Background: Nowadays, many patients with cardiovascular diseases require pacemaker implantation that is associated with few complications such as cardiac and valvular insufficiency. This study aims to compare the development of tricuspid and mitral regurgitation in right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) and right ventricular apex (RVA) pacing. Materials and Methods: In this single-blind clinical trial, 164 candidates for permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation due to sick sinus syndrome or atrioventricular block were randomly divided into 2 equal groups to receive either RVOT or RVA pacing. Patients with heart failure or valvular diseases were excluded from the study. Pre and post-procedural echocardiography after 6 months were performed and the results were compared for the development of mitral and tricuspid regurgitation and probable changes in the ejection fraction (EF). Results: Age, gender, pacing mode, and baseline cardiac rhythm did not significantly differ between RVOT and RVA pacing groups. The incidence of mitral regurgitation was significantly higher in the RVA group (p=0.033), whereas the incidence of tricuspid regurgitation was similar in both groups (p>0.05). There was a trend toward less tricuspid regurgitation in the RVOT group; however, it was not statistically significant. Ejection fraction was not significantly different between the study groups. Conclusion: It seems that the incidence of mitral regurgitation in RVA pacing is significantly higher than RVOT although this needs further investigation in future studies.


Conversations have an intrinsic one-to-many property, which means that multiple responses can be appropriate for the same dialog context. In task-oriented dialogs, this property leads to different valid dialog policies towards task completion. However, none of the existing task-oriented dialog generation approaches takes this property into account. We propose a Multi-Action Data Augmentation (MADA) framework to utilize the one-to-many property to generate diverse appropriate dialog responses. Specifically, we first use dialog states to summarize the dialog history, and then discover all possible mappings from every dialog state to its different valid system actions. During dialog system training, we enable the current dialog state to map to all valid system actions discovered in the previous process to create additional state-action pairs. By incorporating these additional pairs, the dialog policy learns a balanced action distribution, which further guides the dialog model to generate diverse responses. Experimental results show that the proposed framework consistently improves dialog policy diversity, and results in improved response diversity and appropriateness. Our model obtains state-of-the-art results on MultiWOZ.


This is a conceptual paper supported by empirical research giving details of a new Business Narrative Modelling Language (BNML). The need for BNML arose given a growing dissatisfaction with qualitative research approaches and also due to the need to bring entrepreneurs, especially those with little training in management theory, closer to the academic (as well as practitioner) discussion of innovation and strategy for value creation. We aim primarily for an improved communication process of events which can be described using the narrative, in the discussion of the value creation process. Our findings, illustrated through a case study, should be of interest to both researchers and practitioners alike.


Hitherto, political risk has worried developed country multinational enterprises (MNEs) investing in developing country markets. But as more emerging market firms invest overseas, they too must grapple with this subject. World Investment and Political Risk 2009 looks at this issue for the first time and finds that Brazilian, Russian, Indian, and Chinese (BRIC) firms appear to worry more about political risk than global counterparts. Though these results are based on a small sample of 90 of the largest BRIC investors, they are thought-provoking nonetheless. Already, emerging market FDI outflows have tripled from US$100 billion in 2000 to US$350 billion in 2008 says UNCTAD, driven largely by burgeoning investments from Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Although the bulk of this FDI has gone into developed economies, BRIC firms have also stepped up the size and spread of their investments in other emerging markets.


Background Treatment related toxicity complicates outcome in elderly patients with AML (Estey et al. Blood. 2006). Conventionally, 7+3 induction (anthracycline plus cytarabine) results in Complete Remission rate of about 30%. Regimens with less toxicity, such as 10-days (d) schedule of DAC, seem promising with CR rate of 47% (Blum et al. PNAS . 2010). In secondary MDS derived AML, response prediction could be derived from mutation status in epigenetic modifiers ( IDH1 , IDH2 , DNMT3 A, TET2) , transcriptional regulators ( RUNX1, CBL) , and genes in spliceosome machinery, such as SF3B1 and SRSF2 (Husseinzadeh et al. American Society of Hem Meeting. Abstract # 1698. 2012). IDH-1 mutation is known to induce hypermethylator phenotype (fig 1) (Figueroa et al. Cancer Cell. 2010) and might be present in conjunction with SRSF2 mutations, an unique unreported molecular subset, feasible for exploring azanucleoside response prediction. Herein, we report a case of trisomy 8 MDS derived IDH1 and SRSF2 mutated AML who underwent rapid morphological blast differentiation in the context of acute differentiation syndrome while treated with 10 days (d) of hypomethylating dose of DAC.

Methods A 61-year-old male with performance status (PS) = 3 presented with leukocytosis of 18.9 K/uL (peripheral blast 90%). He had a history of low-grade MDS diagnosed 2 years before  AML transformation. After morphological confirmation of M5 AML, fluorescent in situ hybridation (FISH) revealed 81% nuclei with trisomy 8. Extracted DNA was tested with a custom-designed Leukemia Cancer Gene Mutation Panel using AmpliSeq™ technology and showed IDH1 c.394C>T(p.R132C) mutation (Fig. 2B) and c.284C>T(p.P95L) mutation of SRSF2 gene (Fig. 2C). DAC was initiated at 15 mg/m2 for a total of 10 days every 28 d cycle.

Results By day 5 of cycle (C)1 of DAC treatment, brisk and significant rebound leukocytosis of 60 K/uL  (Fig. 3) was observed, along with shortness of breath, hypoxemia and radiological evidence of floppy bilateral pulmonary infiltrates suggestive of acute-like differentiation syndrome. In addition to broad-spectrum antimicrobial and antifungal, dexamethasone at 4 mg intravenously (IV) every 8-hour (h) and hydroxyurea at 1 g orally every 8 h resulted in progressive normalization of peripheral blood count and hypoxemia after 48 h. Patient (pt) recovered from C1 and proceeded with C2 of treatment. A similar episode of brisk/robust leukocytosis was observed by day 5 of C2 requiring dexamethasone and hydroxyurea. Progressive morphological differentiation was observed to full mature and morphologically normal monocytes and neutrophil (Fig. 4). Pt expired as result of severe clostridium difficile colitis during C3 of DAC.

Conclusions In our case, we observed robust acute differentiation syndrome characterized by rapid increase of WBC, shortness of breath and hypoxemia associated with azanucleoside treatment. Beside a novel association of IDH-1 and SRSF2 mutations, acute differentiation might suggest potential feature for azanucleoside response phenotype. Our case adds body of evidence of connection between epigenetic regulator and spliceosome mutations. Further studies on the impact of dual mutations in epigenetic reprogramming, leukemia transformation, and azanucleoside response will allow improved decision algorithm and therapeutic design.

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Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


Introduction: The snakebite cases in Jember as agricultural areas are the potential problem to threaten a person's life. Jember, where most residences are working in the agriculture and plantation sectors, has a very high risk of being bitten by a poisonous snake. Objective: To describe the snakebite cases in the agricultural area from two public hospitals of Jember. Methods: This was a cohort design with a retrospective approach. Two public hospitals in Jember were selected (dr. Soebandi and Kalisat hospital). The medical records were used to explore the data with a total sampling technique. We selected 162 medical records in total (2017-2019) for secondary data resources. The data collection tool used was a checklist sheet based on the guidelines from WHO. Results: Most snakebite victims were male and were farmers with a mean age of 40.95 (SD = 18.97). Most of the victims were bitten in the legs/feet (53,7%). More victims could not identify the snake species (48,8%), but more of them were identified as a green snake (42,6%) and Naja sputatrix (6,2%). They used a constricting method (32,7%) with a rope or cloth to prevent the poison move through the blood vessel. Most victims had mild envenomation (59,9%). Swelling (53,1%), local pain (32,1%), and dizziness (9,4%) were the most common symptoms after the snakebite. The treatment of snakebite victims mostly used 1st  dose (83,3%). The nurse also reported several nursing diagnoses such as acute pain (68,5%), risk of infection (22,8%), and skin problem (5,6%). Most of the patients only stay ≤ one day (69%) in the hospital. Conclusion: Snakebites from poisonous snakes are a threat to the agricultural area of Jember. No victims adopted either of the WHO-recommended first aid methods. Most of them had mild envenomation with only a 1st  dose treatment.


Two-dimensional heat conduction within a composed solid material with a constant internal heat generation has been investigated numerically in a sector of the rotor a generator. The heat transfer between two adjacent materials is assumed to be purely conduction. Boundary conditions are assumed to be forced convection on the fluid side and adiabatic on symmetry lines. The control volume method is applied for the diffusion energy equation. Physical coordinates are transformed to the general curvilinear coordinates. Then by using a line-by-line method, the temperature distribution in a sector of the rotor has been determined. Finally, the results are normalized and the effect of cooling fluid on the maximum temperature of insulation is investigated.


Purpose Avastin (bevacizumab) intravitreal injections are widely used for treatment of diabetic retinopathy. The aim of our study was to analyze effect of 1.25 mg of intravitreal Avastin on serum concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in diabetic patients. Methods Participants were 10 diabetic patients on insulin therapy, without any other eye or systemic disease, and no kidney disfunction. Both eyes of diabetic patients were injected simultaneously with 1.25 mg of intravitreal Avastin, as a first step in treatment of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy with clinically significant macular edema (4 patients), and of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (6 patients). Fluorescein angiography was performed prior to and laser therapy followed 1 month after Avastin treatment. VEGF concentration in patients serum was measured by ELISA technique: on the day of the Avastin administration, and 1, 7, and 28 days after intravitreal injection. Results In all analyzed participants, 24 hours after Avastin treatment, serum levels of VEGF were lower then basal (preinjection value). Maximal reduction of serum VEGF was noted on the 7th postoperative day. Twenty-eight days after, VEGF level in serum was raised, without completely reaching basal preoperative concentrations in most patients. Conclusions Intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF drugs have an effect on decreasing systemic VEGF values. Rhythm of changes in serum VEGF concentrations and lowest detected concentration on the seventh postinjection day are according to pharmacokinetics of Avastin in serum and vitreous, reported by similar studies. The small number of patients involved in this pilot study implicates the need for further studies.


This paper reviews a number of ways of estimating UMTS system performance through simulation. The focus is on the modelling of the physical layer performance within a dynamic system simulator. The dynamics of the system can be studied over two different timescales, short-term and long-term. If the long-term approach has been proven useful in voice-dominated systems, it is inadequate to capture the effects on the inner power control loop of rapidly changing conditions due to e.g. scheduling of variable rate packet data services. A new approach is proposed whereby a number of functions traditionally affected to the physical layer simulation are moved at the system level. Whilst improving significantly the system model, considerable simplification of the physical layer simulator is also achieved at the same time by removing the dependency on the system parameters.


We present a novel deep architecture termed templateNet for depth based object instance recognition. Using an intermediate template layer we exploit prior knowledge of an object's shape to sparsify the feature maps. This has three advantages: (i) the network is better regularised resulting in structured filters; (ii) the sparse feature maps results in intuitive features been learnt which can be visualized as the output of the template layer and (iii) the resulting network achieves state-of-the-art performance. The network benefits from this without any additional parametrization from the template layer. We derive the weight updates needed to efficiently train this network in an end-to-end manner. We benchmark the templateNet for depth based object instance recognition using two publicly available datasets. The datasets present multiple challenges of clutter, large pose variations and similar looking distractors. Through our experiments we show that with the addition of a template layer, a depth based CNN is able to outperform existing state-of-the-art methods in the field.


— Can Well being Become an Evaluation Criterion for Public Action? — This article examines the conditions which are necessary so that well being may become an evaluation criterion for public action. As a result, it examines the policy, methodology and technical issues that would arise from the adoption of this perspective. These issues are analysed based on two questions that are raised: (1) measuring well being and (2) how to operationalise this strategy, meaning how it is transferred from socio economics into public action. The first part is addressed using quantitative and participatory methods for the construction of well being indicators, which is in turn based on two testing grounds: the Walloon region and the communaute d'agglomeration of Grenoble Alpes Metropole. The second part examines how institutions and policies can employ this type of measurement. Is it possible to operationalise both the definition and the measurement of well being? The article does not claim to establish new general evaluation criteria, rather, it attempts to point out current trends that – although still in their experimental stage – are indeed beneficial. Without forgetting of course, the many methodological, political and ideological pitfalls that must be overcome...


Background: The dried fruit of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl. (Oleaceae) are better known by their herbal name Forsythiae Fructus, and have a bitter taste, slightly pungent smell, and cold habit. FF has been widely used to treat symptoms associated with the lung, heart, and small intestine. Recently, bioactive compounds isolated from hydrophobic solvent fractions of FF have been reported to have anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, and anti-cancer effects. Traditionally, almost all herbal medicines are water extracts, and thus, extraction methods should be developed to optimize the practical efficacies of herbal medicines. Materials and Methods: In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of the ethyl acetate fraction of the methanol extract of FF (FFE) were assessed by measuring NO and PGE2 production by and intracellular ROS and protein levels of iNOS and COX-2 in RAW 264.7 cells. Results: FFE inhibited COX-2 expression in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Conclusion: In summary, FFE effectively reduced intracellular ROS and NO levels and inhibited PGE2 production by down-regulating COX-2 levels. Abbreviations: FF, of Forsythiae Fructus; NO, nitric oxide; iNOS, inducible NO synthase; COX-2, cyclooxygenase-2; ROS, reactive oxygen species; PGE2, prostaglandin E2.


A renal transplant recipient with isolated cerebral aspergilloma 4 months after allograft transplantation is reported. On admission cerebral computed tomography showed a ring-enhancing mass in the left frontal hemisphere and aspirated purulent material revealed A. fumigatus hyphae. He was cured by short-term antifungal therapy and neurosurgical removal of the well demarcated lesion. He is still alive more than two years later and the renal transplant is well functioning. This is the first report of a renal transplant recipient with isolated cerebral aspergillosis without any relapse and only the third patient who has survived longer than 3 months. Early diagnostic procedures with rapid confirmation of aspergillus infection are pivotal for a benign clinical course.


Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) have a high prevalence in younger patients with child-bearing potential. Usually, pregnancies in women with IBD will develop normally, if the patient is in remission or has minor disease activity at the time of conception. In contrast, the frequency of normal pregnancies is significantly reduced and the frequency of adverse outcomes like preterm birth or miscarriage is increased, when conception occurs in phases with active IBD. Therefore, it is generally recommended to women with IBD to conceive at a time with minor disease activity or in remission. IBD patients who plan to become pregnant or are pregnant should be treated adequately. Currently, it is widely accepted that the treatment of IBD with corticosteroids and 5-ASA derivatives does not increase the risk of malformations or adverse outcomes in pregnant IBD patients. However, a slight increase in the number of pre-term deliveries or reduced birth weight is observed. More recently, it has also been appreciated that azathioprine and 6-MP and presumably also infliximab and other TNF-α blockers can be safely used during pregnancy in IBD, as no significant increase of malformations, miscarriages or adverse pregnancy outcomes is observed. Information on cyclosporine and tacrolimus during pregnancy is scarcer, but it may be continued or started in some situations if clinically needed. Methotrexate is contraindicated, as this drug is known to significantly increase the risk of malformations and spontaneous abortion. Patients, who wish to nurse their babies, may be treated with steroids and 5-ASA derivatives without a significantly increased risk for the newborn.


A linear delayed position feedback control is applied to control the erosion of safe basins in a Holmes-Duffing system. The conditions of fractal erosion of the safe basin of the controlled system on the basis that the range of time delay leading to good control is obtained by the Melnikov method. It is found that the increasing time delay can reduce the basin erosion under a weak and positive feedback gain. Then the evolutions of safe basins with time delay are presented in detail by the fourth Runge-Kutta and Monte-Carlo methods, which shows that the safe basin of the controlled Holmes-Duffing system can be expanded, and its fractal can be reduced by the increasing time delay. These results suggest that delayed position feedbacks can be used as a good approach to control the erosion of safe basins.


The paucity of fungal diseases in mammals relative to insects, amphibians, and plants is puzzling. We analyzed the thermal tolerance of 4802 fungal strains from 144 genera and found that most cannot grow at mammalian temperatures. Fungi from insects and mammals had greater thermal tolerances than did isolates from soils and plants. Every 1 degrees C increase in the 30 degrees C-40 degrees C range excluded an additional 6% of fungal isolates, implying that fever could significantly increase the thermal exclusion zone. Mammalian endothermy and homeothermy are potent nonspecific defenses against most fungi that could have provided a strong evolutionary survival advantage against fungal diseases.


K. Flinn); and the complex relationship of the modernization process to the phenomenon of millenarianism (Richard L. Rubenstein). All the essays are well worth reading, though Flinn's insufferable play on "de-" words ("de-transcendentalize," "de-eternalize," and "dis-ambiguize") should have been de-jargonized, and Penton's sense that another failure in Jehovah's Witness prophetic chronology "may become one of the greatest crises of confidence in their entire history" is probably a naive and simplistic judgment. The essays worth rereading—those of Bryant, Dayton, and Rubenstein—are also the most ambitious in the volume. For a collection of essays rated on a scale of one to ten, the book deserves a solid "eight."


Background: Biological motion perception is served by a network of regions in the occipital, posterior temporal, and parietal lobe, overlapping areas of reduced cortical volume in schizophrenia. The atrophy in these regions is assumed to account for deficits in biological motion perception described in schizophrenia but it is unknown whether the asymmetry of atrophy found in previous studies has a perceptual correlate. Here we look for possible differences in sensitivity to leftward and rightward translation of point-light biological motion in data collected for a previous study and explore its underlying neurobiology using functional imaging. Methods: n = 64 patients with schizophrenia and n = 64 controls performed a task requiring the detection of leftward or rightward biological motion using a standard psychophysical staircase procedure. six control subjects took part in the functional imaging experiment. Results: We found a deficit of leftward but not rightward biological motion (leftward biological motion % accuracy patients = 57.9% ± 14.3; controls = 63.6% ± 11.3 p = 0.01; rightward biological motion patients = 62.7% ± 12.4; controls = 64.1% ± 11.7; p > 0.05). The deficit reflected differences in distribution of leftward and rightward accuracy bias in the two populations. Directional bias correlated with functional outcome as measured by the Role Functioning Scale in the patient group when co-varying for negative symptoms (r = -0.272, p = 0.016). Cortical regions with preferential activation for leftward or rightward translation were identified in both hemispheres suggesting the psychophysical findings could not be accounted for by selective atrophy or functional change in one hemisphere alone. Conclusion: The findings point to translational direction as a novel functional probe to help understand the underlying neural mechanisms of wider cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.


The Hospitality and Tourism Management industry is extensive and can be overwhelming for students to determine possible career paths. A survey of graduates of Appalachian State University's Hospitality and Tourism Management was conducted. This surveyed aimed to answer the questions what career paths can be pursued with a Hospitality and Tourism Management degree and how beneficial is having this degree in finding a job within this industry. The survey also analyzed graduates' perceptions of the program and what changes should be made.


In geochemical surface surveys, anomalies are used to predict oil/gas fields. However, it was revealed that caprock thickness strongly influences anomaly intensities where caprock thickness varies intensely. In this paper, we established a method to eliminate this influence by using wavelet analysis. In the south slope of the Dongying Depression in east China, there are no anomalies over several oil fields (undeveloped) all the same, even if surface interference was eliminated. After we processed the data with this method, the corrected anomalies coincide with oil fields (wells), traps and sand-bodies. This study illustrates that the influence of caprock thickness on anomaly intensities may result in unreliable prediction where caprock thickness varies intensely but it can be eliminated by using wavelet analysis. AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90174 CSPG©2014 CSPG/CSEG/CWLS GeoConvention 2012, (Vision) May 14-18, 2012, Calgary, AB, Canada


Studies quantifying the effect of the nitrogen over the growth of genotypes of Conilon coffee contribute to improve the fertilization management. Thus, this study was developed to evaluate the growth of improved genotypes of Coffea canephora Pierre ex Froehner submitted to nitrogen fertilization. Six improved genotypes of C. canephora, from different groups of ripening cycles, were grown without nitrogen fertilization or with fertilization at level of 0.625 g kg-1 of soil, cultivated in greenhouse, following a completely randomized design, with four replications. The plant growths were evaluated considering the plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and relative growth rate. Nitrogen fertilization was able to promote higher growth, as well as, in general, a higher relative growth rate of all genotypes. Differentiation among genotypes was observed for their responses to each of the evaluated parameters. Noteworthy are the genotypes 77, in leafiness, and 67 in plant height and stem diameter, which presented higher growth compared to other genotypes, with or without nitrogen fertilization.

 Key words: Coffea canephora, response, deficiency, mineral nutrition.


Robots involved in HRI should be able to adapt to their partners by learning to select autonomously the behaviors that maximize the pleasantness of the interaction for them. To this aim, affect could play two important roles: serve as perceptual input to infer the emotional status and reactions of the human partner; and act as internal motivation system for the robot, supporting reasoning and action selection. In this perspective, we propose to develop an affect-based architecture for the humanoid robot iCub with the purpose of fully autonomous personalized HRI. This base framework can be generalized to fit many different contexts -social, educational, collaborative and assistive - allowing for natural, long-term, and adaptive interaction.


Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (INCL) belongs to a family of pediatric neurodegenerative disorders collectively known as Batten Disease. INCL is caused by mutations in the palmitoyl protein thioesterase 1 (PPT1) gene, leading to retinal and CNS deterioration due to accumulation of autofluorescent storage materials in the lysosome. Although advances have been made in modeling the disease in various organisms, the elucidation of defined mechanistic pathways responsible for disease pathology and effective treatment remains a challenge. The goal of the present study is to characterize the cellular behavior of a human patient fibroblast cell line deficient in the PPT1 enzyme. PPT1 deficient cells were derived from a donor with Tyr247His and Met1Ile compound heterozygous mutations. The donor cells are characterized and compared to the two PPT1 expressing fibroblast cell lines, HFF and MRC‐5, using assays of cell morphology, cell viability, and autofluorescent accumulations. Future work aims to establish an Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) line using the Yamanaka technique, in order to continue studying the pathology of the disease. Specifically, neural progenitor cells deriving from these iPSC cells will be characterized and compared to wild type iPSCs to assess cell morphology, cell viability, autofluorescent accumulations, and neuronal function and pathology.


In the early 21st century, controversy erupted about retail capitalism's implications for prosperity and equality in a debate about the so-called "Wal-Mart effect" in the United States. Since then, the debate has assumed global proportions as advocates and critics clash over the impact of prominent retailers on the societies in which they operate. Many voices have been raised in criticism of global retail companies but mainstream economists have rallied to the defence of Wal-Mart and other leading retailers in celebrating the economic achievements of "modern" retailing. Notwithstanding these economists' confidence, they are bluffing when it comes to the economics of retailing. They have made a fetish of retail capitalism, casting it in a fantastic form endowed with an autonomous and relentless economic logic, but their ostensible expertise in doing so relies on dubious models and measures of "modern" retailing's economics. To understand what makes retailing tick, we must grapple with how it operates as capitalism by studying how retail capitalists generate profits. Doing so shows how misguided economists are in casting Wal-Mart as a poster child of economic efficiency for a post-industrial age. More important, it allows us to understand Wal-Mart's own economic fetishes in running its business, as well as what is distinctive and banal about the Bentonville giant compared with leading retailers in the past and present. The crucial implication of this analysis is that we must confront the systemic logic of retail capitalism, rather than the particular ways in which it is applied, to limit its pernicious economic and social implications.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the patients who presented with intoxication case to our Children Emergency Department of Suleyman Demirel University Medical Faculty Hospital, retrospectively. Methods: The patients, who were admitted to our children emergency service between the dates July 2013 and July 2014 were searched retrospectively. The age, sex, the admission time, the admission duration, the way of intoxication, symptoms, the items caused intoxication, the aim of taking the item and the hospital stay of the cases were evaluated. Results: For the study, the files of 82 patients aged from 1 to 18 years (mean 8,9±6,3 years) were scanned; 50 (60.9%) cases were female, 32 (39.1%) were male. Intoxication cases constituted 3.6% of all cases admitted to the children's emergency unit over one year period. A high proportion (51%) of intoxication cases were between 1 and 5 years of age. Thirty of the thirty (100%) patients that were intoxicated because of a suicide attempt were girls and all of them were over 12 years of age. The most common substance for intoxication was drugs (76%), followed by insecticides and herbal (6.5%). Amon the medication, cold relief drugs (14%), antidepressant (13%) and paracetamol (12%) drugs were most common. Conclusion: Poisoning shows a peak in two periods of childhood and adolescence in this study. We think that accidental ingestion in childhood can be prevented by parents' education and simple precautions in general. In addition, we recommend that families should demonstrate appropriate approaches, especially with regards to the psychology of adolescent girls, and, if necessary, get help from a specialist.


Gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli use tripartite efflux pumps such as AcrAB-TolC to expel antibiotics and noxious compounds. A key feature of the inner membrane transporter component, AcrB, is a short stretch of residues known as the gate/switch loop that divides the proximal and distal substrate binding pockets. Amino acid substitutions of the gate loop are known to decrease antibiotic resistance conferred by AcrB. Here we present two new AcrB gate loop variants, the first stripped of its bulky side chains, and a second in which the gate loop is removed entirely. By determining the crystal structures of the variant AcrB proteins in the presence and absence of erythromycin and assessing their ability to confer erythromycin tolerance, we demonstrate that the gate loop is important for AcrB export activity but is not required for erythromycin binding.


CDIO standards 9 and 10 require institutions within the initiative to work toward systematically supporting and developing the teaching and the more general competency of their faculty. Conventionally this is assumed to be the academic teaching staff responsible for the curriculum, learning outcomes and assessment on a given programme. CDIO by implication from the other standards requires significant involvement by students in practical projects and experiences all of which typically involve the use of technical support staff. While technical staff will generally not be directly involved in designing curricula or setting assessments, they are often a key contact point and enabler of the students learning experience particularly with regard to many practical or problem solving competencies desired within programmes. Despite their importance, the opportunities and support given to technicians to enhance their competence, particularly with regard to the learning process and student engagement, can be quite limited. This paper describes an effort by CDIO partners the University of Twente and Aston University to trial an exchange visits scheme to help encourage and support our technical staff to gain new perspectives, have opportunity to develop, to build a collaborative network and share best practice.


Identification of the correct medicinal plants that goes in to the preparation of a medicine is very important in ayurvedic medicinal industry. The main features required to identify a medicinal plant is its leaf shape, colour and texture. Colour and texture from both sides of the leaf contain deterministic parameters to identify the species. This paper explores feature vectors from both the front and back side of a green leaf along with morphological features to arrive at a unique optimum combination of features that maximizes the identification rate. A database of medicinal plant leaves is created from scanned images of front and back side of leaves of commonly used ayurvedic medicinal plants. The leaves are classified based on the unique feature combination. Identification rates up to 99% have been obtained when tested over a wide spectrum of classifiers. The above work has been extended to include identification by dry leaves and a combination of feature vectors is obtained, using which, identification rates exceeding 94% have been achieved.


Abstract The paper focuses on the foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Central Europe and on the development changes among the individual countries. The paper follows from the work (Gauselmann et al. 2011) dealing with the development of the transient economies with focus on the role of the FDI. The objective of the paper is identification of the impact of the FDI on the economic growth and economic performance during the post-transformation era where differences among the countries at the beginning of the monitored period in 2000 and at the end of 2011 are evaluated based on data of United Nations Conference for Trade and Development. The development of FDI following 2000 was positively influenced by new system of the investment incentives for the foreign investors, accession of the countries to the European Union, it increased their credibility for foreign investors. High inflow of foreign direct investment ended with beginning of the economic crisis in 2008. Current trend in FDI is below its level before the economic crisis, and their amount increase only by few percent per year.


Abstract Ni–44 at.% Al single crystals were studied after compressive deformation along the hard orientation between 700 and 825 K. In order to understand the mechanism of the slip transition occurring at intermediate temperatures, compression was performed at various strain rates and to various strain levels. Local decomposition of α<111> dislocations was observed between 750 and 800 K. At 800 K (the slip transition temperature), complete decomposition occurs into α<101> and α<010> dislocations. Several unique features are associated with this decomposition event, such as the preference for near-edge line directions (for the α<111> dislocations), significant strain softening between 800 and 900 K, and the effect of thermal activation in determining the extent of the actual decomposition event.


Abstract Interleukin-9 (IL-9) is a cytokine secreted by T-helper (Th)9 cells, and activin A can enhance Th9 cell differentiation. However, whether activin A affects IL-9 production by natural killer (NK) cells remains unclear. Herein, we found that not only Th cells, but also CD3−CD49b+NKp46+ NK cells of Balb/c mice produced IL-9. Although activin A promoted IL-9 expression in CD4+ Th cells, it inhibited IL-9 production by CD49b+NKp46+ NK cells in mice. Furthermore, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results showed that mouse NK cells could secrete mature IL-9 protein, and activin A inhibited IL-9 release by NK cells. Additionally, activin A inhibited interferon (IFN)-γ production in splenic NK cells in mice, but promoted IL-2 production, and did not alter the production of IL-10. Western blotting results showed that levels of activin type IIA receptor (ActRIIA), Smad3 and phosphorylated-Smad3 (p-SMAD3) protein increased in activin A-treated splenic NK cells, compared with that in control NK cells. The inhibitory effects of activin A on IL-9 production by NK cells were attenuated in the presence of activin antagonist follistatin (FST) or Smad3 knockdown to NK cells. These data suggest that although activin A up-regulates IL-9 expression in Th cells, it inhibits IL-9 production in NK cells through Smad3 signaling.


Recursion is one of the most important and hardest topics in lower division computer science courses. As it is an advanced programming skill, the best way to learn it is through targeted practice exercises. But the best practice problems are time consuming to manually grade by an instructor. As a consequence, students historically have completed only a small number of recursion programming exercises as part of their coursework. We present a new way for teaching such programming skills. Students view examples and visualizations, then practice a wide variety of automatically assessed, small-scale programming exercises that address the sub-skills required to learn recursion. The basic recursion tutorial (RecurTutor) teaches material typically encountered in CS2 courses. Students who used RecurTutor had significantly better grades on recursion exam questions than did students who used typical instruction. Students who experienced RecurTutor spent significantly more time on solving recursive programming exercises than students who experienced typical instruction, and came out with a significantly higher confidence level.


This study is part of a project to evaluate and develop metods to control the semen quality in stallions. The study was carried out in cooperation between SLU and Flyinge AB. The objective of the study was to analyse
-if there are individual differences in sperm chromatin integrety between different stallions
-if there is a correlation between subjectively evaluated sperm motility and sperm chromatin integrity
-if sperm chromatin integrity is changed after selection of the semen with a centrifugation method through the silica-spheres, gradient or a single-layer, i.e to use the chromatin integrity analysis as a method to evaluate the selection method.

The use of chilled transported semen has increased a lot during the last 10 years, especially among the Swedish warmblood breed. Because the foaling percentage has decreased with the increased use of chilled transported semen, there is a need to develop methods to control the sperm quality. Evaluation of the chromatin integrity could be one way to evaluate the quality of the semen.

Chromatin is the DNA in the nucleus of the sperm. If the chromatin is denatured it may lead to a failed fertilization or a disturbed development of the embryo or the placenta.

Ten stallions of Swedish Warmblood breed at the Flyinge National Stud with the age 4-23 years were used in the study. The stallion semen was collected at seven times during a period of 2 ½ weeks. From every ejaculate samples were taken both before and after centrifugation through either of two different silica-spheres, single-layer or gradient for chromatin analysis and evaluation of sperm motility. The samples were immediatly frozen in TNE buffer and transported to Uppsala where they were analyzed with help of flow-cytometry. The results was presented as DFI (DNA Fragmentation Index) which measures the percentage of the sperms fragmentated DNA, and also the main DFI (X-DFI) and the standard deviation of DFI (SD-DFI).

The result showed that the method of sperm centrifugation was effective in the selection of sperms with damage chromatin integrity. There was no difference in effectiveness between the two different metods of centrifugation, single–layer and gradient.
The DNA Fragmentation Index (DFI) and the subjectively evaluated sperm motility was negative correlated. This means that the lower the DFI, the higher the motility. The result also showed that there was a statistical significant difference in DFI between stallions.


Drought, due to climate change, has in recent years become more severe. Capability to monitor drought conditions and to assess drought risk is essential to the development of an effective drought adaptation plan, especially for an agricultural country like Thailand. Current drought monitoring is provided by separate indices such as Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Soil Moisture Index (SMI) and Moisture Available Index (MAI), calculated from weather station datasets which are not easily comprehensible to users. This research develops a countrywide integrated satellite-based drought model consisting of three parameters: accumulated estimated rainfall generated from FY-2E satellite data, the difference in Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) generated from MODIS. A simple drought hazard is introduced as a multiple linear regression model (R2=0.795) of these satellite products, calibrated with daily soil moisture measurements in 2015. Consequently, drought conditions are represented by the Drought Hazard Index (DHI) whose assigned integer values are from –3 (extremely dry) to +3 (extremely wet), according to the defined thresholds (presently at 0.05, 0.15, 0.30, 0.70, 0.80, and 0.95) of the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of drought hazard values. The model is validated with 426 countrywide drought situations announced by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), during the drought season of 2016, yielding a 0.96 probability of detection. Subsequently, the model outputs are processed with relevant GIS data, which are agricultural and irrigation areas to represent drought exposure and vulnerability respectively, to generate a drought risk map for further analysis and planning. This platform can benefit not only policymakers but also the farmers themselves.


The use of non-motorized vehicles in urban city has improved the convenience of short-distance travel and reduced traffic pollution. However, the overtaking behaviour of non-motorized vehicles impacts traffic safety and efficiency significantly. The objective of this study is to model the durations of overtaking behaviour in the non-motorized vehicle exclusive lane. A total of 3010 overtaking events of non-motorized vehicles were extracted from two locations in Chengdu, China. The nonparametric survival analysis was conducted to model the overtaking duration of non-motorized vehicles. The categorical variables that significantly influence the overtaking duration were examined by the Log-rank test. The results show that the overtaking durations of female riders is longer than that of male riders. It takes longer for electrical bikes to complete overtaking than conventional bikes. When the non-motorized vehicle is under the load state (i.e. passengers or goods on the non-motorized vehicle), the overtaking behaviour takes more time than the un-load state. Moreover, it takes less time to overtake the non-motorized vehicle with load than to overtake the one without load. When there is a wrong-way driving phenomenon or under higher traffic volume, the duration is longer compared to the normal traffic and lower traffic volume conditions. The findings of this study attempt to provide a more profound understanding of non-motorized vehicles overtaking behaviour under different traffic conditions and give insights to the safety research of non-motorized vehicles.


Fabry's disease is a congenital disorder of glycosphingolipid metabolism with an X-linked recessive inheritance, presenting with typical symptoms of pain crises, acroparesthesias, cutaneous and mucosal angiokeratomas, hypohidrosis, heart and kidney lesions, and other symptoms, which are described below. From 2001, this disease is one of inborn errors of metabolism in which enzyme replacement therapy is applied very effectively. Two atypical forms of the disease were discovered, and the first surveys were done revealing that the incidence of Fabry's disease can be much more higher than it was considered before. Not only pediatricians can encounter with these patients in their practice, but also family doctors, nephrologists, cardiologists, neurologists, and physicians of other specialties. A clinical case of Fabry's disease is described, and actual issues of diagnostics and treatment of Fabry's disease are discussed. In spite of very typical symptoms, delayed diagnosis was made: after the first investigation of alpha-galactosidase A activity in dry blood sample, diagnosis of Fabry's disease was rejected; only after lysosomal enzyme activity assay in heparinized blood leukocytes, this diagnosis was confirmed.


Background: To achieve the goal of malaria elimination, it is important to determine the role of human mobility of maintain parasite transmission. The Alto Jurua basin (Brazil) has one of the largest prevalence of malaria vivax and malaria falciparum in the Amazon. The goal of this work was to estimate the contribution of human commutation on the persistence of malaria in this region using data from a origin-destination survey.Methods: Data from the origin-destination survey was used to describe the intensity and motivation for commutation between rural settlements and urban areas in two municipalities, Mancio Lima and Rodrigues Alves. The relativetime-person spent in each locality per household was estimated. A logistic model was fitted to estimate the effect of commuting on the probability of getting malaria for a householder from a zone of residence commuting to another zone.Results: Our main results suggest that this population is not very mobile. 96% of household reported spending more than 90% of the annual person-hour at localities within the same zone of residence. Study and work are the most prevalent motivations for commuting, 40.5% and 29.5% respectively. Spending person-hours in urban Rodrigues Alves conferred relative protection to the residents of urban Mancio Lima. On the other hand, spending time in urban Rodrigues Alves conferred protection against malaria for those living in urban Mancio Lima. The opposite effect occurs for those spending time in the rural areas of both municipalities.Conclusion: In the alto Jurua region, the place one lives is a stronger determinant of malaria risk than the place ones commute. These municipalities of a hotspot of Plasmodium transmission, thus understanding the main fluxes is essential to planning control strategies because the probability of getting malaria is dependent on the intensity of transmission of both, the area of origin and the area to which the displacement take place. The natural conditions for the circulation of pathogens such as the Plasmodium spp, combined with the pattern of mobility of humans in the Amazon, make clear the need of disease control perspective change. It is essential that intersectoral public policies be the basis for health mitigation actions.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
This article will summarize the effects of more intensive blood pressure (BP) control on cardiovascular, cognitive, and renal outcomes among elderly (age ≥75 years) individuals at high risk for cardiovascular events. Subsets of patients who may not benefit and obstacles to implementation will be addressed. The authors' insights will conclude the review.

RECENT FINDINGS
A burst of new research regarding the effects of lower BP targets on cardiovascular, cognitive, and renal endpoints among the elderly has been published. Achieved values of 123 mmHg systolic in those without diabetes or prior stroke revealed striking declines in all-cause mortality, heart failure, and stroke. Although there was no benefit on the incidence of dementia, mild cognitive impairment was reduced. A trend towards modest declines in renal function and higher adverse event rates with normalization of BP were noted. Whether those with poor functional status or diastolic hypotension realize comparable gains remains unknown.

SUMMARY
Intensive BP control (systolic goal 120-130 mmHg systolic) results in lower rates of all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiac events. Elderly individuals with a good functional status and no history of diabetes or stroke are suitable candidates.


According to the literature, much has been said about the impact of Information Technology on organizations, but little about its impact on the individual. This study aims to identify Information Technology benefits in individual work, choosing as a proxy some "latu sensu" post-graduation students, from a federal university in the south of Brazil. For data collection, a questionnaire based on the studies by Torkzadeh and Doll (1999) and Pereira (2003) was prepared. Torkzadeh and Doll dealt with the process of working; Pereira, with the four phases of the decision-making process. The final instrument, after being validated and tested, amounted to 21 questions to detect the potential benefits of Information Technology. The results demonstrated that users are satisfied, by pointing an average of 2.69 on a scale of "1" (little satisfied) to "5" (very much satisfied). The framework, work process, got an overall average [2.82]. Managerial control [3.10] and productivity [3.06] had the highest ratings; innovation [2.34], the lowest one. With technologies fully implemented, greater satisfaction was observed for all constructs of the survey, with statistically significant differences. Such differences were also proven in the Information Technology solutions that use Enterprise Resource Planning technology, the best-evaluated one. When comparing age, it was found that younger users were more satisfied with the benefits of technology. Concerning the number of employees, small business users were less satisfied with Information Technology.


This paper proposed a new detection and prevention system against DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack in SDN (software defined network) architecture, FL-GUARD (Floodlight-based guard system). Based on characteristics of SDN and centralized control, etc., FL-GUARD applies dynamic IP address binding to solve the problem of IP spoofing, and uses 3.3.2 C-SVM algorithm to detect attacks, and finally take advantage of the centralized control of software-defined network to issue flow tables to block attacks at the source port. The experiment results show the effectiveness of our system. The modular design of FL-GUARD lays a good foundation for the future improvement.


Complexes formed between cationic liposomes and nucleic acids represent a highly efficient vehicle for delivery of DNA and RNA molecules into a large variety of eukaryotic cells. By using fluorescence, gel electrophoresis, and metal-shadowing electron microscopy techniques, the factors that affect the, yet unclear, interactions between DNA and cationic liposomes as well as the structural features of the resulting complexes have been elucidated. A model is suggested according to which cationic liposomes bind initially to DNA molecules to form clusters of aggregated vesicles along the nucleic acids. At a critical liposome density, two processes occur, namely, DNA-induced membrane fusion, indicated by lipid mixing studies, and liposome-induced DNA collapse, pointed out by the marked cooperativity of the encapsulation processes, by their modulations by DNA-condensing agents, and also by their conspicuous independence upon DNA length. The DNA collapse leads to the formation of condensed structures which can be completely encapsulated within the fused lipid bilayers in a fast, highly cooperative process since their exposed surface is substantially smaller than that of extended DNA molecules. The formation of the transfecting DNA-liposome complexes in which the nucleic acids are fully encapsulated within a positively-charged lipid bilayer is proposed, consequently, to be dominated by mutual effects exerted by the DNA and the cationic liposomes, leading to interrelated lipid fusion and DNA collapse.


Objective: The present study aims to investigate the relationship between genetic polymorphisms in HTR3A and HTR3E and diarrhea predominant irritable bowel syndrome (D-IBS) in a Chinese population. Methods: We enrolled 500 D-IBS patients and 500 ageand sex-matched healthy control subjects to detect the genotypes in HTR3A and HTR3B gene by using of PCR-RFLP method. Results: There were significant difference between the D-IBS patients and the health control subjects in the distribution of genotype and allele of rs1062613 in HTR3A gene. As regarding rs62625044 in HTR3E gene, we found there was a significant different between the case and the control group in the distribution of GA genotype and A allele in female but not in male. Conclusion: The present study suggested that there are associations of D-IBS risk with genetic polymorphisms in HTR3A and HTR3E.


Abstract Poly(oxanorbornene)s with zinc(II) phthalocyanine side chains have been synthesized by ring-opening metathesis polymerization. The incorporation of zinc(II) phthalocyanine into cationic polymer has given poly(oxanorbornene)s noteworthy photophysicochemical properties and the capacity to generate singlet oxygen under light irradiation. To investigate photosensitizer's properties of the newly synthesized polymers P6 and P7: fluorescence (ΦF), singlet oxygen (ΦΔ) and triplet (ΦT) quantum yields of polymers have been measured in dimethyl sulfoxide and aqueous medium. Singlet oxygen quantum yields of P6 and P7 have been found to be 0.22 and 0.20 in dimethyl sulfoxide, respectively. Then, photodynamic therapy activities of polymers (P1-P7) against human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7 cells) have been investigated. The copolymer P5 bearing pendant zinc(II) phthalocyanine and triethyl phosphonium functionalities has showed enhanced PDT activity with less than 10% viable cells at 60 μg/mL. Graphical Abstract


Introduction Pantoprazole is one of the most widely used proton pump inhibitors, but anaphylaxis occurs rarely during its use. The purpose of reporting these two cases is to show that pantoprazole is not a drug without problems; it can also cause anaphylactic reactions. Cases description A 42-year-old woman presented to the emergency department due to dyspeptic complaints. Immediately at the end of the infusion of pantoprazole, there started to be numbness of the tongue, itching all over the body, and difficulty in breathing. Half an hour after taking a pantoprazole 40 mg capsule, a 58-year-old woman started to experience redness of the face, thickening of the tongue, itching, bloating, and dizziness. Arterial pressure was 80/60 mmHg, pulse 150/minute, while saturation had dropped to 88%. In both cases, fluids, adrenaline, antihistamines, methylprednisolone, and calcium were immediately started. After the improvement of their general conditions, both patients were discharged home. Discussion The first case relates to anaphylaxis after the intravenous administration of pantoprazole, and the second case relates to the appearance of anaphylaxis after its oral administration. Conclusion Health workers need to be informed about the possibility of anaphylaxis in patients taking both oral and parenteral pantoprazole. LEARNING POINTS PPIs are generally safe, with a low percentage of side effects of 1–3%. Although hypersensitive reactions to PPIs are rare, cases of anaphylactoid reactions have also been reported in the literature. Anaphylaxis caused by taking pantoprazole should be considered in the differential diagnosis of anaphylaxis in both oral and parenteral administration of the drug. Doctors and pharmacists should be very careful when prescribing pantoprazole and other PPIs, especially to the elderly.


Background: Osteochondral injuries have poor endogenous healing potential, and no standard treatment has been established. The use of combined layered autologous bone and cartilage chips for treatment of osteochondral defects has shown promising short-term clinical results. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study aimed to investigate the role of cartilage chips by comparing combined layered autologous bone and cartilage chips with autologous bone implantation alone in a Göttingen minipig model. The hypothesis was that the presence of cartilage chips would improve the quality of the repair tissue. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Twelve Göttingen minipigs received 2 osteochondral defects in each knee. The defects were randomized to autologous bone graft (ABG) combined with autologous cartilage chips (autologous dual-tissue transplantation [ADTT]) or ABG alone. Six animals were euthanized at 6 months and 6 animals were euthanized at 12 months. Follow-up evaluation consisted of histomorphometry, immunohistochemistry, semiquantitative scoring (International Cartilage Repair Society II), and computed tomography. Results: There was significantly more hyaline cartilage in the ADTT group (25.8%) compared with the ABG group (12.8%) at 6 months after treatment. At 12 months, the fraction of hyaline cartilage in the ABG group had significantly decreased to 4.8%, whereas the fraction of hyaline cartilage in the ADTT group was unchanged (20.1%). At 6 and 12 months, there was significantly more fibrocartilage in the ADTT group (44% and 60.8%) compared with the ABG group (24.5% and 41%). The fraction of fibrous tissue was significantly lower in the ADTT group compared with the ABG group at both 6 and 12 months. The implanted cartilage chips stained >75% positive for collagen type 4 and laminin at both 6 and 12 months. Significant differences were found in a number of International Cartilage Repair Society II subcategories. The volume of the remaining bone defect significantly decreased from 6 to 12 months in both treatment groups; however, no difference in volume was found between the groups at either 6 or 12 months. Conclusion: The presence of cartilage chips in an osteochondral defect facilitated the formation of fibrocartilage as opposed to fibrous tissue at both 6 and 12 months posttreatment. The implanted chips were present in the defect and viable after 12 months. Clinical Relevance: This study substantiates the chondrogenic role of cartilage chips in osteochondral defects.


The electron impact outer-shell double ionization of argon has been investigated at 5.5 keV incident energy. (e, (3-1)e) experiments in which two of the three electrons present in the continuum are detected in coincidence have been performed, yielding fourfold differential cross sections. The energy distribution of the two ejected electrons is reported. The observed non-symmetric shape may be attributed to the different angular distribution of the fast and slow ejected electrons.


This paper looks for evidence of an environmental
Kuznets curve for water pollution in countries that share major rivers as their
border. The data in this paper consist of a panel of 21 years and 30 countries,
seven of which are border countries. The turning point for the border countries
is much lower than that for the other subset. A t-test comparing group means for
income and biochemical oxygen demand levels for both subsets finds no
statistical difference for either variable, implying that countries
sharing a river may be able to enforce environmental regulations more
effectively than countries not sharing a river.


The philosophy on the procurement of body parts of the living for medical treatment purposes appears to be strengthened by altruism; or significantly rests on it. The other weak, and adjudged unethical, limb is pecuniary gains from their sales. These two either profit making or altruism are apparently in sharp contrast. However opposed commercialisation may be to altruism, they are not entirely mutually exclusive. This paper explores the advancement in the thoughts to equate living human body parts with goods in commercial transactions. It seeks to suggest a framework for dealings in human body parts for return in cash and or other benevolent grounds, yet keeping altruism within reach. It points at the Iranian system to reinforce the way forward for the global community.


Molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is a condition with specific clinical presentation whose etiology to date still remains unknown. This study prospectively investigated the association between nutrition during the 1st year of life and the presence of MIH in the permanent dentition. Data from 1070 10-year-old children from two prospective birth cohort studies were included. Information on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and introduction of 48 food items into the child's diet was assessed at 4-, 6-, and 12-month time-points. Food diversity was defined according to the number of food items or food groups introduced into the child's diet and then subsequent categorization into low-, middle- and high-diversity groups was performed. MIH was scored in the permanent dentition at age of 10 years. The statistical analysis included logistic and Poisson hurdle regression models adjusted for potential confounders. EBF, food item and food group diversity at 4-, 6-, 12-month time-points were found to be non-significant in most of the categories for the development of MIH. However, significantly higher odds for the presence of MIH were found for certain categories. Despite the limitation of this study, such as arbitrary cut-offs for categorization of food items, the results of this study suggest the lack of an association between early nutrition in the first year of life and MIH in the permanent dentition.


Multiple description coding (MDC) addresses the prob- lem of encoding a source into two (or more) bitstreams such that a high-quality reconstruction is decodable from the two bitstreams together, while a lower, but still acceptable, quality reconstructions is decodable if either of the two bitstreams is lost. Recent research (l) has proposed using transforms to introduce a controlled amount of correlation between the two bitstreams in order to achieve MDC objectives. This paper consid- ers several optimality issues related to such transform- based MDC methods. Redundancy rate-distortion (RRD) performance of a general class of transforms is derived and used to identify the optimal transform for achiev- ing any given amount of redundancy. Then, the pa- per introduces a more general transform-based MDC framework incorporating both the transform mode of redundancy and a second mode of redundancy. The op- timal allocation of redundancy among these two modes is analyzed.


What does it mean to come after Blanchot? Three things, at least. First, it is to recognise that it is no longer possible to believe in an essentialist determination of literary discourse or of aesthetic experience. All this has disappeared; and there is no way back. Second, there is the question of history. What is Blanchot's legacy to us, his readers? Any name, however irreplaceably singular, is always already preceded, limited, challenged even, by the abiding anonymity of the person, animal, or thing it claims to name. Every name is necessarily impersonal, anonymous, other. Blanchot "after Blanchot," then, can best be understood in the sense of that which is "according to Blanchot" - and that is nothing other than the infinite process of reading and rereading Blanchot: without end. Here, a third meaning to the phrase "after Blanchot" comes into view. For if we come after Blanchot, it is surely because Blanchot is still before us, still in front, still in the future, still to come.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of input vectors in an artificial neural network (ANN) and determine their best combination to estimate the individual dry biomass of native bracatinga. The dataset consisted of 178 trees of Mimosa scabrella Benth. (bracatinga) from the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba. The ANN used was a Multi-Layer Perceptron; the learning algorithm was the Levenberg-Marquardt, consisting of an occult layer where 50% of the data were used for training, 25% for cross-validation and the other 25% for the test. The input vectors were all the variables collected in the field, such as: diameter at breast height (dbh), total height (ht), crown height (hc), stem height (hf), crown diameter (dc) and age (i). The treatment 1 consisted of all the vectors; after the MLP trained, the Garson algorithm was executed for obtaining relative contribution of each vector; the less important vector was deleted and the MPL was retrained (treatment 2) and so on until only one vector was left. Based on the coefficient of determination and root mean square error, treatment 3 provided the best performance (i, hc, ht and dbh), followed by treatment 6 (dbh). The method of selecting attributes by the Garson algorithm was remarkable and provided the definition of essential vectors, allowing minimal costs and optimizing the performance of the MLP.

 Key words: Bracatinga, multi-layer perceptron, Garson algorithm, relative contribution.


The elastic-static problem of a partially insulated axisymmetric crack embedded in a graded coating bonded to a homogeneous substrate subjected to thermal loading is considered. The coating's gradient is parallel to the axisymmetric direction and is orthogonal to the crack plane. The graded coating is modeled as a nonhomogeneous medium with an isotropic constitutive law. Using Hankel transform, the heat conduction and the plane elasticity equations are converted into singular integral equations, which are solved numerically to yield the temperature distribution and the crack tip stress intensity factors. The Finite Element Method was additionally used to model the crack problem. The main objective of this paper is to study the influence of the material nonhomogeneity, partial insulation of the crack faces and the crack position on the stress intensity factors for the purpose of gaining better understanding on the behavior of graded coatings.


A retarding-potential-energy analyser with mass spectrometer has been developed to investigate the velocity (energy) distribution of an ion swarm in a drift tube. The energy distributions of Cs+ ions in Ar are measured in a steady stage ion stream over the range of E/N from 85 to 480 Td at N between 3.8*1015 and 4.8*1016 cm-3 at Tg=300K. The measured distributions at the axis of the velocity space are in good agreement with the distorted shifted Maxwellian for 85<or approximately=E/N<or approximately=300 Td, though the skewness in the distribution is observed at E/N=480 Td. The drift velocity and the longitudinal diffusion coefficient, derived from the mean value and the variance of the distribution, agree well with those from the conventional measurements of the arrival-time spectrum in the drift tube experiments.


The basic nuclear protein in the sperm of the Northern pike is a protamine, 32-residues long, which behaved as a single component during ion-exchange chromatography and gel electrophoresis. Amino acid analysis gave close to molar ratios for the eight different residues with no evidence of microheterogeneity. However, the presence of sequence variants was revealed following a combination of automated protein sequencing and cleavage of the protamine by CNBr, endoproteinase Lys-C and thermolysin. At position 28 there is an equal probability of having serine or glycine. At position 9 glycine is found more frequently than serine. The reciprocal nature of the substitutions results in glycine and serine contents which are close to a 4:2 ratio. Pike protamines are homologous to those of the trout but show less sequence variation between components.


A flexible pipe consists of several layers of steel and fluid barriers, where the fluid barriers keep the inside (steel) of the flexible pipe dry. Unfortunately, the most frequently damaged component of the flexible pipe is the external sheath, which is the outer fluid barrier. Water in the annulus is an indication of leakage, and replacement is then needed. To protect against or avoid severe damage of the flexible pipe, several inspection methods to detect damage of different parts of the flexible pipe are available. To detect the presence of air or water inside a gap between two steel armour plates in this work, an inspection method was necessary. The performed inspection was normal incident pulse-echo ultrasonic inspection. Both unfocused (plane) and focused transducers were used to scan a simplified flexible pipe model. The model consisted of a high density polyethylene (HDPE) external sheath and steel armour plates beneath it. The gaps between two steel plates beneath the HDPE-sheath was filled with either air or water and inspected. A realistic gap size between steel plates was found in theory to be in the range from 1 to 2 mm if the gaps were evenly distributed over the circumference of the flexible pipe. To detect whether air or water was present, only the focused transducer fitted this purpose. The focused transducer detected difference between air and water for a 2mm gap between steel plates when the transducer gradually inspected from steel over the gap and to steel again. From circle segment area consideration, it should be possible in theory to see a 180° phase-shift for 1.2mm gap between steel plates to differ air and water. Another way to differ air and water was to detect the plexiglass-container layer beneath both the HDPE-plate and the water layer. If air was present the layer could not be detected, but if water was present a 0.5mm gap between the steel plates could be identified by amplitude consideration. In the lab-test this layer was a plexiglass-container, but for a real flexible pipe this layer is an antiwear layer or another steel layer beneath the first steel layer.


Abstract Placenta percreta is the most severe and least common form of placental insertion abnormalities. The increasing frequency of C-Section deliveries has led to more of these abnormalities. Ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have a key role in diagnosing these abnormal adherences since it shows best transmural extension of the placental tissue. We report a case of a woman with a previous cesarean delivery who had been diagnosed with a placenta preavia on ultrasound and a suspicion of transmural extension with her MRI later showing a placenta percreta.


Poor executive functions (EFs) have been linked to substance use and abuse across multiple substances. However, it is unclear whether these associations are stronger for some EFs over others and/or some stages of substance use over others (e.g., ever using substances vs. dependence). It is also unknown whether such patterns change from adolescence to early adulthood, a transition that is characterized by changes to both EFs and substance use behaviors. In this longitudinal study of approximately 850 twins, we examined the relations between multiple EF abilities (including a common EF factor predicting 9 EF tasks) and measures of general substance use and dependence/abuse in late adolescence (mean age 17 years) and early adulthood (mean age 23 years). At the phenotypic level, common EF in adolescence was negatively related to the number of substances ever used and to last 6-month frequency of use, but not to dependence/abuse vulnerability (i.e., the number of dependence and abuse symptoms endorsed per substance that had been repeatedly used). However, in the same participants in early adulthood, common EF was only weakly related to the number of substances used, and not related to concurrent frequency of use nor dependence/abuse vulnerability. Twin analyses revealed that these associations were primarily genetic in origin, and that the genetic correlations were relatively stable over time. These results suggest that low common EF is a genetic risk factor for increased polysubstance use in late adolescence, but that non-EF factors play a larger role in the progression to substance dependence/abuse.


We calculate the spin susceptibility in the s_{+-} and s_{++} superconducting states of the iron pnictides using the effective five orbital model and considering the quasiparticle damping. For the experimentally evaluated magnitude of the quasiparticle damping and the superconducting gap, the results at the wave vector ~ (pi,0) show that the s_{+-} state is more consistent with the neutron scattering experiments, while for larger quasiparticle damping and the superconducting gap, the s_{++} state can be more consistent. To distinguish between two cases that reproduce the experiments at the wave vector ~ (pi,0), we propose to investigate experimentally the wave vector ~ (pi,pi).


Objective. Intramuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) and sarcopenia may adversely impact mobility function and physical activity. This study determined the association of locomotor muscle structure and function with mobility function in older adults. Method. 109 older adults with a variety of comorbid disease conditions were examined for thigh muscle composition via MRI, knee extensor strength via isometric dynamometry, and mobility function. The contribution of strength, quadriceps lean tissue, and IMAT to explaining the variability in mobility function was examined using multivariate linear regression models. Results. The predictors as a group contributed 27–45% of the variance in all outcome measures; however, IMAT contributed between 8–15% of the variance in all four mobility variables, while lean explained only 5% variance in only one mobility measure. Conclusions. Thigh IMAT, a newly identified muscle impairment appears to be a potent muscle variable related to the ability of older adults to move about in their community.


A boundary control problem for infinite order parabolic system with time delay is considered. The performance index has non-standard form. Constraints on controls are imposed. To obtain the optimality conditions for the Dirichlet problem, the generalization of the Dubovitskii-Milyutin theorem was applied. Finally, several mathematical examples for derived optimality conditions are presented.


We apply a source-receiver compression approach to reduce the computational time and memory usage of the nonlinear inversion approaches for interpreting three-dimensional microwave data. By detecting and quantifying the extent of redundancy in the data, we assemble a reduced set of simultaneous sources and receivers that are weighted sums of the physical sources and receivers employed in the measurement setup. Because the number of these simultaneous sources and receivers can be significantly less than those of the physical sources and receivers, the computational time and memory usage of any inversion method such as steepest-descent, nonlinear conjugate-gradient, contrast-source inversion, and quasi-Newton can be tremendously reduced. The scheme is based on decomposing the data into their principal components using a singular-value decomposition approach and the data compression is done through the elimination of eigenvectors corresponding to small eigenvalues. Consequently, this will also suppress the effect of noise in the data. As a concept demonstration we show that this approach has the potential of significantly reducing both computational time and memory usage of the Gauss-Newton inversion method by few orders of magnitude.


Current therapies to treat inflammatory bowel disease by dampening excessive inflammatory immune responses have had limited success ( Reinisch et al., 2011 ; Rutgeerts et al., 2005 ; Sandborn et al., 2012 ). To develop new therapeutic interventions, there is a need for better understanding of the mechanisms that are operative during mucosal healing (Pineton de Chambrun et al., 2010 ). To this end, a reversible model of colitis was developed in which colitis induced by adoptive transfer of naïve CD4+ CD45RBhi T cells in lymphopenic mice can be reversed through depletion of colitogenic CD4+ T cells ( Brasseit et al., 2016 ).


A solid state microwave assisted technique was used for facile and eco-friendly synthesis of silver/nickel substituted salt of phosphomolybdate nanoparticles. This solid phase reaction was promoted using urea as organic driving agent under microwave treatment with the power of 360 W for 7 min. The structural and morphological characterizations revealed the formation of mixed silver/nickel ammonium salt of phosphomolybdate with Keggin-type structure and uniform nano-sized particulate morphology with the average size about 41 nm. The experimental strong point of this strategy is the use of a facile, one-pot and solid state method for synthesis of nanomaterials at short time without any acidic conditions. As a result, this method can be proposed as an instrumental way to fabricate various macromolecules of polyoxometalate in nanoscale.


This chapter presents a model developed by the author, in publications dated from 2002 to 2016, on flow in porous media assuming diffuse interfaces. It contains five sections. Section 1 is an Introduction, tracing the origin of the diffuse interface formalism. Section 1 also presents the traditional compositional model, pointing out its emphasis on phases and questioning the concept of relative permeabilities. Section 2 presents the mass, momentum, and energy balance equations, for a multicomponent continuous fluid, in their most general form, at the pore level. The existence of constitutive equations with phase-inducing terms is mentioned, but the equations are not introduced at this level, and phases are not an explicit concern. Section 3 is about the averaging of the pore level equations inside a region containing many pores. There is no explicit mention of phases and therefore not of relative permeabilities. Section 4 is the technical basis from which the constitutive equations of the model arise, and it is shown that many models can exist. Section 5 introduces constitutive equations and presents a minimal model for multicomponent, multiphase, and thermal flow in neutrally wetting porous media, i.e., a model with a minimal amount of phenomenological parameters.


Cross-infection from Hospital Bats SIR,-I should like to support Mr. Ian Maitland's plea (September 9, p. 708) for the introduction of showers in hospital wards, particularly for surgical cases. There would appear to be nothing but tradition in favour of the " bath " for the majority of patients. Personally I find it galling to have to agree with my American friends that as a nation we wash ourselves in dirty water.-I am, etc., London W.I. HOwARD G. HANLEY.


In petroleum exploration, an important task is to estimate both the reserves likely to be discovered in a prospect and the chance of success of finding them. Published advice on estimating reward and risk can be very misleading when applied to a prospect with a risk of membrane seal failure. The literature mostly recommends assessing the reward on the basis of the mean reserve volume of the mapped closure and the risk on the chance of finding a minimal amount of petroleum. This method breaks down for prospects where the perceived chance of success of the top seal being effective varies with prospect's estimated column height. If the chance of retaining a column that will give a mean reserves volume is much less than the chance of retaining a minimal column, the value of the prospect will be grossly overestimated. This chapter presents several alternative methods. The preferred method of obtaining an expected monetary value (EMV) is to construct a curve of chance of top seal against column height and calculate a graph of the net present value and EMV for numerous levels. If the EMV is positive at any level, the prospect can be considered for drilling.


The invention provides a sumatriptan nasal spray. A used spraying device comprises a spray bottle and a spray nozzle, and is characterized in that the spray bottle comprises an outer casing (1) and a liner (2) with a volume of 1.2 ml, wherein the shape of the liner of the spray bottle adopts a cylinder plus a cone or a cylinder plus a cone and an another cylinder with a smaller diameter; the outer casing of the spray bottle has a shape, a size and an interface part which are the same as those of a conventional 10 ml spray device sold in the market; and the spray nozzle adopts a spray nozzle of the conventional 10 ml spray device sold in the market. The sumatriptan nasal spray has the advantages that the residue is small, the security is high, and the sumatriptan nasal spray can be effectively sprayed for a plurality of times; and the production cost can be reduced, and medicine waste is completely prevented.


e Abstract—Injuries are a leading cause of childhood morbidity and are also common manifestations of child maltreatment, especially among young children. In an effort to determine whether injury-related Emergency Department (ED) visits among children aged 0 to 4 years were associated with child maltreatment reports, we identified all children with at least one injury-related ED visit in Missouri during 2000. Data on these injured children were linked to Missouri Child Protective Services (CPS) child abuse and neglect reports for 2000 and 2001. There were 50,068 children with at least one injury-related ED visit. Using children with one injury-related ED visit as the reference category, we calculated the relative risk of having a CPS report (or a substantiated report) for children with two, three, and four or more ED visits before a CPS report (or substantiated report). Compared to children with one visit, children with two visits were more likely to have a CPS report (relative risk [RR] 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8 –2.0) and a substantiated report (RR 2.5; 95% CI 2.1–2.9). For children with four or more visits, the relative risk of a report and substantiated report was 3.8 (95% CI 3.0 – 4.7) and 4.7 (95% CI 2.4 –9.2), respectively. Children with two or more injury-related ED visits in 1 year are more likely to be reported for child maltreatment and to have a substantiated report. © 2009 Elsevier Inc.


Photocatalytic (TiO/UV) degradation of Reactive Orange H4 azo dye effluent (RO tl41 and Alizarin Red S (ARS) has been examined using TiO. catalyst either as slurry in aqueous dye solution or supported on Ti sheet or polyester fabric. The supported forms of catalysts have been used for treating larger volume of RO 84 effluent. Spectrophotometric data on photo reacted dye solutions have suggested that azo group of RO 84 and quinoid moiety in ARS are affected by photocatalytic process at the onset. Complete colour bleaching occurred within 30 min to 2 h depending upon the initial concentration of the dyes, and ~ <}O'Yo chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency could be attained using suspended TiOe in 4-6 h of exposure to UV light. The rates of photodegradation of these dyes have shown pseudo-first-order dependence on the concentration of these dyes (~ 100 ppm). The rate of photodegradationof RO 84 with the supported forms of TiOe catalysts is about an order of magnitude lower. The photodegradation of 'ARS dye has exhibited remarkahle dependence on pH while that of RO H4 remained unaffected. This work suggests that TiO/UV technique can he employed for removing colour and COD of dye-house effluents.


Despite the importance of okra, as one of the important vegetable crop, very little attention has been paid to its genetic improvement using advanced biotechnological tools. The exploitation of marker assisted breeding in okra is often limited due to the availability of a few molecular markers, the absence of molecular genetic-map(s), and other molecular tools. Chromosome linkage-groups were not yet constructed for this crop and reports on marker development are very scanty and mostly hovering around cultivar characterization. Besides, very little progress has been observed for transgenic development. However, high throughput biotechnological tools like chromosome engineering, RNA interference (RNAi), marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS), genome-wide selection (GWS), targeted gene replacement, next generation sequencing (NGS), and nanobiotechnology can provide a rapid way for okra improvement. Further, the etiology of many deadly viral diseases like the yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) and okra enation leaf curl virus (OELCV) in okra is broadly indistinct and has been shown to be caused by various begomovirus species. These diseases cause systemic infections and have a very effective mode of transmission; thus, preventing their spread has been very complicated. Biotechnological interventions have the potential to enhance okra production even under different viral-stress conditions. In this background, this review deals with the biotechnological advancements in okra per se along with the begomoviruses infecting okra, and special emphasis has been laid on the exploitation of advanced genomic tools for the development of resistant varieties.


Mediastinal lymph node involvement is an important prognostic factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The American and European guidelines for preoperative mediastinal lymph node staging agree in which situations a pre-surgical exploration of the mediastinum is required in order to avoid futile pulmonary resections (1,2). Invasive mediastinal staging with cyto-histological confirmation is indicated when computed tomography (CT) shows enlarged mediastinal or hilar lymph nodes, when positron emission tomography (PET) shows an increase uptake in the mediastinum or hilum, when the tumour is centrally located and when the tumour size is more than 3 cm, especially in adenocarcinoma with high 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake.


Supply chain disruptions did not cause the shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential goods that the world experienced in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, the cause was manufacturers' inability to step up production of PPEs to meet the demands of the crisis. The accepted wisdom that the pandemic exposed serious structural problems in international supply chains, such as an over-dependence on China, and that it would be better for countries to source supplies domestically, is inaccurate. The companies that produced PPEs and other essential goods were experienced when it came to developing risk-management strategies. Manufacturers have understood the risks related to international supply chain shocks at least since 2008's global recession and have long since responded by diversifying supplier bases, increasing manufacturing capacity and creating stockpiles. Many firms also relied on the China Plus One strategy as a buffer, which entailed duplicating production in China and at least one other country to protect against supply chain disruption and currency fluctuation.

Far from exposing a weakness in global value chains, the pandemic instead revealed their resilience. So well did the face-mask industry rebound from its initial shortage in fact, that industry revenues grew by 450 per cent from 2019 to 2021. Rather, the shortages arose because of limited stockpiles, governments' lack of preparedness and constrained production, such as the difficulty in accelerating the melt-blowing process that creates the masks' non-woven fabric. Exacerbating the situation – but only temporarily – were export bans of the type the Trump administration imposed on manufacturers, which required them to obtain federal approval before exporting PPE.

COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic the world experiences. Governments can prepare for the next one by establishing stress tests that assess a country's ability to deal with demand spikes and other disruptions. The tests should consider the government's level of stockpiling, the speed with which domestic and foreign production can be ramped up, the diversification of import sources and the limitations created by foreign export restrictions. If the market fails to pass these stress tests, then government must design policy tools to deal with the shortcomings the tests reveal. Limiting export restrictions to strengthen resilience, conducting joint procurement and drafting agreements to share essential goods are ways countries can work together to promote resilience.

Self-sufficiency, which looked to be the solution in the early days of pandemic shortages, only increases vulnerability to local disasters that can curtail domestic production. It also creates higher production costs and reduces the ability to ramp up production. Selfsufficiency forces countries to absorb the shocks themselves, resulting in large price swings and production changes.

It is now up to governments to learn the hard lessons that COVID-19 taught and improve preparedness for future pandemics.


A small, highly-trained crew working on the ship's automation has contributed to the improvement of operations and the labor environment on board ship. However, at the same time, having a small crew adds more responsibility to the ship's officers to safely operate and manage the ship. With the use of information and computer technology, efforts are being made towards the development of a system that will concentrate important information from the various pieces of navigational equipment. The purpose of this study is to set up and implement an integrated marine data networking and communication system on the training-research ship. Information relating to navigation, engine and office automation are investigated and analyzed, and implementation methods associated with navigation, engine and management information system were designed and presented. In addition, the networking system of the navigational signal interface unit for the integrated communication system, and the data communication method between the ship and land are also discussed.


The fixed sense : A H2S sensor based on polymer field-effect transistor (see figure) is reported and the sensor shows high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, fast response, good reusability and can detect 1 ppb H2S. Sensitivity increases first and then decreases with thinner films, which is due to different changing rate of absorption and desorption of H2S molecules in the sensor. Chem. Eur. J. DOI: 10.1002/chem.201504196


Reproductive biology is considered a specialty field, however, an argument can be made that it is instead generally applicable to many fields of biology. The one-cell embryo is presented here as a model system for the study of eukaryotic DNA replication, apoptotic DNA degradation, and signaling mechanisms between the cytoplasm and nucleus. Two unique aspects of this system combine to make it particularly useful for the study of chromatin function. First, the evolutionary pressure that lead to the extreme condensation of mammalian sperm DNA resulted in a cell with virtually inert chromatin, no DNA replication or transcription ongoing in the sperm cell, and all of the cells in a G0 state. This chromatin is suddenly transformed into actively transcribing and replicating DNA upon fertilization. Therefore, the sperm chromatin is poised to become active but does not yet posses sufficient components present in somatic chromatin structure for all these processes. The second unique aspect of this system is that the one cell embryo houses two distinct nuclei, termed pronuclei, through the first round of DNA synthesis. This means the sperm cell can be experimentally manipulated to test the affects of the various treatments on the biological functions of interest. Experimental manipulations of the system have already revealed a certain level of plasticity in the coordination of both the timing of DNA synthesis in the two pronuclei and in the response to cellular signals by each pronucleus involved with the progression through the G1/S checkpoint, including the degradation of DNA in the paternal pronucleus. The fact that two nuclei in the same cytoplasm can undergo different responses infers a level of autonomy in the nuclear control of the cell cycle. Thus, the features of mammalian fertilization can provide unique insights for the normal biology of the cell cycle in somatic cells.


To study the biosyntheses and pathophysiological roles of adrenomedullin (AM) and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) in septic shock, we compared the time course of plasma concentrations of these peptides and blood pressure in rats injected with either 0.9% saline (control group) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS group). The plasma AM concentration in the LPS group did not increase 30 and 60 min after LPS injection, at which time points the blood pressure remained low. Thereafter, AM rapidly increased, and it amounted to 35 times the basal value 4 h after injection, when the blood pressure returned to the basal level. The increment of plasma PAMP in the LPS group was lower than that of AM. We also examined the tissue concentration of AM and PAMP--as well as the tissue expression of proadrenomedullin (proAM) mRNA--in the LPS and control groups. LPS significantly increased the tissue concentrations of AM and PAMP in the lung, but decreased them in the adrenal gland and cardiac atrium. The LPS injection augmented proAM gene transcription in the lung, adrenal gland and aorta. In an immunohistochemical examination, AM staining was intense in alveolar endothelial cells of the lung in the LPS group. Thus, this septic shock model had high plasma levels of PAMP as well as AM, while the biosynthesis and secretion of the two peptides may have been differentially regulated in various tissues of rats injected with LPS. The present results suggest that these two bioactive peptides may play different roles in the pathophysiology of septic shock.


For many decades hydrogen production by photocatalytic methods have been pursued over a variety of semiconductors with probably over a thousand formulations of powder catalysts in many structures and compositions. Yet, with the exception of a few reports, water splitting to molecular hydrogen and oxygen has stayed illusive. The only reproducible results are those involving other additives to water: electron donors or acceptors yielding either hydrogen or oxygen, but not both. The consequence of this is a system unrelated to water splitting but simply driven by the organic or inorganic redox potential. One may argue that thermodynamic limitations indicate that an inorganic semiconductor with a band gap within the spectrum of sun light, and is stable in water, cannot split water. Otherwise, it would not have existed on earth.


Summary.  When potential survey respondents decide whether or not to participate in a telephone interview, they may consider what it would be like to converse with the interviewer who is currently inviting them to respond, e.g. how he or she sounds, speaks and interacts. In the study that is reported here, we examine the effect of three interactional speech behaviours on the outcome of survey invitations: interviewer fillers (e.g. 'um' and 'uh'), householders' backchannels (e.g. 'uh huh' and 'I see') and simultaneous speech or 'overspeech' between interviewer and householder. We examine how these behaviours are related to householders' decisions to participate (agree), to decline the invitation (refusal) or to defer the decision (scheduled call‐back) in a corpus of 1380 audiorecorded survey invitations (contacts). Agreement was highest when interviewers were moderately disfluent—neither robotic nor so disfluent as to appear incompetent. Further, household members produced more backchannels, a behaviour which is often assumed to reflect a listener's engagement, when they ultimately agreed to participate than when they refused. Finally, there was more simultaneous speech in contacts where householders ultimately refused to participate; however, interviewers interrupted household members more when they ultimately scheduled a call‐back, seeming to pre‐empt householders' attempts to refuse. We discuss implications for hiring and training interviewers, as well as the development of automated speech interviewing systems.


Across Australia, recent policy initiatives have focused on student engagement in school and in learning. Although teachers play a significant role in the implementation of these policy reforms, little research has looked at student engagement from teachers' perspectives or sought to identify and understand the strategies teachers report using to promote engagement in their classrooms. The study reported in this paper utilised a phenomenographic approach to investigate teacher conceptions of how to facilitate student engagement. Semi‐structured interviews were used to gather data and a phenomenographic process of analysis was employed to identify qualitative differences between participant understandings. The data from this qualitative study indicated that teachers hold diverse understandings about how to facilitate student engagement; three categories described teachers' ways of engaging students. In the first category, teachers conceptualised delivering set activities and discipline to students to promote engagement. In the second category, teachers suggested that they must modify curriculum and class activities. In the third category, teachers proposed that genuine collaboration with students was necessary to truly engage them in learning; in this category, teachers reported the deepest levels of student engagement. Teacher self‐reports of success when using a collaborative approach suggest that more research should be conducted using a range of approaches to investigate the fruitfulness of this strategy.