The knowledge of view preferences of users is crucial for online video providers to improve their system operations and video recommendations. However, it is challenging to accurately acquire this knowledge by merely relying on a single online video system. In this paper, we conduct a joint statistical study using the cross-platform information obtained from Douban, the largest online video database with video rating functionality in China, and Youku, one of the largest online video streaming systems in China. The Douban dataset includes feedbacks (e.g., movie ratings, comments, and reviews) from all users of different online video systems, and movie metadata (e.g., release date, actors, and directors), based on which we can statistically explore effective and significant factors attributing to video view counts. Meanwhile, our study unveils user behaviors that are latent when only observing a single video system. Finally, a multiple correlation analysis reveals that factors extracted from Douban can significantly increase our ability to predict video view counts. Our study can benefit video caching, video procurement, and advertisement campaign for online video providers.


Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters of the choroid and retina in subjects with pre-manifest and manifest Huntington's disease (HD).
Methods: In this case-control study, the retinal parameters of patients with genetically confirmed HD and healthy controls were evaluated using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Genetic and neurological assessments were performed besides a thorough ophthalmological examination. Contrast Sensitivity (CS) logarithm was evaluated using the Freiburg Vision Test. The association between OCT parameters and clinical and genetic characteristics was studied.
Results: A total of 91 subjects, including 60 HD subjects (60 eyes) and 31 control subjects (31 eyes) were eligible according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The range of the CAG (cytosine-adenine-guanine) repeat expansion size was 38–56 repeats, the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the Unified HD Rating Scale (UHDRS) motor scores was 36.3±29.7, and disease duration was 13.7±7.2 years in HD subjects. Compared to the control group, significant decreases in the mean ganglion cell complex thickness and mean, temporal, superior, inferior, and nasal retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in HD subjects was revealed in OCT examination (P-values < 0.001, < 0.001, < 0.001, 0.023, 0.007 and 0.014, respectively). An inverse correlation between the disease duration and the mean RNFL thickness (r =- 0.470, P = 0.002) was found.
Conclusions: Localization of retinal thickness loss shows a specific pattern of retinal neurodegeneration in HD, similar to Parkinson's disease and mitochondrial diseases. The association with the disease duration confirms the progressive nature of these changes.


As a starting point of this study, we suppose that verbality and the use of written records come across in a different way in the francophone or the so-called post-colonial literature than, for instance, in the European literature, in which it has a longer tradition. To establish the truth of the thesis and to show the typical features, we have chosen two novels, one is by Patrick Chamoiseau, the other is by Fouad Laroui. The first one is linked to creole traditions, the latter one to Arabic- Moroccan traditions but both of them use the genre of the (post)-modern novel. The paper, on one hand, reveals the manner of verbality, embedded into the text, on the other hand, it shows the general structures, hidden under the surface like for example the child's path towards the school, i.e., towards knowledge, or the otherness of the home-comer compared to the ones who stayed at home. Nevertheless, the key point of the interpretation of both novels is their relationship to the French culture and language which in...


PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine whether automated quantification of pulmonary perfused blood volume (PBV) in dual-energy computed tomography pulmonary angiography is of diagnostic value in assessing the severity of acute pulmonary embolism (PE). Materials and MethodsEthical approval and informed consent were waived by the responsible institutional review board for this retrospective study. Of 224 consecutive patients with dual-energy computed tomography pulmonary angiographic findings positive for acute PE, we excluded 153 patients because of thoracic comorbidities (n = 130), missing data (n = 11), severe artifacts (n = 11), or inadequate enhancement (n = 1). Automated quantification of PBV was performed in the remaining 71 patients (mean [SD] age, 62 [16] years) with acute PE and no cardiopulmonary comorbidities. Perfused blood volume values adjusted for age and sex were correlated with the Qanadli obstruction score, morphological computed tomographic signs of right heart dysfunction, serum levels of troponin, and the necessity for intensive care unit (ICU) admission. ResultsDual-energy computed tomography pulmonary angiography–derived PBV values inversely correlated with the Qanadli score (r = −0.46; P < 0.001), the right and left ventricle (RV/LV) ratio (r = −0.52; P < 0.001), and troponin I (r = −0.45; P = 0.001). The patients with global PBV values lower than 60% were significantly more likely to require admission to an ICU than did the patients with global pulmonary PBV of 60% or higher (47% vs 11%; P = 0.003; positive predictive value, 47%; negative predictive value, 89%). On the univariate analysis, a significant negative correlation was found between the global PBV values and the Qanadli obstruction score (r = −0.46; P < 0.001), the RV/LV diameter ratio (r = −0.52; P < 0.001), and the necessity for ICU admission (r = −0.39; P = 0.001). On the retrospective multivariate regression analysis, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the prediction of ICU admission were 0.75 for the pulmonary PBV, 0.83 for the Qanadli obstruction score, 0.68 for the computed tomographic signs of right heart dysfunction (interventricular septal bowing and/or contrast reflux), and 0.76 for the RV/LV diameter ratio. ConclusionsDual-energy computed tomography pulmonary angiography can be used for an immediate, reader-independent estimation of global pulmonary PBV in acute PE, which inversely correlates with thrombus load, laboratory parameters of PE severity, and the necessity for ICU admission.


Contents Preface to the Twelfth Edition To the User Handbook to Literature Outline of Literary History: British, American, World APPENDICES Monetary Terms and Values Nobel Prizes for Literature Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry Pulitzer Prizes for Drama Index of Proper Names


Myanmar (or formerly Burma) has been ruled by the military (tatmadaw) since 1962 and although multiparty elections were held in 1990, the Myanmar military junta simply refused to accept the results and transfer power to the National League Democracy (NLD) that won with a landslide victory. Instead, the Myanmar military junta announced its own version of political reform through the introduction of a "disciplined democracy" and as such convened a National Convention for the purpose of drafting a new constitution for the country. The constitution was finally approved in 2008 through a referendum that was highly rigged. Based on provisions of the 2008 Constitution, the military junta held another round of multiparty elections on 7 November 2010. Taking stock of events since 1988 and in the light of recent developments, this paper therefore attempts to gauge the future direction of the country's political landscape by interpreting and analyzing recent events. More importantly, it would attempt to show how much change can be expected in Myanmar especially when taking into account a flawed Constitution, a highly rigged elections and a new pseudo-civilian government. In other words, is there going to be real political change or are the elections a mere window dressing by the country's military junta?


Notwithstanding the evidence of utilizing email among Nigerian academic staff as shown in the previous studies, a recent study demonstrated that they witnessed dissatisfactory communication via email as textbased communication medium. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate if immediacy factors might influence their email satisfactory communication since these factors have been ascertained in the past studies as predictors to satisfactory communications in other asynchronous virtual communications. The respondents' email satisfactory communication levels were further examined in the study for finding if they also contributed to their email dissatisfactory communication. Hence, a quantitative research method was conducted because the study required both descriptive and inferential studies for the aim of inferring the outcomes to the targeted population. Consequently, our key findings showed that more than half of the respondents' email satisfactory communication level was not a high one. Additionally, our findings showed that the three immediacy factors which comprised prompt feedback, approachability and similar personality had direct effects on email satisfactory communication. However, similar personality factor contributed most to email satisfactory communication. Therefore, we recommend that they should consider these three immediacy factors, especially the similar personality if they aim to achieve email satisfactory communication. Our findings further explicitly contributed knowledge to asynchronous computer-mediated media satisfactory communication.


We determine the Tomita-Takesaki modular data for CFTs in double cone and light cone regions in conformally flat spacetimes. This includes in particular the modular Hamiltonian for diamonds in the de Sitter spacetime. In the limit where the diamonds become large, we show that the modular automorphisms become time translations in the static patch. As preparation, we also provide a pedagogical rederivation of the known results for Minkowski spacetime. With our results and using the Araki formula, it becomes possible to compute relative entanglement entropies for CFTs in these regions.


Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) aims to achieve higher operational and management efficiencies by bridging machinery, equipment, human resources, and all other actors involved in an industrial environment. This bridging enables data flow over an often complex and heterogeneous communication network. It enables timely decision-making, which affects various aspects of the organization such as business, operations, maintenance, safety, stock, and logistics. Despite the plethora of works in the domain of IIoT dealing with the above aspects, very few works deal with safety in industries. Industrial safety, especially whenever it is intertwined with the safety of humans, is a critical domain and holds much scope for improvement in the context of IIoT-based solutions for industrial safety management. Through this survey, we provide a comprehensive overview of the safety issues prevalent in the industries. Subsequently, we classify and provide an in-depth analysis of the safety aspects in various application areas of IIoT such as healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, and mining. Finally, we examine the research gaps in various domains and recommend future research directions. We discuss diverse forms of technologies, prototypes, systems, models, methods, and applications to ensure the safety of individuals and the risks associated with them. The primary aim of this work is to analyze and synthesize the existing researches and acknowledge the applicability of these research works towards safety management using IIoT.


The molecular structure and conformational and rotational composition of 3,7,9-tris(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)-3,7,9-triazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane 1 have been investigated by synchronous gas-phase electron diffraction/mass spectrometry GED/MS and theoretical calculations (B3LYP and M06-2X with cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets) and compared to the X-ray structure. All 16 possible conformers and rotamers were calculated, differing by the conformations of the two piperazine rings, orientation of the CF3 groups relative to these rings, and non-equivalence of the two wings of the butterfly structure. The optimized geometry of the most stable 1-c-out-2-c-out conformer coincides with that in the crystal. In contrast to only one conformer determined by X-ray, the GED analysis revealed the presence of five conformers, 1-c-out-2-c-out (I), 1-c-in-2-c-out (II), 1-c-out-2-c-in (III), 1-b-out-2-c-out (IV), 1-c-out-2-b-out (V) in the ratio of I:(II + III):IV:V = 36(10):42(6):22(10):0(10). The experimental results are better reproduced by calculations performed for 428 K (the temperature of the GED experiment) than for 298 K (standard), and most satisfactorily at the M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory.


Objective: Hypertension is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and blood pressure (BP) control is shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide for reducing systolic and diastolic BP in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension.

Materials and Methods: The present study was a randomized clinical trial. Patients 18 years or older with mild-to-moderate hypertension with or without prior antihypertensive medications were enrolled. Patients were randomly assigned to the chlorthalidone or hydrochlorothiazide group. The dose of study medication could be up-titrated at the 6-week. The primary outcomes were the reduction in systolic and diastolic BP, the rate of office BP control at 12 weeks, and the rate of adverse events.

Results: Fifty-six patients (mean age of 49.8±11.1 years) and 42.9% male, were included. Forty-three patients (76.8%) had known hypertension. Mean sitting office systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) at baseline was 153.2±9.6 and 91.8±9.2 mmHg, respectively. The average daily dose of chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide was 16.1±5.8 and 32.4±11.6 mg. The mean reduction in SBP in the chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide groups was 28.7±12.2 and 22.8±13.7 mmHg (p=0.118), and DBP was 14.4±7.5 and 9.1±6.6 mmHg (p=0.011), respectively. The rate of office BP control was significantly greater in the chlorthalidone group at 91.7% versus 61.5% (p=0.013). There was no significant difference in the rate of adverse events between the groups.

Conclusion: Chlorthalidone was shown to be more effective than hydrochlorothiazide for office BP control. There was no difference in adverse events. Trial registration: The trial had been registered with the Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR) which complied with WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform dataset. The registration number was TCTR20191006002 (06/10/2019).

Keywords: Efficacy; Safety; Chlorthalidone; Hydrochlorothiazide; Reducing; Systolic and diastolic blood pressure; Patients with mild to moderate hypertension


Optical coupler is an important component in a fiber optics system. To obtain a coupler, two fiber must be sufficiently close such that electrostatic field carried by the fiber overlap and partial transfer of energy to the other fiber occurred. In this work, the investigation on the fabrication of fiber based coupler is performed by using Acupler2000 fiber optic coupler manufacturing system. If two lined up fibers are sufficiently close such that the fields overlap, light can be coupled from one fiber to another. The two lined up fibers are twisted each other on the fiber holder of the pulling stage. The main control computer kept sampling the PDI and PD2 light intensity readings and calculated the coupling ratio, excess loss throughout the full process. The PDI, PD2, coupling ratio, excess loss and motor pulling distances displayed on the working window are updated continuously. The main control computer stopped the pulling process when the coupling ratio reached the desired value. The flow gas pressure is 1 bar. The desired value of excess loss for 50:50 coupling ratio is 0.07 dB with an insertion loss of 3.40 dB. The investigation showed to change coupling ratio at data setting and the value of coupling ratio for 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40, and 50/50 can achieved. Among the ten samples of SMF-28e, the best coupler obtained has an excess loss of 0, 09 dB and an insertion loss of 3.11 dB. The processes in fabrication of coupler such as twisted technique and stripped the centre of fiber technique influenced the excess loss and insertion loss.


This study presents narrow-band measurements of the mobile vehicle-to-vehicle propagation channel at 5.9 GHz, under realistic suburban driving conditions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our system includes differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receivers, thereby enabling dynamic measurements of how large-scale path loss, Doppler spectrum, and coherence time depend on vehicle location and separation. A Nakagami distribution is used for describing the fading statistics. The speed-separation diagram is introduced as a new tool for analyzing and understanding the vehicle-to-vehicle propagation environment. We show that this diagram can be used to model and predict channel Doppler spread and coherence time using vehicle speed and separation.


Introduction The liver plays the key role in haemostasis both primary and secondary. Pulmonary embolism (PE) has been observed in patients with cirrhosis despite associated coagulopathy. The radiologic pattern and risk factors of PE in patients with cirrhosis are poorly characterised. Aims/Background To study the radiologic pattern and possible risk factors of PE in cirrhotic patients. Method Retrospective cohort data of patients with PE and cirrhosis in a single center from was collected from our HIPE (Hospital Inpatient Enquiry) department between 2002–2012. Patients with active malignancy, recent (within 90 days) fracture or surgery or pregnancy were excluded. Clinical variables included severity of cirrhosis, symptoms of PE and laboratory tests and radiologic patterns were studied. Results Ten cirrhotic patients, M:F 1:1 with average age 59 years old, had PE during this period. Dyspnea was the predominant symptom in 90% of patients while chest pain or haemoptysis was present in only 20% and 10% respectively. The average platelet count and INR was 126 and 1.4 respectively. Sixty per cent had bilateral radiologic findings, 30% had PE in the right side while only 10% had left sided PE. Lower lobes emboli were significantly more common than upper lobe PEs (p=0.03). Pleural effusion was present on the ipsilateral side of PE in 60% while the rest did not have pleural effusion. Conclusion PE tends to occur bilaterally and mainly in lower lobes, particularly the right if unilateral. The presence of a measurable coagulopathy in a cirrhotic patient does not absolutely protect against PE.


Sir, I would like to thank Doctors Bhutta and Professor Haggard for their very insightful letter. Answering their two main points gives me the opportunity address two very important issues about this work, which were purposefully not dealt with in my preliminary letter. Dr. Bhutta and Professor Haggard are quite right in being hesitant in describing the categorisation of retraction of the tympanic membrane as 'staging'; I certainly agree that this term may be less than entirely accurate, but hope they will allow me to use it as a matter of convention for the time being in this response. With reference to the first point in their letter, Drs. Bhutta and Haggard postulate that a moving image is likely to give better information than a still image despite the fact that staging systems are defined according to anatomical landmarks. I was also sure that this was the case and went on to assess this further by comparing staging scores for raters assessing video images and still images of identical ears. This work is yet to be published, but shows only a very small improvement in the level of agreement when moving images are used. I believe that this small increase is likely to be due to the fact that the landmark-based definitions can be applied little better when using a 3D image than a 2D image. With regard to their second point, namely that the sample size was small for these calculations, I must agree and this is why the article is merely a letter designed to introduce the problem. All subsequent studies have taken advantage of larger numbers of raters and images to improve the power of the study. I am very interested in the role that random error would play, but was once again distressed to see that the extent of the 'step error' was far greater than expected. It was common to see very wide ranges in responses for identical images, some almost spanning the entire staging system for a single image. Bhutta and Haggard are certainly doing well in predicting my direction of enquiry as this is also the subject of another paper on the subject that is being prepared for publication. In conclusion, I agree wholeheartedly with Drs. Bhutta and Haggard on all that they say, but am sad to report that it would appear from further research into this area that the two possible explanations for the rather disappointing results from this 'pilot study' do not account for the very poor reliability that was shown when the Sadé and Tos systems were put to the test.


T cell reactivity to the 70 and 65 kD (p70 and p65) protein antigens derived from Mycobacterium bovis BCG strain was studied by measuring the proliferative responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from members of an isolated Aboriginal community resident in the Torres Straits islands. In the nine index leprosy cases the pattern of responsiveness to the purified antigens paralleled that to whole sonicates from M. leprae and BCG. In the 40 contacts of the index cases, a high correlation was observed between the responses to p70 and p65 as well as to the crude sonicates. Significant T cell responses to the purified antigens, as well as the crude sonicates, were obtained with cells from the majority of contacts. Limiting dilution analysis of precursor frequencies in the contacts confirmed the immunogenicity of the purified antigens and excluded both a mitogenic component and the presence of suppressor cells in those moderate or low responders whose blood contained sufficient precursors to be tested. p70 appeared to be more potent in stimulating a proliferative response than p65 at equivalent protein concentrations. No correlation between responder status to either antigen and disease type was detected in families. These findings provide confirmation of the importance of p70 and p65 as major T cell immunogens in man and indicate that they are both potential candidates for inclusion in a bivalent vaccine for leprosy and tuberculosis.


Women as the emergent economic power influence the shape of the global economy. For the prosperity of the nation, it is important that women should be involved in the job creation activities rather than providing with the job opportunities, as businesses are more time flexible than being an employee especially for women; where they are playing multiple roles at a time. In order to work on the efficiency and efficacy of the entire women, this paper studied the relationship between successful antecedent such as motivation, personality trait, creativity, access to finance, family factors and success of women entrepreneurial endeavors was being assessed. For this purpose data were collected from women entrepreneurs through a purposive sampling technique by using five likert scale questionnaire. Analysis of the study revealed that antecedents plays a positive role in the success of women entrepreneurial endeavors, however family support also appears to have a strong mediation effect on the success of women entrepreneurial endeavors but a negative value of beta indicates that women in under-developed society generally are not warmly encouraged by the family to opt for entrepreneurial endeavors. So, there is a need to work on this aspect in order to encourage other female participation in the economic growth.


The review is devoted to the analysis of molecular mechanisms of action ofS. pyogenesvirulence factors aimed at overcoming the protective functions of macrophages. The review describes in detail the main protective functions of macrophages and the mechanisms of their implementation in the course of streptococcal infection. The virulence factors ofS. pyogenes,which prevent the recruitment of macrophages to the site of infection, are examined. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of molecular effects that suppress the pathogen by the process of phagocytosis, intracellular bactericidal activity and the production of cytokines by macrophages. The analysis of molecular genetic mechanisms of regulation of the expression ofS. pyogenesvirulence factors that provide adaptation of the pathogen to changing conditions in the site of inflammation is carried out.


ow naded rom http:urnals.lw w om /transtjournalby hD M fePH bH 4TIm qVAH xkFJpPk1L/H vM G w qM xG jw O deJPG +b4D lKuA44qu/vw zm c= on 070/2018 Downloadedfromhttp://journals.lww.com/transplantjournalbyBhDMf5ePHKbH4TTImqenVAHxkFJp/XpPk1L/H3vMGwqMxG9jwOd8eJPG+b4DlKuAX44qu/vwzmc=on07/30/2018 patients and the public are diverse and, not surprisingly, dependent on circumstances. Public and patient input into service design will help shape a service that reflects the attitudes of both donors and recipients but must be undertaken cautiously and, these results suggest, may not accord with the views of all stakeholders. Richard Parker Jonathan Catling James W. Ferguson James M. Neuberger 1 NIHR Centre for Liver Research and Biomedical Research Unit University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK 2 Liver Unit Queen Elizabeth Hospital University Hospitals Birmingham Birmingham, UK 3 School of Psychiatry University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK 4 NHS Blood and Transplant Bristol, UK


Dynamics of growth and development put enormous strain on land use activities in urban historic areas. New spatial patterns emerge that lead to both visual and functional contradictions, which are manifest in the inappropriate scale in urban historic areas. The variety and complexity inherent in traditional cities is being replaced by insipid high-rise accommodation. Old Town of Mombasa, Kenya, is one such historic area that is loosing its historic built heritage and individuality at an alarming rate. Mombasa has been for centuries a leading trading town on the East African littoral, bearing an architectural legacy of historic buildings and spaces having Arabic, Indian, European and Swahili heritages. Its old town has ornately carved doors, covered balconies, narrow streets and alleyways, rendering it a truly unique area. The study posits that the current situation is occasioned by lack of local community participation in the formulation of the standards and guidelines that govern conservation, hence the social disconnect. This study seeks to establish the typo-morphological characteristics of the historic built environment, and the residents' attitudes towards this environment. It further endeavours to establish the factors underlying the resident's perception of their urban historic neighbourhood. A field survey was conducted, whereby a sample of 693 residents was interviewed along a semantic differential scale, in order to elicit attitudes towards their built environment. Principal Component Analysis, based on correlation matrices, was used to uncover the latent structure of a large set of variables that influence the residents' perception of their conserved area. The results indicate that conservation in the old towns should strive to achieve appropriate order, maintenance and upkeep, scale, create serial vision, open views and panoramas where possible, enhance orientation and continuity, and achieve the necessary complexity without creating information overload or monotony. This flexible approach forms the basis of a framework for conservation of the local distinctiveness, so that the built heritage is experiential and not habitual.Keywords: Conservation, Old Town of Mombasa, Attitudes, Likability, Factor Analysis, Complexity.


An electromechanical film can be manufactured with different thickness and elasticity. The thickness for sensor and actuator applications is typically between 30 and 70 /spl mu/m. The film is modeled using a simplified structure, which shows the reciprocity of the sensor and actuator operation models. The value of the transducer constant depends on the ambient temperature and increases at higher temperatures. During aging the transducer constant begins to decrease permanently at 323 K, but some sensitivity remains even at 333 K. Corona charging that gives a sensitivity value /spl sim/200 pCN/sup -1/ for HS01 type film is preferred over electron beam charging. The development of such films is aimed at sensor and actuator applications. An interesting field is the active control of sound where flat and efficient microphones and loudspeakers are needed.


Certain high power laser applications require thin homogeneous laser lines. In this paper we describe the concept, fabrication and characterization of a 1-D diffuser that generates such a line. The device is based on an array of concave cylinder lenses with a statistically distributed width and a fix radius of curvature. The fabrication is based on isotropic wet etching of fused silica. Measurement results are compared to simulation which show good agreement.


Professional development is the key to improving the instructional quality of teachers. There are different practices in teachers' training throughout the world. In Pakistan a number of training programmes have been introduced to increase the quality of inservice teachers, but the impact of these programmes is considered marginal. The purpose of this study was to assess "the differential effect of contentbased and pedagogical training on teachers' professional development�. This study provides empirical evidence of how "content-based training� enhances the pedagogical knowledge of teachers and how pedagogical training gives teachers the confidence to deliver the content. This content-based and pedagogical training leaves a positive effect on teachers' performance, and consequently improves students' learning.The sample of the study was composed of 30 grade 3 – 5 English, math and science teachers. Customized training modules were developed for training sessions in content areas, i.e, English, math and science and in pedagogical areas, i.e, teaching methodologies, lesson planning and classroom management. The participants of this study were observed three times. There were 90 observations in total. The participants attended six training sessions both in content and pedagogical areas. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 15 version. According to the nature of data and to address research questions, non-parametric test was applied to achievement tests of content and pedagogy and observational schedule based on content and pedagogy separately. Mixed model analysis was applied to observational schedules based on content and pedagogy to find out the effect of training on teachers' professional development.The major findings of the study are: The notion that academic qualifications alone are sufficient for hiring new teachers should be reconsidered. These teachers lacked in quality instructions because of the limitations of their natural pedagogies. A better understanding of new methods of teaching and the expanding range of pedagogies is only through training Training in content not only contributes to improve the content knowledge of teachers but also expands their natural pedagogies. The reason behind the limited success of exiting in-service teacher training programmes is that training activity for teachers content and pedagogical areas planned separately with long intervals. This gap in execution is the main cause of the ineffectiveness of training in these areas. Eliminating the gaps and sequencing the training in content and then pedagogy provides significant results in this research. The most important finding of this research is that training sessions must be conducted in sequence. Teachers benefited from training in content, which consequently resulted in efficient use of pedagogy already known to them. Therefore, academic qualifications in the relevant subject alone cannot be assumed as an alternative to content training. Training in specific content from the textbooks to be taught in the classroom is a desired element of training of in service teachers.In the changing scenario of education policies and curriculum change, training in content is necessary for novice and in-service teachers, especially in our context a teacher has to teach almost all subjects at primary level irrespective of his or her own subject specialization.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Molecular evidence of cellular heterogeneity in the human exocrine pancreas has not been yet established, due to the local concentration and cascade of hydrolytic enzymes that can rapidly degrade cells and RNA upon pancreatic resection. We sought to better understand the heterogeneity and cellular composition of the pancreas in neonates and adults in healthy and diseased conditions using single cell sequencing approaches.

METHODS
We innovated single-nucleus RNA sequencing protocols and profiled more than 120,000 cells from pancreata of adult and neonatal human donors. We validated the single nucleus findings using RNA-FISH, in situ sequencing and computational approaches.

RESULTS
We created the first comprehensive atlas of human pancreas cells, including epithelial and non-epithelial constituents and uncovered three distinct acinar cell types, with possible implications for homeostatic and inflammatory processes of the pancreas. The comparison with neonatal sNuc-seq data revealed a different cellular composition of the endocrine tissue, highlighting tissue dynamics occurring during development. By applying spatial cartography, involving cell proximity mapping through in situ sequencing, we found evidence of specific cell type neighborhoods, dynamic topographies in the endocrine and exocrine pancreas, and principles of morphological organization of the organ. Furthermore, similar analyses in chronic pancreatitis biopsies revealed the presence of acinar-REG+ cells, a reciprocal association between macrophages and activated stellate cells, and a new potential role of Tuft cells in this disease.

CONCLUSIONS
Our human pancreas cell atlas can be interrogated to understand pancreatic cell biology and provides a crucial reference set for comparisons with diseased tissue samples to map the cellular foundations of pancreatic diseases.Interactive exploration tool and data download: http://singlecell.charite.de/pancreas. Raw sequencing access-protected data on European Genome-phenome Archive (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ega/home): EGAS00001004653. In Situ Sequencing raw data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12173232.


Incorporating Knowledge Graphs (KG) into recommeder system as side information has attracted considerable attention. Recently, the technical trend of Knowledge-aware Recommendation (KGR) is to develop end-to-end models based on graph neural networks (GNNs). However, the extremely sparse user-item interactions significantly degrade the performance of the GNN-based models, from the following aspects: 1) the sparse interaction, itself, means inadequate supervision signals and limits the supervised GNN-based models; 2) the combination of sparse interactions (CF part) and redundant KG facts (KG part) further results in an unbalanced information utilization. Besides, the GNN paradigm aggregates local neighbors for node representation learning, while ignoring the non-local KG facts and making the knowledge extraction insufficient. Inspired by the recent success of contrastive learning in mining supervised signals from data itself, in this paper, we focus on exploring contrastive learning in KGR and propose a novel multi-level interactive contrastive learning mechanism, to alleviate the aforementioned challenges. Different from traditional contrastive learning methods which contrast nodes of two generated graph views, interactive contrastive mechanism conducts layer-wise self-supervised learning by contrasting layers of different parts within graphs, which is also an "interaction" action. Specifically, we first construct local and non-local graphs for user/item in KG, exploring more KG facts for KGR. Then an intra-graph level interactive contrastive learning is performed within each local/non-local graph, which contrasts layers of the CF and KG parts, for more consistent information leveraging. Besides, an inter-graph level interactive contrastive learning is performed between the local and non-local graphs, for sufficiently and coherently extracting non-local KG signals. Extensive experiments conducted on three benchmark datasets show the superior performance of our proposed method over the state-of-the-arts. The implementations are available at: https://github.com/CCIIPLab/KGIC.


Highly reactive organometallic species that mediate reductive proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions are an exciting area for development in catalysis, where a key objective focuses on tuning the reactivity of such species. This work pursues ligand-induced activation of a stable organometallic complex toward PCET reactivity. This is studied via the conversion of a prototypical Cp*FeIII-H species, [FeIII(η5-Cp*)(dppe)H]+ (Cp* = C5Me5-, dppe = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane), to a highly reactive, S = 1/2 ring-protonated endo-Cp*H-Fe relative, triggered by the addition of CO. Our assignment of the latter ring-protonated species contrasts with its previous reported formulation, which instead assigned it as a hypervalent 19-electron hydride, [FeIII(η5-Cp*)(dppe)(CO)H]+. Herein, pulse EPR spectroscopy (1,2H HYSCORE, ENDOR) and X-ray crystallography, with corresponding DFT studies, cement its assignment as the ring-protonated isomer, [FeI(endo-η4-Cp*H)(dppe)(CO)]+. A less sterically shielded and hence more reactive exo-isomer can be generated through oxidation of a stable Fe0(exo-η4-Cp*H)(dppe)(CO) precursor. Both endo- and exo-ring-protonated isomers are calculated to have an exceptionally low bond dissociation free energy (BDFEC-H ≈ 29 kcal mol-1 and 25 kcal mol-1, respectively) cf. BDFEFe-H of 56 kcal mol-1 for [FeIII(η5-Cp*)(dppe)H]+. These weak C-H bonds are shown to undergo proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) to azobenzene to generate diphenylhydrazine and the corresponding closed-shell [FeII(η5-Cp*)(dppe)CO]+ byproduct.


Abstract Older adults with Parkinson's disease (PD) rely on prefrontal activation to compensate for impaired motor function during the performance of complex mobility-related activities such as obstacle negotiation. However, the influence of the properties of the obstacles on prefrontal activation has not been systematically evaluated. Here, we examined the effects of obstacle height and anticipation time on prefrontal activation in patients with PD and older adults. 34 patients with PD (age: 67.4±5.7 years; 14 women) and 26 older adult controls (age: 71.3±8.9 years; 11 women) walked in an obstacle course while negotiating anticipated and unanticipated obstacles at heights of 50 mm and 100 mm. Prefrontal activation was measured using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS); obstacle negotiation performance was measured using Kinect cameras. PD patients showed greater increases in prefrontal activation during and after obstacle crossing compared to the older adults (p<0.001). Obstacle height affected prefrontal activity only when crossing anticipated obstacles (time x height interaction, p=0.011); in that case, higher obstacles were accompanied by higher prefrontal activity. PD patients showed higher levels of activation during unanticipated obstacles, compared to anticipated obstacles (p=0.015). Different correlations between prefrontal activation and obstacle negotiation strategies were observed in the patients and the controls. These results point to the use of prefrontal activation as a compensatory mechanism in PD. Moreover, the higher activation of prefrontal regions during more challenging obstacles suggests that there is a greater reliance on cognitive resources in these demanding situations that may contribute to the higher risk of falls in patients with PD.


Emotion-aware mobile applications have been increasing due to their smart features and user acceptability. To realize such an application, an emotion recognition system should be in real time and highly accurate. As a mobile device has limited processing power, the algorithm in the emotion recognition system should be implemented using less computation. In this paper, we propose an emotion recognition with high performance for mobile applications. In the proposed system, facial video is captured by an embedded camera of a smart phone. Some representative frames are extracted from the video, and a face detection module is applied to extract the face regions in the frames. The Bandlet transform is realized on the face regions, and the resultant subband is divided into non-overlapping blocks. Local binary patterns' histograms are calculated for each block, and then are concatenated over all the blocks. The Kruskal–Wallis feature selection is applied to select the most dominant bins of the concatenated histograms. The dominant bins are then fed into a Gaussian mixture model-based classifier to classify the emotion. Experimental results show that the proposed system achieves high recognition accuracy in a reasonable time.


An experimental and numerical analysis of the thermomechanical behavior that takes place in copper rods during its drawing is presented. To this end, a coupled thermomechanical finite element formulation accounting for large viscoplastic strains and mechanical coupling effects is used to simulate the problem. The proposed methodology consists in four stages respectively devoted to tensile testing, wire drawing in laboratory at different drawing velocities, mechanical characterization via modelling, and simulation of the material behavior in these two tests and, finally, experimental validation of the numerical predictions of temperature at the die exit. The derivation of the material parameters accounting for both isotropic hardening and rate-dependent effects is particularly addressed. Finally, it is shown that this characterization procedure provides an adequate description of the thermomechanical material response during the wire drawing process.


In Reply.— Dr Yates' thoughtful comments deserve serious consideration and future investigation. His basic point is key: parsimony dictates that before constructing new diagnoses we first attempt to fit new observations into the existing taxonomy. Specifically, he suggests that transient hypochondriasis might best be conceptualized not as a somatoform disorder but as an adjustment disorder, one in which the individual responds to the stress of major medical illness with "functional" physical symptoms and excessive concerns about illness. BecauseDSM-III-Ralready describes adjustment disorder with physical complaints (309.82), Yates suggests we broaden this diagnosis to include hypochondriacal disease fears, disease conviction, and bodily preoccupation, as well as somatic complaints that are not medically explainable. Such a proposal raises two questions: (1) Are transient hypochondriacal states better thought of as adjustment disorders or as somatoform disorders? (2) Is there a significant difference between transient somatization and transient hypochondriasis—ie, between responding to stress with


A model tested among 136 Norwegian Olympic-level athletes yielded two paths related to performance. The first path indicated that self-confidence, modeled as an antecedent of competitive anxiety, is negatively correlated with anxiety. Competitive anxiety in turn is negatively correlated with performance. The second path indicated that group cohesion is positively correlated with group goal-clarity, which in turn is positively correlated with performance. Competitive anxiety mediates the relation between self-confidence and performance, whereas group goal-clarity mediates the relation between group cohesion and performance. Results from multiple regression analyses supported the model in the total sample and among individual sport athletes organized in training groups (n = 100). Among team sport athletes (n 36), personality and group measures are more strongly intercorrelated than among individual sport athletes, and the relation with performance is more complex for the former group. The interaction of self-confidence and competitive anxiety is related to performance among team sport athletes.


The results of experiments designed to investigate various aspects of the electrode erosion produced by high-current moving arc discharges are described. A simple model for electrode erosion based upon fundamental heat transfer principles is examined and extended to the moving arc regime. This model is used to explain some of the features observed experimentally. Erosion measurements using several state-of-the-art materials (composite materials and materials with admixtures to improve their performance) are reported for both moving arc and stationary arc conditions. The jet plasma effect is shown to influence moving arc electrode erosion in a manner similar to that observed under stationary arc conditions over the range of electrode separations for which it is the dominant influence. In high-current, high-energy switching applications, arc motion results in a substantial decrease in electrode erosion as compared to a conventional spark gap. >


Calmodulin is a major Ca2+ -binding protein that may mediate many Ca2+ -regulated processes in neuronal function. Calmodulin is present in the presynaptic nerve terminal in association with synaptic vesicles and in postsynaptic density fractions. Several calmodulin-regulated synaptic biochemical processes have been identified. These results indicate that calmodulin may modulate some aspects of neuronal excitability. Phenytoin, carbamazepine, and the benzodiazepines inhibit Ca2+ -calmodulin-regulated protein phosphorylation and neurotransmitter release by synaptic vesicles. A saturable, stereospecific membrane binding site has been identified for the benzodiazepines. The potency of the benzodiazepines to bind to these sites correlates with their ability to inhibit maximal electroshock-induced seizures. Phenytoin and carbamazepine can displace benzodiazepine binding from these binding sites. Binding to these "anticonvulsant" sites regulates Ca2+ -calmodulin-stimulated membrane protein phosphorylation and depolarization-dependent Ca2+ uptake in intact synaptosome preparations. These results provide evidence that major anticonvulsant drugs regulate Ca2+ -calmodulin systems at the synapse. Kindling alters Ca2+ -calmodulin protein phosphorylation in brain membrane. In addition, alterations in Ca2+ -calmodulin kinase systems have been associated with some strains of seizure-susceptible mice. Thus, evidence from multiple sources suggests that calmodulin-mediated processes may play a role in the development of altered neuronal excitability and in some forms of seizure disorders.


The temperature characteristics of monolithically integrated wavelength-selectable light sources are experimentally investigated. The wavelength-selectable light sources consist of four distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, a multimode interferometer coupler, and a semiconductor optical amplifier. The oscillating wavelength of the DFB laser could be modulated by adjusting the device operating temperature. A wavelength range covering over 8.0nm is obtained with stable single-mode operation by selecting the appropriate laser and chip temperature. The thermal crosstalk caused by the lateral heat spreading between lasers operating simultaneously is evaluated by oscillating-wavelength shift. The thermal crosstalk approximately decreases exponentially as the increasing distance between lasers.


Differential cross-section measurements of highly boosted top quarks are presented. The dataset used has an integrated luminosity of $3.2$ fb$^{-1}$, recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2015. Events are selected in the lepton + jets channel, containing one isolated lepton and a large radius jet that is identified as originating from a top quark using substructure tagging techniques. The measured transverse momentum and absolute rapidity distributions are unfolded to remove detector effects and compared to a range of Monte Carlo simulations. The transverse momentum distribution shows that all Monte Carlo generators used predict a harder spectrum than observed in data, while the rapidity distribution agrees well between MC and data.


Abstract Omega-3 fatty acids including α-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acids have progressively become the buzzwords in the field of cardio health and brain function related research, due to their amazing dietary supplements with an ability to curb the number of fatal diseases. Omega- 3 fatty acids have been identified in both plant and animal sources and a new addition is insect source. In recent days, the silkworm pupal oil is gaining significant attention due to the presence of Alpha-linolenic acid with a substantial amount. Here we, elucidate that how the molecular mechanism of omega-3 fatty acids can be engineered for the improvement of metabolic pathways and the beneficial effects of omega- 3 fatty acids present in silkworm pupal oil and their biological activities have also been discussed.


The author of the article is reviewing K.A. Barsht's monograph «The Poetics of Andrej Platonov's prose». The book is evaluated against the background of multi¬ple investigations dealing with different pieces and as¬pects of the creative work of the writer. The author of the article points out that K.A. Barsht has investigated the whole of Platonov's prose as a poetical system, he has discovered and described very convincingly the basic images signs of Platonov's prose and their semantic chains recreating the original ontology and cosmology of the writer.


Continuum generation is a device functionality whereby an ultrashort pulse with high enough peak power is propagated in a nonlinear medium and undergoes significant spectral broadening to yield at the output a very broadband light signal. While such a light source has found application in may areas of scientific inquiry, it has been mainly achieved in silica fibers, which require extremely high peak powers and large lengths of fibre. In this work, we investigate how such a source can be implemented in a silicon nanowire. With its high cubic nonlinearity, and our ability to pattern it into planar waveguides with very small cross-sections and with control over their dispersion, continuum generation in silicon waveguides would require significantly lower peak powers and be achieved over just a few millimeters of propagation. We present here a theoretical model to describe nonlinear pulse propagation in silicon nanowaveguides as well as results from our experimental investigation of nonlinear effects in such structures. Ultrashort pulse propagation and Supercontinuun generation in Silicon-on-Insulator optical Nanowaveguides Eric R. Numkam Fokoua Supervisor(s): Ir.Bart Kuyken, Prof.Dr.Ir. Roel Baets, Dr. Ir. Wim Bogaerts Abstract—In this work, we carry out both experimental and theoretical investigations of nonlinear light-natter interaction in silicon-on-insulator nanowire waveguides. We show how by engineering the dispersive properties of these waveguides, advantage can be taken of the high cubic nonlinearity χ(3) of silicon in a way that both linear and nonlinear processes would affect a short pump pulse, leading to effects such as self-phase modulation, soliton formation, and continuum generation. Keywords— Dispersion engineering, continuum generation, Kerr effect, two-photon absorption, free carrier dispersionIn this work, we carry out both experimental and theoretical investigations of nonlinear light-natter interaction in silicon-on-insulator nanowire waveguides. We show how by engineering the dispersive properties of these waveguides, advantage can be taken of the high cubic nonlinearity χ(3) of silicon in a way that both linear and nonlinear processes would affect a short pump pulse, leading to effects such as self-phase modulation, soliton formation, and continuum generation. Keywords— Dispersion engineering, continuum generation, Kerr effect, two-photon absorption, free carrier dispersion


This letter presents a novel design of the UHF RFID tag antenna suitable for embedded use in a concrete floor (CF). The tag antenna is used to track and trace the location of a shipyard transporter. The proposed antenna consists of a ceramic patch, a parasitic patch (PP), and a metal cavity (MC). The gain of the proposed antenna is highly improved using a PP and an MC because they decrease the electromagnetic energy flow into the CF and increase the directivity and radiation efficiency of the antenna. The proposed design is verified by simulation and measurement. The tag antenna has a high absolute gain of 3.6 dBi and a very long read range of 12.8 m in a direction normal to the CF.


The increased operational tempo associated with current deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is placing considerable strain on military families. Among other sequelae of OIF and OEF deployment, findings from recent studies suggest high rates of depression in spouses of service members. This review presents a rationale for targeting depression among military spouses. It examines how stressors relating to the deployment cycle may contribute to depression in spouses and outlines the effects of spousal depression on the mental health of service members and their children. Mental health services currently available to military spouses as well as barriers to their care are also described. Considerations for the adaptation of treatment to their unique circumstances and needs are discussed.


The treatment and prognosis of periarteritis nodosa associated with hepatitis B virus were reconsidered from a series of 13 patients representing 32.5 per cent of the 40 patients with periarteritis nodosa admitted during the same period. HBs and HBe antigens were present in every case, and hepatitis B virus replication was demonstrated by the finding of viral DNA in serum. One patient had anti-HBc IgM's. Five patients were treated with corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide and occasional plasma exchanges. All were cured or achieved complete remission. Eight patients were treated with plasma exchanges and vidarabine, either as first-line therapy (3 cases) or after failure of corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressants (5 cases). This treatment was clinically effective in 5/8 cases, including 3 with seroconversion. The 2 patients in whom the combined treatment failed were given corticosteroids; one of them also had plasma exchanges. The 8th patient died after a few days of treatment. Eleven of the 13 patients are still alive and either cured or in complete remission. Two patients who developed severe chronic hepatitis after steroids were discontinued received vidarabine alone: arrest of viral replication was obtained in both cases, with emergence of an anti-HBe (but not anti-HBs) antibody. The overall positive virological response rate to vidarabine alone or combined with plasma exchanges was 50 per cent. When vidarabine was prescribed as treatment of acute periarteritis nodosa (the 2 cases where it was used for chronic hepatitis being excluded), this response rate was 37.5 per cent. This, in patients with periarteritis nodosa associated with hepatitis B virus immunosuppressive drugs should be withdrawn and replaced by plasma exchanges and antiviral agents. This would be the first-line treatment to be replaced by corticosteroid therapy if it fails.


Objective
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has placed an unprecedented burden on healthcare systems and restricted resources for non-COVID patients worldwide. Treatment approaches and follow-up plans have been modified to prevent the risk of infection for patients and healthcare workers. Patients prefer to delay or cancel their treatments during the peak period of infection.

Materials and Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the characteristics of patients with breast cancer who were consulted at our outpatient clinic right after early COVID-19 peak in May and June 2020 and compared them with the same period in 2017 to 2019.

Results
The number of patients who consulted at our outpatient medical oncology clinic declined in May and June 2020. This decline was regardless of stage and was larger in May than in June 2020. In general, the distribution of tumor subtypes [luminal, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) positive, and triple negative] was not different from 2017 to 2020. Less than half of the patients received adjuvant chemotherapy following early COVID-19 peak in May and June 2020. Few patients received chemotherapy for metastatic disease, whereas many metastatic patients received endocrine therapy. None of the consulted new patients had a non-invasive disease. More patients received endocrine therapy than chemotherapy.

Conclusion
The presentation patterns of patients with breast cancer after early COVID-19 peak differed from those during the same period in the last 3 years. The pandemic affected the number of new patients consulted and the way medical oncologists treat their patients.


Objectives To determine the intensity, barriers and correlates of physical activity (PA) in Iranian pregnant women. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out with 300 eligible pregnant women referred to the Ilam health centres and bases using stratified random sampling with proportional allocation. Data collection tools included a demographic and obstetrical history questionnaire, the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale. The association between demographic and obstetrical characteristics and PA intensity and barriers were studied using multiple linear regression models. Results The mean and SD of the total score of PA intensity were 47.15 and 26.25 metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-hour/week, respectively. The highest and the lowest barriers were related to the time expenditure (42.77±18.04) and family discouragement (50.72±24.99) constructs, respectively. The PA intensity was significantly associated with prepregnancy or early pregnancy body mass index (B=25.6), ethnicity (B=16.94), level of education (B=−8.77), number of children (B=5.95), gestational age (B=0.81), participation in childbirth preparation classes (B=−11.27), habitual exercise before pregnancy (B=6.09), income (B=−9.22). The PA barriers were significantly associated with ethnicity (B=−4.96), income (B=2.23) and habitual exercise before pregnancy (B =−1.35). Conclusion PA intensity may be enhanced by encouraging individuals to be more physically active before pregnancy. Additionally, strategies to enhance support from friends and family to engage in PA throughout pregnancy and PA interventions focused on women with lower levels of income and education are required.


Effects of aggregate size on the mechanical properties of lightweight concrete (LC) were investigated. Four gradings of lightweight aggregate (LWA) were designed and used to prepare the specimens for compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength tests. An estimating method for compressive strength of LC was then established. The compressive strength of tested LC was up to 95 MPa at 90-day curing time. The test results suggested that the absence of medium-size particles decreased the compaction of LC, therefore the density and compressive strength were negatively affected. Specimens having single size of aggregate showed lower splitting tensile and flexural strengths than that having three sizes of LWA. The parameters of the estimating model were determined according to the test results, and the compressive strength predictions of estimation model were compared with the results from other literature.


The drive to reduce poverty and unemployment in most developing or newly industrialized countries has many forms, the most common avenue, however, is the provision of education and a resultant expectation of employment. South Africa has in the past decade struggled with the issue of unemployment. Even in the face of very high graduate rates compared to other countries in the region, there is still high unemployment. The most common in South Africa is frictional as opposed to structural. An obvious expectation is that once people have attended tertiary education, getting a job should be easier than those without any education. However, there seems to be a mismatch between the skills required in the workplace and the skills the graduates looking for jobs have. Using data from graduates of one of the big universities in South Africa, the study investigated on the time, graduates take to get a job focusing on graduates from different degree programs. The results show that graduates eventually get employed but differences exist in the waiting period. The results show that of the six degree programs namely Bachelor of Commerce in Economics, BCom Human Resources, Bachelor of Arts Psychology, Bachelor of Education (BEd), Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts in Law, the law degree graduates have the longest waiting period and the BEd has the shortest waiting period before getting employed. The study, however, showed that all the graduates in the sample were employed. The results also indicated that 58percent of the graduates in the sample were not employed in the field they studied in. The study therefore recommended that to deal with unemployment in general, people should be afforded the opportunity to study for a degree, and that although low paying, BEd provides higher prospects of employment than most other degrees.


A study was carried out to determine which factors contributed to the vowel and consonant recognition ability of recipients of the 22-channel cochlear implant system. On the basis of the statistical analysis, no isolated factor showed a strong correlation with vowel recognition score. On the other hand, negative correlations were found between patients' consonant recognition scores and postoperative psychophysical percepts such as threshold levels and maximum comfortable loudness levels. However, multiple regression analysis also showed that the combination of lower threshold levels, a larger number of usable electrodes, and wider dynamic ranges contributed to higher consonant recognition scores.


Quantum Photonics
Optical circuits based on the fabrication of waveguides in silica have the proven capacity to transport single photons from one part of an optical chip to another. Quantum-enhanced sensing and communication applications will require the single photons and the generated quantum states of several interacting single photons to be transported between separate chips. However, the delicate nature of the quantum states has made such interconnectivity difficult to achieve. Using grating couplers on each chip and connecting them with a single-mode fiber, Wang et al. demonstrate the ability to generate an entangled state on one chip and transfer it to another. Such a coupling and transfer of quantum states will be crucial for developing advanced quantum-based technologies.

Optica 3 , 407 (2016).


The exploration of brain activity and its decoding from fMRI data has been a longstanding pursuit, driven by its potential applications in brain-computer interfaces, medical diagnostics, and virtual reality. Previous approaches have primarily focused on individual subject analysis, highlighting the need for a more universal and adaptable framework, which is the core motivation behind our work. In this work, we propose fMRI-PTE, an innovative auto-encoder approach for fMRI pre-training, with a focus on addressing the challenges of varying fMRI data dimensions due to individual brain differences. Our approach involves transforming fMRI signals into unified 2D representations, ensuring consistency in dimensions and preserving distinct brain activity patterns. We introduce a novel learning strategy tailored for pre-training 2D fMRI images, enhancing the quality of reconstruction. fMRI-PTE's adaptability with image generators enables the generation of well-represented fMRI features, facilitating various downstream tasks, including within-subject and cross-subject brain activity decoding. Our contributions encompass introducing fMRI-PTE, innovative data transformation, efficient training, a novel learning strategy, and the universal applicability of our approach. Extensive experiments validate and support our claims, offering a promising foundation for further research in this domain.


Two different Hamiltonian formulations of the metric gravity are discussed and applied to describe a free gravitational field in the d dimensional Riemann space-time. Theory of canonical transformations, which relates equivalent Hamiltonian formulations of the metric gravity, is investigated in detail. In particular, we have formulated the conditions of canonicity for transformation between the two sets of dynamical variables used in our Hamiltonian formulations of the metric gravity. Such conditions include the ordinary condition of canonicity known in classical Hamilton mechanics, i.e., the exact coincidence of the Poisson (or Laplace) brackets which are determined for both the new and old dynamical Hamiltonian variables. However, in addition to this, any true canonical transformations defined in the metric gravity, which is a constrained dynamical system, must also guarantee the exact conservation of the total Hamiltonians Ht (in both formulations) and preservation of the algebra of first-class constraints. We show that Dirac's modifications of the classical Hamilton method contain a number of crucial advantages, which provide an obvious superiority of this method in order to develop various non-contradictory Hamiltonian theories of many physical fields, when a number of gauge conditions are also important. Theory of integral invariants and its applications to the Hamiltonian metric gravity are also discussed. For Hamiltonian dynamical systems with first-class constraints this theory leads to a number of peculiarities some of which have been investigated.


MOTIVATION
With more and more scientific literature published online, the effective management and reuse of this knowledge has become problematic. Natural language processing (NLP) may be a potential solution by extracting, structuring and organizing biomedical information in online literature in a timely manner. One essential task is to recognize and identify genomic entities in text. 'Recognition' can be accomplished using pattern matching and machine learning. But for 'identification' these techniques are not adequate. In order to identify genomic entities, NLP needs a comprehensive resource that specifies and classifies genomic entities as they occur in text and that associates them with normalized terms and also unique identifiers so that the extracted entities are well defined. Online organism databases are an excellent resource to create such a lexical resource. However, gene name ambiguity is a serious problem because it affects the appropriate identification of gene entities. In this paper, we explore the extent of the problem and suggest ways to address it.

RESULTS
We obtained gene information from 21 organisms and quantified naming ambiguities within species, across species, with English words and with medical terms. When the case (of letters) was retained, official symbols displayed negligible intra-species ambiguity (0.02%) and modest ambiguities with general English words (0.57%) and medical terms (1.01%). In contrast, the across-species ambiguity was high (14.20%). The inclusion of gene synonyms increased intra-species ambiguity substantially and full names contributed greatly to gene-medical-term ambiguity. A comprehensive lexical resource that covers gene information for the 21 organisms was then created and used to identify gene names by using a straightforward string matching program to process 45,000 abstracts associated with the mouse model organism while ignoring case and gene names that were also English words. We found that 85.1% of correctly retrieved mouse genes were ambiguous with other gene names. When gene names that were also English words were included, 233% additional 'gene' instances were retrieved, most of which were false positives. We also found that authors prefer to use synonyms (74.7%) to official symbols (17.7%) or full names (7.6%) in their publications.

CONTACT
firstname.lastname@example.com


Abstract This investigation highlights the processing of Nylon 66 and the incorporation of nano-silicate into the Nylon 66 polymeric matrix. Further, radiation modification of Nylon 66 and nano-silicate dispersed Nylon 66 was carried out in order to essentially alter the physicochemical properties of the material. A combination of both the above methods of processing and modifying the neat Nylon 66 polymeric matrix provides an interesting aspect for studying the resultant effect on the variation in properties of the composite material over the virgin polymer. There was a significant improvement of physicothermal and physicomechanical properties when Nylon 66-silicate nanocomposites were further modified under gamma radiation, which was confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), tensile and water absorption studies.


Four antitumor-antibiotics of a new structure class, the marinomycins A-D (1-4), were isolated from the saline culture of a new group of marine actinomycetes, for which we have proposed the name "Marinispora". The structures of the marinomycins, which are unusual macrodiolides composed of dimeric 2-hydroxy-6-alkenyl-benzoic acid lactones with conjugated tetraene-pentahydroxy polyketide chains, were assigned by combined spectral and chemical methods. In room light, marinomycin A slowly isomerizes to its geometrical isomers marinomycins B and C. Marinomycins A-D show significant antimicrobial activities against drug resistant bacterial pathogens and demonstrate impressive and selective cancer cell cytotoxicities against six of the eight melanoma cell lines in the National Cancer Institute's 60 cell line panel. The discovery of these new compounds from a new, chemically rich genus further documents that marine actinomycetes are a significant resource for drug discovery.


Nowadays medical work is team work of several professionals (like for
example in rehabilitation) so knowledge is a central issue in this field:
the fast growing biomedical knowledge base is needed to be applied as fast
and as effectively as possible to avoid medical errors. The suitable method
for this purpose is a knowledge management system, which is based on the
specialties of medical knowledge, and the expert teams of physicians and
related professionals. The aim of this article is to review the literature
on three levels: (1) personal level (medical knowledge and
knowledge encapsulation theory by Boshuizen and Schmidt (1992)
(2) team level (medical teamwork, e.g. in rehabilitation); (3) and
organizational level (knowledge management systems).
The medical work has some specialties that constraint the possibilities of
knowledge management. On one hand, medical knowledge in a high level of
expertise is activated faster, but in a less detailed manner compared to
other domains of knowledge; it is stored in an \textitencapsulated form. On the other hand, as a
consequence of medical work, any effective knowledge management system must
be ``baked in´´ the daily routine (Devenport, Glaser 2002).
The
user interface must be on the spot, avoiding additional efforts, and time
needs. As a conclusion, this review is the integration of experiences and
results from group interaction researches in high risk environment, and the
practices from the knowledge management applications in several domains of
work and to find the theoretical possibilities of a successful knowledge
management system in the medical field.


An important challenge in the crime literature is to isolate causal effects of police on crime. Following a terrorist attack on the main Jewish center in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, all Jewish institutions (including schools, synagogues, and clubs) were given 24-hour police protection. Thus, this hideous event induced a geographical allocation of police forces that can be presumed to be exogenous in a crime regression. Using data on the location of car thefts before and after the terrorist attack, we find a large deterrent effect of observable police presence on crime. The effect is local, with little or no appreciable impact outside the narrow area in which the police are deployed.


Correction of radius length after a premature complete or partial closure of the distal epiphyseal plate is important for both the correction of radial deviation of the hand and the restoration of normal function of the radiocarpal articulation. This study comprised four patients. Two children with complete closure of the epiphyseal plate of the distal radius underwent callotaxis. One patient was treated for atrophic pseudoarthrosis of the distal radial metaphysis by external fixation and subsequent spongioplasty. One patient with partial closure of the epiphyseal plate was treated by physeal distraction. In each patient an Ilizarov's external fixator was applied. The full correction of radius length was achieved in all cases. No complications were recorded with the exception of tissue irritation around Kirchner's wires, which occurred mainly on the volar side. In the therapy of injuries suffered during adolescent growth acceleration, it is necessary to perform a certain overdistraction of the radius. An alternative method includes epiphyseodesis of the distal ulna. Key words: post-traumatic closure of the epiphyseal plate, callotaxis, physeal distraction, chondrodiatasis.


AIM
To assess the dynamics of parameters of myocardial electrical instability in patients with ST-elevation (STE) myocardial infarction (MI) treated with various doses of atorvastatin.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients with STEMI (n=70), who received atorvastatin 20 or 80 mg/day for 48 weeks, were divided into two groups: group "Е" - 38 patients (54.3 %) in whom by 48‑th week target values of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) were achieved, and group "NE" - 32 patients (45.7 %) in whom these levels were not achieved. On days 7-9, at 24th and 48th weeks after onset of MI the patients underwent 24‑hour 12‑leads ECG monitoring with subsequent analysis of parameters of myocardial electrical inhomogeneity: late ventricular potentials (LVP), dispersion of QT-interval duration, heart rate variability (HRV) and turbulence.

RESULTS
After of treatment with atorvastatin target value of LDLC was achieved in 73.5 and 36.1 % of patients receiving 80 and 20 mg/day, respectively. In the group "E" we observed positive dynamics of LVP parameters (QRSf - p.


Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between preoperative 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) level and poor prognosis factors of papillary thyroid cancer.Methods: A total of 1198 patients diagnosed of papillary thyroid cancer were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were categorized into vitamin D deficiency (VDD) group and normal group according to preoperative 25(OH)D<20 ng/mL and 25(OH)D≥20 ng/mL. Differences of demographic date and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed between two groups. Liner and logistic regression analysis to determine the effect of 25(OH)D on the established poor prognosis factors of papillary thyroid cancer were also applied.Results: We observed a negative liner correlation between 25(OH)D levels and tumor size and an independent relationship between VDD and lymph node metastasis in central area. Additionally, there was a significant correlation between preoperative 25(OH)D and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels.Conclusions: 25(OH)D level significantly associated with certain poor prognosis factors of papillary thyroid cancer. Assessing and supplementing vitamin D may be an important addition to preoperative management of patients with papillary thyroid cancer.


On the Galapagos Islands, invasive plants are of high threat to both agricultural and natural habitats, causing therefore damage to the welfare of farmers and native fauna and flora species, hence tourism and inhabitants. Approximately 475 species of introduced plants were found in the Archipelago. Quinine (Cinchona pubescens), elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), blackberry (Rubus niveus), guava (Psidium guajava), passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), and sauco (Citharexylum gentryi) in the agricultural zone of Santa Cruz are identified as the most severe invasive plants. The protected one (Park area) is also threatened by them. Several methods of controlling these plants are being attempted though, including chemical and biological control. Basic information on the distribution of these species is required to plan eradication programs and to identify reasons for invasions. A tentative plan of mapping these species has been developed by the Galapagos National Park, were the above mentioned species were identified. Nevertheless, a validation of the results is required. Consequently, this research is proposed with the aim to map the spatial distribution and abundance of those alien plants on Santa Cruz Island, and contribute to validate the previous results. A mobile GIS connected to a Handheld GPS is used for plotting. Sampling territories in patches of invasives are randomly established to take measurements of plants abundance, occurrence, and to determine interactions with native species. Information about plants biology, competitive ability and phenology are also to be collected in a literature review. The analysis of data will be done with Open Jump software with General Public License (GPL); a multilayer analysis with all the available shape files will be performed. Existing information and Geo-referenced maps of the islands will be provided by the cooperation partners PNG and CDRS. The results will be presented to the management authority of the Galapagos National Park, for further control and removal actions. Expected results are the determination of the competitiveness of invasive over the native flora, interaction with the ecosystem, prediction of future possible appearance and to propose a further work for ecological control of the species.


Springback is one of the most difficult phenomena to analyze and control in sheet forming. Most of traditional springback control methods rely on experiences of skilled workers in industrial fields. This study focuses on prediction and generation of optimum reconfigurable die surfaces to control shape errors originated by springback. For this purpose, a deformation transfer function(DTF) was combined with finite element analysis of the springback in the 2D sheet forming model of elastic-perfectly plastic materials under the condition without blank holder. The results showed shape errors within 1% of the objective shape, which were comparable with analytically predicted errors. In addition to this theoretical analysis, DTF method was also applied to 2D and 3D sheet forming experiments. The experimental results showed ±0.5 mm and ±1.0 mm shape error distribution respectively, demonstrating that reconfigurable die surfaces were predicted well by the DTF method. Irrespective of material properties and sheet thickness, the DTF method was applicable not only to FEM simulation but also to 2D and 3D elasto-reconfigurable die forming. Consequently, this study shows that springback can be controlled effectively in the elasto-RDF system by using the DTF method.


Objective To investigate the effect of matrine on multidrug resistance of Eca-100/VCR cells. Methods Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay was used to assess the cytotoxic activity of matrine to Eca-109/VCR cells and the sensitivity of cells to Vincristine (VCR). Then Eca-109/VCR cells were divided into four groups: control group, matrine group, VCR group and matrine combined with VCR group. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect P-gp protein expression. Western blot was used to detect MRP1, P-gp, Beclin 1, p62(SQSTM1), LC3, p-mTOR, p-Akt and p-p70S6K protein expression. MDR1 mRNA expression was detected by RT-qPCR. Transmission electron microscopy was used to detect the ultra structural changes. Results Matrine could reverse the resistance of Eca-109/VCR cells to VCR with a reversal index of 3.52. Compared with the other groups, the expression of LC3-II, Beclin 1 increased while P-gp, MRP1, p62(SQSTM1), p-mTOR, p-Akt and p-p70S6K significantly decreased in matrine+VCR group (P<0.05). The expression of MDR1 mRNA decreased in Eca-109/VCR cells treated with matrine, VCR or their combination. The number of autophagic vacuoles in Eca-109/VCR cells increased after matrine treatment. Conclusion Matrine has anticancer and anti multidrug resistance functions in Eca-100/VCR cells, and it may be produced by promoting autophagy which mediated through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.


This Virginia Tech guide has been created to highlight resources most commonly used by those studying the following aspects of dairy science: nutrition, physiology, lactation, genetics, reproduction, and the business of dairy enterprise management. Early Literature


—This work aims to present a numerical analysis of the natural gas which flows through a high-pressure pipeline and an orifice plate, through the use of CFD methods. The paper contains CFD calculations for the flow of natural gas in a pipe with different geometry used for the orifice plates. One of them has a standard geometry and a shape without any deformation and the other is deformed by the action of the pressure differential. It shows the behavior of natural gas in a pipeline using the velocity profiles and pressure fields of the gas in both models with their differences. The entire research is based on the elimination of any inaccuracy which should appear in the flow of the natural gas measured in the high- pressure pipelines of the gas industry and which is currently not given in the relevant standard.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For Army noncommissioned officers (NCOs), attendance at each level of professional military education (PME) is a training requirement for career progression. Essentially, NCOs are required to attend schools and demonstrate professional acumen and mastery of a broad set of military skills to achieve promotion to the next higher grade. Historically, the Army has trained enlisted soldiers using an instructor-centric, group-paced instructional approach, where soldiers are assessed on their ability to master tasks under specific conditions using explicit standards of performance. Noncommissioned Officer Education System (NCOES) training centers and academies continue to offer training in what is, for the most part, a lock-step fashion, where the level of rigor and challenge is not tailored to the individual. Lock-step training can be beneficial for certain situations, but not all. For this reason, there is a need for innovation in the NCOES; it needs to change its approach to education. In spite of advances in educational technology, NCOES courses continue to train NCOs by relying too much on lockstep, instructor-led training, which is a dated approach to adult education. (1) Self-Paced Instruction in Army Courses The Army has from time to time used and conducted research on the effectiveness of self-paced instruction, more commonly known as self-paced learning (SPL), for certain courses, but self-paced approaches have not been applied broadly in the NCOES. Unfortunately, much of the research is over 30 years old. One early study, by the Army Research Institute in 1975, was published as Analysis of a Self-Paced Instructional Program in the Clerical Field. (2) This study found that the use of self-paced instruction to train clerical personnel increased learner motivation and satisfaction among trainees. The study cited reductions in training time and required instructional support as benefits of self-paced instruction. Another Army Research Institute study, The Acquisition and Retention of Visual Aircraft Recognition Skills, published in 1976, concluded that self-pacing in training resulted in better trainee outcomes for higher aptitude trainees. (3) If SPL was found to reduce overall training time while contributing to better training management in military schools in the 1970s, could this approach also work well in the distributed learning environment of the 21st century? Recent civilian and military studies of SPL suggest that self-paced NCOES courses could accelerate learning, provide tailored content to meet the needs of soldiers, and lower overall training costs. (4) Innovative courses and instructional approaches could lead to improved learner satisfaction and value for the training received. (5) The differences between SPL and group-paced instruction are well known and understood. In SPL, individuals have a degree of control over how quickly they move through the instructional material. In group-paced instruction, the instructor controls how fast trainees moves through instruction. The two approaches need not be mutually exclusive. An NCOES course that combined aspects of both approaches could retain some instructor-led portions while also allowing students to quickly move through content on concepts they had already mastered. Design of Learning For either approach to learning--self-paced or group-paced--it is important to consider factors that affect overall effectiveness with regard to how well a course meets the needs of learners. (6) Designers of both SPL and group-paced courses should consider the following: * Relevance of course content to the job requirements * Motivation of trainees to learn * Opportunities to practice the skills or tasks taught * Supervisory support back on the job or at home station. * Instructor skills to facilitate learning * Evaluation and revision of the course as necessary to achieve objectives The design of SPL courses should feature concept-oriented, scenario-driven, and project-based learning that supports increased levels of learner interest and engagement. …


The immobilization of antibodies on solid surface has been widely studied in elucidating immunoassay and in developing immunosensor. In this paper, FITC-labeled goat anti-human IgG were covalently immobilized on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and glutaraldehyde (Glu) to modify the distal end of a fiber-optic probe. The higher density and stability of FITC-labeled goat anti-human IgG could be obtained on the fiber surface modified with APTES-Glu than that on the non-modified fiber surface by evanescent excited fluorescence spectroscopy. Furthermore, red shift of the FIX fluorescence dye emission peak was observed on different fiber surface, exhibiting different interaction between FITC- labeled antibody and surface. Finally, under these conditions antigen-antibody reaction was investigated as an immunosensor. Detection limit of the evanescent wave optic-fiber biosensor is 10ng/ml.


Bio-effects mediated by non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) have become a hot topic of research in the last decades. This interest has been triggered by a growing public concern about the rapid expansion of telecommunication devices and possible consequences of their use on human health. Despite a feasibility study of potential negative impacts, the therapeutic advantages of EMF could be effectively harnessed for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. This review aims to examine recent findings relating to the mechanisms of action underlying the bio-effects induced by non-ionizing EMF. The potential of non-thermal and thermal effects is discussed in the context of possible applications for the induction of apoptosis, formation of reactive oxygen species, and increase of membrane permeability in malignant cells. A special emphasis has been put on the combination of EMF with magnetic nano-particles and ultrasound for cancer treatment. The review encompasses both human and animal studies.


Success in the marketplace may well depend upon the ability to upgrade and test hardware designs instantly around the world. An upgrade management strategy requires more than just the bitstream file, email or a JTAG cable. A well-managed methodology, capable of transmitting bitstreams directly into targeted FPGAs over the network or internet is an essential element for a successful FPGA based product strategy. Virtual Computer Corporation's HOTMan , Bitstream Management Environment combines a feature rich cross-platform API with an Object Oriented Bitstream technique for Remote Upgrading of Hardware over the Internet.


The design, synthesis, and characterization of triazine dendrimers derivatized with the anticancer agent paclitaxel are described. The precursor generation two dendrimer 1 is prepared in six linear steps in 64% overall yield and presents 16 amines and two groups for radioiodination. This macromolecule is subsequently derivatized with a paclitaxel conjugate to yield a generation three dendrimer, 2, which is then pegylated in two steps. The pegylated final products, 4a and 4b, with molecular weights of 46 and 77 kDa, respectively, solubilize paclitaxel in water. Pegylated dendrimer 4a is 30 wt % paclitaxel, 52 wt % PEG, and 18 wt % dendrimer. Target 4b is 18 wt % paclitaxel, 71 wt % PEG, and 11 wt % dendrimer.


The present research attempts to analyse from a theoretical and methodological view of the competitive advantage that companies have to use the reputation as a generating tool of market value and this is a difficult intangible factor to imitate that facilitates the company to enter international markets. The largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and Mexico will be studied,from its inception and its market value.Finally it is concluded that tge pharmaceutical industry has been characterized as one the most difficult markets to enter for their high entry barriers and reputational capital


Abstract. In the field of autonomous driving, semantic information of lanes is very important. This paper proposes a method of automatic detection of lanes and extraction of semantic information from onboard camera videos. The proposed method firstly detects the edges of lanes by the grayscale gradient direction, and improves the Probabilistic Hough transform to fit them; then, it uses the vanishing point principle to calculate the lane geometrical position, and uses lane characteristics to extract lane semantic information by the classification of decision trees. In the experiment, 216 road video images captured by a camera mounted onboard a moving vehicle were used to detect lanes and extract lane semantic information. The results show that the proposed method can accurately identify lane semantics from video images.


Anorexia nervosa (AN) has been associated with various cardiac disorders and several electrocardiographic abnormalities, the most prominent being sudden death and prolonged QT duration and dispersion. We report 2 cases of AN with marked repolarization abnormalities, the first clearly related to electrolyte imbalance, the second without a good explanation from metabolic, electrolytic or pharmacological sources. A retrospective analysis of 47 other consecutive patients with AN showed that sinus bradycardia was the most common ECG finding, but that QT or QTc interval prolongation was not a typical feature, being present in only 1 patient. The sole variable slightly correlated with QTc duration was the serum potassium concentration. Consequently, marked repolarization changes (QT interval and/or T wave morphology) in AN should not be taken as a feature of the disease, but should call for the search of potential causes such as metabolic and electrolytic disturbances, drug effects, or a possible genetic component.


Objective The objective of the present study was to study the role of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) as an early biomarker of acute kidney injury (AKI) in the pediatric ICU (PICU) of Menoufia University. Background AKI represents a very devastating problem in critically ill children. Nephrologists are aware of the usefulness of serum NGAL as a biomarker of AKI. Participants and methods This study was carried out at the PICU of Menoufia University Hospital. This study included 80 participants. They were classified into group I (n = 20), including apparently healthy volunteers, and group II (n = 60), including children who were admitted to the PICU. All patients were subjected to full history and thorough clinical examination, routine investigations, and quantitative determination of serum NGAL levels. Results AKI developed in 18.3% of the cases. Cases had significantly higher levels of serum NGAL compared with the control group. There were significantly higher levels of serum NGAL among cases with AKI than in those without AKI. There were significantly higher levels of serum NGAL in septic AKI cases compared with septic non-AKI cases. The validity of serum NGAL for prediction of AKI, which documents the area under the curve, was 0.95 at a cutoff point of 155 ng/ml, sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 89.8%, positive predictive value of 68.8%, negative predictive value of 100%, and total accuracy of 91.7. Conclusion NGAL acts as a sensitive marker rather than a specific marker for AKI. At the same time, it presents a negative predictive value, more valuable than a positive predictive value, in detecting AKI.


The ability to recognize molecular patterns is essential for the continued survival of biological organisms, allowing them to sense and respond to their immediate environment. The design of synthetic gene-based classifiers has been explored previously; however, prior strategies have focused primarily on DNA strand-displacement reactions. Here, we present a synthetic in vitro transcription and translation (TXTL)-based perceptron consisting of a weighted sum operation (WSO) coupled to a downstream thresholding function. We demonstrate the application of toehold switch riboregulators to construct a TXTL-based WSO circuit that converts DNA inputs into a GFP output, the concentration of which correlates to the input pattern and the corresponding weights. We exploit the modular nature of the WSO circuit by changing the output protein to the Escherichia coli σ28-factor, facilitating the coupling of the WSO output to a downstream reporter network. The subsequent introduction of a σ28 inhibitor enabled thresholding of the WSO output such that the expression of the downstream reporter protein occurs only when the produced σ28 exceeds this threshold. In this manner, we demonstrate a genetically implemented perceptron capable of binary classification, i.e., the expression of a single output protein only when the desired minimum number of inputs is exceeded.


One indicator of pharmacy services at the puskesmas is waiting time. The waiting time for drug service is the time period for the patient to submit the prescription until the patient receives the drug. This study aims to analyze the waiting time for prescription services at Pasir Panjang Health Center. This research is a non-experimental study with a descriptive design (survey research) on outpatients at Pasir Panjang Health Center and sampling using the purposive. Research time in April 2018. The results obtained were then analyzed for the suitability of the recipe for ready-made medicines and concoction drugs with minimum service standards and indicators of pharmaceutical services in the puskesmas in the long waiting time category. The number of recipes in this study were 353 recipes with details of 267 prescription drugs and 86 concoctions. The average waiting time for finished drugs is 11.38 minutes and the average waiting time for concoction is 13.45 minutes. This is in accordance with the indicators of pharmacy services at the puskesmas and the minimum service standards set by KEPMENKES No 129 / Menkes / SK / II / 2008 regarding prescription drug services that are ≤ 30 minutes, and pharmaceutical services for racic drugs which are ≤ 60 minutes.


Temperature measurements have been used by a variety of researchers to gain insight into groundwater discharge patterns. However, much of this research has reduced the problem to heat and fluid flow in one dimension for ease of analysis. This approach is seemingly at odds with the goal of determining spatial variability in specific discharge, which implies that the temperature field will vary in more than one dimension. However, it is unclear how important the resulting discrepancies are in the context of determining groundwater discharge to surface water bodies. In this study, the importance of these variations is examined by testing two popular one‐dimensional analytical solutions with stochastic models of heat and fluid flow in a two‐dimensional porous medium. For cases with low degrees of heterogeneity in hydraulic conductivity, acceptable results are possible for specific discharges between 10−7 and 10−5 m/s. However, conduction into areas with specific discharges less than 10−7 m/s from adjacent areas can lead to significant errors. In some of these cases, the one‐dimensional solutions produced estimates of specific discharge of nearly 10−6 m/s. This phenomenon is more likely in situations with greater degrees of heterogeneity.