Nonvolatile memories are now focused by many people. One of the most popular structure of the memories is an MNOS (metal-silicon nitride-silicon oxide-semiconductor) structure. However the structure has poor memory retention when B-T (80°c,-10V) stress is applied to the sample. The developed structures are MNCOS and MNCNOS (metal-over silicon nitride-silicon clusters-under silicon nitride-semiconductor), in which the silicon clusters are the small polycrystalline silicon particles having a compressed hemisphere. As the clusters act as trap centers of both holes and electrons, the trapping efficiency of censers increases, and the thicker silicon oxide film (tox= 50 - 60 A) is able to use for the better memory retention. The memories can operate more than ten years under the BT (-10V, 80°c) stress condition.


The Squirrel Springs depression is a 25-km-diameter structural basin in the northwest part of the Mogollon Plateau volcanic province, which is interpreted as the surface expression of a buried cauldron. Evidence for the buried cauldron includes (1) a shallow, terraced structural basin 25 km in diameter in which postcauldron volcanic rocks are ponded, (2) a circular fault pattern around the basin that is discordant with regional structural trends, (3) a porphyritic quartz latite dome complex centered within the basin, and (4) flow direction measurements showing flow of the Tularosa Canyon ash-flow tuff outward from the structure. The Squirrel Springs depression developed by (1) cauldron collapse accompanied by eruption of the Tularosa Canyon ash-flow tuff 30.7 m.y. ago, (2) burial of the cauldron by younger volcanic rocks, (3) reactivation of ring fractures forming a structural basin, and eruption of the John Kerr Peak Quartz Latite domes, and (4) arching of the northwest rim of the Mogollon Plateau, obscuring the western part of the Squirrel Springs depression.


Odontogenic infections are rapidly spreading health conditions, caused by bacterial inflammation that may produce serious health problems. The aim of study was to evaluate some clinical experience of the treated patients with face soft-tissue infections with speed health rehabilitations and their characteristics and treatment modalities using incision, drainage, sometimes tooth extraction with other medical treatments. This retrospective study has been done with face soft-tissue patients infections from January 2014 to January 2015. We found male preponderance, and mean age was 36.86. Sources of infections were of odontogenic origin in 93% of cases. The mandibular 3 molar (20%) was found to be the most commonly offending tooth, followed by the mandibular 1 molar (16%). Deciduous teeth contained 6.4% of the involved teeth. Most patients had aggressive surgical treatment with extraction, surgical drainage, high dose intravenous antibiotics, corticosteroids, and rehydration. Most of the patients (40%) were hospitalized for 4-6 days. Speed health rehabilitation after facial soft-tissue infections is important to verify the patient's health and life. Antibiotic and surgical treatment results in good condition with normalization of the leukocytes, C-reactive protein counts and good health recovery.


Objective: Unfolding is a rendering method to visualize organs at a glance by virtually incising them. Although conventional methods exploit gray-scale volume datasets such as CT or MR images, we use the Visible Korean Human dataset preserving actual color. This can be helpful for the study of anatomical knowledge. Segmented images of Visible Korean Human dataset store the boundary of organs. Since medical experts manually perform the segmentation from anatomical color images, it is very time-consuming. In general, therefore, some images selectively sampled with interval from entire color images are segmented. When we generate a segment volume dataset with the selected images, final results are deteriorated due to lack of segmentation information for missed images. In this paper, we solve this problem by generating intermediate images without performing a manual segmentation. Methods: Firstly, after comparing differences of organ's contours in between two consecutive segmented images, we represent the differences as a user-defined value in the intermediate images. This procedure is repeated for all pairs of manually segmented images to reconstruct entire volume data consist of manually segmented images and their intermediate images. In rendering stage, we perform the radial volume ray casting along with the central path of target organ. If a ray reaches to a region having the user-defined values, we advance over the region without compositions to the boundary of that region. Then the color composition is begun by performing backtracking, since the advanced region is regarded to the thickness of it. Results: As a result, we can produce high quality unfolding images for the stomach, colon, bronchus, and artery of the Visible Korea Human dataset. Conclusion: Since our approach can be applied to virtual dissection including actual human colors, it is helpful for the endoscopy and anatomy studies.


Uniaxial vehicles for goods transport such as hand trucks are popular with many transport tasks. They offer intuitive manoeuvrability with little space requirements. The disadvantage of this class of pedestrian controlled means of transportation is the need for the user to apply force for stabilisation and propulsion. To eliminate this disadvantage a solution approach is to equip the vehicle with a controlled drive system providing force for both balancing and propulsion. To make possible stabilisation of a uniaxial vehicle for goods transport without need for external support the frame's pitch angle must be adapted with every change of load, which is a fundamental difference to uniaxial vehicles without payload or for passenger transportation. To make possible intuitive and convenient pedestrian controlled manoeuvre even with high payload the controller must set translational and rotational speed based on low interaction forces applied by the user going along. To allow for cheap production we developed a balance and manoeuvre controller not requiring sensor information of both load's absolute weight and user interaction forces. Main components of the concept are a balance controller including a Kalman state estimator for identification of frame's and load's combined centre of gravity's pitch angle, a manoeuvre controller based on state space control and a sophisticated program sequence switching automatically between operating modes for reload and manoeuvre. The control concept was designed and implemented using our new uniaxial vehicle system for urban goods transport. This vehicle is the first electrically powered hand truck that both balances adaptive to changing payload and allows for pedestrian controlled manoeuvre without need to operate control levers for setting speed or steering angle. The experimental results presented in this paper show the correct operation of the approach.


The concept of a developmental state (DS) is controversial, misunderstood and often presented as a panacea for Africa's development challenges; but seemingly reflects more hopes than practical solutions for such challenges. It appears that public servants, who have to implement the policies for building the DS, play a minimal role in articulating the vision or relevant approaches for such a state. South Africa and Botswana are frequently cited in the literature as African examples of a DS (see Maserumule, 2007; Mbabazi, 2005; Mkandawire, 2001; Naidoo, 2006; Osei-Hwedie, 2001 and Sindzingre, 2004). The defining characteristics of a DS are that it must have a professional public or civil service, a "strong bureaucracy" along with a cocktail of other requirements for building a DS; such as a prominent state role in the economy similar to what the "Asian Tigers" (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea) experienced between 1960 and 1970. Asian Tigers generally symbolise a transition from low economic growth (as experienced by African countries) to high-level growth frequently associated with the developmental state model. Using Botswana and South Africa as case study examples, this article argues that public administration practitioners in these countries have not interrogated the implications of their countries' adoption or implementation of developmental policies; which their public services must apply. The article argues that African public servants and public administration academics must play a leading role in the debates and search for solutions to the continent's development problems if the DS as a model is to be relevant to their countries. Using an analytical, theoretical and comparative approach, the article examines the political-administrative interface in the two countries and what this means for their DS models. It concludes with a brief assessment of the performance of these countries' public services including lessons Africa might learn from them. Overall, the article highlights the deficiencies of the two countries' public bureaucracies in its assessment of the DS as an alternative development model.


The authors describe the results of a hospital‐based incident case‐control study of lung cancer conducted in a high‐risk region of southern Louisiana from January 1979 through April 1982. Dietary intake of carotene, retinol, and vitamin C was estimated from food frequency questionnaires administered to 1253 cases and 1274 controls. An inverse association was found between level of carotene intake and lung cancer risk, and this protective effect was specific for squamous and small cell carcinoma (odds ratio (OR) = 0.84, 95% confidence interval: 0.64–1.09, high intake). A stronger protective effect for these tumors was associated with dietary vitamin C intake (OR = 0.65, 0.50–0.87, high intake). A significant inverse gradient in risk with retinol intake was limited to adenocarcinoma (OR = 0.64, 0.44–0.94, high intake) and more pronounced among blacks.


Doubtless since his early beginnings man has been aware of the fact that various arthropods produce substances poisonous to him, on his coming in contact with them. A literature that goes back three centuries indicates that these properties have not been without interest to the scientist and other observers. We can divide irritating insects into three groups: Insects that cause a reaction through the injection of salivary secretion, or some constituent of the alimentary canal, when their mouth parts pierce the integument. Practically all such species suck blood. Among these may be enumerated mosquitoes, gnats, horseflies, bedbugs, fleas and lice. Insects that cause a decided reaction through the introduction of the products of glands situated in the caudal portion of the body. Bees and wasps come in this category. The preceding groups involve mature forms. Tubercles on the dorsal and lateral areas of a number of caterpillars bear a


This paper is concerned with the optimal kinematic control of a robot manipulator where the robot end effector position follows a task space trajectory. The joints are actuated with the desired velocity profile to achieve this task. This problem has been solved using a single network adaptive critic (SNAC) by expressing the forward kinematics as input affine system. Usually in SNAC, the critic weights are updated using back propagation algorithm while little attention is given to convergence to the optimal cost. In this paper, we propose a critic weight update law that ensures convergence to the desired optimal cost while guaranteeing the stability of the closed loop kinematic control. In kinematic control, the robot is required to reach a specific target position. This has been solved as an optimal regulation problem in the context of SNAC based kinematic control. When the robot is required to follow a time varying task space trajectory, then the kinematic control has been framed as an optimal tracking problem. For tracking, an augmented system consisting of tracking error and reference trajectory is constructed and the optimal control policy is derived using SNAC framework. The stability and performance of the system under the proposed novel weight tuning law is guaranteed using Lyapunov approach. The proposed kinematic control scheme has been validated in simulations and experimentally executed using a real six degrees of freedom (DOF) Universal Robot (UR) 10 manipulator.


This paper asks why an officially unregulated market in pharmaceuticals in a least developed country, Djibouti, behaves as if it were strictly regulated, with limited access to a small number of high-cost drugs. We use Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to show that the explanation is more complex than critics of the international pharmaceutical industry have supposed. Regulation and property rights generated in developed countries have become embedded in the drugs and "black boxed" to the point of invisibility. This has allowed them to travel to Djibouti with the drugs, while maintaining their effects in action. This case study develops our understanding of the way in which materials that are not designated as regulatory agents may still have regulatory impacts through their ability to enrol complex networks of actors, rules, values, and practices. Finally, it argues against the notion of law as a fixed and distinctive space for action, as opposed to the ANT vision of a fluid and contingent order, where law is part of a socio-technico-legal alliance that happens to achieve certain effects.


In the last decade, the southwestern and western provinces of Iran have been heavily affected by aeolian dust deposition. As a result, the elemental composition of soil surfaces is influenced by dust transport as well as precipitation, wind speed and direction. The relationship between daily recorded dust events and the elemental composition of the dust is studied in this paper. Strong correlations were detected between dust deposition rate from most deposition sites (G01-G10, except for G05, G06) and the dust event frequency. Correlations of different strengths have been revealed between the dust event frequencies (DEF), and the elemental classification matrix based on airborne Metal Regulations.
As expected, high correlation values indicate high concentration contributions of elemental values to the aerosol, such as Na, Mn, As, Pb, from large-scale depositions in the south including Cr and V in the west. These findings also suggest that the major contributors of V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Ba, and Pb in the elemental concentrations may depend on the meteorological situation and correlation magnitude are associated with elements emanating from local anthropogenic activities.


Iris holes are occasionally encountered which are unaccompanied by evidence of a penetrating injury, old or recent. Most of these holes are congenital in origin, and the possibility that the hole described here was of this nature cannot be excluded. However, the most likely explanation in this case would appear to be that, at one particular locus, the concussion forces which produced the iris atrophy were severe enough to split the pigment epithelium as well as the stroma.


Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms (IPMNs) are epithelial neoplasms that can progress to invasive pancreatic malignancies. While the Sendai guidelines can assist us regarding which IPMNs are likely to be invasive and therefore need resection, there are limited data about management after resection. The adjuvant therapy for resected Invasive IPMNs (I-IPMNs) is currently based off of limited retrospective analyses and expert opinion extrapolating primarily from pancreatic exocrine regimens. The heterogeneity in both pathology and treatment response as seen in a recent systematic review suggests that we should consider delineating between the broad categories of intestinal/colloid type and pancreatobiliary/tubular type I-IPMNs to guide adjuvant systemic therapy similar to what is done with ampullary malignancies. Without prospective studies to guide our treatment decisions, we performed a literature review focused on the subgroup analyses of retrospective studies to modify and individualize the adjuvant systemic treatment of resected intestinal type I-IPMNs. Six months of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil based therapy appears to be a reasonable approach for fit, high-risk patients.


ABSTRACT Novel morphological traits pose interesting evolutionary paradoxes when they become widespread in a lineage while being deleterious in others. Cleft palate is a rare congenital condition in mammals in which the incisor-bearing premaxilla bones of the upper jaw develop abnormally. However, ∼50% of bat species have natural, non-pathological cleft palates. We used the family Vespertilionidae as a model and linear and geometric morphometrics within a phylogenetic framework to (1) explore evolutionary patterns in cleft morphology, and (2) test whether cleft morphological variation is correlated with skull shape in bats. We also used finite element (FE) analyses to experimentally test how presence of a cleft palate impacts skull performance during biting in a species with extreme cleft morphology (hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus). We constructed and compared the performance of two FE models: one based on the hoary bat's natural skull morphology, and another with a digitally filled cleft simulating a complete premaxilla. Results showed that cleft length and width are correlated with skull shape in Vespertilionidae, with narrower, shallower clefts seen in more gracile skulls and broader, deeper clefts in more robust skulls. FE analysis showed that the model with a natural cleft produced lower bite forces, and had higher stress and strain than the model with a filled cleft. In the rostrum, safety factors were 1.59–2.20 times higher in the model with a filled cleft than in the natural model. Our results demonstrate that cleft palates in bats reduce biting performance, and evolution of skull robusticity may compensate for this reduction in performance. Summary: Naturally occurring, non-pathological cleft palates are common in bats. Cleft dimensions are correlated with skull shape, and clefts reduce bite force, increase stress and increase strain in bat skulls.


Summary
The ecological separation of 14 common ungulate species living in close contact with each other in a Tanganyika game reserve is shown to be achieved by six different factors:

1. the occupation of different vegetation types and broad habitats;

2. the selection of different types of food;

3. the occupation of different areas at the same season;

4. the occupation of the same area at different seasons;

5. the use of different feeding levels in the vegetation;

6. the occupation of different dry season refuges in the Masai area when the competition for food is greatest (zebra and wildebeest).

Habitat preferences are indicated by the frequency distribution of each species along the central of three 8,000 yard parallel transect paths which were traversed nearly daily for four years. Characteristic patterns of frequency are apparent for each of the species in the vegetation zones represented in the transect area. Certain species show a tendency, sometimes strong, to concentrate along the boundaries between adjoining vegetation zones and in the ecotones between the zones. This is ascribed to a greater diversity of food, availability of shelter from the sun and/or greater protection from predators.

Records of the animal species eating particular plant species are shown and (qualified in the light of other observations) used to deduce food preferences. The species are classified broadly into grass-eaters, browsers and mixed feeders (grass and browse). In the case of the three common grass-eaters, buffalo, wildebeest and zebra, a percentage analysis of the grass species eaten indicates that little differential preference is shown but that they take the palatable grasses largely in proportion to the frequency in which they occur in the habitats most used by the ungulate concerned. Buffalo are separated by their preference for denser vegetation. Wildebeest and zebra largely overlap ecologically in all respects except that the bulk of the populations of each species move to different dry season areas. Those species which are able to live without drinking free water, notably impala and Grant's gazelle, are able to make use of wild areas of waterless country when the animals requiring water are forced to move into dry season concentration areas near water.

The influence of the animals on the habitats and on other species is discussed and instances are given of species helping to shape the habitat to the advantage of both themselves and other species. Elephants are the main habitat modifiers and their capacity to improve water supplies and change the vegetation, and their facilitation of the feeding of other species is described. The formation of mixed herds is interpreted as being protective to one or both species concerned and is a further important facilitation. Little or no hindrance of one ungulate species by another was seen although herbivores show antagonistic behaviour towards carnivores smaller than themselves.


The present paper shows several information instruments created in the Republic of Moldova for the purpose of ensuring transparency in science, innovation and scientific staff training. Their evolution, the way in which they could help enhancing transparency in Moldovan research-development-innovation system, shortcomings in ensuring greater visibility, have been investigated. Three information instruments developed (or under preparation) by the Information Society Development Institute have been examined in detail: i) National Bibliometric Instrument – a digital information system which is a database for collecting, classifying and processing public data on scientific publications in Moldovan scientific journals; ii) EXPERT online – an online information system for applying and assessment of draft programs and projects in the area of science and innovation; iii) Digital Map of Science – a platform in which the functions of existing systems are to be integrated under a common roof in order to provide one-stop-shop services.


Background: Human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME) is a tick-borne illness caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis. Data about disease in children have been largely derived from case reports or small case series. Methods: A retrospective review of all medical and laboratory records from 6 sites located in the "tick belt" of the Southeastern United States was carried out. Demographic, history and laboratory data were abstracted from the identified medical records of patients. Bivariate statistical comparisons were performed using Fisher exact test or Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Results: Common clinical signs and symptoms of patients with HME (n = 32) included fever (100%), headache (69%), myalgia (69%), rash (66%), nausea/vomiting (56%), altered mental status (50%) and lymphadenopathy (47%). Only 48% had a complaint of fever, headache and rash. Common laboratory abnormalities included thrombocytopenia (94%), elevated aspartate aminotransferase (90%), elevated alanine aminotransferase (74%), hypoalbuminemia (65%), lymphopenia (57%), leukopenia (56%) and hyponatremia (55%). The median number of days of illness before the initiation of antirickettsial therapy was 6. Patients who received sulfonamides before starting doxycycline therapy developed a rash, were admitted to the hospital, and started doxycycline at a later date. Twenty-two percent of patients were admitted to the intensive care unit with 12.5% of patients requiring ventilatory and blood pressure support. Conclusions: Although HME has been recognized among children for almost 20 years, there is only a limited knowledge about its clinical course. Even among physicians practicing in endemic regions, few cases are diagnosed each year. More work is needed to understand the true burden of disease and the natural history among asymptomatically and symptomatically infected children.


Changes of the electron dynamics in hydrogen (H2) radio-frequency (RF) inductively coupled plasmas are investigated using a hairpin probe and an intensified charged coupled device (ICCD). The electron density, plasma emission intensity, and input current (voltage) are measured during the E to H mode transitions at different pressures. It is found that the electron density, plasma emission intensity, and input current jump up discontinuously, and the input voltage jumps down at the E to H mode transition points. And the threshold power of the E to H mode transition decreases with the increase of the pressure. Moreover, space and phase resolved optical emission spectroscopic measurements reveal that, in the E mode, the RF dynamics is characterized by one dominant excitation per RF cycle, while in the H mode, there are two excitation maxima within one cycle.


In the paper, a new nonlinear left-handed transmission line (NLHTL) that incorporates arrays of Josephson junctions (JJs) is proposed. The nonlinearity of the newly developed Josephson left-handed transmission line (JLHTL) is due to the highly nonlinear nature of the JJs that provide the shunt inductances required to realise an LHTL. The current-voltage relationship of an array of JJs is utilised to realise an inductively tunable LHTL. Dispersion analysis along with the scattering parameters of the JLHTL are presented to study the left-handed behaviour of the JLHTL. Finally, harmonic generation of the proposed JLHTL is studied.


Dental caries continues to be a costly and prevalent oral disease. Research efforts towards developing a well tolerated and effective vaccine against dental caries were initiated following the demonstration of a specific bacterial aetiology for this disease. The cariogenic mutans streptococci are the principal bacteria causing this disease. Specific immune defence against these bacteria is provided mainly by secretory immunoglobulin (Ig) A antibodies present in saliva, which are generated by the common mucosal immune system. Progress in the development of a vaccine against dental caries has increased due to both advancements in molecular biology and our understanding of the mucosal immune system and mucosal vaccines. Advancements in molecular biology have facilitated the cloning and functional characterisation of virulence factors of the mutans streptococci, including the cell-surface fibrillar proteins, which mediate adherence to the tooth surface, and the glucosyltransferase enzymes, which synthesise adhesive glucans and allow microbial accumulation on the teeth. Current strategies for immunisation against dental caries are using these virulence factors as key antigens and incorporating them into novel mucosal vaccine systems and delivering them with or without adjuvants to mucosal IgA inductive sites. The most popular routes of mucosal immunisation are via the oral or nasal route. The mucosal immune system is functional in newborn infants, who develop salivary IgA antibodies as they become colonised by oral micro-organisms. Mucosal immunisation strategies result in the induction of salivary IgA antibody responses and pose fewer problems than parenteral injection of antigen. Therefore, mucosal immunisation of infants prior to the appearance of their first teeth may be a well tolerated and effective way to induce immunity against the colonisation of teeth by mutans streptococci and protection against subsequent dental caries. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the recent progress on the development of a vaccine against infection by Streptococcus mutans for the prevention of dental caries, with emphasis on the mucosal immune system and vaccine design.


In this play, the theme of Sopocles' "Oedipus Rex" is skillfully transplanted to African soil. King Odewale's progress towards knowledge of the murder and incest that must be expiated before his kingdom can be restored to ealth is unfolded with a dramatic intensity heightened by the richness of the play's Nigerian setting. It had its first performance in Nigeria at the Ife Festival of the Arts in 1968, has since been staged with great success in other West African countries, and was awarded the first prize in the African Arts/Arts d'Afrique playwriting contest in 1969.


The manual observation of sputum smears by fluorescence microscopy for the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of patients with tuberculosis (TB) is a laborious and subjective task. In this work, we introduce an automatic pipeline which employs a novel deep learning-based approach to rapidly detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) organisms in sputum samples and thus quantify the burden of the disease. Fluorescence microscopy images are used as input in a series of networks, which ultimately produces a final count of present bacteria more quickly and consistently than manual analysis by healthcare workers. The pipeline consists of four stages: annotation by cycle-consistent generative adversarial networks (GANs), extraction of salient image patches, classification of the extracted patches, and finally, regression to yield the final bacteria count. We empirically evaluate the individual stages of the pipeline as well as perform a unified evaluation on previously unseen data that were given ground-truth labels by an experienced microscopist. We show that with no human intervention, the pipeline can provide the bacterial count for a sample of images with an error of less than 5%.


Background: Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the most important causes of lower respiratory tract infections, with high mortality and morbidity in infants and children. It can cause airway inflammation, mucosal edema, and small airway collapse.
Method: We evaluated the clinical and demographic characteristics of newborns aged 0-30 days who were hospitalized in Yüzüncü Yil University Neonatal Intensive Care Unit due to lower respiratory tract infections and whose respiratory syncytial virus test was positive between 15/December/2022 and 15/February/2023.
Results: Between the specified dates, 29 patients diagnosed with lower respiratory tract infections were admitted to our neonatal unit. Of the oral/nasopharyngeal swab samples sent from all of these patients, one was positive for SARS-CoV-2, one for adenovirus, one for influenza A/B, and 18 (62%) respiratory syncytial virus. The weeks of the birth of the patients who were found to be positive for respiratory syncytial virus A/B were 36.72±1.48. The number of days they spent in the hospital was 6.72±1.6, 2(11.1%) patients required intubation, and 7(38.8%) patients required noninvasive respiratory support. One patient presented with convulsions at home, and cough and fever symptoms appeared on the second day of hospitalization. All patients recovered with oxygen support, hydration, and supportive treatment and were discharged.
Conclusion: The most common cause in neonates was found to be a respiratory syncytial virus. Early diagnosis and treatment are important in patients with suspected lower tract viral infections. Unnecessary antibiotic use and the spread of the disease should be prevented by increasing access to viral tests


In this study, essential oil was extracted from eucalyptus citriodora leaves plant species (lemon-scented gum) in a pilot plant using steam distillation technology. The extraction pattern of the oil was monitored over time and economic analysis of the production was carried out.  Five batches were carried out in a day and the results revealed that the daily production of the oil was 0.579 liters in a loading capacity of 100kg of leaves. It was also observed that the total production cycle per batch was 1.96 hours out of which 80 minutes were the actual extraction time with lag period of 37 minutes. The results further revealed that 66.7% of the oil was extracted in 40 minutes while 95.6% in 80 minutes. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was used as source of energy with daily consumption of 7.5 kg at a cost of N2,400.00K. The economic analysis on annual basis revealed that the operating cost was N1,742,400.00K. The production output of the oil was estimated at 138.96 litres with expected selling price of N4,863,600.00K at the rate of N35,000.00K per litre and expected profit after tax of N2,115,871.00K. From this economic analysis carried out based on the practical data generated in the pilot plant, this project is highly profitable and is strongly recommended to potential investors and entrepreneurs. This will help in providing jobs for our teaming unemployed youths mostly in rural areas where these raw materials are in abundant thereby increasing nation's foreign earning due to its export potential.


The proposed work will address the capacity problem in the cellular network as the exponential data traffic growth cannot be satisfied anymore with traditional ways by building new base stations or leasing new spectrum bands, which is costly from the operators' point of view. There is growing interest from the operators' side in enhancing the capacity and reducing the consumed energy of the cellular networks by re-configuring their topologies, which involves Heterogeneous Networks (Het-Nets). Heterogeneous elements like micro cells, pico cells, relays and femto cells are distinguished by their coverage, transmit power, backhaul, propagation characteristics and physical size. Another trend is using the unlicensed band such as Wi-Fi to form small cells in Het-Net to boost the capacity through offloading data.  This research is a comprehensive survey on the current state of art in capacity enhancement and energy efficiency approaches through Het-Net. The paper highlights some of the challenges and proposed solutions related to various Het-Net topologies.
Index Terms— LTE, Wi-Fi, Offloading, Het-Net, Challenges, Small Cell, Capacity, Interference, Energy efficiency, Power control.


The main hosts of the melon fly Zeugodacus cucurbitate are cultivated and wild cucurbitaceous plants. In eastern Africa, the melon fly is a major pest of the Solanaceae plant Solanum lycopersicum (tomato). We hypothesized that shared species-specific volatiles may play a role in host attraction. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the olfactory responses of the melon fly to Cucumis sativus (cucumber) (Cucurbitaceae) and tomato plant odors in behavioral and electrophysiological assays, followed by chemical analysis to identify the key compounds mediating the interactions. Our results identified 13 shared components between cucumber and tomato plant odors. A synthetic blend of seven of the shared components dominated by monoterpenes at concentrations mimicking the volatile bouquet of cucumber and tomato attracted both sexes of the melon fly. Our results suggest that the presence and quantity of specific compounds in host odors are the main predictors for host recognition in Z. cucurbitate.


The term "sustainable" can be found in both science and practice. As a global concept of development, it was accepted at the Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 in order to overcome and find a possible way of dealing with problems connected to the development of contemporary civilization. Three dimensions of sustainable development are usually mentioned: economic, social and ecological. The paper points out the significance of the fourth dimension – cultural dimension, which is not only  significant for reaching development in the real sense of the world, but it also represents the basis for the development of local communities. The cultural dimension respects the particularities of local communities and emphasizes the maintenance of the cultural and national variety which is of special significance for multicultural societies.


We report a case of primary low-grade leiomyosarcoma of the mandible in an otherwise healthy young woman. The neoplasm presented as a painful, pericoronal gingival swelling that mimicked an acute periodontal infection. It was managed accordingly, with curettage, debridement, and antibiotics. When the lesion failed to respond to this treatment approach, a biopsy was performed. Microscopy revealed a malignant mesenchymal neoplasm which, on immunohistochemistry analysis, demonstrated reactivity for smooth muscle actin (SMA) and vimentin. This established the diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma; subsequently, an en bloc resection of mandibular bone and overlying soft tissue was performed. Close follow-up for over 10 years has revealed no evidence of recurrent or metastatic disease. Since the patient was taking oral contraceptives prior to the onset of the lesion, a possible link between estrogen and smooth muscle tumors is considered.


Context: Intrasyringal hemorrhage was first described in literature in the renowned Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System by Sir William Richard Gowers [Gowers W. A lecture on syringal haemorrhage into the spinal cord. Lancet [Internet]; 162(4180):993–997. [cited 2019 August 19]. Available from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673601362785]. The pathophysiology of this disease is a hemorrhage within a preexisting intramedullary fluid-filled cavity or hydrosyringomyelia in the spinal cord. Most common symptoms of this disease are numbness, weakness, paresthesia in the extremities and gait disturbances. Since first noted in 1903, there have been just fourteen confirmed cases of this disease reported in literature, making it extremely rare and difficult to study. Findings: Here we discuss a unique presentation of Gowers intrasyringal hemorrhage. The patient is a male in his late teens with no prior established neurological history. He presented at our institution four days post suspected injury with persistent mild left upper extremity numbness and weakness. The patient was admitted and underwent an MRI of the cervical spine without intravenous contrast. The imaging findings confirm subacute on chronic Gowers intrasyringal hemorrhage in the setting of a Chiari 1 malformation. This patient underwent neurosurgical intervention four months post initial presentation and had complete postoperative resolution of his interval non-progressive but persistent symptoms. Clinical relevance: This unique case suggests immediate surgical intervention may not always be necessary for treating Gowers intrasyringal hemorrhage.


BACKGROUND: Eye is considered as one of the prime sensory organ and is a vital necessity to take care of them by all means. All the Acharya of Ayurveda have mentioned various measures for maintaining the eye in healthy way which includes usage of diet and medicine judicially. AIM: To identify and categories various Ahara (diet), and Aushada (medicine) from the available literatures which are indicated to maintain the healthiness of the eye. METHODOLOGY: The present literary review has been undertaken to identify the above mentioned categories of substances which are wholesome (Chakshushya) and unwholesome (Achakshushya) for eyes or eyesight from the lexicons Charaka Samhita, Susruta Samhita and various Nighantus. RESULTS: The literary study reveals references of 105 single herbal drugs, 36 single mineral drugs and 97 Ahariya Dravyas (dietary substances) which are considered to be Chakshushya. Furthermore, the references pertaining to aspects of Achakshushya Dravyas are also incorporated. CONCLUSION: The concept of Chakshushya refers to those which are wholesome or beneficial to eyes or vision. Chakshushya Darvyas mentioned in the materia medica of Ayurveda has a gross area of actions which includes drugs having preventive, therapeutic, nutritive and rejuvenating properties.


I wrote the play Windy Gully in 1987 for Theatre South but the song Windy Gully was written some fifteen years earlier. Our family came to Kembla in 1968. We bought as a job lot a large dilapidated two and a half storey weather board general store, com dance hall/meeting place, domestic dwelling (circa 1895), a huge corrugated iron shed and an imported Hudson ready-cut Californian bungalow (built 1932). In the house was an old desk and in a drawer was a copy of the Royal Commission into the Mount Kembla Mine Disaster of 1902. This journal article is available in Illawarra Unity Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History: http://ro.uow.edu.au/unity/vol3/iss1/7


The dynamics of a force-free spinning plate with a small wobble angle is formulated exclusively in terms of forces. It is shown that the wobbling can be understood as the interplay between rotations about the two principal axes of inertia lying on the plate.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that is characterized by central nervous system inflammation, demyelination, and axon loss. It's affect up to two million people world wide and represents a prime cause of neurological disability in young adults and has wide health, psychological, economical and social consequences. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of human MS, is a demyelinating, inflammatory disease of the CNS and is induced by the immunization of susceptible strains of rats or mice with myelin antigens combined with adjuvant. The current treatments for MS progression include disease modifying agent viz. cytostatic, immunomodulatory drugs such as mitoxantrone and cyclophosphamide (CY), biological agents such as interferon (IFN)-beta, natalizumab and the random polymer glatiramer acetate. Although clear-cut beneficial effects are observed in many patients treated with these drugs, in addition, all of these compounds have potentially serious side effects, some require systemic administration and the biological agents are costly and immunogenic, causing response failure during prolonged treatment. The present review compiled the data on those agents which shows promising affect in different clinical trial of MS and its animal model EAE and therefore used in treatment of MS in future.


Novel ultraviolet (UV) light-breakable and tunable thermoresponsive amphiphilic block copolymers were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). These amphiphilic copolymers can self-assemble into micelles in water. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and size of the micelles were adjusted by altering the ratio of 2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl methacrylate (MEO2MA) and oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (OEGMA). Upon UV light irradiation, 2-nitrobenzyl moieties were detached from polymer chains and the micelles were dissociated. When the solutions were heated above LCST, the micelles can be re-self-assembled. Investigation revealed that the Nile red molecules which were encapsulated in micelles can be controllably released through changing temperature and undergoing UV light irradiation of micelle solutions.


Water can acquire a kinetic activity, which is attributed to the absorption of an environmental force termed KELEA (kinetic energy limiting electrostatic attraction). This activity can lead to increased volatility of the water that can be measured as the progressive weight loss in closed but not completely sealed containers. It has been proposed that KELEA is a natural force required to prevent the fusion and possible annihilation of electrostatically attracted opposite electrical charges. As such, it may be especially available where there is a convergence of force fields of opposing electrical charges. At least conceptually, this may arise with facing light sources with centrally directed light beams. An oscillating attraction and release of KELEA may be facilitated by repetitively disrupting the light paths using an overhead flashing light source. This paper reports on preliminary studies that are based on this premise. Although not proving the premise, the reported experiments do indicate a simple method for activating water. Moreover, the described procedure should allow for further exploration of the underlying mechanism of water activation. The procedure involves the use of four, diagonally placed regular LED traffic lights, with an overhead strobe light. The volatility of water samples in closed but not completely sealed glass vials placed within the lighted area significantly increases in a manner that persists well beyond the periods of light exposure. The paper further shows that activated water can indirectly lead to the activation of nearby water. The reported observations are of both practical and theoretical importance.


Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is grown widely in tropical and sub-tropical regions (Ahmed et al. 2008). In Pakistan, papaya production and consumption are increasing due to its medicinal, nutritional, pharmacological properties and a rich source of antioxidant, vitamin B, potassium, and magnesium. In November 2021, 26 to 35% incidence of fruit rot was observed in 15 fields of Lahore, a district of Punjab, Pakistan. Affected fruit developed circular, gray-to-brown lesions (8 to 10 mm in diameter) with white mycelia forming on the surface of lesions. In advanced stages of the disease, the lesions enlarged in size and led to the rot of entire fruit. To isolate the causal agent, small tissue segments (1 to 2 cm) were excised from 15 symptomatic fruit, surface disinfected with 1% NaClO for 30 s, rinsed with sterile distilled water three times, air dried in laminar flow hood, aseptically transferred onto petri dishes containing potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25℃ for 5 days with a 12-h photoperiod. Eleven isolates were obtained that produced white mycelia on PDA. Flask-shaped, dark-pigmented pycnidia formed on PDA after 18 days of incubation at 25°C, which produced α-conidia measuring 4.1 to 7.2 × 1.5 to 3.0 μm and β-conidia measuring 16.4 to 25.5 × 1.0 to 1.6 μm (n = 40). α-conidia were hyaline, fusiform, and single-celled, whereas β-conidia were one-celled, hyaline, and filiform. The morphological characteristics of the fungus were compatible with a Diaporthe species (Gomes et al. 2013). The internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) (OM865414 and OM865415), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1) (OM831226 and OM831229), and histone H3 (HIS) (OM831227 and OM831228) of two representative isolates (UO02 and UO03) were amplified and sequenced using primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone and Kohn 1999), and CYLH3F/H3-1b (Chaisiri et al. 2021), respectively. Blast searches showed 99 to 100% nucleotide identity with reference sequences of several Diaporthe amygdali deposited in NCBI GenBank, including the ex-type strain CBS 126679. A pathogenicity test was also performed on harvested fruit of papaya cv. Bombay using isolates UO02 and UO03. Ten mature and healthy papaya fruit were surface disinfected with 1% NaClO solution for 1 min, rinsed with sterile water and dried. Each fruit was wounded twice with a sterile scalpel (4 to 5 mm incision on the peel) and a 5-mm agar disc with mycelia of each isolate was separately placed in each wound. The wounds were wrapped with Parafilm following inoculation. Sterile PDA plugs were used in separate inoculated controls. All wounds were sealed with parafilm. All fruit were maintained in plastic boxes at 25°C with 80% relative humidity. After 6 days of incubation, rot symptoms similar to those appearing on naturally-infected fruit were observed on inoculated fruits while controls remained asymptomatic. The experiment was repeated twice with similar findings. Diaporthe amygdali was re-isolated (100%) from inoculated fruit and the pathogen identification was confirmed by morphological and molecular analysis, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. Previously, the pathogen has been reported as a causal agent of canker and shoot blight disease in other countries (Ko and Sun, 2003; Beluzan et al. 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first report of D. amygdali on papaya in Punjab Province of Pakistan. Papaya is an emerging fruit crop in Punjab Province and it is important to further investigate the presence of this pathogen in other papaya orchards of the province since D. amygdali may cause rapid disease outbreaks resulting in severe losses.


The sensitivity of growing bacterial cells to destructive agents or influences is many times that of bacterial spores (Curran, 1952). Some of these agents act on sulfhydryl groups of proteins; on the other hand, sulfhydryl groups belong to the most sensitive groups in proteins and are vital for the function of many enzymes (Barron, 1951). The question may be raised whether the degree of resistance during the various phases of bacterial development could not be correlated with the appearance of sulfhydryl groups in the bacterial proteins. Experiments which bear on this hypothesis are the subject of the present paper.


Introduction. This study explores the extent to which an institutional repository makes papers available and accessible on the open Web by using 170 journal articles housed in DigiNole Commons, the institutional repository at Florida State University. Method. To analyse the repository's impact on availability and accessibility, we conducted independent known-item title searches on both Google and Google Scholar (GS) to search for faculty publications housed in DigiNole Commons. Analysis. The extent to which the repository makes articles available and accessible was measured quantitatively and the findings that cannot be summarized with numbers were analysed qualitatively. Results. Google and Google Scholar searches provided links to DigiNole metadata for a total of 145 (85.3% ) of 170 items, and to full texts for 96 (96% ) of 100 items. With one exception, access to either metadata or full text required no more than three clicks. Conclusions. Overall, the results confirm the contribution of the institutional repository in making papers available and accessible. The results also reveal some impediments to the success of open access, including impediments linked to contractual arrangements between authors and publishers, impediments linked to policies, practices and technologies governing the repository itself, and the low level of faculty participation in the repository.


TNF, a primary mediator of the response to infection, can be injurious to the organism when present in excessive quantities. Circulating soluble TNF receptors (sTNFR) appear to represent a natural mechanism that protects against circulating TNF. Two soluble TNF receptors (sTNFR-P55 and sTNFR-P75) circulate in vivo and are up-regulated in response to endotoxin. In this study, we investigated the kinetics of LPS-induced sTNFR release and the role of the cytokines TNF, leukemia inhibiting factor, IFN-gamma, and IL-1 in this process. The results show that LPS injection results in a rapid increase in levels of both sTNFR. Although sTNFR-P55 decreases after a peak at 30 min, sTNFR-P75 levels show a peak after 4 to 8 h, after which they slowly diminish. Both human TNF and murine TNF are capable of increasing levels of both sTNFR. Blocking circulating TNF by administration of 3 different anti-TNF agents before LPS injection (mAb to murine TNF, sTNFR55-Fc or sTNFR75-Fc) results in a significant increase of sTNFR-P55 levels, whereas only both sTNFR-Fc constructs also significantly increase sTNFR-P75 levels. Although IL-1 receptor antagonist pretreatment before LPS has no effect on TNF or sTNFR levels, leukemia inhibiting factor pretreatment significantly increases sTNFR-P55 levels. Pretreatment with anti IFN-gamma mAb before LPS results in a significant reduction in TNF and sTNFR-P55 levels, but sTNFR-P75 levels are significantly increased. Our data show that both sTNFR can be up-regulated by LPS and TNF. The influence of TNF, leukemia inhibiting factor, IL-1, and IFN-gamma on the kinetics of LPS-induced circulating sTNFR is discussed in the context of the pathophysiology of LPS-induced disease.


Documents are composed of text and graphics. There is substantial work on automated text summarization but almost none on the automated summarization of graphics. Four examples of diagrams from the scientific literature are used to indicate the problems and possible solutions: a table of images, a flow chart, a set of x,y data plots, and a block diagram. Manual summaries are first constructed. Two sources of information are used to guide summarization. The first is the internal structure of the diagram itself, its topology and geometry. The other is the text in captions, running text, and within diagrams. The diagram structure can be generated using the author's constraint-based diagram understanding system. Once the structure is obtained, procedures such as table element elision or subgraph deletion are used to produce a simpler summary form. Then automated layout algorithms can be used to generate the summary diagram. Current work on parsing and automated layout are briefly reviewed. Because automated diagram summarization is a brand-new area of inquiry, only the parsing phase of the approach has been fully implemented. Because of the complexity of the problem, there will be no single approach to summarization that will apply to all kinds


We report bidirectional link characterization and the first IEEE 802.11a wireless local area network (WLAN) data transmission using an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) photonic antenna with an integrated InGaAs/AlInGaAs multiple quantum-well (MQW) asymmetric Fabry-Perot modulator/detector (AFPM). The dual-function AFPM performs as an optical intensity modulator on the uplink and as a conventional photodetector on the downlink in a single device. This new InGaAs/AlInGaAs AFPM device has also shown an improved modulation slope -dR/dV of 17%/V, where dR is the differential optical reflectance and dV is the differential terminal voltage, compared to the previously reported 6%/V achieved with an InGaAsP/InGaAsP MQW AFPM. Half-duplex IEEE 802.11a connection was successfully established between a laptop computer and the photonic antenna which in turn was connected via an optical fiber to a wireless access point. A maximum data throughput of 7 Mbps was achieved at 8-m separation between the laptop and the photonic antenna.


Art in the religious point of view is as a symbols of human in which expressive and constructive based on their believe. In Islam and Catholic the symbol itself is abstract that fit to sociocultural and reflecting their believe. More over in constructing expressive symbols will make them more concern on their believe. The existance of art in Islam and Catholic is such an unity among religious experience and art itself. An expression of art in Islam is a fitrah (gift) for human as a media in linking to Allah, but in Christian art is such praise and gratitude.


Electrochromic devices are increasing its interest in the last decades due to the wide range of applications, from smart windows to biosensors or from smart labels to super-capacitors. So, the development of simple and cost-effective production technologies based on solution process and mask less approach is of great interest. In this work, a new planar and flexible electrochromic device based on tungsten oxide (WO3) nanoparticles with a paper-based modified electrolyte was successfully produced, using a CO2 laser technology for electrodes patterning and hydrothermal synthesis for the nanoparticles production. The devices were fabricated with a paper pad inserted in the sensor area for hydration on time of usage, thus replacing the electrolyte material of a typical electrochromic structure with a multi-layer stack, eliminating leakage problems, easy integration with other devices and enhancing the shelf life of the devices to several months. The produced device presents a low power consumption of only 2.86 μA·cm−2, with a deep blue color and an initial charge modulation of 11.5.


The properties of asphalt mixtures and the quality of their execution are key factors for their service life and durability in the pavement structure. This research aims to study the effect of deicing chemicals (sodium chloride, NaCl) on asphalt mixtures in laboratory conditions to know the changes in properties when the samples were loaded with a different number of freeze–thaw cycles. The behavior of the standardly used asphalt mixtures and bitumen binders was verified by the exposure to sodium chloride solution (20 g/L NaCl). In the first part of the experiment, penetration, elastic recovery, and softening point tests were performed for paving grade bitumen 50/70 and 70/100, and polymer-modified bitumen PMB 25/55-60. Furthermore, asphalt concrete (AC 11) mixtures with different air voids were subjected to 25, 50, and 75 freeze–thaw cycles to determine the effect on the service life of the pavement structure. Following the Czech standard, CSN 73 6161, and the TP 170 regulation for the design of asphalt pavements, the Marshall test and the stiffness modulus were determined for all asphalt samples. The obtained results show a negative effect of freeze–thaw cycles on the properties of asphalt concrete surface course mixtures and bitumen.


Abstract : A 4-bit parallel analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a four- quadrant double-balanced mixer were designed and simulated using heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology to test the dc and high-frequency characteristics of HBTs. HSPICE simulations of small-scale components and the large-scale ADC operated within expected ranges. The ADC implemented with the Rockwell HBT model operated at a sampling rate of over 1 GHz, and the Fellows model also operated at a 1 GHz sampling rate. The mixer produced an intermediate frequency (IF) signal using radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) inputs. The circuit produced a +9 dB power gain with less than one percent harmonic distortion and shows potential for microwave applications. In order to facilitate the fabrication of HBT circuits, a Magic technology file was developed to lay out HBTs and extract the transistors for the purpose of doing a layout versus schematic check. The extraction software was altered to recognize HBTs in the extracted file. The program ext2spice successfully identified HBTs and converted the transistors, as well as parasitic capacitances, into an HSPICE netlist. Since load resistors determine the output logic swing in current-mode logic, an attempt was made to extract resistors using the HBT technology file for Magic. The configuration of the HBT within Magic and the methods used for resistance extraction offer ways to extract HSPICE netlists for accurate simulations.


Polymer tubing is used for a variety of applications such as the transport of dry nitrogen and other gases in order to purge systems of moisture and other contaminants. While some polymer tubing are marketed for low-moisture applications, permeation data are often not reported to aid in material selection. Tests were performed to compare moisture permeation for a variety of tubing materials that could be used in dry gas purged systems. The results demonstrated that polyethylene and fluoropolymer tubing exhibited practically no moisture permeation, while polyurethane tubing exhibited a noticeable amount of moisture permeation. The results were compared with the moisture permeation of thin films. The permeation was found to be influenced by many factors as dictated by the various results derived from different brands and different durometers within the same brand. The effect of external relative humidity on permeation was also measured. Approximations can also be made on the internal relative humidity based on the external relative humidity. These approximations can be used as well to determine the maximum possible moisture exposure level outside the tubing or the purge time required for a specific application. The results could assist in material selection based on the desired application.


Lipton and Zalcstein presented a constant time algorithm for testing if a group is abelian in 12 . However, the reference only contains a short abstract without proof. In this paper, we give a self contained proof for an n 2 3 lower bound for the number of pairs (a, b) of elements with ab 6 ba in every non-commutative group of size n. It implies a constant time randomized algorithm that tests if a group of n elements is commutative. Our lower bound for the number of non-commutative pairs (a, b) (ab 6 ba) in a non-commutative group of size n has a generalized format (p 1)(q 1)n 2 pq , where p > 1 is the least integer divisor of n, and q > p is the second least integer divisor of n.


Primary digested sludge from the metropolitan Vancouver sewage treatment plant and commercially available Milorganite were applied to unlimed (pH 5.6) and limed (pH 6.4) silt loam at 0, 5, 10, 25, and 100 g/kg in a growth chamber study involving romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia) and beets (Beta vulgaris L.). Concentrations of Cd, Zn, Pb, Cu, Ni, Mn, and Fe in lettuce, beet tops, and beet tubers were not simply or solely dependent upon the resultant sludge-borne heavy metal contamination of the soil but a complexity of factors. Plant availability of the metals was influenced by the nature as well as the rate of sludge applied, lime regime, their interaction, the increase in soil acidity associated with Milorganite application and metal adsorption, and release from organic matter supplied.


Using proprietary data, we examine institutional orders and trades filled by alternative electronic trading systems. Our data consist of almost 800,000 orders (corresponding to 2.15 million trades) worth approximately $1.6 trillion, between the first quarter of 1996 and the first quarter of 1998. These data allow us to distinguish between orders filled by day and after-hours crossing systems, electronic communication networks (ECNs) and traditional brokers. We find that crossing systems are used largely to execute orders in listed stocks, while ECNs concentrate in Nasdaq stocks. On average, broker-filled orders are larger, have longer duration, and higher fill rates than orders executed by alternative trading systems. Controlling for variation in order characteristics, difficulty, and endogeneity in the choice of trading venue, we find that realized execution costs are generally lower on crossing systems and ECNs. Order handling rules and tick size changes implemented in 1997 appear to reduce the cost advantage of trading on ECNs. Our results shed light on the emergence of alternative electronic trading systems that provide significant competition for order flow, for both exchanges and dealer markets.


It has been found that plastoquinone (PQ) and alpha-tocopherol quinone (alpha-TQ) can form quinhydrone-type charge-transfer complexes on PQH2 and alpha-TQH2, respectively, both in the crystalline state and in solutions of organic solvents. The charge-transfer spectra of PQ/PQH2 mixtures in hydrophobic solvents showed two bands: one at 349-358 nm, the other at 430-440 nm, one charge-transfer band at 351-355 nm occurring in water-miscible solvents. The intensity ratio of these two bands varied with changing PQ/PQH2 ratio. The charge-transfer spectra of alpha-TQ/alpha-TQH2 mixtures in all solvents investigated showed one peak at 361-367 nm and a broad shoulder within the range 400-540 nm, whose shape varied depending on the solvent used. In the infrared spectrum of PQ and alpha-TQ (1700-1600 cm(-1)) splitting of the carbonyl band occurred and was caused by the presence of two peak. In the spectra of quinhydrones the splitting disappeared, this being brought about by the appearance of a new peak at the position of splitting, which originated from the complexed quinones. The possibility of the formation of such complexes in thylakoid membranes is discussed.


The main purpose was to quantitatively evaluate iron alterations in gray matter (GM) nucleus of patients with unilateral middle cerebral artery stenosis (MCAS)-related ischemic stroke using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). Forty-six unilateral MCAS patients and thirty-eight healthy controls underwent QSM examination. Iron-related susceptibility of GM nucleus, including bilateral caudate nucleus, putamen (PU), globus pallidus (GP), thalamus, substantia nigra (SN), red nucleus, and dentate nucleus were assessed. Compared with healthy controls, PU, GP, and SN regions at lesion side presented significantly increased susceptibility in patients, indicating that abnormal iron metabolism may present in the brain after ischemic stroke.


Children's athletic ability is closely related to their physique and personality development. Although some children have lively personality and are fond of moving around, their attention is easily distracted and unstable in running, jumping and other game activities, and they usually give up when they encounter activities of certain difficulty. Such children need the guidance and encouragement of their teachers. Starting from the concept of children's scientific sports, this paper expounds the significance of children's scientific sports to children's health. Through analyzing the current situation of children's health and sports in China, the importance of scientific sports for children is analyzed from the aspects of physical, mental health and social value. Influenced by study life, children have rather little autonomous control of sports time, which can not meet the needs of children's sports. Scientific sports can not only promote children's physical and mental health, but also regulate children's behaviour and habits, which has far-reaching significance for children's growth and development.


The family histories of 976 South Indian Type 2 diabetic patients were recorded in a questionnaire‐based survey to establish whether the excess maternal transmission of Type 2 diabetes reported in low prevalence Europid populations was also evident in this medium prevalence population. In 450 families (46.1 %), no parental history of diabetes was reported. In 423 families with one parent diabetic, 222 fathers (52.5 %) and 201 (47.5 %) mothers were diabetic. In the remaining 103 (10.6 %) families, both parents were diabetic. In contrast to previous studies, we found no evidence for substantial maternal excess in the transmission of diabetes (325 diabetic fathers vs 304 mothers; p = 0.4; p = 0.07 when compared using life table methods). The age of diagnosis of diabetes in probands was lower than that of their diabetic parents (p < 0.001): furthermore increasing parental history of diabetes was associated with an earlier diagnosis of diabetes in probands (p < 0.001). These results emphasize the extensive familial aggregation of Type 2 diabetes in this population but fail to replicate the evidence for excess maternal transmission evident in lower prevalence Europid populations, suggesting ethnic differences in the extent of this phenomenon.


We study the problem of data release with privacy, where data is made available with privacy guarantees while keeping the usability of the data as high as possible --- this is important in health-care and other domains with sensitive data. In particular, we propose a method of masking the private data with privacy guarantee while ensuring that a classifier trained on the masked data is similar to the classifier trained on the original data, to maintain usability. We analyze the theoretical risks of the proposed method and the traditional input perturbation method. Results show that the proposed method achieves lower risk compared to the input perturbation, especially when the number of training samples gets large. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method of data masking for privacy-sensitive learning on $12$ benchmark datasets.


Super- and sub-additive transformations of aggregation functions have been recently introduced by Greco, Mesiar, Rindone and v{S}ipeky [The superadditive and the subadditive transformations of integrals and aggregation functions, {it Fuzzy Sets and Systems} {bf 291} (2016), 40--53]. In this article we give a survey of the recent development regarding the existence of aggregation functions with a preassigned super- and sub-additive transformation, and address approximation of these transformations. The underpinning feature of the presented results is dependence of global properties of super- and sub-additive transformations on local properties of aggregation functions.


AIMS: We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a telerehabilitation exercise program performed without requiring any special equipment on the physical condition of COVID-19 subjects. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a randomized controlled study. METHODS: This study included subjects with a history of hospitalization with a diagnosis of COVID-19 and discharged within 4 weeks. The subjects were divided into two groups randomly, namely telerehabilitation group (TeleGr, n = 17) or control group (CGr, n = 17). The TeleGr received breathing and range of motion exercises, active cycle of breathing technique, and an aerobic training 3 days a week for 6 weeks, while CGr received an exercise brochure with the same content. Subjects were evaluated using the modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea score for dyspnea, 30 s sit-to-stand test (30STS) and short physical performance battery (SPPB) to determine their physical status, Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to assess quality of their life, and Beck Depression Inventory. All evaluations were carried out at home using videoconferencing. RESULTS: A significant improvement was observed in TelerGr in terms of mMRC (P= 0.035), 30STS (P= 0.005), 5 sit-to-stand time which is one of the subtests of SPPB (P = 0.039) and SGRQ scores. Significant improvement was observed only in the pain score in the CGr (P = 0.039). There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in SGRQ activity (P = 0.035) and total (P = 0.042) scores. In addition, more symptomatic improvement was found in TeleGr. CONCLUSION: Telerehabilitation exercise program with less technical equipment is a good alternative treatment method for COVID-19 subjects, which improves the quality of life and symptomatic status of subjects. Clinical Trial Registration Number: nct04402983


Library & research resources for the Heller School MA Program in Conflict Resolution and Coexistience Whether you are getting ready for an interview or just starting to investigate career options, it helps to do your research. Use this page to get started!


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Objective: Evaluate how emotional intelligence (EI) has been measured among surgeons and to investigate interventions implemented for improving EI. Summary Background: EI has relevant applications in surgery given its alignment with nontechnical skills. In recent years, EI has been measured in a surgical context to evaluate its relationship with measures such as surgeon burnout and the surgeon-patient relationship. Methods: A systematic review was conducted by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PSYCINFO databases using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. MeSH terms and keywords included "emotional intelligence," "surgery," and "surgeon." Eligible studies included an EI assessment of surgeons, surgical residents, and/or medical students within a surgical context. Results: The initial search yielded 4627 articles. After duplicate removal, 4435 articles were screened by title and abstract and 49 articles proceeded to a full-text read. Three additional articles were found via hand search. A total of 37 articles were included. Studies varied in surgical specialties, settings, and outcome measurements. Most occurred in general surgery, residency programs, and utilized self-report surveys to estimate EI. Notably, EI improved in all studies utilizing an intervention. Conclusions: The literature entailing the intersection between EI and surgery is diverse but still limited. Generally, EI has been demonstrated to be beneficial in terms of overall well-being and job satisfaction while also protecting against burnout. EI skills may provide a promising modifiable target to achieve desirable outcomes for both the surgeon and the patient. Future studies may emphasize the relevance of EI in the context of surgical teamwork.


Studies the price dynamics in a multi-agent economy consisting of buyers and competing sellers, where each seller has limited information about its competitors' prices. In this economy, buyers use comparison shopping agents (shopbots) while the sellers employ automated pricing agents (pricebots). Derivative following (DF) provides a simple, albeit naive strategy for dynamic pricing in such a scenario. In this work, we refine the DF algorithm and introduce a model optimizer (MO) algorithm that re-estimates the price-profit relationship for a seller at every interval more efficiently. Simulations using the MO pricebots indicate that it outperforms DF even though it has no additional information about the market.


NEW AND CONTROVERSIAL mechanisms have been recently adopted on the state level which indicate that legislative participation in implementation is entering a period of considerable development and expansion. A resurgence of anti-regulatory fervor has prompted legislators to enact statutes giving committees authority to suspend or annul administrative regulations.' Similar proposals are being considered on the federal level as well. Perhaps most notably, Congress has recently enacted provisions granting appropriate committees authority to veto any future regulations of the Federal Trade Commission. The justification for these enactments is usually based on rather simple notions of the legislative role in policy-making, such as Herbert Simon's idea that it should ensure administrative responsiveness to "community values."2 Although this kind of argument can hardly be opposed in the abstract, it does not appear that the legislative function of keeping administrative decisions in line with democratically derived citizen preferences justifies all forms of legislative participation with equal validity. The emergence of new mechanisms for review of administrative regulations suggests that,


Motivation: An important property of a valid method for testing for differential expression is that the false positive rate should at least roughly correspond to the p-value cutoff, so that if 10,000 genes are tested at a p-value cutoff of 10−4, and if all the null hypotheses are true, then there should be only about 1 gene declared to be significantly differentially expressed. We tested this by resampling from existing RNA-Seq data sets and also by matched negative binomial simulations. Results: Methods we examined, which rely strongly on a negative binomial model, such as edgeR, DESeq, and DESeq2, show large numbers of false positives in both the resampled real-data case and in the simulated negative binomial case. This also occurs with a negative binomial generalized linear model function in R. Methods that use only the variance function, such as limma-voom, do not show excessive false positives, as is also the case with a variance stabilizing transformation followed by linear model analysis with limma. The excess false positives are likely caused by apparently small biases in estimation of negative binomial dispersion and, perhaps surprisingly, occur mostly when the mean and/or the dispersion is high, rather than for low-count genes. Contact: email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com. Supplementary Information: The computational tools developed for this study are freely available via our website http://dmrocke.ucdavis.edu/software.html. They can be downloaded as R code or run directly through an interactive web-based shiny application to reproduce the analysis presented here per a user's choice of dataset and the methods to be evaluated. *To whom correspondence should be addressed.


Background: This study aimed to evaluate how patients feel about the introduction of medical students into a former general hospital transformed to a teaching hospital in southwestern Nigeria and to also assess the extent to which they are willing to involve medical students in the management of their conditions. Methods: In a descriptive cross-sectional study, a sample of 251 randomly selected patients were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire that assessed patients' demography, patients' acceptance of and reaction to the involvement of medical students in their clinical care including the specific procedures the patients would allow medical students to perform. Results: Two hundred and fifty-one patients with mean age ± standard deviation of 37.33 ± 19.01 (age range = 16–120 years; M:F = 1:1.26) were recruited between January 01 and March 31, 2013. Most patients (86.5%) preferred to be treated in a teaching hospital and were comfortable with medical students as observers (83.7%) and serving as the doctors' assistant (83.3%) during common diagnostic procedures. Men were more willing to have invasive procedures such as insertion of urinary catheter (56.6% vs. 43.4%, P = 0.001). Acceptability of medical students (such as willingness of patients to have students read their medical notes) was significantly higher in nonsurgical specialties than in surgical specialties (77.5% vs. 22.5%, P< 0.001). Factors associated with a positive disposition include age >40 years, male gender, and higher level of education as well as consultation in nonsurgical specialties (P = 0.001). Discussion: Medical students are well received into this new teaching hospital setting. However, there is a need for more education of younger, less educated female patients of surgical subspecialties so that they can understand their importance as irreplaceable partners in the training of medical students.


In the ad hoc teamwork setting, a team of agents needs to perform a task without prior coordination. The most advanced approach learns policies based on previous experiences and reuses one of the policies to interact with new teammates. However, the selected policy in many cases is sub-optimal. Switching between policies to adapt to new teammates' behaviour takes time, which threatens the successful performance of a task. In this paper, we propose AATEAM – a method that uses the attention-based neural networks to cope with new teammates' behaviour in real-time. We train one attention network per teammate type. The attention networks learn both to extract the temporal correlations from the sequence of states (i.e. contexts) and the mapping from contexts to actions. Each attention network also learns to predict a future state given the current context and its output action. The prediction accuracies help to determine which actions the ad hoc agent should take. We perform extensive experiments to show the effectiveness of our method.


A case of 34 weeks pregnancy along with a large abdominal mass presented in emergency with a constant dull abdominal pain and premature labour. After delivery of the baby the dull ache persisted, prompting a laparotomy in the first postnatal week. A large cyst, arising from the left renal area and occupying almost the whole left side of the abdomen, was removed. Histopathology showed it to be an endometriotic cyst. The patient made an uneventful recovery.


CONTEXT
GnRH agonist (GnRHa) monthly injections are frequently used in the treatment of central precocious puberty (CPP). The 3-month leuprolide depot 11.25- and 30-mg formulations are newly approved treatment options.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of leuprolide acetate 3-month depot formulations for the treatment of CPP in children.

DESIGN
This was a phase III, randomized, open-label, dose-ranging 6-month study.

SETTING
Twenty-two U.S. medical centers (including Puerto Rico) participated.

PATIENTS
Children diagnosed with CPP (n = 84), who were either treatment naive or previously treated with GnRHa, were recruited. Chronological age at onset of pubertal signs was less than 8 yr in girls and less than 9 yr in boys, and bone age was advanced over chronological age at least 1 yr.

INTERVENTION
Leuprolide acetate depot (11.25 or 30 mg) was administered im every 3 months.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Biochemical [peak-stimulated LH, estradiol (girls), and testosterone (boys)] and anthropometric (growth rate, bone age acceleration, pubertal progression) parameters and safety were assessed.

RESULTS
Peak-stimulated LH was suppressed in the 11.25- and 30-mg dose groups in 78.4 and 95.2%, respectively, of children from months 2 through 6. There were nine treatment failures (peak-stimulated LH >4 IU/liter) in the 11.25-mg group and two in the 30-mg group. Basal sex steroid suppression, growth rates, pubertal progression, bone age advancement, and adverse events were similar with either dose.

CONCLUSIONS
Treatment with leuprolide acetate 3-month depot formulations (11.25 and 30 mg) effectively suppressed the GnRH axis, was well tolerated, and may positively impact patient convenience and compliance.


The antioxidant defense system is essential for animals to cope with homeostasis disruption and overcome oxidative stress caused by adverse environmental conditions such as hypoxia. However, our understanding of how this system works in subterranean rodents remains limited. In this study, Brandt's vole Lasiopodomys brandtii was exposed to normoxia (21% O2 ) or hypoxia (mild or severe hypoxia: 10% or 5% O2 ) for 6 h. Changes in key enzymes of the classic enzymatic antioxidant system at both mRNA and enzyme activity levels, and tissue antioxidant levels of the low-molecular-weight antioxidant system were determined in brain, liver, and kidney. Transcript levels of the upstream regulator NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) were also measured. We found that the mRNA expression of Nrf2 and its downstream antioxidant enzyme genes in L. brandtii were relatively conserved in response to hypoxia in most tissues and genes tested, except in the liver. Hepatic Nrf2, Cu/Zn SOD, GPx1, and GPx3 levels were significantly upregulated in response to mild hypoxia, whereas Mn SOD level decreased significantly in severe hypoxia. Unmatched with changes at the RNA level, constitutively high and relatively stable antioxidant enzyme activities were maintained throughout. For the low-molecular-weight antioxidant system, an abrupt increase of cerebral ascorbic acid (AA) levels in hypoxia indicated a tissue-specific antioxidant response. Although hypoxia did not cause significant oxidative damage in most tissues tested, the significant decrease in antioxidant enzyme activities (GPX and GR) and increase in lipid peroxidation in the kidney suggest that prolonged hypoxia may pose a critical threat to this species. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The farthest line segment Voronoi diagram shows properties different from both the closest-segment Voronoi diagram and the farthest-point Voronoi diagram. Surprisingly, this structure did not receive attention in the computational geometry literature. We analyze its combinatorial and topological properties and outline an O(n log n) time construction algorithm that is easy to implement. No restrictions are placed upon the n input line segments; they are allowed to touch or cross.


Objective Genetic screening is the gold standard for biogeographical ancestry (i.e. race), but this information is often unavailable to those developing research studies. We assessed agreement between census- and electronic health record (EHR)-derived demographic data with genetic ancestry to determine if these sources could support selection of diverse cohorts. Materials and Methods We identified a population of 4,837 genotyped patients and determined concordance between genetic measures of ancestry against race derived from decennial nationwide census, electronic medical records, and self-report. Results We identified a 90% or greater concordance between the EHR-derived data and genetic ancestry. Census data had a high concordance (97%) with genetic and self-reported data for patients of European ancestry but low concordance for patients of African ancestry (64%). Discussion and Conclusions The high concordance between EHR-derived race and genetic ancestry suggests that EHR-derived information could be an effective proxy for race when recruiting for diverse research cohorts.


ABSTRACTHow do new languages develop systematic ways to talk about sensory experiences, such as color? To what extent is the evolution of color terms guided by societal factors? This article describes the color lexicon of a rural sign language called Kata Kolok that emerged approximately one and a half centuries ago in a Balinese village. Kata Kolok has four color signs: black, white, red, and a blue-green term. In addition, two non-conventionalized means are used to provide color descriptions: naming relevant objects, and pointing to objects in the vicinity. Comparison with Balinese culture and spoken Balinese brings to light discrepancies between the systems, suggesting that neither cultural practices nor language contact have driven the formation of color signs in Kata Kolok. The few lexicographic investigations from other rural sign languages report limitations in the domain of color. On the other hand, larger, urban signed languages have extensive systems, for example, Australian sign Language has up...


In this paper we present FireWxNet, a multi-tiered portable wireless system for monitoring weather conditions in rugged wildland fire environments. FireWxNet provides the fire fighting community the ability to safely and easily measure and view fire and weather conditions over a wide range of locations and elevations within forest fires. This previously unattainable information allows fire behavior analysts to better predict fire behavior, heightening safety considerations. Our system uses a tiered structure beginning with directional radios to stretch deployment capabilities into the wilderness far beyond current infrastructures. At the end point of our system we designed and integrated a multi-hop sensor network to provide environmental data. We also integrated web-enabled surveillance cameras to provide visual data. This paper describes a week long full system deployment utilizing 3 sensor networks and 2 web-cams in the Selway-Salmon Complex Fires of 2005. We perform an analysis of system performance and present observations and lessons gained from our deployment.


Over the past decade, the use of autologous bone marrow or stem cell transplantation has become common in the treatment of hematological malignancies and some solid tumors. However, little was known about the effects of these procedures on QoL outcomes, such as physical, emotional, social and role functioning. Recent research allows identification of the most common QoL issues in this group of patients, both during acute treatment and through long-term follow-up. This paper systematically summarizes all published articles that have investigated QoL in autologous bone marrow or stem cell transplantation patients, including comparisons with patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy alone and normal control subjects. Several consistent QoL problems are identified and suggestions for treatment and further research explored.


Mathematical proof establishes identity of hypsometric integral and elevation-relief ratio, two quantitative topographic descriptors developed independently of one another for entirely different purposes. Operationally, values of both measures are in excellent agreement for arbitrarily bounded topographic samples, as well as for low-order fluvial watersheds. By using a point-sampling technique rather than planimetry, elevation-relief ratio (defined as mean elevation minus minimum elevation divided by relief) is calculated manually in about a third of the time required for the hypsometric integral.


In The Psychology of Strategy: Exploring Rationality in the Vietnam War, Kenneth Payne utilises the case study of the Vietnam War to show how psychology affects warfare, including discussion of confirmation bias, social identity and the psychology of fear. The book's extensive subject matter and effective use of the Vietnam War as an illuminating prism offers an important contribution to the study of decisionmaking in International Relations, writes Michael Warren.


The paper studies the features of comprehension and the use of a lie in the adaptive behavior of modern student's youth. A number of socially-psychological characteristics of examinees depending on their adaptation level are analyzed. The interrelationship between representations of students about a lie, their adaptation levels, preferred strategy of behavior in interpersonal relationships, and also a degree of development empathic and Machiavellian tendencies is established and empirically proved. Features of a lie use in the individual strategy of social behavior are revealed. The results allow to define determinants and basis of moral regulators of student's social behavior.


This article challenges nurses to rethink cultural values and ideals regarding beauty and body weight, respond appropriately to persons suffering from any of the eating disorders, and work together to change self-deprecation into a celebration of womanhood.


The structure of macrophyte assemblages can be affected by myriad factors, including physical and chemical characteristics of the water body. However, knowledge on the environmental factors affecting macrophyte diversity in endorheic freshwater lakes is limited. In this study the patterns of plant species diversity and composition and their potential determinants in Lake Baringo, Kenya, is described. Macrophyte sampling in Lake Baringo was done monthly from January 2015 to April 2016 using quadrats (1 m × 1 m) placed along transects perpendicular to the shoreline. Water temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity and alkalinity were measured in situ at each of the sampling sites. Findings revealed that macrophyte species composition and assemblage exhibited significant spatial differences (P<0.05), where areas near river inlets had higher species composition and percentage cover. The findings improve the understanding of floristic patterns and plant biodiversity in the lake.


Abstract In the present work, Scenedesmus sp. was grown under a semicontinuous regime in fertilizer (Bayfolan® Forte, 1 mL L−1) medium, and Bold's Basal Medium (BBM) as control, in raceways of 200 and 2000 L under greenhouse conditions. The biomass, lipid, protein, carbohydrate and total pigment production was determined. The culture under the semicontinuous regime allowed an increase in the productivities in each consecutive cycle, reaching a lipid productivity of 20.00 ± 6.29 mg L−1 d−1 in Bayfolan medium. The biomass productivity in the medium supplemented with fertilizer was significantly higher than in the BBM. The protein productivity was significantly higher in Bayfolan (1.93 ± 0.28 L−1 d−1). The average carbohydrate productivity of the cycles was 10.10 ± 2.01 mg L−1 d−1. The fertilizer allowed an increase of up to 3-fold in total pigment productivity compared to the BBM. The fatty acids obtained were mainly composed of C16:0, C18:3n3 (α-linolenic) and C18:0. Palmitic acid (C16:0) was the main fatty acids methyl ester accumulated along with stearic (C18:0) and myristic (C14:0) acids. It was shown that the utilization of the liquid fertilizer Bayfolan is a potential alternative to replace conventional media.


Statistical modeling of outcomes based on a patient's presenting symptoms (symptomatology) can help deliver high quality care and allocate essential resources, which is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient symptoms are typically found in unstructured notes, and thus not readily available for clinical decision making. In an attempt to fill this gap, this study compared two methods for symptom extraction from Emergency Department (ED) admission notes. Both methods utilized a lexicon derived by expanding The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Symptoms of Coronavirus list. The first method utilized a word2vec model to expand the lexicon using a dictionary mapping to the Uni ed Medical Language System (UMLS). The second method utilized the expanded lexicon as a rule-based gazetteer and the UMLS. These methods were evaluated against a manually annotated reference (f1-score of 0.87 for UMLS-based ensemble; and 0.85 for rule-based gazetteer with UMLS). Through analyses of associations of extracted symptoms used as features against various outcomes, salient risks among the population of COVID-19 patients, including increased risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 1.85, p-value < 0.001), were identified for patients presenting with dyspnea. Disparities between English and non-English speaking patients were also identified, the most salient being a concerning finding of opposing risk signals between fatigue and in-hospital mortality (non-English: OR 1.95, p-value = 0.02; English: OR 0.63, p-value = 0.01). While use of symptomatology for modeling of outcomes is not unique, unlike previous studies this study showed that models built using symptoms with the outcome of in-hospital mortality were not significantly different from models using data collected during an in-patient encounter (AUC of 0.9 with 95% CI of [0.88, 0.91] using only vital signs; AUC of 0.87 with 95% CI of [0.85, 0.88] using only symptoms). These findings indicate that prognostic models based on symptomatology could aid in extending COVID-19 patient care through telemedicine, replacing the need for in-person options. The methods presented in this study have potential for use in development of symptomatology-based models for other diseases, including for the study of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC).


This paper proposes a new method for the control of a digital-controlled DC-DC converter. By using this method, both start-up and transient characteristics are improved. The dynamic characteristics at sampling time can be matched to a first-order system. Accordingly, the start-up waveform monotonically increases and the output voltage variation at load transient is small. This method is implemented in a digital signal processor (DSP) and its effectiveness is confirmed in circuit experiments. As a result, the output voltage variation at load transient is as small as 230 mV, which is 7.0% of the rated voltage of 3.3 V, and that at input transient is 43 mV (1.3%). In the start-up characteristics, this method enabled the output voltage to rise to the rated voltage smoothly without overshoot under any conditions.


To combine fingerprint and drug release rate in vitro, in order to study in vitro release of complex components of Chuanping sustained tablets, compound traditional Chinese medicine preparation. A qualitative determination of the characteristic peaks of the compound preparations were conducted by the fingerprint. The results of the dissolution rate determination under different release conditions showed that the release of three index components (methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine and scopolamine) of Chuanping sustained tablets was less affected by gastrointestinal factors, with similarity factors being more than 80 with unknown component release curves of three major characteristic peaks in the fingerprint. The qualitative determination proved that multiple components of the compound traditional Chinese medicine preparation was dissolved in vitro at similar rates, realizing the balanced release of complex components of the compound traditional Chinese medicine preparation. This study layed a theoretical and experimental basis for quality evaluation for the compound traditional Chinese medicine preparation.


Objective. To describe functioning and disability in patients with stable ischaemic heart disease (IHD) according to the model endorsed by the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF). Design. Adult patients with IHD undergoing rehabilitation were consecutively enrolled. The ICF checklist and the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHO-DAS II) were administered in individual sessions. Patients' clinical status was described following NYAH criteria (New York Heart Association). Descriptive analyses were performed to report on clinical variables and WHO-DAS II scores. ICF categories reported as a problem by more than 20% of patients were described in detail. Results. One hundred patients (mean age 62.9; 91% males, 71% in NYHA class II) were enrolled. Mean WHO-DAS II score was 23.9, and the most severe limitations are reported in life activities, getting around and in participation to social situations. A total of 30 ICF categories reached the threshold of 20%, 17 Body Functions and Structures, 13 Activities and Participation. Conclusions. ICF application in patients with IHD enables to enlarge the perspective on their health status, and provide useful information to follow the healthcare process from the acute setting to the outpatient management.


In this paper, we investigate the use of intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) to relax the line-of-sight requirement of free space optical (FSO) systems. Considering a Gaussian laser beam, we first design a phase shift distribution across the IRS that enables the reflection of the incident beam in any desired direction, i.e., realizing the generalized Snell's law. Moreover, for the designed phase-shift profile, we show that there exists an equivalent mirror-assisted FSO system that generates a reflected electric field on a mirror that is identical to that on the IRS in the original system. However, the location of the laser source and the properties of the emitted Gaussian laser beam are different in the original and the equivalent systems. This equivalence allows us to study the mirror-assisted system, employing the imaging technique from geometric optics, instead of directly analyzing the original IRS-assisted system. Based on this analysis, we model the geometric and misalignment losses (GML) and characterize the impact of the physical parameters of the IRS, such as its size, position, and orientation, on the end-to-end FSO channel. Moreover, we develop a statistical model for the GML which accounts for the random movements of IRS, transmitter (Tx), and receiver (Rx) due to building sway. Furthermore, we analyze the outage probability of an IRS-assisted FSO link based on the derived channel model. Our simulation results validate the accuracy of the developed channel model and offer various insights for system design. For instance, both our simulations and theoretical analysis reveal that even if the variances of the fluctuations of the Tx, IRS, and Rx positions caused by building sway are identical, their impact on the end-to-end channel is not necessarily the same and depends on the relative positioning of these three nodes.