Summary Healthcare professionals working in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology may encounter patients from a variety of cultural backgrounds, particularly in our inner cities. These women may have similar cultural beliefs and values about aspects of care they experience compared with native women, but they may also have differing beliefs and may present with preconceptions about the care they expect to receive. In our experience, traditional medical training has limited core teaching on the existence of such cultural variations, and professionals often only experience them through working in the clinical setting. This review was, therefore, undertaken with the aim of increasing awareness of such variations, in order to promote more holistic management, and ultimately to enhance patient care.


Background Coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality has declined substantially during recent decades but is still one of the leading causes of death, morbidity and healthcare costs in Denmark. Furthermore, socioeconomic inequalities persist. Quantifying the contributions of prevention and treatment to these recent declines might help to identify the most successful health policies, particularly for reducing inequalities. Methods We used IMPACTSEC, a previously validated policy model, to apportion the recent decline in Danish CHD mortality to changes in major cardiovascular risk factors, and to increases in treatments in nine non-overlapping patient groups. Participants: All Danish adults aged 25–84 years, stratified by gender, age group and quintiles of financial income. Main outcome measure: Deaths prevented or postponed (DPP), stratified by socio-economic circumstance (SEC). Results There were 11 110 fewer CHD deaths in 2007 than would be expected if the 1991 mortality rates had persisted. This reflected a dramatic 74% fall in CHD mortality rates (from 433 to 113 deaths per 100,000). Improved treatments accounted for approximately 24% (95% confidence interval=21%–28%). This contribution was higher in more affluent quintiles (approximately 26%) and least in the most deprived group (19%). The biggest contributions came from the treatment of congestive heart failure in the community (630 DPPs=5.7% of all DPPs) and in hospital (410 DPPs=3.7%). Risk factor improvements accounted for approximately 40% (37%–44%) of the mortality fall. This contribution was higher in the central quintiles -approximately 51% (47%–58%) and least in the most deprived quintile – approximately 36% (29%–39%). The largest contribution came from population falls in cholesterol levels approximately 24% (22.7%–25.4%) of all DPPs; and decreases in smoking, some 10% (8.4%–12.2%). Overall, the IMPACTSEC model could explain two thirds of the mortality fall. The 36% gap most likely reflects deficiencies in data, notably in population blood pressure and income. Conclusion Denmark has benefited from one of biggest falls in CHD mortality in high income countries. The treatment uptake rate in Denmark was comparable with that in other countries and treatments accounted for approximately one third of the total mortality fall, much as in other, comparable populations. The largest contributions came from population-wide, non-phamacological reductions in major risk factors, notably cholesterol and smoking. Future strategies should therefore prioritise population-wide prevention policies.


The computational method of conjugate gradients for linear operator equations is given. This technique is applied to the solution of the integral equation that relates the aperture distribution and the far-field pattern. This problem is treated from the variational setting by minimizing an error functional. In searching for the solution, a sequence of expanding subspaces in a function space is generated via the Frechet differential of the error functional. The error functional is minimized in each of the subspaces and thus forms a sequence of approximating solutions. This iterative procedure may be conveniently implemented on a computer. Two synthesis problems are treated using this technique, and the results are discussed.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease and the diagnosis of its idiopathic form remains challenging. The diagnosis of idiopathic form is based on clinical features which can have poor sensitivity with about 25% of patients diagnosed as having the disease actually having other conditions. In this study we assess the suitability and clinical value of a low cost computer-based system as an aid to diagnosis of PD, in particular the presence of tremor. All participants (12 patients and 10 controls) performed a shape-tracing task using a graphic tablet attached to a laptop. To assess the presence of tremors in the collected data, a statistical spectral analysis of the moment-to-moment fluctuations in the position signal of the output from the digitising tablet was performed. This allowed the comparison of power spectrums obtained from the control and patient responses respectively. A peak in log power between the 5 Hz & 6 Hz can clearly be identified in the patient's spectrum and is indicative of Parkinson's related tremor and no similar peak could be seen in the control's spectrum, suggesting this type of sequential task and automated data analysis may be useful in the diagnosis of tremor.


Once the diagnosis of Zollinger-Ellison syndrome has been considered, it is important to ensure the safety of the patient by administering adequate antisecretory medication. There then ceases to be any urgency about the diagnostic work-up. It is essential to establish definitively that the patient has fasting hypergastrinemia and acid hypersecretion to establish the diagnosis of Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. The type of disease (i.e., sporadic or occurring as part of multiple endocrine neoplasia type I) should then be determined by assessment of endocrine function and anatomy because this will influence both the approach to control of acid secretion and the management of the tumor. Assessment of tumor extent and decisions about the management of the tumor can be delayed because these tumors are slow-growing. Because of the rarity of this syndrome, surgical aspects of the management of the disease are best undertaken in centers with particular expertise in this area.


Easy immobilisation of carbon nanofillers in a solid state device featuring mesopores filled with ionic liquid (IL) is presented. Such a route allows a good dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon fibers in N-methyl-N-propylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, subsequently followed by the confinement of the whole within a porous silica matrix. We thus obtain herein a new type of hybrid ionogel within a solid device containing a percolating IL network as its real liquid state, as well as presenting a percolating carbon network. The process is carried out within a single step, without any chemistry for covalent grafting. We show that an IL with a non π-conjugated cation allows good dispersion of the carbon nanotubes, with a subsequent percolation for a loading level lower than 3.6 wt%. Together with the dynamic IL properties of ionogels, we thus present herein an inorganic-solid host containing carbon nanofillers, which gives the solid device ionic and electronic conductivities.


Hydrogen-fueled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines have shown the ability to provide a cleaner and more efficient alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The use of hydrogen as a fuel has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas and promote sustainability.In this study, a modified single-cylinder Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine was utilised to operate on hydrogen in a HCCI combustion mode under various compression ratio (CR) conditions. In the experiments, the amount of hydrogen injected was adjusted at each CR to maintain the crank angle at 50% mass fraction burned (CA50) combustion phasing at 3±1 crank angle degrees after top dead center or as lean as possible. The engine speed was fixed at 600 rpm, and the impact of different intake air temperatures was also investigated.The results indicated that as the compression ratio increases, the air-fuel ratio needs to be increased to maintain the desired CA50 value, i.e., the engine needs to operate leaner. The net indicated mean effective pressure of the engine reached a value of 2.9 bar at a compression ratio of 14 and an intake air temperature of 150OC. The effects of CR and intake temperature on engine performance metrics, such as power output and the rate of heat release, were also investigated. The experimental data showed that the intake air temperature did not have a significant effect on engine performance and power output. At a compression ratio of 16:1 and 600 rpm, the engine's indicated thermal efficiency was found to be approximately 33% across the range of intake temperatures investigated. Furthermore, the fact that the engine effectively produced zero NOx emissions under the various CR conditions tested further highlights the potential for hydrogen HCCI engines to be adopted as a cleaner and more efficient alternative to internal combustion engines using conventional fuels, provided the available range of operation is acceptable and can be made large enough for practical applications.


Ewing sarcoma is a highly aggressive and malignant tumor that occurs in the bone or soft tissue. It affects children and adolescents with majority of incidence between the age of 10 and 20 and about 250 children and adolescents are diagnosed each year in US. There is a clear health disparity seen in Ewing sarcoma population. The overall survival rates for black and hispanic patients have shown to be significantly worse compared to white patients. Previously, Drs. Reddy and Rao have discovered ERG (ETS Related Gene) and several important members of ETS family genes and have shown that ERG gene encodes for sequence specific transcriptional activators. Ewing sarcoma is characterized by chromosomal translocations involving EWS gene and one of the ETS (Erythroblastosis virus E26 transformation–specific) families of transcription factors (ERG, FLI1, ETV1, ETV4, E1AF and FEV). Dr. Reddy's laboratory has demonstrated that EWS gene codes for RNA binding protein and the fusion protein (EWS-ERG) functions as transcriptional activator. Our results have shown that EWS-ERG also inhibits transcriptional activation properties of RXR. This suggests that the aberrant fusion protein (EWS-ERG) may target transcriptional co-factors and thereby regulate RXR transcriptional activity. To understand the molecular mechanism of action of how the fusion protein targets nuclear receptor function and to provide a clue for the cancer health disparity seen in Ewing Sarcoma, we hypothesized that the aberrant fusion protein EWS-ERG targets CBP and other members of the transcriptional machinery causing transcriptional repression of RXR activity.

Methods: We propose to study the interaction of EWS-ERG and CBP by co-immunoprecipitation approach and also investigate whether this interaction has a role in the inhibition of RXR transcriptional activity by luciferase assays.

Results: 1. EWS-ERG inhibits RXR transcriptional activity. 2. EWS-ERG interacts with CBP in Ewing Sarcoma cells. 3. Overexpression of dominant negative mutant of CBP relieves EWS-ERG inhibition of RXR transcriptional activity.

Conclusion: The transcriptional co-factor (CBP) is sequestered by the aberrant fusion protein EWS-ERG which inhibits the binding of RXR with CBP and other members of the transcriptional machinery causing transcriptional repression of RXR activity. This study may provide a clue for the cancer health disparity seen in Ewing Sarcoma and may have a profound impact on prevention, management and treatment of many types of cancers.

Citation Format: Shubhalaxmi P. Kayarthodi, Yasuo Fujimura, Kunchala Rungasrisuriyachai, Huali Xu, Jinbo Fang, Chunshu Yang, Veena N. Rao, E.Shyam P. Reddy. EWS-ERG targets transcriptional co-factors in ERG-positive Ewing sarcoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2012 Oct 27-30; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2012;21(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B37.


The Southern Ocean (SO) transports heat towards Antarctica and plays an important role in determining the heat budget of the Antarctic climate system. A global ocean data synthesis product at eddy-permitting resolution from the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2) project is used to estimate the meridional heat transport (MHT) in the SO and to analyze its mechanisms. Despite the intense eddy activity, we demonstrate that most of the poleward MHT in the SO is due to the time-mean fields of the meridional velocity, V, and potential temperature, θ. This is because the mean circulation in the SO is not strictly zonal. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current carries warm waters from the region south of the Agulhas Retroflection to the lower latitudes of the Drake Passage and the Malvinas Current carries cold waters northward along the Argentinian shelf. Correlations between the time-varying fields of V and θ (defined as transient processes) significantly contribute to the horizontal-gyre heat transport, but not the overturning heat transport. In the highly energetic regions of the Agulhas Retroflection and the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence the contribution of the horizontal transient processes to the total MHT exceeds the contribution of the mean horizontal flow. We show that the southward total MHT is mainly maintained by the meridional excursion of the mean geostrophic horizontal shear flow (i.e., deviation from the zonal average) associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that balances the equatorward MHT due to the Ekman transport and provides a net poleward MHT in the SO. The Indian sector of the SO serves as the main pathway for the poleward MHT.


In this work, we present a structurally defined blue-shift non-fullerene electron acceptor (ITCT) matching with PTB7-Th as the electron donor for high-performance fullerene-free polymer solar cells (PSCs). The PTB7-Th/ITCT blend based bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) devices give an appreciable PCE of 8.23% and a relatively high VOC of 0.96 V without any optimization. Upon device processing with thermal annealing and the addition of 0.1% DIO additive, the active layer achieves a more ordered and crystalline morphology. Consequently, a high PCE of 10.42% has been achieved with a VOC of 0.95 V, a JSC of 15.13 mA cm−2 and a high FF of 0.72. To the best of our knowledge, the PCE of 10.42% is among the highest values reported in the literature to date for non-fullerene PSCs using PTB7-Th as the electron donor.


Vitally important aspects of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic include the development of effective treatments for acute illness and prevention of infection. However, severe complications including mortality occur primarily in older adults, so a long-term approach of covering all aspects of infection and disease complications in older people is equally essential in preventing the alarming morbidity and mortality. Since severe pathological consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection are age-related, a geropathology based platform of identifying age-related anatomic and molecular lesions aligned with processes of aging will be able to identify multiple targets for combinations of anti-aging drugs.  A comprehensive geropathology-driven therapeutic approach of covering  complications and vaccine effectiveness by enhancing resilience to aging will therefore play a critical role in preventing the alarming medical complications of disease not only with SARS-CoV-2 but also serve as a model for successfully controlling and preventing future world-wide pandemics. Keywords: Resilience to aging, COVID-19 complications, SARS-CoV-2 pathology, geropathology


Although the entanglement network among polymers has been widely investigated, the spatial distribution of entanglement nodes has been rarely discussed. In this study, we obtained the radial distribution functions (RDFs) for the entanglement nodes from the snapshots of multi-chain slip-link simulations. The model employed in this study is the primitive chain network (PCN) model, which has been validated to reproduce the entangled polymer dynamics semi-quantitatively. The statistics of captured entanglement networks were compared to those reported for the primitive path network extracted by the CReTA procedure from the full-atomistic molecular model of a polyethylene melt. In the range of distance longer than the average strand length, the network structure from PCN does not show any structural correlation, and the in-tra-chain correlation is close to that for Gaussian chains with non-interacting slip-links. These features are consistent with the CReTA network and the conventional assumptions made for single-chain models. Meanwhile, in the short-range, the structural correlation in PCN is much weaker than that in CReTA. This discrepancy is because the short-range structure in PCN is realized as a result of imposed fluctuations, whereas it is determined by the minimization of the primitive path in CReTA.


Objectives: To identify the terms and definitions used by organisations involved in medication safety and to examine differences in functional meaning using a novel scenario assignment method. Methods: Medication safety related terms and definitions were sought from websites of organisations associated with medication safety. The functional meanings of terms and definitions were analysed and compared using a scenario assignment method where each definition found was assessed against four scenarios with a central theme. Main outcome measures: Medication safety related terms and definitions currently in use, similarities and differences in their functional meanings, and practical implications of the use of these terms and definitions. Results: Thirty three of 160 websites searched were found to have one or more definitions for medication safety related terms. Twenty five different terms with 119 definitions were found. The most frequently defined groups of terms were "adverse event" (8 different definitions), "error" (n = 9), "near miss" (n = 12), "adverse reaction" (n = 8), and "incident" (n = 4). Substantial diversity of functional meanings of definitions was demonstrated using the scenario-assignment method. Of the five groups of frequently defined terms, definitions within the "adverse event", "near miss", and "incident" groups resulted in three functional meanings each, while two functional meanings resulted for "error" and "adverse reaction". Conclusion: The multiplicity of terms, definitions and, most importantly, functional meanings demonstrates the urgent need for agreement on standardisation of nomenclature describing medication related occurrences. This is an essential prerequisite to enable meaningful analysis of incidence data and development of medication safety improvement strategies.


In a desertified source area of drifting sand encroaching on parts of the Gezira Irrigation Scheme in Central Sudan, sand settlement by trees was envisaged. Establishment, survival and growth of Acacia tortilis, Leptadenia pyrotechnica, Prosopis juliflora, Salvadora persica and Panicum turgidum were investigated. Comparisons were made of the sums of final survivors in the replicates for each treatment as well as by an ANOVA analysis on the survival trends over time within the measuring periods. In a first experiment Acacia had better final survival but statistically comparable survival means with Prosopis over the year. This was due to higher deaths at later growth stages in Prosopis. Unprotected soil had some rain water run-on, while protection was not very effective, but irrigation generally was, particularly at later stages of growth. Establishing trees without irrigation appeared virtually impossible in a second experiment. Continuous drip irrigation under protection was very effective, but run-on water again influenced the protection issue. Leptadenia suffered from root hairs blocking water tubes. The higher survival rates of Acacia may be attributed to a capability of this species to grow on blown out eroded sites, on alkali soil. Differences in variation of soil conditions with depth on a small scale could explain growth contrasts in Acacia and Prosopis. An ANOVA on physical and chemical properties did not show such differences for Leptadenia, where soil properties causing a saturated zone possibly caused growth difference in a third experiment. Therefore irrigated unprotected Leptadenia with only weekly water topping-up did now better than protected trees. Leptadenia did much better in final surviving than Acacia, summed up for all conditions, and this was confirmed in the ANOVA results for throughout the year. Conclusions on design consequences for revegetation of such a completely desertified environment are drawn from the results.


PT. Karya Mekar Dewatamali II/Unit MA as peripatetic company by shoe making, bag and garmen with scale eksport it is of course requires strategy and production system which good to increasing efficiency and minimization expense of increase company performance. How efficient production system implemented hardly having an effect on to the company performance. Approach which applicable to overcome un-efficiency problem or extravagance happened in system produce of a company is Lean Production. Lean production is systematic approach to identify and looks for waste cause for then to minimize or the elimination.

Research which will be done aim to minimize waste at type children shoe production process 6051 by using approach of Lean production. Initial step to get image of whole stream company is applied big picture mapping. From result of wight waste based on kuisioner as well as historical data then is done election of tool detailed mapping as according to type waste having highest ranking applies Value Stream Mapping (VALSAT). After done mapping in detail hence can be done analysis cause of then is recommendation and repair planning for company to can increase efficiency from process of type children shoe 6051.


This project deals with matter regarding to the application that combines the computer
graphic and the audio elements. The objective of this project is to create an application
that synchronizes the movement of the graphic with the audio tunes. The emphasis is
placed on the aims at recognizing specific tunes through the graphic movements. The
application is meant to assist the users in identifying and distinguishing the variety
tunes in an audio file specifically the WAV file format. The main features of the
application are that 1) it plays audio with the WAV file format and 2) it displays a
computer graphic 'stickman' that moves according to the tunes. The scope of study is
the process of how tune recognition works and how it can be synchronized with the
graphic motion. It basically focuses on the graphic visualization of an audio. For this
project, I basically follow the waterfall methodology butI have adjusted the phases in it
to appropriately suit my project tasks which consist of six (6) main processes. The
finding will be more on the issues of how 1) to understand the underlying concepts of
integrating graphic and audio in single application, 2) to extract the WAV audio file
into specific tunes and 3) to synchronize the graphic element with the audio beat or
tune. Basically, by using the graphic-audio combination, the project will be able to
visualize and differentiate the tunes specifically and accordingly.


Purpose

This study attempts to examine the influence of attitude, subjective norm and ethical judgment on unethical financial reporting intention among Malaysian accounting practitioners in the banking industry.

Design/methodology/approach

In achieving the objective, questionnaire survey was used. With 121 samples of participants in the financial reporting process, data analysis was conducted using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm and ethical judgment are significant in influencing unethical financial reporting intention, with ethical judgment having the smallest effect on such intention.

Practical implications

Findings of this study are useful in guiding management and regulators to develop strategies to curb the occurrence of unethical financial reporting. This study also gives some insights to the public, especially the banks' shareholders and depositors into the unethical financial reporting intention of actual participants in the financial reporting process, who are being entrusted to handle the reporting affairs of banking institutions.

Originality/value

This study is the first to examine the factors influencing accounting practitioners' intention to financial reporting fraud in a Malaysian banking setting. As it examines the actual participants in the financial reporting process, the results contribute towards a better understanding on unethical financial reporting intention within banking institutions as highly regulated industry. Additionally, it provides evidence for the suitability of the PLS-SEM in statistical analysis.


The use of ultrasound in obstetrics is well established; however, its use in nonobstetric disease during pregnancy has not been emphasized. A diagnostic work-up during pregnancy is complicated by the fact that many of the usual tests require radiation to the fetus. This paper presents 3 cases in which ultrasonic scanning contributed to the diagnosis of nonobstetric disease during pregnancy. Postitive findings included enlarged edematous pancreas, gallstones, and splenomegaly. In 1 case, the finding of a normal gallbladder was helpful. When usual diagnostic procedures such as oral cholecystogram, retrograde endoscopic pancreatography, and nuclear medicine scans are perhaps contraindicated during pregnancy, the ultrasound scan is the diagnostic test of choice.


BACKGROUND
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) (also known as scatter factor (SF)) is a heterodimeric protein that is the most potent known complete mitogen for hepatocytes in culture. HGF is a mitogen for many epithelial cells including hepatocytes, kidney tubular epithelial cells, mammary epithelial cells, keratinocytes, etc. The protein encoded by the proto-oncogene c-met is the high affinity receptor for HGF. HGF concentration in the plasma dramatically increases after partial hepatectomy and in fulminant hepatic failure. This study describes the pharmacokinetics of HGF in the rat.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Human recombinant HGF (a gift from Genentech) was radioiodinated and shown to retain biologic activity and structure. Approximately 74 ng of [125I]HGF was injected into the penile vein of male Fisher rats 5 minutes after a complete bile fistula and jugular venous catheterization were performed for blood and bile sampling. Half of the rats were subjected to 70% partial hepatectomy.

RESULTS
The percentage of injected radioactivity present in the liver of control rats was 29.5% +/- 0.5% at 15 minutes and decreased to 8.6% +/- 1.0% at 120 minutes; the kidneys had 6.2% +/- 0.2% at 15 minutes, decreasing to 1.48% +/- 0.3% at 120 minutes. All the other organs examined had less than 1% of the injected radioactivity. The remaining radioactivity was present in low affinity sites in blood, bone, muscle, and skin. In control rats, radioactivity appeared in the bile within 3 minutes, reached a peak between 40 to 50 minutes, and tapered thereafter for a total 2-hour collection of 2.3% +/- 0.5%. In the partially hepatectomized rats, the HGF blood clearance was decreased (partial hepatectomy = 0.27 +/- 0.03 ml/minute; control = 0.53 +/- 0.06 ml/minute, p < 0.006), and the terminal half-life prolonged (partial hepatectomy = 124 +/- 11 minutes; control = 83 +/- 10 minutes, p < 0.03). The initial half-life for HGF, as extrapolated from the chart, was estimated at 3.8 minutes in control rats.

CONCLUSIONS
Liver is the principle organ for initial uptake of [125I]HGF; disappearance from the blood suggests multicompartment kinetics with a rapid phase and a slower phase; only a portion of the hepatic uptake appears in the bile; and partial hepatectomy decreases the blood clearance of [125I]HGF. These results are correlated with previous findings bearing on the role of HGF elevation after partial hepatectomy as a stimulus for transfer of hepatocytes from G0 to G1 early in liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy.


Contrary to the dogma taught in decades which inferred that the brain contains at birth all the cells necessary for its organisation, it is now well established that certain regions of the brain generate new neurons in adulthood. In rodents and monkeys, the olfactory bulb, the hippocampus and the associative cortex form neurons throughout life. The generation of new neurons is dependent on environmental factors such as stress, learning and exercise. In rodents neurogenesis can also occur after a lesion: focal lesions in the cortex stimulate the formation of new neurons able to connect to the right target showing the capacity of the brain to regenerate in certain situations. Neurogenesis was also revealed in the adult human hippocampus suggesting that the discoveries based on monkey studies could be transposed to the human brain. Neurogenic regions contain cells able to proliferate in vitro and to generate neurons and glia. This approach allows to study human neurogenesis in the laboratory in order to understand molecular mechanisms that control neuron survival and differentiation and to potentially produce neurons for cell transplantation studies. It appears that our brain maintains, throughout life, the capacity to generate new neurons in various brain areas, probably as a way of better adapting to environment fluctuations. This characteristic opens new perspectives for therapeutical approaches.


The physician particularly interested in diseases of the head not infrequently encounters manifestations of hematopoietic disease in that part of the body. Thus he may meet with hemorrhage from the nasal and oral mucous surfaces in the various blood dyscrasias, ulcerative angina in agranulocytosis or infiltration of the lymphatic tissue in Waldeyer's ring and its associated lymph nodes in cases of leukemia. In remote instances he may encounter a more bizarre type of leukemia, known as chloroma. The latter disease occurs but rarely and characteristically invades the cranial bones and their cavities, producing both solid and fluid tumor masses which frequently present a greenishtint. These lesions simulate the appearances of suppurative or malignant disease of the orbits, ears and sinuses. Because of the peculiar green color, the name chloroma has been given to it. Useless operative procedures may be instituted if the condition is not previously recognized


Bachground. The main purpose was to point out pneumothorax (P) as the first symptom of thoracic malignancy. The mechanisms by which pneumothorax occurs in lung cancer are not clear.
Materials and methods. From 1970 to 2009, 42 cases of pneumothorax as the initial symptoms of lung cancer were diagnosed at the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Vilnius University. In 27 patients (64.3%), pneumothorax occurred in primary lung carcinoma (LC) and 15 patients (35.7%) in metastatic LC. The mean age was 53.7 years. The morphology of LC was as follows: squamous cell carcinoma 17 cases (40.4%), adenocarcinoma 6 cases (14.3%) and small cell carcinoma 5 cases (11.9%). Morphology in the group of 15 metastatic cases (35.7%): 2 cases of metastatic angiosarcoma, 3 cases of chondrosarcoma, 4 cases of seminoma, 4 cases of renal cancer and 2 cases of metastatic synovial sarcoma.
Results. Pleural drainage with chemotherapy was used for 16 patients (38.0%), 21 patients (50.0%) underwent thoracotomy, and 5 patients (11.9%) video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Complications were noted in 10 patients (23.8%). Pneumothorax was cured in 41 patients (97.6%), and 1 patient (2.4%) died. In 16 patients (38.0%) the lung was expanded by drainage, 21 (50.0%) underwent surgery and 5 patients (11.9%) minimal invasive surgery (VATS), 14 patients (33.3%) underwent chemoradiation after lung recovery. Median survival of the patients was 31 months.
Conclusions. Pneumothorax as the first manifestation of LC appears not often but may have dangerous complications.

Keywords: lung cancer, pneumothorax, pneumothorax as an initial symptom of malignant pulmonary neoplasms, diagnostics and treatment of lung cancer, lung metastases


Dataflow/mapping decides the compute and energy efficiency of DNN accelerators. Many mappers have been proposed to tackle the intra-layer map-space. However, mappers for inter-layer map-space (aka layer-fusion map-space), have been rarely discussed. In this work, we propose a mapper, DNNFuser, specifically focusing on this layer-fusion map-space. While existing SOTA DNN mapping explorations rely on search-based mappers, this is the first work, to the best of our knowledge, to propose a one-shot inferencebased mapper. We leverage a famous language model GPT as our DNN architecture to learn layer-fusion optimization as a sequence modeling problem. Further, the trained DNNFuser can generalize its knowledge and infer new solutions for unseen conditions. Within one inference pass, DNNFuser can infer solutions with compatible performance to the ones found by a highly optimized search-based mapper while being 66x-127x faster.


The aim of this work is to provide Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with adapted design methods for manufacturing systems. In a total quality strategy, the design activity consists of searching for the means able to satisfy all users' needs from company customers to floor plant workers. That includes usual costs, delays and quality targets but also employees' involvement. Due to the variety of data sources and to the continuous changes of goals, the information is imperfect. The main concerns are uncertainty, inaccuracy and vagueness of both objectives and solutions. The fuzzy set theory provides a quite convenient framework to represent all those imperfections using one mathematical objet. Fuzzy logic is used to aggregate specifications and to deploy solutions. Possibility theory finally allows a graded evaluation of expected performances. The obtained result is graded, providing the engineer with some degrees of freedom for the realization of the manufacturing system. The valuation of the design quality is an undeniable progress towards the continuous improvement of the whole system performance. Finally, such a criterion may also be used for an empirical search for a convenient solution, as for the automatic computation of an optimal result.


This article looks at the encoding-decoding process in the communication between hijabi influencers and their audience, focusing on the case of the influencer Amena Khan. A hijabi influencer based in the U.K., Khan acquired the status of a microcelebrity over her decade-long social media presence. In 2018, Khan was chosen as L'Oreal's first hijabi model. Khan removed her hijab recently. She received mostly negative reactions to her move reflected in the comments on her YouTube video "Change". I collected some of the YouTube comments on the video to examine her audience's response. In light of reception theory, this study divides the comments into oppositional, negotiated or dominant. Khan's case reveals how a niche audience identify with hijabistas, decode their messages, and react to their content. This study showcases the representational role played by hijabi influencers and the limitations of their ability to "influence" when their content challenges dominant cultural discourses.


At the University of Twente together with the Free University of Amsterdam a new educational program on Biomedical Engineering will be developed. The academic program with a five-year duration will start in September 2001. After a general, broad education in Biomedical Engineering in the first three years, the students specialise in one of the following areas: materials and tissue engineering; technology for restoration of human function; healthcare technology.


Time perspective is a psychological construct that reflects the way people view time. Two schools of thought exist that theorize how this temporal mindset affects behavior—dominant and balanced. We applied dominant and balanced time perspective frameworks separately to two versions of an online intervention that aimed to promote goal-setting and accumulation of essential retirement resources (health, physical, social, cognitive and emotional) and compared effects with a control group. The effectiveness of the intervention was tested with 109 US retirees using a 4-wave design over a 6-month period. Linear mixed models showed an increase in health goal striving for the balanced group at posttraining and gains were maintained at the 3-month time point. Both training groups demonstrated an increase in the number and specificity of goals at posttraining and 3-months. Applying a time perspective framework to an online planning intervention for retirees shows promise in promoting planning for retirement resources. Practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for developing future interventions are discussed.


Individuals are different in their behavioural responses and cognitive abilities. Neural underpinnings of individual differences are largely unknown. Here, by using multimodal imaging data including diffusion MRI, functional MRI and MEG, we show the consistency of interindividual variation of connectivity across modalities. We demonstrated that regional differences in individual variability of structural and functional connectomes is characterized by higher variability in association cortices and lower variability in sensory and visual cortices. This pattern is consistent across all modalities at varying degrees as shown by significant alignment between functional and structural connectome variabilities at several clusters of brain regions. Variability in connectivity is associated with cortical myelin content and microstructural properties of connections. Our findings contribute to understanding of individual differences in functional and structural organization of brain and facilitate fingerprinting applications.


BACKGROUND
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders in the population especially in working population. Many intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been evaluated for associated factor for LBP Epidemiological researches have been provided information on the prevalence and risk factors of LBP in the workers. Little information has related individual and work-related factors to the prevalence of LBP among the university staff in Thailand.

AIM
The author aims to investigate the prevalence of LBP and explore risk factors of LBP among university staff in the government sector.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
The self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 1183 university staff on the list by official messenger. Data were collected over three months between October and December 2008. The questionnaire included low back pain information, demographic data, work-related characteristics, and habitual physical activity level. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and multivariate logistic regression techniques. The 6-month prevalence and associated risk factors were presented.

RESULTS
Eight hundred and three staff returned the questionnaires (response rate of 67.9%). The past 6-month prevalence of self-reported LBP was 22.3% (95% CI: 19.4-25.2). The result of multivariate analysis showed that habitual physical activity level were found to be independent factors associated with the LBP (p-value = 0.048 by LRT) after adjusted for gender nutritional level and work activity in a day. The physical activity as athletic level appeared to be the protective effect when compared to sedentary level (adjusted OR 0.43, 95% CI: 0.20-0.94).

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of the study, the physical activity as athletic level appears to be associated with the 6-month prevalence of LBP Consequently, it is important that prevention programs take into account this risk factor in order to reduce the frequency of low back injuries in university staff and improve their work efficiency.


A monolithically integrated, lumped 40 Gbit/s photoreceiver consisting of an InGaAs pin-photodetector, an InP-InGaAs SHBT transimpedance and a differential post-amplifier is presented. The complete circuit has an optical/electrical bandwidth of 28 GHz. The open 40 Gbit/s eye diagrams demonstrate the successful highspeed operation of the photoreceiver. The transimpedance gain of the circuit was measured to be 3.3 k/spl Omega/ (differential) which is the highest transimpedance yet reported for any monolithically integrated 40 Gbit/s photoreceiver.


Having just read Alan Glasper's Viewpoint, Write off sisters, (February 24), I feel compelled to say that he has missed the point.


Muhammad Hasby Rizky, Pangky Ari Wibowo, 2013, " Fixed Bed Downdraft
Gasifier Fabrication to Produce Gas Fuel made by Rice Husk Capacity 3
kg/hr" Program Studi Diploma III Teknik Kimia, Fakultas Teknik
Universitas Sebelas Maret Surakarta.
One alternative energy in Indonesia is being developed that biomass
energy. Indonesia has abundant biomass resources, so the potential to make it as a
source of energy is very large, which is 10 million tons per year. Formulation of
the issues discussed in this case, among others, how to make rice husk gasifier for
the batch and how the performance obtained gasifier to produce gas producer. The
final goal, among others, make rice husk gasifier for batch and produce gas
producer.
One processing biomass gasification process can be done. Biomass
gasification process is a process of thermo-chemical conversion of solid biomass
materials into gaseous material. Venue for the gasification reaction called a
gasifier. Results obtained from the gasification of biomass is a gas that can be
burned later called producer gas. Producer gas composition include CO, H2, CO2,
CH4, N2 and small amounts of other compounds including tar and solid particles.
The final activity in the form of early-dimensional design tools, fabrication and
performance test equipment. Equipment fabrication is done by a professional
workshop and conducted surveillance during manufacturing jobs. As for the
materials required in the manufacturing, among others, that is, 2 mm thick iron
plate, nuts, bolts, nuts water, burner, hose and thermocouple. In the performance
test tools, charcoal biomass initially introduced into the reactor. Furthermore
ensure grate in the open state. Next initiator takes the form of wood and charcoal
is placed on top of a pile of rice husk. Then the blower is used to draw air into the
reactor penggasifikasi. The data observed in the gasification process such as
temperature reactor, producer gas generated and the amount of solid residues
generated.
The reactor temperature gasification process can reach 900
0
C - 985
0
C.
The resulting gas producers such as CO and H2 with the percentage of each gas at
9.007% and 0.109%. SGR values in the range of 110-113 kg/m2 hour. The
average value 0.07 AFR. Solid residues generated between 14% -16%. The
advantages of this gasifier unit include easy operation, charcoal produced
relatively few, and many do not produce smoke.


Superelastic electron scattering by laser-excited sodium atoms has been measured to determine alignment and orientation parameters for total energies of 12.1 and 22.1 eV, at scattering angles from 5 to 110'. The results allow critical comparison with previous experimental data obtained using both coincidence and superelastic methods, including spin-resolved measurements, and with available theoretical models. Close coupling methods are found particularly promising, although further development is required.


Several options exist to palliate malignant obstruction (MBO), none of which have established consensus among surgeons. The purpose of this study was to establish outcomes of diverting stoma (DS), internal bypass (IB), and palliative resection (PR) for a tertiary academic referral surgical oncology service. All patients presenting to a surgical oncology service with malignant bowel obstruction over a 3-year period were identified. Records were reviewed to determine success of diversion, bypass, or resection and associated cost, length of stay (LOS), morbidity, and mortality. Forty-three patients undergoing palliative surgery were identified. The success of each approach was 80, 78, and 63 per cent for diversion, bypass, and resection, respectively. Major morbidity (63%), mortality (16%), and LOS (26 days) were greatest in those undergoing PR, but so was survival (8.4 months). DS and IB had comparable morbidity (40 and 33%), mortality (10 and 0%), and LOS (25 and 21 days), but survival was shorter for DS (5.3 vs 6.5 months). Cost of PR was significantly greater ($79,000) than both DS ($36,000) and IB ($51,000). Escalation in complexity of palliative measures for MBO results in improved survival but at significant cost both economically and physiologically. Quality of life should be discussed with patients when deciding how best to palliate their symptoms.


Timeliness and audit delay in financial reporting is a significant characteristic of
accounting information. Stale information is of little use to investors in their
investment decision-making processes. Undue delay in releasing financial
statements increases uncertainty associated with investment decisions. Therefore,
the objective of this research is to investigate the influence of intern factor such as
firm size, firm age, firm status, subsidiaries, existence of internal audit division,
profitability, solvability, total asset turn over, extraordinary items and the extern
factor such as public accountant size, public accountant age, auditor opinion
toward the audit delay and timeliness on manufacture companies that listed in
Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2006-2008. The hypothesis purpose were
tested by multiple linier regression models. The result shows subsidiaries, existence
of internal audit division and opinion auditor have influence on timeliness and audit
delay. On the other hand, firm size, firm age, public accountant size have influence
on timeliness and public accountant age have influence on audit delay


In present study, spray-dried sourdough was produced using a pilot scale spray dryer and the physico-chemical and microbial characteristics of the obtained sourdough powder were investigated. The application of the spray-dried sourdough at different levels (3%, 6%, 9% and 15%) in breadmaking was also evaluated. Bulk density, wettability and suspensibility of the sourdough powder were 0.6 g/cm3, 98 s and 29%, respectively. The most of the powder particles were in a range of 106–250 µm. The spray-dried sourdough had a moisture content and ash content of 3.72% and 1.9% (db), respectively. The pH and total titratable acidity of the sourdough powder were 3.26 and 59 (mL of 0.1 N NaOH/10 g powder), respectively. Spray drying reduced lactic acid bacteria population of the sourdough to 2 × 105 CFU/g compared to the initial value of 109 CFU/g. Iranian traditional flat bread (Sangak) made with different levels of the sourdough powder had significantly (p < 0.05) lower pH and higher total titratable acidity compared to those of the control. The results of sensory evaluation showed that Sangak breads containing 15% sourdough powder were slightly darker and sourer than the other breads. Incorporation of spray-dried sourdough delayed bread staling, as judged by sensory panel. The results suggest that spray-dried sourdough at the level of 9% can be successfully used for Sangak breadmaking, leading to bread with an improved flavor and delayed staling.


This paper pursues a Kantian critique of Husserl's theory of moral consciousness as it is found in his lectures on ethics and other shorter pieces on political and moral philosophy from the interwar period. The critique centers on Kant's conception of moral personality (Personlichkeit), arguing that Husserl fails to appreciate the force of this idea, subsequently leaving himself open to the charge of moral perfectionism. The paper ends with a positive assessment of Husserl's thought, however, arguing that Husserl provides important resources for understanding moral consciousness as a sensibility for the possible, adding an important dimension to approaches in ethics that tend to center exclusively on questions of motivation and principle.


Abstract Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model is widely used for forecasting infectious disease incidence, including TB. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research on TB epidemiology and predictions for the future in Kazakhstan. Therefore, this study adopted a time series analysis of 72 monthly observations of reported TB cases in Kazakhstan from 2014-2019. The study used monthly health data from 2014-2019 for TB cases obtained from large-scale administrative records. The methodology involved using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test for determining stationarity, ACF and PACF for identifying model parameters, and AIC/BIC for selecting the best SARIMA model, which was evaluated based on R2 score, MAE, and MAPE. The modeling dataset comprised monthly TB notification rates from 2014 to 2018, while the forecasting dataset comprised data from 2019. The findings suggest that the SARIMA model demonstrated some efficacy in predicting TB notification rates, although there remains scope for enhancing its precision. The time series was stationary after the first difference (ADF test: t-value of -3.25, P < 0.001) and not a white noise (P < 0.01). Based on ACF and PACF graphs, a SARIMA (0,1,0) (0,1,0)12 model was deemed to be the most appropriate forecasting model, with an R2 score of 0.43, MAE of 89.73 and MAPE of 0.08. To develop effective forecasting models for TB incidence, this study examined monthly TB cases in Kazakhstan from 2014 to 2019 and analyzed the seasonal patterns of TB occurrence. It is important to note that these results are preliminary and necessitate additional validation. Future studies will include correlation analyses between TB cases and meteorological data, using more recent data for TB cases, and evaluating various TB incidence forecasting models. Key messages • A SARIMA model developed for TB in Kazakhstan showed decreasing trend using time series analysis. • Evidence-based strategies for TB prevention & control, and importance of monitoring & forecasting TB incidence highlighted in this study.


This study involves developing a buck converter with digitally implemented P type controller. The converter output voltage is set to 15V for input source voltages ranging from 20V to 30V and also for various output loads. A controller card based on PIC18 series microcontroller is used to implement the controller. The work is performed experimentally and oscilloscope readings are given to demonstrate correctness of the design.


Local governments face daunting urban planning challenges in the face of rapid population growth, increasing demand for affordable housing and climate change and divergent community perceptions. There is currently insufficient action to meet these formidable and dynamic challenges. Greater know-how and capacity development need to be invested in local planning and political authorities to promote knowledge-based action. More than two thirds of Australians reside along the coastal cities with over 15 million addresses across 544 local government areas at risk from coastal hazards from 2020 onwards (XDI, 2019). This makes it an urgent priority for local government to fast track adaptation planning for its residents in the low-lying hazard prone areas as well as Council services and infrastructure. In 2019, UNSW students from the Master of Urban Development and Design and Master of Landscape Architecture programs addressed these challenges within a design studio environment. In the studio they developed strategies for urban resilience for a network of five communities surrounding the Brisbane Waters on the Central Coast. The studio adopted an urban scenario planning approach using open source data and on-the-ground evidence to develop diverse community resilience strategies. For each community three scenarios were developed to test alternative urban design strategies and provide insight on possible contrasting futures. This paper demonstrates the benefit of evidence-based scenario planning for local authorities. Such approaches contextualise complex abstract problems and provide new insights for local climate adaptation in accessible and transparent ways. This proactive approach emphasises the need to build the urban design and planning capabilities of local authorities to enhance coastal adaption and resilience to climate change. * Corresponding author


IMPORTANCE
Loss-of-function mutations in the melatonin receptor are associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Additionally, in a cross-sectional analysis of persons without diabetes, lower nocturnal melatonin secretion was associated with increased insulin resistance.

OBJECTIVE
To study the association between melatonin secretion and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Case-control study nested within the Nurses' Health Study cohort. Among participants without diabetes who provided urine and blood samples at baseline in 2000, we identified 370 women who developed type 2 diabetes from 2000-2012 and matched 370 controls using risk-set sampling.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Associations between melatonin secretion at baseline and incidence of type 2 diabetes were evaluated with multivariable conditional logistic regression controlling for demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, measures of sleep quality, and biomarkers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.

RESULTS
The median urinary ratios of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin to creatinine were 28.2 ng/mg (5%-95% range, 5.5-84.2 ng/mg) among cases and 36.3 ng/mg (5%-95% range, 6.9-110.8 ng/mg) among controls. Women with lower ratios of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin to creatinine had increased risk of diabetes (multivariable odds ratio, 1.48 [95% CI, 1.11-1.98] per unit decrease in the estimated log ratio of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin to creatinine). Compared with women in the highest ratio category of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin to creatinine, those in the lowest category had a multivariable odds ratio of 2.17 (95% CI, 1.18-3.98) of developing type 2 diabetes. Women in the highest category of melatonin secretion had an estimated diabetes incidence rate of 4.27 cases/1000 person-years compared with 9.27 cases/1000 person-years in the lowest category.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Lower melatonin secretion was independently associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Further research is warranted to assess if melatonin secretion is a modifiable risk factor for diabetes within the general population.


We describe a patient who had isolated retrograde amnesia of 1-year duration without anterograde amnesia after recovery from encephalitis. Single photon emission computed tomography using 123I-IMP revealed that left temporal lobe abnormality. We postulate that the learning ability for new information and recalling ability for old information involve different neural structures, and there is a possible relationship between isolated retrograde amnesia and left temporal dysfunction.


Background and Purpose— Limited data are available describing the relative effectiveness, safety, and optimal dosing of non–vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) for treatment of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation in East Asian patients. We tried to compare effectiveness and safety outcomes of standard- and low-dose NOACs and warfarin in this population. Methods— Using nationwide administrative claims-based datasets from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database (July 1, 2015, to December 31, 2016), this study comprised 56 504 anticoagulation-naive nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients with high thromboembolic risk (CHA2DS2-VASc score, ≥2) treated with oral anticoagulants. Main study outcomes included thromboembolic events (ischemic stroke or systemic embolism), major bleeding, and mortality. Results— Among the study patients, 10 409 (18.4%) received warfarin and 46 095 (81.6%) were treated with NOACs: dabigatran (n=12 593; 22.3%), rivaroxaban (n=21 000; 37.2%), and apixaban (n=12 502; 22.1%). Low-dose NOAC (75.1% dabigatran, 59.7% rivaroxaban, and 62.7% apixaban) was more frequently used than standard-dose NOAC. During median follow-up of 15.0 months, each NOAC was associated with significantly lower risk of thromboembolic events (hazard ratio [HR], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.75–0.81 for dabigatran; HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.65–0.83 for rivaroxaban; and HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.59–0.78 for apixaban). Regarding safety outcomes, dabigatran (HR, 0.81; CI, 0.69–0.95) and apixaban (HR, 0.67; CI, 0.56–0.79) were associated with lower risk of major bleeding but not with rivaroxaban (HR, 0.96; CI, 0.84–1.11). Among adults <75 years of age without chronic kidney disease, use of low-dose apixaban did not demonstrate clinical benefit over warfarin with respect to thromboembolic events (HR, 0.99; CI, 0.76–1.28) and mortality (HR, 0.85; CI, 0.62–1.16). Conclusions— In this cohort of East Asian patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, NOACs were associated with better effectiveness and safety outcomes versus warfarin. Lower NOAC doses were more often used, but an unjustified underdosing of apixaban seems to result in lower clinical benefit.


In June 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) surprised the international community by declaring the establishment of a self-proclaimed Islamic State in the territory of Iraq and Syria. There are several factors behind the rise of ISIS including; the political chaos in Iraq, which paved the way for ISIS to come up within the political struggle and conflict in the country. This is a clear indication that the Iraqi people need reconciliation and compromise more than any other time. The old sectarian tension between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq helped ISIS to capitalize anti-Shia rhetoric and sectarianize its war against Shia Militias in order to achieve the sympathy of the marginalized Sunni population. Meanwhile, some domestic, regional and international circumstances led to the fall of ISIS including lack of dependable allies, false claims and the threat of ISIS on Iraq and beyond pushed the international community to stand against the group. And they cooperated and collaborated with each other to form a coalition and this fact led to almost defeating ISIS in Iraq as a terrorist organization that held territory.

Received: 13 July 2022 / Accepted: 26 August 2022 / Published: 2 September 2022


A novel and compact dual-band filter using a microstrip/coplanar waveguide (CPW) composite structure is proposed. At the bottom of the substrate material, two CPW open-circuited resonators are broadside-coupled to the top microstrip open-circuited stubs. The proposed filter was designed, fabricated and measured. The obtained frequency responses demonstrated that the filter has good dual-band property.


Photoinduced second harmonic generation (PISHG) was found in skutterudite compounds of CeFe4Sb12 and Ce0.7Fe3.5Ni0.5 Sb12. Measurements versus temperature, pump–probe delaying time and external magnetic field were performed. The studied compounds belong to moderate heavy fermion compounds (HFC) in the ground state. The PISHG signals appear at 6.8 and 4.9 K for CeFe4Sb12 and Ce0.7Fe3.5Ni0.5Sb12, respectively. We suspect that these signals are due to anharmonic electron–phonon interactions creating a charge density non-centrosymmetry. The observed effects are caused either by a possible phase transition or by drastic changes in the electron structure of the HFC with decreasing temperature.


After the nuclear accident in Fukushima, amongst others Germany and Switzerland decided to accelerate the sustainability transition of their energy systems not only by expanding the share of renewables actively but also by quitting nuclear power. Regarding this political level of ambition, energy companies´ strategies play a decisive role in terms of the implementation, progress and success of the energy supply system's transition. So far scholars in sustainability transition research working on the role of energy companies for the transition process, mainly focused on two actor types: firstly, big energy utilities, the incumbents which often hinder the transition and secondly, the new entrants, small innovative businesses challenging the incumbents with new technologies or business models. However, hardly any scholarly work studies another important actor group, which lies in between: the municipal utilities ("Stadtwerke"). In Germany and Switzerland, some big municipal utilities are part of the ten most powerful energy providers and in Germany they are even seen as the fifth big power besides the "big four". Hence, the municipal utilities form an important and powerful actor group in terms of the energy transitions' progress, which need to be studied more in detail. In our work, we analyse i) the structural characteristics of four big municipal utilities in Germany and Switzerland, ii) their business strategies regarding the increase of renewables, iii) how these strategies are influenced by factors from the economic, socio-political and physical environment and iv) how the utilities strategically react to the various influence factors on different scales. We employ the triple embeddedness framework (TEF) by Frank Geels, which considers the interaction of firms with their economic and socio-political environment and facilitates an in-depth case study analysis. For empirical evidence, we conduct an explorative case study analysis with four big municipal utilities in Germany and Switzerland in the cities of Munich, Hannover, Geneva and Zurich. This allows not only for an in-depth analysis of the single municipal utilities, its business strategies and local environment but also for an inter-national comparison of different political settings, which are highly important for the municipal utilities. Methodologically, we firstly employ a document analysis on the utilities structural characteristics and business strategies – on the general firm level but also on the specific business area of renewables. Secondly, we conduct explorative expert interviews with researchers and members of associations in the field as well as the CEOs of the four selected utilities to further reveal the specifics of municipal utilities, obtain an improved knowledge on their business strategies and an overview on important influence factors. Thirdly, we conduct semi-structured expert interviews with different members of the four utilities' strategic management board, the municipal supervisory board and the renewables department in order to validate and discuss the revealed results and analyse the causal interrelations between the influence factors and the utilities' strategies. These empirical results will be mirrored with findings from scholarly and practical literature. Preliminarily, our studies show that the four chosen cases are the biggest and oldest municipal utilities in each country, established in the end of the 19th century and they are still mainly in the possession of the cities (min. 75%). The legal form of the utilities varies from being a dependent division of the municipal administration, an independent public enterprise, a private company with limited liability or a corporation. Therewith, the influence from the municipal supervisory board and the room for manoeuvre of the firm varies enormously. Regarding the business areas there is less variation, since all utilities offer a broad range of products in electricity, heat, water and energy consulting. In the area of business strategies, the targets for and the investment in renewables as well as the resources in use are again very divers: some have clear targets to become 100% renewable, others 100% Co2 neutral or there is no such target at all; Zurich and Munich invest intensively in renewables all over Europe whereas Geneva and Hannover focus on the regional and national level. Finally, our first analysis show, that the different relations to their communes and the national laws depict one important set of formal influence factors. In this merely political context, the market liberalisation also plays a fundamental role, since the municipal utilities have to compete in the liberalised energy supply market- since 1998 in Germany, and in Switzerland partly since 2009. As all other energy utilities, the municipal utilities struggle with the multiple uncertainties in the energy supply system, but additionally to the international competition, the municipal actors also need to fulfil their obligations as public service provider for their local urban system. These preliminary results show already, that municipal utilities are important and complex actors with very specific characteristics embedded in multi-scalar environments full of suspense. With our study, we contribute to a better understanding of this actor type, the important context factors and the utilities' strategic answers in the context of the energy transition. By revealing the specifics in an international comparison, we enrich not only to the scholarly discussion on key actors in the sustainability transition of urban energy supply systems but also provides decision-makers in policy and economy valuable insights for the future design of sustainable and resilient energy governance systems.


Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder resultant from the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain. There is an urgent need for effective biomarkers that can be used in the early diagnosis of PD. Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role in PD pathology, which has led to the evaluation of mitophagy markers, PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1), and PARKIN as possible biomarkers for the early diagnosis of PD. Areas covered: The current patent describes the use of phosphorylation of PINK1 and PARKIN as a diagnostic measure. Specifically, Ser65 on PARKIN, which is phosphorylated by PINK1, and the autophosphorylation of PINK1 at Thr257 are described. Expert opinion: This patent describes a much needed methodology that can easily be adapted in the clinical setting by which a biological sample, such as serum or cerebrospinal fluid, is collected and analyzed for the phosphorylation markers. Here, the phosphorylation activity seen in PINK1 and PARKIN can differentiate between age-matched controls and PD patients. This patent presents a novel diagnostic measure in early PD, as well as determines which medications would have a beneficial effect on a patient's disease progression.


UNLABELLED
The aims of the study was to establish current knowledge regarding the involvement of autonomic nervous system (ANS) in paroxysmal disorders in children and available diagnostic tools.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Using key words ANS, epilepsy, syncope and breath-holding spells the search was performed in collections of Elsevier and Springer Journals, as well as MEDLINE/PubMed.

RESULTS
Manifestation of ANS dysfunction may constitute the group of leading symptoms and signs of many diseases, including epilepsy with autonomic attacks and familial dysautonomia. It may however comprise a clinical spectrum coexisting with motor or sensory symptoms and pain. Methods to help diagnose ANS dysfunction at clinical level and to establish its role in pathomechanism diseases include tools analyzing cardiorespiratory changes, especially heart rate variability, during the rest and after functional stimulation, such as orthostatic challenge, Valsalva maneuver and deep breathing as well as methods measuring directly ANS activity, including conduction in autonomic fibers.

CONCLUSIONS
Autonomic nervous system participates in several paroxysmal disorders in children, and maturation of its central structures may influence the course of disease, depending of the child's age. Symptoms of ANS dysregulation may warning as for life threatening conditions, so they should be included as a part of medical history and physical examination. The awareness of connections between ANS and all internal organs is a basis of several additional tests.


− Capitalism, i.e. where the role of capital is central to the productive process, has been the determinant and dominant factor of modern society since the liberal and bourgeois revolutions of the 18 and 19 centuries that dismantled, to varying degrees, institutional and social privileges; and − Socialism is more or less the inevitable outcome of the growing concentration of the power of capital, and it seeks to achieve at an economic level the equality achieved by the liberal and bourgeois revolutions at the political and social levels.


The study aimed to assess the dynamics of land use changes in the urban environment of Yenagoa City, Nigeria as to understand the changes, consequences and ameliorate the changes. Objectives of the study are to determine land use changes that are evident in the study between 1996 to 2020; identify and assess the causes and dynamics of the land use changes that are evident in the study area; ddetermine the consequences of land use changes in the urban environment of the study area; and provide physical planning measures to monitor, control and manage land use changes in Yenagoa City to promote the sustainable urban environment. The study employed a Mixed Methods Research approach of concurrent triangulation and longitudinal research designs for the collection and analyses of data in the study. The study also employed remote sensing technique, Geographic Information Systems, and time series analysis techniques to collect and analyse data for the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed for the collection of data. A total of 9 communities were chosen and sampled and 396 respondents (households) were determined and interviewed as sample size using the Taro Yamane formula. Key informants from government agencies and professionals were interviewed using their responses as themes and concepts for content analysis. The study revealed that there are significant land-use changes such as water bodies, vegetation, and built-up areas between 1996-2020. The study also identified population increases and the demand for land for urban development. The study also identified the dynamics that have caused these changes including an increase in the household size, nearness to the workplace, improve security, cheap rent, increase in migrants, employment opportunities and lack of implementation of the development plan. The consequences identified by the study include constant changes in water bodies, vegetation and built-up areas, the prevalence of flooding, encroachment to marginal lands, slum and squatter development, constant pollution, and modification of the social environment. The study recommends that; to achieve a sustainable urban development including the Yenagoa Master Plan of 2004 should be reviewed and implemented guide, control and manage urban land-use changes, the establishment of an urban land-use framework that will foster synergy of all physical planning agencies and institutions, planning and re-planning of new neighbourhoods and existing communities, continuous urban studies of land-use and environment management and encourage citizen education and participation in environmental management in the city.


This paper investigates relative efficiency of the Islamic banking industry in the world by analyzing a panel of banks during the period of 1995-2001. Both parametric (cost and profit efficiency) and nonparametric (data envelopment analysis) techniques are used to examine efficiency of these banks. Five DEA efficiency measures such as cost, allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores are calculated and correlated with conventional accounting measures of performance. The results indicate that, on average, the Islamic banking industry is relatively less efficient compared to their conventional counterparts in other parts of the world. The results also show that these efficiency measures are highly correlated with ROA and ROE, suggesting that the efficiency measures can be used concurrently with conventional accounting ratios in determining Islamic bank performance.


Over the past 25 years, the USA has pioneered a new technological revolution, based on large numbers of new small enterprises, financed by a dynamic venture (risk) capital market. The European Union, meanwhile, has lagged behind in this sector of economic activity, and compared to the US innovative small and medium enterprises appear to find it more difficult to get started and grow. At a time when regional and local banking systems - traditionally major sources of capital for small and medium sized enterprises across Europe - are undergoing intense reorganisation and restructuring, the European Commission considers the development of a substantial risk capital market to be a key condition for closing the `enterprise gap` with the US. While the venture capital industry is much less developed in Europe than it is in the US, nevertheless it has recently experienced a marked increase in activity. But whereas the European Commission argues that venture capital activity needs to be much more regionally clustered if it is to emulate the US experience, the OECD and some EU member states have argued for a more even regional distribution. The aim of the paper is to chart the growth and geographical anatomy of the emerging European venture capital market, and to examine its spatial development and regional implications in the context of these somewhat opposing views.


Purpose: In a recent randomized phase III clinical trial in metastatic colorectal cancer patients, the addition of the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody (mAb) cetuximab to bevacizumab and chemotherapy resulted in decreased progression-free survival, in particular for patients with the high-affinity FcγRIIIA. Experimental Design: The presence of natural killer (NK) cells and type 2 (M2) macrophages in colorectal cancer was determined by immunohistochemistry, using antibodies to lineage-specific markers NKp46 and CD68 with CD163, respectively. Influence of tumor-bound cetuximab on M2 macrophages was carried out in vitro with EGFR-expressing tumor cells and short-term differentiated monocytes from blood donors, who were typed for the FcγRIIIA polymorphism (CD16). Results: Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity by NK cells is generally proposed as one of the antitumor mechanisms of mAbs. We found that CD163-positive M2 macrophages are much more abundant in colorectal carcinomas. In vitro analysis of M2 macrophages revealed high levels of Fc-gamma receptors (FcγR) and PD-L1 and production of IL-10 and VEGF but not IL-12. These anti-inflammatory and tumor-promoting mediators were released upon coculture with EGFR-positive tumor cells loaded with low concentrations of cetuximab. Macrophage activation depended on EGFR expression on the tumor cells, FcγRs, target specificity of the mAb and mobility of antibody complexes. Cetuximab-induced macrophage responses were more pronounced for FCGR3A 158-Val (high-affinity) carriers. Conclusion: These results suggest that tumor-promoting M2 macrophages are activated by the therapeutic mAb cetuximab in the local tumor microenvironment and argue that this immune mechanism should be taken into account for the application of therapeutic antibodies. Clin Cancer Res; 17(17); 5668–73. ©2011 AACR.


Abstract The human right to just and favourable working conditions offers a promising way of articulating the injustice suffered by workers who toil in substandard conditions. However, if we take seriously the objection that, for many workers living in poor countries, neither their employer nor their government can responsibly fulfil the right at this time, we may be tempted to reject the idea that there can be such a right. In response to this problem, this paper proposes a structural understanding of the right, according to which the right requires a social structure in which no person is vulnerable to accepting work under conditions that are not just and favourable. This approach takes the right as outlining how social structure must be as a matter of fundamental justice. This is in contrast to the standard claim-based understanding, which requires that for there to be a human right it must be the case that for every human we can identify an agent whom their claim is against, specify what the claim requires, and show that fulfilment of the claim constitutes the fulfilment of the right and is in fact owed to the right-holder.


Since the recent work of the Westar Institute's Acts Seminar, and especially the publication of Richard Pervo's Dating Acts, the possibility that Paul's letters served as a source for the book of Acts requires renewed examination. This article tests the hypothesis of Luke's dependence on the Pauline corpus by examining its credibility as an explanation for one particular feature of the narrative, namely, Paul's itinerary as reported in Acts 15:36–20:16. The basic geographical framework of these chapters is easily explicable as Lukan deduction from Paul's letters; differences in detail are convincingly explained as Lukan redaction, clearly in keeping with his theological and narrative interests and in accord with the editorial procedure that is evident, mutatis mutandis, in his Gospel. What is more, this hypothesis accounts for features of the narrative that other theories of the itinerary's source do not, specifically, the remarkable correspondence between those cities named in the Pauline corpus and those that serve as Luke's narrative settings for Paul's activity, as well as the intertextual resonances in Acts 19:21 and 20:22 of Paul's travel announcement in Rom 15:31. In short, an examination of Paul's itinerary in these chapters provides strong confirmation of the explanatory value of the hypothesis that Luke used Paul's letters as a primary source.


Endogenously produced reactive oxygen species (ROS) are essential to life, being involved in many different biological functions. However, when overproduced, or when the levels of antioxidants become severely depleted, these reactive species become highly harmful, causing oxidative stress through the oxidation of biomolecules (1). Oxidative stress is implicated in the etiology of several diseases and in aging. In their paper entitled Genesis on diamonds II: contact with diamond enhances human sperm performance by 300% (2).


Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a recurrent complication of sepsis. Since DIC not only promotes organ dysfunction but also represents a strong prognostic factor, it is important to diagnose DIC as early as possible. When coagulation is activated, fibrinolysis is inhibited, blood thinners are consumed, and a condition is created that promotes blood clotting, making it more difficult for the body to remove fibrin or prevent it from being deposited in the blood vessels. This leads to microvascular thrombosis, which plays a role in organ dysfunction. Despite efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms of sepsis-induced DIC, healthcare providers worldwide still face challenges in effectively treating this condition. In this review, we provide an in-depth analysis of the available strategies for sepsis-induced DIC, considering their effectiveness, limitations, and potential for future advances. Corticosteroids (CS), recombinant thrombomodulin (rTM), vitamin C, fibrinolytic therapy, and platelet transfusion are among the treatments discussed in the review. In addition, we are specifically addressing immunomodulatory therapy (IMT) by investigating treatments such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interferon gamma (IFN-γ), and mesenchymal stem cell therapy (MSC). Finally, we also examined how these therapies might affect COVID-19 cases, which often present with sepsis-induced DIC. The review suggests that targeted experiments with randomization are needed to verify the effectiveness of these treatments and to discover novel approaches to treat sepsis-induced DIC. By increasing our knowledge of sepsis-induced DIC, we can develop targeted treatments that have the potential to save lives and improve outcomes.


AIM
The authors analyse the patients hospitalized with a neuroischemic diabetic foot. They evaluate experiences and results of the crural arteries percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in the diabetic patients.

METHOD
It is a retrospective analysis of the patients hospitalized during years 2005-2008 at the Department of Vascular Surgery of the Teaching Hospital J. A. Reiman Presov with the diabetic foot. During the study period 265 hospitalization in 205 patients were registered for complications of the diabetic foot. PTA of the crural arteries was performed on 74 lower extremities in 68 patients. 133 crural arteries were revascularized in this group of the patients. Indication for execution of the crural arteries PTA in the diabetic patients was critical limb ischemia on 68 revascularized lower extremities (91.9%).

RESULTS
Technical success (residual stenosis no more than 30%, unobstructed revascularized crural artery to periphery) was achieved on 93 revascularized crural arteries (69.92%). They have control examination minimally 12 months after PTA in 54 revascularized lower extremities of the 68 patients with the neuroischemic diabetic foot. From this subset of the patients 28 lower extremities (51.85%) are healed according to clinical examination, on 7 lower extremities (12.96%) clinical signs of critical limb ischemia remain, 10 times (18.52%) low amputation was performed and 9 times (16.67%) high amputation was executed.

CONCLUSION
The authors believe that PTA of the crural arteries is safe and effective method of critically ischemic diabetic foot revascularization. If revascularization is successful, it can effectively contributes to the lower extremity salvage of the patient with neuroischemic diabetic foot.


In this paper, the electromagnetic shielding performance of a BiMODAL Tram is investigated by means of an electromagnetic analysis tool, called HFSS. For the purposed of doing this, first, three-dimensional finite element modeling for the tram including electronic devices and engine room is carried out. Then, for quantitatively assessing the electromagnetic shielding performance of the tram`s body, concentration indexes for electric field magnitude and time-average stored electric energy are introduced. From numerical results, it is inferred that the tram`s body can protect the electronic devices and engine room against external electromagnetic waves from 30 MHz to 100 MHz.


Balanced and differential voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) are investigated with analytic noise models. Fully integrated VCOs in Ku-band are implemented on an InGaP-GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. The balanced VCO has higher output power and lower phase-noise performance, while drawing lower current than the differential VCO. This coincides with the analytical expectation. The shot noise of collector current contributes less to the phase noise in the balanced VCO (B-VCO) than in the differential VCO. The B-VCO shows 2-3 dB lower phase-noise performances of 90.5, -113.8dBc/Hz at the offset frequencies 100 kHz, and 1-MHz offset at 13.5 GHz than the differential VCO, and figures of merit of 180.7 and -177.6dBc/Hz are achieved, respectively.


Electrospun nanofibrous structures provide good performance to scaffolds in tissue engineering. We measured the local diffusion coefficients of 3-kDa FITC-dextran in line patterns of electrospun nanofibrous structures fabricated by the direct-write electrospinning (DWES) technique using the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) method. No significant differences were detected between DWES line patterns fabricated with polymer supplied at flow rates of 0.1 and 0.5 mL/h. The oxygen diffusion coefficients of samples were estimated to be ~92%–94% of the oxygen diffusion coefficient in water based on the measured diffusion coefficient of 3-kDa FITC-dextran. We also simulated cell growth and distribution within spatially patterned scaffolds with struts consisting of either oxygen-permeable or non-permeable material. The permeable strut scaffolds exhibited enhanced cell growth. Saturated depths at which cells could grow to confluence were 15% deeper for the permeable strut scaffolds than for the non-permeable strut scaffold.


Execution times may be reduced by offloading parallel loop nests to a GPU. Auto-parallelizing compilers are common for static languages, often using a cost model to determine when the GPU execution speed will outweigh the offload overheads. Nowadays scientific software is increasingly written in dynamic languages and would benefit from compute accelerators. The ALPyNA framework analyses moderately complex Python loop nests and automatically JIT compiles code for heterogeneous CPU and GPU architectures. We present the first analytical cost model for auto-parallelizing loop nests in a dynamic language on heterogeneous architectures. Predicting execution time in a language like Python is extremely challenging, since aspects like the element types, size of the iteration space, and amenability to parallelization can only be determined at runtime. Hence the cost model must be both staged, to combine compile and run-time information, and lightweight to minimize runtime overhead. GPU execution time prediction must account for factors like data transfer, block-structured execution, and starvation. We show that a comparatively simple, staged analytical model can accurately determine during execution when it is profitable to offload a loop nest. We evaluate our model on three heterogeneous platforms across 360 experiments with 12 loop-intensive Python benchmark programs. The results show small misprediction intervals and a mean slowdown of just 13.6%, relative to the optimal (oracular) offload strategy.


Patient information leaflets are an important adjunct to verbal exchange between doctor and patient. Their value is dependent upon whether they contain useful information from the viewpoint of the patient and are easily understood. We developed a framework based upon linguistic theory for assessing the quality of written patient information and applied it to a set of leaflets about methotrexate treatment. Items included the overall structure of the text, the technicality of the vocabulary used, the number of content words per clause ('lexical density'), and the clarity of the role relationship between author and reader. The leaflets consisted of up to nine identifiable sections (range 3-8): background information about the drug, summary of its use, dosage instructions, outline of benefits and side-effects, monitoring information, constraints on patient behavior, storage instructions, and clinical contact availability. Most leaflets contained a high number of content words per clause and the identity of the author was clear in only three (17%). Linguistic analysis provides highly relevant information about written patient information. Together with critical assessment of factual and visual aspects, consideration of key linguistic features should improve the quality of informational texts for our patients.


In a review of 500 consecutive laryngectomies, 36 specimens were found with no tumor. All patients had received radiation treatment preoperatively. Patients with small primary tumors and no tumor evident in microscopically examined lymph nodes had excellent long-term survival. Those patients with extensive (T4) primary tumors or with tumor found microscopically in their lymph nodes had poor survival statistics. This information reconfirms the known limitations of radiation and surgery in the case of the patient with advanced head and neck cancer. Hopefully, adjuvant chemotherapy or immunotherapy will improve the survival of these patients.


Transmembrane collagen XVII (BP180) is a structural component of hemidesmosomes that connects the two layers of skin. Collagen XVII is associated with both autoimmune and inherited bullous skin diseases. Mutations in collagen XVII gene cause junctional epidermolysis bullosa, and in the diseases of the pemphigoid group autoantibodies target collagen XVII. In this work, collagen XVII was studied in both junctional epidermolysis bullosa and gestational pemphigoid. Two novel glycine substitution mutations were found in the largest collagenous domain of collagen XVII. Analysis of recombinantly produced mutated proteins showed that these novel mutations and previously described glycine substitution mutations decrease the thermal stability of collagen XVII ectodomain. In addition, these mutations were found to cause intracellular accumulation of the mutated proteins and affect the post-translational modifications of collagen XVII. Meanwhile, an in-frame deletion of nine amino acids had no effect on the thermal stability or secretion of the collagen XVII ectodomain. Gestational pemphigoid autoantigen collagen XVII has been mainly studied in the skin, and its expression and function during pregnancy are so far largely unknown. For the first time, collagen XVII was shown to be expressed by cytotrophoblasts of the first trimester human placenta and by cultured cytotrophoblasts. Transmigration assay of cytotrophoblasts indicated that collagen XVII promotes trophoblast invasion, and may thus have a role in placental formation. In addition, significant amounts of in vivo produced collagen XVII were found in the amniotic fluid throughout pregnancy. Collagen XVII expression was also observed in hemidesmosomes of amniotic membranes and in cells cultured from amniotic fluid. These findings suggest that collagen XVII could have a function, albeit so far unknown, during pregnancy.


The expression of Beta, the single-stranded annealing protein (SSAP) of bacteriophage λ in Escherichia coli promotes high levels of oligonucleotide (oligo)-mediated mutagenesis and offers a quick way to create single or multiple base pair insertions, deletions, or substitutions in the bacterial chromosome. High rates of mutagenesis can be obtained by the use of mismatch repair (MMR)-resistant mismatches or MMR-deficient hosts, which allow for the isolation of unselected mutations. It has recently become clear that many bacteria can be mutagenized with oligos in the absence of any SSAP expression, albeit at a much lower frequency. Studies have shown that inactivation or inhibition of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) exonucleases in vivo increases the rate of SSAP-independent oligo-mediated mutagenesis. These results suggest that λ Beta, in addition to its role in annealing the oligo to ssDNA regions of the replication fork, promotes high rates of oligo-mediated mutagenesis by protecting the oligo from destruction by host ssDNA exonucleases.


Nowadays, care for a breech delivery in the out-of-hospital environment through the vaginal route can be a frequent process caused by the change in the scientific literature favoring the free evolution of the delivery of a breech presentation compared to the previous literature where the Caesarean section scheduled at week 37 of gestation, avoiding its free evolution. Furthermore, among the statistical data consulted at the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística), there is an increase in preterm deliveries outside the hospital, which increases the presentation of buttocks more frequently, between 25-32 weeks, around 42%. Therefore, the objective of this manuscript was to instruct the health professionals of the out-of-hospital emergency services in the event of imminent delivery in breech presentation. This type of training would consist of maintaining an expectant attitude during the expulsion period until the lower angle of the newborn's scapula is visible, followed by manual assistance by detaching the shoulders while gently and slowly removing the fetal head.


Introduction. The flow of blood in the arterial and venous vessels of various organs is holds according to the difference of the value of systolic and diastolic pressures and is dependent from many factors connected with the control of the change of the vessel diameter. Arteriosclerosis can make difficult the access of the blood in the essential way to organs laid distally. Available diagnostic methods can increase in the essential way to the quicker intervention in the inhibition of the morbid process.The valuation of usability of method of thermography to rating of haemodynamics changes of blood flow in lower limbs at persons with ischaemia in II period according to Fontaine'a is the aim of study. Material and methods. Fifty persons was qualified to surveys in II period of the ischaemia of lower limbs, waiting on the endovascular intervention and 49 persons without the affirmed arteriosclerosis of lower limbs, with diseases coexisting characteristic for this aged group. The measurement of the temperature of lower limbs, was made with termographic camera Trotec IR 060. Results. The assessment of the temperature of lower limbs at persons with their ischaemia showed significant differences in average values in the comparison with healthy persons (35,4 vs. 36,5°C). The time of duration of the disease moreover was factor determining the evaluation of the changes of the value of the temperature — they diminished together with outflow of time of duration of the disease from 35,8 on 35,1°C in the studied group. Conclusions. Conducted studies let certify, that morbid process in the character of the ischaemia of lower limbs found reflection in the average values of the temperature on the skin surface of limbs in studied groups carrying out 1.1°C ± 0.7. The results of the examination with the thermographic camera confirmed dependence between the time of duration of the disease and the changes of the temperature of lower limbs. The registration of the range of the flow blood in the arteries of lower limbs made using the thermal photography can provide many interesting information to the valuation of the changes of the circulation in the indicated area.


Background: This study evaluated the fluoride release and uptake of five common dental restoratives mainly glass ionomer formulations, including a conventional glass ionomer, a relatively new caries stabilization glass ionomer and resin-modified glass ionomer (Fuji II, Fuji VII and Fuji II LC); one compomer (F2000); and one fluoride releasing composite resin (tetric ceram). Materials and Methods: A total of 12 cylindrical specimens for each of the five materials were prepared following manufacturer's instructions for manipulation and immersed independently in 25 ml of artificial saliva and stored as five groups Group I-V. Each group was further divided into three sub Groups A, B, C. The saliva was changed every day in all the specimens. No treatment was carried out for the specimens in subgroup A. The specimens were immersed in 2% sodium fluoride for 1 min before changing saliva in sub group B and the specimens were treated by brushing with a fluoridated dentifrice for 2 min before changing saliva in sub Group C. The fluoride release was evaluated on the 1st, 7th and 28th day using a fluoride ion specific electrode. Results: The results demonstrated that the conventional glass ionomer and the recently introduced caries stabilizing glass ionomer showed similar patterns and quantity of fluoride release, which was significantly higher than the resin-modified glass ionomer, the compomer and the composite resin. The resin-modified glass ionomer showed higher fluoride release than the compomer and the composite resin. All the formulations of glass ionomers showed fluoride uptake from the neutral sodium fluoride and the fluoridated dentifrice, by releasing increased amounts of fluoride after treatment, in comparison with the untreated group. However, the compomer and the composite resin showed no fluoride uptake. Conclusion: The fluoride released by the glass ionomer cements (GICs) was found to be highest during the first 24 h and decreased significantly over the 1st week with lower levels obtained on the 7th and 28th day, thus demonstrating the phenomenon of "initial burst." The composite resin and compomer used in this study did not show this phenomenon of the initial burst. The resin-modified GICs released more fluoride than the compomer, and the composite resin.


We demonstrate two-photon-excited single-molecule fluorescence enhancement by single end-to-end self-assembled gold nanorod dimers. We employed biotinylated streptavidin as the molecular linker, which connected two gold nanorods in end-to-end fashion. The typical size of streptavidin of around 5 nm separates the gold nanorods with gaps suitable for the access of fresh dyes in aqueous solution, yet small enough to give very high two-photon fluorescence enhancement. Simulations show that enhancements of more than 7 orders of magnitude can be achieved for two-photon-excited fluorescence in the plasmonic hot spots. With such high enhancements, we successfully detect two-photon-excited fluorescence for a common organic dye (ATTO 610) at the single-molecule, single-nanoparticle level.