The recent outbreak of epidemic encephalitis in St. Louis (summer, 1933) attracted considerable attention because it seemed different in many aspects from other epidemics. First, the seasonal incidence did not correspond with that of the great European epidemics which occurred at the end of, or shortly after, the World War. The report of the Matheson Commission 1 gave a detailed review of the different epidemics, indicating that most of the cases occurring between 1917 and 1927 were observed during the first quarter of the year, with a climax in February or March. The same is true of the epidemics of encephalitis in the United States during the years 1918 to 1928. The St. Louis epidemic, like the Japanese epidemics of 1924 and 1927, occurred during the summer, with a maximum in August and September. It should be noted, however, that, according to the League of Nations Monthly Epidemiological Report for


STUDY OBJECTIVES
To investigate behavioral aspects and quality of life in children and adolescents with type 1 narcolepsy (NT1).

METHODS
We performed a case-control study comparing 29 patients with NT1 versus sex- and age-matched patients with idiopathic epilepsy (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 39). Behavior and quality of life were evaluated by self-administered questionnaires (Child Behavior Checklist, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory). Patient groups were contrasted and scale results were correlated with clinical and polysomnographic parameters, and cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1 levels.

RESULTS
Young patients with NT1 showed increased internalizing problems associated with aggressive behavior. Emotional profile in patients with NT1 positively correlated with age at onset, diagnostic delay, and subjective sleepiness, whereas treatment and disease duration were associated with fewer behavioral problems (attention problems, aggressive behavior, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Psychosocial health domains of pediatric NT1 were worse than in healthy controls, whereas the physical health domains were comparable.

CONCLUSIONS
Young NT1 patients show a discrete pattern of altered behavioral, thought, and mood profile in comparison with healthy controls and with idiopathic epilepsy patients thus suggesting a direct link with sleepiness. Further studies investigating behavior in patients with idiopathic hypersomnia or type 2 narcolepsy are needed to disentangle the role of REM sleep dysfunction and hypocretin deficiency in psychiatric disorders. Symptoms of withdrawal, depression, somatic complaints, thought problems, and aggressiveness were common, NT1 children perceived lower school competencies than healthy children, and their parents also reported worse psychosocial health. Our data suggest that early effective treatment and disease self-awareness should be promoted in NT1 children for their positive effect on behavior and psychosocial health.


Prolonged jaundice is defined as a serum bilirubin level higher than 85 μmol/L (5 mg/dl), which persists at postnatal 14 days in term infants and 21 days following the birth in preterm infants. It affects 2–15% of all newborns and 40% of breastfed infants. Although underlying cause can not be found in the majority of prolonged jaundice cases, this may also be the first sign of a serious causative pathology. Tests performed to determine the underlying cause and failure to determine the etiology cause anxiety for both families and physicians. The most important point is to determine whether prolonged jaundice is of a benign cause or is due to a substantial disease. For this reason, health care providers should not take unnecessary tests in normal infants, but should also recognize infants with a causative pathology. Neonatal jaundice still maintains its importance in neonatal clinical practice, since early diagnosis and treatment is feasible.


Background QR codes have played an integral role during the pandemic in many sectors, but their use has been limited in the health care sector, especially by patients. Although some authors have stated that developing specific content for women on how to cope with health problems could be an effective way to prevent problems, especially during pandemics, there is little research regarding the use of QR codes to promote health during a pandemic, and even fewer studies are focused on women. Moreover, although the importance of assessing these interventions from the users' perspective has been stated, research carried out from this point of view is still scarce. Objective This study aimed to assess the usefulness of using QR codes with information to promote women's health in the context of a pandemic. We also sought to design and validate a questionnaire to assess this. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among women in the gynecology waiting rooms of a reference hospital. Exploratory factorial analysis with the split-half method and Cronbach α values was performed for questionnaire validation. Univariant and bivariant analyses were performed to analyze the data obtained. Results In total, 186 women took part in the study. Exploratory factor analysis identified 2 domains: usability and applicability in medical practice. The Cronbach α value was .81. Overall, 83.7% of the answers to the first domain and 56.4% of those to the second were favorable. Women with university education or those who had used QR codes before scored better in the usability domain, while no differences were observed in the applicability scores. Conclusions Using QR codes in the gynecology clinics' waiting rooms can help promote women's health during a pandemic, regardless of their education level or whether they have used QR codes before. The questionnaire developed herein is a helpful tool to assess this. These findings are important for clinical practice. This research can be performed in other ambits, specialties, or countries.


Abstract In 2015, Montenegro's oppositional alliance Democratic Front (DF) launched 'Freedom Calling', a contentious campaign demanding regime change. Although presented as non-partisan, it did feature a party-stemming background. Thus, politics turned civil—meaning that the civil character was a disguise for a planned, creative party endeavour. Methodologically, the authors interpret the DF's campaign, elaborating on process tracing and applying Tilly and Tarrow's 'contentious politics' approach. They enquire into how the political-party background of the organizers influenced the unfolding of the contentious campaign, thereby addressing the role of parties as initiators of movements. This is especially pertinent in hybrid regimes with formally democratic institutions and persisting authoritarian practices. The Montenegrin case study of contentious (party) politics reveals that, while resources are available, the strong (ethno)political identity label of the party imposes constraints on the construction of a programmatic campaign.


This study investigated the direction of program development in emotional education through storytelling without separating intellectual education in current schooling. As the basic research on program development for elementary school students` emotional intelligence, this study examined how storytelling affects program development in emotional education, and the direction of program contents and structures using storytelling. Firstly, current storytelling and existing programs used for emotional education were analyzed and the direction of program development in emotional education was investigated. Secondly, the structures and procedures of programs for emotional education through storytelling were examined. Finally, stressed contents and items by each factor consisting of emotional intelligence related to the curriculum, and more discussions to consider were inquired. For systematic emotional education, there must be efforts made on developing contents of each factor comprising emotional intelligence; and teaching must be done through the interrelatedness among home, society and school. Furthermore, the construction of social system across the country is required. In conclusion, this study suggest the emotional education needs new curricula based on narrative, because it is dependent on personal emotions and situations.


White matter damage (WMD) is a primary cause of cerebral palsy and cognitive impairment in preterm infants, and no effective treatments are available. Microglia are a major component of the innate immune system. When activated, they form typical pro-inflammatory (M1) and anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotypes and regulate myelin development and synapse formation. Therefore, they may play a pivotal role in hypoxic–ischemic (HI) WMD. Herein, we investigated neural inflammation and long-term microglia phenotypic polarization in a neonatal rat model of hypoxia-ischemia-induced WMD and elucidated the underlying pathophysiological processes. We exposed 3-day-old (P3) Sprague−Dawley rats to hypoxia (8% oxygen) for 2.5 hr after unilateral common carotid artery ligation. The activation of NLRP3 inflammatory bodies, microglia M1/M2 polarization, myelination, and synaptic development in our model were monitored 7, 14, and 21 days after birth. In addition, the Morris water maze test was performed on postnatal Day 28. We confirmed myelination disturbance in the periventricular white matter, abnormal synaptic development, and behavioral changes in the periventricular area during the development of HI WMD. In addition, we found an association between the occurrence and development of HI WMD and activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, microglial M1/M2 polarization, and the release of inflammatory factors. NLRP3 inhibition can play an anti-inflammatory role by inhibiting the differentiation of microglia into the M1 phenotype, thereby improving myelination and synapse formation. In conclusion, microglia are key mediators of the inflammatory response and exhibit continuous phenotypic polarization 7–21 days after HI-induced WMD. This finding can potentially lead to a new treatment regimen targeting the phenotypic polarization of microglia early after HI-induced brain injury.


We consider stochastic learning dynamics in games and present a novel notion of robustness to heterogeneous players for a stochastically stable action profile. A standard assumption in these dynamics is that all the players are homogeneous, and their decision strategies can be modeled as perturbed versions of myopic best or better response strategies. We relax this assumption and propose a robustness criteria, which characterizes a stochastically stable action profile as robust to heterogeneous behaviors if a small fraction of heterogeneous players cannot alter the long-run behavior of the rest of the population. In particular, we consider confused players who randomly update their actions, stubborn players who never update their actions, and strategic players who attempt to manipulate the population behavior. We establish that radius–coradius based analysis can provide valuable insights into the robustness properties of stochastic learning dynamics for various game settings. We derive sufficient conditions for a stochastically stable profile to be robust to a confused, stubborn, or strategic player and elaborate these conditions through carefully designed examples. Then we explore the role of network structure in our proposed notion of robustness by considering graphical coordination games and identifying network topologies in which a single heterogeneous player is sufficient to alter the population's behavior. Our results will provide foundations for future research on designing networked systems that are robust to players with heterogeneous decision strategies.


PLANT SCIENCENew findings, published last week, appear to confirm suspicions that several key papers in a hot area of plant development were fatally compromised by scientific fraud. The results, published in the March issue of Plant Journal , stem from an investigation at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, which concluded last year that a laboratory technician falsified experiments forming the basis of 10 publications going back to 1992. The technician, Inge Czaja, and the leader of the group in which she worked, Richard Walden, resigned in early 1998 in the wake of the scandal, although Walden has never been accused of having any role in the fraud.


In this paper, modified circuit topologies of a differential voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a quadrature VCO (QVCO) in a standard bulk 90-nm CMOS process are presented for low dc power and low phase-noise applications. By utilizing current-reuse and transformer-feedback techniques, the proposed VCO and QVCO can be operated at reduced dc power consumption while maintaining extraordinary circuit performance in terms of low phase-noise and low amplitude/phase errors. The VCO circuit topology is investigated to obtain the design procedure. The VCO is further applied to the QVCO design with a bottom-series coupling technique. The coupling network between two differential VCOs and device size are properly designed based on our proposed design methodology to achieve low amplitude and phase errors. Moreover, the VCO and the QVCO are fully characterized with amplitude and phase errors via a four-port vector network analyzer. With a dc power of 3 mW, the VCO exhibits a frequency tuning range from 20.3 to 21.3 GHz, a phase noise of - 116.4 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset, a figure-of-merit (FOM) of -198 dBc/Hz, a phase error of 3.8° , and an amplitude error of 0.9 dB. With a dc power of 6 mW, the QVCO demonstrates a phase noise of -117.4 dBc/Hz, a FOM of -195.6 dBc/Hz, a phase error of 4° , and an amplitude error of 0.6 dB. The proposed VCO and QVCO can be compared with the previously reported state-of-the-art VCOs and QVCOs in silicon-based technologies.


ABSTRACT The preservation of tissue and organ architecture and function depends on tightly regulated interactions of cells with the extracellular matrix (ECM). These interactions are maintained in a dynamic equilibrium that balances intracellular, myosin-generated tension with extracellular resistance conferred by the mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix. Disturbances of this equilibrium can lead to the development of fibrotic lesions that are associated with a wide repertoire of high prevalence diseases including obstructive cardiovascular diseases, muscular dystrophy and cancer. Mechanotransduction is the process by which mechanical cues are converted into biochemical signals. At the core of mechanotransduction are sensory systems, which are frequently located at sites of cell-ECM and cell-cell contacts. As integrins (cell-ECM junctions) and cadherins (cell-cell contacts) have been extensively studied, we focus here on the properties of the discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1), a tyrosine kinase that mediates cell adhesion to collagen. DDR1 expression is positively associated with fibrotic lesions of heart, kidney, liver, lung and perivascular tissues. As the most common end-point of all fibrotic disorders is dysregulated collagen remodeling, we consider here the mechanical signaling functions of DDR1 in processing of fibrillar collagen that lead to tissue fibrosis.


Electrical-engineering students look upon electromagnetic-field theory as a difficult, abstract, and highly mathematical subject. The use of computer modeling and simulation is helpful in making the subject matter more accessible to students in electromagnetics and microwaves courses. In this paper, a complimentary two-dimensional time-domain field simulation software tool (MEFiSTo-2D Classic) is used to illustrate fundamental electromagnetic concepts that are traditionally described by mathematical formulas. The user-friendly interactive features and field animation capabilities of this software transform abstract electromagnetic-field theory into realistic images on the screen. Once the fundamental modeling concepts have been comprehended, students can create advanced structures to explore the subject matter further.


In this paper, we further analyze, test, modify and improve the high order WENO (weighted essentially non-oscillatory) (cid:12)nite di(cid:11)erence schemes of Liu, Osher and Chan [9]. It was shown by Liu et al. that WENO schemes constructed from the r th order (in L 1 norm) ENO schemes are ( r +1) th order accurate. We propose a new way of measuring the smoothness of a numerical solution, emulating the idea of minimizing the total variation of the approximation, which results in a 5 th order WENO scheme for the case r =3, instead of the 4 th order with the original smoothness measurement by Liu et al. This 5 th order WENO scheme is as fast as the 4 th order WENO scheme of Liu et al. and, both schemes are about twice as fast as the 4 th order ENO schemes on vector supercomputers and as fast on serial and parallel computers. For Euler systems of gas dynamics, we suggest to compute the weights from pressure and entropy instead of the characteristic values to simplify the costly characteristic procedure. The resulting WENO schemes are about twice as fast as the WENO schemes using the characteristic decompositions to compute weights, and work well for problems which do not contain strong shocks or strong re(cid:13)ected waves. We also prove that, for conservation laws with smooth solutions, all WENO schemes are convergent. Many numerical tests, including the 1D steady state nozzle (cid:13)ow problem and 2D shock entropy wave interaction problem, are presented to demonstrate the remarkable capability of the WENO schemes, especially the WENO scheme using the new smoothness measurement, in resolving complicated shock and (cid:13)ow structures. We have also applied Yang's arti(cid:12)cial compression method to the WENO schemes to sharpen contact discontinuities.


Regulating children's and adolescents' access to video games appeared on the agenda of media lawmakers from the 1990s on. Approaches in western democracies have largely followed the approach of industry self-regulation, resulting in a diverse set of different types of self-regulation systems. This study applies a comparative perspective on the actual rating practices, asking how far regulation systems differ systematically and how far these differences might lead to different rating decisions. The study analyzes both the set-up of three major western regulation systems (the German USK, the pan-European PEGI and the US ESRB) and the actual rating decisions in each of the three systems relying on secondary data at the aggregate level, individual rating decisions for 182 top-selling titles and a list of favorite video games of 744 adolescents in the US and Germany. Findings illustrate that each system has a distinct focus, according to which it regulates different video game use more strongly than the other systems.


Non penetrating or closed injury of the chest is one in which the skin and subcutaneous tissues are intact or if pierced course of missile has been such that neither the pleura nor pericardial sac have been injured or these spaces have no direct contact with the outside air. The application of blunt force to chest may result in injuires to the lungs, the heart, the large blood vessels, or the oesophagus. Such injuires may or may not be accompanied by external wounds of the chest wall or fracture of the ribs or the sternum1 Many-a-times these injuries are overlooked due to the fact that the chest wall made up of rigid structure of ribs will prevent the occurrence of them.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the risk of diagnosing prostate cancer on repeated biopsies in patients with fluctuating PSA values compared to patients with stable or regularly increasing PSA values.

MATERIAL
Retrospective study conducted on the 2000-2003 databases of 2 French teaching hospitals. Selected patients had a first negative prostatic biopsy, then at least one other series of prostatic biopsies. "Sawtooth" PSA was defined by a PSA value less than that of the previous assay. Other cases were described as "stepwise" PSA.

RESULTS
191 patients were included: 79 in the "sawtooth" group and 112 in the "stepwise" group. Prostate cancer was diagnosed in 53 patients (27.7%), on the second prostatic biopsy 39 cases. Prostate cancer was detected in 17 (21.5%) of the 79 patients of the "sawtooth" group. This proportion was not significantly different (p = 0.14) from that observed in patients of the "stepwise" group: 36/112 (32.1%). No significant difference in terms of age, stage, Gleason score and initial PSA was observed between patients with a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the "sawtooth" and "stepwise" groups.

CONCLUSION
In our study, the risk of diagnosing prostate cancer on repeated prostatic biopsies was not greater in patients with "stepwise" PSA compared to patients with "sawtooth" PSA.


Saltcedars (Tamarix ramosissima, T. chinensis, and their hybrids) have invaded riverways and lakeshores across the western USA and northern Mexico. In Montana, ornamental plantings of saltcedar have been hypothesized, to varying degrees, to be the origin of nearby, wild populations. To examine this hypothesis, we compared chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences from 36 ornamental and 182 wild saltcedars from Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, USA. We found that ornamental and wild population genotype frequencies were highly dissimilar. Also, genotype frequencies of hypothetical propagule populations under scenarios of random mating, self-fertilization, and clonal reproduction in the ornamental population were highly dissimilar to the genotype frequencies of the wild populations. Assignment tests indicated that the majority of wild genotypes originated from other wild plants, not from ornamental plants. However, ornamental plants could not be excluded as contributors to wild populations because all chloroplast and nuclear haplotypes found in the ornamental plants were found at some frequency in the wild. These findings suggest that while ornamental saltcedars are not the sole source of wild saltcedar, they do have potential to contribute genetic material to an invasion or re-establish a population after existing wild saltcedars are removed.


In a typical enterprise network, correct implementation of security policies is becoming increasingly difficult owing to complex security constraints and dynamic changes in network topology. Usually, the network security policy is defined as the collection of service access rules between various network zones. The specification of the security policy is often incomplete since all possible service access paths may not be explicitly covered. This policy is implemented in the network interfaces in a distributed fashion through sets of access control (ACL) rules. Formally verifying whether the distributed ACL implementation conforms to the security policy is a major requirement. The complexity of the problem is compounded as some combination of network services may lead to inconsistent hidden access paths. Further, failure of network link(s) may result in the formation of alternative routing paths and thus the existing security implementation may defy the policy. In this study, an integrated formal verification and fault analysis framework has been proposed which derives a correct ACL implementation with respect to given policy specification and also ensures that the implementation is fault tolerant to certain number of link failures. The verification incorporates boolean modelling of the security policies and ACL implementations and then formulates a satisfiability checking problem.


Part 1 The Child's Perspective of Death: Children's Understandings of Death - Striving to Understand Death Grieving Children: Can We Answer Their Questions. Part 2 The Child's Response to Life-Threatening Illness: Talking to Children About Illness The Child and Life-Threatening Illness Children and HIV: Orphans and Victims. Part 3 Children Mourning, Mourning Children: Grief of Children and Parents Children and Traumatic Loss How Can We Help The Role of School. Part 4 Innovative Research: World of Dying Children and Their Well Siblings The Empty Space Phenomenon: The Process of Grief in the Bereaved Family A Sampler of Literature for Young Readers: Death, Dying and Bereavement.


This paper presents organizational psychological examinations of two urban police stations in 2018. The examinations were initiated by the leaders of the organizations, with the aim of surveying the communication and the morale of the given organizational elements and exploring the background of increased employees' turnover. The research used interviews and questionnaires. For the second study, each employee of the police department was interviewed and completed a questionnaire. Thus, we got a complex picture of the morale, the communication, the quality of the relationships (trust, consistency, feedback, cooperation), the performance, and the employees' turnover in the organizations, which revealed many social phenomena such as the appearance of new generations (Y and Z) on the labour market. Thanks to the opportunities provided by the basic mental health care of the police force, this study not only presents a cross-sectional picture of the two organizational elements, but also describes typical organizational psychological considerations of today's police organization. It concludes that morale is typically influenced by two pervasive perceptions in the organization, which are a sense of organizational injustice and the negative approach of human nature experienced by the employees. We recommend changes in the human resource strategy to increase the weakened retention capacity of the organization. Currently community, social support and good relationships are the key sources of attachment for people to the organization, so it is essential to support them.


The steady statistics of a passive scalar advected by a random two-dimensional flow of an incompressible fluid is described at scales less than the correlation length of the flow and larger than the diffusion scale. The probability distribution of the scalar is expressed via the probability distribution of the line stretching rate. The description of the line stretching can be reduced to the classical problem of studying the product of many matrices with a unit determinant. The authors found a change of variables which allows one to map the matrix problem into a scalar one and to prove thus a central limit theorem for the statistics of the stretching rate. The proof is valid for any finite correlation time of the velocity field. Whatever the statistics of the velocity field, the statistics of the passive scalar in the inertial interval of scales is shown to approach Gaussianity as one increases the Peclet number Pe (the ratio of the pumping scale to the diffusion one). The first n < ln (Pe) simultaneous correlation functions are expressed via the flux of the squared scalar and only one unknown factor depending on the velocity field: the mean stretching rate. That factor can bemore » calculated analytically for the limiting cases. The non-Gaussian tails of the probability distributions at finite Pe are found to be exponential.« less


To the Editor .—Of primary concern was the patient selection. During the 15-year period reported, six therapeutic programs evolved. Each program was designed by the chiefs of surgery and radiology for the time periods stated and established by the Hospital Tumor Board irrespective of the individual patient. Adherence to the design of the program was consistent. The indication for postsurgical radiation therapy from 1948 through 1956 was the presence or absence of microscopically proven axillary lymph node metastases. Beginning in 1957 and through this series, each patient upon whom a radical mastectomy was performed received postsurgical radiation therapy. The 250-kv radiation therapy used initially was replaced by radioactive cobalt ( 60 Co) therapy in June 1957. The cobalt therapy was 5,000 rads to the axillary, supraclavicular, and mediastinal areas. The 250-kv dosage was calculated for each patient to achieve cancericidal level. From 1957 through this series, one individual served as head


[1] Mesospheric thermal inversions are investigated in a numerical simulation with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, an upward extension of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Community Climate Model. The seasonal character, spatial extent, and magnitude of the inversion layers are realistic during winter. In the model, the occurrence of wintertime inversions is a direct consequence of the rapid decay with height of vertically propagating planetary waves, which induces large temperature perturbations in the upper mesosphere to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium. The magnitude of the inversions is highly correlated with planetary wave amplitude, so that large inversions develop during episodes of planetary wave amplification. Gravity waves do not play a major direct role in the formation of the inversions because the largest thermal tendencies associated with gravity wave breaking occur well above the range of altitudes where inversions are found. However, gravity waves play an essential indirect role because they set up a critical line in the upper mesosphere where Rossby waves break in the mesospheric surf zone.


[1] High-resolution (km in space and hourly in time) surface currents observed by an array of high-frequency radars off Oregon are analyzed to quantify the decorrelation time and length scales of their near-inertial motions. The near-inertial surface currents are dominantly clockwise with amplitudes of 9–12 cm s−1. However, they appear asymmetric and elliptical as a result of counterclockwise inertial motions with magnitudes in a range of 2–5 cm s−1. The decorrelation time and length scales are computed from the decay slope of the near-inertial peak and the spatial coherence in the near-inertial frequency band, respectively. Decorrelation time scales of clockwise near-inertial motions increase from 2 days nearshore (within 30 km from the coast) to 6 days offshore, and their length scales increase from 30 to 90 km seaward possibly due to coastal inhibition. The local spatial coherence has an exponentially decaying structure for both clockwise and counterclockwise rotations, and their phases propagate northwestward (offshore) for clockwise and northeastward (onshore) for counterclockwise rotations.


These lectures are directed at a level suitable for graduate students in experimental and theoretical High Energy Physics. They are intended to give an introduction to the theory and phenomenology of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) as it is used in collider physics applications. The aim is to bring the reader to a level where informed decisions can be made concerning different approaches and their uncertainties. The material is divided into four main areas: 1) fundamentals, 2) perturbative QCD, 3) soft QCD, and 4) Monte Carlo event generators.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study is to assess to what extent the effect of childhood socioeconomic status on adult health could be explained by a higher prevalence of unhealthy behaviour among those with lower childhood socioeconomic status.

METHODS
Data were obtained from the baseline of a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands (13 854 respondents, aged between 25 and 74). Childhood socioeconomic group was indicated by occupation of the father, and adult health was indicated by perceived general health, health complaints and mortality. Adult socioeconomic status was measured by current occupation. Behavioural factors were smoking, alcohol consumption, Body Mass Index and physical activity. Relations were analysed using logistic regression models.

RESULTS
A clear association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and adult health was shown, as well as an association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and health-related behaviour, even after adjustment for current socioeconomic status. Physical activity shows the strongest relation with childhood socioeconomic circumstances. Behavioural factors explain the relation between childhood socioeconomic status and adult health for approximately 10%.

CONCLUSIONS
Childhood socioeconomic circumstances have an independent effect on adult health and health-related behaviour: the risk of health problems and health damaging behaviour is higher in lower childhood socioeconomic groups. The independent effect of childhood circumstances on adult health operates for a small part through unhealthy behaviour.


Encouraged by the success of deep learning in a variety of domains, we investigate the suitability and effectiveness of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) in a domain where deep learning has not yet been used; namely detecting confusion from eye-tracking data. Through experiments with a dataset of user interactions with ValueChart (an interactive visualization tool), we found that RNNs learn a feature representation from the raw data that allows for a more powerful classifier than previous methods that use engineered features. This is evidenced by the stronger performance of the RNN (0.74/0.71 sensitivity/specificity), as compared to a Random Forest classifier (0.51/0.70 sensitivity/specificity), when both are trained on an un-augmented dataset. However, using engineered features allows for simple data augmentation methods to be used. These same methods are not as effective at augmentation for the feature representation learned from the raw data, likely due to an inability to match the temporal dynamics of the data.


Knee cartilage biopsy is used to confirm the pathology in both clinical and experimental conditions and often guides diagnosis and therapeutic strategies. Current histopathological techniques are time consuming, induce tissue artefacts and often prevent further evaluation, once the tissue has been fixed. Hence, there is a potential need for a fast and nondestructive imaging technique for unfixed tissue. Near‐infrared, reflectance confocal microscopy (CM) allows real‐time, virtual sectioning of unstained, bulk tissue samples. This pilot study evaluates the use of CM in the assessment of meniscus histopathology in a series of 26 freshly‐excised human meniscus samples compared to standard light microscopy of stained sections. CM images of the meniscus show cell and matrix detail, depicting morphologic features of collagen and elastic fibres, vessels and nerve endings. In addition, crystal deposits of gout and pseudogout are also demonstrable. Thus, CM is a novel imaging technique that could enable the pathologist to make a rapid microscopic evaluation of cartilage in a fresh and unfixed fashion.


A Thesis Submitted to the Post-graduate School, Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria in Partial Fulfilment of the
Requirements for the Degree of:
Master of Science
in
Soil Science
DEPARTMENT OF SOIL SCIENCE
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA, NIGERIA.
JULY, 1987,


In the modern world, natural fiber reinforced polymer composites (NFRP) are gaining too much attention due to the lower manufacturing cost and favorable effects on the environment after use. Besides this, the processing problems of such materials always remain a challenge. The bio/natural fiber has some protective layers and coatings causing hindrance for good interactions with polymer for good performance characteristics. Although numerous processes are already developed for overcoming the processing parameters but the desired goals are still not achieved. This short review focus on some useful properties and pre-treatment of fibers used for the manufacturing NFRP along with problems associated with effective remedial solutions. The viewers of this paper will get the basic knowledge and may select the area to study further in this field.


Urbanization's rapid progress has led to many big cities, which have modernized people's lives but also engendered big challenges, such as air pollution, increased energy consumption and traffic congestion. Tackling these challenges can seem nearly impossible years ago given the complex and dynamic settings of cities. Nowadays, sensing technologies and large-scale computing infrastructures have produced a variety of big data in urban spaces, e.g. human mobility, air quality, traffic patterns, and geographical data. The big data implies rich knowledge about a city and can help tackle these challenges when used correctly. Urban computing is a process of acquisition, integration, and analysis of big and heterogeneous data generated by a diversity of sources in urban spaces, such as sensors, devices, vehicles, buildings, and human, to tackle the major issues that cities face. Urban computing connects unobtrusive and ubiquitous sensing technologies, advanced data management and analytics models, and novel visualization methods, to create win-win-win solutions that improve urban environment, human life quality, and city operation systems. This article introduces the concept of urban computing and its main application scenarios. It also discusses the key research problems and major methodologies of urban computing from the perspective of computer sciences. 城市化进程赋予我们现代化的生活,但 同时也带来了很多问题和挑战,如空气污染、 交通拥堵、能耗增加、规划落后等。由于城 市环境极其复杂,要解决这些问题在很多年 前看来几乎不太可能。近年来,随着感知技 术和计算环境的成熟,各种大数据在城市里 悄然而生,如交通流、气象数据、道路网、 兴趣点、移动轨迹和社交媒体等(如图 1)。 如果使用得当,这些大数据不仅可以及时反 映出城市中存在的问题,也可以用来解决城 市所面临的挑战。城市计算就是要用城市中 的大数据来解决城市本身所面临的挑战。通 过对多种异构数据的整合、分析和挖掘,来 提取知识和智能,并用这些智能来创造"人 -环境-城市"三赢的结果。 图 1 城市中的大数据


Plasma oxidation of methanol (CH3OH) in oxygen and nitrogen was investigated using two dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactors with or without Al2O3 as a catalyst and using a DC circle-to-plate (CTP) reactor. An AC power supply was used for the DBD reactors to generate corona discharges. A DC power supply, a 20-MΩ resistor, and a 100-pF capacitor were used to yield pulselike discharges. CH3OH was oxidized to formaldehyde (HCHO), carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO2). HCHO was the main product when using DBD reactors and without Al2O3. CO was the main product when using the DBD reactor with Al2O3 and CTP reactor. Al2O3 could inhibit CH3OH further oxidation. The energy efficiency of the DBD reactors decreased with increasing power input and power density. The energy efficiency of the CTP reactor peaked with 7 g CH3OH/kWh that was three times as high as that with the DBD reactors at the same power input. Furthermore, the power density of the CTP reactor was higher than that of the DBD reactors, implying that the CTP reactor could be used for CH3OH oxidation with a small discharge space volume. © 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2005


Objectives: Recent reports of delays in receiving care among U.S. Veterans have received national attention. Such delays may have an effect on veterans' propensity to seek healthcare as well, which could be detrimental to their health. There exists no evidence at the national level of the magnitude of perceived care delay in the Veterans Affairs (VA) system and how it compares to populations with other types of insurance coverage in the U.S. Study Design and Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed a recent nationally representative survey database (n = 10,907). Descriptive and multivariate regression analyses were performed to determine how care delay for veterans compares with the general population. Results: We found that 17.2% of Americans delayed seeking needed healthcare in 2010-2011, but the figure was 29% for veterans. Also, there was a significant association of care delay with VA health care coverage after adjusting for other personal factors and region of the country. Conclusions: Study results suggest a possible link between VA access problems and veterans' behavior in seeking needed healthcare, which may be creating disparities in the effectiveness of care for this vulnerable and deserving population. Our study provides evidence of self-reported care delay among veterans. More studies are necessary to further understand factors in relation to delaying seeking care among veterans.


Abstract Immature moral judgements, cognitive distortions and low empathy could contribute to criminal offending and are often targeted in interventions aimed at reducing risk of recidivism. We compared 58 delinquent 13–18-year-olds, incarcerated in youth homes in Sweden (29 males, 29 females) with 58 (29 males, 29 females) community control adolescents individually matched on age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic position. Self-report questionnaires examined moral judgement, cognitive distortions, and empathy. Delinquent adolescents exhibited less mature moral judgements and more cognitive distortions than control adolescents. However, no association between delinquency status and self-reported empathy was found. In addition, girls reported more mature moral judgements, less cognitive distortions and more empathy than boys did. Moral judgement and empathy were positively correlated and both measures were negatively correlated with cognitive distortions. Our data support the idea that moral judgement and cognitive distortions are important treatment targets for juvenile delinquents, whereas empathy may be less meaningful to address directly.


There have been many attempts to use various biomarkers, either alone or in combination, to predict preterm birth, such as serum corticotropin releasing factor, serum alpha-fetoprotein, vaginal or cervical fetal fibronectin, which is a good prognostic marker for its occurrence. In normal conditions, FFN is found at very low levels in cervico-vaginal secretions and levels greater than or equal to 50 ng/mL at or after 22 weeks have been associated with an increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth. Although FFN is commonly used in labour and delivery units to help in the management of women with symptoms of preterm labor, currently there is not sufficient evidence to recommend its use as a screening method. There is a clear need for further detailed analysis and studies in this direction, given that there are already plenty of evidence showing the link between negative fFN test and a lower incidence of preterm birth before 37 week of gestation.


Abstract. Compact toroid (CT) injection is a viable technology to fuel large tokamak reactors in the future. However, recent experiments indicate adverse effects of the toroidal magnetic field on CT injection. CT injection has so far been tested with horizontal injection which is subject to a force due to the gradient in the magnetic pressure along the path. Vertical injection eliminates the force and thus may be more advantageous. As preparatory experiments toward vertical injection, we have developed a curved drift tube to change the direction of CT propagation. It has been observed that a CT can be transported smoothly through curved drift tubes with 45o and 90o bends without appreciable change in the CT parameters. Magnetic field, electron densityand speed of CTs transported through both 45o and 90o bends are similar to those observed in a linear drift tube.


The Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) promotes the safety and soundness of regulated financial services firms and financial stability by strengthening the link between seniority and accountability. It seeks to address the concern that some senior bankers avoided accountability during the financial crisis by claiming ignorance or hiding behind collective decision-making processes. At the core of the SM&CR is a requirement for firms covered by the regime to identify and set out the responsibilities of their most senior decision-makers, who are accountable for actions falling in their area of responsibility. To enhance governance at regulated firms, the SM&CR will be extended in full from December 2018 to cover insurers as well as banking institutions.


Lymph node metastasis was analyzed quantitatively with 4 categories and relation to post surgical survival and recurrence pattern was studied in patients with pN2 primary lung cancer who underwent relatively curative or relatively noncurative resection of the tumors. There was no relation between metastatic coefficient and post surgical survival, however, better survival was observed when the metastatic ratio and metastatic frequency were low and metastatic mode was random or skip pattern rather than sequential pattern. Metastatic coefficient and metastatic frequency were higher in cases with recurrence in lymph nodes but the former was lower and the latter was higher in cases with recurrence in intra-pulmonary dissemination or metastasis. There was no relation between metastatic coefficient and distant metastasis but metastatic frequency was lower in cases with recurrence in distant metastasis. Cases with sequential lymph node metastasis showed a tendency of lymph node recurrence and intrapulmonary metastasis and those with random or skip metastasis of lymph nodes had a tendency of distant metastasis.


Author(s): Ghobrial, Michael Awni | Advisor(s): Rust, Val D | Abstract: Leadership is a recently researched topic that reflects a variety of different fields. In this study, theories, philosophies, and various definitions of leadership will be explored to answer one main question: Is leadership unique in terms of philosophy, theory, and practice as it pertains to athletics and academics? To answer this question, research within two prominent leaders in each realm, athletics and academics, will be explored. The four figures are: John Wooden, Jim Mora Jr., Warren Bennis, and Steve Covey. The findings show that leadership is in fact similar regardless of field, and as a result, synergy brought by this understanding could allow for growth in both departments.


In this paper, the ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber-based dough recipe for a conveyor belt used in high temperature conditions was developed. As a first step, the silica loading effect on the mechanical and rheological properties was determined. After selecting the proper coating dough recipe, dough properties were investigated for filler mica, instead of silica, and the influence of paraffinic oil was tested for both silica and mica fillers. The properties of the EPDM rubber blend were investigated with rheometer tests on the semi-finished materials and with mechanical and physical tests (tensile strength, elongation at break, density, hardness, abrasion, heat ageing tests) on the finished coating materials after a vulcanization process. Thermal degradation behaviors of materials were analyzed by the thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) system, and determination of chemical structure was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The physico-mechanical characteristics of EPDM rubber blends were increased with silica loadings. EPDM rubber demonstrates thermal resistance in the temperature range of 150C – 160C under normal conditions. As a result of the studies conducted, the heat resistance of the coating rubber material was raised to 200C by adding silica and paraffinic oil with a higher flash point into the EPDM dough mixture formulae.


OBJECTIVE
Cardiac rehabilitation programmes result in reduced morbidity and mortality and improvement of functional class. Behaviour of natriuretic peptides coupled to these programmes is not well established. Our study's objective is to evaluate the behaviour of natriuretic peptides in a sample of patients undergoing a cardiac rehabilitation programme.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Moderate to high-risk patients undergoing a cardiac rehabilitation programme were included. Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded. We performed four N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) plasma determinations: on the first and last programme day, before and after training. To evaluate functional capacity, a stress test before and after the exercise programme was performed. Eighty-three patients were included. Exercise produces increased levels of NT-proBNP, although in the last exercise session the increase was lower (35.91 vs. 31.49 ng/ml (P = 0.71)). Patients with left ventricular dysfunction present higher NT-proBNP levels. After the rehabilitation programme we observed a significant improvement of functional capacity by 1.5 METS on average (P = 0.001), but not in the subgroup with lower NT-proBNP levels.

CONCLUSIONS
Basal levels of peptides did not change significantly after the programme but rose with the workout, especially in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. Patients with higher baseline levels obtained greater functional recovery. We conclude that NT-proBNP measurement may be useful in selecting patients to perform a cardiac rehabilitation programme.


The loss of dental structure caused by endodontic treatment is responsible for a decrease in tooth resistance, which increases susceptibility to fracture. Therefore, it is important that minimally invasive treatments be performed to preserve the dental structure and increase the resistance to fracture of endodontically treated posterior teeth. To evaluate under axial loads, using the finite element method, the stress distribution in endodontically treated molars restored with both transfixed or vertical glass fiber posts (GFP) and resin composite. An endodontically treated molar 3D-model was analyzed using finite element analyses under four different conditions, class II resin composite (G1, control model), vertical glass fiber post (G2), transfixed glass fiber posts (G3) and vertical and transfixed glass fiber posts (G4). Ideal contacts were considered between restoration/resin composite and resin composite/tooth. An axial load (300 N) was applied to the occlusal surface. The resulting tensile stresses were calculated for the enamel and dentin tissue from five different viewports (occlusal, buccal, palatal, mesial and distal views). According to the stress maps, similar stress trends were observed, regardless of the glass fiber post treatment. In addition, for the G1 model (without GFP), a high-stress magnitude can be noticed in the proximal faces of enamel (7.7 to 14 MPa) and dentin (2.1 to 3.3 MPa) tissue. The use of transfixed glass fiber post is not indicated to reduce the stresses, under axial loads, in both enamel and dentin tissue in endodontically treated molar with a class II cavity.


Bioassy procedure to evaluate biologically available energy of chemicals applicable to rats was established, and available energy of 36 chemicals was determined and compared with that estimated by chicks previously. Rats can utilize energy of propionic and butyric acids and n-hexyl propionate and butyrate well, while chicks cannot. Succinic acid, lauryl alcohol and dilauryl succinate at 5.00 dietary level were available by rats, though at 10% level lauryl alcohol was toxic. Ethyl lactate, octyl and decyl acetates and 1, 2-propanediol dilaurate were available by both rats and chicks. Availability of other 6 esters including ethyl succinate and citrate was low. Availability and digestibility of aldehydes by rats were also low.


The Blom-Singer adjustable tracheostoma valve (ATV) is a new tracheostoma valve, introduced in 1992 to improve voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomy. Little research has been done to evaluate the benefits of this valve. Our study evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of using this device. Eighteen laryngectomized patients with a low-resistance Provox voice prosthesis received an ATV, using minimal selection criteria. The patients are evaluated according to a specific protocol. The effectiveness of the humidifilter, valve and fixation method and the benefits are evaluated. Approximately 66% of the 18 patients are still using the ATV. We report the differences between the current users and the dropout group. Patient factors are discussed that seem to have an impact on the effective use of the valve, such as age and mucus production. We consider the ATV to be a valuable device for fingerless speech in the laryngectomized patient.


Background Low back pain (LBP) is a common pain syndrome in athletes, responsible for 28% of missed training days/year. Psychosocial factors contribute to chronic pain development. This study aims to investigate the transferability of psychosocial screening tools developed in the general population to athletes and to define athlete-specific thresholds. Methods Data from a prospective multicentre study on LBP were collected at baseline and 1-year follow-up (n=52 athletes, n=289 recreational athletes and n=246 non-athletes). Pain was assessed using the Chronic Pain Grade questionnaire. The psychosocial Risk Stratification Index (RSI) was used to obtain prognostic information regarding the risk of chronic LBP (CLBP). Individual psychosocial risk profile was gained with the Risk Prevention Index – Social (RPI-S). Differences between groups were calculated using general linear models and planned contrasts. Discrimination thresholds for athletes were defined with receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. Results Athletes and recreational athletes showed significantly lower psychosocial risk profiles and prognostic risk for CLBP than non-athletes. ROC curves suggested discrimination thresholds for athletes were different compared with non-athletes. Both screenings demonstrated very good sensitivity (RSI=100%; RPI-S: 75%–100%) and specificity (RSI: 76%–93%; RPI-S: 71%–93%). RSI revealed two risk classes for pain intensity (area under the curve (AUC) 0.92(95% CI 0.85 to 1.0)) and pain disability (AUC 0.88(95% CI 0.71 to 1.0)). Conclusions Both screening tools can be used for athletes. Athlete-specific thresholds will improve physicians' decision making and allow stratified treatment and prevention.


In non-Western, medically plural societies, women experiencing mental distress invest greater faith in mystical-spiritual healing traditions than in biomedical psychiatry. In India as well, women predominate in magico-religious healing sites and are largely missing in psychiatric clinics. Psychiatric epidemiological data cite a ratio of one woman for every three men attending public health psychiatric outpatients' clinics in urban India. Indian state officials view this as 'under-utilization' by suffering women, attributing it to the greater stigma attached to women's mental illness that restricts help-seeking in public health facilities and/ or to the lower importance accorded to women's health generally. Anthropologists, feminists, and other scholars of cross-cultural mental health attribute these facts, variously, to the empowering aspects of possession-trance states for women in patriarchal settings, to the oppression of biomedical psychiatry that repels women and/ or to the phenomenological construal of femininity that explains women's greater affinity for afflictions related to spirit possession. However, all these explanations fail to speak for the complexity of women's help-seeking behaviors in urban Indian settings and this paper aims to reason why that is the case. The highly polarized scholarly debates tend to establish superficial dichotomies by romanticizing traditional healing sites as emancipatory to women and psychiatry as essentially oppressive. Modernizing agents such as the public health enterprise constructs mystical-spiritual sites as signifiers of women's backwardness. This paper argues for a more nuanced understanding that factors in the peculiarities of Indian psychiatry as well as traditional healing practices by adopting a comparative method that investigates both settings simultaneously.


Reference values for four arsenic species (inorganic As(III); inorganic As(V); dimethylarsinic acid DMA; monomethylarsonic acid MMA) in urine were evaluated for 101 male persons in northern Germany (46.9 +/- 10.5 y) applying anion exchange chromatographic species separation with on-line hydride-technique atomic absorption spectrometry (between-days imprecision 6.8-10.1%; 11.0-50.0 micrograms/l; n = 30; detection limits d. l. 1; 10; 2; 2 micrograms/l). DMA was found in 88.1% of the persons (x +/- s = 7.21 +/- 9.64 micrograms/g creatinine; median 4.02 micrograms/g; 95% < 22.5 micrograms/g) followed by As(III) (11.3%; median < d. l.; 95% < 0.54 microgram/g) whereas no MMA and As(V) could be found. Seafood consumption within the last 2 days led to higher DMA levels compared to having seafood more than 6 days ago (n = 43 vs. n = 42; 10.04 +/- 11.58 vs. 3.47 +/- 3.55 micrograms/g; p < 0.01).


Abstract: This paper aims to elucidate the sense of the category from postcolonial studies has been recognized as colonialidad del ser, which refers to those effects produced by the colonial scourge in the experience of the colonized subject. Beyond explaining colonialist or anti-colonialist, what is sought is to decentralize the discussion and raise it in ontological terms, and from there to recognize the arguments supporting a "naturally supposed ontological difference" laying on a lower level than those who are subject colonization and, therefore, of domination and denial. Keywords: Postcolonial criticism, colonialidad del ser, modernity / colonialidad,   colonial difference.


Every kind of exploration is touched in some way by a philosophy of persons; touched and often vitally enhanced. This collection sets out to mine this rich seam of influence, bringing together authors keen to strike new developments and applications. Together, they have put their philosophy of persons to work in fields as wide-ranging as the moral and the metaphysical, the practical and the political, the cultural and the cosmological. In doing so, they have drawn on and illustrated the depth and breadth of modern Personalist thought, demonstrating its crucial relevance to debates across the entire philosophical spectrum.

Whether they are familiar with the Personalist tradition or no, readers from every corner of the philosophical world will find much here to challenge and stimulate them. Most importantly, they will find a new and badly needed philosophical perspective.


Introduction: Sphaeranthus indicus Linn, an asteracid weed, has been studied by various researchers. The flower of S. indicus possesses biological activities like Nematicidal, Larvicidal, Piscicidal and others, for example, agricultural. Objective: The present investigation for the antiprotozoal activitiy of a methanolic extract (MeOHx) and the alkaloidal fraction (SAF) of the flowers of Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. has been undertaken. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in seven groups of the Paramecium sp. by using the hemocytometer technique. Different concentrations of MeOHx (50 and 100 μg / ml) and SAF (20 and 40 μg / ml) were applied. The percent mortality was calculated and the results were expressed by using the probit analysis. Results: There was no significant activity against the tested protozoa. Conclusion: Thus, the results of the present investigation suggest that MeOHx and SAF are not responsible for the antiprotozoal property of S. indicus.


The paper analyses the main opportunities and threats coming from dynamic changes in international trade development for the agricultural and food sector in Lithuania. It addresses the problem of market diversification in Lithuanian agriculture and food sector focusing mainly on: analysis of the Lithuanian trade before and after the EU accession, investigation of the dynamics of international trade flows in agri-food products, comparison of export geography of Lithuanian agri-food products before and after the accession, orientation of the exporters of agri-food products at international markets. To this end, the authors use statistical quantitative analysis which was supplemented with qualitative analysis of experts from both the public and private sector. The questionnaire for experts comprised questions investigating the current situation of the company; export share, future plans and orientation at the foreign markets, product development perspectives and market diversification strategies.


Transparent FAS-SiO2 nano-composite film on the surface of glass of hydrophobic property is prepared with sol-gel processing. The effect of each technological factor on hydrophobic property was studied. Surface morphology of was investigated by atom force microscope (AFM). The experimental results show that hydrophobic property of FAS-SiO2 nano composite film is better.


In contemporary American politics, partisanship is frequently characterized as excessive, even if some aspects of partisanship may fundamentally characterize the U.S. political system. To reduce partisanship in the process of drawing political districts, independent redistricting commissions and related forms of de-politicized systems for redistricting have been implemented in some states. This paper analyzes whether the presence of relatively independent redistricting also reduces partisanship in the voting behavior of congressional representatives elected from the relevant redefined districts. Contrary to the initial expectations of the authors, the evidence reviewed here suggests that politically independent redistricting seems to reduce partisanship in the voting behavior of congressional delegations from affected states in statistically significant ways. The authors conclude with notes about the study's implications for further research into redistricting and partisanship.


Background Despite its insulin sensitizing effects, pioglitazone may induce weight gain leading to an increased risk of development of insulin resistance. A novel sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, canagliflozin, provides not only glycemic control but also body weight reduction through an insulin-independent mechanism. The aim of this study was to investigate the combined effects of these agents on body weight control and insulin sensitivity. Methods Effects of combination therapy with canagliflozin and pioglitazone were evaluated in established diabetic KK-Ay mice and prediabetic Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. Results In the KK-Ay mice, the combination therapy further improved glycemic control compared with canagliflozin or pioglitazone monotherapy. Furthermore, the combination significantly attenuated body weight and fat gain induced by pioglitazone and improved hyperinsulinemia. In the ZDF rats, early intervention with pioglitazone monotherapy almost completely prevented the progressive development of hyperglycemia, and no further improvement was observed by add-on treatment with canagliflozin. However, the combination significantly reduced pioglitazone-induced weight gain and adiposity and improved the Matsuda index, suggesting improved whole-body insulin sensitivity. Conclusions Our study indicates that combination therapy with canagliflozin and pioglitazone improves insulin sensitivity partly by preventing glucotoxicity and, at least partly, by attenuating pioglitazone-induced body weight gain in two different obese diabetic animal models. This combination therapy may prove to be a valuable option for the treatment and prevention of obese type 2 diabetes.


This paper presents the development of a micro fuel cell (μFC) by polymeric micromachining technique. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is embedded in a gold-coated polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrate, on which the gas flow channels are fabricated by laser micromachining. The special Gaussian shape of the microchannel allows the continuous sputtering of a gold layer, which works as the current collector for the fuel cell. The packed fuel cell has been characterized by an electronic load system. At room temperature, the power output of the 3 cm2 micro fuel cell can reach 315 mW cm−2 when hydrogen and oxygen are supplied to the anode and cathode, respectively. When air is used for the cathode side, the power output can reach 82 mW cm−2. During testing, the hydrogen flow is set to be dead-ended. That means the utilization of hydrogen in the μFC is close to 100%.


Expansive soils are problematic due to the presence and consequent effect of their clay mineral constituents, which makes them show the volume change characteristics. The expansive and shrinkage behavior makes expansive soils unsuitable for direct engineering application in their natural form. In an effort to make them more practicable for different engineering applications, various additives and techniques are employed to improve the soil properties. Stabilization of soil with lime, cement, bitumen are expensive and therefore they are in need of an economic replacement. Further, replacement of expansive soils with good quality soil is quite uneconomical. The present investigation considers the effect of Egg Shell Powder (ESP) on expansive soil. The ESP Eggshell is a desecrate material from domestic sources such as poultries, hatcheries, homes and fast food hotels. Proper utilization of the ESP in conjunction with soil, if proved effective, could mitigate environmental pollution to larger extent. The Rock Dust (RD) which is being thought of as alternative to sand in the construction field, has been used, in proportion of 10-30%, in combination with optimum content of ESP for deriving maximum advantage of improving the engineering characteristics of soil. The sample of expansive clay has been extracted from Emani village of Duggirala Mandal of Tenali revenue division of Andhra Pradesh. The laboratory tests were conducted to find out the effect of these additives on consistency limits, compaction properties and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) at soaked condition. The purpose of the study is essentially to suggest the optimum combination to practicing engineers for use in various reengineering applications


Resting-state functional magnetic resonant imaging (rs-fMRI) is increasingly utilized for the investigation of normal and pathological brain activity. Rodent models play a key role in neuroscience research and neuroimaging studies that examine the neurophysiology that underpins the spontaneous fluctuations in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal, but translating this knowledge to humans assumes that both the BOLD fluctuations and the underlying neurophysiology are similar across species. This review begins by examining similarities and differences in anatomical features, acquisition parameters, and preprocessing techniques. Common functional networks are compared across species, and aspects of the BOLD fluctuations such as the topography of the global signal and the relationship between structural and functional connectivity are examined. The results of time-varying analysis methods, including windowed approaches, quasi-periodic patterns, and coactivation patterns, are compared across species. Applications demonstrating the use of rs-fMRI as a translational tool for cross-species analysis are discussed, with an emphasis on neurological and psychiatric disorders. Finally, open questions are presented to encapsulate the future direction of the field.


The contents of fatty acids, amino acids, mineral elements, crude protein and crude fat were determined in the seeds of Kosteletzkya virginica, which was a fine salt-tolerant and oil plant. Methods of analysis of fatty acids and amino acids were GC-FID and HPLC, respectively. Toxic heavy metals (Cd, Pb) and other mineral elements were analyzed by ICP-MS and ICP-AES methods, respectively. The results showed the content of crude fat varied from 16.160% to 18.860%, with the mean of 17.536%. Nine fatty acids were detected, the majors of which were Palmitic acid, Oleic acid and Linoleic acid. The unsaturated fatty acids (70.134%) predominated over the saturated ones (29.866%). The crude protein content varied from 22.740% to 28.240%. The total content of 17 amino acids varied in the range of 17.084 g/100 g-18.939 g/100 g, with the high contents of glutamate, aspartic acid and arginine. The contents of Ca, K, Mg, Fe and Zn in the seeds of Kosteletzkya virginica were 2.708 g/kg, 9.487 g/kg, 3.888 g/kg, 146.633 mg/kg and 21.547 mg/kg based on dry-weight, respectively. These results suggested that the seeds of Kosteletzkya virginica studied represented a potential nutritive supply, and they could be used for oil, food, fodder, health care and industry.


Hemodynamic analysis of coronary blood flow must be based on a statistically valid geometric model of the coronary vasculature. We have previously developed a diameter-defined Strahler model for the arterial and venous trees and a network model for the capillaries. A full set of data describing the geometric properties of the porcine coronary vasculature was given. The order number, diameter, length, connectivity matrix [ m,n] (CM), and parallel-series features were measured for all orders of vessels of the right coronary artery (RCA), left anterior descending artery (LAD), left circumflex artery (LCX), and coronary venous system. The purpose of the present study is to present another feature of the branching pattern of the coronary vasculature: the longitudinal position matrix [ m,n] (LPM), whose component in row m and column n is the fractional longitudinal position of the branch point on vessels of order n at which vessels of order m branch off ( m ≤ n). The LPM of the pig RCA, LAD and LCX arterial trees, as well as the coronary sinusal and thebesian venous trees, are presented. The hemodynamic implications of the LPM are illustrated by comparing two kinds of circuits: one, the CM + LPM model, simulates the mean data on the morphology (diameters, lengths, and numbers), CM, and LPM of vessels, whereas the other, the CM model, simulates the mean data on the morphology and CM without considering the LPM. We found that the LPM affects the hemodynamics of coronary blood flow especially with regard to the nonuniformity or dispersion of flow distribution.


ResearchSpace is an institutional repository of the University of KwaZulu-Natal which was developed to disseminate and manage digital materials created by researchers of our institution.


We report on an infrared spectroscopy study of mobile holes in the accumulation layer of organic field-effect transistors based on rubrene single crystals. Our data indicate that both transport and infrared properties of these transistors at room temperature are governed by light quasiparticles in molecular orbital bands with the effective masses m* comparable to free electron mass. Furthermore, the m* values inferred from our experiments are in agreement with those determined from band structure calculations. These findings reveal no evidence for prominent polaronic effects, which is at variance with the common beliefs of polaron formation in molecular solids.


Cross talk between Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and hepatocyte growth factor or MET receptor has turned out to be a major challenge in cancer treatment. Inhibitors targeting both receptors, when expressed at elevated levels, can significantly reduce cancer cell progression. In the present work, methanolic extract (of Mentha piperita) coated super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were prepared and tested for effective inhibition of EGFR and MET receptors. Extract encapsulated SPIONs (20 ± 5 nm) showed high stability (zeta potential −62.9 mV), antioxidant activity (96% at 1 mg ml−1) and non-haemolytic activity (upto 2.5 mg ml−1). Dose dependent inhibition of EGF and MET receptors by encapsulated SPIONs (IC50 = 67 μg ml−1) was three-fold higher when compared to Mentha piperita extract. Molecular docking analysis with identified bioactive compounds revealed lowest binding energies for 1,3,8-P-menthatriene (−7.89 and −6.59 kcal mol−1), DL-alpha-tocopherol (−7.32 and −5.98 kcal mol−1) and β-sitosterol (−9.22 and −6.27 kcal mol−1) towards EGFR and MET receptors, respectively. Hydrophobic interactions were found to be crucial for the best docked ligands' (β-sitosterol, 1,3,8-P-menthatriene and DL-alpha-tocopherol) mediated EGFR/MET inhibition, irrespective of their hydrogen bonding.


The challenges associated with handling uncertain data, in particular with querying and mining, are finding increasing attention in the research community. Here we focus on clustering uncertain data and describe a general framework for this purpose that also allows to visualize and understand the impact of uncertainty---using different uncertainty models---on the data mining results. Our framework constitutes release 0.7 of ELKI (http://elki.dbs.ifi.lmu.de/) and thus comes along with a plethora of implementations of algorithms, distance measures, indexing techniques, evaluation measures and visualization components.


PurposeUsing social cognitive career theory in tandem with gender role theory, the current research examines how instrumental and socioemotional mentor support experiences are linked to mentee career optimism among a sample of STEM graduate students. More specifically, this study examines how self-efficacy and school satisfaction mediate the relationship dependent on the gender of the student as well as the gender of the mentor.Design/methodology/approachA total of N = 828 (n = 408 women, n = 420 men) graduate students enrolled in one of 119 public STEM graduate programs in the USA participated in an online survey.FindingsResults suggest that student gender did not moderate the proposed mediation model. However, the instrumental support experiences → self-efficacy → career optimism mediation relationship was moderated by mentor gender with female mentors strengthening the relationship between mentor support experiences and optimism. Finally, same-gender mentor–student dyads experience consistency of school satisfaction regardless of instrumental mentor support experiences compared to the heterogeneous gender mentor–student dyads where school satisfaction is positively associated with mentor instrumental support.Originality/valueThis study expands Lent et al.'s (2015) social cognitive career model by providing an analysis of independent parallel mediation paths to examine the direct link between mentor support experiences and career optimism through self-efficacy and school satisfaction. Based on the findings, graduate programs should emphasize the importance of mentor support experiences and help graduate faculty explore how they can best provide mentor experiences to their mentees.


Existence of Bharat Radiation emission has been first predicted in 1998 to explain the experimental discovery of UV dominant optical emission from radioisotopes and XRF (X-ray fluorescent) sources by a previously unknown atomic phenomenon. Presence of Bharat Radiation wavelengths has been shown for the first time in the wavelength gap in electromagnetic spectrum situated in between X-ray and the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths in the revised Rb XRF spectrum. For evidence of Bharat Radiation, a comparison of the solar spectrum reported by various researchers since 1960 with the revised Rb XRF spectrum met with unexpected success. The three distinct solar spectral ranges remained unrecognized for the last half a century are now identified as of X-rays up to 12.87 nm, Bharat Radiation from 12.87 to 31 nm, and EUV from 31 nm onwards. Evidence of Sun's Bharat Radiation emission implies a fundamental change in our understanding the Sunlight phenomenon from the traditional belief that fusion powers Sun light. This new insight supports the previously reported author's view that γ-, X-, and β emissions from fission products (radioisotopes) of U fission taking place on Sun's visible surface cause Bharat Radiation followed by EUV and UV dominant optical emission.


A systematic study of waveguides fabricated by K/sup +/-Na/sup +/ exchange in soda-lime silicate and BK7 glasses is presented. The measured K/sup +/ concentration profile, the refractive index profile, and the diffusion profile obtained by solving the one-dimensional diffusion equation are correlated to explain the differences in the index profiles in the two glasses. The mobility of the potassium ions was measured by fabricating waveguides using electromigration. Surface waveguides formed by diffusion from a molten KNO/sub 3/ salt bath were buried by applying an electric field. Single-mode channel waveguides for operation at a wavelength of 1.3 mu m that exhibit excellent mode matching with conventional optical fibers, achieving a fiber-waveguide insertion loss of less than 1 dB for a 20-mm-long waveguide, have been obtained. >


The post-pneumonectomy syndrome is a rare complication consisting of rotation and herniation of the mediastinal structures, the remaining lung and the respective bronchi, into the contralateral hemithorax. This situation may produce symptomatic airway obstruction and varies in its presentation and severity. We describe one case of right and one of left pneumonectomy syndrome as well as one case of post-lobectomy syndrome. We review the literature on the pathophysiology, the clinical, radiological and bronchoscopic characteristics of this rare entity and discuss all available therapeutic alternatives.


The present state of the theory and the main experimental results are reviewed for systems in which the antiferromagnetic ordering is directly due to a peculiar topology of the Fermi surface, i.e., to the presence of nested electron and hole sheets. A familiar example of such a system is chromium, which supports a spin-density wave (SDW) that is incommensurate with the lattice. For this reason much of the experimental material discussed in this review is for chromium and its alloys with transition and nontransition metals. The theoretical description of SDWs of this type is based on the excitonic insulator model, which is discussed in detail not only in connection with the phase diagrams and SDW structure but also in regard to the electronic properties of systems of this type (measurements of the de Haas-van Alphen effect, optical measurements, band-structure calculations from first principles, etc.). The review concludes with a discussion of less-studied transition-metal compounds which apparently also support a SDW state due to a peculiar topology of the Fermi surface.


The purpose of local governments is to facilitate the well-being of communities and regions. Through the provision of different public goods and services local governments have the mission to provide security and stable conditions for individuals and firms by ensuring the necessary public infrastructure and amenities for their activities in the region, such as water supply, roads, waste disposal, parks, schools, and other public functions decentralized in the case of federal systems, among others. Many of these public goods and services are ICT-enabled, and therefore are included within the local digital government strategy. This is the context of digital government initiatives in municipal governments. The critical question for any local government in terms of digital government initiatives is how should they be provided and financed? Assessing this question of whether these ICT-enabled goods and services related to digital government might be more likely to be provided and funded, this article propose a model that embraces the concepts of public good and externalities from the economic perspective in order to provide a useful basis for developing a framework for financing digital government. This article describes a proposal for this framework based on these concepts and applies it in the case of several digital government initiatives undertaken by the City of Aguascalientes, Mexico. This framework applies to local as well as state and national levels of governments. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


OBJECTIVE
To conduct a comprehensive quantitative analysis about the association between genetic polymorphisms of CYP 2E1 and susceptibility to Chinese gastric cancer in order to offer evidence-based evidence for the etiology of gastric cancer.

METHODS
Using the keywords and entry terms of cytochrom P450 2E1, cytochrome P450, CYP 2E1, stomach neoplasms, individual susceptibility, gene polymorphism, risk factors in English and Chinese, we searched medical literature databases, such as Pub Med, Embase, CBM, VIP, CNKI, China Info, published from January 1 th, 1997 to December 31 th, 2016, the Chines population was selected as the research object. Metaanalysis was performed using Stata 14. 0 in literature that selected quality studies of original literatures of more than 6 stars.

RESULTS
There were 10 high-quality original articles covering high, middle and low incidence areas of gastric cancer in our country, with 832 cases and 1018 controls were included, which fit the HWE test. The population with CYP 2E1 C1C2 genotype have a lower risk of developing gastric cancer than the population with CYP 2E1 C1C1 genotype( OR = 0. 650, P < 0. 001, 95% CI 0. 515-0. 821); Subgroup-analysis result reveals that, in smaller sample size population with CYP 2E1 C1C1 genotype have a gastric cancer risk of 2. 02 times the risk of having gastric cancer with CYP 2E1 C1C2 and C2C2 genotypes( P < 0. 001, 95% CI 1. 55-2. 64), in bigger sample size population with CYP 2E1 C1C1 genotype have a gastric cancer risk of0. 93 times the risk of having gastric cancer with CYP 2E1 C1C2 and C2C2 genotypes( P = 0. 586, 95% CI 0. 71-1. 22), in overall sample size population with CYP 2E1 C1C1 genotype have a gastric cancer risk of 1. 50 times the risk of having gastric cancer with CYP 2E1 C1C2 and C2C2 genotypes( P = 0. 006, 95% CI 1. 12-2. 00).

CONCLUSION
The size of the sample is an important factor affecting the result. The small sample size of the study tends to get positive result. Whether CYP 2E1 C1C1 genotype of the population is a risk factor for gastric cancer remains to be further studied.


Background. The Lacandon mojarra, Eugerres castroaguirrei Gonzalez-Acosta et Rodiles-Hernandez, 2013, was described from the Grijalva–Usumacinta River basin (Mexico). According to the diagnosis E. castroaguirrei differs from the only other freshwater Gerreidae, the Mexican mojarra, Eugerres mexicanus (Steindachner, 1863) by the combination of certain morphological characters. However, a comparison of materials obtained in the Usumacinta River, besides of type materials and other preserved specimens, yielded contradictory results. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to clearly determine if E. mexicanus and E. castroaguirrei are subjective synonyms applying morphological and molecular analyses. Materials and methods. A total of 44 specimens were included in this study including the specimens collected specifi cally for this study, the type and non-type materials of Eugerres castroaguirrei from Coleccion de Peces de El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico, and the types of Eugerres mexicanus, belonging to the Museum of Natural History, Wien, Austria. The morphological comparison also included data from the 42 specimens of E. castroaguirrei reported in the new species description. Biometric data were analysed as body proportions. We used Friedman's test to compare our biological materials with those used in the new species description. Molecular genetics comparisons on both putative freshwater gerreid species were made based on three mitochondrial gene fragments: 12SrRNA, 16SrRNA, and Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I (COI), and the nuclear gene: Recombination-Activating protein 1 (RAG1). Results. Neither the non-parametric Friedman's test nor the Nemenyi's procedure showed differences among individuals for both putative species in multiple pair-wise comparisons of body proportions. Moreover, the genetic divergence from all genes indicated that all individuals exhibited almost identical sequences, with inter-specifi c pair-wise genetic distances that ranged from 0.00% to 0.100% in all of the fragments. Conclusion. Our morphological and molecular genetics analyses demonstrated that E. mexicanus and E. castroaguirrei are subjective synonyms, therefore, Eugerres mexicanus (Steindachner, 1863) must be considered a valid species name, and Eugerres castroaguirrei Gonzalez-Acosta et Rodiles-Hernandez, 2013 a junior synonym.


In heptane and aqueous NaCl systems containing diethylhexyl sodium sulphosuccinate (AOT) very low interfacial tensions, γ, can be attained. For fixed temperature (T) and salt concentration, γ falls as the AOT concentration increases and levels off at a value of γC at a concentration (the critical micelle concentration, c.m.c.) corresponding to the onset of surfactant aggregation in either the aqueous or oil phase, depending on T and salt concentration. For a given T, at low salt concentration AOT resides in the aqueous phase both below and above the c.m.c. At higher salt concentrations surfactant transfers to the oil phase and leaves the aqueous phase close to the c.m.c. expected if no excess of oil were present, but devoid of micelles. In this case the oil phase is shown to be a dilute water-in-oil microemulsion. The transition between behaviour at high and low salt concentrations corresponds to the attainment of a minimum γC. The variation in γC with salt concentration is in part a consequence of the way in which the c.m.c. and the surfactant activity coefficients change with salt concentration. The minimum γC occurs when the apparent degree of dissociation of surfactant in the micelle and at the oil–water interface are equal and close to zero.


The tremendous advancement of cardiac imaging methods, the substantial progress in predictive modelling, along with the amount of new investigative multimodalities, challenge the current technologies in the cardiology field. Innovative, robust and multimodal tools need to be created in order to fuse imaging data (e.g., MR, CT) with mapped electrical activity and to integrate those into 3D biophysical models. In the past years, several cross-platform toolkits have been developed to provide image analysis tools to help build such software. The aim of this study is to introduce a novel multimodality software platform dedicated to cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy guidance: MUSIC. This platform was created to improve the image-guided cardiovascular interventional procedures and is a robust platform for AI/Deep Learning, image analysis and modelling in a newly created consortium with international hospitals. It also helps our researchers develop new techniques and have a better understanding of the cardiac tissue properties and physiological signals. Thus, this extraction of quantitative information from medical data leads to more repeatable and reliable medical diagnoses.


Aviation, a serious sector, is required to recourse planning intensively. There is a need for foresight in order to eliminate the planless that can lead to high costs and prevent accidents that could cause to fatal consequences. Without doubt, considering inexperienced pilot candidates this situation comes into prominence for profit-oriented flight training organizations. This study contains extracting time series of airworthiness and forecasting amount of daily airworthiness time based on NARX (Nonlineer Auto Regressive Exogenous) neural network models.


We review recent lattice QCD activities with emphasis on the impact on nuclear physics. In particular, the progress toward the determination of nuclear and baryonic forces (potentials) using Nambu-Bethe-Salpeter (NBS) wave functions is presented. We discuss major challenges for multi-baryon systems on the lattice: (i) signal to noise issue and (ii) computational cost issue. We argue that the former issue can be avoided by extracting energy-independent (non-local) potentials from time-dependent NBS wave functions without relying on the ground state saturation, and the latter cost is drastically reduced by developing a novel "unified contraction algorithm." The lattice QCD results for nuclear forces, hyperon forces and three-nucleon forces are presented, and physical insights are discussed. Comparison to results from the traditional Lüscher's method is given, and open issues to be resolved are addressed as well.


Background:Emicizumab, a humanized bispecific antibody, has been approved for the prophylactic treatment of hemophilia A in patients with and without inhibitors. Both activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) based FVIII:C and inhibitor assays, as well as select chromogenic FVIII:C assays have been reported to be affected in the presence of emicizumab.
 Aims:To assess the effect of emicizumab spiked at 0, 25, 50, and 100 ug/mL into congenital FVIII deficient plasma, containing FVIII inhibitor at 0, 1 and 5 BU, in seven commonly used APTT and chromogenic based FVIII:C assays. Samples were also tested in an APTT and chromogenic based FVIII Nijmegen inhibitor assay.
 Methods:Four IVD approved, APTT based FVIII:C assays and three chromogenic FVIII:C assays were evaluated (Table 1). In addition, FVIII inhibitor levels were measured by Nijmegen Bethesda assay using either APTT (Actin®FSL, Siemens Healthcare) or chromogenic based (FVIII Chromogenic Assay, Siemens Healthcare) FVIII:C assays.
 Results:Reagent and dose-dependent increases in FVIII:C were observed for all APTT reagents tested as well as for the BIOPHEN FVIII:C chromogenic assay. The presence of low or high titer inhibitors did not impact APTT based FVIII:C measured. Neither of the two chromogenic FVIII:C assays, using bovine based FX and FIXa (i.e. FVIII Chromogenic Assay and Coatest®SP4) demonstrated measurable FVIII levels at any of the emicizumab concentrations tested. FVIII Nijmegen Bethesda inhibitor results using APTT based FVIII:C, when tested in the presence of emicizumab, consistently produced false negative results (Table 1) whereas results determined using the FVIII Chromogenic Assay measured inhibitor titers at expected concentrations.
 Conclusion:Confirming previously published results, emicizumab interferes in the APTT based FVIII:C and Nijmegen Bethesda inhibitor assays. Even at low emicizumab concentrations, false negative inhibitor titers are measured in APTT based inhibitor assays. Using a bovine based chromogenic FVIII:C assay is imperative when measuring both FVIII:C and FVIII inhibitors in samples containing emicizumab.

 Tiefenbacher: Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings:Current Employment, Current equity holder in private company;Novo Nordisk:Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Shire:Honoraria;Octapharma:Honoraria;Siemens Healthcare:Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;BioMarin:Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


Cu2O microcrystals are electrodeposited on an epitaxial GaN layer on a Si(111) substrate to improve the solar water splitting efficiency of a GaN photoanode. The performance of the GaN/Cu2O composite junction photoanode is investigated as a function of the Cu2O deposition amount for Cu2O microcrystal formation. For optimum Cu2O deposition amount, the photocurrent density is significantly enhanced compared to that of the bare GaN photoanode. The improved water splitting performance is attributed to the built-in electric field and band offsets of the n-GaN/p-Cu2O heterostructure, promoting the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes and the transport of the hole to the surface.


The jury consisting of Nils B Weidmann (University of Konstanz), Anita Gohdes (Hertie School of Governance) and Michael D Ward (Duke University) has awarded the seventh JPR Best Visualization Award to Stijn van Weezel (University College Dublin). The prize-winning publication is a research article titled 'On climate and conflict: Precipitation decline and communal conflict in Ethiopia and Kenya' and was published in the July issue (Journal of Peace Research 56(4): 514–528). The article studies how climate change and the resulting shifts in precipitation patterns affect the propensity of communal conflict in the Horn of Africa. Graphical illustrations are used to show the overall magnitude of the rainfall anomalies, but also their varying spatial extent. Before applying more complicated regression models, the author presents simple bivariate results graphically, illustrating that the frequency of communal conflict seems to be higher in areas affected by droughts. When analyzing the predictive accuracy of the regression models, visual aids are used to compare models that include rainfall variables and those that do not. This is an effective way to show that most of the predictive power of the models seems to be driven by other variables, based on which the author cautions against strong expectations regarding the link between precipitation and violent conflict. Overall, this article nicely demonstrates how graphical means can help to illustrate patterns in data and statistical results in different parts of an empirical research project.


Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of intensive pitavastatin therapy on glucose control in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods: Patients who had ACS with significant stenosis on initial coronary angiography and received successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China from August 2015 to January 2016 were enrolled in this study. The patients were randomized to receive pitavastatin (4 mg daily) or atorvastatin (20 mg daily). PCI was performed within 72 hours after admission according to the current clinical practice at the physician's discretion. The examinations of blood lipid levels and blood markers of glucose metabolism were performed at baseline and after 6-month follow-up using standard techniques. The inflammatory markers, including white blood cell, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and fibrinogen, were also assessed before PCI and 24 hours after PCI. An independent adverse event assessment committee evaluated major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and any other adverse events. Results: A total of 132 patients were enrolled and randomly divided into the pitavastatin group (n = 65) or the atorvastatin group (n = 67), which had similar baseline characteristics and PCI procedural characteristics. For the inflammatory biomarkers at 24 hours after PCI, the fibrinogen level was significantly increased in the atorvastatin group; the hs-CRP levels were significantly increased in both groups, however, the hs-CRP level in the pitavastatin group was lower than that in the atorvastatin group. In addition, the blood lipid parameters (e.g., TC, LDL-C, TG, non-HDL-C and Apo B) were significantly decreased in both groups after 6-month follow-up (P < 0.01), but these parameters between the two groups had no significant difference. After 6-month follow-up, the FPG, IRI, HOMA-IR and HbA1c levels were significantly decreased in the pitavastatin group (P < 0.05) but slightly increased in the atorvastatin group, indicating that the glucose homeostasis was improved in patients in the pitavastatin group but not in the atorvastatin group. Furthermore, the incidence of MACE was not significantly different between the two groups (P > 0.05). After 6-month antiplatelet treatment, the PAR value was significantly decreased in both groups (P < 0.01), but the PAR value in the pitavastatin group was lower than that in the atorvastatin group. Conclusion: Pitavastatin therapy may improve the glucose homeostasis for patients with ACS undergoing PCI and has more favorable outcomes than atorvastatin therapy.


With an aim to evaluate dye decolorization by white rot fungus on natural living conditions, reproducing by solidstate fermentation, the process of triphenylmethane dyes decolorization using the white rot fungus P. ostreatus BP, cultivated on rice straw solid-state medium, has been demonstrated. Three typical dyes, including malachite green, bromophenol blue, and crystal violet, were almost completely decolorized by the fungus after 9 days of incubation. During the process of dye decolorization, the activities of enzyme secreted by the fungus, and the contents of soluble components, such as phenolic compounds, protein, and sugar, changed regularly. The fungus could produce ligninolytic, cellulolytic, and hemicellulolytic enzymes and laccase was the most dominant enzyme in solid-state medium. Laccase, laccase isoenzyme, and the laccase mediator could explain the decolorization of malachite green, bromophenol blue, and crystal violet by the fungus in solid medium, respectively. It is worth noting that the presence of the water-soluble phenolic compounds could stimulate the growth of fungus, enhance the production of laccase, and accelerate dye decolorization.


Cognitive and behavioural deficits, including increased impulsivity and perseveration, are associated with chronic prenatal ethanol exposure (CPEE) in humans. We tested whether these same deficits occur in the guinea pig after CPEE treatment. Pregnant guinea pigs received oral administration of ethanol (4 g/kg maternal body weight/day), or isocaloric-sucrose/pair-feeding throughout gestation. Young adult offspring were trained in lever-pressing paradigms to work for a sucrose-pellet food reward. CPEE increased No-Go, but not Go, responses in the Go/No-Go paradigm, indicative of a disinhibition deficit in these animals. Perseverative responses in the Cued Alternation task were also increased in CPEE offspring. These data show that CPEE induces behavioural deficits in the guinea pig that are remarkably similar to the executive function deficits that follow prenatal ethanol exposure in humans.


Streetwork has proved its worth as a method that is useful in AIDS work. The emphasis is on rendering direct help to the affected persons. This help has indirectly a preventive effects as well because it initiates and supports action that is directly related to social care. Self-initiatives of patients with a positive HIV finding should be given support and should be promoted by communal bodies. AIDS help offers must be re-examined and changes appropriately in accordance with the requirements of the patients and the acceptability of the measures. The AIDS or HIV patients themselves must be basically involved in this permanent orientation process.


A wind field model can be used to evaluate the accuracy of pointwise ambiguity removal for NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) data. Errors in pointwise ambiguity removal result in large model-fit errors when the pointwise wind estimates are assimilated into the model. By thresholding the error, regions containing ambiguity removal error can be identified. For these regions, the ambiguity selection can be improved using the model-fit field. I have developed a new automated algorithm for evaluating the quality of the pointwise ambiguity selection and for correcting the ambiguity selection. This paper presents this correction algorithm, which is generally applicable to other scatterometers, and the results for NSCAT data.


We present a dual polarised multibeam antenna intended for use in a PCS (1850-1990 MHz) base station. Although the coupling between adjacent antenna columns is quite high the radiation patterns and cross-polar characteristics are satisfactory. The port-to-port isolation between polarisations is also limited by inter-array coupling but still exceeds 22 dB in the frequency band.