This is a philosophical investigation of the linguistic strategy of Chinese Chan Buddhism. First, it examines the underlying structure of Chan communication, which determines the Chan pragmatics of 'never tell too plainly'. The examination of the structural features of Chan communication reveals what the Chan 'special transmission' means. The Chan definition of communication is very different from the Aristotelian conception of communication in the West. The Aristotelian hierarchy of speaker over listener, or the direct over indirect, is absent is Chan communication. Communication in the Chan context is interactive, open-ended and determined by its existentio-practical concern. Second, this essay investigates the different types of the Chan strategies of indirect communication, such as the use of paradoxical, tautological and poetic language, which best demonstrate the principle of 'never tell too plainly'. The whole study indicates that Chan Buddhism provides the resources for our contemporary inquiry into the issue of indirect communication.


The work described in this thesis concerns studies of damage and annealing
processes in ion implanted Si, relevant for the formation of source / drain extensions in
sub 100 nm CMOS devices. Implants were carried out using 1-3 keV As, BF2 and Sb
ions and implanted samples were annealed at temperatures between 550 °C and 1130 °C.
The principal analysis technique used was Medium energy ion scattering
(MEIS), which yields quantitative depth profiles of displaced Si atoms and implanted
dopants. The results obtained have been related to comparative analyses using SIMS,
TEM and X-ray techniques.
Heavy ion damage evolution and the concomitant dopant redistribution as a
function of ion dose was investigated using As and Sb implantation into Si. It was found
that for low doses the damage build up does not follow the energy deposition function.
Instead a ~4 nm wide amorphous layer is formed initially under the oxide that grows
inwards into the bulk with increasing dose. For low doses As is seen to have migrated
into the damaged regions near the surface, where it appears to be more readily
accommodated. Both effects are ascribed to the migration of interstitials.
Various annealing studies have been carried out to investigate the regrowth
behaviour of the damaged Si and the redistribution of the dopant. Effects of
recrystallisation, dopant movement into substitutional positions, dopant segregation and
diffusion are observed. Annealing studies of implanted Silicon on Insulator (SOI)
wafers have shown a regrowth that has a wavy a/c interface unlike the layer by layer
mode that is typical in solid phase epitaxial regrowth. This effect is ascribed to localised
damage accumulation at the buried oxide layer.
Following a BF2 implant into Si, pre-amorphised by a Xe bombardment, an
interaction between Xe, F and B has been observed to occur upon annealing during
which the implanted species conglomerate at depths related to the end of range of the
BF2 implant in the amorphous Si.


In this paper, the authors aim to combine the latest state of the art models in image recognition with the best publicly available satellite images to create a system for landslide risk mitigation. We focus first on landslide detection and further propose a similar system to be used for prediction. Such models are valuable as they could easily be scaled up to provide data for hazard evaluation, as satellite imagery becomes increasingly available. The goal is to use satellite images and correlated data to enrich the public repository of data and guide disaster relief efforts for locating precise areas where landslides have occurred. Different image augmentation methods are used to increase diversity in the chosen dataset and create more robust classification. The resulting outputs are then fed into variants of 3-D convolutional neural networks. A review of the current literature indicates there is no research using CNNs (Convolutional Neural Networks) and freely available satellite imagery for classifying landslide risk. The model has shown to be ultimately able to achieve a significantly better than baseline accuracy.


2019 will be the 350th anniversary of the discovery of phosphorus (P) by the alchemist Henning Brandt. This perspective traces the historical threads that P has weaved through the fabric of our society and identifies challenges to improve P stewardship in the future and for our future. A century after Brandt's discovery, P was identified in bone ash, which became the primary source of P until guano and ultimately rock P was mined to provide the various mineral formulations used today. Owing to limited supplies, a strategic shift in resource management ethics-from exploiting to conserving P resources-is needed. In agriculture, remedial strategies should consider when conservation practices can transition from P sinks to sources; however, a broader, long-term strategy for P stewardship is needed. This must include educing P loss in food and other wastes, ecovering P from waste streams, eusing P generated beneficial by-products, and estructuring production systems. A key action to enact such changes will be collaboration across all sectors of society and the supply chain, from field to fork and beyond. As this will likely increase the cost of food, fiber, and feed production, it will require an innovative mix of public and private initiatives.


This thesis is a case study of a kindergarten in one of the most deprived areas of Aotearoa New Zealand. Through the documentation of the stories of management, teachers and families, the thesis explores how the transformation of the kindergarten and a policy intervention have provided multiple opportunities and affordances for adults to realise their aspirations. Bourdieu's logic of practice thinking tools and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory are intertwined to theorise about the contribution of macrosystem ideologies that position communities as vulnerable and frame up subsequent exosystem policy attempts to intervene. The concept of habitus is applied to explain how a commitment to social justice and an empowerment view of individuals and communities can afford conditions for the transformation of habitus. The thesis argues that the level of strength of an affordance is significant in the recognition and utilisation of opportunities and that early childhood teachers can be mesosystem agents in mediating affordances. Inherent in the thesis is the acknowledgment that early childhood services have the potential to contribute to positive life trajectories for adults as well as children, particularly for those in communities who have the odds stacked against them. The thesis adds to the scholarship about habitus and its transforming features and contributes to a deeper understanding about the role of effective early years services as powerful intervention sites for adults. The unique combination of Bourdieu and Bronfenbrenner's theories offers new insights about the individual/environment relationship and impacts on agency. The thesis outlines a range of policy implications for consideration with respect to communities who are poorly provided for due to dominant ideological discourses and reiterates the right of all individuals to realise their hopes and dreams.


Hydrothermal alteration patterns and environment are studied by mineral assemblages and chemical analyses of surface and core samples from Miryang pyrophyllite deposit. The alteration zones of this deposit can be divided into three zones on the basis of mineral assemblage; advanced argillic, phyllic, and propylitic zone. Advanced argillic zone mainly consists of pyrophyllite-dickite (-quartz) and corresponds to principal mining ore. The common mineral assemblage of phyllic zone and propylitic zone are sericite-quartz-dickite and chlorite-quartz, respectively. Horizontal and vertical alteration patterns and major element geochemistry indicate that pyrophyllite ores have been formed several times by hydrothermal alteration. And it also suggests that the huge ore bodies may be extended from the deeper part of recent quarries to the south-southeastern direction. The paragenesis of ore minerals and polytype (2M) suggest that ore deposit was formed at about .


This paper reports on the structural and sedimentary evolution of the middle to late Eocene of the Prepyrenean External Sierras (southern Pyrenees, Spain). The initiation, duration and kinematics of a set of growth structures that developed in a shallow marine depositional setting is documented. The detailed analysis of the syntectonic marine sediments not only confirms the already known east to west progression of deformation, but also reveals the continued growth of the early formed structures as later ones propagate towards the foreland. The sedimentary units coevally deposited with these growth structures are arranged in four depositional sequences. Their boundaries correspond to flooding surfaces which grade basinwards into correlative conformities. They are also indicated by the presence of both angular unconformities and onlap geometries. Each depositional sequence generally consists of two systems tracts. The lower one, or transgressive systems tract, is formed by up to 400 m of azoic marls deposited in outer ramp areas. The upper one, or highstand systems tract, mainly consists of shallow siliciclastic and carbonate facies, up to 200 m thick, deposited in middle to inner ramp areas. These depositional sequences are interpreted to be controlled by regional tectonic pulses. An increase of tectonic activity resulted in the flooding of the basin and in the subsequent deposition of a thick succession of nearly azoic blue marls (i.e. transgressive systems tract). The overlying highstand systems tract developed following periods of diminished tectonism, with the consequent growth and progradation of shallow carbonate platform facies.


We investigate analytical structure of a general class of MISO Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy systems (1985) that use arbitrary TS fuzzy rules with our recently introduced simplified linear rule consequent. Other system components in this study are general: arbitrary continuous input fuzzy sets, any type of fuzzy logic AND and the generalized defuzzifier containing the widely used centroid defuzzifier as a special case. We have proved that the general MISO TS fuzzy systems are: (1) nonlinear variable gain controllers when implemented as controllers, (2) nonlinear time-varying auto-regressive with the extra input (ARX) models when implemented as models, and (3) nonlinear infinite impulse response or finite impulse response filters when implemented as filters. Further, we have constructively proved that the general TS fuzzy systems with the simplified linear rule consequent are universal approximators. The practical implication is that these fuzzy systems, with much fewer design parameters in the rules, are always able to produce solutions to control, modeling and filtering problems.


Article history: Bacillus megaterium T04 isolated from Rach Lang stream in Vietnam was tested for antimicrobial activities. The antimicrobial activities of Bacillus megaterium T04 (57.3x10 8 cfu/mL) against Candida albicans, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus sciuri, Micrococcus luteus were detected by agar well diffusion method in different cultivation conditions at three temperatures (25, 37, and 45oC) in three incubation periods (24, 48, and 72 hours). The efficacy of antimicrobial activities of this strain were determined in comparison with ceftriaxone activity against Candida albicans, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus scuiri, Micrococcus luteus. The antimicrobial activity potency was equivalent to ceftriaxone in a range ( 3.3 0.6 μg/mL to 46.5 6.2 μg/mL) for Candida albicans (0.9 0.2 μg/mL to 35.5 7.7 μg/mL) for Salmonella typhi, , (0.4 0.1 μg/mL to 28.4 4.4 μg/mL) for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, (119.8 21.2 μg/mL to 283.7 26.0 μg/mL) for Staphylococcus scuiri, (3.3 0.4 μg/mL to 64.4 7.4 μg/mL) for Micrococcus luteus.


BACKGROUND
Successful tumor immunotherapy depends on the induction of strong and sustained tumor antigen-specific immune responses by activated antigen-presenting cells (APCs) such as dendritic cells (DCs). Since nanoparticles have the potential to codeliver tumor-specific antigen and DC-stimulating adjuvant in a DC-targeting manner, we wanted to assess the suitability of mannosylated HPMA-LMA block polymers for immunotherapy.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Fluorescence-labeled block copolymer micelles derived from P(HPMA)-block-P(LMA) copolymers and according statistical copolymers were synthesized via RAFT polymerization, and loaded with the APC activator L18-MDP. Both types of copolymers were conjugated with D-mannose to target the mannose receptor as expressed by DCs and macrophages. The extent and specificity of micelle binding and activation of APCs was monitored using mouse spleen cells and bone marrow-derived DC (BMDC).

RESULTS
Nontargeting HPMA-LMA statistical copolymers showed strong unspecific cell binding. HPMA-LMA block copolymers bound DC only when conjugated with mannose, and in a mannose receptor-specific manner. Mannosylated HPMA-LMA block copolymers were internalized by DC. DC-targeting HPMA-LMA block copolymers mediated DC activation when loaded with L18-MDP.

CONCLUSION
Mannosylated HPMA-LMA block copolymers are a promising candidate for the delvopment of DC-targeting nanovaccines.


Induced abortion has been steadily increasing in Korea, rising from an estimated half million cases in 1975 to 830 thousand in 1978. The author presents results from a survey of abortion providers conducted from March to May 1979, and compares them with data from other client surveys. Age specific abortion rates are shown to peak at 519 per thousand women at age 22. The rate continues at nearly 400 per 1000 until age 27, falls between 27 and 30, rises again between 30 and 33, and thereafter tapers off gradually. While the rates for ages 30-34 have shown a rise in recent years, those for ages 34-39 have fallen sharply, mainly due to increased use of contraception among this age group and the completion of their families. The major differences in results of the providers' as opposed to the clients' surveys appeared in abortions reported to women in their 20s, felt to be due largely to reticence on the part of abortion patients. An urgent need for sex education is noted. (Author's modified)


We study the settling of rigid oblates in a quiescent fluid using interface-resolved direct numerical simulations. In particular, an immersed boundary method is used to account for the dispersed solid phase together with lubrication correction and collision models to account for short-range particle–particle interactions. We consider semi-dilute suspensions of oblate particles with aspect ratio $AR=1/3$ and solid volume fractions $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=0.5{-}10\,\%$ . The solid-to-fluid density ratio $R=1.02$ and the Galileo number (i.e. the ratio between buoyancy and viscous forces) based on the diameter of a sphere with equivalent volume $Ga=60$ . With this choice of parameters, an isolated oblate falls vertically with a steady wake with its broad side perpendicular to the gravity direction. At this $Ga$ , the mean settling speed of spheres is a decreasing function of the volume $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ and is always smaller than the terminal velocity of the isolated particle, $V_{t}$ . On the contrary, in dilute suspensions of oblate particles (with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}\leqslant 1\,\%$ ), the mean settling speed is approximately 33 % larger than $V_{t}$ . At higher concentrations, the mean settling speed decreases becoming smaller than the terminal velocity $V_{t}$ between $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=5\,\%$ and 10 %. The increase of the mean settling speed is due to the formation of particle clusters that for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=0.5{-}1\,\%$ appear as columnar-like structures. From the pair distribution function we observe that it is most probable to find particle pairs almost vertically aligned. However, the pair distribution function is non-negligible all around the reference particle indicating that there is a substantial amount of clustering at radial distances between 2 and $6c$ (with $c$ the polar radius of the oblate). Above $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=5\,\%$ , the hindrance becomes the dominant effect, and the mean settling speed decreases below $V_{t}$ . As the particle concentration increases, the mean particle orientation changes and the mean pitch angle (the angle between the particle axis of symmetry and gravity) increases from $23^{\circ }$ to $47^{\circ }$ . Finally, we increase $Ga$ from 60 to 140 for the case with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=0.5\,\%$ and find that the mean settling speed (normalized by $V_{t}$ ) decreases by less than 1 % with respect to $Ga=60$ . However, the fluctuations of the settling speed around the mean are reduced and the probability of finding vertically aligned particle pairs increases.


On 1 July 2015 the Legal Profession Uniform Law ('Uniform Law') came into force in Victoria and New South Wales. The Legal Profession Uniform Admission Rules 2015 (NSW) ('Uniform Rules') came into force the same day. This article considers differences in approach to admission of lawyers in Victoria and New South Wales in the past in regards to assessment of applicants' 'character' so as to be considered 'fit and proper' to practise law. It speculates as to how uniform these approaches will become in the future as a result of the Uniform Law and Uniform Rules.


Nanotechnology applications in the food industry, including food contact materials, offer many potential benefits for consumers and manufacturers alike. The article discusses the migration of nanoparticles from food contact materials and the possible health risks associated with in the context of insufficient knowledge of the potential exposure to nanomaterial. The importance of gaps in the general knowledge on the behaviour and biological interactions of nanomaterials in biological systems becomes crucial for risk assessment. The article also discussed numerous doubts concerning the measurements of biological reactions in animal tests and the need for new approaches in the interpretation of data from nanoparticles studies in vivo. The article underlines the need to develop predictive and validated toxicological tests that can be used to screen for potential hazards, and also to develop new methodology for measuring nanoparticles in biological matrices to assess human exposure. Further studies should focus on understanding the mechanisms of action. Nanoparticles exhibit chemical and physical properties that significantly differ from those substances at a large size. Different properties of nanoparticles may lead to different toxicological properties. From that reason nanoparticles, in each case, are individually assessed by the European Food Standard Agency (EFSA) in terms of health risk before the European Commission authorizes them to be used in food contact materials.


The notion of a motor cortical area was introduced in neurology by the clinical work of H. Jackson and by the animal experiments of E. Hitzig and D. Ferrier between 1870 and 1874. As early as 1875, J.M. Charcot undertook a broad anatomoclinical study of about 200 cases selected on the basis of localization of lesions and motor symptomatology. Charcot and Pitres' publications on this subject were analyzed and their arguments for including the postcentral gyrus in motor areas were discussed.


Narrative design and implementation in interactive softwares has always possessed an intrinsic issue, in that the person or persons with the responsibility of authoring the narrative will most likely lack ability in programming. Because the narrative does eventually become implemented in software, the in uence the technical side has on the creative side is unavoidable. The design of the March22 Engine, its scripting language, and its accompanying authoring tool are all designed to facilitate those of least programming ability, whilst not limiting those of greater ability. By making the scripting language as similar to a screenplay as possible, and showing the ow of narrative via charts, the writer is left with as little programming requirements as possible, whilst still able to produce quality narrative.


Numerous natural systems depend on the sedimentation of passive particles in presence of swimming microorganisms. Here, we investigate the dynamics of the sedimentation of spherical colloids at various E. coli concentration within the dilute regime. Results show the appearance of two sedimentation fronts, a spherical particle front and the bacteria front. We find that the bacteria front behave diffusive at short times, whereas at long times decays linearly. The sedimentation speed of passive particles decays at a constant speed and decreases as bacteria concentration is increased. As bacteria concentration is increased further, the sedimentation speed becomes independent of bacteria concentration. The timescales of the bacteria front is associated with the particle settling speeds. Remarkably, all experiments collapse onto a single master line by using the bacteria front timescale. A phenomenological model is proposed that captures the sedimentation of passive particles in active fluids.


RTP retransmission is an effective packet loss recovery technique for
real-time applications with relaxed delay bounds. This document
describes an RTP payload format for performing retransmissions.
Retransmitted RTP packets are sent in a separate stream from the
original RTP stream. It is assumed that feedback from receivers to
senders is available. In particular, it is assumed that RTCP feedback
as defined in the extended RTP profile for RTCP-based feedback
(denoted RTP/AVPF), is available in this memo.


This draft makes a summary on the requirements of supporting multiple
interfaces (MIF) in hosts with simple IP. These requirements result
from examining scenarios for multiple interface host usages. The
differentiation between MIF and other related IETF works are
interpreted as well.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the treatment duration with MTX monotherapy or in association with DMARDs or TNFalpha inhibitors and the incidence and typology of adverse events (AE) occurred in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

METHODS
A retrospective large cohort study of RA outpatients, consecutively seen from January 2000 to June 2005 was performed. Study group were RA patients classified according to the 1984 ACR criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis. The patients were divided in 3 groups according to the treatment regimen: MTX monotherapy, MTX in combination with DMARD or with anti TNFalpha agents. We analyzed 348 therapeutic cycles, 177 of whom using MTX monotherapy.

RESULTS
The 224 RA patients accumulated 800 person-years of follow up. Follow up for each of the groups was: MTX monotherapy 479.4 person-years, MTX in combination with DMARDs 244.5, or with TNFalpha inhibitors, 75.7 person-years. From the Kaplan-Meier analysis, the probability of patients remaining on treatment 5 years was 58.5 after starting MTX. The incidence of any AE was 8.87 per 100 person-years. From all, 69 (97.2%) AE were no severe. Among those, more frequently were observed at gastrointestinal tract (31%), liver (19.7%), skin (15.5%). Incidence of severe AE (lung adenocarcinoma, 1 case; pancreatitis, 1 case) was 0.25 per 100 person-years, occurring in patients taking MTX monotherapy or MTX in combination with DMARDs, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
These data confirm that methotrexate is well tolerated in clinical practice in the medium-long term. Nevertheless, the occurrence of severe AE require an accurate vigilance for methotrexate toxicity.


An infrastructure is conventionally represented as a system of systems, where individual components are heavily interdependent. In this context, the assessment of the robustness or the resilience of an infrastructure requires to quantify a set of appropriate system performance indicators. The latter are usually accessed through the prediction of the functionality level of the components, and not only their physical damage states. Therefore the present study details a procedure for the derivation of probabilistic functionality loss curves, applied to the seismic fragility assessment of roadway bridges. The proposed approach may be decomposed into the following steps:-Identification of the bridge's structural components and corresponding damage mechanisms (e.g. yielding of pier columns, deformation of bearings, deck unseating, etc.);-Association of each component damage mode with a probabilistic distribution of functionality loss and repair duration, through an expert elicitation process;-Construction of a Bayesian Network (BN) in order to update the probabilistic distributions of losses at the bridge level, which result from the combinations of damage events at the component level [1]. The resulting curves directly express the probability of reaching or exceeding some predefined functionality levels given the seismic intensity at the bridge location. The use of BNs allows for the joint probability of functionality loss and repair duration to be accessed, which constitute crucial information for the design of restoration strategies. The derived functionality curves are then applied to a simplified road network, where thousands of probabilistic earthquake scenarios are generated in order to derive the distribution of the resilience index [2], with the inter-city travel time as the main performance indicator. Finally, various assumptions about restoration resources are also tested (e.g. possibility or not to perform repair operations at the same time), in order to check their effect on the restoration strategy.


Low-cost and simple technologies are needed to reduce watershed export of excess nitrogen to sensitive aquatic ecosystems. Denitrifying bioreactors are an approach where solid carbon substrates are added into the flow path of contaminated water. These carbon (C) substrates (often fragmented wood-products) act as a C and energy source to support denitrification; the conversion of nitrate (NO3−) to nitrogen gases. Here, we summarize the different designs of denitrifying bioreactors that use a solid C substrate, their hydrological connections, effectiveness, and factors that limit their performance. The main denitrifying bioreactors are: denitrification walls (intercepting shallow groundwater), denitrifying beds (intercepting concentrated discharges) and denitrifying layers (intercepting soil leachate). Both denitrifcation walls and beds have proven successful in appropriate field settings with NO3− removal rates generally ranging from 0.01 to 3.6 g N m−3 day−1 for walls and 2–22 g N m−3 day−1 for beds, with the lower rates often associated with nitrate-limitations. Nitrate removal is also limited by the rate of C supply from degrading substrate and removal is operationally zero-order with respect to NO3− concentration primarily because the inputs of NO3− into studied bioreactors have been generally high. In bioreactors where NO3− is not fully depleted, removal rates generally increase with increasing temperature. Nitrate removal has been supported for up to 15 years without further maintenance or C supplementation because wood chips degrade sufficiently slowly under anoxic conditions. There have been few field-based comparisons of alternative C substrates to increase NO3− removal rates but laboratory trials suggest that some alternatives could sup− port greater rates of NO3 removal (e.g., corn cobs and wheat straw). Denitrifying bioreactors may have a number of adverse effects, such as production of nitrous oxide and leaching of dissolved organic matter (usually only for the first few months after construction and start-up). The relatively small amount of field data suggests that these problems can be adequately managed or minimized. An initial cost/benefit analysis demonstrates that denitrifying bioreactors are cost effective and complementary to other agricultural management practices aimed at decreasing nitrogen loads to surface waters. We conclude with her r t t 2 s recommendations for furt


Apart from environmental and acquired risk factors, a person's genetic predisposition may have a distinct influence on the probability of the onset of urolithiasis. To investigate the family related development of calcium oxalate, CaOx, crystallization risk, we studied urines from three generations of the same family. The paternal line has been suffering from CaOx-urolithiasis for at least two generations; no case of urolithiasis has been reported from the maternal line and the youngest generation.We applied the BONN-Risk-Index and the computer program EQUIL to determine the crystallization risk of each family member (n = 7). We clearly verified by probability calculations of the existence of the two risk groups within the family and showed that one of the siblings of the youngest generation may have inherited the stone-formation risk from its paternal relatives as this person clearly reflects a high risk pattern.


In the area of Dance Education particularly in a primary education context there are several publications on how to teach dance from a variety of philosophical standpoints (Stinson, 1997; Gough, 1999; Autard-Smith, 2002; Cone and Cone, 2005; McCutchen, 2006). Recent research into dance pedagogy analysed the concepts and approaches to creativity by three specialist dance teachers within a primary context in the United Kingdom (Chappell, 2007). Several dance researchers in New Zealand (Bolwell, 1998; Hong, 2000; Renner, 2006; Buck, 2007) have focused on Dance Education within a primary school context from the following angles: developing dance literacy, primary teachers' voices in relation to teaching dance, approaches to curriculum dance, analysis of children's reflections to live dance performance, and dance and interdisciplinary arts. However the issue of sustainable dance education for pre-service primary educators has not been examined. This paper explores some of the challenges facing dance educators working with pre-service primary teachers in the New Zealand context and reports on a particular cohort of student viewpoints.


In most Western countries, traditional history education has been challenged by criticism of the underlying national framework, and by processes of globalization and immigration. In Germany, as a consequence, concepts of intercultural relations, (the interpersonal dynamics between people
 from different cultures) have been explored since the 1990s. This article outlines the development of these concepts in relation to criticism of theories of culture, the challenges of coming to terms with the specific German past, and the recent stages in the conceptualization of intercultural
 historical competences. Against this backdrop, multicultural profiling, which describes the characteristics of different cultures, is applied to one of the central principles of German history education, multiperspectivity.


ABSTRACT People of recent sub-Saharan African ancestry develop kidney failure much more frequently than other groups. A large fraction of this disparity is due to two coding sequence variants in the APOL1 gene. Inheriting two copies of these APOL1 risk variants, known as G1 and G2, causes high rates of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), HIV-associated nephropathy and hypertension-associated end-stage kidney disease. Disease risk follows a recessive mode of inheritance, which is puzzling given the considerable data that G1 and G2 are toxic gain-of-function variants. We developed coisogenic bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic mice harboring either the wild-type (G0), G1 or G2 forms of human APOL1. Expression of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) via plasmid tail vein injection results in upregulation of APOL1 protein levels together with robust induction of heavy proteinuria and glomerulosclerosis in G1/G1 and G2/G2 but not G0/G0 mice. The disease phenotype was greater in G2/G2 mice. Neither heterozygous (G1/G0 or G2/G0) risk variant mice nor hemizygous (G1/−, G2/−) mice had significant kidney injury in response to IFN-γ, although the heterozygous mice had a greater proteinuric response than the hemizygous mice, suggesting that the lack of significant disease in humans heterozygous for G1 or G2 is not due to G0 rescue of G1 or G2 toxicity. Studies using additional mice (multicopy G2 and a non-isogenic G0 mouse) supported the notion that disease is largely a function of the level of risk variant APOL1 expression. Together, these findings shed light on the recessive nature of APOL1-nephropathy and present an important model for future studies.


The size of the heat exchanger is an important factor determining the dimensions of the cold box in helium cryogenic systems. In this paper, a counter-flow multi-stream plate-fin heat exchanger is optimized by means of a spatial interpolation method coupled with a hybrid genetic algorithm. Compared with empirical correlations, this spatial interpolation algorithm based on a kriging model can be adopted to more precisely predict the Colburn heat transfer factors and Fanning friction factors of offset-strip fins. Moreover, strict computational fluid dynamics simulations can be carried out to predict the heat transfer and friction performance in the absence of reliable experimental data. Within the constraints of heat exchange requirements, maximum allowable pressure drop, existing manufacturing techniques and structural strength, a mathematical model of an optimized design with discrete and continuous variables based on a hybrid genetic algorithm is established in order to minimize the volume. The results show that for the first-stage heat exchanger in the EAST refrigerator, the structural size could be decreased from the original 2.200 × 0.600 × 0.627 (m3) to the optimized 1.854 × 0.420 × 0.340 (m3), with a large reduction in volume. The current work demonstrates that the proposed method could be a useful tool to achieve optimization in an actual engineering project during the practical design process.


High transparent and conductive, aluminium - doped zinc oxide thin films (ZnO:Al), were prepared by radio - frequency (RF) diode sputtering from ZnO+2 wt. % Al2O3 target on Corning glass 7059 substrates. The RF power and the substrate temperature modified their structure and surface morphology, electrical and optical parameters. The XRD patterns reveal only one sharp (002) diffraction line, providing a clear evidence for highly textured ZnO films, with a preferential c-axis orientation. Maximum intensity and the lowest full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) (3.26°) of the ΩM-scan were obtained for ZnO:Al deposited at 800 W RF power and 200°C substrate temperature. The developed ZnO:Al have a low electrical resistivity (2 × 10−3 Ωcm) and high optical transmittance (> 82 %, including Corning glass substrate) in the visible region. The direct optical band gap (~ 3.3 eV) increases with the increasing carrier concentration.


The Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian for a collection of N spin-1/2 sites is viewed, as favored by Professor Matsen, to be an element of the group algebra of the symmetric group L N . Several computationally tractable, variational group-algebraic approximations for the finite-temperature density matrix are made so as to minimize the Gibb's free-energy functional. Relations to previous quite differently motivated approximations are identified, though improvements are noted with the present approach


Abstract:  In responding to the needs of the material characterization community, the recently developed mesh‐free random grid method (MFRGM) has been exhibiting very promising characteristics of accuracy, adaptability, implementation flexibility and efficiency. To address the design specification of the method according to an intended application, we are presenting a sensitivity analysis that aids into determining the effects of the experimental and computational parameters characterizing the MFRGM in terms of its performance. The performance characteristics of the MFRGM are mainly its accuracy, sensitivity, smoothing properties and efficiency. In this paper, we are presenting a classification of a set of parameters associated with the characteristics of the experimental set‐up and the random grid applied on the specimen under measurement. The applied sensitivity analysis is based on synthetic images produced from analytic solutions of specific isotropic and orthotropic elasticity boundary value problems. This analysis establishes the trends in the performance characteristics of the MFRGM that will enable the selection of the user controlled variables for a desired performance specification.


It is shown that the radiation hardness for light emission in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is substantially improved at low temperatures. This is demonstrated through measurements of light emission at room and low temperatures from amphoteric Si-doped gallium arsenide, gallium arsenide quantum well and gallium nitride quantum well LEDs following proton irradiation at room and low temperatures. The enhanced low-temperature radiation hardness for light emission in these LEDs is explained in terms of an improvement in radiative efficiency due to a reduction of nonradiative transition probability at low temperatures. Further, lattice displacement damage in these devices due to irradiation at room temperature is compared with the corresponding damage at low temperatures. Our results show that the amount of lattice damage is dependent on irradiation temperature.


In this Journal (1918, iii, 227) Bullock and Rohdenburg have criticized some reports published during the last years, concerning the experimental production of malignant tumors (Fibiger, Yamagiwa and Ichikawa) and tumor-like formations (Stahr). Bullock and Rohdenburg emphasize that An analysis of the several reports mentioned reveals a number of assertions common to each, which are at variance with the recognized laws of malignant tumor growth, while, at the same time, it brings out points which cast a certain amount of doubt upon the authors9 interpretation of their results. In the following I shall reply to Bullock and Rohdenburg9s criticism, though only in so far as it concerns the investigations on Spiroptera carcinoma communicated by me. I can so much the less avoid occupying myself with the assertions of these authors as their untenability seems to some extent to be due to an insufficient acquaintance with or a misapprehension of the details of my investigations of 1913 and 1914 (1–4). My most recently concluded investigations (8–11), which corroborate the results of the former, were not published until after the appearance of the authors9 paper and so could not be known to them. Bullock and Rohdenburg base part of their criticism on a comparison between the result of my investigations on Spiroptera carcinoma and the result of investigations carried out by themselves on the effect of mechanical, chemical, or mechanicochemical irritants1 on the stomach of the rat.


The classical plane Couette flow, plane Poiseuille flow, and pipe Poiseuille flow share some universal 3D steady coherent structure in the form of "streak-roll-critical layer" [22] [21] [20]. As the Reynolds number approaches infinity, the steady coherent structure approaches a 3D limiting shear of the form (U(y, z), 0, 0) in velocity variables. All such 3D shears are steady states of the 3D Euler equations. This raises the importance of investigating the stability of such inviscid 3D shears in contrast to the classical Rayleigh theory of inviscid 2D shears. Several general criteria of stability for such inviscid 3D shears are derived. In the Appendix, an argument is given to show that a 2D limiting shear can only be the classical laminar shear.


The pandas library has become the de facto library for data wrangling in the Python programming language. However, inconsistencies in the pandas application programming interface (API), while idiomatic due to historical use, prevent use of expressive, fluent programming idioms that enable self-documenting pandas code. Here, we introduce pyjanitor, an open source Python package that extends the pandas API with such idioms. We describe its design and implementation of the package, provide usage examples from a variety of domains, and discuss the ways that the pyjanitor project has enabled the inclusion of first-time contributors to open source projects.


This paper provides a summary of our recent work on robust speech recognition based on a new statistical approach - the probabilistic union model. In particular, we considered speech recognition involving partial corruption in frequency bands, in time duration, and further in feature components. In all these situations, we assumed no prior knowledge about the corrupting noise, e.g. its band location, occurring time and statistical distribution. The new model characterizes these partial, unknown corruptions based on the union of random events. For the evaluation, we have conducted isolated-word recognition tasks by using both a speaker-independent E-set database and the TiDigits database, each being corrupted by various types of additive noise with unknown, time-varying statistics. The results indicate that the probabilistic union model offers robustness to partial corruption in speech utterances, requiring little or no knowledge about the noise characteristics.


Background Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare, inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. It is characterized by the xanthogranulomatous infiltration of tissues by foamy, CD 68+, CD1a-, S-100- macrophages [1]. ECD almost invariably involves long bones but frequently features extra-skeletal involvements. Cardiovascular and neurological ECD are associated with the worst prognosis [2]. Objectives To compare the role of echocardiography and cardiac cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in detecting the heart involvement and functional impairment in ECD. Methods Eight sequential patients with histologically-proven ECD, underwent echocardiography and morphological and ECG-gated MRI with mitral/tricuspid transvalvular flow evaluation and study of myocardium viability after infusion of paramagnetic contrast agent Results Echocardiography disclosed a cardiac mass in 4 out of 8 studied patients (50%). Detected mass had no specific ultrasound feature, except for right atrioventricular sulcus localization. The mean major diameter of the cardiac mass was 31.00 mm (range 25.00 – 37.00 mm). Pericardial effusion was detected in 6 out of 8 patients (75%), always circumpherential. Mean pericardial effusion at its greatest width was 17.60 mm (range 5.00 – 30.00 mm). Left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV) morphology and function were within the normal range. Cardiac magnetic resonance, disclosed the presence of cardiac ECD involvement in 8 out of 8 studied patients (100%). In all cases a cardiac mass was present, involving the right atrioventricular sulcus, right atrial free wall and right coronary artery origin. Mean major mass diameter was 26.25 mm (range 15.00 – 40.00 mm). Cardiac mass had distinctive radiological features in all cases: dishomogeneous signal intensity in STIR sequences, with focal areas of hyperintensity consistent with active inflammation, due to focal infiltration by pathological, xantogranulomatous tissue and hypointense areas consistent with fibrosis; rapid enhancement during perfusion sequences and peculiar high signal intensity in late enhancement sequences. At cine MRI pericardial effusion was circumpherential in all cases, and its mean greatest width was 20.00 mm (range 10.00 – 50.00 mm). All patients had pericardial thickening, mean thickness was 4.38 mm (range 3.00 – 9.00 mm). RV EDV was reduced in 6 out 8 patients (75%), mean value was 110.14 mL. RV diastolic function was impaired in all patients. LV EF was within normal range in all patients, mean EF was 63% (range 53 – 78%). LV EDV was reduced in 4 out of 8 patients (50%) and increased in 1 patient. Conclusions Echocardiography is less sensitive than cardiac MRI (50% vs 100%) in detecting pathological tissue. This is probably due to the right chambers localization, usually worse studied with a trans-thoracic approach, besides the intrinsic limits of trans-thoracic ultrasound primarily operator dependence and risk of suboptimal acoustic window. Cardiac MRI is a fundamental tool for monitoring patients affected by ECD and eventually for modifying patients therapy. References Haroche J et al. Erdheim-Chester disease. Rheum Dis Clin North Am 2013 Haroche J et al. Cardiovascular involvement, an overlooked feature of Erdheim-Chester disease: report of 6 new cases and a literature review. Medicine 2004 Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Health to LD (GR-2009-1594586). Disclosure of Interest : None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.4490


Intestinal stenosis of Garré is a rare condition caused by a benign fibrous bowel stricture due to complicated strangulated hernia. We present a case of intestinal stenosis of Garré associated with right femoral hernia in an 85‐year‐old woman. The patient visited our hospital with a 2‐day history of vomiting. Her abdomen was slightly distended. A mass was palpated in the right groin region. CT showed prolapse of the small intestine in the right groin region. An incarcerated right femoral hernia was diagnosed and manually reduced. Thirteen days later, the patient complained of abdominal pain. CT revealed dilatation and caliber change in part of the small bowel, indicating a small bowel obstruction due to intestinal stenosis of Garré. Laparoscopic release of the bowel obstruction and femoral hernia repair via an anterior approach were performed simultaneously. No recurrence of femoral hernia or bowel obstruction was noted at the 15‐month follow‐up.


Arabic script character recognition remains a challenging task due to its cursive nature. The aim of feature extraction from the input strokes reduces the input pattern to avoid complexities while maintaining the high accuracy. Feature extraction in pattern recognition problems involves the extraction of unique and salient patterns from the preprocessed data in order to enhance the discriminatory power and reduce the data for classification and it is crucial for the success of recognition system. We proposed feature level fusion for Arabic character recognition. We extracted structural and directional features for handwritten stroke and fused these feature to form more discriminant feature matrix. The feature level fusion for handwritten character recognition provides considerable gain in accuracy. The fusion of feature is also suitable for other handwritten tasks i.e. personality determination, writer identification where the more variations are required. Keywords—Feature Extraction, Arabic Character Recognition, Feature Fusion.


Clinical practice in psychiatry is burdened with the increased demand for healthcare services and the scarce resources available. New paradigms of health data powered with machine learning techniques could open the possibility to improve clinical workflow in critical stages of clinical assessment and treatment in psychiatry. In this work, we propose a machine learning system capable of predicting, detecting, and explaining individual changes in symptoms of patients with Schizophrenia by using behavioral digital phenotyping data. We forecast symptoms of patients with an error rate below 10%. The system detects decreases in symptoms using changepoint algorithms and uses counterfactual explanations as a recourse in a simulated continuous monitoring scenario in healthcare. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into the performance and potential of counterfactual explanations, predictive models, and change-point detection within a simulated clinical workflow. These findings lay the foundation for further research to explore additional facets of the workflow, aiming to enhance its effectiveness and applicability in real-world healthcare settings. By leveraging these components, the goal is to develop an actionable, interpretable, and trustworthy integrative decision support system that combines real-time clinical assessments with sensor-based inputs.


Silicon carbide fiber (SCS-6) reinforced-reaction-formed silicon carbide matrix composites were fabricated using a reaction-forming process. Silicon-2 at. % niobium alloy was used as an infiltrant instead of pure silicon to reduce the amount of free silicon in the matrix after reaction forming. The matrix primarily consists of silicon carbide with a bimodal grain size distribution. Minority phases dispersed within the matrix are niobium disilicide (NbSi_2), carbon, and silicon. Fiber pushout tests on these composites determined a debond stress of ∼67 MPa and a frictional stress of ∼60 MPa. A typical four-point flexural strength of the composite is 297 MPa (43.1 KSi). This composite shows tough behavior through fiber pullout.


The guided and leaky modes of a planar dielectric waveguide are eigensolutions of a singular Sturm-Liouville problem. The modes are the roots of a characteristic function which can be found with several methods that have been introduced in the past. However, the evaluation of the characteristic function suffers from numerical instabilities, and hence it is often difficult to find all modes in a given range. Here a new variational formulation is introduced, which, after discretization, leads either to a quadratic or a quartic eigenvalue problem. The modes can be computed with standard software for polynomial eigenproblems. Numerical examples show that the method is numerically stable and guarantees a complete set of solutions. AMS subject classifications: 65N25, 65F15, 35J20


Summary Homogeneous red clayey sand sheets, averaging 5 m thick, cover a discontinuous area totalling 8800 km2 in the Karonga section of the Malawi Rift Valley floor. The sheets accumulated in a terrestrial environment, sedimentation was slow and gradual, and fossil termite mounds occur at the base of the sheet in one area. Topographic considerations rule out deposition by overland flow, and texture is incompatible with aeolian sedimentation. Modern termites (Macrotermes falciger) are transporting sediment from beneath the sand sheets onto the ground surface. The textures of fossil and modern Macrotermes mound deposits are very similar to the textures of the sand sheets. It is concluded that the sand sheets have accumulated through vertical transfer of sediment by Macrotermes. Scrutiny of the literature suggests that similar deposits may be widespread in African savanna and rainforest areas, both within the African Rift System and in epeirogenic basins. Equivalent sediments must occur in ancient tropical sequences since fossil termites are first recorded in the mid-Cretaceous.


Asking for the possibility of a dialogical approach to spoken as well as to written language on the basis of the founding text by Yakubinsky Uber die dialogische Rede (On Dialogical Speech), (1923).


The paper discusses a number of interconnected points concerning negation, truth, validity and the liar paradox. In particular, it discusses an argument for the dialetheic nature of the liar sentence which draws on Dummett's teleological account of truth. Though one way of formulating this fails, a different way succeeds. The paper then discusses the role of the Principle of Excluded Middle in the argument, and of the thought that truth in a model should be a model of truth.


This study was conducted to assess in detail the possible effects of some technological processes such as soaking, germination, cooking, soaking + cooking, and germination + cooking on the lipid composition of mung bean seeds of Giza 1 variety. TLC analysis of mung bean lipids showed that the phospholipids and triglycerides recorded the highest percentage among lipid fractions (32.26 and 30.10%), while the 1,3 diglycerides constituted the least percentage (2.80%) in mung bean seeds. The soaking, germination and cooking processes caused a decrease in the phospholipids, triglycerides and hydrocarbons accompanied with an increase in monoglycerides, 1,2-(2,3)-diglycerides, sterols and free fatty acids. Eleven fractions were separated from phospholipids class of the studied samples; seven of these fractions were identified. The major component of phospholipids was phosphatidyl choline, amounting to 21.30, 17.84, 16.21, 13.87, 13.20 and 11.47% of the total phospholipids in raw, soaked, germinated, raw-cooked, soaked-cooked and germinated-cooked mung bean seeds, respectively. Gas liquid chromatography of the total lipids of mung bean seeds showed that the unsaturated fatty acids represented 69.58, 64.35, 63.3, 63.16, 61.84 and 61.12%, while the levels of saturated fatty acids were low being 30.37, 34.05, 35.66, 34.64, 37.93 and 38.75% of the total fatty acids in raw, soaked, germinated, raw-cooked, soaked-cooked and germinated-cooked, respectively. The total essential fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic) represented the highest proportion of fatty acids (50.10% of the total fatty acids).


A novel climate downscaling methodology that attempts to correct climate simulation biases is proposed. By combining an advanced statistical bias correction method with a dynamical downscaling it constitutes a hybrid technique that yields nearly unbiased, high‐resolution, physically consistent, three‐dimensional fields that can be used for climate impact studies. The method is based on a prior statistical distribution correction of large‐scale global climate model (GCM) 3‐dimensional output fields to be taken as boundary forcing of a dynamical regional climate model (RCM). GCM fields are corrected using meteorological reanalyses. We evaluate this methodology over a decadal experiment. The improvement in terms of spatial and temporal variability is discussed against observations for a past period. The biases of the downscaled fields are much lower using this hybrid technique, up to a factor 4 for the mean temperature bias compared to the dynamical downscaling alone without prior bias correction. Precipitation biases are subsequently improved hence offering optimistic perspectives for climate impact studies.


Self-assembly and on-surface synthesis are vital strategies used for fabricating surface-confined 1D or 2D supramolecular nanoarchitectures with atomic precision. In many systems, the resulting structure is determined by kinetics of processes involved, i.e., reaction rate, on-surface diffusion, nucleation, and growth, all of which are typically governed by temperature. However, other external factors have been only scarcely harnessed to control the on-surface chemical reaction kinetics and self-assembly. Here, we show that a low-energy electron beam can be used to steer chemical reaction kinetics and induce the growth of molecular phases unattainable by thermal annealing. The electron beam provides a well-controlled means of promoting the elementary reaction step, i.e., deprotonation of carboxyl groups. The reaction rate linearly increases with increasing electron beam energy beyond the threshold energy of 6 eV. Our results offer the novel prospect of controlling the self-assembly, enhancing the rate of reaction steps selectively, and thus altering the kinetic rate hierarchy.


The first object I have made to explore the possibilities of image and text together exploring themes of an urban setting.

The artefact included complex cast details furthering production techniques in previous research outputs as well as being the first output of research into the application of imagery onto metal surfaces.

In 2015 this work has been purchased for the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.


The development of manganese (Mn) toxicity symptoms and its effects on the growth, nodulation, and nitrogen fixation of groundnut genotypes were examined using a quartz-sand/solution culture system. The 11 genotypes tested all accumulated considerable concentrations of manganese (1.04–3.07 mg g-1dry matter) when supplied with 15 μg Mn ml-1of nutrient solution daily. Toxicity symptoms differed between genotypes: some showed no visual effects, some produced marginal leaf spots, and others developed marginal leaf spots coupled with an inward rolling of the margins of the younger leaves. The growth of one genotype (ICG 5394) grown with inorganic nitrogen as its source of N was more severely affected by Mn toxicity than when dependent on symbiotic fixation for its nitrogen.


We provide an optimal growth spatio-temporal setting with capital accumulation and diffusion across space to study the link between economic growth triggered by capital spatio-temporal dynamics and agglomeration across space. The technology is AK, K being broad capital. The social welfare function is Benthamite. In sharp contrast to the related literature, which considers homogeneous space, we derive optimal location outcomes for any given space distributions for technology and population. Both the transitional spatio-temporal dynamics and the asymptotic spatial distributions are computed in closed form. Concerning the latter, we find, among other results, that: (i) due to inequality aversion, the consumption per capital distribution is much flatter than the distribution of capital per capita; (ii) endogenous spillovers inherent in capital spatio-temporal dynamics occur as capital distribution is much less concentrated than the (pre-specified) technological distribution; (iii) the distance to the center (or to the core) is an essential determinant of the shapes of the asymptotic distributions, that is relative location matters.


We consider linear discrete time systems with exogenous unknown disturbances where the available information is that the state and the disturbance are allowed to belong, at each time, to a given convex polyhedral set. The problem addressed is that of checking if it is possible to maintain the state evolution in a prescribed set, despite the disturbances. If it is the case, a robust control law is described.


restrain him, he ultimately proved unable to advance with anywhere near the same success as he had done in Brazil. This book should become mandatory reading for graduate students as well as faculty working on Atlantic history. The leaps Sweet is willing to make about Álvares based on anthropological research might give pause, but the rigorous approach he takes to this material furnishes a provocative methodology that cannot easily be dismissed. Particularly for scholars not well versed in the historiography of precolonial Africa, this study provides a remarkable example of how one can use Africanist material to inform the reading of written sources from the Americas and Europe. Furthermore, Sweet recognizes how the archival records of the Portuguese imperial state and the Church served to construct narratives about Álvares. The skillful prose of this work also should be a model for other historians. All in all, Domingos Álvares is an extremely challenging and valuable book. jeremy rich Marywood University


Recently, we have purified a Src-related tyrosine kinase, named Xenopus tyrosine kinase (Xyk), from oocytes of Xenopus laevis and found that the enzyme is activated within 1 min following fertilization [Sato et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 13250-13257]. A concomitant translocation of a part of the activated enzyme from the membrane fraction to the cytosolic fraction was also observed. In the present study, we show that parthenogenetic egg activation by a synthetic RGDS peptide [Y. Iwao and T. Fujimura, T. (1996) Dev. Biol. 177, 558-567], an integrin-interacting peptide, but not by electrical shock or the calcium ionophore A23187 causes the kinase activation, tyrosine phosphorylation, and translocation of Xyk. A synthetic tyrosine kinase-specific inhibitor peptide was employed to analyze the importance of the Xyk activity in egg activation. We found that the peptide inhibits the kinase activity of purified Xyk at IC50 of 8 microM. Further, egg activation induced by sperm or RGDS peptide but not by A23187 was inhibited by microinjection of the peptide. In the peptide-microinjected eggs, penetration of the sperm nucleus into the egg cytoplasm and meiotic resumption in the egg were blocked. Indirect immunofluorescence study demonstrates that Xyk is exclusively localized to the cortex of Xenopus eggs, indicating that Xyk can function in close proximity to the sperm-egg or RGDS peptide-egg interaction site. Taken together, these data suggest that the tyrosine kinase Xyk plays an important role in the early events of Xenopus egg activation in a manner independent or upstream of calcium signaling.


Reports of in vitro resistance of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) to zidovudine (AZT) have raised concerns about the development of resistance to other dideoxynucleosides in clinical use. To address this, we have developed a screening assay which supports the growth of clinical isolates and have applied this to a series of paired isolates from patients entered into a phase I trial of didanosine (DDI). Thirteen patients (10 with AIDS, 3 with AIDS-related complex) who had been exposed to AZT for a mean of 6.5 months (range, 1 to 13 months) were treated with DDI at 750 mg/day. Paired isolates were obtained pretherapy and after a mean of 58 weeks (range, 21 to 90) of DDI therapy by coculture of peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes (PBLs) with phytohemagglutinin-stimulated donor PBLs. Isolates were passaged only one additional time in PBLs and then tested in parallel in a microtiter assay with phytohemagglutinin-stimulated donor PBLs as targets. PBLs were infected with 10(5) 50% tissue culture infectious doses per 10(7) cells and exposed to DDI (1 to 50 microM) or AZT (0.01 to 100 microM), and supernatants were assayed for the HIV p24 antigen at 7 days postinfection. Control AZT-susceptible and resistant isolates were included. The median pre- and posttherapy DDI susceptibilities of the 13 pairs of isolates were 10.0 microM (range, 1 to 25 microM) and 17.5 microM (range, 2.5 to 50 microM), respectively (P = 0.036; Wilcoxon signed-rank test). These studies thus indicated that (i) the susceptibility to DDI tends to mildly decrease with drug exposure; (ii) the susceptibility to AZT improves with time off AZT; (iii) baseline susceptibilities to DDI have a wide range, and the CD4 response may correlate with the initial susceptibility; and (iv) a PBL-based microtiter assay is useful for screening clinical isolated for dideoxynucleoside susceptibility profiles.


Background: Covid-19 pandemic had been a disastrous catastrophe on human race affecting different groups of population differently. Pregnancy is a condition which too has been affected by Covid-19. The present study aims to examine the research productivity of Covid-19 and pregnancy. Methods: Keywords pertaining to "Covid-19" and "Pregnancy" were used in search string in Scopus database for the period 2020-21. Data regarding publications growth, productive countries, authors and institutions, high cited papers and significant keywords was retrieved to analyze results. Results: The search retrieved 2945 global publications for the period 2020-21. The USA, UK and China were the most productive countries (with 28.96%, 11.27% and 9.3% global share) on "Covid-19 and Pregnancy". The 613 organizations and 953 authors participated in global research on the subject, with top 20 most productive organizations and authors contributing 26.38% and 9.68% global publication share and 53.64% and 38.53% global citation share respectively. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, Tongji Medical College, China and Harvard Medical School, USA were the most productive organizations (with 68, 64 and 52 publications) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China (45.88 and 2.12), Tongji Medical College, China (44.96 and 2.08) and University of Health Sciences, Turkey (22.38 and 1.03) led the world as most impactful organizations in terms of citation impact and relative citation index. A Khalil (23 papers), C. Gyamfi-Bannerman (19 papers) and D. Goffman and I.C. Poon (17 papers each) were the most productive authors and H. Yang (197.4 and 4.66), l. Feng (105.12 and 2.5) and D.A. Schwartz (74.82 and 1.77) were the most impactful authors. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (94 papers), International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (85 papers) and European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology (66 papers) were the most productive journals in global research on "Covid-19 and Pregnancy". JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association (45.52), Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica (34.22) and Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (25.95) were leading most impactful journals. The 61 (2.07%) out of 2945 global publications on "Covid-19 and Pregnancy" registered 102 to 1571 citations per paper and they together received 14620 citations averaging 239.67 citations per paper. These 61 publications are assumed as high cited publications and involve 153 authors, 116 organizations and published in 43 journals.


Objective The aim of this validation study was to assess the completeness of the registrations of chest X-rays (CXR) in two different versions of the Danish National Patient Registry (DNPR). Material and methods We included electronic record data on CXR performed on patients aged 40 to 99 years from nine radiology departments covering 20 Danish hospitals. From each department, we included data from three randomly selected weeks between 2004 and 2011 (reference standard). In two versions of the DNPR from the State Serum Institute (SSI) and Statistics Denmark, respectively, we investigated the proportion of registered CXR compared to the reference standard. Furthermore, we compared the completeness of the recorded data according to the responsible department (main department). Results We identified 11,235 patients and 12,513 CXR in the reference standard. The data from the SSI contained 12,265 (98%) CXR, whereas the data from Statistics Denmark comprised 9,151 (73.1%) CXR. The completeness of the SSI data was fairly constant across years, radiology departments, medical specialties, and age groups. The data from Statistics Denmark was almost complete in 2011 (95.8%). However, for the remaining study period, the data with radiology departments registered as the main department were lacking in the version from Statistics Denmark, and so the overall completeness was 73.1%. Conclusion The completeness of CXR registrations varied between 98% and 73% depending on the information source, and this should be considered when investigating radiology services in the basis of DNPR.


Power control has been an important issue in multiple access systems allowing more users to share the system resources. The capacity of the WCDMA system is limited by the total interference, called multiple access interference (MAI). An efficient power control algorithm is always required to improve the system performance. In this paper, we propose a distributed, first order power control algorithm. The proposed algorithm uses an exponential function with a modified form of the LMS algorithm in order to achieve a better speed of convergence. We examine the proposed algorithm for time varying multipath Rayleigh fading environment. We compare the performance of the proposed algorithm and the 3GPP standard algorithm. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves better convergence and saves on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) required to achieve a certain performance. We also demonstrate that the proposed algorithm works well for different mobile speeds with a continuously changing channel.


In order to quantitatively assess the motor performance characteristics of 14 patients with congenital myotonia, the reaction time, speed of movement, synergy of different muscle groups and accuracy were measured. The Human Performance Measurement/Basic Elements of Performance device was used for recordings. Warned simple and choice reaction times (SRT, CRT) were significantly longer in the myotonic patients than in the controls. SRTs, consisting of one constant visual stimulus followed by a single movement response of the upper extremities (patients vs. controls) were 218 +/- 48 ms (mean +/- SD) and 172 +/- 12 (p = 0.0038). In the lower extremities the corresponding results were 293 +/- 46 and 239 +/- 24 (p = 0.0018). 1-CRTs, consisting of the upper extremities response to one randomized light signal (patients vs. controls) were 265 +/- 45 and 218 +/- 26 (p = 0.0069), and those of the lower extremities 337 +/- 73 and 279 +/- 39 (p = 0.0107), respectively. 2-CRTs, consisting of two possible visual stimuli in randomized order followed by a movement response of the upper extremities (patients vs. controls), were 308 +/- 54 and 249 +/- 33 (p = 0.0018), and those of the lower extremities 387 /+- 53 and 323 /+- 46 (p = 0.0028), respectively. We did not find any significant difference between the patient and the control groups in speed of movement, synergy of different muscle groups or accuracy. Nor was any significant correlation between the motor performance disability and the disease severity found.


Abstract 1269 Poster Board I-291 SHP1 is a protein tyrosine phosphatase with tumor suppressor function. SHP-1 downregulation has been observed in hematological malignancies. We showed HTLV-1 transformed cells have dense SHP-1 P2 promoter DNA methylation compared with HTLV-1 negative T-cell leukemia/lymphoma cells, and HTLV-1 Tax is responsible for the promoter silencing. To investigate the epigenetic mechanisms involved in SHP-1 P2 promoter regulation, we analyzed and compared expression of SHP-1 mRNA as well as histone code and transcription factors involved in the P2 promoter regulation in normal CD4+ T-cells, HTLV-1 negative T-cell lines and HTLV-1 transformed cell lines. Expression of SHP-1 gene from its ubiquitous P1 promoter and hematopoeitic cell specific P2 promoter were first analyzed in normal CD4+ T-cells freshly isolated from healthy donors, HTLV-1 negative T-cell leukemia/lymphoma cell lines (Jurkat, CEM-T4, SupT1, MOLT4 and HUT78), HTLV-1 transformed cell lines (MT2, MT4, B1, C5, HUT102, C10/MJ and OS-P2), CML cell line (K562) and epithelial cell lines (Hela and 293T) through real time PCR designed to distinguish SHP-1 (I) from (II) transcripts. Upon normalizing the absolute copy number of SHP-1 transcript to that of GAPDH, the results indicate that HTLV-1 transformed cell lines express significantly lower level of SHP-1 (II) compared with that from HTLV-1 negative T-cell lines (mean 17.9 vs 666.6, p=0.0476) while their SHP-1 (I) expression were similar (mean 9.4 vs 7.2, p=0.5804). Note that CD4+ T-cells from healthy donors have much higher SHP-1 (I) (mean 606.8) and (II) (mean 7414.7) expression. This result suggests HTLV-1 transformation leads to specific repression of the SHP-1 P2 promoter. DNA methyltransferase inhibitor decitabine (DAC) was tested for its effect on SHP-1 expression restoration in SHP-1 P2 promoter DNA methylation positive cell lines. DAC can effectively restore SHP-1 mRNA expression in HTLV-1 negative T-cells and CML cells but with little to no SHP-1 restoration both at mRNA and protein level in HTLV-1 transformed cells, indicating additional factors are involved in SHP-1 silencing in HTLV-1 transformed cells. In order to further evaluate SHP-1 P2 promoter regulation, ChIP assay in combination with real time PCR analyses were performed with chromatin isolated from CD4+ T-cells, MOLT4, HUT78 and B1 cells. As expected, amount of Sp1 and RNA polymerase II binding to SHP-1 P2 promoter are proportional to the expression level of SHP-1 (II). The binding profile for DNA methyltransferase DNMT3a, DNMT3b, methyl DNA binding protein MBD1 and MBD3 were studied. DNMT3a and MBD1 associate with the P2 promoter only in B1 cells. At the histone level, although histone deacetylation at H3K9 and H3K27 was observed in both HUT78 and B1 cells, presence of HDAC1 on SHP-1 P2 promoter was only observed in B1 cells. In addition, MBD3, a subunit of the NuRD multisubunit complex containing nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylase activities, also preferentially bind to the P2 promoter in B1 cells. Interestingly, H3K27 is specifically tri-methylated in B1 cells, which is accompanied with the presence of EZH2 and other factors involved in histone methylation. It is thus likely that both histone deacetylation and tri-methylation are responsible for SHP-1 silencing in HTLV-1 transformed cells. Combining the results from these observations and our previous reports, we propose a "three steps" SHP-1 silencing model in T-cell neoplasia. First silencing step (represented by MOLT4) is mainly mediated by dissociation of transcription factors from SHP-1 P2 promoter, and low level of SHP-1 (II) expression is still observed. Second step (represented by HUT78) is DNA methylation mediated by DNMT3b and deacetylation at H3K9 and H3K27, in which SHP-1 (II) is very little, but the silencing is still reversible. Third step (represented by B1) is additional DNA methylation by DNMT3a, H3K9 and H3K27 deacetylation by HDAC1 and MBD3, and H3K27 tri-methylation and binding of EZH2, in which SHP-1 P2 promoter is tightly silenced irreversibly. Our observation showed SHP-1 epigenetic silencing mechanisms is different between HTLV-1 transformed cells and HTLV-1 negative cells, which could contribute to establish a novel treatment strategy for ATL. Presenter9s Current address: Division of Hematology and Oncology, Ehime Prefectural Central Hospital, Matsuyama, Japan Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In order to evaluate the productivity and green forage quality of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench cv. Corpoica JJT-18 in monoculture and intercropped with corn and beans, a trial was conducted in the Caribbean region of Colombia, in which five treatments were evaluated consisting in sowing S. bicolor cv. Corpoica JJT-18 in monoculture and intercropped with Zea mays L. and Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. A completely randomized design was used with three repetitions. The green forage yield of S. bicolor in monoculture (77,92 t ha-1) was significantly higher than that of corn (61,04 t ha-1), and no significant increases were observed because of intercropping. On the other hand, the total green forage productivity in the intercropped systems was 84,58; 86,67 and 82,92 t ha-1 in sorghum/beans, sorghum/corn and sorghum/corn/beans, respectively. The bromatological analyses indicated that the green forage produced by sweet sorghum showed a nutritional quality similar to corn in the CP, NDF and ADF content, and higher in soluble solids. On the contrary, in situ degradability and dry matter content were higher in the green forage of corn. It is concluded that S. bicolor is a viable alternative for substituting corn in green forage production systems, for animal supplementation in the Colombian Caribbean.


Kamel, M. Y. (Michigan State University, East Lansing), and R. L. Anderson. Metabolism of d-mannose in Aerobacter aerogenes: evidence for a cyclic pathway. J. Bacteriol. 92:1689–1697. 1966.—Evidence is presented which suggests a cyclic pathway for the constitutive utilization of d-mannose in extracts of Aerobacter aerogenes PRL-R3. d-Mannose is phosphorylated with d-glucose-6-phosphate to yield d-mannose-6-phosphate and d-glucose. d-Glucose-6-phosphate may be regenerated by isomerization of d-mannose-6-phosphate through d-fructose-6-phosphate, or by phosphorylation of d-glucose with adenosine-5′-triphosphate. The pathway involves the participation of four constitutive enzymes: d-glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, d-mannose-6-phosphate isomerase, a stereospecific d-glucokinase, and a phosphotransferase which phosphorylates d-mannose with d-glucose-6-phosphate, acetyl phosphate, or carbamyl phosphate. The absence of d-mannokinase (adenosine-5′-triphosphate:d-mannose phosphotransferase) activity in extracts of this organism suggests that the pathway may be of functional significance. Also, the pathway accounts for an apparent 2-epimerization of d-mannose to d-glucose that was observed in extracts.


A field biochemical epidemiology study was conducted using the Michigan cohort consisting of 51 rural residents exposed to polybrominated biphenyls (PBB). The study had three major objectives: a) to determine the serum half-life of the major PBB congener, hexabromobiphenyl (HBB), in the human, b) to determine if the PBB-exposed subjects had elevated cytochrome P-450I function as determined by the caffeine breath test (CBT) and the caffeine urinary metabolite ratio (CMR), and c) to determine the applicability of the CBT and CMR in field studies. PBB serum levels were detected in 36 of the 51 PBB-exposed subjects. The serum half-life of HBB was determined by comparing the current serum HBB values to the subject's previous serum values obtained 5 to 8 years earlier. The median HBB half-life was 12 years (range 4-97 years). The CBT and CMR were elevated in the subjects exposed to PBBs as compared to the values obtained from urban nonsmokers and were similar to those found in adults who smoke. A gender effect was seen in the PBB-exposed subjects, the median CBT and CMR values of the females being lower than the values of males. There was a correlation between the CBT and the HBB serum values (r2 = 0.2, p = 0.01) but not between CMR and HBB serum values. The CBT and CMR were easily conducted in the field and appear to be useful metabolic probes of cytochrome P-450I activity in human environmental toxicology.


Using a cued conjunction search task, Anderson, Heinke, and Humphreys (2010) demonstrated larger effects from cueing target colour than from cueing target orientation. In this study, we separated the implicit (nonexpectation-dependent) and explicit (expectation-dependent) effects of orientation and colour visual cues. In Experiment 1, we replicated the original findings for short cue durations (100–200 ms), demonstrating that cues matching the physical property of the target on 80% of trials exert a rapid effect on search. These early cueing effects on reaction times were supported by evidence of guidance from cues on early eye movements. Experiment 2 introduced a feature to the cue that randomly matched the colour or orientation of the target. When cue orientation was predictive, there were strong implicit effects based on whether the colour of the cue and target matched. When cue colour was predictive, there were only weak effects from the cue's orientation. Implicit effects from cue colour remained when orientation-predictive cues were used and colour was unlikely to predict the target (Experiment 3). The data suggest that strong effects of colour cueing result from a combination of implicit and explicit processes, whereas effects from orientation cues are largely limited to the explicit guidance of visual search.


In this study, we examined the effects of ethanolic extracts obtained from the various parts of Liquidambar orientalis , Buxus sempervirens , Alnus glutinosa , Artemisia absinthium , Aesculus hippocastanum and Rhus coriaria on the egg-laying behavior of the potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata , under laboratory conditions at 25±2°C and 60±5 % relative humidity, and tested the antifeedant and toxic effects of the two extracts leading to the smallest number of egg-laying, Liquidambar orientalis and Buxus sempervirens , with a field study. The field study showed that the average number of 6.2 larvae and 7.2 adults before treatment of the Liquidambar orientalis extract decrease to 1.2 larvae and 3.2 adults after treatment. With the use of the Buxus sempervirens extract, the 10.2 larvae and 8.4 adults that existed before the treatment were reduced to 2.6 larvae and 2.8 adults after treatment. As for the eggs laid in the plants, the control plants had 13 while Liqudambar orientalis decreased this number to 3 and Buxus sempervirens to 2. These results suggest that these two plant extracts can be used in the field as a potential alternative to chemical pesticides.


The effectiveness of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) (Glomus mosseae, Glomus etinicatum, Glomus fasciculatum and Glomus Caledonium) on plant development of soilless grown muskmelon was investigated. Plants were cultivated in a plastic house, in perlite substrate. Investigated plant growth parameters were plant height, stem diameter, number of leaf, fresh weights of root, stem and leaves. Results showed that all mycorrhiza species increased the plant growth of melon plant in comparison to non inoculated control plants. However, among AM fungi species the better plant growth was obtained with Glomus coledonium and Glomus fasciculatum.


Reliability and validity of MMSE were explored in a sample of 122 healthy, community-residing elderly volunteers between the ages of 57 and 85, who were tested with a battery of neuropsychological tests over three annual probes. Test-retest reliability ranged between .45 and .50 over a 1-year interval and was .38 over a 2-year period. Change on the MMSE of more than 5 points over a 2-year period was associated with a neurological disorder. Significant correlations were found with many neuropsychological measures, especially with a measure of verbal learning.


With so many studies of the New Deal, it is difficult to imagine anyone saying something new about this critical period in American politics, yet Suzanne Mettler has managed to do so. Bringing the gender biases of social policy boldly into the foreground, Mettler retells the story of the formation and implementation of New Deal social policies from a fresh perspective. Surpassing prior studies that concentrate on the gendered notions of the policymakers (such as the assumption of a male breadwinner), Mettler reveals how ostensibly gender neutral debates concerning policy design produced gendered outcomes nevertheless. In particular, Mettler demonstrates that New Deal policies consigned citizens to the governance of either national or state authorities on the basis of gender and points out the fundamental significance of this split. Whereas white male wage earners benefited from the national administration of uniform social policies, most women and minority men were indirectly excluded from these national policies and left under the jurisdiction of parochial and illiberal state governments, thereby dividing citizens. Instead of treating women as independent and rights-bearing citizens, state-administered programs treated beneficiaries as needing "supervision and protection" through a variety of invasive regulations. Incorporating women into the polity at the level of state government, Mettler contends, produced a distinctly inferior form of citizenship. To demonstrate her argument, Mettler presents a rich historical description of the enactment and implementation of Old Age Insurance (OAI), Old Age Assistance (OAA), Unemployment Insurance (UI), Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA).


Smart composite material-MRF's rheological properties such as viscosity and shear modulus can vary when subjected to different magnetic fields. This paper established the vibration model of the smart composite beam featuring MRF. The vibration analysis was finished under different magnetic field strengths using the method of complex stiffness. The experiment was performed to validate the theoretical predicted vibration responses. From both studies, the natural frequencies and loss factors of the MRF beam were shifted to a higher lever when the applied magnetic field increases. From the findings of the analysis, it is observed that MRF presents vibration control capabilities.


The relationship between mistress and maid is curiously intimate yet bounded by class. Employers and their servants are caught in a dynamic of dominance and submission, in which they practice mutual surveillance. Yet the relationship may also evoke models of loyalty, devotion, and the possibility, in fiction at least, of female alliance. On the comparatively rare occasions that servants feature at all in Victorian fiction, these dynamics lend a homoerotic dimension to the cross-class relationship between mistress and maid. The positions of mistress and maid bring two women together under the same roof while separating them by class, thus providing a framework for a fictional exploration for yearning, desire, unrequited love, or sometimes union. Alternatively, a queer relationship may be obscured by the guise of employer and servant. Indeed, the mistress-maid stories discussed here often involve masquerade in some form, including cross-class and cross-gender disguises.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the impact of intrapartum analgesia on infant feeding at hospital discharge.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort.

SETTING
Maternity unit of a UK district general hospital.

POPULATION
A random sample of 425 healthy primiparae delivering healthy singleton babies at term in 2000.

METHODS
A random sample of primiparae delivering term neonates was identified from the birth register. We retrieved and analysed the corresponding joint midwifery/obstetric case notes.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Infant feeding method at discharge from hospital.

RESULTS
Women [190/424 (45%)] were exclusively bottle feeding their babies at discharge from hospital. No one commenced breastfeeding after hospital discharge. Regression analysis revealed that the main determinants of bottle feeding were as follows: maternal age [odds ratio (OR) 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.85-0.95 per year]; occupation (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.40-0.99 for each category, unemployed, manual, non-manual); antenatal feeding intentions (OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.080-0.19 for each category, bottle feeding, undecided, breastfeeding); caesarean section (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.13-0.47, caesarean or vaginal delivery); and dose of fentanyl administered intrapartum (OR 1.004, 95% CI 1.000-1.008, 90% CI 1.001-1.007 for each microgram administered, range 8-500 mug).

CONCLUSIONS
A dose-response relationship between fentanyl and artificial feeding has not been reported elsewhere. When well-established determinants of infant feeding are accounted for, intrapartum fentanyl may impede establishment of breastfeeding, particularly at higher doses.


The influence of multiple intravenous system factors on the time required to deliver a drug dose was evaluated in vitro using a factorial study design. The study factors included (1) 5 intraluminal tubing diameters, (2) 2 intravenous tubing positions, (3) 2 intravenous infusion rates, and (4) 2 intravenous tubing lengths. For each intravenous system that represented the respective combination of study factors, a 1-ml dose of 14C-labeled potassium penicillin G was administered and the effusate was collected over time. A liquid scintillation technique was used to quantitate the amount of drug delivered. In-line pressures that resulted from the experimental conditions were measured in order to examine for correlations between in-line pressure and alterations in drug delivery time. Analysis of variance and stepwise procedures were used to determine significance of these factors on drug delivery time. It was determined that complex fluid dynamics resulting from the combined influences of tubing diameter, tubing length and infusion rate appears to have a significant influence on drug delivery time. It is important to use efficient intravenous systems for intravenous therapy in order to predict and control intravenous drug delivery.


Effective delivery of therapeutics to tumors is generally hampered by the limited penetration of biological barriers imposed by the tumor microenvironment. Despite the broad applications of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) for intracellular delivery of therapeutics across membrane bilayers, the discovery of novel CPPs with enhanced tumor tissue permeability remains largely unexplored. Herein, we identified two short stapled CPPs with aromatic cross-links that confer superior dual-penetration in tumor cells and tissues over their linear counterparts. This work may benefit the future applications of constrained CPPs as powerful molecular transporters to access deeper tumor tissues.


Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies (CBT) are among the first-line interventions for major depressive disorder (MDD), and a significant number of studies indicate their efficacy in the treatment of this disorder. However, differential effects of various forms of CBT have seldom been analyzed in the same experimental design. On the basis of data collected in a randomized clinical trial comparing the efficacy of rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT), cognitive therapy (CT), and pharmacotherapy (SSRI) in the treatment of MDD, the present article investigates the theory of change advanced by REBT and CT. Measures included to test the two theories of change assess three classes of cognitions: (a) automatic thoughts, (b) dysfunctional attitudes, and (c) irrational beliefs. The results indicate that REBT and CT (and also pharmacotherapy) indiscriminately affect the three classes of cognitions. On the long term (follow-up), a change in implicit demandingness seems more strongly associated with reduced depression and relapse prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).


We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2019stc (=ZTF19acbonaa), an unusual Type Ic supernova (SN Ic) at a redshift of z = 0.117. SN 2019stc exhibits a broad double-peaked light curve, with the first peak having an absolute magnitude of M r = −20.0 mag, and the second peak, about 80 rest-frame days later, M r = −19.2 mag. The total radiated energy is large, E rad ≈ 2.5 × 1050 erg. Despite its large luminosity, approaching those of Type I superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), SN 2019stc exhibits a typical SN Ic spectrum, bridging the gap between SLSNe and SNe Ic. The spectra indicate the presence of Fe-peak elements, but modeling of the first light-curve peak with radioactive heating alone leads to an unusually high nickel mass fraction of f Ni ≈ 0.31 (M Ni ≈ 3.2 M ⊙). Instead, if we model the first peak with a combined magnetar spin-down and radioactive heating model we find a better match with M ej ≈ 4 M ⊙, a magnetar spin period of P spin ≈ 7.2 ms, and magnetic field of B ≈ 1014 G, and f Ni ≲ 0.2 (consistent with SNe Ic). The prominent second peak cannot be naturally accommodated with radioactive heating or magnetar spin-down, but instead can be explained as circumstellar interaction with ≈0.7 M ⊙ of hydrogen-free material located ≈400 au from the progenitor. Accounting for the ejecta mass, circumstellar shell mass, and remnant neutron star mass, we infer a CO core mass prior to explosion of ≈6.5 M ⊙. The host galaxy has a metallicity of ≈0.26 Z ⊙, low for SNe Ic but consistent with SLSNe. Overall, we find that SN 2019stc is a transition object between normal SNe Ic and SLSNe.


As Islam moves to the center of Turkey's public life, an opportunity emerges to explore how Islamic knowledge is transmitted through the discursive practice of pious reading circles known in Turkish as sohbet (conversation). Constituting a ritualistic practice of Turkish Muslims who are inspired by the influential faith community leader, Fethullah Gulen, this article investigates how sohbet is practiced by a group of middle class housewives in Ankara. In so doing, the article addresses the meanings and interpretations that pious women ascribe to the reading of religiously oriented texts, and to discussions on prayer, family, and community that take place at sohbet. It also explores how new Islamic subjectivities are fashioned, how Islamic knowledge is reclaimed, and how spirituality is integrated by women into their roles as mothers and wives. Methodologically anchored upon ethnography, this article concludes that the distinctive features of sohbet in the so-called Gulen community, among other effects, facilitate social coherence, and subsequently, a greater capacity for women to synthesize their experience with modernity and tradition.


The techniques for compounding a 99mTc-sulfur colloid (99mTc minicolloid) and imaging of the lymphatic system are presented. A study comparing this small-particle radiocolloid with commercially available radiocolloids of larger particle size demonstrated the smaller to be a superior agent for lymphatic imaging, probably due to its more favorable migration through successive nodal groups. Advantages of 99mTc minicolloid include same-day imaging, lower absorbed dose, and better resolution.


Abstract
The medical record data is the patient's current record of medical records, the medical record data only being data stacked and not traced to generate useful knowledge for the hospital. This study can process the medical record data to classify the disease that occurs in sleeping sickness based on  ICD-10. The method used in this research is C4.5 algorithm method by using attribute of international disease code as attribute of destination label as many as 21 international disease group, that is: A00-B99 up to Z00-Z99. This study yields a decision of the value code, C4.5 code can represent as many as 14 attribute values of disease code objectives and data percentage that read more than 66%. The conclusion of this research is C4.5 algorithm help classify international disease code based on ICD-10 and decision tree making which can give information of any disease that often happened at hospital
 Keywords: data mining, classification, C4.5, medical records, ICD-10


Although the concept of Utopia is usually defined completely different with scientific socialism,the close correlation between Marxism and Utopianism exists definitely,this correlation also constructs a duality relationship between them.Both of Marxism and Utopianism have a function on criticizing the reality,but Marxism is more than on the critique,it is a change and practical philosophy.Modern Utopianism's view of historical progressivism had a profound impact on Marx's historical materialism,but Marx uses concrete,dialectical materialist view of historical progressivism to overcome its abstraction.


BACKGROUND
To investigate perioperative outcomes, the learning curve, and 2-year follow-up after transurethral enucleation with bipolar (TUEB) for patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

METHODS
From December 2011 to October 2016, 603 consecutive patients underwent TUEB for BPH, performed by a single surgeon. Patients were preoperatively assessed by using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality-of-life score (QOLs), serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and uroflowmetry evaluation. Intra- and post-operative outcomes were also evaluated. Early and late complications were postoperatively recorded. Patients were evaluated at 3, 12, and 24 months of follow-up by using IPSS, QOLs, and uroflowmetry evaluations. TUEB efficiency was defined as prostatic specimen weight (grams) per operative time (minute) (g/min). Differences were compared by using Student's t-test for continuous values.

RESULTS
Mean age of patients was 69.6 ± 0.26 years, and estimated prostate volume was 54.7 ± 0.90 cc. Mean operative time was 57.5 ± 1.1 minutes, and mean prostatic specimen weight was 30.5 ± 0.68 g. Overall TUEB efficiency was 0.54 ± 0.01 g/min, and it improved markedly when the experience level exceeded 50 cases. Only three patients required hospital stay (0.49%). PSA level reduction before and after operation was 82.6% ± 0.70%. Significant improvement occurred in maximum flow rate (26.7 ± 1.3 mL/s, p < 0.0001), average flow rate (15.5 ± 0.45 mL/s, p < 0.0001), IPSS (3.8 ± 0.19, p < 0.0001), and QOLs (1.0 ± 0.06, p < 0.0001) at the 2-year follow-up compared with preoperative baseline values. No patients required transfusion after TUEB.

CONCLUSIONS
TUEB represents an effective and a safe surgical procedure. The relief from bladder outlet obstruction also proved to be durable after the 2-year follow-up.


In this paper, a vision system for monitoring driver's vigilance is presented. The level of vigilance is determined by integrating a number of facial parameters. In order to estimate these parameters, the facial features of eyes, mouth and head are first located in the input video sequence. The located facial features are then tracked over the subsequent images. Facial parameters are estimated during facial feature tracking. The estimated parametric values are collected and analyzed every fixed time interval to provide a real-time vigilance level of the driver. A series of experiments on real sequences were demonstrated to reveal the feasibility of the proposed system.


Human Action Recognition is a challenging problem in the field of machine vision. It finds diverse application in a range of fields, whether it be in care of elderlies, or in sports, movies, interactive gaming and other areas. Videos from various sources need to be labelled so that an awareness on what exactly a person is doing can be recognized. Human Action recognition, in its primitive form can be thought of as a combination of three processes, feature extraction, classification on the basis of the extracted features and finally, recognition of actions. The action labels are a solution to many challenges like surveillance, video retrieval and health care problems. Processing the data online is of great help in automatic surveillance in hospitals, malls, sports galleries, homes with patients


The weighted k - nearest neighbour (kNN) method was used for estimating stem volume (m3 ha?1) and basal area (m2 ha?1) on a compartment level (average 19 ha) by combining satellite image data with measurements from Swedish National Forest (NFI) inventory plots. In the kNN method each estimation location (target plot) is assigned a value that is an average, which is weighted, of the attribute data from the k closest reference plots (NFI plots). The distance between target and reference plot was measured on different scales, which were transforms of spectral values and/or ancillary data. The standard error (assuming bias with no trend) of stem volume estimates in the compartments was 36% using only spectral data. This estimation accuracy improved to 17% if site index, age of the forest and mean tree height (ancillary data) were known for the compartments. Low volumes were overestimated and high volumes underestimated. This bias was reduced if ancillary data were added but was also dependent on the transform of the original scales.