BACKGROUND
Low back pain accounts for a significant proportion of a GP's workload, but care of the condition is widely regarded as unsatisfactory. Recent recommendations to improve primary care management include more appropriate explanatory models and early access to physical therapy.

OBJECTIVES
This study explored the feasibility and utility of patient diaries as a source of qualitative data on patients' experience of low back pain presenting in primary care.

METHOD
Within a larger study of physiotherapist-led management of low back pain presenting in general practice, a random sample of patients was invited to keep a record of their illness experience over 7 days using a diary. Patients' written accounts were then subject to qualitative thematic analysis.

RESULTS
Diary respondents did not differ from the wider group of patients presenting with back pain. Patients recounted diverse experience of disability, pain and emotional reactions. The specific themes which emerged from our analysis support the relevance to patients of a biopsychosocial paradigm in the management of low back pain.

CONCLUSIONS
Diaries are a feasible and valid source of qualitative data in patients with new episodes of low back pain. In addition, they may provide the clinician with useful information and their completion may offer direct benefits to patients.


Admixture of the chelate ligand bmnpa (N,N-bis(2-methylthio)ethyl-N-((6-neopentylamino-2-pyridyl)methyl)amine) with an equimolar amount of Hg(ClO4)2·3H2 Oi n CH 3OH/CH2Cl2, followed by recrystallization from CH3CN/Et2O, yielded the Hg(II) perchlorate complex ((bmnpa)Hg(ClO4)2 )( 1). Addition of an equimolar amount of Me4NOH·5H2 Ot o aC H 3CN solution of 1, followed by recrystallization from CH3OH/Et2O, yielded the dinuclear Hg2 2+ complex ((bmnpaHg)2)(ClO4)2 (4). X-ray crystallographic characterization of 1·0.5CH3CN revealed a mononuclear structure having a primary coordination number of two with a distorted linear geometry, and four secondary bonds for an effective coordination number of six. The 1 H NMR spectrum of 1 in CD3CN shows distinctive 3 J199Hg−1H coupling in the benzylic -CH2 - and thioether −SCH3 resonances. Complex 4·CH3OH exhibits a structure in the solid state wherein each mercury center of the Hg2 2+ ion displays thioether coordination and a distorted tetrahedral geometry. Complex 4 is the first dimercurous complex for which J199Hg−1H coupling involving a -SCH3 appendage is reported.


Ultracold atom magnetic field microscopy enables the probing of current flow patterns in planar structures with unprecedented sensitivity. In polycrystalline metal (gold) films, we observed long-range correlations forming organized patterns oriented at ±45° relative to the mean current flow, even at room temperature and at length scales larger than the diffusion length or the grain size by several orders of magnitude. The preference to form patterns at these angles is a direct consequence of universal scattering properties at defects. The observed amplitude of the current direction fluctuations scales inversely to that expected from the relative thickness variations, the grain size, and the defect concentration, all determined independently by standard methods. Ultracold atom magnetometry thus enables new insight into the interplay between disorder and transport.


The slow light sensor techniques have been applied to bio-related detection in the past decades. However, similar testing-systems are too large to carry to a remote area for diagnosis or point-of-care testing. This study demonstrated a fully automatic portable biosensing system based on the microring resonator. An optical-fiber array mounted on a controller based micro-positioning system, which can be interfaced with MATLAB to locate a tentative position for light source and waveguide coupling alignment. Chip adapter and microfluidic channel could be packaged as a product such that it is cheap to be manufactured and can be disposed of after every test conducted. Thus, the platform can be more easily operated via an ordinary user without expertise in photonics. It is designed based on conventional optical communication wavelength range. The C-band superluminescent-light-emitting-diode light source couples in/out the microring sensor to obtain quasi-TE mode by grating coupler techniques. For keeping a stable chemical binding reaction, the cost-effective microfluidic pump was developed to offer a specific flow rate of 20 μL/min by using a servo-motor, an Arduino board, and a motor driver. The subwavelength grating metamaterial ring resonator shows highly sensitive sensing performance via surface index changes due to biomarker adhered on the sensor. The real-time peak-shift monitoring shows 10 μg/mL streptavidin detection of limit based on the biotin-streptavidin binding reaction. Through the different specific receptors immobilized on the sensor surface, the system can be utilized on the open applications such as heavy metal detection, gas sensing, virus examination, and cancer marker diagnosis.


Smart home system using wireless sensor network technology enrich human life and helps to take care of the very old people easier who lives alone. The advances in the field of Wireless sensor network became very interesting & challenging area of Networks. It describes the design of a wireless sensor network based on ZigBee technology. It is mainly used for Monitoring & collecting Information from various sensors connected to various Home appliances. Same information can be processed through Microcontroller & then displayed in order to control various appliances depending on need. For communication we use algorithms which improves the Speed and efficiency of the system. Based on ZIGBEE technology a wireless remote and smart home security system has developed. A wireless remote system for smart home application is developed to analysis and detects the status of home equipment based on ZIGBEE technology. It consists of host control system and several sub function module and software. The host control system has a controller, ZIGBEE module and PIR sensor. The several sub function modules consists of the data acquisition module, centralized switch and ZIGBEE module.


Abstract This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme's ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.


Purpose

Shop floor control systems are generally major points of discussion in production planning and control literature. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how lean production control principles can be used in a make-to-order (MTO) job shop, where the volume is typically low and there is high variety. This paper examines the procedures involved in implementing a constant work-in-process (CONWIP)/Kanban hybrid system in the shop floor environment and also provides insights and guidelines on the implementation of a hybrid system in a high-variety/low-volume environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review literature on Kanban, CONWIP, and CONWIP/Kanban hybrid systems to analyze how lean production control principles can be used in a MTO job shop. The second part focuses on the process of implementation. Using a case study of a manufacturer of electromechanical components for valve monitoring and controls, the paper describes how the operation is transformed by for more efficient shop floor control systems. Real experiments are used to compare pre- and post-improvement performance.

Findings

The study shows that the proposed hybrid Kanban-CONWIP system reduced the cycle time and achieved an increase of 38 percent in inventory turnover. The empirical results from this pilot study provide useful managerial insights for a benchmarking analysis of the actions to be taken into consideration by companies that have similar manufacturing systems.

Research limitations/implications

The statistic generalization of the results is impossible due to the use of a single case method of study.

Originality/value

This paper provides insights and guidelines on the implementation of a hybrid system in a high-variety/low-volume environment. The literature on real applications of hybrid CONWIP/Kanban by case study is limited.


The long-range magnetic structure in Co/Pt multilayers magnetically patterned by ion irradiation is observed by off-specular polarized neutron reflectivity. While both specular and off-specular measurements indicate the formation of an artificial domain structure when the sample is in its remanent state, resonant peaks seen in the diffuse scatter reveal long-range magnetic ordering with periodicity in agreement with the design value. These peaks are completely suppressed when the sample is saturated in plane, confirming their origin in the magnetic patterning of the multilayer.


Abstract Despite being institutions of major social importance throughout the Roman world, taverns remain poorly understood archaeologically. The identification of one such possible tavern at the Iron Age and Roman site of Lattara in Mediterranean France is hence a discovery of special significance. Not only is the tavern the earliest of its kind in the region, it also serves as an invaluable indicator of the changing social and economic infrastructure of the settlement and its inhabitants following the Roman conquest of Mediterranean Gaul in the late second century BC.


This paper assesses the predictive power of systemic risk measures (SRM) for bank defaults by applying a two-staged probit model. Initially, bank defaults are predicted using only idiosyncratic variables. The model is then amended with SRM, which should improve the forecasting accuracy under the hypothesis that bank failure can be either idiosyncratically or systemically induced. Surprisingly, this is not the case. Only one of the three tested SRM benefits the model in statistically significant terms. In investigating the reasons for this finding, a plurality of robustness checks is conducted, controlling for the bank size and the time of the default. It was found that bank size is a strong determinant of how banks allocate their risk budget to credit and market risk. Evidence is generated challenging the adequacy of the tested SRM as they appear to be overly sensitive to market risk. In line with this, their underwhelming performance can be explained by credit risk being the more prevalent risk type. Thus, this paper raises the question whether the current SRM are generic measures of systemic risk.


Summary Sixty-eight psychiatric in-patients who had completed the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory (D.S.S.I.) on admission were retested after one month. On first testing 92.6 per cent conformed to the hierarchy of classes of personal illness model, and on the second occasion 91.2 per cent. Of those who could improve, 72 per cent did so, most commonly by moving down one hierarchy class, e.g. from the Neurotic Symptoms class to the Dysthymic States class. (On the other hand only 30 per cent of the 61 patients who originally reported symptoms did not do so after one month.) Thus although it is clear that the patients as a group changed markedly, they have not departed from the hierarchy. These results indicate that either the symptoms further up the hierarchy remit before those lower in the hierarchy or they remit together. Certainly those lower in the hierarchy do not go first. It is suggested that the results would be difficult to accommodate within strict disease-entity models, and that they have different implications for both treatment and the assessment of change in current state.


Legumes play an important role as food and forage crops in international agriculture especially in developing countries. Legumes have a unique biological process called nitrogen fixation (NF) by which they convert atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia. Although legume genomes have undergone polyploidization, duplication and divergence, NF-related genes, because of their essential functional role for legumes, might have remained conserved. To understand the relationship of divergence and evolutionary processes in legumes, this study analyzes orthologs and paralogs for selected 20 NF-related genes by using comparative genomic approaches in six legumes i.e., Medicago truncatula (Mt), Cicer arietinum, Lotus japonicus, Cajanus cajan (Cc), Phaseolus vulgaris (Pv), and Glycine max (Gm). Subsequently, sequence distances, numbers of synonymous substitutions per synonymous site (Ks) and non-synonymous substitutions per non-synonymous site (Ka) between orthologs and paralogs were calculated and compared across legumes. These analyses suggest the closest relationship between Gm and Cc and the highest distance between Mt and Pv in six legumes. Ks proportional plots clearly showed ancient genome duplication in all legumes, whole genome duplication event in Gm and also speciation pattern in different legumes. This study also reports some interesting observations e.g., no peak at Ks 0.4 in Gm-Gm, location of two independent genes next to each other in Mt and low Ks values for outparalogs for three genes as compared to other 12 genes. In summary, this study underlines the importance of NF-related genes and provides important insights in genome organization and evolutionary aspects of six legume species analyzed.


Background: Pollutants from industrial and commercial usage of chemicals all over the world that usually lead to release of myriads of toxic pollutants such as lead call for concern. Aim and Objective: The effects of lead nitrate on the production of antioxidants such as Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in Clarias gariepinus and how such effects can be ameliorated through administration of vitamins were investigated. Materials and Methods: C. gariepinus fingerlings (whose initial weight ranged from 3 to 11 g) were exposed to sublethal concentrations of Pb (00, 26 mg/L, 44 mg/L, 61 mg/L, and 79 mg/L) with replicate in each case. 26 mg/L of the vitamins was administered across all bud. Fresh concentrations of both toxicant and vitamins were administered every 72 h for a period of 12 weeks every time the water medium was changed. The various treatments group include Pb (Pb only), PbVA (Pb + vitamin A), PbVC ((Pb + vitamin C), and PbVE (Pb + vitamin E) with T1-T4 and replicates in each case. Three samples of the fish were randomly selected and sacrificed from each aquarium tank every 2 weeks of the exposure period. The gills, kidneys, and liver were excised from these specimens and homogenized in sodium phosphate buffer. These were then assayed for ALT production levels in each case. The data generated were subjected to one-way analysis of variance and considered significant at P ≤ 0.05. Results: In samples exposed to Pb only group, the ALT production levels indicated that the highest ALT produced in the liver, kidney, and gills was 87.20 ± 0.15 nM/mg, 65.76 ± 0.20 nM/mg, and 69.92 ± 0.05 nM/mg, respectively. Samples exposed to PbVA indicated that the highest ALT produced in the liver, kidney, and gills was 77.12 ± 0.20 nM/mg, 84.75 ± 0.10 nM/mg, and 70.43 ± 0.24 nM/mg, respectively. Conclusions and Recommendation: In samples exposed to PbVC, the highest ALT produced in the liver, kidney, and gills was 86.53 ± 0.05 nM/mg, 63.48 ± 0.15 nM/mg, and 66.53 ± 0.15 nM/mg, respectively. In samples exposed to PbVE, the highest ALT produced in the liver, kidney, and gills was 73.82 ± 0.15 nM/mg, 78.05 ± 0.15 nM/mg, and 73.31 ± 0.05 nM/mg, respectively. The samples of the fish exposed to sublethal concentrations of the toxicant in the various treatments displayed varying levels of production of the enzyme with higher production levels mostly at higher concentrations of the toxicant. In the Pb only and PbVC groups, the liver of the samples produced the highest ALT, while the kidneys did same in the PbVA and PbVE groups. The high levels of production of the enzyme, especially in higher concentrations suggest physiological imbalances due to the presence of the toxicant.


In order to drive AC motors with high efficiency and high motion performance, and to provide accurate speed/position control, motor shaft speed and/or position feedback is required. For this purpose, usually transducers (encoder, tachogenerator, resolver, etc.) are installed on the shaft. However, transducers are not preferred in most of the applications since they increase the cost and decrease the reliability of the drive due to their failure prone structure and connections. In such applications, the speed and/or position information of the motor is obtained by estimation methods without using shaft transducers. In this work, motor types and speed/position estimation methods will be surveyed, appropriate estimation methods will be determined based on the motor type (induction or interior permanent magnet synchronous) and the application requirement (speed and/or position control requirement). High frequency signal injection, speed adaptive flux observer, open loop integration based flux observer methods, and combination of them in a hybrid algorithm will be investigated. By implementing these methods, the experimental performance of the shaft transducerless speed and/or position controlled vector control based induction and interior permanent magnet synchronous motors will be presented. The study helps the motion control engineers select the suitable motor and implement the appropriate speed/position estimation algorithm for a given application.


Thin melanoma is the most common form of melanoma in the United States. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has guidelines for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) which recommend "discuss and consider" SLNB for invasion >0.75 mm and "discuss and offer" SLNB for invasion >0.75 mm with suspicious features. This study looked at compliance with NCCN guidelines and factors that are predictive of a positive SLNB. This is a retrospective study of patients diagnosed with thin melanoma 2012–2013 using the National Cancer Database. A total of 26,456 patients met study qualifications. Univariate analysis showed that 76 per cent of patients meeting criteria underwent SLNB. Patients recommended to "discuss and consider" received SLNB 53 per cent of the time and those not recommended for SLNB received SLNB 20 per cent of the time. On multivariate analysis, depth was not predictive for positive SLNB whereas mitoses and ulceration were. Other factors predictive of positive SLNB were nodular cell type, lymphovascular invasion, and Clark's level greater than or equal to IV. Patients with thin melanoma that meet NCCN guidelines for SLNB undergo this procedure in good compliance but those who do not meet criteria continue to receive SLNB. Positive predictive factors for positive SLNB include mitoses, ulceration, Clark's level, and primary site.


The objective of this work is to solve within a standard finite element software, the direct-retrograde coupled time hyperbolic problems that arise when dealing with the identification of material parameters in dynamic in presence of corrupted measurements by means of the adjoint state approach. This ques- tion has given rise among others to Riccati methods and shooting methods. Those methods have several drawbacks, namely their numerical complexity and the fact that their implementation in a commercial software would require to entirely re-design the implementation, which is nearly impossible. Therefore we are seeking an iterative method which could be easily implemented. The proposed method solves alternatively a direct problem and a retrograde one. In order to ensure its convergence a relaxation scheme is applied and optimized. Comparisons between the proposed approach and Riccati and shooting methods in terms of complexity, numerical cost and robustness are given in the case of an elastic bar.


Recently the effect of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on human development index (HDI) is a new subject which has been considered in economics. Most of the economists believe that not paying enough attention to IPR would prevent the economical growth and development. On the other hand, different nations will have developed human resources when in addition to institutions and certain rules, the people of the society invent new things and the development in ICT can be the reason. The main purpose of this article is to study the effects of IPR and ICT on HDI in developing countries during 2005-2010. In this study we use panel data and the indicators from United Nations Human Development Report (UNDP) and World Bank.


Low-density polyethylene-g-poly(acrylic acid) membranes were prepared by the direct radiation grafting of aqueous acrylic acid solutions (containing Mohr's salt) onto low-density polyethylene films and were irradiated at two different irradiation doses (2 and 3 Mrad) at a dose rate of 0.02 Mrad/h. Two series of polyethylene-g-poly(acrylic acid) membranes with 100 and 150% grafting were obtained. The free carboxylic acid groups in the grafted films were converted into the corresponding acrylates by reactions with different metal salts. The swelling (water uptake) and dialysis permeability of glucose and urea through the grafted membranes in different metal-ion forms were investigated. The prepared membranes showed good permeability to both solutes, which increased as the hydrophilicity of the membrane increased. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 10–14, 2004


tion was observed in HCVg3. The association was also not observed in 259 patients with HCV subtype 1a. HCVg3 infections are more difficult to treat with direct-acting antivirals. The reason for this is unknown, but could be explained by a distinct pattern of RAVs and an increase in the prevalence of "favorable" IFNL4 SNPs in this genotype. Here, we used a large cohort of 496 HCVg3a-infected patients (from the BOSON clinical study) and report no significant association (P> 0.05) between the treatmentbeneficial C/C genotype of INFL4 and RAV site Y93H in the NS5A gene. Using next-generation sequencing, baseline viral sequences from 556 BOSON patients chronically infected with either HCVg2 or HCVg3 were obtained. The INFL4 SNP rs12979860 was also genotyped. The cohort (total of 556) was composed of 49 (8.8%) HCVg2and 507 (91.2%) HCVg3-infected patients, of which 496 (89.2%) were subtype 3a. Substitutions in the quasi-species at Y93 (Y93H) were only observed in HCVg3a-infected patients; therefore, the analysis was done on this subset of the data. The Y93H RAV was present in 11.1% (55 of 496) of the genotype 3a–infected patients; in 4.7% (23 of 496), Y93H was as the majority variant. There was no significant association between the presence of H (either as the consensus level or at any level of detection) and the beneficial C/C genotype of INFL4 (P> 0.05; Table 1). Overall, our data support the Peiffer et al. hypothesis that the association between INFL4 and Y93H is specific to HCV genotype 1b.


Protein-based sensors and switches provide attractive tools for the real-time monitoring and control of molecular processes in complex biological environments, with applications ranging from intracellular imaging to the rewiring of signal transduction pathways and molecular diagnostics. A synthetic-biology approach to construct these protein switches from functionally and structurally well-defined protein modules has only recently emerged. This chapter first discusses some of the basic engineering principles that are relevant for the rational design and thermodynamic description of these systems. These principles are subsequently discussed by giving an overview of recent work in this area. The final part of this chapter identifies future opportunities as well as some of the challenges that remain to be addressed to make the construction of protein switches a true engineering discipline.


Chronic stable angina affects 6-7 million Americans and contributes to a significant reduction in quality of life and life expectancy. Current pharmacotherapy for reducing episodes of exertional angina includes β-blockers, calcium channel blockers and long-acting nitrates. Patients may have contraindications to the use of one or more of these agents or be unable to tolerate initial or larger therapeutic doses. As a result of the inability of current management strategies to optimally control episodes of chronic angina, new therapies have been investigated that do not have some of the limitations of current therapies. New therapies for chronic stable angina are based on a mechanism involving membrane current such as the funny current and the late Na current. Ranolazine (Ran) is an antianginal drug acting on I(Na). After its current indication in the chronic stable angina, the role of this molecule is still being studied for prophylaxis of certain arrhythmias and treatment of heart failure. Moreover, have been recently developed new interesting patents of novel pharmaceutical effects and derivates of Ran.


The functional brain connectivity based on resting-sate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has been widely studied. However, most of the analyzes, based on functional brain network construction, either limit themselves to descriptors from graph-theoretical measures and subgraph patterns, or fail to gain the whole picture of the large-scale functional brain network. Due to the curse of the dimensionality, the millions-dimension data of the correlation information from fMRIs can not be directly processed by the current machine learning method, even with the state-of-art deep learning architecture. Hence, a good representation that can be both informative and compressed is strongly desired. In this paper, we introduce a distributional representation that can provide information across high resolution regions to low resolution regions in a brain. It is believed that a good representation of functional brain connectivity can easily separate patients with brain disorders from normal controls. In our case, the difference between groups is visualized clearly with the distributional representation. The visualized group difference not only gives a visible explanation for existing techniques in functional brain network construction, but also provides extra clues for the informativeness of weak connections, which are neglected in traditional analysis. Moreover, we propose an approach with distributional representation mappings to validate the effectiveness of the features visualized in the distributional representation. We find that the mapped distributional representation improves the performance dramatically in distinguishing subjects with a given mental disorder from the control ones. The results suggests that the distributional representation is promising for further design of algorithms, such as clustering and classification, for brain disorders.


We point out a new mechanism which can lead to mean-field-type behaviour in non-equilibrium critical phenomena. We demonstrate this mechanism on a two-dimensional model which can be understood as a stochastic and non-conservative version of the Abelian sandpile model of Bak et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., 59 (1987) 381). This model has a second-order phase transition whose critical behaviour seems at least partly described by the mean-field approximation for percolation, in spite of the low dimension and the fact that all interactions are of short range. Furthermore, the approximation obtained by replacing the lattice by a Bethe tree is very precise in the entire range of the control parameter.


Objective To examine a reported association between use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors during the first trimester and risk of malformations in offspring. Design A population based, retrospective cohort study linking automated clinical and pharmacy databases including comprehensive electronic medical records. Participants Pregnant women and their live born offspring (465 754 mother-infant pairs) in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California region from 1995 to 2008. Main outcome measure Congenital malformation in live births. Results The prevalence of ACE inhibitor use in the first trimester only was 0.9/1000, and the use of other antihypertensive medications was 2.4/1000. After adjustment for maternal age, ethnicity, parity, and obesity, use of ACE inhibitors during the first trimester only seemed to be associated with increased risk of congenital heart defects in offspring compared with normal controls (those with neither hypertension nor use of any antihypertensives during pregnancy) (15/381 (3.9%) v 6232/400 021 (1.6%) cases, odds ratio 1.54 (95% confidence interval 0.90 to 2.62)). A similar association was observed for use of other antihypertensives (28/1090 (2.6%) cases of congenital heart defects, odds ratio 1.52 (1.04 to 2.21)). However, compared with hypertension controls (those with a diagnosis of hypertension but without use of antihypertensives) (708/29 735 (2.4%) cases of congenital heart defects), neither use of ACE inhibitors or of other antihypertensives in the first trimester was associated with increased congenital heart defects risk (odds ratios 1.14 (0.65 to 1.98) and1.12 (0.76 to 1.64) respectively). Conclusions Maternal use of ACE inhibitors in the first trimester has a risk profile similar to the use of other antihypertensives regarding malformations in live born offspring. The apparent increased risk of malformations associated with use of ACE inhibitors (and other antihypertensives) in the first trimester is likely due to the underlying hypertension rather than the medications.


OBJECTIVE
To find out if 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) given intraperitoneally to rabbits impaired the healing of colonic anastomoses, and whether giving zinc might reverse the effect.

DESIGN
Laboratory study.

SETTING
Teaching hospital, Turkey.

ANIMALS
32 New Zealand white rabbits.

INTERVENTIONS
All animals had 1cm of large bowel resected 10cm proximal to the peritoneal reflection and continuity restored by end-to-end anastomosis. They were divided into four groups and given intraperitoneal injections of saline (control group), 5-FU 10mg/kg/day in a concentration of 5mg/ml saline (5-FU alone group), zinc 2mg/kg/day (zinc alone group), and the same doses of 5-FU and zinc (5-FU + zinc group). The injections were given immediately after operation and daily for 4 days. The rabbits were killed at 7 days.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Bursting pressures, tissue hydroxyproline concentrations, tissue zinc concentrations, and light and electron microscopic appearances.

RESULTS
Six rabbits died of the complications of anaesthesia and 4 of sepsis leaving 7, 6, 7, and 6 rats in the four groups respectively. Mean (SD) anastomotic bursting pressures were significantly reduced in the 5-FU group compared with controls (5 (2) compared with 7 (1) mm Hg, p: 0.05) and collagen synthesis (indicated by reduced tissue hydroxyproline concentrations) was also decreased (7.1 (0.9) compared with 9.1 (1.5), p < 0.05). Rabbits given 5-FU + zinc had significantly higher bursting pressures than those given 5-FU alone (9 (2) compared with 5 (2), p: 0.01). Bursting pressures were also significantly higher in those given zinc alone, but hydroxyproline concentrations were similar to those in the control group. Histological examination showed that 5-FU alone significantly impaired the healing process, and those in the 5-FU + zinc group healed better than those in the 5-FU alone group.

CONCLUSIONS
5-FU given intraperitoneally significantly impaired the healing of colonic anastomoses in rabbits, and zinc reversed this effect.


This report is focused on the apoptotic effect induced by MG132, an inhibitor of 26S proteasome, in human hepatoma HepG2 cells. The results were compared with those obtained with non-transformed human Chang liver cells. MG132 reduced the viability of HepG2 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. The effect was in tight connection with the induction of apoptosis, as indicated by fluorescence microscopy and cytometric analysis, and was accompanied by a remarkable increase in the production of H2O2 and a reduction in mitochondrial transmembrane potential (Deltapsim). In addition cell death was prevented by antioxidants such as GSH, N-acetylcysteine or catalase. Western blot analysis showed that HepG2 cells contain a very low level of Bcl-2 and a much higher level of Bcl-XL, another antiapoptotic factor of the same family. When the cells were exposed to MG132 the level of Bcl-XL diminished, while a new band, corresponding to the expression of the proapoptotic protein Bcl-XS was detected. MG132 also caused the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria and the activation of caspase-3 with the consequent degradation of poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP). The observation that the broad spectrum caspase inhibitor z-VAD markedly reduced the apoptotic effect of the drug clearly demonstrated that caspases play an important role in MG132-induced apoptosis. MG132 exerted a modest effect on the viability of Chang liver cells which primarily depended on the G2/M arrest of cell cycle while only a small percentage of apoptotic cells was found. The remarkable differences in the effects induced by MG132 in Chang liver cells and HepG2 cells made us hypothesise the potential use of proteasome inhibitors in hepatocarcinoma therapy.


a capsule endoscope in the digestive tract for a minimum of 2 weeks, is a major concern in patients undergoing video capsule endoscopy [1]. We report the first case of retention of a video capsule in the small bowel due to no apparent cause, which resolved spontaneously 2.5 years later without major consequences. A 74-year-old woman with history of hysterectomy and pelvis irradiation presented with recurrent iron deficiency anemia. Abdomen plain film, gastroscopy, colonoscopy, and abdomen computed tomography (CT) scan showed no pathology. After 2 days of ingestion of a patency capsule that freely passed through the small and the large bowels in 30 hours, the patient underwent video capsule endoscopy (M2A capsule, Given Imaging, Yokneam, Israel). Examination revealed a stagnant capsule in the small bowel, with nomucosal abnormality (●" Fig. 1). Capsule retention was confirmed by plain abdominal radiography (●" Fig. 2) at 48 hours and at 18 days after ingestion of the capsule. A barium follow-through did not reveal any pathology (●" Fig. 3) apart from the retained capsule. The patient was asymptomatic and discharged with instructions to undergo an abdominal plain radiographic examination every 3 months. At 1 year, the patient had intestinal obstruction. A computed tomography (CT) scan and plain abdominal radiograph confirmed ileus and the presence of the capsule in the small bowel. However, the patient's symptoms resolvedwithin 3 days. She continued to undergo regular radiology examinations, and 2.5 years after ingestion of the capsule, passage of the capsule was noted. In conclusion, capsule retention in the small bowel may occur in the absence of an apparent cause. No investigation, even the use of the patency capsule [2], can replace clinical judgment to prevent retention of the capsule [3]. However, the course of capsule retention is usually beSpontaneous resolution of capsule endoscope retention in a normal small bowel after 2.5 years


A synchronizable (SC_{s}) code has the property that the punctuation (comma or no comma, comma indicating that the next symbol is the beginning of a new code word) at a given position in a code symbol stream can always be determined by observing at most s code symbols in the neighborhood of the position in question. The construction of SC_{s} dictionaries and the mechanization of synchronizers using nonlinear shift registers are explained in detail. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of SC_{s} codes with specified word lengths are derived. By allowing unequal word lengths in the code, it is demonstrated that a substantial saving in average word length and information rate can be accomplished over other recently proposed codes having synchronization capability.


Guanidinoacetic acid is the direct precursor of creatine and its phosphorylated derivative phosphocreatine in the body. It is a safe nutritional supplement that can be used to promote muscle growth and development. Improving the growth performance of livestock and poultry and meat quality is the eternal goal of the animal husbandry, and it is also the common demand of today's society and consumers. A large number of experimental studies have shown that guanidinoacetic acid could improve the growth performance of animals, promote muscle development and improve the health of animals. However, the mechanism of how it affects muscle development needs to be further elucidated. This article discusses the physical and chemical properties of guanidinoacetic acid and its synthesis pathway, explores its mechanism of how it promotes muscle development and growth, and also classifies and summarizes the impact of its application in animal husbandry, providing a scientific basis for this application. In addition, this article also proposes future directions for the development of this substance.


The question of the concept of man or psychology is one of the issues that became debates among earlier philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. In fact, it is also debated by Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, al-Razi and others that coincide with the Islamic worldview. Recently, the debate of Western-based concepts of human beings who only view human beings from material aspects alone without being associated with religion are more exposed to society. The concept brought by the West is more aimed at the introduction of the essence and character of the human being from the physical point of view without seeing from the spiritual point of view. This article will highlight the initial research on some of the issues pertaining to the concept of man according to a Muslim scholar who was also described as the encyclopedic scholar, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi through his Kitab al-Nafs wa al-Ruh wa Sharh Quwahuma. In addition, his other works are also referred to the continuation of his views on the issue. Among the questions touched were the definition and the nature of the soul according to al-Razi where he explained that the soul is a jawhar of its own and it is different from the body.


Within the frame of the HiPER reactor, we propose and study a Self Cooled Lead Lithium blanket with two different cooling arrangements of the system First Wall – Blanket for the HiPER reactor: Integrated First Wall Blanket and Separated First Wall Blanket. We compare the two arrangements in terms of power cycle efficiency, operation flexibility in out-off-normal situations and proper cooling and acceptable corrosion. The Separated First Wall Blanket arrangement is superior in all of them, and it is selected as the advantageous proposal for the HiPER reactor blanket. However, it still has to be improved from the standpoint of proper cooling and corrosion rates.


We established and validated the feasibility of an MRI-based radiomics nomogram to differentiate between multiple myeloma (MM) and bone metastasis of breast cancer (BC). Regions of interest were drawn for the largest bone lesion per patient on T1- and T2-weighted images of patients with MM (n = 85) and BC (n = 70) from two institutions. The machine learning model with logistic regression resulted in the best performance for differentiating MM from BC with both sequences in the test cases. Our proposed clinical radiomics analysis shows promise in differentiating MM from bone metastasis of BC.


According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, an Urban Heat Island is created in developed areas where the built surfaces absorb and retain radiation from the sun. These impervious surfaces prevent the movement of air and water which are key in the cooling processes of evaporation and transpiration; and create proverbial 'urban islands' of warmer temperatures while the green vegetation in the surrounding rural areas better regulate surface temperatures. The impacts of Urban Heat Islands include increased energy consumption, higher concentration of air pollutants and poorer water quality. Throughout the Caribbean, increased energy consumption levels exacerbates the strain on the electric grid, reduces the strength of electrical output and increases in the frequency of power outages. Heated air also fosters a higher concentration of air pollutants and promotes the creation of ground level ozone which triggers a number of health related problems including coughing and throat irritation and exacerbate the effects of emphysema, asthma and bronchitis. Lastly, heated urban surfaces encourage higher temperatures in storm water that reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water of surrounding rivers and oceans. To mitigate this problem Caribbean countries have developed renewable energy strategies, but there is another solution to address the impact of higher surface temperatures. The American Society of Landscape Architects describes green infrastructure as an integrated network of open spaces that foster the generation of clean air, water and carbon sinks. An analysis of international case studies will highlight the ways in which the inclusion of green networks in Caribbean urban areas can help reduce surface temperatures, manage our energy consumption and improve air and water quality.


The concept of Electric Vehicles (EVs) withonboard integrated battery chargers, which can be directly connected to the three-phase ac mains, has recently emerged as a cost effective and a practical alternative to charging stations. In such systems, the propulsion system power electronics are used to charge the battery, while, the stator winding of the propulsion motor is used to filter the charging current. This way, the need for separate bulky inductors typically used in battery charging converters is eliminated. Among the different configurations presented in the literature, those based on multiphase windings reduce the need for extra hardware components for winding reconfiguration to switch between propulsion and charging modes of operation. All systems provided in the literature are either based on induction or PM synchronous motors with distributed windings. In recent motor designs employed to EV, PM machines with Fractional Slot Concentrated Winding (FSCW) is much preferred. This paper investigates the effect of different operational modes of an on-board integrated battery charger on the torque ripple and the induced rotor eddy current loss caused by different MMF space harmonics associated with such FSCW type. The well-known 12-slot/10-pole PM machine is employed in this study and simulated using 2D finite element simulations.


Currently, wild edible plants are getting into the research focus of both food and pharmaceutical domains as they are considered valuable resources for improving food and nutritional security as well as for bioactive ingredients that can be used for functional foods or managing chronic diseases. Wild edible plants, in addition to their potential nutritional contribution, may provide important health benefits as the health-promoting components of plant based foods, so called nutraceuticals or functional food ingredients, are usually higher in wild plants. However, at the same time, these plants may contain toxic ingredients that may lead to adverse effects. At the current state of the art novel foods have to comply with novel food regulation while safety of the use of botanicals and botanical preparation as food is the responsibility of the provider and not subject to premarket safety evaluation. This implies that a concern requiring adequate consideration of both risks and benefits has to be addressed when introducing wild edible plants as novel components in a regular diet or as herbal medicine or food supplement. The present PhD thesis aims at investigating the possible hazards and potential health benefits of Maerua subcordata (Gilg) DeWolf, a wild plant locally called 'ashkulebya' by the Kunama ethnics of Northern Ethiopia, as a novel nutritional resource and/or as a health food/functional food. To meet this aim, the thesis tested the activity of different extracts of M. subcordata in a wide range of in vitro assays for both adverse and beneficial endpoints, along with, phytochemical studies to identify active constituents. Consideration of ethnobotanical data was also part of the study. The phytochemical studies identified glucosinolates and biogenic amines such as quaternary ammonium compounds and guanidine derivatives in the different M. subcordata extracts. The potential health benefits of M. subcordata extracts via their effects on the expression of electrophile-responsive element (EpRE), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg), and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) regulated genes was evaluated. The induction of EpRE-mediated genes have implications of maintaining redox homeostasis. The fruit, leaf, and seed extracts induced the expression of EpRE-mediated genes while induction by the root extract was minimal. Candidate glucosinolates (or their matching isothiocyanates) exhibited strong induction while some biogenic amines exhibited either no significant induction or slight inhibition. Inhibition of NF-κB regulated genes have implications for anti-inflammatory effects while induction of PPARg regulated genes have implications for control of diseases of the metabolic syndrome. The fruit, root, and seed extracts induced PPARγ-mediated gene expression while induction by the leaf extract was minimal. Instead, all extracts inhibited bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced nitric oxide production, with the root showing the lowest potency. Selected candidates such as isothiocyanates and some biogenic amines also inhibited the LPS induced nitric oxide production. Equally, a battery of in vitro tests was applied to identify selected endpoints that could be used to assess the potential hazards associated with the use of botanical preparations or parts of M. subcordata. The Ames test and in silico (Derek Nexus) predictions were applied for initial genotoxicity screening whereas the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and the estrogen receptor alpha reporter gene assays as well as the embryonic stem cell test and the zebrafish embryotoxicity test were applied to investigate alerts for developmental toxicity. The overall hazard assessment results indicated that all extracts of M. subcordata do not point to a genotoxicity hazard; fruit, root, and seed extracts do not raise a concern with respect to developmental toxicity; but the data on the leaf extract may point towards a developmental toxicity hazard. In conclusion, the overall results obtained argue in favour of the use of the root, fruit, and seed parts of M. subcordata as (famine) food and/or functional food whereas the leaf part may be used as a herbal medicine. The outcomes of the study may also contribute scientific data to design further in vivo studies on safety and proper utilization of the plant while the methodology applied can be extrapolated to serve as an approach to the risk-benefit assessment of other plant based products.


We collected a large data set of field RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) by using catalogs already available in the literature and Gaia DR2. We estimated the iron abundances for a subsample of 2382 fundamental RRLs (ΔS method: Ca ii K, Hβ, Hγ, and Hδ lines) for which there are publicly available medium-resolution SDSS-SEGUE spectra. We also included similar estimates available in the literature, ending up with the largest and most homogeneous spectroscopic data set ever collected for RRLs (2903). The metallicity scale was validated by using iron abundances based on high-resolution spectra for a fundamental field RRL (V Ind), for which we collected X-shooter spectra covering the entire pulsation cycle. The peak ([Fe/H] = −1.59 ± 0.01) and the standard deviation (σ = 0.43 dex) of the metallicity distribution agree quite well with similar estimates available in the literature. The current measurements disclose a well-defined metal-rich tail approaching solar iron abundance. The spectroscopic sample plotted in the Bailey diagram (period versus luminosity amplitude) shows a steady variation when moving from the metal-poor ([Fe/H] = −3.0/–2.5) to the metal-rich ([Fe/H] = −0.5/0.0) regime. The smooth transition in the peak of the period distribution as a function of the metallicity strongly indicates that the long-standing problem of the Oosterhoff dichotomy among Galactic globular clusters is the consequence of the lack of metal-intermediate clusters hosting RRLs. We also found that the luminosity amplitude, in contrast with period, does not show a solid correlation with metallicity. This suggests that period–amplitude–metallicity relations should be cautiously treated.


Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is the consequence of obstruction of retinal vein system caused by a variety of etiologies. Its ocular complications include macular edema, retinal ischemia and neovascular glaucoma. Although many drugs for management of RVO are available, some doctors do not fully understand the exact purpose of each treatment. This article starts from the etiology evaluation of RVO, emphasizing that, besides systemic etiology and risk factor management, the treatment of RVO should focus on the three major complications at the same time, rather than just dealing with macular edema. Meanwhile, a regular follow-up for observing the changes of the degree of retinal ischemia is important for whole course management. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy, the first-line treatment option of RVO, can not only reduce macular edema, but also prevent the complications caused by retinal ischemia and create opportunities for further laser photocoagulation. Laser photocoagulation has an irreplaceable value in the comprehensive treatment of ischemic RVO. Glucocorticoid intraocular implants should not be used alone in the treatment of macular edema secondary to RVO. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2020, 56:246-249).


Lattice structures are generated through the repetition of smaller structures, defined as unit cells. These structures are popular alternatives for bone implants due to the potential to adjust the stiffness. However, in some applications, there are volume and mass constraints that cannot be exceeded. Therefore, to match the lattice structure's stiffness to that of the natural bone, unit cell sizes should be altered. In this study, the effects of different unit cell sizes, on the compression behavior of lattice structures fabricated from 316L stainless steel (SS) via laser beam powder bed fusion (LB-PBF) are studied through finite element analysis (FEA) while the volume and mass are kept constant and results of which, are validated by experiments. It was found that energy absorption capability and stiffness of lattice structures can increase with decreasing the size while the volume and mass are kept constant. The lattice structure with smaller unit cell dimensions tolerated a relatively higher maximum force for the same amount of displacement.


We report electrodeposition of n-type cuprous oxide (Cu2O) films on p-type CuO films electrodeposited on Ti substrates for forming p-CuO/n-Cu2O heterostructures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that the films had good structural quality, with substrates being well-covered by the films. The p-CuO/n-Cu2O heterojunctions exhibited good photovoltaic properties and diode characteristics. The surfaces of Cu2O films subject to ammonium sulfide treatment exhibited enhanced photocurrents. Under AM 1.5 illumniation, the obtained sulfur-treated and annealed Ti/p-CuO/n-Cu2O/Au solar cell structure yielded energy conversion efficiency of 0.64%, with Voc = 220 mV and Jsc = 6.8 mA cm−2.


Abstract. The Suwannee alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys suwanniensis) was first described in 2014. The species is thought to occur in blackwater and spring-fed streams of sufficient size throughout the Suwannee River drainage, but we have limited detailed information regarding its range. To clarify the distribution of M. suwanniensis, we compiled 111 museum, 16 literature, and 40 other credible records and trapped streams throughout the Suwannee drainage in Georgia and Florida, plus 8 streams in the Big Bend region of Florida (total of 1893 trap nights). We documented the first records from the Willacoochee River and Okapilco, Piscola, Warrior, Jones, and Toms creeks in Georgia and from Rocky and Olustee creeks in Florida. Relative abundance based on catch per unit effort (CPUE) varied among streams (0.00–0.50) and sections of the same stream. Macrochelys suwanniensis is apparently scarce in the Okefenokee Swamp and in the Suwannee River upstream of White Springs, Florida (none trapped), but it occurs in small blackwater tributaries in this section of the river in both states. In the Suwannee River between White Springs and the estuary, we had a mean CPUE of 0.25, and the highest trapping success in Florida was in downstream reaches of the Suwannee River and in its major tributaries, the Santa Fe and New rivers. The species is widely distributed in Georgia, but relative abundance in most streams appears lower than in Florida. In Georgia, we had the highest trapping success in the Alapaha drainage and in sections of the Little River and Okapilco Creek in the Withlacoochee drainage. In Florida, we failed to trap Macrochelys in the purported distribution gap between the Suwannee and Ochlockonee drainages and in the Wacasassa River to the south, indicating that this species is restricted to the Suwannee drainage.


Artificial neural networks present a technique for modeling relationships between variables in complex systems. The negative effects of headache are determined by many "biopsychosocial" elements that represent a complex system. Artificial neural networks may therefore be useful for examining psychological factors in headache. To test this hypothesis, we trained an artificial neural network to predict life‐style interference attributed to headache from psychological measures of anger, depression, and coping appraisal and strategies. The artificial neural network demonstrated a better fit of the data than that obtained by multiple regression, and predicted interference levels to within 10% error for 80% of novel cases. Artificial neural networks may be a useful technique for examining psychological correlates of headache.


The Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA) is an invasive pest that causes ecological disturbance and economic damage to habitats it invades. Since its introduction to the U.S. 75 years ago, RIFA have spread across the southeastern U.S. and are now found in California, with current research showing further territorial expansion in North America and internationally. In Texas, RIFA-related damages and expenditures are estimated to exceed $1.2 billion. Often studied, conventional RIFA control methods have not proven effective or long-lasting. New research efforts that concentrate on habitat characteristics may result in methods can repel or reduce RIFA density. This study examined different pasture grasses in Texas, focusing on WW-B.Dahl, to determine if particular grass types limit or reduce RIFA infestation compared to other grasses. Results show that WWB. Dahl grass has significantly fewer RIFA mounds than other grasses such as Bermuda and native. However, this study failed to find a difference in ant bait cup collections in the grass types tested. Fewer mounds will improve efficiency of harvesting operations for growers and reduce vegetation loss due to RIFA mounds. Little correlation was found between ant numbers in bait cups and mound counts or mound vitality ratings, suggesting that more than one measure of ant infestation is needed to accurately determine RIFA numbers. Additionally, WW-B.Dahl grass showed some grass spread beyond its original field of planting, which increased with age of field. Due to the lack of information on the environmental conditions in which WW-B.Dahl grows, primary abiotic characteristics were compiled where B.Dahl is successfully grown in central and northern Texas.


Assessing risk associated to structured financial products requires processing information about diverse risk factors. Some information comes from the different sources directly in aggregated form, so that it is not possible to estimate the correlation among different risk components. In this paper we argue that Secure Multiparty Computation could be used to merge the information from the different sources so as to compute more accurately the overall risk profile of securitized assets, thanks to the use of reliable information from the individual sources, but without disclosing the information from each source. Our simple model for securitization can solve in many cases information asymmetries between lenders and borrowers.


The rain induced fruit cracking is a big, serious problem especially for sour cherry growers but in some year sour cherry growers had also problem with fruit cracking caused by too much rainfall in the harvesting season. The cracked sour cherry fruits can be easily infected by different diseases like Monillinia sp. Cracked and infected fruits can not be transported for long distance and using for preservation because they lost their market value by the pour fruit quality. There are two possibilities to protect fruits against the rain induced fruit cracking. The most effective protection technique is the plastic rain cover over the tree rows. The installation of these equipments is too expensive for the growers. That is the reason why researchers tried to find other less expensive and sufficiently effective ways like sprayings different mineral salts, hormone and other type chemicals against the rain induced fruit cracking. Several calcium formulas calcium chloride (CaC12), calcium hydroxide (Ca (OH),) and calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3)2) can be sprayed in appropriate solution concentration.
The aim of our trial is to determinate the fruit cracking susceptibility of wide grown Hungarian sour cherry varieties and find the most effective calcium formula and its concentration for spraying in orchards to prevent the fruit cracking. In the first trial year (2006) cracking index of tested sour cherry varieties were determined under field and laboratory conditions. Under field conditions were not found differences between cracking tendency of tested cultivars. After results of immersing fruits in distillated water for 24 hours tested sour cherry varieties were divided to three groups by the susceptibility to rain induced fruit cracking: very susceptible (`Maliga emleke', 'Piramis', 'Erdi jubileum', 'Erdi nagygyumolcsű' and 'Meteor korai'); susceptible 'Erdi bőtermő, Tandy 279' and Cigany 59.; moderately susceptible/tolerant ("T" and "R" clones). In the second trial year (2007) calcium chloride (CaCl2) and calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3)2) were sprayed in 0,35m/m%; 0,5m/m% and 1,0m/m% solution concentration. One more commercial product "Damisol-Kalcium" was also applied in the advised 1,0m/m% concentration. Like in the trial year before (2006) under field conditions we did not kept differences between the cracking susceptibility of varieties and calcium treatments. As the result of laboratory testing (immersing calcium treated fruits in distillated water) we kept that calcium chloride (CaCl2) seems the most effective against the fruit cracking in 0,5m/in% solution concentration. The other calcium formulas also decreased the cracking ratio but in less scale.


OBJECTIVE: To define the effect of preventive activities on the population served by a health centre; and to make a comparison between the two different shifts, on one of which a preventive programme functioned, whereas on the other it did not. DESIGN: A descriptive study, using systematic random sampling and internal crossed auditing of the health centre's clinical records. SETTING: An urban primary care centre. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Two samples of 175 patients from both morning and afternoon shifts were compared. INTERVENTIONS: The following were studied: antitetanus and German measles vaccinations; control of arterial tension; control of cholesterolaemia; a questionnaire on tobacco and alcohol consumption. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: No differences were observed in the homogeneity of the tests carried out (DVS = 413.28, p = NS; chi squared = 9.67, p = NS). Important differences were observed in the percentages for the preventive activities carried out. These differences were in favour of the morning shift, where the tests were part of the programme, and were statistically significant for all tests. Differences were greater in the younger age-groups. CONCLUSIONS: Introducing and integrating a programme of preventive activities into the daily activity of the consulting room, significantly improves the effectiveness of these activities. We believe therefore that the introduction of such activities in the form of a programme should be encouraged.


Retraining modern deep learning systems can lead to variations in model performance even when trained using the same data and hyper-parameters by simply using different random seeds. This phenomenon is known as model churn or model jitter. This issue is often exacerbated in real world settings, where noise may be introduced in the data collection process. In this work we tackle the problem of stable retraining with a novel focus on structured prediction for conversational semantic parsing. We first quantify the model churn by introducing metrics for agreement between predictions across multiple retrainings. Next, we devise realistic scenarios for noise injection and demonstrate the effectiveness of various churn reduction techniques such as ensembling and distillation. Lastly, we discuss practical trade-offs between such techniques and show that co-distillation provides a sweet spot in terms of churn reduction with only a modest increase in resource usage.


In the existing scheduling algorithms of mimicry structure, the random algorithm cannot solve the problem of large vulnerability window in the process of random scheduling. Based on known vulnerabilities, the algorithm with diversity and complexity as scheduling indicators can not only fail to meet the characteristic requirements of mimic's endogenous security for defense, but also cannot analyze the unknown vulnerabilities and measure the continuous differences in time of mimic Executive Entity. In this paper, from the Angle of attack surface is put forward based on mimicry attack the mimic Executive Entity scheduling algorithm, its resources to measure analysis method and mimic security has intrinsic consistency, avoids the random algorithm to vulnerability and modeling using known vulnerabilities targeted, on time at the same time can ensure the diversity of the Executive body, to mimic the attack surface web server scheduling system in continuous time is less, and able to form a continuous differences. Experiments show that the minimum symbiotic resource scheduling algorithm based on time continuity is more secure than the random scheduling algorithm.


We report on our novel technique for endoscopic removal of sharp needles from the duodenum. A 43-year-old woman was referred to our hospital after attempting suicide by swallowing sewing needles. Endoscopy revealed the presence of five needles in the duodenum, with the tips lodged in the duodenal wall (Figure 1). Four of the five needles were removed safely using a snare and grasping forceps (SD11L-1, FG-17K-1; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) through an overtube in the esophagus. The fifth needle had penetrated through the pylorus into the stomach during the procedure. To remove it without further injury, we used forceps (FB21K-1; Olympus) through the sheath normally used for a clip device (HX-5LR-1; Olympus). After placing the needle completely within the sheath, we were able to remove the needle through the forceps channel easily and safely (Figure 2).


3-Bromomethcathinone (3-BMC) and 3-Fluoromethcathinone (3-FMC) are two new designer drugs, which were seized in Israel during 2009 and had also appeared on the illicit drug market in Germany. These two compounds were sold via the Internet as so-called "bath salts" or "plant feeders." The aim of the present study was to identify for the first time the 3-BMC and 3-FMC Phase I and II metabolites in rat urine and human liver microsomes using GC-MS and LC-high-resolution MS (HR-MS) and to test for their detectability by established urine screening approaches using GC-MS or LC-MS. Furthermore, the human cytochrome-P450 (CYP) isoenzymes responsible for the main metabolic steps were studied to highlight possible risks of consumption due to drug-drug interaction or genetic variations. For the first aim, rat urine samples were extracted after and without enzymatic cleavage of conjugates. The metabolites were separated and identified by GC-MS and by LC-HR-MS. The main metabolic steps were N-demethylation, reduction of the keto group to the corresponding alcohol, hydroxylation of the aromatic system and combinations of these steps. The elemental composition of the metabolites identified by GC-MS could be confirmed by LC-HR-MS. Furthermore, corresponding Phase II metabolites were identified using the LC-HR-MS approach. For both compounds, detection in rat urine was possible within the authors' systematic toxicological analysis using both GC-MS and LC-MS(n) after a suspected recreational users dose. Following CYP enzyme kinetic studies, CYP2B6 was the most relevant enzyme for both the N-demethylation of 3-BMC and 3-FMC after in vitro-in vivo extrapolation.


In order to identify the principal constraints and trends for common bean production and commercialization and the priorities for future common bean research in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a priority setting process was developed at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The results suggested that the principal research included breeding and selecting for several traits, such as drought tolerance and water use efficiency, improved yields, and consumer acceptance (improved cooking time and desired texture after cooking). Additionally, the results of the priority setting process suggested that institutional measures are needed, such as improving formal seed production and distribution channels and the development of national and regional seed policies. On the other hand, the identified principal constraints included diseases, pests, and market constraints. Finally, the identified principal trends were: increase in demand and production, and development of high-yield varieties and improvement in nutritional quality.


We propose a two-scale finite element method designed for heterogeneous microstructures. Our approach exploits domain diffeomorphisms between the microscopic structures to gain computational efficiency. By using a conveniently constructed pullback operator, we are able to model the different microscopic domains as macroscopically dependent deformations of a reference domain. This allows for a relatively simple finite element framework to approximate the underlying PDE system with a parallel computational structure. We apply this technique to a model problem where we focus on transport in plant tissues. We illustrate the accuracy of the implementation with convergence benchmarks and show satisfactory parallelization speed-ups. We further highlight the effect of the heterogeneous microscopic structure on the output of the two-scale systems. Our implementation (publicly available on GitHub) builds on the deal.II FEM library. Application of this technique allows for an increased capacity of microscopic detail in multiscale modeling, while keeping running costs manageable.


Aggregometry and genotyping are methods of platelet function testing, which can be beneficial for high-risk patients undergoing invasive cardiac procedures. An optimal level of platelet reactivity (PR) should be maintained. There are discrepancies between individuals and their response to clopidogrel, accounting for the incidence of poor responders from 5% to 44%. This phenomenon predisposes the patients to increased risk of ischaemic events and thereby overall poorer clinical outcome. Prasugrel and tricagrelor are newer without genetic correlation to their action, however associated with increased bleeding risk. Aggregometry methods assess platelet reactivity at the exact moment of blood sampling. They reflect "phenotype" of the patient and vary after drug administration or dose change. The most popular tests are Light Transmission Aggregometry, Vasodilator-Stimulated Protein, VerifyNow, Multiple Electrode Aggregometry and Thrombelastography. There is proven genetic correlation between some cytochrome enzymes on clopidogrel response. The most widely tested is gene CYP2C19, which produces the enzyme transforming clopidogrel into an active metabolite. The CYP2C19*2 allele carriers have higher PR which can result in more thrombotic events. The manuscript shows the most recent evidence behind platelet function testing. Aggregometry is shown to be beneficial in 5 trials and 1 meta-analysis, while one paper was of different opinion. Ten studies show a positive clinical effect of genotyping on patients' outcome, while one does not support it. The best method of identifying high-risk individuals could be both methods and personalisation of antiplatelet therapy may decrease adverse ischaemic outcomes.


BACKGROUND
The ultimate goal of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the performance of a totally endoscopic procedure using multiple arterial conduits. At our center we have been routinely performing endoscopic robotic harvesting of internal thoracic arteries (ITAs) for use in minimally invasive CABG. The right gastroepiploic artery (RGEA) has been shown to be a reliable and versatile arterial conduit for bypass to coronary vessels not easily accessible by an ITA. The RGEA has already been harvested less invasively through a small laparotomy. This procedure could be made even less invasive by harvesting the RGEA laparoscopically, but this procedure has not yet been reported. The purpose of this study was to develop an endoscopic technique for harvesting the RGEA and demonstrate the safety and efficacy of this less invasive approach.

METHODS
Twenty Duroc X Hampshire swine were administered general anesthesia and intubated. Ten mm and 5 mm trocars were then inserted. A 10 mm, 30-degree endoscope was adapted to a voice-activated robotic arm (AESOP), and the RGEA was harvested totally endoscopically using 5 mm harmonic scalpel shears. Intraoperative events and RGEA harvest times were recorded, and RGEA flows were measured after harvest. RGEA was delivered into the pericardial sac endoscopically.

RESULTS
All RGEAs were successfully harvested without injury. Harvest time averaged 29.9+/- 10.9 min. The harvested conduits averaged 24.7+/- 2.37 cm in length. Flows were excellent in all harvested conduits, averaging 81.1+/- 31.8 cc/min. The harmonic scalpel controlled all RGEA branches with excellent hemostasis.

CONCLUSION
The RGEA can be harvested safely through port access with robotic assistance. This conduit is of sufficient length to be used as an alternative arterial conduit for totally endoscopic multivessel coronary artery bypass.


Antibody deficiency (AD) comprises a group of diseases characterized by the inability to develop an effective antibody mediated immune response. These patients suffer mainly of encapsulated extracellular bacterial infections of the respiratory tract. The aim of our study was to describe the clinical characteristics of 128 patients with suspected or confirmed AD who were referred to 3 immunodeficiency centers for adults, from June 2004 to December 2009. Three of these patients (2.3%) consulted for recurrent infections only once, without sufficient data for a proper classification, and were excluded. Of the remaining 125 patients, in 21 (16.8%) AD was excluded, 8 cases (6.4%) were diagnosed with secondary antibody immunodeficiency (SAD) and 96 (76.8%) with primary antibody immunodeficiency (PAD). SAD causes were: one renal failure, one phenytoin use, two monoclonal gammopathy and four B cell lymphoma. The causes of these 96 PAD were: 57 common variable immunodeficiency, 12 X-linked agammaglobulinaemia, 10 selective IgA deficiency, seven IgG1 deficiency, three hyper-IgM syndrome, three IgM deficiency, two X-linked proliferative syndrome, one Good syndrome and one antibody functional deficiency. Sixty-seven patients were in follow up at the time of completion of the study, 25 of them were on follow up at the beginning of the study. Among the 58 patients with indication of gamma globulin replacement therapy, 54 were in treatment at the end of the study. In four patients the initial diagnosis of PAD was not confirmed.


Zika virus, is an arbovirus belonging to the Flavivirus genus first isolated from a Rhesus monkey in 1947 in Uganda. It is mainly transmitted by mosquitoes of Aedes genus. Most common signs and symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, and rash. In this report, we report two cases of Zika virus disease with diffuse artralgias, maculopapular rash, and fatigue symptoms developing after traveling to Cuba. In the literature there were no cases of Zika virus disease reported from our country, and these are considered the first cases in Turkey. Klimik Dergisi 2019; 32(1): 90-2.


The ten's of micro-Kelvin variations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation across the sky encode a wealth of information about the Universe. The full-sky, high-resolution maps of the CMB that will be made in the next decade should determine cosmological parameters to unprecedented precision and sharply test inflation and other theories of the early Universe.


The dark matter in the Universe might be composed of superheavy particles (mass greater, similar 10(10) GeV). These particles can be detected via nuclear recoils produced in elastic scatterings from nuclei. We estimate the observable rate of strongly interacting supermassive particles (simpzillas) in direct dark matter search experiments. The simpzilla energy loss in Earth and in the experimental shields is taken into account. The most natural scenarios for simpzillas are ruled out based on recent EDELWEISS and CDMS results. The dark matter can be composed of superheavy particles only if these interact weakly with normal matter or if their mass is above 10(15) GeV.


Multi-grain koji (MGK), an enzyme-rich food, is produced by solid-state fermentation of a mixture of seven types of grains. In this study, we aimed to assess the effects of MGK on body composition in rats fed a high fat diet, and in young women. Twenty human participants had a body fat percentage >28 %. These participants were blindly divided into test and placebo groups, with 0.5 g/day of MGK and autoclaved (inactivated) MGK consumed, respectively. The weights of liver and visceral fat were lower in rats fed a highfat diet supplemented with MGK than those provided the autoclaved MGK. After 3 months, body weight and body mass index, and the percentage of body fat (in test group only) were significantly reduced compared to the values recorded before MGK intake. Thus, we demonstrate that MGK supplementation is effective in decreasing body fat in women.


The facet temperature and output power of uncoated AlGaAs single quantum well lasers operated at constant current were measured as a function of time until catastrophical breakdown. The temperature rise is observed to consist of two regimes−an initial linear temperature rise accompanied by a gradual power degradation followed by a rapid nonlinear temperature rise at what appears to be a critical temperature leading to catastrophical optical damage (COD). The time to COD and the pre‐COD facet temperature rise rate are found to have a strong dependence on the diode output power. This facet temperature behavior plus the data obtained from an argon laser probe beam induced heating experiment provide valuable information regarding the mechanisms leading to COD.


The values of the crystalline electric field (CEF) parameters of rare earth intermetallic compounds Ce(Zn1-xCux)2 (x=0, 0.25, 1) were calculated from the least-squares fit to the reciprocal paramagnetic susceptibility along principal crystalline axes. The results of the calculation are in good agreement with the experimental values.


This paper explores the connection between sensor-based perception and exploration in the context of haptic object identification. The proposed approach combines 1) object recognition from tactile appearance with 2) purposeful haptic exploration of unknown objects to extract appearance information. The recognition component brings to bear computer-vision techniques by viewing tactile-sensor readings as images. We present a bag-of-features framework that uses several tactile-image descriptors, some that are adapted from the vision domain and others that are novel, to estimate a probability distribution over object identity as an unknown object is explored. Haptic exploration is treated as a search problem in a continuous space to take advantage of sampling-based motion planning to explore the unknown object and construct its tactile appearance. Simulation experiments of a robot arm equipped with a haptic sensor at the end-effector provide promising validation, thereby indicating high accuracy in identifying complex shapes from tactile information gathered during exploration. The proposed approach is also validated by using readings from actual tactile sensors to recognize real objects.


Studies on second language acquisition seem to indicate that listening and reading activities play a far more significant role in the development of fluency in a foreign language than do oral drills. In the early stages of language learning, assignments in the language laboratory complement classroom instruction with drills designed to reinforce grammar and develop linguistic competence. Upper division offerings, on the other hand, rarely coordinate language lab materials with classroom instruction. The technique outlined in this paper draws on the use of a wide variety of recorded language materials in conjunction with a structured format for developing fluency at the advanced level.


The study focused on investigating the
effectiveness of functional acrylic polymer (AP) in improving the ability of
airfoamed sodium silicate-activated calcium
aluminate/Class F fly ash cement (slurry density of £1.3 g/cm3) to mitigate the corrosion of carbon steel (CS)
after exposure to hydrothermal environment at 200?C or 300?C.
Hydrothermally-initiated interactions between the AP and cement
generated the formation of Ca-, Al-, or Na-complexed carboxylate derivatives
that improved the AP's hydrothermal stability. A porous microstructure
comprising numerous defect-free, evenly distributed, discrete voids formed in
the presence of this hydrothermally stable AP, resulting in the increase in
compresive strength of cement. The foamed cement
with advanced properties conferred by AP greatly protected the CS against brine-caused
corrosion. Four major factors governed this protection by AP-incorporated
foamed cements: 1) Reducing the extents of infiltration and transportation of
corrosive electrolytes through the cement layer deposited on the underlying
CS surface; 2) Inhibiting the cathodic reactions at the corrosion site of CS;
3) Extending the coverage of CS by the cement; and 4) Improving the adherence
of the cement to CS surface.


Background There is evidence suggesting clinical benefits of regional anesthesia use in the setting of hip fracture repair, including reduced risk of death, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary complications and myocardial infarction. Thought the literature is mixed, the use of regional anesthesia in hip fracture surgery has not been studied for racial differences. We examined the association of race with neuraxial anesthesia and regional blocks in patients undergoing hip fracture surgery. Methods Using American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, we identified patients ≥18 years old who were either white, black or Asian and underwent hip fracture surgery from 2014 to 2020. We reported unadjusted estimates of both regional and neuraxial anesthesia use by race and examined sociodemographic characteristics and health status differences. Two separate multivariable logistic regression models were employed to investigate the association of race with the receipt of (1) neuraxial anesthesia and (2) regional block (ie, peripheral nerve blocks, fascial plane blocks). Results There were 104,949 patients who underwent hip fracture surgery, of whom 16,400 (15.6%) received a neuraxial anesthetic and 6264 (5.9%) received a regional block. On multivariable logistic regression analysis, compared with white patients, black patients (OR 0.67, 99% CI 0.59 to 0.75, p<0.001) had decreased odds, while Asian patients (OR 2.04, 99% CI 1.84 to 2.26, p<0.001) had increased odds for receipt of neuraxial anesthesia as a primary anesthetic. Black race (OR 1.35, 99% CI 1.17 to 1.55, p<0.001) was associated with increased odds for receiving a regional block compared with white patients. Conclusions The study suggests that racial differences exist with the utilization of regional anesthesia for hip fracture surgery. While the results of this study should not be taken as evidence for healthcare disparities, it could be used to support hypotheses for future studies that aim to investigate causes of disparities and corresponding patient outcomes.


Tax policy proposals in Brazil usually do not take into account effects at sub-national levels. Even when their spatial consequences are taken into account, the available information and analytical tools are not well suited to produce relevant insights to the policymaker. Thus, sound methodological frameworks, built upon consistent regional data, are necessary. This paper deals with important methodological aspects in tax policy/reform studies: tax base endogeneity, changes in relative prices, and sectoral and regional substitution. These aspects can be quantitatively evaluated through inter-regional computable general equilibrium models. Short-run and long-run spatial considerations can be rigorously assessed, producing relevant information to regional planning.


In Izumo City, Shimane, Japan, the Public Health Center has been organizing multidisciplinary outreach team to serve patients with severe mental illnesses since 2006. This team has been providing supervision and second-opinion services to cover the needs of patients, their families and local hospitals, and is composed of approximately 18 people; psychiatrists, mental health professionals and nursing staff. A dispatch of the service is regarded as a work at the affiliated institution and is offered free of charge to the consumers. The Public Health Center gathers appropriate persons upon the emergence of the case; the team is usually composed of 3 to 4 people to discuss the case. An individualized plan takes into action after a thorough discussion, but the actual practice is not necessarily provided by the team members. Most of referrals are concerned about untreated cases, and an emphasis is placed to respect patients' requests and to establish mutual trust, in order to guide them to psychiatric treatment. Since 2011, our outreach services are trying to especially target those who voluntarily stopped treatment, who are supposed to have serious mental illnesses, who need multiple admissions and who are withdrawn but left untreated. Each referral is carefully evaluated and necessary information gathered for acceptance into our service. Individualized support meetings take place once the referral is accepted and the team is established. Each team shares information on the case and decides individual role to play within it. The goal is to monitor the progress and to guide the consumers to the specialty treatment. In this paper, by sharing actual cases, we report on our efforts and future perspectives in Izumo City.


Purpose: To determine the safety and efficacy of fellow-eye laser prophylaxis (FELP) in reducing the rate of retinal detachment (RD) in patients undergoing repair of a primary RD. Methods: Retrospective data were collected on the fellow eyes of consecutive patients undergoing primary RD repair. Patients lacking peripheral retinal pathology in the fellow eye or with less than 3 years of follow-up were excluded. Ninety-eight consecutive patients were identified who underwent FELP as compared with 28 who did not. No patient had symptoms in their fellow eye upon presentation. Rates of RD and epiretinal membrane (ERM) formation in the treatment group were compared with the control group. Results: Three of 98 (3.1%) patients developed RD despite having FELP compared with 5 of 28 (17.9%) in the control group (P = .005). In the FELP group, 16 (16.3%) patients developed ERM vs 7 of 28 (25.0%) in the group that did not receive prophylactic laser (P = .29). No patients in either the FELP or control group required surgery for ERM. Conclusions: Prophylactic laser to the fellow eye of patients undergoing primary RD repair reduced the risk of RD without significant risk of ERM formation.


The purpose of this study was to isolate Campylobacter species from the intestines and livers of chicken and to identify Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni by both conventional methods and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Four specific primers derived from the ceuE gene present in the genomes of C. coli and C. jejuni were used for PCR identification. In the examination of 150 intestine and liver samples by culture and PCR, 25 (16.6%) and 32 (21.3%) were identified as C. coli and C. jejuni, respectively. It was concluded that the PCR assay used in this study may successfully be applied for the differentiation of these species as an alternative to conventional methods, owing to its accuracy and speed.


The textbook of Open Channel Hydraulics for Engineers, also called Applied Hydraulics, emphasizes the dynamics of the open-channel flow, by attempting to provide a complete framework of the basic equations of motion of the fluid, which are used as building blocks for the treatment of many practical problems. The structure of the document, with seven chapters totally, follows a logical sequence from a description and classification of Fluid Mechanics and Open Channel Flows, as reviewed in Chapter 1. A development of the basic equation of motion for uniform flow is encountered in Chapter 2. Coming to Chapter 3, the fruitful concepts of specific energy and hydraulic jumps are introduced and developed. Chapter 4 presents a variety of non-uniform flows and applications of drawing water-surface profiles. Spatially-varied flow, found at spillways and weirs is considered in Chapter 5. Transitions and energy dissipators are discussed in Chapter 6. Finally, in Chapter 7, unsteady flow in open channels is introduced generally and an introduction to the method of characteristics is presented.


INTRODUCTION
Cutaneous involvement with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare is usually observed in disseminated disease but cutaneous infection alone without bacteraemia is uncommon.

CASE REPORT
We report a case of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare subcutaneous abscess of the thigh in a 32-year-old woman with lymphoma. The lesion was treated with drainage, excision and chemotherapeutic agents. Inoculation was probably secondary to alpha interferon injections performed during one year.

DISCUSSION
The review of the literature shows that isolated Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare skin infections are rare, probably induced by traumatic percutaneous inoculation, frequently in immunocompromised patients. The pro-infectious effect of interferon alpha is considered. Treatment is unsatisfactory and surgical excision is often necessary.


This paper is conducted to investigate the influence levels of internal factors of the enterprise on the performance- based pay for employees in State-owned enterprises in Hanoi. Data were collected from getting 120 questionnaires from board of manager, head of Human Resources (HR) administration and HR administrative staff in State-owned enterprises in Hanoi. Based on the data collected, the author use descriptive statistics analysis, cronbach Alpha analysis and Indepentdent T-Test for knowing the influence levels of each independent variable on dependent variable of the performance-based pay for employees. The results show that five internal factors of the enterprise including: production and business characteristics of enterprises; business development strategy; employees; the company's salary payment perspective; and personnel in payroll department have relationships with the performance-based pay for employees. Based on the findings, some recommendations are given for improving wages of employees to ensure the sustainable development of enterprises.


In this work, a fully automated process emulation is presented. Starting from industrial standard gdsII mask files a user friendly and fast way to create TCAD ready models has been realized. A three step approach is used. The creation of virtual layers to allow for logical operation based on masks is shown. Then the geometrical and dopant profile instantiation is carried out. Third the mesh generation based on and optimized on the information of the first two steps is shown. Industry-relevant sample applications for the implemented work-flow ranging from a radiation hardened latch to a state of the art FinFET SRAM cell are demonstrated.


The present invention relates to a rehabilitation apparatus and to a method for driving same. The rehabilitation apparatus comprises: a supporting unit for supporting the body of a patient; a first driving unit for providing motive force for rotating the supporting unit; a measuring unit for measuring the amount of force applied to the supporting unit by the movement of the patient; and a controller for selectively controlling the first driving unit and the second driving unit on the basis of the amount of force measured by the measuring unit.


This paper discusses the utilization of complex continuous wavelet transform based on B-spline function for reference voltages and currents extraction which are used for compensating power quality disturbances by using unified power quality conditioner. The major advantages of choosing B-spline function are the reduction of computation time and ease of online implementation. The performance of the proposed wavelet transform is compared with the discrete Meyer wavelet and complex Morlet wavelet transforms. Detailed simulation studies are carried out using Matlab/Simulink to prove the ability of the proposed method. It is inferred from the simulation results that the proposed B-spline complex wavelet transform based reference signal extraction is as accurate as complex Morlet wavelet transform but has less computational burden.


ion and a reductionist, destructive description of the individual rather than a holistic description of a unique personality? In space philosophy and space sociology, 'space' has different definitions. Space physics and metaphysics, space phenomenology and spatial aesthetics are common expressions but we are concerned with social space, symbolic space, and linguistic space. In the present economic, military, political, technological and climatic terminology, space and place are given extended meanings so as to encompass such phenomena as 'the politicalgeographical space', 'global space', etc. Space may refer to micro-space (rooms) or macro-space (global space, territories, regions, national states), and space seen in an inner relationship to materiality – natural or man-made. Several philosophers and sociologists (particularly within phenomenology and Marxism) have worked meticulously with the relationship between people, materiality and environment, where architecture, interiors, objects and different forms of social space are prominent. Some of them, such as Henri Lefebvre, Maurice Merleu-Ponty, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Yi-Fu Tuan, Michele Foucault, and theorists within activity theory and critical psychology, which I highlight in this article, have (or have had) an important influence. New theories evolve, with resulting diversifications. Worth noting is Jane Bennet's 'vital materialism' in which she is inspired by Bruno Latour's actant theory and his social and material constructivism, Henri Bergson's neo-vitalism and Gilles Deleuze's life philosophy. Professor of Sociology, Martina Löw's Raumsoziologie has received considerable attention. The Danish anthropologist Kirsten Hastrup has also developed interesting perspectives within topography. She uses 'topographic inversion' instead of 'spatial turn' in order to emphasize more clearly the material, geographical and historical dimension. My philosophical and theoretical foundation is Activity theory, Critical psychology, phenomenology and existential philosophy. With this approach, materiality, lifestyles, topography, location, time, activity, artifacts and everyday sociology become essential components of my analysis. Just as essential are the spatial-sociological, spatial-philosophical and situational-philosophical perspectives. Since 1970, I have worked considerably with these subjects and with everyday philosophy and everyday sociology.


The biological performance of tablets is commonly assessed by disintegration time and dissolution rates, which ascertains how much of the orally administered tablet may be bioavailable. This study seeks to assess the quality of chloroquine tablets in some States in Northern Nigeria by determining their disintegration and dissolution parameters. The Vanderkamp tablet disintegration tester was used to assess the disintegration time, while the dissolution rate test was carried out according to British Pharmacopoeia specifications. Five tablets of each coded sample were singly placed in a dry basket of the dissolution tester and the contents of which were immersed in a vessel containing one litre dissolution medium of de-aerated 0.1 HC1 at a constant temperature of 37±0.5°C. The stirring motor operated at 100 revolutions per minute for 45 minutes. The absorbance was measured in an UV spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 344 UM. Twenty-six (26), 36, 50 and 16 of the samples from states A, B, C and D respectively had normal disintegration times of less than 15 minutes. About 86% of the total samples from the 4 states disintegrated within 14 minutes thus conformed to the official requirement. States A (42.86%), B (67.57%), C (80.77%) and D (90.91%) samples had dissolution rate values above 70%. The disintegration time and dissolution rates of the sampled chloroquine tablets were assessed and found to have a good quality. However, quantitative drug assays need to be carried out that will measure the actual amount of active chloroquine in a tablet sample. Keywords: Chloroquine tablet, Disintegration, Dissolution


This paper presents a method for unsupervised partitioning of data for finding spatio-temporal patterns in climate data using kernel methods which offer strength to deal with complex data non-linearly separable in input space. This work gets inspiration from the notion that a non-linear data transformation into some high dimensional feature space increases the possibility of linear separability of the pattern in the transformed space. Therefore, it simplifies exploration of the associated structure in the data. Kernel methods implicitly perform a non-linear mapping of the input data into a high dimensional feature space by replacing the inner products with an appropriate positive definite function. In this paper we present a robust weighted kernel k-means algorithm incorporating spatial constraints for clustering climate data. The proposed algorithm can effectively handle noise, outliers and auto-correlation in the spatial data, for effective and efficient data analysis.


Abstract
 Anthropogenic climate change (ACC) and evolution are examples of issues that are perceived differently by scientists and the general public. Within the scientific community, there are clear consensuses that human activities are increasing global temperatures (ACC) and that evolutionary mechanisms have led to the biodiversity of life on Earth (evolution). However, there is much debate in the public discourse about the scientific evidence supporting these topics. The purpose of our study was to explore the relationship between a student's need for cognition (NFC) — preference to engage in and enjoy thinking — and the student's acceptance of ACC and evolution. The results revealed that students with a higher NFC were more accepting of both ACC and evolution. Future investigations should include evaluating the efficacy of different instructional techniques on NFC and acceptance of polarizing topics such as evolution and ACC.