UNLABELLED
Upper limb orthotics, or splints, are widely advocated for people with stroke however opinion about whether, and how, they should be used is varied. We therefore systematically reviewed the literature on upper limb orthotics for people with stroke and other non-progressive brain lesions to establish whether an orthosis can improve function or/and impairments.

SEARCH STRATEGY
The Cochrane library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, PsycINFO and RECAL were searched. We screened reference lists and contacted lead authors and other researchers in the field.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials of upper limb orthoses in stroke survivors and other non-progressive brain lesions.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two reviewers independently identified trials, extracted data and assessed trial quality. Results for continuous outcomes were combined and analysed using mean difference or standardised mean difference, both with 95% confidence intervals and fixed-effect model.

MAIN RESULTS
We analysed 4 trials with 126 participants. Upper limb orthoses showed no effect on upper limb function, range of movement at the wrist, fingers or thumb, nor pain.

CONCLUSIONS
Current evidence suggests that an upper limb orthosis does not effect upper limb function, range of movement at the wrist, fingers or thumb, nor pain.


ABSTRACT Starting from the analysis of data on asylum applications between 2011 and 2017, this article seeks to identify the actors and processes that influenced the implementation of Italian asylum policy, and rates of success of asylum applications, during the refugee crisis. The article contends that the outcome of applications was determined by a complex interplay of external and internal-level variables: the evolution of the crisis and EU policies of crisis management in the former case; the approaches of governmental actors and the role of 'street-level bureaucrats', in the latter. Data derived from official documents, from EUROSTAT, from the UNHCR and from the Italian Ministry of the Interior were supplemented by interviews with Italian and EASO officials on the ground.


We present a study of He-like 1s2-1s2p line emission from solid and low-density Ti targets under ≃ 45 fs laser pulse irradiation with a frequency doubled Ti:Sapphire laser. By varying the beam spot, the intensity on target was varied from 1015 W/cm2 to 1019 W/cm2. At best focus, low density "smoked" Ti targets yield ∼ 20 times more He-α than the foil targets when irradiated at an angle of 45° with s-polarized pulses. The duration of He-α emission from smoked targets, measured with a fast streak camera, was similar to that from Ti foils.


On-line user documentation is utilized in many of our computer systems. It is important that we measure the usage and adequacy of that documentation. The present paper reviews the philosophy and methods used in an AT&T study of the usage of on-line documentation. The study, initiated and implemented by a Human Factors Specialist, shows the benefits of measuring the usage and analyzing the results.


Key Points Question How is Medicaid expansion associated with the insurance status and treatment patterns among patients with higher-risk prostate cancer? Findings In this cohort study that included 15 332 men newly diagnosed with higher-risk prostate cancer, Medicaid coverage increased after expansion but was not associated with higher treatment rates at the population level after expansion or compared with uninsured patients. Meaning Although there was no difference in higher-risk prostate cancer treatment rates after Medicaid expansion in this study, it is important to continue addressing disparities in at-risk populations, given that insurance coverage alone is not sufficient to improve cancer care.


The pressure distribution in the sole of the human foot when interacting with a surface (ground) is termed plantar pressure, and is usually measured in the standing position. The plantar pressure distribution or profile is a strong function of the internal anatomy of humans. The profile can undergo changes due to the symptoms of some diseases such as diabetes. An instrument that can accurately measure the plantar pressure profile can serve as an indicator for early diagnostic of the disease and continuous monitoring of the feet of diabetic patients. This paper considers the design and development of such an instrument, a Plantar Pressure Profiler prototype. The plantar pressure profile is measured when a person is standing on a platform that is designed with a 120 sensor array system. The associated data acquisition electronics and visualization software developed for recording the pressure profiles are also described.


Objective: To study the clinical manifestations and pathogeny of a pedigree with dyschromatosis symmetrica hereditaria (DSH). Methods: Based on investgating this family, blood samples were obtained from the individuals in this family and 100 normal people. Mutation screening was carried out by PCR and direct sequencing. Results: There were many hypopigmented and hyperpigmented macules distributed on the extremities and freckle-like macules on the face of the affected members. A heterozygous nucleotide A→G transition at position 3224 in exon 13 of ADAR gene was detected in this family, but was not found in normal individuals in this DSH family and 100 unrelated individuals. Conclusions: A missense mutation (p.H1075R) in the ADAR gene has been detected in this DSH family, which is probably one of the pathogenetic molecular bases. The relationship between the phenotype and the mutant genotype should be researched further.


LC injection-locked frequency dividers (ILFDs) are attractive in frequency synthesizers because of their low power consumption compared to conventional digital dividers. The drawback of LC ILFDs is the narrow widths of their locked regions. One of the techniques to increase the locking range in these dividers is to use direct injection. In this paper, we present a simplified model of direct injection in an LC ILFD. Simulation results obtained from canonical ordinary differential equations match SPICE simulations qualitatively.


In this paper we discuss the prospects of quantum information processing involving forbidden transitions in the inner shell of the rare-earth elements. We shall derive the selection rule for such transitions and investigate the prospects for rare-earth based quantum information procession that employ dipole-dipole forbidden transitions. The long decoherence time, degree of entanglement, lossless interconnectivity of these transitions will be model and their impact on quantum information processing will be examined.


OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and correlates of HCV infection among community-based people in Dehong Prefecture,Yunnan Province.METHODS A quotasampling was used to select the permanent population aged 18 months or older from 5 counties.Each recruited participant' s demographic information and the blood specimens were collected.RESULTS Among the 25 004 participants,the mean age were(34.72±18.68)years,55.0% were females,56.8% were ethnic Dai,65.3% were currently married,71.8% received the primary school education.The prevalence of HCV was 0.6% overall.The prevalence of those who were from Luxi City(1.2%),aged 21~40 years old(1.0%),male(0.9%),Dai and Jingpo ethnicity(1.7%),married with spouse and divorced or widowed(0.8%),received primary school education(0.7)and came from enterprise and public institution(1.0%)were higher.Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that those who came from Luxi City,aged over 20 years old,were males and ethnic Dai and Jingpo were at higher risk of HCV infection.CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of HCV is low in Dehong prefecture.More health education and intervention are needed to decrease the prevalence of HCV among males,ethnic Dai and Jingpo.


Health care in Africa, and particularly sub-Saharan Africa, faces substantial challenges including the burden of disease and the limited resources available.


To study the role of P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) in the delivery of colchicine from blood to brain, the pharmacokinetics of colchicine in plasma and brain was studied in the rat by an in vivo method and by the in situ brain perfusion technique. Colchicine was administered intravenously at three doses (1, 2.5, and 5 mg/kg) with or without an inhibitor of P‐gp, verapamil (0.5 mg/kg IV); blood and brain samples were taken at t = 1, 2, and 3 hr. Areas under the colchicine curve at doses from 2.5 to 5 mg/kg were proportional to dose for plasma but not for brain. At a colchicine dose of 5 mg/kg, verapamil co‐treated rats showed a 1.65‐fold enhancement of the colchicine concentration in plasma but a 4.5‐fold enhancement in brain. During short experimental times (in situ brain perfusion technique), a comparable enhancement was found (4.26‐fold): mean distribution volumes of colchicine were enhanced from 0.23 ± 0.17 to 0.98 ± 0.19 μl/g for the eight gray areas, and no effect was observed in the choroid plexus, which do not express P‐gp. These results clearly show that P‐gp, present at the luminal surface of the capillary endothelial cells, is responsible for the weak penetration of colchicine into the brain. J. Neurosci. Res. 49:80–88, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss Inc.


Cathodic polarization behaviors of titanium in seawater were investigated by using potentiodynamic polarization and SEM and XRD. Results indicated that cathodic polarization of titanium was great and hydrogen evolution was retarded. With the temperature rising from room temperature to 60℃, hydrogen evolution became more easily. XRD and SEM results showed that hydrogen embrittlement susceptivity of titanium was increased under cathodic polarization in seawater and there existed more cleavages on the fracture zone though TiHx was not observed in the specimens under cathodic polarization at 1.1V for 48 hours.


Objective:To establish a method for the determination of quercetin and kaempferol in Herba Lysimachiae Granules by HPLC.Methods:AglientC18(150mm×4.6mm,5μm)column was used.The mobile phase was methanol-water-phosphoric acid solution(500:500:1).The flow rate was 10mL/min.The detection wavelength was 360 nm and the column temperature was 30℃.Results:The linear relation was good.The average recovery of quercetin was 95.42% with RSD=3.11%;The average recovery of kaemferol was 100.5% with RSD=0.978%.Conclusion:The method is simple,accurate and has good reproducibility.It can be used for the quality control of the granules.


The paper aims at solving the problems of incision of the rectangular pieces,such as the waste of the stuff and the energy sources,the low cutting efficiency and quality.Considering the optimization of incising path,we put forward a method of combining the rectangle pieces to combined-rectangle-piece.With the common-border incising and continuous incising,we put forward a useful incising mode for combined-rectangle-piece,and the genetic algorithm we used solve the incising sequence problem of combined rectangle pieces, in which there are multiple selections and abhorrent start-end points.The example indicates that the method we put forward satisfies the demand of craftworks,as well as optimizes the paths.


During the last years, there has been increased interest in developing efficient radial basis function (RBF) algorithms to solve partial differential problems of great scale. In this article, we are interested in solving large PDEs problems, whose solution presents rapid variations. Our main objective is to introduce a RBF dynamical domain decomposition algorithm which simultaneously performs a node adaptive strategy. This algorithm is based on the RBFs unsymmetric collocation setting. Numerical experiments performed with the multiquadric kernel function, for two stationary problems in two dimensions are presented. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009


Тhe article examines a number of practical problems of management urban passenger transport in a modern Russian city (by the example of Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic). The authors analyze the issues related to optimizing the route network, studying the traffic flow, improving the quality of the vehicle fleet and the efficiency of its operation.


Clinical outcomes" has become a popular phrase among clinicians, hospital managers, government regulators, health insurers, policy makers and healthcare economy specialists. Compared to other sectors, the health care industry has a different approach to quality measurement since classic tools and basic principles such as economic profitability or human resources necessity in many occasions do not apply. Among other reasons, this is due to the complexities related to characterizing various aspects surrounding care and the fact that high-quality care is not always correlated with desired outcomes. Therefore, measures recommended by traditional methods sometimes simply cannot be implemented. Since the "end product" of the healthcare pipeline can be multifaceted and frequently hard to define, the most logical solution would be to measure it by clinical outcomes. In this paper, we will review the literature on this issue and describe the process of extracting the data and defining which indices will be measures at Sheba Medical Center in order to evaluate clinical outcomes.


Electric power communication and relay protection are inseparable although there is a technical gap between them.This paper analyzes three typical failure cases of communication channel that transmitting 220 kV relay protection service,explains the reasons,discusses the importance of cooperation among the staffs working in relay protection,electric power communication and high voltage examination and reparation sectors.It points out that only understanding and cooperation on technical aspects can assure relay protection information transmitting safely and reliably.


The bioluminescence induced by luciferases of marine bacteria promotes repair of UV damaged DNA of Escherichia coli AB1886 uvrA6. It is shown that bacterial photolyase that implements photoreactivation activity is the major contributor to DNA repair. However, the intensity of bioluminescence increasing induced by UV-irradiation (SOS-induction) in bacterial cells is not enough for efficient photoreactivation.


The aim of the present study was to correlate clinical outcome measures following treatment with bronchial valves with regional lung volume. Computed tomography (CT) scan data from 57 subjects with severe emphysema were obtained from nine North American clinical trial sites. IBV® Valves (Spiration, Inc., Redmond, WA, USA) were placed to occlude segmental and subsegmental bronchi in right and left upper lobes using a flexible bronchoscope. Subjects completed a St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), pulmonary function test (PFT) and exercise capacity test. CT scans were analysed at baseline and at 1, 3 or 6 months after treatment to measure total and lobar lung density, volume and mass. Total lung volumes measured using CT were strongly correlated with PFT and did not change with treatment. However, the treated upper lobes significantly decreased in volume in 88% of the observations, by mean±sd 335±444 mL, or a decrease of 10.2% in the 6 month data. The untreated lobes had an 11.6% increase in volume. Changes in regional lung volume were associated with clinically meaningful improvements in SGRQ (-8.95±16.22), but not clinically meaningful PFT changes. The significant health status improvements reported by subjects following bilateral bronchial valve treatment are associated with regional lung volume changes and interlobar shift measured using computed tomography.


The ultrastructures of the sensilla on the antennae,the tarsi and the ovipositor of Spodoptera litura were observed with scanning electron-microscopy.The antennae of both male and female moths were found to contain five kinds of antennal sensilla,namely,sensillum trichodeum,sensillum basiconicum,sensillum chaeticum,ear-shaped sensillum and sensillum coeloconicum.The characters of sensillums basiconicum on the antennae were different between the male and the female.The length was 10-15 μm,the diameter at the base was approximately 4-5 μm for the male antennae,which were significantly longer and bigger than the female antennae,and the male moths had one small bradawl at the bass of the antennae while the female moths did not.The tarsi of both male and female moths contained two kinds of sensilla: sensillum trichodeum and sensillum chaeticum;however,their numbers were significant less than those on the antennae.The long sensillun trichodeum and short sensillun trichodeum were mainly distributed on the ovipositor.These results provided basis for exploring the molecular mechanism of oviposition deterrent.


Results of experiments are presented indicating that low-frequency beats detectable from ruby lasers are beats between transverse modes. Three-dimensional resonator theory is reviewed with respect to its applicability to ruby lasers. Agreement between theory and experiment shows that the modes of an excellent optical quality ruby rod are described by nonconfocal resonator theory. Results of beat-frequency measurements with approximately confocal rods are in good agreement with theory. The variation of transverse mode beats with pump energy and temperature indicates that single-frequency operation is possible at room temperature and up to 20% over threshold if axial frequency selection is used.


A Sagnac interferometer switch is proposed for all-optical wavelength and pulsewidth conversions. The conversions of 1.5 ps pulsewidth to the range of 1.7-21.7 ps are demonstrated with tunable wavelength in 15 nm bandwidth (1550-1565 nm)


The invention relates to an electronic throttle controller of an electronically controlled engine. The electronic throttle controller is characterized by comprising a fault diagnosis module, an engine condition identification module and a servo control module, wherein the fault diagnosis module can be used for counting according to output voltages of two throttle position sensors, output voltagesof two pedal position sensors, working voltages of the sensors, a working current of a throttle motor, a called count value of the engine condition identification module and a called count value of the servo control module, which are collected, so as to carry out sensor diagnosis, actuator diagnosis and algorithmic dispatching abnormity diagnosis; the engine condition identification module is used for identifying and calculating the current operation condition of the engine according to the opening, the water temperature and the rotating speed of engine pedals, air conditioner on-off information and power-on information, which are collected by the sensors; the servo control module is used for analyzing and calculating the opening of a destination throttle according to fault codes in the fault diagnosis module and the engine operation condition in the engine condition identification module as well as the opening, the water temperature, the rotating speed and the air conditioner on-off information, which are collected by the sensors, and finally the servo control module calculates and obtains a PWM control signal to output.


Atmospheric Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma development is one of the most interesting subjects to our group. Fridman et al.* has concluded that Floating DBD Direct Plasma are more effective in bactericidal property, it contains higher free charged particles than indirect type. DBD plasma sources can provide low temperature or non-thermal (cold) plasmas, and these plasmas can be created with ambient air or with a noble gas, such as helium or argon, as the carrier medium. It can be used with an electrode as a contact or noncontact method to target a tissue. However, the drawback of direct DBD plasma is that it will work only in short gap distances, on the order of a few millimeters. Our group has investigated PLASMA Cell Modulation: PhotoBioCare, Thailand). The major area has been focused on its bactericidal disinfection property, application in common dermatologic problems, in skin aesthetic facial rejuvenation and chronic wound management, from 2012 to 2016.


This paper discusses the use and non-use of seat belts and the relevance of such practices to automobile passenger safety. Literature reviewed covers the percentage of current use, psychological and physiological variables, voluntary and compulsory belt use programs, and the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing the severity of injuries and the incidence of automobile fatalities. The authors conclude that while seat belt use could significantly improve automobile safety, the major difficulty is ensuring use; hence the need for information and education campaigns to educate people about the chances of their being involved in an accident and about the efficacy of seat belts in reducing the chances of death and injury from traffic accidents. /Author/


Objective To explore the best therapeutic method for upper ureteral calculi. Methods The surgical procedures which had been performed on 101 patients with upper ureteral calculi during the period of May 2006 to May 2009 were retrospectively analyzed. Group A ( 22 patients ) received ureterlithotomy, group B( 41 patients ) minimally invasive percutane nephrolithotomy, and group C( 38 patients ) received retroperitoneal laparoscopic ureterolithotomy. The differences of these three procedures were compared and analyzed. Results The duration of calculus removal was markedly shorter in group A than in group B and it was shorter in group B than in group C ([38.04 ± 3.70]min vs. [75.88 ± 16.30]min vs. [131.05 ± 13.03]min, P < 0.01 for both comparisons ). Three days and one month after the procedures, the stone-free rate was 95.4% and 100% for group A, 97.6% and 100% for group B, and 94. 7% and 94.7% for group C. The length of hospital stay was significantly longer in groups A and B than in group C ([7.5 ±1]d vs. [7.3 ± 1]d vs. [4.5 ± 1.4]d, P < 0.01). Couclusions All the three groups have a higher rate of calculus removal. Three procedures have their own advantage. We shoule choose different procedures according to the actual situation.

Key words:
Upper ureteral calculi;  Ureterlithotomy;  Upper minimally insvasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy;  Retroperitoneal laproscopy


An ambitious and costly plan to churn out protein structures shifted into its second phase last week, as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced roughly $300 million in new awards. The Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) aims to deposit up to 5000 new protein structures in a public database.


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The invention provides a method for preparing germinated brown rice milk beverage by compound lactobacillus fermentation, which comprises the following steps of: preparing four lactobacillus direct-throwing fermentation agents such as lactobacillus rhamnosus, pediococcus acidilactici, streptococcus thermophilus and lactobacillus brevis; then soaking brown rice for 10 hours at 30 DEG C, and germinating for 12 hours at 2 DEG C to prepare germinated brown rice; adding 3 times water into the germinated brown rice, grinding milk by adopting colloid, gelatinizing and saccharifying the milk, adding 150 grams of direct-throwing fermentation agents into each ton of liquid rice milk, and performing standing fermentation for 6 hours at the temperature of between 38 and 40 DEG C; and centrifuging the liquid rice milk at 5,000 revolutions per minute, removing residue, adding xylitol according to the clear liquid volume for blending, filtering the liquid by using a hollow fiber membrane, performing ultrahigh-temperature instantaneous sterilization for 2 seconds at 143 DEG C, and filling the liquid with pillow-type package or tetra package to obtain a finished product.


Kenya faces serious challenges regarding water and sanitation services. Despite many years of
government investment, existing facilities continue to deteriorate and have also failed to meet the demand
of increasing population. These challenges are particularly severe in rapidly growing settlements of
urban poor. One such settlement is Nakuru municipality which has an average annual population growth
of about 8%. The municipality's sewerage connection is inadequate (11% coverage) and only serves
middle and high income areas. This study used a semi-structured questionnaire aiming at characterizing
and determining the composition of greywater, besides identifying existing water supply and lifestyle
characteristics.


Abstract : The usual way of computing partial correlations is based on the formation of the covariance matrix, that amounts to squaring the data matrix, thus inviting a potential loss of numerical accuracy. This paper recommends the determination of partial correlations from the data matrix: the QR decomposition of the data matrix is computed and plane rotations are applied to the resulting upper triangular matrix, which is the Cholesky factor of the covariance matrix. It is shown that if rotations are applied to the triangular matrix so as to leave the number of its zero entries invariant, the sines of the rotation angles are partial correlations. Different ways of organizing the computations are presented for extracting any set of partial correlations.


Serum IgA1 contains O‐linked carbohydrate structures, whereas other immuno‐globulins contain only N‐linked structures. An assay was developed which detects IgA1 by measuring the DGalβ(1–3) DGalNAc structures O‐linked to the IgA1 hinge region. Fifty percent of the serum specimens from cancer patients tested were elevated compared to 1% of the total normal serum specimens tested by this assay. The assay combines antibody (anti‐human IgA) and lectin and measures the DGalβ(1–3)DGalNAc structure in the IgA1 molecule accessible to lectin binding. Three lectins were compared–the lectins from Bauhinia purpurea alba, Maclura pomifera, and peanut agglutinin (PNA). PNA in the assay discriminated best between serum specimens from normal subjects and cancer patients and was chosen as the lectin component in the assay. The anti‐IgA‐PNA enzyme immunoassay was evaluated in a retrospective study of cancer patients. A panel of 845 serum specimens was tested and the results analyzed at three cutoff R values. The R value of a specimen is the ratio of the assay absorbance obtained for that test specimen with respect to the assay absorbance obtained for a pool of normal human sera. At a cutoff R value of 2.38, 1% normals and 26% benigns were elevated. The following cancer specimens had elevated R values: 52% lung, 60% colon, 43% head and neck, 35% breast, 64% kidney, 38% bladder, 43% prostate, 8% ovarian, and 67% pancreas. Further testing showed a significant percentage of serum specimens from patients with cirrhosis, pancreatitis, or ulcerative colitis also had elevated R values. No correlation of this assay was observed with CEA levels. The results suggest that the carbohydrate structure of serum IgA1 is altered by malignancies and that measurement of this altered IgA may supplement CEA testing.


Most applications accessible through the Web suffer from a noticeable lack of support for adapting to the different information needs that different users may have regarding a certain topic. However, completely au- tomatic adaptive support can still be confusing for users who may not understand the reasons for the dynamic change in the behaviour of an application. In this pa- per, we present a possible solution to provide adaptive support that does not disorient the user. The solution in- tegrates a virtual January 18, assistant that is able to provide adaptive support in an adaptable application. We discuss an example of the application of this approach in- volving the support of Web visits to virtual museums. We then present the results of an empirical usability test of such an application.


The echocardiographic results of the patients were observed in this article. Secundum type atrial septal defect (ASD) has been noted in 7 patients. Four of them has been needed mechanical ventilation support. It has been noted that clinical course of RSV pneumonia was worse in patients with ASD. The authors also noted that ASD might negatively affect the course of the disease with increased viral load in lungs due to increased pulmonary blood flow.


Vogelsang & Benning are specialists in fullyand/or semi-automated end-of-line testing for industrial production. Since the company was founded in 1983 it has produced test systems for a huge range of industrial applications, implementing drive technology and mechanical engineering. For the latest assembly and testing line developed for steering booster motors, Vogelsang & Benning have chosen a PCand EtherCAT-based automation solution from Beckhoff. EtherCAT enhances test rig automation worldwide | germany


A laser‐cutting technique was used to pattern high‐temperature superconducting single crystals with high precision into various shapes. The low mean power of 135 mW of the laser enables one to produce cuts of arbitrary shape without affecting the superconducting parameters. This was proven by local observations of the magnetic flux distribution using the magnetooptical Faraday effect.


1. Sr DES (HSc), 2. Sr ES (HSc), KVK, CCS HAU, Bawal and 3. Sr ES (HSc.), KVK, CCS HAU, Rohtak ABSTRACT The study was conducted in three villages of Mewat area viz.. Ghasera, Kalwari and Kaliaka to study the sanitation practices and safe drinking water facilities. Hundred women of low, and middle socio-economic groups were assessed. The sanitary and hygienic conditions were very poor in these villages. People were quite ignorant about personal and environmental hygiene. Main source of drinking water were tap and hand pump. Water was generally stored in earthen pots, plastic and metal buckets. The rural women were educated regarding the importance of sanitation, use of safe drinking water and methods of water purification with special emphasis on - Janta Water Filter through lectures, campaigns and trainings. Results revealed a significant increase in knowledge. The educational status of women was strongly correlated with the adoption of technology. Among these, twenty interested women were selected for action research. The acceptability of Janta Water Filter was quite high but was adopted by only 55 per cent families due to some constraints. Local availability of the critical input i.e. water filter candle was the major constraint. This technology has good scope if popularized through extensive education programme. Exposure to health education programme enabled the beneficiaries to acquire certain desirable health habits significantly (P<= 0.01) in daily living.


The review is concerned with the following properties of Parametric X‐ray Radiation (PXR): PXR coherence, the row effect for PXR, spectral line width, PXR angular distribution, absolute differential yield, influence of incident electron energy and density effect on PXR properties, PXR properties at angular distance from Bragg directions, etc. Experimental setups on linacs and results of our measurements of PXR properties are discussed for incident electron energies 15.5; 25.7; 1200 MeV and for energies of PXR spectral lines between 5 and 400 keV. A smooth tuning of PXR spectral line energy is demonstrated by experiments. The experimental results are compared to calculations. Possibilities for the PXR applications are discussed.


At a pavement management study meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, September 12 and 13, 1979, the states of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska agreed on the need for an in-depth engineering study of thermal cracking of bituminous pavement. In addition, the states of Oklahoma and North Dakota agreed to participate in the study. The scope of the study was to analyze all functions relating to the thermal cracking problem to determine how different uses of preventative materials, mix design measures, maintenance repairs, and design of bituminous pavements and overlays might be contributing to the problem and to determine what improvements might be made in these procedures to reduce the problem of thermal cracking. This publication describes the study and its conclusions. One of the conclusions is that the study did not address what the authors believe to be the major contributor to transverse cracking - the subgrade and subbase.


Background: Ceramide synthase 2 null mice cannot synthesize very long acyl chain ceramides and display severe hepatopathy. Results: Ceramide synthase 2 null mice are protected from drug- and chemical-induced liver injury and display impaired gap junction function. Conclusion: Altering sphingolipid levels modulates gap junction function. Significance: Sphingolipids may play a key role in regulating drug-induced liver injury. Very long chain (C22-C24) ceramides are synthesized by ceramide synthase 2 (CerS2). A CerS2 null mouse displays hepatopathy because of depletion of C22-C24 ceramides, elevation of C16-ceramide, and/or elevation of sphinganine. Unexpectedly, CerS2 null mice were resistant to acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity. Although there were a number of biochemical changes in the liver, such as increased levels of glutathione and multiple drug-resistant protein 4, these effects are unlikely to account for the lack of acetaminophen toxicity. A number of other hepatotoxic agents, such as d-galactosamine, CCl4, and thioacetamide, were also ineffective in inducing liver damage. All of these drugs and chemicals require connexin (Cx) 32, a key gap junction protein, to induce hepatotoxicity. Cx32 was mislocalized to an intracellular location in hepatocytes from CerS2 null mice, which resulted in accelerated rates of its lysosomal degradation. This mislocalization resulted from the altered membrane properties of the CerS2 null mice, which was exemplified by the disruption of detergent-resistant membranes. The lack of acetaminophen toxicity and Cx32 mislocalization were reversed upon infection with recombinant adeno-associated virus expressing CerS2. We establish that Gap junction function is compromised upon altering the sphingolipid acyl chain length composition, which is of relevance for understanding the regulation of drug-induced liver injury.


Narrow is the road that Christian Super takes in the pursuit of returns. It negatively screens the ASX300, avoiding alcohol or gambling stocks, and goes beyond the call of the average institutional investor's duty by putting a lot of energy into investments that help make the world a better place.


Dinitroguanidine is a product of nitroguanidine nitration with nitric acid and its mixtures with sulfuric acid and oleum. It is a diacid (pKa 1.11, 11.5) and at the same time a weak base undergoing protonation at the nitrogen of the amino group (pKBH+ 5.81). The decomposition kinetics of 1,2-dinitro- guanidine was studied by spectrophotometric method both in acid and alkaline media, and the mechanism of the process was assumed. In the media of high acidity (Ho > 8) the 1,2-dinitroguanidine suffers reversible denitration into nitroguanidine. At lower acidity its conjugate acid or molecular form undergoes hydrolysis yielding nitrourea. Monoanion of 1,2-dinitroguanidine in a weak acid or in an alkali is hydrolyzed into N,N -dinitrourea. The reaction of 1,2-dinitroguanidine with alkali in alcohol provides its salts, with nitrogen-containing bases form both salts and derivatives of 2-nitroguanidine. The treatment of 1,2-dinitro- guanidine with haloalkanes results in its N-alkylated products. Nitration of guanidine salts with nitric acid or its mixtures with concn. sulfuric acid is known to furnish nitroguanidine in up to 95% yield (see, e.g., (1 3)). Up till now the nitroguanidine was regarded as the final product of this reaction. We found however that dissolution of nitroguanidine in mixtures of HNO 3 with H 2 SO 4 or N 2 O 5 resulted in reaction yielding a compound with a spectrum quite unlike that of the initial nitroguanidine (Fig. 1). The reaction rate considerably increased with growing nitrating activity of the medium in the series 98% HNO 3 < 100% HNO 3 < 2% solution of N 2 O 5 in HNO 3 . Even after a prolonged keeping of the solution its diluting with water resulted only in precipitation of nitroguanidine. The reaction product remained in water solution and was isolated by extraction with ethyl acetate. The elemental analysis and spectral characteristics of the colorless crystalline substance obtained were fully consistent with those of 1,2-di- nitroguanidine (I). We therefore revealed that the nitroguanidine is not the final but intermediate pro- duct of the guanine nitration with nitric acid:


To improve the shrinkage and evenness of the production of injection molded slab,this article introduces an iterative multi-objective optimization method based on Kriging surrogate model to find the Pareto set of the optimization problem. The idea of the iterative optimization method is first to establish two approximation function relationships between those index and process parameters by a small size of design of experiment( DOE) with surrogate model to alleviate the expensive computational expense in the optimization iterations. And then statistical improvement criterion of Pareto front is used to provide direction in which additional training samples could be added to better the surrogate model. This process will loop and bring the optimization result close to the ideal Pareto front. Simulation results show that a much better shrinkage quality of molded part can be achieved with the proposed method with smaller amount of samples compared with traditional modeling and optimization method. For rectangular HDPE products,good evenness can be gotten using linear decreasing pressure curve after a period of constant value,and good shrinkage can be gotten using holding pressure with upper limits.


This paper, Part I of two, presents the results of a study combining experimental and modeling approaches of low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) of silicon nitride from a silane‐ammonia mixture. The experimental study consists in a reduced number of runs, chosen in order to identify the main features of the deposition process, i.e., marked nonuniformities at the wafer edge both in thickness and in Si/N composition. It is then shown that a complex gas‐phase mechanism may be responsible for the observed physicochemical phenomena. A gaseous reaction model is thus proposed for a silane‐ammonia mixture under typical low pressure CVD conditions. A complete reaction scheme is first studied. A thorough quantum Rice Ramsberger Kassel (QRRK) analysis compensated for the lack of kinetic information in the gas phase and allowed the identification of kinetic constants for uniand bimolecular reactions. Its appropriateness is examined with one‐dimensional nonsteady computations. A combined analysis of these calculations and of the QRRK results shows that the reaction model could be simplified, thus leading to a reduced reaction set reproducing the essential features of the full mechanism experimentally observed, which involves six species with two silylamine intermediates and . In Part II of this article series, this mechanism is integrated in a 2‐D model of LPCVD reactors, previously developed in the laboratory (called CVD2) and adapted to this kind of deposition, taking into account hydrodynamics, mass transport, and chemical reactions. © 1999 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.


Demonstrates methods of detecting local dependence in binary data latent class models. Latent class models are applied to five repeated measures of voter turnout in the Dutch Parliamentary elections of 2006 and 2010 obtained from a probability sample of 9510 citizens. Modeling substantive local dependence as separate discrete latent variables while modeling nuisance dependencies as direct effects yields an interpretable model, giving insight into the classification errors present in survey questions about voting. The procedure followed stands in contrast to the "standard" procedure of increasing the number of latent classes until information criteria are satisfactory.


The symmetry energy coefficients of dilute clusters nuclear matter are evaluated in the S-matrix framework. Employing a few different definitions commonly used in the literature for uniform nuclear matter, it is seen that the different definitions lead to perceptibly different results for the symmetry coefficients for dilute nuclear matter. They are found to be higher compared to those obtained for uniform matter in the low density domain. The calculated results are in reasonable consonance with those extracted recently from experimental data.


In June 1977 during a survey of the cleitean on Hirt, St Kilda, undertaken for the National Trust for Scotland, an incised cross was found on a stone forming part of the ceiling of a cleit. The cleit, no. 74, lies just to the N of the main street, between the Amhuinn Mhor and the graveyard, at NGR NF 09979934. There are no features that distinguish it as different from the other cleitean in the village area, and the age of the structure is not known. The stone with the cross is a ceiling lintel in the N half of the cleit. Both of the visible edges are broken, and both ends of the stone are hidden, resting on the wall head. One arm only of the cross is visibly complete: two opposing arms run off the broken edges of the stone and the fourth is partially concealed. The cross (fig 1A and pi 16a) is delineated by a shallow groove which forms the outline of the cross shape, the complete terminal having a pointed end, and has L-shaped lines in the angles; these are longer on the arm partly concealed by the wall head, suggesting that the long axis of the cross is parallel with that of the slab. There is a second cross on a stone built into the front wall of cottage 16, at the W end of the village. It is a simple cross formed by two grooves and outlined by a continuous groove (fig IB, pi 16b). It appears to have been built into the wall on its side, and the position of the stone, at one corner of the E window of the cottage, does not suggest that any significance was attached to it. The cottage was built in 1860 or 1861, and the cross was noted by Sands (1878, 82) during his visit in 1875, and again by Williamson and Boyd (1963, 144) during their visit in 1957. It seems reasonable to suggest that both crosses are probably connected with the chapels which once stood on the island. Martin, who visited the island in 1697, mentions (1753, 43-6) three chapels, which he marks on his map, and says 'Each of them is built with one end towards the east, the other towards the west, the altar always placed at the east end; the first of these is called Christ Chapel, near the village; it is covered and thatched after the manner of their


This article was accepted for publication in the journal, The Chemical Engineer (TCE) [© Institution of Chemical Engineers]. The definitive version is available from: www.tcetoday.com


Let be an open set, and where We consider pseudodifferential operators in domain Ω+ with double symbols which have singularities near and super exponential growths at infinity. We suppose that symbols have analytic extension with respect to the variable dual to the time in the lower complex half-plane. We construct the theory of invertibility of such operators in weighted Sobolev spaces with weights connected with growths of symbols. We give applications to estimates of the fundamental solutions of such operators, in particular, to the heat equations with singular potentials of power, exponential and super exponential growths.


This study examined college students' psychological well-being as a function of both sources of academic stress and supportive communication. A total of 129 students completed measures assessing four sources of academic stress (i.e., pressures to perform, perceptions of workload, academic self-perceptions, and time restraints), psychological well-being, and two types of received supportive communication (i.e., informational and emotional). Pressures to perform, perceptions of workload, and time restraints were negatively associated with psychological well-being. In addition, the negative relationship between perceptions of workload and psychological well-being was strengthened when supportive informational communication and supportive emotional communication were individually and jointly low. Finally, the positive relationship between academic self-perceptions and psychological well-being was only significant when supportive informational communication was high.


Pursuant of the modernization of steel elaboration and casting technologies, at present over 90% of the liquid steel undergoes continuous casting. The quality of the cast parts is influenced by: the casting temperature and rate, the flow rate of the cooling water and the characteristics of the casting powders. The research under consideration was done on a low manganese alloy steel X60QS elaborated in an EBT-type, 100 ton oven and cast on a 5-strand MCT casting machine. The paper gives the results of the research on the variation of the carbon, manganese and sulphur content per cast product for each casting strand and for each rod of the strand. The research managed to establish the causes that lead to deviations from the required chemical content for these elements, as well as the possibilities of eradicating them. The results are applicable in research and in practice.


This paper describes a method of exchanging tacit community knowledge using talking-virtualized-egos. We aim at sharing tacit knowledge in a community, for this purpose, we propose two ideas. The first idea is an exchange of narrative-mode messages with voices and gestures among community members; the members share tacit knowledge each other by telling narrativemode messages. Oral communication enables us to converse casually. The other idea is a talking-virtualizedegos metaphor; this metaphor mimics a theater where virtualized-egos talk and exchange narrative-mode message with voices and gestures on behalf of community members. Each community member can gain the tacit community knowledge from the other members' point of view by observing the exchange objectively. To investigate these ideas, we have developed a system called EgoChat that supports tacit community knowledge sharing by exchanging narrative-mode messages orally based on the talking-virtualized-egos metaphor. Effectivity of the proposed system is discussed.


This regular issue once again displays the diversity of research issues, methodologies, and authors in the domain of arts and the market. It comprises a truly international selection of scholars and showcases, in particular, the ever-growing momentum in aspects of audience research and the ongoing interest in arts and cultural consumption. To set the tone, the issue begins with "Art collecting as consumption and entrepreneurial marketing as strategy" by Ian Fillis and Kim Lehman, which utilizes biographical methods combined with in-depth interviews and participant observation to study the strategy and impact of an art entrepreneur in the context of a privately funded museum in Tasmania, Australia. Using thematic andmetaphor analysis of depth-interviews in Finland, SaaraMoiso's article "Expectation of being affected: an enactive perspective of spectators' expectations of contemporary dance" highlights the active and sensory nature of performance. Based on a range of creative methods, Moiso's pioneering work explores audience expectations and interests when attending contemporary dance performances from a range of complementary perspectives and draws out implications formanaging audience expectations and engagement. Steven Hadley is also interested in how audiences' cultural experiences are shaped. In his article "Artists as cultural intermediaries? Remediating practices of production and consumption", Hadley explores the notion of the artist as a cultural intermediary, which he defines as an actor "occupying the conceptual space between production and consumption in an artistic process". Based on interviews with British folk artists, Hadley finds that artists' ability and willingness to engage in processes of intermediation are predominantly determined by their "sense-of-self-as-artist" and shaped by Romantic ideas of artistic autonomy – in this case the belief that artistic production should remain independent from external forces to preserve its aesthetic value. The audience experience remains in scope as the contribution from Claudia Maria Cacovean, Alessandro Peluso and Ioan Pl aiaș again investigates how audiences' experiences can be positively influenced. In their article on consumer satisfaction in Romanian theatres, the authors explore the chain of relationships between service attributes, consumers' perceived benefits, fulfilment of personal goals, satisfaction judgements and future intentions. There are very few quantitative investigations into audience satisfaction in the performing arts, and this study provides a number of fresh insights into how theatres and other cultural venues can enhance audiences' satisfaction, highlighting the vital role of augmented or peripheral services. It also demonstrates how increased satisfaction can drive up loyalty by positively influencing future ticket buying decisions. The study thus develops current knowledge of how consumers think and behave with respect to the performing arts. The following article, co-authored by Verdiana Chieffi, Marco Pichierri, Alessandro Peluso, Cristiana Collu and Gianluigi Guido, also explores timely questions of marketing and loyalty, but from a very different perspective. "The effect of knowledge type and culture on arts audiences' propensity for experience-sharing" examines the effect of audiences' objective and subjective knowledge (i.e. what they actually know about art and what they think they know) on their propensity to share their arts experiences with other people. Based on a field survey at a large contemporary art museum in Italy and analysed using multiple regression Editorial


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of growth promoter additives (prebiotic, probiotic and symbiotic) as an antibiotic replacement on the performance and carcass characteristics (prime cuts, organs and abdominal fat) in diets for broiler chickens 1 to 42 days old. A total of 384 birds were used, one-day-old, on a reused bed. A completely randomized design was used, with four treatments and six replications, namely: PRO - supplementation with probiotic (2 kg t -1 ), ANT - supplementation with antibiotics (flavomycin 10% - 4 ppm and halquinol 60% - 15 ppm), PRE - supplementation with prebiotic (5 kg t -1 ), SIMB - supplementation with probiotic and prebiotic (2 and 5 kg t -1 , respectively). The probiotic used consisted of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus faecium and Bifidobacterium bifidum , and the prebiotic used consisted of inulin (chicory root extract). In the initial phase, the chickens fed diets containing probiotic and symbiotic had higher weight gain and total weight at 21 days. Supplementation with antibiotics in feed provided a lower feed intake at 1 to 21 days old. The growth promoters did not show an effect on the variables of performance, carcass yield and prime cuts studied in the phase from 1 to 42 days of age.


The risks of the direct purchase in the SEAP are often repetitive, with a certain frequency. In order to build a significant econometric model for analyzing the direct purchases in theSEAP (Electronic System for Public Procurement) a series of calculations and consolidations arerequired to be feasible and to provide useful information for building an econometric model.


BACKGROUND
This study was the first multicenter phase II study of cetuximab plus folinic acid/5-fluorouracil/irinotecan (FOLFIRI) in KRAS wild-type mCRC as a second-line treatment in Japan including BRAF and PIK3CA genotyping.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Tumors of 112 pre-registered patients were genotyped for KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA. The primary study end-point was response rate, and secondary end-points were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and safety.

RESULTS
Sixty-seven patients (59.8%) were EGFR-positive and KRAS wild-type. The mean age of the enrolled patients (n=60) was 62.6 years (range=37-82 years). The response rate was 31.7% and stable disease was observed in 53.3%. No objective response was observed in patients with BRAF or PIK3CA mutations. The median PFS and OS were 7.4 and 18.2 months, respectively. Grade-3/4 adverse events were leucopenia (26.7%), neutropenia (43.3%), paronychia (10.0%), fissure (10.0%) and acne-like rash (5.0%).

CONCLUSION
Second-line cetuximab plus FOLFIRI was effective and well-tolerated.


With the advent of Smart Cities, public transport authorities are more and more interested in Intelligent Transport System (ITS) applications that allow to process a large amount of static and real time data in order to make public transport smarter. However, deploying such applications in a large scale distributed environment is challenging and requires an automated, scalable, flexible, elastic, loosely-coupled communication models in order to dynamically link information providers and consumers. To this end, Publish/Subscribe (Pub/Sub) systems offer an asynchronous, dynamic, decoupled interaction scheme that is perfectly suitable for developing up-to-date, large-scale distributed applications within the ITS domain. In addition, cloud computing offers computational resources as services to utility driven model regardless of considering geographical locations in a scalable, elastic, fault tolerant and cost-effective way. In this work, we build an ITS application "Real-time Public Transit Tracking" on top of a Mobile Pub/Sub System (MoPS), and deploy it over an open source cloud platform, Open Stack, in order to achieve high performance and flexible management. We conduct a set of experiments to evaluate the performance of the implemented ITS application in terms of scalability, resource usage, and efficiency of the underlying matching algorithm under automated mobility of the subscribers. Our experimental results show that the ITS application can handle a large number of subscribers and publishers with proper reliability and negligible notification delay under real-time constraints. Further, we present a measurement study to characterize the impact of different workloads on the performance of Open Stack.


Background: Vacuum assisted wound healing is a recent trend and proven method of fast and better healing of wounds. The basic concept is the removal of blood and serous collection from the wound site with negative pressure and promoting the healing process rapidly by altering the local microcellular environment. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate effi cacy of the modifi ed method of vacuum dressing in wound healing in low resource settings. Objectives: To fi nd out the rate of wound contraction, infection clearance, duration of hospital stay in comparison to betadine dressings. Materials and Methods: In our prospective non-randomized comparative study, a total of 100 patients were taken and divided into two groups with 50 each for conventional betadine dressing and modifi ed vacuum assisted dressing. Vacuum dressing done with autoclaved sponge, opsite, glove, sterile plastic cover and creating a vacuum with 50 cc syringe, romovac, pedal suction, portable motorized suction apparatus. Comparison between the groups made in categories of wound cultures, wound area, wound scoring, duration of hospital stay, cost-effectiveness. Results: Among 50 patients of vacuum dressing, 9 patients are excluded due to various reasons. There is 29.72% decrease in wound area in the experimental group than compared to 19.97% decrease in conventional dressing with P = 0.000. In wound scoring, 68.16% improvement is seen in the experimental group as compared with 57.10% in the control group with P = 0.002. There is 19.41% decreased duration of hospital stay in the experimental group. There is a signifi cant decrease in wound infection clearance of 63.4% in the experimental group as compared to 34% in the control group with P = 0.005. The median cost for modifi ed vacuum dressing was Rs. 311.1111 and compared to Rs. 610.5477 in the control group. Conclusion: Modifi ed vacuum assisted dressing in low resource settings proven effective than conventional betadine dressing.


Phytochemical investigation of the ethyl acetate extract of the roots of Aloe megalacantha led to the isolation of four new natural products—1,8-dimethoxynepodinol (1), aloesaponarin III (2), 10-O-methylchrysalodin (3) and methyl-26-O-feruloyl-oxyhexacosanate (4)—along with ten known compounds. All purified metabolites were characterized by NMR, mass spectrometric analyses and comparison with literature data. The isolates were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against a human cervix carcinoma cell line KB-3-1 and some of them exhibited good activity, with aloesaponarin II (IC50 = 0.98 µM) being the most active compound.


Based on Zhang Jiucheng' s cognition, comprehension and evaluation of Buddhism, this paper points out that there is duality in Zhang Jiucheng' s Buddhist thoughts. Furthermore, it analyzes the end-result of Zhang Jiucheng, s thoughts and the role that the Confucian scholars have played in the process of localization of Buddhism in China. As a result, the distinguishing feature of Zhang Jiucheng's thoughts is essentially Confucian and functionally Buddhist, not superficially Confucian and essentially Buddhist. It concludes that the Confucian scholars have played an important role in the localization of Buddhism in China.


This research work demonstrates a performance-based approach to evaluate the quality performance of group buying websites under uncertainty. Linguistic variables are assigned with values using triangular fuzzy numbers approach for effectively modeling the vagueness and imprecision of the decision making process. An effective algorithm grounded on the deviation degree and absolute area of a fuzzy number is developed for generating a general performance index for each alternative. This would help companies understand the performance quality level of their group buying websites. A group buying website quality performance evaluation example demonstrates how performance based approach can be used to assess the quality.


lhe desire for simplicity has haunted rhetoric and composition for most of its history, from stock forms for producing oral speeches in ancient times to simple processes for the production of written texts in contem porary times. Even though the desire to utilize simplicity to understand the world was the driving force of science, Taylor recognizes that science is at root a metaphysical if not theological enterprise (137). Simplicity is always abstracted from complex realities. This has certainly been the tendency in rhetoric and composition, whose primary debate has been between two opposing methods for simplifying the complexity of writ ing. On the one hand, expressivists responded to writing's complexity by abandoning system altogether. On the other, rhetoricians of various stripes have tried to produce simple systems that make writing teachable. Neither faction has fully addressed the complexity of writing, and I think the value of Taylor's book is that it may lead the field to confront this reality. Though some of his conclusions regarding education in general are debatable, the book does a good job of summarizing much of the work in complexity theory and applying it to various fields?art, architecture, theory, and communication. One of the fields that Taylor does not directly address, however, is rhetoric. Just as rhetoric and composition is cur rently confronted with the complexity of writing, rhetorical studies is in the process of trying to determine just what rhetoric would be in our current cultural situation. The ancient civic space that led to the emer gence of rhetoric has been replaced by contemporary network space. In


Click on the link to view the letter. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice • Oct-Dec 2013 • Vol 16 • Issue 4


Most software systems are maintained in a controlled baseline environment, and changes to it are typically made outside of the baseline (usually in the individual's workspace), then tested, verified and resubmitted into the baseline. This mode of operation has a set of problems associated with it. An explanation is presented of how the authors' configuration management system provides a general solution to the various problems. The concepts behind the system are given. A scenario is outlined which is typical of most software maintenance environments, and it is explained how the concepts defined can be used to address the problems in that environment.<<ETX>>


This paper is devoted to the maximum pseudo-likelihood estimator of a vector $\Vect{\theta}$ parametrizing a stationary marked Gibbs point process which is not necessarily a locally stable exponential family model. Sufficient conditions, expressed in terms of the local energy function, to establish strong consistency and asymptotic normality results of this estimator depending on a single realization are presented. These results constitute an extension of the ones obtained in \cite{Billiot08} where the local energy function was assumed to be parametrically linear and stable. By applying these tools, we finally obtain the main results: consistency for both the Lennard-Jones model and the finite range Lennard-Jones model and asymptotic normality for the finite range Lennard-Jones model.


Abstract An array of 35 idealized mesoscale model simulations was used to examine environmental and surface forcing factors controlling the meso-β-scale circulation structure resulting from cold flow over an isolated axisymmetric body of water at the midlatitudes. Wind speed, lake–air temperature difference, ambient atmospheric stability, and fetch distance were varied across previously observed ranges. Simulated meso-β-scale lake-effect circulations occurred within three basic regimes (e.g., vortices, shoreline bands, widespread coverage), similar to observed morphological regimes. The current study found that the morphological regimes of lake-effect circulations can be predicted using the ratio of wind speed to maximum fetch distance (U/L). Lake-effect environmental conditions producing low values of U/L (i.e., approximately < 0.02 m s−1 km−1) resulted in a mesoscale vortex circulation. Conditions leading to U/L values between about 0.02 and 0.09 m s−1 km−1 resulted in the development of a shoreline ban...


Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit (Labiatae), called in Thai as " Maeng Luk Kha", is well-known among Northern Thais for its anti-itching property. Part of the plant used for folklore remedies is leaves. The major chemical constituents containing in H. suaveolens oil were sabinene, β-caryophyllene,1, 8-cineole (Peerzada, 1997, Azevedo et al. 2001). H. suaveolens was reported to be of therapeutic value as a carminative, antiseptic, sudorific and galactagogue (Saluja and Santani, 1993). According to its dermal effect, there are some evidence which support this activity. Iwu et al. (1990) demonstrated that essential oil isolated from H. suaveolens inhibited the growth of both gramnegative and gram-positive bacteria as well as some fungi, Candida albican and Aspergillus niger. Fungiotoxicity of H. suaveolens oil against Aspergillus flavus has also been reported by Mishra and Dubey (1994). Additionally, marked antimicrobial activity of the oil against Staphylococcus aureus, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum was reported (Titawan et al., 2004). Thus, the oil was initially prepared as topical cream for therapeutic use in skin infection. It has also been found that topical creams containing 10%, 20% and 30% of H. suaveolens oil possessed antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum (Titawan et al., 2004). For safety reason, the toxicity of H. suaveolens cream needs to be investigated before application in human. Therefore, this study was carried out in order to assess possible toxicity of H. suaveolens cream in various concentrations from repeated exposure by the dermal route over a certain period of time in rats.


Purpose

To evaluate the efficacy of subthreshold micropulse yellow laser photocoagulation(SMYLP) for subfoveal serous pigment epithelial detachment(SPED).

Methods

We evaluated retrospectively 6 eyes of 5 patients with symptomatic subfoveal SPED treated with SMYLP. SMYLP was performed on the entire area of SPED with Supra 577Y Laser System(Quantel Medical). The SMYLP settings were 100 μm spot diameter, 20 ms duration, 15% duty cycle, 3 × 3 pattern. If SPED was not definitely restored, we applied laser again with more increased power at 1 or 2 months interval.

Results

All patients were received 3 or 5 times bevacizumab or ranibizumab injections before SMYLP. The total follow-up period was 26.5 (18–36) months, mean follow-up period after laser application was 19.8 (15–32) months. Mean height of PED before treatment was 349.2 ± 53.22 μm. About 3 (2–4) sessions SMYLPs were performed. All eyes showed nearly complete resolutions of the PED for 5.6 (5–7) months, which were sustained during the follow-up. Mean BCVA before treatment was 0.11 (0–0.22) logMAR and mean BCVA at final follow-up was 0.07 (0–0.22) logMAR. After PED resolution, all patients had increased vision and metamorphopsia improvement. After PED resolution, usually there were seen in mild RPE atrophies in fundus and OCT image, and these atrophies were not aggravated.

Conclusions

SMYLP for subfoveal SPED induced the resolution of SPED and symptom improvement. But after SPED resolution, mild RPE atrophy was detected. We think this finding was related to subsequent epithelial atrophy after resolution of SPED or laser damage. Prospectively, the study about long-term efficacy and safety of this treatment will be needed.


Now, more and more diseases can be predicted by AI algorithms or early disease prediction, enabling patients to prepare for two kinds of physics. Because the utilitarian model of disease prediction is crucial for mankind to advance in medicine. We consider SVM(Support Vector Machine), random forest and neural networkCNNto be the proper methods to do the prediction based on the symptoms of Four diseases. SVM and Neural Network show better accuracy in the training. However, Random Forest has a slightly lower accuracy. We hope our method can be helpful in AI field.


The main issue of the present article is to state what could be at least the conditions of possibility of the dialog between different religions. In particular the Author says that it is not useful to state in advance a propedeutical definition of a common language, before the dialog actually begins, as it has been made in the modern thought, for instance the concept of reason in Locke or Kant. On the contrary, the common language must be found during the effectivity of the dialog itself. Every anthropological point of view has in itself a theology that is necessary to deal with. Anyway there are some common experiences, that are typical of the Human condition in general, that can be useful as a common starting point in order to make the dialog between different religions possible.


The system contains a quadruple ionization detector of backscattered electrons placed in a hole of the objective lens and a pressure limiting aperture extension serving alternatively as an ionization secondary electron detector or the coaxial ion micro-source for sample stripping. The equipment enables environmental techniques and 3D imaging in a classic SEM and may upgrade capabilities of VP/ESEM. This solution (pat. appl. EP2672504 A2) won the Gold Medal at INPEX 2014 in Pittsburgh.


Starting from the direction of systematic theory, this paper thinks that tennis service is not only a simple skill, but it should be a complete system, that is, consists of skill, tactics, mentality and stamina in order to renew the conception of tennis service, deepen the recognition of it, found a theoretical system, and guide the practice of it.


The chapter illustrates the benefits (and in some cases, the dangers) of anticipation in the pursuit of the good life. It discusses how anticipation figures in decision-making, savoring, and optimism. It shows how anticipation can often boost our levels of subjective well-being and explains why anticipation is linked to numerous positive health outcomes. Anticipation also helps us to overcome life obstacles and remain resilient in the face of difficult challenges. Thus, anticipation is a crucial ingredient of the good life. In addition to its ability to prolong and amplify positive experiences, anticipation is a motivating mechanism that provides us with the emotional energy we need to pursue what we believe is significant and important.


We are on the verge of the next real revolution in our experience of the infosphere-the infinite ocean of electronic information all around us-a revolution in which the very idea of tethering oneself to a keyboard and mouse and interacting in the infosphere by peering at a CRT will eventually seem rather "quaint". Indeed, the very idea of an "interface" as we now experience it will seem more like a barrier than an interface. This change will be driven by multiple forces, chief among them device technology, software agents, speech technology and structured knowledge.


Increasingly complex radiotherapy techniques require additional machine-specific quality control (QC). The extra time required for such tests is in addition to existing, well-established QC required for standard linac deliveries. Additional time for QC can be in direct conflict with current cost saving driven practice and patient scheduling. One approach to create additional time for machine specific QC is to review current processes and the frequencies of well-established QC tests. In this work, the potential to transfer radiation field size, asymmetric jaw alignment, multi-leaf collimator (MLC) transmission and MLC rotation tests from film analysis to analysis of digital EPID images was investigated. In-house software was developed in MATLAB® and commissioned for each test by comparison to film. Following commissioning, EPID analysis was introduced into routine use and the results and trends for these tests from 10 Varian linacs were analysed over 5 yr. Radiation field size measurements were found to be smaller than film due to the steeper penumbra in EPID profiles. This effect was field size dependent. By correcting for this, EPID and film measurements agreed within 0.0 ± 0.5 mm (mean ± 1SD), with drifts of ≤0.3 mm yr−1 in field size measurements. The EPID profile response also results in overestimation of asymmetric jaw alignment measurements, which when accounted for permitted the junction gap to be maintained within ±2 mm. Junction gap was found to drift at <0.15 mm yr−1. EPID assessment of MLC transmission and MLC rotation were also achievable and maintained within tolerance with trend analysis verifying current recommendations for annual assessment. Overall, a shift from film to EPID analysis for radiation field size, asymmetric jaw alignment, MLC transmission and MLC rotation tests saved 9.5 h machine time and 6.7 h subsequent analysis time annually per linac. This will be further increased as trend analysis over 5 yr has indicated the potential to reduce the frequency of some tests.


The protolytic dissociation process of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and hydrofluoric acid (HF) is studied using the B3LYP and MP2 methods with the 6-311+G(d,p) basis set in the gas phase and in aqueous solution. To study the phenomena in detail, discrete and discrete/continuum models were applied by placing water molecules in various positions around the acid. The dissociation process was studied using the thermodynamic cycle involving the structures optimized both in the gas phase and in aqueous solution and was analyzed with two key energy factors, relaxation free energy (ΔGRex(g)) and solvation free energy (ΔGs). Based on the results, we could understand the dissociation mechanism and wish to propose the best way to study acid dissociation process using the CPCM methodology in aqueous solution.


Gastroschisis is a congenital defect of the abdominal wall through which the intestines protrude. American studies suggest that a low maternal body mass index increases the risk of gastroschisis12 but this has not been investigated in a UK population so the authors examined the relationship in women seen in our unit. The authors identified 55 cases of gastroschisis from the Wessex Fetal Medicine Database from 2005 to 2009 and compared these with two control groups from the birth register at the Princess Ann Hospital Southampton. The first group consisted of the next mother in the register to deliver an infant without gastroschisis. The second consisted of the next age-matched mother to deliver an unaffected infant. The authors noted the body mass index (weight in kg/height in m2) at booking for all 165 mothers. Compared with the general population of pregnant women, mothers of affected infants were younger and had lower body mass index (BMI). However, compared with age-matched controls, there was no difference in body mass. Our data do not support the hypothesis that low maternal body mass index is associated with increased risk of gastrochisis in the UK population after controlling for age. At the conference the authors will present the completed data set to examine the effects of maternal BMI and age on the risk of gastroschisis. A low prepregnancy body mass index is a risk factor for an offspring with gastroschisis. Epidemiology 1999;10:717–721. The joint effects of maternal prepregnancy body mass index and age on the risk of gastroschisis. Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology 2009;23:51–57.


We succeeded in polymerization of a n-type conjugated polymer, poly(pyridopyrazinevinylene).Itspropertiesofnonlinearopticalabsorption and carrier dynamics of the excited states have been investigated by using picosecond time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy. Optical bleaching and reverse saturable absorption were observed in the wavelength region above and below the bandgap, respectively. These results could be explained in terms of five-state model with three singlet and two triplet states.


Introduction: Endometriosis is presence of functioning endometrium outside uterus [1]. It rarely occurs in the abdominal wall. The diagnosis is confirmed by histopathological examination. We report a rare case of abdominal wall endometriosis in a 32 year old female who was managed at tertiary care center of Rajindra Hospital, Patiala.


Background: Suicide is a significant cause of death and growing evidence attests to the increased risk of suicide among patients with cancer. Rate of completed suicide in cancer patients varied widely in the published literature. We aimed to assess quantify the extent of completed suicide and identify risk factors associated with the suicide rate per 100,000 person-years in cancer patients.

Methods: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), reference lists of included studies and additional sources from inception to November 30, 2019, for original research in English or Chinese, reporting suicide rate and the number of completed suicide among cancer patients. Our main outcome was suicide rate per 100,000 person-years with 95% CIs. We investigated heterogeneity in suicide rate estimates using random-effects modelling for the main meta-analyses and planned subgroup and meta-regression.

Findings: We identified 37 eligible studies including a total of 41,516 suicides during over 140 million person-years. The pooled estimate suicide rate was 39·66 per 100,000 person-years (95%CI, 33·40-47·10 per 100,000 person-years) with significant between-study heterogeneity (Q = 9795·73, P <0 ·001, I2 = 99·6%, τ2 = 0·27). The suicide rate for cancer patients was higher in men (54·14, 95%CI, 44.66-65·63) than in women (14·12, 95%CI, 11·14-17·90). For both sexes combined, esophagus cancer had the highest rate of suicide (87·71, 95%CI, 27·42-280·54). By sex, suicide rate ranked first in males and females were pancreas cancer (195·70, 95%CI, 129·55-295·61) and lung cancer (19·31, 95%CI, 16·29-22·86), respectively. The highest suicide rate was 61·02(95%CI, 53·66-69·40) in Asia, and Oceania (24, 95%CI, 21-28) had lowest suicide rate. Suicide rate increased by age at diagnosis, which varied from 20·88(95%CI, 15·75-27·69) among cohorts of younger than 39 years old to 49·06(95%CI, 38·57-62·40) among patients older than 80 years old. Suicide rate in cancer patients had a downward trend by years after diagnosis, with the first six months after cancer diagnosis clearly standing out as a highly stressful period (136·28, 95%CI, 57·10-325·27). Importantly, we found a significant association between general population suicide rates and the rates of suicide in patients with cancer (coefficient =1·308071; 95% CI, 0·351-2.265; t=2·81, P=0·009).

Interpretation: Our findings demonstrated that suicide rate among patients with cancer was higher than general population despite the declined trend recent years, which emphasized psychological health aspects interventions and serve as a call to action for the urgent need for public health preventive interventions.

Funding Statement: Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education Planning Fund Project Social and People's Livelihood Technology in Nantong city-General Project (MS12019038).

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval Statement: Not required.


It is found that peaceful settlement for capital punishment cases is faulty in many ways.To get rid of the situation of "buying lives with money" this paper proposes some solutions,for example,limiting the case extent rationally,limiting the case application conditions strictly,limiting the operation ways strictly,and specifying the supervision functions of the prosecuting agencies,in order to maximize the value of peaceful settlement in capital punishment cases.


After reading the letter from Fiona Ellis, 'Midwives should not demean nurses' (Letters July 10) I felt compelled to reply.


Because of longer operating time and performance defects, HVDC control and protection system of Longquan converter station malfunctioned frequently in recent years, then it has adverse effect on power grid operating security. The faults that occurred in recent years of Longquan converter station is summarized, the fault reason is analyzed, and the problem in operation and maintenance of HVDC control and protection system is pointed out. Based on above analysis results, the technical transformation scheme is proposed. The scheme can not only solve the defects and problems of Longquan converter station HVDC control and protection system effectively, but also play a certain reference role for guiding construction, operation and maintenance of others HVDC project.


Let X be the strong symmetry diffusion process onE~d, where E~d(?)R~d is an open set.Taking two arbitrary colsed baels Ba,Bb,and Ba(?)Bb(?)E~d,where a and b(oab∞) are respectively the length of radiu of the two balls, wedefine ostpping times as follows:Ta=inf{slso;Xs∈(?)Ba},Ta=∞if above set is empty; r_(?)(t)=sup{slost; Xs∈(?)Ba}r_(?)(t)=oifabove set is empty; and T=T_(?)∧AT_b, r(t)=r_(?)(t) Vr_b(t) , L(t)=(t——r_(?)(t)∧(t——r_(?)(t))、Let W(s)=X(T-S), o≤s≤T,and Z(S)=X(r(t)+S), o≤S≤L(t), In this paper we use a"time reversal"argument to study reations as t→∞between the processes Z ard w under p_(?)(.1Xt=x) and to evalute some limits related (?)o L(t)


The blood–brain barrier (BBB) impedes movement of numerous substances into the brain (e.g., medications) and from it (e.g., protein aggregations). Researchers have shown that nonthermal, noninvasive, focused scanning ultrasound, coupled with intravenously injected microbubbles, stimulates transient openings in the BBB; the microbubbles are "acoustically activated," expanding and contracting over several cycles, thereby opening tight junctions and allowing movement across the BBB. Based on this research, investigators examined …


A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of spatially distributed autonomous sensors to monitor physical or environmental condition  such as  temperature,  sound,  pressure, etc. and to cooperatively pass their data through the network to a main location. The more modern networks are bi-directional, also enabling control of sensor activity. The development of wireless sensor networks was motivated by military applications such as battlefield surveillance; today such networks are used in many industrial and consumer applications, such as industrial process monitoring and control, machine health monitoring, and so on. How nodes communicate with each other effectively and intelligently is a key issue in these types of networks. This work presents a simple but yet efficient network discovery and an intelligent metric for route selection in smart environments that combines several parameters through the use of fuzzy logic, shortest hop method and through virtual backbone scheduling (VBS ).


Thermal and chemical coal-desulfurization processes designed to yield refinable petroleum substitutes and solid fuels for boilers reduce the fuel's volatile matter content. This reduced volatility influences combustion characteristics such as ignition temperature, flame stability, and carbon burn-out. A variety of studies has been conducted on the oxidation reactivity of coal char. On the basis of information available from these studies, it can be concluded that the conditions under which a char is prepared influences its reactivity. Some of the production parameters that affect the reactivity are processing gas, heating rate, maximum heat treatment temperature, soak time at peak temperature, and pressure. These factors influence the pore structure and active surface area of the char as well as the accessibility of a reactant gas to the internal surface area of the fuel during combustion or gasification. Recently it has been suggested that char formation conditions that result in a higher H/C ratio or hydrogen content favor reactivity. The work presented in this paper is part of a larger study which was undertaken to determine combustion characteristics of partially devolatilized coals.


Nehale lyaMpingana is not only one of the best-known historical figures in Aandonga history, he is one of the most celebrated figures in the history of anti-colonialism in Namibia. Despite being such a well-known historical figure, there is still some confusion as to his identity. He is often referred to as a 'King' and/or 'Chief' on the one hand, and 'warrior' on the other. This confusion has prevailed not only amongst ordinary people but is also to be found in state institutions and academic historical writings. This article explores the origin of lyaMpingana's dual identity by looking at identity formation in pre-colonial and post-colonial Namibia. In precolonial and colonial Namibia Nehale lyaMpingana was simply known as a member of the Aakwanekamba family, the Ondonga royal family, and as a fearless warrior who fought against the colonial forces. In post-colonial Namibia, the state, and its principal officials such as the President, used their constitutional powers and relevant laws to bestow upon Nehale lyaMpingana the titles of 'King' or 'Chief'. The evidence, particularly from the Aandonga customs, shows that Nehale lyaMpingana was never a 'King' or 'Chief' of the Aandonga. The article further demonstrates the state's monopoly on national identity formation in post-independence Namibia, sometimes to the exclusion and suppression of indigenous communities' positions and customs.


Background: Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is an inherited form of bilateral optic atrophy leading to the loss of central vision. The primary cause of vision loss is mutation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), however, unknown secondary genetic and/or epigenetic risk factors are suggested to influence its neuropathology. In this study folate gene polymorphisms were examined as a possible LHON secondary genetic risk factor in Iranian patients. Methods: Common polymorphisms in the MTHFR (C677T and A1298C) and MTRR (A66G) genes were tested in 21 LHON patients and 150 normal controls. Results: Strong associations were observed between the LHON syndrome and C677T (P= 0.00) and A66G (P= 0.00) polymorphisms. However, no significant association was found between A1298C (P =0.69) and the LHON syndrome. Conclusion: This is the first study that shows MTHFR C677T and MTRR A66G polymorphisms play a role in the etiology of the LHON syndrome. This finding may help in the better understanding of mechanisms involved in neural degeneration and vision loss by LHON and hence the better treatment of patients.


With the great development of Integrated Circuits(IC),random process variations of interconnects has been an important factor which impacts the IC design and manufacture.On the basis of telegraph equation,the stochastic interconnect model with distributed parameters is proposed in the presence of process variations.The stothastic differential equation of the ABCD parameters is derived,and Monte Carlo method based statistical analysis method for the ABCD parameters is presented.Jarque-Bera test is made for the normality,and the worst-case estimation is given.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed stochastic model and the statistical analysis method can evaluate the transmission performance of interconnects in the presence of process variations effectively.


The factors that influence consumer attitudes towards beauty influencers identify as having the power for several changes. This study examines how attitudes toward beauty influencers can stimulate consumer attitudes towards brands and repurchase intentions. The sample was taken as many as 121 respondents in DKI Jakarta using convenience sampling. This study was analyzed using PLS-SEM for data testing. This study helps marketers and advertisers in the beauty industry realize how influencer marketing presents to consumer brand attitudes and repurchase intentions and understand the factors influencing consumer attitudes towards beauty influencers.


ALTHOUGH the metal germanium is not a recent discovery, the bulk of research and development on this material has been done in the recent past. So it can be said that the discovery of the important uses of germanium has been made during the past decade. Anything which promises a revolutionary change in the field of electronics immediately becomes front-page news because electronic equipment now plays such a vital part in our industrial development as well as in our private lives. Such wide publicity has resulted in many people using the terms in a conversational way without realizing the exact meaning or the wide range of possible applications.


The data on the seismicity of the Earth in the second half of 2020 at the level of strong earthquakes with magnitudes mb≥6.0 are given according to the data of the Alert Service of the Geophysical Survey RAS. The review also includes information on 54 tangible earthquakes in Russia and five earthquakes in adjacent territories that were felt in the settlements of the Russian Federation. Two of 67 strong earthquakes of the Earth with mb≥6.0 for the period under consideration were registered in the territory of Russia. For 15 strong earthquakes, the Alert Service published Information Messages within one or two days after their occurrence, for 14 earthquakes the information on focal mechanisms is provided. The strongest earthquake of the Earth with MS=7.9 occurred on July, 22 in the region of the Alaska Peninsula. The maximum human casualties and material damage during the study period were the result of the catastrophic intraplate earthquake with MS=6.8, which occurred on October, 30 in the Aegean Sea, near the Samos Island. As a result of the earthquake, 117 people died, 1054 were injured. The strongest earthquake on the territory of Russia was the deep-focus one with mb=6.4, which took place on November, 30 in the Tatar Strait, separating Sakhalin Island from continental Eurasia. The crustal Bystrinsk earthquake on September, 21 with MS=5.2, which occurred in the area of Lake Baikal, was felt with a maximum intensity I=6–7 on the territory of Russia. Comparative analysis of the rate of seismic energy released in the Globe in 2010-2020 showed that its value in the second half of 2020, as well as for 2019-2020 on average, is one of the lowest for the eleven-year period and indicates a seismic calm, which should be replaced by a period of intensification of global seismic and deformation processes


Under the guide of "Thinking globalization and strategy localization",human resource management localization has become the most influential human resources administration strategy of multinational enterprises.This paper propses the main causes of localization are the environmental,and cultural difference between mother enterprises and subsidiary enterprises,the cultural difference and conflict,the high cost resulting from overseas employee dispatching,and the influence of the host government.


Human Trafficking is an extraordinary crime which happened in the modern era today. In the origin first time, this crime has been exist in the centuries years ago. In Southeast Asia Human Trafficking fall in transnational crime; which is the offender take action is inter-country. In this paper discussed about Human Trafficking in women which occuring in border area between West Kalimantan, Indonesia and Serawak, Malaysia. Method used in this research is descriptive analysis by collecting data over secondary data from various field such as books, scientific journals, and others. Basically, phenomena trafficking in person on women have occured in the border area West Kalimantan in which not seen like human trafficking cases. Mode of used in this cases is the recruitment to work in household or companies in Malaysia. While actus was done by illegal agent, they are passing through illegal way. The things being factor of the occurrence of trafficking in person is education and poverty experienced by women.


Myopathies are muscular diseases in which muscle fibers degenerate due to many factors such as nutrient deficiency, infection and mutations in myofibrillar etc. The objective of this study is to identify the bio-markers to distinguish various muscle mutants in Drosophila (fruit fly) using Raman Spectroscopy. Principal Components based Linear Discriminant Analysis (PC-LDA) classification model yielding >95% accuracy was developed to classify such different mutants representing various myopathies according to their physiopathology.


The vituperative disputes that plagued transatlantic relations during 2003 centred around policy toward the Middle East, specifically Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Given this fresh history, it is perhaps surprising how much energy the Bush administration invested in 2004 toward joint US-European action to promote democratisation in the Middle East. Europe and the United States have now come to some agreement on key goals regarding the political, economic, and social development of the Middle East, and on the stakes for the West in the Middle East's developmental success. The question remains: how meaningful is this apparent consensus, and what does it portend for the ability of Western states to influence developments in this important neighbouring region? This article will assess the transatlantic agreement on democracy promotion in the Middle East that was embodied in the three transatlantic summits of June 2004,1 and mainly in the G-8's 'Partnership for Progress and Promoting Democracy in the Arab World: The Challenge of Joint Action


The northern corn leaf blight is one of the most serious diseases in maize production. The research progress on etiology, generation law and control strategy, antigen identifi cation, resistance mechanism and inheritance of this disease was discussed. And the research work which should be enhanced in China was pointed out, such as mechanism of resistance inheritance, developing function marker, gene mining, screening resistance resource and dominant physiological race in different areas.


TheSNFIgeneofSaccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a protein-serine/threonine kinase thatisrequired for derepression ofgeneexpression inresponsetoglucose limitation. We present evidence thattheprotein kinase activity isessential forSNFIfunction: substitution ofArgforLysintheputative ATP-binding site results in a mutantphenotype. A polyhistidine tract neartheN terminus was foundtobedispensable. Deletion ofthe large region C terminal tothekinase domainonlypartially impaired SNFIfunction, causing expression of invertase tobesomewhat reduced butstill glucose repressible. Thefunction oftheSNF4gene,another component oftheregulatory system, was required formaximal invitro activity oftheSNF1protein kinase. Increased SNFIgenedosage partially alleviated therequirement forSNF4.C-terminal deletions ofSNF1also reduced dependence onSNF4.Ourfindings suggest that SNF4acts asapositive effector ofthekinase butdoes notservea regulatory function insignaling glucose availability.


In Taiwan, there are six operating nuclear power plants that annually produce {approximately}6,000 drums of low-level radioactive waste (LLW). Some of these LLW drums are stored temporarily on an off-island, Lan-Yu. The current plan for safe disposal of LLW calls for its emplacement in a below-ground concrete vault (BGCV). As Taiwan is densely populated, it is reasonable to develop such an LLW repository on some off-islands. Since some radioactive nuclides will eventually release to the biosphere after disposal, the radiological assessment of the repository should be made before its development. Recently, Kim et al. employed a simplified probabilistic risk analysis method to evaluate the safety of a land-buried LLW repository with the disposal of one batch of waste only. The purpose of this study is to assess the radiological impact of a BGCV repository on an off-island. The authors extend Kim et al.'s model with an additional layer of concrete barrier and a changing of the disposed numbers.


Rubus fraxinifolius, a group of wild raspberry, was improved as a fresh fruit in Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to develop a protocol for micropropagation of R. fraxinifolius. Cultures were subcultured from hypocotyls (1 cm) which is initiated from seeds. The experiments were focused on the effect of plant growth regulators concentrations and combinations. The highest germination by in vitro was obtained using MS medium supplemented with 10 mg/L of GA3. Furthermore, based on five parameters, i.e. callus height, callus diameter, number of leaves, plantlet height and number of roots, medium 3 (0.5 mg/L GA3, 2.5 mg/L 2-iP and 0.1 mg/L NAA) shown the best results during the development explants of R. fraxinifolius. Effectivity of R. fraxinifolius regeneration through in vitro was affected by 2-iP and NAA concentration. If both of plant growth regulators were high (medium 8) or low (medium 1), it made less growth. Received 4 Oct 2016; Revised 19 Jan 2017; Accepted 7 March 2017.


This essay presents a spatial reading of Zoë Wicomb's 2006 novel, Playing in the Light. Beginning with the premise that (social and geographical) space and race have long been intertwined in South Africa, this essay assesses the numerous properties of whiteness represented in Wicomb's text. The argument plays out across three sections: The first explores race in a Cape Town's post-apartheid geography. The second section concerns the meaning of racial passing in the context of apartheid geography, wherein the status of whiteness stands as a form of property itself. The third section considers the geography of the South African pastoral tradition that Wicomb's novel alludes to and challenges; in the process, it directs our attention to the literary production of whiteness in South Africa. In all three registers, I argue, property itself -- often, the possession of land or real-estate —- has been central to the production and reproduction of South African whiteness.


The main topic of this thesis was the history of perioperative care from the perspective of perioperative nurses from the 1st Surgical Clinic of General Traching Hospital in Prague from 1965 to the present. The research plan was to map the development of perioperative care in the field of perioperative nurse work, education of perioperative nurses, material and technical equipment of operating theaters, and to determine the degree of physical and mental stress of perioperative nurses, which is an integral part of this work. The exploratory part was carried out by qualitative exploratory survey, case study strategy and data collection using semi-structured interviews with perioperative nurses of the 1st Surgical Clinic of General Traching Hospital in Prague. Subsequently, the analysis of interviews was conducted and the information provided related to individual objectives was integrated. From the results we can see that the work of perioperative nurses gradually changed due to new knowledge in all areas that influence this activity.