Abstract Anecdotal data have suggested that retention of HIV-infected patients with immune recovery in longitudinal studies may be difficult as they resume normal activities. This study evaluated risk factors for attrition among patients with AIDS in a cohort study in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Patients with AIDS enrolled in the Longitudinal Study of Ocular Complications of AIDS were evaluated every three months with demographic, clinical and laboratory data collected. Lost to follow-up was defined as any patient who missed all study visits and could not be contacted for 12 consecutive months, who had not died and who did not re-enter the study at a later date. Of the 1,052 patients studied, 77 (7.3%) were lost to follow-up (rate = 0.03/person year). In the multivariate analysis, factors associated with attrition were CD4+ T-cell count category (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.03; 95%CI: 1.01, 4.24; P=0.05 for CD4+ count ≤ 50 cells/µL and HR = 1.96; 95%CI: 1.12, 3.40; P=0.02 for CD4+ count 51–200 cells/µL) and detectable HIV viral load (HR = 1.29; 95%CI: 1.07, 1.53; P<0.001 for HIV viral load >400 copies/mL). These data suggest that patients with compromised immunologic status are at an increased risk for being lost to follow-up.


The superior risk-bearing ability of commercial insurers is limited. Their comparative advantage depends on the calculability of property-liability loss distributions. Insurance contracts have their own transaction costs and these may outweigh the benefits of the commercial risk transfer. The violation of actuarial preconditions for insurability will augment these transaction costs. This increases incentives for insurance internalization and changes the organizational structures governing the market for corporate insurance. Residual risk bearing by captive and mutual forms may enhance further market exchange.


Eosinophils frequently infiltrate tissues involved by Hodgkin's disease (HD), and blood eosinophilia is frequently observed. However, the clinical significance and the mechanisms underlying eosinophilia need further elucidation. In this study the grade of eosinophilic infiltration (Eol) was evaluated in biopsies from 259 HD-patients. In a selected group (n = 32), the numbers of Hodgkin-Reed-Stemberg (HRS)-cells were counted, and the phenotype of small lymphocytes, the expression of cytotoxic lymphocyte-associated proteins, CD3-chain, HLA-DR, proliferation markers, latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) and blood lymphocyte function were evaluated. Samples from 88 HD patients (34%) showed high Eol. Significantly higher Eol was seen in nodular sclerosis 2 (NS2; p < 0.001), bulky disease (p < 0.05) and in patients < 50 years (p < 0.05). Patients with high EoI did not differ from the remainder with regard to distribution of sex, stage, B-symptoms, blood lymphocyte function and outcome. HRS-cells were significantly more frequent in NS HD as compared to mixed cellularity (MC) (p < 0.001) irrespective of EoI. LMP-1-expression, proliferative fraction and phenotypes of small lymphocytes did not differ between the cases with low and high EoI, respectively. MC HD samples had significantly higher numbers of small cells positive for CD8 (p < 0.01), T-cell intracellular antigen-1 (p < 0.01) and Granzyme B (p < 0.05) than NS. LMP-1-positive cases had significantly higher frequency of CD8-positive cells than LMP-1-negative. In conclusion, high EoI remains a feature of certain clinical subgroups of HD. However, there was no association between the degree of EoI and numbers of HRS-cells, phenotypes of small lymphocytes, EBV status and clinical outcome. Determination of EoI is of limited diagnostic and prognostic clinical value in HD. However, the differences in small cell distribution of CD8, TLA-1, GrB and CDS7 between the histopathological groups and between LMP-1-expressing/non-expressing cases may contribute to our understanding of the biology of the disease.


Until the twentieth century, no express prohibition against the use of force existed in international law. However, the legitimacy of armed conflict has been an issue of concern since ancient times. Most significantly, the just war doctrine, which was influenced heavily by the writings of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas, characterized armed conflict in terms of right and wrong, morality and immorality. For Augustine, writing in the fifth century A.D., just wars were those that "avenge[d] injuries, when the nation or city against which warlike action is to be directed has neglected either to punish wrongs committed by its own citizens or to restore what has been unjustly taken by it."1 850 years later, Aquinas refined this standard by suggesting three criteria with which to assess the use of force. To be just, the use of armed force had to be authorized by the sovereign, be for a just cause (i.e., the other side must have committed a wrong), and the belligerent nation or city had to posses the "right intention," specifically, "the advancement of good, or the avoidance of evil."2 Writers from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries built on the works of Augustine and Aquinas, but continued to address just war in its theological context. By the sixteenth century, however, the classic formulation of the doctrine was under challenge. Typical was Machiavelli's celebrated pronouncement: "that war is just which is necessary."3 With the end of the religious wars and advent of the modern nationstate system, marked historically by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, the just war doctrine fell into desuetude. Positivism, an approach to norms based on the practices of states (including agreements between them), emerged to replace it. Its foundational principle, sovereignty, rejected external, non-consensual limits on a state's prerogative to select the tools of international intercourse, including war, that it deemed best suited to achieve its national interests. Although positivism acknowledged that states should exhaust peaceful remedies before resorting to force, once that occurred, the right to use force was essentially unlimited. The sole exceptions were cased bound by bilateral treaties in which the parties had agreed not to settle disputes forcibly. By the turn of the twentieth century, the legal milieu began to change. The Hague Conventions for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes of


The quality of pork is quite variable. A common deviation in pork is PSE, characterized by pale colour, soft and exudative meat along with a low pH45. Presently, differences in meat quality cannot be detected online during the production process. However, in view of an increasingly automatized process of dissection, an early determination of quality could be of great importance. Therefore, we evaluated Raman spectroscopy as a fast and non-invasive method to assess meat quality, suited for online application. For a sample of 156 hams, pH45, pH24, colour, drip loss, and shear force were determined as quality parameters for the semimembranosus muscle. These parameters allowed to sort hams unambiguously into eight quality classes. Almost 60% were sorted as "normal", but as many as 35% as "exudative". The correlation between reference parameters and Raman spectra was determined with PLS regression. Spectra measured 24 h p.m. produced promising regression models for pH24 and drip loss, with R2=0.87 and R2=0.82, respectively. Prediction model for shear force with Raman spectra measured 24 h p.m. was not possible, but with Raman spectra measured 1 h after slaughter. This PLS model gave the overall best correlation, with R2=0.95.


This paper investigates a mathematical model of the PI3K/AKT pathway in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the absence of protein dephosphorylation and AKT degradation. We perform a bifurcation analysis by using the bifurcation method, which is based on the use of


Irradiations were made on a number of uranium-plutonium alloy specimens made from both cast and extruded materials. The cast alloys included alloys of uranium with 3.7, 5.6, and 13.0 wt. % plutonium, and the extruded alloys included alloys of uranium with 9.5, 14.1, and 15.7 wt.% plutonium. One-half of the extruded specimens were given a heat treatment consisting of heating to 545 deg C and cooling to and holding at 500 deg C for one hour in an attempt to remove the preferred orientation that was anticipated from extrusion. The specimens were irradiated to burnups ranging up to 0.54 at. % with central temperatures ranging up to 490 deg C. The cast specimens were all found to have developed severe surface roughening as a result of the irradiation they received, presumably because of excessively large grain sizes present before irradiation. Identically fabricated unalloyed uranium specimens showed similar behavior. The as-extruded alloy specimens maintained good surface smoothness under irradiation, but showed elongations which were dependent on plutonium content. For example, in samples with 0.4 at.% burnup, a 14.1 wt.% plutonium alloy specimen elongated 96%, whereas an 18.7 wt. % plutonium alloy specimen elongated only 5.4%. The heat-treated extruded specimens did notmore » elongate anisotropically, indicating that the heat treatment used was effective in randomizing the grain orientation. However, the heat-treated specimens developed excessive surface roughening, apparently because the heat treatment caused an undesirably large grain size. (auth)« less


Transient ischemic attacks are the most important warning symptoms of impending stroke. They occur in up to one-half of all patients who develop stroke but, unfortunately, less than half of the patients who have them seek help from their physicians before stroke occurs. Physicians should regularly question patients about the possibility of such symptoms and patients with them should seek prompt help. When transient ischemic attack is diagnosed, patients should be evaluated for elevated blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, cardiac dysrhythmia, cardiac disease, anemia, polycythemia and thrombocytosis. When these conditions are found they should be treated. Patients with carotid system TIAs should be evaluated clinically and radiologically for evidence of vascular disease. The neck should be auscultated for bruit and absent pulses and the peripheral vessels palpated. Patients with carotid system TIAs should have angiography of all 4 cerebral vessels and the angiogram should be evaluated for the presence and number of arterial stenoses and the presence of ulcerated plaques. When patients with carotid system TIAs are found to have localized extracranial atherosclerotic obstruction or ulcerated plaques in a vessel appropriate to the side of their symptoms of cerebral ischemia, they should be considered for prompt surgical correction of the lesion. For patients with carotid system TIAs, who have multiple sites of extracranial vascular disease, medical treatment is advisable with either anticoagulants or platelet antiaggregating agents. In view of the recently reported favorable results using aspirin in the prevention of TIA and stroke, this agent may be preferable to anticoagulants in instances where hypertension, patient compliance and laboratory facilities are a problem.


In this issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology , a provocative serologic analysis by Zuo et al provides a novel perspective on autoantibody expression in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) (1). As the data from a large patient cohort indicate, patients whose serum is persistently positive for APL, including those with the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), produce IgM and IgG antibodies to neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), a large DNA-rich structure released by activated neutrophils (2,3). Furthermore, these patients can display antibodies to DNA and nucleosomes, both speci fi c markers of systemic lupus erythema-tosus (SLE). Demonstrating intriguing similarity in immunologic fi ndings between APS and SLE, the study supports the importance of anti-NETs in both autoimmunity and immunothrombosis, the critical junction where in fl ammation and thrombosis inter-sect (4).


Abstract The neutron spectrum in the energy range of 0.1 to 5.85 MeV in the 0○ direction with respect to the incident proton beam accelerated in a Tandem Accelerator of the Wakasa Wan Energy Research Center (WERC), Japan, has been characterized using the multiple foil activation technique. Flux mapping of thermal and epithermal neutrons at 0○, 20○, 40○ and 60○ at downstream of the beam has also been carried out. The fast neutron spectrum averaged cross sections of several threshold reactions were measured. Two monitor reactions, 58Ni(n, p)58Co and 115In(n, n′, γ)115mIn, were used to determine the fast neutron flux. The use of fast neutron flux in validating some excitation functions is described.


More than 80% of chronic gastritis associated with Helicobacter infection
pylori. Indonesia is known to have a high incidence rate of H.pylori infection, but the
degree of gastritis severity and the risk of developing gastric cancer is very low.
Various studies indicate that the Th-1 cytokines cause gastritis whereas Th-2
cytokines (including interleukin-10) have protective effect to the gaster. Interleukin-
10 (IL-10) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that is considered to contribute a strong
role in determining the type of endoscopic lesions of gastric mucosa with H.pylori
infection. This study aims to determine differences in the expression of IL-10 is
based on the severity of gastric mucosal lesions of chronic gastritis patients infected
with H.pylori.
This study is an observational study, the design of study is cross-sectional.
Sample size will be determined by employing the rules of thumb, and it is
established that the minimal sampel requirement should be 30 samples. And
determined the amount of the next sample after test hypotheses put into the formula
for the proportion of the population to 42 samples. Study population will be the
gastric mucosal biopsy specimens of chronic gastritis patients (aged 18-80 years)
who examination will be carried out in the department of Anatomical Pathology at
Dr. Sardjito Hospital with positive H.pylori infection status since Januari 2009 until
October 2013. Samples will be excluded if based on patient�s medical record data,
the patient is known to have a history of malignancy, autoimmune disease, renal
failure and chronic liver disease.
Examination will be carried out in the department of Anatomical Pathology
of Dr. Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta. Biopsy specimens that will be included in the
data analysis are specimens with positive H.pylori infection status. Expression of
interleukin-10 will be observed by using monoclonal antibodies that can recognize
cytokines (interleukin-10) as well as a variety of cell markers used as primary
antibodies and immunohistochemical staining performed by Avastin-biotinperoxidase
method. Grading accuracy in this study will be assessed by kappa test (Io
values is determined above 0,7).


The article discusses the prospects for studying polymorphic variants of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor genes (PPARs) of three types (PPARα, PPARδ, and PPARγ) in diabetes mellitus (DM), taking into account their key role in the regulation of energy homeostasis, production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and lipid characteristics and glycemia control. The main emphasis is on the use of screening methods for testing patients for carriage of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in order to improve approaches to identifying risk groups for the formation of DM and associated diseases, and subsequent personification of corrective measures. The clinical, laboratory and molecular genetic characteristics of groups of patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes, healthy volunteers are presented. The prevalence of SNPs in the genes of receptors activated by the peroxisome proliferator in patients with DM was studied in comparison with the control group. Among the evaluated SNPs of the rs135551 gene, PPARA showed the clearest association with the presence of DM. Four variants of haplotypes highly associated with DM1 and DM2 were identified. The expediency of further clarification of the clinical and genetic heterogeneity of cases of diabetes within the DM1 and DM2 groups is discussed. The prospects of this direction for the development of preventive technologies in diabetology, long-term epidemiological molecular genetic screenings are assessed.


This critical qualitative study explores how power shapes the experiences of undergraduate Women of Color engaged in activism and advocacy on social justice issues at the University of Missouri. The development and design of this study is grounded in a Critical Race Feminist (CRF) epistemology. The research questions were: 1) How does power shape the experiences of undergraduate Women of Color engaged in activism and advocacy at the University of Missouri? 2) How do Women of Color experience exclusion in their activist/advocacy work and/or spaces on campus? 3) What strategies do Women of Color employ to resist marginalization on campus " in and outside of activist work? The research focused on the experiences of five Women of Color undergraduate students at the University of Missouri, four of whom were in their fourth year at the institution and one of whom was a junior. More specifically, there was one Black woman, a Chicana, a mixed-race Mexicana who is also White, and two South Asian Indian women. the use of testimonios, plnticas, and sista circles, participants shared their stories and experiences. The identification of these frames and methods is partly a result of my own position as a Boricua, Woman of Color, who seeks to conduct research in a way that is liberatory and reciprocal for participants. The findings of this research were interpreted using intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991; Collins, 2019) and Mestiza consciousness (Anzaldna, 1997). I found four over-arching themes: Engaging and Adjusting Behavior, Culture of Exploitation, Distrust Confirmed and Cultivated, and Developing a Mestiza Consciousness. Overall findings demonstrate how participants activism largely came in the form of creating awareness for others, predominantly White people. In addition, findings showed how those with privilege and power regulate participants' emotions; a lack of intersectional praxis and analysis in all areas of campus life, including equity and diversity work; a performative diversity culture that haed in equity and justice; dominant representation reflecting political investments; and how the development of a Mestiza consciousness is used by participants to challenge intersectional marginalization. Finally, this study demonstrates how participants' consciousness and activist work are continuously evolving and how they work to meet their needs and find reciprocity in their activist and advocacy efforts.


APM system in Zhujiang New Town of Guangzhou is the first APM line designed by domestic institute.Problems prone to occur during the design and construction of APM system are summarized and discussed on basis of design,construction and operation experience.Conclusions drawn are as follows: 1) Rational structural heights should be selected for tracks in circular tunnels;2) Rational guide rails and guide rail supports should be designed,so as to improve the manufacture precision and the adjustability of the track structure;3) Measures to improve the durability and repairability of the surface layer of running tracks should be further studied;4) Relevant discipline interfaces should be carefully coordinated.


In addition to affective disturbances depression is characterized by physical symptoms, which suggest dysfunction of motor, autonomic, and pain regulatory systems. These functions are modulated by serotonin (5‐HT), and extensive evidence implicates dysfunction in its neurotransmission in the pathophysiology of depression. In the current study we examined gene expression of TPH2, a key enzyme in 5‐HT synthesis, within brainstem regions that contain spinally‐projecting 5‐HTergic neurons. We collected post‐mortem human brainstem samples from depressed and control subjects, and used a combined neurochemical and histological staining approach to identify 5‐HT cell groups in the lower brainstem that are homologous with those in other species. Using radioactive in situ hybridization we detected an upregulation in TPH2 expression within: raphe obscurus, gigantocellular nucleus pars α, and raphe magnus. These regions are well‐known to regulate somatomotor, sympathetic, and nociceptive functions, and a similar increase in TPH2 expression has been reported within ascending 5‐HTergic cell groups. Taken together, these findings suggest shared molecular alterations within distinct 5‐HT circuits that mediate affective and physical manifestations of depression.


The purpose of this study was to see how liquid smoke made from beech sawdust and thyme essential oil (TEO) affected the stability of chicken and turkey meatballs when kept refrigerated. The study looked at three factors: chicken and turkey meatballs, liquid smoke and TEO concentrations (1 % and 0.1 %, respectively), and shelf life at refrigerated temperatures at 4◦ +1 C for (0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 days). Physicochemical (moisture, crude protein, crude fat, ash, pH value, water holding capacity) and total bacterial count parameters were examined. The treatments showed a considerable favorable effect on the overall bacterial count and physicochemical parameters. During storage, the samples treated with liquid smoke, then TEO, and control lost the least amount of moisture, protein, and water holding capacity. During storage, the fat, ash, and total bacterial count increased, with the greatest levels in control and the lowest in liquid smoke, followed by TEO. The pH value has decreased during storage by addition of liquid smoke 1% compared to TEO, and control. The interaction between treatments and storage days showed significant effect (P ≤0.05) on protein, fat, pH value, water holding capacity and total bacterial count. Furthermore, the lowest change was noticed in samples treated with liquid smoke during storage. Applications of liquid smoke in meatballs reduced the rate of microbial damage, maintained the physiochemical properties and were better accepted compared to TEO and control.


. Stereo matching is a fundamental problem in computer vision. Despite recent progress by deep learning, improving the robust-ness is ineluctable when deploying stereo-matching models to real-world applications. Different from the common practices, i.e., developing an elaborate model to achieve robustness, we argue that collecting multiple available datasets for training is a cheaper way to increase generalization ability. Specifically, this report presents an improved RaftStereo [12] trained with a mixed dataset of seven public datasets for the robust vision challenge (denoted as iRaftStereo RVC). When evaluated on the training sets of Middlebury, KITTI-2015, and ETH3D, the model out-performs its counterparts trained with only one dataset, such as the popular Sceneflow. After fine-tuning the pre-trained model on the three datasets of the challenge, it ranks at 2nd place on the stereo leader-board 1 , demonstrating the benefits of mixed dataset pre-training.


This paper analyzes, referring to the experiences of developed countries, status and problems of management system on living garbage of cities in China. Then some developing orientation on urban living garbage management in China is identified and proposals are put forward.


Purpose: This trial aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of sequential treatment with rituximab and CHOP-21 in patients with PTLD unresponsive to reduction of immunosuppression. Methods: An ongoing prospective multicenter phase II trial was initiated in January 2003. Patients were treated sequentially with rituximab at days 1, 8, 15 and 22 followed by four cycles of CHOP-21 combined with G-CSF support starting 4 weeks after the last dose of rituximab. Results: In this 3rd interim analysis after enrolment of 75 patients 64 patients have finished the protocol. The median follow up is 19.6 months. 58 patients were diagnosed with monomorphic PTLD, 6 with polymorphic PTLD. 23 patients were kidney, 15 liver, 12 heart, 3 lung, 2 heart+lung, 3 kidney+pancreas, 1 bone marrow transplant recipients (5 others). Median age was 53 years (range 16 to 74). 59% had stage III or IV disease. 48% of tumors were EBV positive. 79% of patients had late PTLD (i.e. later than 1 year after transplantation). LDH was elevated in 67% of patients. The overall response rate of sequential therapy was 90% (CR 65%, PR 25%). Progression free survival (PFS) and disease free survival (DFS) were 71.4% and 81.2% at two years, respectively. Treatment response to rituximab (CR/PR versus SD/PD) was a significant factor predicting overall survival (OS) with OS rates of 91.3% and 56.5% at 1 year, respectively (p=0.0107). Following chemotherapy, WHO °3/4 leukopenia was observed in 38% of cycles and 16% of patients suffered from WHO °3/4 infections. There were four early therapy-associated deaths due to infections (7%). Fatal bleeding complications occurred in 3% and 5% of patients died from primary refractory disease. Conclusions: This is one of the largest prospective studies in PTLD. Sequential treatment with rituximab and CHOP-21 + G-CSF is well tolerated and highly effective. Treatment response to rituximab is predictive for overall survival. As compared to rituximab monotherapy more patients achieve a CR with sequential therapy and PFS is very much prolonged.


In this work we studied the deposition of silver (Ag) by spatial-ALD on molybdenum layers serving as a growth model substrate. Mo-layers were selected for testing the suitability of spatial-ALD in fabricating MoO3/Ag/MoO3 tri-layer transparent conductor (TC) stacks used for light-management optimization in organic-based and perovskites solar cells. The presence of native MoO3 on the Mo surface was found to hinder the Ag coalescence. Therefore, an H2/N2 plasma pre-treatment was introduced before Ag deposition in order to reduce the native MoO3. It was concluded that this plasma pre-treatment was effective in promoting Ag wetting, as corroborated by scanning electron microscopy and ellipsometry measurements. Wetting/de-wetting properties as probed by rapid thermal annealing experiments and comparable XRD stress amplitude measurements supported the conclusion that, plasma pre-treatment ALD deposited MoO3 layers can act as wetting layers for subsequent Ag spatial-ALD. This can open up alternative pathways for the fabrication of TCs using ALD.


Observational data from surface automatic weather station(AWS),satellite,Doppler weather radar and NCEP reanalysis were used to analyze the environmental conditions and the evolution of mesoscale systems for two severe precipitation events(respectively referred to as " 7.17" case and "7.18" case) originated by a vortex rainstorm in the Huanghe-Huaihe regions during July 17-19,2010.The results showed that(1) the two cases both occurred under sufficient water vapor transport,abundant unstable energy,strong convergence upward motion and other favorable environmental conditions.There are more favorable thermal conditions and severer precipitation but smaller areal coverage in the "7.17" case,while there are more favorable dynamic conditions and broader severe precipitation area but lower rainfall intensity in the " 7.18" case.(2) The accumulated rainstorm area in the "7.17" case is located on both sides of the movement path with 30-80 km about cyclone center,while that in the "7.18" case is 70-100 km.(3) The mesoscale rain clusters(bands) and the short-time heavy rainfall occur mainly around the mesoscale cyclones on the ground,and there are different heavy precipitation areas during their different activity stages.(4) It is seen in the satellite images that heavy precipitation in both cases is generated by convective clouds moving from southwest to northeast,whose TBB is as low as 210-220 K.(5) It can be found in the radar echo charts that in the "7.17" case the vortex is more evident while in the "7.18" case the echo band induced by cold and warm shear is.During the two events,the mesoscale rain band corresponds to the spiral echo belt with 43 dBz or greater,but the short-time heavy rainfall corresponds to strong echo with 48 dBz or greater in the spiral rain band.


Janet Sanderson lost her hearing over several years and is now profoundly deaf. She founded Hearsay, a patient support group


The aim: to identify the relationship between the severity of psychovegetative and pain in women with dysmenorrhea. Patients and methods: 46 women (mean age 22.3±6.2 years old) with dysmenorrhea. 3 groups: mild, moderate and severe dysmenorrhea were distinguished as symptoms severity. Results. The correlations between the pain severity according to numerical pain intensity scale (NPIS) and the values of other parameters: with the anxiety severity Sheehan scores (r=0.644, p <0.01), depression on the Hamilton scale (r=0.824, p <0.01), disorders the autonomic nervous system by questionnaire Wayne (r=0,442, p <0.05), reproductive system functioning satisfaction numerical scale (r=0.702, p <0.01), and the overall life quality on the SF-36 questionnaire (r=0.615, p <0.01) were identified. Patients with severe dysmenorrhea score on the Hamilton scale and severity of psycho-vegetative syndrome was significantly higher it was found when variance analysis depending on the Hamilton scale score and score on the questionnaire Wayne from a group at the prevailing sex hormones concentration changes, clustering parameter for the severe dysmenorrhea presence. Conclusion. Severe dysmenorrhea is probably a "yellow flag" patient psychosocial distress and requires the development of specific therapeutic strategies. The article also shows the relationship between the pathophysiological mechanisms of psycho-vegetative syndrome, pain and disorders of regulate the menstrual cycle hormones.


Analyzing the advantages of RM(Rate Monotonic) scheduling algorithm and its disadvantages in actual execution, the SR-RM(Self-Regulating Rate Monotonic) scheduling algorithm is proposed to adjust the task execution period through tracking the actual execution time of assigned tasks and processor utilization. In addition, SR-RM engaged in decrease unscheduled task set to improve reliability through scout and predict environment transformation. Simulation tests revealed that SR-RM scheduling algorithm is available to the real-time implementation environment of reducing the miss rate of tasks with higher processor utilization.


This report discuss issues that received congressional attention in the 107th Congress, such as The impact of air quality regulations, key water quality issues, superfund, solid/hazardous wastes, multibillion dollar cleanup and compliance programs, climate change, pesticides, EPA budget, and Science and Technology.


ABSTRACT We fabricated a metal-organic framework (MOF) using azobenzene containing dicarboxylic acid as an organic linker and Zn ion as nodes. The MOF was functionalized with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) to obtain highly hydrophobic propertyon the surface of the MOF. Such POSS-functionalized MOF was ground to fine particles and the resultant particles were used for the fabrication of liquid marbles (LMs) by dropping water on the finely-ground MOF. The LMs could be easily fabricated because of the hydrophobic nature of the POSS and could be used as stimuli-responsive materials. We founded that LMs decorated with the MOF lost their original shape upon exposure to acidic vapors because of the formation of protonatedazobenzene by the acidic vapor, leading to the hydrophilization of the surface of the MOF. This result reveals that the LM has the potential for the detection of acidic vapors.


Electrophoretic amid sdirnermtatio~i analyses were made on the plasma aild saum of the hernolymph of the lobster Homarus americanus, and on purified hernocyanin and fabrinsgerm prepared from these. Amino acid analyses of these txva proteiras and the plasma, and of the free amino acids of the plasma were also determined. Fibrinogen maintained its function and character upon isolation. Ht was completely and selectively removed from the plasma by stirring with small amounts of oleic acid. The pH of the hemslymph was 7.6; this was a stable characteristic. The lactic aerd in the hemslymph of lobsters held unfed in a disturbing environment at first increased fivefold and then returned to normal ; the carbohydrate Ieve1 rem~ained unchanged.


This article discussed the data alignment in memory and the structure data is how to exist in memory,also the memory alignment is how to affect different system and program performance,and how to use memory alignment to prop-erly conduct the network data exchange.


A dynamic version of Environmental Adaption Method (EAM) is proposed in this paper. Environmental Adaption Method for Dynamic Environment (EAMD) is an improvement over EAM, which works in dynamic environment with real valued parameters. Unlike EAM the theory of this algorithm is based on adaption of species in dynamic environment which gradually becomes more verse and deadly for their denizens. The species which are able to adapt in the changing environment, improves their fitness value by enhancing their phenotypic structure in the upcoming generations. Sudden and gradual dynamic changes in the environment assist species to converge towards the optimal fitness. Unlike EAM, EAMD is suitable for both unimodal and multimodal problems without the need of an alteration operator as there is enough diversity since the adaption is randomized, i.e. each possible solution can adapt anywhere within the search space. EAMD is compared with various algorithms tested on 24 benchmark functions against the Black Box Optimization Benchmarking (BBOB) test-bed at different dimensions with very promising results and EAMD shows its superiority over other state-of-the-art algorithms.


To what extent does this oral verbalization of the pledge result in the children's actually knowing and understanding the meaning of the Salute? The study here reported is an effort to present some facts bearing upon this question. Teachers from thirteen school systems, varying in size from rural dis tricts to cities with populations ranging between twenty and thirty thousand, were requested to have their children from the third through the twelfth grade write the Flag Salute. To insure against coaching by teachers or pos sibilities that the pupils would especially prepare for this task, no warning of the forthcoming exercise was given. In order to test largely the influence of the oral verbalization of the Salute, rooms in which intensive work on the pledge, such as practice in writing it for written composition work, were not included in the study. The number excluded, however, was small, repre senting only some ten per cent of the rooms which were selected at random. In all, 2883 children wrote the pledge. Fifty-seven per cent of all the data was collected during the school year of 1939-40, forty-three per cent in 1940-41.


Ensuring the validity of measurements in wind energy systems (WES) is a challenging task in system diagnosis and data validation. This work, therefore, elaborates on the development of new approaches aimed at improving the operation of WES by developing intelligent and innovative fault diagnosis frameworks. Therefore, an enhanced particle swarm optimization (PSO), data reduction, and interval-valued representation are proposed. First, a feature selection tool using PSO Algorithm is developed. Then, in order to maximize the diversity between data samples and improve the effectiveness of using PSO algorithm for feature selection, the Euclidean distance metric is used in order to reduce the data and maximize the diversity between data samples. Finally, PSO and RPSO-based interval centers and ranges and upper and lower bounds techniques are developed to deal with model uncertainties in WES. The last retained features from the proposed PSO-based methods are fed to the neural network (NN) classifier. The proposed methodology improves the diagnosis abilities, reduces the computation time, and decreased the storage cost. The presented experimental results prove the high performance of the suggested paradigms in terms of computation time and accuracy.


The aim of this paper is to analyze dislocation in three oral texts. This study is based on D'Introno (1979), Hernanz y Brucart (1987), Hidalgo (2002), Sedano (2006) and Halliday & Hasan (1976). The research follows the qualitative methodology, being a descriptive investigation which concerns the syntactic and pragmatic functional analysis of speech. Utterances from speakers 5, 15 and 18 —from Villalobos and Diaz's (2005) Maracay Sociolinguistic Corpus Project— are described. In the sample, types of dislocated structures are observed in relation to the categories type of verb and pragmatic function. The results are: a) left dislocation of prepositional structures with indirect object function is mainly observed in the utterances; b) those dislocations are probably due to the presence of verbs ref lecting mental processes; c) these verbs are related to the interpersonal and textual metafunctions; d) the pragmatic metafunction is highly observed in the utterances, and e) the personal participation microfunctions are considerably used by speakers to express personal interest.


The fiber grouted material can reinforce the tension strength, shear strength as well as the index of fracture ductile, and remarkably improve the endurance of pre-stressed anchor rope under long-time loading. As a result, it has the better application foreground. Based on the shear log model and Hashin-Shtrikman upper and lower limited theorem, we have studied the mechanism of fiber grouted material applied in pre-stressed anchor rope and material property, and analyzed the effect of resistance strength of bond, resistance distribution of anchor section and the loading-deformation relationship of anchor body.


An elastic washable cleansing cosmetic composition is provided to improve cleansing effects on make-up components, inhibit skin irritation by simply washing it off with water after use, and serve sensory enjoyment by elasticity inducing resonance against exterior impact. An elastic washable cleansing cosmetic composition comprises 5-40 wt.% of nonionic surfactant having 5-15 HLB(Hydrophilic Lipophilic Balance), 10-60 wt.% of oil, 5-60 wt.% of multivalent alcohol and 10-40 wt.% of purified water, wherein the nonionic surfactant is polyoxyethylene-60 hydrogenated castor oil, polyoxyethylene glycol-25 octyldodecyl ether, glyceres-25 PCA isostearate, polyethyleneglycol-30 or polypropylene glycol-6 decyltetradecyl ether and the multivalent alcohol is glycerine, diglycerine, 1,3 butyleneglycol, propyleneglycol, dipropyleneglycol, erythritol, sorbitol, mannitol, methyl glyceres-10, methyl cryceres-20, glyceres-26 or polyoxyethylene.


To evaluate the efficacy of automated control of the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) in comparison with manual FiO2 control in maintaining target pulse oxygen saturation (SpO2) range.


An apparatus and method of processing images in a digital camera and improving the quality of imageS produced by camera processing Software. In low-light digital camera photography, a dark frame image is Subtracted from an original picture image to form a resulting image. The resulting image formed from the dark frame Subtraction is evaluated for negative and invalid pixel values. Each nega tive and invalid pixel value is replaced using a pixel replace ment algorithm with appropriate positive values.


Objective To investigate the clinical application effect of compound glycyrrhizin capsules in the treatment 318 patients with skin disease. Methods The clinical efficacy of oral compound glycyrrhizin capsules for the 318 patients with skin disease was observed. The capsules were taken 2 tablets/time and 3 times/day after meal.One treatment course consisted of 14 to 21 days.Other oral and external drugs were withdrawn during the treatment. Results The effective treatment rate of compound glycyrrhizin capsules was 86.00% for alopecia,90.00% for dermatitis,94.00% for eczema,82.00% for urticaria,90.00% for pityriasis rosea, 86.00% for skin itch,93.33% for allergic purpura,93.75% for psoriasis, 83.33% for prurigo and 70.00% for lichen planus. Conclusion Compound glycyrrhizin capsules show good effects in the treatment of 318 patients with skin disease and are inexpensive,which is suitable for promotion and application in primary hospitals.


Ando Tadao's architecture shows its own consistent figure in the use of exposed mass concrete and natural architectural language, and this can also be seen in Tadao's design for exhibition space.The exhibition space is an architecture with a definite purpose of exhibit. It is necessary to be able to flexibly change the composition of the space according to the nature of the work to be exhibited. Ando Tadao always participates in designing from scratch, which makes it able for him to use his own consistent architectural language in the adequate figure of the given space.In such perspective, this essay analyzed the common traits and architectural language that can be found in Tadao's exhibition space through examples. Ando Tadao hereby uses the purpose of the space and his architectural language, the geometrical element, and nature in harmony to express in the exhibition space. Moreover, Ando Tadao approached the spaces in diverse ways by expressing new architectural techniques. This shows the true value that modern exhibition areas should pursue and is crucial enough to study deeper about.


The determination of genuine entanglement is a central problem in quantum information processing. We investigate the tripartite state as the tensor product of two bipartite entangled states by merging two systems. We show that the tripartite state is a genuinely entangled (GE) state when the range of both bipartite states are entanglement-breaking (EB) subspaces. We further investigate the tripartite state when one of the two bipartite states has rank two. Our results provide the latest progress on a conjecture proposed in the paper [Yi Shen et al 2020 J. Phys. A 53 125302]. We apply our results to construct multipartite states whose bipartite reduced density operators have additive entanglement of formation (EOF). Further, such states are distillable across every bipartition under local operations and classical communications.


In this paper, we propose a new gasket fractal constructed in a deterministic iterated function system (IFS) way by means of interacting ball and square sets in R^2. The gasket consists of the ball sets generated by the IFS, possessing also exact self-similarity. All this leads to a direct deduction of other properties and a clear construction methodology, including a dynamic geometry procedure with an open-source construction protocol. We also develop an extended version of the fractal in R^n. Some resulting configurations consisting of stacked 2D-fractals are plotted. We discuss about potential applications of them in some areas of science, focusing mainly on percolation models. Guidelines for future work are also provided.


disabled are our equals when it comes to their moral status, it remains perfectly consistent to acknowledge the great suffering that often accompanies the caregiving context. Invoking the gifts offered by the caregiving encounter via the previously-discussed virtues, Dow notes that—in his own experience—it is often those typically thought of as receivers of care who are actually the ones who can offer the most profound healing of those mourning and lamenting. Finally, the virtue of 'quiet attentiveness' (p. 160) offers caregivers a way of disrupting the typical way our consumer culture thinks of relationships (especially, but not only, when one thinks of the noise of the internet and especially social media) and make space for a genuine encounter to take place. In a related way, practicing this virtue also opens encounters to the healing power of the divine, of God, to work on those (again) being formed together in new and transformative ways. One of the more powerful aspects of Dow's wonderful book is that he speaks with authority as one who has seen these virtues work in practice. He has seen them transform individuals and all those on caregiving teams first-hand. Dow doesn't pretend that one need not be a practicing Christian to understand these virtues as theological in nature, but neither does he pretend that one must be a practicing Christian in order to see that they can transform the embodied practice of caregiving in profound, moving, and absolutely necessary ways. I have often thought that—especially given the near absolute dominance of a secular, consumerist throwaway culture (when it comes to caregiving, yes, but also when it comes to nearly every other kind of relationship)—there would need to be a religious revival in order to create the conditions for the possibility of the Christian churches stepping up and offering anything like legitimate, adequate responses to the caregiving crisis. In thinking about this, I have wondered from where the resources might come for forming Christian caregivers. The theological resources are there for all to see, but we need theologians and others to marshal them in ways that can directly address the crisis. Happily, with Dow's new book, we now have a handbook for doing precisely this. And not a moment too soon.


When presenting experimental results, or when choosing the value of a variable to be used in a simulation, it is often required that a representative value be given. This value may be a mean, an average, a median, a log-mean, an expectation value, or some other measure of central tendency. Deciding which of these variable types is appropriate to use in a given application and determining the actual value require consideration of the statistical distribution of the data. Typical statistical distributions found in biological systems are (a) normally distributed values (the frequencies of occurrence of the values define the familiar bell-shaped curve) and (b) lognormally distributed values (the frequencies of occurrences of the logarithms of the values define the bell-shaped curve). The authors have developed and applied a computer code that may be used to test assumptions about the type of statistical distribution (either normal or lognormal) of a set of measured values and to determine measures of central tendency based on the actual data. These representative values are calculated in a manner appropriate to the distribution.


Aim: Free radical formation increases due to hyperglycemia occurring in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus (DM), and as a result, oxidative stress occurs. Hyperglycemia-mediated oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. The antihyperglycemic, antioxidative, anti-apoptotic, and anti-inflammatory effects of ellagic acid (EA) have been demonstrated by many studies. In this study, it was aimed to demonstrate the antifibrotic effect of EA on TGFβ1/Smad signaling in rats with streptozotocin induced diabetic nephropathy.
Material and Methods: A total of 24 male Sprague Dawley rats, weighing 200-250 g, were used in this study. The animals were divided into four groups as control, EA, DM, and DM+EA. The kidney tissues were used for histological and immunohistochemical procedures. While the collagen density in kidney tissues was revealed by Masson's trichrome staining, the expression levels of fibrotic markers TGFβ1, p-Smad3, and αSMA were determined by the immunocytochemical method.
Results: It was shown that the collagen density in the renal tissue of the DM group increased significantly in the intertubular area, while the collagen density in the EA-treated DM group was statistically significantly decreased. When TGFβ1, p-Smad3, and αSMA immunopositivity in kidney tissue sections of all groups were evaluated, the highest staining intensity was in the DM group, while the intensity of staining was close to the control group in the treatment group. It was observed that αSMA, TGFβ1, and p-Smad3 protein expression were down-regulated with EA treatment.
Conclusion: EA reduced fibrosis in diabetic nephropathy by returning profibrotic parameters to normal levels.


Clinical depression, twice as common in women as in men, can be readily diagnosed and treated, but it is unclear how long patients should be treated.


The effect of electrostimulation on the growth of fibroblasts and mesenchymal stem cells cultured on electrically conductive layers of a biopolymer composite were studied. Layers of a biopolymer composite based on carbon nanotubes, albumin, collagen, chitosan were formed by using infrared laser radiation. The developed system for electrostimulation provides the generation of electrical signals with specified electrical parameters; control and regulation of them; transmission of electrical signals to cells growth on layers of a biopolymer composite. The effect of electrostimulation on cell growth for 48 hours with 1 ms pulse duration, 1 s pause duration, amplitude ranged from 60 to 200 mV was investigated by optical, fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, MTT test.


The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a crucial role during cancer invasion and metastasis [1, 2]. In this paper, we present a microfluidic device that can facilitate probing the traits of EMT in micrometer-scale environments. Furthermore, we show that epithelial cancer cells can grow to a tumor spheroid in the device, acquire properties of mesenchymal cells, and have an increased ability of migration, comparing with native cancer cells. The microfluidic device requires no external pumping systems yet being pipette-friendly in usage.


Optimality Theory explicitly requires that the choice of epenthetic consonant in a given language be " natural " , i.e. predictable from the interaction of inventory constraints and well-formedness constraints; this consonant is typically claimed to be [/] or [t]. Rule-based theories on the other hand allow rules to insert synchronically arbitrary segments. This paper provides cross-linguistic empirical evidence demonstrating that the rule-based prediction is correct, providing further support for the assertion of Anderson 1981 that phonology is not " natural ". I argue that recent OT accounts of consonant epenthesis are fundamentally incapable of capturing the insertion facts, and lose essential insights of rule-based phonology into the relationship between historical change and language acquisition, and between automatic and morphologically-conditioned phonology. "Epenthesis of r is always historically secondary to deletion of r, from which it derives by reanalysis." (McCarthy 1993:190) " Any theory must allow latitude for incursions of the idiosyncratic into grammar " (Prince and Smolensky 1993:101) 2 Consonant epenthesis has received a great deal of attention in the recent phonological literature because of the significantly different ways in which it is treated by constraint-based and rule-based theories. Optimality Theory requires that the choice of productive epenthetic consonant in a given language be predictable from the interaction of independently-motivated inventory and well-formedness constraints; this consonant is allow rules of the type " Ø → [g] / V_V " (i.e. " insert [g] between vowels "), wherein the choice of epenthetic segment is synchronically arbitrary (though a formal cost is associated with each feature included in the rule, predicting that rules inserting fewer features will be more common than rules inserting large bundles of features). The greater restrictiveness of the OT prediction is often touted as an advantage of OT over DP. In this paper, however, I demonstrate that the prediction of rule-based phonology is correct: a language can choose any consonant for insertion by regular rule. This is a problem for the OT accounts of consonant epenthesis developed by Lombardi, McCarthy, and Steriade, which are specifically designed to exclude insertion of synchronically-arbitrary segments. The primary problem for all of the OT accounts is that language arises from the confrontation of the human language acquisition device with the arbitrary linguistic data to which it is exposed; since these data encode layers of historical change, the resulting phonological grammar will be "unnatural" in the words of Anderson 1981 argue that unnatural …


The main objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between chemical structure and higher heating value of reformed diesel fuels by ultrasonic irradiation.
In order 10 analyze the chemical changes of molecular structure of the reformed diesel fuels by ultrasonic irrdiation, ¹H-NMR was used and bomb calorimeter was used to analyze the the effect of higher heating values of the ultrasonic energy added diesel fuels to compare with thai of the conventional diesel fuel. The results showed thai the aromatic carbon percentages and higher heating values of the reformed diesel fuels by ultrasonic irradiation increased more than that of the conventional diesel fuel, but the Aromatics percentages and branch indices of those reduced more than that.


The Turukhano-Norilsk ridge, Siberian platform, is the area of Paleozoic and Precambrian natural outcrops. Several fields and bitumen shows dated to the caverns and fissures are discovered within its limits, that testifies on present oil and gas systems in the study area. One of the main objects for characterization of petroleum systems is determination of source rocks. The Strelnye Gory formation (Middle Riphean) is one of most enriched in organic matter and could be considered as one of major source formations in the north-western part of the Siberian platform. TOC volumes in the claystones are in average 1.2 %, in separate samples reaching up to 3.4-4.2%. High maturity level of these deposits gives the opportunity to conclude that these concentrations are residual. Initial TOC values have been evidently 2-3 times higher, that is characterizing the studied deposits as highly enriched source rocks. Different forms of organisms took part in formation of petroleum potential of these rocks. In Late Strelnye Gory time the benthic forms appeared. This statement is made based on the study of n-alkane distribution. The view of n-alkanes distribution in the bitumen of source rocks gives the opportunity to draw correlations «oil – source rocks»


from depicting Arendt as a ranking theorist of universal human rights. Habitually uncritical commentary of this kind is not an accidental facet of Canovan's study: it has its source in her lack of theoretical savvy—in her unwillingness to fashion a standpoint from which critically to assess Arendt. Canovan casually assumes what she should be explaining in many cases—for instance, that Arendt is an antifoundationalist and an existentialist. In Hannah Arendt, Canovan succumbs to Arendt's considerable intellectual powers precisely because of this lacuna in Canovan's scholarly template, and the result is a study that is continually struggling to justify itself. In contrast, Jeffrey Issac has a rough thesis in mind— that Arendt and Camus are theorists of "rebellious politics" but are rebels of a peculiar kind fitted for our postmodern time, suspicious of absolutes and final answers. Neither is duped by the boundless idealism of the Left, and both are protagonists of limits and moral realism. Hence, they are rebels who offer no "solace" and no lasting solutions. As Issac reads them, these "rebels" are not conspicuously or overly rebellious: they are, in fact, pliant liberals with a taste for the kind of sly pragmatism espoused by "leftists" like Rorty and Walzer. Not only that, but they are both committed to "the project of democratic empowerment" and universal human rights (p. 242). Camus, possibly, fits this image of the prosaic modernist fairly well, but to cast Arendt into this mold is to stretch credulity. Focusing primarily on Camus, Issac has fashioned an interpretive net that can accommodate Arendt, but at her expense. To stuff Arendt into the Enlightenment straight] acket is badly to misread her, and Issac implicitly recognizes this: he frequently retreats from his sanguine assessments of Arendt as an American liberal. But there is a deeper problem with this interpretation—the presumption that Camus and Arendt were intellectual equals. His literary acumen notwithstanding, Camus was hardly "an exemplary theorist" or even a "political theorist" in any precise, substantive sense (see pp. 11-12). An interest in similar themes was the legacy of a shared historical and philosophical milieu, not a sign of intellectual parity. Camus and Arendt were substantively incompatible figures: he was intellectually light, a parasitic man of letters who said a few interesting things; she was an extraordinary, original theorist of the post-Holocaust human condition, an epic thinker who uncovered new trails of thought. This reductive strategy not only trivializes Arendt, it robs her analysis of its radicalism and reduces it to the level of Camus's trite bourgeois formulas. For instance, Arendt condemned the racism and unwillingness of Zionist leaders to make peace with the Palestinian natives. In a typically Camusian move, Issac equates this critique with Camus's staunch opposition to independence for Algeria. Camus's insolent dismissal of the colonized is a far cry from Arendt's strikingly unbiased judgment against the oppression of the Palestinians by the incoming European Jews. Walzer's tutalege is very much in evidence in Issac's analysis. Issac's adulation of Camus and praise for his "compelling" reasons for rejecting Algerian claims (p. 205) and Issac's staging of Arendt as a theorist of limits, a pragmatist wary of utopianism, and an enthusiast of "civil society" are variations on the Walzerian passion for lukewarm liberal politics, "connected critics," and ethnic affiliation. That Arendt can be read selectively in this way is not in dispute. The crucial point, rather, is that this Walzerian reading traduces her brilliance and the unique radicalism of her political theory. For compromising politics of this sort, especially the Camusian variety, Arendt had no sympathy. To say that she "misunderstood his work" is an untenable assertion (see p. 16). On the contrary, Arendt understood precisely the bourgeois temper of Camus's mind. Still, Issac's study is a provocative, interesting interpretation, even though he speculates well beyond the spacious bounds of Arendt's political theory. Canovan's book, on the other hand, is a profound intellectual disappointment, an immense effort that goes nowhere. Had Canovan attempted to do what, in the final pages of her faltering conclusion, she recognized she should have, she would have produced a commanding text—an interpretation of Arendt based on a "thorough assessment of the kind that cannot be attempted here" (p. 280).


Phlegrnasia cerulea dolens, or blue leg, is a rare manifestation of venous thrombosis compared with the incidence of the more well known phlegrnasia alba dolens, or white leg, which is a common complication of many diseases and surgical procedures. It presents many features which closely resemble the effects of arterial occlusion, causing difficulty in diagnosis, and probably many cases are wrongly diagnosed. It is for this reason that it is considered worthwhile to record two further cases.


East African riparian countries have debated sharing Nile River water for centuries. To define a reasonable allocation of water to each country, the United Nations' Watercourse Convention could be a key legal instrument. However, its applicability has been questioned given its overly generalized guidance and non-quantifiable factors. This study identified and evaluated appropriate indicators that best describe reasonable and equitable principles and factors detailed under Article 6 of the convention in order to allocate Nile River water among the states. Potential indicators (n = 75) were defined based on multiple sources that can address conflicting interests specific to this basin context. A questionnaire based on these indicators was developed and distributed to 215 prominent experts from five professional groups on five continents. To analyze the presence of agreements or disagreements within and outside of the basin, as well as differences across expert groups, a k-mean clustering analysis and statistical tests (ANOVA and t-test) were employed. The results imply agreement on 75% of the proposed indicators by all experts across all continents. However, a significant difference in identifying the importance and relevance of many indicators between experts from Egypt and other countries was evident. This study thus demonstrates how the UN watercourse convention principles can be quantified and applied to transboundary water allocation, and ideally lead to informed discourse between basin countries in conflict.


The stability and Hinfin state-feedback controller synthesis problem for linear parameter varying (LPV) systems with time varying delays is addressed. It is assumed that the state space data are dependent on parameters that are measurable in real-time. The delay-dependent stability and induced Lscr2 norm performance are explored using Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional. In addition, the design of parameter dependent state-feedback controllers that guarantee stability and desired induced Lscr2 norm performance is examined. Both analysis and synthesis conditions are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) that can be solved via efficient interior-point algorithms. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate that the proposed results are less conservative than past results


Gel-forming filaments or yarns comprising the fibers. In particular, those used to produce the woven or knitted wound dressings and other gelling fabric structure. The present invention provides a yarn in which a 30 wt% to 100 wt% of gel forming fibers and 0 wt% to 70 wt% of textile fibers formed by blending. Method of manufacturing such a yarn (including a method of using the rotor spinning) are also described.


Planning and establishment of urban forests/trees for bio-physical benefits is not new in Nigeria; however, development and management of urban forests/trees for social and cultural values is relatively recent. This study is a diagnostic assessment of all trees/shrubs within University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin-City, Nigeria, including the newly introduced indigenous tree species. Ecological analysis was used to describe the relic tree population while ANOVA was used to compare growth in height and mortality of Mansonia altissima, Tieghemela heckelii, Terminalia superba, Khaya grandifoliola, Nauclea diderichii and Piptadeniastrum africanum. There were 224 trees/shrubs – consisting of indigenous (15%) and exotic (85%) – distributed among 27 species, 26 genera and 19 families. Shannon Weiner index (2.65) revealed low species diversity while Terminalia mantaly ranked highest on Important Value Index (IVI) scale. Tree/shrub height ranged 2m to 6m while most stems (68%) recorded <20cm dbh. Ornamental plants (41%) tending toward mature growth stage dominated the landscape. The study revealed that Khaya grandifoliola had a significantly better (P≥0.05) annual growth rate (1.74m) but also recorded highest (62.5%) mortality rate in the urban environment. Relative high growth rates of K. grandifoliola and Nauclea diderichii present a possible alternative to some exotic tree species in urban green spaces.


− This study evaluated the influence of the zeta potential of silica-alumina on the behavior in terms of purity, yield, and precipitate shape and size of fractional precipitation in the fractional precipitation process for the purification of (+)-dihydromyricetin. The optimal silica-alumina amount (surface area per working volume of reacting solution) for zeta potential control was 100 mm -1 . As the zeta potential value of silica-alumina increased, (+)-dihydromyricetin yield and precipitate size were increased. The use of silica with the highest value of the zeta potential (+4.99 mV) as a zeta potential-controlling material increased the (+)-dihydromyricetin yield by 2-fold compared with that of the use of alumina with the lowest value of the zeta potential (-19.00 mV). In addition, the (+)-dihydromyricetin yield and precipitate size was inversely correlated with the absolute value of the zeta potential. On the other hand, the purity of (+)-dihydromyricetin had almost no effect on changes in the zeta potential of silica-alumina.


This paper describes chain code based method for handwritten Gujarati numeral recognition. Literature review on Indian OCR indicates that in comparison with Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu scripts, the OCR activities related to Gujarati script is very less. Development of OCR for Gujarati script is quite challenging area for research. In this work, recognition of isolated Gujarati handwritten numerals is performed using chain code based methods. Horizontal scanning and maximum distance from centroid methods are used for deciding the starting point for calculating the chain code sequence. An overall accuracy of 96.37% and 95.62% is obtained using feed forward neural network classifier by the proposed methods respectively. One of the significant contributions of this paper is towards the generation of large and representative database for handwritten Gujarati numerals.

Keywords:Chain code, Gujarati handwritten numeral recognition, Neural network classifier.


Current-voltage hysteresis and switchable rectifying characteristics have been observed in epitaxial multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films. The forward direction of the rectifying current can be reversed repeatedly with polarization switching, indicating a switchable diode effect and large ferroelectric resistive switching. With analyzing the potential barriers and their variation with ferroelectric switching at the interfaces between the metallic electrodes and the semiconducting BFO, the switchable diode effect can be explained qualitatively by the polarization-modulated Schottky-like barriers.


The rock mass of dam foundation exists unconformity face(band),low-angle,middle-angle and steep-angle dip crack.Taking a hydropower station in active seismic zone of Burma for an example,the passive resistance method is adopted to calculate deep stability against sliding of gravity dam.And then the safety margin is analyzed under the conditions of various loads.Finally,the measure of insufficient margin is put forward to deal with dam foundation.


The Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect is now largely considered to be a manifestation of geometric phase. However, by decomposing the vector-potential gradient tensor into divergence, curl, and shear components, we isolate a field/charged-particle interaction that is not dependent on local electric and magnetic fields. We show that a local shear field provides a velocity-dependent, dynamic-phase interaction in the AB effect whose predictions are consistent with all known classes of AB experiments, including interference fringe shifts, the absence of time delays along the direction of propagation, and the possibility of lateral forces.


The article analyses the institiution of extended confiscation in the Italian Republic where such solution has been functioning for over twenty years, depriving criminal organisatuions of assets worth hundreds of milions euro. The aricle elaborates on the most important characteristics of the italian institiution and adresses the controversies they rise together with related doctrine and judgments of the supreme court. The characteristics have been confronted with the solutions introduced into the Polish legal system by the law od 23 march 2017. The new regulations allow in certain situations to confiscate an entire enterprise belonging to a person that didn't comit the crime, introduce the possibility of confiscating assets even if the perpetrator is not recognized and a presumption that any asset bought in 5 years before comittment of a crime is a profit from the crime.


Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) is a key protein involved in high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) metabolism. It is known to affect plasma HDL‐C levels, and its genetic regulation may be involved in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of the CETP Taq1B polymorphism in Koreans, and to investigate its relationship with plasma HDL‐C levels and CAD. One‐hundred and nineteen patients with significant CAD and 106 controls were examined with respect to their genotypes, lipid profiles and other risk factors of CAD. The genotype frequencies of B1B1:B1B2:B2B2 in males and females were 35.5%:50%:14.5% and 34.7%:42.6%:22.7%, respectively, which is comparable to previous reports in other ethnic groups. The B1B1 homozygote was associated with significantly lower HDL‐C levels in females (p = 0.049) and non‐smoking males (p = 0.037). After controlling for gender, body mass index (BMI) and smoking, the TaqIB polymorphism was still significantly associated with HDL‐C levels (p = 0.046) and explained 5.4% of the HDL‐C variation in this study. By univariate analysis, the B1B1 homozygote was a significant predictor of CAD (p = 0.043), and this was confirmed by multivariate analysis with traditional risk factors, i.e. the B1B1 homozygote was an independent predictor of CAD (p = 0.026, odds ratio = 1.97, 95% confidence interval: 1.08–3.57). In conclusion, the B1B1 homozygote of the CETP Taq1B polymorphism is associated with low HDL‐C levels in females and non‐smoking males, and may be an independent genetic risk factor of CAD in the Korean population.


At long horizons, multiplicative compounding induces strong-to-extreme positive skewness into stock returns; the magnitude of the effect is primarily determined by single-period volatility. Consequently, at horizons greater than five years, returns — individual or portfolio — will be positively skewed under reasonable parametrizations. From an investor perspective, the strong positive skewness implies that the mean compound return will serve as a poor guide for typical long-horizon outcomes. Moreover, the large effects of compounding on higher-order moments are shown to affect the validity of Taylor expansions used to approximate preferences for skewness, when applied to returns of annual or longer horizons.


Plasma cells are terminally differentiated antibody producing cells. Recently, signaling molecules controlling plasma cell functions have been recognized as a crucial component of humoral immune response. We have established ex‐vivo plasma cell culture system. CD99 is a 32kD type I transmembrane protein that is highly expressed on hematopoietic precursor cells and some malignant neoplasms. CD99 is known to be involved in cell adhesion, migration, apoptosis and secretion. We report that CD99 is strongly expressed on developing human plasma cells. These findings were also consistent with immunohistochemistry and flow cytometric results on in vivo plasma cells and plasmacytoma. Engagement of the CD99 molecule by monoclonal antibodies, DN16 and YG32, triggered homotypic aggregation of plasma cell line RPMI8226. These observations suggest that CD99 may play a critical role in humoral immune response by controlling adhesion or migration of plasma cells.


Key words: media, teaching vocabulary and flash card.

The uses media are important in teaching and learning process, especially in English media help teacher to be easier to teach and also help students to be easier to learn. By using media, hopefully the students get spirit when they study, so they would easy to improve their vocabulary mastery. Improving vocabulary mastery is very important, because by having many vocabularies they would easy to master four skills, they are; listening, writing, reading and speaking.
Although the use of media are important, but not all teachers use them when they teach. It can be caused by the limited in the school, or may be the teachers have no time to create. This research is done to show the media that are easy, and interesting; the media are flash card. By using flash card, hopefully the students can be easier to improve vocabulary mastery.
The research problems were formulated as follows: (1) How is the students' mastery on vocabulary before taught by using flash card? (2) How is the students' mastery on vocabulary after taught by using flash card? (3) is there any significant difference score between student's mastery on vocabulary before taught by using flash card and after taught by using flash card?
The purposes of the study are: (1) To know the students' mastery on vocabulary before using flash card. (2) To know the students' mastery on vocabulary after using flash card. (3) To know the significant difference of students' mastery on vocabulary between before and after taught by using flash card.
The research is experimental design. This research intended to investigate the effectiveness of flash card as media in teaching vocabulary for the second year students of SDI Qurrota A'yun Ngunut- Tulungagung. The research design used by the researcher is pre-experimental design in the form of one- group; pre-test, treatment and post-test.
Research finding: After pre-test was done, the data showed that there are nobody gets poor score, 4 students get fair score, 13 students gets good score and 5 students get very good students. It means that there are 0% students get poor score, 20% students get fair score, 60% students who get good score and 20% students who get very good score in mastering vocabulary before using flash card. Then, after post-test was done, the data showed that there are nobody gets poor score, nobody gets fair score, 2 students gets good score and 20 students gets very good score It means that there are 0% students get poor score, 0% students get fair score, 10% students get good score and 90% students who get very good score in mastering vocabulary after using flash card. The students' mastery on vocabulary is improved.
After getting the data, the writer used t-test to analyze the data. The result of data analysis (t) is 12 with the degree freedom is 21 students and the significant level 5% is 2.08 and 1 % is 2.83. It means that the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. It could be concluded that there is the effectiveness of using flash card to improve the second year students' mastery on vocabulary at SDI Qurrota A'yun Ngunut Tulungagung academic year 2010 / 2011.


Forty years ago, on 10 August 1967, the South African Navy (SAN) commissioned its first ever replenishment ship. In this two-part study of the SAN's replenishment ships (in due course known as combat support ships) a review is supplied of the role these ships played in the history of the SAN (and South African Defence Force, since 1994 known as the South African National Defence Force). In the first part of the study, the role played by SAS Tafelberg (1967-93) and SAS Drakensberg (1987-93) was analysed. In this, the second and last part of the study, the continued role of the Drakensberg (1993-2007), as well as the role of SAS Outeniqua (1993-2004), are discussed. Since 1994, when South Africa's first-ever truly democratic elections took place, the country has been welcomed back by the international community and more doors (and ports) than ever before have been opened for the country's diplomats (including the Navy's grey diplomats; i.e. warships sent out on flag-showing cruises), while the SAN's combat support ships have also been involved in disaster relief and other humanitarian operations.


AbstractTraditional models of depression have received criticism for their individualistic approach that focuses on hypothetical, unobservable, inner states or processes and attempts to abstract these processes from the context of a person's everyday life experiences. In response to this criticism, the current research advances a contrasting discursive account of depression in which depression is investigated as a socially negotiated phenomenon. Eight women and eight men with a diagnosis of Major Depression were interviewed about their experiences of depression. The interviews were then discourse analyzed. Both similarities and differences in the way women and men talked about depression were observed; however, only similarities are reported in the current article. The discourse analysis shows that participants actively resisted taking blame for their depression and constructed themselves as worthy persons. The discrepancy of these results with traditional depression theory and research, in which depressed persons are described as inherently self-blaming, is discussed.The negative self-concept is a fundamental construct in cognitive theories of depression, but one which has been more or less taken for granted. Far greater theoretical interest is centred on the information processing believed to emanate from, and be organized by, the cognitive self-structures of which the negative self-concept is part (e.g., Beck 1967, 1976). In cognitive theory, information processing is hypothesized to become temporarily faulty when the negative self-concept is activated. Once this activation has taken place, information that is self-devaluative is more rapidly and efficiently processed by the brain than would be the case under normal circumstances, causing depression to surface. Cognitive research on depression has similarly tended to focus on demonstrating and further elucidating distorted information processing in depressed persons and, in the case of cognitive therapy, on understanding how the dysfunctional information processing might be corrected. As a by-product of this research, support for the existence of a negative self-concept has been routinely concluded (e.g., Haaga, Dyck, & Ernst, 1991; Segal, 1988; Segal & Muran, 1993). However, while it is theorized that a negative self-concept becomes activated following an undesirable external event, research has neglected to be informative about the context of such an event. Indeed, the importance of the event is downplayed since it is seen not as a cause but as a trigger of depression (i.e., any one of hundreds of such events could serve as the trigger). To be sure, pathways for acquiring vulnerability to such triggers have been explored and reconstituted as personality traits (e.g., Neitzel & Harris, 1990), but the event itself is minimized. With emphasis thus directed toward mechanistic or individualistic processes and away from social context, several criticisms of cognitive theories of depression related to the undervaluing of context have emerged.First, cognitive theories are seen by some as in need of refinement because they fail to reflect observations that the lives of depressed persons do in fact contain more "negative realities" than is the case for nondepressed persons (Krantz, 1985). For instance, depressed people have impoverished interpersonal relationships and experience more stressful life events than do nondepressed people. Instead of dismissing depressed people's negative observations about their lives as erroneous, Krantz recommends that theorists try to understand how the increased frequency of negative experiences which affect depressed persons' lives has led to a weakening of their positive beliefs about themselves.Second, cognitive theories of depression have come under attack for making invisible the social context of women's lives (e.g., their lesser status, power, and resources) which may account for the higher prevalence of women among the depressed. …


Although metastatic disease outside regional lymph node drainage in general is not curable, exceptions are known to occur such as in the case of ovarian cancer where peritoneal implantation and malignant ascites do no preclude cure with appropriate treatment. Resection of limited numbers of lung metastases in osteogenic sarcoma was shown to cure some patients even 40 years ago. Most recently, as highlighted in this edition, attention has turned to the treatment of metastatic colon cancer in liver. The development of hepatic arterial infusion both focused attention on liver metastases and also demonstrated chemotherapy responsiveness at high enough drug exposures. The ability to cure patients with a small number of colorectal metastases to liver with liver resection was demonstrated more than 30 years ago. Thus, it became evident that when colorectal cancer metastasized to the liver, there was the possibility of liver-confined metastases and even of only a few metastases. Hence, patients with colorectal liver metastases have been the predominant patient group that has spawned the evolution of our approaches to treat isolated liver metastases. Whenever possible, resection of liver metastases remains the "gold standard." Hepatic imaging has significantly improved and has allowed more accurate local and distant staging of patients being considered for hepatectomy. Advances in instrumentation and anesthesia support have made resectional therapy safer, thereby extending the medical indications for hepatectomy into the older population. Another technological advance in the extirpation of liver tumors has been the development of thermal ablation. The delivery of an energy source to the local tumor can be in the form of radiofrequency, microwave, or ultrasound and are reviewed in this edition. Radiofrequency ablation has been used most frequently in the United States where it is employed in conjunction either with partial hepatectomy or by itself in patients who may not be operative candidates. The application of microwave ablation has been widely used in Japan and has the advantage of overcoming the heat sink effect from adjacent blood flow. Ultrasound ablation is still an emerging technology and undergoing phase I trials in different centers. Continued therapeutic developments in the various medical specialties represented in this edition have converged to expand the ability of oncologists to effectively treat and to cure an increasing proportion of patients with colorectal liver metastases. Because more effective systemic chemotherapy regimens have been developed, they have been applied neoadjuvantly and adjuvantly to patients who undergo focused treatment (surgical resection, stereotactic body irradiation, and thermal ablation) of limited numbers of liver metastases. The results with chemotherapy suggest that some detectable small liver metastases can be eradicated with drugs, allowing for successful focused treatment of 1 or several remaining larger tumor nodules. Such results are amazing when one applies the basic concept of proportional cell kill, eg, to cure a 1-cm tumor nodule, 9 logs of cancer cells would need to be killed using regimens that usually probably destroy only 3 logs of cells at best. Thus, it is possible that further improvements in the systemic therapy for colorectal cancer might allow more frequent application of focused treatments and effect many more cures than are currently possible. In yet another therapeutic advance, it has become clear that localized cancer within the liver can be irradiated with cytotoxic doses of radiotherapy as long as the amount of irradiation to the normal liver can be limited. Radiologic scanning technologies as described in this edition can more precisely define in time and space tumor nodules that can become the target of high-dose stereotactic body irradiation. Effective computer coupling (including sophisticated programming) of scanning and radiotherapy machines in real time may ultimately allow for successful focused therapy for multiple liver tumors without the physiological stresses associated with surgical resection or thermal ablation.


CircMAN2B2 is a newly discovered circRNA that has been found to be an oncogene in lung cancer and glioma. The present study was designed to reveal the role of circMAN2B2 in gastric carcinoma (GC).


ABSTRACT For many years, research has been conducted on film music in general and on its potential to convey meaning in particular. Surprisingly, some fundamental research gaps have remained. Does unknown film music express and induce emotions and convey meaning in a way that is equally distinct and predictable, compared with well-known music? Does the same music simultaneously influence more than one of the (as yet mostly individually tested) aspects through which music can convey meaning? This study, with 139 participants and a 2×2 between-subjects design, manipulated the emotional connotation and level of familiarity of an ambiguous film scene's background music. The results provide an empirical basis for the practical knowledge that carefully selected and edited film music can communicate specific emotions, thereby inducing predictable emotions in the recipients. As an instrument of nonverbal communication, a music track influences several aspects through which music can convey meaning: the attributed film genre, the perception of the general film atmosphere, and the protagonists' emotions, social behaviors, and relationships to each other. The genre associated with film music and the music's expressed emotions have a significant impact, whereas whether the music is well-known or unknown to the audience is not crucial, as predicted.


Synopsis: The major factors affecting the formation of the centerline segregation in continuously cast slabs (CC slabs) and slab-shaped ingots were investigated. The results obtained are summarized as follows. (1) The centerline segregation in a regular CC slab is much remarkable than that of a slab-shaped ingot; the latter has the solidification structures analogous to those of the former. This result shows that the effect of the solidification shrinkage on the centerline segregation of CC slabs is small. (2) The centerline segregation of CC slabs becomes more remarkable as the crater becomes deeper. (3) The centerline segregation of CC slabs solidified stationarily in the secondary cooling zone is much slighter than that of the regular CC slabs. (4) The segregation band of CC slabs consists of a lot of small segregated spots with microporosities and Mn-sulfides, where the microsegregation is much remarkable than that of the columnar dentritic zones and both the clear dentrites with the smaller secondary arm spacing and the obscure dendrites are recognized. (5) The major factor affecting the centerline segregation of CC slab is believed to be the mechanical deformation (bulging of slab by the miss alignment etc.) at the final stage of the solidification where only the mashy zone remains.


Low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are a promising solution to revolutionize stationary, transportation, and personal power energy conversion efficiency. Through investigation of fundamental conduction mechanisms, we have developed the highest conductivity solid electrolyte, stabilized bismuth oxide (Dy_0.08W_0.04Bi_0.88O_0.36). To overcome its inherent thermodynamic instability in the anode environment, we invented a functionally graded bismuth oxide/ceria bilayered electrolyte. For compatibility with this bilayared electrolyte, we developed high performance bismuth ruthenate–bismuth oxide composite cathodes. Finally, these components were integrated into an anode-supported cell with an anode functional layer, resulting in an exceptionally high power density of ∼2 W/cm^2 at moderate temperatures (650 °C) and sufficient power down to 300–400 °C for most applications. Moreover, because SOFCs can operate on conventional fuels, these low temperature SOFCs provide one of the most efficient energy conversion technologies available without relying on a hydrogen infrastructure.


A traffic matrix can exhibit the volume of network traffic from origin nodes to destination nodes. It is a critical input parameter to network management and traffic engineering, and thus it is necessary to obtain accurate traffic matrix estimates. Network tomography method is widely used to reconstruct end‐to‐end network traffic from link loads and routing matrix in a large‐scale Internet protocol backbone networks. However, it is a significant challenge because solving network tomography model is an ill‐posed and under‐constrained inverse problem. Compressive sensing reconstruction algorithms have been well known as efficient and precise approaches to deal with the under‐constrained inference problem. Hence, in this paper, we propose a compressive sensing‐based network traffic reconstruction algorithm. Taking into account the constraints in compressive sensing theory, we propose an approach for constructing a novel network tomography model that obeys the constraints of compressive sensing. In the proposed network tomography model, a framework of measurement matrix according to routing matrix is proposed. To obtain optimal traffic matrix estimates, we propose an iteration algorithm to solve the proposed model. Numerical results demonstrate that our method is able to pursuit the trace of each origin–destination flow faithfully. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The international, inter-disciplinary conference on 'Siberia, Land and Peoples: Destruction or Survival?' took place at the University of Leeds, UK, 6–8 September 2002. Its organiser was Dr David Collins, a specialist in the history of 18thand 19th-century Siberia and head of the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at Leeds. This was the ninth conference of the British Universities Siberian Studies Seminar after an 11-year gap following the previous meeting, which took place in Kemerovo, September 1991, with the active participation of Russian scholars, particularly from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk. 1 The results of the previous conferences have appeared in three published books of articles written by the conference participants, 2 and in earlier editions of Sibirica . Apart from the present conference's organiser, among those who have taken a leading role in previous gatherings have been Dr Alan Wood (Lancaster University, UK), historian of the pre-Revolutionary Siberian exile system; Professor Victor Mote (University of Houston, USA), an expert on the social and economic geography of Siberia; Dr Boris Chichlo (Institut d'études slaves, Paris, France, formerly of the Department of Ethnography, University of Leningrad); and Dr David Anderson (University of Aberdeen, UK), who specialises in the ethnography of northern Siberia. Among the Russian scholars who have taken an active role in the work of earlier conferences and in the publication of Sibirica was the renowned Siberian historian, the late Professor Leonid Goryushkin, formerly Director of the Institute of History,


Sorgner recently wrote in this journal that Nietzsche's overhuman and the posthuman envisioned by transhumanists are similar at a fundamental level. However, the overhuman is an ideal limit of human progress that can never be reached, whereas posthumans will be a reality, the next stages in human progress. Some transhumanists are concerned that human improvement technologies will create radical inequality. Hobbes's prescription for a social contract to bring stability and security to human society makes him more a useful antecedent than Nietzsche for those transhumanists.


Author: Wang, Shukun. MS Institution: Purdue University Degree Received: August 2018 Title: Inflammation in the Early Pathogenesis of Diabetic Retinopathy Major Professor: Teri Belecky-Adams Introduction – Diabetes is a growing health concern. Diabetic retinopathy (DR), is a complication resulting from long-term diabetes and is currently the leading cause of blindness in the US. The cause of pericyte loss, an early indiciator of DR progression, is currently unknown. Inflammation, increased in diabetes, could play a role in the progression of DR and be one of the causes of pericyte loss. Methods and MaterialsRetinas from 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 week Akita (AK) and DB mice were taken and cell counts, vasculature, and mRNA expression were examined. Pericytes treated with IFN-γ and PDGF-BB in chronic and acute conditions and PDGFRβ signaling was determined using Western blot analysis. Apoptosis and proliferation were examined using western blots and immunohistochemistry of IFN-γ treated pericytes. ResultsPericytes numbers were changed as 3 weeks in DB and Akita models. Proinflammatory markers increased at 6 weeks and displayed their maximum expression at 12 and 18 weeks. Chronic treatments with IFN-γ changed AKT and PKCδ activation and increases pericytes apoptosis. DiscussionPericyte loss appears to begin prior to an increase in pro-inflammatory factors indicating that perhaps retinal inflammtion may not initiate pericyte loss or that loss of pericyte numbers at 3 weeks may be due to reduced numbers of neural crest cells migrating to vasculature or a reduced number of neural crest cells differentiating into pericytes. Proinflammatory changes occur between 3-6 weeks in both Akita and DB models of diabetes; however, the peak levels in expression of proinflammtory markers differs between Akita and DB models.


INTRODUCTION Malaysia is key member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), being one of the key signatories of the Bangkok Declaration in 1976. Malaysia is the only federal country within ASEAN. The country is located in the middle of Southeast Asia, with land borders with Thailand (in the Peninsula Malaysia), Brunei and Indonesia (in Borneo), connected with a bridge and a causeway with Singapore and with sea borders with Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Malaysia has a total population of about 31,187,265 and is an uppermiddle income country with an estimated GDP per capita of USD 9,502. and the total GDP of USD 296.359 billion for the year 2016. In 2017, Malaysia's economy is expected to grow at the rate of more than 4.8 percent. Despite the earlier setback to its economic development caused by the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, Malaysia continues to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and also invests abroad through Outward Direct Investment (ODI). Malaysia's ODI flows first exceeded inbound FDI flows in 2005 (USD 6.24 million FDI compared to USD 6.8 million ODI), although this trend changed at the end of 2017 when FDI in flows of USD 9.9 million exceeded ODI flows of 5.6 million. According to the World Bank, Malaysia could attract more vertical FDI due to its current commitments and involvement in higher-quality free trade agreements (FTAs), such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has become the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with the exclusion of the United States, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), which is still being negotiated between the parties. Malaysia relies heavily on trade, with a total of 2016 trade as a percentage of GDP at about 128.1 percent, as is in the case with many ASEAN countries such as Cambodia (127 percent), Singapore (318.4 percent), Thailand (123.1 percent) and Vietnam (184.7 percent). 4 As trade and investment are linked, having a dependable trade and investment regime is key to sustainable economic development in Malaysia.


The paper studies the land desertification evaluation method by remote sensing techniques and its application on the Minqin Oasis desertification research. This includes the maximum likelihood decision rule and landscape pattern analysis based on the remote sensing spectrum, derived combination character and spatial structure characters. The experiment results showed that the method achieved satisfactory evaluation results since the overall accuracy of the desertification evaluation for Minqin county were over 0.8 in 3 different years. It will be the main method for desertification evaluation based on quantity remote sensing techniques in the future. From 1988 to 1997, the total desertification area of Minqin Oasis was not expanded. The change occurred between the desertification types and grades. During the period of 1988 to 1992, the water and wind erosion desertification process played the main role, the severity of regional desertification decreased, the reduced rate was 0.5%. From 1992 to 1997, the salinization erosion desertification process took the main role and land degradation increased, the deterioration rate was 1.4%. The water erosion process was less important in this region during the study period. The total landscape was most fragmentary and complex in 1997, by contrast, it was less fragmentary and more stable on the landscape structure in 1992. The landscape pattern index for each desertification class had changed differently. The landscape pattern change during the study period also indicated the different processes in the evoluation of land desertification in the study area.


ABSTRACT This work deals with characterization of the wear behavior of woods obtained from agribusiness waste and from post-consume items. The main goal on this research is to generate data that could contribute to highlight the engineering performance of endangered wood species, and enhance reintroduction of these species to natural environment. Post-consume samples from Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata) and imbuia (Ocotea porosa), and also from the pseudo-stem of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) were tested and their abrasion behavior was characterized both mechanically and morphologically. The results obtained showed that the wear rate of the tested materials was dependent of their density, and that the pseudo-wood obtained from peach palm has a performance similar to that of several commonly used woods.