F symmetry. Big eyes. Full lips. Small nose. These characteristics are considered standards of attractiveness by beauty-industry experts, including cosmetic surgeons. A new "standard" of vulvar and vaginal beauty has spawned the latest fad in labiaplasty and vaginal rejuvenation. Proponents of cosmetic gynecology state that women do not want a gaping introitus. The goal of labiaplasty is a slit-like genital hiatus with the labia minora and labia majora coming together in the midline and a built-up perineal body. According to these same proponents, women do not want the labia minora projecting beyond the labia majora and do not like excess skin around the clitoris. But is this really what women want? Or is this a form of "new-age circumcision" based on an obsession with Barbie-doll looks or prepubertal or early Tanner Stage genitalia exhibited in Internet pornography? It is true that people are often greatly influenced by the images they see in the media in determining what is and is not beautiful. Cosmetic gynecologists are exploiting this tendency to their monetary advantage. Of course, some women may have legitimate concerns about the appearance and function of their vulvas or vaginas related to pelvic support loss or congenital conditions or as a result of female genital cutting; however, these indications are not the focus of this editorial. This new vulvovaginal "standard" has been set as more women get Brazilian waxes, shave, or use depilatory creams so they can actually visualize their external genitalia. In one study conducted in the Netherlands, 95% of women regularly examined their labia minora and 43% thought their appearance was important.1 As pubic hair has disappeared, more vulvar skincare treatments (vagacials) and decorative vulvar services (vajazzling) have developed. More patients are requesting these cosmetic vaginal services, and more plastic surgeons and gynecologists are seeking training in laser and cosmetic surgical techniques (which essentially are modifications of traditional pelvic reconstructive surgeries for prolapse and stress urinary incontinence) as well as vulvar liposuction, laser hair removal, and other cosmetic procedures.2 The procedures are cash, fee for service, and often are offered in boutique, spa-like settings to low-risk patients at an average price of $4,500.3 The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and others have frowned on the franchising of the cosmetic gynecology business.4 In addition, they cite the lack of knowledge dissemination of procedural techniques as well as the dearth of outcome data on safety and long-term effectiveness.4,5 Female genital appearance has a wide range of normality; for example, average labia minora width is 21.8 mm (range 7–50 mm) and they normally protrude past the labia majora.6 Nevertheless, cosmetic surgery proponents say that labiaplasty, vaginal rejuvenation (using laser or incision-less techCheryl B. Iglesia, MD, is Director, Section of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, and Associate Professor, Departments of Ob/Gyn and Urology, Georgetown University School of Medicine; e-mail: email@example.com.


In the planning, design and concrete construction of information communication engineering, transmission technology has an irreplaceable role in the transmission system because it has very important influence and effect. The overall application effect of the transmission technology will directly affect the basic situation of the entire information communication project during construction and utilization.Therefore, this paper analyzes the specific application of transmission technology in information communication engineering, and lays a good foundation for improving the efficiency of information communication engineering.


BACKGROUND
L-proline is a natural amino acid having secondary amine functionality and acts as a bifunctional catalyst (organo-catalyst). The amino-functional group acts as Lewis base type while carboxylic acids act as Bronsted acid type catalysts. It catalyzed different asymmetric syntheses including some known name reactions such as Aldol condensation, Mannich reaction, Michael Addition, Knoevenagel condensation, Hantzsch synthesis, OXA-Michael Henry tandem, Ullmann reactions, Wieland-Miescher ketone synthesis, Robinson annulation, Biginelli reaction, α-amination. It is also an important catalyst for the synthesis of different heterocyclic skeletons such as coumarin, spiro-oxindoles, imidazoles, benzimidazoles, quinoxalines, podophyllotoxin, benzothiazoles, isoxazolidines, phenothiazines, aziridine, indole, 1,5-benzodiazepines, pyridine, and quinazolines. Objective: In this review, we had the objective to critically summarize the use of proline and proline derivatives as catalysts of multicomponent reactions performed in various media and leading to synthetically and biologically relevant heterocycles, a very important class of compounds that constitutes over 60% of drugs and agrochemicals. Methods: All scholarly articles for L-Proline catalyzed reactions were retrieved from ScienceDirect, GoogleScholar, PubMed, etc. Results and Conclusion: Given the importance of L-Proline based reactions, it has been observed that it has tremendous applications in organic chemistry. It can also act as a 'Green catalyst'.


This special issue is dedicated to Professor Moshe Matalon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The issue is a tribute to his outstanding contributions to Combustion Theory and Fluid Mechanics and for his leadership and dedication to Combustion Theory and Modelling since becoming a Co-Editor in chief in 2001. Professor Matalon has made significant and long lasting contributions to the development of consistent mathematical theories explaining the interrelation between fluid mechanics and combustion by employing rigorous asymptotic methods and careful numerical simulations in numerous configurations for over 40 years. His work on the formulation of hydrodynamic theory of premixed flames, the derivation of an invariant formula for the flame-stretch rate, and the characterization of thermo-diffusive instabilities in non-premixed flames, in particular, stand among his most significant contributions. The papers collected in this issue by friends and colleagues of Moshe represent a snapshot of his research philosophy. They combine theoretical and numerical studies to aid in the interpretation of experimental results and to push the frontiers of combustion modeling development and their use in practice.


Objective:To determine the effect of acidic reperfusion on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) and choose the optimum pH of perfusion fluid.Methods:thirty adult New Zealand white rabbits of both sexes weighing 2.5~3.0 kg were randomly divided into 5 groups(n=6 each).In control group,CPB was executed for 180 min without aortic clamping.In the other groups,hearts were subjected to ischemia for 40 min followed by 120 min of reperfusion,and were respectively perfused with Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer solution at pH 7.4,7.1,6.9 and 6.7 in the first 2 min of referfusion.After 2 h reperfusion,the lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) activity was tested with colorimetric method,cardiac troponin I(cTnI) concentration was determined with ELISA and myocardial tissues were observed by light microscopy and transmission electron microscope.Results:In the other groups,the LDH activity and cTnI concentration were significantly increased as compared with in the control group(P0.05).Compared with pH 7.4 group,the LDH activity and cTnI concentration were significantly lower in acidic reperfusion groups(P0.05),and were lowest in pH 6.9 group.The pH 7.4 group showed the most serious injury while the pH 6.9 group showed the least damage in the acidic reperfusion groups by pathological examination.Conclusion:Acidic reperfusion can attenuate the myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by CPB in rabbits and the reperfusion of Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer solution of pH 6.9 provides best protective effect.


The integrated application of multi-source and multi-temporal remote sensing data is the trend of remote sensing application research, and it is also the practical need to solve the inversion problem of remote sensing. In this paper, a method is developed to retrieve canopy biophysical variables using multi-temporal remote sensing data. The inherent change rules of biophysical variables are introduced into the retrieval methods by coupling the radiative transfer model with land process model to simulate time series surface reflectances. A cost function is constructed to compare the reflectances simulated by the coupled model with time series reflectances measured by sensors and the canopy biophysical variables with the available prior information. And an optimization method is used to minimize the cost function by adjusting the values of input canopy biophysical variables such as the temporal behaviour of the reflectances simulated reaches the best agreement with the multi-temporal reflectances measured. Retrieval of leaf area index from MODIS surface reflectance data (MOD09) at the Bondville site was performed to validate this method. The experimental results shows that the use of multi-temporal remote sensing data can significantly improve estimation of canopy biophysical variables. * Corresponding author.


As a form of productive forces, information has become a strategy resources to manage an enterprise, enterprise ought to take information as its developing strategy, especially for the market competition is sharpening increasingly at present . It is requested to carry out information building for enterprises development. The form and content of information as well as tactics and methods are introduced in this paper.


The nucleus of the premeiotic oocyte from the hoplonemertine Amphiporus lactifloreus contains a characteristic DNA-rich body that rapidly generates a peculiar nucleolar apparatus previously described as the nucleolus-DNA body complex. During early vitellogenesis, the nucleolar complex is centrally located in the nucleus and consists of many spherical and ribbon-shaped components-the nucleolar spherulae and lamellae-which produce hundreds of small peripheral nucleoli and several granular bodies as vitellogenesis progresses. Distributions of the nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) in various nucleolar components were studied by silver staining, and results were compared with previous findings obtained by cytochemical and autoradiographic techniques.The core of each spherula in the nucleolus-DNA body complex is strongly Ag-positive, and so, later on, is a minor part of each peripheral nucleolus. In contrast, the cortices of the nucleolar spherulae, in which slightly decondensed chromatin is distributed uniformly, and the nucleolar lamellae produced through self-peeling of the spherulae, do not react with silver. Thus, the NOR proteins identified by silver deposits correspond to numerous loci at which the most decondensed, transcriptionally active chromatin is made visible by the osmium-ammine reaction. These results are discussed in relation to the functional evolution of the initial DNA body of the oocyte from A. lactifloreus, the transcriptional abilities of its by-products, and the general process of the amplification of ribosomal genes.


An orthotropic elastic resultant shell constitutive model is presented. The constitutive model includes a Tsai-Wu failure criterion to indicate the onset of material failure, and an isotropic scalar damage formulation is incorporated to describe the postfailure material reponse. The model has been implemented in the explicit finite-element code DYNA3D. The model was used to simulate the response of a flat-panel impact test with severe damage. Comparisons with a representative sample from the experimental results, including details of one strain history, are presented. While not addressing the many material complexities of 3D woven textile composites, the resulting engineering tool appears to be useful for assessing the response of thin textile composite structures subjected to damaging impacts.


Routing is a significant issue in MANETs. In this paper, we have studied the performance of Mobile Ad-hoc network to analyze the impact of AODV, DSR and OLSR routing protocols using OPNET. The applications traffic considered are database and http traffic types and the performance is analyzed using throughput, delay and media access delay parameters.


A theoretical and experimental study is presented for the damping of curved beams with an unconstrained viscoelastic layer. Natural frequencies and loss factors of flexural vibration are calculated for various boundary conditions, when a beam of the constant finite length is bent cylindrically. Boundary conditions considered in this paper are simple support-simple support, free-free, clamped-clamped, hinged-hinged and clamped-free. It is found that the loss factor of a curved beam changes complicatedly as the subtended angle increases. This behaviour may be divided into two groups according to the type of the boundary conditions and the modes of vibration; as the subtended angle increases, the loss factor for symmetric modes of clamped-clamped and hinged-hinged beams changes remarkably and behaves complicatedly, while that for all modes of free-free, simply supported-simply supported and clamped-free beams and antisymmetric modes of clamped-clamped and hinged-hinged beams changes slightly. This difference could be verified experimentally for curved beams with clamped-clamped and clamped-free ends.


This study examined the effectiveness of a comprehensive, school-based intervention program, Creating A Safe School (CASS; The Ophelia Project) designed to reduce relational aggression (RA) and relational victimization (RV). Sixth-grade students (N = 406) were surveyed before and after the intervention. Program effects were tested using a repeated-measures design. Results revealed significant reductions in RA and RV among students who reported initially high levels of involvement. Findings also showed that decreasing approval of RA accounted for a significant amount of variance in changes in RA between pre- and posttest. These results provide initial evidence of the effectiveness of the CASS intervention model in reducing RA among early adolescents. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The criteria for distinguishing the attempted and accomplished crime of fraud should be based on whether the loss of control over the property because of delivering by the victim rather than be based on whether the conductors have already gained the control over the property , only the establishment of the general criteria for the accomplished crime of fraud can not be the solution to the concrete attempt and accomplishment of cases of fraud. so it is necessary ,according to the different circumstances of cases ,to identity the concrete meaning of "loss control", so as to distinguish the attempted and accomplished crime of fraud correctly. 


Highly efficient small molecule-based organic light-emitting devices (OLED) that use electrically doped charge injection layers are presented. These structures exhibit low power consumption, long lifetime and high stability when operated at ambient temperature. It is also shown that their performances do not change significantly even when devices are stored at 90 °C for 80 days or 110 °C for 24 h. Such OLED structures thus fulfill the most severe requirements for mobile display applications.


In the article,the stiffness of the electrical car body by I-deas is analysed for solving the problem which is how to make the boundary conditions transfer from mechanism simulation to FE model.This method can avoid analysing the car assembly and decrease the requirement of software and hardware during analysis therefore,improving efficency.


This multiauthored book emphasizes the interdisciplinary team approach to the diagnosis and care of patients with failure to thrive (FTT). The authors have expertise in pediatrics and its subspecialties, including psychiatry, behavioral science, social work, and therapeutic recreation. In a book of this nature, uneven style and a certain amount of repetition are unavoidable. However, this book lacks cohesiveness and structure because some sections and chapters are inappropriately named, and there is divergent use of the term FTT. Contributors from the pediatric subspecialties use it as the name for a symptom. Psychiatrically oriented contributors, on the other hand, follow the 1980 recommendation of the American Psychiatric Association, which designated, unfortunately, nonorganic FTT as a disorder of maternal-infant bonding. Since they have a tendency to drop the nonorganic qualification, FTT becomes synonymous with maternal deprivation, which was renamedreactive attachment disorder(RAD). Failure to thrive may be a convenient code for


Background: The management of the perineum wound is not good to cause infections that affect the prolonged healing of perineum wounds. Purpose: Research aims to determine the effect of giving propolis on the length of healing of perineum wounds in postpartum mothers. Method: This study used a quasi-experimental design. The subject of the study was the postpartum mother who suffered perineum wounds. Sample cases as much as 39 and control samples as much as 39, the total samples of 79 postpartum mothers. Samples taken in the Non-Random sample in the form of Accidental sampling initiated a sample group of cases then sample control group according to criteria of inclusion and exclusion of research. Data analysis using T-Test (Paired T-Test). Result: Research shows the average degree of wound perineum in mothers group given propolis of 1.82 whereas in mothers who are not given propolis of 1.85. The average length of wound healing of perineum in mothers group given Propolis is 3.38 day while on a mother who is not given propolis of 1.85 and obtained p-value = 0.000 (≤ alpha 0.05). Conclusion: Perineum wound in postpartum mothers given propolis will be healed faster than those who are not given propolis. Midwives while giving care to the mother postpartum with perineum wounds can utilize propolis to accelerate the healing process while observing nutrition, personal hygiene, and consider the economic and ethical aspects.Latar belakang: Penatalaksanaan luka perineum tidak baik menyebakan infeksi yang berpengaruh terhadap lama penyembuhan luka perineum. Tujuan: Penelitian bertujuan mengetahui pengaruh pemberian propolis terhadap lama penyembuhan luka perineum pada ibu postpartum. Metode: Penelitian menggunakan rancangan quasi eksperimen. Subyek penelitian adalah ibu post partum yang mengalami luka perineum. Sampel kasus sebanyak 39 dan sampel kontrol sebanyak 39, total sampel 79 ibu postpartum. Sampel diambil secara non random sample berupa acidental sampling dimulai sampel kelompok kasus lalu sampel kelompok kontrol sesuai kriteria inklusi dan eksklusi penelitian. Analisis data mengunakan T-test (paired t-test). Hasil: Penelitian menunjukkan rata-rata derajat luka perineum pada kelompok ibu yang diberi propolis sebesar 1,82 sedangkan pada ibu yang tidak diberi propolis sebesar 1,85. Rata-rata lama penyembuhan luka perineum pada kelompok ibu yang diberi propolis adalah 3,38 hari sedangkan pada ibu yang tidak diberi propolis sebesar 1,85 dan didapatkan p value = 0,000 (≤ alpha 0,05). Simpulan: Luka perineum pada ibu postpartum yang diberi propolis akan lebih cepat sembuh dibanding dengan yang tidak diberi propolis. Bidan saat memberikan asuhan pada ibu post partum dengan luka perineum bisa memanfaatkan propolis guna mempercepat proses penyembuhan dengan tetap memperhatikan  nutrisi, personal hygiene dan mempertimbangkan aspek ekonomis dan etika.


Objective To investigate the influence of early traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) re-habilitation therapy and nursing intervention on functional prognosis of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Methods 80 cases with AIS were divided randomly into the rehabilitation group (42 cases) and the control group (38 cases). Both groups were similar in basic medical treatment, and an additional treat-ment of TCM rehabilitation therapy and nursing intervention was given to the rehabilitation group. The treat-ment time of beth groups was 4 weeks. The neurologic impairment, activities of daily living, cognitive im-pairment and adverse reactions in pre and post treatment were evaluated. Results The clinical efficacy of the rehabilitation group was 83.3%, which was higher than that of the control group (52.6%). NIHSS score after treatment was reduced compared with that before treatment, the NIHSS score of the rehabilitation group was lower than that of the control group. The ADL score after treatment increased compared with be-fore treatment, and the rehabilitation group was significantly higher than the control group. The intra-group and inter-group differences of MMSE score were not statistically significant, no obvious side effects hap-pened. Conclusions Early TCM rehabilitation therapy and nursing intervention proves to be effective for AIS functional recovery and worthy of clinical application.

Key words:
Acute ischemic stroke;  Early rehabilitation;  Traditional Chinese medicine treatment; Nursing intervention


This study aims to examine whether non-English majored students' TOEIC scores are improved after participating in a TOEIC preparation course. Another purpose is to understand possible reasons affecting the scores. To accomplish the two purposes of the study, students' TOEIC scores before and after a TOEIC preparation course in a natural classroom setting were analyzed using Paired-samples t-test. Focus group discussions were used to understand reasons that led to changes in scores. Findings suggest that students' TOEIC scores were not improved when they finished the course. The study students' perceptions of their effort, background knowledge, motivation, limited instructional time and a change in selected answer choices appeared to negatively affect their achievements.


Evidence-based medicine (EBM) for clinicians: do we need it? Would it not be enough to connect clinicians to an authoritative database source that would supply them with brief summaries of final recommendations? Would the executive summaries of clinical and academic society guidelines be a sufficient source? We would argue that all of these sources are helpful but insufficient. There is no alternative to informed clinicians and trainees who can understand the basics and background of societies' guidelines and database summaries. Historically, there are many occasions when guidelines, consensuses, and expert opinions moved in opposite directions from where they had been a few years earlier. Understanding the basics of EBM is an essential start for incorporating the evidence found in the medical literature into clinical practice. This special series began as an initiative to publish a book about practical ways to teach EBM to medical students. As university faculty members, we had become particularly frustrated by the medical student culture. As we recall from our own days as medical students, this culture focused on passing examinations, achieving higher scores, developing acronyms to identify the differential diagnoses of a clinical abnormality, and remembering buzzwords that would trigger correct answers. We could not deny the importance of these issues, but as we attempted to develop ideas to make our proposed plan of work successful, we realized that the ideas that we had developed to help students in medical school realize the value of EBM were applicable to all clinicians regardless of where we were in our careers. This, then, became the focus: translating EBM into a meaningful improvement in clinical care of our patients. As our enthusiasm built for this series, our ideas were met with interest and kind support by Drs Hamdy and Holt, the previous and current editors in chief of the Southern Medical Journal. It is not surprising that our ideas found a home here. This journal has promoted lifelong learning and excellence in patient care since it began publishing in 1908. The challenge is how to teach EBM in a way that clinicians will find it relevant to their daily practice. A number of authoritative references are available, and major medical journals had sporadically presented informative articles; however, in our opinion, few were suitable for busy clinicians, who can spare only limited time for reading. Our approach in this series is to offer a basic foundation in clinical context with many examples from the recent literature without lengthy detail. Many of the cited examples are well known to clinicians and are from manuscripts that have formed the way in which we practice. Our desire is that this be an attractive, easy-to-read, and palatable series for clinicians, residents, and students. This series was not intended to be a comprehensive resource for teaching every aspect of EBM, but rather to be a base for encouraging clinicians to read guidelines, information from newly released clinical trials, and database reviews with a critical eye toward and an improved understanding of the evidence presented. Our goal is to offer our patients better treatment and wiser choices. If we consider ourselves to be advocates for consumer education, then there is no alternative to better educated healthcare providers. We enthusiastically invite readers to enjoy and learn from this series.


Transformation of WI38 cells, DEDE cells, and primary neonatal hamster cells was attempted using Herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 as well as SV40. The kinetics of herpesvirus infectivity inactiva tion with ultraviolet light was first determined and the inactivated virus was then used to inoculate the target cells. A trypsin-antibiotic solution was used in place of trypsin during subculture to try and enhance the transformation rate by all three virus types. Transformation was not successful in any of the systems used.


Corresponding author: Research Scholar, Department of Water Engineering and Management, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Assistant Professor, Department of Water Engineering and Management, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.E-mail:firstname.lastname@example.com Research Scholar, Department of Water Engineering and Management, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Two themes of computer graphics, namely computer-generated color and computer-generated visualization, are introduced in a teaching/learning tool using a breadth-first approach. The breadth-first approach provides a holistic view of the topics to teach, aids in interdisciplinary teaching and is equally motivating to male and female students. The breadth-first approach has now been used for several years and we can also report on evaluations of the teaching/learning tool.


We discuss properties of the atmospheric water vapor above the high Andean plateau region known as the Llano de Chajnantor, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. A combination of radiometric and radiosonde measurements indicates that the median column of precipitable water vapor (PWV) above the plateau at an elevation of 5000 m is approximately 1.2 mm. The exponential scale height of the water vapor density in the median Chajnantor atmosphere is 1.13 km; the median PWV is 0.5 mm above an elevation of 5750 m. Both of these values appear to be lower at night. Annual, diurnal, and other dependences of PWV and its scale height are discussed, as well as the occurrence of temperature inversion layers below the elevation of peaks surrounding the plateau. We estimate the background for infrared observations and sensitivities for broadband and high‐resolution spectroscopy. The results suggest that exceptional atmospheric conditions are present in the region, yielding high infrared transparency and high sensitivity for future ground‐based infrared telescopes.


Super Duplex Stainless Steels (SDSS) are utilised extensively by the oil and gas industry offshore, on fixed platforms, production vessels and subsea developments because they provide an excellent combination of; a) Strength, weldability, fracture toughness and structural integrity. b) Corrosion resistance in natural and chlorinated seawater. c) Corrosion resistance in CO2/ H2S/Cl process environments. d) Corrosion resistance in in marine atmospheres. e) They have high design strength, allowing weight savings through the construction of lower wall thickness, pipe work systems, process equipment and vessels. f) They are readily available in all cast and wrought product forms. g) They provide long life/minimum maintenance functionality to facilities that means that they are not normally manned and personnel are not exposed to the arduous offshore conditions. h) They provide lower level, cumulative, through life costs when compared with alternative material selection philosophies. As such they find application in seawater cooling and fire protection systems, topside and subsea production pipe work, flow lines and pipelines. However, this presupposes that all items in the bill of materials are consistently and repeatedly properly processed, heat treated, pickled and passivated, fabricated, installed, commissioned, operated, maintained and deployed in environments within the limits of their application range. With over 30 years of wide scale use of these alloys by the oil and gas industry the overall experience has been good. However, intermittently problems recur. Some, like intermetallic precipitates in products are high profile and well known, but others are less well known. Based on alloy development and manufacturer independent supply experience of super duplex steel over a 30 year period the paper considers some of the less well known but recurring problems and the methods used to ameliorate them. From this information it is hoped that corrosion management strategies can be enhanced to sustain and or extended practical limits of use of this grade of steel in the future.


The Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) seeks to identify genomic variants contributing to increased risk of and/or protection from Alzheimer's disease (AD) in multi‐ethnic populations. Here we report on statistical modeling considerations and results from 4707 diverse individuals including 2076 non‐Hispanic White, 1030 Black, 1304 Hispanic, and 297 of other ancestry with whole genome sequencing (WGS) in the ADSP.


The ESP courses in the arts field are based on the learners' needs and purposes,focusing on training the learners' English proficiency in practical work.The students can be surrounded by a three-dimensional langu.


Objective To observe the effect of olive juice on acute alcohol-induced liver injury in mice and investigate its functional components Method The model of alcoholic hepatic disorder in mice was established and then fed olive juice to observe its protective effect.The serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT),lipid peroxidation(LPO) and blood superoxide dismutase(SOD) activities were detected.The pathologic pictures were observed by light microscope.The alcohol dehydrogenase in vitro was activated with Valle Hoch method.The olive juice dialysate was obtained by dialysis bag and its composition was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.Results The olive juice and its dialysate can effectively activate alcohol dehydrogenase dose-dependently,reduce serum ALT activities and lipid peroxides(LPO) and increase blood SOD activiies significantly.The composition of olive juice dialysate was mainly polyphenols and lipid substances,at relative ratio of 43.4:56.7.Conclusion Olive juice is effective on liver protection and this effect is related to the small molecules in olive which can activate alcohol dehydrogenase after feeding in mice.[ACTA NUTRIMENTA SINICA,2012,34(4):379-383]


We have investigated a new approach for global earthquake detection based on an experimental fact that microwave signals are generated by rock failures. We already developed an analysis method to detect rock failure microwave signals from the data of a microwave radiometer, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) aboard the Aqua satellite, and confirmed that characteristic microwave signals were emitted from the faults and fissures around the epicenter in association with the 2004 Morocco Earthquake. However, at the same time, these results have revealed some problems to be solved before we can move our methodology closer to practical use. In this paper, we review the results obtained in AMSR-E's data analysis phase and summarize the current problems to be solved.


The anticipation of surgery has been recognized as a stressful event that produces anxiety for most patients (Kapnoullas 1988). Even minor surgical procedures can produce anxiety in patients; this in turn can affect their postoperative recovery and lead to a risk of physiological complications (Swindale 1989). Thus, preoperative anxiety is identified as one of the common nursing diagnoses or problems for surgical patients.


The influence of fibre cross-sectional shape and production speed on the performance potential of polyester-viscose and polyester-cotton ring- and MJS yarns has been studied. The data indicate significant differences in the performance of the yarns produced with different spinning speeds and the yarns spun with high spinning speed display better structural intrigrity, high compressional resilience, low compressional energy, high abrasion resistance and more hairiness than the yarns spun under identical condition but with lower speed. Incorporating non-circular fibre in the mix greatly reduces structural integrity, abrasion resistance and hairiness for both yarn structures. The reduction in their characteristics is highly dependent on the fibre mix and production speed. For all experimental combinations, the MJS yarns possess better structural integrity, better compressional resilience, less hairiness and lower abrasion resistance than the ring - spun yarns.


Oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) has been strongly suggested as a key factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Thus, the inclusion of some anti-oxidant compounds in daily dietary food stuff may inhibit the production of oxidized LDL and may decrease both the development and the progression of atherosclerosis. The present work investigated the inhibitory effects of extract of Allium cepa (onion) on LDL oxidation induced by CuSO ? quantitatively in vitro and compared with extract of Allium ascalonico (shallot) and Allium sativum (garlic). LDL was incubated with CuSO4 and the formation of conjugated dienes and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were monitored as markers of LDL oxidation. Inhibition of this Cu-induced oxidation was studied in the presence of extracts of Allium ascalonicom, Allium cepa and Allium sativum . It was demonstrated that extract of Allium cepa as well as Allium ascalonicom and Allium sativum were able to inhibit LDL oxidation and increase the resistance of LDL against oxidation in vitro. The pattern of inhibition was in this order: Allium sativum >Allium ascalonicom>Allium cepa. This study showed that extract of Allium ascalonicom, Allium cepa and Allium sativum prevented the oxidation of LDL in vitro and it may suggest that they have the similar effect in vivo .


This longitudinal study examined consistency change in human personality. Rather tIsc..n studying the consistency of individual differsncL. uver time, an approach which considers only the stability of a variable at the group level and ignores differences in stability at an individual level, this study used a person-centered approach to study consistency over time of an individual's personality profile. Subjects were 100 individuals who participated in an experimental study in 1975, at 1 year of age. Personality descriptions were obtained at age 7, 10, 12 and 20 years. Measures included the California Child Q Set (California Q Set for age 20), the Symptom Checklist, the National Youth Survey, and a peer acceptance measure using sociometric procedures or a social network interview (age 20). Findings indicated that consisteKof personality is related to ego resiliency and to supportive relationships with peers. Resiliency and peer acceptance predicted later consistency of personality, and personality consistency predicted later resiliency and perceived peer support. Personality consistency as perceived by peers predicts later externalizing problems, especially violent behavior and excessive use of alcohol. Self-reported personality consistency predicted later internalizing problems, especially in the areas of sensitivity and distrust in personal relations and in feelings of hostility towards others. From a transactional perspective, results suggested that personality consistency from childhood to young adulthood is accompanied by social competence and by adequate social relationships. (Contains 19


An exhibition of living artworks shows off our biotechnological advances while challenging our lack of ease with tissue engineering, finds Muiris Houston


Few would disagree, but a generation later, the statement remains a prophecy rather than fact. Although 41,000 protein structures are known, there are none for which there is a complete description of the dynamics that is often key to understanding functional mechanism. Despite keen interest in protein dynamics, studies have remained the purview of computer simulation while the challenges of experimental characterization are only slowly being overcome. Methods, such as molecular dynamics, are based on sound chemical physics but require approximations for application to large biomolecular systems (Karplus and McCammon, 2002). With each new methodology, a tension has emerged between the desire to characterize uncharted systems and the fear of the unknown impact of inherent assumptions and approximations on the simulations' results. A firmer footing can be established by comparing computed and experimental results when possible (Karplus and McCammon, 2002). Until recently, experimental validations of normal mode calculations were largely qualitative. Since its introduction to biomolecules in the early 1980s, normal mode analysis (NMA) has allowed reduction in the dimensionality of simulations, and their extension to larger motions and longer timescales than hitherto accessible (Ma, 2005). NMA's simplifying assumptions are that, as a structure is perturbed from equilibrium, the energy increase is parabolic, and that atoms move within the structure as coupled harmonic oscillators. Solutions of the Hamiltonian (energy) equation yield normal mode vectors describing the directions of collective atomic motions, their amplitudes and frequencies—at least in principle. The molecule's dynamics can then be approximated by a sum of normal mode vibrations. Excitement was heightened with the finding that the directions of known conformational changes often correlate with the sum of a few dominant modes, suggesting that NMA might be predictive of not just small oscillations, but of functionally relevant conformational dynamics (Figure 1). NMA's application to large biomolecular systems requires crude approximations. Chief among these are elastic network model (ENM), and coarse-grained approximations that group several atoms into a single oscillator (Ma, 2005). In dynamics simulations, atoms are moved by forces calculated from the distortion of local stereochemistry. In ENM simplifications, the dependence of these forces on the types of atoms and chemical bonding is mostly ignored. With uncertainty as to the impact of the approximations, interpretations of NMA results have been largely qualitative, focusing on relative amplitudes and directions, but not frequencies. Three recent publications start to address these concerns through comparison of NMA to experimental B factors of known structures (Eyal et al., 2006; Hamacher and McCammon, 2006;


Abstract : Research concerns the development of analysis methods and their application to a class of adaptive control systems. The analysis of the slow system, it is observed, is relatively easy to perform, because of the nature of the system and because of the resulting simplifications which can be made. In the analysis of the fast system, however, these assumptions were not applicable, and, a new analysis method had to be devised. The analysis methods presented are adequately suited to this class of adaptive control systems with respect to specifying the nature of the error signal (the performance criterion). Once this error signal is specified, conventional techniques may be used to evaluate system stability and performance. (Author)


This subject already was studied by Rafael Serra Ruiz several years ago. Nevertheless, later some new sources have appeared. The Military Order of Saint John or Order of the Hospital obtained a small lordship in the kingdom of Murcia during the Thirteenth Century. The Order managed to preserve this lorship in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries. There was a Hospitaller commandery with its commander in the kingdom of Murcia from the Fourteenth Century. It was the commandery of Archena and Calasparra. The Order developed some military activities here. However, the Hospitaller work of settlement was much more important in the Fifteenth century.


Excessive drain of the working staffs brings about a series of negative impacts on the hotel management.Hence hotels should establish the man-oriented idea,help the staffs make development plan,strengthen the labor power,increase welfare and salary,cultivate business culture and arouse their curiosity in diversified ways.


Synthesizing relational queries from data is challenging in the presence of recursion and invented predicates. We propose a fully automated approach to synthesize such queries. Our approach comprises of two steps: it first synthesizes a non-recursive query consistent with the given data, and then identifies recursion schemes in it and thereby generalizes to arbitrary data. This generalization is achieved by an iterative predicate unification procedure which exploits the notion of data provenance to accelerate convergence. In each iteration of the procedure, a constraint solver proposes a candidate query, and a query evaluator checks if the proposed program is consistent with the given data. The data provenance for a failed query allows us to construct additional constraints for the constraint solver and refine the search. We have implemented our approach in a tool named Mobius. On a suite of 21 challenging recursive query synthesis tasks, Mobius outperforms three state-of-the-art baselines Gensynth, ILASP, and Popper, both in terms of runtime and accuracy. We also demonstrate that the synthesized queries generalize well to unseen data.


The electrorheological mechanism is elaborated from the basic physic al point of view in this paper, by analyzing the forces exerted on the electrorh eological particles. The development of electrorheological models and materials are summarized.


Australian researchers have used ANU status scales for over two decades to assign socioeconomic status scores to occupations coded into the occupational classifications produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). When the ABS has released new occupational classifications in the past, the ANU scale has been updated accordingly. The most recent status scale, the ANU3 scale, was developed in 1989 for use with the First Edition of the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO). In 1996, however, the ABS released the Second Edition of ASCO. In this paper, we report an adaptation of the ANU3 scale for use with this modified classification.


Epidermal lipoxygenase enzyme extracted from Ambystoma mexicanum (AmbLOXe) is known to accelerate the wound-healing process. AmbLOXe as a protein suffers from inactivation and losing its activity during formulation. Therefore, a delivery system that protects AmbLOXe from inactivation and preserves its activity is needed. We prepared AmbLOXe-loaded pectin nanoparticles (AmbLOXe Pec-NPs) and placed them into an alginate hydrogel. AmbLOXe Pec-NPs incorporation into the alginate hydrogel provides a means for controlled and sustained delivery of AmbLOXe to the wound site. Furthermore, the suitable swelling behavior and mechanical properties of AmbLOXe Pec-NPs alginate hydrogel make it feasible for clinical use. AmbLOXe Pec-NPs alginate hydrogel significantly enhanced the wound-healing process on the rat full-thickness excisional wounds, increased the rate of wound closure, enhanced the re-epithelialization and decreased the incidence of abnormal scarring. AmbLOXe Pec-NPs alginate hydrogel can be proposed as an effective wound hydrogel for improving wound healing with minimal scarring.


The formation of few polyhedra mutants during serial propagation of baculoviruses in cell culture encumbers commercial scale production in this system. A Lymantria dispar nuclear polyhedrosis virus (LdMNPV) variant (isolate A21-MPV) has been isolated and the traits of budded virus (BV) production, synthesis of polyhedra, the percentage of cells that produce polyhedra, and the formation of few polyhedra (FP) mutants were investigated during serial passage of the variant in L. dispar 652Y cells. Isolate A21-MPV exhibited stable levels of BV production and polyhedra production and a small increase in the percentage of cells that produced polyhedra during five serial passages in cell culture. In contrast, isolate A21, a wildtype isolate, exhibited a significant increase in BV production and a decrease in polyhedra production and in the number of cells that produced polyhedra during five serial passages. The traits exhibited by isolate A21 are typically observed when FP mutants are formed and become predominate in a virus population. After five serial passages, greater than 95% of isolate A21 virus exhibited a FP phenotype. In contrast, less than 8% of isolate A21-MPV exhibited a FP phenotype after five serial passages. These results indicate that isolate A21-MPV exhibits enhanced polyhedra production stability during serial passage in Ld652Y cells. Consequently, this isolate could be useful for large-scale production in cell culture systems. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc.


We did a pilot study in the month of July 2020 in Qazi Hussain Ahmed Medical complex Nowshera with aim to determine the gender protective role in term of production of neutralizing Anti SARS-COV-2 antibodies. A total of 39 COVID-19 patients with recovery were selected and their antibodies cut off values were measured by electro-chemiluminescence immunoassay using Roche Cobas E411 Chemistry Analyzer for which commercial kits of Roche diagnostics were used as per the instructions of the manufacturer. It was observed that Difference in mean post infection antibodies level was statistically significant with higher cut off values in patient who had symptoms at time of being reported positive by PCR as compared to patient who were asymptomatic (p-value:0.04). We predicted using Kaplan Meir that female gender the probability of survival as 70% in with cut off values of 100, while a vertical drop up to less than 20% probability of survival was predicted in male gender. Hence female gender produces higher level of antibodies in early infections to confer immunity in COVID-19.


A thorough history is needed due to the non-specific nature of this symptom. A calorie count may be helpful to assess the actual intake of food. Any weight loss that has occurred should be documented. Physical examination is often normal.


Background: Students are progressively creating fellow groups on social media for informal communication and learning. Students have groups for assistance, sharing and discussion. This research is carried out to explore the acceptance of fellow groups among students with the help of technology assessment model (TAM). Methods: Date was collected by the use of adepted questionnaire and elaborated by statistical methods with the help of SPSS 21. Results and conclusions: This Research model suggests that students are accepting evolvement of fellow groups in studies; perceived usefulness of groups and ease of use exhibit positive relationship towards attitude towards use. This research also identifies that perceived enjoyment of fellow groups strengthen the relationship of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and attitude towards use.


behind the tip of a gun held by a KLA fighter during a ceremony in Likosane, Kosovo, in February 1999. 8 The notion of 'gun culture' occasionally surfaces in the debate on small arms, particularly in connection with the issue of armed conflict. Although it lacks an established definition, the term is commonly used to denote a particular set of 'reasons' for the presence and use of small arms in a given society—reasons that go beyond the 'economic' or 'utili-tarian' needs of individuals and the dynamics of local or international markets. In this sense, 'gun culture' is used to indicate a given society's set of values, norms––both social and legal––and meanings that render the presence of firearms and their possession by private individuals acceptable and legitimate. For example, small arms possession among civilians—usually of firearms—can be seen as a symbol of status, of masculinity, or else, as a source of security where state structures are unable, or unwilling, to provide it. The media and other observers sometimes treat 'gun culture' as the very 'cause' of armed conflict. Some of their accounts present it as the main reason behind the widespread proliferation of small arms in a given society; in turn, this proliferation is blamed for the outburst of violence in areas that experience various forms of political instability. 1 In other reports, this three-step relationship is collapsed into a two-stage process in which 'gun culture' contributes directly to armed conflict. 2 In the latter, 'gun culture' is equated with a 'culture of violence', which can be defined as 'a system of formal or informal social norms and values which accept violence as a possible, normatively acceptable, and a potentially required form of behaviour and relationship between individuals' (Martín-Baró, 1983, p. 127). 'Gun culture' has also been identified as the main reason for the failure of post-conflict recovery programmes. 3 This approach has produced some simplistic, if not patronizing, conclusions. For example, referring to the difficulties encountered by NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) in post-conflict demilitarization efforts, one commentator stated that '[t]he easy availability of weapons in Kosovo means that not just ethnic tensions, but everything from bar fights to business disputes is solved with a gun' (Farnam, 2003). A local observer echoed these words: In this part of the world, there is a strong belief in customary law which means an eye for an eye…. It is commendable that KFOR is …


Objectives: To determine if in patients evaluated by hyperkalemia in a nephrology service the combination ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blocker with spironolactone was present and what consequences it had on the group of identified patients. Design: Study of retrospective, prospective, observational and descriptive type. Place: Renal Unit STR (Service of Renal Therapy) of Caldas, Hospital Santa Sofia, Manizales. Population: All the patients interconsulted to the Service of Renal Therapy of Caldas to present hyperkalemia. Materials: The clinical histories of the patients interconsulted to the STR of Caldas were revised initially retrospectively and then prospectively because they present hyperkalemia, the next step was to proceed to discard those patients that presented illness renal chronic stadium 4 and 5, next the ones that had been receiving the combination ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blocker with spironolactone were identified, their evolution, complications and predisposition factors were established. Results: 17 patients fulfilled the requirements for this work, 8 males and 9 females, mean age 65 years, 7 presented diabetes mellitus and 10 presented essential hypertension, 12 patients had cardiac illness of some type, 2 with base nephropathy (diabetic and hypertensive), 3 with rheumatologic disease and 1 with cirrhosis, among the factors that predispose to hyperkalemia, the following were detected: sharp decrease of renal perfusion in 5, active infection in 3, sharp obstructive nephropathy in one, and a new medication that affected renal secretion of potassium in two. Ten patients required hospitalization in the intensive care unit, with an average time of hospitalization of 7 days. 12 patients required hemodialysis and 5 died in the first 24 hours due to refractory shock because of therapies with vasoconstrictors and inotropic drugs. The concomitant use of medications that inhibited the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone axis was very frequent. Conclusions: The indiscriminate use of the combination of ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blocker with spironolactone is not safe; it has precise indications in cardiology and nephrology; in all patients it is indispensable to determine their renal function, heart failure's state, base illness and medications that they receive, before starting with the treatment. It is necessary to be attentive in detecting any factor that affects the renal perfusion or the renal elimination of potassium, in which case you should adjust the dose of these medications.


Abstract- The present paper presents the production of bio-diesel from algal biomass collected from Solani aqua duct in Roorkee. The identification of algal sample shows the presence of Hydrodictyon recticulatum (L) Lagerheium with few vegetative filaments of ulotrichalean strain in it. The algal biomass contains about 14.47 wt % of lipid. The algal biomass was collected from Solani aqua duct and washed several times with water and dried on sunlight for three days then the algal-oil was extracted from pulverized biomass (100-125 µm particles).The most suitable conditions for the extraction of bio-oil using ultrasonic technique were found to be solvent to biomass ratio of 6, extraction time of 50 min. and amplitude percentage of 70% at 0.6 cycle/sec. Under these conditions around 51% of oil/lipid in the algal cells was extracted. The produced bio-oil was upgraded to biodiesel by transesterification using CH 3 ONa as catalyst. The catalyst shows ~ 80 % conversion of bio-oil to bio diesel. A comparison of ultrasonic extraction and Soxhlet extraction showed that ultrasonic extraction provides higher extraction efficiency with shorter extraction time.


The effect of individual collectors shadowing one another on the performance of a solar collector matrix was studied. Hourly and seasonal variations of the solar input are considered. In the analysis, the shadows of the i th collector by its three nearest collector to the east, southeast and south in the period before solar noon is reviewed. The coordinate system for the i th collector refers to a system that is fixed to the earth's surface. A modified axial temperature differential analysis was used to obtain the energy extraction rate and the collector fluid temperature rise for a typical flat plate collector (9' x 12'). The collector field is assumed to be located in Albuquerque, N.M.. It was generally found that the output decreases with increasing tilt angle. Shadowing for a 9' x 12' spacing is greatest at 45/sup 0/ tilt. The maximum output occurs at noon June 21, using that particular data. Moderate degradation occurs at the collector tilt of 35/sup 0/ and almost none at all for 25/sup 0/ except at noon. Results show that shadowing plays an important role in the spacing and sizing of collector fields.


Chapter 44 discusses osteoarthritis (OA) of the upper and lower extremity joints. Imaging plays an increasingly important role in understanding the disease process of OA of the upper and lower extremities. Radiography is the gold standard in OA imaging and is used for establishing the diagnosis and grading disease severity. Radiography can visualize features of OA, such as osteophytes and joint-space narrowing. MRI can image all relevant osseous and soft tissues within the joints and enables visualization of cartilage morphology and composition.


Effect of induction hardening on corrosion fatigue properties of steels is studied, especially in respect to the recent development of high tension steels.Specimens, such as in Fig. 1, made of four kinds of steels as in Tables 1 and 2, are induction-hardened as shown in Table 3, and tested on rotary bending fatigue testing machines (1500rpm) in the mist of well water (as in Table 4) in the chambers shown in Fig. 2.Results of corrosion fatigue tests are shown in Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6, and Fig. 8 inclusively. As shown in these figures, the corrosion fatigue strength of any hardened steel is higher than the fatigue limit in air of non-hardened steel, accordingly this induction hardening being a superior protection against corrosion fatigue. Especially, the strength of S 45 C steel for 107 cycles is as high as 50kg/mm2 and this stress level looks like a fatigue limit. This property is believed to be one of the highest of the steels suffered with corrosion fatigue that have ever been reported.As well known, the metallurgical improvement of quality of steel by ordinary quenching does not contribute by itself to improve corrosion fatigue strength. For example, as shown in Fig. 7, the rail steel, induction-heated but quenched in oil at 25°C, is very weak under corrosion fatigue conditions. (cf. Fig. 6)As shown in Fig. 9, on the surface of induction-hardened specimens after corrosion fatigue tests, there are many lines of corrosion products rising along the periphery of specimen (perpendicular to the direction of stress). And the fracture surfaces of induction-hardened specimens, Fig. 10 (a) and (b), appear to be flat plane with shallow cracks on their edges, and that of non-induction-hardened, (c) and (d), appear to be the cutter-like fracture surface. From these facts, induction hardening can not prevent the initiation of corrosion fatigue cracks, but can arrest their further propagation near the surface of specimens. It is supposed that this crack-propagation-arresting ability mainly attributes to the compressive residual stress near the surface of specimens that has withstood many repetitions of stresses. For better understanding, the effect of mean stress on the corrosion fatigue strength of high carbon steel for some given cycles is shown in Fig. 11. As shown in this figure, time strength diagrams for corrosion fatigue are also limited by the fatigue limit in air. Also in this respect, induction-hardened steels have excellent properties as well known.


The purpose of this paper is to show how linear programming methodology can help us to design Bonus-Malus premium scales with some interesting theoretical and practical attributes. Examples of these properties are the financial equilibrium of the system, the monotonicity and proper variability of the premium scale, and the improvement of some efficiency measures such as the RSAL and the elasticity of the system. We will conclude that the use of the linear programming methodology makes possible a high degree of interaction between the designer and the mathematical model.


Nowadays, continuous sampling data have been widely used in the research field. However, many unpredictable distortion data points, caused by varying reasons, appear in the raw data randomly. Therefore, removing distortion data points are obligatory for raw data processing. The conventional method is the artificial recognition method, which has serious problems when applied to large volumes of data. Another way is the filtering method, which is limited by application conditions, has a bad influence on valid data what people do not expect. In this paper, we proposed an effective interpolation method to remove the distortion point. This method based on the assumption that changes between adjacent points in continuous sampling data are limited. The distortions can be recognized from the magnitude and the change rate and removed. At last, the polynomial interpolation method is used to obtain the final result. Such method has been used in the preprocessing of aeromagnetic data and gets a good result.


It is known from the scattering theory that the phase-shift of elastic collision does not provide a unique potential to describe the bound state of the two-particle system. The bound state wave function is the most crucial input for various nuclear processes bearing astrophysical significance. In this paper, we emphasize on the important role of the asymptotic normalization coefficients for description of the $^{13}\rm{N}\longrightarrow {^{13}\rm{C}}+\beta^++\nu_e$ reaction. Using experimental data of the elastic scattering phase-shift of proton and neutron on $^{12}\rm{C}$ nucleus, we find the asymptotic normalization coefficients which determine the tail of bound state wave function. This allows us to correctly calculate the wave functions of $^{13}\rm{N}$ and $^{13}\rm{C}$ nuclei within the cluster model approach. These wave functions are applied to determine the nuclear matrix element for calculation of the ${\rm log} ft$ values and half-life of $\beta^+$ decay of $^{13}\rm{N}$. Using the extracted values of the asymptotic normalization coefficients we conclude that the calculated log{\it ft} and half-life values of $\beta^+$ decay of $^{13}\rm{N}$ may be bigger and smaller than the experimental results, respectively.


In this poster, two major strategies for sampling phenomena with high rate of spatiotemporal variation, namely, multiscale sampling and adaptive sampling, are presented. Multiscale sampling is based on the hypothesis that a combination of sparse sensing along with auxiliary multiscale/multimode sensing will yield accuracy approaching exhaustive sampling. Adaptive sampling is a feature based sampling technique. Algorithms and simulation results for both techniques are demonstrated.


A report on the development and implementation of the Teaching English Language Learners (TELLs) certificate program at Miami University, in Oxford Ohio.


Effect of potassium titanate whiskers on the mechanical and tribological properties of glass/epoxy composite systems has been investigated experimentally. Composite laminates were prepared by hand lay-up technique followed by vacuum bagging by varying the percentage of potassium titanate whiskers addition. Mechanical properties of the developed composites were evaluated as per ASTM standards. Tribological tests were conducted under dry sliding conditions on a pin on disc test rig. The tests results indicated that addition of the potassium titanate whiskers has significant effect on the properties of glass/epoxy composites. Density, hardness, stiffness properties, friction coefficient and wear resistance of the composites were found to improve with the potassium titanate whiskers loading. However, strength properties of the glass epoxy composites were found to reduce with whisker content. The mode of failure after the tensile tests and worn surface of some selected samples were studied using scanning electron microscope.


Nine cyclic β-keto esters such as (I) are treated with potassium tert-butoxide in DMSO to give the corresponding ring-enlarged products, e.g. (II), via intramolecular aldol condensation followed by retro-aldol cleavage.


This paper describes the Universal Interaction Controller (UIC), a user interface framework and device designed to support interactions in ubiquitous computing environments, and the in-situ visualisation of ambient information in environments equipped with multiple heterogeneous displays. We describe the device and the infrastructure we have created to support it. We present the use of augmented reality to display information that is outside the bounds of traditional display surfaces.


In this study, the distributions of Ni+, Pb2+ and Cd2+ species during the co-composting of sewage sludge with fly ash (FA), steel slag (SS) and their mixtures were examined to evaluate how these additives influence the bioavailability of heavy metals. The results indicated that the optimum addition was FA-SS1.5 (or FA: SS = 1.5, w/w), which had the best passivation on Ni+, Pb2+ and Cd2+. Co-composting with FA or SS was effective to reduce Cd migration, while their mixtures considerably passivated Ni and Pb. Finally, 18d was the best time to obtain the best passivation effect on heavy metals.


2 Introduction 4 Materials / Methods 8 Description of Study Sites 8 Field Sampling 8 Enumeration of Micro-organisms 9 Viruses and Bacteria 9 Water Column Virus and Bacteria Enumeration 9 Benthic Virus and Bacteria Enumeration 10 Electron Microscopy of Viruses 11 Microalgae 11 Microalgal Pigments 12 Chemical and Physical Parameters 12 Nutrient Analyses 12 Salinity 12 Filterable Suspended Solids 12 Virus Production 13 Virus Concentrate Experiments 13 Preparation of High Molecular Weight Concentrate 13 In Situ Benthic Microalgae Experiments 14 Aquaria Benthic Microalgae Experiments 14 Phytoplankton Experiments 15 Statistical Analyses 16 Results 17 Characteristics of Nutrient and Salinity Gradients 17 Distribution of Viruses, Bacteria and Microalgae 17 Correlations Between Virus Abundance and Biotic / Abiotic Parameters 19 Virus Production 20 Effects of Virus Enrichment on Benthic Microalgae Along Eutrophication Gradients 20 Effects of Virus Enrichment on Phytoplanton Along Eutrophication Gradients 22 Discussion 23 Distribution of Microbial Communities along Eutrophication Gradients 23 Benthic Virus Abundance and Distribution 23 Pelagic Virus Abundance and Productivity 24 Interaction Between Pelagic and Benthic Virus Communities 25 Potential Hosts of Viruses 26 Potential Underestimation of Virus Abundance 27 Effects of Viruses on Hosts in the Brisbane River and Moreton Bay 28 Physiological Effects of Viruses on Benthic Microalgae 28 Ecological Effects of Viruses on Benthic Microalgae 29 Effects of Viruses on Phytoplankton 31 Comparison of Virus Infection in Eutrophic and Oligotrophic Microalgae 31 Ecological Significance of Viral Infection in Sediments And Water Column 32 Acknowledgements 33 Tables 34 Figures 41 Appendices 55 References 63


To research the influence of longitudinal impact on stability and comfort index,coupled EMUs model was built,and traction force,braking force and basic resistance were applied to the dynamic model by co-simulation for simulating the EMUs longitudinal impact.Results showed that:influence of longitudinal force on the comfort could not be ignored,and because of longitudinal force,longitudinal comfort index increased by 200.75% maximum,stability index could not reflect the influence of longitudinal force on EMUs operation quality.


Character education is an attempt to build the character of the Indonesian nation based on the values of Pancasila. Pancasila is the whole view, ideals and beliefs of the Indonesian nation. Pancasila as an ideology is established from the spiritual, moral, and cultural wealth of Indonesian society and comes from the nation's view of life. Therefore, Pancasila should be used as a guide for Indonesian nation's life. Furthermore, nation's character education must be built based on Pancasila, not other sources such as Religion, Culture, and goal of National Education because Religion, Culture and goal of National education are part of Pancasila. Keywords— pancasila; education character; national education


WHEN THE TECHNOLOGY managers at Windsor C-1 School District in Missouri began looking for a viable way to expand their district's 1-to-1 computing program to every student in the district, their first idea proved to be their best. "The first thought we had was, maybe we should be looking at a handheld solution," says the district's technology director, Jason Roussin. "We did a lot of research on the Palm [www.palm.com] device and the programs it supports, and it just seemed to be the right answer. We wanted to try something new and different and get technology into students' hands, literally." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It was going to take something new and different for Windsor to complete its effort to equip each of its 3,000 students with a computer, a goal it was attempting to carry out with laptops and desktops, but was finding hard to sustain amid increasingly tight budgetary constraints. Located in an unincorporated area of northern Jefferson County, roughly 25 miles south of St. Louis, Windsor is a bedroom community made up of several small towns and subdivisions. The district includes three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Working with technology supplier CDW-G (www.cdwg.com), and consulting with a neighboring school district that already had a Palm-based classroom handheld program in place, Windsor decided on a solution that combined Palm TX handheld computing devices with mobile PolyVision (www.polyvision.com) interactive whiteboards. The handhelds link to the interactive whiteboards wirelessly. The district also purchased attachable, standard-sized keyboards that were designed specifally for the Palm. "We saw that Jennings School District in north St. Louis was using Palms in its classrooms, and we built off of that idea and developed it into a 1-to-1 program," says Roussin. "CDW-G offered us great pricing and a quick turnaround, making the order-ship-receive process seamless." Windsor's technology department purchased the devices in the summer of 2007, but waited until about six months later to implement them. "We wanted to take the time to sort out our program and work out any bugs," says William Brooks, instructional technology specialist for the district. The district has deployed 350 Palm TX units among 11 high school classrooms. Each device can access the internet wirelessly; all five of Windsor's school buildings are WiFi-enabled. When the devices are not in use, they're stored in a charging station cart. With the addition of the handhelds to its existing computing equipment, the district has now achieved a full 1-to-1 implementation: Every student in the district has use of a computer of one kind or another and internet access. The cost savings were considerable. A single 24-unit laptop cart runs around $55,000, not including the cost of software and upgrades. For 350 Palm TXs, 11 charging carts, and attachable keyboards, the district paid less than $200,000. Another cost-saver: downloadable freeware educational programs aimed at Palm devices. Roussin says the district is currently using 32 freeware programs on the handhelds, including math tutorials, calculator applications, writing programs, and chemistry tables. Windsor's move away from a standard laptop-based 1-to-1 program to one reliant on handhelds was motivated by more than cost, however. The idea of using handheld devices meshed with the district's desire to begin making the shift toward a more mobile classroom environment with interactive and portable technology. Brooks cites other advantages: The handhelds require less upkeep than laptops ("Less things to break on a handheld," he says), and the simplicity of the updates and imaging required by the devices is much more manageable. And the district was able to link the Palms to its AIMSweb (www.aimsweb.com) online student assessment system to facilitate progress monitoring for at-risk students and to track students' remediation and learning progress. …


Forest fires affect significant areas of the Portuguese forest annually, depending upon seasonal moisture and temperature conditions. Although a large percentage of those fires are not originated by natural causes, there is still a need to develop an effective and timely warning system for fire-prevention. The combination of Earth observation (EO) information with ancillary data of natural parameters for daily monitoring of fire risk, which is allowed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS), offers an appropriate response to that need. The PREMFIRE project was funded by the European Spatial Agency (ESA) for the selection and implementation of the most adequate method for production of fire risk maps for Portugal. The project aims at building a wireless system, enabling its use by fire prevention services in the field with real-time or near real-time exchange of data. We present a methodology to produce fire risk maps using satellite imagery and ancillary data. The approach combines a detailed land cover map and other spatial data sets with vegetation greenness maps and meteorological information to produce a fire potential index map. The vegetation greenness is characterized using NDVI 10-day composites derived from NOOA AVHRR imagery. This methodology is being tested in central Portugal yielding encouraging results.


The sensitivity of trypanosome isolates from naturally infected pigs in Enugu North Senatorial Zone was evaluated in mice at two dose levels each of diminazene aceturate (7 and 28 mg/kg body weight) and isometamidium chloride (0.25 and 2 mg/kg) using the infection and treatment methods. Multiple drug resistance was prevalent in the trypanosome isolates, as all 18 isolates (16 T. brucei and 2 T. congolense) tested were resistant to both diminazene aceturate (7 mg/kg b.w) and isometamidium chloride (0.25 mg/ kg b.w,), at the low dose levels tested. Sixteen of the isolates resisted the high dose levels of diminazene aceturate (28 mg/kg b.w), while six isolates were resistant to isometamidium chloride (2 mg/kg b.w). It was concluded that trypanosome isolates from pigs in the study area exhibited resistance to both diminazene aceturate and isometamidium chloride, the two most commonly used trypanocides in the area. This phenomenon constitutes serious threat to chemotherapeutic control of swine trypanosomosis in particular and animal trypanosomosis in general in Enugu North Senatorial Zone.


In a survey that included one million pacemakers, pacemaker replacement accounted for 26% of total implants.1 Moreover, in a prospective study, pulse generators were replaced due to normal battery depletion in 87% of the time, with the average pulse generator being implanted for amean of 7 years.2 Generator replacementwas found to be themost frequent surgical reintervention (56%) after primary pacemaker implantation in patients who survived at least 20-30 years.3 When pacemaker batteries are depleted, different pacemaker manufacturers installed automatic reprogramming features to extend battery life before replacement. Reprogramming of the rate response, AV synchrony, and lower rate limit may occur depending on the device manufacturer.4–6 Adverse events have been reported to be associated with the need for battery replacement. Syncope and near-syncope were reported tobe themost frequent symptoms.2 Also, another study by Sinha et al. highlighted the association between automatic reprogramming at replacement notification and increased cardiorespiratory symptoms and adverse clinical events. These cardiorespiratory symptoms and adverse clinical events were found to be associated with loss of rate response and loss of AV synchrony, which are present in some models that undergo automatic reprogramming.7 Most manufacturers decrease the lower rate limit when reprogramming occurs.4 When Abbot's, Biotronik's, and Medtronic's pacemakers are automatically reprogrammed, the lower rate decreases by 10%, 11%, and to 65 bpm, respectively.4,5 Hence, the new pacing rate is no longer a multiple of 10 in patients with one of these brands installed, having reached battery depletion requiring automatic reprogramming. These findings led Carlson et al. to present an analysis of simple ECG criteria to predict pacemaker battery depletion based on the occurrence of automatic reprogramming. Carlson et al.'s two ECG prediction rules for pacemaker battery depletion that are relevant to all major pacemaker manufacturers except Boston Scientific and MicroPort are: (a) atrial pacing not at a multiple of 10 and (b) nonsynchronous ventricular pacing not at a multiple of 10. The "Rule of Ten" does notworkwith amanufacturerwhose replacement notification does not alter pacing mode or lower pacing rate (Boston Scientific), a manufacturer whose automatic reprogramming results in a lower pacing rate that is a multiple of 10 (MicroPort, formerly LivaNova, Shanghai, China—where the lower rate limit is set to 70, a multiple of 10), and specific models of other manufacturers known to not utilize the automatic reprogramming feature, such as Medtronic AT 501 dual-chamber pacemaker. Conversely, the "Rule of Ten" would provide high sensitivity and specificity in a study population with a preponderance of pacemakers manufactured by Abbott, Biotronik, or Medtronic in which automatic reprogramming of the lower pacing rate to a rate not a multiple of 10 is expected following replacement notification.5 The proposed ECG predictors are capable of informing the nonspecialized physician about patient's battery status, a feature that puts the patient at an increased risk of adverse events and cardiorespiratory symptoms. Carlson et al. studied the specificity and sensitivity of using an ECG to detect patientswhose pacemakers had undergone automatic reprogramming without further knowledge about the pacemaker. They initially included patients who required pacemaker generator replacement, excluded duplicate patients, pacemakers that had reached the end of life or power-on reset, and those in which no automatic reprogramming occurred. They further divided their patients into those without pacing or atrial synchronous ventricular pacing (a group in which "the Rule of Ten" cannot be used), a second group with atrial or AV sequential pacing, and a third group with nonsynchronous ventricular pacing. The "Rule of Ten" looks into whether atrial, AV sequential pacing, or nonsynchronous ventricular pacing is at a multiple of 10. These patients were used to measure the sensitivity of this algorithm. The specificity of this algorithm was measured using the same set of patients, however, after undergoing generator replacement. The resulting sensitivity was 79.0%, and the specificity was 92.6%. The false-positive rate was due to activation of rate responsive programming.5 The proposed ECG predictors do not not take into account the knowledge the physician may have about the pacemaker. Such knowledge includes the date of implantation, manufacturer, model, clinical symptoms, and last interrogation parameters for example. If the pacemaker's manufacturer is known, the false-negative rate is decreased and the ECG predictors' sensitivity is increased. The pacemaker's manufacturer is known using the patients' pacemaker card that should be held by patients or possibly through the patient's medical records, if available. The "Rule of Ten" has limitations that should be taken into account during ECG interpretation. The ECG predictors take advantage of setting the pacing rate initially to be a multiple of 10, which might not be followed by all physicians. Another limitation with the use of the ECG predictors is with patients without pacing or with synchronous AV pacing. However, the clinical impact of automatic reprogramming in this subset of patients was observed to be minimal.5 Parsonnet and Cheema reported thatmost patients do not outlive their pacemakers.3 This would limit the utility of the "Rule of Ten" by decreasing the population with potential benefits. Furthermore, the main benefit of the "Rule of Ten" is in areas where access to device interrogation is


A novel N-bromosuccinimide induced aminocyclization-aziridine ring expansion cascade is reported. Substituted azepanes were isolated exclusively in good yields. The azepane products could be transformed into a number of functional molecules including piperidines, a bicyclic amine, and a bridgehead amide.


[1] We analyze data from 17 high-resolution thermosonde observations during a campaign near Adelaide, Australia, in 1998. We are able to explain the observed turbulence fractions by extending the turbulence model of Hines [1991], which explains turbulence by instabilities due to freely propagating independent gravity waves, from the hydrostatic wave regime toward lower frequencies. In a Monte Carlo simulation we show that the dependency of the observed gravity wave spectrum on vertical wave number is also consistent with the distribution of turbulent layer thickness as observed by the high-resolution thermosondes.


In 2013, Scotland's National Older People's Oral Health Improvement Group launched a guide to help care homes improve the oral health services they provide residents. Sheila Welsh explains why care homes in Scotland and the UK need to make this a priority


We develop new heuristics and an exact algorithm for calculating the amount of hybridization between two rooted binary phylogenetic trees. Calculating the minimum number of hybridization events is NP-hard, but essential to understanding the modeling of reticulation processes such as hybridization, horizontal gene transfer, and recombination. We give new lower bounds for the hybridization number that are very useful in limiting search times for exact answers and in conjunction with existing upper bounds to "sandwich" the true answer. We analyze the algorithms experimentally on both biological and simulated data.


Going concerns of business empires is predicated on the externality effect of environmental contingencies that influence the decisions of capital users. And the capability of capital users to circumnavigate both macro and micro environmental contingencies which cumulate to shareholders' wealth maximization is crucial. Hence, the study aims of dissecting effect of macro and micro environmental contingences on the capital structure and firm performance. Generalized Method Moment (GMM) statistical tool is used to dissect perceived association amidst endogenous and exogenous variables. The results show that micro contingences such debt to equity, debt to assets and short-term liability have negative and statistically significant on firm performance and long-term debt to equity has positive and statistically significant influence on the firm performance. On the other side macro contingences such as lending interest rate, foreign exchange rate, and gross domestic products have negative and statistically influence on the performance of the firm while, inflation rate, foreign direct investment and fuel importation have positive and statistically impact of the performance. The dynamism of result also reveals of short run and long run consequence. Therefore, the study concludes due to mutuality or interdependency of both micro and macro environmental contingencies, they have impacted on the capital structure and performance of listed companies under the purview of this study. This shows that capital managers are not insusceptible by their controllability and capability of micro contingencies (capital structure/ internal forces) but, rather the macro/external contingencies have inroad to impacted the micro /internal forces directly or indirectly.


The effects of the antiandrogen Flutamide (FL) on human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) induced ov~lation was studied. hCG, given 75 h after pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin (PMSG), induced ovulation in 77% of the rats with an ovulation rate of 9.9 ~ 1.3 ova/ovulating rat. In the non-ovulatory follicles, the cumulus oophorus was dispersed and the ova had resumed meiosis. FL treatment, given J h prior to hCG, reduced the ovulation rate oy 50% (p c:. 0. 05) and prevented cumulus dispersement and ova rna turation (p ~ 0. 05) . In a subsequent study, 16 PL'IISGprimed rats were pretreated with FL and autopsied 8 h after hCG. One ovary was then assayed for steroid content, while the other ovary was used for the histochemical localization of ~5 JB-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (JBHSD). In the ovaries of control and FL-treated rats, hCG reduced estradiol content, did not alter testosterone content, and increased progesterone content (p < 0. 05). However, FL blocked the hCG-induced appearance of JB-HSD activity in the granulosa cells of many preovulatory follicles which could result in a local decrease in progesterone. Thus, androgens, presumably synthesi~ed in the theca interna in response to hCG, may play an i~portant role in the process of follicular rupture and ova maturation. The mechanism by which androgens affect these


In previously published articles about health in the North it was reported that average levels of arterial blood pressure in natives of Chukotka were lower than in residents of Middle Russia and southern regions of the country [1,2]. Native coastal population of Chukotka was investigated 3 times (1983, 1991, 2002) during the expeditions of scientists to Chukotka. The investigation was cross-sectional. Arterial blood pressure was measured twice, the results were standardized according to age and body mass index. Average indices of systolic arterial and pulse arterial pressure were 2 times lower in men then in women. With age, especially to 55-64 years of age, both men and women had a little higher indices than in their younger years. When comparing the results of the 1st (1983), 2d (1991) and 3d (2002) surveys it was marked that average indices of systolic arterial blood pressure and diastolic arterial blood pressure decreased in all the investigated groups. Per cent of patients with arterial hypertension ( ≥ 140/90) also decreased: from 46 to 5 % in men, from 41 to 13 % in women. We consider such a dynamics as the results of objective revealing and treatment of patients with arterial hypertension. Thus, in 1983 only some patients were treated with hypertension drugs, in 1991 about 4 % of patients were treated, and in 2002 -10 % of patients were treated.


We calculate the valley degeneracy (gv) dependence of the many-body renormalization of quasiparticle properties in multivalley 2D semiconductor structures due to the Coulomb interaction between the carriers. Quite unexpectedly, the gv dependence of many-body effects is nontrivial and nongeneric, and depends qualitatively on the specific Fermi liquid property under consideration. While the interacting 2D compressibility manifests monotonically increasing many-body renormalization with increasing gv, the 2D spin susceptibility exhibits an interesting non-monotonic gv dependence with the susceptibility increasing (decreasing) with gv for smaller (larger) values of gv with the renormalization effect peaking around gv ∼ 1−2. Our theoretical results provide a clear conceptual understanding of recent valley-dependent 2D susceptibility measurements in AlAs quantum wells.


In terms of writing psychology,in the course of writing The Records of the Historian,Sima Qian was always struggling hard in the dilemma between rational reasoning and passional excitement.He managed to embody his strong longing for official rank in his selection and portrayal of characters.The Records of the Historian presents not only the author's lofty style of recording facts but his conscious artistic psychology in writing history.Therefore,The Records of the Historian remains as a clear-cut evidence of Sima Qian's great personality and high value of life and can be taken as a perfect combination of social epic and mental epic.


Components being a part of recycle stream of para-tert -butylphenol production were identified with chromatography-mass spectrometry and chemical method. It was proved that their structure belongs to alkylphenol with side chain consisting of 8 and 12 carbon atom. It was founded that positional isomers of (1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenol and 1,1,3,3,5,5-hexamethylhexylphenol have the greatest relative concentration in recycle stream.


We show theoretically that the purely repulsive screened-Coulomb (or Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-
Overbeek) interaction between charged colloidal particles is compatible with gas-liquid, gas-solid,
and solid-solid coexistence in colloidal suspensions of low ionic strength of about 1026 molyliter.
This finding may partially resolve the ongoing debate on attractions between like-charged particles.


In this paper, the motion of the n-vortex system as it collapses to a point in finite time is studied. The motion of vortices is described by the set of ordinary differential equations that we are able to solve analytically. The explicit formula for the solution demands the initial location of collapsing vortices. To find the collapsing locations of vortices, the algebraic, nonlinear system of equations was built. The solution of that algebraic system was obtained using Newton's procedure. A good initial iterate needs to be provided to succeed in the application of Newton's procedure. An unconstrained Leverber–Marquart optimization procedure was used to find such a good initial iterate. The numerical studies were conducted, and numerical evidence was presented that if in a collapsing system n=50 point vortices include a few vortices with much greater intensities than the others in the set, the vortices with weaker intensities organize themselves onto the vortex sheet. The collapsing locations depend on the value of the Hamiltonian. By changing the Hamiltonian values in a specific interval, the collapsing curves can be obtained. All points on the collapse curves with the same Hamiltonian value represent one collapsing system of vortices. To show the properties of vortex sheets created by vortices, the passive tracers were used. Advection of tracers by the velocity induced by vortices was calculated by solving the proper differential equations. The vortex sheets are an impermeable barrier to inward and outward fluxes of tracers. Arising vortex structures are able to transport the passive tracers. In this paper, several examples showing the diversity of collapsing structures with the vortex sheet are presented. The collapsing phenomenon of many vortices, their ability to self organize and the transportation of the passive tracers are novelties in the context of point vortex dynamics.


The exercise of a power held in a fiduciary capacity can be open to challenge in court. In Mazzoleni v Summerhill Trust Company (Isle of Man) Limited (2021) 2DS 2021/3 the Isle of Man High Court tackled the decision by a conflicted trustee not to appoint a protector who might have overseen its decisions. Was a trustee bound to appoint a protector in any case? And could a trustee be compelled to exercise a power to appoint a protector—even if the terms of the power were not mandatory?


PURPOSE: To efficiently monitor a display screen event by monitoring the input and output of an application tool by an interface program, and displaying a prescribed event when it is generated in a prescribed area. CONSTITUTION: This computer aid software engineering(CASE) system is provided with a program editor 10, a program builder 12, a program debugger 14, a static analyzer 16, and a set of program developing tools including a tool management program 18 and a development management program 20. Also, this is provided with application tools 22 and 26 controlled by capsule seals 24 and 28 being interface programs. Then, the capsule seals 24 and 28 monitor the inputs and outputs of the application tools 22 and 26, and generate trigger when a prescribed application tool event is generated in the prescribed area of a display screen. This trigger indicates the generation of the application event in the prescribed area.


Preschool children with multiple articulation disorders are often referred to school speech-language clinicians to be served within the constraints of itinerant service delivery programs. Although ...


The 'Initiative for Capacity Enhancement in South Sudan' was established by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) for implementation in 2011 and onwards. The initiative is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It will deploy 200 coaches and mentors to South Sudan from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to coach and mentor South Sudanese civil servants to strengthen governance capacity. The initiative is an attempt to address the enormous capacity gaps in South Sudan while accommodating calls for culturally and technically appropriate capacity, local ownership and regional cooperation.


This paper* focuses on something that by many Christians has been considered to be a manifestation of intolerance towards them and an action limiting their religious freedom, where the law itself is identified as the very source of intolerance. Even though, it is the same law that protects human rights and that has been designed to serve as the means of preventing religious intolerance. Soile Lautsi, an Italian citizen of Finnish origin, filed a case on 27 July 2006 with the European Court of Human Rights, in her own name and on her children's behalf against the Republic of Italy. She challenged the practice of placing crucifixes in the classrooms of Italy's state school attended by her children as contrary to the principle of secularism, according to which she intended to bring up her children. In her view, this practice violated her right to raise and teach her children according to her own religious and philosophical (moral)


Chronic kidney disease (CKD) significantly alters the pharmacokinetics of drugs, which in practice complicates the selection of adequate anticoagulant therapy (ACT) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and CKD. At the same time, in the vast majority of patients with AF and CKD, ACT is required to prevent life-threatening thromboembolic complications. In such an environment, maintaining a balance between the effectiveness and safety of ACTs is extremely important.
 Aim is evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the use of direct oral anticoagulants (OAC) in CKD stages 1-3 in combination with AF.

 The study included 93 patients (38 men and 55 women) aged 41 to 86 years with CKD stages 1-3 and AF receiving therapy with OAC (rivaroxaban) and vitamin K antagonists (warfarin). The observation period was 12 months.

 An analysis of 75 patients with CKD of various stages and AF receiving rivaroxaban was performed, the control group consisted of 18 patients taking warfarin. The average CHA2 DS2-VASc score in the OAC group was 4.1±1.8 points, in the warfarin group - 4.2±1.3 points. There were also no significant differences between the groups in terms of the average score on the HAS-BLED scale (risk of developing hemorrhagic complications): 2.3±0.94 points in the OAC group, 2.5±0.6 points in the warfarin group. Among the comorbidities in the OAC group, 93.2% of patients had arterial hypertension (AH), 24.5% had type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM); in the warfarin group, 94.3% of patients had hypertension and 16.8% had type 2 diabetes. In 23.9% of patients in the OAC group, minor bleeding was recorded. The largest number of hemorrhagic complications occurred in patients with stage 3 CKD: 18.9% of bleeding, which significantly (p<0.05) exceeds the number of bleeding in patients with a more pronounced decrease in renal function. In 33.3% of patients with diabetes, hemorrhagic complications were recorded, which is significantly (p<0.05) more than in the group of patients without diabetes - 21.4%. The greater number of hemorrhagic complications is most likely due to a more pronounced progression of the decline in renal function compared with patients without diabetes: 71.4% of patients with diabetes showed a decrease in GFR by an average of 16.6 ml/min/1.73 m2 for 12 months, which is significantly more (p<0.05) than in patients without diabetes (an average of 5.7 ml/min/1.73 m2).

 In patients with CKD stages 1-3 with non-valvular AF, the use of OAC is most effective and safe in preventing thromboembolic complications. At the same time, the progression of CKD against the background of diabetes when taking anticoagulants occurs faster than in its absence, regardless of the specific anticoagulant. Patients with AF, DM and CKD are more likely to have hemorrhagic complications, which requires more frequent monitoring and monitoring of the functional state of the kidneys.


Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Conflicts of interest 2. Competent and zealous representation 3. Confidentiality 4. The ethics of alternative dispute resolution in child custody and dependency proceedings 5. Ethical considerations and constraints in child custody and dependency appeals 6. The constitutionality of legislative and executive regulation of the practice of law and defining the attorney/client relationship.


The mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb) BMA031 (IgG2b) has recently been described to be directed against a monomorphic part of the human T cell receptor (TcR) α/β. In vitro analysis of its stimulatory potential for mononuclear cells revealed two patterns of responsiveness. Out of 35 tested individuals only 2 generated a proliferative response to low antibody concentrations (15 ng/ml; "high responders"), the others ("low responders") responded only to high antibody concentrations (1.5 μg/ml); the anti‐CD3 mAb UCHT1 (IgG2b) stimulated only the two high responders. This response pattern to BMA031 was determined by the accessory cell compartment in the culture. Stimulation by BMA031 in low responders demonstrated some unusual features: (a) high antibody concentrations were required, (b) addition of autologous serum had no inhibitory effect and (c) vigorous depletion of macrophages reduced but did not abolish the proliferative response. These characteristics were shared by two other mAb, BMA032 and BW239/347, presumably directed against the TcR α/β but not by several other antibodies to the TcR/CD3 complex. Thus, the results demonstrate unusual stimulatory properties of three anti‐TcR α/β mAb, inducing a proliferative response without antibody cross‐linking. This suggests that the stimulatory effect of anti‐TcR/CD3 complex mAb is not only determined by their isotype, but also strongly depends on their epitope specificity.