Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disorder associated with progressive joint destruction. The rate of joint destruction is different among the patients. However, a few studies have been conducted to find out possible clinical predictors of radiographic damage in Asian populations compared with in Caucasians. Objectives We aimed to identify potential clinical predictors of severe radiographic damage in Korean early RA patients. Methods We studied 328 early RA patients with disease duration ≤2 years. Radiographic severity was assessed using the Sharp/Van der Heijde modified score (SHS) from hand radiographs, which were obtained at two time points separated by at least 1 year,. The yearly radiographic progression rate (ΔSHS/year) was calculated and the top 25% of the study population were defined as having severe radiographic damage, and the others as having mild radiographic damage. The covariates tested included age at symptom onset, Health Assessment Questionnaire score, smoking at symptom onset, body mass index, rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-CCP antibody, HLA-DRB1 shared epitope, Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, baseline SHS, ESR, CRP and cumulative ESR and CRP during initial 6 months which were calculated using area under curve (AUC) of ESR (AUC-ESR) and ACU-CRP. Predictors of severe radiographic damage were tested using multivariate logistic regression models, adjusted for potential confounders. Given the strong correlations, the baseline ESR, CRP, AUC-ESR, and AUC-CRP were used as the covariates in different models. Results Of the 328 patients with RA, 64% were female and the mean age at symptom onset was 48.9±12.0 years. The baseline SHS was 6.3±14.6 and it increased to 16.2±24.0 after a mean of 4.3±2.6 years. The ΔSHS/year cut-off for the top 25% was 4.1. Patients with severe radiographic change had higher percentage of RF (p=0.013), higher baseline SHS (p=0.002), and inflammatory markers (p=0.037, p=0.012, p=0.008, and p=0.014 for ESR, CRP, AUC-ESR, and AUC-CRP, respectively). In multivariate model, male (OR 2.620, 95% CI 1.117-6.147), RF (OR 2.464, 95% CI 1.093-5.558), baseline SHS (OR 1.936, 95% CI 1.423-2.634), ESR (OR 2.134, 95% CI 1.119–4.069), CRP (OR 2.622, 95% CI 1.430–4.805), and AUC-ESR (OR 2.487, 95% CI 1.328–4.659) were independent predictors of severe radiographic damage, but not AUC-CRP. In a subgroup analysis according to whether AUC-ESR decreased or increased compared with the baseline ESR, a higher baseline ESR was associated with severe radiographic damage only in the AUC-ESR increased subgroup (p=0.001). However, even though baseline ESR was high, if it decreased with time (AUC-ESR decreased subgroup), severe radiographic change was not developed (p=0.826) Conclusions Male, RF, baseline SHS, baseline ESR and CRP were associated with severe radiographic damage in Korean patients with RA, which were consistent with findings of Caucasian studies except sex. In addition, the current study supports that strict control of disease activity during initial 6 month period which was represented by decrease of ESR is important to prevent radiographic damage, especially in higher baseline ESR subgroup. Disclosure of Interest None declared


All over the world Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) cellular mobile networks have been upgraded to support the "always-on" general packet radio service (GPRS). Despite the apparent availability of levels of bandwidth not dissimilar to that provided by conventional fixed-wire telephone modems, the user experience using GPRS is still considerably poor. In this paper, we examine the performance of protocols such as transmission control protocol (TCP) over GPRS, and show how certain network characteristics interact badly with TCP to yield problems such as: link underutilization for short-lived flows, excess queueing for long-lived flows, acknowledgment bunching, poor loss recovery, and gross unfairness between competing flows. We present the design and implementation of a transparent TCP proxy that mitigates many of these problems without requiring any changes to the TCP implementations in either mobile or fixed-wire end systems. The proxy is interposed in the cellular provider's network, and splits TCP connections transparently into two halves-the wired and wireless sides. Connections destined for the same mobile host are treated as an aggregate due to their statistical dependence. We demonstrate packet scheduling and flow control algorithms that use information shared between the connections to maximize performance of the wireless link, while interworking with unmodified TCP peers. We also demonstrate how fairness between flows and response to loss is improved, and that queueing and, hence, network latency is reduced. We discuss how TCP enhancing proxies could be transparently deployed, and conclude that installing such a proxy into GPRS network would be of significant benefit to users.


The Government of Somalia and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) jointly commissioned the drafting of a modern criminal code for Somalia that embodies fundamental Islamic principles. The proposed code developed by the Criminal Law Research Group in cooperation with the major Somali players of the criminal justice process is a modern and comprehensive penal code incorporating numerous cutting-edge innovations in drafting forms, code structure, and criminal law doctrine. It is also the first and only such code incorporating the major tenets and principles of Islamic law as currently practiced in Somalia. This two-volume report to the Somali Working Group includes a proposed draft text, draft commentary, summary grading table, milestone grading table, as well as conversion tables from the current law sections to the draft code sections and vice versa.


ABSTRACT
We describe the peculiar facial morphology of a carved head dating to the end of the Roman Republican period (40 BCE) which displays evident unilateral asymmetry. A comprehensive discussion of the different etiologies is provided and a contextualization of this condition in the broader frame of Roman artistic verism is offered. This case study contributes to the knowledge of disease presentation in the ancient world, with a special focus on the anatomy of soft tissue pathology.


South Africans today inhabit a fragmented and discontinuous landscape, often despite their most cosmopolitan intentions. Grounded in the Coloured neighbourhood of Wentworth in Durban, this paper asks how remains of the past appear as differently temporalised artefacts, some buried in the archaic past and others more readily used to critique the present. In particular, I explore photographs of inmates of a concentration camp from 1902, township youth appropriating a specific commons in the early 1980s, black political photography from the late 1980s, and film wrestling with the ambiguities of post-apartheid political life in a Coloured neighbourhood next to an oil refinery. What unites these moments is not just a meta-theoretical concern with photography as both documentary and aesthetic, but the specific political uses of images, exemplified by the work of two black political photographers. Their practice provides cues for situating these other photographs in a long century of multiple dispossessions. The paper explores when and how photographs might shock the viewer into recognising resemblances, connections and potential solidarities, not just with the past, but with subaltern critique of racial space and subjectivity in the present. I suggest how we might view photographs from various moments relationally, to understand how, in one corner of contemporary South Africa, people continue to wait for justice despite uncertainty and official dissimulation, in a state of anticipatory frustration.


. This study analyzes turbulent properties in, and the thermodynamic structure of the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) during winter and the transition to spring. These processes influence the evolution and longevity of clouds, and impact the surface radiative energy budget in the Arctic. For the measurements we have used an instrumental payload carried by a helium filled tethered balloon. This system was deployed between December 2019 and May 2020 during the yearlong Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. Vertically highly resolved in 5 situ measurements of profiles of turbulent parameters were obtained reaching from the sea ice up to several hundred meters height. The two typical states of the Arctic ABL were identified: cloudless situations with a shallow and stable ABL, and cloudy conditions maintaining a mixed ABL. We have used profile data to estimate the height of the surface mixing layer. For this purpose, a bulk Richardson number criterion approach was introduced. By deriving a critical bulk Richardson number for wintertime in high latitudes, we have extended the analysis to radiosonde data. Furthermore, we have tested the applicability 10 of the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory to derive surface mixing layer heights based on measured surface fluxes.


The five-spotted fruit fly, Ceratitis quinaria (Bezzi) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is distributed in parts of eastern and western Africa, northern Africa and southern Africa (including South Africa). The species also occurs outside of Africa, in Yemen. The host range of C. quinaria is narrow, with Mangifera indica L. being the main host of commercial importance. Ceratitis quinaria was claimed to be associated with citrus in Sudan although this claim was never substantiated and there has never been any confirmed reared record of C. quinaria on citrus despite numerous surveys of citrus across Africa. In order to verify the type of association that C. quinaria has with citrus, field surveys were carried out in South Africa to determine the distribution and seasonal occurrence of C. quinaria in commercial citrus orchards and the possible natural infestation of citrus by this species. Surveys on distribution of C. quinaria across South Africa were carried out in 1999 and 2000 by trapping with Ceratitislure (containing protein hydrolysate and β-caryophyllene). The seasonal occurrence of C. quinaria in the northern areas of South Africa was determined over two years between 2015 and 2017 by trapping with Enriched Ginger Oil (EGO), a male lure containing α-copaene. In the same trapping period, citrus and other fruit were sampled to determine infestation by C. quinaria. Additionally between 2009 and 2018, citrus fruit was sampled from the trees and ground in other commercial and non-commercial areas in the north of South Africa. All fruit samples collected were incubated for at least five weeks to allow rearing of flies to the pupal and adult stages. Trapping surveys conducted between 1999 and 2000 showed the presence of C. quinaria only in the northern areas of South Africa. Catches of C. quinaria males in EGO-baited traps were low in commercial citrus orchards (peak of catches being lower than 0.05 flies/trap/day). Catches of C. quinaria were mainly recorded outside of the citrus ripening period. No C. quinaria was reared from any of the citrus fruit sampled, even in those areas where the presence of the species was demonstrated by catches in EGO-baited traps. The fruit surveys therefore demonstrated the absence of natural infestation of citrus with C. quinaria in South Africa and supported existing biological information that citrus is not a host for C. quinaria.


This thesis was part of a project at the Swedish Geotechnical Institute aiming at investigating the geochemistry of heavy metals and arsenic in pyrite ash. The spe-cific aims with this work were to extend the knowledge on solubility control mechanisms of metals in pyrite ash and how the sorption ability of the ash was dependent on content of iron (hydr)oxides. Pyrite ash is a waste product from the roasting process of pyrite ore when producing sulphur dioxide. Sampling was per-formed at the former pulp mill Bergvik sulfit and leaching and selective extraction tests were performed on the material.
EDTA-extractable concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and oxalate extractable con-centrations of Al, Fe and As were used as input in the geochemical equilibrium model Visual MINTEQ together with macro-cations, anions and DOC obtained from the pH leaching test. The predicted solution concentrations of Al, Fe, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and As from the model were compared to the pH leaching measurements.
The model predicted the concentrations of Al, Cd, Zn and Cu very well without any parameterisation. The estimates for Pb and Fe were not as well matched with the experimental data which emphasises the need for further research on filter size and colloidal particles in solution. Too few measurements above detection limit were obtained for As to get a good verification of the model.
The mechanism controlling the solution concentration at natural pH (6.5 – 7.1) for Al and Cu seemed to be precipitation of a mineral phase and for Cd, Pb, Zn and As complexation to (hydr)oxide surfaces. At alkaline pH the solution concentration of Zn was controlled by precipitation.
Overall this approach, with leaching and selective extraction tests together with geochemical modelling, seems to be promising in the risk assessment of contami-nated soils.


This paper presents the initial results of an ongoing study at Texas A&M University on abutment scour in cohesive soil in the case of clear water scour. A wing-wall shape abutment and a rectangular channel were used in the laboratory experiments. Three different abutment lengths were used to investigate the effect of blockage ratio in this study. The scour depth comparisons with previous works made by others were made and show disagreements of results, and conclusion about clay and sand behavior during scour is presented. Two numerical models ranging from 2D to 3D were also used to compute the velocities as well as water level. Comparison of velocities and water level between the models and measurements is also presented.


We study symmetric teleparallel (STP) gravity model, in which only spacetime non-metricity is nonzero. First we obtain STP equivalent Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian and give an approach for a generic solution in terms of only metric tensor. Then we obtain a spherically symmetric static solution to the Einstein's equation in STP space-time and discuss the singularities. Finally, we study a model given by a Lagrangian 4-form quadratic in non-metricity. Thus, we seek Schwarzschild-type solutions because of its observational success and obtain some sets of solutions. Finally, we discuss physical relevance of the solutions.


The abstract is a crucial component of a research article. Abstracts head the text—and sometimes they can appear alone in separate listings (e.g., conference proceedings). The purpose of the abstract is to inform the reader succinctly what the paper is about, why and how the research was carried out, and what conclusions might be drawn. In this paper we consider the same (or a similar) abstract in 13 different formats to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.


B49 The human antibody adecatumumab (MT201) targets the tumor-associated antigen EpCAM (CD326). Adecatumumab is currently explored in metastatic breast cancer patients in combination with docetaxel, and has earlier been evaluated in two phase II studies in metastatic breast and early-stage prostate cancer patients. In breast cancer, exploratory sub-group analyses found time-to-progression to increase with both antibody dose and the level of EpCAM target expression, indicating activity of this EpCAM-targeting cytotoxic agent.
 Here we have analyzed the immunogenicity of adecatumumab following long-term biweekly treatment of breast (N=112) and prostate cancer patients (N=84) as an antibody monotherapy. Patients had no concurrent immunosuppressive therapies. The longest therapy was for 26 infusions during a treatment period of 48 weeks, and the shortest for one infusion. Mean number of infusions was 7.5 with a median of 5. Immunogenicity was assessed earliest 6 weeks and latest 14 weeks after beginning of treatment.
 A sandwich ELISA for detection of a human anti-adecatumumab response with a lower limit of detection of 20 ng/ml was developed and validated. The assay is biased for detection of higher affinity immune responses because it used for development a high-affinity anti-idiotypic antibody to adecatumumab as positive control. Low-affinity immune responses in the presence of high residual serum levels of antibody may thus have escaped detection. Calculation of the assay cut point used the 95th percentile and the mean value of 55 individual sera from untreated patients.
 In the two clinical phase II studies with a total of 196 patients analyzed for immunogenicity only one patient apparently developed a detectable antibody response to adecatumumab. Further analysis of sera from the immune-reactive patient showed that addition of excess adecatumumab was not capable of reducing the ELISA signal, indicating that the single immune response was not specific for adecatumumab. One reason for the apparent absence of immunogenicity of adecatumumab may be its closeness to germline, which is 87 percent for the variable light chain and 98 percent for the variable heavy chain domain. A second reason may be the high stability and low aggregation behaviour of adecatumumab as was evident from its stability during storage at 4-8°C, which is exceeding 3 years. A third reason may be the finding that the complete antibody was found to be very resistant to high temperature with a TS50 value of 83°C at 1 µg/ml. In this assay, trastuzumab had a TS50 value of 80°C at 1 µg/ml. It may thus be a combination of closeness to germline, low tendency to aggregate and high stability that explains the very low immunogenicity of adecatumumab observed after repeated infusions in cancer patients. An ongoing phase I study is exploring the safety and immunogenicity of adecatumumab in combination with docetaxel in metastatic breast cancer patients.


The authors present an interesting and practical start-up strategy for generators during power system restoration. An efficient algorithm based on the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) is proposed to seek the optimal generator start-up sequencing. However, the discussers would greatly appreciate the authors' responses on the following aspects stated in the paper.


This thesis provides a critical examination of the concepts of experience and life in the work of Theodor W. Adorno and Giorgio Agamben. The shared context of their thought consists in an examination of damaged life which reaches its apotheosis in "Auschwitz", an account of the destruction of
experience in modernity, and an emphasis that the path to a form of life beyond damaged life can only be constructed immanently, through damaged life itself.
The philosophical problem that this thesis addresses is the question of the possibility of a life beyond damaged life. Given the destruction of experience encapsulated in an idea of a life that does not live, how can a critical subjectivity found the possibility of a path beyond such a reified context ? Both
Agamben and Adorno delineate such a path through a dissolution of subjectivity which can open itself to the possibility of a different experience of life.
It is argued that Adorno's concept of negative dialectics gives the grounding for the possibility of a critical subjectivity that can found itself within its own dissolution through an experience of possibility produced by a deepening of the
contradictions of damaged life.
The first two chapters critically examine the accounts of bare life and damaged life through Adorno and Agamben's writings on Auschwitz and life as survival.C hapterst hree and four clarify the philosophical antecedents to the concept of life in Adorno's work and argue that a path beyond damaged life
cannot be configured in terms of a re-enchantment of nature.
Chapter five provides a bridge in the thesis between the analysis of concepts of life and experience, through a critical examination of the account of the decay of experience given in Agamben and Adorno's work. It is argued that both their accounts are too undifferentiated, as they miss the possibilities that arise in the decay of experience. However, Adorno's emphasis on dialectical experience rather than an authoritative concept of experience, gives his philosophy a resource with which to think the possibility of another form of
life, even amidst the destruction of experience.
In the final three chapters, I reconstruct three central and related concepts of experience beyond damaged life that Adorno outlines throughout his work; a concept of interpretation, a concept of a negative redemptive breakthrough, and finally the metaphysical experience of reconciliation. These experiences relate to a concept of life in terms of an embodied thought, but not as an experience of a naturalistic, unchangeable ground. The possibility of an experience of life remains in the experience of a dissolution of subjectivity that does not turn into total destruction.


Abstract : Military operations are becoming increasingly reliant on a communications and information infrastructure that provides seamless, interoperable connectivity between all forces, anytime and everywhere. This operational emphasis is changing the manner in which command and control (C2) systems are defined, developed and fielded. Communication systems can no longer be ,application-centric'. Instead, we must define a communications infrastructure to support a variety of applications and missions. In particular, communications systems must be interconnected to create a network accessible by all applications and users. This network-centric communications infrastructure has been coined the Global Grid. In many ways, the tremendous technology advances over the past ten years in the commercial world are making the Global Grid realizable.


A basic theme in the theory of international trade has been to study welfare gains and income redistribution caused by trade liberalization. Using optimizing finite lives overlapping generations combined with long-term real assets and adjustment costs in accumulating capital, this paper establishes new current account and welfare redistribution results caused by financial liberalization. After briefly describing the model for the closed economy case, we study the resulting evolution of the current account, the accumulation of capital, the real wage behavior and the adjustment of asset prices, when capital flows are allowed. Under the mentioned framework, we are able to show that an unanticipated liberalization of the capital account can cause an overshooting or an undershooting in external debt behavior during the transition. Another consequence associated with the liberalization policy, is the creation of some transitional welfare losers, eventhough the welfare of steady state generations is improved. By following appropriate compensatory policies, we can show that the country may achieve a Pareto welfare improvement for current alld future generations. As a wav of reducing the intergenerational redistributions induced bv the opening of the capital account, we discuss the alternative of adopting more gradual strategies of liberalization.


The paper shows that for any Gδ set F of Lebesgue measure zero on the unit circle T there exists a function f ∈ H∞ such that the radial limits of f exist at each point of T and vanish precisely on F . This solves a problem proposed by Lee Rubel in 1973.


To determine the optimal concentration of fetal bovine serum (FBS) on the growth of insect cells and the multiplicity of viruses, the growth of cells (Sf21 and Bm5) and viruses were examined on the various concentrations of FBS. In view of the viability, growth speed, proliferation of cells and the amount of FBS, the most proper concentration for the cell culture were 7% and 5% for Sf21 and Bm5, respectively. The multiplicity of viruses at the various concentrations of FBS was similar in both cell lines at 5 days post-infection (p.i.). However, it differed significantly at 2 and 3 days p.i. The proper concentration of FBS were 10% and 3% for Sf21 at 2 and 3 days p.i., respectively, and 5% for Bm5 at both 2 and 3 days p. i. These results suggested that the optimal concentration of FBS should be determined according to the used cell lines and viruses for their optimum production.


ABSTRACT City and town administrators in Zimbabwe continue to push for the installation of prepaid water meters (PWMs). This is despite the residents' objections to the proposal. The merits and demerits of PWMs continue to be debated, and more empirical information will help chart a new course especially in smaller cities in poor countries. The paper adopts a qualitative research design and case study approach in eliciting information from respondents. Water governance institutions and 35 residents in Karoi town were purposively sampled to understand how they viewed the impact of PWMs installation in the water supply chain. Data collection tools included questionnaires, documents, observations and focus group discussions (FGDs). Findings revealed that respondents perceived water is an indispensable commodity, a right and one that should be enjoyed by every citizen regardless of their social or economic status. The installation of PWMs also runs contrary to the Zimbabwean Constitution as it deprives low-income citizens of water if they could not afford to pay. Instead, a more appropriate delivery mechanism is the traditional post-paid system, which allows consumers to access water based on affordability.


CACL is a protection scheme for objects that offers a simple and flexible model of protection and has an efficient, software-only implementation. The model, based on Access Control Lists (ACLs) integrated with the type system, allows owners to control who may invoke which methods on which objects, permits cooperation between mutually suspicious principals, allows ownership of objects to be transferred safely, prevents unwanted propagation of authority between principals, and allows changes to the authorization information to take effect on the next method invocation. The implementation, based on the integration of Capabilities with method dispatch, avoids the overhead of access checking in the majority of invocations, at the cost of space for extra dispatch vectors. CACL offers a viable mechanism for finegrained protection in an object-oriented database system.


Background: Skin infections are a recurring problem for people with lymphedema, and lymphedema has been proven to be the single most important risk factor for developing erysipelas in the leg. This study aimed to determine whether liposuction for late-stage lymphedema reduces the rate of erysipelas in lower extremity lymphedema. Methods: One-hundred twenty-four patients with a median age of 49 years who had liposuction and controlled compression therapy for lower extremity lymphedema were included. Excess volumes were calculated before and after surgery. Median preoperative and postoperative patient years at risk were 11 and 5 years, respectively. Results: With a total of 1680 preoperative person years at risk and 335 bouts of erysipelas experienced in 64 patients, the preoperative incidence rate was 0.20 bouts per person per year, and the period prevalence was 52%. Postoperatively, the patients were followed over a total of 763 person years at risk, and 28 patients experienced a total of 53 bouts of erysipelas, resulting in a postoperative incidence rate of 0.07 bouts per person per year, and a period prevalence of 23%. This represents a 65% decrease in the erysipelas incidence rate (P < 0.001). The preoperative median excess volume of 3158 ml was reduced with a median of 100% (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Liposuction and controlled compression therapy significantly reduce the risk for erysipelas in lower extremity lymphedema and completely reduces the excess volume. This finding is similar to our previous research including patients with upper extremity lymphedema.


Background Oral glucocorticoids (OGCs) are commonly used to treat inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The appropriate duration of use and dose is debated because of the adverse event (AE) profile of OGCs. Objectives To evaluate the associations between cumulative doses of OGCs and OGC-related AEs among patients with RA. Methods RA patients 18 years of age and older were selected from a large US administrative claims database based on the presence of ≥2 claims with a diagnosis code for RA in 2012. RA patients were required to be continuously enrolled in the database from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012 (baseline period) and from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013 (evaluation period) and could not have received a diagnosis for another autoimmune condition. Cumulative OGC dose was measured in outpatient pharmacy claims during the baseline period. The presence of an OGC-related AE (diagnosis of osteoporosis, bone fracture, aseptic necrosis of the bone, cataract, diabetes, or ulcer/gastrointestinal hemorrhage in the inpatient or outpatient setting or diagnosis of pneumonia, opportunistic infection, myocardial infarction, or stroke during an inpatient admission) was assessed during the evaluation period. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to compare odds of OGC-related AEs across levels of cumulative doses of OGC, controlling for patient demographic and clinical characteristics. Models were stratified by use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in the baseline period. Results The sample was composed of 84,357 RA patients; mean age was 59 years, and 76% were female; 48% used OGCs during the baseline period, with a mean cumulative dose of 1,334 mg (median, 770 mg). During the follow-up period, 22,207 patients (26%) had an OGC-related AE. The most common AEs were cataract, bone fracture, and osteoporosis. Table 1 displays the number of patients with an AE for each OGC dose cohort and the adjusted odds ratio for AEs (95% CI), with the no-OGC use cohort as the reference group. Conclusions Among RA patients, those with a cumulative OGC dose of >1,800 mg during a 12-month period generally had a greater probability of experiencing an OGC-related AE during the following year. A cumulative dose between >800 and 1,800 mg was associated with an increased probability of bone fracture and osteoporosis. Disclosure of Interest J. Best Employee of: Genentech, A. Farr Consultant for: Genentech, K. Sarsour Employee of: Genentech, M. Stott-Miller Consultant for: Genentech, Y. Hwang: None declared


The initial glass-ionomer cements have become well-known restorative materials and have achieved success in a variety of procedures. The newest generation of glass-ionomer cements contain more resin, have higher cohesive strengths, and are light cured, compared with previous generations. Other fluoride-releasing resins with glass-ionomer properties have been developed, and they are called "compomers." One such recently introduced material is discussed in this article. A clinical case report is presented, illustrating the utilization of this material in the restoration of a mandibular second primary molar.


This study is to investigate the use of MATAS Hopscotch technique to solve the subtraction of three types of fractions among secondary school students. The study involved 56 pupils from two Year 5 classes. A quasi-experimental, nonrandomized control group, pre-test-post-test delayed post-test design was conducted on two intact groups, randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. Paired samples t- test was conducted to evaluate the impact of the teaching method on the pupils' scores on the test among the control and treatment groups. The findings showed there was a statistically significant increase in the pupils' scores from pre-test (M=0.43, SD = .690) to post-test (M= 9.89, SD=2.424), t(27) =-23.467, p < .05 among the control group. This finding indicated the control group showed improvement in the pupils' scores after the implementation of the traditional method. The findings also showed there was a statistically significant increase in the pupils' scores from pre-test (M=0.50, SD = .745) to post-test (M= 16.07, SD=1.676), t(27) =-53.163, p < .05 (two-tailed) among the treatment group. These findings indicated the treatment group showed improvement in the pupils' scores after the implementation of the MATAS Hopscotch technique. However, the score gain of the treatment group was almost twice as much as that for the control group.


We have found that magnetic α-Fe2O3 nanocubes exhibit an intrinsic catalytic activity toward the electrochemical sensing of dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA) in the presence of ascorbic acid. Au-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles, which act as efficient signal amplifiers, can be attached to the surface of α-Fe2O3 particles to further enhance the catalytic electrochemical signals. The one-step synthesized α-Fe2O3@Au-Pd hybrid nanostructure shows significantly well-separated oxidation peaks with enhanced peak currents of DA and UA. We then demonstrated the use of this nonenzymatic nanoelectrocatalyst for individual detection, and the linear responses of DA and UA were in the concentration ranges of 100 nM-1 mM and 1 μM-1 mM with detection limits of 1.34 × 10-10 M and 1.8 × 10-6 M (S/N = 3σ/b), respectively. For simultaneous detection, the same detection ranges were retained with significantly lower detection limits of 1.38 × 10-11 M and 597 nM, respectively. The fabricated sensor was finally applied in selectivity tests for the detection of DA and UA with satisfactory results. The practical analytical utility was illustrated by selective measurements of human urine, serum and pharmaceutical drugs without any preliminary treatment.


In this work, we have applied a semi-empirical spectral classification method for OB-stars using the APOGEE spectrograph to a sample of candidates in the W3–W4–W5 (W345) complexes. These massive star-forming regions span over 200 pc across the Perseus arm and have a notorious population of massive stars, from which a large fraction are members of various embedded and young open clusters. From 288 APOGEE spectra showing H-band spectral features typical of O- and B-type sources, 46 probably correspond to previously unknown O-type stars. Therefore, we confirm that Br11–Br13 together with He ii λ16923 (7–12) and He ii λ15723 (7–13) lines contained in the APOGEE spectral bands are useful in providing spectral classification down to one spectral sub-class for massive stars in regions as distant as d ≈ 2 kpc. The large number of newly found O-type stars as well as the numerous intermediate-mass population confirm that W345 is a very efficient massive star factory, with an integral stellar population probably amounting several thousand solar masses.


Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly used to monitor treatment-related symptoms and physical function decrements in cancer clinical trials. As more patients enter survivorship, it is important to capture PRO physical function throughout trials to help restore pretreatment levels of function. We completed a systematic review of PRO physical function measures used in cancer clinical trials and evaluated their psychometric properties on the basis of guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration. Five databases were searched through October 2015: PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Health and Psychosocial Instruments, and Cochrane. From an initial total of 10,233 articles, we identified 108 trials that captured PRO physical function. Within these trials, approximately 67% used the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire and 25% used the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36. Both the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire and Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 instruments generically satisfy most Food and Drug Administration requirements, although neither sought direct patient input as part of item development. The newer Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System physical function short form may be a brief, viable alternative. Clinicians should carefully consider the psychometric properties of these measures when incorporating PRO instrumentation into clinical trial design to provide a more comprehensive understanding of patient function.


Ongoing pandemic coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected over 218 countries and infected 88,512,243 and 1,906,853 deaths reported by Jan. 8, 2021. At present, vaccines are being developed in Europe, Russia, USA, and China, although some of these are in phase III of trials, which are waiting to be available for the general public. The only option available now is by vigorous testing, isolation of the infected cases, and maintaining physical and social distances. Numerous methods are now available or being developed for testing the suspected cases, which may act as carriers of the virus. In this review, efforts have been made to discuss the conventional as well as fast, rapid, and efficient testing methods developed for the diagnosis of 2019-nCoV.Testing methods can be based on the sensing of targets, which include RNA, spike proteins and antibodies such as IgG and IgM. Apart from the development of RNA targeted PCR, antibody and VSV pseudovirus neutralization assay along with several other diagnostic techniques have been developed. Additionally, nanotechnology-based sensors are being developed for the diagnosis of the virus, and these are also discussed.


Current knowledge indicates that mTOR functions as two complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, in mammalian cells. mTORC1 comprises mTOR, mLST8 and raptor, and is sensitive to acute rapamycin treatment, whereas mTORC2 consists of mTOR, mLST8, rictor, mSin1 and Protor, and is sensitive to chronic rapamycin treatment in some cases. It is well known that mTORC1 phosphorylates 4E-BP1 and S6K1, while mTORC2 phosphorylates Akt and SGK1. Recently, we and others have observed that rapamycin inhibits the phosphorylation of mSin1. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism by which rapamycin inhibits mSin1 phosphorylation. Here we show that rapamycin inhibits mSin1 phosphorylation in mTOR kinase dependent manner. This is strongly supported by the findings that expression of rapamycin-resistant mTOR (mTOR-T), but not rapamycin-resistant and kinase dead mTOR (mTOR-TE) prevented rapamycin from inhibiting mSin1 phosphorylation; Knockdown of mTOR inhibited mSin1 phosphorylation. However, surprisingly, disruption of either mTORC1 or mTORC2 (by silencing raptor and rictor, respectively) failed to inhibit the phosphorylation of mSin1 as rapamycin did. Similarly, downregulation of S6K1 or Akt did not inhibit mSin1 phosphorylation as rapamycin did either. Of interest, knockdown of mLST8, a component shared by mTORC1/2, inhibited mSin1 phosphorylation. Furthermore, rapamycin treatment reduced the physical interaction of mSin1 with mLST8 and mTOR, but not with rictor. The results suggest that rapamycin inhibits mSin1 phosphorylation, which is not by inhibiting mTORC1 or mTORC2, but via inhibiting a new mTOR complex, which contains at least mTOR and mLST8. (Supported by the FWCC, LSU Health Sciences Center) Citation Format: Shile Huang, Yan Luo, Lei Liu. Rapamycin inhibits the phosphorylation of mSin1 by targeting a new mTOR complex. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4621.


This paper presents a deep feed-forward neural network classifier to automatically classify the stages of sleep using raw data taken from a single electropalatogram channel (Fpz-Cz). No features are extracted at all from the data, and the network can classify the five sleep stages: waking, Nl, N2, N3, N4, and rapid eye movement. The network has three layers, takes as an input a l-s epochs to be classified, and requires no signal pre-processing nor feature extraction. We trained and evaluated our system using DeepLearning4J, the free Java framework for test data taken from PhysioNet's Polysomnography Sleep database. An accuracy of 0.99 within a constrained environment has been reached.


The paper focuses on the early stages of the design process where the architect needs assistance in finding reference projects and describes different aspects of a concept for retrieving previous design solutions with similar layout characteristics. Such references are typically used to see how others have solved a similar architectural problem or simply for inspiration. Current electronic search methods use textual information rather than graphical information. The configuration of space and the relations between rooms are hard to represent using keywords, in fact transforming these spatial configurations into verbally expressed typologies tends to result in unclear and often imprecise descriptions of architecture. Nowadays, modern IT-technologies lead to fundamental changes during the process of designing buildings. Digital representations of architecture require suitable approaches to the storage, indexing and management of information as well as adequate retrieval methods. Traditionally planning information is represented in the form of floor plans, elevations, sections and textual descriptions. State of the art digital representations include renderings, computer aided design (CAD) and semantic information like Building Information Modelling (BIM) including 2D and 3D file formats such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) (IAI, 2010). In the paper, we examine the development of IT-technologies in the area of case-based reasoning (Richter et al., 2007) to provide a sketch-based submission and retrieval system for publishing and researching building layouts including their manipulation and subsequent use. The user interface focuses on specifying space and their relations by drawing them. This query style supports the spatial thinking approach that architects use, who often have a visual representation in mind without being able to provide an accurate description of the spatial configuration. The semantic fingerprint proposed by (Langenhan, 2008) is a description and query language for creating an index of floor plans to store meta-data about architecture, which can be used as signature for retrieving reference projects. The functional spaces, such as living room or kitchen and the relation among on another, are used to create a fingerprint. Furthermore, we propose a visual sketch-based interface (Weber et al., 2010) based on the Touch&Write paradigm (Liwicki et al., 2010) for the submission and the retrieval phase. During the submission process the architect is sketching the space-boundaries, space relations and functional coherence's. Using state of the art document analysis techniques, the architects are supported offering an automatic detection of room boundaries and their physical relations. During the retrieval the application will interpret the sketches of the architect and find reference projects based on a similarity based search utilizing the semantic fingerprint. By recommending reference projects, architects will be able to reuse collective experience which match the current requirements. The way of performing a search using a sketch as a query is a new way of thinking and working. The retrieval of 3D models based on a sketched shape are already realized in several domains. We already propose a step further, using the semantics of a spatial configuration. Observing the design process of buildings reveals that the initial design phase serves as the foundation for the quality of the later outcome. The sketch-based approach to access valuable information using the semantic fingerprint enables the user to digitally capture knowledge about architecture, to recover and reuse it in common-sense. Furthermore, automatically analysed fingerprints can put forward both commonly used as well as best practice projects. It will be possible to rate architecture according to the fingerprint of a building.


We present an unsupervised approach for harvesting the data exposed by a set of structured and partially overlapping data-intensive web sources. Our proposal comes within a formal framework tackling two problems: the data extraction problem, to generate extraction rules based on the input websites, and the data integration problem, to integrate the extracted data in a unified schema. We introduce an original algorithm, WEIR, to solve the stated problems and formally prove its correctness. WEIR leverages the overlapping data among sources to make better decisions both in the data extraction (by pruning rules that do not lead to redundant information) and in the data integration (by reflecting local properties of a source over the mediated schema). Along the way, we characterize the amount of redundancy needed by our algorithm to produce a solution, and present experimental results to show the benefits of our approach with respect to existing solutions.


The discovery that a solution of salt and sugar is an excellent way to treat and prevent dehydration was an important advance in the primary health care field, as it was expected that mothers, even illiterate mothers, could easily learn to prepare the solution at home, thus preventing serious consequences of untreated diarrhea. In addition to the low price, an important quality of this simple solution is that it gives the mother a sense of responsibility and the knowledge that she herself can do much to alleviate the suffering of her children. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry and chemists were quick to realize that big profits can be made from oral rehydration and to package ready-made solutions. Consequently, there has been a movement away from teaching the mother how to make a simple solution at home, using salt, sugar, and water. The responsibility for this situation needs to be shared by both the scientist and the health worker. Scientists seem to have some difficulty accepting the fact that simple can be good and better is not always best. By adding 1.5 grams of potassium chloride or 2.9 grams of trisodium citrate to improve the mixture, it becomes a medicine, which only can be given/prescribed/sold by health personnel or chemists. The improved formula is good in a clinic setting, but in terms of primary health care and self-help this is not the best approach. The solution is being put beyond the reach of the poor child, certainly in the rural areas of the developing world. All health workers should know how to prepare a salt-sugar solution and also should show mothers/parents/caretakers how to make it. If one is serious about primary health care and self-help, it is best to return to using sugar and salt.


CONTEXT.—
Various pulmonary diseases can produce centrilobular (peribronchiolar) fibrosis, which may be isolated or associated with other patterns of more diffuse fibrosis. The major forms of interstitial lung disease in which centrilobular fibrosis is found are fibrotic (chronic) hypersensitivity pneumonitis, connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease, and (a disputed issue) usual interstitial pneumonia/idiopathic interstitial fibrosis.

OBJECTIVE.—
To review recent literature that addresses separation of these entities.

DATA SOURCES.—
Data comprised recent publications.

CONCLUSIONS.—
In a specially constructed multidisciplinary discussion exercise, it was found that peribronchiolar metaplasia affecting more than half the bronchioles or more than 2 foci of peribronchiolar metaplasia per square centimeter of biopsy area was strongly associated with a confident diagnosis of fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Giant cells or granulomas were only found in cases with a greater than 50% diagnostic confidence in hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Conversely, greater numbers of fibroblast foci per square centimeter and increasing measured amounts of subpleural fibrosis favored a diagnosis of usual interstitial pneumonia. Recent data also suggest that centrilobular fibrosis can be found in usual interstitial pneumonia, although the presence of centrilobular fibrosis statistically favors an alternate diagnosis. Connective tissue disease is a major confounder because many patterns are very similar to fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis or usual interstitial pneumonia. Genetic abnormalities, such as the MUC5B minor allele overlap, in these conditions and at this point cannot be used for discrimination. Thus, the separation of fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis and usual interstitial pneumonia remains a difficult problem. Accurate biopsy diagnosis of all of these diseases requires correlation with imaging and clinical findings, and is crucial for treatment.


Public goods are non-exclusive and non-competitive commodities. Because of this characteristic, the government has become the main body of providing public goods in most cases. However, at present, the government has problems such as low efficiency and waste of resources in the process of providing public goods. Based on the perspective of public choice theory, this article analyzes why government failures occur in the process of providing public goods, and proposes path reconstruction suggestions.


ABSTRACT The effect of yttrium (Y) on the critical resolved shear stresses (CRSS) of < a > basal slip, tension twinning and < c + a > pyramidal slip has been studied using micro-pillar compression tests along selected orientations at room temperature, on two magnesium (Mg) alloys with different Y contents (0.4 and 4 wt.%). The CRSS of < a > basal slip increased slightly from 30 ± 1 MPa (for Mg-0.4Y) to 37 ± 3 MPa (for Mg-4Y). In Mg-0.4Y, the resolved shear stress to activate the tension twin was determined to be 45 ± 12 MPa, while in Mg-4Y it was 113 MPa. The compressed samples were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that < c + a > dislocations slip mainly on (Pyra II) planes with a CRSS of about 119 MPa in Mg-0.4Y and slip mainly on (Pyra I) planes in Mg-4Y with a CRSS of 106 MPa. There is a significantly lowered CRSS ratio between < c + a > slip and < a > basal slip in both alloys (2.8 and 4.8) compared with that reported in bulk pure Mg (∼100). The easy activation of < c + a > on Pyramidal I slip is expected to promote the frequent cross-slip in Mg-4Y alloy.


In this study, high frequency ultrasound and ultrasound-assisted mechanical testing systems were used to quantitatively measure the morphological, acoustic and mechanical properties of normal and enzymatically degraded bovine articular cartilages in vitro, in order to assess its potential application in assessing the early osteoarthritis (OA) related cartilage degeneration. Forty (n = 20 × 2) osteochondral cartilage disks were prepared from 20 bovine patellae and divided into 2 groups for later collagenase and trypsin digestions, respectively. A high frequency ultrasound system was used to analyze the surface roughness (URI), thickness and acoustic parameters (including IRC, IA, IBS, AIBbone) of the articular cartilage before and after enzymatic degradations. A newly developed water jet ultrasound indentation system was used to assess the mechanical properties of the cartilage samples. The results showed that URI increased significantly (p ≪ 0.05) after collagenase digestion, while this was not the case after trypsin digestion (p ≫ 0.05). URI significantly also correlated with optical roughness index (ORI, p ≪ 0.05). IRC decreased significantly (p ≪ 0.05) after collagenase digestion, but not for trypsin digestion (p ≫ 0.05). Both enzymatic degradation groups showed significant increase in IBS (p ≪ 0.05) after treatments. The stiffness measured showed that articular cartilage from both groups became significantly softer (p ≪ 0.05) after treatments. A linear relationship was founded between IRC and URI (p ≪ 0.05). To conclude, this study showed that high frequency ultrasound can be potential as a comprehensive tool to quantitatively and systematically analyze the morphological, acoustic and mechanical properties of articular cartilage in association with its OA-associated degeneration.


The recent phenomenon of worldwide declining enrolments in engineering-related degrees has led to the gradual decrease in the number of engineering graduates. This decrease occurs at a time of increasing demand in the labour market for highly qualified engineers, who are necessary for the implementation of fundamental societal functions. This paper initially presents a survey of practices, which are currently employed by academic institutions in Europe in order to increase the attractiveness of their engineering studies. It then provides a detailed analysis of the benefits and proliferation of distance education to increase attractiveness of engineering studies based on a set of interviews. Results of this study, highlight a lack of a distance-learning dimension in the implementation of engineering studies in the European Area and discusses in detail ways in which distance learning can be utilised in engineering studies for the benefit of increasing their attractiveness. It has also been noted that institutions employing distance learning as part of their engineering studies, see this as highly beneficial for their students but also for the academic institution itself with some reservations in terms of the pedagogical adequacy of materials and instructional approaches used in distance education courses.


This review aims to assess the relationship between interstitial cystitis (IC) and significant traumatic events or PTSD. It was shown that there is a strong correlation between past trauma and the development of interstitial cystitis, as well as a much higher incidence of PTSD in patients diagnosed with IC. It was also established that for individuals with early traumatic experiences, the more likely the development of IC later in life, and with more severe symptoms and adverse effects on quality of life. We describe three distinct hypotheses for the possible physiologic mechanism for development of IC with relation to mental health and trauma, although definitive evidence in this area is still lacking, which poses interesting avenues for further research. This review also revealed an apparent lack of, and need for, trauma informed care and screening for PTSD in patients diagnosed with IC or other chronic pain syndromes.


Abstract: This article focuses on Book VIII Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) regarding the acquisition and loss of ownership of goods. We study whether it is possible to transfer ownership to another unilaterally. In our opinion, the owner has the power to make this happen at least in some situations. In other words, the passing of ownership can be based on the unilateral juridical act performed by the owner. However, the regulation in Book VIII, Chapter 2, section I does not elaborate on the core element of the transaction, which, in our view based on some Finnish traditions, is transfer as unilateral juridical act.


This study aimed to evaluate the profile of virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance in Vibrio spp. isolated from live Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai Ino, 1953) marketed in South Korea. A total of 32 Vibrio isolates comprising V. alginolyticus (n=15), V. diabolicus (n=14), V. antiquarius (n=2) and V. parahaemolyticus (n=1) were analysed. All isolates demonstrated DNase, lipase, phospholipase and amylase activities. Additionally, production of slime (97%), gelatinase (94%), α-haemolysin (22%), β-haemolysin (78%) and protease (53%) were detected. Virulence genes viz., toxR, tlh, tdh, VAC, VPI, ctxAB and hupO were recorded in 56, 59, 13, 100, 41, 9 and 9% of the isolates, respectively. All isolates were resistant to ampicillin and 88% of the isolates were resistant to cephalothin and colistin sulphate. Twentyone isolates (66%) showed multiple antimicrobial resistance (MAR) index ≥0.2. Antimicrobial resistance genes blaCTX (85%), blaTEM (10%), blaSHV (10%), strAB (13%) and aphA-IAB (22%) and class 1 integrons (19%) were detected. V. diabolicus and V. antiquarius were identified and characterised for the first time in the Pacific abalone. Our findings imply the significance of integrated monitoring and surveillance programmes for the occurrence, virulence, and antimicrobial resistance patterns of vibrios in Pacific abalone.


Organized by the Chinese Medical Association and the Chinese Burn Association, hosted by the Hainan Medical Association and Hainan Provincial People's Hospital, and co-sponsored by the Chinese Journal of Burns (Chinese Journal of Burns and Wounds), Chinese Journal of Injury Repair and Wound Healing (Electronic Edition), and Burns & Trauma, the 2021 Annual Academic Conference of the Chinese Burn Association was held in beautiful Haikou from December 14 to 16, 2021. The conference continued to focus on the guiding principle of "One China, One Standard" and followed the tenet of "precise, homogeneous, and comfortable treatment" for burns. The conference received a total of 1 638 submissions, 296 electronic posters, 891 online and offline registered delegates, and nearly 750 offline attendees. The conference focused on the theme, adopting a variety of novel forms to discuss the key issues in burn field, including academician and committee director forum, doctor-nurse-rehabilitation therapist combined case competition, discipline development forum, and workshop, recording and broadcasting of surgical operations. The atmosphere was warm in the conference site.


Purpose of reviewAcute HIV infection (AHI), the earliest period after HIV acquisition, is only a few weeks in duration. In this brief period, the concentration of HIV in blood and genital secretions is extremely high, increasing the probability of HIV transmission. Although a substantial role of AHI in the sexual transmission of HIV is biologically plausible, the significance of AHI in the epidemiological spread of HIV remains uncertain. Recent findingsAHI is diagnosed by detecting viral RNA or antigen in the blood of persons who are HIV seronegative. Depending on the setting, persons with AHI represent between 1 and 10% of persons with newly diagnosed HIV infection. The high concentration of virus during AHI leads to increased infectiousness, possibly as much as 26 times greater than during chronic infection. In mathematical models, the estimated proportion of transmission attributed to AHI has varied considerably, depending on model structure, model parameters, and the population. Key determinants include the stage of the HIV epidemic and the sexual risk profile of the population. SummaryDespite its brief duration, AHI plays a disproportionate role in the sexual transmission of HIV infection. Detection of persons with AHI may provide an important opportunity for transmission prevention.


This study was aimed to determine the extent to which Prosopis species had invaded four settlements (Bokspits, Rappelspan, Vaalhoek and Struizendam) located in the Kgalagadi Desert south west of Botswana, investigate the perceptions of the communities about the existence of the species in their environment and assess possible control options for the spread of Prosopis plants in the area. Prosopis plants were sampled in 42 quadrats of 625 m2 along a 70 km Prosopis invasion gradient from Struizendam to Rappelspan. Using the Global Positioning System (GPS), the locations of all quadrats were established. The distribution map of Prosopis plants was produced using ArcGIS 9.2 (ESRI Inc.). Questionnaire survey and focused group discussions were used to collect data on the perceptions of rural communities about the species. A total of 342 respondents comprising 139 males and 203 females were interviewed, and four focussed group discussions were conducted. The results indicated that the invasion of Prosopis species was prominent in and around settlements suggesting that anthropogenic activities had a significant role in the spread of Prosopis plants in the area. The perceptions of rural communities about Prosopis plants appeared to be moulded by the impacts of the plants on their livelihoods as well as their micro-economic status. The respondents (71.30%) expressed the view that the invasion of Prosopis species negatively affected the livelihoods of the communities in the study area. They identified eradication as the preferred method of controlling the spread of Prosopis plants. On the contrary, this study recommended the integrated environmental management paradigm as the best options for the control of the spread of Prosopis plants in the area.


111 patients with fresh dislocation of shoulder joint were treated with modified Putti-Platt procedure. Of these, 17 had recurrent anterior dislocation. 13 patients were followed up on the average for 25 years. According to Rowe criteria, 10 patients (76.9%) showed excellent results, 2 (15.4%) good, and (7.7%) fair. No recurrence and restriction of external rotation were found. Clinical experience and fetal investigation on congenital factors of recurrent shoulder dislocation were described.


Flexible structural components can be attached to the rest of the structure using different types of joints. For instance, this is the case of solar panels or array antennas for space applications that are joined to the body of the satellite. To predict the dynamic behaviour of such structures under different boundary conditions, such as additional constraints or appended structures, it is possible to start from the frequency response functions in free-free conditions. In this situation, any structure exhibits rigid body modes at zero frequency. To experimentally simulate free-free boundary conditions, flexible supports such as soft springs are typically used: with such arrangement, rigid body modes occur at low non-zero frequencies. Since a flexible structure exhibits the first flexible modes at very low frequencies, rigid body modes and flexible modes become coupled: therefore, experimental frequency response function measurements provide incorrect information about the low frequency dynamics of the free-free structure. To overcome this problem, substructure decoupling can be used, that allows us to identify the dynamics of a substructure (i.e. the free-free structure) after measuring the frequency response functions on the complete structure (i.e. the structure plus the supports) and from a dynamic model of the residual substructure (i.e. the supporting structure). Subsequently, the effect of additional boundary conditions can be predicted using a frequency response function condensation technique. The procedure is tested on a reduced scale model of a space solar panel.


Cryptography and steganography are the two major techniques used for securing the information during communication. This paper proposed an algorithm for cryptography and steganography based on image sharing and chaotic system (ISCS), Where the ISCS algorithm has been applied to perform three operation. firstly, encrypt the secret color image based on Lorenz chaotic map. Then, sharing the cipher image to n shadow based on secret sharing scheme. Finally, embedding n shadow with n cover images. Several security analysis for image encryption are used, such as secret key space and sensitivity, histogram, autocorrelations, entropy, and differential analysis. The peak signal to noise ratio PSNR is used for testing and measuring the quality and performance for cover images of the proposed algorithm. With numerical simulation results, The proposed ISCS algorithm have high level for security, large key space for image encryption and high payload capacity reached to 0.75 M of pixels that embedding in four cover images size (512*512) with quality reached to 44 db of PSNR.


Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), the causative agent of exanthema subitum in childhood, can also induce meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. In contrast, HHV-6 encephalitis in immunocompetent patients is rare, and the clinical syndrome not well defined. We report a case of meningoencephalitis caused by HHV-6 type B in an otherwise healthy woman.


Recent research has indicated that child development centers rated as high quality are more likely to enroll children with disabilities (Baker-Ericzén, Mueggenborg, & Shea, 2009). Yet many of the standards and assessments used to determine the quality of a center do not assess inclusive practices. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to investigate the families of three children with mild to moderate disabilities and the high quality early childhood development center the children attend as they define and navigate the meanings and interactions involved in inclusion. Taking a Bronfenbrenner ecological perspective to early childhood education (ECE) and inclusion (Odom, et al., 2004), I conducted interviews to explore how members' within the micro and macro systems of the child's classroom and family life have made meanings of their experiences with inclusion and quality child care. Further, I completed interviews with teachers' and administrators' to explore how their definitions of quality in care related to those of the families. Finally, standards in high quality care, specifically the Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) position statement from National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and NAEYC accreditation were considered as an influence on early childhood settings (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; NAEYC, 2009). INDEX WORDS: Early childhood education, quality, inclusion, children with disabilities, ecological framework THE JUXTAPOSITION OF INCLUSION AND QUALITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION


The purpose of this research is to investigate the policy of the Prosperous Family Card Program in Tellang Kere Village of Tellu Limpoe District, Bone Regency. The research method used is qualitatively descriptive. This method will provide a complete picture of social phenomena. Data collection techniques applied were observation and interview with key informants; Secretary of the sub-district head, Head of Public Service Section, Head and Village Secretary, Village Head, Community leader, prosperous family card's recipient community, additional informant: e-warong village agent. The results of the research indicated that the policy of the Prosperous Family Card Program in Tellang Kere Village of Tellu Limpoe District, Bone regency had not been effective. Some obstacles occurred in the location, namely firstly, the lack of education and complete socialization to recipients of The Prosperous Family Card, inactive social assistance so that many people still do not understand the benefits and objectives of the policy. Secondly, the limitations of the internet network forced the village agents to collect beneficiary families somewhere to make withdrawal transactions through Electronic Data Capture, this took time-consuming. Thirdly, the data of the recipient of the Prosperous Family Card was often missed and not meticulous but not accumulated in the following month, and the last, monotonous menu had the potential to raise cholesterol that had an impact the risk of heart attack and diabetes, nevertheless, the public felt that this program had the benefits especially in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.


Besides the interest in many industrial applications, the development of new laser systems is important to study electronic properties of materials like, e.g. carrier lifetimes and mobility. Such physical properties can be observed with pulsed laser light sources employed in a pump-probe scheme. Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) is an experimental technique to map the electron distribution of crystals. The first Brillouin zone is the smallest unit of the reciprocal space and represents the complete solid. To cover the full Brillouin zone, extreme ultraviolet (XUV) photon energies are needed. If ARPES is employed in a pump-probe scheme, the real-time evolution of the band structure can be observed. Therefore, a pulsed XUV light source provides the foundation to observe the temporal evolution of the electron distribution of the full first Brillouin zone. The main objective of this thesis is the design and implementation of a high harmonic (HHG) light source with high repetition rate in combination with the photoemission setup TREx. For this purpose, the second harmonic from our femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser system serves as driving laser to generate the 5th harmonic with 15 eV photons in Ar+ gas at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. If the fundamental and the XUV pulses are employed in a pump-probe scheme, it is possible to observe charge carrier dynamics in materials with time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (trARPES).


This study sought to a) discover the specific factors that influence Information and Communications Technology (ICT) use in higher education teaching and learning in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as the Maldives; b) determine how ICT can be used within higher education in SIDS; c) develop a framework / model for ICT adoption in higher education in teaching and learning of SIDS; and d) use UNESCO's continuum model of ICT development and the TOEG framework to ground these factors to produce a practical roadmap.  The Maldives was chosen as a representative case for SIDS in this research. The Maldives consists of 1,192 coral islands with 198 inhabited islands. Due to its small population densities spread over remote islands, distribution of higher education access has been a major impediment in the Maldives, calling for the use of ICT.  This research utilised an interpretive paradigm with qualitative research methods (interviews; focus group discussions; qualitative survey and document reviewing). The case research methodology provided a variety of perspectives; enabled multiple data collection techniques; and examined technology integration within a technology rich environment. The research participants were students, teachers, senior academic managers, education and information technology consultants / experts in the Maldives.  The findings revealed the specific factors that affect the ICT adoption within higher education teaching and learning in the context of the Maldives. An Extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of ICT use in higher education in SIDS was developed using TAM theory, Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and a TOEG (Technology-Organisational-Environment-Geography) framework.  The technology context examined government support for Information Technology, ICT support for teachers, ICT Infrastructure, underutilisation of ICT resources, perception of benefits from the present ICT infrastructure and ICT policies. The organisational context included finance, centralisation, human resources, top management support, ICT confidence among teachers, and research. The environmental context contained social issues (drugs and overcrowding) and cultural issues (gender disparity, cultural homogeneity among students and teachers and no culture of using ICT in academic learning, and a spoon-feeding pedagogical tradition). Finally the geography context identified issues associated with geography, transportation and the digital divide between remote islands.  These factors impede the adoption of ICT in the higher education sector in SIDS such as the Maldives. A practical roadmap was formulated by utilising the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) continuum model of ICT development and the TOEG framework to recommend four broad stages in terms of adoption and use of ICT in higher education.  This study contributes to existing knowledge by providing a clear understanding of the present role of ICT as well as information on how ICT can be used in higher education in SIDS such as the Maldives. This research is important to gain a wider understanding of the future directions for adoption of ICT within higher education in SIDS. The research will fill critical gaps in the current research, expand the coverage of relatively neglected research areas in SIDS, contribute to practitioners and the academic community, and stimulate further debate.


This study was conducted to compare the oxidative stability of cookies treated with and without antioxidant. There were 4 cookies formulation prepared for this study ; Cookies without antioxidant (Control), Cookies treated with 200 ppm of tea extract (T200), Cookies treated with 400 ppm of tea extract (T400) and cookies treated with 200 ppm of synthetic antioxidant (BHA/BHT). Tests used were peroxide value (PV), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and solid phase micro extraction (SPME-GCMS). The trends of the results obtained from PV and TBA test was observed to be Control > T200 > T400 > BHA/BHT. For SPMEGCMS test, it was found that less concentration of volatile compound was detected compared to Control sample the highest, second by T200 and third by T400. It can be concluded that addition of antioxidant into food such as cookies can retard the oxidation process and increases cookies shelf life.


The Statutory Health Care (Nursing) Insurance in Germany, called Pflegeversicherung (PVG), financially supports nursing care at home and in nursing homes. If suggested by an authorised examining person (MDK), it provides access to ambulatory rehabilitation and to various aids to facilitate nursing care of patients cared for at home. Also, the PVG mandatorily requires the visit by a nurse every three to six months (nursing care checkup) if the patient is cared for by family members without support of professional nursing services. Little is known about the realisation of the suggestions given by the examining person from MDK and about the realisation of the nursing care checkup in actual practice. Our study tried to find answers to these questions. For this purpose, we visited 150 patients at home and asked them about rehabilitation efforts, whether the recommended additional aids had been supplied, and whether nursing care checkups had been successfully performed. Results: For 41 patients, rehabilitatory exercises were suggested, but only 7 were actually realised. 89 patients were supposed to receive various aids, but only 31 were actually delivered. Whenever rehabilitation was performed, it was nearly without exception thanks to the initiative of relatives supported by their private doctor. Nursing care checkups should have been performed in 80 patients, but had been realised in only 11 cases. The care providing relatives considered such care checkups to be ineffective, costly and useless. Conclusion: The nonfinancial services granted by the PVG were not translated into reality in most instances, and if so, it was due to efforts of relatives and private doctors, not to efforts of the statutory bodies. Apparently this task was more than these bodies could handle during this early phase of services by the PVG. Therefore, the private doctors (family doctors) should be informed of the results of the examination done by MDK. The need for the nursing care checkup should be reconsidered.


Understanding extremophiles and their usefulness in biotechnology involves studying their habitat, physiology and biochemical adaptations, as well as their ability to produce biocatalysts, in environments that are still poorly explored. In northwestern Peru, which has saline lagoons of marine origin Pacific Ocean, the other site is from the coast of Brazil of the Atlantic Ocean. Both environments are considered extreme. The objective of the present work was to compare two different strains isolated from these extreme environments at the metabolic level using molecular network methodology through the Global Natural Products Molecular Social Network (GNPS). In our study, the MS/MS spectra from the network were compared with GNPS spectral libraries, where the metabolites were annotated. Differences were observed in the molecular network presented in the two strains of Streptomyces spp. coming from these two different environments. Within the an-notated compounds from marine bacteria, the metabolites characterized for Streptomyces sp. B-81 from Peruvian marshes were lobophorins A (1) and H (2), as well as divergolides A (3), B (4) and C (5). Streptomyces sp. 796.1 produced different compounds, such as glucopiericidin A (6) and dehy-dro-piericidin A1a (7). The search for new metabolites in underexplored environments may therefore reveal new metabolites with potential application in different areas of biotechnology.


Raymond Williams' seminal exploration of the history of meaning of some of the most important words in the English language. First published in 1976, and expanded in 1983, KEYWORDS reveals how the meanings of 131 words - including 'art', 'class', 'family', 'media', 'sex' and 'tradition' - were formed and subsequently altered and redefined as the historical contexts in which they were used changed. Neither a defining dictionary or glossary, KEYWORDS is rather a brilliant investigation into how the meanings of some of the most important words in the English language have shifted over time, and the forces that brought about those shifts.


It is known that colonic goblet cells utilize glucose to synthesize the carbohydrate portion of mucus glycoprotein. To determine the intracellular site of this synthesis, glucose-H3 was injected into 10-g rats. At 5, 20, 40 min, 1, 1½, and 4 hr after injection, segments of colon were fixed and prepared for electron microscope radioautography. By 5 min after injection, label had been incorporated into substances present in the flattened saccules of the Golgi complex. At 20 min, both Golgi saccules and nearby mucigen granules were labeled. By 40 min, mucigen granules carried almost all detectable radioactivity. Between 1 and 4 hr, these labeled granules migrated from the supranuclear region to the apical membrane; here, they were extruded singly, retaining their limiting membrane. The evidence indicates that the Golgi saccule is the site where complex carbohydrate is synthesized and is added to immigrant protein to form the complete glycoprotein of mucus. The Golgi saccule, distended by this material, becomes mucigen granules. It is roughly estimated that one saccule is released by each Golgi stack every 2 to 4 min: a conclusion implying continuous renewal of Golgi stacks. It appears that the Golgi synthesis, intracellular migration, and release of mucus glycoprotein occur continually throughout the life of the goblet cell.


The relationship between firms' strategic directions, the evolution of its technological knowledge and the competitive conditions on the market place is an intriguing question that remains largely unclear in the literature. Following Smith (1776), specialisation is presented as a natural consequence of the knowledge production process (Loasby, 1998). It is not clear, however, what are the consequences of this specialisation on business firms. The traditional competence based approach suggests that firms tend to build their competitive advantage by specialising around specific competencies (Prahald and Hamel, 1990), thus reducing the range of their technological knowledge and focusing on their expertise field. This is consistent with the evolutionary view of industrial organisation explaining that firms in a given sector remain endowed with idiosyncratic technological characteristics (Nelson, 1991). Others argue, on the contrary, that firms tend to increase the diversity of their technological knowledge (Granstrand et al., 1997), even when they reduce the range of product. Competition, here, is not related to technological expertise, which tend to be similar between firms in the same sector. This seems to be particularly verified in when products exhibit the highest rate of technical change (Patel and Pavitt, 1997, Gambardella and Torrisi, 1998).


In order to demonstrate the accuracy of macroscopic finite element draping simulations it is necessary to compare the results with experiments. In this work, a compact overview of evaluation methods for draping simulations based on experiments, in the recent literature, is provided. Then, a method using state of the art 3D laser scans (RS6, Hexagon) and robot supported fiber angle scans (FScan, Profactor) is described. The presented comparison of draping results with the tool geometry in 3D allows for an evaluation of wrinkles and bridging areas. For the evaluation of the edge contour, the commonly used method of projecting the edge contour on a 2D plane is extended to a comparison in 3D space. To determine fiber orientations and compare them with the predictions from simulations, a robot supported fiber angle sensor and a script-based mapping and comparison algorithm are used. The results are further analyzed statistically, to derive comparative figures to other results found in the literature. The location and dimensions of macroscopic manufacturing effects such as fiber bridging and wrinkles could be predicted accurately. The final component contour could be on average predicted within 5.2 mm. The fiber orientation could be predicted with a deviation of less than 2° for approx. 65% and within 6° for 95% of the part surface for UD laminas. Cross-ply laminas showed larger deviations, only 40% of the part surface was within 2° and 80% within 6°, compared to the experiment. Overall, the results for the presented methods show good agreement between multi-ply draping experiments and macroscopic simulations conducted with the Abaqus Fabric material model.


This research aims to investigate the influence of (1) reading habit on the students' capability of writing narrative texts, (2) knowledge of grammar on the students' capability of writing narrative texts, and (3) reading habit and knowledge of grammar on the students' capability of writing narrative texts. This research is an expost facto study, involving two independent variables and one dependent variable. The population comprised the third semester students of English Study Program in the Language and Arts Faculty of Flores Universities in the academic year of 2013/2014, consisting of 55 students. The data were collected through a reading habit questionnaire, test of grammar knowledge and writing narrative test. A prerequisite analysis was conducted before the analysis of multiple linear regressions. Based on regresion analysis, it can be concluded that reading habit influences the students' capability of writing narrative texts (β = 0.745, p < 0.05), knowledge of grammar influences the students' capability of writing narrative texts (β = 1.304, p =< 0.05) and reading habit and knowledge of grammar influence the students' capability of writing narrative texts (R²=0574, F-count=35.073, p ˂ 0.05).


Spain has been changing its institutional framework in important ways over the past thirty years. The country has gone from a dictatorship to a democracy, from a unitary state to a decentralized one, from authoritarian politics to a self-conscious, civil society with a developed welfare state within a European context. Federal development in post-Franco Spain reaches far beyond familiar Basque/Catalan nationalistic struggles and includes the creation of an increasing number of intergovernmental networks by local governments, particularly municipalities, as they engage regional, central, and other local entities to operate programs and services in basic and emergent policy areas. By examining the intergovernmental networks in an increasingly federalized Spain, Robert Agranoff shows that local governments, although they occupy a strong position in legal and constitutional terms, are in practice subordinate to both central and regional governments and therefore lack adequate power and resources to deal with both the responsibilities assigned to them and those they'd like to assume. As a result, local governments are forced into a series of intergovernmental arrangements and transactions with governmental and nongovernmental organizations. The Spanish situation provides important insights into intergovernmental relations in all decentralized countries, particularly in revealing how autonomy can create a host of complex intergovernmental linkages, partnerships, and transactions that require complex networks at the elected official and administrative level.


We study sets of reals computable by ordinal Turing machines with a tape of length the ordinals that are steered by a standard Turing program. The machines halt at some ordinal time or diverge. We construct tree representations for ordinal semi-decidable sets of reals from ordinal computations. The aim is to generalize uniformization results to classes of sets which are semi-decidable by computations with input-dependent bounds on the halting time. We further briefly examine the jump structure and nondeterminism.


Abstract : In this final report, we document the achievements made as a result of this Young Investigator Program (YIP) project. We worked on the development of multi scale energy-consistent algorithms to simulate and capture flow phenomena in granular materials. For this, we have made progress in three key areas: i) the development of unprecedented algorithms at the grain scale to simulate flow of complex (real) granular media; ii) the development of multiscale and continuum approaches to simulate the continuum behavior of granular media under large flow; iii) the development of experimental techniques and approaches to model the behavior of granular materials under extreme avalanche flow. In the area of algorithmic development at the grain scale, we have successfully developed a technique, called the granular element method (GEM), and have been able to bypass all the major shortcomings of current discrete element methods (DEM). We have shown that the technique is not only much more efficient algorithmically, but displays a degree of accuracy that is unprecedented for discrete methods. In the area of multiscale and continuum approaches, we have focused our attention on the development of continuum models that are micro-inspired and in this way can bypass much of the phenomenology that plagues current continuum models for granular flow. Finally, in the areas of experimental techniques, we have been able to use clever flow experiments in tandem with our advanced models to decipher the mechanisms controlling the main continuum features observed previously but that have not been able to be captured comprehensively in models. The consequences of these advancements are broad and deep. The GEM method has revolutionized the accuracy of discrete methods: capturing real material behavior for the first time. The multiscale continuum models have been able to explain the source of rate dependence in frictional resistance.


In this paper, we propose a method for out-of-vocabulary (OOV) word detection and take a step toward open vocabulary automatic speech recognition. The proposed method uses a hybrid language model combining words and subword units such as phones or syllables. We describe a detection algorithm based on the posterior count of the OOV words given the hybrid model, and compare it to using the posterior probability of the best word string given a conventional word only model. Experimental results on the Switchboard corpus are presented for different vocabulary sizes. The new method yields a gain of over 10% in OOV word detection. In addition, a modest number of the OOV word pronunciations are found correctly.


Immune cells protect us against infection and cancer cells, as well as functioning during healing processes to support tissue repairing and regeneration. These behaviors require that upon stimulation from immune activation the appropriate subsets of immune cells are generated. In addition to activation-induced signaling cascades, metabolic reprogramming (profound changes in metabolic pathways) also provides a novel form of regulation to control the formation of desirable immune responses. Immune cells encounter various nutrient compositions by circulating in bloodstream and infiltrating into peripheral tissues; therefore, proper engagement of metabolic pathways is critical to fulfill the metabolic demands of immune cells. Metabolic pathways are tightly regulated mainly via mitochondrial dynamics and the activities of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the electron transport chain. In this review, we will discuss how metabolic reprogramming influences activation, effector functions, and lineage polarization in T cells, with a particular focus on mitochondria-regulated metabolic checkpoints. Additionally, we will further explore how in various diseases deregulation and manipulation of mitochondrial regulation can occur and be exploited. Furthermore, we will discuss how this knowledge can facilitate the design of immunotherapies.


The market demand for major arthroplasty procedures is increasing. This descriptive comparative study was conducted to examine clinical and fiscal outcomes in total joint arthroplasty patients discharged either to home or to a subacute unit. The post-acute care setting was self-selected by patients after information was provided on both options. The Self-Administered Joint Rating Questionnaire served as the primary data collection tool. Age, health status, and living alone were significant factors in post-acute care site selection. Although there were no significant differences in clinical outcomes between the two groups, overall costs were substantially different. Opportunities to maintain outcome status, while reducing total costs, in the subacute group are discussed.


Benjamin Britten was acutely sensitive to the significance of place in his operas - a feature that lies at the heart of his adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This essay argues that the revision choices preserved in the libretto, coupled with Britten's musical setting, reveal a determination to blur the boundaries between forest and Athens to an even greater degree than Shakespeare does. Unlike Shakespeare, Britten situates the bulk of the opera's action in the woods, foregrounding the play's dreamlike qualities while also drawing attention to the composer's fascination with the threshold between dreams and reality. In examining the impact that the 'local conditions' of the woods have on Britten's interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, this essay focuses in particular on the transformation of Shakespeare's 'rude mechanicals' into Britten's 'rustics.' Bottom and his fellow actors, who together bridge the gap between the human and the supernatural, exemplify the extent to which the textual changes and the rich soundscapes of Britten's opera reframe the characters and realms of Shakespeare's famous comedy.


We treat a one-dimensional binary mixture of hard-core particles that possess nonadditive diameters. For this model, a density functional theory is constructed following similar principles as an earlier extension of Rosenfeld's fundamental measure theory to three-dimensional nonadditive hard-sphere mixtures. The theory applies to arbitrary positive and moderate negative nonadditivity and reduces to Percus' exact functional in the additive case. Bulk direct correlation functions are obtained as functional derivatives of the excess free energy functional. Results for the partial pair correlation functions in bulk, as calculated via the Ornstein-Zernike route and using the direct correlation functions as input, show very good agreement with results from our Monte Carlo computer simulations of the mixture.


A 561-bp complete open reading frame of the duck enteritis virus(DEV) UL55 gene (GenBank accession No EU071034) was isolated in our laboratory and amplified by common PCR using a pair of specific primers .PCR product containing this ORF was cloned into the vector of PMD18-T. Four evolutionary analysis approaches were used to construct phylogenetic trees of DEV in relation to herpesviruses based on the nucleotide sequences. Bootstrap was used as statistic method to testify the reliablity of the constructed phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic trees indicated that DEV and other herpesviruses generated from one ancestor and DEV were grouped into the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae. In our result, DEV showed a close relationship with the genus Mardivirus, but formed a single branch. Partial genomic organization and phylogenetic analysis in the present study provides evidence that DEV was a member of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and should be assigned as an individual genus or group.


Salmonella anatis and the antibody (Ab) against human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in serum were detected by chemiluminescent photographic detection (CPD) on nitrocellulose (NC) membranes using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as the label and X-ray film. HRP was first estimated on NC membranes with a limit of detection of 0.5–2.5 amol. When used to detect the Ab against HCMV, the antigen was mobilized on the NC membrane before the incubation of human serum, then the HRP labelled sheep Ab against human IgM was incubated again. Finally, the washed membrane was put into direct contact with a piece of filter-paper that had previously absorbed the CL substrate mixture and was exposed to the X-ray film. Fifty-seven human serum samples were thus detected for the Ab against HCMV. The results were in good agreement with the routine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method, but the CPD procedures used an HRP-labelled sheep Ab solution 1000 times more dilute. Salmonella anatis was detected with a limit of detection of 100 bacteria.


A single-column model (SCM) is used to simulate a variety of environmental conditions between Los Angeles, California, and Hawaii in order to identify physical elements of parameterizations that are required to reproduce the observed behavior of marine boundary layer (MBL) cloudiness. The SCM is composed of the JPL eddy-diffusivity/mass-flux (EDMF) mixing formulation and the RRTMG radiation model. Model forcings are provided by the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA2). Simulated low cloud cover (LCC), rain rate, albedo, and liquid water path are compared to collocated pixel-level observations from A-Train satellites. This framework ensures that the JPL EDMF is able to simulate a continuum of real-world conditions. First, the JPL EDMF is shown to reproduce the observed mean LCC as a function of lower-tropospheric stability. Joint probability distributions of lower-tropospheric cloud fraction, height, and lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) show that the JPL EDMF improves upon its MERRA2 input but struggles to match the frequency of observed intermediate-range LCC. We then illustrate the physical roles of plume lateral entrainment and eddy-diffusivity mixing length in producing a realistic behavior of LCC as a function of LTS. In low-LTS conditions, LCC is mostly sensitive to the ability of convection to mix moist air out of the MBL. In high-LTS conditions, LCC is also sensitive to the turbulent mixing of free-tropospheric air into the MBL. In the intermediate LTS regime typical of stratocumulus–cumulus transition there is proportional sensitivity to both mixing mechanisms, emphasizing the utility of a combined eddy-diffusivity/mass-flux approach for representing mixing processes.


A DPCM video codec for two-dimensional prediction with adaptive quantizer is presented. The necessary line buffer is realized on chip. Transmitter or receiver mode, application as part of a 3D interframe codec, and processing of luminance or chrominance signals are optional. Correct operation has been verified up to 26 MHz.


tral Brazil, high prevalence rates of HBsAg (8.4%), antiHBc (42.4%), occult HBV infection (18.3%) and HAV infection (75.6%) were detected. This past study also showed the predominance of HBV/A1, an Afro-related subgenotype. Nowadays, more than 10 years after the first study, we aim to evaluate the epidemiological profile and evolution of viral hepatitis A, B and C in FD population. To date, blood samples from 139 individuals were collected and tested for HBV serological markers (HBsAg, anti-HBc and, anti-HBs), HAV and HCV antibodies (anti-HAV and anti-HCV respectively) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.The overall prevalence of HAV infection was 64.9% (95% CI: 56.2% 73.7%). As none of the study participants showed serological evidence of HCV and acute HAV infections, testing for viral RNA were not performed. The overall prevalence of HBV infection was 34.5% (95% CI: 26.6% 42.4%).Active HBV infection (HBsAg+) was detected in 8 (5.7%) subjects and anti-HBs+/anti-HBc+ serological pattern, corresponding to past HBV infection, was observed in 40 (28.8%) subjects. Isolated anti-HBs was detected in 75 (53.9%) subjects, probably as a result of previous vaccination. HBV-DNA (pre-S/partial S region) was tested in 7 from 8 HBsAg positive subjects, all of them were positive. HBV viral loads ranged from 2.4 9 10(1) 5.8 9 10(3) IU/ml (mean 1.5 9 10(3) IU/ml).From 26 HBsAg-/anti-HBc+ subjects, HBV-DNA was detected in 3 samples (11.5%), denoting the persistence of occult HBV infection in FD community. These preliminary results demonstrate the maintenance of high levels of HAV and HBV infection 10 years after the first survey in FD community. This study in a re-visited Afro-Brazilian community may help to better design prevention and control strategies for this population and will allow a better understanding on HBV evolutionary history between Africa and Brazil.


Supersonic cavity flows driven by a thick shear layer at Mach 1-5 and 2-5 are studied by solving the two-dimensional unsteady compressible Navier-Stokes equations in terms of mass-averaged variables. The length to depth ratio of the rectangular cavity is three. The numerical scheme used is the finite-difference algorithm by Brailovskaya. A two-layer eddy-viscosity turbulence model is used. The results are compared with experimental data. The computations show the self-sustained oscillations at Mach 1-5 and 2-5. The continuous formation and downstream shedding of leading edge vortices is demonstrated. The oscillatory modes are -correctly predicted. The first mode is attributed to a large unsteady trailing edge vortex moving in the transverse direction. Based on the analysis, it is considered that the oscillation in the length to depth ratio three cavity is a longitudinal one and is controlled by a fluid dynamic mechanism rather than a purely acoustic one.