Hexameric organostannoxane derivatives 3 and 4 have been prepared by treatment of 2-phenoxyacetic acid (1) and benzoic acid (2), respectively, with n-BuSn(O)OH. The drum-like structure of these compounds, made up of a prismatic Sn6O6 core, has been confirmed by 119Sn NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The reaction conditions used for the preparation of 3 and 4 have been applied to dendritic branches with one, two or four methanofullerene subunits at the periphery and a carboxylic acid function at the focal point to produce fullerene-rich nanostructures with a stannoxane core in almost quantitative yields. These compounds have been characterized by 1H, 13C, and 119Sn NMR spectroscopy. Their electrochemical properties have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The central stannoxane cage has been shown not to affect the electrochemical properties of the assembled fullerenes. Indeed, each C60 moiety behaves independently, just like the parent fullerene compounds.


—Recent experiments support the longstanding hypothesis that Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) are mimics of Eurasian Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus). Additional experiments further suggest that mimicry benefits the cuckoos by reducing the intensity of mobbing they suffer near host nests, at least in some host populations, potentially increasing their access to the hosts' nests. We observed two species of birds—one very rarely parasitized and the other never parasitized by cuckoos—responding to a cuckoo as they would a bird of prey. On the island of Öland, Sweden, we observed two instances of a gray phase cuckoo being mobbed by a group of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) during the non-breeding season. These mobbing observations cannot be explained as a consequence of selection in the context of brood parasitism, because swallows are extremely rare cuckoo hosts and should not show co-evolutionary responses to parasitism. Instead, the swallows appear to have mistaken the cuckoos for Eurasian Sparrowhawks and responded as they would to true hawks. Similar observations were made in California, where a vagrant Common Cuckoo repeatedly elicited alarm calls from Bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus), a species completely allopatric with cuckoos and thus with no evolutionary history of brood parasitism. Because Eurasian Sparrowhawks visually resemble related North American bird-eating Accipiter hawks in plumage and flight characteristics, the cuckoo likely triggered a general Accipiter response in the Bushtits. Together, these observations provide additional evidence that cuckoos successfully mimic Eurasian Sparrowhawks and that such mimicry comes not only with benefits to the cuckoos, but costs as well. Received 2 October 2012. Accepted 2 March 2013.


Sigmoid transposition for reconstruction of the vagina in congenital aplasia was first carried out at the 2nd Surgical University Clinic in Vienna in 1904 by P. Albrecht. This operation was not frequently used because of possible complications thought to be inherent in the method. In 1954 the author redesigned some essential parts of this procedure with suggestions for avoiding the complications mentioned above. Of 23 patients operated on with this modified technique, in 21 the immediate result was perfect. Necrosis developed in two cases without general symptoms.


Background: The doubt in re-allocating some of current resources from holding communication skills workshops to others, we conducted this study to answer: What and how were the communication skills of residents in medical faculty? Were any changes needed to be done in educational system? Objectives: The aim of this study was to find out that, what and how were the communication skills of residents in medical faculty? Were any changes needed to be done in educational system? Materials and Methods: We designed one OSCE station with a standard patient to evaluate 53 Internal medicine residents' communication skills in 2010. We had videotaping with an undercover cam inside a monken to record the residents' interview with SP, by written permission of exam directors. We carefully and repeatedly reviewed the videotapes, analyzed the researcher made validated questionnaires' data using SPSS.16.We also gave detailed feed back to the residents. Results: The mean of Residents' total score with a normal distribution was 23.62 ± 2.46. Independent- samples T-test [sig. (2-tailed: 0.441)] and Test statistics of Kruskal Wallis test (sig: 0.314) indicated none- significant difference in residents' total score in different gender and ages. Post Hoc comparisons by using the method of Tukey HSD in One- Way ANOVA indicated that educational impacts of communication skills workshops are not lasting for up to one year. Conclusions: This study makes suggestions to address and overcome the still existing problem of residents' poor communication skills.


The review article presents an analysis of the properties of epoxy and thermosetting resin composites containing eugenol derivatives. Moreover, eugenol properties were characterized using thermogravimeters (TGA) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The aim of this work was to determine the possibility of using eugenol derivatives in polymer composites based on thermoset resins, which can be used as eco-friendly high-performance materials. Eugenol has been successfully used in the production of epoxy composites as a component of coupling agents, epoxy monomers, flame retardants, curing agents, and modifiers. In addition, it reduced the negative impact of thermoset composites on the environment and, in some cases, enabled their biodegradation. Eugenol-based silane coupling agent improved the properties of natural filler epoxy composites. Moreover, eugenol flame retardant had a positive effect on the fire resistance of the epoxy resin. In turn, eugenol glycidyl ether (GE) was used as a diluent of epoxy ester resins during the vacuum infusion process of epoxy composites with the glass fiber. Eugenol-based epoxy resin was used to make composites with carbon fiber with enhanced thermomechanical properties. Likewise, resins such as bismaleimide resin, phthalonitrile resin, and palm oil-based resin have been used for the production of composites with eugenol derivatives.


The tonic action of water Guarana extract, (Paullinia cupana MART.), was investigated in normal, exercised, and epinephrine-induced glycogenolytic mice. A water extract of Guarana (GW) (500 mg/kg) increased the blood glucose level (p < 0.001) and decreased the liver glycogen contents of mice 60 min after oral maltose administration (p < 0.05). GW also significantly suppressed exercise-induced hypoglycemia (60 min: p < 0.05). However, GW did not affect the blood glucose in epinephrine-induced glycogenolytic and exercise mice. These findings indicate that the suppressive mechanism of hypoglycemia might be due to the promotion of glycogen resolution.


Objective This study explores geographic, system, and organizational constructs that predict medical care teams' willingness to administer fluoride varnish and conduct oral health risk assessments. Methods A cross-sectional survey of voluntary health professionals attending trainings on interprofessional oral health practice was completed at ten meetings across the United States from April through September, 2016. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine unknown correlates of oral health prevention and intervention at geographic, organizational, and system levels relating to the impact of referral mechanisms and systems as well as health information technology on fluoride varnish administration and risk-based oral evaluations. Results A convenience cohort (n = 560) from 44 states was examined. Most (68.7%, n = 385) agreed with the dependent variable "medical providers at our site, or part of our network, are administering fluoride varnish and identifying oral health risk factors in the majority of patients seen." In bivariate analysis, organization type (P = 0.0067), having successful referral systems (P < 0.0001), and electronic health record (EHR) utility (P < 0.0001) were associated with the dependent variable. No geographic indicators were significant. All referral system indicators were significant in multivariate analysis. Dependable referrals (P < 0.0001), EHR utility (P = 0.0054), and type of referral (P = 0.0009) were predictors of the dependent variable. The odds of those reporting a dependable referral system and dependent variable agreement were 4.5 times greater than for those who lacked dependable referral systems (odds ratio 4.54, confidence interval 2.79–7.39). The odds of those who had dependable EHRs and dependent variable agreement were 2.4 times greater than for those who lacked useful EHRs (odds ratio 2.4, confidence interval 1.29–4.37). Conclusion The dependability of medical-to-dental referral systems and processes impacts the administration of fluoride varnish and identification of oral health risk factors by motivated primary care teams. Additionally, the ease of EHR use and the availability of electronic information exchange were found to impact primary care oral health practice. Significance statement Caries activity is one of the most common diseases of childhood, and prevention/intervention by primary care teams can positively impact patient results. This analysis examined unknown correlates of oral health prevention and intervention at geographic, organizational, and system levels relating to the impact of referral mechanisms and systems as well as health information technology on fluoride varnish administration and risk-based oral evaluations.


This study examined parents' and children's descriptions of older and younger siblings' conflict goals in the late preschool and middle childhood years, and how these attributions were related to sibling relationship quality. Parents and 4- to 10-year-old children from 62 families were interviewed separately about siblings' motivations in two disputes and completed assessments of sibling relationship quality. Goal attributions varied across respondents in ways reflecting their family roles and positioning within disputes. Findings also revealed variations in the goals ascribed to older and younger siblings in line with hierarchical features of sibling relationships, such as younger siblings' conciliation/connectedness motives and older siblings' desires for autonomy/respect. Goal attributions were related to differences between families in the affective tenor of sibling relationships. Results demonstrate how power dynamics in sibling relationships play out in their everyday disputes, and underscore the importance of considering different family members' unique perspectives on children's sibling conflict experiences.


Background: Previous clinical trials have reported that cyclophosphamide can be used for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, its efficacy is still unclear. In this systematic review study, we aim to evaluate its efficacy and safety for ALL. Methods: The following 9 databases will be searched from their inception to the present: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED), and four Chinese databases. The randomized controlled trials or case control studies of cyclophosphamide that assess the clinical efficacy and safety in patients with ALL are included. The methodological quality of all eligible included studies will be assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The primary outcome measurement will be all-cause mortality at the period of treatment and follow-up. The secondary outcome measurements will include the health-related quality of life (HRQL), postinduction complete remission (CR) rate, event-free survival (EFS), relapse rate, and adverse events. Two authors will independently select eligible studies, exact data, and assess the methodological quality of included studies. RevMan 5.3 software will be used to synthesize the data. Reporting bias will be evaluated by the funnel plots, Begg, and Egger tests. Results: This systematic review will evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of cyclophosphamide for ALL. Dissemination and ethics: The findings of this review will summarize the present evidence of cyclophosphamide for ALL, and may provide guidance for clinical practice of cyclophosphamide for ALL. Its results will be published through peer-reviewed journals. This study does not need ethic approval, because it will not involve the individual data. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42018119333.


The author of this book has for seventeen years been minister of the Christian 'l'emple, Baltimore, and is widely known as an earnest and effective worker. In this book he attempts "to make a practical classification of the material in the Gospe1l and the Acts," and accompanies this classification with various geographical, historical and theological notes and comments. 'rhe work makes no pretence at learning or originality, but is l"imple, almost commonplace and superficial in character. Yet from this very fact it may be helpful to a greater number of persons than if it were more formal, fresh and thorough. . The author begins his book with a quotation from a private letter of the late President Grover Cleveland, which deserves to be widely read and marked. He wrote: "I very much hope that in sending out this book you will do something to invite more attention among the masses of our people to the study of the New Testament and the Bible as a whole. It seems to me that in these days there is an unhappy falling off in our appreciation of this study. I do not believe as a people that we can afford to allow our interest in and veneration for the Bible to abate. I look upon it as the source from which those who study it in spirit and truth will derive strength of character, a realization oj the duty of citizenship, and a true apprehension of the power and wisdom and mercy of God."


Euphrase Kezilahabi, a Tanzanian poet, novelist and scholar, is an ontological and African interpreter of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. He transfers and rewrites Western philosophy in an African way, transforming philosophical concepts into metaphors or oniric images. These elements emerge in his PhD thesis where he explicitly speaks about the importance of the concepts of Being in Heidegger and the concept of Time in Nietzsche. African Being for Kezilahabi is being a prisoner because of pride of ethnicity, pride of Africanness and ethnic morality. That imprisons African Being and makes African leaders profit from the manipulation of these elements. According to Kezilahabi, these elements tend to make Africans think in a Fascist way. One of the key features of Kezilahabi's philosophy is liberation. And so it is a philosophy of freedom, with very different meanings, which is the subject of this article. Kezilahabi's philosophy is concerned with liberation. He meditates on the concept of time, taking as his cue the ancient question of "Western" philosophy as to whether time is circular or linear. He uses African elements to resolve this question, and the result is not only African but universal. His philosophy is not a summary of the influences from Western philosophy, but an original deep philosophy by one of the greatest African writers. This article will show his rewriting of these concepts and their political, social and philosophical valence.


Cognitive theory of metaphor has changed our understanding of metaphor as a figurative device to a matter of thought. It holds that metaphors are cognitively as well as culturally motivated. Despite having similar images in some languages, the culture-specific aspect of animal metaphors inspired the researchers to explore this area of metaphoric system in a local Kurdish variety to investigate how animal metaphors are reflected in spoken discourse. To achieve this objective, the authors collected and analyzed animal expressions adopted for praise and degradation of physical and behavioral characteristics in Khezeli dialect in Ilam, Iran. To create a representative corpus, the authors scrutinized spoken language and oral poetry of the dialect. The collected data indicate that more wild than domestic and more degrading than praising animal expressions are used for man's physical and behavioral characteristics. It is also confirmed that aspects of appearance, size, physical characteristics as well as body parts of animals are transferred to humans. Further, users' attitudes toward animals reflected themselves in their metaphors. Users were also found to have three categories of positive, positive/negative, and negative connotations for animal names. Despite the existence of similarities in the underlying patterns of metaphoric use in different languages, the research came to the conclusion that the types of animals used, their connotations and interpretations may be worlds apart and taking the meaning of one for another may lead to misunderstanding.


The Parallel-Horus framework, developed at the University of Amsterdam, is a unique software architecture that allows non-expert parallel programmers to develop fully sequential multimedia applications for efficient execution on homogeneous Beowulf-type commodity clusters. Previously obtained results for realistic, but relatively small-sized applications have shown the feasibility of the Parallel-Horus approach, with parallel performance consistently being found to be optimal with respect to the abstraction level of message passing programs. In this paper we discuss the most serious challenge Parallel-Horus has had to deal with so far: the processing of over 184 hours of video included in the 2004 NIST TRECVID evaluation, i.e. the de facto international standard benchmark for content-based video retrieval. Our results and experiences confirm that Parallel-Horus is a very powerful support-tool for state-of-the-art research and applications in multimedia processing.


Anomaly detection in wireless multihop networks is notoriously difficult: the wireless channel causes random errors in transmission and node mobility leads to constantly changing node neighborhoods. The Neighbor Variation Rate (NVR) introduced in this paper is a metric that quantitatively describes how the topology of the neighborhood of a node in a wireless multihop network evolves over time. We analyze the expressiveness of this metric under different speeds of nodes and measuring intervals and we employ it to detect anomalies in the network caused by malicious node activity. We validate our detection model and investigate its parameterization by means of simulation. We build a proof-of-concept and deploy it in a real-world IEEE 802.11s wireless mesh network composed of several static nodes and some mobile nodes. In real-world experiments, we mount attacks against the mesh network and analyze the expressiveness of NVR to characterize these attacks. In addition, we analyze the behavior of NVR when applied to an external dataset obtained from measurements of a real-world dynamic AODV-based mobile ad hoc network. Our results show that our metric is lightweight yet effective for anomaly detection in both stationary and mobile wireless multihop networks.


Background: Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography has been effective in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the biliopancreatic system. Objective: To determine the grade of technical difficulties and the success of cholangiopancreatography in a group of patients. Methods: prospective, descriptive, observational study that included all the patients who were tested through this procedure from January to December 2009 in the hospital "Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia Lima" from Cienfuegos. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied so the sample was composed by 34 patients. In order to define the technical difficulty of this test Madhotra's difficulty modified test was used. Results: 67,6 % of the patients were males. Age comprised the interval from 31 to 90 years old patients with a mean age of 60.8±16 years. Cholestatic icterus was the predominant medical indication in (55,9 %), followed by choledocholitiasis (26,5 %). Echogram showed normal results in 41,2 % of the patients. The most frequent diagnosis of this test was postcholecystectomy with dilated biliary tract (17,6 %) followed by choledocho and cholelithiasis (14,7 % each one). The grade of technical difficulty was 1 in 91,2 %, grade 2 in 8,8 %. A complete technical success was obtained in 55,9 %, partial success was obtained in 32,3 % and the attempt failed in 11,8 % of the patients. Conclusion: the grade of technical difficulty can influence upon the success of Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography. Its usefulness has been demonstrated with a minimum amount of complications for the patient.


The concept of joined-wing aircraft with nonplanar wings as conceived and patented by Wolkovitch is attractive due to various advantages such as light weight, high stiffness, low induced drag, high trimmed CLmax, reduced wetted area and parasite drag and good stability and control, which have been supported by independent analyses, design studies and wind tunnel tests. With such foreseen advantages, the present work is carried out to design joined-wing business-jet aircraft and study and investigate its advantages and benefits as compared to the current available conventional business jet of similar size, passenger and payload capacity. In particular, the work searches for a conceptual design of joined-wing configured business-jet aircraft that possesses more superior characteristics and better aerodynamic performance in terms of increased lift and reduced drag, and lighter than the conventional business jet of similar size. Another significant objective of this work is to prove that the added rigidity possessed by the joined wing configuration can contribute to weight reduction.


Fruits of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaernt are the main source of taxifolin derived flavonolignans. Together, these molecules constitute a mixture called silymarin with many useful applications for cosmetic and pharmaceutic industries. Here, a validated method for the separation of the silymarin constituents has been developed to ensure precision and accuracy in their quantification. Each compound was separated with a high reproducibility. Precision and repeatability of the quantification method were validated according to the AOAC recommendations. The method was then applied to study the natural variability of wild accessions of S. marianum. Analysis of the variation in the fruits composition of these 12 accessions from Pakistan evidenced a huge natural diversity. Correlation analysis suggested a synergistic action of the different flavonolignans to reach the maximal antioxidant activity, as determined by cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Principal component analysis (PCA) separated the 12 accessions into three distinct groups that were differing from their silymarin contents, whereas hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) evidenced strong variations in their silymarin composition, leading to the identification of new silybin-rich chemotypes. These results proved that the present method allows for an efficient separation and quantification of the main flavonolignans with potent antioxidant activities.


Federal land grazing fees have been set by a formula that uses a base rate developed from a 1966 study comparing total grazing costs on private and public lands. A similar market comparison was recently conducted in Idaho, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Total grazing costs were adhered through personal interviews from 258 ranchers using 245 public grazing permits and 149 private leases. Public land grazing permit values were also estimated in each state. This study demonstrated that many public land ranchers have been willing to pay more for grazing than the apparent value implied from the private forage market. With the 1992 grazing fee of $1.92/animal unit month (AUM), 34% of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cattle producers, 62% of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) cattle producers, 60% of BLM sheep producers and 92% of USFS sheep producers paid more for grazing public lands than did those grazing privately leased lands. Estimated forage values averaged $3.63/AUM for cattle grazing BLM land, and were negative for cattle using USFS lands and for sheep using both BLM and USFS allotments. Using a 3.35% interest rate to amortize permit value, the annual value of public land forage was estimated to be from $3 to $5/AUM. Doubts were cast about the standard assumptions that ranchers have profit maximization as their primary goal, that permit value measures only excess forage value, and that sufficient private leases are available for a valid comparison between private and public forage markets.


In 1841, Delaunay constructed the embedded surfaces of revolution with constant mean curvature (CMC); these unduloids have genus zero and are now known to be the only embedded CMC surfaces with two ends and finite genus. Here, we construct the complete family of embedded CMC surfaces with three ends and genus zero; they are classified using their asymptotic necksizes. We work in a class slightly more general than embedded surfaces, namely immersed surfaces which bound an immersed three-manifold, as introduced by Alexandrov.


With the advent of powerful computation technologies and efficient algorithms , simulators became an important tool in most engineering areas. The field of humanoid robotics is no exception; there have been numerous simulation tools developed over the last two decades to foster research and development activities. With this in mind, this chapter is written to introduce and discuss the current-day open source simulators that are actively used in the field. Using a developer-based feedback, we provide an outline regarding the specific features and capabilities of the open-source simulators, with a special emphasis on how they correspond to recent research trends in humanoid robotics. The discussion is centered around the contemporary requirements in humanoid simulation technologies with regards to future of the field.


The field relationships between folds and the genetically and/or geometrically associated mesoscopic structures of cleavage, joints and quartz veins in the Mathinna beds differ from the commonly accepted relationships presented in text books. Methods, which may be of importance in gold exploration, are given to predict localities of the maximum development of fold-related quartz veining in folded Mathinna beds which have been laterally buckled about steep axes.


Summary Researchers sometimes have a priori information on the relative importance of predictors that can be used to screen out covariates. An important question is whether any of the discarded covariates have predictive power when the most relevant predictors are included in the model. We consider testing whether any discarded covariate is significant conditional on some pre-chosen covariates. We propose a maximum-type test statistic and show that it has a nonstandard asymptotic distribution, giving rise to the conditional adaptive resampling test. To accommodate signals of unknown sparsity, we develop a hybrid test statistic, which is a weighted average of maximum- and sum-type statistics. We prove the consistency of the test procedure under general assumptions and illustrate how it can be used as a stopping rule in forward regression. We show, through simulation, that the proposed method provides adequate control of the familywise error rate with competitive power for both sparse and dense signals, even in high-dimensional cases, and we demonstrate its advantages in cases where the covariates are heavily correlated. We illustrate the application of our method by analysing an expression quantitative trait locus dataset.


The interaction of ZnCl(2) with 2-dipyridylketonoxime (=Hpko) and flufenamic acid (=Hfluf) in a basic methanolic solution leads to the formation of a hexanuclear 24-membered metallacoronate, [Zn(6)(OH)(2)(pko)(4)(fluf)(6)] (1), with a [Zn-O-C-O] repeat unit and a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug as the constructing ligand. Compound 1 retains its structure in a dimethyl sulfoxide solution, as shown by (1)H NMR spectroscopy and molar conductance.


Aim: The aim is to experimentally verify the methodology of self-regulation culture formation as an important element of professional training of future teachers of the humanities in the process of studying the author's specialized course referred to as "Fundamentals of Psychovaleology".
Materials and Methods: The research involved third-year students of pedagogical institutions of higher education aged 20 to 23 years in the number of 126 people (80 girls and 46 boys). The methods used included observation, questionnaires, psychodiagnostic methods for determining the level of anxiety, self-assessment of well-being, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results in terms of self-regulation culture formation according to theoretical, practical and professional criteria.
Results: Experimental verification of the effectiveness of the developed methodology shows qualitative positive changes in the students' emotional well-being, in significant reduction of their anxiety, as well as in increasing motivation for active exercise
Conclusions: The developed methodology of self-regulation culture formation in future teachers can become a significant basis for the further formation of individual health preservation competence of students i. e. future teachers, their orientation to active physical education as well as fitness and health recreation activities, and can also be included in the system of implementation of professional standards for the training of students in pedagogical specialties, especially in terms of the development of their health preservation competence


Abstract The aim of this study is to reveal relations between creativity in design and the cognitive developmental stages of designers within a Post-Piagetian approach. In this study design processes were deeply inspected with the aim of obtaining more comprehensive information about the effects of individual's cognitive status on the design processes, problemsolving and quality of idea generation . In this field, studies done so far have been conducted on test results as indicators of creativity. Withinthe present study, however, protocol analyses were also evaluated, in addition to test results, and thanks to this addition, it was possible to determine the qualitative and quantitative effects of cognitive developmental stages on creativity. A total of twenty-five students voluntarily participated in the research. To collect data, two different methods were employed. The Social Paradigm Belief Inventory (SPBI), was employed to determine students' cognitive stages and scores, and the Think-aloud protocol was used to elicit verbal reports of the thought sequences of the students. In order to analyse the verbal reports reflecting designers' cognitive activities, the method of Linkography was conducted and the general statistics of segments were measured. To assess the relations between creativity in design and the cognitive developmental stages of the designers, SPBI scores and the general statistical values obtained from the design sessions were correlated. Findings showed that there is a strong and significant correlation between the cognitive development levels and creativity, in favour of dialectical thinking.


Accepted 6 April, 2010 Pavement management is in a broader sense, a working program that involves all the procedures of planning, programming, designing, building, maintaining, and rehabilitation. Pavement management concept is first introduced in the 1960's to ensure the best use of existing resources. Today many corporations in USA use managements systems either developed by themselves or modified to fit their climate, traffic, land, equipment, corporate structure and budget constraints. A pavement management system (PMS) arranges tools and methods to be used for determining the best maintenance schedule for the decision makers in a given period. A good pavement management is an integrated system which makes it necessary to think in a systematic and organized way, besides, it ensures that, necessary work is performed on daily basis. In this study, infrastructure distress data which is compatible with the distress identification manual published by American Society for Testing and Materials in 1999 is collected from 20 sections selected from the arterial road network in Besiktas district of Istanbul. The reasons for formation of distress types in the determined network are studied under the headings like axle load, climate and other (material characteristics), and distress evaluations throughout the whole network and each section are carried out.


Alexander disease (AxD) is an intractable neurodegenerative disorder caused by GFAP mutations. It is a primary astrocyte disease with a pathological hallmark of Rosenthal fibres within astrocytes. AxD astrocytes show several abnormal phenotypes. Our previous study showed that AxD astrocytes in model mice exhibit aberrant Ca2+ signals that induce AxD aetiology. Here, we show that microglia have unique phenotypes with morphological and functional alterations, which are related to the pathogenesis of AxD. Immunohistochemical studies of 60TM mice (AxD model) showed that AxD microglia exhibited highly ramified morphology. Functional changes in microglia were assessed by Ca2+ imaging using hippocampal brain slices from Iba1-GCaMP6-60TM mice and two-photon microscopy. We found that AxD microglia showed aberrant Ca2+ signals, with high frequency Ca2+ signals in both the processes and cell bodies. These microglial Ca2+ signals were inhibited by pharmacological blockade or genetic knockdown of P2Y12 receptors but not by tetrodotoxin, indicating that these signals are independent of neuronal activity but dependent on extracellular ATP from non-neuronal cells. Our single-cell RNA sequencing data showed that the expression level of Entpd2, an astrocyte-specific gene encoding the ATP-degrading enzyme NTPDase2, was lower in AxD astrocytes than in wild-type astrocytes. In situ ATP imaging using the adeno-associated virus vector GfaABC1D ATP1.0 showed that exogenously applied ATP was present longer in 60TM mice than in wild-type mice. Thus, the increased ATP level caused by the decrease in its metabolizing enzyme in astrocytes could be responsible for the enhancement of microglial Ca2+ signals. To determine whether these P2Y12 receptor-mediated Ca2+ signals in AxD microglia play a significant role in the pathological mechanism, a P2Y12 receptor antagonist, clopidogrel, was administered. Clopidogrel significantly exacerbated pathological markers in AxD model mice and attenuated the morphological features of microglia, suggesting that microglia play a protective role against AxD pathology via P2Y12 receptors. Taken together, we demonstrated that microglia sense AxD astrocyte dysfunction via P2Y12 receptors as an increase in extracellular ATP and alter their morphology and Ca2+ signalling, thereby protecting against AxD pathology. Although AxD is a primary astrocyte disease, our study may facilitate understanding of the role of microglia as a disease modifier, which may contribute to the clinical diversity of AxD.


The present text is a result of a participant observation in a Gira de Exu. This text aims to describe this participation, presenting liturgical, theological, social visible elements. While observer, the Gira de Exu was the first empirical contact with an Afro-descending religious tradition. For that reason, after the participation, a conversation with the Pai de Santo was held, in order to identify historical, theological and identitary elements by which the beneficent society - through the Pai de Santo - understands itself. The analysis was delimited in three axes: 1) the familiar structure around the Pai de Santo; 2) the hierarchy presented in the ritual and 3) the ambiguity of the entities. Thus, the present text is composed by descriptions, reflections and analyses from interactions: by observing the celebration and by hearing the Pai de Santo.


Interannual variations of precipitation in several regions around the globe are known to be influenced by sea surface temperatures. We describe a procedure that elicits the same frequencies of variations in the sea surface temperatures as in precipitation. The modes of variation in the two fields are phase locked, allowing us to identify regions in the oceans that vary in unison with changes in precipitation on different time scales. The method is illustrated by application to the northeast section of Brazil, the Nordeste, where flood and drought occur frequently.


The XML is a perfect tool for scientific data management and analyses, because of its potential as a language for representation of structured graphical information stored in object-relational databases. The paper discusses the development process of the architectural database, defined by the XML Schema definitions (RuralXML). The database is being created in order to describe Polish traditional rural architecture for scientific investigations of architectural, rural and spatial planning fields.


Comparative 50% protective dose (PD50) assays were performed using a plaque-purified preparation of Marek's disease virus (MDV) strain CVI-988 at the 65th chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) passage level (MDV CVI-988 CEF65 clone C) and three commercial MD vaccines: herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) FC126, MDV CVI-988 CEF35, and a bivalent vaccine composed of HVT FC126 and MDV SB-1. In addition, comparative PD50 assays were performed in groups of chickens with maternal antibody to each of the three vaccines. Three representatives of the newly emerged biovariant very virulent (vv) MDV strains-RB/1B, Tun, and Md5-were employed as challenge virus. The experiments made feasible the differentiation between virulent MDV and vvMDV strains, within serotype 1. Vaccination with CVI-988 clone C vaccine resulted in PD50 estimates of about 5 plaque-forming units (PFUs) against challenge infection with each of the three vvMDV strains. The PD50 estimate of CVI-988 clone C vaccine was 12-fold below the PD50 of HVT FC126. The protective synergism of bivalent vaccine, composed of HVT and SB-1, was confirmed by groups given the lowest vaccine doses. The bivalent vaccine, however, resulted in incomplete protection in groups given the highest vaccine doses. Homologous maternal antibodies to serotype 1 caused a fivefold increase in the PD50 estimate of CVI-988 clone C. Heterologous maternal antibodies against HVT did not interfere with efficacy of CVI-988 clone C vaccination. However, the combination of maternal antibodies against both HVT and SB-1 (serotypes 2 and 3) showed a strong adverse effect on CVI-988 clone C vaccine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


A power load management system based on ARM-7 microcontroller and GPRS is presented in this paper. The proposed system consists of electronic KWH meter, intelligent management terminal (IMT) and management centre. The intelligent terminal is sued to acquire information from KWH meter, control the energy-consuming device and communicate with management centre via GPRS network. How to implement the IMT by using ARM-7 microcontroller and GPRS telecommunication module is discussed in detail. Also the software design of the terminal with high performance embedded real-time operating system muC/OS-II is presented in this paper.


This article builds on the contribution George Barton made on the life of Sir William Martin, New Zealand's first Chief Justice, in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. That entry indicates the keen interest George Barton had in the culture of the law including the history of the legal profession. This article seeks to show that New Zealand's first Chief Justice was a figure of major significance in New Zealand's early history, not only because of the way he pioneered the establishment of the superior courts in New Zealand and sought to adapt English procedures to the needs of the new colony, but more significantly in the way he used his legal and linguistic skills to encourage Māori towards a society based on the rule of law, and used those skills to provide New Zealand's early government with an understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi. His forceful and eloquent arguments on the rights confirmed to Māori under the Treaty, although unpopular and resented by many at the time, have become a powerful resource for Treaty historians today, and deserve greater attention by New Zealand's professional historians.


In an effort to understand why some groups of insects, especially beetles, are much more diverse than others, analyses were carried out on the role of morphological, life‐history, and ecological factors on the species richness of various orders, as quantified by the number of extant species they each contain. The influence of body size, the form of the wings and thorax, the mode of development, parasitism, the ability to accumulate resources for egg laying at both juvenile and adult stages (ovigenic flexibility), diet range, and habitat choice were examined using comparative methods that control for phylogeny. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that about 10% of the variance in insect species richness occurred within subclasses, 34% within superorders, and 54% within or below ordinal level. The evolution of wings and mode of development were key differences between the subclasses, and two superorders, each containing a single species‐rich order and several species‐poor ones, were responsible for most of the variation at superordinal level. After controlling for phylogeny, and on the basis of minimal adequate statistical models, the rate of cladogenesis declined with time, and was higher in orders with a broad range of larval diets. The number of species in each order was most closely correlated with larval diet breadth, the proportion of species able to fly, physical protection of the hindwings by the forewings at rest, the proportion of species that are parasitic, and the age of the order. Evidence from the literature on adult diet and ovigeny index, supported by measurements of the width of the thoracico‐abdominal junction, indicates that the food processing ability of adult Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera is subject to morphological constraints limiting the contribution that the adult diet makes to the accumulation of the protein reserves needed for egg formation. Adult Coleoptera are free of such constraints, and thus exhibit the broadest range of both larval and adult diets and inhabit the widest range of habitats. Beetles can thus accumulate resources for egg production as larvae, adults, or both, as a consequence of their unique adult morphology. The key adult features involved are (1) the protective elytra and thickened exoskeleton, (2) the flexible jointing of the prothorax with the pterothorax, (3) the wide, rigid post‐thoracic junction with the abdomen allowing enlargement of the gut for the storage, passage, and efficient digestion of a wide range of particulate foods, and (4) the biting mouthparts with which to process them.


In Reply: I thank Drs. Dehaene and Roelens for their interest in my editorial. In suggesting that more widespread adoption of The International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) criteria should be undertaken, the authors state that "none of the screening criteria [for gestational diabetes mellitus] have randomized controlled proven benefit on short-term outcomes." This is simply untrue; two large-scale published randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which employed widely used diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), did show a reduction in macrosomia as well as preeclampsia with treatment. Their letter also suggests that a long-term treatment benefit might be apparent with the adoption of less-stringent criteria for the diagnosis of GDM. Unfortunately, follow-up studies from the two RCTs have failed to demonstrate any reduction in childhood obesity with treatment of GDM; thus, it is unlikely that treatment at lower levels of glycemia (IADPSG criteria) would confer such a benefit. I certainly agree that an RCT in which women undergo both diagnostic tests and the group meeting only the IADPSG criteria and not traditional criteria are randomized will provide the answer as to whether employing the IADPSG criteria is of value. It took more than 40 years for us to finally verify a benefit to identifying and treating GDM, and, yes, it make take years to obtain results from such a trial, but, unlike the authors, I suggest some patience and prudence before instituting treatment without proven benefit. This of course remains a separate issue from nutritional intervention in obese pregnant women, which also requires further study.


AIMS To compare the use of health care resources and associated costs between infants with chronic lung disease (CLD) who had or had not an admission with a proven respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. METHODS Review of community care, outpatient attendances, and readmissions in the first two years after birth. Patients: 235 infants (median gestational age 27 weeks) evaluated in four groups: 45 infants with a proven RSV admission (RSV proven); 24 with a probable bronchiolitis admission; 60 with other respiratory admissions; and 106 with non-respiratory or no admissions. RESULTS The RSV proven compared to the other groups required more frequent and longer admissions to general paediatric wards and intensive care units, more outpatient attendances and GP consultations for respiratory related disorders, and had a higher total cost of care. CONCLUSION RSV hospitalisation in patients with CLD is associated with increased health service utilisation and costs in the first two years after birth. Key message Prematurely born CLD infants who are hospitalised with RSV infection have an increased health service utilisation in the first two years after birth


Groundwater for drinking water production may contain dissolved methane (CH4) at variable concentrations. Most of this important greenhouse gas is often vented to the atmosphere during primary aeration and gas stripping processes at drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). However, limited information exists regarding emission and fate of methane at many groundwater-fed DWTPs. This study estimates emission of methane from 1,004 DWTPs in Denmark and includes data from 3,068 groundwater wells. The fate of methane and occurrence of methane oxidizing bacteria in DWTPs was examined, including the potential role in ammonia removal. Methane emission from Danish DWTPs was estimated to be 1.38–2.95 × 10 4 Tg CH4/y which corresponds to 0.05–0.11% of the national anthropogenic methane emission. Trace levels of methane remained in the drinking water after primary aeration and entered the sand filters as a potential microbial substrate. Methanotrophic bacteria and active methane oxidation was always detected in the sand filters at groundwater-fed DWTPs. Methanotrophic consortia isolated from DWTP sandfilters were inoculated into laboratory-scale sand filters and the activity confirmed that methanotrophic consortia can play a role in the removal of ammonia via assimilation and co-oxidation. This suggests a potential for facilitating the removal of inorganic constituents from drinking water using methane as a co-substrate. doi: 10.2166/ws.2020.009 ://iwaponline.com/ws/article-pdf/20/3/819/765118/ws020030819.pdf Edmundas Maksimavičius Peter Roslev (corresponding author) Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7H, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark E-mail: email@example.com


When dogs or cats get seizures, epileptic seizures and epilepsy are usually thought of. However, it is important to take into account the existence of seizures that are similar to epileptic seizures but do not belong to epileptic seizures (non-epileptic seizures). Nonepileptic seizures occur suddenly, are short-term, disappear as quickly as they occur, recur and have no epileptic etiology and can be of non-neurological and neurological origin. Unlike non-epileptic seizures, epileptic seizures have a specific neural origin and represent excessive, synchronous, usually self-limiting epileptic activity of brain neurons. Epileptic seizures should be distinguished from reactive seizures because reactive seizures occur as a natural response of a healthy brain to transient disorders (metabolic or toxic in nature) and they disappear after the cause ceases to act. Absolute confirmation that it is an epileptic seizure can be difficult because it requires both visualization of the seizure and registration of changes on the EEG. In practice, the suspicion that epileptic seizures occurs is based on information from the medical history and videos. In making a differential diagnosis when an seizure occurs, it is necessary to take into account the age of infected animals, the presence of clinical signs other than the seizure, the presence or absence of disease progression, video recording, blood counts and blood biochemical parameters results, CST test results, and X-ray, MRI or CT findings. The first step in a diagnosis is to determine whether the lesion that leads to the onset of the seizure is localized extracranially or intracranially. If the lesion is localized extracranially, it should be determined whether the problem originates outside the body (poisoning with xylitol, organophosphates, chocolate) or from the body (hypothyroidism, hypocalcemia, kidney disease, etc.). If the process is localized intracranially, it should be determined whether the process is progressive (tumor, inflammation, hydrocephalus, etc.) or not.


The present article contains a reproduction and a full translation of hieroglyphic inscriptions on 4 stelae from the lost tomb of general Kasa at Saqqara (XIX Dyn.). The publication of inscriptions on the stelae includes a short description of images and sacred symbols carved on them. The spells inscribed on these stelae are mainly the extracts from Chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead. The unique peculiarity of stelae is the shallow niches carved in the form of objects intended for the magical protection of the dead in his tomb: a mummyform figurine, a torch, a statuette of a jackal Anubis and a djed-pillar. The author touches also a question of the stelae original location inside the tomb itself. As the present location of Kasa' tomb is unknown the layout of stelae in the tomb's decoration program remains hypothetical. The comparison with private funeral complexes of the New Kingdom in Thebes and Memphis let us to state that the stelae of Kasa are an ensemble which has not known parallels.


With surgical advances seeing hospitals and other healthcare facilities now undertaking an ever wide range of procedures, increasing emphasis is now being placed on the quality of the lighting installed in operating theatres, where 'older' technologies like halogen and xenon gas discharge are increasingly being superseded by LED. HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie considers some of the key criteria for healthcare estates/engineering and clinical personnel considering purchasing operating lights, and discovers some of the innovations now on offer from leading suppliers.


Background: Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a sensitive biomarker that is valuable in the management of childhood heart failure. Studies have reported racial differences in the level of BNP, especially in the adult population. The level of BNP in healthy Nigerian newborn babies is unknown. Hence, we determined the level of BNP in healthy term appropriate for gestational age (AGA) newborn babies. Methods: This was a cross sectional study,85 healthy term AGA newborn babies aged 24 to 72 hours. The babies had relevant demographic parameters documented in a proforma and BNP assay analysed using ELISA method. Results: The median IQR serum BNP level was 341.43 (313.39 to 425.45) pg/ml. The median level in females, was higher than males, {393.86 (296.97- 460.62) pg/ml vs328.05 (313.61-389.39) pg/ml, p >0.05}.There was no significant relationship between serum BNP and birth weight, chronological age, gestational age, or mode of delivery (p>0.05 in each case). Conclusion: The study demonstrated high BNP levels in healthy term Nigerian newborns. There was no relationship between BNP, the chronological age, birth weight, gender, gestational age or mode of delivery in babies between 24 to 72 hours of life.


This study presents the bioguided chemical investigation of the 80% aqueous methanol extract of Geum urbanum aerial parts. Liquid–liquid partitioning of this extract in solvents of increasing polarity combined with biological screening showed that the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) soluble fraction was the most active part of the extract. This fraction was chemically profiled by a 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based dereplication method, resulting in the identification of 14 compounds. The dereplication process was followed by the purification of unknown and minor compounds of the EtOAc fraction. A new glycosylated phenol, namely, 3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)propyl-α-l-rhamnopyranoside, together with 6 known compounds were isolated. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods including NMR and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The antioxidant activity of fractions and isolated compounds were evaluated by 2,2,1-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and hydroxyl radical scavenging, and by cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity assays. In parallel, their enzyme inhibitory property against human neutrophil elastase was assessed. Four subfractions, essentially containing polyphenols and triterpenes, exhibited a significant elastase inhibitory activity and an ellagitannin showed a very high radical scavenging activity.


Multicast is a fundamental issue in distributed computing and networking, especially for applications such as audio and video transmission. The minimal cost route selection problem for multicasting is an NP-complete problem even for regular network topologies such as meshes and hypercubes. We therefore present a simple heuristic algorithm for multicast route selection in arbitrarily-connected point-to-point communication networks. Several other heuristics have been presented for finding the minimal multicast route, but most of them are global in the sense that the source uses global cost information to construct a multicast tree. Our algorithm does not require the use of global cost information; it uses cost information only from neighboring nodes as it proceeds which makes it more practical from an implementation paint of view. The performance of the algorithm is analyzed through empirical comparisons and is shown to perform as well against algorithms which use global information.


We describe the stimulated emission and the field emission characteristics of ZnO nano-rod crystals synthesized by laser ablation in a background gas. A various type of nanostructured ZnO crystals were successfully synthesized on sapphire substrates, and ZnO crystals were taken out of the substrate by a laser brow-off technique and sonification. ZnO crystals taken out of the substrate showed a lower stimulated emission threshold than those as grown on the substrate under optical excitation, indicating a high quality of the crystalinity.


Even though there are laws and policies promulgated by the Malaysian government to govern housing industry, abandoned housing project is still one of the housing malaises in Peninsular Malaysia. If it is not feasible to rehabilitate the abandoned housing projects, they will be stalled forever to the detriment of the purchasers. Virtually, there is no universal way to resolve this problem due to the fact that issues faced by the stakeholders are different in almost every abandoned housing project. Thus, different methods are absolutely necessary to tackle the problems especially to rehabilitate those projects. To this point, laws and practices in New South Wales, Australia may deserve consideration.


Background
 CD47 is an immune checkpoint that binds signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα) and delivers a "do not eat" signal to suppress macrophage phagocytosis. Tumor cells, including T-cell lymphomas, frequently overexpress CD47 to escape immune surveillance. TTI-621 (SIRPαFc) is a fusion protein consisting of the CD47 binding domain of human SIRPα linked to the Fc region of human IgG1, designed to enhance phagocytosis and antitumor activity by blocking the CD47-SIRPα interaction between malignant cells and macrophages, and engaging activating Fcγ receptors. It is hypothesized that direct intralesional (IL) administration of TTI-621 may enhance both local and systemic antitumor activity.
 Methods
 A multicenter, open-label Phase 1 study is ongoing to characterize the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and antitumor activity of IL injections of TTI-621 (NCT02890368) in adult patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) percutaneously accessible solid tumors and mycosis fungoides (MF) who have progressed on standard anticancer therapy or for whom no other approved therapy exists. The current report analyzed a cohort of R/R MF/Sézary syndrome (SS) patients enrolled by the data cut-off date. Patients received induction therapy consisting of a single IL injection (1, 3 or 10 mg), three 10 mg injections over one week, or six 10 mg injections over two weeks distributed across one to three lesions. The protocol was recently amended to enable weekly post-induction IL maintenance dosing and to explore IL TTI-621 administration in combination with subcutaneous pegylated interferon-α2a. Responses were evaluated using the Composite Assessment of Index Lesion Severity (CAILS) score a week after induction therapy and at later time points in some patients. Serial biopsies were collected to assess the impact of TTI-621 on the tumor microenvironment.
 Results
 Twenty-two patients (16 M/6F, median age 65.5 years, range 32-85) were enrolled as of June 15, 2018. Primary diagnosis included MF (n=18), MF with transformation (n=3) and SS (n=1). Clinical stages included stage IA (n=2), IB (n=3), IIA (n=1), IIB (n=13), IVA (n=2) and IVB (n=1). Patients received a median of 3 prior systemic therapy regimens. Twenty-one patients were treated with TTI-621 monotherapy and one patient with TTI-621 in combination with pegylated interferon-α2a. Single and multiple IL injections of up to 10 mg TTI-621 have been well tolerated. The most frequently reported treatment-related adverse events (AEs) were chills (n=8), injection site pain (n=7) and fatigue (n=6). All treatment-related AEs were Grade 1 or 2 in severity. No treatment-related serious AEs or dose-limiting toxicity have been observed. CAILS scores for injected lesions obtained after the last injection were available for 17 patients: 15 (88%) had measurable improvement; 7 (41%) exhibited ≥50% decrease from baseline (Figure 1). Responses were rapid and in some patients occurred after a single injection of varying doses of TTI-621. CAILS scores continued to decrease in 5/5 (100%) monotherapy patients for which post-induction therapy assessments were conducted. Seven patients with reduced CAILS of varying degree (-14% to -67%) in the injected lesions had paired assessments available in adjacent, non-injected lesions. In 6/7 patients, a reduction in CAILS was observed in the non-injected lesions (-12% to -67%), indicating that TTI-621 could induce local-regional responses that were not confined to the site of injection. Additionally, one patient with transformed MF exhibited clear evidence of abscopal effects with rapid resolution of lesions on the abdomen, left flank/back and arms less than two weeks after receiving IL TTI-621 injections in lesions on the foot and leg. The only SS patient on study achieved a reduction in circulating Sézary cells after a single 3 mg local injection of TTI-621.
 Conclusions
 Preliminary data from this ongoing study indicate that IL TTI-621 administration is well-tolerated and has single agent activity in heavily pre-treated MF/SS patients across various disease stages. The rapid responses observed occurred in both injected and non-injected lesions indicating a local-regional effect with initial evidence of distant abscopal or systemic effects. Enrollment in this study is continuing to evaluate the impact of weekly maintenance dosing and further characterize the systemic effect and durability of responses.

 Querfeld: Kyowa: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Acelion: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bioniz: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Medivir: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Trillium Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Thompson:Trillium Therapeutics: Research Funding. Taylor:Trillium Therapeutics: Research Funding. Johnson:Trillium Therapeutics: Employment. Catalano:Trillium Therapeutics: Employment. Petrova:Trillium Therapeutics: Employment. Thompson:Trillium Therapeutics: Employment. Uger:Trillium Therapeutics: Employment. Shou:Trillium Therapeutics: Employment. Akilov:Kyowa Kirin: Consultancy; Pfizer: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; Trillium Therapeutics: Research Funding; Actelion Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy.


The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic and parallel rise in dangerous misinformation, denoted an `infodemic' by the CDC and WHO. Misinformation tied to the Covid-19 infodemic changes continuously;this can lead to performance degradation of fine-tuned models due to concept drift. Degredation can be mitigated if models generalize well-enough to capture some cyclical aspects of drifted data. In this paper, we explore generalizability of pre-trained and fine-tuned fake news detectors across 9 fake news datasets. We show that existing models often overfit on their training dataset and have poor performance on unseen data. However, on some subsets of unseen data that overlap with training data, models have higher accuracy. Based on this observation, we also present KMeans-Proxy, a fast and effective method based on K-Means clustering for quickly identifying these overlapping subsets of unseen data. KMeans-Proxy improves generalizability on unseen fake news datasets by 0.1-0.2 f1-points across datasets. We present both our generalizability experiments as well as KMeans-Proxy to further research in tackling the fake news problem.


AIMS
This review identified published studies evaluating interventions delivered outside educational settings, designed for young people with existing alcohol use problems, or who participate in behaviour that places them at high risk of alcohol-related harm, critiqued their methodology and identified opportunities for new interventions.

METHODS
A systematic search of the peer-reviewed literature interrogated 10 electronic databases using specific search strings, limited to 2005-09. No additional studies were found by a librarian searching other collections and clearing-houses, or by hand-searching review paper reference lists. The 1697 articles identified were reviewed against criteria from the Dictionary for the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies.

RESULTS
The methodological quality of existing studies is variable, and needs to be both more rigorous and more consistent. Particular problems include the lack of blinding outcome assessors, a reliance solely on self-report measures, highly variable consent and follow-up rates, infrequent use of intention-to-treat analyses and the absence of any economic or cost analyses. The range of interventions evaluated is currently limited to individually focused approaches, almost exclusively implemented in the United States.

CONCLUSIONS
There is a great need for more intervention trials for young people at high risk of experiencing alcohol-related harm that are both methodologically rigorous and have a broader community focus, to complement the psychological interventions that currently dominate the relevant literature. Such trials would improve outcomes for high-risk young people themselves and would improve the evidence base, both in their own right and by facilitating future meta-analyses.


Arthur Rosenfeld cited a study showing that the huge link between IAQ and productivity in an office building and the serious initiative to improve indoor air quality will have a tremendous return. This study attempts to analyze the working spaces with different variances. The chamber measurements in the laboratory constructed in Shu-Te University will be taken, and the numerical simulation using CFD techniques will also be applied. The results from both should be compared. The different inlet layout of HVAC system, especially the UFAD system, and the boundary conditions will be discussed. The magnitude of PMV-PPD values and temperature profiles will be obtained by BK 1221 Thermal-comfort data-logger and 12-channels thermal-couples data-logger respectively. The k-e turbulence model of RANS was adopted to in all cases of numerical simulations. It is aimed to analyze the details on the energy consumption of HVAC equipments and thermal properties under the hot-and-humid subtropical climate, included the summertime and wintertime.


In response to concern for negative effects of air pollution and destroyed environment, a serious worry is now increasing in China. Monitoring forest health is important for the protection of plants. Old and famous trees are a natural human heritage. So, to scientifically and accurately assess the health status of old trees for better protection is necessary for managing the forest, fifteen old Pinus tabuliformis trees in Taishan were chosen, and an analytic hierarchy process AHP-fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model was used. Fourteen indexes were studied in total including morphological index, growth index, physiological index, and deadwood states. Field investigations were took in the research along with laboratory experiments. Three of the fourteen indexes were studied in the laboratory including the content of chlorophyll, photosynthetic rate and cell membrane permeability. The rest were investigated in the outside. Results showed that all fifteen old P. tabuliformis trees had aging characteristics. Compared to healthy trees, two had low grade senescence with only slight decreases in indexes, higher chlorophyll content,photosynthetic rate and cell membrane permeability, luxuriant foliage, intact bark and several dead shoots. Six showed moderate senescence with an incomplete canopy, dead branches, and decreased photosynthetic capability. Four were unhealthy with sparse needles, a large number of dead main branches and limbs, and damaged cell membrane permeability. According to the vigor of old P. tabuliformis trees, a series of protection measures were put forward including pest control, setting the fences, spreading fertilizer, pruning. [Ch,1 fig. 13 tab. 30 ref.]


SGN-40, an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody, is a humanized IgG1 antibody that binds to CD40, mediates effector cell functions (ADCC/ADCP) and activates downstream signaling pathways. SGN-40 has shown activity in a phase I single agent multi-dose trial in non Hodgkin's lymphoma, with greatest activity in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Advani et al. 2008, ICML). Previous in vitro studies implicated down-regulation of the germinal center expressed protein Bcl-6, upregulation of p53 family member TAp63a, and FAS death receptor induction as potential mechanisms leading to lymphoma cell death (Lewis et al. 2007, AACR, ASH). In order to further define the apoptosis signaling mechanism, we assessed the ability of SGN-40 to inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis across a large panel of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cell lines. SGN-40 reduced cell viability in 58% (18/31) of cell lines tested. To identify the genes that may be promoting apoptosis and/or inhibiting proliferation, we compared gene expression levels before and after SGN-40 exposure in both sensitive and resistant cell lines, as well as in normal B-cells. SGN-40 strikingly and specifically upregulated FAS on the cell surface of sensitive cell lines. Furthermore, the addition of soluble FAS-Fc dampened SGN-40-induced apoptosis in a subset of sensitive cell lines, suggesting a dependence on a FAS-FASL interaction. These data imply that FAS-dependent apoptosis may directly contribute to the anti-tumor effect of SGN-40. Our data also demonstrate that SGN-40 sensitivity is dependent on the point in B-cell development at which the NHL cell lines were transformed. Sensitive cell lines had a gene signature characteristic of minimal activation of CD40 signaling prior to SGN-40 exposure, whereas resistant cell lines had a signature consistent with prior constitutive signaling downstream of CD40. Thus, SGN-40 appears to elicit its apoptotic properties through activation of CD40 signaling in NHL cell lines not previously exposed to CD40L signaling in the germinal center environment at the time of lymphocyte transformation (GCB lymphomas). In order to develop a clinically feasible assay from FFPE tissue, we developed a 14-gene signature by Stepwise Linear Modeling, utilizing genes from the CD40 pathway activation and GCB gene sets; the classifier gave >96% accuracy (30/31) on the 'training' set of cell lines and 75% (3/4) accuracy on a 'test' set of xenografts. Overall, our data provides unique insights into SGN-40 mechanisms of action, provides a testable hypothesis of the clinical mechanism of action, and a potential diagnostic test to identify patients more likely to benefit from SGN-40. Efforts are currently underway to test the clinical relevance of these findings.


In the last years a constant growth of energy consumption for air conditioning and cooling systems has been observed. Technologies, which use solar heat for cold production, are gaining more and more in importance. In the passive-house office building ENERGYbase/Vienna a "Solar driven Desiccant Evaporative Cooling"-system (SDEC) is in charge of the air conditioning. It is driven with solar energy, which is used for the heating and cooling of the air. Due to higher material application in a SDEC system compared to an air-conditioning reference system, the performance of the SDEC system during the whole life cycle (production, use and disposal phase) has been analysed. Even though energy efficiency have a lucrative and attractive purpose during the use phase, resource efficiency must not be neglected in product material decisions. Therefore innovative technologies should be questioned if newly applied products with energy intensive and seldom materials are energy efficient all over the life cycle. Global energy requirement and resource depletion for production (grey energy) and deposition of materials have to be taken into account when assessing innovative products.


Previous research has found that the performance of introverts on complex cognitive tasks is more negatively affected by distracters, e.g. music and background noise, than the performance of extraverts. The present study extends previous research by examining whether or not background noise would prove to be as distracting as music. In the presence of silence, background UK garage music and background noise, 118 female secondary school students carried out three cognitive tests. It was predicted that introverts would do less well on all of the tasks than extraverts in the presence of music and noise but in silence performance would be the same. A significant interaction was found on all three of the tasks. It was also predicted that there would be a main effect of background sound: Performance would be worse in the presence of music and noise than silence. Results confirmed this prediction with one exception. This study also found a positive correlation between extraversion and intelligence, the implications of which are also discussed. The findings support the Eysenckian hypothesis of the difference in optimum cortical arousal in introverts and extraverts. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Automated trust negotiation (ATN) is an approach that establishes mutual trust between strangers wishing to share resources or conduct business by gradually requesting and disclosing digitally signed credentials. Previous work on improving negotiation efficiency mainly focuses on using history negotiation information, which may leak much unnecessary information and cannot improve the negotiation efficiency if both negotiators do not have appropriate history information. Thus in this paper, we enhance the negotiation efficiency from a new aspect adaptive policies. An ATN framework is designed to enhance the negotiation efficiency, which can not only simplify the negotiation process and reduce the number of exchanged credentials and credential validations whenever possible, but also avoid to revealing unnecessary information during negotiations. This framework presents a number of innovative features, such as the support for overlapping virtual organizations (VOs for short) to evaluate trustworthiness level, and the use of fine-grained adaptive policies to adjust policies based on the trustworthiness levels.


Receivables potentially constitute the single largest category of assets transferred in cross-border financing transactions. Being intangible, however, their transfer is not physically apparent. Because the problem of evidencing, or perfecting, these transfers has been addressed in various ways by different countries, there is no international perfection standard. This lack of a standard deters the growth of receivables financing, which in turn impedes economic development. Recently, however, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") drafted a Convention on Assignment in Receivables Financing (the "Convention")1 to regulate cross-border receivables transactions. The Convention provides for an optional registration system for perfection. I use empirical evidence and historical analogy to argue that it is in the interest of the countries that become parties to the Convention to opt for that system. It has been noted that "in developed countries the bulk of corporate wealth is locked up in receivables."3 As the economy


Promoting the intention of farmers to participate in straw recycling is an effective way to alleviate the contradiction between environmental pollution, scarcity of environmental resources, and sustainable development. In this study, social trust and value perception were integrated into the theory of planned behavior to build a theoretical framework of farmers' intention to participate in straw recycling, considering the influences of three different pro-environmental publicity modes. A field investigation was used to collect research data in six sample villages. Finally, 761 valid questionnaires were collected, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that the influence of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, value perception, and social trust on farmers' straw recycling intentions was different among different pro-environmental publicity modes. Among the three pro-environmental publicity modes, the concentrated pro-environmental publicity mode has the best effect of promoting straw recycling intentions among farmers. This study introduces some targeted suggestions on the aspects of pro-environmental publicity theory and management practice based on the above research results.


The cinematic universe of Tsai Ming-liang gives us a chance to examine how contemporary Taiwanese views of personal feelings, erotica and politics interact in the new arena of cinematic representations and the biopolitics of emotion. Through an analysis of the representation of the emotions in Tsai's cinematography I will discuss how, in the view of the director, they are formulated and shaped by society, mechanized by a world of hypermodern consumption. In his long and complex career, emotions have of course had different nuances and functions, so that at the beginning of the 1990s, with his first trilogy, these oppressed feelings still resemble the cries of individuals, a staging of repressed but powerful agencies, and an appeal for legitimacy, understanding and sympathy. They then become more and more the stylized items of memory, fragments of imagination related to time past and to the philosophical elaboration of Buddhist concepts such as piety, contempt for the human world of the passions, and reincarnation. Emotions such as mourning and longing are described as ways to reach a higher, more detached philosophical point of view; a metaphysical realisation of concepts such as impermanence and reincarnation. Finally, with the porno-humorous twist of The Wayward Cloud, emotions are completely denied, banished to the abstract world of the musical, and commercialized through the imported media of pornographic movies, where the flesh prevails with its overwhelming power over individuals and society. So, while Tsai can defy (and win out against) censorship with his quasi-erotic movie, he demonstrates also - both with cinema as art and as a social construct - how sex and emotions are commercialized and become, in the same way, mere objects of consumption.


The government is in crisis over its Health and Social Care Bill because it didn't make it clear enough what the proposed changes in policy are designed to achieve, says the Conservative MP and former health secretary Stephen Dorrell.

Mr Dorrell, who is currently chairman of the House of Commons health select committee, said that protests over the closure of some units of Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, north London, were happening because of similar misunderstandings: no explanation had been given of why the closures were needed and what the positive results and alternatives were. He was speaking on 12 May at a meeting on preparing for commissioning organised by the health policy think tank the King's Fund and the NHS Alliance, which represents primary care staff.

Mr Dorrell went on to define the problem facing the NHS: "There …


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study an expandable or contractible metallic fin and heat transfer process. The fin is assumed to be thin having a rectangular cross section. It is attached to a hot surface with a time-dependent temperature, and its tip extends to a medium (fluid) of an ambient temperature. With the insulated wall constraint at the tip, the tip of the metallic fin has the property of expanding or contracting in time at a specific rate.

Design/methodology/approach
The corresponding physical problem is so formulated that the unsteady heat transfer problem is governed by means of a similarity variable represented by a second-order ordinary differential equation. The system can be reduced to the traditional well-documented steady state fin problem often studied in the literature, if the unsteadiness is turned off from the formulated system.

Findings
The system is then solved analytically for the temperature distribution through the fin. The fin tip temperatures are calculated, and the heat transfer analysis is made with varying physical parameters. And finally, observations are discussed leading to better fin efficiency and heat transfer enhancement.

Originality/value
An expandable or contractible metallic fin and heat transfer process are analyzed for the first time in the literature. Full solutions are presented, whose numerical correspondence is discussed through graphical and tabular forms.


The hybrid Cartesian/immersed boundary method is applied to simulate fluid-structure interaction of a two-dimensional orbiting flexible foil. The elastic deformation of the flexible foil is modelled based on the dynamic equation of a thin-plate. At each time step, the locations and velocities of the Lagrangian control points on the flexible foil are used to reconstruct the boundary conditions for the flow solver based on the hybrid staggered/non-staggered grid To test the developed code, the flow fields around a flapping elliptical wing are calculated The time history of the vertical force component and the evolution of the vorticity fields are compared with recent other computations and good agreement is achieved For the orbiting flexible foil, the vorticity fields are compared with those of the case without the deformation. The combined effects of the angle of attack and the orbit on the deformation are investigated The grid independency study is carried out for the computed time history of the deformation at the tip.


We add one condition to Proth's theorem to extend its applicability to N = k2^n + 1 where 2^n > N^(1/3) as opposed to the former constraint of 2^n > k. This additional condition adds barely any complexity or time to the test and can furthermore be calculated concurrently. Furthermore, it maintains the biconditionality of Proth's theorem and thus makes it readily applicable. A note on an extension of Brillhart, Lehmer, and Selfridge's primality test is also made.


We present ab initio calculations of the dynamic-scattering cross-section of aluminium, including local-field effects. The fine structure is in excellent agreement with recent inelastic X-ray scattering experiments, and arises from bandstructure effects, in contrast to recent theoretical suggestions. The calculated cross-section exhibits definite anisotropy, especially at higher momentum transfers.


The muscle changes related to pelvic floor disorders are poorly understood. We conducted an anatomical and histological study of the perineum of the normal mouse and of a transgenic mouse strain deficient in urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (uPA−/−) that was previously reported to develop a high incidence of rectal prolapse. We could clearly identify the iliococcygeus (ILC) and pubococcygeus (PC) muscles and anal (SPA) and urethral (SPU) sphincters in male and female mice. The bulbocavernosus (BC), ischiocavernosus (ISC) and levator ani (LA) muscles could be found only in male mice. Histochemical analysis of the pelvic floor muscles revealed a majority of type IIA fibres. Rectal prolapses were observed only in male uPA−/− mice. The most obvious finding was an irreducible evagination of the rectal mucosa and a swelling of the entire perineal region corresponding to an irreducible hernia of the seminal vesicles through the pelvic outlet. The hernia caused stretching and thinning of the ISC, BC and LA. Myopathic damage, with degenerated and centronucleated myofibres, were observed in these muscles. The PC, ILC, SPA and SPU were not affected. This study provides an original description of a model of pelvic floor disorder and illustrates the differences existing between the perineum of humans and that of a quadruped species. In spite of these differences, the histopathologic changes observed in the pelvic floor muscles of uPA−/− mice with rectal prolapse suggest that prolonged muscular stretching causes a primary myopathic injury. This should be taken into account in the evaluation of pelvic floor disorders.


The Okavango River Basin is a hotspot of bat diversity that requires urgent and adequate protection. To advise future conservation strategies, we investigated the relative importance of a range of potential environmental drivers of bat species richness and functional community composition in the Okavango River Basin. During annual canoe transects along the major rivers, originating in the central Angolan highlands, we recorded more than 25,000 bat echolocation calls from 2015 to 2018. We corrected for possible biases in sampling design and effort. Firstly, we conducted rarefaction analyses of each survey year and sampling appeared to be complete, apart from 2016. Secondly, we used total activity as a measure of sample effort in mixed models of species richness. Species richness was highest in the Angola Miombo Woodlands and at lower elevations, with higher minimum temperatures. In total, we identified 31 individual bat species. We show that even when acoustic surveys are conducted in remote areas and over multiple years, it is possible to correct for biases and obtain representative richness estimates. Changes in habitat heterogeneity will have detrimental effects on the high richness reported here and human land-use change, specifically agriculture, must be mediated in a system such as the Angolan Miombo Woodland.


This paper proposes a framework for real-time static voltage stability analysis and monitoring of bulk power systems. This framework involves continuous power flow (CPF) studies, weak nodes and weak regions identification, critical cut-set (transmission bottlenecks) selection and visualization of voltage stability regions. It aims to monitor voltage stability of power systems by judging whether the current operation point lies inside a considered static voltage stability region (SVSR) and calculating the voltage stability margin in cut-set power space. The software package based on this framework has been being developed in recent years and has basically taken shape till now. We will introduce the main framework and the functions of this system.


Two sizes of shipping containers for high explosives have been designed and tested at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The containers have been tested by detonating a powerful, HMX-based explosive in the containers. The containers were approved for shipping 70% of the minimum weight of explosive that could cause vessel failure.


This thesis examines how inter-firm relationships and routines influence the process and
outcomes of new service development (NSD). The research questions addressed are: 1)
How do inter-firm relationships and routines influence the speed of NSD? and 2) In
what ways do the different types of service development affect inter-firm relationships
and organisational routines associated with the speed of NSD? Prior research has
emphasized the importance of cooperating with other organizations to exploit external
sources of knowledge and capabilities, but relatively little is known about the specific
mechanisms to achieve this and how these affect the outcomes of new service
development. This research contributes to the literature on new service development and
innovation networks.

The research design consists of comparative case studies and draws on empirical
evidence from the development of two contrasting e-commerce services in the four
dominant Taiwanese convenience store chains. In total 52 interviews were conducted
with members of staff of convenience store chains and suppliers. The interviews were
analyzed using the thematic framework approach, which represents the patterns and
relationships in the interview data. Cross-case synthesis was chosen as the analytical
technique to summarize the findings from the individual cases.

The present study found that trust and interdependence have positive influence on the
speed of NSD. Intensity of inter-firm collaboration has a negative effect on the speed of
NSD under some circumstances (e.g. task complexity and project newness). Moreover,
the relationship between organizational routines for knowledge transfer and the speed of
NSD may vary under different degrees of project newness. The thesis demonstrates the
interaction of organizational and project level characteristics in new service
development, and the multi-dimensional nature of service development compared to
that of conventional product development.


The impact of genital warts on psychological, social and sexual wellbeing is often overlooked, as is the magnitude of the problem. In 2017, the number of consultations in primary care in the Netherlands was 42,000. Real-world evidence shows compelling and impressive results regarding the reduction of genital warts in other countries. Not opting for a vaccine that also protects against genital warts is a missed opportunity for elimination of cervical cancer as well as genital warts.


The hepatoprotective activity of benzene and alcoholic extracts of root of Aeschynomene aspera was investigated in rats for carbon tetrachloride induced hepatotoxicity. LD50 values for both extracts determined. The extracts did not produce any mortality even at 5000 mg/kg while LD 50 of benzene and alcoholic extracts was found to be 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg. Hepatotoxicity was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride (1 ml /kg /day diluted with olive oil (1:1) for 3 days). Benzene and alcoholic extracts of roots were administered to the experimental rats (100 and 200 mg/kg/d p.o for 3d). The Hepatoprotective effect of these extracts was evaluated by liver function biochemical parameters (total bilirubin, serum protein, alanine aminotrnasaminase, aspartate aminotransaminase and alkaline phosphatase activities) and histopathological studies of liver. In benzene and alcoholic extracts –treated animals, the toxicity effect of carbon tetrachloride was controlled significantly by restoration of the levels of serum bilirubin and enzymes as compared to the normal and standard drug silymarin treated groups. Histology of liver sections of the animals treated with the extracts showed the presence of normal hepatic cords, absence of necrosis and fatty infiltration which further evidence the hepatoprotective activity.


Traditionally customers subscribe to specific providers and are served by accessing base stations (BSs) of the network of their provider. Inevitably subscribers with relatively "high" usage pattern and data-rate requirements are subsidized by the ones with lower usage and data-rates. As the wireless technology advances, a diverse set of services will be available. This paper introduces the "flex service" paradigm that allows a customer to dynamically access BSs of different providers based on various criteria, such as profile, network conditions, and offered prices. "Flex users" can select the appropriate provider and BS on a per-session basis. This work considers a diverse customer population with respect to their demand, their preference on data-rate over price, their tolerance on the blocking probabilities of their sessions, and their willingness to pay for certain services. Users can dynamically decide to buy a long-term subscription or become flex users. In this paper, we develop a rich framework for modeling and analysis of such markets in different spatio-temporal scales. We analyze the evolution of markets with the flex service paradigm, focusing on whether it can improve the quality-of-service (QoS), social welfare, flexibility and further enhance the competition among providers. The main contribution of this paper is detailed modeling and indepth performance analysis of such complex markets, in different spatial and temporal scales. It considers the perspective of clients, providers, and regulators. It demonstrates the benefits of markets with the flex service paradigm and compares them with the ones that only offer subscription contracts.


Adopting an organizational view on social development, we have investigated how interpersonal experiences early in life predict how well individuals will resolve relationship conflicts, recover from conflicts, and have stable, satisfying relationships with their romantic partners in early adulthood. We have also identified specific interpersonal experiences during middle childhood and adolescence that mediate the connection between how individuals regulated their emotions with their parents very early in life and how they do so as young adults in their romantic relationships. We discuss the many advantages of adopting an organizational view on social development.


Recently, as internet business is growing rapidly, it has been bringing a lot of changes in many aspects of commercial business activities, and especially internet shopping malls, dealing with individual consumers, have continued radical changes and development. Thus, internet-based companies are required to implement variously different and new approaches in the ways of conducting their businesses. Therefore, it is becoming one of the most significant strategic elements for internet-based companies to correctly understand the purchase patterns of individual consumers and properly provide business environments that can give the maximum satisfactions to those individual consumers in service supply chain. However, despite this radical change in the environment of internet shopping, it is true that most studies on internet-based businesses so far tend to just focus on such studies as the overall size of internet business, investigation on current market status, and practical study on consumer buying patterns from the perspective of consumers, lacking studies in such fields as the strategic management method from the perspective of companies and business investment decisions. Not to mention the lack of such studies as how the shopping mall management strategies, currently being used by the majority of internet-based companies, influence attracting customers to make purchase and customer satisfaction, and how customers' reactions from these strategies are affecting the management outcomes of business entities. Having these as the background in this study, the structure and the strategy of internet-based companies are analyzed based on dynamic speculations which emphasize an internally circulating feedback structure, as getting away from the currently existing linear speculations. Also, a speculative framework for decision makers to learn and understand the behavioral mechanism of the buying decision process is provided by building a system dynamics simulation model which can support long term decision making in the overall speculation instead of the direction of partial and short term oriented approaches. In doing so, the study intends to derive the most efficient investment decision support model for internet-based companies to operate their internet shopping malls in an overall way by understanding the correlation and interdependency among political variables, being needed for the operation of internet-based companies.


Variations in the genetic code are found frequently in mitochondrial decoding systems. Four non-universal genetic codes are employed in ascidian mitochondria: AUA for Met, UGA for Trp, and AGA/AGG(AGR) for Gly. To clarify the decoding mechanism for the non-universal genetic codes, we isolated and analyzed mitochondrial tRNAs for Trp, Met, and Gly from an ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi. Mass spectrometric analysis identified 5-taurinomethyluridine (τm5U) at the anticodon wobble positions of tRNAMet(AUR), tRNATrp(UGR), and tRNAGly(AGR), suggesting that τm5U plays a critical role in the accurate deciphering of all four non-universal codes by preventing the misreading of pyrimidine-ending near-cognate codons (NNY) in their respective family boxes. Acquisition of the wobble modification appears to be a prerequisite for the genetic code alteration.


Objective To analyse outcomes in different forms of persistent fetal vasculature (PFV). Methods and analysis Retrospective cohort study at a university-based practice of children presenting with PFV between 2011 and 2020. Exclusion criteria was surgical management outside of our institution and follow-up less than 1 month. Wilcoxon and Student's t-tests were used for statistical analysis. Results Forty-six eyes of 45 patients presented with PFV at 16.7±31.3 (median 2.8) months old with 32.6±29.8 (median 22.5) months of follow-up. Types of PFV included: mild combined anterior-posterior (23 eyes, 50%), severe combined anterior-posterior (18 eyes, 39%), severe anterior (3 eyes, 7%), mild anterior (1 eye, 2%) and posterior (1 eye, 2%). Thirty-two eyes (70%) underwent PFV surgical correction; lensectomy (13 mild combined), vitrectomy (3 mild combined), sequential lensectomy then vitrectomy (3 severe combined), combined lensectomy-vitrectomy (11 severe anterior or severe combined), laser retinopexy (1 mild combined). Five eyes required additional vitrectomy surgery for retinal detachment, fold or cyclitic membrane. Nine eyes developed glaucoma, six requiring Intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering surgery. At final follow-up, 32 eyes had at least form vision and 6 eyes were aversive to light. Eight eyes, all which were severe combined, and four that did not undergo PFV surgery, were unable to detect light due to phthisis bulbi (7) and optic nerve hypoplasia (1). Conclusions Classification of PFV is important in determining surgical approach with severe cases often requiring both lensectomy and vitrectomy for optimal anatomic and functional outcomes.