Although the fire resistance of wood depends on its dimensions, it needs a lot of time and energy to fire retard thick wood On the other hand, it is easier and takes less time and energy to treat thin materials. The fire resistance of wood was improved by compressed treatment, even untreated wood, and moreover compressed wood loaded with chemicals was improved more. Fire resistance of a laminated board was the same as a solid compressed board, and also fire resistance of a laminated board which was arranged with compressed thin wood on two sides of untreated wood showed similar fire endurance. A laminated lathe veneer board showed better fire resistance than solid untreated wood and a laminated board with treated veneers arranged concentratively showed better fire resistance than it did when arranged dispersively. So it was judged that it was important to retard fire ignition and to form a carbonized layer effectively in a fire by physical and chemical treatment, especially on the surface of a material.


Anthropogenic aerosols could alter multiple meteorological processes such as radiation regime and air temperature, thereby modifying plant transpiration. However, the lack of field observations at leaf and plant level hinders our ability to understand how aerosols could affect plant water use. Aerosol concentrations in northern China fluctuate periodically over a wide range. Taking advantage of this unique natural experiment opportunity, we conducted a series of physiological and environmental measurements at different times of the day to explore diurnal aerosols' effect on leaf transpiration and sap flow of planted poplar saplings (Populus × canadensis Moench). We found that high aerosol concentrations suppressed sun leaf transpiration by reducing leaf‐to‐air vapour pressure deficit (VPDleaf), while had no effect on shade leaf transpiration mainly because the negative effect of reduced VPDleaf on transpiration offset the positive effects of the increased stomatal conductance (gs). As aerosol concentration increased, the gs of both sun and shade leaves decreased more rapidly with an increase in VPDleaf, which caused their transpiration rates to become less sensitive to VPDleaf. Similarly, aerosols reduced sap flow density and its sensitivity to VPD. Synthesis. Our study provided observational evidence on aerosols' effects on plant transpiration at the leaf and canopy scales. The reduced transpiration and stronger stomatal control indicated that plant water use becomes more conservative under elevated aerosol concentrations.


He details how the St Laurent government backed the shrewd calculations of the Department of External Affairs and emphasized the wisdom of the containment-accommodation approach, an approach that, Glazov claims, would help win the Cold War thirty-five years later. Glazov shows that the strategy of accommodation, the main difference between Canadian and American Soviet policy, was ultimately vindicated by the eventual ascendancy of a liberal Soviet leader (Gorbachev), which led to increased East-West contact and Soviet liberalization, phenomena that led directly to the West's victory in the Cold War. Glazov's new assessment of Western policies toward Khrushchev's Russia is critical to our understanding of present-day Russia, since Gorbachev's democratization, which led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, had its origins in the Khrushchev thaw. Canadian Policy toward Khrushchev's Soviet Union provides vital information to help answer the question of how the West should deal with Russia, especially in the context of globalization - one of the most urgent issues facing Canada and the Western world.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the mechanism of miR-133a in reversing neonatal rat cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by phenylephrine.

METHODS
A miR-133a precursor cDNA was used to construct an adenovirus vector, which was transfected into 293 cells to harvest miR-133a-containing virus. Neonatal rat cardiac myocytes treated by phenylephrine were exposed to miR-133a adenovirus, and the changes in cell area was measured; the expression levels of miR-133a and Acta1, Actc1, Actb, Myh6, Myh7, and BNP mRNAs were detected by quantitative RT-PCR.

RESULTS
Phenylephrine treatment increased the area of cardiomyocytes by more than 3 folds and significantly enhanced the expression levels of Acta1, Actc1, Actb, Myh6, Myh7 and BNP mRNAs. All these changes were obviously reverse by miR-133a treatment.

CONCLUSION
miR-133a is an important regulator of phenylephrine-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and negatively regulates this process.


Objective To seek for characteristics in ultrasonography of tendon tissues.Methods Observing ultrasonogram of normal and traumatize flexor tendons of chicken toe and find Out corresponds with ultrasonography and histological morphology during the healing process of tendon.Results Normal tendon has its ultrasonographic characteristics during various stages of its healing process after tendon injury.The ultrasonogram shows corresponding alteratives in accordance with the histological change.Conclusions As the high-frequency ultrasound can provide distinct image of tendon in various conditions,it can be used as an auxiliary examination in diagnose of tendon injury and following its healing condition.

Key words:
Ultrasonography; Tendon injuries


Although the Crimean War seems to be a war between the Ottoman and Russian with the support of England an France, in reality, it was a power struggle between the biggest European countries. The cooperation between England - Ottoman Empire and France in the Crimean War meanly determined the result of the war. The Crimean War should not only be evaluated in militarian and political aspect, but also from other perspectives. One of the most important problems for the allied armies in Istanbul and Crimea was related to the health concepts. During the two years long war, problems were the freezing cold and contagious diseases before the Russian soldiers. And thypus, scorbut, cholera and malaria prepears the dead of a large number of soldiers. Although the allied armies won the battle but all the sides fighting in the was lost many people due to contagious diseases. According to the resources, the contagious diseases such as, thypus, cholera and malaria led to the deads of more than ten times of the people who were in the battle field. Thats why, The European armies understood the importance of the treatment diseases in the war and gave importance to the development of military medical services and form this point, the Crimean War became the begining of an important development in military health concept.


Original Research Paper Received 10 September 2013 Accepted 15 December 2013 Available Online 26 October 2014 In this paper, free vibration of two-dimensional functionally graded (2D-FG) annular sectorial plate surrounded by Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation has been investigated. It is assumed that the plate properties vary continuously through its both circumference and thickness according to power law distribution of the volume fraction. Primarily, we calculate the forces and resultant moments and then the total potential energy of system. Then, by applying the Hamilton' principal any by regarding the first order shear deformation plate theory (FSDT) the governing differential equations have been derived. The numerical differential quadrature method, (DQM), has been employed for solving the motion equations. Two different boundary conditions such as simply supported and clamp supported are considered. Initially, the obtained results were verified against those given in the literature and by ANSYS software and we confident from the obtain results. The effects of geometrical and elastic foundation parameters along with FG power indices effects on the natural frequencies have been studied. The study of results shows that, elastic foundation and FG parameters have significant effects on natural frequencies. By doing this research for 2D-FG materials the characteristic vibration of structure can be controlled by more parameters than 1D-FG materials.


Instrument cluster is the Human Machine Interface (HMI) in vehicle which ensures the safety and comfort of the driver by showing the prevailing condition of the vehicle. These days instrument clusters are getting more and more complex. So the testing of instrument cluster for proper functioning i.e. HMI, indicators and warning signals has to be conducted. This paper presents the cost effective and efficient method of testing the instrument cluster using the software developed in LabVIEW and CAN protocol. CAN controller interfaces the PC and instrument cluster, it sends signals through CAN bus to test the tell-tale, dials, fuel gauges and display's in the cluster.


Pain and inflammation are simultaneous responses in bacterial infections. In current clinical practice, the agents like antimicrobial drug are prescribed concurrently. A POCl3 catalyzed, efficient, one-step and solvent-free synthesis of novel thieno [2, 3-d] pyrimidin-4(3H)-one derivatives from 2-amino-4,5-substitutedthiophene-3-carbonitrile has been developed using various aliphatic acid under conventional heating and microwave irradiation. The formation of compounds was confirmed using elemental analysis and spectroscopic techniques like FTIR, 1H NMR and Mass spectroscopy. All synthesized compounds have been screened for their antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli (Gram –ve strain), Bacillus subtilis (Gram +ve strain) for antibacterial activity and antifungal activities against Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. The result showed that synthesized compounds exhibit weak, moderate and good antimicrobial activity. It was observed that the compounds 2a, 2c, 2d, 2e, 2f, 2g, 2j and 2k showed good antimicrobial activity whereas compounds 2b, 2i, 2j showed significant antimicrobial activity compared with standard drug Streptomycin and Amphotericin B respectively.

Keyword:POCl3, Thieno[2, 3-d]pyrimidin-4 (3H)-one, Antimicrobial activity, Streptomycin and Amphotericin B


A valid experimental setup was proposed to study the wave transfer in PDMS fluids. It is found that the degree of attenuation in strain rate is greater with the increasing fluid viscosity, increasing vibration frequency, and increasing wave traveled distance.


Equivariant function with respect to symmetries of the wallpaper group is constructed by trigonometric func- tions. A proper transformation is established between Euclidean plane and hyperbolic spaces. With the resulting function and transformation, wallpaper patterns on the Poincare and Klein models are generated by means of dynamic systems. This method can be utilized to produce infinity of beautiful pattern automatically.


My Writing is a tool that preschool children can use to improve their reading and writing skills, which can be used both at school and at home. This tool was developed based on the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and is in the form of an Android application designed for children. It is used to help children understand that the spoken language can be altered into the written one and still retains its meaning. 10 teachers were included in this study and data were collected from teacher opinions and assessments. The findings showed that My Writing is an effective application for developing literacy in young children, and that it is easy to use by children and parents, making it simple for teachers to assess children's literacy skills while they study at home.
Keywords: Language Experience Approach (LEA), Digital LEA, E-LEA, My Writing, early reading and writing


This book challenges the philosophical foundations of current trademark systems in the USA and the UK. It argues that the process of trademark creation should be transformed to the more practical and realistic proposition of "co-authorship" of trademarks by both the public and trademark owners. The book develops the "Economic-Social Planning justification", which departs from the economic argument that trademarks reduce consumer search costs, and then proposes that trademarks should be formulated in a manner which helps foster a just and attractive culture. Trademarks are thus seen as source and origin identifiers, rather than quality identifiers. The book focuses on the often ignored role of the public and their rights in trademarks and calls for the adoption of the confusion rationale for trademark protection, not the dilution individualistic rationale. The two jurisdictions of this book prove adverse effects over the rights of the public in terms of using trademarks in cultural and expressive contexts, thereby threatening the principles of freedom of expression as a human fundamental right.


Dyslexia is a significant developmental disorder that is associated with a host of negative consequences. Most states in the US have recently passed legislation requiring the diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia in school settings. Whereas this legislation brings needed attention to children with dyslexia, diagnosis and treatment are often delayed until several years after school entry. By this time, reading problems and other negative consequences are well underway. In this paper, we argue for an alternative, prevention-based approach that focuses on the early identification of children at risk for dyslexia and the provision of instruction/intervention that is matched to their needs.


Identifying and appropriately responding to victims of intimate partner abuse is a standard of health care. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to improve health-care providers' understanding of the health-care experiences of battered Latina women. Seventeen women were interviewed in either Spanish or English. Data were analyzed using van Manen's approach. The themes of fear, worry, and uncertainty were found to permeate the women's lives. The women's fear of their abusers and the abuse was matched by their fear of detection and disclosure of the abuse to health-care providers. Their fears were based on the consequences of the abuse becoming known. Despite their fears, the women wanted to be asked about intimate partner abuse and to receive help. Several parallels in the women's relationships with the abusers and with their health-care providers were identified. Requisites for safe disclosure of intimate partner abuse to health-care providers are discussed.


This study aims to determine whether a subpopulation of children with croup, given mist and dexamethasone, can be treated with nebulized racemic epinephrine and safely discharged after observation in the emergency department. A prospective study was designed, enrolling children aged three months to six years with a clinical diagnosis of croup. Croup scores were assigned on arrival, after 30 minutes of saline mist, and 30, 120, and 240 minutes after nebulized racemic epinephrine. All children received mist; those with a croup score >3 after mist were given nebulized racemic epinephrine. All patients received intramuscular dexamethasone. Patients were discharged if they were significantly improved after four hours of observation. Phone follow-up occurred 24 to 48 hours after discharge. Sixty children received racemic epinephrine for croup. The median croup score on arrival was 5, and there was no difference in arrival croup score by disposition. The two-hour croup score was significantly higher for admitted patients (P < 0.05 by the Mann-Whitney U test). Forty children (66%) were discharged after nebulized racemic epinephrine and four hours of observation. No patients returned to the emergency department within 24 hours for further treatment. Two patients could not be contacted. The 95% confidence interval for 0/38 patients with a negative outcome is (0–9.3%). We conclude that children with croup treated with dexamethasone and mist, receiving one nebulized racemic epinephrine treatment, can be discharged after a four-hour period of observation if they appear clinically well to an experienced physician, and if close follow-up can be established.


Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is an uncommon cause of acute coronary syndromes. It occurs in three major groups: in young women in the peripartum period, in patients with atherosclerotic disease, and in an idiopathic group. There are a number of associated conditions, but the pathogenesis remains unclear. Diagnosis can only be made at angiography. Treatments include medical therapy, coronary artery bypass grafts, and newer interventional procedures. We report on a case of spontaneous coronary artery dissection involving the left circumflex artery in a young adult male presenting with a myocardial infarction after exercise. There were no risk factors for coronary artery disease and no evidence of atherosclerosis on angiography. The dissection was treated with primary coronary artery stenting without predilation, achieving an excellent result. To our knowledge, this is the third known case of successful coronary artery stenting for this condition and the first case of primary stenting without prior angioplasty.


ABSTRACT: Obesity and Type 2 diabetes are now major public health issues in developed nations and have reached epidemic proportions in many developing nations, as well as disadvantaged groups in developed countries, e.g., Mexican‐Americans, African‐Americans, and Australian Aborigines. These groups all show hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, which have been demonstrated to be future predictors of Type 2 diabetes and have also been suggested as key factors in the etiology of the Metabolic Syndrome. It is now increasingly recognized that Type 2 diabetes is part of a cluster of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors comprising the Metabolic Syndrome. This group is at very high risk of atherosclerosis because each of the risk factors in the Metabolic Syndrome cluster in its own right is an important CVD risk factor. They also contribute cumulatively to atherosclerosis. A key strategy in reducing macrovascular disease lies in the better understanding of the Metabolic Syndrome‐glucose intolerance, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and central obesity. Although it has been suggested that hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance is the central etiological factor for the Metabolic Syndrome, epidemiological data do not support the idea that this can account for all of the cluster abnormalities. We have animal and human data suggesting that hyperleptinemia rather than, or synergistically with, hyperinsulinemia may play a central role in the genesis of the CVD risk factor cluster that constitutes the syndrome. Studies in Psammomys obesus (the Israeli sand rat) suggest hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance is an early metabolic lesion in the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. This animal also develops other features of the Metabolic Syndrome, making it an excellent model to investigate etiology. Psammomys, when placed on an ad libitum laboratory diet, develops hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. It also develops hyperleptinemia and leptin insensitivity, and hyperleptinemia is correlated with insulin resistance independent of changes in body weight. It is likely that a similar sequence occurs in the transition from the prediabetic state to Type 2 diabetes in humans. More recently, other potential players in the etiology of the Metabolic Syndrome have been suggested including endothelial dysfunction and acetylation‐stimulating protein (ASP). It has been suggested that endothelial dysfunction may be an antecedent for both Type 2 diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome. In addition, ASP is a serious new candidate for an important role in insulin resistance. The ASP pathway plays a critical role in fatty acid metabolism and storage, and it has been suggested that ineffective storage of fatty acids by adipocytes due to a defect in the ASP pathway may lead to insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes.


Abstract:"Woolf's Feminine Spaces and the New Woman in To the Lighthouse: The Cases of Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe": Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse is distinguished by the spaces in it, starting with a family summer house and culminating in the eponymous lighthouse. Yet those spaces are more than settings: each contributes a layer of meaning to the novel's plot. In mapping those meanings onto the plot, readers can see how the various spaces, particularly in the Ramsays' vacation home, help dramatize the ways in which gender roles and expectations are formed and reinforced in the characters of Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe. In fact, as I will argue, Woolf constructs a novel that shows in its use of particularly charged spaces more than it explains. Mrs. Ramsay, the Victorian housewife, and Lily, the "New Woman," are made more complex to the reader when they perform their roles in spaces that are carefully constructed according to Victorian norms of behavior. By tracing their behaviors and thoughts, this paper shows that Mrs. Ramsay acts as though she is the Angel in the House; her thoughts, however, frame her as a potential New Woman. In contrast, Lily, the aspiring artist, represents the New Woman, but actually does not become one until later in the novel, after her relationships to these spaces mature.


To understand the changes in chemical composition and sources of PM2.5 under the extreme reduction background during the COVID-19 epidemic periods in Nanjing, hourly observation results of PM2.5 components (water-soluble inorganic ions, carbonaceous components, and inorganic elements) of two epidemic events from January to March 2020 and June to August 2021 were analyzed. In comparison to that during pre-epidemic periods, the concentration of NO3- during the two epidemic control periods decreased by 52.9% and 43.0%, respectively, which was larger than the decreases in NH4+(46.4% and 31.6%) and SO42-(33.8% and 16.5%). Since the observation site was located close to a main road, the decrease in elemental carbon (EC, 35.4% and 20.6%) was higher than that in organic carbon (OC, 11.1% and 16.2%). In reference to the variations in the characteristic ratios of the bulk components mentioned above, the epidemic control showed a more substantial influence on traffic emissions than industrial activities. The concentration time series of PM2.5 major components over the epidemic periods indicated that NOx from local traffic emissions had substantial contributions to the formation of NO3-, which led to local short-term PM2.5 pollution. In addition, the positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was used to analyze the hourly observation data of PM2.5 components. The seven identified factors were linked with metallurgy, firework and firecracker combustions, road traffic emissions, coal combustion, dust resuspension, secondary sulfate, and secondary nitrate. Because the nitrate was unstable under high temperature, the contribution of secondary nitrate to PM2.5 during the epidemic control period of 2021 (summer, 21.2%) was much lower than that during the epidemic control period of 2020 (winter, 60.6%); however, the formation of secondary components always dominated the contribution of PM2.5 sources. Therefore, emissions of NOx and SO2 should be further controlled to continuously reduce ambient PM2.5 concentrations in Chinese cities.


This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of resveratrol(RES) combined with irinotecan(IRI) in the treatment of colorectal cancer(CRC). The targets of RES, IRI, and CRC were obtained from databases, and the targets of RES combined with IRI in the treatment of CRC were acquired by Venn diagram. The protein functional cluster analysis, GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed. In addition, the protein-protein interaction(PPI) network was constructed. The core target genes were screened out and the target-signaling pathway network was set up. IGEMDOCK was used to dock the core target gene molecules. Besides, the relationship between the expression level of key target genes and the prognosis and immune infiltration of CRC was analyzed. Based on the in vitro cell experiment, the molecular mechanism of RES combined with IRI in the treatment of CRC was explored and analyzed. According to the results, 63 potential targets of RES combined with IRI were obtained for CRC treatment. Furthermore, cluster analysis revealed that protein functions included 23% transmembrane signal receptors, 22% protein modifying enzymes, and 14% metabolite converting enzymes. GO analysis indicated that BPs were mainly concentrated in protein autophosphorylation, CCs in receptor complex and plasma membrane, and MFs in transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity. Moreover, KEGG signaling pathways were mainly enriched in central carbon metabolism in cancer. The key targets of RES combined with IRI in the treatment of CRC were PIK3CA, EGFR, and IGF1R, all of which were significantly positively correlated with the immune infiltration of CRC. As shown by the molecular docking results, PIK3CA had the most stable binding with RES and IRI. Compared with the results in the control group, the proliferation ability and EGFR protein expression of CRC cells in the RES-treated group, the IRI-treated group, and the RES+IRI treated group significantly decreased. Moreover, the cell proliferation ability and EGFR protein expression level of CRC cells in the RES+IRI treated group were remarkably lower than those in the IRI-treated group. In conclusion, PIK3CA, EGFR, and IGF1R are the key targets of RES combined with IRI in CRC treatment. In addition, RES can inhibit the proliferation of CRC cells and improve IRI chemoresistance by downregulating the EGFR signaling pathway.


The present invention provides nucleoside aryl phosphoramidates of structural formula (I) which are precursors to inhibitors of RNA-dependent RNA viral polymerase. These compounds are precursors to inhibitors of RNA-dependent RNA viral replication and are useful for the treatment of RNA-dependent RNA viral infection. They are particularly useful as precursors to inhibitors of hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B polymerase, as precursors to inhibitors of HCV replication, and/or for the treatment of hepatitis C infection. The invention also describes pharmaceutical compositions containing such nucleoside aryl phosphoramidates alone or in combination with other agents active against RNA-dependent RNA viral infection, in particular HCV infection. Also disclosed are methods of inhibiting RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, inhibiting RNA-dependent RNA viral replication, and/or treating RNA-dependent RNA viral infection with the nucleoside aryl phosphoramidates of the present invention. (I)


Background The present study aimed to evaluate whether the operating table height affected the success rate and incidence of complications of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia administered by residents during training. Methods One-hundred-and-eighty pregnant women, ASA I-II, were randomly allocated according to landmarks on the resident's body: umbilicus (group U), lowest rib margin (R), and xiphoid process (X). The success rates of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia, the incidence of paresthesia and intravascular cannulation were recorded. Results There were no differences between the three groups in the success rates of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia, and the incidence of paresthesia and intravascular cannulation. However, paresthesia during epidural catheter advancement was more common on the left side (66.7%) than the right side (33.3%) (P=0.03). In group R, the success rate of epidural space puncture was higher during the residents' third time (100%) than their first time (50%; P=0.01). Most residents (83%) preferred the table height at which the needle insertion point was at the level of their lowest rib margin. Conclusions The success rates of CESA during training did not be influenced by the operating table height which below the standing residents' xiphoid process. But it may be helpful to suggest the residents to move the puncture point to the patients' right slightly. It may be better to keep the table height at which the needle insertion point was level with the residents' lowest rib margin. It was not just preferred by most of residents but also better for their training of performing epidural anesthesia.


We studied the exercise ejection fraction response in 56 patients with chronic aortic insufficiency. All had left ventricular dilatation but preserved resting ejection fraction and minimal or no symptoms. The exercise ejection fraction increased by 0.05 units or greater in 18 (32%) patients (group I), remained within 0.05 units of the resting value in 18 (32%) patients (group II), and fell by 0.05 units or greater in 20 (36%) patients (group III). There were no significant differences among the groups in left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, end-systolic dimension, or fractional shortening by echocardiography or in resting left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction by radionuclide angiography. Left ventricular end-systolic wall stress was significantly higher in group III than in either group I or group II (89 +/- 20 vs 70 +/- 18 and 69 +/- 17 X 10(3) dyne/cm2; p less than .005). At peak exercise there were no differences among groups in systolic blood pressure. However, end-systolic volume increased from 65 +/- 28 to 77 +/- 36 ml/m2 in group III and fell from 50 +/- 21 to 28 +/- 18 ml/m2 in group I during exercise. Thus, at peak exercise end-systolic volume was nearly three times greater in group III than in group I. Although stress could not be determined directly during exercise, the directional changes in its determinants suggest that it also would have been higher in group III patients. A highly significant inverse correlation was present between the ejection fraction response and the change in end-systolic volume (r = -.87, p less than .0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


BACKGROUND
There is a need to better diagnose and treat women who may be at risk for cardiovascular disease. This is emphasized by the impending release of evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in women. Dyslipidemia is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) and is the focus of the current literature review.

METHODS
Medical literature on treating cardiovascular disease and cholesterol disorders in women was reviewed by searching Medline, including a selective search for randomized controlled clinical trials of lipid therapy. In addition, current dyslipidemia treatment guidelines were reviewed.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Subgroup analyses of both primary and secondary prevention trials have shown that lipid-modifying drugs offer benefits to women comparable with those seen in men. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is the primary target of lipid-modifying therapy for the reduction of coronary risk. However, there are differences between the sexes in the lipid profile that may have clinical implications. In women, changes in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride levels are better predictors of coronary risk than LDL-C or total cholesterol. Thus, treatment beyond LDL-C may be of greater importance in women than in men. Furthermore, treatment options that provide improvement in all aspects of the lipid profile should be considered.


Ali Ahmad Al-Jurjawi (1866-1961) a modernist from the Egyptian city of Jarja. Al-Jurjawi lived in a time of shock, known as the Egyptian revolution from the clutches of France. European colonization of the Islamic world (Egypt), which tends to manage the economy with a conventional (secular) system. These conditions affect the construction of scholarship which is occupied by Al-Jurjawi, plus the difficulty of finding the ideal books, especially regarding Islamic law and wisdom or secrets that exist in Islamic teachings. Starting from such a situation Al-Jurjawi much got the idea of philosophy and thought and determined to write a book that discusses the wisdom of Islamic Shari'ah, which is named Hikmat al-Tasyri 'wa Falsafatuhu . Then how kosep wisdom al-Tashri 'became the economic and financial principles of Islamic business according to Al-Jurjawi in the book. The result, the concept of wisdom al-Tasyri 'Al-Jurjawi is amazing wisdom, astonishing mind and satisfy the heart of the shari'ah of the divine religion aims to know God, inhumanizing, knowing how to worship and Think about it by establishing the law necessary to be done amar ma'ruf nahi mungkar and benefit servants of the world and the hereafter. The reason for wisdom of al-Tashri 'as the economic and financial principle in Islamic business according to Al-Jurjawi, to realize submission to the Shari'ah of Allah; preserving the Sunnah of the Prophet; keep away from the forbidden; foster moral development; realizing brotherhood and unity. All according to Al-Jurjawi contains benefit the world and the hereafter, in an effort to know God by worshiping and ma'ruf nahi munkar and morally noble character. It is embodied in the concept of hablum minnallâh wa minannâs . Benefit as the principle of innovation of economic and financial activities in contemporary Islamic business according to the researchers lies in the wisdom of ihyâu al-Mawât his Al-Jurjawi is to innovate in business for benefit people


In liquid nitrogen, DC and AC corona discharge phenomena resemble each other. The corona inception voltage is smaller with the point negative than with the point positive, and increases as the gap spacing increases. Negative corona pulses are more frequent but smaller than positive ones. The height and repetition rate of the pulse with the point negative increase as the gap spacing decreases. The corona is accompanied by bubbling similar to a spray jet from the point tip. The bubbling is independent of the polarity of the applied voltage. Buoyancy has little influence on the corona.


Clinically established methods to diagnose osteoporosis, a systemic disease with multiple implications to the human's well being are bound to the bone mineral density. Since it is well known, that the bone structure changes under osteoporosis, this thesis investigates, whether structural changes represent information independent of bone mineral density, and whether this structural information, obtained by innovative mathematical techniques improves first the ability to distinguish between osteoporotic and healthy structures, second the measurement of a risk to belong to the osteoporotic group, and third the prediction of a biomechanical measure, the failure load, compared to existing standard structural measures. By building a bridge between natural patterns of human cancellous bone to mathematical and stochastic algorithms capable of modeling complex structures this in vitro study proposed a successful way to catch the specifics of these natural patterns and to improve the current structural analysis methods. Methods investigated included Markov point processes, hidden Markov models and conditional entropie.


This paper presents a robotic capture concept for large spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) that was developed as part of the the e.Deorbit feasibility study within the scope of the clean space initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA). The defective and tumbling satellite ENVISAT has been chosen as potential target to be captured, stabilized, and subsequently de-orbited in a controlled manner. Following a thorough target analysis including potential grasping points, a robotic capture concept was developed that is based on a 7-DoF dexterous robotic manipulator, a linear two-bracket gripper, and a clamping mechanism for achieving stiff fixation between target and chaser satellites prior to the de-tumbling and execution of the de-orbit maneuver. The robotic grasp concept includes a stereo-vision camera system featuring a visual servoing algorithm for camera-in-the-loop error correction. In addition, a platform-mounted camera system is utilized for target model building as well as relative motion and pose estimation. For concept validation, visual servoing, haptic grasp and capture simulations were performed. The task-specific kinematics of the manipulator and potential joint locks as contingency events were validated and analyzed using the method of capability maps. For the complete robotic capture maneuver, an error budget was created and evaluated. Geometric analysis and haptic grasp simulations showed that the gripper design and connected grasp approach is feasible and robust. In addition, the kinematics analysis yielded a sufficient reachability, even in the case of an improbable joint lock. FE-analyses were performed to show that a high compound stiffness can be achieved by the clamping device and that all required forces can be transmitted without damaging the target's structure. Overall, the study showed that the capture and deorbiting of ENVISAT is feasible and robust using the developed robotic concept.


A kJ class high temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage system (HTS-SMES) composed of YBCO and BSCCO coils with a cryogenic system using sub-cooled LN2 is optimal designed. This SMES is applied for the dynamic power fluctuation compensation considering the quench protection in power system. A dual processor combined with the digital signal processor (DSP) and the micro-programmed control unit (MCU) is proposed to construct a LCL filtered voltage source converter system for the SMES. Based on the SVPWM pulse modulation, the power fluctuation compensation strategy of the SMES and its DSP programs are proposed. Finally, a dynamic simulation test system with this SMES for compensation of power fluctuation is build up and the electric power experimental results show that the SMES can output the required compensation power correctly and restrain the power fluctuation in milliseconds.


We introduce a Banach Lie group $G$ of unitary operators subject to a natural trace condition. We compute the homotopy groups of $G$, describe its cohomology and construct an $S^1$-central extension. We show that the central extension determines a non-trivial gerbe on the action Lie groupoid $G\ltimes \mathfrak{k}$, where $\mathfrak{k}$ denotes the Hilbert space of self-adjoint Hilbert-Schmidt operators. With an eye towards constructing elements in twisted K-theory, we prove the existence of a cubic Dirac operator $\mathbb{D}$ in a suitable completion of the quantum Weil algebra $\mathcal{U}(\mathfrak{g}) \otimes Cl(\mathfrak{k})$, which is subsequently extended to a projective family of self-adjoint operators $\mathbb{D}_A$ on $G\ltimes \frak{k}$. While the kernel of $\mathbb{D}_A$ is infinite-dimensional, we show that there is still a notion of finite reducibility at every point, which suggests a generalized definition of twisted K-theory for action Lie groupoids.


In this paper, a new robust model predictive control (RMPC) for uncertain nonlinear systems subject to actuator saturation is designed to regulate the terminal voltage of a photovoltaic generator (PVG) that feeds a DC motor-pump via a buck DC–DC converter. The considered system is a combination of a PVG-converter and DC motor-pump, which possesses nonlinear behavior along with under a saturating control signal highly dependent on the operation point and climate conditions of solar radiation and temperature. As a result, the control task is complex due to the nonlinearity of the system and its dependence on climate conditions. Based on the dead-zone property, the presented paper introduces a new RMPC technique to provide an innovative and efficient solution to ensure the closed-loop system's robust stability in the presence of actuator nonlinearity. In this paper, the nonlinear system is described in polytypic form, and an appropriate linear feedback control law is designed and used to minimize an infinite horizon cost function under the framework of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Furthermore, sufficient state-feedback control law conditions are synthesized to guarantee the robust stability of the closed-loop system in the presence of polytypic uncertainties. Simulation results are provided, in which the results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Nuclear actin-related proteins play vital roles in transcriptional regulation; however, their biological roles remain elusive. Here, we characterize Alp5, fission yeast homolog of Arp4/BAF53. The temperature-sensitive mutant alp5-1134 contains a single amino acid substitution in the conserved C-terminal domain (S402N) and displays mitotic phenotypes, including chromosome condensation and missegregation. Alp5 forms a complex with Mst1-HAT (histone acetyltransferase). Consistently, inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs), by either addition of a specific inhibitor or a mutation in HDAC-encoding clr6+ gene, rescues alp5-1134. Immunoblotting with specific antibodies against acetylated histones shows that Alp5 is required for histone H4 acetylation at lysines 5, 8, and 12, but not histone H3 lysines 9 or 14, and furthermore Clr6 plays an opposing role. Mitotic arrest is ascribable to activation of the Mad2/Bub1 spindle checkpoint, in which both proteins localize to the mitotic kinetochores in alp5-1134. Intriguingly, alp5-1134 displays transcriptional desilencing at the core centromere without altering the overall chromatin structure, which also is suppressed by a simultaneous mutation in clr6+. This result shows that Alp5 is essential for histone H4 acetylation, and its crucial role lies in the establishment of bipolar attachment of the kinetochore to the spindle and transcriptional silencing at the centromere.


The numerical solution of an ordinary differential equation can be interpreted as the exact solution of a nearby modified equation. Investigating the behaviour of numerical solutions by analysing the modified equation is known as backward error analysis. If the original and modified equation share structural properties, then the exact and approximate solution share geometric features such as the existence of conserved quantities. Conjugate symplectic methods preserve a modified symplectic form and a modified Hamiltonian when applied to a Hamiltonian system. We show how a blended version of variational and symplectic techniques can be used to compute modified symplectic and Hamiltonian structures. In contrast to other approaches, our backward error analysis method does not rely on an ansatz but computes the structures systematically, provided that a variational formulation of the method is known. The technique is illustrated on the example of symmetric linear multistep methods with matrix coefficients.


This paper presents an ultra low-power noncoherent transceiver (TRx) operating in 3-5 GHz band using energy detection (ED) receiver for impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) systems. The proposed low-complexity ED receiver consists of a wideband LNA, a squarer, an analog integrator, and a sample and hold circuit, of which only the LNA consumes static current. The transmitter consists of a pulser which is based on the ON/OFF operation of an LC oscillator. Fabricated in 0.18-mum CMOS technology with 1.5 V supply, measurements show the FCC-compliant output pulses with the duration of 3.5 ns, which corresponds to 520 MHz bandwidth. Maximum pulse rate is up to over 200 MHz. The pulser dissipates only the dynamic current with average energy of 16.8 pJ per pulse, and the receiver dissipates 3.5 mA of static current. The receiver shows 9 dB of NF and a sensitivity of -70 dBm. Transceiver die size is 1.3times1 mm.


Pattern formation described by differential-difference equations with diffusion is investigated. It is shown that an arbitrarily small diffusion induces space-time turbulence just at the instability threshold of the homogeneous stationary solution. We prove this property by deriving a complex Ginzburg-Landau equation on the basis of normal form analysis. Well above threshold, such turbulent structures give way to synchronized states ordered by spirals and targets. This secondary instability can be understood with an asymptotic method representing the system as a cellular automaton network.


The complexity of the world is contrasted with the simplicity of the basic laws of physics. In recent years, considerable study has been devoted to systems that exhibit complex outcomes. This experience has not given us any new laws of physics, but has instead given us a set of lessons about appropriate ways of approaching complex systems.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the clinical effect of latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap with a few muscle in repairing the soft tissue defect of lower limbs.

METHODS
From June 2000 to December 2006, 8 patients with soft tissue defects of lower limbs were repaired with the latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flaps. There were 6 males and 2 females, aged from 25-69 years. The locations were heel in 3 cases, dorsum pedis in 2 cases, anticnemion in 2 cases, and the right leg (squamous carcinoma) in 1 case. The area of soft defect ranged from 10 cm x 7 cm - 18 cm x 12 cm. The flap in size ranged from 15 cm x 8 cm to 22 cm x 15 cm.

RESULTS
Of all the flaps, 6 survived, 1 had vascular necrosis 2 hours after operation and survived by skin grafts, 1 had delayed healing because of infection. The wound and, donor site achieved primary healing. The follow-up for 3 to 12 months revealed that all the flaps had a good appearance. The function of donor site was as normal.

CONCLUSION
It is an ideal method to repair the soft tissue defect of lower limbs with latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap.


We report the formation of mesoporous hollow carbons with diameters of about 30–40 nm on a graphene (MHCG) surface formed using graphite, the surfactant Pluronic F-127, and porous silica on the graphene as a template to produce a sheet. The specific surface area of the sample produced is 1793.45 m2 g−1, which is hundreds of times larger than that of graphite (31.38 m2 g−1). When applied to supercapacitor electrodes, the MHCG electrode exhibits outstanding maintenance of energy density above 30 W h kg−1 even under 1 kW kg−1 power density, which is attributed to extremely fast electron supply through graphene layers and facile penetration of electrolyte through highly-developed mesopores.


rrigation district informative construction is an effective way to improve the management and to rational allocate and effectively utility irrigation water resources. This paper is directed against the characteristics such as large-scale monitoring data amount, complex data types, high real-time requirement, strong spatial correlation, etc. combine Multi-Agent theory with irrigation district information system together, and use GSM communication network as the communication network of system, established an agricultural irrigation district information system based on Multi-Agent and GSM, which can full utility intelligent of Agent and the good communication coordination of Multi-Agent system, so to provide comprehensive technical support for irrigation management and decision making.


Supernova (SN) 2006gy was a hydrogen-rich core-collapse SN that remains one of the most luminous optical SNe ever observed. The total energy budget (>2 × 1051 erg radiated in the optical alone) poses many challenges for standard SN theory. We present new ground-based near-infrared (NIR) observations of SN 2006gy, as well as a single epoch of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging obtained more than two years after the explosion. Our NIR data taken around peak optical emission show an evolution that is largely consistent with a cooling blackbody, with tentative evidence for a growing NIR excess starting around day ∼130. Our late-time Keck adaptive optics NIR image, taken on day 723, shows little change from previous NIR observations taken around day 400. Furthermore, the optical HST observations show a reduced decline rate after day 400, and the SN is bluer on day 810 than it was at peak. This late-time decline is inconsistent with 56Co decay, and thus is problematic for the various pair-instability SN models used to explain the nature of SN 2006gy. The slow decline of the NIR emission can be explained with a light echo, and we confirm that the late-time NIR excess is the result of a massive (≳10 M☉) dusty shell heated by the SN peak luminosity. The late-time optical observations require the existence of a scattered light echo, which may be generated by the same dust that contributes to the NIR echo. Both the NIR and optical echoes originate in the proximity of the progenitor, ∼1018 cm for the NIR echo and ≲10–40 pc for the optical echo, which provides further evidence that the progenitor of SN 2006gy was a very massive star.


It is apparent that oral communication skills are of a paramount importance in peoples' workplace performance. English is taught in Ethiopia largely as a foreign language with the aim of enabling graduates cope with communication challenges in the workplace. All university students learn English; so do maritime engineering students who are presumed to work for industries abroad. Their ability to communicate in different situations is a crucial point. This study was, therefore, carried out with a view to measuring maritime engineering students' level of communication apprehension and its relationship with their communication competence and performance in an EFL context. 76 second year students of the department of maritime engineering took part in the study. Data were gathered through questionnaires and oral communication tests. The findings indicate that students were generally apprehensive in EFL oral communication. The participants showed the highest apprehension to public speaking.  It was also found out that communication apprehension was negatively correlated with both communication competence and oral communication performance of the trainees, and the trainees' self-reported communication competence was found to have been positively correlated with their communication performance. In the light of the findings of the research, pedagogical implications and recommendations have been forwarded.

 Key words: EFL (English as a Foreign Language) maritime engineering students/trainees, Bahir Dar University (BDU), Oral communication, communication apprehension (CA), communication competence (CC), communication performance (CP).


To remove the speckle noise of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, a novel denoising algorithm based on Bayes wavelet shrinkage and a fast guided filter is proposed. According to the statistical properties of SAR images, the noise-free signal and speckle noise in the wavelet domain are modeled as Laplace and Fisher-Tippett distributions respectively. Then a new wavelet shrinkage algorithm is obtained by adopting the Bayes maximum a posteriori estimation. Speckle noise in the high-frequency domain of SAR images is shrunk by this new wavelet shrinkage algorithm. As the wavelet coefficients of the low-frequency domain also contain some speckle noise, speckle noise in the low-frequency domain can be further filtered by the fast guided filter. The result of the denoising experiments of simulated SAR images and real SAR images demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has the ability to better denoise and preserve edge information.


【The aim of this study was to investigate the nutrient removal and biomass productivity in the wastewater using MMBR (Microalgae Membrane Bioreactor). MMBR process was combined OPPBR (Optical Panel Photobioreactor) and MBR (Membrane bioreactor). The OPPBR and MBR were operated 3 days and 9h HRT (Hydraulic retention time), respectively, using microalgae as Chlorella vulgaris. The obtained result indicated that the biomass productivity of 0.498 g/L/d with light transmittance of 92% at a 305 mm depth in the OPPBR was achieved. The total consumption of BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) in the MMBR were found to be 97.56% and 96.06%, respectively. Additionally, the removal of TN, $NO_3-N$ , TP and $PO_4-P$ were 94.94%, 91.04%, 99.54% and 93.06% in MMBR, respectively. These results indicated that the MMBR process was highly effective for COD, BOD and nutrient removal when compared to the separate OPPBR or MBR process. The MMBR process was effective for nutrient removal and biomass productivity and can be applied to treat wastewater in sewage treatment plant.】


79Jurisdiction — Of arbitration tribunal — Consent to arbitrate — International Chamber of Commerce arbitration — Contract between State–owned entity and foreign company containing icc arbitration clause — Whether State a party to contract — Signature by State of terms of reference pursuant to icc Arbitration Rules — Express reservation as to jurisdiction of tribunal — icc award affirming jurisdiction of tribunal — Whether terms of reference constitute agreement to arbitrate State immunity — Waiver — Whether signature of terms of reference constitutes submission to jurisdiction of arbitration tribunal — Whether lodging of defence on merits constitutes waiver of immunity Parties — To agreement — State–owned entity endowed with independent legal personality — Conclusion of contract with foreign private company — Contract containing icc arbitration clause — Whether State–owned company acts on behalf of State — Supervisory control by government minister Counter–signature of contract as "approved, agreed and ratified" — Whether rendering State a party to the contract Procedure — Competence of arbitration tribunal to determine its own competence — Decision on competence subject to review by municipal courts — New French Code of Civil Procedure, Articles 1502 and 1504 Recognition and enforcement — icc arbitration award — Action for annulment before municipal courts — Grounds for annulment — Excess of jurisdiction — Whether award made in absence of arbitration agreement — New French Code of Civil Procedure, Articles 1502 and 1504 State responsibility — Contractual obligations — State–owned entity — Conclusion of concession with foreign private company — Whether State–owned entity acts on behalf of State — Circumstances in which State becomes a party to such a contract — The law of France


Hydroporus emergens sp. n. is described from Tekirova (south of Antalya) in the south-western part of Turkey. The species is provisionally attributed to the H. normandi-complex which is part of the H. memnonius-group of Hydroporus Clairville, 1806. With the new species the known distribution of that complex – which so far was considered strictly western Mediterranean – is considerably expanded to the eastern Mediterranean. The species is compared with its western relatives as well as described and illustrated in detail.


We present the results of a VAMAS (Versailles project on Advanced Materials and Standards) interlaboratory study on organic depth profiling, in which twenty laboratories submitted data from a multilayer organic reference material. Individual layers were identified using a range of different sputtering species (C60n+, Cs+, SF5+ and Xe+), but in this study only the C60n+ ions were able to provide truly 'molecular' depth profiles from the reference samples. The repeatability of profiles carried out on three separate days by participants was shown to be excellent, with a number of laboratories obtaining better than 5% RSD (relative standard deviation) in depth resolution and sputtering yield, and better than 10% RSD in relative secondary ion intensities. Comparability between laboratories was also good in terms of depth resolution and sputtering yield, allowing useful relationships to be found between ion energy, sputtering yield and depth resolution. The study has shown that organic depth profiling results can, with care, be compared on a day‐to‐day basis and between laboratories. The study has also validated three approaches that significantly improve the quality of organic depth profiling: sample cooling, sample rotation and grazing angles of ion incidence. © Crown copyright 2010.


Objectives The Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA, http://astra.cancer.fi/NOCCA) study covers all 15 million working-aged persons who participated in population censuses between 1960 and 1990 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and the subsequent 2.8 million incident cancer cases diagnosed in these people in a follow-up until 2005. Methods The observed number of cancer cases in 70 diagnostic categories in each occupation was compared with the expected number calculated from the respective incidence rates for the national population. The result was presented as a standardised incidence ratio, SIR, defined as the observed number of cases divided by the expected number. Results For all cancers combined, there was a wide variation among men from an SIR of 0.79 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.95) in domestic assistants to 1.48 (1.43 to 1.54) in waiters. The occupations with the highest SIRs also included workers producing beverage and tobacco, seamen and chimney sweeps (E1) . Among women, the SIRs varied from 0.58 (0.37 to 0.87) in seafarers to 1.27 (1.19 to 1.35) in tobacco workers. Low SIRs were found for farmers, gardeners and forestry workers in both genders. The variation in relative risk across occupational categories varied considerably between cancer types. For mesothelioma, there was a 20-fold variation in risk among plumbers as compared to farmers, while the variation between the lowest and highest occupation-specific incidence of cancers of colon or brain was not even twofold. Conclusions The present study shows that the risk of cancer is highly dependent on the person's occupation, reflecting the position in the society.


Apart from being the most universal and most supreme social institution, the state is also said to be necessary for the realization and fulfillment of the human essence. It follows, therefore, that the state must itself satisfy certain fundamental requirements in line with its ideals, notable among which is to promote the common good of its members. The Nigerian state is characterized by conditions that negate the ideals of a state. This work presents a template of an ideal state. Situating the Nigerian state in its proper historical context and adopting the social contract theory of the state as the dominant theoretical framework, this work examines the origin, nature and character of the Nigerian state. It identifies some fundamental anomalies in the mode of formation, governmental structure and institutional frameworks of the state. It recommends restructuring, social justice and massive democratization of the political space as necessary social conditions for national unity and progress.
Keywords: Nigerian State, National Unity, Structure, Colonial, Ethnic Politics


A new four-dimensional quadratic smooth autonomous chaotic system is presented in this paper, which can exhibit periodic orbit and chaos under the conditions on the system parameters. Importantly, the system can generate one-, two-, three- and four-scroll chaotic attractors with appropriate choices of parameters. Interestingly, all the attractors are generated only by changing a single parameter. The dynamic analysis approach in the paper involves time series, phase portraits, Poincaré maps, a bifurcation diagram, and Lyapunov exponents, to investigate some basic dynamical behaviours of the proposed four-dimensional system.


Fragile X (FXS) and Turner (TS) syndromes are X-chromosome-associated disorders. Herein, we report the case of a girl in middle childhood with bicuspid aortic valve in infancy, growth failure, global developmental delay (GDD), visual problems, and coexisting attention-deficit/hyperactivity and anxiety disorders. A high-resolution karyotype in 20 cells revealed 46,X,Idic(X)(p11.21)[19]/45,X[1], suggestive of variant TS. Given her atypical phenotype, subsequent DNA testing was performed. Four FMR1 cytosine-guanine-guanine repeats (30, 410, 580 and 800) were identified, confirming the additional FXS diagnosis. This case study highlights the importance of additional genetic testing in individuals with atypical variant TS, such as unexplained GDD and distinct facial characteristics. The additional FXS diagnosis prompted new therapeutic development for the patient to advance precision healthcare.


Pot experiments were conducted using a sandy loam soil and various electrolyte solutions such as NaCl, CaCl2, Na2SO4, and Hoagland nutrient solution containing all macro- and micro-nutrient elements in appropriate proportions, inducing different electrical conductivity (EC) levels of the soil solution during the growth of Krichauff wheat while the water content in the pot soils was maintained at field capacity. The resulting differences in dry matter production after 40 days of growth clearly indicated the continuous operation of osmotic effect as the EC of the soil solution increased from 0.7 to 41.0 dS/m. However, the osmotic effect became dominant and severely restricted plant growth when the soil solution EC increased above a 'threshold value', which was 25 dS/m, corresponding to an osmotic pressure of 900 kPa, in this experiment. Below this EC value, particularly at low EC values, ionic effects due to Na+, Ca2+, SO42–, and Cl– were also evident, but it could not be concluded whether these effects were due to toxicity or ion imbalance. The osmotic effect at EC values above the threshold resulted in greatly reduced water uptake from pot soils, the unused water being in the range 89–96% of the field capacity of the soil. Water use efficiency is a major factor in profitable and sustainable dryland agriculture. Both soil management and selection and breeding of salt-tolerant plants should concentrate on ensuring that the threshold EC value for severe osmotic effects is not reached under field conditions.


Abstract The majority of aggressive prostate cancers overexpress the transmembrane protein prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). PSMA is, therefore, an attractive target for drug development. Over the last decade, numerous PSMA-targeted radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and therapy have been developed and investigated in theranostic combination. PSMA-targeted radiopharmaceuticals for imaging have been primarily developed for PET. PSMA PET provides whole-body evaluation of the degree of PSMA expression on tumors and potentially provides a method to better select patients for PSMA-targeted therapy. Numerous PSMA-targeted therapeutic agents using β- or α-particle emitters are under study in clinical trials. In particular, the β-particle–emitting radioisotope 177Lu bound to PSMA-targeted small molecules have ongoing and completed late-stage clinical trials in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. To define the most appropriate patient group for PSMA-targeted therapeutics, multiple studies have investigated PSMA and FDG PET/CT to establish PET parameters as predictive and prognostic biomarkers. This article discusses recent clinical trials that examine the optimal use of PET for the selection of patients for PSMA-targeted therapeutics and provides an integrative overview of choice of PET tracer(s), targeting molecule, therapeutic radioisotope, nonradioactive therapy, and cancer type (prostate or nonprostate).


Wind turbines are complex, nonlinear, dynamic systems forced by aerodynamic, gravitational, centrifugal, and gyroscopic loads. The aerodynamics of wind turbines is nonlinear, unsteady, and complex. Turbine rotors are subjected to a complicated three-dimensional (3-D) turbulent wind inflow field with imbedded coherent vortices that drive fatigue loads and reduce lifetime. Design of control algorithms for wind turbines must account for multiple control objectives. Future large multi-megawatt turbines must be designed with lighter weight structures, using active controls to mitigate fatigue loads, maximize energy capture, and add active damping to maintain stability for these dynamically active structures operating in a complex environment. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are designing, implementing, and testing advanced controls to maximize energy extraction and reduce structural dynamic loads. These control designs are based on a linear model of the turbine that is generated by specialized modeling software. This paper describes testing of a control algorithm to mitigate blade, tower, and drivetrain loads using advanced state-space control methods. The controller uses independent blade pitch to regulate the turbine's speed in Region 3, mitigate the effects of shear across the rotor disk, and add active damping to the tower's first fore-aft bending mode. Additionally, a separate generator torque control loop is designed to add active damping to the tower's first side-side mode and the first drivetraintorsion mode. This paper discusses preliminary implementation and field tests of this controller in the Controls Advanced Research Turbine at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Also included are preliminary comparisons of the performance of this controller to results from a typical baseline Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller designed with just Region 3 speed regulation as the goal.


The effects of cysteamine and stress-induced duodenal ulcer on the functional and structural properties of the rat jejunum were investigated. The absorptive capacity of the jejunum was determined using alanine as the permeant solute and the single-pass perfusion technique. A statistically significant decrease (p < 0.01) in alanine absorption was observed after 8 h and 3 days of duodenal ulcer induction by stress and cysteamine respectively. However, alanine transport measured 7 days after cysteamine or stress ulcer induction showed no significant change from control values. Cysteamine and stress-induced duodenal ulcer did not show any significant change in water absorption across the jejunum when measured after 8 h, 3 and 7 days of ulcer induction. Microscopically, the jejunum of rats with 3-day cysteamine-induced ulcer exhibited diffuse type of apical derangements with excessive swelling of the villi and progressive degenerative changes. No such changes were noticed on the 7th day nor in the jejunum of the rats with stress-induced duodenal ulcer. The results suggest that cysteamine-induced duodenal ulcer produces an inhibition in the absorptive capacity of the jejunum which is time-dependent and reversible.


We begin the new year of Weather with a fascinating examination of oceanic salinity and its measurement from space in 'Salinity from space' by M Srokosz and C Banks. Most important in the process of oceanic circulation and analogous to humidity in the atmosphere, creating water masses with particular characteristics, is its salt content. The proportion and absolute amount of salt is variable, but until recently it has not been possible to sense this variation in near‐real time, the most readily available data being the system of Argo floats. This paper shows the value of the recently launched European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellites, which measure the salinity of all the world's oceans, every three days.


The central goal of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is demonstration of controlled thermonuclear ignition. The mainline ignition target is a low-Z, single-shell cryogenic capsule designed to have weakly nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor growth of surface perturbations. Doubleshell targets are an alternative design concept that avoids the complexity of cryogenic preparation but has greater physics uncertainties associated with performance-degrading mix. A typical double-shell design involves a high-Z inner capsule filled with DT gas and supported within a low-Z ablator shell. The largest source of uncertainty for this target is the degree of highly evolved nonlinear mix on the inner surface of the high-Z shell. High Atwood numbers and feed-through of strong outer surface perturbation growth to the inner surface promote high levels of instability. The main challenge of the double-shell target designs is controlling the resulting nonlinear mix to levels that allow ignition to occur. Design and analysis of a suite of indirect-drive NIF double-shell targets with hohlraum temperatures of 200 eV and 250 eV are presented. Analysis of these targets includes assessment of two-dimensional radiation asymmetry as well as nonlinear mix. Twodimensional integrated hohlraum simulations indicate that the x-ray illumination can be adjusted to provide adequate symmetry control in hohlraums specially designed to have high laser-coupling efficiency [Suter et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 2092 (2000)l. These simulations also reveal the need to diagnose and control localized 10-15 keV x-ray emission from the high-Z hohlraum wall because of strong absorption by the high-Z inner shell. Preliminary estimates of the degree of laser backscatter from an assortment of laser-plasma interactions suggest comparatively benign hohlraum conditions. Application of a variety of nonlinear mix models and phenomenological tools, including buoyancy-drag models, multimode simulations and fallline optimization, indicates a possibility of achieving ignition, i.e., fusion yields greater than 1 MJ. Planned experiments on the Omega laser to test current understanding of high-energy radiation flux asymmetry and mix-induced yield degradation in double-shell targets are described.


Abstract. Mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) can have a net warming or cooling radiative effect on climate influenced by the phase and concentration of cloud particles. They have received considerable attention due to high spatial coverage and occurrence frequency in the Arctic. To initiate ice formation in MPCs at temperatures above −38 °C, ice nucleating particles (INPs) are required, which therefore have important implications on the radiative properties of MPCs by altering the ice to liquid ratio of hydrometeors. As a result, constraining ambient INP concentrations could promote accurate representation of cloud microphysical processes and reduce the uncertainties in estimating the cloud-phase-related climate feedback in climate models. Currently, INP parameterizations are lacking for remote Arctic environments. Here we present INP number concentrations and their variability measured in Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) at temperatures between 0 and −30 °C. No distinguishable seasonal difference was observed from 12 weeks of field measurements in autumn 2019 and spring 2020. In addition, correlating INP concentrations to aerosol physical properties was not feasible. Therefore, we propose a lognormal-distribution-based parameterization to predict Arctic INP concentration solely as a function of temperature. In practice, the parameterized variables allow for a) the prediction of the most likely INP concentrations and; b) the retrieval of the governing distribution of INP concentrations at given temperatures in the Arctic.


Given the ever-increasing commercial planting of transgenic plants across the world, an evaluation of their impacts on non-target organisms is as an important part of the risk assessment process. Propylea japonica is a dominant non-target predator and pollen feeder insect that is prevalent in Bt cotton fields, and it is thus in direct contact with Bt proteins. However, the effect of Bt proteins on P. japonica has not received much attention. In this study, the effects of Cry1Ac and/or Cry2Ab proteins on P. japonica were investigated from three aspects. First, no significant differences in the diversity of the microbiota nor change in species composition and community structure were observed among Cry protein treatments. Firmicutes are the most abundant bacterial phylum present in P. japonica, followed by Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The most abundant genus was Staphylococcus. Second, the expression levels of the detoxification and digestion-related genes did not change significantly in any Cry protein treatment. Third, none of the Cry proteins affected the population fitness of P. japonica. These results indicated that P. japonica was not sensitive to Bt proteins, suggesting that growing Bt cotton expressing Cry1Ac and/or Cry2Ab will pose negligible risks to P. japonica.


P.M.S. Hacker, recounting some of Wittgenstein's views, says (Hacker 1996, pl34):
 [T]he pervasive conception of behaviour that has informed philosophical psychology for the last three centuries has misrepresented human behaviour as 'bare bodily movement', from which it is supposed we infer, by analogy or inference to best explanation, the inner state and so on from which the behaviour might be thought to arise ... But we see the pain in a person's face hear the glee in his chortles, perceive the affection in the looks and gestures of lovers.
 In this paper I explain how this can be, before meeting several objections.


Spinal epidural abscess accompanies blood-borne infection, vertebral osteomyelitis, or an overlying cutaneous source of infection. This report documents the development of non-infective epidural abscess where the inflammatory response was induced by the highly irritant contents (keratin and cholesterol) of an underlying epidermoid. This was associated with aseptic meningitis.


The Cell-dyn 3500 is a multiparameter flow cytometer, which may analyze samples from several species performing several simultaneous analyses. It is able to perform white blood cells, red blood cells and platelet counts, besides differential leukocyte counts, packed cell volume and hemoglobin determination. Cell-Dyn 3500 performs total leukocyte count both optically and by impedance. The equipment may choose one or other method, based on the reliability of the results. Erythrocyte and platelet counts are determined by impedance. Leukocyte differentiation is based on an optical principle, using separation in multiangular polarized light. The objective of this study was to compare the results of complete blood count of Zebu Nellore heifers from Celldyn 3500, with those obtained from a semi-automated cell counter (Celm CC 510) and the manual technique. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein in 5 mL EDTA vacuum tubes from 58 Nellore heifers, at 24 months of age. Samples were processed in parallel in the three different techniques. Results were analyzed using paired t test, Pearson's correlation and the Bland-Altmann method. There was a strong correlation for all parameters analyzed by Cell-Dyn 3500, manual method and semiautomated cell counter, except for basophils and monocytes counts. These results confirm that this analyzer is reliable for blood samples analysis of zebu cattle.


Summary. This article proposes a simple method to determine single or multiple temporal clustering on a variable size population. By a transformation of the data set, the method based on a regression model allows consideration of a variable population size during the time of study. A model selection procedure and a resampling method are used to select the number of clusters. The results have applications in epidemiological studies of rare diseases.


In solid tumors, CAR T cell efficacy is limited by off-tumor toxicity and suppression by the tumor microenvironment (TME). AB-X is an integrated circuit T cell (ICT cell) intended for the treatment of ovarian cancer. AB-X includes a transgene cassette with two functional modules: 1) an "AND" logic gate designed to limit off-tumor toxicity through dual tumor antigen recognition; 2) a dual shRNA-miR to resist TME suppression and improve ICT cell function. The AB-X logic gate consists of a priming receptor that induces expression of an anti-mesothelin (MSLN) CAR upon engagement of a ALPG/P (alkaline phosphatase germ-line/placental). The dual shRNA-miR mediates downregulation of FAS and PTPN2. The AB-X DNA cassette is inserted into the T cell genome at a defined novel genomic site via CRISPR-based gene editing.Dual-antigen specificity of the logic gate was assessed in mice harboring MSLN+ and ALPG/P+MSLN+ K562 tumors established on contralateral flanks. Potency was measured in a subcutaneous MSTO xenograft model. Logic-gated ICT cells were compared with MSLN CAR T cells in both models. In vitro, expansion of ICT cells with the FAS/PTPN2 shRNA-miR was evaluated in a 14 day repetitive stimulation assay (RSA). In vivo, expansion and potency were measured in the MSTO xenograft model. An in vitro FAS cross-linking assay was conducted to assess the impact of FAS knockdown on FAS-mediated apoptosis.Logic-gated ICT cells demonstrated specific activity against ALPG/P+MSLN+ tumors, but had no effect against MSLN+ tumors in the K562 in vivo specificity model. In addition, logic-gated ICT cells demonstrated greater in vivo potency than MSLN CAR T cells in the MSTO xenograft model. In our RSA, ICT cells containing the FAS/PTPN2 shRNA-miR had 8-fold greater expansion than the MSLN CAR T cells. Enhanced expansion was confirmed in vivo with ICT cells demonstrating >10-fold expansion in tumors and peripheral blood, enabling comparable growth inhibition in MSTO xenografts at less than one quarter the dose of the MSLN CAR T cells. Importantly, PTPN2 knockdown resulted in balanced expansion of all T cell subsets, including CD45RA+, CCR7+ memory cells. Lastly, ICT cells containing the FAS/PTPN2 shRNA-miR were resistant to FAS-mediated apoptosis.AB-X ICT cells specifically recognize ALPG/P+MSLN+ tumors, demonstrate superior potency, expansion, and persistence compared with MSLN CAR T cells, and are resistant to ovarian TME suppression. AB-X will be evaluated in clinical trials for treatment of platinum resistant/refractory ovarian cancer.We would like to acknowledge all of our colleagues at Arsenal Biosciences, without whom this work would not have been possible.


Given an optimization problem, the Hessian matrix and its eigenspectrum can be used in many ways, ranging from designing more efficient second-order algorithms to performing model analysis and regression diagnostics. When nonlinear models and non-convex problems are considered, strong simplifying assumptions are often made to make Hessian spectral analysis more tractable. This leads to the question of how relevant the conclusions of such analyses are for more realistic nonlinear models. In this paper, we exploit deterministic equivalent techniques from random matrix theory to make a \emph{precise} characterization of the Hessian eigenspectra for a broad family of nonlinear models, including models that generalize the classical generalized linear models, without relying on strong simplifying assumptions used previously. We show that, depending on the data properties, the nonlinear response model, and the loss function, the Hessian can have \emph{qualitatively} different spectral behaviors: of bounded or unbounded support, with single- or multi-bulk, and with isolated eigenvalues on the left- or right-hand side of the bulk. By focusing on such a simple but nontrivial nonlinear model, our analysis takes a step forward to unveil the theoretical origin of many visually striking features observed in more complex machine learning models.


OBJECTIVES
Nil-by-mouth with enteral tube feeding is widely practised for several days after resection and reconstruction of oesophageal cancer. This study investigates early changes in postoperative gastric emptying and the feasibility of early oral feeding after thoracolaparoscopic oesophagectomy for patients with oesophageal cancer.

METHODS
Between January 2013 and August 2013, gastric emptying of liquid food and the feasibility of early oral feeding after thoracolaparoscopic oesophagectomy was investigated in 68 patients. Sixty-five patients previously managed in the same unit who routinely took liquid food 7 days after thoracolaparoscopic oesophagectomy served as controls.

RESULTS
The mean preoperative half gastric emptying time (GET1/2) was 66.4 ± 38.4 min for all 68 patients, and the mean GET1/2 at postoperative day (POD) 1 and POD 7 was statistically significantly shorter than preoperative GET1/2 (23.9 ± 15.7 min and 24.1 ± 7.9 min, respectively, both P-values <0.001). Of the 68 patients who were enrolled to analyse the feasibility of early oral feeding, 2 (3.0%) patients could not take food as early as planned. The rate of total complication was 20.6% (14/68) and 29.2% (19/65) in the early oral feeding group and the late oral feeding group, respectively (P = 0.249). Compared with the late oral feeding group, time to first flatus and bowel movement was significantly shorter in the early oral feeding group.

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with preoperative gastric emptying, early postoperative gastric emptying for liquid food after oesophagectomy is significantly faster. Postoperative early oral feeding in patients with thoracolaparoscopic oesophagectomy is feasible and safe.


The study was accomplished for the evaluation of the efficiency of the processing station of excretion in Al – Qayyarah refinery, which is located in the area of Al – Qayyarah town toward the south east direction of Mosul city / Iraq. For this purpose, monthly samples were collected for five دمحم لساب ةنما و ركاشلا ديجم ىرسي 9 months from November 2013 to February 2014. Physical, chemical and biological tests were carried out on the samples including Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solid, Turbidity, Hardness, pH, Sulphate, Sodium and Potassium ions, Heavy metals, Oil,Chemical Oxygen Demandand the Total number of bacteria. The results of this study showed that there was clear variations in the values of those variables before and after treatment,such that values of the acidic function before treatment ranged between (7-8.1) compared with the value after treatment which ranged between (6.9-8.2).the values of Electrical Conductivity was (460-720)μmhos/cm before treatment while the values after treatment was(350-630)μmhos/cm the rate of total hardness before treatment was (233.8) mg/L compared with its rate after treatment (238.6) mg/L the nitrates ranged between(0.403-1.341)mg/L before treatment and (0.470-1.423) mg/L after treatment and for sulphate the values ranged between (56.16-67.416) mg/L before treatment compared with values after treatment which was (55.33-69.83) mg/L, the values of concentration for the heavy metals(Pb, Co, Cd, Cu) before treatment was (1.536-1.627), (0.05793-0.06644), (0.04794-0.04821), (0.53780.5733) mg/L and thevalues after treatment was (1.324-1.410), (0.06899-0.07814), (0.048450.06227), (0.5623-0.5825) mg/L and the total number of bacteria was between (100-1100) cell/ ml before treatment comparedwithresults after treatment (300-3000) cell/ml. The results show that the stations pollutants removal was not efficient.


Clinical application of exenatide, a peptide drug widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, is greatly limited due to its short plasma half-life of 2.4 hours. To prolong the half-life of exenatide, a water in oil in oil (W/O/O) method was employed to prepare exenatide-loaded PLGA microspheres with a satisfactory particle size of 75.22 μm and a span value of 1.13. Optimized exenatide-loaded microspheres were endowed with high entrapment efficiency (83.8 ± 1.3%) and low initial burst release (1.31 ± 0.13%). Degradation pattern of the peptide-loaded microspheres was investigated by monitoring the changes in molecular weight, appearance, and release profile. Histological study proved the safety of the microspheres. In the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics study, the long acting formulation had relative bioavailability of 70.31% and it achieved a hypoglycemic activity for up to 3 weeks in diabetic mice. A single subcutaneous injection of exenatide-loaded microspheres exhibited a comparable effect on controlling blood glucose to exenatide solution, which was injected twice per day at the same dose of exenatide. In conclusion, the exenatide-loaded microspheres might be a promising long acting formulation for glycemic control with low initial burst release and reduced risk of gastrointestinal intolerance and hypoglycemia.


This report describes two cases of acute zolpidem overdose. The decedent in the first case was a 36-year-old female found dead in bed in her secured home. She had a history of psychiatric illness, including paranoid disorder, depression with panic episodes, and post-traumatic stress disorder. She was treated with risperidone and sertraline. Nine months prior to her death, the decedent was also prescribed zolpidem (Ambien). The postmortem examination revealed white foam within the larynx and upper trachea, which is indicative of pulmonary edema. Toxicological analyses of the urine showed the presence of caffeine, risperidone, and zolpidem. Subsequent quantitation of postmortem iliac serum revealed 5.6 microg/L of 9-hydroxyrisperidone and the following zolpidem concentrations: blood (subclavian), 4.5 mg/L; blood (iliac), 7.7 mg/L; vitreous humor, 1.6 mg/L; bile, 8.9 mg/L; urine, 1.2 mg/L; liver, 22.6 mg/kg; and gastric contents, 42 mg. The second case involved a 58-year old female, also found dead in bed, with white foam around her mouth. The decedent had a 25-year history of hypertension and mental illness--manic depression and schizophrenia. She was medicated with carbamazepine, naproxen, risperidone, and zolpidem. The postmortem examination revealed cardiomegaly, pulmonary edema, hepatomegaly, mild coronary atherosclerosis, and no signs of trauma. Toxicological analyses of the urine showed the presence of zolpidem and carbamazepine and metabolite. Zolpidem concentrations were as follows: blood (iliac), 1.6 mg/L; vitreous humor, 0.52 mg/L; bile, 2.6 mg/L; liver, 12 mg/kg; and gastric contents, 0.9 mg. The zolpidem blood concentrations of these cases are consistent with those of the previously published fatalities. The blood/vitreous humor ratios of zolpidem were 2.81 (subclavian) and 4.81 (iliac) in the first case and 3.08 (iliac) in the second case. These ratios, along with the sampling times of blood and vitreous humor for both cases, are not conclusive to indicate a definitive presence or absence of postmortem drug redistribution of zolpidem. The cause of death for both cases was determined to be acute zolpidem overdose, and manner of death was suicide.


Introduction: Angiogenesis plays a significant role in tumor progression. This study examined the association between the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), intratumoral microvessel density (MVD) (both of which may be markers for neovascularization), and lung cancer histological types, particularly adenocarcinoma histological subtypes. Methods: A total of 83 stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients underwent complete tumor resection between November 2009 and July 2010. The number of EPCs from the pulmonary artery of the resected lungs was measured by assaying CD34+/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 positive cells, and the MVD was assessed immunohistochemically in tumor specimens by staining for CD34. Results: A statistically significant correlation between the number of EPCs from pulmonary artery and intratumoral MVD was found (p < 0.001). No statistically significant differences in the number of EPCs and the MVD were observed between the adenocarcinomas and the squamous cell carcinomas. Among the adenocarcinoma histological subtypes, a higher number of EPCs and MVD were found significantly more frequently in solid adenocarcinomas than in nonsolid adenocarcinomas (p < 0.001 and p = 0.011, respectively). In addition, solid adenocarcinomas showed higher levels of vascular endothelial growth factor using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in the tumor tissue samples than in the nonsolid adenocarcinomas (p = 0.005). Conclusion: The higher number of circulating EPCs and the MVD of solid adenocarcinoma may indicate the presence of differences in the tumor angiogenic status between early-stage adenocarcinoma histological subtypes. Among adenocarcinoma patients, patients with solid adenocarcinoma may be the best candidates for antiangiogenic therapies.


: This is a FPGA based system and this system employs a fuzzy interface cascaded with a feed-forward neural network in order to obtain an optimum decision regarding the future pathology physiological state of a patient. The neurons that are considered in the proposed network are devoid of self-connections instead of commonly used self-connected neurons. Applying the methodology, the chance of forecasting of critical diabetic condition of a patient can be predicted accurately, 30 days ahead of actually attaining the critical condition. The fuzzy interface discussed here performs fuzzification of patient data. The data from the patient such as height or weight data cannot always be trusted as they are subjected to the quality and accuracy of measuring units and the skill of the technician. Moreover, based on a single data, it would be highly uncertain to make an accurate decision about the future physiological state of the patient. So the patient data have been fuzzified with the objective of transformation of periodic measures into likelihoods that the body mass index, blood glucose, urea, creatinine, systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the patient is high, low or moderate.


The mouse kidney presents marked sexual dimorphism, manifested not only in renal size but also in the subcellular structure and enzyme activity. Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of polyamines, is induced in the kidney by androgens, and its activity is higher in the kidney of male mice. The renal differences between male and female mice are not manifested during the first weeks of life and start to be expressed after weaning, simultaneously with the increase in plasma testosterone concentration. Treatment of newborn mice before postnatal day 21 with a single dose of testosterone propionate (TP, 200 μg/animal) did not increase renal ODC activity or renal size. From day 21 the same treatment elicited significant increases in renal ODC, especially in females where the basal activity of control animals was much lower than in males. The repeated injection of TP during the first 10 days of life (200 μg/animal, days 1, 4, 7 and 10) promoted an early increase in renal ODC activity but abolished the physiological rise observed in male mice at puberty and adulthood. This treatment dramatically reduced the secretion of the sexual hormones, testosterone, estradiol and progesterone, by the gonads, and diminished renal size as well as ODC and β-glucuronidase activities in male mice. Stanozolol produced effects similar to those of TP, while the nonsteroidal antiandrogen, flutamide, did not apparently affect the normal development of the male or female kidney. The results indicate that: (a) kidney sexual dimorphism is not congenital; (b) neonatal androgens are not required to induce the sexual dimorphism of the mouse kidney; (c) the neonatal kidney is unresponsive to testosterone; (d) the premature and repeated exposure to supraphysiological levels of testosterone may accelerate the ontogeny of renal ODC but can abolish later testosterone secretion and hence alter the sexual characteristics of the male kidney, and (e) the postnatal treatment with androgens does not affect the response of the adult kidney to exogenous androgens. One can conclude that the postnatal manipulation of androgens may accelerate the development of the mechanisms of androgen responsiveness in some tissues but it may alter neural structures, probably the GnRH pulse generator, that control testosterone secretion.


One of the most exciting recent results in the field of dark matter indirect searches has been the discovery of an excess emission in gamma rays from the Galactic centre above the standard astrophysical background. We show that current hydrodynamic simulations, namely simulated Milky Way-like galaxies within the "Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments" (EAGLE) project, challenge the possibility to interpret the GeV excess as due to annihilation of dark matter particles in the halo if the Milky Way.


27 May 2016 | Australian Doctor | 19 INSOMNIA is a distressing difficulty with sleep onset, sleep maintenance and/or early morning wakening, where the individual's sleep is insufficient for their needs. These symptoms arise despite adequate time in bed to achieve sleep. Chronic insomnia is defined as sleep difficulties being present for at least one month and occurring three or more times a week. Insomnia was previously defined as either primary (no other conditions deemed to be responsible for the poor sleep) or secondary (another disorder causally responsible for the poor sleep). In practice, determining cause and effect is very difficult. Bidirectional or interactive effects between insomnia and certain coexisting conditions, such as depression, are now widely accepted. The DSM-5 has now removed the primary and secondary causal attribution labels. 'Insomnia disorder' is now recognised as a condition requiring independent clinical attention, regardless of other medical problems that may be present. INSIDE www.australiandoctor.com.au PULL-OUT SECTION How to Treat


This paper presents an instant messaging system designed as LAN supported application with a suggested method to authenticate users. Our system provides simple, fast and secure authentication method. The suggested authenticated method combines two mechanisms: fixed password and digital signature to overcome the problems faced the use of these methods when used alone. The designed instant messaging system has some traditional features like those given by any instant messaging system. It uses TCP/IP protocol to communicate between hosts. All connections between server and clients are based on client/server networking model, while connections between clients is based on peer-to-peer networking model. The proposed system has been evaluated according to two aspects: user's login security and overall system performance, the evaluation shows quite encouraging results.


The optimization of load flow for assigned constrains (i.e. assigned active and reactive power for load buses, adequate levels of voltage and so on) in terms of minimization of the joule losses is one of the fundamental tasks that the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) architecture has to solve in a Smart Grid (SG) system. In the present paper a recent modern heuristic called MeTEO (Metric - Topological - Evolutionary Optimization) is applied to this task for an assigned power to be delivered to loads. This heuristic is suitable to solve this complicated problem, thanks to its good exploration and convergence capabilities. In addition, its performances can be further improved also by using a parallel programming. The presented MeTEO approach has been validated by minimizing joule losses of a small 14 Bus Power System and a larger 118 Bus Power System, both related to the IEEE Common Data Format, and by comparing the obtained results with those returned by the MATPOWER simulator.


We apply a new industrial strength numerical approximation, called the "mesh-free adjoint method", to solve the nonlinear filtering problem. This algorithm exploits the smoothness of the problem, unlike particle filters, and hence we expect that mesh-free adjoints are superior to particle filters for many practical applications. The nonlinear filter problem is equivalent to solving the Fokker-Planck equation in real time. The key idea is to use a good adaptive non-uniform quantization of state space to approximate the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation. In particular, the adjoint method computes the location of the nodes in state space to minimize errors in the final answer. This use of an adjoint is analogous to optimal control algorithms, but it is more interesting. The adjoint method is also analogous to importance sampling in particle filters, but it is better for four reasons: (1) it exploits the smoothness of the problem; (2) it explicitly minimizes the errors in the relevant functional; (3) it explicitly models the dynamics in state space; and (4) it can be used to compute a corrected value for the desired functional using the residuals. We will attempt to make this paper accessible to normal engineers who do not have PDEs for breakfast.


Measuring virus-specific antibody responses to emerging pathogens is a well-established and highly useful tool to diagnose such infections, understand interactions between the immune system and pathogens, and provide potential clues for the development of vaccines or therapeutic agents against such pathogens. Since the beginning of 2020, the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 as the emerging virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic has provided new insight into the complexity of antibody responses to this dangerous virus. The current review aims to sort out diverse and sometimes seemingly confusing findings to put together a cohesive understanding on the profile of antibody responses elicited in COVID-19 patients.