A report of the World Health Organization's International Research Program for Human Reproduction states that worldwide demand for contraception has increased tenfold over the past 25 years. Some 380 million persons in developing countries today use modern and safe contraception, vs. only 31 million in 1960-65. The increase was most significant in East Asia, where there were 18 million users in 1960-65 and 217 million today and where 70% of couples have used a method. Population specialists expect a significant increase in demand amounting to over 100 million persons by the year 2000 as a result of the increased number of fertile-aged women. By 2000, nearly 560 million persons are projected to need contraception. The total fertility rate for developing countries has declined in the past two decades from 6.1 children per woman to 3.9 and is expected to drop to 3.3 by the year 2000. The contraceptive methods employed vary by country and level of development. Female sterilization is in first place in the poorest countries, followed by male sterilization and oral contraceptives and distantly by condoms, periodic abstinence, and withdrawal. Greater use of condoms in developed countries is due to the perception of threat from sexually transmitted diseases. The WHO estimates that 250 million sexually transmitted infections occur each year. An estimated 12 million persons are believed to be HIV positive. The use of OCs is relatively uncommon in China and India, which rely heavily on sterilization. The world fertility decline is believed to be due primarily to increased use of contraception, but abortion has played a role. The WHO estimates that between 36 and 53 million induced abortions occur each year, with 15 million of them illegal. 52 countries containing one-fourth of the world's population authorize abortion only to save the mother's life; 42 countries with 12% of the population permit abortion for medical or genetic reasons, rape, or incest; 13 countries with 23% of the population permit abortion for social or sociomedical reasons; and 25 countries with 40% do not require any specific reason. The authors of the report concluded that liberalized legislation does not necessarily imply higher rates of abortion.


Background: Vitamin D, a fat soluble vitamin that is mainly involved in the regulation of calcium/phosphate metabolism, has a increasingly understood role in immunomodulatory activity, both in innate and adaptive immune system. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), vitamin D showed to suppress the proliferation of synoviocytes and to reduce the production of proinfammatory cytokines, in vitro. (1) Recently the hypothesis has been raised that vitamin D has a negative association with RA activity. (2) Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) vitD) level, RA activity and response to a first biologic disease-modifying drug (bDMARD). Methods: This is a longitudinal, retrospective study including consecutive patients with the diagnosis of RA followed at our rheumatology department. Demographic, clinical, and laboratorial data were collected from our national database at baseline, 6 and 12 months after initiation of a first bDMARD. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0. Correlations between variables were studied using Spearman correlation analysis and comparison between groups was performed using Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests; p Results: Mean age of patients (n=236) was 51.5 ± 11.2 years old, 192 (81.4%) were females with a median disease duration of 10.1 [4.7, 16.7] years. Seropositivity for anti-citrullinated protein antibodies was present in 192 (81.4%) patients and for rheumatoid factor in 175 (74.2%). The majority exhibited a very high or high disease activity at baseline (median DAS28 5.75 [4.99 – 6.63]) and 90% (n=212) of them were concomitantly using corticosteroids and/or other disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (117 with methotrexate (MTX), 62 with leflunomide and 32 with sulfasalazine). Regarding bDMARD, 56.8% (n=134) initiated an TNF alpha inhibitor. After 6 and 12 months from a bDMARD initiation there was a significant reduction of ESR, CRP levels, TJCs, SJCs and DAS28 (all p-values  Among our study population 42.5% patients were responders to first bDMARD (23.8% good and 18.7% moderate responders) according to the EULAR response criteria. Disease remission (DAS28  The percentage of good responders was significantly lower in the subgroup of patients with hypovitaminosis D compared to subjects with normal 25(OH) vitamin D levels at baseline (p=0.002), as it was for the percentage of disease remission (p=0.015). The bivariate correlation analyses showed that 25(OH) vit D levels at baseline correlated with CRP levels and good response to RA treatment after 12 months (Spearman's coefficient -0.201, p = 0.028; Spearman's coefficient 0.255, p  Conclusion: In patients with RA, basal 25(OH) vit D levels correlated with response to a bDMARD. These results suggest a role of basal vitamin D status in the prediction of disease evolution and support the hypothesis that vitamin D has an immunomodulatory potential. References: [1]Huhtakangas JA, Veijola J, Turunen S et al. 1,25(OH)2D3 and calcipotriol, its hypocalcemic analog, exert a long-lasting anti-infammatory and anti-proliferative effect in synoviocytes cultured from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2017; 173: 13- 22. [2]Lee YH, Bae SC. Vitamin D level in rheumatoid arthritis and its correlation with the disease activity: a meta-analysis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2016 Sep-Oct;34(5):827-833. Epub 2016 Apr 6. PMID: 27049238. Disclosure of Interests: None declared


The retention constants of variously substituted estradiol derivatives were measured as a function of the composition of various binary mobile phases in order to study the relationship between chemical structure and retention behaviour in TLC on alumina. The slopes and in rcepts of the linear relationships between the retention constant R M and the logarithm of the volume fraction of the polar mobile phase component were calculated and are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the solute and mobile phase. The R F values and relative retention ΔR M of the compounds depend largely on the retention behaviour of their substituents. The results obtained in this investigation are compared with the results of the same derivatives obtained in previous investigations on silica gel.


Ultralight axionlike particles (ALPs) are compelling dark matter candidates because of their potential to resolve small-scale discrepancies between ΛCDM predictions and cosmological observations. Axion-photon coupling induces a polarization rotation in linearly polarized photons traveling through an ALP field; thus, as the local ALP dark matter field oscillates in time, distant static polarized sources will appear to oscillate with a frequency proportional to the ALP mass. We use observations of the cosmic microwave background from SPT-3G, the current receiver on the South Pole Telescope, to set upper limits on the value of the axion-photon coupling constant g φγ over the approximate mass range 10 − 22 − 10 − 19 eV, corresponding to oscillation periods from 12 hours to 100 days. For periods between 1 and 100 days (4 . 7 × 10 − 22 eV ≤ m φ ≤ 4 . 7 × 10 − 20 eV), where the limit is approximately constant, we set a median 95% C.L. upper limit on the amplitude of on-sky polarization rotation of 0 . 071 deg. Assuming that dark matter comprises a single ALP species with a local dark matter density of 0 . 3 GeV/cm 3 , this corresponds to g φγ < 1 . 18 × 10 12 GeV . These new limits represent an improvement over the previous strongest limits set using the same effect by a factor of ∼ 3 . 8.


The purpose of this study was to determine at what stage of meiotic maturation mouse oocytes develop the ability to undergo sperm-induced activation, assayed by cortical granule (CG) release. Germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), prometaphase I (proMI), metaphase I (MI), and metaphase II (MII, the normal stage at fertilization) stages were evaluated by quantitative image analysis. At 2 hr, fertilized MII eggs underwent a mean CG loss of 69%; loss was global--in the entire cortex occupied by CGs. In contrast, fertilized GVBD and proMI oocytes had no significant CG loss in the cortex after 2 hr. After 4 hr, 63, 67, and 88% of fertilized GVBD, proMI, and MI oocytes, respectively, had localized CG release only in the vicinity of the fertilizing sperm. At 4 hr, GVBD oocytes had small sperm-associated, CG-depleted domains, approximately 100 microns 2 (< 1% of the oocyte cortex), whereas those for proMI oocytes were approximately 2500 microns 2. The CG density was reduced by 90% in these domains, whereas the remaining cortex showed no evidence of CG loss. Both the extent and time course of CG loss were altered in oocytes fertilized before MII and were not significantly affected with 25 microM thimerosal, which sensitizes egg calcium stores. Unlike the ability to undergo CG release, the ability to initiate sperm chromatin decondensation was not stage specific and the extent of decondensation was cell cycle related. Competence to undergo CG loss develops in two phases: the ability to undergo localized CG release increases between the GV and MI stages, whereas the mechanism of propagating a normal wave of global CG loss from the site of sperm entry develops between MI and MII.


This paper presents a methodology for testing railway pantograph/catenary systems based upon the dynamically substructured system approach for combined physical and numerical components, originally developed by Stoten and Hyde. The main advantage of the dynamically substructured system is that it can provide more stable substructured testing than alternative schemes, such as the commonly used hybrid simulation method, often referred to as hardware-in-the-loop simulation. The developed method is validated through experiments using a simple pantograph rig, together with a numerical simulation of the catenary. In order to realise a real-time simulation of the large catenary model, for the first time in dynamically substructured system testing this study uses (i) a modal analysis technique to reduce the dimension of the contact wire model and (ii) a moving window approach to represent long-distance travel of the pantograph. Finally, the experimental dynamically substructured system test results are compared with simulations of the benchmark pantograph/catenary emulated system.


Three-ratio method is one of the effective methods for latent fault diagnosis of power transformers, but there is a lack of code in this method. According to the DGA data collected in this paper, it is found that the variation trend of the characteristic gas in the same fault samples is the same, and the variation trend of different fault features is obviously different. In this paper, by excavate the changing trend of each data in DGA, using the grey relational theory and using the DGA fault identification method based on grey relational analysis, the fault diagnosis of code absence power transformers in DGA is carried out. It makes up for the deficiency of the three ratio method and improves the accuracy of transformer fault diagnosis. The research results have important theoretical value and practical value of engineering. It can be popularized vigorously and bring great economic benefits to the power system and the society.


This study aimed to investigate the effects of electrical energy and its synergistic activity with graphene oxide (GO) in Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) biofilms. The viability of E. faecalis biofilms was analyzed by colony-forming units, crystal violet staining, and confocal laser scanning microscopy. The morphologies of the biofilms and the bacterial organelles were observed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission emission microscopy (TEM), respectively. Application of electrical energy combined with 0.2% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) on E. faecalis in biofilms significantly decreased the bacterial viability and biofilm biomass compared to the 0.2% NaOCl-only-treated group. Furthermore, additional application of GO showed similar antibacterial effects to 0.5% NaOCl. Notably, TEM observation revealed that the bacteria treated with electric energy and GO showed damaged cell membranes. The results suggest that combination of electrical energy and GO enhances antibacterial activity of NaOCl and has the potential to be applied to root canal irrigation protocols.


tal problems remain a drag on the economy, or 3) there is "environmental meltdown." Altogether this is a very good, balanced review of China's environmental problems. It displays advances in knowledge since publication of Ross's pioneering Environmental Policy in China,4 although Economy's study lacks the analytical framework of this work. It treats many of the same themes in Managing the Chinese Environment,5 but in a more integrated fashion. By emphasizing the enormity of China's environmental challenge, Economy adds to the debate among scholars and statesmen as to what actions by developed countries can mitigate China's environmental degradation and correspondingly help forestall global environmental crises.


Slope stability analyses can be performed using computer program, such as Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB). In the current work, a computer program for slope stability analysis named JOZLOPE based on MATLAB and using Bishop simplified analysis method was used to determine the location of a slip surface and its safety factor. The validation is carried out by analyzing three simple slope models and comparing their results by JOZLOPE and some comparator slope stability analysis programs. It is found that the variations between JOZLOPE's results and those of the comparators are less than 1% for bottom circle-slope geometry intersection, less than 7% for top circle-slope geometry intersection  and less than 4% for Safety Factor. These findings demonstrates  that the a MATLAB program is successfully compiled and it produced measured values that agree with those of their respective comparator.


A study of infection with F. buski in children has been carried out in a rural area of Bangladesh. The rate of ova production was inversely related to the worm load. Subjects infected with F. buski had higher total leukocyte counts than the control subjects, but the two groups were not different with regard to haemoglobin level and other parameters of nutrition. These findings have been discussed. There was a high rate of infection (36.2%). Up to the age of 7 years, males and females were equally affected, but above this age the females predominated.


Bioregionalism is often presented as the politics of deep ecology, or deep ecology's social philosophy. That the ties uniting these doctrines are rarely explored can be put down to a perception amongst commentators that such links are self-evident and therefore unworthy of closer examination. By arguing that the bonds between deep ecology and bioregionalism are more tenuous than has often been assumed, this paper addresses this theoretical lacuna. There is nothing exclusive to the central tenets of deep ecology which provides us with a coherent rationale for a specifically bioregional form of decentralisation. However, deep ecology has nonetheless had an appreciable impact on bioregional thinking. In this context it is argued that bioregionalism's assimilation of aspects of deep ecology, and particularly an emphasis upon cross-species identification, undermines the project in various ways.


Synchronic variations in abundance in populations of the same species are common phenomena encountered in various environments, including lakes, and different taxa of freshwater fishes. This phenomenon can be caused by similar environmental conditions across physically separated populations. In the context of the ongoing climate change, it is essential to test this hypothesis, identify the factors driving the synchrony and elucidate the mechanisms, in the attempt to improve fisheries management. This study investigates synchronic variations in European whitefish (Coregonus spp.) populations in five peri-alpine lakes. The hypothesis suggests that shared biotic or abiotic factors contribute to similar trends in whitefish landings. Environmental and seasonal variables impacting the early life stages of the species were analyzed, and the Euclidean distances between the multivariate time series were calculated to identify similarities or dissimilarities in lake environmental parameters. We found that regional winter and spring temperatures were consistent across the lakes, but these factors did not fully account for variations in landings statistics. Wind intensity, water level and zooplankton abundance showed lake-specific patterns that could better explain local conditions and dynamics. Linear models did not reveal a coherent correlation with a common environmental variable across all lakes. However, distinct relationships were found in four of the lakes, with local factors significantly contributing to abundance variations. The spring abundance of Daphnia spp., a primary food source for whitefish larvae, was the main factor correlated with fish landing trends in Lake Geneva and Lake Bourget. Higher availability of Daphnia spp. may decrease intraspecific competition and density-dependent mortality. In Lake Neuchâtel, winter water temperature was negatively correlated with fish abundance proxies, suggesting that warmer winters may compromise reproduction success. Lake Annecy saw an increase in whitefish landings following a substantial reduction in fishing efforts during the late 2000s. A significant negative correlation was found between whitefish landings and fishing efforts. No relationship was found for Lake Aiguebelette, maybe due to a lack of zooplankton data. In conclusion, the observed synchrony in the European whitefish population is likely driven by a combination of interacting environmental and anthropogenic factors rather than a single common variable. Further research and a more detailed dataset are needed to better understand these complex relationships.

Cover image: Whitefish (courtesy of Rémi Masson)


An international group of scholars have contributed to Joyful in Thebes, a Festschrift for the distinguished Egyptologist Betsy M. Bryan. The forty-two articles deal with topics of art history, archaeology, history, and philology representing virtually the entire span of ancient Egyptian civilization. These diverse studies, which often present unpublished material or new interpretations of specific issues in Egyptian history, literature, and art history, well reflect the broad research interests of the honoree. Abundantly illustrated with photographs and line drawings, the volume also includes a comprehensive bibliography of Bryan's publications through 2015.


This paper describes Jaql, a declarative scripting language for analyzing large semistructured datasets in parallel using Hadoop's MapReduce framework. Jaql is currently used in IBM's InfoSphere BigInsights [5] and Cognos Consumer Insight [9] products. Jaql's design features are: (1) a flexible data model, (2) reusability, (3) varying levels of abstraction, and (4) scalability. Jaql's data model is inspired by JSON and can be used to represent datasets that vary from flat, relational tables to collections of semistructured documents. A Jaql script can start without any schema and evolve over time from a partial to a rigid schema. Reusability is provided through the use of higher-order functions and by packaging related functions into modules. Most Jaql scripts work at a high level of abstraction for concise specification of logical operations (e.g., join), but Jaql's notion of physical transparency also provides a lower level of abstraction if necessary. This allows users to pin down the evaluation plan of a script for greater control or even add new operators. The Jaql compiler automatically rewrites Jaql scripts so they can run in parallel on Hadoop. In addition to describing Jaql's design, we present the results of scale-up experiments on Hadoop running Jaql scripts for intranet data analysis and log processing.


The role of sodium (Na) in combination with potassium (K) in the growth and yield of tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum L.) was studied in soil culture. Sodium was applied at 0, 5, 10, 20 mg / kg soil as NaCl and K at 0, 20, 40, 80 mg / kg soil as KCl. Records of components of growth and mineral nutrient uptake and accumulation in plant tissue were taken. Sodium application at levels above 10mg / kg improved number of leaves and root dry matter yields, while number of flowers and shoot dry matter yields were depressed. The application of K to varying levels of Na reversed the antagonistic effects of Na on plant growth. However, Na applied at levels lower than 10 mg / kg increased tissue N, P and Ca and decreased Mg and Na. A complimentary relationship between Na and K at a ratio of 1:8 or 1:16 was observed to have enhanced the growth and yield of tomato. Key words: Sodium nutrition, tomato, dry matter yield, tissue elemental content Moor Journal of Agricultural Research Vol.4(2) 2003: 183-190


Leuprorelin is indicated for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer (APC) and is available as 1, 3, 4 and 6-monthly injections. There are advantages of longer leuprorelin injection intervals in the treatment of APC. Across all injection intervals, efficacy is similar and the majority of patients achieve testosterone suppression and normalisation of prostate-specific antigent. Treatment is well tolerated. Six-monthly leuprorelin injections are less costly to the healthcare system than the shorter interval injections.


To evaluate the efficacy of arterial digital subtraction angiography (DSA), 28 patients with a variety of hepatic lesions underwent intra-arterial DSA immediately following conventional celiac or hepatic arteriography. Thirty-one studies were obtained and the results of DSA were compared with the conventional arteriograms. DSA showed good visualization of the arteries in the early arterial phase of the examination. The late arterial phase was better evaluated on conventional arteriograms due to the decreased spatial resolution of DSA. Arterial DSA was most useful in the evaluation of the parenchyma of the liver; the use of remasking techniques allowed improved visualization of hepatic lesions, particularly in the left lobe of the liver. It is concluded that arterial DSA is useful in hepatic imaging and may supplant conventional hepatic arteriography as the technology improves.


The aims of this article are to address how learning is constituted and can be studied as a phenomenon in interaction and to discuss how teaching and learning are related. Theoretically, the article argues for and discusses constraints and affordances for relating sociocultural understandings of learning as changing participation to conversation analysis understandings of participation. The data material consists of longitudinal video recordings of authentic physiotherapist–patient encounters. This study traces the progressional change in the formation of movement behavior through detailed analysis of repair and correction practices. The results show a change in participation over time through capturing changes in the repair and correction organization participants use to resolve troubles with understanding and movement performance. In sum, there is a successive change for the patient from other- to self-initiated repair and correction, and from other- to self-repair and correction. The findings relate to the notion of educational scaffolding and have implications for teaching professions.


Object detection is a computer vision task of predicting a set of bounding boxes and category labels for each object of interest in a given image. The category is related to a linguistic symbol such as 'dog' or 'person' and there should be relationships among them. However the object detector only learns to classify the categories and does not treat them as the linguistic symbols. Multi-modal models often use the pre-trained object detector to extract object features from the image, but the models are separated from the detector and the extracted visual features does not change with their linguistic input. We rethink the object detection as a vision-and-language reasoning task. We then propose targeted detection task, where detection targets are given by a natural language and the goal of the task is to detect only all the target objects in a given image. There are no detection if the target is not given. Commonly used modern object detectors have many hand-designed components like anchor and it is difficult to fuse the textual inputs into the complex pipeline. We thus propose Language-Targeted Detector (LTD) for the targeted detection based on a recently proposed Transformer-based detector. LTD is a encoder-decoder architecture and our conditional decoder allows the model to reason about the encoded image with the textual input as the linguistic context. We evaluate detection performances of LTD on COCO object detection dataset and also show that our model improves the detection results with the textual input grounding to the visual object.


Introduction Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC; hydrochar) has, in recent years, become an increasingly exciting method for producing sustainable carbon from biomass and waste materials. Hydrochars are currently being investigated for a wide range of applications including combustion fuels, catalysis, sensing and environmental remediation. In terms of their chemistry, hydrochars are predominantly built of a complex, amorphous structure of aromatic carbon formed by the dehydration and aromatization of residual organic tissues and the polymerization of monosaccharides and furfural-like compounds. Changes in the carbon chemistry of these materials due to production processes are important for scaling up. This study has applied X-ray Raman Spectroscopy (XRS) at both the ESRF and the APS, to study changes in hydrochar carbon chemistry for the bulk material.


To the Editor, Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to the shortage of group O-packed red blood cells (RBCs), hospitals and transfusion services are inventing ways to conserve and use less RBC products. Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), America's Blood Centers, and the American Red Cross have all issued a joint statement informing the public of the critical status of the national blood supply and urging all eligible people to consider blood donation. Similar to other industries, the blood community is experiencing workforce challenges, there-by leading to a significantly reduced number of trained staff available to collect, test, manufacture, and transport blood products. In order to prepare for anticipated blood supply issues, AABB's recommendation to all hospital transfusion services includes developing strategies that address the risk for shortages, continuously assessing blood inventory and utilization needs, and informing physicians and providers ordering blood transfusion about critical blood supply issues. Generally, whole blood should be collected into an anticoagulant volume calculated for 450 ± 45 ml or 500 ± 50 ml. According to the technical manual, RBCs that are labeled as low volume units contains 300–404 ml when the whole blood is collected into 450 ± 45 ml bag or 333–449 ml when the whole blood is collected into 500 ± 50 ml bag. Other components such as platelets, plasma, and cryoprecipitate should not be manufactured from low volume whole blood units. Previous studies have already demonstrated the quality of under collected blood for transfusion. These low volume RBC units are acceptable for transfusion, therefore, availability of these units would make an additional important contribution to the already depleted blood supply without involving additional expense. In many cases, these low volume units are discarded; however, utilization of these precious resources would be an important addition to the nation's blood supply. We have been recently receiving these low volume RBC in additive solution (AS-3) units collected in 450 ± 45 ml bag from our blood supplier and have transfused 30 units to actively hemorrhaging trauma patients who need an emergency blood transfusion. We have also performed the hematocrit on 11 of the units with average unit hematocrit of 59.6%, range of (50.6%–67.7%). The average volume of each unit is 255 ml with a range of (237–278 ml). According to Davey et al. the higher concentration of dextrose and adenine in low volume RBC units collected in citrate phosphate dextrose adenine-1 (CPDA-1) units may improve posttransfusion red cell viability and subsequently posttransfusion RBC survival. This is similar to the concentration of dextrose and adenine in units collected with additive solutions. The RBC low volume units have a collection volume of between 66% and 90% of a normal blood unit. It is expected that the dose of hemoglobin, if lower, would not fall below 66% of a standard RBC unit. According to the Circular of Information prepared jointly by the AABB, the American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers, and the Armed Services Blood program, RBCs, Low Volume "may not be an indication of a lower dose of hemoglobin." We are a level one trauma center and our main concerns were group O unit availability to support our trauma program. The use of these low volume units was initiated with careful consideration from members of our blood conservation and utilization team (transfusion medicine committee) when evaluating ways to meet the needs of our trauma program and protect the blood supply. These low volume units cost us 10% less than our standard unit cost. There are no regulatory codes or Food and Drug Administration (FDA) variance required prior to transfusing low volume units. There is also no regulatory reason on how you use these products because they are already licensed products. The patient's physician does not need to be notified and Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is not needed to transfuse these units. These units have International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) code E5242. Based on our recent practice of transfusing low volume RBC, we are able to enhance our group O RBC inventory and make available these low volume RBCs to patients in need of emergency transfusions. Although we do not Received: 27 January 2022 Revised: 18 February 2022 Accepted: 22 February 2022


Purpose The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine perceived barriers to adoption of lifestyle changes for type 2 diabetes prevention among a diverse group of low-income women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods A secondary data analysis of 10 semistructured focus group discussions was conducted. Participants were low-income African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian women ages 18 to 45 years who were diagnosed with GDM in the past 10 years. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to identify key themes that emerged within and between groups. Results Four key themes emerged on the role of knowledge, affordability, accessibility, and social support in type 2 diabetes prevention. Women discussed a lack of awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding and type 2 diabetes prevention, inaccessibility of resources in their local communities to help them engage in lifestyle change, and the desire for more culturally relevant education on healthful food options and proper portion sizes. Discussion Study findings suggests that to improve effectiveness of type 2 diabetes prevention efforts among low-income women with GDM history, health care providers and public health practitioners should avoid using "one-size-fits-all" approaches to lifestyle change and instead use tailored interventions that address the cultural and environmental factors that impact women's ability to engage in recommended behavior change.


The use of haemostatic agents can provide life‐saving treatment for patients who suffer from massive bleeding in both prehospital and intraoperative conditions. However, there are still urgent demands for novel haemostatic materials that exhibit better haemostatic activity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability than existing products. In the present study, we aim to evaluate the feasibility of new wound dressing, RapidClot, for treating uncontrolled haemorrhage through a series of in vitro assessments to determine the swelling ratio, clotting time, enzymatic degradation, haemolytic activity, cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, and migration. The results indicated that the RapidClot revealed better water adsorption capacity and shorter blood clotting time (132.7 seconds) than two commercially available haemostatic agents Celox (378.7 seconds) and WoundSeal (705.3 seconds). Additionally, the RapidClot dressing exhibited a similar level of degradability in the presence of hyaluronidase and lysozyme as that of Celox, whereas negligible degradation of WoundSeal was obtained. Although both Celox and RapidClot revealed a similar level in cell viability (above than 90%) against NIH/3 T3 fibroblasts, improved cell proliferation and migration could be obtained in RapidClot. Taking together, our results demonstrated that RapidClot could possess a great potential for serving as an efficient healing dressing with haemorrhage control ability.


Introduction: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm that if not treated, will progress into blast crisis (BC) of either myeloid or B lymphoid phenotype. The BCR-ABL1 fusion gene, encoding a constitutively active tyrosine kinase, is thought to be sufficient to cause chronic phase (CP) CML, whereas additional genetic lesions are needed for progression into CML BC. To ultimately achieve a cure for CML, there is a need to establish improved disease models allowing increased understanding of disease pathogenesis and to evaluate novel therapeutics. Aim: In this study, we investigated if retroviral expression of BCR-ABL1 in cord blood (CB) CD34+ progenitor cells transplanted into NOD/SCID IL2–receptor gamma deficient (NSG) mice would recapitulate features observed in CP CML. Methods: CD34+ progenitor cells from human CB were transduced with a retroviral vector expressing BCR-ABL1 and subsequently transplanted into NSG mice. Mice were sacrificed at signs of illness and bone marrow (BM) and spleen cells were analyzed using flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, FISH and RNA sequencing. Secondary transplants were also performed. BM mononuclear cells (MNC) from CP CML patients were analyzed using flow cytometry and FISH. Results: For the majority of the BCR-ABL1 transplanted (BA) mice, signs of disease were evident within 100 days post transplantation. Spleens were enlarged and both control and BA mice showed robust human engraftment in both BM and spleen. Expression of BCR-ABL1 also induced expansion of the transduced cells. In addition to the previously described features of this humanized transplantation model such as a mild expansion of human myeloid cells, BCR-ABL1 expression induced an inflammatory-like state in the BM and spleen of the BA mice as evident by an increase of human macrophages/histiocytes and T cells. In addition, an expansion of aberrant mast cells in BA mice was observed. Secondary transplantations failed to induce a similar disorder as in the primary mice, but long-term engraftment was achieved, showing only mast cells in secondary BA mice. These mast cells aberrantly expressed CD25 (IL2RA), a cell surface receptor normally only expressed on neoplastic mast cells. This was in contrast to secondary control mice where the long-term engraftment was dominated by B cells. Because CP CML can progress into lymphoid BC, we next explored if BCR-ABL1 expression in CB CD34+ cells would show a disturbance also of the B cell lineage. We observed a striking block at the pre B cell stage, resulting in an accumulation of pre B cells in the BM of BA mice. RNA sequencing of sorted BCR-ABL1-expressing pre B cells from BA and control mice revealed that BCR-ABL1 expression results in a significant de-regulation of about 700 genes. Among the up-regulated genes, many were shown to be involved in inflammation and apoptosis. Finally, by sorting BM MNCs from patients with CP CML into different populations of B cell progenitors and performing FISH for BCR-ABL1, we confirmed that a similar block in B cell differentiation is present in CP CML patients. Conclusion: This humanized mouse model of CML reveals previously unexplored features of CP CML, including expansion of aberrant mast cells and a block at the pre B cell stage, and should provide a valuable model for future studies of mechanisms involved in the disease pathogenesis of CML. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


1. The flagellate Astasia ocellata synthesizes as reserve carbohydrate a water-insoluble polysaccharide (paramylon) containing chains of beta-(1-->3)-linked d-glucose residues. 2. The average chain length, determined by methylation analysis, is about 43, and the minimum degree of polymerization from periodate oxidation data is 50-55. Most of the molecules are therefore essentially linear.


Sir, Chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) is not a simple entity (Lancet, 1977) and sometimes it may show progression to chronic active hepatitis. In patients with type-B CPH, several authors have observed some depressed imumunological functions, so that the hypothesis of an inadequate clearance of HBsAg by the immune system has been put forward for the persistence of antigenaemia and of liver damage (Eddleston and Williams, 1974). Some authors have used levamisole (LMS) in the treatment of acute (Par et al., 1977) and chronic persistent (De Crde et al., 1974; Verhaegen et al., 1977) HBsAgpositive hepatitis because of its immunostimulant activity (Lancet, 1975), and report beneficial effects. Published data on this subject remain scanty and use of LMS in CPH must still be considered an open question. We present some data on 5 children, aged 4-10 years, with HBsAg-positive CPH having altered transaminase levels, histologically controlled, who were treated with LMS at a dose of 2 mg/kg per day for 3 consecutive days per week, for 4 weeks. Immunological parameters were controlled before and 10 days after the end of the treatment (Table) and compared with normal values for our laboratory. Humoral parameters were controlled during treatment and for the next 5 months.


A new approach is proposed for unattended grouping of traffic sources. This is GA based search technique, which use finite state machine as a genetic representation of solution domain. Models approximate multi host communication in relation to host under research. They describe traffic source behavior handling event sequence with internal loops and provide similar traffic source grouping. The proof of concept implementation shows potential capability to detect network anomalies and sources of unwanted traffic. Ill. 7, bibl. 8 (in English; summaries in English, Russian and Lithuanian).


Background We defined large-volume lymph node metastasis (L-VLNM) as more than five lymph node metastases (LNMs) or any lymph node with a diameter of 2 mm or greater in any case of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). This study investigated risk factors for the development of L-VLNM in PTC with meta-analysis.Methods Articles published until July 2021 on clinicopathological factors of L-VLNM in PTC were searched in electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), Embase, Cochrane, Wanfang Data and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)) to identify studies based on predefined criteria. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA 14.0. The outcomes were clinical and pathologic factors for L-VLNM, and the individual and pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of each outcome were analysed by fixed-/random-effects models. Egger's test was used to assess publication bias in the publications. This study is registered with PROSPERO (CRD 42020213831).Results Twelve studies included 10806 patients in total. Meta-analysis revealed that an increased risk of L-VLNM was associated with male sex (OR=2.20, 95% CI=1.63–2.97, P<0.001), age<45 years (OR=2.34, 95% CI=1.36–4.02, P<0.001), tumour diameter>1 cm (OR=3.99, 95% CI=3.45–4.62, P<0.001), extrathyroidal extension (OR=2.42, 95% CI=1.90–2.82, P<0.001), capsule invasion (OR=3.62, 95% CI=1.44–9.06, P<0.001) and multifocality (OR=2.02, 95% CI=1.47–2.77, P<0.001). Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT; OR=0.82, 95% CI=0.60–1.11, P=0.03) was not associated with L-VLNM.Conclusions Male sex, age <45 years, tumour diameter >1 cm, extrathyroidal extension, capsule invasion and multifocality were risk factors for L-VLNM, HT was not a risk factor.


A 24-year-old male developed fat embolism syndrome (FES) 18 hours after accidental tibial and metatarsal fractures. The onset was characterized by coma, generalized seizures, respiratory distress and hypoxemia. Multiple prolonged portable electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings showed a variety of progressively changing patterns including continuous high amplitude EEG rhythmical synchronous slowing (CHERSS), triphasic waves, bilateral independent periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (BIPLEDs), frontal intermittent delta activity (FIRDA), and low amplitude irregular generalized theta. Three months after the accident, the patient was neurologically normal and his EEG exhibited only rare brief bursts of anterior theta in the waking recording. I conclude that EEG periodic activity such as CHERSS, triphasic waves, BIPLEDs, and FIRDA can occur in patients suffering from cerebral fat embolism. It reflects a non-specific diffuse encephalopathy not necessarily associated with a poor prognosis. Prolonged and frequent bedside EEG recordings will demonstrate better these fluctuating abnormalities in cerebral fat embolism (and probably in coma of other origin) than standard less frequent recordings. Very likely, these periodic EEG patterns have not been previously identified in cerebral fat embolism because they were not in vogue among electroencephalographers nor widely accepted at the time studies dealing with this syndrome were written.


We define the flatness and quasi-flatness problems in cosmological models. We seek solutions to both problems in homogeneous and isotropic Brans-Dicke cosmologies with a varying speed of light. We formulate this theory and find perturbative, non-perturbative and asymptotic solutions using both numerical and analytical methods. For a particular range of variations of the speed of light the flatness problem can be solved. Under other conditions there exists a late-time attractor with a constant value of that is smaller than, but of the order of unity. Thus these theories may solve the quasi-flatness problem, a considerably more challenging problem than the flatness problem. We also discuss the related and quasi- problem in these theories. We conclude with an appraisal of the difficulties these theories may face.


Unit selection synthesis is a method of selecting and concatenating speech segments from a large single-speaker audio database to synthesize utterances. Selection is based on assigning target and concatenation costs to units and then finding a lowest cost sequence of units that will synthesize a given utterance. In order to synthesize efficiently, it is necessary to limit the number of units considered in the unit selection cost network, a part of the process called preselection. This paper examines the role of preselection in unit selection synthesis. We refine the existing process of preselection by adding multiple phone sets to the list of features considered. We present experimental results that demonstrate better database usage and significantly increased synthesis quality using this new method.


Background: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) may be important in the progression of emphysema, but there have been few longitudinal clinical studies of MMP-9 including pulmonary status and COPD exacerbation outcomes. Methods: We utilized data from the placebo arm (n = 126) of a clinical trial of patients with alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) and emphysema to examine the links between plasma MMP-9 levels, pulmonary status, and COPD exacerbations over a one year observation period. Pulmonary function, computed tomography lung density, incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT), and COPD exacerbations were assessed at regular intervals over 12 months. Prospective analyses used generalized estimating equations to incorporate repeated longitudinal measurements of MMP-9 and all endpoints, controlling for age, gender, race-ethnicity, leukocyte count, and tobacco history. A secondary analysis also incorporated highly-sensitive C-reactive protein levels in predictive models. Results: At baseline, higher plasma MMP-9 levels were cross-sectionally associated with lower FEV1 (p = 0.03), FVC (p < 0.001), carbon monoxide transfer factor (p = 0.03), resting oxygen saturation (p = 0.02), and ISWT distance walked (p = 0.02) but were not associated with radiographic lung density or total lung capacity (TLC). In longitudinal analyses, MMP-9 predicted a further decline in transfer factor (p = 0.04) and oxygen saturation (p < 0.001). MMP-9 also predicted worsening lung density (p = 0.003), increasing TLC (p = 0.02), and more frequent COPD exacerbations over follow-up (p = 0.003). Controlling additionally for hs-CRP levels did not substantively change the longitudinal associations between MMP-9 and these outcomes. Conclusions: Increased plasma MMP-9 levels generally predicted pulmonary status declines, including worsening transfer factor and lung density as well as greater COPD exacerbations in AATD-associated emphysema.


This study compared prazepam with diazepam, chlorazepate dipotassium, and placebo in the treatment of anxious out-patients. Patients were screened for participation in the study to be sure they met the criteria for inclusion. Patients were excluded if they had complicating physical or mental problems. All patients signed an informed consent. Seventy-three patients entered the study, thirteen did not complete at least two weeks of treatment and were not used in the data analysis. Of these thirteen, ten did not return and were lost to follow-up, two entered the hospital for reasons unrelated to the drug study, and one patient on diazepam was terminated because of increased anxiety. Sixty patients were used in the data analysis, thirty-six males and twenty-four females with an age range of 21–61 years. Side-effects were minimal. Drowsiness was reported by two people in the placebo group, one taking chlorazepate dipotassium, three on prazepam and one on diazepam. One diazepam patient reported nausea and vomiting. Scores on the Zung Self-Rating Scale for Anxiety showed all three drug groups to be superior to placebo. The Hopkins Symptom Check-list found prazepam and diazepam to be superior to placebo and chlorazepate. No differences among the groups were found in the Hamilton Anxiety Scale. Prazepam may offer advantages over the other available benzodiazepines since it may be more readily absorbed than chlorazepate and has less side-effects than diazepam.


Primary open angle glaucomas (POAGs) are the commonest form of glaucoma among Caucasians. They are defined by an excavation of the optic nerve head, a progressive loss of the visual field, and a normally open iridocorneal angle.1 Their prevalence is 1–2% and they are a major cause of irreversible blindness in Western countries.2 Albeit not necessary to the definition of POAG, an elevation of intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major contributory factor, and its lowering is at present the only available therapeutic strategy. In a subset of POAG patients, however, the IOP remains in the normal range—that is, less than 21 mm Hg, defining normal tension glaucoma (NTG).3 Whether NTG constitutes a pathological entity distinct from POAG is debated.4

Genetic factors play a major role in POAG predisposition. The genetic basis of POAG, is complex and heterogeneous.5 Recently, the OPTINEURIN (OPTN) gene on chromosome 10p14 was shown to be implicated in NTG.6 Mutations in this gene were found to segregate in nine out of 54 families with dominantly inherited POAG and normal or moderately elevated IOP. A variant, M98K, was associated with an increased absolute risk of 13.6% in a group of 169 POAG patients with normal or elevated IOP, compared with a relative allele frequency of 2.1% in a control population.6 This observation has made the M98K variant the potentially most important single genetic factor contributing to POAG predisposition. It is therefore essential to assess its role in different populations. In the present study, we evaluated the M98K variant in two groups of POAG patients, one from France and the other from Morocco, with population matched controls.

Participants gave their informed consent, in keeping with European legislation and following a protocol reviewed and approved by supporting institutions. Both groups, 237 subjects from …


Deceptive Images is a profoundly thoughtful effort by a social scientist--who is a participant observer in American Jewish life--to come to terms with his concerns about how American Jews and Judaism have been studied, and his sensitivity to the policy implications of such studies. Liebman writes about what he cares deeply about; as a social scientist he is able to use concepts and theories in which he has been trained, although not without a sense of their limitations. In the passionately argued book that results, Liebman contends that those concerned with American Jews, both social scientists and communal leaders, have placed too much emphasis on what Jews do and too little emphasis on Judaism itself. Because they have depended too much on quantitative studies to help them understand contemporary American Jews, they have given too little encouragement to efforts to probe the meaning of Judaism in the lives of American Jews. This stimulating volume takes exception to the notion that American Jewish life is flourishing. It calls for reassessment both of the study of American Judaism and the priorities of American Jewish organizations.


The poor regulation of water resources, particularly in Africa, has affected the availability of and accessibility to quality water. The international community has, through a soft and controversial approach, recognised the human right to water, which is generally argued to entitle everyone to sufficient, quality, accessible and affordable water for personal and commercial uses. Through a comparative approach, this article discusses the evolving concept of and states' practice relating to the human right to water in Africa. Using the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as case studies, it examined the national regulatory frameworks for safeguarding access to quality water for both domestic and commercial use. The article further explores the challenges surrounding the legal protection and realisation of the right to water in the context of mineral resources extraction in the selected African countries. The article discovered obsolete laws and policies and weak institutional design and capacity as the major challenges in protecting the right to water in the selected countries. It therefore contends that while national regulation remains important in promoting and safeguarding the right to water, policymakers should be primarily mindful of its limitations in the face of institutional bottlenecks, implementation gaps and socioeconomic realities. Accordingly, capacity-building initiatives should aim to educate stakeholders in equitable water resources management and, generally, recognise the close link between the right to water, wellbeing and other human


The Argentine film critic, Guadi Calvo, describes in this presentation the important role played by the cinema during the Central American guerrilla movements operating in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua during the decades of the sixties, seventies and eighties in the past century. The origins of this cinematographic genre —Guerrilla Cinema— is situated by Calvo in 1954 during the Indochina war, and more precisely, in the battle of Dien Bien Phu, a battle in which the French Empire was submerged forever and which launched, moreover, Vietnamese cinematography.


A large strand of the economic literature proposes to investigate how the structure of attorney fees and the allocation of litigation costs affect the efficiency of legal systems. A significant effort has been particularly devoted to explore the performance of two major cost allocation system: the British rule and the American rule. Under the British rule, the party who loses in court pays (part of) the attorney fees of the winning party. In contrast, the American rule provides that each party is responsible to pay its own attorney fees. In continental Europe, attorney compensation that is contingent on success at trial is increasingly being used in combination with the British fee-shifting rule. Although the contingent fee and the fee-shifting mechanism have been widely studied separately, few is known on their performance when they coexist in the same legal system. In this study, we implement an original experiment to explore how the structure of attorney fees (fixed or contingent on success at trial) and the allocation of litigation cost (with or without fee-shifting) affect the performance of legal systems. More precisely, we focus our attention on three performance criteria: the effort of the attorney in charge of the case, the deterrence of frivolous suits (i.e. suits that should not have been filed based on their merit) and the promotion of meritorious cases. Our experimental setting involves three games. In our experimental framework, participants can either take the role of plaintiff or the role of attorney. Subjects are randomly assigned to an eight-person experimental legal market comprising four attorneys and four plaintiffs. Participants interact exclusively within this group throughout the entire experiment. The experiment is divided into three games. In the first game, participants in the role of plaintiffs take part in a real-effort task. Their performances in the task determine their own initial endowments. The second game consists in a repeated litigation game. In the litigation game plaintiffs incur an exogenous loss and can decide to hire an attorney to attempt a full recovery of this loss. Each period is a different case, where the amount of the loss and the merit of the case (probability to recover the loss in case of trial) vary. Attorneys who have been hired in a suit decide of a level of effort to provide. This level of effort affects the probability of the suit to be successful. Finally, the third game of our experiment is a standard lottery game that provides us with an individual ∗Speaker †Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com sciencesconf.org:asfee2017:147310 measurement of risk attitude. We implement four treatments in a 2x2 factorial design. Between our treatment, two main dimensions vary. First, we vary the nature of attorney's fee that can either be fixed or contingent. In the fixed-fee treatments, fees are expressed in ECU and are not conditional on the outcome of the trial. In the contingent fee treatments, fees are expressed as a share of the recovered loss, and are therefore conditional on the outcome of the trial. Second, we vary the allocation of litigation cost, that can either allow for fee-shifting or not. In the fee-shifting treatments, an additional amount is added to the plaintiff's payoff if the suit succeeds, i.e. the defendant incurs part of the plaintiff's attorney fee. If the suit fails, an extra cost is withdrawn from the plaintiff's payoff, i.e. the plaintiff incurs part of the defendant's attorney fee. We establish the following findings. (1) Plaintiffs' willingness to enter trial is the highest in the contingent fee-shifting setup, where attorneys have a clear incentive to provide effort. This finding entails two phenomena. While the risk of losing the case prevents plaintiffs to suit meritorious cases in the other treatments, it is less the case in the contingent fee-shifting setting. However, plaintiffs tend also to file a suit when the case is non-meritorious. Limiting the presence of frivolous suits is a key property of an efficient legal system. (2) Surprisingly, we observe that the fee-shifting mechanism, which only concerns plaintiffs' payoff, affects attorney's effort. More precisely, attorneys provide less effort when a fee-shifting mechanism is introduced in a fixed fee setting. In sharp contrast, the effort of attorneys increases when a fee-shifting mechanism is introduced in a contingent fee setting. We discuss these findings and provide a comparison of the efficiency of our four experimental legal markets.


We present the results of measurements of the inelastic scattering of X-rays with very high-energy resolution. Optical phonons in pyrolytic graphite with an energy transfer of ΔE = (171 ± 10) meV as well as an optical phonon in a Be single crystal with ΔE = (79 ± 10) meV were detected.


Policies for energy saving and carbon dioxide emission reduction have enouraged the use of efficient technologies in building thermal conditioning, like geothermal source heat pumps [. Most of the thermal models used to simulate the performance of vertical ground heat exchangers do not consider the effect of outer weather conditions, except for the setting of the initial ground temperature [. This paper shows a study to assess the effect of outer weather conditions on the outlet fluid temperature, especially during the upper part of the exchanger. Different depths for typical configurations of ground heat exchangers have been analysed. Detailed simulations have been developed for a full year of performance using a commercial finite volume computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code (©ANSYS-CFX). Outer weather conditions have been set by using synthetic hourly weather data and considering all of the heat transfer phenomena involved. Errors in outlet fluid temperature and surface borehole temperature have been estimated for the whole year of simulation.


This study aimed to investigate the effects of using manipulatives on students'
algebraic achievement, attitudes toward algebra, manipulatives preferences and
conceptual understanding of algebra in Malaysian secondary schools. This research
employed a non-equivalent quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. A total of 207
form four arts stream students from three secondary schools in Kuching and
Samarahan divisions participated in the study The students learned quadratic
expansion and factorization using either virtual manipulatives (treatment group) or
physical manipulatives (control group) as the instructional method. The virtual
manipulatives were developed using Dreamweaver and Java applet based on the
guidelines from past studies such as Durmus and Karakirik (2006) and Moyer,
Bolyard, and Spikell (2002). The data collection in each school was conducted over a
two-week time period during regular school hours. For the first session involving
quadratic expansion, group one worked with physical algebra tiles while group two
worked with virtual algebra tiles. For the second session involving quadratic
factorization, group one worked with virtual algebra tiles and group two worked with
physical algebra tiles. Several research instruments were used to collect the required
data in this study. The quadratic expansion and factorization pretests and posttests
were used to measure the impact of physical and virtual manipulatives on students'
algebraic achievement. Kolb's learning style inventory was used to establish the
students' learning style preferences. The manipulative preferences questionnaires were
used to identify students' manipulatives preferences. The attitude inventory was used
to measure students' attitudes toward algebra. Lastly, the conceptual understanding
task sheets were used to measure the impact on students' conceptual understanding of
algebra. In addition, another 15 students were purposively selected for semi-structured
interviews based on the conceptual task sheets. Statistical analyses revealed that
students showed progress in algebraic achievement in both instructional methods with
virtual manipulatives having more positive impact than physical manipulatives for
students with concrete learning style. The analysis also showed that female students
performed better than male students when physical manipulatives was used as the
instructional method. When the groups were examined for attitudes toward algebra, both instructional methods were equally effective in improving students' attitudes
toward algebra. However, the results also showed that male students exhibited more
positive attitudes than female students in motivation and enjoyment toward learning
algebra. Further result indicated no statistical significant differences in students'
preferences toward manipulatives. Finally, analysis showed that physical manipulative
and virtual manipulatives performed equally well in promoting students' conceptual
understanding of algebra. The findings of this study indicated that the three stages of
Bruner's learning theory; enactive, iconic and symbolic could be implemented using
virtual manipulatives as the instructional method to promote students' conceptual
understanding of algebra. The study showed that secondary school students also
benefited from using virtual manipulatives. In general, these findings on virtual
manipulatives concurred and supported past findings on positive impact of virtual
manipulatives in the learning of mathematics such as studies by Reimer and Moyer
(2005), Smith (2006), and Suh (2005). It was recommended that teachers should use
more virtual manipulatives in classrooms to promote conceptual learning. Hence, the
Ministry of Education should recommend policies that include the use of virtual
manipulatives in the teaching of mathematics by providing support such as in-house
training for teachers and develop more software on virtual manipulatives. Further
research could be carried out to extend the findings of this study by allowing more
time for treatment, using larger sample size other than form four arts classes,
investigating wider mathematics contents besides algebra, and by comparing the
effectiveness between two and more virtual manipulatives to further illuminate greater
understanding of the effect of virtual manipulatives on students' conceptual learning.


Background: Non-invasive detection and monitoring of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) mutations for personalized treatment of cancer patients can be realized by combining the practical advantages of urine as a ctDNA sample source with high throughput of next-generation sequencing (NGS). Methods: Our platform couples an extraction process capable of isolating ctDNA from the entire void volume of a urine sample (∼100ml) with an ultra-sensitive NGS-integrated mutation enrichment method with single copy detection sensitivity. Assays have been developed and validated to interrogate clinically actionable mutations/deletions in the KRAS, BRAF and EGFR (Exons 19, 20, 21) oncogenes in both urine and plasma samples. For mutation detection with high sensitivity, a novel allele-specific competitive cycling (ASCC) method was used prior to NGS to amplify ultra-short target DNA (31-45 bp) using kinetically-favorable binding conditions for a wild type (WT) blocking oligonucleotide. Enriched amplicons were sequenced and a proprietary algorithm was used to quantify the mutant ctDNA input level in analytical and clinical samples. Results: An extraction method optimized for enrichment of fragmented urine ctDNA enabled isolation of large amounts of DNA (mean ∼2 μg) from advanced stage patients with different cancer types. Analytical performance characterization demonstrated sensitivity of 0.0047 - 0.01% mutant copies in WT/mutant DNA blends. To show that our assays have a true single copy detection threshold, we used DNA blends with defined mutant spike-in levels of 2 - 60 copies distributed over 20 wells (to obtain 0 - 3 mutant copies/well). The observed distribution of positive and negative hits matched the theoretical hit rate of an ideal Poisson distribution for these replicates, confirming single copy sensitivity of our assays. Using the KRAS ASCC assay, 1 to 17,555 mutant fragments were detected per 1 mL of urine collected from KRAS tissue biopsy-positive advanced cancer patients. Analysis of serial patient-matched urine and plasma longitudinal samples from KRAS, BRAF, or EGFR tissue positive patients demonstrated a high level of concordance between urine and plasma samples and feasibility of monitoring mutation load in a variety of clinical settings, including monitoring post-surgery and responsiveness to targeted therapy or chemotherapy. Conclusion: The analytical characterization and clinical feasibility studies demonstrate that this methodology can successfully detect and quantitate mutational load in urinary ctDNA, thus enabling for the dynamic monitoring of therapy response, drug resistance, and minimal residual disease in cancer patients from a truly non-invasive sample. Citation Format: Karena Kosco, Jason C. Poole, Saege Hancock, Errin Samuelsz, Timothy T. Lu, Erin Clark, Latifa Hassaine, Shiloh Guerrero, Cecile Rose T. Vibat, Vlada Melnikova, Mark G. Erlander. Methodology for single copy detection and quantitative monitoring of clinically actionable circulating tumor DNA mutations in urine from cancer patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5238. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5238


Wayang Kulit performance, the art of shadow puppetry, has long embodied and conveyed political and secular voice throughout South and Southeast Asia, significant for the maintenance of cultural heritage. Throughout Malaysia's modern history, Wayang as a dominant medium of education has mediated shifts in language ideologies and socialization, to the extent where changes to the Wayang correlate highly with changes to the Malay language. In the 1980s, the Malaysian government sought to attack and hence curtail Wayang performance, and to obscure its lineage, claiming that the Wayang defiles Islam and Malaysia as an Islamic state. The government sought to discontinue the Wayang, or at least to alter it significantly, and to persecute its adherents. With its attempts to mobilize the economy through neoliberal politics and the adoption of new non-poetic language registers, the Malaysian government altered Malaysian vernacular, cultural practices, and ideologies. Yet, little scholarly work, particularly through an Anthropological lens, has discussed the correlations and influences to these shifts.
 This paper addresses the significance of Wayang Kulit to the Malay language, that is, its contiguity with standardized language and vernacular, its semiotic complexities during performance and in larger society, and its junctures with Malaysian politics. The study unearths changes in the Wayang, its stylizations, symbolisms and performativities, in the latter 20th century, where these changes have aligned with cultural and language shifts, yet which the government has legitimated as pro Islamic and neoliberal. The data set includes a multi year ethnography of the Wayang, and a corpus of discussions, documentations, and scripts of Wayang performances and narratives.


An inverse dynamics control algorithm for constrained flexible-joint robots is developed. It is shown that in a flexible-joint robot, the acceleration level inverse dynamic equations are singular because of the elastic media. Implicit numerical integration methods that account for the higher order derivative information are utilized for solving the singular set of differential equations. The control law proposed linearizes and decouples the system and achieves simultaneous and asymptotically stable trajectory tracking control of the end-effector motion and contact forces. Together with the integrators for improving robustness due to modelling errors and disturbances, a fifth order position error dynamics and a third order contact force error dynamics are obtained. A 3R spatial robot with all joints flexible is simulated to illustrate the performance of the method.


Introduction The objective of this prospective, randomized study was to test the feasibility and the clinical outcome of the different forms of treatment. Material and methods In 40 patients with a total of 57 sacral fractures, cement augmentation was performed with CT-guidance by means of balloon sacroplasty (BSP) or radiofrequency sacroplasty (RFS). For BSP, the balloon catheter was inflated and deflated in the fracture zone, and the hollow space created was then filled with PMMA cement. For RFS, a flexible osteotome was initially used to extend the spongious space in the fracture zone. The highly viscous PMMA cement, activated by radiofrequency, was then inserted into the prepared fracture zone. Pain intensity was determined on a visual analogue scale before the intervention, on the second day, and 6, 12 and 18 months after the intervention. The results were tested for significance by means of paired Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results BSP and RFS were technically feasible in all patients. An average of 6.3 ml cement per fracture were inserted in the BSP group and an average of 6.1 ml per fracture in the RFS group. Leakage could be ruled out for both procedures. The mean pain score on the VAS before the intervention was 8.6 ± 0.55 in the BSP group and 8.8 ± 0.58 in the RFS group. On the second postoperative day, a significant pain reduction was seen (p < 0.001), with an average value of 2.5 (BSP ± 0.28, RFS ± 0.38) for both groups. After 6 (12; 18) months, these values were stable for the BSP group at 2.3 ± 0.27 (2.3 ± 0.24; 2.0 ± 0.34) and for the RFS group at 2.4 ± 0.34 (2.2 ± 0.26; 2.0 ± 0.31). With regard to pain, exceedance probability values of p = 0.86 (6 months) and p = 1 (18 months) were seen, so that neither treatment method leads to differences in results. Conclusion BSP and RFS are interventional, minimally invasive procedures that enable reliable cement augmentation and achieve equally good clinical outcomes in the medium term. Disclosures R. Andresen: None. S. Radmer: None. J. Andresen: None. H. Schober: None.


Introduction: The 30-day readmission rate after discharge has been used to indicate healthcare quality. However, precise data on this indicator are still scarce in Brazil, especially among people living with HIV. Objective: The objectives of this study were to describe the rate of early hospital readmissions in people living with HIV and the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of readmitted patients and to identify the factors associated with readmissions. Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted with patients admitted between August 2016 and August 2018 in a university hospital in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Clinical and laboratory data, social indicators, use of illicit drugs, and adherence to antiretroviral treatment were evaluated. Participants were monitored for hospital readmissions within 30 days after discharge from the index hospitalization. Results: A total of 71 patients were included. There was a predominance of men aged between 30 and 60 years, with low socioeconomic and educational levels, inadequate control of HIV infection, and frequent use of psychoactive substances. The 30-day readmission rate found was 22%. Gastrointestinal diseases were the most frequent in index hospitalizations and early readmissions. Conclusion: The early readmission rate in people living with HIV was 22%. Gastrointestinal diseases were the most prevalent in the index of hospitalization and early readmissions. Most of the patients admitted and readmitted are middle-aged men with a low level of education, low insertion in the labor market, a considerable rate of psychoactive substance use, and living in conditions of social vulnerability.


Aim: Characterized by hypopigmented cutaneous lesions, vitiligo is a chronic dermatological disease with psychosocial effects. The goal of our study is to search alexithymia, anxiety, and depression levels in vitiligo patients. Materials and Methods: In total, 50 vitiligo patients aged over 18 years and 70 healthy control subjects compatible with age and gender were evaluated. All participants filled in the questionnaires of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Beck Anxiety inventory (BAI), and Beck Depression inventory (BDI). Results: In vitiligo patients, depression and anxiety levels were meaningful higher than the controls (p = 0.009, p = 0.000, respectively), but there was no meaningful difference between alexithymia scores (p = 0.103). There was no correlation between psychiatric scale scores and disease duration, age, gender, and education levels in vitiligo patients. A positive correlation was determined between alexithymia levels and anxiety and depression levels in vitiligo. Conclusion: In this study, anxiety and depression levels were found to be high in patients with vitiligo. According to the results of our study, vitiligo should not only be evaluated dermatologically but also psychologically. In this way, we think that patients' compliance with treatment and treatment success will increase.


Statistical properties of configurations of a metallic wire injected into a transparent planar two-dimensional cavity for three different injection geometries are investigated with the aid of high-resolution digital imaging techniques. The observed patterns of folds are studied as a function of the packing fraction of the wire within the cavity. In particular, we have examined the dependence of the mass of wire within a circle of radius R, as well as the dependence of the number of contacts wire-wire with the packing fraction. The distribution function n(s) of connected loops with internal area s formed as a consequence of the folded structure of the wire, and the average coordination number for these loops are also examined. Several scaling laws connecting variables of physical interest are obtained and discussed and a relation of this problem with disordered two-dimensional foam and random packing of disks is examined.


Analysis of geologic data from 54 localities, mainly in the western United States, shows that concordant igneous masses intruded zones in nearly flat-lying sedimentary rocks where the thickness of cover was 3000 to 7500 feet. The depth of intrusion was apparently affected by a well-defined parting surface (bedding plane or unconformity), static load of the overburden (lithostatic pressure), and presence of a fluid barrier above the intrusion. Most bodies intruded along well-defined bedding planes in sedimentary rocks and flow surfaces in extrusive igneous rocks; some intruded along unconformities. The range in overburden pressure is about 3000 to 7500 psi for intrusions at depths of 3000 to 7500 feet. Magma pressure for lateral injection at the lower limit of the depth range, therefore, must have exceeded 7500 psi to lift 7500 feet of overburden. A fluid barrier, such as a shale, overlies almost all intrusions studied and tended to retard upward advance of magma. At depths less than 3000 feet, the barrier shales may be brittle and easily ruptured by the fluid pressure, permitting steam and magma to escape to the surface. Below 3000 feet the shales may become ductile.


This report explores the extent to which the UK's generational living standards challenge is replicated in other high-income economies, focusing on trends in household income and experiences in the labour and housing markets. We look at the shared backdrop to these trends across advanced economies: demography – the fiscal challenges posed by falling birth rates and rising dependency ratios – and the financial crisis – sharp falls in real GDP per capita across almost all advanced economies in the late 2000s (Section 1), before examining gains (and losses) in real household income growth between generations of adults that are still alive today i.e. generations born between 1911 and 2000 (Section 2). We then focus on post-crisis trends in pay and employment in advanced economies as well as some of the long-run, more structural, challenges facing young people in labour markets (Section 3). We finish by examining the impact that changes in home ownership rates and housing costs have had on the prospects for young people here in the UK and in other places in which housing has been identified as a clear issue for young people (Section 4).


In this paper, we demonstrate a perfectly-ordered microbowl array with balanced dielectrophoresis (DEP) for a high-throughput single-cell analysis. In order to fabricate well-ordered microbowl array in a large area, we utilized three-dimensional diffuser lithography for photoresist mold and nickel electroplating technique for final microbowl structures on a silicon substrate. Single microbowl has six sharp apexes surrounding the microbowl perimeter. Each microbowl has a diameter of 10 μm, and a height of 9 μm, which can be controllable by patterns on mask and lithography conditions. To investigate feasibility for application to the microbowl array as a single-cell microarray, we used latex beads of 6.4 μm in an average diameter to be captured by dielectrophoretic force. The nickel microbowl array densely packed with a hexagonal geometry played as a bottom electrode, and an ITO-coated glass covered the nickel microbowl array as a top electrode while keeping a uniform gap between two electrodes. After injecting solution containing latex beads through the gap, we applied an AC signal (2 V PP , 1 MHz) between two electrodes to induce high electric field near the sharp apexes of the single microbowl. A negative DEP trap is formed at the center of the single microbowl with balanced DEP force from the six apexes. The experimental result shows that injected latex beads had been successfully and uniformly aligned and trapped at the microbowl array sustained by negative DEP.


Background and Purpose: The present age of digitalization brings with it progress and new possibilities for health care in general and clinical psychology/psychotherapy in particular. Internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) have often been evaluated. A fully automated version of IMIs are chatbots. Chatbots are automated computer programs that are able to hold, e.g., a script-based conversation with a human being. Chatbots could contribute to the extension of health care services. The aim of this review is to conceptualize the scope and to work out the current state of the art of chatbots fostering mental health. Methods: The present article is a scoping review on chatbots in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Studies that utilized chatbots to foster mental health were included. Results: The technology of chatbots is still experimental in nature. Studies are most often pilot studies by nature. The field lacks high-quality evidence derived from randomized controlled studies. Results with regard to practicability, feasibility, and acceptance of chatbots to foster mental health are promising but not yet directly transferable to psychotherapeutic contexts. Discussion: The rapidly increasing research on chatbots in the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy requires corrective measures. Issues like effectiveness, sustainability, and especially safety and subsequent tests of technology are elements that should be instituted as a corrective for future funding programs of chatbots in clinical psychology and psychotherapy.


Abstract Nontyphoidal salmonellosis is the leading reported foodborne illness in Florida. Although the diversity of Salmonella serotypes circulating in Florida has been identified, the geographical characteristics of the major serotypes are poorly described. Here we examined the geospatial patterns of 803 whole-genome sequenced Salmonella isolates within seven major serotypes (Enteritidis, Newport, Javiana, Sandiego, Braenderup, Typhimurium and I 4,[5],12:i:-) with the metadata obtained from Florida Department of Health during 2017–2018. Geographically, the distribution of incidence rates varied distinctively between serotypes. Illnesses with Enteritidis and Newport serotypes were widespread in Florida. The incidence rate for Javiana was relatively higher in the north compared to the south. Typhimurium was concentrated in the northwest, while I 4,[5],12:i:-, the monophasic variant of Typhimurium was limited to the south. We also evaluated space–time clustering of isolates at the zip code level using scan statistic models. Space–time clusters were detected for each major serotype during 2017–2018. The multinomial scan statistic found the risk of illness with Javiana was higher in the north and southwest in the fall of 2017 compared to other major serotypes. This serotype-specific clustering analysis will assist in further unpacking the associations between distinct reservoirs and illnesses with major serotypes in Florida.


Sources can be embedded in a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) grid in any one of several ways. Depending on the particular implementation, the embedded source corresponds physically to a hard field source (applied field), a transparent current source (impressed current), a finite-impedance voltage source, or some other physical excitation. While the implementation of any of these sources is a straightforward procedure in FDTD simulations, ensuring an accurate correspondence between the physical source and its numerical implementation is challenging. We describe the implementation of a new field source, referred to as a transparent field source, that couples the same fields into the FDTD grid as a hard field source. Unlike the hard field source, however, the transparent source does not scatter energy, i.e., the usual FDTD update equation applies to the source node. The implementation is described both in terms of a single node and in terms of an array of nodes. The latter is discussed in the context of parallel-plate waveguide excitation.


Various Brainstorming (BS) techniques have been proposed specifically to develop individuals' creativity and productivity during idea-generation sessions. Yet, the available knowledge about the potential of certain BS techniques seem very limited in higher education. Thus, a review of previous studies on some BS types such as the traditional brainstorming (TBS), nominal brainstorming (NBS), and electronic brainstorming (EBS) was conducted. A total of 42 well-grounded studies about the use of these techniques in a university context were reviewed. The classification of these studies was based on four key schemes related to the purpose of use, opportunities, challenges, and proposed solutions in a discipline-specific context. The review results revealed a set of evidences supporting the use of TBS, NBS, and EBS in specific areas. We also provided a comprehensive view of why certain interventions can be more effective in some contexts than others. The insights gained from this review can be used to guide educational decision makers to identify the best BS practices/conditions within a university setting. It also shed light on the potential opportunities and challenges that students may experience when using certain BS rules and techniques.


Purpose
Health care organizations' decision-making for the future relies on anticipating changes. Reliable predictions are becoming increasingly difficult, creating anxiety and requires long-term adaptive planning to cope with unforeseen circumstances. The purpose of this study is to gain insights into the awareness of uncertainties that decision makers in healthcare have, particularly when making long-term investments.

Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study with an explorative purpose. The data were collected through semi-structured and open interviews with board members of long-term care organizations.

Findings
The study revealed that respondents are most uncertain about the future financing of their real estate system. Another concern revealed is about the shortage of care professionals combined with an increasing demand for future care. Despite most decision makers do recognize uncertainties during the decision-making process, decision makers hardly address the level of these uncertainties. Although this study did find that some decision makers are aware of deep uncertainties, in terms of "unknown unknowns," they have no actual approaches for dealing with such situations.

Originality/value
Decision makers at healthcare organizations are uncertain as to their ability to anticipate technological, economic, social and political developments, as well as predict future healthcare system transformations. Some decision makers are aware of deep uncertainties, in terms of "unknown unknowns" and "unidentified unknowns," but they lack an actual approach to deal with such situations. This study examines how strategies adapt to unforeseen developments or how to deal with deep uncertainties in healthcare as complex adaptive system.


3-D NAND flash has become the mainstream in modern SSD designs because it offers superior bit storage density. However, while enjoying the large capacity, 3-D NAND flash is highly prone to bit errors due to its cylindrical cell structure. Modern SSDs employ the low-density parity-check (LDPC) error-correcting code to manage bit errors in 3-D NAND flash. Strong LDPC error correction is subject to a high time overhead, because it may require many sensing levels on read to obtain sufficiently confident bit input information. By exploiting the bit-error rate variation among vertical layers of 3-D NAND flash, we propose diluting bit errors of cells at error-prone, lower layers by mixing them with bit data of cells from reliable, upper layers. Cells at reliable layers provide highly confident bit input information that helps reduce the number of sensing levels on cell at error-prone layers. Our experimental results showed that the proposed approach improved the read throughput by 29% and reduced the read latency by 43% compared with a conventional multichip SSD design.


John Coltrane was at the forefront of many important directions in jazz in the 1950s and 1960s, including "hard bop," "modal jazz," "avant garde jazz," and "world music." One interest that became an increasingly dominant focus for him in his later years was the study of Indian music and spirituality. While Coltrane's music remained firmly rooted in jazz, this exploration was an important part of the development of Coltrane's personal style from the early 1960s to the end of his life in 1967. A number of factors inspired Coltrane to explore Indian music and thought, and an investigation of specific applications of these ideas in his music will present some insight into his stylistic motivation. His incorporation of Indian ideas also inspired many other musicians, such as John McLaughlin, Dave Liebman, and Jan Garbarek, to pursue this direction, and it remains an important part of his legacy.


Two patients who lost, in isolation, visual recent memory following bilateral posterior cerebral artery infarctions are described. Tactile, verbal, and nonverbal auditory recent memory functions were preserved in both patients. Based on computerized tomography scans and behavioral and anatomical data in monkey, isolated loss of visual recent memory in man is best understood as a bilateral disconnection syndrome between the striate cortex and the structures in the medial temporal lobe that are involved with recent memory. The possible existence of two other sensory-specific disorders of recent memory, tactile and auditory, is postulated, and the clinical relationship of prosopagnosia, achromatopsia, and spatial disorientation to visual recent memory loss is discussed.


According to the environmental cues hypothesis, female birds use information available to them in the early-season environment to fine-tune egg production annually. However, support for the hypothesis derives largely from correlational studies. In each year from 2002 to 2006, which spanned a period of extreme variation in environmental conditions, we removed eggs from early-laying rhinoceros auklets Cerorhinca monocerata, burrow-nesting seabirds that lay a single-egg clutch. We then measured their relaying rates, relaying intervals, and breeding success. We also monitored the timing and success of breeding in control pairs, and control chick diets. If the experimental females base their relaying decision on early-season cues, then we predict that few will relay in years in which early-laying control birds breed unsuccessfully, and in which a preferred prey species, Pacific sandlance Ammodytes hexapterus, is in short supply in nestling diets. Results matched neither prediction. In each year, almost all (88� 90%) of the experimental females relaid, despite that the control pairs' breeding success (32� 87% fledged chicks), and their chicks' diets (twofold variation in proportion of sandlance), varied markedly. We conclude that female rhinoceros auklets did not modify their relaying decision in response to variation in environmental conditions, although relaying intervals and their own breeding success (0� 78%) covaried negatively. Our results may have important implications related to using seabirds as monitors of the marine environment.


This study attempts to characterize the radiated compromising emanations from four typical LCD TV sets, in particular the predictability of format and timing parameters. Three were found to emit clear UHF RF signals visually related to the displayed image, from the LVDS link between display controller and LCD panel. Although the input signals to all four products followed the same TV standard, the timing parameters of their emanations differed substantially. Some also frequency-modulate their pixel clock to improve EMI compliance. All digitally rescale the input image to the respective display size. The frame rate at which the display panel is driven is, if at all, only loosely phase locked to the input signal. These observations have implications for eavesdroppers, for the design of test standards to limit compromising emanations from video displays, and for the practicality of detecting the mere presence of an active television receiver by correlating the emanations of the circuitry driving its display panel with a known broadcast TV input signal.


Abstract. Deep learning has resulted in a huge advancement in computer vision. However, deep models require an enormous amount of manually annotated data, which is a laborious and time-consuming task. Large amounts of images demand the availability of target objects for acquisition. This is a kind of luxury we usually do not have in the context of automatic inspection of complex mechanical assemblies, such as in the aircraft industry. We focus on using deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) for automatic industrial inspection of mechanical assemblies, where training images are limited and hard to collect. Computer-aided design model (CAD) is a standard way to describe mechanical assemblies; for each assembly part we have a three-dimensional CAD model with the real dimensions and geometrical properties. Therefore, rendering of CAD models to generate synthetic training data is an attractive approach that comes with perfect annotations. Our ultimate goal is to obtain a deep CNN model trained on synthetic renders and deployed to recognize the presence of target objects in never-before-seen real images collected by commercial RGB cameras. Different approaches are adopted to close the domain gap between synthetic and real images. First, the domain randomization technique is applied to generate synthetic data for training. Second, domain invariant features are utilized while training, allowing to use the trained model directly in the target domain. Finally, we propose a way to learn better representative features using augmented autoencoders, getting performance close to our baseline models trained with real images.


We present 124 children who had mononucleosis. The patients were selected according to strict clinical features. Twenty (16.1%) of the 124 children were proved to have cytomegalovirus mononucleosis and 104 (83.8%) children had Epstein-Barr virus mononucleosis. The symptoms were similar in both groups. Significant differences were found only for the presence of cervical lymphadenopathy, which was more frequent in the Epstein-Barr group (83.2%) compared with the cytomegalovirus group (75%). Fever was the most frequent symptom in both groups. Cytomegalovirus mononucleosis was significantly more frequent in children younger than 4 years.


A mathematical model that predicts the vibration of wheel/rail systems excited by multiple wheels has been developed. A track is modeled as an Euler beam of infinite length, periodically supported by a system comprised of two springs and a mass. In this system the components represent the following: the two springs, rail pad and ballast stiffness; the mass, a sleeper. A wheel is represented by a single mass. Two sources of vibration are taken into account in the model: the varying stiffness of track between the sleepers and an irregularity on the railhead. On the assumption that any response would be repeated at sleeper intervals, a solution is derived by first equating the value of Fourier coefficients of the wheel locus and that of the rail displacement. The method is applied to the analysis of the vibration of a rail excited by two bogie wheels passing in succession. A sinusoidal irregularity with the wavelength of the sleeper spacing or higher is supposed to exist on the railhead. The results show the basic characteristics of rail vibration such as Doppler shift due to wheel movement, response variations with the irregularity wavelengths and vibration amplitude distribution that is strongly affected by the interference of the two wheels.


The pharmacokinetics of primaquine have been examined in five healthy volunteers who received single oral doses of 15, 30 and 45 mg of the drug, on separate occasions. Each subject received an i.v. tracer dose of [14C]-primaquine (7.5 microCi), simultaneously with the 45 mg oral dose. Absorption of primaquine was virtually complete with a mean absolute bioavailability of 0.96 +/- 0.08. Elimination half-life, oral clearance and apparent volume of distribution for both primaquine and the carboxylic acid metabolite were unaffected by either dose size, or route of administration. The relationships between area under the curve and dose size were linear for both primaquine (r = 0.99, P less than or equal to 0.01) and its carboxylic acid metabolite (r = 0.99, p less than or equal to 0.01). The mean whole blood to plasma concentration ratios were determined for primaquine (0.81), and for the carboxylic acid metabolite of primaquine (0.84). Primaquine is a low clearance compound (CL = 24.2 +/- 7.4 l h-1), is extensively distributed into body tissues (V = 242.9 +/- 69.5 l) and is not subject to extensive first pass metabolism.


Background: & Objectives: Urinary tract infection is one of the most commonly occurring infections among the patients with diabetes mellitus. Methods This investigation was based to evaluate the incidence of UTI in patients with DM. Between January, 2013 to November, 1000 diabetic urine samples were collected. All urine samples were processed in the lab following standard laboratory protocol. Results: A total of 25 UTI organisms were isolated from 361 urine samples collected from the diabetic patients attending the Department of Emergency, University Hospital Center "Mother Theresa" (QSUT) from. The incidence of UTI was recorded to 36.1%. Escherichia coli (54%) was found to be the major cause of UTI. About 5 different types of organisms isolated from the UTI samples were randomly chosen to test against the UTI antibiotics. Interpretation & Conclusion: The antibiotic susceptibility pattern revealed that ciprofloxacin and  nitrofurantoin were most effective to e.coli 79.6%, and 89.4%. These data may be used to determine trends in antimicrobial susceptibilities, to formulate local antibiotic policies and to assist clinicians in the choice of antibiotic  therapy to prevent misuse, or overuse of antibiotics. Key Words: Diabetes mellitus (DM), Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), Bacteria, antimicrobial resistance


Differences and similarities in the way marine and continental organisms occupy space are briefly reviewed. Among them, the 'peninsula effect' (the decline of species richness with distance from the source) is compared with the 'bay effect'. Two cases, corals in Mochima Bay, Venezuela and fishes in the Baltic Sea, are presented as examples. The facts that the world's oceans are larger, continuous and three-dimensional, with fewer evident geographical barriers than there are on land, explain why marine biogeographical regions are less welldefined and geographical ranges of marine taxa more wide-spread. I his generalization has, however, been questioned following recent findings of extremely rich and highly endemic benthic faunas. This problem is discussed using an index of cosmopolitanism to compare terrestrial and marine biotas.