Block clustering and seriation reveal the underlying structure of ecological data structures by rearranging the rows and the columns of the data table or data matrix, usually representing species and sample sites, respectively. Classical approaches to this problem rely upon a goodness criterion optimized through an iterative algorithm or utilize a simultaneous classification or ordination of species and sites. The new procedure intro- duced here does not strive for a single optimal rearrangement. Instead, it generates a series of probability distributions, the Boltzmann distributions, for a large set of solutions that include both the optimal and suboptimal solutions. The procedure is governed by a hy- pothetical parameter, T, called the ''temperature.'' For the value of zero, only the best rearrangements (if there are many) have nonzero probabilities. As the value of this parameter increases, less optimal rearrangements become more frequent in the associated series of distributions. When T approaches infinity, the distribution becomes uniform over all the possible matrix rearrangements. We propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method which converges reasonably fast to this distribution for any value of T. This chain provides a sample of matrices that can be characterized via several statistics based on the Boltzmann distribution. The relevance of the method is demonstrated using ecological data. We illustrate how much extra information can be gained from suboptimal solutions that may have biological meaning not revealed by the best solution. Although the objective is to give a distribution of solutions rather than a single optimal solution, the new method can actually outperform heuristic searching algorithms in finding the best arrangement. We provide source code for the MCMC method in the C language, which can be compiled under many operating systems (Windows, Linux/Unix, Macintosh OS) and used in command line mode. The Linux/Unix version operates in interactive mode, it gives a graphical output of the results, and is available as a web server interface in PHP 4.3, which can also be installed on personal computers.


Abstract Macroalgae (seaweeds) have an intimate relationship with their microbial symbionts. Microbial communities associated with macroalgal surfaces (epibiota) are generally host-specific and, historically, there has been great interest in the role of biological compounds and chemical warfare in microbial community assembly on seaweeds. However, the interaction between seaweeds and their environment may also influence community assembly of their microbiota. In my thesis, I conduct two experiments that ask how factors not related to seaweed chemistry influence microbial community assembly. First, I ask whether the interaction between flow and seaweed morphology affects the settlement and structure of microbial biofilms. In this project, I test whether three common algal morphologies select for differential biofilm communities using artificial macroalgae units (AM units) made out of latex. I find that morphology does affect initial microbial settlement and community structure, but that eventual dominance of substrate specialists (in our case a latex degrader) swamps the influence of morphology in long-term biofilms. The second chapter of my thesis asks whether macroalgae affect the microbial epibiota of each other. To test this, I co-incubate Nereocystis leutkeana meristem fragments with different species of mature macroalgae. I find that although water column communities change significantly when incubated with mature macroalgae, seaweed surface communities are far more resistant to change. Overall, these results support the idea that the seaweed surfaces are highly selective, and demonstrate that modulations on seaweed microbiota operate within an overarching paradigm of species specificity. With these experiments, I hope to contribute to the larger body of knowledge on seaweed-microbe associations and improve understanding of how, and why, we find the observed microbiota on seaweed surfaces.


Discovered almost simultaneously with insulin, glucagon is a pleiotropic hormone with metabolic action that goes far beyond its classical role to increase blood glucose. Albeit best known for its ability to directly act on the liver to increase de novo glucose production and to inhibit glycogen breakdown, glucagon lowers body weight by decreasing food intake and by increasing metabolic rate. Glucagon further promotes lipolysis and lipid oxidation and has positive chronotropic and inotropic effects in the heart. Interestingly, recent decades have witnessed a remarkable renaissance of glucagon's biology with the acknowledgment that glucagon has pharmacological value beyond its classical use as rescue medication to treat severe hypoglycemia. In this article, we summarize the multifaceted nature of glucagon with a special focus on its hepatic action and discuss the pharmacological potential of either agonizing or antagonizing the glucagon receptor for health and disease. © 2021 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 11:1759-1783, 2021.


An analytical modelling approach for fully differential amplifiers is presented and validated through examples. Separation of the analysis into two steps coupled with linear superposition techniques leads to concise mathematical expressions. An added benefit of the two-step approach is that the usual symmetry assumptions are not needed. As a consequence, the results hold for arbitrary element values. The mathematical results are validated by comparison to SPICE simulations and experimental data.


We study the quantum ground state of ultracold bosons in a two-dimensional square lattice. The bosons interact via the repulsive dipolar interactions and s -wave scattering. The dynamics is described by the extended Bose-Hubbard model including correlated hopping due to the dipolar interactions, and the coefficients are found from the second quantized Hamiltonian using the Wannier expansion with realistic parameters. We determine the phase diagram using the Gutzwiller ansatz in the regime where the coefficients of the correlated hopping terms are negative and can interfere with the tunneling due to single-particle effects. We show that this interference gives rise to staggered superfluid and supersolid phases at vanishing kinetic energy, while we identify parameter regions at finite kinetic energy where the phases are incompressible. We compare the results with the phase diagram obtained with the cluster Gutzwiller approach and with the results found in one dimension using the density-matrix renormalization group.


Optimal well placement targeting sweet spots within the reservoir is critical for oil field development. However, geological uncertainty can potentially impact the robustness of the well planning solutions and may negatively impact field development strategies. Traditional workflows may seek the optimal well locations either on one geological model or in an average manner over a set of selected geological realizations by optimizing a chosen objective function such as Net Present Value (NPV). These approaches however tend to be somewhat deficient for realistic field case studies. Firstly, traditional workflows avoid an explicit treatment of well planning variance due to geological uncertainty. Secondly, traditional optimization normally cannot meet the requirement of optimizing two or more conflicting objective functions simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a workflow that handles geological uncertainty in a novel manner. The workflow is based on a multi-objective optimization approach using the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). The mean NPV is maximized while the standard deviation is minimized simultaneously for all well placement scenarios over all geological realizations. The power and utility of the proposed workflow is demonstrated on a reservoir case study. The results indicate that the proposed approach leads to improved decision making capabilities by providing a suite of well planning solutions that can be incorporated in decision making. Moreover, this workflow demonstrates a novel treatment of geological uncertainty. It takes into account the risk attitude of decision-makers and broadens field development strategies intelligently.


1D metal‐oxide nanostructures have attracted much attention because metal oxides are the most fascinating functional materials. The 1D morphologies can easily enhance the unique properties of the metal‐oxide nanostructures, which make them suitable for a wide variety of applications, including gas sensors, electrochromic devices, light‐emitting diodes, field emitters, supercapacitors, nanoelectronics, and nanogenerators. Therefore, much effort has been made to synthesize and characterize 1D metal‐oxide nanostructures in the forms of nanorods, nanowires, nanotubes, nanobelts, etc. Various physical and chemical deposition techniques and growth mechanisms are exploited and developed to control the morphology, identical shape, uniform size, perfect crystalline structure, defects, and homogenous stoichiometry of the 1D metal‐oxide nanostructures. Here a comprehensive review of recent developments in novel synthesis, exceptional characteristics, and prominent applications of one‐dimensional nanostructures of tungsten oxides, molybdenum oxides, tantalum oxides, vanadium oxides, niobium oxides, titanium oxides, nickel oxides, zinc oxides, bismuth oxides, and tin oxides is provided.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the incidence of occult cerebrospinal fluid fistulas after endoscopic paranasal sinus surgery.

DESIGN
Prospective diagnostic test study with a 6-month follow-up in case of cerebrospinal fluid detection.

SETTING
Tertiary care hospital.

SUBJECTS
The study population comprised 69 patients undergoing routine endoscopic paranasal sinus surgery. Patients with an obvious intraoperative or postoperative cerebrospinal fluid fistula were not included.

INTERVENTION
Analysis of 112 samples from intraoperative applied tamponades and of 69 serum samples using a nephelometric research assay for beta-trace protein (prostaglandin D synthase).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Incidence of occult cerebrospinal fluid fistula during endoscopic paranasal sinus surgery as indicated with the help of a test for beta-trace protein; at least a 6-month follow-up of patients with an occult cerebrospinal fluid fistula; and relation of occult cerebrospinal fluid fistula with surgical experience of the surgeon.

RESULTS
Beta-trace protein was found in ethmoid roof samples from 2 patients, giving an incidence of 2.9% for occult cerebrospinal fluid fistula. Both patients were operated on by very experienced surgeons. Signs of a cerebrospinal fluid fistula were not found at follow-up at least 6 months after surgery.

CONCLUSIONS
Nephelometric beta-trace protein assay is a highly sensitive method to detect otherwise unobserved cerebrospinal fluid fistulas. The clinical course of the 2 patients with an occult cerebrospinal fluid fistula indicated the possibility of an uneventful follow-up of patients with small fistulas.


Abstract To understand past and future sea-level variability, it is important to know if during an interglacial the eustatic sea level is constant or oscillates by several meters around an average value. Several field sites within and outside the tropics have been interpreted to suggest such oscillations during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e (129–116 ka). Here, we present our analysis of one such non-tropical site, Hergla, where a facies succession indicates two foreshore deposits above each other, previously interpreted as MIS 5e sea-level highstand amplified by a second rise. Our study, based on field, microfacies, and optical age Bayesian statistics shows a sea-level rise forming the upper foreshore strata that coincided with the global sea-level rise of the MIS 5a interstadial. The site does therefore not provide evidence for the MIS 5e double peak. We conclude from our analysis that the facies-based proxy is insensitive to small-scale sea-level oscillation. Likewise, uncertainties associated with age estimates are too large to robustly infer a short-term sea-level change.


The sub-chronic exposure of arsenic is associated with human health risk including renal-toxicity, hepatic-toxicity and neuro-toxicity. The protective efficacy of fruit extract of Emblica-officinalis (amla) was studied in Balb/c mice against arsenic induced renal toxicity.
The study was divided in four groups having five mice in each group. Increased arsenic level in renal tissue associated with enhanced oxidative stress, decrease in the levels of glutathione and activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase was observed in mice exposed to arsenic (sodium arsenite, 3 mg/kg body weight, p.o., 30 days).
Simultaneous treatment of amla (500 mg/kg body weight, p.o., 30 days) and arsenic exposed mice caused an increase antioxidant enzyme and decreases arsenic levels in renal tissue as compared to arsenic treated mice. No significant effect on any of these parameters was observed in mice treated with amla (500 mg/kg body weight, p.o., 30 days) alone compared to controls. A significant protective efficacy in mice simultaneously treated with arsenic and amla suggested the renal protective efficacy of amla.


Abstract This study presents the results of spectral analysis of magnetic data over Abeokuta area, Southwestern Nigeria, using fast Fourier transform (FFT) in Microsoft Excel. The study deals with the quantitative interpretation of airborne magnetic data (Sheet No. 260), which was conducted by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency in 2009. In order to minimise aliasing error, the aeromagnetic data was gridded at spacing of 1 km. Spectral analysis technique was used to estimate the magnetic basement depth distributed at two levels. The result of the interpretation shows that the magnetic sources are mainly distributed at two levels. The shallow sources (minimum depth) range in depth from 0.103 to 0.278 km below ground level and are inferred to be due to intrusions within the region. The deeper sources (maximum depth) range in depth from 2.739 to 3.325 km below ground and are attributed to the underlying basement.


Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) was extracted from thyroid tissue obtained at surgery for thyroid adenoma and adenocarcinoma and compared with that extracted from the thyroid tissue obtained at autopsy of non-thyroid disease. The amount of GAG was almost doubled in thyroid adenoma and increased from 6 to 15 fold in adenocarcinoma when compared with that of apparently normal thyroid tissue. Analysis by Sepharose 2B or 6B column chromatography revealed that at least a part of the GAG in thyroid carcinoma tissue was present in macromolecule form and the molecular size became smaller when treated with papain or alkaline borohydride. The results indicated that those fractions of GAG were present as proteoglycans. The GAG was composed of a mixture of heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate or dermatan sulfate in one carcinoma tissue and mainly composed of chondroitin sulfate or dermatan sulfate in the other. The mechanism of the increase in proteoglycan and GAG remains to be elucidated.


Abstract Background and Aims: Atherosclerosis has become a prominent health problem in Indonesia. Based on food as medicine concept, tempe gembus (a fermented food from Indonesia) is well known having the content of nutrient that influences atherosclerosis parameter. Research aimed to prove the influence of different variation of tempe gembus that was given without additional treatment (X1), with the steam blanching heating (X2), and was added the bromelain enzyme (X3) to the level of serum Homocysteine (Hcy) and Malondialdehyde (MDA) of rat's blood that was given the atherogenic diet. Material and Methods: The research of posttest randomized controlled group design on 35 Sprague dawley rats were divided into two main groups as follow; they were 2 control groups (called K− and K+) and 3 treatment groups. All of the treatment groups were given tempe gembus of 25 gram/kg rat body weight. Results: The results showed that group variation of tempe gembus had a lower mean of Hcy and MDA levels than disease group (K+). However, a significant effect of tempe gembus was only decrease in MDA level (ANOVA test p = 0.001). Treatment X1 and X3 had meaningful differences to decrease MDA levels. Conclusion: Tempe gembus variation can decrease the MDA level significantly and decrease the Hcy level however, without statistical significance.


Background and Purpose— Although there has been extensive research on the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to improve patients' motor performance after experiencing chronic stroke, explicit findings on the coupling of different rTMS protocols are meager. We designed this sham-controlled randomized study to investigate the potential for a consecutive suppressive-facilitatory TMS protocol to improve motor outcomes after chronic stroke. Methods— Fifty-four chronic hemiplegic stroke patients were allocated across 4 groups to undergo 20 daily sessions of (1) 1 Hz rTMS over the contralesional primary motor cortex (M1) and then intermittent theta burst stimulation over the ipsilesional M1 (group A); (2) contralesional sham stimulation and then ipsilesional real intermittent theta burst stimulation (group B); (3) contralesional real 1 Hz rTMS and then ipsilesional sham stimulation (group C); or (4) bilateral sham-control procedures (group D). We tested cortical excitability and motor activity assessments at the baseline, postpriming rTMS, and postconsequent rTMS periods. Results— At post, group A showed greater muscle strength, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Wolf Motor Function test, and reaction time improvement in comparison with group B (P<0.001≈0.003) and group C (P=0.001≈0.003). Correlation analyses in group A revealed a close relation between contralesional map area decrement and Wolf Motor Function test gain (P=0.005; r=−0.75), and also revealed ipsilesional map area increment and reaction time decrement (P=0.02; r=−0.87). We detected no such relations in the other 3 groups. Conclusions— Our clinical trials established an extended timeframe during which conditioning could be safely continued and produced more favorable outcomes in facilitating motor performance and ameliorating interhemispheric imbalance than those obtained from single-course rTMS modulation alone.


Independent component analysis (ICA) is essentially a method for extracting useful information from data. Independent component analysis finds underlying factors or components from multidimensional statistical data. ICA is distinguished from other methods in a way that, it looks for components that are both statistically independent, and non-gaussian. Since ICA algorithm is computationally complex and uses large volume of data sets, there is a need for technique that provides potentially faster and even real-time implementations for ICA algorithms for signal and image processing applications. Very large scale integration (VLSI) technology is a solution that provides Modularity, hierarchy, parallelism and satisfies these requirements. Reconfigurable modules play major role nowadays because they are highly reusable and ready to be retargeted to other ICA-related applications. However these solutions also have some limitations and Critical Challenges. This paper reviews basic concepts of ICA, existing methods of ICA, merits and demerits of its VLSI implementation. Though Review of ICA is done in several articles, review of ICA In VLSI, Major Challenges In ICA implementation is discussed in this paper in comprehensive manner.


In order to take full advantage of SiC, a high-temperature wirebond package for multichip phase-leg power module using SiC devices was designed, developed, fabricated, and tested. The details of the material comparison and selection are described, thus culminating a feasible solution for high-temperature operation. A thermal cycling test with large temperature excursion (from -55°C to 250°C) was carried out to evaluate the thermomechanical reliability of the package. During the test, the substrate failed before other parts in 20 cycles. A sealing edge approach was proposed to improve the thermal reliability of the substrate. With the strengthening of the sealing material, the substrate, die-attachment, and wirebond assemblies exhibited satisfactoriness in the thermomechanical reliability tests. In order to evaluate the high-temperature operation ability of designed package, one prototype module was designed and fabricated. The high-temperature continuous power test shows that the package presented in this paper can perform well at 250°C junction temperature.


This study aims to identify per capita GRDP disparities in 13 provinces in Eastern Indonesia. The data used in this study is secondary data obtained from the website of the Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS). The analytical method used in this study is the Williamson index, panel data and convergence analysis. The results show that regional disparities using the Williams Index tend to decrease towards equity. Convergence analysis shows that there has been absolute beta convergence at a rate of 9.24 percent per year, conditional beta convergence analysis shows that there is no conditional beta convergence. Sigma convergence analysis shows a decrease in the dispersion of per capita income, which means that there has been a sigma convergence between provinces in Eastern Indonesia.


Study Design. Retrospective review of medical records and radiographs. Objective. We assessed the clinical outcomes of lumbosacral dissociation (LSD) after traumatic, combat-related injuries, and to review our management of these distinct injuries and report our preliminary follow-up. Summary of Background Data. LSD injuries are an anatomic separation of the pelvis from the spinal column, and are the result of high-energy trauma. A relative increase in these injuries has been seen in young healthy combat casualties subjected to high-energy blast trauma. Methods. We performed a retrospective review of inpatient/outpatient medical records and radiographs for all patients treated at our institution with combat-related lumbosacral dissociations. Twenty-three patients met inclusion criteria of combat-related lumbosacral dissociations with one-year follow-up. Patients were treated as follows: no fixation (9), sacroiliac screw fixation (8), posterior spinal fusion (5) and sacral plate (1). All patients with radiographic evidence of a zone III sacral fracture, in addition to associated lumbar fractures indicating loss of the iliolumbar ligamentous complex integrity were included. Results. In 15 patients, the sacral fracture were an H or U type zone III fracture, whereas in the remaining nine, the sacral fracture was severely comminuted and unable to classify (six open fractures). There was no difference in visual analog scale (VAS) between treatment modalities. Two open injuries had residual infections. One patient treated with an L4-ilium posterior spinal fusion with instrumentation required instrumentation removal for infection. At a mean follow-up of 1.71 years (range, 1–4.5), 11 patients (48%) still reported residual pain and the mean VAS at latest follow-up was 1.7 (range, 0–7). Conclusion. Operative stabilization promoted healing and earlier mobilization, but carries a high-postoperative risk of infection. Nonoperative management should be considered in patients whose comorbidities prevent safe stabilization.


The functionalities of myoelectric hooks, such as whether they allow wrist movements, as well as the volume and design of the devices, may impact how fitted transradial amputees use their upper limbs. The aim of the current study was to compare two prosthetic myoelectric hooks in terms of compensatory shoulder movements, functionality and user satisfaction. This monocentric, randomized, controlled, cross-over trial evaluated eight transradial amputees fitted with two prosthetic myoelectric hooks, the Greifer and the Axon-Hook, during two consecutive periods. At the end of each period, shoulder abduction (mean and percentage of time with shoulder abduction > 60°) and manual dexterity were assessed using the Box and Blocks Test (BBT) on both sides, and satisfaction was assessed with the Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology questionnaire. For each patient, data obtained with the BBT on the amputated side were compared with those obtained on the non-amputated side. Shoulder abduction was significantly higher with the Greifer (60.9°± 20.3°, p = 0.03) than with the Axon-Hook (39.8°± 16.9°) and also than with the NA side (37.6 ± 19.4°, p = 0.02). Shoulder abduction on the NA side (37.6 ± 19.4°) was close to that of the Axon-Hook (39.8°± 16.9°). The percentage of time spent with shoulder abduction > 60° during the BBT was higher with the Greifer than with the Axon-Hook or with the NA side (53.3 ± 34.4%, 17.6 ± 27.0% and 18.4 ± 34.9%, respectively), but the differences were not significant (p = 0.15). A significant strong negative correlation was found between shoulder abduction and wrist position with the Axon-Hook (r = -0.86; p < 0.01), but not with the Greifer. Manual dexterity and satisfaction did not differ significantly between the two devices. These results revealed compensatory movements, such as shoulder abduction in transradial amputees equipped with hooks, themselves influenced by the prosthetic device settings.


The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Park Service (NPS) work together through the USGS–NPS WaterQuality Partnership to support a broad range of policy and management needs related to high-priority water-quality issues in national parks. The program was initiated in 1998 as part of the Clean Water Action Plan, a Presidential initiative to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Partnership projects are developed jointly by the USGS and the NPS. Studies are conducted by the USGS and findings are used by the NPS to guide policy and management actions aimed at protecting and improving water quality. The National Park Service manages many of our Nation's most highly valued aquatic systems across the country, including portions of the Great Lakes, ocean and coastal zones, historic canals, reservoirs, large rivers, high-elevation lakes and streams, geysers, springs, and wetlands. So far, the Water-Quality Partnership has undertaken 217 projects in 119 national parks. In each project, USGS studies and assessments (http://water.usgs. gov/nps_partnership/pubs.php) have supported science-based management by the NPS to protect and improve water quality in parks. Some of the current projects are highlighted in the NPS Call to Action Centennial initiative, Crystal Clear, which celebrates national park water-resource efforts to ensure clean water for the next century of park management (http://www.nature.nps. gov/water/crystalclear/). New projects are proposed each year by USGS scientists working in collaboration with NPS staff in specific parks. Project selection is highly competitive, with an average of only eight new projects funded each year out of approximately 75 proposals that are submitted. Since the beginning of the Partnership in 1998, 189 publications detailing project findings have been completed. The 217 studies have been conducted in 119 NPSadministered lands (fig. 1), extending from Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska to Everglades National Park in Florida, and from Acadia National Park in the Northeast to park lands in Hawaii and Pacific Island territories in the West. Project goals range from periodic stream monitoring, to determining the occurrence and concentrations of contaminants and the potential for them to exceed human health or aquatic life criteria, to conducting interpretive studies to evaluate the effect(s) on or vulnerability of national park resources to visitor usage and other natural and anthropogenic activities.


Service computing plays a critical role in business automation and we can observe a rapid increase of web services and their compositions nowadays. Web services, their compositions, providers, consumers, and other entities such as context information, collectively form an evolving service ecosystem. Many service recommendation methods have been proposed to facilitate the use of services. However, existing approaches are mostly based on all-time statistics of usage patterns, and overlook the temporal aspect, i.e., the evolution of the ecosystem. As a result, recommendation may consist of obsolete services and also does not reflect the latest trend in the ecosystem. In order to overcome this limitation, we propose an innovative three-phase network prediction approach (NPA) for evolution-aware recommendation. First, we introduce a network series model to formalize the evolution of the service ecosystem and then develop a network analysis method to study the usage pattern with a special focus on its temporal evolution. Afterward a novel service network prediction method based on rank aggregation is proposed to predict the evolution of the network. Finally, using the network prediction model, we present how to recommend potential compositions, top services and service chains, respectively. Experiments on the real-world ProgrammableWeb data set show that our method achieves a superior performance in service recommendation, compared with those that are agnostic to the evolution of a service ecosystem.


In this research discusses the influence of the cooling load variations on job performance refrigeration includes refrigeration capacity, coefficient of performance and cooling time, the compressor, the impact of refrigeration and compression work with refrigerants R12 and LPG. This study uses a variation of the load is light 20watt, 40Watt, 60Watt, and 80watt at the time of the study for 30 minutes for each of the cooling load, the file retrieval is done use the cooling machine refrigerator sanyo type with dimensions of 90 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm. The results showed the optimum value of COP (coeficient of Performance) of the fridge that I use on the refrigerant R12 and LPG with a load of 40 watts and 30 minutes was 4.75 for R12 and 5.00 for LPG,Obtained that use LPG refrigerant temperature produced less than R12 at the same time that is 30 minutes, the temperature on LPG without cooling load is 10 o C, the load is 11 o C 20 watt, 40 watt load by 12 o C, 60 watt load of 15 o C, and for a load of 80 watts by 17 o C and R12 produced no load temperature is 12 o C, 20 watt load as big as 13 o C, 40 o C as a 15 watt, 60 watt load of 16 o C, and for a load of 80 watts of 18 o C it is seen that the use of LPG refrigerants better because it has a pretty good engine performance compared to R12 views of COP obtained from the same load. Key word:Cooling load ,COP, LPG, refrigerant


Background: Sarcopenia is an emerging clinical challenge in an ageing population and is associated with serious negative health outcomes. This study aimed to assess the current state of knowledge about the concept of sarcopenia, diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia in a cohort of Dutch healthcare professionals (physicians, physiotherapists, dietitians and others) attending a lecture cycle on sarcopenia. Methods: Healthcare professionals (n=223) were asked to complete a questionnaire before, directly after and five months after attending a lecture cycle on the pathophysiology of sarcopenia, diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia, i.e. interventions and collaboration. Results: Before attendance, 69.7% of healthcare professionals stated to know the concept of sarcopenia, 21.4% indicated to know how to diagnose sarcopenia and 82.6% had treated patients with suspected sarcopenia. 47.5% of the healthcare professionals used their clinical view as diagnostic strategy. Handgrip strength was the most frequently used objective diagnostic measure (33.9%). Five months after attendance, reported use of diagnostic tests was increased, i.e. handgrip strength up to 67.4%, gait speed up to 72.1% and muscle mass up to 20.9%. Bottlenecks during implementation of the diagnostic strategy were experienced by 67.1%; lack of awareness among other healthcare professionals, acquisition of equipment and time constraints to perform the diagnostic measures were reported most often. Before attendance, 36.4% stated not to consult a physiotherapists or exercise therapists (PT/ET) or dietitian for sarcopenia interventions, 10.5% consulted a PT/ET, 32.7% a dietitian and 20.5% both a PT/ET and dietitian. Five months after attendance, these percentages were 28.3%, 21.7%, 30.0% and 20.0% respectively. A lack of collaboration was experienced by 36.8%. Conclusion: The concept of sarcopenia is familiar to most healthcare professionals but application in practice is hampered, mostly by lack of knowledge, availability of equipment, time constraints and lack of collaboration. Introduction The clinical relevance of sarcopenia is increasingly being recognized and a clinical challenge in our ageing population. Sarcopenia is associated with negative health outcomes such as falls [1, 2], impaired standing balance [3], physical disability [4, 5] and mortality [6, 7]. Sarcopenia is a public health burden and entails high healthcare costs associated with hospitalization, outpatient clinic visits and home healthcare expenditure [8, 9]. According to survey data from the United States, direct costs of sarcopenia may be up to 1.5% of the total healthcare costs [9]. Prevalence rates of sarcopenia vary up to 34% in geriatric outpatients dependent on the used definition [10]. To date, no consensus definition of sarcopenia has been reached, however, most recent definitions are based on measures of muscle mass, muscle strength and gait speed [11-13]. Combined intervention of physical exercise and adequate protein intake is more effective in increasing muscle mass and muscle strength compared to either physical exercise or nutritional intervention alone [14-17]. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach is required in which different healthcare professionals play a key role in the diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia. This requires common knowledge about the concept of sarcopenia, a diagnostic strategy and optimal management of sarcopenia including consultation and collaboration between diverse healthcare professionals. This study aimed to assess the current state of knowledge about the concept of sarcopenia, diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia in a cohort of different Dutch healthcare professionals attending the Sarcopenia Road Show, a postgraduate, multidisciplinary lecture cycle for healthcare professionals with different backgrounds (physicians, physiotherapists, dietitians and others). Methods Study design This longitudinal study included 223 medical and allied healthcare professionals attending the lecture cycle 'Sarcopenia Road Show'. Healthcare professionals worked either in primary care, nursing homes or hospitals. Medical healthcare professionals included physicians (geriatricians, internists, internist-geriatricians, nursing home physicians, general practitioners (GP) and residents, considered as one group), nurses and GP assistants; allied healthcare 44654 Esmee Reijnierse.indd 128 20-02-17 15:14 Awareness on sarcopenia among healthcare professionals 129 8 Abstract Background: Sarcopenia is an emerging clinical challenge in an ageing population and is associated with serious negative health outcomes. This study aimed to assess the current state of knowledge about the concept of sarcopenia, diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia in a cohort of Dutch healthcare professionals (physicians, physiotherapists, dietitians and others) attending a lecture cycle on sarcopenia. Methods: Healthcare professionals (n=223) were asked to complete a questionnaire before, directly after and five months after attending a lecture cycle on the pathophysiology of sarcopenia, diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia, i.e. interventions and collaboration. Results: Before attendance, 69.7% of healthcare professionals stated to know the concept of sarcopenia, 21.4% indicated to know how to diagnose sarcopenia and 82.6% had treated patients with suspected sarcopenia. 47.5% of the healthcare professionals used their clinical view as diagnostic strategy. Handgrip strength was the most frequently used objective diagnostic measure (33.9%). Five months after attendance, reported use of diagnostic tests was increased, i.e. handgrip strength up to 67.4%, gait speed up to 72.1% and muscle mass up to 20.9%. Bottlenecks during implementation of the diagnostic strategy were experienced by 67.1%; lack of awareness among other healthcare professionals, acquisition of equipment and time constraints to perform the diagnostic measures were reported most often. Before attendance, 36.4% stated not to consult a physiotherapists or exercise therapists (PT/ET) or dietitian for sarcopenia interventions, 10.5% consulted a PT/ET, 32.7% a dietitian and 20.5% both a PT/ET and dietitian. Five months after attendance, these percentages were 28.3%, 21.7%, 30.0% and 20.0% respectively. A lack of collaboration was experienced by 36.8%. Conclusion: The concept of sarcopenia is familiar to most healthcare professionals but application in practice is hampered, mostly by lack of knowledge, availability of equipment, time constraints and lack of collaboration. Introduction The clinical relevance of sarcopenia is increasingly being recognized and a clinical challenge in our ageing population. Sarcopenia is associated with negative health outcomes such as falls [1, 2], impaired standing balance [3], physical disability [4, 5] and mortality [6, 7]. Sarcopenia is a public health burden and entails high healthcare costs associated with hospitalization, outpatient clinic visits and home healthcare expenditure [8, 9]. According to survey data from the United States, direct costs of sarcopenia may be up to 1.5% of the total healthcare costs [9]. Prevalence rates of sarcopenia vary up to 34% in geriatric outpatients dependent on the used definition [10]. To date, no consensus definition of sarcopenia has been reached, however, most recent definitions are based on measures of muscle mass, muscle strength and gait speed [11-13]. Combined intervention of physical exercise and adequate protein intake is more effective in increasing muscle mass and muscle strength compared to either physical exercise or nutritional intervention alone [14-17]. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach is required in which different healthcare professionals play a key role in the diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia. This requires common knowledge about the concept of sarcopenia, a diagnostic strategy and optimal management of sarcopenia including consultation and collaboration between diverse healthcare professionals. This study aimed to assess the current state of knowledge about the concept of sarcopenia, diagnostic strategy and management of sarcopenia in a cohort of different Dutch healthcare professionals attending the Sarcopenia Road Show, a postgraduate, multidisciplinary lecture cycle for healthcare professionals with different backgrounds (physicians, physiotherapists, dietitians and others). Methods Study design This longitudinal study included 223 medical and allied healthcare professionals attending the lecture cycle 'Sarcopenia Road Show'. Healthcare professionals worked either in primary care, nursing homes or hospitals. Medical healthcare professionals included physicians (geriatricians, internists, internist-geriatricians, nursing home physicians, general practitioners (GP) and residents, considered as one group), nurses and GP assistants; allied healthcare 44654 Esmee Reijnierse.indd 129 20-02-17 15:14


Inverse photoemission spectroscopy (IPES) in the vacuum ultraviolet region was applied to directly observe unoccupied electronic structures in a few kinds of organic thin films. The genuine IPE spectrum for the lowest unoccupied states in a long-chain alkane film was first obtained with a fairly low level of electron irradiation. The electronic structure around the energy gap in a perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) film was examined by combining the observed IPE spectrum with previous ultraviolet photoemission spectra, to discuss its charge carrier characteristics. IPE measurements of PTCDA films were further extended to study electron injection behaviours due to alkali metal doping into those films, and by analysing the observed results the amount of injected electrons per molecule was evaluated with relation to the dopant concentration. The derived relationship has been explained with the aid of DV-Xα calculations of the energy levels concerned.


This paper describes a robotic-head system as a multimodal communication device for human-robot interaction, and the system's potential application in home environments. Most robotic systems for natural user interaction have facial expressions, since facial expressiveness is regarded as a key component to developing personal attachment along with prosodic expressiveness. In the first part of the paper is the description of our robotic head system Character Robot Face (CRF). A deformation approach and a parametric normalization scheme are proposed to produce facial expressions of nonhuman face models with high recognition rates. In the second half of the paper, CRF is endowed with artificial emotions and assigned tasks conceivable in home environments. A coordination mechanism between the robot's mood (an activated emotion) and its task is proposed so that the robot can, by referring to the emotion-task history, select a task depending on its current mood if there is no explicit task command from the user. When the robot performs a task, a particular emotion value gets boosted according to the same emotion-task history so that the emotion is more likely to be activated.


European Property Law is in development. In the last decades it has been a study of theory rather than of practice as it is usually considered too diverse and too much differing between countries to ever achieve meaningful results when trying to seek harmonisation. Recently, however, property law is moving to the center of the debate on the making of European private law. This does not take away the need to look at fundamental questions of property law. In face, the piecemeal approach of harmonisation taken in European Union private law especially creates problems for property law with its doctrinally coherent national systems.One of the most essential issues in property law is the numerous clauses of property rights. The closed list of property rights from which parties much choose when they seek to create a new property right. The principle has recently received a lot of attention and this has greatly enriched the property law debate. Numerous clauses have been analyzed from a legal comparative, but also from an economic point of view. Especially in the economic analysis of numerous clauses standardisation plays a crucial role. By standardisation Thomas Merill and especially Henry Smith argue information costs externalities can be minimized.This paper discusses the descriptive value of standardisation theory in property law for the European legal arena, but then moves to a normative level and investigates whether standardisation theory can also be used as a basis for the future development of European property law. Especially by joining insights from standardisation theory with fundamental aspects of publicity, i.e. the differentiation of classes of third parties on the market, this paper offers a way forward for the development of property law in Europe and beyond.


The production of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in the submandibular gland and its circulating level were studied in diabetic mice. In genetically diabetic (C57BL/KsJ db/db) mice, EGF concentrations in the submandibular gland and plasma were reduced to 13% and 30% of the control levels, respectively. In streptozotocin-treated diabetic mice, they were reduced to 18% and 20% of controls, respectively, 5 weeks after the drug injection. Furthermore, levels of submandibular prepro-EGF mRNA in these diabetic mice were decreased almost in parallel with the glandular EGF concentrations, while there was no change in the levels of submandibular beta-actin mRNA and kidney prepro-EGF mRNA. In addition, histological examination of the submandibular glands indicated that the size of the granular convoluted tubules, which produce EGF, was substantially reduced in the diabetic mice. Insulin administration to streptozotocin-treated mice almost completely reversed the decrease in EGF content in the submandibular gland, substantially elevated the level of the glandular prepro-EGF mRNA and plasma EGF concentration, and increased the size of the granular convoluted tubules in the gland. These results indicate that EGF deficiency occurs in diabetes mellitus and that insulin may be important in maintaining the normal level of EGF in the submandibular gland and plasma.


625 CD70 is a member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily and a type II integral membrane glycoprotein with an apparent molecular weight of 50 kDa. Under physiological conditions, the expression of CD70 is restricted to recently activated T and B lymphocytes. Binding of CD70 to its ligand, CD27, co-stimulates proliferation and differentiation of T and B lymphocytes. On transformed cells, CD70 is expressed by malignant B cells and virally infected lymphocytes, Hodgkin's disease cells, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, meduloblastoma, and glioblastoma. To further explore the possibility that CD70 may be expressed by other tumor types, we probed a Cancer Profiling Array (CPA) with the 3' untranslated region of the CD70 transcript. Over-expression of CD70 transcripts (tumor:normal ratio of ≥ 2-fold) was observed in 9 of 20 cases of kidney cancer; all 9 cases were classified as renal cell carcinoma (RCC). RT-PCR and real-time PCR analysis conducted on RNA from independent primary tumor isolates confirmed CD70 transcript over-expression in RCC. Northern analysis revealed a 0.8 kb CD70 message from RCC cell lines, similar in size to the CD70 message expressed in hematopoietic cells. Expression of CD70 protein on RCC was demonstrated by flow cytometric analysis on RCC cell lines and immunohistochemistry staining on fresh frozen RCC tissue isolates. To explore the potential utility of CD70 as a target for antibody-based therapy for RCC, we constructed an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), 1F6-vcAFP, consisting of a p-phenylenediamine (P) derivative of the anti-mitotic agent auristatin F (AF) conjugated onto the anti-CD70 mAb 1F6 via a valine-citrulline (vc) dipeptide linker. 1F6-vcAFP mediated potent cytotoxicity in CD70-expressing RCC lines, suggesting that CD70 can internalize ADCs and direct them to the appropriate subcellular compartment for drug release. Cultured normal renal epithelial cells and CD70-negative cells were refractive to 1F6-vcAFP treatments, confirming the selectivity of 1F6-vcAFP in targeting transformed renal cells. In an in vivo model of RCC using Caki-1 cells xenografted as subcutaneous tumors in nude mice, 1F6-vcAFP exerted potent antitumor activity. In summary, our findings demonstrate that CD70 constitutes a new RCC-associated surface antigen that may be suitable for therapeutic targeting by antibody-drug conjugates.


Effects of surgery and radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of spinal metastases were explored to analyze the influencing factors of prognosis. A total of 132 patients with spinal metastases admitted to Weifang People's Hospital were selected, 67 patients who underwent simple surgery were selected as the control group, and 65 patients who underwent radiofrequency ablation assisted surgery were the research group. The time of operation and intraoperative blood loss of patients in the two groups were recorded and compared. The visual analogue pain score (VAS), Karnofsky (KPS) score, Frankel spinal cord injury grading, and complications within 6 months after surgery were compared. The patients were followed up for 36 months and the survival rates were analyzed. Cox regression model was used to analyze the factors affecting the prognosis of patients. The time of operation and blood loss in the research group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). The VAS, KPS scores, and Frankel grading of patients in the two groups after treatment were significantly improved compared with those before treatment, but the VAS and KPS scores of patients in the research group were significantly improved compared with those in the control group (P<0.05). The incidence rate of complications and 3-year recurrence rate in the research group were lower than those in the control group, and the 3-year survival rate was significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05). The number of pathological cones, visceral metastasis, malignant degree, and radiofrequency ablation therapy are independent risk factors for poor prognosis of patients. Radiofrequency ablation assisted surgery can effectively improve the clinical efficacy of patients with spinal metastases, reduce postoperative complications and recurrence rate of patients, and prolong the survival time of patients compared with simple surgical treatment. It is worthy of clinical application.


The phase separation and aggregation of proteins are hallmarks of many neurodegenerative diseases. These processes can be studied in living cells using fluorescent protein constructs and quantitative live-cell imaging techniques, such as fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) or the related fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP). While the acquisition of FLIP images is straightforward on most commercial confocal microscope systems, the analysis and computational modeling of such data is challenging. Here, a novel model-free method is presented, which resolves complex spatiotemporal fluorescence-loss kinetics based on dynamic-mode decomposition (DMD) of FLIP live-cell image sequences. It is shown that the DMD of synthetic and experimental FLIP image series (DMD-FLIP) allows for the unequivocal discrimination of subcellular compartments, such as nuclei, cytoplasm, and protein condensates based on their differing transport and therefore fluorescence loss kinetics. By decomposing fluorescence-loss kinetics into distinct dynamic modes, DMD-FLIP will enable researchers to study protein dynamics at each time scale individually. Furthermore, it is shown that DMD-FLIP is very efficient in denoising confocal time series data. Thus, DMD-FLIP is an easy-to-use method for the model-free detection of barriers to protein diffusion, of phase-separated protein assemblies, and of insoluble protein aggregates. It should, therefore, find wide application in the analysis of protein transport and aggregation, in particular in relation to neurodegenerative diseases and the formation of protein condensates in living cells.


Loss-of-control events during the approach-to-landing phase of flight account for a large share of fatalities in general aviation. During this critical transition towards the runway it is essential that an aircraft is stabilized. Pilot discretion and judgment is used to determine if an aircraft is suited to either land or go-around, based on an assessment of approach conditions. Many landing incidents and accidents could be prevented with improved go-around decisions. The purpose of this research is to investigate the utility of neural networks in modeling those decisions using historic aircraft flight data. Data collected from nearly 2,000 hours of training flights is used to create a snapshot of an aircraft's flight parameters at 200' above ground level on approach. Each approach is then categorized as a landing event or go-around; using this data set a neural network is trained to predict approach outcomes. The network is then tested with an unfamiliar data set. Low error rates with testing data indicate the success of the network in predicting go-around events.


This paper begins with the "knowledge-ignorance paradox"—the process by which the growth of specialized knowledge results in a simultaneous increase in ignorance. It then outlines the roles of personal and social motivations, institutional decisions, the public culture, and technology in establishing consensual guidelines for ignorance. The upshot is a sociological model of how the "knowledge society" militates against the acquisition of scientific knowledge. Given the assumption of widespread scientific illiteracy, the paper tries to show why the ozone hole was capable of engendering some public understanding and concern, while climate change failed to do so. The ozone threat encouraged the acquisition of knowledge because it was allied and resonated with easy-to-understand bridging metaphors derived from the popular culture. It also engendered a "hot crisis." That is, it provided a sense of immediate and concrete risk with everyday relevance. Climate change fails at both of these criteria and remains in a public limbo.


Most image matching methods perform poorly when encountering large scale changes in images. To solve this problem, we propose a Scale-Difference-Aware Image Matching method (SDAIM) that reduces image scale differences before local feature extraction, via resizing both images of an image pair according to an estimated scale ratio. In order to accurately estimate the scale ratio for the proposed SDAIM, we propose a Covisibility-Attention-Reinforced Matching module (CVARM) and then design a novel neural network, termed as Scale-Net, based on CVARM. The proposed CVARM can lay more stress on covisible areas within the image pair and suppress the distraction from those areas visible in only one image. Quantitative and qualitative experiments confirm that the proposed Scale-Net has higher scale ratio estimation accuracy and much better generalization ability compared with all the existing scale ratio estimation methods. Further experiments on image matching and relative pose estimation tasks demonstrate that our SDAIM and Scale-Net are able to greatly boost the performance of representative local features and state-of-the-art local feature matching methods.


A procedure for assessing prosody and intonation in children (PEPS‐C: Profiling Elements of Prosodic Systems—Children), suitable for use by clinicians with both children and adults, is described. The procedure includes testing of four communication areas in which intonation/prosody has a crucial role: interaction, affect, boundary (chunking) and focus. Each area has parallel tasks for assessing understanding and expression of the functions and ability to discriminate and articulate the prosodic forms involved. The original and revised forms of the test are compared, with some discussion of procedural considerations. Past and present uses of the test and future applications are considered.


Recent research has led to the advent of software systems capable of performing query processing in sensor networks. They perform query processing in a sensor network by constructing a routing tree rooted at an access point (i.e., a base station), where the queries are submitted, parsed, and optimized. This approach to query processing is centralized in nature. Performing query optimization at a single node (base station) does not generate efficient query plans, and requires each node to report metadata to the access point. In addition, the routing tree infrastructure inefficiently aggregates data packets. To address these issues, this paper proposes several decentralized query processing systems that utilize sensor node's innate spatial and semantic characteristics. Experimental results conclude that decentralizing query processing significantly reduces energy costs. In addition, experimental results show that the spatial and semantic properties of nodes are influential in designing a decentralized query processing system.


: Strain KMM 457 of Bacillus subtilis was isolated from a frozen sample of the soft coral Sarcophyton sp. The samples were collected in 1989 in the South China Sea near the Vietnam Shore during an expedition on the board of R/V "Akademik Oparin". Metabolites of the isolate were investigated and it was found to produce a number of physiologically active compounds. One of them designated as OGA showed fungicidal activity. By the physicochemical properties it was referred to the group of iturins. The comparison with the described antibiotics of the iturin group suggested that it was a new representative of the iturin group.


We consider vibro–impact problems, i.e. mechanical systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom submitted to perfect unilateral constraints. The dynamics is basically described by a second–order measure differential inclusion for the unknown position completed with a constitutive impact law. Another formulation of the problem as a frictionless sweeping process is possible: the unknown velocity belongs to an appropriate functional space and satisfies a first order measure differential inclusion. The equivalence of these two formulations is studied. They lead to time–discretizations written in terms of positions or in terms of velocities, respectively. We present these different schemes and we compare them on the simple test–problem of a bouncing ball. We recall the convergence results in the single constraint case. Moreover, an example of implementation of the scheme derived from the basic description of the dynamics is presented. Finally, in the multi–constraint case, we point out some theoretical and computational difficulties.


5032 Purpose: Epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) mutations are strong determinants of tumor response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A previous study of ours reported that EGFR mutation status in serum DNA was useful as a predictive marker for gefitinib (IRESSA) treatment. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of detecting EGFR mutations in serum DNA of advanced NSCLC patients. Experimental design: We obtained 42 pairs of tumor samples and serum samples from Japanese NSCLC patients who received gefitinib treatment and examined them for EGFR mutations. EGFR mutation status was determined by a direct sequencing method (Exon 18-21 in EGFR) and a Scorpion Amplified Refractory Mutation System (ARMS) technology. Results: EGFR mutations were detected in eight tumor samples (E746_A750del in four cases, L747_T751del in one case, and L858R in three cases) and seven serum samples (E746_A750del in four cases and L858R in three cases). The EGFR mutations were observed more frequently in women and non-smokers. A strong correlation between EGFR mutation status in both tumor samples and serum samples, and response to gefitinib was found (p


The number of road crashes involving trade vehicle especially buses and lorries are increasing every year. The number of commercial vehicles, which involved in crashes increased by 25.35% within 5 years from 2000 to 2005. Besides that, percentage of road crashes involving buses also had increased alarmingly by 131.25%. Driver sleepiness is a potentially important risk factor of road crashes and related injuries. The main objective of this study is to identify the association between body mass indexes, sleep quantity and sleep quality towards sleepiness among express bus drivers. This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Johor Bahru, Johor. Weighing scale and body metre were used in measuring weight and height while standardise questionnaire which consist of three parts namely part 1 covering socio demographic details, part 2 contains Epworth Sleepiness Scale and part 3 contained 7 days self reported sleep log. Sleepiness level was measured using Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Measurement was conducted before the respondents start their job. Eighty-five respondents were involved and 18 (21.2%) of them were found to be sleepy. χ2 test or Fishers exact test revealed that there were only three variables found to be significant. They are body mass index (p=0.002), sleep quantity (p=0.038) and working experience (p=0.006) whereas four variables found to be insignificant and they are age (p=0.050), sleep quality (p=0.617), driving duration (p=0.078) and driving distance (p=0.063). From the result, the factors that influenced the sleepiness level among the express bus drivers were body mass index, sleep quantity and working experience.


Background: Neuroendocrine neoplasms of breast(NENB) is a rare and underrecognized subtype of breast neoplasms.The clinical significance, prognostic risk factors and optimal treatment modalities are limited. This study was focused on clinical and pathological features of 27 NENB cases to improve the understanding of these diseases and to further investigate the behavior of these neoplasms and to provide more factual evidence.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological features and follow-up data of 27 patients diagnosed with NENB at the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College between February 2003 and February 2015.Results: The proportion of NENB from all invasive breast carcinomas(BC) in our hospital was 0.24% (27/11352). The expression of specific immunohistochemical markers was different: 48.1% cases showed the expression of chromogranin A (CgA)(13/27), CD56 was positive in 77.8%cases (21/27), the positive rate of INSM1 and synaptophysin (Syn) were 85.2%(23/27)and 100.0% (27/27). NENB occurred in older patients (median age,64 ).11cases (40.7%) were well-differentiated NETs and 16 cases (59.3%) were poorly differentiated NEC. In NETs, The positive rate of ER was 10/11 (90.9%) , while in NECs, The positive rate of ER was 9/16(56.3%) , On the basis of immunophenotypes, most of NENBs were of the luminal molecular subtype ,6 cases were luminal A and 15cases were luminal B ,6 cases were triple negative breast cancer(TNBC) and had no HER-2 overexpression subtypes. Conclusions: NENB more likely occures in elderly patients.Well-differentiated NETs are more often positive for hormone receptors than poorly differentiated NEC. NENBs are almost negative for HER-2. The combination of INSM1 is an effective supplement and improvement for traditional neuroendocrine markers.


Schedule-induced drinking (SID) can occur when food-deprived rats are given access to water while receiving pellets on an intermittent reinforcement schedule. These conditions can increase water intake excessively. The possible role of adventitious reinforcement of postpellet drinking was assessed by testing whether response-reinforcer contiguity, the relative predictiveness of a response, and whether it is marked are important in the development of SID. Rats exposed to a short interpellet interval acquired SID most rapidly, with this acquired drinking response maintained when animals were transferred to a longer interpellet interval, thus indicating an easy-to-hard effect (Experiment 1). Further experiments demonstrated that a stimulus (a brief-flashing house light) occurring prior to pellet delivery could block the acquisition of SID (Experiment 2), while a lick-contingent tone, intended to increase the associability of this response, produced more rapid acquisition of SID (Experiment 3). Analysis of lick distributions revealed that licking became concentrated in the first half of an interpellet interval only after several sessions. Overall, the results indicated that similar factors affect the acquisition of both SID and instrumental conditioning with delayed reinforcement, as is consistent with a superstitious conditioning account of SID development.


Abstract : Selected Response Surface Methodology (RSM) designs that are viable alternatives in human performance research are discussed. Two major RSM designs that are variations of the basic, blocked, central-composite design were selected for consideration: central-composite designs with multiple observations at only the center point, and central-composite designs with multiple observations at each experimental point. Designs of the latter type are further categorized as: designs which collapse data across all observations at the same experimental point; between-subjects designs in which no subject is observed more than once, and observations at each experimental point may be multiple and unequal or multiple and equal; and within-subject designs in which each subject is observed only once at each experimental point. The ramifications of these designs are discussed in terms of various criteria such as rotatability, orthogonal blocking, and estimates of error.


The side effects of amitraz at three rates (the maximum recommended field concentration, 1/2 and 1/4 the maximum recommended field concentration) on Encarsia formosa were tested in the laboratory using the IOBC classification. The pupal mortality, fecundity and longevity of the parasitoid wasps exposed to pesticide were determined. Results showed that there is a significant difference in pupae mortality between the treatments and the untreated control group, but we did not observ adverse effects on fecundity and longevity. According to the IOBC classification, amitraz at the maximum recommended field concentration (E=89.09) and 1/2 dose (E=82.3) were found to be harmful and 1/4 dose (E=63.2) was moderately harmful for E. formosa. We concluded that amitraz is unsafe for E. formosa and it can not be used for integrated pest management in integration with E. formosa to control Trialeurodes vaporariorum.


Visual domain adaptation aims to learn robust models for the test data by knowledge transferring from a training data where the training and test sets are from different distributions. Existing approaches attempt to solve domain shift problem with either adaptation across domains or performing low-rank constraints. In this paper, we propose a two-phases unsupervised approach referred as image reconstruction Error minimization via Distribution Adaptation and low-rank constraint (EDA), which benefits from both the distribution adaptation and the low-rank constraints to tackle distribution mismatch across domains. In the first phase, our proposed approach projects the training and test data onto a common subspace in which the marginal and conditional distribution differences of domains are minimized. Moreover, EDA benefits from domain invariant clustering to discriminate between various classes of data. In the second phase, for preserving data structure in the shared subspace, EDA minimizes the data reconstruction error using low-rank and sparse constraints. Overall, EDA solves the domain mismatch problem in cubic time complexity. The proposed approach is evaluated on variety of visual benchmark datasets and its performance is compared with the other state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods. The average accuracy of EDA on 32 experiments is determined 68.33% where outperforms other state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods with 4.28% improvement.


Interferometers are used in metrology to measure temperature, displacement, stress and other physical variables. A typical interferometer split a laser beam using a beam divisor. Beam A is called reference, and is projected directly over a film or a CCD camera using mirrors or fiber optic. Beam B interact with the physical phenomenon to be measured. The interaction modifies the optic path of beam B; then it is projected over the same film or CCD camera that beam A. The total irradiance is modelled on eq. 1.           , , , cos , I x y a x y b x y x y    (1)


The effect of the free carrier absorption loss on the split-ridge waveguide based phase modulator is analyzed at 1.3 and 1.55 µm. The electrical device performance is predicted using the 2-D semiconductor package SILVACO software under DC operation. Based on the simulation results, it is shown that there is a penalty of increased free carrier absorption as the injected electrons and holes are getting higher. Meanwhile, the loss of the device at 1.3 µm is smaller than that of 1.55 µm at an equal applied voltage.


It appears to me that goitre cases are of three kinds (1) Simple tumours or cysts where there is no respiratory obstruction and no toxaTmia. (2) Cases in which there is stridor, possibly definite respiratory obstruction and secondary heart failure. (3) Cases of exophthalinic goitre. In the first group there appears to be nothing special about the anaesthetic; in the second group chloroform appears to me to be a better anesthetic than ether because the slight congestion which is sometimes caused by the ether during induction may entirely obstruct an already narrow air-way. From some experience of exophthalmic goitre cases I think it is most important to guard against the element of fear and that these patients should not be brought to the operating theatre and anEesthetized on the table, A preliminary injection of morphia and scopolamine is most useful.


In this paper, a new mobile application system that controls health avatars on mobile devices is proposed. The status of health avatars reflects personal physical state of a user, which is converted and estimated by data gathered from sensors attached to exercise equipment or from the time spent on a specific exercise routine on specific equipment installed in a U-Health park. Especially in this paper, we confine ourselves on introduction to a metadata application system that converts sensor signals to MPEG-V International Standard data format (ISO/IEC 23005–5). The proposed system utilizes the biometric metadata written in standard data formats from sensors to visualize virtual world health avatars, which make users recognize their health condition without difficulty. The health avatar system and its application scenario are presented in this paper.


Abstract : The magnetic field distribution for three different types of in-situ corrosion has been measured using SQUID magnetometry. The variations of the magnetic field density with time differ for the three types of corrosion. The higher the corrosion rate, the more intense is the magnetic field. The SQUID magnetometer is also shown to be sensitive to corrosion activity occurring on the opposite side of a plate specimen.


Most direct shear machines are designed for soil testing or research and have serious limitations when used for rock joint testing by commercial testing laboratories. To overcome some of these limitations, a machine has been designed that uses split cylindrical specimen holders to encapsulate rock specimens in the field, protecting them against drying, swelling, and mechanical damage in transit to the laboratory and in storage. Molten sulfur is used as an encapsulating material. Field encapsulation saves "downtime" during laboratory testing and virtually eliminates specimen disturbance. The holders are uncoupled only when in the test machine and after a normal load has been applied. Further features designed to make the machine more versatile and less expensive include pumps, pressure and displacement pages that are demountable so that they can be easily calibrated and used in other testing applications. Two opposing jacks allow reversals of shear direction. Testing procedures are outlined for reversed shearing at increasing increments of normal load.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between gender diversity and the risk profile of Italian banks during the period 2015–2019. This study examines whether the presence of female board directors or top executives has any significant effect on bank risk-taking.

Design/methodology/approach
To explore the influence of women on bank risk-taking, the authors analyzed a sample of 387 Italian banks and developed an econometric model applying unbalanced panel data with firm fixed effects and controls per year. Within a multivariate regression model, the authors considered five risk dimensions to verify the effect of gender diversity.

Findings
The findings suggest that female board directors and executives are considerably more risk averse and less overconfident than their male colleagues, thus confirming a negative causality between risk-taking and gender diversity. The results reveal that banks headed by women are less risky because they report higher capital adequacy and equity to assets ratios. As credit risk in female-led banks is no different from male-led ones, higher capital adequacy does not derive from lower asset quality because it is linked to the higher risk aversion of female directors and top managers.

Research limitations/implications
From a theoretical standpoint, the results suggest that having women in executive positions entails different risk implications for Italian banks; from a managerial perspective, the results highlight conditions that may promote the role of women in the banking sector. The conclusions are of particular significance because they provide some support for the view that regulators should favor gender quotas in the board management of banks to reduce risk-taking behavior.

Originality/value
This paper offers an in-depth examination of the risk practices of banks and it attempts to bridge the gap in prior literature on the risk profile of the Italian banking industry given that few empirical studies have examined the determinants of risk-taking in this field, to date. The findings on the higher risk aversion of women directors advance the understanding of the determinants of risk-taking behavior in banks, suggesting that gender quotas in bank boards can contribute to reducing risk-taking behavior. This also unveils some policy implications for bank regulatory authorities.


TO THE EDITOR: Garber (1) and Wilensky (2) both recognize the importance of information about comparative effectiveness and cost in making rational choices among alternative therapies. Extending Garber's analogy, without information about comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, we are ordering not only from a menu without prices but also, for many, from a menu written in a foreign language. Both components from a trusted source are needed to make rational, effective health care decisions. Although we recognize Wilensky's superb knowledge of political realities, we disagree strongly with her call for a separate entity (that is, the payers) to develop unbiased data on cost-effectiveness. Studies of comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness are commonly done together (as in the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence program), whether within a clinical trial or in analyses of data from combinations of trials. Requiring investigators to seek funding from 2 different entities would impede progress. Furthermore, leaving cost-effectiveness analyses to the payers, as Wilensky suggests, also would bring into question the trustworthiness of the results. Payers have their own interests and perspectives and do not always provide unbiased, transparent analyses. Although there is clearly a difference of opinion as to whether the production of comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness information should lie within the scope of a single entity or more than one, this disagreement should in no way weaken the College's position that cost is important, that its use must be transparent, and that cost should never be compared without simultaneously considering comparative clinical effectiveness.


Considering the high prevalence and recurrence of Candida-associated denture stomatitis (CADS), in vivo studies in animal models are necessary before those in humans to evaluate new therapeutic strategies. This study aimed to review the literature on murine models of CADS induction using acrylic intraoral devices simulating dentures. Rats are recommended as experimental animals in these models as well as the adoption of a pasty diet. For maintenance in the proper position during the experiments, intraoral appliances must be obtained by individual impressions, using and retained exclusively by cementation on the molars. The region of interest for histopathological analysis was standardized as that corresponding to the area between the first molars. However, there is no consensus among the studies on the CADS induction rat models in relation to the Candida albicans inoculation and need for immunosuppression and/or administration of antibacterial drugs of animals. The greatest difficulty of the available models refers to maintaining the course of the lesion for a sufficient period to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed treatment, considering the rapid and efficient murine immune response to candidal colonization. Therefore, future studies are necessary for the development of a robust and reproducible CADS model.


The increased volume of international migration is producing a substantial number of multicultural cities with residents drawn from a large number of different birthplaces. Models developed a few decades ago of the intra-urban social geography of where these migrants live suggested that they were initially concentrated in particular parts of the metropolitan area, reflecting their limited ability to compete in their host societies' labour and housing markets; later economic integration led to spatial spread and assimilation. This paper evaluates whether that is the case in the context of the 'new ethnicity' stimulated by the increased volume of international migration, using Sydney as its case study; almost one-third of its population of over 3 million was born outside Australia. Analyses of the 94 largest birthplace groups identified by the 1996 Census show that recency of arrival, facility with the English language, educational qualifications and low incomes were all associated with a group's residential segregation within Sydney - with the major residuals reflecting cultural differences between the groups. Copyright Royal Dutch Geographical Society 2001.


We report on a female with a interstitial deletion of 10p13 and a phenotype similar to that seen with the 22q deletion syndromes (DiGeorge/velo-cardio-facial). She had a posterior cleft palate, perimembranous ventricular septal defect, dyscoordinate swallowing, T-cell subset abnormalities, small ears, maxillary and mandibular hypoplasia, broad nasal bridge, deficient alae nasi, contractures of fingers and developmental delay. This could indicate homology of some developmental genes at 22q and 10p so that patients with the velocardiofacial phenotype who do not prove to be deleted on 22q are candidates for a 10p deletion.


Bacterial spores are of concern in food processing due to their ubiquity and resistance. This study seeks to determine the effect of ultraviolet C (UV-C) in the inactivation of spores of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus velezensis that can result in enzymatic spoilage in foods using PBS as the suspension medium. Purified spore samples were treated under 1 pass in a UV-C reactor using 10 mL of spore inoculum with one dose of the radiation (410 mJ/cm2) for 10secs at room temperature. Aliquots of the treated samples were plated on tryptone soy agar supplemented with 0.6% glucose and the colonies counted. Flow cytometry analysis was done using 500 μL of both treated and control samples with a cell concentration of a ≥106 CFU/ml with propidium iodide (15 μM) and SYTO 9 (500 nM) used as live/dead stains. Samples were processed for microscopy (SEM and Raman-AFM Imaging). The maximum lethality is 2.5 for B. velezensis and the minimum is 0.1 for B. subtilis. Microscopic imaging of treated spores shows significant morphological disruption of the spore structure. The Raman spectroscopy analysis reveals the B. subtilis isolates to have the highest concentrations of dipicolnic acid (Ca+2DPA) as well as other compounds belonging to other functional groups. Flow cytometric analysis of treated spores reveals sub-populations unaccounted for by plate count. UV-C shows a promising application in the inactivation of resistant spores during processing of liquid foods such as milk.


The objectives of this research are to examine whether there are significant differences in the perception of quality of work life among employees of three generational cohorts (i.e., Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials) and to propose some strategies from HRM in order to manage these differences. We used survey data collected from 522 employees of the logistic sector in Colombia and conducted internal consistency analysis, correlation analyses and one-way ANOVA. Results of ANOVA indicate that variables of quality of work life significantly differ depending on the generational membership of the employees. For example, Millennials were found to be a more distinct cohort from Gen Xers and Baby Boomers in terms of their relationship between promotion and career. However, the results suggest that employees in the older generations are likely to be more dedicated to, engrossed in, and even vigorous at work. For future studies, we recommend discussing how the knowledge on each generation in the workplace can inform specific HRM practices, such as how to train each generation effectively or to encourage each generation to improve work performance.


Modern neural networks have been successful in many regression-based tasks such as face recognition, facial landmark detection, and image generation. In this work, we investigate an intuitive but understudied characteristic of modern neural networks, namely, the nonsmoothness. The experiments using synthetic data confirm that such operations as ReLU and max pooling in modern neural networks lead to nonsmoothness. We quantify the nonsmoothness using a feature named the sum of the magnitude of peaks (SMP) and model the input-output relationships for building blocks of modern neural networks. Experimental results confirm that our model can accurately predict the statistical behaviors of the nonsmoothness as it propagates through such building blocks as the convolutional layer, the ReLU activation, and the max pooling layer. We envision that the nonsmoothness feature can potentially be used as a forensic tool for regression-based applications of neural networks.


This study focussed on the social suppression of caching in 3 groups of western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica). Each group (3 males and 4 females) were housed in a separate aviary. Only the dominant male and/or his partner cached in each aviary. When the alpha pair was removed from the aviary, however, caching by the beta pair increased significantly. As all subordinate birds cache when housed individually, cache cessation was attributed to social suppression. In each aviary, storers from both the alpha and beta pairs tolerated their partners recovering their caches, but treated all other birds aggressively if they approached a cache site. The storer and their partner tended to move one another's caches around multiple times, possibly making the final location of caches ambiguous. Importantly, caches were only moved around repeatedly on trials where multiple pilfering attempts were made. Western scrub-jays therefore appear to adjust their caching behaviour depending on the risk that observers pose to their caches.


The dissipation characteristics of combined short swell and transient long waves are investigated. A methodology for deducing the instantaneous dissipation from each breaking wave is employed to determine the overall dissipation and the ensuing dissipation rate in each set of experiments. It is determined that the bulk characteristics of dissipation of the combined short-long wave signals are different than those seen in each individual signal, but that the frequency dependencies of dissipation rates seen in the combined short-long wave signals are quite similar to those of the swell waves in isolation.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Background: Infection by coronavirus SARS-CoV2 is a severe and often deadly disease that has implications for the respiratory system and multiple organs across the human body. While the effects in the lung have been extensively studied, less is known about the impact COVID-19 has across other organs. Methods: Here, we contribute a single-nuclei RNA-sequencing atlas comprising six human organs across 20 autopsies where we analyzed the transcriptional changes due to COVID-19 in multiple cell types. The integration of data from multiple organs enabled the identification of systemic transcriptional changes. Results: Computational cross-organ analysis for endothelial cells and macrophages identified systemic transcriptional changes in these cell types in COVID-19 samples. In addition, analysis of gene modules showed enrichment of specific signaling pathways across multiple organs in COVID-19 autopsies. Conclusions: Altogether, the COVID Tissue Atlas enables the investigation of both cell type-specific and cross-organ transcriptional responses to COVID-19, providing insights into the molecular networks affected by the disease and highlighting novel potential targets for therapies and drug development. Funding: The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, The Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub.


Abstract Two orogen-scale thrusts structurally underneath Greater Himalayan (GH) rocks characterize the structural architecture of Himalaya in central Nepal. The Main Central thrust (MCT) is at the base of the GH with the Lesser Himalayan (LH) Robang Formation in the footwall, which is the hanging wall of the Ramgarh–Munsiari thrust (RMT). At Kodari-Tatopani and Malekhu, U–Pb detrital zircon age populations from the RMT sheet yield a maximum depositional age of c. 1838 and c. 1871 Ma. U–Pb analyses of igneous zircons from the RMT sheet yield a crystallization age of c. 1750 Ma at both Galchhi and Kodari-Tatopani. The ϵNd(0) values of pelitic rocks from the RMT sheet at Kodari-Tatopani range from c. −23 to −25; whereas, GH rocks have values from c. −12 to −18. These data indicate that the RMT sheet carries the Palaeoproterozoic LH rock and the MCT carries the GH rock. At Kodari-Tatopani, the thrust previously mapped as the MCT is interpreted to be the RMT. Positively identifying the RMT sheet in all three locations yields a more accurate kinematic evolution and confirms its orogenic-scale presence in central Nepal. Supplementary material: U–Pb geochronological analyses are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18775


Estimates have been made of the numbers and sizes of motor units in the thenar, hypothenar, and soleus muscles of patients with muscular dystrophy. The finding of a selective loss of motor units in these muscles could not have been due to nerve trauma since there was no evidence of sensory axon involvement in the median, ulnar, and posterior tibial (sural) nerves. The results of this study fully support earlier findings in the extensor digitorum brevis muscle and reinforce the concept of a neurogenic basis for muscular dystrophy.


One of the most significant errors in the pseudo-range measurement performance of GNSSes (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) is their multipath error for high-precision applications. Several schemes to mitigate this error have been studied. Most of them, however, have been focused on the GPS (Global Positioning System) L1 C/A (Coarse/Acquisition) signal that was designed in the 1970s and is still being used for civil navigation. Recently, several modernized signals that were especially conceived to more significantly mitigate multipath errors have been introduced, such as Time Multiplexed and Composite Binary Offset Carrier (TMBOC and CBOC, respectively) signals. Despite this advantage, however, a problem remains with the use of TMBOC and CBOC modulations: the ambiguity of BOC (Binary Offset Carrier)-modulated signal tracking. In this paper, a novel unambiguous multipath error mitigation scheme for these modernized signals is proposed. The proposed scheme has the same complexity as HRCs (High Resolution Correlators) but with low ambiguity. The simulation results showed that the proposed scheme outperformed or performed at par with the HRC in terms of their multipath error envelopes and running averages in the static and statistical channel models. The ranging error derived by the mean multipath error of the proposed scheme was below 1.8 meters in an urban area in the statistical channel model.


CASE A 30-year-old woman with gluteal cleft ulcerations was admitted to the hospital with sepsis. She had been experiencing constant burning pain associated with these ulcers and suffered with diarrhea multiple times daily for several weeks. Treatment for erythropoietic porphyria required a bone marrow transplant 4 months previously and chronic treatment with tacrolimus 1.5 mg twice daily, prednisone 30 mg daily, and mycophenolate 750 mg twice daily. Previous treatment for the ulcerations with oral and topical acyclovir, vancomycin, cefepime, and intravenous fluconazole resulted in no improvement. Physical examination revealed numerous 1to 4-mm ulcerations with broad confluence in the intergluteal cleft and scalloping at the edges and scattered satellite ulcers. A clear nonmalodorous drainage was noted (Fig. 1). Small ulcerations were also present in the perianal and perivaginal area. No blisters were present. Histopathology revealed an eroded epidermis with underlying telangiectatic vessels lined by enlarged vesicular endothelial cells. Acute inflammation beneath the ulcer and deep dermal leukocytoclasis was present (Fig. 2A). "Owls Eye" eosinophilic nuclear inclusions surrounded by a faint halo were present in some endothelial cells (Fig. 2B). Bone marrow transplant infectious disease panel completed before transplant revealed: positive CMV antibodies (CMV QPCR: 172,000 IU/mL); positive HSV II PCR; and negative HSV I PCR. Tissue culture was negative for fungal and viral isolates. WHAT IS YOUR DIAGNOSIS?


Use of submarine outfall pipelines became more common since World Bank Group issued a new guideline for maximum emissions levels for thermal power plants in 1998 (van Dijk, 2005). The more restrictive levels for temperature increase at the receiving water, requires outfall systems to conduct the water down to greater depths to achieve the required dilution standard. However, air entrainment control into outfall pipes could be challenging, especially for discharges with high flowrates for which conventional deaeration chambers become too large. The problem could turn more difficult in coastal shelf areas at seismic zones, where the hydraulic height of the incoming flow must be effectively controlled and the design not only has to pursue hydraulic objectives but also stability requirements for these massive structures subjected to relevant seismic thrusts. A vortex drop structure was designed for the cooling water discharge system of a thermal power plant in Mejillones Bay, Chile. The structure addresses the elevation difference between the return flow pipe and the ocean outfall pipelines while adhering to the spatial restrictions at the project site. Energy dissipation as well as limitation of air entrainment into the outfall pipelines were critical design considerations. Tests where done on a 1:12.5 scale (Froude) physical model. Prototype structure is under construction. Operation is planned to start on mid-2018.


Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetocardiography (MCG) are two completely non-invasive imaging techniques, suitable for basic and clinical studies of human subjects. Large SQUID arrays, operating at liquid helium temperatures, are employed for detecting and localizing magnetically the active regions, modelled by current dipoles, in the working brain or heart. The measurements must be performed in magnetically shielded rooms. Time resolution of both methods is 0.5 ms and spatial accuracy 5-6mm. Commercial multi-SQUID instruments are now available from several manufacturers. An adequate account of the theory and practice of both techniques is given. Three examples of brain studies and two investigations of the heart are described. The advantages and drawbacks of modern imaging techniques, including MRI and PET, are compared and the future of MEG and MCG is discussed.


This article addresses user data issues for virtual home environment (VHE) management among heterogeneous networks and service applications. User data represent all information describing the network and personalized service environments related to a roaming user. After analyzing user data accessed by identified VHE functions and roles, a modular and flexible information model called a user profile has been designed. Various architecture scenarios are then addressed for the implementation of this user profile. Among them, the best one fits the needs and constraints due to existing network architectures, and eventually provides a global federating solution for VHE management.


Aims Vegetation distributions are determined by diverse environmental conditions at different spatial scales. Our aim is to analyze the relationship between environmental factors and vegetation cover at different spatial scales. Methods We obtained the distribution of NDVI in the Ordos Basin by mapping the remote sensing data (landsat5 TM). Using GIS software, we built a geo-database in the form of a thematic map and carried out spatial analysis to detect the relationship between the environment factors and NDVI at different spatial scales. Important findings At the scale of the Ordos region, mean annual rainfall plays an important role in vegetation distribution and high-cover vegetation mainly occurs in geomorphology regions of diluvial and alluvial deposits. At the scale of the Kubuqi Desert, geohydrologic condition is one of the important factors contributing to the distribution of vegetation cover. In Mu-Us, the lithology of sublayer terrain greatly affects vegetation cover and distribution.


Bio-, thermo-catalytic transitional zone gas (BTCTZ gas), of which burial depth is shallow (1000-2500m), chemical composition (C,/ΣC1-5 = 0.7-0.9) and isotopic composition (δ13C1= -55 to-48‰) coincide with the evolution level of organic matter (R0=0.25-0.6%) in the corresponding strata, is a natural gas of new genetic type. The genesis of BTCTZ gas must have some relation to microcatalysis under lower temperature and condensation of aromatic hydrocarbons. In line with the new theory of natural gas formation, the existence of BTCTZ gas is objective. According to data from all over the world, BTCTZ gas may hold an important position in the table of reserves of natural gas.


We have examined the effect of Nb addition on the thermal stability of the supercooled liquid before crystallization, the glass-forming ability and magnetic properties for the amorphous alloy series Fe73NbxAl5-xGe2P10C6B4 and Fe63Co7NbxZr10-xB20. The supercooled liquid regions (ΔTx = Tx - Tg) have maximum values of 66 and 79K, respectively, for Fe73Nb1Al4Ge2P10C6B4 and Fe63Co7Nb4Zr6B20 alloys. The saturation magnetization σs of the Fe73NbxAl5-xGe2P10C6B4 alloy system is much higher than that of the Fe63Co7NbxZr10-xB20 alloy system and is almost unchanged with an increasing Nb content from 0 to 3 at%. But the σs of the Fe63Co7NbxZr10-xB20 alloys decreases linearly with increasing Nb content. The coercive force Hc of the two alloy series can have a minimum value of 31A/m for Fe73Nb1Al4Ge2P10C6B4 and 37A/m for Fe63Co7Nb4Zr6B20. All these values are for the ribbons annealed at 773 and 873K for 15min in vacuum.


This chapter explores the role of data visualization in relation to transparency in the news, a field in which a decline in trust and a subsequent need to reassert credibility is an ongoing challenge. Being transparent about how the news is produced is seen as one way of generating trust, yet there has been very little empirical research into transparency practices in newsrooms. Our chapter fills this gap, focusing on transparency and data visualization. We argue that working with data visualization involves particular enactments of transparency, many of which are surprisingly not visual.


In vitro tests of dense hydroxyapatite materials The paper presents the results of the calcining process of deproteinised and defatted bone pulp called bone sludge. The calcining process was performed in two stages. The first step of the calcining process was realized at the temperature of 600°C in a rotary kiln. In the second stage the obtained bone ashes were calcined at five different temperatures from 650°C to 950°C for 2 hours in a chamber kiln and in air atmosphere. The products of the calcining process were characterized by the XRD method. Calcium content was determined by titration whereas the contents of total phosphorus and acid-soluble phosphorus - by the spectrophotometric method. The X-ray analysis confirmed that hydroxyapatite is the main component of the calcining products. Calcium and phosphorus contents were kept at the level of 40% and 17.5%, respectively, which corresponded to the Ca/P ratio of not stechiometric hydroxyapatite. In vitro studies, in the simulated body fluid, Ringer liquid and distilled water were realised. The measurements of pH value of SBF and Ringer fluid were realized. Additionally electrical conductivity as well as pH for distilled water where conducted. The goal of these tests was to evaluate chemical durability of dense hydroxyapatite materials.


The coastal area of the Ma river delta is formed by the interaction of continental and marine processes, between neo-tectonic activities and exogenous processes, between natural factors and human activities during the Late Holocene. Using remote sensing and geoscience research methods (granulometry, paleontology, geochemistry, clay mineralogy) and geomorphological studies (geneses, morphology, dynamics) combined with field survey, this coastal area, except the denuded mountainous remnants, could be distinguished into 12 morpho-sedimentary units formed and developed by the dynamic interactions of the river, waves and tides. The units formed by fluvial dynamics include: 1) Point bar is composed of clayey silt and sandy silt, 2) Channel bar composed of silty sand, 3) Levee with the composition of silty sand and 4) The flood plain of silty clay. The Late Holocene evolution of the Ma river delta was dominated by wave dynamics, reflected by a wave-formed association of dunes, interdune swamps and current sand beaches. The wave-formed units include 5) Dune's sand and silty sand, 6) Back-dune depressions composed of sand silt clay, 7) Beach composed of sand, 8) Lagoon plain of silty clay and 9) Strand plain composed of silty sand. The tide-influenced units include 10) Supratidal flat with the composition of silty clay, 11) Intertidal flat characterized by clay or silty clay interbedded with thin fine sand or silty sand layers, 12) Subtidal flat of sand and silty sand.