Missing data are unavoidable in wireless sensor networks, due to issues such as network communication outage, sensor maintenance or failure, etc. Although a plethora of methods have been proposed for imputing sensor data, limitations still exist. First, most methods give poor estimates when a consecutive number of data are missing. Second, some methods reconstruct missing data based on other parameters monitored simultaneously. When all the data are missing, these methods are no longer effective. Third, the performance of deep learning methods relies highly on a massive number of training data. Moreover in many scenarios, it is difficult to obtain large volumes of data from wireless sensor networks. Hence, we propose a new sequence-to-sequence imputation model (SSIM) for recovering missing data in wireless sensor networks. The SSIM uses the state-of-the-art sequence-to-sequence deep learning architecture, and the long short-term memory network is chosen to utilize both past and future information for a given time. Moreover, a variable-length sliding window algorithm is developed to generate a large number of training samples so the SSIM can be trained with small data sets. We evaluate the SSIM by using real-world time series data from a water quality monitoring network. Compared to methods like ARIMA, seasonal ARIMA, matrix factorization, multivariate imputation by chained equations, and expectation–maximization, the proposed SSIM achieves up to 69.2%, 70.3%, 98.3%, and 76% improvements in terms of the root mean square error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and symmetric MAPE, respectively, when recovering missing data sequences of three different lengths. The SSIM is therefore a promising approach for data quality control in wireless sensor networks.


Abstract Unfortunately, there is limited research on coronavirus survival of food products and also food processing. The knowledge of the physical and chemical characteristics of coronaviruses mostly comes from the study of SARS‐CoV and MERS‐CoV physical (i.e., thermal processing, chilling and freezing, microwave irradiation, ultraviolet light, gamma irradiation, high hydrostatic pressure) and chemical (acidification and use of common disinfectants in the food industry like chlorinated derivatives and ozone) are means which could be used to inactive the coronaviruses or reduce the infection. These methods can be applied individually or in combination to act better performance. Thermal processing is one of the most effective methods for inactive coronavirus. Heating at 75°C (15–60 min) and 65°C (1 min) was the best temperature for inactive SARS‐CoV and MERS virus, respectively. Among irradiation methods (microwave, UV, and gamma), the most effective one is UVC rays. Moreover, the use of disinfectant like chlorinated derivatives is appropriate way to disinfect food product surfaces. Novelty impact statement This review provided updated information on effective strategies for inactive coronavirus that can be used in the food industry. SARS‐CoV‐2 as a new pandemic coronavirus was initiated from contaminated foods and can be transmitted by close contact, aerosols, and food surfaces. Food preservation (physical and chemical) methods could decrease SARS‐CoV‐2. Probably, heating and UVC are the most effective approach to inactive SARS‐CoV‐2. Despite the findings of coronavirus inactivation which were here discussed, much research is still needed for the development of new approaches to overcome the coronavirus.


The Agent-Based Environment for Linking Simulations (ABELS) provides a framework to facilitate the dynamic exchange of data between distributed simulations and other remote data resources. Specifically, the framework allows the formation of a dynamic "data and simulation cloud" that links a heterogeneous collection of networked resources. ABELS consists of three major components: user entities that serve as data producers and/or consumers, a brokering system for organizing and linking the various participants, and generic local agents that connect simulations and data resources to the cloud of participants. This paper describes the major redesign and implementation of the generic local agent, which serves as the adaptable interface between the user and the ABELS system.


The fiddler crabs, Uca lactea, which live on intertidal mudflats, exhibit a remarkable ability to return to its burrow. It has been reported that the species usually use path integration, an ideothetic mechanism for short-range homing. During the mating season, however, the accumulation error of the process increases due to vigorous courtship movement. To compensate for this, most courting males construct the vertical mud structures, called semidomes, at the entrance of their burrows and use them as landmarks. Here, we suggest a possible neural model that demonstrates how visual landmark navigation could be implemented in the fiddler crab's central nervous system. The model consisting of two levels of population of neurons, is based on the snapshot hypothesis and a simplified version of Franz's algorithm is used for the computation of home vector.


Non-technical summary The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an integrated and ambitious roadmap for sustainable development by 2030. National implementation will be crucial and there is an urgent need to understand the scale and pace of transformations to achieve the goals. There is also concern that achieving socio-economic objectives will undermine longer-term environmental sustainability. This study uses modelling to explore how different policy and investment settings can enable the necessary transformations, adopting Fiji as a use-case. Modest investment over the coming decade can deliver improved performance. However, far more ambitious actions are needed to accelerate progress while managing long-term trade-offs with environmental objectives. Technical summary This paper presents the results from a national scenario modelling study for Fiji with broader relevance for other countries seeking to achieve the SDGs. We develop and simulate a business-as-usual and six alternative future scenarios using the integrated (iSDG-Fiji) system dynamics model and evaluate their performance on the SDGs in 2030 and global planetary boundaries (PBs) and the 'safe and just space' (SJS) framework in 2050. Modest investment over the coming decade through a 'sustainability transition' scenario accelerates SDG progress from 40% to 70% by 2030 but fails to meet all SJS thresholds. Greatly scaling up investment and ambition through an SDG transformation scenario highlights possibilities for Fiji to accelerate progress to 83% by 2030 while improving SJS performance. The scale of investment is highly ambitious and could not be delivered without scaled-up international support, but despite this investment progress still falls short. The analysis highlights where key trade-offs remain as well as options to address these, however closing the gap to 100% achievement will prove very challenging. The approach and findings are relevant to other countries with similar characteristics to increase the understanding of the transformations needed to achieve the SDGs within PBs in different country contexts. Social media summary How can countries accelerate progress on the SDGs by 2030 while ensuring longer-term coherence with climate and sustainability thresholds?


The market economy is thought by some to have a life of its own, with a self-determining and autonomous dynamic that is sometimes thought of as constituting a living system. A deeper view comes from Whitley's mesoeconomic theory of business systems, where corporate hierarchy and the market establish relationships that when institutionalised generate a potential for generic rule structures. When the generic rules become enacted a market's financial system results. This paper will model the relationship between the business and financial systems. To do this, it will initially introduce a selected conceptual framework (autonomous agency theory) which takes the market to be a living system. The paper then explains Whitley's theory, and following this an examination of the Chinese financial system is made. This will illustrate the connection between the formal and informal financial servicing entities that can lubricate business processes, and indicate issues (seen as system pathologies) capable of delivering a new economic recession. Through agency, the relationship between the business and financial systems is explored, and issues like corruption are considered. Ultimately, we produce a model that clearly distinguishes between the concerns of macroeconomics and mesoeconomics.


The Evolution of Animal Communication. Reliability and Deception in Signaling Systems. By William A. Searcy and Stephen Nowicki. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 2005. 286 pp. $85, £55, ISBN 0-691-070946. Paper, $39.50, £26.95. ISBN 0-691-07095-4. Monographs in Behavior and Ecology Through considerations of such phenomena as nestling begging, alarm notes, mating calls, carotenoid coloration, and threat displays, the authors examine the dependability of animal communication systems.


This research proposes a microcredit model as an analysis tool
that facilitates the design of clear policies, enabling through
microcredit that entrepreneurship in Colombia understands
the individual and collective benefits of being a formally established
economic agent and the possibilities for development
that this brings to the company in its stage of gestation and
consolidation.


The nanoscale liquid was prepared in this research by dissolving nanoparticles in water at room temperatures and in a range of different concentrations (0.1-1.5) and by manual and mechanical mixing and analyzing the homogeneous distribution through SEM. The improvement in thermal conductivity in liquids was studied. Nanoparticles, which reach 1.7 at a temperature of 32 Celsius, with an increase of more than 45% over the original liquid without addition, and an increase in the viscosity of the liquid with the addition of nanoparticles, as well as a decrease in the viscosity to reach 0.006 with a rise in temperatures of up to 27 Celsius. The practical results have also been compared with a set of theories, and there has been a convergence of lower temperatures, and a decrease in the convergence with higher temperatures.


As convolutional neural networks (CNNs) enable state-of-the-art computer vision applications, their high energy consumption has emerged as a key impediment to their deployment on embedded and mobile devices. Towards efficient image classification under hardware constraints, prior work has proposed adaptive CNNs, i.e., systems of networks with different accuracy and computation characteristics, where a selection scheme adaptively selects the network to be evaluated for each input image. While previous efforts have investigated different network selection schemes, we find that they do not necessarily result in energy savings when deployed on mobile systems. The key limitation of existing methods is that they learn only how data should be processed among the CNNs and not the network architectures, with each network being treated as a blackbox. To address this limitation, we pursue a more powerful design paradigm where the architecture settings of the CNNs are treated as hyper-parameters to be globally optimized. We cast the design of adaptive CNNs as a hyper-parameter optimization problem with respect to energy, accuracy, and communication constraints imposed by the mobile device. To efficiently solve this problem, we adapt Bayesian optimization to the properties of the design space, reaching near-optimal configurations in few tens of function evaluations. Our method reduces the energy consumed for image classification on a mobile device by up to 6×, compared to the best previously published work that uses CNNs as blackboxes. Finally, we evaluate two image classification practices, i.e., classifying all images locally versus over the cloud under energy and communication constraints.


BACKGROUND
Clinical education placement for advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) students is challenging for most graduate schools of nursing. This study describes the experiences of hospitals that formed academic-service partnerships to facilitate clinical education placement for APRN students.

METHOD
Hospital staff, schools of nursing administration and clinical faculty staff, clinical preceptors, and APRN students participated in the focus group and interview sessions during the evaluation of the Graduate Nurse Education demonstration project.

RESULTS
Content analysis resulted in seven themes: APRN Student Enrollment, Clinical Placements/Process, Clinical Education Sites, Clinical Preceptors, Communication and Collaboration, Sustainability, and Funding Process.

CONCLUSION
Future partnerships between hospitals, schools of nursing, and clinical education sites should consider collaborating in multiple regions to increase enrollment and clinical education placement opportunities for APRN students. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(4):190-195.].


This article introduces several research topics related to the keyword spotting-based article retrieval system in broadcast news data. The system searches for the keyword speech from online broadcast news and retrieves all articles in which the corresponding keyword is spoken. For stable performance, various techniques are adopted including: utterance verification, out-of-vocabulary rejection, audio classification, and noise reduction. This article surveys several useful methods for the techniques and reports some experimental results. And then, several future works are addressed.


Disclosed here is a molecular switch which responds to acid-base stimuli and serves as a bi-state catalyst for two different reactions. The two states of the switch serve as a highly active and poorly active catalyst for two catalytic reactions (namely a hydrogenation and a dehydrogenative coupling) but in a complementary manner. The system was used in an assisted tandem catalysis set-up involving dehydrogenative coupling of an amine and then hydrogenation of the resulting imine product by switching between the respective states of the catalyst.


Brain bioelectric activity in 52 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) was measured with respect to the degree of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) from the results of background and reactive EEG using West Haven criteria. As the severity of LC increased, signs of HE on background EEG appeared, index frequency and a-rhythm decreased and its amplitude increased. Reactive EEG was indicative of reduced duration, intensity, and decrement rate of responses to orientational loading (visual, somatosensorial, and auditory evoked potentials). It is concluded that EEG studies permit to predict dynamics of LC clinical course and may be used as an additional diagnostic tool, especially at the preclinical stage of HE.


An open photoacoustic cell operating in the low range of chopping frequency has been employed to evaluate the thermal diffusivity values of intrinsic InP and InP doped with S, Sn and Fe. The experimental set-up is calibrated by the evaluation of thermal diffusivity value of pure Si and GaAs. The present investigation shows that doped samples show a reduced value for thermal diffusivity compared to intrinsic sample. From the analysis of data it is also seen that nature of dopant clearly influences the thermal diffusivity value of semiconductors. The results are explained in terms of phonon assisted heat transfer mechanism in semiconductors.


This study seeks to analyze how extreme weather conditions affect crop yield and risk in Nigeria and to assess the potential implications of weather extremes on the nation's crop insurance portfolio. A panel of Nigerian state-level crop yields was paired with a fine-scale weather data set that included distribution of temperature and precipitation between the minimum and maximum across all days of the growing season for selected crops. Weather data were examined from January 1, 1991 to December 31, 2012. The analysis was started with the traditional approach of estimating climate change impact by a quadratic regression model of weather and Growing Degree Days (GDD) on crop yields using panel data estimation. Later, Harmful Degree Days (HDD) and Vapour Pressure Deficit (VPD) were step-wisely included. I nteractions of rainfall, GDD and VPD were also explored. In the production approach, crop yield was specified as a function of weather inputs (temperature and precipitation). The results showed that the time when the lowest and highest yields were obtained differed by crops. The highest (43.50 kg/ha) and lowest (1.085kg/ha) yields for cassava were observed in 1999 and 2001, respectively, while both highest and lowest yields for sorghum were recorded in 2012. Daily maximum temperature between 30 and 35 °C occurred more than a 1000 times over all the days covered in this study (January 1, 1991 to December 31, 2012). The regression results showed that high damage to cassava, cotton and maize was evident by the strong and negative coefficient of Harmful Degree Days (HDD). For sorghum and rice, an exposure to heat range showed a negative influence on the yield. In order to address the negative weather effects and other problems associated with the National Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) such as little access by farmers, high information asymmetric and transaction costs, crop insurance based on indices from Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) could be adopted to compensate part of the damage caused to the farm products.


A 73-year-old man with a 5-day history of continuous hiccup, fever, and rapidly progressing paraplegia was admitted to our hospital. On admission, he exhibited dysarthria, complete paraplegia, and insentience of both lower limbs. Head and spine MRI showed abnormal, asymmetric lesions in the white matter, basal ganglia, and brainstem, and multiple spinal cord lesions. Test for serum anti-AQP4 antibody was negative. Evaluation of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B51 was negative; however, HLA-B54 was positive. Although skin lesions were absent, we considered neuro-Sweet disease and high-dose steroid therapy was initiated. The hiccup disappeared gradually, and he regained the ability to walk with a cane 30 days after the onset. Subsequently, the patient tested positive for serum anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody. It is important to consider MOG antibody-related disease as potential diagnosis in patients exhibiting clinical features of neuro-Sweet disease except for the absence of skin lesions.


Researchers are seeking ways to heal bone better and faster. Cellular grafts can accelerate bone healing and promote bone formation. Immediately after injury, blood clot formation yields inflammatory cells; an influx of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and osteogenic cells follows. MSCs form musculoskeletal tissue by differentiating into chondrocytes, fibroblasts, adipocytes, and osteoblasts. Osteoinduction stimulates stem cells to differentiate into osteoblasts and promotes cell migration. Osteoinductive agents include demineralized bone matrices () and bone morphogenetic proteins, which are extremely potent but are associated with risks and high costs. Amniotic tissue is relatively unregulated and has strong anti-inflammatory effects but has not been well studied in relation to bone formation and healing.


We report the discovery of the B[e] star VFTS 822 in the 30 Doradus star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, classified by optical spectroscopy from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey and complementary infrared photometry. VFTS 822 is a relatively low-luminosity (log L = 4.04± 0.25 L ) B8[e] star. In this Letter, we evaluate the evolutionary status of VFTS 822 and discuss its candidacy as a Herbig B[e] star. If the object is indeed in the pre-main sequence phase, it would present an exciting opportunity to spectroscopically measure mass accretion rates at low metallicity, to probe the effect of metallicity on accretion rates.


The article presents the results of a marketing analysis of the global and Russian markets for intelligent urban mobility, including a set of solutions that improve the quality of citizens' life – environmentally friendly modes of transport, shared services, on-demand mobility and infrastructure for integrating technologies into the urban environment. The authors propose a characteristic of the smart mobility market, consider the main segments and identify key trends in its development. Special attention is paid to the peculiarities of the transport sharing market development. In a comparative way, the features of consumer preferences, the volume of investments in sharing products and forecasts of market development are analyzed.


AIM
To compare clinicopathogenetic value of DNA-hydrolizing autoantibodies or DNA-abzymes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We studied sera from 180 patients with SLE, 180 RA patients and 128 healthy donors matched by age and gender; assessed catalytic and cytotoxic activity of DNA-abzymes in patients with different variants of SLE and RA course.

RESULTS
The highest catalytic and cytotoxic activities of DNA abzymes were observed in SLE patients. In SLE catalytic and cytotoxic activities of DNA abzymes ranged widely and their mean values depended on SLE activity in patients with systemic lesions. DNA-abzymes in RA patients showed lower catalytic and cytotoxic activities in relation to substrate DNA and target cells than in SLE. DNA-abzymes occurred most frequently in patients with high activity of RA, slow-progressive and lingering course of RA, especially in early development of visceral (extra-articular) pathology. Characteristic for DNA-abzymes in RA and SLE is the phenomenon of wide-range fluctuations due to factors determinating probability of induction of function of Ab-mediated catalysis and, therefore, incidence rates of DNA-abzymes, probably catalytic autoAb of the other specificity in a population of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases.

CONCLUSION
The data indicate the validity of DNA abzymes use in clinical practice for realization of diagnostic and therapeutic programs in SLE and RA.


During the past decades, treatment of laryngeal cancer has changed substantially, mainly due to the advent of novel approaches such as combined modality therapy as well as improvements in radiotherapeutic techniques. Locoregionally advanced disease in particular, which resulted in high recurrence and mortality rates, is now associated with long-term disease-free survival in a large proportion of cases. Moreover, with multimodality treatment, larynx preservation is now possible in most patients. There are varied regimens in use for patients with advanced disease, but at the same time the multitude of options can plague the clinician when trying to select the most appropriate one. This article will attempt to put the various approaches into perspective.


We have previously reported the in vitro growth of human hair follicles for up to 4 days in a partially defined medium containing serum. We now report the prolonged in vitro growth of isolated human hair follicles for at least 9 days. This was achieved after analysis of the contribution of certain components of the original medium and, by a process of elimination, deriving a completely defined medium supplemented only with antibiotics. l‐glutamine, insulin and hydrocortisone. We have shown, by [methyl‐3H] thymidine autoradiography, that the hair follicles grown in this medium maintain an in vivo pattern of DNA synthesis, and that the gross morphology and histology of these maintained hair follicles remains similar to that of freshly isolated hair follicles. We have also shown that the patterns of keratin synthesis, as determined by [35S] methionine labelling, do not alter with maintenance.


A reproducible, noninvasive technique for determining right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) was developed using multiple-gated equilibrium blood pool scintigraphy, which allows serial rapid measurements without reinjection of radioactivity. Studies were obtained using in vitro labeled technetium- 99m red blood cells, gamma camera and computer. In 20 patients, RVEF determined by multiple-gated equilibrium imaging in the left anterior oblique view was compared with RVEF measured by first-pass scintigraphy. For both types of imaging, multiple regions of interest (ROIs) were used for RVEF. The accuracy of RVEF using equilibrium scintigraphy was also evaluated using a single ROI. In 20 additional patients, rapid (2-minute) equilibrium scintigraphy for RVEF was compared with standard (6-minute) imaging. Excellent correlation (r = 0.94) for RVEF was found between multiple-gated equilibrium scintigraphy and the first-pass technique when multiple ROIs were used. Inter- and intraobserver variations for the equilibrium method were small (r = 0.91 and r = 0.98, respectively). RVEF with the 2-minute equilibrium technique correlated well with the 6-minute method (r = 0.98). In contrast to the high correlation when multiple ROIs were used, analysis of equilibrium scintigraphy by single ROI severely underestimated first-pass RVEF and showed poor correlation (r = 0.60).In 15 normal subjects and 21 patients with significant coronary artery disease and different degrees of right coronary artery stenosis, simultaneous left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and RVEF were measured. RVEF was less than LVEF in normal subjects (0.48 ± 0.05 vs 0.63 ± 0.08, mean ± SD). In patients with coronary artery disease, RVEF was not significantly different from that in the normal group, regardless of the degree of stenosis of the right coronary artery. We conclude that 1) multiple-gated equilibrium scintigraphy is a very accurate and reproducible new technique for determining RVEF; 2) the technique may be performed rapidly, and is therefore well suited to serial assessment of right ventricular function during exercise; 3) multiple ROIs are necessary for accurate measurement with this technique; and 4) RVEF is normally less than LVEF and is not significantly affected at rest by right coronary artery disease.


This paper presents an optimal control method of dc-dc converters. The method is based on hybrid dynamical system theory. Specifically, the input of the considered system is confined to discrete value whereas the output to be controlled is continuous value. The system is modeled as a mixed logical dynamical system. Then, the optimal control law is obtained by means of model predictive control. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, some numerical simulations are shown.


INTRODUCTION: Use of colonoscopy or the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) for colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention is supported by previous studies. However, there is little specific evidence regarding comparative effectiveness of colonoscopy or FIT for reducing CRC risk. In this study, we compared the association of CRC risk with colonoscopy and FIT using a nationwide database. METHODS: This population-based case–control study used colonoscopy and FIT claims data from the Korean National Health Insurance System from 2002 to 2013. Data were analyzed from 61,221 patients with newly diagnosed CRC (case group) and 306,099 individuals without CRC (control group). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between CRC and colonoscopy or FIT. RESULTS: Colonoscopy was associated with a reduced subsequent CRC risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.29). Stronger associations were found between colonoscopy and distal CRC, compared with proximal CRC (0.24 vs 0.47). In an analysis stratified by sex, the association was weaker in female subjects compared with male subjects (0.33 vs 0.27). Any FIT exposure was associated with CRC risk with an OR of 0.74; this association was stronger for distal cancer. As the frequency of cumulative FIT assessments increased (from 1 to ≥5), the OR of FIT exposure for CRC gradually decreased from 0.81 to 0.45. DISCUSSION: The association of colonoscopy or FIT with reduced CRC risk was stronger for distal CRC than for proximal CRC. FIT showed less CRC risk reduction than colonoscopy. However, as the frequency of cumulative FIT assessments increased, the association with CRC prevention became stronger.


This study, comprising 7 separate papers, is concerned with treatment of medial gonarthrosis. Results after high tibial osteotomy were found to deteriorate 8-9 years after surgery. The best results were seen in knees with preoperative Stage I or II osteoarthrosis and valgus deviation after osteotomy. The rehabilitation period after high tibial osteotomy is long, recovery of the average thigh muscle torque was first seen after 12 months. Stable internal fixation with early mobilization does not seem to be advantageous in this respect. Gait analysis showed signs of insufficient rehabilitation persisting 8-12 months after high tibial osteotomy, with unimproved maximum gait velocity and reduced stride length at constant maximum velocity. Rehabilitation with restitution of muscle torque was faster after unicompartmental arthroplasty and gait parameters did improve. An "anatomical" type of unicompartmental prosthesis seems to be more susceptible to load, with changed strain elicited in external rotationcompared to a meniscus bearing prosthesis. Knees with medial osteoarthrosis showed less rotation clinically duringmotion than healthy knees. The rotation was not significantly affected by a unicompartmental arthroplasty. A radiographic method for detection of prosthetic migration, using tantalum balls implanted in the skeleton, was developed and tested on 20 patients.


We consider the stochastic generalized Nash equilibrium problem (SGNEP) with joint feasibility constraints and expected–value cost functions. We propose a distributed stochastic projected reflected gradient algorithm and show its almost sure convergence when the pseudogradient mapping is monotone and the solution is unique. The algorithm is based on monotone operator splitting methods tailored for SGNEPs when the expected-value pseudogradient mapping is approximated at each iteration via an increasing number of samples of the random variable. Finally, we show that a preconditioned variant of our proposed algorithm has convergence guarantees when the pseudogradient mapping is cocoercive.


The coefficient of Thermoelectric power of hydrogen electrode as function of partial pressure has shown to be negative in accordance with the negative sign of state function of entropy with a deviation of almost half its size. The value found was -48.+/-832:2 microV/K. The intercept was found to be about 666.+-487mV/K. This value of intercept can be used to determine the Peltier coefficient. The All the Seebeck coefficients were measured positive with reference to the hot electrode. On the other hand, this power is produced on the cost of absorbing the heat from the environment(heat reservoir). If this is related to electrolysis devices, this means more care should be taken on the hydrogen electrode which has an endothermic reaction to avoid the freezing of the anode electrode. In the case of fuel cell, this will mean that extra care should be taken on both Hydrogen and Oxygen electrode, since all the adsorbed heat are thrown to the other side of where reduction occurs. These heats have been defined as Peltier heats of single electrodes. Good knowledge of the magnitude of these heats will save the life of the expensive materials in fuel cell and will improve the design of thermocells which can in turn help the efficiency improvement of those cells. The temperature profile of the hydrogen electrode cell was analysed. The causes for drop in voltage were properly explained. The theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics was adopted to explain the experiment done in this work.


Pretreatment of chicken embryo cells with homologous but not heterologous interferon inhibits the synthesis of vaccinia virus early messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). This inhibition is seen in the presence of cycloheximide, i.e., in the absence of protein synthesis, suggesting that the virion-bound transcriptase may be the target of the antiviral activity associated with interferon treatment. The inhibition of viral mRNA synthesis is dependent on the amount of chicken interferon used. The nonviral interferon inducer, polyriboinosine·polyribocytidine, similarly inhibits viral early mRNA synthesis in a dose-specific manner. The helical polynucleotide polydeoxyinosine·polyribocytidine, which is not an effective interferon inducer in chicken embryo cells, has no effect on viral ribonucleic acid synthesis.


For an enzymatic reaction the rate constants in the assumed mechanism (k(1), k(-1), etc.) sometimes can be calculated from the steady-state parameter values (V(max), K(m), etc.) and sometimes cannot. When identifiability problems occur, these are obscured by redundancy occurring among the steady-state parameters. This redundancy is only partly revealed by the known Haldane relations. We found the additional constraints between the parameters. These relations allow to predict in which situation rate constants are identifiable by steady-state kinetic methods. (c) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Despite the success of batch normalization (BatchNorm) and a plethora of its variants, the exact reasons for its success are still shady. The original BatchNorm article explained it as a mechanism that reduces the internal covariate shift (ICS), i.e., the distribution shifts in the input of the layers during training. Recently, some articles manifested skepticism on this hypothesis and provided alternative explanations for the success of BatchNorm, such as the applicability of very high learning rates and the ability to smooth the landscape in optimization. In this work, we counter these alternative arguments by demonstrating the importance of reduction in ICS following an empirical approach. We demonstrated various ways to achieve the abovementioned alternative properties without any performance boost. In this light, we explored the importance of different BatchNorm parameters (i.e., batch statistics and affine transformation parameters) by visualizing their effectiveness in the performance and analyzed their connections with ICS. Afterward, we showed a different normalization scheme that fulfills all the alternative explanations except reduction in ICS. Despite having all the alternative properties, we observed its poor performance, which nullifies the alternative claims, rather signifies the importance of the ICS reduction. We performed comprehensive experiments on many variants of BatchNorm, finding that all of them similarly reduce ICS.


Mountaineering is a popular sport and leisure activity participated by people at all levels. It involves hiking, trekking and climbing on rock or ice with the ultimate challenge of reaching the summit of the mountain. The sport of mountaineering requires climbers to not only possess physical tenacity but also mental resilience in order to overcome the challenging task of climbing to the top of the mountains. Mountain climbing is considered a high risk sport in that the apparent danger of injury or even possibility of death is high. Mountaineers often suffer weakness, breathlessness, and retardation of thoughts and actions at an altitude of over 5485 meters. Beyond 8000 meters, mountaineers will be exposed to environmental conditions such as avalanches and extreme weather conditions. The highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest standing at 8848m, was discovered in the 1847. Typically, it takes mountaineers an average of two months which includes resting, acclimatization and waiting for good weather to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. The first men, who climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, were Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, and the first woman to reach the summit after surviving from an avalanche attack was Japanese mountaineer, Junko Tabei in 1975 (Deegan, 2003). Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, conquered the mountain without oxygen supply in 1978 (Deegan, 2003). This feat is considered dangerous because when the body is deprived of oxygen, there is likelihood for the person to suffer from brain damage. British mountaineer, Alison Hargreves repeated this feat in 1995, solo and without oxygen supply (Deegan, 2003).


INTRODUCTION: Grisel syndrome is a rare entity that corresponds to a non-traumatic atlantoaxial rotatory subluxation, usually secondary either to an infection of the upper airway or to a head and neck procedure. Patients usually present with torticollis, and a high index of suspicion is needed for correct diagnosis. CASE REPORT: A 6-year-old boy was admitted to the ER with sore throat, fever, and torticollis. Clinical examination revealed neck flexion with rotation to the right. Computed tomography scan revealed a parapharyngeal abscess and an anterior displacement of the atlanto-axial joint of 3 mm, configuring a type II of Fielding. The child was admitted for endovenous antibiotic treatment, surveillance, and cervical immobilization. DISCUSSION: Grisel syndrome may present in a child with torticollis and neck infection. Otorhinolaryngologists should remember the possible presentations and risk factors for this syndrome. Conservative treatment is often enough, and early identification and immobilization seem to lead to better outcomes.


This study examines the linear and nonlinear effects of foreign direct investment on the long-run economic growth in Türkiye for the period of 1970-2020, within the framework of a simple endogenous growth model represented by a production function in the form of Cobb-Douglas, where the assumptions of constant returns to scale and decreasing productivity are valid for all collectible capital inputs. For this purpose, the study investigates whether the changes in fixed capital and foreign direct investment rates affect the GDP per capita growth rate linearly and non-linearly by using the ARDL & NARDL approach. The findings show that there is a linear and a nonlinear cointegration relationship between the foreign direct investment rate and GDP per capita growth rate, but the foreign direct investment rate does not make significant contributions to the growth rate in the long run. According to another finding, positive and negative shocks in the foreign direct investment rate, depending on the contraction and expansion periods of the Turkish economy, do not significantly and asymmetrically affect the growth rate in the long run.


Abstract Nano technology is an emerging field of interest for civil engineering application. Among the nano materials presently used in concrete, nano-silica possess more pozzolanic nature. It has the capability to react with the free lime during the cement hydration and forms additional C-S-H gel giving strength, impermeability and durability to concrete. Present paper investigates the effects of addition of nano silica in normal strength concrete. Three types of nano-silica in the form of nano suspension having different amount of silica content have been investigated. Mix design has been carried out by using particle packing method. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis has been carried out to find the chemical composition of control concrete and nano modified concrete. Further, experimental investigations have been carried out to characterize the mechanical behaviour in compression, tension and flexure. It has been observed that the addition of nano-silica in normal strength concrete increased the compressive strength and decreased the spilt tensile strength and flexural strength. Also, Rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) has been conducted to know the chloride permeability of control concrete, nano modified concrete, and nano coated concrete. It has been observed that the chloride permeability is less for nano coated concrete.


The first band in the electronic spectrum of pyrrole is calculated from wavepacket propagations performed using the MCTDH method. To do so, two model Hamiltonians are constructed to describe seven low-lying excited electronic states of pyrrole. These Hamiltonians are based on the vibronic coupling model, and are parameterised via fitting to extensive CASPT2 and EOM-CCSD calculations. A detailed analysis of the structure of pyrrole's electronic spectrum in the range 5.5 to 6.5 eV is made. The role of intensity borrowing from transitions to ππ(*) states by lower-lying 3s and 3p Rydberg states is assessed, and reassignments of much of the spectrum are subsequently made which indicate that most of the states in the spectrum are predominantly Rydberg in character. The resulting conclusions drawn serve to highlight the limitations of assignments based on the matching of calculated vertical excitation energies and the positions of peak maxima observed in electronic spectra.


Abstract

In Taiwan the geography, climax and environment are suitable for growing tea plants. Delicate agricultural planting techniques and exquisite tea making skills have allowed Taiwan tea to stand in world arena as early as more than one hundred year ago. The whole world knows that Taiwan has very excellent and high economical value tea products like Oolong tea, Oriental Beauty tea, and Paochong tea, etc. However, until today Taiwan tea still doesn't have international famous brand. England, France and USA don't grow tea leaves, but they all can create world famous tea brand, of which main products are in tea bag types.
The study would look into brand constructing process of a case company, TWA Tea, to study and analyze how TWG Tea successfully broke the traditional constraint with innovation thoughts to establish new business model and lock in high consumption groups, creating a luxurious tea brand. The study would also deconstruct TWA tea model in strategic positioning, cost, organization, process flow, aesthetics, and brand, etc., thus such successful experience can reflect on Taiwan tea innovation to expand to the entire world, hoping to create golden opportunity for Taiwan tea industry once more.

Keywords: Tea bag, Strategic positioning, Brand construction, Innovation diffusion, Aesthetics.


Both sexes of Brachiella malayensis n. sp. are described on the basis of specimens found in the nostrils of narrow-barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commerson (Lacepède) collected off Besut, Malaysia. The female of this species closely resembles those of B. magna Kabata, 1968 and B. cybii Pillai, Prabha et Balaraman, 1982 but is distinguishable mainly by the body size and the proportions of the cephalosome, posterior processes and caudal rami. While examining the male, we noticed a systematic inconsistency in some lernaeopodid genera. The genus Brachiella Cuvier, 1830, represented by its type-species Brachiella thynni Cuvier, 1830, and two monotypic genera Charopinopsis Yamaguti, 1963 and Eobrachiella Ho et Do, 1984, represented by Charopinopsis quaternia (Wilson, 1935) and Eobrachiella elegans (Richiardi, 1880), respectively, share distinct synapomorphies in the embracing (vs. pinching) elongate male maxilliped and the female trunk with a pair of long, cylindrical ventroposterior processes (in addition to a pair of modified caudal rami), both of which are involved in their unique reproductive strategy. The latter two genera are herewith relegated to junior synonyms of Brachiella.


In the nineteenth century, the mechanistic idea of natural phenomena had been consolidated to the point of believing that it was possible to explain all the physical from the mechanical theory. In this paper we show how thermodynamics is influenced by this prejudice, beginning with the fundamental hypothesis that motivated and led Helmholtz to give a mechanical interpretation of the principles of thermodynamics based on the mechanical model of unicycles that finally loses relevance when entering crisis the mechanistic model of the natural world.


Background The presence of structural sacroiliitis is strong evidence for the diagnosis of spondyloarthritis (SpA). Purpose To assess the performance of abdominal computed tomography (CT) and pelvic plain radiography for the diagnosis of structural sacroiliitis compared with sacroiliac CT (SI joint CT) considered the reference technique in patients with SpA. Material and Methods All SpA patients eligible for biologic treatment were selected from 2005 to 2012. An assessment of sacroiliitis was based on radiography according to the modified New York criteria and on abdominal CT and SI joint CT scans depending on the presence of erosion on at least two consecutive slices. A senior rheumatologist and radiologist independently scored the grade and diagnosis of structural sacroiliitis for the three imaging modalities. After a consensus reading of conflicting examinations (radiography and CT), a final diagnosis of structural sacroiliitis was attained. Results Of the 72 patients selected, sacroiliitis was diagnosed on radiography, abdominal CT, and SI joint CT in 40, 31, and 44 patients, respectively. Inter-reader agreements for the grade of sacroiliitis were substantial for the three imaging modalities, with a weighted kappa range of 0.63–0.75 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.52–0.83), and they were moderate for the diagnosis of sacroiliitis, with a kappa range of 0.50–0.55 (95% CI, 0.32–0.74). The sensitivity and specificity were 79.1% and 70.5%, respectively, for radiography and 82.1% and 100%, respectively, for abdominal CT. Conclusion This study demonstrates the relevance of abdominal CT for the diagnosis of structural sacroiliitis, with good sensitivity and excellent specificity. These imaging techniques avoid unnecessary examinations.


This treatise is a study on the effectiveness of logistics tasks through the Warehouse Management System. Using manufacturer `D` company`s logistics operation as an example, we compared before and after cases, in which WMS was used. Upon using WMS, we observed the processes and researched how much the logistics company`s performance was affected by the process changes influencing profits.


OBJECTIVE
It has been implied that neointimal proliferation and remodeling are the major causes of restenosis. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of orally administered L-arginine on these two factors in hypercholesterolemic rabbits that had suffered an injury to their iliac arteries caused by a catheter balloon.

METHODS
The study included nineteen rabbits that were divided in two groups: control (CG) and arginine (AG). There were 19 arteries studied from the control group and 17 in the arginine group. The animals were placed on a 2% hypercholesterolemic diet for 15 days and then submitted to a balloon angioplasty in order to produce a lesion in their iliac arteries. Next, the AG animals were given a 1g/kg/day oral dose of a L-arginine solution. The animals were sacrificed 15 days after the angioplasty procedure and histological artery sections were prepared, stained and fixed. The ratio between the neointimal area (in mm(2)) and the media layer (in mm(2)) was used to represent lesion development. In order to determine remodeling, the ratio between the total area of the medial portion of the vessel (greater balloon contact) and the total area of the reference segment of the vessel (less balloon contact) was used.

RESULTS
Mean neointimal thickness (NI/M) was 0.8151+/-0.2201 in CG and 0.3296+/-0.1133 in AG. Remodeling patterns for the two groups studied were similar.

CONCLUSION
In the experimental model used, L-arginine was able to reduce intimal tissue thickness in hypercholesterolemic rabbits but did not act on artery remodeling.


This paper demonstrates the environmental impacts of the wildfires occurring at the beginning of April 2020 in and around the highly contaminated Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ). Due to the critical fire location, concerns arose about secondary radioactive contamination potentially spreading over Europe. The impact of the fire was assessed through the evaluation of fire plume dispersion and re-suspension of the radionuclide Cs-137, whereas, to assess the smoke plume effect, a WRF-Chem simulation was performed and compared to Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) satellite columns. The results show agreement of the simulated black carbon and carbon monoxide plumes with the plumes as observed by TROPOMI, where pollutants were also transported to Belarus. From an air quality and health perspective, the wildfires caused extremely bad air quality over Kiev, where the WRF-Chem model simulated mean values of PM2.5 up to 300 µg/m3 (during the first fire outbreak) over CEZ. The re-suspension of Cs-137 was assessed by a Bayesian inverse modelling approach using FLEXPART as the atmospheric transport model and Ukraine observations, yielding a total release of 600 ± 200 GBq. The increase in both smoke and Cs-137 emissions was only well correlated on the 9 April, likely related to a shift of the focus area of the fires. From a radiological point of view even the highest Cs-137 values (average measured or modelled air concentrations and modelled deposition) at the measurement site closest to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, i.e., Kiev, posed no health risk.


The application of recombinant DNA techniques applied to the study of genetic neurological diseases will play a major role in the practice of neurology in upcoming years. Strategies are now available to develop useful and relatively simple biochemical diagnostic tests for heterozygous individuals with diseases inherited as autosomal dominant traits. In addition, molecular genetic methods will lead to the delineation of the genomic mutations responsible for these diseases. This review will update the current status of research in several neurological genetic diseases including myotonic muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease, Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (X‐linked). An introduction and overview of the methodology is provided. Specific research strategies including random screening of libraries, chromosome walking, messenger RNA selection, and messenger RNA translation are described. These strategies are designed to provide heterozygote identification, prenatal diagnosis and gestational management, the development of rational therapies, and the understanding of the molecular basis of disease expression.


Written by business-school thinkers and practitioners, this book provides managers with the ideas and techniques to unleash the true value of any company's greatest asset -its people.


Street vending is the sub-sector of informal businesses that operate in urban spaces meant for other uses. It was believed that street vending would be absorbed by modern sector with time but instead it has grown to providing alternative jobs to a large urban population who cannot get formal employment. People migrating to urban centres, school leavers and retrenched workers find work in street vending. Vendors provide goods and services cheaply and conveniently to the urban population. Its ability to expand and offer employment was recognized in 1970 when developing countries were experiencing low rate of economic growth and increased unemployment. Integration of street vending activities in urban land use is affected by negative perception of local authorities. However, there is still little research on how street vending can be integrated in urban plans. Against this back drop, this study assessed dynamics of street vending in phenomenon in Kisumu Municipality. The objectives of the study were to: examine the nature and patterns of street vending activities. Study population constituted street vendors in the central business district, customers buying from street vendors and Kisumu Municipality administrators. Purposive sampling was used to sample Kisumu Municipality administrators. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the owner of the street vending enterprise to respond to questionnaires. Customers who participated in the study were introduced by street vendors who responded to questionnaire. Content analysis was used to analysis qualitative data from focus group discussion and interviews through creating themes, categories and patterns. Quantitative data was analyzed using percentages, multinomial logistic regression and Pearson Chi square (χ 2 ). Street vendors were found to sell food, personal items, household items, household suppliers, hardware items and services at comparatively cheaper price and conveniently to the customers. Street vendors were found to operate from Monday to Sunday while Saturday and Sunday records the highest number of street vendors. The peak periods for street vending International Journal of Arts and Commerce Vol. 1 No. 4 September 2012 108 were between 10.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m. The vendors were found to station themselves on pavements, near a bank and business premises, hospital, parks and any open space with high pedestrian traffic when selling. Vendors were found to sell different products at different locations. The locations that street vendors took up were influenced by attractiveness, accessibility, number of customers, competitors, allocation by municipality and original site where vendor started. The study concludes that street vendors identify the locations where they vend on their own without any guideline. The sites taken at random by vendors make the pattern of street vending look haphazard within the urban built environment. This make Local Authorities view street vending as disorganized activity giving bad image to the town. The main study recommendation is that there is need to guide planning of street vending to integrate them in urban land use.


Let K denote an algebraically closed field with characteristic 0. Let V denote a vector space over K with finite positive dimension, and let A, A∗ denote a tridiagonal pair on V  of diameter d.  Let V0, . . . , Vd  denote a standard ordering of  the eigenspaces of A on V , and let θ0, . . . , θd denote the corresponding eigenvalues of A. It is assumed that d ≥ 3.  Let ρi  denote the dimension of Vi. The sequence ρ0, ρ1, . . . , ρd is called the shape of the tridiagonal pair. It is known that ρ0 = 1 and there  exists  a  unique  integer  h (0 ≤ h ≤ d/2)  such  that  ρi−1 < ρi  for  1 ≤ i ≤ h,  ρi−1 = ρi  for  h < i ≤ d − h,  and  ρi−1 > ρi for d − h < i ≤ d. The integer h is known as the height of the tridiagonal pair. In this paper, it is showed that the shape of a tridiagonal pair of type III with height one is either 1, 2, 2, . . ., 2, 1 or 1, 3, 3, 1.  In each case, an interesting basis is found for V and the actions of A, A∗ on this basis are described.


Fluoroscopic guidance is a critical step for the puncture procedure in percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal discectomy (PETD). In this paper, we propose an AR surgical navigation system for PETD based on multi-modality imaging information, which contain fluoroscopy, optical tracking and depth camera. We also present a self-adaptive calibration and transformation method between 6-DOF optical tracking device and depth camera, which are in different coordinate systems. With substantially reduced frequency of fluoroscopy imaging, the system can accurately track and superimpose the virtual puncture needle on fluoroscopy images in real-time.


The power systems for use in NASA space missions must work reliably under harsh conditions including radiation, thermal cycling, and exposure to extreme temperatures. Gallium nitride semiconductors show great promise, but information pertaining to their performance is scarce. Gallium nitride N-channel enhancement-mode field effect transistors made by EPC Corporation in a 2nd generation of manufacturing were exposed to radiation followed by long-term thermal cycling and testing under high temperature reverse bias conditions in order to address their reliability for use in space missions. Result of the experimental work are presented and discussed.


Although little attention has been paid to fibro-adenomas of the breast observed during pregnancy and lactation, a study of these lesions is important since the changes seen are frequently confused with changes due to a malignant condition. Especially is such a study of interest in the light of the hormonal relationship of these lesions to the structure and function of the normal breast. The term fibro-adenoma denotes an encapsulated fibro-epithelial lesion with either the pericanalicular or the intracanalicular type of connective tissue predominant. 1 Nineteen cases of fibro-adenoma modified by pregnancy, including 9 of lactating adenoma or so-called cystadenoma (Billroth, 1860; Gross, 1879; Power, 1885; Speese, 1909, and others), have been reported in the literature (McFarland, 1922, 1927; Sudler. 1923; Ingleby, 1932; Cheatle and Cutler, 1931. and others). Several cases reported before 1900 which might properly belong to this group were rejected because the variance in terminology and the lack


The electrolyte effects on the electrochemical behaviors of osmium complex polymer modified electrodes were investigated by a comparison between two osmium complexes, [Os(bpy)_2(PVI)_10Cl]Cl (Os-PVI_10) and [Os(bpy)_2(PVP)_10Cl]Cl (Os-PVP_10). The electrode process at Os-PVI_10 modified electrodes is reaction-controlled, while a diffusion-controlled electrode process exists at Os-PVP_10 modified electrodes. Both the cation and anion in supporting electrolytes strongly affect their electrochemical behaviors, such as the redox potential, wave shape and peak current. These phenomena are attributed to a change in the film structure and polymer swelling in various supporting electrolytes. The influence of electrolyte anions on the electrochemical behaviors is related to their hydrophobicity. The electrode process of Os-PVP_10 depends on the pH value of solutions, exhibiting different electron transfer mechanisms.


We study nonlinear regression of real valued data in an individual sequence manner, where we provide results that are guaranteed to hold without any statistical assumptions. We address the convergence and undertraining issues of conventional nonlinear regression methods and introduce an algorithm that elegantly mitigates these issues via an incremental hierarchical structure, (i.e., via an incremental decision tree). Particularly, we present a piecewise linear (or nonlinear) regression algorithm that partitions the regressor space in a data driven manner and learns a linear model at each region. Unlike the conventional approaches, our algorithm gradually increases the number of disjoint partitions on the regressor space in a sequential manner according to the observed data. Through this data driven approach, our algorithm sequentially and asymptotically achieves the performance of the optimal twice differentiable regression function for any data sequence with an unknown and arbitrary length. The computational complexity of the introduced algorithm is only logarithmic in the data length under certain regularity conditions. We provide the explicit description of the algorithm and demonstrate the significant gains for the well-known benchmark real data sets and chaotic signals.


Yang, W. Z., Oba, M., Swift, M. L. and McAllister, T. A. 2014. Short Communication: Variation in response to processing, in vitro gas production and fermentation of western Canadian feed barley. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 94: 725–729. Sixty feed barley samples were collected from various locations in western Canada. Samples were either ground (1 mm) or dry-rolled to a processing index of 80%, and fermentability was assessed by measuring gas production (GP) and dry matter disappearances (DMD) at 0, 4, 8, 14 and 24 h of incubation using a batch culture technique. Physical and chemical composition, and GP and DMD varied substantially among samples. There were significant correlations among test weight and nutrient content of barley with GP and DMD of ground barley. The results indicate that the impact of nutrient content on in vitro DMD is more easily detected with ground than rolled barley.


This confused response to the Charismatic movement2 by an official of the Assemblies of God is typical of what many classical Pentecostals in the United States have felt in their struggle over the past three decades to come to terms with the obvious proliferation of extraordinary signs and gifts of the Holy Spirit among members of mainline churches. In the past, Pentecostals viewed these churches as the chief opponents of the latter-day bestowal of supernatural signs and wonders. Apparently, without the permission of Pentecostals, the Spirit of God was suddenly being felt in Charismatic Renewal among members of major Protestant churches and, most surprisingly for Pentecostals, in the Roman Catholic Church. The Pentecostal confusion, however, was due not only to the unexpected work of the Spirit among alleged opponents of revival, but also to the influence that these Renewal movements were having on many classical Pentecostals. In other words, Pentecostals not only had to wrestle with the dramatic work of the Spirit in the mainline churches, they also had to come to terms with the possibility that the movement may serve as a source of renewal for Pentecostal churches. This confusion was rooted in the Pentecostal ambivalence toward a Renewal movement that both repelled and influenced the classical Pentecostal churches.


The sodium, potassium and nitrogen balances of 24 small premature infants during the first 3 weeks of life have been determined. During the first week of life there was a sodium deficit of 6 to 16 meq/kg in clinically well infants. Prior to milk feeding there was a loss of potassium and nitrogen, followed by change to retention once milk feedings were started.
 See Image in the PDF file
 Some sick infants showed a similar pattern; others showed a relative salt retention during illness or during moderate increases in sodium intake.
 Three infants were treated with cortisone during the first week of life. Two retained potassium as well as sodium during that time. Another demonstrated an apparent migration of sodium into the cells while receiving the cortisone.
 Low and more labile sodium values in serum were noted more often in the ill infants, while higher potassium levels in serum were more frequently encountered in the same infants, although these two phenomena were not necessarily associated.
 During the second and third weeks of life, all babies studied began to retain sodium irrespective of the degree of immaturity at birth and the positive nitrogen and potassium balance continued.
 See Image in the PDF file
 It is conjectured that the sodium diuresis observed during the first week of life may represent a physiologic reduction of the total body water.


Introduction: Airway complications (AC) are a source of morbidity and mortality after lung transplantation (LT). AC can be classified as necrosis, dehiscence, fistulae, infections, stenosis, granulomas or malacia. Aim: The purposes of this retrospective study were to determine the rate of AC in our LT population, identify associated risk factors and define whether AC affect patient's survival. Methods: Between November 2002 and July 2019, 150 patients underwent LT (single n=36, double n=114; 89 males; mean age 43 years±18). Indications were ILD (n=56), emphysema (n=13), cystic fibrosis (n=66), pulmonary hypertension (n=7) and miscellaneous (n=8). Donor variables (height, gender, smoking history, PaO2/FiO2, ICU stay, amine administration, cause of death, ex vivo lung perfusion, EVLP) and recipient variables (age, gender, diagnosis, length donor/recipient ratio, LT type and side, ischemic time (IT), use of ECMO, ICU stay time, need of tracheostomy, pre-post intervention complications, early and chronic rejection) were evaluated. 45 patients (30%) developed at least one AC. Results: Of the 45 AC, 29 were bronchial stenosis, 13 dehiscence, 1 bronchomalacia, 1 granuloma and 1 fistula. A correlation was found between AC and both ICU stay and need of tracheostomy (p=0.005) while IT, side of transplant, ECMO, EVLP and recipient diagnosis did not show any correlation with AC. No patient died as a result of AC. Overall survival was similar for patients with or without AC. Conclusions: The rate of AC in our LT population was comparable with other reports. Longer ICU stay and need of tracheostomy lead to prolonged mechanical ventilation possibly facilitating AC, which do not seem to affect patients'survival.


Cellular senescence is an irreversible proliferation arrest that contributes to tumor suppression and, perhaps, tissue aging. Senescence is frequently accompanied by an increase in nuclear heterochromatin, which is thought to promote proliferation arrest. In this issue, Medrano and co‐workers describe new insights into the protein complexes that regulate these changes in chromatin structure.


The increasing demands and needs of the community, such as clothing, food, and housing, continue to soar, just like the current soaring advances in technology and information. Which is where the relationship and interaction between humans and technology have become things like basic needs and needs at any time, one example of human attachment to technology which is currently growing and becoming a competitive world for companies and technology developers, one of which is gadget technology. Gadgets are small electronic devices that have special functions in each type to make work and human needs more practical and efficient. Unlike humans who have advanced technology that is only owned by the upper strata, it is different with mini-electronic technology which is now almost owned by the middle and lower majority, namely gadget technology.


Festivals are the most viable source of tourism promotion and provide recognition to different cultures and communities. This paper proposed and examined a holistic model of festival word of mouth (WOM), which is influenced by authenticity, promotion, loyalty, quality, and satisfaction. Accordingly, the current paper investigated the effect of the proposed model with reference to Lok Virsa handicrafts, the most famous festival of the Islamabad region in Pakistan. The findings revealed that the festival quality has direct impact on WOM and promotion. Promotion has a positive influence on loyalty, satisfaction, and WOM. Festival authenticity strongly influences promotion, quality, satisfaction, and WOM. Festival satisfaction is positively related to WOM and loyalty. Whereas, festival loyalty and WOM are significantly associated. The results suggest that festival organizers should deliver the claims and promises in the festival that they have made with tourists. This technique will harvest positive WOM and increase tourist re-visitation to upcoming festivals.


Electromagnetic waves and fluids have locally conserved mechanical properties associated with them and we may expect these to exist for matter waves. We present a semiclassical description of the continuity equations relating to these conserved properties of matter waves and derive a general expression for their respective fluxes.


Ridesplitting, which is a form of pooled ridesourcing service, has great potential to alleviate the negative impacts of ridesourcing on the environment. However, most existing studies only explored its theoretical environmental benefits based on optimization models and simulations. To put into practice, this study aims to reveal the real-world emission reduction of ridesplitting and its determinants based on the observed data of ridesourcing in Chengdu, China. Integrating the trip data with the COPERT model, this study calculates the CO 2 emissions of shared rides (ridesplitting) and their substituted single rides (regular ridesourcing) to estimate the CO 2 emission reduction of each ridesplitting trip. The results show that not all ridesplitting trips reduce emissions from ridesourcing in the real world. The CO 2 emission reduction rate of ridesplitting varies from trip to trip, averaging at 43.15g/km. Then, the interpretable machine learning models, gradient boosting machines, are applied to explore the relationship between the CO 2 emission reduction rate of ridesplitting and its determinants. Based on the SHapley Additive exPlanations method, the overlap rate and detour rate of shared rides are identified to be the most important factors that determine the CO 2 emission reduction rate of ridesplitting. Increasing the overlap rate, the number of shared rides, average speed, and ride distance ratio and decreasing the detour rate, actual trip distance, ride distance gap can increase the CO 2 emission reduction rate of ridesplitting. In addition, nonlinear effects and interactions of several key factors are examined through the partial dependence plots. This study provides a scientific method for the government and ridesourcing companies to better assess and optimize the environmental benefits of ridesplitting.


Health professionals, including nurses, stand accused of ignorance or oversight of children whose parent experience a mental health problem. Psychiatric nurses are in an ideal position to respond to children's needs and support their parents in a proactive and sensitive manner. The aim of this study was to explore psychiatric nurses' education, knowledge, confidence and practice with regard to the support needs of children whose parent has a mental health problem. This study employed a self-completion anonymous survey design with a sample of registered psychiatric nurses from one integrated mental health service in Ireland. The sample reported relatively low levels of education, knowledge, confidence and supportive clinical practice when it came to children whose parent has a mental health problem. There is an urgent need for education on family-focused care, and the development of guidelines and child focused services if the needs of parents and children are to be met.


An abstract user interface is defined according the Cameleon Reference Framework as a user interface supporting an interactive task abstracted from its implementation, independently of any target computing platform and interaction modality. While an abstract user interface could be specified in isolation, it could also be produced from various models such as a task model, a domain model, or a combination of both, possibly based on information describing the context of use (i.e., the user, the platform, and the environment). This paper presents a general-purpose algorithm that systematically generates all potential abstract user interfaces from a task model as candidates that could then be refined in two ways: removing irrelevant candidates based on constraints imposed by the temporal operators and grouping or ungrouping candidates according to constraints imposed by the context of use. A model-driven engineering environment has been developed that applies this general-purpose algorithm with multiple levels of refinement ranging from no contextual consideration to full-context consideration. This algorithm is exemplified on a some sample interactive application to be executed in various contexts of use, such as different categories of users using different platforms for the same task.


Managing the intervention of various actors during the construction phase is a recurrent issue in the construction sector. This is partly due to the multiplicity of stakeholders and the need to manage interfaces necessary for efficient planning and coordination of construction tasks. 4D CAD technology appears to be an innovative approach to answer such issues. It consists in combining a 3D model with the time dimension, in order to simulate the progress of works construction along the time. Our main hypothesis is that the use of 4D to support the actors' collaborative work is not adapted enough to the need of the sector because the classical view (Gantt + 3D model) does not take into account the specific requirements related to particular usages (planning of interventions and reservations request for a contractor; simulation and integration of works' interfaces for an engineer, etc..). It is therefore challenging to adapt the visualization to business needs of users. Developments in Human-Machine Interface and Information Visualization fields could allow us selecting user views properties (I.e. Structure, Quantity of information displayable, Graphical attributes, Content description, Interaction principles, Business view) and compose "business views". Therefore, the article propose taxonomy to describe user views in order to setup a method for business visualization design, enabling to: 1) Identify business tasks (usages) related to the roles of different users, 2) Offer services tailored to different usages, and 3) Suggest visualization modes fitting each usage on the basis of our visualization model. In a case study we formalize a collaborative process to identify the usages of each practitioners involved in the collaboration construction process planning. It especially targets collaborative management of works' interfaces. Then, after defining the required services, we suggest combining visualization methods suitable for each use in order to achieve views composition for each stakeholder.


This paper proposes BODYFITR, a fully automatic method to fit a human body model to static 3D scans with complex poses. Automatic and reliable 3D human body fitting is necessary for many applications related to healthcare, digital ergonomics, avatar creation and security, especially in industrial contexts for large-scale product design. Existing works either make prior assumptions on the pose, require manual annotation of the data or have difficulty handling complex poses. This work addresses these limitations by providing a novel automatic fitting pipeline with carefully integrated building blocks designed for a systematic and robust approach. It is validated on the 3DBodyTex dataset, with hundreds of high-quality 3D body scans, and shown to outperform prior works in static body pose and shape estimation, qualitatively and quantitatively. The method is also applied to the creation of realistic 3D avatars from the high-quality texture scans of 3DBodyTex, further demonstrating its capabilities.


The most secure type of grasp of a frictionless workpiece is the form-closure grasp. However, task constraints may make achieving form-closure impossible or undesirable. In this case, one needs to employ a force-closure grasp. In this paper, we study the subclass of force-closure grasps known as second-order stable grasps, which typically have a small number of contacts. We derive conditions for second-order stability and represent second-order stability cells as conjunctions of equations and inequalities in the configuration variables of the system. These cells are the subsets of the system's configuration space for which the frictionless workpiece is second-order stable. We also determine the minimum and maximum numbers of contacts necessary for second-order stability. Our results are applied to a simple planar whole-arm manipulation system to generate one of its second-order stability cells.<<ETX>>


The Veterans Affairs (VA) nursing services has implemented a new resource management methodology for determining nurse staffing based on the expert judgment of panels of nurses. This article describes how two educators worked with a development task force to design and implement a national education program to prepare 172 individual health care facility coordinators to implement the methodology. The education program was based on a systems approach emphasizing data collection and analysis, consensus building and expert decision-making. Two pilot programs were conducted and recommendations resulted in a series of 1 1/2-day training sessions conducted across the United States.


The article analyzes modern design development in Kazakhstan on the example of fashion designers of the XXI century. Attention is paid to the problems of color scope imaginative-aesthetic specificity in essentials' products that is of great importance in development of author collections of high quality on the world fashion shows nowadays. Attention is also paid to artists' design color trends in brand clothing development of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The article provides an adjective of art appreciation description of Ostwald Wart theory. The article is taking into account the factor that authors' creative concepts and principles of color use in fashion design are perceived more difficult now in Kazakhstan. Therefore, this study is an attempt to consider the color scope as the basis for fashion design forming based on a multipronged approach by means of general and special methods of scientific research. It makes it possible to full in the gap in modern art history. The authors' position comes to ideas about what level of fashion collections quality, including color combinations, does not compare with designer's clothing sketches among the well-known European designers.


This paper aims to examine the growth of IR in the East Africa region (Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda) from 2010-2020. This study adopted a content analysis methodology. Data for this study was extracted from OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repository), ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repository) and repositories websites to identify the language used, subject covered, software used and types of content that are found in East African repositories. The findings of this study reveal that East Africa region had a total number of 66 repositories, which are registered in OpenDOAR. Kenya is a leading country in the region by having 42 repositories, followed by Tanzania with 14 repositories and Uganda have 10 repositories. The findings show that there is an increase number in the of repositories in the region from 4 in 2010 to 66 in 2020, however the growth is low compared to other parts of the world like Europe, Asia, and America. The study shows the need of librarians, researchers, stakeholders, and East Africa governments to come together to overcome the challenges that hinder the growth of repositories in the region. Mandate policies formulation, training, fund support, OA awareness and technical support are needed in overcoming those challenges.
Keywords: Institutional Repository, Open Access, Content growth, Institutional Repository software, Items types, Institutional Repository language, and subject covered in repository, East Africa region.


Nodes in sensor networks can be easily compromised by an adversary due to hostile environments in which compromised nodes could be used to inject false reports into the network. The dynamic en-route scheme can detect and drop such false reports during the forwarding phase . In this scheme , choosing a threshold value is important as this gives a trade off between security of power and energy consumption. Th us , a threshold value should be chosen such that it provides sufficient resilience, yet is small enough to conserve energy. This paper presents a fuzzy-based threshold determination method for the dynamic en-route scheme to filter false reports in wireless sensor networks. The base station periodically determines the threshold value using a fuzzy rule-based system. The resilience and energy efficiency of the proposed method, against false data injection attacks, are demonstrated using simulation studies .


This research looks at an analysis of the impact of cultural transfer on organizational performance in the financial services sector, culminating from high employee mobility within the industry in Zimbabwe. The industry has been characterized by high employee mobility in an environment where each and every financial institution should ideally have a unique culture, resulting in a distortion of the uniqueness of these respective organizational cultures and other strategic interventions, which organization would normally focus on in endeavoring to create competitive advantage and optimize organizational performance. Some of these interventions include human resources development, strategic management (formulation, implementation, evaluation and control), organizational development, change management, as well as mergers and acquisitions, among others. The objectives of the research are to :assess how staff mobility in the financial services sector impacts on the transfer of different organizational cultures from one institution to the other; evaluate the correlation between organizational culture and organizational performance; evaluate the impact of recruitment, selection, training and development and other human resource interventions in shaping organizational culture; and evaluate the impact of organizational culture on organizational strategy formulation, implementation, evaluation and control. The findings of the research revealed that: employee mobility results in cultural transfer; corporate culture influences strategy formulation and execution; corporate culture has an impact on all human resource management interventions; culture determines responsiveness to environmental changes and affects the management of change; and corporate culture influences ethical business conduct.


We have been asked to contribute to a special section of Cultural Studies Review in honour of Meaghan Morris and her significant influence to cultural studies. Before sharing my contribution to the Meaghan Morris Festival, it is important to note that my role in this intellectual celebration was minor, but Meaghan's influence on me is rather large and meaningful.


One of most import noise sources in a jet powered aircraft is turbulent boundary layer (TBL) induced structural vibration. In this chapter, the general model for the prediction of TBL-induced plate vibration and noise is described in detail. Then numerical examples for a typical plate are illustrated. Comparisons of plate vibration and radiated noise between numerical results and wind tunnel test are presented. The effects of structural parameters on modal-averaged radiation efficiency and therefore the radiated noise are discussed. The result indicates that an increment of flow velocity will increase the acoustic radiation efficiency below the hydrodynamic coincidence frequency range. The main reason for this phenomenon is that a higher convection velocity will coincide with lower order modes which have higher radiation efficiencies.


To improve the range resolution of stepped-frequency SAR system, frequency difference drift should be estimated using the raw data as accurately as possible. This paper proposes a new method to estimate the accurate frequency difference drift base on frequency band synthesis. In this method, the echoes of different subband signals will be compressed firstly so as to find out point targets with strong energy. Secondly, two phase functions are constructed by a pre-set frequency difference and multiplied to the echo signals of corresponding subband respectively; the interferometry phases are then obtained from the shifted subband signals. Finally a new normalized signal vector can be constructed from the interferometry phases; and the accurate frequency difference drift can be obtained by performing FFT to the vector. The required accuracy and the implementation strategies of this method are discussed, and the effectiveness and accuracy of this method are shown by some real SAR data results. (6 pages)


We report a linear-scaling computation method for evaluating the dynamic first hyperpolarizability β based on the divide-and-conquer (DC) method. In the present scheme, we utilized the quasi-density-matrix expression derived from Wigner's (2n + 1) rule for β, where the quasi-density matrices are constructed from the solution obtained via the DC time-dependent self-consistent field (TD-SCF) method [T. Touma, M. Kobayashi, and H. Nakai, Chem. Phys. Lett. 485, 247 (2010)]. Numerical evaluation of π-conjugated and saturated organic chain systems verified that the present scheme considerably reduces the computational time for the β evaluation with a slight loss of accuracy, even around the singular frequency appearing at the electronic excitation energy. This evaluation indicates that the present linear-scaling TD-SCF scheme can also be used to estimate the molecular excitation energy. Furthermore, we succeeded in accurately evaluating the macroscopic second-harmonic generation coefficient of the polyvinylidene fluoride from the molecular (hyper)polarizabilities.


The developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and decision making systems are identified as virtuous models for banking and finance sector (BFS) applications. Even though AI provides great advantage in application changes it is essential to remodel the system using explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) design system. Also the standard sensing models provides appropriate monitoring values but huge size of sensors is considered as a major drawback. Thus two diverse problems are addressed in this research work where XAI has been integrated with micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) for solving the problems related to BFS applications. Further the data security has been enhanced as XAI is implemented with conviction managements and real time experiments are carried out by developing a unique application by integrating new mathematical designs. To validate the effectiveness of BFS application the developed model is tested with five scenarios which includes multiple parametric arrangements with interpretability process. The tested and compared outcomes with existing models indicates that XAI and MEMS provides inordinate improvements in terms of data impairments thus increasing the transparency of the projected system to an average 96%.


According to Junhua Jiang's doctoral study, real estate control policies in China that aim at stabilizing or slowing house price growth can reduce two types of real estate risks to banks: discount rate risks and overall risks of the real estate firms to banks. Real estate control policies, however, cannot constrain another type of real estate risks to banks: risks of the real estate market to banks.


The objectives of this study were to investigate quantitative alterations in leukocytes and immunosuppressive effects of ginger rhizome associated with oral administration of Azathioprine (AZA) on guinea pig model. This study was carried out at the Al Jouf University during the period from March to April 2013. A total of twelve guinea pigs randomly divided into three groups (four guinea pigs each) were used in this study. Group I, received daily oral administration of 50 mg/kg body weight of AZA in combination with 50 mg/ml of ginger rhizome extract for five days; Group II was treated with 50 mg AZA daily for five days, while Group III was used as a control group. Hematological alterations associated with ginger rhizome and AZA were measured using standard hematological and data analysis techniques. Ginger rhizome in combination with AZA was found to enhance the reduction in the lymph (%) compared to AZA treatment (P < 0.05).  Lymphocyte was significantly lower in group II (AZA) and group I (AZA + ginger) (P < 0.05), 13 and 18%, respectively than the control group, 38%. This may be due to either inhibition in one of the lymphopoiesis growth factors or shortening the life span of lymphocytic cells by the action of AZA. The results of the present study indicated an immune suppressive effect of ginger rhizome extract associated with immunosuppressive agent (AZA) with mainly lymphocytopenia. The current findings suggest that ginger may have a role in either the stimulation of lymphopoiesis or discontinue the effect of AZA, as the percentage of lymphocytes was significantly higher in group II versus group I after mixing up AZA + ginger. Accordingly, further studies would be useful to estimate lymphocytic growth factors to know the relationship between ginger, AZA and lymphopoiesis.

 Key words: Azathioprine, ginger rhizome, blood cell counting, hematological alterations.


Details about a fault's progression, including the remaining-useful-lifetime (RUL), are key features in monitoring, industrial operation and maintenance (O&M) planning. In order to avoid increases in O&M costs through subjective human involvement and over-conservative control strategies, this work presents models to estimate the RUL for wind turbine main bearing failures. The prediction of the RUL is estimated from a likelihood function based on concepts from prognostics and health management, and survival analysis. The RUL is estimated by training the model on run-to-failure wind turbines, extracting a parametrization of a probability density function. In order to ensure analytical moments, a Weibull distribution is assumed. Alongside the RUL model, the fault's progression is abstracted as discrete states following the bearing stages from damage detection, through overtemperature warnings, to over overtemperature alarms and failure, and are integrated in a separate assessment model. Assuming a naïve O&M plan (wind turbines are run as close to failure as possible without regards for infrastructure or supply chain constrains), 67 non run-to-failure wind turbines are assessed with respect to their early stopping, revealing the potential RUL lost. These are turbines that have been stopped by the operator prior to their failure. On average it was found that wind turbines are stopped 13 days prior to their failure, accumulating 786 days of potentially lost operations across the 67 wind turbines.


Summary

Aerial photographic sample censuses of the flamingoes and pelicans on Lakes Nakuru and Hannington were carried out on four occasions between October 1968 and March 1969. On Lake Nakuru the estimated numbers of flamingoes varied between 172 000 and 401 000, and the pelicans between 6800 and 27 900. There were no pelicans on Lake Hannington, but the number of flamingoes varied between 507 000 and 634 000. It was not possible to distinguish between greater and lesser flamingoes, or between white and pink-backed pelicans on the aerial photographs.

On 28–30 March 1969 a census was carried out on twenty-four lakes, between Lake Hannington in the north and the Singida lakes in the south. The total number of flamingoes seen was just over one million, with 22 000 pelicans.

About 100 000 lesser flamingo nests were counted from aerial photographs taken over Lake Natron in November 1969.


The analysis of the hygrothermal behaviour of green building materials is investigated in this work. For this, a 1D heat, air and moisture transfer model was developed using Comsol Multiphysics and applied to a hemp concrete wall. Particular attention is paid in the experimental determination of hygrothermal properties and their dependency with the temperature and the moisture content. To validate the model, a hemp concrete wall was monitored for 12 month under various boundary conditions. The results suggest in our case that accounting for the thermal dependence of the sorption isotherm is of high importance, whereas moisture thermal diffusion has only a minor effect on temperature and vapour pressure distribution.


Educational technology has received unprecedented attention recently, as the efficacy of traditional education methods are coming into question. This thesis introduces the Primer-an e-textbook that initially customizes the presentation of a given course's content to the preferences of the reader, then gradually scales those customizations back as the reader progresses through the e-textbook. The Primer is designed to assist in the "two sigma" problem [1] of bringing the educational experience of a student closer to that of receiving individual instruction from a competent tutor that uses mastery learning techniques. The Primer initially improves the accessibility of a new course to the student by customizing the representation of the course's content to the student's needs; additional instructional videos, dereferencing of definitions, and hyperlinks back to the defining information originally introducting a concept are provided given the students' preferences. These customizations are based both on the strengths and weaknesses in the student's background in the course's preresequites, and the information presentation styles preferred by the student. The Primer reduces these customizations over the course of the textbook so that the e-textbook gradually and eventually reflects the delivery style intended by the e-textbook's author, and to give consistency across users' e-textbook experience. The goal is a method of information delivery that is personalized, yet standardized. The Primer allows students to ease into an e-textbook without becoming discouraged with the presentation style native to the e-textbook's field. It can prevent the student from becoming discouraged by providing more support for areas of the e-textbook's content in which the student has unstable grounding. The Primer was implemented using readings from 6.01 and additional content from OCW Scholar, and feedback was received from students as well as professionals in the field of educational technology.


While ambitious environmental objectives are being set for new constructions in Switzerland, the assessment of urban-scale projects and comparison of their performance to national targets are made possible by a growing number of life-cycle assessment (LCA) tools. However, previous research emphasizes the lack of existing tools to support the decision-making process at the early design stage, characterized by a low level of project details. This paper presents a comparison between three LCA tools. The first, stemming from a research and development project (SETUP), is an exploration tool relying on a database of urban-level scenarios and their environmental performance, able to convert district targets (e.g. 2000-Watt society objectives) into specific sub-targets at the building or component levels. The other two are online LCA tools currently available to practitioners (Sméo and Calculation tool for 2000-Watt-society-sites RH II ), that allow assessing the project and verifying its compliance with a given target. Each tool was applied to a low-carbon case study, the blueFactory district in Fribourg (Switzerland), in two hypothetical contexts corresponding to the schematic and detailed project development phases, characterized by different levels of details. When used for the assessment of a project at a more advanced development stage with a high resolution of detail, findings indicate that Smeo and RH II provide similar environmental performance results. However, in early planning stages, SETUP shows better abilities to support decision-making by providing ranges of results and highlighting uncertainties and the influence of design parameters that have not yet been fixed.


Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Visceral obesity and body weight gain are associated with the increased risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Adiponectin is an adipokine possessing anti-tumor activities against various types of obesity-related cancers. The present study has established a MMTV-polyomavirus middle T antigen (PyVT) transgenic mouse deficient with adiponectin (ADN) expression. Compared to the control mice [PyVT(+/−)ADN(+/+)], the development of mammary tumors in mice lacking this adipokine [PyVT(+/−)ADN(-/-)] was significantly accelerated. While the serum total cholesterol was progressively decreased from week 11 onwards, the cholesterol content in tumor tissues was elevated in both types of mice. The ratio between serum LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol was significantly higher in PyVT(+/−)ADN(-/-) mice than that in PyVT(+/−)ADN(+/+) mice. Adiponectin was able to inhibit cholesterol uptake in both MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells and the primary tumor cells isolated from PyVT transgenic mice. These data demonstrated that the anti-breast cancer activity of adiponectin was at least in part attributed to its suppressive effects on cholesterol accumulation in mammary tumors. This work is supported by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project no.777908M). Adiponectin knockout mice were kindly provided by Dr. Lawrence Chan at Baylor College of Medicine, who generated these mice with the support of the US National Institutes of Health grant HL-51586. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-03-07.


Features of the Th1 or Th2 phenotype start to develop during CD4 T cell priming. This study of the response to the bacterial flagellar protein FliC shows that either Th1 or Th2 responses can be induced in mice depending upon how FliC is presented. This is shown by assessing the cytokine mRNA and class of FliC‐specific plasma cells induced in situ. Soluble recombinant (r)FliC and polymerized FliC are strongly Th2 polarizing, inducing IL‐4, NIP45 and c‐Maf mRNA as well as ϵ and γ1 switch transcripts and switching to IgG1. CD28‐requirement for this switching shows its T cell dependence. rFliC was unable to induce markers of Th1 activity including IL‐12, T‐bet and IFN‐γ. Conversely, when FliC is presented in its native context surface‐bound on live, flagellated Salmonella, switching is predominantly to IgG2a (IgG2c in C57BL/6 mice), reflecting Th1 activity. The development of divergent FliC‐specific polarization to either Th1 or Th2 indicates that the context in which this antigen is encountered rather than its intrinsic immunostimulatory properties determines the direction of Th polarization.