We report on the use of a copper compound of 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octakis (octylthio)-5,10,15,20-tetraazaporphyrin for the fabrication of a spreading monolayer and Langmuir-Blodgett Films. This compound, as a free ligand or metal substituted, gives mesogenic material with a discotic, columnar structure. Its structural and magnetic properties have been characterized by optical and ESR spectroscopies. The spreading monolayer was not homogeneous and use of a typical film-forming amphiphile, such as stearic acid, was necessary for obtaining stable, reproducible surface films, which were easily transferred onto quartz plates treated with dimethyldichlorosilane. The properties of the film were also analyzed with both UV-vis and ESR spectroscopies


When modulling and simulating a semiconductor manufacture plant,we need imitate or develop a lot of schedule algorithms.Each algorithm needs specifically discrete event model information input and calculates in a very special way.In this paper,a new method,which can decouple the production model and the schedule algorithms into separate modules,will be introduced.According to this method,a.KG-*5]NET component together with 15 common schedule algorithms is implemented.Application of the developed.KG-*5]NET component in a semiconductor production line simulation case is also illustrated in the end of this paper.


A transcendental entire function is a holomorphic function on the whole complex plane which is not a polynomial. The Julia set of an entire function $f$ denotes the set of all points in $\C$ where the iterates $f^k$ of $f$ do not form a normal family in the sense of Montel. Many mathematicians investigated the iteration of these functions. Even the simplest example of a transcendental entire function, namely the exponential map $\lambda e^z$ with $\lambda \in \C\setminus\{0\}$, is of rich structure. Devaney and Krych showed in 1984 that for the exponential family $\lambda e^z$, where $0<\lambda <1/e$, the Julia set consists of uncountably many pairwise disjoint simple curves tending to $\infty$, which they called hairs.

Recently, the iteration of a natural higher-dimensional analogue of holomorphic maps, the so-called quasiregular maps, became of great interest. A special family of quasiregular functions, the so-called Zorich maps, was introduced by Zorich in 1969 and can be consi-dered as a higher-dimensional counterpart of the exponential family.
Bergweiler showed in 2010 that for several Zorich maps hairs also exist.

In this thesis we want to focus on the differentiability of hairs for transcendental entire functions and Zorich maps. A first result was given by Viana in 1988, who proved that the hairs of the exponential family are smooth. In the first part of this thesis, we show that his result generalizes to the Zorich maps considered by Bergweiler under some mild additional regularity assumptions.

At first glance it seems that the regularity of the function transfers to the regularity of the hairs. In the second part of this thesis we construct in contrast to the first result a transcendental entire function of the so-called Eremenko-Lyubich class, where every hair is nowhere differentiable.


groundwater at pH 9. The precipitate was centrifuged and then dissolved with hydrochloric acid. Arsenic(III) was spectrophotometrically determined by the usual silver diethylditiocarbamate (Ag-DDTC) method after generating the arsenic to arsine with sodium tetrahydroborate under masking the thorium with EDTA-NaF at pH 6. From another portion of the same groundwater, both arsenic(III) and arsenic(V) were determined by the Ag-DDTC method after reducing all the arsenic to arsine with sodium tetrahydroborate at pH less than 1 in the presence of the EDTA-NaF. The concentration of arsenic(V) was obtained by subtracting that of arsenic(III) from the total for arsenic.


The Japanese government withdrew its recommendation for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in June 2013 and resumed it in April 2022. This period is known as the vaccine crisis in Japan. This study aimed to elucidate the prevalence and genotype distribution of HPV among Japanese female citizens, and the effect of vaccination against HPV-16/18 in the era of the vaccine crisis. We recruited Japanese female citizens and asked them to provide self-collected samples from the vaginal wall using cotton swabs for HPV genotyping. Furthermore, we collected the participants' characteristics, including lifestyle and experience of vaccination against HPV, to determine the significant association with HPV infection. HPV-16/18 positivity was found in 5.6% (115/2044) of participants. The highest vaccination rate was observed in the age group of 20–24 years (60.6%), whereas the lowest HPV-16/18 positivity was observed in the age group of 45–49 years (2.8%), followed by the age group of 20–24 years (4.0%). Experience with HPV vaccination significantly reduced the risk of HPV-16/18 infection (adjusted odds ratio, 0.047; 95% confidence interval, 0.011–0.196). Vaccinated women were much less likely to be infected by HPV-16/18, regardless of the HPV vaccine type or the vaccination dose.


This paper presents the definition and evaluation of a new protocol for providing a wireless sensor network (WSN) with a hierarchical organization. Differently from previously proposed solutions, our protocol, termed CC ("double c," for clique clustering), includes in its operation a fail-safe mechanism for dealing with node failure or removal, which are typical of WSNs. More specifically, the network is partitioned into clusters that are cliques, i.e., nodes in each clusters are directly connected to each others. An efficient mechanism for building a connected backbone among the clique clusters is provided. Clustering, backbone formation and backbone maintenance are completely localized, in the precise sense that only nodes physically close to a failing node are involved in the reconfiguration process. We compare the performance of CC with that of DMAC, a protocol that has been previously proposed for building and maintaining clusters and backbones in presence of node removal. Our comparison concerns metrics that are central to WSN research, such as time for clustering and backbone reorganization, corresponding overhead (in bytes and transmission energy), backbone size, extent of the reorganization (i.e., the number of nodes involved in it), and backbone route length. Our ns2-based simulation results show that the design criteria chosen for CC are effective in producing backbones that can be reconfigured quickly (63% faster than DMAC's) and with remarkably lower overhead.


It is common to use anthropomorphic labels when talking about technology, for example describing some robots and phones as smart, thinking and talking. This article describes a workshop in which students considered ways that words such as 'hearing', 'smart' and 'intelligence' might change in meaning when they are used in the context of robotics and machines. The aim was to help students to recognise that thinking, talking and other human capabilities have multifaceted meanings and to be cautious about the risk of uncritically reducing their meaning to a simpler, functional level.
This workshop fits into a series that juxtaposes ideas and questions in biology with ideas and questions in engineering. Biology encourages us to be curious about what is 'inside' a robot or organism as a way to understand the behaviours we see from the outside. Biological knowledge and terms can help lawyers and politicians to create definitions and criteria for new situations and problems arising from technological advances.


Objective: Immunotherapies targeting the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint improved prognosis in lung cancer. PD-1/PD-L1 status, however, has not been investigated in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients. This study assessed PD-L1 status and tumor immune-cell infiltration in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in HIV patients. Methods: Consecutive HIV patients treated between 1996 and 2014 were enrolled. PD-L1 tumor expression was assessed using immunohistochemistry with two antibodies (clones 5H1 and E1L3N), and tumor immune-cell infiltration with CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD163, and MPO. PD-L1 expression and immune infiltration results were compared with those of 54 NSCLCs from unknown HIV status patients. Results: Thirty-four HIV-positive patients were evaluated: predominantly men (88.2%) (median age: 51.1 years) presenting stage IV (38.2%) adenocarcinomas (76.5%). The median blood CD4+ count was 480 cells/&mgr;L (86–1120) and 64% exhibited undetectable viral load. The PD-L1 score (percentage of positive cells × intensity) was higher in HIV-positive than HIV-undetermined patients with the E1L3N clone [median (range) 0 (0–150) versus 0 (0–26.7), P = 0.047], yet not with the 5H1 clone [0 (0–120) versus 0 (0–26.7) P = 0.07, respectively]. PD-L1 expression frequency did not differ between both cohorts (18.7 versus 9.3% using E1L3N and 10 versus 5.6% using 5H1 clone, respectively). There were significantly greater cytotoxic T-cell (P < 0.001), B-lymphocyte (P = 0.005), and activated macrophage (P < 0.001) infiltrations in the HIV-positive patients, but no differences for CD4+ T cells. Conclusion: Tumors in HIV-positive patients seem to express higher PD-L1 levels with increased immune infiltration, supporting their inclusion in clinical trials assessing immune checkpoint inhibitors.


1. Background 2. The associative structure of the copper plaques 3. Physical and chemical examination of the copper plaques David A. Scott 4. The syntagmatic structure of the copper plaques 5. Langue et ecriture 6. Of styluses and withes 7. The warp and weft of writing.


The summary procedure now in effect in China is too simplistic in design to guarantee its conformity with the economy and convenience principles. The procedure should be reformulated in accordance with the principles of fairness and efficiency, convenience of filing a lawsuit and justice as well as all the basic principles of Law of Civil Procedure. The summary procedure should redesigned in such a way as to meet the following criteria: the trial should be conducted by specifically designated professionals; the final judgment should made according to the amount involved in and seriousness of the case; a special procedure can be designed to facilitate the filing of a lawsuit through the internet; a system can be set up to facilitate pretrial mediation; the period within which a lawsuit can be legally filed should lengthened; a procedure of second instance and exclusive trial system should be established.


Abstract Homepages on the Internet can be a valuable tool in disseminating information to college classes. This article describes how Personal Publisher 2, in connection with the "my place" and "favorite places" features of America Online, can be used to create a homepage on the Internet. Once the homepage is created, anyone with Internet access can view and download information from the homepage.


Alkaline treatment of C/D cis-pregnan-20-one derivatives produced an equilibrium mixture of 17α-and 17β-H-20-keto compounds. The 17β-H-epimers are the more stable form and their rotatry dispersion curves show negative Cotton effects. The 17α-H-20-keto compounds, the less stable form, show positive Cotton effects. The ratios of these two epimers were calculated from the optical rotatory dispersion curves and varied with the influence of neighboring groups.


This paper uses a Real Business Cycle (RBC) model to analyse and simulate the effect of a negative oil-price shock on the informal sector in Nigeria. Secondly, the paper shows that RBC theory can account for the size of the informal sector as produced by the Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) model. The MIMIC model has been criticised for generating estimates of the informal sector without an underlying theory. This paper shows that the model's estimates of the informal sector can be supported by theory.


Abstract This report demonstrates that immobilized trimethylsilane is an appropriate reference standard for MASSCP-13C NMR studies of reagents immobilized on silica gel. An example is presented which shows that the immobilized trimethylsilane exhibits many of the advantages as a reference for these solid samples as does tetramethylsilane for liquid samples. It is further shown that pure solids may interact with an immobilized phase and produce significant spectral changes and thus are not appropriate as reference standards.


With the quick pace of city,people pay much attention to the question of making environment green in uptown iv China.Its development has ever taken bung path.In addition ,there exist many babbles at present.To impure housing and tics and fully etert good functions that greening betters the environment of upon ,we must find correct counfermeasures,take favorable steps and do well in itsinsfructicn and management work.


This article discusses how the local police officers in small communities are usually the only persons concerned with traffic. They have a major responsibility to ensure that traffic moves freely and safely. Fortunately, the police have an excellent method of enforcing this goal, and that is considered to be traffic law enforcement. Efficient and uniform enforcement of traffic law is the primary method for reducing accidents and for keeping traffic moving freely.


In this paper we describe the design of an educational smart building and the innovative technologies that were implemented. In January of 2011, Florida Atlantic University opened its new LEED Platinum-Certified "Engineering East" building.  The building was designed as both a model of how new technologies can drastically decrease the energy requirements of a large university building and for providing a "living laboratory" so that students and faculty may actually see how these systems work and interrelate. Engineering faculty was involved in providing inputs to the builder in creating state-of-the-art engineering laboratories.


With the increasing use of distributed software development, there has been growing interest in the application of different methods of software development. The software development industry is investigating the use of Agile software development methods with the distributed development instead of the traditional heavyweight methods in order to improve the development efficiency and quality. However, research has shown that combining Agile and distributed development could pose significant challenges, regarding to the contradiction between Agile values and the distributed development environment. This systematic review intends to identify the challenges of applying this approach. The various challenges have been classified into five categories: lack of communication and collaboration, lack of management and control, cultural differences, time zones differences, and lack of Agile skills. The outcome of the paper has enabled the creation of a systematic map that shows the current stage of knowledge about this development approach. A major conclusion of this study is that there is a lack of empirical research and a dire need for further investigation in order to identify the expected challenges and benefits of this combinatory approach.


Lumbar kyphosis is one of the most common deformities associated with myelomeningocele. The demonstrated pathology in 12 anatomical dissections combined with the clinical and radiographic evaluation of 35 patients with this deformity suggests that a specific neuro‐muscular imbalance resulting from a level of innervation down to the third and fourth neural segments is responsible for its formation.


The article specifies results of observation of a contracted urinary bladder, caused by interstitial cystitis in a female patient with a bilateral adnexitis. The patient was performed a favorable ileocystoplasty.


Nowadays we enter the Web 2.0 era where people's participation is a key principle. In this context, collective annotations enable to share and discuss readers' feedback with regard to digital documents. The results of this activity are going to be used in the Information Retrieval context, which already tends to harness similar collective contributions. In this paper, we propose a collective annotation model supporting feedback exchange through discussion threads. Considering this model, we associate annotations with a measure of the sparked consensus degree (social validation), this allows to provide a synthesized view of associated discussions. Finally, we investigate how Information Retrieval systems may benefit from the proposed model, thus taking advantage of human-contributed highly value-added information, namely collective annotations. 1 Introduction, Context & Motivation Today we are waiting for the arrival of a new Web which is meant to be more open, as an evolution of the former "Web 1.0"; O'Reilly (2005) has named it "The Web 2.0." This new Web goes beyond its initial role of "a worldwide electronic library" as it shifts to being an alive, dynamic and interactive space where people may get involved and benefit from it. Web users go from a passive reader state to an active role of contributor. As a result, people's spontaneous contributions bring a real added value regarding the resources that they provide, describe or discuss. In this paper, we focus on a common activity allowing people to participate: collective annotation. Concerning Information Retrieval, one may notice that techniques are evolving with the emergence of this new user-centered Web. In this context, we propose a collective annotation model along with social validation that may contribute to Information Retrieval improvement.


© Korean Medical Association This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Migraine as a recurrent, relapsing, and chronic disease is one of the most disabling disorders globally. Most patients are women in their reproductive age and their migraines are classified as episodic migraine. Although less than half of the episodic and most chronic migraineurs require preventive intervention, early discontinuation rates are high, owing to poor tolerability and insufficient awareness about migraine. This article aims to review the recent update of migraine prevention based on the practice guidelines for the prevention of episodic migraine published by the Korea Headache Society and the position statement of the American Headache Society in 2019. The goal of migraine prevention is to reduce migraine attack frequency by at least 50 %, the number of migraine days, and the attack severity to ultimately improve quality of life. The guidelines recommend considering the initiation of preventive medication when recurring migraines significantly interfere with daily life or when acute treatment is contraindicated or inappropriate. Preventive medications should be determined based on various qualified assessments. Pharmacologic treatments are recommended for migraine prophylaxis include antidepressant (amitriptyline), anti-epileptic drugs (topiramate, divalproex sodium), beta-blockers (propranolol, metoprolol), calcium channel blocker (flunarizine), and intramuscular injection of onabotulinumtoxin A. Furthermore subcutaneous or intravenous injection of calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibodies was recently approved as a new therapy for migraine prevention. Migraine is a chronic debilitating disorder. The initiation of evidence-based preventive management is necessary and management methods should be individually selected to improve quality of life.


The effect of Zr addition on superplastic deformation has been investigated using Mg-8mass%Li eutectic alloys containing 0 or 0.2mass%Zr. The (α+β) eutectic structure of these alloys was controlled to produce a fine and equiaxed grain structure by a thermomechanical treatment. Recrystallized structures were refined by the Zr addition. The elongation higher than 500% was obtained for the fine-grained specimen. These specimens showed larger values of m (-0.67), which decreased with structural changes during superplastic deformation. During the superplastic deformation, refinement of the β grains was observed, while grain growth of the α grains was found. Improvement of superplastic behavior due to the Zr addition was considered to be caused by both finer grain structure before loading and suppression of dislocation process by solute atoms of Zr, which result in both uniform deformation and dynamic recrystallization.


Code-mixing, the seamless blending of two languages within the same utterance or sentence, is a natural occurrence among proficient multilingual speakers. Recently, there has been a growing interest in exploring code-mixing due to its prevalence and significance in multilingual societies. This study aims to investigate the types and motivations behind code-mixing in Yuna's interview with a Malaysian music activist titled "Korek Fizikal bersama Yuna." Employing a qualitative research design, the study identifies three types of code-mixing (insertion, alternation, and congruent lexicalization) using Musyken's classification. The framework of Hoffman's theory of code-mixing is adopted to categorize the reasons for its usage, such as expressing identity and emphasizing points. Throughout the interview, Yuna's code-mixing is prevalent, notably employed to assert her local Malaysian identity and establish familiarity with the interviewer. This highlights the significance of code-mixing as a powerful communicative tool for expressing cultural identity and building rapport in interviews. The findings of this research have broader implications for our understanding of language dynamics and bilingualism in multicultural societies like Malaysia. By comprehending how proficient multilingual speakers utilize code-mixing, we can gain valuable insights into the sociolinguistic aspects of language use and intercultural communication.


A 2-year-old male presented to the emergency department with a rapidly growing right facial mass. Imaging revealed a 6 4 cm enhancing mass centered within the right parapharyngeal space with extensive local tissue compression and osseous remodeling (Figure 1). The patient underwent transoral biopsy that demonstrated both spindle and rhabdoid cells with mitotic figures. Immunostaining was positive for desmin, actin, and bcatenin, suggesting a desmoid tumor. Given the extent of the tumor and its location, the patient was initiated on a weekly regimen of vinblastine and methotrexate due to concerns for serious cosmetic and functional morbidity with surgery. Over the next 4 weeks, there was an interval increase in size by *25%, primarily at the biopsy site, and the patient became increasingly symptomatic with intermittent bleeding and episodes of upper airway obstruction. This prompted surgical intervention by a multidisciplinary team comprised of oral-maxillofacial surgery (OMFS), otolaryngology—head and neck surgery, and microvascular reconstructive surgery (OMFS). Reconstruction was discussed at length, and a decision was made to defer definitive bony reconstruction because of growth concerns and lack of an adequate anatomic replacement for the mandibular ramus at this age. The reconstructive team was available in the instance that the oral soft tissue defect would require a free tissue to close. A model of the tumor in situ was created using 3-dimensional reformatted images, which was then used to prebend a reconstruction plate for surgery. Complete resection was subsequently achieved by composite mandibulectomy via combined transcervical and lip-split approach. After endoscopic evaluation of the airway, a tracheostomy was placed. The tumor was first approached at its lower border via a transcervical incision, which allowed for identification of cranial nerves and vascular structures. Next, the anterior and inferolateral aspects of the tumor were dissected, maintaining a musculoperiosteal margin over the tumor. The distal mandibulotomy was then performed at approximately mid-body, allowing lateralization of the mandible, and the right parapharyngeal space was widely exposed giving access to the ipsilateral skull base. The tumor was then mobilized from its superior attachments to the skull base and pterygoid plates through a maxillary vestibular extension of the anterior ramus incision. Given the limited vertical growth of the pediatric lower and mid-face, the entire vertical compartment of the mandible was easily accessible through this approach, eliminating the need to use the coronal extension. The defect was temporarily reconstructed using the previously mentioned mandibular reconstruction plate and condylar prosthesis (Figure 2). Intraoral closure was obtained,


A mounting system for assembling a first component and a second component includes a support bracket that supports the first member without any jigs functional, a vision system, which is adapted to detect the supported first component and the second component optically and to determine their positions, a robotic system that is adapted to move the second component relative to the first component and to move, and a controller that is operatively connected to the vision system and the robot system, and serves to control the robotic system in such a way that this is the second component positioned relative to the first component based on the previously determined by the vision system layers. There are provided various methods of assembling the first component and the second component to produce a process link before during a subsequent assembly process, a compound structure is formed.


Iron oxide nanoparticles intercalated in Ni(OH)2 nanosheets were prepared in a spontaneous way for the cathode materials of asymmetric supercapacitors. The soluble precursor of Ni(OH)2, Ni(NH3)6(OH)2, was used for growth on α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The loading percentages of Ni(OH)2 in the Ni(OH)2–α-Fe2O3 nanocomposites had a great influence on the morphology and size of Ni(OH)2. The composites were characterized by TEM, SEM, ICP-OES, XRD and XPS. The specific capacitance of Ni(OH)2 in the composite can reach 1107 F g−1 at a scan rate of 20 mV s−1, and the specific capacitance of the Ni(OH)2–α-Fe2O3 composite can be up to 376 F g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s−1. More importantly, the fabricated Ni(OH)2–α-Fe2O3//AC (activated carbon) asymmetric supercapacitor exhibited energy density and power density of 31.6 W h Kg−1 and 474 W Kg−1, respectively. The cycling performance of the asymmetric supercapacitor was also excellent, and the capacitance retention reached 89.6% after 5000 charge–discharge cycles. Red, blue and yellow LED lights can be lit up with two series of asymmetric supercapacitors, revealing their potential application in energy storage.


In Henricus de Lettis's chronicle the East Slavs (Rutheni) of the three northwestern principalities of the Kievan Rus Polock, Pleskau and Novgorod are at first depicted as fellow Christians. In contrast to that Henricus characterizes the unbaptized Livs and Latvians as savage or cruel. Because of the military conflict with the East Slavs Henricus begins to mention Russians and pagans in one breath. With the growing success of the mission also the Livs' and Latvians' image changes who now have become fellow brethren and therefore share the Christian ideal of virtue. Vjacko of Kukenois but has to serve as the "Great Devil", this means as the architype of the anti-christ. The originally neutral image of the "Rutheni" is therefore reversed: lack of understanding, rejection, maybe fear as well thus shape a very negative image of the Rus.


Very good textbooks exist, e.g. [1-3], but operating a TEM is a dynamic process, where many things are much easier to understand by watching an image change as one parameter is continuously adjusted. For example, seeing a diffraction pattern evolving as a sample is tilted from zone axis to a systematic row condition, or watching the "structure" in an amorphous carbon film change as defocus is applied in the presence of astigmatism, is not the same as having a series of static images in a book. TEM lectures can instead be complemented by demonstrations at the microscope where the operator shows the application of principles that were explained before, but this is not done in the same room and requires investment of operator and instrument time.


Background Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a rare but potentially fatal complication of systemic inflammatory disorders occurring most commonly in Systemic arthritis(SJIA) but also being increasingly reported in SLE, Kawasaki disease and Periodic Fever Syndromes. We present a series of 29 cases of MAS encountered in the last 9 years in a tertiary paediatric care setting in eastern India. Objectives The objective of this study is to evaluate the clinical features, laboratory findings and outcome in MAS; to assess the treatment response to different therapies and to identify the poor prognostic factors. Methods It is a prospective analysis of data of patients diagnosed as having MAS, between July 2008 and April 2017, admitted in the Department of Paediatrics at Institute Of Child Health, Kolkata. All patients with Haemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) secondary to autoimmune or inflammatory connective tissue diseases were included whereas HLH secondary to infections were excluded. Diagnosis of HLH was based on the HLH 2004 criteria. MAS diagnostic criteria for SJIA was laid down in 2014. ,Post 2014 we used those criteria in SJIA patients. The data noted were the clinical and laboratory features, treatment details, the response to therapy and outcome. Results Twenty nine (n=29) patients were found to have MAS with the primary illness being SJIA in 24 (83%), SLE in 4 (14%) and Kawasaki Disease in 1 (3%). The mean age at presentation was 5 years 3 months. The male female ratio was 1.2:1. Neurological, cardiac, renal and pulmonary involvement was seen in 21 (72%), 14 (48%), 6 (20%) and 5 (17%) patients respectively. Pulse methyl prednisolone (30 mg/kg) for 3 days was given in 27 patients. Two patients received hydrocortisone in SJIA MAS secondary to infections (chickenpox, Hepatitis A). In patients unresponsive to steroids IVIG and/or cyclosporine was used. 19 (65%) patients survived whereas 10 (35%) died. Of the 10 who succumbed, the HLH 2004 protocol (including etoposide) was used in 2 who were refractory to pulse methylprednisolone +cyclosporine +IV Ig, but without any success. 2 patients on Tocilizumab had silent MAS. Ferritin >50000 ng/ml was seen in 11 patients of which 8 died. Chi square test of significance was done and p value (0.001) was significant for mortality in patients with ferritin >50000 ng/ml, with a positive correlation (0.613). Patients with cardiovascular involvement especially pericardial effusion in SJIA was observed to have higher mortality but no statistical correlation could be made Conclusions MAS is a fatal complication with a high mortality rate of 35% in our series. Ferritin levels>50,000 ng/ml was associated with high mortality. Early and aggressive intervention with optimal intensive care support maybe life saving. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Telephone consulting is used mainly in primary care for out-of-hours work and for triage. There is potential for greater use of telephone consulting as an alternative to face to face consultations,1 in order to manage demand for same-day appointments, and for consultations in which new problems are presented. Despite the relative lack of evidence on which to base practice and policy,2 telephone use is promoted as part of the National Primary Care Development Team's initiatives on access.3 In one study, patients reported that 11.4% of face to face consultations could have been conducted by telephone, while GPs reported that 13.8% could have been, with agreement for only 5% of consultations.4 Reports of the use of the Internet and of e-mail have so far been limited to specialist exchange of knowledge,5 or by specialist care only.6 We set out to determine, for a consecutive sample of adult patients consulting with their GP, whether their consultation could have been managed over the telephone or by e-mail. Secondary aims are to describe the degree of agreement between patients and GPs, and describe the response by patients' and GPs' perception of the type of consultation.


Compounds having the formula in which R1 is lower alkyl or lower alkoxy, R2 is lower alkoxy or methylthio-substituted lower alkoxy, and R3 is R4 and R5 are lower alkyl, m is 1 or 2 and n is 0 or an integer from 1 to 4. The compound have utility as insecticides and acaricides.


The authors apply longue duree and semiotic approaches to a case study of flood management in the American Midwest to critique the suggestion that naming the current geological epoch the 'Anthropocene' might encourage global environmental sustainability. It is unlikely that the Anthropocene moniker has the symbolic power to correct ecomyopia, which the authors define as the tendency to not recognize, to ignore, or fail to act on new information that contradicts political arrangements, social norms, or world views. Anthropogenic transformation of the Mississippi River watershed shifted world views toward the human domination of nature and afforded opportunities for social stratification and the consolidation of capital and control over resources, which has biased social responses to increasing flooding. Globally, biological systems have been replaced with technological systems of increasing complexity creating canalized trajectories of practice and thought in which societies become insulated from ecological realities. The global capitalist response to the Anthropocene will likely be to embrace technological hubris.


Pseudolite-based systems and airborne relay-based positioning system (ARPS) have a limitation wherein the position error increases as the distance between the user and the area where the segments of the system are configured increases, owing to the low altitude of the navigation signal transmitters. To enhance the accuracy of the user, we propose a self-correction scheme based on the ARPS. In the proposed correction scheme, each reference station adjusts the transmission time of the navigation signal. This adjustment time is determined by calculating the average pseudorange differences between the true/estimated positions of the reference station and the estimated position of each airborne relay. Regardless of this adjustment, the user estimates the positions of the airborne relays and its own based on the original transmission time. Owing to this characteristic, the pseudorange errors that are included during the signal propagation are corrected and the accuracies of the airborne relays and the user are improved. Simulation results show that the proposed correction scheme reduces the error of the user, and the user in an enemy area can be provided with a relatively high accuracy service without the aid of correction messages.


Laboratory collapse tests and data available in literature have been used to assess the effect of such manufacturing parameters as slack quenching, rotary, and gag straightening on the collapse performance of oil-well casings. The detrimental effect of slack quenching and residual stresses due to slack quenching and straightening is established. The use of hardness testing and slit-ring tests as quality control methods for monitoring these parameters is discussed, and a new method of collapse testing is proposed.


Abstract : The paper concerns logistics data collection, representation, and analysis. It contains a number of illustrations from logistics on how information has evolved in its role for decisionmaking. The illustrations cover a few of the earlier uses, with some indication of how these uses have evolved into more complex requirements. The illustrations are then followed by an overall perspective on the current state of the field, with some discussion of where the challenges now exist.


Objective To discuss the clinical efficacy and safety on Ⅲ rectal prolapse treated with xiaozhiling injection,circumsuture and narrowing surgery so as to provide the data for the clinical research on the normalization of indication scope,operation methods,prevention and treatment of complications.Methods Two hundred and sixteen cases of Ⅲ rectal prolapse were treated with four-step therapeutic program,including injection beneath mucous membrane,injection around the rectum,percutaneous continuous circumsuture and anal narrowing surgery.The clinical observation,follow-up visit,analysis and evaluation were conducted.Results Of 216 cases of Ⅲ rectal prolapse,205 cases were cured and 11 cases were improved.The curative rate was 95%.The duration of treatment was 7~16 days,averagely 12 days.After the various observations of therapeutic effects and follow-up visit for 1 year,there were not sequela such as anorectal stenosis,defecation disturbance,colonic disorder and sexual dysfunction.Conclusion Xiaozhiling injection,circumsuture and anal narrowing surgery achieve the good efficacy on Ⅲ rectal prolapse.This therapeutic method is simple and safe and deserves to be promoted.


The paper proposes a new differential protection scheme for a low-voltage bipolar DC microgrid. The scheme utilises the concept of symmetrical operation of a typical bipolar DC microgrid during its normal operating condition. Since there arises a difference between the positive- and negative-pole parameters during an internal fault, the transient currents of positive- and negative-poles connected at the same DC bus are measured to distinguish between an internal fault and external disturbances. The scheme is well tested on a 380V ring-type bipolar DC microgrid modeled in PSCAD/EMTDC environment. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of the proposed protection scheme.


Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) is the process of obtaining appliance-level data from users' total electricity consumption data. These data can be of great benefit, especially in demand response applications. In this paper, a multi-label classification for NILM based on a two-input gated recurrent unit (GRU) is presented. Since the presented method is designed with a multi-label approach, great savings in training time are achieved. While a separate model is trained for each appliance in the literature, only one model is trained in the proposed model. Besides, the model was trained using two different inputs. The first is the total active power value consumed by the whole house. The second input is the Spikes obtained by analyzing this active power consumption. Simply put, spikes are obtained by analyzing the instant power changes in active power. Both inputs are evaluated with a convolutional layer and necessary features are extracted. Obtained features are fed into the GRU to be able to analyze time-dependent changes. The simulation results show that an additional input can slightly improve the analysis accuracy. Besides, it was found that the second input is useful especially in the analysis of short-term devices.


The German speaking countries have tested L1 listening proficiency in large national assessment studies during the past decade. However, testing prosodic comprehension —that is, students' ability to under- stand prosodically encoded content — has remained a blind spot, primarily because test items focusing on this specific aspect of listening have been lacking. The project st ị m·mig aims to fill this gap by developing and evaluating test items that measure students' ability to understand prosodically encoded con tent in auditory texts. In this article, we explain the basic process of item construction, and we present sample items to illustrate the item design. Thanks to the collaboration of the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB) in Berlin, we were able to administer and evaluate the items in a large pilot study in 252 third-grade classrooms ( N = 4,893 students). The main goal of this large-scale assessment was to evaluate the suitability of the reading and listening items so that they might be used for national, large- scale assessment studies. We tested the effects of the presentation modes (written vs. auditory) of the stimulus texts and test items in a multiple matrix sampling design. Our findings show that prosodic com- prehension is a construct that is empirically distinguishable from both verbal comprehension and reading comprehension. However, more detailed analysis is needed to fully understand the structure of the pro- sodic comprehension construct.


Does the free market bring about liberty? Are free markets the pacemakers for civil, democratic societies? When President Suharto of Indonesia resigned in May 1998, the response in the West was quiet satisfaction. A corrupt and murderous tyrant had been toppled and free markets with a little help from the International Monetary Fund could take the credit. But for decades the West had supported Suharto as part of the "crony capitalist" pact; violations of citizens' rights were overlooked so long as profit margins stayed high. The civil disorder that forced Suharto out spread to Chinese minorities and led to persecutions of Catholics in East Timor. Indonesia began a slow and violent unraveling in


Populations of Pulmonaria with unique features associated with shady and dry conditions were found in high beech woods on the west side of Mt. Marzola and in other dolomitic sites of Trentino (southern Italian Alps). Morpho-statistical and karyological analyses suggest that these populations represent a new subspecies of P. officinalis , Pulmonaria officinalis subsp. marzolae . The change of the basal leaf shape during the year, peculiar traits of foliar spots and hairs as well as a divergence of the karyotype asymmetry parameters suggest that this taxon is distinct from the typical form of P. officinalis . General form, the major hair types, inflorescence morphology and the chromosome number 2n = 16, however, suggest its affinity to this species.


ABSTRACT Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has systemic consequences that lead to reduced physical activity in daily life (PADL). Little is known about PADL and its associations in individuals with COPD on home-based long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT). The objective of the study was to determine whether there is an association between severe physical inactivity and pulmonary function, fatigue, dyspnea, functional status and exercise capacity in individuals with COPD on home-based LTOT using electric oxygen concentrators and to investigate which of these variables could influence inactivity in these individuals. The population sample included 39 individuals with COPD who were on LTOT (69 ± 8 years, FEV1: 32 ± 14% predicted). They were assessed in terms of PADL (number of steps/day), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale – FSS), dyspnea (Medical Research Council – MRC scale), functional status (London Chest ADL scale [LCADL] and Timed Up and Go [TUG] test) and functional exercise capacity (Six-Minute Step test [6MST] and Sit-to-Stand test [STST]). PADL was markedly low (1444 ± 1203 steps/day) and associated with daily duration of LTOT (r = –0.50), fatigue (r = –0.36), LCADL (r = –0.41), 6MST (r = 0.48), and STST (r = 0.53) (p < .05 for all). Multiple linear regression revealed that daily duration of LTOT and STST explained 39% of the variability of PADL. Longer daily duration of LTOT, fatigue, worse functional status and exercise capacity were all associated with physical inactivity in individuals with COPD on LTOT, whereas daily duration of LTOT and the STST were determinants of reduced physical activity.


Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PcP) is placing increasing demands on the limited paediatric intensive care resources in developing countries.1 Despite mechanical ventilation, the short term outcomes of these cases remain poor.2 3 To help rationally allocate scarce resources, we retrospectively evaluated the short and medium term survival of children with PcP admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) over the 3-year period 2000–2002 with a view to identifying prognostic factors for a poor outcome.

Cases of PcP …


A small RMS phase error and long-term stability of the gap-drive system are important criteria for realizing high performance undulators. The use of force compensating spring modules of self-contained type move toward the goals. Since magnetic forces from girders are vanished entirely at the spring module, so not only the small systematic phase error derived from deformation of the girders but also the small dynamic loadings on the mechanical frame and gap-drive system. Moreover, spring modules provide a supplemental mechanism to correct magnetic field errors at varied gaps. Such mechanism is particular benefit for the cryogenic permanent magnet undulators because the field errors of undulator shall correct in both cryogenic mode and room temperature mode.


Devices such as targets and collimators installed in experimental beam lines of the Fermilab Proton Accelerator require precise remote positioning and monitoring-under computer control. Since September, 1973, these and similar applications have been handled by a CAMAC Target Position Controller/Monitor module designed by the Beam Systems Control Group. Numerous features have been incorporated into hardware and software to assure position and input data integrity, and to eliminate hunting, gear-train backlash errors, and direction-change ambiguity. The module controls the device's drive motor via relay closures. Data inputs for the monitoring function consist of a pulse-train generated by a shaft encoder, plus limit and reference switch contacts. Resolution is 16 bits (~1 part in 65,000) or 15 bits either side of center. In addition to its normal positioning functions, the module has found application in facilities which provide precision, on-the-fly, computerized magnetic-field mapping, for programming, monitoring, and policing the motions of a large, multi-arm spectrometer, and as a component in computerized laser alignment equipment.


In this paper, the characteristics of the tsunami due to Nankaido earthquake and moored ship motions were investigated numerically. Tsunami simulation was carried out by using shallow water wave theory and moored ship motions were evaluated by strip method. The traveling time of the tsunami that from hypocenter to Kobe port was about 2 hours, and tsunami current was parallel to normal direction of quay walls. The moored ship was oscillated several meters to surge and sway direction by incident of tsunami. Reaction force of fenders where located near stem and stern were increased by yaw. Such influence of the tsunami on moored ships to quay walls and countermeasures against tsunami disasters were estimated.


Agricultural drought-hazard is the result of a combinationof precipitation shortage or unevenness and the vulnerability of agricultural production system.The degree of vulnerability can magnify or lessen disaster losses.Taking Dingcheng in Hunan as an example,by analyzing the characteristics of hazard-causing factors and using selected meteorological statistical data according to a set of criteria to differentiate drought-year in different drought degrees,it is indicated that drought in fall is more and severer than that in summer.On the basis of this,the relation between hazard losses in different drought degrees and the vulnerability of hazard-bearing body is found and vulnerability assessment indices system is also established with examples in different situation.The results show that there is a regionality in vulnerability distribution which is in line with the distribution of hazard losses.The sequence of vulnerability degrees is from high to low,in order as mountainous region in southwest,hilly region in south,plain and mountainous region in the center and river,lake,plain region in the southeast.Through analyzing reasons of the formation and changes of vulnerability in different drought degrees,the specific countermeasures are put forward to lower the vulnerability.


A species of facultatively anaerobic, Gram positive, cocci shaped bacteria assigned to the phylum Firmicutes. T his bacteria is catalase negative, alpha hemolytic, produces acid from maltose, lactose, sucrose and trehalose, and produces beta glucuronidase. A. viridans is rarely pathogenic in humans but may be associated with urinary tract infections and endocarditis in immunocompromised patients. Qeios · Definition, February 7, 2020


Anti-inflammatory Effects of Chitosan-phytochemical Conjugates against Propionibacterium acnes-induced Inflammation Ji-Hoon Kim1, Jae-Young Je2 and Young-Mog Kim1,3* 1Department of Food Science and Technology, Pukyong National University, Busan 48547, Korea 2Department of Marine-Bio Convergence Science, Pukyong National University, Busan 48547, Korea 3Marine-Integrated Bionics Research Center, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Korea


Significance Mutually beneficial interactions of fungi with bacteria are increasingly recognized as ubiquitous and economically important. However, little is known about their establishment and maintenance. Utilizing the association between the fungus Rhizopus microsporus and its endosymbiont Burkholderia as a model, we provide first insights into fungal molecular mechanisms governing symbiosis establishment with bacteria. We show that specific changes in fungal lipid metabolism, mediated by diacylgycerol kinase enzymes, are required to maintain a mutualistic outcome of interaction with bacteria, a pattern consistent with the addiction model of mutualism evolution. We also offer insights into genetics and biochemistry of lipid metabolism in an understudied group of oleaginous fungi, which are a promising source of oils for biodiesel production. The recent accumulation of newly discovered fungal–bacterial mutualisms challenges the paradigm that fungi and bacteria are natural antagonists. To understand the mechanisms that govern the establishment and maintenance over evolutionary time of mutualisms between fungi and bacteria, we studied a symbiosis of the fungus Rhizopus microsporus (Mucoromycotina) and its Burkholderia endobacteria. We found that nonhost R. microsporus, as well as other mucoralean fungi, interact antagonistically with endobacteria derived from the host and are not invaded by them. Comparison of gene expression profiles of host and nonhost fungi during interaction with endobacteria revealed dramatic changes in expression of lipid metabolic genes in the host. Analysis of the host lipidome confirmed that symbiosis establishment was accompanied by specific changes in the fungal lipid profile. Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) activity was important for these lipid metabolic changes, as its inhibition altered the fungal lipid profile and caused a shift in the host–bacterial interaction into an antagonism. We conclude that adjustments in host lipid metabolism during symbiosis establishment, mediated by DGKs, are required for the mutualistic outcome of the Rhizopus–Burkholderia symbiosis. In addition, the neutral and phospholipid profiles of R. microsporus provide important insights into lipid metabolism in an understudied group of oleaginous Mucoromycotina. Lastly, our study revealed that the DGKs involved in the symbiosis form a previously uncharacterized clade of DGK domain proteins.


【Task】 An amylin for the treatment of various diseases and conditions of mammalian subjects (including obesity and diabetes mellitus), glucagon-like peptide -1 (GLP), pramlintide or at least such as exendin-4, describes pharmaceutical compositions and methods comprising one one for enhancement of glucose-regulating peptide and amylin nasal mucosal delivery or more mucosal delivery-enhancing agents. .FIELD 1


The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of regular basic education teachers. Despite the fact that in recent months the number of infections has decreased significantly, the return to face-to-face classes is of great concern to teachers due to the adverse educational context they must face. In this sense, the objective of this study was to determine whether or not psychological distress is significantly related to burnout syndrome in regular basic education teachers upon their return to face-to-face classes. This research employed a quantitative approach, the design was non-experimental, and the type of study was descriptive–correlational and cross-sectional. In total, 184 teachers participated and responded using the Psychological Distress Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which are instruments with adequate psychometric properties. The results indicated that 40.7% of the teachers had a moderate level of psychological distress, and 45.1% also had a moderate level of burnout syndrome. Likewise, it was found that the Pearson's r correlation coefficient between the variables psychological distress and burnout syndrome was 0.752, and the p-value was below the level of significance (p < 0.05). It was concluded that there is a direct and significant relationship between psychological distress and burnout syndrome in regular basic education teachers upon their return to face-to-face classes. For this reason, it is suggested that the Ministry of Education should design policies that allow a reassessment of the work that teachers have been carrying out and that promote the implementation of preventive and corrective programs to improve their mental health.


Based on the analysis of the advantages of the course of Chinese in the cultivation of students' humanistic literacy in vocational colleges,this article probes into relevant strategies like paying attention to the humanity of the course,enhancing teachers' humanistic literacy,digging into the humanistic contents of the course and bringing the humanistic and instrumental functions of the course into play.


In the solution of the combinational optimization problem such as the traveling salesman problem, the usual approach is to define the energy function, which consists of the term representing the cost to be minimized and the terms representing the constraint for the solution. It is important at this stage to define adequately the weight coefficients for the constraint terms. For this purpose, a solution method based on the two-layer random field model has already been proposed.

However, it is desirable from the viewpoint of the processing speed to apply the deterministic annealing to the analog neuron system obtained by the mean-ield approximation, rather than to apply directly the simulated annealing to the binary neuron system. In his case, it is important also to define adequately the weight coefficients in the energy function.

This paper considers the already proposed method which automatically adjusts the weight coefficients using the two-layer random field model. An elaboration is presented which applies the method to the search of the optimal solution by the deterministic nnealing. In this study, the connection machine CM-2), which is a SIMD-type parallel computer, is used to handle the relatively large-scale problem composed of 64 cities.


H:L-60 cells that stably express transfected wild-type (wt) p53 were used to determine whether restoration of wt p53 increased the chemosensitivity of cells that normally lack p53 activity. The wt p53 HL-60 transfectants (SN3 cells) were more sensitive than the parental (5) cells to a number of common anticancer drugs representing various mechanisms of action, whereas HL-60 cells transfected with p13 genes mutated at codon.s 248 and 143 were not sensitized. The sensitization ratio due to the transfected wt p53 varied from about 2-fold for cisplatin to over 50-fold for thymidine. Cells treated with the thymidylate synthase inhibitor 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine (FdUrd) were used to study changes in various p53-associated gene expressions. A higher percentage of apoptotic cells among the SN3 cells was observed than among the S cells at each concentration of FdUrd. The S cells had undetectable levels of bax and high levels of bcl-2, whereas the SN3 cells had undetectable levels of bcl-2 levels and appreciable basal levels of bax. After FdUrd treatment of SN3 cells, both p53 and bax levels increased, but the induction of bax was faster than that of p53 and paralleled the appearance of apoptotic DNA laddering. FdUrd treatment inducedp2l expression and increased the G1 fraction of the SN3 cells but did not induce p21 or change the phase distribution in the S cells. FdUrd treatment also induced the expression and phosphorylation of cycin Dl in the SN3 cells but not in the S cells. These results show that transfected wt p53 confers multidrug sensitivity to HL-60 cells Received 12/1/97: revised 2/10/98; accepted 2/I 1/98. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked adt'erti.se,nent in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. I Supported by USPHS Grants CA08180 (to J. R. B.) and CA60859 (to P. V. D.). 2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed. at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. University of Southern California School of Medicine. 1303 North Mission Road. Los Angeles. CA 90033. by re-adjustment of the expressions of apoptosis genes and displays other properties characteristic of endogenously originated wt p53. INTRODUCTION The tumor suppressor p53 is now widely recognized to be involved in a remarkable number of cellular processes, including gene transcription, DNA repair, cell cycling, genomic stability, senescence, and programmed cell death (apoptosis; reviewed in Ref. 1 ). The loss of function of p53, either through mutation, repression, or loss of expression. is one of the most common events in tumorigenesis. Many in vitro studies showing that restoration of p53 activity in cells with mutated p53 either suppresses growth of the cells or induces apoptosis (2-6) suggested the idea that gene therapy aimed at restoring p53 activity in tumors might be a fruitful approach to cancer treatment. In fact. a number of studies have now shown that adenovirusor retrovirus-driven expression of wt3 p53 can suppress tumor growth in t'it'o (7-12). The discovery that malignant cells lacking p53 function appeared to be much more resistant to many cytotoxic agents and radiation than are cells with wt p53 generated additional interest in p53 as a possible determinant of response of tumors to anticancer therapy (13, 14). The current model suggests that when DNA damage caused by drugs or radiation is sensed by some as yet unknown mechanism, the intracellular level or the activity of p53 increases and alters the expressions of genes that are involved in cell growth arrest, programmed cell death, or DNA repair (15, 16). Neither growth arrest nor the p53-dependent apoptotic program is initiated by drug treatment of cells having mutated p53. thereby conferring a survival advantage to such cells in the presence of genotoxic agents. Thus, the functional status of p53 in a tumor may be a major prognostic indicator of the success or failure of cancer chemoor radiotherapy (17). Because of possible variation in the amount of vector uptake and resulting gene dosages among tumor cells, it is likely that some cells will not be killed by p53 gene therapy alone. In that case. the above findings suggest that a multimodality approach cornbining gene therapy with conventional cytotoxic agents might be a more effective treatment than either one alone, provided that re-introduction of wt p53 at a sublethal level of expression can sensitize the tumor cells to anticancer drugs. There have been few studies on this question. probably because of the lack of experimental systems that express exogenously introduced WI p53 without going into apoptosis or severe growth arrest. Cells transduced with a wt p53 adenovirus expression vector and simultaneously treated with cisplatin underwent a great deal of apoptosis, suggesting that wt p53 3 The abbreviations used are: wt. wild type: FdUrd, 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine: 5-FUra. 5-fluorouracil: TUNEL. terminal nucleotidyl transferase end-labeling: RT-PCR. reverse transcription PCR: dThd. thymidine: TS. thymidylate synthase: MMC. mitomycin C: VP-16. etoposide. American Association for Cancer Research Copyright © 1998 on December 6, 2011 clincancerres.aacrjournals.org Downloaded from 1316 Multidrug Sensitivity Conferred by p53 sensitizes cells to cisplatin, but the growth of these cells was markedly inhibited by the vector, even without the cisplatin treatment ( I 8). A more recent study showed that a cell line containing the p53 gene in an inducible expression vector was more sensitive to 5-FUra under p53 induction conditions (19). We recently developed HL-60 cells that stably expressed transfected wt p53 with only a small effect on growth rate and clonogenicity (20). These cells provide a potential model system with which to clearly discern the effects of re-introduced wt p53 on the sensitivity of cells to cytotoxic agents without being obscured by cell line differences or complicated by vector-driven overexpression of wt p53. In the present study, we determined the chemosensitivity of these cells relative to the parental p53-null HL-60 cells to various commonly used anticancer agents and characterized other molecular changes associated with re-introduction of wt p53. MATERIALS AND METHODS Chemicals. 5-FUra. FdUrd. cisplatin. dThd, MMC, and VP-16 were obtained form the Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO). ZD1694 (Tomudex. Raltitrexed) was obtained from the Zeneca Pharmaceutical Co. Cells. The development and isolation of the HL-60 cell lines stably expressing wt p53 and mutant p53 and their characteristics are described in detail elsewhere (20). Four cell lines were obtained from this study: parental HL-6() cells transfected with the empty vector pWLNeo, for use as controls, and with expression vectors pC53-SN3 (wt). pC53-SCX3 (rnutated at codon 143), and pC53-248 (mutated at codon 248) containing the indicated wt and mutant ,)53 cDNAs and the neomvcin phosp/zotrati.sferase gene under control of the cytomegalovirus promoter. These transfected cell lines were designated as S. SN3 (HL-60 cells transfected with wild-type pS3). SCX3 (HL-60 cells transfected with p53 mutated at codon 143), and 248 (HL-60 cells transfected with p53 mutated at codon 248), respectively. Quantitation of immunohistochemicab staining by image analysis showed that the SN3 cells express a low but detectable level of p53 protein, whereas the mutant p53 transfectants SCX3 and 248 have 4and 10-fold, respectively, higher levels of p53 staining, as would be expected based on the higher stability of mutant forms of p53. The SN3 cells have a slightly longer doubling time than either the S cells or the mutant p53 transfectants (24 h s'eiwus 22 h) and a lower saturation density in suspension culture than either the parents or the mutant p53 cell lines. The SN3 cells are more sensitive to stress conditions, such as serum depletion, than are the S cells (20). The SN3 cells used in this study were one of three clones that were isolated after transfection of the parental HL-60 cells. As described previously (20), all three clones contained wt p53 and behaved identically with respect to growth rate and increased sensitivity to both serum deprivation and the cancer drug VP-16, supporting the idea that their altered properties were due specifically to expression of wt p53. Cell Growth Conditions. The HL-60 cells were grown in RPMI 1640 containing 10% dialyzed fetal bovine serum, 2 ITIM L-glutarnine. 100 units/rnl penicillin, and 100 ig/ml streptornycin. Cells were maintained at 37#{176}C in 5% carbon dioxide in complete humidity. Drug Cytotoxicity. Cells in medium at a density of 5 X cells/mi were treated with the drug at specified times and concentrations. After treatment, cells were centrifuged at 1000 rprn for 10 mm, washed twice with fresh medium without serum, and resuspended in fresh medium with serum to a density of 2 X 105/ml. After the cells were grown for 3 days, cell viability was assayed by the conversion of tetrazolium salts 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide or 2,3-bis(2-rnethoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfenyl)-5-I(phenybamino)carbonyl]-2H tetrazolium hydroxide to the blue formazan products (21) using a CeliTiter 96 kit (Promega Corp., Madison, WI). Flow Cytometry. About 10" cells were centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 10 mm and washed with PBS. The cells were resuspended in 1 ml of a solution of 20 ig/ml RNase (DNase free) and 20 ig/ml propidium iodide in PBS. The mixture was incubated for 2 h at room temperature. The cells were analyzed on a Becton Dickinson FACScam flow cytometer. Identification of Apoptotic Cells. Cells were fixed in 4% formaldehyde in PBS at a concentration of 2.5 X l0 cells/mi. Approximately 1.2 X i0 cells were spun onto microscope slides using a cytocentrifuge (Shandon. Pittsburgh, PA). Apoptotic cells were identified by the TUNEL assay (22) with the Apoptag in situ apoptosis kit (Oncor.


Preexisting immunity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was nonexistent in humans, which coupled with high transmission rates of certain SARS-CoV-2 variants and limited vaccine uptake or availability, has collectively resulted in an ongoing global pandemic. The identification and establishment of one or multiple correlates of protection (CoP) against infectious pathogens is challenging, but beneficial from both the patient care and public health perspectives. ABSTRACT Preexisting immunity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was nonexistent in humans, which coupled with high transmission rates of certain SARS-CoV-2 variants and limited vaccine uptake or availability, has collectively resulted in an ongoing global pandemic. The identification and establishment of one or multiple correlates of protection (CoP) against infectious pathogens is challenging, but beneficial from both the patient care and public health perspectives. Multiple studies have shown that neutralizing antibodies, whether generated following SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccination, or a combination of both (i.e., hybrid immunity), as well as adaptive cellular immune responses, serve as CoPs for COVID-19. However, the diverse number and type of serologic assays, alongside the lack of cross-assay standardization and emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants with immune evasive characteristics, have collectively posed challenges to determining a robust CoP 'threshold' and for the routine utilization of these assays to document 'immunity,' as is commonly done for other vaccine preventable diseases. Here, we discuss what CoPs are, review our current understanding of infection-induced, vaccine-elicited and hybrid immunity to COVID-19 and summarize the current and potential future utility of SARS-CoV-2 serologic testing.


The majority of patients with chronic respiratory diseases seek medical assistance because of the cardinal pulmonary symptoms of cough, expectoration, dyspnea on exertion, or wheeze. None of these symptoms are diagnostic when taken alone, but the constellation of symptoms, taken in conjunction with such factors as age of onset, association, and duration, may offer important clues regarding the basic problem, which will ultimately be diagnosed as one of the major problems of chronic respiratory insufficiency. This chapter briefly reviews the historical features, physical examination, and simple x-ray presentations that are encountered in patients suffering from common pulmonary diseases characterized by chronic respiratory insufficiency.


Erkannames are texts that reveal the belief and worship system of Bektashism. They are in verse and prose type works that reflect the teachings of Haci Bektas Veli. In the understanding of the Bektashi tradition, the erkannames have a special place. The references used in teaching ethics, manners, ways and methods, especially the Prophet Muhammad, and personalities who have a positive or negative place in the Bektashi thought in the history of Islam are included in the manners, on the one hand, the history lesson is given, on the other hand, the foundation is made with references to the sources of the teaching. In this article, it has been tried to find clues about Bektashism's Consciousness of History by examining the references regarding Sirah and History in a Bektashi Erkanname in the Albanian State Manuscripts Archive. In the research, content information was given about the writing in question, and then Hz. Muhammad, the Prophet. The handling of personalities such as Ali and Ehl-i Beyt and historical personalities such as Muaviye, Yazid and Marwan were examined. As a result of the research, it was seen that in the Bektashi Erkannames, Sirah and history material were mentioned sometimes with references to events and sometimes people, and a historical perspective was gained. It was understood that this historical consciousness nourished the understanding of tevella and teberra and carried it to the present.


This paper researches on the driving condition supervision based on the multi-sensor information fusion technology,expounds the principles of selecting the sensor information in this technology,and probes into the supervision system structure,system treatment model and the operating process of the supervision system.


Both expectation-states theoty and rank equilibration theory predict a "halo effect" from unequal rewards. This study used a laboratory experiment based on Berger's original design to test for performance expectations from unequal rewards. The results support the prediction: unequal rewards apparently structured corresponding inequalities in expectations and task-focused interaction. The implication of these results for equity theory is discussed.


As an integral part of dissertations and theses, research scholars in different disciplines require to write a comprehensive chapter on "literature review" that establishes the conceptual and theoretical foundations of an empirical research study. This, however, poses an intellectual challenge to produce a critical review of the published research on a given topic. Therefore, this paper addresses the students problems of writing the literature review in a thesis or dissertation at the graduate and postgraduate levels. It explains the process and steps of reviewing literature for a thesis chapter. These steps include; a) critical reading and note-taking, b) writing a summary of the reviewed literature, c) organization of literature review, and d) the use of a synthesis matrix. The last part of the paper offers suggestions on how to write critically and make the researcher's voice explicit in the chapter.


Based on previous research work,we present a spectrum deviation method to recognize a foreshock or generalized foreshock in this paper. The criterion to determine whether an event is a foreshock is a wide spectrum for an ordinary event,however,a moderate earthquake with foreshock or generalized foreshock has the characteristics of a narrow frequency band,and it deviates to the low frequency. It may be explained by metastable extension in the rupture source or related area of the main shock or regional fragmentation damage and crack nucleation process. The calculation results of two foreshocks,the MS4. 7 event which occurred before the Yushu MS7. 1 earthquake on April 14,2010 and the MS 5. 3 event which occurred before the Yutian MS7. 3 earthquake on February 12, 2014,show that the spectra of foreshocks shift,and they are quite different from the nonforeshock seismic spectrum of equivalent size. Therefore,this result can verify the validity of the spectrum deviation method.


We are developing a block detector to be used in in-beam PET for hardron therapy, which consists of a discrete scintillator array and four round-type PMTs. To improve positioning performance we applied Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based positioning algorithm that was previously developed by our group. In order to maximize separability of light distributions among adjacent scintillator pixels and thereby optimize the positioning performance, we used partially segmented block scintillator proposed by Chung et al. In partially segmented block scintillator, length of light reflectors between two adjacent discrete scintillators varies depending on the locations of the scintillators in the array. We simulated 3D crystal array with variable length of reflectors so that we extract best combinations of reflector dimensions in the array. With these optimal values, we showed the performance of our positioning algorithms. The DETECT2000 simulation package was used to model a proposed detector. The designed the detector was made up of 13 × 13 array of 4 × 4 × 20 mm3 LSO blocks. Four sides of each crystal was attached with different length of reflectors. We used 2 × 2 one inch PMTs(22 mm effective area) so that four PMTs can share the lights. In GMM-based positioning algorithm, the response of N detector channels is represented by a feature vector. Then it trains the feature vectors to obtain the optimal parameters of M Gaussian mixtures. In evaluation step, we decoded the spatial locations of incidence photons by evaluating the measured feature vector with respect to the trained mixture parameters. The results showed that the average bias were 0 mm. In addition, most of positions for the 13×13 scintillator block were clearly identified.


THE PROBLEM of predicting teacher competence and the related problem of identifying behaviors and factors likely to contribute to teac her compe tence are among the most thoroughly investigated matters in educational psychology Prof es s i o n al journals are replete with the results of research in this area, ideas for further research, methodology, and opinions. Extensive bibliographies relating to these matters are available (2, 4, 5, 6). One of the research directions taken is the identification and quantification of personality characteristics of teachers. It is tacitly assumed that the personality characteristics of the teacher will affect the teach er's behavior, thence student's behavior. It is quite generally known that relatively little correla tion appears to exist (for predictive purposes) be tween teacher competence and such factors as gen eral intelligence and scholastic achievement (3,pp 1-23). The present study was undertaken to see whether selected psychological traits as m e as u r ed by the California Psychological Inventory, a relatively new instrument by Harrison G. Gough, could be used effectively in predicting student teacher excellence. The stability of the transition between student teach er excellence and employed or on-the-job excellence is an assumption which is, of course, open to ques tion.


Summary form only given. A new interpretation of the light reflection at dielectric-metal interface (DMI) in terms of the so called metal surface impedance (MSI) is proposed. It is shown that the reflection coefficient at DMI may be large enough for a dielectric with sufficiently large refractive index or (and) near the dielectric absorption band. Besides, this coefficient changes slowly in the vicinity of the dielectric absorption band. A new DRA technique based on these properties of the reflection coefficient permits a good interpretation in terms of MSI. High quality DRA spectra of common substances, which are directly comparable with the transmission spectra, are naturally explained and a comparison with other techniques is proposed. This technique is very useful for PDA owing to the possibility to obtain IR absorption spectra of the PDA's in their actually pristine structure, on the one hand, and without the necessity to apply tedious and sometimes ambiguous Kramers-Kronig transformation, from the other.


In many engineered systems, optimization is used for decision making at time scales ranging from real-time operation to long-term planning. This process often involves solving similar optimization problems over and over again with slightly modified input parameters, often under tight latency requirements. We consider the problem of using the information available through this repeated solution process to learn important characteristics of the optimal solution as a function of the input parameters. Our proposed method is based on learning relevant sets of active constraints, from which the optimal solution can be obtained efficiently. Using active sets as features preserves information about the physics of the system, enables interpretable results, accounts for relevant safety constraints, and is easy to represent and encode. However, the total number of active sets is also very large, as it grows exponentially with system size. The key contribution of this paper is a streaming algorithm that learns the relevant active sets from training samples consisting of the input parameters and the corresponding optimal solution, without any restrictions on the problem type, problem structure or probability distribution of the input parameters. The algorithm comes with theoretical performance guarantees and is shown to converge fast for problem instances with a small number of relevant active sets. It can thus be used to establish simultaneously learn the relevant active sets and the practicability of the learning method. Through case studies in optimal power flow, supply chain planning, and shortest path routing, we demonstrate that often only a few active sets are relevant in practice, suggesting that active sets provide an appropriate level of abstraction for a learning algorithm to target.


The article enlightens the role of information technology in the educational process of a modern higher educational institution. The authors of the work talk about the need to apply new methods and models of communication in their work. The authors investigate the forms of communication of participants in the educational process used in distance learning, suggesting that information resource portals are a promising area of educational communications. The purpose of the study is to analyze effective forms of e-learning. The authors note the prospects for the development of e-learning. The conclusions made by the authors of the article make it possible to assert the need to apply new educational models and technologies in the activities of teachers of higher educational institutions.


Abstract On the basis of the bifurcational analysis it is shown that the Prost model of a frustrated smectic liquid crystal with interacting antiferroelectric and translational order parameters permits three modes of behaviour of molecular systems which correspond to three qualitatively different types of separatrices-manifolds dividing the control parameters space into open areas with topologically different structures of a thermodynamic potential. Phase diagrams of the model for each of the separatrices are built. It is established that phase diagrams with two tri-critical points on equilibrium lines similar to those described by the original Prost theory and found experimentally in mixtures of cyanobiphenyls correspond to two types of separatrices. Phase diagrams with three tri-critical points (two of which are located on the curve of coexistence of mono-and bilayer smectics and the third one occurs on the curve of co-existence of bilayer smectic and nematic mesophases) are inherent to the third type o...


STEM is the process of integrating science, technology, engineering and mathematics in education. STEAM differs from STEM by a letter of 'A' which means arts, on the basic logic of science and arts mustn't be decomposed from each other. This research aimed to assist tenth-grade students in learning through their own constructed materials for bringing up them as well-qualified individuals by using chemistry, technology, engineering, popart and mathematics (STEAM) integration which would improve their creativity and critical-thinking too. 33 tenth-grade students from a high school in Turkey participated in this qualitative research in 2015-2016 academic year. Student constructed materials, and student process evaluation worksheets were used as data collecting tools. Content analysis was utilized for the gathered data. Content analysis was cross-checked for the reliability of the research too. The results showed that students' creativity and critical-thinking skills were enhanced through such a STEAM process, and this process was also helped to educate well-qualified individuals in the abovementioned fields.
Keywords: chemistry education, critical thinking, educating well-qualified individuals, STEAM.


Aiming at the pilot ranging signal of CDMA mobile network,a TDOA localization algorithm based on CDMA mobile network was proposed.Pilot delay was adopted to be the localization parameter and the TDOA mathematical model was set up,and then the positioning solving method under ideal Gauss circumstance was given.In accordance with the trait of Non-Line-of-Sight(NLOS) propagation delay obeying index distribution in the mobile communication environment,NLOS estimation and covariance correction method was presented to decrease the NLOS influence upon positioning accuracy.Simulation results show that the localization algorithm can effectively weaken NLOS error influence,its performance is better than Taylor and SI algorithms.Meanwhile,the proposed algorithm has good positioning performance in CDMA channel environments.


The invention relates to the field of ventilation air inlet of a crankcase of an automobile engine, in particular to a structure of an escape pipe of an air cleaner of an air inlet system. According to an anti-icing structure of a PCV opening of the escape pipe of the air cleaner of the air inlet system, the PCV opening outwards extends naturally to form a PCV opening connecting section; a PCV connector comprises a ventilation pipe section, a jointing face and an air outlet pipe section, the inner wall of the connecting position of the ventilation pipe section and the air outlet pipe section is in smooth transition, the jointing face is arranged at the junction of the ventilation pipe section and the air outlet pipe section, and the air outlet pipe section is inserted into the PCV opening connecting section; and the PCV connector is fixedly installed on the PCV opening connecting section through the jointing face in a sealing manner, the inner diameter of the air outlet pipe section is not smaller than the inner diameter of the ventilation pipe section, and the wall thickness of the end face of the ventilation pipe section needs to be designed as thin as possible. According to the anti-icing structure, the structure at the connector is reasonably arranged, condensate water of a curved through pipe is prevented from staying at the PCV opening, the extra space and the extra cost do not need to be additionally increased, poor ventilation caused by icing blockage of the PCV opening can be avoided, and the reliability of a vehicle in an extremely-cold region is improved.


Reported herein are the results of laboratory heat transfer experiments. These experiments were conducted to investigate fuel element temperatures which could result from coolant flow loss following a failure of the inlet piping to a process tube at a K reactor. The failure of the inlet coolant piping between the front header and the process tube on a reactor would cut off the flow of cooling water to the fuel elements but should immediately initiate a reactor scram by causing a low trip on the Panellit pressure monitor. However, the reactor power reduction would not be immediate nor absolute and would be dictated by the time required to insert the emergency control rods and by post-scram delayed fission and fission product decay heating. The only means of heat removal from the affected tube and fuel elements during the post-scram period would be by reverse flow of hot water from the rear header. The objective of the subject experiments was to determine what rear header pressures would be required to achieve adequate cooling of a K reactor fuel assembly during such a post-scram period. Such information is of value in updating of reactor hazards evaluation reports. Experimental studies were previously reportedmore » concerning failure of a front hydraulic fitting on a C reactor `Operational-charge-discharged` geometry. Preliminary experiments were also conducted for a standard K reactor coolant inlet geometry, but failure of the test section caused postponement of the program. The previous studies did indicate appreciable differences in the rear header pressures required for adequate post-scram cooling of the two assemblies and thus the C reactor data could not be applied to K reactor.« less


Flavonoids are found in fruits, vegetables, and certain beverages that have diverse beneficial biochemical and antioxidant effects. Tomato, onion, garlic, green chilies and potato were selected for the study as these are important ingredients in food in Pakistan. Almost all of these vegetables are used in routine food. Mango, pine apple, grewia asiatica, strawberries and orange were also studied for their flavonoid content because these fruits are considered to be a part of healthy food and also these are easily available in Pakistan. Products of these fruits and vegetables available in local markets were analyzed so as to make a comparison with fresh ones. Garlic paste, onion paste, chili paste, tomato ketchup and potato chips were used to make comparison with vegetables. Grewia asiatica juice, mango and strawberry jam, pine apple juice and tang orange were used for fruits. Six flavonoids ( quercetin, luteolin myricetin, kaempferol, rhamnetin and isorhamnetin) were used as standards. Analysis was carried out on HPLC in acidified 50% water: acetonitrile system at 30 c and 254 nm. Highest flavonoids in case of fresh vegetables fruits and were present in tomato (183.08 mg\kg) and strawberries (80.0 mg\kg) respectively. While in case of preserved products in strawberry jam (85.0 mg\kg) and garlic paste (177.0 mg\kg) respectively. This simply means that in case of tomatoes flavonoid content decreased due to processing but in case of strawberry jam flavonoid content increased due additives rich in flavonoids. Similarly, garlic paste contained highest flavonoid content in selected products. The objective of study was to analyze whether fresh fruits and vegetables or their products are rich in flavonoids, so, that we could have healthy food. So this study is very helpful in deciding about healthy food.


The purpose of this study was to integrate the image-analysis and the statistical-analysis with the treeing-data-capture software to establish Soft X-ray image-analysis method. This method could replace the traditional microdensitometer and develop the way to analyze the treeing image of the hard wood. Soft X-ray image analysis of Zelkova serrata, Cinnamomum camphora, and Michelia compressa in the Experimental Forest, College of Bioresources and Agriculture, National Taiwan University were selected for this study Early-wood and late-wood boundary was determined by the average density of Soft X-ray image analysis of Zelkova serrata, Cinnamomum camphora, and Michelia compressa. There were eight characteristic values within tree-rings were obtained by the treeing-data-capture software. Zelkova serrata belonged to ring-pored wood and its width of the late-wood was 3.3 times wider than the early-wood. The average density of Zelkova .serrata was 957.33 mg/cm^3. Cinnamomum camphora belonged to diffuse porous wood and its width of the early-wood was 3 times wider than the later-wood. The average density of Cinnamomum camphora was 520.35 mg/cm^3. Michelia compressa belonged to semi-diffuse porous wood and its ratio of the width of the late-wood and the early-wood was almost the same. The average density of Michelia compressa was 598.86 mg/m^3. The average density value of Zelkova serrata, Cinnamomum camphora, and Michelia compressa analyzed by the Soft X-ray image analysis was higher than the values in the review articles. The range of the maximum and minimum of the average density values were between 201.75 mg/cm^3 and 247.26 mg/cm^3 the range of the maximum and minimum of the amplitude of vibration values were smaller than conifers in Taiwan such as Picea morrisonicola, and Chamaceyparis formosensis, etc. The difficulties of verification of false tree-rings and inaccuracies of dating X-ray image tree-ring were caused by the small range of amplitude of vibration values.


In recent years, holiday law has been subject to major changes due to the case law of the ECJ and the Federal Labour Court. The legislator remained inactive. The paper examines the question of whether this judicial reshaping of holiday law respects the limits of interpretation and further development of the law or whether a new statutory regulation is necessary. The focus is on questions concerning the financial components of the holiday entitlement, such as holiday compensation and its inheritability, as well as the conversion of holiday entitlements in the event of changes in the scope of employment. Prior to this, the work critically analyses the EU legal requirements from the law of directives and the Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as their reception by the ECJ.


AIDs demand models are used to test if the generic promotion of fresh-cut flowers influenced the market shares for florists, supermarkets, and other retail outlets. Were the generic efforts outlet neutral? Generic promotions of fresh-cut flowers is shown to be outlet neutral while the brand advertising increased florists' market share.


Autophotography of a bioluminescent transconjugant of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris provided a reliable means to quantify the extent of bacterial invasion into cabbage (Brassica campestris). A single prophylactic treatment of fosetyl-Al at 4,800 mg kg -1 a.i. as a spray and drench reduced the invasiveness of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris on inoculated cabbage seedlings. Multiple treatments did not reduce invasiveness further. The effect of fosetyl-Al was immediate (within 1 h) and persisted for at least 21 days. The efficacy of fosetyl-Al treatments was more pronounced at 20°C and decreased as temperature increased; however, the data indicated a separate effect of temperature on disease development and no direct interaction between temperature and fosetyl-Al treatment.


Taking KFW2 series open-construction circuit breaker as an example, this paper introduced the application of virtual prototype technology in circuit-breaker optimization. ADAMS software was used to build up a circuit-breaker virtual prototype model to carry out simulation for movement conditions of circuit breakers. The real movement conditions of actual prototype was simulated to get the travel data of circuit-breaker each component at separating, test, contact positions and travel ranges of key components at test and contact positions were given. The results of analysis show that virtual prototype technology has provided new technology path for low-voltage circuit-breaker optimization.


A solar-blind ultraviolet detection technology-based insulator deterioration detection device includes an embedded main control computer; the embedded main control computer is connected with an aiming and positioning module through an A/D converter; a solar blind ultraviolet sensor, a temperature and humidity sensor, and a distance measuring module are respectively connected with a signal conditioning circuit and is connected with the embedded main control computer through the A/D converter; the embedded main control computer is connected with a principal computer (PC); the solar blind ultraviolet sensor is connected with the embedded main control computer through a drive circuit; the solar blind ultraviolet sensor is connected with an ultraviolet pulse detection circuit; and the discharge intensity of high voltage insulators can be detected through the number of ultraviolet pulses. According to the solar-blind ultraviolet detection technology-based insulator deterioration detection device of the utility model, ultraviolet intensity can be accurately tested based on solar-blind ultraviolet. Thus, with the solar-blind ultraviolet detection technology-based insulator deterioration detection device adopted, a reliable criterion can be provided for non-contact on-line prediction of insulator deterioration, and basis can be provided for condition maintenance of power transmission line insulators.


The childhood immunisation programme is an important public health activity in which the independent prescriber has a key role to play. This article explores how the independent prescriber can contribute to the effective operation of the programme.


Children with solid tumors, most of which are malignant, have an excellent prognosis when treated on contemporary regimens. These regimens, which incorporate chemotherapeutic agents and treatment modalities used for many decades, have evolved to improve relapse‐free survival and reduce long‐term toxicity. This review discusses the evolution of the treatment regimens employed for management of the most common solid tumors, emphasizing the similarities between contemporary and historical regimens. These similarities allow the use of historical patient cohorts to identify the late effects of successful therapy and to evaluate remedial interventions for these adverse effects. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2013; 60: 1083–1094. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Aim: to study the quality of life in adult patients with myasthenia, depending on the immunological subtype and the clinical form of the disease.Methods: 96 patients (56 women and 40 men) with myasthenia (71 with generalized, 25 with an ophthalmologic form, respectively) underwent in-depth clinical and neurological, immunological examination tests on MGQoL-15 scale.Results: When evaluated on the MGQoL-15 scale, the average quality of life was 10.34 ± 9.4 points (in ranging from 0 to 31). In patients with ophthalmic myasthenia (class I by MGFA), the quality of life is significantly higher in comparison with patients with generalized form (pl0.05). In the generalized form, quality of life indicators are significantly reduced with increasing severity of the disease (from class II to class IV by classification of MGFA, pl0.05). The level of quality of life does not depend on the detection of antibodies to acetylcholine receptors, antibodies to muscle-specific tyrosine kinase or their absence (pg0.05).Conclusions: The quality of life of patients with myasthenia depends on the severity of the disease and does not depend on the immunological subtype of the disease. The highest indicators of quality of life are observed in patients with ocular form of myasthenia, which is explained by the lesser influence of neurological manifestations of the disease on everyday life, habits, work of patients. Reducing the severity of manifestations of myasthenia leads to an improvement in the quality of life of patients


A program is under way to develop a data base for establishing navigation and guidance concepts for all-weather operation of rotorcraft. One of the objectives is to examine the feasibility of conducting simultaneous rotorcraft and conventional fixed-wing, noninterfering, landing operations in instrument meteorological conditions at airports equipped with microwave landing systems (MLSs) for fixed-wing traffic. An initial test program to investigate the feasibility of conducting automatic helical approaches was completed, using the MLS at Crows Landing near Ames. These tests were flown on board a UH-1H helicopter equipped with a digital automatic landing system. A total of 48 automatic approaches and landings were flown along a two-turn helical descent, tangent to the centerline of the MLS-equipped runway to determine helical light performance and to provide a data base for comparison with future flights for which the helical approach path will be located near the edge of the MLS coverage. In addition, 13 straight-in approaches were conducted. The performance with varying levels of state-estimation system sophistication was evaluated as part of the flight tests. The results indicate that helical approaches to MLS-equipped runways are feasible for rotorcraft and that the best position accuracy was obtained using the Kalman-filter state-estimation with inertial navigation systems sensors.


This study proposes a hybrid model for evaluating surface roughness in hard turning using a Bayesian inference-based hidden Markov model and least squares support vector machine (HMM-SVM). The model inputs are multidirectional fusion features that are extracted from the acquired monitoring signals through independent component analysis and singular spectrum analysis. Based on a detailed analysis of the workpiece surface formation mechanism, the cutting vibration signals are determined as monitoring signals and an experimental scheme based on the multifeed rate is designed. The error rate of HMM-SVM is further reduced by introducing the stratification factor comparison method rather than using the conventional probability comparison method. A five-step iterative algorithm is presented to select and optimize the training set, which effectively solves the problems of precision degradation and training data insufficiency. Experimental studies show that the proposed model can accurately predict the surface roughness in case of missing samples. The advantages of the proposed model over least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) and multiple regression approaches are demonstrated via statistical analysis. Note to Practitioners-As an alternative to traditional grinding, hard turning is an attractive machining method, in which surface quality is a crucial measurement index. However, under the scenario of sample missing, a straightforward and relatively accurate model for predicting surface roughness is challenging to establish using conventional strategies. This paper reports on a new HMM-SVM model based on Bayesian inference for modeling and predicting surface roughness in hard turning. The samples are classified based on the accuracy grade of surface roughness according to the GB/T1031-2009 standard using the expectation maximization algorithm and HMM, which is superior in small-sample classification problem. LSSVM is employed to estimate surface roughness. The effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated through experimental investigations. The reported methodology can also be extended to other related fields.