In this study, we carried out an investigation of the etching characteristics (etch rate, selectivity to SiO₂ and HfO₂) of TiN thin films in the CH₄/Ar inductively coupled plasma. The maximum etch rate of 274 A/min for TiN thin films was obtained at CH₄(80%)/Ar(20%) gas mixing ratio. At the same time, the etch rate was measured as function of the etching parameters such as RF power, Bias power, and process pressure. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed an efficient destruction of the oxide bonds by the ion bombardment as well as showed an accumulation of low volatile reaction products on the etched surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the CH₄ containing plasmas.


The crude methanol extract of seed of Senna obtusifolia Linn . has been investigated for anxiolytic, anti atherothrombosis, membrane stabilizing and alpha - amylase inhibitory activities. The anxiolytic activity was examined in mice by using the hole cross and open field test (OFT). The anti - atherothrombosis activity was evaluated and compared with that of standard streptokinase. The membrane stabilizin g activity was tested by using hypotonic solution - and heat - induced hemolysis of human erythrocyte. The plant extract was also assessed for anti - diabetic activity through in vitro α - amylase inhibitory potential. The α - amylase inhibitory activity of S. obtusifolia was measured using the starch - iodine method. The crude extract of S. obtusifolia showed moderate anxiolytic activity. In the in - vitro anti - atherothrombosis test, the extrac t exhibited mild activity as compared to the standard, streptokinase (81.53%). In membrane stabilizing activity test, the plant extract at 1.0 mg/ml inhibited the heat - induced hemolysis of RBCs by 56.37% whereas the standard acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) dem onstrated 71.36% inhibition of hemolysis. Our results revealed that the extract produced dose - dependent prevention of digestion of carbohydrates by inhibiting α - amylase. These findings demonstrated that S. obtusifolia may be a good candidate for further analysis because of its effective pharmacological properties.


1. Abstract Creating innovative interactive multimedia presentations requires rapid exploration of numerous design alternatives early in the development cycle. However, current authoring tools provide poor support for this early design exploration. To gather requirements for an acceptable design tool, I have conducted a series of interviews with professional multimedia authors. Although these authors expressed interest in using better design processes, tools, and techniques, they were not interested in learning additional complex applications. To address this problem, this dissertation focuses on the development of an interactive multimedia storyboard tool that uses stroke gestures and textual annotations as an input design vocabulary. By operationalizing this vocabulary, the storyboard becomes interactive, thus allowing authors to explore working design alternatives. Once complete, the storyboard specifications can then be used to generate at least a partial implementation in a standard document format.


The objective of this study is to confirm the intentions of J. League spectators to support a club. Specifically, data was collected from 619 J. League supporters, and a hypothetical model that assumes a relationship among at -tachment, team identification, and club support intentions was examined using structural equation modeling. In ad -dition, to verify the difference in the intensity of supportive behavior, supporter-club members and non-members and supporter-association members and non-members were compared. From the results, it was observed that team identification and attachment to a fan community affected club support intentions, and among the two, the effect of the former was stronger. Further, no differences were observed that compared supporter-club members and non-members. In the comparison between supporter-association members and non-members, differences were observed in the relationship between attachment to a fan community and club support intentions and that between attachment to a local city and team identification.


Alzheimer's disease has no specific treatment; care often must be directed to patient behavior. That is why education--of professional and family caregivers--is essential. The more caregivers know, the easier it is to ensure the Alzheimer's patient is comfortable and secure. The pointers in this article are therefore valuable to both professional and lay caregivers.


Plastination is an excellent tool for studying different anatomical and clinical questions. This technique is unique because it offers the possibility to produce transparent slices series that can be easily processed morphometrically. It is very difficult to recognize the subtle widening of the tibiofibular syndesmosis in less severe injuries of this articulation. Proper anatomic knowledge of the syndesmosis might be helpful. The ankle syndesmosis was investigated on 20 cadaver feet by using the E12 plastination technique. Each foot was cut into 1.6‐mm transverse slices and then plastinated. The following parameters (reflecting the position of the fibula in the distal tibiofibular syndesmosis) were measured: the length (LFI) and the depth of the fibular incisure (DFI); the width of the clear space (TCS) and the tibiofibular overlap (TFO); the position of the fibula regarding the anterior aspect of the tibia (A); and the width of the fibula (W). Due to the unique approach of this method, values for the position of the fibular incisure with respect to the frontal (F) and sagittal (S) plane were described for the entire syndesmosis. The prevalence of syndesmotic injury in association with sprains of the ankle is up to 11%. The data presented in the study are useful for the appreciation of the correct position of the fibula in the fibular incisure and can be correlated with standard anterior–posterior radiographies and CT examinations of the ankle joint. Clin. Anat. 17:513–517, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Obtaining multi-process hard failure resilience at the application level is a key challenge that must be overcome before the promise of exascale can be fully realized. Previous work has shown that online global recovery can dramatically reduce the overhead of failures when compared to the more traditional approach of terminating the job and restarting it from the last stored checkpoint. If online recovery is performed in a local manner further scalability is enabled, not only due to the intrinsic lower costs of recovering locally, but also due to derived effects when using some application types. In this paper we model one such effect, namely multiple failure masking, that manifests when running Stencil parallel computations on an environment when failures are recovered locally. First, the delay propagation shape of one or multiple failures recovered locally is modeled to enable several analyses of the probability of different levels of failure masking under certain Stencil application behaviors. Our results indicate that failure masking is an extremely desirable effect at scale which manifestation is more evident and beneficial as the machine size or the failure rate increase.


In this paper, Radial point collocation method (RPCM), a kind of meshfree method, is applied to solve convection-diffusion problem. The main feature of this approach is to use the interpolation schemes in local supported domains based on radial basis functions. As a result, this method is local and hence the system matrix is banded which is very attractive for practical engineering problems. In the numerical examination, RPCM is applied to solve non-linear convection-diffusion 2D Burgers equations. The results obtained by RPCM demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method for solving transient fluid dynamic problems. A fictitious point scheme is adopted to improve the solution accuracy while Neumann boundary conditions exist. The meshfree feature of the present method is very attractive in solving computational fluid problems.


Over the past twenty years, hobby crafting has experienced a revival of interest, as people have started to seek new ways to engage with crafts as creative leisure in an increasingly digital world. Along the way, emerging, digital technologies have provided new tools and ways to engage
 in hobby crafting. Indeed, today's hobby crafts are frequently concerned with material mediated via the internet and accomplished with the aid of software, which also affects our understanding of maker identities in online communities. This article argues that digitalization has not
 only revolutionized hobbyist craft making with new tools and technologies, but has also paved new ways for practising creative skills, which has had a significant impact on makers' engagements with craft materials, objects and communities of practices. This is demonstrated through netnographic
 explorations on Facebook's leisure craft community where digital material practices are increasingly prevalent in hobbyists' everyday life. As a conclusion, the article speculates on visions of the future of hobby crafts and its relevance as a leisure pursuit.


Edge computing is an emerging technology for the acquisition of Internet-of-Things (IoT) data and provisioning different services in connected living. Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered edge devices (edge-AI) facilitate intelligent IoT data acquisition and services through data analytics. However, data in edge networks are prone to several security threats such as external and internal attacks and transmission errors. Attackers can inject false data during data acquisition or modify stored data in the edge data storage to hamper data analytics. Therefore, an edge-AI device must verify the authenticity of IoT data before using them in data analytics. This article presents an IoT data authenticity model in edge-AI for a connected living using data hiding techniques. Our proposed data authenticity model securely hides the data source's identification number within IoT data before sending it to edge devices. Edge-AI devices extract hidden information for verifying data authenticity. Existing data hiding approaches for biosignal cannot reconstruct original IoT data after extracting the hidden message from it (i.e., lossy) and are not usable for IoT data authenticity. We propose the first lossless IoT data hiding technique in this article based on error-correcting codes (ECCs). We conduct several experiments to demonstrate the performance of our proposed method. Experimental results establish the lossless property of the proposed approach while maintaining other data hiding properties.


The aim of the present study was to investigate adenosine deaminase (ADA) and adenosine kinase (ADK) expression in human glioma and to explore its correlation with glioma-associated epilepsy. Tumor tissues (n=45) and peritumoral tissues (n=14) were obtained from glioma patients undergoing surgery. Normal control tissues (n=8) were obtained from brain trauma patients. The disease grade was determined by histological evaluation and the degree of tumor invasion was evaluated using immunofluorescence analyses. mRNA and protein expression of ADA and ADK were evaluated using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction or western blot analysis, respectively. Based on histological evaluations, four cases were classified as Grade I gliomas, 18 cases as Grade II, 17 cases as Grade III and six cases were considered Grade IV. Increased ADA and ADK expression was observed in tumor tissues. ADA was predominantly distributed in the cytoplasm of tumor cells, whereas ADK was detected in the cytoplasm as well as in the nuclei. ADA and ADK levels were upregulated in patients with Grade II and Grade III gliomas compared to those in control subjects (p<0.05). In addition, tumor invasion was detected in peritumoral tissues. The number of ADA-positive or ADK-positive cells in tumor tissues was similar between glioma patients with and without epilepsy (p>0.05). However, ADA and ADK expression was upregulated in peritumoral tissues derived from patients with epilepsy compared to that in glioma patients without epilepsy. The results of the present study suggested that ADA and ADK are involved in glioma progression, and that increased ADA and ADK levels in peritumoral tissues may be associated with epilepsy in glioma patients.


HIV virus particles interact with several receptors on cell surfaces. Two receptors, CD4 and a co-receptor act sequentially to trigger fusion of viral and cellular membranes and confer virus entry into cells. For HIV-1, the chemokine receptor CCR5 is the predominant co-receptor exploited for transmission and replication in vivo. Variants that switch to use CXCR4 and perhaps other co-receptors evolve in some infected individuals and have altered tropism and pathogenic properties. Other cell surface receptors including mannose binding protein on macrophages and DC-SIGN on dendritic cells also interact with gp120 on virus particles but do not actively promote fusion and virus entry. These receptors may tether virus particles to cells enabling interactions with suboptimal concentrations of CD4 and/or co-receptors. Alternatively such receptors may transport cell surface trapped virions into lymph nodes before transmitting them to susceptible cells. Therapeutic strategies that prevent HIV from interacting with receptors are currently being developed. This review describes how the interaction and use of different cellular receptors influences HIV tropism and pathogenesis in vivo.


Conformal prediction can be applied on top of any machine learning predictive regression model, thus turning it into a conformal regressor. Given a significance level $\epsilon$, conformal regressors output valid prediction intervals, i.e., the probability that the interval covers the true value is exactly $1-\epsilon$. To obtain validity, a calibration set that is not used for training the model must be set aside. In standard inductive conformal regression, the size of the prediction intervals is then determined by the absolute error made by the predictive model on a specific instance in the calibration set, where different significance levels correspond to different instances. In this setting, all prediction intervals will have the same size, making the resulting models very unspecific. When adding a technique called normalization, however, the difficulty of each instance is estimated, and the interval sizes are adjusted accordingly. An integral part of normalized conformal regressors is a parameter called $\beta$, which determines the relative importance of the difficulty estimation and the error of the model. In this study, the effects of different underlying models, difficulty estimation functions and $\beta$ -values are investigated. The results from a large empirical study, using twenty publicly available data sets, show that better difficulty estimation functions will lead to both tighter and more specific prediction intervals. Furthermore, it is found that the $\beta$ -values used strongly affect the conformal regressor. While there is no specific $\beta$ -value that will always minimize the interval sizes, lower $\beta$ -values lead to more variation in the interval sizes, i.e., more specific models. In addition, the analysis also identifies that the normalization procedure introduces a small but unfortunate bias in the models. More specifically, normalization using low $\beta$ -values means that smaller intervals are more likely to be erroneous, while the opposite is true for higher $\beta$ -values.


Objectives To evaluate ultrasonographic (US) changes in major salivary glands associated with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) and to determine the usefulness of US in pSS assessment at the diagnosis and during the follow-up. Methods Sonographic images of 46 consecutive cases of patients with a diagnosis of pSS (AECG criteria) were analyzed by the same radiologist recording the following US parameters: size, parenchymal echogenicity and fibrosis of all major salivary glands. The US findings were correlated to pSS patients' demographic, clinical, histological and serological data. The ESSDAI was employed to assess pSS activity. Visual analogique scales (VAS) were used as measurement instruments for patients' subjective symptoms (dry eye, dry mouth and fatigue). Results Forty-six pSS patients (19 newly diagnosed with a disease duration ≤1 yrs and 27 with a disease duration ≥2 yrs) were enrolled in the study. US features of major salivary glands chronic inflammation were found in 31/46 pSS patients (11/19 vs 20/27, p-value=ns). Eight out of 31 had a symptomatic salivary gland enlargement while 23/31 a subclinical asymptomatic involvement. US features of advanced pSS including inhomogeneous salivary glands with scattered small, oval, hypoechoic or anechoic areas were found in 6/46 pSS patients (1/19 vs 5/27; p-value ns). We found a statistically significant correlation between parotid involvement and disease duration (p=0.01). In particular, the size of the parotid glands was smaller in patients with established pSS with respect to newly diagnosed patients (4/19 vs 15/27, p-value=0.027). No differences were detected between the two groups of patients as far as submandibular glands size, hypoechoic, and inhomogeneous US signs and/or enlarged intra-glandular lymphonodes was related. The involvement of submandibular glands was correlated to the ESSDAI and to the presence of hypergammaglobulinemia, leucopenia and lymphocytopenia. US signs of chronic inflammation of both parotid and submandibular glands were more frequent in patients with a positivity for antinuclear antibodies, anti Ro-SSA and Rheumatoid Factor. Conclusions Major salivary glands US may be an useful tool in the early detection of subclinical glandular involvement in pSS with the advantage of noninvasiveness and ease of use. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Twentieth-century education was focused on knowledge transmission, skills and integration into society. This tradition often neglected the teaching of morals and altruism, which derive from collectivism, individualism, and social issues. However, community-building through shared experienced, empathy and responsibility are supremely important values that help to overcome many challenges in today's world. Socially engaged art has already a good practical track record: it has been playing a significant role in fostering altruistic communities for the last twenty years. Socially engaged art is a practical outdoor activity that has proactive, educational and moral value. It is carried out by activists, community builders and some of teachers in the field. In this article I review several projects in socially engaged art in modern Republic of Korea that focus on creativity, empathy, recycling and social responsibility. These projects highlight the value of socially engaged art and its potential for taking education outdoors and bringing communities together.
Keywords: socially engaged art, social welfare, social practice, community art


The article deals with the treatment of human dignity in El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero. We begin with an extended methodological and conceptual exploration, asking what should be taken as primary in examining human dignity. Noting a particularly close relationship between contemporary uses of human dignity, international law, and human rights, this connection is treated as focal without assuming that it is definitive of the concept. The use of human dignity in public international law is a marker for understanding the moral, legal and political discourse of human dignity. A characteristic expression is found in the Preamble of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) whose rights "derive from the inherent dignity of the human person" and whose animating principle is "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family [as] the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." This assertion and others like it form a common reference point in contemporary literature on human dignity. Importantly, this 'inherent dignity' represents a potential bridge between a number of different ideas and ideals, namely freedom, justice and peace. Literature has a unique capacity to touch the hearts and minds and engage readers in a way that is distinctly different from political or academic texts. This paper argues for a rich understanding of human dignity, an understanding that cannot be reduced to rigid principles. Cultural forms, imagination, and fantasy employed in Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero allow us to see this richness.


Oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converters (WECs) are a popular type of wave energy devices. Generally, the OWC WECs have a simple structure and working principle, but with a high conversion efficiency, and a high reliability in power take-off due to a small torque and a high rotation speed for a certain power extraction. The OWC devices convert wave energy into pneumatic energy primarily by producing the pressured and de-pressured air (pneumatic energy) in the air chamber through the motions of the interior water surface in the water column. Conventionally, the pneumatic energy is converted into mechanical energy through an air turbine (in small scaled model, an orifice or porous membrane material is used for non-linear or linear power take-off modelling). However, these processes are very limitedly understood due to the complexities of the hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, and thermodynamics and their coupling effects. Theoretical and numerical attempts are very limited, especially when the coupling effects are included. As a result of the difficulties, in the device development, the most popular and acceptable approach may be the model tests, with different scaling factors in their corresponding development stages, as recommended by the relevant wave energy development protocols. To reduce the dependencies on the physical modelling in the OWC device development, numerical methods are very desirable to accommodate the simulation and assessment of the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic/thermodynamic performances of the OWC WECs. This is the main target of this investigation.In this numerical simulation, the hydrodynamic performances (including the motions of the structure and the interior water surface in waves) are carried out by employing a conventional boundary element method (i.e., WAMIT in this case) in frequency domain. To include the effects of the airflow passing through an orifice, its aerodynamic performance is much simplified by assuming its effects on the hydrodynamic performance through some extra damping coefficients to the motions of the floating structure and to the motion of the interior water surface. In this way, the interior water surface response can be obtained for the coupling effects of the hydrodynamics and aerodynamics of the OWC WEC. In this regard, an important issue in the numerical simulation is to seek an appropriate representation of the damping levels.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Introduction In Feb 2014 we launched an innovative walk in asymptomatic screening service targeting higher risk groups in central London UK. Users self register and record their own sexual history using a touch screen which triggers automated test ordering. Users then are self-directed to take their own samples using video instructions. HIV point of care testing gives 60 s results. The use of on site Cepheid® GeneXpert allows samples to be processed within 90 min with results delivered by automated results management. Within 6 months the service was attracting over 6000 attendances per month. The aim of this survey was to ascertain the elements of the service that were most attractive to users. Methods Prospective survey of sequential attendees. Results 78% identified as Gay/Bisexual, 20% Heterosexual, 2% Lesbian. All respondents said that they would recommend the Dean Street Express model to a friend. Use of touch screen. Really Easy 78%, Easy 22%, OK 0%, Hard 0%, Very Hard 0%. Self-taken samples. Really Easy 66%, Easy 26%, OK 8%, Hard 0%, Very Hard 0%. Percentage indicating important: Conclusion The use of touch screens, self sampling and rapid results through the use of on site diagnostics are highly acceptable to service users. Disclosure of interest statement Leigh Chislett's travel and accommodation to this conference were sponsored by Cepheid.


The prediction of the separation trajectories of external stores carried by military aircraft is an important task in the area of aircraft design having the objective to define the operational, release envelopes. This paper presents the results obtained for safe store separation from a fighter aircraft by experimental methods in the subsonic wind tunnel. The problems associated with separation of external stores can be studied by the use of several wind-tunnel test techniques. Attention is given the two most useful techniques: 1) dynamically scaled drop-model testing, 2) grid testing. A description of each method is given and data obtained are shown to validate the similarity within acceptable limits.


In the preclinical model of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), M2-like anti-inflammatory macrophage polarization and angiogenesis are required for revascularization. The regulation of cell metabolism and inflammation in macrophages is tightly linked to mitochondrial dynamics. Drp1, a mitochondrial fission protein, has shown context-dependent macrophage phenotypes with both pro- and anti-inflammatory characteristics. However, the role of macrophage Drp1 in reparative neovascularization remains unexplored. Here we show that Drp1 expression was significantly increased in F4/80+ macrophages within ischemic muscle at day 3 after hindlimb ischemia (HLI), an animal model of PAD. Myeloid-specific Drp1-/- mice exhibited reduced limb perfusion recovery, angiogenesis and muscle regeneration after HLI. These effects were associated with an increase in pro-inflammatory M1-like macrophages, p-NFkB and TNFα, and reduced anti-inflammatory M2-like macrophages and p-AMPK in ischemic muscle of myeloid Drp1-/- mice. In vitro, Drp1-/- macrophages under hypoxia serum starvation (HSS), an in vitro PAD model, demonstrated enhanced glycolysis via reducing p-AMPK as well as mitochondrial dysfunction and excessive mitochondrial ROS, resulting in increased M1-gene and reduced M2-gene expression. Conditioned media from HSS-treated Drp1-/- macrophages exhibited increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and suppressed angiogenic responses in cultured endothelial cells. Thus, Drp1 deficiency in macrophages under ischemia drives inflammatory metabolic reprogramming and macrophage polarization, thereby limiting revascularization in experimental PAD.


The greatest way of determining the attractiveness of an airport's services is through its connectivity. Connectivity is usually determined in terms of connectivity units (CNUs), which are obtained by multiplying a quality index with the frequency of flights to a given destination from the airport. The sum of connectivity units for different destinations gives the overall connectivity of the airport. This is the NETSCAN model which has been used in this research paper to determine the connectivity of Suvarnabhumi international airport in its operations as a hub. The connectivity was found to be low, 29.7 out of a maximum of 74 for the selected destinations and flight frequencies. It was however concluded that this cannot be taken to be the exact rating of the airport's connectivity with regards to air freight transshipment since only a very small percentage of the airlines it serves was considered. In addition to this, it was noted that a comparison should be made to determine the airport's competitive position. Keywords : Connectivity Units, NETSCAN model and Air Freight Transshipment


Periodontal diseases appear to progress with bursts of destructive activity at individual sites. One effect of treatment might be to diminish the frequency of such bursts. Survival analysis was employed to seek such effects on the periodontal sites of 16 individuals with prior evidence of destructive periodontal disease. The subjects were monitored at bi-monthly intervals and actively breaking down sites were detected using attachment level measurements and the tolerance method of analysis. When active sites were detected, control sites of equal pocket depth and attachment loss were selected and microbiological and immunological samples were taken. The subjects were treated by modified Widman flap surgery and systemically administered tetracycline. On completion of therapy, bi-monthly monitoring was reinstituted. Life tables were constructed for periodontal sites in each of the 16 subjects prior to and after therapy. A site losing more than 3 mm of attachment at any time interval was considered to have relapsed or "died". Survivor functions were calculated for each time period indicating the % of sites which survived at any time. The subjects were divided into 3 categories on the basis of post-therapy survivor functions. The annual hazard rate in 9 good treatment response subjects (group 1) was reduced from 0.10/year to 0.01/year. The hazard rate of 5 intermediate treatment response subjects (group 2A) was reduced from 0.16/year to 0.04/year and that of 2 poor treatment response subjects (group 2B) from 0.15/year to 0.07/year. Group 2A and 2B individuals were combined and differences were sought in clinical, microbiological and immunological parameters between the good and poor treatment response groups. 5 out of 7 of the poor responding individuals showed elevated humoral antibody responses to 3 or more gram-negative subgingival species tested. Many of the elevated responses in this group were to organisms which are widely distributed and return quickly after therapy such as Fusobacterium nucleatum, Eikenella corrodens, Bacteroides intermedius and Capnocytophaga sputigena. The predominant cultivable microbiota in subgingival samples taken prior to therapy from the good responding group had significantly greater proportions of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, C. ochracea and B. intermedius than the poor responding group. The latter group showed significantly elevated proportions of F. nucleatum, Peptostreptococcus micros and Streptococcus intermedius.


The pulmonary effects of chronic exposure to isocyanates (mainly MDI) at low levels (less than 0.02 ppm) were studied in a five year longitudinal survey of workers from two factories producing polyurethane foam. A respiratory questionnaire, flow volume curves and a single breath CO diffusion test were done at the beginning of the survey and repeated five years later; 318 workers (214 men, 104 women) of whom 83 (group I) were unexposed, 117 indirectly exposed (group II) and 118 directly exposed to isocyanates (group III) were examined. Five years later, half of the initial cohort only was still active and re-examined. The longitudinal analysis distinguished unexposed workers at both examinations (group A), indirectly at both examinations (group. B), directly exposed at both examinations (group. C) and workers exposed directly at first examination and retired from risk at the second (group. D). The decline of VC and FEV1 was not significantly different between exposed and unexposed. On the contrary, DLCO declined significantly in group C compared to the others. The results indicate that even at 'safe levels', chronic exposure to isocyanates involved a respiratory risk.


Web search engines often federate many user queries to relevant structured databases. For example, a recruitment-related query might be federated to a jobseekers-and-employers database containing their resumes and skills. The relevant structured data items are then returned to the user along with web search results. Though each structured database is searched in isolation, the search often produces empty / incomplete results as the database may not contain the required information to answer the query. Starting from our Applicant Tracking System (ATS), we have 16 development databases of over 650,000 profile documents of resumes / cover letters / skills. There are on average 238 keywords per document. In fact, per minute there can be up to 200,000 transactions within all these databases. Our existing traditional database search technique (by full-text keyword PostgreSQL search) can be frozen or taking very long to respond unless if we cut off / only search from top profiles, we will not have the search results ready by thirty seconds, but this cut-off limitation returned incorrect results; for example for a query "Jet fuel Thermal Oxidation" to request information about job seekers whose resumes contain skills in Oil and Gas industry, in the top ten results there was a conflict in relevance ranking. In order to research a more suitable full-text keyword search technique better than the existing database search, we considered employment of semantic search models. Our semantic search technique has 88% 91.22% accuracy with very much quicker queries that can help users to make a search of 4 keywords of skills completed from 1 second to 28 seconds. Furthermore, the semantic search engine becomes very strong that users can search by entering a whole text paragraph. We designed a combination of semantic search that look for web pages per search and database search.


Summary The Araucaria Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura setaria (Furnariidae) is a globally Near Threatened species. Its habitat, the araucaria (Araucaria angustifolia) rainforest of south-east Brazil and north-east Argentina, is highly fragmented and reduced to nearly 10% of its original range. The species has also been recorded in commercial araucaria plantations that comprise about 80% of its suitable habitat in Argentina. This situation provides an opportunity for the conservation of the Araucaria Tit-spinetail in a human-modified landscape. We assessed the occurrence of the species in the region and estimated its density and total population size in araucaria plantations in Argentina. We discuss the value of plantations in the conservation of the bird, and evaluate its conservation status in Argentina using IUCN criteria. The density of the tit-spinetail in araucaria plantations, estimated by a distance sampling method, was 9 birds ha 21 . The overall population size in commercial plantations appears to be large (.7,000 birds), showing that araucaria plantations play an important role in the conservation of the bird. However, plantations must not replace the native araucaria forest because the former are an intrinsically fragmented habitat influenced primarily by economic factors and forestry practices. The longterm conservation and restoration of araucaria rainforest in Argentina and Brazil must be guaranteed to conserve the Araucaria Tit-spinetail and other species associated with this rainforest. Based on the restricted and very fragmented habitat, the Araucaria Tit-spinetail should be regarded as Vulnerable in Argentina.


INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this project was to learn from traditional midwives about their experience of practicing in an area of rural Kenya.

METHODS
This qualitative, service-based research project used a simple exploratory and descriptive design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and fieldwork notes taken during and immediately after the interviews with 84 traditional midwives. Data were thematically analyzed and themes identified through paired-author consensus. Exemplars using the participants' translated words were used for analysis and presentation purposes.

RESULTS
In being humble, patient, and kind, the traditional midwives used their relationships with women to create an enabling, calm, and physiologically sound intrapartum environment.

DISCUSSION
Traditional midwives provide a valuable service to women in this area of Kenya at a time when their role is being increasingly devalued by global health agencies. We recommend a redirection of global policy from one that esteems only professional caregivers to one that recognizes the potential value of traditional midwives and supports them through sustainable, evidence-based education and resourcing.


Introduction: Total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) has been used as a therapeutical option in progressive bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) after lung transplantation (LT). Objective: To assess the safety and efficacy of TLI in patients suffering from BOS after LT. Methods: 12 lung recipients, 10 bilateral and 2 single LT, were treated with TLI for progressive BOS between 2011 and 2013 and were retrospectively reviewed. Diagnosis of BOS was established by consensus criteria of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. BOS grades at time of TLI were BOS 1 (25%), BOS 2 (33%) and BOS 3 (42%). Radiation therapy was prescribed as 8 Gy delivered in 0.8-Gy fractions twice a week. Serial pulmonary function tests were performed and adverse effects were identified. Results: 11 patients completed 10 fractions. Baseline post-transplant FEV1 before TLI was mean (SD) 1.94 (0.7) L and after TLI was 1.13 (0.5) L. The average FEV1 decline before TLI was -0.71 (IC95% -0.95;-0.46)L/year and after TLI was 0.13 (IC95% -0.2; 0.46) L/year. There were 8 cases of marrow suppression and 7 respiratory infections, one of them forcing to stop TLI. Six patients died from advanced BOS after TLI and 1 due to a pulmonary infection. Conclusions: TLI as a treatment for progressive BOS was well tolerated and some patients experienced stabilization on FEV1 decline.


Experimental observations are reported on the interaction of 1-μm laser light with underdense plasmas ( n ≤ 0·25 n c ) from thin foil plastic targets. Nominal laser intensity on target was up to 3 × 10 13 W/cm 2 in a 3-ns pulse, but much higher intensity was reached due to spiky laser pulses. We studied forward-emitted second harmonic light as a diagnostic of the interaction and in particular of the occurrence of filamentation. Measurements included: energy monitoring of 2ω forward emission vs. target position and laser energy; time resolved (120-ps gate) imaging of the interaction region cross section. The second harmonic energy level was found to be sensitive to target position. In addition, the images obtained with the target in position of maximum second harmonic generation showed unstable structures whose scale length is comparable with the expected one for maximum filamentation growth. These results are shortly discussed in the framework of stationary filamentation theory and second harmonic generation in inhomogeneous media.


The aim of D+T Online is to link school D&T departments via the Internet. The project currently is being developed by the National Association of Advisers and Inspectors in Design and Technology (NAAIDT) in North Yorkshire and was sponsored initially by the Technology Enhancement Programme (TEP). The purpose of D&TOnline is that students and teachers should be able to access advice or information from databases within their own school and elsewhere, from staff and students in other schools and colleges and from contacts in local industries. Also that students should be able to have components produced, to their own designs, at remote sites if their own schools lacks a particular manufacturing capability. The remote manufacturing process itself will lead to a further exchange of advice and comment on the design proposals to ensure successful production.


Before taking a trip, everyone will do some preparation, one of them is to prepare the route which they will take to make the trip as good as possible. One information that will make the route better is weather condition. Weather conditions can change rapidly drastically, and weather conditions in a place can be different on the other place even if still in the same city. This paper will propose a way that efficient and attractively show a route for travel with weather condition on the route. We create a mobile application which connected with current weather conditions. The data was taken from a weather station which is spread all around the city. The application created from this paper will provide information about the route for travel with the current weather conditions.


1. Direct measurements of the blood pressure carried out during the intravenous infusion of various solutions into rabbits show that although a relation between the height of blood pressure and secretion of urine may be noted, a direct relation docs not exist between blood pressure and peritoneal transudate and intestinal fluid. 2. Calcium chloride docs not increase the peritoneal transudate by a rise of blood pressure, nor does it decrease the intestinal fluid by a fall of blood pressure, since no such increase of peritoneal fluid nor decrease of intestinal fluid is noticeable in animals with myocarditic lesions which are infused with solutions of sodium chloride. 3. It can be proved that calcium chloride does not diminish the amount of urine as a result of its depressing action on the blood pressure. Our experiments make it probable that calcium chloride decreases the diuresis by a direct action on the renal epithelium.


This paper presents the analysis of the impact of a floating-point number precision reduction on the quality of text classification. The precision reduction of the vectors representing the data (e.g. TF-IDF representation in our case) allows for a decrease of computing time and memory footprint on dedicated hardware platforms. The impact of precision reduction on the classification quality was performed on 5 corpora, using 4 different classifiers. Also, dimensionality reduction was taken into account. Results indicate that the precision reduction improves classification accuracy for most cases (up to 25% of error reduction). In general, the reduction from 64 to 4 bits gives the best scores and ensures that the results will not be worse than with the full floating-point representation.


A series of novel amide tagged trifluoromethyl indole and pyrimido indole derivatives 4a-e & 5a-e
and 6a-d & 7a-d were synthesized from 4-methyl-2-(methylamino)-6-(trifluoromethyl)isophthalonitrile
(1) on reaction with bromoethyl acetate to obtain 2a and 2b isomers. Compound 2a treated with
hydrazine hydrate followed by Schiff base reaction to get compounds 4a-e. In another way, compound
2a on reaction with aliphatic primary amine to get compounds 6a-d. For cyclization, compounds 4a-e
& 6a-d treated with trifluoroacetic acid to obtain compounds 5a-e and 7a-d, respectively. All the
synthesized compounds 4a-e & 5a-e and 6a-d & 7a-d were tested for anticancer activity against four
human cancer cell lines such as A549-lung cancer (CCL-185), MCF7-breast cancer (HTB-22),
DU145-prostate cancer (HTB-81) and HeLa-cervical cancer (CCL-2). Compounds 9e and 9f were
found to have promising anticancer activity at micromolar concentration.


The work is focused on the preparation of bulk immiscible Cu-Fe-based alloys by powder metallurgy. Three samples with chemical composition Cu70Fe30, Cu70Fe15Co15, and Cu50Fe25Co25 were prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering (SPS). Microstructure evolution during sintering and the effect of Co on the resulting microstructure and hardness of the bulk samples were evaluated. Despite the immiscibility of Cu with Fe and Co, the FCC supersaturated solid solution was formed upon mechanical alloying. This supersaturated solid solution was decomposed during SPS and fine microstructure, consisting of separated BCC and FCC phases, was formed. The results showed that cobalt influenced the particle size of milled powders as the particle size of Cu70Fe30 alloy was about an order of magnitude higher compared to other alloys. Cobalt also affected the resulting microstructure of bulk samples, however, its effect on the hardness was negligible. It has been shown that powder metallurgy can be used for the preparation of bulk immiscible alloys with the fine microstructure consists of separate phases, which can be individually alloyed by the selected elements, and therefore, powder metallurgy can be considered as a suitable alternative to the more used casting.


Numerous researchers have described the potential of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) for the treatment of various infectious and inflammatory diseases. However, contrary to what has been reported, the transplantation of BM-MSCs in a mouse model of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis-induced pulmonary fibrosis exacerbated the inflammatory process and fibrosis, worsening the course of the infection. The aim of this work was to determine whether P. brasiliensis exerts an immunomodulatory effect on BM-MSCs. The results indicate that P. brasiliensis can activate BM-MSCs through a mechanism dependent on TLR2, TLR4 and Dectin-1. In addition, it was found that these fungal cells can adhere and internalize within BM-MSCs. Nonetheless, this process did not affect the survival of the fungus and on the contrary, triggered the expression of inflammatory mediators such as IL-6, IL-17, TNF-α, and TGF-β. The present findings correlate with the loss of a fungicidal effect and poor control of the fungus, evidenced by the count of the colony-forming units. Previously reported in vivo results are thus confirmed, showing that P. brasiliensis induces an inflammatory profile in BM-MSCs when producing pro-inflammatory molecules that amplify such response.


The primary aim of the STAR Study (Statins Target Assessment in Real practice) was to determine the LDL-cholesterol reduction and to analyse patient's and therapeutic factors associated to LDL-cholesterol target attainment in newly treated subjects with statins in an unselected population in clinical practice setting. Administrative databases (including pharmaceutical prescriptions and hospital admissions) and laboratory test databases (including LDL-cholesterol values) of five local health units, distributed in Emilia Romagna, Toscana and Umbria, were linked. A retrospective cohort study was conducted and all subjects aged > or =18 years with a first prescription for statins (newly treated subjects) between January 1st, 2007 and June 30th, 2008 were included. All statin prescriptions over a 12 months follow-up period were considered and used to calculate adherence to treatment. Baseline and follow-up LDL-cholesterol, respectively, were defined according to the nearest determination to the first prescription for statins and to the end of the follow-up period. A total of 3.232 subjects was included, 1.516 males (47%) and 1.716 females (53%), with an average age equal to 65.9 +/- 11.3 years. Among included subjects, 22.,6% had a gap to LDL-cholesterol target <10%, 30.0% between 10 and 29%, 20.7% between 30 and 49%, and 26.7% . or =50%. Among those with a gap to target > or =50%, 30-49%, and 10-29%, respectively, LDL-cholesterol target was attained by 7.1%, 41.8%, and 62.% of subjects. LDL-cholesterol target attainment was associated to gap to target, adherence with treatment, and type of statin.


SUMMARY The aim of this study was to determine arterial stiffness and the effect of stenting in patients with renal artery stenosis. We hypothesized that ostial renal artery stenosis is not only a marker of more pronounced atherosclerosis of large arteries, but is also a predictor of higher cardiovascular mortality. We enrolled 33 patients with renal artery stenosis refractory to pharmacological treatment and divided them according to the renal artery stenosis location, ostial and truncal (23 vs. 10 patients). We analyzed patient survival at five-year follow up. After the intervention and at six-month follow up, there was a significant decrease in blood pressure values, as well as in pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index. PWV was significantly lower in patients with truncal renal artery stenosis and these patients were significantly younger. Twelve patients with ostial and one patient with truncal renal artery stenosis (52% vs. 10%, p<0.001) died from cardiovascular events. Our study is the first to confirm the predictive role of PWV and arterial stiffness in patients with renal artery stenosis, especially ostial one, and to emphasize its ability of detecting future higher incidence of cardiovascular events.


Study/Objective: To disseminate the development and use to date, of the WHO 'Minimum Technical Standards and Recommendations for Rehabilitation for Emergency Medical Teams' guidance document (e-publication expected December 2016). Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Team (EMT) initiative, supports populations severely impacted by large-scale catastrophic disasters by ensuring a rapid, professional, coordinated medical response by national and international teams. Physical rehabilitation has become increasingly recognized as an essential health component of the medical response in disasters, due to the humanitarian imperative to limit long-term disability, and optimize functional outcomes in persons sustaining severe traumatic injuries (and infectious disease outbreak sequelae). The WHO 'Minimum Technical Standards and Recommendations for Rehabilitation for Emergency Medical Teams' was developed to provide guidance for integrating rehabilitation capacity into EMTs, and hence the global humanitarian medical response. Methods: Guidance document development was a highly consultative process hosted by WHO involving global experts from the rehabilitation field, including operational rehabilitation from International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs), international professional rehabilitation societies, and individuals. Results: The WHO 'Minimum Technical Standards and Recommendations for Rehabilitation for Emergency Medical Teams' guidance document draft, is available on the WHO EMT Initiative extranet, with the official e-publication anticipated in December 2016. The minimal technical standards for rehabilitation have been incorporated into the verification process undergone by EMTs, to qualify for global classification. It is expected that use of the minimum standards and recommendations will result in expanded, quicker access of patients to rehabilitation services (and equipment) in disasters, as well as improved referrals between EMTs and local health facilities for ongoing rehabilitation service provision translating to increased near-term functional outcomes and reduced long-term disability for affected persons. Conclusion: In conclusion, the WHO 'Minimum Technical Standards and Recommendations for Rehabilitation for Emergency Medical Teams' guidance document establishes minimum standards for rehabilitation to increase the rehabilitation capacity of EMTs in disasters (and outbreaks).


We present the phase control of photon correlations in a driven four-level system in the double lambda configuration. The strong correlation and the anticorrelation are obtained when the collective phase of four applied laser fields is varied. The coherent control is based on the phase-dependent coherent population trapping (CPT). The strong correlation occurs when the system operates near CPT, while the anticorrelation occurs when the system is far away from CPT.


We investigated the role of free radicals in hemoglobin (Hb) oxidation and denaturation. To generate free radicals, we used two azocompounds, the hydrophilic 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane hydrochloride and the hydrophobic 2,2'-azobis(2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile) and a drug of the quinone family, phenazine methosulfate. The radical species involved were analyzed by direct EPR and spin trapping with 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide, and N-t-butyl-alpha-phenyl-nitrone. The free radicals generated by the azocompounds were carbon radicals and, in the presence of molecular oxygen, peroxyl/alkoxyl radicals. The reaction of phenazine with Hb produced a nitrogen-centered semiquinoid radical detectable by EPR only under N2 and reactive oxygen species (O2-. and H2O2) in the presence of molecular oxygen. Azocompounds oxidized Hb to methemoglobin, hemichromes, and choleglobin while phenazine produced methemoglobin and ferrylhemoglobin. For all three drugs, low oxygen tensions (pO2 = 62 mm Hg) increased the formation of Hb oxidation products, whereas high oxygen tensions (pO2 = 540 mm Hg) reduced Hb oxidation. The formation of irreversible Hb oxidation products (irreversible hemichromes and Hb cross-linking) was observed only with the azocompounds and was reduced at high pO2. Spin traps and thiourea protected Hb from the oxidative damage induced by the azocompounds, whereas enzymes scavenging reactive oxygen species, such as superoxide dismutase and catalase, affected Hb oxidation induced by phenazine and that induced by the hydrophobic azocompound. These results indicate distinct patterns of oxidation and denaturation with each agent. Damage induced by phenazine was dependent on the formation of reactive oxygen species, whereas the damage induced by the azocompounds was due mainly to carbon-centered radicals with some involvement by reactive oxygen species only for the hydrophobic azocompound. The preferential interaction of Hb with drug radicals scavenged by molecular oxygen indicates that this protein may be more reactive under hypoxic conditions and led to the view that a good supply of oxygen can provide an important defense against drug-induced Hb oxidation.


SUMMARY: Glucose-6-phosphate isomerase was partially purified from cells of Dictyostelium discoideum in the culmination stage of development. The enzyme had a pH optimum of about 8·5 in Tris/HCl buffer. Activity was not inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate or iodoacetate. The enzyme exhibited Michaelis–Menten kinetics and the K
m values for glucose 6-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate were 2 mm and 0·1 mm, respectively. Erythrose 4-phosphate was a strong competitive inhibitor of the enzyme with a K
i value of 3·8 μm, whereas 6-phospho-gluconate was less effective with a K
i of 0·1 mm.


ABSTRACT Thaxtomins are virulence factors of most plant-pathogenic Streptomyces strains. Due to their potent herbicidal activity, attractive environmental compatibility, and inherent biodegradability, thaxtomins are key active ingredients of bioherbicides approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. However, the low yield of thaxtomins in native Streptomyces producers limits their wide agricultural applications. Here, we describe the high-yield production of thaxtomins in a heterologous host. The thaxtomin gene cluster from S. scabiei 87.22 was cloned and expressed in S. albus J1074 after chromosomal integration. The production of thaxtomins and nitrotryptophan analogs was observed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. When the engineered S. albus J1074 was cultured in the minimal medium Thx defined medium supplemented with 1% cellobiose (TDMc), the yield of the most abundant and herbicidal analog, thaxtomin A, was 10 times higher than that in S. scabiei 87.22, and optimization of the medium resulted in the highest yield of thaxtomin analogs at about 222 mg/liter. Further engineering of the thaxtomin biosynthetic gene cluster through gene deletion led to the production of multiple biosynthetic intermediates important to the chemical synthesis of new analogs. Additionally, the versatility of the thaxtomin biosynthetic system in S. albus J1074 was capitalized on to produce one unnatural fluorinated analog, 5-fluoro-thaxtomin A (5-F-thaxtomin A), whose structure was elucidated by a combination of MS and one-dimensional (1D) and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses. Natural and unnatural thaxtomins demonstrated potent herbicidal activity in radish seedling assays. These results indicated that S. albus J1074 has the potential to produce thaxtomins and analogs thereof with high yield, fostering their agricultural applications. IMPORTANCE Thaxtomins are agriculturally valuable herbicidal natural products, but the productivity of native producers is limiting. Heterologous expression of the thaxtomin gene cluster in S. albus J1074 resulted in the highest yield of thaxtomins ever reported, representing a significant leap forward in its wide agricultural use. Furthermore, current synthetic routes to thaxtomins and analogs are lengthy, and two thaxtomin biosynthetic intermediates produced at high yields in this work can provide precursors and building blocks to advanced synthetic routes. Importantly, the production of 5-F-thaxtomin A in engineered S. albus J1074 demonstrated a viable alternative to chemical methods in the synthesis of new thaxtomin analogs. Moreover, our work presents an attractive synthetic biology strategy to improve the supply of herbicidal thaxtomins, likely finding general applications in the discovery and production of many other bioactive natural products.


The synthetic polycations are ideal candidates as antimicrobial agents, because they resemble natural antimicrobial peptides, but to render hemocompatibility to these materials is a great challenge. Herein, we used 2-(tert-butyl-aminoethyl) methacrylate (TBAEMA), to synthesize its homopolymer and pegylated random and diblock copolymers with polyethyleneglycol methacrylate (PEGMA, Mn = 360 Da) by single-electron transfer–living radical polymerization (SET-LRP). In the second step, the secondary amino groups in the precursor polymers were quaternized with iodomethane and bromohexane, to obtain three series of quaternized polymers. The antimicrobial properties of these quaternized polymers were evaluated against Escherichia coli (E. coli), by studying the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) which ranged between 32 and 200 mg L−1 and showed higher values for the quaternized random than the diblock copolymers. In addition to, we have also demonstrated the grafting of these polycations onto polycarbonate urethane film surfaces, which showed good killing efficacy against E. coli. Furthermore, the hemolysis of these materials was investigated against human red blood cells, which indicated that except the quaternized homopolymers that showed highest hemolysis, all other amphiphilic polycations exhibited very low hemolytic activity. Therefore, our designed materials with controlled structures and functionality, synthesized from cheaply available resources could serve as useful agents in the field of biomedicines and implantable materials. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 3166–3176


AbstractSedimentary basins are ubiquitous, naturally
porous and permeable, and the geothermal heat in these basins can be extracted
with geologic water or CO2 and used to generate electricity. Despite
this, the broad potential that these formations may have for electricity
generation is unknown. Here we investigate this potential, which required the
creation of the generalizable GEOthermal techno-economic
simulator (genGEO). genGEO is built with only publicly available data and uses
five standalone, but integrated, models that directly simulate all components
of geothermal power plants to estimate electricity generation and cost. As a
result of this structure, genGEO, or a portion of it, can be applied or
extended to study any geothermal power technology. In contrast, the current
techno-economic tools for geothermal power plants rely on characterizations of
unpublished ASPEN results and are thus not generalizable enough to be applied
to sedimentary basin geothermal power plants which use subsurface CO2.

In this study, we present genGEO as
open-source software, validate it with industry data, and compare its estimates
to other geothermal techno-economic tools. We then apply genGEO to sedimentary
basin geothermal resources and find that using CO2 as a subsurface
heat extraction fluid compared to water decreases the cost of geothermal
electricity across most geologic conditions that are representative of
sedimentary basins. Using genGEO results and p50 geologic data, we produce
supply curves for sedimentary basin geothermal power plants in the U.S., which
suggests that there is present-day potential to profitably increase the
capacity of geothermal power by ~10% using water as the subsurface heat
extraction fluid. More capacity is available at lower cost when CO2
is used as the subsurface fluid, but realizing this capacity requires
geologically storing between ~2 and ~7 MtCO2/MWe. But
developing sedimentary basin resources in the short-term using subsurface water
may not eliminate options for CO₂-based power plants in the long-term because the least-cost order of
sedimentary basins is not the same for both CO2 and water. With
sufficient geologic CO2 storage, developing sedimentary basins using
CO2- and water-based power plants may be able to proceed in
parallel.


This paper describes a circuit design methodology to optimize both power and jitter performances of the inductorless voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) by utilizing an on-chip supply noise monitoring circuit. As the phase-locked loop (PLL) has a sensitive response to the noise frequency near the loop bandwidth, detecting low frequency tones up to the PLL bandwidth is considered for a supply noise monitoring circuit, which makes it possible to design a low cost semi-digital noise monitoring system. This work affirms the importance of optimizing the voltage swing amplitude of the inductorless VCO, which sets a fundamental trade-off between low power and low noise performances. Transistor level simulations are done to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for the ring VCO and the relaxation VCO.


The Canada-US border has seen a significant spike in irregular crossings from the US into Canada since 2016. As tens of thousands of migrants have crossed into Canada outside official entry points, Canadian officials have had to grapple with how to manage these irregular asylum claims that have put enormous strain on the Canadian immigration system. In response, the Canadian government has developed an approach that sees officials conduct comprehensive security screenings to process these claims. However, the existence of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the US has also created a challenge in dealing with this issue. In response, three approaches have emerged. The first involves completely eliminating the STCA. The second would see serious restriction of asylum claims and patrolling of borders, while the third would seek to maintain the status quo. However, the ideal solution is likely one that finds a middle ground, expediting the processing while also closing loopholes in the agreement.


A cobalt-based alloy, MP35N, is currently used as a conductor material for thin wires in pacemaker leads. In this study, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic polarization measurements of the alloy in a phosphate-buffered saline solution with 100 mM H2O2 indicated a high corrosion resistance and no passivity breakdown. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy analyses showed the existence of micrometer-sized TiN particles in the microstructure. Volta potential mapping by scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy revealed that the Volta potential of the TiN particles wits several tens of millivolts higher than that of the alloy matrix. By in situ atomic force microscopy measurements in the solution, small pitlike holes were observed in the vicinity of TiN particles and in other areas after 2 weeks of exposure. However, deposition of corrosion products within the pits was observed in the following days, and the pitlike holes were sealed upon further exposure. The results indicated a negligible risk for localized corrosion of this alloy despite the TiN particles present in the microstructure.


Ammani Beach is a beach tourist attraction that has quite a variety of attractions. This beach tourism activity is included in the recreational category, which is the type of activity that is most dominantly carried out by tourists. Ammani Beach tourism seems to be in the involvement phase. The involvement phase is marked by an increase in visitors who encourage local residents to offer facilities exclusively to visitors/tourists. In this phase, there is pressure on the government to provide supporting facilities for tourists. A tourist attraction will develop because of the presence of tourists, without tourists visiting a tourist attraction location, the tourist attraction will be difficult to develop. This study aims to describe tourists' perceptions of objects and natural tourist attractions, infrastructure and facilities in the Ammani Beach area. Sampling in this study was carried out on tourists visiting the Ammani Beach area as many as 30 people using the accidental sampling method. Data collected using questionnaires and analyzed through descriptive analysis. The results showed that the perception of tourists about Ammani Beach is very good in terms of tourism support facilities, the condition of the beach is still natural and clean. Public transportation facilities to the tourist sites of Ammani Beach are still lacking. The local community is very friendly and open to the presence of tourists because their awareness of increasing the economic sector in their area can prosper the community if the beach is crowded with tourists.


The proliferation of pigmentary-epithelium cells after they have given rise to cells of the regenerating retina is associated with the growth of the pigmentary epithelium and not with additions to the regenerating retina. The proliferative activity of pigmentary-epithelium cells during this period takes place against a background of simultaneous synthesis of specific proteins.


Genetically engineered T cells are a powerful new modality for cancer immunotherapy. However, their clinical application for solid tumors is challenging, and crucial knowledge on cell functionality in vivo is lacking. Here, we fabricated a nanoprobe composed of dendrimers incorporating a calcium sensor and gold nanoparticles, for dual-modal monitoring of engineered T cells within a solid tumor. T cells engineered to express a melanoma-specific T-cell receptor and loaded with the nanoprobe were longitudinally monitored within melanoma xenografts in mice. Fluorescent imaging of the nanoprobe's calcium sensor revealed increased intra-tumoral activation of the T cells over time, up to 24 h. Computed tomography imaging of the nanoprobe's gold nanoparticles revealed the cells' intra-tumoral distribution pattern. Quantitative analysis revealed the intra-tumoral T cell quantities. Thus, this nanoprobe reveals intra-tumoral persistence, penetration and functional status of genetically engineered T cells, which can advance T cell-based immunotherapy and promote next-generation live cell imaging.


Abstract. Lacustrine ecosystems are an important natural source of greenhouse gas methane. Aerobic methanotrophs are regarded as a major regulator controlling methane emission. Excess nutrient input can greatly influence carbon cycle in lacustrine ecosystems. Ammonium is believed to be a major influential factor, due to its competition with methane as the substrate for aerobic methanotrophs. To date, the impact of ammonia on aerobic methanotrophs remains unclear. In the present study, microcosms with freshwater lake sediment were constructed to investigate the influence of ammonia concentration on aerobic methanotrophs. Ammonia influence on the abundance of pmoA gene was only observed at a very high ammonia concentration, while the number of pmoA transcripts was increased by the addition of ammonium. pmoA gene and transcripts differed greatly in their abundance, diversity and community compositions. pmoA transcripts were more sensitive to ammonium amendment than pmoA gene. Methane oxidation potential and methanotrophic community could be impacted by ammonium amendment. This work could add some new sights towards the links between ammonia and methane oxidation in freshwater sediment.


Corporate governance has been widely debated for over a decade with the collapse of the financial and capital market under the prejudicial roles of regulatory bodies. Therefore, the study examined the impact of corporate governance on firm value in Bangladesh. A total of 63 DSE-listed companies from 2005 to 2019 consisting of 8,505 observations on an average of 15 years were chosen. The subsequent tests for the given data were conducted to identify the appropriate panel data analysis method for adjusted diagnostic problems. In the specific panel data, the Panel Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) was utilised following the application of the random effects method to control econometric limitations. It was revealed that corporate governance lowered firm value when the board structure was familially and politically affiliated and led by CEO-duality. Moreover, the inclusion of dynamic professionals and independent members in the board structure increased the firm value. The use of the corporate governance code was proven to be highly challenging due to the participation of political and family leaders in corporate firms. Additionally, proper law enforcement was required to ensure transparency and accountability, thus reflecting firm value. As previous studies on corporate governance were conducted on a small scale and partial to the context of developing countries, this paper contributes a novel value in identifying and resolving the corporate governance crisis by reforming the board structure with diverse and professional directors. The regulatory bodies require improvement by including autonomous professional and independent members to exercise the corporate governance code.


DRESS syndrome (drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms), previously named "drug hypersensitivity syndrome", is a severe adverse drug reaction characterized by skin rash, fever lymph node enlargement and internal organ involvement. We report on a 7-year old girl who developed DRESS syndrome caused by penicillin V treatment.


The goals of this work were to study the spatial-temporal variation of leaf area index (LAI) and soluble solids (Brix) in sugarcane cultived in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo State, in the years of 2003 and 2004. Geoestatistic methodology was used aiming improvement in the simulation of solar radiation interception, and specially adjustment of extinction coefficient. During growth cycle larger values of leaf area index were verified in variety SP 80-3280 than in RB 85 5156. Those values ranged from 6.41 to 4.27 respectively, and were measured in 1/14/2004, with large spatial variation. Higher values for LAI and smaller values for Brix were also observed under high water available, indicating a delay in maturation. The only Brix measurement performed in the varieties SP 80-3280 and RB 85 5156 on 4/29/2004 indicated average values of 12.86 and 17.06 respectively, demonstrating the precocity of RB 85 5156. The use of daily variable values of the extinction coefficient is recommended, improving the simulation of solar radiation interception, minimizing mistakes estimating the productivity when different sugarcane varieties were analyzed.


In spite of clearly marked borders of the phenomenon of autism phenomenon, its qualitative differentiation with schizophrenia and psychosis is still debatable. At the same time the problem of differentiation of autistic and psychotic spectrums on qualitative criteria is substantial. Autism spectrum disorders are an etiologically and clinically heterogeneous group of developmental disorders. The This article presents an analysis of some contemporary approaches to autism spectrum disorders and their relation to psychosis in contemporary European clinical psychology and psychoanalysis. In accordance with these conceptions, autism is important not as a physiological pathology, but as a special position of a subject that places him or her inside or outside of a continuum of psychotic disorders. The author emphasizes the psychological models of autistic psychopathology. Considering the up-to-date actuality of the study of the autistic phenomenon, the author attempts to show acute psychological research of its borders with psychosis that place it in the range from independent structure to equal part of psychotic continuum and ground its position by the characteristics of its affective, somatic and cognitive spheres.


Doping ferromagnetic nickel–iron alloys with chromium causes the Curie temperature to be reduced. We have demonstrated that solid state solutions of Ni–Fe–Cr can be formed by implanting Cr ions into ferromagnetic NiFe alloy films, thus creating paramagnetic films. We find that the magnetic moment and coercivity decrease steadily with Cr+ dose, reaching zero at room temperature with the onset of paramagnetism. Using Cr+ implantation in conjunction with a lithographic mask we have patterned continuous Ni80Fe20 films into separate regions that are ferromagnetic and paramagnetic at room temperature. This magnetic patterning process may have applications for the manufacture of magnetic write heads, such as for the notching process used to constrain the stray field from the write gap.


The Computational Random Access Memory (CRAM) is a platform that makes a small modification to a standard spintronics-based memory array to organically enable logic operations within the array. CRAM provides a true in-memory computational platform that can perform computations within the memory array, as against other methods that send computational tasks to a separate processor module or a near-memory module at the periphery of the memory array. This paper describes how the CRAM structure can be built and utilized, accounting for considerations at the device, gate, and functional levels. Techniques for constructing fundamental gates are first overviewed, accounting for electrical and noise margin considerations. Next, these logic operations are composed to schedule operations in the array that implement basic arithmetic operations such as addition and multiplication. These methods are then demonstrated on 2D convolution with multibit data, and a binary neural inference engine. The performance of the CRAM is analyzed on near-term and longer-term spintronic device technologies. Significant improvements in energy and execution time for the CRAM-based implementation over a near-memory processing system are demonstrated, and can be attributed to the ability of CRAM to overcome the memory access bottleneck, and to provide high levels of parallelism to the computation.


This is the second review in a two-part series. In the first review (1) we described the computational complexity involved in the docking of a ligand onto a receptor surface. In particular, we focused on efficient algorithms designed to handle this computational task. Such a procedure results in a large number of potential, geometrically feasible solutions. The difficulty is to pinpoint which of these is the more likely candidate. While there exists a number of approaches to rank these solutions according to different criteria, such as the size of the interface or some approximation of their binding energetics, none of the existing methods has been shown to be consistently successful in this endeavor. If the binding site is unknown a priori, the magnitude of the task is awesome. Here we propose one way of addressing this problem, i.e., via derivation and utilization of binding epitopes. If a library of such epitopes is available, particularly for a large number of protein families, it may be used to predict more likely binding sites for a given ligand. We describe an efficient, computer-vision based method to construct binding epitopes focusing on two ways through which such a library can be generated, (i) molecular surface-based, or (ii) residue-based. Alternatively, the two can be combined. We further describe how such a library may be used efficiently in the matching/docking procedure.


Initiation of peritoneal dialysis (PD) induces several changes both locally in the peritoneum and systemically. We performed a pilot study to generate insights into the early clinical and systemic changes after catheter insertion and the first weeks of PD. The study included 11 new PD patients (7 men, 4 women). The study period started just before implantation of the Tenckhoff catheter and finished 6 weeks after the start of PD. All patients were treated with lactate-buffered dialysis solutions. Clinical parameters, routine laboratory tests and markers of systemic inflammation were determined. The mean (+/- standard deviation) age of the patients was 52.6 +/- 12.1 years, mean weight was 81.3 +/- 14.7 kg, and mean blood pressure was 143.3/ 87.8 +/- 18.5/8.2 mmHg. Weight and blood pressure did not change significantly during the first weeks of PD. Throughout the study, 24-hour urine production declined by 6.9 mL/day (p = 0.006). Daily residual creatinine clearance (CCr) decreased by 0.036 mL/min (p = 0.008). High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was significantly higher in patients who had undergone hemodialysis before the start of the study (p < 0. 0001) and declined during the study in that group (p = 0.001). No significant change in hs-CRP was found in the group that started dialysis with PD. In this pilot study, we found no significant changes in the clinical parameters of weight and blood pressure during the first weeks of PD. However, urine production and residual CCr declined significantly during the study period, starting from the moment of catheter insertion. Levels of the systemic inflammatory marker hs-CRP were higher in patients who had previously undergone hemodialysis; its level in those patients decreased after hemodialysis ended.


Conditional GANs have matured in recent years and are able to generate high-quality realistic images. However, the computational resources and the training data required for the training of high-quality GANs are enormous, and the study of transfer learning of these models is therefore an urgent topic. In this paper, we explore the transfer from high-quality pre-trained unconditional GANs to conditional GANs. To this end, we propose hypernetworkbased adaptive weight modulation. In addition, we introduce a self-initialization procedure that does not require any real data to initialize the hypernetwork parameters. To further improve the sample efficiency of the knowledge transfer, we propose to use a self-supervised (contrastive) loss to improve the GAN discriminator. In extensive experiments, we validate the efficiency of the hypernetworks, selfinitialization and contrastive loss for knowledge transfer on several standard benchmarks.


The sensitivity of energetic materials has been studied extensively for more than half a century, both experimentally and numerically, due to its importance for reliable functioning of a munition and avoidance or mitigation of accidents (Bowden & Yoffe, 1952). While the shock initiation of an explosive under nominal conditions is relatively well understood from an engineering perspective, our understanding of initiation due to unintended stimuli (weak shock or fragment impact, fire, damaged explosive charge) is far less complete. As an example, one cannot exclude the ignition of an explosive due to mechanical deformation, potentially leading to lowor even high-order explosion/detonation as a consequence of mechanical stimuli with strain rates and pressures well below the shock sensitivity threshold. During the last two decades there has been an increased interest in the scientific community in understanding initiation sensitivity of energetic materials to weak insults. A relationship between energy dissipation and rate of plastic deformation has been developed for crystalline energetic materials (Coffey & Sharma, 1999). Chemical reactions are initiated in crystalline solids when a crystal-specific threshold energy is exceeded. In this sense, initiation is linked to the rate of plastic deformation. However, practical energetic materials are usually heterogeneous composites comprised of one or more kinds of energetic crystals (the filler, for which the mass fraction can exceed 90%) bound together with a binder matrix that often consists of several different polymer, plasticizer, and stabilizer materials. Clearly, the mechanical behavior of these polymer-bonded (plastic-bonded) explosives (PBXs) is far more complicated than for neat crystals of high explosive. It is necessary in realistic constitutive modeling of energetic compositions to incorporate features reflecting the complex, multiphase, multiscale structural, dynamical, and chemical properties; see, for example, Bennett et al., 1998, and Conley & Benson, 1999. The goal in constitutive modeling is to bridge the particulate nature at the mesoscale to the mechanical properties at the macroscale. The macroscale deformations applied to PBX composites in experiments are generally not the same as the local deformation fields in a component crystal within the composite. This has been demonstrated using grain-resolved mesoscale simulations wherein the individual grains and binder phases in a PBX are resolved within a continuum simulation framework.


Ultrafast 3D transesophageal echocardiographic (TEE) imaging, combined with 3D echo particle image velocimetry (ePIV), would be ideal for tracking the complex blood flow patterns in the heart. We are developing a miniature pediatric matrix TEE transducer that employs micro-beamforming (μBF) and allows high framerate in 3D. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of 3D ePIV with a high frame rate, small aperture transducer and the influence of the micro-beamforming technique. We compare the results of 3D ePIV on simulated images using the μBF transducer and an idealized, fully sampled (FS) matrix transducer. For the two transducers, we have simulated high-framerate imaging of an 8.4mm diameter artery having a known 4D velocity field. The simulations were performed in FieldII. 1000 3D volumes, at a rate of 1000 volumes/sec, were created using a single diverging transmission per volume. The error in the 3D velocity estimation was measured by comparing the ePIV results of both transducers to the ground truth. The results on the simulated volumes show that ePIV can estimate the 4D velocity field of the arterial phantom using these small-aperture transducers suitable for pediatric 3D TEE. The μBF transducer (RMSE 44.0%) achieved comparable ePIV accuracy to that of the FS transducer (RMSE 42.6%).


The decision process of engaging or disengaging automation has been termed reliance on automation, and it has been widely analyzed as a summary measure of automation usage rather than a dynamic measure. We provide a framework for defining temporal reliance dynamics and apply it to a data-set from a previous study. Our findings show that (1) the higher the reliability of an automated system, the larger the reliance over time; and (2) more workload created by the automation type does not significantly affect the operators' reliance dynamics in high-reliability systems, but it does produce greater reliance in low-reliability systems. Furthermore, on average, operators with low performance make fewer decision changes and prefer to stick to their decision of using automation even if it is not performing well. Operators with high performance, on average, have a higher frequency of decision change, and therefore, their automation usage periods are shorter.


We estimate the evolution of healthcare demand under the influence of income growth and population aging with two samples of patients surveyed in the same regions, but with an interval of 18 years in rural China and with mixed logit to deal with heterogeneity. In accordance with theoretical and inductive inferences, it is found that healthcare price effects decreased and became more heterogeneous. Aging impact overweighed income growth impact, resulting in increasing distance effect and patients' preference to proximity. In the face of this demand change, the adjustment of governmental supply should be to promote small and middle-sized healthcare providers. However during this period to cope with urbanization, the Chinese policy consisted of privileging large hospitals. This has led to a higher share of patients, especially the aging patients, to choose self-care and a higher share of poorer patients to suffer from catastrophic health expenditures. This finding carries broad implications for rural health policy-making on, along with income growth, population aging and urbanization, how to provide better coverage of rural areas by enough qualified and multifunctional small and middle-sized healthcare providers in the developing world.


A carbapenem-nonsusceptible Enterobacter aerogenes strain named 3-SP was isolated from a human case of pneumonia in a Chinese teaching hospital. NDM-1 carbapenemase is produced by a pNDM-BJ01-like conjugative plasmid designated p3SP-NDM to account for carbapenem resistance of 3-SP. p3SP-NDM was fully sequenced and compared with all publically available pNDM-BJ01-like plasmids. The genetic differences between p3SP-NDM and pNDM-BJ01 include only 18 single nucleotide polymorphisms, a 1 bp deletion and a 706 bp deletion. p3SP-NDM and pNDM-BJ01 harbor an identical Tn125 element organized as ISAba125, blaNDM−1, bleMBL, ΔtrpF, dsbC, cutA, ΔgroES, groEL, ISCR27, and ISAba125. The blaNDM−1 surrounding regions in these pNDM-BJ01-like plasmids have a conserved linear organization ISAba14-aphA6-Tn125-unknown IS, with considerable genetic differences identified within or immediately downstream of Tn125. All reported pNDM-BJ01-like plasmids are exclusively found in Acinetobacter, whereas this is the first report of identification of a pNDM-BJ01-like plasmid in Enterobacteriaceae.


The exotic fermions occurred in some composite models (such as the family gauged composite model) and their oniums are examined systematically in this paper. It is emphasized that coloured oniums as well as colourless ones may be formed, if their constituents are coloured in high-dimensional representations. According to a rough estimate, the exotic fermions and their oniums should have masses of the order of 0.1 to 1 Tev, hence they may play some roles in the events at energies of SPPS and/or the next generation colliders, if they do exist.


♦ Background: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is developing rapidly in China, but because there are not enough well-trained PD doctors and nurses in more rural areas, this expansion is occurring mainly in larger cities. To address this imbalance, our center established a PD satellite center program across Guangdong Province, with the aim of extending the use and improving the quality of PD. ♦ Methods: Sun Yat-sen University PD center is responsible for running the satellite program. The PD satellite centers are selected using specific criteria. The full-time PD physicians and nurses in the satellite centers accept a unified training program and treatment practices, and their clinical outcomes are carefully followed by our center. ♦ Results: The program began in January 2008, and there are now 12 PD centers from which 26 doctors and 32 nurses received PD training. Several hundred patients are now receiving PD through this program. The total number of PD patients treated by our center and the satellites increased to 1860 from 1010. The number treated in the satellite units increased to 1165 from 601. The annual dropout rate fell to 17.6% from 28.2%, and the average peritonitis incidence fell from 1 episode in 39.4 patient–months to 1 episode in 46.2 patient–months. The 1-year patient and technique survival rates increased to 84.2% from 82.0% and to 93% from 88.7% respectively. ♦ Conclusions: Our PD satellite center program is a good model for increasing the use and improving the quality of PD in rural areas. We plan to expand this program to other parts of southern China.


The simultaneous detection of DNA from different allergenic food ingredients by a ligation-dependent probe amplification (LPA) system is described. The approach allows detection of several targets in a one-tube assay. Synthetic oligonucleotides were designed to detect DNA from peanuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, macadamia nuts, almonds, walnuts and brazil nuts. The specificity of the system was tested with DNA from more than 50 plant and animal species. The sensitivity of the method was suitable to detect allergenic ingredients in the low mg kg−1 range. The limit of detection (LOD) for single allergens in different food matrices was 5 mg kg−1. The novel analytical strategy represents a useful tool for the surveillance of established legislation on food allergens within the European Union.


OBJECTIVES
To analyze the tuberculosis control studies in a primary health care center and to observe the changes throughout the years.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data of patients followed up between 2005 and 2014 in the Elazığ Dispensary were investigated retrospectively.

RESULTS
Of the total 1,251 patients, 51.6% were male. Majority of patients were aged between 15 and 24 (19.9%), 25 and 35 (18.5%), and over 65 (14.4%). While the rate of a sputum smear examination was 71.6%, the positivity rate for Acid-Fast bacilli was 55.5%. It was detected that the drug sensitivity test was applied in only 25.8% of all patients. The treatment success of all patients was 85.8%. The cure rate of smear-positive cases was found to be 26.35%. The rate of the relapsing patients was 9.1%. An overall treatment response rate was found to be 87.4%.

CONCLUSION
The control of tuberculosis in primary health care is partially successful and insufficient. The rate of smear-positive defaulters was found to be high in young adult individuals, which indicates that the contamination is probably still going on at a dangerous rate. Furthermore, the overall rate of microscopic examination, sputum culture, and drug sensitivity tests performed in patients in the primary health care system is low and should be improved immediately.


Oviduct-specific glycoprotein (OGP) is a high molecular weight glycoprotein belonging to the chitinase protein family. OGPs are found to associate with the zona pellucida and plasma membrane of the oocyte and developing embryo. Recent studies have shown that OGP plays an important role in pre-fertilization reproductive events (i.e. sperm capacitation, sperm-zona binding and zona penetration). To have a better understanding of human OGP (HuOGP) gene expression, a 3.3 kb DNA fragment containing the 5'-flanking and the intron I region of the HuOGP gene was isolated. DNA sequence analysis of the HuOGP putative promoter revealed little homology with its hamster and mouse ogp gene counterparts. One transcription initiation site was found 12 nucleotides upstream of the first ATG codon of the HuOGP gene. The HuOGP gene promoter lacked typical CAAT or GC boxes, but contained eight half estrogen-responsive elements (ERE) and an imperfect ERE (iERE; 5'-GGTCANNNTGACT-3') site. Deletion mutants of the 3.3 kb DNA fragment were generated and fused to a promoterless beta-galactosidase (beta-Gal) gene. Transfection studies revealed that in the presence of 100 nmol/l estradiol-17 beta (E(2)), a minimal 0.3 kb promoter construct (pH-298/+25 beta Gal) mediated a high level of beta-Gal expression in immortalized human oviductal epithelial OE-E6/E7 cells, but not in MCF-7 and CHO-K1 cells. By electromobility shift assay and specific estrogen receptor antibodies, we demonstrated that estrogen receptor beta present in the OE-E6/E7 cells binds to the iERE. These findings allow a better understanding of the regulation of OGP gene expression in the human oviduct.


Objective:To detect the role of the plasma endothelin in the process of Bell palsy and its relationship to prognosis. Method: The plasma endothelin were respectively determined with radioimmunoassay in 21 patients with Bell palsy and 20 normal control subjects. Result: The patients who were suffering from Bell palsy exhibited a statistically significant P 0. 01) increase in the endothelin level compared with that in the 20 normal control subjects. A significantly higher level of the plasma endothelin was found in unsatisfactory recovery group compared with that in satisfactory recovery group. Conclusion: Endothelin may play an important role in the process of Bell palsy, and may be a useful marer for the assessment of prognosis to the patients.


Abstract While the summit of the Antarctic Plateau has long been expected to harbor the best ground-based sites for terahertz (THz) frequency astronomical investigations, it is only recently that direct observations of exceptional THz atmospheric transmission and stability have been obtained. These observations, in combination with recent technological advancements in astronomical instrumentation and autonomous field platforms, make the recognition and realization of terahertz observatories on the high plateau feasible and timely. Here, we will explore the context of terahertz astronomy in the era of Herschel, and the crucial role that observatories on the Antarctic Plateau can play. We explore the important scientific questions to which observations from this unique environment may be most productively applied. We examine the importance and complementarity of Antarctic THz astronomy in the light of contemporary facilities such as ALMA, CCAT, SOFIA and (U)LDB ballooning. Finally, building from the roots of THz facilities in Antarctica to present efforts, we broadly highlight future facilities that will exploit the unique advantages of the Polar Plateau and provide a meaningful, lasting astrophysical legacy.


Adolescents take on different social roles mediated by gender, which affect the development of their identity and the expression of school violence. The purpose of this work is to study the behavioral differences in bullying depending on gender. The sample (N=641) is aged between 12 and 16 years old. Personal variables are assessed by self-reports, and relational variables by sociometric measures. Results indicate a large incidence of bullying, peer rejection, and school maladjustment among boys. Girls report more relational aggressions, acceptance and social skills, but also higher personal maladjustment. Female victims are rejected the most. Gender differences seem more relevant in relational variables, suggesting the special importance of the relational context in bullying.


An error appeared in the 15 August 2022 issue of the journal (Avery et al. "Maribavir for Refractory Cytomegalovirus Infections With or Without Resistance Post-Transplant: Results From a Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial." Clin Infect Dis; 75(4): 690–701. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ ciab988). The "Discussion" section of the paper currently states: "A higher study discontinuation rate before week 8 in the IAT group was also observed in the study. These discontinuations were primarily due to adverse events and toxicities known to be associated with available anti-CMV agents. Sensitivity analyses (Supplementary Table 2) were performed to address this potential bias." The reference in the previous sentence should be to Supplementary Table 3, not Supplementary Table 2. The authors regret the error.


Children's literature is a remarkable area of writing and a growing area of study. Its characters - Pooh Bear, the Wizard of Oz, the Famous Five, Peter Rabbit - are part of most people's psyche and have strong links to basic myth and archetypes. They arouse strong feelings, as demonstrated by recent debates over political correctness. An Introduction to Children's Literature combines a history of writing for children with an assessment of its literary, sociological, and pedagogical roles. Fundamentally a history of British children's literature, Hunt identifies fantasy, nostalgia, nature images, a sense of place of territory, testing and incitation, and warmth and security as all key characteristics of children's literature.


In this study, static and dynamic stability estimations on the diecutter with finite element modelling were carried out to be creased and cut away printed sheet exactly. To cut away the sheet exactly, the large force should be pressured on diecutter. And which affects not only the quality of produced sheets but also the stability of diecutter. The analyses with and without the tare of diecutter were carried out with NASTRAN software on applying 400 ton force to its top and moving table respectively. It was known that maximum von-Mises stress of 221 Mpa in diecutter was occurred at the toggle, and it was smaller than the yield stress of 280 Mpa. And maximum deformation of 0.75 mm was occurred at the top table. The natural frequencies of 41, 102, 108, 115, and 134 Hz for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th mode, which had been determined by numerical simulation, were not coincided with the max. speeds of motor and moving table of 29 and 2 Hz. And which was verified by vibration test. Therefore it may be estimated that the structure of the diecutter is statically and dynamically stable.


In this paper we present our initial findings from investigating the dampening of acoustic signals through dense fish layers, referred to as shadowing. These findings are based on measurements which were performed in the Mediterranean Sea and off the Norwegian coast using gilthead seabream and Atlantic salmon respectively. The paper also presents the experimental setup for data acquisition. The results from the initial data analysis show that the shadowing effect is measurable and indicate that it can be compensated for. Future work will include the creation of a compensation strategy for this effect.