The article, first of all, addresses the issue of the role and importance of intertextuality in verbal and visual texts in general. In particular, the focus is on the mass media, namely, newspaper headlines which are treated as texts interacting both with the article texts and the surrounding world, established in the reader's schemata. Headlines, consequently, fulfil a multipurpose function: convey the information, contained in the article, set the tone of the newspaper, reflect various emotions etc. British quality and compact newspapers, The Daily Express, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer, and The Daily Telegraph, served as the object of this research. The aim was to show the functioning of intertextual links and point to the domains of their reference. Such approaches as content analysis, critical discourse analysis and discourse analysis were used to prove the importance of intertextuality in developing the reader's critical reading activities. The analysis prompted that intertextual links function intertextually (endophorically) and intratextually (exophorically). The sphere of their referencing is wide and heterogeneous; it includes the royal family, events in other countries, politics, literature, art, military sphere, language.


The study investigated the impact of agricultural production on economic growth in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries using the dynamic generalized methods of moments (GMM) approach with panel data ranging from 1996 to 2018. The study also explored if financial development is a channel through agricultural production enhanced economic growth in BRICS countries. Consistent with majority of literature on the subject matter, agricultural production was found to have had a significant positive impact on economic growth in BRICS countries regardless of the measure of financial development used. The results also show that the complementarity between agricultural production and financial development had a significant positive influence on BRICS' economic growth or enhanced economic growth in BRICS countries. In other words, the study confirmed that financial development is a channel through which agricultural production enhanced economic growth in BRICS. These results are backed by Okunlola et al (2019) whose study argued that the provision of loans and other financial products towards the agricultural sector facilitate agriculture's role as a major towards economic growth in developing countries. BRICS nations are therefore urged to ensure there is effective implementation of policies geared towards enhancing agricultural production and financial development in order to boost their country's economic growth.


Previous experimental work by Baird has established that when a supersonic jet is first started it forms a vortex ring at the mouth of the jet pipe which subsequently travels downstream and carries with it a normal shock. This flowfield is here analysed on the basis of simplifying assumptions, in particular that when the vortex ring is sufficiently far from the mouth of the jet pipe the flow is steady in coordinates moving with the ring, and that time-dependent terms may be neglected. It is shown that the jet will be subjected to an adverse pressure gradient roughly where the shock forms (although the shock itself is excluded from the simplified mathematical model) and also that the vortex ring must grow in size at a slow rate. These results are in qualitative agreement with experiment.


Clinical practice guidelines bridge cutting-edge research and the best evidence-based practice in maternity care. They are critical tools to address provider factors contributing to preventable maternal morbidity and mortality. This mixed methods comparative ethnographic research study utilised three districts health boards (DHBs) of varying sizes (Capital and Coast, Hutt Valley and Hauora Tairāwhiti) to address the study's primary research question: How can Aotearoa New Zealand's maternity system disseminate and implement the national clinical practice guideline on hypertension and preeclampsia to integrate best clinical practices into standard care? The research identified barriers and facilitators to disseminating and implementing national maternity clinical practice guidelines and developed a new maternity clinical practice guideline dissemination and implementation model. The methodology comprised an electronic clinicians survey, semi-structured key informant interviews, field notes, an analysis of relevant policy documents and reports and selected published media. The sample involved 34 key informants (national and local maternity stakeholders) and 91 maternity clinician survey respondents. Significant barriers to integrating maternity clinical practice guidelines included understaffing, limited funding, technology gaps, a hierarchical organisational culture, embedded inequities, and no maternity clinical practice guideline dissemination and implementation plan. These barriers informed a ten-step maternity clinical practice guideline dissemination and implementation model and a series of maternity quality and safety recommendations that the Aotearoa New Zealand Ministry of Health/Manatū Hauora and the maternity system could use to improve clinical care.(1-3) The recommendations include a more proactive and collaborative role for the Ministry of Health/Manatū Hauora, leveraging existing staffing and systems of care to strengthen maternity quality and safety, fostering Māori and Pasifika leadership in maternity quality and safety, educating consumers on maternity clinical practice guideline recommendations, bridging technology gaps to implement guidelines better, identifying and sharing local best practices that promote quality and safety, and ensuring adequate funding for maternity quality and safety. There has been ongoing dialogue with the Ministry of Health/Manatū Hauora and other stakeholders throughout this research, increasing the likelihood of its translational impact. Although specific to Aotearoa New Zealand, these results are likely applicable in other countries as maternity clinical practice guidelines are used extensively to improve and standardise provider practice.


We consider the problem of gathering measurements in a wireless sensor network consisting of a large number of sensor nodes. A practical joint source-channel coding scheme is proposed and evaluated. The scheme uses lattices to extend a previously proposed scheme to higher dimensions. The key idea is to use conventional point-to-point communication for a subset of the sensor nodes and side-information aware transmission for the remaining sensor nodes. The selection of sensors is based on their instantaneous channel quality. It is shown that by expanding from one to eight dimensions, a gain of about 1 dB is achievable. The overall transmission delay of the scheme is still very low and it is therefore suitable to use in delay-sensitive applications.


The idea of school health is re-imagined with an emphasis on the need for children's health programmes to be rooted in an understanding of the social context. Such programmes must address health, nutrition and education in a comprehensive manner. The article details findings and insights emerging from a qualitative study conducted in municipal schools in Delhi, located in contexts of poverty. The study identifies areas requiring changes in teacher education and health programmes. A creative methodology was utilised to record children's perceptions and teachers' views on health, which found that an approach that privileges the voices of the child and the school in public health planning can be very meaningful.


Abstract: Exocytosis is a ubiquitous process occurring in every eukaryotic cell including processes as diverse as membrane expansion during growth and the highly regulated release of neurotransmitter from neurons. Work during the past decade has established that exocytotic membrane fusion is mediated by members of conserved protein families including Rab proteins and SNAREs. SNAREs are probably catalyzing membrane fusion, and major progress has been made in unraveling their molecular mechanism. In contrast, less is known about regulatory mechanisms. Here, a brief overview is given about the current state of knowledge, focusing on SNAREs involved in neuronal exocytosis.


Atrial size is a predictor of cardiovascular mortality. Non-ECG-gated computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is a common test for cardiopulmonary evaluation but normative values for biatrial volumes are lacking. We derived normal CT biatrial volumes using manual and semiautomated segmentation with contemporaneous transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to confirm normal diastology. Thirty-five consecutive cases in sinus rhythm with no history of cardio-vascular, renal, or pulmonary disease and normal diastolic function were selected. Planimetric CTPA measurements were compared to TTE volumes measured using area length method. TTE and CTPA derived normal LAVi and RAVi were 27 + 5 and 20 + 6 mL/m2, and 30 + 8 and 29 + 9 mL/m2, respectively. Bland–Altman analysis revealed an underestimation of biatrial volumes by TTE. TTE-CT mean biases for LAV and RAV were −5.7 + 12.0 mL and −16.2 + 14.8 mL, respectively. The CT intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC 95% CI) for LA and RA volumes were 0.99 (0.96–1.00) and 0.96 (0.76–0.99), respectively. There was excellent correlation (p < 0.001) between the semiautomated and manual measurements for LA (r 0.99, 95% CI 0.98–0.99) and RA (r 0.99, 95% CI 0.99–1.00). Atrial volumetric assessment on CTPA is easy and reproducible and can provide additional metric in cardiopulmonary assessment.


Two sensitive and moderately reactive chiral derivatization reagents having a binaphthalene moiety as a fluorophore and carbonyl cyanide as a reacting group toward enantiomeric alcohols have been developed. The derivatization reagents, (-)and (+)-2-methyl-1,1'-binaphthalene-2'-carbonyl cyanides, were prepared from dimethyl-l,l'binaphthalene-2,2'-dicarboxylate in several steps. Enantiomeric alcohols underwent facile derivatization with these reagents under mild condition. The diastereomeric esters formed from enantiomeric ii-hydroxy acids and i3-blockers were efficiently resolved by high performance liquid chromatography on a normal phase column. The resulting esters were highly responsive to a fluorescence detector (excitation wavelength 342 nm; emission wavelength 420 nm), the limit of detection being 200 pg.


Time may prove that no equal exists to natural family planning (NFP) methods in regard to safe and wide applicability without much sacrifice of reliability especially in developing countries because of its inexpensiveness and dependence on the couple rather than doctors or paramedical staff. In India for example the vast majority of Indians regardless of caste of religion are indoctrinated to practice abstinence of various kinds: fasting for either religious or social reasons abstinence from sleep abstinence from speech sexual abstinence during Ramzan (Muslims) and Adimasam (South Indians). With this background there is great scope for wider use of the Ovulation-Method (Billings). NFP helps in the establishment of a "self-energized family" which is the aim of community health workers in developing countries. A World Health Organization (WHO) study conducted in India Philippines and El Salvador revealed some salient findings: the days of menstruation were only 4.4 days (5.6 days in developed countries); and the fertile period defined as days of sticky mucus plus slippery mucus (3 days) averaged 8 days (10.6 days in developed countries). In 149 women there was only 1 day of mucus before the peak day (PD); there were 2 days of mucus in 479 women (7%); and there were days of mucus in 649 (10%). Illiteracy poverty and marital problems were encountered in many couples. Continuation rates were significantly high in the WHO study (1979) and the Karnataka State Study (1981). Friction caused by abstinence was experienced by only 1.7-4.6% of husbands in the Karnataka Study of 2790 couples with detailed records on this aspect. In developing countries where the dignity of a woman needs to be raised an educational method that lends itself to the integrated teaching of health hygiene and nutrition concepts and practices is appealing. The responsible behavior of the husband together with the wifes effort in recording her fertility creates a marital partnership with the woman sharing on an equal basis with her husband.


A 72-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for further evaluation of a abnormal shadow in left middle lung field. The patient had undergone right mastectomy for infiltrating ductal carcinoma 19 years ago. She had no symptom, but had a time of mass X-ray screening this year. Chest CT finding showed a nodule 2 cm in diameter with slight irregular margin in S6 of left lung. We couldn't determine preoperatively that this tumor was a metastatic lesion or a primary lung cancer. And first, tumor was taken out for intraoperative frozen section diagnosis. Pathologist didn't diagnose whether this tumor was a metastatic or primary. So, we performed left lower lobectomy and mediastinal lymphadenectomy. On postoperative histopathologic finding lung cancer resembled well previous breast cancer. In immunohistochemical study cancer cells from lung and breast of the patient were respectively positive for anti Estrogen Receptor (ER) and anti Gross Cystic Disease Fluid Protein-15 (GCDFP-15). In conclusion lung cancer was diagnosed as a metastatic lesion from breast cancer 19 years ago. The patient has been well 2 years postoperatively without recurrence. In this case immunohistochemical examination was very useful for differentiation metastatic lesion and primary one.


Although the concept of inclusion of the other in the self (IOS) has been successfully assessed with explicit self-report measures implicit procedures have been neglected in past literature. The present article explores the validity of such an implicit measure by proposing several extensions and adaptions. Based on the me/not-me response latency task originally conceptualized by Aron, Aron, Tudor and Nelson (1991) we addressed methodological problems by proposing changes in material, calculation of indices and implemented the task in an online environment. We also addressed earlier problems with statistical power and proposed a more powerful way of statistical analyses using mixed models. The me/not-me task is based on the idea that higher overlap between self and other traits results in faster response times of characterizing such a trait as descriptive of the self. This relationship should be observed for close others but not for non-close others. In a sample of 339 US American adults we experimentally manipulated the nature of the target (close vs. distant) and participants engaged in the adapted me/not-me paradigm. Results indicated that trait match had a stronger negative effect on response times for participants in the close condition. The effect was also stronger for participants rating the target higher on the IOS self-report scale. We also provided convergent validity of the me/not-me procedure with other constructs ostensibly measuring interpersonal closeness. Future applications and possible limitations are discussed. 230/250


The visualization of medical images obtained from scanning techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging is a well-researched field. However, advanced tools and methods to manipulate these data for surgical planning and other tasks have not seen widespread use among medical professionals. Radiologists have begun using more advanced visualization packages on desktop computer systems, but most physicians continue to work with basic two-dimensional grayscale images or not work directly with the data at all. In addition, new display technologies that are in use in other fields have yet to be fully applied in medicine. It is our estimation that usability is the key aspect in keeping this new technology from being more widely used by the medical community at large. Therefore, we have a software and hardware framework that not only make use of advanced visualization techniques, but also feature powerful, yet simple-to-use, interfaces. A virtual reality system was created to display volume-rendered medical models in three dimensions. It was designed to run in many configurations, from a large cluster of machines powering a multiwalled display down to a single desktop computer. An augmented reality system was also created for, literally, hands-on interaction when viewing models of medical data. Last, a desktop application was designed to provide a simple visualization tool, which can be run on nearly any computer at a user's disposal. This research is directed toward improving the capabilities of medical professionals in the tasks of preoperative planning, surgical training, diagnostic assistance, and patient education.


In patients with active rheumatism the activity of the key enzymes of the pentose cycle -- glucoso-6-phosphatedehydrogenase and transketolase -- increases in the erythrocytes of the peripheral blood parallel with the severity of the inflammatory lesion of the heart. In patients with distrophic changes in the myocardium without concomitant carditis the level of glucoso-6-phosphatedehydrogenase did not change significantly, while the content of transketolase decreased considerably. Antirheumatic therapy helping to reduce the inflammatory reactions in the heart results in a reduction of the level of pentose cycle enzymes. The study of the ratio between glucoso-6-phosphatedehydrogenase and transketolase may prove valuable for an approximate evaluation of the predominance of inflammatory or dystrophic processes in the cardiac muscle.


Consider an exchange economy where agents are arbitragers, in that they try to upset allocations imagining plausible beneficial trades. With an introspective algorithm, each agent constructs an interactive choice set (ICS), i.e., a set of bundles that he considers achievable through a sequence of plausible trades with other agents. We show that Walrasian allocations can be characterized as those where each agent chooses optimally from his ICS, which is always contained in a budget set (with differentiability, both sets coincide). Our analysis provides a different behavioral assumption underlying Walrasian allocations, offers an explanation for the source of competitive prices, and connects with the core convergence theorem.


Increasing evidence indicates adolescents are likely to occupy their leisure time with online games. This study investigates the influences of leisure satisfaction on life satisfaction among adolescent online gamers. The self-completed market survey questionnaire employed is comprised of two sections: the first is Internet usage frequency, while the second employs two measures-the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Data were gathered in a medium-sized metropolitan section of north Taiwan and interviews took place at a Cyber Café. Youths (totaling 134) between the ages of 13 and 18 voluntarily participated in the research. Results revealed significant positive relationships between physiological and aesthetic dimensions of leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction. However, the educational dimension of leisure satisfaction has a significant negative influence on life satisfaction. Findings also reveal a significant negative relationship between web surfing frequency and life satisfaction in adolescents. This suggests possible explanations for these results and discusses the implications.


Feeding can induce significant individual variation in cows' milk production. Previous studies showed that an increase of energy density of the ration for a short period in early lactation induced greater total milk yield and persistency, defined by the shape of the lactation curve. The objective of our feeding strategy was to reduce the intensity of mobilization and thereby to sustain the mobilization for a longer period. We hypothesized that a supply of energy during the mobilization period of each individual cow will have a positive carry-over effect on milk production. A total of 53 Holstein cows performed extended lactations (461 ± 7 d). They were housed in free stalls with access to a milking robot. The group 1 (G1) were fed a control partially mixed ration, with a 60:40 forage:concentrate ratio (energy density 11.8 ± 0.1 MJ of ME/kg of DM), for the full lactation. The group 2 (G2) received a diet enriched in energy (ratio 50:50, energy density 12.1 ± 0.1 MJ of ME/kg of DM) followed by the control diet. The diet shift of G2 was defined individually when DIM ≥42, and live weight gain ≥0 kg/d on a 5 d average. The production data were smoothed using the fda package in R software. The daily smoothed data and the associated slopes were analyzed using a linear mixed effects model with parity and treatment as fixed effects. From calving to 42 DIM, an interaction indicated that the ECM of multiparous G2 was higher than for G1 (42.8 vs. 40.1 ± 1.5 kg ECM/d), while the primiparous presented opposite effects (29.0 vs. 32.5 ± 2.2 kg ECM/d) (P = 0.02). The 300 d following the shift in diet, G1 and G2 had similar ECM (35.0 ± 1.0 kg ECM /d, P = 0.76) but the curves had different slopes. From 0 to 100 d from shift, the ECM increased for the primiparous G2 while it decreased for the primiparous G1 (+0.008 vs. −0.01 ± 0.007 kg ECM/d, P = 0.04). From 201 to 300 d from shift, the ECM decreased faster for G2 than for G1 (−0.06 vs. −0.04 ± 0.008 kg ECM/d, P = 0.02). To conclude, the treatment had a 100-d positive carry-over effect only on primiparous persistency, as well as a 300 d negative carry-over effect on the ECM persistency for all the cows.


Digital Orthophoto Map (DOM) provides first-hand basic information for the status investigation of cultural reLics as an important approach to reserve and protect cultural reLics in their current status. This paper proposes a technology for producing multi-projection and HD-videoed-based THousand-Arm Guanyin DOM by HD videoing the same Bodhisattva hand from multiple projection planes and performing the texture mapping based on multiple projection datum planes to produce high-accuracy digital orthophoto map. This technology decreases distortion of image projection caused by single projection plane in conventional methods and increases DOM accuracy and fideLity. Finally, DOM using single projection plane is compared with DOM using multiple projection planes in terms of accuracy and fideLity.


The Franciscan spiritual tradition formulates conversion as an ongoing transformational process resulting from divine agency experienced in social encounter. Francis and Franciscans describe these encounters as spiritual journeys deeper into relationship with diverse "others," and thus drawing closer to God. This essay argues that social encounter as prompt for conversion is an important theme in Franciscan spirituality, and that investigating this theme can open up fresh perspectives on the social dimension of conversion in Christian spirituality. It describes the impact that the California farm worker movement had on Franciscan Friars, and how the Friars interpreted these encounters with language consonant with Francis' experience, but inflected by contemporary culture. Franciscans who engaged with the farm worker movement described these encounters as a kind of "reverse evangelization," meaning that they, vowed members of a religious order, had the "good news" proclaimed to them by poor people. This study describes how members of one Christian spiritual tradition responded to a social justice movement calling for solidarity, and considers how they interpreted their responses in light of their religious imaginary of conversion.


BACKGROUND The long-pulsed Nd:YAG (1064 nm) laser has been shown to be effective in the treatment of blue venulectasias and reticular veins. OBJECTIVE The present study examined the clinical efficacy and long-term follow-up (12 months) of patients treated with the 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser technology. METHODS Twenty-five female patients (mean age 37.6 years, Fitzpatrick skin types II–V) were treated with up to three treatment sessions at 6-week intervals on a 5 cm2 surface area of vessels utilizing the 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser with a circulating cooling device. Treatment parameters were vessel size 0.2–2.0 mm treated with a double pulse of 7 msec at 120 J/cm2 and vessel size 2.0–4.0 mm treated with a single pulse of 14 msec, fluence 130 J/cm2, with a spot size of 6 mm. Improvement was judged by double-blinded observer evaluation, macrophotographic imaging, optical chromatography, and a patient evaluation scale. RESULTS Sixty-four percent of patients treated in the present study achieved 75% or greater clearing of vessels after a maximum of three treatment sessions. Optical chromatography revealed statistically significant decreased chromophore intensity (mean blueness reduction index of 41.2b−). Sixty-four percent of patients were greatly satisfied with the results of the laser treatment. Two patients manifested vessel recurrence when examined at 6 and 12 months, respectively. CONCLUSION The 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser can produce effective long-term photosclerosis of blue venulectasia and reticular veins. The potential for recurrence should be recognized by the vascular laser surgeon.


Ranch schools in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Wyoming in the 1920s and 1930s portrayed that the West embodied the moral attributes believed to be lacking in urban America. Advocates of character education saw the courage and self-reliance of the Old West as the qualities necessary to preserve the nation through the next generation. Bingmann uses ranch schools, designed to counteract the problems of inherited wealth, as a lens through which to examine citizenship, class, gender, and region during this era while illustrating that these schools, in transmitting such values to American youth, created a network of elite private schools that gave pampered boys from the urban centers of the Atlantic Seaboard and Great Lakes region the opportunity to grow into gentlemen cowboys ready to take the reins of power in family businesses and government.


Selective autophagy transports specific cytoplasmic materials into lysosomes/vacuoles. In the case of macroautophagy the selectivity is mediated by receptors, which usually link the cargos to the machinery that sequesters them into the forming autophagosome. In our recent work, we found that fission yeast Nbr1, a homolog of the mammalian macroautophagy receptor NBR1, acts together with an unconventional autophagy-associated cargo sequestration apparatus, the endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRTs), to deliver 2 hydrolytic enzymes from the cytosol to the vacuole lumen. In this pathway, which we term the Nbr1-mediated vacuolar targeting (NVT) pathway, soluble cargos transit through the multi-vesicular body (MVB), rather than the autophagosome, on their way to the vacuole. Our findings reveal a novel mode of action of macroautophagy receptors and broaden our understanding of ESCRT-mediated autophagy.


In this paper, a metaheuristic procedure based on simulated annealing (SA) is proposed to find Pareto-optimal or non-dominated solution set for the permutation flow shop scheduling problems (FSPs) with the consideration of regular performance measures of minimizing the makespan and the total flow time of jobs. A new perturbation mechanism called "segment-random insertion (SRI)" scheme is used to generate the neighbourhood of a given sequence. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by solving benchmark FSP instances provided by (B. Taillard, 1993). The results obtained are evaluated in terms of the number of non-dominated schedules generated by the algorithm and the proximity of the obtained non-dominated front to the Pareto front. The results and simple quality measures suggested in this paper can be used to evaluate the quality of the non-dominated fronts obtained by different algorithms


This paper develops a balancing algorithm capable of attenuating charge, temperature, and other types of heterogeneity between cells within a lithium-ion battery pack. Cell-to-cell heterogeneity is known to negatively impact pack performance and reduce pack lifespan, and several balancing algorithms exist to mitigate this impact. These algorithms control cell currents and remove state of charge (SOC), state of health (SOH) and temperature imbalances, extending pack lifespan. However, the literature currently lacks a formalized method for removal of multiple types of heterogeneity that is scalable for different pack sizes. This paper addresses this gap by developing a balancing algorithm which is (i) general with respect to battery model selection and heterogeneity types and (ii) easily scalable to different pack sizes without increasing computational complexity. To design the algorithm, a linear time-varying (LTV) model representative of heterogeneity within the battery pack is presented. A linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is applied to this heterogeneity model, providing a systematic method to determine controller gains for the balancing currents. The block diagonal matrices of the LTV model prove advantageous, and allow the LQR problem's solution to be independent of the pack size. The novel balancing algorithm is validated through simulation using a realistic electro-thermal model with heterogeneity in charge, temperature, and other electrochemical states. This case study exemplifies the effectiveness of the balancing algorithm to eliminate multiple types of heterogeneity.


Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a recently emerged, highly transmissible, and pathogenic coronavirus that has created global public health and economic crisis. Since December 2019, when Covid-19 emerged in Hunan seafood market in Wuhan, South China, and rapidly spread throughout the world, the virus outbreak has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). This research included several parameters (Vit-D, IL-6, and D-Dimer) to evaluate the association between these biomarkers and outcomes in COVID-19 hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients, to guide potential COVID-19 Diagnosis, Treatments, and Prevention of COVID-19 disease. Aim of the study: 1- To determine if there is an association between the status of vitamin D level in blood and the severity of COVID19 disease. 2- To determine the association between vit-D level and (IL-6, and D-Dimer) levels in serum and their effect on these markers in the hospitalized COVID19 disease. 3- to evaluate the association between (IL-6, and D-Dimer) and the severity of COVID19 disease. Methods: A Cross-sectional study consisted of 40 patients with age range (18-90 years) that collected from ICU (hospitalized patients) in (West Irbil Governmental Hospital and Lalaf Governmental Hospital) in Erbil city/ Iraq, at admission to the hospital, and 40 patients with age range (18-90 year)there were non-hospitalized patients from the same place in Erbil city/ Iraq, from December 2020 to April 2021. Serum(Vit-D, and IL-6), and plasma D-Dimer concentrations were measured, firstly to comparing them with (age, gender, and the severity of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection) to demonstrate the association of them with the severity of COVID-19 disease, and secondly to compered them with vit-D and demonstrate the effect of this vitamin on these parameters. Results: In the present study, the data showed A significant decrease in Vit-D concentration in sera of patients with SARS-CoV-2 virus infection in both groups, which determines the strong correlation in (two-tailed) between vit-D concentration and the severity of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection P-value (0.00001), as while as, there is a statistical correlation between the severity of COVID-19 disease and D-Dimer in both groups P-value (6.2E-9). while statistically non-significant relation between the severity of COVID-19 disease in both groups and age P-value (0.79), also non-significant relation between vit-D and age p-value (0.08), and Non-significant correlation between gender and the severity of COVID-19 disease in both groups P-value (0.82). In both groups, there is a significant negative correlation between vitamin-D and D-dimer concentrations in H group correlation P-value (0.0001), in the non-H group P-value(0.025). Statistical analysis showed a significantly strong correlation between high IL-6 level and the severity of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection in both study groups non-H and H, P-value (0.00001).in comparison with severe deficiency of Vit-D that determines the strong correlation in (two-tailed) between vit-D concentration and IL-6 Conc. of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. Conclusion: 1- The results of this study reveal that vitamin D deficiency presents an association with the severity of COVID-19, Anecdotal and observational data indicate that vitamin D deficiency may play a significant role in the progression of the COVID-19 disease state. In conclusion, the results confirm the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in people with COVID-19, we observed a positive association between vitamin D deficiency and the severity of the disease. 2- The current study revealed a significantly strong correlation between IL-6 and D-dimer with Vit-D levels, in hospitalized patients and non-hospitalized patients suggesting that Vit-D blood levels have an important effect on IL-6 and D-dimer levels that's maybe a biomarker of disease severity and progression in patients with COVID-19. 3- According to the severity of COVID-19 disease, the present study showe a significant correlation between (vitamin-D, IL-6, and D-dimer) with the severity of COVID-19 disease suggesting that these parameters may be biomarkers of disease severity and progression in patients with COVID-19.


Listening to speech in a language you know differs phenomenologically from listening to speech in an unfamiliar language, a fact often exploited in debates about the phenomenology of thought and cognition. It is plausible that the difference is partly perceptual. Some contend that hearing familiar language involves auditory perceptual awareness of meanings or semantic properties of spoken utterances; but if this were so, there must be something distinctive it is like auditorily to perceptually experience specific meanings of spoken utterances. However, an argument from homophony shows that auditory experiences do not resolve differences in meaning not marked by differences in sound. I propose an alternative explanation of the perceptual phenomenal difference in terms of perceptual awareness of language-specific but non-semantic features.


Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a dangerous disease of cereals in case of yield losses and mycotoxin production. The aim of this work was to estimate the influence of used fungicides on species spectrum associated with Fusarium head blight (FHB). The study was realised in Slovakia on winter wheat by natural infection of FHB. The ears were sprayed with fungicides at beginning of flowering. After development of disease symptoms, fungicide efficacy was estimated, and Fusarium species spectrum were isolated and determined in laboratory. The fungicide efficacy against FHB achieved 60.2 – 88.3 %. The highest effectivity was estimated by using of prothioconazole + tebuconazole and prothioconazole + fluoxastrobin, followed by dimoxystrobin + cyproconazole, metconazole, propiconazole + cyproconazole, and prochloraz + tebuconazole. F. graminearum was the most frequently isolated from the ears, followed by M. nivale, F. avenaceum, F. culmorum, and F. poae. Using of prothioconazole + tebuconazole, metconazole, prothioconazole + fluoxastrobin, and tebuconazole significantly decreased incidence of F. graminearum on infected ears. The incidence of M. nivale on ears was significantly increased by using of all fungicides in comparison with untreated control. The results suggest that the ear spraying by triazole fungicides could enhance the incidence of less susceptible Fusarium species in ears, especially M. nivale. The variability in fungicide efficacy of fungicides against FHB in agricultural praxis colud be affected besides multi-pathogen origin of FHB just by selective effect of fungicides on different Fusarium species.


In this study, long and short-wave radiations were observed in urban and suburban areas during the summer season, and frequency analysis was performed for each radiation intensity by a new analysis method. The following results were obtained. ① Long-wave radiation values were found to be larger in the afternoon than in the morning, in both urban and suburban areas, unlike short-wave radiation values. ② Short-wave radiation showed a right-skewed frequency distribution. In the high energy area greater than 900 W/㎡, the frequency was significantly higher in the suburbs than in the urban areas. ③ Long-wave radiation was in the range of 290∼479 W/m2, its frequency distribution resembled a normal distribution, and the frequency of 410, 420 W/m2 was the highest.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
There is an increasing awareness for the role of a migration background regarding health over the past years in Germany. Descriptive data show that children from families with a migration background score significantly lower in developmental screening tests at school-enrolment compared to their peers of German origin. The analyses presented here examine the impact of a migration background on child development in the context of additional factors of influence.

METHODS
Data are from the routine examina-tion at school-enrolment in Berlin in 2010 and 2011 (N=54 818). Because of the multicollinearity of migration background and the German language skills of the child and its parents these variables are combined to one variable. Multiple regression models are conducted with 'poor performance in 2 or more developmental domains' as the dependent variable and the migration variables as the independent variable controlled for sociodemographic and other relevant predictor variables.

RESULT
The strongest predictor variable is the socioeconomic status of the family (OR 5.8). A migration background is only a predictor in combination with insufficient German language skills of child or parent (OR 1.6) and insufficient German language skills of child and parent (OR 5.3) respectively. Furthermore, very low birth weight children (birth weight < 1 500 g) are at risk for poor performance in 2 or more developmental domains (OR 4.2). Having spent not more than 2 years in day care (OR 1.6), living with a single parent and missing the preventive health check-up at the age of 4 (so called U8) have only a weak significant impact (OR 1.2 each). Electronic media exposure (television, computer) is no significant risk factor in our analyses.

CONCLUSION
The analyses show that migration background is not a risk factor for poor performance in developmental tests per se, but is attributed to the higher proportion of families with a low socioeconomic status in this group and with insufficient German language skills. This emphasizes the importance of support for socially disadvantaged children in general and for comprehensive promotion of German language skills for children and their parents from foreign origin.


A new iterative reconstruction algorithms (WBR) has been recently proposed for cardiac SPECT. The WBR technology is based on an iterative technique, includes physical parameters such as LSF modelling, collimator parameters and variable radius orbit, all affecting SPECT resolution. Few data still exist on the comparison between filtered back-projection (FBP) and WBR. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of FBP and this new algorithm. An anthropomorphic cardiac phantom with cold insert simulating regional infarctions was used to compare FBP and WBR; SPECT were acquired at standard time/frame (ST) and half time/frame (FIT), with a standard isotope activity (SD) or with half activity (HD). The average FWHM of the simulated infarction of the cardiac phantom of SD-HT (65.7deg) and HD-ST (57.5deg) WBR SPECT were comparable to that of SD-ST FBP SPECT (65.3deg). However, regional differences were observed. The new reconstruction algorithm, applied to a cardiac SPECT acquisition, allows either for short time SPECT acquisitions or studies employing a reduced isotope activity. The former allows for an increased patient throughput and optimization of resources. The latter modality would also allow for a significant reduction in patients' as well as operators' radiation exposure.


Influenza virus ribonucleic acid (RNA) and virus-specific double-stranded RNA of infected cells have been reported to consist of five and possibly as many as IO polynucleotide species (Duesberg, 1968; Pons & Hirst, I968; Content & Duesberg, 1971; Lewandowski, Content & Leppla, I97I; Skehel, I97I; Young & Content, 1971). These studies involved analysis of RNA by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and analysis of the 3' and 5' termini of RNA subunits. However, in the characterization of the RNA-genome by electron microscopy, molecules were illustrated with length measurements which would correspond to estimated mol.wt, of 3 to 5 x lO 6 (Li & Seto, I97I). The study was extended to include examination of the virus-specific double-stranded RNA of influenza virus infected cells. For small RNA viruses the double-stranded molecules of infected cells and single-stranded RNA isolated from purified virus were reported to be identical in length (Granboulan & Franklin, 1966; Granboulan & Girard, I969). In this paper we will present evidence of the observation of several species of double-stranded RNA. The predominating length measurements of the double-stranded RNA molecules correspond to the RNA subunits isolated from influenza virus particles (Skehel, 1971).


We experienced a case of aortic valve replacement after previous coronary artery bypass grafting with patent bypass grafts. Based on the retrosternal anatomy assessed by preoperative angiography and thoracic computed tomography, aortic valve replacement was performed through a median resternotomy. After careful dissection of the right side of the heart and the ascending aorta, cardiopulmonary bypass was established with cannulation of the ascending aorta and bicaval venous cannulation. The patent bypass grafts were dissected only as required for clamping and were clamped during cardiac arrest. After aortic valve replacement, the patient was uneventfully weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass and had a good postoperative recovery. It is important that surgeons have a meticulous strategy for reducing the risks associated with operating on patients with patent bypass grafts. We report on the surgical management of patients undergoing aortic valve replacement after previous coronary artery bypass grafting, including careful planning during the first operation.


Using samples of 2 : 25 (cid:2) 10 8 J= c events and 1 : 06 (cid:2) 10 8 c 0 events collected with the BES III detector, we study the f 0 ð 980 Þ ! a 00 ð 980 Þ and a 00 ð 980 Þ ! f 0 ð 980 Þ transitions in the processes J= c ! (cid:1)f 0 ð 980 Þ ! (cid:1)a 00 ð 980 Þ and (cid:2) c 1 ! (cid:3) 0 a 00 ð 980 Þ ! (cid:3) 0 f 0 ð 980 Þ , respectively. Evidence for f 0 ð 980 Þ ! a 00 ð 980 Þ is found with a significance of 3 : 4 (cid:4) , while in the case of a 00 ð 980 Þ ! f 0 ð 980 Þ transition, the significance is 1 : 9 (cid:4) . Measurements and upper limits of both branching ratios and mixing intensities are determined.


This article reports on an ethnographic study performed in a large and distributed, knowledge intensive ICT company. It gives an in-depth account of the introduction of virtual communities in this organization and what happened afterwards. When confronted with organizational change ideas such as virtual community, people make sense of and appropriate these ideas to make them 'their own.' We delve deeply into the arguments and motives behind the appropriations of the company's employees, which results into four generalized appropriation patterns. These appropriations patterns indicate that people respond to change ideas by comparing the behavioral norms and essences of professional selves prescribed in these ideas with how they naturally engage in practices of social networking, learning, and professional identity construction. This behavior not only explains their degrees of participation and non-participation in the virtual communities created, but it also reveals how employees shape their work and learning practices.


Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) against human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR/HER) family have been introduced into the clinic to treat cancers, particularly non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). There have been three generations of the EGFR/HER-TKIs. First-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs, binding competitively and reversibly to the ATP-binding site of the EGFR TK domain, show a significant breakthrough treatment in selected NSCLC patients with activating EGFR mutations (actEGFRm) EGFRL858R and EGFRDel19, in terms of safety, efficacy, and quality of life. However, all those responders inevitably develop acquired resistance within 12 months, because of the EGFRT790M mutation, which prevents TKI binding to ATP-pocket of EGFR by steric hindrance. The second-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs were developed to prolong and maintain more potent response as well as overcome the resistance to the first-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs. They are different from the first-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs by covalently binding to the ATP-binding site, irreversibly blocking enzymatic activation, and targeting EGFR/HER family members, including EGFR, HER2, and HER4. Preclinically, these compounds inhibit the enzymatic activation for actEGFRm, EGFRT790M, and wtEGFR. The second-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs improve overall survival in cancer patients with actEGFRm in a modest way. However, they are not clinically active in overcoming EGFRT790M resistance, mainly because of dose-limiting toxicity due to simultaneous inhibition against wtEGFR. The third-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs selectively and irreversibly target EGFRT790M and actEGFRm while sparing wtEGFR. They yield promising efficacy in NSCLC patients with actEGFRm as well as EGFRT790M resistant to the first- and second-generation EGFR-TKIs. They also appear to have a lower incidence of toxicity due to the reduced inhibitory effect on wtEGFR. Currently, the first-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs gefitinib and erlotinib and second-generation EGFR/HER-TKI afatinib have been approved for use as the first-line treatment of metastatic NSCLC with actEGFRm. This review will summarize and evaluate a broad range of evidence of recent development of EGFR/HER-TKIs, with a focus on the second- and third-generation EGFR/HER-TKIs, in the treatment of patients with NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations.


Abstract Calorimetric measurements at University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics of D2 crystallization from the melt indicate that zinc can act as a heterogeneous nucleation seed with suppressed supercooling. We further studied this effect for a variety of zinc substrates using the optical-access cryogenic sample cell at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Small supercoolings are observed, some as low as 5 mK, but results depend on the zinc history and sample preparation. In general, thin samples prepared by physical vapor deposition were not effective in nucleating crystal formation. Larger (several-millimeter) granules showed greater supercooling suppression, depending on surface modification and granule size. Surfaces of these granules are morphologically varied and not uniform. Scanning electron microscope images were not able to correlate any particular surface feature with enhanced nucleation. Application of classical nucleation theory to the observed variation of supercooling level with granule size is consistent with nucleation features with sizes <100 nm and with wetting angles of a few degrees.


Rural community enterprises (RCEs) are unique in their institutional arrangements for the production and marketing of agricultural and forest-based products. They are owned by groups of smallholders ranging from a few dozen to several thousands and typically pursue multiple objectives, with profit maximisation as only one of many goals. Other goals may be equally, if not more important, including community development, improved local safety nets, and increased influence over political processes. Access to productive resources may be collective or private, and enterprise governance is influenced strongly by local rules, practices, and customs. The development of RCEs can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals #1 ("Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger"), #3 ("Promote gender equality & empower women"), and #7 ("Ensure environmental sustainability"). However, many RCEs in the initial phases of enterprise development tend to exhibit low levels of output, productivity and profit, resulting in weak bargaining power along value chains. Government and NGOs can play an important role in the development of viable RCEs, but their impacts to date have been limited, due partly to their production-oriented approaches to rural development. In addition, the political-legal framework in which RCEs operate, including policies, laws and institutional arrangements related to business organisation, land tenure, and taxes, has not favoured their development, resulting in high transaction costs and an uncertain investment climate. This paper addresses the potential of RCEs to reduce poverty and promote gender equity without compromising the natural resource base. We present the results of a global review of RCE development, based on 25 case studies from 12 countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These studies cover a wide range of productive activities and services, including the extraction and transformation of timber and non-timber forest products, production and processing of agricultural products, such as coffee, cacao, vegetables, and banana, as well as ecotourism. We identify critical success factors for the development of environmentally friendly RCEs and determine their impact on the generation of employment and income for both males and females. We conclude with institutional and policy options for promoting enabling environments for RCE development.


RIES is an evolving family of systems (RIES-2004, RIES-KOA, RIES-2008) for electronic elections via the Internet. It has been used in practice for medium scale elections for the Dutch District Water Control Boards and for expatriates in national parliament elections. We describe and analyze the security of RIES, based on the documentation made available to us. The aim is to make RIES easier to understand for all parties involved: policy makers, scientists, election officials, implementors, and the general public. This document makes explicit what the assumptions in RIES are, what kind of restrictions apply, what level of security is achieved, etc., focussing on the security aspects, both technical and organizational / procedural. RIES provides integration of Internet voting and voting by regular mail, and has been developed in that specific context. This has set the framework of requirements for the design of RIES to comparison with postal voting systems. Hence certain reasonable goals for elections (like vote freedom) have been out of scope from the start. Consequently, the general voting requirements formulated by the Korthals Altes Committee are not all satisfied: not only vote freedom but also vote integrity and confidentiality are not structurally guaranteed in the RIES design. RIES is built on certain cryptographic primitives, like one-time signatures. Keys for individual voters are generated centrally. There are no anonymous channels. The structural protection and safeguards offered by cryptography are therefore rather limited. Many of the guarantees in RIES thus rely on organizational controls, notably with respect to (voter) key generation, production of postal packages, insider attacks (especially at the server), integrity and authenticity of the software, and helpdesk procedures. RIES-2008 is designed and built in an open spirit. Its source code and documentation will shortly be available openly for inspection and analysis. Additionally, the designers and organizers have put considerable effort in publicly explaining and discussing their system. The technical and organizational set-up seems carefully designed. There are however pragmatic elements in the system, such as the use of replacement packages, that are open to manipulation and abuse, notably by insiders. The RIES Internet election system also offers potentially dangerous ways for manipulation of elections, in principle applicable on a large scale and different from attacks on postal elections. One of the distinguishing aspects of RIES is that it allows independent recounts of the final outcome and individual checks to see if own votes have been included. This interesting and useful feature does however not compensate for the structural weaknesses. In a larger context we see RIES (esp. RIES-2008) as a project that yields valuable hands-on experience and expertise on how to organize and run electronic elections. We do not think RIES-2008 is a suitable system for use outside a context of postal elections, and in particular not for 'general' elections (like for national/European parliaments or local/regional councils). We do encourage further research, development and experiments to gain more experience in this area.


A proxy re-encryption (PRE) scheme allows a proxy to re-encrypt a ciphertext for Alice (delegator) to a ciphertext for Bob (delegatee) without seeing the underlying plaintext. However, existing PRE schemes generally suffer from at least one of the followings. Some schemes fail to provide the non-transferable property in which the proxy and the delegatee can collude to further delegate the decryption right to anyone. This is the main open problem left for PRE schemes. Other schemes assume the existence of a fully trusted private key generator (PKG) to generate the re-encryption key to be used by the proxy for re-encrypting a given ciphertext for a target delegatee. But this poses two problems in PRE schemes if the PKG is malicious: the PKG in their schemes may decrypt both original ciphertexts and re-encrypted ciphertexts (referred as the key escrow problem); and the PKG can generate reencryption key for arbitrary delegatees without permission from the delegator (we refer to it as the PKG despotism problem). In this paper, we propose the first non-transferable proxy re-encryption scheme which successfully achieves the nontransferable property. We show that the new scheme solved the PKG despotism problem and key escrow problem as well.


Methanol stimulates the hydrolysis of GTP catalyzed by bacterial ribosomes in the presence of the chain elongation factor T (EF-T). The methanol-stimulated activity is uncoupled from aminoacyl-tRNA binding to the ribosomes and does not require the presence of either synthetic polynucleotide messenger or aminoacyl-tRNA. When these reactants are present, along with EF-T, GTP, and methanol, the ribosomal binding of aminoacyl-tRNA is inhibited by thiostrepton but the uncoupled, EF-T-dependent hydrolysis of GTP is resistant to the antibiotic.


This paper addresses system engineering and mission planning issues for a disposable, remote chemical sensor network. This network will interconnect a satellite hub, LEO satellites, remote sensors, and fiber optic communication operations. Engineering considerations include orbital analysis, telemetry, satellite transponder access, modulation techniques, power for remotes, a frequency plan, antennae selection and verification that performance is feasible and acceptable via link budgets.


A paper that discusses the evolving technology of MIFARE and its potential for replacing the existing RFID technology. Though RFID technology has several advantages there are several technical disadvantages of RFID. As RFID makes use of radio waves they are susceptible to interference and moreover memory is less and is devoid of security. Other problems that can arise include RFID reader collision and RFID tag collision. All of these problems can be solved by using MIFARE technology. MIFARE technology has a greater memory with an option of providing security. In contrast to RFID technology which has 1Mb of memory MIFARE uses 4Mb of memory and several security algorithms can be implemented. Here, we discuss how memory can be used and the security features that can be used in MIFARE technology.


Photoinduced light scattering of Co- and Cr-doped lithium niobate crystals is examined. The light climbing effect is observed in the Co- and Cr-doped lithium niobate crystals. The influences of the incident light wavelength, laser power, sample thickness and doping effects on the light climbing effect are studied. Higher photodamage threshold and quicker light climbing are found in the Cr- and Co-doped lithium niobate, which are attributed to the higher space electrical charge field and both different valence and occupation of the doping ions, respectively.


Timing of cirque formation and the climate necessary to initiate glaciation are fundamental to the understanding of the landscape of the northern Scandinavian mountains. Empty cirques in the Rassepautasjtjåkka massif are located near a glaciated area and thus appear near the glaciation limit. In order to investigate the climate conditions necessary for glacier formation in the cirques, we applied a spatially distributed temperature index melt model. After calibration under present climate conditions, the model was run with different combinations of increased initial winter snow cover and lowered summer air temperatures to assess the climate conditions needed for snow to survive summer and hence form a base for glaciation. Results indicate that a significant increase in precipitation or decrease in summer air temperature or a combination of both is necessary to initiate glaciation. Thus current climate conditions are far from favorable for glaciation. If summer temperature is decreased by 4°C or winter snow cover is more than doubled, only 10% of cirque areas remain snow covered, which is considered as a minimum condition for glacier formation. According to climate reconstructions such conditions have not occurred during the Holocene suggesting that the cirques have not been glaciated during this period. Consequently glaciation of the cirques must have occurred during other parts of the glacial cycles.


The study aims to diagnose the nature of the relationship and the impact between marketing agility and marketing risk, as studies have confirmed that marketing agility is one of the most important factors that enable organizations to adapt to the environment and its variables, and enable the organization to make its marketing decisions quickly and implement them with high flexibility, in a way that enables it to avoid or reduce Marketing risk to the maximum extent possible, Scientific Bureau and Drug Store were selected as a field for study, and their employees were selected as a sample for the study, which numbered (311) respondents, and with the aim of collecting the required data and information, the questionnaire was designed as a main tool in data collection, which was covered through (66) phrases. Included in the questionnaire based on a group of scientific sources, the study adopted the descriptive analytical approach in an attempt to answer the questions of the study and test its hypotheses using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The moral effect of marketing agility in reducing marketing risk, as well as the results of the analysis that led to the mechanism of testing the correlation and impact relationships confirms that the harmonization between the dimensions of marketing agility contributes to supporting the trends of the researched organizations in reducing the marketing risk


Background: Determine whether inter-individual response differences exist with respect to changes in fat mass and percent body fat as a result of aerobic exercise training in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Methods: Using the meta-analytic approach, randomized controlled trials that examined the effects of aerobic exercise training on fat mass and percent body fat in overweight and obese children and adolescents were included. Change outcome standard deviations for fat mass and percent body fat were used to calculate true inter-individual differences from each study. The inverse variance heterogeneity model was used to pool results. Results: Pooled changes for inter-individual response differences in fat mass (16 studies, 575 participants) were 0.9 kg (95% confidence interval [CI], -1.4 to 1.8 kg) while tau ([Formula: see text]) was 2.9. For percent body fat, inter-individual differences (27 studies, 1035 participants) were 0.6% (95% CI, -0.6% to 1.0%, [Formula: see text] = 0.7). The 95% prediction interval for true inter-individual responses in a future study was -4.9 to 5.5 kg for fat mass and -0.7% to 1.7% for percent body fat. The percent chance, that is, probability, of a clinically meaningful difference in variability was 47% for fat mass and 26% for percent body fat, both of which were considered as only possibly clinically important. Conclusions: There is a lack of convincing evidence to suggest that true inter-individual response differences exist with respect to aerobic exercise training and changes in fat mass and percent body fat in overweight and obese children and adolescents.


Background

Although gliomas are strictly confined to the central nervous system, their negative influence over the immune system can extend to peripheral circulation. The immune suppression exerted by myeloid cells is capable of affecting both response to therapy and disease outcome. Here we analyzed the expansion of several myeloid parameters in the blood of low- and high-grade gliomas and assessed their relevance as biomarkers of disease and clinical outcome.
Methods

Peripheral blood was obtained from 134 low- and high-grade glioma patients before surgery and treatment. Myeloid cell subsets such as total CD14+, CD14+/p-STAT3+, CD14+/PD-L1+, CD15+ cells and 4 myeloid derived suppressor cell (MDSC) subsets, were evaluated by multiparametric flow cytometry. Arginase-1 (ARG1) quantity and activity was determined in the plasma. Principal component analysis was performed to define correlations between myeloid markers. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to obtain a diagnostic score to discriminate glioma patients from healthy controls, and between each glioma grade. A glioblastoma prognostic model was determined by multiple Cox regression using clinical and myeloid parameters.
Results

In the blood of glioma patients, changes in myeloid parameters associated with immune suppression were identified and allowed us to define a diagnostic score calculating the risk of being a glioma patient, that included CD15+ cells, MDSC1, MDSC3, p-STAT3 and ARG1 activity. Of note, the same parameters, together with age, can also be used to calculate the risk score in differentiating each glioma grade. Finally, a prognostic model for glioblastoma patients stemmed out from a Cox multiple analysis, highlighting the role of MDSC, p-STAT3 and ARG1 activity together with clinical parameters in predicting the patient outcome.
Conclusions

This work emphasizes the role of systemic immune suppression carried out by myeloid cells in gliomas. The identification of biomarkers associated with immune landscape, diagnosis and outcome of glioblastoma patients lays the ground for their clinical use for stratification and follow up.


Road Extraction from satellite imagery is of fundamental importance in the context of spatial data capturing and updating for GIS applications. As fully automatic method for feature extraction is difficult due to the increasing complexity of objects. This paper proposes a semi-automatic road extraction methodology from high resolution satellite imagery using active contour model (Snakes). First the image is preprocessed using relaxed median filter. In the next step the user inputs initial seed points on the road to be extracted. Then the road segment is extracted using active contour model. The method is tested using high resolution satellite imagery and the results are presented in the paper.


The objective of this paper was to research the impact of microfinance bank loans on employment generation in Serbia in 2014 with a seasonal dynamics, around which was situated the scope of the paper too as a case study. The hypotesis formulated as possible impact of microfinance bank loans in employment generation was positive. Jobs created were divided in groups of: sustained jobs, indirect, induced, second-order 'growth' effects, and net job creation, with multipliers, such as the total number of jobs in an economy generated per one direct job, frequently used to assess and benchmark the job-creation effects of private sector activities. Mathematical and descriptive statistical methods are used, as well as a typical fitting measure, Coefficient of determination, for measure of fitting the trend-line with the empirical data, 88.28% of contribution towards in the prediction of created jobs dynamics, and 93.09% of contribution towards in the prediction of sustained jobs dynamics.


The increasing penetration of renewable energy resources (RESs) leads to a continuous displacement of synchronous generators. Since the grid integration of RESs is usually achieved through inertialess power converters, the system inertia reduces and the power system frequency stability is compromised. Consequently, unexpected generator tripping, load shedding, and even blackouts may occur and pose a great threat to the system normal operation. In view of these challenges, this article explores the possibility of providing the inertia support from power-electronics interfaced smart loads. Specifically, a transformerless electric spring topology and the associated control strategy have been developed to provide a substantial inertia support from the noncritical load. As compared with existing inertia enhancement techniques, the proposed solution is cost-effective without the need of additional energy storage units. The smart load inertia provision capability is quantitatively analyzed and experimentally verified on a laboratory-scale test. In the testing results, 40% and 18% reductions of the rate of change of frequency and the maximum frequency deviation are, respectively, observed with a 12% smart load penetration ratio.


To the Editor:— The appearance of a new sedative on the market always presents a medicolegal problem in that individuals accidently or purposely take or administer an overdose with resultant deaths. Such is the situation with a new sedative, Doriden (a-ethyl, a-phenyl glutarimide). Several reports have already been received implicating Doriden in suicides and possibly murder. Our laboratories have succeeded in developing a colorimetric test for Doriden and some of its metabolites that is based on the reaction of hydroxylamine with the imide group to form an hydroxamic acid. The addition of ferric ion causes the formation of a purple complex. In applying this method to the analysis of Doriden and its metabolites in urine, column chromatography was required to eliminate esters, amides, and anhydrides, which also react with hydroxylamine. From the preliminary results obtained to date, the determination of a metabolite, a-phenyl glutarimide, is of more value than that


Details are given on the production and survival over four years of five perennial grasses under rotational sheep-grazing on a pumice soil. The comparison involved three perennial ryegrasses ('Grasslands Nui and Ruanui', and Yates Ellett), and mixtures of Ellett with 'Grasslands Roa' tall fescue and Ellett with 'Grasslands Maru' phalaris. All pastures were sown with white and red clovers. Annual dry matter yields from Nui and Ellett pastures were similar, at about 6,500 kg/ha. Ruanui pastures were on average 600 kg/ha lower. The pastures containing tall fescue and phalaris were similar to Ellett. The major seasonal yield effects were in autumn and winter, when Ruanui pastures were substantially poorer than those with Nui and Ellett. Ryegrass yield of Ellett pasture was greater than Nui, and Nui was greater than Ruanui at all seasons. Ellett ryagrass was a higher proportion of the total yield at all times, and had higher tiller populations than Nui and Ruanui. Neither tall fescue or phalaris were, able to compete with Ellett ryegrass. It is suggested that neither of these be sown with ryegrass. Clover yields were higher in Ruanui than Ellett pastures, with Nui intermediate. The use of Nui, Ellett and Ruanui ryegrasses is related to the problems of seasonal distribution and total annual yields of pastures on the Central Plateau. It is suggested using Nui or Ellett as the base for perennial pastures will give substantial increases in production. Ellett ryegrass had higher survival than Nui which was considered an advantage, though this was achieved at the expense of a small reduction in clover vields.


The problem of responsibility for future generations is considered by the two distinguished philosophers, Birnbacher and Spaemann, basically on the basis of two issues, namely ecological and bioethical threats. Both authors demonstrate very similar views on the first issue in question, for example in terms of nuclear energy use and exploitation of natural resources – the foundation of our existence. Birnbacher attaches great significance to the use of natural resources in the context of responsibility for future generations, devoting to it much attention in his accurate analyses. A radical difference in their investigations is apparent in their treatment of the other, bioethical issue. Spaemann demonstrates how dangerous the possibility of genetic manipulations is to the identity of human nature of future generations, whereas Birnbacher seems to accept them, however not openly. In his opinion, a "qualitative improvement" of man is necessary in the name of the future, which justifies the use of negative eugenics and selection of conceived human lives. There exists a common, based on empirical data, yet different and dependent on the philosophical orientation, basis for theoretical solutions proposed by both philosophers. For Spaemann, whose originality prevents him from being assigned to any specific trend, this would be natural law in the classic version proposed by Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Kant, whereas Birnbacher, who represents utilitarianism of the sum of benefits, this basis is delineated by moral, practical norms that are extracted from ideal norms.


We have intensively studied the dynamic behavior of combustion instability in a cylindrical combustor with an off-center installed coaxial injector. The most interesting discovery in this study is the appearance of a deterministic chaos in a transition from a dynamically stable state to well-developed high-frequency thermoacoustic combustion oscillations with increasing the volume flow rate of nitrogen with which oxygen is diluted. The presence of deterministic chaos is reasonably identified by considering an extended version of the Sugihara-May algorithm [G. Sugihara and R. May, Nature 344, 734 (1990)] as a local predictor and the multiscale complexity-entropy causality plane based on statistical complexity.


What gives Mona Lisa s smile such a mysterious quality? Livingstone (2000) has suggested that the portrait changes its expression depending on where on the portrait the observer looks. The mouth, which is the essential feature of Mona Lisa s remarkable expression (Kontsevich & Tyler, 2004), appears to form an enigmatic smile. Due to sfumato technique (Gombrich, 2005), this impression of a smile is more prominent in the gradual luminance changes that observers perceive mainly in the periphery of their vision— that is, in low spatial-frequency ranges. It is less prominent in the fine details that observers perceive only at the center of their gaze, in high spatial-frequency ranges. Consequently, the subtle smile one perceives while looking at Mona Lisa s eyes (when her mouth appears blurred) vanishes when one attempts to verify this impression by looking at the mouth with maximum visual acuity. Hence, the proposed basis for the elusive quality of Mona Lisa s smile is that ''you can t catch her smile by looking at her mouth. She smiles until you look at her mouth'' (Livingstone, 2000, p. 1299). In this study, we simulated the phenomenon for the first time experimentally via a saccade-contingent display-change technique that allowed us to subliminally alter the expression of faces depending on the beholder s gaze position.


A study was conducted to obtain a perspective on the future directions of studies focusing on collective efficacy in Japan, including pertinent analytical methods, from three different viewpoints. First, preceding studies of sports groups in Europe and the USA were extensively reviewed, focusing on collective efficacy. This revealed that such studies had centered on group cohesion. It was also found that studies focusing on collective efficacy had tended to increase in recent years. Second, empirical studies of sports groups with respect to collective efficacy were reviewed, focusing particularly on its relationship with performance. Consequently, it was noted that, in general, collective efficacy was positively correlated with performance. Third, multilevel analysis of collective efficacy was examined to estimate its future applicability to sports psychology in Japan. Finally, we identified the areas on which future collective efficacy studies of sports groups in Japan should be based, as few studies in this area have been conducted.


Introduction Capsule endoscopy (CE) has developed an established role in the investigation of patients with Crohn's disease. However, there remains a paucity of published literature on the use of CE in the setting of patients with indeterminate colitis (IBDU). We investigated the diagnostic yield of CE in patients with (IBDU) and impact on subsequent diagnosis and management. Methods Patients referred to the CE service routinely from 2003 to 2009 with a diagnosis of IBDU, were identified retrospectively. Data was collected for patient demographics, previous investigations, medications and findings at CE. Patients with findings of three or more ulcers with the presence of erythema and oedema were classed as Crohn's disease. Follow up data was collected on all patients to assess the impact of CE on final outcomes. Results A total of thirty seven patients with histological indeterminate colitis were identified. There were 78% females with median age of 47 years (range 18–81 years).The majority of patients (78%) had symptoms of diarrhoea. Abdominal pain represented 60% while 78% of patients (n=29) had evidence of raised inflammatory markers. All patients had prior colonoscopy with terminal ileal (TI) intubation in 65% (n=24).Forty two percent of patients (n=10/24) had macroscopic abnormalities at TI, of which 10 % were normal and 90% (n=9) showed non specific changes histologically. The mean follow up period was 19 months (±2). Small bowel changes including ulceration or erosions, oedema, petechiae and erythema were identified in 43% (n=16/37) of patients on CE. There were no complications with CE. The diagnosis of Crohn's was made in 14 patients at follow up (41%) with 1 patient lost to follow up and one patient with a diagnosis of non-steroidal ant-inflammatory drug (NSAID) enteropathy. Seven of these patients had a normal small bowel radiology prior to CE. Management was altered in 78% of patients (n=11/14). Two patients had medication change; steroids (n=1) and anti-TNF (n=1) and histological verification with a repeat ileo-colonoscopy or double-balloon enteroscopy was performed in nine patients. While in two patients, Crohn's disease was confirmed, in seven patients, despite changes of ulcers or stricturing, biopsies showed focal active ulceration which fell short for the histological criteria for Crohn's disease. There was no change in management in 3 patients due to symptom resolution. On logistic regression, hypoalbuminaemia(p=0.059) and diarrhoea (p=0.058) were predictive of a positive diagnosis on CE. The diagnosis of IBDU remained in 59% of patients (n=21). Conclusion CE is useful for identifying patients classed as IBDU who may have underlying Crohn's disease with a positive impact on their management. Further larger studies are required to validate these results.


It can be shown that the dynamics of magnetic perturbation at the nonmonoto-nous profile of a current in tokamak is qualitatively different from that of normal profiles. Behaviour of the perturbation depends on the helical magnetic currents localized mainly between the two singular surfaces. In this paper the numerical method developed to study the non-linear evolution of tearing modes is described in detail.


A Myocardial Ischemia Detection Algorithm (MIDA) is presented that analyses echocardiography sequences automatically in order to detect the presence of heart muscle damage. MIDA involves an image enhancement, fuzzy multi resolution edge detection to obtain the heart wall boundaries, composite motion image creation using the heart wall boundaries, followed by statistical pattern recognition and classification to identify the heart wall abnormality. The performance of MIDA is assessed using 62 real patient data with both normal and abnormal conditions. The results indicate that MIDA can be used as an effective tool for automatically diagnosing Myocardial Ischemia.


Baseball maintains one of the highest impact injury rates in all athletics. A principal causative factor is the "beanball," referring to a pitch thrown directly at a batter's head. Frequent morbidities elicited demand for the development of protective gear development in the 20th century. In this setting, Dr. Walter Dandy was commissioned to design a "protective cap" in 1941. His invention became widely adopted by professional baseball and inspired subsequent generations of batting helmets. As a baseball aficionado since his youth, Walter Dandy identified a natural partnership between baseball and medical practice for the reduction of beaning-related brain injuries. This history further supports the unique position of neurosurgeons to leverage clinical insights, inform innovation, and expand service to society.


In liberal democratic countries, discussions of privacy generally revolve around the ability of individuals to shield and control certain of the data that describe them, such as information about one's finances, health, or online behavior. I view this approach as fundamentally incomplete, and propose that we use the notion of privacy to cover a set of struggles by political actors of all types - public, private, individual, and institutional - to remain autonomous in the modern liberal democratic polity. Doing so puts an end to the multiplication of concepts across what I argue is a similar field of political struggle, to the benefit of the public as well as academics. Actors' political autonomy have been threatened by the existence and undisciplined operation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), triggered chiefly by the introduction and uptake of the Internet. This systemic approach to privacy allows us to explore the ways it is regulated - what I call the "privacy regime" - in multiple countries. Coupled with a definition of privacy that is squarely and pragmatically adapted to the technological realities of today, we provide ourselves the necessary theoretical model to respond to the pressing analytical needs posed by the increasingly pitched battles between different political actors over technology and autonomy. Taking a longer view, the debate over privacy opens a new chapter in which political actors become more fully aware of the acute dangers of unchecked, advancing technologies. Recasting privacy politics in this way, we inscribe it into a frame that is familiar to scholars interested in power, the organization of interests, and the logic of liberal democracy.


Abstract: An involvement of excitatory amino acid (EAA) transmitter–receptor interactions in the development of hypoglycemia‐induced neuronal damage has been suggested. We report here on the binding to EAA receptors in the rat caudate nucleus and cerebral cortex, during and following severe insulin‐induced hypoglycemia with an isoelectric EEG of 10 or 30 min duration. The binding of α[3H]amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazolepropionic acid ([3H]AMPA) to quisqualate receptors, [3H]kainic acid (KA) to kainate receptors, and [3H]glutamate to N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA)‐sensitive sites was determined by quantitative autoradiography. During EEG isoelectricity, AMPA binding was reduced by approximately 40%, which could represent quisqualate receptor desensitization. One hour following glucose‐induced recovery, AMPA binding was no longer different from control level. As the recovery period was prolonged to 1 or 4 weeks, AMPA binding decreased. The decrease was more pronounced in the dorsolateral than in the ventromedial part of the striatum. This correlates with the distribution of neuronal damage, and probably reflects loss of receptor binding sites due to cell death. During the period of EEG silence there was a tendency toward an increase in NMDA displaceable glutamate binding. Following 4 weeks of recovery, binding to NMDA receptors was significantly decreased. Glutamate binding to NMDA‐sensitive sites was remarkably resistant to neuronal necrosis and was not significantly different from control values in the dorsolateral caudate 1 week following the hypoglycemic coma. No changes in KA binding were found until 1 week posthypoglycemia, when a significant reduction in binding was noted in the lateral striatum. Two weeks following partial unilateral cortical ablation, binding to NMDA receptors in the striatum decreased in the lesioned hemisphere in control animals and remained significantly lower than in the contralateral hemisphere during EEG isoelectricity. In contrast, no hemispheric differences in AMPA binding were observed. The lack of desensitization of NMDA receptors during EEG isoelectricity and their relative resistance to neuronal necrosis could be of significance for the development of hypoglycemic neuronal damage.


Too much of a good thing can be harmful. Choice overload, a compelling paradox in consumer psychology, exemplifies this notion with the idea that offering more product options could impede rather than improve consumer satisfaction, even when consumers are free to ignore any available option. After attracting intense interest in the past decades from multiple disciplines, research on choice overload has produced voluminous yet paradoxical findings that are widely perceived as inconsistent even at the meta-analytic level. This paper launches an interdisciplinary inquiry to resolve the inconsistencies on both the conceptual and empirical fronts. Specifically, we identified a surprising butrobust pattern among the existing empirical evidence for the choiceoverload effect and demonstrated through mathematical analysis and extensive simulation studies that the pattern would only likely emerge from one specific type of latent mechanism underlying the moderated choiceoverload effect. The paper discusses the research and practical implications of our findings—namely, the broad promise of analytical meta-analysis (an emerging area for the use of data analytics) and machine learning to address the widely recognized inconsistencies in social and behavioral sciences, and the unique and salient role of the information systems community in developing this new era of meta-analysis.


Tenebrio molitor, the first edible insect approved as a novel food in the EU, is a promising candidate for alternative protein sources, implementing circular and sustainable production systems. This study aims to determine the microbiological quality and physicochemical properties of mealworm powders obtained by four different processing pathways. Contents of dry matter, protein, fat, ash, water activity (aw) and a range of microbial counts were measured and analyzed by one-way ANOVA with Tukey's test. Results showed small differences in the proximate composition of the powder samples (protein 55.62–57.90% and fat 23.63–28.21% of dry matter, DM), except for the one that underwent a defatting step (protein 70.04% and fat 16.84%), p < 0.05. A level of water activity of less than 0.2 was reached for all pathways. Fresh mealworm samples had high total aerobic counts (8.4 log CFU/g) but were free of foodborne pathogens. Heat treatments applied during transformation were sufficient to kill vegetative cells (reduction of 2.8–5.1 log CFU/g) rather than bacterial endospores (reduction of 0.3–1.8 log CFU/g). Results were confirmed by predictive microbiology. This study validated the efficacy of a boiling step as critical control points (CCPs) of insect powder processing, providing primary data for the implementation of HACCP plans.


The first book is subtitled 'Aesthetics, Methods, Appreciation' and has something to offer to both students and connoisseurs. I was pleased by the undoctrinaire good sense of all Meilach had to say and by her choice of illustrations (there are over 350 of these). A very strong relationship exists between aesthetics and the methods of carving stone that make it a fundamental study for all those interested in art and, therefore, 1 feel that a book of this kind should have investigated this relationship in greater historical depth. Nonetheless, the account of the various techniques of carving stone is short and to the point, and the book, as a whole, can be recommended as an adequate introduction to anyone wishing to embark on his own exploration of the medium, tools and approaches to carving. (Although the book was published in England, the addresses of quarries, tool makers etc. are limited to the U.S.A.) The author of the second book, Copnall, can look back over a long and successful career in Britain, both as practising sculptor and educator. He emerges from his book as an ebullient, hardworking man with forthright opinions, who can be disarmingly honest about his own experiences in art and in business. (He has to avert his eyes from some of his own works, which were spoilt by meddling patrons). One finds useful information about double-entry accounting, time keeping and costing. On the other hand, I and his free-wheeling style of mixing straight-forward technical matters with memories of his past failures and successes and with aspects of art history, though very readable, high I y unsatisfactory. Those who know the subject will not approve of his handling of plaster and of polyester resin and what he says about bronze casting is positively dangerous. He tells us, for instance, that Cellini made the mould for his 'Perseus' out of plaster and clay mixed together in a liquid form; that his mould was up-ended after firing and that the method of attaching runners and risers was invented at a later date. This is not only historically inaccurate but, in its context, could be very misleading. Cellini, himself, tells us that he invested his 'Perseus' with a 'tunic of clay carefully armed and girt with iron'; that he drew off the wax 'through many vents' and then fired the mould for forty-eight hours to complete the expulsion of the wax (and, incidentally, to fire the terra cotta). He had a very much lighter mould than is used today. This was 'raised to an upright position' with very great care. In the process of packing the mould in earth, the vents were extended with clay pipes. Finally, he threw his household pewter into the molten metal, not his


Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effect of three phenolic acids, acetone, and riboflavin on aqueous photolysis of chlorimuron and imazaquin. The phenolic acids investigated were caffeic acid (CA), ferulic acid (FA), and p-coumaric acid (PCA). Treatment solutions were contained in quartz vessels and irradiated with 300 to 400 nm UV light in a photoreactor. The extrapolated photolysis half-life of chlorimuron in pure solution was 107 h, compared to a half-life of 0.42 h for pure aqueous imazaquin. Chlorimuron in solutions containing 10 ppmw riboflavin, acetone, CA, FA, or PCA exhibited half-lives of 9, 57, 58, 67, and 146 h, respectively. Imazaquin in solutions containing 10 ppmw riboflavin, acetone, CA, FA, or PCA had half-lives of 0.70, 0.55, 0.55, 0.48, and 0.55 h, respectively. The presence of PCA in aqueous media delayed chlorimuron photolysis, whereas all other compounds, especially riboflavin, sensitized chlorimuron photolysis. In contrast, imazaquin photolysis was delayed in the presence of the test compounds, with riboflavin having the greatest effect and causing in a 68% increase in imazaquin half-life over that of imazaquin alone. Quantum yields for sensitized photolysis of chlorimuron by riboflavin and for riboflavin by imazaquin were 0.1134 and 0.0477, respectively. These results suggest that some soluble and naturally occurring organic compounds may enhance chlorimuron photolysis yet delay imazaquin photolysis in surface waters.


We report the identification of a cell population that shares pericyte, stromal and stemness features, does not harbor the KrasG12D mutation and drives tumoral growth in vitro and in vivo. We term these cells pericyte stem cells (PeSCs) and define them as CD45−EPCAM−CD29+CD106+CD24+CD44+ cells. We perform studies with p48‐Cre;KrasG12D (KC), pdx1‐Cre;KrasG12D;Ink4a/Arffl/fl (KIC) and pdx1‐Cre;KrasG12D;p53R172H (KPC) and tumor tissues from PDAC and chronic pancreatitis patients. We also perform single‐cell RNAseq analysis and reveal a unique signature of PeSC. Under steady‐state conditions, PeSCs are barely detectable in the pancreas but present in the neoplastic microenvironment both in humans and mice. The coinjection of PeSCs and tumor epithelial cells leads to increased tumor growth, differentiation of Ly6G+ myeloid‐derived suppressor cells, and a decreased amount of F4/80+ macrophages and CD11c+ dendritic cells. This population induces resistance to anti‐PD‐1 immunotherapy when coinjected with epithelial tumor cells. Our data reveal the existence of a cell population that instructs immunosuppressive myeloid cell responses to bypass PD‐1 targeting and thus suggest potential new approaches for overcoming resistance to immunotherapy in clinical settings.


The goal of the paper is to discuss the changes in organization and the offer of library services, which are systematically introduced by the Main Library of the Wrocław University of Economics and Business, in response to the changes of the modern information technologies, expectations and needs of users and the realization of the ideal of continual improvement of the library services. The organizational changes for improvement of effectiveness and bet-ter professionalization of the library services as well as undertaken educational initiatives are discussed especially in the context of improving information literacy of the University's employees regarding electronic sources of scientific information and bibliometric tools. The paper is based on the literature regarding the changes in the structure and objectives of an academic library, as well as the experiences and observations of the author.


Research into individual life courses can be considered a special means of investigating social change. This chapter reviews contributions to life-course research in German-language sociology with a focus on its development over the last two decades. We start with a brief overview of the early years of life-course research and sketch three strands of research that were original even by international standards. In the second section, we describe conceptual and methodical approaches to Germanlanguage life-course research along with important data collections that triggered a plethora of empirical life-course studies. Section three focuses on the primary fields of life-course research and provides examples of empirical contributions by quantitative studies. In section four,we address specific characteristics of biographical research in German-speaking countries that can fertilize life-course research. The chapter closes with some brief remarks about the challenges that life-course research faces in the future.


Anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia is a congenital, generally X-linked dermatosis that associates facial dysmorphy, short stature, and severe blepharitis. The anomalies of the skin are epidermic abnormalities; reduction of the glands of the derm, particularly the sweat glands, explaining the hypohidrosis; onychodysplasia; trichodysplasia; and abnormal dentition. The ophthalmologic manifestations are palpebral anomalies with a reduction in or an absence of Meibomian glands, dysfunction of the Moll and Zeis glands, leading to chronic squamous blepharitis and lacrimal punctal atresia. These anomalies result in severe attacks of the ocular surface, developing during the second decade, which are often invalidating and require a rigorous follow-up to avoid corneal complications.


Twelve of 29 Saudi patients (41.4%) developed diabetes mellitus following renal transplantation. Post-transplant diabetes mellitus occurred within the first 2 months in eight patients; two others presented with diabetic ketoacidosis associated with severe infections. The diabetic and non-diabetic patients had received similar doses of prednisolone and cyclosporin (CsA) during the initial 2 months post-transplantation, and their mean CsA blood values at 3 months were not significantly different. Increasing patient age (over 40 years), but not sex, donor source, or body mass index, was associated with an increased risk for developing diabetes mellitus. Post-transplant diabetes mellitus was controlled with oral hypoglycaemic agents in most patients, but one-third required insulin. Patients who developed diabetes had significantly decreased mean creatinine clearance/1.73 m2 at a mean graft age of 3.4 years (P less than 0.001). Diabetes mellitus after transplantation may be more common among Saudi patients than elsewhere, especially those aged over 40 years. It develops rapidly, may present with ketosis, and is associated with graft dysfunction.


On the basis of traditional data envelopment analysis model, by introducing the ideal decision making unit, the improved data envelopment analysis model is established to determine a set of common weights; then according to them , efficiency index of each black start plan is calculated to rank the black start plans. Finally, it is verified that this method is effective and advantageous through the application to a practical power system and comparison with the traditional data envelopment analysis.


Gut microbiota contains about 1014 bacterial cells classified within 4 bacterial phyla, namely Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria. Much of the information has been generated through the application of nucleic acid-based methodologies (16S rRNA) which provide a cornerstone of microbial taxonomy. Inflammatory bowel disease (iBd) involves a dysregulated immune response to the gut microbiota in genetically predisposed hosts. Experimental animal models of colitis provide the best evidence that bacteria present in the bowel of the animals have an essential role in the pathogenesis of colitis since in most models, germ-free animals do not develop disease. Moreover, in the immunodeficient mouse model of colitis called TRUC (T-bet-/x rAG2-/-), a colitogenic gut microbiota is selected and can be transmitted to mice with intact immunity and induce colitis. Current interest therefore focuses on the bacterial community as the source of antigens that fuel the chronic inflammation seen in IBD. Dysbiosis, an imbalance between harmful and protective bacteria, has been evoked and investigated in iBd. Thus, besides the classical pathogens, gut microbiota can drive pathogenicity via two mechanisms: an expansion of 'pro-inflammatory'species or a restriction in the protective compounds of the microbiota. Complexity of the microbiota suggests that both mechanisms may contribute to chronic gut inflammation in IBD. © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.