Syngnathia is a rare facial anomaly associated with neonatal problems, including a compromised airway, and the inability to take in solids and/or liquids. Syngnathia is included within the spectrum of oromandibular limb hypogenesis syndrome, an extremely rare condition characterized by varying degrees of congenital malformation involving the tongue, mandible, and limbs. In this report, we describe the case of a 41-day-old Caucasian female infant who was unable to open her mouth beginning at birth. The authors performed osteotomies to separate fused bone, and placed a bite block at the osteotomy sites to prevent bone fusion recurrence. At 2 years of follow-up patient remained with 14 mm of mouth opening.


Abstract Thanks to the long-term collaborations between nuclear and astrophysics, we have good understanding on the origin of elements in the universe, except for the elements around Ti and some neutron-capture elements. From the comparison between observations of nearby stars and Galactic chemical evolution models, a rapid neutron-capture process associated with core-collapse supernovae is required. The production of C, N, F and some minor isotopes depends on the rotation of massive stars, and the observations of distant galaxies with ALMA indicate rapid cosmic enrichment. It might be hard to find very metal-poor or Population III (and dust-free) galaxies at very high redshifts even with JWST.


This paper proposes a novel heuristic approach to the infeasible power control problem [i.e., no power allocation can provide users with specified quality of service (QoS)] in wireless communication systems. In such infeasible cases, it has been in great demand to increase the number of accepted users (i.e., users provided with the specified QoS) by certain distributed algorithms, which require no communication among base stations (BSs). The number of accepted users is often suppressed by a small number of users in severe environments, hence removing such users obviously helps many other users be accepted. The proposed algorithm, which is fully distributed, detects and removes such users based on simple criteria including: (a) the QoS is below the necessary level, and (b) the BS is already transmitting with the maximum possible power to the user. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly increases the number of accepted users with low computational complexity


Sender-based message logging can considerably lower high failure-free overhead of receiver-based message logging resulting from synchronously logging each message into stable storage by using volatile memory of its sender as storage for logging. This beneficial feature can be obtained at the expense of extra communication costs required for allowing message senders to get receive sequence numbers of the messages from their receivers and confirm them with the receivers and slowness and complexity of recovery of each failed process coming from its obtaining message log from the corresponding senders. However, attempting to apply sender-based message logging into large-scale ubiquitous sensor networks requires reducing the number of messages passing on core networks during its message logging and recovery procedures. This paper presents a scalable virtual senderbased message logging algorithm to solve this problem by enabling the broker elected in a group of nodes as virtual sender to localize both of the logging and recovery procedures to a maximum. We show how this algorithm can guarantee the system consistency in case of sequential failures and perform better than the conventional one in terms of message overhead.


Patients with posterior circulation infarction underwent CT angiography and magnetic resonance angiography. Intracranial and extracranial vasculopathy was evaluated according to age group and location of stroke. Patients aged > 60 years and < 60 years had similar rates of vertebral artery dominance and vertebrobasilar artery developmental or origin anomalies. Vertebrobasilar artery stenosis or occlusion and tortuosity occurred more frequently in patients aged > 60 years than < 60 years. The rates of vertebrobasilar artery anomalies and tortuosity were high in patients with posterior circulation infarction. Vertebrobasilar artery tortuosity occurred more frequently in patients aged > 60 years, whereas vertebrobasilar artery developmental anomalies occurred with similar frequency in patients aged < 60 years and > 60 years. Patients with infarction of the brainstem or cerebellum were more likely to have vertebral artery stenosis or occlusion, basilar artery stenosis or occlusion, vertebral artery dominance or tortuosity, and basilar artery tortuosity, and patients with infarction of the thalamus, medial temporal, or occipital lobes were more likely to have stenosis or occlusion of the vertebral or basilar arteries. Vertebrobasilar artery tortuosity, vertebral artery dominance (hypoplasia), and congenital variations of the vertebrobasilar system may lead to posterior circulation infarction at different locations in different age groups.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the role of endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in patients with asthma.

METHODS
Levels of serum H2S, lung function and cell differential count in induced sputum were studied in 44 patients with acute exacerbation of asthma, 33 patients with stable asthma and 12 health subjects. Of the 33 patients with stable asthma, 3 failed to achieve induced sputum.

RESULTS
The serum H2S level was (75.2+/-13.0) micromol/L in controls (12 cases), (55.8+/-13.6) micromol/L in patients with stable asthma (33 cases), (57.8+/-6.3) micromol/L in patients with mild of acute exacerbation asthma (9 cases), (40.8+/-5.1) micromol/L in that with moderate of acute exacerbation asthma (13 cases), and (31.3+/-2.9) micromol/L in that with severe of acute exacerbation asthma (22 cases, F = 44.592, P < 0.01). The level of serum H2S was significantly lower in smokers (45.4+/-19.5) micromol/L as compared with nonsmokers (52.7+/- 16.0) micromol/L (F = 4.804, P < 0.05). Status of the subjects (in good health, stable asthma, and exacerbation of asthma) was positively correlated with H2S in serum (r = 0.712, P < 0.01). H2S in serum was positively correlated with FEV1.0 % (r = 0.877, P < 0.01) and the percentage of sputum macrophages (r = 0.791, P < 0.01); and it was negatively correlated with count of sputum cells (r = -0.348, P < 0.01) and the percentage of sputumneutrophils (r = -0.906, P < 0. 01).

CONCLUSION
Endogenous H2S may be involved in the pathogenesis of airway obstruction in asthma and may be a noninvasive marker of disease activity and severity.


This paper presents a 40-G samples/sec track & hold amplifier (THA). The chip is manufactured in 0.18/spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS and operates from a 3.6-V supply. The total power consumption is 540mW with a chip area of 1.1mm/sup 2/. Time domain measurements illustrate 40-GHz sampling with 5, 8 and 10 GHz sinusoidal input signals. S-parameter measurements show a 3-dB bandwidth of 43 GHz in track mode. The P1dB and IIP3 are -10.5 dB and 2.5 dB, respectively, at 12 GHz. The measured THD for a 19 GHz input signal is -27 dB at the input compression point and the SFDR is -30 dB for a 19 GHz input signal. When accounting for the 10 dB noise figure, the resolution of the THA is estimated to exceed 4 bits for signals with 40 Gb/s data rates.


Wormhole switching with fixed priority preemption has been proposed as a possible solution for real-time on-chip communication. However, the hardware implementation cost is expensive and hence constrains its practical deployment. To address this problem, we propose a new solution by utilizing apriority share policy to reduce the resource overhead while still achieving the hard real-time service guarantees. The composite model-based schedulability analysis technique and relevant priority allocation scheme are represented in this paper. Experiment results show that significant resource saving can be achieved with no performance degradation in terms of missed deadlines. By using this approach, a broad class of real-time communication with different QoS requirements can be explored and developed in a SoC/NoC communication platform.


Topical application of dialysis solution to the rat microcirculation causes a transient vasoconstriction for 2 to 3 min. We assessed the clinical importance of this vasoconstriction by developing a dialysis solution without vasoactive properties, as assessed in the microcirculatory laboratory. The solution was of similar composition to human extracellular fluid. We tested its effects on Cur, Ccr, Cin, and dialysate protein concentration. We found that compared to commercial solutions, the lower osmolality of the NVS resulted in loss of ultrafiltration and decreases in clearance of urea and creatinine. The clearance of inulin was unchanged, and dialysate protein increased, suggesting a major increase in diffusive transport of large solutes. Increased diffusive transport of large solutes with NVS suggests that initial vasoconstriction seen in the rat could be present and clinically important during peritoneal dialysis in humans.


In community, people may use different language variation accordance with their age, gender, education, profession, ethnic origin, etc. (Holmes, 2013). Many homosexual and bisexual men in Indonesia speak a language variation that they call Bahasa Bencong/Banci or Bahasa Gay (Gay language), a linguistic phenomenon based on the national language, Bahasa Indonesia (Boellstorff, 2004). This study aimed at investigating the linguistic features, derivation and function of language used by homosexual and bisexual men in Bali, Indonesia. Eight respondents involved in this study were selected through the snowball sampling technique. The data were collected by taperecording respondents' conversation in natural settings and interviewing them. The findings revealed interesting facts of the features of gay language, particularly the lexicon. It was created in a very creative way with the semantic alteration to the original words. The new words they used were formulated by adding affixes to the morphemes or existing words. Other types of word formation found in the study including syllabic substitution, blending, vowel shift, backformation, borrowing, reduplication, clipping and acronym. Another interesting point from the lexical feature was the connotation through female name of a person or famous public figures which signify different meaning. In addition to the lexicon, the use of homophobic words were found relatively often during this study, in which they often call each other with homo or banci (transvestite). Feminine pronouns were also another prominent feature of gay language found in this study. They addressed each other by employing feminine pronouns and feminine names. Further, they also used "feminine technique" in the way they pronounce words. Most of them used the high-pitched tone and rising utterance-final intonation resembling women's intonation. In this study, it was also found that the gay language served many functions for its community and among those functions were as a secret language, an identity of the community and language that provided sense of similarity and belonging to the member of the community. The gay language also functioned to show humor and aided them to speak in a friendlier and fun way. Keywords—gay language; homosexual and bisexual men; linguistic features; word-formation; gay language function


Fiber reinforced thermoplastics (FRTP) attracts attention as a lightweight material for mass-produced automobiles due to advantages such as excellent formability and recyclability in addition to high specific strength and specific rigidity. Many factors influence the improvement of the mechanical properties of FRTP. We have revealed that the tensile strength of injectionmolded glass fiber/polyamide66 (GF/PA) improves as the reinforcement fiber diameter decreases in the wide strain rate range in previous researches. In addition, it was suggested that by using a strength prediction model of discontinuous fiber reinforcement, if the strength can be obtained for one diameter, the strength can be predicted for other diameters. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of the strength enhancement of the GF/PA associated with thinning of the reinforcement fibers and increase of the strain rate. To ascertain the interface properties, single-fiber pull-out tests were conducted on the GF/PA and it was confirmed that the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) of the GF/PA had strain rate dependency. The strength prediction of the GF/PA with the strain rate dependency of IFSS taken into account showed values closer to the experimental values than the values obtained from the prediction with an assumption that IFSS is constant regardless of the strain rate. Furthermore, investigating the factor of the increase in strength due to the thinning of the fibers suggested that the increase of the fiber strength is the dominant factor.


Summary

In 1967 a programme was initiated by the Freshwater Biological Association to study fish populations within the proposed Cow Green reservoir basin and in the Tees downstream of the dam, before and after impoundment. This paper describes the result of a supporting study on aquatic invertebrates covering the pre-impoundment period 1967–70.

The benthic faunas of six streams in the reservoir basin, the Tees below Cauldron Snout and Maize Beck, a tributary ofthe Tees below the dam, were studied. Species list are presented for each habitat and changes in seasonal and annual abundance are discussed.

All areas sampled lie at altitudes between 440 and 550 m O.D. and are situated amongst moorland and limestone grassland. Conditions in the streams ranged from slow-flowing peaty reaches to small streams with moss-covered bottoms and larger stony rivers and streams with relatively unstable bottoms.

Samples were taken in riffles and pools using the 'kick' method wherever possible. An attempt was made to quantify kick-sample catches by comparing them with shovel-sample catches which cover a known area of stream bottom. It was found that 10 5 kicks gave a catch equivalent to the populations of 1 m2, giving a population density of about 1200 animals/m for the reservoir-basin riffles.

Over 120 taxa were recorded, 100 of which were at the species level. In the reservoir-basin streams, 116 taxa were found with seventy-one in Maize Beck and fifty-six in the Tees below Cauldron Snout. Ephemeroptera were the most abundant group in the reservoir basin and Maize Beck faunas with Rhithrogena semicohrata, Heptagenia lateralis and Baetidae being the most abundant forms, although Ecdyonurus spp. especially E. dispar were much more common in Maize Beck. In other groups Leuctra spp. and Gammarus pulex were very common. In the Tees below Cauldron Snout Limnaea peregra, Chironomidae and Baetidae formed the bulk of the fauna and Plecoptera were uncommon. Amongst the reservoir basin streams Weelhead Sike supported the largest number of species and species groups (eighty-one), and all the streams had forty-nine or more taxa represented.

Information on seasonal changes in the numbers of those species or species groups composing 90% or more of the total fauna is presented. Faunal density was high in May with Ephemeroptera, particularly Ecdyonuridae, and the plecopteran Leuctra inermis being the most abundant forms. In August, the numbers of animals appeared t o fall and common members of the community were Baetidae, Diptera, Leuctra fusca and Ecdyonuridae. In October, Ecdyonuridae particularly R. semicolorata, were most abundant.

A comparison ofthe bottom fauna of riffles and pools was made and more animals were found in riffles than in pools.

The effect of gravel extraction on the bottom fauna of the Tees was examined. A severe drop in the numbers of animals was observed after extraction. Diptera were the first group to return to their pre-disturbance density. Elminthidae and Annelida were worst affected and slowest to recover.

The fauna of the area is discussed and possible reasons for its relative species richness are put forward. Habitat diversity and chemical richness appear to be the most likely reasons for the relatively large number of species found.


Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence of Zosterops japonicus was determined by shotgun sequencing. The total length of mitogenome is 17 809 bp, and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 ribosome RNA genes and 2 control regions (CR). All the protein-coding genes in Z. japonicus were distributed on the H-strand, except for the ND6 subunit gene and eight tRNA genes which were encoded on the L-strand. The phylogenetic tree of Z. japonicus and 13 other species belonging to order Passeriformes was built. The DNA data presented here will be useful to study the evolutionary relationships and genetic diversity of Z. japonicus.


In this paper, being based on Fourier expansion and energy method, the analytical expression of cogging torque of permanent magnet(PM) motor is derived, which can be used to analyze the effects of design parameters on cogging torque. Then a new method for reducing cogging torque by adopting isodiametric magnetic pole is proposed. Finite element analysis is used to calculate the cogging torque and flux per pole for different shapes of magnetic pole. It is proved that the cogging torque could be greatly reduced by adopting isodiametric magnetic pole, while the flux per pole changes little, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Baseball's premier national televisionanalyst Tim McCarver presents fascinatingtales from the game's greatest players andpersonalities Tim McCarver's Diamond Gems is a treasure trove offabulous anecdotes from the many baseball celebritieswho have appeared on "The Tim McCarver Show."A valuable mix of baseball history with a personaltouch, this book is a natural for everyone who lovesthe game. Includes tales from baseball greats Sandy Koufax, StanMusial, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Tom Seaver, Cal Ripken Jr., JohnnyBench, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, David Wright, and many more. "Baseball is THE storyteller's game. So, if you love the game, you'll love Tim McCarver's treasure trove of stories. And you'll also understand why Tim never has to fear a rain delay." -Bob Costas, NBC & HBO Sports "Tim McCarver's Diamond Gems is the modern version of The Glory Of Their Times. It's fun and engaging and instructive and even sweet now and then. Tim could always call the pitches, and he also seems to get everyone to deliver their best stuff here." --Frank Deford, author, The Entitled


0305-7364/0 * For corre airsci.com Following a single acute exposure to chlorine gas, persistent e€ects on epicuticular waxes, cuticular transpiration, tree growth and mortality were studied in foliage of Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii for three growing seasons. Chlorine gas exposure caused foliar injury to both exposed foliage and foliage that ̄ushed after exposure (P 5 0.05). The tendency to form ®lms of water rather than droplets was greater in directly exposed foliage (P 5 0.001). Rates of cuticular transpiration were higher for directly and indirectly exposed foliage of Pinus ponderosa up to 1 year after exposure and up to 6 months after exposure for directly exposed Pseudotsuga menziesii (P 5 0.001), after which P. menziesii needles defoliated. Total water content (TWC) and relative water content were signi®cantly correlated with foliar injury (P 5 0.05). TWC was lower for directly exposed foliage up to 1 year after exposure (P 5 0.001). There was no persistent negative e€ect on Fv/Fm ratios after 1 year. Exposure to chlorine gas did not a€ect needle length or annual shoot increment growth, but exposure was correlated with increased bud production. Needle longevity of foliage that ̄ushed 2 months after exposure was reduced signi®cantly (P5 0.001). Annual stem increment growth for both species decreased over at least three growing seasons following chlorine gas exposure (P 5 0.001), and depended on distance from the spill site. Cone production was lower for exposed Pinus ponderosa trees compared to controls (P 5 0.05), and tree mortality was higher within approx. 50 m of the release site for Pseudotsuga menziesii. Growth responses for both conifers agreed well with predicted patterns of carbon allocation after defoliation caused by chlorine gas exposure. # 2001 Annals of Botany Company


Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a gene expression can be induced primarily in cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage by a variety of inducers, including lipopolysaccharides (LPS), phorbol esters, ultraviolet (UV) light, and viruses. In this paper, we analyzed the regulatory mechanisms of TNF-alpha production induced by infection with the Sendai" virus in RAW 264.7 macrophages. We show that in these cells TNF-a synthesis results mainly from TNF-alpha mRNA translational activation. Using CAT reporter genes, we identified the UA- rich (UAR) sequences localized in the TNF-alpha mRNA 3' untranslated region (UTR) as the main sequence involved in this regulation. This sequence has been previously shown to be the essential regulatory element involved in LPS- induced translational activation of TNF mRNA. Activation of TNF gene expression by viral infection presents other similarities with those induced by LPS. First, TNF production in response to viral infection is inhibited by the protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitor herbimycin A as it is in response to LPS. More specifically, we show here that TNF mRNA translational activation induced by viral infection or by LPS is inhibited by pretreating the cells with herbimycin A. Second, TNF production in response to viruses is tissue-specific and is abrogated in RAW 264.7x NIH3T3 hybrid cells, which lack the ability to produce TNF in response to LPS, as a consequence of a defect in the LPS signaling pathway. However, viral infection induces TNF production in LPS- unresponsive C3H/HeJ mouse-derived peritoneal macro phages indicating that viruses and LPS signaling pathways differ for at least one intermediate which is the product of the Lps gene. Finally, we show that this regulatory mechanism can be triggered by different classes of viruses.


Recently, it has been argued that application of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) to spin-2 fields implies a universal upper bound on the cutoff of the effective theory for a single spin-2 field. We point out here that these arguments are largely spurious, because of the absence of states carrying spin-2 Stuckelberg $U(1)$ charge, and because of incorrect scaling assumptions. Known examples such as Kaluza-Klein theory that respect the usual WGC do so because of the existence of a genuine $U(1)$ field under which states are charged, as in the case of the Stuckelberg formulation of spin-1 theories, for which there is an unambiguously defined $U(1)$ charge. Theories of bigravity naturally satisfy a naive formulation of the WGC, $M_W< M_{\rm Pl}$, since the force of the massless graviton is always weaker than the massive spin-2 modes. It also follows that theories of massive gravity trivially satisfies this form of the WGC. We also point out that the identification of a massive spin-2 state in a truncated higher derivative theory, such as Einstein-Weyl-squared or its supergravity extension, bears no relationship with massive spin-2 states in the UV completion, contrary to previous statements in the literature. We also discuss the conjecture from a swampland perspective and show how the emergence of a universal upper bound on the cutoff relies on strong assumptions on the scale of the couplings between the spin-2 and other fields, an assumption which is known to be violated in explicit examples.


Legislative acts and judicial rulings in the US in the last 2 decades have gradually broadened the rights of teenagers to obtain family planning services, abortion services, and sexual information. Despite this progress, adolescent pregnancy continues to be a major problem, and sex education for teenagers is highly inadequate. During the 1960s some progress was made concerning the rights of minors in sexual matters, but it was not until the 1970s that the courts fully recognized that mature minors had the right to obtain reproduction health services and family planning information without parental consent and that immature minors also had a right to these services, with the consent of an alternate adult, in the absence of parental consent. During the 1970s the federal government expanded its role in providing assistance for pregnant adolescents and in financing sex related programs for teenagers. In 1978 the Adolescent Health Services and Pregnancy Prevention and Care Act provided for the establishment of the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs in the Public Health Service. The new office was assigned the task of coordinating the 85 federal programs aimed at helping pregnant teenagers and adolescent parents. By the late 1970s family planning services were available for most teenagers, and this improved accessibility led to a decrease in the adolescent pregnancy rate, most notably among black teenagers, and a reduction in the number of illegitimate births, especially among white adolescents. Although the courts recognized the rights of teenagers to receive sex education, progress in providing sex education programs in the public school has been minimal. Most states permit local jurisdictions to decide whether or not to provide sex education courses in their public schools. At the present time, only 31 states have policy statements concerning sex education, and only 4 states require sex education course. A recent sample survey of public high schools found that only 36% of the schools provided a course, or a course unit, in sex education, and in most of these schools, students were not required to take the course. Efforts must be made to rectify this situation in light of the extensiveness of adolescent sexual problems in the US. The proportion of young teenagers who engage in sexual activity is increasing, and the use of contraception among young teenagers is totally inadequate. In 1976 there were 780,000 premarital pregnancies among teenagers, and most teenage mothers leave school. Little is known about male adolescent sexual behavior, yet many teenagers rely on male contraceptive methods. Recent retrenchment in the financing for federal programs, and the efforts of the conservative right wing to curtail adolescent access to family planning services, threatens the progress made during the 1970s.


Iraq contains many diseases that have never been counted or examined, including diseases related to food, which has deteriorated in recent years, and has rapid and direct impact especially on the children category, one of these diseases is galactosemia. Classical galactosemia, deficiency of galac tose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase GALT, is characterized by acute symptoms of hepatomegaly, jaundice, sepsis, cataract, vomiting, and diarrhea and growth retardation. Our previous molecular study showed that the most common mutation of the GALT gene is a missense mutation of Q188R (replacement of glutamine-188 by arginine in exon 6 and N314D mutation replacement of aspargen-314 by aspartic acid) in exon 10. The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of diagnosing galacatosemia, and to search for galactosemia mutation Q188R and N314D in Iraqi population. Blood samples were collected from babies admitted to the children's hospitals in Mosul City depending on the clinical symptoms of disease and then serum was taken. Measuring the Galactose-1-Phosphate uridylytransferase GALT enzyme activity and galactose -1- phosphate in serum by ELISA technique was done. DNA samples were analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction followed by digestion with restriction endonuclease HpaΙΙ and AvaΙΙ for Q188R and N314D mutation. The results showed a significant decrease in the level of the GALT enzyme in children with galactosemia 21.7 ± 0.45 and among non-diagnosed children 79.93 ± 1.44 compared with control group 160.33 ± 0.93 as well as a significant decrease in the level of the enzyme among mothers 20.5 ± 1.92 was observed. Gal-1-P level was significantly higher in the cases than that of the control group, while that of the not diagnosed children and mothers groups showed inconsistent difference. Also the result showed absence allele frequency for Q188R mutation and present allele frequency for N314D mutation in Iraqi population. In conclusions It is possible to depend on measurement of Galactose-1-Phosphate as indicator in the diagnosis of Galactosemia in newborn, the main mutation in GALT gene causes galactosemia is N314D in Iraqi population.


We describe ferumoxides-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging findings in a 60-year-old man with confluent hepatic fibrosis in advanced cirrhosis. The extension and internal structure of confluent fibrosis were well demonstrated with ferumoxides-enhanced proton-density spin-echo magnetic resonance images, showing a wedge-shaped area of high signal intensity corresponding to the extension of fibrosis and internal focal areas of low signal intensity, presumably corresponding to residual functioning liver parenchyma. This case suggests a potential utility of ferumoxides-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for characterizing this tumor-mimicking disorder.


Emulsions are a vital part of many products in everyday use, such as foods, cosmetics, and even construction materials. Membrane emulsification is a technique which has been used to produce emulsions in a manner contrary to the traditional methods where droplets are broken and re-broken to make smaller and smaller droplets, and instead each droplet is individually formed at a pore on the surface of the membrane.

This research compared two of the most favoured membrane emulsification techniques; cross-flow and rotating membrane emulsification.

Two systems were built for producing emulsions using tubular microporous membranes, made from shirasu porous glass, polymer, ceramic and stainless steel. One device employed a cross-flow system providing shear to detach the nascent droplets from the membrane pores whilst the other system employed a rotated membrane to produce both shear and potentially centripetal force at the membrane surface. Both systems were used to create emulsions, and the effects of various settings of the systems were investigated.

A direct comparison between cross flow membrane emulsification and rotating membrane emulsification were achieved for the first time, as the same membranes were available for both systems. The modular interchangeable nature of the membranes in the systems also allowed direct comparison between the various different membrane types tested.

The distinct differences in the structure and materials of the membranes tested was compared, and its effects elucidated, as the different membrane types each showed different advantages and disadvantages when producing droplets.

It was shown that the membrane pore size is a major factor on the size of the droplets produced, and the membrane pore size distribution span affects the size distribution span of the droplets. Increasing the emulsifier concentration decreases droplet size, as does increasing the shear force applied to the forming droplets, either by increasing the cross-flow velocity or the rotation rate. Increasing the pressure applied to force the dispersed phase through the membrane increases flux rate, but also increases droplet size slightly. The relative viscosity of the two phases being emulsified has an effect on the droplet size; increasing the continuous phase viscosity decreases droplet size, and increasing dispersed phase viscosity increases droplet size. The systems performed equally well making water in oil, as oil in water emulsions.

Although the rotating membrane system produces lower shear rates than the cross-flow system, similar droplet diameters were produced, implying that detachment is enhanced by the rotation, showing a clear advantage to rotating membrane emulsification.

The systems were also used to produce various more complex particles, including double emulsions and gelled beads, and the level of control over the phases afforded by membrane emulsification was shown to be an advantage in the production of such microstructures.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the relationship between the pattern of bone marrow (BM) B-cell expansion and the clinical features of mixed cryoglobulinaemia (MC) syndrome.

METHODS
Fifty-five patients with type II MC syndrome were analysed. Their median age was 64 yrs (range 24-82), the median disease duration was 6 yrs (range 1-26) and the mean follow-up after BM analysis was 2.65 yrs (s.d. = 1.33). Peripheral neuropathy was present in 33 patients (60%), nephritis in 14 (25.4%), skin ulcers in 14 (25.4%) and lymphoma or atypical lymphoproliferative disorder (LPD) in 17/55 (30.9%). Anti-HCV antibodies were found in 43/55 patients (78.2%). BM B-cell expansion was evaluated by a semi-nested PCR amplification of the V-D-J region of the IgH genes.

RESULTS
A clonal B-cell expansion in the BM was found in 33/55 (60%) patients, while a polyclonal pattern in 22/55 (40%). A BM pattern of clonal B-cell expansion increased the risk of nephritis of about 10 times [odds ratio (OR) = 10.11, CI95%1.52-67.31], if compared to a polyclonal pattern. In contrast, the risk of skin ulcers was decreased in BM clonal cases (OR = 0.09, CI95%0.02-0.49). Overt lymphomas did not emerge from patients with BM monoclonal expansion (without clinical or histopathological features of lymphoproliferation; or with LPD) in a short-term, consistent with the finding that monoclonality was associated with nephritis and not with an underlying, not recognized lymphoma.

CONCLUSION
BM clonal B-cell expansion is associated with nephritis in MC syndrome. Particular B-cell clones may be preferentially expanded and may play a pathogenic role in MC nephritis.


This paper describes a first version of an integrated e-dictionary translating possessive constructions from English to Zulu. Zulu possessive constructions are difficult to learn for non-mother tongue speakers. When translating from English into Zulu, a speaker needs to be acquainted with the nominal classification of nouns indicating possession and possessor. Furthermore, (s)he needs to be informed about the morpho-syntactic rules associated with certain combinations of noun classes. Lastly, knowledge of morpho-phonetic changes is also required, because these influence the orthography of the output word forms. Our approach is a novel one in that we combine e-lexicography and natural language processing by developing a (web) interface supporting learners, as well as other users of the dictionary to produce Zulu possessive constructions. The final dictionary that we intend to develop will contain several thousand nouns which users can combine as they wish. It will also translate single words and frequently used multiword expressions, and allow users to test their own translations. On request, information about the morpho-syntactic and morpho-phonetic rules applied by the system are displayed together with the translation. Our approach follows the function theory: the dictionary supports users in text production, at the same time fulfilling a cognitive function.


The alloys with chemical compositions of Nd/sub 16/Fe/sub 76-x/B/sub 8/Zr/sub x/ (x=0, 0.1) have been HDDR processed, and the magnetic properties and anisotropy of the HDDR material have been characterised by means of VSM measurements using a magnetically aligned sample. Anisotropy of the HDDR powder material has been evaluated by comparing the remanence values of the aligned sample measured along the aligning direction and the direction perpendicular to it. It has been found that the intrinsic coercivity of the HDDR powder strongly depends on the particle size of the powder. As the particle size decreases, the intrinsic coercivity decreases radically, and this is explained in terms of structural damage induced in the particle during mechanical milling. It has also been found that the degree of alignment representing the anisotropy of the HDDR powder is enhanced with decreasing particle size. Some degree of alignment has also been observed in the HDDR material obtained from the Zr-free Nd-Fe-B-type alloy, and this may possibly be attributed to either incomplete disproportionation, excess grain growth of the recombined grains or the presence of very fine particles as: a result of milling.


In order to efficiently deal with subscriptions or other location dependent information, it is key that the wireless sensor network informs the gateways what geographical area is serviced by which gateway. The gateways are then able to e.g. efficiently route subscriptions which are only valid in particular regions of the deployment.

In our distributed approach of establishing a description of WSN coverage area per gateway, we let nodes keep track of the convex hull of the coverage area. In this way, gateways are efficiently informed of the service areas, while we limit the amount of information each node needs to store, transmit and receive.


Energy meter is an electronic device used to calculate the electrical energy consumed by electrically powered device. In earlier days the energy meter used in India were electromechanical in nature but gradually they are replaced by digital and electronic meters. Even though it is useful, the present system of postpaid billing is a tedious process and also there is a scope for incorrect reading. This project aims at the design of a smart card based single phase prepaid energy meter prototype.


Focal acantholytic dyskeratosis (FAD) is considered an incidental histological finding of unknown etiology. It has been described in association with only few pathological conditions. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first case of focal acantholytic dyskeratosis occurring in condyloma acuminata.


Code smells refer to commonly occurring patterns in source code that indicate poor programming practices or code decay. Detecting code smells helps developers find design problems that can cause trouble in future maintenance. Detection rules for code smells, based on software metrics, have been proposed, but they do not take domain-specific characteristics into consideration. In this study we investigate whether such generic heuristics can be tailored to include domain-specific factors. Input into these domain-specific heuristics comes from an iterative empirical field study in a software maintenance project. The results yield valuable insight into code smell detection.


The main objective of this work is to study the effect of rainfall intensity on pavements layers thickness of two types of pavement structure, that is, flexible and rigid pavement. This is done by using Maple 13 software for modeling of this problem and calculation of the rainfall intensity and pavement infiltration. It was found that pavement infiltration increases with increasing rainfall intensity because increase in rainfall intensity caused an increase in the infiltrated water to the base and sub-base layers. Accordingly an increase in pore water pressure resulted which in turn causes an increase in porosity and decrease of base and sub-base degree of compaction. This leads to increase in time-to-drain, decrease in drainage coefficient for base and sub-base, and subsequently increase in their thickness. For flexible pavement, rainfall intensity 256 mm/h gives pavement infiltration, thickness and drainage coefficient of 3.2 m/day, 46 cm, 0.57 respectively, while rainfall intensity 25 mm/h gives pavement infiltration, thickness and drainage coefficient of 0.4 m/day, 18.5 cm and 1.7, respectively. In rigid pavement, rainfall intensity 256 mm/h gives thickness and drainage coefficient of 24.8 cm and 0.9 respectively, while rainfall intensity 25 mm/h gives thickness and drainage coefficient of 21.3 cm and 1.2, respectively. Drainage of accumulated water on pavement is rapidly drained in as short time as possible due to minimize potential moisture damage to a pavement structure. It was found that water in the pavement system can lead to modulus reduction and loss of strength for pavement. Saturation can reduce the dry modulus of both the asphalt layer (30% or more) and the base and sub-base modulus (50% or more). Similarly, modulus reduction of up to 30% can be expected for asphalttreated bases, and over 50% for saturated fine-grained sub grade soils. It was found that soil types effects of moisture in pavement have been based on conditions of total saturation with loss of pavement strength which affect the state of stress through suction (effective porosity) or pore water pressure, and affect the structure of the soil through destruction of the cementation between soil particles, because of soil types difference in coefficient of permeability. Soil types used in this study include well-graded sand, uniform dense sand and fine-grain soil.


Arginine-immobilized silica nanotubes as affinity matrices were fabricated for bilirubin removal. The silica nanotubes were prepared by depositing silica within the alumina membrane through sol-gel method. Ligand arginine was immobilized on the inner and outer surfaces of silica nanotubes by activating with glutaraldehyde. The content of arginine of affinity matrices was ~20.1 mg/g nanotubes. Such arginine-immobilized affinity matrices were used to adsorb bilirubin from the bilirubin-phosphate solution and bilirubin-albumin solution. The effects of temperature, ionic strength, albumin concentration, and the adsorption mechanism were investigated by batch experiments. The results showed arginine-immobilized silica nanotubes achieved excellent adsorption capacity for bilirubin (~63.6 mg/g nanotubes).


Electronic Health Record (EHR) or medical history has been widely adopted to enable healthcare providers such as hospitals, insurance companies, and patients, to create, organize, and access EHR information from anywhere and at any time. From a health standpoint, to improve the quality of patient care, an EHR storage center is needed to ensure the EHR's novelty at all times. This underlies the need for an efficient, safe, and inexpensive mechanism for sharing EHR among health care providers. Cloud Computing has become a promising paradigm and gains more attention from academia and industry. This paradigm shifts the location of the computer infrastructure to third parties. Cloud computing not only increases the efficiency of storage and exchange of medical data but also allows accessing medical data from anywhere and anytime. In this paper, a mechanism of cloud-based sharing system equipped with the 3DES algorithm to secure health history data and the use of the smart card as a medium for controlling patient information access is proposed. The results of the tests indicate that the built system has fulfilled the security requirements such as privacy, authentication, confidentiality and integrity.


Background Recent genetic studies indicated that variants of autophagy genes were associated with the predisposition of Crohn's disease (CD). The autophagy deficiency may affect the innate and adaptive immunity, which is related to persistent and excessive inflammation of the bowel. However, it remains unclear how autophagy modulates the expression of immune response regulator NF-κB and proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α in CD. Aim We aimed to investigate the role of rapamycin on the expression of NF-κB p65 and TNF-α in 2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced mouse colitis and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced HT-29 cells. Methods TNBS-induced colitis mice were treated with saline or rapamycin, and the disease activity index (DAI) and histological scores of colonic mucosa were evaluated. The expressions of p65, ATG16L1 and LC3 were detected by western blot and immunohistochemistry staining. The monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining and transmission electron microscopy were developed to study the autophagy in LPS-induced HT-29 cells. Expression of TNF-α from colon tissue and HT-29 cells were detected by ELISA. The expressions of p65, ATG16L1 and LC3 in active CD patients were also investigated. Results Significantly more autophagosomes were observed in rapamycin-treated cells than in controls. Rapamycin remarkably upregulated the expression of ATG16L1 and LC3II, inhibited p65 nucleus translocation and secretion of TNF-α both in vivo and in vitro. The expression of both ATG16L1 and LC3II increased in mild to moderate CD specimens, while no significant difference was noted between severe CD and normal controls. The expression of p65 increased notably in severe CD compared to those in mild to moderate patients. Conclusions In LPS-treated HT-29 cells and TNBS-induced colitis, p65 is overexpressed, which results in exaggerated secretion of TNF-α and induce or worsen the inflammation in the bowel. Rapamycin protects against colitis through induction of autophagy, thus inhibiting the activation of NF-κB pathway and secretion of TNF-α.


In this research, a wireless remote-controlled (RC) spraying machine is developed based on the S3C6410 embedded controller. This spraying machine is composed of a rotary pesticide selection unit, a real-time mixing unit, a multi-angle spraying unit, an image acquisition module, an embedded control module, a wireless communication module, and an intelligent mobile platform. It is especially designed for hilly areas, greenhouses, orchards, and other environments that are not accessible to large and mediumsized spraying machines. The wireless RC machine achieves precise proportional and multi-angle flexible spraying while avoids liquid waste and direct operator–liquid contact.


Summary Mountain gorillas subsist principally on foliage from the dense herbaceous understorey that is found throughout most of their habitat in the Virunga Volcanoes region. Their foraging activities cause considerable structural damage to this vegetation. Those plant species that are quantitatively most important in the gorillas' diet respond to this damage by increasing primary productivity. At a sample of spots at which gorillas had fed, these species showed significantly higher growth rates over a 6-month interval than they did at nearby spots that had not been touched by the gorillas. Stem densities of herbaceous food species at feeding spots increased markedly both in comparison to their original values and to values for the same species at untouched spots. As a result, spots at which gorillas have fed are likely to become very attractive as future feeding spots. It is unlikely that gorillas 'manage' their habitat in any specific fashion, largely because they do not have exclusive use of their home ranges. Their activities appear to maintain habitat productivity over the short term, on a time scale relevant to patterns of area revisits by social groups, and may contribute to long term beneficial alterations of regularly used areas, however. Effects of the type reported here may have been an important aspect of the adaptation by gorillas to terrestrial folivory .


Etmopterus spinax and Etmopterus pusillus are captured in large quantities in some deep-water ¢sheries along the Portuguese coast and are always discarded. Specimens were collected from February 2003 to May 2004 from deep-water ¢sheries and classi¢ed as mature or immature. Maturity ogives were ¢tted and size at ¢rst maturity estimated for each sex of each species. Both species are late maturing, with the maturity sizes varying between 75% and 87% of the maximum observed sizes, depending on species and sex. For both species, females tended to mature at and grow to larger sizes than males. The late maturation of these deep-water shark species makes these populations extremely vulnerable to increasing ¢shing mortality.


The aim of this paper was to examine the life experiences of foster parents who are nurturing foster children. Qualitative method was employed in the study and snowball sampling was used in the selection of the participants. Two focus group discussions were held; each with 10 foster parents and data was thematically analyzed. The findings revealed the provision of foster care to have both positive and negative effects. It can be concluded that it is important for social workers to understand care giving as it occurs in a variety of contexts. They also need to be aware and understanding of the value and role that foster parents play in the lives of vulnerable children. The paper recommends that foster parents should form support groups to discuss their experiences in foster care and ways to solve problems. Social workers should assess foster parents before and after placement and should provide services. Keywords: Foster parents; Cultures; African values; Foster care placement; Social worker; Biological children


This paper examines identification in second‐price and ascending auctions within the private‐values framework. The first part of the paper considers an arbitrary type of dependence of bidders' values and analyses identification under several observational scenarios, in which the highest bid is never observed. In a basic scenario, only the winner's identity and the winning price are observed. The most informative is the scenario in which all the identities and all the bids except for the highest bid are known. Using results from Athey and Haile (2002), the joint distribution of bidders' values in these scenarios is not identified. The paper uses the information available in auctions' outcomes to construct bounds on the joint distribution of values for any subset of bidders. The second part of the paper takes a different tack by showing how bounds can be improved under different types of positive dependence of bidders' values.


There are many multinational companies engaging with the franchising mechanisms in order to expand the business opportunity, to explore new opportunities, and to develop businesses domestically and internationally. Even though this is a good opportunity for multinational companies to expand their market to achieve the company target, but there is a problem attached with this mechanism. The main problem of franchising business is mainly conflict of interest between the parties involved. Hence, this paper attempts to critically evaluate the potential of conflict of interest that arises among the parties. Apart from that, this paper also outlined certain way on how to avoid this problem from occurs continuously.


This research article deals with the multi-dimensional commentaries of the Bhagavad Gītā given by some of the major commentators in the nineteenth century India. The study has its relevance to understand the text through multi-dimensional lens. The article addresses on the research problem concerning to the variant criticisms of the same text the Gītā. The research approach (methodology) adopted for this study is the review-based analysis of the text's commentaries of some of the well-known nineteenth century Indian commentators. The study has included the commentaries of Vivekananda, Gandhi, Desai, Aurobindo and Vinoba. The study reveals that the above commentators of the Gītā give the multilayered criticisms of the text, which are found to be queer and controversial.


This article examines the need for a formal role model to help integrate new staff within a unit. While acknowledging the range of titles and functions ascribed to such a role in the literature, the author suggests that the essence of the role and its formal recognition has benefits for experienced staff and orientees alike.


own experience as an American graduate student staying in a monastery of the exiled Tibetan community in South India. While this is in some respects an intellectually fashionable book, the essays it contains are without exception intelligent, thoughtful, well researched and full of interesting insights and observations. Written, for the most part, by scholars working in the field of Buddhist studies, they offer nuanced and informed reflections on the significance of Said's and others' notion of orientalism for Buddhist studies. Above all, they point towards the complexities and subtleties in the interactions and relationships that constitute the cultural history of Buddhist studies. One might not always agree but there is plenty of substantial food for thought here—even for those who otherwise find the intellectual fare of some post-modern critical theory indigestible. The essays deserve to be read by all those concerned with Buddhist studies.


Vegetable oils serve as affordable, non-toxic, and eco-friendly solvents for plant extraction. Chemical fingerprinting shows that vegetable oil-based cannabis has a cannabinoid profile similar to that of organic solvent-based cannabis. All samples possess antioxidative effects as they contain several cannabinoids and other unidentified compounds, with rice bran oil-based sample exhibiting the strongest effect. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) content in sesame oil-based and perilla seed oil-based cannabis differed significantly from that in virgin coconut oil (VCO)-based cannabis. In addition, THC and CBD content in all vegetable oil-based samples prepared using the heating and frying method differed significantly from that in samples prepared using conventional methods. The VCO-based cannabis was chosen to preliminarily test its photoprotective effect and antioxidant enzyme activity. The results showed that it can protect UVA-irradiated HaCaT cells. Pretreatment with VCO-based cannabis can promote Nrf-2/HO-1 signaling, thereby upregulating antioxidant enzymes and increasing the capacity of keratinocytes to detoxify oxidative insults. Herein, we present the first overview of the cannabinoid profile of vegetable oil-based cannabis, which can be used for quality control during the development of vegetable oil-based cannabis products. Furthermore, the skin photoprotective properties of oil-based extracts can provide supporting evidence for the formulation of cannabis-based skincare products.


This text offers an introduction, Latin text, translation and literary commentary on seventeen poems by Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid. It is intended for students who are approaching the genre of Latin love elegy for the first time - both those who have a knowledge of Latin and those who may wish to study the genre in translation. The poems have been selected to represent each author's particular qualities; while the commentary aims to bring out their literary qualities and invites comparison and contrast between them. Revised from a previous edition - "Reading Latin Love Elegy" - which contained no text, this book includes translations of Catullus, Propertious and Ovid by Guy Lee; and versions of Tibullus by Joan Booth, who also provides the introduction and commentary.


Abstract

Author: Ingela Martinsson
Title: "The last alternative"- the process around a decision about compulsory care (translated title)
Supervisor: Claes Levin
Assessor: Anders Ostnas

The purpose of the study was to investigate the process when social worker makes a decision whether or not to treat a youth with compulsory care.
 Through my own empirical study of qualitative interviews with social worker that makes those kind of decisions, and an analyze of country administrative court verdict it emerged that the social worker use custodial care rarely, but first and foremost treatment in non-institutional care. It also came out that the social worker uses their own personal feeling, morals and values rather than evidence based knowledge and regulation when they make a decision whether to treat a youth by compulsion or not. This is, according to Yeheskel Hasenfeld (1992), the foundation of human service organizations. Through my study it also emerged that social worker uses strong and emotional loaded words, repetition of words and problems, rarely anything positive and the exact word from the law formulation in their investigation to convince the country administrative court to accept their request to treat the youth by compulsion. Different organizations and professions, in this case the social worker and the legal system, have different education, different techniques and value circumstances differently. King and Trowell (Ponnert 2007) shows that when different organizations communicate with each other they use argument, strategies and so on from the other profession.


OBJECTIVE
In the U.S., both primary care and specialist physicians share in the care of type 1 diabetic patients, often in an informal collaboration. In Hungary, however, type 1 diabetic patients are generally managed in special centralized diabetes units. These different treatment settings may lead to different health care practices and outcomes. To determine if this is true, diabetes care indicators and complications were compared across representative study populations from the 2 countries.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
The Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study (EDC) is a prospective cohort of childhood-onset type 1 diabetic patients. DiabCare Hungary, a multicenter cross-sectional study, was developed for quality control purposes and provides a nationwide data set of diabetic patients. We identified 2 comparable populations (EDC, n = 416; DiabCare, n = 405) in terms of age (> or =14 years) and age at onset (<17 years).

RESULTS
EDC patients were less likely to receive diabetes education (P<0.0001), see an ophthalmologist (P<0.0001), be treated by diabetologists (P<0.0001), or perform self-monitoring of blood glucose (P<0.0001). They were more likely to use conservative insulin regimens (i.e., 1-2 injections/day, P<0.0001) and have a higher glycated hemoglobin (P< 0.0001). DiabCare patients more often experienced severe hypoglycemia (P<0.01) and had a lower prevalence of proliferative retinopathy (P<0.0001), legal blindness (P<0.05), and albuminuria (> or =30 mg/day P<0.01). No significant differences in macrovascular complications were seen, although rates were generally low

CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that the 2 populations differ by their diabetes care practices, degree of glycemic control, and microvascular complication status.


Although transformational leadership (TFL) has been extensively investigated, the mechanism and process by which perceived TFL exerts its influence on followers' social identification development behaviors is relatively unexplored. Accordingly, this study proposes a latent growth model based on social identity theory to address these influences. To test the proposed model, data were collected by surveying 1,501 employees of R&D departments at Taiwanese IT firms at multiple points in time over a 10-month period. Therein, we found that as employees perceived more TFL at Time 1, they were more likely to show increases in social identification development behaviors over time. Further, increases in social identification development behaviors demonstrate their positive relationship with task performance and organizational citizenship development behaviors over time. My empirical model confirms all of my proposed hypotheses, and these findings highlight that the potential dynamic consequences of organization behaviors can lead to employee career development.


The current study explored the overall psychosocial experiences of Ethiopian women domestic workers in the Middle East. Specifically, Ethiopian women"s psychosocial experiences and the difficulties they face while they were in the Middle East, as well as the change they have brought in their life after their return was explored in depth. The study employed a qualitative research design and a descriptive case study analytical approach. In this study, both primary data sources and secondary data sources were used. For primary data, qualitative in depth interview with returnees and key informants were conducted. The collected data were analyzed using a qualitative data analysis technique. The findings from this study show that, prior to their departure to the Middle East countries; all the informants were living in poverty and were unemployed. They immigrated out to the Middle East countries hoping that their life would change. However, their expectation was shattered because of the harsh experience they had at the destination country. According to the informants, prolonged working hour due to extreme workload, emotional abuse, sexual harassment and denial of their monthly wage were some of the negative psychosocial experiences while working as a house maid in the Middle East. Furthermore, they experienced loneliness and the feeling of inferiority, humiliation, degradation and maltreatment which was worsened by the language barrier they had. As a result, they described their stay in the Middle East very challenging. In general, the overall unfavorable living condition and the hostile working environment in the country of destination made them unable to change their own and their family"s life and ended in being incompetent in achieving their goals and expectations. Their reaction to their failed expectations and the ill treatment they had in the Middle East has created a huge distortion in their overall social and economic life after they are back in the country of origin. They have developed the feeling of hopelessness; they are mostly depressed and lonely. Hence, based on the findings, this study suggests, the government of Ethiopia should play a great role creating a favorable working condition in the country of destination through strong consular relations, migrants should be aware of the socio economic situation of the country and the culture and a minimum educational level needs to be set for migrants in order to enhance their understanding of situations they will be facing and they should be well equipped with the necessary skills and qualifications and organizations that are working with returnee migrants should work together with donor organizations so that they are more capable in providing rehabilitation treatment and psychosocial support. Having this in mind, social workers should play a great role in advocating better living condition for the migrants in the country of destination and they should involve in the rehabilitation and treatment of the returnee migrants as facilitator or counselor role.


The traditional reversible data hiding technique is based on cover image modification which inevitably leaves some traces of rewriting that can be more easily analyzed and attacked by the warder. Inspired by the cover synthesis steganography-based generative adversarial networks, in this paper, a novel generative reversible data hiding (GRDH) scheme by image translation is proposed. First, an image generator is used to obtain a realistic image, which is used as an input to the image-to-image translation model with CycleGAN. After image translation, a stego image with different semantic information will be obtained. The secret message and the original input image can be recovered separately by a well-trained message extractor and the inverse transform of the image translation. The experimental results have verified the effectiveness of the scheme.


This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the impact of probiotic supplementation on treating chronic periodontal (CP) disease based on clinical and microbiological findings. Four databases were searched: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science databases. The references to relevant studies were also manually searched. Analyses were conducted using the Review Manager 5.2 software, while the quality of randomised controlled trials was assessed with the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. In total, 19 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled results revealed that the adjuvant use of probiotics in the treatment of patients with periodontal disease was largely associated with good clinical efficacy. Resulting in statistically significant improvements in plaque index (P<0.05), periodontal probing depth (P<0.05), clinical attachment level (P<0.05), gingival index (P<0.05), bleeding on probing (P<0.05), deep probing depth (P<0.05), and levels of subgingival microbes (P<0.05) following probiotic supplementation. In summary, the results of this meta-analysis suggest that the administration of probiotics together with scaling and root planing can somewhat improve CP patient clinical outcomes and reduce levels of periodontal pathogens. However, more comprehensive experiments are needed to standardise probiotics and maximise their adjuvant therapy.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are quickly gaining popularity due to the fact that they are potentially low-cost solutions, which can be used in a variety of application areas. However, they are also highly susceptible to attacks, due to both the open and distributed nature of the network and the limited resources of the nodes. In this paper, we propose a modular, scalable, secure and trusted networking protocol stack, able to offer self-configuration and secure roaming of data and services over multiple administrative domains and across insecure infrastructures of heterogeneous WSNs. The focus is on trusted route selection, secure service discovery, and intrusion detection, while critical parts of the security functionality may be implemented in low-cost reconfigurable hardware modules, as a defense measurement against side channel attacks. Keywords—security, wireless sensor networks, trust model, service discovery


Directed by model and based on the tool of VB6.0 which visual and Object-Oriented program language,the article develops belt-transmission CAD software which with friendly interface of user,improves design quality and largely decrease the working hours.


Real time, accurate passive seismic event detection is a critical safety measure across a range of monitoring applications from reservoir stability to carbon storage to volcanic tremor detection. The most common detection procedure remains the Short-Term-Average to Long-Term-Average (STA/LTA) trigger developed in the 1970's, in part due to its easy implementation and real-time processing capability. However, it has a number of well-documented limitations such as requiring a signal-to-noise ratio greater than one and being highly sensitive to the trigger parameters. Whilst numerous alternatives have been proposed, they often are tailored to a specific monitoring setting and therefore cannot be widely applied, or they are too computationally expensive and therefore cannot be run real time. This work introduces a deep learning approach to event detection that is an alternative to the STA/LTA trigger. A bi-directional, long-short-term memory, neural network is trained solely on synthetic traces. Evaluated on synthetic and field data, the neural network approach significantly outperforms the STA/LTA trigger both on the number of correctly detected arrivals as well as on reducing the number of falsely detected events. Its real time applicability is proven with 600 traces processed in real time on a single processing unit.


Soil carbon stock, including soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) stock, is the largest pool in terrestrial ecosystem, and only a small change in storage has an impact on level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Therefore, soil carbon sequestration is believed to be one of the cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and mitigate global greenhouse effects. This study calculates soil carbon storages and evaluates soil organic storage change in the course of industrialization and urbanization in Yangtze Delta region, China, based on the data of the Second National Soil Survey (1982-1985) and the Multi- Purpose Regional Geochemical Survey (2002-2005), which may provide baseline dada for research into regional carbon sequestration/source effect and carbon circulation.


Freud and Durkheim owed to Smith's later work, its controversial nature might have been delineated more sharply. In a similar fashion a truer appreciation of the revisionist nature of the work of this Scottish trio might have been aided by a fuller consideration of its intellectual antecedents. Their emphasis on an inductive or scientific study of the Bible, for example, strikingly paralleled the work of the Oxford Noetics in the 1820s and 1830s. If as much concern had been devoted to illuminating the intellectual and ecclesiastical context in which these three Scottish controversialists operated as to an exegesis of their work, Riesen's solid study would have deserved an audience more extensive than students of Free Church theology.


Author(s): Robblee, Megan | Advisor(s): Koliwad, Suneil K | Abstract: Diets rich in saturated fatty acids (SFAs) produce a form of tissue inflammation driven by "metabolically activated" macrophages, which contributes to the development of obesity-associated metabolic diseases. To better understand this form of macrophage activation, we analyzed the transcriptomes of mouse macrophages treated with either SFAs or the classical inflammatory stimulus lipopolysaccharide (LPS). SFA treatment induced a transcriptional signature distinct from that of LPS and strongly enriched by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers. In particular, SFA treatment increased the expression of the ER stress sensor IRE1α and many of its target genes comprising the adaptive unfolded protein response. SFAs also activate the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages, resulting in secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β. We found that IRE1α mediates SFA-induced IL-1β secretion by macrophages and that its activation by SFAs does not rely on unfolded protein sensing. Instead, the ability of SFAs to stimulate either IRE1α activation or IL-1β secretion can be specifically reduced by preventing their flux into the phosphatidylcholine (PC) class of membrane lipids or by increasing unsaturated PC levels. Thus, IRE1α is an unrecognized intracellular PC sensor critical to the process by which SFAs stimulate macrophages to secrete IL-1β, a driver of diet-induced tissue inflammation and metabolic dysfunction.


To gain more insight into the mechanisms of stress relaxation in aqueous guar gum solutions, we investigated the effect of chemical modifications of the polymer and of the solvent on the linear viscoelastic behavior in different regions of the frequency domain. Interchain bonding could be ruled out as the origin for the high-frequency relaxation behavior, while it was corroborated that such a bonding must be (directly or indirectly) involved in the relaxations at low frequencies. In the enzymatic modifications, galactose side groups were removed in different fractions f (0.30−0.57) of the available amount. Moduli were measured as a function of frequency (0.003−20 Hz) and temperature (283−323 K). On increasing f, a transition from a liquid to a gel was found at f = fc. Below fc the changes in the relaxation behavior were very modest, and changing the solvent had little effect. Above fc gels were formed. The low-frequency storage moduli strongly increased whereas the high-frequency moduli remained essentially unchanged. For both modified and unmodified guar solutions, we attribute the viscoelastic response at high frequencies to conformational relaxations of multichain structures and at low frequencies to interchain bonding effects. More detailed mechanistic information is hard to obtain. Yet we propose a microscopic picture that can explain most of our observations. It would merit a further study with other techniques. The possibility to make weak gels of α-d-galactosidase-treated guar was demonstrated, and also this deserves further study.


Based on the discussion of the income from non-agricultural activities and its importance for the Brazilian rural population, this study analyzes: (i) the determinants of pluriactivity and non-agricultural activities in rural households; and (ii) the impact of non-agricultural activities in the income of rural households. Analyses are based on pooled data from the National Household Survey from 2001 to 2013, period that is characterized invesby remarkable changes in the economy and rural society. Results highlight that the odds of having a non agricultural activity depends both on endogenous characteristics, such as the presence of a son/daughter in adult age and education of the responsible for the household, as exogenous factors, such as the proximity of the household from urban areas and geographic region. Despite considerable improvements in employment and income from agricultural activities in the 2000s, the share of families performing exclusively agricultural activities remained reducing in rural Brazil. This dynamic would be justified, in part, by the income of non-agricultural activities, which is greater than that of exclusively agricultural families and grew faster in the period, contributing to the enhancement income disparities in rural areas.


We report a case of tropical pyomyositis in a boy who presented with a severe febrile illness associated with diffuse erythema, and swelling in many areas of the body which revealed on operation extensive necrotic areas of various muscles that required repeated débridement. The patient gave a history of contact with dogs, and an ELISA test for Toxocara canis was positive. He also presented eosinophilia and high serum IgE levels. Staphylococcus aureus was the sole bacteria isolated from the muscles affected. We suggest that tropical pyomyositis may be caused by the presence of migrating larvae of this or other parasites in the muscles. The immunologic and structural alterations caused by the larvae, in the presence of concomitant bacteremia, would favour seeding of the bacteria and the development of pyomyositis.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the selective retention of the great saphenous vein trunk below the knee to prevent saphenous nerve injury during varicose vein surgery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
This research was a single-center prospective randomized trial. From January 2009 to January 2012, 280 patients of varicose veins in the great saphenous vein were treated and divided into two groups of 140 cases each. In the observation group, the vascular trunk of the great saphenous vein was stripped to below the knee level whilst that in the control group, it was stripped to the ankle level. Patients in both groups were treated with a transilluminated powered phlebectomy (TIPP) and foam sclerotherapy. Primary end points were postoperative pain, saphenous nerve injury, quality of life and recurrence rate.

RESULTS
After one month follow-up: 5.71% of patients in the observation group had neurological symptoms, while 14.29% of patients had neurological symptoms in the control group. The saphenous nerve injury between the two groups was statistically significant. Postoperative follow-up of one year, 1.47% patients had symptoms of neurological disorders in the observation group, while 7.14% patients had symptoms of neurological disorders in the control group. The saphenous nerve injury between the two groups was statistically significant. Therefore,  selective retention of great saphenous vein below-knee can prevent saphenous nerve injury. The main outcome measures were postoperative pain, missing saphenous nerve, improvement of symptoms and the incidence of recurrence. The follow-up after one month showed that the percentage of neurological symptoms in the observation group and the control group was 5.71% and 14.29% respectively, and the saphenous nerve injury showed a statistical difference. The follow-up after one year showed 1.47% of abnormal sensation in the observation group and 7.14% of dysesthesia or paresthesia in the control group in surgical limb according to subjects' claims, and there existed a statistical difference in the saphenous nerve injury.

CONCLUSIONS
The selective retention of the great saphenous vein trunk below the knee can prevent the saphenous nerve injury.


Abstract. In this study the correlation between the monthly fluctuations of the water level of the Aswan High Dam and monthly number of earthquakes from 1982 to 2010, which occurred in the surrounding area, was investigated. Our findings reveal that significant correlation is present during the period 1982–1993 between water level and shallow seismicity (depth less than 15 km). The deep seismicity (depth larger than 15 km) is significantly correlated with the water level between January and April 1989. The time lag of the significant maximal cross-correlation varies from 2–8~months for the shallow seismicity, while it is around 7–8 months for the deep seismicity. These values of the time lags could be in favour of the presence of two distinct triggering mechanisms: one due to pore pressure diffusion and the other due to fracture compaction (undrained response).


Properties of the human neck which may influence a person's susceptibility to "whiplash" injury during lateral impact have been studied in 96 normal subjects. Subjects were chosen on the basis of age, sex, and stature and data were grouped into six primay categories based on sex (F,M) and age (18-24, 35-44, 62-74). The data include: measures of head, neck and body anthropometry in standing and simulated automotive seating positions, three-dimensional range of motion of the head and neck, head/neck response to low-level acceleration, and both stretch reflex time and voluntary isometric muscle force in the lateral direction. Reflex times are found to vary from about 30 to 70 ms with young and middle aged persons having faster times than older persons, and females having faster times than males. Muscle strength decreases with age and males are, on the average, stronger than females. Range of motion was determined by using three-dimensional photogrammetry to compute Euler angles relative to the Frankfort plane. Ranges of motion are reported for 6 planar movements (flexion, extension, left and right rotation, left and right lateral bend) and 3 combination movements (left rotation plus flexion, left rotation plus left lateral bend, and right rotation plus extension) chosen to simulate typical lateral impact conditions. For the young subjects, ranges of motion for males and females are similar. In all cases the range of motion decreases with age, with the rate of decrease for males being greater than that for females. Data are presented in a format applicable to biomechanical modeling of the seated human occupant.


The coral structural framework is crucial for maintaining reef ecosystem function and services. In the central Red Sea, a naturally high alkalinity is beneficial to reef growth, but rising water temperatures impair the calcification capacity of reef-building organisms. However, it is currently unknown how beneficial and detrimental factors affect the balance between calcification and erosion, and thereby the overall growth of the reef framework. To provide insight into present-day carbonate budgets and reef growth dynamics in the central Red Sea, we measured in situ net-accretion and net-erosion rates (Gnet) by deployment of limestone blocks and estimated census-based carbonate budgets (Gbudget) in four reef sites along a cross-shelf gradient (25 km). We assessed abiotic variables (i.e., temperature, inorganic nutrients, and carbonate system variables) and biotic drivers (i.e., calcifier and bioeroder abundances). On average, total alkalinity AT (2346 - 2431 μmol kg−1), aragonite saturation state (4.5 - 5.2 Ωa), and pCO2 (283 -315 μatm) were close to estimates of pre-industrial global ocean surface waters. Despite these calcification-favorable carbonate system conditions, Gnet and Gbudget encompassed positive (offshore) and negative net-production (midshore-lagoon and exposed nearshore site) estimates. Notably, Gbudget maxima were lower compared to reef growth from pristine Indian Ocean sites. Yet, a comparison with historical data from the northern Red Sea suggests that overall reef growth in the Red Sea has likely remained similar since 1995. When assessing sites across the shelf gradient, AT correlated well with reef growth rates (ρ = 0.89), while temperature was a weaker, negative correlate (ρ = −0.71). Further, AT explained about 65 % of Gbudget in a best fitting distance-based linear model. Interestingly, parrotfish abundances added up to 82% of explained variation, further substantiating recent studies highlighting the importance of parrotfish to reef ecosystem function. Our study provides a baseline that will be particularly useful in assessing future trajectories of reef growth capacities in the Red Sea under continuous ocean warming and acidification.


The infectious agents, prions, are composed mainly of conformational isomers of the cellular prion protein (PrPc) in its abnormal accumulated scrapie forms (PrPSc). The distinct prion isolates or strains have been associated with different PrPSc prion protein conformations and patterns of glycosylation and are associated with disease progression and severity. In humans, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is the most common form and has been divided into six subtypes, based on PrPSc electrophoretic mobility and allelic variation at codon 129, among which sCJD MM1 and sCJD VV2 are the two most commonly occurring subtypes with known clinical manifestations. The strain-specific response of PrPSc suggests both the molecular classification and the pathogenesis of prion diseases along with posttranslational modification of PrP in humans and animals.


ABSTRACT Chen, Z., 2020. Financial support and risk management based on regional marine economic prediction. In: Qiu, Y.; Zhu, H., and Fang, X. (eds.), Current Advancements in Marine and Coastal Research for Technological and Sociological Applications. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 107, pp. 137-140. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The sustainable development of marine economy requires high-level regional marine economic management, especially financial support risk management, in order to continuously improve the scale and value of marine economy and promote the upgrading of marine industry. Based on this, this paper first analyzes the mechanism of financial support for regional marine economy, then studies the optimization of financial support for marine economy prediction, including the static and dynamic analysis of financial support for regional marine economy prediction, and finally gives the financial support and risk management strategy based on regional marine economy prediction.


Abstract The aim of the study was to present views on the correlation between apical periodontitis (AP) and the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) based on a review of the available literature. A review of PubMed for papers from the years 2011–2020 was conducted. Searched phrases included: apical periodontitis cardio-vascular diseases, apical periodontitis endothelial dysfunction, apical periodontitis myocardial infarction endodontic lesion CVD. Based on the literature review, it is suspected that there is a positive correlation between AP and the risk of CVD. Further studies are required to examine the prognostic impact of the treatment of AP on CVD.


OBJECTIVE
To establish the frequency, significance and clinical utility of alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) expression in the hepatobiliary system by performing a wide immunohistochemical screening of AMACR expression.

STUDY DESIGN
A total of 204 neoplastic, preneoplastic and normal samples from the hepatobiliary and pancreatic system were immunohistochemically studied on tissue microarrays for AMACR expression and correlated with clinicopathologic parameters.

RESULTS
Hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) showed intense AMACR expression, which was significantly stronger than in nonmalignant tissues and correlated with good differentiation but not with evolution. Weak AMACR expression was observed in cholangiocarcinomas and preneoplastic pancreatic lesions. HCC showed stronger expression than cholangiocarcinomas and ductal pancreatic adenocarcinomas.

DISCUSSION
AMACR is strongly expressed in some neoplastic and preneoplastic lesions of the hepatobiIiary system, mainly HCC, and may play a role in malignant transformation and be useful in the differential diagnosis.


In Section I various methods employed for the quantification of IgE are discussed and detailed accounts of two techniques used in this laboratory are presented. Total serum IgE in the rat is estimated using the radioimmunosorbent test (RIST). This 'sandwich' technique employs anti-IgE coupled to paper discs, which binds to IgE present in samples or standards subsequently added. A final incubation with radiolabelled anti-IgE presents the third layer of the 'sandwich', and radioactive counts in each sample are directly proportional to the concentration of IgE present. Antigen specific rat IgE is measured in vivo by the Passive Cutaneous Anaphylaxis (PCA) test. Twenty-four hours after an intradermal injection of the diluted test serum art intravenous challenge of antigen and Evan's blue dye is given. Attachment of antigen to the mast cell-bound IgE results in release of vasoactive compounds with ensuing increased vascular permeability which results in the appearance of a blue area at the injection site. The titre of the serum under test is taken as the reciprocal of the last dilution giving a reaction of 5 mm in diameter. In Section II, experiments are described in which primary and secondary IgE antibody responses were elicited in Hooded Lister rats by intradermal injection or oral administration of very small quantities of egg-albumin. For primary responses the minimum effective dose was found to he 1 mug intradermally and 10 mug orally, both administered with an intraperitoneal injection of B. pertussis adjuvant. In rats immunised with these doses even smaller quantities of antigen evoked booster responses; thus, 1 ng intradermallv and 1 mug orally. Large primary doses (> 100 mug) presented by these routes were, on the other hand, found to be inhibitory to the production of booster IgE responses as was reported previously in intra--peritoneal immunisation experiments. The results are discussed in relation to IgE production and regulation of antigen absorption through mucosal barriers. In Section II, 2, experiments are described which show that the adjuvant used in initial immunisation influences the subsequent occurrence of enhanced responses induced by an antigen challenge (booster response) or helminth infection (potentiated response). Although the level of the primary response was similar following immunisation with egg-albumin (EA) and pertussis (Bp) , aluminium hydroxide (Al(OH)[3]) or complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) as adjuvant, the booster response was inhibited and the potentiated response enhanced when the latter two adjuvants were used. A significant IgE booster response could only be obtained if SD had been used in initial immunisation. Concavalin A (Con A) could also act as an adjuvant for the induction of an IgE response to EA. Moreover, a subsequent injection of Con A was found to enhance the EA specific response in a manner analogous to an antigen induced booster response. The Con A enhancing effect occurred only in animals primed with EA together with Bp or Con A and not in animals primed with EA in Al(OH)3 or CFA. These results are discussed in relation to the intricacies of IgE production in this model and to more general mechanisms of adjuvant action. In Section II, 3, the ability of different rat strains to produce IgE antibody responses following large and small doses of antigen and infection with N. brasiliensis has been compared. Sprague Dawley rats responded poorly to 1 mg and 1 mug EA, but did produce low level secondary responses. Some degree of inhibition was evident in CFHB and Hooded Lister strains following immunisation with I mg EA, since secondary responses were higher following immunisation with 1 mug of EA. Following antigen challenge, CFY produced similar but low level secondary responses whether they had been initially immunised with a high or low dose of EA, even although a primary response was not detected after immunisation with 1 mug EA. Elevation of total serum IgE was less marked following N. brasiliensis infection in the 'poor' IgE responding strains, and the total serum IgE response was in some cases unaccompanied by potentiation of the EA IgE response. The findings are discussed in relation to the function of regulatory mechanism known to be operative in the control of IgE responses.


Chiral surfaces offer great potential as a medium for enantioselective synthesis or separation, yet their dynamic enantiospecific interactions with adsorbates are not well understood. Here, the influence of chiral surfaces on the molecular rotations of desorbing molecules is investigated. Formic acid desorption from Cu{531} and Cu{110} serve as model systems for desorption processes of an achiral adsorbate from a chiral and an achiral surface. Our first-principles molecular dynamics study reveals a much larger and more directed angular momentum for molecules desorbing from the chiral surface and a clear preference for one sense of rotation. This result provides new insight into desorption and adsorption processes and propensities on chiral surfaces.


Extracting the Electric Network Frequency (ENF) fluctuations from an audio recording and comparing it to a reference database is a new approach in performing forensic digital audio authentication. The problem statement of the IEEE SP cup 2016 competition relates to time-varying locationdependent signature of power grids as it becomes intrinsically captured in media recordings, due to direct or indirect influences from the respective power grid. In this project signal processing and information security/forensics are collectively elaborated. The objective of this project is to implement and design a range of programs and algorithms for capturing and extracting ENF signals for a novel ENF based application. Without relying on the availability of concurrent power references, an ENF pattern extracted from a given digital recording was examined to infer the power grid in which the recording was done. The statistical features of ENF pattern variations for this region-of recording-identification process were exploited. With these features a multiclass SVM classifier, which is able to identify the grid of recording of a given signal, was implemented. The latter part of the project involves with circuit design and data analysis for ENF acquisition. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to display the most probable three, grid-of-origins for a given recording. The whole process was tested and evaluated for the test data


Interorganizational trust plays an important role in facilitating business relationships, especially for the organizational adoption of new services. Prior research suggests that interorganizational trust develops when the trustor has adequate confidence in the reliability of the trustee's services. Nevertheless, reliability breakdowns are also an inevitable part of service provisioning. Such breakdowns are especially prominent and visible in the context of platform-based services. Yet platform-based services continue to be adopted and used by organizational customers. This increased adoption and use of such services despite their inconsistent reliability pose the following question. How is trust produced in platform-mediated interorganizational relationships? To examine this question, I conducted a 20-month field study of a cloud computing platform provider and its customers, focusing on the practices of trust production in the wake of reliability breakdowns. Here, I describe customer concerns about the platform's inconsistent reliability that hampered the development of interorganizational trust. I then identify four practices of trust work enacted by the platform provider to address some of these concerns and to co-opt the occupational gatekeepers in customer organizations who are responsible for technology adoption decisions. Following this, I describe how and why these occupational gatekeepers performed justification work to rationalize the continued use of the platform despite its inconsistent reliability. Together, trust work and justification work facilitate the coproduction of interorganizational trust through normalizing reliability breakdowns as "business-as-usual" events. Synthesizing these findings, I developed a normalization model of trust production, and discuss the implications of normalized trust for platform-mediated interorganizational relationships in the digital economy.


A number of data sources, both published and unpublished, were used to compile the report. These sources include surveys conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics and population-based data provided by several states in the Centers for Disease Control's Diabetes Control Program. Copies of the report (NIH Pub. No. 85-1468) are available from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402, (202) 783-3238. Specify the GPO stock number 017-045-00102-1. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse also has a limited number of copies for sale. Price from either NDIC or GPO is $23.00. This summary was adapted from one previously published in Diabetes Dateline 6(5):1-2, 1985. —Reviewed by James W. Pichert, PhD


In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), multihop transmissions rely on nodes collaboration to correctly route and forward packets to their final destination. However, collaboration of intermediate nodes is not guaranteed and non-collaborative nodes may drop packets they are asked to forward. Such behaviour, known as packet dropping, results of nodespsila selfishness or maliciousness and has dramatic effects on networks performances. Most of proposed solutions to counter packet dropping are either based on trust management or multipath routing, but no solution combines both trust management and multipath routing. Adaptive Secured Multipath for Ad hoc networks (ASMA) is a security framework which adapts security to the application requirements; evaluates trustworthy relationship based on localized trust model and efficiently combines multipath routing into trust management. In this paper we study ASMA performance against the most classical and simple packet dropping attack: Black Hole attack. Aiming to evaluate ASMA in dense networks, we use a realistic scenario representing a subway environment which brings interesting features and may be a prolific context for MANET application development. Through simulations we compare the performances of DSR and ASMA associated to DSR in attacked pure MANETs. Simulation results illustrate that ASMA-DSR outperforms DSR under different attack configurations and is totally adapted for dense and large networks.


This paper deals with Extended Kalman Filter(EKF)-based SLAM estimation considering intermittent measurement. The study proposes a method to ensure that a designer is able to secure the state covariance or system uncertainties even though the mobile robot sometimes losses its measurement data during its observations. EKF which is based on Bayesian, is chosen in this work for estimation purposes in determining mobile robot position and the environment conditions. In addition, as most of estimation techniques uses Bayesian method, our propose results is expected to provide a general estimation guidelines especially on the filter statistical behavior. The analysis started from the review of theoretical studies of EKF including the expected condition occurred when mobile robot do not received information from its sensors. Simulation results have consistently supports our theoretical analysis which determines that a designer can determine the state error covariance explicitly whenever measurement data is not available.


The aim of this study was to develop a 16S-23S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid internal transcribed spacer (ITS) quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay for the early diagnosis and rapid screening of brucellosis. Blood, milk, and tissue samples were spiked with B. abortus biovar 1 (B01988-18 strain) to determine the analytical sensitivity and specificity of the assay. The 95% limit of detection of the ITS qPCR assay was highest in tissue, followed by blood, then milk, i.e., 0.48, 4.43, and 15.18 bacteria/PCR reaction, respectively. The diagnostic performance of the assay was compared to the Brucella cell surface protein (BCSP) 31 qPCR assay and bacterial culture. Out of 56 aborted foetal tissue samples from bovine, ovine, and caprine, 33% (19/56) were positive for Brucella spp. The sensitivity and specificity of the ITS qPCR assay was 87% and 95% respectively, compared to 92% and 89% for the BCSP31 qPCR assay and 47% and 55% for bacterial culture, respectively. The assay was efficient, sensitive, and specific, making it a valuable tool in the early detection of the Brucella pathogen.


Background: To assess the impact of study-at-home during the COVID-19 pandemic on myopia development in Chinese schoolchildren. Methods: This historical cohort involved two groups with a total of 154 children. The exposed group was formed from 77 children aged 8 to 10 years who studied at home in the 7-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic (follow-up period: January – August 2020) and did not study at home in the 7-month period before the COVID-19 outbreak (baseline period: July 2019 – January 2020). Seventy-seven children who did not undergo study-at-home (baseline period: 7 months in 2015, follow-up period: 7 months in 2016) were included in the control group. Cycloplegic refraction, axial length and uncorrected visual acuity were measured 3 times. The questionnaire mainly focused on collecting visual habits. Results: Myopia progression was similar between the two groups in the baseline period. However, in the follow-up period the exposed group had a greater change in refraction toward myopia (−0.83 ± 0.56 D) than the control group (−0.28 ± 0.54 D; p < 0.001). In addition, the exposed group exhibited a significantly greater change in refraction toward myopia in the follow-up period (−0.83 ± 0.56 D) than in the baseline period (−0.33 ± 0.46 D; p < 0.001). Difference-in-difference analysis indicated that study-at-home accelerated the change in refraction toward myopia (t = −0.567; p < 0.001). Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic study-at-home accelerated the change of refraction toward myopia in children.