Objective To evaluate radiographic results of anterior fusion methods in two-level cervical disc disease : tricortical autograft and plate fixation (ACDF-AP), cage and plate fixation (ACDF-CP), stand-alone cage (ACDF-CA), and corpectomy and plate fixation (ACCF). Methods The numbers of patients were 70 with a minimum 6 month follow-up (ACDF-AP : 12, ACDF-CP : 27, ACDF-CA : 15, and ACCF : 16). Dynamic simple X-ray and computed tomography were evaluated preoperatively, postoperatively, 6 month, and at the final follow-up. The fusion and subsidence rates at the final were determined, and global cervical lordosis (GCL), cervical range of motion, fused segment angle (FSA), and fused segment height (FSH) were analyzed. Results Nonunion was observed in 4 (25%) patients with ACDF-CA, 1 (8%) patient with ACDF-AP, 1 (4%) patient with ACDF-CP. The number of loss of FSH (%) more than 3 mm were 2 patients (16%) in ACDF-AP, 3 patients (11%) in ACDF-CP, 5 patients (33%) in ACDF-CA, and 3 patients (20%) in ACCF. The GCL was decreased with ACDF-CA and increased with others. The FSA was increased with ACDF-AP, ACDF-CP, and ACCF, but ACDF-CA was decreased. At the final follow-up, the FSH was slightly decreased in ACDF-CP, ACDF-AP, and ACCF, but ACDF-CA was more decreased. Graft related complication were minimal. Screw loosening, plate fracture, cage subsidence and migration were not identified. Conclusion ACDF-CP demonstrated a higher fusion rate and less minimal FSH loss than the other fusions in two-level cervical disc disease. The ACDF-AP and ACCF methods had a better outcome than the ACDF-CA with respect to GCL, FSA, and FSH.


This study examines the relationship between citizenship status and access to education amongst people who do not have proper identification documents in Mabul Island, Sabah. More than 80 per cent of its population do not have proper identification documents, making it difficult for them to confirm their citizenship. This affects their access to education and social inclusion. As stated in the UDHR 1948, CRC 1989 and EFA movement, education is a basic human right for every human being. However, in the Malaysian context, this basic human right cannot be fully implemented due to specific provisions in the national legislation on education. In this research, the 'education for all' philosophy in the context of education for social inclusion is examined through three dimensions – resources, capabilities and opportunities. Resources refer to the skills and assets possessed by an individual. Capabilities refer to the individual's ability to use his/her resources and opportunities. Opportunities refer to the environment that enables the individual to use his resources and opportunities to meet his/her needs. Three-Month fieldwork of data collection was conducted in Mabul Island involving structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, observation and participant observation as a teacher at alternative learning centres (ALC). The study specifically examines the composition of the population in relation to their citizenship status, availability of education, access to education based on citizenship status, and the issue of education for social inclusion. Findings indicate that most residents face problems with citizenship status because they do not have official identification documents. This, in turn, affects their access to formal education. The findings reveal that non¬access to formal education calls for the provision of alternative education for those excluded. This study proposes for ALCs to be increased so that education can be more accessible to everyone for the purpose of social inclusion and well¬being of the country.


Abstract (3-(tert-butylperoxy)propyl) trimethoxysilane (TBPT), is a tailor-made new style silane coupling agent with peroxide group, which have ability of initiating polymerization. This study used TBPT to generate free radical, and initiated the polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN), thereby forming polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in two approaches, thermal initiation system and redox initiation system. Meanwhile this study bonded TBPT onto nano-TiO2 to get modified nano-TiO2 by means of the coupling function of TBPT, and then made the peroxide group of the modified nano-TiO2 decompose and initiate the polymerization of AN in thermal initiation system and redox initiation system respectively. The products were investigated and analyzed by FTIR, XPS and TG. The result showed that on one hand, in the products of the thermal initiation there was PAN, which both attached and unattached to the modified nano-TiO2; on the other hand, in the products of the redox initiation system the PAN unattached to the modified nano-TiO2 was produced, while the PAN attached to the modified nano-TiO2 was not.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Some kinds of urinary stones are known to be associated with urinary tract infection. However, microbiologic characteristics of urinary stone have been rarely studied. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical implication of renal stone culture during the retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS). METHODS: All consecutive patients who underwent RIRS at our hospital were included in this prospective observational study from April 2016 to September 2017. Stone fragments extracted during the procedure were sent for culture. Clinical variables, stone configuration and microbiology reports of cultures were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 322 patients underwent RIRS. Mean age and body mass index were 66.0±13.8 years and 25.2±3.6 kg/m2. Male patients were dominant as 62.7% (208/332). Mean stone diameter was 10.3±6.0 mm. Stone cultures results were positive at 84.6% (281/332) patients. Stone composition such as struvite and ammonium urate was not related with the stone culture results. In the microbiology reports, bacillus and coagulase negative staphylococcus were major pathogens (32.2%, and 30.7%). Each of other pathogen captured fewer than 6%. Most of stone culture reports showed multidrug-resistance. Penicillin had 62.1% resistance. Ciprofloxacin (25.5%) and Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (15.4%) followed in order. In contrast, vancomycin showed fair susceptibility (98.8%). Stone culture results was not associated with preoperative urine culture (6% positivity) and postoperative infectious events (2.1% cases). CONCLUSIONS: Stone culture results reveals that considerable number of pathogens may contribute to the generation of urinary stone. And stone culture reports can help choose appropriate antibiotic treatment for patients who suffer from postoperative infectious complications after RIRS. Source of Funding: None


The mathematics of social network analysis may be employed to determine the central character in a narrative. In this article, a number of centrality measures are utilised in order to illuminate the issue of the central character in the Book of Ruth. The mathematical analysis surprisingly points to Boaz as being the most central character of the book, but highlights the fact that "centrality" is an elusive concept.


Pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies are the middlemen of the pharmaceutical industry, designing plans for sponsors and insurers and pushing the products of manufacturers. Their unique position can often create conflicts of interest, which has been the basis of much litigation. This article reviews the structure of the PBM industry and analyzes concerns arising from its handling of prescription drug pricing, manufacturer rebates and discounts, and mail order pharmacies. After surveying several legislative proposals, it concludes with a comprehensive outline for legislation to eliminate underhanded dealing in the industry and lower the cost of prescription drugs.


No treatment of proven validity in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has yet been found, with the exception of surgery in a small subset of patients. Furthermore, there is a paucity of phase I and II trials and of phase III prospective randomized trials. Radiation therapy is not considered very effective, even as a palliative procedure, but there has been renewed interest in this modality, with several ongoing trials attempting to establish optimal doses, fractionation and effectiveness. Chemotherapy, single or combination, has not increased the survival of patients with HCC, although there have been unquestionable, even spectacular, responses to chemotherapy. Adriamycin seems the most effective agent with approximately 25% objective responses. The regional administration of drugs and/or interruption of arterial supply, in this malignancy with a pattern of local confinement, yields quite high response rates but no increase in survival. Several trials with combined therapeutic modalities are now in progress. Furthermore, there have been important advances in nuclear medicine, in the totally implantable pump, in the understanding of pharmacokinetics and in microspheres, monoclonal antibodies, etc. It is remarkable that there have been so few randomized trials in such a common malignancy. To obtain valuable results any future studies should randomize patients into "treatment" and "no treatment" groups and stratify patients according to prognostic factors. It seems, however, that the combination of local and systemic treatment is the most promising answer to this virulent and fatal disease.


Background An ethnic density effect in psychosis has been observed whereby the risk of psychosis in minority group individuals is inversely related to the neighbourhood-level proportion of others belonging to the same group. However, there is conflicting evidence over whether this effect differs between minority groups and limited investigation into other moderators. We aimed to conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of the ethnic density effect in psychosis and examine moderators. Methods Four databases were systematically searched. A narrative review was conducted, and a three-level meta-analysis was performed. The potential moderating effect of crudely and specifically defined minority groups was assessed. Country, time, area size, and whether studies used clinical or non-clinical outcomes were also tested as moderators. Results Thirty-two studies were included in the narrative review and ten in the meta-analysis. A ten percentage-point decrease in own-group density was associated with a 20% increase in psychosis risk [OR=1.20 (CI95%=1.09–1.32), p Conclusion This is the first review to provide meta-analytic evidence that the risk of psychosis posed by lower own-group density areas is not equally distributed across minority groups. The most robust associations were observed in Black individuals. Heterogeneity in effect sizes may reflect distinctive social experiences of specific minority groups. Mechanisms are discussed, along with the implications of findings and suggestions for future research.


This paper presents a novel method for sensor-based exploration of unknown environments by a general robotic system equipped with multiple sensors. The method is based on the incremental generation of a configuration-space data structure called Sensor-based Exploration Tree (SET). The expansion of the SET is driven by information at the world level, where the perception process takes place. In particular, the frontiers of the explored region efficiently guide the search for informative view configurations. Different exploration strategies may be obtained by instantiating the general SET method with different sampling techniques. Two such strategies are presented and compared by simulations in non-trivial 2D and 3D worlds. A completeness analysis of SET is given in the paper.


Thirty‐eight populations of woodlice (Oniscus asellus, Porcellio scaber) and millipedes (Julus scandinavius) from 28 differently metal‐polluted field sites were analysed for their 70‐kDa stress protein (hsp70) level. Although ANOVA revealed significant dependence of the hsp70 level on the concentrations of water‐soluble lead, cadmium and zinc and the soil pH, each of these parameters accounted for at most 18% of the intersite variability of the stress protein level only. A multivariate model based on multiple regression analysis explained more than 96% of hsp70 variance and revealed both the pollution history of a site (strong metal contamination for more than 70 years) and invertebrate species identity to act as the most important parameters. The model accounted for the observation that most of the populations from long‐term polluted sites exhibited comparatively low stress protein levels in response to their own (contaminated) habitats. In contrast, isopods (O. asellus) from a control site were not able to maintain a low hsp70 level when they were exposed to either an artificial metal cocktail or soil taken from one of the contaminated field sites. They did not acclimatize to the exposure conditions within 3 months. We propose that selection of insensitive phenotypes in long‐term polluted soils has taken place so as to minimize the stress protein level which, in turn, is indicative of high intracellular protein integrity. Long‐term selection for a high hsp70 level to compensate for adverse metal impact was not observed, which suggests that such a strategy may trade off against other fitness consequences. In this context, insensitivity to metal stress involved increased selectivity in food choice and reduced variability in stress response. Multiple regression models showed species‐specificity in those abiotic factors which determined (1) high hsp70 levels in sensitive populations as well as (2) low hsp70 levels in insensitive ones. Therefore, abiotic factors can be assigned to act as the main components of selection: lead and cadmium for J. scandinavius and O. asellus, zinc for P. scaber.


Abstract In the context of twenty-first century global conservatism, where anti-immigrant sentiment is everywhere apparent, the importance of Ishiguro's writing arguably lies in its on-going challenge to this perspective's faulty logic and its capacity to reveal the radical violence behind nationalist political attacks on minority and immigrant populations. In this article I explore this challenge explicitly through a politically-oriented reading of The Remains of the Day (1989), highlighting this novel's joint critique of Thatcherite nationalism and late twentieth century global entrepreneurialism. While this focus obviously represents a response to an earlier socio-political moment, defined by its own unique amalgam of ideological anxieties, nevertheless what emerges most prominently through this reading is the novel's topical condemnation of cultural essentialism and its attendant hierarchies, concerns which remain of utmost critical significance within the twenty-first century. Thus, by making this assessment explicit, highlighting British conservatism's devastating psychological and material implications for affected individuals, ranging from repressed and traumatised psychologies to radical economic precarity, this novel can be seen to register Thatcherite prejudice in a poignantly relevant manner. Indeed, the pseudo-respect granted to the 'genuine old-fashioned English butler' in this novel might also be seen as comparable to Trump's pseudo-populism or Brexit nostalgia, both of which likewise ignore the pressing reality of imperialism's historical violence.


Background: Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and
morbidity especially in the developing countries like India. Uterine compression sutures, originally
described by B-Lynch et al can successfully control life-threatening PPH.With this background, we studied
the use of modified B-Lynch sutures in our setup.
Materials and Methods: It was a single centre, hospital based cross sectional study conducted in the
department of obstetrics and gynaecology in a tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra. About 50 cases during
the study period (Nov 2017 to June 2019) who failed the medical management of control of PPH were
included in the study. Demographic details like age, gestational age, religion, socio economic status and
gravid were noted in the case record form. Amount of blood loss, success rates, immediate complications
and follow up fertility were assessed.
Results: Among the 50 study subjects, 24% had blood loss of 1500ml, 16% had loss of 1501 to 2000ml and 6% had loss more than 2000ml in the present study. About
80% of the cases were successful and 20% failed in the present study. About 6% of the cases had wound
gaping, 12% each had fever and had hospital stay more than 5 days and 14% of the cases had wound
infection in the present study. About 90% of the cases had return of regular menstruation in the present
study.
Conclusions: The success rate of B Lynch suture was 80% in the present study. There were few post
operative immediate complications in our study. Follow up data also suggested that majority of them
recovered with normal routine. In our experience, the B-Lynch technique is a safe, effective and easily
implemented method of arresting bleeding in cases of major primary PPH due to uterine atony.

Keywords: Post partum haemorrhage, Medical methods, Modified B lynch sutures, Atony, Future fertility


A case of infective endocarditis from Enterococcus faecalis after colonoscopy in a patient with aortic stenoinsufficiency and bleeding intestinal angiodysplasia (Heyde's syndrome) is reported. A 77 year old man with aortic stenoinsufficiency presented with enterorrhagia and underwent a colonoscopy, which showed normal findings. Fifteen days later he developed a moderate degree of fever. Blood cultures were positive for E faecalis. An echocardiogram showed aortic valve vegetations, and infective endocarditis was diagnosed and successfully treated by antibiotics. Some months later, intestinal bleeding recurred and intestinal resection was performed. Histopathology showed angiodysplasia. In patients with Heyde's syndrome antibiotic prophylaxis should be considered before colonoscopy.


Introduction: Beneficial therapeutic options are increasingly available for coronary arterial disease. To take full advantage of these options, those performing the interventions require a thorough knowledge of the normal arrangement, and likely anatomic variations, of the coronary arterial system. Hence the study of variation in origin of coronary arteries in cadavers was conducted to generate data of assistance in therapeutic and diagnostic activities. Material and Methods: Using conventional dissecting techniques, 60 hearts from embalmed cadavers were dissected and studied for presence, location and number of coronary ostia. Results: Both right coronary artery (RCA) and left coronary artery (LCA) were most commonly found to be originating from sinus (80% and 65% respectively) region. Presence of one, two and three ostial openings in right aortic sinus was found in 53 (88.33%), 6 (10%) and 1 (1.67%) heart specimens while all heart specimens had single ostial opening in left aortic sinus except one heart showing two openings. Conclusion: The findings in this study may favorably add to the sparsely available data of variation in coronary ostia variables in Indian population.


The static-exchange model has been employed to investigate Ps - He atom scattering at low and intermediate energies using Hylleraas and Hartree - Fock wavefunctions for the He atom. The total elastic cross sections and s-, p- and d-wave phase shifts are reported and our present phase shifts are compared with those existing predictions. The effect of electron exchange is found to be significant at low and medium energies and the scattering parameters are found to be sensitive to the choice of wavefunction.


The method for computer correction of images distorted by turbulent atmosphere is realised by means of the simplest optical system comprising a telescope and digital TV-camera. Real-time images with the diffraction resolution are obtained at ground paths of length up to 1800 m.


We study algorithm based fault tolerance techniques for supporting malicious errors in distributed computations based on Chinese remainder theorem. The description holds for both computations with integers or with polynomials over a field. It unifies the approaches of redundant residue number systems and redundant polynomial systems through the Reed Solomon decoding algorithm proposed by Gao. We propose several variations on the application of the extended Euclid algorithm, where the error correction rate is adaptive. Several improvements are studied, including the use of various criterions for the termination of the Euclidean Algorithm, and an acceleration using the Half-GCD techniques. When there is some redundancy in the input, a gap in the quotient sequence is stated at the step matching the error correction, which enables early termination parallel computations. Experiments are shown to compare these approaches.


There were shown some observations from two Dialysis Centres concerning acute Ethylene Glycol poisoning and four cases of chronic renal failure progress. The renal biopsy made at one patient and our clinical observations indicate for possibility of chronic renal failure development in some pts. There were discussed hypothesis of CRF development at these pts.


Over the past two decades the main focus of research into first-order (FO) model checking algorithms has been on sparse relational structures - culminating in the FPT algorithm by Grohe, Kreutzer and Siebertz for FO model checking of nowhere dense classes of graphs. On contrary to that, except the case of locally bounded clique-width only little is currently known about FO model checking of dense classes of graphs or other structures. We study the FO model checking problem for dense graph classes definable by geometric means (intersection and visibility graphs). We obtain new nontrivial FPT results, e.g., for restricted subclasses of circular-arc, circle, box, disk, and polygon-visibility graphs. These results use the FPT algorithm by Gajarsk\'y et al. for FO model checking of posets of bounded width. We also complement the tractability results by related hardness reductions.


Logotype and emblems are the signatures of the brands which often lead consumers to recognize the brands before even getting exposed to any marketing communication messages. The logotype/emblem's design used on marketing communication materials are usually decided by graphic designers and brand managers, depending on mostly instinct not to the scientific evidences. This study aims to understand not the self-reported but evidential level of perception of the 24 participants who had seen series of TV commercials that the logotypes of the advertising brands are located at the pack shot. The emblems are located on left, on top and right hand side of the logotypes. The study had different logotype/emblem combinations from automobile, appeal, telecommunication and banking sectors. The eye tracking results show that, some positions for emblems are hard to see for the consumers, while the others do have a better position.


The purpose of the research reported here is to determine whether or not a function-based perspective on leadership is a viable training approach for changing the way individuals think about and enact leadership activities. Two studies were conducted using 192 students enrolled in two leadership classes. Using a pretest-posttest study design, with a cohort group, we asked four questions: (a) after a ten week class, will the level of importance assigned to critical leadership functions increase and will the subjects feel greater confidence in their abilities to accomplish those functions?; (b) after taking the class, will subjects focus more on group leadership and specific functional acts when analyzing leadership by others?; (c) when meeting in their own groups, will the overall number of functional leadership contributions by the subjects increase; and, (d) will the use of leadership behaviors by the assigned leaders and the rest of the group converge? Overall, we found that the subjects' confidence in fulfilling critical leadership functions increased, that they focused more on group leadership and functional concepts when analyzing group leadership, and that procedural remarks made by nominal leaders and the other group members converged over time.


"Sergiovanni documents cases of schools that have successfully reinvented themselves in order to establish a sense of 'community' as the foundation for all curriculum and instruction decisions. . . . Teachers, administrators, teacher educators, and communities seeking advice and motivation for restructuring schools for the 21st century would be well advised to consult this work."--Choice "Provides the practitioner with both a theoretical blueprint with which to build learning communities and a rich supply of benchmark illustrations to use as prototypes. . . . thought-provoking and challenging."--NASSP Bulletin Both in and out of schools, people are experiencing a loss of community. In this book, Thomas J. Sergiovanni explains why a sense of community is so vital to the success of any school and shows teachers, parents, and administrators what they can do to rebuild it. Filled with case studies and other school examples, Building Community in Schools provides the necessary intellectual framework for understanding the need to create communities that are inclusive, meaningful, and democratic.


Water quality assessment of the Aladja River, the various discharged point for the Delta Steel Company, Aladja was studied. Effluent samples collected at the various discharge point such as: Rolling mills, Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), Steel Melting Shop (SMS), Lime plant were analyzed for pH, conductivity, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Dissolved Oxygen, Oil and Grease, Total Hardness, Chloride, Nitrate, Sulphate and Phosphate. In addition, metals (Nickel, Lead, Iron, Copper, Chromium, Zinc, Manganese and Cadmium) were analyzed. Results from analysis reveals the level of pH from Lime plant to be 9.60±0.15, TSS of SMS to be 111.00 ± 0.10mg/l. Data's obtained for EAF were higher than the maximum permissible limits set by Federal Environmental Protection Agencies (FEPA Nigeria). This is traced to the fact that the operations are closed circuit system. The elevated levels of some of the pollutant would invariably affect the taste, color and other physical and chemical properties of the river water and thus pose a potential health hazard of varying degrees to various life forms that depend on the water for survival and recreational purposes. A routine treatment of the effluent before discharge is therefore highly recommended to maintain good water quality. Therefore, wastewater from the Delta Steel Company Aladja, is recycled before they were discharged into the river and thus, conform to the recommended FEPA guidelines Keyword: Total dissolved solid, Total suspended solid, Federal Environmental Protection Agency, Steel melting shop, Electric arc furnace, Effluent, Pollution and Environment.


The long-term energy crisis is one of the biggest issues of this century that needs to be tackled to ensure a prosperous future for coming generations and wind energy is one of the energy sources that grows rapidly and most promising renewable energy. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is the best option for small wind turbine project and suitable for low average wind speed environment. In this project, experiment had been carried out to study the effect of wind blade number on the Savonius wind turbine performance at different wind speeds and a comparison had been made to choose the best performance between 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 blades wind turbine. A small Savonius wind turbine prototype, PicoScope, Digital Anemometer, Digital Tachometer and other equipment were used for this purpose. A PicoScope software with a hardware device had been used to create an oscilloscope and spectrum analyser on the PC. The experiment was carried out in an open room space to acquire a close condition to the real environment. The performance results were analysed and Malaysia's average wind speed had been used as the guideline for the comparison. It can be deduced that 5 blades rotor gives the best performance compared to the 2, 3, 4 and 6 blades rotor. At wind speed 6.1 m/s, 5 blades rotor produced optimum mechanical power output at 260 mW, power coefficient of 0.109 (10.9 %), torque at 0.12 mN.m and tip speed ratio at 8.28.


Cellulose from abundant newspaper waste could be transformed into methane through anaerobic fermentation. This research was carried out to compare the gas production including methane between samples containing feces and waste paper mixture as inoculum and substrate, respectively and added with and without BS4 enzyme. The enzyme was produced in Indonesian Research Institute of Animal Produce (IRIAP) by growing Eupenicillium javanicum BS4 in coconut meals. There were three treatments,  i.e., 30% manure (M30); 15 %  manure + 15 % paper waste  (MP 30); MP30 + 3 mL BS4 enzyme equal to 0.42 U/g dry matter (MPE30) The percentage of waste papers addition in feces was calculated on dry matter (DM) basis and every treatment had five replications. Total gas and methane productions were measured weekly, while dry matter losses were determined during 5 week fermentation. Interactions between treatments and incubation time were analyzed using completely randomized design each week. Kind of substrates influenced both total gas and methane productions during incubation time. Both waste papers and enzyme addition enhanced gas production. The highest total gas and methane productions for five weeks incubation were highly significantly observed (P<0.01) in MP30 and MPE30 compared to M30. Addition of enzyme significantly increased total gas and methane productions in the first week. The highest methane and total gas yield/g dry matter were obtained by BS4 enzyme addition. It was concluded that BS4 enzyme is good in accelerating and increasing the transformation efficiency of waste paper and manure mixture for biogas production.


Global energy issue is no longer a new topic. The expansion of energy production proven to show significant influence is the fossil fuel modification by blending it with liquid renewable fuel, such as bioethanol. Bioethanol must achieve fuel-grade standard to qualify as gasoline, one of the specification is to have moisture content of 1.0% v/v or less, as regulated by ASTM D4806. This parameter is a challenging one to achieve, because water-ethanol mixture will encounter the azeotrope phenomenon when the mixture undergoes a common distillation process and reach 95.6% v/v of ethanol. One of the dehydration method that use less energy is adsorption. One of the efficiency consideration of bioethanol dehydration with adsorption is its adsorption capacity. Adsorption capacity is influenced by the material of adsorbent, operational temperature and time. The material being tested in this research is poly vinyl alcohol (PVA), zeolite, and activated carbon. This research will analyze the dependency and influence of mixture's initial concentration and operational temperature condition towards the final concentration of ethanol and adsorption capacity utilizing a Langmuir model. The result of this study showed that the activated carbon has the highest parameter capacity, which is twice as much than zeolite and three times larger than PVA. Whereas the result of selectivity study between the three prove that zeolite has better selectivity.


Marine microplastics are a contaminant of concern because their small size allows ingestion by a wide range of marine life. Using citizen science during the Newfoundland recreational cod fishery, we sampled 205 Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) destined for human consumption and found that 5 had eaten plastic, an ingestion prevalence rate of 2.4%. This ingestion rate for Atlantic cod is the second lowest recorded rate in the reviewed published literature (the lowest is 1.4%), and the lowest for any fish in the North Atlantic. This is the first report for plastic ingestion in fish in Newfoundland, Canada, a province dependent on fish for sustenance and livelihoods. Highlights (3–5 points, 85 char max including spaces) Plastic ingestion rate of 2.4% for Atlantic Cod (n=205) First recorded baseline for fish in Newfoundland, Canada This plastic ingestion prevalence rate is among the lowest recorded to date Used citizen science to collect GI tracts from fish destined for human consumption


This paper concentrates on Ibsen's realistic states of mind towards the nineteenth century Scandinavian middle class society. It additionally endeavours to make utilization of symbolism, transformation, art of portrayal, plot development, and solidarity of alternate extremes of Ibsen's ethical, social, and financial issues. Nora is intentionally uncovered not just as an image of Ibsen's modern woman's rights yet as a general women's liberation. Ibsen was worried with the emergency of progressivism, the contentions of the common families, lady's liberation, and the mental issue of the individual and the force of economy over human relations in industrialist society. It likewise goes for disclosing ladies' ordinary issues and social reality through applying typical authenticity in the play, A Doll's House. The point is to take a glimpse at Ibsen's unpretentious perspectives towards socio-reasonable feedback with a view to uncovering the then Scandinavian ladies' issues and social reality of the common family, the brief examination of authenticity, symbolic realism as appeared in this play through disclosing Ibsen's art of characterizations.


Both boosting and deep stacking sequentially train their units taking into account the outputs of the previously trained learners. This parallelism suggests that it exists the possibility of getting some advantages by combining these techniques, i.e., emphasis and injection, in appropiate manners. In this paper, we propose a first mode for such a combination by simultaneously applying a general and flexible enough emphasis function and injecting the aggregated previous outputs to the learner which is being designed. We call this kind of classification mechanism Boosted and Aggregated Deep Stacked Networks (B-ADSNs). A series of experiments with some selected benchmark databases reveal that, if carefully designed, B-ADSNs never perform worse than the ADSNs (DSNs which work with aggregated output injection), and that in some cases their performance is better. We analyze and discuss the conditions to get these favourable results, and, finally, we explain that there are other combination possibilities that merit to be studied.


Editor—Carriers of paracentric chromosome inversions are usually regarded as being at low risk of having offspring with an unbalanced chromosome complement.1 2Some reports have suggested that rearrangements, such as very small interstitial deletions or duplications arising from unequal crossing over at the base of the inversion loop and deletion or deletion/duplication recombinants, created by the breakage of an unstable dicentric chromosome, can arise from paracentric inversions.3-7 Pettenati et al 8 reviewed 446 cases of paracentric inversions and suggested that carriers of such inversions had a 3.8% risk of having viable offspring with stable recombinant chromosomes. However, this observation has been disputed9 as it is possible that so called paracentric inversions giving rise to monocentric recombinants are actually insertional translocations and the traditional view is that the resulting unbalanced chromosomes arising from a paracentric inversion would involve either a dicentric or acentric chromosome, and therefore be unlikely to be viable.10

We report a liveborn child with mild dysmorphic features who had a dicentric chromosome arising from a maternal paracentric inversion. To our knowledge there have only been two previous reports of this …


This study aims to know the characteristics of mathematical communication of pre-service teacher of primary school. The material used as the object of research is the material of geometry. This material in addition requires the ability of algebra and spatial skills. The trapezoidal area is chosen as the topic because among all the flat planes studied in primary school, the trapezoidal area is considered as the most complex. This is because to calculate the trapezoidal area involving 3 variables. The ability of mathematical communication involves the ability to write and the ability to explain. These abilities are reviewed from the background of students in secondary school. The subjects of this study are 15 students of PGSD STKIP Al Hikmah Surabaya in academic Year 2017 - 2018. The way of mathematical communication will be grouped according to their characteristics. The way of written communication will be sharpened by oral communication. The results will be analyzed whether there is relevance to the subject background in their secondary school (SMA, SMK, MA). The results showed that the characteristics of written communication in the form of (1) narrative, (2) procedure, (3) dialogue. While the characteristics of oral communication are shaped (1) lecture (2) Instructional (3) discussion. Pre-service teachers with high school background have better mathematical communication skills than those from SMK and MA background. Keywords : Pre-service primary school teacher, Mathematical Communication, Trapezoidal Area.


Sixteen barley (Hordeum vulgare) genotypes, namely G30, G54, G65, G74, G77, G83, G94, G98, G116, G119, G126, G127, G142, G144, G154 and G169, were subjected to adequate irrigation during their growing season and to drought only during spike development stage, to evaluate the performance of leaves subjected to hood desiccations. The obtained results revealed that water loss from droughted barley substantially exceeded that of adequately irrigated barley at 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 10th hrs, after desiccation in controlled hood by 36.94, 82.06, 292.02, and 64.92%, respectively. In contrast, water loss from leaves of adequately irrigated barley were significantly higher than that of droughted leaves at 1st, 7th, 8th and 9th hrs by 58.42, 867.99,130.38 and 365.42%, respectively. The highest transpiration in irrigated genotypes at 7th hr was confined to G154 (20.247%).The highest transpiration of droughted barley at 7th hr was recorded in G65 (30.234%). On the other hand, the lowest transpiration of droughted barley genotypes was found in G119 (9.91%).Water loss from droughted leaves governed by linear type, whereas, irrigated leaves were dominated by quadratic type. Percentage water loss from water stressed leaves dominated that of irrigation from 1st to 6th then shifted for the favor of irrigated leaves from 7th to 11th hr. Genotypes can be categorized according to their drought resistance as fellow: G54, G116> G154, G94, G169, G74, G77, G144 G98, 127 > G30, G142, G126> G83, G65, G119.


Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has never been reported among recipients of dura mater grafts processed in the US. We recently investigated a report of such a case in a 72-year-old man with a typical clinical presentation of CJD. We found no evidence of CJD in either the 34-year-old donor or in other, proximal patients undergoing craniotomies. Although the graft may have caused the illness, sporadic CJD is a more likely explanation, with the graft being coincidental.


The m3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor belongs to the family of rhodopsin-like Gprotein coupled receptors. This subtype of muscarinic receptors is of special interest because it is involved in a variety of physiological responses and several disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases. Based on the X-ray structure of bovine rhodopsin and the sequence analysis of the muscarinic receptor family, a complete homology model of the human m3 receptor has been developed. Potential intramolecular interactions that are important for the stability of the protein fold have been identified. Other authors have experimentally studied, by site directed mutagenesis, the residues contributing to the binding site for the antagonist, N-methyl scopolamine, and the agonist, acetylcholine. Here we mapped these important residues. Experimental data combined with molecular modelling studies shed light on receptor-ligand interactions.


This paper introduces a proportional-integral (PI) and sliding mode based control strategy for three-phase grid-tied three-level T-type quasi-Z-source inverter with LCL filter. The proposed control strategy has two parts. While the PI controller regulates the dc capacitor voltages and inductor currents in the quasi-Z-source network, the sliding mode control (SMC) achieves the grid current control. The proposed SMC removes the filter capacitor voltage requirement of phase c leading to simplicity in the implementation. In addition, for the sake of eliminating chattering, the sliding surface functions are passed through a boundary layer (smoothing) which removes the discontinuity and leads to fixed switching frequency operation. The validity of the presented control strategy is investigated by computer simulations during steady-state and transients caused by the reference change. It is shown that the dc capacitor voltage regulation is achieved and grid currents track their references.


Abstract Gemcitabine was loaded in albumin nanoparticles then coated with chitosan. The diameter of GEM-ANPs/CS was 200 ± 4 nm. Gemcitabine was loaded in GEM-ANPs/CS with an efficacy of 75%. The IC 50 of GEM-ANPs/CS was found to be 12.98 and 6.08 μg/ml after incubation for 48 and 72 h with MCF-7 cells, respectively. Treatment of MCF-7 cells with IC 50 of GEM-ANPS, and GEM-ANPS/CS resulted in membrane damage which led to elevated LDH activity of 4 and 3.4, and increasing GSH level of 4.6 and 9.3, respectively, when compared with untreated cells. DNA fragmentation and up-regulated of caspase-3 and p53 had illustrated the apoptotic effect of MCF-7 treated with GEM-ANPS/CS. The tumour suppressor RRM1 gene expression was down-regulated in MCF-7 cells treated with GEM-ANPS/CS. The modified ANPs coated with chitosan may be used as a promising nanomatrix for gemcitabine delivery and targeting to improve its therapeutic index against MCF-7 cells.


Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy in women. Most breast cancer cases occur in a small percentage of the population that is at increased risk due to genetic factors (Pharoah et al, 2002). The known breast cancer predisposing genes, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, account for only 20-25% of this effect (Easton DG, 1999). Current models suggest that the remaining risk is more probably attributable to a polygenic effect reflecting the random combination of multiple alleles relatively common in the population, each with a small effect on breast cancer risk (Antoniou et al, 2002). The simplest approach to select candidate alleles is biological plausibility. Genes involved in the same cellular processes than BRCA1 are obvious candidates to be investigated. In this context, BARD1 appears to be especially relevant, as growing evidence suggests that in vivo, BRCA1 and BARD1 physically interact and cooperate in a myriad of different biological processes. Coimmunoprecipitation analysis indicates that most (>75%) of the cellular pool of endogenous BRCA1 exists in vivo in the form of BRCA1/BARD1 heterodimer. This interaction is essential for the ubiquitin E3 ligase activity of BRCA1 (Baer and Ludwig, 2002).


Since the early pioneering work of Rosenfeld and Sklansky,
machine vision has been used successfully in a number of
practical applications. In this work the areas of application have been reviewed to determine the extent to which computer vision has been utilised in industry. Its application so far has been restricted principally to the mass production field of car manufacture, in the areas of body panel inspection and to a lesser degree to unit assembly.

The developnent of robots for picking unsorted components
fron containers and for inspection depends upon the reliability and the speed of the vision control system employed.

This project investigates a preliminary approach for fast
shape recognition of randomly positioned and oriented
components. The results obtained indicate that this goal can be achieved by the use of the techniques of contour tracing, Fourier and surface texture analysis and shape fron shading methods.


An interfacial strain promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition (I-SPACC) is introduced as a method to prepare robust nanomaterial hybrids. This is demonstrated with a reaction between a novel dibenzocyclooctyne-modified single walled carbon nanotubes (DBCO-SWCNT) and a versatile water-soluble azide modified gold nanoparticle (N3-EG4-AuNP).


Reservoir computing is a highly efficient machine learning framework for processing temporal data by extracting features from the input signal and mapping them into higher dimensional spaces. Physical reservoir layers have been realized using spintronic oscillators, atomic switch networks, silicon photonic modules, ferroelectric transistors, and volatile memristors. However, these devices are intrinsically energy-dissipative due to their resistive nature, which leads to increased power consumption. Therefore, capacitive memory devices can provide a more energy-efficient approach. Here, we leverage volatile biomembrane-based memcapacitors that closely mimic certain short-term synaptic plasticity functions as reservoirs to solve classification tasks and analyze time-series data in simulation and experimentally. Our system achieves a 98% accuracy rate for spoken digit classification and a normalized mean square error of 0.0012 in a second-order non-linear regression task. Further, to demonstrate the device's real-time temporal data processing capability, we demonstrate a 100% accuracy for an electroencephalography (EEG) signal classification problem for epilepsy detection. Most importantly, we demonstrate that for a random input sequence, each memcapacitor consumes on average 41.5fJ of energy per spike, irrespective of the chosen input voltage pulse width, and 415fW of average power for 100 ms pulse width, orders of magnitude lower than the state-of-the-art devices. Lastly, we believe the biocompatible, soft nature of our memcapacitor makes it highly suitable for computing and signal-processing applications in biological environments.


The uptake and retention of radiolabeled estradiol by both the male and female reproductive organs were examined in the baboon. Two male and two female baboons were injected intracardially with 1 μg/kg body weight of 3H‐estradiol and two animals, one male and one female, were injected with both labeled and 100 μg/kg body weight of unlabeled estradiol. One and a half hours after the injections, the animals were sacrificed and the uterus, cervix, vagina, oviduct, seminal vesicles, and prostate gland were removed and processed for autoradiography. The stratified squamous epithelia of the cervix and vagina demonstrated a light uptake of the label in the germinative, but not in the superficial cell layers. The columnar cells lining the oviduct and uterine glands were labeled, whereas the luminal epithelium of the uterus and the glandular epithelia of the seminal vesicles and prostate gland did not sequester the tritiated steroid. The interstitial cells of all the organs studied demonstrated a moderate to heavy uptake of the radioactivity, whereas the smooth muscle cells were lightly labeled except in the vagina, in which these cells displayed a moderate number of silver grains.


L-asparaginase (L-ASPA) is included in current chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The sensitivity of ALL to L-ASPA has been linked to the incapacity of leukemic cells to produce their own asparagine, since they are deficient in a specific enzyme, asparagine synthetase (ASNS). Thus, ASNS-negative leukemic cells rely on plasmatic asparagine and can be starved to death by L-ASPA treatment. Several studies evidenced the potential of asparagine depletion to treat lymphomas. Indeed, L-ASPA is routinely administered to treat canine lymphomas and its adjunction in chemotherapy regimens significantly improves the outcome of patients with NK/T cell lymphoma. Some studies suggest its benefit for the treatment of B and T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). In this study, we assessed the in vitro sensitivity to L-ASPA of 11 lymphoma cell lines, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) and other NHL cell lines. We analyzed ASNS expression in tissue microarrays and biopsies from 226 cases of lymphomas, including 158 DLBCL, 15 PTCL, as well as other NHL and Hodgkin lymphomas. Sensitivity to L-ASPA (expressed as an IC50) was assessed by measuring the cell viability in the presence of various concentrations of L-ASPA. ASNS expression was assessed with a validated immunohistochemistry method attributing a score based on labeling intensity from 0 (no expression) to 3 (strong expression). Tumors expressing no/low ASNS (scores 0 and 1) were considered potentially sensitive to asparagine depletion. All lymphoma cell lines were proved to be sensitive to L-ASPA. Their in vitro sensitivity usually exceeded well-known sensitive cell lines (MOLT-4 and HL-60) representative of acute leukemia. ASNS expression was null/low in 171/226 (76%) total cases of lymphomas. 118/158 (75%) DLBCL cases expressed no/low ASNS, whereas ASNS expression was low/null in 2/15 (13%) PTCL cases. Globally, B-cell NHL displayed a lower expression of ASNS than T-cell NHL, Hodgkin lymphoma and non tumoral lymph nodes. The in vitro sensitivity to L-ASPA of all lymphoma cell lines and the low/null expression of ASNS in the majority of the lymphoma tissues tested suggest that L-ASPA may be effective for the treatment of various lymphomas. As suggested by ASNS expression, L-ASPA treatment may be particularly effective in DLBCL and others B-cell NHL, whereas its efficacy in T-cell NHL is probably more limited. However, L-ASPA has only been used scarcely in the treatment of lymphomas despite promising clinical responses. Its well known serious side-effects (hypersensitivity, coagulation disorders, pancreatitis…) render its use particularly hazardous in older or frail patients. The development of a new formulation of L-ASPA with better safety profile must be considered in order to allow the clinical development of L-ASPA in the treatment of aggressive lymphomas. Citation Format: Willy Berlier, Karine Aguera, Fanny Gallix, Anne-Marie Chevrier, Alexandra Traverse-Glehen, Yann Godfrin. Low asparagine synthetase expression and in vitro sensitivity highlights L-asparaginase potential for the treatment of aggressive lymphomas. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5369. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5369


2014 Abstract Introduction: Poly lactic co- glycolic acid (PLGA) and poly caprolacton (PCL) are highly applicable polymers in the field of drug delivery and tissue engineering scaffolds. Therefore, this study aimed to design an insulin-loaded PCL/PLGA hybrid nanofiber scaffold in order to be applied in attachment and growth of chondrocytes. Moreover, it can provide a vehicle for the controlled release of active insulin in a certain time period. Methods: Chondrocyte cells were isolated from septum cartilage tissue utilizing collagenase and were also cultured in monolayer, then the third-passage cells were seeded on the scaffolds. Insulin release from the PCL/PLGA hybrid nanofiber scaffold was examined by Radio Immuno Metric Assay (RIMA) during 22 days. Adherence, distribution and morphology of cells were observed by H&E and alcian blue staining. Results: PCL/PLGA hybrid nanofiber scaffold revealed a slow and sustain release of insulin within three weeks. Chondrocytes were distributed evenly throughout the scaffolds. In addition, they sank into the pores of scaffold and maintained their rounded morphology. Conclusion: Biological activity of insulin has been maintained during 22 days of controlled release from hybrid nanofiber PCL/PLGA scaffold. Chondrocytes were distributed evenly throughout the scaffold and revealed a rounded morphology. Therefore, this scaffold provides a suitable carrier for chondrocyte growth as well as formation of tissue engineered


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
In The Loneliness of the Dying (1985), sociologist Norbert Elias claims that "aging" and "old age" have become frightening, almost taboo terms in Western society because death is increasingly made invisible in advanced societies. Years ago, death was a part of life and the dead were granted the honor of passing away in their homes, surrounded by their communities; in present-day society, most have never seen a corpse and are ignorant of anything related to death.

DESIGN AND METHODS
According to Elias, the consequences of this distancing from death have been a distancing from the aging process as a whole. This paper aims to analyze to what extent Norbert Elias's theories about death and the aging process are reflected in contemporary British fiction, using two novels as case studies.

RESULTS
Ending Up (1974) and These Foolish Things (2004) depict older British characters who decide to share their last years when they realize that they are increasingly forgotten and invisible both within their communities and their families.

IMPLICATIONS
In each of their particular styles, bleak and ironic in the case of Kingsley Amis's Ending Up, and refreshingly humorous and moving in the case of Deborah Moggach's These Foolish Things, both authors reflect on possible outcomes for an increasingly aging population.


A case is presented of incontinentia pigmenti with severe neurological handicaps and unusual features such as single umbilical artery, pig mented lesion at birth, and biochemical changes including elevated alkaline phosphatase and immunoglobulin M.


Two hundred and sixteen male Sprague-Dawley (S-D) rats, 80 +/- 5 days old and weighing 220-250 g each, were assigned at random to nine groups of 24 rats each. Rats were injected with cadmium (Cd) intraperitoneally every 3 days for 29 days for a total of nine injections. Injections doses were 0, 1.0, or 2.5 mg Cd kg-1 body wt. Twenty-four hours after the last Cd injection (Day 30), each rat received an acute whole-body 60Co gamma radiation dose of 0, 3.62, or 5.43 Gray (Gy) at a dose rate of 33.04 Gy min-1. The irradiated groups exhibited significant decreases in the total number of white blood cells (WBCs) and the percentage of lymphocytes. Significant increases were seen in the percentage of polyneutrophils, serum triacylglycerols (TG), serum iron, and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Cd-treated groups had increased total WBCs, percentage of polyneutrophils, and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT). Significant decreases were observed in the percentage of lymphocytes, hemoglobin, total number of red blood cells (RBCs), and hematocrit. In the co-insult, significant decreases were seen in the total number of WBCs and RBCs, the percentage of lymphocytes, hemoglobin, and hematocrit. Significant increases were observed in the percentage of polyneutrophils and serum iron. In general, Cd acted as a debilitator which enhanced the overall effect of ionizing radiation when applied as the second insult. On the other hand, Cd also provided protection against radiation; that is, some parameters such as total WBCs, serum TG, serum iron, and serum LDH were not as adversely affected by the co-insult as when radiation only was used. The mechanism of this Cd anomaly is not known.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disorder affecting more than 200 million people around the world, resulting in three million deaths per year. COPD is characterized by the loss of lung tissue and airway remodelling, with chronic inflammation of the airways and progressive destruction of lung parenchyma. The use of stem cells may lead to regenerative processes that address biological damage. However, this approach raises ethical issues that need to be considered in clinical trials using stem cell therapy, such as informed consent, patient recruitment and harm minimization, as well as the inherent uncertainty of these medical procedures on human beings. Indeed, up to now, these experiments have been performed in preclinical studies using animal models, with few studies involving humans. Additional efforts should be made to assess this promising procedure.


The density dependent groundwater flow and solute transport model SUTRA has been used to investigate stream-aquifer interaction and floodplain processes on a saline floodplain in South Australia. Evapotranspiration and recharge during a flood have been incorporated into the numerical model and a proposed salinity mitigation scheme has been modelled in cross section. Numerical simulations have shown that the creek near the River Murray is relatively fresh and carries substantially less salt compared to the creek in the middle of the floodplain and that salt load to the creeks are strongly dependent on the rising and falling heads in the river and creeks. The peak salt load to the creeks occurs immediately after the flood recession and subsequently declines within a six month period to baseline salt inflow. The effect of pumping on the floodplain has been simulated and sufficient drawdown and salt load reduction can be obtained by using the proposed interception scheme.


The birth rate may not be slowing as fast as originally thought in Botswana and Zimbabwe, the two Sub-Saharan countries believed to be making the best progress towards curtailing population growth. A new study from the World Bank has re-examined the evidence on which the claims of fertility decline were based, and concluded that the figures may have been misinterpreted. Two censuses, carried out in 1984 and 1988, revealed a steep drop in the birth-rate. But the bank study shows that the two surveys are no longer compatible, because the later one questioned better-educated women. Women who have more schooling are more likely to be using contraceptives, regardless of the success or failure of a country's family planning program. This means that projections for the size of the two countries' populations have certainly been underestimated. "Among women aged 25 to 34 years in Zimbabwe in 1984, between 20% - 50% of the observed fertility-decline can be attributed to differences in education across the surveys; between 20% - 30% of the decline among women aged 35 to 44 years in Botswana can similarly be explained," the report says.


Upon reaction with PhI(OAc)(2), α-oxo-aldoximes are oxidized to α-oxo-nitrile oxides, while α-oxo-ketoximes are converted into nitrile oxides via the oxidative cleavage of the carbonyl-imino σ bond. The nitrile oxides thus formed were trapped with norbornene or styrene in good yield. α,α'-Dioxo-ketoximes react less efficiently.


The holy grail of imaging is the ability to see through anything. From the conservation of energy, we can easily see that to see through a lossy material would require lenses with gain. The aim of this paper therefore is to propose a simple scheme by which we can construct a general perfect lens, with gain—one that can restore both the phases and amplitudes of near and far fields.


State-of-the-art video action recognition models with complex network architecture have archived significant improvements, but these models heavily depend on large-scale well-labeled datasets. To reduce such dependency, we propose a self-supervised teacher-student architecture, i.e., the Differentiated Teachers Guided self-supervised Network (DTG-Net). In DTG-Net, except for reducing labeled data dependency by self-supervised learning (SSL), pre-trained action related models are used as teacher guidance providing prior knowledge to alleviate the demand for a large number of unlabeled videos in SSL. Specifically, leveraging the years of effort in action-related tasks, e.g., image classification, image-based action recognition, the DTG-Net learns the self-supervised video representation under various teacher guidance, i.e., those well-trained models of action-related tasks. Meanwhile, the DTG-Net is optimized in the way of contrastive self-supervised learning. When two image sequences are randomly sampled from the same video or different videos as the positive or negative pairs, respectively, they are then sent to the teacher and student networks for feature embedding. After that, the contrastive feature consistency is defined between features embedding of each pair, i.e., consistent for positive pair and inconsistent for negative pairs. Meanwhile, to reflect various teacher tasks' different guidance, we also explore different weighted guidance on teacher tasks. Finally, the DTG-Net is evaluated in two ways: (i) the self-supervised DTG-Net to pre-train the supervised action recognition models with only unlabeled videos; (ii) the supervised DTG-Net to be jointly trained with the supervised action networks in an end-to-end way. Its performance is better than most pre-training methods but also has excellent competitiveness compared to supervised action recognition methods.


This article challenges the association between realist methodology and ideals of legitimacy. Many who seek a more "realistic" or "political" approach to political theory replace the familiar orientation towards a state of (perfect) justice with a structurally similar orientation towards a state of (sufficient) legitimacy. As a result, they fail to provide more reliable practical guidance, and wrongly displace radical demands. Rather than orienting action towards any state of affairs, I suggest that a more practically useful approach to political theory would directly address judgments, by comparing the concrete possibilities for action faced by real political actors.


The kinematics, static force propagation, and stability of tool manipulation by an articulated hand are analyzed. The manipulation of chopsticks is used as a case study to illustrate some fundamental characteristics of tool manipulation. A qualitative requirements analysis for chopstick manipulation is outlined. Emphasis is placed on the characteristics of objects and grasps in fine manipulation.<<ETX>>


Hot flaring, even from quite high flare stacks, may result in significant heat radiation outside a facility to, e.g., public roads where random passersby may be exposed. The present study suggests a novel method for analyzing a typical flare heat radiation exposure and investigates skin burns that may be inflicted on an exposed person if a facility needs to depressurize in an emergency situation. A typical radiation field from an ignited natural gas vent was taken as the boundary condition, and these values were compared to radiation levels mentioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API 521), e.g., 1.58 kW/m2 and above. Due to facility perimeter fences along roads in larger industry areas, it was assumed that an exposed person may flee along a road rather than in the ideal direction away from the flare. It was assumed that naked skin, e.g., a bare shoulder or a bald head is exposed. The Pennes bioheat equation was numerically solved for the skin layers while the person escapes along the road. Sun radiation and convective heat exchange to the ambient air were included, and the subsequent skin injury was calculated based on the temperature development in the basal layer. Parameters affecting burn severity, such as heat radiation, solar radiation, and convective heat transfer coefficient, were analyzed. For small flares and ignited small cold vents, no skin burn would be expected for 1.58 kW/m2 or 3.16 kW/m2 maximum heat radiation at the skin surface. However, higher flare rates corresponding to, e.g., 4.0 kW/m2 maximum flare heat radiation to the skin, resulted both in higher basal layer temperatures and longer exposure time, thus increasing the damage integral significantly. It is demonstrated that the novel approach works well. In future studies, it may, e.g., be extended to cover escape through partly shielded escape routes.


Progress in the analysis of seismic data for stratigraphic information content historically has moved along two major, though apparently disjointed, paths. One avenue (largely geological) follows the lead of Peter Vail and his team in considering geometric patterns and implied global sea level changes to establish ages, environments, and lithology. The second direction (geophysical) uses control of seismic waveforms, computer processing methods, and seismic model studies to describe likely hydrocarbon traps in detail. Both approaches employ well information for calibration purposes. A common perception is that geologic approaches define hydrocarbon-prone environments, whereas the conventional geophysical approaches try to confirm specific interpretations and prospects. The gap in moving from the larger picture to the drill site appears not to be a feature of either approach. Some bridge between these disciplines is needed to take full advantage of their respective technical developments. Recent work on seismic visibility and the steps necessary to properly condition seismic data for stratigraphic study offer a natural link between the two approaches. Case studies demonstrate integration of the methods as well as the powerful insights that can be achieved. Both land and marine examples are considered from several diverse geologic and geographic provinces.


Physically unclonable functions are used for IP protection, hardware authentication and supply chain security. While many PUF constructions have been put forward in the past decade, only few of them are applicable to FPGA platforms. Strict constraints on the placement and routing are the main disadvantages of the existing PUFs on FPGAs, because they place a high effort on the designer. In this paper we propose a new delay-based PUF construction called Monte Carlo PUF, that does not require low-level placement and routing control. This construction relies on the on-chip Monte Carlo method that is applied for measuring the delays of logic elements in order to extract a unique device fingerprint. The proposed construction allows a trade-off between the evaluation time and the error rate. The Monte Carlo PUF is implemented and evaluated on Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGAs.


This study aims to obtain the best ration using corn cane in complete feed for rabbit production performance in terms of feed consumption, weight gain and feed conversion. it used 30 male rabbits of the New Zealand White strain in the range of 435-1.037 g were used. The ration consists of a mixture of corn sugarcane and other feed ingredients, such as corn, coconut meal, pollard, bran, sugar drops, and minerals purchased from animal feed stores. The formulated feed ingredients have a complete feed without using grass. The treatments carried out were corn cane in complete feed in the form of pellets as follows: R0 = feed without corn cane, R1 = feed with 10% corn cane, R2 = feed with 20% corn cane, R3 = feed with 30% corn cane, and R4 = feed with 40% corn cane. Results showed that the highest feed consumption occurred in treatment R3, 72.81 g/head/day. The highest weight increment was observed in treatment R3, 23.24 g/head/day. However, treatment R3 gave the lowest food conversion. It indicates that this treatment is more efficient feed to use. This study also concluded that the use of 30% corn cane gave the best performance.


Seven commonly used arthrographic contrast media were examined in vitro for bactericidal effects against Staphylococcus aureus under various conditions simulating clinical settings, using a wide range of bacterial populations (10(1) to 10(8) colony-forming units per ml). The media tested were: sodium diatrizoate and megulumine diatrizoate (E.R. Squibb and Sons, Renogragin-60 and Renografin-76), megulumine diatrizoate (E. R. Squibb and Sons, Renografin-M-60), sodium iothalamate and megulumine iothalamate (Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, Vascoray), sodium iothalamate (Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, Conray 400), meglumine iothalamate (Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, Conray 60), and sodium diatrizoate (Winthrop Laboratories, Hypaque sodium 50%). Effects secondary to the contrast medium used, dilution ratios of the specimens, and time elapsed between the collection and cultivation of the specimens were examined. The contrast material used was found to affect bacterial growth: the Renografin materials showed a bactericidal or bacteriostatic effect, while Vascoray, the Conray materials, and Hypaque sodium 50% failed to inhibit bacterial growth. Bacterial inoculum size exhibited a direct bearing on the bactericidal or bacteriostatic effects of the Renografin but had no effect with the other media. The results indicate that Vascoray, Conray and Hypaque sodium 50% are superior to the Renografin materials for use in arthrography and other procedures in which the aspirate is submitted for microbial culture, because they interfere less with the recovery of these microorganisms.


4823 NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is a homodimeric flavoenzyme containing 273 residues and one molecule of FAD per monomer. This reductase catalyzes a NAD(P)H-dependent two-electron reduction and the bioactivation of many antitumor bioreductive agents. NQO1, expressed at high levels in many human solid tumors, can be used as a unique target for enzyme directed bioreductive cancer drug development. Lavendamycin, a quinolinedione antibiotic with significant antitumor activity, is structurally related to streptonigrin, a good substrate for and efficiently bioactivated by NQO1. Computational molecular modeling studies were performed on two lavendamycin analogues, MB-353 and -323, very good and poor substrates for NQO1, respectively. The molecular docking was performed using the FlexX module of SYBYL6.9.1. The minimized coordinates of the crystal structure of the NQO1 complex with ARH019, an indolequinone, obtained from the Protein Data Bank (ID code: 1H69) was used as a reference structure for docking experiments. The docked conformations of ligands were evaluated using the FlexX and CSCORE modules in SYBYL. CSCORE is the consensus score computed from FlexX, ChemScore, D-Score, G-Score and PMF-Score scoring functions where docked poses are ranked from 1 to 5; where 5 is the best fit to the model. Geometric post-analysis strategies that determine hydrogen-bonding interactions of the ligands with the key residues of the active site (Tyr 126, 128 and His 161), hydride ion transfer from the flavin to the ligands, and the angle between the planes of the ligands and the flavin were performed. Of 30 possible docked conformations of MB-353, 24 poses had orientations similar to the reference ligand (ARH019) and 19 had CSCORE ≥ 4 (4 with CSCORE = 5 and 15 with CSCORE = 4). All of the 19 poses were capable of forming the hydrogen-bonding interactions and hydride ion transfer, and the departure of their planes from an exact aromatic parallel stacking with the flavin closely resembled that of ARH019. However, of 30 possible docked poses of MB-323, no conformation had a CSCORE = 5 and only 4 poses had CSCORE = 4. The remaining poses with CSCOREs of 0 and 1 did not merit further considerations. Also, none of the 30 poses had orientations similar to the reference ligand. Therefore, an increased number of possible conformations of ligand MB-353 with acceptable orientations compared to ligand MB-323 can be considered as a potential contributing factor to substrate specificity. Supported by NIH grants R15 CA78232 and NCRR P20 RR15583.


Reverse time migration is often used to interpret acoustic or three‐component seismic recordings by creating an image of subsurface seismic reflectors. Here I describe elastic reverse time migration imaging functions that are cast as waveform misfit sensitivity kernels of contrasts in material parameters across hypothetical seismic discontinuities, that is, specular reflectors. The proposed "surface" imaging functions are theoretically applicable to either reflected or converted waves in order to estimate the location and reflectivity of these discontinuities. The surface imaging functions, as well as volumetric sensitivity kernels that target point diffractors, are tested on sets of synthetic surface array recordings that sample the 3‐D seismic wavefield on simple 2‐D structures generated using a 2.5‐D spectral element method. These tests illustrate that in contrast with the volumetric sensitivity kernels, the reflectivity is generally dominated by a high‐amplitude peak that coincides with input locations of discontinuities. Passive recordings of microseismicity, shot gathers, or a combination thereof can be potentially interpreted with the new surface imaging functions to yield useful reflectivity images.


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Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-k) plays a critical role in mediating metabolic signaling of insulin. PI 3-k consists of a regulatory p85 (with p85α being the major isoform) and a catalytic p110 subunits. The regulatory subunit p85 exists in excess to p110, creating a certain balance between the free p85 monomer and a p85-p110 heterodimer complex that possesses PI 3-k activity. Because p85 monomer competes with the heterodimer for the IRS-1 binding sites, increases in p85 expression displace p85-p110 heterodimer from IRS-1, resulting in a decreased PI 3-k activity. This can occur in type 2 diabetes, obesity, and pregnancy, when insulin resistance is induced by human placental growth hormone (GH). In this study we tested the direct effect of GH on p85a expression in 3T3-L1 cells and in fat cells obtained from wild-type (WT) mice and mice with heterozygous deletion of p85α+/-. Results Incubation of 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes with increasing concentrations of rat recombinant GH (0, 500, and 2,500 ng/mL) for 24 hr increased p85α protein expression by approximately 250% (p < .001). In contrast, expression of p110 was not affected. In vivo insulin injection (10 U/kg BW) activated PI 3-k in the epididymal fat of WT and p85α+/- mice (p < .01). Administration of GH for 3 days (1 mg/kg s/c twice daily) blocked insulin-stimulated IRS-1-associated PI 3-k activity in the WT but not in p85α+/- mice. Conclusions GH induces insulin resistance by increasing expression of p85α and creating an imbalance between the subunits of PI 3-k. Increases in p85α compete with p85-p110 heterodimer at the IRS-1 binding sites, resulting in decreased PI 3-k activity.


Textile structures realised by Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques have received increasing attention during the previous decade. Due to their potential to significantly improve upon both the geometric complexity and functionality available from conventional fibre-based textiles, AM textiles present a serious opportunity to design and develop novel solutions for conventional and high-performance textile applications. AM textiles also provide the capability to produce net-shape textile artefacts and allow the development of personalised, high-performance textiles from a variety of materials currently being processed by AM technologies. While the motivation exists for the wider-scale adoption of these novel structures, practical access to an efficient three dimensional (3D) modelling strategy limits their applications. The research presented here discusses the issues surrounding the 3D modelling of complex AM textiles and discusses dedicated methodologies developed for the generation of their conformal data. The research culminates with a robust methodology for the generation of AM textile apparel data suitable for manufacture by AM techniques.


Ultra-short (<70 fs) pulses in the short-wavelength infrared (>1.55 μm) are very attractive for many applications such as three-photon microscopy1, frequency metrology2, or high harmonic generation3. Solitonic self-compression is an attractive effect for this purpose as compression to sub-50 fs pulses can be achieved without the need for external compressing optics, directly out of an optical fiber. Self-compression at high energy was demonstrated around 2 μm in all-solid4 or gas-filled5 hollow-core-PCFs. However, the latter demonstrations were restricted to Tm emission band in order to reach the soliton self-compression effect in low-nonlinearity media. In this communication, we present a compact monolithic all-fiber source of ultrashort (35 fs) pulses emitting outside conventional lasing bands, from 1.65 to 2 μm based on Raman-induced soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) and soliton self-compression (SSC).


This article presents accounts of two patients with cholesteatoma of the tympanic part of the temporal bone, located immediately lateral to the tympanic annulus (and with an intact tympanic membrane). The lesions were located deep in the anterior and inferior walls of the canal, especially in the vaginal process of the tympanic part. These more severe cases required surgical correction (removal of the sac of cholesteatoma) with very good results. Pathogenesis and differential diagnosis are discussed.


Sensor network consists of a large number of sensor node distributed in the environment being sensed and controlled. The resource-constrained sensor nodes tend to have various and heterogeneous architecture. Thus, it is important to make its software environment platform-independent and reprogrammable. In this paper, we present BeeVM, a Java operating system designed for sensor networks. BeeVM offers a platform-independent Java programming environment with its efficiently executable file format and a set of class APIs for basic operating functions, sensing and wireless networking. BeeVM`s high-level native interface and layered network subsystem allow complex program for sensor network to be short and readable. Our platform has been ported on two currently popular hardware platforms and we show its effectiveness through the evaluation of a simple application.


This study was planned with the purpose of evaluating the drought tolerance of advanced breeding lines of chickpea in natural field conditions. Two methods were employed to impose field conditions; the first: simulating drought stress by growing chickpea genotypes at five rainfed areas, with Faisalabad as the non-stressed control environment; and the second: planting chickpea genotypes in spring to simulate a drought stress environment, with winter-sowing serving as the non-stressed environment. Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and generalized linear models (GLM) models were both found to be equally effective in extracting main effects in the rainfed experiment. Results demonstrated that environment influenced seed yield, number of primary and secondary branches, number of pods, and number of seeds most predominantly; however, genotype was the main source of variation in 100 seed weight and plant height. The GGE biplot showed that Faisalabad, Kallur Kot, and Bhakkar were contributing the most in the GEI, respectively, while Bahawalpur, Bhawana, and Karor were relatively stable environments, respectively. Faisalabad was the most, and Bhakkar the least productive in terms of seed yield. The best genotypes to grow in non-stressed environments were CH39/08, CH40/09, and CH15/11, whereas CH28/07 and CH39/08 were found suitable for both conditions. CH55/09 displayed the best performance in stress conditions only. The AMMI stability and drought-tolerance indices enabled us to select genotypes with differential performance in both conditions. It is therefore concluded that the spring-sown experiment revealed a high-grade drought stress imposition on plants, and that the genotypes selected by both methods shared quite similar rankings, and also that manually computed drought-tolerance indices are also comparable for usage for better genotypic selections. This study could provide sufficient evidence for using the aforementioned as drought-tolerance evaluation methods, especially for countries and research organizations who have limited resources and funding for conducting multilocation trials, and performing sophisticated analyses on expensive software.


Locomotion is of prime importance in enabling human beings to effectively respond in space and time to meet different needs. Approximately 2 million Americans live with an amputation with most of those amputations being of the lower limbs. To advance current state-of-the-art lower limb prosthetic devices, it is necessary to adapt performance at a level of intelligence seen in human walking. As such, this thesis focuses on the mechanisms involved during human walking, while transitioning from rigid to compliant surfaces such as from pavement to sand, grass or granular media. Utilizing a unique tool, the Variable Stiffness Treadmill (VST), as the platform for human walking, rigid to compliant surface transitions are simulated. The analysis of muscular activation during the transition from rigid to different compliant surfaces reveals specific anticipatory muscle activation that precedes stepping on a compliant surface. There is also an indication of varying responses for different surface stiffness levels. This response is observed across subjects. Results obtained are novel and useful in establishing a framework for implementing control algorithm parameters to improve powered ankle prosthesis. With this, it is possible for the prosthesis to adapt to a new surface and therefore resulting in a more robust smart powered lower limb prosthesis.


The aim of this study was to illuminate the nurse's experiences when meeting with patients who have a self-harming behavior. The method used was a literature review with both qualitative and quantitative studies based on ten articles, studies were published in Scientific Publications. The result of the study shows that the nurse has different experiences and feelings regarding patients with a self-harming behavior. The nurses perceive themselves insufficient due to lack of knowledge in the area which affected their feelings and attitude. The result was divided into two areas, mixed emotions and limitations in health care.Conclusion: The lack of knowledge, training, supervision and guidelines were great. The results of the study show that the nurse's experiences were reflected by mostly negative emotions but that this may be related to lack of knowledge and structure in how to care for this population.


This paper will present a review of literatures pertinent to the building factors contributing to the minimization of safety hazards in built living environment. Review of literatures shows that most property management organisations have not established regular safety inspection and maintenance of existing buildings. This scenario has led to a reduced number of existing buildings related to comfort and safety. Research shows that comfort and safety in a building are critical in order to protect occupants from hazards. Hence, to bridge this gap, this study aims to identify building factors affecting the safety performance of buildings. This research involved a literature search on the identification of the building factors affecting building safety based on the frequency of the factors identified by past researchers. From the mapping matrix, the highest frequency as indicated by most researchers is a means of escape and access that contributes to the minimization of safety hazards of buildings. Meanwhile, factors from each category are also determined. As a result, more effort is necessary to boost and further stimulate action towards a proposed building safety performance assessment framework towards a sustainable built environment.


For the analysis of trace amounts of hazardous organic compounds, we developed a new ion detection system for supersonic jet resonance-enhanced multiphoton laser ionization mass spectrometry. High sensitivity and selectivity have been achieved by combining a proto-type Daly detector, a newly designed conical ion lens, and a potential switch that can perform the function of a mass selector. This ion detection system enables us to bring the jet nozzle closer to the ionization point. The detection sensitivity has thus been improved totally by more than 100 times compared with that obtained by the parallel-plate electrodes and micro-channel plate. We succeeded in assembling a flangeon-type ion extraction electrode consisting of a conical ion lens and a potential switch.


Purpose Torpedo maculopathy is an idiopathic, congenital, oval-shaped region of chorioretinal hypopigmentation located temporal to the macula. Torpedo lesions are typically unilateral, occasionally harbor an intraretinal cleft, and may be associated with varying degrees of hyperpigmentation. Visual acuity is usually normal, but the lesion may produce a scotoma in the visual field. There are no known associated systemic or ocular abnormalities. Diagnosis is based upon recognition of its characteristic shape and location. Because of its nonprogressive and generally benign nature, no treatment is required. Case Reports Two cases of torpedo maculopathy associated with fundus excavation are presented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported association of torpedo maculopathy with fundus excavation. In one case, the visual acuity remained unaffected and in the other case the visual acuity was reduced to 20/50. In both cases, optical coherence tomography clearly demonstrates the excavated nature of the torpedo lesions. In case 1, where the visual acuity was normal, the excavation is remote from the fovea but in case 2, where the visual acuity was 20/50, the excavation encroaches upon the fovea. In both cases, a scotoma corresponding to the excavated region could be demonstrated. Conclusions Torpedo maculopathy is a usually benign condition associated with normal visual acuity and normal visual fields. Our cases demonstrate that torpedo maculopathy may be associated with excavation of the fundus and a corresponding scotoma in the visual field. Visual acuity may be compromised should the excavation encroach upon the central fovea. Knowledge of this previously unreported clinical manifestation of torpedo maculopathy may aid in advancing the understanding of this condition and the care of patients with the disorder.


BACKGROUND
Aging is associated with significant changes in body composition. Body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) is not an accurate indicator of overweight and obesity in the elderly.

OBJECTIVE
We examined the relation between other anthropometric indexes of body composition (both muscle mass and body fat) and all-cause mortality in men aged 60-79 y.

DESIGN
The study was a prospective study of 4107 men aged 60-79 y with no diagnosis of heart failure and who were followed for a mean period of 6 y, during which time there were 713 deaths.

RESULTS
Underweight men (BMI < 18.5) had exceptionally high mortality rates. After the exclusion of these men, increased adiposity [BMI, waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio] showed little relation with mortality after adjustment for lifestyle characteristics. Muscle mass [indicated by midarm muscle circumference (MAMC)] was significantly and inversely associated with mortality. After adjustment for MAMC, obesity markers, particularly high WC (>102 cm) and waist-to-hip ratio (top quartile), were associated with increased mortality. A composite measure of MAMC and WC most effectively predicted mortality. Men with low WC (</=102 cm) and above-median muscle mass showed the lowest mortality risk. Men with WC > 102 cm and above-median muscle mass showed significantly increased mortality [age-adjusted relative risk: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.74), and this increased to 1.55 (95% CI: 1.01, 2.39) in those with WC > 102 and low MAMC.

CONCLUSION
The findings suggest that the combined use of both WC and MAMC provides simple measures of body composition to assess mortality risk in older men.


Background: A major factor in the development of insulin resistance is obesity. While the contribution of intrahepatic lipids to insulin resistance is well established in adults, there are only few reports in childhood and adolescence. Aim: To investigate the correlation between ectopic fat deposition and insulin sensitivity in a normal-weight girl with acanthosis nigricans before and after lifestyle intervention. Methods: Variations in body fat composition and intrahepatic lipids were monitored by means of anthropometric measures and by means of methods based on magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Results: We present the case of a normal-weight 14-year-old Caucasian girl with pronounced hepatic steatosis together with acanthosis nigricans, increased waist-circumference and increased visceral fat. During a 7-month period of lifestyle intervention, the girl lost 7.1 kg in weight. Acanthosis nigricans, whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI) and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) improved significantly (before intervention: WBISI 0.42, HOMA 22.2; after intervention: WBISI 1.35, HOMA 6.9). Even though all lipid compartments were decreased in size, the intrahepatic lipids showed an extraordinarily great reduction. Conclusion: This case presentation of a normal-weight girl with acanthosis nigricans and markedly increased hepatic steatosis provides support for the association between intrahepatic fat deposition and insulin resistance in adolescence.


Background: Bed side ophthalmoscopic examination is a simple measure of diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy and has been shown to be a predictor of poor outcome in various cardiovascular conditions including coronary artery disease (CAD). Retinopathy lesions are fairly common findings in clinic settings and may predict risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). The present study was intended to find the relationship between diabetic retinopathy with the severity of coronary artery disease in patients with NSTEMI.
Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of cardiology, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hospital (NICVD), Dhaka, Bangladesh, from March 2019 to August 2020. A total of 120 DM with NSTEMI patients undergoing coronary angiogram and also fundoscopic examination with fundal photography during the index hospitalization were included in this study. Study subjects were divided into two groups on the basis of diabetic retinopathy (Group-I: NSTEMI with diabetic retinopathy ; Group- II: NSTEMI without diabetic retinopathy). Severity of coronary artery disease was determined by Gensini score and correlation between diabetic retinopathy and Gensini score was assessed.
Results: Gensini score was significantly higher in patients with diabetic retinopathy than that in patients without diabetic retinopathy (62.2±27.7 vs. 43.3±25.3,p<0.001).Gensini score increased with increasing severity of diabetic retinopathy(P <0.001).The risk of having severe CAD in patient with diabetic retinopathy was 13.03 (95% CI =2.410-70.419) (P<0.003).A significant correlation between diabetic retinopathy and Gensini score was noted (p value <0.001)
Conclusion: It may be concluded that presence and severity of diabetic retinopathy is associated with angiographically severe coronary artery disease in patient with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and it may be considered as an independent predictor of severity of CAD. As is a bed side assessment, so before performing coronary angiography ,it appears to be additive for risk stratification.
University Heart Journal 2022; 18(1): 50-53


In precision machinery systems for electronic devices, due to the generation of heat, cooling system is essentially needed. Miniaturized pumps have been demanded for cooling water circulation and a low power consumption. To obtain sufficient performance for practical applications, in this paper, a piezoelectric pump composed of hinge-lever using multilayer PZT actuator to generate large displacement and two sheet type check valves to control flow direction are designed. First, hinge-lever mechanism consists of a pin hinge-lever and two multilayer PZT actuators. The metal bellows is used as a flexible pump chamber. The hinge-lever mechanism produces a 560 mum displacement with free load. Second, a check valve with high response is applied and the basic characteristics are experimentally investigated with various shapes and thickness. As a result, the maximum flow rate of 1.85 l/min and maximum pumping pressure of 25 kPa are obtained with the driving frequency of 11 Hz at 100 Vp-p


A case-controlled analytic study involving 406 singleton unbooked and 396 singleton booked births was conducted. Unbooked births constituted 16.6% of all births during the study. Booked births were half as likely to preterm than unbooked births (43, 10.9% vs 81, 20.0%; p<0.001). Unbooked births were seven times more likely to be stillbirth than booked births (80, 17.7% vs 13, 3.3%; p< 0.001). Booked births were a third as likely to have a low birth weight as unbooked births (36, 9.1% vs 104, 25.6%; p< 0.001). Unbooked births had a significantly lower mean birth weight of 2.95 ± 0.53 kg than 3.08 ± 0.45 kg of booked births (p< 0.001). Unbooked births had a significantly lower mean Apgar score at 1 minute and 5 minutes than booked births (6.64 ± 1.42 vs 7.08 ± 1.12 and 9.16 ± 1.40 vs 9.64 ± 1.00; p< 0.001) respectively.Unbooked births are common and their birth outcomes may result in high morbidity and disability, thereby contributing to the high child mortality in developing countries. Strengthening perinatal health services through professional skilled care at birth and providing quality services for all unbooked births may lead to improved birth outcomes.


In this work, in vitro antioxidant activity of two Brazilian red seaweeds, Gracilaria birdiae and Gracilaria cornea, was characterized. The total phenolic content, the radical-scavenging activity and the antioxidant activity were determined in two solvent extracts of the algae. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) allowed identification of important antioxidant compounds. The ethanol extract of G. birdiae was found to have the highest value of total phenolic content: 1.13 mg of gallic acid equiv (GAE)/g of extract. The radical-scavenging activity of G. birdiae and G. cornea extracts has been evaluated at different extract concentrations; the IC(50) values of ethanolic extracts of G. cornea and G. birdiae were 0.77 and 0.76 mg mL(-1), respectively, while for methanolic extracts, the IC(50) values of G. cornea and G. birdiae were 0.86 and 0.76 mg mL(-1), respectively. The antioxidant activities of these two seaweeds' extracts as assessed by the β-carotene-linoleic acid assay were equally high, achieving values of β-carotene oxidation inhibition of up to 40%. Finally, in the methanolic extracts, LC-MS/MS allowed identification in both algae of two important antioxidants: apigenin and gallic acid.


The fiber reinforced laminate composite plates, because of its outstanding mechanical properties such as high strength, high stiffness with less weight, durability, corrosion resistance, finds many engineering applications. In this work, local failure of plate alone in-between the stiffeners is taken for study. This work compares the buckling behavior of thin fiber reinforced laminate composite plates subjected to axial compression under different types of boundary conditions with different types and different angle of layups. For this purpose graphite / epoxy composite rectangular plate is used for the analysis. Further, by varying the dimension of plate, effect of the aspect ratio of the plate on the buckling strength of plate is also studied. Eigen buckling analysis of ANSYS is used for analysis.


Considering the existence of very large amount of available data repositories and reach to the very advanced system of hardware, systems meant for facial identification ave evolved enormously over the past few decades. Sketch recognition is one of the most important areas that have evolved as an integral component adopted by the agencies of law administration in current trends of forensic science. Matching of derived sketches to photo images of face is also a difficult assignment as the considered sketches are produced upon the verbal explanation depicted by the eye witness of the crime scene and may have scarcity of sensitive elements that exist in the photograph as one can accurately depict due to the natural human error. Substantial amount of the novel research work carried out in this area up late used recognition system through traditional extraction and classification models. But very recently, few researches work focused on using deep learning techniques to take an advantage of learning models for the feature extraction and classification to rule out potential domain challenges. The first part of this review paper basically focuses on deep learning techniques used in face recognition and matching which as improved the accuracy of face recognition technique with training of huge sets of data. This paper also includes a survey on different techniques used to match composite sketches to human images which includes component-based representation approach, automatic composite sketch recognition technique etc.