Diffusion models have revolutionized text-to-image generation with its exceptional quality and creativity. However, its multi-step sampling process is known to be slow, often requiring tens of inference steps to obtain satisfactory results. Previous attempts to improve its sampling speed and reduce computational costs through distillation have been unsuccessful in achieving a functional one-step model. In this paper, we explore a recent method called Rectified Flow, which, thus far, has only been applied to small datasets. The core of Rectified Flow lies in its \emph{reflow} procedure, which straightens the trajectories of probability flows, refines the coupling between noises and images, and facilitates the distillation process with student models. We propose a novel text-conditioned pipeline to turn Stable Diffusion (SD) into an ultra-fast one-step model, in which we find reflow plays a critical role in improving the assignment between noise and images. Leveraging our new pipeline, we create, to the best of our knowledge, the first one-step diffusion-based text-to-image generator with SD-level image quality, achieving an FID (Frechet Inception Distance) of $23.3$ on MS COCO 2017-5k, surpassing the previous state-of-the-art technique, progressive distillation, by a significant margin ($37.2$ $\rightarrow$ $23.3$ in FID). By utilizing an expanded network with 1.7B parameters, we further improve the FID to $22.4$. We call our one-step models \emph{InstaFlow}. On MS COCO 2014-30k, InstaFlow yields an FID of $13.1$ in just $0.09$ second, the best in $\leq 0.1$ second regime, outperforming the recent StyleGAN-T ($13.9$ in $0.1$ second). Notably, the training of InstaFlow only costs 199 A100 GPU days. Project page:~\url{https://github.com/gnobitab/InstaFlow}.


ANALYSIS OF LAND CARRYING CAPACITY AND ITS POTENCY FOR BEEF CATTLE DEVELOPMENT IN PAKAKAAN MINAHASA REGENCY. This study has been conducted in The PAKAKAAN, Minahasa Regency on February 2 nd - April 5 th 2014. The study aimed to: identify and calculate the carrying capacity of the land as a source of forage feed. Method of analysis that used in this study was descriptive analysis, where the research locations was selected by purposive sampling method, with consideration that the area is agropolitan region, in which beef cattle as the main commodity. Data collected were included secondary data. Secondary data were from: a) Minahasa Statistics Center Bureau, b) the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Agriculture Service of Minahasa, c) reading material and results of research published by official agencies. The source of the data that is; a) the stakeholders (farmers / ranchers, merchants, butcher, retailers and consumers of beef) b) experts / specialists (college / Toma) c) SKPD and related agency in Minahasa. The data was then processed and analyzed through the calculation land capacity index. Pakakaan is a region defined by the government Minahasa as an Agropolitan region where its main commodity is beef cattle. This region has an area extent of about 356.68 km2, which spread in 10 sub-districts. By 2013 the population in the region were 106.270 inhabitants, the population density per districts amounted to an average 298 people/km2 (Department of Agriculture and Minahasan Livestock and Agriculture Service, 2014). The land area extent in the region was 32.010 hectares, with the total number of agricultural households (HH) were 27.264, the density was 1.77 ha/HH. Cattle population in the year 2013 as many as 10.581 heads, thenumber of cattle farmers were 4.038, which means the averageof cattle ownership was 2.62 heads/farmer, and the beef cattle density was 29.67 heads/km2. The results showed that with a land area of 32.010 hectares will be able to produce forage for cattle in the amount of 11.541 tonnes per year, while the roughage can be generated by 123.934 tonnes per year. These means that the average of feed potential availability as much as 135.484 tonnes per year. Based on the livestock unit analysis, the animal unit (AU)of cattle population was 8.040 AU, in which the total capacity of cattle was 118.846AU/year, when it subtracted by the recent  total cattle population there, hence the development potential was 108.740 AU per year. It is concluded: 1) the land carrying capacity index (CCI) for the development of beef cattle in the Pakakaan region was in the category of "safe" with a value of>2, Keywords : beef cattle, animal unit, capability index.


Long-term strategic asset allocation is an important problem in both finance and actuarial science. There are two key issues in long-term strategic asset allocation, namely, the presence of inflation risk and the impact of changes in (macro)-economic conditions on model dynamics. In this article, we take into account the two key issues in our model formulation and develop a quantitative model for long-term strategic asset allocation. A continuous-time, regime-switching market with the presence of inflation risk is considered. There are three tradeable assets in the market, namely, a fixed interest security, an ordinary share and an inflation-linked bond. We assume that the nominal rate of interest on the fixed interest security, the expected rate of return from the ordinary share and the appreciation rate of inflation are modulated by a continuous-time, finite-state, hidden Markov chain. The states of the chain represent different states of an economy. With knowledge about the price of the ordinary share and the price index level, an investor wishes to maximize the expected utility of real terminal wealth. By making use of the separation principle, we solve the optimal portfolio selection problem and the estimation problem independently. We derive a robust estimate of the hidden state of the chain and develop a robust, filter-based, EM algorithm for the on-line recursive estimates of the key model parameters.


1. The age of the parents at the time of offspring production can influence offspring longevity, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The effect of parental age on offspring telomere dynamics (length and loss rate) is one mechanism that could be important in this context.
2. Parental age might influence the telomere length that offspring inherit or age-related differences in the quality of parental care could influence the rate of offspring telomere loss. However, these routes have generally not been disentangled.
3. Here, we investigated whether parental age was related to offspring telomere dynamics using parents ranging in age from 2 to 22 years old in a free-living population of a long-lived seabird, the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis). By measuring the telomere length of offspring at hatching and towards the end of the post-natal growth period, we could assess whether any potential parental age effect was confined to the post-natal rearing period.
4. There was no effect of maternal or paternal age on the initial telomere length of their chicks. However, chicks produced by older mothers and fathers experienced significantly greater telomere loss during the post-natal nestling growth period. We had relatively few nests in which the ages of both parents were known, and individuals in this population mate assortatively with respect to age. Thus, we could not conclusively determine whether the parental age effect was due to maternal age, paternal age, or both; however, it appears that the effect is stronger in mothers.
5. These results demonstrate that in this species, there was no evidence that parental age was related to offspring hatching telomere length. However, telomere loss during nestling growth was reduced in the offspring of older parents. This could be due to an age-related deterioration in the quality of the environment that parents provide, or because parents that invest less in offspring rearing live to an older age.


Nephrolithotomy results are available for 63 patients with coral and multiple nephroliths operated in 1990-2002. These patients underwent 64 operations (one patient with bilateral nephrolithiasis had 2 consecutive nephrolithotomies within a month). The sites preferable for transverse nephrolithotomy are described and validated. Ligation of the renal artery with pharmacological antiischemic protection of the kidney with lasix and verapamil was performed in 40 cases.


Theft of personal privacy is sometimes loss of life .The Online Social Network currently do not provide any mechanism to enforce privacy concerns over data associated with multiple users. To this end, it proposes an approach to enable the protection of shared data associated with multiple users in OSNs. In this project, we need to analyze and implement Multi Party Access Control Mechanism by which the Users are allowed to share data based on the following Criteria with the relationships between the Users: 1. Data Sensitivity, 2.Decision Mechanisms, 3. Threshold Mechanisms. Also we implement to share the data based on the Majority Permit mechanism.


This paper develops a model that allows to analyze the physical parameters that determine the degree of environmental comfort of employees in offices. Parameters such as air quality, noise, thermal environment, and lighting are considered. This model was developed through the use of partial least squares structural equation models (PLS-SEM). Formative indicators (which cause the construct) and reflective indicators (caused or affected by the construct) were used, following the methodology proposed by Hair et al. (2014). The model was estimated using data obtained in surveys conducted in aeronautical control offices in Chile (DASADGAC). The model allows to evaluate the influence that environmental comfort has on people's job satisfaction. The results indicate that the environmental parameters used significantly influence environmental comfort, explaining 70.2% of its variance. In addition, it was obtained that the influence of noise on environmental comfort proved to be greater than that of the rest of the environmental parameters studied, followed by air quality. On the other hand, it was empirically proven that environmental comfort has a significant influence on job satisfaction, where the environmental parameters used explain the variance of job satisfaction by 28.9%.


A curvelet denoising method has been proposed to reduce the time domain noise to improve the detection performance in the distributed fiber vibration sensing system based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry. The raw Rayleigh backscattering traces are regarded as a gray image and the random noise can be eliminated by the curvelet transform; hence, the amplitude difference induced by the external vibration can be extracted. The detection of a vibration event with 10 m spatial resolution along a 4 km single mode fiber is demonstrated. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of location information for 50 Hz and 1 kHz vibration based on this new method increases to as high as 7.8 dB and 8.0 dB, respectively, compared to the conventional method, showing the remarkable denoising capability of this new approach.


Between 1975 and 1984, subdural hematoma was diagnosed in 66 patients at the Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Zürich. In this report we evaluate the therapeutic results retrospectively. In 13 patients treatment was surgical, while 53 patients were treated medically, i.e. with bedrest and corticosteroids. Three surgery patients developed a recurrence which was then also treated medically. Of this total number of 56 patients in the medically treated group, 8 had to undergo surgery later and two patients died. Soporose patients with distinct focal symptoms and comatose patients with incipient herniation received immediate surgical treatment. Of the 46 medically treated patients, 83% were symptom-free and 17% showed residual symptoms. Comparing these results with those of surgical treatment in the literature, conservative treatment can be recommended if strict guidelines are observed.


In order to see flame behavior in the annular reverse gas turbine combustor, sector combustion test was performed. Ignition test by using torch ignition system was carried out at various combustor inlet velocity and air fuel ratio. Also, flame blow out limit was measured by changing fuel flow rate with constant air mass flow rate. In test results, stable ignition is possible at air excess ratio of 6 and this limit is gradually increased with combustor inlet velocity. The minimum blow out limit is about 4 at 40 m/s of combustor inlet velocity. This blow out limit is also increased up to about 10 with increasing combustor inlet velocity. Test result shows that lean blow out limits are increased with air velocity. The highest blow out limit was found at the combustor inlet velocity of 65 m/s.


A cost effective, portable particulate control system was developed, built, and evaluated at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Prototype of the presented system was developed for experimental assessment and its computational model was also created for CFD simulation. The experimental and computer simulation results showed that the developed system could efficiently and safely remove and dispose accumulated particulate matter (in the size range of 5 ∼ 1000 μm), and be tolerant to the abrasive properties that the particulate matter may have. The developed particulate control system as well as the applied technology can be further optimized and extended to be applied in aerospace and space engineering to remove suspended particles out from the closed cabinet of aircrafts or spacecrafts. The outcome of this project will also impact other commercial sectors and industries.


The Lakehead University remote plasma-enhanced metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (RPE-MOCVD) reactor utilizes nitrogen plasma to provide the required nitrogen species in group III-N semiconductor material growth. This plasma provides advantages over conventional MOCVD systems, typically using ammonia as the nitrogen source. An issue with using ammonia is that the dissociation temperature is high, restricting the growth of certain materials and limiting possible substrates which may be grown on. The disassociation reaction efficiency of ammonia also plateaus at a low value. With RPE-MOCVD, the system is able to perform growths at significantly lower temperatures, limited only by the metalorganic dissociation temperatures, and the nitrogen plasma species composition and production rates may be varied. In this work the nitrogen plasma used in the RPE-MOCVD reactor is investigated in order to determine how varying system settings affects plasma conditions. This is done in an effort to optimize group III-N semiconductor thin-film growth conditions in this reactor. Spectroscopic and Langmuir probe measurements are performed and analyzed as system parameters are varied to investigate the resulting plasma conditions. Experimental GaN growths are performed with varying system parameters on sapphire substrates. The resulting growths are analyzed and compared with the use of X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) characterization techniques.


Recent work by Polyanskiy et al. and Chen et al. has excited new interest in using feedback to approach capacity with low latency. Polyanskiy showed that feedback identifying the first symbol at which decoding is successful allows capacity to be approached with surprisingly low latency. This paper uses Chen's rate-compatible sphere-packing (RCSP) analysis to study what happens when symbols must be transmitted in packets, as with a traditional hybrid ARQ system, and limited to relatively few (six or fewer) incremental transmissions. Numerical optimizations find the series of progressively growing cumulative block lengths that enable RCSP to approach capacity with the minimum possible latency. RCSP analysis shows that five incremental transmissions are sufficient to achieve 92% of capacity with an average block length of fewer than 101 symbols on the AWGN channel with SNR of 2.0 dB. The RCSP analysis provides a decoding error trajectory that specifies the decoding error rate for each cumulative block length. Though RCSP is an idealization, an example tail-biting convolutional code matches the RCSP decoding error trajectory and achieves 91% of capacity with an average block length of 102 symbols on the AWGN channel with SNR of 2.0 dB. We also show how RCSP analysis can be used in cases where packets have deadlines associated with them (leading to an outage probability).


Despite the vast spatial and theological gulfs separating the Rabbinic and Brahmanic communities, their respective intellectual projects have a number of analogous features. My discussion will (1) outline for each tradition a set of interpretive strategies, showing how these two sets are strikingly similar in approach and logic. Then I will (2) propose that these resemblances are not entirely coincidental. They largely stem from a similar view of the object of study—Torah and the biblical text for the Rabbis, the sacrifice and its verbal articulation for the Brahmins—as eternal, not of human authorship, perfect in form, rich in hidden meanings, the criterion of right action and true knowledge. The exegete aims to fully internalize the sacred word, to perceive the world through it, and to uncover what is hidden in it. This much of my analysis might also be applicable to other traditions that regard themselves as possessing revelation, but (3) I argue that there are further parallels here in the direction these traditions carried their interpretive enterprise. In each tradition, the interpreters continued to build an edifice of ritual knowledge and interpretation even as the central rites were eclipsed by other forms of piety: whether because the cult became inaccessible (in the Diaspora) or unperformable (when the Temple was destroyed), or because it lost patronage (as appears to have happened in India). In tandem with the shift away from priestly sacrifice, each tradition promotes the ideal of study for its own sake, and the transfer of priestly functions to the learned householder.


Over the last decades, the importance of simulation have taken an increasing role in the vehicles development process. Due to ever higher computing power, the vehicle or component behavior can be emulated using simulation tools and software. In this paper, the focus is set on accuracy enhancement of the electric component simulation for hybrid vehicle optimization. Different solutions to achieve higher accuracy are presented and implemented in a Matlab based simulation environment. The added-value of each step is finally evaluated in a example.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Our lab is focused on the discovery and development of highly potent chemotherapeutic agents that target folate receptor (FR) expressing malignancies. One such compound, EC0305, represents a folate-tubulysin B construct capable of specifically eradicating well-established, FR-positive subcutaneous tumors from mice [Cancer Res (2008) 68:9839]. Recently, multiple polar carbohydrate segments (e.g. 1-amino-1-deoxy-glucitolyl–glutamate) were placed in-between the folate and tubulysin B moieties (i.e. the spacer region) of EC0305 to create a new compound with more desirable biological properties. When tested in culture, this novel agent, herein referred to as EC0531, was found to specifically inhibit the growth of FR-positive cells (IC50 of ∼ 2 nM) in a dose-dependent manner. Its cytotoxic activity was blocked in the presence of an excess of folic acid, and no activity was observed against FR-negative cells, thereby demonstrating this compound's target specificity. EC0531′s potency was confirmed againstin a human KB xenograft-nu/nu mice cancer model. Here, EC0531 therapy displayed remarkable anti-tumor activity (5/5 cures) with dose levels that did not cause weight loss or major organ tissue degeneration. In contrast, the anti-tumor activity was completely abolished (0/5 remissions) in EC0531-treated animals that were co-dosed with a benign folate-containing analog. The advantage provided by folate conjugation was further proven by the un-targeted free drug, which was found to be completely inactive (0/5 remissions) at both tolerable and highly toxic dose levels. Collectively, these results show that this potent anti-proliferative tubulysin compound can be specifically delivered to FR-positive tumors to provide substantial therapeutic benefit using well tolerated dosing regimens.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4414.


The patient involved in case 1 was an approximately 50-year-old woman with left lung adenocarcinoma (cT4N0M1), pleural dissemination, and carcinomatous pleural effusion. Chemotherapy with cisplatin and S-1 was administered as first-line therapy, and after the second course of chemotherapy, the thoracic drainage tube could be removed. Thereafter, the patient's performance status (PS) improved to 0. However, brain metastasis was detected, with symptoms of dizziness and headache, and activities of daily living (ADL) decreased, resulting in deterioration of the PS to 4. Although epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status was unknown, erlotinib (150 mg/day) was administered, which was evidently effective in reducing brain metastasis and resulted in recovery of the PS to 0. The patient involved in case 2 was an approximately 50- year-old man with a complaint of coughing. Chemotherapy with 4 courses of cisplatin and pemetrexed was administered as first-line therapy, and local radiation therapy (66 Gy) followed by 4 courses of docetaxel was administered as second-line therapy. However, the patient showed progressive disease (PD) and emergence of brain metastasis. Although the patient was negative for EGFR mutation, erlotinib (150 mg/day) was initiated as third-line therapy. Chemotherapy was successful and the local lesions were under control. We performed left pneumonectomy to improve quality of life (QOL), which had decreased because of repeated obstructive pneumonia caused by the tumor. Owing to the surgery, the patient was able to maintain a PS of 0 and a favorable QOL, while the administration of erlotinib was continued. In conclusion, erlotinib functions effectively in 3 ways. First, it can be used for emergency administration in cases of unknown EGFR mutation status. Second, its use facilitates the performance of salvage surgery in patients who are EGFR mutation negative. Finally, erlotinib is expected to be effective in the treatment of brain metastasis.


The purpose of this paper is to propose a technology evolution analysis framework based on the Mallet-LDA models combined Social Network Analysis(SNA) method and to study the development trends of critical technologies in logistics identification marking technology. This paper establishes a complete and systematic framework for analyzing the technological evolution based on the logistics identification marking technology selected from the national Key industry patent information service platform in China as the data source database for the period 1993 to 2018 and uses topic evolution and SNA methods for evolution analysis to predict the development trend of the critical technologies in the future time. Results show that Mallet-LDA model combined SNA method is feasible for technology evolution analysis. In addition, the main development trend in logistics identification marking technology is concentrated in the direction of data collection and processing, drone logistics, cold chain logistics, intelligent terminals. And the technical topics have changed from the early days with the primary label, barcode technology, and other individual areas to the development state of multi-technology integration. The findings of this study are expected to enrich technology evolution research based on patent analysis and provide insights into the potential of using patent data for technology evolution development prediction in the context of smart logistics in China.


This paper reports the enhanced production of extracellular thermostable feruloyl esterase and xylanase from Bacillus pumilus by optimization of inducing carbon sources. Batch studies were evaluated by varying the ratio of xylan and wheat bran on the medium for enzyme production by the bacterial culture. The feruloyl esterase and xylanase production were highest in culture filtrates from B. pumilus grown in media containing 1% xylan and 3% wheat bran, which were enhanced 2.4-fold and 3.6-fold compare to single xylan medium, respectively. The crude feruloyl esterase and xylanase were thermostable with the maximum activities at 50 and 55°C, and pH 5.8 and 7.4, respectively. Activity at temperatures of 40 to 45°C was high and stable, suggesting that these enzymes have a potential application in obtaining ferulic acid from agro-industrial waste materials in this moderate temperature range. Key words: Bacillus pumilus , feruloyl esterase, xylanase, production, partial characterization.


We have designed and presented a wireless sensor network monitoring and control system for aquaculture. The system can detect and control water quality parameters of temperature, dissolved oxygen content, pH value, and water level in real-time. The sensor nodes collect the water quality parameters and transmit them to the base station host computer through ZigBee wireless communication standard. The host computer is used for data analysis, processing and presentation using LabVIEW software platform. The water quality parameters will be sent to owners through short messages from the base station via the Global System for Mobile (GSM) module for notification. The experimental evaluation of the network performance metrics of quality of communication link, battery performance and data aggregation was presented. The experimental results show that the system has great prospect and can be used to operate in real world environment for optimum control of aquaculture environment. Index Terms—Water Quality Monitoring; Wireless Sensor Network; Aquaculture; ZigBee; LabVIEW; GSM


The mound of Drehem was occupied for only a short period of time toward the end of the second millennium B.C. Built by King Shulgi of Ur early in his reign, it was abandoned during the general collapse of his dynasty under his grandson Ibbi-Sin. Its location, like that of nearby Nippur, was at the crossroads of communication between Sumer and Akkad, and therefore was ideally suited to serve as a depot for the many payments in kind to which the kings of Ur subjected their people. These payments were disbursed in turn for the needs of the religious capitol, at Nippur, and the political capitol, at Ur.The more than 600 texts published in this volume all emanate from Drehem, and thus throw additional light on the political, religious, and economic life of the neo-Sumerian period. They were copied between 1920 and 1940 by the later C. E. Keiser, who also prepared preliminary indices and descriptions. The latter have now been thoroughly revised and brought up to date by S. T. Kang, who has also provided an introductory essay calling attention to some of the principal new insights provided by the texts. Among these, the role of women--as queens, princesses, and priestesses--emerges as particularly illustrative of the material thus afforded for a new synthesis of ancient Mesopotamian society.C. E. Keiser, 1884-1958, was assistant curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection from 1913-16 and lecturer in Assyriology from 1919-20.


Summary

Reinvasion pressure is the rate of new exotic recruitment following mature exotic removal and it can vary broadly among similarly invaded habitats. Reinvasion pressure drives restoration outcomes and costs but is difficult to predict and poorly understood. Chinese tallow tree Triadica sebifera is a major invader demonstrating broad variation in average reinvasion pressure. We hypothesize this variation arises from differences in moisture regimes among habitats, which drive differences in Triadica recruitment but are masked because Triadica exhibits ontogenetic niche expansions (increases in niche breadth during development) that enable dominance in habitats where average recruitment success is low.
We began testing this hypothesis by quantifying Triadica's capacity for ontogenetic moisture niche expansions. We performed greenhouse experiments examining how soil moisture affects germination likelihood and timing and how soil moisture and seedling age influenced seedling survival and performance, plus a field experiment quantifying survival and performance of differently aged seedlings within a restoration site that has exhibited low average reinvasion pressure.
Moisture requirements for germination were the most constrained of any life stage. No germination occurred in saturated or flooded soils despite high seedling survival in comparable conditions. Germination timing varied among suitable moisture treatments.
Seedling survival increased rapidly with age across moisture treatments and in the field. Above-ground biomass increased with age; tissue-specific performance metrics also increased but reflected seed provisioning, age-specific carbon allocation preferences, or tissue shedding for survival. Crucial moisture*age interactions that signify ontogenetic niche expansions were significant for all survival metrics and all but one performance metric.
Survival and performance were generally highest in intermediate moistures, modestly reduced in saturated conditions and lowest in water-limited conditions.
Synthesis and applications. Our results show Triadica exhibits rapid ontogenetic moisture niche expansions, which could decouple mature Triadica density and average reinvasion pressure. Therefore, density is an unreliable predictor of reinvasion but is commonly used to guide Triadica management, and cryptic opportunities exist for inexpensive and straightforward restorations. Reliable moisture niche-based estimates of Triadica's average reinvasion pressure are feasible and may improve restoration efficacy and efficiency by informing site selection and optimal management strategies.


Human proteome is very plastic, it changes under the influence of various biological factors. It is of big interest to find out how specific factors of an environment, including a long-term isolation affect on urine proteome. The study was conducted during the experiment with 105-day isolation. In the present investigation we collected urine samples from 6 healthy volunteers (26-41 years old). The physical activity, daily rhythms and diet were controlled. Urine samples were fractionated on magnetic beads MB-HIC C8 (MB - hydrophobic-interaction chromatography) with ClinProt robot (Bruker Daltonics) prior to MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer analysis with Autoflex III TOF/TOF (Bruker Daltonics), working in a positive linear mode. 117 peaks have been obtained in each spectrum of urine. We have shown that even during isolation and under controlled conditions of life a high variability of urine proteome of healthy personas (36 protein MC-peaks in the urine, on average) are revealed.


The medical interview is the family physician's principal tool for both diagnosis and treatment. Residency-trained family physicians have already received more detailed instruction and feedback regarding interview skills than have most other specialists, but we must nevertheless continue to explore ways in which we can enhance the therapeutic potential of the interview. Two recently presented studies are therefore of great interest to family physicians. The first suggests that women physicians display certain valuable interviewing skills more frequently than men. The second suggests . that practicing physicians can enhance these sorts of skills following a brief and focused intervention and that measurable patient improvement results. Charon and colleagues 1 have developed a narrative model of medical encounters that fundamentally looks at the medical interview as an example of reading the meaning of a text (i.e., the patient's story). Previous work on gender differences in the reading of literary texts suggests that women read differently from men specifically, women more readily enter into the world of the text and identify emotionally with it while men remain more distant from the text , and see it as a source of facts to be abstracted.


The purpose of this paper is to estimate athletic performance profiles over time, to establish that diminishing returns is a characteristic of performance functions, to measure the rate of the marginal decline, and to measure the upper (lower) bound or limit of performance. The empirical results yield estimates of the limiting value of athletic performance and the frontier maximum (minimum) record. Since lower bounds in the running events have been shown to be sensitive to choice of the nonlinear model, logistic and an exponential model for the men's running and distance events are estimated as a cross-check on my differential equation model. The issue of the gender gap (whether women will ever catch men) in athletic performance is also explored.


In recent years, the entity--component--system pattern has become a fundamental feature of the software architectures of game-development environments such as Unity and Unreal, which are used extensively in developing 3D user interfaces. In these systems, UI components typically respond to events, requiring programmers to write application-specific callback functions. In some cases, components are organized in a hierarchy that is used to propagate events among vertically connected components. When components need to communicate horizontally, programmers must connect those components manually and register/unregister events as needed. Moreover, events and callback signatures may be incompatible, making modular UIs cumbersome to build and share within or across applications. To address these problems, we introduce a messaging framework, Mercury, to facilitate communication among components. We provide an overview of Mercury, outline its underlying protocol and how it propagates messages to responders using relay nodes, describe a reference implementation in Unity, and present example systems built using Mercury to explain its advantages.


BACKGROUND
Autoimmune hepatitis is a rare chronic disease that mainly affects young women and may influence fertility and pregnancy in these patients.

OBJECTIVES
To describe pregnancy and labor in a patient suffering from autoimmune hepatitis and to review the relevant literature.

METHODS
Computerized literature research.

RESULTS
The disease of 9 years' duration did not relapse during pregnancy under continuous treatment with steroids, cytotoxic drugs, ursodeoxycholic acid and vitamins. Pregnancy was uneventful and ended with preterm vaginal delivery at 35 weeks, of a 2299 gram healthy neonate. The patient did well during the postpartum period and 6 months thereafter. Since there is no single diagnostic test for the disease, the diagnosis is based on the combination of clinical, laboratory, and histopathological findings and by exclusion of other causes of hepatitis.

CONCLUSIONS
There is paucity of data in the literature on pregnancy in these patients but the treatment protocols seem to be effective for the mother and safe for the fetus. Maternal and fetal complications rates appear to be currently lower than in the past. Given that relapse cannot be predicted, close surveillance during pregnancy is warranted.


This study examines whether audit adjustments are a mechanism that links the effect of mandatory internal control audits (MICAs) on financial reporting quality. We argue that the requirement for auditors to publicly disclose internal control weaknesses exacerbated auditor-client conflicts and that this resulted in auditors being less likely to detect (and correct) misstatements in their clients' pre-audit financial statements. Consistent with this argument, we find significant reductions in audit adjustments following the staggered introduction of MICAs in the China setting. We find the reductions in audit adjustments are associated with significant increases in material misstatements following the introduction of MICAs. In contrast, we find that the introduction of MICAs led to a significant reduction in material misstatements among clients that did not experience reductions in audit adjustments. Overall, the two effects offset each other, which explains why financial reporting quality did not improve on average following the introduction of MICAs.


This case report is on a 23-year old female patient, who underwent cardiac transplantation because of dilatative cardiomyopathy. Four months after transplantation she became pregnant. 13 months postoperatively, the patient had spontaneous vaginal delivery and gave birth to a healthy newborn in good physical condition.


Partial interlayers of brucite-like sheets, which form, with the adjacent talc-like layers of the mica, single chlorite layers interstratified in the mica structure. Brucite interlayering is interpreted as a "brucitization" of an interlayer level of the mica where partial slip or cleavage has previously occurred. Example of a chemical process at the atomic scale favored by deformation microstructures.--Modified journal abstract.


Sea surface salinity data derived from Aquarius and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) missions were compared with observations by Argo floats in the global oceans and outputs from a global ocean data assimilation system to evaluate the quality of the salinity measurements and assess the error structure in the data. Under the condition of sea surface temperature (SST) higher than 5°C and wind speed lower than 15 ms-1, salinity observed by Aquarius agreed well with the Argo data with an rms difference of 0.6 psu. If we applied spatial and temporal averages over 1° × 1° and one month, the rms difference was reduced to 0.3 psu. The residual of the salinity observation depended significantly on the SST and wind speed, as expected from the principle of salinity measurement. Also bias caused by inaccurate corrections for the galactic radiation and radio frequency interference were considered to contribute largely to differences with in-situ observations.


PURPOSE
To investigate the role of apoptosis in immunopathogenic mechanisms of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU), the kinetics of apoptotic cells and expression of Fas and Fas ligand (FasL) in the eye with EAU were studied.

METHODS
Male inbred Lewis rats were immunized with S-antigen (40 microg/rat), and eyes were examined to detect apoptotic cells on days 1, 4, 8, and 10 post-immunization and days 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 after the onset of EAU. The clinical and pathologic scores were used for estimating EAU. Apoptotic cells were analyzed by TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling, electron microscopic and immunohistologic examinations, and agarose gel electrophoresis. The anti-rat Fas and anti-rat FasL antibodies were used to examine the expression of Fas and FasL.

RESULTS
Apoptotic cells were detected in the infiltrating cells in the aqueous humor, the vitreous body, the iris-ciliary body, and the retina. Apoptotic cells were observed as early as the day of EAU onset and reached a peak on day 2 after the disease onset. Fas and FasL were expressed on the infiltrating cells in the aqueous humor and the vitreous. FasL was expressed on resident cells of the ciliary body. The kinetics of the expression of FasL corresponded with the kinetics of apoptotic cells.

CONCLUSIONS
Fas-FasL-mediated apoptosis is considered to occur in the eye with EAU and plays a role in the immunopathogenic mechanisms to eliminate ocular infiltrating cells, thereby down-regulating the inflammatory processes.


IL-4 plays an essential role in the activation of mature B cells, but less is known about the role of IL-4 in B cell maturation and tolerance checkpoints. In this study, we analyzed the effect of IL-4 on in vitro B cell maturation, from immature to transitional stages, and its influence on BCR-mediated negative selection. Starting either from purified CD19+IgM− B cell precursors, or sorted bone marrow immature (B220lowIgMlowCD23−) and transitional (B220intIgMhighCD23−) B cells from C57BL/6 mice, we compared the maturation effects of IL-4 and BAFF. We found that IL-4 stimulated the generation of CD23+ transitional B cells from CD23− B cells, and this effect was comparable to BAFF. IL-4 showed a unique protective effect against anti-IgM apoptotic signals on transitional B cell checkpoint, not observed with BAFF. IL-4 and BAFF strongly synergized to promote B cell maturation, and IL-4 also rendered it refractory to BCR-mediated cell death. IL-4 blocked upregulation of proapoptotic Bim protein levels induced by BCR crosslinking, suggesting that diminished levels of intracellular Bim promote protection to BCR-induced cell death. Evidence was obtained indicating that downmodulation of Bim by IL-4 occurred in a posttranscriptional manner. Consistent with data obtained in vitro, IL-4 in vivo was able to inhibit Bim upregulation and prevent cell death. These results contribute to the understanding of the role of IL-4 in B lymphocyte physiology, unveiling a previously undescribed activity of this cytokine on the maturation of B cells, which could have important implications on the breaking of B cell central tolerance in autoimmunity.


In this paper, we present a new concept of instrument for high resolution imaging in astronomy, involving
the sum frequency generation in non-linear wavegui
des. The aim is to convert the infrared radiation
emitted by an astronomical source to the visible spectral domain where the optical components are
mature and efficient. We present the main experimental results obtained in laboratory, and propose a new
design for this instrument for its implementation on the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy
(CHARA) telescope array. Preliminary stability and photometric results obtained at CHARA are pre-
sented. Using these last measurements, we estimate the limiting magnitudes which could be reached by
this interferometer in the H spectral band.


Many countries have been affected by food and oil price shocks. Rising energy costs have manifested themselves through higher prices of gas at the pump and through price increases for many other goods such as kerosene and transport. But in some countries there has also been some degree of protection for consumers for example when authorities have chosen to try to keep electricity tariffs affordable through implicit subsidies (which are unfortunately often poorly targeted). For food prices, the effect on consumers has often been more rapid than for oil-related products, as the increase in import prices have been typically fully passed on to consumers and has often been accompanied by increases in the prices of domestically produced foods. Recent attention has therefore rightly been focused on food prices, but the issue of oil prices is important as well. While food prices tend to have a larger direct impact on consumers due to the larger share of food in total household consumption, oil prices may have larger multiplier effects than food prices because oil-related products are used as intermediary products in many productive sectors. It therefore remains an open question as to whether the medium-term impact of food or oil prices is likely to be larger in any given country. It also remains open to question as to whether urban as opposed to rural households are most likely to be affected. While urban households are likely to rely on consumption of imported goods more than rural households, the weight of food and possibly oil-related products may well be larger in the consumption patterns of rural than urban households. Answering these questions may be useful to guide discussions on compensatory measures that governments can take to respond to the twin crisis of higher food and oil prices. In this context the objective of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of the multiplier impact of both types of price shocks using a recent Social Accounting Matrix for Ghana. The paper finds that both the direct impacts of food prices and the indirect impacts of oil prices are potentially large, so that both should be dealt with by authorities when considering compensatory measures to protect households from higher consumer prices.


Renal osteodystrophy is defined in the light of bone histology and the clinical and roentgenologic signs are described. Knowledge of the pathogenetic relationships, though incomplete, serves as the basis for the therapy program outlined.


ABSTRACT. – English as a Foreign Language. What Challenges Do Teachers of English Face? The article undertakes to suggest ways in which English as a foreign language should be taught as a consequence of English becoming a global language and its being spoken in different parts of the world. The article goes out from three prerequisites: David Crystal's statement that the 'the greatest challenge for the teachers' is that 'they must keep pace with the language change, given that languages change so fast'(2013), it is studied and used everywhere in the world, and the need to eliminate the mismatch between the language taught in the classroom and the language spoken by natives or in professional environments. The present study is focused on the discussion of textbooks, the variety of English to be taught, cultural background, and pronunciation issues.


Electricity demand forecast is necessary for power systems' operation scheduling and management. However, power consumption is uncertain and depends on several factors. Moreover, since the onset of covid-19, the electricity consumption pattern went through significant changes across the globe, which made the forecasting demand more challenging. This is mainly due to the fact that pandemic-driven restrictions changed people's lifestyles and work activities. This calls for new forecasting algorithms to more effectively handle these conditions. In this paper, ensemble-based machine learning models are utilized for this task. The lockdown temporal policies are added to the feature set in order to make the model capable of correcting itself in pandemic situations and enhance data quality for the forecasting task. Several ensemble-based machine learning models are examined for the short-term country-level demand prediction model. Besides, the quantile random forest regression is implemented for a probabilistic point of view. For case studies, the models are trained for predicting Germany's country-level demand. The results indicate that ensemble models, especially boosting and bagging-boosting models, are capable of accurate country-level demand forecast. Besides, the majority of these models are robust against missing the pandemic policy data. However, utilizing the pandemic policy data as features increases the forecasting accuracy during the pandemic situation significantly. Furthermore, the probabilistic quantile regression demonstrated high accuracy for the aforementioned case study.


The study objective is to describe cause specific mortality of employees in a plant engaged in production, recovery and refining of catalytic converters located in Rome. Previous epidemiological studies conducted in similar plants are not available. A total of 828 workers (642 males and 186 females) were followed up between 1956 and 31-12-2003. Cause specific standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and 90% confidence intervals (CI) were computed using regional rates for comparison. Among males hired between 1956 and 1993, followed up until 31/12/2003, mortality for all causes (SMR 0,8; 90% CI 0,7-1,0; 85 observed) and all neoplasms (SMR 0,6; 90% CI 0,42-0,87; 20 observed) is below expected; an increase is present for liver cirrhosis (SMR 2,74; 90% CI 1,47-5,1; 7 observed) and brain cancer (SMR 5,24; 90% CI 2,3-11,90; 4 observed). The present investigation complies with the proposed scientific standards for occupational cohort studies. The study was not prompted by well defined a priori hypotheses but it is included in a process intended to typify a potentially polluted site; the absence of a priori hypotheses and of previous epidemiological evidence, prevent from a causal interpretation of the increased mortality from liver cirrhosis and brain cancer. The implementation of cohort studies in industrial sites where industrial activities similar to the one here examined are present, are highly recommended.


While the role of globalization in constituting the rise of populist movements has been increasingly recognized, the ways in which globalization can, in fact, curtail populism is also worthy of analytical attention. This is exemplified in the EU debate over plant biotechnology where a couple of exceptions to the largely anticorporate populist mobilization against transgenic crops include the political positioning of EU farmers in favor of GM soybean imports and the posturing of environmental groups and beekeepers against the labeling of GM contaminated honey. Interrogating these cases, the paper attributes mobilization/policy outcomes to the ways in which global food-consumption patterns, supermarket branding initiatives, and regulatory decisions intermingled with the sociomaterial dynamics of particular locales to constitute decision-making landscapes that made populist policies (un)fathomable. In engaging with the globalism-populism nexus in this manner, the paper imparts lessons on how globalization and the populist outcomes associated with it can be honed and reoriented.


This paper presents evidence from a large-scale study on gender differences in expected wages before labor market entry. Based on data for over 15,000 students, we document a significant and large gender gap in wage expectations that closely resembles actual wage differences, prevails across subgroups, and along the entire distribution. To understand the underlying causes and determinants, we relate expected wages to sorting into majors, industries, and occupations, child-rearing plans, perceived and actual ability, personality, perceived discrimination, and negotiation styles. Our findings indicate that sorting and negotiation styles affect the gender gap in wage expectations much more than prospective child-related labor force interruptions. Given the importance of wage expectations for labor market decisions, household bargaining, and wage setting, our results provide an explanation for persistent gender inequalities.


The presence of cracks has a major impact on the reliability of advanced materials, like fiber or particle reinforced ceramic composites, ceramic interfaces, laminated ceramics. For engineering application is very important to estimate the crack path, and the influence of the interface on the fracture parameters. This paper presents the particularities of sub-interface crack propagation near an interface with emphasizing crack path. The crack propagation algorithms for crack approaching interface and the implementation in the finite element analysis are shown. Experimental crack paths obtained during fatigue tests obtained using bi-material Four Point Bend Specimens are compared with the simulated ones.


The commented article represents one of the attempts to use the Shuttleworth equation for predicting surface stresses in a soft material. However, this led to the definition of surface stress in terms of the total surface energy instead of the density of this energy. This contradicts the theory of elasticity and is the result of mathematical defects made in the derivation of the above equation.


The Sable antelope (Hippotragus niger roosevelti- Heller, 1910) is endemic to Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR) in Kenya. In the past few decades its population has declined considerably. Despite the alarming decline and resultant localized distribution, little information exists on the species current population status and foraging ecology. The main objectives of this study were two-fold; (1) to determine the current population status, structure and distribution of Sable antelope in the reserve, and (2) to assess aspects of the species foraging ecology in SHNR. Data on the population size, structure and the foraging behaviour of the species was collected in both dry and wet seasons for a period of 24 days each season. Direct total ground count was employed to estimate the population size and structure of the species while systematic quadrats and visual estimation were used to assess the foraging behaviour and food plants of the species. About 93±7 antelopes comprising of six herds and a solitary bull were estimated during the study. Sable population structure showed skewed distribution towards adults (52.7%). There was a significant positive linear relationship between the size of herds and the young individuals in the groups (r = 0.904). However, the observed ratios of age (χ² = 9.071, d.f = 10, p > 0.05) and sex (χ² = 2.174, d.f = 5, p > 0.05) structure of the herds did not vary significantly. Larger herds were observed during dry than wet season (d.f = 6, p 0.05). However, when choosing foraging habitats, Sable preferred mid slope and gentle flat landscapes between wet and dry seasons respectively (χ² = 23.740, d.f = 3, p 0.05). There were strong positive correlations between acceptability and availability of grass species in the Sable feeding sites (r = 0.863) and (r = 0.909) in dry and wet season respectively. The quality of Sable
vi
forage varied significantly across the seasons with relatively high crude protein (p < 0.05) and phosphorous (p < 0.05) levels reported during wet than dry season. The reported decline in the species numbers and skewed age structure of more adults than young ones in the population indicate lack of stability in the population that needs to be investigated for potential causes. This study recommends establishment of a long-term habitat use monitoring program to precisely determine possible changes in the species foraging habitats. The study also recommends for more local community engagement to raise awareness about the declining Sable numbers and assess their possible roles in conservation of the species.


During the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake, strong motions with horizontal peak ground accelerations of 507 cm/sec 2 or more, 187 cm/sec 2 , and 126 cm/sec 2 were observed at surface stations of borehole sites at Amagasaki, Takasago, and Nanko in Japan, respectively. We showed qualitative evidence of nonlinear soil response during strong motions at Amgasaki and Takasago, but not at Nanko, using cross correlation and spectral ratio analyses of weak and strong motions. We evaluated soil nonlinearity by inversion for S -wave velocities and frequency-dependent damping factors. The strain-dependence of shear modulus ratios inverted for gravel is larger than that for clay, which is consistent with laboratory test results. In the shear-strain range from about 10 –4 to 10 –3 , the strain dependence of shear modulus ratios inverted for clay and gravel at Amagasaki and Takasago is consistent with empirical relations based on laboratory test results for clay and gravel, respectively. These results support using laboratory estimates of shear modulus ratios to simulate strong motions at clay and gravel sites. The damping factors for gravel inverted from the mainshock at Amagasaki are the largest among the others, but the strain dependence of damping factors are not as significant as that of shear modulus ratios. The reason why the strain dependence of damping factors is not so significant may be because scattering attenuation is relatively dominated in the low-strain range.


: The locus of neomycin resistance is located at near equal distances from the loci of erythromycin and oligomycin resistance on mitDNA, as the analysis of recombination frequencies between three markers has shown in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae descending from XII race. We studied the influence of the resistance to these antibiotics on the yield of spontaneous and induced by 24% ethanol rho- mutations in 2 haploid and 126 diploid strains of yeast. All of the neomycin resistant strains were characterized by significantly lower level of spontaneous mutations in comparison with other strains. Ethanol did not induce rho- mutagenesis in neomycin resistant strains or slightly increased it (up to 2-4%). However ethanol increased the yield of these mutations up to 58% in neomycin sensitive strain. The killing effect of ethanol on diploid strains did not depend on their genotype.


{What?} Disorder of size (polydispersity) and mass of discrete elements or particles in randomly structured media (e.g., granular matter such as soil) has numerous effects on materials' sound propagation characteristics. The influence of disorder on energy and momentum transport during vibration propagation (mechanical/sound wave), the sound wave speed and its low-pass frequency-filtering characteristics is the subject of this study. {Why?} The goal is understanding the connection between the particle-microscale disorder and dynamics and the system-macroscale wave propagation, which can be applied to nondestructive testing, seismic exploration of buried objects (oil, mineral, etc.) or to study the internal structure of the Earth. {How?} The mechanical wave/vibration propagating through granular media exhibits a specific signature in time; a coherent pulse or wavefront arrives first with multiply scattered waves (coda) arriving later. The coherent pulse is of low frequency nature and micro-structure independent i.e. it depends only on the bulk properties of the disordered granular sample, the sound wave velocity and hence, bulk and shear moduli. The coda or the multiply scattered waves are of high frequency nature and are micro-structure dependent. Numerical and stochastic techniques for 1-D, 2-D discrete element systems and experiments with 1-D photoelastic particles constituting a granular chain have been employed to isolate and study different modes of the propagating waves (namely, P and S waves), disorder dependent dispersion relations, sound wave velocity and diffusive transport of spectral energy. {Results} Increase in mass disorder (where disorder has been defined such that it is independent of the shape of the probability distribution of masses) decreases the sound wave speed along a granular chain. Averaging over energies associated with the eigenmodes can be used to obtain better quality dispersion relations and can be formulated in a way to give a Master Equation of energy in terms of wavenumber or frequency which identifies the switching and cross-talk of energy between different frequency bands; these dispersion relations confirm the decrease in pass frequency and wave speed with increasing disorder acting opposite to the wave acceleration close to the source. Also, it is observed that an ordered granular chain exhibits ballistic propagation of energy whereas, a disordered granular chain exhibits more diffusive like propagation, which eventually becomes localized at long time periods.


In this paper we argue that there is suucient experience with C++ to justify the development of a tool that examines C++ programs for the presence of likely programmer errors, and we describe a number of common mistakes that could be detected by such a tool. We show that such a tool would be both straightforward to develop and eecient to apply. We also discuss how such a tool could be extended to detect violations of design constraints expressed in some as-yet-to-be-developed C++ metalanguage.


The need to measure the quality of learning becomes very significant when the quality of learning is still low. This also applies to the quality of learning at the highest level. The quality of lecturer learning in class is often not in accordance with what it should be, one of the constraints of this low quality is that the quality of lecturer learning is not accurately measured. Data mining is used in this research to map the quality of lecturer learning based on its cluster, namely Clustering, It is hoped that universities can measure the quality of learning from their lecturers accurately. From this research, students with low social studies tend to value lecturers with low grades; conversely students with high social studies tend to judge lecturers with high enough grades. The k-Means algorithm is accurate enough to be used in clustering the quality of lecturer learning based on grades and results of student questionnaires.


Entity relation extraction consists of two sub-tasks: entity recognition and relation extraction. Existing methods either tackle these two tasks separately or unify them with word-by-word interactions. In this paper, we propose HIORE, a new method for unified entity relation extraction. The key insight is to leverage the high-order interactions, i.e., the complex association among word pairs, which contains richer information than the first-order word-by-word interactions. For this purpose, we first devise a W-shape DNN (WNet) to capture coarse-level high-order connections. Then, we build a heuristic high-order graph and further calibrate the representations with a graph neural network (GNN). Experiments on three benchmarks (ACE04, ACE05, SciERC) show that HIORE achieves the state-of-the-art performance on relation extraction and an improvement of 1.1~1.8 F1 points over the prior best unified model.


May & Baker, who have not hitherto marketed an oral diuretic, have now introduced clorexolone (Nefrolan). This drug contains the active radicals present in the thiazides but lacks the benzothiadiazine nucleus. Its pharmacological properties, uses and unwanted actions are those of the thiazides and chlorthalidone. Clorexolone does not significantly inhibit carbonic anhydrase in vivo. Whether, like other oral diuretics, it can cause diabetes mellitus1 is not yet known.


The present study examined the effects of sustained anticipatory anxiety on the affective modulation of the eyeblink startle reflex. Towards this end, pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures were presented as a continuous stream during alternating threat-of-shock and safety periods, which were cued by colored picture frames. Orbicularis-EMG to auditory startle probes and electrodermal activity were recorded. Previous findings regarding affective picture valence and threat-of-shock modulation were replicated. Of main interest, anticipating aversive events and viewing affective pictures additively modulated defensive activation. Specifically, despite overall potentiated startle blink magnitude in threat-of-shock conditions, the startle reflex remained sensitive to hedonic picture valence. Finally, skin conductance level revealed sustained sympathetic activation throughout the entire experiment during threat- compared to safety-periods. Overall, defensive activation by physical threat appears to operate independently from reflex modulation by picture media. The present data confirms the importance of simultaneously manipulating phasic-fear and sustained-anxiety in studying both normal and abnormal anxiety.


The current research of vehicle electrical power supply system mainly focuses on electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). The vehicle electrical power supply system used in traditional fuel vehicles is rather simple and imperfect; electrical/electronic devices (EEDs) applied in vehicles are usually directly connected with the vehicle's battery. With increasing numbers of EEDs being applied in traditional fuel vehicles, vehicle electrical power supply systems should be optimized and improved so that they can work more safely and more effectively. In this paper, a new vehicle electrical power supply system for traditional fuel vehicles, which accounts for all electrical/electronic devices and complex work conditions, is proposed based on a smart electrical/electronic device (SEED) system. Working as an independent intelligent electrical power supply network, the proposed system is isolated from the electrical control module and communication network, and access to the vehicle system is made through a bus interface. This results in a clean controller power supply with no electromagnetic interference. A new practical battery state of charge (SoC) estimation method is also proposed to achieve more accurate SoC estimation for lead-acid batteries in traditional fuel vehicles so that the intelligent power system can monitor the status of the battery for an over-current state in each power channel. Optimized protection methods are also used to ensure power supply safety. Experiments and tests on a traditional fuel vehicle are performed, and the results reveal that the battery SoC is calculated quickly and sufficiently accurately for battery over-discharge protection. Over-current protection is achieved, and the entire vehicle's power utilization is optimized. For traditional fuel vehicles, the proposed vehicle electrical power supply system is comprehensive and has a unified system architecture, enhancing system reliability and security.


Although postoperative pneumoperitoneum is a common finding, it is particularly disturbing when there is an increase in the amount of postoperative pneumoperitoneum or when the radiographic finding of pneumoperitoneum is accompanied by such physical findings as increased abdominal tenderness, peritoneal signs or paralytic ileus. Four patients operated upon at the Mount Sinai Hospital are presented. All patients underwent abdominal surgery for treatment of some form of inflammatory bowel disease and all were receiving systemic corticosteroids in the postoperative period. Abdominal findings of tenderness, ileus and peritoneal irritation developed shortly after the removal of Penrose drains in the postoperative period. Pneumoperitoneum was confirmed by abdominal roentgenographs. The first patient in this group underwent a laparotomy with essentially negative findings other than a freely open drain tract. The subsequent three patients were managed by close observation and frequent abdominal radiographs. These three patients had contrast roentgenographic studies of the upper gastrointestinal tract to rule out perforation of a peptic ulcer, and in the patient upon whom reservoir ileostomy had been performed, a contrast study of the reservoir was performed. All patients recovered fully with this management and there were no sequelae. The mechanism for the appearance of pneumoperitoneum after removal of drains, particularly when the patient is receiving systemic corticosteroids, is discussed. Emphasis is placed on the need to consider and rule out perforation of a hollow viscus in this situation before accepting drain removal as the sole cause of postoperative pneumoperitoneum.


Heterotrophy appears to be a common and widely adopted strategy among dinoflagellates, even in predominantly photosynthetic species. To elucidate the mechanisms of switching between various trophic modes in primarily mixotrophic protists, we need the information about molecular machinery providing the uptake of nutrients of different nature. Here, we analyzed transcriptomic data available for two marine mixotrophic dinoflagellates belonging to the phylogenetically distant groups – Prorocentrum cordatum and Amphidinium carterae. This study uncovered homologs of proteins involved in endocytosis and phagosome formation, including epsin, coronin, clathrin light and heavy chains, adaptor protein complex 2 and dynamin. The enzymes, acting in the lysosomal degradation, and small GTPases regulating vesicle transport, maturation and recycling were also detected in these organisms. We provide a generalized scheme of endocytosis pathways, which includes proteins revealed in the course of this study and identified by other authors.


Epigenetics
As we age, we tend to become more and more like our parents in many ways because we emulate parental behavior. But future behavior can also be affected before birth. Studies using model organisms, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster , are illuminating molecular mechanisms. Fruit fly females prefer to lay eggs in ethanol-containing food substrates when exposed to endoparasitoid wasps, and this preference lasts several generations. Bozler et al. find that transgenerational ethanol preference involves the inhibition of neuropeptide F (NPF), which in turn activates germline caspases. Low NPF expression in the brain and a preference for alcohol was inherited by flies for five generations. Because mammalian NPF homologs are implicated in drug and alcohol disorders, the findings in flies may have some relevance to human transgenerational inheritance.

eLife 8 , e45391 (2019).


Drug delivery in cationic liposomes seems to be a promising therapeutic approach in cancer treatment. The rational design of the positively charged lipid vesicles as anticancer drug carriers should be supported by a detailed analysis of the interactions of the carrier components with anticancer drugs. In the present work, 2-hydroxyoleic acid (2OHOA; Minerval), a membrane lipid therapy drug, was incorporated into positively charged mono- and bilayer membranes containing 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl- sn-glycero-3-ethylphosphocholine (EPOPC), the synthetic cationic lipid, and 1,2-dioleoyl- sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC). The intermolecular interactions, fluidity, and miscibility of the studied monolayers were analyzed by utilizing Langmuir balance experiments. The morphology of two-dimensional films was inspected using a Brewster angle microscopy technique. The properties of the liposomes were investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential measurements, steady-state fluorescence anisotropy experiments, and the spectrofluorimetric titration of calcein-encapsulated vesicles with a lysis-inducing agent. According to the collected results, 2OHOA intercalation into films of pure phospholipids or a binary EPOPC/DOPC film is thermodynamically favorable. Surprisingly, no significant effect of the presence of unsaturated 2OHOA chains on the EPOPC/DOPC monolayer order was observed. The experiments carried out for 2OHOA-inserted cationic EPOPC/DOPC (1:4) liposomes indicate effective incorporation of the drug into the liposome bilayer and the formation of stable vesicles without affecting their properties markedly. On the basis of the obtained results, EPOPC/DOPC/2OHOA cationic liposomes with 15% 2OHOA content in the phospholipid bilayer seem to be the most suitable for potential biomedical applications.


Objectives
The rapidly increasing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD) constitutes a major public health challenge undermining future social and economic development. Using Bangladesh as a case study, we review gaps in health and nutrition behavior throughout the life-cycle and suggest possible policy and program solutions.

Methods
We utilized a conceptual framework lightly adapted from the WHO Package of Essential Non-communicable Disease Interventions for Primary Health Care in Low Resource Settings. This framework guided the review of secondary literature using peer-reviewed articles and grey literature including reports, policy documents, and policy briefs.

Results
Risk factors identified include sub-optimal breastfeeding and complementary feeding with caregivers frequently resorting to prepackaged junk food for children, particularly in urban settings. For older children, many schools are unable to promote physical activity and do not include life-skills training. There is also high promotion of tobacco products to adolescents and adults, with little regulation, resulting in high use rates. Adults who have NCD also have poor control and knowledge of their condition, leading to inadequate care.Among infants, risks could be reduced through better enforcement of restrictions on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes and the mandated provision of six-month maternity leave for working women. For older children, additional taxes on junk foods partnered with improved communication campaigns on consumption of locally available, nutritious, and low-cost complementary foods could nudge diets into healthier patterns. Life skill training in school would improve the nutrition and health knowledge of the population, promote better diets, and discourage tobacco and substance abuse. Bangladesh has no wide-spread community-based tobacco cessation program or peer-educator program for adults suffering from NCD to learn more about their condition along with encouraging regular care-seeking.

Conclusions
Current policies and programs need to realize the changing dimensions that influence NCDs in Bangladesh. A multisectoral life course approach is needed to address the risk factors to halt the progression of NCD.

Funding Sources
The program was funded by the Netherlands government under Netherland Fellowship program (Former NFP, currently known as OKP). The preparation of this abstract was funded by the EU.


Abstract INTRODUCTION: Depression is common amongst post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients and it has been associated with adverse clinical events in these patients. Post-MI depression has also been shown to be an independent risk factor for mortality. However, many questions about risk factors of post-MI depression remain unanswered. The purpose of this study was to identify the medical and demographic predictors of post-MI depression, in so far these are routinely available during MI hospitalization. methods: 176 consecutive patients admitted to the CCU wards following MI were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Baseline measures were conducted during hospitalization using a standardized history that included questions about demographic characteristics and medical information, and all patients were underwent a physical examination. Severity of MI index was assessed by a cardiologist using the Killip Class. Also CPK levels were measured on admission and over the 2 subsequent days as additional measures of the severity of MI. The diagnosis of depression (including major and minor depression) at three months after MI was assessed using a standardized, semistructured research interview by a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist. This interview provided DSM-IV diagnoses based on the patients' psychiatric symptoms. results: The findings showed that 46/6% suffered from post-MI depression three months following MI. In multivariable analysis, beta-blocker (OR 2.987; CI 1.254-7.116), history of depressive disorders (OR 2.838; CI 1.271-6.340), log max CPK (creatinine phosphokinase value) (OR 2.410; CI 1.075-5.404), and age <60 (OR 2.652; CI 1.061-6.626) were factors significantly associated with post-MI depression. This predictive model also yielded 74.4% maximum predictive efficiency with 67.1% sensitivity and 80.9% specificity rates respectively, for differentiating those with and those without high risk for developing post-MI depression. CONCLUSIONS: Beta-blocker, history of depressive disorders, log max CPK (creatinine phosphokinase value), and age comprise demographic and medical predictors for post-MI depressive symptoms. Thus, considering the above model, clinicians may able to identify MI patients with a high risk for subsequent development of depression so that these patients may be targeted for screening and potentially for psychosocial intervention. The association found between depression and creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) value begs the questions why two seemingly unrelated conditions should be related, and what mediators or common biological pathways could link the two phenomena.  Keywords: Depression, myocardial infarction, demographic and medical predictors.


Using open software in e-learning application is one of the most popular ways of improving effectiveness of e-learning-based processes without thinking about additional costs and even focusing on modifying the software according to needs. Because of that, it is important to have an idea about what is needed while using an e-learning-oriented open software system and how to deal with its source codes. At this point, it is a good option to add some additional features and functions to make the open source software more intelligent and practical to make both teaching-learning experiences during e-learning processes. In this context, the objective of this chapter is to discuss some possible applications of artificial intelligence to include optimization processes within open source software systems used in e-learning activities. In detail, the chapter focuses more on using swarm intelligence and machine learning techniques for this aim and expresses some theoretical views for improving the effectiveness of such software for a better e-learning experience.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Evidence shows that pulse pressure (PP) is very useful when assessing the hypertensive patient and this has led to a lower use of mean arterial pressure (MAP). We intended to demonstrate that MAP should be better than PP in young hypertensive patients.

SUBJECTS AND METHOD
Cross-sectional study in 70 white males with ages among 16-40 years, distributed in two groups of 35 individuals labelled as control group or hypertensive patients, who were assessed by echocardiography.

RESULTS
PP was similar (36.37 +/- 7.90 mmHg vs. 36.67 +/- 9.41 mmHg, p = 0.8851) in both control and hypertensive groups, as well as the arterial compliance (2.22 +/- 0.62 ml/mmHg vs. 2.41 +/- 0.77 ml/mmHg, p = .2555) and the aortic stiffness index (0.88 +/- 0.23 vs. 0.91 +/- 0.33, P = .6591). MAP (94.85 +/- 8.68 mmHg vs. 115.11 +/- 10.01 mmHg, P < .001) and total peripheral resistance index (TPRI) [2681.42 +/- 602.31 dinas.s.cm-5/m2 vs. 3120.68 +/- 741.74 dinas.s.cm-5/m2, p = .0066] were higher in hypertensive patients.

CONCLUSIONS
In our cross-sectional assessment in young hypertensive patients, MAP and its determiner (TPRI) were modified, with no important changes in the PP or its determiners.


Aim To develop a liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS-MS) method to determine clarithromycin in human plasma. Methods The analyte and internal standard roxithromycin were extracted from plasma samples by n-nexane-dichloromethane-isopropanol (300∶150∶15, V/V/V) and chromatographed on a C_(18) column. The mobile phase consisted of methanol-water-formic acid (80∶20∶1, V/V/V). Detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer via electrospray ionization source (ESI) in the positive mode. Results The method had a lower (limit) of quantification of 10.0 ng·mL~(-1) when 0.2 mL plasma was used. The linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 10.0-5000 ng·mL~(-1). The intra- and inter-run precisions were lower than 3.3% in terms of relative standard deviation (RSD), and the accuracy ranged ±0.7% in terms of relative error (RE). T_(max),C_(max),T_(1/2) and AUC_(0-24h) values were found to be (3.1±2.7)h, (8 750±4 734)ng·mL~(-1), (5.3±2.2) h, and (5 932±2 449)(ng·mL~(-1),) respectively, after a single oral dose of 250 mg clarithromycin tablet to 18 volunteers. Conclusion This validated method was successful in the evaluation of pharmacokinetic profiles of clarithromycin tablets administered to 18 healthy male volunteers.


The radioactive isotope of iron Fe 59 is metabolized by the human organism exactly as ordinary iron and, when fed to or injected into persons with the hypochromic anemia of iron deficiency, is incorporated into the hemoglobin of newly formed erythrocytes. 1 Once built into the hemoglobin molecule of an erythrocyte, radioactive iron does not exchange with the iron of the serum or the tissues 2 but remains within the red blood cell during its entire lifetime and is liberated only when the cell is broken down and destroyed. The physical property of radioactivity does not influence the morphologic aspects or the function of the erythrocyte in any way but serves to "label" or "tag" the cell during its lifetime. It is possible to detect quantitatively the radioactive iron of such labeled cells even though they may be mixed with thousands of cells containing no radioactive substance. 3 When erythrocytes


Science is less helpful to the r egulation of drugs than most would wish because there is an unfortunate antagonism between scientists and regulators which stems not from any inherent conflict between science and law, or from an inadequacy of science in meeting the demands of law, but from a confusion as to what science is and is not, what science can and cannot do, and who is and is not a scientist. In order to address the drug regulation process intelligently, careful attention must be paid to two points: a distinction must be made between questions of science and questions of public policy over which science has no sway: and the public must be educated as to what science is, what science can do, and who scientists are.


The purpose of this article is to outline the changes and phenomena within the urban planning structure of the San Francisco bay area, which can be interpreted as impulses associated with the emergence of new post-industrial urban forms. Formation of the theory of impulse modeling of an urban organism requires not only theoretical generalizations and study of the material relating to the peculiarities of the post-industrial (informational) era, but also the search for practical phenomena associated with the rapid development of certain urban areas. At the same time, such development should not be confused with the concept of polycentrism, which was formed during the period of modernism.


Quasi-experimental evaluations of manpower training may be biased when the mean value of preprogrammed earnings differs for participants and nonparticipants or when the two groups differ in the degree to which they deviate from the long-run trend of earnings. Both sources of bias are addressed in Director (1979).


We aim to better exploit the limited amounts of parallel text available in low-resource settings by introducing a differentiable reconstruction loss for neural machine translation (NMT). This loss compares original inputs to reconstructed inputs, obtained by back-translating translation hypotheses into the input language. We leverage differentiable sampling and bi-directional NMT to train models end-to-end, without introducing additional parameters. This approach achieves small but consistent BLEU improvements on four language pairs in both translation directions, and outperforms an alternative differentiable reconstruction strategy based on hidden states.


This paper describes an approach for modeling the breakdown and snapback behavior of state-of-the-art MOSFET structures using equivalent-circuit description. Such models are required to enable circuit-level electrostatic discharge reliability simulations, which are a major challenge for the industry nowadays. Special attention is given to accurately describing the junction and gate leakage currents due to the increased tunneling generation in the scaled-down CMOS. Consistent parameter extraction procedures for the model parameters are described as well


Ultraviolet C (UV-C, 200–280 nm) light has germicidal properties that inactivate a wide range of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. UV-C has been extensively studied as an alternative to thermal decontamination of fruit juices. Recent studies suggest that the efficacy of UV-C irradiation in reducing microorganisms in fruit juices is greatly dependent on the characteristics of the target microorganisms, juice matrices, and parameters of the UV-C treatment procedure, such as equipment and processing. Based on evidence from recent studies, this review describes how the characteristics of target microorganisms (e.g., type of microorganism/strain, acid adaptation, physiological states, single/composite inoculum, spore, etc.) and fruit juice matrices (e.g., UV absorbance, UV transmittance, turbidity, soluble solid content, pH, color, etc.) affect the efficacy of UV-C. We also discuss the influences on UV-C treatment efficacy of parameters, including UV-C light source, reactor conditions (e.g., continuous/batch, size, thickness, volume, diameter, outer case, configuration/arrangement), pumping/flow system conditions (e.g., sample flow rate and pattern, sample residence time, number of cycles), homogenization conditions (e.g., continuous flow/recirculation, stirring, mixing), and cleaning capability of the reactor. The collective facts indicate the immense potential of UV-C irradiation in the fruit juice industry. Existing drawbacks need to be addressed in future studies before the technique is applicable at the industrial scale.


A green aqueous product named PCI-2016 has been developed by using multicompound and chelate-induced techniques recently. The mass transfer process of the product in concrete by using low field nuclear magnetic resonance technique was carried out. The one-dimensional saturated capillary absorption experiment of specimens immersed in PCI-2016 were carried out. The variation of the absorbed mass and penetrating height of the PCI-2016 with time was observed. The results indicated that the absorbed mass and penetrating height of PCI-2016 increased with the increase of time, and the initial growth rate in 24h is the larger and then tends to gentle. The saturation of PCI-2016 in test block at different ages and positions was calculated by frequency coding which is collected by using low field nuclear magnetic resonance experiment. The variation of PCI-2016 saturation at different depths from the surface with time can also be calculated by the modified MCI transport model. Compared with the results, the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results. So the low field nuclear magnetic resonance can be used to measure the transport process of PCI-2016 in cement-based materials. It provided a reference for characterizing the mass transfer process of corrosion inhibitor in concrete.


Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a complex and chronic disease that ranks fourth as cause of disability worldwide. Thirteen to 14 million adults in the U.S. are believed to have MDD and an estimated 75% attempt suicide making MDD a major public health problem. Recently several genome-wide association (GWA) studies of MDD have been reported; however, few GWA studies focus on the analysis for MDD related phenotypes such as neuroticism and age at onset of MDD. The purpose of this study was to determine risk factors for MDD, identify genome-wide genetic variants affecting neuroticism and age at onset as quantitative traits, and detect gender differences influencing neuroticism. This study confirmed previous findings that MDD is associated with an increased prevalence in women (about 43% more compared to men) and is highly heritable among first degree relatives. Several novel genetic loci were identified to be associated with neuroticism and age at onset. Gender differences were found in genetic influence of neuroticism. These findings offer the potential for new insights into the pathogenesis of MDD.


The majority of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic interneurons have smooth dendrites with no or only few dendritic spines, but certain types of spiny GABAergic interneurons do actually contain substantial numbers of spines. The explanation for such spines has so far been purely structural: They increase the dendritic surface area and thus provide the opportunity to accommodate larger numbers of synapses. We reasoned that there may be specific functional properties for these spines and therefore, undertook to characterize interneuron spines functionally. We find a remarkable similarity to pyramidal cell spines: They receive excitatory synapses with calcium impermeable α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4 isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, compartmentalize biochemical signals, and display activity-dependent morphological plasticity. Nevertheless, notable differences in spine density, neck length, and spine-dendrite coupling exist. Thus, dendritic spines on inhibitory interneurons have a number of important functional properties that go substantially beyond simply expanding the dendritic surface area. It therefore seems likely that spiny and aspiny interneurons may have very different roles in neural circuit function and plasticity.


Objective: The coronavirus (COVID-19) has been spreading around the world since December 2019. Neurological symptoms have been reported as a part of the clinical spectrum of the disease. This study aimed to determine the frequency of neurological complications in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.Methods: Electronic medical records in the hospital information system, laboratory findings, and radiological examinations were evaluated for all patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The cases were referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital affiliated to Hamadan University of Medical Sciences from February 20, 2020 to the end of the same year.Results: A total of 477 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included in the analyses. Based on our results, 105 (22.02%) patients showed neurological manifestations. Ischemic stroke, decreased consciousness, and headache were the most frequent reported neurological symptoms with the rate of 34 (7.13%), 28 (5.88%), and13 (2.72%), respectively. Moreover, 54 (51.43%) cases were male, and the vast majority of the patients (66; 62.86%) had more than 60 years of age. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 may involve nervous system and cause brain tissue damage. The findings of this study provide more information on coronavirus disease, contributing to effective interventions for the control of the disease


Airborne fungal spores are important bioparticles that are the leading cause of allergic reactions in humans. Therefore, weather information and in which month the maximum number of fungal spores are found are all beneficial in treating fungal allergy patients. Keeping all these in mind, an aerial survey was conducted in Jhajjar City for one year (August 2020 to July 2021). We used a volumetric Petri plate and a Durham gravity sampler. A total of 39 fungal spore were detected during the whole year. In which 30 genera were viable and Non-viable fungal spores. The highest concentration of Cladosporium spp. (26.18%) of recorded was followed by Aspergillus niger (11.61%), Alternaria (9.98%), Epicoccum (8.93%), and Candida albicans (8.20%). A total of ten Fungi were recorded in the highest concentration.


Background and Objectives: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine disorders, which is seen in 5-10% of women in the reproductive age. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of metformin and fennel on uterine tissue and serum concentrations of estrogen and progesterone hormones in PCOS rats. Methods: In the present study, a total of 40 female rats were divided into five groups of 8 animals each: 1) Control group (C) that received normal food and water, 2) PCOS group (P), in which PCOS was induced by intramuscular injection of estradiol valerate (4mg/kg.bw), 3) PCOS+fennel 1 group (P+F1) that was treated with fennel (150mg/kg.bw) after induction of PCOS, 4) PCOS+fennel 2 group (P+F2) that were treated with fennel (100mg/kg.bw) after induction of PCOS, and 5) PCOS+metformin group (P+M) that were treated with metformin (100mg/kg.bw). At the end of the 63-day treatment period, blood samples for biochemichal analysis and uterine tissue for histological studies were taken from all rats. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc tests. Results: The findings of this study showed that fennel causes decrease in serum estrogen hormone and thickness of uterine epithelial tissue in PCOS rats and increases serum progesterone hormone and uterine endometrial thickness (p≤0/05). Conclusion : According to the results of this study, fennel could have protective effects on uterine tissue in PCOS rats.


A small, zero-footprint, passive chemisorption scrubber (Novasafe) has been developed to treat the effluent from ion implanters. Extensive laboratory testing dictated a dual bed unit with a diameter of 10" and a height of 12". Evaluation in a production environment indicated that scrubber lifetime varied with implanter type. The units lasted approximately 6-9 months when servicing high current implanters, and lasted in excess of one year when servicing medium current implanters. The failure mechanism on high current implanters was due to increased pressure drop resulting from solids accumulation.


Wave energy conversion by using point absorber has recently gained intensive research in renewable energy. However, a majority of research works only focused on the regions with high wave heights, which may not be readily achievable in Malaysian seas condition. As the technology of point absorber facing the concern on less-applicability in low wave height conditions in Malaysia, a numerical modeling to understand the maximum potential power output to be generated by point absorber is now in demand to predict the power capture ability of point absorber in Malaysian waters. In order to complete this research gap, this paper is aiming to determine the sensitivity of different configurations of power take-off system in point absorber and to numerically analyze the potential maximum power output to be generated by the point absorber in Malaysian water, under regular wave motion. The significance of this study leads to a better understanding of the envelope of power output generated by point absorber in Malaysian seas. The methodology is conducted with theoretical modeling of point absorber, developing a numerical model of power take-off system to identify the maximum magnetic flux density of different stator-translator configuration, and simulating the power output of point absorber in time-domain under regular wave condition based on Malaysia seas data. The results show that power output of point absorber can be increased by a double-sided stator. The envelope of maximum power output to be generated has been identified. This research provides a further understanding of the development of point absorber technologies in Malaysian seas condition.


AIM
Despite its established utility in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, not much is reported on FDG positron emission tomography (PET) with respect to radioimmunotherapy (RIT). In this paper we investigate its value in patients affected by follicular lymphoma (FL) before and after treatment with [90Y]Ibritumomab Tiuxetan (Zevalin(R)).

METHODS
We evaluated 38 relapsed or refractory FL patients. All had a PET scan performed before and 3 months after radioimmunotherapy. Final assessment was done 9 months post-RIT, including clinical evaluation, other imaging techniques and/or biopsy, when necessary.

RESULTS
At the first PET scan 20 patients out of 38 had a limited disease (nodal involvement on one side of the diaphragm: 7 above and 13 below), 11 patients had nodal findings on both sides of the diaphragm and the remaining 7 patients had both nodal and extra-nodal findings. At three months post-RIT, 21 patients (55%) were in complete remission, 13 patients (34%) had a partial response (PR) and four patients (11%) had a progression disease (PD). The corresponding rates at final assessment were all consistent with the 3-month evaluation: 55% CR, 13% PR and 32% PD. FDG PET scan revealed maximal predictive values. When comparing the disease extent at relapse and the response to treatment, we could testify a higher rate of CR (75%) in patients with limited disease, while in patients with diffused nodal and/or extra-nodal findings, it was more frequent a PR or PD (66%).

CONCLUSION
Our data are concordant with the expected results on RIT, and FDG PET is confirmed to be useful in assessing treatment response. Potential correlation can also be picked out between the disease extent at relapse and the CR rate, with reasonable PET predictivity for the final outcome.


The impact of stage progression of superficial cancer to invasive disease is profound. However, the optimal–timed management of invasive bladder cancer is still controversial. Pelvic lymph node dissection and radical cystectomy are considered to be the optimal therapy regarding local tumor control and ultimate cure of cancer, whereas chemotherapy offers the only viable but limited option for patients with distant metastasis or locally advanced disease. Identification of conventional and molecular prognostic factors to predict cancer–specific survival following radical cystectomy is one important step to identify candidates that may benefit from early cystectomy or adjunct chemotherapy. With this background, the results of historic and contemporary radical cystectomy series for carcinoma of the bladder are reviewed.


Internet service providers (ISP) and administrators of Local Area Networks (LAN) aim to provide a certain level of service to end-users. However, network elements such as routers and switches may malfunction, resulting in abnormal communication delays. When such delays are observed, network administrators try to diagnose which network elements cause the abnormal delays. While most common techniques use additional measurements to identify the faulty device, we propose a non-intrusive model-based approach. The first approach translates classical MBD terms to this problem and shows a complete and sound solution. The second approach uses linear programming to produce a single minimum cardinality diagnosis in polynomial time. Both approaches are analyzed and evaluated empirically using the standard NS2 network simulator, and are able to find diagnoses or the minimal cardinality diagnosis in less than half a second for network models with up to 1,000 nodes.


This work sought to determine the two psychotropic drugs most commonly released by Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) into urban river waters (Belem sub-basin, Curitiba, PR, Brazil). A simple analytical method using SPE followed by a HPLC–DAD was developed and validated. Strata-X® cartridges were used to extract (carbamazepine) CZ and diazepam (DZ) from water and SPE conditions were optimized by 2 3 factorial design. The validated method was specific for target compounds; correlation coefficients were above 0.9998, recovery between 85.8 and 98.4% and precision below 6.60% (RSD, n=3). This method was successfully applied to analyze river samples and pollution hotspots were identified. The CZ and DZ concentrations found ranged from 0.670 to 0.856 µg L -1 and from LOQ to 0.763 µg L -1 , respectively, and confirmed that drug consumption is directly related to river pollution in the studied region.