak, temperature decreases by 0.60°C and 0.55°C as the elevation increases by 100 m asl, for areas below and above 1500 asl, respectively. With regards to climate change, Braak's findings should be updated, since it determines climatic geo-data, used for strategic geo-planning (e.g. for suitability mapping). Thus, in this respect, the study is aimed at revisiting altitudinal temperature lapse rates in Indonesia using thermal-infrared bands of Landsat 8. With regards to Braak's observation stations, one window area in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia was selected as the study site. The results suggest that altitudinal temperature lapse rate decreased from 0.0016 to 0.0021° C.m-1, as compared to Braak's equation, which indicate significant temperature increase. The results also suggest that temperature increase in the window area was about 1.58°C, doubled from temperature increase at global scale of about 0.8°C, which implies to losses of montane and sub montane zones according to Holdridge life zone of about 7 km2 (100%) and 727 km2 (32.53%), respectively; and gain of basal zone of about 734 km2 (211.77%).


Four ionic liquids were investigated for abilities to capture CO2 alone or with added catalyst at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Hydrated aluminum nitrate Al (NO3)3.9H2O-urea with added CaO, hydrated ammonium aluminum sulfate NH4Al (SO4)2.22H2O-urea with added solid NaOH did not show in FTIR chart sign of either physical or chemical absorption of CO2, however hydrated ammonium aluminum sulfate NH4Al (SO4)2.22H2O-urea with added NaOHaq or few water showed a chemical absorption of CO2 at 2111 cm -2 as in aluminum chloride-urea ionic liquid while aluminum chloride-acetamide showed weaker or no ability to capture CO2.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES
The high expression of proliferation cell nuclear antigen were found in the patients with esophageal carcinoma in poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect in vitro of antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ASODN) of PCNA on its gene expression and cell proliferation in human esophageal squamous cell cancer T. Tn cell line.

METHODS
Phosphorothioate PCNA ASODN and sense oligodeoxynucleotide (SODN) were synthesized and transfected to T. Tn cells mediated by dosper liposomal. Their effects on cell proliferation were examined by MTT method, 3H-TdR method, immunohistochemical study, and flow cytometer (FCM).

RESULTS
PCNA ASODN could significantly inhibit the growth of T. Tn cell lines. The SODN and control lipsome showed no such effect. The inhibition peaked at 24 hour after transfection, the inhibition rate reached 63.3% at 0.2 mumol/L by MTT method, the inhibition effect was dose-dependent. ASODN could downregulate the expression levels of PCNA protein. And PCNA ASODN transfection could inhibit the transition period of G0/G1 phase to S phase.

CONCLUSIONS
The data suggested that ASODN could specific inhibit the expression of PCNA protein and regulate cell cycle and cell proliferation in T. Tn cells and antisense therapy could be an useful method to improve prognosis in ESCC.


Summary. The technique of pulsed field gel electrophoresis has been used to differentiate the chromosomes of Glugea stephani, Microgemma ovoidea, and two isolates of Spraguea lophii from different regions of Spain (Atlantic Ocean at Galicia and Mediterranean Sea at Catalonia). Although the karyotype of M. ovoidea could not be completely resolved, the range of sizes of its chromosomes was obtained (282-2601Kb). G. stephani showed 15 bands ranging 340-2654Kb and an estimated total size of the haploid genome of about 16775Kb. Both isolates of S. lophii had a very similar karyotype with 10 bands for the Atlantic isolate (range 266-1076 Kb) and 11 bands for the Mediterranean isolate (range 271-1120Kb). Digital processing of the gels allowed detection of non-homologous chromosome co-migration and revealed that both S.lophii isolates had 15 different kinds of DNA fragments, which could be interpreted by a homozygotic hypothesis (15 chromosomes) or a heterozygotic hypothesis (14 chromosome pairs, 13 pairs with the same size for both homologous, and a pair formed by a chromosome of about 423-490 Kb and its homologous of 353-495Kb).


For Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay channels with partial decode-and-forward, the optimal type of input distribution is still an open question in general. Recent research has revealed that in some other scenarios with unknown optimal input distributions (e.g., interference channels), improper (i.e., noncircular) Gaussian distributions can outperform proper (circular) Gaussian distributions. In this paper, we show that this is not the case for partial decode-and-forward in the Gaussian MIMO relay channel with Gaussian transmit signals, i.e., we show that a proper Gaussian input distribution is the optimal one among all Gaussian distributions. In order to prove this property, an innovation covariance matrix is introduced, and a decomposition is performed by considering the optimization over this matrix as an outer problem. A key point for showing optimality of proper signals then is a reformulation that reveals that one of the subproblems is equivalent to a sum rate maximization in a two-user MIMO broadcast channel under a sum covariance constraint, for which the optimality of proper signals can be shown.


Abstract:Using historical sources to provide context for funerary expenses, this article argues that whereas funerals early in Malory's Morte Darthur advertize the wealth and power of those who fund the burials, post-Grail Quest funerals emphasize spiritual growth, especially Lancelot's. Malory's changes to his sources increase drama and develop themes.


The waterborne polyurethane emulsion terminated with vinyl modified by epoxy resin was prepared using toluenediisocyanate(TDI),polyether(N220),dimethylolpropionic acid(DMPA),epoxy resin and hydroxypropyl acrylate(HPA).The emulsion has a photosensitivity owing to containing undersaturated double bonds,so it can be used as the prepolymer for UV-Curable waterborne coatings or adhesives.The experimental results showed that the hardness,water resistance,solvent resistance and mechanical property of WPU film increase with the increasing of the amount of epoxy resin,while the appearance and the stability of WPU emulsion deteriorate.So the suitable amount of epoxy resin is 4%-8%.The emulsion was characterized by FT-IR,malvern particle size analyzer,GPC and TEM.The particle size analyzer showed that the particle size of WPU increases and the particle size distribution becomes wide by adding epoxy resins.The GPC measuring found that the molecular weight of WPU modified by epoxy resin is higher than that of WPU.


The objective of the research was to study the antimicrobial activity of danofloxacin, the third-generation fluoroquinolone antibiotic, against bacteria, pathogens of acute respiratory infection in pigs. Samples of nasal excretions were selected from clinically sick weaned piglets with acute respiratory infection for microbiological investigation. The sensitivity test, carried out by the disc-diffusion method, showed a high level of the microflora sensitivity of the inflammatory exudate to danofloxacin. Bacteria Streptococcus suis and Bordetella bronchiseptica have been isolated and identified from biomaterial by generally accepted microbiological methods. The degree of antimicrobial activity of danofloxacin against isolated strains of microorganisms was established by determination the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of danofloxacin for isolated bacteria by consecutive dilutions in a liquid nutrient medium. The MIC average of danofloxacin for Streptococcus suis isolates (n = 20) was 0.33 ± 0.082 μg/ml and for Bordetella bronchiseptica isolates (n = 8) – 0.21 ± 0.044 μg/ml. The obtained results showed a high level of bacteriostatic activity of danofloxacin regarding bacterial isolates, pathogens of acute respiratory infection in pigs. Danofloxacin, like other fluoroquinolones, is a critical antimicrobial substance for veterinary medicine. Therefore, chemotherapeutic agents based on this antibiotic can serve as a drug of choice for empirical treatment of pigs with acute respiratory infections of bacterial etiology. To right choose an effective agent for etiotropic therapy and minimize the selection of resistant strains of microorganisms, the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated bacteria should be pre-established.


Applying the Bell-Evans-polanyi principle to mass spectrometric gramentations gives a relationship for calculating their activation energies from various MO data, such as heats of formation and electronic populations. Additionally, a possible extension of the original Bell-Evans-Polanyi principle is discussed.


Abstract
There has been an extensive amount of research on the determinants of military spending over the last 25 years. These studies underline that military spending is a complicated concept, with economic capabilities, political processes and military linkages playing an interdependent role at the national, regional and global levels. Recent works focus on other outcomes of military spending. This chapter develops a model of conflict that generates a demand for military personnel and equipment by countries for either aggressive or defensive purposes. This model highlights some of the key determinants of military spending. Using pooled time-series, cross-sectional data on military spending for 146 countries from 1998 to 2007 we test this model and analyze other possible factors that previously have not been explored in the literature.


The basic design includes: physical calculations; thermohydraulic calculations; design-basis justification of equipment strength. System-oriented and construction-oriented approaches are used during design and engineering to ensure the reliability of systems. System-oriented approaches include: analysis of prototypes; creation of systems with the minimum necessary number of components, use of redundancy, development of systems that do not allow the dangerous impacts of failure on their components (fail-safe design), optimization of the sequence of systems' element operation, preliminary calculations of the system under development reliability. This takes into account: RD reference data from other nuclear facilities; aging materials and mechanisms. Aging management program is created during design and operation of a nuclear facility.


Catalytic dehydrogenation and C–C and C–O bond cleavage for glycerol decomposition on bimetallic Pt–Mo alloy model catalysts are studied using periodic density functional theory. The scaling relationship developed for monometallic systems for fast binding energy prediction has been tested and validated on both Pt-skin and Pt3Mo-skin bimetallic surfaces. Using only the binding energies of atomic C and O for corresponding alloy surfaces, this simple relationship is shown to be an extremely efficient approach to speeding up the catalytic trend analysis for bimetallic alloy catalysts. Similar to Pt(111), it is found that the Pt-skin surface also favors dehydrogenation via C–H bond cleavage and faster C–C bond cleavage over C–O bond cleavage, but the overall activity decreases compared with pure Pt. On Pt3Mo-skin surfaces, the overall reaction becomes much more exothermic, but Mo species significantly affect the selectivity by favoring the C–O bond cleavage. Thermodynamic analyses also predict that surface Mo ...


This paper is an initial examination the significance of spatial relations to the constitution of transnational citizenships. Specifically, the paper explores practices of place and space in a Barbadian bus terminal. This terminal is a rich site at which citizens, migrants, state managers and economic elites contest the meanings of both Barbadian citizenship and the Caribbean regional integration movement. It is an integration movement prompted, in part, by the imperatives of globalization – trading blocs are a matter of survival. Yet the movement of people that is facilitated by this regional project is made even more complex by those colonial legacies of international migrations – forced and otherwise – which have shaped race relations in the region.


In the spring of 1998, I had the privilege of sitting in on William A. Brown's undergraduate research seminar on the history of Ancient Egypt (Kemet). Although technically a seminar, all fifteen weekly class meetings began with a substantial lecture by Brown. This provided an unusual opportunity to see some of the results of a lesser-known phase of Brown's career: the decades he spent training himself in Egyptology (including learning the Egyptian language) and staying current with that field. Brown's lectures that year offered a timely hybrid of the interests and commitments of Afrocentric Egyptologists, the data and reconstructions of more traditional Egyptology, and the general approaches of longue durée Africanist history. The result was an example of how an engaged historicism can produce accounts that respond to a wide range of political projects. While it does not always come through clearly in his published work, those who knew him personally know that Brown was firmly and explicitly committed to what he called a 'liberated or liberating African history'. In a 1972 talk at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, he told his audience, 'the thing which concerns me very deeply indeed is what I call the mis-writing and mis-casting of American and generally European scholarship about Africa... and the implications of this kind of work for the Black liberation struggle in Africa and overseas, indeed for the world generally'. An analysis of this misleading scholarship had, he insisted, 'real relevance to the struggle of Black and white peoples or other peoples of the world for various kinds liberation and self-determination'. The causal connection between scholarship and liberation passed through the representations of Africa produced in Europe and the US and their effect on global consciousness. 'We've been conditioned', he noted, 'to expect bizarre or presumably barbaric behavior out of Africa and this is directly attributable to the scholarship on Africa which is available in the western world'. Africanist history was particularly to blame insofar as 'the image that the world has of Africa is based upon the world's understanding or misunderstanding of Africa's past.... [P]olitical science, sociology, economics, all of the other disciplines adopt the assumptions which are provided by African history'. At the core of Brown's idea of a liberating African history were two deceptively obvious convictions: that the motives and logics animating all historical agents could be approached via their


-P seudo Noise (PN) sequences are widely used in digital communications and the theory involved has been treated extensively in this paper. This paper analyses some interesting properties of PN sequences. A good correlation property and large linear period of PN sequences is the basis of spread spectrum communication system. PN sequences has random like properties and reduces the correlation among the speech samplesIn this paper, out of several techniques to implement direct sequence spread Spectrum (DSSS), one technique PN (pseudo-noise) sequence/ code which is referred as the high rate digital code is generated on MATLAB. This generated m-sequence is then converted into polar format. Finally, this paper compares the simulated autocorrelation with theoretical measured autocorrelation function of an m-sequence.


Abstract 4158

Lycorine displays various biological functions including remarkable anti-tumor effect. We previously reported that lycorine induced anti-leukemia effect via arresting cell cycle and inducing apoptosis on human acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) cell line HL-60. To explore the molecular mechanism how lycorine induced HL-60 cell apoptosis, cDNA microarray was used to investigate the expression profile of 494 apoptosis-associated genes. Real-time RT-PCR, Western blotting and immunocytochemistry were used to analyze the expression of related genes, as well as the modification and distribution of related proteins in the presence of lycorine. The results showed that 89 differential genes were expressed significantly (Cy3:Cy5 > 2 or < 0.5) among all the 494 apoptosis-related genes. 78 genes were up-regulated and 11 genes were down-regulated. We are particularly interested in the expression increase of p21 (9.271 folds) and TNF-α (8.242 folds). Furthermore, we found that lycorine could down-regulate p21-related gene expression including Cdc2, Cyclin B, Cdk2 and Cyclin E, promote the truncation of Bid protein and the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, decrease the phosphorylation of IκB, block the nuclear import of NF-κB and down-regulate expression of survivin. This study revealed that lycorine decreased HL-60 cells survival through p21-mediated cell cycle arrest and stimulation of TNF-α signaling pathway which induced apoptosis.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Proton magnetic resonance spectra of three crystalline choline halides have been obtained over a temperature range of 77 to 440 °K. In all of these materials the line shapes are strong functions of temperature with multiple changes observed for each substance. Above 353 °K, the temperature at which a crystal–crystal phase transition occurs, the second moment of 0.9 G2 for choline chloride reflects the presence of isotropic reorientation of the choline ions in the solid. This is just the temperature at which the extremely high radiation sensitivity ceases, suggesting that the existence of this dynamic behavior renders the crystal incapable of supporting the decomposition reaction observed below this temperature. Similar behavior is also observed in choline bromide at a higher temperature. From the temperature dependence of the correlation frequency, activation energies for the motional processes were determined and found to be in the range of 3–4 kcal/mole at low temperature and 12–15 kcal/mole for the hig...


Energy affects all aspects of modern life. The demand for energy is increasing at an exponential rate due to the exponential growth of world population. Oil and gas are expected to continue to be important sources of energy. Contemporary electric power generation is based on non-renewable resources such as oil, coal, and nuclear power. New efficient and cost-effective small-scale renewable energy generation options are commercially available today. The share of renewable energy sources is expected to increase very significantly. Alternative energy technologies are being disseminated in many countries with an objective to reduce the uses of traditional and commercial energy sources. For each country, the choice between the various available options is strongly dependent on the local condition.


Abstract : The main thrust of this paper will be centered around the issue of whether the Navy should restructure the Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR) along the lines of the Army's and Air Force's independent test agencies. The paper begins with an overview of the weapon system acquisition process. It then proceeds to demonstrate how test and evaluation (T&E) fits into the acquisition process. Finally, a description and evaluation of the each of the service's independent test agencies are presented. The researcher suggests that the perceived problems are not caused by OPTEVFOR's present structural arrangement, but are the result of OPTEVFOR's philosophy. The final conclusion is that OPTEVFOR should not change its existing structure, instead it needs to expand upon its current emphasis on increased communication.


These proceedings (workshop held at Ohio State U., June 1991) introduce new techniques which center on Drinfield modules and their higher dimensional analogs, t-modules. The theory of Drinfield modules has grown rapidly over the last few years, yet is unknown to most mathematicians. This volume intr


The creation and maintenance of a virtual campus is a task that not only implies the deployment of sophisticated hardware and software but also requires considerable effort in the integration of the main university management systems with the chosen teaching tools present in the campus. Such integration requires the definition of a range of services tailored for the different user profiles. Hence, it has been necessary to develop a management environment for the virtual campus that enables it to be manipulated and controlled in an efficient manner where new services (above and beyond the basic e-Learning platform tools) can be integrated in a seamless fashion. The implementation of these services should guarantee a large degree of interoperability among virtual learning environments, VLEs and tools. To this end, some of these services have been implemented using the IMS Enterprise standard. This standard essentially contributes to the organization of a given e-Learning platform in terms of users, courses and roles therein; leaving to one side the formalization of other services more specific to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) together with the current technological framework.


Previous studies demonstrated that the erythrocytes of the newborn infant have a relative phosphofructokinase deficiency and inappropriate glucose consumption for cell age. In view of these findings, an analysis of red cell glycolytic intermediates and all Embden-Meyerhof pathway enzyme activities was made in the red cells of infants, normal adults, and subjects with reticulocytosis to define further differences in metabolism and search for evidence of a metabolic blockade.
 The erythrocytes of subjects with reticulocytosis were found to possess increased quantities of glucose-6-phosphate, fructose-6-phosphate and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate. The elevation of the hexose phosphates was even greater in the red cells of the premature infants and was associated with a decrease in levels of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate and phosphoenolpyruvate.
 Measurement of enzyme activities indicated that, in addition to the phosphofructokinase deficiency, the cells of the newborn infant have markedly increased activities of enolase and phosphoglycerate kinase.
 It is suggested that the increase in the level of the hexose phosphates in the erythrocytes of the infants and subjects with reticulocytosis is a reflection of this relative phosphofructokinase deficiency, with this deficiency being greater in newborn infants. The differences in the enzymatic profile between the erythrocytes of the newborn and those of the normal adult is not solely a function of their younger age. Some of the differences are a reflection of the presence of a cell unique to this period of life.


The resistance factor in the probability limit state design formula reflects the uncertainty of the major influence elements of structural resistant force.Whether the value of the resistance factor is reasonable closely links with the precision of the structural reliability design.The reliability based probability limit state design method will be covered in the new steel highway bridge design code because the current design code is outdated.Hence,in this paper,the resistance factors of members under five typical loads are optimized based on the calibration analysis of them.Then the results are contrasted to the values in other codes from China and abroad.At last,the recommended resistance factors of steel highway bridge are put forward.


Microcontrollers study is an important course in the major of measurement control technology and instrument. Development tools, such as full-speed emulators and software simulators for microcontrollers, are either too expensive or too complicated to be used in laboratory classes for teaching purposes. In this paper, a low cost development kit based on AVR microcontroller suitable for laboratory and take-home pedagogies is developed. The development kit consists of system power, microcontroller socket, and fifteen peripheral function modules. The hardware configuration and usage of each unit in the development kit were introduced. Practical applications show that the low cost development kit can improve the level of the microcontroller education.


Healthcare policies are formed through the dissemination of clinical information or evidence of effectiveness, so that this evidence can reach clinical practice. Manipulation or 'influence' over the data and the subsequent reporting of data can be introduced by anyone involved in a study. This may affect the perception of the evidence that becomes the basis for the determination of best practice in the care for our patients so it must be free of bias. This report illustrates an example of bias introduction into the clinical evidence portfolio of the recently introduced liposomal encapsulated bupivacaine Exparel™. This review then uses this new drug as an example of how bias is introduced into the clinical decision tree and its potential effect on the practice of medicine.


Developing an advanced gas turbine (GT) can have a significant impact on the thermodynamic performance of the GT combined cycle (GTCC) and the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Owing to the importance of system evaluation, it is essential to find ways to accurately predict the performance of state-of-the-art GTs through an accurate and reliable turbine cooling model. Thus, a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) turbine cooling model, which considers the film cooling and thermal barrier coating (TBC), is established and verified in this work. The model parameters, ηc,∞, ηt,∞, Z, rfc, Bitbc and Tbmx, which represent compressor and turbine efficiencies, convective cooling technology level, film cooling coefficient, Biot number of TBC and allowed maximal temperature of turbine blade, respectively, are confirmed. Reference is made to current advanced GTs during the modeling process. More importantly, the impacts of combustor exit temperature (Tcot), pressure ratio (PR), and cooling approaches on the thermodynamic performance of GTCC are all evaluated based on the quasi-1D turbine cooling model. Results show that the GTCC net efficiency does not always increase along with the increase of Tcot, under the premise of maintaining the cooling technology. The optimal PR, when the GTCC efficiency peaks, exists at each Tcot. In addition, the net efficiency of GTCC, which adopts a closed-loop steam cooling, is improved by about 2 to 3 percentage points compared with that of the conventional open-loop air cooling approach.Furthermore, the IGCC thermodynamic performance potential is greatly affected by GTCC. It is estimated that the net efficiency of IGCC integrated with 1700 °C-class GT has a total improvement of about 6 percentage points relative to that of IGCC integrated with a GE PG9351FA GT.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Absorbable atelo-collagen sponge (TERUPLUG ® , Termo Co. Tokyo, Japan) is inserted in the extraction wound where alveolar bone is exposed. It protects wounds and promotes the formation of granulation. This is made of atelo-collagen, to minimize antigenicity, which is cross-linked by heat treatment for biocompatibility. TERUPLUG ® consists of between 85 and 95 % of collagen type I and between 5 to 15 % of collagen type III. The raw material for the collagen is derived from bovine skin. It features a sponge block design and is shaped for easy insertion in the extraction wound. This study was designed to find out the bone healing capacity of TERUPLUG ® . We implanted TERUPLUG ® (experimental group I) and TERUPLUG ® with rhBMP-2 (experimental group II) in the rabbit cranium defect and then histologically analysed the specimen. The results were as follows. 1. In the 4 weeks, a lot of the newly formed collagen fibers around material of the experimental group I implanted TERUPLUG ® were observed. But, in the experimental group II implanted TERUPLUG ® with rhBMP-2, a little of newly formed collagen fibers around material were observed. The cell proliferating activity and apoptosis of the experimental group I, II was positive in and around the implanted material. 2. In the 8 weeks, the amount of newly formed and matured bone in the experimental group II was more observed than the experimental group I and control group. The results of this study indicate that absorbable atelo-collagen sponge (TERUPLUG ® ) is relatively favorable bone void filler with biocompatibility and has the better bone healing capacity in case of application with rhBMP-2.


Summary form only given. Recently, thermo plastics such as Polypropylene (PP) or polyimide are going to be used as matrix resin of Carbon Fiber (CF) composite materials because they have an advantage to be rewelded at above 130°C. However, mechanical strength of CF/PP composite materials is low because adhesion strength between CF surface and PP surface is low. Therefore, many researchers have investigated plasma surface modification to enhance the interfacial adhesion strength of CF surface1. On the other hand, from the industrial point of view, we need to investigate how long the effect of plasma surface modification lasts. In this study, we investigated the improvement of the hydrophilic property of CFs by air Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD), and also measured the endurance of its effect. Room air (temperature: 20~20.3 °C, relative humidity: 39.1~42.5%) was used as source gas of the DBD. The barrier material is alumina (ε=9.1, Type: A473, Kyocera corporation). Gas flow rate was fixed to 5 L/min. Gap length was fixed to 1.5 mm. Spread CFs (Thickness: 0.1 mm, T700SC-12000, Toray Industries, Inc.) were used in this experiment and they were inserted in the center of the discharge gap. Discharge power was fixed to 50 W. Light emission from air DBD with CFs was observed by a multi channel spectrometer. Hydrophilic property was estimated by the water absorbing property test (Byreck method). DBD treatment time was changed from 10 s to 60 s. In order to clarify the endurance of the DBD effect, hydrophilic property of CFs was measured after 1 day to 3 days from DBD treatment. The results showed that (1) hydrophilic property of CFs increased with the increase of DBD treatment time and the rate of increase was 158% at 60 s DBD treatment in comparison with untreated CFs, (2) since O and OH radical were detected in air DBD with CFs, oxygen containing polar functional groups such as -OH and -COOH seemed to be incorporated on the CF surface, and (3) the hydrophilic property of CF treated by DBD slightly decreased with time and the rate of decrease was 9% at 3 days after the DBD treatment in comparison with untreated CFs.


This paper argues that a more epidemiologically informed nursing profession could confidently challenge conventional medical epidemiology, and yet retain those concepts useful to a more holistic interpretation of the discipline and its practice. Situated within biomedicine and based on natural science, epidemiology has often been ignored by nursing, which has developed a more holistic model of health and illness and a wide range of research methodologies. However, epidemiology is evolving as mainstream approaches to research using quantitative methodologies are challenged by qualitative techniques and the emergence of 'popular epidemiology'. An epidemiology which examined questions of sickness and health from different epistemological and methodological perspectives would have more in common with prevailing ideologies in nursing. Complications arise as disciplines such as nursing and epidemiology, with different epistemologies and theoretical approaches, attempt to tackle similar problems. The difficulties are not only with paradigm incompatibility: each profession will be jealously guarding its particular territory and area of expertise. There has been little exploration of mutual or overlapping concepts and the new insights which these might bring to both disciplines. This paper attempts to redress this gap and argues that nursing has the potential to consolidate an increasingly divergent epidemiology, while gaining valuable skills to add to its own 'tool-box'.