FPGA-based configurable computing machines are evolving rapidly in large signal processing applications due to flexibility and high performance. In this paper, given a reconfigurable processing unit (RPU) with a logic capacity of ARPU and a computational task represented by a data flow graph G = (V, E, W), we propose a network flow-based multiway task partitioning algorithm to minimize communication costs for temporal partitioning. The proposed algorithm obtains an optimal solution with minimum interconnection under area constraints. The optimal solution is a cut set. In our approach, two techniques are applied. In the initial partition, any feasible min-cut is produced by the proposed network flow-based algorithm, so a set of feasible min-cuts is obtained. From the feasible solutions, the scheduling technique selects an optimal global solution.


In this paper, we consider the reconstruction problem of photoacoustic tomography (PAT) with a flat observation surface. We develop a direct reconstruction method that employs regularization with wavelet sparsity constraints. To that end, we derive a wavelet-vaguelette decomposition (WVD) for the PAT forward operator and a corresponding explicit reconstruction formula in the case of exact data. In the case of noisy data, we combine the WVD reconstruction formula with soft-thresholding, which yields a spatially adaptive estimation method. We demonstrate that our method is statistically optimal for white random noise if the unknown function is assumed to lie in any Besov-ball. We present generalizations of this approach and, in particular, we discuss the combination of PAT-vaguelette soft-thresholding with a total variation (TV) prior. We also provide an efficient implementation of the PAT-vaguelette transform that leads to fast image reconstruction algorithms supported by numerical results.


Background. There is evidence that Tregs are important to prevent allergic diseases like asthma but limited literature exists on role of TH17 cells in allergic diseases. Methods. Fifty children with asthma and respiratory allergy (study group) and twenty healthy children (control group) were recruited in this study. Total IgE levels and pulmonary function tests were assessed. The expression of Tregs and cytokines was determined by flow cytometry. Results. The average level of total IgE in study group (316.8 ± 189.8 IU/mL) was significantly higher than controls (50 ± 17.5 IU/mL, P < 0.0001). The frequency of TH17 cells and culture supernatant level of IL-17 in study group (12.09 ± 8.67 pg/mL) was significantly higher than control group (2.01 ± 1.27 pg/mL, P < 0.001). Alternatively, the frequency of FOXP3 level was significantly lower in study group [(49.00 ± 13.47)%] than in control group [(95.91 ± 2.63)%] and CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ to CD4+CD25+ ratio was also significantly decreased in study group [(6.33 ± 2.18)%] compared to control group [(38.61 ± 11.04)%]. The total serum IgE level is negatively correlated with FOXP3 level (r = −0.5273, P < 0.0001). The FOXP3 expression is negatively correlated with the IL-17 levels (r = −0.5631, P < 0.0001) and IL-4 levels (r = −0.2836, P = 0.0460). Conclusions. Imbalance in TH17/Tregs, elevated IL-17, and IL-4 response and downregulation of FOXP3 were associated with allergic asthma.


When watching 3D contents, people often experience various visual discomforts like tiredness, dryness, headaches, and dizziness. Previous researches on visual discomfort analyzed and concluded vergenceaccommodation conflict, viewing distance, and brightness changes to be the causes of visual discomfort. Yet it is necessary to systematically analyze the visual discomfort due to the changes in object, background brightness and viewing distance. In this paper, we produce four videos that have four different background brightness and two different viewing distances to solve analyze the visual discomfort from watching 3D contents. We measure and analyze eye-blink and saccadic movement, saccadic latency, Nearest Point of Convergence (NPC), and participant survey for amore accurate result compared to previous researches. Our results show that the eye-blink rate and saccadic latency increase when the background is bright and viewing distance is close while the saccadic movement decreases in the same environment. However, NPC only changes when the background brightness changes. We confirm that the bright background and near viewing distance create greater visual discomfort and decrease depth perception abilities.


Since the enactment in Queensland of the Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld) and the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (Qld), a decision can be made to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment from an adult who lacks capacity to make such decisions for herself or himself. The Guardianship and Administration Tribunal of Queensland has been asked to consider the law in relation to these decisions on a number of occasions since the legislation was passed. This article explores the relevant provisions of these statutes and some of the difficulties that arise from how they are currently drafted. It also examines how the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal has dealt with applications to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining measures, and suggests a course that might avoid some of the difficulties that are inherent in Queensland's legislative regime.


Replacement of amide moiety with the 1,2,4-oxadiazole core in the scaffold of recently reported efflux pump inhibitors afforded a novel series of oxadiazole/2-imidazoline hybrids. The latter compounds exhibited promising antibacterial activity on both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas fluorescens) strains. Furthermore, selected compounds markedly inhibited the growth of certain drug-resistant bacteria. Additionally, the study revealed the antiproliferative activity of several antibacterial frontrunners against pancreas ductal adenocarcinoma (PANC-1) cell line, as well as their type-selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitory profile.


Syndecan-4 is a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan belonging to the syndecan family. Following intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), syndecan-4-deficient mice exhibited high mortality compared with wild-type controls. Severe endotoxin shock was observed in the deficient mice: systolic blood pressure and left ventricular fractional shortening were lower in the deficient mice than in the wild-type controls 9 h after LPS injection. Although histological examinations revealed no apparent differences between two groups, the plasma level of interleukin (IL)-1β was higher in the deficient mice than in the wild-type controls 9 h after LPS injection. Consistent with the regulatory roles of syndecan-4, its expression in monocytes and endothelial cells of microvasculature increased in the wild-type mice after LPS administration. Although IL-1β was produced to the same extent by macrophages from syndecan-4-deficient and wild-type mice after LPS stimulation, inhibition of its production by transforming growth factor-β1 was impaired in the syndecan-4-deficient macrophages. These results indicate that syndecan-4 could be involved in prevention of endotoxin shock, at least partly through the inhibitory action of transforming growth factor-β1 on IL-1β production.


This paper describes the design of switched-current group delay equalizers. The design process is based on the pole-zero mirroring technique; with equalizer z-transfer functions generated using an optimization algorithm. To facilitate the systematic implementation of the equalizers, a model describing the design process is developed. A novel feature of the equalizers implementation is that wave structures are employed in realizing the equalizer poles instead of integrators. MATLAB and SI simulation results based on a 6-order equalizer are included. The results demonstrate that the equalizer can reduce the delay of a 5-order, 1MHz lowpass SI elliptic filter from 155ns to <20ns over the entire filter bandwidth.


We studied the effects of anaerobic and aerobic training on lipoprotein concentrations in 45 healthy untrained men. Thirty-three subjects exercised four times per week during nine weeks on a bicycle ergometer. Sixteen trained with an intensity above the anaerobic threshold (blood lactate concentration > 4 mmol.l-1) and 17 trained with an intensity below the anaerobic threshold. In addition, twelve subjects served as controls. The calculated caloric expenditure of the two training groups was similar. In all three groups, total cholesterol, total high-density lipoprotein (HDL), HDL subfractions (HDL2, HDL3), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were measured. Training had a significant influence on HDL, HDL2, LDL/HDL, HDL2/HDL3, and cholesterol/HDL. With anaerobic training these variables changed in the opposite direction compared with aerobic training which influenced the lipoprotein profile in the desired direction. Cholesterol, HDL3, and LDL did not alter during the nine weeks of training. After nine weeks of training, the higher the blood lactate concentration during exercise (representing training intensity) was, the higher resting LDL/HDL ratio was found. The correlation between these two variables was highly significant. We conclude that training above the anaerobic threshold has no or even negative effects on blood lipoprotein profiles. Therefore, beneficial adaptations in lipoprotein profile must be achieved with moderate training intensities below the anaerobic threshold.


Introduction Sub-Saharan Africa houses over two-thirds of the 37 million people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) globally and of this, 5–20% are co-infected with Hepatitis B virus (HBV). This is double jeopardy, especially for women of reproductive age in these settings, who can transmit both viruses vertically as well as horizontally to their children. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence and determinants of HBV among women of reproductive age living with HIV. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of HIV-infected women of reproductive age in Benue State, Nigeria. Participants were eligible for the study if they were HIV-infected women (ages 18–45 years) receiving care from any of the selected study sites. A global rapid hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) antibody test strip was used to test for HBsAg in plasma. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic, clinical and lifestyle characteristics of participants. We estimated prevalence of HBV infection and used multivariable logistic regression to determine factors associated with the infection at a significance level of <0.05. Results A total of 6577 women were screened for HBsAg. The prevalence of HBV was 10.3% (95% CI: 9.5–10.9%). Age, parity and male partner's HIV status were found to be associated with having HBV infection. Compared to women older than 40 years, the odds of HBV infection increased significantly with increasing age until age 35 years and decreased significantly with increasing parity (versus no parity). Women with HIV-infected partners and those without a partner had higher odds of HBV infection compared to women with HIV-negative partners. Conclusion HBV is hyperendemic among HIV-infected women of reproductive age in North Central Nigeria. Specific programs targeting HBV testing, vaccination and treatment of all women of reproductive age need to be developed in this resource-limited, high-need setting.


Introduction: Lung cancer remains in Europe the second most frequent type of malignancy. In Greece, even though the incidence of lung cancer continues to grow, there is not enough epidemiological data. Our aim was to conduct a retrospective epidemiological study using the large pool of data from our Bronchoscopic Unit. Methods: In a total of 235 patients, diagnosed with lung cancer by histological and/or cytological bronchoscopic findings(2009-2011), we conducted a correlation between demographic and medical data at the time of diagnosis with the type of lung cancer. Results: The mean age of first diagnosis was between 60-70 years (33%) and the male to female ratio was 3.8:1. There was no significant difference between the three most common histological types (ADLC -24%, SqCLC-21%, SCLC-22%), and 1/4 of the patients were found to have distal locations at the time of diagnosis. The smoking history of the patients had the strongest correlation with all lung cancer types.The most common first symptom was persistent cough for ADCL (18%), haemoptysis for SqCLC (21%) and symptoms of advanced disease in SCLC (25%). In all types of cancer, the most common radiologic finding was lung nodule (60%),the main endobronchial finding was a mass causing obstruction of the bronchus (45%) and almost half of the patients (45%) had lymphnodes hyperplasia. Discussion: In contrast with European data, the SCLC retains a high percentage between all histological types of lung cancer. Smoking is confirmed to have the strongest correlation with all lung cancer types. The mean age of first diagnosis is lower than expected from studies conducted in the US.


The last UK breast cancer (BC) human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) testing guideline recommendations were published in 2015. Since then, new data and therapeutic strategies have emerged. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)/College of American Pathologists (CAP) published a focused update in 2018 that reclassified in situ hybridisation (ISH) Group 2 (immunohistochemistry (IHC) score 2+and HER2/chromosome enumeration probe 17 (CEP17) ratio ≥2.0 and HER2 copy number <4.0 signals/cell), as well as addressed other concerns raised by previous guidelines. The present article further refines UK guidelines, with specific attention to definitions of HER2 status focusing on eight key areas: (1) HER2 equivocal (IHC 2+) and assignment of the ASCO/CAP ISH group 2 tumours; (2) the definition of the group of BCs with low IHC scores for HER2 with emphasis on the distinction between IHC score 1+ (HER2-Low) from HER2 IHC score 0 (HER2 negative); (3) reporting cases showing HER2 heterogeneity; (4) HER2 testing in specific settings, including on cytological material; (5) repeat HER2 testing, (6) HER2 testing turnaround time targets; (7) the potential role of next generation sequencing and other diagnostic molecular assays for routine testing of HER2 status in BC and (8) use of image analysis to score HER2 IHC. The two tiered system of HER2 assessment remains unchanged, with first line IHC and then ISH limited to IHC equivocal cases (IHC score 2+) but emerging data on the relationship between IHC scores and levels of response to anti-HER2 therapy are considered. Here, we present the latest UK recommendations for HER2 status evaluation in BC, and where relevant, the differences from other published guidelines.


The experiments were conducted at Laboratory of the Department of Plant Pathology and in the farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh during Rabi season of the year 2007-2008. Four fungicides viz. Bavistin 50 WP (Carbendazim), Tilt 250 EC (Propiconazole), Cupravit 50 WP (Copperoxychloride) and Dithane M-45 (Mancozeb) and micronutrients (Gypsum, ZnO and Boric acid) were evaluated against Phomopsis vexans causing Phomopsis blight and fruit rot of eggplant. The fungicides and micronutrients either applied individually or in combination showed significant effect in terms of per cent leaf infection, fruit infection, leaf area diseased and fruit area diseased in comparison to control. Effect of each fungicide applied in combination with micronutrients always showed better performance in reducing disease incidence and disease severity than the fungicides applied alone. Among the fungicides, Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) proved to be effective arresting the spore germination and mycelia growth of Phomopsis vexans assayed in in vitro test. Reduction of leaf area diseased caused by Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) in combination with micronutrients were 58.17, 67.37, 78.41 and 85.25%, respectively at preflowering, post-flowering, fruiting and fruit ripening stages while Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) alone reduced by 52.22, 58.67, 74.19 and 83.09%, respectively at those stages. Similarly reduction of fruit area diseased caused by Bavistin 50 WP (0.1%) in combination with micronutrients were 57.93 and 79.79%, respectively at fruiting and fruit ripening stages while Bavistin 50WP (0.1%) alone reduced by 56.93 and 76.14%, respectively at those stages. Micronutrients had little effect against the disease but significantly better than control. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 3 (1): 66-72, June, 2013 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v3i1.16095


In the laboratory, we investigated the effects of rapid changes of salinity on the survival and growth of 13 species of phytoplankton inhabiting an estuary where there are wide fluctuations in salinity. These phyto- plankton were exposed to rapid decreases in salinity (down-shocks) from 32 to 5, 10, 15, or 20 psu, accli- matized to these lower salinities, and thereafter exposed to rapid increases (up-shocks) from the lower salinities to 32 psu. The phytoplankters tested proliferated in decreases and increases of salinity between 20 and 32 psu in a manner similar to controls (i.e. from 32 to 32 psu), but showed diagnostic responses such as a long lag-time before growth or mortality following drastic decreases or increases between 5-15 and 32 psu. The responses differed among phytoplankton species inhabiting the same estuary. Some flag- ellates formed morphologically abnormal cells after some treatments involving decreased salinity. The spe- cies-specific responses to drastic changes of salinity may contribute to the short-term succession of phyto- plankton in estuaries.


Epilepsy is a common neurological condition which affects the central nervous system that causes people to have a seizure and can be assessed by electroencephalogram (EEG). Electroencephalography (EEG) signals reflect two types of paroxysmal activity: ictal activity and interictal paroxystic events (IPE). The relationship between IPE and ictal activity is an essential and recurrent question in epileptology. The spike detection in EEG is a difficult problem. Many methods have been developed to detect the IPE in the literature. In this paper we propose three methods to detect the spike in real EEG signal: Page Hinkley test, smoothed nonlinear energy operator (SNEO) and fractal dimension. Before using these methods, we filter the signal. The Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) filter is used to remove the noise in an EEG signal.


Various power amplifier technologies are compared specifically for applications in emerging new air interface standards such as 3G, LEOS and MEOS satellite systems and WLAN. The differences between present and future systems related directly to power transistor and amplifier developments are defined. The paper describes state-of-the-art results for power amplifiers and indicates the challenges being faced for improved performances. The trade-offs of various types of linearization are covered. Advances in simulation techniques (with examples of electrical, mechanical and thermal designs) are described.


Wireless sensor networks provide a lot of interesting to monitoring applications. However, the problem of limited energy of sensor disrupts the proper functioning of the network by limiting its lifetime. In fact, the aspect of minimize energy consumption and maximize lifetime of sensor networks is constituted a real challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed power control scheme (DPCS) for mobile wireless sensor networks. The main idea behind the proposed scheme is developing an effective mechanism for manage the transmission power when nodes are mobile. DPCS aims to reduce the energy spent at communication and at the time ensuring a good connectivity. Simulations show that our scheme realizes an improvement compared to the classic scheme, in terms of network lifetime and connectivity in spite of the sensors mobility.


An ultrafast spectrum-tunable fiber laser using a tunable Mach-Zehnder filter (TMZF) and a graphene-based saturable absorber as a mode-locking element is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed laser uses a 2-m-long zirconia-erbium-doped fiber (Zr-EDF) as the primary gain medium. The Zr-EDF has a dopant concentration of 3800 ppm/wt and an absorption rate of 18.3 dB/m at 980 nm. The proposed laser is able to generate mode-locked solitons, with the central wavelength of the spectrum tunable from 1551 to 1570 nm and covering a wavelength range of about 19 nm. Sidebands are observed with 3-dB bandwidths and pulsewidths of between 3.4 and 3.6 nm and from 730 to 780 fs, respectively, as well as a time-bandwidth product between 0.32 and 0.33. The generated pulse yields an average output power value of ~ 1.4 mW, pulse energy of ~ 128 pJ, and repetition rate of ~ 10.9 MHz. This is the first time, to the knowledge of the authors, that a graphene-based mode-locked spectrum-tunable fiber laser is demonstrated using a TMZF.


In summary, the susceptibility of transplant recipients to the development of cancer is dramatically revealed by the oncogenic effects of sunlight. Skin and other forms of carcinoma are aggressive and develop particularly in patients doing well from the immunological point of view post transplantation. Patients with cancer are less susceptible to rejection than those without. Patients with malignancy survive significantly better in the early post transplant years than do those without cancer, but fare much worse later on because of deaths caused by cancer and because of the need to withdraw immune suppressive therapy in those patients with proliferating cancer. Almost 40% of long survivors have cancer, an incidence which continues to increase. Cancer has become a major cause of mortality in long survivors. It seems that, with time, most carcinomas which occur in the general population will occur with increased frequency in renal transplant recipients.


Intermittently occuring hemolytic anemia can be the expression of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Diagnosis is made via the detection of decreased resistance of the erythrocytes to acidified serum or osmotic hemolysis. Furthermore, diagnostic proof is provided by the cytometric detection of several erythrocyte populations caused by the altered expression of an anchor protein (PIG-A protein) of the cell membrane. This report is of a case where "black morning urine" has been in existence for more than 10 years and in which the additional occurrence of icterus led to the diagnosis. The patient's spleen had been removed in 1964 because of idiopathic thrombopenia, in retrospect, however, thrombopenia within the framework of PNH should be considered.


We collected daily diary data from 165 couples (N = 330) in romantic relationships to examine how working to change the relationship and relational uncertainty influence positive relationship quality (i.e., closeness, satisfaction, and commitment). We used concepts from the investment model and literature on relationship maintenance and relational uncertainty. As hypothesized, we found a positive association between working to change the relationship and relationship quality. Further, this association was stronger on days in which individuals reported lower relational uncertainty, but significantly weaker on days in which individuals reported higher relational uncertainty. We discuss what it means for individuals to report more positive relationship quality when they make more relational investments and feel more certain about their relationship.


Background: Oral and dental health is an important part of health care. Because, besides the individual's eating, speaking, physical illness, many personal, social and psychological aspects of life affect the quality of life of individuals. It is known that individuals with chronic mental illness have more oral and dental health problems than the normal population. Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the oral and dental health habits and oral health quality of life of individuals with severe mental illness. Methods: This research is of descriptive type. The sample of the study consisted of 67 individuals with severe mental illnesses selected by purposeful sampling method. "Personal Information Form" and "Oral Health Impact Profile Scale (OHIP-14-TR)" were used to collect the data of the study. Results: As a result of the study, it was found that patients have insufficient habits towards oral and dental health, the total average score of oral health quality of life was 22.34 ± 8.81, and the DMFT index was 5.13 ± 4.19. Conclusion: As a result, it can be said that the oral health quality of life and habits of individuals with severe mental diseases are not at a sufficient level.


Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed against phase I and II variants of Coxiella burnetii were produced by fusing myeloma SP2/O-AG 14 cells with spleen cells from mice immunized with the chloroform-methanol extraction residue of phase I whole cells. Two hybridoma clones which distinguished the phase variants by microimmunofluorescence assay were isolated and characterized. The MAbs showing specificity for phase I cells (MAbI-1, immunoglobulin G, subclass 3 kappa) reacted with the hot phenol-water extract of phase I C. burnetii in immunodiffusion and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. MAbI-1 reacted with high-molecular-weight components from phase I phenol-water extract and whole cell in an immunoblot assay. Specificity of MAbI-1 for a carbohydrate epitope in the phenol-water extract was demonstrated by periodic acid inactivation of binding by a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Phase I antigenic sites were apparently well represented on the surface of cells as demonstrated by complete fluorescence and microagglutination. The MAb showing specificity for phase II cells (MAbII-1, immunoglobulin G, subclass 2b kappa) reacted with whole cells in the microimmunofluorescence assay, microagglutination test, complement fixation test, and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. MAbII-1 reacted specifically with a 29,500-dalton surface protein as demonstrated by immunoprecipitation of 125I-surface-labeled cells. Although MAbII-1 reacted with detergent-solubilized protein, it did not react with sodium-dodecyl sulfate-denatured protein by immunoblot assay. This protein was not exposed on the surface of phase I cells, but chloroform-methanol extraction of phase I cells exposed the phase II epitope.


Fenolat retention of porridge instant functional for storage at room temperature. Has been done this study aims to determine the retention of instant porridge phenolics during storage as well as to determine the shelf life of instant porridge at room temperature. Estimation of shelf life or expiration period using the model of reaction kinetics. The treatment phase of the study include purple sweet potato flour manufacture, processing, instant porridge, instant porridge and storage at room temperature. Analysis of phenolics in instant porridge be done every 7 days for 56 days using UV-Vis spectrophotometry at a wavelength of 765 nm. The data obtained is used to determine the shelf life of instant porridge. The results obtained show the retention levels of phenolics on day 0 was 100% and at day 56 was 27.911% and the expiration of a functional instant porridge is 55 days Keywords: Phenols, functional porridge, Fenolat Retention, Shelf Life, reaction kinetics model


1. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Wahadat Road Science College, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, GC Women University, Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: February 03, 2018 Accepted: June 24, 2018 Online: June 30, 2018 Role of religion in state discourse is an old age phenomenon for the politicians. Constitutional secularism solved some issues yet the significance of religion in human perception cannot be minimized. For Pakistan's constitutional development, the main question was not only about the acceptability of the role of Islam but also the kind of Islam to be established and extent of its influence into state system. The use of Islam as a political force with varying intensity has remained a frequent practice in Pakistan by civilian leadership as well as the military rulers. Their objectives behind that practice were, to acquire legitimacy, to strengthen their political positions and to consolidate their vested interests. The legacies about the establishment of political identity of Muslims in Sub-continent which was primarily, based on Islam played a critical role in post-partition period in Pakistan especially in manifesting the politics and power claims of various political parties and groups. The underlying study aims to explain the relationship between religion and politics in Pakistan since its inception and, to seek the role of religion in the constitutional development with reference to the use of Islam as a political instrument. The research concludes that not a single serious effort was made to incorporate the spirit of Islam in the constitution rather everything was politically motivated which has its own repercussions.


Abstract : The US Army and the Special Operations Command have made an effort to recognize the lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan and are working to emerge from the recent conflicts a more adaptable, capable and agile force. The entire military profession understands that the future holds a multitude of challenges, some which the military and the nation are prepared to face, and many which will require growth and adaptation to overcome. An initiative that places the human component, the art of war, at the forefront of conflict as a human domain is already well underway within the Army and the Special Operations communities. While this initiative is a positive and necessary step, it is neither radical nor far reaching enough to help generate a true revolution in military thought. Accordingly, doctrine must be revised to incorporate the concept of a Human Realm to unify endeavors and face the uncertain challenges of a future environment that will be dominated, as it always has been, by humanity. The coming decades may require advances in military science, but they will demand a revolution in the art of war.


Background: Dental professionals can play a pivotal role in educating the public about the harmful effects of smoking and encouraging them to quit the habit. Aim: This study assesses the attitudes and practices of tobacco cessation counseling (TCC) among dental professionals in Saudi Arabia. Patients and Methods: This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study targeted dentists and dental interns working in government and private sectors in Saudi Arabia. We conducted a descriptive analysis by using SPSS Statistics, version 25.0. Results: A total of 895 respondents (314 interns and 581 dentists) participated in this survey. Although the majority of respondents (93%) reported that they always ask patients about tobacco habits, only 59% reported recording tobacco habits in patients' files, and only 55% of the respondents reported explaining to patients the harmful effects of tobacco. Around 91% of the participants believe that a dental clinic is an appropriate place for TCC, and 22% believe that TCC has a negative impact on dental practice. Smoking status, work setting, and the number of years since graduation were found to be significantly associated with the respondents' attitudes and practices. Lack of training, time limitations, and lack of confidence were barriers for TCC. Conclusions: Dental professionals in Saudi Arabia demonstrated relatively positive attitudes but weak practices of TCC. Continuous education and motivation are needed to improve dentists' confidence, attitudes, and willingness for TCC. Integration of tobacco control education in undergraduate curricula is recommended.


It is important to understand the origins of the in-use failure of metallic compounds to avoid their reoccurrence. In most cases, the causes of failures are complex and linked with external factors that were not known at the time the system was designed or that have arisen in the course of use. However, in some cases the causes are much simpler: failures are caused by the improper use of a material or the use of assembly processes without expertise. The analysis methods can then be simple and precise, and they allow to quickly find the origin of the failure and to propose solutions: visual examination, optical microscopy, X-ray fluorescence analysis, macro and microhardness. During this presentation, we describe two cases of failure and the results of our examinations to explain their causes. The selected cases are (1) a rotating machine shaft and (2) two angles welded on a hopper. The first case of failure is due to the use of an improper grade of stainless steel. The second one is due to the absence of preparation before welding and the use of a non adapted welding technique to make the weld beads to weld a carbon steel grade with an austenitic stainless steel weld bead. Figure 1. The broken rotating machine shaft Figure 2. The broken weld


Differential equations with fractional-order derivatives, e.g., the "one-half" derivative, have a long history in mathematics, but have not yet attained mainstream use in engineering and applied science. While applications do exist in modeling specific phenomena such as visco-elasticity and other types of difficult-to-model phenomena, and extensions to control such as in fractional-order PID do exist, everyday use of fractional order modeling is uncommon. A subset of complex systems called Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is receiving much emphasis in the research community. In this paper we show examples of networked system models which exhibit fractional-order dynamic responses. This suggests that fractional-order dynamics may be prevalent in CPS and hence may be an important and useful modeling tool in that area. We particularly focus on a scale free networked system.


This study proposes a coherent scenario of the formation of permanent shear bands in the flow of yield stress materials. It is a well accepted point of view that flow in disordered media occurs via local plastic events, corresponding to small size rearrangements, that yield a long range stress redistribution over the system. Within a minimalistic mesoscopic model that incorporates these local dynamics, we study the spatial organisation of the local plastic events. The most important parameter in this study is the typical restructuring time needed to regain the original structure after a local rearrangement. In agreement with a recent mean field study [Coussot et al., Eur. Phys. J. E, 2010, 33, 183] we observed the spontaneous formation of permanent shear bands, when this restructuring time is large compared to the typical stress release time in a rearrangement. The bands consist of a large number of plastic events within a solid region that remains elastic. This heterogeneous flow behaviour is different in nature from the transient dynamical heterogeneities that one observes in the small shear rate limit in flow without shear-banding [Martens et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2011, 106, 156001]. We analyse in detail the dependence of the shear bands on system size, shear rate and restructuring time. Further, we rationalise the scenario within a mean field version of the spatial model that produces a non monotonous flow curve for large restructuring times. This explains the instability of the homogeneous flow below a critical shear rate, that corresponds to the minimum of the curve. Our study therefore strongly supports the idea that the characteristic time scales involved in the local dynamics are at the physical origin of permanent shear bands.


Objectives Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) has been shown to be involved in cholesterol transport. Among nonsynonymous variants found from cholesterol low absorbers, six variants were located within only 39 amino acids in the predicted extracellular loop of NPC1L1 protein, suggesting the importance of the region with regard to the function of NPC1L1. In this study, we performed in-vitro analysis to determine the protein expression, cellular localization, and intrinsic activity of these variants. As &agr;-tocopherol is also transported by NPC1L1, we compared the transport activity of NPC1L1 variants between cholesterol and &agr;-tocopherol. Methods and Results Expression vectors for the variants or wild type of NPC1L1 were constructed and transiently transfected into Caco-2 cells, which revealed that four kinds of variants (D398G, T413M, R417W, and G434R) are associated with the reduced expression level and altered subcellular localization of NPC1L1 protein. As four variants (A395V, G402S, R417W, and G434R) are expressed to some extent on the apical membrane, we constructed Caco-2 cells stably overexpressing these variants. All of these variants showed significantly lower transport activity of cholesterol and &agr;-tocopherol than the wild-type NPC1L1, although the transport was ezetimibe-sensitive. Discussion These results account for the reduced intestinal cholesterol absorption in subjects with these six kinds of variants and suggest the possibility of reduced &agr;-tocopherol absorption in carriers of the six variants, due to their decreased expression level, altered subcellular localization or lower intrinsic activity compared with wild-type NPC1L1.


Whooping cough, which is caused by Bordetella pertussis and B. parapertussis, is a reemerging disease. New protective antigens are needed to improve the efficacy of current vaccines against both species. Using proteomic tools, it was here found that B. parapertussis expresses a homolog of AfuA, a previously reported new vaccine candidate against B. pertussis. It was found that this homolog, named AfuABpp, is expressed during B. parapertussis infection, exposed on the surface of the bacteria and recognized by specific antibodies induced by the recombinant AfuA cloned from B. pertussis (rAfuA). Importantly, the presence of the O‐antigen, a molecule that has been found to shield surface antigens on B. parapertussis, showed no influence on antibody recognition of AfuABpp on the bacterial surface. The present study further showed that antibodies induced by immunization with the recombinant protein were able to opsonize B. parapertussis and promote bacterial uptake by neutrophils. Finally, it was shown that this antigen confers protection against B. parapertussis infection in a mouse model. Altogether, these results indicate that AfuA is a good vaccine candidate for acellular vaccines protective against both causative agents of whooping cough.


As Wnt and K-ras are two most important signaling pathways activated in colon cancer, exploiting them for colon cancer specific gene therapy seems an attractive biological approach for therapy of colon cancer. Our aim was inserting specific promoters downstream to these pathways upstream of suicide genes. Therefore we investigated promoters downstream to these signaling pathways in order to insert them upstream of suicide genes. These promoters should be specifically upregulated by these pathways. They should have been proved to be inactive in normal cells of the body. These promoters should also be short enough to be inserted upstream of a therapeutic gene in a gene therapy construct. After investigating we found out Fibroblast Growth factor 18 (FGF18) and Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor (UPAR) promoters which met the above mentioned criteria and seemed to be the most plausible promoters downstream to Wnt and K-ras signaling pathways. We inserted the most important parts of these promoters upstream of β-Gal as reporter and thymidine kinase as suicide genes. The activity of these promoters in two distinct colon cancer cell lines (HCT116 and SW480) and normal colon cells was studied. It was showed that FGF18 and UPAR promoter activity in HCT116 cell line was 0.25 and 0.187 times in comparison to CMV promoter while in SW480 this ratio was 0.09 and 0.02. Neither of promoters was active in normal colon cells. After applying the specific suicidal constructs in colon cancer cells, it was showed that both suicidal constructs reduced the viability of HCT116 in the presence of 20µg/ml of ganciclovir while in SW480 UPAR and FGF18 promoters reduced the viability in the presence of 40µg/ml and 20µg/ml ganciclovir respectively. The positive control suicidal construct induced significant reduction in the viability of both cell lines in the presence of 20µg/ml ganciclovir. The apoptosis induced by these suicidal constructs was also proved by M30cytodeath antibody in HCT116 and Annexin-PI in SW480. This difference in the method of proving apoptosis might be due to different mechanism of induced cell death by phosphorylated ganciclovir. These experiments showed that exploiting specific promoters downstream to activated signaling pathways in cancerous cells would be a good strategy for specific expression of therapeutic genes in cancerous cells. Also in colon cancer exploiting universal pathways such as wnt might be a better investment for this approach. Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1517.


As a seismic wave travels along the separate supports of an extended structure, the structure is subjected to multiple-support excitation due to seismic wave propagation. Considering the seismic wave passage effect, this paper describes seismic analysis of a maglev vehicle moving on a multiply supported gudieway. The guideway system is modeled as a series of simple beams and the vehicle as a four degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) rigid bar equipped with multiple onboard PI+LQR hybrid controllers. The controller is used to regulate control voltage for tuning both magnetic forces of uplift levitation and lateral guidance in the maglev system. Numerical studies show that as a maglev vehicle is equipped with more supported magnets then they can provide more control gains for tuning the guidance forces of the moving vehicle, and mitigate seismic-induced lateral vibration of a maglev vehicle running a guideway.


[1] In their comment, Abel et al. [2005] express concern about the conclusions presented in the study on the location of the reconnection line for northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) by Trattner et al. [2004]. This study concluded that both reconnection scenarios, antiparallel and component reconnection, occur simultaneously [see also Nishida et al., 1998; Onsager et al., 2001]. During northward IMF conditions, the location of the high-latitude antiparallel reconnection region depends on the IMF By component, and its local time extent is limited. A reconnection line formed in the antiparallel region at high latitudes will not be limited to this region but will extend into regions with smaller magnetic shear angles, forming long reconnection lines extending over several hours in MLT. Therefore, being magnetically connected to an antiparallel or component reconnection site depends mainly on the location of the observing satellite. [2] The method used by Trattner et al. [2004] is based on calculating the distance to the reconnection site from lowvelocity cutoffs of the downward precipitating and the mirrored magnetosheath distributions in the cusp [see Onsager et al., 1991; Fuselier et al., 2000]. The calculated distance was traced back along the geomagnetic field, starting at the position of the Polar satellites, by using the semiempirical Tsyganenko 1996 (T96) magnetic field model [Tsyganenko, 1995]. The IMF direction and geomagnetic field direction at the location of the reconnection site was used to calculate the magnetic shear angle for the reconnection site. For this purpose, the IMF observed upstream of the bow shock by the Wind spacecraft, had to be draped around the magnetopause using the model by Cooling et al. [2001], while again the T96 magnetic field model at the reconnection location was used for the geomagnetic field direction. [3] In their comment, Abel et al. [2005] rebinned the events of Trattner et al. [2004] and showed that events for component reconnection seems to mainly occurring during positive IMF Bx conditions while antiparallel reconnection events are occurring during negative IMF Bx conditions. Abel et al. [2005] suggest that a possible explanation lies in how IMF field lines drape around the magnetopause. In particular, they suggest an increased likelihood of departure from the model orientation for an increased distance from the point of first contact. For negative IMF Bx conditions, the IMF will contact the magnetopause first in the northern hemisphere at high latitudes and close to the observations of the Polar satellite discussed by Trattner et al. [2004]. For positive IMF Bx conditions the IMF will contact the magnetopause first in the southern hemisphere and draping these field lines around the magnetopause to the northern hemisphere might cause large deviations from the upstream clock angle, causing some of the component events to be consistent with antiparallel reconnection. While Abel et al. [2005] put forth an interesting scenario, we do not think the data support the conclusions.


This scoping study evaluates the nature, scope, and scale of Chinese trade and investment relations in the primary sector of mineral-rich Zambia. It details how, despite diplomatic ties dating back to the liberation struggle of the 1960s, economic and political relations between the two countries matured only over the 2000s. This has focused primarily on the mining sector, with Chinese companies, many of which are state owned, investing heavily in mineral prospecting, copper mining and smelting, and associated (service) industries. With most investment activities targeting the mining sector, contrary to popular perception, China's direct participation in other primary sectors, such as forestry and agriculture, is negligible.With Zambia's economy long struggling under external debts, Chinese investments have made a valuable contribution to Zambia's economic recovery. Most significantly, capital injections in the mining sector have led to a rehabilitation of dilapidated mining infrastructure, while enhancing the country's production capacity through the construction of new processing facilities and the development of greenfield mines. These investments have proven to be more stable and less subject to commodity price fluctuations than their Western counterparts. Moreover, while Chinese investors are widely criticized for their poor corporate performance, on most labor-related and environmental dimensions, Chinese mines perform on-par with industry averages. Chinese investors do appear more inclined to rely on close relations with the Zambian government and geographic clustering with other Chinese investors to forge a favorable and stable operating environment, which could adversely impact on their social responsiveness and government revenue generation. However, early evidence appears to contradict many of the long-held assumptions about Chinese economic and political participation in resource-rich countries.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The incidence of metas- tasis in patients with cT1a masses is an exceedingly rare event. However, guidelines recommend some form of thoracic imaging for patients with newly diagnosed renal masses. Screening for thoracic metastasis can be accomplished with either a chest x-ray (CXR) or CT of the thorax (CTT) and guidelines are agnostic to type of imaging modality utilized. Therefore, we designed a study evaluating the cost-effectiveness of CXR followed by selective CTT compared with that of universal CTT staging.METHODS: Using TreeAgePro 2019 software, we developed a clinical decision tree to estimate the thoracic metastasis detection rate and cost of a selective CTT strategy compared to universal CTT at the time of initial staging in patients with cT1a renal masses. Patients who had a positive CXR subsequently had a CTT to con fi rm the positive result. In the universal CTT arm all patients were staged with a CTT. Model probabilities were derived from published literature. Direct costs were obtained from the Medicare procedure database. Our primary outcomes were proportion of true cancers detected, accuracy of and the incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) which evaluates the incre- mental cost per additional true positive (TP) metastasis identi fi ed. RESULTS: The universal CTT strategy resulted in a greater proportion of true cancers detected (TP/baseline prevalence of pulmo-nary metastases) (93.9%) when compared to CXR (66.7%). However, when the imaging tests were assessed by accuracy (true positive þ true negative), the selective CTT staging strategy was found to be more accurate at 93.2% compared to 76.7% for the universal CTT staging strategy. This is balanced by a proportion of false positive (23.2%) in the universal CTT arm compared with 6.6% in the CXR based screening arm. To identify an additional metastasis diagnosed by a universal CTT that would be missed by a CXR based screening strategy would cost $59,931 . Our results are robust to sensitivity analyses evaluating the baseline prevalence of metastasis, but the ICER does vary consider-ably when the sensitivity of CT imaging was varied. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that while a greater proportion of true positive tests are obtained using a universal CT staging strategy this is at the expense of a greater false positive rate. Given the low pretest probability of chest metastasis in patients with cT1a renal masses, there is considerable additional cost associated with screening this population with CTT to identify the few masses that would be missed with CXR based screening protocols.


As technology has advanced, daily interpersonal communication has also altered and shifted to a different level. With the widespread use of the internet and personal technological gadgets hitting the market, social web and social media settings became the essential field of communication for humankind. Now, mostly people use internet-based social communication webs to communicate instead of having face-to-face interaction. This study will focus on the subject of social media addiction in North Cyprus. Our main focal point is the purposes of social media usage, the habits of social media usage and addiction of social media, ranging from the vast majority of the current population, who have experienced technology from a young age, Y generation, and those born into technological innovations, Z generation. During the research it has been used Aylin Tutgun-Ünal's "Social Media Addiction Scale" (SMAS) in order to analyze the social media addiction of Y and Z generations. SMAS consisted of 41 articles and was approved as constituting validity and authenticity in 2015. Besides Facebook, SMAS measured other addictive social media applications in use.  It has attempted to find answers for our research questions by comparing and analyzing Y and G generations scores. By the end of this research, results enabled to determine that the Y and Z generations were on a low-scale addictiveness to social media. In any case, it has been noticed how the socially addictive scale was low with occupation, mood adjustment and differentiation on the levels of repetition and conflict. According to the research findings, participants' social media engagement was on a medium level of addictiveness; women spend more time on social media than men, receiving emotional support; social media is mostly used for interpersonal communication; and Y generation has passing more time on social media compared with the Z generation.


In this article social and information network theory is used to study information flows through the incident command post in a large-scale emergency operation. The case presented is the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway.The data were collected from evaluation reports, media and interviews with the incident, fire, medical and ambulance commanders.The article presents the incident command system in Norway and how this was used as a base for improvisation during the operation on initiative from rescue workers on scene. The main internal information flows in each separate rescue service were connected and coordinated at the incident command point through strong ties between the commanders. Important and novel information also reached the commanders through weak and informal ties to more peripheral actors.


Subtractive dithered quantizers are examined to minimize the signal-band dither power. The design of finite impulse response(FIR) filters that shape most of the dither-power out of the signal band while maintaining the benefits of dithering are dealt with in detail. Simulation results for low-medium resolution quantizers are presented to highlight the overall design consideration.


We use new and archival Chandra observations of Cygnus A, totalling ∼1.9 Ms, to investigate the distribution and temperature structure of gas lying within the projected extent of the cocoon shock and exhibiting a rib-like structure. We confirm that the X-rays are dominated by thermal emission with an average temperature of around 4 keV, and have discovered an asymmetry in the temperature gradient, with the southwestern part of the gas cooler than the rest by up to 2 keV. Pressure estimates suggest that the gas is a coherent structure of single origin located inside the cocoon, with a mass of roughly 2 × 1010M⊙. We conclude that the gas is debris resulting from disintegration of the cool core of the Cygnus A cluster after the passage of the jet during the early stages of the current epoch of activity. The 4 keV gas now lies on the central inside surface of the hotter cocoon rim. The temperature gradient could result from an offset between the centre of the cluster core and the Cygnus A host galaxy at the switch-on of current radio activity.


Some background information on superconducting ceramics is given, and the history of yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is discussed. The crystal structure of superconducting YBCO is described. The production and extraction methods of bulk samples of YBCO are detailed. Different theories of superconductivity in YBCO are addressed, and applications of YBCO superconductors are discussed.<<ETX>>


In the software industry, the software testing activity's main objective is to guarantee the quality of products in development, achieving more reliability through the software process. Therefore, it is important to assure that the tasks which are part of the quality process, such as issue analysis, test case development and test execution, are performed effectively. In this context, this paper aims to describe an experience account from a global software development environment, through a study performed between 2020 and 2022, during which were developed improvements in the software process quality, due to the existence of many incorrect issue reports, causing frequent correction of test cases and rework in the test process. Those improvements are related to the implementation of a process flow which focus on the communication of test cases requisites, issues discovered and test execution. Through the implementation of this methodology, there was a reduction of 82% of escaped issues to other software phases, around 76% reduction of test cases correction, and a 79% increase of the registered issues' effectiveness. Finally, to complement this paper's results, a qualitative survey was made in which 100% of the test team stated that the improvement of the process through activity feedback is important. Therefore, one might conclude that those improvements brought more effectiveness to the issues discovered in a global software development environment, reducing problems related to the process of assuring software quality.


Abstract The symbiosis of plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can improve crop growth by enhancing nutrient uptake and by increasing plant tolerance to certain pests. Pest populations also can be affected, but the effects of mycorrhizal colonization of plant hosts on species of thrips are unknown. We inoculated 2-week-old bell pepper seedling roots with a commercial mycorrhizal mixture of Glomus species (Glomales: Zygomycotina) and evaluated the effects 8 wks later on the bell pepper pest, western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande)). Females that were 10-days-old after adult emergence significantly preferred plants inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizae compared with noninoculated plants in a laboratory choice experiment. Their numbers were greater on inoculated plants 48 h after release into cages containing inoculated and noninoculated plants. A no-choice laboratory experiment compared performance of F. occidentalis on noninoculated and inoculated bell pepper plants. Females that were 10-days-old after adult emergence were released into cages containing individual plants, and there were significantly greater total thrips (larvae, pupae, and adults) on treated plants. Further testing over a range of plant host fertility levels is needed to evaluate the potential for increased pest damage from F. occidentalis on crops growing in mutualistic symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Additional interactions with other microorganisms and natural enemies are possible under field conditions.


Tribhuvankirti Rasa is a herbo-mineral Ayurvedic medicine regularly used to treat different types of fever. It has antipyretic and analgesic activities. It is an effective medicine for the common cold, flu and other Vata kapha problems. Laghumalini Vasanta is also Ayurvedic medicine, used to treat chronic fever and effective in pitta disorders. Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India also recommended these medicines to prevent the severe conditions of Cov-2 infection. Review of literature suggested that phytochemical and elemental characterization parameters of Tribhuvankirti Rasa and Laghumalini Vasant are not reported. The objective of this study is to report phytochemical and elemental profiling and to standardize Tribhuvankirti Rasa (TKR) and Laghumalini Vasant (LMV) to confirm quality and purity. Tribhuvankirti Rasa and Laghumalini Vasant evaluated for phytochemical and elemental parameters by HPTLC and ICP-OES respectively. HPTLC analysis confirms LMV contains Piperine and TKR contains Piperine and 6-Gingerol. The solvent systems toluene: ethyl acetate (7: 3) v/v for Piperine & Hexane: Ethyl acetate: Formic acid (4 : 6 : 0.1) v/v for 6-Gingerol were optimized. ICP-OES analysis confirms presence of Zn in LMV and Hg in TKR. HPTLC and ICP-OES methods were validated successfully for Tribhuvankirti Rasa and Laghumalini Vasant. The characterization and method validation parameters presented in this paper may serve as standard reference for quality control analysis of Tribhuvankirti Rasa and Laghumalini Vasant.


Psychoses on the Schizophrenia Spectrum in Adolescence: A Cross-sectional Study of Factors Influencing Neuropsychology, Treatment Outcome, and Negative Symptoms Abstract. Objective: The present study evaluated the factors influencing the course of disease of children and adolescents in an inpatient rehabilitation suffering from psychosis within the schizophrenia spectrum. Methods: 33 patients (mean age 19.4 years, SD = 2.3), 12 of (36 %) were female, participated. They were assessed with clinical interviews (IRAOS, SANS/SAPS), neuropsychological tests (WAIS-IV, TMT), and questionnaires (FBB, BSCL). Results: The neuropsychological functioning level and the premorbid cognitive performance were correlated, as were treatment success from the patient's perspective with a good relationship with the therapist, and greater negative symptomatology with a longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and a longer initial hospital stay. Conclusion: Possible approaches to improving the treatment of adolescents with psychosis of the schizophrenic spectrum include a shortening of the DUP and a good therapeutic relationship.


The importance of human capital for economic growth is undisputed, as is the role of education for the creation of human capital. Thus, a country is only able to exploit its full potential of economic growth, if its educational syastem manages to create as much human capital as possible. Every able person mjust have the opportunity to develop his or her human capital through education. This article analyses the Indian system of school education. It aims to highlight positive developments as well as institutional shortcomings and policy reforms and programmes. The article shows that India's progress towards "education for all" has been impressive, but also emphasizes the fact that the Indian system of school education is still characterized by huge regional, social and gender inequalities. The quality of education is another challenging problem, which might be explained by institutional factors.


If the main steam line from a nuclear steam generator were to break, the water in the steam generator would rapidly flash off in what is called a blowdown. Such an event could produce significant loading on the steam generator tubes, which if fractured, could lead to a loss of radioactive materials from containment. Thus, knowing the tube loading during such an event is an important input for safe design. This paper presents the results of an experimental laboratory study of the transient tube loading during a simulated blowdown. The working fluid was R-134a and the sectional tube model was a normal triangular array with a pitch ratio of 1.36. Tests were conducted with various levels of liquid R-134a and various numbers of tube rows. The transient tube loading is explained in terms of the associated flow physics and the maximum load is compared with existing models for tube loading obtained under steady flow conditions.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


This short introduction describes mental health work for children and child psychiatry in Kainuu district, with its roots and its organization. The Child Psychiatric Unit is working under a slogan "The Child with its Family in its Social Network." As a part of creating functional integration in mental health work there was a beneficial project of child psychiatric consultations.


In present work, the peculiarities of simulation model of enterprises bankruptcy probability that exist in European, world and domestic practices were considered. The scientific econometric approach was applied to determine the overall presence and strength of the relation between the economic indicators of industrial enterprises. A financial analysis of large industrial manufactures in the region of Ukraine was conducted. To form the information base of the study, the authors estimated liquidity, solvency, business activity and profitability ratios that affect the financial condition of enterprises. They revealed the most significant ratios of financial condition analysis. According to the analysis of existing models of bankruptcy probability in the context of these industrial enterprises, an improved model for assessing the risk of bankruptcy was proposed and evaluated. The proposed model for estimating the probability of bankruptcy, taking into account the influence of the most significant ratios of financial analysis, confirmed that the percentage of provided bankruptcies and stable activities are acceptable and indicate high quality of the resulting equation. The IBM SPSS Statistics system was used to process the data, check the assumptions and prepare valid conclusions. The improved model will allow it to be used in the practice of diagnosing the probability of bankruptcy of industrial enterprises, which will help identify the threat of bankruptcy in time and ensure stable operation of the industrial enterprise.


The therapeutic potential of interleukin (IL)-16 and derived peptides in allergic asthma is considered, focusing on key interactions with CD4 and associated chemokine receptors. IL-16 is a pleiotropic cytokine that has multiple effector functions with putative roles in varied T cell-mediated inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and atopic dermatitis. Both in vitro and in vivo, IL-16 downregulates antigen-driven T cell activation, T helper 2 cytokine production and allergic airway inflammation. Peptides derived from the C-terminal bioactive portion of IL-16 offer advantages related to their retained immunomodulatory properties and absence of signalling in and chemoattraction to T cells.


A switching element, comprising: means for conducting an electrochemical reaction using a metal ion of the ion conductor, while contacting the ion conductor separated from each other a predetermined distance from the first electrode and the second electrode provided in contact with an ion conductor provided the third electrode. When switched to the ON state causes a voltage is applied to the third electrode, a metal is a metal ion between the first electrode and the second electrode precipitation, thereby electrically connecting the first and second electrodes. When switched to the closed state causes a voltage is applied to the third electrode, the precipitated metal is dissolved, and therefore, to electrically disconnect the first and second electrodes.


Recent advances have radically changed the management of facial fractures. CT scanning, extensive exposure, and rigid plate fixation in the setting of the trauma center have permitted early operation with improved results. A subset of patients with facial fractures will also have intracranial injuries (ICI). We sought to identify parameters associated with an increased risk for ICI. We also sought to examine the safety and limits of early craniofacial repair in patients with intracranial injuries. Of 114 mid-face fractures treated over a 1-year period, 43 (38%) had a concomitant ICI. The majority, 36 (84%), were from motor vehicle accidents (MVA). Frontal sinus and orbitoethmoid fractures were at the highest risk for ICI, although orbitozygomatic fractures caused by MVAs also had a surprisingly high incidence of ICI. Our results show that early craniofacial repair can be performed safely with appropriate general surgical and neurosurgical support.


Drawing on a survey of large-scale ecological restoration initiatives, we find that managers face contradictory demands. On the one hand, they have to raise funds from a variety of sources through competitive procedures for individual projects. These projects require the specification of deliverable outputs within a relatively short project period. On the other hand, ecologists argue that the complexity of ecosystem processes means that it is not possible to know how to deliver predetermined outcomes and that governance should be adaptive, long-term and implemented through networks of stakeholders. This debate parallels a debate in public administration between New Public Management and more recent proposals for a new approach, sometimes termed Public Value Management. Both of these approaches have strengths. Projectification provides control and accountability to funders. Adaptive governance recognises complexity and provides for long-term learning, building networks and adaptive responses. We suggest an institutional architecture that aims to capture the major benefits of each approach based on public support dedicated to ecological restoration and long-term funding programmes.


In striving to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the globe acted quickly to implement various "stay-at- home" orders and bans on all "non-essential activities." While these actions were likely effective in slowing the spread of the virus, the economic impacts were felt almost immediately. The US deficit rose to $3.1 trillion following massive spending to aid individuals and small businesses. Internationally, governments have been increasing their debt loads to combat both the health and financial impacts of the pandemic. Indeed, by the end of 2020, the international debt load increased to a record-breaking $281 trillion. Almost as quickly, various proposals have been offered regarding how to mitigate this pandemic-fueled deficit. One solution offered is the return of a historical tax scheme-an excess profits tax. Excess profits taxes have historically been applied both domestically and internationally during times of war. Although there are variations in how an excess profits tax is calculated, traditionally, an excess profits tax is applied to those companies who earn returns in excess of a set "normal" rate of return.


In order to clarify influence of hydrogen on fracture behavior of clinched joint, we performed tensile shear tests and fracture analyses. As verification tests, a hardness test, tensile tests with plate specimens and hydrogen concentration measurement were conducted. The tensile shear tests were conducted with and without hydrogen charging, respectively. The tensile shear test results showed that the maximum load and fracture displacement of the hydrogen-charged specimen were smaller than that of the noncharged specimen. The fracture analyses clarified that macroscopically fracture surface of the joint part on the hydrogen-charged specimen did not deform much, but microscopically showed large dimples with high aspect ratio. Fracture analysis results indicated that a crack growth on the joint part was assisted by hydrogen-enhanced void nucleation, growth and coalescence and hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity. The hardness of the joint part was higher than that of the material before the joining process. On the tensile test, the maximum load and fracture displacement were not changed by hydrogen charging. The hydrogen concentration measurement showed that the joint was charged with 1 ppm hydrogen. These results show that work hardening and stress concentration have an important role on hydrogen embrittlement on clinched joints.


STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE Bottlenose dolphins are distributed throughout the bays, sounds, and estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico (Mullin 1988). The identification of biologically-meaningful "stocks" of bottlenose dolphins in these waters is complicated by the high degree of behavioral variability exhibited by this species (Shane et al. 1986; Wells and Scott 1999), and by the lack of requisite information for much of the region. Previous stock assessment reports have provisionally identified distinct stocks in each of 33 areas of contiguous, enclosed, or semi-enclosed bodies of water adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico (Table 1, Waring et al. 1997), based on descriptions of relatively discrete dolphin "communities" in some of these areas. A "community" includes resident dolphins that regularly share large portions of their ranges, exhibit similar distinct genetic profiles, and interact with each other to a much greater extent than with dolphins in adjacent waters. The term, as adapted from Wells et al. (1987), emphasizes geographic, genetic, and social relationships of dolphins. Bottlenose dolphin communities do not constitute closed demographic populations, as individuals from adjacent communities are known to interbreed. Nevertheless, the geographic nature of these areas and long-term stability of residency patterns suggest that many of these communities exist as functioning units of their ecosystems and, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, must be maintained as such. Also, the stable patterns of residency observed within communities suggest that long periods would be required to repopulate the home range of a community were it eradicated or severely depleted. Thus, in the absence of information supporting management on a larger scale, it is appropriate to adopt a risk-averse approach and focus management efforts at the level of the community rather than at some larger demographic scale. Support for this risk-averse approach derives from several sources. Long-term (year-round, multi-year) residency by at least some individuals has been reported from nearly every site where photographic identification or tagging studies have been conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. In Texas, some of the dolphins in the Matagorda-Espiritu Santo Bay area (Gruber 1981; Lynn 1995; Würsig and Lynn 1996), Aransas Pass (Shane 1977; Weller 1998), San Luis Pass (Maze 1997), and Galveston Bay (Bräger 1993; Bräger et al. 1994; Fertl 1994) have been reported as long-term residents. Hubard (1998) reported sightings of dolphins tagged 12-15 years previously in Mississippi Sound. In Florida, long-term residency has been reported from Choctawhatchee Bay (1989-1993, F. Townsend, unpublished data), Tampa Bay (Wells 1986; Wells et al. 1996a), Sarasota Bay (Irvine and Wells 1972; Irvine et al. 1981; Wells 1986, 1991; Scott et al. 1990; Wells et al. 1987), Lemon Bay (Wells et al. 1996b), and Charlotte Harbor/Pine Island Sound (Shane 1990; Wells et al. 1996b, 1997). In many cases, residents emphasize use of the bay, sound, or estuary waters, with limited movements through passes to the Gulf of Mexico (Shane 1977, 1990; Gruber 1981; Irvine et al. 1981; Lynn 1995, Maze 1997). These habitat use patterns are reflected in the ecology of the dolphins in some areas; for example, residents of Sarasota Bay, Florida lacked squid in their diet, unlike non-resident dolphins stranded on nearby Gulf beaches (Barros and Wells 1998). Genetic data also support the concept of relatively discrete bay, sound, and estuary stocks. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA haplotype distributions indicate the existence of clinal variations along the Gulf of Mexico coastline (Duffield and Wells, in press). Differences in reproductive seasonality from site to site also suggest genetic-based distinctions between communities (Urian et al. 1996). Mitochondrial DNA analyses suggest finer-scale structural levels as well. For example, Matagorda Bay, Texas dolphins appear to be a localized population (NMFS unpublished data), and differences in haplotype frequencies distinguish between adjacent communities in Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, and Charlotte Harbor/Pine Island Sound, along the central west coast of Florida (Duffield and Wells 1991, in press). Examination of protein electrophoretic data resulted in similar conclusions for the Florida dolphins (Duffield and Wells 1986). The long-term structure and stability of at least some of these communities is exemplified by the residents of Sarasota Bay, Florida. This community has been observed since 1970 (Irvine and Wells 1972; Scott et al. 1990; Wells 1991). The number of dolphins regularly occupying the Sarasota Bay area has remained consistently at about 100. At least four generations of identifiable residents currently inhabit the region, including half of those first identified in 1970. Maximum immigration and emigration rates of about 2-3% have been estimated (Wells and Scott 1990). Genetic exchange occurs between resident communities; hence the application of the demographically and behaviorally-based term "community" rather than "population" (Wells 1986). Up to about 30% of calves in Sarasota Bay apparently have been sired by non-residents (Duffield and Wells in press). A variety of potential exchange mechanisms occur in the Gulf. Small numbers of inshore dolphins traveling between regions have been reported, with patterns ranging from traveling through adjacent communities (Wells


Investing in education is defended for economic and non-economic reasons. Primary education provision is considered as the minimum education needed to equip citizens with skills required in life. It is a human right. It is for this reason that countries invest in primary education. Tanzania started implementing a comprehensive programme, the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) in 2002, designed to improve both access and quality. Due to pressure resulting from high pupils/classroom ratio and high pupils/desk ratio, the government introduced a number of reforms to cope with the situation. One such measure was to introduce a double shift system in government primary schools. Dar es Salaam region was chosen as the pilot region, with the aim of extending to other regions. This study attempted to analyse the impact of these reforms on quality, with Dar es Salaam region as the case study. The method of analysis included regression analysis and correlation analysis on primary data, covering issues related to learner performance. A comparison of performance is made between government and non-goverment primary schools. The findings of the study show no strong evidence of the impact of multiple shifts per se, but rather inadequate attention given to key ratios that improve performance, like availability of enough textbooks and teachers, i.e. implementing different foundation programmes. In order to safeguard quality, it is recommended that a common foundation programme be defined and implemented, with respect to levels of inputs and cost. In light of the aspirations of Tanzania's National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty, provision of universal secondary education is suggested.


There is an ongoing social battle over the power to determine the legal, ethical, and economic substance of the regime that governs corporations and specifies their powers and duties with regard to the protection of human rights. Whereas for much of the history of the modern corporation its object and purpose were widely considered to be settled by domestic law, custom, and social contract, revelations of massive corporate fraud at Enron et al., environmental disasters at Bhopal and in Alaska, allegations of corporate complicity in widespread violations of human rights in the developing world, and the gathering transnational strength of the human rights movement have unraveled this common understanding to form two contending camps with ideologically opposed visions of how corporations should be structured and held responsible for harms connected to their conduct. Both contend upon the terrain mapped out by a new social movement, entitled corporate social responsibility [CSR], which engages a variety of state and non-state actors in contestation over a host of political and legal projects designed by their architects to restrain corporations in their pursuit of self-interest and to hold them accountable to constituencies other than shareholders for their performance along dimensions such as the protection of the environment and human rights. For much of the past two decades the struggle between the two leading paradigms of corporate governance - shareholder theory and stakeholder theory - and, in turn, the evolution of the CSR movement, has been fought within the academy. However, the wave of corporate scandals in the first few years of the third millennium and the increasing sophistication of the international human rights movement have combined to draw the battle out of the academy and into new arenas - judicial, legislative, and regulatory. In this new phase of ideological and political contestation, the champions of shareholder theory are, naturally, many (and perhaps most) corporations and their shareholders. On the other side of the equation, a broad spectrum of nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] - pressure groups, charities, religious groups, interested individuals, and other entities organized around specific themes such as the promotion and protection of human rights, labor rights, indigenous rights, women's rights, and the environment - are the major proponents of stakeholder theory and of a much more expansive view of the obligations owed by corporations to constituencies under the rubric of CSR. What seem like vastly divergent interests, normative commitments, and worldviews of corporations on the one hand and human rights NGOs on the other would suggest the conclusion that conflict is inevitable and cooperation is impossible, especially in the emotion-laden and politically sensitive issue-area of human rights. This conclusion might appear all the more logical in light of the salience of CSR to the international human rights movement - it has moved to the forefront of its agenda - and in view of the strategies chosen by NGOs - litigation, application of political pressure within the United Nations and domestic governance spheres, and legislative attempts to reform corporations as quasi-public entities with human rights obligations akin to those of states. Yet despite the seeming intractability of and disparity between these two diametrically opposed visions of corporate responsibility for the protection and promotion of human rights, an analysis of the strategies available to corporations and to NGOs, augmented by the use of game theory, reveals that not only is cooperation possible but that a mode of governance dependent upon self-interested cooperation can yield the simultaneous outcomes of corporate profitability and protection of human rights. Accordingly, this Article will identify and analyze the strategies employed by NGOs and corporations in the battle over whether and to what extent corporations should bear responsibility for violations of human rights. Next, and with the assistance of game theoretic modeling, it will examine the strategic interactions between these two parties, determine optimal strategies for each party, identify any strategic equilibria, and analyze the findings. Integrative solutions will be proposed that might be adopted to facilitate the coexistence of corporate profitability and human rights and advance the theoretical debate beyond simple characterizations of NGOs as good and corporations as evil.


ABSTRACT Poly(γ-d-glutamic acid) (PGA)-producing strains ofBacillus species were investigated to determine their ability to contribute to reducing the amount of ammonium nitrogen in liquid manures and their ability to convert some of the ammonium into this polyamino acid as a transient depot for nitrogen. Organisms that do these things should help solve the serious environmental problems which are caused by the use of large amounts of liquid manure resulting from intensified agriculture; these problems are mainly due to the high content of ammonium nitrogen. Bacillus licheniformis ATCC 9945 and Bacillus subtilis were able to grow in liquid manure and to produce PGA in the presence of sodium gluconate. On artificial liquid manure these two strains were able to produce 0.85 and 0.79 g of PGA per liter, respectively. Under conditions that are found in intensified farming situations the ammonia content was reduced within 48 h from 1.3 to 0.75 g/liter. One mutant of B. subtilis 1551 impaired in the catabolism of PGA was obtained after nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis. This mutant produced PGA at a final concentration of 4.8 g/liter, whereas the wild type produced only 3.7 g/liter.


Abstract Context: Keloid is an excessive dermal scar occurring in response to skin injuries. Several therapeutic strategies have been proposed to ease the aggressiveness of keloid scarring. Even though the principle mechanism underlying the disease propagation still remains unidentified, several signaling pathways were highly focused as plausible pathways involving keloid formation, including transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and integrin pathways. Natural compounds containing multiple bioeffective properties such as quercetin, asiaticoside, Astragalus membranaceus Bunge. (Leguminosae), and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. (Lamiaceae) extracts, curcuminoids, oxymatrine, madecassoside, and Aneilema keisak Hassk. (Commelinaceae) are claimed as candidates for therapeutic treatment against keloid disorder. Objective: This review investigates current mechanisms regarding keloid formation and provides scientific evidence supporting the therapeutic potential of natural compounds. Methods: This review obtained and analyzed a number of literature data items from various databases including Pubmed, ScienceDirect, and Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO). Result: Several phytochemical compounds are able to suppress keloid scar development through manipulating various components in the complex signaling cascades. Conclusion: The present review may be helpful to future studies that further examine the molecular mechanism of keloid etiology as well as investigate the anti-keloid property in natural compounds.


beamforming in α − stable (non-Gaussian) noise using the constrained minimum output entropy (MOE) based algorithm. Following the same rational that lead to the least mean p-norm (LMP), the weight update adjustment for minimum output entropy is constrained by statistics higher than second order. Also, the MOE algorithm is very robust to impulsive noise due to its M-estimator property derived from the fact that MOE constrains the output entropy. We explain these results analytically, and through simulations.


Authors present their own postoperative results in nourishing the patients after laryngectomy. Their several years' observations, based on the group of 318 patients, were connected with the risk of the postoperative complications. In proposed way of nourishing (introduced by B. Latkowski) the point is in putting the nutritive drain not through the nose, but directly through the cutting during laryngectomy. The main aim of the research was presenting good points of this method and existence of no complications with the most dangerous--fistulas.


This paper presents the performance of seventeen rigid pavements made of Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) located in the State of Ohio, USA. The Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) testing method was used in a total of 58 km of PCC pavement sections to assess the pavement structural condition. Each section is classified as excellent, good, fair, or poor based on the normalized deflections obtained from FWD tests, spreadability, load transfer, and joint support ratio parameters. The overall performance of the analyzed sections is from good to excellent. The field testing methodology along with the performance data analyses presented in this publication are a valuable tool to evaluate the actual structural condition of pavements and as a result short or medium term rehabilitation programs can be issued to ensure the serviceability of the pavement.


Background Two previous randomized, controlled trials (RCTs), BREVACTA and SUMMACTA, showed subcutaneous tocilizumab (TCZ-SC) was superior to placebo (PBO) and comparable to intravenous TCZ (TCZ-IV) in combination with csDMARDs for improving RA disease activity.1,2 Objectives To compare the efficacy of TCZ-SC with PBO or TCZ-IV + csDMARDs for improvement in patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in 2 RCT populations. Methods Both RCTs enrolled patients (pts) with inadequate responses to DMARDs; up to 20% had inadequate responses to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors. In BREVACTA, pts received blinded TCZ-SC 162 mg or PBO every 2 weeks (q2w) + csDMARDs for 24 weeks. In SUMMACTA, pts received TCZ-SC 162 mg weekly or TCZ-IV 8 mg/kg q4w + csDMARDs for the 24-week double-blind period. PROs, assessed at 12 weeks (prior to rescue) in BREVACTA and 24 weeks in SUMMACTA, included patient global assessment (PtGA; visual analog score [VAS], 0–100 mm), pain (VAS), Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI, 0–3) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) physical and mental component summary (PCS, MCS: 0–50) and domain (0–100) scores. The proportions of pts reporting scores ≥ minimum clinically important differences (MCID) and ≥ age/gender-matched normative values were assessed for each treatment group. Results Baseline PRO scores were mostly comparable between treatment groups in each study and between study populations. In BREVACTA, significantly more pts who received TCZ-SC reported scores ≥ MCID for all PROs at week 12 compared with PBO (54% to 73% vs 42% to 55%, respectively; number needed to treat [NNT], 5.2 to 13.0). Compared with 1% to 20% at baseline, 8% to 34% of pts who received TCZ-SC and 4% to 25% of PBO pts reported scores ≥ normative values in all PROs at week 12 (Table). In SUMMACTA, similar proportions of pts who received TCZ-SC and TCZ-IV reported scores ≥ MCID in all PROs at week 24 (61% to 84% vs 64% to 84%, respectively). The proportion of patients who reported scores ≥ normative values was comparable between the TCZ-SC and TCZ-IV groups across all PROs; compared with 0.2% to 23% at baseline, 14% to 41% of pts who received TCZ-SC and 15% to 42% of pts who received TCZ-IV reported scores ≥ normative values at week 24 (Table). Conclusions In BREVACTA, TCZ-SC + csDMARDs resulted in significantly greater improvements across all PROs and significantly more pts reporting scores ≥ MCID at week 12 compared with PBO. Similarly, more pts receiving TCZ-SC reported scores ≥ normative values at week 12 compared with PBO, despite few pts with such scores at baseline. Responses were similar between pts treated with TCZ-SC and TCZ-IV + csDMARDs in SUMMACTA at week 24. These data show TCZ treatment resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in PROs and indicate that attainment of normative scores is a realistic goal in treatment of pts with active RA. References Kivitz A, et al. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2014;66:1653–61. Burmester G, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2014;73:69–74. Acknowledgements This study was funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech. Disclosure of Interest V. Strand Consultant for: Abbvie; Amgen; AstraZeneca; Biogen Idec; Boehringer Ingelheim; Celltrion; Crescendo; Genentech/Roche; GlaxoSmithKline; Janssen; Lilly; Merck; Novartis; Pfizer; Regeneron; Samsung; Sanofi; UCB, K. Lampl Employee of: Genentech, Inc, C. Birchwood Employee of: Genentech, Inc, J. Pei Employee of: Genentech, Inc, K. Tuckwell Shareholder of: Roche, Employee of: Roche, R. Finch Shareholder of: Roche, Employee of: Roche, A. Kivitz Consultant for: Genentech; Novartis; Pfizer; Sanofi-Regeneron; UCB, G. Burmester Grant/research support from: Roche, Consultant for: Roche


We use a version of the method of Deligne-Illusie to prove that the Hodge-to-de Rham, a.k.a. Hochschild-to-cyclic spectral sequence degenerates for a large class of associative, not necessariyl commutative DG algebras. This proves, under some assumption, a conjecture by Kontsevich and Soibelman made in math.RA/0606241. The approach is similar to my earlier paper math.AG/0511665, but the proof is more straightforward, and the underlying algebraic topology notions are explicitly described. The paper is independent of math.AG/0511665 and in a sense, supercedes it.


Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate exceptional performance in textual understanding and tabular reasoning tasks. However, their ability to comprehend and analyze hybrid text, containing textual and tabular data, remains underexplored. In this research, we specialize in harnessing the potential of LLMs to comprehend critical information from financial reports, which are hybrid long-documents. We propose an Automated Financial Information Extraction (AFIE) framework that enhances LLMs' ability to comprehend and extract information from financial reports. To evaluate AFIE, we develop a Financial Reports Numerical Extraction (FINE) dataset and conduct an extensive experimental analysis. Our framework is effectively validated on GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, yielding average accuracy increases of 53.94% and 33.77%, respectively, compared to a naive method. These results suggest that the AFIE framework offers accuracy for automated numerical extraction from complex, hybrid documents.


Background: It remains unclear whether parental occupational exposure to hydrocarbon solvents (HCS) or engine exhaust fumes (EEF) is associated with higher risks of cancer in the offspring. Objectives: Our aim was to estimate relative risks of childhood cancers associated with maternal or paternal exposure to aliphatic/alicyclic, aromatic, or chlorinated HCS or gasoline/diesel EEF. Methods: We conducted a case–control study in which individuals <20y old, born 1960–2014, were identified from the Swedish National Cancer Register (1960–2015) at first cancer diagnosis and matched to population controls (1 case:25 controls) on birth year and sex. Maternal and paternal occupation around the child's birth was retrieved for 9,653 cases and 172,194 controls and 12,521 cases and 274,434 controls, respectively, using information from six censuses and a nationwide register. Using the Swedish job-exposure matrix (SWEJEM), we assessed exposure to HCS and EEF (any or higher/lower). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of 15 childhood cancer subtypes were estimated using conditional logistic regression models adjusted for several confounders. Results: Maternal exposure to aromatic HCS was associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (OR=1.64; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.58), aliphatic/alicyclic HCS with germ cell tumors (OR=1.52; 95% CI: 0.89, 2.59), and gasoline/diesel EEF with astrocytoma (OR=1.40; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.88), myeloid leukemia (OR=1.53; 95% CI: 0.84, 2.81), lymphomas (OR=1.60; 95% CI: 0.85, 3.02 for Hodgkin; OR=1.44; 95% CI: 0.71, 2.91 for non-Hodgkin), and epithelial tumors (OR=1.51; 95% CI: 0.93, 2.44). Paternal exposure to gasoline EEF was associated with Hodgkin lymphoma (OR=1.21; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.44) and soft tissue sarcomas (OR=1.22; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.48). No notable difference was observed between higher and lower exposure. Discussion: Our findings suggest that occupational exposure to HCS or EEF, especially in the mother, may increase the risk of some childhood cancers. They add to the growing literature on adverse effects from HCS and EEF in the child, but replication of these associations in other populations is warranted. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11035


This case reports a woman in her 40s with a history of allergic reaction to shellfish and iodine who presented with tongue angioedema, difficulty breathing and chest tightness after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) COVID-19 vaccine. Her angioedema remained for 10 days post-exposure to the vaccine, requiring 3 days of epinephrine infusion. She was discharged with advice to avoid further mRNA vaccines. This case highlights the increasing awareness needed of polyethylene glycol (PEG) allergy and the protracted nature of her reaction. A firm conclusion cannot be reached based on a single case report. More research is needed to understand whether there is a causal relationship between the BNT162b2 vaccine and PEG allergy. Awareness regarding PEG allergy and the complexities associated with it is important and needs to be raised due to its prevalent use in diverse industries.


The randomized controlled trial is the model against which research designs are judged. Concurrent with rising standards of evidence, however, is a trend toward greater inclusiveness in community-based research, exemplified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded Prevention Research Centers, a nationwide network of academic-community partnerships engaged in community-based health promotion and disease prevention research. The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center developed a replicable process for devising randomized trials in the context of community collaboration. Several examples of trials developed this way and their interim results are provided.


The development of mining to acquire the best raw materials for producing stone tools represents a breakthrough in human technological and intellectual development. We present a new approach to studying the history of flint mining, using in situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be concentrations. We show that the raw material used to manufacture flint artifacts approximately 300,000 years old from Qesem Cave (Israel) was most likely surface-collected or obtained from shallow quarries, whereas artifacts of the same period from Tabun Cave (Israel) were made of flint originating from layers 2 or more meters deep, possibly mined or quarried by humans.


In this paper, we estimate the fiscal impact on population aging in Brazil from 2005 through 2050. We focus on three key areas of public spending: education, pensions, and health care. Our projections are based on a simple model in which aggregate public expenditures are driven by changes in the age structure of the population as well as by changes in the average public benefits received per age. We assess the likely increases in public spending over the coming decades, contrasting the divergent trends in public spending on education, pensions, and health care. We also assess the magnitude of these changes in terms of growth in spending relative to GDP annually through 2050 and estimate the present value of the increase in spending. We find that changing population age structure will lead to increasing cost pressures in health care and especially in pensions. Our projections show that beginning around 2015, public spending will begin a sustained and rapid increase lasting several decades rising from 18% of GDP to reach 27% of GDP by 2050. The needs for increased investment in students will compete against those for sustaining pension benefits and facing increasing demands for health care. In particular, our projections show that an ambitious educational reform aimed at reaching the OECD level of investment per youth within a decade would amount to only about one fourth of the projected cost increases in public health and pension programs.


Abstract Objectives: to evaluate prenatal care in Primary Care by identifying the aspects that influence structural and operational adequacy. Methods: evaluation research with analysis of 4,059 municipalities that joined the 2nd cycle of the Program for Improving Access and Quality in Primary Care in 2013-2014. The evaluative model composed of 19 indicators grouped in structural aspects and operational aspects dimensions was validated in a consensus conference. Data analysis was descriptive, with the issuance of value judgment. Results: in structural aspects, 32.6% of the municipalities presented adequacy, whilst in operational ones, only 24.1%. In the general prenatal evaluation, less than a quarter (24.6%) of the municipalities was adequate, those with up to 10 thousand inhabitants had a higher percentage of adequacy (41.6%). The South region presented adequacy of 33.8%, considering all sizes. Conclusions: most municipalities presented low adequacy in prenatal care, with better performance of structural aspects. Smaller municipalities presented better results in all analyzed items. Structural aspects and general evaluation of prenatal care are highlighted in the South region. Adequate attention to prenatal care needs to be comprehensive and equitable, with the strengthening of regional networks geared towards social inclusion.