Introduction Non-adherence, both intentional and non-intentional, is prevalent in 'difficult to manage' asthma and identification of patients who should respond to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is essential to reduce exacerbation risk and improve asthma control, but also to prevent inappropriate escalation of treatment (oral corticosteroids or biological therapies). Composite biomarker assessments (FeNO and blood eosinophils) have been shown to predict exacerbation risk in patients with asthma and these biomarkers also predict response to steroid treatment. It has previously been demonstrated that suppression of FeNO with directly observed ICS over 7 days can identify non-adherence to ICS treatment. The aim of this work was to further validate this test across UK severe asthma centres in the RASP-UK Consortium and to examine if the test can identify patients who should achieve good asthma control with better adherence to ICS treatment. Methods Using remote monitoring technology (Vitalograph INCA™ device and Aerocrine NIOX Vero), we developed a web-based interface to deliver FeNO suppression testing in RASP-UK Severe Asthma Centres. We examined the utility of FeNO suppression testing to predict inhaled steroid responsiveness and composite biomarker profile after 30 days of monitored optimised treatment on standard high dose ICS/LABA. Results Forty of seventy patients had a positive suppression test. Using information from the Vitalograph INCA™ server to highlight technique and timing errors, these issues were addressed and patients proceeded to 30-day monitoring of high dose ICS/LABA. A positive FeNO suppression test (Figure A) identified a biomarker-low population when adherent with high dose ICS (≥80% of inhaled steroid) whereas a negative test (Figure B) identified a biomarker-high population when adherent with high dose ICS. Conclusion FeNO suppression testing is an effective means of identifying non-adherence to inhaled steroids in patients with difficult to manage asthma. This test can identify patients who should be optimised on inhaled steroids prior to consideration of treatment escalation. Collaborating Centres Queen's University Belfast, University of Leicester, University of Glasgow, University of Oxford, The University of Manchester, University of Birmingham, University College London. Abstract S2 Figure 1


The state of stress and style of crustal deformation along weak transform plate boundaries is discussed in the context of available data and simple analytical models. Appreciable evidence indicates that while the frictional strength of the upper crust is high (in general accordance with simple faulting theory and laboratory-derived coefficients of friction), the frictional resistance to motion along transform plate boundaries is extremely low. These conditions require that horizontal principal stresses must be oriented approximately parallel and perpendicular to the transform-fault zone to minimize the shear stresses acting parallel to the transform. Along plate margins that must accommodate relative convergence (transpressive margins), a pattern of near fault-normal compression and fault-normal crustal shortening is expected. Along divergent plate margins (transtensional margins), extension is expected to occur perpendicular to the transform, as the direction of minimum horizontal principal stress is expected to be nearly perpendicular to it. These patterns of stress and deformation can be observed along a number of transform faults around the world.


FIR filters that provide linear phases are frequently used in digital signal processing, voice and data transmission. Polyphase FIR filters are applied in many practical applications of DSPs that require the sampling rate of a signal to be changed. This paper describes the design and implementation of a high-speed programmable polyphase FIR filter. The FIR is designed to run automatically under all conditions according to the programmable configuration word including symmetry/asymmetry, odd/even taps, and 32 taps up to 256 taps. The maximum sampling frequency is obtained as 100MHz.


A life free from violence constitutes a human right that over half of the world's female population do not enjoy because of the abuse inflicted on them by their intimate partners.1 Violence against women (VAW) is a social problem that States must address legally to deal with this source of injustice, inequality, and physical and non-physical health problems.2 The legal framework established by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women3 represents a move in this direction, while demands made by the women's movement have stimulated the development of laws and policies in many countries. This editorial aims to describe the international situation as regards VAW legislation, focusing in particular on violence by intimate partners. It also discussed the minimum standards that such laws should incorporate, as defined by experts from the Council of Europe,4 WHO,5 the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.6 We end with suggestions for future lines of research.

According to information compiled for legal databases,7–11 115 countries have adopted or revised legislation on VAW, enacting different kinds of instruments such as laws, legal codes or legal reforms in their constitutions. Specific VAW laws encompassing the areas of health, education, social services, legal …


MR coils are a crucial part in the receiving chain of an MRI. Their characteristics determine the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) as well as the quality of the illumination of the volume-of-interest (VOI), which is significantly reduced as the circumference of the conductor is comparable in size to the wavelength.A well-known countermeasure to this is the use of distributed capacitors on the circumference of conductor loops. Although this measure is mentioned in numerous works, there is no systematic framework to correctly determine the values of these capacitors. In this work a systematic framework for the analysis of distributed capacitors on conductor loops is established. This is achieved by a four-pole representation of the circular loop, which allows for a eigen-mode analysis to determine the correct values.Based on the results, an experimental method for determining the values is derived and validated in workbench measurements. This provides, for the first time, an easy-to-use method for determining the correct values of distributed capacitors.


A trimaran is a multihull vessel designed to reduce wave-making resistances at high speeds. Optimization of the hull shape increases hull efficiency and speed of a vessel. The behavior of a ship is generally analyzed through numerical methods to save time and reduce high expenditures as compared to experimental methods. Although wide ranges of studies have investigated the hydrodynamic behavior of a vessel, the effect of trim angle, yaw angle, and heel angle of side hulls on hydrodynamic behavior of a trimaran has not been addressed properly. In the present study, a trimaran was modeled using computer-aided design software. Dimensions of the computational domain and boundary conditions were applied. Furthermore, mesh convergence was carried out. The accuracy of the method was validated. Analyses are based on the finite volume method. The analysis is carried out to obtain the resistance of side hulls and its effect on total trimaran resistance, effect of speed on hulls vessel resistance, wave patterns generated by the vessel at different trim and yaw angles, effect of trim, heel and yaw angles on side hull and total resistance of trimaran, the wetted surface at different trim, yaw, and heel angles, shape of free surface between the hulls, and the optimal position and trim angle of side hulls relative to the main hull. This computational analysis represents a step in quantifying the role of the trim, heel and yaw angles of side hulls on hydrodynamic characteristics of trimaran in calm water. The worth of information from the present study may express the importance of the factors that could reduce the total resistance of a trimaran.


Abstract Yegua Creek, a tributary of the Brazos River, Texas has yet to be comprehensively surveyed for freshwater mussels, despite previous studies documenting high mussel abundance and richness and the occurrence of Quadrula houstonensis, a federal candidate species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. We qualitatively sampled mussels at 52 sites in lower Yegua Creek to assess the status of mussel populations and provide a baseline for future monitoring efforts. In total 10,010 mussels representing 16 species were observed, including Q. houstonensis and Truncilla macrodon, which is also a federal candidate species. Mussel species richness and abundance increased with distance downstream from Lake Somerville, which corresponded with changes in assemblage structure. Recruitment was lowest near Lake Somerville and highest in reaches located in the middle sections of the study area. Taken together these results indicate that Lake Somerville may be negatively impacting the mussel fauna in Yegua Creek. Despite these impacts, mussel abundance and diversity is high in reaches located at intermediate distances from the reservoir and represents some of the largest known populations in central Texas.


The discovery of new drugs to treat pathological cells in the case of aggressive liver primary cancer is imposing the identification of high-throughput screening systems to predict the in vivo response of new therapeutic molecules, in order to reduce current use of animals and drug testing costs. Recently, micro/nanostructured scaffolds have been adopted to reproduce the hepatic microenvironment due to their higher similarity to the biological niche with respect to the traditional two-dimensional culture plate, so providing novel in vitro models for reliably understanding molecular mechanisms related to cancer cells activity. Herein, we propose the study of electrospun scaffolds made of polycaprolactone as in vitro model that can mimic the morphological organization of native extracellular matrix and the co-culture of hepatic cell lines—i.e., HepG2, human healthy hepatocytes (HHH). The micro- and nano-scale morphological features of fibers with diameter equal to (3.22 ± 0.42) μm and surface roughness of (17.84 ± 4.43) nm—allow the reproduction of the in vivo scenario influencing the adhesion and proliferation rate of the cultured cells. A much lower proliferation rate is observed for the HepG2 cells compared to the HHH cells, when cultured on the fibrous scaffolds over a time course of 4 weeks. Moreover, results on oxidative stress mechanisms indicate an antioxidant effect of fibers mainly in the case of co-colture, thus suggesting a promising use as new in vitro models to explore alternative therapeutic strategies in hepatocarcinoma treatment.


Abstract We examined the behavioral characteristics of reactive turning in hemiplegic stroke patients when they were informed of the turning direction just before turning was required at an unpredictable time. Eleven stroke patients and 20 healthy elderly control people were asked to initiate a turn as soon as a visual cue to inform them of the turning direction was activated unpredictably using a foot switch. Both the segmental reorientation and stepping type when turning 90° while walking were measured. The results indicated preserved segmental reorientation of the head and pelvis in stroke patients. Stroke patients showed delays in pelvic turning but not in head turning. Their delayed pelvic movement might be due to motor dysfunction and the time taken to ensure stability when deciding when to turn.


Let $G$ be an undirected bipartite graph with positive integer weights on the edges. We refine the existing decomposition theorem originally proposed by Kao et al., for computing maximum weight bipartite matching. We apply it to design an efficient version of the decomposition algorithm to compute the weight of a maximum weight bipartite matching of $G$ in $O(\sqrt{|V|}W'/k(|V|,W'/N))$-time by employing an algorithm designed by Feder and Motwani as a subroutine, where $|V|$ and $N$ denote the number of nodes and the maximum edge weight of $G$, respectively and $k(x,y)=\log x /\log(x^2/y)$. The parameter $W'$ is smaller than the total edge weight $W,$ essentially when the largest edge weight differs by more than one from the second largest edge weight in the current working graph in any decomposition step of the algorithm. In best case $W'=O(|E|)$ where $|E|$ be the number of edges of $G$ and in worst case $W'=W,$ that is, $|E| \leq W' \leq W.$ In addition, we talk about a scaling property of the algorithm and research a better bound of the parameter $W'$. An experimental evaluation on randomly generated data shows that the proposed improvement is significant in general.


Soil erosion is a global environmental problem influenced by both natural and human factors. Modeling provides a quantitative and consistent approach to estimate soil erosion and sediment yield under a wide range of conditions, and is needed to guide the comprehensive control of soil erosion. Over the years various soil erosion models have been developed. The application of these models is dependent on the soil type and climate of the given area because models differ in complexity and input requirements. This paper reviews various soil erosion models and their applications, focusing more on the most widely applied models which are: Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP). The method used for this research is a review of academic articles, bulletins, conference papers, textbooks, research reports and publicly available materials on soil erosion models and their applications. The results of this study revealed that most soil erosion models have been developed for the assessment of rill and interill erosion at plot or catchment scale on agricultural lands and watersheds in terms of estimating mostly soil loss, sediment yield, erodibility (K) values, rainfall factor (R) factors, runoff rates and forecasts of likely impacts. Again, the study indicated that most previous authors on soil erosion assessment used the empirical models due to their limited data and parameter inputs. Recommendations of this study include: (1) expansion of the USLE and RUSLE models for the simulation of gully erosion and sediment processes; (2) researchers should be encouraged through grants to develop empirical models (that make use of limited data) based on rainfall (R) factor and erodibility (K) factor that provide two opposing forces in soil erosion processes; and (3) management of soil erosion based on the indigenous knowledge of the affected people and land holders.


The exotic and cross bred cattle milk contain A1 β-casein variant, whereas indigenous cattle milk contains A2 β-casein variant. They have structural diversity at 67 amino acid residue proline in A2 which is replaced by histidine in A1 during course of evolution. The histidine at 67 amino acid residue generates a proteolytic cleavage site in A1 leading to the production of betacasomorphin-7 (BCM-7) that is known to be a risk factor for several human diseases. The serious health concern associated with A1 milk consumption endures an urgent need to select cattle breeds with higher genotypic and allelic frequencies of A2 and conserve indigenous cattle breeds through breeding programmes. In this context, the present study was undertaken to screen thirtysix animals belonging to two indigenous cattle breeds of India viz., Ongole, Punganur and Holstein Friesan cross (twelve from each breed) to characterize βcasein variants (A1 and A2) geotypically by PCR-RFLP with TaqI restriction enzyme and also to study milk β-casein variants (A1 and A2) by IEF. PCR-RFLP with Taq1 restriction enzyme yielded two genotypes as A1A2 (251 and 213 bp) and A2A2 (251 bp) in all indigenous cattle breeds studied, whereas only heterozygous (A1A2) genotype was found in the HF cross. The genotypic frequency of A1A2 heterozygous variant of exon 7 of CSN2 gene was the highest for HF cross (1.0) followed by Punganur (0.17) and Ongole (0.083). Whereas, for A2A2 homozygous variant was the highest for Ongole (0.92) followed by Punganur (0.83). The A1 allelic frequency of exon7 of CSN2 gene was the highest in HF cross (0.50) followed by Punganur (0.083) and Ongole (0.042), whereas the highest A2 allelic frequency was observed in Ongole (0.96) followed by Punganur (0.92) and HF cross (0.50). The IEF gel electrophoresis pattern of milk β-casein protein showed two distinct bands corresponding to A1 and A2 β-casein protein variants at pI values 5.22 and 5.14 respectively and this polymorphism correlated positively with the results of PCR-RFLP with TaqI restriction enzyme. The present study unveils the existing fact that there is incorporation of exotic germplasm in native cattle breeds to varying degrees in different breeds and emphasizes an immediate need for genotypic screening of bulls for βcasein gene variant A2 for documentation and further measures to improve the indigenous breeds with appropriate breeding strategies.


I t is often forgotten that Yemen was. the first Arab territory of the Ottoman Empire to attain independence. Yemen, however, did not play any significant part in the subsequent Arab developments. The reason, as explained by the author, lies in the geographical isolation of the country and the theocratic rule of the Zaydi Imamate which, to maintain its rule, saw that Yemen was kept isolated from the modern world and modern ideas. But, of course, the Yemeni people could not be kept isolated and backward all the time. The author deals in details with the political evolution, the series of revolts, assassination attempts and, finally, the September 1962 coup d' eta!, which overthrew the Yemeni Imamate and established the republican regime. Yet, this change has been opposed by a fairly large section of the Yemeni people. The reasonS are the traditional rivalry between the North and the South, between .the Shias (Zaydis) and the Sunnis, between several tribes. The Zaydis even now support Imam Badr as their temporal and religious leader. Thus the 1962 coup and its partial success has to be understood in the background of Yemen which waS struggling to emerge from the 14th into the 20th century. This transformation will take time and cannot be accelerated beyond a certain point. The author has divided the book in three parts. The first part deals with the land and its peoples, their tribal structure and the religious differences; the second deals with the internal government under the Imamate and the growth of the opposition; the third deals with the foreign relations of Yemen, the 1962 coup and the civil war, and the abortive attempts at negotiations. A detailed bibliography is also given. The book is a very welcome addition to the scanty material available in English on a highly sensitive country in Asia.


Among the most emphasized consequences of pandemic COVID-19 influence is a negative trend of economic development and lock down of many production companies. One of areas where sanitary engineers can be engaged is drinking water safety and safety of wastewater. The new situation requires the change of actual teaching content during the teaching process of sanitary engineers, with the purpose of their training for inclusion in activities on prevention of virus spreading and controlling subjects in charge of people health protection, food safety and protection of living environment. It is very important that higher school institution authorities become familiar with knowledge gaps, potential implications on food, water and environment safety, research direction and other issues related to virus control, among which is also SARS–COV-2. The aim of this work is to encourage wider discussion on promotion of the actual study programs on higher institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighbouring countries as well as development of content proposals, which can lead to knowledge promotion, and competence of graduated students. During the recent discussion, we came to conclusion that it is necessary to develop studies, which have multidisciplinary approach, including the area of public health system, quality, food safety, environment protection and administrative law. Apart from that, students should obtain the necessary knowledge level in area of organization, management and economy, and with the purpose of enabling continuous production and income creation. We should also develop student research capabilities.


Nanofluids are suspensions of nanoparticles in fluids. They show substantial augmentation of their properties at modest nanoparticle concentrations. They have also shown many interesting properties, and the distinctive features offer unprecedented potential for many applications. Most of the publications on nanofluids are about understanding their behavior so that they can be utilized where straight enhancement of nanofluids is paramount as in many industrial applications, nuclear reactors, transportation, electronics as well as biomedicine and food. My paper focuses on presenting the wide range of biological applications that involve nanofluids, prominence to their improved properties that are controllable and the specific characteristics that these nanofluids possess that make them suitable for such applications. Nanofluid as a smart fluid, where the properties like heat transfer, thermal properties and so on, will be used in many biological applications, has also been reported.


Since the recent achievement of Kurotobi and Murata to capture a water molecule in a C(60) fullerene (Science 2011, 333, 613), there has been a debate about the properties of this H(2)O@C(60) complex. In particular, the polarity of the complex, which is thought to be underlying the easy separation of H(2)O@C(60) from the empty fullerene by HPLC, was calculated and found to be almost equal to that of an isolated water molecule. Here we present our detailed analysis of the charge distribution of the water-encapsulated C(60) complex, which shows that the polarity of the complex is, with 0.5 ± 0.1 D, indeed substantial, but significantly smaller than that of H(2)O. This may have important implications for the aim to design water-soluble and biocompatible fullerenes.


abstract Examples of flinty stone in the 'fire-clay series' of the Ashby coal-field exhibit 'areas of conic structure lying unconformably.' In the same stratum of shale are large masses of the same flinty rock, more or less coated with conic structures, which appear to have been formed out of layers of shale and ironstone. The bending-up of the shale above the nodules and down below them, the close but unconformable covering of Permian breccia, and the staining of the whole section suggests, if indeed it does not demonstrate, to the Author that the growth of the cone-in-cone took place subsequently to the deposit of the Permian breccia. Several American and other examples are described, and a series of conclusions are appended to the paper.


Multi-objective optimization is widely found in many fields, such as logistics, economics, engineering, or whenever optimal decisions need to be made in the presence of trade-offs. The problem is challenging because it involves the simultaneous optimization of several conflicting objectives in the Pareto optimal sense and requires researchers to address many issues that are unique to MO problems. This talk will provide an overview of evolutionary computation for multi-objective optimization (EMO). It will then present various applications of EMO for solving engineering problems particularly in the area of robust prognostic. As one of the key enablers of condition based maintenance, prognostic involves the core task of determining the remaining useful life (RUL) of the system. This talk will discuss the use of neural network ensembles to improve the prediction accuracy of RUL estimation as well as the use of EMO to optimize the ensemble hyper-parameters in order to achieve the trade-off between accuracy and diversity of deep neural networks as ensemble members. A case study involving the estimation of RUL for turbofan engines will also be presented in the talk.


This study aims to analyze the determinants of maternal health care utilization in Nepal. Maternal health still remains a public health problem in Nepal though it has been improving in the last decade since the number of women seeking antenatal care and opting for institutional delivery has increased. This study is based on Nepal Demographic and Health Survey data of 2016. The sample size consists of 3998 married women aged 15-49 years who had a live birth in the five years preceding the survey. Bivariate analysis is used to examine the association between adequate ANC visits and institutional delivery. A strong association is observed between women's higher level of education and women involved in non-agricultural occupation with receipt of antenatal care and choosing of institutional delivery. The study findings conclude that there is a significant gap among different sub-groups of women in Nepal in the utilization maternal health care based on factors like women's age, place of residence, level of education, occupation and wealth status. In order to address the existing gap and variation in ANC service utilization, particular attention should be given to women from less education, poor wealth quintile, living in rural areas, utilization of services among older age group. The results of this study put forward the need for efforts from government bodies and agencies in implementation of appropriate policies and programs to bring an improvement in the use of maternal health care services in Nepal.


ABSTRACT Pregnancy smoking self-stigma may be associated with mental health and smoking cessation. This study aims to validate the Pregnant Smoker Stigma Scale – Self-Stigma (P3S-SS) assessing perceived and internalized stigma. Between May 2021 and May 2022, French pregnant smokers recruited online (n = 143) took the P3S-SS and other scales assessing depressive symptoms (EPDS), social inclusion (SIS), dissimulation, dependence (CDS-5), cessation self-efficacy (SEQ), and intention. The two versions of the scale include four dimensions: derogatory cognitions ("People think/I feel I am selfish"), negative emotions and behaviors ("People make me feel/smoking makes me feel guilty"), personal distress ("People/I feel sorry for me/myself"), and information provision ("People tell me/I think about the risks of smoking"). Confirmatory factor analyses and multiple regressions have been computed. Model fit was good for perceived stigma and internalized stigma (X2/df = 3.06, RMSEA = .124, AGFI = .982, SRMR = .068, CFI = .986, NNFI = .985; X2/df = 3.31, RMSEA = .14, AGFI = .977, SRMR = .087, CFI = .981, NNFI = .979). Controlling for dependence, cessation intention was positively predicted by perceived and internalized personal distress and negatively predicted by perceived negative emotions and behaviors (Adj R2 = .143, F(8,115) = 3.567, p = .001). Controlling for dependence, dissimulation was positively predicted by internalized negative cognitions and perceived personal distress and negatively predicted by internalized personal distress (Adj R2 = .19, F(9,98) = 3.785, p = .000). The P3S-SS opens up exciting avenues for further research. Stigma does not motivate women to stop smoking but increases distress and dissimulation.


We obtain an explicit parametrization of stationary discs glued to some Levi non-degenerate hypersurfaces. These discs form a family which is invariant under the action of biholomorphisms. We use this parametrization to construct a local circular representation of these hypersurfaces. As a corollary, we get the uniqueness of biholomorphisms with given 1-jet at some convenient point. A central problem in complex analysis consists in classifying the domains in C under the action of biholomorphisms. If n = 1, the Riemann mapping theorem states that every simply connected domain of C, which is not all of C, is biholomorphic to the unit disc. We have known since the work of H. Poincaré [10] that this theorem has no immediate generalization in the case n ≥ 2. Indeed, the rigidity of the holomorphy condition in the multidimensional situation makes biholomorphic equivalence very rare. This leads us to seek biholomorphic invariants of the boundary of a domain. S.S. Chern and J.K. Moser [3] have associated to any Levi non-degenerate real hypersurface a simple equation and proposed a purely geometric construction of classifying invariants. Stationary discs are another natural invariant of manifolds with boundary with respect to biholomorphisms, or more generally with respect to CR maps. We recall that a holomorphic disc in C is a holomorphic map from the unit disc ∆ in C to M , continuous up to the boundary. L. Lempert [8] showed that some of these discs have interesting extremality properties with respect to the Kobayashi metric. Indeed, in a strongly convex domain in C, the geodesics for this metric are exactly the stationary discs. Using this particular family of discs, L. Lempert constructed a homeomorphism between any strongly convex domain and the unit ball, which is an analogue of the Riemann map. More generally, the parametrization of M by the stationary discs yields to a (local) representation of M as a circular submanifold. In higher codimension, A. Sukhov and A. Tumanov [11] obtained, using the same method, a new invariant of small perturbations of the product of spheres S × S, canonically diffeomorphic to the conormal bundle. The map constructed commutes with biholomorphisms and is a partial analogue of the circular representation given by L. Lempert. Received by the editors February 8, 2007 and, in revised form, July 23, 2007. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 32A10, 32V40.


In Korea, the provisions concerning the egg donation for the purpose of either other's pregnancy or research have been provided by 「Bioethics and Safety Act」, which was enacted in 2005 and revised in 2008. According to this revised Act, the egg donor have to take the physical examination in order to judge her appropriateness as the egg donor. In addition, the egg donation is restricted in its number up to 3 times and is able to be carried at 6 months intervals. The egg donor can be compensated for the actual expense resulting from the egg donation. After the egg donation and the compensation for the egg donation, the Embryo Producing Medical Institution have to report the detailed information about the egg donation and the compensation to the egg donor that was occurred in the institution to both the Institutional Bioethics Committee and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Consequently, these legal procedures and standards that are related to the egg donation are very meaningful and significant to guarantee the donor's reproductive health rights personally and to protect the bioethics and safety socially. However, these directions are not fully addressed for the protection of the rights of the parties who are involved in the donation and recipience, especially the egg donor. There are many issues that have to be considered to guarantee the rights of the parties. Therefore, we have to rethink and discuss about issues surrounding the use of the assisted reproductive technology and the egg donation and recipience ethically, socially, and legally, so that we should have to attain to the social consensus and to bring about an legal agreement.


Hypertensive emergency is a condition in which there is elevation of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure with the presence of acute target organ disease. Hypertensive urgency is a condition where the blood pressure is elevated (diastolic > 120 mmHg) with the absence of acute target organ disease. Hypertensive emergencies are best managed with parenteral drugs and careful intraarterial blood pressure monitoring. Hydralazine has been widely used in treatment of hypertension in eclampsia and preeclampsia, and its safety has been demonstrated in these patients. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) has the most reliable antihypertensive activity, which begins immediately after its administration and ends when the infusion is stopped. As with diazoxide, it should be used with caution in patients with impaired cerebral flow. SNP is the preferred drug in obtaining controlled hypotension in patients undergoing neurovascular surgery. Intravenous nitroglycerin is useful in patients prone to myocardial ischemia, but should be avoided in patients with increased intracranial pressure. Esmolol is effective in controlling both supraventricular tachyarrhythmias and severe hypertension. Its short onset of duration of action make it useful in the emergent setting, but because of its negative inotropic effect its use should be avoided in patients with low cardiac output. Verapamil should not be used in patients with preexisting conduction abnormalities. Nicardipine is a potent arteriolar vasodilator without a significant direct depressant effect on myocardium. As with other afterload reducing agents, it should not be used in patients with severe aortic stenosis. Because angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors generally cause cerebral vasodilatation, enalaprilat may be particularly beneficial for patients who are at high risk of developing cerebral hypotensive episodes secondary to impaired cerebral circulation. Fenoldopam, a selective post‐synaptic dopaminergic receptor (DA1) has been shown to be effective in treating severe hypertension with a lower incidence of side effects than SNP. Hypertensive urgencies can usually be managed with oral agents. Oral nifedipine, captopril, clonidine, labetalol, prazosin, and nimodipine have all been shown to be effective in these situations.


Author Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 72 (2014): 73-94.


The Integrated circuit Factory at RIT has realized much success in improving manufacturing performance and advancement toward six-sigma process capability goals. The Factory is comprised of approximately 20 graduate and undergraduate students in microelectronic engineering. Customers include a small number of companies and other universities in addition to faculty members and graduate students in electrical, microelectronic, and computer engineering at RIT. Products mostly consist of analog and digital CMOS integrated circuits fabricated in a P-well CMOS process. The factory maintains a work-in-progress (WIP) level of around 5 lots (50 wafers) and has a throughput of approximately 50 lots per year, with an average lot cycle time of approximately 1 month. The university IC facility is very dynamic in that the operators, equipment, and processes are constantly changing, The process capability baseline has been obtained from data collected for the past several years of student-run factory operation. A methodology to improve the quality of the student-run factory was implemented and is described in detail, The baseline study found that none of processes had process capability (Cpk) greater than one (3 sigma). However, manufacturing performance and product quality has been greatly improved by implementing the following set of tools: computer integrated manufacturing (CIM); total quality management (TQM) methodology; statistical process control (SPC); and "six-sigma" process capability analysis. Today several processes show Cpk>1. The student run integrated circuit factory at RIT has made significant progress toward achieving six-sigma manufacturing goals.


Evolutionary game theory has been an important tool for describing economic and social behaviour for decades. Approximate mean value equations describing the time evolution of strategy concentrations can be derived from the players' microscopic update rules. We show that they can be generalized to a learning process. As an example, we compare a restricted imitation process, in which unused parts of the role model's meta-strategy are hidden from the imitator, with the widely used imitation rule that allows the imitator to adopt the entire meta-strategy of the role model. This change in imitation behaviour greatly affects dynamics and stationary states in the iterated prisoner dilemma. Particularly we find Grim Trigger to be a more successful strategy than Tit-For-Tat especially in the weak selection regime.


Modeling physical phenomena with atomistic fidelity and at laboratory timescales is one of the holy grails of computational materials science. Conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations enable the elucidation of an astonishing array of phenomena inherent in the mechanical and chemical behavior of materials. However, conventional MD, with our current computational modalities, is incapable of resolving timescales longer than microseconds (at best). In this short review article, we briefly review a recently proposed approach—the so-called autonomous basin climbing (ABC) method—that in certain instances can provide valuable information on slow timescale processes. We provide a general summary of the principles underlying the ABC approach, with emphasis on recent methodological developments enabling the study of mechanically-driven processes at slow (experimental) strain rates and timescales. Specifically, we show that by combining a strong physical understanding of the underlying phenomena, kinetic Monte Carlo, transition state theory and minimum energy pathway methods, the ABC method has been found to be useful in a variety of mechanically-driven problems ranging from the prediction of creep-behavior in metals, constitutive laws for grain boundary sliding, void nucleation rates, diffusion in amorphous materials to protein unfolding. Aside from reviewing the basic ideas underlying this approach, we emphasize some of the key challenges encountered in our own personal research work and suggest future research avenues for exploration.


Pesticides are substances that are used for controlling, repelling, mitigating or killing pests that are harmful to man. Some of the pesticides that have been used include but not limited to herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides. Most of these pesticides can be grouped in three groups of pesticides namely, oregano-chloride, organo-phosphates and carbamates. Some of the characteristics of these pesticides include toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation. The application of pesticides affects both the targeted as well as the non-targeted species including man. The parent pesticides, their degradation products together with metabolites can be harmful to the environment, ecosystem and to the human health. Due to this the aim of this study was to look into the articles studied on the impact of pesticide pollution on the environment, ecosystem as well as on human health. This was done by assessing both the benefits, effects and risks associated with the continuous use of pesticides as well as ways to mitigate the pesticides pollution problems. The methodology used in the study to look for the review articles was through the internet by going through websites which include Google, Google Scholar and PUBMED. About 70 studies were retrieved which included articles and abstracts. Books from the library with relevant information about the study were also included. The reviewed studies have revealed that there are benefits and risks as well as effects of pesticides pollution on environment. The studies have also revealed that in order to control pesticide pollution, the use of other methods of controlling pests such as integrated pest management (IPM) strategies such as biological as well as cultural could be used to control pests instead of chemical pesticides.


Neural network flexibility extends to changes in neuronal participation between networks. This neuronal switching can include neurons moving between single- and dual-network activity. We previously identified an example in which bursting at a second frequency occurs due to modulation of intrinsic membrane properties instead of synaptic recruitment into a second network. However, the intrinsic properties that are modulated were not determined. Here, we use small networks in the Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) to examine modulation of intrinsic properties underlying neuropeptide- (Gly1-SIFamide) elicited neuronal switching. The LPG neuron switches from exclusive participation in the fast pyloric (∼1 Hz) network, due to electrical coupling, to dual-network activity which includes periodic escapes from the fast rhythm via intrinsically-generated oscillations at the slower gastric mill network frequency (∼0.1 Hz). We isolated LPG from both networks using pharmacology and hyperpolarizing current injection. Gly1-SIFamide increased LPG intrinsic excitability and rebound from inhibition, and decreased spike frequency adaptation, which can all contribute to intrinsic bursting. Using ion substitution and channel blockers, we found that a hyperpolarization-activated current, a persistent sodium current, and a calcium or calcium-related current(s) appear to be primary contributors to Gly1-SIFamide-elicited LPG intrinsic bursting. However, this intrinsic bursting was more sensitive to blocking currents when LPG received rhythmic electrical coupling input from the fast network than in the isolated condition. Overall, a switch from single- to dual-network activity can involve modulation of multiple intrinsic properties, while synaptic input from a second network can shape the contributions of these properties. New and Noteworthy Neuropeptide-elicited intrinsic bursting was recently determined to switch a neuron from single to dual-network participation. Here we identified multiple intrinsic properties modulated in the dual-network state and candidate ion channels underlying the intrinsic bursting. Bursting at the second network frequency was more sensitive to blocking currents in the dual-network state than when neurons were synaptically isolated from their home network. Thus, synaptic input can shape the contributions of modulated intrinsic properties underlying dual-network activity.


ABSTRACT Anuran calling behaviour is determined by environmental, endogenous, and social factors. The effect of these factors usually differs among and within species. We used acoustic monitoring to evaluate the effects of environmental predictors on the daily occurrence and call production of Elachistocleis matogrosso (Microhylidae) in the northeastern Brazilian Pantanal. We monitored the calling behaviour of the species over a complete annual cycle at four acoustic monitoring stations. Daily occurrence was positively associated with high minimum air temperature at all sites, and was also related to days with high abundant rainfall at two sites. This result suggests that the minimum temperature acts as the main trigger initiating calling activity in this species. In contrast, call production was positively related to rainfall and accumulated rainfall over the previous three days, with no effect of air temperature. This observation could be related to a high abundance of calling males after some rainy periods, when more water bodies are available for reproduction. Our findings reveal the importance of performing studies at different spatial-temporal and calling scales because the effects of environmental predictors on anuran calling behaviour may differ among sites, and this factor is also important when analysing daily occurrence or call production.


【Purpose: This research is to investigate the needling Depth for Deqi based onone's age, weight, and the level of obesity and the different Deqi sensation in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan. Methods: We took a research on Deqi for the 123 patients who visited a local Korean Medicine clinic at random. The variants were the age, the weight, thetotal fat rate, the waist-hip rate, BMI, the weight size, and the Sasang constitution. Result: Older patients need more depth of Deqi in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan compared to the younger ones. The higher the level of obesity(weight, total body fat rate, the waist-hip rate, BMI) goes up, the more Deqi in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan goes deeply. As the level of obesity goes down in the order of Taeeum-in, Soyang-in, Soeum-in, the depth of Deqi also decreases in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan. Deqi in Chung-wan is the feeling of pressure around the acu-point, and Deqi in Kwan-wan is the feeling that it spreads out to the upper, lower, the right, and the left side of the acu-point. Conclusion: In case of Needling Depth for Deqi on Chung-wan and Kwan-wan, that increases or decreases as the age, the level of obesity(the physique), and the Sasang constitution changes.】


The purpose of this study describes and interpreting form act said, acts said dominant way act speech and function act said used in ceremony custom wedding society of Bastem. This research was conducted in Bastem, Luwu, South Sulawesi Province.
The method used is the descriptive method where made a systematic description and rules about the data studied. The descriptive method chosen for the research conducted aims to describe clearly the object under study naturally.
Of research findings obtained in that form of speech acts traditional wedding ceremony in Bastem form of action how about the courtesy and understanding of customary law which must be carried out and implemented in life, especially the marriage ceremony, the next speech acts are dominant in the marriage ceremony is from the woman's speech act grateful love, explain and asked, while on the men which speech acts grateful. Then the speech acts are spoken in the marriage ceremony that is by polite, careful and respectful in public bastem wedding ceremonies, and the last speech acts are used in traditional wedding ceremony bastem society serves as a speech act aimed at the women and men with accompanying speech acts goal was spoken.
To achieve a deeper study suggested enrich linguistic, contribute in preserving the indigenous communities Bastem, as well as reviewing the speech act of birth and death ceremonies, create archives by reference in observing the development of time-backward.


The development of datacenter applications leads to the need for end-to-end communication with microsecond latency. As a result, RDMA is becoming prevalent in datacenter networks to mitigate the latency caused by the slow processing speed of the traditional software network stack. However, existing RDMA congestion control mechanisms are either far from optimal in simultaneously achieving high throughput and low latency or in need of additional in-network function support. In this paper, by leveraging the observation that most congestion occurs at the last hop in datacenter networks, we propose RCC, a receiver-driven rapid congestion control mechanism for RDMA networks that combines explicit assignment and iterative window adjustment. Firstly, we propose a network congestion distinguish method to classify congestions into two types, last-hop congestion and in-network congestion. Then, an Explicit Window Assignment mechanism is proposed to solve the last-hop congestion, which enables senders to converge to a proper sending rate in one-RTT. For in-network congestion, a PID-based iterative delay-based window adjustment scheme is proposed to achieve fast convergence and near-zero queuing latency. RCC does not need additional in-network support and is friendly to hardware implementation. In our evaluation, the overall average FCT (Flow Completion Time) of RCC is $4{\sim }79\%$ better than Homa, ExpressPass, DCQCN, TIMELY, and HPCC.


Twenty-one patients with refractory acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) and myelodysplastic syndrome were treated with low-dose cytosine arabinoside (LDARC). LDARC was administered by subcutaneous injection every 12 hours at a dose of 10 mg/m2 (regimen A) or at a dose of 20 mg/m2 by continuous intravenous infusion (CIV) or continuous subcutaneous injection (CSC) (regimen B). Among 22 courses, two elderly patients with ANLL (M4 and M5) and one M4 patient with myelofibrosis obtained complete remission (CR) and three elderly patients with ANLL (one M1 and two M2) and one patient with ANLL developed from RAEB in transformation obtained partial remission (PR). The overall remission rate (CR + PR) was 31.8%. The CR durations were 2.5, 5 and 2 months, respectively. The plasma concentration of Ara-C determined in regimen B was 8.26 +/- 4.12 ng/ml. There was no difference in the plasma concentration of Ara-C between CIV and CSC. We consider that the major mode of action of LDARC lies in its cytotoxic effect, since all patients who obtained remission exhibited pancytopenia and bone marrow hypoplasia. However, in several patients, we observed transient monocytosis and granulocytosis which were considered to be suggestive evidence of differentiation of leukemia cells.


The dynamic stiffness method is used to investigate the free vibration behaviour of a functionally graded beam (FGB). The material properties of the FGB are assumed to vary in the thickness direction based on a power-law. The kinetic and potential energies of the beam are formulated using the Timoshenko beam theory. The governing differential equations of motion in free vibration for the FGB are derived using Hamilton's principle. The analytical expressions for axial force, shear force and bending moments at any cross-section of the FGB are obtained as a by-product of the Hamiltonian formulation. The differential equations are solved in closed analytical form for harmonic oscillation. The dynamic stiffness matrix of the FGB is then formulated by relating the amplitudes of forces and displacements at the ends of the beam. The Wittrick-Williams algorithm is used as solution technique to yield natural frequencies and mode shapes of the FGB. A parametric study is carried out by varying significant beam parameters and boundary conditions. The investigation required a substantial amount of validation exercise to confirm the predictable accuracy of the dynamic stiffness method. The results are discussed and some concluding remarks are made.


The ability to apply perioperative ultrasound techniques is a desirable skill for clinicians. We implemented a multimodal 13-day basic ultrasound course for 6 anesthesia interns. Their scores on a knowledge test increased after the course and were sustained and similar to those of 6 senior residents 90 days later. The interns acquired images of the heart in volunteers with little assistance after the course. They maintained their ability to acquire echocardiographic images on a simulator 90 days later with kinematic measures superior to the same seniors. Through this course, interns gained knowledge and skills equal to or greater than seniors.


There are two different models of pro discretionary right:Continental law with judicial power as the core and Anglo-American law with the right of action as the core.Our current systems adopt the former.In order to accommodate the development of international criminal justice trends,it is necessary to reform our current systems and expand the pro discretionary right.


The advancement in waste to energy (WTE) technologies in India economically provides an optimal solution for the restoration of power and heat and helps in fighting the rising energy demand. These technologies decrease waste volumes, environmental influence, threats to public health and dependence on fossil fuels for power production. As of 2018, more than 62 million metric ton (MTs) of waste is produced yearly in India and the same is expected to increase to 165 million MTs by 2031 and 436 million MTs by 2050 respectively. The land required for the dumping of the  62 million MTs of untreated waste is around 1,240 hectares per year, and the requirement is expected to expand to 66,000 hectares of landfill per year for the projected wastes in the years to come and besides the country also requires a task force to treat these wastes by utilizing proper technologies. India has an estimated potential of WTE of about 2.554 GW from municipal solid waste (MSW) and about 1.683 GW from urban and industrial wastes. The existing WTE plants are an attractive technological alternative for managing wastes, but the pollution caused by these plants is a serious concern and pose a threat to the environment. The current policies, programs, and management structure do not sufficiently address the immediate hurdles of managing the projected waste due to a shortage of logistics and significant planning, inadequate funding, unsuitable technical attentiveness, and inappropriate resource management. The primary intent of this manuscript is to show the potential of the WTE in the country, including the possible technologies, job, and business opportunities and lastly the environmental influence. Also, the policies that need to be improved, evolved or modified to encourage WTE industry are suggested along with a few recommendations for the course of action in the WTE sector that can support the investors, WTE project developers, suppliers, decision makers and the policymakers for further better management and planning.


Cardiac surgery: a complex system Heart surgery has much in common with other high technology systems in which performance and outcomes depend on multifaceted interactions of individual, technical and organizational factors. In addition, our specialty often functions as a chaotic/emergent system since the initial circumstances vary in patients with the same medical condition resulting in uncertainty and lack of predictability [1]. Complexity: The American Heritage Dictionary defines complex and complicated as "things whose parts are so interconnected or interwoven as to make the whole perplexing". If we add rarity and small numbers to complexity, the results is a distinctiveness that explains many aspects of our profession and specialty such as variability with institutional differences in outcomes; inconsistency of results in treating rare diseases and uncertainty on any inference about results of complex rare lesions [2]. A system is a set of interdependent elements that are interacting, or working together, to accomplish a common goal. All systems, at the "atomic" level, consist of individuals, activities, connections, and pathways with the following characteristics, qualities or peculiarities in complex systems: • Heterogeneity of the parties (diverse nature and multiple); • Cause-and-effect relationships may be nonlinear and obvious only in retrospect; • Richness of interaction between them (including their contradictory character); • Multidimensional and multi-referential; • Many variables commonly present; • Provide information that by itself reveals the extent of its complexity; • Under an apparent simplicity, they often hide the true dynamics of these processes and interactions between its parts • Vulnerability — Are influenced by factors and surprising circumstances that may affect, cause, or facilitate a change in behavior and expected results, altering all or changed significantly "Complex business generates complex services. Regardless of how much effort and brain power go into designing their complex operations ('system of work'), it is impossible to do it perfectly and to predict how it will behave under every circumstance" [3]. Complex systems are rich in multiple and interdependent Publicamos, abaixo, a segunda parte do artigo "Cardiac surgery – the infinte quest". Apesar de mais complexo que a anterior, este texto vai além das habilidades técnicas e tem conceitos modernos de como lidar com os sistemas complexos da atual prática da nossa profissão e especialidade.


In anesthesiology and intensive care medicine it is often necessary to treat disorders involving cardiac failure or low-output syndrome. However, in patients who are endangered by ischemic heart disease, any pharmacologic therapy with positive inotropic agents should improve cardiac output without increasing myocardial oxygen demand significantly: the heart should perform its task as efficiently as possible. In the present study a mathematical model of myocardial efficiency was developed. The implications of this theoretical concept of myocardial efficiency were evaluated in animal experiments. THEORETICAL MODEL. Cardiac efficiency is predominantly dependent on preload, afterload, and inotropic state. Quantitatively, it can be calculated from end-diastolic volume, left ventricular systolic pressure (Psyst), stroke volume (SV), and ejection time. The implications of the theoretical analysis are: (1) the inotropic state, which leads to optimal myocardial efficiency, is specifically determined by preload and afterload: for each preload and afterload one matched inotropic state is necessary to achieve optimal efficiency; (2) an increase in blood pressure leads to a decrease in myocardial efficiency even if the inotropic state is optimally matched to preload and afterload; and (3) an increase in end-diastolic volume improves the efficiency of myocardial pump work. ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS. The validity of the theoretical model was studied in animal experiments with emphasis on the following items: (1) is theoretically optimal efficiency of myocardial pump work achieved by physiologic regulation of myocardial performance? (2) how does sympathetic stimulation influence myocardial efficiency? and (3) how do cardiodepressive agents such as beta-blockers or volatile anesthetics influence myocardial efficiency? METHODS. Experiments were performed on nine mongrel dogs after induction of piritramide--nitrous oxide anesthesia. Standard hemodynamics: heart rate, Psyst, maximum left ventricular pressure rise (dP/dtmax), and SV (thermodilution) as well as coronary blood flow (pressure difference catheter) and myocardial oxygen consumption (Fick principle) were measured. In order to create a broad range of different hemodynamic settings, blood withdrawal and retransfusion of blood and/or colloid osmotic solutions were used to modify intravascular volume. Additionally, the inotropic state was varied by infusion of catecholamines (isoproterenol 0.4-0.8 microgram.kg-1.min-1 or norepinephrine 1-2 micrograms.kg-1.min-1). Experimental myocardial failure was induced by adding halothane (0.8-1.5 MAC) to the basic anesthesia, beta-blockade with propranolol (125-250 micrograms.kg-1), and combination of beta-blockade with a pressure load imposed on the myocardium (propranolol 125-250 micrograms.kg-1 + norepinephrine 1-2 micrograms.kg-1.min-1). RESULTS. During variation of the intravascular blood volume by normo-, hypo-, and hypervolemia, the myocardial efficiency very closely matched the theoretically predicted values of optimal efficiency: the average observed efficiency was 98.8% of predicted optimal efficiency. Increasing afterload with norepinephrine did not alter this close relationship, although absolute values of efficiency decreased as predicted by the theoretical model. Application of isoproterenol resulted in SVs that exceeded optimal values by 41.5%. In contrast, during experimental myocardial failure SVs were too small to achieve the necessary values for optimal pump work; observed myocardial efficiency was therefore significantly lower than optimal efficiency. CONCLUSIONS. For pharmacological interventions, it can be concluded that maximal efficiency of cardiac pump work requires maximal end-diastolic filling in combination with minimal afterload. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


A sequential machine is defined to be linear if its next-state function and output function are linear transformations from their domains (vector spaces) to their ranges (also vector spaces). It is shown that this definition is equivalent to those given by other authors. Based on this definition, a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the flow table of a sequential machine to be linear is obtained. Many properties of the flow table of a linear sequential machine are found, and in many cases they form very simple tests for the linearity of a flow table. A general procedure for testing the linearity of a flow table is established. This procedure, including the coding of the states, inputs, and outputs, either ends with a linear realization of the flow table with the minimum possible numbers of state variables, input variables, and output variables, or detects that such a linear realization for the flow table is impossible. The type of sequential machine considered in this paper is deterministic and synchronous, and both Moore model and Mealy model are studied in detail. The linearity of incompletely specified sequential machines is also discussed.


A current challenge for many Bayesian analyses is determining when to terminate high-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations. To this end, we propose using an automated sequential stopping procedure that terminates the simulation when the computational uncertainty is small relative to the posterior uncertainty. Further, we show this stopping rule is equivalent to stopping when the effective sample size is sufficiently large. Such a stopping rule has previously been shown to work well in settings with posteriors of moderate dimension. In this article, we illustrate its utility in high-dimensional simulations while overcoming some current computational issues. As examples, we consider two complex Bayesian analyses on spatially and temporally correlated datasets. The first involves a dynamic space-time model on weather station data and the second a spatial variable selection model on fMRI brain imaging data. Our results show the sequential stopping rule is easy to implement, provides uncertainty estimates, and performs well in high-dimensional settings. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


According to accounting rules, companies must provide a (financial) summarized overview of related party transactions, among which are transactions with shareholders. This study of the Euro STOXX small 200 shows that transactions with large shareholders are common and a significant number of these transactions are material compared to the size of the company. Unfortunately, the reporting standards are not in accordance with the information that is necessary to assess whether the potential conflicts of interests are mitigated. In its proposal to revise the shareholder rights directive, the European Commission provides – in its current 2015 version - in a process of disclosure of the transaction, the assessment of the fairness of the transaction for the company and its minority shareholders by an independent body and an approval by the (supervisory) board and/or the shareholders. However, the proposal will more than likely not overcome the major concerns of the capital market regarding conflicts of interest within companies. I suggest involving the external auditor and the audit committee. The external auditor's duties already include the control over the related party transactions. Consequently, these duties can be broadened as to include the reasonable assurance that the envisaged related party transactions are economic fair transactions. Further the audit committee must be established in public interest entities with a duty to monitor i.a. the performance of the work of the auditor. Consequently it can include the work of the auditor regarding related party transactions. The audit committee can serve as the body that approves the related party transaction. This procedure can help to mitigate the conflicts of interests in related party transactions.


This is a report of a five-year-old girl with phenylketonuria (PKU) and hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI) who underwent elective strabismus surgery. PKU and HFI are two inborn errors of metabolism which have an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. This case report describes the anesthetic features of a patient with PKU and HFI, each defect requiring specific anesthetic management.


The current study investigated the influence of morphological structure on the earliest stages of Arabic reading acquisition. More specifically, we aimed at examining the role of root and pattern units in beginners from Grade 1 to 3. A first set of reading tasks evaluated the presence of a morphology facilitation effect in word and pseudoword reading by manipulating independently the frequency of roots and patterns. Additional tasks aimed at examining the contribution of morphological awareness to reading performance. The results suggest that reading ability is early influenced by the awareness of morphological composition. Children read faster and more accurately pseudowords composed of frequent morphemes. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed, for every reading measure, a significant contribution of one morphological test in addition to grapheme knowledge. Results are discussed taking into account the differences obtained depending on lexicality and morpheme type (root or pattern).


Background Bibliometric analysis helps to determine the quantity and the quality of the research in a specialty or country. For rheumatology field Cheng et al. provided information about worldwide research productivity from 1996 to 2010. Even though, their overall research yields important data about research productivity in the field of rheumatology, as to our knowledge, there is no report was performed about Turkey's contribution to rheumatology research until now. Objectives To investigate scientific papers published by Turkish Rheumatologists between 2007 and 2011 in the top 5 rheumatology journals according to 5-year impact factor. Methods Top 5 journals of rheumatology field, according to 5-year impact factor was determined from Web of Science as follows: Nature Reviews of Rheumatology, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis Care & Research and Arthritis Research and Therapy. These journals screened via their websites and all the scientific papers belong to 2007-2011 were included in the study. Papers such as Editor's notes or Announcements were not included. Supplementary issues were not investigated neither. All papers were investigated one-by-one for detecting if they have a Turkish named author or Turkish institute. Articles published by a Turkish author or institute from Turkey were analyzed further. Citation counts of articles from Turkish authors were determined via Google Scholar and Web of Science databases. Results A total of 7,907 papers (Nature Reviews of Rheumatology: 672, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases: 1977, Arthritis & Rheumatology: 2648, Arthritis Care & Research: 1313 and Arthritis Research and Therapy: 1297) were investigated. Totally 175 papers (2.21%) were found as at least one Turkish listed as an author. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (67 papers) was the top journal where Turkish authors published most. Among this 175 papers, authors informed that they contributed to the study from Turkey in 70 papers (40%). Other 60% were papers from Turkish origin authors who lives and researches outside of Turkey. USA (45 papers), Switzerland (24 papers) and the Netherlands (18 papers) were the top 3 countries where Turkish origin authors listed as their institution were in that country. These 175 articles were cited totally 18.085 times according to Google Scholar and 10.378 times according to Web of Science. Conclusions The total contribution and cite counts of Turkey are in accordance with the literature. According to our results more than 50% of the Turkish contribution to the rheumatology research comes from authors who research outside of the Turkey. Lack of research resources and other supports, financial issues and the value of the research effort in Turkey might contribute these results. References Cheng T, Zhang G. Worldwide research productivity in the field of rheumatology from 1996 to 2010: a bibliometric analysis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2013; 52(9):1630-4. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Background Clinical manifestations and prognosis of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are extremely heterogeneous which, combined with its low prevalence, makes difficult the study of the disease in the absence of multicenter studies. Objectives To analyze the clinical characteristics and mortality in a cohort of patients diagnosed with IIM in rheumatology units from several hospitals in Madrid. Methods A multicenter retrospective longitudinal descriptive study from REMICAM myositis study group was performed. All patients diagnosed with IIM according to Bohan and Peter1 criteria for myositis and in follow-up sometime between January 1980 and December 2014 in rheumatology units were included. Patients were classified into clinical subgroups: primary dermatomyositis (DM), primary polymyositis (PM), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM), paraneoplasic myositis, overlap myositis (OM), inclusion body myositis (IBM) and necrotizing myositis (NM). Main causes of death and influence of age and sex were studied. Results 485 cases were included in this study, with a medium age at diagnosis of 43,3±23,2 years and mean follow-up time of 11,3±19 years. Most cases were Caucasian (93%), and women (74,4%). The most frequent form of classification were primary myopathies (28,8% PM; 21% DM; 20,6% OM; 19,4% JDM; 8,3% paraneoplasic myositis; 1% IBM and 0.8% NM) and the most frequent myositis specific antibodies detected were anti-Jo-1 (16,3% anti-Jo-1; 4,1% anti-Mi-2; 2,7% anti-PM-Scl; 0,6% anti-SRP; 0,2% anti-Ku). 25,4% of patients died, with a higher mortality rate in men (32,5% vs. 22,9; p=0,04) and older age at onset (54,1±24,8 years vs. 37,2±26,4 years, p<0,001). The clinical subtypes with higher mortality were paraneoplasic myositis (70%) and OM (36%). Main causes of death were cancer (23,4%) and cardiovascular events (23,4%), followed by infections (22,4%), interstitial lung disease (7.5%) and other causes. In clinical subsets, main causes of death were infections in DM (37,5%), and cardiovascular disease in OM (32,3%) and PM (32,1%). Conclusions In our cohort of IIM 25,4% of patients died, with a worse prognosis in men and older age at onset, mainly due to cancer and cardiovascular events. Cardiovascular events are the most important cause of death in PM and MCTD, and infections in DM. References Bohan A, Peter JB. N Engl J Med 1975 Feb 13;292(7):344-7. Disclosure of Interest None declared


E-business has become the focus of multinational business due to enhancement and advancement in information and communication technology. The web sites are being designed on the bases basis of localization, but the cultural usability is still not the main concern of designer of e-commerce web sites. The culture plays vital rule in acceptance of web site by users. The purpose of study is to diagnoses cultural usability of global web sites.


Conversation design at least partly aspires to create Voice User Interfaces which emulate human speech production. And yet, there is no established approach for the development of naturalistic conversational infrastructure for VUIs; conversation designers are advised to work from their common sense understanding of conversation, producing written scripts, based on memory and imagination, which are later converted into speech. This is a shortcoming in conversation design which needs to be addressed. In this provocation paper, we argue that the starting point in the development of any VUI should be the examination of natural spoken conversation, preferably from the same interactional context in which the VUI will be deployed. We provide a short example to illustrate how the current process of conversation scriptwriting can be a barrier to this, and demonstrate how this can be overcome using the social scientific approach of Conversation Analysis (CA).


The floods associated with the effects of an incoming tropical cyclone have an immense effect in the Philippines, especially with respect to agriculture, industry, livelihood, and public safety. Knowledge of how such storm surge flooding can affect the community is therefore of great importance. In this study, the mechanisms behind Typhoon Haiyan's anomalous storm surge flooding in 2013, which resulted in more than 6300 casualties and 2.86 billion USD worth of damage in the Philippines, were investigated. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) storm surge model and the FLO-2D flood model were used to simulate Typhoon Haiyan's storm surge height and the extent of inundation, respectively. The storm surge input data were obtained from JMA typhoon data, and the digital terrain models used were gathered from the airborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar data. The model's accuracy was also validated using field validation data of the extent of the observed storm surge in affected coastal areas. Topographical analysis of the inundated regions showed the effects of coastal shape, elevation, and position relative to the typhoon's approach angle on storm surge flow depth and velocity. Storm surge maximum velocity appears to increase as the fluid flows to an increasingly elevated area. Observing fluid velocity in a coastal area with uniform storm surge discharge from all directions also showed that flow velocity tends to increase at the center. Greater flood depths were experienced in areas with lower coastal elevation and not directly located at the coast, compared to higher elevation coastal areas. Greater extents of storm surge flooding are expected in coastal areas that have a concave shape, as fluid is more likely to be dispersed when hitting a convex coast. Extents are likewise observed to be greater in coastal regions that are located perpendicular to the direction of the typhoon. The research also validated the option of using a combination of typhoon and flood models to simulate the inundation flooding caused by extreme weather events.


Diagnosing the changes of structural behaviors using monitoring data is an important objective of structural health monitoring (SHM). The changes in structural behaviors are usually manifested as the feature changes in monitored structural responses; thus, developing effective methods for automatically detecting such changes is of considerable significance. Existing methods for change detection in SHM are mainly used for scalar or vector data, thus incapable of detecting the changes of the features represented by complex data, e.g., the probability density functions (PDFs). Detecting the abrupt changes occurred in the distributions (represented by PDFs) associated with the feature variables extracted from SHM data are usually of crucial interest for structural condition assessment; however, the SHM community still lacks effective diagnostic tools for detecting such changes. In this study, a change-point detection method is developed in the functional data-analytic framework for PDF-valued sequence, and it is leveraged to diagnose the distributional information break encountered in structural condition assessment. A major challenge in PDF-valued data modeling or analysis is that the PDFs are special functional data subjecting to nonlinear constraints. To tackle this issue, the PDFs are embedded into the Bayes space, and the associated change-point model is constructed by using the linear structure of the Bayes space; then, a hypothesis testing procedure is presented for distributional change-point detection based on the isomorphic mapping between the Bayes space and a functional linear space. Comprehensive simulation studies are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method as well as demonstrate its superiority * Corresponding author 2 over the competing method. Finally, an application to real SHM data illustrates its practical utility in structural condition assessment.


Microgrids are essential elements of the energy transition because they allow optimal use of renewable energy sources (photovoltaic panels, wind turbines) and storage devices (batteries, supercapacitors) by connecting them to consumption poles (e.g., buildings, charging stations of electric vehicles). Lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors are the main electrical storage devices usually used by microgrids for energy and power transient management. In the present paper, microgrid simulations have been performed. Electrothermal and aging models of storage components are presented. Strategies and scenarios for the batteries are presented either based on the state of charge limitation or hybrid association with supercapacitors. The contribution of this study is to provide a management strategy which considers the aging of storage systems in the real-time management of the microgrid in order to extend their life, while minimizing installation costs. The first approach for a techno-economic study provided in that study enables us to improve the strategies by optimizing the use of the battery. The results obtained in this paper demonstrate the key role of the techno-economic approach and knowledge of the aging processes of storage devices in improving the energy management and global feedback costs of microgrids. The simulation results show that battery life can be improved by 2.2 years. The improvement in battery life leads to a reduction in the total cost of the installation by reducing the cost of the batteries.


Purpose: To describe a successful treatment of a complicated chronic wound infection with a multi- drug resistant organism (MDRO) using susceptible antibiotic irrigation delivered through negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), a possible alternative to traditional wound therapy.
Summary: A 63-year-old female was admitted and treated for recurrent wound infection of the right breast. Her antimicrobial regimen was changed from cefepime plus vancomycin to tobramycin plus colistimethate plus meropenem following the culture and sensitivity results. She developed severe renal failure after receiving IV colistimethate and IV tobramycin for multiple-drug resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas wound infection. Tobramycin was then administered as irrigation through a Vacuum Assisted Closure (V.A.C.) device, which was changed to amikacin, then colistimethate following the changes in Pseudomonas susceptibility. The patient had complete wound closure and full recovery of renal function at the end of 6-week treatment. Further review of literature in mechanism of antibiotic toxicity and therapeutic use of the V.A.C device indicate that using the V.A.C. device to deliver susceptible antibiotic through irrigation shows promise in treating chronic wound infections that failed standard regimens while avoiding the toxic effect of systemic therapies.
Conclusion: Antibiotic irrigation delivered through negative pressure wound therapy could be a new therapeutic approach to treat MDRO wound infections in patients who cannot tolerate nephrotoxic antibiotics.


Indigenous news media have experienced significant growth across the globe in recent years, but they have received only limited attention in mainstream society or the journalism and communication research community. Yet, Indigenous journalism is playing an arguably increasingly important role in contributing to Indigenous politics and identities, and is worthy of closer analysis. Using in-depth interviews, this article provides an overview of the main dimensions of Indigenous journalism as they can be found in the journalism culture of Ma¯ori journalists in Aotearoa New Zealand. It argues that Ma¯ori journalists see their role as providing a counter-narrative to mainstream media reporting and as contributing to Indigenous empowerment and revitalization of their language. At the same time, they view themselves as watchdogs, albeit within a culturally specific framework that has its own constraints. The article argues that the identified dimensions are reflective of evidence on Indigenous journalism from across the globe.


We sincerely appreciate the following people /groups for their useful contributions. • Members of the QG2 University of Aberdeen, UK. • H. Moraal, School of Physics, Potchefstroom University, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa. • R. A. Caballero-Lopez, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA


One of the topical problems of modern ophthalmotransplantology is the graft engraftment after repeated keratoplasty. During repeated corneal transplantation, the frequency of graft rejection increases significantly. The study included 121 patients aged 19 to 89 years with corneal graft failure, who were scheduled for repeated corneal transplantation. Immunophenotyping of major and small populations of peripheral blood lymphocytes was performed by flow cytometry (CytoFlex BC, USA). The intensity of energy metabolism in lymphocyte populations was determined by the activity of succinate dehydrogenase and NADH dehydrogenase by immunocytochemical method using flow cytometry. An increase in the content of B lymphocytes (p = 0.004) and a decrease in Th17 lymphocytes (p = 0.013) were revealed after the use of a course of metabolic therapy. Against the background of therapy, the activity of SDH in the T lymphocyte population significantly increases (p = 0.034). In addition, in the studied populations of lymphocytes in the recipient group, against the background of metabolic therapy, the normalization of SDH activity is observed: the number of recipients with low and high enzyme activity decreases. After a course of metabolic therapy, a significant decrease in NADHDH activity was revealed (p = 0.034). Indicators of lymphocyte populations and mitochondrial enzyme activity in recipients after a course of metabolic therapy indicated a more favorable prognosis for repeated corneal transplantation. Evaluation of the results of repeated keratoplasty a year after surgery showed that 59 recipients received transparent graft engraftment, and in 62 patients the graft became cloudy in the period from 1 to 8 months after surgery. In the group of patients with transparent graft engraftment, the percentage of recipients receiving metabolic therapy was significantly higher than in the group of recipients with graft opacity (41%±2.05% vs 21%±2.91%, p 0.001). Conducting metabolic therapy before surgery reduces the number of realized unfavorable prognoses of the result of rekeratoplasty, and monitoring the activity of dehydrogenases and the content of lymphocyte populations allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic and preventive measures in immunocompromised recipients.


The charged liquid micro-jet issued from a Taylor cone may develop a special type of non-axisymmetric instability, usually referred to in the literature as a whipping mode. This instability usually manifests itself as a series of fast and violent lashes of the charged jet, which makes its characterization in the laboratory difficult. Recently, we have found that this instability may also develop when the host medium surrounding the Taylor cone and the jet is a dielectric liquid instead of air. When the oscillations of the jet occur inside a dielectric liquid, their frequency and amplitude are much lower than those of the oscillations taking place in air. Taking advantage of this fact, we have performed a detailed experimental characterization of the whipping instability of a charged micro-jet within a dielectric liquid by recording the jet motion with a high-speed camera. Appropriate image processing yields the frequency and wavelength, among the other important characteristics, of the jet whipping as a function of the governing parameters of the experimental set-up (flow rate and applied electric field) and liquid properties. Alternatively, the results can be also written as a function of three dimensionless numbers: the capillary and electrical Bond numbers and the ratio between an electrical relaxation and residence time.


This chapter offers a succinct account of metalepsis in its modern (re-)conceptualization, largely following Genette, both to set the scene for the subsequent chapters and to interrogate the state of modern theorization from a classical perspective. While Genette's intervention has arguably given the concept a more cohesive outlook than it ever had in its long (if now largely obliterated) history, might current debates have something to gain from revisiting earlier theorizations of metalepsis avant Genette? Rather than seeking to reconstruct a genealogy of the concept's transformation from ancient rhetoric to contemporary criticism, this chapter offers a critical reappraisal of current thinking on narratological metalepsis by way of bringing back into the debate the voices of classical rhetoricians, critics, and grammarians who dealt with metalepsis in its earlier incarnations. The chapter examines how the logics, mechanics, structural principles, and effects attributed to metalepsis by scholars in antiquity and today compare. In particular, it asks what conceptual relationship exists between the trope 'metalepsis' (often discussed as a variant of metonymy), the narratological concept of metalepsis (which shares with metonymy a story of structuralist reinvention), and notions of metalepsis as literary allusion; and proposes that thinking of metalepsis in all three cases in terms of either a trope or a figure can not only help to safeguard the concept's critical acumen, but also renders visible how theorizing metalepsis from a rigorously transhistorical perspective requires a built-in account of the variabilities that arise under the conditions of changing literary and cultural-historical contexts.


ABSTRACT Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) fraserensis, new species, a Dacinae fruit fly from Peninsular Malaysia is described and illustrated. It closely resembles Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) atrifacies Perkins, Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) scutellaris (Bezzi) and Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) scutellata (Hendel). The differences between these species are given. New records from Peninsular Malaysia are Acanthonevra hemileina Hering, Acanthonevra shinonagai Hardy, Phaeospilodes fenestella (Coquillett), Sphenella sinensis Schiner and Trupanea glauca (Thomson). New records from East Malaysia are Calloptera asteria (Hendel), Dacus (Callantra) ooii Drew & Hancock, and Dacus (Callantra) vijaysegarani Drew & Hancock, while those from Brunei Darussalam are Carpophthorella sookae Chua and Euphranta sabahensis Hancock & Drew.


INTRODUCTION
Malignant pleural effusion is a complication of tumors heralding poor outcome. It may be life-threatening, so advanced cases should be treated as an oncological emergency.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed to provide complex care to patients with malignant pleural effusion during the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Pécs Medical School, in the Department of Oncotherapy. During the pandemic, we introduced the thoracocentesis as a routine method in our department without previous experiences.

METHOD
Results of diagnosing and treating pleural effusion of patients between March 18th of 2020 and May 31st of 2021 were summarized.

RESULTS
We have analyzed data of 45 patients, two-thirds (66.7%) of them were women, the median age was 67 years. 57.8% of patients received systemic anticancer therapy during the study. The total number of thoracocentesis was over 120, one-third of the patients required more than five interventions. Only three iatrogenic pneumothorax cases were detected, no other serious complications were experienced. The procedures - that were aimed to mitigate symptoms in most cases (80%) - were considered successful. However, 48.9% of the patients were no longer alive at the end of the study period indicating very poor prognosis of pleural carcinosis.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Clinical care of oncological patients was continuous during the pandemic; patients treated as part of emergency care were often seen in advanced disease state. Treatment of malignant pleural effusion requires oncological foresight as well as implementing an invasive approach. Our study has shown that discussion of the topic is relevant, may reveal difficulties and need for improvement. Our results are consistent with literature data, we have experienced less complications than reported in the literature. Orv Hetil. 2022; 163(26): 1015-1022.


Syngas is a key platform chemical for the utilization of non-petroleum carbon resources. Therefore, great attention has been paid to syngas conversion to value added chemicals, such as lower olefins (C2–C=4), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline, and aromatics. Among these value added chemicals, the lower olefins are promising chemicals, and the direct synthesis of lower olefins from syngas was investigated over a series of hybrid catalysts composed of Zn–M catalysts (M = Al2O3, ZrO2, Cr2O3, and CeO2) and SAPO-34 zeolite. The Zn–M catalysts and different Si/Al ratios of SAPO-34 zeolites were synthesized by co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods, respectively. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of various supports on the catalytic performance of this reaction. The catalysts were well characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM, ICP-AES, BET surface area, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD, FT-IR, TEM-EDS, and H2-TPR techniques. NH3-TPD results showed that with the increase in the Si/Al ratio in the SAPO-34 zeolite, the catalysts exhibited higher acidity due to the higher amount of silica content. The H2-TPR and XRD results suggested that the Zn/Al2O3 catalyst had strong metal–support interactions that were favorable for the higher activity. Various factors that affect the catalytic activity, including the reaction pressure, catalysts weight ratio, SiO2/Al2O3 ratio, and the integration manner of both active components, were investigated. These results clearly demonstrated that the Si/Al ratio in the SAPO-34 catalyst had a predominant effect on lower olefins selectivity. The Zn/Al2O3 with SAPO-34 (0.043) catalyst showed excellent lower olefins selectivity (80%). In terms of the integration manner of the hybrid catalysts, the highest activity was obtained when the powders of both Zn/Al2O3 and SAPO-34 catalysts were ground in a mortar for 10 min and pelletized; while the sequential bed and granule mixing of Zn/Al2O3 and SAPO-34 catalyst showed less lower olefins selectivity, indicating that the appropriate proximity of the active components favors the lower olefins selectivity.


Summary We performed a study in 403 prospectively included patients with suspected pulmonary embolism to compare the accuracy of a combination of the SimpliRED D-dimer assay and an intuitive clinical probability estimate with either one alone. Based on a conjoint diagnostic reference standard, including ventilation-perfusion lung scintigraphy and pulmonary angiography, the prevalence of pulmonary embolism was 31%. We demonstrated a high sensitivity (98%, 95% CI 95-100) and negative predictive value (94%, 95% CI 79-99) for the combination of the two tests. These figures were more favorable than for either test alone. The specificity of the combination was lower (11%, 95% CI 9-12) and consequently the proportion of patients in whom further diagnostic tests would have been avoided was only 8%. We conclude that the combined use of the SimpliRED test and the clinical probability estimate attains a higher sensitivity than either test alone. However, there remains a risk of false negatives and the exclusion efficiency is limited.


A one-pin crystal oscillator with an integrated load capacitance of 15 pF has been realized in a standard 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. Due to the structure of the oscillator and the use of MOS gate capacitance for the load capacitors, the chip area can be very small. The total active area including load capacitors is less than 0.03 mm/sup 2/. The design can be operated with supply voltages in the range of 1.4-3.6 V and allows crystal frequencies in the range of 3-30 MHz. The current consumption of the oscillator core is 180 /spl mu/A at 10 MHz with 3.3-V power supply. It produces a rail-to-rail output swing, regulated by an amplitude control loop, and has the same flexibility and ease of frequency tuning as a common Pierce oscillator. As no special IC process options are required, the design is very suitable for clock generation in digital very-large-scale-integration chips.


Avian influenza virus (AIV) subtypes H5 and H7, possessing the ability to mutate spontaneously from low pathogenic (LP) to highly pathogenic (HP) variants, are major concerns for enormous socio-economic losses in the poultry industry, as well as for fatal human infections. Through antigenic drift and shift, genetic reassortments of the genotypes pose serious threats of increased virulence and pathogenicity leading to potential pandemics. In this study, we isolated the H7-subtype AIVs circulating in the Republic of Korea during 2018–2019, and perform detailed molecular analysis to study their circulation, evolution, and possible emergence as a zoonotic threat. Phylogenetic and nucleotide sequence analyses of these isolates revealed their distribution into two distinct clusters, with the HA gene sharing the highest nucleotide identity with either the A/common teal/Shanghai/CM1216/2017, isolated from wild birds in Shanghai, China, or the A/duck/Shimane/2014, isolated from Japan. Mutations were found in HA (S138A (H3 numbering)), M1 (N30D and T215A), NS1 (P42S), PB2 (L89V), and PA (H266R and F277S) proteins—the mutations had previously been reported to be related to mammalian adaptation and changes in the virulence of AIVs. Taken together, the results firmly put forth the demand for routine surveillance of AIVs in wild birds to prevent possible pandemics arising from reassortant AIVs.


We prove that the problem of deciding whether a 2- or 3-dimensional simplicial complex embeds into $\mathbb{R}^3$ is NP-hard. This stands in contrast with the lower dimensional cases which can be solved in linear time, and a variety of computational problems in $\mathbb{R}^3$ like unknot or 3-sphere recognition which are in NP and co-NP (assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis). Our reduction encodes a satisfiability instance into the embeddability problem of a 3-manifold with boundary tori, and relies extensively on techniques from low-dimensional topology, most importantly Dehn fillings on link complements.


This essay examines the intersection of the politics of post-apartheid South Africa and the politics of playing rugby. It traces the sport's history through its manifestations in the apartheid state and the anti-apartheid struggle, but it also shows that South African rugby counts for more than the sum of these histories. Drawing inspiration from the writings of Claude Leevi-Strauss and Franz Boas, as well as from the aesthetic theory of Theodor Adorno, the article argues that rugby contains an inherent dimension of unpredictability that allows it to recombine and challenge the symbols and sentiments assigned to it. Considered in this way, rugby acquires a measure of autonomy as a social production, shaping possibilities and entering into existing political conversations with its own voice. Acknowledging this small space of unpredictability, then, carries important implications for how we theorize sporting performances in relation to other forms of creative expression. Rugby players, coaches, and teams, for their part, are well aware of the sport's autonomous dimension, and they know that they must negotiate the uncertainty of the sport if they wish to participate at all. These social actors regard uncertainty as a problem to be solved, and they conceptualize and work through rugby's layering of unpredictable instant atop unpredictable instant in socially and historically specific ways. As a result, the negotiations between South Africans and their rugby become a powerful heuristic for post-apartheid social life, and they produce not only violence and injuries but also moments of magic thick with political significance.


Summary Background Clinical tools to diagnose the early changes of osteoarthritis (OA) that occur in the articular cartilage are lacking. Objectives We sought to identify and quantify a novel cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) neoepitope in the synovial fluid from the joints of healthy horses and those with different stages of OA. Study design In vitro quantitative proteomics and assay development with application in synovial fluids samples obtained from biobanks of well‐characterised horses. Methods Articular cartilage explants were incubated with or without interleukin‐1β for 25 days. Media were analysed via quantitative proteomics. Synovial fluid was obtained from either normal joints (n = 15) or joints causing lameness (n = 17) or with structural OA lesions (n = 7) and analysed for concentrations of the COMP neoepitope using a custom‐developed inhibition enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Explants were immunostained with polyclonal antibodies against COMP and the COMP neoepitopes. Results Semitryptic COMP peptides were identified and quantified in cell culture media from cartilage explants. A rabbit polyclonal antibody was raised against the neoepitope of the N‐terminal portion of one COMP fragment (sequence SGPTHEGVC). An inhibition ELISA was developed to quantify the COMP neoepitope in synovial fluid. The mean concentration of the COMP neoepitope significantly increased in the synovial fluid from the joints responsible for acute lameness compared with normal joints and the joints of chronically lame horses and in joints with chronic structural OA. Immunolabelling for the COMP neoepitope revealed a pericellular staining in the interleukin‐1β‐stimulated explants. Main limitations The ELISA is based on polyclonal antisera rather than a monoclonal antibody. Conclusions The increase in the COMP neoepitope in the synovial fluid from horses with acute lameness suggests that this neoepitope has the potential to be a unique candidate biomarker for the early molecular changes in articular cartilage associated with OA.


The detection of p30 by means of an indirect thin-layer immunoassay (TIA) is described. Extracts from 20 samples can be analyzed in approximately 2 h with a detection limit of approximately 50 ng. The p30 protein was detected in seminal stains which had been stored at room temperature for six months and at 130 degrees C for 4 h. Blood, saliva, urine, perspiration, and tears did not interfere with the method. The reliability of the method was demonstrated in a blind study.