Plasma exchange as sole treatment for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy To the Editor: The use of plasma exchange in the treatment of the Guillain-Barre syndrome was first reported in 1978.1 The possibility that a circulating myelinotoxic factor was present in such patients was an attractive hypothesis, as antibodies to nerve tissue antigens have been isolated from affected patients.' However, not all patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome respond favourably to plasmapheresis' and biochemical or immunological parameters to predict those who will respond are not used widely. The success of plasmapheresis is better defined in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in which it will induce an improvement in the majority of patients.' However, patients generally require cytotoxic drugs or corticosteroid therapy to sustain the beneficial effect. 5 We wish to report a case of CIDP that was treated successfully for 30 months with plasma exchange alone because of serious and, at times, life-threatening side-effects from cytotoxic therapy and corticosteroid agents. A 15-year-old female Vietnamese student presented to us in December 1982 with a nine-week history of upper limb weakness. She had otherwise been in good health with no antecedent viral illness. Abnormal examination findings were confined to the neurological assessment of the upper limbs in which she had grade-2 power with hypotonia and arreflexia. Examination of the lower limbs and the cranial nerves gave normal results. Examination of the cerebrospinal fluid revealed two monocytes; an elevated protein level of 1 giL; IgO and glucose levels were normal. Nerve conduction studies revealed a depressed conduction velocity of 21 mls in the upper limbs, and 30 mls in the lower limbs; the pattern was consistent with polyneuritis. The results of a full blood examination, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, thyroid hormone, serum vitamin B12, serum folate, serum lead and serum protein levels were all within normal ranges. Urinary porphyrins were not detected. A diagnosis of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy was made. Initially the patient was managed conservatively with physiotherapy and occupational therapy. After four weeks discernible weakness was present in the lower limbs and corticosteroid therapy was instituted with minor improvement. Within two weeks severe acne necessitated a dermatological referral. Over the following 33 months, the patient had two relapses that required further admissions to hospital. Azathioprine and prednisolone therapy resulted in a good remission. However, significant secondary toxicity was encountered alopecia, neutropenia, fever, acne and this necessitated the cessation of azathioprine therapy after two weeks. The patient's subsequent relapse was characterized by more pronounced weakness in the lower limbs and bilateral sixth nerve palsies. Plasma exchange and prednisolone and cyclophosphamide therapy were commenced. After two plasma exchanges in the first three days of this regimen, a dramatic reduction occurred in upper and lower limb weakness and the cranial nerve lesions disappeared. Corticosteroid therapy was gradually withdrawn over four weeks because of troublesome, disfiguring acne, and cyclophosphamide was ceased after two weeks of therapy because of the recurrence of neutropenia. Sincethat time no further drug therapy has been instituted. The patient is well, attending school and recently completed HSC examinations. She has had an arteriovenous shunt inserted to facilitate the plasma exchangeand requires plasmapheresis everyone to four weeks, depending upon the clinical assessment. Terry Gay, FRACP Senior Assistant Physician Queen Victoria Medical Centre Melbourne, VIC 3000 Benjamin Katz, MB BS Medical Registrar Prince Henry's Hospital Melbourne, VIC 3004 I. Brettle RP, Gross M, Legg Nl, et al. Treatment of acute polyneuropathy by plasma exchange. Lancet 1978; 2: 1100. 2. Cook SO, Dowling PC, Murray MR, Whitaker IN. Circulating factor in acute idiopathic polyneuropathy. Arch Neural 1971; 24: 136-144. 3. Cook 10, Tindall RAS, Walker 1, et al. Plasma exchange as a treatment of acute and chronic idiopathic autoimmune polyneuropathy. Limited success. Neurology 1980; 30: 361. 4. Lisak RP. Plasma exchange in neurologic disease. Arch Neural 1984; 41: 654. 5. Dau PC. Plasmapheresis therapeutic or experimental procedure? Arch Neuro/1984; 41: 647.


In the arterial wall oxidized Low Density Lipoprotein is a pro-inflammatory chemotactic factor for macrophages and immunoreactive cells. The association between oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) and stroke is suspected, but not established. The plasma oxLDL level in patients with ischemic stroke would be increased and could serve as a marker of ischemic stroke. Serum oxLDL concentrations were determined in 267 ischemic stroke patients (mean age of 72.6.6 +/- 8.6 years) and in 125 age matched controls. Anti-oxLDL antibodies were measured by ELISA. It was investigated the relationship between the serum titers of anti-oxLDL and ischemic stroke onset (within 24 hours) as compared to healthy control subjects. Thirty-one percent (82/267) of the patients tested had higher anti-oxLDL levels than controls. Mean anti-oxLDL titer was 544.6 +/- 48.2 mU/mL vs 416.2 +/- 31.4 mU/mL respectively, statistically significantly higher than those of controls (p < 0.001). The high concentrations of IgG anti-oxLDL contribute to a cascade of events characterized as immunoinflammatory reactions of ischemic stroke. It is probable that humoral immunity plays a significant role in the very initial stages of ischemic stroke. We can deduce that immune response to oxLDL is of variable importance, regarding pathophysiologic process in the ischemic stroke.


Herbs are extensively hunted these days for their medicinal potential. Isolation and purification of active phytoconstituent as drug is relatively old concept in the pharmaceutical field. Now scientists are more concerned for the wholesome use of herbs. Therefore, herbs are searched with various angles at several parameters. This paper presents a detailed description about one of such medicinally important herb named Shirish in Ayurvedic system of medicine and as Albizia lebbeck in botany. In Ayurveda, it is mainly used as antitoxin or antipoisonous drug. It is mainly indicated in allergic conditions such as allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, urticaria etc. Analysis of phytoconstituents showed the presence of saponins, glycosides, tannins etc., and absence of steroids. Catechin is the main phytochemical responsible for its antihistaminic property. Keywords: Shirish, antitoxin, antiallergic, catechin Cite this Article Kajaria D. Medicinal Importance of Albizia lebbeck : A Review. Research and Reviews: Journal of Herbal Sciences. 2015; 4(3): 4–7p.


Abstract: The Bagmati, an auspicious and sacred river, is adorned with Ghat, Dharmashalas, Pati, Sattals, Temples, Brahmanaal etc. at various stretches within the valley for the facilitations of the devotees from the daily ritual bath to the last right of cremation. The Bagmati has been associated with the peoples of the Kathmandu valley, making it a highly significant cultural space of their devoutness. Authorities fail to recognize the significance of the site in terms of time, lack of proper policies, management plan, resources for safeguarding and conservation; several issues and challenges arise regarding the conservation of the site. Apart from technical issues such as material originality, financial issues, environmental issues, degradation of river water quality, development pressure and encroachment have ruined the site. This paper presents the significance of the 19th century cultural heritage sites along the Bagmati River from Thapathali to Teku Dobhan, which has not been prioritized for safeguarding. This also addresses the restoration, reconstruction, conservation and preparation of the management plan. In order to safeguard the past legacy of this site for the future generations, the holistic approach of conservation has to be opted for.


In this paper we extend a new Keynesian open economy model to include risk-averse FX dealers and FX intervention by the monetary authority. These ingredients generate deviations from the uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition. More precisely, in this setup portfolio decisions of the dealers add endogenously a time variant risk-premium element to the traditional UIP that depends on FX intervention by the central bank and FX orders by foreign investors. We analyse the effectiveness of different strategies of FX intervention (e.g.,unanticipated operations or via a preannounced rule) to affect the volatility of the exchange rate and the transmission mechanism of the interest rate. Our findings are as follows: (i) FX intervention has a strong interaction with monetary policy in general equilibrium; (ii) FX intervention rules can have stronger stabilisation power than discretion in response to shocks because they exploit the expectations channel; and (iii) there are some trade-offs in the use of FX intervention, since it can help to isolate the economy from external financial shocks, but it prevents some necessary adjustments on the exchange rate as a response to nominal and real external shocks.


This paper considers the processes of cost management and the duration of road maintenance projects. A conceptual model is proposed to describe the relationship between time, cost, and quality of projects, which is based on the theory of the «silver triangle». Based on the results of studying the influence of factors, a model has been built for determining the cost and duration of road maintenance projects. Multiple optimization approaches to the components of the «silver triangle» of projects were used. The model constructed at the stage of initiating projects for the maintenance of roads, in contrast to the previous ones, is based on the pre-project level of quality indicators.
Owing to the introduction of additional parameters and coefficients, the proposed model of cost management, quality, and duration of road projects was calibrated. The model graph was constructed and optimization was carried out on the example of a long-term road operation project. The algorithm of application of cost and duration management model of highway projects under conditions of uncertainty has been developed, which was checked for adequacy at an estimated error of about 3 %. This makes it possible to assert the effectiveness of the devised model for solving tasks related to project management for maintenance.
The model was used to perform calculations based on a real example of the project, which showed that the optimization of the parameters of long-term contracts for the maintenance of highways produces a multiplier effect. This is expressed by reducing the administrative costs of the customer, reducing the responsibility of road services, creating prerequisites for stable financing of road works, the satisfaction of road users, and building strong partnerships between the customer and contractor


In continuous casting, the lubrication and friction between the mould and the initial solidified strand shell play an important role for achieving the high speed casting and producing a good surface quality of the product. Investigation of the frictional behavior is therefore essential for getting a better online control of the mould processes. In the present work, the measurement of shell surface force caused by mould friction was performed during the slab continuous casting. Friction force was calculated to investigate the periodical variations as well as the effect of tensions and pressures on the solidified shell. Also the comparison of the mould friction in sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal mould oscillation was made. This research provided the test foundations and technical supports for studying the mechanical behavior of casting mould and optimizing the casting variables.


Ultra compact photonic crystal filters with and without metallic parts operating at telecommunication wavelengths are designed using the multiple multipole program combined with the model-based parameter estimation technique. Material loss is taken into account and measured material properties are employed for practical design considerations. Stochastic and deterministic optimization techniques are applied to obtain optimum filter characteristics.


Stress is prevalent in modern society and can affect human health through its effects on appetite. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to clarify the neural mechanisms by which acute stress affects appetite in healthy, non-obese males during fasting. In total, 22 volunteers participated in two experiments (stress and control conditions) on different days. The participants performed a stress-inducing speech-and-mental-arithmetic task under both conditions, and then viewed images of food, during which, their neural activity was recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG). In the stress condition, the participants were told to perform the speech-and-mental-arithmetic task again subsequently to viewing the food images; however, another speech-and-mental-arithmetic task was not performed actually. Subjective levels of stress and appetite were then assessed using a visual analog scale. Electrocardiography was performed to assess the index of heart rate variability reflecting sympathetic nerve activity. The findings showed that subjective levels of stress and sympathetic nerve activity were increased in the MEG session in the stress condition, whereas appetite gradually increased in the MEG session only in the control condition. The decrease in alpha band power in the frontal pole caused by viewing the food images was greater in the stress condition than in the control condition. These findings suggest that acute stress can suppress the increase of appetite, and this suppression is associated with the frontal pole. The results of the present study may provide valuable clues to gain a further understanding of the neural mechanisms by which acute stress affects appetite. However, since the stress examined in the present study was related to the expectation of forthcoming stressful event, our present findings may not be generalized to the stress unrelated to the expectation of forthcoming stressful event.


The author closely examines the contribution of Igbo rural women in West Africa (south-eastern part of Nigeria, West Africa) as creative personalities. Analytical summaries of selected transcribed music of the women are presented, while focusing on the creative intentions behind the music as outlets for processing social and economic solidarity. In their roles as creative personalities, the women provide not only musical entertainment for comprehensive social interaction in conformity to cultural norms and values but also moral, ethical and cultural education to the entire community through the musical arts.


According to robust virtue epistemology, the difference between knowledge and mere true belief is that in cases of knowledge, the subject's cognitive success is attributable to her cognitive agency. But what does it take for a subject's cognitive success to be attributable to her cognitive agency? A promising answer is that the subject's cognitive abilities have to contribute to the safety of her epistemic standing with respect to her inquiry, in order for her cognitive success to be attributable to her cognitive agency. Call this idea the contribution thesis. The author will argue that the contribution thesis follows naturally from virtue epistemological accounts of knowledge, and that it is precisely the contribution thesis that allows the virtue epistemologist to deal with a wide variety of objections. Nevertheless, the principal aim of this paper is to argue that virtue epistemological theories of knowledge that are committed to the contribution thesis are ultimately untenable. There are cases of knowledge where the subject's cognitive abilities do not improve the safety of the subject's belief.


Moving Wallpaper is an computational generative and reactive piece of work which comes from a desire to apply the ethos and design sensibilities of the Arts and Crafts movement within the context of contemporary design. Inspired by the elegant patterns, forms and structure of the Willow and Jasmine wallpaper designs of William Morris, the Moving Wallpaper project seeks to create digital 'wallpaper' which introduces the elegance, beauty and humanity of Arts and Crafts design into digital programming-based work. The static forms of traditional wallpaper pattern is translated into the reactive ever-evolving patterns which respond to their external environment.


Abstract The mouse has been used extensively to model radiation injury to the lung, a major dose-limiting organ for radiotherapy. Substantial differences in the timing and sensitivity of this tissue between mouse strains have been reported, with some strains, including C57BL/6, being designated as "fibrosis-prone". Pleural effusions have also been reported to be a prominent problem in many mouse strains, but it remains unclear how this affects the lung function and survival of the standard C57BL/6 mouse. The purpose of this investigation was to re-evaluate this strain in comparison with C57L and CBA mice after whole-thorax irradiation at doses ranging from 10 to 15 Gy. Breathing rate measurements, micro-computerized tomography, lung tissue weight, pleural fluid weight and histopathology showed that the most prominent features were an early phase of pneumonitis (C57L and CBA) followed by a late incidence of massive pleural effusions (CBA and C57BL/6). A remarkable difference was seen between the C57 strains: The C57L mice were exquisitely sensitive to early pneumonitis at 3 to 4 months while C57BL/6 mice showed a delayed response, with most mice presenting with large accumulations of pleural fluid at 6 to 9 months. These results therefore caution against the routine use of C57BL/6 mice in radiation lung experiments because pleural effusions are rarely observed in patients as a consequence of radiotherapy. Future experiments designed to investigate genetic determinants of radiation lung damage should focus on the high sensitivity of the C57L strain (in comparison with CBA or C3H mice) and the possibility that they are more susceptible to pulmonary fibrosis as well as pneumonitis.


Objective:The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity and toxicity of a combination regimen of CPT-11 and mitomycin-c as second-line chemotherapy for pretreated patients with advanced, metastatic, or both, gastric adenocarcinoma. Materials and Methods:Patients with pretreated metastatic disease or early relapsed after adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled. Entry criteria included histologic/cytologic diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma, age 18 to 75 years, performance status ≥70 (Karnofsky scale), bi-dimensionally measurable disease. Patients received CPT-11 and mitomycin-c at the dosage of 150 mg/m2 on days 1 and 15, and 8 mg/m2 on day 1, respectively, every 4 weeks. The disease evaluation was done every 3 cycles. Results:Among the 38 patients we observed, 1 (3%) complete response and 11 (29%) partial responses for an overall response rate of 32% according to an intent-to-treat analysis. The median duration of response was 6.5 months. The median time to progression was 4 months with a median overall survival 8 months. All patients were evaluable for toxicity and the only grade 3–4 observed toxicities were leukopenia (8%), neutropenia (21%), and anemia (5%). Conclusions:The combination of CPT-11 and mitomycin-c is an active and well tolerated second-line treatment in pretreated gastric cancer patients. Further studies are needed to test its role in first-line treatment.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The T2-weighted gradient-echo (GRE) imaging is currently the gold standard MR imaging sequence for the evaluation of patients with cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) lesions. We aimed to compare the sensitivity of susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) with T2-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE) and GRE imaging in assigning the number of CCM lesions in patients with the familial form of the disease. Materials and METHODS: We studied 15 patients (8 men, 7 women; mean age, 34 years) with familial CCM. All patients underwent MR imaging with the following sequences: T1-weighted spin echo, T2-weighted FSE, T2-weighted GRE, and SWI. Two neuroradiologists read the images regarding the number of lesions seen on each sequence. The final decisions were reached by consensus. The number of lesions on the different sequences was compared with analysis of variance, followed by a nonparametric Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. RESULTS: The number of lesions was higher on T2-weighted GRE than on T2-weighted FSE (P = .001). In addition, more lesions were seen on SWI than on T2-weighted GRE (P = .001) and FSE (P = .001) sequences. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity of SWI in assigning the number of CCM lesions in patients with the familial form of the disease is significantly higher than that of T2-weighted FSE and GRE sequences.


Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) are formed in foods of animal origin during the Maillard reaction due to the high creatine and creatinine contents. HAA have carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. HAA content is not standardized in the Russian Federation and the Customs Union territory. However, in the EU countries, comprehensive monitoring studies are carried out on the HAA contents and effect on the human body. Due to constant expansion of the list of controlled contaminants in food products, analytical laboratories need to develop methods for determining HAA in food items. As a result of the research, a method for HAA determination was developed using high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in the mode of specified reaction monitoring. Comparative tests of the two methods for sample preparation were carried out. The advantages and disadvantages of sample preparation approaches were substantiated. The existing SPE conditions were optimized, which made it possible to concentrate trace amounts of MeIQx and PhIP and to dispose of substances suppressing analyte ionization. The estimation of method accuracy and specificity was carried out. The degree of ionization suppression by the matrix for MeIQx and PhIP analytes was determined. The degree of HAA extraction was empirically established. For biological samples of animal origin, it was up to 90.9% for MeIQx and up to 89.4% for PhIP. It is shown that, in accordance with the developed methodology, HAA may be determined with an accuracy of 96.15 to 98.4% at the levels of 5 to 20 ng/g. The limit of quantification of the target substances was 3 ng/g.


The Information Society (IS) is the framework where "intelligent corporations or learning organizations" are moving. It is in such organizations where appropriate information management, the subject matter of corporate communication, is more meaningful. The competitiveness that IS brings about makes it necessary for corporate communication to face new challenges, new functions and new strategies. The information circulating in corporations and organizations should become relevant knowledge. Therefore, this article will show the relationship between corporate communication and knowledge management. The approach focuses on companies' better knowledge of their own organization, so that they can become more competitive. In order to evaluate the transformations accomplished through knowledge management, it is necessary to acknowledge the relation that exists between strategic information management and the creation of organizational knowledge. Communication is essential for the diffusion and reutilization of knowledge. Acquired knowledge is used to create new knowledge, and these two are applied in corporate development and corporate problem solving.


Fatty acid profiles were obtained for macadamia nut oil and several other cooking oils. Macadamia nut oil contained the highest level (79%) of monounsaturated fatty acids. Macadamia nut oil is low (4%) in the omega-6 fatty acid 18:2n-6 and saturated fatty acids. Fatty acid profiles for popcorn cooked in several oils were obtained for comparison because of public awareness and concern over high levels of saturated fat found in popcorn sold in theaters. The nutritional implications of using macadamia nut oil are discussed.


This capstone project was implemented by the Community and Economic Development department of the City of Pacific Grove. The social problem is the high rate of home deterioration among low-income seniors. In order to address this issue, an outreach event was implemented to advertise the Housing Rehabilitation Loan program and organizations with similar target populations. The purpose of this event was to advertise local resources to the public. The implementation method included contacting agencies offering similar programs, finding a venue, and sending out surveys to invited agencies. Findings from the survey remain inconclusive due to a lack of responses from agencies. Going forward, the City should send out these surveys again to reach a conclusion.


Tuberculosis remains a major health threat. The currently available vaccine, bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), provides insufficient protection, and multi-drug-resistant strains are on the rise. A novel vaccine with higher efficacy is needed for satisfactory control of the disease. Currently, several novel vaccine candidates are being tested in preclinical models with promising outcome, but none with overwhelming success. The final decision as to whether an efficacious vaccine can be designed will have to await the outcome of a clinical trial comprising the most promising candidates identified by experimental animal studies.


This paper presents a new model by using a structural equation technique. This model integrates the productivity theory and customer-perceived value to identify key features that residential customers seek when making their decision to buy or rent a residential apartment. A theoretical structural equation model is confirmed by using a dataset based on 283 respondents, those who are potential tenants of an ongoing residential construction project in Sweden that consists of 402 rental apartments. The results show that expectations of being able to relax in the immediate neighborhood as well feeling safe in the neighborhood have a high impact on customer perceived value. Moreover, analysis of a two bedroom apartment, used as a show apartment, reveals that an apartment with plenty of natural daylight and a well proportional layout has the highest impact on customer perceived value. Professional developers and municipalities could use the proposed residential customer perceived value model (RCPV-model) to increase their understanding of customer-perceived values by verifying key drivers in successful residential projects and acting on them when planning new development projects.


The emerging area of gas-mediated cancer treatment has received widespread attention in the medical community. Featuring unique physical, chemical, and biological properties, nanomaterials can facilitate the delivery and controllable release of medicinal gases at tumor sites, and also serve as ideal platforms for the integration of other therapeutic modalities with gas therapy to augment cancer therapeutic efficacy. This review presents an overview of anti-cancer mechanisms of several therapeutic gases: nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), carbon monoxide (CO), oxygen (O₂), and hydrogen (H₂). Controlled release behaviors of gases under different endogenous and exogenous stimuli are also briefly discussed, followed by their synergistic effects with different therapeutic modes. Moreover, the potential challenges and future prospects regarding gas therapy based on nanomaterials are also described, aiming to facilitate the advancement of gas therapeutic nanomedicine in new frontiers for highly efficient cancer treatment.


Si microwire-array solar cells with Air Mass 1.5 Global conversion efficiencies of up to 7.9% have been fabricated using an active volume of Si equivalent to a 4 μm thick Si wafer. These solar cells exhibited open-circuit voltages of 500 mV, short-circuit current densities (Jsc) of up to 24 mA cm-2, and fill factors >65% and employed Al2O3 dielectric particles that scattered light incident in the space between the wires, a Ag back reflector that prevented the escape of incident illumination from the back surface of the solar cell, and an a-SiNx:H passivation/anti-reflection layer. Wire-array solar cells without some or all of these design features were also fabricated to demonstrate the importance of the light-trapping elements in achieving a high Jsc. Scanning photocurrent microscopy images of the microwire-array solar cells revealed that the higher Jsc of the most advanced cell design resulted from an increased absorption of light incident in the space between the wires. Spectral response measurements further revealed that solar cells with light-trapping elements exhibited improved red and infrared response, as compared to solar cells without light-trapping elements.


Results of a recent bridge inventory evaluation indicated that about 50% of Turkish highway bridges have more than 30° of skew angle and can be classified as irregular bridges. During the recent major earthquake in Turkey, multisimple-span bridges with continuous decks and link slabs performed well even though these bridges were in the vicinity of the fault line. This study aims to evaluate the improvements in seismic response of skew bridges in terms of forces and displacements when link slabs are added as a retrofit tool. A series of elastic dynamic analyses and nonlinear time history analyses were conducted to investigate the seismic response of various standard highway bridges with different span lengths and skew angles. A new reinforcement design for edge zones of link slabs is proposed for bridges located in high seismic zones. In practice, link slabs can be implemented easily during a regular redecking of a bridge.


Even though the size of the earthquake is moderate, presence of soft soil near the surface can cause devastating damage due to local site and induced effects like liquefaction. Evidence of liquefaction due to past Indian earthquakes was highlighted in many Paleo-seismic studies, particularly in the Himalayan region. The objective of this paper is subsurface characterization of part Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) and estimation of liquefaction hazards for the possible surface ground motions based on the region seismic study. Drilling of boreholes and measurement of standard penetration N values are carried out at selected locations for subsurface characterization. Possibility of liquefaction for soil deposits are assessed by comparing the grain size distribution curves obtained from laboratory tests with the range of grain size distribution curves of potentially liquefiable soils. The minimum factor of safety values has been identified for each location and presented in the form of maps showing FOS against liquefaction for average and maximum amplified peak ground acceleration (PGA) values. These maps have highlighted that the northern, western and central parts of Lucknow fall under very critical to critical for liquefaction while southern parts shows moderate to low critical area.


Airborne tactical decision making is degraded as a result of sophisticated threat capabilities, high data rates and uncertainties, and the necessity for timely response. Under investigation at the Naval Air Development Center is the concept of a plan recognition model to assist the tactical decision maker in interpreting and predicting the activities of enemy platforms.* On-going work in the field of plan recognition was surveyed, knowledge acquisition conducted, and a prototype plan recognition model has emerged. The model is a hierarchical, blackboard based adaptation of a more general architecture of cognition. The model attempts to overcome some of the perceived shortfalls of other approaches relative to the complexities of the tactical situation. Extensions to accommodate uncertain events and elusive goals in multi-hypothesis situations are the focus of current activities.


Article DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra5425 Migration is closely linked to development process. Due to the stagnant development process in Bihar outmigration have increased in recent two decades. It has it's root in green revolution which continued till date. Migration refers to movement of people from one place to another. When a person is enumerated at different place than his/her place of birth is known as migrant. It may be of permanent or temporary, a short or long term in nature. Several scholars in their studies showed that poor implementation of land reforms, as well as a lack of industrial investments in Bihar, left the state underdeveloped. Low Growth, high levels of poverty and the 'semi-feudal' systems of agricultural production, where the upper castes-controlled land and power, encouraged outmigration. Due to ongoing political, social and economic changes in Bihar, the migration pattern is also changing in past decades. This paper aims to analyse the pattern and causes of migration in Bihar through secondary data sources such as Census of India 2001 and 2011, by using tools like Percentage, ratio, pie chart, histogram, graphical presentation etc. Motivation to this study is to draw attention of policymakers because Outmigration of human capital is important developmental challenge for Bihar. There is urgent need to protect and develop village industries in Bihar which in turn create employment and reduce migration through


Although genetic manipulation is one of the hallmarks in model organisms, its applicability to non-model species has remained difficult due to our limited understanding of their fundamental biology. For instance, manipulation of a cell line originated from the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis, an arthropod that serves as a vector of several human pathogens, has yet to be established. Here, we demonstrate the successful genetic modification of the commonly used tick ISE6 line through ectopic expression and clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) genome editing. We performed ectopic expression using nucleofection and attained CRISPR-Cas9 editing via homology dependent recombination. Targeting the E3 ubiquitin ligase X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (xiap) and its substrate p47 led to alteration in molecular signaling within the immune deficiency (IMD) network and increased infection of the rickettsial agent Anaplasma phagocytophilum in I. scapularis ISE6 cells. Collectively, our findings complement techniques for genetic engineering of ticks in vivo and aid in circumventing the long-life cycle of I. scapularis, of which limits efficient and scalable molecular genetic screens. Importance Genetic engineering in arachnids has lagged compared to insects, largely because of substantial differences in their biology. This study unveils the implementation of ectopic expression and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in a tick cell line. We introduced fluorescently tagged proteins in ISE6 cells and edited its genome via homology dependent recombination. We ablated the expression of xiap and p47, two signaling molecules present in the immune deficiency (IMD) pathway of I. scapularis. Impairment of the tick IMD pathway, an analogous network of the tumor necrosis factor receptor in mammals, led to enhanced infection of the rickettsial agent A. phagocytophilum. Altogether, our findings provide a critical technical resource to the scientific community to enable a deeper understanding of biological circuits in the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis.


| Present study was carried out to analyze the physico-chemical quality including nutrient profile of buffalo (buffen), deer (venison) and goat (chevon) meat. Eighteen fresh meat samples (n=6 per meat type) were collected and analyzed for physical, chemical and nutritive attributes. The pH value (6.02±0.063), drip loss (3.81±0.047%) and cooking loss (36.92±0.277%) in chevon were observed higher (P<0.05) than the pH (5.91±0.039 and 5.72±0.046), drip loss (3.42±.010 and 2.89±0.178%) and cooking loss (32.51±0.301 27.79±0.348%) in buffen and venison, respectively. While, the water binding property of buffen (67.71±0.007%) found remarkably (P<0.05) higher compared to chevon and venison (63.58±0.139 and 54.30±0.850%). Reduced moisture (71.09±0.105%) with increased (P<0.05) protein and ash (22.98±0.040 and 3.16±0.102%) contents were observed in Venison than that of buffen (73.88±0.041, 20.03±0.059 and 1.84±0.060%) and chevon (76.01±0.020, 20.59±0.046 and 31.31±0.039%). However, fat and glycogen (4.01±0.043%; 22.71±0.339mg/g) were found high (P<0.05) in buffen against venison (2.54±0.033 and 21.80±0.299mg/g) and chevon (1.90±0.019 and 18.45±0.134mg/g), respectively. Furthermore, calorific values (122.71±0.567 and 121.85±0.365 Kcal/100g-1) of buffen and venison varied nonsignificantly to each other, but found relatively (P<0.05) higher than chevon (105.86±0.207 Kcal/100g-1). On the basis of current findings, it is concluded that the deer (venison) and buffalo meats (buffen) are more nutritious than goat (chevon) meat because of their elevated protein, fat and total mineral contents, which are vital for the growth and body requirement of consumers.


Tire–road interaction addresses safety with respect to braking friction and energy efficiency in the context of rolling resistance. These phenomena are coherent, but their engineering solutions can be contradictory. For example, highly skid-resistant surfaces may not be ideal for fuel economy, but surfaces with low rolling resistance may be prone to skidding. Several experimental and numerical studies have investigated the individual phenomena, but insufficient attention has been paid to studying them coherently. The present study computed braking friction and rolling resistance for various operating parameters and their coherent response for each parameter with the use of a thermomechanical contact algorithm. Micromechanical finite element simulations of a rolling or braking pneumatic tire against selected asphalt concrete surfaces were performed for various operating conditions, such as tire load, inflation pressure, speed, and ambient air and pavement temperatures. The coefficients of braking friction and rolling resistance were found to decrease with the inflation pressure and the temperature and to increase with the wheel load. The braking friction coefficient was found to decrease with the speed, in contrast to the rolling resistance coefficient, which increases with the same parameter. A full-skidding tire registered lower braking friction than a 20% slipping tire. Also, an asphalt surface with higher macrotexture offered higher braking friction and higher rolling resistance, and vice versa.


There are many causes—more than fifty are given within this present chapter—that can trigger pathophysiological mechanisms leading to acute renal failure (ARF). This syndrome is characterized by a sudden decrease in kidney function, with a consequence of loss of the hemostatic equilibrium of the internal medium. The primary marker is an increase in the concentration of the nitrogenous components of blood. A second marker, oliguria, is seen in 50% to 70% of cases. In general, the causes of ARF have a dynamic behavior as they change as a function of the economical and medical development of the community. Economic differences justify the different spectrum in the causes of ARF in developed and developing countries. The setting where ARF appears (community versus hospital), or the place where ARF is treated (intensive care units [ICU] versus other hospital areas) also show differences in the causes of ARF. While functional outcome after ARF is usually good among the surviving patients, mortality rate is high: around 45% in general series and close to 70% in ICU series. Although it is unfortunate that these mortality rates have remained fairly constant over the past decades, it should be noted that today's patients are generally much older and display a generally much more severe condition than was true in the past. These age and severity factors, together with the more aggressive therapeutical possibilities presently available, could account for this apparent paradox. As is true for any severe clinical condition, a prognostic estimation of ARF is of great utility for both the patients and their families, the medical specialists (for analysis of therapeutical maneuvers and options), and for society in general (demonstrating the monetary costs of treatment). This chapter also contains a brief review of the prognostic tools available for application to ARF. Fernando Liaño Julio Pascual


The critical aircraft structure, being the load-bearing members, is a vital component for any aircraft. The effect of fatigue loading, operating conditions, and environmental degradation has caused the structural integrity of the airframe to be assessed for its airworthiness requirement. Using the fatigue design concept of Safe Life, the RMAF adopts the Aircraft Structure Integrity Program (ASIP) to monitor the structural integrity of its critical components. RMAF has produced the task card using the engineering analysis concept on the aircraft's critical structure. Various Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) methods were used, and for this analysis, the Crack Growth Prediction method was used to determine the crack growth behavior and its ultimate failure point in case of any crack occurrences. Although there are six critical locations, the wing root is chosen since it has the highest possibility of fatigue failure. The analytical methods which were discussed are Crack Growth Analysis and Low Cycle Fatigue. For the numerical method, NX Nastran was used for the simulation of crack growth. The result from the crack growth analysis was validated with the numerical result. The conclusion is that, based on the fatigue life cycle, the wing root structure condition is not affected by severe damage, and its failure is approximately around 30 to 100 years for both the through hole and through side crack. Thus, its structural life can be extended. The research outcome will be on the extension of the structure life of the aircraft wing.


From the opening entry of "a company of mntinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons" to the next to last, barely coherent action-"Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!" "Hold, hold, hold, hold!"-Coriolanus displays an ancient world riven by war and civic turmoil. For all its occasional evocations of a marmoreal Romanitas, it is also a busy play. Its protagonist accepts with relish and superhuman energy the opportunities for martial action that his world presents: Coriolanus is probably the most active of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, certainly the one least given to reflection. Yet the play's busyness is not always warlike. Much of it consists of talk, especially the contentious talk of political debate. Characters plan courses of action, rehearse public appearances, plot acts of vengeance, conjure with names, report off-stage events-and even events that the audience has seen occur on-stage. Much of the discussion revolves around Coriolanus himself. His nature and motives, his martial prowess and farouche political manners, are incessantly and variously canvassed. To a belligerent citizen, Coriolanus's heroics are performed to please his mother, and to be partly proud; to the indulgent Menenius, his nature is too noble for the world; to Aufidius, shrewd and grudgingly admiring, his actions are a matter for almost obsessive, but inconclusive, rumination.


Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) along with Functional Requirements (FRs) are the most significant and critical requirements for software development. NFRs are often ignored and inadequately specified during software development. If NFRs are not properly considered at early stages of software development, it may become very complex and expensive to address them later on. This paper analyzes various techniques, frameworks and recommendations from various literatures and identifies their limitations as well. Further, the paper discusses different techniques for individual NFRs specified in FURPS quality attribute model. The objective of this study is to provide an analytical comparison of NFRs techniques and perform critical analysis on NFRs.


A novel, facile, and one-step conventional heating method is developed to synthesize monodisperse Sn-doped Fe2O3 nanoclusters with a novel spindle-like 3D architecture. The morphology and size of the products can be controlled by adjusting the reaction time and the concentration of additive Sn ions, which are the two affecting factors for the synthesis mechanism. As a proof-of-concept demonstration of their function, our spindle-like Sn-doped Fe2O3 nanoclusters present a large capacity of 938 mA h g−1 at 0.2 C after 100 cycles as compared with bare SnO2 and Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Importantly, the capacity is about 805 mA h g−1 at 1 C with a capacity retention as high as 95% after 500 cycles when used as lithium ion battery anodes. This excellent electrochemical performance benefits from the successful doping and their 3D assembled structure, which help improve the conductivity, overcome the large volume changes and stresses during the charge–discharge reaction and finally result in the superior cycling performance and charge-rate capabilities.


T cells are activated by antigen and costimulatory receptor signaling and undergo robust proliferation and differentiation into effector cells with protective function. Such quantitatively and qualitatively amplified T cell responses are effective in controlling acute infection and are followed by contraction of the effector population and the formation of resting memory T cells for enhanced protection against previously experienced antigen. However, in the face of persistent antigen during chronic viral infection, in autoimmunity, or in the tumor microenvironment, T cells exhibit distinct responses relative to those in acute insult in several aspects, including reduced clonal expansion and impaired effector function associated with inhibitory receptor expression, a state known as exhaustion. Nevertheless, their responses to chronic infection and tumors are sustained through the establishment of hierarchical heterogeneity, which preserves the duration of the response by generating newly differentiated effector cells. In this review, we highlight recent findings on distinct dynamics of T cell responses under "exhausting" conditions and the roles of the transcription factors that support attenuated yet long-lasting T cell responses as well as the establishment of dysfunctional states.


There is ample evidence today in the stereotype threat literature that women and girls are influenced by gender-stereotyped expectations on standardized math tests. Despite its high relevance to education, this phenomenon has not received much attention in school settings. The present studies offer the 1st evidence to date indicating that middle school girls exhibit a performance deficit in quasi-ordinary classroom circumstances when they are simply led to believe that the task at hand measures mathematical skills. This deficit occurred in girls working alone or in mixed-gender groups (i.e., presence of regular classmates) but not in same-gender groups (i.e., presence of only same-gender classmates). Compared with the mixed-gender groups, the same-gender groups were also associated for girls in the stereotype threat condition with greater accessibility of positive role models (i.e., female classmates who excel in math), at the expense of both stereotypic in-group and out-group members (i.e., low-math-achievement girls and high-math-achievement boys). Finally, the greater accessibility of positive role models mediated the impact of the activated stereotype on girls' performance, exactly as one would expect from C. M. Steele's (1997) stereotype threat theory. Taken together, these findings clearly show that reducing stereotype threat in the classroom is a crucial challenge for both scientists and teachers.


BACKGROUND
Dipper and non-dipper hypertension are different clinical forms of essential hypertension. In this study, the effect of circadian blood pressure changes on serum SCUBE-1 and soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) levels was investigated in patients with hypertension.

METHODS
A total of 100 participants aged 23-89 years were included in the study. Patients with essential hypertension were followed up by ambulatory blood pressure measurement.

RESULTS
Serum SCUBE1 levels were significantly higher in the non-dipper group than in the normal group (P < 0.001). Dipper and non-dipper patients had significantly higher serum sCD40L levels when compared to the normal group (P = 0.048 and P = 0.035, respectively). We also found a positive correlation between SCUBE1, sCD40L levels and 24-hour mean systolic blood pressure levels (r: 0.232, p: 0.034 and r: 0.241, p: 0.027, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Serum SCUBE1 and sCD40L levels were higher in hypertensive patients than normal participants. Serum SCUBE1 levels were higher in patients with non-dipper compared to other participants.


Tradition is a term intimately associated with biodiversity. Traditional varieties, traditional practices of cultivation and traditional environment are examples in support. Tribal people consist of 8.4% of India's total population (1991 census). Tribal habitats are biodiversity-rich, but tribal farmers are resource-poor. Conceptually, tradition and science are two intersecting spheres that overlap on principles. The intersection is conceived to represent reality. Tribal cultivation exhibits some traditional practices with an underlying scientific basis. At the same time, there are traditions of scientific concern needing appropriate modification. Rice cultivation in the Jeypore tract of Orissa provides an example and a case that has been studied in depth. This paper presents a possible synergy between tradition and science and argues that participatory research with poor (tribal) and unreached farmers provides an option to ensure sustainable and improved livelihood to them. Unlike high-yielding varieties technology, this option helps to preserve biodiversity-rich habitats, prevents urban migration and promotes in situ on-farm conservation of biodiversity through its sustainable use.


Craft knowledge is built from examples of experience, and when experiences from many people are gathered and compared, new knowledge is developed. This requires either socialization between practitioners or a systematic collection of practice descriptions, such as in a manual. However, there is always a risk that knowledge that is difficult to put into words will never be communicated. The aim of this paper is to show how theoretical perspectives can be used as analytical tools to help us develop methods that support the communication of craft knowledge. Using an approach of research through practice in the field of gardening, and combining a tripartite theory of knowledge with a SECI-model analysis, I will discuss how it is possible to make practitioners' subjective knowledge more readily available to others.


Dear Editor, we would like to share ideas on the publication "Hesitancy toward vaccination against COVID-19: A scoping review of prevalence and associated factors in the Arab world." This literature study offers insightful information about COVID-19 vaccine resistance in Arab nations. It draws attention to the diversity in VH prevalence and names significant correlated factors. The analysis also clarifies the particular worries and mistrust that fuel VH in the Arab world. Poor point: The review's dependence on studies that describe the prevalence of VH and related factors could be a weakness. Although it offers a comprehensive perspective, the complexities and intricacies of vaccination hesitancy in the Arab world may not be fully captured. The evaluation skips over qualitative research or in-depth case studies that would have helped to better understand the underlying causes of vaccine reluctance. Every time a new COVID-19 vaccine is developed and made accessible to the general public, concerns are expressed. The villagers might worry if they learn terrible news. The primary cause of worry is from the popular perception that the COVID-19 vaccine will probably have an effect on the general people. Resistance patterns are influenced by the environment and the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. The effect of promotion may alter over time since the hesitant pattern changes with time. If more study is required, it should concentrate on identifying and resolving the main causes of vaccination resistance, such as false information, mistrust, and access issues, as well as developing and testing workable vaccine hesitancy solutions in a real-world setting. More qualitative study should be done in the future to examine the cultural, societal, and contextual variables affecting vaccine hesitancy in Arab nations. Interventions should also be created and put into practice to address the specific issues and increase public trust. To clear up misconceptions and boost vaccine acceptability, these approaches can involve focused educational efforts, interaction with community leaders, and teamwork with reputable healthcare professionals. In order to judge these treatments' efficacy and make any strategy adjustments, ongoing monitoring and evaluation will be essential. Authors' contribution


Community-based postpartum care of mothers and newborns is vital to achieve mortality reduction. This qualitative study explored cultural beliefs and practices regarding postpartum care of mothers and newborns in rural Karnataka. Focus group discussions with newly delivered mothers and their caregivers in a rural maternity hospital, and in-depth interviews with community level health workers revealed cessation of the practice of withholding colostrum and the barbaric practice of branding, but found persisting harmful cultural beliefs and practices like withholding nutritious foods considered "hot" or "cold", inadequate postpartum ambulation, separating husband and wife for up to a year or more after the birth, application of various substances to the umbilical stump and eyes of the newborn and giving pre-lacteal feeds. Antenatal and postpartum mothers, their caregivers, including elders in the family should be targeted by community level health workers for counseling and behavior change.


This article aims to (1) to find out the connotative and denotative of meaning in the film Who Killed Sara (2) to determine the forms of gender discrimination which appear in Who Killed Sara. Researcher uses Roland Barthes's Semiotics theory to identify the Gender discrimination form that appear through the film Who Killed Sara. After the deep research, the researcher founds that (1) the meaning of gender discrimination is highlighted by the discriminatory treatment of women in public life. When a group of people imposes restrictions on the social life of a woman, their view of the weakness and low status of women also leads women to experience discrimination (2) the form of discrimination that appear through the film has many varieties, such as; violence (verbal and non-verbal), stereotype, subordination, and workload. From this film, it can be seen that acts of discrimination are heinous acts and have a bad impact on a person. So this film provides a moral message for us viewers to create gender equality in social life.


It would seem that very little remains to be said concerning the treatment of a disease so long recognized and so frequently encountered as iritis, but for those reasons the discussion should be sufficiently interesting and profitable to justify our Chairman in providing such a paper. The varieties of iritis can be dismissed in a few words. The most useful classification is that based on the cause, which will be duly considered in this paper. As regards the local clinical manifestations, we may regard all iritis, from the point of view of treatment, as forms of plastic iritis, differing only in degree. The object of the treatment of iritis may be stated, in the words of Brailey and Stevenson, as threefold: 1, To dilate the pupil; 2, to relieve pain; 3, treat any constitutional condition that may be present as a cause, as well as to attend to the patient's


As a quantum analog of Cherenkov radiation, an inertial photon detector moving through a medium with constant refractive index $n$ may perceive the electromagnetic quantum fluctuations as real photons if its velocity $v$ exceeds the medium speed of light $c/n$. For dispersive Hopfield type media, we find this Ginzburg effect to extend to much lower $v$ because the phase velocity of light is very small near the medium resonance. In this regime, however, dissipation effects become important. Via an extended Hopfield model, we present a consistent treatment of quantum fluctuations in dispersive and dissipative media and derive the Ginzburg effect in such systems. Finally, we propose an experimental test.


Ecosystem engineers are organisms that change the physical structure of environments and provide habitats for other organisms. Lepidopteran caterpillars may act as ecosystem engineers by rolling leaves as shelters to complete metamorphosis. After being abandoned, these structures may provide shelter for other organisms. In this study, the influence of leaf‐rolling caterpillars on tropical mite communities was reported. Expanded leaves and leaves rolled by larvae and also developed field experiments using leaves rolled manually with different shapes and sizes (i.e. different architectures) in different seasons were surveyed (dry and rainy). While the abundance and diversity of predatory mites were higher in rolled leaves, the abundance of phytophages decreased in these leaves. Species composition differed between rolled and expanded leaves. The structure of shelters affected the distribution of predatory mites, with higher abundances found on funnel‐shaped leaves. Predatory mites only benefited from the rolled leaves in the dry season. This is the first study showing (i) the contrasting effects of ecosystem engineers on microarthropod communities, favouring some feeding guilds and inhibiting others; (ii) that the shape of rolled leaves has variable effects on mite communities; and (iii) that facilitation was temporally dependent, i.e. occurred only in the dry season.


Women in worldwide had experienced dysmenorrhea, with 10-15% experiencing severe dysmenorrhea. The intensity and pain can affect sleep quality. Out of 51 female undergraduate midwifery students, 20 of them experienced dysmenorrhea. They reported having difficulty sleeping and often slept after 11 PM. During lectures, some of them felt exhausted. This study aimed to identify the correlation between nutritional status and sleep quality with the occurrence of primary dysmenorrhea in midwifery students. This research was a quantitative study with an analytic cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of 107 undergraduate midwifery students selected using a total sampling technique. Data collection involved measuring the weight and height of respondents to categorize their body mass index (BMI), and then the respondents completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) questionnaire for primary dysmenorrhea. Data analysis was conducted using the Spearman rank correlation test. The results showed a significant negative correlation between nutritional status and the occurrence of dysmenorrhea, as well as a meaningful correlation between sleep quality and primary dysmenorrhea in midwifery students. Based on this research, we concluded that there was a correlation between nutritional status and sleep quality with the occurrence of primary dysmenorrhea.


Based on the outcome of 20 months fieldwork on the process of elite formation and the making of public space in a northern Namibian town, this paper explores the challenges of doing research among elites. Elites, whether political, economic, administrative, religious or traditional, occupy a prominent position within a community, which sets them apart from the rest of the population. While elite status inevitably brings to its members prestige, recognition and privileges, at the same time it often attracts criticism and suspicion of the elites' modus operandi. For these reasons the elites tend to keep an aura of secrecy around their activities, thus limiting access to their social milieu by outsiders. Beyond secrecy, in Africa, where the relationship between the elites and their subalterns is often socially and culturally regulated through age practices, generational difference can become a considerable hindrance for a young researcher. Taking inspiration from the work of feminist anthropologists, I reflect on my own experience to highlight the problematic role of the researcher's agency in the context of elite studies. Much as in the case of gender, I argue that age and generation regulates and determines the access of fieldworkers to their chosen field sites. As a consequence, fieldworkers doing research among elites have to constantly negotiate and adjust their position in the field. I aim to stress that while on many occasions these negotiations respond to the fieldworker's conscious intended strategies, in other circumstances there is little room for individual choices, let alone conscious and planned manoeuvering.


We discuss a problem occuring when a new manufacturing process is investigated. For such applications, it is typical that the relationship among the input variables and the output variables is unknown. After obtaining information on this relationship by experiments, the goal is not only to make statistical inference on this relationship, but to come to a decision for a problem that depends upon it. In our context, the problem is to first test a certain hypothesis against an alternative and then to estimate a certain parameter in case the hypothesis is rejected. The main objective is to develop a solution for the problem as a whole, i.e., a solution of the joint test and estimation problem. We determine the optimal minimax procedure in a certain class by numerical integration. Moreover, we show that the optimal two-stage minimax procedure is better than the optimal one-stage minimax procedure.


. Concept Pluralism and Concept Eliminativism are two positions recently proposed in the philosophy and the psychology of concepts. Both of these theories are motivated by the view that all current theories of concepts are empirically and methodologically inadequate and hold in common the assumption that for any category that can be represented in thought, a person can possess multiple, distinct concepts of it. In this paper, I will challenge these in light of a third theory, Conceptual Atomism, which addresses and dispels the contentious issues. In particular, I contend that Conceptual Atomism, when properly understood, is empirically adequate and can overcome difficulties that plague Pluralism and Eliminativism


Many papers have been concerned with the recognition of Latin, Chinese and Japanese characters. However, although almost a third of a billion people worldwide, in several different languages, use Arabic characters for writing, little research progress, in both on-line and off-line has been achieved towards the automatic recognition of Arabic characters. This is a result of the lack of adequate support in terms of funding, and other utilities such as Arabic text database, dictionaries, etc. and of course of the cursive nature of its writing rules. The main theme of this paper is the automatic recognition of Arabic printed text using machine learning C4.5. Symbolic machine learning algorithms are designed to accept example descriptions in the form of feature vectors which include a label that identifies the class to which an example belongs. The output of the algorithm is a set of rules that classifies unseen examples based on generalization from the training set. This ability to generalize is the main attraction of machine learning for handwriting recognition. Samples of a character can be preprocessed into a feature vector representation for presentation to a machine learning algorithm that creates rules for recognizing characters of the same class. Symbolic machine learning has several advantages over other learning methods. It is fast in training and in recognition, generalizes well, is noise tolerant and the symbolic representation is easy to understand. The technique can be divided into three major steps: the first step is pre- processing in which the original image is transformed into a binary image utilizing a 300 dpi scanner and then forming the connected component. Second, global features of the input Arabic word are then extracted such as number subwords, number of peaks within the subword, number and position of the complementary character, etc. Finally, machine learning C4.5 is used for character classification to generate a decision tree.


Nine daily intravenous (iv) injections of RA‐700 (an antitumor cyclic hexapeptide) at doses of 2 to 6 mgAg/day caused increases of WBC counts at 4–6 days after treatment in normal C57BL/6 × DBA/ 2 (BDF1) mice. The percentages of neutrophils and lymphocytes were modified. There was a decrease of colony‐forming units in culture (CFUc) in bone marrow to 40% of the control value on day 1 but CFUc rapidly returned to normal values on day 3. The colony‐forming units in spleen (CFUs): in bone marrow decreased during treatment. On the other hand, CFUc and CFUs in spleen were increased from the initiation of treatment to the time prior to the increase of WBC count. Spleen weight increased after treatment, and histologically, increases of immature and also mature granulocytes and megakaryocytes were observed. However, RA‐700 did not stimulate the progress of hematoprogenitors in vitro. The results indicated that RA‐700 stimulates the progress of hematoprogenitors in the spleen, but this effect is probably indirect.


Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the leading malignant tumors that seriously threaten women's health. The development of new drugs or increasing the sensitivities of current chemotherapy drugs is critically needed. The purpose of this study was to assess the synergistic effects of two silencing RNAs [salt-inducible kinase 2 (SIK2) siRNA and antisense-microRNA21 (anti-miR21)] encapsulated in long-circulating folate-lipid-poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) hybrid nanopolymers (FaLPHNPs) administered using an ultrasound- and microbubble (US-MB)-mediated approach to sensitize human EOC xenografts to paclitaxel (PTX). In the in vitro assays, this lipid-PLGA hybrid nanopolymer exhibited an extended circulation profile (t1/2: ∼8.5 h); US-MB-mediated complementary delivery of FaLPHNPs resulted in a significant reduction in EOC cell (OVCR3, A2780, and SKOV3) proliferation. In vivo, there was a 2.5-fold increase (p < 0.05) in RNA delivery in EOC xenografts, which resulted in a notable inhibition of tumor growth compared with that in the non-ultrasound-mediated and PTX alone-treated controls. We validated the therapeutic roles of SIK2, the target gene in treating advanced ovarian cancer, and anti-miR21 by evaluating the significant inhibition of tumor growth upon SIK2 silencing and inhibition of endogenous miR21 function. In summary, the results of this study revealed that US-MB-mediated codelivery of SIK2 siRNA, and anti-miR21 encapsulated in a folate-lipid-PLGA hybrid polymer nanoparticle could significantly improve the sensitivity of EOC tumors to PTX and is a highly effective approach for treating EOC in complementary experiments. Further research of this strategy could lead to better treatment results for patients with EOC.


The rate of development of caterpillars of Pieris rapae L. on rape leaves was not affected by whether their host plants were water-stressed or not, nor were weights of the pupae affected. Survival was high on unstressed plants and was not enhanced on stressed plants. Similarly, the rate of development of larvae of Paropsis atomaria Oliver and the weight of the prepupae were unaffected by stress in young shoots of red gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh., on which the larvae were feeding. In both species of plant, the degree of stress applied significantly increased the total nitrogen and amino content of the leaves. In the gum leaves, phenolic content varied inversely with nitrogen content: In well watered plants at temperatures below 25OC. phenolic compounds increased and nitrogenous compounds decreased in attacked leaves, compared with leaves on unattacked shoots of the same plant. No such differences were apparent when the plants were water-stressed, however, nor in watered plants at temperatures above 30°C.


 Abstract — In times of rapid globalization, the significance of cultural and architectural heritage is rising, as it is a key element to define the identity of a place, a city, even a country. Its preservation, conservation, and revitalization are everyone's responsibility, and the public is growing more aware of that fact. The citizens are looking for a way to actively participate in the decision-making in projects regarding heritage sites. Public involvement in the planning process is not a new phenomenon, especially in Western countries. However, countries, such as the former communist states of Eastern Europe, have been less studied. Based on established theories, this paper analyses the level of citizens' inclusion in projects regarding heritage preservation, using the example of the Tobacco City in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. As this case is exemplary for Bulgaria, it illustrates the current condition of public participation country-wise. At the same time, considering the former communist states have had a similar socio-economic and political development in the past several decades, it is possible to apply the conclusions to most of these countries with only slight variations.


From the perspective of industrial structure coordination and based on an explicit definition for the connotation of industrial structure coordination, the synergetic coefficients are used to measure the coordination degree between three industries' input structure and output structure, and then the efficacy function method is employed to comprehensively evaluate the level of China's industrial structure optimization. It is showed that Chinese industrial structure presented a "v-shaped" variation tendency between 1996 and 2008, and its industrial structure adjustment got obvious achievements after 2003, with the industrial structure optimization level increasing continuously. However in 2009, the level of China's industrial structure optimization declined sharply due to the decreasing contribution degree of value added structure and energy structure coordination and the lower coordination degree of value added structure and capital structure. Keywords—China's industrial structure, Coordination degree, Efficacy function, Synergetic coefficients


In this work, we quantize a trained Transformer machine language translation model leveraging INT8/VNNI instructions in the latest Intel$^\circledR$ Xeon$^\circledR$ Cascade Lake processors to improve inference performance while maintaining less than 0.5$\%$ drop in accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt in the industry to quantize the Transformer model. This has high impact as it clearly demonstrates the various complexities of quantizing the language translation model. We present novel quantization techniques directly in TensorFlow to opportunistically replace 32-bit floating point (FP32) computations with 8-bit integers (INT8) and transform the FP32 computational graph. We also present a bin-packing parallel batching technique to maximize CPU utilization. Overall, our optimizations with INT8/VNNI deliver 1.5X improvement over the best FP32 performance. Furthermore, it reveals the opportunities and challenges to boost performance of quantized deep learning inference and establishes best practices to run inference with high efficiency on Intel CPUs.


The Boundary Element Method (BEM) is ideally suited for the simulation of underground constructions like tunnels or caverns. Such structures are modelled with the BEM inside an infinite or semi-infinite domain. As the radiation condition is fulfilled by the BEM no truncation of the domain is necessary. Only the surface of the structure (e.g. tunnel) has to be discretised by boundary elements (BE). An accurate simulation of the tunnelling process has to consider the sequential excavation where parts of the rock mass are excavated at different time and location. This special constructional condition has a direct influence onto the simulation model. In this work different methods are presented which consider the sequential excavation. The first method is the discretisation of the problem by multiple BE regions (MRBEM). Each region, which will be excavated during the excavation process, is discretised by a separate finite BE region. These regions are embedded inside an infinite region which represent the infinite extend of the domain. Thus, a system of BE regions arise which have to be coupled at their common interfaces. Two coupling strategies, the Boundary Element Tearing and Interconnecting Method (BETI) and the method of Interface Coupling (IC) will be presented to solve the sequential tunnel excavation. The second method uses only a single BE region (SRBEM) for every step of excavation. For each load step the geometry/mesh has to be updated. Thus, the mesh of the previous load step will be extended by the surface of the new excavation volume of the current load step. Beside the geometry update an essential part of this method is an accurate evaluation of the excavation loading. The excavation loads for each excavation step are tractions applied at the part of the boundary surface just generated by the geometry update. These tractions depend on all previous load steps and will be evaluated by a calculation of internal results in the interior of the single region. The internal results can be either stresses or displacements. In this work the modelling strategies of the MRBEM and SRBEM approach will be presented. On a realistic tunnel example the accuracy of the results for the mentioned methods will be shown as well as the performance of the calculations.


The effects of vagal nerve stimulation in the neck and in the lower thorax were studied on L-leucine absorption in/the cat jejunum. Four series of in vivo experiments were performed in 26 cats using single pass perfusion technique with samples collected every 10 min and examined for their phenol red and radioactive L-leucine concentrations. The first two series acted as controls for the time it took to reach steady-state absorption and for the effects on L-leucine absorption of mechanical handling of the vagus nerve. In the third series, vagal stimulation in the neck (with a 20-second train of shocks at 7 Hz repeated every 10 min for either 16 or 4 stimulus sessions) resulted in a 3-fold increase in L-leucine absorption which was maintained throughout the stimulation period (up to 160 min). L-Leucine absorption started increasing within 10 min and peaked around 30-40 min after the initiation of stimulation and returned to control levels within 40 min after cessation of stimulation. In the fourth series, similar increases and returns to control L-leucine absorption levels were noted following vagal stimulation in the lower thorax (with a 20-min train of shocks at 7 Hz given for 3 sessions). The findings suggest a definite role of the vagus nerve in the control of leucine transport across the small intestine.


Temperature is an important factor for various physiological phenomena. Hyperthermia and hypothermia are only two examples in clinical application. As the resolution of MR data increases, so does interest in the exact determination of the temperature. Molecular sensors offer the opportunity to determine temperature in living organisms. Based on the preliminary investigations of our working group using Ce3+ complexes, the more detailed characterization of Tm3+ complexes was carried out with regard to the temperature sensitivity of the 19F MR signals and, for the first time, also to the toxicity using the example of fibroblasts.


Conditions are experimentally found for association of liposomes formed of asolectine and Ca2+-ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum with interface "asolectine solution in decane--water". It is established that Ca2+ ions participate in the change of Mg-ATP-dependent interface potential in this model system.


The self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of (1 – x)HfB2–xHfSi2 (x from 0 to 1) ceramics is successfully performed in this work starting from elemental reactants. The presence of HfSi2 in the composite system progressively reduces the exothermic character of the synthesis reaction. Bulk ceramics are then obtained after consolidation by spark plasma sintering (SPS) of the SHS crashed products. It is found that the HfB2–xHfSi2 composite powders synthesized in a single step by SHS require milder sintering conditions as compared to the mixtures consisting of the ceramic constituents obtained separately by the same route. In addition, 15 vol % is the minimum percentage of HfSi2 required to achieve the complete densification of the starting powders, under the SPS conditions investigated in the present work (I = 1350 A, P = 50 MPa, 30 min total time). Thermogravimetric analysis experiments performed in air flow up to 1450 °C clearly indicate that the introduction of HfSi2 plays a beneficial role for ...


A metal-free organic sensitizer, suitable for the application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), has been designed, synthesized and characterized both experimentally and theoretically. The structure of the novel donor-acceptor-π-bridge-acceptor (D-A-π-A) dye incorporates a triphenylamine (TPA) segment and 4-(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-ylethynyl)benzoic acid (BTEBA). The triphenylamine unit is widely used as an electron donor for photosensitizers, owing to its nonplanar molecular configuration and excellent electron-donating capability, whereas 4-(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-ylethynyl)benzoic acid is used as an electron acceptor unit. The influences of I3- /I- , [Co(bpy)3 ]3+/2+ and [Cu(tmby)2 ]2+/+ (tmby=4,4',6,6'-tetramethyl-2,2'-bipyridine) as redox electrolytes on the DSSC device performance were also investigated. The maximal monochromatic incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) reached 81 % and the solar light to electrical energy conversion efficiency of devices with [Cu(tmby)2 ]2+/+ reached 7.15 %. The devices with [Co(bpy)3 ]3+/2+ and I3- /I- electrolytes gave efficiencies of 5.22 % and 6.14 %, respectively. The lowest device performance with a [Co(bpy)3 ]3+/2+ -based electrolyte is attributed to increased charge recombination.


Metal–glass joints are needed to improve efficiencies of heat collecting units used in linear parabolic sun collector systems. Soda lime silicate glass–copper metal joints were prepared at 800 ◦C for 5, 10 and 20 min by furnace treatment in air. Cu is rapidly oxidized with heat treatment in air, reacted with glass and formed some bubbles at reaction interface. Scanning electron microscope investigation suggested copper oxide formation at copper interface, reaction between copper oxide and glass and formation of bubbles at joining interface and some microcracking for the studied glass disk on Cu disk sample profiles. ANSYS14 software simulations suggested joined glass experienced complicated and high residual stress levels due to big thermal expansion coefficient difference and bubble formation at the joining interface. The residual minimal principal stress levels were at the order of −400 MPa for joined glass at interface produced microcracking in glass starting from joined interface growing into glass layer.


We have studied the metabolism (absorption) of beta-carotene and vitamin E by assigning eleven volunteers to receive daily two capsules of OENOBIOL, each containing 15 mg of beta-carotene and 15 mg of vitamin E, over 60 days. The beta-carotene, vitamin E and vitamin A plasma levels were then determined using new methods developed in our laboratory. After two months, the actively treated group's median beta-carotene and vitamin E levels were significantly higher than those of a control group. However, no significant change between treated and control groups in the mean of vitamin A (retinol) plasma levels were observed. Treatment with beta-carotene, a vitamin A precursor, does not significantly modify the vitamin A levels. This conclusion had already been observed and it is assumed that a plasma level of beta-carotene equal or higher than 0.3 mg/L reflects a nutritional intake of provitamins sufficient to support homeostasis of retinol (Brubacher et al., 1982).


We perform a systematic literature review on testing, validation, and verification of robotic and autonomous systems (RAS). The scope of this review covers peer-reviewed research papers proposing, improving, or evaluating testing techniques, processes, or tools that address the system-level qualities of RAS. Our survey is performed based on a rigorous methodology structured in three phases. First, we made use of a set of 26 seed papers (selected by domain experts) and the SERP-TEST taxonomy to design our search query and (domain-specific) taxonomy. Second, we conducted a search in three academic search engines and applied our inclusion and exclusion criteria to the results. Respectively, we made use of related work and domain specialists (50 academics and 15 industry experts) to validate and refine the search query. As a result, we encountered 10,735 studies, out of which 195 were included, reviewed, and coded. Our objective is to answer four research questions, pertaining to (1) the type of models, (2) measures for system performance and testing adequacy, (3) tools and their availability, and (4) evidence of applicability, particularly in industrial contexts. We analyse the results of our coding to identify strengths and gaps in the domain and present recommendations to researchers and practitioners. Our findings show that variants of temporal logics are most widely used for modelling requirements and properties, while variants of state-machines and transition systems are used widely for modelling system behaviour. Other common models concern epistemic logics for specifying requirements and belief-desire-intention models for specifying system behaviour. Apart from time and epistemics, other aspects captured in models concern probabilities (e.g., for modelling uncertainty) and continuous trajectories (e.g., for modelling vehicle dynamics and kinematics). Many papers lack any rigorous measure of efficiency, effectiveness, or adequacy for their proposed techniques, processes, or tools. Among those that provide a measure of efficiency, effectiveness, or adequacy, the majority use domain-agnostic generic measures such as number of failures, size of state-space, or verification time were most used. There is a trend in addressing the research gap in this respect by developing domain-specific notions of performance and adequacy. Defining widely accepted rigorous measures of performance and adequacy for each domain is an identified research gap. In terms of tools, the most widely used tools are well-established model-checkers such as Prism and Uppaal, as well as simulation tools such as Gazebo; Matlab/Simulink is another widely used toolset in this domain. Overall, there is very limited evidence of industrial applicability in the papers published in this domain. There is even a gap considering consolidated benchmarks for various types of autonomous systems.


We address the problem of unsupervised extractive document summarization, especially for long documents. We model the unsupervised problem as a sparse auto-regression one and approximate the resulting combinatorial problem via a convex, norm-constrained problem. We solve it using a dedicated Frank-Wolfe algorithm. To generate a summary with k sentences, the algorithm only needs to execute approximately k iterations, making it very efficient for a long document. We evaluate our approach against two other unsupervised methods using both lexical (standard) ROUGE scores, as well as semantic (embedding-based) ones. Our method achieves better results with both datasets and works especially well when combined with embeddings for highly paraphrased summaries.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) plays an important role in the medical image processing. It is an irreversible neurodegenerative dementia that often occurs at the age of 65. It is a kind of memory loss that related with thinking and behavior of people's day to day lives. Therefore, the researchers are taking more efforts to find proper treatment and improve the quality of patient's life. Besides, this paper represents the review based on segmentation during early detection of AD and MRI classification using ADNI datasets. Further, it concluded with different approaches for better detection of AD.


Author(s): Leigh, Samantha | Advisor(s): German, Donovan P | Abstract: What an animal consumes and what an animal digests and assimilates for energetic demands are not always synonymous. Sharks, uniformly accepted as carnivores, have guts that are presumed to be well suited for a high protein diet. However, the bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo), which is abundant in critical seagrass habitats, has been previously shown to consume copious amounts of seagrass (up to 62.1% of gut content mass), although it is unknown if they can digest and assimilate seagrass nutrients. To determine if bonnetheads digest seagrass nutrients, captive sharks were fed a 13C-labeled seagrass diet. Digestibility analyses, digestive enzyme assays and stable isotope analyses were used to determine the bonnethead shark's capacity for digesting and assimilating seagrass material. Compound-specific stable isotope analysis showed that sharks assimilated seagrass carbon. Additionally, cellulose-component-degrading enzyme activities were detected in shark hindguts. I show that a coastal shark is digesting seagrass with at least moderate efficiency, which has ecological implications due to the stabilizing role of omnivory and nutrient transport within fragile seagrass ecosystems. Furthermore, the intestinal microbiome of vertebrates has been shown to play a crucial role in their digestive capabilities. This is particularly true for omnivores and herbivores that rely on enteric microbes to digest components of plant material that are indigestible endogenously. The bonnethead shark represents an interesting opportunity to explore how intestinal microbes provide a mechanism for omnivory in a marine vertebrate. I use digestive enzyme assays, histological imaging, measurements of microbial fermentation, and 16S rDNA sequencing to identify processes by which the bonnethead shark can digest and assimilate plant material. Finally, I delve into the functional morphology of the spiral intestine in sharks since this unique structure appears to be important in terms of housing enteric microbes and slowing the transit rate of digesta. I use CT scanning technology to provide a new way of investigating the spiral intestine. In addition to being one of the most conclusive investigations of shark nutritional physiology to date, my results highlight the importance combining studies of structure and function in order to better understand the nutritional physiology of organisms.


In this article a case is made for the introduction of tax measures that affects sustainable energy use in the transport sector, particularly passenger vehicles in the road transport industry. This article explores whether there is a harmonious relationship between the transportation and tax policy in Australia and whether a change in tax policy is required to promote the use of more fuel efficient vehicles, vehicles using cleaner fuels, a reduction in the use of vehicles and reduction in congestion. The tax should relate to the power and weight of the vehicle and its use and not where the vehicles are manufactured. A new way of thinking is required as the world resource of liquid fuel is being depleted. It takes millions of years for our planet to produce liquid fuel, but it takes an instant to burn it, and once burnt, it is irrecoverable. Therefore, the Australian Government should take the responsibility and implement appropriate taxation policies to promote the efficient movement of people and goods with the least consumption of liquid oil.


Objective: It is known that patients with multiple sclerosis have a high incidence of headache. Although there is increasing evidence to suggest that periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) plays a role in the pathophysiology of migraine headache, it is not known whether the type of headache may be a predictor of a MS relapse. Patients and Methods: The study enrolled 100 patients (68 females, 32 males) with clinically confirmed MS diagnosis established by McDonald diagnostic criteria. The type and duration of MS, MRI localization of lesions and cognitive status were recorded for all patients. Patients were questioned whether they experience headache during MS attacks. Results: Sixty-eight percent of the patients had headache and 32% of the patients were free of headache. Of the patients with headache, 16% had tension –type headache (TTH), 14% had migraine, 11% had primary stabbing headache (PSH), 8% had TTH+ migraine, 6% had PSH+ migraine, 6% had medication overuse headache , 2% had medication overuse headache + migraine, 2% had paroxysmal hemicrania, 1% had cervicogenic headache, 1% had chronic TTH, and 1% had unclassified headache. There was a statistically significant relationship between the presence of headache and MS relapse (p<0.001). We found a statistically significant relationship between the type of headache and the localization of plaques in all MS patients in a statistical analysis using chi-square test, (p<0.001). Conclusion: Headache may be the only symptom of a flare-up in MS patients. The relationship between stabbing headache and MS relapses merits further investigation.


Stem cells therapies have been demonstrating their ability to elicit cell replacement in tissues where there has been a loss of function or damage. However, cell-secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been shown to be responsible for much of these regenerative effects. In the scarred myocardium after an infarct, EVs have shown cardioprotective effects upon injection. However, administration via injection has severe limitations, since much of the administered dose is rapidly cleared from the site of action. Development of implantable EV formulations is then needed. EVs from foetal bovine serum and from mesenchymal stem cells culture media were isolated and characterised. A differential centrifugation workflow was assessed to identify a robust and reproducible isolation method. Both isolation and protein characterisation were found to be highly dependent on the starting material, indicating that a careful assessment is required for each sample. The effect of EVs on stressed cardiomyocytes in culture was assessed in vitro and found to be concentration dependent. FBS EVs were found to be relatively stable over the course of a month at the storage conditions of -80◦ C, 4◦ C and 20◦ C. The feasibility of formulating EVs into a scaffold by electrospinning was explored, initially using fast-dissolving polymers such as poly(vinyl pyrrolidone). Extensive optimisation of processing conditions was undertaken and no difference in pre and postprocessing EVs potency was noted in cell culture assays, confirming electrospinning to be suitable for EV formulation. Finally, development of sustained-release scaffolds for cardiac applications was investigated, based on poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and poly(dioxanone). A range of systems was prepared and morphology, flexibility, shrinkage behaviour and mechanical properties explored. However, scaffolds were found to have a burst release at 24 h with no more release detected over the 4 week period. Overall, the results obtained are encouraging and lay the formulation foundations for potential EV clinical applications.


Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a critical risk factor for suicidal ideation and attempts, especially among gay and bisexual men who experience living as a minority. However, whether internalized homophobia (IH) underlies suicide risk and the role of outness to one's family in this association warrants investigation to inform preventive interventions. Using a cross-sectional survey of 570 gay and bisexual men in China, we examined the relationship between CSA and suicidality in the Chinese context and tested a moderated mediation model in this relationship. Nearly 65.6% of the participants had experienced suicidal ideation and 36.8% had attempted suicide. Participants with a history of CSA had higher suicidal ideation (r = 0.33, p < .01) and attempts (r = 0.48, p < .01). Our bootstrapped mediation analysis showed that IH partially mediated the relationship between CSA and suicidal ideation and attempts. Moreover, outness to one's family (parents and other family members) strengthened the direct association of CSA and IH, and the indirect relationship between CSA and suicidal ideation and attempts. These findings highlight the significance of identifying risk factors and mechanisms for suicidality among Chinese gay and bisexual men, suggesting the importance of early intervention, especially for those who have experienced CSA, to eliminate their IH and to improve family support for coming out to prevent the onset of suicidal ideation and attempts.


Antibiotic resistance is increasingly becoming a serious challenge to public health. The regulation of metabolism by post-translational modifications (PTMs) has been widely studied; however, the comprehensive mechanism underlying the regulation of acetylation in bacterial resistance against antibiotics is unknown. Herein, with Escherichia coli as the model, we performed quantitative analysis of the acetylated proteome of wild-type sensitive strain (WT) and ampicillin- (Re-Amp), kanamycin- (Re-Kan), and polymyxin B-resistant (Re-Pol) strains. Based on bioinformatics analysis combined with biochemical validations, we found that a common regulatory mechanism exists between the different resistant strains. Acetylation negatively regulates bacterial metabolism to maintain antibiotic resistance, but positively regulates bacterial motility. Further analyses revealed that key enzymes in various metabolic pathways were differentially acetylated. Particularly, pyruvate kinase (PykF), a key glycolytic enzyme regulating bacterial metabolism, and its acetylated form were highly expressed in the three resistant types and were identified as reversibly acetylated by the deacetylase CobB and the acetyl-transferase PatZ, and also could be acetylated by non-enzyme AcP in vitro. Further, the deacetylation of Lys413 of PykF increased the enzyme activity by changing the conformation of ATP binding site of PykF, resulting in an increase in energy production, which in turn increased the sensitivity of drug-resistant strains to antibiotics. This study provides novel insights for understanding bacterial resistance and lays the foundation for future research on regulation of acetylation in antibiotic-resistant strains. Importance The misuse of antibiotics has resulted in an emergence of a large number of antibiotic-resistant strains, which seriously threaten human health. Bacterial metabolism is tightly controlled by protein post-translational modifications, especially acetylation. However, the comprehensive mechanism underlying regulation of acetylation in bacterial resistance remains unexplored. Here, acetylation was found to positively regulate bacterial motility and negatively regulate energy metabolism, which was common in all the different antibiotic-resistant strains. Moreover, the acetylation and deacetylation process of PykF was uncovered, and deacetylation of the Lys 413 of PykF was found to contribute to bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics. This study provides a new direction for research on development of bacterial resistance through post-translational modifications and provides a theoretical basis for the development of antibacterial drugs.


After Husserl's transcendental turn and the discovery of the correlation between consciousness and the world the concept of the noema becomes one of the constant leitmotifs of Husserl's philosophy. My paper will be devoted to the clarification of this concept and its implications for Husserl's theory of sense. The leading question will be: How can the noema play the role of both the sense and the objective correlate of the intentional act? I will start with presenting the problematic of sense in Husserl's phenomenology from the Logical Investigations to the Ideas I. The central part of my paper will be devoted to the influential debate regarding the interpretation of the noema. Finally, I intend to point out the most important ways in which the notion of the noema becomes enriched in later Husserl's philosophy, as well as the difference between linguisitic and non-linguistic sense, based on the Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis. I hope to show that Husserl's phenomenological theory of sense offers a valuable alternative to the exclusively language-oriented theories of sense.


In the western part of the greater Jakarta of South Tangerang or Tangsel, the original inhabitants live in the previously rural part called Kampung Cilenggang. While the nearby area of Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) demonstrates the spectacle of development and modernization, the inhabitants felt behind as the spectators. Yet the identity of Kampung Cilenggang as the village gradually disappeared and in return, produced the confusion of the space, especially for the adolescents. This group who now in the age of 16-19 were still kids before Tangsel becomes the independent city. Now, growing to be the adolescents, they still regard Kampung Cilenggang as their play area. This paper aims to investigate the space for marginal adolescents, focusing on how they use their space and time outside the school hours. In conducting this research, we studied a group of adolescents in a high school located in Kampung Cilenggang. Our methods were mapping of their play space, observing their behavior, and conducting interviews. This paper reveals that the rapid development of Tangsel shrunk Kampung Cilenggang and forced the adolescents to anticipate the loss of the play space by claiming some small eatery places (warung) as their gathering places.